and he will never again be able to return to earth or to leave the enchanted
fairy palace. He is dead to his kindred and race for ever more.
On Fridays the fairies have special power over all things, and chiefly on
that day they select and carry off the young mortal girls as brides for the
fairy chiefs. But after seven years, when the girls grow old and ugly, they
send them back to their kindred, giving them, however, as compensation, a
knowledge of herbs and philtres and secret spells, by which they can kill or
cure, and have power over men both for good and evil.
It is in this way the wise women and fairy doctors have acquired their
knowledge of the mysteries and the magic of herbs. But the fairies do not
always keep the mortal women in a seven years' bondage. They sometimes
only take away young girls for a dance in the moonlight, and then leave
them back in their own home lulled in a sweet sleep. But the vision of the
night was so beautiful that the young girls long to dream again and be made
happy with the soft enchantments of the music and dance.
The fairies are passionately fond of music; it is therefore dangerous for a
young girl to sing when she is all alone by the lake, for the spirits will draw
her down to them to sing to them in the fairy palace under the waves, and
her people will see her no more. Yet sometimes when the moonlight is on
the water, and the waves break against the crystal columns of the fairy
palace far down in the depths, they can hear her voice, and they know that
she is singing to the fairies in the spirit land beneath the waters of the lake.
There was a girl in one of the villages that could see things no one else
saw, and hear music no one else heard, for the fairies loved her and used to
carry her away by night in a dream to dance with the fairy chiefs and
princes. But, above all, she was loved by Finvarra the king, and used to
dance with him all night till sunrise though her form seemed to be lying
asleep on the bed.
One day she told some of her young companions that she was going that
night to a great fairy dance on the rath, and if they chose she would bring
them and put a salve on their eyes so that they would see wonders.
The young girls went with her, and on coming to the rath she said--
"Now put your foot on my foot and look over my left shoulder, and you
will see the king and queen and all the beautiful lords and ladies with gold
bands round their heads dancing on the grass. But take care when you see
them to make no sign of the cross, nor speak the name of God, or they will
vanish away, and perhaps even your life would be in danger."
On hearing this the girls ran away in fear and terror without ever using
the spell or seeing the fairies. But the other remained, and told her friends
next day that she had danced all night to the fairy music, and had heard the
sweetest singing, so that she longed to go back and live for ever with the
spirits on the hill.
And her wish was granted, for she died soon after, and on the night of
her death soft music was heard floating round the house, though no one
backadmin
(backadmin)
#1