ON THE FAIRIES OF POPULAR SUPERSTITION.

_"Of airy elves, by moon-light shadows seen,

The silver token, and the circled green._--POPE.

In a work, avowedly dedicated to the preservation of the poetry and

tradition of the "olden time," it would be unpardonable to omit this

opportunity of making some observations upon so interesting an article

of the popular creed, as that concerning the Elves, or Fairies. The

general idea of spirits, of a limited power, and subordinate nature,

dwelling among the woods and mountains, is, perhaps common to all

nations. But the intermixture of tribes, of languages, and religion,

which has occurred in Europe, renders it difficult to trace the origin

of the names which have been bestowed upon such spirits, and the primary

ideas which were entertained concerning their manners and habits.

The word _elf_, which seems to have been the original name of the

beings, afterwards denominated fairies, is of Gothic origin, and

probably signified, simply, a spirit of a lower order. Thus, the Saxons

had not only _dun-elfen_, _berg-elfen_, and _munt-elfen_, spirits of

the downs, hills, and mountains; but also _feld-elfen_, _wudu-elfen_,

_sae-elfen_, and _water-elfen_; spirits of the fields, of the woods,

of the sea, and of the waters. In low German, the same latitude of

expression occurs; for night hags are termed _aluinnen_, and _aluen_,

which is sometimes Latinized _eluoe_. But the prototype of the English

elf, is to be sought chiefly in the _berg-elfen_, or _duergar_, of the

Scandinavians. From the most early of the Icelandic Sagas, as well as

from the Edda itself, we learn the belief of the northern nations in

a race of dwarfish spirits, inhabiting the rocky mountains, and

approaching, in some respects, to the human nature. Their attributes,

amongst which we recognize the features of the modern Fairy, were,

supernatural wisdom and prescience, and skill in the mechanical arts,

especially in the fabrication of arms. They are farther described, as

capricious, vindictive, and easily irritated. The story of the elfin

sword, _Tyrfing_, may be the most pleasing illustration of this

position. Suafurlami, a Scandinavian monarch, returning from hunting,

bewildered himself among the mountains. About sun-set, he beheld a large

rock, and two dwarfs, sitting before the mouth of a cavern. The king

drew his sword, and intercepted their retreat, by springing betwixt

them and their recess, and imposed upon them the following condition of

safety:--that they should make for him a faulchion, with a baldric and

scabbard of pure gold, and a blade, which should divide stones and iron

as a garment, and which should render the wielder ever victorious in

battle. The elves complied with the requisition, and Suafurlami pursued

his way home. Returning at the time appointed, the dwarfs delivered to

him the famous sword _Tyrfing_; then, standing in the entrance of their

cavern, spoke thus: "This sword, O king, shall "destroy a man every time

it is brandished; but it shall "perform three atrocious deeds, and it

shall be thy bane." The king rushed forward with the charmed sword, and

buried both its edges in the rock; but the dwarfs escaped into their

recesses.[A] This enchanted sword emitted rays like the sun, dazzling

all against whom it was brandished; it divided steel like water, and was

never unsheathed without slaying a man--_Hervarar Saga,_ p. 9. Similar

to this was the enchanted sword, _Skoffhung_, which was taken by a

pirate out of the tomb of a Norwegian monarch. Many such tales are

narrated in the Sagas; but the most distinct account of the _-duergar_,

or elves, and their attributes, is to be found in a preface of Torfaeus

to the history of Hrolf Kraka, who cites a dissertation by Einar

Gudmund, a learned native of Iceland. "I am firmly of opinion," says the

Icelander, "that these beings are creatures of God, consisting, like

human beings, of a body and rational soul; that they are of different

sexes, and capable of producing children, and subject to all human

affections, as sleeping and waking, laughing and crying, poverty and

wealth; and that they possess cattle, and other effects, and are

obnoxious to death, like other mortals." He proceeds to state, that the

females of this race are capable of procreating with mankind; and gives

an account of one who bore a child to an inhabitant of Iceland, for whom

she claimed the privilege of baptism; depositing the infant, for that

purpose, at the gate of the church-yard, together with a goblet of gold,

as an offering.--_Historia Hrolfi Krakae, a_ TORFAEO.

[Footnote A: Perhaps in this, and similar tales, we may recognize

something of real history. That the Fins, or ancient natives of

Scandinavia, were driven into the mountains, by the invasion of Odin and

his Asiatics, is sufficiently probable; and there is reason to believe,

that the aboriginal inhabitants understood, better than the intruders,

how to manufacture the produce of their own mines. It is therefore

possible, that, in process of time, the oppressed Fins may have been

transformed into the supernatural _duergar_. A similar transformation

has taken place among the vulgar in Scotland, regarding the Picts, or

Pechs, to whom they ascribe various supernatural attributes.]

Similar to the traditions of the Icelanders, are those current among the

Laplanders of Finland, concerning a subterranean people, gifted with'

supernatural qualities, and inhabiting the recesses of the earth.

Resembling men in their general appearance, the manner of their

existence, and their habits of life, they far excel the miserable

Laplanders in perfection of nature, felicity of situation, and skill in

mechanical arts. From all these advantages, however, after the partial

conversion of the Laplanders, the subterranean people have derived no

farther credit, than to be confounded with the devils and magicians of

the dark ages of Christianity; a degradation which, as will shortly be

demonstrated, has been also suffered by the harmless Fairies of Albion,

and indeed by the whole host of deities of learned Greece and mighty

Rome. The ancient opinions are yet so firmly rooted, that the Laps of

Finland, at this day, boast of an intercourse with these beings, in

banquets, dances, and magical ceremonies, and even in the more intimate

commerce of gallantry. They talk, with triumph, of the feasts which

they have shared in the elfin caverns, where wine and tobacco, the

productions of the Fairy region, went round in abundance, and whence

the mortal guest, after receiving the kindest treatment and the most

salutary counsel, has been conducted to his tent by an escort of his

supernatural entertainers.--_Jessens, de Lapponibus._

The superstitions of the islands of Feroe, concerning their

_Froddenskemen_, or under-ground people, are derived from the _duergar_

of Scandinavia. These beings are supposed to inhabit the interior

recesses of mountains, which they enter by invisible passages. Like the

Fairies, they are supposed to steal human beings. "It happened," says

Debes, p. 354, "a good while since, when the burghers of Bergen had

the commerce of Feroe, that there was a man in Servaade, called Jonas

Soideman, who was kept by spirits in a mountain, during the space of

seven years, and at length came out; but lived afterwards in great

distress and fear, lest they should again take him away; wherefore

people were obliged to watch him in the night." The same author mentions

another young man, who had been carried away, and, after his return, was

removed a second time upon the eve of his marriage. He returned in a

short time, and narrated, that the spirit that had carried him away, was

in the shape of a most beautiful woman, who pressed him to forsake his

bride, and remain with her; urging her own superior beauty, and splendid

appearance. He added, that he saw the men who were employed to search

for him, and heard them call; but that they could not see him, nor could

he answer them, till, upon his determined refusal to listen to the

spirit's persuasions, the spell ceased to operate. The kidney-shaped

West Indian bean, which is sometimes driven upon the shore of the

Feroes, is termed, by the natives "the _Fairie's kidney_."

In these traditions of the Gothic and Finnish tribes, we may recognize,

with certainty, the rudiments of elfin superstition; but we must look to

various other causes for the modifications which it has undergone. These

are to be sought, 1st, in the traditions of the east; 2d, in the wreck

and confusion of the Gothic mythology; 3d, in the tales of chivalry;

4th, in the fables of classical antiquity; 5th, in the influence of the

Christian religion; 6th, and finally, in the creative imagination of

the sixteenth century. It may be proper to notice the effect of these

various causes, before stating the popular belief of our own time,

regarding the Fairies.

I. To the traditions of the east, the Fairies of Britain owe, I think,

little more than the appellation, by which they have been distinguished

since the days of the crusade. The term "Fairy," occurs not only

in Chaucer, and in yet older English authors, but also, and more

frequently, in the romance language; from which they seem to have

adopted it. Ducange cites the following passage from Gul. Guiart, in

_Historia Francica_, MS.

Plusiers parlent de Guenart,

Du Lou, de L'Asne, de Renart,

De _Faëries_ et de Songes,

De phantosmes et de mensonges.

The _Lay le Frain_, enumerating the subjects of the Breton Lays, informs

us expressly,

Many ther beth _faëry_.

By some etymologists of that learned class, who not only know whence

words come, but also whither they are going, the term _Fairy_, or

_Faërie_, is derived from _Faë_, which is again derived from _Nympha_.

It is more probable the term is of oriental origin, and is derived from

the Persic, through the medium of the Arabic. In Persic, the term _Peri_

expresses a species of imaginary being, which resembles the Fairy in

some of its qualities, and is one of the fairest creatures of romantic

fancy. This superstition must have been known to the Arabs, among whom

the Persian tales, or romances, even as early as the time of Mahomet,

were so popular, that it required the most terrible denunciations of

that legislator to proscribe them. Now, in the enunciation of the Arabs,

the term _Peri_ would sound _Fairy_, the letter _p_ not occurring in

the alphabet of that nation; and, as the chief intercourse of the early

crusaders was with the Arabs, or Saracens, it is probable they would

adopt the term according to their pronounciation. Neither will it be

considered as an objection to this opinion, that in Hesychius, the

Ionian term _Phereas_, or _Pheres_, denotes the satyrs of classical

antiquity, if the number of words of oriental origin in that

lexicographer be recollected. Of the Persian Peris, Ouseley, in his

_Persian Miscellanies_, has described some characteristic traits, with

all the luxuriance of a fancy, impregnated with the oriental association

of ideas. However vaguely their nature and appearance is described, they

are uniformly represented as gentle, amiable females, to whose character

beneficence and beauty are essential. None of them are mischievous or

malignant; none of them are deformed or diminutive, like the Gothic

fairy. Though they correspond in beauty with our ideas of angels, their

employments are dissimilar; and, as they have no place in heaven, their

abode is different. Neither do they resemble those intelligences, whom,

on account of their wisdom, the Platonists denominated Daemons; nor

do they correspond either to the guardian Genii of the Romans, or the

celestial virgins of paradise, whom the Arabs denominate Houri. But the

Peris hover in the balmy clouds, live in the colours of the rainbow,

and, as the exquisite purity of their nature rejects all nourishment

grosser than the odours of flowers, they subsist by inhaling the

fragrance of the jessamine and rose. Though their existence is not

commensurate with the bounds of human life, they are not exempted from

the common fate of mortals.--With the Peris, in Persian mythology, are

contrasted the Dives, a race of beings, who differ from them in sex,

appearance, and disposition. These are represented as of the male sex,

cruel, wicked, and of the most hideous aspect; or, as they are described

by Mr Finch, "with ugly shapes, long horns, staring eyes, shaggy hair,

great fangs, ugly paws, long tails, with such horrible difformity and

deformity, that I wonder the poor women are not frightened therewith."

