Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-07-18
No. III

of Scotland, whose real origin were in the
Finnish syfvans, sstyrs and fauns, but
who became more propitious to humanity
through a natural modification by the sun
nier natures of the Celtic people, that por-
ton of its demonology providing maleTo-
lent spirits of an impish nature has been
largely extirpated. The imam Of the
hills, )" the identical fellow found in early
Irish fairy-lore, was a very wicked gnome
indeed. He was up to all manner of wiz
ard harm, and made no distinction what
ever between good and bad people in his
depredations The olden Scottish ban
shee, like the Irish ban-shee when first
known, was q most hurtful and vindictiys
female demon. The former has been re-
placed in Ireland by q throng of pleasant
hammered imps, chief among whom Is that
The ban-shee has faded out of Scotland
entirely, but is retained in ireland as the
tender mother of an endless brood of
kindly fairies which under no circumstan-
ces annoy any humans save those of evil
heart and sordid nature, and who are full
of rewards to the generous, the sscriheiAl
and the good.
original bad man and bad woman of "the
hills" have within the last two or three
centuries come under the general sppsllA-
ton of "the Brownies" These are pos
sessed of every good and evil characteris-
tAc, qualification and power, occasion may
require in their elfish relations with men
They are variously known also as "those
restless foil, "men of peace" and 'iguid
neibors." The name fairy and elf,
though certainly sweet in sound, is ex-
tremely distasteful to the Scottish ''wee
folk, as we have il on the authority of q
rhyme one of their own number is said to
have provided for settling the matter:
Gin We ca me imp or elf,
rede ye look weel 70 yourself;
IN work ye muckie tarrie (trouble);
Gin guild neibor We ca me,
Then guild nsibor viii be:
But gin We ca me seelie WIGHT (merrymanD,
IN be your freend bath day and nicht,
But brownies" they remain, despite
these express commands. This term is
generic and covers all sprites and fairy
powers of good or i'll. Still they seem in
the popular mind to comprise several divi-
sions. There is certainly an intermediate
class of spirits residing in the air to whose
agency iopds, storms and tempests are as
cribed by the Scottish lowly, though they
possess no distinctive title. Then there
are the mermaids, the kelpies of the south,
and the water-bulls and horses of the
north, of the lochs and streams, as stout
" believed in by the peassntry who now
live beside them as they were centuries
ago. And the brownies, as a body, seem
to be divided into those whose engagements
are of a general nature, and those whose
duties are strictly confined to affairs of the
household
Those nameless elfs and spirits of the
sir which control the vagaries of Scottish
weather have much to attend to and SC
count for They are not only constantly
employed in dispensing fogs: mists and
tempests, but Unless their wishes have
been invoked and directions duly followed,
all structures, especially churches and
dwellings, ars liable to destruction 1t
was not so very long ago that the sites of
many historic structures in Scotland had
their origin in this sort of interference.
Work upon the ancient church of Old
Deer, in Aberdeenshire, was constantly
interfered with by the RESTLESS folk un-
til its site was changed from the hill of
Bisssu to Taptillery, at the express COM
mand of 1.-The Spirit of the River" there.
Every time work was begun on the walls
of Mauldslie Castle in Lanarkshire, what
was completed by day was rAzed by the
fairies at night, until a voice from the de-
bris repeating,
Big it on Maul's Lee,
was needed, when the fairies themselves
aided in the completion of the castle. A
precisely similar action of the fairies
counts for the building of the castle of
Melgund, in Forfarshire, on low ground,
veritably in a bog, rather than on a neigh
boring hill. The castle of COwthally,
Lanarkshire, remains where it stands to-
day, because the fairies, defying the first
Somerville, who had taken it by storm, in
his efforts to destroy the old castle and
build more importing one on new site,
actually dung down at NIGHT" every stone
his workmen laid during the day, until
the stubborn nobleman desisted, and re-
stored the old castle on its original foun-
dations of iron, for which the fairies had
some sort of liking. And as evidence
that these wee folk are still exercising
their sway, l personally know of the
changing of seven croft-home sites in In
verness and Ross shires during the past
four years, and one in Aberdeenshire with
in a year, on account of their peasant
owners absolute belief thst they have re-
ceived such elin commands.
As to the mermaids of the lochs they
still exist past all disputs-at least with
their friends the Highlanders The rail-
ways, telegraph and newspapers, like the
heartless prochers they are, have ''sweeped'
or seined them well ont of the lowlRnd
shires. They are and were both danger
ous and benehcent personAges. In olden
times they were not above giving recipes
for brashes, ring-worm and other com
mon ailments. To-day they have all re-
treated TO the shadowy Highland lochs
where they find comfortable fat stones 20
sit upon, and there, while combing their
masses of long yellow hair, sing in plain
tive tones much that is i'll or good TO be
heard. / know one canny auld wife of
northern Perthshire, who gsts along very
comfortably through her confidential pela-
tions with a mermaid that at present pass
es the summer season at Loeb Ranoch.
But the genuine household brownie" Is
the most loving and lovAble af all Scottish
elves. He Is never idle IN all good Office
TO the lowly home of the countryside,
where you may never fail of finding him,
If YOU do not enter his realm in the spirit
of cavil and scoffing There, in each sim
pie home and heart he sits enthroned with
every attribute of beneyolence and Rffec-
ton. He not only works with giant might
to assist in ploughing the land, harvesting
the crops, guarding the grain and minding
the herds, but in every little household
drudgery of guild wife and bAirn he lends
helping hand. No i'll can come but that
he has Tended its cruelest touch. No sor-
row can fall upon the household whose
hurt would not be deadlier were il not for
his kindly and palliative powers. And in
all the stern though glorious old land o.
cakes his benefcent influence adds Zest TO
every peasant Joy. They are not useless
folk these. If we could only get more of
them, with those who own and love them
well, through the New Yosk barge Office,
there would be fewer red flags to worry
about in our own fair land.
EDGAR L WAKEMAN.