CHAPTER VII.

PLANTS IN FAIRY-LORE.


Many plants have gained a notoriety from their connection with
fairyland, and although the belief in this romantic source of
superstition has almost died out, yet it has left its traces in the
numerous legends which have survived amongst us. Thus the delicate white
flowers of the wood-sorrel are known in Wales as "fairy bells," from a
belief once current that these tiny beings were summoned to their
moonlight revels and gambols by these bells. In Ireland they were
supposed to ride to their scenes of merrymaking on the ragwort, hence
known as the "fairies' horse." Cabbage-stalks, too, served them for
steeds, and a story is told of a certain farmer who resided at
Dundaniel, near Cork, and was considered to be under fairy control. For
a long time he suffered from "the falling sickness," owing to the long
journeys which he was forced to make, night by night, with the fairy
folk on one of his own cabbage stumps. Sometimes the good people made
use of a straw, a blade of grass, or a fern, a further illustration of
which is furnished by "The Witch of Fife:"

"The first leet night, quhan the new moon set,
Quhan all was douffe and mirk,
We saddled our naigis wi' the moon-fern leif,
And rode fra Kilmerrin kirk.

Some horses were of the brume-cow framit,
And some of the greine bay tree;
But mine was made of ane humloke schaw,