In <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lincolnshire</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region></st1:place> there are tales of a yarthkin; a water fairy who lives in the fens.  The Tiddy Mun (which means little man) can control the water and often locals would call upon his assistance to recede flooding. 

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He lives in deep water holes and only comes out in the evening when the mists rise into the twilight.   He limps along like an old man with long white hair which is matted and tangled.  His long drab coloured gown hides him in the mist or dusk.  He whistles like the wind and laughs like a pee-wit.

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When the wetlands flooded and the rivers burst their banks, people would gather by the waterside and call out: <o:p></o:p>

"Tiddy Mun without a name, the water's rough!" <o:p></o:p>

Usually by the next morning the floods would have receded.  Offerings of bread and salt were placed on flat stones in gratitude for the Tiddy Mun's assistance. <o:p></o:p>

During the seventeenth century the people of the region experienced a different side to this normally kind fairy.  A Dutch engineer , Cornelius Vermuyden, was commissioned to drain the region as most of it lay under water.  His engineers came under guerrilla attack, many of which were injured or killed, from local people who they believed the Tiddy Mun had caused pestilence to the region.  They thought the fairy was angry because of the draining of the marshes and by harming the Dutch they would appease him.  Eventually prayers along with water and food offerings calmed the Tiddy Mun's temper.