THE MOTHER, THE NURSE, &c. 153

The woman's blind, the mother cries;
I see wit sparkle in his eyes.

Lord! madam, what a squinting leer!
No doubt the fairy hath been here.

Just as she spoke, a pigmy sprite
Pops through the key-hole, swift as light;
Perch'd on the cradles top he stands,
And thus her folly reprimands.

Whence sprung the vain, conceited lie,
That we the world with fools supply?
What! give our sprightly race away,
For the dull helpless sons of clay!
Besides, by partial fondness shown,
Like

you we doat upon our own. Where yet was ever found a mother, Who'd give her booby for another?

And should we change with human breed,
Well might we pass for fools indeed*.

* Gays Fables.

THE WHIPPING OF THE LITTLE GIRL.

A GIRL, about ten years old, daughter of a woman who lived about two miles from Ballasalli, in the Isle of Man, being sent over the fields to the town, for a pennyworth of tobacco for her father, was, on the top of a mountain, surrounded by a great number of little men, who would not suffer her to pass any farther. Some of them said she should go with them, and accordingly laid hold of her; but one, seeming more pitiful, desired they would let her alone; which they refusing, there ensued a quarrel, and the person who took her part fought bravely in her defence. This so incensed the others, that, to be revenged on her, for being the cause, two or three of them seized her, and, pulling up her clothes, whipped her heartily; after which, it seems, they had no further power over her, and she ran home directly, telling what had befallen her, and showing prints of several small

hands. Several of the towns-people went with her to the mountain, and, she conducting them to the spot, the little antagonists were gone, but had left behind them proofs (as the good woman said) that what the girl had informed them was true; for there was a great deal of blood to be seen on the stones*.

* Waldron, u. s. p. 62.

THE CHRISTENING.

One

ANOTHER Woman, equally superstitious and fanciful as the former, told the author that, being great with child, and expecting every moment the good hour, as she lay awake one night in her bed, she saw seven or eight little women come into her chamber, one of whom had an infant in her arms : they were followed by a man of the same size with themselves, but in the habit of a minister. of them went to the pail, and finding no water in it, cried out to the others, What must they do to christen the child? On which they replied, it should be done in beer. With that, the seeming parson took the child in his arms, and performed the ceremony of baptism, dipping his hand in a great tub of strong-beer, which the woman had brewed the day before, to be ready for her lyingin. She told me, that they baptized the infant by the name of Joan, which made her know she was

pregnant of a girl, as it proved a few days after, when she was delivered. She added also, that it was common for the fairies to make a mockchristening when any person was near her time, and that, according to what child, male or female, they brought, such should the woman bring into the world*.

* Idem, u. s. p. 63.