SCOTTISH

t\eRJe
OF THE MARITIME PROVINCES
D
Scottish myths and legends are derived from Pictish,
Scots, and Scandanavian sources. The first two were
Druidic peoples, whose religious beliefs and history
were strictly a matter of oral tradition.
The picts were closest to an aboriginal race, but
it is theorized that they may have come to north-western
Britain from the Iberian peninsula. They were pressed
into a remote corner of this land by successive in
vasions of Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and the Scots,
who had been based in Ireland, but came to the country,
which the latins called Alba, to help the picts fight
their wars. They found Argyllshire congenial, and fought
a three hundred year war with their pictish neighbours
for political and religious dominance of Scotland.
If the picts were Gaelic-speaking, their language was
incomprehensible to the Celtic Scots, whose tongue was
shared with the Irish tribes, the Welsh and residents
of the Isle of Man. The pictish language is now entirely
lost except for a few survivals as Scottish place-names.
Similarly, their superstitions are not a matter of dec
isive record, because their religion did not permit
written records, and because their bardic output has
become intertwined, and inseparable from that of the
Scots, with whom they formed a united Kingdom when
Kenneth McAlpine came to the High Kingship.
It is known that the picts were the first, and last
Druidic people. They were not ready converts to the new
Christian religion, which the Scots brought with them
from Ireland, and the Highlanders were said to, "conserve
their heathenism better than any other people in Europe."
Tired by religious wars, it was probably a Pict, who
formulated the saying:
Is omadh dacine lagahach a mhill an credeamh
or, "There's many a delightful fellow, spol ied by religion ".
When the Christians arrived in Scotland they made an
immediate attempt to subjugate the pagan holidays of
Beltane, Hallowe'en and Harvest Home, or to disquise them
in some fitting manner. In the process, they "spoiled"
not only the Daoine, but the Daoine Sidh.
The Celtic bards told a very different story
of creation than that recorded in the Christian
Bible. The picts, and the Scots, originally be
lieved that the world had been peopled by the
Daoine, or human-kind, as well as the Daoine
Sidh, which were the elementals, later called
the "fay" or "fayries". The first descriptive
Gaelic word takes notice of the common ancestry
of man and the fairies, the second, "sidh",
originally meant, "to obtain perfection", or
a faultless being. No matter how malicious, all
members of fairy-land could be considered without
blame, as they lacked souls, the component which
has caused man to question his behaviour, the
ingrediant, which prevents him from considering
himself perfect.Perhaps because they have no
interest in questions of morality, the fay lived
exceptionally long lives, unmarred by stress.
Currently, the word, "sidh" is used as an adj
ective, denoting any supernatural characteristic,
hence, "eun-sidh" is fairy-like; an enchanted
bird is called, "labhran-sidh", and a radio or
wireless set is a neologism, sharing the same
name.
When Malcolm Caemore married the daughter of
Edmund Ironsides of England, the Scottish Court
abandoned Gaelic traditions for Anglo-Norman
substitutes, and the word, "fay", was applied to
the Sidh (shee or shay). This French verb at
first meant, "to cleanse, clean, or clear away."
The Anglo-Saxon equivalent was sJ'lelled, "fey",
and was given a similar meaning, but was also
used, in describe a very close
union between planks. In Middle-English "fay"
was interchangeable with, "fayth, "later spelled,
"faith". This seems appropriate as faith involves
a belief in the unseen, obtained by a clearing of
the veil of disbelief, allowing the union of
man and god.
The faythfull are not all Christians, and
cynics were probably responsible for having the
name transferred to the unseen land of faeries.
Morgan Ie Fay, the enchantress illustrates another
use of the word, now archaic, but still used to
describe individuals who have dealings with the
Sidh.
The Anglo-Saxons first referred to citizens of
fay as elves. The first form of this word was;
"aelf" or "ylf", which has a counterpart in the
Gaelic, "alp", the meaning being slightly different,
as the latter has exclusive reference to nightmare
creatures, such as the succubus and the incubus.
Spenser popularized the use of "faery" in place of
"elf", so that the latter is not often used in the
comprehensive sense, which was once understood.
Currently, elves are pictured in the fashion
made popular by Arthur Rackham, frail and diminutive
creatures, the female sex of surpassing beauty.
Creatures of nature, they are shown living under
a hill or under a tree, dancing and singing in the
tWilight. Toward mankind they may be helpful, mis
chevious or malicious, but are generally considered
to lack power.
The Sidh were far more than small, lively, and
elusive creatures. In their first form, these
"children of Caen", as the Christian missionaries
called them, were of great stature and strength,
both decreasing as time eroded their importance.
In this, they were probably appropriate reflections
of the pictish race, which imagined them. In Ireland
they became a completely reclusive race, while it
is claimed that Scottish faeries abandoned the
auld sod for other parts of the world when the
land was given over to sheep.
As there are two faces of mankind, so also
are there are light elves and dark elves, or as
the Scandanavian races named them, ljosalfar" and
"svartalfar". The former can tolerate the light
of day and fly through the air, and generally,
are tolerant of human-kind. The latter seek dark
ness, live in caves or the sea, and can be quite
hostile.
In Scotland, the picts and the Celts distinguished
these basic types as creatures of the Sely or
the Un s ely Co u r t . The Ga eli cwor d "s ely" 0 rig in
ally meant an individual who was blissville, inno
cent, harmless, good, kind, helpful, and/or happy.
Any creature belonging to the Sely Court could
be considered a light faery. This Gaelic word has
a n An g 1 0 - Sa x 0 ncou sin, " sill y " . It can be a r g u e d
that the silly individual is at hazard, since his
good nature is likely to cause others to mis-use
him. individuals gave the word a meaning
divorced from original intentions, so that a silly
person is now thought of as naieve, weak, feeble,
simple, timid, and probably povert stricken, as he
is unable to care for his own interests. To be un
silly, or capable of applying for membership in the
Unsely Court, therefore required a souless cynicism
The Celtic UnselY therefore harboured the
Urusig, a Gaelic word for goblins, bogles and shape
changers. Witches might call upon these malevolent
faeries for assistance, but humans were generally
excluded from their inner sanctum. ',hll exception
might be the solitary traveller, who had remained
past the hour at the local pub. ,Fairies like to
dance, and members of the 'Unsely are no exceptions.
Having finished with more serious business, they
were liable to demand that any found abroad after
the witching hour participate in their nocturnal
activities. Aside from acts of sexual depravity,
a matter for mild amusement among the "host",
errant Scots would be forced to cast stones at
neighbouring cattle, and dance with a vigor, which
usually stripped years off their life. In
the worst situation, the Celt might emerge from
this debauchery markedly aged and possibly dis
eased.
There is as much fact as fantasy
in Scottish myths, and it is not
always deeply buried. While it
usually impossible to trace the
genealogy of the fay the
progenitor of- Scottish. Druidism
is said to have been interviewed
in 1665. . Reginald Scot had
been in the Orkneys in the prev
ious year, researching his book,
The Discoverie of Witchcraft.
As an aside, he had conversations
with a Bodach or Brownie, a
familiar of a powerful elemental
who identified himself as Luridan.
Luridan said that he had for many
years inhabited Pomonia, the larg
est of the Orkades. In the guise
of Bodach he haunted Highland
homes, sweeping floors, washing
dishes, and performing all manner
of household chores while the
family remained at sleep.
While now acting as a menial
he claimed to be the "genius
Astral" of the island, and 5aid
that an earlier personae was nam
ed Baalah, when he lived among the Jews at Jerusalem.
The concept of local dieties named Baal is, in fact,
a matter of record. The worship of the Baal of Tyre
was introduced to the Israelites by Ahab, and even
Jehovah was once referred to using this name. Leaving
the far east, travelled to ancient Wales,
where he claimed to have instructed the Bardii in
the fundamentals of Druidism. He concluded ,"I have
removed hither, and alas, my continuance is but short,
for in seventy years I must resign my place to Balkin,
lord of the Northern r..;ountains" Luridan is also
mentioned in the Norse book of Vanagastus, where he
is described as warring against the fire spirits of
Heckla, causing earthquakes and vulcanism in the north.
This "Baal-kin" is described by his fellow
elemental as formed, "like a satyr" and capable
of feeding from the air. The significant fact
about him was that he possessed "wife and children
to the number of twelve thousand, which were the
brood of the Northern Faeries, inhabiting South
erland and Catenes (Caithness) with the adjacent
islands. And these are the companies of spirits
that hold continual wars with the fiery spirits
in the mountain Heckla, that vomits fire in Islandia
(Iceland). That their speech was ancient Irish,
and their dwellings the caverns of rocks and
mountains, ... is recorded in the antiquities of
Pomonia."
If this ancestor of the faeries has a human
counterpart, or counterparts, he was likely a
Duthgall or Eingall gone Vikinq, i.e. on a sea
trip, with of rapine and looting.
While Scottish myth obviously owes a great
deal to the SCdndanavians and the people of the
Island of Scotia, now called Irelanq, the ancient
religion of Drudism is the source of the magical
characteristics of the land of faerie.
The Gaels still use the word Druid to describe
the common Starling, a bird imported to North
America, and re-established here with phenomenal
success. The appelation recognizes characteristics
of the animal, which the Scots admired. The
bird is extremely adaptible, and is
building its nest near human habitations. It is
also a wiley thief, and a bully, placing its eggs
to be incubated in the nests of other species.
Above all, it is an intelligent bird, full of
tricks, and difficult to trap or kill. In the
Highlands, these were once highly commendible
attributes for man or bird. The Scots did not have
a s mu c h res p e c t for the Car rionCr 0 w, 0 r " b a 0 b h 'I ,
which has these same but is
sadly a meat-eater with indifferent table-manners.
Consumption of rotten meat suggests habits of the
Unsely Court, so that the word, Baobh has also been
used to describe a hag, witch, or wizard, which may
have better table manners but consort with the
"wrong crowd".
The Druid priest had to be both Starling and
,for his power in the pictish was
at least equal to that of the King. He was the or
ganizer of ceremonies of propitiation, but he
also had duties as an historian, judge, physician
and magician. To hold his politicians in awe
it was essential that he act as a Baobh, and be
capable of casting the well-placed gisreag, or
spell.
The Pictish year was divided into summer and
winter, with no intervening seasons, a situation
which would be apropos for the Maritime Provinces.
The sixth day of the ascendant moon marked the
beginning of their month, and the thirty year
cycles in which all the earth's resources were
supposedly destroyed and renewed. Each new season
was celebrated twice yearly with a fire festival,
with penultimate bonfires created once in thirty
years.
Of the yearly fires, the Beltane, held on the
evening before r-,ay Day, was the more significant.
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Every fifth the Beltane was celebrated as
a "high festival". The Old New Year, or Samthain,
used to be preceeded by a celebration somewhat
resembling the current Hallowe'en. The da itself
has ceased to be called Hallowma3, .another name
which the Lowland Scots introduced when Malcolm
Caemore substituted Anglo-Norman usage for Gaelic
at Court.
The Beltane honoured that multiplicity of gods
known as the Baal, whose favour or favours the pop
ulation hoped to curry through elaborate celebration
and sacrifice. high festival, the fires were laid
for the execution of criminals and unrepentant enemies.
If insufficient victims were avaliable to draw the
attention of the local Baal, thus ensuring the
fertility of the land during the growing season, the
picts and the Celts would forage for captives, so
that human ashes might be broadcast over the soil.
In the best situation these unfortunates would be
killed by impalement or the arrows of a priest, at
worst they were burned alive, sometimes in the
company of cats, snakes, and other considered
to be familiars of the :unsely. In the last case
the sacrificial creatures were confined in cages
of wicker wood and grass, with fires lighted beneath
them. The priests also sacrificed bullocks follow
ing a lunar schedule.
Mistletoe, which is parasitic on the oak tree
played a part in these holidays. The oak was
considered and the mistletoe growing
upon it marked that plant as particularly favoured
by the gods Mistletoe was thought to concentrate
magical medicinal properties from external sources
at Midsummer Eve, when it was harvested by the
clergy using a golden sickle. Iron was forbidden
as the cutting tool, since it was a product of
the earth, and the virtue of the plant was said
imparted to it from the air. for this reason,
it was caught, after cutting, on a white cloth,
and not allowed to fall to the earth. In opposing
this pictish religion, the Christian deliberately
confused the world of man and fay, hence it is now
understood that evil spirits may be laid low by
employing iron. Since Scottish sheilings were
built without nails, the household might be pro
tected against faeries and druidism by driving
a single nail into the door frame, laying a knife
in the stoop, or buring a fish hook in the door
way. Other trees, involved in druidic practice,
such as the Blackthorn, the Hazel, the Alder and
the were also given black propoganda and
associated with the unsely faeries.
Some of these woods were used in starting the
Beltane. While the earliest ceremonies demanded
human sacrifice, they later devolved into ritual
where the "victim" was merely required to leap
three times over a dwindling fire. Like other
public acts of worship, fire festivals were set
on a hilltop or upon an easily visible island in
a river or lake. The Picts considered
their elementals as creatures of the open
which could not appropriately be contained within
a building.
The events leading to the Beltane may be deduced
from later Scottish practice. The night before, all
fires in the country were las it was
considered that the new fire could not be kindled
while any part of the old blaze remained on hearths.
A friction fire was then ignited using a well
seasoned oak plank with a hole drilled part way
through it. A wimble made of the same material,
simply a vertical stick, was centered in the hole
and turned by hand or with a bow, in Boy Scout
fashion. In later ,this device was elaborated
into a "muckle (great) wheel". In this machine,
the wimble became a small tree turned by a large
--
spoked wheel. This heavy machinery was worked by
carefully selected individuals. If any of these
had been guiltyof theft, murder or adultery in
the past year, it was certain that the fire would
not light or produce counter-producrive results.
As soon as the fire was emitted from the oak, it
was caught up in volatile agaric, which grows on
old birch trees.
After the fire had been set, and kindled, the
company would retire to eat, and then amuse them-
in singing and dancing about the fire. Since the
earliest aboriginals were hardly concerned with
morality outside of marriage, these were probably
occasions for sexual laisons, and the entire activity
was condemned by the missionaries. Neverthless, it
was a popular entertainment in a bleak country,
and it continued into Victorian times. At the close
of fire festivals, the master of the feast produced
a large oatcake, known as the Beltane bannoch. The
"am bonnach beal-tine" was divided into pieces, which
were distributed with great ceremony. The cake was
baked with nine squared knobs on the upper surface,
each, at one time, dedicated to a particular spirit
of fire, land, sea or a i ~ , which might be
either a friend or foe of human-kind. They were
distributed rather after the fashion of favours
hidden in a birthday cake. Individuals,to pro
pitiate a given spirit, would break away this
knob, and fling them over a shoulder, addressing
the darkness with words such as, "This I give
to thee (name of divinity), spare thou (specific
favour requested)." One piece contained a black
stone termed the "carline". Black-balled by re
ceiving this marker, this individual had to suffer
the indignity of being mobbed by his neighbours.
who made as if to draw and quarter him, a practice
which might actually have been consumated in an
earlier day. M ~ r e recently, a show would be made
of throwing him to the fire, but he would be re
scued by an interposing body of men. He was after
wards pelted with eggs and the subject of special
communal rejection until the following year, when
a new scape-goat was elected. When the fire was
nearly dead, brands were rescued and taken home
to re-kindle the various hearth-fires.
The other yearly fire-festival called for the
baking of a Hallowmas bannoch, eated in celebration
of the first day of winter. In the north-east of
Scotland, this fire and the Beltane were both called
"bone-fires" for obvious reasons. Since they were,
at first, macabre events as well as social outings,
it is not surprising that people believed that evil
spirits were free on these evenings. When the
Christidns introduced witches as the best of all
scape-goats, the Beltane was modified to anti-druidic
purpose, with burning masses of material thrown into
the air from pitch-forks amidst cries 0:;, "Fire,
burn the witches." Ghoulies and ghosties are now
associated with Hallowe'en, but the Celtic celebration
was more upbeat. On the last day of autumn, children
gathered ferns, tar and other combustibles, which they
placed in a barrel. The fires were not fed humans,
in this later time, the sole object being to produce
the largest flames. When dead, the ashes of the fire
were raked into a circle, and stones representing
members of the assembly placed at the circumference.
