Meet the magic folk
Throughout the ages and across the world, fairies（童话故事）have come alive in the stories, poems, and songs passed down from the old to the young. Some amazing stories about fairies have come to us from the British Isles. 36
Merrows are Irish fairy mermaids（美人鱼）. The females are very gentle and beautiful with fishes’ tails. Merrows sometimes come onto land disguised（伪装）as small, white cattle or as beautiful women wearing bright red feather caps. 37
Leprechauns（矮妖）are fairies that appear as tiny old men. They like to be alone most of the time, making and mending shoes and keeping their pots of gold well hidden. If a human catches a leprechaun and asks for its gold, the leprechaun must hand it over. 38 If the human looks away for even an instant, the leprechaun will joyfully disappear.
Brownies are hairy little men who do chores（杂事）in houses and on farms during the night. All they want as payment is food, and they get very angry if humans watch them do their work. If a brownie is given clothes as a present, he’ll disappear forever. 39
Selkies are seal fairies. Female selkies sometimes come to shore and take off their sealskins to play on the beach in human form. Like merrows, if a human finds a selkie’s sealskin, she can’t go back to the ocean. 40 If she finds her sealskin, she happily returns to the sea, leaving her human husband and children…but she comes close to shore to watch over them from time to time.
A. Here are some of these fairies.
B. Most sailors at sea hope never to see a merrow.
C. But it is far trickier（狡猾的）than it looks!
D. A selkie is quiet and lovely, with dark hair and sad eyes.
E. Instead, she must obey（服从）the human who keeps it and usually marries him.
F. Perhaps this is because he rushes back to show off his new clothes to the others.
G. If a human steals this cap, a merrow can’t go back to the sea and must stay on land.