Though they live very long, their lives are limited, and they are

obnoxious to the blows of a human foe. From the malignancy of their

nature, they not only wage war with mankind, but persecute the Peris

with unremitting ferocity. Such are the brilliant and fanciful colours

in which the imaginations of the Persian poets have depicted the

charming race of the Peris; and, if we consider the romantic gallantry

of the knights of chivalry, and of the crusaders, it will not appear

improbable, that their charms might occasionally fascinate the fervid

imagination of an amorous troubadour. But, further; the intercourse of

France and Italy with the Moors of Spain, and the prevalence of the

Arabic, as the language of science in the dark ages, facilitated the

introduction of their mythology amongst the nations of the west. Hence,

the romances of France, of Spain, and of Italy, unite in describing the

Fairy as an inferior spirit, in a beautiful female form, possessing many

of the amiable qualities of the eastern Peri. Nay, it seems sufficiently

clear, that the romancers borrowed from the Arabs, not merely the

general idea concerning those spirits, but even the names of individuals

amongst them. The Peri, _Mergian Banou_ (see _Herbelot, ap. Peri_),

celebrated in the ancient Persian poetry, figures in the European

romances, under the various names of _Mourgue La Faye_, sister to _King

Arthur; Urgande La Deconnue_, protectress of _Amadis de Gaul_; and the

_Fata Morgana_ of Boiardo and Ariosto. The description of these nymphs,

by the troubadours and minstrels, is in no respect inferior to those of

the Peris. In the tale of _Sir Launfal_, in Way's _Fabliaux_, as well as

in that of _Sir Gruelan_, in the same interesting collection, the reader

will find the fairy of Normandy, or Bretagne, adorned with all the

splendour of eastern description. The fairy _Melusina_, also, who

married Guy de Lusignan, count of Poictou, under condition that he

should never attempt to intrude upon her privacy, was of this latter

class. She bore the count many children, and erected for him a

magnificent castle by her magical art. Their harmony was uninterrupted,

until the prying husband broke the conditions of their union, by

concealing himself, to behold his wife make use of her enchanted

bath. Hardly had _Melusina_ discovered the indiscreet intruder, than,

transforming herself into a dragon, she departed with a loud yell of

lamentation, and was never again visible to mortal eyes; although, even

in the days of Brantome, she was supposed to be the protectress of her

descendants, and was heard wailing, as she sailed upon the blast

round the turrets of the castle of Lusiguan, the night before it was

demolished. For the full story, the reader may consult the _Bibliotheque

des Romans_.[A]--Gervase of Tilbury (pp. 895, and 989), assures us,

that, in his days, the lovers of the Fadae, or Fairies, were numerous;

and describes the rules of their intercourse with as much accuracy, as

if he had himself been engaged in such an affair. Sir David Lindsay also

informs us, that a leopard is the proper armorial bearing of those

who spring from such intercourse, because that beast is generated by

adultery of the pard and lioness. He adds, that Merlin, the prophet, was

the first who adopted this cognizance, because he was "borne of faarie

in adultre, and right sua the first duk of Guyenne, was borne of a

_fee_; and, therefoir, the armes of Guyenne are a leopard."--_MS. on

Heraldry, Advocates' Library,_ w. 4. 13. While, however, the Fairy of

warmer climes was thus held up as an object of desire and of affection,

those of Britain, and more especially those of Scotland, were far

from being so fortunate; but, retaining the unamiable qualities, and

diminutive size of the Gothic elves, they only exchanged that term for

the more popular appellation of Fairies.

[Footnote A: Upon this, or some similar tradition, was founded the

notion, which the inveteracy of national prejudice, so easily diffused

in Scotland, that the ancestor of the English monarchs, Geoffrey

Plantagenet, had actually married a daemon. Bowmaker, in order to

explain the cruelty and ambition of Edward I., dedicates a chapter to

shew "how the kings of England are descended from the devil, by the

mother's side."--_Fordun, Chron._ lib. 9, cap. 6. The lord of a certain

castle, called Espervel, was unfortunate enough to have a wife of the

same class. Having observed, for several years, that she always left the

chapel before the mass was concluded, the baron, in a fit of obstinacy

or curiosity, ordered his guard to detain her by force; of which the

consequence was, that, unable to support the elevation of the host, she

retreated through the air, carrying with her one side of the chapel, and

several of the congregation.]

II. Indeed, so singularly unlucky were the British Fairies that, as has

already been hinted, amid the wreck of the Gothic mythology, consequent

upon the introduction of Christianity, they seem to have preserved, with

difficulty, their own distinct characteristics, while, at the same time,

they engrossed the mischievous attributes of several other classes of

subordinate spirits, acknowledged by the nations of the north. The

abstraction of children, for example, the well known practice of the

modern Fairy, seems, by the ancient Gothic nations, to have rather been

ascribed to a species of night-mare, or hag, than to the _berg-elfen_,

or _duergar_. In the ancient legend of _St Margaret_, of which there is

a Saxo-Norman copy, in _Hickes' Thesaurus Linguar. Septen._ and one,

more modern, in the Auchinleck MSS., that lady encounters a fiend, whose

profession it was, among other malicious tricks, to injure new-born

children and their mothers; a practice afterwards imputed to the

Fairies. Gervase of Tilbury, in the _Otia Imperialia_, mentions certain

hags, or _Lamiae_, who entered into houses in the night-time, to oppress

the inhabitants, while asleep, injure their persons and property, and

carry off their children. He likewise mentions the _Dracae_, a sort of

water spirits, who inveigle women and children into the recesses which

they inhabit, beneath lakes and rivers, by floating past them, on the

surface of the water, in the shape of gold rings, or cups. The women,

thus seized, are employed as nurses, and, after seven years, are

permitted to revisit earth. Gervase mentions one woman, in particular,

who had been allured by observing a wooden dish, or cup, float by her,

while washing clothes in a river. Being seized as soon as she reached

the depths, she was conducted into one of these subterranean recesses,

which she described as very magnificent, and employed as nurse to one of

the brood of the hag who had allured her. During her residence in this

capacity, having accidentally touched one of her eyes with an ointment

of serpent's grease, she perceived, at her return to the world, that she

had acquired the faculty of seeing the _dracae_, when they intermingle

themselves with men. Of this power she was, however, deprived by the

touch of her ghostly mistress, whom she had one day incautiously

addressed. It is a curious fact, that this story, in almost all its

parts, is current in both the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, with

no other variation than the substitution of Fairies for _dracae_, and

the cavern of a hill for that of a river.[A] These water fiends are thus

characterized by Heywood, in the _Hierarchie_--

"Spirits, that have o'er water gouvernement,

Are to mankind alike malevolent;

They trouble seas, flouds, rivers, brookes, and wels,

Meres, lakes, and love to enhabit watry cells;

Hence noisome and pestiferous vapours raise;

Besides, they men encounter divers ways.

At wreckes some present are; another sort,

Ready to cramp their joints that swim for sport:

One kind of these, the Italians _fatae_ name,

_Fee_ the French, we _sybils_, and the same;

Others _white nymphs_, and those that have them seen,

_Night ladies_ some, of which Habundia queen.

_Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels,_ p. 507.

[Footnote A: Indeed, many of the vulgar account it extremely dangerous

to touch any thing, which they may happen to find, without _saining_

(blessing) it, the snares of the enemy being notorious and well

attested. A poor woman of Tiviotdale, having been fortunate enough, as

she thought herself, to find a wooden beetle, at the very time when

she needed such an implement, seized it without pronouncing the proper

blessing, and, carrying it home, laid it above her bed, to be ready

for employment in the morning. At midnight, the window of her cottage

opened, and a loud voice was heard, calling upon some one within, by a

strange and uncouth name, which I have forgotten. The terrified cottager

ejaculated a prayer, which, we may suppose, insured her personal

safety; while the enchanted implement of housewifery, tumbling from the

bed-stead, departed by the window with no small noise and precipitation.

In a humorous fugitive tract, the late Dr Johnson is introduced as

disputing the authenticity of an apparition, merely because the spirit

assumed the shape of a tea-pot, and of a shoulder of mutton. No doubt,

a case so much in point, as that we have now quoted, would have removed

his incredulity.]

The following Frisian superstition, related by Schott, in his _Physica

Curiosa_, p. 362, on the authority of Cornelius a Kempen, coincides more

accurately with the popular opinions concerning the Fairies, than even

the _dracae_ of Gervase, or the water-spirits of Thomas Heywood.--"In

the time of the emperor Lotharius, in 830," says he, "many spectres

infested Frieseland, particularly the white nymphs of the ancients,

which the moderns denominate _witte wiven_, who inhabited a

subterraneous cavern, formed in a wonderful manner, without human art,

on the top of a lofty mountain. These were accustomed to surprise

benighted travellers, shepherds watching their herds and flocks, and

women newly delivered, with their children; and convey them into their

caverns, from which subterranean murmurs, the cries of children, the

groans and lamentations of men, and sometimes imperfect words, and all

kinds of musical sounds, were heard to proceed." The same superstition

is detailed by Bekker, in his _World Bewitch'd_, p. 196, of the English

translation. As the different classes of spirits were gradually

confounded, the abstraction of children seems to have been chiefly

ascribed to the elves, or Fairies; yet not so entirely, as to exclude

hags and witches from the occasional exertion of their ancient

privilege.--In Germany, the same confusion of classes has not taken

place. In the beautiful ballads of the _Erl King_, the _Water King_, and

the _Mer-Maid_, we still recognize the ancient traditions of the Goths,

concerning the _wald-elven_, and the _dracae_.

A similar superstition, concerning abstraction by daemons, seems, in

the time of Gervase of Tilbury, to have pervaded the greatest part of

Europe. "In Catalonia," says that author, "there is a lofty mountain,

named Cavagum, at the foot of which runs a river with golden sands, in

the vicinity of which there are likewise mines of silver. This mountain

is steep, and almost inaccessible. On its top, which is always covered

with ice and snow, is a black and bottomless lake, into which if a

stone be thrown, a tempest suddenly rises; and near this lake, though

invisible to men, is the porch of the palace of daemons. In a town

adjacent to this mountain, named Junchera, lived one Peter de Cabinam.

Being one day teazed with the fretfulness of his young daughter, he, in

his impatience, suddenly wished that the devil might take her; when she

was immediately borne away by the spirits. About seven years afterwards,

an inhabitant of the same city, passing by the mountain, met a man, who

complained bitterly of the burthen he was constantly forced to bear.

Upon enquiring the cause of his complaining, as he did not seem to carry

any load, the man related, that he had been unwarily devoted to the

spirits by an execration, and that they now employed him constantly as

a vehicle of burthen. As a proof of his assertion, he added, that the

daughter of his fellow-citizen was detained by the spirits, but that

they were willing to restore her, if her father would come and demand

her on the mountain. Peter de Cabinam, on being informed of this,

ascended the mountain to the lake, and, in the name of God, demanded his

daughter; when, a tall, thin, withered figure, with wandering eyes, and

almost bereft of understanding, was wafted to him in a blast of wind.

After some time, the person, who had been employed as the vehicle of the

spirits, also returned, when he related where the palace of the spirits

was situated; but added, that none were permitted to enter but those who

devoted themselves entirely to the spirits; those, who had been rashly

committed to the devil by others, being only permitted, during their

probation, to enter the porch." It may be proper to observe, that the

superstitious idea, concerning the lake on the top of the mountain, is

common to almost every high hill in Scotland. Wells, or pits, on the

top of high hills, were likewise supposed to lead to the subterranean

habitations of the Fairies. Thus, Gervase relates, (p. 975), "that he

was informed the swine-herd of William Peverell, an English baron,

having lost a brood-sow, descended through a deep abyss, in the middle

of an ancient ruinous castle, situated on the top of a hill, called

Bech, in search of it. Though a violent wind commonly issued from

this pit, he found it calm; and pursued his way, till he arrived at a

subterraneous region, pleasant and cultivated, with reapers cutting down

corn, though the snow remained on the surface of the ground above. Among

the ears of corn he discovered his sow, and was permitted to ascend with

her, and the pigs which she had farrowed." Though the author seems to

think that the inhabitants of this cave might be Antipodes, yet, as

many such stories are related of the Fairies, it is probable that this

narration is of the same kind. Of a similar nature seems to be another

superstition, mentioned by the same author, concerning the ringing of

invisible bells, at the hour of one, in a field in the vicinity of

Carleol, which, as he relates, was denominated _Laikibraine_, or _Lai ki

brait_. From all these tales, we may perhaps be justified in supposing,

that the faculties and habits ascribed to the Fairies, by the

superstition of latter days, comprehended several, originally attributed

to other classes of inferior spirits.

