THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT 
 
 From the Library of 
 
 Henry Goldman, Ph.D. 
 
 1886-1972
 
 TUP] FAIRY MYTHOLOGY, 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE 
 
 Romance anfc Superstition of batious (Countries | 
 
 THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, 
 
 Author of the Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy ; Histories of Greece, itoauk 
 England, and India, The Crusaders, &c., &c. 
 
 Another sort there be, that will 
 be talking of the Fairies still ; 
 Nor never can they have their fill, 
 As they were wedded to them 
 
 DBiTTOF. 
 
 A NFW KDITION, REVISED AND GREATLY ENLARGED 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN, 
 AND NEW YORK. 
 
 1892.
 
 MJWDOBI 
 
 FROM STEREOTYPE PLATES BY WILLIAM CLOWES AKD sous, LCMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STKRET AND CHARING CBOBS.
 
 TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE. 
 
 FRANCIS EARL OF ELLESMERE, 
 
 IN TESTIMOKY OF 
 
 ESTEEM AND RESPECT FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUE, 
 
 LITERARY TASTE, TALENT, AND ACQUIREMENTS, 
 AND PATRONAGE OP LITERATURE AND THE ARTS. 
 
 Cfjts Folume is 3nscribeti 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A PEEP ACE is to a book what a prologue is to a play a 
 usual, often agreeable, but by no means necessary precursor. 
 It may therefore be altered or omitted at pleasure. I have 
 at times exercised this right, and this is the third I have 
 written for the present work. 
 
 In the first, after briefly stating what had given occasion 
 to it, I gave the germs of the theory which I afterwards de- 
 veloped in the Tales and Popular Fictions. The second 
 contained the following paragraph : 
 
 " I never heard of any one who read it that was not 
 pleased with it. It was translated into German as soon as 
 it appeared, and was very favourably received. Goethe 
 thought well of it. Dr. Jacob Grimm perhaps the first 
 authority on these matters in Europe wrote me a letter 
 commending it, and assuring me that even to him it offered 
 something new ; and I was one Christmas most agreeably 
 surprised by the receipt of a letter from Vienna, from the 
 celebrated orientalist, Jos Von Hammer, informing me that 
 it had been the companion of a journey he had lately made 
 to his native province of Styria, and had afforded much 
 pleasure and information to himself and to some ladies of 
 high rank and cultivated minds in that country. The 
 initials at the end of the preface, he said, led him to suppose 
 >f . Mas a work of mine. So far for the Continent. In this
 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 country, when I mention the name of Robert. Southey as 
 that of one who has more than once expressed his decided 
 approbation of this performance, I am sure I shall have 
 said quite enough to satisfy any one that the work is not 
 devoid of merit." 
 
 I could now add many names of distinguished persons 
 who have been pleased with this work and its pendent, the 
 Tales and Popular Fictions. I shall only mention that 
 of the late Mr. Douce, who, very shortly before his death, 
 on the occasion of the publication of this last work, called 
 on me to assure me that " it was many, many years indeed, 
 since he had read a book which had yielded him so much 
 delight." 
 
 The contents of the work which gave such pleasure to 
 this learned antiquary are as follows: 
 
 I. Introduction Similarity of Arts and Customs Similarity of 
 Names Origin of the Work Imitation Casual Coincidence 
 Milton Dante. IL The Thousand and One Nights Bedowcen 
 Audience around a Story-teller Cleomades and Claremond 
 Enchanted Horses Peter of Provence and the fair Maguelone. 
 III. The Pleasant Nights The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, 
 and theBeautiful Green Bird The Three Little Birds Lactantius 
 Ulysses and Sindbad. IV. The Shah-Nameh Roostem and 
 Soohrab Conloch s>d Cuchullin Macpherson's Ossian Irish 
 Antiquities. V. The Pentamerone Tale of the Serpent Hindoo 
 Legend. VI. Jack the Giant-killer The Brave Tailoring Thor's 
 Journey to Utgard Ameen of Isfahan and the Ghool The Lion 
 and the Goat The Lion and the Ass. VIL Whittington and his 
 Cat Danish Legends Italian Stories Persian Legend. VIIL 
 The Edda Sigurd and Brynhilda Volund Helgi Holger 
 Danske Ogier le Dauois Toko William Tell. IX. Peruonto 
 Peter the Fool Emelyan the Fool Conclusion. Appendix. 
 
 Never, I am convinced, did any one enter on a literary 
 career with more reluctance than I did when I found it to 
 be my only resource fortune being gone, ill health and 
 delicacy of constitution excluding me from the learned pro-
 
 PREFACE v 
 
 feasions, want of interest from every thing else. As I 
 journeyed to the metropolis, I might have sung with the 
 page whom Don Quixote met going a-soldiering : 
 
 A la guerra me lleva mi necesidad, 
 Si tuviera dineros no fuera en verdad 
 
 for of all arts and professions in this country, that of literature 
 is the least respected and the worst remunerated. There is 
 something actually degrading in the expression " an author 
 by trade," which I have seen used e,ven of Southey, and that 
 by one who did not mean to disparage him in the slightest 
 degree. My advice to those who may read these pages is to 
 shun literature, if not already blest with competence. 
 
 One of 11 iy earliest literary Mends in London was T. 
 Crofton Croker, who was then engaged in collecting mate- 
 rials for the Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland. He 
 of course applied to his friends for aid and information ; and 
 I, having most leisure, and, I may add, most knowledge, was 
 able to give him the greatest amount of assistance. My 
 inquiries on the subject led to the writing of the present 
 vork, which was succeeded by the Mythology of Ancient 
 Greece and Italy, and the Tales and Popular Fictions ; so 
 that, in effect, if Mr. Croker had not planned the Fairy 
 Legends, these works, be their value what it may, would 
 in all probability never have been written. 
 
 Writing and reading about Fairies some may deem to be 
 the mark of a trifling turn of mind. On this subject 1 
 have given my ideas in the Conclusion ; here I will only 
 remind such critics, that as soon as this work was com- 
 pleted, I commenced, and wrote in the space of a few weeks, 
 my Outlines of History ; and whatever the faults of that 
 work may be, no one has ever reckoned among them want 
 of vigour in either thought or expression. It was also 
 necessary, in order to write this work and its pendent, to 
 be able to read, perhaps, as many as eighteen or twenty
 
 VI PREFACB. 
 
 different languages, dialects, and modes of orthography, and to 
 employ different styles both in prose and verse. At all events, 
 even if it were trifling, dulce est desipere in loco; and I shall 
 never forget the happy hours it caused me, especially those 
 spent over the black-letter pages of the French romances of 
 chivalry, in the old reading-room of the British Museum. 
 
 Many years have elapsed since this work was first pub- 
 lished. In that period much new matter has appeared in 
 various works, especially in the valuable Deutsche Mytho- 
 logie of Dr. Grimm. Hence it will be found to be greatly 
 enlarged, particularly in the sections of England and France. 
 I have also inserted much which want of space obliged me 
 to omit in the former edition. In its present form, 1 am 
 presumptuous enough to expect that it may live for many 
 years, and be an authority on the subject of popular lore. 
 The active industry of the Grimms, of Thiele, and others, 
 had collected the popular traditions of various countries. 
 I came then and gathered in the harvest, leaving little, I 
 apprehend, but gleanings for future writers on this subject. 
 The legends will probably fade fast away from the popular 
 memory ; it is not likely that any one will relate those which 
 I have given over again ; and it therefore seems more pro- 
 bable that this volume may in future be reprinted, with notes 
 and additions. For human nature will ever remain un_ 
 changed ; the love of gain and of material enjoyments, omni- 
 potent as it appears to be at present, will never totally ex- 
 tinguish the higher and purer aspirations of mind ; and there 
 will always be those, however limited in number, who will 
 desire to know how the former dwellers of earth thought, 
 felt, and acted. For these mythology, as connected with 
 religion and history, will always have attractions. 
 
 October, 1850. 
 
 Whatever errors have been discovered are corrected in 
 this impression. 
 January, 1870.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION, *K 
 
 Origin of the Belief in Fairies ...... 1 
 
 Origin of the Word Fairy ... .... 4 
 
 ORIENTAL ROMANCE. 
 
 PERSIAN ROMANCE . . . . . , . . .14 
 
 The Peri- Wife .... .... 20 
 
 ARABIAN ROMANCE ......... 24 
 
 MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE. 
 
 FAIRY-LAND 44 
 
 SPENSER'S FAERIE QUEENE 55 
 
 EDDAS AND SAGAS .... 60 
 
 THE ALFAR 64 
 
 THE DUERGAR .... 66 
 
 Loki and the Dwarf ........ 68 
 
 Thorston and the Dwar . 70 
 
 The Dwarf-Sword Tirnng 72 
 
 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 ELVES 78 
 
 Sir Olof in the Elve-Dance 82 
 
 The Elf-Woman and Sir Olof 84 
 
 The Young Swain and the Elves So 
 
 Svend Faelling and the Elle-Maid 88 
 
 The Elle-Maids 89 
 
 MaidVaj 89 
 
 The Elle-Maid near Ebeltoft 90 
 
 Hans Puntleder ......... 91 
 
 DWARFS OR TROLLS 94 
 
 SirThynne 97 
 
 Proud Margaret 103 
 
 The Troll Wife 108 
 
 The Altar-Cup in Aagerup . . . . . . .109 
 
 Origin of Tiis Lake Ill 
 
 A Farmer tricks a Troll 113 
 
 Skotte in the Fire 113 
 
 The Legend of Bodedys . . . . . . .115 
 
 Kallundborg Church 116 
 
 The Hill-Man invited to the Christening .... 118 
 
 The Troll turned Cat 120 
 
 Kirsten's-Hill 121 
 
 The Troll-Labour 122 
 
 The Hill-Smith 123 
 
 The Girl at the Troll-Dance 12 
 
 The Changeling 12;
 
 viii COKTEMM. 
 
 tm 
 
 The Tile-Stove jumping over the Brook . . . . 127 
 Departure of the Trolls from Vendsyssel . . . .127 
 
 Svend Faelling 128 
 
 The Dwarfs' Banquet 130 
 
 NIBSES 139 
 
 The Nis removing ........ 140 
 
 The Penitent Nis 141 
 
 The Nis and the Boy 142 
 
 The Nis stealing Corn 143 
 
 The Nis and the Mare 144 
 
 The Nis riding 145 
 
 The Nisses in Vosborg ....... 146 
 
 NECKS, MERMEN. AND MERMAIDS 147 
 
 The Power of the Harp 150 
 
 Duke Magnus and the Mermaid 154 
 
 ORTHERN ISLANDS. 
 
 ICELAND 157 
 
 FEROES 162 
 
 SHETLAND 164 
 
 Gioga'sSon . . 167 
 
 The Mermaid Wife 169 
 
 ORKNEYS 171 
 
 ISLE OF RCGEN 174 
 
 Adventures of John Dietrich 178 
 
 The Little Glass Shoe 194 
 
 The Wonderful Plough 197 
 
 The Lost Bell 200 
 
 The Black Dwarfs of Granitz 204 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 DWARFS . 216 
 
 The Hill-Man at the Dance 217 
 
 The Dwarf's Feast 218 
 
 The Friendly Dwarfs 220 
 
 Wedding-Feast of the Little People 220 
 
 Smith Riechert 221 
 
 Dwarfs stealing Corn 222 
 
 Journey of Dwarfs over the Mountain 223 
 
 The Dwarfs borrowing Bread ...... 226 
 
 Th, Changeling 7 
 
 The Dwarf-Husband 232 
 
 Inee of Rantum 232 
 
 THE "\A ILD- WOMEN 234 
 
 The Oldenburg Horn 237 
 
 KOBOLDS 239 
 
 Hinzelmann 240 
 
 Hpdeken ..... 255 
 
 King Goldemar 256 
 
 The Heinzelmanchen 257 
 
 NIXES 258 
 
 The Peasant and the Waterman .... 259 
 
 The Water-Smith 260
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Page 
 
 The Working Waterman ... . 261 
 
 The Nix-Labour . ... . . 261 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 DWARFS ........... 264 
 
 Gertrude and Rosy ........ 266 
 
 The Chamois-Hunter . 271 
 
 The Dwarfs on the Tree . ... 273 
 
 Curiosity punished ........ 273 
 
 The Rejected Gift ... 275 
 
 The Wonderful Little Pouch . ... 276 
 
 Aid and Punishment . . . ... 277 
 
 The Dwarf in search of Lodging . ... 278 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 The Green Children 281 
 
 The Fairy-Banquet 283 
 
 The Fairy-Horn 284 
 
 The Fortunes 285 
 
 The Grant 286 
 
 The Luck of Eden Hall 292 
 
 The Fairy-Fair . . 294 
 
 The Fairies' Caldron 295 
 
 The Cauld Lad of Hilton 296 
 
 The Pixy-Labour 301 
 
 Pixy-Vengeance . 303 
 
 Pixy-Gratitude 304 
 
 The Fairy-Thieves 305 
 
 The Boggart 307 
 
 Addlers and Menters 308 
 
 The Fary-Nurseling 310 
 
 The Fary-Labour 311 
 
 Ainsel 313 
 
 Puck 314 
 
 SCOTTISH LOWLANDS. 
 
 The Fairies' Nurse 353 
 
 The Fairy-Rade 354 
 
 The Changeling 355 
 
 Departure of the Fairies 356 
 
 The Brownie 357 
 
 CELTS AND CYMRY. 
 
 IRELAND. 
 
 Clever Tom and the Leprechaun 373 
 
 The Leprechaun in the Garden 376 
 
 The Three Leprechauns ....... 379 
 
 The Little Shoe 382 
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 
 
 The Fairy's Inquiry 385 
 
 The Young Man in the Shian 38 J 
 
 The two Fiddlers 387 
 
 The Fairy-Labour 383
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 Fu 
 
 The Fairy borrowing Oatmeal ..... 389 
 
 The Fairy-Gift ......... 389 
 
 The Stolen Ox ......... 390 
 
 The Stolen Lady ......... 391 
 
 The Changeling ......... 393 
 
 The Wounded Seal ........ 394 
 
 The Brownies ......... 395 
 
 TheUrisk ..... .... 396 
 
 ISLE OF MAN. 
 
 The Fairy-Chapman ........ 398 
 
 The Fairy-Banquet ........ 399 
 
 The Fairies' Christening ....... 400 
 
 The Fairy-Whipping ........ 400 
 
 The Fairy-Hunt ......... 401 
 
 The Fiddler and the Fairy ....... 402 
 
 The Phynnodderee ........ 402 
 
 WALES. 
 
 Tale of Elidurus ........ 404 
 
 The Tylwyth Teg ......... 408 
 
 The Spirit of the Van ....... 409 
 
 Rhys at the Fairy-Dance ....... 415 
 
 GittoBach ......... 416 
 
 The Fairies banished ........ 417 
 
 BRITTANY. 
 
 LaiD'Ywenec ......... 422 
 
 Lord Nann and the Kerrigan ....... 433 
 
 The Dance and Song of the Korred ..... 438 
 
 SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 GBEECK ......... . 443 
 
 ITALY ........... 447 
 
 SPAIN ........... 456 
 
 The Daughter of Peter de Cabinam ..... 456 
 
 Origin of the House of Haro ...... 458 
 
 La Infantina .......... 459 
 
 Pepito el Corcovado ........ 461 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Legend of Melusina ..... ... 480 
 
 EASTERN EUROPE. 
 
 FINNS ........... 487 
 
 SLAVES ........... 490 
 
 Vilas ........... 492 
 
 Deer and Vila ......... 493 
 
 AFRICANS, 
 
 AFRICANS ...... . . . 4S5 
 
 JEWS ........... 497 
 
 The Broken Oaths ........ 498 
 
 The Moohel ...... ... 506 
 
 TheMazik-Ass ..... ... 510 
 
 APPENDIX ..... .513 
 
 INDEX . s . 557
 
 THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In oldfe dayes of the King Artour, 
 Of which that Bretons spoken gret honotir, 
 All was this lond fulfilled of faerie ; 
 The elf*qrene with hir jolie companie 
 Danced full oft in many a grenfe mede. 
 
 CHAUCER. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE BELIEF IN FAIRIES. 
 
 ACCOBDING to a well-known law of our nature, effects 
 suggest causes ; and another law, perhaps equally general, 
 impels us to ascribe to the actual and efficient cause the 
 attribute of intelligence. The mind of the deepest philoso- 
 pher is thus acted upon equally with that of the peasant or 
 the savage ; the only difference lies in the nature of the 
 intelligent cause at which they respectively stop. The one 
 pursues the chain of cause and effect, and traces out its 
 various links till he arrives at the great intelligent cause of 
 all, however he may designate him ; the other, when unusual 
 phenomena excite his attention, ascribes their production to 
 the immediate agency of some of the inferior beings recog- 
 nised by his legendary creed. 
 
 The action of this latter principle must forcibly strike the 
 irtinds of those who disdain not to bestow a portion of their 
 attention on the popular legends and traditions of different
 
 ^ IKTBODUCTIOir. 
 
 countries. Every extraordinary appearance is found to have 
 its extraordinary cause assigned ; a cause always connected 
 with the history or religion, ancient or modern, of the 
 country, and not unfrequently varying with a change of 
 faith.* 
 
 The noises and eruptions of ^Etna and Stromboli were, in 
 ancient times, ascribed to Typhon or Vulcan, and at this day 
 the popular belief connects them with the infernal regions. 
 The sounds resembling the clanking of chains, hammering of 
 iron, and blowing of bellows, once to be heard in the island 
 of Barrie, were made by the fiends whom Merlin had set to 
 work to frame the wall of brass to surround Caermarthen.t 
 The marks which natural causes have impressed on the solid 
 and unyielding granite rock were produced, according to the 
 popular creed, by the contact of the hero, the saint, or the 
 god: masses of stone, resembling domestic implements in 
 form, were the toys, or the corresponding implements of the 
 heroes and giants of old. Grecian imagination ascribed to 
 the galaxy or milky way an origin in the teeming breast of 
 the queen of heaven: marks appeared in the petals of 
 flowers on the occasion of a youth's or a hero's untimely 
 death : the rose derived its present hue from the blood of 
 Venus, as she hurried barefoot through the woods and lawns; 
 while the professors of Islam, less fancifully, refer the origin 
 of this flower to the moisture that exuded from the sacred 
 person of their prophet. Under a purer form of religion, 
 the cruciform stripes which mark the back and shoulders of 
 
 * The mark on Adam's Peak in Ceylon is, by the Buddhists, ascribed to 
 Buddha ; by the Mohammedans, to Adam. It reminds one of the story of 
 the lady and the vicar, viewing the moon through a telescope ; they saw in it, 
 as they thought, two figures inclined toward each other : " Methinks," sayg 
 the lady, " they are two fond lovers, meeting to pour forth their vows by earth- 
 light." " Not at all," says the vicar, taking his turn at the glass ; " they are 
 the steeples of two neighbouring churches." 
 
 t Faerie Queene, III. c. iii. st. 8, 9, 10, 11. Dray ton, Poly-Olbion, Song 
 VI. We fear, however, that there is only poetic authority for this belief. 
 Mr. Todd merely quotes Warton, who says that Spenser borrowed it from 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, who picked it up among the romantic traditions propa- 
 gated by the Welsh bards. The reader will be, perhaps, surprised to hear 
 that Giraldus says nothing of the demons. He mentions the sounds, and endea- 
 vours to explain them by natural causes. Hollingshed indeed (1. i. c. 24.) 
 aye, " whereof the superstitious sort do gather many toys."
 
 OF THE BELIEF IN FAIEIES. 3 
 
 the patient ass first appeared, according to the popukr 
 tradition, when the Son of God condescended to enter the 
 Holy City, mounted on that animal ; and a fish only to be 
 found in ':he sea * stills bears the impress of the finger and 
 thumb of the apostle, who drew him out of the waters 
 of Lake Tiberias to take the tribute-money that lay in his 
 mouth. The repetition of the voice among the hills is, in 
 Norway and Sweden, ascribed to the Dwarfs mocking the 
 human speaker, while the more elegant fancy of Greece gave 
 birth to Echo, a nymph who pined for love, and who still 
 fondly repeats the accents that she hears. The magic 
 scenery occasionally presented on the waters of the Straits 
 of Messina is produced by the power of the Fata Morgana ; 
 the gossamers that float through the haze of an autumnal 
 morning, are woven by the ingenious dwarfs ; the verdant 
 circlets in the mead are traced beneath the light steps of the 
 dancing elves ; and St. Cuthbert forges and fashions the 
 beads that bear his name, and lie scattered along the shore 
 of Lindisfarne.f 
 
 In accordance with these laws, we find in most countries 
 a popular belief in different classes of beings distinct from 
 men, and from the higher orders of divinities. These beings 
 are usually believed to inhabit, in the caverns of earth, or 
 the depths of the waters, a region of their own. They gene- 
 rally excel mankind in power and in knowledge, and like 
 them are subject to the inevitable laws of death, though 
 after a more prolonged period of existence. 
 
 How these classes were first called into existence it is not 
 easy to say ; but if, as some assert, all the ancient systems 
 of heathen religion were devised by philosophers for the 
 instruction of rude tribes by appeals to their senses, \va 
 might suppose that the minds which peopled the skies with 
 their thousands and tens of thousands of divinities gave 
 birth also to the inhabitants of the field and flood, and that 
 the numerous tales of their exploits and adventures are the 
 production of poetic fiction or rude invention. It may 
 
 The Haddock. 
 
 + For a well-chosen collection of examples, see the very learned and philo- 
 tophical preface of the late Mr. Price to his edition of Warton's History of 
 English Poetry, p. 28 et seq. 
 
 2
 
 4 IBTBODUCTIOX. 
 
 further be observed, that not unfrequently a change of reli- 
 gious faith has invested with dark and malignant attributes 
 beings once the obiocts of love, confidence, and veneration.* 
 It is not our intention in the following pages to treat of 
 the awful or lovely deities of Olympus, Valhalla, or Meru. 
 Our subject is less aspiring; and we confine ourselves to 
 those beings who are our fellow-inhabitants of earth, whose 
 manners we aim to describe, and whose deeds we propose to 
 record. "We write of FAIBIES, PATS, ELVES, aut olio quo 
 nomine gaudent. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE WORD FAIRY. 
 
 Like every other word in extensive use, whose derivation 
 is not historically certain, the word Fairy has obtained 
 various and opposite etymons. Meyric Casaubon, and 
 those who like him deduce everything from a classic source, 
 however unlikely, derive Fairy from ^rjp, a Homeric name of 
 the Centaurs ;f or think that fee, whence Fairy, is the last 
 syllable of nympha. Sir W. Ouseley derives it from the 
 Hebrew INS (peer), to adorn; Skinner, from the Anglo- 
 Saxon papan, to fare, to go ; others from Feres, companions, 
 or think that Fairy-folk is quasi Fair-folk. Finally, it has 
 been queried if it be not Celtic. J 
 
 But no theory is so plausible, or is supported by such 
 names, as that which deduces the English Fairy from the 
 Persian Peri. It is said that the Paynim foe, whom the 
 warriors of the Cross encountered in Palestine, spoke only 
 Arabic ; the alphabet of which language, it is well known, pos- 
 sesses no p, and therefore organically substitutes any in such 
 foreign words as contain the former letter ; consequently Peri 
 became, in the mouth of an Arab, Feri, whence the crusaders 
 and pilgrims, who carried back to Europe the marvellous 
 
 * In the Middle Ages the gods of the heathens were all held to be devils. 
 
 f 1 *^p is the Ionic form of 0ty>, and is nearly related to the German thier, 
 Least, animal. The Scandinavian dyr, and the Anglo-Saxon beori, have the 
 tome signification ; and it is curious to observe the restricted sense which this 
 l:it lias gotten in the English deer. 
 
 J Preface to Warton, p. 44 ; and Breton philologists furnish us with an 
 etymon ; not, indeed, of Fairy, but of Fada. " Fada, fata, etc.," says M. de 
 Cambry (Monumens Celtiques), "come from the Breton mat or mad, in con- 
 r.ruction fat, good ; whence the English, maid"
 
 OHIO IN OF THE WORD FAIEY. 
 
 tales of Asia, introduced into the West the Arabo-Persian 
 word Fairy. It is further added, that the Morgain or Mor- 
 gana, so celebrated in old romance, is Merjan Peri, equally 
 celebrated all over the East. 
 
 All that is wanting to this so very plausible theory is 
 something like proof, and some slight agreement with the 
 ordinary rules of etymology. Had Feerie, or Fairy, origi- 
 nally signified the individual in the French and English, the 
 only languages in which the word occurs, we might feel dis- 
 posed to acquiesce in it. But they do not : and even if they 
 did, how should we deduce from them the Italian Fata, and 
 the Spanish Fada or Hada, (words which unquestionably 
 stand for the same imaginary being,) unless on the principle 
 by which Menage must have deduced Lutin from Lemur 
 the first letter being the same in both? As to the fair 
 Merjan Peri (D'Herbelot calls her Merjan Banou*), we fancy 
 a little too much importance has been attached to her. Her 
 name, as far as we can learn, only occurs in the Caherman 
 Nameh, a Turkish romance, though perhaps translated from 
 the Persian. 
 
 The foregoing etymologies, it is to be observed, are all the 
 conjectures of English scholars ; for the English is the only 
 language in which the name of the individual, Fairy, has the 
 canine letter to afford any foundation for them. 
 
 Leaving, then, these sports of fancy, we will discuss the 
 true origin of the words used in the Romanic languages to 
 express the being which we name Fairy of Romance. These 
 are Faee, Fee, French ; Fada, Proven9al (whence Hada, 
 Spanish) ; and Fata, Italian. 
 
 The root is evidently, we think, the Latin fatum. In the 
 fourth century of our aera we find this word made plural, 
 and even feminine, and used as the equivalent of Parcae. 
 On the reverse of a gold medal of the Emperor Diocletian 
 are three female figures, with the legend Fatis victricibus ; 
 a cippus, found at Valencia in Spain, has on one of its sides 
 
 * D'Herbelot litre Mergian says, " C'est du norn de cette Fee que nos 
 anciens remans ont forme celui de More/ante la Deconnue." He here con- 
 founds Morgana with Urganda, and he has been followed in his mistake. 
 D'Herbelot also thinks it possi ble that Feerie may come from Peri ; but he 
 regards the common derivation from Fata as much more probable. Cambrian 
 etymologists, by the way, say that Morgain is Mor Gwyun, the White Maid.
 
 6 
 
 Fatis Q. Fdbius ex voto, and on the other, three female 
 figures, with the attributes of the Moerae or Parcse.* In 
 this last place the gender is uncertain, but the figures 
 would lead us to suppose it feminine. On the other hand, 
 Ausoniusf has tres Charites, tria Fata; and ProcopiusJ 
 names a building at the Eoman Forum rd rpia fdra, adding 
 ovru) ydp 'Pwftaiot rdf /xo7pac vevopiKaffi KaXi'iv. The Fatae 
 or Fata, then, being persons, and their name coinciding so 
 exactly with the modern terms, and it being observed that 
 the Mcerae were, at the birth of Meleager, just as the Fees 
 were at that of Ogier le Danois, and other heroes of 
 romance and tale, their identity has been at once asserted, 
 and this is now, we believe, the most prevalent theory. To 
 this it may be added, that in G-ervase of Tilbury, and other 
 writers of the thirteenth century, the Fada or Fee seems to 
 be regarded as a being different from human kind. 
 
 On the other hand, in a passage presently to be quoted 
 from a celebrated old romance, we shall meet a definition of 
 the word Fee, which expressly asserts that such a being was 
 nothing more than a woman skilled in magic ; and such, on 
 examination, we shall find to have been all the Fees of the 
 romances of chivalry and of the popular tales ; in effect, that 
 fee is a participle, and the words dame or femme is to be 
 understood. 
 
 In the middle ages there was in use a Latin veTb,fatare,\\ 
 derived fromfatum or fata, and signifying to enchant. This 
 
 * These two instances are given by Mdlle. Amelie Bosquet (La Nonnandie 
 Romanesque, etc. p. 91.) from Dom Martin, Rel. des Gaulois, ii. ch. 23 
 and 24. 
 
 f Gryphus ternarii nntiuri. J De Belj. Got. i. 25. 
 
 See below, France. It is also remarked that in some of the tales of 
 the Pentamerone, the number of the Fate is three ; but to this it may be 
 replied, that in Italy every thing took a classic tinge, and that the Fate of those 
 tales are only Maghe ; so in the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso we meet with 
 La Fata Urganda. In Spain and France the number would rather seem to 
 have been seven. Cervantes speaks of " los siete castillos do las siete fadas ; " 
 in the Rom. de la lufantina it is said, "siete fadas me fadaron, en brazos dc 
 una ama inia," and the Fees are seven in La Belle au Bois dormant. In the 
 romance, however, of Guillaume au Court-nez, the Fees who carry the sleeping 
 Renoart out of the boat are three in number. See Grimm Deutsche My thologie, 
 p. 383. 
 
 || A MS. of the 13th century, quoted by Grimm (ut sup. p. 405), thtu 
 relates the origin of Aquisgrani (Ahc la Chapelle) : Aquisgrani iicitur Ays, ct
 
 OBI GIN OF THE WOED FAIET. 7 
 
 verb was adopted by the Italian, Provei^al* and Spanish 
 languages ; in French it became, according to the analogy 
 of that tongue, faer, feer. Of this verb the past participle 
 \$fae,fe; hence in the romances we continually meet with 
 les chevaliers faes, les dames /bees, Oberon la fae, le cheval 
 etoit fae, la clef etait fe, and such like. We have further, 
 we think, demonstrated f that it was the practice of the Latin 
 language to elide accented syllables, especially in the past 
 participle of verbs of the first conjugation, and that this 
 practice had been transmitted to the Italian, whence fatato-a 
 would formfato-a, and una donna fatata might thus become 
 unafata. Whether the same was the case in the Proven9al 
 we cannot affirm, as our knowledge of that dialect is very 
 slight ; but, judging from analogy, we would say it was, for 
 in Spanish Hadada and Hada are synonymous. In the 
 Neapolitan Pentamerone Fata and Maga are the same, and 
 a Fata sends the heroine of it to a sister of hers, pure fatata. 
 Ariosto says of Medea 
 
 E perche per virtu d' erbe e d'incanti 
 Delle Fate una ed immortal fatta era. 
 
 / Cinque Canti, ii. 106. 
 
 The same poet, however, elsewhere says 
 
 Queste che or Fate e dagli antichi foro 
 Gia dette Ninfe e Dee con piu bel nome. Ibid. i. 9. 
 and, 
 
 Nascemmo ad un punto che d'ogni altro male 
 
 Siamo capaci fuorche della morte. Orl. Fur. xliii. 48. 
 
 dicitur eo, quod Karolus tenebat ibi quandam mulierem fatatam,s\\e quandam 
 fatam, quae alio nomine nimpha vel dea vel adriades (1. dryas) appellatur, 
 et ad hanc consuetudinem habebat, et earn cognoscebat ; et ita erat, quod 
 ipso accedente ad earn vivebat ipsa, ipso Karolo recedente moriebatur. Contigit 
 dum quadam vice ad ipsam accessisset ut cum ea delectaretur, radius soil's 
 intravit os ejus, et tune Karolus vidit granum auri lingue ejus affixum, quod 
 fecit abscindi et contingenti (1. in continenti) mortua est, nee postea revixit. 
 * " Aissim fadaro tres serors 
 
 En aquella ora qu' ieu ui natz 
 
 Que totz temps fos enamoratz." Folquet de Romans. 
 
 (Thus three sisters fated, in the hour that I was born, that I should be ai 
 til times in love.) 
 
 " Aissi fuy de nueitz fadatz sobr' un puegau." Guilh. de Poitou. 
 (Thus was I fated by night on a bill.) Grimm, ut sup. p. 383. 
 f See our Virgil, Excurs. ix.
 
 8 INTBODUCT101T. 
 
 which last, however, is not decisive. Bojardo also calls the 
 water-nymphs Fate ; and our old translators of the Classics 
 named them fairies. From all this can only, we apprehend, 
 be collected, that the ideas of the Italian poets, and others, 
 were somewhat vague on the subject. 
 
 From the verb faer, feer, to enchant, illude, the French 
 made a substantive faerie, f eerie,* illusion, enchantment, the 
 meaning of which was afterwards extended, particularly after 
 it had been adopted into the English language. 
 
 We find the word Faerie, in fact, to be employed in four 
 different senses, which we will now arrange and exemplify. 
 
 1. Illusion, enchantment. 
 
 Plusieurs parlent de Guenart, 
 Du Loup, de 1'Asne, de Renart, 
 De faeries et de songes, 
 Do phantosmes et de mensonges. 
 
 Gul. Giar. ap. I>ucange. 
 
 Where we must observe, as Sir Walter Scott seems not to 
 have been aware of it, that the four last substantives 
 bear the same relation to each other as those in the two 
 first verses do. 
 
 Me bifel a ferly 
 
 Of faerie, me thought. 
 
 Vision of Piers Plowman, v. 11. 
 
 Maius that sit with so benigne a chere, 
 Hire to behold it seemed faerie. 
 
 Chaucer, Marchante's Tale. 
 
 It (the horse of brass) was of faerie, as the peple semed, 
 Diversd folk diversely han demed. Squiers Tale. 
 
 The Emperor said on high, 
 Certes it is a faerie, 
 Or elles a vanite. Emare. 
 
 With phantasme and faerie, 
 
 Thus she blerede his eye. Libeaus Discount. 
 
 The God of her has made an end, 
 
 And fro this worldes faerie 
 
 Hath taken her into companie. Gower, Constance. 
 
 * Following the analogy of the Gotho-Cerman tongues, zaulerei, Germ. 
 trylleri, Dan. trolkri, Swed. illusion, enchantment. The Italian word it 
 fattucchieria.
 
 ORIGIN OF THE WORD FAIRY. 9 
 
 Mr. Kitson professes not to understand the meaning of 
 faerie in this last passage. Mr. Bitson should, as Sir Hugh 
 Evans says, have ' prayed his pible petter ;' where, among 
 other things that might have been of service to him, he 
 would have learned that ' man walketh in a vain shew,' that 
 ' all is vanity] and that ' the fashion of this world passeth 
 away ;' and then he would have found no difficulty in com- 
 prehending the pious language of ' moral Gower,' in his 
 allusion to the transitory and deceptive vanities of the 
 World. 
 
 2. From the sense of illusion simply, the transition was 
 easy to that of the land of illusions, the abode of the Faes, 
 who produced them ; and Faerie next came to signify the 
 country of the Fays. Analogy also was here aiding; for 
 as a Nonnerie was a place inhabited by Nonnes, a Jewerie a 
 place inhabited by Jews, so a Faerie was naturally a place 
 inhabited by Fays. Its termination, too, corresponded with 
 a usual one in the names of countries : Tartarie, for instance, 
 and ' the regne of Feminie.' 
 
 Here beside an elfish knight 
 
 Hath taken my lord in fight, 
 
 And hath him led with him away 
 
 Into the Faerie, sir, parmafay. Sir Guy. 
 
 La puissance qu'il avoit sur toutes faeries du monde. 
 
 Huon de Bordeaux. 
 
 En effect, s'il me falloit retourner en faerie, je ne S9auroye ou prendre 
 mon chemin. Ogier le Dannoys. 
 
 . That Gawain with his olde curtesie, 
 
 Though he were come agen out of faerie. 
 
 Squier's Tale. 
 
 He (Arthur) is a king y-crowned in Faerie, 
 With sceptre and pall, and with his regalty 
 Shalle resort, as lord and sovereigne, 
 Out of Faerie, and reigne in Bretaine, 
 And repair again the oulde Rounde Table. 
 
 Lydgate, Fall of Princes, bk. viii. c. 24. 
 
 3. From the country the appellation passed to the inhabi- 
 tants in their collective capacity, and the Faerie now signified 
 the people of Fairy-land.* 
 
 * Here too there is perhaps an analogy with cavali-y, infantry, sguierie, 
 and similar collective terms.
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Of the fourth kind of Spritis called the Phairie. 
 
 K. James, Demonologie, 1. 8. 
 
 Full often time he, Pluto, and his quene 
 Proserpina, and alle hir faerie, 
 Disporten hem, and maken melodie 
 About that well. Marchante's Tale. 
 
 The feasts that underground the Faerie did him make, 
 And there how he enjoyed the Lady of the Lake. 
 
 Drayton, Poly-Olb., Song IV. 
 
 4. Lastly, the word came to signify the individual denizen 
 of Fairy-land, and was equally applied to the full-sized fairy 
 knights and ladies of romance, and to the pygmy elves that 
 haunt the woods and dells. At what precise period it got 
 this its last, and subsequently most usual sense, we are 
 unable to say positively ; but it was probably posterior to 
 Chaucer, in whom it never occurs, and certainly anterior 
 to Spenser, to whom, however, it seems chiefly indebted for 
 its future general currency.* It was employed during the 
 sixteenth century t for the Fays of romance, and also, 
 especially by translators, for the Elves, as corresponding to 
 the Latin Nympha. 
 
 They vxdieved that king Arthur was not dead, but carried awaie by 
 the Fairies into some pleasant place, where he should remaine for a 
 time, and then returne again and reign in as great authority as ever. 
 
 Hollingshed, bk. v. c. 14. Printed 1577. 
 
 Semicaper Pan 
 Nunc tenet, at quodam tenuerunt tempore nymphse. 
 
 Ovid, Met. xiv. 520. 
 
 The halfe-goate Pan that howre 
 Possessed it, but heretofore it was the Paries' bower. Gelding, 1567 
 
 * The Faerie Queene was published some years before the Midsummer 
 Night's Dream. Warton (Obs. on the Faerie Queene) observes : " It appears 
 from Marston's Satires, printed 1598, that the Faerie Queene occasioned 
 many publications in which Fairies were the principal actors. 
 
 Go buy some ballad of the FAERY KING. Ad Lectorem. 
 
 Out steps some Faery with quick motion, 
 And tells him wonders of some flowerie vale 
 Awakes, straight rubs his eyes, and prints his tale. 
 
 B. III. Sat. 6." 
 
 ( It is in this century that we first meet with Fmry as a dissyllable, and 
 with a plural. It is then used in its fourth and last sense.
 
 ORIGIN OF THE WOBD FAIET. 11 
 
 Hjec nemora indigenae fauni nymphseque tenebant, 
 Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata. 
 
 Virgil, jEneis, viii. 314. 
 
 With nymphis and faunis apoun every side, 
 Qwhilk Farefolkis or than Elfis clepen we. 
 
 Gawin Dowglas. 
 
 The woods (quoth he) sometime both fauns and nymphs, and gods of 
 
 ground, 
 And Fairy-queens did keep, and under them a nation rough. 
 
 Phaer, 1562. 
 
 Inter Hamadryadas celeberrima Nonacrinas 
 Nai'as una fait. Ovid, Met. 1. i. 690. 
 
 Of all the nymphes of Nonacris and Fairie ferre and neere, 
 In beautie and in personage this ladie had no peere. 
 
 Golding. 
 
 Pan ibi dum teneris jactat sua cannina nymphis. 
 
 Ov. Ib. xi. 153. 
 
 There Pan among the Fairie-elves, that daunced round togither. 
 
 Golding. 
 
 Solaque Naiadum celeri non nota Diana?. Ov. Ib. iv. 304. 
 
 Of all the water-fayries, she alonely was unknowne 
 To swift Diana. Golding. 
 
 Nymphis latura coronas. Ov. Ib. ix. 337. 
 
 Was to the fairies of the lake fresh garlands for to bear. 
 
 Golding. 
 
 Thus we have endeavoured to trace out the origin, and 
 mark the progress of the word Fairy, through its varying 
 significations, and trust that the subject will now appear 
 placed in a clear and intelligible light. 
 
 After the appearance of the Faerie Queene, all distinctions 
 were confounded, the name and attributes of the real Fays 
 or Fairies of romance were completely transferred to the 
 little beings who, according to the popular belief, made ' the 
 green sour ringlets whereof the ewe not bites.' The change 
 thus operated by the poets established itself firmly among 
 the people ; a strong proof, if this idea be correct, of the 
 power of the poetry of a nation in altering the phraseology 
 of even the lowest classes* of its society. 
 
 * The Fata Morgana of the Straits of Messina is an example ; for the name 
 of Morgana, whencesoever derived, was probably brought into Italy ty the 
 poets.
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Shakspeare must be regarded as a principal agent in this 
 revolution ; yet even he uses Fairy once in the proper sense 
 of Fay; a sense it seems to have nearly lost, till it waa 
 again brought into use by the translators of the French 
 Contes des Fees in the last century. 
 
 To this great Fairy 1 11 commend thy acts. 
 
 Antony and Cleopatra, act iv. sc. 8. 
 
 And Milton speaks 
 
 Of Faery damsels met in forests wide 
 By knights of Logres or of Lyones, 
 Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellinore. 
 
 Yet he elsewhere mentions the 
 
 Faery elves, 
 
 Whose midnight revels by a forest side 
 Or fountain some belated peasant sees. 
 
 Finally, Randolph, in his Amyntas, employs it, for perhaps 
 the last time, in its second sense, Fairy-land : 
 
 I do think 
 There will be of Jocastus' brood in Fairy. 
 
 Act L sc. 3. 
 
 We must not here omit to mention that the Germans, 
 along with the French romances, early adopted the name of 
 the Fees. They called them Feen and Feinen.* In the 
 Tristram of Gottfried von Strazburg we are told that Duke 
 Gylan had a syren-like little dog, 
 
 Dez wart dem Herzoge gesandt 'Twas sent unto the duke, parde, 
 Uz Avalun, der Feinen land, From Avalun, the Fays' countrie, 
 
 Von einer Gottinne. V. 1673. By a gentle goddess. 
 
 In the old German romance of Isotte and Blanscheflur, 
 the hunter who sees Isotte asleep says, I doubt 
 
 Dez sie menschlich sei, If she human be, 
 
 Sie ist schoner derm eine Feine. She is fairer than a Fay. 
 
 Von Fleische noch von Beine Of flesh or bone, I say, 
 
 Kunte nit gewerden Never could have birth 
 
 So schones auf der erden. A thing so fair on earth. 
 
 Dobenek, des deutschen Mittelalter* und Volksglauhen. Berlin, 1818.
 
 INTBO-DUCTIOIT. 13 
 
 Our subject naturally divides itself into two principal 
 branches, corresponding to the different classes of beings to 
 which the name Fairy has been applied. The first, beings 
 of the human race, but endowed with powers beyond those 
 usually allotted to men, whom we shall term FATS, or 
 FAIBIES OP BOMANCE. The second, those little beings of 
 the popular creeds, whose descent we propose to trace from 
 the cunning and ingenious Duergar or dwarfs of northern 
 mythology, and whom we shall denominate ELVES or 
 POPTTLAB FAIBIES. 
 
 It cannot be expected that our classifications should vie in 
 accuracy and determinateness with those of natural science. 
 The human imagination, of which these beings are the off- 
 spring, works not, at least that we can discover, like nature, 
 by fixed and invariable laws ; and it would be hard indeed to 
 exact from the Fairy historian the rigid distinction of classes 
 and orders which we expect from the botanist or chemist. 
 The various species so run into and are confounded with one 
 another ; the actions and attributes of one kind are so fre- 
 quently ascribed to another, that scarcely have we begun to 
 erect our system, when we find the foundation crumbling 
 under our feet. Indeed it could not well be otherwise, when 
 we recollect that all these beings once formed parts of ancient 
 and exploded systems of religion, and that it is chiefly in the 
 traditions of the peasantry that their memorial has been 
 preserved. 
 
 We will now proceed to consider the Fairies of romance i 
 and as they are indebted, though not for their name, yet 
 perhaps for some of their attributes, to the Peries of Persia, 
 we will commence with that country. We will thence pursue 
 our course through Arabia, till we arrive at the middle-age 
 romance of Europe, and the gorgeous realms of Fairy-land ; 
 and thence, casting a glance at the Faerie Queene, advance 
 to the mountains and forests of the Korth, there to trace the 
 origin of the light-hearted, night-tripping elves.
 
 ORIENTAL ROMANCE.* 
 
 y Joue 
 ji J^xl 
 
 SADEK. 
 
 All human beings must in beauty yield 
 To you ; a PERI I have ne'er beheld. 
 
 PERSIAN ROMANCE. 
 
 THE pure and simple religion of ancient Persia, originating, 
 it is said, with a pastoral and hunting race among the lofty 
 hills of Aderbijan, or, as others think, in the elevated plains 
 of Bactria, in a region where light appears in all its splen- 
 dour, took as its fundamental principle the opposition between 
 light and darkness, and viewed that opposition as a conflict. 
 Light was happiness ; and the people of Iran, the land 01 
 light, were the favourites of Heaven ; while those of Turan, 
 the gloomy region beyond the mountains to the north, were 
 its enemies. In the realms of supernal light sits enthroned 
 Ormuzd, the first-born of beings ; around him are the six 
 Amshaspands, the twenty-eight Izeds, and the countless 
 myriads of Ferohers.f In the opposite kingdom of darkness 
 
 * See D'Herbelot, Richardson's Dissertation, Ouseley's Persian Miscellanies, 
 Wahl in the Mines de 1'Orient, Lane, Thousand and One Nights, Forbes, 
 Hatim TaY, etc., etc. 
 
 + Onnuzd employed himself for three thousand years in making the heavens 
 and their celestial inhabitants, the Ferohers, which are the angels and the 
 unembodied souls of all intelligent beings. All nature is filled with Ferohers, 
 or guardian angels, who watch over its various departments, and are occupied 
 in performing their various tasks for the benefit of mankind. Erslcine on the 
 Sacred Books and Religion of the Parsis, in the Transaction* of the Literary 
 Society of Bombay, vol. ii. p. 318. The Feroher bears in fact a very strong 
 resemblance to the Genius of the ancient Roman religion : gee our Mythology 
 of Greece and Italy
 
 PERSIAN EOMANCE. 15 
 
 Aherman is supreme, and his throne is encompassed by the 
 six Arch-Deevs, and the numerous hosts of inferior Deevs. 
 Between these rival powers ceaseless warfare prevails ; but 
 at the end the prince of darkness will be subdued, and 
 peace and happiness prevail beneath the righteous sway of 
 Ormuzd. 
 
 From this sublime system of religion probably arose the 
 Peri-* or Fairy-system of modern Persia ; and thus what was 
 once taught by sages, and believed by monarchs, has shared 
 the fate of everything human, and has sunk from its pristine 
 rank to become the material and the machinery of poets and 
 romancers. The wars waged by the fanatical successors of 
 the Prophet, in which literature was confounded with ido- 
 latry, have deprived us of the means of judging of this system 
 in its perfect form ; and in what has been written respecting 
 the Peries and their country since Persia has received the 
 law of Mohammed, the admixture of the tenets and ideas of 
 Islam is evidently perceptible. If, however, Orientalists be 
 right in their interpretation of the name of Artaxerxes' 
 queen, Parisatis, as Pari-zadehf (Peri-born), the Peri must 
 be coeval with the religion of Zoroaster. 
 
 The Peries and Deevs of the modern Persians answer to 
 the good and evil Jinn of the Arabs, of whose origin and 
 nature we shall presently give an account. The same 
 Suleymans ruled over them as over the Jinn, and both alike 
 were punished for disobedience. It is difficult to say which 
 is the original ; but when we recollect in how much higher a 
 state of culture the Persians were than the Arabs, and how 
 well this view accords with their ancient system of religion, 
 we shall feel inclined to believe that the Arabs were the 
 borrowers, and that by mingling with the Persian system 
 ideas derived from the Jews, that one was formed by them 
 which is now the common property of all Moslems. 
 
 In like manner we regard the mountains of Kaf, the abode 
 alike of Jinn and of Peries and Deevs, as having belonged 
 originally to Persian geography. The fullest account of it 
 
 * This word is pronounced Perry or rather Parry. 
 
 "1* 8t) ; i fr) Hence it follows that the very plausible idea tf tb.. Pcii 
 
 > *TV 
 having bsen the same with the Feroher cannot be correct.
 
 16 OB1ESTAL 011 ASCII. 
 
 appears in the Persian romance of Hatim Tai,* the hero of 
 which often visited its regions. From this it would seem 
 that this mountain-range was regarded as, like that of the 
 ancient Greek cosmology, surrounding the flat circular earth 
 "like a ring, or rather like the bulwarks of a ship, outside of 
 which flowed the ocean ; while some Arab authorities make 
 it to lie beyond, and to enclose the ocean as well as the 
 earth.f It is said to be composed of green chrysolite, the 
 reflection of which gives its greenish tint to the sky. 
 According to some, its height is two thousand English miles. 
 
 Jinnestan is the common appellation of the whole of this 
 ideal region. Its respective empires were divided into many 
 "kingdoms, containing numerous provinces and cities. Thus 
 in the Peri-realms we meet with the luxuriant province of 
 Shad-u-kam (Pleasure and Delight), with its magnificent 
 capital Juherabad (Jewel-city}, whose two kings solicited the 
 aid of Caherman against the Deevs,J and also the stately 
 Amberabad (Amber-city), and others equally splendid. The 
 metropolis of che Deev-empire is named Ahermanabad (Aher- 
 mari's city) ; and imagination has lavished its stores in the 
 description of the enchanted castle, palace, and gallery of the 
 Deev monarch, Arzshenk. 
 
 The Deevs and Peries wage incessant war with each other. 
 Like mankind, they are subject to death, but afte" n much 
 longer period of existence ; and, though far superior to man 
 in power, they partake of his sentiments and passions. 
 
 We are told that when the Deevs in their wars make 
 prisoners of the Peries, they shut them up in iron cages, and 
 hang them froii- the tops of the highest trees, exposed to 
 every gaze and to every chilling blast. Here their com- 
 panions visit them, and bring them the choicest odours to feed 
 on ; for the ethereal Peri Lives on perfume, which has more- 
 over the property of repelling the cruel Deevs, whose 
 malignant nature is impatient of fragrance. 
 
 When the Peries are unable to withstand their foes, they 
 
 * Translated by Mr. Duncan Forbes. It is to be regretted that he hoi 
 employed the terms Fairies and Demons instead of Peries and Deevs. 
 
 f See Lane, Thousand and One Nights, i. p. 21, seq. 
 
 t The Caherman Nameh is a romance in Turkish. Cahermao was tha 
 father of Sim, the grandfather of the celebrated Roostem. 
 
 It is 1:1 the Caherman Nameh that this circums'ance occurs-
 
 PEBSIAX EOMASCE. 17 
 
 solicit the aid of some mortal hero. Enchanted arms and 
 talismans enable him to cope with the gigantic Deevs, and 
 he is conveyed to Jinnestan on the back of some strange 
 and wonderful animal. His adventures in that country 
 usually furnish a wide field for poetry and romance to 
 expatiate in. 
 
 The most celebrated adventurer in Jinnestan was Tah- 
 muras, surnamed Deev-bend (Deev-binder),* one of the 
 ancient kings of Persia. The Peries sent him a splendid 
 embassy, and the Deevs, who dreaded him, despatched an- 
 other. Tahmuras, in doubt how to act, consults the won- 
 derful bird Seemurgh,t who speaks all languages, and whose 
 knowledge embraces futurity. She advises him to aid the 
 Peries, warns him of the dangers he has to encounter, and 
 discloses his proper line of action. She further offers to 
 
 * <jJL) Ot) The Tahmuras Nameh is also in Turkish. It and th 
 Caherman Nameh are probably translations from the Persian. As far as 
 we are aware, Richardson is the only orientalist who mentions these two 
 romances. 
 
 f- c .Ajmt I* signifies ' thirty birds,' and is thought to be toe v: c> 
 the Arabs. The poet Sadee, to express the bounty of the Ajmigntv savg 
 
 .4} .x-JU, 
 
 His liberal board he spreadeth out so wide, 
 On Kaf the Seemurgh is with food supplied. 
 
 The Seemurgh probably belongs to the original mythology of Persia, for sh 
 appears in the early part of the Shah Nanieh. When Zal was corn to Sam 
 Neriman, his hair proved to be white. The father regarding this as a proor o 
 Deev origin, resolved to expose him, and sent him for that purpose to Mount 
 Elburz. Here the poor babe lay crying and sucking his fingers till he was 
 found by the Seemurgh, who abode on the summit of Klburz, as sne was 
 looking for food for her young ones. But God put pity into her heart, and sne 
 took him to her nest and reared him with her young. As he grew up, the 
 caravans that passed by, spread the fame of his beauty and his strength, and a 
 vision having informed Sam that he was his son, he set out for Elburz to claim 
 him from the Seemurgh.. It was with grief that Zal quitted the materna. 
 nest. The Seemurgh, when parting with her foster-son, gave him one of her 
 feathers, >* bade him, whenever he should be in trouble or danger, to cast it 
 into the fire, and he would have proof of her power; and she charged him at 
 he same time stiictly never to forget his nurse. 
 
 C
 
 18 ORIENTAL 11OMAHCE. 
 
 convey him to Jinnestan, and plucks some feathers from her 
 breast, with which the Persian monarch adorns his helmet. 
 
 Mounted on the Seemurgh, and bracing on his arm tha 
 potent buckler of Jan-ibn-Jan,* Tahmuras crosses the abysa 
 impassable to unaided mortality. The vizier Iinlan, who 
 had headed the Deev embassy, deserting his original friends, 
 had gone over to Tahmuras, and through the magic arts of 
 the Deev, and his own daring valour, the Persian hero defeata 
 the Deev-king Arzshenk. He next vanquishes a Deev still 
 more fierce, named Demrush, who dwelt in a gloomy cavern, 
 surrounded by piles of wealth plundered from the neigh- 
 bouring realms of Persia and India. Here Tahmuras finds 
 a fair captive, the Peri Merjan,t whom Demrush had carried 
 off, and whom her brothers, Dal Peri and Milan Shah Peri, 
 had long sought in vain. He chains the Deev in the centre 
 of the mountain, and at the suit of Merjan hastens to attack 
 another powerful Deev named Houndkonz ; but here, alas ! 
 fortune deserts him, and, maugre his talismans and enchanted 
 arms, the gallant Tahmuras falls beneath his foe. 
 
 The great Deev-bend, or conqueror of Deevs, of the 
 Shah-NamehJ is the illustrious Roostem. In the third of his 
 Seven Tables or adventures, on his way to relieve the Shah 
 Ky-Caoos, whom the artifice of a Deev had led to Mazenderan, 
 where he was in danger of perishing, he encounters in the 
 dark of the night a Deev named Asdeev, who stole on him 
 in a dragon's form as he slept. Twice the hero's steed, 
 Beksh, awoke him, but each time the Deev vanished, and 
 Eoostem was near slaying his good steed for giving him a 
 false alarm. The third time he saw the Deev and slew him 
 after a fearful combat. He then pursued his way to the 
 cleft in the mountain in which abode the great Deev Sefeed, 
 or "White Deev. The seventh Table brought him to where 
 lay an army of the Deev Sefeed' s Deevs, commanded by 
 Arzshenk, whose head he struck off, and put his troops to 
 flight. At length he reached the gloomy cavern of the Deev 
 
 * See Arabian Romance. 
 f- ..il*-.* a pearl. Life, soul also, according to Wilkins. 
 
 * Ferdousee's great heroic poem. It is remarkable that the Peries are very 
 rarely spoken of in this poem. They merely appear in it with the birds and 
 beasts amoug the subjects of the first Iranian monarchs.
 
 PEBSIAN ROMANCE. 19 
 
 Sefeed himself, whom he found asleep, and scorning the 
 advantage he awoke him, and after a terrific combat 
 deprived him also of life. 
 
 Many years after, when Ky-Khosroo sat on the throne, 
 a wild ass of huge size, his skin like the sun, and a black 
 stripe along his back, appeared among the royal herds and 
 destroyed the horses. It was supposed to be the Deev 
 Akvan,who was known to haunt an adjacent spring. Eoostem 
 wenjt in quest of him ; on the fourth day he found him and 
 cast his noose at him, but the Deev vanished. He 
 re-appeared ; the hero shot at him, but he became again 
 invisible. Eoostem then let Eeksh graze, and laid him to 
 sleep by the fount. As he slept, Akvan came and flew up 
 into the air with him ; and when he awoke, he gave him his 
 choice of being let fall on the mountains or the sea. 
 Eoostem secretly chose the latter, and to obtain it he pre- 
 tended to have heard that he who was drowned never entered 
 paradise. Akvan thereupon let him fall into the sea, from 
 which he escaped, and returning to the fount, he there met 
 and slew the Deev. Eoostem' s last encounter with Deevs 
 was with Akvan' s son, Berkhyas, and his army, when he 
 went to deliver Peshen from the dry well in which he was 
 confined by Afrasiab. He slew him and two-thirds of his 
 troops. Berkhyas is described as being a mountain in size, 
 his face black, his body covered with hair, his neck like that 
 of a dragon, two boar's tussks from his mouth, his eyes wells 
 of blood, his hair bristling like needles, his height 140 ells, 
 his breadth 17, pigeons nestling in his snaky locks. Akvan 
 had had a head like an elephant. 
 
 In the Hindoo-Persian Bahar Danush (Garden of Know- 
 ledge) of Yudyet-ullah, written in India A.D. 1650,* we find 
 the following tale of the Peries, which has a surprisi 
 resemblance to European legends hereafter to be noticed.f 
 
 * Chap. xx. translation of Jonathan Scott, I79i>. 
 f See below, Shetland.
 
 20 OEIEJSTAL ROMANCE. 
 
 THE son of a merchant in a city of Hindostan, having 
 been driven from his father's house on account of his 
 undutifu] conduct, assumed the garb of a Kalenderee or 
 wandering Derweesh, and left his native town. On the first 
 day of his travels, being overcome with fatigue before he 
 reached any place of rest, he went off the high road and sat 
 down at the foot of a tree by a piece of water : while he sat 
 there, he saw at sunset four doves alight from a tree on 
 the edge of the pond, and resuming their natural form (for 
 they were Peries) take off their clothes and amuse them- 
 selves by bathing in the water. He immediately advanced 
 softly, took up their garments, without being seen, and con- 
 cealed them in the hollow of a tree, behind which he placed 
 himself. The Peries when they came out of the water and 
 missed their clothes were distressed beyond measure. They 
 ran about on all sides looking for them, but in vain. At 
 length, finding the young man and judging that he had 
 possessed himself of them, they implored him to restore 
 them. He would only consent on one condition, which was 
 that one of them should become his wife. The Peries 
 asserted that such a union was impossible between them 
 whose bodies were formed of fire and a mortal who was 
 composed of clay and water ; but he persisted, and selected 
 the one which was the youngest and handsomest. They 
 were at last obliged to consent, and having endeavoured 
 to console their sister, who shed copious floods of tears 
 at the idea of parting with them and spending her days 
 with one of the sons of Adam ; and having received their 
 garments, they took leave of her and flew away. 
 
 The young merchant then led home his fair bride and 
 clad her magnificently ; but he took care to bury her Peri- 
 raiment in a secret place, that she might not be able to 
 leave him. He made every effort to gain her affections, and 
 at length succeeded in his object " she placed her foot in
 
 PEESIAN BOMAUCE. 21 
 
 the path of regard, and her head on the carpet of affection." 
 She bore him children, and gradually began to take pleasure 
 in the society of his female relatives and neighbours. AH 
 doubts of her affection now vanished from his mind, and he 
 became assured of her love and attachment. 
 
 At the end of ten years the merchant became embarrassed 
 in his circumstances, and he found it necessary to under- 
 take a long voyage. He committed the Peri to the care 
 of an aged matron in whom he had the greatest confidence, 
 and to whom he revealed the secret of her real nature, and 
 showed the spot where he had concealed her raiment. He 
 then " placed the foot of departure in the stirrup of travel," 
 and set out on his journey. The Peri was now overwhelmed 
 with sorrow for his absence, or for some more secret cause, 
 and continually uttered expressions of regret. The old 
 woman sought to console her, assuring her that " the dark 
 night of absence would soon come to an end, and the 
 bright dawn of interview gleam from the horizon of divine 
 bounty." One day when the Peri had bathed, and was dry- 
 ing her amber-scented tresses with a corner of her veil, the 
 old woman burst out into expressions of admiration at her 
 dazzling beauty. "Ah, nurse," replied she, "though you 
 think my present charms great, yet had you seen me in my 
 native raiment, you would have witnessed what beauty and 
 grace the Divine Creator has bestowed upon Peries ; for 
 know that we are among the most finished portraits on the 
 tablets of existence. If then thou desirest to behold the 
 skill of the divine artist, and admire the wonders of cre- 
 ation, bring the robes which my husband has kept concealed, 
 that I may wear them for an instant, and show thee my 
 native beauty, the like of which no human eye, but my lord's, 
 hath gazed upon." 
 
 The simple woman assented, and fetched the robes and 
 presented them to the Peri. She put them on, and then, 
 like a bird escaped from the cage, spread her wings, and, 
 crying Farewell, soared to the sky and was seen no more. 
 When the merchant returned from his voyage " and found 
 no signs of the rose of enjoyment on the tree oi hope, but 
 the lamp of bliss extinguished in the chamber of felicity, he 
 became as one Peri-stricken,* a recluse in the cell of mad- 
 
 * i. e. possessed, insane. It is like tlie wfi<f>6\ijirros of the Greeks.
 
 22 OB1ENTAL BOMANCE. 
 
 ness. Banished from the path of understanding, he remained 
 lost to all the bounties of fortune and the useful purposes 
 of life." 
 
 The Peri has been styled " the fairest creation of poetical 
 imagination." No description can equal the beauty of the 
 female Peri,* and the highest compliment a Persian poet 
 can pay a lady is to liken her to one of these lovely aerial 
 beings.t Thus Sadee, in the lines prefixed to this section, 
 declares that only the beauty of a Peri can be compared 
 with that of the fair one Le addresses ; and more lately, Aboo 
 Taleeb Khan says to Lady Elgin, as he is translated by 
 M. von Hammer,J 
 
 The sun, the moon, the Penes, and mankind, 
 Compared with you, do far remain behind ; 
 For sun and moon have never form so mild, 
 The Peries have, but roam in deserts wild. 
 
 Sir ~W. Ouseley is at a loss what to compare them to. 
 They do not, he thinks, resemble the Angels, the Cherubim 
 and Seraphim of the Hebrews, the Daemons of the Platonists, 
 or the Genii of th? Romans ; neither do they accord with 
 the Houri of the Arabs. Still less do they agree with the 
 Fairies of Shakspeare ; for though fond of fragrance, and 
 
 * It must be recollected that the Peries are of both sexes: we have just 
 spoken of Peri Icings, and of the brothers of Merjan. 
 
 f In the Shah Nameh it is said of Prince Siyawush, that when he was born 
 he was bright as a Peri. We find the poets everywhere comparing female 
 beauty to that of supetior beings. The Greeks and Romans compared a lovely 
 woman to Venus, Diana, or the nymphs ; the Persians to a Peri : the ancient 
 Scandinavians would say she was Frith sem Alfkone, "fair as an Alf-woman;" 
 and an Anglo-Saxon poet says of Judith that she was Elf-sheen, or fair as at 
 Elf. In the Lay of Gugemer it is said, 
 
 Dedenz la Dame unt trovee 
 
 Ki de biaute resanbloit Fie. 
 
 The same expression occurs in Meon (3, 412) ; and in the Romant de la ROM 
 we meet, jure que plus belle est que fee (10, 425). In the Pentamerone it ii 
 said of a king's son, lo quale essenno bello comme a no fato. 
 
 J Mines de 1'Orient, vol. iii. p. 40. To make his version completely 
 English, M. von Hammer uses the word Fairies ; we have ventured t 
 change it.
 
 PERSIAN ROMANCE. 23 
 
 living on that sweet essential food, we never find them 
 employed in 
 
 Killing cankers in the musk-rose buds, 
 or obliged 
 
 To serve the fairy queen 
 
 To dew her orbs upon the green. 
 
 Neither is their stature ever represented so diminutive as to 
 make key-holes pervious to their flight, or the bells of 
 flowers their habitations. But Milton's sublime idea of a 
 'faery vision,' he thinks, corresponds more nearly with 
 what the Persian poets have conceived of the Peries. 
 
 Their port was more than human, as they stood ; 
 
 I took it for a faery vision 
 
 Of some gay creatures of the element 
 
 That in the colours of the rainbow live 
 
 And play i' the plighted clouds. I was awestruck, 
 
 And as I pass'd I worshipp'd. Comw. 
 
 "I can venture to affirm," concludes Sir William gallantly, 
 "that he will entertain a pretty just idea of a Persian Peri, 
 who shall fix his eyes on the charms of a beloved and beauti- 
 ful mistress." 
 
 If poetic imagination exhausted itself in pourtraying the 
 beauty of the Peries, it was no less strenuous in heaping 
 attributes of deformity on the Deevs. They may well vie in 
 ugliness with the devils of our forefathers. " At Lahore, in 
 the Mogul's palace," says William Finch, "are pictures ot 
 Dews, or Dives, intermixed in most ugly shapes, with long 
 horns, staring eyes, shaggy hair, great fangs, ugly paws, long 
 tails, with such horrible difformity and deformity, that I 
 wonder the poor women are not frightened therewith."* 
 
 Such then is the Peri-system of the Mohammedan 
 Persians, in which the influence of Islam is clearly percep- 
 tible, the very names of their fabled country and its kings 
 being Arabic. Had we it as it was before the Arabs forced 
 their law on Persia, we should doubtless find it more con^ 
 sistent in all its parts, more light, fanciful, and etherial. 
 
 * In Purchas' Pilgrims, vol. i., quoted by Sir W. Ouseley.
 
 24 OEI3KTAL HOMATfCB. 
 
 ARABIAN ROMANCE. 
 
 THE Prophet is the centre round which every thing con- 
 nected with Arabia revolves. The period preceding his 
 birth is regarded and designated as the times of ignorance, 
 and our knowledge of the ancient Arabian mythology com- 
 prises little more than he has been pleased to transmit to 
 us. The Arabs, however, appear at no period of their 
 history to have been a people addicted to fanciful invention. 
 Their minds are acute and logical, and their poetry is that 
 of the heart rather than of the fancy. They dwell with 
 fondness on the joys and pains of love, and with enthusiasm 
 describe the courage and daring deeds of warriors, or in 
 moving strains pour forth, the plaintive elegy ; but for the 
 description of gorgeous palaces and fragrant gardens, or for 
 the wonders of magic, they are indebted chiefly to their 
 Persian neighbours.* 
 
 What classes of beings the popular creed may have 
 recognised before the establishment of Islam we have no 
 means of ascertaining.f The Suspended Poems, and Antar, 
 give us little or no information ; we only know that the 
 tales of Persia were current among them, and were listened 
 to with such avidity as to rouse the indignation of the 
 Prophet. We must, therefore, quit the tents of the 
 Bedoween, and the valleys of ' Araby the Blest,' and accom- 
 pany the khaleefehs to their magnificent capital on the Tigris, 
 whence emanated all that has thrown such a halo of splen- 
 dour around the genius and language of Arabia. It is in. 
 this seat of empire that we must look to meet with the 
 origin of the marvels of Arabian literature. 
 
 Transplanted to a rich and fertile coil, the sons of the 
 
 * Compare Antar and the Suspended Poems (translated by Sir W. Jones) 
 with the later Arabic works. Antar, though written by Asmai the court-poet 
 d" Haroon-er-Rasheed, gives the manners and ideas of the Arabs of the Desert. 
 f The Jinn are mentioned in the Kuran and also in Antar.
 
 ABABIV2? BOMAUCE. 25 
 
 desert speedily abandoned their former simple mode of life ; 
 and the court of Bagdad equalled or surpassed in magnifi- 
 cence any thing that the East has ever -witnessed. Genius, 
 whatever its direction, was encouraged and rewarded, and 
 the musician and the story-teller shared with the astronomer 
 and historian the favour of the munificent khaleefehs. The 
 tales which had aoused the leisure of the Shahpoors and 
 Tezdejirds were not disdained by the Haroons and Alrnan- 
 soors. The expert narrators altered them so as to accord 
 with the new faith. And it was thus, probably, that the 
 delightful Thousand and One Nights * were gradually pro- 
 duced and modified. 
 
 As the Genii or Jinn f are prominent actors in these 
 tales, where they take the place of the Persian Peries and 
 Deevs, we will here give some account of them. 
 
 According to Arabian writers, there is a species of beings 
 named Jinn or Jan (Jinnee m., Jinniyeh f. sing.), which 
 were created and occupied the earth several thousand years 
 before Adam. A tradition from the Prophet says that they 
 were formed of " smokeless fire," i.e. the fire of the wind 
 Simoom. They were governed by a succession of forty, or, 
 as others say, seventy-two rnonarchs ; named Suleyman, the 
 last of whom, called Jan-ibn-Jan, built the Pyramids of 
 Egypt. Prophets were sent from time to time to instruct 
 and admonish them ; but on their continued disobedience, 
 an army of angels appeared, who drove them from the earth 
 to the regions of the islands, making many prisoners, and 
 slaughtering many more. Among the prisoners, was a 
 young Jinnee, named 'Azazeel, or El-Harith (afterwards 
 called Iblees, from his despair}, who grew up among the 
 angels, and became at last their chief. When Adam was 
 created, God commanded the angels to worship him ; and 
 they all obeyed except Iblees, who, for his disobedience, was 
 turned into a Sheytan or Devil, and he became the father 
 of the Sheytans.J 
 
 * See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 37, seq. Lane, Thousand and One 
 Nights, passim. 
 
 f Genius and Jinn, like Fairy and Peri, is a curious coincidence. The 
 Arabian Jinnee bears no resemblance whatever to the Roman Genius. 
 
 " When we said unto the Angels, Worship ye Adam, and they worshiped 
 except Iblees (who) was of the Jinn." Kuran. chap, xviii. v. 48. Worship
 
 26 ORIENTAL BOMAJfCB. 
 
 The Jinn are not immortal ; they are to survive mankind, 
 but to die before the general resurrection. Even at present 
 many of them are slain by other Jinn, or by men ; but 
 chiefly by shooting-stars hurled at them from Heaven. The 
 fire of which they were created, circulates in their veins 
 instead of blood, and when they receive a mortal wound, it 
 bursts forth and consumes them to ashes. They eat and 
 drink, and propagate their species. Sometimes they unite 
 with human beings, and the offspring partakes of the 
 nature of both parents. Some of the Jinn are obedient to 
 the will of Grod, and believers in the Prophet, answering to 
 the Peries of the Persians ; others are like the Deevs, 
 disobedient and malignant. Both kinds are divided into 
 communities, and ruled over by princes. They have the 
 power to make themselves visible and invisible at pleasure. 
 They can assume the form of various animals, especially 
 those of serpents, cats, and dogs. "When they appear in 
 the human form, that of the good Jinnee is usually of great 
 beauty ; that of the evil one, of hideous deformity, and 
 sometimes of gigantic size. 
 
 When the Zoba'ah, a whirlwind that raises the sand in 
 the form of a pillar of tremendous height, is seen sweeping 
 over the desert, the Arabs, who believe it to be caused by 
 the flight of an evil Jinnee, cry, Iron ! Iron ! {Hadeed ! 
 Hadeed /) or Iron ! thou unlucky one ! (Hadeed ! yd 
 meshoom /) of which metal the Jinn are believed to have a 
 great dread. Or else they cry, God is most great ! (Allahu 
 akbar /) They do the same when they see a water-spout at 
 sea ; for they assign the same cause to its origin.* 
 
 The chief abode of the Jinn of both kinds is the Moun- 
 tains of Kaf, already described. But they also are dispersed 
 through the earth, and they occasionally take up their resi- 
 dence in baths, wells, latrina?, ovens, and ruined houses.f 
 
 is here prostration. The reply of Iblees was, " Thou hast created me of fire, 
 and hast created Itim of earth." Jb. vii. 11; xxxviii. 77. 
 
 * It was the belief of the Irish peasantry, that whirlwinds of dust on the 
 roads were raised by the Fairies, who were then on a journey. On such 
 occasions, unlike the Arabs, they used to raise their hats and say, " God speed 
 you, gentlemen !" For the power of iron, see Scandinavia. 
 
 + The Arabs when they povir water on the ground, let down a bucket into 
 a well, enter a bath, etc., say, "Permission!" (Destoor .') or, Poravlssion, ye 
 blessed ! (Deatoor, yd mid>drakeen /)
 
 AEABIAN EOMANCE. 27 
 
 They also frequent the sea and rivers, cross-roads, and 
 market-places. They ascend at times to the confines of the 
 lowest heaven, and by listening there to the conversation of 
 the angels, they obtain some knowledge of futurity, which 
 they impart to those men who, by means of talismans or 
 magic arts, have been able to reduce them to obedience.* 
 
 The following are anecdotes of the Jinn, given by 
 historians of eminence.f 
 
 It is related, says El-Kasweenee, by a certain narrator of 
 traditions, that he descended into a valley with his sheep, 
 and a wolf carried off a ewe from among them ; and he 
 arose and raised his voice, and cried, " O inhabitant of the 
 valley!" whereupon he heard a voice saying, " O wolf, 
 restore him his sheep ! " and the wolf came with the ewe 
 and left her, and departed. 
 
 Ben Shohnah relates, that in the year 456 of the Hejra, 
 in the reign of Kaiem, the twenty-sixth khaleefeh of the 
 house of Abbas, a report was raised in Bagdad, which imme- 
 diately spread throughout the whole province of Irak, that 
 some Turks being out hunting saw in the desert a black 
 tent, beneath which there was a number of people of both 
 sexes, who were beating their cheeks, and uttering loud 
 cries, as is the custom in the East when any one is dead. 
 Amidst their cries they heard these words The great Icing 
 of the Jinn is dead, woe to this country ! and then there 
 came out a great troop of women, followed by a number of 
 other rabble, who proceeded to a neighbouring cemetery, 
 still beating themselves in token of grief and mourning. 
 
 The celebrated historian Ebn Athir relates, that when he 
 was at Mosul on the Tigris, in the year 600 of the Hejra, 
 there was in that country an epidemic disease of the throat ; 
 and it was said that a woman, of the race of the Jinn, 
 having lost her son, all those who did not condole with her 
 on account of his death were attacked with that disease ; so 
 that to be cured of it men and women assembled, and with 
 all their strength cried out, G mother of AnJcood, excuse us I 
 AnJcood is dead, and we did not mind it ! 
 
