Majesty & Magic

Up to the Pixy Bridge at Ballasalla in the Isle of Man drove Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. At the bridge, their Majesties cried: Evie, manyagh veggar! (Greetings, Little Men!). This was necessary because the pixies in the glen below whistle while they work and hence do not hear the approach of strangers. They have been reported to wreak horrible vengeance on unannounced intruders.

After this precaution the King & Queen proceeded to the annual meeting of the Manx Tynwald, claimed by Manxmen to be the world's oldest parliament. Seated on a red, canopied throne atop a 20-foot mound, which Vikings had built a millennium ago, the royal visitors bravely heard 15 laws read to the assembled people in the nearly extinct Manx language (which their Majesties do not understand). They were given $1,000,000 to help defray the cost of the war. (Unlike the rest of Britain, the Isle of Man, which enjoys nominal home rule, remained at war with Germany between World Wars I and II).

Not everyone is as careful as Britain's King & Queen to appease the pixies. Recently a Manx taxi driver, instead of saying "Evie, manyagh veggar!" when he reached the Ballasalla Bridge, cried: "Bah!" As he crossed the bridge, the door of his taxi came open and he shot out.

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