So a recompense of straws, dust, birch
leaves, or shavings becomes, as elsewhere told, pure gold, pure silver,
or thalers. Nor is the story confined to Europe. In Dardistan it is
related that a boy, taken down by a Yatsh, or demon, into an underground
palace, is allowed to be present at a Yatsh wedding. He finds the
Yatshes assembled in great force and in possession of a number of
valuables belonging to the dwellers in his own village. On his return
his guide presents him with a sack full of coals, which he empties as
soon as he is out of sight. One little piece, however, remains, and is
transformed into a gold coin when he reaches home.[25]

Conversely, when the midwife is rewarded with that which seems valuable
it turns out worthless. An Irishwoman, in relating a professional
experience among the Good People, wound up her story as follows: "The
king slipped five guineas into my hand as soon as I was on the ground,
and thanked me, and bade me good-night. I hope I'll never see his face
again. I got into bed, and couldn't sleep for a long time; and when I
examined my five guineas this morning, that I left in the table-drawer
the last thing, I found five withered leaves of oak--bad scran to the
giver!" This incident recalls the Barber's tale of his fourth brother in
the "Arabian Nights." This unlucky man went on selling meat to a
sorcerer for five months, and putting the bright new money in which the
latter paid him into a box by itself; but when he came to open the box
he found in it nothing but a parcel of leaves, or, as Sir Richard Burton
has it, bits of white paper cut round to look like coin. Chinese
folklore is full of similar occurrences, which we cannot now stay to
discuss. But, returning to western traditions, there is a way of
counteracting the elves' transforming magic. The wife of a farmer named
Niels Hansen, of Uglerup, in Denmark, was summoned to attend a
troll-wife, who told her that the troll, her husband, would offer her a
quantity of gold; "but," she said, "unless you cast this knife behind
you when you go out, it will be nothing but coal when you reach home".
The woman followed her patient's advice, and so continued to carry
safely home a costly present of gold.[26]

The objection of supernatural beings to iron, and its power of undoing
their charms, will be considered in a future chapter. The good luck of
Niels Hansen's wife offers meantime another subject of interest; for it
was due to her own kindn