Fairy Hammer And Fairy Or Elf Stones
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FAIRY MEN CAPTURED.
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Welsh Folk-lore
Stone hammers of small size have been ascribed to the Fairies, and an
intelligent Welsh miner once told the writer that he had himself seen, in
a very ancient diminutive mine level, stone hammers which, he said, had
once belonged to the Fairies.
Other pre-historic implements, as celts, have been denominated Fairy
remains. Under this head will come flint, or stone arrow-heads. These
in Scotland are known
by the name Elf Shots or Fairy Stones.
Pennant's Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 115, has the following reference
to these arrow-heads:--
Elf Shots, i.e., the stone arrow-heads of the old inhabitants of this
island, are supposed to be weapons shot by Fairies at cattle, to which
are attributed any disorders they have.
Jamieson states in his Dictionary, under the heading Elf Shot:--The Elf
Shot or Elfin Arrow is still used in the Highlands as an amulet.
Tradition, in thus connecting stone implements with the Fairies, throws a
dim light on the elfin community. But evidence is not wanting that the
Celts themselves used stone utensils.
The things which shall now be mentioned, as being connected with the
Fairies, owe their names to no foundation in fact, but are the offspring
of a fanciful imagination, and are attributed to the Fairies in agreement
with the more modern and grotesque notions concerning those beings and
their doings. This will be seen when it is stated that the Fox Glove
becomes a Fairy Glove, and the Mushroom, Fairy Food.