No. CXLIX _The Dwarfs' Feet_.
"In old times the men dwelt in the valley, and round about them, in
caves and clefts of the rock, the Dwarfs, _in amity and good
neighbourhood_ with the people, for whom they performed by night many
a heavy labour. When the country folk, betimes in the morning, came
with wains and implements, and wondered that all was ready done, the
Dwarfs were hiding in the bushes, and laughed out loud. Frequently
the peasants were angry when they saw their yet hardly ripe corn
lying reaped upon the field; but when presently after hail and storm
came on, and they could well know that probably not a stalk should
have escaped perishing, they were then heartily thankful to the
provident Dwarfs. At last, however, the inhabitants, by their sin,
fooled away the grace and favour of the Dwarfs. These fled, and since
then has no eye ever again beheld them. The cause was this
following:--A herdsman had upon the mountain an excellent
cherry-tree. One summer, as the fruit grew ripe, it befell that the
tree was, for three following nights, picked, and the fruit carried,
and fairly spread out in the loft, in which the herdsman had use to
keep his cherries. The people said in the village, that doth no one
other than the honest dwarflings--they come tripping along by night,
in long mantles, with covered feet, softly as birds, and perform
diligently for men the work of the day. Already often have they been
privily watched, but one may not interrupt them, only let them, come
and go at their listing. By such speeches was the herdsman made
curious, and would fain have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so
carefully their feet, and whether these were otherwise shapen than
men's feet. When, therefore, the next year, summer again came, and
the season that the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and
bear them into the garner, the herdsman took a sackful of ashes,
which he strewed round about the tree. The next morning, with
daybreak, he hied to the spot; the tree was regularly gotten, and he
saw beneath in the ashes the print of many geese's feet. Thereat the
herdsman fell a-laughing, and made game, that the mystery of the
Dwarfs was bewrayed; but these presently after brake down and laid
waste their houses, and fled deeper away into their mountain. They
harbour ill-will toward men, and withhold from them their help. That
herdsman which had betrayed the Dwarfs turned sickly and half-witted,
and so continued until his dying day!"
There! Plucked amidst the lap of the Alps from its own hardily-nursed
wild-brier, by the same tenderly-diligent hand[27] that brought home
to us those other half-disclosed twin-buds of Helvetian tradition,
you behold a third, like pure, more expanded blossom. Twine the
three, young poet! into one soft-hued and "odorous chaplet," ready
and meet for binding the smooth clear forehead of a Swiss Maud!--or
fix it amidst the silken curls of thine own dove-eyed, innocent,
nature-loving--Ellen or Margaret.
[Footnote 27: Of Professor Wyes.]
These old-young things--bequests, as they look to be--from the
loving, singing childhood of the earth, may lawfully make children,
lovers, and songsters of us all; and _will_, if we are _fond_, and
hearken to them.
In that same "hallowed and gracious time," lying YON-SIDE our
chronologies,
"When the world and love were young,
And truth on every shepherd's tongue,"
the men and the Dwarfs had unbroken intercourse of _borrowing and
lending_. Many traditions touch the matter. Here is one resting upon
it.
No. CLIV. _The Dwarfs near Dardesheim_.
"Dardesheim is a little town betwixt Halberstadt and Brunswick. Close
to the north-east side, a spring of the clearest water flows, which
is called the Smansborn,[28] and wells from a hill wherein formerly
the Dwarfs dwelled. When the ancient inhabitants of the place needed
a holiday dress, or any rare utensil for a marriage, they betook them
to this Dwarf's Hill, knocked thrice, and with a well audible voice,
told their occasion, adding--
'Early a-morrow, ere sun-light,
At the hill's door, lieth all aright.'
[Footnote 28: For LESSMANSBORN, _i.e._ LESSMANN'S WELL.]
The Dwarfs held themselves for well requited if somewhat of the
festival meats were set for them by the hill. Afterward gradually did
bickerings interrupt the good understanding that was betwixt the
Dwarfs' nation and the country folk. At the beginning for a short
season; but, in the end, the Dwarfs departed away; because the flouts
and gibes of many boors grew intolerable to them, as likewise their
ingratitude for kindnesses done. Thenceforth none seeth or heareth
any Dwarfs more."
In _Auvergne_, Miss Costello has just now learned, how the men and
the Fairies anciently lived upon the friendliest footing, nigh one
another: how the _knowledge_ and _commodious use_ of the _Healing
Springs_ was owed by the former to these Good Neighbours: how, of
yore, the powerful sprites, by rending athwart a huge rocky mound,
opened an _innocuous channel_ for _the torrent_, which used with its
overflow to lay desolate arable ground and pasturage: how they were
looked upon as being, in a general sense, _the protectors_ against
harm of the country: and, in fine, how the two orders of neighbours
lived in long and happy communion of kind offices with one another;
until, upon one unfortunate day, the ill-renowned freebooter,
Aymerigot Marcel, with his ruffianly men-at-arms, having approached,
by stealth, from his near-lying hold, stormed the romantically seated
rock-mansion of the bountiful pigmies: who, scared, and in anger,
forsook the land. Ever since the foul outrage, only a straggler may,
now and then, be seen at a distance.
Thus, too, the late _Brillat-Savarin_, from a sprightly, acute,
brilliant Belles-letteriste, turned, for an hour, honest antiquary,
lets us know how, upon the southern bank of the Rhone, flowing out
from Switzerland, in the narrowly-bounded and, when he first quitted
it, yet hidden valley of his birth:--The FAIRIES--elderly, not
beautiful, but benevolent unmarried ladies--kept, while time was,
open school in THE GROTTO, which was their habitation, for the young
girls of the vicinity, whom they taught--SEWING.
3. We go on to exemplifying--ELFIN _Frequentation of, and Settlement
with,_ MAN.
The Fairies are drawn into the houses and to the haunts of men by
manifold occasions and impulses. They halt on a journey. They
celebrate marriages. They use the implements of handicraft. They
purchase at the Tavern--from the Shambles, or in open Market. They
_steal_ from oven and field. They go through a house, blessing the
rooms, the marriage-bed--and stand beside the unconscious cradle.
They give dreams. They take part in the evening mirth. They pray in
the churches. They seem to work in the mines. Drawn by magical
constraint into the garden, they invite themselves within doors. They
dance in the churchyard.[29] They make themselves the wives and the
paramours of men; or the serviceable hobgoblin fixes himself, like a
cat, in the house--once and for ever.
We present traditions for illustrating some of these points, as they
offer themselves to us.
[Footnote 29:
"Part fenced by man, part by the ragged steep
That curbs a foaming brook, a GRAVE-YARD lies;
The hare's best couching-place for fearless sleep!
Where MOONLIT FAYS, far seen by credulous eyes,
ENTER, IN DANCE!"