Young Tam Lin

In his magnum Opus The White Goddess,  Robert Graves linked the old English folk song Tam Lin to the psylocibin mushroom. The song is a recitation of the travails of a young man who falls asleep on a fairy hill. He wakes up to find himself among the fairies. Not the fragile creatures of children's fiction, these are a powerful race of beings with whom we share the earth, but whose origin is in realms of matter insubstantial to us. A mortal unfortunate enough to be chosen as a favourite of the Fairy Queen has a special kind of doom awaiting him: At the end of seven years, she pays a tithe to hell. I am young and full of flesh. I fear it is myself. The young Tam Lin escapes his fate with the aid of a maiden, who bestows her love--despite him being an eflin grey Others who mess with the psylocibin mushroom have not been so lucky. Happily, though,some are.

I forbid you maidens all