CHAPTER V.
DEAR BROWNIE.
BROWNIE, the willing drudge, the kind little housemate, was the mostpopular of all fairies; and it is he whom we now love and know best.
He was a sweet, unselfish fellow; but very wide awake as well, full ofmischief, and spirited as a young eagle, when he was deprived of hisrights. He belonged to a tribe of great influence and size, and eachdivision of that tribe, inhabiting different countries, bore a differentname. But the word Brownie, to English-speaking people, will serve asmeaning those fairies who attached themselves persistently to any spotor any family, and who labored in behalf of their chosen home.
The Brownie proper belonged to the Shetland and the Western Isles, toCornwall, and the Highlands and Borderlands of Scotland. He was anindoor gentleman, and varied in that from our friends the Black andLight Elves. He took up his dwelling in the house or the barn, sometimesin a special corner, or under the roof, or even in the cellar pantries,where he ate a great deal more than was good for him. In the beginninghe was supposed to have been covered with short curly brown hair, like aclipped water-spaniel, whence his name. But he changed greatly inappearance. Later accounts picture him with a homely, sunburnt littleface, as if bronzed with long wind and weather; dark-coated, red-capped,and shod with noiseless slippers, which were as good as wings to hisrestless feet. Along with him, in Scotch houses, and in English housessupplanting him, often lived the Dobie or Dobbie who was not by anymeans so bright and active ("O, ye stupid Dobie!" runs a common phrase),and therefore not to be confounded with him.
BROWNIE'S DELIGHT WAS TO DO DOMESTIC SERVICE.]
Brownie's delight was to do domestic service; he churned, baked, brewed,mowed, threshed, swept, scrubbed, and dusted; he set things in order,saved many a step to his mistress, and took it upon himself to managethe maid-servants, and reform them, if necessary, by severe and originalmeasures. Neatness and precision he dearly loved, and never forgot todrop a penny over-night in the shoe of the person deserving well of him.But lax offenders he pinched black and blue, and led them an excitinglife of it. His favorite revenge, among a hundred equally ingenious, wasdragging the disorderly servant out of bed. A great poet announced inBrownie's name:
'Twixt sleep and wake I do them take, And on the key-cold floor them throw! If out they cry Then forth I fly, And loudly laugh I: "Ho, ho, ho!"
Like all gnomes truly virtuous, he could be the worst varlet, the mostmeddlesome, troublesome, burdensome urchin to be imagined, when the whimwas upon him. At such times he gloried in undoing all his good deeds;and by way of emphasizing his former tidiness and industry, he torecurtains, smashed dishes, overturned tables, and made havoc among thekitchen-pans. All this was done in a sort of holy wrath; for be it toBrownie's credit, that if he were treated with courtesy, and if theservants did their own duties honestly, he was never other than hisgentle, well-behaved, hard-working little self.
He asked no wages; he had a New England scorn of "tipping," when he hadbeen especially obliging; and he could not be wheedled into acceptingeven so much as a word of praise. A farmer at Washington, in Sussex,England, who had often been surprised in the morning at the large heapsof corn threshed for him during the night, determined at last to sit upand watch what went on. Creeping to the barn-door, and peering through achink, he saw two manikins working away with their fairy flails, andstopping an instant now and then, only to say to each other: "See how Isweat! See how I sweat!" the very thing which befell Milton's "lubbarfiend" in L'Allegro. The farmer, in his pleasure, cried: "Well done, mylittle men!" whereupon the startled sprites uttered a cry, and whirledand whisked out of sight, never to toil again in his barn.
It is said that not long ago, there was a whole tribe of tiny, nakedKobolds (Brownie's German name) called Heinzelmaenchen, who boundthemselves for love to a tailor of Cologne, and did, moreover, all thewashing and scouring and kettle-cleaning for his wife. Whatever workthere was left for them to do was straightway done; but no man everbeheld them. The tailor's prying spouse played many a ruse to get sightof them, to no avail. And they, knowing her curiosity and grieved at it,suddenly marched, with music playing, out of the town forever. Peopleheard their flutes and viols only, for none saw the little exilesthemselves, who got into a boat, and sailed "westward, westward!" likeHiawatha, and the city's luck is thought to have gone with them.
