SHADOW FOLK OF HEATHER HAUNTS. 



and the fairy stretched out his hand and received the 

 knife. 



"The mother, however, told the brothers that her 

 daughter must certainly have had some aid to perform 

 the allotted task. They watched her, saw her remove 

 the enchanted knife and forced it from her. They re- 

 turned, struck the hillock as she was wont to do, and 

 when the fairy put out his hand, they cut it off with his 

 own knife. He drew in the bleeding arm in despair; 

 and supposing this cruelty was the result of treachery 

 on the part of his beloved, never saw her more." 



Professor John Wilson, in his "Lay of Fairy 

 Land," accounts for the disappearance of the widow's 

 daughter in this wise: 



Some thought that Fhaum, the savage shape that on 



the mountain dwells, 

 Had somewhere left her lying dead amoni? the 



heather bells. 



And when at last she returned, though 

 The heather balm is fragrant the heather bloom is fair. 

 But 'tis neither heather balm nor bloom that wreathes 



round Mhairi's hair; 



but the flowers that grew in the garden of Fairyland, 

 where, evidently, Heather finds no place. 



The Ettrick Shepherd, in his tale of the recapture 

 of Anne of Raeburn from the fairies, says that when 



The evening fell so sweetly still, 

 So mild on lonely moor and hill, 

 The little genii of the fell 

 Forsook the purple heather bell. 



171 



