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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:13:38 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:13:38 -0700 |
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diff --git a/39782-h/39782-h.htm b/39782-h/39782-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..173a844 --- /dev/null +++ b/39782-h/39782-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4355 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Brownies and Bogles, by Louise Imogen Guiney. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .copyright {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + .small {font-size: 70%;} + .big {font-size: 110%;} + .adtitle2 {font-size: 150%; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} + .adtitle {font-size: 200%; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} + + .author {font-size: 120%; text-align: center;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .chaptertitle {text-align: center; font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 1.5em;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: 90%;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; text-align: left;} + .sig {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;} + + .hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + .cap:first-letter {float: left; clear: left; margin: -0.2em 0.1em 0; margin-top: 0%; + padding: 0; line-height: .75em; font-size: 300%; text-align: justify;} + .cap {text-align: justify;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Brownies and Bogles, by Louise Imogen Guiney + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Brownies and Bogles + +Author: Louise Imogen Guiney + +Illustrator: Edmund H. Garrett + +Release Date: May 24, 2012 [EBook #39782] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROWNIES AND BOGLES *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 389px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="389" height="600" alt="Cover" /> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 404px;"><a id="frontis"></a> +<img src="images/i_002.png" width="404" height="600" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">THE LITTLE "NECK" IN THE SWEDISH RIVER.</span> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + + +<h1>BROWNIES AND BOGLES</h1> + +<div class='center'>BY<br /> +<span class='author'>LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY</span><br /> + + +<span class='small'>Author of</span><br /> +<span class='small'>Songs at the Start</span><br /> +<span class='small'>Goose-Quill Papers</span><br /> +<span class='small'>The White Sail</span><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +<i>Fifty Illustrations by Edmund H Garrett</i><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /> +BOSTON<br /> +<span class='big'>D LOTHROP COMPANY</span><br /> +<span class='small'>FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS</span><br /> +</div><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class='copyright'> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1888,<br /> +by<br /> +D. Lothrop Company.</span><br /> +<br /> +PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, BOSTON.<br /> +</div><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER I.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">WHAT FAIRIES WERE AND WHAT THEY DID </td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER II.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">FAIRY RULERS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER III.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE BLACK ELVES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE LIGHT ELVES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER V.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">DEAR BROWNIE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">OTHER HOUSE-HELPERS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER VII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>WATER-FOLK</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">MISCHIEF-MAKERS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER IX.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">PUCK; AND POETS' FAIRIES</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER X.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">CHANGELINGS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER XI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">FAIRYLAND</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan='2'><br />CHAPTER XII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE PASSING OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> +<tr><td align="left">The little river-neck of Sweden</td><td align="right"><i><a href="#frontis">Frontis.</a></i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"God speed you, gentlemen!"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Neapolitan fairy</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The elf-monarch who was made court-fool</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Isle of Rügen Dwarfs that give presents to children</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Dwarf that borrowed the silk gown</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Black Dwarfs of Rügen planning mischief</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Troll's children</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">A Coblynau</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"I can't stay any longer!"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">An elle-maid of Denmark</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Bertha, the White Lady</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Some Greek fairies</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">An elf-traveller</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Brownie's delight was to do domestic service</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Brownie relishes his bowl of cream</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">All that <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Puck'">Pück</ins> demanded</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"Wag-at-the-<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'wa'">Wa</ins>'"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">An Irish Cluricaune</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Japanese children and Brownies</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>A little Fir-Darrig</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The persistent Kobold of <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Kopenick'">Köpenick</ins></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Mer-folk</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The old Nix near Ghent</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The work of the Nickel</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Hob in Hobhole</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Irish Pooka was a horse too</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Will o'-the-Wisp</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Pisky also chased the farmers' cows</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Red Comb was a tyrant</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Welsh Puck</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_126">126</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">A merry night-wanderer</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"By the moon we sport and play"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The elves whose little eyes glow</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">There was an Irish <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'changling'">changeling</ins></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"The acorn before the oak have I seen"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">She heard a faint voice singing under a leaf</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"Ainsel"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Gitto Bach and the fairies</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Kaguyahime, the moon-maid</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The little hunchback</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Taknakaux'">Taknakanx</ins> Kan</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"Al was this loud fulfilled of faeries"</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Fairy stories</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The capture of Skillywidden</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Good-bye</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2>BROWNIES AND BOGLES.</h2> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>"BROWNIES AND BOGLES."</h2> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>WHAT FAIRIES WERE AND WHAT THEY DID.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>A FAIRY is a humorous person sadly out of +fashion at present, who has had, nevertheless, +in the actors' phrase, a long and prosperous +run on this planet. When we speak of fairies +nowadays, we think only of small sprites who +live in a kingdom of their own, with manners, laws, +and privileges very different from ours. But there +was a time when "fairy" suggested also the knights +and ladies of romance, about whom fine spirited +tales were told when the world was younger. +Spenser's Faery Queen, for instance, deals with +dream-people, beautiful and brave, as do the old +stories of Arthur and Roland; people who either<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +never lived, or who, having lived, were glorified +and magnified by tradition out of all kinship with +common men. Our fairies are fairies in the modern +sense. We will make it a rule, from the beginning, +that they must be small, and we will put +out any who are above the regulation height. +Such as the charming famous Melusina, who +wails upon her tower at the death of a Lusignan, +we may as well skip; for she is a tall young +lady, with a serpent's tail, to boot, and thus, +alas! half-monster; for if we should accept any +like her in our plan, there is no reason why we +should not get confused among mermaids and +dryads, and perhaps end by scoring down great +Juno herself as a fairy! Many a dwarf and goblin, +whom we shall meet anon, is as big as a +child. Again, there are rumors in nearly every +country of finding hundreds of them on a square +inch of oak-leaf, or beneath the thin shadow of a +blade of grass. The fairies of popular belief are +little and somewhat shrivelled, and quite as apt to +be malignant as to be frolicsome and gentle. We +shall find that they were divided into several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +classes and families; but there is much analogy +and vagueness among these divisions. By and by +you may care to study them for yourselves; at +present, we shall be very high-handed with the +science of folk-lore, and pay no attention whatever +to learned gentlemen, who quarrel so foolishly +about these things that it is not helpful, nor even +funny, to listen to them. A widely-spread notion +is that when our crusading forefathers went to +the Holy Land, they heard the Paynim soldiers, +whom they fought, speaking much of the Peri, the +loveliest beings imaginable, who dwelt in the East. +Now, the Arabian language, which these swarthy +warriors used, has no letter P, and therefore they +called their spirits Feri, as did the Crusaders after +them; and the word went back with them to Europe, +and slipped into general use.</div> + +<p>"Elf" and "goblin," too, are interesting to +trace. There was a great Italian feud, in the +twelfth century, between the German Emperor and +the Pope, whose separate partisans were known as +the Guelfs and the Ghibellines. As time went on, +and the memory of that long strife was still fresh,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +a descendant of the Guelfs would put upon anybody +he disliked the odious name of Ghibelline; +and the latter, generation after generation, would +return the compliment ardently, in his own fashion. +Both terms, finally, came to be mere catch-words +for abuse and reproach. And the fairies, falling +into disfavor with some bold mortals, were angrily +nicknamed "elf" and "goblin"; in which shape +you will recognize the last threadbare reminder of +the once bitter and historic faction of Guelf and +Ghibelline.</p> + +<p>It is likely that the tribe were designated as fairies +because they were, for the most part, fair to +see, and full of grace and charm, especially among +the Celtic branches; and people, at all times, had +too much desire to keep their good-will, and too +much shrinking from their rancor and spite, to +give them any but the most flattering titles. They +were seldom addressed otherwise than "the little +folk," "the kind folk," "the gentry," "the fair +family," "the blessings of their mothers," and "the +dear wives"; just as, thousands of years back, +the noblest and cleverest nation the world has ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +seen, called the dreaded Three "Eumenides," the +gracious ones. It is a sure and fast maxim that +wheedling human nature puts on its best manners +when it is afraid. In Goldsmith's racy play, She +Stoops to Conquer, old Mistress Hardcastle meets +what she takes to be a robber. She hates robbers, +of course, and is scared half out of her five wits; +but she implores mercy with a cowering politeness +at which nobody can choose but laugh, of her "good +Mr. Highwayman." Now, fairies, who knew how to +be bountiful and tender, and who made slaves of +themselves to serve men and women, as we shall +see, were easily offended, and wrought great mischief +and revenge if they were not treated handsomely; +all of which kept people in the habit of +courtesy toward them. A whirlwind of dust is a +very annoying thing, and makes one splutter, and +feel absurdly resentful; but in Ireland, exactly as +in modern Greece, the peasantry thought that it +betokened the presence of fairies going a journey; +so they lifted their hats gallantly, and said: "God +speed you, gentlemen!"</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 371px;"> +<img src="images/i_016.png" width="371" height="354" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">"GOD SPEED YOU, GENTLEMEN!"</span> +</div> + +<p>Fairies had their followers and votaries from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +early times. Nothing in the Bible hints that they +were known among the heathens with whom the +Israelites warred; nothing in classic mythology +has any approach to them, except the beautiful +wood and water-nymphs. Yet poet Homer, Pliny +the scientist, and Aristotle the philosopher, had +some notion of them, and of their influence. In old +China, whole mountains were peopled with them, +and the coriander-seeds grown in their gardens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +gave long life to those who ate of them. The +Persians had a hierarchy of elves, and were the +first to set aside Fairyland as their dwelling-place. +Saxons, in their wild forests, believed in tiny +dwarves or demons called Duergar. Celtic countries, +Scotland, Brittany, Ireland, Wales, were +always crowded with them. In the "uttermost +mountains of India, under a merry part of heaven," +or by the hoary Nile, according to other writers, +were the Pigmeos, one cubit high, full-grown at +three years, and old at seven, who fought with +cranes for a livelihood. And the Swiss alchemist, +Paracelsus (a most pompous and amusing old bigwig), +wrote that in his day all Germany was filled +with fairies two feet long, walking about in little +coats!</p> + +<p>Their favorite color, noticeably in Great Britain, +was green; the majority of them wore it, and +grudged its adoption by a mortal. Sir Walter +Scott tells us that it was a fatal hue to several +families in his country, to the entire gallant race +of Grahames in particular; for in battle a Grahame +was almost always shot through the green<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +check of his plaid. French fairies went in white; +the Nis of Jutland, and many other house-sprites, +in red and gray, or red and brown; and the plump +Welsh goblins, whose holiday dress was also white, +in the gayest and most varied tints of all. In +North Wales were "the old elves of the blue petticoat"; +in Cardiganshire was the familiar green +again, though it was never seen save in the month +of May; and in Pembrokeshire, a uniform of jolly +scarlet gowns and caps. The fairy gentlemen +were quite as much given to finery as the ladies, +and their general air was one of extreme cheerful +dandyism. Only the mine and ground-fairies +were attired in sombre colors. Indeed, their idea +of clothes was delightfully liberal; an elf bespoke +himself by what he chose to wear; and fashions +ranged all the way from the sprites of the Orkney +Islands, who strutted about in armor, to the little +Heinzelmänchen of Cologne, who scorned to be +burdened with so much as a hat!</p> + +<p>People accounted in strange ways for their +origin. A legend, firmly held in Iceland, says that +once upon a time Eve was washing a number of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +her children at a spring, and when the Lord appeared +suddenly before her, she hustled and hid +away those who were not already clean and presentable; +and that they being made forever invisible +after, became the ancestors of the "little +folk," who pervade the hills and caves and ruins +to this day. In Ireland and Scotland fairies were +spoken of as a wandering remnant of the fallen +angels. The Christian world over, they were +deemed either for a while, or perpetually, to be +locked out from the happiness of the blessed in +the next world. The Bretons thought their Korrigans +had been great Gallic princesses, who refused +the new faith, and clung to their pagan gods, +and fell under a curse because of their stubbornness. +The Small People of Cornwall, too, were +imagined to be the ancient inhabitants of that +country, long before Christ was born, not good +enough for Heaven, and yet too good to be condemned +altogether, whose fate it is to stray about, +growing smaller and smaller, until by and by they +vanish from the face of the earth.</p> + +<p>Therefore the poor fairy-folk, with whom theology<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +deals so rudely, were supposed to be tired +waiting, and anxious to know how they might fare +everlastingly; and they waylaid many mortals, +who, of course, really could tell them nothing, to +ask whether they might not get into Heaven, by +chance, at the end. It was their chief cause of +doubt and melancholy, and ran in their little +minds from year to year. And since we shall revert +no more to the sad side of fairy-life, let us +close with a most sweet story of something which +happened in Sweden, centuries ago.</p> + +<p>Two boys were gambolling by a river, when a +Neck rose up to the air, smiling, and twanging +his harp. The elder child watched him, and cried +mockingly: "Neck! what is the good of your sitting +there and playing? You will never be saved!" +And the Neck's sensitive eyes filled with tears, +and, dropping his harp, he sank forlornly to the +bottom. But when the brothers had gone home, +and told their wise and saintly father, he said they +had been thoughtlessly unkind; and he bade them +hurry back to the river, and comfort the little water-spirit. +From afar off they saw him again on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +surface, weeping bitterly. And they called to him: +"Dear Neck! do not grieve; for our father says +that your Redeemer liveth also." Then he threw +back his bright head, and, taking his harp, sang +and played with exceeding gladness until sunset +was long past, and the first star sent down its +benediction from the sky.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>FAIRY RULERS.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>THE forming of character among the fairy-folk +was a very simple and sensible matter. +You will imagine that the Pagan, Druid and Christian +elves varied greatly. And they did; still +their morals had nothing to do with it, nor pride, +nor patriotism, nor descent, nor education; nor +would all the philosophy you might crowd into a +thimble have made one bee-big resident of Japan +different from a man of his own size in Spain.</div> + +<p>They saved themselves no end of trouble by +setting up the local barometer as their standard. +The only Bible they knew was the weather, and +they followed it stoutly. Whatever the climate +was, whatever it had helped to make the grown-up +nation who lived under it, that, every time, were +the "brownies and bogles." Where the land was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +rocky and grim, and subject to wild storms and +sudden darknesses, the fairies were grim and wild +too, and full of wicked tricks. Where the landscape +was level and green, and the crops grew +peacefully, they were tame, as in central England, +and inclined to be sentimental.