154 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 191 1 



and containing liquor of some unknown but most delicious 

 flavour. Then he presented to him a napkin and departed, 

 waiting neither for recompense nor enquiry. One time a sordid 

 knight appropriated the horn and, contrary to good manners, 

 kept it. But the Earl of Gloucester confiscated it and gave it 

 to King Henry I. The story raises many interesting points 

 of history and tradition, for a review of which I must refer you 

 to an excellent paper by Mr Sidney Hartland, entitled " The 

 Archaeology of Tradition," read before the Bristol and Glouces- 

 ter Archaeological Society in 1904. 



Now when we compare this account of the inmates of this 

 mound, we cannot help being reminded of the fairies so admir- 

 ably described in that delightful book by Mr J. G. Campbell, 

 " The Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland," 

 where the fairy behef forms a part of the living folk-lore of 

 the people. They live in mounds distinguished from the 

 surrounding scenery by a peculiarly green appearance and 

 rounded form. In short, they resemble the pit dwellings 

 occupied by the Lapps and other northern races. They have 

 a community of their own. Men have entered their mounds 

 and found them spinning, weaving, cooking, enjoying singing 

 and music. They have occasional splendid feasts in which 

 mortal men have shared. Such visitors become insensible to 

 the passage of time and have spent years or even ages with 

 them. They are connected with the stone age by the fact 

 that their weapons are little flint arrows, and they sometimes 

 leave behind them a little black stone, which when soaked in 

 water cures sick people and cattle. They often abduct babies 

 and leave their own mis-shapen offspring in their place. They 

 know little of surgery and have to employ human midwives. 

 Many a Howdie has been called to a Brugh, and finds on 

 coming home that her stay had been incredibly longer or 

 shorter than she imagined. But no one was ever the better 

 after such an adventure, and when she gets her fee in gold, it 

 often turns into dry leaves when she gets home. 



From such facts, which form quite a literature of their 

 own, it has been suspected that the fairies represent the sur- 

 viving tradition of a small-sized, furtive, thievish, mischievous 

 people, who play sundry tricks on mankind, just as we may 



