SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. 43 



as tall and noble-looking, of majestic appearance, always youthful ; these were 

 sometimes dressed in ancient Irish costumes. Their life is precisely as is the 

 life of the people about them, or rather as it was in more primitive times ; 

 they delight in music, singing, dancing ; they indulge like men in horse- 

 riding and hunting, in war, and in festivals ; in one case they were seen 

 playing football, and in another it was a boat race in which they were com- 

 peting with each other ; in Scotland they are described as doing the ordinary 

 household tasks of men and women, churning, working cloth, herding, and 

 so on. Sometimes there is this peculiarity, that what in man would leave 

 an obvious trace, with them leaves none. For example, they are described 

 in a Welsh tale as slaughtering an ox, roasting it and eating it ; but in the 

 morning the ox was found whole and well. It was only when the fairies 

 were interfered with that this " regeneration " of the animal did not take 

 place, and it would be found dead in the morning. So a great battle is 

 described in Ireland between the Munster and Connaught fairies ; but after 

 the noise and swirl of the battle all the hosts of both sides vanished, the 

 dead and wounded as well as the survivors ; and again in their hunting, 

 although they ran with horses and dogs after the deer, no trace was left on 

 the grass or the bog where their footsteps had been. In their relation to 

 man, the most prominent feature is the kidnapping of human beings ; all the 

 Celtic countries speak of infants being taken by the fairies, who replace them 

 by their own, sometimes by an old man, sometimes and more frequently by a 

 deformed child, a hunchback for example ; this is the " changeling." There 

 are, however, ways of getting back the right child. For example, in the Isle 

 of Man the changeling is put over the fire, or on a rock in the sea which is 

 covered at high tide, or a burning peat is applied to its body ; the sup- 

 position is that the fairy owner will not endure this suffering in its child 

 and will take it away and bring back the other in its place ; similar beliefs 

 exist in Scotland and in Ireland. In the same way sick persons, especially 

 those suffering from consumption, are frequently said to be with the fairies, 

 and when they are cured, they are said to be returned from fairy land. 

 Again there are numerous tales in all the countries of a bride or bridegroom 

 being carried off, no substitute being provided in this case. If a man or 

 woman interferes with a fairy, he or she is punished either by " ill-luck," by 

 misfortunes of various kinds, the loss of the crop, the cows ceasing to give 



