FAIRIES AND THEIR FLOWER LORE 125 



" And he has awakened the sentry Elve, 



That sleeps with him in the haunted tree, 

 To bid him ring the hour of twelve, 

 And call the Fays to their revelry." 



The fairies are very fond of riding to the trysting- 

 spot on an aerial steed: either the ragwort (the 

 fairies' horse), or a blade of grass, a fern frond, or a 

 straw, are some of their other methods of transit. 

 On arrival, the merry throng make their way to 

 some grassy bank or pasture, and their gay dance 

 through the night, causes those dark green circles 

 that are known to mortals as " Fairy Rings." 



A Devonshire legend says that these rings are 

 caused by the fairies catching the colts found in the 

 fields, and riding them round and round. Michael 

 Drayton says of this: 



" They in their courses make that round, 

 In meadows and in marshes found. 

 Of them so called the fairy ground." 



On these rings, rustic superstition maintains that 

 no sheep or lamb will browse, and in Ireland, 

 charmed home of the fays, no man would venture 

 to set foot within these magic circles, else will 

 he incur the dire displeasure of the " little people." 

 Likewise, if a tree should fall athwart the fairy 

 ring, there it must remain — it is the property of 

 the fairies, and must on no account be moved. Dis- 

 regarding the charm of many ages which lingers 

 round this fairy superstition, and apparently quite 

 oblivious of the poet's assertion that — 



*^ Of old the merry elves were seen 

 Pacing with printless feet the dewy green," 



