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Inch-high creatures with butterfly-like wings magically dance about the waters of a mysterious Scottish lake. They perform good deeds for lonely or troubled people; the Scots call these wee folks the "brownies."

Recently, residents from a Peninsula Jewish retirement home saw seven short creatures skipping through their shiny halls, delivering flowers, handcrafted cards and kisses for the High Holy Days.

Like the mythical characters of Scottish lore, these, too, were Brownies. However, these Brownies were the real thing — young grade-school girls in the Girl Scout organization — and all of them were Jewish.

An all-Jewish Brownie troop has formed in Belmont. The troop is open to members of all religions, but for now, only Jews are members.

Last month, the seven young girls were inducted into the Brownies at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Belmont. During the ceremony, the initiates, ages 6 to 8, saluted the Israeli and U.S. flags, formed a circle and sang in Hebrew. After the girls recited their vows, each one of their mothers placed sparkling Brownie pins on their daughters' new uniforms, officially making the youngsters the first members of Troop No. 1011.

The idea for starting a Jewish Brownie troop came after Elizabeth Charlson, a professor of child development at San Jose State University and a former Brownie, wanted to enlist her daughter in a Brownie program that taught Jewish beliefs and values. However, no such troop existed locally.

After much research, Charlson came across the National Jewish Girl Scout Committee, a 30-year-old organization in New York City that provides information on how to start a Jewish troop.

Weeks later, Charlson learned how and attended Brownie leader basic training. Then, she visited the directors of the Peninsula JCC.

"Many of them had the perception that Girl Scouting had a Christian perspective and therefore was not appropriate for Jewish girls," Charlson said.

But after she showed them the Jewish Girl Scout literature, the PJCC gave Charlson a meeting room for the troop. Later, she searched for recruits by dropping off fliers at schools and synagogues.

The recruitment wasn't easy, however. "A number of families thought it was bad idea."

Many Jewish parents said they wanted their daughters in more integrated programs. But Charlson argued that today's Jewish children are integrated enough, especially those who are enrolled in public schools.

As an example, Charlson pointed to her 6-year-ol daughter, who's the only Jewish girl in her class.

Despite some parental objections, Charlson found seven would-be Brownies. After six months of preparation, the troop held its first meeting in September.

Two months later, after the recruits learned things like baking, knitting and getting involved in civic responsibility, they became official Brownies. After their evening inaugural celebration, they attended a candlelight feast in which long banquet tables were decorated with autumn vegetables, fresh flowers, challahs, kugel, cakes and dried pine tree branches.

Now, the troop meets every other Thursday at the PJCC.

"I learned that there's a wealth of opportunity for our girls from participating in the Jewish community," Charlson said. "Girl Scouting builds self-esteem by working in leadership, learning about others and working within their own community."