approved themselves most useful, discharging all sorts of domestic drudgery. The L'Allegro of Milton has a fine description of one of these serviceable sprites— The same subject is adverted to in Collins' Ode on the popular superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland (1788)— "Still 'tis said, the Fairy people meet Beneath each birken shade on Mead or Hill. Every family of any considerable substance in the Shetland Isles, according to Martin, was haunted by a spirit to which was given the appellation of Browny, which executed work of all kinds, and was rewarded with offerings of the various products of the place; milk and wort being poured into a cavity called Browny's Stone when they churned or brewed. The sprite, it should be added, assumed the form of a tall man, and was a familiar spectacle. There were also spirits that appeared in the shape of women, horses, swine, and cats, and even of fiery balls, which would follow men in the fields; and these would emit sounds in the air after the style of harps, pipes, crowing cocks, and grinding querns. Voices too were heard in the air by night, singing Irish songs, the words of which were taken down and retained by some of the historian's acquaintance. One of these voices resembled that of a woman recently deceased, and the song was on the subject of her condition in the other world. Martin is careful to state that he personally derived these accounts from "persons of as great integrity as any one in the world." Speaking of the three chapels in the Island of Valay, he says that below them is a "flat thin stone called Brownie's Stone, upon which the ancient inhabitants offered a cow's milk every Sunday." "The spirit called Brownie," writes King James in his Dæmonology, "appeared like a rough man, and haunted divers houses without doing any evill, but doing as it were necessarie turnes up and downe the house; yet some were so blinded as to believe that their house was all the sonsier as they called it, that such spirits resorted there." Dr Johnson, in his Journey to the Western Islands, observes that the repute of Martin's Browny had failed for many years. He paints him as a sturdy fairy who, being fed and kindly treated, would do a great deal of work. "They now pay him no wages," writes the doctor; "and they are content to labour for themselves." Heron (1799) represents him as a very obliging spirit who used to come into houses at night, and for a dish of cream "perform lustily any piece of work that might remain to be done;" sometimes committing the imprudence of eating "till he busted;" while another singular feature in his character was that, if old clothes were laid out for him, "he took them in great distress and never more returned." Brand's Description of Orkney (1701) mentions evil spirits, also called fairies, being seen in several of the isles, dancing and making merry, and sometimes habited in armour; but to the "wild sentiments" of the natives respecting them he only makes passing allusion. The popular fancy also attributed to fairies the mischievous practice of shooting at cattle with arrows headed with flint-stones; which were frequently found, and called after their reputed authors. In this respect, indeed, the naturalists of olden time were under considerable obligations to them, seeing that all of wonderful they could not account for was charged to the account of the spirits. Thus what we now recognise as the heads of arrows or spears, made at a time when the use of iron was unknown, or as rude implements befitting the early history of man, were named "elf-shots;" and similarly to the ignis fatuus was assigned the title of "elf-fire." Plott's reference to this topic, in his Staffordshire, has it that these are discovered in Scotland in much greater plenty, "especially in the præfectuary of Aberdeen," where they are called "elf-arrows," Lamiarum sagittas, the theory being that they drop from the clouds, and are to be discovered not systematically by diligent search, but only now and again, by chance, on the beaten highways. The Statistical Account of Scotland confirms this representation. In the parish of Wick, county of Caithness, were found flint-stones, an inch long and half an inch wide, of a triangular shape, and barbed on each side, which the common people confidently asserted to be "fairies' arrows," the discharge of which at cattle insured their immediate dropping down dead, though the hide gave no indication of being pierced. "Some of these arrows have been found buried a foot under ground, and are supposed to have been in ancient times fixed in shafts or shot from bows." This superstition, however, was rapidly on the decline, for (1792) we find the record: "The elf has withdrawn his arrows." Collins' Ode adverts to it "There ev'ry herd by sad experience knows How, wing'd with Fate, their elf-shot arrows fly, Or stretch'd on earth the heart-smit heifers lie." And Allan Ramsay (1721) explaining the word "elf-shot" to mean "bewitched, shot by fairies," adds that, when so struck down, the skin of the cow was whole; "but often a little triangular flat stone is found near the beast, as they report, which is called the elf's-arrow." The author of Survey of the South of Ireland, premising that fairy mythology was swallowed with the wide throat of credulity, every parish having its green and thorn "where these little people are believed to hold their merry meetings and dance their frolic rounds," explains that when the cows were seized with a certain disorder, to which they were there very subject, they were said to be elf-shot. Vallancey tells us that what the peasants called "elf-arrows" were frequently set in silver, and worn about the neck as amulets against being elf-shot; and the expression "elfish-marked" occurs in Shakespeare; on which the comment of Steevens, based on Kelly's Proverbs, is that the common people in Scotland entertain an aversion to those who have any natural defect or redundancy; as thinking them marked out for mischief. Ady's Candle in the Dark narrates: "There be also often found in Women with Childe, and in women that do nurse children with their breasts," and on other occasions, "certain spots black and blue, as if they were pinched or beaten, which some common ignorant people call Fairy-Nips, which notwithstanding do come from the causes aforesaid : and yet for these have many ignorant searchers given evidence against poor innocent people;" that is to say, have accused them of being witches. The cure of animals assailed by the disorder was effected by touching them with one of these elf-arrows, or by making them drink of water wherein one had been immersed. Certain luminous appearances, often seen on clothes during the night, are called in Kent Fairy Sparks, or Shell-Fire; and a substance found at great depths in crevices of limestone rocks in sinking for lead ore, near Holywell in Flintshire, is called Menyn Tylna Teg, or Fairies Butter, which is the name given in Northumberland to a fungous excrescence, sometimes found about the roots of old trees. After heavy rains and in a certain degree of putrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency which, together with its colour, makes it not unlike butter; and hence the name.