FAERIES do not like to be seen by humans and will only appear for just a moment.
Do you believe in fairies? I do, and I am in a very good company of believers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies too, along with other responsible and well-balanced people, including professors, doctors, and the clergy who have argued that such creatures exist.
Fairies come in all shapes and sizes.
Most often they are tiny, but they may also be eight or more feet tall, and can sometimes change their shape at will. Fairies often adopt semihuman form, and prefer to meddle in human affairs. They may use their magical powers to capture humans, to steal crops, or to bring bad luck. Other fairies are generous and helpful, bringing gifts or cleaning people's homes. Be careful--even the gentlest may become spiteful if provoked. Apart from the tiny fairy of legend, fairies include leprechauns, pixies, hobs, brownies, banshees, imps, goblins, bogeys, nature spirits, and many more. Their powers vary but most are more likely to harm than to help.In the Middle Ages, when everybody believed in fairies, the Church regarded them as fallen angels cast out by God, but continued to challenge His power. Many clergymen condemned fairies as demons and devils from Hell.
Serious students of fairy belief say that the fairies are a folk memory of a prehistoric race of small people who once inhabited parts of France. Once conquered then forced into hiding, the small people may only have ventured out at night. To their conquerors, these little people continued to pose a powerful threat.
Others trace the origins of fairies to the gods and spirits worshiped in primitive times.
The ancient spirits of streams and groves are most certainly the direct ancestors of the nature spirit type of fairy.The word fairy is believed to derive from the Latin fata--the Fates, or goddess guardians of destiny. They were believed to preside over the cribs of the newly born just like those at the christening of Sleeping Beauty.