</p> + +<p>And they copied the distinguishing traits of the +race among whom they dwelt. A frugal Breton +fairy spoke the Breton dialect; the Neapolitan +had a tooth for fruits and macaroni; the Chinese +was ceremonious and stern; a true Provençal +fée was as vain as a peacock, flirting a mirror before +her, and an Irish elf, bless his little red +feathered caubeen! was never the man to run +away from a fight.</p> + +<p>If you look on the map, and see a section of +coast-line like that of Cornwall or Norway, a sunshiny, +perilous, foamy place, make up your mind +that the fairies thereabouts were fellows worth +knowing; that you would have needed all your wit +and pluck to get the better of them, and that they +would have made live, hearty playmates, too, while +in good humor, for any brave boy or girl.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + +<p>We do not know nearly so much about the genuine +fairies as we should like. They must have +been, at one time or another, in every European +country. Most of the Oriental spirits were taller, +and of another brood; they figured either as demons, +or as what we should now call angels. But +in the Germanic colonies, from very old days, +fairy-lore was finely developed, and we count up +tribe on tribe of necks, nixies, stromkarls and mermaids, +who were water-sprites; of bergmännchen +(little men of the mountain), and lovely wild-women +in hilly places; of trolls around the woods and +rocks; of elves in the air, and gnomes or duergars +in caverns or mines. Yet from Portugal, and +Russia, and Hungary, and from our own North +American Indians, we learn so little that it is +not worth counting.</p> + +<p>If the good dear peasants who were acquainted +with the fairies had made more rhymes about them, +and handed them down more attentively; if it had +occurred to the knowing scholar-monks to keep +diaries of elfin doings, as it would have done had +they but known how soon their little friends were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +to be extinct, like the glyptodon and the dodo, +how wise should we not be!</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 380px;"> +<img src="images/i_025.png" width="380" height="406" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">THE NEAPOLITAN FAIRY.</span> +</div> + +<p>But again, though there were hosts of supernatural +beings in the beliefs of every old land, we +have no business with any but the wee ones. +And as these were settled most thickly in the +Teutonic, Celtic and Cymric countries, we will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +turn our curiosity thither, without farther grumbling, +and be glad to get so much authentic news +of them as we may.</p> + +<p>Fairies, as a whole, seem at bottom rather weak +and disconsolate. For all of their magic and cunning, +for all of their high station, and its feasting +and glory, they could not keep from seeking human +sympathy. They did, indeed, hurt men, resent intrusions, +foretell the future, and call down disease +and storm, but they stood in awe of the weakest +mortal because of his superior strength and size; +they came to him to borrow food and medicine, and +even to ask the loan of his house for their revels. +They rendered themselves invisible, but he had +always at his feet the fern-seed, the talisman of +four-leaved clover (or, as in Scotland, the leaf of +the ash or rowan-tree), with which he could defeat +their design, and protect himself against the attacks +of any witch, imp, or fairy whatsoever.</p> + +<p>Their government was a happy-go-lucky affair. +The various tribes of fairies had no common interests +which would make them sigh for post-offices, +or cables, or general synods. Each set of them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +got along, independent of the rest. Once in a +while a mine-man would live alone with his wife, +pegging away at his daily work, without any idea +of hurrahing for his King or, more likely, his +Queen; or even of hunting up his own cousins in +the next county.</p> + +<p>If we had elves in the United States nowadays, +they would no doubt be American enough to elect +a President and have him as honest, and steady, +and sound-hearted as needs be. But dwelling as +they did in feudal days, they set up thrones and +sceptres all over Fairydom.</p> + +<p>According to the poets, Mab and Oberon are +the crowned rulers of the little people. In reality, +they had no supreme head. Among many parties +and factions, each small agreeing community had +its own chief, the tallest of his race, who was no +chief at all, mind you, to the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'airy'">fairy</ins> neighbors a mile +east. The delicate yellow Chinese fairy-mother +was Si Wang Mu; and in the Netherlands, the +elf-queen, who was also queen of the witches, was +called Wanne Thekla.</p> + +<p>We snatch an item here and there of the royal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +histories. We find that the sweet-natured Elberich +in the Niebelungen is the same as Oberon. In +Germany was a dwarf-king named Goldemar, who +lived with a knight, shared his bed, played at dice +with him, gave him good advice, called him Brother-in-law +very fondly, and comforted him with the +music of his harp. But Goldemar, though the +knight loved him and could touch and feel him, +was unseen. He was like a wreath of blue smoke, +or a fragment of moonlight, and you could run a +sword through him, and never change his kind +smile. His royal hands were lean, and soft, and +cold as a frog's. After three years, perhaps when +Brother-in-law was dead, or when he was married, +and needed him no longer, the gentle dwarf-king +disappeared.</p> + +<p>Sinnels, Gübich, and Heiling were other dwarf-princes, +probably rivals of Goldemar, and ready +to have at him till their breath gave out. Their +little majesties were quarrelsome as cock-sparrows. +The elf-monarch Laurîn was once conquered by +Theodoric; and because he had been treacherous +in war (which was not "fair" at all, despite the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +proverb), he got a very sad rebuff to his dignity, +in being made fool or buffoon at the court of +Bern.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 239px;"> +<img src="images/i_029.png" width="239" height="359" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">THE ELF-MONARCH WHO WAS MADE +COURT-FOOL.</span> +</div> + +<p>We are told in +the Mabinogion +how the daughter +of Llud Llaw +Ereint was "the +most splendid +maiden in the +three islands of +the mighty," and +how for her Gwyn +ap Nudd, the +Welsh fairy-king, +battles every +May-day from +dawn until sunset. Gwyn once carried her off +from Gwythyr, her true lord; and both lovers +were so furious and cruel against each other that +blessed King Arthur condemned them to wage +bitter fight on each first-of-May till the world's +end; and to whomsoever is victorious the greatest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +number of times, the fair lady shall then be +given. Let us hope the reward will not fall to +thieving Gwyn.</p> + +<p>We have said that we should do pretty much as +we pleased in ranging the myriad fairy-folk into +ranks and species. If, as we prowl about, we see +a baby in the house of the Elfsmiths, who has a +look of the Elfbrowns, we will immediately kidnap +him from his fond parents, and add him to the +family he resembles. Now that might make wailing +and confusion, and bring down vengeance on +our heads, if there were any Queen Mab left to +rap us to order; but as things go, we shall find it +a very neat way of smoothing difficulties.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 388px;"> +<img src="images/i_031.png" width="388" height="363" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">THE ISLE OF <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'RUGEN'">RÜGEN</ins> DWARVES THAT GIVE PRESENTS TO +CHILDREN.</span> +</div> + +<p>Of course there are certain pigwidgeons too accomplished, +too slippery, too many things in one, +to be ticketed and tied down like the rest; such +versatile fellows as the Brown Dwarves of the Isle +of Rügen, for instance. They lived in what were +called the Vine-hills, and were not quite eighteen +inches high. They wore little snuff-brown jackets +and a brown cap (which made them invisible, +and allowed them to pass through the smallest keyhole),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +with one wee silver bell at its peak, not to +be lost for any money. But they did some roguish +things; and children who fell into their hands +had to serve them for fifty years! With caprice +usual to their kin, they will, on other occasions, +befriend and protect children, and give them presents; +or plague untidy servants, like Brownie, or +lead travellers astray by night into bogs and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +marshes, like the Ellydan and the Fir-Darrig, and +mischievous double-faced Robin Goodfellow himself.</p> + +<p>An ancient tradition says that while the grass-blades +are sprouting at the root, the earth-elves +water and nourish them; and the moment the +growth pierces the soil, affectionate air-elves take +it in charge. Therefore we borrow a hint from +the grass; and after first going down among the +swarthy fairies who burrow underground, we shall +pass up to companionship with little beings so +beautiful that wherever they flock there is starlight +and song.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE BLACK ELVES.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>ACCORDING to the very old Scandinavian +notion, land-fairies were of two sorts; the +Light or Good Elves who dwelt in air, or out-of-doors +on the earth, and the Black or Evil Elves +who dwelt beneath it.</div> + +<p>We will follow the Norse folk. If we were required +to group human beings under two headings, +we should choose that same Good and Evil, because +the division occurs to one naturally, because +it saves time, and because everybody comprehends +it, and sees that it is based upon law; and so do +we deal with our wonder-friends, who have the +strange moral sorcery belonging to each of us their +masters, to help or to harm.</p> + +<p>The evil fairies, then, were the scowling underground +tribes, who hid themselves from the frank<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +daylight, and the open reaches of the fields. Yet +just as the good fairies had many a sad failing +to offset their grace and charm, the grim, dark-skinned +manikins had sudden impulses towards +honor and kindness. In fact, as we noted before, +they were astonishingly like our fellow-creatures, +of whom scarce any is entirely faultless, or entirely +warped and ruined.</p> + +<p>For instance, the Hill-men, in Switzerland, were +very generous-minded; they drove home stray +lambs at night, and put berry-bushes in the way +of poor children. And the more modern Dwarves +of Germany, frequenting the clefts of rocks, were +silent, mild, and well-disposed, and apt to bring +presents to those who took their fancy. Like +others of the elf-kingdom, they loved to borrow +from mortals. Once a little bowing Dwarf came +to a lady for the loan of her silk gown for a fairy-bride. +(You can imagine that, at the ceremony, +the groom must have had a pretty hunt among the +wilderness of finery to get at her ring-finger!) +Of course the lady gave it; but worrying over its +tardy return, she went to the Dwarves' hill and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +asked for it aloud. A messenger with a sorrowful +countenance brought it to her at once, spotted +over and over with wax. But he told her that +had she been less impatient every stain would +have been a diamond!</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 370px;"> +<img src="images/i_035.png" width="370" height="416" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">THE DWARF THAT BORROWED THE SILK GOWN.</span> +</div> + +<p>The huge, terrible, ogre-like Hindoo Rakshas, +the weird Divs and Jinns of Persia, and the ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +demon-dwarves of the south called Panis, +may be considered the foster-parents of our dwindled +minims, as the glorious Peris on the other +hand gave their name, and some of their qualities, +to a little European family of very different ancestry.</p> + +<p>The Black Elves will serve as our general name +for dwarves and mine-fairies. These are closely +connected in all legends, live in the same neighborhoods, +and therefore claim a mention together. +They have four points in common: dark skin; +short, bulky bodies; fickle and irritable natures; +and occupations as miners, misers, or metalsmiths. +And because of their exceeding industry, +on the old maxim's authority, where all work and +no play made Jack a dull boy, they are curiously +heavy-headed and preposterous jacks; and, waiving +their plain faces, not in any wise engaging. +Yet perhaps, being largely German, they may be +philosophers, and so vastly superior to any little +gabbling, somersaulting ragamuffin over in Ireland.</p> + +<p>In the Middle Ages, they were described as +withered and leering, with small, sharp, snapping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +black eyes, bright as gems; with cracked voices, +and matted hair, and horns peering from it! and +as if that were not enough adornment, they had +claws, which must have been filched from the +ghosts of mediæval pussy-cats, on their fingers +and toes.</p> + +<p>The first Duergars belonging to the Gotho-German +mythology, were muscular and strong-legged; +and when they stood erect, their arms reached to +the ground. They were clever and expert handlers +of metal, and made of gold, silver and iron, +the finest armor in the world. They wrought for +Odin his great spear, and for Thor his hammer, +and for Frey the wondrous ship <i>Skidbladnir</i>.</p> + +<p>Long ago, too, armor-making Elves, black as +pitch, lived in Svart-Alfheim, in the bowels of the +earth, and were able, by their glance or touch or +breath, to cause sickness and death wheresoever +they wished.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 379px;"> +<img src="images/i_038.png" width="379" height="298" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">THE BLACK DWARVES OF <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'RUGEN'">RÜGEN</ins> PLANNING MISCHIEF.</span> +</div> + +<p>Still uglier were the Black Dwarves of the mysterious +Isle of Rügen; nor had they any frolicsome +or cordial ways which should bring up our +opinion of them. Their pale eyes ran water, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +every midnight they mewed and screeched horribly +from their holes. In idle summer-hours they +sat under the elder-trees, planning by twos <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'and and'">and</ins> +threes to wreak mischief on mankind. They, +as well, were once useful, if not beautiful; for in +the days when heroes wore a panoply of steel, the +Black Dwarves wrought fair helmets and corselets +of cobwebby mail which no lance could pierce, +and swords flexible as silk which could unhorse +the mightiest foe. The little blackamoors frequented +mining districts, and dug for ore on their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +own account. They were said to be very rich, +owning unnumbered chests stored underground. +The most exciting tales about gnomes of all nations +were founded on the efforts of daring mortals +to get possession of their wealth.</p> + +<p>To the mining division belong the dwarf-Trolls +of Denmark and Sweden (for there were giant-Trolls +as well), and the whimsical Spriggans of +Cornwall. The Trolls burrowed in mounds and +hills, and were called also Bjerg-folk or Hill-folk; +they lived in societies or families, baking and brewing, +marrying and visiting, in the old humdrum +way. They made fortunes, and hoarded up heaps +of money. But they were often obliging and benevolent; +it gave them pleasure to bestow gifts, +to lend and borrow, and sometimes, alas! to steal. +They played prettily on musical instruments, and +were very jolly. People used to see the stumpy +little children of the genteel Troll who lived at +Kund in Jutland, climbing up the knoll which +was the roof of their own house, and rolling down +one after the other with shouts of laughter. The +Trolls were famous gymnasts, and very plump and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +round. Our word "droll" is left to us in merry +remembrance of them.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 378px;"> +<img src="images/i_040.png" width="378" height="369" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">THE TROLL'S CHILDREN.</span> +</div> + +<p>They were tractable creatures, as you may know +from the tale of the farmer, who, ploughing an +angry Troll's land, agreed, for the sake of peace, +to go halves in the crops sown upon it, so that +one year the Troll should have what grew above +ground, and the next year what grew under. But +the sly farmer planted radishes and carrots, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +the Troll took the tops; and the following season +he planted corn; and his queer partner gathered +up the roots and marched off in triumph. Indeed, +it was so easy to outwit the simple Troll +that a generous farmer would never have played +the game out, and we should have lost our little +story. It was mean to take advantage of the sweet +fellow's trustfulness. There was an English schoolmaster +once, a man wise, firm, and kind, and of +vast influence, of whom one of his boys said to +another: "It's a shame to tell a lie to Arnold; he +always believes it." That was a ray of real chivalry.</p> + +<p>The Spriggans were fond of dwelling near walls +and loose stones, with which it was unlucky to +tamper, and where they slipped in and out with +suspicious eyes, guarding their buried treasure. +If a house was robbed, or the cattle were carried +away, or a hurricane swooped down on a Cornish +village, the neighbors attributed their trouble to +the Spriggans; whereby you may believe they +had fine reputations for meddlesomeness. Their +cousins, the Buccas, Bockles or Knockers, were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +gentlemen who went about thumping and rapping +wherever there was a vein of ore for the +weary workmen, cheating, occasionally, to break +the monotony.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 172px;"> +<img src="images/i_042.png" width="172" height="239" alt="Coblynau wiht pickaxe" /> +<span class="caption">A COBLYNAU.</span> +</div> + +<p>The Welsh Coblynau followed the same profession, +and pointed out +the desired places in +mines and quarries. +The Coblynau were copper-colored, +and very +homely, as were all the +pigmies who lived away +from the sun; they were +busybodies, half-a-yard +high, who imitated the +dress of their friends the miners, and pegged away +at the rocks, like them, with great noise and gusto, +accomplishing nothing. Their houses were far-removed +from mortal vision, and unlike certain +proper children, now obsolete, the Coblynau themselves +were generally heard, but not seen.</p> + +<p>Their German relation was the Wichtlein (little +wight) an extremely small fellow, whom the Bohemians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +named Hans-schmiedlein (little John Smith!) +because he makes a noise like the stroke of an +anvil.</p> + +<p>Dwarves and mine-men went about, unfailingly, +with a purseful of gold. But if anyone snatched +it from them, only stones and twine and a pair of +scissors were to be found in it. The Leprechaun, +or Cluricaune, whom we shall meet later as the +fairy-cobbler, was an Irish celebrity who knew +where pots of guineas were hidden, and who carried +in his pocket a shilling often-spent and ever-renewed. +He looked, in this banker-like capacity, +a clumsy small boy, dressed in various ways, sometimes +in a long coat and cocked hat, unlike the +Danish Troll, who kept to homely gray, with the +universal little red cap. Even the respectable +Kobold, who was, virtually, a house-spirit, caught +the fever of fortune-hunting, and often threw up +his domestic duties to seek the fascinating nuggets +in the mines.</p> + +<p>There is a funny anecdote of a Troll who, as +was common with his race, cunningly concealed +his prize under the shape of a coal. Now a peasant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +on his way to church one bright Sunday +morning saw him trying vainly to move a couple +of crossed straws which had blown upon his coal; +for anything in the shape of a cross seemed to +shrivel up an elf's power in the most startling +manner. So the little sprite turned, half-crying, +and begged the peasant to move the straws for +him. But the man was too shrewd for that, and +took up the coal, straws and all, and ran, despite +the poor Troll's screaming, and saw, on reaching +home, that he had captured a lump of solid gold.</p> + +<p>All Black Elves were particular about their +neighborhoods, and a whole colony would migrate +at once if they took the least offence, or if the +villagers about got "too knowing" for them. +(An American poet once wrote a sonnet "To +Science," in which he berated her for having +made him "too knowing," and for having driven</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">—"the Naiad from her flood</span><br /> +The elfin from the green grass";<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and it was in consequence of his very knowingness, +no doubt, that, beauty-loving and marvel-loving +as were his sensitive eyes, they never saw so much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +as the vanishing shadow of a fairy.) A little +dwarf-woman told two young Bavarians that she +intended to leave her favorite dwelling, because +of the shocking cursing and swearing of the country-people! +But they were not all so godly.