[14] A Manx gentleman assured Waldren that he had lost three or four hunters by these nocturnal excursions, as the fairies would not condescend to ride Manx ponies. In Norway, however, they have no choice.
[15] “Upon a time, when he (Lord Duffus) was walking abroad in the fields, near his own house, he was suddenly carried away, and found next day at Paris, in the French king’s cellar, with a silver cup in his hand. Being brought into the king’s presence, and questioned who he was, and how he came thither, he told his name, country, and place of residence; and that, on such a day of the month (which proved to be the day immediately preceding), being in the fields, he heard a noise of a whirlwind, and of voices crying, ‘Horse and Hattock!’ (this is the word the fairies are said to use when they remove from any place); whereupon he cried, ‘Horse and Hattock’ also, and was immediately caught up, and transported through the air by the fairies to that place; where, after he had drank heartily, he fell asleep; and, before he awakened, the rest of the company were gone.”—Letter from Scotland to Aubrey, quoted by W. Scott. I could not learn what the mot of the fairy pack is in Sætersdal, or that there was any at all. Still the Norsk superstition is clearly the parent of the Scotch one.
[16] The word is written with or without h.
[17] “Some of the Highland seers, even in our day, have boasted of their intimacy with elves as an innocent and advantageous connexion.”—Walter Scott, Border Minstrelsy.
[18] Mr. Bellenden Kerr’s theory of a political and much less ancient origin for these rhymes is surely more ingenious than correct.
[19] This alludes to the custom of sprinkling the girdle-cake with a brush during the baking.
[20] Like our “Rompty idity, row, row, row.”
[21] The day on which Thor is on his rounds; and when, therefore, the little people are forced to sing small.
“If this glass do break or fall,