“ All in ye Merrie Month of May ” 
said to be the Brownies’ favourite food, and bowls of 
cream. 
It was said that Heaven had ordained Brownies to help 
man after the Fall, so they were forbidden to take any 
guerdon except food, which had to be set out overnight on 
the hearth. Report declared they were like tiny little 
mortals, but naked. And there is a story that some kindly 
soul once laid out for the Brownie of the house, along with 
the customary cream and cakes, a little suit of clothes, and 
heard in the night Brownie departing, singing : 
A new mantle and a new hood, 
Brownie, Brownie, ye’ll do nae mair guid. 
Brownies are sometimes identified with the Swartalfar or 
swarthy elves of the Edda, as the Liosalfar or fair white 
Elves are with Fairies. 
There is a delightful Danish belief that if you hide 
under an elder-tree at midnight on Midsummer Eve you 
will see the King of the Fairies ride by with a sparkling 
train. But, alas ! all these quaint old-time fancies are wilting 
before the. fierce light of civilization, as the fairy steeds of 
old time turned to leaves at the sign of the Cross, and all 
inquiries about any bit of folklore are apt to be met with a 
dignified disclaimer of interest therein ; such as I well 
remember meeting with when I tried to elicit sundry West 
Indian folk-tales from ancient negroes : “ Dat foolishness ; 
wonder missus car to har dat ! ” Romance seems, how- 
ever, to have been better treated in olden days, since it is 
on record that in the reign of King James IV. (1488-1513) 
money was paid to one u Widderspune that tauld tailis to 
the King,” evidently a sort of Scottish Troubadour. Rain 
again to-day ! It is Christina Rossetti, I think, who sings 
the praise of winter rain. 
Selkirk, a too little known Border poet (Poems of 
J. B. Selkirk, published by Blackwood), calls the spring 
rain 
The baby drink of the firstborn flowers. 
Yet surely it is only after living awhile on the edge of the 
117 
