• The Brownie and the Dobie
• Brown man of the Muirs
• Killmoulis
• Redcap
• Powries or Dunters
• Wag-at-the-Wa'
• Habetrot
• Cowlug E'en
• Thrumpin
• Dunnie
• Dobhole Hob
• Hob Headless
• Peg Powler
• Cauld Lad of Hilton
• Silky
• Picktree Brag
• Hedley Kow
• Kludde
• Oschaert
• Padfoot
• Barguest
• Northern Sprites compared with those of Devon
• The Evil Spirit
• Cloutie's Croft
• The Minister and Satan
• The Devil trying all Callings

`Ye had need to tak care how ye dispute the existence of fairies, brownies, and apparitions: ye may as weel dispute the Gospel of Saint Matthew. We dunna believe in a' the gomral fantastic bogles an' spirits that fly light-headed folk up an' down the countree; but we believe in a' the apparitions that warn o' death, that save life, and that discover guilt. I'll tell you what we believe ye see. The deil and his adjents, they fash none but the gude folk--the Cameronians and the prayin' ministers an' sic-like. Then the bogles, they are a better kind o' spirits; they meddle wi' nan but the guilty; the murderer, an' the mansworn, an' the cheaters 'the widow an' fatherless, they do for them. Then the brownie, he's

Of the good old Brownie, however, that faithful ally of the Scottish household, I have little new to tell. He seems a denizen of the Shetland Islands, the Highlands of Scotland, and the Western Isles, as well as of the Borderland. I must warn you, however, not to confound him with the Dobie, a creature of far less sense and activity. In fact, the Dobie was what I have heard a poor woman call her husband's ghost, `a mortal heavy sprite'; and hence the common Border phrases, `Oh ye stupid Dobie!' or `She's but a senseless Dobie' (note 1). The Brownie was therefore preferreed as a guardian of hidden treasure, and to him the Borderers commit their money or goods, when, according to the custom prevalent in wild insecure countries, they conceal them in the earth. Some form of incantation was practised on the occasion, of which I can only learn one part--the dropping upon the treasure the blood of a slaughtered animal, or burying the slain animal with it.

The Brownie is believed in Berwickshire to be the ordained helper of mankind in the drudgery entailed by sin: hence he is forbidden to receive wages (note 2). He

	`A new mantle and a new hood
	 Poor Brownie! ye'll ne'er do mair good.'

Thus the goodman of the parish of Glendevon left out some clothes one night for Brownie, and heard him take his departure during the night, saying, in a highly offended tone--

	`Gie Brownie coat, gie Brownie sark,
	 Ye'se get nae mair o' Brownie's wark.'

A lady of Scottish extraction, Mrs. M----, writes thus to me: `It is curious what dislike Brownies have to

	"Red breeks and a ruffled sark!
	 Ye'll no get me to do yer wark."

The story dates from my great-grandfather's time; but the old dark closet where Brownie dwelt still exists, though dark no longer.'

But not the Brownie alone, with his kindred Northern sprites, is driven away by gifts of clothing. Devonshire Pixies are equally sensitive on this point. It is recorded that one of them on receiving a new suit vanished, exclaiming--

	`Pixy fine, Pixy gay,
	 Pixy now will run away.'

The little Swedish Tomtar too, though he will receive donations of bread, cheese, and even tobacco, is spoiled for work by new clothes; and when a housewife, in gratitude for the meal he sifted in her meal-tub, ,placed a suit for him on the edge of the tub, he did nothing more for her. He found that the meal damaged his new kirtle, so he cast the sieve away and repeated--

	`The young spark is fine,
	 He dusts himself!
	 Never more will he sift.' (note 3)

And the Dutch Kaboutermannekin, or Redcap, on receiving new clothes vanishes never to return. A miller in Kempnerland thus rewarded his Redcap, for a good deal of hard work expeditiously got through; but the

Cranshaws, in Berwickshire, was once the abode of an industrious Brownie, who both saved the corn and thrashed it for several seasons. At length, after one harvest, some person thoughtlessly remarked, that the corn was not well mowed or piled up in the barn. The sprite took offence at this, and the next night threw the whole of the corn over the Raven Crag, a precipice about two miles off, muttering--

	`It's no weel mowed! It's no weel mowed!
	 Then it's ne'er be mowed by me again;
	 I'll scatter it owre the raven stane,
	 And they'll hae some wark ere it's mowed again.'

This little story is taken from Mr. George Henderon's `Popular Rhymes of Berwickshire.' It reminds us of the Manx Phynnoderee, who, when the farmer complained of his not cutting the grass sufficiently close to the ground, left the grumbler to cut it himself next year, but went after him stubbing up the roots so fast as almost to cut off the man's legs. The Phynnoderee liked clothing as little as the Brownie, and once, when rewarded for special service by the present of a few

	`Cap for the head! alas, poor head!
	 Coat for the back! alas, poor back!'

and so on, till, with a melancholy wail, he departed, never to return. Both sprites, like Milton's `drudging goblin,' delighted in the `cream-bowl duly set,' but the Brownie at least would have resented the charge of labouring to `earn' it. Sir Walter Scott relates how the last Brownie in Ettrick Forest, the Brownie of Bodsbeck, vanished when the mistress of the house placed a porringer of milk and a piece of money in his haunts. He was heard to howl, and cry all night `Farewell bonnie Bodsbeck!' and in the morning disappeared for ever (note 5). The Ettrick Shepherd has given the title of the `Brownie of Bodsbeck' to a tale, in which an exiled Cameronian assumes the character of this mysterious being, and thereby gains shelter and support.

Note 1: Sir Walter Scott seems unaware of this peculiar character of the Dobie. He considers it merely another name for the Barguest, of whom more hereafter; and mentions that he has been informed of some familiars of the name of Dobie, who carried in their armorial bearings a phantom or spectre passant (Demonology and Witchcraft, Letter iii.) In a note to Canto 2 of Rokeby, he tells of the Dobie of Mortham, who haunts Greta Dell; but calls it a female spectre, the ghost of a lady formerly murdered in the wood.

Note 2: Danish tradition goes so far back as to state the origin of the different kinds of sprites. It is said in Jutland, that when Our Lord cast the fallen angels out of heaven, some of them fell down on the mounds or barrows, and became Barrow-folk, or (as they are also called) Mount-folk, or Hill-folk; others fell into the Elf-moors, and became the progenitors of the Elf-folk; while others fell into dwellings, from whom descend the domestic sprites or Nissir--the Brownies, in fact. Another Danish legend is as follows. While Eve was one day washing her children by a spring, Our Lord unexpectedly appeared before her; she was terrified, and concealed those of her children which were not yet washed. Our Lord asked her if all her children were there, and to avoid His anger, in case He should see that all her children were not washed, she answered `Yes.' Then Our Lord declared that what she had concealed from Him should thenceforth be concealed from mankind, and at the same moment the unclean children disappeared and were buried under the hills. From these descend all the underground folk--Trolls, Elfs, &c.--(Thorpe's Mythology, vol. ii. p. 115).

Note 3: Thorpe's Mythology, vol. ii. p. 94.

Note 4: Thorpe's Mythology, vol. iii. p. 191.

Note 5: Border Minstrelsy, vol. i. p. 205.

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