A.M. Crellin Manx Folklore: Fairy Legends, Customs & Superstitions chiollagh books mannin Manx Folklore 2 CHIOLLAGH BOOKS [] William Cashen, William Cashen’s ‘Manx Folk-Lore’ () --- [] Thomas H. Kinrade, Life at the Lhen, Kirk Andreas: ‘Notes on the Lhane Mooar and Largagh Districts of Kirk Andreas’ () --- [] Charles Roeder, Skeealyn Cheeil-ChioleeManx Folk-Tales () --- [] W.W. Gill, Customs and Traditions, Cures and Charms, Fairies and Phantoms () --- -- [] A.W. Moore, Manx Folk-Songs () --- [] Mona Douglas, Manx Folk-Song, Folk Dance, FolkloreCollected Writings () --- [] A.M. Crellin, Manx FolkloreFairy Legends, Customs and Superstitions () --- A.M. Crellin Manx Folklore: Fairy Legends, Customs and Superstitions Edited by Stephen Miller Chiollagh Books Isle of Mann ‘Print-on-Demand’ Titles in this series are prepared with the same editorial care and attention as with all titles from Chiollagh Books. However, they are produced in a much smaller number than other titles. As a result it is only economically feasible to reproduce them in a ‘copy-shop’ format. The down-grade in quality is unfortunate, but this is not in any way a reflection upon the worth or value of the material published in this format. This edition first published in by Chiollagh Books Central Drive Onchan Isle of Mann British Isles This Edition © by Chiollagh Books Introduction © by Stephen Miller All Rights Reserved --- British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Contents ₍ ₎ Fairies stopping the Churning, ₍₎Fairies ₍₎Fairies bothering the Miser washing their Clothes, ₍₎Fairy Fight, ₍₎Smelling the Fairies and receiving Harm, ₍₎Fairy Music, ₍₎ A Skeptic ₍₎Meeting Two Glashtins ₍₎Two Fairies spotted in Daylight, ₍₎Harm from the Fairies ₍₎Meeting a Buggane at Night, ₍₎The Sound of the Buggane ₍₎Horse seeing the Fairies at Night, ₍₎Fairy seen in Ballaugh Glen ₍₎A Crowd of Fairies spotted near Gob-e-Volley, ₍₎Fairies disturbed at ₍₎Haunts of the Phynodderee Night, ₍₎Fairies seen at Night in Tellets Wood ₍ ₎ Sight of Ghosts a sign of Death, ₍ ₎ Headless ₍₎Fairies trying to steal the Sleeping Girls Ghost haunting the Highway, ₍ ₎ Ghost haunting the Highway ₍– ₎ How to stop the Fairies from stealing the Baby ₍₎Meeting the Devil at Night ₍₎Harm given to the Farmer begrudging the ₍– ₎ Herb Doctors, ₍₎ Fasting Spittle, ₍–₎ Fairies some Potatoes Herb Doctors, ₍– ₎ The Dead Hand, ₍ ₎ Birth- marks, ₍– ₎ Warts, ₍ ₎ Curing Fits ₍₎Fairies angry at finding no Cake, ₍₎Giving Bonnag to the Fairy, ₍₎Fairies stopping for ₍– ₎ The Evil Eye Dinner - ₍ ₎ Miscellaneous ₍₎Leaving out Bread and Clean Water for the Fairies ₍ ₎ The Witch of Cranstal ₍₎Fairy Fleet a Warning of Stormy Weather , , ₍₎Birth, ₍₎Baptism, ₍– ₎ Weddings, ₍– ₎ Wakes, ₍– ₎ Funerals ₍₎Fairy Dogs ₍– ₎ Corpse Light, ₍₎Sounds of Psalm ₍₎Hatching Eggs Singing, ₍₎Bees a Sign of Death, ₍₎Missing Sleeve taken for a Sign ₍– ₎ Disturbing a Keeil ₍– ₎ Candlemas Day, ₍₎Good Friday, ₍₎ August the First ₍₎Saying about the Frost ₍₎First Footing ₍– ₎ Fisherfolk Beliefs ₍– ₎ Saturday Introduction Manx Folklore: Fairy Legends, Customs and but only produced one further report) and to the end Superstitions brings together material collected by she revealed her frustration with the Society. ‘Having members of the ‘Folk Lore Committee’ of the Isle of only a few Folklore notes … and in the absence of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society which any other matter of that nature, I propose giving a appeared in the Society’s journal, Yn Lioar short account of the “Qualtagh”.’ Manninagh (‘The Manx Book’) in a series of annual reports. The Secretary of the Committee was Miss It was to be largely left to Charles Roeder, a German A.M. Crellin together with the Reverends Kermode, national resident in Manchester, together with Harrison, and Savage, with the membership Edward Faragher (Ned Beg Hom Ruy) of Cregneash, completed by Dr Tellet. to collect what we have extant today from the closing decades of the th century. The Secretary evidently had a difficult time pursuading other members of the Antiquarians to Although only a small corpus of material was collect material. The Report starts with the collected by Crellin and her colleagues, it is comment that ‘the following recent instances are of nevertheless worthy of reproduction. There is a some interest, and may serve to show what collectors valuable focus both on fairy legends and medical may expect if they will only be on the look-out for folklore. them.’ This is a first hint of the frustration that Crellin was to feel with members of the Society and which was to be amplified in her introduction to the Stephen Miller next annual report‘Year by year the old people, who alone are the store houses of these tales and traditions, are dying out. I am convinced that there is still very much left for us to learn from them and gather together, which must be done now or not at The material here has been re-arranged under all.’ (Report for ) headings proposed by myself. The titles of the fairy legends are likewise of my own devising. The The Report for mentions the failure of her idea typography has been brought into line with house that members of the Society could club together to style. Editorial matter has not been reproduced. subscribe to the Folklore Society. Again she calls for members to collect‘I cannot help thinking that many interesting little items are lost through sheer indifference; and I am afraid, too, that that most fatal of Manx proverbs, “Traa-dy-lioar,” [Time Enough] has far too great a fascination for many of us.’ “Report of the Anthropological Section (Folklore).” The Report for continues again in this vein. Yn Lioar Manninagh, (): . Most of the report was contributed by Reverend John Quine, Vicar of Lonan. ‘I only wish they [the Antiquarians] would follow his plan of making notes, and either send them to me or let the Society have “Report of the Folklore and Place-Name Section.” the benefit of them in one way or another. There is, I Yn Lioar Manninagh, (): ‒. am sure, still much to be gleaned.’ The Report asked ‘… I do wish other of our numerous members would exert themselves and do a No material relevant to this collection appeared little more while the old people are still living … superstition still lingers, and is dying hard in many parts of the Island.’ “Report of the Anthropological Section () The Report for was the last that appeared under Folklore.” Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No (): her name (the Folklore Section survived her death ‒. i “Report of Anthropological Section. (.) Folk- Lore.” Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No (): ‒. “Report of Anthropological Section (). Folk Lore.” Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No (): ‒. “Report of Anthropological Section. Folk-Lore ().” Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No (): ‒. “Folk Lore Report—March, .” Yn Lioar Manninagh, , No (): ‒. The volume numbers and dates of publication given above are correctYn Lioar Manninagh has a complex history of appearance. See also, A.M. Crellin, “On some Things Manx now Obsolete.” Yn Lioar Manninagh, (): ‒. Notes on weaving, rushlights, spoon-making, the flail, household furnishings and utensils. Manx Folklore—Fairy Legends, Customs and Superstitions THE FAIRIES ₍ ₎ ₍ ₎ A few years ago, when the Manx Northern Railway was being made, a Manxman who was working on it When butter would not come they would beat the along with Scotch navvy, informed the latter that the churn with fresh nettles then lay them on the top. ‘fairies was taken in his house every night, sure as life,’ they were ‘Singin’ and noisin,’ and making a terrible ₍ ₎ row.’ The navvy said he would like to hear them, so one evening he repaired to the Manxman’s cottage. At N— (Arbory) could often hear the fairies beetling and midnight the host said he was going to bed, ‘he’ wasn’t bleaching their clothes down at the stream. going to sit up and hear ‘them things,’ not he: so off he went, leaving the canny Scotchman in possession of ₍ ₎ the kitchen. Before long a cheerful chirping sound was heard: evidently the ‘fairies’ were coming! and, shortly The old ‘trammans’ (elder trees) at Ballakoig having after, a little army of crickets was seen emerging from been cut down, the fairies came every night to weep the holes and crannies round the hearth. It was too and lament. So many met that a fight ensued, and the much for the navvy; he could not resist killing them following morning the people of the house found the all, and, laying their little dead bodies side by side on ‘sthreet’ strewn with fairies’ thumbs. the hearthstone, went and woke up the Manxman and told him that in the morning he would find the ‘fairies’ ₍ ₎ lying there dead. Need it be added that after that night, no more fairies were ever ‘taken’ in that house! Mrs C— (Arbory), about December , going to the stream for water, passed through a terrible stink–‘between a burnt rag and a stink.’ Again, at the FAIRIES MET BY DAY stream the stink was so ‘thick’ she could scarcely breathe. She said nothing till she got home, then she ₍ ₎ told them she had ‘smelled the fairies.’ John Radcliffe, of Sulby told me that he was one She knew a case ( or years ago) of a girl who, afternoon, sometime during the winter of or , when walking with her sister, said ‘O, Lord! what a shooting in Tellets Wood (Lezayre), and he saw two stink!’ The sister smelled it, but said nothing. Since little figures of very diminutive proportions, peering at then this other has lost her sense of smellnever smelt him from behind a tree. He thought at first they were anything since. And she is alive yet! the children of a man who was cutting timber further up the wood, and he took no more notice of them. On ₍ ₎ getting up to the man he asked him who the children were, and the man said he could not tell.