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THE FAIRIES
In any account of the Gaelic superstition and popular belief, the first and most prominent place is to be assigned to the Fairy or Elfin people, or, as they are called both in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, the sith people, that is, `the people of peace', the `still folk', or `silently-moving' people. The antiquity of the belief is shown by its being found among all branches of the Celtic and Teutonic families, and in countries which have no, within historical times, had any communication with each other. If it be no entirely of Celtic origin, there can be no doubt that among the Celtic races it acquired an importance and influence accorded to it nowhere else. Of all the beings, with which fear or fancy peopled the supernatural, the Fairies were the most intimately associated with men's daily life. In the present day, when popular poetical ideas are extinguished in the universal call for "facts" or by "cold material laws", it is hard to understand how firm a hold a belief like this had upon men in a more primitive state of society, and how unwillingly it surrendered.
Throughout the greater part of the Highlands of Scotland the Fairies have become things of the past. A common belief is that they existed once, though they are not now seen. There are others to whom the elves have still a real existence, and who are careful to take precautions against them. The changes, which the Highlands are undergoing, have made the traces of the belief fainter in some districts than in others, and in some there remains but a confused jumbling of all superstitions. It would be difficult to find a person who knows the whole Fairy creed, but the tales of one district are never contradictory of those of another. They are rather to be taken as supplemental of each other, and it is by comparison and such supplementing that the following statement has been drawn out. It is thought that it will not be found at variance with any genuine Highland Fairy Tale.
The Fairies, according to the Scoto-Celtic belief, are a race of beings, the counterparts of mankind in person, occupations, and pleasures, but unsubstantial and unreal, ordinarily invisible, noiseless in their motions, and having their dwellings underground, in hills and green mounds of rock or earth. They are addicted to visiting the haunts of men, sometimes to give assistance, but more frequently to take away the benefit of their goods and labours, and sometimes even their persons. They may not be present in any company, though mortals do not see them. Their interference is never productive of good in the end, and may prove destructive. Men cannot therefore be sufficiently on their guard against them.
The names by which these dwellers underground are known are mostly derivative from the word sith (pronounced shee). As a substantive (in which sense it is ordinarily used) sith means `peace', and, as an adjective, is applied solely to objects of the supernatural world, particularly to the Fairies and whatever belongs to them. Sound is a natural adjunct of the motions of men, and its entire absence is unearthly, unnatural, not human. The name sith without doubt refers to `peace' or silence of Airy motion, as contrasted with the stir and noise accompanying the movements and actions of men. The German `still folk' is a name of corresponding import. The Fairies come and go with noiseless steps, and their thefts or abductions are done silently and unawares to men. The wayfarer resting beside a stream, on raising his eyes, sees the Fairy woman, unheard in her approach, standing on the opposite bank. Men know the Fairies have visited their houses only by the mysterious disappearance of the substance of their goods, or the sudden and unaccountable death of any of the inmates or of the cattle. Sometimes the elves are seen entering the house, gliding silently round the room, and going out again as noiselessly as they entered. When driven away they do not go off with tramp and noise, and sounds of walking such as men make, or melt into thin air, as spirits do, but fly away noiselessly like birds or hunted deer. They seem to glide and float along rather than to walk. Hence the name sithche and its synonyms are often applied contemptuously to a person who sneaks about or makes his approach without warning. Sometimes indeed the elves make a rustling noise like that of a gust of wind, or a silk gown, or a sword drawn sharply through the air, and their coming and going has been even indicated by frightful and unearthly shrieks, a pattering as of a flock of sheep, or the louder trampling of a troop of horses. Generally, however, their presence is indicated at most by the cloud of dust raised by the eddy wind, or by some other curious natural phenomenon, by the illumination of their music instruments, songs, or speech.
Fair the same reason sith is applied not merely to what is Fairy, but to whatever is Fairy-like, unearthly, not of this world. Of this laxer use of the term the following may be given as illustration:
Breac shith, `Elfin pox', hives, are spots that appear on the skin in certain diseases, such as hooping cough, and indicate a highly malignant stage of the malady. They are not ascribed to the Fairies, but are called sith because they appear and again disappear as it were `silently', without obvious cause, and more mysteriously than other symptoms. Cows, said to have been found on the shores of Loscantire in Harris, Scorrybrec in Skye, and on the Island of Bernera, were called cro sith, `fairy cows', simply because they were of no mortal breed, but of a kind believed to live under the sea on meillich, seaweed. Animals in the shape of cats, but in reality witches or demons, were called cait shith, `Elfin cats', and the Water Horse, which has no connection whatever with the elves, is sometimes called each sith, unearthly horse. The cuckoo is an eun sith, a `Fairy bird', because, as is said, its winter dwelling is underground.
A banner in the possession of the family of Macleod, of Macleod of Skye, is called `Macleod's Fairy Banner' (Bratach shith MhicLeoid), on account of the supernatural powers ascribed to it. When unfurled, victory in war (buaidh chogaidh) attends it, and it relieves its followers from imminent danger (note 2). Every pregnant woman who sees it is taken in premature labour (a misfortune which happened, it is said, to the English wife of a former chief in consequence of her irrepressible curiosity to see the banner), and every cow casts her calf (cha bhi bean no bo nach tilg a laogh). Others, however, say the name is owing to the magic banner having got from an Elfin sweetheart.
A light, seen among the Hebrides, a sort of St. Elmo's light or Will-of-the-wisp, is called teine sith, `Fairy light', though no one every blamed the Fairies as the cause of it. In a semi-satirical song, of much merit for its spirit and easy of diction, composed in Tiree to the owner of a crazy skiff that had gone to the Ross of Mull for peats and staid too long, the bard, in a spirited description of the owner's adventures, says:--
"Onward past Greenock, Like deer of the cold high hills, Breasting the rugged ground With the hunter in pursuit; She sailed with the Fairy motion, (note 3) Bounding smoothly in her pride, Cleaving the green waves, And passing to windward of the rest."
This latitude in the use of the word has led some writers on the subject to confound the Fairies themselves as having little connection with them as with mankind. A similar laxness occurs in the use of the English word Fairy. It is made to include kelpies, mermaids, and other supernatural beings, having no connection with the true Fairy, or Elfin race.
The following are the names by which the `Folk' are known in Gaelic. It is observable that every one of the names, when applied to mortals, is contemptuous and disparaging.
Sithche (pronounced sheeche) is the generic and commonest term. It is a noun of common gender, and its plural is sithchean (sheechun). In Graham's Highlands of Perthshire, a work more than once quoted by Sir Walter Scott, but unreliable as an authority, this word is written shi'ich.
Sireach, plur. sirich, also is a provincial term; sin siriche du, `the black elf', i.e. the veriest elf.
Sithbgheire (pronounced sheevere), a masculine noun, is mostly applied to changelings, or the elf substituted for children and animals taken by the Fairies. Applied to men it is very contemptuous.
Siochaire is still more so. Few expressions of scorn are more commonly applied to men than sichaire grannda, "ugly slink".
