DAOINE SHIE, OR THE MEN OF PEACE

DAOINE SHIE, OR THE MEN OF PEACE


They are, though not absolutely malevolent, believed to be a peevish,
repining, and envious race, who enjoy, in the subterranean recesses, a
kind of shadowy splendour. The Highlanders are at all times unwilling to
speak of them, but especially on Friday, when their influence is supposed
to be particularly extensive. As they are supposed to be invisibly
present, they are at all times to be spoken of with respect. The fairies
of Scotland are represented as a diminutive race of beings, of a mixed or
rather dubious nature, capricious in their dispositions, and mischievous
in their resentment. They inhabit the interior of green hills, chiefly
those of a conical form, in Gaelic termed _Sighan_, on which they lead
their dances by moonlight, impressing upon the surface the marks of
circles, which sometimes appear yellow and blasted, sometimes of a deep
green hue, and within which it is dangerous to sleep, or to be found
after sunset. The removal of those large portions of turf, which
thunderbolts sometimes scoop out of the ground with singular regularity,
is also ascribed to their agency. Cattle which are suddenly seized with
the cramp, or some similar disorder, are said to be elf-shot, and the
approved cure is to chafe the parts affected with a blue bonnet, which,
it may be readily believed, often restores the circulation. The
triangular flints frequently found in Scotland, with which the ancient
inhabitants probably barbed their shafts, are supposed to be the weapons
of fairy resentment, and are termed elf arrowheads. The rude brazen
battle-axes of the ancients, commonly called "celts," are also ascribed
to their manufacture. But, like the Gothic duergar, their skill is not
confined to the fabrication of arms; for they are heard sedulously
hammering in linns, precipices, and rocky or cavernous situations, where,
like the dwarfs of the mines mentioned by George Agricola, they busy
themselves in imitating the actions and the various employments of men.
The Brook of Beaumont, for example, which passes in its course by
numerous linns and caverns, is notorious for being haunted by the
fairies; and the perforated and rounded stones which are formed by
trituration in its channels are termed by the vulgar fairy cups and
dishes. A beautiful reason is assigned by Fletcher for the fays
frequenting streams and fountains. He tells us of

"A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks
The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds
By the pale moonshine, dipping oftentimes
Their stolen children, so to make them free
From dying flesh and dull mortality."

It is sometimes accounted unlucky to pass such places without performing
some ceremony to avert the displeasure of the elves. There is upon the
top of Minchmuir, a mountain in Peeblesshire, a spring called the Cheese
Well, because, anciently, those who passed that way were wont to throw
into it a piece of cheese as an offering to the fairies, to whom it was
consecrated.

Like the _feld elfen_ of the Saxons, the usual dress of the fairies is
green; though, on the moors, they have been sometimes observed in heath-
brown, or in weeds dyed with the stone-raw or lichen. They often ride in
invisible procession, when their presence is discovered by the shrill
ringing of their bridles. On these occasions they sometimes borrow
mortal steeds, and when such are found at morning, panting and fatigued
in their stalls, with their manes and tails dishevelled and entangled,
the grooms, I presume, often find this a convenient excuse for their
situation, as the common belief of the elves quaffing the choicest
liquors in the cellars of the rich might occasionally cloak the
delinquencies of an unfaithful butler.

The fairies, besides their equestrian processions, are addicted, it would
seem, to the pleasures of the chase. A young sailor, travelling by night
from Douglas, in the Isle of Man, to visit his sister residing in Kirk
Merlugh, heard a noise of horses, the holloa of a huntsman, and the sound
of a horn. Immediately afterwards, thirteen horsemen, dressed in green,
and gallantly mounted, swept past him. Jack was so much delighted with
the sport that he followed them, and enjoyed the sound of the horn for
some miles, and it was not till he arrived at his sister's house that he
learned the danger which he had incurred. I must not omit to mention
that these little personages are expert jockeys, and scorn to ride the
little Manx ponies, though apparently well suited to their size. The
exercise, therefore, falls heavily upon the English and Irish horses
brought into the Isle of Man. Mr. Waldron was assured by a gentleman of
Ballafletcher that he had lost three or four capital hunters by these
nocturnal excursions. From the same author we learn that the fairies
sometimes take more legitimate modes of procuring horses. A person of
the utmost integrity informed him that, having occasion to sell a horse,
he was accosted among the mountains by a little gentleman plainly
dressed, who priced his horse, cheapened him, and, after some chaffering,
finally purchased him. No sooner had the buyer mounted and paid the
price than he sank through the earth, horse and man, to the astonishment
and terror of the seller, who, experienced, however, no inconvenience
from dealing with so extraordinary a purchaser.

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Główna Czytelnia Literatura Legendy DAOINE SHIE, OR THE MEN OF PEACE
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