The peat-fire flame : folk-tales and traditions of the Highlands & Islands

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rWE tEAT-FlRE FLAME
in olden days was known as the Seventh Bread. They also
have a partiality for the stalks and tops of heather, and for
young, fresh heather-shoots. Their milk is the milk of the
goat and of the red deer hind; and the milk of ordinary
cows spilt in the byre, or between the byre and the house, has
been regarded as their perquisite through many centuries.
The elle-woman, or female faery, often may be seen on the
hills, milking the hinds, just as ordinary, mortal women milk
domesticated cows.
Close to the knolls or knowes, which form the faeries'
habitations, and are sometimes spoken of as Elf-hillocks,
may be found those circles of dark-green grass, known as
Faery Rings, or Faery Greens. On these the faeries dance
and revel when, on moonlit nights, they emerge from their
dwellings underground. Under no circumstances must
mortal men essay to cultivate a Faery Green, or permit their
livestock to damage or pollute it in any way. Murrain
among beasts—the fifth of the dreaded plagues of Egypt
in the days of Moses—befell the cattle of a crofter in
Caithness, who interfered with a faery knowe; and so
serious was the plague that the need-fire had to be employed
to stay it. The need-fire, or neid-fire, was the name applied
to fire produced by the friction of two pieces of wood. To
such fire certain virtues were superstitiously attached in
olden times.
The following quotation from Chambers's Popular
Rhymes describes what may happen when one seeks to till
a Faery Green
" He wlia tills the faeries' green
Nae luck again shall hae :
And he wha spills the faeries' ring
Betide him want and wae,
For weirdless days and weary nights
Are his till his deein' day.
But he wha gaes by the faery ring,
Nae dule nor pine shall see
And he wha cleans the faery ring,
An easy death shall dee."
Faeryland is ruled by a king—the King of the Faeries.
He is assisted in the administration of his court and kingdom
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