Duine sith (plur. daoine sith), a `man of peace, a noiselessly moving person, a fairy, an elf'; fem. Bean sith (gen. mna sith, plur. mnathan sith, gen. plur. with the article nam ban shith), `a woman of peace, an Elle woman', are names that include the whole Fairy race. Bean shith has become naturalized in English under the form Banshi. The term was introduced from Ireland, but there appears no reason to suppose the Irish belief different from that of the Scottish Highlands. Any seeming difference has arisen since the introduction of the Banshi to the literary world, and from the too free exercise of imagination by book-writers on an imperfectly understood tradition.
The leannan sith, a `fairy sweetheart, familiar spirit', might be of either sex. The use of this word by the translators of the Bible into Gaelic is made a great handle of by the common people to prove from Scripture that Fairies actually exist. The Hebrew word so translated is rendered `pythons' by the Vulgate, and `consulters of the spirits of the dead' by modern scholars. Those said to have familiar spirits were probably a class of magicians, who pretended to be media of communication of communication with the spirit world, their `familiar' making himself known by sounds muttered from the ground through the instrumentality, as the Hebrew name denotes, of a skin bottle.
Brughadair, `a person from a brugh, or fairy dwelling', applied to men, means one who does a stupid or senseless action.
Other names are sluagh, `folk, a multitude'; sluagh eutram, `light folk'; and daoine beaga, `little men', from the number and small size ascribed to the elves.
Daoine Coire, `honest folk', had its origin in a desire to give no unnecessary offense. The `folk' might be listening, and were pleased when people spoke well of them, and angry when spoken of slightingly. In this respect they are very jealous. A wise man will not unnecessarily expose himself to their attacks, for, `Better is a hen's amity than its enmity' (S'fhearr sith ciree na h-aimhreit). The same feeling made the Irish Celt call them daoine matha, `good people', and the lowland Scot `gude neighbours'.
The difference in size ascribed to the race, though one of the most remarkable features in the superstition, and lying on the surface, has been taken little notice of by writers. At one time the elves are small enough to creep through keyholes, and a single potato is as much as one of them can carry; at another they resemble mankind, with whom they form alliances, and to whom they hire themselves as servants; while some are even said to be above the size of mortals, gigantic hags, in whose lap mortal women are mere infants. In the Highlands the names sithche and daoine sith are given to all these different sizes alike, little men, elfin youth, elfin dame, and elfin hag, all of whom are not mythical beings of different classes or kinds, but one and the same race, having the same characteristics and dress, living on the same food, staying in the same dwellings, associated in the same actions, and kept by the same means. The easiest solution to the anomaly is that the fairies had the power of making themselves large or small at pleasure. There is no popular tale, however, which represents them as exercising such a power, nor is it conformable to the rest of their characteristics that it should be ascribed to them. The true belief is that the Fairies are a small race, the men `about four feet or so' in height, and the women in many cases not taller than a little girl (cnapach caileig). Being called `little', the exaggeration, which popular imagination loves, has diminished them till they appear as elves of different kinds. There is hardly a limit to the popular exaggeration of personal peculiarities. Og, King of Bashan, was a big man, and the Rabbis made his head tower to the regions of perpetual snow, while his feet were parched in the deserts of Arabia. Finmac Coul was reputed strong, at least he thrashed the devil, and made him howl. A weaver in Perthshire, known as `the weaver with the nose' (figheadair na eroine), had a big nose, at least he carried his loom in it. Similarly the `little men' came down to the `size of half an ell', even the height of a quart bottle.
The same peculiarity exists in Teutonic belief. At times the elf is a dwarfish being that enters through key-holes and window-slits; at other times a great tall man. In different localities the Fairies are known as Alfs, Huldra-Folk, Duergar, Trolls, Hill Folk, Little Folk, Still Folk, Pixies, etc. A difference of size, as well as of name, has led to these being described as separate beings, but they have all so much in common with the Celtic Fairies that we must conclude they were originally the same.
The Gaelic, as might be expected, abounds in words denoting the diversified features of the scenery in a mountainous country. To this the English language itself bears witness, having adopted so many Gaelic words of the kind, as strath, glen, corrie, ben, knock, dun, etc. From this copiousness it arises that the round green eminences, which were said to be the residences of the Fairies, are known in Gaelic by several names which have no synonym in English.
Sithein (pron. shi-en) is the name of any place in which the Fairies take up their residence. It is known from the surrounding scenery by the peculiarly green appearance and rounded form. Sometimes in these respects it is very striking, being of so nearly conical a form, and covered with such rich verdure, that a second look is required to satisfy the observers it is not artificial. Its external appearance has led to its being also known by various other names.
Tolman is a small green knoll, or hummock, of earth; bac, a bank of sand or earth; cnoc, knock, Scot. `a knowe', and its diminutive cnocan, a little knowe; dun, a rocky mound or heap, such, for instance, as the Castle rock of Edinburgh or Dumbarton, though often neither so steep nor so large; othan, a green elevation in wet ground; and uigh, a provincial term of much the same import as tolman. Even lofty hills have been represented as tenanted by Fairies, and the highest point of a hill, having the rounded form, characteristic of Fairy dwellings is called its shi-en (sithein na beinne). Rocks may be tenanted by the elves, but not caves. The dwellings of the race are below the outside or superficies of the earth, and tales representing the contrary may be looked upon with suspicion as modern.
There is one genuine story in which the Fairy dwelling is in the middle of a green plain, without any elevation to mark its site beyond a horse-skull, the eye-sockets of which were used as the Fairy chimney.
These dwellings were tenanted sometimes by a single family only, more frequently by a whole community. The elves were said to change their residences as men do, and, when they saw proper themselves, to remove to distant parts of the country and more desirable haunts. To them, on their arrival in their new home, are ascribed the words:
"Though the good haven we have left, Better be the haven we have found." (note 4)
The Fairy hillock might be passed by the strangers without suspicion of its being tenanted, and cattle were pastured on it unmolested by the "good people". There is, however, a common story in the Western Isles that a person was tethering his horse or cow for the night on a green tolman where a head a appeared out of the ground, and told him to tether the beast somewhere else, as he let rain into "their" house, and had nearly driven the tether-pin into the ear of one of the inmates. Another, who was in the habit of pouring out dirty water at the door, was told by the Fairies to pour it elsewhere, as he was spoiling their furniture. He shifted the door to the back of the house, and prospered ever after. The Fairies were very grateful to any one who kept the shi-en clean, and swept away cow or horse-droppings falling on it. Finding a farmer careful of the roof of their dwelling, keeping it clean, and not breaking the sward with tether-pin or spade, they showed their thankfulness by driving his horses and cattle to the sheltered side of the mound when the night proved stormy. Many believe the Fairies themselves swept the hillock every night, so that in the morning its surface was spotless.
Brugh (bru) denotes the Fairy dwelling viewed as it were from the inside--the interiors--but is often used interchangeably with sithein. It is probably the same word as burgh, borough, or bro', and its reference is to the number of inmates in the Fairy dwelling (note 5).
