Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/198

 pursued those kinds of sport in the night; but he had not time for much reflection before they all passed by him, so near that he was able to count what number there was of them, which he said was thirteen, and that they were all drest in green, and gallantly mounted. He was so well pleased with the sight, that he would gladly have followed, could he have kept pace with them. He crossed the foot-way, however, that he might see them again, which he did more than once, and lost not the sound of the horn for some miles." P. 133. When the sailor reached the house of his sister, he related his story, when she told him they were fairies, and that it was well they did not take him away with them. The Manks think such huntings frequent in their island, and imagine the fairies too proud to ride on Manks horses, preferring English and Irish ones.

A similar superstition occurs in the ancient Romance of Orfeo and Heurodis. Orfeo, after the loss of his wife, retires to a desart, where it is said,