Folk tales

but until the nineteenth century very few of them had been collected and written down. They lived on the lips of the people, being told by mothers and nurses to children and by young and old about the firesides during the long winter evenings. Story-telling formed one of the chief amusements of the Middle Ages.

Fairies

The fairies who appear so commonly in folk tales are known by different names. They are bogies, brownies, goblins, pixies, kobolds (in Germany), trolls (in Denmark), and so on. The Celts, especially, had a lively faith in fairies, and it was from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland that many stories about them became current in Europe after the tenth century. Some students have explained the belief in fairies as due to memories of an ancient pygmy people dwelling in underground homes. But most of these supernatural beings seem to be the descendants of the spirits and demons which in savage fancy haunt the world.

Characteristics

of fairies

A comparison of European folk tales shows that fairies have certain characteristics in common. They live in palaces underneath the ground, from which they emerge at twilight to dance in mystic circles. They are ruled by kings and queens and are possessed of great wealth. Though usually invisible, they may sometimes be seen, especially by people who have the faculty of perceiving spirits. To mortals the fairies are generally hostile, leading wanderers astray, often blighting crops and cattle, and shooting arrows which carry disease and death. They are constantly on the watch to carry off human beings to their realm. A prisoner must be released at the end of a certain time, unless he tastes fairy food, in which event he can never return. Children in cradles are frequently snatched away by the fairies, who leave, instead, imps of their own called "changelings." A changeling may always be recognized by its peevishness and backwardness in learning to walk and speak. If well treated, the fairies will 1 Charles Perrault's Tales of Passed Times appeared at Paris in 1697 A.D. It included the now-familiar stories of "Bluebeard," "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty," and "Little Red Riding Hood." In 1812 A.D. the brothers Grimm published their Household Tales, a collection of stories current in Germany.

sometimes show their gratitude by bestowing on their favorites health, wealth, and long life. Lucky the child who can count on a "fairy god-mother."

Stories of giants are common in folk tales. Giants are often represented as not only big but also stupid, and as easily overcome by keen-witted human foes like "Jack the Giants and ogres Giant-killer." It may be that traditions of prehistoric peoples have sometimes given birth to legends of giants. Another source of stories concerning them has been the discovery of huge fossil bones, such as those of the mammoth or mastodon, which were formerly supposed to be bones of gigantic men. The ogres, who sometimes figure in folk tales, are giants with a taste for human flesh. They recall the cannibals of the savage world.

Werewolves

Werewolves were persons who, by natural gift or magic art, were thought to have the power of turning themselves for a time into wild beasts (generally wolves or bears). In this animal shape they ravaged flocks and devoured young children. A werewolf was said to sleep only two nights in the month and to spend the rest of the time roaming the woods and fields. Trials of persons accused of being werewolves were held in France as late as the end of the sixteenth century. Even now the belief is found in out-of-theway parts of Europe.

Another medieval superstition was that of the evil eye. According to this belief, certain persons could bewitch, injure, and kill by a glance. Children and domestic aniThe evil eye mals were thought to be particularly susceptible to the effects of "fascination." In order to guard against it charms of various sorts, including texts from the Bible, were carried about. The belief in the evil eye came into Europe from pagan antiquity. It survived the Middle Ages and lingers yet among uneducated people.

The superstitions relating to werewolves and the evil eye are particular forms of the belief in witchcraft, or Witchcraft "black magic." The Middle Ages could not escape

this delusion, which was firmly held by the Greeks and Romans

and other ancient peoples. Witchcraft had, indeed, a prehistoric origin and the belief in it still prevails in savage society.

Witches and wizards were supposed to have sold themselves to the Devil, receiving in return the power to work magic. They could change themselves or others into animals, Features of European they had charms against the hurt of weapons, they witchcraft could raise storms and destroy crops, and they could convey thorns, pins, and other objects into their victims'

bodies, thus causing sickness and death. At night they rode on broomsticks through the air and assembled in some lonely place for feasts, dances, and wild revels. At these "Witches' Sabbaths," as they were called, the Devil himself attended and taught his followers their diabolic arts. There were various tests for the discovery of witches and wizards, the most usual being the ordeal by water.1

The numerous trials and executions for witchcraft form a dark page in history. Thousands of harmless old men and women

were put to death on the charge of being leagued with the Devil. Even the most intelligent and humane Witchcraft people believed in the reality of witchcraft and persecutions found a justification for its punishment in the Scriptural command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." The witch epidemic which broke out in America during the seventeenth century, reaching its height at Salem, Massachusetts, was simply a reflection of the European fear and hatred of witches. The Middle Ages inherited from antiquity the observance of unlucky days. They went under the name of "Egyptian days," so called because it was held that on one of them the plagues had been sent to devastate the land of Egypt and on another Pharaoh and his host had been swallowed up in the Red Sea. At least twenty-four days in the year were regarded as very unlucky. At such times one ought not to buy and sell, to build a house, to plant a field, to travel or, in fact, to undertake anything at all important. After the sixteenth century the belief in unlucky days declined, but there still exists a prejudice against fishermen starting out to fish, or seamen to take a voyage, or landsmen a journey, or domestic servants to enter a new place, on a Friday.

207. Popular Amusements and Festivals

Unlucky days

It is pleasant to turn from the superstitions of the Middle Ages to the games,

early as the tenth century,' arose in India as a war game. On each side a king and his general, with chariots, cavalry, elephants, and infantry, met in battle array. These survive in the rooks, knights, bishops, and pawns of the modern game. Checkers is a sort of simplified chess, in which the pieces are all pawns, till they get across the board and become kings. Playing cards are another Oriental invention. They were introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, either by the Arabs or the gypsies. Their first use seems to have been for telling fortunes.

Outdoor games

Many outdoor games are derived from those played in medieval times. How one kind of game may become the parent of many others is seen in the case of the ball-play. The ancients tossed and caught balls as children do now. They also had a game in which each side tried to secure the ball and throw it over the adversary's goal line. This game lasted on into the Middle Ages, and from it football has descended. The ancients seem never to have used a stick or bat in their ball-play. The Persians, however, began to play ball on horseback, using a long mallet for the purpose, and introduced their new sport throughout Asia. Under the Tibetan name of pulu ("ball") it found its way into Europe. When once the mallet had been invented for use on horseback, it could be easily used on foot, and so polo gave rise to the various games in which balls are hit with bats, including tennis, hockey, golf, cricket, and croquet.

The difference between our ideas of what constitutes "sport" and those of our ancestors is shown by the popularity of baiting. In the twelfth century bulls, bears, and even horses Baiting were baited. Cock-fighting formed another common amusement. It was not till the nineteenth century that an English society for the prevention of cruelty to animals succeeded in getting a law passed which forbade these cruel sports. Most other European countries have now followed England's example.

No account of life in the Middle Ages can well omit some

1 See page 428.