and gesticulating with vivacity, though he could not
hear what they said. He beheld them rub their eyes and bodies with a
sort of pomade, when, lo! their appearance changed, and they were
enabled to walk away in the guise of ordinary women. Hiding carefully
behind a large rock, he watched them out of sight; and then, impelled by
curiosity, he made straight for the cave. There he found what was left
of the pomade, and taking a little on his finger, he smeared it around
his left eye. By this means he found himself able to penetrate the
various disguises assumed by the fairies for the purpose of robbing or
annoying mankind. He recognized as one of that mischievous race a
beggar-woman whom he saw a few days afterwards going from door to door
demanding charity. He saw her casting spells on certain houses, and
peering eagerly into all, as if she were seeking for something to steal.
He distinguished, too, when out in his boat, fish which were real fish
from fish which were in reality "ladies of the sea," employed in
entangling the nets and playing other tricks upon the seamen. Attending
the fair of Ploubalay, he saw several elves who had assumed the shapes
of fortune-tellers, showmen, or gamblers, to deceive the country folk;
and this permitted him to keep clear of their temptations. But as he
smiled to himself at what was going on around him, some of the elves,
who were exhibiting themselves on a platform in front of one of the
booths, caught sight of him; and he saw by the anger in their looks that
they had divined his secret. Before he had time to fly, one of them,
with the rapidity of an arrow, struck his clairvoyant eye with a stick
and burst it. That is what happened to him who would learn the secrets
of the sea-fairies.[40]

Such was the punishment of curiosity; nor is it by fairies alone that
curiosity is punished. Cranmere Pool on Dartmoor is, we are told, a
great penal settlement for refractory spirits. Many of the former
inhabitants of the parish are supposed to be still there expiating their
ghostly pranks. Of the spirit of one old farmer it is related that it
took seven clergymen to secure him. They, however, succeeded at last in
transforming him into a colt, which was given in charge to a servant-boy
with directions to take him to Cranmere Pool, and there on the brink of
the pool to slip off the halter and return instantly without looking
round. He did look round, in spite of the warning, and beheld the colt
in