 * For the preceding account of the Jinn, -we are -wholly indebted to Lane' 
 Valuable translation of the Thousand and One Nights, i. 30, seq. 
 
 f The first is given by Lane, the other two by D'Herbolot.
 
 MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE. 
 
 Ecco qnel che le carte empion di sogui, 
 Lancilotto, Tristano e gli altri errand, 
 Onde conven che il volgo errante agogni. 
 
 PETEABCA. 
 
 will now endeavour to trace romantic and marvellous 
 fiction to any individual source. An extensive survey of the 
 regions of fancy and their productions will incline us rather 
 to consider the mental powers of man as having an uniform 
 operation under every sky, and under every form of political 
 existence, and to acknowledge that identity of invention is 
 not more to be wondered at than identity of action. It is 
 strange how limited the powers of the imagination are. 
 Without due consideration of the subject, it might be 
 imagined that her stores of materials and powers of com- 
 bination are boundless ; yet reflection, however slight, will 
 convince us that here also ' there is nothing new, ' and 
 charges of plagiarism will in the majority of cases be justly 
 suspected to be devoid of foundation. The finest poetical 
 expressions and similes of occidental literature meet us 
 when we turn our attention to the East, and a striking 
 analogy pervades the tales and fictions of every region. 
 The reason is, the materials presented to the inventive facul- 
 ties are scanty. The power of combination is therefore 
 limited to a narrow compass, and similar combinations must 
 hence frequently occur. 
 
 Yet still there is a high degree of probability in the 
 supposition of the luxuriant fictions of the East having 
 through Spain and Syria operated on European fancy. The 
 poetry and romance of the middle ages are notoriously 
 richer in detail, and more gorgeous in invention, than the
 
 MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE. 29 
 
 more correct and chaste strains of Greece anc Latium ; the 
 island of Calypso, for example, is in beauty and variety left 
 far behind by the retreats of the fairies of romance. 
 Whence arises this difference ? No doubt 
 
 When ancient chivalry display 'd 
 
 The pomp of her heroic games, 
 
 And crested knights and tissued dames 
 
 Assembled at the clarion's call, 
 
 In some proud castle's high-arch'd hall, 
 
 that a degree of pomp and splendour met the eye of the 
 minstrel and romancer on which the bards of the simple 
 republics of ancient times had never gazed, and this might 
 account for the difference between the poetry of ancient and 
 of middle-age Europe. Yet, notwithstanding, we discover 
 such an Orientalism in the latter as would induce us to 
 acquiesce in the hypothesis of the fictions and the manner 
 of the East having been early transmitted to the "West ; 
 and it is highly probable that along with more splendid 
 habits of life entered a more lavish use of the gorgeous 
 stores laid open to the plastic powers of fiction. The 
 tales of Arabia were undoubtedly known in Europe from a 
 very early period. The romance of Cleomades and Clare- 
 monde, which was written in the thirteenth century,* not 
 merely resembles, bat actually is the story of the Enchanted 
 Horse in the Thousand and One Nights. Another tale in 
 the same collection, The two Sisters who envied their 
 younger Sister, may be found in Straparola, and is also 
 a popular story in Germany ; and in the Pentamerone and 
 other collections of tales published loLjg before the appear- 
 ance of M. Galland's translation of the Eastern ones, 
 numerous traces of an oriental origin may be discerned. 
 The principal routes they came by may also be easily 
 shown. The necessities of commerce and the pilgrimage to 
 Mecca occasioned a constant intercourse between the 
 Moors of Spain and their fellow-sectaries of the East ; 
 and the Venetians, who were the owners of Candia, carried 
 on an extensive trade with Syria and Egypt. It is worthy 
 of notice, that the Notti Piacevoli of Straparola were first 
 
 * On the subjects mentioned in this paragraph, see Ti.les and Popular 
 Fictions, chap. ii. and ...
 
 30 MIDDLE-AGE EOMANCE. 
 
 published in Venice, and that Basil e, the author of the 
 Pentamerone, spent his youth in Candia, and was afterwards 
 a long time at Venice. Lastly, pilgrims were notorious 
 narrators of marvels, and each, as he visited the Holy 
 Land, was anxious to store . his memory with those riches, 
 the diffusal of which procured him attention and hospitality 
 at home. 
 
 AVe think, therefore, that European romance may be 
 indebted, though not for the name, yet for some of the attri- 
 butes and exploits of its fairies to Asia. This is more espe- 
 cially the case with the romances composed or turned into 
 prose in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries ; 
 for in the earlier ones the Fairy Mythology is much more 
 sparingly introduced. 
 
 But beside the classic and oriental prototypes of its fairies, 
 romance may have had an additional one in the original 
 mythology of the Celtic tribes, of which a being very nearly 
 allied to the fay of romance appears to have formed a part. 
 Such were the damoiselles who bestowed their favours upon 
 Lanval and Graelent. This subject shall, however, be more 
 fully considered under the head of Brittany. 
 
 Romances of chivalry, it is well known, may be divided 
 into three principal classes ; those of Arthur and his Round 
 Table, of Charlemagne and his Paladins, and those of Amadis 
 and Palmerin, and their descendants and kindred. In the 
 first, with the exception of Isaie le Triste, which appears to 
 be a work of the fifteenth century, the fairies appear but 
 seldom ; the second exhibits them in all their brilliancy and 
 power ; in the third, which all belong to the literature of 
 Spain, the name at least does not occur, but the enchantress 
 Urganda la Desconecida seems equal in power to La Dame 
 du Lac, in the romance of Lancelot du Lac.* 
 
 Among the incidents of the fine old romance just alluded 
 to,f is narrated the death of King Ban, occasioned by grief 
 at the sight of his castle taken and in flames through the 
 treachery of his seneschal. His afflicted queen had left her 
 
 * In the Amadigi of B. Tasso, she is La Fata Urganda. 
 
 f 1 Lancelot is regarded as probably the earliest prose romance of chivalry. 
 
 It was first printed in 1494. The metrical romance called La Charrette, of 
 
 which Lancelot is the hero, -was begun by Chrestien de Troyes, who died in 
 
 1 191, and finished by Geoffrey de Lignjr. We may here observe that almost
 
 MIDDLE-AGE BOJIAXCE. 31 
 
 ftew-bom infant on the margin of a lake, while she went to 
 Boothe the last moments of the expiring monarch. On her 
 return, she finds her babe in the arms of a beautiful lady. 
 She entreats her pathetically to restore the orphan babe ; 
 but, without heeding her entreaties, or even uttering a single 
 word, she moves to the edge of the lake, into which she 
 plunges and disappears with the child. The lady was the 
 celebrated Dame du Lac : the child was Lancelot, afterwards 
 styled Du Lac. The name of the lady was Yivienne, and 
 she had dwelt " en la marche de la petite Bretaigne." Merlin 
 the demon-born, the renowned enchanter, became enamoured 
 of her, and taught her a portion of his art; and the ill-return 
 she made is well known in the annals of female treachery.* 
 In consequence of the knowledge thus acquired she became 
 a fairy ; for the author informs us that " the damsel who 
 carried Lancelot to the lake was a fay, and in those times all 
 those women were called fays who had to do with enchant- 
 ments and charms and there were many of them then, 
 principally in Great Britain and knew the power and 
 virtues of words, of stones, and of herbs, by which they were 
 kept in youth and in beauty, and in great riches, as they 
 devised." t 
 
 The lake was afeerie, an illusion raised by the art which 
 the devil had taught Merlin, and Merlin the lady. The 
 
 all the French romances of chivalry were written originally in verse in the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries, principally by Chrestien de Troves and Huon 
 de Villeneuvc. The prose romances in general were made from them in tl e 
 fifteenth century. 
 
 * For while it was in hand, by loving of an elf, 
 For all his wondrous skill was cozened of himself: 
 For walking with his Fay, her to the rock he brought, 
 In which he oft before his nigromancies wrought. 
 And going in thereat, his magics to have shown, 
 She stopt the cavern's mouth with an enchanted stone, 
 Whose cunning strongly crossed, amazed while he did stand, 
 She captive him conveyed unto the Fairy-land. 
 
 Dray ton, 7Wy-0#>. Song IV. See above, p. 2. 
 
 f La damoiselle qui Lancelot porta au lac estoit une/ee, et en cellui temps 
 estoient appellees fees toutes celles qui sentremeloient denchanteuients et de 
 charmes, et moult en estoit pour lors principallement en la Grand Bretaigne, 
 ct savoient la force et la vertu des parolles, des pierres, et des herbes, parquoi 
 elles estoient en jeuuesse, et en beaulte, et en grandes richesses, comment 
 elle divisoient.
 
 32 MIDDLE-AGE 
 
 romance says : " The lady who reared him conversed only in 
 the forest, and dwelt on the summit of a hill, which was 
 much lower than that on which King Ban had died. In this 
 place, where it seemed that the wood was large and deep, the 
 lady had many fair houses, and very rich ; and in the plain 
 beneath there was a gentle little river well-stored with fish ; 
 and this place was so secret and so concealed, that right 
 difficult was it for any one to find, for the semblance of the 
 said lake covered it so that it could not be perceived." * 
 
 When her young protege had gone through his course of 
 knightly education, she took him to King Arthur's court, 
 and presented him there ; and his subsequent history is well 
 known. 
 
 In the romance of Maugis d'Aygremont et de Vivian 
 son Frere, when Tapinel and the female slave had stolen the 
 two children of Duke Bevis of Aygremont, the former sold 
 to the wife of Sorgalant the child which he had taken, whose 
 name was Esclarmonde, and who was about fifteen years of 
 age, and was " plus belle et plus blanche qu'une fee." The 
 slave having laid herself to rest under a white-thorn (aube- 
 spine), was devoured by a lion and a leopard, who killed one 
 another in their dispute for the infant. " And the babe lay 
 under the thorn, and cried loudly, during which it came to 
 pass that Oriande la Fee, who abode at Eosefleur with four 
 other fays, came straight to this thorn ; for every time she 
 passed by there she used to repose under that white-thorn. 
 She got down, and hearing the child cry, she came that way 
 and looked at him, and said, ' By the god in whom we be- 
 lieve, this child here is lying badly (mal gist), and this shall 
 be his name ; ' and from that time he was always called 
 Maugis." 
 
 Oriande la Fee brought the child home with her and her 
 
 * La dame qui le nourissoit ne conversoit que en forest, et estoit au plain 
 de ung tertre plus bus assez que celui ou le roy Ban estoit mort : en ce lieu 
 ou il sembloit que le bois fust grant et parfont (profond) avoit la dame moult 
 de belles maisons et moult riches; et au plain dessoubs y avoit une gente 
 petite riviere moult plantureuse de poissons ; et estoit ce lieu si cele et secret 
 que bien difficille estoit a homme de le trouver, car la semblance du dit lac le 
 couvroit si que il nc pouvoit estre apperceu. And farther, La damoiselle 
 uestoit mie seulle, mais y avoit grande compaignie de chevaliers et de dame* 
 et danioisrlles.
 
 MIDDLE-AGE EOMAKCS. 33 
 
 damsels ; and having examined him, and found, by a precious 
 ring that was in his ear, that he was of noble lineage, " she 
 prayed our Lord that he would be pleased of his grace to 
 make known his origin (nation)." When she had finished 
 her prayer, she sent for her nephew Espiet, " who was a 
 dwarf, and was not more than three feet high, and had his 
 hair yellow as fine gild, and looked like a child of seven 
 years, but he was more than a hundred ; and he was one of 
 the falsest knaves in the world, and knew every kind of 
 enchantment." Espiet informed her whose child he was ; 
 and Oriande, having prayed to our Lord to preserve the 
 child, took him with her to her castle of Eosefleur, where 
 she had him baptised and named Maugis. She and her 
 damsels reared him with great tenderness ; and when he was 
 old enough she put him under the care of her brother 
 Baudris, " who knew all the arts of magic and necromancy, 
 and was of the age of a hundred years ; " and he taught what 
 he knew to Maugis. 
 
 "When Maugis was grown a man, the Eay Oriande clad 
 him in arms, and he became her ami ; and she loved him " de 
 si grand amour qu'elle doute fort qu'il ne se departe d'avecques 
 elle." 
 
 Maugis shortly afterwards achieved the adventure of gain- 
 ing the enchanted horse Bayard, in the isle of Boucaut. Of 
 Bayard it is said, when Maugis spoke to him, " Bayard estoit 
 feye, si entendoit aussi bien Maugis comme s'il (Bayard) 
 eust parle." On his return from the island, Maugis con- 
 quers and slays the Saracen admiral Anthenor, who had 
 come to win the lands and castle of Oriande, and gains tha 
 sword Elamberge (Eloberge), which, together with Bayard, 
 he afterwards gave to his cousin Eenaud. 
 
 In Perceforest, Sebille la Dame du Lac, whose castle was 
 surrounded by a river on which lay so dense a fog that no 
 one could see across the water, though not called so, was 
 evidently a fay. The fortnight that Alexander the Great 
 and Floridas abode with her, to be cured of their wounds, 
 seemed to them but as one night. During that night, " la 
 dame demoura enceinte du roy dung filz, dont de ce lignage 
 le roi Artus." * 
 
 * Vol. L ch. 42.
 
 34 MIDDLE-AGE EOMANCE. 
 
 In the same romance * we are told that " en lysle de 
 Zellande jadis fut demourante une face qui estoit appellee 
 Morgane." This Morgane was very intimate with "ung 
 esperit (named Zephir) qui repairoit es lieux acquatiques, 
 niais jamais nestoit veu que de nuyt." Zephir had been in 
 the habit of repairing to Morgane la Face from her youth 
 up, " car elle estoit malicieuse et subtille et tousjours avoit 
 moult desire a aucunement S9avoir des enchantemens et de8 
 conjurations." He had committed to her charge the young 
 Passelyon and his cousin Bennucq, to be brought up, and 
 Passelyon was detected in an intrigue with the young Mor- 
 gane, daughter of the fay. The various adventures of this 
 amorous youth form one of the most interesting portions of 
 the romance. 
 
 In Tristan de Leonois,f king Meliadus, the father of 
 Tristan, is drawn to a chase par mal engin et negromance of 
 a fairy who was in love with him, and carries him off, and 
 from whose thraldom he was only released by the power of 
 the great enchanter Merlin. 
 
 In Parthenopex of Blois,J the beautiful fairy Melior, 
 whose magic bark carries the knight to her secret island, is 
 daughter to the emperor of Greece. 
 
 In no romance whatever is the fairy machinery more 
 pleasingly displayed than in Sir Launfal, a metrical romance, 
 composed by Thomas Chestre, in the reign of Henry VI. 
 
 Before, however, we give the analysis of this poem, which 
 will be followed by that of another, and by our own imita- 
 tions of this kind of verse, we will take leave to offer some 
 observations on a subject that seems to us to be in general 
 
 Vol. iii. ch. 31. 
 
 + Tristan was written in terse by Chrestien de Troyes. The prose romance 
 was first printed in 1489. 
 
 + Parthenopex was written in French in the twelfth century, according 
 to Le Grand ; in the thirteenth, according to Roquefort. 
 
 Composed for to call it, with Ellis, Ritson, and others, a translation, 
 would be absurd. How Ellis, who had at least read Le Grand's and Way'i 
 Fabliaux, could say of Chestre, that he " seems to have given a faithful aa 
 well as spirited version of this old Breton story," is surprising. It is in fact 
 no translation, but a poem on the adventures of Sir Launfal, founded chiefly 
 on the Lais de Lanval and de Graelent, in Marie de France, with considerable 
 nH it ion s of Chestre's own invention, or derived from other sources. TheM 
 Lais will be considered under Brittany.
 
 MIDDLE-AGE EOMATTCE. 35 
 
 but little understood, namely, the structure of our old 
 English verse, and the proper mode of reading it. 
 
 Our forefathers, like their Gotho- German kindred, regu- 
 lated their verse by the number of accents, not of syllables. 
 The foot, therefore, as we term it, might consist of one, two, 
 three, or even four syllables, provided it had only one 
 strongly marked accent. Further, the accent of a word 
 might be varied, chiefly by throwing it on the last syllable, 
 as nature for nature, honour for honour, etc. (the Italians, 
 by the way, throw it back when two accents come into 
 collision, as, II Pastor Fido*) ; they also sounded what the 
 French call the feminine e of their words, as, In olde dayes 
 of the King Artour ; and so well known seems this practice 
 to have been, that the copyists did not always write this 0, 
 relying on the skill of the reader to supply it.f There was 
 only one restriction, namely, that it was never to come 
 before a vowel, unless where there was a pause. In this 
 way the poetry of the middle ages was just as regular as 
 that of the present day ; and Chaucer, when properly read, 
 is fully as harmonious as Pope. But the editors of our 
 ancient poems, with the exception of Tyrwtitt, seem to 
 have been ignorant or regardless of this principle ; and in 
 the Canterbury Tales alone is the verse properly arranged. 
 
 We will now proceed to the analysis of the romance of 
 Sir Launfal. 
 
 Sir Launfal was one of the knights of Arthur, who loved him 
 well, and made him his steward. But when Arthur married 
 the beautiful but frail Gwennere, daughter of Eyon, king of 
 Ireland, Launfal and other virtuous knights manifested 
 their dissatisfaction when she came to court. The queen 
 was aware of this, and, at the first entertainment given by 
 the king, 
 
 The queen yaf (gave) giftes for the nones, 
 
 Gold and silver, precious stones, 
 
 Her courtesy to kythe (show) : 
 Everiche knight she yaf broche other (or) ring, 
 But Sir Launfal she yaf no thing, 
 
 That grieved him many a sythe (time). 
 
 * Thus we ourselves say the Princess Royal, extreme need, etc. This, by 
 t'.e way, is the cause why the Greeks put a grave and not an acute accent on 
 words accented on the last syllable, to show that it is easily moveable. 
 
 + As this seems to be one of the lost arts, we will here and elsewhere mark 
 the feminine e and the change of accent. D 2
 
 36 MIDDLE-AGE ROMANCE. 
 
 Launfal, under the feigned pretext of the illness of his 
 father, takes leave of the king, and retires to Karlyoun, 
 where he lives in great poverty. Having obtained the loan 
 of a horse, one holyday, he rode into a fair forest, where, 
 overcome by the heat, he lay down under the shade of a 
 tree, and meditated on his wretched state. In this situation 
 he is attracted by the approach of two fair damsels splendidly 
 arrayed. 
 
 Their faces were white as snow on down, 
 Their rode * was red, their eyne were brown ; 
 
 I saw never none swiche. 
 That one bare of gold a basin, 
 That other a towel white and fine, 
 Of silk that was good and riche ; 
 Their kercheves were wele skire (clear) 
 Amid (striped) with riche golde wire 
 
 Launfal began to siche 
 They come to him over the hoth (heath), 
 He was cartels, and against them goeth, 
 And greet them mildeliche. 
 
 They greet him courteously in return, and invite him to 
 visit their mistress, whose pavilion is at hand. Sir Launfal 
 complies with the invitation, and they proceed to where the 
 pavilion lies. Nothing could exceed this pavilion in magni- 
 ficence. It was surmounted by an erne or eagle, adorned 
 with precious stones so rich, that the poet declares, and we 
 believe, that neither Alexander nor Arthur possessed " none 
 swiche jewel." 
 
 He founde in the paviloun 
 
 The kinges daughter of Oliroun, 
 Dame Tryamour that hight ; 
 
 Her father was king of Faerie, 
 
 Of occientef fer and nigh, 
 A man of mickle might 
 
 The beauty of dame Tryamour was beyond conception. 
 
 For heat her cloathes down she dede 
 Almoste to her girdle stede (place), 
 
 Than lay she uncover't ; 
 She was as white as lily in May, 
 Or snow that snoweth in winter's day : 
 
 He seigh (saw) never none so pert (lively). 
 
 Rode complexion ; from red. 
 
 t Occient Occident or ocean? The Gascon peasantry cal he By 
 Biscay LaMer & Occient. The Spaniards say Mar Oceano.
 
 MIDDLE-AGE EOMAUCE- 37 
 
 The rede rose, when she is new, 
 Against her rode was naught of hew 
 
 I dare well say in cert ; 
 Her haire shone as golde wire : 
 May no man rede her attire, 
 
 Ne naught well think in hert (heart). 
 
 This lovely dame bestows her heart on Sir Launfal, on 
 condition of his fidelity As marks of her affection, she 
 gives him a never-failing purse and many other valuable 
 presents, and dismisses him next morning with the assur- 
 ance, that whenever he wished to see her, his wish would be 
 gratified on withdrawing into a private room, where she 
 would instantly be with him. This information is accom- 
 panied with a charge of profound secrecy on the subject of 
 their loves. 
 
 The knight returns to court, and astonishes every one by 
 his riches and his munificence. He continues happy in the 
 love of the fair Tryamour, until an untoward adventure 
 interrupts his bliss. One day the queen beholds him 
 dancing, with other knights, before her tower, and, inspired 
 with a sudden affection, makes amorous advances to the 
 knight. These passages of love are received on his part 
 with an indignant repulse, accompanied by a declaration 
 more enthusiastic than politic or courteous, that his heart 
 Avas given to a dame, the foulest of whose maidens surpassed 
 the queen in beauty. The offence thus given naturally 
 effected an entire conversion in the queen's sentiments ; 
 and, when Arthur returned from hunting, like Potiphar's 
 wife, she charges Launfal with attempting her honour. 
 The charge is credited, and the unhappy knight condemned 
 to be burned alive, unless he shall, against a certain day, 
 produce that peerless beauty. The fatal day arrives; the 
 queen is urgent for the execution of the sentence, when ten 
 fair damsels, splendidly arrayed, and mounted on white 
 palfreys, are descried advancing toward the palace. They 
 announce the approach of their mistress, who soon appears, 
 and by her beauty justifies the assertion of her knight. 
 Sir Launfal is instantly set at liberty, and, vaulting on the 
 courser his mistress had bestowed on him, and which was 
 held at hand by his squire, he follows her out of the town. 
 
 The lady rode down Cardevile, 
 Fer into a jolif ile,
 
 38 MIDDLE-AGE BOMANCE. 
 
 Oliroun that hight ; * 
 Every year upon a certain day, 
 Men may heare Launfales steede neighe, 
 
 And him see with sight. 
 He that will there axsy (ask) justes 
 To keep his armes fro the rustes, 
 
 In turnement other (or) fight, 
 Dar (need) he never further gon ; 
 There he may find justes anon, 
 
 With Sir Launfal the knight. 
 Thus Launfal, withouten fable, 
 That noble knight of the rounde table, 
 
 Was taken into the faerie ; 
 Since saw him in this land no man, 
 Ne no more of him tell I ne can, 
 
 For soothe, without lie.f 
 
 No romance is of more importance to the present sub- 
 ject than the charming Huon de Bordeaux.J Generally 
 known, as the story should be, through Wieland's poem and 
 Mr. Sotheby's translation, we trust that we shall be excused 
 for giving some passages from the original French romance, 
 as Le petit roy Oberon appears to form a kind of connecting 
 link between the fairies of romance and the Elves or Dwarfs 
 of the Teutonic nations. When we come to Germany it 
 will be our endeavour to show how the older part of Huon 
 de Bordeaux has been taken from the story of Otnit in the 
 Heldenbuch, where the dwarf king Elberich performs 
 
 * It is strange to find the English poet changing the Avalon of the Lai de 
 Lauval into the well-known island of Oleron. It is rather strange too, that 
 Mr. Ritson, who has a note on " Oliroun," did not notice this. 
 
 t The Lai ends thus : 
 
 Od (awe) li sen vait en Avalun, 
 
 Ceo nus recuntent le Bretun ; 
 
 En une isle que mut est beaus, 
 
 La fut ravi li dameiseaus, 
 
 Nul humme nen ot plus parler, 
 
 Ne jeo nen sai avant cunter. 
 
 In Graelent it is said that the horse of the knight used to return annually ta 
 the river where he lost his master. The rest is Thomas Chestre's own, taken 
 probably from the well-known story in Gervase of Tilbury. 
 
 J Huon, Hue, or Hullin (for he is called by these three names in the 
 poetic romance) is, there can be little doubt, the same person with Yon king 
 of Bordeaux in the Quatre Filz Aymon, another composition of Huon de 
 Villeneuve, and with Lo Re Ivone, prince or duke of Guienne in Bojardo 
 and Ariosto. See the Orl. Inn. 1. L c. iv. st. 46. I Cinque Canti,c. v. BL 42
 
 MIDDLE-AGE KOilANCE. 39 
 
 nearly the same services to Otnit that Oberon does to 
 Huon, and that, in fact, the name Oberon is only Elberich 
 slightly altered.* 
 
 . Huon, our readers must know, encounters in Syria an old 
 follower of his family named Gerasmes ; and \vhen consult- 
 ing with him on the way to Babylon he is informed by him 
 that there are two roads to that city, the one long and safe, 
 the other short and dangerous, leading through a wood, 
 " which is sixteen leagues long, but is so full of Fairie and 
 strange things that few people pass there without being lost 
 or stopt, because therewithin dwelleth a king, Oberon the 
 Fay. He is but three feet in height ; he is all humpy ; but 
 he hath an angelic face ; there is no mortal man who should 
 see him who would not take pleasure in looking at him, he 
 hath so fair a face. ]Vow you will hardly have entered the 
 wood, if you are minded to pass that way, when he will find 
 how to speak to you, but of a surety if you speak to him, 
 you are lost for evermore, without ever returning ; nor will 
 it lie in you, for if you pass through the wood, whether 
 straightforwards or across it, you will always find him before 
 you, and it will be impossible for you to escape at all without 
 speaking to him, for his words are so pleasant to hear, that 
 there is no living man who can escape him. And if so be 
 that he should see that you are nowise inclined to speak to 
 him, he will be passing wroth with you. For before you 
 have left the wood he will cause it so to rain on you, to blow, 
 to hail, and to make such right marvellous storms, thunder 
 and lightning, that you will think the world is going to end. 
 Then you will think that you see a great flowing river before 
 you, wondrously black and deep ; but know, sire, that right 
 easily will you be able to go through it without wetting the 
 feet of your horse, for it is nothing but a phantom and 
 enchantments that the dwarf will make for you, because he 
 wishes to have you with him, and if it so be that you keep 
 
 * Otnit was supposed to have been written by Wolfram von Eschembach, 
 in tbe early part of the thirteenth century. It is possibly much older. Huon 
 de Bordeaux was, it is said, written in French verse by Huon de Villeneuve, 
 some time in the same century. It does not appear in the list of Huon da 
 Villeneuve's works given by Mons. de Roquefort. At the end of the proco 
 romance we are told that it was written at the desire of Charles seigneur de 
 Rochefort, and completed on the 29th of January, 1454.
 
 40 MIDDLE-AGE EOMAXCE. 
 
 firm to your resolve, not to speak to him, you will be suiely 
 able to escape," etc.* 
 
 Huon for some time followed the sage advice of Grerasmea, 
 and avoided Oberon le faye. The storms of rain and thunder 
 came on as predicted, the magic horn set them all dancing, 
 and at last the knight determined to await and accost the 
 dwarf. 
 
 " The Dwarf Fay came riding through the wood, and waa 
 clad in a robe so exceeding fine and rich, that it would be a 
 marvel to relate it for the great and marvellous riches that 
 were upon it ; for so much was there of precious stones, that 
 the great lustre that .they cast was like unto the sun when 
 he shineth full clear. And therewithal he bare a right fair 
 bow in his fist, so rich that no one could value it, so fine it 
 was; and the arrow that he bare was of such sort and 
 manner, that there was no beast in the world that he wished 
 to have, that it did not stop at that arrow. He had at 
 his neck a rich horn, which was hung by two rich strings of 
 fine gold."t 
 
 * Qui a de long seizes lieues, mais tant est plain de faerie et chose estrange 
 que peu de gens y passent qui n'y soient perdus ou arrestez, pour ce que la 
 dedans demeure un roi, Oberon le faye. II n'a que trois piedg de hauteur ; 
 il est tout bossu ; mais il a un visage angelique ; il n'est homme mortel que 
 le voye que plaisir ne prengne a le regarder tant a beau visage. Ja si tost ne 
 serez entrez au bois se par la voulez passer qu'il ne trouve maniere de parler 
 a vous, si ainsi que a luy parliez perdu estus a tousjours sans jamais plus 
 reveuir ; ne il ne sera en vous, car se par le bois passez, soil de long ou de 
 travers, vous le trouverez tousjours au devant de vous, et vous sera im- 
 possible que eschappiez nullement que ne parliez a luy, car ses parolles sent 
 tant plaisantes a ouyr qu'il n'est homme mortel qui de luy se puisse eschapper. 
 Et se chose ect qu'il voye que nullement ne vueillez parler a luy, il sera moult 
 trouble envers vous. Car avant que du bois soyez parti vous fera pleuvoir, 
 ventrer, gresiller, et faire si tres-mervueilleux orages, tonnerres, et esclairs, 
 que advis vous sera que le monde doive finir. Puis vous sera advis que par 
 devant vous verrez une grande riviere courante, noire et parfonde a grand 
 merveilles ; mais sachez, sire, que bien y pourrez aller sans mouiller les pieds 
 de vostre cheval, car ce n'est que fantosme et enchantemens que le nain vous 
 fera pour vous cuider avoir avec lui, et se chose est que bien tenez propos en 
 TOUS de non parler a luy, bien pourrez eschapper, etc. 
 
 f- Le Nain Fee s'en vint chevauchant par le bois, et estoit vestu d'une robbe 
 si tres-belle et riche, que merveilles sera ce racompter pour la grand et mer- 
 veilleuse richesse que dessus estoit, car tant y avoit de pierres precieuses, que 
 la grand clarte qu'elles jettoient estoit pareille au soldi quant il luit bien 
 clair. Et avec ce portoit un moult bel arc en son poing, tant nclie jne on ne 
 le sauroit estimer tant estoit beau. Et la fleche qu'il portoit est it de telle
 
 MIDDLE-AGE BOMANCE. 41 
 
 This horn was wrought by four Fairies, who had endowed 
 it with its marvellous properties. 
 
 Oberon, on bringing Huon to speech, informed him that 
 he was the son of Julius Caesar, and the lady of the Hidden 
 Island, afterwards called Cephalonia. This lady's first love 
 had been Florimont of Albania, a charming young prince, 
 but being obliged to part from him, she married, and had a 
 son named Neptanebus, afterwards King of Egypt, who 
 begot Alexander the Great, who afterwards put him to 
 death. Seven hundred years later, Caesar, on his way to 
 Thessaly, was entertained in Cephalonia by the lady of the 
 isle, and he loved her, for she told him he would defeat 
 Pompey, and he became the father of Oberon. Many a 
 noble prince and noble fairy were at the birth, but one Fairy 
 was unhappily not invited, and the gift she gave was that he 
 should not grow after his third year, but repenting, she gave 
 him to be the most beautiful of nature's works. Other 
 Fairies gave him the gift of penetrating the thoughts of 
 men, and of transporting himself and others from place to 
 place by a wish ; and the faculty, by like easy means, of 
 raising and removing castles, palaces, gardens, banquets, and 
 such like. He further informed the knight, that he was 
 king and lord of Mommur ; and that when he should leave 
 this world his seat was prepared in Paradise for Oberon, 
 like his prototype Elberich, was a veritable Christian. 
 
 When after a variety of adventures Oberon comes to Bor- 
 deaux to the aid of Huon, and effects a reconciliation 
 between him and Charlemagne, he tells Huon that the time 
 is at hand that he should leave this world and take the seat 
 prepared for him in Paradise, " en faerie ne veux plus de- 
 meurer." He directs him to appear before him within four 
 years in his city of Mommur, where he will crown him as his 
 successor. 
 
 Here the story properly ends, but an addition of consider- 
 able magnitude has been made by a later hand, in which the 
 story is carried on. 
 
 Many are the perils which Huon encounters before the 
 period appointed by Oberon arrives. At length, however, he 
 
 sorte et maniere, qu'il n'estoit beste an monde qu'il vousist souhaiter qu i 
 icelle Heche elle ne s'arrestast. II avoit a son cc a uu riche cor, lequel estoit 
 pendu a deux riches attaches de fin or.
 
 42 MIDDLE-AGE EOMAI?C*. 
 
 and the fair Esclairmonde (the Eezia of "Wieland) come to 
 Moinmiir. Here, in despite of Arthur (who, with his sister 
 Morgue la face and a large train, arrives at court, and seta 
 himself in opposition to the will of the monarch, but is 
 reduced to order by Oberon's threat of turning him into a 
 Luyton de Mer*), Huon is crowned king of all Faerie " tant 
 du pais des Luytons comme des autres choses secretes reser- 
 vees dire aux hommes." Arthur gets the kingdom of 
 Bouquant, and that which Sybilla held of Oberon, and all 
 the Faeries that were in the plains of Tartary. The good 
 king Oberon then gave Huon his last instructions, recom- 
 mending his officers and servants to him, and charging him 
 to build an abbey before the city, in the mead which the 
 dwarf had loved, and there to bury him. Then, falling 
 asleep in death, a glorious troop of angels, scattering odours 
 as they flew, conveyed his soul to Paradise. 
 
 Isaie le Triste is probably one of the latest romances, 
 certainly posterior to Huon de Bordeaux, for the witty but 
 deformed dwarf Tronc, who is so important a personage in 
 it, is, we are told, Oberon, whom Destiny compelled to spend 
 a certain period in that form. And we shall, as we have 
 promised, prove Oberon to be the handsome dwarf-king 
 Elberich. In Isaie the Faery ladies approach to the Fees 
 of Perrault, and Madame D'Aulnoy. Here, as at the birth 
 of Oberon and of Ogier le Danois, they interest themselves 
 for the new-born child, and bestow their gifts upon it. The 
 description in this romance of the manner in which the old 
 hermit sees them occupied about the infant Isaie is very 
 pleasing. It was most probably Fairies of this kind, and not 
 the diminutive Elves, that Milton had in view when writing 
 these lines : 
 
 Good luck betide thee, con, for, at thy birth, 
 The Faery ladies danced upon the hearth. 
 Thy drowsy nurse hath sworn she did them spy 
 Come tripping to the room where thou didst lie, 
 And, sweetly singing round about thy bed, 
 Strew all their blessings on thy sleeping head. 
 
 * This sort of transformation appears to have been a usual mode of punish- 
 ing in a Fairy land. It may have come from Circe, hut the Thousand and 
 One Nights is full of such transformations. For luyton or lutin, see below, 
 France.
 
 MIDDLE-AGE EOMANCE. 4S 
 
 The description of the Vergier des Fees in Isaie le Triste, 
 and of the beautiful valley in which it was situated, may 
 rival in richness and luxuriancy similar descriptions in 
 Spenser and the Italian poets.* 
 
 We have now, we trust, abundantly proved our position 
 of the Fairies of romance being, at least at the commence- 
 ment, only ' human mortals,' endowed with superhuman 
 powers, though we may perceive that, as the knowledge of 
 Oriental fiction increased, the Fairies began more and more 
 to assume the character of a distinct species. Our position 
 will acquire additional strength when in the course of our 
 inquiry we arrive at France and Italy. 
 
 Closely connected with the Fairies is the place of their 
 abode, the region to which they convey the mortals whom 
 they love, ' the happy lond of Faery.' 
 
 We are only acquainted with this romance through Mr. Duulop's analym.
 
 FAIRY LAND. 
 
 There, renewed the vital spring, 
 Again he reigns a mighty king 
 And many a fair and fragrant clime, 
 Blooming in immortal prime, 
 By gales of Eden ever fanned, 
 Owns the monarch's high command. 
 
 T. WABTOW. 
 
 all nations the mixture of joy and pain, of exqui- 
 site delight and intense misery in the present state, has led 
 the imagination to the conception of regions of unmixed bliss 
 destined for the repose of the good after the toils of this life, 
 and of climes where happiness prevails, the abode of beings 
 superior to man. The imagination of the Hindoo paints his 
 Swergas as ' profuse of bliss,' and all the joys of sense are 
 collected into the Paradise of the Mussulman. The Persian 
 lavished the riches of his fancy in raising the Cities of 
 Jewels and of Amber that adorn the realms of Jinnestan ; 
 the romancer erected castles and palaces filled with knights 
 and ladies in Avalon and in the land of Faerie ; while the 
 Hellenic bards, unused to pomp and glare, filled the Elysian 
 Fields and the Island of the Blest with tepid gales and 
 brilliant flowers. We shall quote without apology two 
 beautiful passages from Homer and Pindar, that our readers 
 may at one view satisfy themselves of the essential difference 
 between classic and romantic imagination. 
 
 In Homer, Proteus tells Menelaus that, because he had 
 had the honour of being the son-in-law of Zeus, he should 
 not die in "horse-feeding Argos." 
 
 But thee the ever-living gods will send 
 
 Unto the Elysian plain and distant bounds 
 
 Of Earth, where dwelleth fair-hair'd Rhadamanthui. 
 
 There life is easiest unto men ; no snow,
 
 TAIftY LAND. 45 
 
 Or wintry storm, jr rain, at any time, 
 Is there ; but evermore the Ocean sends 
 Soft-breathirig airs of Zephyr to refresh 
 The habitants. Od. iv. 563. 
 
 This passage is finely imitated by Pindar, an: connected 
 with that noble tone of pensive morality, so akin to the 
 Oriental spirit, and by which the ' Dircsean Swan' is dis- 
 tinguished from all his fellows. 
 
 They speed their way 
 To Kronos' palace, where around 
 The Island of the Blest, the airs 
 Of Ocean breathe, and golden flowers 
 Blaze ; some on land 
 From shining trees, and other kinds 
 The water feeds. Of these 
 Garlands and bracelets round their arms they bind, 
 
 Beneath the righteous sway 
 Of Khadamanthus 01. ii. 126. 
 
 Lucretius has transferred these fortunate fields to the 
 superior regions, to form the abode of his faineans, gods ; 
 and Virgil has placed them, with additional poetic splendour, 
 in the bosom of the earth. 
 
 "Widely different from these calm and peaceful abodes of 
 parted warriors are the Faeries of the minstrels and roman- 
 cers. In their eyes, and in those of their auditors, nothing 
 was beautiful or good divested of the pomp and pride of 
 chivalry ; and chivalry has, accordingly, entered deeply into 
 the composition of their pictures of these ideal realms. 
 
 The Peeries of romance may be divided into three kinds 
 Avalon, placed in the ocean, like the Island of the Blest ; 
 those that, like the palace of Pari Banou, are within the 
 earth ; and, lastly, those that, like Oberon's domains, are 
 situate ' in wilderness among the holtis hairy.' 
 
 Of the castle and isle of Avalon,* the abode of Arthur and 
 Oberon, and Morgue la faye, the fullest description is to be 
 
 * Avalon was perhaps the Island of the Blest, of Celtic mythology, ana 
 then the abode of the Fees, through the Breton Kerrigan. Writers, however, 
 seem to be unanimous in regarding it and Glastonbury as the same place, 
 called an isle, it is stated, as being made nearly such by the " river's embrace-
 
 46 FAIET LA1TD. 
 
 seen in the romance of Ogier le Danois, from which, as we 
 know no sure quarter but the work itself to refer to for the 
 part connected with the present subject, we will make some 
 extracts.* 
 
 At the birth of Ogier several Fairies attended, who 
 bestowed on him various gifts. Among them was Morgue 
 la Faye, who gave him that he should be her lover and friend. 
 Accordingly, when Ogier had long distinguished himself in 
 love and war, and had attained his hundredth year, the 
 affectionate Morgue thought it was time to withdraw him 
 from the toils and dangers of mortal life, and transport him 
 to the joys and the repose of the castle of Avalon. In pur- 
 suance of this design, Ogier and king Caraheu are attacked 
 by a storm on their return from Jerusalem, and their vessels 
 separated. The bark on which Ogier was " floated along the 
 sea till it came near the castle of loadstone, which is called 
 the 3astle of Avalon, which is not far on this side of the 
 terrestrial paradise, whither were rapt in a flame of fire 
 Enock and Helias ; and where was Morgue la Faye, who at 
 his birth had endowed him with great gifts, noble and 
 virtuous."t 
 
 The vessel is wrecked against the rock ; the provisions 
 are divided among the crew, and it is agreed that every man, 
 as his stock failed, should be thrown into the sea. Ogier' s 
 stock holds out longest, and he remains alone. He is nearly 
 reduced to despair, when a voice from heaven cries to him : 
 " God commandeth thee that, as soon as it is night, thou go 
 unto a castle that thou wilt see shining, and pass from bark to 
 bark till thou be in an isle which thou wilt find. And 
 when thou wilt be in that isle thou wilt find a little path, 
 and of what thou mayest see within be not dismayed at any- 
 thing. And then Ogier looked, but he saw nothing." J 
 
 "When night came, Ogier recommended himself to Grod, 
 
 ment." It was named Avalon, we are told, from the British word Aval, an 
 apple, as it abounded with orchards ; and Ynys gwydrin ; Saxon Glarrn-ey, 
 glassy isle ; Latin, Glastonia, from the green hue of the water surrounding it, 
 
 * See Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. ix., for a further account of Ogier. 
 
 f- Tant nagea en iner qu'il arriva pres du chastel daymant quon nomme le 
 chastcau davallon, qui nest gueres deca paradis terrestre la ou furent ravis en 
 une raye de feu Enoc et Helye, et la ou estoit Morgue la faye, qui a sa nais- 
 ance lui avoit donne de grands dons, nobles et vertueux. 
 
 Dieu te mantle que si tott que sera nuit que tu ailles en ung chasteau que
 
 FAIRY LAJTD. 47 
 
 and seeing the castle of loadstone all resplendent with light, 
 he went from one to the other of the vessels that were 
 wrecked there, and so got into the island where it was. On 
 arriving at the gate he found it guarded by two fierce lions. 
 He slew them and entered ; and making his way into a hal^ 
 found a horse sitting at a table richly supplied. The cour- 
 teous animal treats him with the utmost respect, and the 
 starving hero makes a hearty supper. The horse then pre- 
 vails on him to get on his back, and carries him into a 
 splendid chamber, where Ogier sleeps that night. The 
 name of this horse is Papillon, " who was a Luiton, and 
 had been a great prince, but king Arthur conquered him, so 
 he was condemned to be three hundred years a horse with- 
 out speaking one single word, but after the three hundred 
 years he was to have the crown of joy which they wore in 
 Faerie." * 
 
 Next morning he cannot find Papillon, but on opening a 
 door he meets a huge serpent, whom he also slays, and 
 follows a little path which leads him into an orchard " tant 
 bel et tant plaisant, que cestoit w.ng petit paradis a veoir." 
 He plucks an apple from one of the trees and eats it, but is 
 immediately affected by such violent sickness as to be put 
 in fear of speedy death. He prepares himself for his fate, 
 regretting " le bon pays de France, le roi Charlemaigne . . . 
 et principallement la bonne royne dangleterre, sa bonne 
 espouse et vraie amie, ma dame Clarice, qui tant estoit belle 
 et noble." While in this dolorous state, happening to turn 
 to the east, he perceived " une moult belle dame, toute 
 vestue de blanc, si bien et si richement aornee que cestoit 
 ung grant triumphe que de la veoir." 
 
 Ogier, thinking it is the Virgin Mary, commences an Ave; 
 but the lady tells him she is Morgue la Faye, who at his 
 birth had kissed him, and retained him for her loyal amoureux, 
 though forgotten by him. She places then on his finger a 
 
 tu verras luire, et passe de bateau en bateau tant que tu soies en une isle que 
 tu trouveras. Et quand tu seras en lisle tu trouveras une petite sente, et de 
 chose que tu voies leans ne tesbahis de rien. Et adonc Ogier regarda mais il 
 ne vit rien. 
 
 * Lequel estoit luiton, et avoit este ung grant prince ; mais le roi Artus le 
 conquist, si fust condampne a estre trois cens ans cheval sans parler ung tou 
 seul mot ; mais apres les trois cens ans, il devoit avoir la couronne de joye d 
 laquclle ils usoient en faerie.
 
 48 
 
 ring, which removes all infirmity, and Ogier, a hundred 
 years old, returns to the vigour and beauty of thirty. She 
 now leads him to the castle of Avalon, where were her 
 brother king Arthur, and Auberon, and Mallonbron, " ung 
 luiton de mer." 
 
 "And when Morgue drew near to the said castle of 
 Avalon, the Fays came to meet Ogier, singing the most 
 melodiously that ever could be heard, so he entered into the 
 hall to solace himself completely. There he saw several 
 Fay ladies adorned and all crowned with crowns most 
 sumptuously made, and very rich, and evermore they sung, 
 danced, and led a right joyous life, without thinking of 
 any evil thing whatever, but of taking their mundane 
 pleasures."* Morgue here introduces the knight to Arthur, 
 and she places on his head a crown rich and splendid beyond 
 estimation, but which has the Lethean quality, that whoso 
 wears it, 
 
 Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 
 Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain ; 
 
 for Ogier instantly forgot country and friends. He had no 
 thought whatever " ni de la dame Clarice, qui tant estoit belle 
 et noble," nor of Guy on his brother, nor of his nephew 
 Gauthier, " ne de creature vivante." His days now rolled 
 on in never-ceasing pleasure. " Such joyous pastime did 
 the Fay ladies make for him, that there is no creature in 
 this world who could imagine or think it, for to hear them 
 sing so sweetly it seemed to him actually that he was in 
 Paradise ; so the time passed from day to day, from week 
 to week, in such sort that a year did not last a month 
 to him."f 
 
 * Et quand Morgue approcha du dit chasteau, les Faes vindrent au devant 
 dogier, chantant le plus melodieusement quon scauroit jamais ouir, si entra 
 dedans la salle pour se deduire totallement. Adonc vist plusieurs dames Faces 
 aournees et toutes courronnees de courounes tressomptueusement faictes, et 
 moult riches, et tout jour cbantoicnt, dansoient, et menoient vie tresjoyeuse, 
 gang penser a nulle quelconque meschante chose, fors prandre leurs mondaioa 
 plaisirs. 
 
 + Tant de joyeulx passctemps lui faisoient les dames Faees, quil nest 
 creature en ce monde quil le sceust imaginer ne penser, car les ouir si doulce- 
 ment chanter il lui sembloit proprement quil fut en Paradis, si passoit temp* 
 de jour en jour, de sepmaine en sepmaine, tellement que ung an ne lui duroit 
 oas ung moit.
 
 TAIKT LAITl). 49 
 
 But Avalou was still on earth, and therefore its bliss Tas 
 not unmixed. One day Arthur took Ogier aside, and 
 informed him that Capalus, king of the Luitons, incessantly 
 attacked the castle of Faerie with design to eject king 
 Arthur from its dominion, and was accustomed to penetrate 
 to the basse court, calling on Arthur to come out and 
 engage him. Ogier asked permission to encounter this 
 formidable personage, which Arthur willingly granted. No 
 sooner, however, did Capalus see Ogier than he surrendered 
 to him ; and the knight had the satisfaction of leading him 
 into the castle, and reconciling him to its inhabitants. 
 
 Two hundred years passed away in these delights, and 
 seemed to Ogier but twenty: Charlemagne and all his 
 lineage had failed, and even the race of Ogier was extinct, 
 when the Paynims invaded France and Italy in vast numbers; 
 and Morgue no longer thought herself justified in withhold- 
 ing Ogier from the defence of the faith. Accordingly, she 
 one day took the Lethean crown from off his head : imme- 
 diately all his old ideas rushed on his mind, and inflamed 
 him with an ardent desire to revisit his country. The Fairy 
 gave him a brand which was to be preserved from burning, 
 for so long as it was unconsumed, so long should his life 
 extend. She adds to her gift the horse Papillon and his 
 comrade Benoist. " And when they were both mounted, all 
 the ladies of the castle came to take leave of Ogier, by the 
 command of king Arthur and of Morgue la Faye, and they 
 sounded an aubade of instruments, the most melodious thing 
 to hear that ever was listened to ; then, when the aubade 
 was finished, they sung with the voice so melodiously, that 
 it was a thing so melodious that it seemed actually to Ogier 
 that he was in Paradise. Again, when that was over, they 
 sung with the instruments in such sweet concordance that 
 it seemed rather to be a thins divine than mortal."* The 
 
 * Et quand ils furent tous deux monies, toutes les dames du chasteau 
 vindrent a la departie dogier, par le commandement du roi Artus et de 
 Morgue la fae, et sonnerent une aubade dinstrumeiis, la plus melodieuse chose 
 a ouir que on entendit janiais ; puis, 1'aubade aehevec, chantcrent de gorge si 
 melodieusement que cestoit une cliose si melodieuse que il sembloit propre- 
 ment a Ogier quil estoit en Paradis. De rechief, cela fini, ils chanterent 
 avecques les instrumens par si doulce concordance quil sembloit mieulx chose 
 divine que humtine. 
 
 E
 
 50 FAIRY LAND. 
 
 knight then took leave of all, and a cloud, enveloping hin, 
 and his companion, raised them, and set them down by a fair 
 fountain near Montpellier. Ogier displays his ancient 
 prowess, routs the infidels, and on the death of the king is 
 on the point of espousing the queen, when Morgue appears 
 and takes him back to Avalon. Since then Ogier has never 
 reappeared in this world. 
 
 Nowhere is a Faerie of the second kind so fully and 
 circumstantially described as in the beautiful romance of 
 Orfeo and Heurodis. There are, indeed, copious extracts 
 from this poem in Sir Walter Scott's Essay on the Fairies 
 of Popular Superstition ; and we have no excuse to offer 
 for repeating what is to be found in a work so universally 
 diffused as the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, but that 
 it is of absolute necessity for our purpose, and that romantic 
 poetry is rarely unwelcome. 
 
 Orfeo and Heurodis were king and queen of Winchester. 
 The queen happening one day to sleep under an ymp* tree 
 in the palace orchard, surrounded by her attendants, had a 
 dream, which she thus relates to the king : 
 
 As I lay this undertide (afternoon) 
 
 To sleep under the orchard-side, 
 
 There came to me two faire knightes 
 
 Well arrayed alle rightes, 
 
 And bade me come without letting 
 
 To speake with their lord the king ; 
 
 And I answer'd with wordes bolde 
 
 That I lie durste ne I nolde : 
 
 Fast again they can (did) drive, 
 
 Then came their kinge all so blive (quick) 
 
 With a thousand knights and mo, 
 
 And with ladies fifty also, 
 
 And riden all on snow-white steedes, 
 
 And also white were then- weedes. 
 
 I sey (saw) never sith I was borne 
 
 So faire knightes me by forne. 
 
 The kiiige had a crown on his head, 
 
 It was not silver ne gold red ; 
 
 * Imp tree is a grafted tree. Sir W. Scott queries if it be not a tree con- 
 secrated to the imps or fiends. Had imp that sense BO early ? A grafted tree 
 had |>erhaps the game relation to the Fairies that the linden in Germany and 
 the North had to the dwarfs.
 
 FAIRY LATTD. 51 
 
 All it was of precious stone, 
 As bright as sun forsooth it shone. 
 All so soon he to me came, 
 Wold I, nold I he me name (took), 
 And made me with him ride 
 On a white palfrey by his side, 
 And brought me in to his palis, 
 Right well ydight over all ywis. 
 He shewed me castels and toures, 
 Meadows, rivers, fields and flowres, 
 And hid forests everiche one, 
 And sith he brought me again home. 
 
 The fairy-king orders her, under a dreadful penalty, to 
 await him next morning under the ymp tree. Her husband 
 and ten hundred knights stand in arms round the tree to 
 protect her, 
 
 And yet amidde's them full right 
 The queene was away y-twight (snatched) ; 
 With Faery forth y-nome (taken) ; 
 Men wist never where she was become. 
 
 Orfeo in despair abandons his throne, and retires to the 
 wilderness, where he solaces himself with his harp, charming 
 with his melody the wild beasts, the inhabitants of the spot. 
 Often while here, 
 
 He mighte see him besides 
 
 Oft in hot undertides 
 
 The king of Faery with his rout 
 
 Come to hunt him all about, 
 
 With dim cry and blowing, 
 
 And houndes also with him barking. 
 
 Ac (yet) no beastd they no nome, 
 
 Ne never he nist whither they be come ; 
 
 And other while he might them see 
 
 As a great hoste by him te.* 
 
 Well atourned ten hundred knightes 
 
 Each well y-armed to his rightes, 
 
 Of countenance stout and fierce, 
 
 With many displayed banners, 
 
 And each his sword y-drawe hold ; 
 
 Ac never he niste whither they wold. 
 
 And otherwhile he seigh (saw) other thing, 
 
 Knightes and levedis (ladies) come dauncing 
 
 * Te or tew (Drayton, Poly-Olb. xxv.) is to draw, to march ; from A. Si 
 te<5jan, trujan, ceon (Germ, zieneri), whence tug, team. 
 
 3
 
 52 FAIET LAXD. 
 
 In quaint attire guisely, 
 
 Quiet pace and softely. 
 
 Tabours and trumpes gede (went) him by, 
 
 And alle manere niinstracy. 
 
 And on a day he seigh him beside 
 
 Sixty levedis on horse ride, 
 
 Gentil and jolif as brid on ris (bird on branch), 
 
 Nought o (one) man amonges hem ther nis, 
 
 And each a faucoun on hond bare, 
 
 And riden on hauken by o river. 
 
 Of game they found well good haunt, 
 
 Mallardes, heron, and cormeraunt. 
 
 The fowles of the water ariseth, 
 
 Each faucoun them well deviseth, 
 
 Each faucoun his preye slough * (slew). 
 
 Among the ladies he recognises his lost queen, and h 
 determines to follow them, and attempt her rescue. 
 
 In at a roche (rock) the levedis rideth, 
 
 And he after and nought abideth. 
 
 When he was in the roche y-go 
 
 Well three miles other (or) mo, 
 
 He came into a fair countray 
 
 As bright soonne summers day, 
 
 Smooth and plain and alle grene, 
 
 Hill ne dale nas none y-seen. 
 
 Amiddle the lond a castel he seigh, 
 
 Rich and real and wonder high. 
 
 Alle the utmoste wall 
 
 Was clear and shine of cristal. 
 
 An hundred towers there were about, 
 
 Deguiselich and batailed stout. 
 
 The buttras come out of the ditch, 
 
 Of rede gold y-arched rich. 
 
 The bousour was anowed all 
 
 Of each manere diverse animal, 
 
 Within there were wide wones 
 
 All of precious stones. 
 
 The worste pillar to behold 
 
 Was all of burnished gold. 
 
 All that lond was ever light, 
 
 For when it should be therk (dark) and night, 
 
 * Beanie probably knew nothing of Orfeo and Heurodis, and the Fairy 
 Vision in the Minstrel (a dream that would never have occurred to any 
 ruinstrel) was derived from the Flower and the Leaf, Dryden's, not Chaucer's, 
 for the personages in the latter are not called Fairies. In neither are 
 thev Elves.
 
 FAIRY LA> T D. 63 
 
 The riche stones lighte gonue (yield*) 
 Bright as doth at nonne the sonne, 
 No man may tell ne think in thought 
 The riche work that there was wrought. 
 
 Orfeo makes his way into this palace, and so charms the 
 king with his minstrelsy, that he gives him back his wife. 
 They return to Winchester, and there reign, in peace and 
 happiness. 
 
 Another instance of this kind of Feerie may be seen in 
 Thomas the Bymer, but, restricted by our limits, we must 
 omit it, and pass to the last kind. 
 
 Sir Thopas was written to ridicule the romancers; its 
 incidents must therefore accord with theirs, and the Feerie 
 in it in fact resembles those in Huon de Bordeaux. It has 
 the farther merit of having suggested incidents to Spenser, 
 and perhaps of having given the idea of a queen regnante of 
 Fairy Land. Sir Thopas is chaste as Graelent. 
 
 Full many a maide bright in bour 
 They mourned for him par amour ; 
 
 When hem were bete to slepe ; 
 But he was chaste and no lechour, 
 And sweet as is the bramble flour 
 
 That bereth the red hepe. 
 
 He was therefore a suitable object for the love of a gentle 
 elf-queen. So Sir Thopas one day " pricketh through a faire 
 forest" till he is weary, and he then lies down to sleep on 
 the grass, where he dreams of an elf-queen, and awakes, 
 declaring 
 
 An elf-queen wol I love, y wis. 
 
 All other women I forsake, 
 And to an elf-queen I me take 
 By dale and eke by down. 
 
 He determines to set out in quest of her. 
 
 Into his sadel he clombe anon. 
 And pricked over style and stone, 
 
 An elf-quene for to espie ; 
 Till he so long had ridden and gone, 
 That he found in a privee wone 
 
 The countree of Faerie,+ 
 
 * G'onnen, Germ. 
 The " countrie of Faerie," situated in a " privee wone," plainly accord*
 
 54 FAIET LAIO. 
 
 Wherein he soughte north and south. 
 And oft he spied with his mouth 
 
 In many a forest wilde ; 
 For in that countree n'as there none 
 That to him dorst ride or gon, 
 
 Neither wif ne childe. 
 
 The " gret giaunt " Sire Oliphaunt, however, informs 
 that 
 
 Here is the quene of Faerie, 
 With harpe and pipe and simphonie, 
 Dwelling in this place. 
 
 Owing to the fastidiousness of "mine hoste," we are 
 unable to learn how Sir Thopas fared with the elf-queen, 
 and we have probably lost a copious description of Fairy 
 Land. 
 
 From the glimmering of the morning star of English 
 poetry, the transition is natural to its meridian splendour, 
 the reign of Elizabeth, and we will now make a few remarks 
 on the poem of Spenser. 
 
 rather with the Feeries of Huon de Bordeaux than with A valon, or the regioa 
 into which Dame Heurodia was taken.
 
 SPENSER'S FAERIE QUEENE. 
 
 A braver lady never Iript on land, 
 Except the ever-living Faerie Queene, 
 "Whose virtues by her swain so written been 
 That time shall call her high enhanced story, 
 In his rare song, the Muse's chiefest glory. 
 
 BBOVTH. 
 
 DTJBING the sixteenth century the study of classical litera- 
 ture, which opened a new field to imagination, and gave it a 
 new impulse, was eagerly and vigorously pursued. A classic 
 ardour was widely and extensively diffused. The composi- 
 tions of that age incessantly imitate and allude to the 
 beauties and incidents of the writings of ancient Greece 
 and Eome. 
 
 Tet amid this diffusion of classic taste and knowledge, 
 romance had by no means lost its influence. The black- 
 letter pages of Lancelot du Lac, Perceforest, Mort d' Arthur, 
 and the other romances of chivalry, were still listened to 
 with solemn attention, when on winter-evenings the family 
 of the good old knight or baroii ' crowded round the ample 
 fire,' to hear them made vocal, and probably no small degree 
 of credence was given to the wonders they recorded. The 
 passion for allegory, too, remained unabated. Fine moral 
 webs were woven from the fragile threads of the Innamorato 
 and the Furioso ; and even Tasso was obliged, in compliance 
 with the reigning taste, to extract an allegory from his 
 divine poem ; which Fairfax, when translating the Jerusalem, 
 was careful to preserve. Spenser, therefore, when desirous 
 of consecrating his genius to the celebration of the glories 
 of the maiden reign, and the valiant warriors and grave 
 statesmen who adorned it, had hh materials ready pre- 
 pared. Fairy-land, as described by the romancers, gave him
 
 56 SPENSER'S FAERIE QUEENE. 
 
 a scene ; the knights and dames with whom it sras peopled, 
 actors ; and its court, its manners, and iisages, a facility of 
 transferring thither whatever real events might suit his 
 design. 
 
 It is not easy to say positively to what romance the poet 
 was chiefly indebted for his Faery-land. We might, perhaps, 
 venture to conjecture that his principal authority was Huon 
 de Bordeaux, which had been translated some time before by 
 Lord Berners, and from which it is most likely that Shakes- 
 peare took his Oberon, who was thus removed from the 
 realms of romance, and brought back among his real kindred, 
 the dwarfs or elves. Spenser, it is evident, was acquainted 
 with this romance, for he says of Sir Guyon, 
 
 He was an elfin born of noble state 
 And mickle worship in his native land ; 
 Well could he tourney and in lists debate, 
 And knighthood took of good Sir Jfuon's hand, 
 When with King Oberon he came to Fairy-land. 
 
 B. ii. c. 1. st. vL 
 
 And here, if such a thing were to be heeded, the poet 
 commits an anachronism in making Sir Huon, who slew the 
 son of Charlemagne, a contemporary of Arthur. 
 
 Where " this delightful land of Faery" lies, it were as idle 
 to seek as for Oberon' s realm of Mommur, the island of 
 Calypso, or the kingdom of Lilliput. Though it shadow 
 forth England, it is distinct from it; for Cleopolis excels 
 Troynovant in greatness and splendour, and Elfin, the first 
 Fairy king, ruled over India and America. To the curious 
 the poet says, 
 
 Of Faery-lond yet if he more inquire, 
 By certain signes here sett in sondrie place, 
 He may it fynd, ne let him then admyre, 
 But yield his sence to be too blunt and bace, 
 That no'te without an hound fine footing trace. 
 
 The idea of making a queen sole regnante of Fairy-land 
 was the necessary result of the plan of making " the fayrest 
 princesse under sky" view her "owne realmes in lond of 
 faery." Yet there may have been sage authority for this 
 settlement of the fairy throne. Some old romancers may 
 have spoken only of a queen ; and the gallant Sir Thopas
 
 SPENSEB'S FAEBIE QUEENE. 57 
 
 does not seem to apprehend that he is in pursuit of the 
 wedded wife of another. This doughty champion's dream 
 was evidently the original of Arthur's. 
 
 Forwearied with my sportes, I did alight 
 From loftie steede, and downe to sleepe me layd ; 
 The verdant grass my couch did goodly dight, 
 And pillow was my helmett fayre displayd ; 
 Whiles every sence the humour sweet embay d, 
 Me seemed by my side a royall mayd 
 Her dainty limbes full softly down did lay, 
 So faire a creature yet saw never sunny day. 
 
 Most goodly glee and lovely blandishment 
 She to me made, and badd me love her deare, 
 For dearly, sure, her love was to me bent, 
 As, when iust time expired, should appeare : 
 But whether dreames delude, or true it were, 
 Was never hart so ravisht with delight, 
 Ne living man such wordes did never heare 
 As she to me delivered all that night, 
 And at her parting said, she queen of Faries hight. 
 ***** 
 
 From that day forth I cast in carefull mynd 
 To seek her out with labor and long tyne, 
 And never vow to rest till her I fynd 
 N"yne months I seek in vain, yet n'ill that vow unbynd. 
 
 B. i. c. 9. st. xiii., xiv., xv. 
 
 The names given by Spenser to these beings are Faya 
 (Fees), Farys or Fairies, Elfes and Elfins, of which last- 
 words the former had been already employed by Chaucer, 
 and in one passage it is difficult to say what class of beings 
 is intended. Spenser's account of the origin of his Fairies 
 is evidently mere invention, as nothing in the least resem- 
 bling it is to be found in any preceding writer. It bears, 
 indeed, some slight and distant analogy to that of the origin 
 of the inhabitants of Jinnestan, as narrated by the Orientals. 
 According to the usual practice of Spenser, it is mixed up 
 with the fables of antiquity. 
 
 Prometheus did create 
 A man of many parts from beasts deryved ; 
 That man so made he called Elfe, to weet, 
 Quick,* the first author of all Elfin kynd, 
 Who, wandring through the world with wearie feet, 
 
 * That is, elfe is alive.
 
 58 SPENSER'S FAEKIK QUEENE, 
 
 Did in the gardins of Adonis fynd 
 A goodly creature, whom he deemed in mynd 
 To be no earthly wight, but either spright 
 Or angell, the authour of all woman-kynd ; 
 Therefore a Fay he her according hight, 
 Of whom all Faryes spring, and fetch their lignage right. 
 
 Of these a mighty people shortly grew, 
 
 And puissant kings, which all the world warrayd, 
 
 And to themselves all nations did subdue. 
 
 B. ii. c. 9. st. Ixx., IxxL, Ixxii. 
 
 Sir "Walter Scott remarks with justice (though his memory 
 played him somewhat false on the occasion), that " the 
 stealing of the Red Cross Knight while a child, is the only 
 incident in the poem which approaches to the popular cha- 
 racter of the Fairy." It is not exactly the only incident; 
 but the only other, that of Arthegal, is a precisely parallel 
 one: 
 
 He wonneth in the land of Fayeree, 
 Yet is no Fary born, ne sib at all 
 To Elfes, but sprung of seed terrestriall, 
 And whyleome by false Faries stolne away, 
 Whyles yet in infant cradle he did crall : 
 Ne other to himself is knowne this day, 
 But that he by an Elfe was gotten of a Fay. 
 
 B. iii. c. 3. st. xxvL 
 
 Sir "Walter has been duly animadverted on for this dan- 
 gerous error by the erudite Mr. Todd. It would be as little 
 becoming as politic in us, treading, as we do, on ground 
 where error ever hovers around us, to make any remark. 
 Freedom from misconception and mistake, unfortunately, 
 forms no privilege of our nature. 
 
 We must here observe, that Spenser was extremely inju- 
 dicious in his selection of the circumstances by which he 
 endeavoured to confound the two classes of Fairies. It was 
 
 Siite incongruous to style . the progeny of the subjects of 
 loriane a " base elfin brood," or themselves " false Fairies," 
 especially when we recollect that such a being as Belphrebe 
 whose 
 
 whole creation did her shew 
 Pure and unspotted from all loathly crime, 
 That is ingenerate in fleshly slime, 
 
 was born of a Fairie.
 
 SPENSEB'S FAEEIE QTJEEXE. 59 
 
 Our poet seems to have forgotten himself also in the 
 Legend of Sir Calidore ; for though the knight is a Faerie 
 himself, and though such we are to suppose were all the 
 native inhabitants of Faerie-land, yet to the " gentle flood ' 
 that tumbled down from Mount Acidale, 
 
 ne mote the ruder clown 
 
 Thereto approach ne filth mote therein drown ; 
 But Nymphs and Faenes on the banks did sit 
 In the woods shade which did the waters crown. 
 
 B. vi. c. 10. st. vii. 
 
 And a little farther, when Calidore gazes on the " hundred 
 naked maidens lily white," that danced around the Graces, 
 lie wist not 
 
 Whether it were the train of beauty's queen, 
 
 Or Nymphs or Faeries, or enchanted show, 
 
 With which his eyes mote have deluded been. St. xvii. 
 
 The popular Elves, who dance their circlets on the green, 
 were evidently here in Spenser's mind.* 
 
 It is now, we think, if not certain, at least highly probable, 
 that the Fairy-land and the Fairies of Spenser are those of 
 romance, to which the term Fairy properly belongs, and that 
 it is without just reason that the title of his poem has been 
 styled a misnomer.^ After the appearance of his Faerie 
 Queene, all distinction between the different species was 
 rapidly lost, and Fairies became the established name of the 
 popular Elves. 
 
 Here, then, we will take our leave of the potent ladies of 
 romance, and join the Elves of the popular creed, tracing 
 their descent from the Duergar of northern mythology, till 
 we meet them enlivening the cottage fireside with the tales 
 of their pranks and gambols. 
 
 * These Fairies thus coupled with Nymphs remind us of the Fairies of the 
 old translators. Spenser, in the Shepherd's Calendar, however, had united 
 them before, as 
 
 Nor elvish ghosts nor ghastly owls do flee, 
 But friendly Faeries met with many Graces, 
 And light-foot Nymphs. JEg. 6. 
 
 + " Spenser's Fairy Queen, which is one of the grossest misnomers in 
 romance or history, bears no features of the Fairy nation." Gifford, note on 
 B. Jonson, vol. ii. p. 202.
 
 EDDAS AND SAGAS. 
 
 En sang om stralende Valhalla, 
 Om Gudar och Gudinnar alia. 
 
 TEGNEI. 
 
 A song of Vallhall's bright abodes, 
 Of all the goddesses and gods. 
 
 THE ancient religion of Scandinavia, and probably of the 
 whole Gotho- German race, consisted, like all other systems 
 devised by man, in personifications of the various powers of 
 nature and faculties of mind. Of this system in its fulness 
 and perfection we possess no record. It is only from the 
 poems of the elder or poetic Edda,* from the narratives of 
 the later or prose Edda and the various Sagas or histories 
 written in the Icelandic language,t that we can obtain any 
 knowledge of it. 
 
 The poetic or Ssemund's Edda was, as is generally believed, 
 collected about the end of the eleventh or beginning of the 
 twelfth century by an Icelander named Saemund, and styled 
 Hinns Proda, or The Wise. It consists of a number of 
 mythological and historical songs, the production of the 
 ancient Scalds or poets, all, or the greater part, composed 
 before the introduction of Christianity into the north. The 
 measure of these venerable songs is alliterative rime, and 
 they present not unfrequently poetic beauties of a high and 
 striking character. J 
 
 * Edda signifies grandmother. Some regard it as the feminine of othr, or 
 odr, wisdom. 
 
 f- This language is so called because still spoken in Iceland. Its proper 
 name is the Norrsena Tunga (northern tongue). It was the common language 
 of the whole North. 
 
 See Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. is.
 
 EDDAS AND SAGAS. 61 
 
 The prose Edda is supposed to have been compiled in the 
 thirteenth century by Snorro Sturlesou, the celebrated his- 
 torian of Norway. It is a history of the gods and their 
 actions formed from the songs of the poetic Edda, and from 
 other ancient poems, several stanzas of which are incorpo- 
 rated in it. Beside the preface and conclusion, it consists 
 of two principal parts, the first consisting of the Gylfa- 
 ginning (Gylfa's Deception), or Hars Lygi (Heir's i. e. Odin's 
 Fiction), and the Braga-rsedur (Brayas Narrative), each of 
 which is divided into several Daemi-sagas or Illustrative 
 Stories; and the second named the Kenniiigar or list of poetic 
 names and periphrases.* 
 
 The Gylfa-ginning narrates that Gylfa king of Sweden, 
 struck with the wisdom and power of the -3ser,f as Odin 
 and his followers were called, journeyed in the likeness of 
 an old man, and under the assumed name of Ganglar, to 
 Asgard their chief residence, to inquire into and fathom their 
 wisdom. Aware of his design, the ^ser by their magic art 
 caused to arise before him a lofty and splendid palace, roofed 
 with golden shields. At the gate he found a man who was 
 throwing up and catching swords, seven of which were in 
 the air at one time. This man inquires the name of the 
 stranger, whom he leads into the palace, where Granglar sees 
 a number of persons drinking and playing, and three thrones, 
 each set higher than the other. On the thrones sat Har 
 (Hiff7i), Jafnhar (JEqual-higli), and Thridi (Third). Ganglar 
 asks if there is any one there wise and learned. Har replies 
 that he will not depart in safety if he knows more than 
 they.J Ganglar then commences his interrogations, which 
 embrace a variety of recondite subjects, and extend from the 
 creation to the end of all things. To each he receives a 
 satisfactory reply. At the last reply Ganglar hears a loud 
 
 * It was first published by Resenius in 1665. 
 
 "I" By the JEser are understood the Asiatics, who with Odin brought their 
 arts and religion into Scandinavia. This derivation of the word, however, is 
 rather dubious. Though possibly the population and religion of Scatdinavia 
 came originally from Asia there seems to be no reason whatever for putting 
 any faith in the legend of Odin. It is not unlikely that the name of their 
 gods, .ffiser, gave birth to the whole theory. It is remarkable that the ancient 
 Etrurians also should have called the gods -flEsar. 
 
 J So the lotunn or Giant Vaf'tlirudnir to Odin in the Vafthrudnisma!. 
 Strophe vii.
 
 62 EDDAS AND SAGAS. 
 
 rush and noise : the magic illusion suddenly vanishes, and he 
 finds himself alone on an extensive plain. 
 
 The Braga-raedur is the discourse of Braga to -2Egir, the 
 god of the sea, at the banquet of the Immortals. This part 
 contains many tales of gods and heroes old, whose adventures 
 had been sung by Skalds, of high renown and lofty genius. 
 
 Though both the Eddas were compiled by Christians, there 
 appears to be very little reason for suspecting the compilers 
 of having falsified or interpolated the mythology of their 
 forefathers. Ssemund's Edda may be regarded as an Antho- 
 logy of ancient Scandinavian poetry ; and the author of the 
 prose Edda (who it is plain did not always understand the 
 true meaning of the tales he related) wrote it as a northern 
 Pantheon and Gradus ad Parnassum, to supply poets with 
 incidents, ornaments, and epithets. Fortunately they did so, 
 or impenetrable darkness had involved the ancient religion 
 of the Gothic stock ! 
 
 Beside the Eddas, much information is to be derived from 
 the various Sagas or northern histories. These Sagas, at 
 times transmitting true historical events, at other times con- 
 taining the wildest fictions of romance, preserve much valu- 
 able mythic lore, and the Tnglinga, Volsunga, Hervarar, and 
 other Sagas, will furnish many important traits of northern 
 mythology. 
 
 It is not intended here to attempt sounding the depths 
 of Eddaic mythology, a subject so obscure, and concerning 
 which so many and various opinions occur in the works of 
 those who have occupied themselves with it. Suffice it to 
 observe that it goes back to the most remote ages, and that 
 two essential parts of it are the Alfar (Alfs or Elves) and 
 the Duergar (Dwarfs), two classes of beings whose names con- 
 tinue to the present day in all the languages of the nations 
 descended from the Gotho- German race. 
 
 " Our heathen forefathers," says Thorlacius,* " believed, 
 like the Pythagoreans, and the farther back in antiquity the 
 more firmly, that the whole world was filled with spirits of 
 various kinds, to whom they ascribed in general the same 
 nature and properties as the Greeks did to their Daemons. 
 These were divided into the Celestial and the Terrestrial, 
 
 * Thorlacius, Noget om Thor og bans Hammer. <n the Skandinavisk 
 Museum for iU03.
 
 EDDAS AND SAGAS. 63 
 
 from their places of abode. The former were, according to 
 the ideas of those times, of a good and elevated nature, and 
 of a friendly disposition toward men, whence they also 
 received the name of White or Light Alfs or Spirits. The 
 latter, on the contrary, who were classified after their abodea 
 in air, sea, and earth, were not regarded in so favourable 
 a light. It was believed that they, particularly the land ones, 
 the daipovfs inixdovioi of the Greeks, constantly and on all oc- 
 casions sought to torment or injure mankind, and that they 
 had their dwelling partly on the earth in great thick woods, 
 whence came the name Skovtrolde* (Wood Trolls), or in 
 other desert and lonely places, partly in and under the 
 ground, or in rocks and hills ; these last were called Bjerg- 
 Trolde (Hill Trolls) : to the first, on account of their diffe- 
 rent nature, was given the name of Dverge (Dwarfs), and 
 Alve, whence the word Ellefolk, which is still in the Danish 
 language. These Daemons, particularly the underground 
 ones, were called Svartalfar, that is Black Spirits, and inas- 
 much as they did mischief, Trolls." 
 
