(3) A man catches a fairy woman and marries her. She proves to be an
excellent housewife, but usually she has had put into the
marriage-contract certain conditions which, if broken, inevitably
release her from the union, and when so released she hurries away
instantly, never to return, unless it be now and then to visit her
children. One of the conditions, especially in North Wales, is that the
husband should never touch her with iron. But in the story of the Lady
of Llyn y Fan Fach, in Carmarthenshire, the condition is that he must
not strike the wife without a cause three times, the striking being
interpreted to include any slight tapping, say, on the shoulder. This
story is one of the most remarkable on record in Wales, and it recalls
the famous tale of Undine, published in German many years ago by De La
Motte Fouqué. It is not known where he found it, or whether the people
among whom it was current were pure Germans or of Celtic extraction.
(4) The Fairies were fond of stealing nice healthy babies and of leaving
in their place their own sallow offspring. The stories of how the right
child might be recovered take numerous forms; and some of these stories
suggest how weak and sickly children became the objects of systematic
cruelty at the hands of even their own parents. The changeling was
usually an old man, and many were the efforts made to get him to betray
his identity.
(5) There is a widespread story of the fairy husband procuring for his
wife the attendance of a human midwife. The latter was given a certain
ointment to apply to the baby's eyes when she dressed it. She was not to
touch either of her own eyes with it, but owing to an unfailing accident
she does, and with the eye so touched she is enabled to see the fairies
in their proper shape and form. This has consequences: The fairy husband
pays the midwife well, and discharges her. She goes to a fair or market
one day and observes her old master stealing goods from a stall, and
makes herself known to him. He asks her with which eye she sees him. She
tells him, and the eye to which he objects he instantly blinds.
(6) Many are the stories about the fairies coming into houses at night
to wash and dress their children after everybody is gone to bed. A
servant-maid who knows her business leaves a vessel full of water for
them, and takes care that the house is neat and tidy, and she then
probably finds in the morning some fairy gift left her, whereas if the
house be untidy and the water dirty, they will pinch her in her sleep,
and leave her black and blue.
(7) The fairies were not strong in their household arrangements, so it
was not at all unusual for them to come to the farm-houses to borrow
what was wanting to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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