Faeries 4

Pillywiggins (Flower Fairies, Spring Faeries, The Strangers) Tiddyfollicoles, Tiddy People (Tiny Ones) Hyter Sprites (Mossycoats) Processionaries (Walkers) Culottins (Petticoat People) Patafioles (Intoxicated Ones) Gniafs (Purses) Farisées, Vairies, Feerins, Fées (Enchanted Ones)

The Fees are small & handsome in person; they are fond of dancing in the night-time, & in their dances which are circular they form the Cercles des Fées or fairy-rings. If any one approaches their dance, he is irresistibly impelled to take part in it. He is admitted with the greatest courtesy; but as the whirling movement increases, & goes faster & faster, his head becomes giddy, & he falls to the ground utterly exhausted. Sometimes the fées amuse themselves by flinging him up to a great height in the air, &, if not killed by the fall, he is found next morning full of bruises. These little beings, it is also said, haunt solitary springs, where they wash their linen, which they then dry by way of preference on the Druidic stones, if at hand, & lay up in the hollows of rocks or barrows, thence named Chambres or Grottes des.Fées – Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology: Celts & Cymry: France (19)

Fairy Cup: Any one of a group of bright-red, cup-like or disklike fungi, growing on the ground & on decaying wood. (248:1)

They can shapeshift from half an inch tall to full size and can take the form of toads, green-eyed swallows, pebbles, or dragonflies. They are beautiful with sparkling eyes and have the wings and antennas of dragonflies and butterflies from intermarrying with them. They wear muslin, flower petals, velvet jerkins, high-heeled shoes, coats out of green moss and gold thread, lizard, snakeskin and acorns, corollas and flower bells as hats. They live in the gardens of Scotland, Ireland, England, Holland, and the Ardennes region of Northern France. They dine on pollen, sap, dew, and flower nectar. They dance and gather honey. The greens eat tendrils, buds, shoots, and young leaves. They have long yellow hair, earth-brown skin and black eyes. The grays eat lichen. Farisées eat forget-me-nots. Gniafs eat clover and ride on guerliguets in pursuit of the Lawn Cat. Feerins are from Lancashire and they feed on hyacinth flowers. Their stones are called Strangers’ Tables and they dance by moonlight. Golden balls are given to those they favor. The trooping fairies contain the aristocracy of the fairy world, including the Irish Daoine Sídhe. They are known as trooping faeries because they travel in long processions. (197, 201)

Fairy-ring Mushroom: Wild Agaric: Latin: Marasmius oreades: A dull-yellow or tan cap mushroom with white gills that grows in fairy-rings, a dark-green ring of grass differing in color from grass surrounding it formed by the growth of certain fungi, with a nut flavor. It is often dried & preserved as a food. The mushrooms are the seats on which tired from dancing fairies sit. Fairy rings can become large & last for many years. Sometimes fairies become visible to a person who steps into a fairy ring. (248: 1)