Folk Lore | Page 9

baptism had been
administered to them. This belief was at one time universal throughout
all Scotland, and was still prevalent at the beginning of this century.
Charms were quite commonly employed to defend houses from the
inroads of the fairies before the infants were baptised; but even baptism
did not always protect the baby from being stolen. During the period of
infancy, the mother required to be ever watchful; but the risks were
especially great before baptism. It is difficult to define exactly the
power which the queen of elfland had, for besides carrying off Thomas
the Rhymer, she was supposed to have carried off no less a personage
than James IV. from the field of Flodden, and to have detained him in
her enchanted country. There was also a king of elfland. From the
accounts extracted from or volunteered by witches, &c., preserved to us
in justiciary and presbyterial records, he appears to have been a
peaceable, luxurious, indolent personage, who entrusted the whole
business of his kingdom, including the recruiting department, to his

wife. We get a glimpse of both their majesties in the confessions of
Isabella Gowdie, in Aulderne, a parish in Nairnshire, who was indicted
for witchcraft in 1662. She said--"I was in Downie Hills, and got meat
there from the queen of the fairies, more than I could eat. The queen is
brawly clothed in white linen, and in white and brown cloth; and the
king is a braw man, well-favoured, and broad-faced. There were plenty
of elf bulls rowting and skoyling up and down, and affrighted me." Mr.
Kirk says "that in fairyland they have also books of various
kinds--history, travels, novels, and plays--but no sermons, no Bible, nor
any book of a religious kind." Every reader of Hogg's _Queen's Wake_
knows the beautiful legend of the abduction of "Bonny Kilmeny"; but
in Dr. Jamieson's Illustrations of Northern Antiquities we have found
amongst these heroic and romantic ballads another legend more fully
descriptive of fairyland. In this legend, a young lady is carried away to
fairyland, and recovered, by her brother:--
"King Arthur's sons o' merry Carlisle Were playing at the ba', And
there was their sister, burd Ellen, I' the midst, amang them a'. Child
Rowland kicked it wi' his foot, And keppit it wi' his knee; And aye as
he played, out o'er them a'. O'er the kirk he gar'd it flee. Burd Ellen
round about the aisle To seek the ba' has gane: But she bade lang, and
ay langer, And she came na back again. They sought her east, they
sought her west, They sought her up and down, And wae were the
hearts in merry Carlisle, For she was nae gait found."
Merlin, the warlock, being consulted, told them that burd Ellen was
taken away by the fairies, and that it would be a dangerous task to
recover her if they were not well instructed how to proceed. The
instructions which Merlin gave were, that whoever undertook the quest
for her should, after entering elfland, kill every person he met till he
reached the royal apartments, and taste neither meat nor drink offered
to them, for by doing otherwise they would come under the fairy spell,
and never again get back to earth. Two of her brothers undertook the
journey, but disobeyed the instructions of the warlock, and were
retained in elfland. Child Rowland, her youngest brother, then arming
himself with his father's claymore, _excalibar_--that never struck in
vain--set out on the dangerous quest. Strictly observing the warlock's
instructions, after asking his way to the king of elfland's castle of every
servant he met, he, in accordance with these instructions, when he had

received the desired information, slew the servant. The last fairy
functionary he met was the hen-wife, who told him to go on a little
further till he came to a round green hill surrounded with rings from the
bottom to the top, then go round it widershins (contrary to the sun) and
every time he made the circuit, say--"Open door, open door, and let me
come in," and on the third repetition of this incantation they would
open, and he might then go in. Having received this information, he
fulfilled his instructions, and slew the hen-wife. Then proceeding as
directed, he soon reached the green hill, and made the circuit of it three
times, repeating the words before mentioned. On the third repetition of
the words the door opened, and he went in, the door closing behind him.
"He proceeded through a long passage, where the air was soft and
agreeably warm, like a May evening, as is all the air in elfland. The
light was a sort of twilight or gloaming; but there were neither windows
nor candles, and he knew not whence it came if it