People walking alone by night, especially through fairy-haunted places, had many ways of protecting themselves. The first might be by sacred symbols, by making the sign of a cross or by carrying a cross, particularly one made of iron; by prayers or the chanting of hymns, by holy water, sprinkled or carried, and by carrying and strewing churchyard mould in their path, bread and salt were also effective, and both were regarded as sacred symbols, one of life and the other of eternity. As Herrick says:

For that holy piece of bread

Charmes the danger and the dread.

Bells were protective; church bells, the bells worn by morris dancers and the bells round the necks of sheep and oxen. So was whistling and the snapping of clappers. A man who was pixy-led, wandering around and unable to find his way out of the field, would generally turn his coat. This act of turning clothes may have been thought to act as a change of identity, for gamblers often turned their coat to break a run of bad luck.

Certain plants and herbs were also protective counter-charms. The strongest was a four-leafed clover, which broke fairy glamour, as well as the fairy ointment, which was indeed said by Hunt to be made of four-leafed clovers, St John's wort, the herb of Midsummer, was potent against spells and the power of fairies, evil spirits and the Devil. Red verbena was almost equally potent, partly perhaps because of its pure and brilliant colour. Daisies, particularly the little field daisies, were protective plants, and a child wearing daisy chains was supposed to be safe from fairy kidnapping. Red-berried trees were also protective, above them all rowan or mountain ash. A staff made of rowan wood or a rowan cross or a bunch of ripe berries were all sure protections, and where rowan did not grow ash was a good substitute.

If chased by evil fairies, one could generally leap to safety across running water, particularly a southward-flowing stream, though there were evil water-spirits such as the kelpie who haunted fresh-water streams.

A newly-christened child was safe against being carried off by the fairies, but before christening 'the little pagan' was kept safe by his father's trousers laid over the cradle, or an open pair of scissors hung above it. This last had a double potency as being made of steel and as hanging in the form of a cross, on the same principle that the child's garments were secured by pins stuck in cross-wise. The house and stock were protected by iron horseshoes above the house and stable doors, and horses were protected from being elf-ridden by self-bored stones hung above the manger.

With so many methods of protection, it was surprising that such a number of babies were stolen and replaced by changelings and so many travellers were pixy-led.

[Motifs: D788; D950.6; D1385.2.5; F321.2; F366.2; F382; F382.1; F382.2; F383.2; F384.1]