Witch Hazel's Missing Persons

This Page Is Dedicated To
The Little People

This is a "bit" about the true origin of "the little people", it helps
to prove they existed and that they were witches. The contence is taken from;

The God of the Witches, by Margaret Alice Murray...
Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Garden City, New York, 1960.

Chapter 2. The Worshippers

Mixed quotes and excerptions...

Pg. 40 ...any connection between witches and fairies appears farfetched and preposterous, yet in order to understand the one it is essential to take the other into account.Even when regarded superficially the likeness between the two is apparent.... The traditional costume of the fairy godmother is precisely similar to that of the witch,both women carry sticks-a wand or a crutch- with which they perform magic, both can turn a human being into an animals, both can disappear at will. In short, the real difference is that one is a dainty old lady and the other is a dirty old woman.

pg. 41 If then the fairy godmother and the witch are so closely identical the question of fairies becomes important. The real difficulty in understanding the matter at present day is due to the iron bound prejudice of the modern reader in favour of the tiny elf, the 'two inch men', the little creatures who can 'creep into an acorn-cup' or ride on a butterfly. ...Everything about them is in miniature, and it would hardly be an alarming experience for a mortal to meet a fairy, a creature he could crush between his finger and thumb.
Why then, were our ancestors so afraid of fairies? The horror and fear of them is seen in all the records of the trials in which a witch is accused of visiting the fairy folk. As late as 1600... could bracket the fairies with furies and ghosts:...

pg. 42 In the stories of fairies it is not uncommon to find that the mortal is frightened at meeting the Little People... But the most alarming of all the fairies was Robin Good fellow until Shakespeare made him subordinate to Oberon. The evidence shows that Robin was not a fairy but the god of the Little People,... According to Keightley his names are Puck, Robin Good fellow, Robin Hood, Hobgoblin. ...that he was classed with wicked wights and evil spirits, and he is even alluded to as "Some Robin the divell,..."
The opinion now generally accepted is that the present idea of fairies is due to Shakespeare . Up to this time English fairies were the same type as in those countries where his influence has been less felt. In northern Scotland, in Ireland, and in France, especially Brittany, the fairy is of the size of an ordinary human being and has all the characteristics of a human person. ...There is plenty of literary evidence in the seventeenth century to show that a fairy could be mistaken for an ordinary mortal; and it was not until the appearance of A Midsummer's Night's Dream that the fairy began, in literature, to decrease to its present dimminuitive proportions. Literature, especially through the theatre, altered the popular conception of the old tradition, and the tiny elf of fancy drove out it's human progenitor.
Descriptions of fairies given by eyewitnesses can be found in many accounts in the Middle Ages and slightly later. Jonet Drever in Orkney was 'convict and guilty of fostering of a bargain in the hill of Westray to the fairy folk, called of her our good neighbors....

pg. 44 In almost every case of so called witchcraft, from Joan of Arc in 1431 down to the middle or end of the seventeenth century, the most damning evidence against the accused was acquaintance with the fairies; proof of such acquaintance meant, with very rare exceptions, condemnation to the stake. These fairies were not the little gossamer-winged flower elves of children's tales, but creatures of flesh and blood, who inspired the utmost fear and horror among the comfortable burgher folk of the towns, and filled the priests and ministers of the Christian Church with the desire to exterminate them.
The number of recorded marriages between 'mortals' and fairies is another proof that fairies were the same size as ordinary folk and that they were human.

pg.45 Marriages between 'mortal' women and fairy men were also not infrequent; but unless the girls was captured and kept as a prisoner in the home of the fairies, she remained comfortably in her own village, where she was visited by her fairy husband, and the children were not to be distinguished from 'mortal' children. This shows that the crosss between mortals and fairies was less distinguishable than one between members of a white and of a colored race.
The accounts of fairies, when given by people who for various reasons were unaffected by the influence of Shakespeare, show them as real human beings, smaller than those who made the records but not very noticeably so. They lived in the wild uncultivated parts of the country, not necessarily because they were dispossessed by immigrants but more probably because they were originally entirely pastoral and unacquainted with agriculture. Though they might sometimes be found in woods they preferred open moors and heaths which afforded pasturage for their cattle. Like some of the wild tribes of India they fled from a stranger, were fleet of foot, and so highly skilled in the art of taking cover that they were seldom seen unless they so desired. Their dwelling-places were built of stone, wattle or turf,and were in beehive form, and here whole families lived together as in an Eskimo igloo.

pg.48 The fairies then, were descendants of the early people who inhabited northern Europe; they were pastoral but not nomad, they lived in the unforested parts of the country where there was good pasturage for their cattle, and they used stone in the Neolithic period and metal in the Bronze Age for their tools and weapons. Later on, when the fierce tribes of the Iron Age, the Kelts, poured into Western Europe and to a great extent exterminated the people and the civilization of the Bronze Age, those folk who lived in the wild parts escaped the general massacre and learned that their best defence was to strike terror into the hearts of their savage neighbors. To them the new metal was part of the equipment of their formidable enemies and they held it in horror, but they still worked so well in bronze that their swords were coveted by the invaders.It was from our ancestors of the Iron Age that the traditional fear of the fairies was derived.