</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 191px;"> +<img src="images/i_045.png" width="191" height="192" alt="crying male fairy" /> +<span class="caption">"I CAN'T STAY ANY LONGER!"</span> +</div> + +<p>Ever since the great god Thor threw his hammer +at the Trolls, they have hated noise as much +as Mr. Thomas Carlyle, who, however, made +Thor's own bluster in the world himself. They +sought sequestered places that they might not be +disturbed. The Prussian mites near Dardesheim +were frightened away by the forge and the factory. +Above all else, church-bells distressed them, and +spoiled their tempers. +A huckster once +passed a Danish Troll, +sitting disconsolately +on a stone, and asked +him what the matter +might be. "I hate to +leave this country," +blubbered the fat mourner, "but I can't stay where +there is such an eternal ringing and dinging!"</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE LIGHT ELVES.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>OVER the beautiful Light Elves of the <i>Edda</i>, +in old Scandinavia, ruled the beloved sun-god +Frey; and they lived in a summer land called +Alfheim, and it was their office to sport in air or +on the leaves of trees, and to make the earth +thrive.</div> + +<p>But they changed character as centuries passed; +and they came to resemble the fairies of Great +Britain in their extreme waywardness and fickleness. +For though they were fair and benevolent +most of the time, they could be, when it so pleased +them, ugly and hurtful; and what they could be, +they very often were; for fairies were not expected +to keep a firm rein on their moods and tempers.</p> + +<p>Norwegian peasants described some of their +Huldrafolk as tiny bare boys, with tall hats; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +in Sweden, as well, they were slender and delicate. +When a Swedish elf-maid or moon-maid wished +to approach the inmates of a house, she rode on +a sunbeam through the keyhole, or between the +openings in a shutter.</p> + +<p>The German wild-women were like them, going +about alone, and having fine hair flowing to their +feet. They had some odd traits, one of which was +sermonizing! and exhorting stray mortals who had +done them a service, to lead a godly life.</p> + +<p>The elle-maid in Denmark and in neighboring +countries was always winsome and graceful, and +carried an enchanted harp. She loved moonlight +best, and was a charming dancer. But her evil +element was in her very beauty, with which she entrapped +foolish young gentlemen, and waylaid them, +and carried them off who knows whither? She +could be detected by the shape of her back, it +being hollow, like a spoon; which was meant to +show that there was something wrong with her, +and that she was not what she seemed, but fit +only for the abhorrence of passers-by. The elle-man, +her mate, was old and ill-favored, a disagreeable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +person; for if any one came near him +while he was bathing in the sun, he opened his +mouth and breathed pestilence upon them.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 354px;"> +<img src="images/i_048.png" width="354" height="449" alt="butterfly fairy sitting on crescent moon" /> +<span class="caption">AN ELLE-MAID, OF DENMARK.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 369px;"> +<img src="images/i_049.png" width="369" height="481" alt="fairy in white" /> +<span class="caption">BERTHA, THE WHITE LADY.</span> +</div> + +<p>A common trait of the air-fairies was to assist +at a birth and give the infant, at their will, good +and bad gifts. Dame Bertha, the White Lady of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +Germany, came to the birth of certain princely +babes, and the Korrigans made it a general practice. +Whenever they nursed or tended a new-born +mortal, bestowed presents on him and foretold +his destiny, one of the little people was almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +always perverse enough to bestow and foretell +something unfortunate. You all know Grimm's +beautiful tale of Dornröschen, which in English +we call The Sleeping Beauty, where the jealous +thirteenth fairy predicts the poor young lady's +spindle-wound. Around the famous Roche des +Fées in the forest of Theil, are those who believe +yet that the elves pass in and out at the chimneys, +on errands to little children.</p> + +<p>The modern Greek fairies haunted trees, danced +rounds, bathed in cool water, and carried off +whomsoever they coveted. A person offending +them in their own fields was smitten with disease.</p> + +<p>The Chinese Shan Sao were a foot high, lived +among the mountains, and were afraid of nothing. +They, too, were revengeful; for if they were attacked +or annoyed by mortals, they "caused them +to sicken with alternate heat and cold." Bonfires +were burnt to drive them away.</p> + +<p>The innocent White Dwarves of the Isle of +Rügen in the Baltic Sea, made lace-work of silver, +too fine for the eye to detect, all winter long; but +came idly out into the woods and fields with returning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +spring, leaping and singing, and wild with +affectionate joy. They were not allowed to ramble +about in their own shapes; therefore they +changed themselves to doves and butterflies, and +winged their way to good mortals, whom they +guarded from all harm.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 374px;"> +<img src="images/i_051.png" width="374" height="355" alt="two fairies in lotus blossoms" /> +<span class="caption">SOME GREEK FAIRIES.</span> +</div> + +<p>The Korrigans of Brittainy, mentioned a while +ago, were peculiar in many ways. They had beautiful +singing voices and bright eyes, but they never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +danced. They preferred to sit still at twilight, +like mermaids, combing their long golden hair. +The tallest of them was nearly two feet high, fair +as a lily, and transparent as dew itself, yet able +as the rest to seem dark, and humpy, and terrifying. +He who passed the night with them, or +joined in their sports, was sure to die shortly, +since their very breath or touch was fatal. And +again, as in the case of Seigneur Nann, about +whom a touching Breton ballad was made, they +doomed to death any who refused to marry one of +them within three days.</p> + +<p>Of the American Indian fairies we do not know +much. In Mr. Schoolcraft's books of Indian +legends there is a beautiful little Bone-dwarf, who +may almost be considered a fairy. In the land of +the Sioux they tell the pretty story of Antelope +and Karkapaha, and how the wee warrior-folk, +thronging on the hill, clad in deerskin, and armed +with feathered arrow and spear, put the daring +heart of a slain enemy into the breast of the timid +lover, Karkapaha, and made him worthy both to +win and keep his lovely maiden, and to deserve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +homage for his bravery, from her tribe and his. +Some of you will remember one thing against the +Puk-Wudjies, which is an Algonquin name meaning +"little vanishing folk," to wit: that they killed +Hiawatha's friend, "the very strong man Kwasind," +as our Longfellow called him. He had excited +their envy, and they flung on his head, as he +floated in his canoe, the only thing on earth that +could kill him, the seed-vessel of the white pine.</p> + +<p>The Scotch, Irish and English overground fairies +were, as a general thing, very much alike. +They had the power of becoming visible or invisible, +compressing or enlarging their size, and taking +any shape they pleased. When an Irish Shefro +was disturbed or angry, and wanted to get a house +or a person off her grounds, she put on the +strangest appearances: she could crow, spit fire, +slap a tail or a hoof about, grin like a dragon, or +give a frightful, weird, lion-like roar. Of course +the object of her polite attentions thought it best +to oblige her. If she and her companions were +anxious to enter a house, they lifted the spryest of +their number to the keyhole, and pushed him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +through. He carried a piece of string, which he +fastened to the inside knob, and the other end +to a chair or stool; and over this perilous bridge +the whole giggling tribe marched in one by one. +The Irish and Scotch fays were more mischievous +than the English, but have not fared so well, having +had no memorable verses made about them. +The little Scots were sometimes dwarfish wild +creatures, wrapped in their plaids, or, oftener, +comely and yellow-haired; the ladies in green +mantles, inlaid with wild-flowers; and dapper little +gentlemen in green trousers, fastened with bobs +of silk. They carried arrows, and went on tiny +spirited horses, as did the Welsh fairies, "the silver +bosses of their bridles jingling in the night-breeze." +An old account of Scotland says that +they were "clothed in green, with dishevelled hair +floating over their shoulders, and faces more blooming +than the vermeil blush of a summer morning."</p> + +<p>Their Welsh cousins were many. A native poet +once sang of them:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">——In every hollow,</span><br /> +A hundred wry-mouthed elves.<br /> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<div class='unindent'>They were queer little beings, and had notions of +what was decorous, for they combed the goats' +beards every Friday night, "to make them decent +for Sunday!" They were very quarrelsome; you +could hear them snarling and jabbering like jays +among themselves, so that in some parts of Wales +a proverb has arisen: "They can no more agree +than the fairies!" The inhabitants believed that +the midgets never had courage to go through the +gorse, or prickly furze, which is a common shrub +in that country. One sick old woman who was +bothered by the Tylwyth Teg ("the fair family") +souring her milk and spilling her tea, used to +choke up her room with the furze, and make such +a hedge about the bed, that nothing larger than a +needle could be so much as pointed at her. In +Breconshire the Tylwyth Teg gave loaves to the +peasantry, which, if they were not eaten then and +there in the dark, would turn in the morning into +toadstools! When Welsh fairies took it into their +heads to bestow food and money, very lazy people +were often supported in great style, without a +stroke of work. And the Tylwyth Teg loved to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +reward patience and generosity. They played +the harp continuously, and, on grand occasions, +the bugle; but if a bagpipe was heard among +them, that indicated a Scotch visitor from over +the border.</div> + +<p>King James <span class="smcap">i.</span> of England mentions in his +<i>Dæmonology</i> a "King and Queene of Phairie: sic +a jolie courte and traine as they had!" Nothing +could have exceeded the state and elegance of +their ceremonious little lives. According to a +sweet old play, they had houses made all of +mother-of-pearl, an ivory tennis-court, a nutmeg +parlor, a sapphire dairy-room, a ginger hall; chambers +of agate, kitchens of crystal, the jacks of +gold, the spits of Spanish needles! They dressed +in imported cobweb! with a four-leaved clover, +lined with a dog-tooth violet, for overcoat; and +they ate (think of eating such a pretty thing!) delicious +rainbow-tart, the trout-fly's gilded wing, and</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">——the broke heart of a nightingale</span><br /> +O'ercome with music.<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>But we never heard that Chinese or Scandinavian +elves could afford such luxury.</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<p>Their English dwellings were often in the bubble-castles +of sunny brooks; and the bright-jacketed +hobgoblins took their pleasure sitting under +toadstools, or paddling about in egg-shell boats, +playing jew's-harps large as themselves. Beside +the freehold of blossomy hillocks and dingles, +they had dells of their own, and palaces, with +everything lovely in them; and whatever they +longed for was to be had for the wishing. They +had fair gardens in clefts of the Cornish rocks, +where vari-colored flowers, only seen by moonlight, +grew; in these gardens they loved to walk, tossing +a posy to some mortal passing by; but if he ever +gave it away they were angry with him forever +after. They liked to fish; and the crews put out +to sea in funny uniforms of green, with red caps. +They travelled on a fern, a rush, a bit of weed, or +even boldly bestrode the bee and the dragon-fly; +and they went to the chase, as in the Isle of +Man, on full-sized horses whenever they could get +them! and when it came to time of war, their armies +laid-to like Alexander's own, with mushroom-shield +and bearded grass-blades for mighty spears,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +and honeysuckle trumpets braying furiously! +There are traditions of battles so vehement and +long that the cavalry trampled down the dews of +the mountain-side, +and sent many a +peerless fellow, at +every charge, to the +fairy hospitals and +cemeteries.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 210px;"> +<img src="images/i_058.png" width="210" height="272" alt="Fairy riding a bee" /> +<span class="caption">AN ELF-TRAVELLER.</span> +</div> + +<p>Their chief and all +but universal amusement, +sacred to moonlight +and music, was +dancing hand-in-hand; +and what was called a fairy-ring was the +swirl of grasses in a field taller and deeper green +than the rest, which was supposed to mark their +circling path. Inside these rings it was considered +very dangerous to sleep, especially after sundown. +If you put your foot within them, with a +companion's foot upon your own, the elfin tribe +became visible to you, and you heard their tinkling +laughter; and if, again, you wished a charm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +to defy all their anger, for they hated to be overlooked +by mortal eyes, you had merely to turn +your coat inside out. But a house built where the +wee folks had danced was made prosperous.</p> + +<p>Hear how deftly old John Lyly, nearly four hundred +years ago, put the dancing in his lines:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +Round about, round about, in a fine ring-a,<br /> +Thus we dance, thus we prance, and thus we sing-a!<br /> +Trip and go, to and fro, over this green-a;<br /> +All about, in and out, for our brave queen-a.<br /> +</div> + +<p>For the elves, as we know, were governed generally +by a queen, who bore a white wand, and +stood in the centre while her gay retainers skipped +about her. Fairy-rings were common in every +Irish parish. At Alnwick in Northumberland +County in England, was one celebrated from antiquity; +and it was believed that evil would befall +any who ran around it more than nine times. +The children were constantly running it that +often; but nothing could tempt the bravest of +them all to go one step farther. In France, as in +Wales, the fairies guarded the cromlechs with +care, and preferred to hold revel near them.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<p>At these merry festivals, in the pauses of action, +meat and drink were passed around. A Danish +ballad tells how Svend-Fälling drained a horn +presented by elf-maids, which made him as strong +as twelve men, and gave him the appetite of twelve +men, too; a natural but embarrassing consequence. +It used to be proclaimed that any one daring +enough to rush on a fairy feast, and snatch the +drinking-glass, and get away with it, would be +lucky henceforward. The famous goblet, the +Luck of Edenhall, was seized after that fashion, +by one of the Musgraves; whereat the little people +disappeared, crying aloud:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +If that glass do break or fall,<br /> +Farewell the Luck of Edenhall!<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>Once upon a time the Duke of Wharton dined at +Edenhall, and came very near ruining his host, +and all his race; for the precious Luck slipped +from his hand; but the clever butler at his elbow +happily caught it in his napkin, and averted the +catastrophe: so the beautiful cup and the favored +family enjoy each other in security to this day.</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the Song of Sir Olaf, we are told how he fell +in, while riding by night, with the whirling elves; +and how, after their every plea and threat that he +should stay from his to-be-wedded sweetheart at +home, and dance, instead, with them, he hears the +weird French refrain:</p> + +<div class='center'> +O the dance, the dance! How well the dance goes under the trees!<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And through their wicked magic, after all his +steadfast resistance, with the wild music and the +dizzy measure whirling in his brain, there he +dies.</div> + +<p>All the gay, unsteady, fantastic motion broke +up at the morning cock-crow, and instantly the +little bacchantes vanished. And, strangest of all! +the betraying flash of the dawn showed their +peach-like color, their blonde, smooth hair, and +bodily agility changed, like a Dead Sea apple, and +turned into ugliness and distortion! It was not the +lovely vision of a minute back which hurried away +on the early breeze, but a crowd of leering, sullen-eyed +bugaboos, laughing fiercely to think how +they had deceived a beholder.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>These, then, were the Light Elves, not all lovable, +or loyal, or gentle, as they were expected to +be, but cruel to wayfarers like poor Sir Olaf, and +treacherous and mocking; beautiful so long as +they were good, and hideous when they had done +a foul deed. It is hard to say wherein they were +better than the Underground Elves, who were, +despite some kindly characteristics, professional +doers of evil, and had not the choice or chance +of being so happy and fortunate. But we record +them as we find them, not without the sobering +thought that here, as at every point, the fairies +are a running commentary on the puzzle of our +own human life.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>DEAR BROWNIE.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>BROWNIE, the willing drudge, the kind little +housemate, was the most popular of all +fairies; and it is he whom we now love and know +best.</div> + +<p>He was a sweet, unselfish fellow; but very wide +awake as well, full of mischief, and spirited as a +young eagle, when he was deprived of his rights. +He belonged to a tribe of great influence and +size, and each division of that tribe, inhabiting +different countries, bore a different name. But +the word Brownie, to English-speaking people, +will serve as meaning those fairies who attached +themselves persistently to any spot or any family, +and who labored in behalf of their chosen home.</p> + +<p>The Brownie proper belonged to the Shetland +and the Western Isles, to Cornwall, and the Highlands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +and Borderlands of Scotland. He was an +indoor gentleman, and varied in that from our +friends the Black and Light Elves. He took up +his dwelling in the house or the barn, sometimes +in a special corner, or under the roof, or even in +the cellar pantries, where he ate a great deal +more than was good for him. In the beginning he +was supposed to have been covered with short +curly brown hair, like a clipped water-spaniel, +whence his name. But he changed greatly in +appearance. Later accounts picture him with a +homely, sunburnt little face, as if bronzed with +long wind and weather; dark-coated, red-capped, +and shod with noiseless slippers, which were as +good as wings to his restless feet. Along with +him, in Scotch houses, and in English houses +supplanting him, often lived the Dobie or Dobbie +who was not by any means so bright and active +("O, ye stupid Dobie!" runs a common phrase), +and therefore not to be confounded with him.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 379px;"> +<img src="images/i_065.png" width="379" height="421" alt="fairy churning" /> +<span class="caption">BROWNIE'S DELIGHT WAS TO DO DOMESTIC SERVICE.</span> +</div> + +<p>Brownie's delight was to do domestic service; he +churned, baked, brewed, mowed, threshed, swept, +scrubbed, and dusted; he set things in order,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +saved many a step to his mistress, and took it +upon himself to manage the maid-servants, and +reform them, if necessary, by severe and original +measures. Neatness and precision he dearly +loved, and never forgot to drop a penny over-night +in the shoe of the person deserving well of him. +But lax offenders he pinched black and blue, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +led them an exciting life of it. His favorite revenge, +among a hundred equally ingenious, was +dragging the disorderly servant out of bed. A +great poet announced in Brownie's name:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +'Twixt sleep and wake<br /> +I do them take,<br /> +And on the key-cold floor them throw!