FAIRIES AND FOLK LORE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1926, Page 23

FAIRIES AND FOLK LORE.

(By STEVIE.) % The wee red-head man Is a knowing sort of fellow— His coat is cats-eye green and his pan* toloons are yellow; His brogues be made of glass and hit hose be red as cherry ; He's the lad for devilment if you onlj! make him merry.

OLD BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS.

The wee red-head man Is a knowing sort of fellow— His coat is cats-eye green and his pan* taloons are yellow; His brogues be made of glass and _i| hose be red as cherry ; He's the lad for devilment if you onlj! make him merry.

The news contained in the "Stars* Irish letter fr published recently that fairies have again appeared in County Monaghan, proves that these old beliefs of Norse origin still linger. In the folklore of Ireland the belief in fairies was at one time very general. Soma say, however, that they were driven to. Scotland in a great storm seventy years ago, but in the remote districts the belief is prevalent jhat they still inhabit the Forths and Coves, as the country folk call the raths and sout-terans. The fairies are spoken of as wee folk, but we must not think of them as tiny; creatures who could hide under a toadstool. They are generally described as of th*. size of children, Two races art] popularly associated with the sout* terans, the Fechts and the Danes. Ii is often said that the latter built the "Coves." These small Danes have no connection, with the medieval sea rovers. Many stories are told of the Fairy who cornea in the guise of a small old woman ta borrow meal, and rewards the housewife by never allowing her kist, or meal bin, to be empty. The Fairies are said to carry off women and children. To protect 'his wife the husband should keep awake, but even his trousers thrown across the bed will keep the "little people" away, or a prayer or hymn book will serve if laid beside her. The Midnight Ride of the Fairies. It is sometimes possible to get back those who have been carried off. A woman who had disappeared told hep brother, probably in a dream, to watch' on Hallow Eve night and he would sea the gude folk ride past and, she added, "Let pass the black horse and t_« brown, but when the bay comes roua baud fast and p'J the rider down." She said he was not to be terrified at the transformation she would then assume. He promised and although she took on the shape of various fierce animals lie kept up his courage and rescued her. Another woman was not so fortunate* \fter she had been carried off, her h_B« hand had married again, but one night he met his first wife, who begged _im to save her. She told him to watch at midnight when she would be riding past. She would put her hand in at the window, and he must grasp it and hold fast. He had nearly succeeded when his second wife tore his hand away, i The poor woman • was dragged off across the Fields. Her piercing crie9 could be heard, and she was never seen again. < The Pechts are another race akin to the small Danes, and some of the Raths are said to be built by them. Stories are told of how the Danes and the Pechts would form a chain and hand from one to the other the earth, for build ins; a fort or the stones for a Soulter.in, including the large slabs for the roof. It was thought wise to keep on good lei'iiis with the wee folk. The first

lull ter from a churning that formed on Ihe tup nf tlie cream was often placed niilside the door as an offering to the "gentry,'* while, if the housewife overturned the milk when milking, she would say. "our loss go with it, them that it goes to needs it more than we do." Children in some districts used to be taught the following verses: — If we forget the fairies and tread upon I heir rings, find -ill perchance forget us and think of other things. \Vhen we forget you fairies, regard our spirits light. God will forget to-morrow, and the day forget the night. Old Customs. •ut a green cross heneath the roof on th* ere of good St. Bride. Vml you'll have lock within the house fo* long past Lammas tide. To defend the house from harm ru__* rosses were made in some districts oa it. Bridget's Eve, and placed in various larts of the house over the door, on the ieds, and in the fireplaces. By doing his the blessing of St. Bride remained n the house for the whole of the followng year. At harvest time the last sheaf of oats ras left standing and plaited into three >arts, and called by the Irish name of -uchter. The reapers stood around and brew their sickles at it, and those who truck the plaited sheaf were exempt rom paying his share of the feast and lance that followed. In a few places forts, said to be tha launt of the fairy folk, have been made ise of. but to do this is considered unuckv. and still more so to remove them.

These old beliefs nowadays are slowly dying out, and to hear these legends ona must go to the old people. There is, however, one outstanding feature and that is that most of the Irish folk stories are of Danish or Norwegian origin, and have in many cases been so well preserved that Scandinavian names of the people and places are still retained. The Welsh Fairies. While Irish Leprechauns and pookas (the real Irish fairy) are not as a rule malignant, unless disturbed at their revels, tlie merry goblins of Wales are said to be full of knavish tricks—stealing children and leaving their own ugly offspring in their place, visiting country fairs and changing money for fairy money, milking the cows and goats, were only some of their pranks. ln the Welsh farm-houses breadj baking utensils were left by timorous | servant girls in readiness for the fairies, j and sometimes there would be a cake of j fairy bread on the hob in the morning. j In the legends of Welsh fairy music i luring harpers into caves, is said to be beard particularly on tbe "Three Haunted Nights." They are AH Hallowe'en, the eve of New Year's Day and May Eve, when the spirits of people who had done evil on earth were doing penance by wandering homeless among tne lO Th- people of Wales, to the outsideworld have always been known as derhaTtbfcoUry wHI soon be entirely free of these little sprits of evil, for

. ..i,h nravers and other godly _oar $,f%toW&" ' goblins disappear. Note- r A Rath is a fortification found in parts of Ireland, consisting of a circular rampart of earth with a mound in th A C _outteran is an erection of stone* with large flat slabs for a roof.