THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

98 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS
Issobell Gowdie, familiar with the fairies,
. . . proceidit in hir Confessione, in maner efter following, to wit.
. . . I haid a little horse, and wold say, " HORSE
AND HATTOCK,
IN THE DIVELLIS NAME! " And than ve vold flie away, quhair
ve vold, be ewin as strawes wold flie wpon an hie-way. We will
flie lyk strawes quhan we pleas; wild-strawes and corne-strawes
wilbe horses to ws, an ve put thaim betwixt our foot, and say,
HORSE AND HATTOK, IN THE DIVELLIS nam! " An quhan any
sies thes strawes in a whirlewind, and doe not sanctifie them selues,
we may shoot them dead at owr pleasour. Any that ar shot be vs,
their sowell will goe to Hevin, bot ther bodies remains with ws,
and will flie as horsis to ws, als small as strawe~.~~~ As late as the last part of the 17th century, according
to Aubrey's Miscellanies, the fairies were still riding
through Scotland preceded by the " noise of a whirl-
wind " and a sound of voices crying " Horse and Hat-
tock! " 14' Even in 1726, the fairy horsemen were heard
in the Manx fields :
As he [a young sailor] was going over a pretty high mountain, he
heard the noise of horses, the hollow of a huntsman, and the finest
horn in the world. . . . 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 follow'd,
could he have kept pace with them; he cross'd the foot-way, how-
ever, that he might see them again, which he did more than once,
and lost not the sound of the horn for some miles. At length, being
arrived at his sister's, he tells her the story, who presently clapped
her hands for joy, that he was come home safe; for, said she, those
you saw were fairies, and 'tis well they did not take you away with
them.
1" Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, Gen. App., pp. 603-604.
149 5th ed., 1890, p. 149.