from the earliest ages the world has believed in the existence of a race midway between the angel and man, gifted with power to exercise a strange mysterious influence over human destiny. the persians called this mystic race peris; the egyptians and the greeks named them demons, not as evil, but as mysterious allies of man, invisible though ever present; capable of kind acts but implacable if offended.
the irish called them the sidhe, or spirit-race, or the feadh-ree, a modification of the word peri. their country is the tir-na-oge, the land of perpetual youth, where they live a life of joy and beauty, never knowing disease or death, which is not to come on them till the judgment day, when they are fated to pass into annihilation, to perish utterly and be seen no more. they can assume any form and they make horses out of bits of straw, on which they ride over the country, and to scotland and back. they have no religion, but a great dread of the scapular (latin words from the gospels written by a priest and hung round the neck). their power is great over unbaptized children, and such generally grow up evil and have the evil eye, and bring ill luck, unless the name of god is instantly invoked when they look at any one fixedly and in silence.
all over ireland the fairies have the reputation of being very beautiful, with long yellow hair sweeping the ground, and lithe light forms. they love milk and honey, and sip the nectar from the cups of the flowers, which is their fairy wine.
underneath the lakes, and deep down in the heart of the hills, they have their fairy palaces of pearl and gold, where they live in splendour and luxury, with music and song and dancing and laughter and all joyous things as befits the gods of the earth. if our eyes were touched by a fairy salve we could see them dancing on the hill in the moonlight. they are served on vessels of gold, and each fairy chief, to mark his rank, wears a circlet of gold round his head.
the sidhe race were once angels in heaven, but were cast out as257 a punishment for their pride. some fell to earth, others were cast into the sea, while many were seized by demons and carried down to hell, whence they issue as evil spirits, to tempt men to destruction under various disguises; chiefly, however, as beautiful young maidens, endowed with the power of song and gifted with the most enchanting wiles. under the influence of these beautiful sirens a man will commit any and every crime. then when his soul is utterly black they carry him down to hell, where he remains for ever tortured by the demons to whom he sold himself.
the fairies are very numerous, more numerous than the human race. in their palaces underneath the hills and in the lakes and the sea they hide away much treasure. all the treasure of wrecked ships is theirs; and all the gold that men have hidden and buried in the earth when danger was on them, and then died and left no sign of the place to their descendants. and all the gold of the mine and the jewels of the rocks belong to them; and in the sifra, or fairy-house, the walls are silver and the pavement is gold, and the banquet-hall is lit by the glitter of the diamonds that stud the rocks.
if you walk nine times round a fairy rath at the full of the moon, you will find the entrance to the sifra; but if you enter, beware of eating the fairy food or drinking the fairy wine. the sidhe will, indeed, wile and draw many a young man into the fairy dance, for the fairy women are beautiful, so beautiful that a man’s eyes grow dazzled who looks on them, with their long hair floating like the ripe golden corn and their robes of silver gossamer; they have perfect forms, and their dancing is beyond all expression graceful; but if a man is tempted to kiss a sigh-oge, or young fairy spirit, in the dance, he is lost for ever—the madness of love will fall on him, and he will never again be able to return to earth or to leave the enchanted fairy palace. he is dead to his kindred and race for ever more.