III. The notions, arising from the spirit of chivalry, combined to add

to the Fairies certain qualities, less atrocious, indeed, but equally

formidable, with those which they derived from the last mentioned

source, and alike inconsistent with the powers of the _duergar_, whom

we may term their primitive prototype. From an early period, the daring

temper of the northern tribes urged them to defy even the supernatural

powers. In the days of Caesar, the Suevi were described, by their

countrymen, as a people, with whom the immortal gods dared not venture

to contend. At a later period, the historians of Scandinavia paint their

heroes and champions, not as bending at the altar of their deities, but

wandering into remote forests and caverns, descending into the recesses

of the tomb, and extorting boons, alike from gods and daemons, by dint

of the sword, and battle-axe. I will not detain the reader by quoting

instances, in which heaven is thus described as having been literally

attempted by storm. He may consult Saxo, Olaus Wormius, Olaus Magnus,

Torfaeus, Bartholin, and other northern antiquaries. With such ideas of

superior beings, the Normans, Saxons, and other Gothic tribes, brought

their ardent courage to ferment yet more highly in the genial climes of

the south, and under the blaze of romantic chivalry. Hence, during the

dark ages, the invisible world was modelled after the material; and the

saints, to the protection of whom the knights-errant were accustomed to

recommend themselves, were accoutered like _preux chevaliers_, by the

ardent imaginations of their votaries. With such ideas concerning the

inhabitants of the celestial regions, we ought not to be surprised to

find the inferior spirits, of a more dubious nature and origin, equipped

in the same disguise. Gervase of Tilbury (_Otia Imperial, ap. Script,

rer. Brunsvic,_ Vol. I. p. 797.) relates the following popular story

concerning a Fairy Knight. "Osbert, a bold and powerful baron, visited

a noble family in the vicinity of Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely.

Among other stories related in the social circle of his friends, who,

according to custom, amused each other by repeating ancient tales and

traditions, he was informed, that if any knight, unattended, entered an

adjacent plain by moon-light, and challenged an adversary to appear, he

would be immediately encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight.

Osbert resolved to make the experiment, and set out, attended by a

single squire, whom he ordered to remain without the limits of the

plain, which was surrounded by an ancient entrenchment. On repeating the

challenge, he was instantly assailed by an adversary, whom he quickly

unhorsed, and seized the reins of his steed. During this operation, his

ghostly opponent sprung up, and, darting his spear, like a javelin, at

Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. Osbert returned in triumph with the

horse, which he committed to the care of his servants. The horse was of

a sable colour, as well as his whole accoutrements, and apparently of

great beauty and vigour. He remained with his keeper till cock-crowing,

when, with eyes flashing fire, he reared, spurned the ground, and

vanished. On disarming himself, Osbert perceived that he was wounded,

and that one of his steel boots was full of blood. Gervase adds,

that, as long as he lived, the scar of his wound opened afresh on the

anniversary of the eve on which he encountered the spirit."[A] Less

fortunate was the gallant Bohemian knight, who, travelling by night,

with a single companion, came in sight of a fairy host, arrayed under

displayed banners. Despising the remonstrances of his friend, the knight

pricked forward to break a lance with a champion who advanced from

the ranks, apparently in defiance. His companion beheld the Bohemian

over-thrown horse and man, by his aërial adversary; and, returning to

the spot next morning, he found the mangled, corpse of the knight and

steed.--_Hierarchie of Blessed Angels,_ p. 554.

[Footnote A: The unfortunate Chatterton was not, probably, acquainted

with Gervase of Tilbury; yet he seems to allude, in the _Battle of

Hastings_, to some modification of Sir Osbert's adventure:

So who they be that ouphant fairies strike,

Their souls shall wander to King Offa's dike.

The entrenchment, which served as lists for the combatants, is said by

Gervase to have been the work of the pagan invaders of Britain. In the

metrical romance of _Arthour and Merlin_, we have also an account of

Wandlesbury being occupied by the Sarasins, i.e. the Saxons; for all

pagans were Saracens with the romancers. I presume the place to have

been Wodnesbury, in Wiltshire, situated on the remarkable mound,

called Wansdike, which is obviously a Saxon work.--GOUGH'S _Cambden's

Britannia,_ pp. 87--95.]

To the same current of warlike ideas, we may safely attribute the

long train of military processions which the Fairies are supposed

occasionally to exhibit. The elves, indeed, seem in this point to be

identified with the aërial host, termed, during the middle ages, the

_Milites Herlikini_, or _Herleurini_, celebrated by Pet. Blesensis,

and termed, in the life of St Thomas of Canterbury, the _Familia

Helliquinii_. The chief of this band was originally a gallant knight and

warrior; but, having spent his whole possessions in the service of the

emperor, and being rewarded with scorn, and abandoned to subordinate

oppression, he became desperate, and, with his sons and followers,

formed a band of robbers. After committing many ravages, and defeating

all the forces sent against him, Hellequin, with his whole troop, fell

in a bloody engagement with the Imperial host. His former good life was

supposed to save him from utter reprobation; but he and his followers

were condemned, after death, to a state of wandering, which should

endure till the last day. Retaining their military habits, they were

usually seen in the act of justing together, or in similar warlike

employments. See the ancient French romance of _Richard sans Peur_.

Similar to this was the _Nacht Lager_, or midnight camp, which seemed

nightly to beleaguer the walls of Prague,

"With ghastly faces thronged, and fiery arms,"

but which disappeared upon recitation of the magical words, _Vezelé,

Vezelé, ho! ho! ho!_--For similar delusions, see DELRIUS, pp. 294, 295.

The martial spirit of our ancestors led them to defy these aërial

warriors; and it is still currently believed, that he, who has courage

to rush upon a fairy festival, and snatch from them their drinking cup,

or horn, shall find it prove to him a cornucopia of good fortune, if he

can bear it in safety across a running stream. Such a horn is said to

have been presented to Henry I. by a lord of Colchester.--GERVAS TILB.

p. 980. A goblet is still carefully preserved in Edenhall, Cumberland,

which is supposed to have been seized at a banquet of the elves, by one

of the ancient family of Musgrave; or, as others say, by one of their

domestics, in the manner above described. The Fairy train vanished,

crying aloud,

If this glass do break or fall,

Farewell the luck of Edenhall!

The goblet took a name from the prophecy, under which it is mentioned,

in the burlesque ballad, commonly attributed to the duke of Wharton, but

in reality composed by Lloyd, one of his jovial companions. The duke,

after taking a draught, had nearly terminated the "luck of Edenhall,"

had not the butler caught the cup in a napkin, as it dropped from his

grace's hands. I understand it is not now subjected to such risques, but

the lees of wine are still apparent at the bottom.

God prosper long, from being broke,

The luck of Edenhall.--_Parody on Chevy Chace._

Some faint traces yet remain, on the borders, of a conflict of a

mysterious and terrible nature, between mortals and the spirits of the

wilds. This superstition is incidentally alluded to by Jackson, at the

beginning of the 17th century. The fern seed, which is supposed to

become visible only on St John's Eve,[A] and at the very moment when

the Baptist was born, is held by the vulgar to be under the special

protection of the queen of Faëry. But, as the seed was supposed to have

the quality of rendering the possessor invisible at pleasure,[B] and to

be also of sovereign use in charms and incantations, persons of courage,

addicted to these mysterious arts, were wont to watch in solitude, to

gather it at the moment when it should become visible. The particular

charms, by which they fenced themselves during this vigil, are now

unknown; but it was reckoned a feat of no small danger, as the person

undertaking it was exposed to the most dreadful assaults from spirits,

who dreaded the effect of this powerful herb in the hands of a cabalist.

Such were the shades, which the original superstition, concerning the.

Fairies, received from the chivalrous sentiments of the middle ages.

[Footnote A:

Ne'er be I found by thee unawed,

On that thrice hallowed eve abroad,

When goblins haunt, from fire and fen.

And wood and lake, the steps of men.

COLLINS'S _Ode to Fear._

The whole history of St John the Baptist was, by our ancestors,

accounted mysterious, and connected with their own superstitions.

The fairy queen was sometimes identified with Herodias.--DELRII

_Disquisitiones Magicae,_ pp. 168. 807. It is amusing to observe with

what gravity the learned Jesuit contends, that it is heresy to believe

that this celebrated figurante (_saltatricula_) still leads choral

dances upon earth!]

[Footnote B: This is alluded to by Shakespeare, and other authors of his

time:

"We have the receipt of _fern-seed_; we walk invisible."

_Henry IV. Part 1st, Act 2d, Sc. 3_.]

IV. An absurd belief in the fables of classical antiquity lent an

additional feature to the character of the woodland spirits of whom we

treat. Greece and Rome had not only assigned tutelary deities to each

province and city, but had peopled, with peculiar spirits, the Seas, the

Rivers, the Woods, and the Mountains. The memory of the pagan creed was

not speedily eradicated, in the extensive provinces through which it was

once universally received; and, in many particulars, it continued long

to mingle with, and influence, the original superstitions of the Gothic

nations. Hence, we find the elves occasionally arrayed in the costume of

Greece and Rome, and the Fairy Queen and her attendants transformed into

Diana and her nymphs, and invested with their attributes and appropriate

insignia.--DELRIUS, pp. 168, 807. According to the same author, the

Fairy Queen was also called _Habundia_. Like Diana, who, in one

capacity, was denominated _Hecate_, the goddess of enchantment, the

Fairy Queen is identified in popular tradition, with the _Gyre-Carline,

Gay Carline_, or mother witch, of the Scottish peasantry. Of this

personage, as an individual, we have but few notices. She is sometimes

termed _Nicneven_, and is mentioned in the _Complaynt of Scotland_, by

Lindsay in his _Dreme_, p. 225, edit. 1590, and in his _Interludes_,

apud PINKERTON'S _Scottish Poems_, Vol. II. p. 18. But the traditionary

accounts regarding her are too obscure to admit of explanation. In the

burlesque fragment subjoined, which is copied from the Bannatyne MS. the

Gyre Carline is termed the _Queen of Jowis_ (Jovis, or perhaps Jews),

and is, with great consistency, married to Mohammed.[A]

[Footnote A:

In Tyberius tyme, the trew imperatour,

Quhen Tynto hills fra skraipiug of toun-henis was keipit,

Thair dwelt are grit Gyre Carling in awld Betokis bour,

That levit upoun Christiane menis flesche, and rewheids unleipit;

Thair wynit ane hir by, on the west syde, callit Blasour,

For luve of hir lanchane lippis, he walit and he weipit;

He gadderit are menzie of modwartis to warp doun the tour:

The Carling with are yren club, quhen yat Blasour sleipit,

Behind the heil scho hat him sic ane blaw,

Quhil Blasour bled ane quart

Off milk pottage inwart,

The Carling luche, and lut fart

North Berwik Law.

The king of fary than come, with elfis many ane,

And sett are sege, and are salt, with grit pensallis of pryd;

And all the doggis fra Dunbar wes thair to Dumblane,

With all the tykis of Tervey, come to thame that tyd;

Thay quelle doune with thair gonnes mony grit stane,

The Carling schup hir on ane sow, and is her gaitis gane,

Grunting our the Greik sie, and durst na langer byd,

For bruklyng of bargane, and breikhig of browis:

The Carling now for dispyte

Is maieit with Mahomyte,

And will the doggis interdyte,

For scho is queue of Jowis.