<br /> +If out they cry<br /> +Then forth I fly,<br /> +And loudly laugh I: "Ho, ho, ho!"<br /> +</div> + +<p>Like all gnomes truly virtuous, he could be the +worst varlet, the most meddlesome, troublesome, +burdensome urchin to be imagined, when the whim +was upon him. At such times he gloried in undoing +all his good deeds; and by way of emphasizing +his former tidiness and industry, he tore +curtains, smashed dishes, overturned tables, and +made havoc among the kitchen-pans. All this +was done in a sort of holy wrath; for be it to +Brownie's credit, that if he were treated with +courtesy, and if the servants did their own duties +honestly, he was never other than his gentle, well-behaved, +hard-working little self.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + +<p>He asked no wages; he had a New England +scorn of "tipping," when he had been especially +obliging; and he could not be wheedled into accepting +even so much as a word of praise. A +farmer at Washington, in Sussex, England, who +had often been surprised in the morning at the +large heaps of corn threshed for him during the +night, determined at last to sit up and watch what +went on. Creeping to the barn-door, and peering +through a chink, he saw two manikins working +away with their fairy flails, and stopping an instant +now and then, only to say to each other: +"See how I sweat! See how I sweat!" the very +thing which befell Milton's "lubbar fiend" in +L'Allegro. The farmer, in his pleasure, cried: +"Well done, my little men!" whereupon the startled +sprites uttered a cry, and whirled and whisked +out of sight, never to toil again in his barn.</p> + +<p>It is said that not long ago, there was a whole +tribe of tiny, naked Kobolds (Brownie's German +name) called Heinzelmänchen, who bound themselves +for love to a tailor of Cologne, and did, +moreover, all the washing and scouring and kettle-cleaning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +for his wife. Whatever work there was +left for them to do was straightway done; but no +man ever beheld them. The tailor's prying spouse +played many a ruse to get sight of them, to no +avail. And they, knowing her curiosity and grieved +at it, suddenly marched, with music playing, out +of the town forever. People heard their flutes +and viols only, for none saw the little exiles themselves, +who got into a boat, and sailed "westward, +westward!" like Hiawatha, and the city's luck is +thought to have gone with them.</p> + +<p>But Brownie, who would take neither money, +nor thanks, nor a glance of mortal eyes, and who +departed in high dudgeon as soon as a reward +was offered him, could be bribed very prettily, if +it were done in a polite and secretive way. He +was not too scrupulous to pocket whatever might +be dropped on a stair, or a window-sill, where he +was sure to pass several times in a day, and walk +off, whistling, to keep his own counsel, and say +nothing about it. And for goodies, mysterious +goodies left in queer places by chance, he had +excellent tooth. Housewives, from the era of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +the first Brownie, never failed slyly to gladden his +favorite haunt with the dish which he liked best, +and which, so long as it was fresh and plentiful, +he considered a satisfactory squaring-up of accounts. +One of these desired treats was knuckled +cakes, made of meal warm from the mill, toasted +over the embers, and spread with honey. To +other tidbits, also, he was partial; but, first and +last, he relished his bowl of cream left on the +floor overnight. Cream he drank and expected +the world over; and in Devon, and in the Isle of +Man, he liked a basin of water for a bath.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 373px;"> +<img src="images/i_070.png" width="373" height="448" alt="brownie drinking cream" /> +<span class="caption">BROWNIE RELISHES HIS BOWL OF CREAM.</span> +</div> + +<p>Fine clothes were quite to his mind; he was +very vain when he had them; and it was what Pet +Marjorie called "majestick pride," and no whim +of anger or sensitiveness, which sent him hurrying +off the moment his wardrobe was supplied by +some grateful housekeeper, to eschew work forever +after, and set himself up as a gentleman of +leisure. Many funny stories are told of his behavior +under an unexpected shower of dry goods. +Brownie, who in his humble station, was so steadfast +and sensible, had his poor head completely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +turned by the vision of a new bright-colored +jacket. The gentle little Piskies or Pixies of +Devonshire, who are of the Brownie race, and +very different from the malicious Piskies in Cornwall, +were likewise great dandies, and sure to +decamp as soon as ever they obtained a fresh cap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +or petticoat. Indeed, they dropped violent hints +on the subject. Think of a sprite-of-all-work, recorded +as being too proud to accept any regular +payment even in fruit or grain, standing up brazenly +before his mistress, his sly eyes fixed on +her, drawling out this absurd, whimpering rhyme +(for Piskies scorned to talk prose!):</p> + +<div class='poem'> +Little Pisky, fair and slim,<br /> +Without a rag to cover him!<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>With his lisp, and his funny snicker, and his +winning impudence generally, don't you think he +could have wheedled clothes out of a stone? Of +course the lady humored him, and made him a +costly, trimmed suit; and the ungrateful small +beggar made off with it post-haste, chanting to +another tune:</div> + +<div class='poem'> +Pisky fine, Pisky gay!<br /> +Pisky now will run away.<br /> +</div> + +<p>The moment the Brownie-folk could cut a respectable +figure in fashionable garments, they +turned their backs on an honest living, and skurried +away to astonish the belles in Fairyland.</p> + +<p>Very much the same thing befell some German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +house-dwarves, who used to help a poor smith, +and make his kettles and pans for him. They +took their milk evening by evening, and went +back gladly to their work, to the smith's great +profit and pleasure. When he had grown rich, +his thankful wife made them pretty crimson coats +and caps, and laid both where the wee creatures +might stumble on them. But when they had put +the uniforms on, they shrieked "Paid off, paid +off!" and, quitting a task half-done, returned no +more.</p> + +<p>The Pisky was not alone in his bold request +for his sordid little heart's desire. A certain +Pück lived thirty years in a monastery in Mecklenburg, +Germany, doing faithful drudgery from +his youth up; and one of the monks wrote, in his +ingenious Latin, that on going away, all he asked +was "<i>tunicam de diversis coloribus, et tintinnabulis +plenam!</i>" You may put the goblin's vanity into +English for yourselves. Brownie is known as +Shelley-coat in parts of Scotland, from a German +term meaning bell, as he wears a bell, like the +Rügen Dwarves, on his parti-colored coat.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 383px;"> +<img src="images/i_073.png" width="383" height="397" alt="Puck talking to a man" /> +<span class="caption">"<i>Tunicam de diversis coloribus, et tintinnabulis plenam!</i>" <span class="smcap">was +all that pück demanded</span>.</span> +</div> + +<p>The famous Cauld Lad of Hilton was considered +a Brownie. If everything was left well-arranged +in the rooms, he amused himself by +night with pitching chairs and vases about; but if +he found the place in confusion, he kindly went +to work and put it in exquisite order. But the +Cauld Lad was, more likely, by his own confession,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +a ghost, and no true fairy. Romances were told +of him, and he had been heard to sing this canticle, +which makes you wonder whether he had ever +heard of the House that Jack Built:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Wae's me, wae's me!</span><br /> +The acorn's not yet fallen from the tree<br /> +That's to grow the wood that's to make the cradle<br /> +That's to rock the bairn that's to grow to the man<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">That's to lay me!</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>It was only ghosts who could be "laid," and to +"lay" him meant to give him freedom and release, +so that he need no longer go about in that +bareboned and mournful state.</div> + +<p>But the merriest grig of all the Brownies was +called in Southern Scotland, Wag-at-the-Wa'. He +teased the kitchen-maids much by sitting under +their feet at the hearth, or on the iron crook +which hung from the beam in the chimney, and +which, of old, was meant to accommodate pots +and kettles. He loved children, and he loved +jokes; his laugh was very distinct and pleasant; +but if he heard of anybody drinking anything +stronger than home-brewed ale, he would cough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +virtuously, and frown upon the company. Now +Wag-at-the-Wa' had the toothache all the time, +and, considering his +twinges, was it not +good of him to be +so cheerful? He +wore a great red-woollen +coat and +blue trousers, and +sometimes a grey +cloak over; and he +shivered even then, +with one side of his +poor face bundled +up, till his head +seemed big as a cabbage. +He looked +impish and wrinkled, +too, and had short +bent legs. But his +beautiful, clever tail atoned for everything, and +with it, he kept his seat on the swinging crook.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 228px;"> +<img src="images/i_075.png" width="228" height="480" alt="Fairy on a tendril hook" /> +<span class="caption">"WAG-AT-THE-WA'."</span> +</div> + +<p>Scotch fairies called Powries and Dunters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +haunted lonely Border-mansions, and behaved like +peaceable subjects, beating flax from year to year. +The Dutch Kaboutermannekin worked in mills, as +well as in houses. He was gentle and kind, but +"touchy," as Brownie-people are. Though he +dressed gayly in red, he was not pretty, but +boasted a fine green tint on his face and hands. +Little Killmoulis was a mill-haunting brother of +his, who loved to lie before the fireplace in the +kiln. This precious old employee was blest with +a most enormous nose, and with no mouth at all! +But he had a great appetite for pork, however he +managed to gratify it.</p> + +<p>Boliéta, a Swiss Kobold, distinguished himself +by leading cows safely through the dangerous +mountain-paths, and keeping them sleek and +happy. His branch of the family lived as often +in the trunk of a near tree, as in the house itself.</p> + +<p>In Denmark and Sweden was the Kirkegrim, +the "church lamb," who sometimes ran along the +aisles and the choir after service-time, and to the +grave-digger betokened the death of a little child. +But there was another Kirkegrim, a proper church-Brownie,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +who kept the pews neat, and looked +after people who misbehaved during the sermon.</p> + +<p>As queer as any of these was the Phynodderee, +or the Hairy One, the Isle of Man house-helper. +He was a wild little shaggy being, supposed to be +an exile from fairy society, and condemned to +wander about alone until doomsday. He was +kind and obliging, and drove the sheep home, or +gathered in the hay, if he saw a storm coming.</p> + +<p>The Klabautermann was a ship-Brownie, who +sat under the capstan, and in time of danger, +warned the crew by running up and down the +shrouds in great excitement. This eccentric Flying +Dutchman had a fiery red head, and on it a +steeple-like hat; his yellow breeches were tucked +into heavy horseman's boots.</p> + +<p>Hüttchen was a German Brownie, who lived at +court, but who dressed like a little peasant, with +a flapping felt hat over his eyes. The Alraun, +a sort of house-imp shorn of all his engaging +diligence, was very small, his body being made +of a root; he lived in a bottle. If he was thrown +away, back he came, persistently as a rubber ball.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +But that instinct was common to the Brownie +race.</p> + +<p>The Roman Penates, <i>Vinculi terrei</i>, which brave +old Reginald Scott called "domesticall gods," +were Brownie's venerable and honorable ancestors. +We shall see presently what names their +descendants bore in various countries. But the +Russian Domovoi we shall not count among them, +because they were ghostly, like the poor Cauld +Lad, and seem to have been full-sized.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>OTHER HOUSE-HELPERS.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>IN modern Greece the Brownie was known as +the Stœchia. He was called Para in Finland; +Trasgo or Duende in Spain; Lutin, Gobelin, +Follet, in France and Normandy; Niss-god-drange +in Norway and Denmark; Tomte, in +Sweden; Niss in Jutland, Denmark and Friesland; +Bwbach or Pwcca in Wales; in Ireland, Fir-Darrig +and, sometimes, Cluricaune; Kobold, in +Germany; and in England, Brownie figured as +Boggart, Puck, Hobgoblin, and Robin Goodfellow.</div> + +<p>Often the Stœchia, a wayward little black being, +went about the house under the shape of a lizard +or small snake. He was harmless; his presence +was an omen of prosperity; and great care was +taken that no disrespect was shown him.</p> + +<p>The services of the Para, who was a well-meaning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +rascal, were rather singular, and not at all indispensable. +He had a way of following the +neighbor's cows to pasture, and milking them himself, +in a calf's fashion, until he had swallowed +quart on quart, and was as full as a little hogshead. +Then he went home, uncorked his thieving +throat, and obligingly emptied every drop of +his ill-gotten goods into his master's churn! How +his feelings must have been hurt if anybody criticized +the cheese and butter!</p> + +<p>The Spanish house-goblin was a statelier person, +and wore an enormous plumed hat, and threw +stones in a stolid and haughty manner at people +he disliked. But occasionally the Duende had +the form of a little busy friar, like the Monachiello +at Naples.</p> + +<p>The Lutin, or Gobelin, or Follet of French belief, +was likewise a stone-thrower. He was fond +of children, and of horses; taking it upon himself +to feed and caress his landlord's children when +they were good, and to whip them when they were +naughty; and he rode the willing horses, and +combed them, and plaited their manes into knotty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +braids, for which, we may fear, the stable-boy never +thanked him. He knew, too, how to worry and +tease; and certain French mothers threatened +troublesome little folk with the "Gobelin:" "<i>Le +gobelin vous mangera!</i>" which we may translate +into: "The goblin will gobble you!" or into the +whimsical lines of an American poet:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +The gobble uns'll git you,<br /> +Ef<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Don't</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Watch</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Out!</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>The Norwegian Nis was like a strong-shouldered +child, in a coat and peaky cap, who carried +a pretty blue light at night. He enjoyed hopping +or skating across the farmyard under the moon's +ray. Dogs he would not allow in his house. If +he was first promised a gray sheep for his own, he +would teach any one to play the violin. Like +many another of the Brownie race, he was a +dandy, and loved nothing better than fine clothes.</p> + +<p>Tomte of Sweden lived in a tree near the +house. He was as tall as a year-old boy, with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +knowing old face beneath his cap. In harvest-time +he tugged away at one straw, or one grain, +until he laid it in his master's barn; for his +strength was not much greater than an ant's. If +the farmer scorned his diligent little servant, and +made fun of his tiny load, all luck departed from +him, and the Tomte went away in anger. He +liked tobacco, played merry pranks, and doubled +up comically when he laughed. But he had another +laugh, scoffing and sarcastic, which he sometimes +gave at the top of his voice.</p> + +<p>Like the Devon Piskies, the Niss-Puk required +water left at his disposal over-night. The Nis of +Jutland was the Puk of Friesland. He also liked +his porridge with butter. He lived under the +roof, or in dark corners of the stable and house. +He was of the Tomte's size; he wore red stockings +on his stumpy little legs, and a pointed red +cap, and a long gray or green coat. For soft, +easy slippers he had a great longing; and if a +pair were left out for him, he was soon heard +shuffling in them over the floor. He had long +arms, and a big head, and big bright eyes, so that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +the people of Silt have a saying concerning an inquisitive +or astonished person: "He stares like a +Puk." Puk, too, played sorry tricks on the servants, +and was indignant if he was ever deprived +of his nightly bowl of groute.</p> + +<p>The Bwbach of Wales churned the cream, and +begged for his portion, like a true Brownie; he +was a hairy blackamoor with the best-natured grin +in the world. But he had an unpleasant habit of +whisking mortals into the air, and doing flighty +mischiefs generally.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/i_084.png" width="250" height="340" alt="Cluricaune working with hammer" /> +<span class="caption">AN IRISH CLURICAUNE.</span> +</div> + +<p>The unique Irish Cluricaune, who had that +name in Cork, was called Luricaune and Leprechaun +in other parts of the country. He differed +from the Shefro in living alone, and in his queer +appearance and habits. For though he was a +house-spirit and did house-work, his ambitions ran +in an opposite direction, and in his every spare +minute, when he was not smoking or drinking, +you might have seen him, a miniature old man, +with a cocked hat, and a leather apron, sitting on +a low stool, humming a fairy-tune, and perpetually +cobbling at a pair of shoes no bigger than acorns.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +The shoes were occasionally captured and shown. +And as we have seen, Mr. Cluricaune was a fortune-hunter, +and a very wide-awake, versatile goblin +altogether. In his capacity of Brownie, he +once wreaked a +hard revenge on +a maid who +served him shabbily. +A Mr. Harris, +a Quaker, +had on his farm +a Cluricaune +named Little +Wildbeam. +Whenever the +servants left the +beer-barrel running +through negligence, Little Wildbeam wedged +himself into the cock, and stopped the flow, +at great inconvenience to his poor little body, +until some one came to turn the knob. So the +master bade the cook always put a good dinner +down cellar for Little Wildbeam. One Friday<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +she had nothing but part of a herring, and some +cold potatoes, which she left in place of the usual +feast. That very midnight the fat cook got pulled +out of bed, and thrown down the cellar-stairs, bumping +from side to side, so that it made her very sore +indeed, and meanwhile the smirking Cluricaune +stood at the head of the steps, and sang at the +luckless heap below:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +Molly Jones, Molly Jones!<br /> +Potato-skin and herring-bones!<br /> +I'll knock your head against the stones,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Molly Jones!</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>In Japanese houses, even, Brownies were familiar +comers and goers. They were important +and smooth-mannered pigmies, and serenely dealt +out rewards and punishments as they saw fit. +When they were engaged in befriending commendable +boys and girls, their features had, somehow, +the ingenious likeness of letters signifying "good;" +and if they made it their business to plague and +hinder naughty idlers, who, instead of doing their +errands promptly, stopped at the shops to buy +goodies, their queer little faces were screwed up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +to mean "bad," as you see in Japanese artists' +pictures.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 376px;"> +<img src="images/i_086.png" width="376" height="311" alt="Japanese children with brownies flying around" /> +<span class="caption">JAPANESE CHILDREN AND BROWNIES.</span> +</div> + +<p>The English names for the affable Brownie-folk +bring to our minds the most wayward, frolicsome +elves of all fairydom. Boggart was the Yorkshire +sprite, and the Boggart commonly disliked +children, and stole their food and playthings; +wherein he differed from his kindly kindred. Hobgoblin +(Hop-goblin) was so called because he +hopped on one leg. Hobgoblin is the same as +Rob or Bob-Goblin, a goblin whose full name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +seemed to be Robert. Robin Hood, the famous +outlaw, dear to all of us, was thought to have +been christened after Robin Hood the fairy, because +he, too, was tricksy and sportive, wore a +hood, and lived in the deep forest.