The New York herald., 1922-04-30
The Original American Fairy.

The Original American Fairy.
Why has America no fairies or
fairy stories? asks a correspondent.
But America has. Sir Arthur CONAN
DOYLE did not get all the fairies there
were in the pictures he shows of these
little people among English wild
flowers; the Grimm Brothers did not
corral them all in the Black Forest
nor did HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
confine them to Scandinavia. THoREAU,
JOHN BuRRoUGHs and others of our
great nature students, it is true,
never delved much in fairy lore. They
were philosophers, though, and phi
Iosophers are not supposed to have
much faith in elves, fays or other
airy sprites. But il we go back to
the Indians, our primitive natural
lists and earliest forest dwellers, we
shall not lack either fairies or fairy
stories.
Especially is this true of the south
ern tribes with whom there was more
time for. day dreams and not such a
hard struggle with nature for an ex-
istence. Even the warlike Apaches
had a Cinderella who went to the
happy hunting grounds in a coach
attended by troop Of fairies. There
was a Hopi Red Riding Hood who
would certainly have been devoured
by the wolf had not kindly sprites
locked the monsters jaws. There
was not a mesa which did not have
guardian gnome to warn Of ap-
preaching evil.
The Seminoles, whose country COM
prised Florida and the south Atlantic
States, had perhaps the strongest
faith of all red men in the existence
of fairies. An old cavalry sergeant
with some troopers sent down into
Florida early in the last century said
that so long as he had certain
friendly Seminole as a scout he
never feared surprise.
AS the two were crawling through
the swamps and everglades on one of
the advances he asked the Indian
why he was so certain OF the safety
of his path. "The little people tell
me. / watch them. Their eyes and
ears are big, their feet so little that
one cannot hear their step. When
see them going on / go on; when
they put their fingers to their lips
and stop I obey their warning. They
never desert me or mislead me be-
cause / always trust them" SO
long as this Indian remained their
guide, said the sergeant, his troop
ers had no surprise attacks.
The Seminoles carried their faith
in the little people with them when
they were transferred to the Indian
Territory. A. correspondent Of the
OEIdhoman at Wewoka, Oklahoma.
the old Seminole capital, recently re
ported an instance of this when Tom
Lowe, an old man of the tribe, sud-
denly burned his home and moved to
new site. The little people were
bothering him, he said, and bringing
him ill health. In the dusk OF the
evening they came and he could see
them for hours looking at him with
their wide, unblinking gaze, and he
could hear them talking among them
selves all night in a low, subdued
whisper. In his new home other
fairies, good fairies this time. came
and his troubles left him.
Another old Indian, Lon DoN CoxER,
asked for permission to carry a gun,
saying that every evening when he
sat on his porch his enemy marched
past him, leading countless throng
OF little people who cast spell over
him. He thought that IL he shot at
his enemy he might end the evening
parade. 1t was agreed, however, that
CoKER did not know how to treat
fairies; in the first place, he had no
children to intercede for him. in the
next, he talked about seeing the
fairies before the passing OF four
days--a fatal mistake.
Old ISAAC BoTTLEy, walking along
a trail. saw one of the little people
in light brown jacket, tight fit
ting knee breeches and pointed
cap, sitting on pony, talking to
another little fellow They disap-
peared in the bushes. ISAAC kept
HIS tongue in his head for four days.
Then he went hunting: game was
frightfully scarce and his family al
most starving. yet he shot turkey,
the biggest he ever saw. A few days
afterward he saw two gobblers with
their necks twisted together and got
both Of them. Then flock OF fifty
six fat gobblers came TO his home,
shooed BY big troop Of gnomes. lie
~, c.n ca,t ,,f,,I,t f.,. fyft,. 10 80