Brownies and Bogles

them, sooner or later, into the water, or else they danced along holding a twinkling light, and led any one so foolish as to follow them a pretty march into chasms and quagmire

of the heartless goblins who waylaid trave

e whipper-snappers had a fine eye for poetical justice, and dealt out punishments with the nicest discrimination. We neve

horses, fairy-lambs, and such quadrupeds, we guess at once that they are only roguish small gentlem

gs and morasses. The Irish Pooka or Phooka was a horse too, and a famous rascal. He lived on land, and was something like the Welsh Gwyll: a

e, ne other evil

s, names whose s

h things th

ely to guess, means to

POOKA WAS

y in storms; allured bystanders into the water, or swelled the

ic Nykkur-horse; gamesome deceivers all, who enticed children and others to bestride them, and who were treacher

far away as China, never stayed in the next-door countries, Ireland or England, long enough to be recognized. They knew nothing of him

O'-TH

mproper times and places." In the River Tees was a green-haired lady named Peg Powler, and in some streams in Lancashire one christened Jenny Greenteeth; tw

e whole seven, one after the other, which was quite a wonderful weight for the wee creature; but his back meanwhile kept growing longer and larger to accommodate them. As they galloped along, the children called such of

trick was to entice people into marshes, by making themselves look like a light

it was so merry and sweet. "To laugh like a Pisky," passed into a proverb. The Barguest of Yorkshire, like the Osschaert of the Netherlands, was an open-air bug

ng elf-fire) was a rogue with wings, wide ears, a tall cap and two huge torches, who precisely resembled the English Will-o'-the-Wisp, the Scandinavian Lyktgubhe and the Breton Sand Yan y Tad. Our American negroes make him out Jack-muh-Lantern: a vast, hairy, goggle-eyed, big-mouthed ogre, leaping like a giant grasshopper, and forcing his victims into a swamp, where they died. The gentlemen of this tribe preferred to walk abroad at night, like any other torchlight

clergyman, who with his servant, was returning home late at night. The horse reared and whinnied, and the clergyman was alarmed, for a thousand impish fires were waltzing before the wheels.

HASED THE FA

were Puckerel, Hob Howland, Bygorn, Bogleboe, Rawhead or Bl

sorry busybody, tearing the bed-curtains, rattling the doors, whistling through the keyholes, snatching

B WAS A

histling and banging his idle heels. Red Comb or Bloody Cap was a tyrant who lived in every Border castle, dungeon and tower. He was short and thickset

cats, of whom he was fond, to lick up the cream. Then he slipped the ropes and vanished, with a great laugh. In Northern Germany we find the Hedley Gow's next-of-kin, and there, too, were little underground beings who accompanied maids and men

nary woman, very thin, with head uncovered, and a floating white cloak, wringing her hands and wailing. She attached herself only to certain ancient Irish families, and cried und

maker. He could no more keep out of mischief than a trout out of water. What lives the dandip

o the world until his departure therefrom, he was at the mercy of the fairy-folk, and his devices to elude them were many. Unhappy was the mother who neglected to lay a pair of scissors or of tongs, a knife or her husband's breeches, in the cradle of her new-born infant; for if she forgot, then was she sure to receive a changeling in its place. Great was the loss of the child to whose baptism the fairies were not inv

ose very kindness to men and women was a species of coquetry, and who neve