When I was a kid (in Philadelphia), we set milk out on the back porch
for the brownies, who had been knocking on walls and making nuisances
of themselves. I was told by my 1st generation Aunt Addie McCann that
the brownies drank only the "astral" part of milk (to this day I've no idea)
and then the neighborhood cats drank what was left, and it disagreed
with them. I can't spek to any of this, but I do know that by morning the
milk was consumed, and cats were unwell all over the place.To me it
doesn't matter whether it all relly happened or not. The point is that Aunt
Addie thought they happened.
Cheers,
Gerald S.
> Yes, I've read that brownies were originally associated
> with Dionysius, though now mostly hard-working elf like creatures that
> live in
> barns who come into the house at night to finish the undone housework
> though
> sometimes mischevious ones will disarrange the furniture and make a
> clutter.
> They're all male, and mostly animal in appearance, so it's funny that
> they're
> associated with housework. They're usually not seen, though they sometimes
> appear to their favorite person in the house, have the power to steal food
> and
> leave the image of it. Leaving the milk out for them is interesting
> because this
> is a gift that the brownie will accept and which keeps them around, but it
> has to
> be given. The way to get rid of a brownie is to leave clothes out for him
> which is
> simultaneously a gift of freedom and he'll put them on disappear. The
> other way
> to get rid of a brownie is to offer to pay him, even with the milk, crime,
> bread,
> he likes. This seems to go back to some of the Dionysiac elements, the
> emphasis upon being seen and unseen, etc, though perhaps in the
> diminuitive,
> in the same way the Greek furies became household gods. Anyway, back to
> the
> sweeping,
>
> best,
>
> Rebecca
|