Читать книгу 366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore - Carl McColman - Страница 90

Belief in fairies might be a lovely and charming aspect of the Celtic tradition, but it is something that can be taken too far. Dozens of children in the nineteenth century were burned or even killed when their superstitious parents held them over the fire, certain that they were “changelings” or fairy imposters, left behind when the gentry had kidnapped their actual babies. Supposedly the way to make such a changeling admit the truth would be to hold it over an open fire—a foolhardy practice with often disastrous results. Nor was this torture limited to babies; in 1895 a group of men in County Tipperary were arrested after they had killed a woman named Bridget Cleary, burning her to death in a misguided effort to purge her of malignant fairy influence. In the twenty-first century, it is easy to distance ourselves from such superstitious crimes; but we shouldn’t be too smug. Most people today have just as many irrational, superstitious, or scientifically unverifiable beliefs as did the peasants of Ireland a century ago. We need to be clear that, no matter what we believe, some things are non-negotiable—such as treating others with dignity and kindness. “Thou shalt not kill” is not an optional mandate, after all!