TALE XI. THE CHANGELING. A CERTAIN woman having put out her child to nurse in the country, found, when she came to take it home, that its form was so much altered that she scarce knew it; nevertheless, not knowing what time might do, took it home for her own. But, when, after some years, it could neither speak nor go, the poor woman was 'fain' to carry it, with much trouble, in her arms; and, one day, a poor man coming to the door, [said] God bless you, mistress, and your poor child, be pleased to bestow something on a poor man. Ah! this child, replied she, is the cause of all my sorrow ; and related what had happened; adding, moreover, that she thought it was changed, and none of her child. The old man, whom years had rendered more prudent in such matters, told her that to find out the truth, she should make a clear fire, sweep the hearth very clean, and place the child fast in his chair, that he might not fall before it; then break a dozen eggs, and place the four and twenty halfshells before it; then go out, and listen at the door, for if the child spoke, it was certainly a changeling; and then she should carry it out, and leave it on the dunghill to cry, and not to pity it, till she heard its voice no more. The woman, having done all things according to these words, heard the child say, Seven years old was I, before I came to the nurse, and four years have I lived since, and never saw so many milk-pans before. So the woman took it up, and left it upon the dunghill to cry, and not to be pitied, till at last she thought the voice went up into the air; and, coming out, found, there in the stead, her own natural and wellfavoured child*. * Ibi. p. 62. TALE XII. THE CORNISH FAIRIES. ANN Jefferies (for that was her maiden name) of whom the following strange things are related, was born in the parish of St. Teath, in the county of Cornwall, in December 1626, and she is still living, 1696, being now in the 70th year of her age. She is married to one William Warren, formerly hind to the late eminent physician dr. Richard Lower deceased, and now lives as hind to Sir Andrew Slanning of Devon, bart. It is the custom in the county of Cornwall for the most substantial people of each parish, to take apprentices the poors children, and to breed them up till they attain to twenty-one years of age, and, for their service, to give them meat, drink, and clothes. This Ann Jefferies, being a poor mans child of the parish, by providence fell into our family*, where The authors name is Moses Pitt, who communicates she lived several years; being a girl of a bold, daring spirit, she would venture at those difficulties and dangers that no boy would attempt. In the year 1645 (she then being nineteen years old), she being, one day, knitting in an arbour in our garden, there came over the gardenhedge to her (as she affirmed) six persons, of a small stature, all clothed in green, which she called fairies; upon which she was so frighted, that she fell into a kind of convulsion-fit. But, when we found her in this condition, we brought her into the house; and put her to bed, and took great care of her. As soon as she recovered out of her fit, she cries out, "They are just gone out of the window; they are just gone out of the window; do you not see them?" And thus, in the height of her sickness, she would often cry out, and that with eagerness; which expressions were attributed to her distemper, supposing her light-headed. [On her recovery she becomes very religious, goes constantly to church, and takes mighty delight in devotion, although she could not herself read. She even begins to work miracles, and, by the blessing of god, cures her old mistress's leg, which had been hurt by a fall, as she was coming these particulars to the right reverend father in god Edward Fowler lord bishop of Gloucester, printed in 1696. from the mill, with continued stroking of the part affected when our author thus proceeds :] On this, my mother demanded of her, how she came to the knowledge of her fall? She [who had been walking at the time in the gardens and orchard till the old woman came from the mill] made answer, That half a dozen persons told her of it. That, replied my mother, could not be, for there was none came by at that time but my neighbour, who brought me home. Ann answers again, That that was truth, and it was true that half a dozen persons told her so: For, said she, you know I went out of the house into the gardens and orchard, very unwillingly, and now I will tell you the truth of all matters and things which have befallen me. You know, that this my sickness and fits came very suddenly upon me, which brought me very low and weak, and have made me very simple. Now the cause of my sickness was this: I was, one day, knitting of stockings in the arbour in the garden, and there came over the garden-hedge, of a sudden, six small people, all in green clothes, which put me into such a fright, that was the cause of my great sickness and they continue their appearance to me, never less than two at a time, nor never more than eight: they always appear : |