If a stone was disturbed overnight the individual
represented was considered dead, within the year.
Youngsters recalled earlier habits by cavorting near
the flames, and in competing in jumping through them
andcscattering ashes. In Wales, the Celts take watch
to the last ember, and then scatter with cries of,
"The devil take the hindmost."
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While sacrificial fires were usually periodic
a "wild-fire" or "need-fire" might be required
to quiet an elemental responsible for a calamity
or to ask for help in time of war, or contend
with disease at times other than Beltane or the
samthein. In Caithness, it was considered pre
requisite to rid the persons of participants of
all metals, including iron, before a need-fire
could be laid. When a bonfire had been set,
it was allowed to die in intensity, after which
diseased people or cattle, were driven over the
embers, through the smoke. This was not bad
biological practice since this treatment might
help to rid the body of animals of sickness
vectors such as fleas and lice. Ftom the fire
brands were taken, and preserveq ,to be placed
in cattle stalls as a prophylactic. ffihes from
the fire were scattered over fields to protect
crops against rodents, and were also mixed with
water, which was drunk as a cure for illness.
Since carbon does bond well with foreign substances
it probably did help to clear the digestive tract.
In the West I s l e ~ ,the hearth fire, re-kindled
from this source, had water boiled over it, which
was then sprinkled on plague-infested creatures.
Quieting powerful elementals required the formal
services of a priest but there were rights, which
addressed spirits of nature rather than "gods".
No extra community agent was required to perform
observances which were seasonal, ruraa, and informal
in terms of time, place and participants.
One such was "Harvest Home", a celebration made
when the last corn had been cut. The last stook was
used to fashion the "Cailleach" or "Old Woman", a
designation used if cut after Hallowmas. If cut before
it was the, "Maiden". In medieval villages, when
there was a farm common, attempts were made to
obtain the maiden, but avoid being the one to cut
the Old Woman. The first farmer to complete his
cutting of corn, fashioned a figure from the harvest
This was passed to his nearest neighbour, who in
turn gave it to a less expeditious farmer. If all
went well, someone would end with the prized, llMaidh
deanbuain". If she was "taken" by a young unmarried
male, his union was certain in the coming season.
She would be dressed with ribbons, and the doll fixed to
the wall, to be fed to the cattle in the spring. If
an old woman had to be boarded for the winter, the
farmer getting her was considered slothful, and liable
to bad luck. If she was divided among neighbours and
fed to animals the next Spring this avoided "gort a
bhaile" or famine on the farm. The Scandanavian
"kitchen witch" is an innocuous survival of this
custom. A ~ worst, the old woman might be cut after
midnight, a portent of the worst kind.
In North .America there are survivals of the Harvest
Home, including a banquet, and the creation of mazes
made from remnants of the crop. In these the children
divert themselves, while parents attend to serious
eating and drinking, and other sport. The self-contain
ed ornament, as above, is related to the maze, and was
intended to divert the fay from human activities. ~ a e r i e s
love to dance, and love a puzzle, but in trying to track
pictish designs, they become hopelessly bemused.
FORMUIR
In the earliest t i m ~ , t h e Celts and picts
recognized three types: the gods, beings very
like men, but having supernatural attributes,
allowing them to dominate nature in some manner;
mankind; and the giants, titans, or formuir, the
last being the Celtic designation. This word
means, "firom the sea". In historic time, this
race would have been counted as definitely unsely.
The Scandanavian giant has received publicity as
a bemused, misunderstood race, but the ,formuir, or
former has always been known as quixotic agent of
the dark powers. While the gods were of a refined
mortal cast, the titans might range from similar
f arm and humanly beautiful to huge and deformed,
with some of their number bearing animal heads on
otherwise unremarkable bodies. larger
than the daoine and gods, the giants had strength to
match their size, and possessed more than morta!,
but less than god-like power and endowment. These
were the first being capable of
taking the form of animals, at will. .8ccordino to
Welsh scholars such transformations are always acc
ompanied by a loss in mass, as energy is expended,
which may explain the differences in size of indi
viduals of this species.
Perhaps the best example of formuir beauty was
seen in Bress, son of Elathan. He was so completely
acceptible in society, he was able to marry the
goddess Brigit, the patron of poetic inspiration and
the protector of hearth and home. She was the
daughter of Dagdu, the god of earth, a warrior noted
as a harpist,and a prodigious consumer of oatmeal
porridge. The family had one other member mentioned
in myths, Angus, the son of Dagda, a bit of a fop, whose
province was "amorous dalliance". Angus did possess
sufficient "smarts" to cheat his father out of ownership
of his underground palace.
The Daoine Tuatha were, from the first designation
neither god, nor giant, but a division of humankind.
Like the gods, they were of presentable size and
complexion. The tuatha had come to ancient Ireland
from Europe. When they arrived they found the firbolgs,
the Irish equivalent of the Picts, already in place.
These unsophisticated people were quickly put down,
and nearly eliminated. During the final battle, King
Nuada of the tuatha last a hand, which was replaced by
a facsimile of silver. His people, nevertheless con
sidered him handicaped and elected Bress in his place.
Like most giants, he proved incapable of understanding
his human subjects, who returned to their old
allegiance. Bress now, wishing to recover hi
kingship, urged the formuir to war on his behalf.
Nuada immediately sought the help of the gods
recognizing these as enemies he could not over
come without help. The folk of the goddess Danu
assented.
The gods and man had singular opposition in
King Balor of the giants. The Middle English
word "baleful", comesrrom knowledge of this
Celtic personality, whose eyes were said to blight
all on which they gazed. To protect his own kind,
the King went blindfolded, except into battle.
From this source, we have the "evil eye" of the
Scottish wizards and witches. As these eyes fell
upon King Nuada, he was slain. By a ruse, similar
to that used in dispatching the medusa, Lugh of
the Tuatha blinded this opponent and the giants
went down to defeat. Their kind was exterminated
except for those who retreated to the far north,
where they lie in suspended animation, awitinq the
final battle.The gods now undertook to rule the
British Islands, but they were now opposed by the
Milesians, a mortal race of invaders.
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Ironically, the cohorts of King Milesius,
like the picts and the Firbolgs, were former
Iberians. They recognized the status of the
"divine people", now a mixture of man and god,
and openly worshipped them, but this did not
prevent them from being pragmatic, and they
must have concluded that their technology was
more than equal to the spells of the Daoine
Tuatha. They werp correct, and their 1300
B.C. invasion of the Islands was completely
successful. As a result, it was their progeny
who became the Erse or Irish, and it was the
Scottish branch of this family which went on
to centend with the picts for control of Alha.
Their success is written in the current name
of that country: "Scotland".
The 'little people", the Daoine Sidh, of
Ireland and Scotland obviously personify the
defeeted Tuatha and picts. Diminished in all
respects, they were forced to their final
home, the ancient earthworks and barrows of
the fay world. The word Sidh, in fact means,
"the people who live in the hills." The solitary
habits, which they acquired by living apart
from those who conquered them in unsurprising.
The magic, which they were able to practice was
their inheritance, in imperfect form, from the
gods. They had already diminished in size,
when the Christian religion assailed them, making
them smaller still. These pagani are sometimes
drawn to assist people, because of their human
genes, but their are also touches of the fbrmuir
in their blood, and these peoples liked humans
as a lunch, rather than as companions. Torn by
this "ying and yang", the present-day faeries
may be either silly or not; one hopes the former?
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Brownie CRiner" for 2!-i x 2!-{ plcture5.
Trftn!tPDrf!ntFllm C"rtrleiffe. 6 e:ltp05Urtl8. 27{ x 2So:f.
Pa.per-Fllm. Carlrldlle. 6 exposure8. 2M ]( 2!-{,
Brownie and Prlntlnc Outfit.
The Scottish Sidh remained publicity shy, until
they were re-introduced to North Americans at the
turn of the last century. Palmer Cox was born in
the Lowlands of Scotland. His a resident
of the Grampions, gave him a good education in folk
lore before the family emigrated to Montreal Canada.
In New York, he abandoned a business career to illus
trate a book of children's stories, which he had
written When the were taken up by the Kodak
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Company to introduce their new inexpensive camera
line in 1900, success for them, and Cox, was cert
ain. After writing a number of sequels to his
fir s t boo k, and the Brown i e p 1 a y s, Co.,: ret urn e d
to his Canadian home in Granby, where he built a
huge mansion, named "Brownie Castle." The Scottish
Brownies were transposed to an international cast,
printed on pencil boxes, school rulers, nursery
wall-paper, handkerchiefs, scarfs, pins, toys, and
stationary. When the illustrator died in.1924,
u.S. magazines declared that these people of the
Sidh were, "as authentic a part of .lU:nerican child
hood as Cooper's red Indians." The New York Times
contended that the Brownies,"suggest the real
worls we live in more faithfully and graciously
than do the comics of today."
The Bodach, or Highland Brownie, never had the
dramatic presence of his Lowland cousin. Cox was
true to tradition in illustrating .his Brownie with
no nose, but only nostril slits, but they were
never actual fact youthful or female. Worse,
his success was followed by imitators,
a race called, "The Teenie-Weenies", which frankly,
sounds like something produced to be eaten. The
authentic Brownies dressed in Brown but Cox
gave them tidy eflin uniforms. The first of the
clan were allowed a Highland Tam O'Shanter as head
gear, but they were prolific, and eventually his
included every age class, nationality and
costume on earth. The original Brownies were prob
ably annoyed that the illustrator removed their
hard won wrinkles, making them smooth-faced and
pr ospe ro us ..
The Brownie has as his cousins
the 'F'enoderee of the Isle of 11an and the Bwca
(Booka) of Wales. These, with the Bodach, have
common characteristics. 'All are small, shaggy men,
about two feet in height. but differing from the
Lowland species in having pronounced noses. The
Bodach is differentiated by having fingers and
toes tied into a common web of flesh, and no
individual
The above, represents the Palmer Cox Brownie
in his "Scottish" Lowland costume; he was sometimes
depicted sporting a kilt and carrying bagpipes.
has counterparts, not only in the Bodach,
but also in the English Hobgoblin, the Scandanav
ian Nis and the Teutonic Kobold, to mention only
a few of his relations.
As originally conceived, the Brownie had short
curly dark hair, and wore a medieval mantle and
hood. His residence, in common with the bodach,
was a ruined castle, the hollow of an old tree,
or more often a human homestead. In attaching
himself to a family ,he would introduce himself
to the male ascendant in each generation, otherwise
remaining invisible to the group. Once in place
he might remain in the household, cleaning and
performing house chores in the nocturnal hours.
Brownies and Bodachs have been known to reside
with particular families for many centuries. To
a degree, he was a disinterested partner in the
affairs of the household, considering the exchange
of a bowl of cream, a bit of honeycomb, and a
snug private ,as ample return for his work.
The Bodach, living closely with Highlanders,
reflected their tastes foibles, which are not
inconsiderable. Like these people, he will not beg
alms, and is honest beyond need. He reacts vio
lently against anything resembling a "douceur" or
overpayment, Hence offering the Brownie a complete
new or a banquet, might cause them to take
residence elsewhere. Unfortunately, the "luck of
the home", was attached to the Bodach, and went
with him when he transferred his affections.
In the northern and western islands of Scotland
the Bodach seems to have had an importance not
allowed him on the mainland, where he was not
considered an "evil spirit", requiring a sacrifice
in return for his services. On the principal
Orkney island, each family had a spirit, which
was kept "in line" by offerings a sprinkling from
each churning of butter, and a sip from each brew.
Many of these people kept a Brownie stone, which
had a small hole in it, into which the libation
was poured.. Those who ignored the Bod ch in
their brewing or churning always ended with an
inferior product.
Stacks of corn though to be the province of
this little person, had no need to be bound with
straw rope, or fenced in any manner, as they were
undisturbed by any wind short of a hurricane.
While the Bodach could provide valuable service
to the family, he was prone to play practical
jokes, and to hide objects from family adherents.
As a group, they had a quick temper, and were
quick to perceive mistreatment or insult. When
piqued, this goblin would bang on the walls,
close doors in a summary fashion, destroy clothing
throw objects about the room, pinch sleeping
people and behave as a general bogie or boogie
man. In these cases the Highlander could retal
iate by reading passages from the Bible, but this
sometimes created more offense, and an increase
in the unwanted phenomena. The introduction of
iron or holy objects might have similar effect.
In his worst form, the Bodach might light spontan
eous fires, throw a farmers entire harvest over
a cliff-side or stampede his cattle. In the most
extreme situation, the harmless Brownie might be
converted, through misunderstanding or the malic
iousness of some human, into a full-fledged bogle,
which might do physical harm to former friends.
The word bog is Gaelic, and describes an area of
decayed moss and organic matter, where a "body" is
apt to sink. These wet spongey, unlit places are
preferred by the bogies, bogeys or the boogey-man.
The bogie also exists elsewhere in Britain, being
called the or "bugbear" in England or
the "bwg" in Wales.
The Bogle has abhorent manners, a tackey app
earance and a dissolute life-style by human stand
ards ..hs a rule he goes naked, but may assume
the garb of a victim, to emphasize his power
over the daoine. The word boggle is also used as
a verb, where it indicates "to terrify".Scottish
scarecrows, and very bad little boys are sometimes
called boogies or bogles. Neither is quite equal
'to the destructive ardour of the true hobgoblin.
Aside from these generalities, it can only be
added that Bogle is a generic term, embracinq a
large variety of goblins of various shapes, sizes
and habits. of them retain shape-shifting
abilities, and while a few may be dismissed as
mischievous, they are, on the whole, dangerous.
They are particularly apt to do harm to liars
and murderers. the most evil of the lot,
is the ancient border goblin named Redcap, who
inhabits ruins on the southern border of Scotland,
and takes his name from the crocheted cap he wears,
which is kept red with the blood of victims.
Like the giants, all Bogles are entirely anti
social, hate mankind, and are hazardous to all
who wander from a wilderness path. Their number
includes the Bean-sidh (banshee) of Ireland and
Scotland, who not only fortells death, but in
lonely Highland streams, washes the
clothing of those marked for death.
To this point, the faeries described have been
those which have sprung from the goddess Danu, and
are spirits of earth rather than water or air. The
water spirits, must surely have f0rmuir blood, as
aery few of their number are harmless to men.
It is generally thought that the Sidh, havina
lost powers of magic to technological weapons of
war in their various conflicts, were condemned to
occupy domains until Scott
ish Trows have thus been forced to take a place
uder the hills while the BogIes have their swamps
and the Bodachs a human dwelling-place. Others, as
we will observe have been restricted to ponds, rivers
lakes, rivers and the ocean depending on whether
their inheritance is formuir or from one of the gods.
The Trows, are of very mixed blood, some occupying
the land and others the sea. The former, who dwell
mostly in the north-western Highlands are called the,
"guid folk", or the "guid neighbours" by the Scots
and the Islanders. Inhabiting the interior of green
hills, they have a great deal in common with Leprechauns
but are closer the Scandanavian Trolls in their habit.
Persons permitted the honour of visiting them, have
come away dazzled by their homes, whose walls are said
sheathed gold and silver. The entrance and exit to
...... \,," 1'1\1' \. \ l ~ ~ I " \
these barrows is always on opposite sides of
the faery hill. The Trows have an elaborate
social order, which includes marriage and the
nuturing of children, a suggestion that they
may be the major remnant of the Tuatha.
While diminutive in stature, they are perfect
ly formed and in former times travelled about
on horseback or astride bullrushes, dressed in
gay green costumes. They have, however, kept
abreast of fashions, and except for size might
be mistaken for newer races.
In addition to a fondness for horses, they
like dancing and music. The Scottish Frocession
of Trows is always preceded by a piper. Unlike
the gods, the Trows are not free from disease, but
are the possessors of infallible remedies, which
they may share with man.
With these characteristics, it may be wondered
why the pict or Scot will "sain" himself when
passing a faery hill. Unfortunately, the Trows
have all the thieving insticts of the Scandanavian
Trolls. A Trow-woman will sometimes secretly
milk cows in their byre, and when they desire
beef or mutton, they send their men to a nearby,farm
armed with elf-stones. In killing livestock, the
Trow magicians cast a cloud over the owner, so that
they, and the animal being stolen, are invisible.