The Fairies, both Celtic and Teutonic, are dressed in green. In Skye, however, though Fairy women, as elsewhere, are always dressed in that colour, the men wear clothes of any colour like their human neighbours. They are frequently called daoine beaga ruadh, "little red men", from their clothes having the appearance of being dyed with the lichen called crotal, a common colour of men's clothes, in the North Hebrides. The coats of Fairy women are shaggy, or ruffled (caiteineach), and their caps curiously fitted or wrinkled. The men are said, but not commonly, to have blue bonnets, and in the song to the murdered Elfin lover, the Elf is said to have a hat bearing "a smell of honied apples." This is perhaps the only Highland instance of a hat, which is a prominent object in the Teutonic superstition, being ascribed to the Fairies.
Generally some personal defect is ascribed to them, by which they become known to be of no mortal race. In Mull and the neighbourhood they are said to have only one nostril, the other being imperforate (an leth choinnlein aca druid-te). The Elfin smith who made Finmac Coul's sword, "the sun of Lun that never asked a second stroke" (Mac an Luin, nach d'fhag riamh fuigheal bheum), had but one gloomy eye in his forehead. The Bean Shiih was detected by her extraordinary voracity (a cow at a meal), a frightful front tooth, the entire want of a nostril, a web foot, praternaturally long breasts, etc. She is also said to be unable to suckle her own children, and hence the Fairy desire to steal nursing women.
The Fairies, as has been already said, are counterparts of mankind. There are children and old people among them; they practice all kinds of trades and handicrafts; they possess cattle, dogs, arms; they require food, clothing, sleep; they are liable to disease, and can be killed. So entire is the resemblance that they have even been betrayed to intoxication. People entering their brughs, have found the inmates engaged in similar occupations to mankind, the women spinning, weaving, grinding meal, baking, cooking, churning, etc., and the men sleeping, dancing, and making merry, or sitting round a fire in the middle of the floor (as a Perthshire informant described it) "like tinkers". Sometimes the inmates were absent on foraging expeditions or pleasure excursions. The women sing at their work, a common practice in former times with Highland women, and use distaff, spindle, handmills, and such like primitive implements. The men have smithies, in which they make the Fairy arrows and other weapons. Some Fairy families or communities are poorer than others, and borrow meal and other articles of domestic use from each other and from their neighbours of mankind.
There are stated seasons of festivity which are observed with much splendour in the larger dwellings. The brugh is illuminated, the tables glitter with gold and silver vessels, and the door is thrown open to all comers. Any of the human race entering on these occasions are hospitably and heartily welcomed; food and drink are offered them, and their health is pledged. Everything in the dwelling seems magnificent beyond description, and mortals are so enraptured they forget everything but the enjoyment of the moment. Joining in the festivities, they lose all thought as to the passage of time. The food is the most sumptuous, the clothing the most gorgeous ever seen, the music the sweetest ever heard, the dance the sprightliest ever trod. The whole dwelling is lustrous with magic splendour.
All this magnificence, however, and enjoyment are nothing but semblance and illusion of the senses. Mankind, with all their cares, and toils, and sorrows, have an infinitely more desirable lot, and the man is greatly to be pitied whom the Elves get power over, so that he exchanges his human lot and labour for their society or pleasures. Wise people recommend that, in the circumstances, a man should not utter a word till he comes out again, nor, on any account, taste Fairy food or drink. If he abstains he is very likely before long dismissed, but if he indulges he straightway loses the will and power ever to return to the society of men. He becomes insensible to the passage of time, and may stay, without knowing it, for years, and even ages, in the brugh. Many, who thus forget themselves, are among the Fairies to this day. Should they ever again return to the open air, and their enchantment be broken, the Fairy grandeur and pleasure prove an empty show, worthless, and fraught with danger. The food becomes disgusting refuse, and the pleasures a shocking waste of time.
The Elves are great adepts in music and dancing, and a great part of their times seems to be spent in the practice of these accomplishments. The changeling has often been detected by his fondness for them. Though in appearance an ill-conditioned and helpless brat, he has been know, when he thought himself unobserved, to play the pipes with surpassing skill, and dance with superhuman activity. Elfin music is more melodious than human skill and instruments can produce, and there are many song and tunes which are said to have been originally learned from the Fairies. The only musical instrument of the Elves is the bagpipes, and some of the most celebrated pipers in Scotland are said to have learned their music from them.
The Gaelic belief recognizes no Fairyland or realm different from the earth's surcface on which men live and move. The dwellings are underground, but it is on the natural face of earth the Fairies find their sustenance, pasture their cattle, and on which they forage and roam.
The seasons on which their festivities are held are the last night of every quarter (h-uile latha ceann raidhe), particularly the nights before Beltane, the first of summer, and Hallowmas, the first of winter. On these nights, on Fridays, and on the last night of the year, they are given to leaving home, and taking away womsoever of the human race they find helpless, or unguarded and unwarey. They may be encountered any time, but on these stated occasions men are to be particularly on their guard against them.
On Fridays they obtrusively enter houses, and have even the impudence, it is said, to lift the lid off the pot to see what the family have on the fire for dinner. Any Fairy story, told on this day, should be prefixed by saying, `a blessing attend their departing and travelling! this day is Friday and they will not hear us' (Beannachd nan siubhal 's nan isneachd! 'se 'n diugh Di-haoine 's cha chluinn iad sinn). This prevents Fairy will-will coming upon the narrator for anything he may chance to say. No one should call the day by its proper name of Friday (Di-haoine), but `the day of yonder town' (latha bhatl' ud thall). The Fairies do not like to hear the day mentioned, and if anyone is so unlucky as to use the proper name, their wrath is directed elsewhere by the bystander adding `on the cattle of yonder town' (air cro a bhail' ud thall), or `on the farm of So-and-so,' mentioning anyone he may have a dislike to The fear of Fairy wrath also prevented the sharpening of knives on this day.
They are said to come always from the west. They are admitted into houses, however well guarded otherwise, by the little hand-made cake, the last of the baking (bonnach beag boise), called the Fallaid bannock, unless there has been a hole put through it with the finger, or a piece is broken off it, or a live coal is put on top of it (note 6); by the water in which men's feet have been washed; by the fire, unless it be properly `raked' (smaladh), i.e. covered up to keep it alive for the night; or by the band of the spinning wheel, if left stretched on the wheel.
The reason assigned for taking water into the house at night was that the Fairies would suck the sleeper's blood if they found no water in to quench their thirst. The water in which feet were washed, unless thrown out, or a burning peat were put in it, let them in, and was used by them to plash about in (gun loireadh fhein ann) all night. Unless the band was taken off the spinning wheel, particularly on the Saturday evenings, they came after the inmates of the house had retired to rest and used the wheel. Sounds of busy work were heard, but in the morning no work was found done, and possibly the wheel was disarranged. (note 7) On the last night of the year they are kept out by decorating the house with holly; and the last handful of corn reaped should be dressed up as a Harvest Maiden (Maighdean Bhuan), and hung up in the farmer's house to aid in keeping them out till next harvest.
