nd spirits object to the horseshoe; axes
and iron wedges are equally distasteful to them--at all events in
Denmark. So in Brittany, when men go to gather the _herbe d'or_, a
medicinal plant of extraordinary virtue, they go barefooted, in a white
robe and fasting, and no iron may be employed; and though all the
necessary ceremonies be performed, only holy men will be able to find
it. The magical properties of this plant, as well as the rites requisite
to obtain it, disclose its sacredness to the old divinities. It shines
at a distance like gold, and if one tread on it he will fall asleep, and
will come to understand the languages of birds, dogs, and wolves.[219]

In previous chapters we have already had occasion to note this dislike
for iron and steel. Hence the placing of scissors and fire-steel in an
unchristened babe's cradle. Hence the reason for the midwife's casting a
knife behind her when she left the troll's dwelling laden with his
gifts; and for the Islay father's taking the precaution of striking his
dirk into the threshold when he sought his son in the fairy hill. So,
too, in Sweden people who bathed in the sea were gravely advised to cast
into it close to them a fire-steel, a knife, or the like, to prevent any
monster from hurting them. The bolts and locks to which the fairy of
Beddgelert objected would have prevented her free passage into and out
of the house.

In the Pomeranian saga quoted in the last chapter, the enchanted
princess is unable to open the trunk which contains her magical shift:
she must wait for another to open it and give her the garment. In the
same way Hasan's bride could not herself go to the chest and get her
feather-dress. The key was committed to her mother-in-law's care, and
was forced from the old woman by Zubaydah, the Caliph's wife; nor did it
ever come into the fairy's hands, for her dress was fetched for her by
Masrur at Zubaydah's bidding. It is not unlikely that the reason for the
supernatural wife's difficulty in these and analogous cases is the metal
lock and key. But we must not forget that the robe is not always locked
up in a chest. Sometimes it is hidden in a hole in the wall, sometimes
in a stack of corn, sometimes beneath the main-post of the wooden hut in
which the wedded pair are dwelling. Moreover, we must not leave out of
account that in the Nightmare type the wife cannot herself take the
wooden stopper out of the hole through which she entered; but directly
it is