The morning call., 1891-07-19
SCOTTISH ELVES
And FAIRIES
SupGrStti0nS Of The Peasant Folks Of
Scotland.
Demonology and Witchcraft-0bjects That
Have Significance for Good or Evil
Good and Bad Brownies.
Special to THE SUNDAY CALL.

peculiarly rich in these forgivable vagaries.
Indeed among the most unlearned of Scot
fish peasantry there is serious though
exquisite vein of brightness better than or
binary wit and more palpable than extra
ordinary humor, which rejecting the essen
tial slavery of supersttiOus practices,
save in remote districts, insists on retaining
and enjoying the pleasure found in an APP
parent and gravely asserted belief in the
superstitions themselves. A lingering re-
Spect for, if not a belief in, the old
spae wife or "wise woman" the half
witch, fortune-teller and destroyer of
smells, charms and blights from the
''evl eye" still exists almost universally
In Scotland and one casting rdicule upon
her is instantly met with the reproof:
1.-The gift she hae is frae aboon, an what
He gies daurna be hiditw-thoush the
speaker may have no more faith than your
self in the efficacy of the pretended spae-
wife's powers. The loss of the charm of
possessing the superstition is begrudged.
Thus the weird, quaint things, many of
which might seem unaccountable and re-
pulsive to US, have bee ONE in lieu OF book
lore folk fireside lore out of which endless
ente rtainment is secured. Underneath
much of this there is deep and earnest
many things without apparent reason, that
grow into life out of ancestry, oft-repeated
hOmeside tale, beloved custom and that
mysterious yet powerful halowing which
comes upon changeless places and objects
to men.
Demonology and witchcraft in Scotland
are matters of too recent record to expect
that their weird Influences are anything
like largely dispelled. Scottish romance and
poetry reek with "the deips mischief" of
prIa hn he ula IF Of
mental superstition worship is not alone
sufficiently powerful to foster and preserve
the witches and warlocEs of the magma
tons of the Scottish masses. There are re-
mote districts in the Scottish southeastern
and southwestern shires, for instance south
of the Tweed i'll Roxburgshire. and along
the Solway and Irish Sea, where the old
wraiths, various and vagarous as in Tam
Shanter'S time, seem tadeleSs; but the
great cradle and source of preserva-
fish superstition is still, | am in
clined to believe from actual obser-
walton a:.d study, the Scottish Highlands
and islands. These districts stil annually
send out into all the lowand cities, vii
lagos and countryside communities great
numbers of sturdy. honest, patient,
though ignorant and superstitUus. nj en- and
women who engage in all manner of SER
vice. They are truly children of the mists.
Their association in homes, in inns, On
estates and even in factories, with lowland
companions effects ceaseleSs transmission of
the bugaboos they have brought from the
mountains and glens; and this in turn re-
kindleS and keeps atame in the breasts of
lowlanders ordinarily subject to later-day
influences, all the inherent love for the
fierce and gentle spirits and sprites so
marked among the lowly of all olden Celtic
lands and lace divisions.
These humble and unconscious mission
aries of superstition-eyer brave, tender
and imaginative folk-are reared from baby
hood to manhood in what may be truly
termed a university of superstition.
In their lonely and isolated lives every
physical object and phenomenon of nature
has significance of good or i'll. Their en-
tire environment is rife with wild and fierce
ancestral tales and legends. Their homes
in some "auld clachan" in the glens, on the
mountain sides, within the purple strains,
or clustered in the upland corries or hol-
lows, stand on Gaelic fanes, many of which
are 1000 YEARS old.
For eight months of the year these folk
are shut within their mountain homes py
storm and flood. From time immemorial
| almost the exclusive diversion has been
that Incompatible nursery of superstition
the ceilidh pronounced kailey," and Gaze
lie for gossiping party ~. Here the auld
wives gather, and by the Pickering light of
the peat fires recount evening after evening
the whole winter long, all the narrowing
tales their ripe and bardic fancies conjure;
verita6Iy curdiins the blood with every
CHASTITY tale possible tG human invention.
and sleeping the very soul in the fumes of
black-art caldrons, infinitely luore weird
and hideous than Shakespeare has cOniured
in the witch scenes OF Macbeth. So as the
burns springing from the misty crag-rmmed
corries descend and water the welcoming
plains OF The lOWlauds, the endless streams
| of demonology descend from the weird and
misty ceilldns OF these crOfters' ancient
homes and render perennial the lowland
growth oil Scottish folklore and supersti-
| ton.
In the gradual evolution of the fairies of
Scotland, whose real origin were in the
Finnish sylvans, satyrs and fauns, but who
became more propitious to humanity through
natural modification by the SUMMER ma
lures of the Celtic people, that portion of
its demonology providing maevolent spirits
of an impish nature has been largely extir-
pated. The imam of the hills" the identi-
cal fellow found in early Irish fairy lore,
was very wicked gnome indeed, He was
up to all manner of wizard harm, and made
no distinction whatever between good and
bad people in his depredations. The olden
Scottish banshee, like the Irish banshee
when first known, was most hurtful and
vindctive female demon. The former has
been replaced in Ireland by a throng of
pleaSant-mannered imps, chief among
whom is that imp Of infinite humor, the
| leprachaun: The banshee has faded ont
OF Scotland entirety, but is retained in
| Ireland ms the tender mother of an end
| less brood of kindly fairies which under
| no circumstances annoy any humans save
| those OF evil heart and sordid nature and
| who are full of rewards TO the generous,
| the sacrificial and the good.
| In Scotland all these descendants of the
| original bad man and bad woman of 1.-THE
| hills" have within the last two or three CEN
| turtles come under the general appellation of
1.-The Brownies" These are possessed Of
every good and evil characteristic, aualifica-
ton and power occasion may require in
their elfsh relations with men. They are
| varlously known as also those restless
| folk, linen of peace" and "guid neibors."
! The name fairy" and elf" though GER
| tainly sweet in sound, is extremely distaste-
| full to the Scottish "wee folk" as we have it
| on the authority of rhyme one of their own
| number is said to have provided for settling
| the matter:
Gin ye ca me Imp or elf
rede ye look weeI to yourself,
Gin we ca me fairy.
~ work ye muckie tarrie (trouble).
Gin guild neibor We ca me.
Then guild nctbOr Will be;
hut gin we ca me seelie WIGHT (merry mani,
I'll be your freend bath day and NIGHT!
But brownies" they remain, despite these
| express commands This term is generic
and covers all sprtes and fairy powers of
good or Ill. Still they seem in the popular
mind to comprise several divisions. There
| Is certainly an intermediate class of spirits
| residing III the air to whose agency floods,
storms and tempests are aScribed by the
Scottish lowly, though they possess no dis
tlnctive tlt.e Then there are the mer-
| maids. the kelpies of the South, and the
water-buls and horses Of the North, OF the
| l0ch5 and streams, as stoutly believed in by
the peasantry who now live beside them as
they were centuries ago. And the brownies,
a. body, seem to be divided into those
| whose engagements are of general nature,
| and those whose duties are strictly confined
| to affairs of the household.
| Those nameless elfs and spirits OF the air
which control the vagaries of Scottish
weather have much to attend to and ac-
count for. They are not only constantly
employed In dispensing fog mists and
tempests. but unless their wishes have been
invoked and directions duly followed all
| structures, especially churches and dwell
ings, are liable to destruction. 1t was not
so very long ago that the sites OF many his
toric structures in Scotland had their origin
| In this sort of interference. Work upon the
ancient church OF Old Deer, In Aberdeen
| fap tlx, inta fas