Of the many euphemistic names for the fairies, 'the Good Neighbours' is one of the most common. It will be remembered in the rhyme on 'Naming the Fairies' given by Chambers in Popular Rhymes of Scotland:

Gin guid neibour ye ca' me

Then guid neibour I will be.

Montgomerie in The Flouting of Polwart calls the unattractive crowd whom he calls to mind 'The Guid Neeburs'.

[Motif: C433]

Just as the Furies were called 'The Eumenides', the 'Kindly Ones', so were the fairies called laudatory names by the country people. As Kirk says, 'These Siths, or Fairies, they call Sleagh Maith, or the Good People, it would seem, to prevent the Dint of their ill Attempts, (for the Irish use to bless all they fear Harme of).' E.B.Simpson in Folk Lore in Lowland Scotland (p.93) gives a list of some of these euphemisms.

The invisible and alert fairies for the same reason were always mentioned with a honeyed tongue. The wily, knowing not where they might be lurking, were careful to call them 'the good neighbours', 'the honest folk', 'the little folk', 'the gentry', 'the hill folk', and 'the forgetful people', the 'men of peace'.

The folk-rhyme given by Chambers, quoted under elves, contains the fairies' own caution on the subject.

[Motif: C433]