Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies

The Fairy belief, we have said, is a composite thing. On the materials given by tradition, such as the memory, perhaps, of a pre-historic race, and by old religion, as in the thoughts about the pre-Christian Hades, poetry and fancy have been at work.

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Excerpt:

THESE Siths, or FAIRIES, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good People, it would seem, to prevent the Dint of their ill Attempts, (for the Irish use to bless all they fear Harm of;) and are said to be of a middle Nature betwixt Man and Angel, as were Demons thought to be of old; of intelligent fluidous (?) Spirits, and light changeable Bodies, (like those called Astral,) somewhat of the Nature of a condensed Cloud, and best seen in Twilight.

These Bodies be so pliable thorough the Subtlety of the Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at Pleasure. Some have Bodies or Vehicles so spongeous, thin, and delicate (?), that they are fed by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that pierce like pure Air and Oil: others said more gross on the poison or substance of Corns and Liquors, or Corn it self that grows on the Surface of the Earth, which these Fairies steal away, partly Invisible, partly preying on the Grain, as do Crows and Mice; wherefore in this same Age, they are some times heard to bake Bread, strike Hammers, and do such like Services within the little Hillocks they most haunt: some whereof of old, before the Gospel dispelled Paganism, and in some barbarous Places as yet, enter Houses after all are at rest, and set the Kitchens in order, cleansing all the Vessels. Such Drags go under the name of Brownies.

When we have plenty, they have Scarcity at their Homes; and on the contrary (for they are empowered to catch as much Prey everywhere as they please,) there Robberies notwithstanding oft times occasion great Rickes of Corne not to bleed so well, (as they call it,) or prove so copious by very far as we expected by the Owner.

THERE Bodies of congealed Air are some times carried aloft, other whiles grovel in different Shapes, and enter into any Cranie or Cliff of the Earth where Air enters, to their ordinary Dwellings; the Earth being full of Cavities and Cells, and there being no Place nor Creature but is supposed to have other Animals (greater or lesser) living in or upon it as Inhabitants; and no such thing as a pure Wilderness in the whole Universe.

WE then (the more terrestrial kind have now so numerously planted all Countries,) do labor for that abstruse People, as well as for ourselves. Albeit, when several Countries were uninhabited by us, these had their easy Tillage above Ground, as we now. The Print of those Furrows do yet remain to be seen on the Shoulders of very high Hills, which was done when the champagne Ground was Wood and Forrest.

THEY remove to other Lodgings at the Beginning of each Quarter of the Year, so traversing till Doomsday, being impudent and [impotent of?] staying in one Place, and finding some Ease by so purning [Journeying] and changing Habitations. Their chameleon-like Bodies swim in the Air near the Earth with Bag and Baggage; and at such revolution of Time, SEERS, or Men of the SECOND SIGHT, (Females being seldom so qualified) have very terrifying Encounters with them, even on High Ways; who therefore usually shun to travel abroad at these four Seasons of the Year, and thereby have made it a Custom to this Day among the Scottish-Irish to keep Church duly every first Sunday of the Quarter to seen or hallow themselves, their Corns and Cattle, from the Shots and Stealth of these wandering Tribes; and many of these superstitious People will not be seen in Church again till the next Quarter begin, as if no Duty were to be learned or done by them, but all the Use of Worship and Sermons were to save them from these Arrows that fly in the Dark.