There seems to be no definite rule as to the circumstances under which the Fairies are to be seen. A person whose eye has been touched with Fairy water can see them whenever they are present; the seer, possessed of second sight, often saw them when others did not; and on nights on which the shi-en is open the chance passer-by sees them rejoicing in their underground dwellings. A favourite time for their encounters with men seems to be the dusk and wild stormy nights of mist and driving rain, when the streams are swollen and `the roar of the torrent is heard on the hill'. They are also apt to appear when spoken of and when a desire is expressed for their assistance; when proper precautions are omitted and those whose weakness and helplessness call for watchfulness and care, are neglected; when their power is contemned and when a sordid and churlish spirit is entertained. Often, without fault or effort, in places the most unexpected, mortals have been startled by their appearance, cries, or music.
Fairy food consists principally of things intended for human food, of which the Evles take the toradh, i.e. the substance, fruit, or benefit, leaving the semblance or appearance to men themselves. In his manner they take cows, sheep, goats, meal, sowens, the produce of the land, etc. Cattle falling over rocks are particularly liable to being taken by them, and milk spilt in coming from the dairy is theirs by right. They have, of food peculiar to themselves and not acquired from men, the root of silver weed (brisgein), the stalks of heather (cuiseagan an fhraoich), the milk of the red deer hinds and of goats, weeds gathered in the fields, and barleymeal. The brisgein is a root plentifully turned up by the plough in spring, and ranked in olden times as the `seventh bread'. Its inferior quality and its being found underground, are probably the cause of its being assigned to the Fairies. It is a question whether the stalks of heather are the tops or the stems of the plant. Neither contain much sap or nourishment. The Banshi Fairy, or Elle woman, has been seen by hunters milking the hinds, just as women milk cows.
Those who partake of Fairy food are as hungry after their repast as before it. In appearance it is most sumptuous and inviting, but on grace being said turns out to be horse-dung. Some, in their haste to partake of the gorgeous viands, were only disenchanted when `returning thanks'.
The Fairies can bestow almost any gift upon their favourites--great skill in music and in work of all kinds--give them cows and even children stolen for the purpose from others, leave them good fortune, keep cattle from wandering into their crops at night, assist them in spring and harvest work, etc. Sometimes teir marvellous skill is communicated to mortals, sometimes they come in person to assist. If a smith, wright, or other tradesman catches them working with the tools of his trade (a thing they are addicted to doing) he can compel them to bestow on him the Ceaird Chomuinn, or association craft, that is to come to his assistance whenever he wants them. Work left near the hillocks over night has been found finished in the morning, and they have been forved by men, entering their dwellings for this purpose, to tell the cure for diseases defying human skill.
In every instance, however, the benefit of the gift goes ultimately to the Fairies themselves, or (as it is put in the Gaelic expression) `the fruit of it goes into their own bodies' (Theid an toradh nan cuirp fhein). Their gifts have evil influence connected with them, and, however inviting at first, are productive of bad luck in the end. No wise man will desire either their company or their kindness. When they come to a house to assist at any work, the sooner they are got rid of the better. If they are hired as servants their wages at first appear trifling, but will ultimately ruin their employer. It is unfortunate even to encounter any of the race, but to consort with them is disastrous in the extreme.
`The giving and taking of loans,' according to the proverb, `always prevailed in the world' (Bha toirt is gabhail aniasad dol riamh feadh an t-saoghail), and the custom is one to whch the `good neighbours' are no strangers.
They are universally represented as borrowing meal, from each other and from men. In the latter case when they returned a loan, as they always honestly did, the return was in barleymeal, two measures for one of oatmeal; and this, on being kept in a place by itself, proved inexhaustible, provided the bottom of the vessel in which it was stored was never made to appear, no question was asked, and no blessing pronounced over it. It would then neither vanish nor become horse-dung!
When a loan is returned to them, they accept only the fair equivaelnt of what they have lent, neither less nor more. If more is offered they take offence, and never give an opportunity for the same insult again.
We hear also of their borrowing a kettle or cauldron, and, under the power of a rhyme uttered by the lender at the time of giving it, sending it back before morning.
When `the folk' leave home in companies, they travel in eddies of wind. In this climate these are among the most curious of natural phenomena. On calm summer days they go past, whirling about straws and dust, and as not another breath of air is moving at the same time their cause is sufficiently puzzling. In Gaelic the eddy is known as `the people's puff of wind' (oiteag sluaigh), and its motion `travelling on tall grass stems' (falbh air chuiseagan treorach). By throwing one's left (or toisgeul) shoe at it, the Fairies are made to drop whatever they may be taking away--men, women, children, or animals. The same result is attained by throwing one's bonnet, saying, `this is yours, that's mine' (Is leatsa so, is leamsa sin), or a naked knife, or earth from a mole-hill.
In these eddies, people going on a journey at night have been `lifted', and sepnt the night acreering through the skies. On returning to earth, though they came to the house last left, they were too stupefied to recognize either the house or its inmates. Others, through Fairy despite, have wandered about all night on food, failing to reach their intended destination though quite near it, and perhaps in the morning finding themselves on the top of a distant hill, or in some inaccessible place to which they could never have made their way alone. Even in daylight some were carried in the Elfin eddy from one island to another, in great terror lest they should fall into the sea.
When there is rain with sunshine, the `little people', according to a popular rhyme, are at their meat,
"Rain and sun, Little people are at their meat."
When wind and rain come from opposite directions (which may for an instant be possible in a sudden shift of wind), by throwing some horse-dung against the wind, the Fairies are brought down in a shower!
Natural objects of a curious appearance, or bearing a fanciful resemblance to articles used by men, are also associated with the Fairies. The reedmace plant is called `the distaff of the Fairy women' (cuigeal nam ban shith), the foxglove the `thimble of the Fairy old women' (miaran nan cailleacha sith), though more commonly called `the thimble of the dead old women' (m. nan cailleacha marbh). A substance, found on the shores of the Hebrides, like a stone, red (ruadh), and half dark (lith dhorcha), holed, is called `Elf's blood' (fuil siochaire). (note 8)
The Fairy arrow (Saighead shith) owes its name to a similar fancy. It is known also as `Fairy flint' (spor shith), and consists of a triangular piece of flint, bearing the appearance of an arrow head. It probably originally formed part of the rude armoury of the savages of the stone period. Popular imagination, struck by its curious form, and ignorant of tis origin, ascribed it to the Fairies. It was said to be frequently shot at the hunter, to whom the Elves have a special aversion, because he kills the hinds, on the milk of which they live. They could not throw it themselves, but compelled some mortal (duine saoghailtre) who was being carried about in their company to throw it for them. If the person aimed at was a friend, the thrower managed to miss his aim, and the Fairy arrow proved innocuous. It was found lying beside the object of Fairy wrath, and was kept as a valuable preservation in future against similar dangers, and for rubbing to wounds (suathadh ri creuchdun). The man or beast struck by it became paralyzed, and to all appearance died shortly after. In reality they were taken away by the elves, and only their appearance remained. Its point being blunt was an indication that it had done harm.