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 247px;"> +<img src="images/i_087.png" width="247" height="257" alt="Fir-Darrig sitting by fire" /> +<span class="caption">A LITTLE FIR-DARRIG.</span> +</div> + +<p>In Ireland lived the mocking, whimsical little +Fir-Darrig, Robin +Goodfellow's +own twin. He +dressed in tight-fitting +red; Fir-Darrig +itself +meant "the red +man." He had +big humorous +ears, and the +softest and most flexible voice in the world, which +could mimic any sound at will. He sat by the +fire, and smoked a pipe, big as himself, belonging +to the man of the house. He loved cleanliness, +brought good-luck to his abode, and, like a +cat, generally preferred places to people.</p> + +<p>Puck and Robin Goodfellow were the names<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +best known and cherished. There is no doubt +that Shakespeare, from whom we have now our +prevailing idea of Puck, got the idea of him, in +his turn, from the popular superstitions of his day. +But Puck's very identity was all but forgotten, and +since Shakespeare was, therefore, his poetical +creator, we will forego mention of him here, and +entitle Robin Goodfellow, the same "shrewd and +meddling elf," under another nickname, the true +Brownie of England.</p> + +<p>He was both House-Helper and Mischief-Maker, +"the most active and extraordinary fellow of a +fairy," says Ritson, "that we anywhere meet with." +He was said to have had a supplementary brother +called Robin Badfellow; but there was no need +of that, because he was Robin Badfellow in himself, +and united in his whimsical little character +so many opposite qualities, that he may be considered +the representative elf the world over; for +the old Saxon Hudkin, the Niss of Scandinavia, +and Knecht Ruprecht, the Robin of Germany, +are nothing but our masquerading goblin-friend on +continental soil. And in the red-capped smiling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +Mikumwess among the Passamaquoddy Indians, +there he is again!</p> + +<p>By this name of Robin he was known earlier +than the thirteenth century, and "famosed in everie +olde wives' chronicle for his mad merrie prankes," +two hundred years later. His biography was put +forth in a black-letter tract in 1628, and in a yet +better-known ballad which recited his jests, and +was in free circulation while Queen Bess was reigning. +The forgotten annalist says very heartily, +alluding to his string of aliases:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +But call him by what name you list;<br /> +I have studied on my pillow,<br /> +And think the name he best deserves<br /> +Is Robin, the Good Fellow!<br /> +</div> + +<p>We class him rightly as a Brownie, because he +skimmed milk, knew all about domestic life, and +was the delight or terror of servants, as the case +might be. He was fond of making a noise and +clatter on the stairs, of playing harps, ringing bells, +and misleading passing travellers; and despite +his knavery, he came to be much beloved by his +house-mates. Very like him was the German Hempelman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +who laughed a great deal. But the laugh +of Master Robin sometimes foreboded trouble and +death to people, which Hempelman's never did.</p> + +<p>The jolly German Kobold had a laugh which +filled his throat, and could be heard a mile away. +Bu he was a gnome malignant enough if he was +neglected or insulted. He very seldom made a +mine-sprite of himself, but stayed at home, Brownie-like, +and "ran" the house pretty much as he +saw fit. To the Dwarves he was, however, closely +related, and dressed after their fashion, except +that sometimes he wore a coat of as many colors +as the rainbow, with tinkling bells fastened to it. +He objected to any chopping or spinning done on +a Thursday. Change of servants, while he held +his throne in the kitchen, affected him not in the +least; for the maid going away recommended her +successor to treat him civilly, at her peril. A very +remarkable Kobold was Hinzelmann, who called +himself a Christian, and came to the old castle of +Hüdemühlen in 1584; whose history, too long to +add here, is given charmingly in Mr. Keightley's +Fairy Mythology.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<p>A certain bearded little Kobold lived with some +fishermen in a hut, and tried a trick which was +quite classic, and reminds one of the Greek story +of Procrustes, which all of you have met with, or +will meet with, some day. Says Mr. Benjamin +Thorpe: "His chief amusement, when the fishermen +were lying asleep at night, was to lay them +even. For this purpose he would first draw them +up until their heads all lay in a straight line, but +then their legs would be out of the line! and he +had to go to their feet and pull them up until the +tips of their toes were all in a row. This game he +would continue till broad daylight."</p> + +<p>Now all Brownies, Nissen, Kobolds and the +rest, were very much of a piece, and when you +know the virtues and faults of one of them, you +know the habits of the race. So that you can understand, +despite the slight but steady help given +in household matters, that a person so variable +and exacting and high-tempered as this curious +little sprite might happen sometimes to be a great +bore, and might inspire his master or mistress +with the sighing wish to be rid of him. It was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +tradition in Normandy that to shake off the Lutin +or Gobelin, it was merely necessary to scatter +flax-seed where he was wont to pass; for he was +too neat to let it lie there, and yet tired so soon +of picking it up, that he left it in disgust, and +went away for good. And there was a sprite +named Flerus who lived in a farm-house near Ostend, +and worked so hard, sweeping and drawing +water, and turning himself into a plough-horse +that he might replace the old horse who was sick, +for no reward, either, save a little fresh sugared +milk—that soon his master was the wealthiest +man in the neighborhood. But a giddy young +servant-maid once offended him, at the day's end, +by giving him garlic in his milk; and as soon as +poor Flerus tasted it, he departed, very wrathful +and hurt, from the premises, forever.</p> + +<p>There were few such successful instances on +record. Though Brownie was ready, in every +land under the sun, to leave home when he took +the fancy, or when he was puffed up with gifts of +lace and velvet, so that no mortal residence was +gorgeous enough for him, yet he would take no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +hint, nor obey any command, when either pointed +to a banishment.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 371px;"> +<img src="images/i_093.png" width="371" height="390" alt="Man sees kobold sitting by pool" /> +<span class="caption">THE PERSISTENT KOBOLD OF <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'KOPENICK'">KÖPENICK</ins>.</span> +</div> + +<p>Near Köpenick once, a man thought of buying +a new house, and turning his back on a vexatious +Kobold. The morning before he meant to change +quarters, he saw his Kobold sitting by a pool, and +asked him what he was doing. "I am doing my +washing!" said the sharp rogue, "because we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +move to-morrow." And the man saw very well +that as he could not avoid him, he had better take +the little nuisance along. The same thing happened +in the capital Polish anecdote of Iskrzycki +(make your respects to his excruciating name!) +and over Northern Europe the sarcastic joke "Yes, +we're flitting!" prevails in folk-song and story.</p> + +<p>There is many and many an example of families +selling the old house, and going off in great glee +with the furniture, thinking the elf-rascal cheated +and left behind; and lo! there he was, perched +on a rope, or peering from a hole in the cart itself, +on his congratulated master.</p> + +<p>The funniest hap of all befell an ungrateful +farmer who fired his barn to burn the poor Kobold +in it. As he was driving off, he turned to +look at the blaze, and what should he see on the +seat behind him but the same excited Kobold, +chattering, monkey-like, and shrieking sympathizingly: +"It was about time for us to get out of that, +wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>The dark-skinned little house-sprites came to +stay; and as for being snubbed, they were quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +above it. They were the sort of callers to whom +you could never show the door, with any dignity; +for if you had done so, the grinning goblin would +have examined knob and panels with a squinted +eye, and gone back whistling to your easy-chair.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>WATER-FOLK.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>OF old, there were Oreads and Naiads to people +the rivers and the sea, but they were +not fairies; and in after-years the beautiful, bright +water-life of Greece, with its shells and dolphins, +its palaces, its subaqueous music, and its happy-hearted +maids and men, faded wholly out of memory. +No one dominant race came to replace them. +Merpeople, Tritons and Sirens we meet now and +then, as did Hendrik Hudson's crew, and the +Moruachs of Ireland, the Morverch (sea-daughters) +of Brittainy; but they, too, were grown, and half-human. +They were beautiful and swift, and usually +sat combing their long hair, with a mirror in one +hand, and their glossy tails tapering from the waist. +The Danish Mermaid was gold-haired, cunning +and treacherous; the Havmand or Merman was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +handsome, too, with black hair and beard, but kind +and beneficent.</div> + +<p>The Swedish pair offered presents to those on +shore, or passing in boats, in hopes to sink them +beneath the waves.</p> + +<p>England and Ireland had no water-sprites which +answered to the Nix and the Kelpie, only the Merrow, +who was a Mermaid. She was a fair woman, +with white, webbed fingers. She carried upon her +head a little diving-cap, and when she came up to +the rocks or the beach, she laid it by; but if it +were stolen from her, she lost the power of returning +to the sea. So that if her cap were taken by a +young man, she very often could do nothing better +than to marry him, and spend her time hunting +for it up and down over his house. And once she +had found it, she forgot all else but her desire to +go home to "the kind sea-caves," and despite the +calling of her neighbors and husband and children, +she flitted to the shore, and plunged into the +first oncoming billow, and walked the earth no +longer.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 389px;"> +<img src="images/i_098.png" width="389" height="311" alt="merfolk in water" /> +<span class="caption">MER-FOLK.</span> +</div> + +<p>Tales of these spirit-brides who suddenly deserted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +the green earth for their dear native waters, +are common in Arabian and European folk-lore. +And this characteristic was noted also in the Sea-trows +of the Shetland Islands, who divested themselves +of a shining fish-skin, and could not find the +way to their ocean-beds if it were kept out of their +reach. It was the Danish sailor's belief that seals +laid by their skins every ninth night, and took +maiden's forms wherewith to sport and sleep on the +reefs. And for their capture as they were, warm,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +living and human, one had only to snatch and hide +away their talisman-skin.</p> + +<p>The strange German Water-man wore a green +hat, and when he opened his mouth, his teeth as +well were green; he appeared to girls who passed +his lake, and measured out ribbon, and flung it to +them.</p> + +<p>But we must search for smaller sprites than +these.</p> + +<p>The little water-fairies who devoted themselves +to drawing under whomsoever encroached on their +pools and brooks, were called Nixies in Germany, +Korrigans (for this was part of their office) in Brittainy; +Ondins about Magdebourg, and Roussalkis, +the long-haired, smiling ones, among the Slavic +people.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 363px;"> +<img src="images/i_100.png" width="363" height="275" alt="Old Nix dancing" /> +<span class="caption">THE LITTLE OLD NIX NEAR GHENT.</span> +</div> + +<p>The engaging Nixies were very minute and mischievous, +and abounded in the Shetland Isles and +Cornwall, as did, moreover, the Kelpies, who were +like tiny horses, known even in China; sporting on +the margin, and foreboding death by drowning, to +any who beheld them; or tempting passers-by to +mount, and plunging, with their victims, headlong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +into the deep. The Nix-lady was recognized when +she came on shore by the edges of her dress or +apron being perpetually wet. The dark-eyed Nix-man +with his seaweed hair and his wide hat, was +known by his slit ears and feet, which he was very +careful to conceal. Once in a while he was observed +to be half-fish. The naked Nixen were +draped with moss and kelp; but when they were +clothed, they seemed merely little men and women, +save that the borders of their garments, dripping +water, betrayed them. They did their marketing +ashore, wheresoever they were, and, according to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +all accounts, with a sharp eye to economy. +Like the land-elves, they loved to dance and +sing. Nix did not favor divers, fishermen, and +other intruders +on his territory, +and he did +his best +to harm them. +He was altogether +a fierce, grudging, +covetous little creature. +His comelier wife was much better-natured, +and befriended human beings to the utmost of +her power.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 390px;"> +<img src="images/i_101.png" width="390" height="308" alt="crowd of people" /> +<span class="caption">THE WORK OF THE NICKEL.</span> +</div> + +<p>Near Ghent was a little old Nix who lived in the +Scheldt; he cried and sighed much, and did mischief +to no one. It grieved him when children ran +away from him, yet if they asked what troubled his +conscience, he only sighed heavily, and disappeared.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<p>The modern Greeks believed in a black sprite +haunting wells and springs, who was fond of beckoning +to strangers. If they came to him, he bestowed +gifts upon them; if not, he never seemed +angry, but turned patiently to wait for the next +passer-by.</p> + +<p>There was a curious sea-creature in Norway, +who swam about as a thin little old man with no +head. About the magical Isle of Rügen lived the +Nickel. His favorite game was to astonish the fishers, +by hauling their boats up among the trees.</p> + +<p>At Arles and other towns near the Spanish border +in France, were the Dracs, who inhabited clear +pools and streams, and floated along in the shape +of gold rings and cups, so that women and children +bathing should grasp them, and be lured +under.</p> + +<p>The Indian water-manittos, the Nibanaba, were +winning in appearance, and wicked in disposition. +They, joining the Pukwudjinies, helped to kill +Kwasind.</p> + +<p>In Wales were the Gwragedd Annwn, elves who +loved the stillness of lonely mountain-lakes, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +who seldom ventured into the upper world. They +had their own submerged towns and battlements; +and from their little sunken city the fairy-bells sent +out, ever and anon, muffled silver voices. The +Gwragedd Annwn were not fishy-finned, nor were +they ever dwellers in the sea; for in Wales were +no mermaid-traditions, nor any tales of those who +beguiled mortals—</p> + +<div class='center'> +Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave.<br /> +</div> + +<p>The Neck and the Strömkarl of Swedish rivers +were two little chaps with hardly a hair's breadth +of difference. Either appeared under various +shapes; now as a green-hatted old man with a long +beard, out of which he wrung water as he sat on the +cliffs; now loitering of a summer night on the surface, +like a chip of wood or a leaf, he seemed a fair +child, harping, with yellow ringlets falling from beneath +a high red cap to his shoulders. Both fairies +had a genius for music; and the Strömkarl, +especially, had one most marvellous tune to which +he put eleven variations. Now, to ten of them any +one might dance decorously, and with safety; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +at the eleventh, which was the enchanted one, all +the world went mad; and tables, belfries, benches, +houses, windmills, trees, horses, cripples, babies, +ghosts, and whole towns full of sedate citizens +began capering on the banks about the invisible +player, and kept it up in furious fashion until the +last note died away.</p> + +<p>You know that the wren was hunted in certain +countries on a certain day. Well, here is one +legend about her. There was a malicious fairy +once in the Isle of Man, very winsome to look at, +who worked a sorry Kelpie-trick, on the young men +of the town, and inveigled them into the sea, where +they perished. At last the inhabitants rose in +vengeance, and suspecting her of causing their loss +and sorrow, gave her chase so hard and fast by +land, that to save herself, she changed her shape +into that of an innocent brown wren. And because +she had been so treacherous, a spell was cast upon +her, inasmuch as she was obliged every New Year's +Day to fly about as that same bird, until she should +be killed by a human hand. And from sunrise to +sunset, therefore, on the first bleak day of January,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +all the men and boys of the island fired at the +poor wrens, and stoned them, and entrapped them, +in the hope of reaching the one guilty fairy among +them. And as they could never be sure that they +had captured the right one, they kept on year by +year, chasing and persecuting the whole flock. But +every dead wren's feather they preserved carefully, +and believed that it hindered them from drowning +and shipwreck for that twelvemonth; and they +took the feathers with them on voyages great and +small, in order that the bad fairy's magic may +never be able to prevail, as it had prevailed of yore +with their unhappy brothers.</p> + +<p>The presence of the sea-fairies had a terror in +it, and against their arts only the strongest and +most watchful could hope to be victorious. Their +sport was to desolate peaceful homes, and bring +destruction on gallant ships. They, dwelling in +streams and in the ocean, the world over, were +like the waters they loved: gracious and noble in +aspect, and meaning danger and death to the +unwary. We fear that, like the earth-fairies, they +were heartless quite.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 368px;"> +<img src="images/i_106.png" width="368" height="321" alt="Nixie in a cavern" /> +<span class="caption">HOB IN HOBHOLE</span> +</div> + +<p>But it may be that the gentle Nixies had only a +blind longing for human society, and would not +willingly have wrought harm to the creatures of +another element. We are more willing to urge +excuses for their wrong-doing than for the like +fault in our frowzly under-ground folk; for ugliness +seems, somehow, not so shocking when allied +with evil as does beauty, which was destined for +all men's delight and uplifting. As the air-elves +had their Fairyland whither mortal children wandered, +and whence they returned after an unmeasured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +lapse of time, still children, to the ivy-grown +ruins of their homes, so the water-elves had a +reward for those they snatched from earth; and +legends assure us the wave-rocked prisoners a hundred +fathoms down, never grew old, but kept the +flush of their last morning rosy ever on their +brows.</p> + +<p>Among a little community full of guile, there is +great comfort in spotting one honest, kind water-boy, +who, not content with being harmless, as were +the Flemish and Grecian Nixies, put himself to +work to do good, and charm away some of the worries +and ills that burdened the upper world. His +name was Hob, and he lived in Hobhole, which +was a cave scooped out by the beating tides in old +Northumbria.</p> + +<p>The lean pockets of the neighboring doctors +were partly attributed to this benignant little +person; for he set up an opposition, and his +specialty was the cure of whooping-cough. Many +a Scotch mother took her lad or lass to the spray-covered +mouth of the wise goblin's cave, and sang +in a low voice:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Hobhole Hob!</span><br /> +Ma bairn's gotten t' kink-cough:<br /> +Tak't off! tak't off!<br /> +</div> + +<p>And so he did, sitting there with his toes in +the sea. For Hobhole Hob's small sake, we can +afford to part friends with the whole naughty race +of water-folk.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>MISCHIEF-MAKERS.