They then replace the soon-to-be-missing creature
with an elaborate facsimilie, which only differs
f ~ o m the original in the lack of nutritional value.
This substitute is shortly involved in a violent
accident, so that the f a ~ m ~ r thinks his loss an
"act of God". The scots understand enough of the
Trows that they will not consume the flesh of
animals killed by any sudden means.
Women in lactation, and unchristened children are
also at hazard. The f o r m ~ r may be stolen as wet
nurses for Trow infants, and the latter used to
expand the gene pool of the race, which is normally
constrained. In stealing children, this elder race
would substitute a changeling for the missing infant.
Scottish parents convinced of_the presence of a
Cn4"4 t-lJ'f\j
immediately cease to take an interest in its
welfare. The replacement appeared in each
detail, but was actually a magical construct
based on a block of wood or a particularly old
and ugly Trow, indulging himself in unsely
joke. After a time, the changeling would appear
to waste, die, and then be buried, while the
real baby was raised in iaeryland. While the
children might be treated well there, the mission
aries of the new Ltith insisted that, like the
the druids, the TrDws intended these humans as
part of their septannual offering, their tithe
to the fienss of hell. The changeling could
revealed by placing it on a red-hot shovel and
throwing it into the fire on the hearth. If
fay, it would immediately up the chimney,
if not, an important error had been made. In
the even that a changeling is discovered, its
counterpart is usually restored at the door.
There have been a few cases where human parents
successfully regained their offspring by invading
the "hollow hills", a procedure not generally
rl:lcommended.
With regard to the Sea Trows, they seem to in
habit a very special location on the sea-bed. The
ocean, in this region, provides them with respiration
which would not be practical elsewhere. When they
visit the land, they are obliged to enter the skin
of an animal which lives in normal sea-water. Their
favoured vectors are the Haaf fish or ,and
the harbour seal. Landing on a rock, they may then
cast off this sea-dress for their normal human
shape, and walk about in the upper worls. However,
they must take special care of their intermediate
skins, as the loss will mean that they cannot re
enter the submarine world. The muir people, who
obviously carry the formuir blood, may consent to
marry humans, but will be forced by their heredity
to return to the sea, if it is physically possible.
Water sprites, in general, possess powers in pro
portion to the size of the body of water which they
occupy. The further inland theydwell, the less formuir
background they have. The least harmful of the water
is probably the Urisk, which resembles the
satyr. lives in a smaal pond and minds its manners.
The only peculiarity it possesses comes from a touch
of human blood, which that it seek the company
of men. Unfortunately, its uncanny appearance is
terrifying to the solitary travellers it encounters.
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The Shellycoat is not much more alarming. It
iliffersfrom theurisk in carrying about a covering
of fresh-water which it rattles to attract
passers-by, thus diverting them from their intended
path. The Glastig, pictured above, is quite a
difference creature, This sprite inhabits small
streams and rivers, and feeds in vampire fashion
on young men who are attracted by her physical
pre sen c e . The Scandana v ian wo 1'd, " s t i g" mea n s to
terrify, while the celtic, "glais" indicates the
colours blue and gray, in combination. The Glaistig
or Glastig dresses in a long gown
to disguise her lower body, which is that of a female
goat. In a poor humour, she will invite men to
dance with her before consuming their blood. She
is, however ,entirely fay, and may decide to be heniqn.
In this r ~ l l she may o:t:fer to tend cattle far: a farmer
or baby-sit the children of the farmer's wife.
The Muir-Trow or selkies sharesthe sea and lochs with
the shape-changer known as the Kelpie or water-horse.
The kelp plant, a laminarian, known as oar-weed, occurs
in vast dense undersea forests, quite near shore. These
g i vet his fa y ere a t u rei t s name an d h a bit at. . U6 u a 11 y i tIS
mostly submerged,but is capahle of running on the sur
face of the water. The magical powers of the Kelpie in
clude the ability to swell the waters of.a loch into a
torrent. They may come ashore in the form of a very
hairy, horse-like man, or as a horse. In the latter
form they may allow humans to mount them ,and depend
ing on their humour may carry them on a precipitous
dash, which ends with a plunge into cold water, or
tear them to bits. They are said to have a malignant
genius for attracting women and children to their weed
infested dwelling place. In their best mood they
will warn seamen or swimmers of impending disaster
by providing superbatural warning lights or sounds.
If the person warned of death fails to heed the signs,
the Kelpie assumes they have a death-wish and
assists them in attaining their desire.
The most awesome Scottish sea-faerie is the
Nuckelavee. This Gaelic name indicates a sea
creature which frequents capes or promnitories
Like the Kelpie it is basically a horse, but of
monstrous dimensions and with legs which are part
flipper. No illustration of this faery will
do justice to its single fiery eye, and mouth,
which spring from mid-torso. The creature has
long ,humanoid arms located in the same general
area. Its worst feature is the absence of skin,
so that black blood coursing through yellow
vessels, white sinews, and red-meat muscles are
all exposed at the animal's surface.
Almost the only possibilty of escape from
the Nuckelavee lies in crossing from salt to
fresh water, for the monster has a physiology
which will not adapt to the change. In this
respect, it illustrates the characteristic in
ability of the people of fay to travel far from
the station allowed them at the present time.
Like the Celts, the faeries enjoy pomp, and
their annual Rade, or procession, is the high
point of their year. This event coincided with
Beltane and the coming of summer. The peasantry
of Scotland used to view the parade by taking the
precaution of placing a rowan bush br8nch over
the window, through which they intended to spy
on the activities. Those who have seen the'Rade
concur that the individuals in it were encompassed
in a supernatural light, all astride "wee white
naigs, wi' unco lang sweeping tails and manes
hung wi' whustles that the win' played on."
We have no less authority than Hugh Miller,
the Scots geologist, to mark the end of this
grand tradition, and the departure of the faeries
from Scotland. Born in povertv, Miller went to
work as a stone-masen in a Scottish quarry. By
very great effort .he became an eminent geologist,
and an elegant writer and critic. In spite of his
new-found advantages, he continued to have an
interest in the fay world, and reported the final
exodus of the faeries in his book, The Old Red
Sandstone.
According to the event occured on a Sunday
morning and was only observed by a herd-boy and
his sister who had not joined the other members of
their hamlet at Church services. The parade began
at high noon, running out of a ravine through a
wooded hollow, disappearing into the south-west.
The observers said'that little people were larqely
"stunted, misgrown, ugly creatures, attired in
antique jerkins of plaid, long grey clokes, and
little red caps." the entourage entered lJrush
land to the west one last rider lingereq ,and was
questioned. "What be ye little manie?" The
creature is known to have responded, "Not of the
race of Pdam. The people of peace shall never
more be seen in Scotland."
This trow obviously had a misunderstanding of the
nature of his race, but the faeries have been
absent from Scotland since the time of the Hiqhland
Clearances. When all of the people became
sheep, and they were forced to emigrate to North
America, the basic resource of the Brownie and
little people vanished into the west, and they
were forced to follow, either to Ireland, or North
America.
FAERIE TRANSPLANTED
The Victorian researcher Thomas Keightley has said
that the Scottish faeries, "appear more attached to the
m0 n arc h i a 1 for m 0 f go vernmen t t han the i r n e i g h b 0 u r s . "
He has credited this to the fact t h a ~ Caledonian guid
people have "at all times held a place in the popular
creed", and are the only nationality recognized in the
laws of the country. It was however, KingH.d.lcolm
Caemore, who substituted English for Gaelic in the
Scottish court, and prefered Anglo-Norman customs to
traditions of the northwest. The uaoine Hah, which is
another name the Celts applied to the "good neighbours."
had barely adjusted to attcks from the Culdee church
when this monarch introduced Roman Catholicism. This
religion proved even more dangerous to the fay, as it
was pre-emptive of druidic holy days and customs,
assimilating them by adapting them to new uses. The
faeries are said to have been very insulted by King
James, when he asserted that faeries were not, "any
thing that ought to be believed by Christians." The
little people were aghast at the divisions, which led
some Highlanders to support the Crown, while others
fought for the English King at the Battle of Culloden
While we know nothing of their politics, it has been
suggested that their respect for the human monarch
and that style of government waned, when the lairds
of the land betrayed their tenants in the Cleaarances
which followed this Battle.
One does not have to look far to find the displaced
members of the fay. They crossed the Atlantic in
the same ships which transported exiled Jacobites
and victims of later clearances to the eastern
seaboard of North America. Many of their number
possessed the magic of invisibility, so that free
passage was not a problem, particularly when it
is remembered that they were all adept at stealing
food and supplies. While the shape-shifters have
shown themselves capable of producing terrifying
creatures, most can also appear as innocuous sheep
or cattle, or even as hum n infants, allowing them
a disquised passage.
Like their human numbers, the bodachs and the
little people were put down on the closest landfalls,
Newfoundland, the New England States and the M ~ r i
time Provinces. Yrom here, they have moved to
occupy almost every corner of North America. There
presence in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is a
certainty. Bishop Carswell of Old Scotland com
plained in 1567, of the interest of the Scots in
faerie tales, "vain, hurtful, lying, worldly stories."
In 1921, a Nova Scotian cleric wrote, "Perhaps the
only bad traits which (the Scots) have brought with
them ... were their superstitious belief regarding
witches, faires, ghosts,etc., and their fondness
for whiskey." The faeries depend upon belief for
_.. - ... - ...
their existence, and the Highlanders have always
been unwilling to recant their belief in the
Sidhchean or little people.
The Christian churches, and especially the
Presbyterian, have contended with the faeries
because, in common with the ancient Druids, they
practice magic. To begin with, magic is an
oriental deviation; even the Greeks referred to
it as the practice of the magi, or mayors of the
Persian states. Our present mayors may need to
be "wise men", but they have little magic at their
disposal. A magus of Persia or Medea was consider2d
wise because of control which he seemed to show
over natural forces, occasionally blacking out the
sun or moon on cue. It will be recalled that the
Vulgate Bible has three "magi" riding out of the
east to worship the infant Jesus. In the western
world, the magi fell under suspicion of practicing
black magic, and in later translations, the name
was expunged and replaced with "three wise men".
While the Christians did not like faeries and
magic, they were not disbelievers until comparative
ly recent times. The never ruled out the
..
possible existence of demons, witches and goblins, in
fact Scottish witch-burners would have been inactive
except for them. The priests of the new religion
never denied the practical application of pagan rites,
but it was very much against having humans consult
fay creatures in an attempt to gain knowledge.
witchcraft, sorcery and devil worship have tradition
ally condemned, not as impractical and impossible, but
as perniciously evil. While the early church banned
black magic, which aimed at injuring enemies, it
vascillated on the question of restricting white
magic, which controls natural forces to the benefit of
humans.
As an aside, it is interesting to that three
types of magic are extant. Sympathetic magic, which
depends on the fact that "like affects like" is per
haps the simplest and most primitive. People who
dislike having their picture taken something
of the primitive fear that making an image of a
person steals part of his soul. The voodoo queen
who sticks pins in a doll containing hair and nail
clippings from the intended victim is trying to
perform sympathetic magic. Conservative religions,
which see printed paper as pornogr are confusing
flesh with an image, and subscribe to this belief,
which is quite likely in error. The practitioner of
sympathetic magic is usually heavily into the use of
traditional spells or strict formualistic behaviour.
Like the scientist, he believes that repeatable re
sults come from ritualistic acts. Divination, on
the other hand, is much like natural science, in
making observations from nature. There, the similar
ity ceases as astrology, clairvoyence, augury, sorti
lege and necromancy all depend on self-contained
theories, which cannot be tested by experimentation.
Thaumaturqy, or wonder working, is the most physical
of these arts, and includes alchemy, the father of
chemistry and physies, and the less highly re
garded legerdemain, jugglery, trickery, and sleight
of-hand, all of which the Church said were the
activities of demons.
The Celts were interested in bardic literacy,
but had no room in their tradition for the printed
word. Their kin in Canada were no different, and
it is estimated that, at first, only one in five
could read and write. In this case, the New Bruns
wicker or Nova Scotian could not ,-t<}
.
,
on the
local bookstore or library for entertainment.
They depended instead on the local storyteller or
"seanachaidh", the descendant of the druidic bard.
These particular Gaelic speakers were capable of
recounting folk-literature, which might provide
hours of diversion. The rule was, "The host owes
the first story, but the guest must speak until
day-break." As with the earlier bards, the best
informed entertainer could recite long narrative
poems based on Celtic mythology, and this included
stories of the giants, the gods, and the faeries.
The minds of those who perpetuated folk-culture
were well stocked, but when the repetoire of the
local entertainer had been exhausted, there was
always the possibility that a visitor might come
to the village with fresh tales or a different
point-of-view. These were the raw matter of the
ceilidh.
The ceilidh, or gathering, came after dusk
when the settler could afford to give over his
battle against poor soil and hard weather. In
front of a great warm fire, the clans would
again gather to listen to the "sgeulach6an,"the
ancient folk-tales. The Protestant clergy in
Scotland had attempted to kill this innocent
form of entertainment, but they were at first
loathe to follow their flock to the New World,
and they had never been very successful in
surpressing it. The Scots still retained their
paganism to a degree, accepting the supernatural
elements of their stories, trusting in the
curative effects of forbidden incantations, and
believing implicitly in, "da shealladh" or second
sight, the divination of uncomfortable events
which lie in the future. Even those not blessed
with the ability to observe a phantom funeral
party, might see "taibhs" or forerunners, a
taste of the f u t u r e ~ perhaps a railway headlight
running through forests where rails were not yet
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laid.
This new Celtic world was, in some respects
similar to the old. The superstitions were
certainly the same, but the land was
different, and more than one faery must have
agreed with the humans who penned words such as
these:
I've been doomed to stagnate here
the rest of my life, with little
amusement in this gnarled forest
and without anyone to ask me if
I'd sing a song.
If I'm not careful about my cloth
ing my nose and lips get frozen;
my ears are always in serious
danger from the north wind, which
is bitter and biting.
It's no wonder I'm gloomy here
living here back of the mountains
in the middle of the wilderness
with nothing better than plain
potatoes.
Abraham ~ s n e r declared the Scots the best
suited to contend the Canadian wilderness, but
this did not alleviate their homesickness. Like
the fay
I!Ged chaidh an sgapadh air gach taobh
Cha chaochail iad an gnaths."
Although they were scattered in every
direction, they did not change their
ways.
While the character of the fay remains,
their physical characteristics have altered .
. ,.
The shape-changing abilities of the group have
always been in adapting to new lands.
Internationally, faeries have much in common, but
there are national differences which relate to
geography, land cover and climate
Scotland, for example, has a north-west highland
region, which is virtuRlly devoid of trees. This
explains why their mythology makes no to
the woods faerie3, which are so prevalent in England,
Ireland, and Germany. In fact, in medieval Scotland,
wood was such a scarce commodity that trees were
literally at the disposal of the Grown, with tenant
farmers only allowed to take away that which they
could obtain, "by hook or by crook."
As we have seen, the emigrant Highlander was very
offended by the claustrophobic of the North
American forest, and alm03t his first act was to
clear a space, using his axe and fire. Impatient,
unknowing settlers sometimes tried to produce the
"coille dhubh", or black forest in summary fashion,
by torching the trees as they stood. By this means
they succeeded in burning a wide swath of New Bruns
wick, from Oromocto south to the Bay of FMndy.
__--"_0.~ = -:;__ .
It may be thought that the good neighbours were
equally ill at ease in this strange land, and must
have had sympathy' for settlers like the Bard Maclean,
who wrote,
Many a labour I'll be involved in before I
can make my living secure; my work will be
exhausting before I can get any returns from
it, and befor I make a clearing for the
plough. Piling tree-trunks on top of each
other in bonfires has strained every muscle
in my back, and every part of me is so black
[hat I'm just like a chimney-sweep.
As Scottish faeries are very direct in their
thinking, and quite suggestible, it was probably
not long before one reacted to a human statement
which wished the trees consumed by the flames of
hell. Certain of the clan were quite capable of
performing this very minor piece of magic. Since
this proved a useful service, certain backwoods
bodachs have since specialized in pyromania. They
were at first r e f e ~ r d to as Usidean dubh, or
Black Hugh. The proper name is believed to be
a form of the old gaelic, or pictisl}, word " ao idh"
which is phoenetically difficult in English, and
is either represented by the letter "y" or
as "Kai". A.lmost all Scottish words, still in use,
are des c rip t i v e, and t his mea n s " f Ii reor fir e - bra n d .