 This very nearly coincides with what is to be found in the 
 Edda, except that there would appear to be some foundation 
 for a distinction between the Dwarfs and the Dark Alfs.f 
 
 * Thorlacius, ut supra, says the thundering Thor was regarded as particu- 
 larly inimical to the Skovtiolds, against whom he continually employed his 
 mighty weapon. He thinks that the Bidental of the Romans, and the rites 
 connected with it, seem to suppose a similar superstition, and that in the well- 
 known passage of Horace, 
 
 Tu parum castis inimica mittes 
 
 Fulmina lucis, 
 
 the words parum castis lucis rc*y mean groves or parts of woods, the haunt 
 of unclean spirits or Skovtrolds, tatyri lascivi et salaces. The word Trold 
 will be explained below. 
 
 + The Dark Alfs were probably different from the Duergar, yet the lan- 
 guage of the prose Edda is in some places such as to lead to a confusion of 
 them. The following passage, however, seems to be decisive : 
 Nir, Dvergar 
 Ok Dock-A'lfar. 
 
 Hrafna-Galdr Othins, xxiv. 7. 
 Ghosts, Dwarfs 
 And Dark Alfs. 
 
 Yet the Scandinavian literati appear unanimous in regarding them as the same. 
 Grimm, however, agrees with us in viewing the Ddck-Alfar as distinct from 
 the Duergar. As the abode of these last is named Svart&lfaheimr, he thinks 
 that the Svartalfar and the Duergar were the same. Deutsche Mythologie, 
 p. 413, seg. See below, Isle of Rugen,
 
 64 THE ALFAB. 
 
 THE ALFAB. 
 
 Ther ro meth Alfnm. 
 
 BETNHILDAR QCIDA 
 
 Those are with tlie Alfs. 
 
 Ix the prose Edda, Ganglar inquires what other cities be- 
 side that in which the Nornir dwelt were by the Urdar 
 fount, under the Ash Yggdrasil.* Har replies, 
 
 " There are many fair cities there. There is the city which 
 is called Alf-heim, where dwelleth the people that is called 
 Liosalfar {Light Alfs). But the Dockalfar (Dark Alfa} 
 dwell below under ground, and are unlike them in appearance, 
 and still more unlike in actions. The Liosalfar are whiter 
 than the sun in appearance, but the Dockalfar are blacker 
 than pitch. "f 
 
 The Nornir, the Parcae, or Destinies of Scandinavian 
 mythology, are closely connected with the Alfar. 
 
 " Many fair cities are there in Heaven," says Har, " and 
 the divine protection is over all. There standeth a city 
 under the ash near the spring, and out of its halls came three 
 maids, who are thus named, Udr, Verthaudi, Skulld (Past, 
 Present, Future). These maids shape the life of man. We 
 call them Nornir. But there are many Nornir ; those who 
 come to each child that is born, to shape its life, are of the 
 race of the gods ; but others are of the race of the Alfs ; and 
 the third of the race of dwarfs. As is here expressed, 
 
 Sundry children deem I 
 
 The Nornir to be the same 
 
 Race they have not. 
 
 Some are of JEser-kin, 
 
 Some are of Alf-kin, 
 
 Some are the daughters of Dualin." (i.e. of the Dwarfs.) 
 
 * The ash-tree, Yggdrasil, is the symbol of the universe, the Urdar-fount 
 is the fount of light and heat, which invigorates and sustains it. A good 
 representation of this myth is given in Mr. Bohn's edition of Mallet's " Northern 
 Antiquities," which the reader is recommended to consult. 
 
 f- This Grimm (ut sup.) regards as an error of the writer, who confounded 
 tbe Dock and the Svartdlfar.
 
 F/DDAS AXD SAOAS. 65 
 
 " Then," said Ganglar, " if the Nornir direct the future des- 
 tiny of men, they shape it very unequally. Some have a good 
 life and rich, but some have little wealth and praise, some 
 long life, some short." " The good Noruir, and well de- 
 scended," says Har, "shape a good life; but as to those 
 who meet with misfortune, it is caused by the malignant 
 
 -ik -r ) i O 
 
 J> ormr. 
 
 These Xornir bear a remarkable resemblance to the classi- 
 cal Parcse and to the fairies of romance. They are all alike 
 represented as assisting at the birth of eminent personages, 
 as bestowing gifts either good or evil, and as foretelling the 
 future fortune of the being that has just entered on exist- 
 ence.* This attribute of the fairies may have been derived 
 from either the north or the south, but certainly these did 
 not borrow from each other. 
 
 Of the origin of the word Alf nothing satisfactory is to be 
 found. Some think it is akin to the Latin albus, white ; 
 others, to alpes, Alps, mountains. There is also supposed to 
 be some mysterious connexion between it and the word Elf, 
 or Elv, signifying water in the northern languages ; an ana- 
 logy which has been thought to correspond with that between 
 the Latin Nympha and Lympha. Both relations, however, 
 are perhaps rather fanciful than just. Of the derivation of 
 Alf, as just observed, we know nothing certain,! and the 
 original meaning of Xympha would appear to be a new- 
 married woman,;]; and thence a marriageable young woman ; 
 and it was applied to the supposed inhabitants of the moun- 
 tains, seas, aiid streams, on the same principle that the 
 northern nations gave them the appellation of men and 
 women, that is, from their imagined resemblance to the 
 human form. 
 
 Whatever its origin, the word Alf has continued till the 
 present day in all the Teutonic languages. The Danes have 
 Elv, pi. Elve ; the Swedes, Elf pi. Elfoar m. Elfvor f. ; and 
 the words Elf-dans and Elf-blcest, together with Olof and 
 other proper names, are derived from them. The Germans 
 call the nightmare Alp; and in their old poems we meet 
 
 * See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 274. 
 
 } The analogy of Deev, and other words of like import, might lead to tha 
 supposition of Spirit being the primary meaning of Alf. 
 
 J See Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 248, second edition. 
 
 r
 
 66 THE DUERGAB. 
 
 with Elbe and Elbinne, and Elbisch occurs in them in the 
 bad sense of elvish of Chaucer and our old romancers ; and a 
 number of proper names, such as Alprecht, Alphart, Alpine, 
 Alpwin,* were formed from it, undoubtedly before it got its 
 present ill sense.f In the Anglo-Saxon, ./Elf or ^Elpen, with 
 its feminine and plural, frequently occurs. The Oreas, Naias, 
 and Hamodryas of the Greeks and Eomans are rendered 
 in an Anglo-Saxon glossary by GOunc-aelpen, rsfi-aelpeu, 
 and pelb-aelfen.J ^Elp is a component part of the proper 
 names ^Elfred and jJElfric ; and the author of the poem of 
 Judith says that his heroine was ^Elp-pcine (Elf-sheen), 
 bright or fair as an elf. But of the character and acts of the 
 elfs no traditions have been preserved in Anglo-Saxon litera- 
 ture. In the English language, Elf, Elves, and their deriva- 
 tives are to be found in every period, from its first formation 
 down to this present time. 
 
 THE DUEEGAE. 
 
 By ek fur jorth nethan, 
 A ek, undir stein, stath. 
 
 ALVIB-MAL. 
 
 I dwell the earth beneath, 
 
 I possess, under the stone, my seat. 
 
 THESE diminutive beings, dwelling in rocks and hills, and 
 distinguished for their skill in metallurgy, seem to be pecu- 
 liar to the Gotho-German mythology. Perhaps the most 
 probable account of them is, that they are personifications of 
 
 * After the introduction of Christianity, Engel, angel, was employed for 
 Alp in most proper names, as Engelrich, Engelhart, etc. 
 
 f See MM. Grimm's learned Introduction to their translation of the Irish 
 Fairy Legends, and the Deutsche Mythologie of J. Grimm. 
 
 J MM. Grimm suppose with a good deal of probability, that these are 
 compounds formed to render the Greek ones, and are not expressive of a belief 
 in analogous classes of spirits. 
 
 Some think, but with little reason, thej- were originally a part of th 
 Finnish mythology, and were adopted into the Gothic gyatem
 
 EDDAS AND SAAS. 07 
 
 the subterraneous powers of nature ; for it may be again 
 observed, that all the parts of every ancient mythology are 
 but personified powers, attributes, and moral qualities. The 
 Edda thus describes their origin : 
 
 " Then the gods sat on their seats, and held a council, and 
 called to mind how the Duergar had become animated in the 
 clay below in the earth, like maggots in flesh. The Duergar 
 had been first created, and had taken life in Tmir's * flesh, 
 and were maggots in it, and by the will of the gods they 
 became partakers of human knowledge, and had the likeness 
 of men, and yet they abode in the ground and in stones. 
 Modsogner was the first of them, and then Dyrin." 
 
 The Duergar are described as being of low stature, with 
 short legs and long arms, reaching almost down to the ground 
 when they stand erect.f They are skilful and expert work- 
 men in gold, silver, iron, and the other metals. They form 
 many wonderful and extraordinary things for the -Sser, and 
 for mortal heroes, and the arms and armour that come from 
 their forges are not to be paralleled. Tet the gift must be 
 spontaneously bestowed, for misfortune attends those ex- 
 torted from them by violence. + 
 
 In illustration of their character we bring forward the 
 following narratives from the Edda and Sagas. The homely 
 garb in which they are habited, will not, it is hoped, be dis- 
 pleasing to readers of taste. We give as exact a copy as we 
 are able of the originals in all their rudeness. The tales are 
 old, their date unknown, and they therefore demand respect. 
 Yet it is difficult to suppress a smile at finding such familiar, 
 nay almost vulgar terms applied to the great supernal 
 powers of nature, as occur in the following tale from the 
 Edda. 
 
 * The giant Ymir is a personification of Chaos, the undigested primal matter. 
 The sons of Borr (other personifications) slew him. Out of him they Conned 
 the woil ; his blood made the sea, his flesh the laud, his bones the mountains; 
 rocks sin cliffs were his teeth, jaws, and broken pieces of bones ; his skull 
 formed t ie heavens. 
 
 f- On mund Andreas in notis ad Volnspd. 
 
 J Th t they are not insensible to kindness one of the succeeding tales 
 will sli_-i . 
 
 Tin- habitual reader of the northern and German writers, or evei, nin old 
 Engli -h ones, will observe with Minirise his gradually diminished rout for 
 
 man) < juvssions now beconu .:iltr;>r ll< will find Inmselt' im;i >lj 
 
 falling ii ;o the habit of rep:' 'ln-m in tin- linlit "f 'lirir pristine
 
 OS THE DUE&ttAJl. 
 
 Eofct an& tijr Stoarf. 
 
 LOKI, the son of Laufeiar, had out of mischief cut off all the 
 hair of Sif. When Thor found this out he seized Loki', and 
 would have broken every bone in his body, only that he 
 swore to get the Suartalfar to make for Sif hair of gold, 
 which would grow like any other hair. 
 
 Loki then went to the Dwarfs that are called the sons of 
 Ivallda. They first made the hair, which as soon as it was 
 put on the head grew like natural hair ; then the ship 
 Skidbladni,* which always had the wind with it, wherever it 
 would sail ; and, thirdly, the spear Gugner, which always 
 hit in battle. 
 
 Then Loki laid his head against the dwarf Brock, that his 
 brother Eitri could not forge three such valuable things as 
 these were. They went to the forge ; Eitri set the swine- 
 skin (bellows) to the fire, and bid his brother Brock to blow, 
 and not to quit the fire till he should have taken out the 
 things he had put into it. 
 
 And when he was gone out of the forge, and that Brock 
 was blowing, there came a fly and settled upon his hand, 
 and bit him ; but he blew without stopping till the smith 
 took the work out of the fire ; and it was a boar, and its 
 bristles were of gold. 
 
 He then put gold into the fire, and bid him not to stop 
 blowing till he came back. He went away, and then the fly 
 came and settled on his neck, and bit him more severely 
 than before ; but he blew on till the smith came back and 
 took out of the fire the gold-ring which is called Drupner.f 
 
 Then he put iron into the fire, and bid him blow, and said 
 
 * Skidbladni, like Par! Banou's tent, could expand and contract as required. 
 It would carry all the JEser and their arms, and when not in use it could bo 
 taken asunder and put in a purse. "A (food ship," says Ganglar, " is Skid- 
 dlailni, but great art must Lave been employed in making it." Mythologist* 
 lay i: is the clouds. + f. < . The Dripper.
 
 EDDAS ANJ) 8AQAS. GP 
 
 that if he stopped blowing all the work would be lost. Thn 
 fly now settled between his eyes, and bit so hard that the 
 blood ran into his eyes, so that he could not see ; so when 
 the bellows were down he caught at the fly in all haste, and 
 tore off its wings ; but then came the smith, and said that 
 all that was in the fire had nearly been spoiled. He then 
 took out of the fire the hammer Miolner,* gave all the things 
 to his brother Brock, and bade him go with them to Asgard 
 and settle the wager. 
 
 Loki also produced his jewels, and they took Odin, Thor, 
 and Prey, for judges. Then Loki gave to Odin the spear 
 Ghigner, and to Thor the hair that Sif was to have, and to 
 Frey Skidbladni, and told their virtues as they have been 
 already related. Brock took out his jewels, and gave to Odin 
 the ring, and said that every ninth night there would drop 
 from it eight other rings as valuable as itself. To Frey he 
 gave the boar, and said that he would run through air and 
 water, by night and by day, better than any horse, and that 
 never was there night so dark that the way by which he 
 went would not be light from his hide. He gave the hammer 
 to Thor, and said that it would never fail to hit a Troll, and 
 that at whatever he threw it it would never miss it ; and that 
 he could never fling it so far that it would not of itself return 
 to his hand ; and when he chose, it would become so small 
 that he might put it into his pocket. But the fault of the 
 hammer was that its handle was too short. 
 
 Their judgment was, that the hammer was the best, and 
 that the Dwarf had won the wager. Then Loki prayed hard 
 not to lose his head, but the Dwarf said that could not be. 
 "Catch me then," said Loki; and when he went to catch 
 him he was far away, for Loki had shoes with which he could 
 run through air and water. Then the Dwarf prayed Thor to 
 catch him, and Thor did so. The Dwarf now went to cut 
 off his head, but Loki said he was to have the head only, and 
 not the neck. Then the Dwarf took a knife and a thong, 
 and went to sew up his mouth ; but the knife was bad, so the 
 Dwarf wished that his brother's awl were there ; and as soon 
 as he wished it it was there, and he sewed his lips together.t 
 
 * f. e. The Bruiser or Crusher, from Myla, to bruise or crush. Lfttlethi 
 Fancy know of the high connexions of their phrase Mill. 
 J" Edda Resenii, Daemisaga 59.
 
 70 THE DUERGAB. 
 
 Northern mythologists thus explain this very ancient 
 fable. Sif is the earth, and the wife of Thor, the heaven or 
 atmosphere ; her hair is the trees, bushes, and plants, that 
 adorn the surface of the earth. Loki is the Fire-God, that 
 delights in mischief, bene servit, male imperat. When by 
 immoderate heat he has burned off the hair of Sif, her hus- 
 band compels him so by temperate heat to warm the mois- 
 ture of the earth, that its former products may spring up 
 more beautiful than ever. The boar is given to Freyr, to 
 whom and his sister Freya, as the gods of animal and 
 vegetable fecundity, the northern people offered that animal, 
 as the Italian people did, to the earth. Loki's bringing the 
 gifts from the under-ground people seems to indicate a belief 
 that metals were prepared by subterranean fire, and perhaps 
 the forging of Thor's hammer, the mythic emblem of 
 thunder, by a terrestrial demon, on a subterranean anvil, 
 may suggest that the natural cause of thunder is to be 
 sought in the earth. 
 
 anto rtje Qtonrf. 
 
 WHEN spring came, Thorston made ready his ship, and put 
 twenty-four men on board of her. When they came to 
 Vinland, they ran her into a harbour, and every day he went 
 on shore to amuse himself. 
 
 He came one day to an open part of the wood, where he 
 saw a great rock, and out a little way from it a Dwarf, who 
 was horridly ugly, and was looking up over his head with his 
 mouth wide open ; and it appeared to Thorston that it ran 
 from ear to ear, and that the lower jaw came down to his 
 knees. Thorston asked him, why he was acting so foolishly. 
 " Do not be surprised, my good lad," replied the Dwarf; 
 " do you not see that great dragon that is flying up there ? 
 He has taken off my son, and I believe that it is Odin him- 
 self that has sent the monster to do it. But I shall burst 
 and die if I lose my son." Then Thorston shot at the 
 dragon, and hit him under one of the wings, so that he feU
 
 EDDAS AND SAGAS, 71 
 
 dead to the earth ; butThorston caught the Dwarf's child in 
 the air, and brought him to his father. 
 
 The Dwarf was exceeding glad, and was more rejoiced than 
 any one could tell ; and he said, " A great benefit have I to 
 reward you for, who are the deliverer of my son ; and now 
 choose your recompense in gold and silver." " Cure your 
 son," said Thorston, " but I am not used to take rewards for 
 my services." " It were not becoming," said the Dwarf, 
 " if I did not reward you ; and let not my shirt of sheeps'- 
 wool, which I will give you, appear a contemptible gift, for 
 you will never be tired when swimming, or get a wound, if 
 you wear it next your skin." 
 
 Thorston took the shirt and put it on, and it fitted him 
 well, though it had appeared too short for the Dwarf. The 
 Dwarf now took a gold ring out of his purse and gave it to 
 Thorston, and bid him to take good care of it, telling him 
 that he never should want for money while he kept that ring. 
 He next took a black stone and gave it to Thorston, and said, 
 " If you hide this stone in the palm of your hand no one will 
 see you. I have not many more things to offer you, or that 
 would be of any value to you ; I will, however, give you a 
 fire-stone for your amusement." 
 
 He then took the stone out of his purse, and with a steel 
 point. The stone was triangular, white on one side and red 
 on the other, and a yellow border ran round it. The Dwan 
 then said, " If you prick the stone with the point in the 
 white side, there will come on such a hail-storm that no one 
 will be able to look at it ; but if you want to stop this shower, 
 you have only to prick on the yellow part, and there will 
 come so much sunshine that the whole will melt away. But 
 if you should like to prick the red side, then there will come 
 out of it such fire, with sparks and crackling, that no one will 
 be able to look at it. You may also get whatever you will 
 by means of this point and stone, and they will come 01 
 themselves back to your hand when you call them. I can 
 now give you no more such gifts." 
 
 Thorston then thanked the Dwarf for his presents, and 
 returned to his men, and it was better for him to have made 
 this voyage than to have stayed at home.* 
 
 * Thoreton'g Saga, c. 3, in the KUmpa Dater.
 
 72 THE DUEHGAB. 
 
 Che 0toarf=toortJ Cirfing. 
 
 STJAFOBLAMI, the second in descent from Odin, was king 
 over G-ardarike (Russia). One day he rode a-hunting, and 
 sought long after a hart, but could not find one the whole 
 day. When the sun was setting he found himself immersed 
 so deep in the forest that he knew not where he was. There 
 lay a hill on his right hand, and before it he saw two Dwarfs ; 
 he drew his sword agains ', them, and cut off their retreat by 
 getting between them and the rock. They proffered him 
 ransom for their lives, and he asked them then their names, 
 and one of them was called Dyren, and the other Dualin. 
 He knew then that they were the most ingenious and expert 
 of all the Dwarfs, and he therefore imposed on them that 
 they should forge him a sword, the best that they could 
 form ; its hilt should be of gold, and its belt of the same 
 metal. He moreover enjoined, that the sword should never 
 miss a blow, and should never rust ; and should cut through 
 iron and stone, as through a garment ; and should be always 
 victorious in war and in single combat for him who bare 
 it. These were the conditions on which he gave them 
 their lives. 
 
 On the appointed day he returned, and the Dwarfs came 
 forth and delivered him the sword ; and when Dualin stood 
 in the door he said, " This sword shall be the bane of a man 
 every time it is drawn ; and with it shall be done three of the 
 greatest atrocities. It shall also be thy bane." Then Sua- 
 torlami struck at the Dwarf so, that the blade of the sword 
 penetrated into the solid rock. Thus Suaforlami became 
 possessed of this sword, and he called it Tirfing, and he bare 
 it in war and in single combat, and he slew with it the Giant 
 Thiasse, and took his daughter Fridur. 
 
 Suaforlami was shortly after slain by the Berserker* 
 
 The Berserker* were warriors who used to be inflamed with such rage 
 .Tid fury at the thoughts of combats as to bite their shields, run through fire,
 
 EDDAS AND SAGAS. 73 
 
 Andgriift, who then became master of the sword. When 
 the twelve sons of Andgrim were to fight with Hialmar 
 Jind Oddur for Ingaborg, the beautiful daughter of King 
 Inges, Angantyr bore the dangerous Tirfing ; but all the 
 brethren were slain in the combat, and were buried with 
 their arms. 
 
 Angantyr left an only daughter, Hervor, who, when she 
 grew up, dressed herself in man's attire, and took the name 
 of Hervardar, and joined a party of Vikinger, or Pirates. 
 Knowing that Tirfing lay buried with her father, she deter- 
 mined to awaken the dead, and obtain the charmed blade ; 
 and perhaps nothing in northern poetry equals in interest 
 and sublimity the description of her landing alone in the 
 evening on the island of Sams, where her father and uncles 
 lay in their sepulchral mounds, and at night ascending to the 
 tombs, that were enveloped in flame,* and by force of en- 
 treaty obtaining from the reluctant Angantyr the formidable 
 Tirfing. 
 
 Hervor proceeded to the court of King Gudmund, and 
 there one day, as she was playing at tables with the king, 
 one of the servants chanced to take up and draw Tirfing, 
 which shone like a sunbeam. But Tirfing was never to see 
 the light but for the bane of man, and Hervor, by a sudden 
 impulse, sprang from her seat, snatched the sword and struck 
 oif the head of the unfortunate man. Hervor, after this, 
 returned to the house of her grandfather, Jarl Biartmar, 
 where she resumed her female attire, and was married to 
 Haufud, the son of King Gudmund. She bare him two sons, 
 Angantyr and Heidreker ; the former of a mild and gentle 
 disposition, the latter violent and fierce. Haufud would not 
 permit Heidreker to remain at his court ; and as he was 
 departing, his mother, with other gifts, presented him Tirfing. 
 His brother accompanied him out of the castle. Before they 
 
 swallow burning coals, and perform such like mad feats. " Whether the 
 avidity for fighting or the ferocity of their nature," says Suxo, " brought thit 
 madness on them, is uncertain." 
 
 * The northern nations believed that the tombs of their heroes emitted a 
 kind of lambent flame, which was always visible in the night, and served to 
 guard the ashes of the dead ; they called it Hauga Elldr, or The Sepulchral 
 Fire. It vas supposed more particularly to surround such tombs as contained 
 hidden treasures. Bartholin, dc Cwtttmpt. a Dan. Morte, p. 275.
 
 74 THE DUERGAB. 
 
 partei, Heidreker drew out his sword to look at and admire 
 it ; but scarcely did the rays of light Ml on the magic blade, 
 when the Berserker rage came on its owner, and he slew his 
 gentle brother. 
 
 After this he joined a body of ViMnger, and became so 
 distinguished, that King Harold, for the aid he lent him, 
 gave him his daughter Helga in marriage. But it was the 
 destiny of Tirfing to commit crime, and Harold fell by the 
 hand of his son-in-law. Heidreker was afterwards in Russia, 
 and the son of the king was his foster-son. One day, as they 
 were out hunting, Heidreker and his foster-son happened to 
 be separated from the rest of the party, when a wild boar 
 appeared before them ; Heidreker ran at him with his spear, 
 but the beast caught it in his mouth and broke it across. 
 He then alighted and drew Tirfing., and killed the boar ; but 
 on looking around, he could see no one but his foster-son, 
 and Tirfing could only be appeased with warm human blood, 
 and he slew the unfortunate youth. Finally, King Heidreker 
 was murdered in his bed by his Scottish slaves, who carried 
 off Tirfing ; but his son Angantyr, who succeeded him, dis- 
 covered and put them to death, and recovered the magic 
 blade. In battle against the Huns he afterwards made great 
 slaughter ; but among the slain was found his own brother 
 Laudur. And so ends the history of the Dwarf-sword 
 Tirfing.* 
 
 Like Alf, the word Duergr has retained its place in the 
 Teutonic languages. Dvergt is the term still used in the 
 north; the Germans have Zwerg, and we Dwarf, J which, 
 however, is never synonymous with Fairy, as Elf is. Ihre 
 
 * Hervarar Saga passim. The Tirfing Saga would b its more proper 
 appellation. In poetic and romantic interest it exceeds all the northern 
 
 f In Swedish Dverg also signifies a spider. 
 
 J In the old Swedish metrical history of Alexander, the word Duerf occur*. 
 The progress in the English word is as follows : Anglo-Saxon bt>eopj ; thence 
 dwerlce ; 
 
 A maid that is a niessingere 
 And a dwerke me brought here, 
 Her to do socour. 
 
 Lylcnus Disconiu. 
 ltly, dwarf, at in old Swedish.
 
 EDDAS AND SAGAS. 75 
 
 rejects all the etymons proposed for it, such, for example, as 
 that of G-udmund Andreae, 8io\. tpyov ; and with abundant 
 reason. 
 
 Some have thought that by the Dwarfs were to be under- 
 stood the Finns, the original inhabitants of the country, who 
 were driven to the mountains by the Scandinavians, and who 
 probably excelled the new-comers in the art of working their 
 mines and manufacturing their produce. Thorlacius, on the 
 contrary, thinks that it was Odin and his followers, who came 
 from the country of the Chalybes, that brought the metal- 
 lurgic arts into Scandinavia. 
 
 Perhaps the simplest account of the origin of the Dwarfs 
 is, that when, in the spirit of all ancient religions, the sub- 
 terranean powers of nature were to be personified, the authors 
 of the system, from observing that people of small stature 
 usually excel in craft and ingenuity, took occasion to repre- 
 sent the beings who formed crystals and purified metals 
 within the bowels of the earth as of diminutive size, which 
 also corresponded better with the power assigned them of 
 slipping through the fissures and interstices of rocks and 
 stones. Similar observations led to the representation of 
 the wild and awful powers of brute nature under the form of 
 huge gianta.
 
 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 D* vare syv og hundrede Trolde, 
 
 De vare baade grumme og lede, 
 De vilde gjore Bonden et Gjoosterie, 
 
 Med hannem baade drikke og sede. 
 
 ELINK AF VILLENSZOV. 
 
 There were seven and a hundred Trolls, 
 
 They were both ugly and grim, 
 A visit they would the farmer make, 
 
 Both eat and drink with him. 
 
 UNDEE the name of Scandinavia are included the kingdoms 
 of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which once had a common 
 religion and a common language. Their religion is still one, 
 and their languages differ but little ; we therefore feel that 
 we may safely treat of their Fairy Mythology together. 
 
 Our principal authorities are the collection of Danish 
 popular traditions, published by Mr. Thiele,* the select 
 Danish ballads of Nyerup and Eahbek,f and the Swedish 
 ballads of Geijer and Afzelius.J As most of the principal 
 Danish ballads treating of Elves, etc., have been already trans- 
 lated by Dr. Jamieson, we will not insert them here ; but 
 translate, instead, the corresponding Swedish ones, which are 
 in general of greater simplicity, and often contain additional 
 traits of popular belief. As we prefer fidelity to polish, the 
 reader must not be offended at antique modes of expressioc 
 and imperfect rimes. Our rimes we can, however, safely 
 say shall be at least as perfect as those of our originals. 
 
 These ballads, none of which are later than the fifteenth 
 
 * Danske Folkesagn, 4 vols. 12mo. Copenh. 181822. 
 
 f- Udvalgde Danske Viser fra Middelaldaren, 5 vols. 12mo. Copenh. 1812. 
 
 Svenska Folk- Visor frSn Forntiden, 3 vols. 8 TO. Stockholm, 1814 16. 
 We have not seen the late collection of Arvidsson named Svenska Fornsange:, 
 in 3 vols. 8vo.
 
 SCAXDIWA.VIA. 77 
 
 century, are written in a strain of the most artless simplicity; 
 not the slightest attempt at ornament is to be discerned in 
 them ; the same ideas and expressions continually recur ; 
 and the rimes are the most careless imaginable, often a mere 
 assonnance in vowels or consonants ; sometimes not possess- 
 ing even that slight similarity of sound. Every Visa or 
 ballad has its single or double Omquaed * or burden, which, 
 like a running accompaniment in music, frequently falls in 
 with the most happy effect ; sometimes recalling former joys 
 or sorrows ; sometimes, by the continual mention of some 
 attribute of one of the seasons, especially the summer, keep- 
 ing up in the mind of the reader or hearers the forms of 
 external nature. 
 
 It is singular to observe the strong resemblance between 
 the Scandinavian ballads and those of England and Scotland, 
 not merely in manner but in subject. The Scottish ballad 
 first mentioned below is an instance ; it is to be met with in 
 England, in the Feroes, in Denmark, and in Sweden, with 
 very slight differences. Greyer observes, that the two last 
 stanzas of ' William and Margaret,' in Percy's Reliques, 
 are nearly word for word the same as the two last in the 
 Swedish ballad of ' Kosa Lilla,' t and in the corresponding 
 
 * The reader will find a beautiful instance of a double Omquaed in the 
 Scottish ballad of the Cruel Sister. 
 
 There were two sisters sat in a bower, 
 
 Binnorie o Binnorie 
 There came a knight to be their wooer 
 
 By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie. 
 And iu the Cruel Brother, 
 
 There were three ladies played at the ba', 
 
 With a heigh ho and a lily gay ; 
 There came a knight and played o'er them a', 
 
 As the primrose spreads so sweetly. 
 The second and fourth lines are repeated in every stanza, 
 f These are the Swedish verses : 
 
 Det vaxte upp Liljor p begge deres graf, 
 
 Med aran och med dygd 
 
 De vaxte tilsamman med alia sina blad. 
 
 J vinnen v'dl, J vinnen v'dl bade rosr och liljor, 
 
 Det vaxte upp Rnsor ur bada deras mui', 
 
 Med aran och med dygd 
 
 De vaxte tilsammans i faareste lund. 
 
 J vinnen v'dl, J vinnen v'dl bade rcsor t. ^h liljor.
 
 78 ELVES. 
 
 Danish one. This might perhaps lead to the supposition of 
 many of these ballads having come down from the time when 
 the connexion was so intimate between this country and 
 Scandinavia. 
 
 We will divide the Scandinavian objects of popular belief 
 into four classes : 1. The Elves ; 2. The Dwarfs, or Trolls, 
 as they are usually called ; 3. The Nisses ; and 4. The Necks, 
 Mermen, and Mermaids.* 
 
 ELVES. 
 
 Sag, kannar du Elfvornas glada slagt ? 
 
 De bygga ved flodernas rand; 
 De spinna af mSnsken sin hogtidsdragt, 
 
 Med liljehvit spelande hand. 
 
 STAONELIUS. 
 
 Say, knowest thou the Elves' gay and joyous race ? 
 
 The banks of streams are their home; 
 They spin of the moonshine their holiday-dress, 
 
 With their Illy-white hands frolicsome. 
 
 THE Alfar still live in the memory and traditions of the 
 peasantry of Scandinavia. They also, to a certain extent, 
 retain their distinction into White and Black. The former, 
 or the Good Elves, dwell in the air, dance on the grass, 
 or sit in the leaves of trees ; the latter, or Evil Elves, are 
 regarded as an underground people, who frequently inflict 
 sickness or injury on mankind ; for which there is a par- 
 ticular kind of doctors called Kloka mim,^ to be met with 
 in all parts of the country. 
 
 * Some readers may wish to know the proper mode of pronouncing such 
 Danish and Swedish words as occur in the following legends. For their satis- 
 faction we give the following information. J is pronounced as our y ; when 
 it comes between a consonant and a vowel, it is very short, like the y that is 
 expressed, but not written, in many English words after c and g : thus Icjar is 
 pronounced very nearly as care : o sounds like the German o, or French eu : 
 d after another consonant is rarely sounded, Trold is pronounced Troll : oa, 
 which the Swedes write tf, as o in more, tore. Aarhuus is pronounced 
 Ore-hoos. 
 
 f That is, Wise People or Conjurors. They answer to the Fairy-women of 
 Ireland.
 
 SCANDINAVIA. 79 
 
 The Elves are believed to have their kings, and to celebrate 
 their weddings and banquets, just the same as the dwellers 
 above ground. There is an interesting intermediate class of 
 them in popular tradition called the Hill-people (Hdgfolk), 
 who are believed to dwell in caves and small hills : when they 
 show themselves they have a handsome human form. The com- 
 mon people seem to connect with them a deep feeling of melan- 
 choly, as if bewailing a half-quenched hope of redemption.* 
 
 There are only a few old persons now who can tell any 
 thing more about them than of the sweet singing that may 
 occasionally on summer nights be heard out of their hills, 
 when one stands still and listens, or, as it is expressed in 
 the ballads, "lays his ear to the Elve-hill" (logger sift or a 
 till Elfvehogg ) : but no one must be so cruel as, by the 
 slightest word, to destroy their hopes of salvation, for then 
 the spritely music will be turned into weeping and 
 lamentation.f 
 
 The Norwegians call the Elves Huldrafolk, and their 
 music Huldraslaat : it is in the minor key, and of a dull 
 and mournful sound. The mountaineers sometimes play it, 
 and pretend they have learned it by Listening to the under- 
 ground people among the hills and rocks. There is also a 
 tune called the Elf-king's tune, which several of the good 
 fiddlers know right well, but never venture to play, for as 
 soon as it begins both old and young, and even inanimate 
 objects, are impelled to dance, and the player cannot stop 
 unless he can play the air backwards, or that some one comes 
 behind him and cuts the strings of his fiddle. J 
 
 The Little underground Elves, who are believed to dwell 
 
 * Afzelius is of opinion that this notion respecting the Hill-people is 
 derived from the time of the introduction of Christianity into the north, and 
 expresses the sympathy of the first converts with their forefathers, who had 
 died without a knowledge of the Redeemer, and lay hurled in heathen earth, 
 and whose unhappy spirits were doomed to wander about these lower regions, 
 or sigh within their mounds till the great day of redemption. 
 
 f 1 "About fifteen years ago," says Odman (Bahuslan, p. 80), "people 
 used to hear, out of the hill under Garun, in the parish of Tanum, the playing, 
 as it were, of the very best musicians. Any one there who had a fiddle, and 
 wished to play, was taught in an instant, provided they promised them salva- 
 tion ; but whoever did not do so, might hear them within, in the hill, breaking 
 their violins to pieces, and weeping bitterly." See Grimm. Deut. Myth. 45L 
 J Aradt, Reise nach Schwcden, iv. 241.
 
 80 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 under the houses of mankind, are described as sportive and 
 mischievous, and as imitating all the actions of men. They 
 are said to love cleanliness about the house and place, and to 
 reward such servants as are neat and cleanly. 
 
 There was one time, it is said, a servant girl, who was for 
 her cleanly, tidy habits, greatly beloved by the Elves, par- 
 ticularly as she was careful to carry away all dirt and foul 
 water to a distance from the house, and they once invited 
 her to a wedding. Every thing was conducted in the greatest 
 order, and they made her a present of some chips, which she 
 took good-humouredly and put into her pocket. But when 
 the bride-pair was coming there was a straw unluckily lying 
 in the way, the bridegroom got cleverly over it, but the poor 
 bride fell on her face. At the sight of this the girl could 
 not restrain herself, but burst out a-laughing, and that 
 instant the whole vanished from her sight. Next day, to her 
 utter amazement, she found that what she had taken to be 
 nothing but chips, were so many pieces of pure gold.* 
 
 A dairy-maid at a place called Skibshuset (the Ship-house), 
 in O dense, was not so fortunate. A colony of Elves had taken 
 up their abode under the floor of the cowhouse, or it is more 
 likely, were there before it was made a cowhouse. However, 
 the dirt and filth that the cattle made annoyed them beyond 
 measure, and they gave the dairy-maid to understand that 
 if she did not remove the cows, she would have reason to 
 repent it. She gave little heed to their representations ; 
 and it was not very long till they set her up on top of the 
 hay-rick, and killed all the cows. It is said that they were 
 seen on the same night removing in a great hurry from the 
 cowhouse down to the meadow, and that they went in little 
 coaches ; and their king was in the first coach, which was 
 far more stately and magnificent than the rest. They have 
 ever since lived in the meadow.f 
 
 * Svenska Folk-Visor, vol. iii. p. 159. There is a similar legend in 
 Germany. A servant, one time, seeing one of the little ones very hard-set to 
 carry a single grain of wheat, burst out laughing at him. In a rage, he 
 threw it on the ground, and it proved to he the purest gold. But he and his 
 comrades quitted the house, and it speedily went to decay. Strack. Beschr. v. 
 Eilsen, p. 124, ap. Grimm, Introd., etc., p. 90. 
 
 + Thiele, vol. iv. p. 22. They are called Trolls in the original. As they 
 had a king, we think they must have been Klvcs. The Dwarfs have long since 
 abolished monarchy.
 
 ELTT8. Si 
 
 The Elves are extremely fond of dancing in the meadows, 
 where they form those circles of a livelier green which from 
 them are called Elf-dance (Elfdans). AVhen the country 
 people see in the morning stripes along the dewy grass in 
 the woods and meadows, they say the Elves hare been 
 dancing there. If any one should at midnight get within 
 their circle, they become visible to him, and they may then 
 illude him. It is not every one that can see the Elves ; and 
 one person may see them dancing while another perceives 
 nothing. Sunday children, as they are called, i. e. those 
 born on Sunday, are remarkable for possessing this property 
 of seeing Elves and similar beings. The Elves, however, have 
 the power to bestow this gift on whomsoever they please. 
 People also used to speak of Elf-books which they gave to 
 those whom they loved, and which enabled them to foretell 
 future events. 
 
 The Elves often sit in little stones that are of a circular 
 form, and are called Elf-mills (Elf-quarnor) ; the sound of 
 their voice is said to be sweet and soft like the air.* 
 
 The Danish peasantry give the following account of their 
 Ellefolk or Elve-people. 
 
 The Elle-people live in the Elle-moors. The appearance 
 of the man is that of an old man with a low-crowned hat on 
 his head; the Elle-woman is young and of a fair and 
 attractive countenance, but behind she is hollow like a 
 dough-trough. Young men should be especially on their 
 guard against her, for it is very difficult to resist her ; and 
 she has, moreover, a stringed instrument, wiiich, when she 
 plays on it, quite ravishes their hearts. The man may be 
 often seen near the Elle-moors, bathing himself in the sun- 
 beams, but if any one comes too near him, he opens his 
 mouth wide and breathes upon them, and his breath produces 
 sickness and pestilence. But the women are most frequently 
 to be seen by moonshine ; then they dance their rounds in 
 the high grass so lightly and so gracefully, that they seldom 
 meet a denial when they offer their hand to a rash young 
 man. It is also necessary to watch cattle, that they may 
 not graze in any place where the Elle-people have been for 
 
 * The greater part of what precedes has been taken from Afzelius ; n tl.e 
 Sver^ka Visor, vol. iii. 
 
 o
 
 82 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 if any animal come to a place where the Elle-people have 
 spit, or done what is worse, it is attacked by some grievous 
 disease which can only be cured by giving it to eat a hand- 
 ful of St. John's wort, which had been pulled at twelve 
 o'clock on St. John's night. It might also happen that they 
 might sustain some injury by mixing with the Elle-people's 
 cattle, which are very large, and of a blue colour, and which 
 may sometimes be seen in the fields licking up the dew, on 
 which they live. But the farmer has an easy remedy against 
 this evil ; for he has only to go to the Elle-hill when he is 
 turning out his cattle and to say, " Thou little Troll ! may I 
 graze my cows on thy hill ?" And if he is not prohibited, 
 he may set his mind at rest.* 
 
 The following ballads and tales will fully justify what has 
 been said respecting the tone of melancholy connected with 
 the subject of the Elves.f 
 
 ittr <9Iof in 
 
 SIB Olof he rode out at early day, 
 And so came he unto an Elve-dance gay. 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 The Elve-father reached out his white hand free, 
 " Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 " O nought I will, and nought I may, 
 To-morrow will be my wedding-day." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 * Thiele, iv. 26. 
 
 f In the distinction which we have made between the Elves and Dwarf* 
 we find that we are justified by the popular creed of the Norwegians. Fajc, 
 p. 49, op. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 412.
 
 ELVES. 88 
 
 And the Elve-mother reached out her white hand free, 
 " Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 " O nought I will, and nought I may, 
 To-morrow will be my wedding-day." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 And the Elve-sister reached out her white hand free, 
 " Come, come, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 " O nought I will, and nought I may, 
 To-morrow will be my wedding-day." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 And the bride she spake with her bride-maids so, 
 " What may it mean that the bells thus go ?" 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 " 'Tis the custom of this our isle," they replied ; 
 " Each young swain ringeth home his bride." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 " And the truth from you to conceal I fear, 
 Sir Olof is dead, and lies on his bier." 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 And on the morrow, ere light was the day, 
 In Sir Olof's house three corpses lay. 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove. 
 
 It was Sir Olof, his bonny bride, 
 
 And eke his mother, of sorrow she died. 
 
 The dance it goes well, 
 
 So well in the grove.* 
 
 * Svenska Visor, iii. 158, aa sung in Upland and East Gothland. 
 
 a 2
 
 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 (Tljc e?If=itlDmaii autJ jHr 
 
 SIE Olof rideth out ere dawn, 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 Bright day him came on. 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-greeu. 
 
 Sir Olof rides by Borgya, 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 Meets a dance of Elves so gay. 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 There danceth Elf and Elve-maid, 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 Elve-king's daughter, with her flying hair. 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 Elve-king's daughter reacheth her hand free, 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 " Come here, Sir Olof, tread the dance with me.** 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 " Nought I tread the dance with thee," 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 " My bride hath that forbidden me." 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 " Nought I will and nought I may," 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 " To-morrow is my wedding-day." 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-greeu.
 
 ELYES. 86 
 
 " Wilt tliou not tread the dance with me f " 
 
 Breaketli day, falleth rime ; 
 " An evil shall I fix on thee." 
 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 Sir Olof turned his horse therefrom, 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 Sickness and plague follow him home. 
 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 Sir Olof to his mother's rode, 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 Out before him his mother stood. 
 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 " Welcome, welcome, my dear son," 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 " Why is thy rosy cheek so wan ?" 
 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 " My colt was swift and I tardy," 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 " I knocked against a green oak-tree." 
 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 " My dear sister, prepare my bed," 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 " My dear brother, take my horse to the mead.* 1 
 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 " My dear mother, brush my hair," 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 ** My dear father, make me a bier." 
 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 
 When the wood it is leaf-green.
 
 SCAXDEfAYIA. 
 
 My dear son, that do not say,** 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 To-morrow is thy wedding-day." 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-green. 
 
 " Be it when it will betide," 
 
 Breaketh day, falleth rime ; 
 
 " I ne'er shall come unto my bride." 
 Sir Olof cometh home, 
 When the wood it is leaf-green.* 
 
 gating jrtu.it'n airtr tlj 
 
 I WAS a handsome young swain, 
 And to the court should ride. 
 I rode out in the evening-hour ; 
 In the rosy grove I to sleep me laid. 
 Since I her first saw. 
 
 I laid me under a lind so green, 
 My eyes they sunk in sleep ; 
 There came two maidens going along, 
 They fain would with me speak. 
 Since I her first saw. 
 
 The one she tapped me on my cheek, 
 The other whispered in my ear : 
 " Stand up, handsome young swain, 
 If thou list of love to hear." 
 Since I her first saw. 
 
 * Svenska Visor, iii. 1 65, from a MS. in the Royal Library. This and 
 the preceding one are variations of the Danish Ballad of Elveskud, which has 
 been translated by Dr. Jamieson (Popular Ballads, i. 219), and by Lewis in 
 the Tales of Wonder. The Swedish editors give a third variation from East 
 Gothland. A comparison of the two ballads with each other, and with the 
 Danish one, will enable the reader to judge of the modifications a subject 
 undergoes in different parts of a country.
 
 87 
 
 They led then forth a maiden, 
 Whose hair like gold did shine : 
 " Stand up, handsome young swain, 
 If thou to joy incline." 
 
 Since 1 her first saw. 
 
 The third began a song to sing, 
 "With good will she did so ; 
 Thereat stood the rapid stream, 
 Which before was wont to flow. 
 Since I her first saw. 
 
 Thereat stood the rapid stream, 
 Which before was wont to flow ; 
 And the hind all with her hair so brown, 
 Forgot whither she should go. 
 Since I her first saw. 
 
 I got me up from off" the ground, 
 And leaned my sword upon ; 
 The Elve-women danced in and out, 
 All had they the Elve fashion. 
 Since I her first saw. 
 
 Had not fortune been to me so good, 
 That the cock his wings clapped then, 
 I had slept within the hill that night, 
 All with the Elve-women. 
 
 Since I her first saw.* 
 
 Svenska Visor, iii. p. 1 70. This is the Elveshoj of the Danish ballads, 
 translated by Jamieson (i. 225), and by Lewis. In the different Swedish varia- 
 tions, they are Hafsfruen, i. e. Mermaids, who attempt to seduce young men to 
 their love by the offer of costly presents. 
 
 A Danish legend (Thiele, i. 22) relates that a poor man, who was working 
 near Gillesbjerg, a haunted hill, lay down on it to rest himself in the middle 
 of the day. Suddenly there appeared before him a beautiful maiden, with a 
 gold cup in her hand. She made signs to him to come near, but when the 
 man in his fright made the sign of the cross, she was obliged to turn round 
 and then he nw her back that it was hollow.
 
 8ft SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 SVEND FUELLING was, while a little boy, at service in 
 Sjeller-wood-house in Framley ; and it one time happened 
 that he had to ride of a message to Ristrup. It was evening 
 before he got near home, and as he came by the hill of 
 Borum Es, he saw the Elle-maids, who were dancing without 
 ceasing round and round his horse. Then one of the Elle- 
 maids stept up to him, and reached him a drinking cup, 
 bidding him at the same time to drink. Svend took the 
 cup, but as he was dubious of the nature of the contents, he 
 flung it out over his shoulder, where it fell on the horse's back, 
 and singed oif all the hair. While he had the horn fast in 
 his hand, he gave his horse the spurs and rode off full speed. 
 The Elle-maid pursued him till he came to Trigebrand's 
 mill, and rode through the running water, over which she 
 could not follow him. She then earnestly conjured Svend 
 to give her back the horn, promising him in exchange twelve 
 men's strength. On this condition he gave back the horn, 
 and got what she had promised him ; but it very frequently 
 put him to great inconvenience, for he found that along 
 with it he had gotten an appetite for twelve.* 
 
 * Thiele, ii. 67. Framley is in Jutland. Svend (i. e. Swain) Falling is a 
 celebrated character in Danish tradition ; he is regarded as a second Holgei 
 Danske, and he is the hero of two of the Kjempe Viser. In Sweden he is 
 named Sven Farling or Foiling. Grimm has shown that he and Sigurd are 
 the same person. Deutsche Mythologie, p. 345. In the Nibelungen Lied 
 (st. 345) Sifret (Sigurd) gets the strength of twelve men by wearing the 
 tamkappe of the dwarf Albrich. Another tradition, presently to be men- 
 tioned, says it was from a Dwarf he got his strength, for aiding him in battle 
 against another Dwarf. It is added, that when Svend came home in the 
 evening, after his adventure with the Elle-maids, the people were drinking 
 their Yule-beer, and they sent him down for a fresh supply. Svend went 
 without saying anything, and returned with a barrel in each hand and one 
 under each arm.
 
 ELVES. 89 
 
 TIIEHI lived a man in Aasum, near Odense, who, as lie wag 
 coiriug home one night from Seden, passed by a hill that 
 was standing on red pillars, and underneath there was 
 dancing and great festivity. He hurried on past the hill as 
 fast as he could, never venturing to cast his eyes that way. 
 But as he went along, two fair maidens came to meet him, 
 with beautiful hair floating over their shoulders, and one of 
 them held a cup in her hand, which she reached out to him 
 that he might drink of it. The other then asked him if he 
 would come again, at which he laughed, and answered, Tes. 
 But when he got home he became strangely affected in his 
 mind, was never at ease in himself, and was continually 
 saying that he had promised to go back. And when they 
 watched him closely to prevent his doing so, he at last lost 
 his senses, and died shortly after.* 
 
 iHattr 
 
 THERE was once a wedding and a great entertainment at 
 (Esterha3singe. The party did not break up till morning, 
 and the guests took their departure with a great deal of 
 noise and bustle. While they were putting their horses to 
 their carriages, previous to setting out home, they stood 
 talking about their respective bridal-presents. And while 
 they were talking loudly, and with the utmost earnestness, 
 there came from a neighbouring moor a maiden clad in 
 green, with plaited rushes on her head ; she went up to the 
 man who was loudest, and bragging most of his present, and 
 said to him : " What wilt thou give to maid VSP ? " The 
 
 * Thiele, iii. 43. Odense is in Funen.
 
 90 
 
 man, who was elevated with all the ale and brandy he haJ 
 been drinking, snatched up a whip, and replied : " Ten cuts 
 of my whip;" and that very moment he dropt down dead 
 on the ground.* 
 
 war (btltalt. 
 
 A FARMER'S boy was keeping cows not far from Ebeltoft. 
 There came to him a very fair and pretty girl, and she 
 asked him if he was hungry or thirsty. But when he per- 
 ceived that she guarded with the greatest solicitude against 
 his getting a sight of her back, he immediately suspected 
 that she must be an EHe-maid, for the Elle-people are hollow 
 behind. He accordingly would give no heed to her, and 
 endeavoured to get away from her ; but when she perceived 
 this, she offered him her breast that he should suck her. 
 And so great was the enchantment that accompanied this 
 action, that he was unable to resist it. But when he had 
 done as she desired him, he had no longer any command of 
 himself, so that she had now no difficulty in enticing him 
 with her. 
 
 He was three days away, during which time his father and 
 mother went home, and were in great affliction, for they 
 were well assured that he must have been enticed away. 
 But on the fourth day his father saw him a long way off 
 coming home, and he desired his wife to set a pan of meat 
 on the fire as quick as possible. The son then came in at 
 the door, and sat down at the table without saying a word. 
 The father, too, remained quite silent, as if every thing was 
 as it ought to be. His mother then set the meat before 
 him, and his father bid him eat, but he let the food lie 
 untouched, and said that he knew now where he could get 
 much better food. The father then became highly enraged, 
 took a good large switch, and once more ordered him to take 
 
 * Thicle, i. 109. (communicated). Such legends, aa Mr. Thicie learned 
 directly from the mouths of the peasantry, he terms oral ; those he procurer 
 from his friends, communicated. (Esterhesinge, the scene of this legend, is in 
 the island of Kunen.
 
 ELVES. 91 
 
 Lis food. The boy was then obliged to eat, and as soon as he 
 had tasted the flesh he ate it up greedily, and instantly 
 fell into a deep sleep. He slept for as many days as the 
 enchantment had lasted, but he never after recovered the 
 use of his reason.* 
 
 THEBE are three hills on the lands of Bubbelgaard in 
 Funen, which are to this day called the Dance-hills, from 
 the following occurrence. A lad named Hans was at service 
 in Bubbelgaard, and as he was coming one evening past the 
 hills, he saw one of them raised on red pillars, and great 
 dancing and much merriment underneath. He ' was so 
 enchanted with the beauty and magnificence of what he saw, 
 that he could not restrain his curiosity, but was in a strange 
 and wonderful manner attracted nearer and nearer, till at 
 last the fairest of all the fair maidens that were there came 
 up to him and gave him a kiss. From that moment he lost 
 all command of himself, and became so violent, that he used 
 to tear to pieces all the clothes that were put on him, so 
 that at last they were obliged to make him a dress of sole- 
 leather, which he could not pull off him ; and ever after he 
 went by the name of Hans Puntleder, i. e. Sole-leather, t 
 
 According to Danish tradition, the Elle-kings, under the 
 denomination of Promontory-kings, (Klintekonger), keep 
 watch and ward over the country. Whenever war, or any 
 other misfortune, threatens to come on the land, there may 
 be seen, on the promontory, complete armies, drawn up in 
 array to defend the country. 
 
 One of these kings resides at Moen, on the spot which 
 fctill bears the name of King's-hill (Kongsbjerg). His queen 
 
 * Thiele, i. 118. (communicated). F.heltoft is a village in North Jutland. 
 f- Thiele, iv. 32. From the circumstances, it would appear that these were 
 Elves and not Dwarfs ; hut one cannot be positive in these mattvn.
 
 92 5CANDI5fATIA. 
 
 is the most beautifu- 3f beings, and she dwells at the Queen's 
 Chair (Dronningstolen) . This king is a great friend of the 
 king of Stevns, and they are both at enmity with Crap, the 
 promontory-king of Rtigen, who must keep at a distance, 
 and look out over the sea to watch their approach. 
 
 Another tradition, however, says, that there is but one 
 king, who rules over the headlands of Moen, Stevns, and 
 Riigen. He has a magnificent chariot, which is drawn by 
 four black horses. In this he drives over the sea, from one 
 promontory to another. At such times the sea grows black, 
 and is in great commotion, and the loud snorting and neigh- 
 big of his horses may be distinctly heard.* 
 
 It was once believed that no mortal monarch dare come 
 to Stevns ; for the Elle-king would not permit him to cross 
 the stream that bounds it. But Christian IV. passed it 
 without opposition, and since his time several Danish 
 monarchs have been there. 
 
 At Skjelskor, in Zealand, reigns another of these jealous 
 promontorial sovereigns, named king Tolv (Twelve). He will 
 not suffer a mortal prince to pass the bridge of Kjelskor. 
 Wo, too, betide the watchman who should venture to cry 
 twelve o'clock in the village, he might chance to find himself 
 transported to the village of Borre or to the Windmills. 
 
 Old people that have eyes for such things, declare they 
 frequently see Kong Tolv rolling himself on the grass in the 
 sunshine. On New-year's night he takes from one smith's 
 forge or another nine new shoes for his horses ; they must 
 be always left ready for him, and with them the necessary 
 complement of nails. 
 
 The Elle-king of Bornholmt lets himself be occasionally 
 heard with fife and drum, especially when war is at hand ; he 
 may then be seen in the fields with his soldiers. This king 
 will not suffer an earthly monarch to pass more than three 
 nights on his isle. 
 
 In the popular creed there is some strange connexion 
 between the Elves and the trees. They not only frequent 
 them, but they make an interchange of form with them. In 
 
 * Moen and Stevns are in Zealand. As Riigen does not belong to the 
 Danish monarchy, the former tradition is probably the more correct one. Yet 
 the latter may be the original one. 
 
 t Bornholm is a holm, or small island, adjacent to Zealand.
 
 LLVES 93 
 
 the church-yard of Store Heddinge,* in Zealand, there are 
 the remains of an oak wood. These, say the common people, 
 are the Elle-king's soldiers ; by day they are trees, by night 
 valiant warriors. In the wood of Rugaard, in the same 
 island, is a tree which by night becomes a whole Elle-people, 
 and goes about all alive. It has no leaves upon it, yet it 
 would be very unsafe to go to break or fell it, for the under- 
 ground-people frequently hold their meetings under its 
 branches. There is, in another place, an elder-tree growing 
 in a farm-yard, which frequently takes a walk in the twilight 
 about the yard, and peeps in through the window at the 
 children when they are alone. 
 
 It was, perhaps, these elder-trees that gave origin to the 
 notion. In Danish Hyld or Hyl a word not far removed 
 from Elle is Elder, and the peasantry believe that in or 
 under the elder-tree dwells a being called Hyldemoer (Elder- 
 mother), or Hyldequinde (Elder-woman), with her ministrani 
 spirits.t A Danish peasant, if he wanted to take any part 
 of an elder-tree, used previously to say, three times " O, 
 Hyldemoer, Hyldemoer ! let me take some of thy elder, and 
 I will let thee take something of mine in return." If this 
 was omitted he would be severely punished. They tell of a 
 man who cut down an elder-tree, but he soon after died sud- 
 denly. It is, moreover, not prudent to have any furniture 
 made of elder-wood. A child was once put to lie in a cradle 
 made of this wood, but Hyldemoer came and pulled it by 
 the legs, and gave it no rest till it was put to sleep else- 
 where. Old David Monrad relates, that a shepherd, one 
 night, heard his three children crying, and when he inquired 
 the cause, they said some one had been sucking them. Their 
 breasts were found to be swelled, and they were removed to 
 another room, where they were quiet. The reason is said 
 to have been that that room was floored with elder. 
 
 The linden or lime tree is the favourite haunt of the 
 Elves and cognate beings ; and it is not safe to be near it 
 after sun set. J 
 
 * The Elle-king of Stevns has his bedchamber in the wall of this church. 
 
 f- This is evidently the Frau Holle of the Germans. 
 
 J The preceding particulars are all derived from M. Thiele's work.
 
 SCAITDIIfATIA. 
 
 Ther bygde folk i the barg, 
 Quinnor och man, for mycken dnerf. 
 
 HIST. ALEX. MAO. Suedice. 
 
 Within the hUls folk did won, 
 Women and men, dwarfs many a one. 
 
 THE more usual appellation of the Dwarfs is Troll or Trold,* 
 a word originally significant of any evil spirit,f giant mon- 
 ster, magician,;}; or evil person ; but now in a good measure 
 divested of its ill senses, for the Trolls are not in general 
 regarded as noxious or malignant beings. 
 
 The Trolls are represented as dwelling inside of hills, 
 mounds, and hillocks whence they are also called Hill- 
 people (BjergfolK) sometimes in single families, sometimes 
 in societies. In the ballads they are described as having 
 kings over them, but never so in the popular legend. 
 Their character seems gradually to have sunk down to the 
 level of the peasantry, in proportion as the belief in them 
 was consigned to the same class. They are regarded as 
 
 There is no etymon of this word. It is to be found in both the Icelandic 
 and the Finnish languages ; whether the latter borrowed or communicated it is 
 uncertain. Ihre derives the name of the celebrated waterfall of Trollhaeta, 
 near G6.Ter.lurg, from Troll, and Haute Lapponice, an abyss. It therefore 
 answers to the Irish Povl-a-Pkooka. See Ireland. 
 
 + In the following lines quoted in the Heimskringla, it would seem to 
 signify the Dii Manes. 
 
 Tha gaf hann Trescegg Trollum, 
 Torf-Einarr drap Scurfo. 
 Then gave he Trescegg to the Trolls, 
 Turf-Einarr slew Scurfo. 
 
 * The ancient Gothic nation was called Troll by their Vandal neighbour* 
 (Junii Batavia, c. 27) ; according to Sir J. Malcolm, the Tartars call the 
 Chinese Deevs. It was formerly believed, says Ihre, that the noble family of 
 Troll, in Sweden, derived their name from having killed a Troll, that it, 
 probably, a Dwarf.
 
 DWAEFB OB TBOLLS. 95 
 
 extremely rich for when, on great occasions of festivity, 
 they have their hills raised up on red pillars, people that have 
 chanced to be passing by have seen them shoving large 
 chests full of money to and fro, and opening and clapping 
 down the lids of them. Their hill-dwellings are very mag- 
 nificent inside. " They live," said one of Mr. Arndt's guides, 
 " in fine houses of gold and crystal. My father saw them 
 once in the night, when the hill was open on St. John's 
 night. They were dancing and drinking, and it seemed to 
 him as if they were making signs to him to go to them, but 
 his horse snorted, and carried him away, whether he would 
 or no. There is a great number of them in the Guldberg 
 (GoldhilP), and they have brought into it all the gold and 
 silver that people buried in the great Eussian war."* 
 
 They are obliging and neighbourly; freely lending and 
 borrowing, and elsewise keeping up a friendly intercourse 
 with mankind. But they have a sad propensity to thieving, 
 not only stealing provisions, but even women and children. 
 
 They marry, have children, bake and brew, just as the 
 peasant himself does. A farmer one day met a hill-man and 
 his wife, and a whole squad of stumpy little children, in his 
 fields ;t and people used often to see the children of the man 
 who lived in the hill of Kund, in Jutland, climbing up the 
 hill, and rolling down after one another, with shouts of 
 laughter. 
 
 The Trolls have a great dislike to noise, probably from a 
 recollection of the time when Thor used to be flinging his 
 hammer after them ; so that the hanging of bells in the 
 churches has driven them almost all out of the country. The 
 people of Ebeltoft were once sadly plagued by them, as they 
 plundered their pantries in a most unconscionable manner; so 
 
 * Arndt, Reise nach Schweden, yol. iii. p. 8. 
 
 + Like our Fairies the Trolls are sometimes of marvellously snull aimen- 
 *>ns : in the Danish ballad of Eline af Villenskov we read 
 Det da mtldte den mindste Trold, 
 Han var ikke sti'rre end en my)-e, 
 Her er kommet en Christen mand, 
 Den maa jag visseligen styre. 
 Out then spake the tinyest Troll, 
 No bigger than an emmet was he, 
 Hither is come a Christian man, 
 And manage him will I suit-lie.
 
 96 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 they consulted a very wise and pious man ; and his advice 
 was, that they sho\ild hang a bell in the steeple of the 'hurcn. 
 They did so, and they were soon eased of the Trolls.* 
 
 These beings have some very extraordinary and useful 
 properties ; they can, for instance, go about invisibly, t or 
 turn themselves into any shape ; they can foresee future 
 events; they can confer prosperity, or the contrary, on a 
 family ; they can bestow bodily strength on any one ; and, 
 in short, perform numerous feats beyond the power of man. 
 
 Of personal beauty they have not much to boast: the 
 Ebeltoft Dwarfs, mentioned above, were often seen, and they 
 had immoderate humps on their backs, and long crooked 
 noses. They were dressed in gray jackets,J and they wore 
 pointed red caps. Old people in Zealand say, that when the 
 Trolls were in the country, they used to go from their hill to 
 the village of Gudmandstrup through the Stone-meadow, 
 and that people, when passing that way, used to meet great 
 tall men in long black clothes. Some have foolishly spoken 
 to them, and wished them good evening, but they never got 
 any other answer than that the Trolls hurried past them, 
 saying, Mi ! mi ! mi ! mi ! 
 
 Thanks to the industry of Mr. Thiele, who has been inde- 
 fatigable in collecting the traditions of his native country, 
 we are furnished with ample accounts of the Trolls ; and the 
 following legends will fully illustrate what we have written 
 concerning them. 
 
 We commence with the Swedish ballads of the Hill- 
 kings, as in dignity and antiquity they take precedence of 
 the legends. 
 
 * Tliiele, i. 36. 
 
 f- For this they seem to be indebted to their hat or cap. Eske Brok being 
 one day in the fields, knocked off, without knowing it, the hat of a Dwarf 
 who instantly became visible, and had, in order to recover it, to grant him 
 every thing he asked. Thiele iii. 49. This hat answers to the Tarnkappe or 
 Hel-kaplein of the German Dwaifs ; who also become visible when their capi 
 re struck off. 
 
 In the Danish ballad of Eline af Villenskov the hero is called Trolden 
 grade, the Gray Trold, probably from the colour of his habiliments. 
 
 We deem it needless in future to refer to volume and page of Mr. Thiele'l 
 work. Those acquainted with the original will easily find the legend*.
 
 IWA.RFS OK TEOLLfl. 07 
 
 r Cfjrmtte. 
 
 A.TSD it was the knight Sir Thynne, 
 
 He was a knight so grave ; 
 Whether he were on foot or on horse, 
 
 He was a knight so brave.* 
 
 And it was the knight Sir Thynne 
 Went the hart and the hind to shoot, 
 
 So he saw Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter, 
 At the green linden's foot. 
 
 And it was TJlva, the little Dwarf's daughter, 
 
 Unto her handmaid she cried, 
 " Gro fetch my gold harp hither to me, 
 
 Sir Thynne I '11 draw to my side." 
 
 The first stroke on her gold harp she struck, 
 
 So sweetly she made it ring, 
 The wild beasts in the wood and field 
 
 They forgot whither they would spring. 
 
 The next stroke on her gold harp she struck, 
 
 So sweetly she made it ring, 
 The little gray hawk that sat on the bough, 
 
 He spread out both his wings. 
 
 The third stroke on her gold harp she struck, 
 
 So sweetly she made it ring, 
 The little fish that went in the stream, 
 
 He forgot whither he would swim. 
 
 * We have ventured to omit the Omqused. 1 styrcn tail de Runnel 
 (Manage well the runes !) The final e in Thynne is marked merely to hJ, ; - 
 wite that it i to be sounded. 
 
 II
 
 98 SCAJTDTNAVIA. 
 
 Then flowered the mead, then leafed all, 
 
 'Twas caused by the runic lay ;* 
 Sir Thynne he struck his spurs in his horse, 
 
 He no longer could hold him away. 
 
 And it was the knight Sir Thynne, 
 
 From his horse he springs hastily, 
 So goeth he to Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter, 
 
 All under the green linden tree. 
 
 u Here you sit, my maiden fair, 
 
 A rose all lilies above ; 
 See you can never a mortal man 
 
 Who will not seek your love." 
 
 " Be silent, be silent, now Sir Thynne, 
 
 "With your proffers of love, I pray ; 
 For I am betrothed unto a hill-king, 
 
 A king all the Dwarfs obey. 
 
 " My true love he sitteth the hill within, 
 
 And at gold tables plays merrily ; 
 My father he setteth his champions in ring, 
 
 And in iron arrayeth them he. 
 
 " My mother she sitteth the hill within, 
 
 And gold in the chest doth lay ; 
 And I stole out for a little while, 
 
 Upon my gold harp to play." 
 
 And it was the knight Sir Thynne, 
 
 He patted her cheek rosie : 
 " "Why wilt thou not give a kinder reply ; 
 
 Thou dearest of maidens, to me ? " 
 
 * Raneslag, literally Rune-stroke. Runes originally signified letters, and 
 then songs. They were of two kinds, Maalrunor (Speech-runes), and Troll- 
 runor (Magic-rwnes). These last were again divided into Skaderunor 
 (Mischief-runes) and Hjelprunor (Help-runes), of each of which there were 
 five kinds. See Verelius' notes to the Hervarar Saga, cap. 7. 
 
 The power of music over all nature is a subject of frequent recurrence in 
 northern poetry. Here all the wild animals are entranced by the magic tones 
 of the harp ; the meads flower, the trees put forth leaves ; the knight, though 
 grave and silent, is attracted, and even if inclined to stay away, be cannot 
 restrain his horse.
 
 DWARFS OB TROLLS. 99 
 
 u I can give you no kinder reply : 
 
 I may not myself that allow ; 
 I am betrothed to a hill-king, 
 
 And to him I must keep my vow." 
 
 And it was Thora, the little Dwarf's wife, 
 
 She at the hill-door looked out, 
 And there she saw how the knight Sir Thynne, 
 
 Lay at the green linden's foot. 
 
 And it was Thora, the little Dwarfs wife, 
 
 She was vest and angry, Grod wot : 
 " What hast thou here in the grove to do ? 
 
 Little business, I trow, thou hast got. 
 
 " 'Twere better for thee in the hill to be, 
 
 And gold in the chest to lay, 
 Than here to sit in the rosy grove,* 
 
 And on thy gold harp to play. 
 
 " And 'twere better for thee in the hill to be, 
 
 And thy bride-dress finish sewing, 
 Than sit under the lind, and with runic lay 
 
 A Christian man's heart to thee win." 
 
 And it was Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter, 
 
 She goeth in at the hill-door : 
 And after her goeth the knight Sir Thynne, 
 
 Clothed in scarlet and fur. 
 
 And it was Thora, the little Dwarf's wife, 
 
 Forth a red-gold chair she drew : 
 Then she cast Sir Thynne into a sleep 
 
 "Until that the cock he crew. 
 
 And it was Thora, the little Dwarfs wife, 
 
 The five rune-books she took out ; 
 So she loosed him fully out of the runes, 
 
 Her daughter had bound him about. 
 
 Botenddund. The word Lund signifies any kind of grove, thicket, &.
 
 100 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 " And hear thou me, Sir Thynue, 
 
 From the runes thou now art tree ; 
 This to thee I will soothly say, 
 
 My daughter shall never win thee. 
 
 " And I was born of Christian kind, 
 
 And to the hill stolen in ; 
 My sister dwelleth in Iseland,* 
 
 And wears a gold crown so fine. 
 
 " And there she wears her crown of gold, 
 
 And beareth of queen the name ; 
 Her daughter was stolen away from her, 
 
 Thereof there goeth great fame. 
 
 " Her daughter was stolen away from her, 
 
 And to Berner-land brought in ; 
 And there now dwelleth the maiden free, 
 
 She is called Lady Hermolin. 
 
 " And never can she into the dance go, 
 
 But seven women follow her ; 
 And never can she on the gold-harp play, 
 
 If the queen herself is not there. 
 
 '* The king he hath a sister's son, 
 
 He hopeth the crown to possess, 
 For him they intend the maiden free, 
 
 For her little happiness. 
 
 ' And this for my honour will I dq 
 
 And out of good- will moreover, 
 To thee will I give the maiden free, 
 
 And part her from that lover." 
 
 Then she gave unto him a dress so new, 
 
 With gold and pearls bedight ; 
 Every seam on the dress it was 
 
 With precious stones all bright. 
 
 * Not the island of Iceland, but a district in Norway of that name. By 
 Berner-land, Geijer thinks is meant the land of Bern ( Verona), the country 
 of Dietrich, so celebrated in German romance
 
 DWARFS OR TROLLS. 101 
 
 Then she gave unto him a horse so good, 
 
 And therewith a new sell ; 
 " And never shalt thou the way inquire, 
 
 Thy horse will find it well." 
 
 And it was TJlva, the little Dwarf's daughter, 
 She would show her good- will to the knight ; 
 
 So she gave unto him a spear so new, 
 And therewith a good sword so bright. 
 
 " And never shalt thou fight a fight, 
 Where thou shalt not the victory gain ; 
 
 And never shalt thou sail on a sea 
 
 Where thou shalt not the land attain." 
 
 And it was Thora, the little Dwarf's wife, 
 
 She wine in a glass for him poured : 
 " Ride away, ride away, now Sir Thynne, 
 
 Before the return of my lord." 
 
 And it was the knight Sir Thynne, 
 
 He rideth under the green hill side, 
 There then met him the hill-kings two. 
 
 As slow to the hill they ride. 
 
 " Well met ! Good day, now Sir Thynne ! 
 
 Thy horse can well with thee pace ; 
 Whither directed is thy course ? 
 
 Since thou'rt bound to a distant place." 
 
 " Travel shall I and woo ; 
 
 Plight me shall I a flower ; 
 Try shall I my sword so good, 
 
 To my weal or my woe in the stour." 
 
 " Eide in peace, ride la peace, away, Sir Thynue, 
 
 From us thou hast nought to fear ; 
 They are coming, the champions from Iseland, 
 
 Who with thee long to break a spear." 
 
 And it was the knight Sir Thynne, 
 
 He rideth under the green hill side ; 
 There met him seven Bernisk champions, 
 
 Thev bid him to halt and abide.
 
 102 8CAITDINAVIA.. 
 
 " And whether shall we fight to-dar, 
 For the red gold and the silver ; 
 
 Or shall we fight together to-day, 
 For both our true loves fair ? " 
 
 And it was the king's sister's son, 
 
 He was of mood so hasty ; 
 " Of silver and gold I have enow, 
 
 If thou wilt credit me." 
 
 " But hast thou not a fair true love^ 
 Who is called Lady Hermolin ? 
 
 For her it is we shall fight to-day, 
 If she shall he mine or thine. 
 
 The first charge they together rode, 
 They were two champions so tall ; 
 
 He cut at the king's sister's son, 
 That his head to the ground did fall. 
 
 Back then rode the champions six, 
 And dressed themselves in fur ; 
 
 Then went into the lofty hall, 
 The aged king before. 
 
 And it was then the aged king, 
 He tore his gray hairs in woe. 
 
 " Te must avenge my sister's son's deatn: 
 I will sables and martins bestow. ' * 
 
 Back then rode the champions six, 
 They thought the reward to gain, 
 
 But they remained halt and limbless : 
 By loss one doth wit obtain. 
 
 And he slew wolves and bears, 
 All before the high chamber ; 
 
 Then taketh he out the maiden free 
 "Who so long had languished there. 
 
 ' Sabel och Mdrd. These furs are always mentioned in the uorthf m 
 ballads, as the royi.1 rewards of distinguished actions.
 
 DWARFS OB TBOLL8. 103 
 
 And now hath Lady Hennolin 
 
 Escaped from all harm ; 
 Now sleeps she sweet full many a sleep, 
 
 On brave Sir Thynne's arm. 
 
 And now has brave Sir Thynne 
 
 Escaped all sorrow and tine ; 
 Now sleeps he sweet full many a sleep, 
 
 Beside Lady Hennolin, 
 
 Most thanketh he Ulva, the little Dwarf's daughter 
 
 Who him with the runes had bound, 
 For were he not come inside of the hill, 
 
 The lady he never had found.* 
 
 PBOTJD Margaret' sf father of wealth had store, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And he was a king seven kingdoms o'er, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know.J 
 
 To her came wooing good earls two, 
 
 Time with me goes slow, 
 But neither of them would she hearken unto, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 * This fine ancient Visa was taken down from recitation in West Gothland. 
 The corresponding Danish one of Herr Tonne is much later. 
 
 f- Niebuhr, speaking of the Celsi Ramnes, says, w With us the salutation of 
 blood relations was Willkommen stolze Vetter (Welcome, proud cousins)- 
 and in the Danish ballads, proud (stolt) is a noble appellation of a maiden." 
 Romische Geschichte, 2d edit. vol. i. p. 316. 
 
 It may be added, that in English, proud and the synonymous term itout 
 (titolz, stolt) had also the sense of noble, high-born. 
 
 Do now your devoir, yonge knightes proud, 
 
 Knighft Tale. 
 Up stood the queen and ladies stout. 
 
