In the past I’ve examined the sources of faery riches, but I’ve come across a mid-seventeenth century text which concentrates on this subject. What follows is borrowed from David Rankine’s book Treasure Spirits and from the manuscript BL Sloane MS 3824 (c.1649).
Books of spells for finding buried treasure date back to the early sixteenth century in England; it seems there was something of a craze for conjuring up imps and then going in search of gold hidden in hills or under old crosses. Magic was needed to find the secret hoards and, often, to get access to them, as they were frequently guarded by brownies, dobbies, spirits of place or (rarely) the ghosts of men who had been slain just for that purpose. The excavators were often termed (not wholly flatteringly) ‘barrow diggers,’ giving us a good idea of the sorts of site they preferred to target: fairy hills where treasure was very likely to be found.
Interestingly, treasure wasn’t always to be found on dry land. A manuscript in the Bodleian Library, known as e Mus 173 includes invocations and rituals to help find gold lost under the sea. The spirit Saymay can assist with this, as will Azuriel, Azael and Elevotel, who may be conjured using a circulus aquaticus (an ‘aquatic circle’) and then required to help in retrieving submarine riches.
Luckily, the buried treasure dealt with by the manuscript BL Sloane MS 3824 aren’t concealed in locations anywhere near as inaccessible as the bottom of the ocean…
“Of Troves of Treasure & Hauntings
By these Distinctions, a man’s Capacity may Easily judge, by what Spirit or spirits, any hidden or Buried Treasures are Kept, be they of what Order so ever, or the Cause, why any house or place is haunted & troubled or infested, which being truly Known, is by patience and perseverance, and a prudent management of Such Affairs, according to this Art And wherein it Is to be Required, to be overcome and vanquished, and the house or place freed from such hauntings, molestations & troubles, of all spirits, Sylphs or Fairies, or any other spirits of what order or nature Soever, whether Aerial, Terrestrial or Infernal, But if the Philosopher Proficient in this art, and other his fraternity, in any matters of this or the Like nature, have neither patience nor prudence, and the master Philosopher, undertaking the management of what is Requisite to be performed in this art as aforesaid, hath no judgement to Distinguish Between one thing & another in whatsoever goeth about, they May go shoo the Goose.
There are many Castles, old monasteries, and Abbeys and houses, & many other both such like, and, also other places, that are haunted & infested With these Kinds of spirits aforementioned [i.e. Sylphs or Fairies], the Reasons thereof are more than one, but it is, and always hath been observed, & by practical Experience found, that generally it is for no other Cause or Reason, than that treasures are hidden thereabouts, sometimes It may prove Otherwise, as that some horrid murder hath been committed there, or that some heinous Extraordinary Crimes have been acted, and frequently Practiced….[which leads to hauntings].”
The locations listed here are affirmed by the text that was added to Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft in its 1665 edition, a continuation titled A Discourse Concerning the Nature & Substance of Devils and Spirits, there’s a discussion as to the places where terrestrial spirits (nymphs, satyrs, faeries, cobali) are most commonly found (c.IV, s.7). They principally frequent woods, mountains. caves, ruins, desolate places and ancient buildings, but can also be located in mines, with hidden treasures, or in places where people have been slain (c.1, s.14). The English playwright and author Thomas Heywood was of the same opinion in The Hierarchie of Blessed Angels (1635), in which he wrote that “Other [faeries] such houses to their use have fitted/ In which base murthers have been once committed./ Some have their fearefull habitations taken/ In desolat houses, ruin’d, and forsaken” (Book 9, p.574-5).
The Sloane manuscript then discusses the sources of the faeries wealth, which seem to be threefold: they may earn the money by working for humans, they may win it from the earth themselves by their toils in mines or they may simply discover lost or forgotten treasure that has been buried (mainly by people who died and were unable to recover it).
“Treasure Trove is various & Different in its Recovery or Discovery, which we thus, manifest from the Tradition of the Ancients, setting aside what we have Seen & Known by Experience, both herein and as is aforesaid: We must understand, that the two last Kind of Terrestrial Spirits, next forespoken of [i.e.Sylphs or Fairies] , being more humane & Courteous to man, than the Aerial & Infernals, by reason of their Sympathy & proximity with him, can & do work, & amongst the rest of their Arts they use, to Coin the Gold and Silver they take out of mines into that Country’s Coin where they find it, and willingly dwell & frequent in, which is wherein all places where minerals are (for they love not all places, though their mines be never So Rich and Royal) neither where they are, Do they take away or work upon all, but only a small proportion thereof, so that still getting a little from Every place, as it groweth & Cometh to maturity, always add to their Store.
Some others Delight to wander & go abroad, & work amongst miners, who also bring home their wages, Some Delight in other trades, and Some to be in Gentlemen’s Services, [and] be bringing all home, and multiplying their treasury, for they are never vile nor Experience, nor will accompany with no one or other person living, in the Common way of Eating & Drinking, though they love them never So well, yet they will work and do any Laborious thing for, and amongst men, but will not accompany them the times when they Eat or Drink.”