But Brownie, who would take neither money, nor thanks, nor a glance ofmortal eyes, and who departed in high dudgeon as soon as a reward wasoffered him, could be bribed very prettily, if it were done in a politeand secretive way. He was not too scrupulous to pocket whatever might bedropped on a stair, or a window-sill, where he was sure to pass severaltimes in a day, and walk off, whistling, to keep his own counsel, andsay nothing about it. And for goodies, mysterious goodies left in queerplaces by chance, he had excellent tooth. Housewives, from the era ofthe first Brownie, never failed slyly to gladden his favorite haunt withthe dish which he liked best, and which, so long as it was fresh andplentiful, he considered a satisfactory squaring-up of accounts. One ofthese desired treats was knuckled cakes, made of meal warm from themill, toasted over the embers, and spread with honey. To other tidbits,also, he was partial; but, first and last, he relished his bowl of creamleft on the floor overnight. Cream he drank and expected the world over;and in Devon, and in the Isle of Man, he liked a basin of water for abath.
BROWNIE RELISHES HIS BOWL OF CREAM.]
Fine clothes were quite to his mind; he was very vain when he had them;and it was what Pet Marjorie called "majestick pride," and no whim ofanger or sensitiveness, which sent him hurrying off the moment hiswardrobe was supplied by some grateful housekeeper, to eschew workforever after, and set himself up as a gentleman of leisure. Many funnystories are told of his behavior under an unexpected shower of drygoods. Brownie, who in his humble station, was so steadfast andsensible, had his poor head completely turned by the vision of a newbright-colored jacket. The gentle little Piskies or Pixies ofDevonshire, who are of the Brownie race, and very different from themalicious Piskies in Cornwall, were likewise great dandies, and sure todecamp as soon as ever they obtained a fresh cap or petticoat. Indeed,they dropped violent hints on the subject. Think of a sprite-of-all-work,recorded as being too proud to accept any regular payment even in fruitor grain, standing up brazenly before his mistress, his sly eyes fixedon her, drawling out this absurd, whimpering rhyme (for Piskies scornedto talk prose!):
Little Pisky, fair and slim, Without a rag to cover him!
With his lisp, and his funny snicker, and his winning impudencegenerally, don't you think he could have wheedled clothes out of astone? Of course the lady humored him, and made him a costly, trimmedsuit; and the ungrateful small beggar made off with it post-haste,chanting to another tune:
Pisky fine, Pisky gay! Pisky now will run away.
The moment the Brownie-folk could cut a respectable figure infashionable garments, they turned their backs on an honest living, andskurried away to astonish the belles in Fairyland.
Very much the same thing befell some German house-dwarves, who used tohelp a poor smith, and make his kettles and pans for him. They tooktheir milk evening by evening, and went back gladly to their work, tothe smith's great profit and pleasure. When he had grown rich, histhankful wife made them pretty crimson coats and caps, and laid bothwhere the wee creatures might stumble on them. But when they had put theuniforms on, they shrieked "Paid off, paid off!" and, quitting a taskhalf-done, returned no more.
The Pisky was not alone in his bold request for his sordid littleheart's desire. A certain Pueck lived thirty years in a monastery inMecklenburg, Germany, doing faithful drudgery from his youth up; and oneof the monks wrote, in his ingenious Latin, that on going away, all heasked was "_tunicam de diversis coloribus, et tintinnabulis plenam!_"You may put the goblin's vanity into English for yourselves. Brownie isknown as Shelley-coat in parts of Scotland, from a German term meaningbell, as he wears a bell, like the Ruegen Dwarves, on his
parti-coloredcoat.
"_Tunicam de diversis coloribus, et tintinnabulisplenam!_" WAS ALL THAT PUeCK DEMANDED.]
