The Trickster Faeries range from the relatively benign Pixies to the malicious Fir Darrig. Many Faeries enjoy performing pranks of a good, or not so good nature. Leprachauns delight in making greedy mortals look like fools, and find it surprisingly easy. With their abilities of illusion and quick wit, they are rarely dissapointed with an encounter. Their rather mean-spirited cousins, the Fir Darrig, delight in more gruesome pranks and should be avoided. Most Faeries are not quite so malicious and enjoy pranks of opportunity, like causing all the landmarks in the woods to appear at the same time, making a hapless human walk around in circles trying to get home. Spriggins on the other hand find stealing human babies and replacing them with hideous Spriggen children highly amusing.
A similar prank played by many Faeries is the exchange of a changling for a human child. The Faerie child appears the same as a human one, but has a large appetite, is mischievous, malicious, and may have some deformity. The best way to prevent the Faeries from replacing a baby with a changling is to put a bible, piece of iron, red thread or ash berries in the cradle. For all of these are wards against the Faeries. If a child is thought to be a changling, then the best way to get your child back is to startle the changling into revealing its true name. Sometimes the amazement of the changling is enough to make him depart, but more often once his identity is proved he must be thrown on the fire or in the river to get rid of him. He will cry out and his elfen parents will rescue him, bringing the lost human baby back as well.
Many Faeries use the shape-changing abilites to play tricks on mortals. The Chevel Bayard often takes the form of a horse and when humans ride on him, he throws them into the bushes. The Phooka play similar tricks, but takes a wider range of animal forms. The Kelpie also use the horse ruse, as well as that of a beautiful maiden, to lure men into the water with it, where it drowns them.
Faeries also torment humans indirectly by causing all kinds of household mischief, like breaking or spilling objects, causing chores to take twice as long, and harming and stealing livestock. Many of the problems with animals are blamed on the little people, including sudden illnesses and deaths. Wounds would be blamed on elf shot, and even if no would could be found the shot might have caused a stange paralysis. To this day the term "Stroke" is often used to describe a paralytic seizure, but originally came from the expression "Elf-Stroke". |
