banks of rivers or lakes, or on the branches of trees, combing and
arranging their golden locks:
"Know you the Nixes, gay and fair?
Their eyes are black, and green their hair,
They lurk in sedgy shores."
A fairy or water-sprite that resides in the neighbourhood of the
Orkneys is popularly known as Tangie, so-called from tang,, the
seaweed with which he is covered. Occasionally he makes his
appearance as a little horse, and at other times as a man.[14]
Then there are the wood and forest folk of Germany, spirits
inhabiting the forests, who stood in friendly relation to man, but are now
so disgusted with the faithless world, that they have retired from it.
Hence their precept--
"Peel no tree,
Relate no dream,
Pipe no bread, or
Bake no cumin in bread,
So will God help thee in thy need."
On one occasion a "forest-wife," who had just tasted a new baked-
loaf, given as an offering, was heard screaming aloud:
"They've baken for me cumin bread,
That on this house brings great distress."
The prosperity of the poor peasant was soon on the wane, and before
long he was reduced to abject poverty.[15] These legends, in addition to
illustrating the fairy mythology of bygone years, are additionally
interesting from their connection with the plants and flowers, most of
which are familiar to us from our childhood.
Footnotes:
- See Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland," 1862, p. 98.
- Folkard's "Plant-lore Legends and Lyrics," p. 30. 3. Friend, "Flowers and Flower Lore," p.
- Thorpe's "Northern Mythology," ii. 81-2. 5. Thorpe's "Northern Mythology," iii. 266.
- See "The Phytologist," 1862, p. 236-8. 7. "Folk-lore of Shakespeare," p. 15. 8. See Friend's
"Flower Lore," i. 34. 9. Thorpe's "Northern Mythology," iii. 266. 10. Friend's "Flower Lore,"
i. 27. 11. See Keightley's "Fairy Mythology," p. 231. 12. Grimm's "Teut. Myth.," 1883, ii. 451; - "Asiatic Researches," i. 345. 14. See Keightley's "Fairy Mythology," p. 173. 15. Thorpe's
"Northern Mythology," i. 251-3.