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Huar Prownie coad agus curochd, Agus cha dian Prownie opar tullidh. Brownie has got a cowl and a coat, And never more will work a jot. STEWART
Colonies of Gothic Fairies, it would appear, early established themselves in the Highlands, and almost every Lowland, German, and Scandinavian Fairy or Dwarf-tale will there find its fellow. Gaelic Fairies dance and sing, lend and borrow, and they make cloth and shoes in an amazingly short space of time. They make their "raids" upon the low country, and carry off woman and children; they fetch midwives to assist at the birth of their children, and mortals have spent a night at the fairy revels, and next morning found that the night had extended a hundred years.
The Gael call the Fairies Daoine Shi' (note 1), and their habitations Shians, or Tomhans. These are a sort of turrets, resembling masses of rock or hillocks. By day they are indistinguishable, but at night they are frequently lit up with great splendour.
These Daoine Shi' are very handsome in their persons, and usually attired in green.
Brownie, too, "shows his honest face" in the Highlands; and the mischievous water Kelpie also appears in his equine form, and seeks to decoy unwary persons to mount him, that he may plunge with his rider into the neighbouring loch or river.
The Highlanders have the same ideas respecting the seals that their Shetland neighbours have.
Those anxious for particulars of the Highland Fairies will meet full and satisfactory information in Mr. Stewart's work on "The Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders" (note 2).
Note 1: Men of Peace, perhaps the Stille-folk, Still-people. Our stock of Irish or Erse is marvellously slender, yet we venture to doubt the correctness of this explication. Daoine Shi' is perhaps merely Fairy-people (See Ireland, note 2).
Note 2: Edinburgh, 1823.