“Fairies black, grey, green, and white.”
That white, on some occasions, was the dress of a female, we learn from
Reginald Scot. He gives a charm “to go invisible by [means of] these
three sisters of fairies,” _Milia_, _Achilia_, _Sibylia_: “I charge you
that you doo appeare before me visible, in forme and shape of faire
women, in white vestures, and to bring with you to me the ring of
invisibilitie, by the which I may go invisible at mine owne will and
pleasure, and that in all hours and minutes.”
It was fatal, if we may believe Shakespeare, to speak to a fairy.
Falstaff, in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, is made to say, “They are
fairies. He that speaks to them shall die.”
They were accustomed to enrich their favourites, as we learn from the
clown in _A Winter’s Tale_—
“It was told me I should be rich by the fairies.”
They delighted in neatness, could not endure sluts, and even hated
fibsters, tell–tales, and divulgers of secrets, whom they would slily
and severely bepinch when they little expected it. They were as
generous and benevolent, on the contrary, to young women of a different
description, procuring them the sweetest sleep, the pleasantest dreams,
and, on their departure in the morning, always slipping a tester in
their shoe.
They are supposed by some to have been malignant, but this, it may be,
was mere calumny, as being utterly inconsistent with their general
character, which was singularly innocent and amiable.