 Launfal. 
 $ Men jag vet at targe tir twng.
 
 104 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 To her came wooing princes five, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 Yet not one of them would the maiden have, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 To her came wooing kings then seven, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 But unto none her hand has she given, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 And the hill-king asked his mother to read, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 How to win proud Margaret he might speed, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " And say how much thou wilt give unto me," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " That herself may into the hill come to thee r"' 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " Thee will I give the ruddiest gold," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " And thy chests full of money as they can hold," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 One Sunday morning it fell out so, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 Proud Margaret unto the church should go, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 And all as she goes, and all as she stays, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 All the nearer she comes where the high hill lay, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 So she goeth around the hill compassing, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 So there openeth a door, and thereat goes she in, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 Proud Margaret stept in at the door of the hill, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And the hill-king salutes her with eyes joyful, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know.
 
 DWAEFS OB TEOLLS. 105 
 
 So he took the maiden upon his knee, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And took the gold rings and therewith her wed he, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 So he took the maiden his arms between, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 He gave her a gold crown and the name of queen, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 So she was in the hill for eight round years, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 There bare she two sons and a daughter so fair, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 When she had been full eight years there, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 She wished to go home to her mother so dear, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 And the hill-king spake to his footpagos twain, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Put ye the gray pacers now unto the wain,"* 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 And Margaret out at the hill-door stept, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And her little children they thereat wept, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 And the hill-king her in his arms has ta'en, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 So he lifteth her into the gilded wain, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " And hear now thou footpage what I unto thee say," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Thou now shalt drive her to her mother's straightway,'' 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 * Wain, our readers hardly need be informed, originally signified any kind 
 of carriage : see Faerie Queene, passim. It is the Aug. Sax. J?a:n, and not 
 * sontraction of wagyon.
 
 306 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Proud Margaret stept in o'er the door-sill, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And her mother saluteth her with eyes joyful, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " And where hast thou so long stayed ? " 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " I have been in the flowery meads," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " What veil is that thou wearest on thy hair ? " 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Such as women and mothers use to wear," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " Well may I wear a veil on my head," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Me hath the hill-king both wooed and wed," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " In the hill have I been these eight round years," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " There have I two sons and a daughter so fair," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " There have I two sons and a daughter so fair," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " The loveliest maiden the world doth bear," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " And hear thou, proud Margaret, what I say unto thee," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Can I go with thee home thy children to see ?" 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 And the hill-king stept now in at the door, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And Margaret thereat fell down on the floor, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 " And stayest thou now here complaining of me," 
 
 Time with me goes slow,- 
 " Camest thou not of thyself into the hill to me ?" 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know.
 
 DWABFS OB TROLLS. 107 
 
 * And stayest tbou now here and thy fate dost deplore ? " 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Camest thou not of thyself in at my door ?" 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 The hill-king struck her on the cheek rosie, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 "And pack to the hill to thy children wee," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 The hill-king struck her with a twisted root, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " And pack to the hill without any dispute," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 And the hill-king her in his arms has ta'en, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And lifted her into the gilded wain, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 "And hear thou my footpage what I unto tnee say," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Thou now shalt drive her to my dwelling straightway," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 Proud Margaret stept in at the hill door, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 And her little children rejoiced therefore, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 "It is not worth while rejoicing for me," 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " Christ grant that I never a mother had been," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 The one brought out a gilded chair, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 " rest you, my sorrow-bound mother, there," 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 The one brought out a filled up horn, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 The other put therein a gilded corn, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know.
 
 108 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 The first driiik she drank out of the horn, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 She forgot straightway both heaven and earth, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 The second drink she drank out of the horn, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 She forgot straightway both God and his word, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 The third drink she drank out of the horn, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 She forgot straightway both sister and brother, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know. 
 
 She forgot straightway both sister and brother, 
 
 Time with me goes slow. 
 But she never forgot her sorrow-bound mother, 
 
 But that grief is heavy I know.* 
 
 THE grandfather of Reor, who dwelt at Fuglekarr (i.e. 
 Bird-marsh), in the parish of Svartsborg (Black-castle), 
 lived close to a hill, and one time, in the broad daylight, he 
 saw sitting there on a stone a comely maiden. He wished 
 to intercept her, and for this purpose he threw steel between 
 her and the hill ; whereupon her father laughed within the 
 hill, and opening the hill-door asked him if he would have 
 his dauglfter. He replied in the affirmative and as she was 
 stark naked he took some of his own clothes and covered 
 her with them, and he afterwards had her christened. As 
 he was going away, her father said to him, " When you are 
 going to have your wedding (brollup) you must provide 
 twelve barrels of beer and bake a heap of bread and the 
 flesh of four oxen, and drive to the barrow or hill where I 
 keep, and when the bridal gifts are to be bestowed, depend 
 on it I will give mine." This also came to pass ; for when 
 
 * From Vennland and Upland.
 
 DWARJfS OB TEOLL8. 109 
 
 others were giving he raised the cover of the cart and cast 
 into it so large a bag of money that the body of it nearly 
 broke, saying at the same time: "This is my gift!" He 
 said, moreover, " When you want to have your wife's portion 
 (hemmagifta)* you must drive to the hill with four horses, 
 and get your share. When he came there afterwards at his 
 desire he got copper-pots, the one larger than the other till 
 the largest pot of all was filled with the smaller ones. He 
 also gave him other things,t which were helmets, of that 
 colour and fashion which are large and thick, and which 
 are still remaining in the country, being preserved at the 
 parsonage of Tanum. This man Reor's father surnamed 
 I Foglekarsten, had a number of children by this wife of his, 
 whom he fetched out of the hill, among whom was the afore- 
 said Eeor. Olaf Stenson also in Stora Bijk, who died last 
 year, was Keor's sister's son.J 
 
 attar*Cup in 
 
 BETWEEN the villages of Marup and Aagerup in Zealand, 
 there is said to have lain a great castle, the ruins of which 
 are still to be seen near the strand. Tradition relates that 
 a great treasure is concealed among them, and that a dragon 
 there watches over three kings' ransoms. Here, too, people 
 frequently happen to get a sight of the underground folk, 
 especially about festival-times, for then they have dancing 
 and great jollity going on down on the strand. 
 
 One Christmas-eve, a farmer's servant in the village of 
 
 * This we suppose to be the meaning of hemmagifta, as it is that of 
 hemgift, the only word approaching to it that we have met in our dictionary. 
 
 + Brandcreatwr, a word of which we cannot ascertain the exact meaning 
 We doubt greatly if the following hielmeta be helmets. 
 
 Grimm (Deut. Mythol. p. 435) has extracted this legend from th e 
 Bahuslan of Odman, who, as he observes, and as we may sec, relates it quite 
 seriously, and with the real names of pel-sons. It is we believe the only 
 legend of the union of a man with one of the hill-folk. 
 
 " Three kings' ransoms" is a common maximum with a Danish peasant 
 when speaking of treasure.
 
 110 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Aagerup went to his master and asked him if he might 
 take a horse and ride down to look at the Troll-meeting. 
 The farmer not only gave him leave but desired him to take 
 the best horse in the stable ; so he mounted and rode away 
 down to the strand. "When he was come to the place he 
 stopped his horse, and stood for some time looking at the 
 company who were assembled in great numbers. And while 
 he was wondering to see how well and how gaily the little 
 dwarfs danced, up came a Troll to him, and invited him to 
 dismount, and take a share in their dancing and merriment. 
 Another Troll came jumping up, took his horse by the 
 bridle, and held him while the man got off, and went down 
 and danced away merrily with them the whole night long. 
 
 When it was drawing near day he returned them his very 
 best thanks for his entertainment, and mounted his horse to 
 return home to Aagerup. They now gave him an invitation 
 to come again on New-year's night, as they were then to 
 have great festivity ; and a maiden who held a gold cup iu 
 her hand invited him to drink the stirrup-cup. He took the 
 cup ; but, as he had some suspicion of them, he, while he 
 made as if he was raising the cup to his mouth, threw the 
 drink out over his shoulder, so that it fell on the horse's 
 back, and it immediately singed off all the hair. He then 
 clapped spurs to his horse's sides, and rode away with the 
 cup in his hand over a ploughed field. 
 
 The Tiolls instantly gave chase all in a body ; but being 
 hard set to get over the deep furrows, they shouted out, 
 without ceasing, 
 
 " Ride on the lay, 
 And not on the clay."* 
 
 He, however, never minded them, but kept to the ploughed 
 field. However, when he drew near the village he was forced 
 to ride out on the level road, and the Trolls now gained on 
 him every minute. In his distress he prayed unto God, and 
 he made a vow that if he should be delivered he would 
 bestow the cup on the church. 
 
 He was now riding along just by the wall of the church- 
 yard, and he hastily flung the cup over it, that it at least 
 might be secure. He then pushed on at full speed, and at 
 
 * ' Rid paa del Bolde, 
 
 Og ikke paa dot Knold*. -
 
 DWA.BF3 OB TBOLLS. Ill 
 
 last got into the village ; and just as they were on the point 
 of catching hold of the horse, he sprung in through the 
 farmer's gate, and the man clapt to the wicket after him. He 
 was now safe ; but the Trolls were so enraged, that, taking 
 up a huge great stone, they flung it with such force against 
 the gate, that it knocked four planks out of it. 
 
 There are no traces now remaining of that house, but the 
 stone is still lying in the middle of the village of Aagerup. 
 The cup was presented to the church, and the man got in 
 return the best farm-house on the lands of Eriksholm.* 
 
 Origin at CiuS llaftr. 
 
 A TBOLL had once taken up his abode near the village of 
 Kund, in the high bank on which the church now stands ; 
 but when the people about there had become pious, and 
 went constantly to church, the Troll was dreadfully annoyed 
 by their almost incessant ringing of bells in the steeple of 
 the church. He was at last obliged, in consequence of it, to 
 take his departure ; for nothing has more contributed to the 
 emigration of the Troll-folk out of the country than the 
 increasing piety of the people, and their taking to bell- 
 ringing. The Troll of Kund accordingly quitted the country, 
 and went over to Funen, where he lived for some time in 
 peace and quiet. 
 
 Now it chanced that a man who had lately settled in the 
 town of Kund, coming to Funen on business, met on the 
 road with this same Troll : " Where do you live ? " said the 
 
 * Oral. This is an adventure common to many countries. The church of 
 Vigersted in Zealand has a cup obtained in the same way. The man, in this 
 case, took refuge in the church, and was there besieged by the Trolls till 
 morning. The bridge of Hagbro in Jutland got its name from a similar event. 
 When the man rode off with the silver jug from the beautiful maiden who 
 presented it to him, an old crone set off in pursuit of him with such velocity, 
 that she would surely have caught him, but that providentially he came to a 
 running water. The pursuer, however, like Nannie with Tarn o' Slianter, 
 aught the horse's hind leg, but was only able to keep one of tie coilrt f hit 
 hoe : hence the bridge was called Hagbro, i. e. Cock Bn 4ge.
 
 112 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Troll 'i him. Now there was nothing \vhatever about the 
 Troll unlike a man, so he answered him, as was the truth, 
 " I am from the town of Kund." " So ?" said the Troll. " ] 
 don't know you, then ! And yet I think I know every man 
 in Kund. "Will you, however," continued he, "just be so 
 kind to take a letter from me back with you to Kund?" 
 The man said, of course, he had no objection. The Troll 
 then thrust the letter into his pocket, and charged him 
 strictly not to take it out till he came to Kund church, and 
 then to throw it over the churchyard wall, and the person 
 for whom it was intended would get it. 
 
 The Troll then went away in great haste, and with him 
 the letter went entirely out of the man's mind. But when 
 he was come back to Zealand he sat down by the meadow 
 where Tiis Lake now is, and suddenly recollected the Troll's 
 letter. He felt a great desire to look at it at least. So he 
 took it out of his pocket, and sat a while with it in his hands, 
 when suddenly there began to dribble a little water out of 
 the seal. The letter now unfolded itself, and the water came 
 out faster and faster, and it was with the utmost difficulty 
 that the poor man was enabled to save his life ; for the mali- 
 cious Troll had enclosed an entire lake in the letter. The 
 Troll, it is plain, had thought to avenge himself on Kund 
 church by destroying it in this manner ; but God ordered it 
 so that the lake chanced to run out in the great meadow 
 where it now flows.* 
 
 * Oral. Tiis Lake is in Zealand. It is the general belief of the peasantry 
 that there are now very few Trolls in the country, for the ringing of bells has 
 driven them all away, they, like the Stille-folk of the Germans, delighting in 
 quiet and silence. It is said that a farmer having found a Troll sitting very 
 disconsolate on a stone near Tiis Lake, and taking him at first for a decent 
 Christian man, accosted him with " Well ! where are you going, friend ? " 
 " Ah !" said he, in a melancholy tone, " I am going off out of the country. 
 I canno-, live here any longer, they keep such eternal ringing and dinging!" 
 "There is a high hill," says Kalm (Resr>, &c. p. 136), "near Botna in 
 Sweden, in which formerly dwelt a Troll. When they got up bells in Botna 
 Lurch, and lie heard the ringing of them, he is related to have said : 
 " Det ar set godt i det Botnaberg at bo, 
 
 Vore ikke den leda Bj'dlltko." 
 u Pleasant it were in Botnahill to dwell, 
 Were it not for the sound of that plaguey bell."
 
 DWAH1S OE TROLLS. 113 
 
 <& JTarntcr trtdtsi a CroIT. 
 
 A FARMER, on whose ground there was a little hill, resolved 
 not to let it lie idle, so he began at one end to plough it up. 
 The hill-man, w r ho lived in it, came to him and asked him 
 how he dared to plough on the roof of his house. The 
 farmer assured him that he did not know that it was the 
 roof of his house, but at the same time represented to him 
 that it was at present equally unprofitable to them both to 
 let such a piece of land lie idle. He therefore took the 
 opportunity of proposing to him that he should plough, sow, 
 and reap it every year on these terms : that they should take 
 it year and year about, and the hill-man to have one year 
 what grew over the ground, and the farmer what grew in 
 the ground ; and the next year the farmer to have what was 
 over, and the hill-man what was under. 
 
 The agreement was made accordingly ; but the crafty 
 farmer took care to sow carrots and corn year and year 
 about, and he gave the hill-man the tops of the carrots and 
 the roots of the corn for his share, with which he was well 
 content. They thus lived for a long time on extremely good 
 'erms with each other.* 
 
 in fi)t Jftre. 
 
 NEAR Grudmanstrup, in the district of Odd, is a hill called 
 tijulehoi (Hollotv-hilF) . The hill-folk that dwell in this 
 n ount are well known in all the villages round, and no one 
 ever omits making a cross on his beer-barrels, for the 
 Trolls are in the habit of slipping down from Hjulehoi to 
 steal beer. 
 
 One evening late a fanner was passing by the hill, and he 
 
 * This story is told by Rabelais with his characteristic humour and ex- 
 travagance. As there are no Trolls in France, it is the devil who is deceived 
 in the French version. A legend similar to this is told of the district of 
 Lujhman in Afghaoistan (Masson, Narrative, etc., iii. 297) ; but there it 
 was the Shaitan (Satan) that cheated the fanners. The legends are surslf 
 independent fictions. 
 
 I
 
 114 SCAKDINAYIA. 
 
 saw that it was raised up on red pillars, and that under- 
 neath there was music and dancing and a splendid Troll 
 banquet. The man stood a long time gazing on their 
 festivity ; but while he was standing there, deeply absorbed in 
 admiration of what he saw, all of a sudden the dancing 
 stopped, and the music ceased, and he heard a Troll cry out, 
 in a tone of the utmost anguish, " Skotte is fallen into the 
 fire ! Come and help him up !" The hill then sank, and all 
 the merriment was at an end. 
 
 Meanwhile the farmer's wife was at home all alone, and 
 while she was sitting and spinning her tow, she never 
 noticed a Troll who had crept through the window into the 
 next room, and was at the beer-barrel drawing off the liquor 
 into his copper kettle. The room-door was standing open, and 
 the Troll kept a steady eye on the woman. The husband 
 now came into the house full of wonder at what he had seen 
 and heard. " Hark ye, dame," he began, " listen now till 1 
 tell you what has happened to me!" The Troll redoubled 
 his attention. "As 1 came just now by Hjulehcii," con- 
 tinued he, " I saw a great Troll-banquet there, but while 
 they were in the very middle of their glee they shouted out 
 within in the hill, ' Skotte is fallen into the fire ; come and 
 help him up ! ' ' 
 
 At hearing this, the Troll, who was standing beside the 
 beer-barrel, was so frightened, that he let the tap run and 
 the kettle of beer fall on the ground, and tumbled himself 
 out of the window as quickly as might be. The people of 
 the house hearing all this noise instantly guessed what had 
 been going on inside ; and when they went in they saw the 
 beer all running about, and found the copper kettle lying on 
 the floor. This they seized, and kept in lieu of the beer that 
 had been spilled ; and the same kettle is said to have been a 
 long time to be seen in the villages round about there.* 
 
 * Oral. Gudmanslrup is in Zealand. In Ourbe, a little island close to 
 Zealand, there is a hill whence the Trolls used to come down anil supply 
 themselves with provisions out of the farmers' pantries. Niel Jensen, who 
 lived close to the hill, finding that they were making, as he thought, over free 
 with his provisions, took the liberty of putting a lock on the door through 
 which they had access. But he had better have left it alone, for his daughter 
 grew stone blind, and never recovered her sight till the lock was removed. 
 Resenii Allot, i. 10. There is a in.ilar story in Grimm's Deutsche Sugen, 
 i. p. 55.
 
 UWAEFS OE TEOLLS. 
 
 Clje lUsctrtr of 
 
 THEEE is a hill called Bodedys close to the road in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Lynge, that is near Soroe. Not far from it 
 lived an old farmer, whose only son was used to take long 
 journeys on business. His father had for a long time heard 
 no tidings of him, and the old man became convinced that 
 his son was dead. This caused him much affliction, as was 
 natural for an old man like him, and thus some time passed 
 oter. 
 
 One evening as he was coming with a loaded cart by 
 Bodedys, the hill opened, and the Troll came out and desired 
 him to drive his cart into it. The poor man was, to be sure, 
 greatly amazed at this, but well knowing how little it would 
 avail him to refuse to comply with the Troll's request, he 
 turned about his horses, and drove his cart straight into the 
 hill. The Troll now began to deal with him for his goods, 
 and finally bought and paid him honestly for his entire cargo. 
 When he had finished the unloading of his vehicle, and was 
 about to drive again out of the hill, the Troll said to him, 
 " If you will now only keep a silent tongue in your head 
 about all that has happened to you, I shall from this time 
 out have an eye to your interest; and if you come here 
 again to-morrow morning, it maybe you shall get your son." 
 The farmer did not well know at first what to say to all this ; 
 but as he was, however, of opinion that the Troll was able to 
 perform what he had promised, he was greatly rejoiced, and 
 failed not to come at the appointed time to Bodedys. 
 
 He sat there waiting a long time, and at last he fell asleep, 
 and when he awoke from his slumber, behold ! there was his 
 son lying by his side. Both father and son found it difficult to 
 explain how this had come to pass. The son related how he 
 had been thrown into prison, and had there suffered great 
 hardship and distress ; but that one night, while he was 
 lying asleep in his cell, there came a man to him, who said, 
 " Do you still love your father ? ' ' And when he had answered 
 
 1 2
 
 110 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 that he surely did, his chains fell off and the wall barst open. 
 "While he was telling this he chanced to put his hand up to 
 his neck, and he found that he had brought a piece of the 
 iron chain away with him. They both were for some time 
 mute through excess of wonder; and they then arose and 
 went straightway to Lynge, where they hung up the piece of 
 the chain in the church, as a memorial of the wonderful 
 event that had occurred.* 
 
 WHEN Esbern Snare was about building a church in 
 Kallundborg, he saw clearly that his means were not fully 
 adequate to the task. But a Troll came to him and oifere'd 
 his services ; and Esbern Snare made an agreement with him 
 on these conditions, that he should be able to tell the Troll's 
 name when the church was finished ; or in case he could not, 
 that he should give him his heart and his eyes. 
 
 The work now went on rapidly, and the Troll set the 
 church on stone pillars ; but when all was nearly done, and 
 there was only half a pillar wanting in the church, Esbern 
 began to get frightened, for the name of the Troll was yet 
 unknown to him. 
 
 One day he was going about the fields all alone, and in 
 great anxiety on account of the perilous state he was in ; 
 when, tired, and depressed, by reason of his exceeding grief 
 and affliction, he laid him down on Ulshoi bank to rest him- 
 self a while. While he was lying there, he heard a Troll- 
 woman within the hill saying th'ese words : 
 
 " Lie still, baby mine ! 
 To-morrow cometh Fin, 
 Father thine, 
 And giveth thee Esbern Snare's eyes and heart to play with."t 
 
 This legend it oral, 
 f Tie stille, barn min I 
 Imorgen kommer Fin, 
 Fa'er din, 
 Og gi'er dig Esbern Snares olne og hjerte at legc med.
 
 BWAKFS OE TBOLLS. ll> 
 
 When Esbern heard this, he recovered his spirits, and 
 went back to the church. The Troll was just then coming 
 with the half-pillar that was wanting for the church ; but 
 when Esbern saw him, he hailed him by his name, and called 
 him " Fin." The Troll was so enraged at this, that he went 
 off with the half-pillar through the air, and this is the reason 
 that the church has but three pillars and a half.* 
 
 The same is told of a far greater than Esbern Snare. As 
 St. Olaf, the royal apostle of the North, was one day going 
 over hill and dale, thinking how he could contrive to build a 
 splendid church without distressing his people by taxation, 
 he was met by a man of a strange appearance, who asking 
 him what he was thinking about, Olaf told him, and the 
 Troll, or rather Giant (Jdtte), for such he was, undertook to 
 do it within a certain time, stipulating, for his reward, the 
 sun and moon, or else St. Olaf himself. Olaf agreed, but 
 gave such a plan for the church as it seemed to be impossible 
 ever could be executed. It was to be so large that seven 
 priests could preach in it at the same time without disturbing 
 each other ; the columns and other ornaments both within 
 and without should be of hard flintstone, and so forth. It 
 soon, however, was finished, all but the roof and pinnacle. 
 Olaf, now grown uneasy, rambled once more over hill and 
 dale, when he chanced to hear a child crying within a hill, 
 and a giantess, its mother, saying to it, " Hush, hush ! Thy 
 father, Wind-and- Weather, will come home in the morning, 
 and bring with him the sun and moon, or else St. Olaf him- 
 self." Olaf was overjoyed, for the power of evil beings 
 ceases when their name is known. He returned home, where 
 he saw every thing completed pinnacle and all. He im- 
 mediately cried out, " Wind-and- Weather, you 've set the 
 
 * Oral. Kallundborg is in Zealand. Mr. Thiele says he saw four pillars 
 at the church. The same story is told of the cathedral of Lund in Funen, 
 which was built by the Troll Finn at the desire of St. Laurentius. 
 
 Of Esbern Snare, Holberg says, " The common people tell wonderful stories 
 of him, and how the devil carried him off; which, with other things, will serve 
 to prove that he was an able man." 
 
 The German story of Rumpelstilzchen (Kinder and Haus-Marchen, No. 
 55) is similar to this legend. MM. Grimm, in their not* on this storr, notice 
 the unexpected manner in which, in the Thousand and One Day*, or Persiau 
 Tales, the princess Turandot learns the name of Calaf.
 
 118 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 pinnacle crooked ! " * Instantly the Giant fell witn a great 
 crash from the ridge of the roof, and broke into a thousand 
 pieces, which were all flintstone.f 
 
 inbttrtr to t 
 
 THE hill-people are excessively frightened during thunder. 
 AVhen, therefore, they see bad weather coming on, they lose 
 no time in getting to the shelter of their hills. This terror 
 is also the cause of their not being able to endure the 
 beating of a drum, as they take it to be the rolling of 
 thunder. It is therefore a good receipt for banishing them 
 to beat a drum every day in the neighbourhood of their 
 hills ; for they immediately pack up and depart to some more 
 quiet residence. 
 
 A farmer lived once in great friendship and unanimity 
 with a hill-man, whose hill was on his lands. One time when 
 his wife was lying-in, it gave him some degree of perplexity 
 to think that he could not well avoid inviting the hill-man 
 to the christening, which might not improbably bring him 
 into bad repute with the priest and the other people of the 
 village. He was going about pondering deeply, but in vain, 
 how he might get out of this dilemma, when it came into his 
 head to ask the advice of the boy that kept his pigs, who was 
 a great head-piece, and had often helped him before. The 
 
 Pig-boy instantly undertook to arrange the matter with the 
 ill-man in such a manner that he should not only stay away 
 without being offended, but moreover give a good christening- 
 present. 
 
 Wind och Veder I 
 
 Du har salt spiran spedar I 
 Other* saj it was 
 
 Blaster I s'dtt spiran vaster I 
 
 Blester ! set the pinnacle westwards ! , 
 
 Or, 
 
 Sl'dt f satt spiran r'dtt I 
 
 Slatt ! set the pinnacle straight ! 
 
 f Afcelius Sago-hafder, iii. 83. Grimm, Deut Mythol. p. 515. 
 
 i;
 
 DWARFS OB TEOLLS. 119 
 
 Accordingly, when it was night he took a sack on his 
 shoulder, went to the hill-man's hill, knocked, and was ad- 
 mitted. He delivered his message, giving his master's 
 compliments, and requesting the honour of his company at 
 the christening. The hill-man thanked him, and said, "I 
 think it is but right that I should give you a christening- 
 gift." With these words he opened his money-chests, hid- 
 ding the boy to hold up his sack while he poured money into 
 it. "Is there enough now?" said he, when he had put a 
 good quantity into it. " Many give more, few give less," 
 replied the boy. 
 
 The hill-man then fell again to filling the sack, and again 
 asked, " Is there enough now ?" The boy lifted up the sack 
 a little off the ground to try if he was able to carry any 
 more, and then answered, " It is about what most people 
 give." Upon this the hill-man emptied the whole chest into 
 the bag, and once more asked, "Is there enough now?'" 
 The guardian of the pigs saw that there was as much in 
 it now as ever he was able to carry, so he made answer, " No 
 one gives more, most people give less." 
 
 " Come, now," said the hill-man, "let us hear who else is 
 to be at the christening ?" " Ah," said the boy, " we are to 
 have a great parcel of strangers and great people. First 
 and foremost, we are to have three priests and a bishop ! " 
 " Hem !" muttered the hill-man ; " however, these gentlemen 
 usually look only after the eating and drinking : they will 
 never take any notice of me. Well, who else ? " " Then 
 we have asked St. Peter and St. Paul." " Hem ! hem ! how- 
 ever, there will be a by-place for me behind the stove. Well, 
 and then ? " " Then our Lady herself is coming ! " " Hem ! 
 hem ! hem ! however, guests of such high rank come late 
 and go away early. But tell me, my lad, what sort of music 
 is it you are to have ?" " Music ! " said the boy, " why, we 
 are to have drums." " Drums ! " repeated he, quite terrified ; 
 " no, no, thank you, I shall stay at home in that case. Give 
 my best respects to your master, and I thank him for the 
 invitation, but I cannot come. I did but once go out to 
 take a little walk, and some people beginning to beat a drum, 
 I hurried home, and was just got to my door when they 
 flung the drum-stick after me and broke one of my shins. I 
 have been lame of that leg ever since, and I shall take good
 
 L20 SCANDINATIA. 
 
 care in future to avoid that sort of music." So saying, he 
 helped the boy to put the sack on his back, once more 
 charging him to give his best respects to the farmer.* 
 
 CroII turncfc Cat 
 
 ABOUT a quarter of a mile from Soroe lies Pedersborg, and 
 a little farther on is the town of Lyng. Just between these 
 towns is a hill called Brondhoi (Spring-hill), said to be 
 inhabited by the Troll-people. 
 
 There goes a story that there was once among these Troll- 
 people of Brondhoi an old crossgrained curmudgeon of a 
 Troll, whom the rest nick-named Knurremurre (Humble- 
 grumble), because he was evermore the cause of noise and 
 uproar within the hill. This Knurremurre having discovered 
 what he thought to be too great a degree of intimacy between 
 his young wife and a young Troll of the society, took this in 
 such ill part, that he vowed vengeance, swearing he would 
 have the life of the young one. The hitter, accordingly, 
 thought it would be his best course to be off out of the hili 
 till better times ; so, turning himself into a noble tortoise- 
 shell tom-cat, he one fine morning quitted his old residence, 
 and journeyed down to the neighbouring town of Lyng, 
 where he established himself in the house of an honest poor 
 man named Plat. 
 
 Here he lived for a long time comfortable and easy, with 
 nothing to annoy him, and was as happy as any tom-cat or 
 Troll crossed in love well could be. He got every day plenty 
 of milk and good groutef to eat, and lay the whole day long 
 at his ease in a warm arm-chair behind the stove. 
 
 Plat happened one evening to come home rather late, and 
 as he entered the room the cat was sitting in his usual place, 
 
 * This event happened in Jutland. The Troll's dread of thunder seems 
 to be founded in the mythologic narr.itivcs of Thor's enmity to the 
 Trolls. 
 
 t Groute, Danish Orod, is a species of food like furmety, made of shelled 
 oats or barley. It is boiled and eaten -with milk or butter.
 
 OB TBOLLS. 121 
 
 scraping meal-groute out of a pot, and licking the pot itself 
 carefully. " Harkye, dame," said Plat, as he came in at the 
 door, " till I tell you what happened to me on the road. Just 
 as I was coming past Brondhoi, there came out a Troll, and 
 he called out to me, and said, 
 
 " Harkye Plat, 
 Tell your cat, 
 That Knurremurre is dead."* 
 
 The moment the cat heard these words, he tumbled the 
 pot down on the floor, sprang out of the chair, and stood up 
 on his hind-legs. Then, as he hurried out of the door, he 
 cried out with exultation, " What ! is Knurremurre dead ? 
 Then I may go home as fast as I please." And so saying he 
 scampered off to the hill, to the amazement of honest Plat ; 
 and it is likely lost no time in making his advances to the 
 young widow.f 
 
 THERE is a hill on the lands of Skjelverod, near Eingsted, 
 called Kirsten's-hill (Sirstens Sjerg). In it there lived a 
 Hill-troll whose name was Skynd, who had from time to 
 time stolen no less than three wives from a man in the 
 village of Englerup. 
 
 It was late one evening when this man was nding home 
 from Eingsted, and his way lay by the hill. When he 
 came there he saw a great crowd of Hill-folk who were 
 dancing round it, and had great merriment among them. 
 But on looking a little closer, what should he recognise but 
 all his three wives among them! Now as Kirsten, the 
 
 * Hor du Plat, 
 Siig til din Kat, 
 A t Knurremurre er dod. 
 
 f- The scene of this story is in Zealand. The same is related of a hill 
 called Ornehbi in the same island. The writer has heard it in Ireland, but 
 they were cats who addressed the man as he passed by the churchyard where 
 they were assembled.
 
 122 8CA.NDINAYIA. 
 
 second of them, had been his favourite, and dearer to him 
 than either of the others, he called out to her, and named 
 her name. Troll Skynd then came up to the man, and 
 asked him why he presumed to call Kirsten. The man told 
 him briefly how she had been his favourite and best beloved 
 wife, and entreated of him, with many tears and much 
 lamentation, to let him have her home with him again. 
 The Troll consented at last to grant the husband's request, 
 with, however, the condition, that he should never hurry 
 (likynde) her. 
 
 For a long time the husband strictly kept the condition ; 
 but one day, when the woman was above in the loft, getting 
 something, and it happened that she delayed a long time, he 
 called out, Make haste, Kirsten, make haste, (Skynde dig 
 Kirsten) and scarcely had he spoken the words, when the 
 woman was gone, compelled to return to the hill, which has 
 ever since been called Kirsten's Bjerg.* 
 
 CroIMLaiour. 
 
 " IK the year 1660, when I and my wife had gone to my 
 farm (Jaboderne), which is three quarters of a mile from 
 Bagunda parsonage, and we were sitting there and talking a 
 while, late in the evening, there came a little man in at the 
 door, who begged of my wife to go and aid his wife, who was 
 just then in the pains of labour. The fellow was of small 
 size, of a dark complexion, and dressed in old grey clothes. 
 My wife and I sat a while, and wondered at the man ; for 
 we were aware that he was a Troll, and we had heard tell 
 that such like, called by the peasantry Vettar (spirits), 
 always used to keep in the farmhouses, when people 
 left them in harvest-time. But when he had urged his 
 request four or five times, and we thought on what evil the 
 country folk say that they have at times suffered from the 
 Vettar, when they have chanced to swear at them, or with 
 
 * Thi legend wa orally related to Mr. Tbiele.
 
 DWAEFS OE TEOLLS. 123 
 
 uncivil words bid them go to holl, I took the resolution to 
 read some prayers over my wile, and to bless her, and bid 
 her in God's name go with him. She took in haste some old 
 linen with her, and went along with him, and I remained 
 sitting there. When she returned, she told me, that when 
 she went with the man out at the gate, it seemed to her as 
 if she was carried for a time along in the wind, and so she 
 came to a room, on one side of which was a little dark 
 chamber, in which his wife lay in bed in great agony. My 
 wife went up to her, and, after a little while, aided her till 
 she brought forth the child after the same manner as other 
 human beings. The man then otfered her food, and when 
 she refused it, he thanked her, and accompanied her out, 
 and then she was carried along, in the same way in the 
 wind, and after a while came again to the gate, just at ten 
 o'clock. Meanwhile, a quantity of old pieces and clippings 
 of silver were laid on a shelf, in the sitting-room, and my 
 wife found them next day, when she was putting the room 
 in order. It is to be supposed that they were laid there by 
 the Vettr. That it in truth so happened, I witness, by 
 inscribing my name. Eagunda, the 12th of April, 1671. 
 
 " PET. KAHM."* 
 
 BIOBX MAETIKSSON went out shooting, one day, with a 
 gamekeeper, on the wooded hill of Ormkulla. They there 
 found a hill-smith (bergsmed) lying fast asleep. Biorn 
 directed the gamekeeper to secure him, but he refused, 
 saying " Pray to God to protect you ! The hill-smith will 
 fling you down to the bottom of the hill." He was, however, 
 bold and determined, and he went up and seized the sleep- 
 ing hill-smith, who gave a cry, and implored him to let him 
 go, as he had a wife and seven little children. He said he 
 would also do any iron work that should be required; it 
 
 * Hulpher, Satnlingcn om Jamtland. Westeras, 1775. p. 210 ap. Grimm, 
 Deut. Mythol., p. 425.
 
 124 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 would only be necessary to leave iron and steel on the side 
 of the hill, and the work would be found lying finished in 
 the same place. Biorn asked him for whom he worked ; he 
 replied, " For my companions." When Biorn would not 
 let him go, he said, " If I had my mist-cap (udtlehit) you 
 should not carry me away. But if you do not let me go, 
 not one of your posterity will attain to the importance 
 which you possess, but continually decline ;" which certainly 
 came to pass. Biorn would not, however, let him go, but 
 brought him captive to Bahus. On the third day, however, 
 he effected his escape out of the place in which he was 
 confined.* 
 
 The following legend is related in Denmark : 
 On the lands of Nyegaard lie three large hills, one of 
 which is the abode of a Troll, who is by trade a blacksmith. 
 If any one is passing that hill by night, he will see the fire 
 issuing from the top, and going in again at the side. Should 
 you wish to have any piece of iron-work executed in a 
 masterly manner, you nave only to go to the hill, and saying 
 aloud what you want to have made, leave there the iron and 
 a silver shilling. On revisiting the hill next morning, you 
 will find the shilling gone, and the required piece of work 
 lying there finished, and ready for use.f 
 
 <StrI at tf)e 
 
 A GIEL, belonging to a village in the isle of Funen, went out, 
 one evening, into the fields, and as she was passing by a 
 small hill, she saw that it was raised upon red pillars, and a 
 
 * Oilman* Bahusl&n, op. Grimm. Deut. Mythol. p. 426. Odman also 
 tells of a man who, as he was going along one day with his dog, came on a 
 hill-smith at his work, using a stone as an anvil. He had on him a light grey 
 coat and a. black woollen hat. The dog began to bark at him, but he put oh 
 so menacing an attitude that they both deemed it advisable to go away. 
 
 f- Tliiele, iv. 120. In both these legends we find the tradition of the 
 artistic skill of the Duergar and of Volundr still retained by the peawntry : 
 ec Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 270.
 
 DWAttFS OB TROLLS. 125 
 
 Troll-banquet going on beneath it. She was invited in, and 
 such was the gaiety and festivity that prevailed, that she 
 never perceived the flight of time. At length, however, she 
 took her departure, after having spent, as she thought, a 
 few hours among the joyous hill-people. But when she 
 came to the village she no longer found it the place she had 
 left. All was changed ; and when she entered the house in 
 which she had lived with her family, she learned that her 
 father and mother had long been dead, and the house had 
 come into the hands of strangers. She now perceived 
 that for every hour that she had been among the Trolls, 
 a year had elapsed in the external world. The effect on her 
 mind was such that she lost her reason, which she never 
 after recovered.* 
 
 THEEE lived once, near Tiis lake, two lonely people, who 
 were sadly plagued with a changeling, given them by the 
 underground-people instead of their own child, which had 
 not been baptised in time. This changeling behaved in a 
 very strange and uncommon manner, for when there was no 
 one in the place, he was in great spirits, ran up the walls like 
 a cat, sat under the roof, and shouted and bawled away lustily; 
 but sat dozing at the end of the table when any one was in 
 the room with him. He was able to eat as much as anv 
 four, and never cared what it was that was set before him ; 
 but though he regarded not the quality of his food, in quan- 
 tity he was never satisfied, and gave excessive annoyance to 
 every one in the house. 
 
 * Thiele, iv. 21. In Otmar's Volksagen, there is a German legend of 
 Peter Klaus, who slept a sleep of twenty years in the bowling green of the 
 Kyffhauser, from which Washington Irving made his Ripp van YVinkle. We 
 shall also find it in the Highlands of Scotland. It is the IrUh legend of 
 Clough na Cuddy, so extremely well told by Mr. C. Crokei (to which, by the 
 way, we contributed a Latin song), in the notes to which further information 
 will be found. The Seven Sleepers seems to be the original.
 
 126 SCANDIKAVIA.. 
 
 When they had tried for a long time in vain how they 
 could best get rid of him, since there was no living in the 
 house with him, a smart girl pledged herself that she would 
 banish him from the house. She accordingly, while he was 
 out in the fields, took a pig and killed it, and put it, hide, 
 hair, and all, into a black pudding, and set it before him 
 when he came home. He began, as was his custom, to 
 gobble it up, but when he had eaten for some time, he began 
 to relax a little in his efforts, and at hist he sat quite still, 
 with his knife in his hand, looking at the pudding. 
 
 At length, after sitting for some time in this manner, he 
 began " A pudding with hide ! and a pudding with hair ! 
 a pudding with eyes ! and a pudding with legs in it ! 
 Well, three times have I seen a young wood by Tiis lake, 
 but never yet did I see such a pudding ! The devil himself 
 may stay here now for me ! " So saying, he ran oft' with him- 
 self, and never more came back again.* 
 
 Another changeling was got rid of in the following 
 manner. The mother, suspecting it to be such from its 
 refusing food, and being so ill-thriven, heated the oven as 
 hot as possible. The maid, as instructed, asked her why 
 she did it. "To burn my child in it to death," was the 
 reply. When the question had been put and answered 
 three times, she placed the child on the peel, and was shov- 
 ing it into the oven, when the Troll-woman came in a great 
 fright with the real child, and took away her own, saying. 
 " There 's your child for you. I have treated it better than 
 you treated mine," and in truth it was fat and hearty. 
 
 * Oral. See the Young Piper and the Brewery of Egg-shells in the Irish 
 Fairy Legends, with the notes. The same story is also to be found in Ger- 
 many where the object is to wake the changeling laugh. The mother breaks 
 an egg in two and sets water down to boil in each half shell. The imp then 
 cries out : " Well ! I 'na as old as the Westerwald, but never before saw I any 
 one cooking in egg-shells," and burst out laughing at it. Instantly the true 
 child was returned. Kinder and Haus-Marchen, iii. 39. Grose also tells the 
 story in his Provincial Glossary. The mother there breaks a dozen of eggs and 
 sets the shells before the child, who says, " I was seven years old when I came 
 to nurse, and I have lived four since, and yet I never saw so many milkpans." 
 See also Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and below, Wales, Brittany, 
 France.
 
 DWABFS OB TBOLL8. 127 
 
 jumping otirr tT)c Jkonfc. 
 
 NEAB Hellested, in Zealand, lived a man, who from time to 
 time remarked that he was continually plundered. All his 
 suspicions fell on the Troll-folk, who lived in the neighbour- 
 ing hill of Ildshoi (Fire-hill), and once hid himself to try 
 and get a sight of the thief. He had waited there but a very 
 short time when he saw, as he thought, his tile-stove jump- 
 ing across the brook. The good farmer was all astonishment 
 at this strange sight, and he shouted out " Hurra ! there 's 
 a jump for a tile-stove!" At this exclamation the Troll, 
 who was wading through the water with the stove on his 
 head, was so frightened that he threw it down, and ran off 
 as hard as he could to Ildshoi. But in the place where the 
 stove fell, the ground got the shape of it, and the place is 
 called Krogbek (Hook-brook), and it was this that gave rise 
 to the common saying, " That was a jump for a tile-stove! " 
 " Det var et Spring af en Leerovn ! " * 
 
 ONE evening, after sunset, there came a strange man to the 
 ferry of Sund. He engaged all the ferry-boats there to go 
 backwards and forwards the whole night long between that 
 place and Vendsyssel, without the people's knowing what 
 lading they had. He told them that they should take their 
 freight on board half a mile to the east of Sund, near the 
 alehouse at the bridge of Lange. 
 
 At the appointed time the man was at that place, and the 
 ferrymen, though unable to see anything, perceived very 
 clearly that the boats sunk deeper and deeper, so that they 
 easily concluded that they had gotten a very heavy freight on 
 board. The ferry-boats passed in this manner to and fro 
 
 * This legend is taken from Resenn Atlas, i. 36.
 
 128 8CAKDINA.VIA. 
 
 the whole night long; and though they got every trip a 
 fresh cargo, the strange man never left them, but staid to 
 Have everything regulated by his directions. 
 
 When 'morning was breaking they received the payment 
 they had agreed for, and they then ventured to inquire what 
 it waa they had been bringing over, but on that head their 
 employer would give them no satisfaction. 
 
 But there happened to be among the ferrymen a smart 
 fellow who knew more about these matters than the others. 
 He jumped on shore, took the clay from under his right foot, 
 and put it into his cap, and when he had set it on his head 
 he perceived that all the sand-hills east of Aalborg were 
 completely covered with, little Troll-people, who had all 
 pointed red caps on their heads. Ever since that time there 
 nave been no Dwarfs seen in Vendsyssel.* 
 
 SVEND FJSLLINO was a valiant champion. He was born in 
 Eaelling, and was a long time at service in Aakjaer house, 
 Aarhuus, and as the roads were at that time greatly infested 
 by Trolls and underground-people, who bore great enmity to 
 all Christians, Svend undertook the office of letter-carrier. 
 
 As he was one time going along the road, he saw 
 approaching him the Troll of Jels-hill, on the lands of Holm. 
 The Troll came up to him, begging him to stand his friend 
 in a combat with the Troll of Borum-es-hill. When Svend 
 Faelling had promised to do so, saying that he thought him- 
 self strong and active enough for the encounter, the Troll 
 reached him a heavy iron bar, and bade him show his strength 
 on that. But not all Svend' s efforts availed to lift it : 
 whereupon the Troll handed him a horn, telling him to drink 
 out of it. No sooner had he drunk a little out of it than his 
 strength increased. He was now able to lift the bar, which, 
 
 * Vendsyssel and Aalborg are both in North Jutland. The story is told bj 
 the feirymen to travellers : see Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 68.
 
 DWABFS OB TROLLS. 129 
 
 when he had drunk again, became stLl lighter ; but when 
 again renewing his draught he emptied the horn, he was 
 able to swing the bar with ease, and he then learned from 
 the Troll that he had now gotten the strength of twelve 
 men. He then promised to prepare himself for combat with 
 the Troll of Bergmond. As a token he was told that he 
 should meet on the road a black ox and a red ox, and that 
 he should fall with all his might on the black ox, and drive 
 him from the red one. 
 
 This all came to pass just as he was told, and he found, 
 after his work was done, that the black ox was the Troll from 
 Borum-es-hill, and the red ox was the Troll himself of Jels- 
 hill, who, as a reward for the assistance he had given him, 
 allowed him to retain for his own use the twelve men's 
 strength with which he had endowed him. This grant 
 was, however, on this condition that if ever he should 
 reveal the secret of his strength, he should be punished by 
 getting the appetite of twelve. 
 
 The fame of the prodigious strength of Svend soon spread 
 through the country, as he distinguished himself by various 
 exploits, such, for instance, as throwing a dairy-maid, who 
 had offended him, up on the gable of the house, and similar 
 feats. So when this report came to the ears of his master, 
 he had Svend called before him, and inquired of him whence 
 his great strength came. Svend recollected the words of his 
 friend the Troll, so he told him if he would promise him as 
 much food as would satisfy twelve men, he would tell him. 
 The master promised, and Svend told his story ; but the 
 word of the Troll was accomplished, for from that day forth 
 Svend ate and drank as much as any twelve.* 
 
 * See above p. 89. According to what Mr. Thiele was told in Zealand, 
 Svend Falling must have been of prodigious size, for there is a hill near Steen- 
 etrup on which he used to sit while he washed his feet and hands in the sea, 
 about half a quarter of a mile distant. The people of Holmstrup dressed a 
 dinner for him, and brought it to him in large brewing vessels, much as the 
 good people of Lilliput did with Gulliver. This reminds us of Holger Danske, 
 who once wanted a new suit of clothes. Twelve tailors were employed : they 
 set ladders to his back and shoulders, as was done to Gulliver, and they mea- 
 sured away ; but the man that was highest on the right side ladder chanced, as 
 he was cutting a mark in the measure, to clip Holger's ear. Holger, forgetting 
 what it was, hastily put up his hand to his head, caught the poor tailor, and 
 crushed him to death between his fingers.
 
 13C SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 QU.i.trf.5' lianqtirl. 
 
 A NOBWEQIAX TALK.* 
 
 THEEB lived in Norway, not far from the city of Drontheim, 
 a powerful man, who was blessed \nth all the goods of 
 fortune. A part of the surrounding country was his pro- 
 perty ; numerous herds fed on his pastures, and a great 
 retinue and a crowd of servants adorned his mansion. He 
 had an only daughter, called Aslog, t the fame of whose 
 beauty spread far and wide. The greatest men of the 
 country sought her, but all were alike unsuccessful in their 
 suit, and he who had come full of confidence and joy, rode 
 away home silent and melancholy. Her father, who thought 
 his daughter delayed her choice only to select, forbore to 
 interfere, and exulted in her prudence. But when, at 
 length, the richest and noblest had tried their fortune with 
 as little success as the rest, he grew angry, and called his 
 daughter, and said to her, " Hitherto I have left you to your 
 free choice, but since I see that you reject all without any 
 distinction, and the very best of your suitors seem not good 
 enough for you, I will keep measures no longer with you. 
 What ! shall my family be extinct, and my inheritance pass 
 away into the hands of strangers ? I will break your 
 stubborn spirit. I give you now till the festival of the great 
 Winter-night ; make your choice by that time, or prepare to 
 accept him whom I shall fix on." 
 
 * This tale was taken from oral recitation by Dr. Grimm, and inserted in 
 Banff's Marchenalmanach for 1827. Dr. Grimm's fidelity to tradition is too 
 well known to leave any doubt of its genuineness. 
 
 f- Aslog {Light of the Aser) is the name of the lovely daughter of Sigurd 
 and Brynhilda, who became the wife of Ragnar Lodbrok. How beautiful and 
 romantic is the account in the Volsunga Saga of old Heimer taking her, when 
 an infant, and carrying her about with him in his harp, to save her from those 
 who sought her life as the last of Sigurd's race ; his retiring to remote streams 
 and waterfalls to wash her, and his stilling her cries by the music of hi* 
 harp!
 
 DWAttFS OB TROLLS ] 31 
 
 Aslog loved a youth called Orm, handsome as lie was 
 brave and noble. She loved him with her whole soul, and 
 she would sooner die than bestow her hand on another. But 
 Orm was poor, and poverty compelled him to serve in the 
 mansion of her father. Aslog' s partiality for him was kept 
 a secret ; for her father's pride of power and wealth waa 
 such that he would never have given his consent to an union 
 with so humble a man. 
 
 When Aslog saw the darkness of his countenance, and 
 heard his angry words, she turned pale as death, for she 
 knew his temper, and doubted not but that he would put 
 his threats into execution. Without uttering a word in 
 reply, she retired to her silent chamber, and thought deeply 
 but in vain how to avert the dark storm that hung over her. 
 The great festival approached nearer and nearer, and her 
 anguish increased every day. 
 
 At last the lovers resolved on flight. " I know," says 
 Orm, " a secure place where we may remain undiscovered 
 until we find an opportunity of quitting the country." At 
 night, when all were asleep, Orm led the trembling Aslog 
 over the snow and ice-fields away to the mountains. The 
 moon and the stars sparkling still brighter in the cold 
 winter's night lighted them on their way. They had under 
 their arms a few articles of dress and some skins of animals, 
 which were all they could carry. They ascended the moun- 
 tains the whole night long till they reached a lonely spot 
 inclosed with lofty rocks. Here Orm conducted the weary 
 Aslog into a cave, the low and narrow entrance to which was 
 hardly perceptible, but it soon enlarged to a great hall, 
 reaching deep into the mountain. He kindled a fire, and 
 they now, reposing on their skins, sat in the deepest solitude 
 far away from all the world. 
 
 Orm was the first who had discovered this cave, which is 
 shown to this very day, and as no one knew any thing of it, 
 they were safe from the pursuit of Aslog' s father. They 
 passed the whole winter in this retirement. Orm used to 
 go a hunting, and Aslog stayed at home in the cave, minded 
 the fire, and prepared the necessary food. Frequently did 
 she mount the points of the rocks, but her eyes wandered 
 as far as they could reach only over glittering snow-fields. 
 
 The spring now came on the woods were green the 
 
 K2
 
 132 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 meads put on their various colours, and Aslog could but 
 rarely and with circumspection venture to leave the cave. 
 One evening Orm came in with the intelligence that he 
 had recognised her father's servants in the distance, and 
 that he could hardly have been unobserved by them, whose 
 eyes were as good as his own. " They will surround this 
 place," continued he, " and never rest till they have found us; 
 we must quit our retreat, then, without a moment's delay." 
 They accordingly descended on the other side of the 
 mountain, and reached the strand, where they fortunately 
 found a boat. Orm shoved off, and the boat drove into the 
 open sea. They had escaped their pursuers, but they were 
 now exposed to dangers of another kind : whither should 
 they turn themselves ? They could not venture to land, for 
 Aslog' s father was lord of the whole coast, and they would 
 infallibly fall into his hands. Nothing then remained for 
 them but to commit their bark to the wind and waves. They 
 drove along the entire night. At break of day the coast had 
 disappeared, and they saw nothing but the sky above, the 
 sea beneath, and the waves that rose and fell. They had 
 not brought one morsel of food with them, and thirst and 
 hunger began now to torment them. Three days did they 
 toss about in this state of misery, and Aslog, faint and 
 
 exhausted, saw nothing but certain death before her. 
 At length, on the evening of the third day, they disco- 
 
 r ered an island of tolerable magnitude, and surrounded by 
 a number of smaller ones. Orm immediately steered for 
 it, but just as he came near it there suddenly rose a 
 violent wind, and the sea rolled every moment higher and 
 higher against him. He turned about with a view of 
 approaching it on another side, but with no better success ; 
 his vessel, as oft as it approached the island, was driven 
 back as if by an invisible power. "Lord God! " cried he, 
 and blessed himself and looked on poor Aslog, who seemed 
 to be dying of weakness before his eyes. But scarcely had 
 the exclamation passed his lips when the storm ceased, 
 the waves subsided, and the vessel came to the shore, 
 without encountering any hindrance. Orm jumped out 
 on the beach ; some mussels that he found on the strand 
 strengthened and revived the exhausted Aslog, so that she 
 was soon able to leave the boat.
 
 DWARF S OE TROLLS. 133 
 
 The island was overgrown with low dwarf shrubs, and 
 seemed to be uninhabited ; but when they had gotten about 
 to the middle of it, they discovered a house reaching but a 
 little above the ground, and appearing to be half under the 
 surface of the earth. In the hope of meeting human beings 
 and assistance, the wanderers approached ii. They listened 
 if they could hear any noise, but the most perfect silence 
 reigned there. Orm at length opened the door, and with 
 his companion walked in ; but what was their surprise, to 
 find everything regulated and arranged as if for inhabitants, 
 yet not a single living creature visible. The fire was burn- 
 ing on the hearth, in the middle of the room, and a pot 
 with fish hung on it apparently only waiting for some one to 
 take it up and eat it. The beds were made and ready to 
 receive their wearied tenants. Orm and Aslog stood for 
 some time dubious, and looked on with a certain degree of 
 awe, but at last, overcome by hunger, they took up the food 
 and ate. When they had satisfied their appetites, and still 
 in the last beams of the setting sun, which now streamed 
 over the island far and wide, discovered no human being, 
 they gave way to weariness, and laid themselves in the beds 
 to which they had been so long strangers. 
 
 They had expected to be awakened in the night by the 
 owners of the house on their return home, but their 
 expectation was not fulfilled ; they slept undisturbed till the 
 morning sun shone in upon them. No one appeared on any 
 of the following days, and it seemed as if some invisible 
 power had made ready the house for their reception. They 
 spent the whole summer in perfect happiness they were, 
 to be sure, solitary, yet they did not miss mankind. The 
 wild birds' eggs, and the fish they caught, yielded them 
 provisions in abundance. 
 
 "When autumn came, Aslog brought forth a son. In the 
 midst of their joy at his appearance, they were surprised by 
 a wonderful apparition. The door opened on a sudden, and 
 an old woman stepped in. She had on her a handsome blue 
 dress : there was something proud, but at the same time 
 something strange and surprising in her appearance. 
 
 "Do not be afraid," said she, "at my unexpected appear- 
 ance I am the owner of this house, and I thank you for 
 the clean and neat state in which you have kept it, and for
 
 Id4 BOAS.D1ITAVT.4. 
 
 the good order in which I find everything with you. 
 I would willingly have come sooner, but I had no power to 
 do so till this little heathen (pointing to the new born-babe) 
 was come to the light. Now I have free access. Only 
 fetch no priest from the main-land to christen it, or I must 
 depart again. If you will in this matter comply with my 
 wishes, you may not only continue to live here, but all the 
 good that ever you can wish for I will do you. Whatever 
 you take in hand shall prosper ; good luck shall follow you 
 wherever you go. But break this condition, and depend 
 upon it that misfortune after misfortune will come on you, 
 and even on this child will I avenge myself. If you want 
 anything, or are in danger, you have only to pronounce my 
 name three times and I will appear and lend you assistance. 
 I am of the race of the old Giants, and my name is Guru. 
 But beware of uttering in my presence the name of him 
 whom no Giant may hear of, and never venture to make the 
 sign of the cross, or to cut it on beam or board in the house. 
 You may dwell in this house the whole year long, only be 
 so good as to give it up to me on Yule evening, when the 
 sun is at the lowest, as then we celebrate our great festival, 
 and then only are we permitted to be merry. At least, if 
 you should not be willing to go out of the house, keep 
 yourselves up in the loft as quiet as possible the whole 
 day long, and as you value your lives do not look down into 
 the room until midnight is past. After that you may take 
 possession of everything again." 
 
 When the old woman had thus spoken she vanished, and 
 Aslog and Orm, now at ease respecting their situation, lived 
 without any disturbance contented and happy. Orm never 
 made a cast of his net without getting a plentiful draught ; 
 he never shot an arrow from his bow that it was not sure to 
 hit ; in short, whatever they took in hand, were it ever so 
 trifling, evidently prospered. 
 
 When Christmas came, they cleaned up the house in the 
 best manner, set everything in order, kindled a fire on the 
 hearth, and as the twilight approached, they went up to the 
 loft, where they remained quite still and quiet. At length 
 it grew dark ; they thought they heard a sound of whizzing 
 and snorting in the air, such as the swans use to make in 
 the winter time. There was a hole in the roof over the fire-
 
 DWAKFS OE TBOLLS. 135 
 
 place which might be opened and shut either to let in the 
 light from above, or to afford a free passage for the smoke. 
 Orm lifted up the lid, which was covered with a skin, and 
 put out his head. But what a wonderful sight then presented 
 itself to his eyes ! The little islands around were all lit up 
 with countless blue lights, which moved about without 
 ceasing, jumped up and down, then skipped down to the 
 shore, assembled together, and came nearer and nearer to 
 the large island where Orm and Aslog lived. At last they 
 reached it, and arranged themselves in a circle around a large 
 stone not far from the shore, and which Orm well knew. 
 But what was his surprise, when he saw that the stone had 
 now completely assumed the form of a man, though of a 
 monstrous and gigantic one ! He could clearly perceive that 
 the little blue lights were borne by Dwarfs, whose pale clay- 
 coloured faces, with their huge noses and red eyes, disfigured 
 too by birds' bills and owls' eyes, were supported by mis- 
 shapen bodies ; and they tottered and wabbled about here 
 and there, so that they seemed to be at the same time merry 
 and in pain. Suddenly, the circle opened ; the little ones 
 retired on each side, and Gruru, who was now much enlarged 
 and of as immense a size as the stone, advanced with gigantic 
 steps. She threw both her arms round the stone image, 
 which immediately began to receive life and motion. As 
 soon as the first symptom of motion showed itself, the little 
 ones began, with wonderful capers and grimaces, a song, or 
 to speak more properly, a howl, with which the whole island 
 resounded and seemed to tremble at the noise. Orm, quite 
 terrified, drew in his head, and he and Aslog remained in 
 the dark, so still, that they hardly ventured to draw their 
 breath. 
 
 The procession moved on toward the house, as might be 
 clearly perceived by the nearer approach of the shouting and 
 crying. They were now all come in, and, light and active, 
 the Dwarfs jumped about on the benches ; and heavy and 
 loud sounded at intervals the steps of the giants. Orm and 
 his wife heard them covering the table, and the clattering 
 of the plates, and the shouts of joy with which they cele- 
 brated their banquet. When it was over and it drew near 
 to midnight, they began to dance to that ravishing fairy-air 
 which charms the mind into such sweet confusion, and
 
 136 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 which some have heard in the rooky glens, and learned b/ 
 listening to the underground musicians. As soon as Aslog 
 caught the sound of this air, she felt an irresistible longing 
 to see the dance. Nor was Orm able to keep her back. 
 "Let me look," said she, "or my heart will burst." She 
 took her child and placed herself at the extreme end of the 
 loft, whence, without being observed, she could see all that 
 passed. Long did she gaze, without taking off her eyes for 
 an instant, on the dance, on the bold and wonderful springs 
 of the little creatures who seemed to float in the air, and not 
 so much as to touch the ground, while the ravishing melody 
 of the elves filled her whole soul. The child meanwhile, 
 which lay in her arms, grew sleepy and drew its breath 
 heavily, and without ever thinking on the promise she had 
 given the old woman, she made, as is usual, the sign of the 
 cross over the mouth of the child, and said, " Christ bless 
 you, my babe ! " 
 
 The instant she had spoken the word there was raised a 
 horrible piercing cry. The spirits tumbled heads over heels 
 out at the door with terrible crushing and crowding, their 
 lights went out, and in a few minutes the whole house waa 
 clear of them, and left desolate. Orm and Aslog frightened 
 to death, hid themselves in the most retired nook in the 
 house. They did not venture to stir till daybreak, and not 
 till the sun shone through the hole in the roof down on the 
 fire-place did they feel courage enough to descend from the 
 loft. 
 
 The table remained still covered as the underground- 
 people had left it ; all their vessels, which were of silver, and 
 manufactured in the most beautiful manner, were upon it. 
 In the middle of the room, there stood upon the ground a 
 huge copper vessel half full of sweet mead, and by the side 
 of it, a drinking-horn of pure gold. In the corner lay against 
 the wall a stringed instrument, not unlike a dulcimer, which, 
 as people believe, the Giantesses used to play on. They 
 gazed on what was before them, full of admiration, but with- 
 out venturing to lay their hands on anything : but great 
 and fearful was their amazement, when, on turning about, 
 they saw sitting at the table an immense figure, which Orm 
 instantly recognised as the Giant whom Guru had animated 
 by her embrace. He was now a cold and hard stone. While
 
 BWAKFS OR TROLLS 137 
 
 they were standing gazing on it, Guru herself entered the 
 room in her giant-form. She wept so bitterly, that her tears 
 trickled down on the ground. It was long ere her sobbing 
 permitted her to utter a single word : at last she spoke : 
 
 " Great affliction have you brought on me, and henceforth 
 I must weep while I live ; yet as I know that you have not 
 done this with evil intentions, I forgive you, though it were 
 a trifle for me to crush the whole house like an egg-shell 
 over your heads." 
 
 "Alas!" cried she, " my husband, whom I love more 
 than myself, there he sits, petrified for ever ; never again 
 will he open his eyes ! Three hundred years lived I with 
 my father on the island of Kunnan, happy in the innocence 
 of youth, as the fairest among the Giant-maidens. Mighty 
 heroes sued for my hand ; the sea around that island is still 
 filled with the rocky fragments which they hurled against 
 each other in their combats. Andfind won the victory, and 
 I plighted myself to him. But ere I was married came the 
 detestable Odin into the country, who overcame my father, 
 and drove us all from the island. My father and sisters fled 
 to the mountains, and since that time my eyes have beheld 
 them no more. Andfind and I saved ourselves on this 
 island, where we for a long time lived in peace and quiet, 
 and thought it would never be interrupted. But destiny, 
 which no one escapes, had determined it otherwise. Oluf * 
 came from Britain. They called him the Holy, and Andfind 
 instantly found that his voyage would be inauspicious to the 
 giants. When he heard how Oluf's ship rushed through 
 the waves, he went down to the strand and blew the sea 
 against him with all his strength. The waves swelled up 
 like mountains. But Oluf was still more mighty than he ; 
 his ship flew unchecked through the billows like an arrow 
 from a bow; He steered direct for our island. When the 
 ship was so near that Andfind thought he could reach it 
 with his hands, he grasped at the forepart with his right 
 hand, and was about to drag it down to the bottom, as he 
 had often done with other ships. But Oluf, the terrible 
 Oluf, stepped forward, and crossing his hands over each 
 other, he cried with a loud voice, ' Stand there as a stone, 
 
 * This is Saint Oluf or Olave, the warlike apostle of the North.
 
 138 SCAJTDIIfAYIA. 
 
 till the last day,' and in the same instant my unhappy hus- 
 band became a mass of rock. The ship sailed on unimpeded, 
 and ran direct against the mountain, which it cut through, 
 and separated from it the little island which lies out 
 yonder.* 
 
 " Ever since my happiness has been annihilated, and 
 lonely and melancholy have I passed my life. On Yule-eve 
 alone can petrified Giants receive back their life for the 
 space of seven hours, if one of their race embraces them, and 
 is, at the same time, willing to sacrifice a hundred years of 
 their own life. But seldom does a Giant do that. I loved 
 my husband too well not to bring him back cheerfully to 
 life every time that I could do it, even at the highest price, 
 and never would I reckon how often I had done it, that I 
 might not know when the time came when I myself should 
 share his fate, and at the moment that I threw my arms 
 around him become one with him. But alas ! even this 
 comfort is taken from me ; I can never more by any embrace 
 awake him, since he has heard the name which I dare not 
 utter ; and never again will he see the light until the dawn 
 of the last day shall bring it. 
 
 " I now go hence ! You will never again behold me ! All 
 that is here in the house I give you ! My dulcimer alone 
 will I keep ! But let no one venture to fix his habitation on 
 the little islands that lie around here ! There dwell the little 
 underground ones whom you saw at the festival, and I will 
 protect them as long as I live !" 
 
 With these words Guru vanished. The next spring Onn 
 took the golden horn and the silver ware to Drontheim, 
 
 * A legend similar to this is told of Saint Oluf in various parts of Scandi- 
 navia. The following is an example : As he was sailing by the high strand- 
 hills in Hornsherred, in which a giantess abode, she cried out to him, 
 Saint Oluf with the red beard hear ! 
 My cellar-wall thou'rt sailing too near! 
 
 Oluf was incensed, and instead of guiding the ship through the rocks, he 
 turned it toward the hill, replying : 
 
 Hearken thou witch with thy spindle and rock ! 
 There shall thou sit and be a stone-block ! 
 
 and scarcely had he spoken when the hill burst and the giantess was turned 
 into stone. She is still seen sitting on the east side with her rock and spindle; 
 out of tin- opposite mass sprang a Loly well. Grimm. Deutsche Mytholf jpe, 
 p. 516.
 
 HISSES. 139 
 
 where no one knew him. The value of these precious metals 
 was so great, that he was able to purchase everything requi- 
 site for a wealthy man. He laded his ship with his purchases, 
 and returned back to the island, where he spent many years 
 in unalloyed happiness, and Aslog's father was soon reconciled 
 to his wealthy son-in-law. 
 
 The stone image remained sitting in the house ; no human 
 power was able to move it. So hard was the stone, that 
 hammer and axe flew in pieces without making the slightest 
 impression upon it. The Giant sat there till a holy man 
 came to the island, who with one single word removed him 
 back to his former station, where he stands to this hour. 
 The copper vessel, which the underground people left behind 
 them, was preserved as a memorial upon the island, which 
 bears the name of House Island to the present day. 
 
 NISSES.* 
 
 Og Trolde, Hexer, Nisser i hver Vraae. 
 
 FINN MAGNUSEK 
 
 And Witches, Trolls, and Nisses in each nook. 
 
 THE Nis is the same being that is called Kobold in Germany, 
 Brownie in Scotland, and whom we shall meet in various 
 other places under different appellations. He is in Denmark 
 and Norway also called Nisse god-dreng (JVisse good lad), 
 and in Sweden Tomtgubbe (Old Man of the Jlowe), or 
 briefly Tomte. 
 
 He is evidently of the Dwarf family, as he resembles them 
 in appearance, and, like them, has the command of money, 
 and the same dislike to noise and tumult. He is of the size 
 of a year-old child, but has the face of an old man. Hia 
 
 * Nisse, Grimm thinks (Deut. Mythol. p. 472) is Niels, Nielsen, i. e. 
 Nicolaus, Niclas, a common name in Germany and the North, which is also 
 contracted to Klas, Claas.
 
 140 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 usual dress is grey, with a pointed red cap ; but on Michael- 
 mas-day he wears a round hat like those of the peasants. 
 
 No farm-house goes on well unless there is a Nis in it, 
 and well is it for the maids and the men when they are in 
 favour with him. They may go to their beds and give them- 
 selves no trouble about their work, and yet in the morning 
 the maids will find the kitchen swept up, and water brought 
 in, and the men will find the horses in the stable well cleaned 
 and curried, and perhaps a supply of corn cribbed for them 
 from the neighbours' barns. But he punishes them for any 
 irregularity that takes place. 
 
 The Nisses of Norway, we are told, are fond of the moon- 
 light, and in the winter time they may be seen jumping over 
 the yard, or driving in sledges. They are also skilled in 
 music and dancing, and will, it is said, give instructions on 
 the fiddle for a grey sheep, like the Swedish Stromkarl.* 
 
 Every church, too, has its Nis, who looks to order, and 
 chastises those who misbehave themselves. He is called the 
 Kirkegrim. 
 
 IT is very difficult, they say, to get rid of a Nis when one 
 wishes it. A man who lived in a house in which a Nis 
 carried his pranks to great lengths resolved to quit the 
 tenement, and leave him there alone. Several cart-loads of 
 furniture and other articles were already gone, and the man 
 was come to take away the last, which consisted chiefly of 
 empty tubs, barrels, and things of that sort. The load was 
 now all ready, and the man had just bidden farewell to his 
 house and to the Nis, hoping for comfort in his new habita- 
 tion, when happening, from some cause or other, to go to 
 the back of the cart, there he saw the Nis sitting in one of 
 
 * \7ilse ap Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 479, who thinks he may have con- 
 founded the Nis with the Nock. 
 
 + The places mentioned in the following stories are all in Jutland. It if 
 remarkable that we seem to have scarcely any Nis stories from Sweden.
 
 NISSES. 141 
 
 the tubs in the cart, plainly with the intention of going 
 along with him wherever he went. The good man was sur- 
 prised and disconcerted beyond measure at seeing that all 
 his labour was to no purpose ; but the Nis began to laugh 
 heartily, popped his head up out of the tub, and cried to the 
 bewildered farmer, " Ha ! we 're moving to-day, you see."* 
 
 IT is related of a Ms, who had established himself in a 
 house in Jutland, that he used every evening, after the maid 
 was gone to bed, to go into the kitchen to take his groute, 
 which they used to leave for him in a wooden bowl. 
 
 One evening he sat down as usual to eat his supper with 
 a good appetite, drew over the bowl to him, and was just 
 beginning, as he thought, to make a comfortable meal, when 
 he found that the maid had forgotten to put any butter into 
 it for him. At this he fell into a furious rage, got up in the 
 height of his passion, and went out into the cow-house, and 
 twisted the neck of the best cow that was in it. But as he 
 felt himself still very hungry, he stole back again to the 
 kitchen to take some of the groute, such as it was, and when 
 he had eaten a little of it he perceived that there was butter in 
 it, but that it had sunk to the bottom under the groute. He 
 was now so vexed at his injustice toward the maid, that, to 
 make good the damage he had done, he went back to the 
 cow-house and set a chest full of money by the side of the 
 dead cow, where the family found it next morning, and by 
 means of it got into flourishing circumstances. 
 
 * This story is current in Germany, England, and Ireland. In the German 
 story the farmer set fire to his barn to burn the Kobold in it. As he was 
 driving off, he turned round to look at the blaze, and, to his no small morti- 
 fication, saw the Kobold behind him in the cart, crying " It was tira* for us t 
 come out it was time for us to come out ! "
 
 SCA^DIWATIA. 
 
 ffje 
 
 THEBE was a Nis in a house in Jutland ; he every evening 
 got his groute at the regular time, and he, in return, used to 
 help hoth the men and the maids, and looked to the interest 
 of the master of the house in every respect. 
 
 There came one time an arch mischievous boy to live at 
 service in this house, and his great delight was, whenever he 
 got an opportunity, to give the Nis all the annoyance in his 
 power. One evening, late, when everything was quiet in the 
 place, the Nis took his little wooden dish, and was just going 
 to eat his supper, when he perceived t'hat the hoy had put 
 the butter at the bottom, and concealed it, in hopes that he 
 might eat the groute first, and then find the butter when all 
 the groute was gone. He accordingly set about thinking 
 how he might repay the boy in kind ; so, after pondering a 
 little, he went up to the loft, where the man and the boy 
 were lying asleep in the same bed. When he had taken the 
 bed-clothes off them, and saw the little boy by the side of 
 the tall man, he said, " Short and long don't match ;" and 
 with this word he took the boy by the legs and dragged him 
 down to the man's legs. He then went up to the head of 
 the bed, and "Short and long don't match," said he again, 
 and then he dragged the boy up once more. When, do what 
 he would, he could not succeed in making the boy as long as 
 the man, he still persisted in dragging him up and down in 
 the bed, and continued at this work the whole night long, 
 till it was broad daylight. 
 
 By this time he was well tired, so he crept up on the 
 window-stool, and sat with his legs hanging down into the 
 yard. But the house-dog for all dogs have a great enmity 
 to the Nis as soon as he saw him, began to bark at him, 
 which afforded such amusement to Nis, as the dog could not 
 get up to him, that he put down first one leg and then the 
 other to him, and teazed him, and kept saying, " Look at my 
 little leg ! look at my little leg !" In the meantime the boy
 
 HISSES. 143 
 
 had wakened, and had stolen up close behind him, and while 
 Nis was least thinking of it, and was going on with his 
 " Look at my little leg!" the boy tumbled him down into 
 the yard to the dog, crying out at the same time, " Look at 
 the whole of him now ! " 
 
 tornm. 
 
 THE BE lived a man at Thyrsting, in Jutland, who had a Nis 
 in his barn. This Nis used to attend to the cattle, and at 
 night he would steal fodder for them from the neighbours, 
 so that this farmer had the best fed and most thriving cattle 
 in the country. 
 
 One time the boy went along with the Nis to Fugleriis to 
 steal corn. The Nis took as much as he thought he could 
 well carry, but the boy was more covetous, and said, " Oh, 
 take more; sure we can rest now and then?" "Best!" 
 said the Nis ; " rest ! and what is rest ?" " Do what I tell 
 you," replied the boy ; " take more, and we shall find rest 
 when we get out of this." The Nis then took more, and 
 they went away with it. But when they were come to the 
 lands of Thyrsting, the Nis grew tired, and then the boy 
 said to him, " Here now is rest ;" and they both sat down on 
 the side of a little hill. " If I had known," said the Nis, as 
 they were sitting there, " if I had known that rest was so 
 good, I 'd have carried off all that was in the barn." 
 
 Tt happened some time after that the boy and the Nis 
 were no longer friends, and as the Nis was sitting one day 
 in the granary-window, with his legs hanging out into the 
 yard, the boy ran at him and tumbled him back into the 
 granary. But the Nis took his satisfaction of him that very 
 same night ; for when the boy was gone to bed, he titole 
 down to where he was lying, and carried him naked as he 
 was out into the yard, and then laid two pieces of wood 
 across the well, and put him lying on them, expecting that, 
 when he awoke, he would fall from the fright down into the 
 well and be drowned. But he was disappointed, for the joy 
 came off without
 
 SCANDINAVIA.. 
 
 THEBE was a man who lived in the town of Tirup, who had 
 a very handsome white mare. This mare had for many 
 years gone, like an heirloom, from father to son, because 
 there was a Nis attached to her, which brought luck to 
 the place. 
 