Sensyne the cockis of Crawmound crew nevir at day,

For dule of that devillisch deme wes with Mahoun mareit,

And the henis of Hadingtoun sensyne wald not lay,

For this wild wibroun wich thame widlit sa and wareit;

And the same North Berwik Law, as I heir wyvis say,

This Carling, with a fals east, wald away careit;

For to luck on quha sa lykis, na langer scho tareit:

All this languor for love before tymes fell,

Lang or Betok was born,

Scho bred of ane accorne;

The laif of the story to morne,

To you I sall telle.]

But chiefly in Italy were traced many dim characters of ancient

mythology, in the creed of tradition. Thus, so lately as 1536, Vulcan,

with twenty of his Cyclops, is stated to have presented himself suddenly

to a Spanish merchant, travelling in the night, through the forests of

Sicily; an apparition, which was followed by a dreadful eruption of

Mount Aetna.--_Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels,_ p. 504 Of this

singular mixture, the reader will find a curious specimen in the

following tale, wherein the Venus of antiquity assumes the manners of

one of the Fays, or Fatae, of romance. "In the year 1058, a young man

of noble birth had been married at Rome, and, during the period of his

nuptial feast, having gone with his companions to play at ball, he put

his marriage ring on the finger of a broken statue of Venus in the area,

to remain, while he was engaged in the recreation. Desisting from the

exercise, he found the finger, on which he had put his ring, contracted

firmly against the palm, and attempted in vain either to break it, or to

disengage his ring. He concealed the circumstance from his companions,

and returned at night with a servant, when he found the finger extended,

and his ring gone. He dissembled the loss, and returned to his wife;

but, whenever he attempted to embrace her, he found himself prevented

by something dark and dense, which was tangible, though not visible,

interposing between them; and he heard a voice saying, 'Embrace me! for

I am Venus, whom this day you wedded, and I will not restore your ring.'

As this was constantly repeated, he consulted his relations, who had

recourse to Palumbus, a priest, skilled in necromancy. He directed the

young man to go, at a certain hour of night, to a spot among the ruins

of ancient Rome, where four roads met, and wait silently till he saw a

company pass by, and then, without uttering a word, to deliver a letter,

which he gave him, to a majestic being, who rode in a chariot, after the

rest of the company. The young man did as he was directed; and saw a

company of all ages, sexes, and ranks, on horse and on foot, some joyful

and others sad, pass along; among whom he distinguished a woman in a

meretricious dress, who, from the tenuity of her garments, seemed

almost naked. She rode on a mule; her long hair, which flowed over her

shoulders, was bound with a golden fillet; and in her hand was a golden

rod, with which she directed her mule. In the close of the procession,

a tall majestic figure appeared in a chariot, adorned with emeralds

and pearls, who fiercely asked the young man, 'What he did there?' He

presented the letter in silence, which the daemon dared not refuse.

As soon as he had read, lifting up his hands to heaven, he exclaimed,

'Almighty God! how long wilt thou endure the iniquities of the sorcerer

Palumbus!' and immediately dispatched some of his attendants, who, with

much difficulty, extorted the ring from Venus, and restored it to

its owner, whose infernal banns were thus dissolved."--FORDUNI

_Scotichronicon,_ Vol. I. p. 407, _cura_ GOODALL.

But it is rather in the classical character of an infernal deity, that

the elfin queen may be considered, than as _Hecate_, the patroness of

magic; for not only in the romance writers, but even in Chaucer, are the

Fairies identified with the ancient inhabitants of the classical hell.

Thus Chaucer, in his _Marchand's Tale_, mentions

Pluto that is king of fayrie--and

Proserpine and all her fayrie.

In the _Golden Terge_ of Dunbar, the same phraseology is adopted: Thus,

Thair was Pluto that elricke incubus

In cloke of grene, his court usit in sable.

Even so late as 1602, in Harsenet's _Declaration of Popish Imposture,_

p. 57, Mercury is called _Prince of the Fairies._

But Chaucer, and those poets who have adopted his phraseology, have only

followed the romance writers; for the same substitution occurs in the

romance of _Orfeo and Heurodis_, in which the story of Orpheus and

Eurydice is transformed into a beautiful romantic tale of faëry, and

the Gothic mythology engrafted on the fables of Greece. _Heurodis_ is

represented as wife of _Orfeo_, and queen of Winchester, the ancient

name of which city the romancer, with unparalleled ingenuity, discovers

to have been Traciens, or Thrace. The monarch, her husband, had a

singular genealogy:

His fader was comen of King Pluto,

And his moder of King Juno;

That sum time were as godes y-holde,

For aventours that thai dede and tolde.

Reposing, unwarily, at noon, under the shade of an ymp tree,[A]

_Heurodis_ dreams that she is accosted by the King of Fairies,

With an hundred knights and mo,

And damisels an hundred also,

Al on snowe white stedes;

As white as milke were her wedes;

Y no seigh never yete bifore,

So fair creatours y-core:

The kinge hadde a croun on hed,

It nas of silver, no of golde red,

Ac it was of a precious ston:

As bright as the sonne it schon.

[Footnote A: _Ymp tree_--According to the general acceptation, this only

signifies a grafted tree; whether it should he here understood to mean a

tree consecrated to the imps, or fairies, is left with the reader.]

The King of Fairies, who had obtained power over the queen, perhaps from

her sleeping at noon in his domain, orders her, under the penalty of

being torn to pieces, to await him to-morrow under the ymp tree, and

accompany him to Fairy-Land. She relates her dream to her husband, who

resolves to accompany her, and attempt her rescue:

A morwe the under tide is come,

And Orfeo hath his armes y-nome,

And wele ten hundred knights with him,

Ich y-armed stout and grim;

And with the quen wenten he,

Right upon that ympe tre.

Thai made scheltrom in iche aside,

And sayd thai wold there abide,

And dye ther everichon,

Er the qeun schuld fram hem gon:

Ac yete amiddes hem ful right,

The quen was oway y-twight,

With Fairi forth y-nome,

Men wizt never wher sche was become.

After this fatal catastrophe, _Orfeo_, distracted for the loss of

his queen, abandons his throne, and, with his harp, retires into a

wilderness, where he subjects himself to every kind of austerity, and

attracts the wild beasts by the pathetic melody of his harp. His state

of desolation is poetically described:

He that werd the fowe and griis,

And on bed the purpur biis,

Now on bard hethe he lith.

With leves and gresse he him writh:

He that had castells and tours,

Rivers, forests, frith with flowrs.

Now thei it commence to snewe and freze,

This king mot make his bed in mese:

He that had y-had knightes of priis,

Bifore him kneland and leuedis,

Now seth he no thing that him liketh,

Bot wild wormes bi him striketh:

He that had y-had plente

Of mete and drinke, of ich deynte,

Now may he al daye digge and wrote,

Er he find his fille of rote.

In sorner he liveth bi wild fruit,

And verien hot gode lite.

In winter may he no thing find,

Bot rotes, grases, and the rinde.

* * * * *

His here of his herd blac and rowe,

To his girdel stede was growe;

His harp, whereon was al his gle,

He hidde in are holwe tre:

And, when the weder was clere and bright,

He toke his harpe to him wel right,

And harped at his owen will,

Into al the wode the soun gan shill,

That al the wild bestes that ther beth

For joie abouten him thai teth;

And al the foules that ther wer,

Come and sete on ich a brere,

To here his harping a fine,

So miche melody was therein.

At last he discovers, that he is not the sole inhabitant of this desart;

for

He might se him besides

Oft in hot undertides,

The king of Fairi, with his route,

Come to hunt him al about,

With dim cri and bloweing,

And houndes also with him berking;

Ac no best thai no nome,

No never he nist whider thai bi come.

And other while he might hem se

As a gret ost bi him te,

Well atourued ten hundred knightes,

Ich y-armed to his rightes,

Of cuntenance stout and fers,

With mani desplaid baners;

And ich his sword y-drawe hold,

Ac never he nist whider thai wold.

And otherwhile he seighe other thing;

Knightis and lenedis com daunceing,

In queynt atire gisely,

Queyete pas and softlie:

Tabours and trumpes gede hem bi,

And al mauer menstraci.--

And on a day he seighe him biside,

Sexti leuedis on hors ride,

Gentil and jolif as brid on ris;

Nought o man amonges hem ther nis;

And ich a faucoun on bond bere,

And riden on hauken bi o river.

Of game thai found wel gode haunt,

Maulardes, hayroun, and cormoraunt;

The foules of the water ariseth,

Ich faucoun hem wele deviseth,

Ich fancoun his pray slough,

That seize Orfeo and lough.

"Par fay," quoth he, "there is fair game,

"Hider Ichil bi Godes name,

"Ich was y won swich work to se:"

He aros, and thider gan te;

To a leuedie hi was y-come,

Bihelde, and hath wel under nome,

And seth, bi al thing, that is

His owen quen, dam Heurodis;

Gern hi biheld her, and sche him eke,

Ac nouther to other a word no speke:

For messais that sche on him seighe,

That had ben so riche and so heighe,

The teres fel out of her eighe;

The other leuedis this y seighe,

And maked hir oway to ride,

Sche most with him no longer obide.

"Allas!" quoth he, "nowe is mi woe,

"Whi nil deth now me slo;

"Allas! to long last mi liif,

"When y no dare nought with mi wif,

"Nor hye to me o word speke;

"Allas whi nil miin hert breke!

"Par fay," quoth he, "tide what betide,

"Whider so this leuedis ride,

"The selve way Ichil streche;

"Of liif, no dethe, me no reche.

In consequence, therefore, of this discovery _Orfeo_ pursues the hawking

damsels, among whom he has descried his lost queen. They enter a rock,

the king continues the pursuit, and arrives at Fairy-Land, of which the

following very poetical description is given:

In at roche the leuedis rideth,

And he after and nought abideth;

When he was in the roche y-go,

Wele thre mile other mo,

He com into a fair cuntray,

As bright soonne somers day,

Smothe and plain and al grene,

Hill no dale nas none ysene,

Amiddle the loud a castel he seighe,

Rich and reale and wonder heighe;

Al the utmast wal

Was cler and schine of cristal;

An hundred tours ther were about,

Degiselich and bataild stout;

The butrass come out of the diche,

Of rede gold y-arched riche;

The bousour was anowed al,

Of ich maner deuers animal;

Within ther wer wide wones

Al of precious stones,

The werss piler onto biholde,

Was al of burnist gold:

Al that loud was ever light,

For when it schuld be therk and night,

The riche stonnes light gonne,

Bright as doth at nonne the sonne

No man may tel, no thenke in thought.

The riche werk that ther was rought.

* * * * *

Than he gan biholde about al,

And seighe ful liggeand with in the wal,

Of folk that wer thidder y-brought,

And thought dede and nere nought;

Sum stode with outen hadde;

And some none armes nade;

And sum thurch the bodi hadde wounde;

And sum lay wode y-bounde;

And sum armed on hors sete;

And sum astrangled as thai ete;

And sum war in water adreynt;

And sum with fire al for schreynt;

Wives ther lay on childe bedde;

Sum dede, and sum awedde;

And wonder fere ther lay besides,

Right as thai slepe her undertides;

Eche was thus in this warld y-nome,

With fairi thider y-come.[A]

There he seize his owhen wiif,

Dame Heurodis, his liif liif,

Slepe under an ympe tree:

Bi her clothes he knewe that it was he,

And when he had bihold this mervalis alle,

He went into the kinges halle;

Then seigh he there a semly sight,

A tabernacle blisseful and bright;

Ther in her maister king sete,

And her quen fair and swete;

Her crounes, her clothes schine so bright,

That unnethe bihold he hem might.

_Orfeo and Heurodis, MS._

[Footnote A: It was perhaps from such a description that Ariosto adopted

his idea of the Lunar Paradise, containing every thing that on earth was

stolen or lost.]

