This they do by making themselves
invisible, and silently milking and removing the milk in invisible
vessels. When people offend them they shoot flint-tipped arrows, and by
this means kill either the persons who have offended them or their
cattle. They cause these arrows to strike the most vital part, but the
stroke does not visibly break the skin, only a _blae_ mark is the result
visible on the body after death. These flint arrow-heads are
occasionally found, and the possession of one of these will protect the
possessor against the power of these astral beings, and at the same time
enable him or her to cure disease in cattle and women. These flints were
often sewed into the dresses of children to protect them from the
Evil-eye. There were many other means of protection against the power of
these beings, which we shall have occasion to refer to again. There is
one method, however, which may be mentioned now. If, when a calf is
born, its mouth be smeared with a balsam of dung, before it is allowed
to suck, the fairies cannot milk that cow.
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