Black Hugh continues to stalk the woods of New Bruns
wick and Nova Scotia, b'1t is nO\1 less proasically, J
known as the "Fire-stalker". In years when employ
ment is at a low level, the creature does his bit
for the economy by creating woods fires. Blame
for forest-fires is frequently laid against humans,
but it will be observed that few are brought to
justice, suggesting that some external villain
is at work. It has been suggested that present
day fire-starters work with gasoline and matches,
but we prefer the earlier image of the shape-changer,
diminutive Black Hugh, who could periodically
become an antlered fire-breathing fire-stalker.
In English Abidh is variously transcribed as
Quoid, Kay, Coy, or Cay. The addition of the pre
fix "Mac", or "Me", which simply means, "son of"
forms our own family name. It has been suggested
that our ancestors were so named for having a "hot
temper", but this is improbable.
Having cleared land, the next perogative of the
Highland settler was the creation of a water mill
to create power, to saw boards, so that the tempor
ary log shanty might be replaced by a clap-boarded
hume. The tenant farms of Scotland were, of course,
constructed of stone, which was not universally
avaliable in the Mlcitimes, but more ofteQ, .the
local product was simply unsuitable.
Water-power also used to grind grains,
and the 'Bodachs of Scotland have always included
a sub-species known as the "Killmoulis", .,.rho
haunts mills A loose translation of the name is,
"a voracious changeling, fond of grains. He is
usually having an enormous nose
and no mouth, and presumably eats using this
orifice, hence the modern appellation, "Stuff
it up your nose." While the Killmoulis works
industriously for the miller, he is fond of grain
which has been converted to alcohol, and delights
in practical jokes, so that this clan tend to
have been a hindrance .,in the colonial mill. \'lhen
mills became centralized factories, the Killmoulis
seems to have disappeared as a group. The above
wood-cut was executed by a Victorian artist, who
claimed to. have observed these bodachs in 1875.
Their costumes seem influenced by Middle English
prototypes
The next most important shop in the early M ~ r
itime community was that of the blacksmith, but as
iron was repulsive to the f a e r ~ e , they did not work
here, considering this occupation a symbol of man's
degenerate nature in his reliance on technology.
While the Scottish little people were unused to
life in the woods, like man, they quickly adapted
and some agreed with Malcolm Gillis of Cape Breton
who wrote, "There's no place under the sun where
I would rather stay." Man and fay eventually
came to the conclusion that even the harsh winter
had advantages.
In the surly winter the wind comes with
its shrill whistle, and there's a loud
moaning among the trees under the blast
of the storm. There's deep snow in
each valley and heavy drifts around
every door; but we have food and warmth,
and we're companionable and contented.
The good neighbours re-established themselves
under the hollow hills of Kings and Queens Counties,
in the new-world muirs and moors, at the sea-side,
and even in the deep forests, where they encountered
diminished peoples of Irish, English, German and
North American Indian extraction.
, I
I
1802 1848 1881
with one exception, the people of faenie have be
come progressively smaller and older in age, both in
dlcations of decreasing power. Palmer Cox managed to
reversing the aging process for his Brownies, but they
became reduced from twenty four to about eight inches.
The exception is Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus or Sinter
Klaus, a peculiar North American apparation which
appears only at the Chrlstmas season.
When Clement Moore published, "A Visit from Saint
Nicholas", at New York in 1848, he fleshed out the old
bones of several Western mythical figures.
Saint Nicholas was a Christian bishop residing in
Asia Minor about the year 300 A.D. He had already been
declared the patron saint of Russia, the supporter of
sea-faring men, thieves, virgins, and children, when
Moore decided to use him as a convenient prop in his
faery story. with these qualifications, and the added
bonus that the old gentleman was liberal with the
poor, the poet probably felt that he could not
offend the Christian religion of that period.
Probably something of the English Robin Goodfellow
and their pagan father Christmas can be detected in
today's Santa Claus? Robin is first noted in Elizabeth-
d j) time, the 0 f f s p r i n g 0 fa" he e - fayr i e" and a " proper
young wench". He is described as having, "the 'charac
ter of the Nis or Brownie", being both a prankster and
person who distributes gifts to favoured humans.
Father was,of course, the figure who presid
ed over December after the Church pre-empted pagan
festivals set for that same date. The earliest
celebrations at that time had been orgiastic,
but the tendancy to drink and overeat remained
after the new religion was in place.
There were Teutonic influences in the dress
of Santa Claus and his interest in toys. Our
1802 woodcut illustration delineated by Ludwig
R lchter, showing Germ an peasant dress of that
period shows the source of his uniform. Notice,
particularly the fur-trimmed surcoat and hat?
Moore I s Saint Nicholas, taken from the 1848
first edition of his book is based on every
child's sea-going great-uncle in mid-Victorian
New England. In the days following
the American Revolution almost every seaboard
family had a father-figure, who travelled ex
tensively, sending home a wooden crate full of
exotic Christmas presents from some foreign
po r t . Hen c e the pat ron s ai n t 0 f sea - far i n g men
was at first presented as a pipe-smoking bearded
master-mariner, ,dressed in faintly foreign clothes
and carrying a sailor's sling full of toys for
the children.
It is probably coincidence, but the surname,
Moore is derived from "muir", or "mor", the
first referring to the sea and the second to the
damp bogs of northern England and Scotland. A
minor bogie or bogle of these regions was the
Brown man or Brownie of the moors, who is pro
tected from the cold by his own covering of fur.
His duty was the protection of birds and small
animals, which had been accidently
The first santa, it will be remembered was,
"dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot.
He was definitely one of the little peopl as
he drove "a miniature sleigh ... "
Thomas Nast who formalized that "jolly old
elf" as a person larger than life followed the
earlier design when he ,first pictured him in
1863. Three years later when he submitted his
famous montage, "Santa Claus and His Works", to
Harper's magazine, it will be noticed that he
dropped the title, "Saint Nicholas". Nevethe
less for a number of years Santa continued to
appear dressed in brown furs and standing at
twenty-four inches. Even in 1881, when Nast
had allowed him to exceeed six feet in height,
with girth to match, he continued to dress in
skins. In the 1890's, he finally turned in
his fur-coat for a more economical red flannel great
coat, with fur trim at the margains. The red coat did
not become an invariable uniform until after World
War I.
While Santa Claus belongs to no national group,
it seems clear that he shares some blood with the
Brownie clan, and as we note from Thomas Nast's illus
stration of Santa being greeted by a Brownie Maitre
d' for Christmas dinner, he still maintains contact
with his elf-like cousins. While some insist that
his residence is the North Pole, we nottthat the
central unpopulated wildreness of New Brunswick
contains "North Pole Mountain, Santa Claus Mountain"
and surrounding hills, each named for his various
reindeer.
Father Christmas was always illustrated as pro
posing a toast before a huge wassail bowl. "Great
faeries think themselves great drinkers", a
characteristic they hold in common with the Hiqh
landers. The Scots with them their
whisky and their music, both considered as equal
vices by the clergy. Changelings might
as animals or human but as the above
wood-cut shows, they were addicted to anythino
but milk. It is amusing to note that "Rose O'Neill's
sober little, nl,lde "Kewpies" are based on such.
Like Santa, the Kewpies are a North American
phenomena. RDse O'Neill showed great cupidity in
illustrating this s e x l e s ~ , benevolent group of
faeries. They were introduced to the public by
way of The Ladie's Horne Journal in 1909. They next
appeared in the Woman's Home Companion in a series
entitled, "Dotty [arling and the Kewpies", a
story, illustrated with verse, which commenced in
1910, and which continued through 1914. The "Kewpie
Cut-Outs were published in the sme year.
The ffritish produced Bisque Kewpie dolls in 1912,
but covered their nudity with the uniforms of
farmers, soldiers and firemen. The undressed
G2rman-made Kewpies, designed by the George Bong
feldt Company came out in the following year. Joseph
Callus of Cameo [Jll Products produced his own
line created from pressed and painted wood-pulp
starting in 1914, but the most recent versions
have been of vinyl or plastic. Stuffed cloth
Kewpies first appeared in 19128, and afterwards
Saafield published Kewpie games, colouring and
paper doll books.
The Scottish or the Irish clergy would probably
have objected to the appearance of the Kewpies,
with the exception of the who had a
chaste clergy, they were far less offended by
sexual activity than the suggestion of it, which
they perceived in nude figure$. As they believed
in sympathetic magic they disliked the "lying
s tor i e s" 0 f the "lower c I ass e s I" and whis key
which might re-inforce a belief in the little
people or anti-Christian beings. They had an
equal disdain for "worldy music", which tended
to gather people and expose them to possible
immorality.
In Scotland, they actually succeeded in stamping
out the halp, the lyre, and the bellows-pipe, all
instuments preferred by the fay. They fulminated,
in an ineffectual way against bagpipes and the
fiddle, the instrument favoured by that changeling,
"Old Scratch". Ev.en so, the Protestant clergy (lid
much harm to the veracity of their religion,and the
Celtic psyche, by smashing fiddles, .and burning
the pipes of the carnally-inclined Scotsman. Alex
Carmichael, pressed by the elders, sold
his fiddle to a peddlar for ten shillings. Not
only did he lament the absence of the music but
the fact that, "I myself gave the best cow in my
father's fold for it when I was young." Ac-.;ording.
to the best reports, he was never again seen to
smile.
OLD COOT
Unquestionably, "Auld Scratch, Auld Cootie", or
".Auld Nick" has musical talent, and is invaribly
attracted to week-end dances, and can always be
persuaded to take part in fiddling contests. Next
to Santa Claus, he is probably the best-known
North American member of the fay. The term
"old coot" is still applied to rather ill-tempered
elderly men, but the Scots used it in a more singular
way. The Gaelic word, "coot"has first reference
to a bird, known informally as the Muree, which
harks back to that old word, "muir" meaning sea.
Technically, this bird is one of the genusfulica,
a slow-flying duck-like bird, which has habits of
stupidity, so that it can, "hardly be classed as
a game bird. This name tells us that the Celts
considered this character to be a descendant of
the formors, "a gull, a simpleton, a thing of
little worth, a stupid fellow", all secondary
meanings of the word coot. The Scots also like
to refer to this devil as "Auld Reekie", the
latter being a derivation of the Gaelic, "rauch",
which is a verb, meaning, "to emit a filthy smoke".
"Scratch", was borrowed by the Scots from the
Icelandic race, their word, "skratt", being used
to identify a goblin or a wizard, and Ole Scratch
does have his magic moments. "Nick" is of un
certain origin, but it definitely meant to cheat
or defraund. It has particular reference to serv
ing beer in "nicked" glasses, i.e. those specially
fabricated with false bottoms, so as to give the
patron short measure.
All of these unsely names are equivalent of
"old serpent", with the implicati.ons understood
by both pagani and Christians. They are roughly
the same in meaning as the Hebrew Satan, which
refers to the supreme adversary of man and
Traditionally, we have seen that the Celts con
sidered their gods to control aspects of nature,
but thought them otherwise capable of error and
defeatable. When Christian myths were introduced
to them, they found the concept of a central per
sonification of evil difficult. They could not
accept that Satan, or the De'il, might have one
leg up over their truly malevolent assortment of
Sea Trows and land bogles. It was obvious to them
that the Old Coot must be a slow-flyer mentally,
since he had made such a bad choice at the beginn
ing of time. While they did admit that he possess
ed superior physical skills, and was a moderately
good magician, there are recorded instances where
he has been tricked by
The Scots have distinguished between the0'evil
and his devils, which can hardly be identified
as supreme spirits of evil and unrighteousness.
It is useful to note that the Scots capitalized
the w0 r d "t row", in rna kin g s p e cia 1 ref ere n c e to
an unusually virulent example of this clann.
We have records of the presence of this we}l
appointed, but stupid, "lord of "flies", from
the year 1919, when he lived briefly in a rural
area, about twelve miles from the City of Mbncton.
Residents might have been forewarned by the fact
that he called himself, Mr. Fisher, a word which,
secondarily, means, "to obtain by artifice." In
this quest, he assembled a valuable collection of
books on the occult, and openly admitted to the
practice of black magic.
His Christian neighbours were offended, while
others were annoyed by the malicious practical
jokes, which they suspected he practiced on them.
Descriptions of him, have him wearing a tall
black hat, and out-moded clothing, covered by
a waking cape, entirely black with a crimson
lining. He was particularly keen on privacy
and walked the bounds carrying a wooden cane,
intricately carved with offensive erotic figures.
He apparently was skilled with carving chisels,
and over time extended his wooden array of unsely
figures to the fence posts, which marked his
bounds.
He boasted of using elemental forces to harvest
his crops, and said that his hay was flown to
the loft by spirits of the air. Challenged to
display his powers, he removed his tall boots,
and caused them to walk alone across a floor
and back. When he died, seemingly of natural
causes, his house was avoided. In later years
a number of campers from the united States un
knowingly used the premises, but did not remain
over night, and left a quantity of expensive
gear behind.
I have personally encountered a person of
similar dress, and saturnine appearance, while
engaged in the antiquarian book trade. He was,
appropriately enough, accompanied by a dwarf
who had very little to say, beyond confirming
his companion's comments and opinions. When he
requested occult books, I was fortunate to be
able to provide Holme's book on seances.
As local legend has it, "Old Scratch" or "Auld
Cootie" can still be persuaded to participate in
fiddling contests. This member of fayre has been
given the name, which the Scots and the Saxons
first applied to an ungainly duck-like bird, which
they notedflew slowly, and was easily taken. It
will have been noted that the Celts considered
their gods only margainally superior to man.When
introduced to the Christian concept of a central
personification of evi1,they 'found it
to believe that Satan, or the DeviJ, might have
one leg up over their truly malevolent assortment
of sea trows and bogies. While that Old C'"ot
might be cunning, they considered it obvious
that he had not the brains needed to make an
obvious choice between good and evil. While the
Scots considered that he could narely be
in exercising physical skills, such as fiddling or
dancing, they could numerous instances
where he had been defeated in playing ward games,
which their specialty.
The Hebrew satan has been pictured as the
supreme spirit of evil and a
powerful prince of the unsely court. Clearly
old Nick is not this irresistable tempter
and spiritual enemie of mankind, but some lesser
follower, possessing a full bag of magic
all of which can be resisted. It is useful to note
that the Gaelic word, "Trow" may be capitalized
and is then synonymous with Devil.
While Trow equals the Scandanavian "Troll", the
latter grDup includes the Dwar fu or Bergs, which
are not a part of Scottish mythology.The Scots do
have the equivalent of their Hill people, their
river people and the Necks of the sea, but the
Elves are notably absent.
In the I the Scots faeries did not
abstain from contact with Indian, German, Irish
and English land, sea, and air spirits. There are
still pockets of Scottish fay in Cape Sreton and
Mainland Nova Scotia, but in New Brunswick and
Prince Edward Island they are now of a very mixed
blood, with consquent peculiarities form and
character.
The wa t e r s p r i t e, wh i c h t he Scot s call, " Tan 9 ie "
after the Tang, a seaweed with which he is covered
is not found in Ireland. Eire also lacks the Kelpie,
the Fachanand the various monsters of loch and sea,
normally found in Scotland. The gene pool of the
North American fay is much richer than that of Europe.
The little people of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia resemble their European counterparts in
every respect. They vary in size from about nine
inches in heiqht to two and one-half feet, and
are completely humanoid, except in their altered
states.
The Little Man of Ghost Hollow, near Seal
Cove, on Grand Manan Island, is one of these
Sidhe. About ten years ago he was described by
an islander as "just a little old man with an
old-fashioned flat-topped hat. He comes out,
especially on a foggy night, and runs along be
side your car, and sometimes throws himself in
front of it." In the latter case, it is a
projection which collides with the automobile,
and no damage is done except to the nerves of the
driver.