_Orfeo_, as a minstrel, so charms the Fairy King with the music of

his harp, that he promises to grant him whatever he should ask. He

immediately demands his lost _Heurodis_; and, returning safely with

her to Winchester, resumes his authority; a catastrophe, less pathetic

indeed, but more pleasing, than that of the classical story. The

circumstances, mentioned in this romantic legend, correspond very

exactly with popular tradition. Almost all the writers on daemonology

mention, as a received opinion that the power of the daemons is most

predominant at noon and midnight. The entrance to the Land of Faëry is

placed in the wilderness; a circumstance, which coincides with a passage

in Lindsay's _Complaint of the Papingo:_

Bot sen my spreit mon from my bodye go,

I recommend it to the queue of Fary,

Eternally into her court to tarry

In _wilderness_ amang the holtis hair.

LINDSAY'S _Works_, 1592, p. 222.

Chaucer also agrees, in this particular, with our romancer:

In his sadel he clombe anon,

And priked over stile and ston,

An elf quene for to espie;

Til he so long had riden and gone

That he fond in a privie wone

The countree of Faërie.

Wherein he soughte north and south,

And often spired with his mouth,

In many a foreste wilde;

For in that countree nas ther non,

That to him dorst ride or gon,

Neither wif ne childe.

_Rime of Sir Thopas._

V. Other two causes, deeply affecting the superstition of which we

treat, remain yet to be noticed. The first is derived from the Christian

religion, which admits only of two classes of spirits, exclusive of the

souls of men--Angels, namely, and Devils. This doctrine had a necessary

tendency to abolish the distinction among subordinate spirits, which had

been introduced by the superstitions of the Scandinavians. The existence

of the Fairies was readily admitted; but, as they had no pretensions to

the angelic character, they were deemed to be of infernal origin. The

union, also, which had been formed betwixt the elves and the Pagan

deities, was probably of disservice to the former; since every one

knows, that the whole synod of Olympus were accounted daemons.

The fulminations of the church were, therefore, early directed against

those, who consulted or consorted with the Fairies; and, according to

the inquisitorial logic, the innocuous choristers of Oberon and Titania

were, without remorse, confounded with the sable inhabitants of the

orthodox Gehennim; while the rings, which marked their revels, were

assimilated to the blasted sward on which the witches held their

infernal sabbath.--_Delrii Disq. Mag._ p. 179. This transformation early

took place; for, among the many crimes for which the famous Joan of Arc

was called upon to answer, it was not the least heinous, that she

had frequented the Tree and Fountain, near Dompré, which formed the

rendezvous of the Fairies, and bore their name; that she had joined in

the festive dance with the elves, who haunted this charmed spot; had

accepted of their magical bouquets, and availed herself of their

talismans, for the delivery of her country.--_Vide Acta Judiciaria

contra Johannam D'Arceam, vulgo vocutam Johanne la Pucelle._

The Reformation swept away many of the corruptions of the church of

Rome; but the purifying torrent remained itself somewhat tinctured by

the superstitious impurities of the soil over which it had passed. The

trials of sorcerers and witches, which disgrace our criminal records,

become even more frequent after the Reformation of the church; as if

human credulity, no longer amused by the miracles of Rome, had sought

for food in the traditionary records of popular superstition. A Judaical

observation of the precepts of the Old Testament also characterized the

Presbyterian reformers. _"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,"_ was

a text, which at once (as they conceived) authorized their belief in

sorcery, and sanctioned the penalty which they denounced against it. The

Fairies were, therefore, in no better credit after the Reformation than

before, being still regarded as actual daemons, or something very little

better. A famous divine, Doctor Jasper Brokeman, teaches us, in his

system of divinity, "that they inhabit in those places that are polluted

with any crying sin, as effusion of blood, or where unbelief or

superstitione have gotten the upper hand."--_Description of Feroe._ The

Fairies being on such bad terms with the divines, those, who pretended

to intercourse with them, were, without scruple, punished as sorcerers;

and such absurd charges are frequently stated as exaggerations of

crimes, in themselves sufficiently heinous.

Such is the case in the trial of the noted Major Weir, and his sister;

where the following mummery interlards a criminal indictment, too

infamously flagitious to be farther detailed: "9th April, 1670. Jean

Weir, indicted of sorceries, committed by her when she lived and kept a

school at Dalkeith: that she took employment from a woman, to speak in

her behalf to the _Queen of Fairii, meaning the Devil_; and that another

woman gave her a piece of a tree, or root, the next day, and did tell

her, that as long as she kept the same, she should be able to do what

she pleased; and that same woman, from whom she got the tree, caused her

spread a cloth before her door, and set her foot upon it, and to repeat

thrice, in the posture foresaid, these words, _'All her losses and

crosses go alongst to the doors,'_ which was truly a consulting with the

devil, and an act of sorcery, &c. That after the spirit, in the shape of

a woman, who gave her the piece of tree, had removed, she, addressing

herself to spinning, and having spun but a short time, found more

yarn upon the pirn than could possibly have come there by good

means."[A]--_Books of Adjournal._

[Footnote A: It is observed in the record, that Major Weir, a man of

the most vicious character, was at the same time ambitious of appearing

eminently godly; and used to frequent the beds of sick persons, to

assist them with his prayers. On such occasions, he put to his mouth

a long staff, which he usually carried, and expressed himself with

uncommon energy and fluency, of which he was utterly incapable when the

inspiring rod was withdrawn. This circumstance, the result, probably, of

a trick or habit, appearing suspicious to the judges, the staff of the

sorcerer was burned along with his person. One hundred and thirty years

have elapsed since his execution, yet no one has, during that space,

ventured to inhabit the house of this celebrated criminal.]

Neither was the judgment of the criminal court of Scotland less severe

against another familiar of the Fairies, whose supposed correspondence

with the court of Elfland seems to have constituted the sole crime, for

which she was burned alive. Her name was Alison Pearson, and she seems

to have been a very noted person. In a bitter satire against Adamson,

Bishop of St Andrews, he is accused of consulting with sorcerers,

particularly with this very woman; and an account is given of her

travelling through Breadalbane, in the company of the Queen of Faëry,

and of her descrying, in the court of Elfland, many persons, who had

been supposed at rest in the peaceful grave.[A] Among these we find two

remarkable personages; the secretary, young Maitland of Lethington, and

one of the old lairds of Buccleuch. The cause of their being stationed

in Elfland probably arose from the manner of their decease; which, being

uncommon and violent, caused the vulgar to suppose that they had been

abstracted by the Fairies. Lethington, as is generally supposed, died a

Roman death during his imprisonment in Leith; and the Buccleuch, whom I

believe to be here meant, was slain in a nocturnal scuffle by the Kerrs,

his hereditary enemies. Besides, they were both attached to the cause

of Queen Mary, and to the ancient religion; and were thence, probably,

considered as more immediately obnoxious to the assaults of the powers

of darkness.[B] The indictment of Alison Pearson notices her intercourse

with the Archbishop of St Andrews, and contains some particulars, worthy

of notice, regarding the court of Elfland. It runs thus: "28th May,

1586. Alison Pearson, in Byrehill, convicted of witchcraft, and of

consulting with evil spirits, in the form of one Mr William Simpsone,

her cosin, who she affirmed was a gritt schollar, and doctor of

medicine, that healed her of her diseases when she was twelve years of

age; having lost the power of her syde, and having a familiaritie with

him for divers years, dealing with charms, and abuseing the common

people by her arts of witchcraft, thir divers years by-past.

[Footnote A:

For oght the kirk culd him forbid,

He sped him sone, and gat the thrid;

Ane carling of the quene of Phareis,

That ewill win geir to elpliyne careis;

Through all Brade Abane scho has bene,

On horsbak on Hallow ewin;

And ay in seiking certayne nightis,

As scho sayis with sur silly wychirs:

And names out nybours sex or sewin,

That we belevit had bene in heawin;

Scho said scho saw theme weill aneugh,

And speciallie gude auld Balcleuch,

The secretar, and sundrie uther:

Ane William Symsone, her mother brother,

Whom fra scho has resavit a buike

For ony herb scho likes to luke;

It will instruct her how to tak it,

In saws and sillubs how to mak it;

With stones that meikle mair can doe,

In leich craft, where scho lays them toe:

A thousand maladeis scho hes mendit;

Now being tane, and apprehendit,

Scho being in the bischopis cure,

And keipit in his castle sure,

Without respect of worldlie glamer,

He past into the witches chalmer.

_Scottish Poems of XVI. Century,_ Edin. 1801,

Vol. II, p. 320.]

[Footnote B: Buccleuch was a violent enemy to the English, by whom his

lands had been repeatedly plundered (See _Introduction,_ p. xxvi), and

a great advocate for the marriage betwixt Mary and the dauphin, 1549.

According to John Knox, he had recourse even to threats, in urging the

parliament to agree to the French match. "The laird of Buccleuch," says

the Reformer, "a bloody man, with many Gods wounds, swore, they that

would not consent should do worse."]

"_Item,_ For banting and repairing with the gude neighbours, and queene

of Elfland, thir divers years by-past, as she had confest; and that she

had friends in that court, which were of her own blude, who had gude

acquaintance of the queene of Elfland, which might have helped her; but

she was whiles well, and whiles ill, sometimes with them, a'nd other

times away frae them; and that she would be in her bed haille and feire,

and would not wytt where she would be the morn; and that she saw not the

queene this seven years, and that she was seven years ill handled in the

court of Elfland; that, however, she kad gude friends there, and that

it was the gude neighbours that healed her, under God; and that she was

comeing and going to St Andrews to haile folkes thir many years past.

"_Item,_ Convict of the said act of witchcraft, in as far as she confest

that the said Mr William Sympsoune, who was her guidsir sone, born in

Stirleing, who was the king's smith, who, when about eight years of age,

was taken away by ane Egyptian to Egypt; which Egyptian was a gyant,

where he remained twelve years, "and then came home.

"_Item,_ That she being in Grange Muir, with some other folke, she,

being sick, lay downe; and, when alone, there came a man to her, clad in

green, who said to her, if she would be faithful, he would do her good;

but she, being feared, cried out, but naebodye came to her; so she said,

if he came in God's name, and for the gude of her saule, it was well;

but he gaid away: that he appeared to her another tyme like a lustie

man, and many men and women with him; that, at seeing him, she signed

herself and prayed, and past with them, and saw them making merrie with

pypes, and gude cheir and wine, and that she was carried with them; and

that when she telled any of these things, she was sairlie tormentit by

them; and that the first time she gaed with them, she gat a sair straike

frae one of them, which took all the _poustie_[A] of her syde frae her,

and left ane ill-far'd mark on her syde.

"_Item,_ That she saw the gude neighbours make their sawes[B] with panns

and fyres, and that they gathered the herbs before the sun was up, and

they came verie fearful sometimes to her, and flaide[C] her very sair,

which made her cry, and threatened they would use her worse than before;

and, at last, they took away the power of her haile syde frae her, which

made her lye many weeks. Sometimes they would come and sitt by her, and

promise all that she should never want if she would be faithful, but if

she would speak and telle of them, they should murther her; and that Mr

William Sympsoune is with them, who healed her, and telt her all things;

that he is a young man not six years older than herself, and that he

will appear to her before the court comes; that he told her he was taken

away by them, and he bidd her sign herself that she be not taken away,

for the teind of them are tane to hell everie year.

[Footnote A: _Poustie_--Power.]

[Footnote B: _Sawes_--Salves.]

[Footnote C: _Flaide_--Scared.]

