Waldron gives another
account of a poor woman, to whose offspring, it would seem, the Fairies had
taken a special fancy. A few nights after she was delivered of her first child,
the family were alarmed by a dreadful cry of "Fire!" All flew to the door,
while the mother lay trembling in bed, unable to protect her infant, which
was snatched from the bed by an invisible hand. Fortunately, the return of
the gossips, after the causeless alarm, disturbed the Fairies, who dropped
the child, which was found sprawling and shrieking upon the threshold.
At the good woman's second
accouchement, a tumult was heard in the cowhouse, which drew thither the whole
assistants. They returned, when they found that all was quiet among the cattle,
and lo! the second child had been carried from the bed, and dropped in the
middle of the lane. But, upon the third occurrence of the same kind, the company
were again decoyed out of the sick woman's chamber by a false alarm, leaving
only a nurse, who was detained by the bonds of sleep. On this last occasion,
the mother plainly saw her child removed, though the means were invisible.
She screamed for assistance to the nurse; but the old lady had partaken too
deeply of the cordials which circulate upon such joyful occasions, to be easily
awakened. In short, the child was this time fairly carried off, and a withered,
deformed creature left in its stead, quite naked, with the clothes of the
abstracted infant, rolled in a bundle, by its side. This creature lived nine
years, ate nothing but a few herbs, and neither spoke, stood, walked, nor
performed any other functions of mortality; resembling, in all respects, the
changeling already mentioned.
Source: Sir Walter Scott,
"On the Fairies of Popular Superstition" (Introduction to "The Tale of Tamlane,"
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Poetic Works (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1833),
vol. 2, p. 321-323. Scott's source: Waldron, Isle of Man, p. 128-129.