* So Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet "This is that very Mab That plats the manes of Horses in the night, Warburton thought this superstition had its origin in the Plica Polonica. Again, Edgar, in King Lear, says, "Elf all my hair in knots." A disease, consisting of a hardness of the side, was called in the dark ages of superstition the Elf-Cake; and in the seventh book of Lupton's Thousand Notable Things there is a prescription for it"Take the Root of Gladen, and make powder thereof, and give the diseased party half a spoonful thereof to drink in white Wine, and let him eat thereof so much in his pottage at one time, and it will help him within a while." A cure for the same disorder is alluded to in the Harleian MSS., 2378, f. 47 and 57. This is of the time of Henry VI., and is identical with the preceding. St Hascka is said by her prayers to have made stinking butter sweet. See the Bollandists under January 26, as cited by Patrick in his Devot. of the Romish Church, p. 37. Camden, in his Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish (1789), says "When any one happens to fall, he springs up again and, turning round three times to the right, digs the Earth with a Sword or Knife, and takes up a Turf, because they say the Earth reflects his shadow to him (quod illi terram umbram reddere dicunt: they imagine there is a Spirit in the Earth) and if he falls sick within two or three days after, a Woman skilled in those matters is sent to the spot, and there says, 'I call thee P. from the East, West, South, and North, from the Groves, Woods, Rivers, Marshes, Fairies white, red, black,' &c., and, after uttering certain short prayers, she returns home to the sick person, to see whether it be the distemper which they call Esane, which they suppose inflicted by the fairies, and whispering in his ear another short prayer, with the Paternoster, puts some burning Coals into a Cup of clear Water, and forms a better judgment of the disorder than most physicians." Among the curiosities preserved in Mr Parkinson's Museum, formerly Sir Ashton Lever's, were "orbicular sparry bodies, commonly called Fairies Money, from the banks of the Tyne, Northumberland.” In Massinger's Fatall Dowry (1632) Ramont says "But not a word of it: 'tis Fairies Treasure; Which but reveal'd, brings on the Blabber's ruine." A brief Character of the Low Countries under the States (1652) has another allusion to this well-known trait of fairy mythology "She falls off like Fairy Wealth disclosed," &c. In the Statistical Account of Scotland (1799) we are told: "Fairies held from time immemorial certain fields, which could not be taken away without gratifying those merry sprites by a piece of money;" but now, "Fairies, without requiring compensation, have renounced their possessions." In the same work, in the account by the minister of Dumfries, are some observations on a remarkably romantic linn formed by the water of the Crichup, inaccessible in a great measure to real beings. "This linn was considered as the habitation of imaginary ones; and at the entrance into it there was a curious cell or cave, called the Elf's Kirk, where, according to the superstition of the times, the imaginary inhabitants of the linn were supposed to hold their meetings. This cave, proving a good freestone quarry, has lately (1794) been demolished for the purpose of building houses, and, from being the abode of elves, has been converted into habitations for men." Waldron writes of the existence in the Isle of Man of " The Fairies Saddle, a stone termed so, as I suppose, from the similitude it has of a saddle. It seems to lie loose on the edge of a small rock, and the wise Natives of Man tell you, it is every night made use of by the Fairies, but what kind of Horses they are, on whose backs this is put, I could never find any of them who pretended to resolve me." The Manx confidently assert, he adds, that the "first inhabitants of their island were Fairies, and that these little people have still their residence among them. They 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, fot they fly Vice. A person would be thought impudently profane, who should suffer his Family to go to bed without having first set a Tub, or Pail full of clean water, for these Guests to bathe themselves in, which the Natives aver they constantly do, as soon as the eyes of the Family are closed, wherever they vouchsafe to come. If anything happen to be mislaid, and found again, they presently tell you a Fairy took it and returned it. If you chance to get a fall, and hurt yourself, a Fairy laid something in your way to throw you down, as a punishment for some sin you have committed." The fairies are supposed to be fond of hunting, according to the same authority: "There is no persuading the Inhabitants but that these Huntings are frequent on the Island, and that these little gentry, being too proud to ride on Manx horses, which they might find in the field, make use of the English and Irish ones, which are brought over and kept by Gentlemen. They say that nothing is more common than to find these poor beasts in a morning all over sweat and foam, and tired almost to death, when their owners have believed they have never been out of the stable. A Gentleman of Balla-fletcher assured me he had three or four of his best Horses killed with these nocturnal journeys." In Heron's Journey thro' part of Scotland (1799) we read: "The Fairies are little beings of a doubtful character, sometimes benevolent, sometimes mischievous. On Hallowe'en, and on some other evenings, they and the Gyar-Carlins are sure to be abroad and to stap those they meet and are displeased with, full of butter and beare-awns. In Winter nights they are heard curling on every sheet of Ice. Having a septennial sacrifice of a human being to make to the Devil, they sometimes carry away Children, leaving little vixens of their own in the Cradle. The diseases of Cattle are very commonly attributed to their mischievous operation. Cows are often Elf-shot." There are some beautiful allusions to the fairy mythology in Bishop Corbet's Political Ballad entitled The Fairies Farewell. "Farewell Rewards and Fairies, Good House Wives now may say; Then Maides were wont to doe, The Fairies lost command, They did but change Priest's Babies, But some have chang'd your Land; And all your Children stolne from Are now growne Puritans, At Morning and at Evening both You merry were and glad : Or Cisse to milking rose : And nimbly went their Toes. Witness those Rings and Roundelayes Of theirs which yet remaine, Were footed in Queen Maries dayes, On many a grassy plaine. * A Tell-tale in their company |