"_Item,_ That the said Mr William told her what herbs were fit to cure

every disease, and how to use them; and particularlie tauld, that the

Bishop of St Andrews laboured under sindrie diseases, sic as the riples,

trembling, feaver, flux, &c. and bade her make a sawe, and anoint

several parts of his body therewith, and gave directions for making a

posset, which she made and gave him."

For this idle story the poor woman actually suffered death. Yet,

notwithstanding the fervent arguments thus liberally used by the

orthodox, the common people, though they dreaded even to think or speak

about the Fairies, by no means unanimously acquiesced in the doctrine,

which consigned them to eternal perdition. The inhabitants of the Isle

of Man call them the "_good people_, and say they live in wilds, and

forests, and on mountains, and shun great cities, because of the

wickedness acted therein: all the houses are blessed where they visit,

for they fly vice. A person would be thought impudently prophane who

should suffer his family to go to bed, without having first set a tub,

or pail, full of clean water, for those guests to bathe themselves in,

which the natives aver they constantly do, as soon as ever the eyes of

the family are closed, wherever they vouchsafe to come."--WALDREN's

_Works_, p. 126. There are some curious, and perhaps anomalous facts,

concerning the history of Fairies, in a sort of Cock-lane narrative,

contained in a letter from Moses Pitt, to Dr Edward Fowler, Lord Bishop

of Gloucester, printed at London in 1696, and preserved in Morgan's

_Phoenix Britannicus,_ 4to, London 1732.

Anne Jefferies was born in the parish of St Teath, in the county of

Cornwall, in 1626. Being the daughter of a poor man, she resided as

servant in the house of the narrator's father, and waited upon the

narrator himself, in his childhood. As she was knitting stockings in an

arbour of the garden, "six small people, all in green clothes," came

suddenly over the garden wall; at the sight of whom, being much

frightened, she was seized with convulsions, and continued so long sick,

that she became as a changeling, and was unable to walk. During her

sickness, she frequently exclaimed, "They are just gone out of the

window! they are just gone out of the window! do you not see them?"

These expressions, as she afterwards declared, related to their

disappearing. During the harvest, when every one was employed, her

mistress walked out; and dreading that Anne, who was extremely weak

and silly, might injure herself, or the house, by the fire, with some

difficulty persuaded her to walk in the orchard till her return. She

accidentally hurt her leg, and, at her return, Anne cured it, by

stroking it with her hand. She appeared to be informed of every

particular, and asserted, that she had this information from the

Fairies, who had caused the misfortune. After this, she performed

numerous cures, but would never receive money for them. From harvest

time to Christmas, she was fed by the Fairies, and eat no other victuals

but theirs. The narrator affirms, that, looking one day through the

key-hole of the door of her chamber, he saw her eating; and that she

gave him a piece of bread, which was the most delicious he ever tasted.

The Fairies always appeared to her in even numbers; never less than two,

nor more than eight, at a time. She had always a sufficient stock of

salves and medicines, and yet neither made, nor purchased any; nor did

she ever appear to be in want of money. She, one day, gave a silver cup,

containing about a quart, to the daughter of her mistress, a girl about

four years old, to carry to her mother, who refused to receive it. The

narrator adds, that he had seen her dancing in the orchard among the

trees, and that she informed him she was then dancing with the Fairies.

The report of the strange cures which she performed, soon attracted the

attention of both ministers and magistrates. The ministers endeavoured

to persuade her, that the Fairies by which she was haunted, were evil

spirits, and that she was under the delusion of the devil. After they

had left her, she was visited by the Fairies, while in great perplexity;

who desired her to cause those, who termed them evil spirits, to

read that place of scripture, _First Epistle of John,_, chap. iv. v.

1,--_Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits,

whether they are of God,_ &c. Though Anne Jefferies could not read, she

produced a Bible folded down at this passage. By the magistrates she was

confined three months, without food, in Bodmin jail, and afterwards

for some time in the house of Justice Tregeagle. Before the constable

appeared to apprehend her, she was visited by the Fairies, who informed

her what was intended, and advised her to go with him. When this account

was given, on May 1, 1696, she was still alive; but refused to relate

any particulars of her connection with the Fairies, or the occasion on

which they deserted her, lest she should again fall under the cognizance

of the magistrates.

Anne Jefferies' Fairies were not altogether singular in maintaining

their good character, in opposition to the received opinion of the

church. Aubrey and Lily, unquestionably judges in such matters, had

a high opinion of these beings, if we may judge from the following

succinct and business-like memorandum of a ghost-seer. "Anno 1670. Not

far from Cirencester was an apparition. Being demanded whether a good

spirit or a bad, returned no answer, but disappeared with a curious

perfume, and most melodious twang. M.W. Lilly believes it was a Fairie.

So Propertius,

Omnia finierat; tenues secessit in auras,

Mansit odor possis scire fuisse Deam!"

AUBREY'S _Miscellanies,_ p. 80.

A rustic, also, whom Jackson taxed with magical practices, about 1620,

obstinately denied that the good King of the Fairies had any connection

with the devil; and some of the Highland seers, even in our day,

have boasted of their intimacy with the elves, as an innocent and

advantageous connection. One Maccoan, in Appin, the last person

eminently gifted with the second sight, professed to my learned and

excellent friend, Mr Ramsay, of Ochtertyre, that he owed his prophetic

visions to their intervention.

VI. There remains yet another cause to be noticed, which seems to have

induced a considerable alteration into the popular creed of England,

respecting Fairies. Many poets of the sixteenth century, and, above all,

our immortal Shakespeare, deserting the hackneyed fictions of Greece and

Rome, sought for machinery in the superstitions of their native country.

"The fays, which nightly dance upon the wold," were an interesting

subject; and the creative imagination of the bard, improving upon the

vulgar belief, assigned to them many of those fanciful attributes and

occupations, which posterity have since associated with the name

of Fairy. In such employments, as rearing the drooping flower, and

arranging the disordered chamber, the Fairies of South Britain gradually

lost the harsher character of the dwarfs, or elves. Their choral dances

were enlivened by the introduction of the merry goblin _Puck_,[A]

for whose freakish pranks they exchanged their original mischievous

propensities. The Fairies of Shakespeare, Drayton, and Mennis,

therefore, at first exquisite fancy portraits, may be considered as

having finally operated a change in the original which gave them

birth.[B]

[Footnote A: Robin Goodfellow, or Hobgoblin, possesses the frolicksome

qualities of the French _Lutin_. For his full character, the reader is

referred to the _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_. The proper livery of this

sylvan Momus is to be found in an old play. "Enter Robin Goodfellow, in

a suit of leather, close to his body, his hands and face coloured russet

colour, with a flail."--_Grim, the Collier of Croydon, Act 4, Scene 1._

At other times, however, he is presented in the vernal livery of the

elves, his associates:

_Tim._ "I have made

"Some speeches, sir, ill verse, which have been spoke

"By a _green Robin Goodfellow_, from Cheapside conduit,

"To my father's company."

_The City Match, Act I, Scene 6._]

[Footnote B: The Fairy land, and Fairies of Spenser, have no connection

with popular superstition, being only words used to denote an Utopian

scene of action, and imaginary or allegorical characters; and the title

of the "Fairy Queen" being probably suggested by the elfin mistress of

Chaucer's _Sir Thopas_. The stealing of the Red Cross Knight, while a

child, is the only incident in the poem which approaches to the popular

character of the Fairy:

--A Fairy thee unweeting reft;

There as thou sleptst in tender swadling band,

And her base elfin brood there for thee left:

Such men do changelings call, so chang'd by Fairies theft.

_Book I. Canto_ 10.]

While the fays of South Britain received such attractive and poetical

embellishments, those of Scotland, who possessed no such advantage,

retained more of their ancient, and appropriate character. Perhaps,

also, the persecution which these sylvan deities underwent, at the

instance of the stricter presbyterian clergy, had its usual effect, in

hardening their dispositions, or at least in rendering them more dreaded

by those among whom they dwelt. The face of the country, too, might

have some effect; as we should naturally attribute a less malicious

disposition, and a less frightful appearance, to the fays who glide by

moon-light through the oaks of Windsor, than to those who haunt the

solitary heaths and lofty mountains of the North. The fact at least is

certain; and it has not escaped a late ingenious traveller, that the

character of the Scottish Fairy is more harsh and terrific than that

which is ascribed to the elves of our sister kingdom.--See STODDART'S

_View of Scenery and Manners in Scotland._

The Fairies of Scotland are represented as a diminutive race of beings,

of a mixed, or rather dubious nature, capricious in their dispositions,

and mischievous in their resentment. They inhabit the interior of green

hills, chiefly those of a conical form, in Gaelic termed _Sighan_, on

which they lead their dances by moon-light; impressing upon the surface

the mark of circles, which sometimes appear yellow and blasted,

sometimes of a deep green hue; and within which it is dangerous to

sleep, or to be found after sun-set. The removal of those large portions

of turf, which thunderbolts sometimes scoop out of the ground with

singular regularity, is also ascribed to their agency. Cattle, which are

suddenly seized with the cramp, or some similar disorder, are said to be

_elf-shot_; and the approved cure is, to chafe the parts affected with

a blue bonnet, which, it may be readily believed, often restores the

circulation. The triangular flints, frequently found in Scotland, with

which the ancient inhabitants probably barbed their shafts, are supposed

to be the weapons of Fairy resentment, and are termed _elf-arrow heads_.

The rude brazen battle-axes of the ancients, commonly called _celts_,

are also ascribed to their manufacture. But, like the Gothic duergar,

their skill is not confined to the fabrication of arms; for they are

heard sedulously hammering in linns, precipices, and rocky or cavernous

situations where, like the dwarfs of the mines, mentioned by Georg.

Agricola, they busy themselves in imitating the actions and the various

employments of men. The brook of Beaumont, for example, which passes,

in its course, by numerous linns and caverns, is notorious for being

haunted by the Fairies; and the perforated and rounded stones, which are

formed by trituration in its channel, are termed, by the vulgar, fairy

cups and dishes. A beautiful reason is assigned, by Fletcher, for the

fays frequenting streams and fountains. He tells us of

A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks

The nimble-footed Fairies dance their rounds,

By the pale moon-shine, dipping oftentimes

Their stolen children, so to make them free

From dying flesh, and dull mortality.

_Faithful Shepherdess._

It is sometimes accounted unlucky to pass such places, without

performing some ceremony to avert the displeasure of the elves. There

is, upon the top of Minchmuir, a mountain in Peebles-shire, a spring,

called the _Cheese Well_, because, anciently, those who passed that way

were wont to throw into it a piece of cheese, as an offering to the

Fairies, to whom it was consecrated.

Like the _feld elfen_ of the Saxons, the usual dress of the Fairies

is green; though, on the moors, they have been sometimes observed in

heath-brown, or in weeds dyed with the stoneraw, or lichen.[A] They

often ride in invisible procession, when their presence is discovered by

the shrill ringing of their bridles. On these occasions, they sometimes

borrow mortal steeds; and when such are found at morning, panting and

fatigued in their stalls, with their manes and tails dishevelled and

entangled, the grooms, I presume, often find this a convenient excuse

for their situation; as the common belief of the elves quaffing the

choicest liquors in the cellars of the rich (see the story of Lord

Duffus below), might occasionally cloak the delinquencies of an

unfaithful butler.

[Footnote A: Hence the hero of the ballad is termed an "elfin grey."]

