Part 7 (2/2)

The toadstools often found near these so-called fairy-rings were also thought to be their workmans.h.i.+p, and in some localities are styled pixy-stools, and in the North of Wales ”fairy-tables,” while the ”cheeses,” or fruit of the mallow, are known in the North of England as ”fairy-cheeses.”

A species of wood fungus found about the roots of old trees is designated ”fairy-b.u.t.ter,” because after rain, and when in a certain degree of putrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency which, together with its colour, makes it not unlike b.u.t.ter. The fairy-b.u.t.ter of the Welsh is a substance found at a great depth in cavities of limestone rocks. Ritson, in his ”Fairy Tales,” speaking of the fairies who frequented many parts of Durham, relates how ”a woman who had been in their society challenged one of the guests whom she espied in the market selling fairy-b.u.t.ter,” an accusation, however, which was deeply resented.

Browne, in his ”Britannia's Pastorals,” makes the table on which they feast consist of:

”A little mushroom, that was now grown thinner By being one time shaven for the dinner.”

Fairies have always been jealous of their rights, and are said to resent any infringement of their privileges, one of these being the property of fruit out of season. Any apples, too, remaining after the crop has been gathered in, they claim as their own; and hence, in the West of England, to ensure their goodwill and friends.h.i.+p, a few stray ones are purposely left on the trees. This may partially perhaps explain the ill-luck of plucking flowers out of season[8]. A Netherlandish piece of folk-lore informs us that certain wicked elves prepare poison in some plants.

Hence experienced shepherds are careful not to let their flocks feed after sunset. One of these plants, they say, is nightwort, ”which belongs to the elves, and whoever touches it must die[9].” The disease known in Poland as ”elf-lock” is said to be the work of evil fairies or demons, and is cured by burying thistle-seed in the ground. Similarly, in Iceland, says Mr. Conway, ”the farmer guards the gra.s.s around his field lest the elves abiding in them invade his crops.” Likewise the globe-flower has been designated the troll-flower, from the malignant trolls or elves, on account of its poisonous qualities. On the other hand, the Bavarian peasant has a notion that the elves are very fond of strawberries; and in order that they may be good-humoured and bless his cows with abundance of milk, he is careful to tie a basket of this fruit between the cow's horns.

Of the many legendary origins of the fairy tribe, there is a popular one abroad that mortals have frequently been transformed into these little beings through ”eating of ambrosia or some peculiar kind of herb.”[10]

According to a Cornish tradition, the fern is in some mysterious manner connected with the fairies; and a tale is told of a young woman who, when one day listlessly breaking off the fronds of fern as she sat resting by the wayside, was suddenly confronted by a ”fairy widower,”

who was in search of some one to attend to his little son. She accepted his offer, which was ratified by kissing a fern leaf and repeating this formula:

”For a year and a day I promise to stay.”

Soon she was an inhabitant of fairyland, and was lost to mortal gaze until she had fulfilled her stipulated engagement.

In Germany we find a race of elves, somewhat like the dwarfs, popularly known as the Wood or Moss people. They are about the same size as children, ”grey and old-looking, hairy, and clad in moss.” Their lives, like those of the Hamadryads, are attached to the trees; and ”if any one causes by friction the inner bark to loosen a Wood-woman dies.”[11]

Their great enemy is the Wild Huntsman, who, driving invisibly through the air, pursues and kills them. On one occasion a peasant, hearing the weird baying in a wood, joined in the cry; but on the following morning he found hanging at his stable door a quarter of a green Moss-woman as his share of the game. As a spell against the Wild Huntsman, the Moss-women sit in the middle of those trees upon which the woodcutter has placed a cross, indicating that they are to be hewn, thereby making sure of their safety. Then, again, there is the old legend which tells how Brandan met a man on the sea,[12] who was, ”a thumb long, and floated on a leaf, holding a little bowl in his right hand and a pointer in his left; the pointer he kept dipping into the sea and letting water drop from it into the bowl; when the bowl was full, he emptied it out and began filling it again, his doom consisting in measuring the sea until the judgment-day.” This floating on the leaf is suggestive of ancient Indian myths, and reminds us of Brahma sitting on a lotus and floating across the sea. Vishnu, when, after Brahma's death, the waters have covered all the worlds, sits in the shape of a tiny infant on a leaf of the fig tree, and floats on the sea of milk sucking the toe of his right foot.[13]

Another tribe of water-fairies are the nixes, who frequently a.s.sume the appearance of beautiful maidens. On fine sunny days they sit on the banks of rivers or lakes, or on the branches of trees, combing and arranging their golden locks:

”Know you the Nixes, gay and fair?

Their eyes are black, and green their hair, They lurk in sedgy sh.o.r.es.”

A fairy or water-sprite that resides in the neighbourhood of the Orkneys is popularly known as Tangie, so-called from _tang,_, the seaweed with which he is covered. Occasionally he makes his appearance as a little horse, and at other times as a man.[14]

Then there are the wood and forest folk of Germany, spirits inhabiting the forests, who stood in friendly relation to man, but are now so disgusted with the faithless world, that they have retired from it.

Hence their precept--

”Peel no tree, Relate no dream, _Pipe_ no bread, _or_ Bake no c.u.min in bread, So will G.o.d help thee in thy need.”

On one occasion a ”forest-wife,” who had just tasted a new baked-loaf, given as an offering, was heard screaming aloud:

”They've baken for me c.u.min bread, That on this house brings great distress.”

The prosperity of the poor peasant was soon on the wane, and before long he was reduced to abject poverty.[15] These legends, in addition to ill.u.s.trating the fairy mythology of bygone years, are additionally interesting from their connection with the plants and flowers, most of which are familiar to us from our childhood.

Footnotes:

1. See Crofton Croker's ”Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,” 1862, p. 98.

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