The Good Folk … The little People ... Fairies. As if the wind entering by the open window had blown him, Gideon Baxter went to the bookcase, where, on the top shelf, there was a manuscript his uncle had given him, commenting that if it weren’t idle nonsense it would be a case for the Kirk Session. But the manuscript was written in a scholarly hand, and from respect for scholarship he had kept it. Now, when he wanted it, he could not find it. He searched on, and found it on a lower shelf, where it stood the wrong way up.

THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH

(A Treatise displayeing the Chiefe Curiosities as they are in Use among diverse of the People of Scotland to this Day; SINGULARITIES for the most Part peculiar to that Nation … By Mr Robert Kirk, Minister at Aberfoill. 1691.)

‘These Siths, or FAIRIES, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good People, it would seem, to prevent the Dint of their ill Attempts, (for the Irish use to bless all they fear Harme of); and are said to be of a midle Nature betwixt Man and Angel, as were Daemons thought to be of old; of intelligent studious spirits, and light changable Bodies, (lyke those called Astral,) somewhat of the Nature of a condensed Cloud, and best seen in Twilight. Thes Bodies be so plyable thorough the Subtility of the Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at Pleasure. Some have Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and desecat, they are fed by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors’—‘Those eggs,’ Gideon Baxter said; and read on—‘… for they are empowred to catch as much Prey everywhere as they please.’ In which case they were no pilferers, and further more possessed Free Will. He stared round at his empty room, smiling as if to welcome these guests: intelligent, studious spirits, a companionship he had longed for ever since coming to Cotho. Undoubtedly it was they who listened to his pre-Christmas sermon, listened as his congregation had never done. ‘They are clearly seen by these Men of the SECOND SIGHT to eat at Funeralls and Banquets … So they are seen to carrie the Beer or Coffin with the Corps among the midle-earth Men to the Grave.’ And he had slighted these friendly courteous beings in all his sermons since, shutting his ears to their attention, refusing to take pleasure from it. Dolt! Ingrate! But he would make amends. Watching him as they did (and he had even felt irked by it), they would recognize his change of heart and make allowance for the slow-wittedness of a middle-earth man. He looked at the clock and calculated how many hours of the extended daylight must pass before the twilight when they would be best seen.