A woman who lived near the Houmet and earned her living as a nurse heard herself called one night. A stranger at the door said a child needed nursing and told her to follow him. He led her to the mouth of the Creux des Fées. As they went in, the damp walls turned smooth, a bright light appeared, and she found herself in a magnificent house, where a sick child lay in a cradle. She cared for it well and was given everything she needed. Then one day, fondling the baby, she got some of its spittle in her eyes. At once the room became a miserable cave again and the riches turned to squalor. She said nothing, finished nursing the child to health, and was sent home with thanks and good pay.
The next Saturday she went into town to shop and, in a shop in the Haut Pavé, saw one of the fairies from the cave filling a basket with goods, invisible to everyone but her. "Ah, wicked one! I see thee!" she said. "And how, pray?" asked the fairy. "With my eyes to be sure," she answered, off her guard. He spat in them, and she was blind for the rest of her life.
Miss Chepmell's version, "The Fairies and the Midwife", is almost the same, except that the woman is a midwife, the magic comes from washing water, and her sight is ruined in one eye. MacCulloch noted that similar stories were told of other Guernsey caves, all with a passage to a distant church: from the Creux Mahié and from Saints' Bay to St Saviour's, and from Moulin Huet to St Martin's. The Houmet cave is only approachable at low water, and the map point is approximate.
Comments