Morning journal and courier., 1892-12-17
wAKEMAN,s WANDERINGs.

wAKEMAN,S WANDERINGs. The Little Manx Island and Its Folk The Poet Traveller Delves Among the Superstitions and Folk Lore oi the Manx Islanders-weird Re- minders Of Pagan Times-uanx Fairies, Elves, Gnomcs and Imp, Proudly Retained Memories Rather Than Scourging Tyrants.
 DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, Dec. 3. Tothe Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Few writers ever troubled themselves at all about the Manx people. Those have invariably set them down as "extraordi, narily superstitious." Then they have galloped away, leaving the Manxmen in mist and their readers in mystery.
 A truer statement regarding these inter esting and sturdy people would be that they have emerged from bouudless super stition. Everywhere one may go in Manx- land are found evidences of that extreme antiquity which SO impresses and at times appslls the student in Ireland and Corn wall. Coming to later though still re- mote period one cannot escape the convic- ton that the first Celts of Ireland and the west of England and the first people of Manxland were not only of common stock, but for centuries were, while psgans, 8 people of common language, customs and interest.
 In the intervening of Psgsnism and Christianity there was undoubtedly large ecclesiastical sanction entertained towards many of the superstitious practices of the ancient Manx people. Long isolation from the remainder of progressive Eng land, and the retention of distinct Ian guage. in which the gospel is still preached, in few instances precisely as friend of mine breaches one Gaelic sermon per month in the little old church of Fss-na- kyle, Strathglass, Scotland, fostered the clan theory of society, and left countless legends, expectations and customs among this stolid though singulsrly impressiona- ble and sentimental people.
 But have gradually come to know that, however grim-visaged the face of the one con6ding the weird assertion of unpeppg scout and fl out them all, save those of a tender and winsome character. Briefly, Manx folk to day reject the essential slave " of supsrstitious practices, but univer- sally insist on retaining the pleasure of subscribing to the superstitions them selves.
 One illustration out of many which could be given will serve to emphasize poIy1 Tn o1Ian tiDnea If a universal custom here on retiring at New Years eve for the family to carefully strew ashes upon the floor, in the expectancy of finding the next morning the impression of a fairy foot. It was religiously be- | lieved that the direction of the foot pre- dicted death, If toward the door; and if | toward the fireplace, an increase in the household by birth or marriage. The GUS | tom is quite as universal at the present I time; but the element of terror is wholly | eliminated; foot prints are always discov- | cred pointing toward the fireplace; and the | superstition prevails only in its gentle and | kindly aspect to give added xest to the merry holiday time.
 In tracing ManI mythology there will be | found, precisely as in the Gaelic mytholo' | gy of Scotland and the Celtic mythology | of Ireland, two classes of bugsboo immor. | tals. One of these consisted of imps and demons having the power of taking upon II themselves the form of man or woman a' ! will, and by wooing human men or wo
 men, and particularly by holding out ray | ishing promises of immortality, leading
 them into fatal unions, through which ths
 souls of mortals 30 deluded were endless ly banished from heaven.
 The second class comprised semi-immor | t..a1l, T a&al ...n nrr, | idism and the black art. Whether the lat
 ter had existence, or were solely creatures
 of the imagination, centuries behind then
 some sort of folk really existed in aucien
 Manxland. Their wonderful skill in thu
 erection of sepulohral mounds, stone cir
 cles and menhirs, and in the making o
 metal ornaments and delicately formed
 spear heads, was such ss to compel iron | less skillful and more wsrlike people thu | gradual dei6cation of the mysterious racs
 and their eventual identification with loca phsntoms and gods.
 In the gradual evolution of MapI fair
 ies, whose real origin was in the Finnisl sylvans, satyrs and fsuns that portion O & malevolent nature has been largely extir | pated. The ''man of the hills," the iden
 tical fellow found in the Irish and Scot
 tish Highlands, was a wicked fellow in deed. Among the Manx shepherds 0 Snaefell and North Barrule mountains
 found a few who still firmly believe in hi
 power for harm; who recognize his voic in the soughing of the winds through tn gorges; and, when troubled in conscience
 avoid the darkness of night and leadin ! their hocks to the lonelier glens.
 The banshee, that Hateful mother c grewsome brood in all originally Celti
 countries, has given way in Scotland its host of "guid neibors" or Brownies, 8 { mighty a host of good aud i'll sprites 1 : Ireland, and in Manxlsnd to an intsngibl
 army of gnomes, elves and spritel
 | These in general possess power of reward
 ing the good and punishing for evil = l Wesleyan clergyman named Coriaig a fe . | years ago undertook to Hay" them stoutly declaring from his pulpit that |
 saw them with his own eyes depart in 9 body from the Bay of Douglas in empt r rum puncheons, scuddiDg before the win !. in the direction of Jamaica. But the W. U people" are still safely ensconsed in tt hearts and traditions of Msnxmen. au
 cannot be deported and marooned even r well-meaning clergymen.
 d One will still find among tho Manx hsl I ermen farmers clear traces of exact col @ eeners of the ancient water bulls au = horses of the misty north of Secular
 loohs The ''tarroo ushtey" is the wi ,l water-bull and the "glashtin" the furiol 7- water-horse of Manxlsnd. The form ia destroyed cattle, the latter left the sea ,t chase Manx ponies over the mounta ,e crags to destruction. These have no te
 TOTS now for Manxmen; but if i'll befsl ', kline or horses, these creatures of t n misty days always return in the fresi 5- banter and gossip.
 These folk have one remarkable friel ,d among the elves. He Is called the "phy '" nodderee" For some form of misd
 meanor he was banished from elfland al ie became satyr with shaggy hair. Tho rt who have seen him assert that he has fs ar like an elk with protruding spear-h " horn where the fetlock should be ensbli IT; him to scale walls and mountains at vi