I 



270 WHO WERE THE FAIRIES ? 



falls to the lot of Childe Rowland, the youngest, 

 to make the adventure and deliver his sister. 

 Directed by various people he reaches the Dark 

 Tower, and note how it is described. It is " a 

 round green hill, surrounded with terrace-rings, 

 from the bottom to the top." Thus it resembles 

 one of those mounds or " earth-houses " which 

 form a part of Mr. MacRitchie's argument. In 

 the interior it is gorgeous beyond all possibility 

 of belief, but it may be admitted that it was pardon- 

 able for the teller to let himself go a little at this 

 point. At any rate, there were Burd Helen and 

 the two unsuccessful brothers, and the youngest 

 would have joined them in their confinement had 

 he not remembered the directions which he had 

 received to fast from all food while in the Tower. 

 There follows a conflict with the King of Elf -land 

 who is defeated, and has to render up his prisoners. 



Let us first strip this tale of three well-known 

 bits of folk-lore, only the last of which has any 

 relation to our present subject. 



There is the " Withershins " matter, a common- 

 place of folk-lore, like the " success of the youngest 

 brother," another ordinary incident. And finally 

 there is the " abstinence from food whilst in 

 Fairyland," of which more presently. Stripped of 

 these and of the obvious efforts of the imagination 

 respecting the size and adornments of the Dark 

 Tower, we certainly have a series of events which 

 might easily be translated into the carrying off of 

 a daughter of the conquering race by one of the 

 conquered ; of her imprisonment in some hidden 

 place of security ; of her rescue by her relatives. 



