_Isle of Man Folk Lore._--A young person from Castletown tells me as
follows:--
A woman walking over Barrule met two fairy armies going to battle, which
was to begin on the ringing of a bell; she pulled the bell, and in
consequence both armies attacked her, and kept her prisoner for three
years, when she escaped.
A little girl, walking over a bridge, was offered by three little men
(one after the other) a farthing, which she persevered in refusing;
knowing that, if accepted, she would have been carried off.
A labouring man, passing by a house which is said to be haunted by
soldiers, saw a soldier from Castletown sitting on a stile; and, on
going up to tell him that the bugle had sounded, the soldier vanished
into air, and the man saw a ball of fire before him all the way home.
A white lady walked through a room one evening when the doors were
bolted and barred, and could not be found anywhere; a murder was once
committed in a room of this house, and, although the boards have been
moved, blood will come again.
At Peel, a witch with a basin of water said that the herring fleet would
never return; every ship was lost, and she was put in a barrel with
spikes, and rolled down the hill, the grass never having grown since;
"and I saw the mark all down."
Women are turned into hares, and can only be shot with a silver
sixpence.
A white lady was seen every night after dark; and one night, when all
were in bed, a servant heard a knock at the door, put her head out of
window, and saw a little doll hop round the house and knock three times;
she was so frightened that she could not get her head in, till others
pulled her. The house was then suddenly illuminated, and, when quite
dark again, the bed-clothes pulled off.
The fairies are seen to hop from trees: a man took one home for a doll,
and became very ill; but on the advice of a woman, he returned it where
found, and then quite recovered.
Fairies change children; a woman had one for eighteen years, and could
not make it walk or speak. A woman, shearing corn, laid her child down;
a man saw a fairy come and change it: the fairy-child screamed, and the
woman, going to take it up, was prevented by the man. The fairy seeing
that no one touched it, returned the woman's child.
People are pulled off horses by black dogs. Three stone coffins were
lately dug up, and the place not since haunted.
Our woman servant told me that her father (who used to drink), and
others, chased a black dog, which kept howling and screaming round the
town, up as far as the gallows post; but did not dare to go beyond, and
came back as fast as they could.
A tradesman told me that lying on a sofa at an inn, a white lady
whispered and told him where some money was to be found; he fell off the
sofa, was ill for six months, and has been lame ever since. The owner of
the house would give him half if he tells; but he will not tell, or the
white lady would haunt him.
They say that fairies are the fallen angels.