4. The story of this manikin's clothing differs considerably from that of the fenodyree. The farmer gives him in gratitude for his services a linen shirt every New Year's Eve; and this went on for years, until at last the farmer thought a hemp shirt was good enough to give him. When the clock struck twelve at midnight the manikin raised an angry wail, saying:--
Harden, harden, harden hemp! I will neither grind nor stamp! Had you given me linen gear, I would have served you many a year!
He was no more seen or heard: he vanished for ever. The Cornish counterpart of this brownie reasons in the opposite way; for when, in gratitude for his help in threshing, a new suit of clothes is given him, he hurries away, crying [145]:--
Pisky new coat, and pisky new hood, Pisky now will do no more good.
Here, also, one should compare William Nicholson's account of the brownie of Blednoch [146], in Galloway, who wore next to no clothing:--
Roun' his hairy form there was naething seen, But a philabeg o' the rushes green.
So he was driven away for ever by a newly married wife wishing him to wear an old pair of her husband's breeches:--
But a new-made wife, fu' o' rippish freaks, Fond o' a' things feat for the first five weeks, Laid a mouldy pair o' her ain man's breeks By the brose o' Aiken-drum.
Let the learned decide, when they convene, What spell was him and the breeks between: For frae that day forth he was nae mair seen, And sair missed was Aiken-drum!
The only account which I have been able to find of a Welsh counterpart will be found in Bwca'r Trwyn, in chapter x: he differs in some important respects from the fenodyree and the brownie.
5. A twig of the rowan tree, or wicken, as it is called, was effective against all evil things, including witches. It is useful in many ways to guard the welfare of the household, and to preserve both the live stock and the crops, while placed on the churn it prevents any malign influence from retarding the coming of the butter. I may remark that Celts and Teutons seem to have been generally pretty well agreed as to the virtues of the rowan tree. Bits of iron also are lucky against witches.
6. Fairies are rare, but witches and wizards abound, and some of them have been supposed to change themselves into dogs to worry sheep and cattle, or into toads to poison the swine's troughs. But they do not seem to change themselves into hares, as in Man and other Celtic lands.