 This Nis was so fond of the mare, that he could hardly 
 endure to let them put her to any kind of work, and he used 
 to come himself every night and feed her of the best ; and 
 as for this purpose he usually brought a superfluity of corn, 
 both threshed and in the straw, from the neighbours' barns, 
 all the rest of the cattle enjoyed the advantage of it, and they 
 were all kept in exceeding good case. 
 
 It happened at last that the farm-house passed into the 
 hands of a new owner, who refused to put any faith in what 
 they told him about the mare, so the luck speedily left the 
 place, and went after the mare to his poor neighbour who 
 had bought her ; and within five days after his purchase, the 
 poor farmer who had bought the mare began to find his 
 circumstances gradually improving, while the income of the 
 other, day after day, fell away and diminished at such a rate, 
 that he was hard set to make both ends meet. 
 
 If now the man who had gotten the mare had only known 
 how to be quiet, and enjoy the good times that were come 
 
 Xn him, he and his children, and his children's children 
 r him, would have been in nourishing circumstances till 
 this very day. But when he saw the quantity of corn that 
 came every night to his barn, he could not resist his desire 
 to get a sight of the Nis. So he concealed himself one 
 evening, at nightfall, in the stable ; and as soon as it was 
 midnight, he saw how the Nis came from his neighbour's 
 barn and brought a sackful of corn with him. It was now 
 unavoidable that the Nis should get a sight of the man who 
 was watching ; so he, with evident marks of grief, gave the 
 mare her food for the last time, cleaned, and dressed her to
 
 145 
 
 the best of his abilities, and when he had done, turned round 
 to where the man was lying and bid him farewell. 
 
 From that day forward the circumstances of both the 
 neighbours were on an equality, for each now kept his own. 
 
 THEEE was t Nis in a farm-house, who was for ever torment- 
 ing the ma: is, and playing all manner of roguish tricks on 
 them, and t tey in return were continually planning how to 
 be even with him. There came one time to the farm-house a 
 Juttish drover and put up there for the night. Among his 
 cattle, there was one very large Juttish ox ; and when Nis 
 saw him in the stable he took a prodigious fancy to get up 
 and ride on his back. He accordingly mounted the ox, and 
 immediately began to torment the beast in such a manner 
 that he broke loose from his halter and ran out into the 
 vard with the Nis on his back. Poor Nis was now terrified 
 in earnest, and began to shout and bawl most lustily. His 
 cries awakened the maids, but instead of coming to his 
 assistance they laughed at him till they were ready to break 
 their hearts. And when the ox ran against a piece of timber, 
 so that the unfortunate Nis had his hood all torn by it, the 
 maids shouted out and called him " Lame leg, Lame leg," 
 and he riade off with himself in most miserable plight. But 
 the Nia did not forget it to the maids ; for the following 
 Sunday when they were going to the dance, he contrived, 
 unknown to them, to smut their faces all over, so that when 
 they gc t up to dance, every one that was there burst out a 
 laughir g at them.
 
 146 8CA1TDINA.VIA. 
 
 fhssrs' tit 
 
 THEEE was once an exceeding great number of Nisses in 
 Jutland. Those in Vosborg in particular were treated with 
 so much liberality, that they were careful and solicitous 
 beyond measure for their master's interest. They got every 
 evening in their sweet-groute a large lump of butter, and in 
 return for this, they once showed great zeal and gratitude. 
 
 One very severe winter, a lonely house in which there 
 were six calves was so completely covered by the snow, that 
 for the space of fourteen days no one could get into it. 
 When the snow was gone, the people naturally thought that 
 the calves were all dead of hunger ; but far from it, they 
 found them all in excellent condition ; the place cleaned up, 
 and the cribs full of beautiful corn, so that it was quite 
 evident the Nisses had attended to them. 
 
 But the Nis, though thus grateful when well treated, is 
 sure to avenge himself when any one does anything to annoy 
 and vex him. As a Nis was one day amusing himself by 
 running on the loft over the cow-house, one of the boards 
 gave way and his leg went through. The boy happened to 
 be in the cow-house when this happened, and when he saw 
 the Nis's leg hanging down, he took up a dung fork, and 
 gave him with it a smart rap on the leg. At noon, when 
 the people were sitting round the table in the hall, the boy 
 sat continually laughing to himself. The bailiff asked him 
 what he was laughing at ; and the boy replied, " Oh ! a got 
 such a blow at Nis to-day, and a gave him such a hell of a 
 rap with my fork, when he put his leg down through the 
 loft." " No," cried Nis, outside of the window, " it was not 
 one, but three blows you gave me, for there were three 
 prongs on the fork ; but I shall pay you for it, my lad." 
 
 Next night, while the boy was lying fast asieep, Nis came 
 and took him up and brought him out into the yard, then 
 flung him over the house, and was so expeditious in getting 
 to the other side of the house, that he caught him before he
 
 NECKS, MEBMEN, AND MEKMAIDS. 147 
 
 came to the ground, and instantly pitched him over again, 
 and kept going on with this sport till the boy had been 
 eight times backwards and forwards over the roof, and the 
 ninth time he let him fall into a great pool of water, and 
 then set up such a shout of laughter at him, that it wakened 
 up all the people that were in the place. 
 
 In Sweden the Tomte is sometimes seen at noon, in sum- 
 mer, slowly and stealthily dragging a straw or an ear of 
 corn. A farmer, seeing him thus engaged, laughed, and 
 said, " What difference does it make if you bring away that 
 or nothing ? " The Tomte in displeasure left his farm, and 
 went to that of his neighbour ; and with him went all pro- 
 sperity from him who had made light of him, and passed 
 over to the other farmer. Any one who treated the indus- 
 trious Tonrte with respect, and set store by the smallest 
 straw, became rich, and neatness and regularity prevailed in 
 his household * 
 
 NECKS. MEKMEN, AND MEEMAIDS. 
 
 Ei Necken mer i flodens vagor quader, 
 Och ingen Hafsfru bleker sina klader 
 Paa boljans rygg i milda solars glans. 
 
 STAGNELIUS. 
 
 The Neck no more upon the river sings, 
 And no Mermaid to bleach her linen flings 
 Upon the waves in the mild solar ray. 
 
 IT is a prevalent opinion in the North that all the various 
 beings of the popular creed were once worsted in a conflict 
 with superior powers, and condemned to remain till dooms- 
 day in certain assigned abodes. The Dwarfs, or Hill (Berg) 
 trolls, were appointed the hills ; the Elves the groves and 
 
 * Afeelius, Sago Hafdar., ii. 169. On Christmas-morning, he says, the 
 peasantry gives the Tomte, his wages, i. e. a piece of grey cloth, tobacca, and 
 a shovelful of clay. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 BCAKD1KATIA. 
 
 leafy trees; the Hill-people (llogfolk*) the caves and 
 caverns ; the Mermen, Mermaids, and Necks, the sea, lakes, 
 and rivers ; the Eiver-man (Stromkarl) the small waterfalls. 
 Both the Catholic and Protestant clergy have endeavoured 
 to excite an aversion to these beings, but in vain. They 
 are regarded as possessing considerable power over man and 
 nature, and it is believed that though now unhappy, they 
 will be eventually saved, or faa forlossning (get salvation), 
 as it is expressed. 
 
 The NECK (in Danish Nokkef) is the river-spirit. The 
 ideas respecting him are various. Sometimes he is repre- 
 sented as sitting, of summer nights, on the surface of the 
 water, like a pretty little boy, with golden hair hanging in 
 ringlets, and a red cap on his head ; sometimes as above the 
 water, like a handsome young man, but beneath like a horse; J 
 at other times, as an old man with a long beard, out oi 
 which he wrings the water as he sits on the cliffs. In this 
 last form, Odin, according to the Icelandic sagas, has some- 
 times revealed himself. 
 
 The Neck is very severe against any haughty maiden who 
 makes an ill return to the love of her wooer ; but should he 
 himself fall in love with a maid of human kind, he is the 
 most polite and attentive suitor in the world. 
 
 Though he is thus severe only against those who deserve 
 it, yet country people when they are upon the water use 
 certain precautions against his power. Metals, particularly 
 steel, are believed " to bind the Neck" (binda Necken) ; 
 and when going on the open sea, they usually put a knife 
 
 * Berg signifies a larger eminence, mountain, hill ; Hog, a height, hillock. 
 The Hog-folk are Elves and musicians. 
 
 ( The Danish peasantry in Wonnius' time described the Nokke (Nikke) 
 as a monster with a human head, that dwells both in fresh and salt water. 
 When any one was drowned, they said, Nokken tog ham bort (the Nokke 
 took him away) ; and when any drowned person was found with the nose red, 
 they said the Nikke has sucked him : Nikken har suet ham. Magnusen, 
 Eddalaere. Denmark being a country without any streams of magnitude, we 
 meet in the Danske Folkesagn no legends of the Nokke ; and in ballads, such 
 as " The Power of the Harp," what in Sweden is ascribed to the Neck, is in 
 Denmark imputed to the Havmand or Merman. 
 
 $ The Neck is also believed to appear in the form of a complete horse, and 
 can be made to work at the plough, If a bridle of a particular description be 
 employed. Kalm't Vestgotha Beta,
 
 MERMEN, AND MEBMAIDS. 149 
 
 in tlie bottom of the boat, or set a uail in a reed. In Norway 
 the following charm is considered effectual against the 
 Neck : 
 
 Nyk, nyk, naal i vatn ! 
 
 Jomfru Maria kastet staal i vatn 1 
 
 Pu sok, ak flyt ! 
 
 Neck, neck, nail in water ! 
 
 The virgin Mary casteth steel in water ! 
 
 Do you sink, I flit ! 
 
 The Neck is a great musician. He sits on the water ana 
 plays on his gold harp, the harmony of which operates on 
 all nature. To learn music of him, a person must present 
 him with a black lamb, and also promise him resurrection 
 and redemption. 
 
 The following story is told in all parts of Sweden : 
 
 " Two boys were one time playing near a river that ran 
 by their father's house. The Neck rose and sat on the 
 surface of the water, and played on his harp ; but one of 
 the children said to him, ' What is the use, Neck, of your 
 sitting there and playing ? you will never be saved.' The 
 Neck then began to weep bitterly, flung away his harp, and 
 sank down to the bottom. The children went home, and 
 told the whole story to their father, who was the parish 
 priest. He said they were wrong to say so to the Neck, 
 and desired them to go immediately back to the river, and 
 console him with the promise of salvation. They did so : 
 and when they came down to the river the Neck was sitting 
 on the water, weeping and lamenting. They then said to 
 him, ' Neck, do not grieve so ; our father says that your 
 Redeemer liveth also.' The Neck then took his harp and 
 played most sweetly, until long after the sun was gone down." 
 
 This legend is also found in Denmark, but in a less 
 agreeable form. A clergyman, it is said, was journeying one 
 night to Roeskilde in Zealand. His way led by a hill in 
 which there was music and dancing and great merriment 
 going forward. Some dwarfs jumped suddenly out of it, 
 stopped the carriage, and asked him whither he was going. 
 He replied to the synod of the church. They asked him if 
 he thought they could be saved. To that, he replied, he 
 could not give an immediate answer. They then begged
 
 150 
 
 that he would give them a reply by next year. "When he 
 next passed, and they made the same demand, he replied, 
 " No, you are all damned." Scarcely had he spoken the 
 word, when the whole hill appeared in flames. 
 
 In another form of this legend, a priest says to the Neck, 
 "Sooner will this cane which I hold in my hand grow 
 green flowers than thou shalt attain salvation." The Neck 
 in grief flung away his harp and wept, and the priest rode 
 on. But soon his cane began to put forth leaves and 
 blossoms, and he then went back to communicate the glad 
 tidings to the Neck who now joyously played on all the 
 entire night.* 
 
 of 
 
 LITTLE Kerstin she weeps in her bower all tic day; 
 Sir Peter in his courtyard is playing so gay. 
 
 My heart's own dear ! 
 
 Tell me wherefore you grieve ? 
 
 " Grieve you for saddle, or grieve you for steed ? 
 Or grieve you for that I have you wed ?" 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 " And grieve do I not for saddle or for steec! : 
 And grieve do I not for that I have you wed. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 " Much more do I grieve for my fair gold hair, 
 Which in the blue waves shall be stained to-day. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 " Much more do I grieve for Eingfalla flood, 
 In which have been drowned my two sisters proud. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 " It was laid out for me in my infancy, 
 That my wedding-day should prove heavy to me." 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 * Afzelius, Sago-hafdar,ii. 156.
 
 NECKS, MEBMEN, AND MEBMAIDS. 
 
 " And I shall make them the horse round shoe, 
 He shall not stumble on his four gold shoes. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 " Twelve of my courtiers shall before thee ride, 
 Twelve of my courtiers upon each side." 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 But when they were come to Ringfalla wood, 
 There sported a hart with gilded horns proud. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 And all the courtiers after the hart are gone ; 
 Little Kerstin, she must proceed alone. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 And when on Eingfalla bridge she goes, 
 Her steed he stumbled on his four gold shoes. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 Four gold shoes, and thirty gold nails, 
 And the maiden into the swift stream falls. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 Sir Peter he spake to his footpage so 
 " Thou must for my gold harp instantly go." 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 The first stroke on his gold harp he gave 
 The foul ugly Neck sat and laughed on the wavo. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 The second time the gold harp he swept, 
 The foul ugly Neck on the wave sat and wept. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 The third stroke on the gold harp rang, 
 Little Kerstin reached up her snow-white arm. 
 My heart's, &c.* 
 
 * Det tredje slag p& gullharpan klang, 
 Liten Kerstin r'dckta upp sin snohvita arm. 
 Min hjerteliga Icar ! 
 J s'dgen mig hvarfor J sorjen t
 
 152 SCAJTDIIfATIA. 
 
 He played the bark from off the high trees ; 
 He played Little Kerstin back on his knees. 
 My heart's, &c. 
 
 And the Neck he out of the waves came there, 
 And a proud maiden on each arm he bare. 
 
 My heart's own dear ! 
 
 Tell me wherefore you grieve ?* 
 
 The STEOMKABL, called in Norway Grim or Fosse-Grimf 
 (Waterfall- Grim) is a musical genius like the Neck. Like 
 him too, when properly propitiated, he communicates his 
 art. The sacrifice also is a black lamb,J which the offerer 
 must present with averted head, and on Thursday evening. 
 If it is poor the pupil gets no further than to the tuning of 
 the instruments ; if it is fat the Stromkarl seizes the votary 
 by the right hand, and swings it backwards and forward's 
 till the blood runs out at the finger-ends. The aspirant ia 
 then enabled to play in such a masterly manner that the 
 trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music. 
 
 The Havmand, or Merman, is described as of a handsome 
 form, with green or black hair and beard. He dwells either 
 in the bottom of the sea, or in the cliffs and hills near the 
 sea shore, and is regarded as rather a good and beneficent 
 kind of being. 1 1 
 
 The Havfrue, or Mermaid, is represented in the popular 
 tradition sometimes as a good, at other times as an evil and 
 treacherous being. She is beautiful in her appearance. 
 
 * As sung in West Gothland and Vermland. 
 
 Fosse is the North of England force. 
 J Or a white kid, Faye ap. Grimm, Deut Mythol., p. 461. 
 The Stromkarl has eleven different measures, to ten of which alone 
 people may dance ; the eleventh belongs to the night spirit his host If any 
 one plays it, tables and benches, cans and cups, old men and women, blind 
 and lame, even the children in the cradle, begin to dance. Arndt. ut sup., 
 see above p. 80. 
 
 || In the Danske Viser and Folkesagn there are a few stories of Mermen, 
 such as Rosmer Havmand and Marstig's Daughter, both translated by Dr. 
 Jamieson, and Agnete and the Merman, which resembles Proud Margaret. It 
 was natural, says Afzelius, that what in Sweden was related of a Hill King, 
 should, in Denmark, be ascribed to a Merman.
 
 NECKS, MERMEN, ATTD MERMAIDS. 153 
 
 Fishermen sometimes see her in the bright summer's sun, 
 when a thin mist hangs over the sea, sitting on the surface 
 of the water, and combing her long golden hair with a 
 golden comb, or driving up her snow-white cattle to feed on 
 the strands and small islands. At other times she conies as 
 a beautiful maiden, chilled and shivering with the cold of 
 the night, to the fires the fishers have kindled, hoping by 
 this means to entice them to her love.* Her appearance 
 prognosticates both storm and ill success in their fishing. 
 People that are drowned, and whose bodies are not found, 
 are believed to be taken into the dwellings of the Mermaids. 
 These beings are also supposed to have the power of fore- 
 telling future events. A Mermaid, we are told, prophesied 
 the birth of Christian IV. of Denmark, and 
 
 En Havfrue op af Vandet steg, 
 Og spaade Heir Sinklar ilde. 
 
 SINCLAB'S VISA. 
 
 A mermaid from the water rose, 
 And spaed Sir Sinclar ill. 
 
 Fortune-telling has been in all countries a gift of the sea- 
 people. "We need hardly mention the prophecies of Nereus 
 and Proteus. 
 
 A girl one time fell into the power of a Havfrue and 
 passed fifteen years in her submarine abode without ever 
 seeing the sun. At length her brother went down in quest 
 of her, and succeeded in bringing her back to the upper 
 world. The Havfrue waited for seven years expecting her 
 return, but when she did not come back, she struck the 
 water with her staff and made it boil up and cried 
 
 Hade jag trott att du varit sa falsk, 
 SS ekulle jag kreckt dig din tiufvehals ! 
 
 Had I but known thee so false to be, 
 
 Thy thieving neck I 'd have cracked for thee.+ 
 
 The appearance of the Wood-woman (Skogsfru) or Eire-woman, is 
 equally unlucky for hunters. She also approaches the fires, and seeks to 
 seduce ycung men. 
 
 t Arvidsson, ii. 320, ap. Grimm, p. 463.
 
 154 SCANDINAVIA, 
 
 fi)t 
 
 DUKE MAGNUS looked out through the castle window, 
 
 How the stream ran so rapidly ; 
 
 And there he saw how upon the stream sat 
 
 A woman most fair and lovelie, 
 
 Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, plight thee to me, 
 
 I pray you still so freely ; 
 
 Say me not nay, but yes, yes ! 
 
 " O, to you I will give a travelling ship, 
 The best that a knight would guide ; 
 It goeth as well on water as on firm land, 
 And through the fields all so wide. 
 Duke Magnus, &c. 
 
 " 0, to you will I give a courser gray, 
 The best that a knight would ride ; 
 He goeth as well on water as on firm land, 
 And through the groves all so wide." 
 Duke Magnus, &c. 
 
 " 0, how should I plight me to you ? 
 I never any quiet get ; 
 I serve the king and my native land, 
 But with woman I match me not yet." 
 Duke Magnus, &c. 
 
 " To you will I give as much of gold 
 As for more than your life will endure ; 
 And of pearls and precious stones handful* ; 
 And all shall be so pure." 
 Duke Magnus, &c. 
 
 " O gladly would I plight me to thee, 
 If thou wert of Christian kind ; 
 But now thou art a vile sea-troll, 
 My love thou canst never win." 
 Duke Magnus, &c.
 
 KECKS, MEEMEN, AKD MEBMAIDS. 155 
 
 " Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, bethink thee well, 
 And answer not so haughtily ; 
 For if thou wilt not plight thee to ine, 
 Thou shalt ever crazy be." 
 Duke Magnus, &c. 
 
 " I am a king's son so good, 
 
 How can I let you gain me ? 
 
 You dwell not on land, but in the flood, 
 
 Which would not with me agree." 
 
 Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, plight thee to me, 
 
 I offer you still so freely ; 
 
 Say me not nay, but yes, yes ! * 
 
 * This is ballad from Smaland. Magnus was the youngest son of 
 Gustavus Vass He died out of his mind. It is well known that insanity 
 pervaded the T&sa family for centuries.
 
 NORTHERN ISLANDS. 
 
 liar Necken sin Harpa i Glasborgen slar, 
 Och Hafsfruar kamma sitt grbnskande bar, 
 Och bleka den skinande driigten. 
 
 STAGUBLICB 
 
 The Neck here his harp in the glass-castle play*. 
 And Mermaidens comh out their green hair always, 
 And bleach here their shining white clothes. 
 
 UNDER the title of Northern Islands we include all those 
 lying in the ocean to the north of Scotland, to wit Iceland, 
 the Feroes, Shetland, and the Orkneys. 
 
 These islands were all peopled from Norway and Denmark 
 during the ninth century. Till that time many of them, 
 particularly Iceland and the Feroes, though, perhaps, occa- 
 sionally visited by stray Vikings, or by ships driven out 
 of their course by tempests, had lain waste and desert from 
 the creation, the abode alone of wild beasts and birds. 
 
 But at that period the proud nobles of Norway and 
 Denmark, who scorned to be the vassals of Harold Fair- 
 hair and Gorm the Old, the founders of the Norwegian and 
 Danish monarchies, set forth in quest of new settlements, 
 where, at a distance from these haughty potentates, they 
 might live in the full enjoyment of their beloved indepen- 
 dence. Followed by numerous vassals, they embarked on 
 the wide Atlantic. A portion fixed themselves on the 
 distant shores of Iceland ; others took possession of the 
 vacant Feroes ; and more dispossessed the Peti and Papae, 
 the ancient inhabitants of Shetland and the Orkneys, and 
 seized on their country. 
 
 As the Scandinavians were at that time still worshipers 
 of Thor and Odin, the belief in Alfs and Dwarfs accom-
 
 ICELAND. 157 
 
 panied them to their new abodes, and there, as else* 
 where, survived the introduction of Christianity. "We no\r 
 proceed to examine the vestiges of the old religion still tc 
 be traced. 
 
 ICELAND. 
 
 Hvad mon da ei 
 
 Og her lyksalig leves kan ? Jeg troer 
 Det mueligt, som for i Heden-Old 
 For raske Skander mueligt det var, 
 Paa denne kolde 6e. 
 
 ISLANDSKE LANDLEVNET. 
 
 What ! cannot one 
 
 Here, too, live happy? I believe it now 
 As possible, as in the heathen age, 
 For the bold Scandinavians it was, 
 On this cold isle. 
 
 IT is in vain that we look into the works of travellers for 
 information on the subject of popular belief in Iceland. 
 Their attention was too much occupied by Geysers, volca- 
 noes, agriculture, and religion, to allow them to devote any 
 part of it to this, in their eyes, unimportant subject. So 
 that, were it not for some short but curious notices given by 
 natives of the island, we should be quite ignorant of the 
 fate of the subordinate classes of the old religion in Iceland. 
 
 Torfseus, who wrote in the latter end of the seventeenth 
 century, gives, in his preface to his edition of Hrolf Krakas 
 Saga, the opinion of a venerable Icelandic pastor, named 
 Einar Gudmund, respecting the Dwarfs. This opinion 
 Torfaeus heard when a boy from the lips of the old man. 
 
 " I believe, and am fully persuaded," said he, "that this 
 people are the creatures of God, consisting of a body and 
 a rational spirit ; that they are of both sexes ; marry, and 
 have children ; and that all human acts take place among 
 them as with us : that they are possessed of cattle, and of 
 many other kinds of property ; have poverty and riches, 
 weeping and laughter, sleep and wake, and have all other
 
 158 NORTHERN ISLA.KDS. 
 
 affections belonging to human nature ; and that they enjoy 
 a longer or a shorter term of life according to the will and 
 pleasure of God. Their power of having children," he adds, 
 " appears from this, that some of their women have had 
 children by men, and were very anxious to have their 
 offspring dipped in the sacred font, and initiated into 
 Christianity ; but they, in general, sought in vain. Thorkatla 
 Mari, the wife of Kari, was pregnant by a Hill-man, but she 
 did not bring the child Aresus into the world, as appears 
 from the poems made on this fatal occasion. 
 
 " There was formerly on the lands of Haga a nobleman 
 named Sigvard Fostre, who had to do with a Hill-woman. 
 He promised her faithfully that he would take care to have 
 the child received into the bosom of the church. In due 
 time the woman came with her child and laid it on the 
 churchyard wall, and along with it a gilded cup and a holy 
 robe (presents she intended making to the church for the 
 baptism of her child), and then retired a little way. The 
 pastor inquired who acknowledged himself the father of the 
 child. Sigvard, perhaps, out of shame, did not venture to 
 acknowledge himself. The clerk now asked him if it should 
 be baptised or not. Sigvard said ' No,' lest by assenting he 
 should be proved to be the father. The infant then was 
 left where it was, untouched and unbaptised. The mother, 
 filled with rage, snatched up her babe and the cup, but left 
 the vestment, the remains of which may still be seen in 
 Haga. That woman foretold and inflicted a singular 
 disease on Sigvard and his posterity till the ninth genera- 
 tion, and several of his descendants are to this day afflicted 
 with it. Andrew Grudmund (from which I am the seventh 
 in descent) had an affair of the same kind. He also refused 
 to have the child baptised, and he and his posterity have 
 suffered a remarkable disease, of which very many of them 
 have died ; but some, by the interposition of good men, 
 have escaped the deserved punishment." 
 
 The fullest account we have of the Icelandic Elves or 
 Dwarfs is contained in the following passage of the 
 Ecclesiastical History of Iceland of the learned Finnus 
 Johannseus. 
 
 " As we have not as yet," says he, M spoken a single word 
 about the very ancient, and I know not whether more
 
 ICELAND. 159 
 
 ridiculous or perverse, persuasion of our forefathers about 
 eemigods, this seems the proper place for saying a few 
 words about this so celebrated figment, as it was chiefly in 
 this period it attained its acme, and it was believed as a true 
 and necessary article of faith, that there are genii or semi- 
 gods, called in our language Alfa and Alfa-folk. 
 
 " Authors vary respecting their essence and origin. Some 
 hold that they have been created by God immediately and 
 without the intervention of parents, like some kinds of 
 spirits : others maintain that they are sprung from Adam, 
 but before the creation of Eve :* lastly, some refer them to 
 another race of men, or to a stock of prse- Adamites. Some 
 bestow on them not merely a human body, but an immortal 
 soul: others assign them merely mortal breath (spiritum) 
 instead of a soul, whence a certain blockhead,t in an essay 
 written by him respecting them, calls them our half-kija 
 (half-fyn). 
 
 " According to the old wives' tales that are related about 
 this race of genii who inhabit Iceland and its vicinity, they 
 have a political form of government modelled after the 
 same pattern as that which the inhabitants themselves are 
 under. Two viceroys rule over them, who in turn every 
 second year, attended by some of the subjects, sail to Nor- 
 way, to present themselves before the monarch of the whole 
 
 * This was plainly a theory of the monks. It greatly resembles the Rab- 
 binical account of the origin of the Mazckeen, which the reader will meet 
 in the sequel. 
 
 Some Icelanders of the present day say, that one day, when Eve was 
 washing her children at the running water, God suddenly called her. She was 
 frightened, and thrust aside such of them as were not clean. God asked her 
 if all her children were there, and she said, Yes ; but got for answer, that 
 what she tried to hide from God should be hidden from man. These children 
 became instantly invisible and distinct from the rest. Before the flood came 
 on, God put them into a cave and closed up the entrance. From them are 
 descended all the underground-people. Magnussen, Eddalcere. 
 
 f- This was one Janus Gudmund, who wrote several treatises on this and 
 similar subjects, particularly one " De Alfis et Alfheimum," which the learned 
 bishop characterises as a work " nullius pretii, et meras nugas continens." 
 We might, if we were to see it, be of a different opinion. Of Janus Gudmund 
 Brynj Svenonius thus expresses himself to Wormius : Janus Gudmundius, 
 cere dirutus verius quam rude donatus, sibi et aliis inutilii i angult 
 tonsenwt. Worm., Epist., 970.
 
 160 KOETHER3I ISLANDS. 
 
 race, who resides there, and to give him a true report con- 
 cerning the fidelity, good conduct, and obedience of the 
 subjects ; and those who accompany them are to accuse the 
 government or viceroys if they have transgressed the bounds 
 of justice or of good morals. If these are convicted of 
 crime or injustice, they are forthwith stript of their office, 
 and others are appointed in their place. 
 
 " This nation is reported to cultivate justice and equity 
 above all other virtues, and hence, though they are very 
 potent, especially with words and imprecations, they very 
 rarely, unless provoked or injured, do any mischief to man ; 
 but when irritated they avenge themselves on their enemies 
 with dreadful curses and punishments. 
 
 " The new-born infants of Christians are, before baptism, 
 believed to be exposed to great peril of being stolen by 
 them, and their own, which they foresee likely to be feeble in 
 mind, in body, in beauty, or other gifts, being substituted 
 for them. These supposititious children of the semigods are 
 called Umskiptingar ; whence nurses and midwives were 
 strictly enjoined to watch constantly, and to hold the infant 
 firmly in their arms, till it had had the benefit of baptism, 
 lest they should furnish any opportunity for such a change. 
 Hence it comes, that the vulgar use to call fools, deformed 
 people, and those who act rudely and uncivilly, JJmskiptinga 
 eins off Jiann sie ko minnaf Alfum, i.e. changelings, and come 
 of the Alfs. 
 
 " They use rocks, hills, and even the seas, for their habita- 
 tions, which withinside are neat, and all their domestic 
 utensils extremely clean and orderly. They sometimes 
 invite men home, and take especial delight in the converse 
 of Christians, some of whom have had intercourse with their 
 daughters or sisters, who are no less wanton than beautiful, 
 and have had children by them, who must by all means be 
 washed in holy water, that they may receive an immortal 
 soul, and one that can be saved. Nay, they have not been 
 ashamed to feign that certain women of them have been 
 joined in lawful marriage with men, and continued for a 
 long time with them, happily at first, but, for the most part, 
 with an ill or tragical conclusion. 
 
 " Their cuttle, if not very numerous, are at least very pro- 
 fitable They are invisible as their owners are, unless wnen
 
 ICELAITD. 163 
 
 it pleases them to .appear, which usually takes place when the 
 weather is serene and the sun shining very bright ; for as 
 they do not see the sun within their dwellings, they frequently 
 walk out in the sunshine that they may be cheered by his 
 radiance.* Hence, even the coffins of dead kings and nobles, 
 such as are the oblong stones which are to be seen here and 
 there, in wildernesses and rough places, always lie in the open 
 air and exposed to the sun. 
 
 " They change their abodes and habitations occasionally 
 like mankind ; this they do on new-year's night ; whence 
 certain dreamers and mountebanks usod on that night to 
 watch in the roads, that, by the means of various forms of 
 conjurations appointed for that purpose, they might extort 
 from them as they passed along the knowledge of future 
 events.f But people in general, who were not acquainted 
 with such things, especially the heads of families, used on 
 this evening strictly to charge their children and servants 
 to be sure to be serious and modest in their actions and 
 language, lest their invisible guests, and mayhap future 
 neighbours, should be aggrieved or any way offended. 
 Hence, when going to bed they did not shut the outer doors 
 of their houses, nor even the door of the sitting-room, but 
 having kindled a light, and laid out a table, they desired the 
 invisible personages who had arrived, or were to arrive, to 
 partake, if it was their pleasure, of the food that was laid out 
 for them ; and hoped that if it pleased them to dwell within 
 the limits of their lands, they would live safe and sound, 
 and be propitious to them. As this superstitious belief 
 is extremely ancient, so it long continued in full vigour, 
 and was held by some even within the memory of our 
 father s."J 
 
 * The Icelandic dwarfs, it would appear, wore red clothes. In Nial's Saga 
 (p. 70), a person gaily dressed (i litklasdum) is jocularly called Red-elf 
 (raud-alfr). 
 
 t There was a book of prophecies called the Kruckspd, or Prophecy of 
 Kruck, a man who was said to have lived in the 15th century. It treated of 
 the change of religion and other matters said to have been revealed to him by 
 the Dwarfs. J'ohannseus says it was forged by Brynjalf Svenonius in or about 
 the year 1660. 
 
 Finni Johannsei Historia Ecclesiastica Islandise, torn. ii.p. 368. Havnie, 
 1774. We believe we might safely add, is held at the present day, for the 
 luperstition is no more extinct in Iceland than elsewhere. 
 
 H
 
 ',62 
 
 XOETHEHN ISLANDS. 
 
 The Icelandic Neck, Kelpie, or Water-Spirit, is called 
 Nickur, Ninnir, and Hnikiir, one of the Eddaic names of 
 Odin. He appears always in the form of a fine apple-grey 
 horse on the sea-shore ; but he may be distinguished from 
 ordinary horses by the circumstance of his hoofs being 
 reversed. If any one is so foolish as to mount him, he 
 gallops off, and plunges into the sea with his burden. He 
 can, however, be caught in a particular manner, tamed, and 
 made to work.* 
 
 The Icelanders have the same notions respecting the seals 
 which we shall find in the Feroes and Shetland. It is a 
 common opinion with them that King Pharaoh and his army 
 were changed into these animals. 
 
 FEROES. 
 
 Sjurur tonk te& besta svor 
 Sum Dvorgurin heji smuja. 
 
 QVOBFINS THAATTUB. 
 
 Sigurd took the very best sword 
 That the Dwarfs had ever smithed. 
 
 THE people of the Feroes believe in the same classes of beings 
 as the inhabitants of the countries whence their ancestors 
 came. 
 
 They call the Trolls Underground-people, Hollow-men, 
 Foddenskkmaend, and Huldefolk. These Trolls used fre- 
 quently to carry people into their hills, and detain them 
 there. Among several other instances, Debesf gives the 
 following one of this practice : 
 
 " Whilst Mr. Taale was priest in Osteroe, it happened 
 
 * Svenska Visor, iii. 128. Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 458. At Bahus, in 
 Sweden, a clever man contrived to throw on him an ingeniously made bridle 
 BO that he could not get away, and he ploughed all his land with him. One 
 time the bridle fell off and the Neck, like a flash of fire, sprang into the lake 
 and dragged the harrow down with him. Grimm, ut sup., see p. 148. 
 t Fseroae et Faeroa reserata. Ix>nd. 1676*
 
 FEEOES. 103 
 
 that one of his hearers was carried away and returned again. 
 At last the said young man being to be married, and every 
 thing prepared, and the priest being arrived the Saturday 
 before at the parish, the bridegroom was carried away"; 
 wherefore they sent folks to look after him, but he could 
 not be found. The priest desired his friends to have good 
 courage, and that he would come again ; which he did at 
 last, and related that the spirit that led him away was in the 
 shape of a most beautiful woman, and very richly dressed, 
 who desired him to forsake her whom he was now to marry, 
 and consider how ugly his mistress was in comparison of her, 
 and what fine apparel she had. He said also that he saw the 
 men that sought after him, and that they went close by him 
 but could not see him, and that he heard their calling, ana 
 yet could not answer them ; but that when he would not be 
 persuaded he was again left at liberty." 
 
 The people of the Feroes call the Nisses or Brownies 
 Niagruisar, and describe them as little creatures with red 
 caps on their heads, that bring luck to any place where they 
 take up their abode. 
 
 It is the belief of the people of these islands that every 
 ninth-night the seals put off their skins and assume the 
 human form, and dance and sport about on the land. After 
 some time, they resume their skins and return to the water. 
 The following adventure, it is said, once occurred : * 
 
 " A man happening to pass by where a female seal was 
 disporting herself in the form of a woman, found her skin, 
 and took and hid it. When she could not find her skin to 
 creep into, she was forced to remain in the human form ; and 
 as she was fair to look upon, that same man took her to wife, 
 had children by her, and lived right happily with her. After 
 a long time, the wife found the skin that had been stolen, 
 and could not resist the temptation to creep into it, and so 
 she became a seal again, and returned to the sea." 
 
 The Neck called Nikar is also an object of popular faith in 
 the Feroes. He inhabits the streams and lakes, and takes a 
 delight in drowning people. 
 
 * Thkle, in. SI, from the MS. Travels of Svaboe in the Feroe* 
 
 it a
 
 164) HOBTHEEK ISLANDS. 
 
 SHETLAND. 
 
 Well, since we are welcome to Yule, 
 Up wl "t Lightfoot, link it awa', boys ! 
 Send for a fiddler, play up Foula reel, 
 The Shaalds will pay for a', boys. 
 
 SHETLAND SONG. 
 
 DE. HIBBEET'S valuable work on the Shetland Islands * 
 fortunately enables us to give a tolerably complete account 
 of the fairy system of these islands. 
 
 The Shetlanders, he informs us, believe in two kinds of 
 Trows, as they call the Scandinavian Trolls, those of the land 
 and those of the sea. 
 
 The former, whom, like the Scots, they also term the guid 
 folk and guid neighbours, they conceive to inhabit the interior 
 of green hills. Persons who have been brought into their 
 habitations have been dazzled with the splendour of what 
 they saw there. All the interior walls are adorned with gold 
 and silver, and the domestic utensils resemble the strange 
 things that are found sometimes lying on the hills. These 
 persons have always entered the hill on one side and gone out 
 at the other. 
 
 They marry and have children, like their northern kindred. 
 A woman of the island of Yell, who died not long since, at 
 the advanced age of more than a hundred years, said, that 
 she once met some fairy children, accompanied by a little 
 dog, playing like other boys and girls, on the top of a hill. 
 Another time she happened one night to raise herself up in 
 the bed, when she saw a little boy with a white nightcap on 
 his head, sitting at the fire. She asked him who he was. 
 " I am Trippa's son," said he. When she heard this, she 
 instantly sained, i. e. blessed herself, and Trippa's son 
 vanished. 
 
 * Description of the Shetland Island*. Edinburgh, 1822.
 
 SHETLAND. ] 65 
 
 Saining is the grand protection against them ; a Shetlander 
 always sains himself when passing by their hills. 
 
 The Trows are of a diminutive stature, and they are 
 usually dressed in gay green garments. "VVTien travelling 
 from one place to another they may be seen mounted on 
 bulrushes, and riding through the air. If a person should 
 happen to meet them when on these journeys, he should, if 
 he has not a bible in his pocket, draw a circle round him on 
 the ground, and in God's name forbid their approach. They 
 then generally disappear.* 
 
 They are fond of music and dancing, and it is their dancing 
 that forms the fairy rings. A Shetlander lying awake in bed 
 before day one morning, heard the noise of a party of Trows 
 passing by his door. They were preceded by a piper, who 
 was playing away lustily. The man happened to have a good 
 ear for music, so he picked up the tune he heard played, and 
 used often after to repeat it for his friends under the name 
 of the Fairy-tune. 
 
 The Trows are not free from disease, but they are pos- 
 sessed of infallible remedies, which they sometimes bestow 
 on their favourites. A man in the island of Unst had an 
 earthen pot that contained an ointment of marvellous power. 
 This he said he got from the hills, and, like the widow's 
 cruise, its contents never failed. 
 
 They have all the picking and stealing propensities of the 
 Scandinavian Trolls. The dairy-maid sometimes detects a 
 Trow-woman secretly milking the cows in the byre. She 
 sains herself, and the thief takes to flight so precipitately as 
 to leave behind her a copper pan of a form never seen before 
 
 When they want beef or mutton on any festal occasion, 
 they betake themselves to the Shetlanders' scatholds or town- 
 maUs, and with elf-arrows bring down their game. On these 
 occasions they delude the eyes of the owner with the appear- 
 ance of something exactly resembling the animal whom they 
 have carried off, and by its apparent violent death by some 
 accident. It is on this account that the flesh of such ani- 
 mals as have met a sudden or violent death is regarded as 
 improper food. 
 
 A Shetlander, who is probably still alive, affirmed that he 
 
 * Edmonton's View, &c., of Zetland Island*. Kdin. 1809.
 
 166 NORTHEEN ISLANDS. 
 
 was once taken into a bill by tbe Trows. Here one of tbe 
 first objects that met his view was one of his own cows, that 
 was brought in to furnish materials for a banquet. He 
 regarded himself as being in rather a ticklish situation if it 
 were not for the protection of the Trow-women, by whose 
 favour he had been admitted within the hill. On returning 
 home, he learned, to his great surprise, that at the very 
 moment he saw the cow brought into the hill, others had 
 seen her falling over the rocks. 
 
 Lying-in- worn en and " unchristened bairns " they regard 
 as lawful prize. The former they employ as wet-nurses, the 
 latter they of course rear up as their own. Nothing will 
 induce parents to show any attention to a child that they 
 suspect of being a changeling. But there are persons who 
 undertake to enter the hills and regain the lost child. 
 
 A tailor, not long since, related the following story. He 
 was employed to work at a farm-house where there was a 
 child that was an idiot, and who was supposed to have been 
 left there by the Trows instead of some proper child, whom 
 they had taken into the hills. One night, after he had 
 retired to his bed, leaving the idiot asleep by the fire, he was 
 suddenly waked out of his sleep by the sound of music, and 
 on looking about him he saw the whole room full of fairies, 
 who were dancing away their rounds most joyously. Sud- 
 denly the idiot jumped up and joined in the dance, and 
 showed such a degree of acquaintance with the various steps 
 and movements as plainly testified that it must have been a 
 long time since he first went under the hands of the dancing- 
 master. The tailor looked on for some time with admiration, 
 but at last he grew alarmed and sained himself. On hearing 
 this, the Trows all fled in the utmost disorder, but one of 
 them, a woman, was so incensed at this interruption of their 
 revels, that as she went out she touched the big toe of the 
 tailor, and he lost the power of ever after moving it.* 
 
 In these cases of paralysis they believe that the Trows 
 have taken away the sound member and left a log behind. 
 They even sometimes sear the part, and from the want of 
 sensation in it boast of the correctness of this opinion.f 
 
 * We need hardly to remind the reader that in what precedes Dr. Hibbert 
 If to be regarded as the narrator in 1822. 
 
 t Edmonston, ut sup>U.
 
 CHETLAKD. 167 
 
 "With respect to the Sea-Trows, it is the belief of the Shet- 
 landers that they inhabit a region of their own at the bottom 
 of the sea.* They here respire a peculiar atmosphere, and 
 live in habitations constructed of the choicest submarine 
 productions. When they visit the upper world on occasions 
 of business or curiosity, they are obliged to enter the skin of 
 some animal capable of respiring in the water. One of the 
 shapes they assume is that of what is commonly called a 
 merman or mermaid, human from the waist upwards, termi- 
 nating below in the tail of a fish. But their most favourite 
 vehicle is the skin of the larger seal or Haaf fish, for as this 
 animal is amphibious they can land on some rock, and there 
 cast off their sea-dress and assume their own shape, and amuse 
 themselves as they will in the upper world. They must, 
 however, take especial care of their skins, as each has but one, 
 and if that should be lost, the owner can never re-descend, 
 but must become an inhabitant of the supramarine world. 
 
 The following Shetland tales will illustrate this : 
 
 A BOAT'S-CREW landed one time upon one of the stacks t 
 with the intention of attacking the seals. They had consi- 
 derable success ; stunned several of them, and while they lay 
 stupefied, stripped them of their skins, with the fat attached 
 to them. They left the naked carcases lying on the rocks, 
 and were about to get into their boat with their spoils and 
 return to Papa Stour, whence they had come. But just as 
 they were embarking, there rose such a tremendous swell 
 that they saw there was not a moment to be lost, and every 
 one flew as quickly as he could to get on board the boat. 
 They were all successful but one man, who had imprudently 
 loitered behind. His companions were very unwilling to 
 leave him on the skerries, perhaps to perish, but the surge 
 
 * Dr. Hibbert says he could get but little satisfaction from the Shetland*!* 
 respecting this submarine country. 
 
 f Stacks or skerries are bare rocks out in the sea.
 
 168 NORTHERN ISLANDS. 
 
 increased so fast, that after many unsuccessful attempts to 
 bring the boat in close to the stacks, they were obliged to 
 depart, and leave the unfortunate man to his fate. 
 
 A dark stormy night came on, the sea dashed most furi- 
 ously against the rocks, and the poor deserted Shetlander 
 saw no prospect before him but that of dying of the cold and 
 hunger, or of being washed into the sea by the breakers, 
 which now threatened every moment to run over the stack. 
 
 At length he perceived several of the seals, who had 
 escaped from the boatmen, approaching the skerry. When 
 they landed they stripped off their seal-skin dresses and 
 appeared in their proper forms of Sea-Trows. Their first 
 object was to endeavour to recover their friends, who lay 
 stunned and skinless. When they had succeeded in bring- 
 ing them to themselves, they also resumed their proper 
 form, and appeared in the shape of the sub-marine people. 
 But in mournful tones, wildly accompanied by the raging 
 storm, they lamented the loss of their sea- vestures, the want 
 of which would for ever prevent them from returning to 
 their native abodes beneath the deep waters of the Atlantic. 
 Most of all did they lament for Ollavitinus, the son of 
 Gioga, who, stripped of his seal-skin, must abide for ever in 
 the upper world. 
 
 Their song was at length broken off by their perceiving 
 the unfortunate boatman, who, with shivering limbs and 
 despairing looks, was gazing on the furious waves that now 
 dashed over the stack. Gioga, when she saw him, instantly 
 conceived the design of rendering the perilous situation of 
 the man of advantage to her son. She went up to him, and 
 mildly addressed him, proposing to carry him on her back 
 through the sea to Papa Stour, on condition of his getting 
 ner the seal-skin of her son. 
 
 The bargain was soon made, and Gioga equipped herself 
 in her phocine garb ; but when the Shetlander gazed on the 
 stormy sea he was to ride through, his courage nearly failed 
 him, and he begged of the old lady to have the kindness to 
 allow him to cut a few holes in her shoulders and flanks, 
 that he might obtain a better fastening for his hands between 
 the skin and the flesh. 
 
 This, too, her maternal tenderness induced Gioga to 
 consent to. The man, having prepared everything, now
 
 SHETLAND 169 
 
 mounted, and she plunged into the waves with him, gallantly 
 ploughed the deep, and landed him safe and sound at Acres 
 Gio, in Papa Stour. He thence set out for Skeo, at Hamna 
 Voe, where the skin was, and honourably fulfilled his agree- 
 ment by restoring to Grioga the means of bringing back her 
 son to his dear native land. 
 
 ON a fine summer's evening, an inhabitant of Unst happened 
 to be walking along the sandy margin of a voe.* The moon 
 was risen, and by her .light he discerned at some distance 
 before him a number of the sea-people, who were dancing 
 with great vigour on the smooth sand. Near them he saw 
 lying on the ground several seal-skins. 
 
 As the man approached the dancers, all gave over their 
 merriment, and flew like lightning to secure their garments; 
 then clothing themselves, plunged in the form of seals into the 
 sea. But the Shetlander, on coming up to the spot where 
 they had been, and casting his eyes down on the ground, 
 saw that they had left one skin behind them, which was 
 lying just at his feet. He snatched it up, carried it swiftly 
 away, and placed it in security. 
 
 On returning to the shore, he met the fairest maiden that 
 eye ever gazed upon : she was walking backwards and for- 
 wards, lamenting in most piteous tones the loss of her seal- 
 skin robe, without which she never could hope to rejoin her 
 family and friends below the waters, but must remain an 
 unwilling inhabitant of the region enlightened by the sun. 
 
 The man approached and endeavoured to console her, but 
 she would not be comforted. She implored him in the most 
 moving accents to restore her dress ; but the view of her 
 lovely face, more beautiful in tears, had steeled his heart. 
 He represented to her the impossibility of her return, and 
 
 * A voe is a small bay.
 
 170 NOETHEBN ISLANDS 
 
 that her friends would soon give her up ; and finally, made 
 an offer to her of his heart, hand, and fortune. 
 
 The sea-maiden, finding she had no alternative, at length 
 consented to become his wife. They were married, and lived 
 together for many years, during which time they had several 
 children, who retained no vestiges of their marine origin, 
 saving a thin web between their fingers, and a bend of their 
 hands, resembling that of the fore paws of a seal ; distinc- 
 tions which characterise the descendants of the family to the 
 present day. 
 
 The Shetlander's love for his beautiful wife was unbounded, 
 but she made but a cold return to his affection. Often would 
 she steal out alone and hasten down to the lonely strand, 
 and there at a given signal, a seal of large size would make 
 his appearance, and they would converse for hours together 
 in an unknown language ; and she would return home from 
 this meeting pensive and melancholy. 
 
 Thus glided away years, and her hopes of leaving the 
 upper world had nearly vanished, when it chanced one day, 
 that one of the children, playing behind a stack of corn, 
 found a seal-skin. Delighted with his prize, he ran with 
 breathless eagerness to display it before his mother. Her 
 eyes glistened with delight at the view of it ; for in it she 
 saw her own dress, the loss of which had cost her so many 
 tears. She now regarded herself as completely emancipated 
 from thraldom ; and in idea she was already with her friends 
 beneath the waves. One thing alone was a drawback on her 
 raptures. She loved her children, and she was now about to 
 leave them for ever. Yet they weighed not against the 
 pleasures she had in prospect : so after kissing and embracing 
 them several times, she took up the skin, went out, and 
 proceeded down to the beach. 
 
 In a few minutes after the husband came in, and the 
 children told him what had occurred. The truth instantly 
 flashed across his mind, and he hurried down to the shore 
 with all the speed that love and anxiety could give. But he 
 only arrived in time to see his wife take the form of a seal, 
 and from the ledge of a rock plunge into the sea. 
 
 The large seal, with whom she used to hold her conversa- 
 tions, immediately joined her, and congratulated her on her 
 escape, and they quitted the shore together. But ere she
 
 OBENETS. 171 
 
 went she turned round to her husband, who stood in mute 
 despair on the rock, and whose misery excited feelings of 
 compassion in her breast. "Farewell," said she to him, 
 " and may all good fortune attend you. I loved you well 
 while I was with you, but I always loved my first husband 
 better."* 
 
 The water-spirit is in Shetland called Shoopiltee ; he 
 appears in the form of a pretty little horse, and endeavours 
 to entice persons to ride on him, and then gallops with them 
 into the sea. 
 
 OEKNETS. 
 
 Harold was born where restless seas 
 Howl round the storm-swept Orcades. 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 OF the Orcadian Fairies we have very little information. 
 Brandt merely tells us, they were, in his time, frequently 
 Been in several of the isles dancing and making merry ; so 
 that we may fairly conclude they differed little from their 
 Scottish and Shetland neighbours. One thing he adds, 
 which is of some importance, that they were frequently seen 
 in armour. 
 
 Brownie seems to have been the principal Orkney Fairy, 
 where he possessed a degree of importance rather beyond 
 what was allotted to him in the neighbouring realm of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 " Not above forty or fifty years ago," says Brand, " almost 
 every family had a Brownie, or evil spirit, so called, which 
 served them, to whom they gave a sacrifice for its service ; 
 as, when they churned their milk, they took a part thereof 
 and sprinkled every corner of the house with it for Brownie's 
 
 * See below, Germany. 
 t Description of Orkney, Zetland, &c. Eain. 1 703.
 
 172 NOBTHEBN ISLANDS. 
 
 use ; likewise, when they brewed, they had a stone which 
 they called Brownie's stone, wherein there was a little hole, 
 into which they poured some wort for a sacrifice to Brownie. 
 My informer, a minister of the country, told me that he had 
 conversed with an old man, who, when young, used to brew 
 and sometimes read upon his bible ; to whom an old woman 
 in the house said that Brownie was displeased with that book 
 he read upon, which, if he continued to do, they would get 
 no more service of Brownie. But he being better instructed 
 from that book which was Brownie's eyesore, and the object 
 of his wrath, when he brewed, he would not suffer any sacri- 
 fice to be given to Brownie ; whereupon, the first and second 
 brewings were spilt and for no use, though the wort wrought 
 well, yet in a little time it left off working and grew cold ; 
 but of the third browst or brewing, he had ale very good, 
 though he would not give any sacrifice to Brownie, with 
 whom afterwards they were no more troubled. I had also 
 from the same informer, that a lady in TJnst, now deceased, 
 told him that when she first took up house, she refused to 
 give a sacrifice to Brownie, upon which, the first and second 
 brewings misgave, but the third was good; and Brownie, 
 not being regarded and rewarded as formerly he had been, 
 abandoned his wonted service : which cleareth the Scripture, 
 ' Eesist the devil and he will flee from you.' They also had 
 stacks of corn which they called Brownie's stacks, which, 
 though they were not bound with straw ropes, or any way 
 fenced as other stacks use to be, yet the greatest storm of 
 wind was not able to blow anything off them." 
 
 A very important personage once, we are told, inhabited 
 the Orkneys in the character of Brownie. 
 
 " Luridan," says Reginald Scot, " a familiar of this kind, 
 did for many years inhabit the island of Pomonia, the largest 
 of the Orkades in Scotland, supplying the place of man- 
 servant and maid-servant with wonderful diligence to those 
 families whom he did haunt, sweeping their rooms and 
 washing their dishes, and making then* fires before any were 
 up in the morning. This Luridan affirmed, that he was the 
 genius Astral of that island; that his place or residence in 
 the days of Solomon and David was at Jerusalem ; that then 
 he was called by the Jews Belelah ; after that, he remained 
 long in the dominion of Wales, instructing their bards in
 
 ORKNEYS. l r /3 
 
 British poesy and prophecies, being called "Wrthin, "Wadd, 
 Elgin; ' and now,' said he, ' I have removed hither, and, alas ! 
 my continuance is but short, for in seventy years I must resign 
 my place to Balkin, lord of the Northern Mountains.' 
 
 " Many wonderful and incredible things did he also relate 
 of this Balkin, affirming that he was shaped like a satyr, and 
 fed upon the air, having wife and children to the number of 
 twelve thousand, which were the brood of the Northern 
 "Fairies, inhabiting Southerland and Catenes, with the adja- 
 cent islands. And that these were the companies of spirits 
 that hold continual wars with the fiery spirits in the moun- 
 tain Heckla, that vomits fire in Islandia. That their speech 
 was ancient Irish, and their dwelling the caverns of the 
 rocks and mountains, which relation is recorded in the 
 antiquities of Pomonia."* 
 
 Concerning Luridan, we are farther informed from the 
 Book of Vanagastus, the Norwegian, that it is his nature to 
 be always at enmity with fire ; that he wages war with the 
 fiery spirits of Hecla ; and that in this contest they do often 
 anticipate and destroy one another, killing and crushing 
 when they meet in mighty and violent troops in the air 
 upon the sea. And at such times, many of the fiery spirits 
 are destroyed when the enemy hath brought them off the 
 mountains to fight upon the water. On the contrary, when 
 the battle is upon the mountain itself, the spirits of the air 
 are often worsted, and then great moanings and doleful 
 noises are heard in Iceland, and Russia, and Norway, for 
 many days after, t 
 
 The Water-spirit called Tangie, from Tang, the sea-weed 
 with which he is covered, appears sometimes as a little 
 horse, other times as a man. 
 
 Reg. Scot. Discoverie of Witchcraft, b. 2. c. 4. Loco. 1665. 
 f Quarterly Review, vol. xxii. ;. 367
 
 ISLE OF RUGEN. 
 
 Des Tagscheins Blendung driickt, 
 Nur Finstemisfi begliickt ; 
 Drum hausen wir so gern 
 Tief in des Erdballs Kern. 
 
 MATTHISSOK. 
 
 Day's dazzling light annoys 
 Us, darkness only joys ; 
 We therefore love to dwell 
 Deep underneath earth's shell. 
 
 WE now return to the Baltic, to the Isle of Eiigen, once a 
 chief seat of the Vendish religion ; but its priests were 
 massacred by the Scandinavians, and all traces of their 
 system effaced. Its fairy mythology now agrees with that 
 of its Gothic neighbours, and Mr. Arndt,* a native of the 
 island, has enabled us to give the following tolerably full 
 account of it : 
 
 The inhabitants of Eiigen believe in three kinds of 
 Dwarfs, or underground people, the White, the Brown, and 
 the Black ; so named from the colour of their several habi- 
 liments.f 
 
 The White are the most delicate and beautiful of all, and 
 are of an innocent and gentle disposition. During the 
 winter, when the face of nature is cold, raw, and cheerless, 
 they remain still and quiet in their hills, solely engaged in 
 the fashioning of the finest works in silver and gold, of too 
 delicate a texture for mortal eyes to discern. Thus they 
 pass the winter ; but no sooner does the spring return than 
 they abandon their recesses, and live through all the 
 
 * Arndt, Miirchen und Jugenderinnerungen. Berlin, 1818. 
 f See above p. 96.
 
 ISLE OF EUGEN. 175 
 
 summer above ground, in sunshine and starlight, in uninter- 
 rupted revelry and enjoyment. The moment the trees and 
 flowers begin to sprout and bud in the early days of spring, 
 they emerge from their hills, ana get among the stalks and 
 branches, and thence to the blossoms and flowers, where 
 they sit and gaze around them. In the night, when mortals 
 sleep, the White Dwarfs come forth, and dance their joyous 
 roundels in the green grass, about the hills, and brooks, and 
 springs, making the sweetest and most delicate music, bewil- 
 dering travellers, who hear and wonder at the strains of the 
 invisible musicians. They may, if they will, go out by day, 
 but never in company ; these daylight rambles being allowed 
 them only when alone and under some assumed form. 
 They therefore frequently fly about in the shape of party- 
 coloured little birds, or butterflies, or snow-white doves, 
 showing kindness and benevolence to the good who merit 
 their favour. 
 
 The Brown Dwarfs, the next in order, are less than 
 eighteen inches high. They wear little brown coats and 
 jackets, and a brown cap on their head, with a little silver 
 bell in it. Some of them wear black shoes with red strings 
 in them ; in general, however, they wear fine glass ones ; 
 at their dances none of them wear any other. They are 
 very handsome in their persons, with clear light-coloured 
 eyes, and small and most beautiful hands and feet. They 
 are on the whole of a cheerful, good-natured disposition, 
 mingled with some roguish traits. Like the White Dwarfs, 
 they are great artists in gold and silver, working so curi- 
 ously as to astonish those who happen to see their perform- 
 ances. At night they come out of their hills and dance by 
 the light of the moon and stars. They also glide invisibly 
 into people's houses, their caps rendering them impercep- 
 tible by all who have not similar caps. They are said to 
 play all kinds of tricks, to change the children in the cradles, 
 and take them away. This charge is perhaps unfounded, 
 but certainly, children who fall into their hands must serve 
 them for fifty years. They possess an unlimited power of 
 transformation, and can pass through the smallest keyholes. 
 Frequently they bring with them presents for children, or 
 lay gold rings and ducats, and the like, in their way, and 
 often are invisibly present, and save them from the perils of
 
 176 ISLE OF 
 
 fire and water. They plague and annoy lazy men-servanta 
 and untidy maids with frightful dreams ; oppress them as 
 the nightmare ; bite them as fleas ; and scratch and tear 
 them like cats and dogs ; and often in the night frighten, 
 in the shape of owls, thieves and lovers, or, like Will-'o-the- 
 wisps, lead them astray into bogs and marshes, and perhaps 
 up to those who are in pursuit of them. 
 
 The Black Dwarfs wear black jackets and caps, are not 
 handsome like the others, but on the contrary are horridly 
 ugly, with weeping eyes, like blacksmiths and colliers. They 
 are most expert workmen, especially in steel, to which they 
 can give a degree at once of hardness and flexibility which 
 no human smith can imitate ; for the swords they make will 
 bend like rushes, and are as hard as diamonds. In old times 
 arms and armour made by them were in great request : shirts 
 of mail manufactured by them were as fine as cobwebs, and 
 yet no bullet would penetrate them, and no helm or corslet 
 could resist the swords they fashioned ; but all these things 
 are now gone out of use. 
 
 These Dwarfs are of a malicious, ill disposition, and 
 delight in doing mischief to mankind ; they are unsocial, and 
 there are seldom more than two or three of them seen toge- 
 ther ; they keep mostly in their hills, and seldom come out 
 in the daytime, nor do they ever go far from home. 
 People say that in the summer they are fond of sitting under 
 the elder trees, the smell of which is very grateful to them, 
 and that any one that wants anything of them must go there 
 and call them. Some say they have no music and dancing, 
 only howling and whimpering ; and that when a screaming 
 is heard in the woods and marshes, like that of crying chil- 
 dren, and a mewing and screeching like that of a multitude 
 of cats or owls, the sounds proceed from their midnight 
 assemblies, and are made by the vociferous Dwarfs. 
 
 The principal residence of the two first classes of the 
 underground-people in Riigen is what are called the Nine- 
 hills, near Eambin. These hills lie on the west point of the 
 island, about a quarter of a mile from the village of Eambin 
 in the open country. They are small mounds, or Giants' 
 graves (Hunengraber), as such are called, and are the sub- 
 ject of many a tale and legend among the people. The 
 account of their origin is as follows :
 
 ISLE OF ESOEW. 177 
 
 " A long, long time age there lived in Eiigen a mighty 
 Giant named Balderich. He was vexed that the country 
 was an island, and that he had always to wade through the 
 sea when he wanted to go to Pomerania and the main land. 
 He accordingly got an immense apron made, and he tied it 
 round his waist and filled it with earth, for he wanted to 
 make a dam of earth for himself from the island to the main- 
 land. As he was going with his load over Rodenkirchen, a 
 hole tore in the apron, and the clay that fell out formed the 
 Nine-hills. He stopped the hole and went on ; but when he 
 he had gotten to Gustau, another hole tore in the apron, 
 and thirteen little hills fell out. He proceeded to the sea with 
 what he had now remaining, and pouring the earth into the 
 waters, formed the hook of Prosnitz, and the pretty little 
 peninsula of Drigge. But there still remained a small space 
 between E-iigen and Pomerania, which so incensed the Giant 
 that he fell down in a fit and died, from which unfortunate 
 accident his dam was never finished." * 
 
 A Giant-maiden commenced a similar operation on the 
 Pomeranian side "in order," said she, " that I may be able 
 to go over the bit of water without wetting my little slip- 
 pers." So she filled her apron with sand and hurried down 
 to the sea-side. But there was a hole in the apron and just 
 behind Sagard a part of the sand ran out and formed a little 
 bill named Dubbleworth. "Ah!" said she, "now my 
 mother will scold me." She stopped the hole with her 
 hand and ran on as fast as she could. But her mother 
 looked over the wood and cried, " You nasty child, what are 
 you about ? Come here and you shall get a good whip- 
 ping." The daughter in a fright let go the apron, and all 
 the sand ran out and formed the barren hills near Litzow.t 
 
 The Dwarfs took up their abode in the Nine-hills. The 
 
 A Danish legend (Thiele, i. 79) tells the same of the sand-lulls of 
 Nestved in Zealand. A Troll who dwelt near it wished to destroy it, and for 
 that purpose he went down to the sea-shore and filled his wallet with sand and 
 threw it on his hack. Fortunately there was a hole in the wallet, and so 
 many sand-hills fell out of it, that when he came to Nestved there only 
 remained enough to form one hill more. Another Troll, to punish a fanner 
 filled one of his gloves with sand, which sufficed to cover his victim's house 
 completely. With what remained in the fingers he formed a row of hillork 
 near it. t Grimm, Deut. Myth., p. 502.
 
 178 ISLE OF EUGEN. 
 
 White ones own two of them, and the Brown ones seven, 
 for there are no Black ones there. These dwell chiefly on 
 the coast-hills, along the shore between the Ahlbeck and 
 Monchgut, where they hold their assemblies, and plunder 
 the ships that are wrecked on the coast. 
 
 The Neck is called in Eiigen Nickel. Some fishers once 
 launched their boat on a lonely lake. Next day when they 
 came they saw it in a high beech-tree. " Who the devil has 
 put the boat in the tree ?" cried one. A voice replied, but 
 they saw no one, " 'Twas no devil at all, but I and my 
 brother Nickel." * 
 
 The following stories Mr. Arndt, who, as we have 
 observed, is a native of Eiigen, says he heard in his boyhood 
 from Hinrich Vieck, the Statthalter or Bailiff of Grabitz, 
 who abounded in these legends ; " so that it is, properly 
 speaking," says he, " Hinrich Yieck, and not I, that relates." 
 We therefore see no reason to doubt of their genuineness, 
 though they may be a little embellished.t 
 
 STtibrnturrs at $af)n Qtrtrtrlj. 
 
 THERE once lived in Rambin an honest, industrious man, 
 named James Dietrich. He had several children, all of a 
 good disposition, especially the youngest, whose name was 
 John. John Dietrich was a handsome, smart boy, diligent 
 at school, and obedient at home. His great passion was for 
 hearing stories, and whenever he met any one who was well 
 stored, he never let them go till he had heard them all. 
 
 When John was about eight years old he was sent to 
 spend a summer with his uncle, a farmer in Kodenkirchen. 
 
 * Grimm, Deutsche Sagen, i. p. 70. 
 t Grimm also appears to regard them as genuine.
 
 ISLE OF BUQEN. j.79 
 
 Here John naa to Keep cows with other boys, and they used 
 to drive them to graze about the Nine-hills. There -was an 
 old cowherd, one Klas (i. e. Nick) Starkwolt, who used fre- 
 quently to join the boys, and then they would sit down 
 together and tell stories. Klas abounded in these, and he 
 became John Dietrich's dearest friend. In particular, he 
 knew a number of stories of the Nine-hills and the under- 
 groundpeople in the old times, when the Giants disappeared 
 from the country, and the little ones came into the hills. 
 These tales John swallowed so eagerly that he thought of 
 nothing else, and was for ever talking of golden cups, and 
 crowns, and glass shoes, and pockets full of ducats, and gold 
 rings, and diamond coronets, and snow-white brides, and 
 such like. Old Klas used often to shake his head at him and 
 say, " John ! John ! what are you about ? The spade and 
 sithe will be your sceptre and crown, and your bride will 
 wear a garland of rosemary and a gown of striped drill." 
 Still John almost longed to get into the Nine-hills ; for Klas 
 had told him that any one who by luck or cunning should 
 get the cap of one of the little ones might go down with 
 safety, and, instead of their making a servant of him, he 
 would be their master. The person whose cap he got would 
 be his servant, and obey all his commands.* 
 
 St. John's day, when the days are longest and the nights 
 shortest, was now come. Old and young kept the holiday, 
 had all sorts of piays, and told all kinds of stories. John 
 could now no longer contain himself, but the day after the 
 festival he slipt away to the Nine-hills, and when it grew 
 dark laid himself down on the top of the highest of them, 
 where Klas had told him the undergroundpeople had their 
 principal dance-place. John lay quite still from ten till 
 twelve at night. At last it struck twelve. Immediately 
 there was a ringing and a singing in the hills, and then a 
 whispering and a lisping and a whiz and a buzz all about 
 him ; for the little people were now some whirling round and 
 round in the dance, and others sporting and tumbling about 
 
 * The population of Lusatia (Lausatz) is like that of Pomerania and 
 Riigen, Vendish. Hence, perhaps, it is that in the Lusatian tale of the Fairy- 
 abbath, we meet with caps with bells, and a descent into the interior of a 
 mountain in a kind of boat as in this tale : "Wilcomm, Sagen und Marcheu 
 UB der Oberlausitz. Hanov. 1843. Blackwood's Magazine for June, 1844. 
 
 K2
 
 180 ISLE OF 
 
 in the moonshine, and playing a thousand merry pranks and 
 tricks. He felt a secret dread come over him at this whis- 
 pering and buzzing, for he could see nothing of them, as the 
 caps they wore made them invisible ; but he lay quite still, 
 with his face in the grass and his eyes fast shut, snoring a 
 little, just as if he was asleep. Yet now and then he ven- 
 tured to open his eyes a little and peep out, but not the 
 slightest trace of them could he see, though it was bright 
 moonlight. 
 
 It was not long before three of the underground-people 
 came jumping up to where he was lying ; but they took no 
 heed of him, and flung their brown caps up into the air, and 
 caught them from one another. At length one snatched the 
 cap out of the hand of another and flung it away. It flew 
 direct, and fell upon John's head. The moment he felt it 
 he caught hold of it, and, standing up, bid farewell to sleep. 
 He swung his cap about for joy, and made the little silver 
 bell of it tingle, and then set it upon his head, and won- 
 derful \ that instant he saw the countless and merry swarm 
 of the little people. 
 
 The three little men came slily up to him, and thought by 
 their nimbleness to get back the cap ; but he held his prize 
 fast, and they saw clearly that nothing was to be done in 
 this way with him ; for in size and strength John was a 
 giant in comparison of these little fellows, who hardly came 
 up to his knee. The owner of the cap now caine up very 
 humbly to the finder, and begged, in as supplicating a tone 
 as if his life depended upon it, that he would give him back 
 his cap. But " No," said John, " you sly little rogue, you '11 
 get the cap no more. That 's not the sort of thing that one 
 gives away for buttered cake : I should be in a nice way with 
 you if I had not something of yours ; but now you have no 
 power over me, but must do what I please. And I will go 
 down with you, and see how you live below, and you shall 
 be my servant. Nay, no grumbling, you know you must. I 
 know that just as well as you do, for Klas Starkwolt told it 
 to me often and often." 
 
 The little man looked as if he had not heard or understood 
 one word of all this ; he began all his crying and whining 
 OT er again, and wept, and screamed, and howled most pite- 
 oueiy for his little cap. But John cut the matter short by
 
 ISLE OF BCGEJT. 181 
 
 saying to him, "Have done; you are my servant, and 1 
 intend to take a trip with you." So he gave up, especially 
 as the others told him that there was no remedy. 
 
 John now flung away his old hat, and put on the cap, and 
 set it firm on his head, lest it should slip off or fly away, for 
 all his power lay in the cap. He lost no time in trying its 
 virtue?, and commanded his new servant to fetch him food 
 and drink. And the servant ran away like the wind, and in 
 a second was there again with bottles of wine, and bread, 
 and rich fruits. So John ate and drank, and looked on at 
 the sports and the dancing of the little ones, and it pleased 
 him right well, and he behaved himself stoutly and wisely, 
 as if he was a born master. 
 
 "When the cock had now crowed for the third time, and 
 the little larks had made their first twirl in the sky, and the 
 infant light appeared in solitary white streaks in the east, 
 then it went hush, hush, hush, through the bushes, and 
 flowers, and stalks ; and the hills rang again, and opened up, 
 and the little men went down. John gave close attention to 
 everything, and found that it was exactly as he had been 
 told. And behold ! on the top of the hill, where they had 
 just been dancing, and where all was full of grass and flowers, 
 as people see it by day, there rose of a sudden, when the 
 retreat was sounded, a bright glass point. Whoever wanted 
 to go in stepped upon this ; it opened, and he glided gently 
 in, the glass closing again after him ; and when they had all 
 entered it vanished, and there was no farther trace of it to 
 be seen. Those who descended through the glass point sank 
 quite gently into a wide silver tun, which held them all, and 
 could have easily harboured a thousand such little people. 
 John and his man went down into such a one along with 
 several others, all of whom screamed out and prayed him not 
 to tread on them, for if his weight came on them they were 
 dead men. He was, however, careful, and acted in a very 
 friendly way toward them. Several tuns of this kind went 
 up and" down after each other, until all were in. They hung 
 by long silver chains, which were drawn and held below. 
 
 In his descent John was amazed at the wonderful bril- 
 liancy of the walls between which the tun glided down. 
 They were all, as it were, beset with pearls and diamonds, 
 glittering and sparkling brightly, and below him he heard
 
 182 ISLE OF 
 
 the most beautiful music tinkling at a distance, so that he 
 did not know what was become of him, and from excess of 
 pleasure he fell fast asleep. 
 
 He slept a long time, and when he awoke he found himself 
 in the most beautiful bed that could be, such as he had never 
 seen the like of in his father's house, and it was in the pret- 
 tiest little chamber in the world, and his servant was beside 
 him with a fan to keep away the flies and gnats. He had 
 hardly opened his eyes when his little servant brought him a 
 basin and towel, and held him the nicest new clothes of brown 
 silk to put on, most beautifully made ; with these was a pair 
 of new black shoes with red ribbons, such as John had never 
 beheld in Eambin or in Bodenkirchen either. There were 
 also there several pairs of beautiful shining glass shoes, such 
 as are only used on great occasions. John was, we may well 
 suppose, delighted to have such clothes to wear, and he put 
 them upon him joyfully. His servant then flew like light- 
 ning and returned with a fine breakfast of wine and milk, 
 and beautiful white bread and fruits, and such other things 
 as little boys are fond of. He now perceived, every moment, 
 more and more, that Klas Starkwolt, the old cowherd, knew 
 what he was talking about, for the splendour and magnifi- 
 cence he saw here surpassed anything he had ever dreamt of. 
 His servant, too, was the most obedient one possible : a nod 
 or a sign was enough for him, for he was as wise as a bee, as 
 all these little people are by nature. 
 
 John's bed-chamber was all covered with emeralds and 
 other precious stones, and in the ceiling was a diamond as 
 big as a nine-pin bowl, that gave light to the whole chamber. 
 In this place they have neither sun, nor moon, nor stars to 
 give them light ; neither do they use lamps or candles of any 
 kind ; but they live in the midst of precious stones, and have 
 the purest of gold and silver in abundance, and the skill to 
 make it light both by day and by night, though, indeed, pro- 
 perly speaking, as there is no sun here, there is no distinc- 
 tion of day and night, and they reckon only by weeks. They 
 set the brightest and clearest precious stones in their dwell- 
 ings, and in the ways and passages leading under the ground, 
 and in the places where they have their large halls, and 
 their dances and feasts, where they sparkle so as to make it 
 eternal day.
 
 ISLE OF BCGEK. 183 
 
 When John had finished his breakfast, his servant opened 
 a little door in the wall, where was a closet with the most 
 beautiful silver and gold cups and dishes and other vessels, 
 and baskets filled with ducats, and boxes of jewels and pre- 
 cious stones. There were also charming pictures, and the 
 most delightful story-books he had seen in the whole course 
 of his life. 
 
 John spent the morning looking at these things ; and, 
 when it was mid-day, a bell rang, and his servant said, " Will 
 you dine alone, sir, or with the large company ? " " With 
 the large company, to be sure," replied John. So his servant 
 led him out. John, however, saw nothing but solitary halls, 
 lighted up with precious stones, and here and there little men 
 and women, who appeared to him to glide out of the clefts 
 and fissures of the rocks. Wondering what it was the bells 
 rang for, he said to his servant, " But where is the company?" 
 And scarcely had he spoken when the hall they were in 
 opened out to a great extent, and a canopy set with diamonds 
 and precious stones was drawn over it. At the same moment 
 he saw an immense throng of nicely-dressed little men and 
 women pouring in through several open doors : the floor 
 opened in several places, and tables, covered with the most 
 beautiful ware, and the most luscious meats, and fruits, and 
 ines, placed themselves beside each other, and the chairs 
 arranged themselves along the tables, and then the men and 
 women took their seats. 
 
