Changeling: Encyclopedia II - Changeling - Wales

Changeling - Wales

In Wales the changeling child (plentyn newid) initially resembles the human it substitutes, but gradually grows uglier in appearance and behaviour: ill-featured, malformed, ill-tempered, given to screaming and biting. It may be of less than usual intelligence, but again is identified by its more than childlike wisdom and cunning.

The common means employed to identify a changeling is to a cook a family meal in an eggshell. The child will exclaim, "I have seen the acorn before the oak, but I never saw the likes of this," and vanish to be replaced by the original human child. Alternatively, or following this identification, it is necessary to mistreat the child by placing it in a hot oven, by holding it in a shovel over a hot fire, or by bathing it in a solution of foxglove.

(Wirt Sikes. British Goblins: The Realm of Faerie. Felinfach: Llanerch, 1991.)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Wales", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki