THE WHENCE OF FAIRIES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 728, 29 January 1910, Page 4

THE WHENCE OF FAIRIES.

v'.V. '".. *'■"''".. '.■.■•■■ : •' Thotjqh the rude excitement of. elections has banned most other* topics in the United Kingdom, some quiet minds have still been able to pursue one of the oldest, vaguest questions of mankind—Who wero (or aro) the fairies? The question is allowed to be ("Who are'the fairies ?" because theriP&re a few imaginative people left who .believe that there are fairies still, although, with Me. Lloyd-George shrieking about the 'last of tho litter," and Lords denouncing "wily Winston and the windy-headed 'Welshirtan," and the peaceful air all jangled with . the orics ofjiolilacianß, the elusive timid '■ ;. ' .1 . "-. '"' ■. ■:• '

people must ,bo sheltering in the farthest nooks of England at the present time. In tho last numbor of the Celtic Review, Mil.' DAVID M'Ritchie seta forth some of', the theories of the origin of fairies. Mr. Wektz, an American graduate who beliovos that fairies still exist, explains that they are part of the spirit- world in which we arc immersed as an island in an unknown ocean. He holds that there are certain places and times when they become visible to mortals, and he points out that this belief is rccognisod not merely by common people, but by highly-educated men. Me. Wentz ia a highly-educated man himself, and as a' consequence he terms- his theory tho "psychucal theory" of the belief in fairies. It is the common theory which, in much more glib and much less learned language, was expressed in Wellington by the medium Bailey's "controls." Mr. Wentz not only believes in fairies, but with a faith much to be envied in these gross prosaic days, he believes in the fairy lands. We are assured that Avalon, Hy. ißrasil, and other fairy spots which appear and disappear in the Atlantic Ocean, have been recently visible, and 'that only two years ago an enchanted island was seen off the coast of Ireland by several independent and highly veracious witnesses. The less imaginative reader who prefers to take his fairies in moderation will be more attracted by the theory of Mr. M'Eitchie, who does not even commit himself to a belief in tho present existence of these 1 shadowy people. He accounts for ,the belief in fairies as a folk-memory of a race of pigmy men who once lived in the When the Celts came they muift have been mostly slain, bnt in -remote and inaccessible districts—Wales, the West of Ireland, parts of Scotland, and places like the Peak—they may have lingered' on with the result that country maids—and men—feel still ! a night-time dread—or did until i quite recently—of brownies, elves, i and like mysterious folk. | "Up the airy mountain, ■ Down tho rushy, glen, I We daren't go a-hunting , For fear of'littla men." I We agree with the Manchester ' I Guardian, which also took a momenI tary rest from politics to consider | fairies, that '"this theory is attracI tive, and if we are to have our most i I charming superstition dissected and l examined wo could wish it 'dono on i these lines." The supposition that i the fairies were descendants of a | pigmy race might afford an explana-, I tion of the fact that they were so. I seldom seen. Doubtless they have I always been ashamed of their small 1 stature, and hence, though they were often heard on moonlight evenings, and the prints of tho elves' dancing were,observed on moors, they seldom showed themselves to mortals. But the great obstacle to Ma. M'Eitchie's'theory is tie immensely wide distribution which must be credited to this ancient pigmy race,, •if all the talcs of fairies .arc a W-: vival of them. Tho Maoris of this country have very definite ideas of fairies—ideas, as we learn from Mr. Oowan's recent book, surprisingly like those which are held in Europe. ,Mr. Cowan tells how, for the Maoris "the 'little folk* people the mist-laden ridges and dim .gloomy valleys, and in, tho dark moonless nights the lone Maori eel-fisher out on tho Waipa banks would hear them singing their fairy songs, and would .take good care that his torch did not go out, for fairies fear the fire of : mortals." A Taranaki chief asi sured Mr. Oowan that. "tho 'patnpaiarehe' (fairies) are still, a numerous people, in this! land.". Their houses' are . the thick growth that fills the forks of the forest trees. "They live ever in ' the forest, and you may pass thoir homes a hundred times and never see them, yet they are still 1 there, as- I myself well know, for I have seen them in the night and heard them 'singing their fairy songs." , • 1 i Quite tho worst view of fairies 'is that taken 'by a Now Zealand 1 poet, who, ignorant of the Maori 1 tales, laments: "Why nave we in 1 this land no fairy dell}" and, after 1 expressing more regrets, concludes I apparently that fairies are but I poets' "make-belief": , < "Tho poefs art—as yet without'availMust weavo tho story of both great and small." Wo believe that this writer afterwards abandoned poetry and became a barrister. It is a great loss to tho present generation that it does not easily believe in fairies, and those who do believo imperil their good fortune when they inquire too curiously into tho ways and origin of these' mysterious folk. Tho fairies are shy, olußive people, who requiro to be taken very much on trust. There are some felicities requiring faith, which must not bo too curiously' surveyed. The god was beside Psyche till she lit tho. unlucky lamp to view his features. That was the beginning of her woe.