The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 10 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 10 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
In Cardiganshire on November Eve a bogie sits on every stile.(577) On that
night in Ireland all the fairy hills are thrown wide open and the fairies
swarm forth; any man who is bold enough may then peep into the open green
hills and see the treasures hidden in them. Worse than that, the cave of
Cruachan in Connaught, known as “the Hell-gate of Ireland,” is unbarred on
Samhain Eve or Hallowe’en, and a host of horrible fiends and goblins used
to rush forth, particularly a flock of copper-red birds, which blighted
crops and killed animals by their poisonous breath.(578) The Scotch
Highlanders have a special name _Samhanach_ (derived from _Samhain_,
“All-hallows”) for the dreadful bogies that go about that night stealing
babies and committing other atrocities.(579) And though the fairies are a
kindlier folk, it is dangerous to see even them at their revels on
Hallowe’en. A melancholy case of this sort is reported from the Ferintosh
district of the Highlands, though others say that it happened at the Slope
of Big Stones in Harris. Two young men were coming home after nightfall on
Hallowe’en, each with a jar of whisky on his back, when they saw, as they
thought, a house all lit up by the roadside, from which proceeded the
sounds of music and dancing. In reality it was not a house at all but a
fairy knoll, and it was the fairies who were jigging it about there so
merrily. But one of the young men was deceived and stepping into the house
joined in the dance, without even stopping to put down the jar of whisky.
His companion was wiser; he had a shrewd suspicion that the place was not
what it seemed, and on entering he took the precaution of sticking a
needle in the door. That disarmed the power of the fairies, and he got
away safely. Well, that day twelve months he came back to the spot and
what should he see but his poor friend still dancing away with the jar of
whisky on his back? A weary man was he, as you may well believe, but he
begged to be allowed to finish the reel which he was in the act of
executing, and when they took him out into the open air, there was nothing
of him left but skin and bones.(580) Again, the wicked fairies are apt to
carry off men’s wives with them to fairyland; but the lost spouses can be
recovered within a year and a day when the procession of the fairies is
defiling past on Hallowe’en, always provided that the mortals did not
partake of elfin food while they were in elfinland.(581)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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