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THE CELTIC MAGAZINE. 13<br />

FAIKIES IN THE HIGHLANDS.<br />

A BELIEF in fairies prevailed very much in the Highlands of old, nor at<br />

this day is it quite obliterated. The gently rising conical hills were as-<br />

signed them as dwellings, and these were namd sometimes Sin-shill, the<br />

habitation of a multitude, or Sitheanan Sith, peace and dunan, a<br />

mound. This name was derived from the practice of the Druids, who<br />

were wont occasionally to retire to green eminences to administer justice,<br />

establish peace, and compose differences between parties. As that vener-<br />

able order taught a Saoghal, or world beyond the present, their followers,<br />

when they were no more, fondly imagined that the seats where they exercised<br />

a virtue so beneficial to mankind were still inhabited by them in their<br />

disembodied state and though inclined still to peace (hence named Daoine-<br />

Sithe, or men of peace), they have become not absolutely malevolent but<br />

peevish and repining, envying mankind their more complete and substantial<br />

enjoyment. They are supposed to enjoy in their subterraneous<br />

recesses a sort of shadowy happiness a tinsel grandeur which, however,<br />

they would willingly exchange for the more solid joys of mortality.<br />

Those grassy eminences where they celebrate their nocturnal festivities<br />

" by the light of the moon," are mostly by the sides of lakes and rivers,<br />

and by the skirts of th u ,se many are still afraid to pass after sunset.<br />

About a mile beyond the source of the Forth above Loch Con there<br />

is a place called Coire Shithean, orthe cove of the men of peace, which is still<br />

supposed to be a favourite place of their residence, and on the banks of<br />

the river Beauly there are many favourite spots for fairy homes. It is<br />

believed that if on Halloween any person alone goes round one of these<br />

little hillocks nine times towards the left a door will open by which he<br />

will be admitted into their subterraneous abodes. Many, it is said,<br />

mortal men have been entertained in their secret recesses. These have<br />

been received into the most splendid apartments and regaled with the<br />

most sumptuous banquets and delicious wines, and associated with their<br />

females, who surpass the daughters of men in beauty.<br />

The seemingly happy inhabitants pass their time in festivity and in<br />

dancing to the softest music. But unhappy is the mortal who joins in<br />

their joys or partakes of their dainties. By this indulgence he forfeits for<br />

ever the society of men, and is bound down irrevocably to the condition<br />

of a Sithich, or man of peace, unless released by one possessed of the<br />

countervailing spell. They are supposed to be peculiarly anxious to<br />

strengthen their ranks by the acquisition of beautiful children, maidens,<br />

and wives, and to lose no opportunity of doing so by fair or foul means,<br />

as tradition abundantly has established, a year and a day being, however,<br />

allowed for a return to human society. The wife of a Lothian farmer had<br />

been snatched away by the fairies. During the year which followed she<br />

had repeatedly appeared on Sundays in the midst of her children combing<br />

their hair. On one of these occasions she was accosted by her husband,<br />

when she instructed him how to rescue her at the next Hallow-eve proces<br />

ion. The farmer coned his lesson carefully, and on the appointed<br />

d-i v proceeded to a plot of furze to await the arrival of the procession. It<br />

ciiuie, but the ringing of the fairy bridles so confused them that the train

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