The Fairy spade (caibe sith) is a smooth, slippery, black stone, in shape `like the soal of a shoe'. It was put in water, given to sick people and cattle.
Everywhere, in the Highlands, the red-deer are associated with the Fairies, and in some districts, as Lochaber and Mull, are said to be their only cattle. This association is sufficiently accounted for by the Fairy-like appearance and habits of the deer. In its native haunts, in remote and misty corries, where solitude has her most undisturbed abode, its beauty and grace of form, combined with its dislike to the presence of man, and even of the animals man has tamed, amply entitle it to the name of sith. Timid and easily startled by every appearance and noise, it is said to be unmoved by the presence of the Fairies. Popular belief also says that no deer is found dead with age, and that its horns, which it sheds every year, are not found, because hid by the Fairies. In their transformations it was peculiar for the FAiry woman to assume the shape of the red-deer, and in that guise they were often encountered by the hunter. The elves have a particular dislike to those who kill the hinds, and, on finding them in lonely places, delight in throwing elf-bolts at them. When a dead deer is carried home at night the Fairies lay their weight on the bearer's back, till he feels as if he had a house for a burden. On a penknife, however, being stuck in the deer it becomes very light. There are occasional allusions to the Fairy women having herds of deer. The Carlin Wife of the Spotted Hill (Cailleach Beinne Bhric horo), who, according to a popular rhyme, was `large and broad and tall', had a herd which she would not allow to descend to the beach, and which `loved the water-cresses by the fountain high in the hills better than the black weeds of the shore.' The old women of Ben-y-Ghloe, in Perthshire, and of Clibrich, in Sutherlandshire, seem to have been sith women of the same sort. `I never,' said an old man (he was upwards of eighty years of age) in the Island of Mull, questioned some years ago on the subject, `heard of the Fairies having cows, but I always heard that deer were their cattle.'
In other parts of the Highlands, as in Skye, though the Fairies are said to keep company with the deer, they have cows like those of men. When one of them appears among a herd of cattle the whole fold of them grows frantic, and follows lowing wildly. The strange animal disappears by entering a rock or knoll, and the others, unless intercepted, follow and are never more seen. The Fairy cow is dun (odhar), and `hummel', or hornless. In Skye, however, Fairy cattle are said to be speckled and red (crodh breach ruadh), and to be able to cross the sea. It is not on every place that they graze. There were not above ten such spots in all Skye. The field of Annat (achadh na h-annaid), in the Braes of Portree, is one. When the cattle came home at night from the pasture, the following were the words used by the Fairy women, standing on Dun Gerra-sheddar (Dun Ghearra-seadar), near Portree, as she counted her charge:
"Crooked one, dun one, Little wing grizzled, Black cow, white cow, Little bull black-head, My milch kine have come home, O dear! that the herdsman would come!"
In the Highland creed the Fairies but rarely have horses. In Perthshire they have been seen on a market day riding about on white horses; in Tiree two Fairy ladies were met riding on what seemed to be horses, but in reality were ragweeds; and in Skye the elves have galloped the farm horses at full speed and in dangerous places, sitting with their faces to the tails.
When horses neigh at night it is because they are ridden by the Fairies, and pressed too hard. The neigh is one of distress, and if the hearer exclaims aloud, "Your saddle and pillion be upon you" (Do shrathair's do phillein ort) the Fairies tumble to the ground.
The Fairy dog (cu sith) is as large as a two-year-old stirk, a dark green colour, with ears of deep green. It is of lighter colour towards the feet. In some cases it has a long tail rolled up in a coil on its back, but others have a tail flat and plaited like the straw rug of a pack-saddle. Bran, the famous dog that Finmac Coul had, was of Elfin breed, and from the description given of it by popular tradition, decidedly parti-coloured:
"Bran had yellow feet, Its two sides black and belly white Green was the back of the hunting hound, Its two pointed ears blood-red."
Bran had a venomous shoe (Brog nimhe), with which it killed whatever living creature it struck, and when at full speed, and `like its father' (dol ri athair) was seen as three dogs, intercepting the deer at three passes.
The Fairy hound was kept tied as a watch dog in the brugh, but at times accompanied the women on their expeditions or roamed about alone, making its lairs in clefts of the rocks. Its motion was silent and gliding, and its bark a rude clamour (blaodh). It went in a straight line, and its bay has been last heard, by those who listened for it, far out at sea. Its immense footmarks, as large as the spread of the human hand, have been found next day traced in the mud, in the snow, or on the sands. Others say it makes noise like a horse galloping, and its bay is like that of another dog, only louder. There is a considerable interval between each bark, and at the third (it only barks thrice) the terror-struck hearer is overtaken and destroyed, unless he has by that time reached a place of safety.
Ordinary dogs have a mortal aversion to the Fairies, and give chase whenever the elves are sighted. On coming back, the hair is found to be scraped off their bodies, all except the ears, and they die soon after.
Elfin Cats (cait shith) are explained to be of a wild, not a domesticated, breed, to be as large as dogs, of a black colour, with a white spot on the breast, and to have arched backs and erect bristles (crotach agus murlach). Many maintain these wild cats have no connection with the fairies, but are witches in disguise.
The elves have got a worse name for stealing than they deserve. So far as taking things without the knowledge or consent of the owners is concerned, the accusation is well-founded; they neither ask nor obtain leave, but there are important respects in which their depredations differ from the pilferings committed among men by jail-birds and other dishonest people.
The Fairies do not take their booty away bodily; they only take what is called in Gaelic its toradh, i.e. its substance, virtue, fruit, or benefit. The outward appearance is left, but the reality is gone. Thus, when a cow is elf-taken, it appears to its owner only as suddenly smitten by some strange disease (chaidh am beathach ud a ghonadh). In reality the cow is gone, and only its semblance remains, animated it may be by an Elf, who receives all the attentions paid to the sick cow, but gives nothing in return. The seeming cow lies on its side, and cannot be made to rise. It consumes the provender laid before it, but does not yield milk or grow fat. In some cases it gives plenty of milk, but milk that yields no butter. If taken up a hill, and rolled down the incline, it disappears altogether. If it dies, its flesh ought not to be eaten--it is not beef, but a stock of alder wood, an aged Elf, or some trashy substitute. Similarly when the toradh of land is taken, there remains the appearance of a crop, but a crop without benefit to man or beast--the ears are unfilled, the grain is without weight, the fodder without nourishment.
A still more important point of difference is, that the Fairies only take away what men deserve to lose. When mortals make a secret of (cleth), or grumble (ceasad) over, what they have, the Fairies get the benefit, and the owner is a poor man, in the midst of his abundance. When (to use an illustration the writer has more than once heard) a farmer speaks disparagingly of his crop, and, though it be heavy, tries to conceal his good fortune, the Fairies take away the benefit of his increase. The advantage goes away mysteriously `in pins and needles' (na phrineachan 's na shnadun), `in alum and madder' (na alm 's na mhadair), as the saying is, and the farmer gains nothing from his crop. Particularly articles of food, the possession of which men denied with oaths (air a thiomnadh), became Fairy property.
