Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-19

ana Mucous tnan Shakespeare mas cOnlufeQ
in the witch-scenes of Macbeth So as the
burns springing from the misty craig
trimmed corries descend and water the well
coming plains of the lowlands, the endless
streams of demonology descend from the
weird and misty ceilidhs of these crofters'
ancient homes and render perennial the low
land growth OF Scottish folklore and super
stition.
In tracing the Gaelic mythology there
will be found two classes of immortals.
One of these consists of imps and demons
having the power of taking upon them
selves the body of man or woman, at will,
and by vooing human men or women, and
particularly in holding out ravishing PROM
ises of Immortality, thus leading them into
fatal unions through which the souls of the
mortalS so deluded were endlesSly banished
from heaven. The second class comprised
semi-immortals and magicians, wholly de-
voted to Druidism and the Black Art.
Whether the latter had existed or whether
they were creatures of the imagination
solely, centuries behind them some sort Of
folk really existed in ancient Caledonia.
Their wonderful skill in the erection of Sc
pulchral mounds, stone circles and men,
HRS, and in the making of metal ornaments
| and delicately-formed spear-heads, was
such as to compel, on the part of a less skill
full and more war-like people, the gradual
deihcation of the mysterious race, and their
eventual Identification with the local phan-
toms and gods of the earliest historically
known people of England.
In the gradual evolution of the fairies of
Scotland, whose real origin was in the
Finnish sylvans, satyrs 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 malevo-
lent spirits of an impish nature has been
ln,c cd Tho Etv,np Of no bil1c
the identical fellow found in early Irish
fairly-lore, was a very wicked gnome in
deed. He was up to all manner of wizard
harm, and made no distinction whatever be-
tween good and bad people in his depreda-
tions. The olden Scottish ban-Shee, like the
Irish ban-shee when first known, was
most hurtful and vindictive 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 ban-Shee has faded
out of of Scotland entirely, but is retained
in Ireland as the tender mother of an end
less brood of kindly fairies which under no
circumstances annoy any human 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
centuries come under the general appella-
ton of 1.-THE Brownies These are pos
sessed of every good and evil characteristic,
qualification and power, occasion may re-
quire in their elfish relations with men.
They are variously known also as chose
restless folk 'men of peace and ''guid
neibors." The name fairy and elf
though certainly sweet in sound. is eX-
tremely distasteful to the Scottish "wee
folk" as we have it on the authority of q
- fIni, ,l,A,.i lai1 To
have provided for settling the matter:
Gin We ca me imp or elf,
l rede We look weel to yourself;
Gin ye ca me fairy,
I'll work We muckle tarrie ttrouble)b
Gin guild neibor We ca me,
Then guild neibor will be;
But gin ye ca me seelie WIGHT (merrymanl
I'll be your freend bath day and NIGHT.
But brownies" they reman, despite
these express commands. The 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 di-
visions. There is certainly an intermedi-
ate class of spirits residing in the air to
whose agency floods, storms and tempeSts
are ascribed by the Scottish lowly,
though they possess no distinctive title.
Then there are the mermaids, the kelpies
horses of the North, of the lochs and
streams, as stoutly believed in by the
peasantry who now live beside them as
they were centuries ago. And the brown
les, as 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 air
which control the vagaries of Scottish
weather have much to attend to and account
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, es-
pecially churches and dwellings, are 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 in
reference. Work upon the ancient church
of Old Deer in Aberdeenshire, was con-
stantly interfered with by the ''restless
folk'' until its site was changed from the
hill of Bissau to Taptillery, at the express
command of ''the Spirit of the River" there.
Every time work was begun ON the walls of
Maudslie Castle in Lanarkshire, what wa,
completed by day was RACED by fairies at
night until voice from the debris repeat
ing:
Big (build) the house where it should be,
Big it on Maul's Lee,
was needed, when the fairies themselves
aided in the completion of the castle A
precisely similar action of tine fairies ac-
counts for the building of the castle of
Melgund, in Forfarshire, on low ground,
vertically il a bog, rather than on 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 imposing one on new site,
actually
"DUNG DOWN AT NIGHT"
every stone his workmen laid during the
day, until the stubborn nobleman desisted,
and restored the old castle on its original
had some sort of liking. And as evidence
that these wee folk are still exercising
their sway, personally know of the chang
ing of seven croft-home sites in Inverness
and Ross shires during the past four years,
and one in Aberdeenshire within year. on
account of their peasant-ownerS' absolute
belief that they have received such elfin
commands.
As to the mermaids of the lochs they still
exist past all dispute-at least with their
friends the Highlanders. The rail-
ways, telegraph and newspapers. like the
heartless poachers they are, have
''sweeped" or seined them well out of the
lowland shires They are and were both
dangerous and benefcent personages. In
olden times they were not above giving re-
cipes for brashes. ringworm and other COM
mon ailments. To-day they have retreated
to the shadowy Highland lochs where they
find comfortable fiat stones to sit upon, and
there, while combing their masses of long
yellow hair, sing in plaintive tones much
that is ill or good to be heard I know one
canny auld-wife of Northern Perthshire,
IL