meritorious than otherwise; and the goblet remained in the boy's family
for generations, though unfortunately it is no longer forthcoming for
the satisfaction of those who may still be sceptical.[114]

This story differs from the others I have detailed, in narrating a raid
by supernatural beings on the dwelling of a human potentate--a raid in
which a human creature joined and brought away a substantial trophy. In
the seventeenth century there was in the possession of Lord Duffus an
old silver cup, called the Fairy Cup, concerning which the following
tradition was related to John Aubrey, the antiquary, by a correspondent
writing from Scotland on the 25th of March 1695. An ancestor of the then
Lord Duffus was walking in the fields near his house in Morayshire when
he heard the noise of a whirlwind and of voices crying: "Horse and
Hattock!" This was the exclamation fairies were said to use "when they
remove from any place." Lord Duffus was bold enough to cry "Horse and
Hattock" also, and was immediately caught up through the air with the
fairies to the King of France's cellar at Paris, where, after he had
heartily drunk, he fell asleep. There he was found lying the next
morning with the silver cup in his hand, and was promptly brought before
the King, to whom, on being questioned, he repeated this story; and the
King, in dismissing him, presented him with the cup. Where it may be now
I do not know, nor does Aubrey's correspondent furnish us with any
description of it, save the negative but important remark that it had
nothing engraven upon it beside the arms of the family.[115]

On this vessel, therefore, if it be yet in existence, there is nothing
to warrant the name of Fairy Cup, or to connect it with the adventure
just related. Nor does the Oldenburg Horn itself bear any greater marks
of authenticity. That famous vessel is still exhibited at the palace of
Rosenborg at Copenhagen. It is of silver gilt, and ornamented in paste
with enamel. It bears coats of arms and inscriptions, showing that it
was made for King Christian I. of Denmark in honour of the Three Kings
of Cologne, and cannot therefore be older than the middle of the
fifteenth century. The legend attached to it claims for it a much
greater antiquity. The legend itself was narrated in Hamelmann's
"Oldenburger Chronik" at the end of the sixteenth century, and is even
yet current in the mouths of the Oldenburg folk. Hamelmann dates it in
the year 990, when the t