'Years passed, and the babe grew into a beautiful young woman. In the
course of time she was betrothed; and, according to custom, not
appearing in public at church on the Sunday preceding the day appointed
for her marriage, remained at home alone. To amuse herself, she began to
search the contents of all the keeping-places in the house, and came at
last to the chest containing the peat ember. In her haste, the good
mother had that day forgotten the key of the chest, which was now in the
lock. At the bottom of the chest the girl found a curious packet
containing nothing but a morsel of peat, and this apparently useless
thing she tossed away into the fire. When the peat was well kindled the
young girl began to feel very ill, and when her mother returned was
dying. The open chest and the blazing peat explained the cause of the
calamity. The fairy's prediction was fulfilled.'
_Results of Refusing Fairy Hospitality._--'Two women were walking toward
the Point when one of them, hearing churning going on under a hillock,
expressed aloud a wish for some butter-milk. No sooner had she spoken
than a very small figure of a woman came out with a bowlful and offered
it to her, but the thirsty woman, ignorant of fairy customs and the
penalty attending their infringement, declined the kind offer of
refreshment, and immediately found herself a prisoner in the hillock.
She was led to an apartment containing a chest full of meal and a great
bag of wool, and was told by the fairy that when she had eaten all the
meal and spun all the wool she would be free to return to her home. The
prisoner at once set herself to eating and spinning assiduously, but
without apparent result, and despairing of completing the task consulted
an old man of very sad countenance who had long been a captive in the
hillock. He willingly gave her his advice, which was to wet her left eye
with saliva each morning before she settled down to her task. She
followed this advice, and gradually the wool and the meal were
exhausted. Then the fairy granted her freedom, but in doing so cursed
the old man, and said that she had it in her power to keep him in the
hillock for ever.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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