Observations placeholder
Keightley, Thomas - The pranks of the Nis
Identifier
011260
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
It is worth adding that there are also stories and myths that describe the person unwittingly removing a spirit they want to keep by allegorically 'give the spirit a new set of clothes', which in spirit terms is an insult as it implies an offer to make them physical.
"When one is paid off one must go away............."
A description of the experience
Thomas Keightley – World Guide
The story of the Nis [Scandinavia]
It is very difficult they say to get rid of a Nis, when one wishes it. A man who lived in a house in which a Nis carried his pranks to great lengths resolved to quit the tenement and leave him there alone. Several cart loads of furniture and other articles were already gone and the man was come to take away the last, which consisted chiefly of empty tubs, barrels and things of that sort. The load was now all ready and the man had just bidden farewell to his house and to the Nis, hoping for comfort in his new habitation when happening from some cause or other to go to the back of the cart, there he saw the Nis sitting on one of the tubs in the cart, plainly with the intention of going along with him wherever he went. The good man was surprised and disconcerted beyond measure at seeing that all his labour was to no purpose, but the Nis began to laugh heartily popped his head up out of the tub and cried to see the bewildered farmer
'Ha! We're moving today you see'
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Thomas Keightley – The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and other Little people
He is evidently of the dwarf family, as he resembles them in appearance and, like them, has the command of money, and the same dislike of noise and tumult. He is the size of a year old child, but has the face of an old man. His usual dress is grey or green with a pointed red cap, but on Michaelmas Day he wears a round hat like those of peasants.
No farmhouse goes on well unless there is a Nis in it, and well is it for the maids and the man when they are in favour with him