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The Fairy Race
By Lady Wilde
From the earliest ages the world has believed in the existence
of a race midway between the angel and man, gifted with power to
exercise a strange mysterious influence over human destiny. The
Persians called this mystic race Peris; the Egyptians and the Greeks
named them demons, not as evil, but as mysterious allies of man,
invisible though ever present; capable of kind acts but implacable
if offended.
The Irish called them the Sidhe, or spirit-race, or the Feadh-Ree,
a modification of the word Peri. Their country is the Tirna-oge,
the land of perpetual youth, where they live a life of joy and beauty,
never knowing disease or death, which is not to come on them till
the judgment day, when they are fated to pass into annihilation,
to perish utterly and be seen no more. They can assume any form
and they make horses out of bits of straw, on which they ride over
the country, and to Scotland and back, They have no religion, but
a great dread of the Scapular (Latin words from the Gospels
written by a priest and hung round the neck). Their power is great
over unbaptized children, and such generally grow up evil and have
the evil eye, and bring ill luck, unless the name of God is instantly
invoked when they look at any one fixedly and in silence.
All over Ireland the fairies have the reputation of being very
beautiful, with long yellow hair sweeping the ground, and lithe
light forms. They love milk and honey, and sip the nectar from the
cups of flowers, which is their fairy wine.
Underneath the lakes, and deep down in the heart of the hills,
they have their fairy palaces of pearl and gold, where they live
in splendour and luxury, with music and song and dancing and laughter
and all joyous things as befits the gods of the earth. If our eyes
were touched by a fairy salve we could see them dancing on the hill
in the moonlight. They are served on vessels of gold, and each fairy
chief, to mark his rank, wears a circlet of gold round his head.
The Sidhe race were once angels in heaven, but were cast out as
a punishment for their pride. Some fell to earth, others were cast
into the sea, while many were seized by demons and carried down
to hell, whence they issue as evil spirits, to tempt men to destruction
under various disguises; chiefly, however, as beautiful young maidens,
endowed with the power of song and gifted with the most enchanting
wiles. Under the influence of these beautiful sirens a man will
commit any and every crime. Then when his soul is utterly black
they carry him down to hell, where he remains forever tortured by
the demons to whom he sold himself.
The fairies are very numerous, more numerous than the human race.
In their palaces underneath the hills and in the lakes and the sea
they hide away much treasure. All the treasure of wrecked ships
is theirs; and all the gold that men have hidden and buried in the
earth when danger was on them, and then died and left no sign of
the place to their descendants. And all the gold of the mine and
the jewels of the rocks belong to them; and in the Sifra, or fairy-house,
the walls are silver and the pavement is gold, and the banquet-hall
is lit by the glitter of the diamonds that stud the rocks.
If you walk nine times round a fairy rath at the full of the moon,
you will find the entrance to the Sifra; but if you enter, beware
of eating the fairy food or drinking the fairy wine. The Sidhe will,
indeed, wile and draw many a young man into the fairy dance, for
the fairy women are beautiful, so beautiful that a man's eyes grow
dazzled who looks on them with their long hair floating like the
ripe golden corn and their robes of silver gossamer; they have perfect
forms, and their dancing is beyond all expression graceful; but
if a man is tempted to kiss a Sighoge, or young fairy spirit,
in the dance, he is lost forever - the madness of love will fall
on him, and he will never again be able to return to earth or to
leave the enchanted fairy palace. He is dead to his kindred and
race for ever more.
On Fridays the fairies have special power over all things, and
chiefly on that day they select and carry off the young mortal girls
as brides for the fairy chiefs. But after seven years, when the
girls grow old and ugly, they send them back to their kindred, giving
them, however, as compensation, a knowledge of herbs and philtres
and secret spells, by which they can kill or cure, and have power
over men both for good and evil.
The fairies are passionately fond of music; it is therefore dangerous
for a young girl to sing when she is all alone by the lake, for
the spirits will draw her down to them to sing to them in the fairy
palace under the waves, and her people will see her no more.
The Banshee
The Ban-Sidhe, the fairy spirit of doom, never appears but to aristocrats.
She is an appanage only of the highest families, who are always
followed by the shadow of this spirit of death, supposed to be a
beautiful young girl of the race, who cannot enter heaven until
some other member of the family, who must be likewise young and
beautiful, takes her place through death. Ban, or Van, means woman;
and Vanitha, the lady of the house, in Sanscrit, as in Irish,
comes from the root Van -to love, to desire. To this day the lady
of the house is called The Vanitha by the Irish, the word
having the same meaning as Venus, "the loved one," in
its original signification.
At Lord O'Neil's residence, Shane's Castle, there is a room appropriated
to the use of the Banshee, and she often appears there; sometimes
shrouded and muffled in a dark, mist-like cloak. At other times,
she is seen as a beautiful young girl, with long, red-gold hair
and wearing a green kirtle and scarlet mantle, brooched with gold,
after the Irish fashion.
There is no harm or fear of evil in her mere presence, unless she
is seen in the act of crying; but this is a fatal sign, and the
mournful wail is a sure and certain prophecy that the angel of death
is waiting for one of the family.
The Leprehaun
The Little gray Leprehaun has the secret of hidden gold, and by
the power of a certain herb he can discover it and thus become master
of unlimited wealth. But no one has ever yet obtained from the tricksy
little sprite the name of the herb or the words of the charm which
reveal the hidden treasure, only the Leprehaun has the knowledge.
There are also herbs of grace to be gathered on May morning which
give wealth to him who knows the proper form of incantation; but
if he reveals the mystery he dies. So the adepts keep the secret,
being afraid of the doom. Yet the peasantry still make constant
efforts to find the hidden gold, and may curious rites are practised
by them to obtain a knowledge of the mystic herbs.
The Demon Bride
The ancient churchyard of Truagh, Co Monaghan, is said to be haunted
by an evil spirit, whose appearance generally forebodes death.
The legend runs that at funerals the spirit watches for the person
who remains last in the graveyard. If it be a young man who is there
alone, the spirit takes the form of a beautiful young girl, inspires
him with an ardent passion, and exacts a promise that he will meet
her that day month in the churchyard. The promise is then sealed
by a kiss, which sends a fatal fire through his veins, so that he
is unable to resist her caresses, and makes the promise required.
Then she disappears, and the young man proceeds homewards; but no
sooner has he passed the boundary wall of the churchyard, than the
whole story of the evil spirit rushes on his mind, and he knows
that he has sold himself, soul and body, for a demon's kiss. The
terror and dismay take hold of him, till despair becomes insanity,
and on the very day month fixed for the meeting with the demon bride
the victim dies the death of a raving lunatic, and is laid in the
fatal graveyard of Truagh.
But the evil spirit does not limit its operations to the graveyard;
for sometimes the beautiful demon form appears at weddings or festivities,
and never fails to secure its victims, by dancing them into the
fever that maddens the brain, and too surely ends in death.
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