ther,
especially in the case of substitutions popularly supposed to be through
fairy agency. There was formerly a widespread superstition that infants
were sometimes stolen from their cradles by the fairies. Any specially
peevish or weakly baby was regarded as a changeling, the word coming at
last to be almost synonymous with imbecility. It was thought that the
elves could only effect the exchange before christening, and in the
highlands of Scotland babies were strictly watched till then. Strype
states that in his time midwives had to take an oath binding themselves
to be no party to the theft or exchange of babies. The belief is
referred to by Shakespeare, Spenser and other authors. Pennant, writing
in 1796, says: "In this very century a poor cottager, who lived near the
spot, had a child who grew uncommonly peevish; the parents attributed
this to the fairies and imagined it was a changeling. They took the
child, put it in a cradle, and left it all night beneath the "Fairy Oak"
in hopes that the _tylwydd teg_ or fairy family would restore their own
before morning. When morning came they found the child perfectly quiet,
so went away with it, quite confirmed in their belief" (_Tour in
Scotland_, 1796, p. 257).

See W. Wirt Sikes, _British Goblins_ (1880).

CHANGOS, a tribe of South American Indians who appear to have originally
inhabited the Peruvian coast. A few of them still live on the coast of
Atacama, northern Chile. They are a dwarfish race, never exceeding 5 ft.
in height. Their sole occupation is fishing, and in former times they
used boats of inflated sealskins, lived in sealskin huts, and slept on
heaps of dried seaweed. They are a hospitable and friendly people, and
never resisted the whites.

CHANGRA, or KANGHARI (anc. _Gangra_; called also till the time of
Caracalla, _Germanicopolis_, after the emperor Claudius), the chief town
of a sanjak of the same name in the Kastamuni vilayet, Asia Minor,
situated in a rich, well-watered valley; altitude 2500 ft. The ground is
impregnated with salt, and the town is unhealthy. Pop. (1894) 15,632, of
whom 1086 are Christians (Cuinet). Gangra, the capital of the
Paphlagonian kingdom of Deiotarus Philadelphus, son of Castor, was taken
into the Roman province of Galatia on his death in 6-5 B.C. The earlier
town, the name of which signified "she-goat," was built on the hill
behind the modern city, on which are the ruins of a late fortress; while
the Roman cit