In the Portrush district, until about two years ago, there was living a man who was thought to be a changeling. He was small, about five feet two, and he had red-hair. He had, too, the most uncertain temper in the countryside. The district where he lived is full of stories of his unnatural behaviour. These modern changelings appear to have fared better than others of their kind, for childred believed to be changelings were often shockingly ill-treated in early. They were sometimes placed on a hot griddle, or branded with the sign of the Cross, and some were left out on a shovel on the manure heap all night. The reason for these tortures was to induce the fairies to come back and rescue their children and to leave behind them the stolen infants. It has been suggested that children who had rickets may have been suspected of being changelings. It is an interesting thought, for rickets is not a disease that is very usual in country areas. (Foster, Ulster, 76-77)