Those taken to fairyland lose
the power of calculating the lapse of time, although they are not
unconscious of what is going on around them. Those spirited away to
fairyland may be recovered by their friends or relatives, by performing
certain formula, or--and this was often the method resorted to--by
out-witting the fairies, getting possession of their stolen friends, and
then doing or saying something which fairies cannot bear, upon which
they are forced to depart, leaving the recovered party behind them.
The following information concerning the government, &c., of fairyland,
is taken from Aytoun:--The queen of fairyland was a kind of feudatory
sovereign under Satan, to whom she was obliged to pay _kave_, or tithe
in kind; and, as her own fairy subjects strongly objected to transfer
their allegiance, the quota was usually made up in children who had been
stolen before the rite of baptism had been administered to them. This
belief was at one time universal throughout all Scotland, and was still
prevalent at the beginning of this century.
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