rman at once

Seized the strange sea-steed by his bristling fin
And vaulted on his shoulders; the fleet fish
Swift sought the shallows and the friendly shore.[34]

Before dismissing the fisherman, however, the Fish King presented him
with an inexhaustible purse--probably as a hint that it would be
unnecessary for him on a future visit to disturb his paving
arrangements.

_Fairy Origins_

Two questions which early obtrude themselves in the consideration of
Breton fairy-lore are: Are all the fays of Brittany malevolent? And,
if so, whence proceeds this belief that fairy-folk are necessarily
malign? Example treads upon example to prove that the Breton fairy is
seldom beneficent, that he or she is prone to ill-nature and
spitefulness, not to say fiendish malice on occasion. There appears to
be a deep-rooted conviction that the elfish race devotes itself to the
annoyance of mankind, practising a species of peculiarly irritating
trickery, wanton and destructive. Only very rarely is a spirit of
friendliness evinced, and then a motive is usually obvious. The
'friendly' fairy invariably has an axe to grind.

Two reasons may be advanced to account for this condition of things.
First, the fairy-folk--in which are included house and field
spirits--may be the traditional remnant of a race of real people,
perhaps a prehistoric race, driven into the remote parts of the
country by strange immigrant conquerors. Perhaps these primitive folk
were elfish, dwarfish, or otherwise peculiar in appearance to the
superior new-comers, who would in pride of race scorn the small,
swarthy aborigines, and refuse all communion with them. We may be sure
that the aborigines, on their part, would feel for their tall,
handsome conquerors all the hatred of which a subject race is capable,
never approaching them unless under compulsion or necessity, and
revenging themselves upon them by every means of annoyance in their
power. We may feel certain, too, that the magic of these conquered and
discredited folk would be made full use of to plague the usurpers of
the soil, and trickery, as irritating as any elf-pranks, would be
brought to increase the discomfort of the new-comers.

There are, however, several good objections to this view of the origin
of the fairy idea. First and foremost, the smaller prehistoric
aboriginal peoples of Europe themselves possessed tales of little
people, of spirits of field and forest, flood and fell. It is unlikely