 The principal persons now came forward, bowed to John, 
 and led him to their table, where they placed him among 
 their most beautiful maidens, a distinction which pleased 
 John well. The party, too, was very merry, for the under- 
 ground people are extremely lively and cheerful, and can 
 never stay long quiet. Then the most charming music 
 sounded over their heads ; and beautiful birds, flying about, 
 sung most sweetly ; and these were not real birds but artifi- 
 cial ones, which the little men make so ingeniously that they 
 can fly about and sing like natural ones. 
 
 The servants, of both sexes, who waited at table, and 
 handed about the gold cups, and the silver and crystal baskets 
 with fruit, were children belonging to this world, whom some 
 casualty or other had thrown among the undergroundpeople, 
 and who, having come down without securing any pledge,
 
 184 ISLE OF EC0EK. 
 
 were fallen into the power of the little ones. These were 
 differently clad from them. The boys and girls were dressed 
 in snow-white coats and jackets, and wore glass shoes, so fine 
 that their steps could never be heard, with blue caps on their 
 heads, and silver belts round their waists. 
 
 John at first pitied them, seeing how they were forced to 
 run about and wait on the little people ; but as they looked 
 cheerful and happy, and were handsomely dressed, and had 
 such rosy cheeks, he said to himself, " After all, they are not 
 so badly off, and I was myself much worse when I had to be 
 running after the cows and bullocks. To be sure, I am now 
 a master here, and they are servants ; but there is no help 
 for it : why were they so foolish as to let themselves be taken 
 and not get some pledge beforehand ? At any rate, the time 
 must come when they shall be set at liberty, and they will 
 certainly not be longer than fifty years here." With these 
 thoughts he consoled himself, and sported and played away 
 with his little play-fellows, and ate, and drank, and made his 
 servant and the others tell him stories, for he would know 
 every thing exactly. 
 
 They sat at table about two hours ; the principal per- 
 son then rang a little bell, and the tables and chairs all 
 vanished in a whiff, leaving the company all on their feet. 
 The birds now struck up a most lively air, and the little 
 people danced their rounds most merrily. When they were 
 done, the joyous sets jumped, and leaped, and whirled them- 
 selves round and round, as if the world was grown dizzy. 
 And the pretty little girls that sat next John caught hold of 
 him and whirled him about ; and, without making any resist- 
 ance, he danced round and round with them for two good 
 hours. Every afternoon while he remained there, he used to 
 dance thus merrily with them ; and, to the last hour of his 
 life, he used to speak of it with the greatest glee. His lan- 
 guage was that the joys of heaven, and the songs and music 
 of the angels, which the righteous hoped to enjoy there, might 
 be excessively beautiful, but that he could "conceive nothing 
 to equal the music and the dancing under the earth, the beau- 
 tiful and lively little men, the wonderful birds in the branches, 
 and the tinkling silver bells on their caps. " No one," said 
 he, " who has not seen a^I heard it, can form any idea what- 
 crer of it."
 
 ISLE OF EtGEK. 185 
 
 "When the music and dancing were over, it might be about 
 four o'clock. The little people then disappeared, and went 
 each about their work or their pleasure. After supper they 
 sported and danced in the same way ; and at midnight, espe- 
 cially on starlight nights, they slipped out of their hills to 
 dance in the open air. John used then, like a good boy, to 
 say his prayers and go to sleep, a duty he never negle'cted 
 either in the evening or in the morning. 
 
 For the first week that John was in the glass-hill, he only 
 went from his chamber to the great hall and back again. 
 After the first week, however, he began to walk about, making 
 his servant show and explain everything to him. He found 
 that there were in that place the most beautiful walks, in 
 which he might ramble along for miles, in all directions, with- 
 out ever finding an end of them, so immensely large was the 
 hill th.q t the little people lived in, and yet outwardly it seemed 
 but a little hill, with a few bushes and trees growing on it. 
 
 It was extraordinary that, between the meads and fields, 
 which were thick sown with hills, and lakes, and islands, 
 and ornamented with trees and flowers in the greatest 
 variety, there ran, as it were, small lanes, through which, 
 as through crystal rocks, one was obliged to pass to come to 
 any new place ; and the single meads and fields were often a 
 mile long, and the flowers were so brilliant and so fragrant, 
 and the song of the numerous birds so sweet, that John had 
 never seen anything on earth at all like it. There was a 
 breeze, and yet one did not feel the wind ; it was quite clear 
 and bright, and yet there was no heat ; the waves were dash- 
 ing, still there was no danger ; and the most beautiful little 
 barks and canoes came, like white swans, when one wanted 
 to cross the water, and went backwards and forwards of 
 themselves. Whence all this came no one knew, nor could 
 his servant tell anything about it ; but one thing John saw 
 plainly, which was, that the large carbuncles and diamonds 
 that were set in the roof and walls gave light instead of the 
 sun, moon, and stars. 
 
 These lovely meads and plains were, for the most part, 
 quite lonesome. Few of the undergroundpeople were to be 
 seen upon them, and those that were, just glided across them, 
 as if in the greatest hurry. It very rarely happened that 
 any of them danced out here in the open air ; sometimes
 
 186 ISLE Or 
 
 about three of them did so ; at the most half a doen : John 
 never saw a greater number together. The meads were 
 never cheerful, except when the corps of servants, of whom 
 there might be some hundreds, were let out to walk. This, 
 however, happened but twice a-week, for they were mostly 
 kept employed in the great hall and adjoining apartments, 
 or at school. 
 
 For John soon found they had schools there also ; he had 
 been there about ten months, when one day he saw some- 
 thing snow-white gliding into a rock, and disappearing. 
 " What ! " said he to his servant, " are there some of you too 
 that wear white, like the servants ? " He was informed that 
 there were; but they were few in number, and never ap- 
 peared at the large tables or the dances, except once a year, 
 on the birthday of the great Hill-king, who dwelt many 
 thousand miles below in the great deep. These were the 
 oldest men among them, some of them many thousand years 
 old, who knew all things, and could tell of the beginning of 
 the world, and were called the Wise. They lived all alone, 
 and only left their chambers to instruct the underground 
 children and the attendants of both sexes, for whom there 
 was a great school. 
 
 John was greatly pleased with this intelligence, and he 
 determined to take advantage of it : so next morning he 
 made his servant conduct him to the school, and was so well 
 pleased with it that he never missed a day going there. 
 They were taught there reading, writing, and accounts, to 
 compose and relate histories and stories, and many elegant 
 kinds of work ; so that many came out of the hills, both men 
 and women, very prudent and knowing people, in conse- 
 quence of what they were taught there. The biggest, and 
 those of best capacity, received instruction in natural science 
 and astronomy, and in poetry and riddle-making, arts highly 
 esteemed by the little people. John was very diligent, and 
 soon became extremely clever at painting and drawing ; he 
 wrought, too, most ingeniously in gold, and silver, and 
 stones, and in verse and riddle-making he had no fellow. 
 
 John had spent many a happy year here without ever 
 thinking of the upper world, or of those he had left behind, 
 BO pleasantly passed the time so many an agreeable play- 
 fellow he had among the children.
 
 ISLE OF BC&EN. 187 
 
 Of all his playfellows there was none of whom he was sc 
 fond as of a little fair-haired girl, named Elizabeth Krabbin- 
 She was from his own village, and was the daughter oi 
 Frederick Krabbe, the minister of Eambin. She was but 
 four years old when she was taken away, and John had often 
 heard tell of her. She was not, however, stolen by the little 
 people, but came into their power in this manner. One day 
 in summer, she, with other children, ran out into the fields : 
 in their rambles they went to the Nine-hills, where little 
 Elizabeth fell asleep, and was forgotten by the rest. At 
 night, when she awoke, she found herself under the ground 
 among the little people. It was not merely because she was 
 from his own village that John was so fond of Elizabeth, but 
 she was a most beautiful child, with clear blue eyes and 
 ringlets of fair hair, and a most angelic smile. 
 
 Time flew away unperceived: John was now eighteen, 
 and Elizabeth sixteen. Their childish fondness had become 
 love, and the little people were pleased to see it, thinking 
 that by means of her they might get John to renounce his 
 power, and become their servant ; for they were fond of him, 
 and would willingly have had him to wait upon them ; for 
 the love of dominion is their vice. But they were mistaken. 
 John had learned too much from his servant to be caught in 
 that way. 
 
 John's chief delight was in walking about alone with 
 Elizabeth; for he now knew every place so well that he 
 could dispense with the attendance of his servant. In these 
 rambles he was always gay and lively, but his companion was 
 frequently sad and melancholy, thinking on the land above, 
 where men lived, and where the sun, moon, and stars, tthine. 
 Now it happened in one of their walks, that as they talked 
 of their love, and it was after midnight, they passed under 
 the place where the tops of the glass-hills used to open and 
 let the undergroundpeople in and out. As they went along 
 they heard of a sudden the crowing of several cocks above. 
 At this sound, which she had not heard for twelve years, 
 little Elizabeth felt her heart so affected that she could 
 contain herself no longer, but throwing her arms about 
 John's neck, she bathed his cheeks with her tears. At 
 length she spake 
 
 " Dearest John," said she, " everything down here is very
 
 188 ISLE OF EDGES'. 
 
 beautiful, and the little people are kind, and do nothing to 
 injure me, but still I have always been uneasy, nor ever 
 felt any pleasure till I began to love you ; and yet that is 
 not pure pleasure, for this is not a right way of living, such 
 as it should be for human beings. Every night I dream of 
 my dear father and mother, and of our church-yard, where 
 the people stand so piously at the church-door waiting for 
 my father, and I could weep tears of blood that I cannot go 
 into the church with them, and worship God as a human 
 being should ; for this is no Christian life we lead down 
 here, but a delusive half heathen one. And only think, dear 
 John, that we can never marry, as there is no priest to join 
 us. Do, then, plan some way for us to leave this place ; for 
 I cannot tell you how I long to get once more to my father, 
 and among pious Christians." 
 
 John, too, had not been unaffected by the crowing of the 
 cocks, and he felt what he had never felt here before, 
 a longing after the land where the sun shines, and he 
 replied, 
 
 " Dear Elizabeth, all you say is true, and I now feel that 
 it is a sin for Christians to stay here ; and it seems to me 
 as if our Lord said to us in that cry of the cocks, ' Come up, 
 ye Christian children, out of those abodes of illusion and 
 magic ; come to the light of the stars, and act as children 
 of fight.' I now feel that it was a great sin for me to come 
 down here, but I trust I shall be forgiven on account of my 
 youth ; for I was a child and knew not what I did. But 
 now I will not stay a day longer. They cannot keep me 
 here." 
 
 At these last words, Elizabeth turned pale, for she recol- 
 lected that she was a servant, and must serve her fifty years. 
 " And what will it avail me," cried she, " that I shall con- 
 tinue young and be but as of twenty years when I go out, 
 for my father and mother will be dead, and all my com- 
 panions will be old and gray ; and you, dearest John, will be 
 old and gray also," cried she, throwing herself on his bosom. 
 
 John was thunderstruck at this, for it had never before 
 occurred to him ; he, however, comforted her as well as he 
 could, and declared he would never leave the place without 
 her. He spent the whole night in forming various plans ; 
 at last he fixed on one, and in the morning he despatched
 
 ISLE OF ECaEW. 189 
 
 ais servant to summon to his apartment six of the principu. 
 of the little people. When they came, Johr thus mildly 
 addressed them : 
 
 " My friends, you know how I came here, not as a 
 prisoner or servant, but as a lord and master over one of 
 you, and consequently, over all. You have now for the 
 ten years I have been with you treated me with respect and 
 attention, and for that I am your debtor. But you are still 
 more my debtors, for I might have given you every sort 
 of annoyance and vexation, and you must have submitted 
 to it. I have, however, not done so, but have behaved as 
 your equal, and have sported and played with you rather 
 than ruled over you. I now have one request to make. 
 There is a girl among your servants whom I love, Elizabeth 
 Krabbin, of Rambin, where I was born. Give her to me, 
 and let us depart. For I will return to where the sun 
 shines and the plough goes through the land. I ask to take 
 nothing with me but her, and the ornaments and furniture 
 of my chamber." 
 
 He spoke in a determined tone, and they hesitated and 
 cast their eyes to the ground ; at last the oldest of them 
 replied : 
 
 " Sir, you ask what we cannot grant. It is a fixed law, 
 that no servant shall leave this place before the appointed 
 time. Were we to break through this law, our whole sub- 
 terranean empire would fall. Anything else you desire, for 
 we love and respect you, but we cannot give up Elizabeth." 
 
 "You can and you shall give her up," cried John in a 
 rage ; " go think of it till to-morrow. Return here at this 
 hour. I will show you whether or not I can triumph over 
 your hypocritical and cunning stratagems." 
 
 The six retired. Next morning, on their return, John 
 addressed them in the kindest manner, but to no purpose ; 
 they persisted in their refusal. He gave them till the 
 next day, threatening them severely in case of their still 
 proving refractory. 
 
 Next day, when the six little people appeared before 
 him, John looked at them sternly, and made no return to 
 their salutations, but said to them shortly, " Yes, or No ? " 
 And they answered with one voice, "No." He then 
 ordered his servant to summon twenty- four more of the
 
 190 ISLE OF BUGEN. 
 
 principal persons with their wives and children. When 
 they came, they were in all five hundred, men, women, and 
 children. John ordered them forthwith to go and fetch 
 pickaxes, spades, and bars, which they did in a second. 
 
 He now led them out to a rock in one of the fields, and 
 ordered them to fall to work at blasting, hewing, and 
 dragging stones. They toiled patiently, and made as if it 
 were only sport to them. From morning till night their 
 task-master made them labour without ceasing, standing 
 over them constantly, to prevent their resting. Still their 
 obstinacy was inflexible ; and at the end of some weeks 
 his pity for them was so great, that he was obliged to 
 give over. 
 
 He now thought of a new species of punishment for 
 them. He ordered them to appear before him next morning, 
 each provided with a new whip. They obeyed, and John 
 commanded them to strip and lash one another till the blood 
 should run down on the ground, and he stood looking on as 
 grim and cruel as an eastern tyrant. Still the little people 
 cut and slashed themselves, and mocked at John, and 
 refused to comply with his wishes. This he did for three or 
 four days. 
 
 Several other courses did he try, but all in vain; his 
 temper was too gentle to struggle with their obstinacy, and 
 he began now to despair of ever accomplishing his dearest 
 wish. He began even to hate the little people whom he was 
 before so fond of; he kept away from their banquets and 
 dances, and associated alone with Elizabeth, and ate and 
 drank quite solitary in his chamber. In short, he became 
 almost a perfect hermit, and sank into moodiness and 
 melancholy. 
 
 While in this temper, as he was taking a solitary walk in 
 the evening, and, to divert his melancholy, was flinging the 
 stones that lay in his path against each other, he happened 
 to break a tolerably large one, and out of it jumped a toad. 
 The moment John saw the ugly animal, he caught him up in 
 ecstasy, and put him into his pocket and ran home, crying, 
 " Now I have her ! I have my Elizabeth ! Now you shall 
 get it, you little mischievous rascals!" And on getting 
 home he put the toad into a costly silver casket, as if it was 
 the greatest treasure.
 
 ISLE OF BUGEN. 191 
 
 To account for John's joy you must know that Klaa 
 Starkwolt had often told him that the underground people 
 could not endure any ill smell, and that the sight or even 
 the smell of a toad made them faint and suffer the most 
 dreadful tortures, and that by means of stench and these 
 odious ugly animals, one could compel them to anything. 
 Hence there are no bad smells to be found in the whole 
 glass empire, and a toad is a thing unheard of there ; this 
 toad must therefore have been inclosed in the stone from 
 the creation, as it were for the sake of John and Elizabeth. 
 
 Resolved to try the effect of his toad, John took the 
 casket under his arm and went out, and on the way he met 
 two of the little people in a lonesome place. The moment 
 he approached them they fell to the ground, and whimpered 
 and howled most lamentably, as long as he was near them. 
 
 Satisfied now of his power, he next morning summoned 
 the fifty principal persons, with their wives and children, to 
 his apartment. When they came, he addressed them, 
 reminding them once again of his kindness and gentleness 
 toward them, and of the good terms on which they had 
 hitherto lived. He reproached them with their ingratitude 
 in refusing him the only favour he had ever asked of them, 
 but firmly declared he would not give way to their obstinacy. 
 "Wherefore," said he, "for the last time, think for a 
 minute, and if you then say No, you shall feel that pain 
 which is to you and your children the most terrible of 
 all pains." 
 
 They did not take long to deliberate, but unanimously 
 replied " No ;" and they thought to themselves what new 
 scheme has the youth hit on, with which he thinks to 
 frighten wise ones like us, and they smiled as they said No. 
 Their smiling enraged John above all, and he ran back a few 
 hundred paces, to where he had laid the casket with the 
 toad, under a bush. 
 
 He was hardly come within a hundred paces of them when 
 they all fell to the ground as if struck with a thunderbolt, 
 and began to howl and whimper, and to writhe, as if 
 suffering the most excruciating pain. They stretched out 
 their hands, and cried, " Have mercy ! have mercy ! we fee] 
 you have a toad, and there is no escape for us. Take the 
 odious beast away, and we will do all you require." He let
 
 192 ISLE OF 
 
 them kick a few seconds longer, and then took the toad 
 away. They then stood up and felt no more pain. John 
 let all depart but the six chief persons, to whom he said : 
 
 " This night between twelve and one Elizabeth and I will 
 depart. Load then for me three waggons, with gold, and 
 silver, and precious stones. I might, you know, take all that 
 is in the hill, and you deserve it, but I will be merciful. 
 Farther, you must put all the furniture of my chamber in 
 two waggons, and get ready for me the handsomest travel- 
 ling-carriage that is in the hill, with six black horses. 
 Moreover, you must set at liberty all the servants who have 
 been so long here that on earth they would be twenty years 
 old and upwards, and you must give them as much silver 
 and gold as will make them rich for life, and make a law 
 that no one shall be detained here longer than his twentieth 
 year." 
 
 The six took the oath, and went away quite melancholy, 
 and John buried his toad deep in the ground. The little 
 people laboured hard and prepared everything. At midnight 
 everything was out of the hill, and John and Elizabeth got 
 into the silver tun, and were drawn up. 
 
 It was then one o'clock, and it was midsummer, the very 
 time that twelve years before John had gone down into the 
 hill. Music sounded around them, and they saw the glass 
 hill open, and the rays of the light of heaven shine on them 
 after so many years ; and when they got out they saw the 
 first streaks of dawn already in the east. Crowds of the 
 undergroundpeople were around them busied about the 
 waggons. John bid them a last farewell, waved his brown 
 cap three times in the air, and then flung it among them. 
 And at the same moment he ceased to see them ; he beheld 
 nothing but a green hill, and the well-known bushes and 
 fields, and heard the church clock of Rambin strike two. 
 When all was still, save a few larks, who were tuning their 
 morning songs, they all fell on their knees and worshiped 
 God, resolving henceforth to lead a pious and a Christian 
 life. 
 
 When the sun rose, John arranged the procession, and 
 they set out for Rambin. Every well-known object that 
 they saw awaked pleasing recollections in the bosom of John 
 and his bride ; and as they passed by Eodenkirchen, John
 
 ISLE OF RUGEN 193 
 
 recognised, among the people that gazed at and followed 
 them, his old friend Klas Starkwolt, the cowherd, and his 
 dog Speed. It was about four in the morning when they 
 entered Rambin, and they halted in the middle of the village, 
 about twenty paces from the house where John was born. 
 The whole village poured out to gaze on these Asiatic 
 princes, for such the old sexton, who had in his youth been 
 at Moscow and Constantinople, said they were. There 
 John saw his father and mother, and his brother Andrew, 
 and his sister Trine. The old minister, Krabbe, stood there 
 too, in his black slippers and white night cap, gaping and 
 staring with the rest. 
 
 John discovered himself to his parents, and Elizabeth to 
 hers, and the wedding-day was soon fixed, and such a wed- 
 ding was never seen before or since in the island of Riigen ; 
 for John sent to Stralsund and Greifswald for whole boat- 
 loads of wine, and sugar, and coffee, and whole herds of 
 oxen, sheep, and pigs were driven to the wedding. The 
 quantity of harts, and roes, and hares that were shot on the 
 occasion, it were vain to attempt to tell, or to count the fish 
 that was caught. There was not a musician in Riigen and 
 Pomerania that was not engaged, for John was immensely 
 rich, and he wished to display his wealth. 
 
 John did not neglect his old friend Klas Starkwolt, the 
 cowherd. He gave him enough to make him comfortable 
 the rest of his days, and insisted on his coming and staying 
 with him as often and as long as he wished. 
 
 After his marriage, John made a progress through the 
 country with his beautiful Elizabeth, and they purchased 
 towns, and villages, and lands, until he became master of 
 nearly half Riigen, and a very considerable count in the 
 country. His father, old James Dietrich, was made a noble- 
 man, and his brothers and sisters gentlemen and ladies for 
 what cannot money do ? 
 
 John and his wife spent their days in doing acts of piety 
 and charity. They built several churches, and they had the 
 blessing of every one that knew them, and died universally 
 lamented. It was Count John Dietrich that built and 
 richly endowed the present church of Rambin. He built it 
 on the site of his father's house, and presented to it several 
 of the cups and plates made by the underground people, and
 
 194 ISLE OF 
 
 his own and Elizabeth's glass shoes, in memory of what had 
 befallen them in their youth. But they were all taken away 
 in the time of the great Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, 
 when the Eussians came on the island, and the Cossacks 
 plundered even the churches, and took away everything. 
 
 ILtttlr (Trias's' 
 
 A PEASANT, named John Wilde, who lived in Eodenkirchen, 
 found one time a glass shoe on one of the hills where the 
 little people used to dance. He clapped it instantly into 
 his pocket and ran away with it, keeping his hand as close 
 on his pocket as if he had a dove in it ; for he knew that he 
 had found a treasure which the underground people must 
 redeem at any price. 
 
 Others say that John Wilde lay in ambush one night 
 for the underground people, and gained an opportunity of 
 pulling oft' one of their shoes, by stretching himself there 
 with a brandy-bottle beside him, and acting like one that 
 was dead drunk ; for he was a very cunning man, not over 
 scrupulous in his morals, and had taken in many a one by 
 his craftiness, and, on this account, his name was in no good 
 repute among his neighbours, who, to say the truth, were 
 willing to have as little to do with him as possible. Many 
 hold, too, that he was acquainted with forbidden arts, and 
 used to carry on an intercourse with the fiends and old 
 women that raised storms, and such like. 
 
 However, be this as it may, when John had gotten the 
 shoe, he lost no time in letting the folk that dwell under 
 the ground know that he had it. So at midnight he went 
 to the Nine- hills, and cried with all his might, " John Wilde, 
 of Rodenkirchen, has got a beautiful glass shoe. Who will 
 buy it ? Who will buy it ?" For he knew that the little 
 one who had lost the shoe must go barefoot till he got it 
 again, and that is no trifle, for the little people have gene- 
 rally to walk upon very hard and stony ground.
 
 ISLE OF BflGEK. 195 
 
 John's advertisement was speedily attended to. The little 
 fellow who had lost the shoe made no delay in setting about 
 redeeming it. The first free day he got, that he might come 
 out into the daylight, he came as a respectable merchant, 
 and knocked at John Wilde's door, and asked if John had 
 not a glass shoe to sell? "For," says he, "they are an 
 article now in great demand, and are sought for in every 
 market." John replied that it was true he had a very little 
 little, nice, pretty little glass shoe, but it was so small that 
 even a Dwarf's foot would be squeezed in it ; and that God 
 Almighty must make people on purpose for it before it could 
 be of any use ; but that, for all that, it was an extraordinary 
 shoe, and a valuable shoe, and a dear shoe, and it was not 
 every merchant that could afford to pay for it. 
 
 The merchant asked to see it, and when he had examined 
 it, " Glass shoes," said he, " are not by any means such rare 
 articles, my good friend, as you think here in Rodenkirchen, 
 because you do not happen to go much into the world. 
 However," said he, after hemming a little, " I will give you 
 a good price for it, because I happen to have the very fellow 
 of it." And he bid the countryman a thousand dollars 
 for it. 
 
 "A thousand dollars are money, my father used to say 
 when he drove fat oxen to market," replied John Wilde, in 
 a mocking tone ; " but it will not leave my hands for that 
 shabby price ; and, for my own part, it may ornament the 
 foot of my daughter's doll. Harkye, friend : I have heard a 
 sort of little song sung about the glass shoe, and it is not 
 for a parcel of dirt that it will go out of my hands. Tell me 
 now, my good fellow, should you happen to know the knack 
 of it, that in every furrow I make when I am ploughing I 
 should find a ducat ? If not, the shoe is still mine, and you 
 may inquire for glass shoes at those other markets." 
 
 The merchant made still a great many attempts, and 
 twisted and turned in every direction to get the shoe ; but 
 when he found the farmer inflexible, he agreed to what John 
 desired, and swore to the performance of it. Cunning John 
 believed him, and gave him up the glass shoe, for he knew 
 right well with whom he had to do. So the business being 
 ended, away went the merchant with his glass shoe. 
 
 Without a moment's delay, John repaired to his stable, 
 
 o2
 
 .198 ISLE OF EUGEW. 
 
 ret cannot, go away : " and a variety of thoughts and con- 
 jectures passed through his mind; and he called to mind 
 what he had often heard from his father, and other old 
 people, that when the under groundpeople chance to touch 
 anything holy, they are held fast and cannot quit the spot, 
 and are therefore extremely careful to avoid all such things. 
 But he also thought it may as well be something else ; and 
 you would perhaps be committing a sin in disturbing and 
 taking away the little animal ; so he let it stay as it was. 
 
 But when he had found it twice more in the same place, 
 and still running about with the same marks of uneasiness, 
 he said, " No, it is not all right with it. So now, in the 
 name of God ! " and he made a grasp at the insect, that 
 resisted and clung fast to the stone ; but he held it tight, 
 and tore it away by main force, and lo ! then he found he 
 had, by the top of the head, a little ugly black chap, about 
 six inches long, screeching and kicking at a most furious rate. 
 
 The farmer was greatly astounded at this sudden trans- 
 formation ; still he held his prize fast and kept calling to 
 him, while he administered to him a few smart slaps on the 
 buttocks : " Be quiet, be quiet, my little man ! if crying was 
 to do the business, we might look for heroes in swaddling 
 clothes. We '11 just take you with us a bit, and see what 
 you are good for." 
 
 The little fellow trembled and shook in every limb, and 
 then began to whimper most piteously, and to beg hard of 
 the farmer to let him go. But "No, my lad," replied the 
 farmer, " I will not let you go till you tell me who you are, 
 and how you came here, and what trade you know, that 
 enables you to earn your bread in the world." At this the 
 little man grinned and shook his head, but said not a word 
 in reply, only begged and prayed the more to get loose ; and 
 the farmer found that he must now begin to entreat him if 
 he would coax any information out of him. But it was all 
 to no purpose. He then adopted the contrary method, and 
 whipped and slashed him till the blood run down, but just 
 to as little purpose ; the little black thing remained as dumb 
 as the grave, for this species is the most malicious and obsti- 
 nate of all the underground race. 
 
 The farmer now got angry, and he said, " Do but be quiet, 
 my child ; I should be a fool to put myself into a passion
 
 ISLE OF UUGEX. 199 
 
 with such a little brat. Never fear, I shall soon make you 
 tame enough." 
 
 So saying, he ran home with him, and clapped him into 
 a black, sooty, iron pot, aud put the iron lid upon it, and 
 laid on the top of the lid a great heavy stone, and set the 
 pot in a dark cold room, and as he was going out he said to 
 him, " Stay there, now, and freeze till you are black ! I '11 
 engage that at last you will answer me civilly." 
 
 Twice a- week the farmer went regularly into the room and 
 asked his little black captive if he would answer him now ; 
 but the little one still obstinately persisted in his silence. 
 The farmer had now, without success, pursued this course 
 for six weeks, at the end of which time his prisoner at last 
 gave up. One day as the farmer was opening the room door, 
 he, of his own accord, called out to him to come and take 
 him out of his dirty stinking dungeon, promising that he 
 would now cheerfully do all that was wanted of him. 
 
 The farmer first ordered him to give him his history. The 
 black one replied, " My dear friend you know it just as well 
 as I, or else you never had had me here. You see I 
 happened by chance to come too near the cross, a thing we 
 little people may not do, and there I was held fast and 
 obliged instantly to let my body become visible ; so, then, 
 that people might not recognise me, I turned myself into 
 an insect. But you found me out. For when we get 
 fastened to holy or consecrated things, we never can get 
 away from them unless a man takes us off. That, however, 
 does not happen without plague and annoyance to us, though, 
 indeed, to say the truth, the staying fastened there is not 
 over pleasant. And so I struggled against you, too, for we 
 have a natural aversion to let ourselves be taken into a 
 man's hand." " Ho, ho ! is that the tune with you ?" cried 
 the farmer : " you have a natural aversion, have you ? Be- 
 lieve me, my sooty friend, I have just the same for you ; 
 and so you shall be away without a moment's delay, and we 
 will lose no time in making our bargain with each other. But 
 you must first make me some present." "What you will, 
 you have only to ask," said the little one : " silver and gold, 
 and precious stones, and costly furniture all shall be thine 
 in less than an instant." "Silver and gold, and precious 
 stones, and all such glittering fine things will 1 none," said
 
 200 ISLE OF 
 
 the farmer ; " they have turned the heart and broken the 
 neck of many a one before now, and few are they whose 
 lives they make happy. I know that you are handy smiths, 
 and have many a strange thing with you that other 
 smiths know nothing about. So come, now, swear to me 
 that you will make me an iron plough, such that the smallest 
 foal may be able to draw it without being tired, and then 
 run off with you as fast as your legs can carry you." So 
 the black swore, and the farmer then cried out, " Now, in 
 the name of G-od ; there, you are at liberty," and the little 
 one vanished like lightning. 
 
 Next morning, before the sun was up, there stood in the 
 farmer's yard a new iron plough, and he yoked his dog Water 
 to it, and though it was of the size of an ordinary plough, 
 Water drew it with ease through the heaviest clay-land, and 
 it tore up prodigious furrows. The farmer used this plough 
 for many years, and the smallest foal or the leanest little 
 horse could draw it through the ground, to the amazement of 
 every one who beheld it, without turning a single hair. And 
 this plough made a rich man of the farmer, for it cost him 
 no horse-flesh, and he led a cheerful and contented life by 
 means of it. Hereby we may see that moderation holds 
 out the longest, and that it is not good to covet too much. 
 
 A SIIEPHEBD'S boy belonging to Patzig, about half a mile 
 from Bergen, where there are great numbers of the under- 
 ground people in the hills, found one morning a little silver 
 bell on the green heath, amoag the Giants' -graves, and 
 fastened it on him. It happened to be the bell belonging 
 to the (Kip of one of the little Brown ones, who had lost it 
 while he was dancing, and did not immediately miss it, or 
 observe that it was no longer tinkling in his cap. He had 
 gone down into the hill without his bell, and having dis- 
 covered his loss, was filled with melancholy. For the worst 
 thing that can befall the underground people is to lose their
 
 ISLE OF KUOEN. 201 
 
 cap, then their shoes ; but even to lose the bell from their 
 caps, or the buckle from their belts, is no trifle to them. 
 Whoever loses his bell must pass some sleepless nights, for 
 not a wink of sleep can he get till he has recovered it. 
 
 The little fellow was in the greatest trouble, and searched 
 and looked about everywhere; but how could he learn who had 
 the bell? For only on a very few days in the year may they 
 come up to the daylight ; nor can they then appear in their 
 true form. He had turned himself into every form of birds, 
 beasts, and men ; and he had sung and rung, and groaned 
 and moaned, and lamented and inquired about his bell, but 
 not the slightest tidings, or trace of tidings, had he been 
 able to get. For what was worst of all, the shepherd's boy 
 had left Patzig the very day he found the little bell, and 
 was now keeping sheep at IJnruh, near Gingst : so it was 
 not till many a day after, and then by mere chance, that the 
 little underground fellow recovered his bell, and with it his 
 peace of mind. 
 
 He had thought it not unlikely that a raven, or a crow, 
 or a jackdaw, or a magpie, had found his bell, and from his 
 thievish disposition, which is caught with anything bright 
 and shining, had carried it into his nest ; with this thought 
 he had turned himself into a beautiful little bird, and 
 searched all the nests in the island, and had sung before all 
 kinds of birds, to see if they had found what he had lost, 
 and could restore him his sleep ; but nothing had he been 
 able to learn from the birds. As he now, one evening, was 
 flying over the waters of Ealov and the fields of Unruh, the 
 shepherd's boy, whose name was Fritz Schlagenteufel 
 (Smite-devil), happened to be keeping his sheep there at 
 the very time. Several of the sheep had bells about their 
 necks, and they tinkled merrily, when the boy's dog set 
 them trotting. The little bird, who was flying over them 
 thought of his bell, and sung, in a melancholy tone, 
 
 Little bell, little bell, 
 Little ram as well, 
 
 You, too, little sheep, 
 If you've my Tingletoo, 
 No sheep's so rich as you 
 
 My rest you keep. 
 
 The boy looked up and listened to this strange song
 
 196 ISLE OF RtJOEIT. 
 
 got ready his horses and his plough, and drove out to the 
 field. He selected a piece of grou/id where he would have 
 the shortest turns possible, and began to plough. Hardly 
 had the plough turned up the first sod, when up sprang a 
 ducat out of the ground, and it was the same with every 
 fresh furrow he made. There was now no end of his 
 ploughing, and John Wilde soon bought eight new horses, 
 and put them into the stable to the eight he already had 
 and their mangers were never without plenty of oats in 
 them that he might be able every two hours to yoke two 
 fresh horses, and so be enabled to drive them the faster. 
 
 John was now insatiable in ploughing ; every morning he 
 was out before sunrise, and many a time he ploughed on 
 till after midnight. Summer and winter it was plough, 
 plough with him evermore, except when the ground was 
 frozen as hard as a stone. But he always ploughed by him- 
 self, and never suffered any one to go out with him, or to 
 come to him when he was at work, for John understood too 
 well the nature of his crop to let people see what it was he 
 ploughed so constantly for. 
 
 But it fared far worse with himself than with his horses, 
 who ate good oats and were regularly changed and relieved, 
 while he grew pale and meagre by reason of his continual 
 working and toiling. His wife and children had no longer any 
 comfort of him ; he never went to the alehouse or the club ; 
 he withdrew himself from every one, and scarcely ever spoke a 
 single word, but went about silent and wrapped up in his 
 own thoughts. All the day long he toiled for his ducats, 
 and at night he had to count them and to plan and meditate 
 how he might find out a still swifter kind of plough. 
 
 His wife and the neighbours lamented over his strange con- 
 duct, his dullness and melancholy, and began to think that 
 he was grown foolish. Everybody pitied his wife and chil- 
 dren, for they imagined that the numerous horses that he 
 kept in his stable, and the preposterous mode of agriculture 
 that he pursued, with his unnecessary and superfluous 
 ploughing, must soon leave him without house or land. 
 
 But their anticipations were not fulfilled. True it is, the 
 poor man never enjoyed a happy or contented hour since he 
 began to plough the ducats up out of the ground. The old 
 saying held good in his case, thut he who gives himself up tc
 
 ISLE OF HUGEX. 197 
 
 the pursuit of gold is half way in the claws of the evil one. 
 Flesh and blood cannot bear perpetual labour, and John 
 Wilde did not long hold out against this running through 
 the furrows day and night. He got through the first spring, 
 but one day in the second, he dropped down at the tail of 
 the plough like an exhausted November fly. Out of the 
 pure thirst after gold he was wasted away and dried up to 
 nothing; whereas he had been a very strong and hearty 
 man the day the shoe of the little underground man fell into 
 his hands. 
 
 His wife, however, found after him a considerable treasure, 
 two great nailed up chests full of good new ducats, and his 
 sons purchased large estates for themselves, and became lords 
 and noblemen. But what good did all that do poor John 
 Wilde? 
 
 Clje 
 
 THEEE was once a farmer who was master of one of the 
 little black ones, that are the blacksmiths and armourers ; 
 and he got him in a very curious way. On the road leading 
 to this farmer's ground there stood a stone cross, and every 
 morning as he went to his work he used to stop and kneel 
 down before this cross, and pray for some minutes. 
 
 On one of these occasions he noticed on the cross a pretty 
 bright insect, of such a brilliant hue that he could not recol- 
 lect having ever before seen the like with an insect. He 
 wondered greatly at this, yet still he did not disturb it ; but 
 the insect did not remain long quiet, but ran without ceasing 
 backwards and forwards on the cross, as if it was in pain, 
 and wanted to get away. Next morning the farmer again 
 saw the very same insect, and again it was running to and 
 fro, in the same state of uneasiness. The farmer began now 
 to have some suspicions about it, and thought to himself, 
 " Would this now be one of the little black enchanters ? 
 For certain, all is not right with that insect ; it runs about 
 just like one that had an evil conscience, as one that would.
 
 202 ISLE OF HfGEN. 
 
 which came out of the sky, and saw the pretty bird, which 
 seemed to him still more strange : "Odds bodikins !" said 
 he to himself, " if one but had that bird that 's singing up 
 there, so plain that one of us would hardly match him ! 
 What can he mean by that wonderful song ? The whole 
 of it is, it must be a feathered witch. My rams have only 
 pinchbeck bells, he calls them rich cattle ; but I have a 
 silver bell, and he sings nothing about me." And with 
 these words he began to fumble in his pocket, took out his 
 bell, and rang it. 
 
 The bird in the air instantly saw what it was, and was 
 rejoiced beyond measure. He vanished in a second flew 
 behind the nearest bush alighted and drew off his speckled 
 feather-dress, and turned himself into an old woman dressed 
 in tattered clothes. The old dame, well supplied with sighs 
 and groans, tottered across the field to the shepherd's boy, 
 who was still ringing his bell, and wondering what was 
 become of the beautiful bird. She cleared her throat, and 
 coughing up from the bottom of her chest, bid him a kind 
 good evening, and asked him which was the way to Bergen. 
 Pretending then that she had just seen the little bell, she 
 exclaimed, "Good Lord! what a charming pretty little bell! 
 Well ! in all my life I never beheld anything more beau- 
 tiful ! Harkye, my son, will you sell me that bell ? And 
 what may be the price of it ? I have a little grandson at 
 home, and such a nice plaything as it would make for him !" 
 "No," replied the boy, quite short, "the bell is not for 
 sale. It is a bell, that there is not such another bell in the 
 whole world. I have only to give it a little tinkle, and my 
 sheep run of themselves wherever I would have them go. 
 And what a delightful sound it has ! Only listen, mother !" 
 said he, ringing it : " is there any weariness in the world 
 that can hold out against this bell ? I can ring with 
 it away the longest time, so that it will be gone in a 
 second." 
 
 The old woman thought to herself, " We will see if he 
 can hold out against bright shining money." And she took 
 out no less than three silver dollars, and offered them to him: 
 but he still replied, " No, 1 will not sell my bell." She then 
 offered him five dollars. " The bell is still mine," said he. 
 She stretched out her hand full of ducats : he replied, this
 
 ISLK OF RIOEN. 203 
 
 third time, " Gold is dirt and does not ring." The old daine 
 then shii'ted her ground, and turned the discourse another 
 way. She grew mysterious, and began to entice him by 
 talking of secret arts, and of charms by which his cattle 
 might be made to thrive prodigiously, relating to him all 
 kinds of wonders of them. It was then the young shepherd 
 began to long, and he now lent a willing ear to her tales. 
 
 The end of the matter was, that she said to him, " Harkye, 
 my child ! give me the bell and see ! here is a white stick 
 for you," said she, taking out a little white stick which had 
 Adam and Eve very ingeniously cut on it, as they were 
 feeding the herds of Paradise, with the fattest sheep and 
 lambs dancing before them ; and there was the shepherd 
 David too, as he stood with his sling against the giant 
 Goliath. " I will give you," said the old woman, " this stick 
 for the bell, and as long as you drive the cattle with it they 
 will be sure to thrive. With this you will become a rich 
 shepherd : your wethers will always be fat a month sooner 
 than the wethers of other shepherds, and every one of your 
 sheep will have two pounds of wool more than others, and 
 yet no one will be ever able to see it on them." 
 
 The old woman handed him the stick. So mysterious was 
 her gesture, and so strange and bewitching her smile, that 
 the lad was at once in her power. He grasped eagerly at 
 the stick, gave her his hand, and cried, " Done ! Strike 
 hands! The bell for the stick!" And cheerfully the old 
 woman struck hands, and took the bell, and went like a 
 light breeze over the field and the heath. He saw her 
 vanish, and she seemed to float away before his eyes like a 
 mist, and to go off with a slight whiz and whistle that made 
 the shepherd's hair stand on end. 
 
 The underground one, however, who, in the shape of an 
 old woman, had wheedled him out of his bell, had not 
 deceived him. For the under groundpeople dare not lie, 
 but must ever keep their word ; a breach of it being followed 
 by their sudden chajige into the shape of toads, snakes, 
 dunghill-beetles, wolves and apes ; forms in which they 
 wander about, objects of fear and aversion for a long course 
 of years before they are freed. They, therefore, have natu- 
 rally a great dread of lying. Fritz Schlagenteufel gave close 
 attention and made trial of his new shepherd' B-staff, and he
 
 204 ISLE OF RUGEH. 
 
 BOOL, found thai the old woman had told him the truth, for 
 his flocks, and his work, and all the labour of his hands 
 prospered with him and had wonderful luck, so that there 
 was not a sheep-owner or head shepherd but was desirous of 
 having Fritz Schlagenteufel in his employment. 
 
 It was not long, however, that he remained an underling. 
 Before he was eighteen years of age, he had gotten his own 
 flocks, and in the course of a few years was the richest 
 sheep-master in the whole island of Riigen ; until at last, he 
 was able to purchase a knight's estate for himself, and that 
 estate was Grabitz, close by Rambin, which now belongs to 
 the lords of Sunde. My father* knew him there, and how 
 from a shepherd's boy he was become a nobleman, and he 
 always conducted himself like a prudent, honest and pious 
 man, who had a good word from every one. He brought up 
 his sons like gentlemen, and his daughters like ladies, some 
 of whom are still alive and accounted people of great conse- 
 quence. And well may people who hear such stories wish 
 that they had met with such an adventure, and had found a 
 little silver bell which the underground people had lost. 
 
 SSIatfc IBtoarW at CJramtj. 
 
 NOT far from the Ahlbeck lies a little mansion called 
 Granitz, just under the great wood on the sea-coast called 
 the wood of Granitz. In this little seat lived, not many 
 years ago, a nobleman named Von Scheele. Toward the 
 close of his life he sank into a state of melancholy, though 
 hitherto a very cheerful and social man, and a great sports- 
 man. People said that the old man took to his lonesome 
 way of living from the loss of his three beautiful daughters, 
 who were called the three fair-haired maidens, and who 
 grew up here in the solitude of the woods, among the herds 
 and the birds, and who had all three gone off in the same 
 night and never returned. The old man took this greatly 
 
 * Hinrich Tick's ot course, for he is the narrator.
 
 ISLE OF HO GEN. 205 
 
 to heart, and withdrew himself from the world, and all 
 cheerful society. He had great intercourse with the little 
 black people, and he was many a night out of the house, 
 and no one knew where he had been ; but when he came 
 home in the gray of the morning, he would whisper his 
 housekeeper, and say to her, " Ha, ha ! I was at a grand 
 table last night." 
 
 This old gentleman used to relate to his friends, and 
 confirm it with many a stout trooper's and sportsman's oath, 
 that the underground people swarmed among the fir-trees of 
 Granitz, about the Ahlbeck, and along the whole shore. 
 He used often, also, to show to those whom he took to walk 
 there, a great number of little foot-prints, like those of 
 very small children, in the sand, and he has suddenly called 
 out to his companions, " Hush ! Listen how they are, buzzing 
 and whispering !" 
 
 Going once with some friends along the sea-shore, he all 
 of a sudden stood still, as if in amazement, pointed to the 
 sea, and cried out, " My soul ! there they are again at full 
 work, and there are several thousands of them employed 
 about a few sunken casks of wine that they are rolling to 
 the shore ; oh ! what a jovial carouse there will be to-night !" 
 He then told his companions that he could see them both 
 by day and by night, and that they did nothing to him ; nay, 
 they were his most particular friends, and one of them had 
 once saved his house from being burnt by waking him in the 
 night out of a profound sleep, when a firebrand, that had 
 fallen out on the floor, was just on the point of setting fire 
 to some wood and straw that lay there. He said that almost 
 every day some of them were to be seen on the sea-shore, 
 but that during high storms, when the sea was uncommonly 
 rough, almost all of them were there looking after amber and 
 shipwrecks, and for certain no ship ever went to pieces but 
 they got the best part of the cargo, and hid it safe under the 
 ground. And how grand a thing, he added, it is to live 
 under the sand-hills with them, and how beautiful their 
 crystal palaces are, no one can have any conception who has 
 not been there.
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Ton wtiden getwergen ban ich gehoret sagen 
 8i sin in holren bergen ; unt daz si ze scherme tragea 
 Einez heizet tarnkappen, von wunderlicher art 
 Swerz hat an sime libe, der sol Til wohl sin be wart 
 Vor slegen nnt vor stichen. NIBEHTSOEX, LIED St. 342. 
 
 Of wild dwarfs I oft have heard men declare 
 
 They dwell in hollow mountains ; and for defence they wear 
 
 A thing called a Tarn-cloke, of wonderful nature 
 
 Who has it on his body will ever be secure 
 
 'Gainst cutting and 'gainst thrusting. 
 
 THE religion of the ancient Germans, probably the same 
 with that of the Scandinavians, contained, like it, Alfs, 
 Dwarfs, and Giants. The Alfs hare fallen from the popular 
 creed,* but the Dwarfs still retain their former dominion. 
 Unlike those of the North, they have put off their heathen 
 character, and, with their human neighbours, have embraced 
 a purer faith. With the creed they seem to have adopted 
 the spirit of their new religion also. In most of the tradi- 
 tions respecting them we recognise benevolence as one of 
 the principal traits of their character. 
 
 The oldest monuments of German popular belief are the 
 poems of the Heldenbuch (Hero-book) and the spirit-stirring 
 Nibelungen Lied.f In these poems the Dwarfs are actors 
 of importance. 
 
 In this List-named celebrated poem the Dwarf Albrich 
 appears as the guardian of the celebrated Hoard which 
 Sifrit (Siegfried) won from the Nibelungen. The Dwarf is 
 
 * The only remnant is Alp, the nightmare ; the eJftn of modem writers is 
 merely an adoption of the English elves. 
 
 + The edition of this poem which we have used, is that by Schdnhuth, 
 Leipzig, 1841.
 
 OEBMASY. 207 
 
 twice vanquished by the hero who gains his Tarn-kappe, or 
 Mantle of Invisibility.* 
 
 In the Heldenbuch we meet with the Dwarf-king Laurin, 
 whose garden Dietrich of Bern and his warriors broke into 
 and laid waste. To repel the invader the Dwarf appears in 
 magnificent array : twenty-three stanzas are occupied with 
 the description of his banner, helmet, shield, and other 
 accoutrements. A furious combat ensues, in which the 
 Dwarf has long the advantage, as his magic ring and girdle 
 endow him with the strength of twenty-four men, and his 
 Hel Keplein t (Tarnkappe) renders him invisible at plea- 
 sure. At length, by the advice of Hildebrand, Dietrich 
 strikes off the Dwarfs finger, breaks his girdle, and pulls 
 off his Hel Keplein, and thus succeeds in vanquishing his 
 enemy. Laurin is afterwards reconciled to the heroes, and 
 prevails on them to enter the mountain in which he dwelt, 
 and partake of a banquet. Having them now in his power, 
 he treacherously makes them all his prisoners. His queen, 
 however, Ditlaub's sister, whom he had stolen away from 
 under a linden, releases them : their liberation is followed 
 by a terrific engagement between them and Laurin, backed 
 by a numerous host of Dwarfs. Laurin is again overcome ; 
 he loses his queen ; his hill is plundered of its treasures, 
 and himself led to Bern, and there reduced to the extremity 
 of earning his bread by becoming a buffoon. 
 
 In the poem named Hurnen Sifrit J the Dwarf Eugel 
 
 * Tarn from taren, to dare, says Dobenek, because it gave courage along 
 with invisibility. It comes more probably we think from the old German 
 ternen, to hide. Kappe is properly a cloak, though the Tarnkappe or Nebel- 
 kappe is generally represented as a cap, or hat. 
 
 ) From hehlerif to conceal. 
 
 J Horny Siegfred ; for when he slew the dragon, he bathed himself in his 
 blood, and became horny and invulnerable everywhere except in one spot 
 between his shoulders, where a linden leaf stuck. In the Nibelungen Lied, 
 (st. 100), Hagene says, 
 
 Yet still more know I of him this to me is certain, 
 A terrible Lind-dragon the hero's hand hath slain ; 
 He in the blood him bathed, and horny grew his skin ; 
 Hence woundeth him no weapon, full oft it hath been seen. 
 
 MM. Grimm thought at one time that this name was properly Engel, 
 and that it was connected with the changes of Alp, Alf, to Engel (see above, 
 p. 67). They query at what time the dim Engelein first came into use, 
 and when the angels were first represented under the form of children a
 
 208 GERMANY. 
 
 renders the hero good service in his combat with the 
 enchanted Dragon who had carried off the fair Chrin.hild 
 from Worms, and enclosed her in the Drachenstein. When 
 Sifrit is treacherously attacked by the Giant Kuperan, the 
 ally of the Dragon, the Dwarf flings his Nebelkappe over 
 him to protect him. 
 
 But the most celebrated of Dwarfs is Elberich,* who 
 aided the emperor Otnit or Ortnit to gain the daughter of 
 the Paynim Soldan of Syria. 
 
 Otnit ruled over Lombardy, and had subdued all the 
 neighbouring nations. His subjects wishing him to marry, 
 he held a council to consider the affair. No maiden men- 
 tioned was deemed noble enough to share his bed. At last 
 his uncle Elias, king of the "wild Russians," says : 
 
 " I know of a maiden, noble and high-born, 
 
 Her no man yet hath wooed, his life who hath not lorn. 
 
 " She shineth like the roses, and the gold ruddy, 
 She fair is in her person, thou must credit me ; 
 She shines o'er other women, as bright roses do, 
 So fair a child was never ; they say she good is too." 
 
 The monarch's imagination is inflamed, and, regardless of 
 the remonstrances of his council, he determines to brave all 
 dangers, to sail with a powerful army to Syria, where the 
 maiden dwelt, and to win her or to die. He regulates his 
 kingdom, and says to his uncle : 
 
 As soon as May appeareth, with her days so clear, 
 Then pray thou of thy friends all, their warriors to cheer, 
 To hold themselves all ready ; go things as they may, 
 We will, with the birds' singing, sail o'er the sea away. 
 
 practice evidently derived from the idea of the Elves. In Otfried and other 
 writers of the ninth and tenth centuries, they say, the angels are depicted as 
 young men ; but in the latter half of the thirteenth, a popular preacher named 
 Berthold, says : Ir sehet wol daz si allesamt sint juncliche gem'dlet ; als ein 
 kint daz da viinfjdr alt ist swd man sie mdlet. 
 
 * Elberich, (the Albrich of the Nibelungen Lied,) as we have said (above 
 p. 40), is Oberon. From the usual change of I into u (as al, au, col, cou, 
 etc.), in the French language, Elberich or Albrich (derived from Alp, Alf ) 
 becomes Auberich ; and ich not being a French termination, the diminu- 
 tive on was subs-tituted, and so it became Auberon, or Oberon ; a much more 
 likely origin than the usual one from L'aube dujour. For this derivation of 
 Oberon we are indebted to Dr. Grimm.
 
 GERMANY. 209 
 
 The queen now endeavours to dissuade her son, but 
 finding her efforts vain, resolves to aid him as far as she 
 can. She gives him a ring, and desires him to ride toward 
 Rome till he comes to where a linden stands before a hill, 
 from which runs a brook, and there he will meet with an 
 adventure. She farther tells him to keep the ring uncovered, 
 and the stone of it will direct him. 
 
 Obeying his directions, Otnit rides alone from his palace 
 at Grarda, continually looking at his ring : 
 
 Unto a heath he came then, close by the Garda lake, 
 Where everywhere the flowers and clover out did break; 
 The birds were gaily singing, their notes did loudly ring, 
 He all the night had waked, he was weary with riding. 
 
 The sun over the mountains and through the welkin shone, 
 Then looked he full oft on the gold and on the stone ; 
 Then saw he o'er the meadow, down trodden the green grass, 
 And a pathway narrow, where small feet used to pass. 
 
 Then followed he downwards, the rocky wall boldly, 
 Till he had found the fountain, and the green linden-tree, 
 And saw the heath wide spreading, and the linden branching high. 
 It had upon its boughs full many a guest worthy. 
 
 The birds were loudly singing, each other rivalling, 
 
 " I have the right way ridden," spake Otnit the king ; 
 
 Then much his heart rejoiced, when he saw the linden spread ; 
 
 He sprang down from his courser, he held him by the head. 
 
 And when the Lombarder had looked on the linden 
 
 He began to laugh loud ; now list what he said then : 
 
 " There never yet from tree came so sweet breathing a wind." 
 
 Then saw he how an infant was laid beneath the lind, 
 
 Who had himself full firmly rolled in the grass ; 
 Then little the Lombarder knew who he was : 
 He bore upon his body so rich and noble a dress, 
 No king's child upon earth e'er did the like possess. 
 
 His dress was rich adorned with gold and precious stone ; 
 When he beneath the linden the child found all alone : 
 " Where now is thy mother ] " king Otnit he cries ; 
 " Thy body unprotected beneath this tree here lies." 
 
 This child was Elberich, whom the ring rendered visible. 
 \fter a hard struggle, Otnit overcomes him. As a ransom, 
 Giberich promises him a magnificent suit of armour
 
 210 
 
 " 111 give thee for my ransom the very best harness 
 That either young or old in the world doth possess. 
 
 " Pull eighty thousand marks the harness is worth well, 
 A sword too I will give thee, with the shirt of mail, 
 That every corselet cuts through as if steel it were not ; 
 There ne'er was helm so strong yet could injure it a jot 
 
 " I ween in the whole world no better sword there be, 
 I brought it from a mountain is called Alroari ; 
 It is with gold adorned, and clearer is than glass ; 
 I wrought it in a mountain is called Goickelsass. 
 
 " The sword I will name to thee, it is bright of hue, 
 Whate'er thou with it strikest no gap will ensue, 
 It is Eosse called, I tell to thee its name ; 
 Wherever swords are drawing it never will thee shame. 
 
 " With all the other harness I give thee leg armour, 
 In which there no ring is, my own hand wrought it sure ; 
 And when thou hast the harness thou must it precious hold, 
 There 's nothing false within it, it all is of pure gold. 
 
 " With all the armour rich I give thee a helmet, 
 Upon an emperor's head none a better e'er saw yet ; 
 Full happy is the man who doth this helmet bear, 
 His head is recognised, a mile off though he were. 
 
 "And with the helmet bright I will give to thee a shield, 
 So strong and so good too, if to me thanks thou 'It yield ; 
 It never yet was cut through by any sword so keen, 
 No sort of weapon ever may that buckler win." 
 
 Elberich persuades the king to lend him his ring ; when 
 lie gets it he becomes invisible, and amuses himself by tell- 
 ing him of the whipping he will get from his mother for 
 having lost it. At last when Otnit is on the point of going 
 away, Elberich returns the ring, and, to his no small sur- 
 prise, informs him that he is his father, promising him, at 
 the same time, if he is kind to his mother, to stand his friend, 
 and assist him to gain the heathen maid. 
 
 When May arrives Otnit sails from Messina with his 
 troops. As they approach Sunders,* they are a little in 
 dread of the quantity of shipping they see in the port, and 
 the king regrets and bewails having proceeded without his 
 dwarf-sire. But Elberich has, unseen, been sitting on the 
 
 * Probably Saida, i.e. Sidon.
 
 GEBMAJTT. 211 
 
 He appears, and gives his advice, accompanied by &, 
 stone, which, by being put into the mouth, endows its pos- 
 sessor with the gift of all languages. On the heathens 
 coming alongside the vessel, Otnit assumes the character ol 
 a merchant, and is admitted to enter the port. He forth- 
 with proposes to murder the inhabitants in the night, an act 
 of treachery which is prevented by the strong and indignant 
 rebukes of the Dwarf. 
 
 Elberich sets off to Muntabur,* the royal residence, to 
 demand the princess. The Soldan, enraged at the insolence 
 of the invisible envoy, in vain orders his men to put him to 
 death; the "little man" returns unscathed to Otnit, and 
 bids him prepare for war. By the aid of Elberich, Otnit 
 wins, after great slaughter on both sides, the city of Sunders. 
 He then, under the Dwarf's advice, follows up his conquest 
 by marching for Muntabur, the capital. Elberich, still 
 invisible, except to the possessor of the ring, offers to act 
 as guide. 
 
 " Give me now the horse here they lead by the hand, 
 And I will guide thine army unto the heathens' land ; 
 If any one should ask thee, who on the horse doth ride ? 
 Thou shalt say nothing else, but an angel is thy guide." 
 
 The army, on seeing the horse and banner advancing as it 
 were of themselves, blessed themselves, and asked Otnit why 
 he did not likewise. 
 
 " It is God's messenger ! " Otnit then cried : 
 
 " Who unto Muntabur will be our trusty guide ; 
 
 Hun ye should believe in, who like Christians debate, 
 
 Who in the fight them spare not, he leads to heaven straight." 
 
 Thus encouraged, the troops cheerfully follow the invisible 
 standard-bearer, and soon appear before Muntabur, where 
 Elberich delivers the banner to king Elias, and directs them 
 to encamp. He meanwhile enters the city, flings down the 
 artillery from the walls, and when the Soldan again refuses 
 to give his daughter, plucks out some of his majesty's beardf 
 and hair, in the midst of his courtiers and guards, who in 
 
 * i. e. Mount Tabor. 
 
 t This may have suggested the well-known circumstance in Huon dc 
 Bordeaux. 
 
 t 2
 
 212 GERMANY. 
 
 vain cut and thrust at the viewless tormentor. A furious 
 battle ensues. The queen and princess resort to prayers to 
 their gods Apollo and Mahomet for the safety of the Soldan 
 The princess is thus described : 
 
 Her mouth flamed like a rose, and like the ruby stone, 
 And equal to the full moon her lovely eyes they shone. 
 
 With roses she bedecked had well her head, 
 
 And with pearls precious, no one comforted the maid : 
 
 She was of exact stature, slender in the waist, 
 
 And turned like a taper was her body chaste. 
 
 Her hands and her arms, you nought in them could blame, 
 Her nails they so clear were, people saw themselves in them ; 
 And her hair ribbons were of silk costly, 
 Which she left down hanging, the maiden fair and free. 
 
 She set upon her head high a crown of gold red, 
 Elberich the little, he grieved for the maid ; 
 In front of the crown lay a carbuncle stone, 
 That in the royal palace like a taper shone. 
 
 Elberich endeavours to persuade her to become a Christian, 
 and espouse Otnit ; and to convince her of the incapacity of 
 her gods, he tumbles their images into the fosse. Overcome 
 by his representations and her father's danger, the princess, 
 with her mother's consent, agrees to wed the monarch whom 
 Elberich points out to her in the battle, and she gives her 
 ring to be conveyed to him. The Dwarf, unperceived, leads 
 her out of the city, and delivers her to her future husband, 
 strictly forbidding all intercourse between them, previous to 
 the maiden's baptism.* When the old heathen misses his 
 daughter he orders out his troops to recover her. Elberich 
 hastens to king Elias, and brings up the Christians. A 
 battle ensues : the latter are victorious, and the princess is 
 brcmght to Sunders ; ere they embark Elberich and Elias 
 baptise her, and ere they reached Messina " the noble maiden 
 was a wife." 
 
 As yet not intimately acquainted with Christianity, the 
 young empress asks Otnit about his god, giving him to 
 understand that she knew his deity, who had come to her 
 father's to demand her for him. Otnit corrects her mistake, 
 
 * So Oberon in Huoii de Bordeaux.
 
 GERMANY. 213 
 
 telling her that the envoy was Elberich, whom she then 
 desires to see. At the request of Otnit the Dwarf reveals 
 himself to the queen and court. 
 
 Long time he refused, he showed him then a stone, 
 That like unto the sun, with the gold shone ; 
 Ruby and carbuncle was the crown so rich, 
 Which upon his head bare the little Elberich. 
 
 The Dwarf let the people all see him then, 
 
 They began to look upon him, both women and men ; 
 
 Many a fair woman with rosy mouth then said, 
 
 " I ween a fairer person no eye hath e'er survey'd." 
 
 Then Elberich the little a harp laid hold upon ; 
 Full rapidly he touched the strings every one 
 In so sweet a measure that the hall did resound ; 
 All that him beheld then, they felt a joy profound. 
 
 After giving Otnit abundance of riches, and counselling 
 htm to remunerate those who had lost their relatives in his 
 expedition, Elberich takes leave of the king. He then 
 vanishes, and appears no more. 
 
 Otnit is the most pleasing poem in the Heldenbuch. 
 Nothing can be more amiable than the character of the 
 Dwarf, who is evidently the model of Oberon. We say this, 
 because the probability is much greater that a French writer 
 should have taken a Dwarf from a German poet, than that 
 the reverse should have occurred. The connexion between 
 the two works appears indubitable. 
 
 An attempt has already been made to trace the origin of 
 Dwarfs, and the historical theory respecting those of the 
 North rejected. A similar theory has been given of those of 
 Germany, as being a people subdued between the fifth and 
 tenth centuries by a nation of greater power and size. The 
 vanquished fled to the mountains, and concealed themselves 
 in caverns, only occasionally venturing to appear ; and hence, 
 according to this theory, the origin of Dwarf stories. As 
 we regard them as an integrant part of Got ho- German 
 religion, we must reject this hypothesis in the case oi 
 Germany also.
 
 214 
 
 Beside the Dwarfs, we meet in the Nibelungen Lied with 
 beings answering to the Nixes or Water-spirits. When* the 
 Burgundians on their fatal journey to the court of Eze, 
 (Attila) reached the banks of the Danube, they found that 
 it could not be crossed without the aid of boats. Hagene 
 then proceeded along the bank in search of a ferry. Sud- 
 denly he heard a plashing in the water, and on looking more 
 closely he saw some females who were bathing. He tried to 
 steal on them, but they escaped him and went hovering over 
 the river. He succeeded, however, in securing their clothes, 
 and in exchange for them the females, who were Watermaida 
 (Merewiper) promised to tell him the result of the visit to 
 the court of the Hunnish monarch. One of them then 
 named Hadeburch assured him of a prosperous issue, on 
 which he restored the garments. But then another, named 
 Sigelint told him that Hadeburch had lied for the sake of 
 the clothes ; for that in reality the event of the visit would 
 be most disastrous, as only one of the party would return 
 alive. She also informed him where the ferry was, and told 
 him how they might outwit the ferryman and get over. 
 
 We cannot refrain from suspecting that in the original 
 legend these were Valkyriaa and not Water-nymphs, for 
 these last would hardly strip to go into the water, their 
 native element. In the prose introduction to the Eddaic 
 poem of Volundr we are told that he and his two elder 
 brothers went to Wolfdale and built themselves a house by 
 the water named Wolfsea or lake, and one morning early 
 they found on the shore of the lake three women who were 
 spinning flax : beside them were lying their sican-dresses. 
 They were " Valkyrias, and king's daughters." The three 
 brothers took them home and made them their wives, but 
 after seven years they flew away and returned no more. It 
 is remarkable, that in the poem there is not the slightest 
 allusion to the swan-dresses, though it relates the coming 
 and the departure of the maidens. We are then to suppose 
 either that there were other poems on the subject, or that 
 these dresses were so well known a vehicle that it was 
 deemed needless to mention them. We are to suppose also 
 that it was by securing these dresses that the brothers pre- 
 
 * Str. 1664,sej
 
 GERMANY. 215 
 
 rented the departure of the maidens, and that it was by 
 recovering them that they were enabled to effect their 
 escape. In effect in the German legend of Wielant 
 (Volundr), the hero sees three doves flying to a spring, and 
 as soon as they touch the ground they become maidens. 
 He then secures their clothes, and will not return them till 
 one of them consents to become his wife.* 
 
 This legend resembles the tale of the Stolen Veil in 
 Musaeus, and those of the Peri-wife and the Mermaid-wife 
 related above.f In the Breton tale of Bisclavaret, or the 
 Warwolf, we learn that no one who became a wolf could 
 resume his human form, unless he could recover the clothes 
 which he had put off previous to undergoing the trans- 
 formation. J 
 
 Our readers may like to see how the preface to the old 
 editions of the Heldenbuch accounts for the origin of the 
 Dwarfs. 
 
 " God," says it, " gave the Dwarfs being, because the land 
 and the mountains were altogether waste and uncultivated, 
 and there was much store of silver and gold, and precious 
 stones and pearls still in the mountains. Wherefore God 
 made the Dwarfs very artful and wise, that they might know 
 good and evil right well, and for what everything was good. 
 They knew also for what stones were good. Some stones 
 give great strength ; some make those who carry them about 
 them invisible, that is called a mist-cloke (nebelkap) ; and 
 therefore did God give the Dwarfs skill and wisdom. There- 
 fore they built handsome hollow hills, and God gave them 
 riches, etc. 
 
 " God created the Giants, that they might kill the wild 
 beasts, and the great dragons (ivurm), that the Dwarfs 
 might thereby be more secure. But in a few years the 
 Giants would too much oppress the Dwarfs, and the Giants 
 became altogether wicked and faithless. 
 
 " God then created the Heroes ; ' and be it known that 
 the Heroes were for many years right true and worthy, and 
 
 * Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 398, seq. 
 
 + See above, pp. 19, 169 ; below, Ireland ; and Grimm, ut sup. p. 1216. 
 Tbe swan-dresses also occur in the Arabian tales of Jabansb&h and Hassan of 
 Bassora in Trebutien's Arabian Nights. 
 
 J Poesies de Marie de France, i. 177, seq.
 
 216 GEBiLAJSY. 
 
 they then came to the aid of the Dwarfs against the faith- 
 less Giants ; ' God made them strong, and their thoughts 
 were of manhood, according to honour, and of combats and 
 
 We will divide the objects of German popular belief at 
 the present day, into four classes: 1. Dwarfs; 2. Wild- 
 women ; 3. Kobolds ; 4. Nixes. 
 
 DWABFS. 
 
 Fort, fort ! Mich schan' die Sonne nicht, 
 
 Ich darf nicht langer barren ; 
 Mich Elfenkind vor ihren Licht 
 
 Sahst du rum Fels erstarren. 
 
 LA MOTTE FOUQU*. 
 
 Away ! let not the sun view me, 
 
 I dare no longer stay; 
 An Elfin-child thou wonldst me see, 
 
 To stone turn at his ray. 
 
 THESE beings are called Zwerge (Dwarfs), Berg- and Erd- 
 manlein (Hill and Ground-mannikins), the Stille Volk (Still- 
 people), and the Kleine Volk (Little-people).* The follow- 
 ing account of the Still-people at Plesse will give the popular 
 idea respecting them.f 
 
 At Plesse, a castle in the mountains in Hesse, are various 
 springs, wells, clefts and holes in the rocks, in which, accord- 
 ing to popular tradition, the Dwarfs, called the Still-people, 
 dwell. They are silent and beneficent, and willingly serve 
 those who have the good fortune to please them. If injured 
 
 * Another term is Wicht and its dim. Wichtlein, answering to the Scandi- 
 navian Vaettr and the Anglo-Saxon wikt, English vright, all of which signify 
 a being, a person, and also a thing in general. Thus our words aught and 
 naught were anwiht and nawiht. 
 
 t See Grimm's Deutsche Sagen, vol. i. p. 38. As this work is our chief 
 authority for the Fairy Mythology of Germany, our materials are to be con- 
 lidered as taken from it, unless when otherwise expressed
 
 DWAEFS. 217 
 
 they vent their anger, not on mankind, but on the cattle, 
 which they plague and torment. This subterranean race 
 has no proper communication with mankind, but pass their 
 lives within the earth, where their apartments and chambers 
 are filled with gold and precious stones. Should occasion 
 require their visit to the surface of the earth, they accom- 
 plish the business in the night, and not by day. This Hill- 
 people are of flesh and bone, like mankind, they bear children 
 and die, but in addition to the ordinary faculties of humanity, 
 they have the power of making themselves invisible, and of 
 passing through rocks and walls, with the same facility as 
 through the air. They sometimes appear to men, lead them 
 with them into clifts, and if the strangers prove agreeable to 
 them, present them with valuable gifts.* 
 
 at tf>e JBance. 
 
 OLD people have positively asserted that some years ago, at 
 the celebration of a wedding in the village of Glass, a couple 
 of miles from the Wunderberg, and the same distance from 
 the city of Saltzburg, there came toward evening a little 
 Hill-man out of the AVunderberg. He desired all the 
 guests to be merry and cheerful, and begged to be permitted 
 to join in their dance, which request was not refused. He 
 accordingly danced three dances with some of the maidens of 
 good repute, and with a gracefulness that inspired all present 
 with admiration and delight. After the dance he returned them 
 his thanks, accompanied by a present to each of the bridal 
 party of three pieces of money of an unknown coin, each of 
 which they estimated to be worth four creutzers. Moreover, 
 he recommended them to dwell in peace and concord, to 
 live like Christians, and, by a pious education, to bring up 
 their children in goodness. He told them to lay up these 
 
 * In Lusatia (Lausatz) if not in the rest of Germany, the same idea of the 
 Dwarfs being fallen angels, prevails as in other countries : see the ta)e of the 
 Fairies'-sabbath in the work quoted above, p. 179.
 
 218 GERMANY. 
 
 coins with their money, and constantly to think of him, and 
 so they would rarely come to distress; but warned them 
 against becoming proud, and advised them, on the contrary, 
 to relieve their neighbours with their superfluities. 
 
 The Hill-man remained with them till night, and took 
 some meat and drink from each as they offered it to him, 
 but only very little. He then renewed his thanks, and con- 
 cluded by begging of one of the company to put him over 
 the river Satzach, opposite the mountain. There was at the 
 wedding a boatman, named John Stand!, who got ready to 
 comply with the dwarf's request, and they went together to 
 the water' s-edge. As they were crossing, the man asked for his 
 payment, and the Hill-man humbly presented him three- 
 pence. The boatman utterly rejected this paltry payment ; 
 but the little man gave him for answer, that he should not 
 let that annoy him, but keep the threepence safe, and he 
 would never suffer want, provided he put a restraint on 
 arrogance. He gave him at the same time, a little stone 
 with these words : " Hang this on your neck, and you will 
 never be drowned in the water." And of this he had a 
 proof that very year. Finally, the Hill-man exhorted him 
 to lead a pious and humble life, and being landed on the 
 opposite bank, departed speedily from the place.* 
 
 CIjc StnarfjS JFeait. 
 
 THERE appeared in the night to one of the Counts von Hoya, 
 an extremely small little man. The count was utterly 
 amazed at him, but he bid him not to be frightened ; said 
 he had a request to make of him, and entreated that he 
 might not be refused. The count gave a willing assent, 
 qualified with the provision, that the thing requested should 
 be a matter which lay in his power, and would not be 
 injurious to him or his. The little man then said, " There 
 
 * This tale is given by MM. Grimm, from the Brixener Volksbuch. 1782.
 
 DWARFS. 219 
 
 will come tomorrow night some people to thy house, aud 
 make a feast, if thou will lend them thy kitchen, and hall 
 for as long as they want them, and order thy servants to go 
 to sleep, and no one to look at what they are doing or are 
 about ; and also let no one know of it but thyself; only do 
 this and we shall be grateful to thee for thy courtesy : thou 
 and thy family will be the better of it ; nor will it be in 
 any way hurtful to thee or thine." The count readily 
 gave his consent, and on the following night there came, as 
 if they were a travelling party, over the bridge into the 
 house a great crowd of little people, exactly such as the 
 Hill-mannikins are described to be. They cooked, cut up 
 wood, and laid out the dishes in the kitchen, and had every 
 appearance of being about preparing a great entertain- 
 ment. 
 
 When it drew near the morning, and they were about to 
 take their departure, the little man came again up to the 
 count, and with many thanks, presented him a sword, a sala- 
 mander-cloth, and a golden ring, in which there was inserted 
 a red-lion, with directions for himself and his descendants 
 to keep these three articles safe ; and so long as they kept 
 them together all would be at unity and well in the county, 
 but as socn as they were separated from each other it would 
 be a token that there was evil coming on the county : the 
 red lion too would always become pale when one of the 
 family was to die. 
 
 They -were long preserved in the family ; but in the time 
 when count Jobst and his brothers were in their minority, 
 and Francis von Halle was governor of the land, two of the 
 articles, the sword and the salamander-cloth, were taken 
 away, but the ring remained with the family until they 
 became txtinct. What has become of it since is unknown.* 
 
 * Related by Hammelmann in the Oldenburg Chronicle, by Pretoria*, 
 Brauncr, ;u.d others.
 
 220 GERMAST. 
 
 jfmtrtrtg 
 
 CLOSE to the little town of Dardesheim, between Halber- 
 stadt and Brunswick, is a spring of the finest water called 
 the Smansborn, and which flows out of a hill in which in 
 old times the dwarfs dwelt. When the former inhabitants 
 of the country were in want of a holiday-dress, or, at a 
 family festival, of any rare utensils, they went and stood 
 before this Dwarf-hill, knocked three times, and pronounced 
 their petition in a distinct and audible tone, adding, 
 
 Before the sun is up to-morrow. 
 
 At the hill shall be the things we borrow.* 
 
 The Dwarfs thought themselves sufficiently compensated if 
 there was only some of the festive victuals set down before 
 the hill. 
 
 ai tijc Etttle 
 
 THE little people of the Eilenburg in Saxony had occasion 
 to celebrate a wedding, and with that intent passed one 
 night through the key-hole and the window-slits into the 
 castle-hall, and jumped down on the smooth level floor like 
 peas on a barn floor. The noise awoke the old count, who 
 was sleeping in the hall in his high four-post bed, and on 
 opening his eyes, he wondered not a little at the sight of 
 such a number of the little fellows. 
 