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>THE fairy-fellows who made a regular business +of mischief-making seemed to have +two favorite ways of setting to work. They either +saddled themselves with little boys and spilled +them, sooner or later, into the water, or else they +danced along holding a twinkling light, and led +any one so foolish as to follow them a pretty march +into chasms and quagmires. Their jokes were +grim and hurtful, and not merely funny, like +Brownie's; for Brownie usually gave his victims +(except in Molly Jones's case) nothing much +worse than a pinch. So people came to have +great awe and horror of the heartless goblins who +waylaid travellers, and left them broken-limbed or +dead.</div> + +<p>Very often quarrelsome, disobedient or vicious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +folk fell into the snare of a Kelpie, or a Will-o'-the-Wisp; +for the little whipper-snappers had a fine +eye for poetical justice, and dealt out punishments +with the nicest discrimination. We never hear +that they troubled good, steady mortals; but only +that sometimes they beguiled them, for sheer love, +into Fairyland.</p> + +<p>We know that all "ouphes and elves" could +change their shapes at will; therefore when we +spy fairy-horses, fairy-lambs, and such quadrupeds, +we guess at once that they are only roguish small +gentlemen masquerading. Never for the innocent +fun of it, either; but alas! to bring silly persons +to grief.</p> + +<p>In Hampshire, in England, was a spirit known +as Coltpixy, which, itself shaped like a miniature +neighing horse, beguiled other horses into bogs +and morasses. The Irish Pooka or Phooka was +a horse too, and a famous rascal. He lived on +land, and was something like the Welsh Gwyll: a +tiny, black, wicked-faced wild colt, with chains +dangling about him. Again, he frisked around in +the shape of a goat or a bat. Spenser has him:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Ne let the Pouke, ne other evill spright, . . .<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ne let hobgoblins, names whose sense we see not,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Fray us with things that be not."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>"Fray," as you are likely to guess, means to +frighten or to scare.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 366px;"> +<img src="images/i_111.png" width="366" height="348" alt="Flying fairy horse" /> +<span class="caption">THE IRISH POOKA WAS A HORSE TOO.</span> +</div> + +<p>Kelpies, who were Scotch, haunted fords and +ferries, especially in storms; allured bystanders +into the water, or swelled the river so that it broke +the roads, and overwhelmed travellers.</p> + +<p>Very like them were the Brag, the little Shoopil-tree<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +of the Shetland Islands, and the Nick, who +was the Icelandic Nykkur-horse; gamesome deceivers +all, who enticed children and others to +bestride them, and who were treacherous as a +quicksand, every time. And there were many +more of the Kelpie kingdom, of whom we can +hunt up no clews.</p> + +<p>A man who saw a Kelpie gave himself up for +lost; for he was sure, by hook or crook, to meet +his death by drowning. Kelpie, familiar so far +away as China, never stayed in the next-door countries, +Ireland or England, long enough to be recognized. +They knew nothing of him by sight, nor +of the Nix his cousin, nor of anything resembling +them. In Ireland lived the merrow; but she was +only an amiable mermaid.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 376px;"><a id="Page_113"></a> +<img src="images/i_113.png" width="376" height="518" alt="fairy standing in waterlilies" /> +<span class="caption">WILL-O'-THE-WISP.</span> +</div> + +<p>The Japanese had a water-dragon called Kappa, +"whose office it was to swallow bad boys who went +to swim in disobedience to their parents' commands, +and at improper times and places." In +the River Tees was a green-haired lady named +Peg Powler, and in some streams in Lancashire +one christened Jenny Greenteeth; two hungry +goblins whose only delight was to drown and devour +unlucky travellers. But we know already +that the water-sprites were more than likely so to +behave.</p> + +<p>In Provence there is a tale told of seven little +boys who went out at night against their grandmother's +wishes. A little dark pony came prancing +up to them, and the youngest clambered on his +sleek back, and after him, the whole seven, one +after the other, which was quite a wonderful weight +for the wee creature; but his back meanwhile kept +growing longer and larger to accommodate them. +As they galloped along, the children called such +of their playmates as were out of doors, to join +them, the obliging nag stretching and stretching +until thirty pairs of young legs dangled at his +sides! when he made straight for the sea, and +plunged in, and drowned them all.</p> + +<p>The Piskies, or Pigseys, of Cornwall, were +naughty and unsociable. Their great trick was +to entice people into marshes, by making themselves +look like a light held in a man's hand, or +a light in a friendly cottage window. Pisky also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a><br /><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +rode the farmers' colts hard, and chased the farmers' +cows. For all his diabolics, you had to excuse +him in part, when you heard his hearty fearless +laugh; it was so merry and sweet. "To laugh like +a Pisky," passed into a proverb. The Barguest +of Yorkshire, like the Osschaert of the Netherlands, +was an open-air bugaboo whose presence +always portended disaster. Sometimes he appeared +as a horse or dog, merely to play the old +trick with a false light, and to vanish, laughing.</p> + +<p>The Tückebold was a very malicious chap, carrying +a candle, who lived in Hanover; his blood-relation +in Scandinavia was the Lyktgubhe. Over +in Flanders and Brabant was one Kludde, a fellow +whisking here and there as a half-starved little +mare, or a cat, or a frog, or a bat; but who was +always accompanied by two dancing blue flames, +and who could overtake any one as swiftly as a +snake. The Ellydan (dan is a Welsh word meaning +fire, and also a lure or a snare: a luring elf-fire) +was a rogue with wings, wide ears, a tall cap +and two huge torches, who precisely resembled +the English Will-o'-the-Wisp, the Scandinavian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +Lyktgubhe and the Breton Sand Yan y Tad. Our +American negroes make him out Jack-muh-Lantern: +a vast, hairy, goggle-eyed, big-mouthed ogre, +leaping like a giant grasshopper, and forcing his +victims into a swamp, where they died. The gentlemen +of this tribe preferred to walk abroad at +night, like any other torchlight procession. Their +little bodies were invisible, and the traveller who +hurried towards the pleasant lamp ahead, never +knew that he was being tricked by a grinning fairy, +until he stumbled on the brink of a precipice, or +found himself knee-deep in a bog. Then the +brazen little guide shouted outright with glee, put +out his mysterious flame, and somersaulted off, +leaving the poor tourist to help himself. The only +way to escape his arts was to turn your coat +inside out.</p> + +<p>You may guess that the ungodly wights had +plenty of fun in them, by this anecdote: A great +many Scotch Jack-o'-Lanterns, as they are often +called, were once bothering the horse belonging +to a clergyman, who with his servant, was returning +home late at night. The horse reared and whinnied,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +and the clergyman was alarmed, for a thousand +impish fires were waltzing before the wheels. +Like a good man, he began to pray aloud, to no +avail. But the servant just roared: "Wull ye be +aff noo, in the deil's name!" and sure enough, in +a wink, there was not a goblin within gunshot.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 373px;"> +<img src="images/i_118.png" width="373" height="218" alt="Fairies chasing cows" /> +<span class="caption">PISKY ALSO CHASED THE FARMERS' COWS.</span> +</div> + +<p>There were some freakish fairies in old England, +whose names were Puckerel, Hob Howland, Bygorn, +Bogleboe, Rawhead or Bloodybones; the +last two were certainly scarers of nurseries.</p> + +<p>The Boggart was a little spectre who haunted +farms and houses, like Brownie or Nis; but he +was usually a sorry busybody, tearing the bed-curtains,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +rattling the doors, whistling through the +keyholes, snatching his bread-and-butter from the +baby, playing pranks upon the servants, and doing +all manner of mischief.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 236px;"> +<img src="images/i_119.png" width="236" height="333" alt="Fairy dressed up holding a pike" /> +<span class="caption">RED COMB WAS A TYRANT.</span> +</div> + +<p>The Dunnie, in Northumberland, was fond of +annoying farmers. +When night +came, he gave +them and himself +a rest, and +hung his long +legs over the +crags, whistling +and banging his +idle heels. Red +Comb or Bloody +Cap was a tyrant +who lived +in every Border castle, dungeon and tower. He +was short and thickset long-toothed and skinny-fingered, +with big red eyes, grisly flowing hair, +and iron boots; a pikestaff in his left hand, and +a red cap on his ugly head.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>The village of Hedley, near Ebchester, in England, +was haunted by a churlish imp known far +and wide as the Hedley Gow. He took the form +of a cow, and amused himself at milking-time with +kicking over the pails, scaring the maids, and calling +the cats, of whom he was fond, to lick up the +cream. Then he slipped the ropes and vanished, +with a great laugh. In Northern Germany we find +the Hedley Gow's next-of-kin, and there, too, were +little underground beings who accompanied maids +and men to the milking, and drank up what was +spilt; but if nothing happened to be spilt in +measuring out the quarts, they got angry, overturned +the pails, and ran away. These jackanapes +were a foot and a half high, and dressed in +black, with red caps.</p> + +<p>Many ominous fairies, such as the Banshee, portended +misfortune and death. The Banshee had +a high shrill voice, and long hair. Once in a +while she seemed to be as tall as an ordinary +woman, very thin, with head uncovered, and a +floating white cloak, wringing her hands and wailing. +She attached herself only to certain ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +Irish families, and cried under their windows when +one of their race was sick, and doomed to die. +But she scorned families who had a dash of Saxon +and Norman ancestry, and would have nothing to +do with them.</p> + +<p>Every single fairy that ever was known to the +annals of this world was, at times, a mischief-maker. +He could no more keep out of mischief +than a trout out of water. What lives the dandiprats +led our poor great-great-great-great grand-sires! +As a very clever living writer put it:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"A man could not ride out without risking an encounter +with a Puck or a Will-o'-the Wisp. He could not approach +a stream in safety unless he closed his ears to the sirens' +songs, and his eyes to the fair form of the mermaid. In the +hillside were the dwarfs, in the forest Queen Mab and her +court. Brownie ruled over him in his house, and Robin +Goodfellow in his walks and wanderings. From the moment +a Christian came into the world until his departure therefrom, +he was at the mercy of the fairy-folk, and his devices +to elude them were many. Unhappy was the mother who +neglected to lay a pair of scissors or of tongs, a knife or her +husband's breeches, in the cradle of her new-born infant; +for if she forgot, then was she sure to receive a changeling +in its place. Great was the loss of the child to whose baptism +the fairies were not invited, or the bride to whose wedding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +the Nix, or water-spirit, was not bidden. If the inhabitants +of Thale did not throw a black cock annually into the +Bode, one of them was claimed as his lawful victim by the +Nickelmann dwelling in that stream. The Russian peasant +who failed to present the Rusalka or water-sprite he met at +Whitsuntide, with a handkerchief, or a piece torn from his +or her clothing, was doomed to death."</p></blockquote> + +<p>One had to be ever on the lookout to escape +the sharp little immortals, whose very kindness to +men and women was a species of coquetry, and +who never spared their friends' feelings at the expense +of their own saucy delight.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>PUCK; AND POETS' FAIRIES.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>PUCK, as we said, is Shakespeare's fairy. +There is some probability that he found in +Cwm Pwca, or Puck Valley, a part of the romantic +glens of Clydach, in Breconshire, the original +scenes of his fanciful <i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>. +This glen used to be crammed with goblins. There, +and in many like-named Welsh places, Puck's +pranks were well-remembered by old inhabitants. +This Welsh Puck was a queer little figure, long and +grotesque, and looked something like a chicken +half out of his shell; at least, so a peasant drew +him, from memory, with a bit of coal. Pwcca, or +Pooka, in Wales, was but another name for Ellydan; +and his favorite joke was also to travel along +before a wayfarer, with a lantern held over his +head, leading miles and miles, until he got to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +the brink of a precipice. Then the little wretch +sprang over the chasm, shouted with wicked glee, +blew out his lantern, and left the startled traveller +to reach home as best he could. Old Reginald +Scott must have had this sort of a Puck in mind +when he put Kitt-with-the-Candlestick, whose identity +troubled the critics much, in his catalogue of +"bugbears."</div> + +<p>The very old word Pouke meant the devil, +horns, tail, and all; from that word, as it grew +more human and serviceable, came the Pixy of +Devonshire, the Irish Phooka, the Scottish Bogle, +and the Boggart in Yorkshire; and even one nursery-tale +title of Bugaboo. Oddest of all, the +name Pug, which we give now to an amusing race +of small dogs, is an every-day reminder of poor +lost Puck, and of the queer changes which, through +a century or two, may befall a word. Puck was considered +court-jester, a mild, comic, playful creature:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">A little random elf</span><br /> +Born in the sport of Nature, like a weed,<br /> +For simple sweet enjoyment of myself,<br /> +But for no other purpose, worth or need;<br /> +And yet withal of a most happy breed.<br /> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> + +<div class='unindent'>But he kept to the last his character of practical +joker, and his alliance with his grim little cousins, +the Lyktgubhe and the Kludde. Glorious old +Michael Drayton made a verse of his naughty +tricks, which you shall hear:</div> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt,</span><br /> +Still walking like a ragged colt,<br /> +And oft out of a bush doth bolt<br /> +On purpose to deceive us;<br /> +And leading us, makes us to stray<br /> +Long winter nights out of the way:<br /> +And when we stick in mire and clay,<br /> +He doth with laughter leave us.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Shakespeare, who calls him a "merry wanderer +of the night," and allows him to fly "swifter than +arrow from the Tartar's bow," was the first to +make Puck into a house spirit. The poets were +especially attentive to the offices of these house-spirits.</p> + +<p>According to them, Mab and Puck do everything +in-doors which we think characteristic of a +Brownie. William Browne, born in Tavistock, in +the county of Devon, where the Pixies lived, prettily +puts it how the fairy-queen did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">——command her elves</span><br /> +To pinch those maids that had not swept their shelves;<br /> +And further, if by maiden's oversight,<br /> +Within doors water was not brought at night,<br /> +Or if they spread no table, set no bread,<br /> +They should have nips from toe unto the head!<br /> +And for the maid who had performed each thing<br /> +She in the water-pail bade leave a ring.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 384px;"> +<img src="images/i_126.png" width="384" height="409" alt="Flying fairy holding a crook" /> +<span class="caption">THE WELSH PUCK.</span> +</div> + +<p>Herrick confirms what we have just heard:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If ye will with Mab find grace,</span><br /> +Set each platter in its place;<br /> +Rake the fire up, and get<br /> +Water in ere the sun be set;<br /> +Wash your pails, and cleanse your dairies;<br /> +Sluts are loathsome to the fairies!<br /> +Sweep your house: who doth not so,<br /> +Mab will pinch her by the toe.<br /> +</div> + +<p>John Lyly, in his very beautiful <i>Mayde's Metamorphosis</i> +has this charming fairy song, which +takes us out to the grass, and the soft night air, +and the softer starshine:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +By the moon we sport and play;<br /> +With the night begins our day;<br /> +As we dance, the dew doth fall.<br /> +Trip it, little urchins all!<br /> +Lightly as the little bee,<br /> +Two by two, and three by three,<br /> +And about go we, and about go we.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 243px;"> +<img src="images/i_127.png" width="243" height="256" alt="Butterfly fairy flying at night" /> +<span class="caption">A MERRY NIGHT-WANDERER.</span> +</div> + +<p>What a picture of the wee tribe at their revels! +Here is another, from Ben Jonson's <i>Sad Shepherd</i>:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Span-long elves that dance about a pool,</span><br /> +With each a little changeling in her arms.<br /> +</div> + +<p>In what is thought to be Lyly's play, just mentioned, +Mopso, Joculo, and Prisio have something +in the way of a pun for each fairy they address:</p> + +<div class='blockquot'> +<i>Mop.</i>: I pray you, what might I call you?<br /> +<br /> +<i>1st Fairy</i>: My name is Penny.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Mop.</i>: I am sorry I cannot purse you!<br /> +<br /> +<i>Pris.</i>: I pray you, sir, what might I call you?<br /> +<br /> +<i>2nd Fairy</i>: My name is Cricket.<br /> +</div> + +<p>(Mr. Keightley says that the Crickets were a +family of great note in Fairyland: many poets +celebrated them.)</p> + +<div class='blockquot'> +<i>Pris.</i>: I would I were a chimney for your sake!<br /> +<br /> +<i>Joc.</i>: I pray you, you pretty little fellow, what's your<br /> +name?<br /> +<br /> +<i>3rd Fairy</i>: My name is Little Little Prick.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Joc.</i>: Little Little Prick! O you are a dangerous fairy, +and fright all the little wenches in the country out of their +beds. I care not whose hand I were in, so I were out of +yours.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Drayton, again, gives us a list of tinkling elfin-ladies' +names, which are pleasant to hear as the +drip of an icicle:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hop and Mop and Drop so clear,</span><br /> +Pip and Trip and Skip that were<br /> +To Mab their sovereign ever dear,<br /> +Her special maids-of-honor:<br /> +<br /> +Pib and Tib and Pinck and Pin,<br /> +Tick and Quick, and Jil and Jin,<br /> +Tit and Nit, and Wap and Win,<br /> +The train that wait upon her!<br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;"> +<img src="images/i_129.png" width="385" height="281" alt="Fairies dancing by moonlight" /> +<span class="caption">"BY THE MOON WE SPORT AND PLAY."</span> +</div> + +<p>Young Randolph has an equally delightful account +in the pastoral drama of <i>Amyntas</i>, of his wee +folk orchard-robbing; whose chorused Latin Leigh +Hunt thus translates, roguishly enough:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We the fairies blithe and antic,</span><br /> +Of dimensions not gigantic,<br /> +Tho' the moonshine mostly keep us,<br /> +Oft in orchard frisk and peep us.<br /> +<br /> +Stolen sweets are always sweeter;<br /> +Stolen kisses much completer;<br /> +Stolen looks are nice in chapels;<br /> +Stolen, stolen, be our apples!<br /> +<br /> +When to bed the world is bobbing,<br /> +Then's the time for orchard-robbing:<br /> +Yet the fruit were scarce worth peeling,<br /> +Were it not for stealing, stealing!<br /> +</div> + +<p>You will notice that Shakespeare places his +Gothic goblins in the woods about Athens, a place +where real fairies never set their rose-leaf feet, +but where once sported yet lovelier Dryads and +Naiads. These dainty British Greeks are very +small indeed: Titania orders them to make war +on the rear-mice, and make coats of their leathern +wings. Mercutio's Queen Mab is scarce bigger +than a snowflake. Prospero, in <i>The Tempest</i>, commands, +besides his "delicate Ariel," all</p> + +<div class='center'> +—elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves.