Note 13 — Chapter I · THE FAIRIES.1

Carleton (Tales and Stories, p. 74) mentions an Irish belief of a kindred character connected with oatmeal. When one crossed fair gurtha, or hungry grass (Scot., feur gorta, famine grass), a spot on which the Fairies had left one of their curses, he was struck with weakness and hunger, but, “if the person afflicted but tasted as much meal or flour as would lie on the point of a penknife, he will instantaneously break the spell of the Fairies, and recover his former strength.”