The famous Cauld Lad of Hilton was considered a Brownie. If everythingwas left well-arranged in the rooms, he amused himself by night withpitching chairs and vases about; but if he found the place in confusion,he kindly went to work and put it in exquisite order. But the Cauld Ladwas, more likely, by his own confession, a ghost, and no true fairy.Romances were told of him, and he had been heard to sing this canticle,which makes you wonder whether he had ever heard of the House that JackBuilt:
Wae's me, wae's me! The acorn's not yet fallen from the tree That's to grow the wood that's to make the cradle That's to rock the bairn that's to grow to the man That's to lay me!
It was only ghosts who could be "laid," and to "lay" him meant to givehim freedom and release, so that he need no longer go about in thatbareboned and mournful state.
But the merriest grig of all the Brownies was called in SouthernScotland, Wag-at-the-Wa'. He teased the kitchen-maids much by sittingunder their feet at the hearth, or on the iron crook which hung from thebeam in the chimney, and which, of old, was meant to accommodate potsand kettles. He loved children, and he loved jokes; his laugh was verydistinct and pleasant; but if he heard of anybody drinking anythingstronger than home-brewed ale, he would cough virtuously, and frownupon the company. Now Wag-at-the-Wa' had the toothache all the time,and, considering his twinges, was it not good of him to be so cheerful?He wore a great red-woollen coat and blue trousers, and sometimes a greycloak over; and he shivered even then, with one side of his poor facebundled up, till his head seemed big as a cabbage. He looked impish andwrinkled, too, and had short bent legs. But his beautiful, clever tailatoned for everything, and with it, he kept his seat on the swingingcrook.
"WAG-AT-THE-WA'."]
Scotch fairies called Powries and Dunters haunted lonelyBorder-mansions, and behaved like peaceable subjects, beating flax fromyear to year. The Dutch Kaboutermannekin worked in mills, as well as inhouses. He was gentle and kind, but "touchy," as Brownie-people are.Though he dressed gayly in red, he was not pretty, but boasted a finegreen tint on his face and hands. Little Killmoulis was a mill-hauntingbrother of his, who loved to lie before the fireplace in the kiln. Thisprecious old employee was blest with a most enormous nose, and with nomouth at all! But he had a great appetite for pork, however he managedto gratify it.
Bolieta, a Swiss Kobold, distinguished himself by leading cows safelythrough the dangerous mountain-paths, and keeping them sleek and happy.His branch of the family lived as often in the trunk of a near tree, asin the house itself.
In Denmark and Sweden was the Kirkegrim, the "church lamb," whosometimes ran along the aisles and the choir after service-time, and tothe grave-digger betokened the death of a little child. But there wasanother Kirkegrim, a proper church-Brownie, who kept the pews neat, andlooked after people who misbehaved during the sermon.
As queer as any of these was the Phynodderee, or the Hairy One, the Isleof Man house-helper. He was a wild little shaggy being, supposed to bean exile from fairy society, and condemned to wander about alone untildoomsday. He was kind and obliging, and drove the sheep home, orgathered in the hay, if he saw a storm coming.
The Klabautermann was a ship-Brownie, who sat under the capstan, and intime of danger, warned the crew by running up and down the shrouds ingreat excitement. This eccentric Flying Dutchman had a fiery red head,and on it a steeple-like hat; his yellow breeches were tucked into heavyhorseman's boots.
Huettchen was a German Brownie, who lived at court, but who dressed likea little peasant, with a flapping felt hat over his eyes. The Alraun, asort of house-imp shorn of all his engaging diligence, was very small,his body being made of a root; he lived in a bottle. If he was thrownaway, back he came, persistently as a rubber ball. But that instinctwas common to the Brownie race.
The Roman Penates, _Vinculi terrei_, which brave old Reginald Scottcalled "domesticall gods," were Brownie's venerable and honorableancestors. We shall see presently what names their descendants bore invarious countries. But the Russian Domovoi we shall not count amongthem, because they were ghostly, like the poor Cauld Lad, and seem tohave been full-sized.
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