SLAVONIAN FAIRIES. 689 



hardly admire him enough. The Vilas took him away and taught 

 him for twelve years to dance, but he would not and could not 

 learn. On the first day of the thirteenth year, about eleven o'clock 

 in the morning, he escaped from them, took refuge in a wood, and 

 hid in a large, hollow oak-tree. About eleven o'clock at night 

 the Vilas came up to him like clouds, and tried to get him away. 

 They called to him : " Come, love, to us ; don't be afraid." But he 

 would not answer. At daybreak he started again on his road, and 

 came to a pasture where some herdsmen were watching swine. 

 He asked them to protect him. They gave him something to eat 

 and drink. He lay down, and they posted themselves in a circle 

 around him. The Vilas came again about midnight and asked 

 him to go with them, but he refused. In the morning he paid the 

 herdsmen well for their care, went on, came to an inn, and asked 

 for a lodging. The landlord answered that he could not accom- 

 modate him, for he had only one chamber, which no one dared to 

 sleep in, for whoever spent a night in it never lived to see 

 another day. The Magyar replied : " I am not afraid ; only give 

 me enough smoking-tobacco, candles, a table, a chair, and a bundle 

 of kindling-wood. You need not trouble yourself about me." He 

 lit the candles, sat down, and went to smoking. The Vilas came 

 about ten o'clock, alarming the whole house, and cried to him, 

 " Ah, now we have caught you ! " and they carried him off and 

 made a male Vila of him. 



The dances, to which persons allied by sworn brotherhood are 

 admitted, take place in the night-time. The participants must not 

 talk of the matter, under penalty of death. The Podborje Hill, at 

 the baths of Daruvar, at the foot of which is a church of the old 

 believers, was recognized some thirty years ago as a place where 

 such dances were held. 



A young woman of fifteen, in Drenovci, was accustomed to go 

 out every night, as soon as her husband was asleep, and soar 

 around with the Vilas. On one of these occasions the husband 

 awoke, and, not finding his wife at his side, remained awake till 

 she came back at dawn. In the morning he asked her if she had 

 slept well. She said no, she had had a restless night. The next 

 evening she went out again with the Vilas. The husband lay 

 awake, and on her return at dawn asked her where she had been. 

 She made no answer, but was found dead in the morning. 



Whatever once comes into the possession of the Vilas is lost to 

 men; and if a man gives an unsuitable thing to them, he will 

 have to suffer for it. A peasant girl told my mother that, when 

 her little Catherine was fretful and could not sleep, she took her 

 in the evening, when the cattle were coming home, into the front 

 yard, gave her a swing, and said, " God and the Virgin help us. 

 The Vila marries their son and invites Catherine to the wedding. 



VOL. XXXVII. — 50 



