Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

General Folklore. 235
" Meddle an mell
Wi' the fien's o' hell,
An' a weirdless wicht ye'll be ;
But tak' an' len'
Wi' the fairy men,
Ye'll thrive until ye dee."
The "wicked wichts" of Fairydom were always
ready to inflict skaith or damage upon mankind. They
shaved people with loathsome razors, eradicating every
vestige of whiskers and beard. When any one, in a fit
of temper, commended himself to the Devil, "the unseelie
court," took the speaker at his word ; they transported
him into the air on a dark cloud, and consumed him to
charcoal. They abstracted the household goods of those
who offended them, destroyed their cattle by small flints,
or " elf-shot," and visited their persons with complicated
ailments ; one class of persons was especially obnoxious,
those who assumed their livery of green. Lord Dundee
was attired in a green uniform at the Battle of Killi-
crankie, and to this cause the Highlanders assign his
discomfiture and death. Some Scottish families, with
a traditional dread of the wicked fairies, avoid using
personal or household ornaments of a green colour.
The seizure of infants by the fairies was one of the
most universally accepted of the elder superstitions.
Handsome children were supposed to be borne away
invisibly, while sickly and loathsome brats were substi-
tuted in their stead. It was no uncommon occurrence
for the wives of the peasantry to imagine that their
sickly children were brought from Fairyland, in the
place of their own healthy offspring. They had re-
course to a barbarous charm, to procure restoration of
their own infants, by burning with live coal the toes