Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-10-15
Welsh Fairy Lore.

NA'A. WI.
In England itself the popular credu.
lily is in mary ways as extravagant and
obstinate as ever, and in Scotland and
Ireland the majority of old superstitions
are nowadays held in honor and respect.
But it is, perhaps, in Wales, the cradle
of so much British fairy lore, the land
of mystery and wonderment until quite
recent years, that the fairies and spirits
hold now their chief court. Mr.. Writ
Skies, the United States Consul for
Wales at Cardiff, has recently published
delightful volume on British goblins,
showing that the traditions of the mys-
tic Arthur and of Merlin-th emselves
the prototypes of the historic king and
enchanter of VIII I'M the " Norte D'Ar-
thur" tells are still in vigorous life.
Elves yet haunt the wales and wood
lands; goblin dwarfs work in the mines,
and household fairies visit the clean
kept hearths AZ of old. In the green
meadow at the bottom of the lakes and
streams, live a little race who some-
times visit the earth, and on the noun.
tain tops the gnomes of the peak are
still to be met. As fairies have always
been, the Cymric sprites are capricious
in mood, but on the whole they are the
friends of man, and scores of stories
hold their ground from personal re-
membrance of the individuals benefit
ed, of the presents in enchanted stats
aud caskets, or in current coin and
bread and cheese. made by the modern
"Ellyllon." The fairies themselves eat
only toadstools aud fairy BUTTER"
but for mortals who visit them they
provide feasts such as rival the enter
tainments of Eastern legends. In 9TH
er ways, also, they treat their bold Wis
itors we'll, for, provided the stranger
obeys their directions on certain points,
and, above all things. avoids curiosity,
he is made free of the stables and gar
dens and all the other pleasures of the
palaces of enchantment which spring
up at the fairies bidding; for the little
folk, when mortals are with them, ride
and dance and enjoy themselves much
as men and women do. OF children
the Ellyllon are specially fond, and
mothers there live who have success
fully wrestled with the elves when try
ing to steal their infants, and grown-up
people are still to be found who in their
childhood stopped on their way to
school to play with the dwarfs on the
hillside. Grateful for kindnesses shown,
and vindictive for insults offered, nearly
all the little spirit folk alike may DO
made friends or foes. just as mortals
choose to have them, and the exception
is an elf given up wholly to mischief
and wrong doing. Of such, however,
there are. unfortunately, still few,
and the Welsh peasant, therefore, has
to take to-day all the old precautions
against changeling children and mis-
leading lanterns, for want of which so
many worthy Taffy has come to grief
in the past. On the other hand, fairies
are not of cunning sort, and can be
easily circumvented or imposed upon.
Sometimes, indeed, they are caught and
kept as pets. The general good tenn.
per of the fairies, and the facility
with which their small mischiefs
may be counteracted. have thus, in q
way. accustomed the Welsh mind to
think leniently OF fairies existence,
while the very convenient forms in
which Puck and his comrades do their
spiriting, make them good excuse for
occasional lapses from sObriety and de.
corum. Fathers of families returning
home from market are now and then
sadly overcome by spirits on the way,
and are found in the early morning ~
ing in the road all splashed with mud,
hstless, and with clothes torn, and when
questioned as to the cause are so inco-
herent that it is evident to everyone
that the fairies have had a hand in the
matter. Thus, too. when servants are
longer on their errands than they should
be, when pretty girls stay out too late
on summer evenings, and money or
other property comes uAaccountably
into peoples possession, a story of elves
or COLLINS pat for the purpose is always
ready, and presidents for such acci-
dents are at once charitably recalled to
memory. The Welsh fairies, therefore,
have certain claims on Taffy which, to
do him credit, he never attempts even
at this day to repudiate.
One moral, however, is to be drawn
from all the thousand delightful stories
of elm, and that is that, good or bad,
it is as we'll, on the whole. to have no
more to do with the fairies than can
possibly be helped. They may give a
favorite, for a time, all the luck he can
wish tor, but there is invariably some
triAing condition attached to his pros
perity which, being violated, brings
dreadful penalties in its train. It is
we'll, therefore, to keep clear of goblin
people of all kinds, and above all to
eschew the company of witches. AT
Dunmow, the other day, two gentle
rustics, finding themselves disturbed
by shadows, and the cattle afflicted with
ailments, were gravely proceeding to
throw q neighbor into pond to see il
she was witch. II she foated, she
was, and if she drowned she was not.
The ordeal is simple enough, but the
woman's husband objected, and very
fortunately, too, for the rustics con.
cerned; as it happened, the "witch y
In question was unable to swim. and
though her innocence would thus have
been incontrovertibly established by
her death, the result to her murderers
would have been awkward. Last week
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