http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_beings_referred_to_as_fairies

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Cajun Fairies are called The Fee Folay

The legend of the Cajun Fairy --the Fee Folay-- (Feufollet in French) began here along the bayou as early as the '40's.  This is the story that was told to me:

There was a light (a ball of fire) that shot out into the sky, and the old people couldn't understand what it was. As with everything down here on the bayou, an explanation weaved it's way into the legend of the Fee Folay, which is what they called the light. The lights were known as fairies, spirits and sometimes the ghosts of loved ones.As time went on they said the light was the soul of a new born baby who had died without being baptized, and the soul was lost. Most people feared the Fee Folay, because it's human nature to fear what can't be explain. Many say they saw the light , at the same time that others standing next to them say they saw nothing in the sky.

SO, I took this light and made it a Cajun Fairy who helps the living by communicating with the souls who have passed away, to help their loved ones still on earth. Legends all over the world say there are good and evil fairies. I had to have both to have a story. Acadia is the good fairy while Robes Pierre is the wicked fairy. I make ONLY good Cajun Fairies here. I have it on my web site, not to even ASK me to make a wicked fairy. I won't. I DO have what Robes Pierre becomes in the book here with all of my other characters in the books. People who have read the book, know where Robes Pierre is now.

YEARS later......scientist found out that the light that shot OUT into the night skies was swamp gas. *LOL*--BUT you could NOT tell the old people who believed in the Fee Folay that this was true . They believed the legend of the Fee Folay...which I turned into My Cajun Fairies.

*note*-- Another name for the fire was Will-o'-the-wisp defined as:

A phosphorescent light seen at night on marshy ground.

To see faint lights hovering and slipping about near the ground on a dark night would be enough to scare anybody traveling through a marsh. No wonder the sightings gave rise to superstitious beliefs everywhere that they have appeared. There are many words for them, including the old sense of jack-o'-lantern and the learned Latin ignis fatuus, the foolish fire.

Attempts to approach the lights result in them seeming to recede or vanish, sometimes to appear somewhere else. So people thought they were the work of a mischievous sprite trying to lead unwary travelers astray. That is why there are personal names involved—Will and Jack. Will-o'-the-wisp was originally Will with the wisp, wisp here meaning a handful of hay, presumed to be alight.

We know now that the flames are methane (marsh gas), ignited by the traces of hydrogen phosphate sometimes found near decaying organic matter. Both will-o'-the-wisp and ignis fatuus are used figuratively for some false idea or influence that leads people astray. Much folklore has attached to the legend, despite possible scientific explanations.

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