,
It seems patent to us that Saint Nick, Old Nick,
the Firestalker and the bodachs are not the sale
representatives of the faery race in the New
World. Publications, from the earliest date, are
full of illustrations of the numerous types of
New World Daoine Sidh. Our redrawing of an
erghty-six year o l ~ wood-cut, clearly shows one of
the "guid neighbours" in a Loyalist period costume.

Faery costumes, on this Continent, are an
international mix1 which extends from an extreme
of summer nudity, through natural coverings of
moss and leaves, to archaic dress patterned after
that once favoured by particular races Of man.
Males among the little people sometimes still
favour the traditional red conical hat, which
may end in a peak or be truncated, as shown a
bove. Among some people, these caps are consid
ered the source of the faeries' magical power
of invisibility.
At Whale Cove, again on -Grand Manan Island,
Lyman Lorimer described being followed and mimed
by an invisible "neighbour." He had gone to
his herring weir one evening to check the
a walk of three-quarters of a mile. Wh{le en
joying the beauty and isolation of a moon-lit
night, he became aware of the sound of parallel
foot-steps. When he stopped walking, the foot
steps quickly failed. When he broke off a near
by twig, his -invisible companion duplicated the
act. Lorimer could see the twig break and fall,
but detected no obvious company, in spite of
the bright moon light. When he sat on the beach
displacing stones, stones a few feet away began
to roll down the slope.
these incidents, the Islander pick
ed up a stone, which he threw into the water to
watch it skip the surface. His act was duplica
ted. On tne return to his home Lyman stopped to
discuss these events with a neighbour, Leaman
wilcox. wilcox said that he had had similar
experiences, and allayed fears that this fay
creature would follow Leaman home': "No, he be
]ungs here, he'll stay here." At these words the
Little Man of Whale Cove displayed his anger and
resentment by vigorously shaking a nearby clump
of fir trees. As in the old world, our goblin
was magically bound to a designated region.
As we have said, in Scotland solitary faeries
choose to live in ancient earth-works, ruined
forts or even grave barrows or bogs, but communal
Sidhe of the Land Trow variety are always found
under the hollow hills. night faerie hills
can be identified as they are often ablaze with
miniature lights. Sometimes the top of the hill
will rise upon pillars to reveal the
in ter ior 1 igh ts and perhaps a 'RBde, or proc e s s ion,
passing f'1"Om one hill to another. Lammas Tide
is the traditional evening of migration,
but in other areas the date may be quite different.
When the faery choose to change residence it is
unwise to cross the well-trodden faery paths,
which un in straight lines between their var
ious residences. The fay are thought to shed
magic as they travel, an invisible radiation,
which criss-crossed Scotland with invisible webs
of energy_ Over the millenia, a residual con
centration has accumulated at crossing points,
and these junctions are historically close to
the location of the standing stones and places
for druidic worship.
In Norway, some of the Alfar or Elves, who are
similar to the Scottish Trows, are believed to
dwell under the houses of mankind, rather than in
natural locations. The Caledonian massif, the St.
Croix Highlands, New Brunswick Highlands, Cape
Breton Highlands, and the Nova Scotia Uplands all
contain the truncated hollow hills of the little
people. Other regions contain sedimentary base
ments, rather than igneous rock, and here, the people
occupy salt caverns of follow the Scandanavian
pattern. Ln this country, where the more extreme
weather demanded basements, rather than homes built
on cleared ground, the little people first found a
place in the rock walls of colonial homes. Until
insulation was introduced, they also housed be
tween the floors of homes or in walls, locations
they still prefer.
The fay are sportive, mischievous, and imitate
the actions of men. When they dwell beneath, or
in the house they d e m ~ d cleanliness of the human
occupants, and will reward those who are neat and
clean in their habits. In the nocturnal hours
they can, of course, be heard moving between the
walls and partitions. They may also create noises
or breezes to bemuse any human who is up and about.
In our own residence, they periodically imitate
the sound of a ticking clock during the daylight,
as well as in the evening. When the observer
approaches close to the wall the sound will cease,
and return as soon as he backs off. The fay are
not thieves, but they are borrowers, and may take
away a small portion of food, a spoon, or perhaps
eyeglasses for utilitarian or amusment purposes.
When they use a commodity, they will pay for .it.
We were once left a one-pence coin from the period
of William IV, dated 1832, in the pass-through
from the Butler's Pantry. Others are said to
have been recompensed with small chips of pure gold,
which have unfortunately not always been recognized
for their true worth. New additions to the human
range of possessions often attract the attention
of the fay. Any small, newly-purchased item may
disappear for a time, only to re-appear in an
unlikely location.
----
---_._----
--------------------------------
Occasionally, the faeries have been seen as
residents of a house, even before construction was
completed. At Point Edward in Cape Breton Island
six brothers and their observed little
people with "brownish bodies ... jumping back and
forth on unfinished beams in a merry fashion."
Folklorist Helen Creighton has written that:
"Stories of the little people are told very sel
dom these days, but the few instances we have
prove thet belief in their presence is not com
pletely foreign to our soil."
are not always fortunate in choosing
their residence, and from Oak Bay, Charlotte
County, N.B. we have a report of a group which
decided upon the underfloor of a farm out building.
The had only been in place a few
when owner installed a herd of dairy cattle,
turning the building into a cowshed. The dirt
and filth by the cattle very seriously
annoyed the fay, who made their quarrel known by
upsetting milk pails and creating a poltergeist
like atmosphere. a written.message was
left for the that he should either remove
the cows, have reason to repent. Since he
regarded the message as foolish malevolence on
the part of some ,and not the "guid
neighbours," he paid scant attention. The next
day he was engulfed by an avalanche of" hay from
the loft, and when he emerged gasping and exhaust
ed into the fresh air, he found his entire herd with
broken necks. Other observers said they saw the
little people removing that same night to the
lower meadow. In the old country the!r passage
would have been in coaches, led by their monarch
in a particularly resplendant vehicle. In this
more democratic situation they were seen using
miniature farm wagons of no particular distinction.
They have since occupied the meadow, but the farmer
has been unable to keep cows, because they soon
sicken and die.
Like the birds, faeries are extremely territorial,
and Stuart Trueman in Pirates and Treasure
Troves describes a similar happening in a barn on
the St. John River, two miles below Hartland. From
time to time, this particular barn has been seen
ablaze from the distant shore, but when volunteer
fire-fighters rush to the scene there are never
flames and there are no smouldering embers. White
men have ascribed this supernatural activity to the
restless of their kind killed in the early
clashes between the French and the English, but
the Micmac and have their own legends of
an aboriginal little people, whose domain they
respect.
Years ago, two white men crossed to the island
in order to process grains stored their over the
winter. They worked all day without impediment,
but found themselves marooned when the weakened
spring ice suddenly moved down river. They were,
therefore, forced to make straw-strewn bunks be
low the hay-loft. Both awoke simultaneously in
the night, aware of a nearby threatening presence.
Without warning great piles of hay were dumped on
them, and they nearly suffocated. Struggling up
to the fresh air, they were again confronted by
a chilly invisible presence, and had barely set
tled again when another slide of hay fel'l upon .
them. Picked up outside the barn the day,
they were cold, haggard and thoroughly cowed.
. -- ---.. --__:- __. __a ._. " _
MOTHER G00DY
Not all faeries are this selective of their 'com
pany. Mother Goody is a solitary female Bodach
who actually prefers co-habiting with human families.
Her origin is probably since her de
scriptive name comes from that language. The
meaning of "mother" is clear, bui" "good" was once
the equivalent of "god" or "godly." In earlier
times, the titles "goodman" and "goodwife" were used
as forms of address, somewhat like "mister" and
"missus." These were applied to the heads of family,
landowners and householders. Later, they were
specifically applied to those lower in status than
the "gentleman" or the "gentlewoman." Goodwife was
eventually contracted to "goody:' and used to
. _ - - ~ _ . - < - - ~ _ . ~ - - - _ .. -._...
identify a married, elderly woman of the working
class. The Scot's equivalent is the "Cailleach,"
or female bodach.
The fay, or faeries, were also referred to as
"the good people," "the good neighbours" or "the
good folk," by humans who recognized their ability
to work magic, for gOOd, or evil. "Mother Goody
obviously ranks a bit higher than the gObdwife,
and has characteristics somewhat akin to the
Lowland Browpie, or Highland Bodach. She is one
oft he" I i"t tIe p e 0 pIe" ina ph y sic a I sen s e, and is
also a menial, performing household duties in
return of a solitary corner, and a minimum of food.
She is usually invisible and nocturnal, but makes
her presence known on the eve of the Feast of the
Three Wise Men, or the Twelfth Day of Christmas.
Then she may leave small gifts, such as hand-made
doll clothing or goody-goodies (confections) for
children who have been helpful to their parents.
It is a great mistake to attempt to enter any
faerie property uninvited, and this includes the
chimney-corners of the Bodachs. There is, however,
no prohibition against discreet observation and
friendly watchers may be invited within. If the
faeries are reluctant to make themselves visible,
the entrance to their hill may be located by
walking nine times counter-clockwise around the hill
under the full moon. Those wise enough to avoid an
unwanted entry may hear faery music if an ear is
pressed to the ground.
Because the hollow hills contain treasure and
are the burial place of the most respected wee
folk, one cannot idly invade or desecrate their
domain. In Scotland the faeries are said to have
removed houses, churches and castles which in
fringed on their property. Houses built imprudent
ly across a faery path will suffer poltergeistic
activities. In Ireland one such house had a cor
ner in this location. At night the house was
filled with noise and the passage of animal feet,
until the offending corner was removed restoring
peace to the residents.
Perhaps the most obvious offenders of faery
tradition were the R)mans, whose walls, built to
contain the Picts, crossed the entire country
from east to west. They had not been long in place,
when their size was reduced by nightime activity,
so that one came, slightingly to be referred to
as "Graham's Ditch."
In Great Britain, entryways are sometimes con
structed with the front and back doors in a line
to provide a faery path through the house. As
the fay can de-materialize and squeeze through
key-holes this is a perfect solution for the house
holder. This is a common construction in Maritime
homes of the colonial period, where a central hall
way has been added to isolate their activities
from the sleeping family.
Invitations to enter a faerie hill should be
treated with caution, and any offer of food or
drink should be refused, as this will lead to
perpetual enslavement. Micmac and Scottish
legends relating to the "hollow knoll" agree that
faeryland is usually approached through an entry
located under the roots of trees, and that there
is danger involved whether the passage is warrant
ed or not. The MLcmac god, Glooscap, was said to
-------
live underground in a cavern which whites referred
to as "The Fairy Hole." According to their legends
members of the tribe might investigate the outer
rooms, but curious whites would have their lights
extinguished and could not pass the ante-chamber.
From the first, man has been ambivalous toward
the faeries, for while they can be generous, they
can be baneful if they feel their honour has been
offended. In other days, the unaccountable death
of animals was known to be due to the use of alf
arrows and alf-shot against man. It was thought
that such missiles made no wound, a ~ d when tipped
with hemlock, produced paralysis. "Stroke," used
in the sense of a paralytic seizure, originally
referred to "elf-stroke." Similarly, rheumatism,
cramps and bruising, were thought due to faerie
pinches, in penalty for offending some part of
the wee folk.
The disease of tuberculosis, once called con
sumption, was in the rural Maritimes, ~ regard
ed as a sign that the victim had made compulsive
visits to a faery hill, engaging in successive
nights of revellry. This explained why the con
sumptive suffered night sweats and appeared weak
and exhausted in the mornings. Polio, or infan
tile paralysis, was considered the mark of a
changeling. It was assumed that the process of
magically producing a facsimile from a block of
wood had been incomplete, leaving the child with
one, or more, "wood limbs." This persuasive
attitude is responsible for the continuing bias
against lameness, hunched backs, and facial de-"
formities, all thought to represent the displeasure
or malice of faeries.
One weapon used a g ~ n s t man was their arrows,
made of bog reed, tipped with white flint and
carried in quivers made of the cast off skin of
snakes. Their bows were made of the rib of a man
buried where three laird's lands meet. The elf
arrows are small and triangular, aDd are sometimes
mistakenly ascribed to the aboriginal peoples of
the Maritimes, but it has to be recalled that flint
is not a native stone. These pieces are most plenti
ful in Scotland although also found in England and
Ireland. While the wound from one of these arrows
is imperceptable to common eyes, those with "the
gift" can discern and cure such wounds.
Twenty-six Cape Bretoners were witness to a
three year marathon involving elf-stones. During
this time, a scottish croft was bombarded for all
but 72 hours, on regular schedule, day and night.
Sometimes glass windows were broken, but at other
times these flying objects came in through open
doors or simply materialized in the room. When a
visitor, Angus MacDonald, said: "I don't believe
in these old wives tales," a sharp edged rock
immediately flew through the air, and lodged in
his chin. Sitting before an open door, in the
heat of the moment, Angus cried out, "Next time
throw it better, so I can catch it." The Trow
immediately complied and the poor S c o ~ found him
self digging a stone from the soft part of his hand.
Angus next used his pocket knife to inscribe a
cross on the stone, knowing this to be a protection
against the fay. He then threw the missile over
the stoop and heard it splash in a nearby stream.
In half an hour, the incident had been lazily dis
missed from conversation, when another stone cmme
hurling through the air and bounced off the wall.
When Angus retrieved it, he was much surprised to
find that it carried his mark and was still wet with
water.
The stones thrown by faeries are not invariably
poisoned, and in this country the less virulent
poison oak and poison ivy are substituted for hem
iock, which is not a native plant. Neither are elf
stones necessarily small and of evil intent. A Hall's
Harbour, N.S. fisherman-farmer has said: "I was
bringing the cows home and walking along and a stone
as big as your fist came through the air and landed
right handy to me. John and Billy seen a strange
light at the same time." This instance was taken as
an indication of buried treasure. Although the trio
did not succeed in finding anything of value, they
pointed to another individual who: "got rich quick,
and there's no other way of accounting for it."
),
1
/;
Human transgressions can also lead to the blighting
of crops. The English faeries have had a traditional
with the plant world: acting as protect
ors of the birch, alder, ash trees, and as guardians
of many of the wildflowers. They therefore, possess
easy knowledge of the of afflicting crop plants.
The small irritations of life are similarly heap
ed upon mischievous faeries. Our own children talk
ed frequently with Mimi, Dossa, and Kerger Dumlin
(possibly Dumb One?) The last was a particularly
violent creature, likely to overturn flower pots, and
create other incidents, which we as adults were apt
to ascribe to offspring. We know, of course,' that
they take away the items we Cannot find, and the
tangled hair of men and animals is due to their
over-night activities.
Helen Creighton lists 444 home remedies against
the blighting magic of faeries. Lone humans, abroad
at night, are in a vulnerable position, as are child
ren. This is why parents of children in my generation
- - ~ - ,
used to"be pinned to their mother's c ~ a t - t a i l or
tied to her apron strings. When out "on-town"
this was considered the only secure means of pre
venting the child from being exchanged for a change
ling.

r-r"om the earliest times, men have "been Trow-led
in returning from a fair or market in the dead of
night. Some have said, on Bible-oath, that they
detected the laughter of little folk while their
other senses spun like a mill-wheel. In this
situation the faeries had the magic to. displace
familiar landmarks. "We once knew a man who,
one night, could not find his way out of his own
fields until he recollected to turn his coat."
This device is always effective, in fact, any
article of clothing, reversed, will release the
human revellers caught in a faery ring.
Because bells are noisy and made of iron, those
attached to a horse's harness, or to clothing
will repulse the fay. The shape of a bell is
also similar to that of the foxglove, which some
little folk wear for hats, and resembles the
Scottish Law (which is a conical hollow-hill).
Faeries may be attracted by the shape, only to
find themselfes badly beaten by the bell clapper.
Iron nails in the pocket or open scissors hung above
an infant's crib are also supposed to be effective
prophylactics. The horseshoe, combining iron with
a moon symbol, is considered especially useful
if hung prongs upward over the door. A knife kept
un d e r the pill o.w g u a ran tee s ares t f u 1 s 1 e e p . In
a similar bent, mankind employs iron pins to ward
off the baleful influences of witches, arid stirs
medicinal preparations with an iron spoon.
Christian religious symbols are distasteful to
the fay. A crucifix or cross hung in the room,
or used as a mark on the top of food is supposed
useful, as is the presence of a Bible. Some
faeries equate all water with holy water, which
is why they will not cross running water.
