From the earliest days of Christianity the cross was believed to be a most potent protective symbol against fairies and all evil spirits. It is even possible that cross-roads had a pre-Christian significance, as sacred to the god of limits and a place of sacrifice. The cross in all its forms was protective — the 'saining' or crossing of one's own body or that of another, a cross scratched on the ground or formed by four roads meeting, a cross of wood, stone or metal set up by the roadside, a cross worn as a trinket round the neck, all these were believed to give substantial protection against devils, ghosts or fairies. Sometimes this protection was reinforced by carrying a cross of a particular material — of rowan wood, for instance, for this wood was a protection of itself — or for trinkets crosses of coral or amber, both of some potency.

An example of the efficacy of 'saining' as a means of rescuing a captive in fairyland is to be found in Walter Scott's 'Alice Brand', a ballad from The Lady of the Lake:

But wist I of a woman bold,

Who thrice my brows durst sign,

I might regain my mortal mould,

As fair a form as thine.

Literary though this is, it is the work of a man who knew almost all there was to be known about the fairy-lore of the Scottish Border.

For the wayside cross, it will be remembered that when Burd Janet went into Carterhaugh Woods to rescue Young Tamlane, she took her stand by Miles Cross, where both she and he could expect some protection. For the metal cross, mothers, to protect their babies from the fairies, would hang open scissors over the cradle to make a cross of cold iron, and stick pins into their clothing in the form of a cross.

[Motifs: D788; F382.1]