“I’ the nicht afore Roodsmass,[23] I had trysted wi’ a neebor lass, a Scots mile frae hame, to tak anent buying braws i’ the Fair. We hadnae sutten lang aneath the haw-buss till we heard the loud laugh o’ fowk riding, wi’ the jingling o’ bridles an’ the clanking o’ hoofs. We banged up, thinking they wad ryde owre us—we kent nae but it was drunken fowk riding to the Fair i’ the fore-nicht. We glowr’d roun’ and roun’, an’ sune saw it was the Fairie Fowks’ Rade. We cowered down till they passed by. A leam o’ light was dancing owre them, mair bonnie than moon-shine; they were a’ wee, wee fowk, wi’ green scarfs on, but ane that rade foremost, and that ane was a guid deal langer than the lave, wi’ bonnie lang hair bun’ about wi’ a strap, whilk glented lyke stars. They rade on braw wee whyte naigs, wi’ unco lang swoaping tails an’ manes hung wi’ whustles that the win’ played on. This, an’ their tongues whan they sang, was like the soun’ of a far-awa’ Psalm. Marion and me was in a brade lea fiel’ whare they cam’ by us; a high hedge o’ haw-trees keepit them frae gaun through Johnnie Corrie’s corn, but they lap a’ owre’t like sparrows an’ gallop’d into a green knowe beyont it. We gaed i’ the morning to look at the tredded corn, but the fient a hoof-mark was there, nor a blade broken.”[(57)]
The accompanying almost idealistic fairy-tale accentuates the idea of the instinct of natural affection with which the fairies were always credited, and their preference for a human mother to nurse their offspring:—
“A fine young woman of Nithsdale was sitting singing and rocking her child, when a pretty lady came into her cottage, covered with a fairy mantle. She carried a beautiful child in her arms, swaddled in green silk.
‘Nurse my child,’ said the Fairy.
The young woman, conscious to whom the child belonged, took it kindly in her arms and laid it to her breast.
The lady instantly disappeared, saying, ‘Nurse kin’, an’ ne’er want!’
The young mother nurtured the two babes, and was astonished whenever she awoke at finding the richest suits of apparel for both children, with meat of most delicious flavour. This food tasted, says tradition, like loaf mixed with wine and honey. It possessed more miraculous properties than the wilderness manna, preserving its relish even over the seventh day.
On the approach of summer the Fairy lady came to see her child. It bounded with joy when it beheld her. She was much delighted with its freshness and activity, and taking it in her arms, she bade the nurse follow. Passing through some scroggy woods, skirting the side of a beautiful green hill, they walked midway up. On its sunward slope a door opened, disclosing a beauteous porch, which they entered, and the turf closed behind them. The Fairy dropped three drops of a precious dew on the nurse’s left eye-lid, and they entered a land of most pleasant and abundant promise. It was watered with fine looping rivulets, and yellow with corn; the fairest trees enclosed its fields, laden with fruit, which dropped honey.
The nurse was rewarded with finest webs of cloth and food of ever-during substance. Boxes of salves, for restoring mortal health and curing mortal wounds and infirmities, were bestowed on her, with a promise of never needing.
The Fairy dropped a green dew over her right eye, and bade her look. She beheld many of her lost friends and acquaintances doing menial drudgery, reaping the corn and gathering the fruits.