The old country Scots used to place the red
Rowan bush or a red ribbon over the front door.
They also interwove red ribbon into t h ~ tails of
valued cattle, both to ward off witches and faeries.
In the case of knotted or woven ribbon it i.s con
sidered to form a binding or fettering force a
gainst elementals.
The colour red is generally thought to have
curative or prophylactic qualities. In this country,
the mustard plaster for severe colds was applied
under a red flannel, and red clover, dried and
steeped, would reduce fever. Red flannel under
wear, preferred by our antecedents, opposed the
effects of rheumatism. Red clover could also,
"purify the blood" and red flannel was also used in
rites against witches.
Rowan trees with their red berries, have
always been thought effective against bad spirits.
ROwan wood was used to make butter churns so
that witches and faeries would not interfere with
the solidification of butter. The Victorians
considered whips made of this wood to be the only
means of controlling a bewitched horse.
More esoteric means of keeping down the faeries
include the stringing of daisy chains or the strew
ing of flax throughout the house; placing shoes
with their toes pointing away from the bedstead;
leaving a sock under the bed; laying a broom across
the portal; or displaying a boquet of daisies.
While it is unsafe to take faery-food within
their residence, the reverse holds true in other
circumstances. One encounter at Sugar Loaf, eape
Breton, points this out. A group of woodsmen
suspected little people when they notices smoke
in an area without human habitation. The nearby
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. ~ - - - _ . - - -
hills seemed constructed entirely of clay, so
they cut down a sizeable tree ano struck the top of
one of the hills, producing a hollow echo. From
beneath the ground they could detect voices re
peating the phrase: "Dh dear, my hedge is hurt."
Leaving off this sport, they returned to work,
and soon after one of the lumbermen said' "I wish
I had a drink of buttermilk." Shortly a little
man appeared offering a wooden dish full of the
substance. The individual, who had made the re
quest, was suspicious and refused the drink, but
his work partner happily consumed all of it :
" d the feller that didn't drink the buttermilk,
he didn't have any luck afterwards, but him that
drunk the buttermilk, he had luck long's he lived."
This traditional Cape Breton tale has been repeated,
as fact, as recently as 1961.
The Scots of Antigonish County, Nova Scotia have
been less certain that an invitation to enter a
"round hill" meant total disaster. There was one
such "Fairy Hill" on a broad plain at Upper
South River. It was said t ~ a t those invited in
were forced to stay the period of the seven year
stricture but would after that "be returned in
good condition."
The local faeries of the home and the hollow
hill are most closely related to the Moss Men of the
deep forests. At first, the shock which the bogIes
encountered at exchanging old world bogs and open
windswept moors for heavily forested refions must
have been extreme, but the Brown Man of the Moors,
and others, found at least some parts of their old
environment in the new surround. The ~ o s s Man of
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia takes his name from
the Middle English-Gaelic word "mos," which means
a bog, a morass, a swamp, or a real bog. Their
human counterpart in the old habitat was the
"moss trooper," a word the Scots applied to free
booters who frequently ingested the border country
between England and Scotland. He is, p ~ r h a p s , the
most innocuous "bogIe" or member of the goblin
fraternity. A similar species in southern Germany
is called the Wild, Wood or Timber-people. There,
they are said to be "somewhat like dwarfs," and
while they generally live together there are
solitary members of their species.
Our resident moss-people are probably in erbred
members of this legendary group. They are small
in stature, somewhat larger than the Scandanavian
Alflings or Scottish Trows, about the size of a
three year off child. Their men are grey, aged, hairy
and clad in moss with touches of leaf. The
women are better looking ,better tempered and better
dressed than the men, sporting green dresses, faced
with red, and cocked hats adorned with moss and
bird's feathers. The men are extremely shy and
bad-tempered and live in the most remote regions
of the forest, while the women sometimes approach
wood-cutters asking for a share of the pork and
beans, which they carry off in clay pots. They may
make restitution for the gift by offering advice
to humans, which is invariably profitable, if followed.
Those close to farms have been recorded as
helping with the cooking, the washing, haymaking and
the feeding of cattle, all typical chores of the
Bodach. Additionally, thet will aid in the'con
struction of houses and barns. help the labourer
whose cart is mired, and bring water and pancakes to
the field workers. They will even, at times,
loan their money for little, or no, interest. The
moss people, in return for a small favour, sometimes
bring baking to the ploughman. Similarly they may
arrive at a woods camp asking that a broken implement
be repaired, paying the repair-man with a wood
chip, which later turns to gold.
While they have many harmless attributes, thet
are an unsely people and like faeries elsewhere
may covet human children, and leave changelings
in their place. The males have been known to take
away, and keep for long periods, young girls with
whom thet have become infatuated.
The lives of individual moss people are attached
to particular trees of the forest, and if these
are fatally injured a Moss-man or woman dies .
. Aside from this danger, they are at the mercy of
the Indian Wendigo. This spirit carries other names
among the Micmac and the Maliseets, but the Anglo
Saxon designation, means to travel in an unending
circular route. The Wendigo leads the dead spirits of
wild huntsmen, who pass at great speeds through the
forest killing moss people, and adding lost humans
to their retinue. It is considered very unlucky
for men to immitate the sounds of the hunt, and
those who have, in the best situations, have found a
quarter cut moss-woman hanging before their cabin
in the morning: their share of the hunt.
The Woods Whooper is, if not the equivalent of the
Wendigo, a close relation. The word whooper
comes from the !MIiddle English, "hooper," and means
a shout or cry of war, pursuit, enthusiasm, enjoy
ment, vengeance, or terror. Which of these
adjectives is appropriate to the creatures such as
the Dungarvan Whooper of the is a ques
tion, but it definitely utters uncanny sounds in
its circuitous travels through the forest. The
simplest explanation we have heard is that a young
man named Dungarvan was sent out on the river to
break a log jam. Having located the "key", he
succeeded, and issued a loud shout of enjoyment,
which turned to terror when he realized he could
not make shore. Groupd to a quick death by the
water-driven his spirit is supposed tr pped
by water-bogies, and the cry is repeated period
ically on various anniversaries of his death.
Stuart Trueman offers a much more complex version
of this legend, but whatever the nature of this
noisy wooas-creature, he is found in similar
form elsewhere, particularly in New Brunswick
where cutting and moving lumber is fundamental
to the economy.
Neither of these creatures have counterparts
in Scotland, where massive forests are less Com
mon than in North America. Similarly, the Little
Man of Tetagouche Falls, in Northern New Brunswick,
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is of mixed blood, although he refers to him
self as the "earthbound Old Man of the Sea,"
which tells us he carried formuir bloodlines.
The Old Man was often seen, during the Vlctorian
period, sunbathing upon a giant rock at roadside.
Only two and one half feet high, he was described
as having a massive head and shoulders, and was
said to be near-sighted. A few observers report
ed that his head was sliced away above the hair
line. One p00r hiker said that the creature
jumped on his shoulders and insisted on being
carried, in spite of his enormous weight. Some
considere c him friendlY, while others found him
a malignant creature, who usually occupied the
dank, abandoned manganese mining shafts found in
that region. The latter group noted that his
favourite diversion was to frighten horses at
night, usually panicking them into a runaway
gallop. One night he is said to have tumbled
beneath one such team. His screams, on that
occassion, rivalled that of the Thungarvan Whooper,
and he has not been detected since.
The Maritime Provinces have their full complement
of minor watff
r
bogies including equivalents of the
Scottish bean-nighe, the Shelly COdt, and the Uisk
although the Glaistig is not on record as a resident.
This is understandable, as this vampire has
characteristics, which allow easy confusion with other
forms of little people. The Scottish Ghilli Dhu,
which literally means black gill (i.e. a stream
or brook flownng through a ravine) has a counter
part in the local bogies which prefer birch thickets.
I.
This faery is a solitary type of moss-man, and like
them it dresses in clothing of leaves and other .natur
al materials.
As elsewhere, the uns- elies become more power
ful in sea locations. Sea Trows are
concentrated in our West Isles, which 'fie in the
extreme northwest of the Bay of Fundy. The major
island is Grand Manan, named after the Celtic god
Manannan, the son of Ler, and patron of sailors.
This god once ruled the Isle of Man and the neigh
bouring faerie islands. Grand Manan is fifteen
miles in length, and is satellite to a number of
adjacent islets including Kent Island.:
Kent Island, six miles distand from Grand' hnan
was homesteaded by John Kent, who left an embitter
ed widow, supposed to have cursed the .island for
human habitation. Curses are a boon tdfaerie
folk, as they clear living space for this alternate
..
,
,
life form. The breeding ground of the eider duck,
a species ollce headen for extinction, the island
was purchased by who deeded it
as an outpost of seabird research. The scientists
who populated the few buildings there, were entire
ly too objective to suffer any damage from Sea el
e men tal s, but b y the time the y a r r i v edth ex e had
already been fatalities on the nearby Ledges.
Legend aays that an English square rigger WitS
olle of the losses. The inebriated skipper neared
the Ledges on a foggy morning, takingover from
the helmsman, with the explanation that a beautiful
woman had appeared 1n his dreams promising to
lead his ship through the reefs. Within minutes
the craft was disassembleil on sharp coastal rocks,
and the survivors forced to take refuge on an in
hospitable island.
This would tre the work of a the female
of the people the Scots called lIaafish or Finn
people, known to the Scandanavians as the Hav.
Like their ancestors the FOrmuir these are the
most adept shape-changers on earth. 'The r.1uirmaid,
, r maid, 0 r IT a v f rue i sus u all y, in d reams 0 r
reality, observed as a very beautiful woman.
When she appears at the night fires of fishermen
she may seem cold and ill dressed for the eeather,
a ruse intended to elicit sympathy and end in the
seduction of men. lIer appearance, in the sober i:
state, is taken to prognosticate a drowning, a
severe storm or poor fishing,
may be seen 011 the reefs, or upon land, driving her
herds of snow-white sea cattle to graze on a re
mote strand of some small island. Like all the
faeries she may be malicious or of benefit to her
human lIeighbours. Illstead of choosing to wreck
a ship, she may issue warnings, as all the muirs
have "second sight."
'The male variety of the Mluir is sometimes de
scribed as a boy with golden hair sitting upon
the waves, or as an elderly man with green or
black hair, resembling seaweed. The Scandanavian
Neck or Nokke, the equivalent of the Scottish
or Tangie belongs to this clan, as does the
shape-changing Selkie, with all but the last being
depicted as male.
"1
Our coastal Kelpie dwells in the same kelp beds
found in the European inter-tidal zone. He may
come ash0re as a very handsome younq man, but on
Sable Island he is more llkely seen as a wild
pony. The Danes describe their Nokke as a mon-'
ter with a human head, found either in.fresh or
salt water. The Kelpie may also live in
rivers and streams, but he is more powerful at
the sea-side. the horse diminished as a means
of transport there have been few local accidents
with the Kelpie in horse form. Ridden inland he
usually proves uncontrollable ann subjects his
human rider to an unexpected ducking in a stream.
The Scandanavians say that he may be made to work
at the plough with the help of a magic bridle,
but he is probably reliable as an assistant,
since the sea version has been known to consume
humans, excepting the liver. The Kelpie is very
adverse to, human females who reject their suitors
but when he falls in love with a human he is said
to be a gentle, attentive swain.
Although he is only difficult with corrupt per
the country folk who live at the shore
use certain precautions against his power when they
have to go upon the water. Metals, particularly
steel, are believed to create a magic net
1.: h e s hip wh i c h f r u s t rat e s him fro m u sin g his J:.> a '" e r
against them. vJhen going upon the open sea the
Vikings used to plunge a knife into the board
the Neck." This practice continues in
the ship-building regions of the M9ritime Provinces.
In the days of wooden early ships a coin, ranging in
value from a penny to a five dollar gold piece, was
alsays placed under the main-mast for "good luck."
If the owners of .the ship failed in the practice,
then the master Mariner, or one of his men was cer
tain to perform this necessary duty. This'is still
done with modern fishing craft, and when the Bluenose
II was launched in 1962, a ten-cent peece featuring
ller prototype as an illustration was put in place.
All of the various forms of Muir people, including
the very dangerous Nucktllilvee, which 1S simply a very
powerful Neck or Kelpie, are susceptible to the in
fluence of metals, whihh seem to make ships invisible
to their eyes. On the hand, throwing coins
overboard is noticed by the Muirs, who will retaliate
by causing a wind, and perhaps creating a shipwreck.
A less dramatic move is to stick a knife into a spar
for wind, but to "whistle up a wind" will produce
more movement than is desired. The Muirs are
musicians and do not appreciate amateur attempts
making music. It is not surprising that local
sailors do not like to dream of horses "because they
symbolize high seas."
An exceptional account of the sighting of a
nuckalavee was made by IVlctoria Beach, N.S.fisher
men on return from Port by sea in 1890. A
"sea serpent" appeared close by their schooner and
?rolled hoop-like lengths thirty or forty feet be
side them. It had a huge head like that of a horse
in shape and eyes as large as saucers. A gale was
blowing the crew clapped on all sail but the
creature kept with them to Point Prim light. A
second vessel sighted it the next day, then a third
one, but it has not been seen since that year."
There are five ethnic strains in the Maritime
Provinces, with the local population of N.B , N.S.
and P.E.I. numbering a little over a million.
The Scottish population of Nova Scotia is dis
proportionate to their influence, which may be
why one Journalist has referred to them as the
IHacHafia." Only about one-quarter of the resi
dents of New Scotland actually claim the auld
sed as their ancestral place, and their num
bers are even smaller in New Brunswick and P.E.I.
Nevertheless, the Scottish faeries are firmly
entrenched in these provinces as this glossary
will reveal. for those who have forgotten the
meaning of the term, a glossary is, "a collection
of glosses," and to "gloss" is "to make comments,
or explain." This is my partial dictionary of
the longer work, in which I am allowed to "ex
plain archaic, technical or uncommon words."
Host of the following words are very archaic and
exceptionally uncommon, but this is really an
excuse to provide information found after the fact'J
and introduce irrelevant material, which would
have impeded the flow fo the earlier writing.
Abbreviations used are, G for Gaelic word; AS
for Anglo Saxon; and S fOr words of Scandanavian
origin. An asterisk indicates that the creature
in question has been reported within our boundaries
in historic time. Information in brackets, gives
the secondary meaning of the word, which is dis
cussed.
*ALP- (G - a huge mass or lump)TKoughly the
equivalent of the Scandanavian "alf" or
the Anglo Saxon "elf" but in Celtic myth
it means a tormenting night
mare creature, which on the sleeping
c h est 0 f a h u rna n vic tim , c rea ting a he a v y
weight which causes bad dreams.
ANGUS- (G -narrowing from a large mass, hence
broad-shouldered, athletic) The Celtic
god of love and "amouous da lliance." "His
harp was so sweet a tone that whoever heard
must follow; his kisses became moveable
whispering birds."
BAL-- (GO baIlor the sun.
BALKIN- (G -Bal + kin- relative of the Baal),
a name once.applied to the sun as well as the
panoply of pagan- gods) One of three defeated
in the war between the Milesians and the
Tuatha Daoine. The ancestor of all British
faeries.
BALOR- (G- Baal + or- golden god) A king of the
Formuirs, who were not technically gods, but
magicians from an undersea kingdom to the
west of Britain. Balor's eyes blighted all
within their gaze and were kept closed, ex
cept in war. The "eye of Balor" is the origin
of the "evil eye" of the Celts. In the war
against the gods and man he killed King
Nuada of the Tuatha, but was in turn slain
by Lugh, who blinded him with a magic mis
sile. The words "baleful" and "lug" have
both entered the English language from Celtic
myth.
*BAOHB- (G) The son of Dagda, the earth god, whom
he succeeded as king of the Tuatha Dabine
after their defeat by the Milesians. Under
his rule they received immortaltiy from the
god M ~ n n a n a n and retired to the hollow hills.
He engaged in a long struggle for power a
gainst his brother, Mlder. Currently, the
word means a hag, a witch, a wizard, or a
carrion crow, so one may presume that he
possessed defects in his character.
BAS- (G- stepping stone) Death, the "stepping
stone" to another plane of existence.
