| Show BELIEF I FAIRiES i It is Said to Still Exist in Some Parts of the World PRETTY AND HARMLESS DELUSION I Better Things for Children Than Some Other Things That are not so Old Two Little Fairy Tales In countries whero good deal of Celtic blood yet remains pure and untainted with Teutonic or Scandinavian a lingering belief be-lief in fairies may still be traced in remote parts A few years ago an old man in the Isle of Man solemnly assured a traveler I there that he himself had one night beheld the fairies at their revels in such multi tudes that there was quite a thickness tremenjous of them and no amount of skeptical questioning could shake the old man in his belief At the present day in the wilder parts of Cornwall a quite genuine belief in being pisky led prevails pre-vails Piskie pixie in Devonian is the common Cornish name for fairies and certain cer-tain mischievous sprites among them are supposed to derive great pleasure in enticing entic-ing unwary travelers across the wild moors and hills from the right paths and leading them grievously astray After landing some unlucky wight in l bog a burst of merry laughter in the air generally informs the traveler who his guide has been The only way to circumvent these airy sprites is to turn the coat inside out before venturing ventur-ing across a desolate expanse That they have a certain command over the powers of nature is shown by their having the power to blind and bewilder the traveler ant trveer I by throwing a log around him so that he cannot trace his way WHAT AUNT TAX SAW The following account of their personal appearance is preserved iI a tale told by old wives in the neighborhood of Lntnorna beyond Penzauce An old woman called Aunt Joan when on a visit to a neighbor popularly supposed to be a white witch rubs a little ointment she finds hidden undbr some fern upon one of her eyes and the result is that when she opened her eyes the place was full of sprites and spriggans In all the folds of the net and sails hanging hang-ing from the beams troops of small people were cutting all sorts of capers The little creatures were tossing up their heels waving wav-ing their feathered caps and fans a they launched up and down on the merest bits of sticks or green twigs Numbers them were swinging in the cobwebs that hung from the rafters or riding the mice in and ont through the holes in the thatch I noted that all tho little men were dressed in green pinked out with red and 1111 feathered cps on their heads high riding boots with silver spurs on their heels Their ladies were all decked out in the grand old fashion their gowns were of green velvet with long trains some looped up with silver chains and bells or tassels others had their trains sweeping behind them a they walked in grand state up and down They seemed to think there was nobody in the house but themselves prancing about in their high heeled shoes Darkling with diamond buckles The little women all wore high crowned steeple Kits like mine with wreaths of the most beautiful flowers of all colors around them sprigs and garlands on all the other of their dress and in their hands part a well flirting their fans in the faces of the men They were the sauciest little mor tals I ever did see What puzzled me most was to see so many sweet flowers with them at that time of the year I spied some ugly spriggans seated in the dark corner looking very gloomy because hey are doomed to guard the treasures and do irksome things the merry small people are free from A troop of the small people entered playing such sweet strains on the pipes flutes and other instruments hey had made with green reeds of the brook and shellsof the shore Then follows an account of how the fairy and > approached the old dame Chenance the white witch and cast bunches of the herbs into her apron with which she made healing salves V and lotions A soon as these fairies retired others came forwad hearing in their hands unopened flowers of the from which foxglove they poured magic dyes which no sooner touched her dress than it was changed into velvet others laid silver cord on the quiltiugs of he and decked the old the petticoat decledthe dame ou in all manner and variety of flowers The house is covered with marvelous tapestries and the old dame so transformed with her fairy attire that Aunt Joangets frightened fright-ened and hobbles off but on glancing back with her unanointcd eye sees Dame Che nance in her ordinary clothes sewing but looking with the anointed eye the fairy scene is again revealed V V LITTLE BOBBY GIJIGLAXS Another story relates how a man cutting furze on the heath finds among the bushes a tiny figure asleep He was no bigger than a cat and dressed in I green coat sky blue breeches and diamond buckled shoes Uncle Billy takes him home to his children who make great friends with him and call him Bobby Griglans grig Inns is old Cornish for heath lie is a gay little creature who sings and dances for hour together witli a great abhorrence of dirt or dust He only drinks milk and eats blackberries or hips and haws They keep him a few days but among the furze one day Bobby and the children meet a little lit-tle man and woman the man dressed just as Bobby only wearing riding boots with silver spurs The little woman wore a green gown sprinkled all over with i silver stars Her little steeple crowned hat was wreathed with heather perched on her I golden curls and the pretty soul was wringing har hands acrying Oh my dear and tender Skillywidden where ever cans a be gone to ray only joy Now goe back said Bobby to the children my dad and main are come Here I am mammy By the time lie said Here I am the little man and woman and Skillywidden vanished and were never mom seen The I children got a good thrashing for letting Skillywidden go for if they had kept him he would have shown their daddy where crocks of gold are buried and they would I I all of them have been rich All things pass away even our children I now will scarcely deign to own belief in I wi one of the purest fancies that ever entered I Ii human imaginations and which in former I days great poets deigned to treat as a by no means despicable belief Fairies are whole I somer diet for our babies mind than anecdotes anec-dotes of great men and diluted history of human endeavors and failures Let tho children keep their fairies a long as possible pos-sible for fairy reverence means simple faith in goodness and it does no harm for a child to see fairies in the cups of the flowers even i he afterward has to learn all that can be learned about vegetable tissues tis-sues and coloring matter in solution London Queen |
