Folk-Lore
TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
THE MINGLING OF FAIRY AND WITCH BELIEFS IN SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY SCOTLAND.
A Paper read before the Anthropological Section of the British Association, September, 1921.
BY CANON J. A. MACCULLOCH, D.D.
Folk-lore is now a recognized field for scientific research, and though fairies may seem at first sight to be at the opposite pole from science, yet the origin and nature of a belief held so widely are not without interest to the student of the byways of human opinion. At all events the British Association has more than once taken note of them, and has not gone so far as the Russian Commissary of Education, who has announced that all mention of fairies, angels, or devils in fairy tales is to be supplanted by the words "scientists and technicians who have served humanity." Whether these partake the nature of angels or of devils, or incline more to that of fairies, I leave you to judge.
