This was sometimes taken to be a fairy curse, probably called down by the unfortunate positioning of a house. Sometimes stock only were affected, and sometimes the wife as well as the stock would be cursed by barrenness. It was, however, more commonly attributed to witchcraft. The ballad 'Willie's Mother', in which the mother-in-law was a rank witch and help was given by a domestic fairy, Billy Blind, gives almost a recipe for inhibiting birth. See Blights and illnesses attributed to Fairies.

[Motif: T591]

See Hard delivery or barrenness.

This Highland word is the same as Banshee, and means 'fairy woman', but it is generally employed to mean a kind of succubus, very dangerous and evil. D.A.Mackenzie in Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life (p.236) retells a story from C.M.Robertson's Folk-Lore from the West of Ross-shire.

Four young men were on a hunting trip and spent the night in an empty shieling, a hut built to give shelter for the sheep in the grazing season. They began to dance, one supplying mouth-music. One of the dancers wished that they had partners. Almost at once four women came in. Three danced, the fourth stood by the music-maker. But as he hummed he saw drops of blood falling from the dancers and he fled out of the shieling, pursued by his demon partner. He took refuge among the horses and she could not get to him, probably because of the iron with which they were shod. But she circled round him all night, and only disappeared when the sun rose. He went back into the shieling and found the bloodless bodies of the dancers lying there. Their partners had sucked them dry.

[Motifs: E251.3.3; F471.2.1]