CHANGELING  , the

term used of a child substituted or changed for another, especially in the case of substitutions popularly supposed to be through fairy agency . There was formerly a widespread superstition that infants were sometimes stolen from their cradles by the fairies . Any specially peevish or weakly baby was regarded as a changeling, the word coming at last to be almost synonymous with imbecility . It was thought that the elves could only effect the exchange before christening, and in the highlands of Scotland babies were strictly watched till then . Strype states that in his time midwives had to take an oath binding themselves to be no party to the theft or exchange of babies . The belief is referred to by Shakespeare, Spenser and other authors . Pennant, writing in 1796, says: " In this very century a poor cottager, who lived near the spot, had a child who grew uncommonly peevish; the parents attributed this to the fairies and imagined it was a changeling . They took the child, put it in a cradle, and left it all night beneath the " Fairy Oak " in hopes that the tylwydd leg or fairy family would restore their own before morning . When morning came they found the child perfectly quiet, so went away with it, quite confirmed in their belief " (Tour in Scotland, 1796, p . 257) . See W . Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (188o) .