THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS 91
In Scotland, with the exception of the " nymphes or
feiries " who met Banquo and Macbeth, clad " in strange
and wild apparell, resembling creatures of elder
world," log the fairies seem to have worn the costumes
of the country. Always when they appeared in 1576 to
Bessie Dunlop, " The men wer cled in gentilmennis cleth-
ing, and the wemene had all plaiddis round about
thame." 'I0 Andro Man, burnt as a wizard for repair-
ing with the fairies, insisted that the " elphis hes schapes
and claythis lyk men." 'I1
This preference for mortal clothes was also recorded
by Robert Kirk :
Their Apparel1 . . . is like that of the People and Countrey
under which they live: so are they seen to wear Plaids and
variegated Garments in the Highlands of Scotland, and Suanochs
therefore in Ireland. . . . Ther Women are said to Spine very
fine, to Dy, to Tossue, and Embroyder: but whither it is as
manuall Operation of substantial1 refined Stuffs, with apt and
solid Instruments, or only curious Cob-webs, impalpable Rainbows,
and a fantastic Imitation of the Actions of more terrestricall
Mortalls, since it transcended all the Senses of the Seere to discerne
whither, I leave to conjecture as I found it.l12
Though the dress of the fairies might vary, their es-
sential characteristics and idiosyncrasies remained always
the same. In the first place, they were inordinately ad-
dicted to dancing. With them, it amounted almost to a
natural means of locomotion, especially in England. If
they appeared otherwise than tripping, according to most
of the representations of them, they were sure to break
into a dance before much time elapsed, and to take their
departure in a mad whirl of gay steps.
'09 Shak. Holinshed, p. 23.
Pitcairn, Crim. Trials, Vol. I, pt. 2, pp. 52-53.
Spald. Club Misc., Vol. I, p. 121.
Sec. Comm., pp. 14-15.