The Fairies, beside their equestrian processions, are addicted it would

seem, to the pleasures of the chace. A young sailor, travelling by night

from Douglas, in the Isle of Man, to visit his sister, residing in Kirk

Merlugh, heard the noise of horses, the holla of a huntsman, and the

sound of a horn. Immediately afterwards, thirteen horsemen, dressed in

green, and gallantly mounted, swept past him. Jack was so much delighted

with the sport, that he followed them, and enjoyed the sound of the horn

for some miles; and it was not till he arrived at his sister's house

that he learned the danger which he had incurred. I must not omit to

mention, that these little personages are expert jockeys, and scorn to

ride the little Manks ponies, though apparently well suited to their

size. The exercise therefore, falls heavily upon the English and Irish

horses brought into the Isle of Man. Mr Waldron was assured by a

gentleman of Ballafletcher, that he had lost three or four capital

hunters by these nocturnal excursions.--WALDRON'S _Works_, p. 132.

From the same author we learn, that the Fairies sometimes take more

legitimate modes of procuring horses. A person of the utmost integrity

informed him, that, having occasion to sell a horse, he was accosted

among the mountains by a little gentleman plainly dressed, who priced

his horse, cheapened him, and, after some chaffering, finally purchased

him. No sooner had the buyer mounted, and paid the price, than, he sunk

through the earth, horse and man, to the astonishment and terror of the

seller; who experienced, however, no inconvenience from dealing with so

extraordinary a purchaser.--_Ibid._ p. 135.

It is hoped the reader will receive, with due respect, these, and

similar stories, told by Mr Waldron; for he himself, a scholar and a

gentleman, informs us, "as to circles in grass, and the impression

of small feet among the snow, I cannot deny but I have seen them

frequently, and once thought I heard a whistle, as though in my ear,

when nobody that could make it was near me." In this passage there is a

curious picture of the contagious effects of a superstitious atmosphere.

Waldron had lived so long among the Manks, that he was almost persuaded

to believe their legends.

From the _History of the Irish Bards_, by Mr Walker, and from the

glossary subjoined to the lively and ingenious _Tale of Castle

Rackrent_, we learn, that the same ideas, concerning Fairies, are

current among the vulgar in that country. The latter authority mentions

their inhabiting the ancient tumuli, called _Barrows_, and their

abstracting mortals. They are termed "the good people;" and when an eddy

of wind raises loose dust and sand, the vulgar believe that it announces

a Fairy procession, and bid God speed their journey.

The Scottish Fairies, in like manner, sometimes reside in subterranean

abodes, in the vicinity of human habitations or, according to the

popular phrase, under the "door-stane," or threshold; in which

situation, they sometimes establish an intercourse with men, by

borrowing and lending, and other kindly offices. In this capacity they

are termed "the good neighbours,"[A] from supplying privately the wants

of their friends, and assisting them in all their transactions, while

their favours are concealed. Of this the traditionary story of Sir

Godfrey Macculloch forms a curious example.

[Footnote A: Perhaps this epithet is only one example, among many, of

the extreme civility which the vulgar in Scotland use towards spirits of

a, dubious, or even a determinedly mischievous, nature. The archfiend

himself is often distinguished by the softened title of the "good-man."

This epithet, so applied, must sound strange to a southern ear; but, as

the phrase bears various interpretations, according to the places where

it is used, so, in the Scottish dialect, the _good-man of such a place_

signifies the tenant, or life-renter, in opposition to the laird, or

proprietor. Hence, the devil is termed the good-man, or tenant, of the

infernal regions. In the book of the Universal Kirk, 13th May, 1594,

mention is made of "the horrible superstitioune usit in Garioch, and

dyvers parts of the countrie, in not labouring a parcel of ground

dedicated to the devil, under the title of the _Guid-man's Croft_." Lord

Hailes conjectured this to have been the _tenenos_ adjoining to some

ancient Pagan temple. The unavowed, but obvious, purpose of this

practice, was to avert the destructive rage of Satan from the

neighbouring possessions. It required various fulminations of the

General Assembly of the Kirk to abolish a practice bordering so nearly

upon the doctrine of the Magi.]

As this Gallovidian gentleman was taking the air on horseback, near his

own house, he was suddenly accosted by a little old man, arrayed in

green, and mounted upon a white palfrey. After mutual salutation, the

old man gave Sir Godfrey to understand, that he resided under his

habitation, and that he had great reason to complain of the direction of

a drain, or common sewer, which emptied itself directly into his chamber

of dais, [A] Sir Godfrey Macculloch was a good deal startled at this

extraordinary complaint; but, guessing the nature of the being he had

to deal with, he assured the old man, with great courtesy, that the

direction of the drain should be altered; and caused it be done

accordingly. Many years afterwards, Sir Godfrey had the misfortune to

kill, in a fray, a gentleman of the neighbourhood. He was apprehended,

tried, and condemned.[B] The scaffold, upon which his head was to be

struck off, was erected on the Castle-hill of Edinburgh; but hardly had

he reached the fatal spot, when the old man, upon his white palfrey,

pressed through the crowd, with the rapidity of lightning. Sir Godfrey,

at his command, sprung on behind him; the "good neighbour" spurred his

horse down the steep bank, and neither he nor the criminal were ever

again seen.

[Footnote A: The best chamber was thus currently denominated in

Scotland, from the French _dais_, signifying that part of the ancient

halls which was elevated above the rest, and covered with a canopy.

The turf-seats, which occupy the sunny side of a cottage wall, is also

termed the _dais_.]

[Footnote B: In this particular, tradition coincides with the real fact;

the trial took place in 1697.]

The most formidable attribute of the elves, was their practice of

carrying away, and exchanging, children; and that of stealing human

souls from their bodies. "A persuasion prevails among the ignorant,"

says the author of a MS. history of Moray, "that, in a consumptive

disease, the Fairies steal away the soul, and put the soul of a Fairy in

the room of it." This belief prevails chiefly along the eastern coast of

Scotland, where a practice, apparently of druidical origin, is used to

avert the danger. In the increase of the March moon, withies of oak and

ivy are cut, and twisted into wreaths or circles, which they preserve

till next March. After that period, when persons are consumptive, or

children hectic, they cause them to pass thrice through these circles.

In other cases the cure was more rough, and at least as dangerous as the

disease, as will appear from the following extract:

"There is one thing remarkable in this parish of Suddie (in

Inverness-shire), which I think proper to mention. There is a small hill

N.W. from the church, commonly called Therdy Hill, or Hill of Therdie,

as some term it; on the top of which there is a well, which I had the

curiosity to view, because of the several reports concerning it. When

children happen to be sick, and languish long in their malady, so that

they almost turned skeletons, the common people imagine they are taken

away (at least the substance) by spirits, called Fairies, and the shadow

left with them; so, at a particular season in summer, they leave them

all night themselves, watching at a distance, near this well, and this

they imagine will either _end or mend them_; they say many more do

recover than do not. Yea, an honest tenant who lives hard by it, and

whom I had the curiosity to discourse about it, told me it has recovered

some, who were about eight or nine years of age, and to his certain

knowledge they bring adult persons to it; for, as he was passing one

dark night, he heard groanings, and coming to the well, he found a man,

who had been long sick, wrapped in a plaid, so that he could scarcely

move, a stake being fixed in the earth, with a rope, or tedder, that was

about the plaid; he had no sooner enquired what he was, but he conjured

him to loose him, and out of sympathy he was pleased to slacken that,

wherein he was, as I may so speak, swaddled; but, if I right remember,

he signified, he did not recover."--_Account of the Parish of Suddie,_

apud _Macfarlane's MSS._

According to the earlier doctrine, concerning the original corruption of

human nature, the power of daemons over infants had been long reckoned

considerable, in the period intervening between birth and baptism.

During this period, therefore, children were believed to be particularly

liable to abstraction by the Fairies, and mothers chiefly dreaded the

substitution of changelings in the place of their own offspring. Various

monstrous charms existed in Scotland, for procuring the restoration of a

child, which had been thus stolen; but the most efficacious of them was

supposed to be, the roasting of the suppositious child upon the live

embers, when it was believed it would vanish, and the true child appear

in the place, whence it had been originally abstracted.[A]

[Footnote A: Less perilous recipes were sometimes used. The editor is

possessed of a small relique, termed by tradition a toad-stone, the

influence of which was supposed to preserve pregnant women from the

power of daemons, and other dangers incidental to their situation. It

has been carefully preserved for several generations, was often pledged

for considerable sums of money, and uniformly redeemed, from a belief in

its efficacy.]

The most minute and authenticated account of an exchanged child is to be

found in Waldron's _Isle of Man_, a book from which I have derived much

legendary information. "I was prevailed upon myself," says that author,

"to go and see a child, who, they told me, was one of these changelings,

and, indeed, must own, was not a little surprised, as well as shocked,

at the sight. Nothing under heaven could have a more beautiful face;

but, though between five and six years old, and seemingly healthy, he

was so far from being able to walk or stand, that he could not so much

as move any one joint; his limbs were vastly long for his age, but

smaller than any infant's of six months; his complexion was perfectly

delicate, and he had the finest hair in the world. He never spoke nor

cried, ate scarce any thing, and was very seldom seen to smile; but if

any one called him a _fairy-elf_, he would frown, and fix his eyes so

earnestly on those who said it, as if he would look them through. His

mother, or at least his supposed mother, being very poor, frequently

went out a chareing, and left him a whole day together. The neighbours,

out of curiosity, have often looked in at the window, to see how he

behaved while alone; which, whenever they did, they were sure to find

him laughing, and in the utmost delight. This made them judge that he

was not without company, more pleasing to him than any mortals could be;

and what made this conjecture seem the more reasonable, was, that if he

were left ever so dirty, the woman, at her return, saw him with a clean

face, and his hair combed with the utmost exactness and nicety." P. 128.

Waldron gives another account of a poor woman, to whose offspring, it

would seem, the Fairies had taken a special fancy. A few nights after

she was delivered of her first child, the family were alarmed by a

dreadful cry of "Fire!" All flew to the door, while the mother lay

trembling in bed, unable to protect her infant, which was snatched from

the bed by an invisible hand. Fortunately the return of the gossips,

after the causeless alarm, disturbed the Fairies, who dropped the child,

which was found sprawling and shrieking upon the threshold. At the good

woman's second _accouchement_, a tumult was heard in the cow-house,

which drew thither the whole assistants. They returned, when they found

that all was quiet among the cattle, and lo! the second child had been

carried from the bed, and dropped in the middle of the lane. But, upon

the third occurrence of the same kind, the company were again decoyed

out of the sick woman's chamber by a false alarm, leaving only a nurse,

who was detained by the bonds of sleep. On this last occasion, the

mother plainly saw her child removed, though the means were invisible.

