Brian Peters,

I appreciate your contribution to the discussion. You are right in saying that some versions of "The Devil's Nine Questions" make it clear that the questioner is the devil. My post of 05 Feb 08 concerns the version collected by Patrick Gainer, published in 1975 in FOLK SONGS FROM THE WEST VIRGINIA HILLS. The text of that version does not make it clear who or what the questioner is.   

The month after I made that post, another of Dr. Gainer's books, WITCHES, GHOSTS, AND SIGNS: FOLKLORE OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS, was re-published. It is available here: http://wvuecommerce.wvu.edu/index.cfm?do=store.store&id=8101775801_65w

As the title implies, Dr. Gainer collected plenty of supernatural material in West Virginia. He found lots of stories of witches and ghosts but, as noted earlier, he did not find many ballads with an elvish element. I'm not sure why. Dr. Gainer himself blamed the Puritan influence. I greatly respect his views but, because of the relative weakness of Puritan influence in West Virginia, I'm not convinced. It would be interesting to hear from some New Englanders. The Puritan influence was, I believe, strongest there, even stronger than the Puritan influence in England itself.

Kent