The elves are also blamed for lifting with them articles mislaid. These are generally restored as mysteriously and unaccountably as they were taken away. Thus, a woman blamed the elves for taking her thimble. It was placed beside her, and when looked for could not be found. Some time after she was sitting alone on the hillside and found the thimble in her lap. This confirmed her belief in its being the Fairies that took it away. In a like mysterious manner a person's bonnet might be whipped off his head, or the pot for supper be lifted off the fire, and left by invisible hands on the middle of the floor.
The accusation of taking milk is unjust. It is brought against the elves only in books, and never in the popular creed. The Fairies take cows, sheep, goats, horses, and it may be the substance or benefit (toradh) of butter and cheese, but not milk.
Many devices are employed to thwart Fairy inroads. A burning ember (eibhleag) was put into `sowens' (cabhruich), one of the weakest and most unsubstantial articles of human food and very liable to Fairy attack. It was left there till the dish was ready for boiling, i.e. about three days after. A sieve should not be allowed out of the house after dark, and no meal unless it be sprinkled with salt. Otherwise, the Fairies may, by means of them, take the substance out of the whole farm prouce. for the same reason a hole should be put with the finger in the little cake (bonnach beag's toll an), made with the remnant of the meal after a baking, and when given to children, as it usually is, a piece should be broken off it. A nail driven into a cow, killed by falling over a precipice, was supposed by the more superstitious, to keep the elves away.
One of the most cuirous thefts ascribed to them was that of querns (note 9), or handmills (Bra, Brathuinn). To keep them away these handy and useful implements should be turned deiseal, i.e. with the right hand turn, as sunwise. What is curious in the belief is, that the handmill is said to have been originally got from the Fairies themselves. Its sounds have often been heard by the belated peasant, as it was being worked inside some grassy knoll, and songs, sung by the Fairy women employed at it, have been learned.
Most frequently it was women, not yet risen from childbed, and their babes that the Fairies abducted. On every occasion of a birth, therefore, the utmost anxiety prevailed to guard the mother and child from their attacks. It is said that the Fairy women are unable to suckle their own children, and hence their desire to secure a human wet-nurse. This, however, does not explain why they want the children, nor indeed is it universally a part of the creed.
The first care was not to leave a woman alone during her confinement. A house full of women gathered and watched for three days, in some places for eight. Various additional precautions against the Fairies were taken in various localities. A row of iron nails were driven into the front board of the bed; the smoothing iron or reaping hook was placed under it and in the window; an old shoe was put in the fire; the door posts were sprinkled with maistir, urine kept for washing purposes--a liquid extremely offensive to the Fairies; the Bible was opened, and the breath blown across it in the face of the woman in childbed; mystic words of threads were placed about the bed; and, when leaving at the end of three days, the midwife left a little cake of oatmeal with a hole in it in front of the bed. The father's shirty wrapped round the new-born babe was esteemed a preservative, and if the marriage gown was thrown over the wife she could be recovered if, notwithstanding, or from neglect of these precautions, she was taken away. The name of the Deity solemnly pronounced over the child in baptism was an additional preotection. If the Fairies were seen, water in which an ember was extingusihed, or the burning peats themselves, thrown at them, drove them away. Even quick wit and readiness of reply in themother has sent them off. (note 10)
It is not to be supposed that these precautions were universally known or practised. In that case such a thing as an elf-struck child would be unknown. The gathering of women and the placing of iron about the bed seem to have been common, but the burning of old shoes was confined to the Western Isles. If it existed elsewhere, its memory has been forgotten. That it is an old part of the creed is evident from the dislike of the Fairies to strong smells, being also part of the Teutonic creed. The blowing of the breath across the Bible existed in Sunart, part of the west of Inverness-shire.
When they succeeded in their felonious attempts, the elves left instead of the mother, and bearing her semblance, a stock of wood (stoc maide), and in place of the infant an old mannikin of their own race. The child grew up a peevish misshapen brat, ever crying and complaining. It was known, however, to be a changeling by the skilful in such matters, from the large quantities of water it drank--a tubful before morning, if left beside it--its large teeth, its inordinate appetite, its fondness for music and its powers of dancing, its unnatural precocity, or from some unguarded remark as to its own age. It is to the aged elf, left in the place of child or beast, that the name sithbheire (pron. sheevere) is properly given, and as may well be supposed, to say of one who has an ancient manner or look, `he is but a sithbheire', or `he is only one that came from a brugh', is an expression of considerable contempt. When a person does a senseless action, it is said of him, that he has been `taken out of himself' (air a thoirt as), that is, taken away by the Fairies.
The changeling was converted into the stock of a tree by saying a powerful rhyme over him, or by sticking him with a knife. He could be driven away by running at him with a red-hot ploughshare; by getting between him and the bed and threatening him with a drawn sword; by leaving him out on the hillside, and paying no attention to his shrieking and screaming; by putting him sitting on a gridiron, or in a creel, with a fire below; by sprinkling him well out of the maistir tub; or by dropping him into the river. There can be no doubt these modes of treatment would rid a house of any disagreeable visitor, at least of the human race.
The story of the changeling, who was detected by means of egg-shells, seems in some form or other to be as widespread as the superstition itself. Empty egg-shells are ranged round the heart, and the changeling, when he finds the house quiet and thinks himself unobserved, gets up from bed and examines them. Finding them empty, he is heard to remark sententiously, as he peers into each, "this is but a wind-bag (chaneil a' so ach balg fas); I am so many hundred years old, and I never saw the like of this."
Many of the deformities in children are attributed to the Fairies. When a child is incautiously left alone by its mother, for however a short time, the Fairies may come and give its little legs such a twist as will leave it hopelessly lame ever after. To give them their due, however, they sometimes took care of children whom they found forgotten, and even of grow up people sleeping incautiously in dangerous places.
The elves have children of their own and require the services of midwives like the human race. `Howdies', as they are called, taken in the way of their profession to the Fairy dwelling, found on coming out that the time they had stayed was incredibly longer or shorter than they imagined, and none of them was ever the better ultimately of her adventure.
The Gaelic sithche, like the English elf, has two ideas, almost amounting to two meanings, attached to it. In the plural, sithchean, it conveys the idea of a diminutive race, travelling in eddy winds, lifting men from the ground, stealing, and entering houses in companies; while in the singular, sithche, the idea is conveyed is that one who approaches mankind in dimensions. The `man and woman of peace' hire themselves to the human race for a day's work or a term of service, and contract marriages with it. The elfin youth (Gille sith) has enormous strength, that of a dozen men it is said, and the elfin women (or Banshis) are remarkably handsome. The aged of the race were generally the reverse, in point of beauty, especially those of them substituted for Fairy-abducted children and animals.
Mortals should have nothing to do with any of the race. No good comes out of the unnatural connection. However enchanting at first, the end is disaster and death. When, therefore, the sithche is first met, it is recommended by the prudent to pass by without noticing; or, if obliged or incautious enough to speak, and pressed to make an appointment, to give fair words, saying, `If I promise that, I will fulfil it' (ma gheallas mi sin, co-gheallaidh mi e), still sufficiently near houses to attract the attention of the dogs. They immediately give chase, and the Fairy flies away.
