Sometimes the fairies appear like old men and women, and thus gain
admission to houses that they may watch and spy, and bewitch the
butter, and abduct the children, and carry off the young girls for
fairy brides.
There was a man in the west who was bedridden for seven years, and
could do no work and had to be lifted by others when he moved. Yet the
amount of food he consumed was enormous, and as every one pitied him,
people were constantly bringing him all sorts of good things; and he
ate up everything but grew no stronger.
Now on Sundays when the family went to mass, they locked him up, but
left him plenty of food, for there was no one in the house to help him.
One Sunday, however, they left chapel earlier than usual, and as they
were going by the shore they saw a great crowd of strangers hurling,
and in the midst of them, hurling and running and leaping, was the sick
man, as well and jolly as ever a man could be. They called out to him,
on which he turned round to face them, but that instant he disappeared.
So the family hastened home, unlocked the door, and went straight up to
the room, where they found the man in bed as usual, thin and weak and
unable to move; but he had eaten up all the food and was now crying out
for more. On this the family grew very angry and cried, “You have been
deceiving us. You are in league with the witch-folk; but we’ll soon see
what you really are, for if you don’t get up out of that bed at once,
we’ll make down a fire and lay you on it, and make you walk.”
Then he cried and roared: but they seized him to drag him to the fire.
So when he saw they were in earnest he jumped up and rushed to the
door, and before they could touch him he had disappeared, and was seen
no more.
Now, indeed, they knew that he was in league with the devil, and they
burned his bed and everything belonging to him, and poured holy water
on the room. And when all was burned, nothing remained but a black
stone with strange signs on it. And by this, no doubt, he performed
his enchantments. And the people were afraid of it and gave it to the
priest, who has it to this day, so there can be no doubt as to the
truth of the story.
And the priest knows the hidden meaning of the strange signs which give
power to the stone; but will reveal the secret to no one, lest the
people might try to work devil’s magic with it, and unlawful spells by
the power of the stone and the power of the signs.