WHO WERE THE FAIRIES ? 269 



house where the Bishop was." Now, as far as the 

 piece of folk-lore to which we have just been de- 

 voting our attention goes, there can be nothing 

 more certain than that the " elf-darts " are the 

 stone arrow-heads of early races which inhabited 

 these islands and parts of Europe before history 

 was and in so far there certainly seems to be a 

 nexus between the tale and the fact. 



Take again a tale like that of Child Rowland, 

 so excellently told by Mr. J. Jacobs and illustrated 

 by Mr. H. J. Ford in the first English Fairy Tales. 

 In the notes to this tale Mr. Jacobs alludes to its 

 having been known to Shakespere who mentions 

 it in King Lear : 



Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower came 



and believes that Milton used its original form as 

 the substructure of the poem which he wove 

 around the loss of Sidney's daughter in the woods 

 near Ludlow the Masque of Comus. 



Over these literary connexions we must not 

 linger, but in a brief manner must indicate the 

 outlines of the story. A girl is playing ball with 

 her three brothers. In the course of the game she 

 commits the indiscretion of running round the 

 church " withershins," i.e., in the opposite way 

 to the sun which, as all know, is the very way to 

 deliver oneself into the power of the fairies. That 

 is just what happens in her case, for the King of 

 Elf-land carries her off to his tower from which 

 she is only to be brought back by the boldest 

 knight in Christendom. The two elder brothers 

 assay the task, but neither of them returning, it 