*BEAN- (G- wife or woman; Mha, being the generative
singular form of this "combining word.") The
word sheth, seth, sidh or sidhe (pronounced
she or shay) combined with bean (pronounced
ban) yields bean-sidhe (ban-shee) meaning
"woman faery.1I
* EITHIR or BHEITHIR- (G) Any serpent,wwild beast,
or monster.
*BLACK DOG- (AS) MADADH fDHUBH (G- ~ A d + adh- the
first meaning "rabid, furious, or disordered"
or all three; the last part of the word is a
slightly altered form of "aidh" or lI a des
ll
or
"hades." "Dhubh" or ':Dubh" means "black."
Hence, the combined words indicate: "black
dog of hell.
lI
) The Celts had no particular
fondness for dogs and also invented the word
II cur ." They contended that while dogs are
more social than cats, they kill using speed
and endurance, rather than their more valued
attributes 'of stealth and canniness. This
dislike for canines, including wolves arid foxes,
was shared by the Anglo-Saxons, who used "dog"
to mean a "mean, worthless wretch." The out
lawed was frequently pursued by
"conn dubh" or black dogs. The last of these
bloodhounds, a wild stray, was killed by a
clan member on a slope still called Meall a
Mhadaidh, the Hill of the Mad Dog.
In Nova Scotia the witch-hunter would entone :
"Here comes Old Nattie with dogs and switches
Begone, be off, ye witches, ye witches."
Aside from this use, they appear to have been
little better appreciated in the Maritime
Provinces where it is thought that dogs howl
ing at a wedding indicate marital troubles
ahead, and their howling in the dead of night
is thought to signify a death, which can only
be avoided if the listener turns his shoes up
side down. It should also be considered that
the appearance of a phantom dog tells the
observer that the person to whom he is speak
ing is an enemy. ,crorporporeal are the Black
Dogs, or Hell Dogs, of Partridge Island, near
Saint John and that which infests Dark Harbour.
The size of horses, they have glowing eyes, and
have knocked travellers from the path.
*BODACH- an old man or churl) A type of
which lives in the Highlands of Scotland.
Characterized by a hiight of two and one-half
feet, and having webbed hands and feet, usually
poorly dressed. This creature lives in the
homes of man, and exchanges his-labour for a
modest amount of food and Similar to the
lowland Brownie and the Teutonid Kobold. Usually
seen as an ood man, the species has its female
equivalent in the Cailleach or Cailich. Her
n a me, nl e ani n g " hag 0 f abod a c h ," iss0 met i me s
currently applied to an old woman of human stock,
just as "bodach" occasionally names an elderly
man.
*BOGLE, BOGEL, BUGILL (G- to terrify) a noun,
this word is a catch-all for the threatening
varieties of Scottish and Northern English
faeries. The word is derived f om "bog," a
word identifying a quagmire filled with
decaying organic matter" in which a "body" is
likely to sink, the trui y terrifying habitat of
the bogIe ..
BRESS or BREAS- son of Formurian chief married to
Brigit. When he ruled Ireland for seven years,
as a replacement ofr King Nuada, he favoured
his own kind and governed in an "ungenerous,
unhosp i ta bl e" ma nner . Br es s wa s d epos ed and
fled to the Hebrides, where he appealed to his
father, Elatha, for assistance in regaining the
crown of the Tuatha This initiated the
war of the Gods and Man against the Fbrmuirs.
BRiDEAG- (AS) bathwith human face, linked with the
goddess Brigit, warns the Fergusson family of
impending death.
BEl GIT- (G) The Ce ltic goddess of hearth, home
and poetry, a daughter of Dagda, and spouse
o f Bres s, the Fo r mu i r . St. Bride i s the
Christian version of this somewhat heathen
deity, whose day is celebrated in Scotland,
;FJebruar 1. The household, at this time,
prepares a basket called the Bride's bed, and
calls upon her to spend the night. Brigit
is also the Celtic goddess of fire, and
signs her passage through a house are looked
for the next morning in the hearth ashes. If
the ashes are disturbeq it presaqes a good
crop and a prosperous year.
*SROWN MAl-J OF THE MOORS- A very innocuous bogle,
this small man, dressed in the fauna of the
moors, is the protector of injured birds and
animals. Descended from the Formuir.
*BRGWNIE- (AS) The lowland equivalent of the Bodach.
'Qalled the Niagruisar in the Taeroe Islands of
the north.
*CHANGELING- (AS) A child of a faery exchanged 1n
infancy for that of a human. The changeling
is made obvious to his foundling parents by
deformity, ill-temper or impish behavious, all
of which were supposed a preclusion for baptized
Christian children.
DANU- (G) The earth goddess, mother of Dagda, the
progenitor of the race of gods. Cognate
with the Welsh goddess, Dan. force for light,
intelligence and beauty.
DAGDA- (GI Gaelic god of the earth, famous asa
wilrrior, and King of the Tuatha Daoine just be
fore their defeat by the Milesians of Spain.
*D11-0 I NE- ( G'-- TIl a n kin d ) C1 ann d a 0 i n e; the g e n era t i v e
.Chloinn daoine. Also Clan nan doine (clan
of man)or cinne-daonna.
CRUID, DRAOI or (G) A priest, wonder
worker ,physician and judge of the Clann
daoine. as bards, vates or
prophets, and the druids proper. The re
ligion of druidism as practiced by the
picts, Firlbogs and Celts included pantheism,
particularly tree worship, the transmigration
of the soul and human sacrifice. The word
currently identifies the bird known in this
country as a starling.
*DUBH-SIDH- (G- Black Faery) A human family name,
used on the island of South uist in the
Hebrides. So named because they had commerce
with the faeries. Contraction of Macfie of
Mac D bh Sidh.
*DWARFS- (AS) diminutive man-like beings, adept
miners and skillful artisans, forgers of
weapons, and in some regions represented
as treasurers of the gods. Described as
mishaped, ugly and gray, living to great age
in subterranean mountain abodes, sometimes
helpful, often malicious in their dealings
with man. More common in Scandanavian re
gions than Britain. Sometimes considered
as a race apart from the fay, although they
do practice magic. The dwarfs were only
seen by the Scots in the company of invading
humans. this is why they were
named the "sioch dairean," a word now
applied to any "contemptible pithless wretch."
EBER- Son of Miled, who received the south of
Ireland after the defeat of the Tuatha.
EIRE- (G) Warrior Queen of the Tuatha Daoine,
killed in the Milesian Wars. The Earse or
Irish are named in her honour.
EREMON- Son of Miled, who received the north of
Ireland after the defeat of the Tuatha.
* FACHAN- (G- fac han- false hand A psychotic
bogle of the Western Isles possessing a sin
gle baleful eye, a single leg, and a single
powerful hand, which it uses to strangle the
unwary. This beithir is considered a descen
dent of the shape-changer, a P3ychotic aberra
tion arrested in mid-change from one form to
another.
FAERY FLAG- The faery flag of M d ~ l e o d was said
given to them by the Daoine Sidhe in returns
for favours rendered. It was carried into
battle furled, as tradition said it could
be thrice unfurled to deflect grave peril,
after which the succession would end. The
prophecy was fulfilled after the banner was
laid flat by a curiousity seeker, and the
chief's heir died at sea. The flag is of
M diterranean silk, estimated to be more
than
at D
a thousand
unvegan'0a
years
stle.
old, and is still kept
*FIR (G
fire.
man) also fear, fhir and, in Old Irish,
FIRBOLG- (G- Fir + bolg- fire men of the lightning
goddess, Bolg) A dark-haired population of
short stature which invaded Erse or Ireland,
from Belgium, at a very early date. They were
defeated, and nearly eliminated by the Tuatha
D oine. Their counterpart in Alba, or current
day Scotland, was the Picti, and in Wales the
latins called the Siluras. These are thought
to be non-Celtic, possibly non-Gaelic peoples,
but probably not the aboriginals of Great Britain.
Their capital was at Tara.
FIR CNOC or CNOC AINGEIL- Fire knoll- An artificial
mound on the Isle of Lismore connected with
Beltane and Samhain fire rites.
*FIR DARRIG Dr FFAR DEARG- (G- fir + darrig- the
creature who terrifies) The latter word seems
deservedfrom the F,llglo-Saxon, "dear," which is
used in the sense of "dearly" as to "fear
dearly for one's life." A bogIe whihh delight
ed in practical jokes of a gruesome nature,
and which, unfortunately, attaches itself to
human homesteads.
Described in an old account as two and one-half
feet tall, wearing a red sugar-loaf hat and a
long scarlet coat, haVing a brown weathered face,
with long gray hair. These creatures usually
appear in the midst of a night-time thunder
storm seeking admittance to dry their clothes.
If they are not admitted an extremely bloody
accident attends either people or their cattle.
*FIRESTALKER- ( ~ S ) A particularly North American
faerie, known alternately as Black Hugh, is a
variant of the Fir Darrig. In addition to
appearing as a little, old man, he may change
into the shape of a fire breathing pyromaniacal
beither. Of Scottish descent, he prefers the
more naked look of the Scottish Highlands, and
attempts to eliminate stands of forest.
FaMOR or FaMUIR- (G- Fo-under, Mor- the sea) The
Tritons 0r Giants; the earliest race on earth
(i. e. in Earse or Ireland), overthrown by the
Tuatha uaoine and the gods. Their enemies
described them as "deformed, some with animal
heads, undersea creatures, powers of darkness,
able to blight by magic." Historically they are
supposed to have dwelt in an undersea kingdom
to the west, where it was rumoured that they
could breathe the waters of the ocean. They
were shape-changers, who could come ashore
by donning the intermediate form of a seal or
a fish ..At. the beach these "wet suits" were
laid aside for a human form, which could take
oxygen from the air. In historic times, the
fomor were called the mor, muir, or mer-poplee,
the Haafish (half-fish) or Selkies (shiny
skinned or seal people). While the peoples,
they met on land, said they were" wild and
unsociable" and assured themselves that the
were cannibalistic, folklorist G.E. Woodbury
has described them as: "a massive dim-featured
race with an earthly rather than a celestial
grandeur, embodiments of mighty forces, but
dim to beauty, intelligence and light." The
Irish historian Seumas Mac Manus is easier on
them, describing them as a human race of II
"African sea-rovers." They were never, however,
afforded the distinction of being described
as Daoine (i.e. of mankind). In normal circum
stances, they were said about average in stature
but capable of rising to the height of the tall
est tree through magical incantation.
Their chief stronghold was on Tory Island, off
the northwest coast of Ireland. They were de
feated by the Tuatha at Sligo in Northern Ireland
and went into exile from these "plains of the
Tower of the Fomorians." Their place of exile
was the western Isles of Alba, where they were
said to remain bound by magic until the final
wars at the end of time. Actually, they re
appear in Irish history, having come into
conflict with picts of Scotland, one colony
retreated to Western Ireland where they re
established themselves as a people. Many of
the northern clans of Scotland recognized
their partial descent from the Fomor in re
fusing to consume fish. In the Celtic world
particularly among the Gaels, the salmon was
the sacrosanct royal fish. Ancient Irish
kings wore the salmon brooch, and the Camp
bells of Locknell still maintain the special
right to wear silver salmon buttons on their
doublets. The killing of salmon was regard
ed as the perogative of the crown, and when
one prince overcame another, his first act
was to kill the salmon in his enemy's royal
fishpond.
FRIDE- (G- from the verb FRID":;E- to rub, fray,
irritate, fidgit, or to chafe or dance)
These words in turn, come from the name of
the Scandanavian goddess FRIGG, the consort
of Odin (or Wodan). Her name has insulting
con not a t ion sin An g I 0 - S a x 0 n, and, Ga eli c . A
Fride is a gnome, a pigmy, or an alf of for
foreign extraction. Today this Gaelic word
means, an "itch or a pimple."
GAODHAL GLAS- (G- gray Gael or Gadhael) A re
mote ancestor of the Gaels. In legend he gave
his name to their language.
*GHILLIE DHU- (G- black ravine) A Scottish solitray
bogIe inhabiting birch thickets. A species
of the "moss-men.," he dressed in clothing of
leaves, moss and other natural fibre. A gill
or ghillie is, strictly, a woody glen, a
stream or a brook flowing through a ravine.
Also, "a leech."
*GISREAG or a S E A ~ - (G- gis-a corruption of name
"Jesus" reag-that which takes part in a
chemical,reaction, a charm, a spell or a magic
formula.) The Anglo-Saxon word "gist" arises
from the same source, and sometimes means,
"to shoot forth in a jet of energy." Hence,
an alchemical reaction, the work of a baohb.
*GLASTIG- (G-blas- grey or grey green; s- Stig
a creature who frightens) A. Scottish fresh
water bogle,who preys, vampire fashion, upon
young men.
*GOBHA, GHOBHJ\INN- (G- a larger mass or. lump) A
poisonous morsel, also a large sum bf monev
or a blacksmith. This last has reerence to
the fay who find iron, which is the product of the
smith, an insidious poison. The first two ref
erences apply mostly to humans, but the "good
neighbours" have been known to suffer from keep
ing large amounts of treasure on hand.
"GOD- Any permanent member of the Tuatha" DRoine
*GOOD FOLK- (AS- good-god-like; folk- clan or tribe)
also GOOD NEIGHBOURS, WEE FOLK. ltdor"ess of
respect meant to propitiate potentially harm
ful members of faery.
*GOOD (AS) Shipwrecks caused by elements
of faery in which all humans aboard perish.
Since those sailing in such a ship are obvious
ly predestined to death (an act allowed by "God)
their possessions may be salvaged without fear
of retribution by supernaturals.An exception
1S the case where some devil intrudes, causing
an individual to place lights which deliberate
ly lead a ship into shoaler water.
*HOLLOW HILLS- (AS) The hills inhabited by the
Scottish Trows and the other nations of faery.
Our best known hollow hill is Bald Mountain in
the Tobique River Region of New Brunswick.
Known as" Rumb 1 in g M0 u n t a in," i tis the sour c e
of many subterranean noises, which can be heard
from the surface. Sugar Loaf Mountain in the
north and a similarly named mountain in cape
Breton have the typical conformation of faery
hills, repeated in the truncated red hats of
certain faeries.
*KELPIE- (G) A water bogle, usually horse-like
in form, which may reside in larger rivers
but is generally found at the sea-coast. It
provides preternatural lights and noises to
warn those scheduled to drown, but if these
signs are ignored they will assist in the
drowning. They are related to the Necks of
Scandanavia, and are shape-changers of the
Formuir line. They have been seen at sea
as a horse, or as a handsome man who is half
horse. On land they may be observed as a
old man with a long beard resembling sea
weed, out of which water incessantly drips,
or as a handsome completely-formed youth,
most often of the male sex. They are re
puted to be great musicians, who will ex
change instrumental instructions upon the
sacrifice of a black lamb. They have, in
the past, courted and won human mates, with
whom their genes are compatible, and they
are attentive suitors, but very severe in
their reaction to haughty femal es. The
horse form also comes ashore, and may under
certain circumstances be worked or ridden.
In the last case the ride may start with
the rider being ejected into some body of
fresh water. In no account must the kelpie
be allowed to come within view of salt water
as he will carry his rider to sea and tear
his body to bits. See also "Nuck."
The word kelp is very archaic, and of un
known origin, but it is a Lamanauen sea
plant, known here as "oarweed," and it does
resemble an oar in configuration. It occurs
in vast brown undersea forests, which In
Scotland, were once harvested to provide
the raw matter for producing feriilizer"
iodine, glass and soap.
KEWPIE- (AS- cue- assmall portion) A No rth
American faerie, loosely based on the
British pixie, created by Rose O'Neill in
1909.
KILLMOULIS- (G- to kill, moulis-the mill) A
bodach, which infests the grain-grinding
business, characterized by the lack of a
mouth, it instead feeds through the nose.
LA w- (G) A ro un de d or con i cal hill; a h 0 11 ow
hill.
LUGH or LUG- (G- to pull with force)Y son of
Mannanan Mac Lir, the sea-god. The grand
son of Balor of the Evil Eye, he was respon
sible for killing the Formuir king with his
sling, thus ending the war between men and
the giants. The immediate Successor of King
Nuada after the Fomorian War; predecessor
o f King Dagda and his royal line. He claimed
talents as "chief professor of arts and
sciences at Tara;."
