by Edwin Sidney Hartland
Available in 226 free installments
Owner:
The belief in changelings ? Precautions against changing ? Motives assigned for changing ? Attempts frustrated ? How changelings may be known ? Their physical characteristics ? Devices to lead them to betray themselves ? Their subsequent treatment ? Journey to Fairyland to fetch back the true child ? Adult changelings.
A new-born babe, of all human beings the most helpless, has always roused compassion and care. Nor is it a matter for wonder if its helplessness against physical dangers have led to the assumption that it is exposed to spiritual or supernatural evils more than its elders. At all events it seems a widespread superstition that a babe, when first it makes its appearance in this world, must be protected not merely against the natural perils of its condition, but also against enemies of an even more subtle and fearful description. The shape taken by this superstition in north-western Europe is the belief in Changelings?a belief which I propose to examine in the present chapter.[60]
