Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/224

216 seeking Johnnie's flail." The astonished Donald did as he was bid; and by rapping three times called up a fairy ("little man"), who, giving him the flail, sent him off in an unenviable state of terror. Johnnie set to with a will, and in an hour's time he and Donald had threshed the whole of the straw in the barn. He then sent Donald back to the brae, where the flail was restored with the same ceremony, and went quietly back to bed. At dusk the parents returned, and the admiration of the tailor at the quantity and quality of the work done was so great that he questioned Donald as to which of the neighbours had helped him to thresh out so much straw. Donald, trembling, confessed the truth, and it became painfully evident to the tailor and his wife that the child was none of theirs. They agreed to dislodge it as soon as possible, and chose as the best and quickest way of doing so to put it into a creel (open basket), and set it on the fire. No sooner said than done; but no sooner had the child felt the fire than, starting from the creel, it vanished up the chimney. A low crying noise at the door attracted their attention. They opened, and a bonny little bairn (which the mother recognised by its frock to be her own) stood shivering outside. It was welcomed with rapture from its sojourn among the "little people," and grew up to be a douce and wise-like lâd says my informant.

[In the Icelandic version of this tale the mother whips the changeling, on which the fairies come for the elf. Its name in Icelandic means "the father of eighteen elves."—See Powell and Magnusson's Icelandic Tales.

"They prefer the south sides of hills."—Lilly's Life and Times.

—"Lowland Rhymes," see Chambers' Popular Rhymes, p. 324.

Turkish women put a turquoise ring on the child's finger as a charm to prevent mischief.]