THE GIRL WHO WAS STOLEN BY THE FAIRIES
From Ireland
Nevergo near an Elfin Mound on May Day. For in the month of May the Fairies are very powerful, and they wander about the meadows looking for pretty maidens to carry off to Fairyland.
One beautiful May Day in old Ireland, a young girl fell asleep at noonday on an Elfin Mound. The Fairies saw how pretty she was, so they carried her off to Fairyland, and left in her stead an image that looked exactly like her.
Evening fell, and as the girl did not return home, her mother sent the neighbours to look for her in all directions. They found the image, and, thinking that it was the girl herself, they carried it home, and laid it in her bed. But the image neither moved nor spoke, and lay there silently for two days.
On the morning of the third day an old Witch-woman entered the house, and looking at the image, said:—
“Your daughter is Fairy-struck. Rub this ointment on her forehead, and see what you shall see!”
Then the old woman placed a vial of green ointment in the mother’s hand, and disappeared.
The mother immediately rubbed the forehead of the image, and the girl herself sat up in bed, weeping and wringing her hands.
“Oh, mother!” she cried. “Oh, why did you bring me back! I was so happy! I was in a beautiful palace where handsome Princesses and Princes were dancing to the sweetest music. They made me dance with them, and threw a mantle of rich gold over my shoulders. Now it is all gone, and I shall never see the beautiful palace any more!”
Then the mother wept, and said: “Oh, my child, stay with me! I have no other daughter but you! And if the Fairies take you, I shall die!”
The girl wept loudly at this, and throwing her arms around her mother’s neck, kissed her, and promised that she would not go near the Elfin Mound. And she kept her word, so she never saw the Fairies again.