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Evans-Wentz, W Y - The Fairy Faith in Celtic countries - The testimony of Mrs X
Identifier
013941
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
W Y Evans-Wentz - The Fairy Faith in Celtic countries
Mrs. X, a cultured lrishwoman now living in County Dublin, who as a percipient fulfils all the exacting requirements which psychologists and pathologists would demand, tells me that very frequently she has had visions of fairy beings in lreland, and her own classification and description of these fairy beings, chiefly according to their stature, are as follows:--
'Among the usually invisible races which I have seen in lreland, I distinguish five classes.
(1) There are the Gnomes, who are earth-spirits, and who seem to be a sorrowful race. I once saw some of them distinctly on the side of Ben Bulbin. They had rather round heads and dark thick-set bodies, and in stature were about two and one-half feet.
(2) The Leprechauns are different, being full of mischief, though they, too, are small. I followed a leprechaun from the town of Wicklow out to the Carraig Sidhe, "Rock of the Fairies," a distance of half a mile or more, where he disappeared. He had a very merry face, and beckoned to me with his finger.
(3) A third class are the Little People, who, unlike the Gnomes and Leprechauns, are quite good-looking; and they are very small.
(4) The Good People are tall beautiful beings, as tall as ourselves, to judge by those I saw at the rath in Rosses Point. They direct the magnetic currents of the earth.
(5) The Gods are really the Tuatha De Danann, and they are much taller than our race. There may be many other classes of invisible beings which I do not know.'
(Recorded on October l-6, 1910.)