Fairy Society
The society of fairies are organised along much the same lines as that of mortals but may be generally described as matriarchal. Each community of Troop Fairies is ruled by a Fairy Queen. There is also a king, although he might be more truly described as a consort because he does not have the same powers as a queen. The entire fairy race is governed by Queen Titania and Prince Oberon, whose court is located somewhere near Stratford-on-Avon in England, but they rule with a very light hand and leave most of the work to the queens of the various troops. Titania is a strictly moral person but Oberon is an ardent lover who spreads his favours widely among fairy and mortal maidens.
There is an annual international conference of queens but it is nor a very serious function. The delegates spend much of the time in gossiping, singing, and telling new stories about the foolishness of mortals.
Fairy queens and their attendants are very fashion-conscious and they dress in elaborate costumes of fabrics woven from the finest spider-silk and spangled with dew-drop sequins. A peculiarity of these garments is that, whenever a queen appears to a mortal, they cannot be touched or even felt by human hands.Each community of Troop Fairies has a number of craftsmen, who make all the artefacts required and sell them at the regular fairy markets. Solitary Fairies attend these markets to sell material such as the spider-silk which they have collected, or the shoes and other other items they make in their lonely haunts. The currency used in the markets is fairy gold, which vanishes if it is touched by humans hands.
The queens maintain strict discipline in their troops and have supreme powers of enchantment. Whenever a queen has occasion to punish a rebellious fairy she sends him or her into exile, with orders not to return until some specific task has been performed. The queens are capricious ladies and so these tasks may either be beneficial to mankind or quite mischievous in purpose. She may tell a fairy to ensure that a farmer's cows always render creamy milk, or to stop the church bells ringing on a Sunday morning.
Fairies are often regarded as flimsy and insubstantial creatures, but in fact the males are heroic warriors who guards the habitats against invasion by goblins, pixies, and similar creatures of the ground and underground. A battalion of fairy soldiers armed with swords and spears is a match for any number of goblins.
Their Diet
Most fairies are vegetarians, who enjoy a wide and varied diet. They eat honey, cheese, the eggs of many types of birds, berries, fruit, grain, and all types of garden produce. They are particularly fond of cake. They do not like milk, which they find too thick for their taste, and generally drink dew or spring water. Occasionally they distil a kind of nectar from blossoms, but on the whole they find that the fact of being a fairy is intoxicating enough.
The problem is that they are too impatient to be gardeners or agriculturists. Their need to gather food, now that so much of the wild country has been tamed, brings them into frequent conflict with farmers, beekeepers, gardeners, orchardists, and other mortal toilers. But fairy morality is generally that of
One good (or bad) turn deserves another.
If a mortal allows them a small portion of his crop they do everything they can to help him. They guide the bees to pollinate fruit blossoms, frighten the caterpillars away from cabbage leaves, and help seedling find their way to the surface. But if a mortal resents the payment of tribute to the fairies they will torment him unmercifully.
Fairies are not good cooks and so they like to make off with some of a housewife's baking. The best way to prevent them from taking too much is to mark most of the bread and cakes with a cross.
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