Lutins

Bon Garçon

The lutin of Normandy is also called the Bon Garçon, meaning the 'good boy', and has a fondness for children, horses and young maidens.

He takes care of horses, gallops them, and plaits or twists their manes in an inexplicable manner. He enjoys this so much that once, upon encountering two maidens asleep in a stable, entwined their hair so that it had to be completely cut off to release the two.

When he appears in the form of a horse, he will wait for a peasant to mount him, then kick, fling, rear, bound, and finally jerk him into a marsh or a ditch. If his habits become too annoying, he can be banished by scattering flax seed in the area in question.