The Fear of Losing a Child

Some believed you could set the changeling down on a pile of dung, while others thought that placing it at the shore line just before the tide came in would do the trick. In some places, it was even believed that the changeling should be placed in a basket and dangled over a burning fire. The assumption was that the fairy child would leap out of the basket and fly up the chimney. And then your own real child would return shortly after.