Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/33

 STORIES OF FAIRIES FROM SCOTLAND.

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HE Gratitude of the Fairies.—The fairies, called in the North of Scotland and it may be in other parts “the Fair Folk,” “the Good Neighbours” (Scoticé, gueede neebours, gueede neepirs), shewed themselves grateful to those of mankind that did them kindness, or paid them respect. They asked help of woman, especially at the time of a birth among them; and for such help there was given a more than ordinary reward, sometimes of one kind, and sometimes of another.

One winter evening the wife of a Highlander was sitting in her cottage, when a knock was heard at the door. On its being opened, in stepped a man, unknown to her, and begged her to accompany him to a female that was ill, without telling who the patient was, where she lived, or what her ailment was. She very naturally hesitated to grant the request. The stranger’s earnestness and the promise of a reward overcame her hesitation; and, with some misgivings, she put herself under his guidance. She was led by a way wholly unknown to her, and at last reached what looked, so far as the darkness permitted her to see, like a cave. She entered, but all at once she found herself in a brightly lighted hall. She was led through splendid passages into a still more splendid bedroom, in which lay a lady in travail. After the child was born, she was asked what her fee was to be. Divining from all the attending circumstances that she was in fairy land, she refused to take any fee. She