Deep into Fairyland fl 49and wildflowers, perhaps the most common fairy type in England with
many varieties in different parts. Bracken and grass mannikins he found
nearly always dressed in green with little green caps, pointed ears, and
chubby faces like three-year-old children.
Red mannikins, four to six inches high, sporting bright crimson
tights, could enlarge themselves almost to human size, but only with
great effort and only for a relatively short time. In a colony of thou-
sands they were trotting about a field, tiny and shy, merry and playful,
dancing to form geometric figures that Hodson believed gave expres-
sion to some force flowing through them to produce an added sense of
happiness and life.
Mannikins concerned with trees he usually found "living" in the
trunk and branches, just inside the bark, through which they could pass
for work in connection with the growth and coloring of the branches
and leaves. Occasionally one would flash out from a tree, hover in
midair, "perhaps to absorb vital essence from the air," then return to
give it to the tree. Numbers of little mannikins could be seen working
on the outside of the leaves and branches of a large beech, occasionally
flying to the ground as if fetching some substance to take back to the
tree and weave into the texture of the smaller branches and leaves.
These mannikins would then fly to an adjacent tree of the same genus,
there to repeat the operation. Others puttered about on the surface of
the ground, amid the undergrowth and fallen leaves.
When Hodson tried to communicate with individual mannikins,
he found their intelligence to be very primitive, below that of the an-
imal, imitating humanity but without understanding the meaning or
purpose of their mimicry. He observed them go through the motions
of speech and even appear to shout loudly but was unable to catch any
sound from their wide-open mouths.
Unlike with the more stable gnomes or fairies proper, Hodson
found that if too intense a scrutiny was directed toward the mannikin
it would lose its equilibrium, become confused and helpless, and finally
disappear, either to a safe distance or into a higher, astral, dimension.
Hodson says he twice came across mannikins who were by no
means pleasant, with prominent features, large noses, slanting eyes nar-
rowed to slits, and unpleasant, malicious, leering expressions.