f the effects of his drunkenness), and went to the barn to do her
husband's work. On the morning of the second day, when she went to the
barn, she found a large pile of corn threshed, which she had not done;
and so she found, for three or four days, her pile of corn doubled. One
night she determined to watch and see who did it, and carrying her
intention into practice, she saw a little pixey come into the barn with
a tiny flail, with which he set to work so vigorously that he soon
threshed a large quantity. During his work he sang,

"Little Pixey, fair and slim,
Without a rag to cover him."

The next day the good woman made a complete suit of miniature clothes,
and hung them up behind the barn door, and watched to see what _pixey_
would do. I forgot to mention that he hung his flail behind the door
when he had done with it.

At the usual time the pixey came to work, went to the door to take down
his flail, and saw the suit of clothes, took them down, and put them on
him, and surveyed himself with a satisfied air, and sang

"Pixey fine, and pixie gay.
Pixey now must fly away."

It then flew away, and she never saw it more.

In this tale the word was invariably spelt "pixey."

TYSIL.

_Pixies._--The _puckie_-stone is a rock above the Teign, near Chagford.
In the _Athenaeum_ I mentioned the rags in which the pixies generally
appear. In _A Narrative of some strange Events that took place in Island
Magee and Neighbourhood in 1711_, is this description of a spirit that
troubled the house of Mr. James Hattridge:

"About the 11th of December, 1710, when the aforesaid Mrs. Hattridge
was sitting at the kitchen-fire, in the evening, before daylight
going, a little boy (as she and the servants supposed) came in and
sat down beside her, having an old black bonnet on his head, with
short black hair, a half-worn blanket about him, trailing on the
ground behind him, and a _torn_ black vest under it. He seemed to be
about ten or twelve years old, but he still covered his face,
holding his arm with a piece of the blanket before it. She desired
to see his face, but he took no notice of her. Then she asked him
several questions; viz., if he was cold or hungry? If he would have
any meat? Where he came from, and where he was going? To which he
made no answer, but getting up, danced very nimbly, leaping higher
than usual, and then ran out of the house as far as