The Gille sith (or Elfin youth) is very solictious about his offspring when his mortal mistress bears him children, and the love that women have to him as their lover or familiar spirit (leannan sith) is unnaturally passionate. The Elfin mistress is not always so secure of the affections of her human lover. He may get tired of her and leave her. On meeting her first he is put under spells to keep appointments with her in future every night. If he dares for one night to neglect his appointment, she gives him such a sound thrashing the first time she gets hold of him that he never neglects it again. She disappears at the cock-crowing. While he remains faithful to her, she assists him at his trade as farmer, shepherd, etc., makes him presents of clothes, tells him when he is to die, and even when he is to leave her and get married. She gives Sian a magic belt or other charm, to protect him in danger. If offended, however, her lover is in danger of his life. The children of these alliances are said to be the urisks.
Those who have taken Elfin women for wives have found a sad termination to their mesalliance. The defect or peculiarity of the fair enchantress, which her lover at first had treated as of no consequence, proves his ruin. Her voracity thins his herds, he gets tired of her or angry with her, and in an unguarded moment reproaches her with her origin. She disappears, taking with her the children and the fortune she brought him. The gorgeous palace, fit for the entertainment of kings, vanishes, and he finds himself again in his old black dilapidated hut, with a pool of rain-drippings in the middle of the floor.
At times the Fairy woman (Bean shith) is seen in lonely places, beside a pool or stream, washing the linen of those soon to die, and folding and beating it with her hands on a stone in the middle of the water. She is then known as the Bean-nighe, or washing woman; and her being seen is a sure sign that death is near.
In Mull and Tiree she is said to have praeternaturally long breasts, which are in the way as she stoops at her washing. She throws them over her shoulders, and they hang down her back. Whoever sees her must not turn away, but steal up behind and endeavour to approach her unawares. When he is near enough he is to catch one of her breasts, and, putting it to his mouth, calls herself to witness that she is his first nursing or foster-mother (muime ciche). She answers that he has need of that being the case, and will then communicate whatever knowledge he desires. If she says the shirt she is washing is that of an enemy he allows the washing to go on, and that man's death follows; if it be that of her captor or any of his friends, she is put a stop to.
In Skye the Bean-nighe is said to be squat in figure (tiughiosal), or not unlike a `small pitiful child' (paisde beag bronach). If a person caught her she told all that would befall him in after life. She answered all his questions, but he must answer hers. Men did not like to tell what she said. Women dying in childbed were looked upon as dying prematurely, and it was believed that unless all the clothes left by them were washed they would have to wash them themselves till the natural period of death. It was women `dreeing this weird' who were the washing women. If the person hearing them at work beating their clothes (slacartaich) caught them before bbeing observed, he could not be heard by them; but if they saw him first, he lost the popwer of his limbs (lugh).
In the highlands of Perthshire the washing woman is represented as small and round, and dressed in pretty green. She spreads by moonlight the linen winding sheets of those soon to die, and is caught by getting between her and the stream.
She can also be caught and mastered and made to communicate her information at the point of a sword. Oscar, son of the poet Ossian, met her on his way to the Cairbre's feast, at which the dispute arose which led to his death. She was encountered by Hugh of the Little Head on the evening before his last battle, and left him as her parting gift (fagail), that he should become the most frightful apparition he did after death, the most celebrated in the West Highlands.
The song of the Fairy woman foreboded great calamity, and men did not like to hear it. Scott calls it
"The fatal Banshi's boding scream,"but it was not a scream, only a wailing murmur (torman mulaid) of unearthly sweetness and melancholy.
The Banshi is sometimes confounded with the Glaistig, the apparition of a woman, acting as tutelary guardian of the site to which she is attached. Many people use Banshi and Glaistig as convertible terms, and the confusion arising extends largely to books. the true Glaistig is a woman of human race, who has been put under enchantments, and to whom a Fairy nature has been given. She wears a green dress, like Fairy women, but her face is wan and grey, whence her name Glaistig, from glas, grey. She differs also in haunting castles and the folds of the cattle, and confining herself to servant's work.
The Banshi is, without doubt, the original of the Queen of Elfland. The Elfin Queen met Thomas of Ercildoune by the Eildon tree, and took him to her enchanted realm, where he was kept for seven years. She gave him the power of foretelling the future, `the tongue that never lied'. At first she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but when he next looked--
"The hair that hung upon her head, The half was black, the half was grey, And all the rich clothing was away That he before saw in that stead; Her eyes seemed out that were so grey, And all her body like the lead."
In Gaelic tales seven years is a common period of detention among the Fairies, the leannan sith communicates to her lover the knowledge of future events, and in the end is looked upon by him with aversion. There is no mention, however, of Fairyland, or of an Elfin King or Queen, and but rarely of Fairies riding. True Thomas, who is as well known in Highland lore as he is in the Lowlands, is said to be still among the Fairies, and to attend every market on the look-out for suitable horses. When he has made his complement he will appear among men, and a great battle will be fought on the Clyde.
The great protection against the Elfin race (and this is perhaps the most noticeable point in the whole superstition) is Iron, or preferably steel (Cruaidh). The metal in any form--a sword, a knight, a pair of scissors, a needle, a nail, a ring, a bar, a piece of reaping-hook, a gunbarrel, a fish-hook (and tales will be given illustrative of all these)--is all-powerful. On entering a Fairy dwelling, a piece of steel, a knife, needle, or fish-hook, stuck in the door, takes from the Elves the power of closing it till the intruder comes out again. A knife stuck in a deer carried home at night keeps them from laying their weight on the animal. A knife or nail in one's pocket prevents his being `lifted' at night. Nails in the front bench of the bed keep Elves from women `in the straw', and their babes. As additional safe-guards, the smoothing iron should be put below the bed, and the reaping-hook in the window. A nail in the carcass of a bull that fell over a rock was believed to preserve its flesh from them. Playing the Jew's harp (tromb) kept the Elfin women at a distance from the hunter, because the tongue of the instrument is of steel. So also a shoemaker's awl in the door-post of his bothy kept a Glaistig from entering.
Fire thrown into water in which the feet have been washed takes away the power of the water to admit the Fairies into the house at night; a burning peat put in sowens to hasten their fermenting (greasadh gortachadh0 kept the substance in them till ready to boil. Martin (Wesh Isl.) says fire was carried round lying-in women, and round about children before they were christened, to keep mother and infant from the power of evil spirits. When the Fairies were seen coming in at the door burning embers thrown towards them drove them away.
Another safe-guard is oatmeal. When it is sprinkled on one's clothes or carried in the pocket no Fairy will venture near, and it was usual with people going on journeys after nightfall to adopt the precaution of taking some with them. In Mull and Tiree the pockets of boys going any distance after nightfall were filled with oatmeal by their anxious mothers, and old men are remembered who sprinkled themselves with it when going on a night journey. In Skye, oatmeal was not looked upon as proper Fairy food, and it was said if a person wanted to see the Fairies he should not take oatmeal with him; if he did he would not be able to see them. When `the folk' take a loan of meal they do not appear to have any objections to oatmeal. The meal returned, however, was always barleymeal.
