- All treasure concealed underground and in the hollows of trees, all silver and gold and precious stones darkly glimmering in mountain mines, all cargo locked in sunken agosies and pearls hidden in oysters belong to the faeries. It is therefore small wonder that their palaces are sumptuous and their garments unparalleled. And although faeries freely lavish their goods upon themselves and invited guests, they prefer to keep their treasures within faerieland's borders. Great serpents and water cows settle their slimy bodies securely over undersea treasure; never-sleeping black cats with hostile eyes and knife-sharp claws prowl suspiciously about the treasure stored in faerie raths. Even if a mortal eluded the guardian-beasts, the faeries themselves might attack in awesome, shrieking shapes guaranteed to terrorise all but the most intrepid intruder. The most successful, and least dangerous ploy, is to catch a leprechaun unawares and wrest from him his gold crock. But that, too, as will be seen later on, has its peculiar drawbacks.
Sometimes,
on the rarest of occasions, faeries empty their coffers to a mortal favorite
on condition that for seven years he tell neither where nor how he obtained
his fortune. But mortals are not serious practitioners of the art of promise-keeping;
and faerie treasure itself, being rather sensitive to verbal disclosure,
has, once its whereabouts has been revealed, the unpleasant quality of
turning into dust or dung in the finder's hands.- Under orders from two old bearded men and an equally bearded crone, John Shea roasted a mutton outside a faerie fort. The cat-guardian, being as susceptible to temptation as a mortal, deserted gold for meat and was instantly strangeled by john. Unhindered, the man then entered fort and removed a basin, a towel and a razor, carefully avoiding the gold treasure nearby. He then proceeded to shave the three, who, with the loss of their hair, also lost 50 years apiece. To reward John they gave him some meat to eat, whereupon he immediately knew the resting place of every gold piece in Ireland. But Irishmen never had much power of keeping a secret; and the three transformed ones soon realised that John was true to his blood. So they slipped him a bit of the mouse broth and his knowledge was taken clean away. It is clear that, despite human protests to the contrary, faerie treasure and mortals have an aversion to one another; and clear, too, are the discrepancies between faerie and mortal values.
~Faerie
Treasure~
Source: Carolyn White "A History of Irish Fairies"
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Background courtesy by Rowan
Please do not take the animated fae...I did the animation myself! Thank you for understanding.
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