Another case of supposed vengeance occurred near Lehinch on the Atlantic. Some workmen were employed to level the earthworks of Dooneeva, a fort on a low cliff at the end of the bay and near the modern Protestant Church. The man who originated this outrage was digging at the mounds when he fell to all appearance dead. The news was at once taken to his wife, a reputed ‘wise woman,’ and she ran to a ‘fairy spot’ and ‘did magic.’ She then went to her apparently lifeless husband, and ordered the fairies in a peremptory way to restore him at once and take his stick. Then, before everyone, the stick vanished, and the ‘dead man’ sat up none the worse for his ‘rapture to the land of faery.’ The date of this event could not be fixed, but it seems to be attributed to the period before 1840, and Dooneeva seems to have been in its present condition in 1839. Westropp ‘Clare’ 195

A flat stone lay embedded in the ground a little in front of the door of Mrs. C’s house. It was over a fairy dwelling house. On no account would she herself throw water from the door after darkness set in. She might inadvertently cast it on, or near the stone, and it might sink, and thus cause a ‘drap’ in the dwelling of the fairies, and annoy them. The express rule was that no one of the household should cast out water from the door after nightfall. If one disregarded the rule, there was a sharp rebuke. The fairies were not to be molested, lest they might become trouble-some, and take revenge, as they did when they were slighted or annoyed. Gregor, Walter ‘Stories of Fairies from Scotland’ The Folk-Lore Journal 1 (1883), 55-58 at 57

 

Fairies are said to be very fond of music. A man in the parish of Uig told me that he heard their music one day he was out on the moors. The musical sounds seemed to come from under the ground on which he stood. Anon ‘Fairy Tales’, The Celtic Review 5 (1908), 155-171 at 163

At Avonsuidh, Harris, there lived, not very long ago, a man of the name of John Macleod. He had a goodly family of children at the date of the story, all stout and healthy, with the exception of the youngest, a boy of twelve months old. The child was thriving well for the first four months when he was observed to have undergone a sudden change. Instead of his usual liveliness he became dull and lethargic, and his plump body, and smooth, soft skin got flabby and shrivelled, and notwithstanding all the means used the child did not thrive. It happened that an old woman from Lewis was on a begging tour in Harris at the time, and among other houses she called at Macleod’s. She was not long in the house till she made inquiries about the child, as to its age and so on. Finally she told the mother that the child was not her own, but a Fairy substitute, and that in order to recover her own child, she must place the false one below high-water mark on St. Bride’s night (1st February, old style), and though it should cry, not to remove it till the crying ceased. St. Bride’s night arrived, and the goodwife treated the child as she had been directed. The infant cried lustily for some time without the woman taking any notice. At last the crying ceased, and she took the child she found. The child grew to be a man, and emigrated to Australia some years ago. The above are a few specimens of the stories related in reference to the abduction of children by the Fairies.

[about this and other stories] Fairies are not yet extinct, and they still carry away young children, though not to such an extent as in the days of old, partly owing to the circumstance that the ceremony of baptism is administered when children are very young. Anon ‘Fairy Tales’, The Celtic Review 5 (1908), 155-171  at 162-163

There lives in the village of Mangusta, Uig, an impotent person, believed by certain old women to be a Fairy. He is upwards of thirty years of age and as powerless as an infant a few days old. He is quite incapable of changing the position in which he is placed in bed-cannot extend his hand to his mouth-he cannot even masticate his food. He is a mere skeleton, his legs and arms are as thin as a walking-stick but as long as those of an ordinary man. The man looks much older than he really is. His forehead recedes very much. He has no beard, but a few long white hairs on his chin, and is deaf but not dumb. During the first few months of his childhood he was as plump and healthy as any child in the place-the change was sudden-hence the superstitious belief about him. Anon ‘Fairy Tales’, The Celtic Review 5 (1908), 155-171 at 163

Not caring about returning  to town the same night, and there being no place nearer  than Bromley where I could lodge, and besides, being  unwilling to enter a public-house, I determined to pass  the night in the field where I was. Night came on  apace, and I had seen no human face since I entered  the meadow ; so I set to work and made two of the  hay-cocks into one large heap, at a short distance from  the wood-side : and then, mole-like, burrowed into the  middle of the hay, just leaving my head outside for a  little fresh air, and free for any observations I might  have occasion to make, as well as to watch the course  of the moon, which had risen in unclouded beauty. Here,  then, was a soft, warm, and deliciously sweet-scented bed,  made in quick time ; and I had not rested long before  I found it necessary to throw off a layer or two of my  fragrant covering, for I began to get too hot. At length  sleep overcame me, but how long I had remained in that  state, when I awoke, I cannot say ; I had a confused idea  of elves, spirits, fairies, and such-like imaginary beings  haunting me in my sleep.  R.J.Balston Notes on the birds of Kent (1907) 241

And this may perhaps be the Musick that was heard in the Air by Francis Aldridg of Hammerwich a sober person about two in the morning near Michaelmas an. 1668 though he described it to be a sort of whistling in the Air, and the tune more melodius to him than any he ever heard in his life time, before or since; it being performed he said (as he judged) by some winged creatures, for he could hear their wings beat the Air, though he could not see any thing by reason of the darkness. Thoguh some will have it a consort of Angles transporting some blessed soul that expired hereabout at that time; for he sayd they seemed to take the tune from one another, as if they bore different parts in the same Antiphone for a quarter of an hour together… Robert Plot 22

And to come nearer home if we may believe the story of Anne Bodenham the Witch of Fisherton Anger in the County of Wilts, set forth at large by Edmund Bower, and the Reverend and Learned Hen. More D. D. The Spirits which she raised (as confest by Anne Stiles who was frequently at her Conjurations) always appeare’d in teh shape of little ragged boys, who ran round the house where the Witch had drawn her Staff, her Dog and Cat dancing with them, &c. Robert Plot 14

Nor have the Heavens and Air only presented the Eye with unusual Objects, but also the ear has sometimes been as much surprised from them: for not to mention some unknown noises pretended to have been heard about Arewas, nor the shreeks as it were of persons about to murdered  said to be heard about Frodley: We need go not farther for an instance than the same Town of Wednesbury, where the Colyers will tell you that early in the morning as they go to their work and from the Cole-pits themselves, they sometime sheard the noise of a pack of hounds in the Air, which has happened so frequently that they have got a name for them, calling them Gabriels hounds, though the more sober and judicious take them only to be Wild-geese, making this noise in their flight; which perhaps may be probable enough, for upon consulting the Ornithologists I find them one of the gregarious migratory kind, to fly from Country to Country in the night, noctu tranjiciunt, says Aldrovandus of them, and to be very obstreperous either when wearyed with flying, or their order if broken, they flying ordine literato after the manner of cranes. Robert Plot 22

And not only the bad but the good Genii also appear in shapes of young Children, if we may credit the relation of a [?] man an acquaintance of Bodinus, who had constantly the assistance of such a guardian Angel, which indeed he never saw but once that when he was in great danger of his Life, it appearing to him in the likeness of a child, clad in white rayment somehwat inclined [?] to purple of a most lovely visage and delicate forme. Robert Plot 14