Thomas Heywood gave a similar account in his Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels of one particular community of faeries:
“Subterren Spirits they are therefore styl’d,
Heywood, Book 9, p.568
Because that bee’ng th’ upper earth exyl’d,
Their habitations and aboads they keepe
In Concaves, Pits, Vaults, Dens, and Cavernes deepe;
And these Trithemius [Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), German monk and writer] doth hold argument
To be of all the rest most pestilent:
And that such Daemons commonly invade
Those chiefely that in Mines and Mettals trade;
Either by sudden putting out their lamps,
Or else by raising suffocating damps,
Whose deadly vapors stifle lab’ring men…
The parts Septentrionall [northern] are with these Sp’ryts
Much haunted, where are seen an infinit store
About the places where they dig for Oare.
The Greeks and Germans call them Cobali.
Others (because not full three hand-fulls hye)
Nick-name them Mountaine-Dwarfes; who often stand
Officious by the Treasure-delvers hand,
Seeming most busie, infinit paines to take,
And in the hard rocks deepe incision make,
To search the mettals veines, the ropes to fit,
Turne round the wheeles, and nothing pretermit
To helpe their labour; up or downe to winde
The full or empty basket: when they finde
The least Oare scatter’d, then they skip and leape,
To gather’t thriftily into one heape.
Yet of that worke though they have seeming care,
They in effect bring all things out of square,
They breake the ladders, and the cords untwist,
Stealing the workmens tooles, and where they list
Hide them, with mighty stones the pits mouth stop,
And (as below the earth they underprop)
The Timber to remove they force and strive,
With full intent to bury them alive;
Raise stinking fogs, and with pretence to further
The poore mens taske, aime at their wracke and murther.
Or if they faile in that, they further aime,
(By crossing them and bringing out of frame
Their so much studied labor) so extreme
Their malice is, to cause them to blaspheme,
Prophane and curse: the sequell then insuing,
The body sav’d, to bring the soule to ruin.”
The Sloane manuscript’s author the turns to the nature and quality of the gold that the faeries guard or mine underground:
“These Kinds of treasures, are not Easily but with difficulty to be Obtained; Such as hath been made by man & used amongst men, and with less Difficulty obtained And if at any time a magical Philosopher Should Discover Such treasures, as is of their one Manufacture, & proceeds to Obtain & get the Same, and though they Seem to yield up and Donate the same to him, yet they will by such Crafts & subtleties, as they are well Knowing in, Convert it to the likeness or Similitude of a Clear Contrary, and baser & most Vile and contemptible matter, as Earth, Clay, Dung, Shards, Soil, or some Kind of Despicable and Regardless matter, or Else to move it; and then is the Philosopher at a loss:
But if any such thing as a transmutation should be perceived or Known, to be either Visibly, or otherwise artificially, or by Discerning Something of a Contrary Species or Nature of the place, where it Lyeth; yet Let it be taken up, and let the fire judge of it, and proceed therein after the same manner, as all metals and minerals Are refined and separated, by such means it will return to the Same Essence it had before:
But in Such Treasures as they, as hath been the Manufacture of and Used amongst men, they Seldom or never Do so by Such Treasures as are not Kept by any Spirit, or that any of these terrestrials should be wandered from, and that Lyeth in some obscure unfrequented place, some person may on a sudden Set or work there And so by near Accident may Discover & carry awav the same, without the Least Knowledge of any thing in this Art, Or otherwise these spirits foreknowing, that such a person will be At such a place, at Such a time, and though they should have the Keeping of the same & leave, Having a great Love & friendship to such a one, or the Like, Do quit the same & leave from him against he Cometh there to work, by reason of which Sudden intended action & intermission, the matter comes to be thus accidentally Discovered and gotten, that otherwise might Lie there many years even time out of mind, or Removed to Another place so never to be Discovered, &c:
Also, such Treasures as are Kept by such Spirits or Terrestrial first before spoken of, as the Executioners of God’s Justice Thereupon &c: are not so easily to be found and obtained, as such that are hidden Innocently, Either for future persons or from fear or Danger of a loss, and afterwards happens to be Kept, by the monstrous Sort of Terrestrial Spirits, as Sylphs, Fairies &c: or the Like…”
The last summoning spell I’ll cite is intriguingly different to those so far described; it was recorded by the folklorist Laurence Gomme in the Gentleman’s Magazine Library in 1885. The text advises closing up a glassful of “conglobulated” (compressed) air, water or earth and exposing this to the sun for a month. After this time, the constituent parts are to be separated and the magician will find that it is “wondrous what a magnetic quality each of these elements has to attract nymphs, sylphs and gnomes. Take ever so small a dose everyday and you will see the republic of sylphs fluttering in the air, nymphs making to banks in shoals and gnomes, guardians of wealth, spreading forth their treasures.”
This text departs from conventional faery lore by its adoption of the elementals described by Paracelsus; the earth spirits, the gnomes, are often imagined rather like knockers in mines and in this case they stand in for the treasure-guarding faeries in revealing and- we may infer- offering up their riches to the magician who has gained some measure of control over them.
British Fairies 