LUNANTISIDHE- (G- Lunanti- moon; sidhe- faery)
The bogles which are the guardians of Thorn
trees. Thorn trees were once sacred to the
Baal Molock, and are said to identify the
entrances to the hollow hills.
MANANNAN- (G) In British myth, a formuir, the
son of Ler and patron of saidors; ruler of
the faery isles and father of Niamh.
MOR, fl1HOR, MHOI R, MOIRE, MUIR, MOORE, MU RE- (G
to contain within walls) The sea.
MORPEOPLE, MUI FPEOPLE, also called HAAFISH or
FINNFOLK- (G) The Ha v s, 0 r hal f p eop ;L e 0 f
Scandanavian legend. The men are pictured
as large, having green or black hair and
beards, and are usually thought beneficient.
The women are beautiful by human standards,
but may be malicious. These are the direct
progeny of the deadly Formuir, and still live
in their ancient undersea kingdoms. In these
specific areas, they can breathe the waters
of the ocean, but to come ashore must shape
ch ange into a creature half man and half
fish or don the intermediate skin of a seal.
the coast they have magic to become com
pletely human in form. The female may some
times be seen driving her white cattle to
feed on the dunes of Sable Island or other
remote islands of our area. She may appear
at the fires of fishermen, looking pathetic
in unsuitable clothing which are dripping
wet. At the least her appearance indicated
a storm or poor-fishing ,but if she is ac
cepted into a human circle she may seduce
one of the men to a premature death by
drowning. The muir people occasionally
assist mankind by providing information by
divination.
MIDER- (G) god of the underworld,
assailed and robbed by his kindred and mor
tals. Mider was the one god who cooperated
with the Formuir in their battle against
man. This is why he is currently restrain
ed to the lower world, awaiting the final
conflict of good and evil.
MILESIUS- of King Miled or Milesius
of Spain, whose two sons conquered Ireland
about 1300-1000 B.C. They overthrew the
Tuatha and the gods, becoming the ancestors
of the modern Irish and Scottish.
M O T H E ~ GOODY- (AS- god-like mother) ~ female
bodach, the descendant of the goddess Bri9it,
the patron of house and home. A particular
resident of the Western Isles of New Bruns
wick.
*MOSS PEOPLE- (AS- a morass, swamp or peat bog) A
group of retiring bogle9, who find a place in
heavily forested regions. Largely a beneficient
clan, but heavily hunted by other unsely faeries.
NATHAIR, NArHRACH, NATHRAICBEAN- (G- Nath- star;
air- that which surrounds and influences) The
Celtic equivalent of the Hebrew "Satan," the
old serpent. The word "star" has several
imp ications as it means "strewn" and "having
five or more points" and also "principle
leader," all relating to the fall from grace
of this former god. Nathair is now used to
identify any subtle, dangerously fascinating
person of human kind.
NUADA- (G) King of the Tua tha Daoine. He lost
a hand to the Firbolg Sreng, in the battle
in which the FirLolgs of Ireland were over
thrown. Although it was replaced with one
of silver, he was deposed because of the
blemish. Bress the Formuir ruled in his
place, but was deposed, after which Nuada
again ruled. Unfortunately, this led to
the "War of the 'Giants," and he was slain
by Balor. Perhaps by coincidence, the
Egyptian primal fluid, or chaos, out of
which the world was created was termed "Nu."
NUGK, NOOK or NICK- (G- corner place or angular
head land a cape, a promontory, remote and
secluded) Similar to the SVledish "nacke" or the
the Danish "nakke, nis or neck." A water
sprite which is half fish,. being very similar to
the Kelpie, especially in being able to shape
change into a horse. It seems to differ from
the latter in being a creature of the deep.
sea, consequently possessing greater destruc
tive powers.
The word "nuck" or "nick" is also applied 0
to the last sheath of grain cut in the Celtic
Harvest Home ceremony, and the designation
"Old Nick" is given the Nathair or Celtic
devil, so that this animal cannot be consider
ed friendly. This is hardly surprising con
sidering the damage the Nuck has suffered
at the hands of man. In recent times a
case is reported, form Eagle Head, N.S. in
which a Nuck attempted to "astound two gentle
men" by entering the seaside inn in which
they were accomodated, prancing around the
bed in the form of a horse. Misunderstand
ing the situation, they bridled this "horse"
and took it to a blacksmith to be shod. In
the light of day, they were surprised to
find a woman in the place ot that animal,
with horseshoes nailed to her hands and feet.
The Scandanvian Neck is sometimes seen in
the form of a golden-haired boy, wearing a
red cap and sitting on the water's surface.
But, like the Kelpie, he may appear as an
elderly man, or as a handsome youth of either
sex. The wise seaman places a penny under
the mast of his ship, or sticks a knife
into the keel board to divert the Nuck's
attention, for he is able to raise huge seas.
It is generally understood that drowned men
have red noses, because they have been
clear of air by these sea-folk.
NIMBLE NICK- Commercial faery patterned after
ROse O'Neill's Kewpies but aimed at the
Christmas market.
NIUL- A grandson of GaodhalGlas, invited to
teach in ancient Egypt, he married Scota,
the daughter of the Pharoah. It was his wife
after whom Ireland, and later Alba, came to
be named "Scotia." Niul's people left Egypt
"under a cloud" and wandered to spain. A
remote descendant, King Miled married another
Scota, and their eight sons invaded Ireland
where they defeated the Tuatha Daoine
NUCKALAVEE or NICKEL l'VEE- (C- nuck- cape + lavee
sea washed) The name has reference to the
place preferred by this creature, described
as a completely psychotic Nuck. It has been
theorizes that these descendants of the
Farmuir are closest to them in their hate
for mankind and in their early habits. These
seem to have been ordinary Nucks or Kelpies,
which for unknown reasons, have been arrested
in performing shape-shanging, so that they
possess characteristics of a man, seal, horse,
and sea-serpent. Their bad temper is perhaps
due to their incapacity to arrive at a stable
configuration. A close relative of the
"Old Serpent," a being thought responsible
for the thousand derelict submerged ships
adrift in the Gulf of Mdine in the 1880s.
OLD 'COOT, OLD NICKi OLD SCRATCH; OLD SERPENT or
THE H0 R-l ED 0 NE- Po S ) Va rio u s s 1 i gh tin g n a me s
applied to the Scottish devil, as opposed to
The Cevil or Nathair. The Scots prefer to
name the i r fay imp 1 i cit 1 y as" Au 1 d Coo tie s "
or "Auld Reekie," since more exact forms
are believed to catch the attention of the
elemental being named. Most of these are
slighting references, after the fashion of
"whistling in the dark."
In the Maritimes the last sighting of the
devil, on record, was made in 1978. At that
time, he was cited as "male, all fiery red
with horns." Horns or thorns are expected
with the unsely, which use them to "prick
so as to make uncomfortable." As we note
elsewhere, the Maritime devil quite frequent
ly appears as a massive black dog. His pre
occupation seems to be to persuade humans to
sign a "lease for life;" curse their parents,
and sign a contract in blood. It is probably
the last, which makes his task difficult.
Auld'R ekie, according to Nova Scotians,
will be with you all week if you sneeqe on
Sunday. However, if you sneeze, cast a pinch
of salt over your left shoulder, which may
please the devil so that he will not enter
your home. A private liquor sales-mn at
Lower South River, N.S. once leaned away from
a card game to retrieve a fallen card. In
doing so he noticed thet the stranger nearest
him had cloven hoofs rather than polished
shoes. He should have been buoyed by the
Maritime sayinq: "See the devil in this world,
you won't in the next." Our '!Christian doors"
are supposed to keep devils out, although I
have some concern that most of these bear an
inverted wooden "cross."
The job description "horned one" relates to
a basic religious ceremony practices from
the New Stone Age until the eighteenth century,
and possivly beyond. In it a mixed circle of
both xexes danced around a central figure who
played pipes, or a flute, or in more sophisti
cated times, a fiddle. The central figure was
a priest repre8enting the fertility spirit,
a man dressed as a Pan, with horns and a
tail. As the dance progressed it became
decidedly licentious. Christianity had an
easy mark in the "gods" of the picts and
Celts, but Pan and his beguiling practices
were not so easily dislodged. All gods
were false "devils" to the 'Christians yet
the Horned One was particularly reviled as
the one who should not be named; the Nathair
or Devil, the horned one. who could only be
referred to obliquely. Dancing in the round
was particularly denounced, and such dances
survive in the Highlands only as parallel
reels. Nevertheless, in Scotland and
nada ritual dances often start and end
with circular dancing around a central fi?ure.
When Highland dancers raise their hands above
their heads in the crescent form, they still,
unKnowingly, represent the horns or antlers
of this stone-age deity.
*OLD SOW- (G- auld- old + sou or sough- a rushing
sound, to sigh, to rustle, a sob, a hollow
moaning) The world's largest intertidal
whirlpool located in passamaquoddy Bay at the
south western extreme of D2er Island, N.B.
produces the last named This natural
phenomena is only present at certain phases
of the moon and tide, but it is definitely
associated with the local world of the muir.
Those who have been close to it claim that
the sound is supernatural, and that the bed
of the sea may be seen at the lower end of
this sea funnel. One eye-witness, who was
a member of the Legislative Assembly, and
hence an honest man, says his boat required
full power in reverse to keep him on the edge
of the Old Sow for the fifteen minutes needed
for it to dissipate. It is of interest to
note that a "quiet sough" is a silence, and
that "sou" alond can mean to "breathe heavily
at the point of death." More modern meanings
of rhe word have included, "a singing chant
used in preaching," or to "pray, particularly
in a whining tone of voice." The "sow" is a
but mariners prefer not ot use that
name, which is considered the pinnacle of
bad taste and luck. The Middle English "sow"
was originally a verb meaninq "to beget or
bear," and alluded to the fecundity of that
a whirlpool witll"scatter"
or "spread" its victims which is a second
ary meaning of the word. Historically, it
is understood that swine receive9 their
cloven-hoofs from the devil, and that Christ
favoured them as a place for casting-out
evil spirits. In any event, no knowledge
able local seaman will ever refer to that
" pig ," but will call him 0 r her " Mr. D.e n n is,
Mr. . G"r. u f for s imp 1 y, Tu r f - roo t e r ." A11 k now
that the penalty for oversight is assevere
storm at sea with more victims for the "Auld
Sow," or "Old Pig," a name synonymous with
"Auld Reekie" and "Auld Cootie." The habit
of tattooing a pig on the knee was follow
ed by the Royal Canadian Navy during World
War II as a means of propitiating this mal
ign spirit of the sea. It .is said "li. pig
on the knee, means sadety a t sea!"
PICT- An Iberian race, which came to Ireland
and assisted the ancient Tuatha or the
Milesians in driving an invading race of
Britons from the River Slaney. a re
ward they were granted land in the region
but soon proved troublesome in their own
right. These pictish chiefs were given
Irish wives and directions for finding
Jll b a ( pre sen t day S cot 1 and). All t his was
on the condition that they become permanent
tourists, and accept a succession based on
the female royal line. They later contend
ed unsuccessfully with the Earse Scots for
control of what is now Scotland.
*RED CAP- (AS) A Scottish border bogle, who re
dyes his cape in human blood after each night
of foraging.
*ROWING MAN- (AS) The entire coast of the Maritj_mes
reports circumstances where the sounds of a row
boat have been detected in the f6g, culminating
with the sound of a beaching, when no craft 0ad
actually come ashore. This may be attributed to
the mischief of some muir-creature.
SCOTA-or SCOTIA- A daughter of the pharoah married
to Niul. Also, another Scota was the consort of
King Miled. The legendary source of the name
scotia or Scotland.
*SELKIE- (c:- silken skinned) Known as the Roane of
Ireland. of the Formuir, these
)1'

- .------...._, '-, .
muir-people, are able to pass from sea to
land using a "wet-suit in the f m of a seal
skin. The males raise storms to avenge the
indiscriminate slaughter of seals, large
ly haulted by the lobbying of selkie off
spring, who are the product of
shore unions.
or CHAFFINCH- (AS- the latter meaning to
clatter) A Scottish bogIe with fresh
water shells, who clatters them to distract
Christian travellers from their path.
*SIDHCHEAN- (G- sidh-faery or faultless being;
chean
or Sean- old man) The little people, the

*SIDHSNEACHD- (G- sidh- faery; sneachd- snow)
Small and delicate faeries who ride the snow
birds in on the first snow of the Maritime
winter. The snowbirds are rarely seen as
they are entirely white in but their
cousin in the bird world, is the common
Northern Junco. These are mostly a North
American species, for while it can be cold
in the winter, Scotland has relatively little
snow. A Scot's clergyman was once criticized
for warning his Sutherlandshire parishioners
that continued sin would take them to a hell
of perpetual cold. "Shouldn't that be per
petual heat?" The Scot answered,"Nae, mono
In that case, they'll all wont to gie thairl"
*TAN GI E- (c.). Abod a c h named after the sea plant
called Tang, indistinguishable in other as
pects from the Kelpie.
*TOMMYKNOCKER- Tommy- one who accepts goods
in lieu of wages; e.g. British soldiers during
the World Wars; G- knock- round hill) A
bogle of the mines. Supposed to show, by
knocking sounds where ore is located, or to
warn of the danger of underground explosions.
The Bodach of the Mine, or the Brown Man of
the Mine, had this job in Scotland; in Den
mark it was a Ni)j: ,and in Germany the Polter
G2ister, or noisy ghost. Scotland has fewer
mines than Nova Scotia, but in that province
they are common in areas settled by the
Scottish
"I've heard of Tommy Knockers being heard
before an accident."(Springhill)
"Tommy Knockers used to be heard in the
mlnes in Queens County." (N Port Mouton)
TRAILGIL- (G- trail-tto draw or drag; gill- a
stream in a ravine) A creature closely re
sembling the Scandanavian Troll, a Troll
ravine faery, a bogle very inimicable to man.
TRDW- (G- trows or trousers) A general category
once understood to embrace all Scottish faery
F rst used to indicate the wearing of Trows,
necessitated by the fact that they were horse
men. Now understood to mean a malignant or
evil spirit whatever the source; an elf; gob
lin; also a devil of the Devil. Note synonymous
with Troll, which means the Scandanavian
dwarfs living in gigantic caves in the north
ern mountains.
TUAiTHl\ DE DAOINE or TUAlI'H.A.NA DANAAN- (pronounded
Tootha day danan) Folk of the goddess Danu,
who invaded Ireland, overthrew the Firbolgs
and contended successfully with the Formuirs
and the underworld. But the Tuatha with the
"gods" were conquered by the M-ilesians.
Their number included humans and human magi
cians, but their magic was unequal to the war
technology of the Iberians, who notwithstand
ing worshipped them as gods. With this de
feat, the powerful Tuatha began to shrink in
size, and were bound by magic to back country
"hollow hills" and other remote locations.
There they became the sidhe, or faery
people. The
The last battle of the Tuatha is said to have
bee nat Tail t e . . Nf t e r war d s, the r1 i 1 e s ian poe t
Amergin was given the task of dividing Ireland
between the surviving Tuatha and the Milesians.
With technical shrewdness, he awarded his own
people all land above ground, allowing the
Tuatha to retain all that was below ground.
The Tuatha facing this uncertain prospect took
counsel of the immortal god Manannan. He sug
gester that they accept his offer of immortal
ity and take refuge under the hollow hills.
In accepting this magical solution, this once
powerful people reiected technology and became
bound to an imposed peace as fugitive hill and
cave dwellers, of diminishing importance to
Milesians and the world ln general.
URISK- (G) A bogle who haunts small lonely pools.
He seeks human company, but his satyr body and
peculiar face usually drives off all chance of
friendship.
URUSAIG..:.. (G- as a verb, to be attentive, look out for,
or avoid) Any human monster, or bogle. so
applied to the long horned wild to
be the source of all European
*W II 0 0 PER- ( AS - ash0 u tor cry 0 f war, pur sui t, en _
thusiasm, vengeance or terror, in this case the
last two) The Woods whooper travels in a cir
cuitous manner through local forests, with a
retinue of lost souls of human and canine extrac
tion. His uncanny cry is meant to warn poten