“They are believed to inhabit certain round grassy eminences, where they celebrate their nocturnal festivities by the light of the moon. About a mile beyond the source of the Forth, above Lochcon, there is a place called Coirshi'an, or the Cove of the Men of Peace, which is still supposed to be a favourite place of their residence. In the neighbourhood, are to be seen many round, conical eminences; particularly one, near the head of the lake, by the skirts of which many are still afraid to pass after sunset. It is believed, that if, on Hallow-eve, any person, alone, goes round one of these hills nine times, towards the left hand (sinistrorsvin), a door shall open, by which he shall be admitted into their subterraneous abodes. Many, it is said, of mortal race, have been entertained in their secret recesses. There they have been received into the most splendid apartments, and regaled with the most sumptuous banquets, and delicious wines. Their females surpass the daughters of men in beauty. The seemingly happy inhabitants pass their time in festivity, and in dancing to notes of the softest music. But unhappy is the mortal who joins in their joys, or ventures to partake of their dainties. Ву this indulgence, he forfeits for ever the society of men, and is bound down irrevocably to the condition of a Shi'ich, or man of peace. "A woman, as is reported in the Highland tradition, was conveyed, in days of yore, into the secret recesses of the men of peace. There she was recognized by one who had formerly been an ordinary mortal, but who had, by some fatality, become associated with the Shi'ichs. This acquaintance, still retaining some portion of human benevolence, warned her of her danger, and counselled her, as she valued her liberty, to abstain from eating and drinking with them, for a certain space of time. She complied with the counsel of her friend; and when the period assigned was elapsed, she found herself again upon earth, re stored to the society of mortals. It is added, that when she examined the viands which had been presented to her, and which had appeared 80 tempting to the eye, they were found, now that the euchantment was removed, to consist only of the refuse of the earth."-p. 107-111. Note VIII. Our moonlight circle's screen? Beloved of our Elfin Queen ?--St. XIII. p 129. It has been already observed, that fairies, if not positively malevolent, are capricious, and easily offended. They are, like other proprietors of forests, peculiarly jealous of their rights of vert and venison, as appeare from the cause of offence taken, in the original Danish ballad. This jealousy was also an attribute of the northern Duergar, or dwarfs, to many of whose distinctions the fairies seem to have succeeded, if, indeed, they are not the same class of beings. In the huge metrical record of German chivalry, intitled the Helden-Buch, Sir Hildebrand, and the other heroes of whom it treats, are engaged in one of their most despe. rate adventures, from a rash violation of the rose garden of an Elfin, or Dwarf King. There are yet traces of a belief in this worst and most malicious order of fairies among the Border wilds, Dr. Leyden has introduced such a dwarf into his ballad intitled the Cout of Keeldar, and has not forgot his characteristic detestation of the chase. The third blast that young Keeldar blew, Still stood the limber fern, Upstarted by a cairn. That clothes the upland fell; As the purple heather-bell, Clong cow'ring to his arm ; As struck hy fairy charm. Where stag-hound ne'er should be? Without the leave of ne?"- Thy name to Keeldar tell!"- Beneath the heather-bell. To live in autumn brown; Far, far from tower and town. The chase's surly cheer! Whom first at morn I hcar." The poetical picture here given of the Ducrgar corresponds exactly with the following Northumbrian legend, with which I was lately favoured by my learned and kind friend, Mr. Surtees of Mainsforth, who bas bestowed indefatigable labour upon the antiquities of the English border counties. The subject is in itself so curions, that the length of the note will, I hope, be pardoned. “I have only one record to offer of the appearance of our Northumbrian Duergar. My narratrix is Elizabeth Cockburn, an old wife of Offerton, in this county, whose credit, in a case of this kind, will not, I hope, be much impeached, when I add, that she is, by her doll neighbours, sup posed to be occasionally insane, but, by herself, to be at those times en. dowed with a faculty of seeing visions and spectral appearances, which shun the common ken. “In the year before the great rebellion, two young men from New. castle were sporting on the high moors above Elsdon, and, after pursuing their game several hours sat down to dine in a green glen near one of the mountain streams. After their repast, the younger lad ran to the brook for water, and after stooping to drink, was surprised, on lifting his head again, by the appearance of a brown dwarf, who stood on a crag covered with brackens, across the burn. This extraordinary personage did not appear to be above half the stature of a common man, but was uu. commonly stóut and broad built, having the appearance of vast strengti. His dress was entirely browu, the colour of the brackens, and his head covered with frizzled red hair. His countenance was expressive of the most savage ferocity, and his eyes glared like a bull. It seems he ad. dressed the young man first, threatening him with his vengeance for having trespassed on his demesnes, and asking him if he kuew in whose presence he stood ? The youth replied, that he now supposed him to be the lord of the moors; that he offended through ignorance; aud offered to bring him the game he had killed. The dwarf was a little mollitied by this submission ; but remarked that nothing could be more offensive to him than such an offer, as he considered the wild animals as his sub. jects, and never failed to avenge their destruction. He condescended