Oatmeal, taken out of the house after dark, was sprinkled with salt, and unless this was done, the Fairies might through its instrumentality take the substance out of the farmer's whole grain. To keep them from getting the benefit of the meal itself, housewives, when baking oatmeal bannocks, made a little thick cake with the last of the meal, between their palms (not kneading it like the rest of the bannocks), for the youngsters to put a hole through it with the forefinger. This palm bannock (bonnach boise) is not to be toasted on the gridion, but placed to the fire leaning against a stone (leac nam bonnach), well-known where a `griddle' is not available. Once the Fairies were overtaken carrying with them the benefit (toradh) of the farm in a large thick cake, with the handle of the quern (sgonnan na bra) stuck through it, and forming a pole on which it was carried. This cannot occur when the last bannock baked (Bonnach fallaid) is a little cake with a hole in it (Bonnach beag 's toll ann). (note 11)
Maistir, or stale urin, kept for the scouring of blankets and other cloth, when sprinkled on the cattle and on the door-posts and walls of the house, kept the Fairies, and indeed every mischief, at a distance. This spinkling was done regularly on the last eveing of every quarter of the year (h-uile latha ceann raidhe).
Plants of great power were the Mothan (Sagina procumbens, trailing pearlwort) and Achlasan Challumchile (Hypericum pulcrum, St. John's wort). The former protected its possessor from fire and the attacks of the Fairy women. The latter warded off fevers, and kept the Fairies from taking people away in their sleep. There are rhymes which must be said when these plants are pulled.
Stories representing the Bible as a protection must be of a recent date. It is not so long since a copy of the Bible was not available in the Highlands for that or any other purpose. When the Book did become accessible, it is not surprising that, as in other places, a blind unmeaning reverence should accumulate round it.
Such are the main features of the superstition of the Sithchean, the still-folk, the noiseless people, as it existed, and in some degree still exists, in the Highlands, and particularly in the Islands of Scotland. There is a clear line of demarcation between it and every other Highland superstition, though the distinction has not always been observed by writers on the subject. The following Fairy characteristics deserve to be particularly noted.
It was peculiar to the Fairy women to assume the shape of deer; while witches became mice, hares, cats, gulls, or black sheep, and the devil a he-goat or gentleman with horse's or pig's foot. A running stream could not be crossed by evil spirits, ghosts, and apparitions, but made no difference to the Fairies. If all tales be true, they could give a dip in the passing to those they were carrying away; and the stone, on which the "Washing Woman" folded the shirts of the doomed, was in the middle of water. Witches took the milk from cows; the Fairies had cattle of their own; and when they attacked the farmer's dairy, it was to take away the cows themselves, i.e. the cow in appearance remained, but its benefit (the real cow) was gone. The Elves have even the impertinence at times to drive back the cow at night to pasture on the corn of the person from whom they have stolen it. The phrenzy with which Fairy owmen afflicted men was only a wandering madness, which made them roam about restlessly, without knowing what they were doing, or leave hom at night to hold appointments with the Elfin women themselves; by druidism (druidheachd) men were driven from their kindred, and made to imagine themselves undergoing marvellous adventures and changing shape. Dogs crouched, or leapt at their master's throat, in the presence of evil spirits, but they gave chase to Fairies. Night alone was frequented by the powers of darkness, and they fled at the cock-crowing. Fairies were encountered in the day-time as well. There was no intermarriage between men and the other beings of superstition, but women were courted and taken away by Fairy men, and men courted Fairy women (or rather were courted by them), married, and took them to their houses. A well-marked characteristic is the tinge of the ludicrous that pervades the creed. The Fairy is an object of contempt as well as of fear, and, though the latter be the prevailing feeling, there is observably a desire to make the Elves contemptible and ridiculous. A person should not unnecessarily provoke the anger of those who cannot retaliate, much less a race so ready to take offence and so sure to retaliate as the Fairies. In revenge for this species of terror, the imagination loves to depict the Elves in positions and doing actions that provoke a smile. That part of the belief which relates to the Banshi is comparatively free from this feeling, but the `little people' and changelings come in for a full share of it. Perhaps this part of the superstition is not entirely to be explained as the recoil of the mind from the oppression of a belief in invisible beings that may be cognizant of men's; affairs and only wait for an opportunity to exert an evil influence over them, but its existence is striking.
Note 2: These virtues is to have only thrice, and it has been already unfurled twice. Many of the common people wanted it brought out at the time of the potato failure.
"Ged is math an cala dh' fhag sinn, Gum bu fearr an cala fhuair sinn."
Note 5: Few villages in the Highlands of Scotland are without a shi-en in their neighbourhood, and often a number are found close to each other. Strontian, well known to geologists from the mineral which bears its name, is Sron an t-sithein, "the nose of the Fairy hillock".
Note 6: Bonnach beag boise, gun bhloigh gun bhearn, Eirich 's big sinne a stigh, i.e. Little cake, without gap or fissure, rise and let us in, is the Elfin call.
Note 7: In the north of Ireland the band was taken off the spinning wheel to prevent the Fairies spoiling the linen.
Note 8: Similarly, in Dorsetshire fossil belemnites are called colepexis' fingers, and in Northumberland a fungous excrescence, growing about the roots of old trees, is called Fairy butter. So in Ireland, the round towers are ascribed to them.
Note 9: The use of some kind of mill, generally a hand mill, is as universal as the growth of grain, and the necessity for reducing the solid grain into the more palatable form of meal no doubt led to its early invention. The Gaelic meil (or beil), to grind, the English mill, the Latin mola, and the Greek guln, show that it was known to the Aryan tribes at a period long anterior to history. The handmill mentioned in Scripture, worked by two women, seems the same with that still to be found in obscure corners in the West Highlands.
An instrument so useful to man in the less advanced stages of his civilization could not fail to be looked upon with much respect and good feeling. In the Hebrides it was rubbed every Saturday evening with a wisp of straw `for payment' of its benevolent labours (sop ga shuathadh ris a bhra ga paigheadh). Meal ground in it is coarser than ordinary meal, and is known as gairbhein.
Note 10: Other charms used on the occasion were the taking
of the woman to be delivered several times across the byre-drain
(inne), the opening of every lock in the house, and ceremonies by means
of
"A grey hank of flax and a cockscomb, Two thinks against the commandments"These practices seem to have been known only to the very superstitious, and to have been local. The first belong to Ross-shire, the second to the north-west mainland of Argyllshire, and the last to Tiree.
Note 11: Carleton (Tales and Stories, p. 74) mentions an Irish belief of a kindred character connected with oatmeal. When one crossed fair gurtha, or hungry grass (Scot., feur gorta, famine grass), a spot on which the Fairies had left on of their curses, he was struck with weakness and hunger, but "if the person afflicted but tasted as much meal or flour as would lie on the point of a penknife, he will instantaneously break the spell of the Fairies, and recover his normal strength."