pg.49
and
pg.50
That the fairies, i.e. the witches, had settled in the villages is shown by the statements of the contemporary recorders. Sprenger, in Malleus Maleficarum,: 'there is not so little a parish but there are many witches known to be therein.' - is proof that the religion that was not originally confined only to the poor and ignorant but counted the highest ranks among its members. The fact that it was hereditary shows that it was universal... The only explanation of the immense numbers of witches who were loegally tried and put to death in western Europe is that we are dealing with a religion which was spread over the whole continent and counted its members in every rank of society, from the highest to the lowest.

pg.51
and
pg.52 The theory that the fairies began as the Neolithic folk is supported by the Irish tradition of the Tuatha-da-Danann, who are the same as the English and Continental fairy-folk. They were 'great necromancers, skilled in all magic, and excellent in all arts as builders, poets and musicians.' They were also great horse-breeders, stabling their horses in caves in the hills. When the Milesians, who seem to have been the people of the Bronze Age, invaded Ireland they endeavored to exterminate the Tuatha, but by degrees the two races learned to live peaceably side by side.
...has been recorded by eyewitnesses as to the appearance, dress and habits of the little people. The houses are seldom described, for not only were they difficult to find, being carefully concealed, but the owners did not welcome visitors of any race. The fairies had a disconcerting habit of appearing and disapearinng when least expected , a habit which seemed magical to the slow-moving heavy-footed agriculturists of the villages. Yet dexterity in taking cover was only natural in a people who must often have owed their lives to quickness of movement and ability to remain motionless. These primitive people or fairies were spread across the country in little communities, each governed by its own ruler, as in modern Africa. ... every district in Ireland had its peculiar and separate fairy chief or king. Occasionally the names of the fairy kings and queens survived.

Pg. 54 From the great importance of the queen in the community it would seem that she was the real ruler and that the king had only a secondary place, except perhaps in case of war. Property appears to have been communal, consequently marriage laws were non-existant, as was the case among the Picts; and the fairy-queen in particular was never bound to one husband only....? one reason why the Christian Church, so hated the fairies?...

Pg. 58 If then my theory is correct we have in the medieval accounts of the fairies a living tradition of the Neolithic and Bronze Age people who inhabited western Europe. With further study it might be possible to show the development of intercourse with the people of the Iron Age, by whose descendants they were finally absorbed. The last authentic account of the fairies occurs in Scotland at the end of the seventeenth century, but in England they had dissapeared long before. This strange and interesting people and their primitive civilization have degenerated into the diminutive gossamer winged sprites of legend and fancy, and occur only in stories to amuse children. The real upland-dweller, who struck terror into the lowlanders and horrified the priests of the Christian faith, has vanished utterly.

