broom, when the dwarfs will come and bring back the stolen
child. Putting it on the dunghill and leaving it there to cry has been
practised successfully in England; but in Ireland this is only one part
of a long and serious ceremony directed by a wizard or "fairy-man." In
dealing with these stories we must always remember that not merely are
we concerned with sagas of something long past, but with a yet living
superstition, and that the practices I am about to mention--even the
most cruel and the most ridiculous of them--so far respond to the actual
beliefs of the people that instances of their occurrence are quite
recent and well authenticated, as we shall presently see. An anonymous
but well-informed writer describes, as if it were by no means an unusual
ceremony, that just referred to; and Kennedy gives the same in the shape
of a legend. It seems to consist in taking a clean shovel and seating
the changeling on its broad iron blade, and thus conveying the creature
to the manure heap. The assistants would then join hands and circle
about the heap thrice while the fairy-man chanted an incantation in the
Irish language. At its conclusion all present would withdraw into the
house, leaving the child where it had been placed, to howl and cry as it
pleased. Says Mr. Kennedy: "They soon felt the air around them sweep
this way and that, as if it was stirred by the motion of wings, but
they remained quiet and silent for about ten minutes. Opening the door,
they then looked out, and saw the bundle of straw on the heap, but
neither child nor fairy. 'Go into your bedroom, Katty,' said the
fairy-man, 'and see if there's anything left on the bed!' She did so,
and they soon heard a cry of joy, and Katty was among them in a moment,
kissing and hugging her own healthy-looking child, who was waking and
rubbing his eyes, and wondering at the lights and all the eager
faces."[89]

Whether it was the noise made by the child or the incantation that drew
the "good people's" attention, we are left in doubt by this story. A
Norman woman was, however, advised to make her child cry lustily "in
order to bring its _real_ mother to it." And this is probably the
meaning of the many tales in which the elf is beaten, or starved and
subjected to other ill-usage, or is threatened with death.[90] In the
Pfloeckenstein Lake in Bohemia wild women are believed to dwell, who,
among other attributes common to elves or fairies, are believed to
change infants.