hand, the Bavarian peasant has a notion that the elves are very fond of
strawberries; and in order that they may be good-humoured and bless his
cows with abundance of milk, he is careful to tie a basket of this fruit
between the cow's horns.

Of the many legendary origins of the fairy tribe, there is a popular one
abroad that mortals have frequently been transformed into these little
beings through "eating of ambrosia or some peculiar kind of herb."[10]

According to a Cornish tradition, the fern is in some mysterious manner
connected with the fairies; and a tale is told of a young woman who,
when one day listlessly breaking off the fronds of fern as she sat
resting by the wayside, was suddenly confronted by a "fairy widower,"
who was in search of some one to attend to his little son. She accepted
his offer, which was ratified by kissing a fern leaf and repeating
this formula:

"For a year and a day
I promise to stay."

Soon she was an inhabitant of fairyland, and was lost to mortal gaze
until she had fulfilled her stipulated engagement.

In Germany we find a race of elves, somewhat like the dwarfs, popularly
known as the Wood or Moss people. They are about the same size as
children, "grey and old-looking, hairy, and clad in moss." Their lives,
like those of the Hamadryads, are attached to the trees; and "if any one
causes by friction the inner bark to loosen a Wood-woman dies."[11]
Their great enemy is the Wild Huntsman, who, driving invisibly through
the air, pursues and kills them. On one occasion a peasant, hearing the