<br /> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>The make-believe fairies in <i>The Merry Wives</i> +know how to pinch offenders black and blue. The +shepherd, in the <i>Winter's Tale</i>, takes the baby +Perdita for a changeling. So that all the Shakespeare +people seem wise in goblin-lore.</p> + +<p>You see that we have looked for the literature +of our pretty friends only among the old poets, and +only English poets at that; but the foreign fairies +are no less charming. Chaucer and Spenser loved +the brood especially. Robert Herrick knew all +about</p> + +<div class='poem'> +—the elves also,<br /> +Whose little eyes glow;<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>Sidney smiled on them once or twice, and great +Milton could spare them a line out of his majestic +verse. But the high-tide of their praise was ebbing +already when Dryden and Pope were writing. +Lesser poets than any of these, Parnell and Tickell, +wrote fairy tales, but they lack the relish of the +honeyed rhymes Drayton, Lyly, and supreme +Shakespeare, give us. Keats was drawn to them, +though he has left us but sweet and brief proof of +it; and Thomas Hood, of all gentle modern poets,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +has done most for the "small foresters and gay." +In prose the fairies are "famoused" east and west; +for which they may sing their loudest canticle to +the good Brothers Grimm, in Fairyland. The +arts have been their handmaids; and some of this +world's most lovable spirits have delighted to do +them merry honor: Mendelssohn in his quicksilver +orchestral music, and dear Richard Doyle in +the quaintest drawings that ever fell, laughing, +from a pencil-point.</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;"> +<img src="images/i_132.png" width="383" height="261" alt="fairies in the dark with eyes glowing" /> +<span class="caption">THE ELVES WHOSE LITTLE EYES GLOW.</span> +</div><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>CHANGELINGS.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>KIDNAPPING was a favorite pastime with +our small friends, and a great many reasons +concurred to make it a necessary and thriving +trade. We are told that both the Tylwyth +Teg and the Korrigans had a fear that their frail +race was dying out, and sought to steal hearty +young children, and leave the wee, bright, sickly +"changeling," or ex-changeling, in its place. +That sounds like a quibble; for we know that fairies +were free from the shadow of death, and +could not possibly dread any lessening of their +numbers from the old, old cause. Yet we +saw that the air-elves held pitched battles, and +murdered one another like gallant soldiers, from +the world's beginning; and again comes a straggling +little proof to make us suspect that they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +not quite the immortality they boasted. However, +we pass it by, sure at least that the philosopher +who first observed the merry goblins to be at bottom +wavering and disconsolate, recognized an instance +of it in this pathetic eagerness to adopt +babies not their own. Fairy-folk were believed, +in general, to have power over none but unbaptized +children.</div> + +<p>A tradition older and wider than the Tylwyth +Teg's runs that a yearly tribute was due from +Fairyland to the prince of the infernal regions, as +poor King Ægeus had once to pay Minos of Crete +with the seven fair boys and girls; and that, for +the sake of sparing their own dear ones, the little +beings, in their fantastic dress, flew east and west +on an anxious hunt for human children, who might +be captured and delivered over to bondage +instead. And they crept cautiously to many a +cradle, and having secured the sleeping innocent, +"plucked the nodding nurse by the nose," as +Ben Jonson said, and vanished with a scream of +triumphant laughter. Welsh fairies have been +caught in the very act of the theft, and a pretty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +fight they made, every time, to keep their booty; +but the strength of a man or a woman, was, of +course, too much for them to resist long.</p> + +<p>Now, whenever a mother, who, you may count +upon it, thought her own urchin most beautiful of +all under the moon, found him growing cross and +homely, in despite of herself, she suddenly awoke +to this view of the case: that the dwindled babe +was her babe no longer, but a miserable young +gosling from Fairyland slipped into its place. A +miserable young foreign gosling it was from that +hour, though it had her own grandfather's special +kind of a nose on its unmistakable face.</p> + +<p>The discovery always made a great sensation; +people came from the surrounding villages to +wonder at the lean, gaping, knowing-eyed small +stranger in the crib, and to propose all sorts of +charms which should rid the house of his presence, +and restore the rightful heir again. They were +not especially polite to the poor changeling. In +Denmark, and in Ireland as well, they dandled +him on a hot shovel! If he were really a changeling, +the fairies, rather than see him singed, were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +sure to appear in a violent fluster and whisk him +away, and at the same minute to drop its former +owner plump into the cradle. And if it were +not a changeling, how did those queer by-gone +mammas know when to stop the broiling and +baking?</p> + +<p>Mr. George Waldron, who in 1726 wrote an entertaining +<i>Description of the Isle of Man</i>, recorded +it that he once went to see a baby supposed to be +a changeling; that it seemed to be four or five +years old, but smaller than an infant of six months, +pale, and silky-haired, and (what was unusual) +with the fairest face under heaven; that it was +not able to walk nor to move a joint, seldom smiled, +ate scarcely anything, and never spoke nor cried; +but that if you called it a fairy-elf, it fixed its gaze +on you as if it would look you through. If it were +left alone, it was overheard laughing and frolicking, +and when it was taken up after, limp as cloth, +its hair was found prettily combed, and there were +signs that it had been washed and dressed by its +unseen playfellows.</p> + +<p>The main point to put the family mind at rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +on the matter, was to make the changeling "own +up," force him to do something which no tender +mortal in socks and bibs ever was able to do, such +as dance, prophesy, or manage a musical instrument. +There was an Irish changeling, the youngest +of five sons, +who, being teased, +snatched a bagpipe +from a visitor, and +played upon it in the +most accomplished +and melting manner, +sitting up in his +wooden chair, his +big goggle-eyes fixed +on the company. +And when he knew +he was found out, he sprang, bagpipe and all, into +the river; which leads one to suspect that he was +a sort of stray Strömkarl.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 209px;"> +<img src="images/i_137.png" width="209" height="292" alt="changeling on a chair with bagpipes" /> +<span class="caption">THERE WAS AN IRISH CHANGELING.</span> +</div> + +<p>The Welsh fairies had good taste, and admired +wholesome and handsome children. They stole +such often, and left for substitute the plentyn-newid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +(the change-child) who at first was exactly +like the absent nursling, but soon grew ugly, shrivelled, +biting, wailing, cunning and ill-tempered. +In the hope of proving whether it were a fairy-waif +or not, people put the little creature to such +hard tests, that sometimes it nearly died of acquaintance +with a rod, or an oven, or a well.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 383px;"><a id="Page_139"></a> +<img src="images/i_139.png" width="383" height="393" alt="Cat angry at changeling" /> +<span class="caption">"THE ACORN BEFORE THE OAK HAVE I SEEN."</span> +</div> + +<p>If the bereaved parent did some very astonishing +thing in plain view of the wonder-chick, that +would generally entrap it into betraying its secrets. +A French changeling was once moved unawares +to sing out that it was nine hundred years old, at +least! In Wales, and also in Brittainy (which are +sister-countries of one race) the following story is +current: A mother whose infant had been spirited +away, and who was much perplexed over what she +took to be a changeling, was advised to cook a +meal for ten farm-servants in one egg-shell. When +the queer little creature, burning with curiosity, +asked her from his high-chair what she was about, +she could hardly answer, so excited was she to +hear him speak. At that he cried louder: "A +meal for ten, dear mother, in one egg-shell? The +acorn before the oak have I seen, and the wilderness +before the lawn, but never did I behold anything +like that!" and so gave damaging evidence +of his age and his unlucky wisdom. And the +woman replied: "You have seen altogether too +much, my son, and you shall have a beating!" +And thereupon she began to thrash him, until he +screeched, and a fairy appeared hurriedly to rescue +him, and in the crib lay the round, rosy, real child, +who had been missing a long while.</p> + +<p>Now the "gentry" of modern Greece had an +eye also to clever children; but they almost +always brought them back, laden with gifts, lovelier +in person than when they were taken from home. +And if they appointed a changeling in the meantime +(which they were not very apt to do) it never +showed its elfin nature until it was quite grown up! +unlike the uncanny goblins who were all too +ready from the first to give autobiographies on the +slightest hint.</p> + +<p>The Drows of the Orkney Islands fancied larger +game. They used to stalk in among church congregations +and carry off pious deacons and deaconesses!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a><br /><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +So wrote one Lucas Jacobson Debes, in +1670.</p> + +<p>In a pretty Scotch tale, a sly fairy threatened to +steal the "lad bairn," unless the mother could tell +the fairy's right name. The latter was a complete +stranger, and the woman was sore worried; and +went to walk in the woods to ease her anxious and +aching heart, and to think over some means of +outwitting the enemy of her boy. And presently +she heard a faint voice singing under a leaf:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Little kens the gude dame at hame</span><br /> +That Whuppity Stoorie is ma name!<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>When the smart lady in green came to take the +beautiful "lad bairn," the mother quietly called +her "Whuppity Stoorie!" and off she hurried with +a cry of fear; like the Austrian dwarf Kruzimügeli, +the "dear Ekke Nekkepem" of Friesland, +and many another who tried to play the same +trick, and who were always themselves the means +of telling mortals the very names they would conceal.</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 252px;"> +<img src="images/i_143.png" width="252" height="341" alt="Fairy in a flower" /> +<span class="caption">SHE HEARD A FAINT VOICE SINGING UNDER A LEAF.</span> +</div> + +<p>Fairy-folk young and old were coquettish enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +about their names, and greatly preferred they +should not be spoken outright. This habit got +them into many a scrape. The anecdote of "Who +hurt you? Myself!" was told in Spain, Finland, +Brittainy, Japan, and a dozen other kingdoms, and +seems to be as old as the Odyssey. Do you remember +where Ulysses tells the Cyclop that his +name is Outis, which means Nobody? and how, +after the eye of the wicked Polyphemus has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +put out, the comrades of the big blinded fellow ask +him who did the deed, and he growls back, very +sensibly: "Nobody!" Consider what follows a +typical modern version of the same trick.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 373px;"> +<img src="images/i_144.png" width="373" height="309" alt="girl finds dancing fairy" /> +<span class="caption">"AINSEL."</span> +</div> + +<p>A young Scotch child, whom we will call Alan, +sits by the fire, when a pretty creature the size of +a doll, waltzes down the chimney to the hearth, +and begins to frolic. When asked its name it says +shrewdly: "Ainsel"; which to the boy sounds +like what it really is, "Ownself," and makes him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +when it is his turn to be questioned, as saucy and +reticent as he supposes his elfin playfellow to be. +So Alan tells the sprite that his name is "<i>My</i> +Ainsel," and gets the better of it. For bye-and-bye +they wax very frisky and friendly, and right +in the middle of their sport, when little Alan +pokes the fire, and gets a spark by chance on +Ainsel's foot, and when he roars with pain, and +the old fairy-mother appears instantly, crying angrily: +"Who has hurt thee? Who has hurt thee?" +the elf blurts, of course, "My Ainsel!" and she +kicks him unceremoniously up chimney, and bids +him stop whimpering, since the burn was of his +own silly doing! Alan, meanwhile, climbs upstairs +to bed, rejoicing to escape the vengeance of +the fairy-mother, and chuckling in his sleeve at +the funny turn things have taken.</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>FAIRYLAND.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"And never would I tire, Janet,<br /> +In Fairyland to dwell."<br /> +<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'>SO runs the song. Who would weary of so +sweet a place? At least, we think of it as +a sweet place; but like this own world of ours, it +was whatever a man's eyes made it: good and +gracious to the good, troublous to the evil. According +to an old belief, a mean or angry, or untruthful +person, always exposed himself, by the +very violence of his wrong-doing, to become an +inmate of Fairyland; and for such a one, it could +not have been all sunshine. A foot set upon the +fairy-ring was enough to cause a mortal to be +whisked off, pounded, pinched, bewildered, and +left far from home. It was a strange experience, +and it is recorded that it befell many a lad and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +maid to be loosed from earth, and cloistered for +uncounted years, to return, like our Catskill hero, +Rip Van Winkle, after what he supposes to be a +little time, and to find that generations had passed +away. For those absent took no thought of time's +passing, and on reaching earth again, would begin +where their lips had dropped a sentence half-spoken, +a hundred years before. Tales of such +truants are common the world over.</div> + +<p>Gitto Bach (little Griffith) was a Welsh farmer's +boy, who looked after sheep on the mountain-top. +When he came home at evenfall he often showed +his brothers and sisters bits of paper stamped like +money. Now when it was given to him, it was +real money; but the fairy-gifts would not bear +handling, and turned useless and limp as soon as +Gitto showed them. One day he did not return. +After two years his mother found him one morning +at the door, smiling, and with a bundle under his +arm. She asked him, with many tears, where he +had been so long, while they had mourned for him +as dead. "It is only yesterday I went away!" +said Gitto. "See the pretty clothes the mountain-children<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +gave me, for dancing with them to the +music of their harps." And he opened his bundle, +and showed a beautiful dress: but his mother saw +it was only paper, after all, like the fairy money.</p> + +<div class="i2"></div><div class="figcenter" style="width: 376px;"> +<img src="images/i_148.png" width="376" height="365" alt="Shepherd visited by fairies" /> +<span class="caption">GITTO BACH AND THE FAIRIES.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 374px;"> +<img src="images/i_149.png" width="374" height="198" alt="fairy sitting in flower" /> +<span class="caption">KAGUYAHIME, THE MOON-MAID.</span> +</div> + +<p>Our pretty friends enjoyed beguiling mortals into +their shining underworld, with song, and caresses, +and winning promises. Once the mortal entered, +he met with warm welcomes from all, and the most +exquisite meat and drink were set before him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +Now, if he had but the courage to refuse it, he +soon found himself back on earth, whence he was +stolen. But if he yielded to temptation, and his +tongue tasted fairy food, he could never behold +his native hills again for years and years. And +when, after that exquisite imprisonment, he should +be torn from his delights and set back at his father's +door, he should find his memory almost forgotten, +and others sitting with a claim in his empty seat. +And he should not remember how long he had +been missing, but grow silent and depressed, and +sit for hours, with dreamy eyes, on lonely slopes +and wildwood bridges, not desiring fellowship of +any soul alive; but with a heartache always for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +little lost playfellows, and for that bright country +far away, until he died.</p> + +<p>Often the creature who has once stood in the +courts of Fairyland, is placed under vow, when +released, and allowed to visit the earth, to come +back at call, and abide there always. For the +spell of that place is so strong, no heart can escape +it, nor wish to escape it. Thus ends the old +romance of Thomas the Rhymer: that, at the end +of seven years, he was freed from Fairyland, made +wise beyond all men; but he was sworn to return +whenever the summons should reach him. And +once as he was making merry with his chosen comrades, +a hart and a hind moved slowly along the +village street; and he knew the sign, laid down +his glass, and smiled farewell; and followed them +straightway into the strange wood, never to be +seen more by mortal eyes.</p> + +<p>A wonderful and beautiful Japanese story, too, +the ancient Taketori Monogatari, written in the +first half of the tenth century, tells us how a grey-haired +bamboo-gatherer found in a bamboo-blade +a radiant elf-baby, and kindly took it home to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +wife; and because of their great and ready generosity +to the waif, the gods made them thrive in +purse and health; and how, when the little one +had been with them three months, Kaguyahime, +for that was she, grew suddenly to a tall and fair +girl, and so remained unchanging, for twenty +years, while five gallant Japanese lords were doing +her strange commands, and running risks the world +over. Then, though the emperor, also, was her +suitor, and though she was unspeakably fond of +her old foster-parents, and grieved to go from +them, she, being a moon-maid, went back in her +chariot one glorious night to her shining home, +whence she had been banished for some old fault, +and whither the love and longing and homage of +all the land pursued her.</p> + +<p>Many sweet wild Welsh and Cornish legends +deal with shepherds and yeomen who set foot on +a fairy mound by chance, or who, in some other +fashion, were transplanted to the realm of the +dancing, feasting elves. But they have a pathetic +ending, since no wanderer ever strayed back with +all his old wits sound and sharp. He seemed as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +one who walked in sleep, and had no care or recognition +for the faces that once he held dear. +And if he were roused too rudely from his long +reverie, he died of the shock.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 384px;"> +<img src="images/i_152.png" width="384" height="213" alt="fairies visiting boy" /> +<span class="caption">THE LITTLE HUNCHBACK.</span> +</div> + +<p>A merrier tale, and one which is very wise and +pretty as well, is current in many literatures. The +Irish version runs somewhat in this fashion, and +the Spanish and Breton versions are extraordinarily +like it. A little hunchback resting at nightfall +in an enchanted neighborhood, heard the +fairies, from their borderlands near by, singing +over and over the names of the days of the week. +"And Sunday, and Monday, and Tuesday!" they +chorus: "and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +The boy thinks it rather hard that they do not +know enough to finish their musical chant with the +names of the remaining days; so, when they pause +a little, very softly, and tunefully, he adds: "And +Wednesday"! The wee folk are delighted, and +make their chant longer by one strophe; and they +crowd out in their finery from the mound, bearing +the stranger far down into its depths where there +are the glorious open halls of Fairyland: kissing +and praising their friend, and bringing him the +daintiest fruit lips ever tasted; and to reward him +lastingly, their soft little hands lift the cruel hump +from his back, and he runs dancing home, at a +year's end, to acquaint the village with his happy +fortune. Now another deformed lad, his neighbor, +is racked with jealousy at the sight of his +former friend made straight and fair; and he +rushes to the fairy-mound, and sits, scowling, waiting +to hear them begin the magic song. Presently +rise the silver voices: "And Sunday, and Monday, +and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Sunday and +Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday": whereat +the audience breaks in rudely, right in the middle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +of a cadence: "And Friday." Then the gentle +elves were wrathful, and swarmed out upon him, +snarling and striking at him in scorn; and before +he escaped them, they had fastened on his crooked +back beside his own, the very hump that had belonged +to the first comer! In the anecdote, as it +is given in Picardy, the justice-dealing goblins +are described as very small and comely, clad in +violet-colored velvet, and wearing hats laden with +peacock plumes. In the Japanese rendering, a +wen takes the place of the hump.