Pg. 40	...any connection between witches and fairies appears farfetched and preposterous, yet in order to understand the one it is essential to take the other into account.Even when regarded superficially the likeness between the two is apparent.... The traditional costume of the fairy godmother is precisely similar to that of the witch,both women carry sticks-a wand or a crutch- with which they perform magic, both can turn a human being into an animals, both can disappear at will. In short, the real difference is that one is a dainty old lady and the other is a dirty old woman.
pg. 41	If then the fairy godmother and the witch are so closely identical the question of fairies becomes important. The real difficulty in understanding the matter at present day is due to the iron bound prejudice of the modern reader in favour of the tiny elf, the 'two inch men', the little creatures who can 'creep into an acorn-cup' or ride on a butterfly. ...Everything about them is in miniature, and it would hardly be an alarming experience for a mortal to meet a fairy, a creature he could crush between his finger and thumb. Why then, were our ancestors so afraid of fairies? The horror and fear of them is seen in all the records of the trials in which a witch is accused of visiting the fairy folk. As late as 1600... could bracket the fairies with furies and ghosts:...
pg. 42	In the stories of fairies it is not uncommon to find that the mortal is frightened at meeting the Little People... But the most alarming of all the fairies was Robin Good fellow until Shakespeare made him subordinate to Oberon. The evidence shows that Robin was not a fairy but the god of the Little People,... According to Keightley his names are Puck, Robin Good fellow, Robin Hood, Hobgoblin. ...that he was classed with wicked wights and evil spirits, and he is even alluded to as "Some Robin the divell,..." The opinion now generally accepted is that the present idea of fairies is due to Shakespeare . Up to this time English fairies were the same type as in those countries where his influence has been less felt. In northern Scotland, in Ireland, and in France, especially Brittany, the fairy is of the size of an ordinary human being and has all the characteristics of a human person. ...There is plenty of literary evidence in the seventeenth century to show that a fairy could be mistaken for an ordinary mortal; and it was not until the appearance of A Midsummer's Night's Dream that the fairy began, in literature, to decrease to its present dimminuitive proportions. Literature, especially through the theatre, altered the popular conception of the old tradition, and the tiny elf of fancy drove out it's human progenitor. Descriptions of fairies given by eyewitnesses can be found in many accounts in the Middle Ages and slightly later. Jonet Drever in Orkney was 'convict and guilty of fostering of a bargain in the hill of Westray to the fairy folk, called of her our good neighbors....
pg. 44	In almost every case of so called witchcraft, from Joan of Arc in 1431 down to the middle or end of the seventeenth century, the most damning evidence against the accused was acquaintance with the fairies; proof of such acquaintance meant, with very rare exceptions, condemnation to the stake. These fairies were not the little gossamer-winged flower elves of children's tales, but creatures of flesh and blood, who inspired the utmost fear and horror among the comfortable burgher folk of the towns, and filled the priests and ministers of the Christian Church with the desire to exterminate them. The number of recorded marriages between 'mortals' and fairies is another proof that fairies were the same size as ordinary folk and that they were human.
pg.45	Marriages between 'mortal' women and fairy men were also not infrequent; but unless the girls was captured and kept as a prisoner in the home of the fairies, she remained comfortably in her own village, where she was visited by her fairy husband, and the children were not to be distinguished from 'mortal' children. This shows that the crosss between mortals and fairies was less distinguishable than one between members of a white and of a colored race. The accounts of fairies, when given by people who for various reasons were unaffected by the influence of Shakespeare, show them as real human beings, smaller than those who made the records but not very noticeably so. They lived in the wild uncultivated parts of the country, not necessarily because they were dispossessed by immigrants but more probably because they were originally entirely pastoral and unacquainted with agriculture. Though they might sometimes be found in woods they preferred open moors and heaths which afforded pasturage for their cattle. Like some of the wild tribes of India they fled from a stranger, were fleet of foot, and so highly skilled in the art of taking cover that they were seldom seen unless they so desired. Their dwelling-places were built of stone, wattle or turf,and were in beehive form, and here whole families lived together as in an Eskimo igloo.
pg.48	The fairies then, were descendants of the early people who inhabited northern Europe; they were pastoral but not nomad, they lived in the unforested parts of the country where there was good pasturage for their cattle, and they used stone in the Neolithic period and metal in the Bronze Age for their tools and weapons. Later on, when the fierce tribes of the Iron Age, the Kelts, poured into Western Europe and to a great extent exterminated the people and the civilization of the Bronze Age, those folk who lived in the wild parts escaped the general massacre and learned that their best defence was to strike terror into the hearts of their savage neighbors. To them the new metal was part of the equipment of their formidable enemies and they held it in horror, but they still worked so well in bronze that their swords were coveted by the invaders.It was from our ancestors of the Iron Age that the traditional fear of the fairies was derived.
pg.49 and pg.50	That the fairies, i.e. the witches, had settled in the villages is shown by the statements of the contemporary recorders. Sprenger, in Malleus Maleficarum,: 'there is not so little a parish but there are many witches known to be therein.' - is proof that the religion that was not originally confined only to the poor and ignorant but counted the highest ranks among its members. The fact that it was hereditary shows that it was universal... The only explanation of the immense numbers of witches who were loegally tried and put to death in western Europe is that we are dealing with a religion which was spread over the whole continent and counted its members in every rank of society, from the highest to the lowest.
pg.51 and pg.52	The theory that the fairies began as the Neolithic folk is supported by the Irish tradition of the Tuatha-da-Danann, who are the same as the English and Continental fairy-folk. They were 'great necromancers, skilled in all magic, and excellent in all arts as builders, poets and musicians.' They were also great horse-breeders, stabling their horses in caves in the hills. When the Milesians, who seem to have been the people of the Bronze Age, invaded Ireland they endeavored to exterminate the Tuatha, but by degrees the two races learned to live peaceably side by side. ...has been recorded by eyewitnesses as to the appearance, dress and habits of the little people. The houses are seldom described, for not only were they difficult to find, being carefully concealed, but the owners did not welcome visitors of any race. The fairies had a disconcerting habit of appearing and disapearinng when least expected , a habit which seemed magical to the slow-moving heavy-footed agriculturists of the villages. Yet dexterity in taking cover was only natural in a people who must often have owed their lives to quickness of movement and ability to remain motionless. These primitive people or fairies were spread across the country in little communities, each governed by its own ruler, as in modern Africa. ... every district in Ireland had its peculiar and separate fairy chief or king. Occasionally the names of the fairy kings and queens survived.
Pg. 54	From the great importance of the queen in the community it would seem that she was the real ruler and that the king had only a secondary place, except perhaps in case of war. Property appears to have been communal, consequently marriage laws were non-existant, as was the case among the Picts; and the fairy-queen in particular was never bound to one husband only....? one reason why the Christian Church, so hated the fairies?...
Pg. 58	If then my theory is correct we have in the medieval accounts of the fairies a living tradition of the Neolithic and Bronze Age people who inhabited western Europe. With further study it might be possible to show the development of intercourse with the people of the Iron Age, by whose descendants they were finally absorbed. The last authentic account of the fairies occurs in Scotland at the end of the seventeenth century, but in England they had dissapeared long before. This strange and interesting people and their primitive civilization have degenerated into the diminutive gossamer winged sprites of legend and fancy, and occur only in stories to amuse children. The real upland-dweller, who struck terror into the lowlanders and horrified the priests of the Christian faith, has vanished utterly.