is contained in a letter from a learned
gentleman in Scotland, to Mr Aubrey, dated 15th March, 1695, published
in AUBREY'S _Miscellanies,_ p. 158.

[Footnote A: This idea is not peculiar to the Gothic tribes, but extends
to those of Sclavic origin. Tooke (_History of Russia,_ Vol. I. p.
100) relates, that the Russian peasants believe the nocturnal daemon,
_Kikimora_, to have been a child, whom the devil stole out of the womb
of its mother, because she had cursed it. They also assert, that if
an execration against a child be spoken in an evil hour, the child is
carried off by the devil. The beings, so stolen, are neither fiends nor
men; they are invisible, and afraid of the cross and holy water; but, on
the other hand, in their nature and dispositions they resemble mankind,
whom they love, and rarely injure.]

Notwithstanding the special example of Lord Duffus, and of the top, it
is the common opinion, that persons, falling under the power of the
Fairies, were only allowed to revisit the haunts of men, after
seven years had expired. At the end of seven years more, they again
disappeared, after which they were seldom seen among mortals. The
accounts they gave of their situation, differ in some particulars.
Sometimes they were represented as leading a life of constant
restlessness, and wandering by moon-light. According to others, they
inhabited a pleasant region, where, however, their situation was
rendered horrible, by the sacrifice of one or more individuals to the
devil, every seventh year. This circumstance is mentioned in Alison
Pearson's indictment, and in the _Tale of the Young Tamlane,_ where
it is termed, "the paying the kane to hell," or, according to some
recitations, "the teind," or tenth. This is the popular reason assigned
for the desire of the Fairies to abstract young children, as substitutes
for themselves in this dreadful tribute. Concerning the mode of winning,
or recovering, persons abstracted by the Fairies, tradition differs; but
the popular opinion, contrary to what may be inferred from the following
tale, supposes, that the recovery must be effected within a year and a
day, to be held legal in the Fairy court. This feat, which was reckoned
an enterprize of equal difficulty and danger, could only be accomplished
on Hallowe'en, at the great annual procession of the Fairy court.[A]
Of this procession the following description is found in Montgomery's
_Flyting against Polwart,_ apud _Watson's Collecti