</p> + +<p>Fairyland is the home of every goblin, bright +or fierce, that ever we heard of; the home, too, of +the ogres and dragons, and enchanted princesses, +and demons, and Jack-the-giant-killers of all time. +The Brownies belonged there, and went thither in +their worldly finery, when service was over; the +gnomes and snarling mine-sprites, the sweet dancing +elves, the fairies who stole children, or romped +under the river's current, or plagued honest farmers, +or tiptoed it with a torch down a lonesome +road—every one there had his country and his +fireside.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 379px;"> +<img src="images/i_156.png" width="379" height="348" alt="Fairy tending bird" /> +<span class="caption">TAKNAKANX KAN.</span> +</div> + +<p>In that merry company were many who have +escaped us, and who sit in a blossomy corner by +themselves, the oddest of the odd: like the Japanese +Tengus, who have little wings and feathers, +like birds, until they grew up; mouths very seldom +opened, and most amazing big noses, with +which, on earth, they were wont to fence, to whitewash, +to write poetry, and to ring bells! There, +too, were the dark-skinned Indian wonder-babies: +Weeng, whom Mr. Longfellow celebrates as Nepahwin, +the Indian god of sleep, with his numerous +train of little fairy men armed with clubs; +who at nightfall sought out mortals, and with innumerable +light blows upon their foreheads, compelled +them to slumber. The great boaster, Iagoo, +whom Hiawatha knew, once declared that he had +seen King Weeng himself, resting against a tree, +with many waving and music-making wings on his +back. Indian, likewise, was the spirit named Canotidan, +who dwelt in many a hollow tree; and +the lively fellow, Taknakanx Kan, who sported "in +the nodding flowers; who flew with the birds, frisked +with the squirrels, and skipped with the grasshopper;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +who was merry with the gay running brooks, +and shouted with the waterfall; who moved with +the sailing cloud, and came forth with the dawn." +He never slept, and never had time to sleep, being +the god of perpetual motion. Near him, perhaps, +see-sawed a couple of long-eyed Chinese San Sao, +or the glossy-haired Fées of Southern France +pelted one another with dew-drops. There also, +the African Yumboes had their magnificent tents +spread: those strange little thieving Banshee-Brownies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +wrapped in white cotton pangs, who +leaned back in their seats after a gorgeous repast, +and beheld an army of hands appear and carry off +the golden dishes! There abided, as the venerated +elder of the rest, the long-bearded Pygmies +whom Homer, Aristotle and good Herodotus had +not scorned to celebrate, whom Sir John Mandeville +avowed to be "right fair and gentle, after their +quantities, both the men and the women.... +And he that liveth eight year, men hold him right +passing old ... and of the men of our stature +have they as great scorn and wonder as we would +have among us of giants!"</p> + +<p>Of these and thousands more marvellous is +Fairyland full; full of things startling and splendid +and grewsome and visionary:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">——full of noises,</span><br /> +Sounds and sweet airs that give delight, and hurt not.<br /> +</div> + +<p>Any picture of it is tame, any worded description +dull and heavy, to you who discover it daily at first +hand, and who know its faces and voices, which +fade too quickly from the brain. All fine adventures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +spring thence: all loveliest color, odor and +companionship are in that stirring, sparkling world. +Can you not help us back there for an hour? Who +knows the path? Who can draw a map, and set up +a sign-post? Who can bar the gate, when we are +safe inside, and keep us forever and ever in our forsaken +"dear sweet land of Once-upon-a-Time"?</p><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>THE PASSING OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE.</div> + + +<div class='cap'>THERE was once a very childish child who laid +her fairy-book on its face across her knee, +and sat all the morning watching the cups of the +honeysuckle, grieved that not one solitary elf was +left to swing on its sun-touched edges, and laugh +back at her, with unforgetful eyes.</div> + +<p>We are sorry for her, and sorry with her. The +Little People, alas! have gone away; would that +they might return! No man knows why nor when +they left us; nor whither they turned their faces. +The exodus was made softly and slowly, till the +whole bright tribe had stolen imperceptibly into +exile. Mills, steam-engines and prowling disbelievers +joined to banish them; their poetic and +dreamy drama is over, their magic lamp out, and +their jocund music hushed and forbidden. Or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +perhaps they of themselves went lingeringly and +sorrowfully afar, because the world had grown too +rough for them.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey Chaucer, in the fourteenth century, +wrote in his sweet, tranquil fashion:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour . . .</span><br /> +Al was this lond fulfilled of faerie . . . . .<br /> +I speke of mony hundrid yeer ago;<br /> +But now can no man see non elves mo:<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>which you may understand as an announcement +somewhat ahead of time. For many, many "elves +mo" were on record after the good poet's lyre was +hushed, and "thick as motes in the sunbeam" centuries +after their reported flight. There have been +sound-headed folk in every age, of whom Chaucer +was one, who jested over the poor fairies and their +arts, and spoke of them only for gentle satire's sake. +But though Chaucer was sure the goblins had perished, +his neighbors saw manifold lively specimens +of the race, without stirring out of the parish. Up +to two hundred years ago prayers were said in the +churches against bad fairies!</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 379px;"> +<img src="images/i_161.png" width="379" height="285" alt="fairy sitting on a mushroom above other faires and bugs" /> +<span class="caption">"AL WAS THIS LOND FULFILLED OF FAERIE."</span> +</div> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott related that the last Brownie<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +was the Brownie of Bodsbeck, who lived there long, +and vanished, as is the wont of his clan, when +the mistress of the house laid milk and a piece of +money in his haunts. He was loath to go, and +moaned all night: "Farewell to Bonnie Bodsbeck!" +till his departure at break of day. A girl +from Norfolk, England, questioned by Mr. Thomas +Keightley, admitted that she had often seen the +<i>Frairies</i>, dressed in white, coming up from their +little cities underground! Mr. John Brand saw a +man who said he had seen one that had seen fairies!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +And Mr. Robert Hunt, author of the <i>Drolls +and Traditions of Old Cornwall</i>, wrote that forty +years ago every rock and field in that country was +peopled with them! and that "a gentleman well-known +in the literary world of London very recently +saw in Devonshire a troop of fairies! It +was a breezy summer afternoon, and these beautiful +little creatures were floating on circling +zephyrs up the side of a sunlit hill, fantastically +playing,</p> + +<div class='center'> +'Where oxlips and the nodding violet grow.'<br /> +</div> + +<p>So here are three trustworthy gentlemen, makers +of books on this special subject, and none of them +very long dead, to offset Master Geoffrey Chaucer, +and to bring the "lond fulfilled of faerie" closer +than he dreamed. About the year 1865, a correspondent +told Mr. Hunt the following queer little +story:</p> + + + +<p>"I heard last week of three fairies having been +seen in Zennor very recently. A man who lived +at the foot of Trendreen Hill in the valley of Treridge, +I think, was cutting furze on the hill. Near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +the middle of the day he saw one of the small people, +not more than a foot long, stretched at full +length and fast asleep, on a bank of heath, surrounded +by high brakes of furze. The man took +off his furze-cuff and slipped the little man into it +without his waking up, went down to the house, and +took the little fellow out of the cuff on the hearthstone, +when he awoke, and seemed quite pleased +and at home, beginning to play with the children, +who were well pleased also with the small +body, and called him Bobby Griglans. The old +people were very careful not to let Bob out of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +house, nor be seen by the neighbors, as he had +promised to show the man where crocks of gold +were buried on the hill. A few days after he was +brought, all the neighbors came with their horses, +according to custom, to bring home the winter's +reek of furze, which had to be brought down the +hill in trusses on the backs of the horses. That Bob +might be safe and out of sight, he and the children +were shut up in the barn. Whilst the furze-carriers +were in to dinner, the prisoners contrived to get +out to have a run round the furze-reek, when they +saw a little man and woman not much larger than +Bob, searching into every hole and corner among +the trusses that were dropped round the unfinished +reek. The little woman was wringing her +hands and crying 'O my dear and tender Skillywidden! +wherever canst thou be gone to? Shall +I ever cast eyes on thee again?' 'Go 'e back!' +says Bob to the children; 'my father and mother +are come here too.' He then cried out: 'Here I +am, mammy!' By the time the words were out of +his mouth, the little man and woman, with their +precious Skillywidden, were nowhere to be seen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +and there has been no sight nor sign of them +since. The children got a sound thrashing for +letting Skillywidden +escape."</p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 383px;"> +<img src="images/i_163.png" width="383" height="276" alt="girl reading fairy stories" /> +<span class="caption">FAIRY STORIES.</span> +</div> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 240px;"> +<img src="images/i_165.png" width="240" height="235" alt="capturing a fairy" /> +<span class="caption">THE CAPTURE OF SKILLYWIDDEN.</span> +</div> + +<p>Such is the latest +evidence we +can find of the +whereabouts of +our goblins.</p> + +<p>We may, however, +consider +ourselves their +contemporaries, since among the peasantry of many +countries over-seas, the belief is not yet extinct. +But it is pretty clear to us, modern and American +as we are (safer in so thinking than anybody was +anywhere before!) that the "restless people," as +the Scotch called them, are at rest, and clean quit +of this world; and perhaps satisfied, at last, of their +chance of salvation, along with fortunate Christians.</p> + +<p>Such a great system as this of fairy-lore, propped +on such show of earnestness, grew up, not of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +sudden like a mushroom after a July rain, but +gradually and securely, like a coral-reef. And the +dream-building was not nonsense at all, but a way +of putting what was evident and marvellous into a +familiar guise. If certain strange things, which +are called phenomena, happened—things like the +coming of pebbles from clouds, music from sand, +sparkling light from decay, or disease and death +from the mere handling of a velvety leaf—then our +forefathers, instead of gazing straight into the eyes +of the fact, as we are taught to do, looked askance, +and made a fantastic rigmarole concerning the +pebbles, or the music, and passed it down as religion +and law.</p> + +<p>The simple-minded citizens of old referred any +trifling occurrence, pleasant or unpleasant, to the +fairies. The demons and deities, according to +their notion of fitness, governed in vaster matters; +and the new, potent sprites took shape in the +popular brain as the controllers of petty affairs. +If a shepherd found one of his flock sick, it had +been elf-shot; if a girl's wits went wool-gathering, +it was a sign she had been in fairyland; if a cooing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +baby turned peevish and thin, it was a changeling! +Wherever you now see a mist, a cobweb, a +moving shadow on the grass; wherever you hear +a cricket-chirp, or the plash of a waterfall, or the +cry of the bird on the wing, there of yore were the +fairy-folk in their beauty. They stood in the mind +to represent the lesser secrets of Nature, to account +for some wonder heard and seen. It was +many a century before nations stopped romancing +about the brave things on land and sea, and began +to speculate, to observe more keenly, to hunt out +reasons, and to lift the haze of their own fancy +from heroic facts and deeds.</p> + +<p>Think a moment of the Danish moon-man, who +breathed pestilence, and the moon-woman, whose +harp was so charming. Well, the moon-man meant +nothing else than the marsh, slimy and dangerous, +which yielded a malarial odor; and the wee +woman with her harp represented the musical +night-wind, which played over the marsh rushes +and reeds. Was it not so, too, with the larger +myths of Greece? For the story of Proserpine, +carried away by the god of the under world, and after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +a weary while, given back for half-a-year to her fond +mother Ceres, tells really of the seed-corn which +is cast into her dark soil, and long hidden; but reappears +in glory, and stays overground for months, +basking in the sun. And so on with many a fable, +which we read, unguessing of the thought and +purpose beneath. Though it was erring, we can +hardly thank too much that joyous and reverent +old paganism which fancied it saw divinity in each +move of Nature, kept a natural piety towards everything +that lived, and made a thousand sweet memoranda, +to remind us forever of the wonder and +charm of our earth. All mythology, and the +part the fairies play in it, stands for what is true.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">——"Still</span><br /> +Doth the old instinct bring back the old names":<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and again and again, when we cite some beautiful +fiction of Merman and Kobold, of White Dwarf or +Pooka, we but repeat, whether aware of it or not, +how the dews come down at morning, or the +storm-wind breaks the strong trees, or how a comet, +trailing light, bursts headlong across the wide sky.</div> + +<p>To comprehend fairy-stories, to get under the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +surface of them, we would have to go over them +all at great length, and with exhaustless patience. +And as in digging for the tendrils of a delicate, +berry-laden vine, we have to search, sometimes, +deep and wide into the woodland loam, among +gnarly roots of shrubs and giant pines, so in tracing +the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'scources'">sources</ins> of the simplest tale which makes +us glad or sad, we fall across a network of ponderous +ancient lore; of custom, prejudice, and lost +day-dreams, from which this vine, also, is hard to +be severed.</p> + +<p>The spirit of these neat little goblin-chronicles +was right and sincere; but the matter of them +was often sadly astray. Of course, sometimes, +useless, misleading details gathered to obscure +the first idea, and to overrun it with a tangle +of error; and not only were fine stories spoiled, +but many were started which were funny, or silly, +or grim merely, without serving any use beyond +that.</p> + +<p>But so powerful is Truth, when there was actually +a grain of it at the centre, that even those +versions which were exaggerated and distorted,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +played into the hands of what we call Folk-lore, +and laid their golden key at the feet of Science. +You will discover that, besides pointing out the +workings of the natural world, the fairy-tales rested +often on the workings of our own minds and consciences. +The Brownie was a little schoolmaster +set up to teach love of order, and the need of +perfect courtesy; the Nix betokened anything +sweet and beguiling, which yet was hurtful, and +to which it was, and is, a gallant heart's duty not +to yield. And thus, from beginning to end, the +elves at whom we laugh, help us toward larger +knowledge, and a more chivalrous code of behavior. +How shall we say, then, that there never was +a fairy?</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 348px;"><a id="Page_171"></a> +<img src="images/i_171.png" width="348" height="415" alt="fairy in a bouquet" /> +</div> + +<p>A miner, hearing the drip of subterranean water, +took it to be a Duergar or a Bucca, swinging his +tiny hammer over the shining ore. His notion of +the Bucca, askew as it was, was one at bottom +with our knowledge of the dark brooklet. You, +the young heirs of mighty Science, can often outstrip +the slow-gathered wisdom of dead philosophers. +But do not despise that fine old imagination,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +which felt its way almost to the light. A +sixteenth-century boy, who was all excitement +once over the pranks of Robin Goodfellow, knew +many precious things which our very great nineteenth-century +acuteness has made us lose!</p> + +<p>Good-bye, then, to the army of vanishing "gentry," +and to their steadfast friends, and to you, children +dear! who are the guardians of their wild +unwritten records. Shall you not miss them when +next the moon is high on the blossomy hillocks, +and the thistledown, ready-saddled, plunges to be +off and away? Merry fellows they were, and +shrewd and just; and we were very fond of them; +and now they are gone. And their going, like a +mounting harmony, note by note, which ends in +one noble chord, with a hush after it, leads us to +a serious parting word. Keep the fairies in kindly +memory; do not lose your interest in them. They +and their history have an enchanting value, which +need never be outgrown nor set aside; and to the +gravest mind they bring much which is beautiful, +humane and suggestive.</p> + +<p>We have found that believers in the Little People<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +were not so wrong, after all; and that the eye +claiming to have seen a fairy saw, verily, a sight +quite as astonishing. Let us think as gently of +other myths to which men have given zeal, awe and +admiration, of every faith hereafter which seems +to us odd and mistaken. For many things which +are not true in the exact sense, are yet dear to +Truth; and follow her as a baby's tripping tongue +lisps the language of its mother, not very successfully, +but still with loyalty, and with a meaning +which attentive ears can always catch.</p> + +<p>Surely, our ancestors loved the "span-long elves" +who wrought them no great harm, and who gave +them help and cheer. We will praise them, too. +Who knows but some little goblin's thorny finger +directed many an innocent human heart to march, +albeit waveringly, towards the ample light of God?</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired. The remaining corrections made are listed below +and are indicated as well by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p> + +<p>Page vii, "Puck" changed to "Pück" (All that Pück demanded)</p> + +<p>Page vii, "wa" changed to "Wa" (Wag-at-the-Wa')</p> + +<p>Page viii, "Kopenick" changed to "Köpenick" (Kobold of Köpenick)</p> + +<p>Page viii, "changling" changed to "changeling" (was an Irish changeling)</p> + +<p>Page viii, "Taknakaux" changed to "Taknakanx" (Taknakanx Kan)</p> + +<p>Page 27, "airy" changed to "fairy" (to the fairy neighbors)</p> + +<p>Page 30, illustration caption, "RUGEN" changed to "RÜGEN" (THE ISLE OF RÜGEN)</p> + +<p>Page 37, illustration caption, "RUGEN" changed to "RÜGEN" (DWARVES OF RÜGEN)</p> + +<p>Page 38, repeated word "and" removed from text. Original read (by twos and and threes)</p> + +<p>Page 93, illustration caption, "KOPENICK" changed to "KÖPENICK" (KOBOLD OF KÖPENICK)</p> + +<p>Page 169, "scources" changed to "sources" (the sources of the simplest)</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Brownies and Bogles, by Louise Imogen Guiney + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROWNIES AND BOGLES *** + +***** This file should be named 39782-h.htm or 39782-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/8/39782/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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