Fairy Sightings

Posted by Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman Jan 25, 2008

What, no fairies you say?

Balderdash. It's all a manner of where you are looking.

In the UK in particular, fairies are still considered an avid part of existence and helpers to those of the hills. One area in particular, Bredalbane Hills in the UK, is legend for a race of beings known as the Urisk. Considered to be half man/ half fairy they are shunned by both races and looked upon as outcasts. In 1825, the Quarterly Review published an article detailing something of their character with the following anecdote:

"To the very great annoyance of a Highland miller, and to the injury of the machinery, his mill, he found, used to be set to work at night when there was nothing in it to grind. One of his men offered to sit up, and try to discover who it was that did it; 'and, having kindled a good turf-fire, sat by it to watch. Sleep, however, overcame him, and when he awoke about midnight, he saw sitting opposite him a rough shaggy being. Nothing daunted, he demanded his name, and was told that it was Urisk. The stranger, in return, asked the man his name, who replied that it was Myself. The conversation here ended, and Urisk soon fell fast asleep. The man then tossed a panful of hot ashes into his shaggy lap, which set his hair all on fire. In an agony, and screaming with the pain, he ran to the door, and in a loud yelling tone several of his brethren were heard to cry out, "What 's the matter'with you?" "Oh! he set me on fire!" "Who?" "Myself!" "Then put it out yourself" was the reply.

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