She screamed for assistance to the nurse; but the old lady had partaken

too deeply of the cordials which circulate on such joyful occasions, to

be easily awakened. In short, the child was this time fairly carried

off, and a withered, deformed creature, left in its stead, quite naked,

with the clothes of the abstracted infant, rolled in a bundle, by its

side. This creature lived nine years, ate nothing but a few herbs,

and neither spoke, stood, walked nor performed any other functions

of mortality; resembling, in all respects, the changeling already

mentioned.--WALDRON'S _Works, ibid._

But the power of the Fairies was not confined to unchristened children

alone; it was supposed frequently to extend to full grown persons,

especially such as, in an unlucky hour, were devoted to the devil by the

execration of parents, and of masters;[A] or those who were found asleep

under a rock, or on a green hill, belonging to the Fairies, after

sun-set; or, finally, to those who unwarily joined their orgies. A

tradition existed, during the seventeenth century, concerning an

ancestor of the noble family of Duffus, who, "walking abroad in the

fields, near to his own house, was suddenly carried away, and found the

next day at Paris, in the French king's cellar, with a silver cup in his

hand. Being brought into the king's presence, and questioned by him who

he was, and how he came thither, he told his name, his country, and the

place of his residence; and that, on such a day of the month, which

proved to be the day immediately preceding, being in the fields, he

heard the noise of a whirlwind, and of voices, crying, _'Horse and

Hattock!'_ (this is the word which the Fairies are said to use when they

remove from any place), whereupon he cried, _'Horse and Hattock'_ also,

and was immediately caught up, and transported through the air, by the

Fairies, to that place, where, after he had drunk heartily, he fell

asleep, and, before he woke, the rest of the company were gone, and had

left him in the posture wherein he was found. It is said the king gave

him the cup, which was found in his hand, and dismissed him." The

narrator affirms, "that the cup was still preserved, and known by the

name of the _Fairy cup_." He adds, that Mr Steward, tutor to the then

Lord Duffus, had informed him, "that, when a boy, at the school of

Forres, he, and his school-fellows, were upon a time whipping their tops

in the church-yard, before the door of the church, when, though the day

was calm, they heard a noise of a wind, and at some distance saw

the small dust begin to rise and turn round, which motion continued

advancing till it came to the place where they were, whereupon they

began to bless themselves; but one of their number being, it seems, a

little more bold and confident than his companions, said, _'Horse and

Hattock, with my top,'_ and immediately they all saw the top lifted up

from the ground, but could not see which way it was carried, by reason

of a cloud of dust which was raised at the same time. They sought for

the top all about the place where it was taken up, but in vain; and

it was found afterwards in the church-yard, on the other side of the

church."--This puerile legend is contained in a letter from a learned

gentleman in Scotland, to Mr Aubrey, dated 15th March, 1695, published

in AUBREY'S _Miscellanies,_ p. 158.

[Footnote A: This idea is not peculiar to the Gothic tribes, but extends

to those of Sclavic origin. Tooke (_History of Russia,_ Vol. I. p.

100) relates, that the Russian peasants believe the nocturnal daemon,

_Kikimora_, to have been a child, whom the devil stole out of the womb

of its mother, because she had cursed it. They also assert, that if

an execration against a child be spoken in an evil hour, the child is

carried off by the devil. The beings, so stolen, are neither fiends nor

men; they are invisible, and afraid of the cross and holy water; but, on

the other hand, in their nature and dispositions they resemble mankind,

whom they love, and rarely injure.]

Notwithstanding the special example of Lord Duffus, and of the top, it

is the common opinion, that persons, falling under the power of the

Fairies, were only allowed to revisit the haunts of men, after

seven years had expired. At the end of seven years more, they again

disappeared, after which they were seldom seen among mortals. The

accounts they gave of their situation, differ in some particulars.

Sometimes they were represented as leading a life of constant

restlessness, and wandering by moon-light. According to others, they

inhabited a pleasant region, where, however, their situation was

rendered horrible, by the sacrifice of one or more individuals to the

devil, every seventh year. This circumstance is mentioned in Alison

Pearson's indictment, and in the _Tale of the Young Tamlane,_ where

it is termed, "the paying the kane to hell," or, according to some

recitations, "the teind," or tenth. This is the popular reason assigned

for the desire of the Fairies to abstract young children, as substitutes

for themselves in this dreadful tribute. Concerning the mode of winning,

or recovering, persons abstracted by the Fairies, tradition differs; but

the popular opinion, contrary to what may be inferred from the following

tale, supposes, that the recovery must be effected within a year and a

day, to be held legal in the Fairy court. This feat, which was reckoned

an enterprize of equal difficulty and danger, could only be accomplished

on Hallowe'en, at the great annual procession of the Fairy court.[A]

Of this procession the following description is found in Montgomery's

_Flyting against Polwart,_ apud _Watson's Collection of Scots Poems,_

1709, Part III. p. 12.

In the hinder end of harvest, on All-hallowe'en,

When our _good neighbours_ dois ride, if I read right.

Some buckled on a bunewand, and some on a been,

Ay trottand in tronps from the twilight;

Some saidled a she-ape, all grathed into green,

Some hobland on a hemp-stalk, hovand to the hight;

The king of Pharie and his court, with the Elf queen,

With many elfish incubus was ridand that night.

There an elf on an ape, an unsel begat.

Into a pot by Pomathorne;

That bratchart in a busse was born;

They fand a monster on the morn,

War faced nor a cat.

[Footnote A: See the inimitable poem of Hallowe'en:--

"Upon that night, when Fairies light

On Cassilis Downan dance;

Or o'er the leas, in splendid blaze,

On stately coursers prance," &c. _Burns._]

The catastrophe of _Tamlane_ terminated more successfully than that of

other attempts, which tradition still records. The wife of a farmer in

Lothian had been carried off by the Fairies, and, during the year of

probation, repeatedly appeared on Sunday, in the midst of her children,

combing their hair. On one of these occasions she was accosted by

her husband; when she related to him the unfortunate event which had

separated them, instructed him by what means he might win her, and

exhorted him to exert all his courage, since her temporal and eternal

happiness depended on the success of his attempt. The farmer, who

ardently loved his wife, set out on Hallow-e'en and, in the midst of a

plot of furze, waited impatiently for the procession of the Fairies. At

the ringing of the Fairy bridles, and the wild unearthly sound which

accompanied the cavalcade, his heart failed him, and he suffered the

ghostly train to pass by without interruption. When the last had rode

past, the whole troop vanished, with loud shouts of laughter and

exultation; among which he plainly discovered the voice of his wife,

lamenting that he had lost her for ever.

A similar, but real incident, took place at the town of North Berwick,

within the memory of man. The wife of a man, above the lowest class of

society, being left alone in the house, a few days after delivery, was

attacked and carried off by one of those convulsion fits, incident to

her situation. Upon the return of the family, who had been engaged in

hay-making, or harvest, they found the corpse much disfigured. This

circumstance, the natural consequence of her disease, led some of the

spectators to think that she had been carried off by the Fairies,

and that the body before them was some elfin deception. The husband,

probably, paid little attention to this opinion at the time. The body

was interred, and, after a decent time had elapsed, finding his domestic

affairs absolutely required female superintendence, the widower paid

his addresses to a young woman in the neighbourhood. The recollection,

however, of his former wife, whom he had tenderly loved, haunted his

slumbers; and, one morning, he came to the clergyman of the parish in

the utmost dismay, declaring, that she had appeared to him the preceding

night, informed him that she was a captive in Fairy Land, and conjured

him to attempt her deliverance. She directed him to bring the minister,

and certain other persons, whom she named, to her grave at midnight. Her

body was then to be dug up, and certain prayers recited; after which the

corpse was to become animated, and fly from them. One of the assistants,

the swiftest runner in the parish, was to pursue the body; and, if he

was able to seize it, before it had thrice encircled the church, the

rest were to come to his assistance, and detain it, in spite of the

struggles it should use, and the various shapes into which it might be

transformed. The redemption of the abstracted person was then to become

complete. The minister, a sensible man, argued with his parishioner upon

the indecency and absurdity of what was proposed, and dismissed him.

Next Sunday, the banns being for the first time proclaimed betwixt the

widower and his new bride, his former wife, very naturally, took the

opportunity of the following night to make him another visit, yet more

terrific than the former. She upbraided him with his incredulity, his

fickleness, and his want of affection; and, to convince him that her

appearance was no aërial illusion, she gave suck, in his presence, to

her youngest child. The man, under the greatest horror of mind, had

again recourse to the pastor; and his ghostly counsellor fell upon

an admirable expedient to console him. This was nothing less than

dispensing with the further solemnity of banns, and marrying him,

without an hour's delay, to the young woman to whom he was affianced;

after which no spectre again disturbed his repose.

* * * * *

Having concluded these general observations upon the Fairy superstition,

which, although minute, may not, I hope, be deemed altogether

uninteresting, I proceed to the more particular illustrations, relating

to the _Tale of the Young Tamlane._

The following ballad, still popular in Ettrick Forest, where the scene

is laid, is certainly of much greater antiquity than its phraseology,

gradually modernized as transmitted by tradition, would seem to denote.

The _Tale of the Young Tamlane_ is mentioned in the _Complaynt of

Scotland;_ and the air, to which it was chaunted, seems to have been

accommodated to a particular dance; for the dance of _Thorn of

Lynn_, another variation of _Thomalin_, likewise occurs in the same

performance. Like every popular subject, it seems to have been

frequently parodied; and a burlesque ballad, beginning

"Tom o' the Linn was a Scotsman born,"

is still well known.

In a medley, contained in a curious and ancient MS. cantus, _penes_ J.G.

Dalyell, Esq., there is an allusion to our ballad:--

"Sing young Thomlin, be merry, be merry, and twice so merry."

In _Scottish Songs_, 1774, a part of the original tale was published,

under the title of _Kerton Ha';_ a corruption of Carterhaugh; and,

in the same collection, there is a fragment, containing two or three

additional verses, beginning,

"I'll wager, I'll wager, I'll wager with you," &c.

In Johnson's _Musical Museum_, a more complete copy occurs, under the

title of _Thom Linn_, which, with some alterations was reprinted in the

_Tales of Wonder_.

The present edition is the most perfect which has yet appeared; being

prepared from a collation of the printed copies, with a very accurate

one in Glenriddell's MSS., and with several recitals from tradition.

Some verses are omitted in this edition, being ascertained to belong to

a separate ballad, which will be found in a subsequent part of the work.

In one recital only, the well known fragment of the _Wee, wee Man_,

was introduced, in the same measure with the rest of the poem. It was

retained in the first edition, but is now omitted; as the editor has

been favoured, by the learned Mr Ritson, with a copy of the original

poem, of which it is a detached fragment. The editor has been enabled to

add several verses of beauty and interest to this edition of _Tamlane_,

in consequence of a copy, obtained from a gentleman residing near

Langholm, which is said to be very ancient, though the diction is

somewhat of a modern cast. The manners of the Fairies are detailed at

considerable length, and in poetry of no common merit.

Carterhaugh is a plain, at the conflux of the Ettrick and Yarrow, in

Selkirkshire, about a mile above Selkirk, and two miles below Newark

Castle; a romantic ruin, which overhangs the Yarrow, and which is said

to have been the habitation of our heroine's father, though others place

his residence in the tower of Oakwood. The peasants point out, upon the

plain, those electrical rings, which vulgar credulity supposes to be

traces of the Fairy revels. Here, they say, were placed the stands of

milk, and of water, in which _Tamlane_ was dipped, in order to effect

the disenchantment; and upon these spots, according to their mode of

expressing themselves, the grass will never grow. Miles Cross (perhaps a

corruption of Mary's Cross), where fair Janet waited the arrival of the

Fairy train, is said to have stood near the duke of Buccleuch's seat of

Bowhill, about half a mile from Carterhaugh. In no part of Scotland,

indeed, has the belief in Fairies maintained its ground with more

pertinacity than in Selkirkshire. The most sceptical among the lower

ranks only venture to assert, that their appearances, and mischievous

exploits, have ceased, or at least become infrequent, since the light of

the Gospel was diffused in its purity. One of their frolics is said to

have happened late in the last century. The victim of elfin sport was a

poor man, who, being employed in pulling heather upon Peatlaw, a hill

not far from Carterhaugh, had tired of his labour, and laid him down

to sleep upon a Fairy ring.--When he awakened, he was amazed to find

himself in the midst of a populous city, to which, as well as to the

means of his transportation, he was an utter stranger. His coat was left

upon the Peatlaw; and his bonnet, which had fallen off in the course of

his aërial journey, was afterwards found hanging upon the steeple of

the church of Lanark. The distress of the poor man was, in some degree,

relieved, by meeting a carrier, whom he had formerly known, and who

conducted him back to Selkirk, by a slower conveyance than had whirled

him to Glasgow.--That he had been carried off by the Fairies, was

implicitly believed by all, who did not reflect, that a man may have

private reasons for leaving his own country, and for disguising his

having intentionally done so.