Scouting for Girls: Adapted from Girl Guiding

A Brownie is a household fairy who lives under and in the trees. This is the reason that the Brownies badge is an acorn.

There are many kinds of Brownies, such as Sprites, Elves, Gnomes, Fairies, Goblins, Pixies, Imps, Nymphs, Will-o’-the-wisps.

Have you ever seen a fairy ring? There are many in the woods and sometimes in the garden—just a wide circle in the ground of rather darker grass than the rest of the turf round about it. It is said to be a track made by the Brownies who come together and dance on the grass by moonlight, round a toadstool in the middle.

So our Brownies have a toadstool as their Totem and they make their ring around it. Like true fairies they can make their ring anywhere, not only in the woods or out on the grass, but even in the town and in a room.

When they come together they plant the toadstool in the center and the Brownie captain (that is, the leader of the Pack) takes her place by the toadstool. The Brownies then form a ring around her, the Elves together (there must not be more than eight of them), the Goblins together, the Fairies together, and so on.