further to inform him that he was, like himself, mortal, though of years far exceeding the lot of common hainanity; and (what I should not have had an idea of) that he hoped for salvation. He never, he added, fed on any thing that had life, but lived, in the summer, on whortleberries, and, in winter, on nuts and apples, of which he had great store in the woods. Finally, he invited his new acquaintance to accompany him home, and partake his hospitality--an offer which the youth was on the point of accepting, and was just going to spring across the brook (which, if he had done, bays Elizabeth, the dwarf would certainly have torn hinn in pieces), when his foot was arrested by the voice of his companion, who thought he tarried long; and on looking round again, 'the wee brown man was fled.' The story adds, that he was imprudent enough to slight the admonition, and to sport over the moors on his way bone. wards ; but, soon after his return, he fell into a lingering disorder, and died within the year." Note IX. The fairy's fatal green.-St. XII. p. 129. As the Daoine Shi', or men of peace, wore green habits, they were supposed to take offence when any mortals ventured to assume their favourite colour. Indeed, from some reason, which has been, perhaps, originally a general superstition, green is held in Scotland to be unlucky to particular tribes and counties. The Caithness men, who hold this belief, allege, as a reason, that their bands wore that colour when they were cut off at the battle of Flodden; and for the same reason they avoid crossing the Ord on a Monday, being the day of the week on which their ill-omened array set forth. Green is also disliked by those of the naine of Ogilvy; but more especially is it held fatal to the whole clan of Grahame. It is remembered of an aged gentleman of that name, that when his horse fell in a box-chase, he accounted for it at once, by ob. serving that the whip-cord attached to his lash was of this unlucky colour. Note X. For thou wert christen'd mun.-St. XIII. p. 130. The Elves were supposed greatly to envy the privileges acquired by Christian initiation, and they gave to those mortals who had fallen into their power, a certain precedence, founded upon this advantageous dis tinction. Tamlane, in the old ballad, describes his own rank in the fairy procession: “For I ride on a milk-white steed, And age nearest the town; They gie me that renown," How eager the elves were to obtain for their offspring the prerogatives of Christianity, will be proved by the followiug story :-"In the dis. trict called Haga, in Iceland, dwelt a nobleman called Sigward Forster, who had an intrigue with one of the subterranean females. The elf became pregnant, and exacted from her lover a firm promise that he would procure the baptism of the infant. At the appointed time, the mother came to the church-yard, on the wall of which she placed a golden cup, and a stole for the priest, agreeable to the custom of making an offering at baptism. She then stood a little apart. When the priest left the church, he inquired the meaning of what he saw, and demanded of Sigward if he avowed himself the father of the child ; but Sigward, ashamed of the connexion, denied the paternity. He was then interrogated if he desired that the child should be baptized; but this also he answered in the negative, lest, by such request, he should admit him. self to be the father On which the child was left untouched, and un. baptized. Whereupon the mother, in extreme wrath, snatched up the infant and the cup, and retired, leaving the priestly cope, of which fragments are still in preservation. But this female denounced and imposed upon Sigward and his posterity, to the ninth generation, a singular disense, with which many of his descendants are afficted at this day." Thus wrote Einar Gudmund, pastor of the parish of Garpsdale, in Ice. land, a man profoundly versed in learning, from whose manuscript it was extracted by the learned Torfæus.-Historia Hrolf Krakii. Hafniæ, 1715, prefatio. Note XI. But all is glistening show.–St. XV. p. 131. No fact respecting Fairy-land seems to be better ascertained than the fantastic and illusory nature of their apparent pleasure and splendour. It has been already noticed, in the furiner quotations from Dr. Grahame's entertaining volume, and may be confirmed by the following Highland tradition :-"A woman, whose new-born child had been conveyed by them into their secret abodes, was also carried thither herself, to remain, however, only until she should suckle her infant. She, one day, during this period, observed the Shi'ichs busily employed in mixing various ingredients in a boiling cauldron; and, as soon as the composi. tion was prepared, she remarked that they all carefully anointed their eyes with it, laying the remainder aside for future use. In a moment when they were all absent, she also attempted to anoint her eyes with the precious drug, but had time to apply it to one eye only, when the Daoine Shi returned; but with that eye she was henceforth enabled to see every thing as it really passed in their secret abodes. She saw every object, not as she hitherto had done, in deceptive splendour and elegance, bat in its genuine colours and form. The gaudy ornaments of the apartmeut were reduced to the walls of a gloomy cavern. Soon after, having discharged her office, she was dismissed to her own home. Still, however, she retained the faculty of seeing, with her medicated eye, every thing that was done, any where in her presence, by the deceptive art of the order. One day, amidst a throng of people, she chanced to observe the Shi'ich, or man of peace, in whose possession she had left her child, though to every other eye invisible. Prompted by maternal affection, she inadvertently accosted him, and began to inquire after the welfare of her child. The man of peace, astonished at being thus recognised by one of mortal race, demanded how she had been en |