Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/566

510 good-will the farmer promised the little creature a linen shirt every New Year's Eve, and for many years he kept his word. But after a time he began to think that such a mite could do very little, and that his aid was scarcely worth the wages given, so when the last evening of the year came round again a rough harden shirt was left on the kitchen-floor in place of the usual linen garment, and the family went to bed, listening the while to hear how the little workman would receive his fee. Presently the clock struck twelve, and in an instant a sharp angry wail went up from the household hearth, where the despised shirt lay showing all its coarse ugliness in the light of the dwindling fire.

Such was the lament and the last-heard words of the house-sprite. Whither he went no one knows, but one thing is certain, the dairy-maids, garthmen, thatchers, and plough-lads had from that time forward to do their work unhelped. He had vanished for ever.

A twig of rowan, or, as we call it, wicken, is held to be marvellously effective against all ill-things, and therefore against witches. When laid on the churn it will prevent malign influences retarding the process of butter-making, and it is of use in twenty different manners for guarding the welfare of a household, and preserving the live-stock and crops about a farm. Fairies seem to be rare, but witches and wizards are abundant—so abundant, that I myself have been acquainted with at least four people suspected of "knowing more than they should". One of these students of unholy lore could, according to popular belief, assume the shape of a dog or a toad at will, when bent on injuring his neighbours' cattle. As a dog he was supposed to worry oxen and sheep, while under the form of a toad he poisoned the feeding-trough of the pigs. Curiously enough, I never heard him accused of adopting the guise of a hare, although it is well known that it is a favourite animal with those who practise the black-arts. Witchcraft is often hereditary in a family, most frequently passing down from mother to daughter. When a witch has no daughter