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| She calls herself Ide. It means "Thirst". (Ironic, no?) |
We're all familiar with vampires, those blood-draining fiends with an aversion to garlic and religious icons that can change into cats or bats and can only enter a house if invited. My favorite vampire, or vampiress, is one that you've probably never heard of and she hails from Scotland, not Transylvania...
The glaistig ([glæstIg] glass-teeg), also known as the Green Lady, is a
Scottish water spirit, who is infamous for luring unsuspecting male
travelers from their path, seducing them and draining them of their
blood.
On my last visit to N.Y.C., my friend and I went to a fashion exhibit at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. One of the dresses in particular caught
my attention. It was a full length dress, designed by Jean Paul Gaultier in 2002, gold and silver with a swirling teal skirt and designs
printed on the fabric. But what really caught my attention, near the bottom of the dress was a print of a
goat’s foot protruding from an illusory slit in the skirt so whoever wore this dress would look like she had goat feet.
“It’s a glaistig dress!” I whispered excitedly to my friend.
“What’s that?” she asked. So I proceeded to explain, rather enthusiastically,that the glaistig abducts young men and drinks their blood until they are empty husks! Needless to say my friend was rather taken aback.
However, like most water spirits the glaistig is alternately evil and good. The glaistig, similar to the faun, is the top half of a woman with
the back legs of a goat which she hides beneath the long skirt of her
green dress. If treated well with an offering of milk the glaistig will
watch out for herds of sheep and goats as well as minding the children
of shepherds and goatherds and even herding livestock for farmers. On
the flip side the glaistig ranges between a mischief that throws rocks
in the paths of unsuspecting travelers to downright vicious if she is
wronged. I wonder what inspired Gaultier to put a goat’s foot on this dress…
Resources:
F. I. T. (The Glaistig Dress)
Froud, Brian and Alan Lee. Faeries. Abrams: New York, 2002. Print.
Mysterious Britain & Ireland
Paciorek, Andrew L., Night Terrors & Lovers
Wikipedia
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