 One of them appareled as a herald came up to him, and 
 addressing him with the utmost courtesy and in very polite 
 terms invited him to share in their festivity. " We, however," 
 added he, " have one request to make, which is, that you 
 alone should be present, and that none of your people 
 
 Fruhmorgens eh, die Sown aufgeht 
 Sckon alles vor dem Berge iteht.
 
 DWAKFS. 221 
 
 should presume to look on with you, or to cast so much as 
 one glance." The old count answered in a friendly tone, 
 " Since you have disturbed my sleep, I will join your com- 
 pany." A little small woman was now introduced to him ; 
 little torch-bearers took their places ; and cricket-music 
 struck up. The count found great difficulty to keep from 
 losing the little woman in the dance, she jumped away fro n 
 him so lightly, and at last whirled him about at such a rate 
 that he could with difficulty recover his breath. 
 
 But in the very middle of their spritely dance, suddenly 
 all became still, the music ceased, and the whole company 
 hurried to the slits of the doors, mouse-holes, and every- 
 where else where there was a corner to slip into. The 
 bride-pair, the heralds, and dancers, looked upwards to a 
 hole that was in the ceiling of the hall, and there discovered 
 the face of the old countess, who overflowing with curiosity, 
 was looking down on the joyous assembly. They then 
 bowed themselves before the count, and the person who had 
 invited him stept forward again and thanked him for the 
 hospitality he had shown them : " But," said he, " since our 
 wedding and our festivity has been thus disturbed by another 
 eye gazing on it, your race shall henceforward never count 
 more than seven Eilenburgs." They then pressed out after 
 one another with great speed, and soon all was silent, and 
 the old count alone in the dark hall. The curse has lasted 
 till the present time, and one of six living knights of 
 Eilenburg has always died before the seventh was born.* 
 
 ON the east side of the Dwarf-hill of Dardesheim there is a 
 piece of arable land. A smith named Eiechert had sown 
 this field with peas ; but he observed that when they were 
 just in perfection they were pulled in great quantities. 
 Eiechert built himself a little hut on his ground, there to 
 
 * This tale was orally related to MM. Grimm in Saxony. They do no 
 ireution the narrator's rank in lite.
 
 222 GEBMABTT. 
 
 lie in wait for the thief; and there he watched day and 
 night. In the daytime he could see no alteration, but every 
 morning he found that, notwithstanding all his watchfulness, 
 the field had been plundered during the night. Vexed to 
 the heart at seeing that all his labour was in vain, he deter- 
 mined to thresh out on the ground what remained of the 
 peas. So with the daybreak Smith Biechert commenced hia 
 work. Hardly was one half of his peas threshed when he 
 heard a piteous wailing, and on going to look for the cause, 
 he found on the ground under the peas one of the dwarfs 
 whose skull he had rapped with his flail, and who was now 
 visible, having lost his mist-cap with the blow. The Dwarf 
 ran back into the hill as fast as his legs could carry him. 
 
 However, little tiffs like this disturbed but for a very 
 short time the good understanding of the Dwarf-people and 
 the inhabitants. But the Dwarfs emigrated at last, because 
 the tricks and scoffs of several of the inhabitants were 
 become no longer bearable, as well as their ingratitude for 
 several services they had rendered them. Since that time 
 no one has ever heard or seen anything of the Dwarfs in 
 the neighbourhood. 
 
 JBtoarfe Stealing C0rn. 
 
 'Tis not very long since there were Dwarfs at June near 
 Gottingen, who used to go into the fields and steal the 
 sheaves of corn. This they were able to do the more easily 
 by means of a cap they wore, which made them invisible. 
 They did much injury to one man in particular who had a 
 great deal of corn. At length he hit on a plan to catch 
 them. At noon one day he put a rope round the field, and 
 when the Dwarfs went to creep under it, it knocked off their 
 caps. Being now visible, they were caught. They gave him 
 many fair words, promising if he would take away the rope 
 to give him a peck (mette) of money if he came to that 
 same place before sunrise. He agreed, but a friend whom 
 he consulted told him to go not at sunrise but a little before
 
 DWARFS. 223 
 
 twelve at night, as it was at that hour that the day really 
 began. He did as directed, and there he found the Dwarfs, 
 who did not expect him, with the peck of money. The 
 name of the family that got it is Mettens. 
 
 A farmer in another part of the country being annoyed 
 in a similar manner, was told to get willow-rods and beat the 
 air with them, and he thus would knock of some of their 
 caps and discover them. He and his people did so, and they 
 captured one of the Dwarfs, who told the farmer that if he 
 would let him go, he would give him a waggon-load of 
 money, but he must come for it before sunrise. At the same 
 time he informed him where his abode was. The farmer 
 having enquired when the snn really rose, and being told 
 at twelve o'clock, yoked his waggon and drove off, but when 
 he came to the Dwarfs' hole, he heard them shouting and 
 singing within : 
 
 It is good that the bumpkin doth not know 
 That up at twelve the sun doth go.* 
 
 When he asked for something, they showed him a dead 
 horse, and bade him take it with him, as they could give 
 him nothing else. He was very angry at this, but as he 
 wanted food for his dogs, he cut off a large piece and laid 
 it on his waggon. But when he came home, lo ! it was all 
 pure gold. Others then went to the place, but both hole 
 and horse had vanished.f 
 
 nf DtoartS 0bcr tfjc iWouutaw. 
 
 ON the north side of the Hartz there dwelt several thousand 
 Dwarfs in the clefts of the rocks, and in the Dwarf-caves 
 that still remain. It was, however, but rarely that they 
 appeared to the inhabitants in a visible form ; they generally 
 
 * Dat is gaut dot de buerkem dat nich weit 
 
 JDat de sunne urn twolwe up geit. 
 
 t Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 434. Both legends are in the Low-Saxon 
 iiulcct.
 
 224 OEEMANT. 
 
 went about among them protected by their nust-caps ; 
 unseen and unnoticed. 
 
 Many of these Dwarfs were good-natured, and, on par- 
 ticular occasions, very obliging to the inhabitants, who used, 
 for instance, in case of a wedding or a christening, to borrow 
 various articles for the table out of the caves of the Dwarfs, 
 It was, however, highly imprudent to provoke their resent- 
 ment ; as when injured or offended, they were malicious and 
 wicked, and did every possible injury to the offender. 
 
 A baker, who lived in the valley between Blenkenburg 
 and Quedlinburg, used to remark that a part of the loaves 
 he baked was always missing, though he never could find out 
 the thief. This continual secret theft was gradually reducing 
 him to poverty. At last he began to suspect the Dwarfs of 
 being the cause of his misfortune. He accordingly got a 
 bunch of little twigs, and beating the air with them in all 
 directions, at length struck the mist-caps off some Dwarfs, 
 who could now conceal themselves no longer. There was a 
 great noise made about it; several other Dwarfs were 
 caught in the act of committing theft, and at last the whole 
 of the Dwarf-people were forced to quit the country. In 
 order, in some degree, to indemnify the inhabitants for 
 what had been stolen, and at the same time to be able to 
 estimate the number of those that departed, a large cask 
 was set up on what is now called Kirchberg, near the village 
 of Thele, into which each Dwarf was to cast a piece of 
 money. This cask was found, after the departure of the 
 Dwarfs, to be quite filled with ancient coins, so great was 
 their number. 
 
 The Dwarf-people went by Warnstadt, a village not far 
 from Quedlinburg, still going toward the east. Since that 
 time the Dwarfs have disappeared out of this country ; and 
 it is only now and then that a solitary one may be seen. 
 
 The Dwarfs on the south side of the Hartz were, in a 
 similar manner, detected plundering the corn-fields. They 
 also agreed to quit the countrv, and it was settled that 
 they should pass over a small bridge near Neuhof, and that 
 each, by way of transit-duty, should cast a certain portion 
 of his property into a cask to be set there. The peasants, 
 011 their part, covenanted not to appear or look at them.
 
 DWATCFS. 225 
 
 Some, however, had the curiosity to conceal themselves 
 under the bridge, that they might at least hear them depart- 
 ing. They succeeded in their design, and heard during 
 several hours, the trampling of the little men, sounding 
 exactly as if a large flock of sheep was going over the 
 bridge. 
 
 Other accounts of the departure of the Dwarfs relate as 
 follows : 
 
 The Dosenberg is a mountain in Hesse on the Schwalm, 
 in which, not far from the bank of the stream, are two holes 
 by which the Dwarfs* used to go in and out. One of them 
 came frequently in a friendly way to the grandfather of 
 Tobi in Singlis, when he was out in his fields. As he was 
 one day cutting his corn he asked him if he would the next 
 night, for a good sum of money, take a freight over the 
 river. The farmer agreed, and in the evening the Dwarf 
 brought him a sack of wheat as an earnest. Four horses 
 were then put to the waggon, and the farmer drove to the 
 Dosenberg, out of the holes of which the Dwarf brought 
 heavy, but invisible loads to the waggon, which the farmer 
 then drove through the water over to the other side. Ho 
 thus kept going backwards and forwards from ten at night 
 till four in the morning, by which time the horses were 
 quite tired. Then said the Dwarf, " It is enough, now you 
 shall see what you have been carrying!" He bade him 
 look over his right shoulder, and then he saw the country 
 far and near filled with the Dwarfs. "These thousand years," 
 then said the Dwarf, " have we dwelt in the Dosenberg ; 
 our time is now up, and we must go to another land. But 
 the hill is still so full of money that it would suffice for 
 the whole country." He then loaded Tobi's waggon with 
 money and departed. The farmer had difficulty in bring- 
 ing home so heavy a load, but he became a rich man. His 
 posterity are still wealthy people, but the Dwarfs have dis- 
 appeared out of the country for ever. 
 
 At Offensen on the Aller in Lower Saxony, lived a great 
 
 * The terms used in the original are Wkhtelrn'dnner 
 and Wichtti.
 
 226 GEBMANY. 
 
 farmer, whose name was Hovennann. He had a boat on 
 the river ; and one day two little people came to him and 
 asked him to put them over the water. They went twice 
 over the Aller to a great tract of land that is called the 
 Allero,* which is an uncultivated plain extending so wide 
 and far that one can hardly see over it. "When the farmer 
 had crossed the second time one of the Dwarfs said to him, 
 " Will you have now a sum of money or so much a head ? " 
 "I'd rather have a sum of money," said the farmer. One 
 of them took oft* his hat and put it on the farmer's head, 
 and said, " You 'd have done better to have taken so much 
 a head." The farmer, who had as yet seen nothing and 
 whose boat had gone as if there was nothing in it, now 
 beheld the whole Allero swarming (Jcrimmeln un wimmelri) 
 with little men. These were the Dwarfs that he had brought 
 over. From that time forward the Hovermanns had the 
 greatest plenty of money, but they are all now dead and 
 gone, and the place is sold. But when was this ? Oh ! in 
 the old time when the Dwarfs were in the world, but now 
 there 's no more of them, thirty or forty years ago.t 
 
 JBtoarfS 
 
 ALBEET STEFFEL, aged seventy years, who died in the year 
 1680, and Hans Kohmann, aged thirty-six, who died in 
 1679, two honest, veracious men, frequently declared that 
 as one time Kohmann's grandfather was working in his 
 ground which lay in the neighbourhood of the place called 
 the Dwarfs' hole, and his wife had brought out to the field 
 to him for his breakfast some fresh baked bread, and had 
 laid it, tied up in a napkin, at the end of the field, there 
 came up soon after a little Dwarf-woman, who spoke to him 
 
 * The Saxon 6 seems to answer to the Anglo-Saxon Ij, Irish Inis : ee 
 below, Ireland. 
 
 T Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 428. The latter story is in the Low-Saxon 
 dialect.
 
 DWAEFS. 227 
 
 about his bread, saying, that her own was in the oven, and 
 that her children were hungry and could not wait for it, 
 but that if he would give her his, she would be certain 
 to replace it by noon. The man consented, and at noon 
 she returned, spread out a very white little cloth, and laid on 
 it a smoking hot loaf, and with many thanks and entreaties 
 told him he might eat the bread without any apprehension, 
 and that she would return for the cloth. He did as she 
 desired, and when she returned she told him that there 
 had been so many forges erected that she was quite annoyed, 
 and would be obliged to depart and abandon her favourite 
 dwelling. She also said that the shocking cursing and swear- 
 ing of the people drove her away, as also the profanation of 
 Sunday, as the country people, instead of going to church, 
 used to go look at their fields, which was altogether 
 sinful.* 
 
 IT was the belief, in some parts of Germany, that if a child 
 that was not thriving were taken to a place named Cyriac's 
 Mead, near Neuhausen, and left lying there and given to 
 drink out of Cyriac's Well, at the end of nine days it would 
 either die or recover. 
 
 * In Scandinavia the Dwarfs used to borrow boer, even a barrel at a time, 
 which one of them would carry off on his shoulders, Thiele i. 121. In the 
 Highlands of Scotland, a firlot of meal. In all cases they paid honestly. On 
 one occasion, a dwarf came to a lady named Fru (Mrs. ) Mette of Overgaard, in 
 Jutland, and asked her to lend her silk gown to Fru Mette of Undergaard, for 
 her wedding. She gave it, but as it was not returned as soon as she expected, 
 she went to the hill and demanded it aloud. The hill-man brought it out to 
 her all spotted with wax, and told her that if she had not been so impatient, 
 every spot on it would have been a diamond. Thiele iii. 48. 
 
 The Vends of LUneburg, we are told, called the underground folk Gorzoni 
 (from gora, hill), and the hills are still shown in which they dwelt. They 
 used to borrow bread from people; they intimated their desire invisibly, and 
 people used to lay it for them outside of the door. In the evening they 
 returned it, knocking at the window, and leaving an additional cake to expresf 
 their thankfulness. Grimm, Brit. Mythol., p. 423. 
 
 Q3
 
 228 GERMAH r. 
 
 The butler and cook of one of the spiritual lords of Ger- 
 many, without being married, had a child, which kept crying 
 day and night, and evermore craving for food and yet it 
 never grew nor throve. It was finally resolved to try on it 
 the eifect of Cyriac's Mead, and the mother set out for that 
 place with the child on her back, whose weight was so great 
 that she hardly could endure it. As she was toiling along 
 under her burden, she met a travelling student, who said to 
 her, " My good woman, what sort of a wild creature is that 
 you are carrying ? I should not wonder if it were to crush 
 in your neck." She replied that it was her dear child which 
 would not grow nor thrive, and that she was taking it to 
 J^euhausen to be rocked. "But," said he, "that is not 
 your child ; it is the devil. Fling it into the stream." But 
 she refused, and maintained that it was her child, and kissed 
 it. Then said he, "Your child is at home in the inner bed- 
 room in a new cradle behind the ark. Throw, I tell you, 
 this monster into the stream." With many tears and groans 
 the poor woman at length did as he required and immediately 
 there was heard under the bridge on which they were 
 standing a howling and a growling as if wolves and bears 
 were in the place. When the woman reached home she 
 found her own child healthy and lively and laughing in its 
 new cradle. 
 
 A Hessian legend tells that as a woman was reaping corn 
 at the Dosenberg,* with her little child lying near her on 
 the ground, a Dwarf-woman (wichtelweiV) came and took 
 it and left her own lying in its stead. When the mother 
 came to look after her dear babe a great ugly jolterhead 
 was there gaping at her. She cried out and roared Murder! 
 so lustily that the thief came back with the child. But she 
 did not restore it till the mother had put the changeling to 
 her breast and given it some ennobling human milk.f 
 
 There was, it is said, in Prussian Samland, an inn-keeper 
 whom the underground folk had done many good turns. It 
 grieved him to see what bad clothes they had, and he desired 
 his wife to leave new little coats for them. They took the 
 
 * See above, p. 225. f Grimm, Dcut. Mythol., p. 437.
 
 DWARFS. 229 
 
 new clothes, but cried out, " Paid off! Paid ~<F!" and went 
 all away. 
 
 Another time they gave great help to a poor smith, and 
 every night they made bran-new pots, pans, kettles and 
 plates for him. His wife used to ^eave some milk for them, 
 on which they fell like wolves, and drained the vessel to the 
 bottom, and then cleaned it and went to their work. When 
 the smith had grown rich by means of them, his wife made 
 for each of them a pretty little red coat and cap, and left 
 them in their way. "Paid off! Paid off!" cried they, 
 slipped on the new clothes, and went away without working 
 the iron that was left for them, and never returned. 
 
 There was a being named a Scrat or Schrat, Schretel, 
 Schretlein.t This name is used in old German to translate 
 pilosus in the narratives of those who wrote in Latin, and it 
 seems sometimes to denote a House- sometimes a Wood- 
 spirit. Terms similar to it are to be found in the cognate 
 languages, and it is perhaps the origin of Old Scratch, a 
 popular English name of the devil. 
 
 There is, chiefly in Southern Germany, a species of beings 
 that greatly resemble the Dwarfs. They are called Wicht- 
 lein {Little Wights), and are about three quarters of an ell 
 high. Their appearance is that of old men with long beards. 
 They haunt the mines, and are dressed like miners, with a 
 white hood to their shirts and leather aprons, and are pro- 
 vided with lanterns, mallets, and hammers. They amuse 
 themselves with pelting the workmen with small stones, but 
 do them no injury, except when they are abused and cursed 
 by them. 
 
 They show themselves most especially in places where 
 there is an abundance of ore, and the miners are always 
 glad to see them ; they flit about in the pits and shafts, and 
 appear to work very hard, though they in reality do 
 nothing. Sometimes they seem as if working a vein, at 
 other times putting the ore into buckets, at other times work- 
 ing at the windlass, but all is mere show. They frequently 
 call, and when one comes there is no one to be seen. 
 
 * Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 453. 
 f See Orirau), ut sup., p. 447 teg
 
 230 
 
 At Kuttenburg, in Bohemia, the "Wichtlein have been 
 seen in great numbers. They announce the death of a 
 miner by knocking three times, and when any misfortune is 
 about to happen they are heard digging, pounding, and 
 imitating all other kinds of work. At times they make a 
 noise, as if they were smiths labouring very hard at the 
 anvil, hence the Bohemians call them Haus-Schmiedlein 
 (Little House-smiths). 
 
 In Istria the miners set, every day, in a particular place, a 
 little pot with food in it for them. They also at certain 
 times in each year buy a little red coat, the size of a small 
 boy's, and make the Wichtlein a present of it. If they 
 neglect this, the little people grow very angry.* 
 
 In Southern Germany they believe in a species of beings 
 somewhat like the Dwarfs, called "Wild, "Wood, Timber, and 
 Moss-people. These generally live together in society, but 
 they sometimes appear singly. They are small in stature, 
 yet somewhat larger than the Elf, being the size of children 
 of three years, grey and old-looking, hairy and clad in moss. 
 The women are of a more amiable temper than the men, which 
 last live further back in the woods ; they wear green clothes 
 faced with red, and cocked-hats. The women come to the 
 wood-cutters and ask them for something to eat ; they also 
 take it away of themselves out of the pots ; but they always 
 make a return in some way or other, often by giving good 
 advice. Sometimes they help people in their cooking or 
 washing and haymaking, and they feed the cattle. They 
 are fond of coming where people are baking, and beg of them 
 to bake for them also a piece of dough the size of half a 
 mill-stone, and to leave it in a certain place. They some- 
 times, in return, bring some of their own baking to the 
 ploughman, which they lay in the furrow or on the plough, 
 and they are greatly offended if it is rejected. The wood- 
 woman sometimes comes with a broken wheel-barrow, and 
 begs to have the wheel repaired, and she pays by the chips 
 which turn into gold, or she gives to knitters a ball of thread 
 which is never ended. A woman who good-naturedly gave 
 her breast to a crying "Wood-child, was rewarded by its 
 
 * Deutsche Sagcn, from Pnetorius., Agricola, and other*.
 
 DWARFS. 231 
 
 mother by a gift of the bark on which it was lying. She 
 broke a splinter off it and threw it into her faggot, and on 
 reaching home she found it was pure gold. Their lives are 
 attached, Like those of the Hamadryads, to the trees, and if 
 any one causes by friction the inner bark to loosen a Wood- 
 woman dies. 
 
 Their great enemy is the Wild-Huntsman, who driving 
 invisibly through the air pursues and kills them. A pea- 
 sant one time hearing the usual baying and cheering in a 
 wood, would join in the cry. JSText morning he found hang- 
 ing at his stable-door a quarter of a green Moss-woman as 
 his share of the game. When the woodmen are felling 
 timber they cut three crosses in a spot of the tree that is to 
 be hewn, and the Moss-women sit in the middle of these 
 and so are safe from the Wild-Huntsman.* 
 
 The following account of the popular belief in the parts 
 of Germany adjacent to Jutland has been given by a late 
 writer.t 
 
 In Friesland the Dwarfs are named Oennereeske, in some 
 of the islands Oennerbanske, and in Holstein Unnerorske.* 
 The same stories are told of them as of the Dwarfs and 
 Fairies elsewhere. They take away, and keep for long periods, 
 girls with whom they have fallen in love ; they steal children 
 and leave changelings in their stead, the remedy against 
 which is to lay a bible under the child's pillow ; they lend 
 and borrow pots, plates, and such like, sometimes lending 
 money with or even without interest ; they aid to build 
 houses and churches ; help the peasant when his cart has 
 stuck in the mire, and will bring him water and pancakes 
 to refresh him when at work in the fields. 
 
 * Grimm, Deut. Mythol., pp. 451, 881. 
 
 t Kohl, Die Marechen und Inseln der Heraogthumer Schleswig uni 
 Holstein. 
 
 J These terms all signify Underground folk.
 
 232 GEBMANT. 
 
 toarf 
 
 A POOB girl went out one day and as she was passing by 
 a hill she heard a Dwarf hammering away inside of it, for 
 they are handy smiths, and singing at his work. She was 
 so pleased with the song, that she could not refrain from 
 wishing aloud that she could sing like him, and live like him 
 under the ground. Scarcely had she expressed the wish 
 when the singing ceased, and a voice came out of the hill, 
 saying, " Should you like to live with us ?" " To be sure 1 
 should," replied the girl, who probably had no very happy 
 life of it above ground. Instantly the Dwarf came out of 
 the hill and made a declaration of love, and a proffer of his 
 hand and a share in his subterranean wealth. She accepted 
 the offer and lived very comfortably with him, as he proved 
 an excellent little husband. 
 
 Jntjr at Ixaitttim. 
 
 THE Friesland girls are, however, rather shy of these matches, 
 and if they have unwarily been drawn into an engage- 
 ment they try to get out of it if they possibly can. 
 
 A girl named Inge of Rantum had some way or other 
 got into an engagement with one of the Underground 
 people. The wedding-day was actually fixed, and she could 
 only be released from her bond on one condition that of 
 being able, before it came, to tell the real name of her lover. 
 All her efforts to that effect were in vain, the dreaded day 
 was fast approaching and she fell into deep melancholy. On 
 the morning of her wedding-day she went out and strolled 
 in sorrowful mood through the fields, saying to herself, as 
 she plucked some flowers, " Par happier are these flowers
 
 IVWA RFS. 233 
 
 than I." As she was stooping to gather them, she thought 
 she heard a noise under the ground. She listened and 
 recognised it as the voice oi her lover, who, in the excess of 
 his joy at the arrival of his wedding-day, was frolicking and 
 singing, " To-day I must bake and boil and roast and broil 
 and wash and brew ; for this is my wedding-day. My bride 
 is the fair Inge of Kantum, and my name is Ekke Nekkepem. 
 Hurrah ! Nobody knows that but myself! " "Aye, but 1 
 know it too!" said Inge softly to herself, and she placed 
 her nosegay in her bosom and went home. Toward even- 
 ing came the Dwarf to claim his bride. " Many thanks, 
 dear Ekke Nekkepem," said she, "but if you please I would 
 rather stay where I am." The smiling face of the bride- 
 groom grew dark as thunder, but he recollected how he 
 had divulged his secret, and saw that the affair was past 
 remedy.* 
 
 The Ms of Jutland is called Pukf in Friesland. Like 
 him he wears a pointed red cap, with a long grey or green 
 jacket, and slippers on his feet. His usual abode is under 
 the roof, and he goes in and out either through a broken 
 window, which is never mended, or through some other 
 aperture left on purpose for him. A bowl of groute must 
 be left on the floor for him every evening, and he is very 
 angry if there should be no butter in it. "When well 
 treated he makes himself very useful by cleaning up the 
 house, and tending the cattle. He sometimes amuses him- 
 self by playing tricks on the servants, tickling, for example, 
 their noses when they are asleep, or pulling off the bed- 
 clothes. Stories are told of the Puk, similar to some above 
 related of the Juttish Ms. 
 
 * See above, p. 116. 
 
 f The Puk is also called Niss-Puk, Huis-Puk, Niske, Niske-Puk, Nise- 
 Bok, Niss-Kuk all compounds or corruptions of Nisse and Puk. He is also 
 named from his racketing and noise Pulter-Claas, i. e. Nick Knocker, (the 
 German Poltergeist,) Ciaas being the abbreviation of Nicolaus, Niclas ; Bee 
 above, p. 1 '69, for this same origin of Nisse.
 
 234 GERMANY. 
 
 THE "WILD-WOMEN. 
 
 Bin MSgdlein kam im Abendglanz, 
 Wie ich's noch nie gefunden. 
 
 SCHREIBEB. 
 
 A maiden came in Evening's glow, 
 Such as I ne'er have met. 
 
 THE "Wilde Frauen or "Wild-women of Germany bear a very 
 strong resemblance to the Elle-maids of Scandinavia. Like 
 them they are beautiful, have fine flowing hair, live within 
 hills, and only appear singly or in the society of each other. 
 They partake of the piety of character we find among the 
 German Dwarfs. 
 
 The celebrated Wunderberg, or TJnderberg, on the great 
 moor near Salzburg, is the chief haunt of the Wild-women. 
 The Wunderberg is said to be quite hollow, and supplied 
 with stately palaces, churches, monasteries, gardens, and 
 springs of gold and silver. Its inhabitants, beside the Wild- 
 women, are little men, who have charge of the treasures it 
 contains, and who at midnight repair to Salzburg to perform 
 their devotions in the cathedral ; giants, who used to come 
 to the church of Grodich and exhort the people to lead a 
 godly and pious life ; and the great emperor Charles V., 
 with golden crown and sceptre, attended by knights and 
 lords. His grey beard has twice encompassed the table at 
 which he sits, and when it has the third time grown round 
 it, the end of the world and the appearance of the Anti- 
 christ will take place.* 
 
 * All relating to the Wild-women and the Wunderberjr is given by MM, 
 Grimm from the Brixener Volksbuch, 1782. For an account of the varioul 
 Bergentruckte Helden, see the Deutsche Mythologie, ch. xxxii.
 
 THE WILD- WOMEN. 235 
 
 The following is the only account we nave of the Wild- 
 ivomen. 
 
 The inhabitants of the village of Grodich and the pea- 
 santry of the neighbourhood assert that frequently, about 
 the year 1753, the Wild-women used to come out of the 
 Wunderberg to the boys and girls that were keeping the 
 cattle near the hole within Glanegg, and give them bread 
 to eat. 
 
 The Wild-women used frequently to come to where the 
 people were reaping. They came down early in the morning, 
 and in the evening, when the people left off work, they 
 went back into the Wunderberg without partaking of the 
 supper. 
 
 It happened once near this hill, that a little boy was 
 sitting on a horse which his father had tethered on the head- 
 land of the field. Then came the Wild-women out of the 
 hill and wanted to take away the boy by force. But the 
 father, who was well acquainted with the secrets of this hill, 
 and what used to occur there, without any dread hasted up 
 to the women and took the boy from them, with these 
 words : " What makes you presume to come so often out 
 of the hill, and now to take away my child with you ? What 
 do you want to do with him ? " The Wild- women answered : 
 " He will be better with us, and have better care taken of 
 him than at home. We shall be very fond of the boy, and 
 he will meet with no injury." But the father would not let 
 the boy out of his hands, and the Wild-women went away 
 weeping bitterly. 
 
 One time the Wild-women came out of the Wunder- 
 berg, near the place called the Kugelmill, which is prettily 
 situated on the side of this hill, and took away a boy who 
 was keeping cattle. This boy, whom every one knew, was 
 seen about a year after by some wood-cutters, in a green 
 dress, and sitting on a block of this hill. Next day they 
 took his parents with them, intending to search the hill 
 for him, but they all went about it to no purpose, for the 
 boy never appeared any more. 
 
 It frequently has happened that a Wild- woman out of the 
 Wunderberg has gone toward the village of Anif, which is 
 better than a mile from the hill. She used to make holes 
 and beds for herself in the ground. She had uncommonly
 
 230 
 
 long and beautiful hair, which reached nearly to the soles of 
 her feet. A peasant belonging to the village often saw this 
 woman going and coming, and he fell deeply in love with 
 her, especially on account of her beautiful hair. He could 
 not refrain from going up to her, and he gazed on her with 
 delight ; and at last, in his simplicity, he laid himself, with- 
 out any repugnance, down by her side. The second night 
 the Wild-woman asked him if he had not a wife already ? 
 The peasant however denied his wife, and said he had not. 
 
 His wife meanwhile was greatly puzzled to think where it 
 was that her husband went every evening, and slept every 
 night. She therefore watched him and found him in the 
 field sleeping near the Wild-woman : " Oh, God preserve 
 thy beautiful hair!" said she to the Wild- woman ; "what 
 are you doing there ? " * With these words the peasant's 
 wife retired and left them, and her husband was greatly 
 frightened at it. But the Wild-woman upbraided him with 
 his false denial, and said to him, " Had your wife manifested 
 hatred and spite against me, you would now be unfortunate, 
 and would never leave this place ; but since your wife was 
 not malicious, love her from henceforth, and dwell with her 
 faithfully, and never venture more to come here, for it is 
 written, ' Let every one live faithfully with his wedded wife ,' 
 though the force of this commandment will greatly decrease, 
 and with it all the temporal prosperity of married people. 
 Take this shoefull of money from me : go home, and look no 
 more about you." 
 
 As the fair maiden who originally possessed the famed 
 Oldenburg Horn was probably a Wild-woman, we will place 
 the story of it here. 
 
 * In a similar tradition (Strack, Beschr. von Eilsen, p. 120) the vnfe cute 
 off one of her fair long tresses, and is afterwards most earnestly cotjired by 
 her to restore it.
 
 TffE WTLD-WOMEK. 237 
 
 IN the time of count Otto of Oldenburg, who succeeded his 
 father Ulrich in the year 967, a wonderful transaction 
 occurred. For as he, being a good sportsman, and one who 
 took great delight in the chase, had set out early one day 
 with his nobles and attendants, and had hunted in the 
 wood of Bernefeuer, and the count himself had put up a 
 roe, and followed him alone from the wood of Bernefeuer to 
 the Osenberg, and with his white horse stood on the top of 
 the hill, and endeavoured to trace the game, he said to him- 
 self, for it was an excessively hot day, " Oh God ! if one had 
 now but a cool drink ! " 
 
 No sooner had the count spoken the word than the Osen- 
 berg opened, and out of the cleft there came a beautiful 
 maiden, fairly adorned and handsomely dressed, and with her 
 beautiful hair divided on her shoulders, and a garland on 
 her head. And she had a rich silver vessel, that was gilded 
 and shaped like a hunter's horn, well and ingeniously made, 
 granulated, and fairly ornamented. It was adorned with 
 various kinds of arms that are now but little known, and 
 with strange unknown inscriptions and ingenious figures, 
 and it was soldered together and adorned in the same 
 manner as the old antiques, and it was beautifully and 
 ingeniously wrought. This horn the maiden held in her 
 hand, and it was full, and she gave it into the hand of the 
 count, and prayed that the count would drink out of it to 
 refresh himself therewith. 
 
 "When the count had received and taken this gilded silver 
 horn from the maiden, and had opened it and looked into it, 
 the drink, or whatever it was that was in it, when he shook 
 it, did not please him, and he therefore refused to drink tor 
 the maiden. Whereupon the maiden said, " My dear lord, 
 drink of it upon my faith, for it will do you no harm, but 
 will be of advantage;" adding further, that it the count
 
 238 
 
 would drink out of it, it would go well w!th him, count 
 Otto, and his, and also with the whole house of Oldenburg 
 after him, and that the whole country would improve and 
 flourish. But if the count would place no faith in her, and 
 would not drink of it, then for the future, in the succeeding 
 family of Oldenburg, there would remain no unity. But 
 when the count gave no heed to what she said, but, as was 
 not without reason, considered with himself a long time 
 whether he should drink or not, he held the silver gilded 
 horn in his hand and swung it behind him, and poured it 
 out, and some of its contents sprinkled the white horse, and 
 where it fell and wetted him the hair all came off. 
 
 "When the maiden saw this, she desired to have her horn 
 back again, but the count made speed down the hill \\ith 
 the horn, which he held in his hand, and when he looked 
 round he observed that the maiden was gone into the hill 
 again. And when terror seized on the count on account of 
 this, he laid spurs to his horse, and at full speed hasted to 
 join his attendants, and informed them of what had befallen 
 him. He moreover showed them the silver gilded horn, and 
 took it with him to Oldenburg, and the same horn, as it was 
 obtained in so wonderful a manner, was preserved as a costly 
 jewel bv him, and by all the succeeding reigning princes of 
 the house of Oldenburg.* 
 
 * Given by Biisching (Volks-sagen Marchen und Legenden. Leipzig, 
 1820), from Hammelmann's Oldenburg Chronicle, 1599. Mine. Naubert 
 has, in the second volume of her Volksmarchen, wrought it up into a tale of 
 130 pages. 
 
 The Oldenburg horn, or what is called such, is now in the King of Den- 
 mark's collection.
 
 KOBOLDS. 239 
 
 KOBOLDS.* 
 
 Von Kobolt sang die Atnme mir 
 Von Kobolt sing' ich wieder. 
 
 VON HALEJJ. 
 
 Of Kobold sang my nurse to me ; 
 Of Kobold I too sing. 
 
 THE Kobold is exactly the same being as the Danish Nis, 
 and Scottish Brownie, and English Ilobgoblin.t He per- 
 forms the very same services for the family to whom he 
 attaches himself. 
 
 When the Kobold is about coming into any place, he first 
 makes trial of the disposition of the family in this way. He 
 brings chips and saw-dust into the house, and throws dirt 
 into the milk vessels. If the master of the house takes care 
 that the chips are not scattered about, and that the dirt is 
 left in the vessels, and the milk drunk out of them, the 
 Kobold comes and stays in the house as long as there is one 
 of the family alive. 
 
 The change of servants does not afiect the Kobold, who 
 still remains. The maid who is going away must recommend 
 her successor to take care of him, and treat him well. If 
 she does not so, things go ill with her till she is also obliged 
 to leave the place. 
 
 The history of the celebrated Hinzelmann will give most 
 
 * This word is usually derived from the Greek ic6fia\os, a knave, which 
 is found in Aristophanes. According to Grimm (p. 468) the German 
 Kobold is not mentioned by any writer anterior to the thirteenth century , 
 we find the French Gobelin in the eleventh ; see France. 
 
 t In Hanover the Will-o'the-wisp is called the Tuckebold, !. e. Tiicke- 
 Kobold, and is, as his name denotes, a malicious being. Voss. Lyr. Ged., 
 ii. p. 315.
 
 240 GERMANY. 
 
 full and satisfactory information respecting the nature and 
 properties of Kobolds ; for such he was, though he used 
 constantly to deny it. His history was written at consider- 
 able length by a pious minister, named Feldmann. MM. 
 Grimm gives us the following abridgement of it.* 
 
 A WONDEHFUL house-spirit haunted for a long time the 
 old castle of Hudemuhlen, situated in the country of Lune- 
 burg, not far from the Aller, and of which there is nothing 
 remaining but the walls. It was in the year 1584 that he 
 first notified his presence, by knocking and making various 
 noises. Soon after he began to converse with the servants 
 in the daylight. They were at first terrified at hearing a 
 voice and seeing nothing, but by degrees they became accus- 
 tomed to it and thought no more of it. At last he became 
 quite courageous, and began to speak to the master of the 
 house himself, and used, in the middle of the day and in the 
 evening, to carry on conversations of various kinds ; and at 
 meal-times he discoursed with those who were present, 
 whether strangers or belonging to the family. "When all 
 fear of him was gone he became quite friendly and intimate: 
 he sang, laughed, and went on with every kind of sport, so 
 long as no one vexed him : and his voice was on these occa- 
 sions soft and tender like that of a boy or maiden. When 
 he was asked whence he came, and what he had to do in 
 that place, he said he was come from the Bohemian moun- 
 tains, and that his companions were in the Bohemian forest 
 that they would not tolerate him, and that he was in con- 
 sequence obliged to retire and take refuge with good people 
 
 * Deutsche Sagen, i. p. 103. Feldmann's work is a 12mo vo.. of 
 379 pages. 
 
 + Heinze is the abbreviation of Heinrich (Henry). In the Norh of 
 Germany the Kobold is also named Chimmeken and Wolterken, from Joacmm 
 and Walther.
 
 KI.MH ,.!>*. 241 
 
 till liis affairs should be in a better condition. He added 
 that his name was Hinzelniann, but that he was also called 
 Luring ; and that he had a wife whose name was Hi lie 
 Bingels. When the time for it was come he would let him- 
 self he seen in his real shape, but that aC present it was not 
 convenient for him to do so. In all other respects he was, 
 he said, as good and honest a fellow as need be. 
 
 The master of the house, when he saw that the spirit 
 attached himself more and more to him, began to get fright- 
 ened, and knew not how he should get rid of him. By the 
 advice of his friends he determined at last to leave his castle 
 for some time, and set out for Hanover. On the road thev 
 observed a white feather that flew beside the carriage, 
 but no one knew what it signified. When he arrived at 
 Hanover he missed a valuable gold chain that he wore 
 about his neck, and his suspicions fell upon the servants of 
 the house. But the innkeeper took the part of his servants, 
 and demanded satisfaction for the discreditable charge. The 
 nobleman, who could prove nothing against them, sat in his 
 chamber in bad spirits, thinking how he should manage to 
 get himself out of this unpleasant affair, when all of a sudden 
 he heard Hinzelmann's voice beside him, saying, " Why are 
 you so sad ? If there is anything gone wrong with you tell it 
 to me, and I shall perhaps know how to assist you. If I 
 were to make a guess, I should say that you are fretting 
 on account of a chain you have lost." " What are you doing 
 here?" replied the terrified nobleman; "why have you 
 followed me ? Do you know anything about the chain ? " 
 " Yes, indeed," said Hinzelmann, " I have followed you, and 
 I kept you company on the road, and was always present : 
 did you not see me ? why, I was the white feather that flew 
 beside the carriage. And now I '11 tell you where the chain 
 is : Search under the pillow of your bed, and there you '11 
 find it." The chain was found where he said ; but the mind 
 of the nobleman became still more uneasy, and he asked him 
 in an angry tone why he had brought him into a quarrel with 
 the landlord on account of the chain, since he was the cause 
 of his leaving his own house. Hinzelmann replied, " Why 
 do you retire from me ? I can easily follow you anywhere, 
 and be where you are. It is much better for you to return 
 to your own estate, and not be quitting it on my account.
 
 242 
 
 You see well that if I wished it I could take away all you 
 have, but I am not inclined to do so." The nobleman 
 thought some time of it, and at last came to the resolution 
 of returning home, and trusting in Grod not to retreat a step 
 from the spirit. 
 
 At home in Hudemuhlen, Hinzelmann now showed him- 
 self extremely obliging, and active and industrious at every 
 kind of work. He used to toil every night in the kitchen ; 
 and if the cook, in the evening after supper, left the plates 
 and dishes lying in a heap without being washed, next 
 morning they were all nice and clean, shining like looking- 
 glasses, and put up in proper order. She therefore might 
 depend upon him, and go to bed in the evening after supper 
 without giving herself any concern about them. In like 
 manner nothing was ever lost in the kitchen ; and if any- 
 thing was astray Hinzelmann knew immediately where to 
 find it, in whatever corner it was hid, and gave it into the 
 hands of the owner. If strangers were expected, the spirit 
 let himself be heard in a particular manner, and his labours 
 were continued the whole night long : he scoured the pots 
 and kettles, washed the dishes, cleaned the pails and tubs. 
 The cook was grateful to him for all this, and not only did 
 what he desired, but cheerfully got ready his sweet milk for 
 his breakfast. He took also the charge of superintending 
 the other men and maids. He noticed how they got through 
 their business ; and when they were at work he encouraged 
 them with good words to be industrious. But if any one 
 was inattentive to what he said, he caught up a stick and 
 communicated his instructions by laying on heartily with it. 
 He frequently warned the maids of their mistress's displea- 
 sure, and reminded them of some piece of work which they 
 should set about doing. He was equally busy in the stable : 
 he attended to the horses, and curried them carefully, so that 
 they were as smooth in their coats as an eel ; they also 
 throve and improved so much, in next to no time, that every- 
 body wondered at it. 
 
 His chamber was in the upper story on the right hand 
 side, and his furniture consisted of only three articles. 
 Imprimis, of a settle or arm-chair, which he plaited very 
 neatly for himself of straw of different colours, full of 
 handsome figures and crosses, which no one looked upon
 
 KOBOLDS. 243 
 
 without admiration. Secondly, of a little round table, which 
 was on his repeated entreaties made and put there. Thirdly, 
 of a bed and bedstead, which he had also expressed a wish 
 for. There never was any trace found as if a man had lain 
 in it ; there could only be perceived a very small depression, 
 as if a cat had been there. The servants, especially the 
 cook, were obliged every day to prepare a dish full of sweet 
 milk, with crums of wheaten bread, and place it upon his 
 little table ; and it was soon after eaten up clean. He some- 
 times used to come to the table of the master of the house, 
 and they were obliged to put a chair and a plate for him at 
 a particular place. Whoever was helping, put his food on 
 his plate, and if that was forgotten he fell into a great 
 passion. What was put on his plate vanished, and a glass 
 full of wine was taken away for some time, and was then set 
 again in its place empty. But the food was afterwards found 
 lying under the benches, or in a corner of the room. 
 
 In the society of young people Hinzelmann was extremely 
 cheerful. He sang and made verses : one of his most usual 
 ones was, 
 
 If thou here wilt let me stay, 
 
 Good luck shalt thou have alway ; 
 
 But if hence thou wilt me chase, 
 
 Luck will ne'er come near the place. 
 
 He used also to repeat the songs and sayings of other 
 people by way of amusement or to attract their attention. 
 The minister Feldmann was once invited to Hudemiihleu, 
 and when he came to the door he heard some one above in 
 the hall singing, shouting, and making every sort of noise, 
 which made him think that some strangers had come the 
 evening before, and were lodged above, and making them- 
 selves merry. He therefore said to the steward, who Avas 
 standing in the court after having cut up some wood, " John, 
 what guests have you above there ? " The steward answered, 
 " We have no strangers ; it is only our Hinzelmann who is 
 amusing himself; there is not a living soul else in the hall." 
 When the minister went up into the hall, Hinzelmann sang 
 out to him 
 
 My thumb, my thumb, 
 
 And my elbow are two. 
 
 The mi lister wondered at this unusual kind oi song, and he 
 
 a 2
 
 244 OEKMANT. 
 
 said to Hinzelmann, " What sort of music is that you come 
 to meet me with ? " " Why," replied Hinzelmann, " it was 
 from yourself I learned the song, for you have often sung 
 it, and it is only a few days since I heard it from you, when 
 you were in a certain place at a christening." 
 
 Hinzelmann was fond of playing tricks, but he never 
 hurt any one by them. He used to set servants and work- 
 men by the ears as they sat drinking in the evening, and 
 took great delight then in looking at the sport. When any 
 one of them was well warmed with liquor, and let anything 
 fall under the table and stooped to take it up, Hinzelmann 
 would give him a good box on the ear from behind, and 
 at the same time pinch his neighbour's leg. Then the two 
 attacked each other, first with words and then with blows ; 
 the rest joined in the scuffle, and they dealt about their 
 blows, and were repaid in kind ; and next morning black 
 eyes and swelled faces bore testimony of the fray. But 
 Hinzelmann' s very heart was delighted at it, and he used 
 afterwards to tell how it was he that began it, on purpose to 
 set them fighting. He however always took care so to order 
 matters that no one should run any risk of his life. 
 
 There came one time to Hudemuhlen a nobleman who 
 undertook to banish Hinzelmann. Accordingly, when he 
 remarked that he was in a certain room, of which all the 
 doors and windows were shut fast, he had this chamber and 
 the whole house also beset with armed men, and went him- 
 self with his drawn sword into the room, accompanied by 
 some others. They however saw nothing, so they began to 
 cut and thrust left and right in aD directions, thinking that 
 if Hinzelmann had a body some blow or other must cer- 
 tainly reach him and kill him ; still they could not perceive 
 that their hangers met anything but mere air. When they 
 thought they must have accomplished their task, and were 
 going out of the room tired with their long fencing, just as 
 they opened the door, they saw a figure like that of a black 
 marten, and heard these words, " Ha, ha ! how well you 
 caught me ! " But Hinzelmann afterwards expressed him- 
 self very bitterly for this insult, and declared, that he would 
 have easily had an opportunity of revenging himself, were it 
 not that he wished to spare the two ladies of the house any 
 uneasiness. When this same nobleman not long after went
 
 KOBOLDS. 245 
 
 into an empty room in tke house, he saw a large snake lying 
 coiled up on an unoccupied bed. It instantly vanished, and 
 he heard the words of the spirit " You were near catchino- 
 
 . . O 
 
 me. 
 
 Another nobleman had heard a great deal about Hinzel- 
 mann, and he was curious to get some personal knowledge 
 of him. He came accordingly to Hudemiihlen, and his wish 
 was not long ungratified, for the spirit let himself be heard 
 from a corner of the room where there was a large cupboard, 
 in which were standing some empty wine-jugs with long 
 necks. As the voice was soft and delicate, and somewhat 
 hoarse, as if it came out of a hollow vessel, the nobleman 
 thought it likely that he was sitting in one of these jugs, so 
 he got up and ran and caught them up, and went to stop 
 them, thinking in this way to catch the spirit. AVhile he 
 was thus engaged, Hinzelmann began to laugh aloud, and 
 cried out, " If I had not heard long ago from other people 
 that you were a fool, I might now have known it of myself, 
 since you thought I was sitting in an empty jug, and went to 
 cover it up with your hand, as if you had me caught. I don't 
 think you worth the trouble, or I would have given you, 
 long since, such a lesson, that you should remember me long 
 enough. But before long you will get a slight ducking." 
 He then became silent, and did not let himself be heard any 
 more so long as the nobleman stayed. AVhether he fell into 
 the water, as Hinzelmann threatened him, is not said, but 
 it is probable he did. 
 
 There came, too, an exorcist to banish him. When he 
 began his conjuration with his magic words, Hinzelmann was 
 at first quite quiet, and did not let himself be heard at all. but 
 when he was going to read the most powerful sentences 
 against him, he snatched the book out of his hand, tore it to 
 pieces, so that the leaves flew about the room, caught hold of 
 the exorcist himself, and squeezed and scratched him till he 
 ran away frightened out of his wits. He complained greatly 
 of this treatment, and said, " I am a Christian, like any other 
 man, and I hope to be saved." When he was asked if he 
 knew the Kobolds and Knocking-spirits (Polter Geister), he 
 answered, " What have these to do with me ? They are the 
 Devil's spectres, and I do not belong to them. No one 
 has any evil, but rather good, to expect from me. Let me
 
 alone and you will have luck in everything ; the cattle wu\ 
 thrive, your substance will increase, and everything will go 
 on well." 
 
 Profligacy and vice were quite displeasing to him ; he usetf 
 frequently to scold severely one of the family for his stinginess, 
 and told the rest that he could not endure him on account 
 of it. Another he upbraided with his pride, which he said he 
 hated from his heart. When some one once said to him 
 that if he would be a good Christian, he should call upon 
 God, and say Christian prayers, he began the Lord's Prayer, 
 and went through it till he came to the last petition, when 
 he murmured " Deliver us from the Evil one " quite low. 
 He also repeated the Creed, but in a broken and stammering 
 manner, for when he came to the words, " I believe in the 
 forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life 
 everlasting," he pronounced them in so hoarse and indistinct 
 a *oice that no one could rightly hear and understand him. 
 The minister of Eicheloke, Mr. Feldmann, said that his 
 father was invited to dinner to Hudemuhlen at Whitsuntide, 
 where he heard Hinzelmann go through the whole of the 
 beautiful hymn, " Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist," in a 
 very high but not unpleasant voice, like that of a girl or 
 a young boy. Nay, he sang not merely this, but several 
 other spiritual songs also when requested, especially by those 
 whom he regarded as his friends, and with whom he was on 
 terms of intimacy. 
 
 On the other hand, he was extremely angry when he was 
 not treated with respect and as a Christian. A nobleman ot 
 the family of Mandelsloh once came to Hudemiihlen. This 
 nobleman was highly respected for his learning ; he was a 
 canon of the cathedral of Verden, and had been ambassador 
 to the Elector of Brandenburg and the King of Denmark. 
 When he heard of the house-spirit, and that he expected to 
 be treated as a Christian, he said he could not believe that 
 all was right with him : he was far more inclined to regard 
 him as the Enemy and the Devil, for that God had never 
 made men of that kind anl form, that angels praised God 
 their Lord, and guarded and protected men, with which the 
 knocking and pounding and strange proceedings of the 
 House-spirit did not accord. Hinzelmann, who had not let 
 himself be heard since his arrival, now made a noise and
 
 217 
 
 cried out, " What say you Barthold ? (that was the noble- 
 man's name) am I the Enemy ? I advise you not to say too 
 much, or I will show you another trick, and teach vou 
 to deliver a better judgment of me another time." The 
 nobleman was frightened when he heard a voice without 
 seeing any one, broke off the discourse, and would hear 
 nothing more of him, but left him in possession of his 
 dignity. 
 
 Another time a nobleman came there, who, when he saw a 
 chair and plate laid for Hinzelmann at dinner, refused to 
 pledge him. At this the spirit was offended, and he said, 
 "I am as honest and good a fellow as he is; why then 
 does he not drink to me ?" To this the nobleman replied, 
 " Depart hence, and go drink with thy infernal companions ; 
 thou hast nothing to do here." When Hiuzelmann heard 
 that, he became so highly exasperated, that he seized him by 
 the strap with which, according to the custom of those days, 
 his cloak was fastened under his chin, dragged him to the 
 ground, and choked and pressed him in such a manner that 
 all that were present were in pain lest he should kill him ; 
 and the gentleman did not come to himself for some hours 
 after the spirit had left him. 
 
 Another time an esteemed friend of the master of Hude- 
 miihlen was travelling that way, but he hesitated to come in 
 on account of the House-spirit, of whose mischievous turn he 
 had heard a great deal, and sent his servant to inform the 
 family that he could not call upon them. The master of the 
 house sent out and pressed him very much to come in and 
 dine there, but the stranger politely excused himself, by 
 saying that it was not in his power to stop ; he, however, 
 added, that he was too much terrified at the idea of sitting 
 at the same table eating and drinking with a devil. Hinzel- 
 mann, it appears, was present at this conversation out in the 
 road ; fcr when the stranger had thus refused they heard 
 these words, " Wait, my good fellow, you shall be well paid 
 for this talk." Accordingly, when the traveller went on 
 and came to the bridge over the Meisse, the horses took 
 fright, entangled themselves in the harness, and horses, 
 carriage and all, were within an ace of tumbling down into 
 the water. When everything had been set to rights, and 
 the carriage had got on about a gun-shot, it was turned over
 
 248 
 
 in the sand on the level ground, without, however, those who 
 were in it receiving any farther injury. 
 
 Hinzelmann was fond of society, but the society he chiefly 
 delighted in was that of females, and he was to them very 
 friendly and aifable. There were two young ladies at Hude- 
 miihlen, named Anne and Catherine, to whom he was par- 
 ticularly attached ; he used to make his complaint to them 
 whenever he was angry at anything, and held, besides, 
 conversations of every kind with them. Whenever they 
 travelled he would not quit them, but accompanied them 
 everywhere in the shape of a white feather. When they 
 went to sleep at night, he lay beneath, at their feet, outside 
 the clothes, and in the morning there was a little hole to be 
 seen, as if a little dog had lain there. 
 
 Neither of these ladies ever married ; for Hinzelmann 
 frightened away their wooers. Matters had frequently gone 
 so far as the engagement, but the spirit always contrived to 
 have it broken off. One lover he would make all bewildered 
 and confused when he was about to address the lady, so that 
 he did not know what he should say. In another he would 
 excite such fear as to make him quiver and tremble. But 
 his usual way was to make a writing appear before their 
 eyes on the opposite white wall, with these words in golden 
 letters: " Take maid Anne, and leave me maid Catherine." 
 But if any one came to court lady Anne, the golden writing 
 changed all at once, and became " Take maid Catherine, and 
 leave me maid Anne." If any one did not change his course 
 for this, but persisted in his purpose, and happened to 
 spend the night in the house, he terrified and tormented him 
 so in the dark with knocking and flinging and pounding, 
 that he laid aside all wedding-thoughts, and was right glad 
 to get away with a whole skin. Some, when they were on 
 their way back, he tumbled, themselves and their horses, 
 over and over, that they thought their necks and legs would 
 be broken, and yet knew not how it had happened to them. 
 In consequence of this, the two ladies remained unmarried ; 
 they arrived to a great age, and died within a week of each 
 other. 
 
 One of these ladies once sent a servant from Hudemiihlen 
 to Eethem to buy different articles ; while he was away 
 Hinzelmann began suddenly to clapper in the ladies'
 
 KOHOLD8. 249 
 
 chamber like a stork, and then said, " Maid Aniie, you must 
 go look for your things to-day in the mill-stream." She did 
 not know what this mea,nt ; but the servant soon came in, 
 and related, that as he was on his way home, he had seen a 
 stork sitting at no great distance from him, which he shot at, 
 and it seemed to him as if he had hit it, but that the stork 
 had remained sitting, and at last began to clap its wings 
 aloud and then flew away. It was now plain that Hinzelmann 
 knew this, and his prophecy also soon came to pass. For 
 the servant, who was a little intoxicated, wanted to wash his 
 horse, who was covered with sweat and dirt, and he rode 
 him into the mill-stream in i'ront of the castle ; but owing to 
 his drunkenness he missed the right place, and got into a 
 deep hole, where, not being able to keep his seat on the 
 horse, he fell off and was drowned. He had not delivered 
 the things he had brought with him ; so they and the body 
 together were fished up out of the stream. 
 
 Hinzelmann also informed and warned others of the future. 
 There came to Hudemuhlen a colonel, who was greatly 
 esteemed by Christian III. King of Denmark, and who had 
 done good service in the wars with the town of Liibeck. He 
 was a good shot and passionately fond of the chase, and used 
 to spend many hours in the neighbouring woods after the 
 harts and the wild sows. As he was getting ready one day 
 to go to the chase as usual, Hinzelmann came and said, 
 " Thomas (that was his name), I warn you to be cautious 
 how you shoot, or you will before long meet with a mishap." 
 The colonel took no notice of this, and thought it meant 
 nothing. But a few days after, as lie was firing at a roe, 
 his gun burst, and took the thumb off his left hand. When 
 this occurred, Hinzelmann was instantly by his side, and 
 said, " See, now, you have got what I warned you of! If 
 you had refrained from shooting this time, this mischance 
 would not have befallen you." 
 
 Another time a certain lord Falkenberg, who was a 
 soldier, was on a visit at Hudemuhlen. He was a lively, 
 jolly man, and he began to play tricks on Hinzelmann, and 
 to mock and jeer him. Hinzelmann would not long put up 
 with this, and he began to exhibit signs of great dissatisfac- 
 tion. At last he said, " Falkenberg, you are making very 
 merry now at my expense, but wait till you come to Magde-
 
 250 
 
 burg, and there your cap will be burst in such a way that 
 you will forget your jibes and your jeers." The nobleman was 
 awed : he was persuaded that these words contained a hidden 
 sense : he broke off the conversation with Hinzelmann, and 
 shortly after departed. Not long after the siege of Magde- 
 burg, under the Elector Maurice, commenced, at which this 
 lord Falkenberg was present, under a German prince of high 
 rank. The besieged made a gallant resistance, and night 
 and day kept up a firing of double-harquebuses, and other 
 kinds of artillery; and it happened that one day Falken- 
 berg' s chin was shot away by a ball from a falconet, and 
 three days after he died of the wound, in great agony. 
 
 Any one whom the spirit could not endure he used to 
 plague or punish for his vices. He accused the secretary at 
 Hudemuhlen of too much pride, took a great dislike to him 
 on account of it, and night and day gave him every kind of 
 annoyance. He once related with great glee how he had 
 given the haughty secretary a sound box on the ear. When 
 the secretary was asked about it, and whether the Spirit had 
 been with him, he replied. " Ay, indeed, he has been with 
 me but too often ; this very night he tormented me in such 
 a manner that I could not stand before him." He had a 
 love affair with the chamber-maid ; and one night as he 
 was in high and confidential discourse with her, and they 
 were sitting together in great joy, thinking that no one 
 could see them but the four walls, the crafty spirit came and 
 drove them asunder, and roughly tumbled the poor secretary 
 out at the door, and then took up a broomstick and laid on 
 him with it, that he made over head and neck for his 
 chamber, and forgot his love altogether. Hinzelmann is 
 said to have made some verses on the unfortunate lover, and 
 to have often sung them for his amusement, and repeated 
 them to travellers, laughing heartily at them. 
 
 One tune some one at Hudemuhlen was suddenly taken 
 in the evening with a violent fit of the cholic, and a maid 
 was despatched to the cellar to fetch some wine, in which 
 the patient was to take his medicine. As the maid was 
 sitting before the cask, and was just going to draw the wine, 
 Hinzelmann was by her side, and said, " You will be pleased tc 
 recollect that, a few days ago, you scolded me and abused me; 
 by way of punishment for it, you shall spend this night
 
 KOBOLBS. 25! 
 
 sitting in the cellar As to the sick person, he is in no danger 
 whatever ; his pain will be all gone in half an hour, and the 
 wine would rather injure him. So just stay sitting here till the 
 cellar door is opened." The patient waited a long time, but 
 no wine came ; another maid was sent down, and she found 
 the cellar door well secured on the outside with a good 
 padlock, and the maid sitting within, who told her that 
 Hinzelmann had fastened her up in that way. They wanted 
 to open the cellar and let the maid out, but they could not find 
 a key for the lock, though they searched with the greatest 
 industry. Next morning the cellar was open, and the lock 
 and key lying before the door. Just as the spirit said, all 
 his pain left the sick man in the course of half an hour. 
 
 Hinzelmann had never shown himself to the master of the 
 house at Hudemiihlen, and whenever he begged of him 
 that if he was shaped like a man, he would let himself be 
 seen by him, he answered, " that the time was not yet come; 
 that he should wait till it was agreeable to him." One 
 night, as the master was lying awake in bed, he heard a 
 rushing noise on one side of the chamber, and he conjectured 
 that the spirit must be there. So he said " Hinzelmann, if 
 you are there, answer me." "It is I," replied he; "what 
 do you want?" As the room was quite light with the 
 moonshine, it seemed to the master as if there was the 
 shadow of a form like that of a child, perceptible in the 
 place from which the sound proceeded. As he observed that 
 the spirit was in a very friendly humour, he entered into 
 conversation with him, and said, " Let me, for this once, 
 see and feel you." But Hinzelmann would not : " Will you 
 reach me your hand, at least, that I may know whether you 
 are flesh and bone like a man ? " " No," said Hinzelmann ; 
 " I won't trust you ; you are a knave ; you might catch hold 
 of me, and not let me go any more." After a long demur, 
 however, and after he had promised, on his faith and honour, 
 not to hold him, but to let him go again immediately, he 
 said, " See, there is my hand." And as the master caught 
 at it, it seemed to him as if he felt the fingers of the hand of 
 a little child; but the spirit drew it back quickly. The 
 masttr further desired that he would let him feel his face, to 
 which he at last consented; and when he touched it, it 
 seemed to Mm as if he had touched teeth, or a fleshless
 
 252 GEBMANT. 
 
 skeleton, and the face drew back instantaneously, so that h< 
 could not ascertain its exact shape ; he only noticed that it. 
 like the hand, was cold, and devoid of vital heat. 
 
 The cook, who was on terms of great intimacy with him. 
 thought that she might venture to make a request of him, 
 though another might not, and as she felt a strong desire to 
 see Hinzelmann bodily, whom she heard talking every day, 
 and whom she supplied with meat and drink, she prayed 
 him earnestly to grant her that favour ; but he would not, 
 and said that this was not the right time, but that after 
 some time, he would let himself be seen by any person. 
 This refusal only stimulated her desire, and she pressed him 
 more and more not to deny her request. He said she would 
 repent of her curiosity if she would not give up her desire ; 
 and when all his representations were to no purpose, and 
 she woiild not give over, he at last said to her, " Come 
 to-morrow morning before sun-rise into the cellar, and carry 
 in each hand a pail full of water, and your request shall be 
 complied with." The maid inquired what the water was for : 
 " That you will learn," answered he ; " without it, the sight 
 of me might be injurious to you." 
 
 Next morning the cook was ready at peep of dawn, took in 
 each hand a pail of water, and went down to the cellar. 
 She looked about her without seeing anything ; but as she 
 cast her eyes on the ground she perceived a tray, on which 
 was lying a naked child apparently three years old, and two 
 knives sticking crosswise in his heart, and his whole body 
 streaming with blood. The maid was terrified at this sight 
 to such a degree, that she lost her senses, and fell in a swoon 
 on the ground. The spirit immediately took the water that 
 she had brought with her, and poured it all over her head, 
 by which means she came to herself again. She looked 
 about for the tray, but all had vanished, and she only heard 
 the voice of Hinzelmann, who said. " You see now how needful 
 the water was ; if it had not been at hand you had died here 
 in the cellar. I hope your burning desire to see me is now 
 pretty well cooled." He often afterwards illuded the cook 
 with this trick, and told it to strangers with great glee and 
 laughter. 
 
 He frequently showed himself to innocent children when 
 at play The minister Feldmann recollected well, that when
 
 KOTCOT.iM 253 
 
 he was about fourteen or fifteen years old, and was not 
 thinking particularly about him, he saw the Spirit in the 
 form of a little boy going up the stairs very swiftly. When 
 children were collected about Hudemuhlen house, and were 
 playing with one another, he used to get among them and 
 play with them in the shape of a pretty little child, so that 
 all the other children saw him plainly, and when they went 
 home told their parents how, while they were engaged in 
 play, a strange child came to them and amused himself with 
 them. This was confirmed by a maid, who went one time 
 into a room in which four or six children were playing 
 together, and among them she saw a strange little boy of a 
 beautiful countenance, with curled yellow hair hanging down 
 his shoulders, and dressed in a red silk coat ; and while she 
 wanted to observe him more closely, he got out of the party, 
 and disappeared. Hinzelmann let himself be seen also by a 
 fool, named Glaus, who was kept there, and used to pursue 
 every sort of diversion with him. When the fool could not 
 anywhere be found, and they asked him afterwards where 
 he had been so long, he used to reply, " I was with the little 
 wee man, and I was playing with him." If he was farther 
 asked how big the little man was, he held his hand at a 
 height about that of a child of four years.* 
 
 When the time came that the house-spirit was about to 
 depart, he went to the master of the house and said to him, 
 " See, I will make you a present ; take care of it, and let it 
 remind you of me." He then handed him a little cross it 
 is doubtful from the author's words whether of silk (seide} 
 or strings (saiten) very prettily plaited. It was the length 
 of a finger, was hollow within, and jingled when it was 
 shaken. Secondly, a straw hat, which he had made himself, 
 and in which might be seen forms and figures very ingeni- 
 ously made in the variously-coloured straw. Thirdly, a 
 
 * This is a usual measure of size for the Dwarfs, and even the angels, in the 
 oldGernian poetry; sec above, p. 208. In Otnit it is said of Elbericli : nu list in 
 Kindes maze des vierden jdres alt; and of Antilois in Ulrioh's Alexander : 
 er war Heine und niht gruz in der maze als diu kint, wenn si in vier j&ren 
 sitit, Grimm, Deut. Mythol., p. 418. We meet with it even in Italian poetry : 
 E sovra il dorso nn nano si piccino 
 fJhe sembri di quuttr' anni tin fanciullino. 
 
 U. Tasso, Amadijfi, C. c. at. 78.
 
 254 SEEMAST. 
 
 leathern glove set with pearls, which formed wonderful 
 figures. He then subjoined this prophecy : " So long as 
 these things remain unseparated in good preservation in 
 your family, so long will your entire race nourish, and their 
 good fortune continually increase ; but if these presents are 
 divided, lost, or wasted, your race will decrease and sink." 
 And when he perceived that the master appeared to set no 
 particular value on the present, he continued : " I fear that 
 you do not much esteem these things, and will let them go 
 out of your hands ; I therefore counsel you to give them in 
 charge to your sisters Anne and Catherine, who will take 
 better care of them." 
 
 He accordingly gave the gifts to his sisters, who took 
 them and kept them carefully, and never showed them to 
 any but most particular friends. After their death they 
 reverted to their brother, who took them to himself, and 
 with him they remained so long as he lived. He showed 
 them to the minister Feldmann, at his earnest request, 
 during a confidential conversation. When he died, they 
 came to his only daughter Adelaide, who was married to 
 L. von H., along with the rest of the inheritance, and they 
 remained for some time in her possession. The son of the 
 minister Feldmann made several inquiries about what had 
 afterwards become of the House-spirit's presents, and he 
 learned that the straw-hat was given to the emperor 
 Ferdinand II., who regarded it as something wonderful. 
 The leathern glove was still in his time in the possession of 
 a nobleman. It was short, and just exactly reached above 
 the hand, and there was a snail worked with pearls on the 
 part that came above the hand. What became of the little 
 cross was never known. 
 
 The spirit departed of his own accord, after he had staid 
 four years, from 1584 to 1588, at Hudemiihlen. He said, 
 before he went away, that he would return once more when 
 the family would be declined, and that it would then flourish 
 anew and increase in consequence.* 
 
 * The feats of House-spirits, it is plain, may in general be ascribed to 
 ventriloquism and to contrivances of sen-ants and others.
 
 ffOBOLUB. 255 
 
 ANOTHEB Kobold or House-spirit took up his abode in the 
 palace of the bishop of Hildesheim. He was named Hodeken 
 or Hiitchen, that is Hatekin or Little Hat, from his always 
 wearing a little felt hat very much down upon his face. He 
 was of a kind and obliging disposition, often told the bishop 
 and others of what was to happen, and he took good care 
 that the watchmen should not go to sleep on their post. 
 
 It was, however, dangerous to affront him. One of the 
 scullions in the bishop's kitchen used to fling dirt on him 
 arid splash him with foul water. Hodeken complained to 
 the head cook, who only laughed at him, and said, " Are you 
 a spirit and afraid of a little boy ?" " Since you won't punish 
 the boy," replied Hodeken, " I will, in a few days, let you 
 see how much afraid of him I am," and he went off in high 
 dudgeon. But very soon after he got the boy asleep at the 
 fire-side, and he strangled him, cut him up, and put him into 
 the pot on the fire. When the cook abused him for what he 
 had done, he squeezed toads all over the meat that was at 
 the fire, and he soon after tumbled the cook from the bridge 
 into the deep moat. At last people grew so much afraid of 
 his setting fire to the town and palace, that the bishop had 
 him exorcised and banished. 
 
 The following was one of Hodeken's principal exploits. 
 There was a man in Hildesheim who had a light sort of wife, 
 and one time when he was going on a journey he spoke to 
 Hodeken and said, " My good fellow, just keep an eye on 
 my wife while I am away, and see that all goes on right." 
 Hodeken agreed to do so ; and when the wife, after the 
 departure of her husband, made her gallants come to her, 
 and was going to make merry with them, Hodeken always 
 threw himself in the middle and drove them away by assuming 
 terrific forms ; or, when any one had gone to bed, he invisibly 
 flung ~iim so roughly out on the floor as to crack his ribs. 
 Thus they fared, one after another, as the light-o'-love dame
 
 256 
 
 introduced them into her chamber, so that no one ventured 
 to come near her. At length, when the husband had returned 
 home, the honest guardian of his honour presented himself 
 before him full of joy, and said, " Your return is most 
 grateful to me, that I may escape the trouble and disquiet 
 that you had imposed upon me." " Who are you, pray ?" 
 said the man. " I am Hodeken," replied he, " to whom, at 
 your departure, you gave your wife in charge. To gratify 
 you I have guarded her this time, and kept her from adul- 
 tery, though with great and incessant toil. But I beg of 
 you never more to commit her to my keeping ; for I would 
 sooner take charge of, and be accountable for, all the swine 
 in Saxony than for one such woman, so many were the 
 artifices and plots she devised to blink me." 
 
 ANOTHER celebrated House-spirit was King Groldemar, who 
 lived in great intimacy with Neveling von Hardenberg, on the 
 Hardenstein at the B-uhr, and often slept in the same bed with 
 him. He played most beautifully on the harp, and he was in 
 the habit of staking great sums of money at dice. He used 
 to call Neveling brother-in-law, and often gave him warning 
 of various things. He talked with all kinds of people, and 
 used to make the clergy blush by discovering their secret 
 transgressions. His hands were thin like those of a frog, 
 cold and soft to the feel ; he let himself be felt, but no one 
 could see him. After remaining there for three years, he 
 went away without offending any one. Some call him King 
 Vollmar, and the chamber in which he lived is still said to 
 be called Vollmar's Chamber. He insisted on having a place 
 at the table for himself, and a stall in the stable for his 
 horse ; the food, the hay, and the oats were consumed, but 
 of man or horse nothing more than the shadow ever was 
 seen. When one time a curious person had strewed ashes 
 and tares in his way to make him fall, that his foot-prints 
 might be seen, he came behind him as he was lighting the
 
 KOBOLDS. 257 
 
 fire and hewed him to pieces, which he put on the spit and 
 roasted, and he began to boil the head and legs. As soon 
 as the meat was ready it was brought to Vollmar's chamber, 
 and people heard great cries of joy as it was consumed! 
 After this there was no trace of King Vollmar ; but over 
 the door of his chamber was found written, that in future 
 the house would be as unfortunate as it had hitherto been 
 fortunate ; the scattered property would not be brought 
 together again till the time when three Hardeubergs of 
 Hardenstein should be living at the same time. The spit 
 and the roast meat were preserved for a long time ; but they 
 disappeared in the Lorrain war in 1051. The pot still 
 remains built into the wall of the kitchen.* 
 
 CIjc 
 
 IT is not over fifty years since the Heinzelmanchen, as they 
 are called, used to live and perform their exploits in Cologne. 
 They were little naked mannikins, who used to do all sorts 
 of work ; bake bread, wash, and such like house-work. So 
 it is said, but no one ever saw them. 
 
 In the time that the Heinzelmanchen were still there, 
 there was in Cologne many a baker, who kept no man, for 
 the little people used always to make over-night, as much 
 black and white bread as the baker wanted for his shop, 
 In many houses they used to wash and do all their work 
 for the maids. 
 
 Now, about this time, there was an expert tailor to whom 
 they appeared to have taken a great fancy, for when he 
 married he found in his house, on the wedding d?y, thf 
 finest victuals and the most beautiful vessels and utensd's, 
 which, the little folk had stolen elsewhere and brought ro 
 their favourite. When, with time, his family increased, tbe 
 little ones used to give the tailor's wife considerable aid in 
 her household affairs ; they washed for her, and on holidays 
 
 * Von Stcinen, Westfal. Gesch. ap. Griiuru, Dcut. Mythol., p. 477 
 
 s
 
 258 GERMANY. 
 
 and festival times they scoured the copper and tin, and the 
 house from the garret to the cellar. If at any time the 
 tailor had a press of work, he was sure to find it all ready 
 done for him in the morning by the Heinzelmanchen. But 
 curiosity began now to torment the tailor's wife, and she was 
 dying to get one sight of the Heinzelmanchen, but do what 
 she would she could never compass it. She one time strewed 
 peas all down the stairs that they might fall and hurt them- 
 selves, and that so she might see them next morning. But 
 this project missed, and since that time the Heinzelmanchen 
 have totally disappeared, as has been everywhere the case, 
 i wing to the curiosity of people, which has at all times been 
 the destruction of so much of what was beautiful in the 
 world. The Heinzelmanchen, in consequence of this, went 
 <ff all in a body out of the town with music playing, 
 1 ut people could only hear the music, for no one could see 
 the mannikins themselves, who forthwith got into a boat 
 ; nd went away, whither no one knows. The good times, 
 1 owever, are said to have disappeared from Cologne along 
 with the Heinzelmanchen.* 
 
 NIXES. 
 
 Kennt ihr der Nixen, mnnt're Schaar ? 
 Von Auge schwarz und griln von Haar 
 Sie lauscht ain Schilfgestade. 
 
 MATTHISSOV. 
 
 Know you the Ntses, gay and fair? 
 Their eyes are black, and green their hair 
 They lurk in sedgy shores. 
 
 THE Nixes, or Water-people, inhabit lakes and rivers. The 
 11 an is like any other man, only he has green teeth. He 
 also wears a green hat. The female Nixes appear like beau- 
 tiful maidens. On fine sunny days they may be seen sitting 
 on the banks, or on the branches of the trees, combing their 
 
 * Om/. Coins Vorzeit. Coin. 1826.
 
 JSIXES. 250 
 
 iong golden locks. When any person is shortly to be drowned, 
 the Nixes may be previously seen dancing on the surface of 
 the water. They inhabit a magnificent region below the 
 water, whither they sometimes convey mortals. A girl from 
 a village near Leipzig was one time at service in the 'uouse 
 of a Nix. She said that everything there was very good ; all 
 she had to complain of was that she was obliged to eat her 
 food without salt. The female Nixes frequently go to the 
 market to buy meat : they are always dressed with extreme 
 neatness, only a corner of their apron or some other part of 
 their clothes is wet. The man has also occasionally gone to 
 market. They are fond of carrying off women whom they 
 make wives of, and often fetch an earthly midwife to assist 
 at their labour. Among the many tales of the Nixes we 
 select the following : 
 
 peasant tuft tfj* Waterman. 
 
 A WATEB-MAN once lived on good terms with a peasant who 
 dwelt not far from his lake. He often visited him, and at 
 last begged that the peasant would visit him in his house 
 under the water. The peasant consented, and went down 
 with him. There was everything down under the water as 
 in a stately palace on the land, halls, chambers, and cabi- 
 nets, with costly furniture of every description. The Water- 
 man led his guest over the whole, and showed him everything 
 that was in it. They came at length to a little chamber. 
 where were standing several new pots turned upside down. 
 The peasant asked what was in them. " They contain," was 
 the reply, " the souls of drowned people, which I put under 
 the pots and keep them close, so that they cannot get away." 
 The peasant made no remark, and he came up again on the 
 land. But for a long time the affair of the souls continued 
 to give him great trouble, and he watched to find when the 
 Water-man should be from home. When this occurred, as 
 ne had marked the right way down, he descended into the 
 water-house, and, having made out the little chamber, he 
 turned up all the pots one after another, and immediately 
 
 2
 
 260 GEKMAJTT. 
 
 the souls of the drowned peop.e ascended out of the water, 
 and recovered their liberty.* 
 
 THERE is a little lake in Westphalia called the Darmssen, 
 from which the peasants in the adjacent village of Epe used 
 to hear all through the night a sound as if of hammering 
 upon an anvil. People who were awake used also to see 
 something- in the middle of the lake. They got one time 
 into a boat and went to it. and there "they found that it was 
 a smith, who, "with his body raised over the water, and a 
 hammer in his hand, pointed to an anvil, and bid the people 
 bring him something to forge. From that time forth they 
 brought iron to him, and no people had such good plough- 
 irons as those of Epe. 
 
 One time as a man from this village was getting reeds at 
 the Darmssen, he found among them a little child that was 
 rough all over his body. The smith cried out, " Don't take 
 away my son ! " but the man put the child on his back, and 
 ran home with it. Since that time the smith has never more 
 been seen or heard. The man reared the Eoughy, and he 
 became the cleverest and best lad in the place. But when 
 he was twenty years old he said to the farmer, " Farmer, I 
 must leave you. My father has called me ! " " I am sorry 
 for that," said the farmer. " Is there no way that you couTd 
 stay with me ?" " I will see about it," said the water- 
 child. " Do you go to Braumske and fetch me a little sword ; 
 but you must give the seller whatever he asks for it, and not 
 haggle about it." The farmer went to Braumske and bought 
 the sword ; but he haggled, and got something off the price. 
 They now went together to the Darmssen, and the Eoughy 
 said, " Now mind. When I strike the water, if there comes 
 
 * This legend seems to be connected with the ancient idea of the water- 
 deities taking the souls of drowned persons to themselves. In the Edda, thia 
 is done by the sea-goddess Ran.
 
 NIXES. 201 
 
 up blood, I must go away ; but if there comes milk, then 1 
 may stay with you." He struck the water, and there came 
 neither milk nor blood. The Eoughy was annoyed, and said, 
 " Tou have been bargaining and haggling, and so there comes 
 neither blood nor milk. Go off to Braumske and buy another 
 sword." The farmer went and returned ; but it was not till 
 the third time that he bought a sword without haggling. 
 When the Eoughy struck the water with this it became as 
 red as blood, and he threw himself into the lake, and never 
 was seen more.* 
 
 2X3atcrman. 
 
 AT Seewenweiher, in the Black-Forest, a little Water-man 
 (Seem'dnlein) used to come and join the people, work the 
 whole day long with them, and in the evening go back into 
 the lakes. They used to set his breakfast and dinner apart 
 for him. "When, in apportioning the work, the rule of " .Xot 
 too much and not too little " was infringed, he got angry, 
 and knocked all the things about. Though his clothes were 
 old and worn, he steadily refused to let the people get him 
 new ones. But when at last they would do so, and one 
 evening the lake-man was presented with a new coat, he said, 
 " When one is paid off, one must go away. After this day 
 I '11 come no more to you." And, unmoved by the excuses 
 of the people, he never let himself be seen again.f 
 
 A MIDWIFE related that her mother was one night called up, 
 and desired to make haste and come to the aid of a woman 
 in labour. It was dark, but notwithstanding she got up and 
 
 * Grimm, ut sup. p. 463. t Grimm, ut sup. p. 453.
 
 262 GEEMANY. 
 
 dressed herself, and went down, where she found a man 
 waiting. She begged of him to stay till she should get a 
 lantern, and she would go with him ; but he was urgent, said 
 he would show her the way without a lantern, and that there 
 was no fear of her going astray. 
 
 He then bandaged her eyes, at which she was terrified, 
 and was going to cry out ; but he told her she was in no 
 danger, and might go with him without any apprehension. 
 They accordingly went away together, and the woman re- 
 marked that he struck the water with a rod, and that they 
 went down deeper and deeper till they came to a room, in 
 which there was no one but the lying-in woman. 
 
 Her guide now took the bandage off her eyes, led her up 
 to the bed, and recommending her to his wife, went away. 
 She then helped to bring the babe into the world, put the 
 woman to bed, washed the babe, and did everything that was 
 requisite. 
 
 The woman, grateful to the midwife, then secretly said to 
 her : " I am a Christian woman as well as you ; and I was 
 carried off by a Water-man, who changed me. Whenever I 
 bring a child into the world he always eats it on the third 
 day. Come on the third day to your pond, and you will see 
 the water turned to blood. When my husband comes in 
 now and offers you money, take no more from him than you 
 usually get, or else he will twist your neck. Take good 
 care! " 
 
 Just then the husband came in. He was in a great pas- 
 sion, and he looked all about ; and when he saw that all had 
 gone on properly he bestowed great praise on the midwife. 
 He then threw a great heap of money on the table, and said, 
 "Take as much as you will!" She, however, prudently 
 answered, " I desire no more from you than from others, and 
 that is a small sum. If you give me that I am content ; if 
 you think it too much, I ask nothing from you but to take 
 me home again." " It is God," says he, " has directed you 
 to say that." He paid her then the sum she mentioned, 
 and conducted her home honestly. She was, however, afraid 
 to go to the pond at the appointed day. 
 
 There are many other tales in Germany of midwives, and 
 even ladies of rank, who have been called in to assist at Nuc
 
 NIXES. 263 
 
 or Dwarf labours. The Ahnfrau von Eanzau, for example, 
 and the Fran von Alvensleben the Ladies Bountiful of 
 Germany were waked up in the night to attend the little 
 women in their confinement.* There is the same danger 
 in touching anything in the Dwarf as in the Nix abodes, but 
 the Dwarfs usually bestow rings and other articles, which 
 will cause the family to flourish. "We have seen tales of the 
 sai:ie kind in Scandinavia, and shall meet with them in many 
 other countries. 
 
 * A tale of this kind is to be seen in Luther's Table-talk, told by diefrav 
 doctorin, his wife. The scene of it was the river MuUa.
 
 SWITZERLAND, 
 
 Derm da hielten anch 1m lande 
 Noch die guten Zwerglein Haas ; 
 Kleingestalt, doch hochbegabet, 
 Und so btilfreich uberaus ! 
 
 MCLLER. 
 
 For then also in the country 
 The good Dwarflings still kept house ; 
 Small in form, but highly gifted, 
 And so kind and generous 1 
 
 WE now arrive at Switzerland, a country with which are 
 usually associated ideas of sublime and romantic scenery, 
 simple manners, and honest hearts. The character of the 
 Swiss Dwarfs will be found to correspond with these ideas. 
 For, like the face of Nature, these personifications of natural 
 powers seem to become more gentle and mild as they 
 approach the sun and the south. 
 
 The Dwarfs, or little Hill- or Earth-men* of Switzerland, 
 are described as of a lively, joyous disposition, fond of stroll- 
 ' ing through the valleys, and viewing and partaking in the 
 labours of agriculture. Kind and generous, they are 
 represented as driving home stray lambs, and leaving brush- 
 wood and berries in the way of poor children. Their prin- 
 cipal occupation is keeping cattle not goats, sheep, or 
 cows, but the chamois, from whose milk they make excellent 
 and well-flavoured cheese. This cheese, when given by the 
 Dwarfs to any one, has the property of growing again when 
 it has been cut or bitten. But should the hungry owner be 
 improvident enough to eat up the whole of it and leave 
 nothing from it to sprout from, he of course has seen the end 
 of his cheese. 
 
 * la Swiss ff'drdmandlc, pi. H'dnlm'dndhne.
 
 DWAEFS. 265 
 
 The Kobolds are also to be met with in Switzerland. In 
 the Vaudois, they call them Servants,* and believe that they 
 live in remote dwellings and lonely shiels.f The most cele- 
 brated of them in those parts is Jean de la Bolieta, or, as he 
 is called in German, Kapf-Hans, i. e. Jack-of-the-Bowl, 
 because it was the custom to lay for him every evening on 
 the roof of the cow-house a bowl of fresh sweet cream, of 
 which he was sure to give a good account. He used to lead 
 the cows to feed in the most dangerous places, and yet none 
 of them ever sustained the slightest injury. He always 
 went along the same steep path on which no one ever saw 
 even a single stone lying, though the whole side of the 
 mountain was strewn as thickly as possible with boulders. 
 It is still called Bolieta' s Path.J 
 
 Rationalising theory has been at work with the Swiss 
 Dwarfs also. It is supposed, that the early inhabitants of 
 the Swiss mountains, when driven back by later tribes of 
 immigrants, retired to the high lands and took refuge in the 
 clefts and caverns of the mountains, whence they gradually 
 showed themselves to the new settlers approached them, 
 assisted them, and were finally, as a species of Genii, raised 
 to the region of the wonderful. 
 
 For our knowledge of the Dwarf Mythology of Switzer- 
 land, we are chiefly indebted to professor Wyss, of Bern, 
 who has put some of the legends in a poetical dress, and 
 given others in the notes to his Idylls as he styles them. 
 These legends were related by the peasants to Mr. Wyss or 
 his friends, on their excursions through the mountains ; and 
 he declares that he has very rarely permitted himself to add 
 to, or subtract from, the peasants' narrative. He adds, that 
 the belief in these beings is strong in the minds of the people, 
 not merely in the mountain districts, but also at the foot of 
 Belp mountain, Belp, Gelterfingen, and other places about 
 
 * Wyss, Reise in das Berner Oberland, ii. 412. Servants is the term in 
 the original. 
 
 f- This Scottish word, signifying the summer cabin of the herdsmen on the 
 mountains, exactly expresses the Sennhutten of the Swiss. 
 
 J Aipenrosen for 1824, op. Grimm, Introd. to Irish Fairy Legends. 
 
 Idyllen, Volkssagen, Legenden, und Erzahlungen aus der Schweiz. Von 
 J. Rud Wyss, Prof. Bern, 1813. 
 
 || In Bilder und Sagen aus der Schwciz. von Dr. Rudolf. Miiller. Glarui,
 
 266 SWITZEBLABP 
 
 As a specimen of Mr. Wyss's manner of narrating these 
 legends, we give here a faithful translation of his first 
 Idyll.* 
 
 <8crtrute airtr 
 
 GEBTBUDE. 
 
 QUICK, daughter, quick ! spin off what 's on your rock. 
 'Tis Saturday night, and with the week you know 
 Our work must end ; we shall the more enjoy 
 To-morrow's rest when all 's done out of hand.* 
 Quick, daughter, quick ! spin off what 's on your rock. 
 
 HOST. 
 
 True, mother, but every minute sleep 
 Falls on my eyes as heavy as lead, and I 
 Must yawn do what I will ; and then God knows 
 I can't help nodding though 'twere for my life ; 
 Or. ... oh ! it might be of some use if you 
 Would once more, dearest mother, tell about 
 The wonderful, good-natured little Dwarfs, 
 What they here round the country used to do, 
 And how they showed their kindness to the hinds. 
 
 GEBTBUDE. 
 
 See now ! what industry ! your work itself 
 Should keep you waking. I have told you o'er 
 A thousand times the stories, and we lose, 
 If you grow wearied of them, store of joy 
 Reserved for winter-nights ; besides, methinks, 
 The evening 's now too short for chat like this. 
 
 1842, may be found some legends of the Erdmannlein, but they are nearly 
 all the same as those collected by Mr. Wyss. We give below those in which 
 there is anything peculiar. 
 
 * The original is in German hexameters. 
 
 + It is a notion in some parts of Germany, that if a girl leaves any flax or 
 tow on her distaff unspun on Saturday night, none of what remains will make 
 good thread. Grimm, Dent. Mythol. Anhang, p. Lsxii.
 
 DWABFS. 267 
 
 HOST. 
 
 There 's only one thing I desire to hear 
 Again, and sure, dear mother, never yet 
 Have you explained how 'twas the little men 
 Lived in the hills, and how, all through the year, 
 They sported round the country here, and gave 
 Marks of their kindness. For you '11 ne'er persuade 
 Me to believe that barely, one by one, 
 They wandered in the valleys, and appeared 
 TJnto the people, and bestowed their gifts : 
 So, come now, tell at once, how 'twas the Dwarfs 
 Lived all together in society. 
 
 GEETETJDE. 
 
 'Tis plain, however, of itself, and well 
 "Wise folks can see, that such an active race 
 "Would never with their hands before them sit. 
 Ah ! a right merry lively thing, and full 
 Of roguish tricks, the little Hill-man is, 
 And quickly too he gets into a rage, 
 If you behave not toward him mannerly, 
 And be not frank and delicate in your acts. 
 But, above all things, they delight to dwell, 
 Quiet and peaceful, in the secret clefts 
 Of hills and mountains, evermore concealed. 
 All through the winter, when with icy rind 
 The frost doth cover o'er the earth, the wise 
 And prudent little people keep them warm 
 By their fine fires, many a fathom down 
 "Within the inmost rocks. Pure native gold, 
 And the rock-crystals shaped like towers, clear, 
 Transparent, gleam with colours thousandfold 
 Through the fair palace, and the Little-folk, 
 So happy and so gay, amuse themselves 
 Sometimes with singing Oh, so sweet! 'twould charm 
 The heart of any one who heard it sound. 
 Sometimes with dancing, when they jump and spring 
 Like the young skipping kids in the Alp-grass. 
 
 Then when the spring is come, and in the, fields
 
 268 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 The flowers are blooming, with sweet May's approach, 
 
 They bolts and bars take from their doors and gates, 
 
 That early ere the hind or hunter stirs, 
 
 In the cool morning, they may sport and play ; 
 
 Or ramble in the evening, when the moon 
 
 Lights up the plains. Seldom hath mortal man 
 
 Beheld them with his eyes ; but should one chance 
 
 To see them, it betokens suffering 
 
 And a bad. year, if bent in woe they glide 
 
 Through woods and thickets ; but the sight proclaims 
 
 Joy and good luck, when social, in a ring, 
 
 On the green meads and fields, their hair adorned 
 
 With flowers, they shout and whirl their merry rounds 
 
 Abundance then they joyously announce 
 
 For barn, for cellar, and for granary, 
 
 And a blest year to men, to herds, and game. 
 
 Thus they do constantly foreshow what will 
 
 Befall to-morrow and hereafter ; now 
 
 Sighing, and still, by their lamenting tones, 
 
 A furious tempest ; and again, with sweet 
 
 And smiling lips, and shouting, clear bright skies.* 
 
 Chief to the poor and good, they love to show 
 Kindness and favour, often bringing home 
 At night the straying lambs, and oftener still 
 In springtime nicely spreading, in the wood, 
 Brushwood, in noble bundles, in the way 
 Of needy children gone to fetch home fuel. 
 Many a good little girl, who well obeyed 
 Her mother, or, mayhap, a little boy, 
 Has, with surprise, found lying on the hills 
 Bright dazzling bowls of milk, and baskets too, 
 Nice little baskets, full of berries, left 
 By the kind hands of the wood-roaming Dwarfa 
 
 Now be attentive while I tell you one 
 Out of a hundred and a hundred stories ; 
 'Tis one, however, that concerns us more 
 Than all the rest, because it was my own 
 Great-great-grandfather that the thing befell, 
 In the old time, in years long since agone. 
 
 * Glam is the term employed in Switzerland,
 
 DWAUF3, 209 
 
 Where from the lofty rocks the boundary runs 
 Down to the vale, Barthel, of herdsmen first 
 In all the country round, was ploughing up 
 A spacious field, where he designed to try 
 The seed of corn ; but with anxiety 
 His heart was filled, lest by any chance 
 His venture should miscarry, for his sheep 
 In the contagion he had lost, now poor 
 And without skill, he ventures on the plough. 
 
 Deliberate and still, at the plough-tail, 
 In furrows he cuts up the grassy soil, 
 While with the goad his little boy drives on 
 The panting ox. When, lo ! along the tall 
 Rocky hill-side, a smoke ascends in clouds 
 Like snow-flakes, soaring from the summit up 
 Into the sky. At this the hungry boy 
 Began to think of food, for the poor child 
 Had tasted nothing all the live-long day 
 For lunch, and, looking up, he thus began : 
 " Ah ! there the little Dwarf-folk are so gay 
 At their grand cooking, roasting, boiling now, 
 For a fine banquet, while with hunger I 
 Am dying. Had we here one little dish 
 Of the nice savoury lood, were it but as 
 A sign that there 's a blessing on our work !" 
 
 'Twas thus the boy spake, and his father ploughed 
 Silently on, bent forwards o'er his work. 
 They turn the plough ; when huzza ! lo ! behold 
 A miracle ! there gleamed right from the midst 
 Of the dark furrow, toward them, a bright 
 Lustre, and there so charming ! lay a plate 
 Heaped up with roast meat ; by the plate, a loaf 
 Of bread upon the outspread table-cloth, 
 At the disposal of the honest pair. 
 Hurra ! long live the friendly, generous Dwarfs ! 
 
 Barthel had now enough so had the boy 
 And laughing gratefully and loud, they praise 
 And thank the givers ; then, with strength restored, 
 They quick return unto their idle plough. 
 
 But when again their day's task they resume, 
 To break more of the field, encouraged now
 
 270 8WITZEBLAITD. 
 
 To hope for a good crop, since the kind DwarE* 
 
 Had given them the sign of luck they asked 
 
 Hush ! bread and plate, and crums, and knife and fork, 
 
 Were vanished clean ; only just for a sign 
 
 For ever of the truth lay on the ridge 
 
 The white, nice- woven, pretty table-cloth. 
 
 BOSY. 
 
 O mother ! mother ! what ? the glittering plate 
 And real ? and the cloth with their own hands 
 Spun by the generous Dwarfs ? No, I can ne'er 
 Believe it ! Was the thread then, real drawn 
 And twisted thread, set in it evenly ? 
 And was there too a flower, a pretty figure, 
 Nicely wrought in with warp and crossing woof ? 
 Did there a handsome border go all round. 
 Enclosing all the figures ? Sure your great- 
 Great-grandfather, if really he was 
 The owner of the curious little cloth, 
 He would have left it carefully unto 
 His son and grandson for a legacy, 
 That, for a lasting witness of the meal 
 Given by the Dwarfs, it might to distant years, 
 The praise and wonder of our vale remain. 
 
 GERTBTTDE. 
 
 Odds me ! how wise the child is ! what a loss 
 And pity 'tis that in old times the folk 
 "Were not so thoughtful and so over-knowing ! 
 Ah ! our poor simple fathers should rise up 
 Out of their graves, and come to get advice 
 And comfort from the brooders that are now, 
 As if they knew not what was right and fit ! 
 
 Have but a little patience, girl, and spin 
 What's on your rock ; to-morrow when 'tis day 
 I '11 let you see the Dwarfs' flowered table-cloth, 
 Which, in the chest laid safe, inherited 
 From mother down to daughter, I have long 
 Kept treasured under lock and key, for fear 
 Some little girl, like some one that you know, 
 Might out of curiosity, and not 
 Acquainted with its worth, set it astray.
 
 iMVAKFS. 271 
 
 Bosr. 
 
 Ah, that is kind, dear mother ; and see now 
 How broad awake I am, and how so smart 
 I 'm finishing my work since you relate 
 These pretty tales ; but I will call you up 
 Out of your bed to-morrow in the morning 
 So early ! Oh, I wish now it were day 
 Already, for I 'm sure I shall not get 
 One wink of sleep for thinking O f the cloth.* 
 
 A CHAMOis-uujsTEB set out early one morning, and ascended 
 the mountains. He had arrived at a great height, and was 
 in view of some chamois, when, just as he was laying his 
 bolt on his crossbow, and was about to shoot, a terrible cry 
 from a cleft of the rock interrupted his purpose. Turning 
 round he saw a hideous Dwarf, with a battle-axe in his hand 
 raised to slay him. " Why," cried he, in a rage, " hast thou 
 so long been destroying my chamois, and leavest not with 
 me my flock ? But now thou shalt pay for it with thy 
 blood." The poor hunter turned pale at the stranger's 
 words. In his terror he was near falling from the cliff. 
 
 * This legend was picked up by a friend of Mr. Wyss when on a topogra- 
 phical ramble in the neighbourhood of Bern. It was told to him by a peasant 
 of Belp ; " but," says Mr. Wyss, " if I recollect right, thia man said it was a 
 nice smoking-hot cake that was on the plate, and it was a servant, not the 
 man's son, who was driving the plough. The circumstance of the table-cloth 
 being handed down from mother to daughter," he adds, " is a fair addition 
 which I have allowed myself." 
 
 The writer recollects to have heard this story, when a boy, from ail old 
 woman in Ireland ; and he could probably point out the Tery field in the 
 county of Kildare where it occurred. A man and a boy were ploughing : the 
 boy, as they were about in the middle of their furrow, smelled roast beef, and 
 wished for some. As they returned, it was lying on the grass before them. 
 When they had eaten, the boy said " God bless me, and God bless the fairies !" 
 The man did not give thanks, and he met with misfortunes very shortly after. 
 The same legend is also in Scotland. See below.
 
 272 SWITZEKLA.XD. 
 
 At length, however, he recovered himself, and begged for- 
 giveness of the Dwarf, pleaded his ignorance that the 
 charm, is belonged to him, declaring at the same time that he 
 had no other means of support than what he derived from 
 hunting. The Dwarf was pacified, laid down his axe, and 
 said to him, " "Tis well ; never be seen here again, and I 
 promise thee that every seventh day thou shalt find, early 
 in the morning, a dead chamois hanging before thy cottage ; 
 but beware and keep from the others." The Dwarf then 
 vanished, and the hunter returned thoughtfully home, little 
 pleased with the prospect of the -inactive live he was now 
 to lead. 
 
 On the seventh morning he found, according to the 
 Dwarf's promise, a fat chamois hanging in the branches of a 
 tree before his cottage, of which he ate with great satisfac- 
 tion. The next week it was the same, and so it continued 
 for some months. But at last he grew weary of this idle 
 life, and preferred, come what might, returning to the chase, 
 and catching chamois for himself, to having his food provided 
 for him without the remembrance of his toils to sweeten the 
 repast. His determination made, he once more ascended the 
 mountains. Almost the first object that met his view was a 
 fine buck. The hunter levelled his bow and took aim at 
 the prey ; and as the Dwarf did not appear, he was just 
 pulling the trigger, when the Dwarf stole behind him, took 
 him by the ankle, and tumbled him down the precipice. 
 
 Others say the Dwarf gave the hunter a small cheese of 
 chimois-milk, which would last him his whole life, but that 
 he one day thoughtlessly ate the whole of it, or, as some will 
 have it, a guest who was ignorant of the quality of it ate up 
 the remainder. Poverty then drove him to return to the 
 chamois-hunting, and he was thrown into a chasm by the 
 Dwarf.* 
 
 * The former account was obtained by a friend in Glarnerland. The latter 
 was given to Mr. Wyss himself by a man of Zweyliitschinen, very rich, say 
 Mr. WYM, in Dwarf lore, and who accompanied him to I^au'erbumuen. 
 Schiller has founded his poem Der Alpenjager on this legend.
 
 273 
 
 JBtoarfe 0u tij 
 
 JN the summer-time the troop of the Dwarfs came in groat 
 numbers down from the hills into the valley, and joined the 
 men that were at work, either assisting them or merely 
 looking on. They especially liked to be with the mowers in 
 the hay-making season, seating themselves, greatly to their 
 satisfaction, on the long thick branch of a maple-tree, among 
 the dense foliage. But one time some mischief-loving people 
 came by night and sawed the branch nearly through. The 
 unsuspecting Dwarfs, as usual, sat down on it in the morn- 
 ing ; the branch snapt in two, and the Dwarfs were thrown 
 to the ground. "When the people laughed at them they 
 became greatly incensed, and cried out, 
 
 how is heaven so high 
 
 And perfidy so great ! 
 
 Here to-day and never more ! 
 
 and they never let themselves again be seen.* 
 
 It is also related that it was the custom of the Dwarfs to 
 seat themselves on a large piece of rock, and thence to look on 
 the haymakers when at work. But some mischievous people 
 lighted a fire on. the rock and made it quite hot, and then 
 swept off all the coals. In the morning the little people, 
 coming to take their usual station, burned themselves in a 
 lamentable manner. Full of anger, they cried out, " O wicked 
 world! wicked world!" called aloud for vengeance, and 
 disappeared for ever. 
 
 IN old times men lived in the valley, and around them, ir 
 the clefts and holes of the rocks, dwelt the Dwarfs. They 
 
 * Mr. Wyss heard this and the following tale in Haslitlial and Gadmcn. 
 
 T
 
 274 SW1TZEBLAITD. 
 
 \vere kind and friendly to the people, often performing hard 
 and heavy work for them in the night ; and when the 
 country-people came early in the morning with their carta 
 and tools, they saw, to their astonishment, that the work 
 was already done, while the Dwarfs hid themselves in the 
 bushes, and laughed aloud at the astonished rustics. Often, 
 too, were the peasants incensed to find their corn, which 
 was scarcely yet ripe, lying cut on the ground ; but shortly 
 after there was sure to come on such a hail-storm, that it 
 became obvious that hardly a single stalk could have escaped 
 destruction had it not been cut, and then, from the bottom 
 of their hearts, they thanked the provident Dwarf-people. 
 But at last mankind, through their own folly, deprived 
 themselves of the favour and kindness of the Dwarfs ; they 
 iled the country, and since that time no mortal eye has seen 
 them. The cause of their departure was this : 
 
 A shepherd had a fine cherry-tree* that stood on the 
 mountain. When in the summer the fruit had ripened, it 
 happened that, three times running, the tree was stript, and 
 all the fruit spread, out on the benches and hurdles, where 
 the shepherd himself used to spread it out to dry for the 
 winter. The people of the village all said, " It could be 
 none but the good-natured Dwarfs, who come by night trip- 
 ping along with their feet covered with long mantles, as 
 light as birds, and industriously perform for mankind their 
 daily work. People have often watched them," continued 
 the narrators, " but no one disturbs them ; they are left to 
 come and go as they please." This talk only excited the 
 curiosity of the shepherd, and he longed to know why it was 
 that the Dwarfs so carefully concealed their feet, and 
 whether they were differently formed from those of men. 
 Accordingly, next year, when the summer came, and the 
 time when the Dwarfs secretly pulled the cherries, and 
 brought them to the barn, the shepherd took a sack full of 
 ashes, and strewed them about under the cherry-tree. Next 
 morning, at break of day, he hastened to the place: the 
 tree was plucked completely empty, and he saw the marks 
 of several goose-feet impressed on the ashes. The shepherd 
 
 * In several of the high valleys of Switzerland it is only a single cherry- 
 tree which happens to be favouvahly situated that bears fruit. It bears abun- 
 dantly, and the fruit ripens about th month of August. Wytt.
 
 DWABF8. 275 
 
 then laughed and jested at having discovered the Dwarf's 1 
 secret. But soon after the Dwarfa broke and laid waste 
 their houses, and fled down deeper in the mountain to their 
 splendid secret palace, that had long lain empty to receive 
 them. Vexed with mankind, they never more granted them 
 their aid ; and the imprudent shepherd who had hetrayed 
 them became sickly, and continued so to the end of his life.* 
 
 Bejcctrtr Gift. 
 
 A DwAnr came do vvn one night from the chesnut woods on 
 the side of the mountain over the village of Walchwyl, and 
 enquired for the house of a midwife, whom he earnestiy 
 pressed to come out and go with him. She consented, and 
 the Dwarf, bearing a light, led the way in silence to the 
 woods. He stopped at last before a cleft in a rock, at which 
 they entered, and the woman suddenly found herself in a 
 magnificent hall. She was thence led through several rich 
 apartments to the chamber of state, where the queen of the 
 Dwarfs, for whom her services were required, was lying. She 
 performed her office, and brought a fair young prince to the 
 light. She was thanked and dismissed, and her former con- 
 ductor appeared to lead her home. As he was taking leave 
 of her, he filled her apron wit-h something, bidding her on no 
 
 * Comnare the narrative in the Swiss dialect given hy Grimm, Deut. 
 Mythol. p. 419. The same peasant of Belp who related the first legend was 
 Mr. Wyss's authority for this one. " The vanishing of the Bergmanlein," says 
 Mr. Wyss, " appears to be a matter of importance to the popular faith. It 
 is almost always ascribed to the fault of mankind sometimes to their 
 wickedness." 
 
 We may in these tales recognise the box of Pandora under a different form, 
 but the ground is the same. Curiosity and wickedness are still the cause ol 
 superior beings withdrawing their favour from man. 
 
 " I have never any where else," says Mr. Wyss, " heard of the goose-feet ; 
 but that all is not right with their feet is evident from the popular tradition 
 giving long trailing mantles as the dress of the little people. Some will have 
 it that their feet are regularly formed, but set on their legs the wrong way, so 
 that the toes are behind and the heels before." 
 
 Heywood, in his Hierarchic of the Blessed Angels, p. 554, relates a 8tor 
 which would seem to refer to a similar belief. 
 
 T2
 
 276 SWITZEKLAXD. 
 
 account to look at it till she was in her own house. But the 
 woman could not control her curiosity, and the moment the 
 Dwarf disappeared, she partly opened the apron, and lo ! there 
 was nothing in it but some black coals. In a rage, she shook 
 them out on the ground, but she kept two of them in her 
 hands, as a proof of the shabby treatment she had met with 
 from the Dwarfs. On reaching home, she threw them also 
 down on the ground. Her husband cried out with joy and 
 surprise, for they shone like carbuncles. She asserted that 
 the Dwarf had put nothing but coals into her apron ; but she 
 ran out to call a neighbour, who knew more of such things 
 than they did, and he on examining them pronounced them 
 to be precious stones of great value. The woman imme- 
 diately ran back to where she had shaken out the supposed 
 coals, but they were all gone.* 
 
 caouttrvful iitttlr 
 
 AT noon one day a young peasant sat by the side of a wood, 
 and, sighing, prayed to God to give him a morsel of food. 
 A Dwarf suddenly emerged from the wood, and told him that 
 his prayer should be fulfilled. He then gave him the pouch 
 that he had on his side, with the assurance that he would 
 always find in it wherewithal to satisfy his thirst and hunger, 
 charging him at the same time not to consume it all and to 
 share with any one who asked him for food. The Dwarf 
 vanished, and the peasant put his hand into the pouch to make 
 trial of it, and there he found a cake of new bread, a cheese, 
 and a bottle of wine, on which he made a hearty meal. He 
 
 * Miiller, Bilder und Sagen, p. 119; see above, p. 81. Coals are the 
 usual form under which the Dwarfs conceal the precious metals. We also 
 find this trait in Srindinavia. A smith who lived near Aarhuus in Jutland, 
 as he was going to church, saw a Troll on the roadside very busy about two 
 straws that had got across each other on a heap of coals, and which, do what 
 he would, he could not remove from their position. He asked the smith to 
 do it for him ; but he who knew better things took up the coals with the cross 
 straws on them, and carried them home in spite of the screams of the Trcll, 
 ind when he reached his own liousi he found it was a larc;e treasure he ha<l 
 jjut, over which the Troll had lost all power. Thiele, i. 122.
 
 DWAEFS. 277 
 
 hen saw that the pouch swelled up as before, and looking in 
 e found that it was again full of bread, cheese, and wine. 
 Ee now felt sure of his food, and he lived on in an idle 
 uxurious way, without doing any work. One day, as he was 
 ;orging himself, there came up to him a feeble old man, who 
 >rayed him to give him a morsel to eat. He refused in a 
 >rutal, churlish tone, when instantly the bread and cheese 
 )roke, and scattered out of his hands, and pouch and all 
 ,'amshed.* 
 
 airtf 
 
 ON the side of Mount Pilatus is a place named the Kastler- 
 Alpe, now covered with stones and rubbish, but which once 
 was verdant and fertile. The cause of the change was as 
 follows. 
 
 The land there was formerly occupied by a farmer, a 
 churlish, unfeeling man, who, though wealthy, let his only 
 sister struggle with the greatest poverty in the valley 
 beneath. The poor woman at length having fallen sick, and 
 seeing no other resource, resolved to apply to her hard- 
 hearted brother for the means of employing a doctor. She 
 sent her daughter to him ; but all the prayers and tears of 
 the poor girl failed to move him, and he told her he would, 
 sooner than give her anything, see the Alpe covered with 
 stones and rubbish. She departed, and as she went along a 
 Dwarf suddenly appeared to her. She would have fled, but 
 he gently detained her, and telling her he had heard all that 
 had passed, gave her a parcel of herbs, which he assured her 
 would cure her mother, and a little cheese, which he said 
 would last them a long time. 
 
 On trial, the herbs quickly produced the promised effect ; 
 and when they went to cut the cheese they found the knife 
 would not penetrate it, and no wonder, for it was pure gold. 
 There also came a sudden storm on the mountain, and the 
 Kastler-Alpe was reduced to its present condition.f 
 
 * Muller, ut mp. p. 123. t M tiller, lit, sup. p. 126.
 
 278 SWITZEELAITD. 
 
 CIjc Sfoarf m earc!) of &0&jjtn]j. 
 
 ONE night, during a tremendous storm of wind and rain, a 
 Dwarf came travelling through a little village, and went from 
 cottage to cottage, dripping with rain, knocking at the doors 
 for admission. None, however, took pity on him, or would 
 open the door to receive him : on the contrary, the inhabit- 
 ants even mocked at his distress. 
 
 At the very end of the village there dwelt two honest poor 
 people, a man and his wife. Tired and faint, the Dwarf crept 
 on his staff up to their house, and tapped modestly three 
 times at the little window. Immediately the old shepherd 
 opened the door for him, and cheerfully offered him the little 
 that the house afforded. The old woman produced some 
 bread, milk, and cheese : the Dwarf sipped a few drops of the 
 milk, and ate some crums of the bread and cheese. " I am 
 not used," said he, laughing, " to eat such coarse food: but 
 I thank you from my heart, and God reward you for it : now 
 that I am rested, I will proceed on farther." " God forbid !" 
 cried the good woman ; " you surely don't think of going out 
 in the night and in the storm ! It were better for you to 
 take a bed here, and set out in the daylight." But the Dwarf 
 shook his head, and with a smile replied, " You little know 
 what business I have to do this night on the top of the moun- 
 tain. I have to provide for you too ; and to-morrow you 
 shall see that I am r.ot ungrateful for the kindness you have 
 shown to me." So saying, the Dwarf departed, and the 
 worthy old couple went to rest. 
 
 But at break of day they were awaked by storm and 
 tempest ; the lightnings flashed along the red sky, and tor- 
 rents of water poured down the hills and through the valley. 
 A huge rock now tumbled from the top of the mountain, 
 and rolled down toward the village, carrying along with it, 
 in its course, trees, stones, and earth. Men and cattle, every 
 thing in the village that had breath in it, were buried beneath
 
 DWAEJFS. 279 
 
 it. The waves had now reached the cottage of the two old 
 people, and in terror and dismay they stood out before their 
 aoor. They then beheld approaching in the middle of the 
 stream a large piece of rock, and on it, jumping merrily, the 
 Dwarf, as if he was riding and steering it with a great trunk 
 of a pine till he brought it before the house, where it stemmed 
 the water and kept it from the cottage, so that both it and 
 the good owners escaped. The Dwarf then swelled and grew 
 higher and higher till he became a monstrous Giant, and 
 vanished in the air, while the old people were praying to God 
 and thanking him for their deliverance.* 
 
 * This story is told of two places in the Highlands of Berning, of Ralligen, 
 a little village on the lake of Thun, where there once stood a town called 
 Roll ; and again, of Schillingsdorf, a place in the valley of Grinderwald, 
 formerly destroyed by a mountain slip. 
 
 The reader need scarcely be reminded of the stories of Lot and of Baucis 
 and Philemon : see also Grimm's Kinder und Hausmarchen, iii. 153, ftr 
 other parallels.
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 In old wives daies that in old time did live, 
 To whose odde tales much credit men did give, 
 Great store of goblins, fairies, bugs, nightmares, 
 Urchins and elves to many a house repaires. 
 
 OLD POEM. 
 
 WE use the term Great Britain in a very limited sense, as 
 merely inclusive of those parts of the island whose inhabit- 
 ants are of Gotho- German origin England and the Lowlands 
 of Scotland. 
 
 "We have already seen* that the Anglo-Saxon conquerors 
 of Britain had in their language the terms from which are 
 derived Elf and Dwarf, and the inference is natural that their 
 ideas respecting these beings corresponded with those of the 
 Scandinavians and Germans. The same may be said of the 
 Picts, who, akin to the Scandinavians, early seized on the 
 Scottish Lowlands. "We therefore close our survey of the 
 .Fairy Mythology of the Gotho-German race with Great 
 Britain. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 Merry elves, their morrice pacing, 
 
 To aerial minstrelsy, 
 Emerald rings on brown heath tracing, 
 
 Trip it deft and merrily. 
 
 SCOTT. 
 
 THE Fairy Mythology of England divides itself into two 
 branches, that of the people and that of the poets. Under 
 tbj former head will be comprised the few scattered tradi- 
 
 * See above pp. 66, 75.
 
 ENGLAND. 28 I 
 
 tions which we have been able to collect respecting a system, 
 the belief in which is usually thought to be nearly extinct ; 
 the latter will contain a selection of passages, treating of 
 fairies and their exploits, from our principal poets. 
 
 The Fairies of England are evidently the Dwarfs of Ger- 
 many and the North, though they do not appear to have 
 been ever so denominated.* Their appellation was Elves, 
 subsequently Fairies ; but there would seem to have been 
 formerly other terms expressive of them, of which hardly a 
 restige is now remaining in the English language. 
 
 They were, like their northern kindred, divided into two 
 classes the rural Elves, inhabiting the woods, fields, moun- 
 tains, and caverns ; and the domestic or house-spirits, usually 
 called Hobgoblins and Robin Groodfellows. But the Thames, 
 the Avon, and the other English streams, never seem to have 
 been the abode of a Neck or Kelpie. 
 
 The following curious instances of English superstition, 
 occur in the twelfth century. 
 
 " ANOTHEB wonderful thing," says Ealph of Coggeshall,t 
 " happened in Suffolk, at St. Mary's of the Wolf-pits. A 
 boy and his sister were found by the inhabitants of that 
 place near the mouth of a pit which is there, who had the 
 form of all their limbs like to those of other men, but they 
 differed in the colour of their skin from all the people of our 
 habitable world; for the whole surface of their skin was 
 tinged of a green colour. No one could understand their 
 speech. "When they were brought as curiosities to the house 
 of a certain knight, Sir Eichard de Calne, atWikes, they wept 
 
 * The Anglo-Saxon Dweorg, Dworh, and the English Dwarf, do not seem 
 ever to have had any other sense than that of the Latin nanus. 
 
 f As quoted by Picart in his Notes on William of Newbridge. We could 
 not find it in the Collection of Histories, etc., by Martene and Durand, the 
 only place where, to our knowledge, this chronicler's works are printed.
 
 282 GEAT BEITALJf. 
 
 bitterly, Bread and other victuals were set before them, but 
 they would touch none of them, though they were tormented 
 by great hunger, as the girl afterwards acknowledged. At 
 length, when some beans just cut, with their stalks, were 
 brought into the house, they made signs, with great avidity, 
 that they should be given to them. When they were 
 brought, they opened the stalks instead of the pods, thinking 1 
 the beans were in the hollow of them ; but not finding there 
 there, they began to weep anew. When those who were 
 present saw this, they opened the pods, and showed them 
 the naked beans. They fed on these with great delight, and 
 for a long time tasted no other food. The boy, however, was 
 always languid and depressed, and he died within a short 
 time. The girl enjoyed continual good health ; and becoming 
 accustomed to various kinds of food, lost completely that 
 green colour, and gradually recovered the sanguine habit of 
 her entire body. She was afterwards regenerated by the 
 laver of holy baptism, and lived for many years in the service 
 of that knight (as I have frequently heard from him and his 
 family), and was rather loose and wanton in her conduct. 
 Being frequently asked about the people of her country, she 
 asserted that the inhabitants, and all they had in that country, 
 were of a green colour ; and that they saw no sun, but en- 
 joyed a degree of light like what is after sunset. Being 
 asked how she came into this country with the aforesaid boy, 
 she replied, that as they were following their flocks, they 
 came to a certain cavern, on entering which they heard a 
 delightful sound of bells ; ravished by whose sweetness, they 
 went for a long time wandering on through the cavern, until 
 they came to its mouth. When they came out of it, they 
 were struck senseless by the excessive light of the sun, and 
 the unusual temperature of the air ; and they thus lay for a 
 long time. Being terrified by the noise of those who came 
 on them, they wished to fly, but they could not find the 
 entrance of the cavern before they were caught." 
 
 This story is also told by William of Newbridge,* who 
 places it in the reign of King Stephen. He says he long 
 
 * Guilielmi Neubrigensia Higtoria, give Chronica Rerum Anglica~tan. 
 Oxon. 1719, lib. i. c. 27.
 
 ENGLAND. 283 
 
 hesitated to believe it, but he was at length overcome by the 
 weight of evidence. According to him, the place where the 
 children appeared was about four or five miles from Bury St. 
 Edmund's : they came in harvest-time out of the Wolf-pits 
 they both lost their green hue, and were baptised, and learned 
 English. The boy, who was the younger, died ; but the girl 
 married a man at Lenna, and lived many years. They said 
 their country was called St. Martin's Land, as that saint was 
 chiefly worshiped there; that the people were Christians, 
 and had churches ; that the sun did not rise there, but that 
 there was a bright country which could be seen from theirs, 
 being divided from it by a very broad river. 
 
 JFatrg banquet. 
 
 IN the next chapter of his history, "William of Newbridge 
 relates as follows : 
 
 "In the province of the Deiri (Yorkshire), not far from 
 my birth-place, a wonderful thing occurred, which I have 
 known from my boyhood. There is a town a few miles distant 
 from the Eastern Sea, near which are those celebrated waters 
 commonly called Gipse. ... A peasant of this town went 
 once to see a friend who lived in the next town, and it was 
 late at night when he was coming back, not very sober ; when 
 lo ! from the adjoining barrow, which I have often seen, and 
 which is not much over a quarter of a mile from the town, 
 he heard the voices of people singing, and, as it were, joy- 
 fully feasting. He wondered who they could be that were 
 breaking in that place, by their merriment, the silence of the 
 dead night, and he wished to examine into the matter more 
 closely. Seeing a door open in the side of the barrow, he 
 went up to it, and looked in ; and there he beheld a large 
 and luminous house, full of people, women as well as men, 
 who were reclining as at a solemn banquet. One of the 
 attendants, seeing him.standing at the door, offered him a cup. 
 He took it, but would not drink ; and pouring out the con- 
 tents, kept the vessel. A great tumult arose at the banquet
 
 284 GBEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 on account of his taking away the cup, and all the guests 
 pursued him ; but he escaped by the fleetness of the beast 
 he rode, and got into the town with his booty. Finally, this 
 vessel of unknown material, of unusual colour, and of extra- 
 ordinary form, was presented to Henry the Elder, king of 
 the English, as a valuable gift, and was then given to the 
 queen's brother David, king of the Scots, and was kept for 
 several years in the treasury of Scotland ; and a few years 
 ago (as I have heard from good authority), it was given by 
 William, king of the Scots, to Henry the Second, who wished 
 to see it." 
 
 The scene of this legend, we may observe, is the very 
 country in which the Danes settled ; and it is exactly the 
 same as some of the legends current at the present day 
 among the Danish peasantry.* It is really extraordinary to 
 observe the manner in which popular traditions and super- 
 stitions will thus exist for centuries. 
 
 Gervase of Tilbury, the Imperial Chancellor, gives the 
 following particulars respecting the Fairy Mythology of 
 England in the thirteenth century. 
 
 JFatrg $?nrn. 
 
 " THEBE is," says he,f " in the county of Gloucester, a forest 
 abounding in boars, stags, and every species of game that 
 England produces. In a grovy lawn of this forest there is a 
 little mount, rising in a point to the height of a man, on which 
 knights and other hunters are used to ascend when fatigued 
 with heat and thirst, to seek some relief for their wants. The 
 nature of the place, and of the business, is, however, such, 
 that whoever ascends the mount must leave his companions, 
 and go quite alone. 
 
 " When alone, he was to say, as if speaking to some other 
 person, ' I thirst,' and immediately there would appear a 
 cupbearer in an elegant dress, with a cheerful countenance, 
 bearing in his stretched-out hand a large horn, adorned with 
 
 * See above, p. 109. 
 
 t Otia Iniperialia apud Leibnitz Scriptoret rerum Brunsvicarum, vol. i. 
 p. 901.
 
 ENGLAND. 285 
 
 g )id and gems, as was the custom among the most ancient 
 English. In the cup * nectar of an unknown but most deli- 
 cious flavour was presented, and when it was drunk, all heat 
 and weariness fled from the glowing body, so that one would 
 be thought ready to undertake toil instead of having toiled. 
 Moreover, when the nectar was taken, the servant presented 
 a towel to the drinker, to wipe his mouth with, and then 
 having performed his office, he waited neither for a recom- 
 pense for his services, nor for questions and enquiry. 
 
 " This frequent and daily action had for a very long period 
 of old times taken place among the ancient people, till one 
 day a knight of that city, when out hunting, went thither, 
 and having called for a drink and gotten the horn, did not, 
 as was the custom, and as in good manners he should have 
 done, return it to the cup-bearer, but kept it for his own use. 
 But the illustrious Earl of Gloucester, when he learned the 
 truth of the matter, condemned the robber to death, and 
 presented the horn to the most excellent King Henry the 
 Elder, lest he should be thought to have approved of such 
 wickedness, if he had added the rapine of another to the store 
 of his private property." 
 
 IN another part of this work the Chancellor says,t 
 
 " They have in England certain demons, though I know 
 not whether I should call them demons or figures of a secret 
 and unknown generation, which the French call !Xeptunes, 
 the English Fortunes. J It is their nature to embrace the 
 simple life of comfortable farmers, and when, on account of 
 their domestic work, they are sitting up at night, when the 
 
 * Vice calicis. 
 
 t Otia Imperialia apud Leibnitz Scriptores rerum Brunsvicarum, voL i. 
 p. 9SO. 
 
 J There is, as far as we are aware, no vestige of these names remaining in 
 either the French or English language, and we cannot conceive how the Latin 
 name * of sea-gods came to he applied to the Gotho-German Kobolds, etc.
 
 286 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 doors are shut, they warm themselves at the ore, and take 
 little frogs out of their bosom, roast them o'n the coals, and 
 eat them. They have the countenance of old men, with 
 wrinkled cheeks, and they are of a very small stature, not 
 being quite half-an-inch high.* They wear little patched 
 coats, and if anything is to be carried into the house, or any 
 laborious work to be done, they lend a hand, and finish it 
 sooner than any man could. It is their nature to have the 
 power to serve, but not to injure. They have, however, one 
 little mode of annoying. When in the uncertain shades of 
 night the English are riding any where alone, the Fortune 
 sometimes invisibly joins the horseman ; and when he has 
 accompanied him a good while, he at last takes the reins, 
 and leads the horse into a neighbouring slough ; and when 
 he is fixed and floundering in it, the Fortune goes off with a 
 loud laugh, and by sport of this sort he mocks the simplicity 
 of mankind. 
 
 (Grant. 
 
 " THERE is," says he, againf " in England a certain kind of 
 demon whom in their language they call Grant, J like a year- 
 ling foal, erect on its hind legs, with sparkling eyes. This 
 kind of demon often appears in the streets in the heat of the 
 day, or about sunset. If there is any danger impending on 
 the following day or night, it runs about the streets pro- 
 voking the dogs to bark, and, by feigning flight, draws the 
 dogs after it, in the vain hope of catching it. This illusion 
 warns the inhabitants to beware of fire, and the friendly 
 demon, while he terrifies those who see him, puts by his 
 coming the ignorant on their guard." 
 
 Thus far the Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, and, 
 
 * Dimidium pollicis. Should we not read pedit ? 
 
 + Otia Imperialia apud Leibnitz Scriptores renim Bnmsvicarum, vol. i, 
 p. 980. 
 
 J Can th's name be connected with that of Grendel, the malignant spirit ii 
 Bedwulf?
 
 EKOLAND. 287 
 
 except in the poets, we have met with no further account of, 
 or allusion to, fairies, until the reign of Elizabeth, when 
 a little work appeared, named, The mad Pranks and merry 
 Jests of Robin Goodfellow,* from which Shakespeare seems 
 in a good measure to have derived his Puck. 
 
 This work consists of two parts. In the first we are in- 
 formed that Robin was the offspring of a " proper young 
 wench by a hee-fayrie, a king or something of that kind 
 among them." By the time he was six years old he was so 
 mischievous and unlucky that his mother found it necessary 
 to promise him a whipping. He rail away and engaged with 
 a tailor, from whom also he soon eloped. When tired he 
 sat down and fell asleep, and in his sleep he had a vision of 
 fairies ; and when he awoke he found lying beside him a 
 scroll, evidently left by his father, which, in verses written 
 in letters of gold, informed him that he should have any 
 thing he wished for, and have also the power of turning him- 
 self "To horse, to hog, to dog, to ape," etc., but he was to 
 harm none but knaves and queans, and was to " love those 
 that honest be, and help them in necessity." He made 
 trials of his power and found that he really possessed it. 
 His first exploit was to turn himself into a horse, to punish 
 a churlish clown, whom he induced to mount him, and gave 
 him a fall that went well nigh to break his neck. The fellow 
 then went to ride him through a great plash of water, " and 
 in the middle of it he found himself with nothing but a pack- 
 saddle between his legs, while Robin went off laughing, Ho, 
 ho, Ttoh ! He next exerted himself in the cause of two young 
 lovers, and secured their happiness. 
 
 In the Second Part we find him more in the character of 
 the Jus or Brownie. Coming to a farmer's house, he takes 
 a liking to a " good handsome maid," that was there, and in 
 the night does her work for her, at breaking hemp and flax, 
 bolting meal, etc. Having watched one night and seen him 
 at work, and observed that he was rather bare of clothes, she 
 
 * Edited for the Percy Society by J. P. Collyer, Esq., 1841. Mr. Collyei 
 says there is little doubt but that this work was printed before 1588, or even 
 1584. ^Ve think this is true only of the First Part ; for the Second, which is 
 of a different texture, must have been added some time after tobacco had 
 come into common use in England : see the verses in p. 34.
 
 288 GEEAT BEITADT. 
 
 provided him with a waistcoat against the next night. But 
 when he saw it he started and said : 
 
 Because thou layest me himpen hampen 
 I will neither bolt nor stampen : 
 Tis not your garments, new or old, 
 That Robin loves : I feel no cold. 
 Had you left me milk or cream, 
 You should have had a pleasing dream : 
 Because you left no drop or crum, 
 Robin never more will come. 
 
 He went off" laughing So, ho, hoh ! and the maid in future 
 had to do all the work herself. 
 
 A company of young fellows who had been making merry 
 with their sweethearts were coming home over a heath. 
 Robin met them, and to make himself merry took the form 
 of a walking fire, and led them up and down till daylight, 
 and then went off saying : 
 
 Get you home, you merry lads : 
 Tell your mammies and your dads, 
 And all those that news desire, 
 How you saw a walking fire. 
 "Wenches that do smile and lispe, 
 Use to call me Willy Wispe. 
 If that you but weary be, 
 It is sport alone for me. 
 Away : unto your houses go, 
 And 1 11 go laughing, Ho, ho, hoh f 
 
 A fellow was attempting to offer violence to a young 
 maiden. Robin came to her aid, ran between his legs in the 
 shape of a hare, then turning himself into a horse, carried 
 him off on his back, and flung him into a thick hedge. 
 
 Robin fell in love with a weaver's pretty wife, and for her 
 sake took service with her husband. The man caught them 
 one day kissing, and next night he went and took Robin as 
 he was sleeping, up out of his bed, and went to the river and 
 threw him in. But instantly he heard behind him 
 
 For this your service, master, I you thank. 
 Go swim yourself ; I '11 stay upon the bank ; 
 
 and was pushed in by Robin, who had put a bag of yarn in 
 his bed, and now went off with, Ho, ho, hoh, I
 
 ENGLAND. 289 
 
 Robin went as a fiddler to a wedding. When the candies 
 came he blew them out, and giving the men boxes in the ears 
 he set them a-fighting. He kissed the prettiest girls, and 
 pinched the others, till he made them scratch one another 
 like cats. When the posset was brought forth, he turned 
 himself into a bear, and frightening them away, had it all to 
 himself. 
 
 At length his father who we now find was king Obreon 
 (i. e. Oberon),* called him up out of his bed one night, and 
 took him to where the fairies were dancing to the music of 
 Tom Thumb's bagpipe, and thence to Fairy-land, where he 
 " did show him many secrets which he never did open to th 
 world." 
 
 In the same work Sib says of the woman-fairies : 
 
 " To walk nightly as do the men-fairies we use not ; but 
 now and then we go together, and at good housewives' fires 
 we warm our fairy children.f If we find clean water and 
 clean towels we leave them money, either in their basins, or 
 in their shoes ; but if we find no clean water in their houses, 
 we wash our children in their pottage, milk, or beer, or what- 
 ever we find : for the sluts that have not such things fitting, 
 we wash their faces and hands with a gilded child's clout, or 
 else carry them to some river and duck them over head and 
 ears. We often use to dwell in some great hill, and from 
 thence we do lend money to any poor man or woman that 
 hath need ; but if they bring it not again at the day appointed, 
 we do not only punish them with pinching, but also in their 
 goods, so that they never thrive till they have paid us." 
 
 The learned and strong-minded Reginald Scot, thus notices 
 the superstitions of his own and the preceding age. J 
 
 " Indeed your grandams' maids were wont to set a bowl 
 of milk before him (Incubus) and his cousin Robin G-ood- 
 fellow, for grinding of malt or mustard, and sweeping the 
 house at midnight ; and you have also heard that he would 
 chafe exceedingly if the maid or good-wife of the house, 
 having compassion of his nakedness, laid any clothes for him 
 
 * Mr. Collyer does not seem to have recollected that Huoii de Bordeaux 
 had been translated by Lord Berners ; see above, p. 56. 
 
 t It is, according to this authority the man-fairy Guim that steals children 
 and leaves changelings. 
 
 J Discoverie of Wiichcrafte* iv. ch. 10. 
 

 
 290 OEEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 besides his mess of white bread and milk, which was hia 
 standing fee ; for iu that case he saith, 
 
 What have we here 1 Hemten, hamton, 
 Here will I never more tread nor stampen. 
 
 Again:* 
 
 " The Faeries do principally inhabit the mountains and 
 caverns of the earth, whose nature is to make strange appa- 
 ritions on the earth, in meadows or on mountains, being Hke 
 men and women, soldiers, kings, and ladies, children and 
 horsemen, clothed in green, to which purpose they do in the 
 night steal hempen stalks from the fields where they grow, to 
 convert them into horses, as the story goes. 
 
 "Such jocund and facetious spirits," he continues, "are 
 said to sport themselves in the night by tumbling and fool- 
 ing with servants and shepherds in country houses, pinching 
 them black and blue, and leaving bread, butter, and cheese, 
 sometimes with them, which, if they refuse to eat, some mis- 
 chief shall undoubtedly befal them by the means of these 
 Faeries ; and many such have been taken away by the said 
 spirits for a fortnight or a month together, being carried 
 with them in chariots through the air, over hills and dales, 
 rocks and precipices, till at last they have been found lying 
 in some meadow or mountain, bereaved of their senses, and 
 commonly one of their members to boot." 
 
 Elsewhere J he gives the following goodly catalogue of 
 these objects of popular terror : " Our mother's maids have 
 so frayed us with Bull-beggars, Spirits, "Witches, Urchins, 
 Elves, Hags, Faeries, Satyrs, Pans, Faunes, Sylens, Kit-wi- 
 the-Canstick, Tritons, Centaurs, Dwarfs, Gyants, Impes, 
 Calcars, Conjurors, Nymphs, Changelings, Incubus, Bobin 
 Goodfellow, the Spoorn, the Mare, the Man-in-the-Oak, the 
 Hell-wain, the Firedrake, the Puckle, Tom-thombe, Hob- 
 goblin, Tom-tumbler, Boneless, and such other Bugs, that 
 we are afraid of our shadow." t 
 
 * R. Scot, Discoverie of Witchcrafte, ii. ch. 4. + Tb. vii. 15. 
 
 J This appears to us to be rather a display of the author's learning than an 
 actual enumeration of the objects of popular terror ; for the maids hardly 
 talked of Satyrs, Pans, etc. For Bull-beggar, see p. 316 ; for Urchin, p. 319. 
 Hag is the Anglo-Saxon hae^erc^, German kexe, a witche," and hence the 
 Nightmare (see p. 332) which was ascribed to witches ; we still say Hag-ridden
 
 ENGLAND. 291 
 
 Burton, after noticing from Paracelsus those which in 
 Germany "do usually walk in little coats, some two foot 
 long," says,* " A bigger kind there is of them called with us 
 Hobgoblins and Robin Groodfellows, that would, in those 
 superstitious times, grind corn for a mess of milk, cut wood, 
 or do any manner of drudgery work." And again : " Some 
 put our Fairies into this rank (that of terrestrial devils), 
 which have been in former times adored with much super- 
 stition, with sweeping their houses, and setting of a pail of 
 clean water, good victuals, and the like, and then they should 
 not be pinched, but find money in their shoes, and be for 
 tunate in their enterprises." In another place (p. 30,) he 
 says, " And so those which Miyaldus calls Ambulones, that 
 walk about midnight, on heaths and desert places, which 
 (saith Lavater) draw men out of the way and lead them 
 all night a by-way, or quite barre them of their way ; these 
 have several names, in several places ; we commonly call 
 them Pucks." 
 
 Harsenet thus speaks of them in his Declaration : t 
 
 " And if that the bowl of curds and cream were not duly 
 set out for Robin Goodfellow, the friar, and Sisse the dairy- 
 maid, why then, either the pottage was burned the next day 
 in the pot, or the cheeses would not curdle, or the butter 
 would not come, or the ale in the fat never would have good 
 head. But if a Peter-penny or a Housle-eggeJ were behind, 
 or a patch of tythe unpaid then 'ware of bull-beggars, 
 spirits, &c." 
 
 Nash thus describes them : 
 
 " Then ground they malt, and had hempen shirts for their 
 
 Calcar and Sporn (spurs ?) may be the same, from the idea of riding : the 
 French call the Nightmare, Cauchemare, from Caucher, calcare. Kit-wi-thc- 
 Canstick is Jack-with-the-Lanthorn. The Man in the Oak is probably Puck, 
 " Turn your cloakes, quoth hee, forPucke is busyin these oakes." Iter Boreaks. 
 The Hell-wain is perhaps the Death-coach, connected with Northern and 
 German superstitions, and the Fire-drake an Ignis Fatuus. Boneless may 
 have been some impalpable spectre ; the other terms seem to be mere appel- 
 lations of Puck. 
 
 Anat. of Mel. p. 47. t Chap. xx. p. 134. Lond. 1604. 
 
 J This is, we apprehend, an egg at Easter or on Good Friday. Housle is 
 the Anglo-Saxon huyel ; Goth, hunsl, sacrifice or offering, and thence the 
 Eucharist. 
 
 Terrors of the Night, 1594. 
 
 u2
 
 292 ORKAT BE1TAIIT. 
 
 labours; daunced in rounds in green meadows; pinch t maids 
 in their sleep that swept not their houses clean, and led poor 
 travellers out of their way." 
 
 As the celebrated Luck of Eden Hall is supposed to hare 
 been a chalice, due respect for the piety of our forefathers 
 will not allow of our placing the desecration of it any higher 
 than the reign of Elizabeth, or that of her father at farthest. 
 We will therefore introduce its history in this place. 
 
 ilucfc of Cftren 
 
 IK this house (Eden Hall, a seat of the Musgraves,) are some 
 good old-fashioned apartments. An old painted drinking- 
 glass, called the Luck of Eden Hall, is preserved with great 
 care. In the garden near to the house is a well of excellent 
 spring water, called St. Cuthbert's "Well. (The church is 
 dedicated to that saint.) This glass is supposed to have 
 been a sacred chalice ; but the legendary tale is, that the 
 butler, going to draw water, surprised a company of Fairies, 
 who were amusing themselves upon the green near the well ; 
 he seized the glass which was standing upon its margin. 
 They tried to recover it ; but, after an ineffectual struggle, 
 flew away, saying, 
 
 If that glass either break or fall, 
 Farewell the luck of Eden HalL* 
 
 "In the year 1633-4 (says Aubrey t) soon after I had 
 entered into my grammar, at the Latin schoole of Tatton- 
 Keynel, [near Chippenham, "Wilts,] our curate, Mr. Hart, 
 was annoyed one night by these elves or fayeries. Comming 
 over the downes, it being neere darke, and approaching one 
 of the faiery dances, as the common people call them in 
 
 * Hutchinson, History of Cumberland, vol. i. p. 269. 
 t As quoted by Thorns in his Essay on Popular Songs, in the Athcncum 
 for 1847.
 
 ENGLAND. 293 
 
 these parts, viz. the greene circles made by those sprites on 
 the grasse, te all at once saw an innumerable quantitie of 
 pigmies, or very small people, dancing rounde and rounde, 
 and singing and making all maner of small odd noyses. He, 
 being very greatly amazed, and yet not being able, as he 
 says, to run away from them, being, as he supposes, kept 
 there in a kinde of enchantment, they no sooner perceave 
 him but they surround him on all sides, and what betwixte 
 feare and amazement he fell down, scarcely knowing what 
 he did ; and thereupon these little creatures pinched him all 
 over, and made a quick humming noyse all the tyme; but at 
 length they left him, and when the sun rose he found him- 
 self exactly in the midst of one of these faiery dances. This 
 relation I had from him myselfe a few days after he was so 
 tormented ; but when I and my bed-fellow, Stump, wente 
 soon afterwards, at night time, to the dances on the downes, 
 we sawe none of the elves or faieries. But, indeed, it is saide 
 they seldom appeare to any persons who go to seeke for 
 them." 
 
 The next account, in order of time, that occurs, is what 
 Sir Walter Scott calls the Cock Lane narrative of Anne 
 Jefferies, who was born in 1626, in the parish of St. Teath, 
 in Cornwall, and whose wonderful adventures with the 
 'airies were, in 1696, communicated by Mr. Moses Pitt, 
 her master's son, to Dr. Fowler, bishop of Gloucester.* 
 
 According to this account, Anne described the Fairies, 
 who she said came to her, as " six small people, aft in green 
 clothes." They taught her to perform numerous surprising 
 cures ; they fed her from harvest-time till Christmas ; they 
 always appeared in even numbers. When seen dancing in 
 the orchard among the trees, she said she was dancing with 
 the fairies. These fairies scorned the imputation of being 
 evil spirits, and referred those who termed them such to 
 Scripture. 
 
 The following " relation of the apparition of Fairies, their 
 seeming to keep a fair, and what happened to a certain man 
 that endeavoured to put himself in amongst them," is given 
 by Bovet.f 
 
 * Morgan, Phoenix Britaiimcus, Lond. 1732. 
 f Pandemonum, p. 207. Lond. 1684.
 
 294 OBEAT 
 
 "Heading once the eighteenth of Mr. GlanviTs relations, 
 p. 203, concerning an Irishman that had like to have been 
 carried away by spirits, and of the banquet they had spread 
 before them in the fields, etc., it called to mind a passage 
 I had often heard, of Fairies or spirits, so called by the 
 country people, which showed themselves in great companies 
 at divers times. At some times they would seem to dance, 
 at other times to keep a great fair or market. I made k 
 my business to inquire amongst the neighbours what credit 
 might be given to that which was reported of them, and by 
 many of the neighbouring inhabitants I had this account 
 confirmed. 
 
 " The place near which they most ordinarily showed them- 
 selves was on the side of a hQl, named Black-down, between 
 the parishes of Pittminster and Chestonford, not many miles 
 from Tanton. Those that have had occasion to travel that 
 way have frequently seen them there, appearing like men 
 and women, of a stature generally near the smaller size of 
 men. Their habits used to be of red, blue, or green, accord- 
 ing to the old way of country garb, with high crowned hats. 
 One time, about fifty years since, a person living at Comb 
 St. Nicholas, a parish lying on one side of that hill, near 
 Chard, was riding towards his home that way, and saw, just 
 before him, on the side of the hill, a great company of 
 people, that seemed to him like country folks assembled as 
 at a fair. There were all sorts of commodities, to his appear- 
 ance, as at our ordinary fairs; pewterers, shoemakers, pedlars, 
 with all kind of trinkets, fruit, and drinking-booths. He 
 could not remember anything which he had usually seen at 
 fairs but what he saw there. It was once in his thoughts 
 that it might be some fair for Chestonford, there being a 
 considerable one at some time of the year ; but then again 
 he consideted thqt it was not the season for it. He was
 
 ENGLAND. 295 
 
 under very great surprise, and admired what the meaning of 
 what he saw should be. At length it came into his mind 
 what he had heard concerning the Fairies on the side of that 
 hill, and it being near the road he was to take, he resolved 
 to ride in amongst them, and see what they were. Accord- 
 ingly he put on his horse that way, and, though he saw them 
 perfectly all along as he came, yet when he was upon the 
 place where all this had appeared to him, he could discern 
 nothing at all, only seemed to be crowded and thrust, as 
 when one passes through a throng of people. All the rest 
 became invisible to him until he came to a little distance, 
 and then it appeared to him again as at first. He found 
 himself in pain, and so hastened home ; where, being arrived, 
 lameness seized him all on one side, which continued on him 
 as long as he lived, which was many years; for he was living 
 in Comb, and gave an account to any that inquired of this 
 accident for more than twenty years afterwards ; and this 
 relation I had from a person of known honour, who had it 
 from the man himself. 
 
 " There were some whose names I have now forgot, but 
 they then lived at a gentleman's house, named Comb Farm, 
 near the place before specified : both the man, his wife, and 
 divers of the neighbours, assured me they had, at many 
 times, seen this fair-keeping in the summer-time, as they 
 came from Tanton-market, but that they durst not adven- 
 ture in amongst them ; for that every one that had done so 
 had received great damage by it." 
 
 CaHrron. 
 
 " IN the vestry of Frensham church, in Surrey, on the north 
 side of the chancel, is an extraordinary great kettle or cal- 
 dron, which the inhabitants say, by tradition, was brought 
 hither by the fairies, time out of mind, from Borough-hill, 
 about a mile hence. To this place, if anyone went to bor- 
 row a yoke of oxen, money, etc., he might have it for a year 
 or longer, so he kept his word to return it. There is a cave
 
 296 GBEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 where some have fancied to hear music. In this Borough 
 hill is a great stone, lying along of the length of about six 
 feet. They went to this stone and knocked at it, and de- 
 clared what they would borrow, and when they would repay, 
 and a voice would answer when they should come, and that 
 they should find what they desired to borrow at that stone. 
 This caldron, with the trivet, was borrowed here after the 
 manner aforesaid, and not returned according to promise ; 
 and though the caldron was afterwards carried to the stone, 
 it could not be received, and ever since that time no borrow- 
 ing there."* 
 
 Caultr Ea& of fetttan. 
 
 " HILTON HALL, in the vale of the "Wear, was in former times 
 the resort of a Brownie or House-spirit called The Cauld 
 Lad. Every night the servants who slept in the great hall 
 heard him at work in the kitchen, knocking the things about 
 if they had been set in order, arranging them if otherwise, 
 which was more frequently the case. They were resolved 
 to banish him if they could, and the spirit, who seemed to 
 have an inkling of their design, was often heard singing in a 
 melancholy tone : 
 
 Wae 's me ! wae 's me ! 
 The acorn is not yet 
 Fallen from the tree, 
 That 's to grow the wood, 
 That 's to make the cradle, 
 That 's to rock the bairn, 
 That 's to grow to a man, 
 That 's to lay me. 
 
 The servants, however, resorted to the usual mode of 
 banishing a Brownie : they left a green cloke and hood 
 for him by the kitchen fire, and remained on the watch. 
 They saw him come in, gaze at the new clothes, try them on, 
 
 Aubrey, Natural History of Surrey, iii 366, ap. Ritson, Fairy Talei, 
 t 166.
 
 ENGLAND. 297 
 
 and, apparently in great delight, go jumping and frisking 
 about the kitchen. But at the first crow of the cock he 
 vanished, crying 
 
 Here 's a cloak, and here 's a hood ! 
 
 The Cauld Lad of Hilton will do no more good ; 
 
 and he never again returned to the kitchen ; yet it was said 
 that he might still he heard at midnight singing those lines 
 in a tone of melancholy. 
 
 There was a room in the castle long called the Cauld 
 Lad's Room, which was never occupied unless the castle was 
 full of company, and within the last century many persons 
 of credit had heard of the midnight wailing of the Cauld 
 Lad, who some maintained was the spirit of a servant whom 
 one of the barons of Hilton had killed unintentionally in a 
 fit of passion."* 
 
 In the beginning of the last century Bourne thus gives 
 the popular belief on this subject : 
 
 "Another part of this (winter's evening) conversation 
 generally turns upon Fairies. These, they tell you, have 
 frequently been seen and heard ; nay, that there are some 
 still living who were stolen away by them, and confined 
 seven years. According to the description they give of 
 them, who pretend to have seen them, they are in the shape 
 of men exceeding little : they are always clad in green, and 
 frequent the woods and fields. When they make cakes 
 (which is a work they have been often heard at), they are 
 very noisy ; and when they have done, they are full of mirth 
 and pastime. But generally they dance in moonlight, when 
 mortals are asleep, and not capable of seeing them ; as may 
 be observed on the following morning, their dancing places 
 being very distinguishable : for as they dance hand in hand- 
 and so make a circle in their dance, so next day there will 
 be seen rings and circles on the grass." t 
 
 The author of " Round about our Coalfire " says : ^ 
 
 * The Local Historian's Table-Book, by M. A. Richardson, iii. 239. New- 
 aistle-upon-Tyne, 1846. 
 
 f Bourne, Antiquitates Vulgares, 1725. 
 
 J Quoted by Brand in his Popular Antiquities, an enlarged edition of 
 Bourne's work.
 
 298 GEEAT BBITA.DT. 
 
 " My grandmother has often told me of Fairies dancing 
 upon our green, and they were little little creatures, clothed 
 in green. 
 
 " The moment any one saw them, and took notice of them, 
 they were struck bund of an eye. They lived under ground, 
 and generally came out of a mole-hill. 
 
 "They had fine music always among themselves, and 
 danced in a moonshiny night around, or in a ring, as one 
 may see at this day upon every common in England, where 
 mushrooms grow. 
 
 " When the master and mistress were laid on their pillows, 
 the men and maids, if they had a game at romp, and blun- 
 dered upstairs, or jumbled a chair, the next morning every 
 one would swear it was the fairies, and that they heard them 
 stamping up and down stairs all night, crying ' Water 's 
 locked ! Water 's locked ! ' when there was not water in 
 every pail in the kitchen." 
 
 To come to the present times. There is no stronger proof 
 of the neglect of what Mr Thorns has very happily desig- 
 nated " Folk-lore " in this country, than the fact of there 
 having been no account given anywhere of the Pixies or 
 Pisgies * of Devonshire and Cornwall, till within these last 
 few years. In the year 1836, Mrs. Bray, a lady well known 
 as the author of several novels, and wife of a clergyman at 
 Tavistock, published, in a series of letters to Eobert Southey, 
 interesting descriptions of the part of Devonshire bordering 
 on the Tamar and the Tavy. In this work there is given 
 an account of the Piiies, from which we derive the following 
 information : 
 
 According to the Devon peasant, the Pixies are the souls 
 of infants who died before they were baptised. They are of 
 
 * This word Pixy, is evidently Pucksy, the endearing diminutive sy being 
 tdded to Puck, like Betsy, Nancy, Dixie. So Mrs. Trimmer in her Fabulous 
 Histories which we read with wonderful pleasure in our childhood, and 
 would recommend to our young readers calls her hen-robins Pecksy and 
 Flapsy. Pisgy is only Pixy transposed. Mrs. Bray derives Pixy from Pygmy. 
 At Truro, in Cornwall, as Mr. Thorns informs us, the moths, which some 
 regard as departed souls, others as fairies, are called Pisgies. He observes the 
 curious, but surely casual, resemblance between this and the Greek <ft>x^ which 
 is both soul and moth. Grimm (p. 430) tells us from an old glossary, that the 
 caterpillar was named in Germany, Alba, i. e. Elbe, tnd that the Alp oftes 
 takes the form of a butterfly.
 
 ENGLAND. 299 
 
 small dimensions, generally handsome in their form. Their 
 attire is always green. Dancing is their chief amusement, 
 which they perform to the music of the cricket, the grass- 
 hopper, and the frog, always at night ; and thus they form 
 the fairy-rings. The Pixy-house is usually in a rock. By 
 moon-light, on the moor, or under the dark shade of rocks, 
 the Pixy-monarch, Mrs. Bray says, holds his court, where, 
 like Titania, he gives his subjects their several charges. 
 Some are sent to the mines, where they will kindly lead the 
 miner to the richest lode, or maliciously, by noises imitating 
 the stroke of the hammer, and by false fires, draw him on to 
 where the worst ore in the mine lies, and then laugh at his 
 disappointment. Others are sent 
 
 To make the maids their sluttery rue, 
 By pinching them both black and blue. 
 
 On this account, says Mrs. Bray, " the good dames in 
 this part of the world are very particular in sweeping their 
 houses before they go to bed ; and they will frequently 
 place a basin of water beside the chimney -nook, to accommo- 
 date the Pixies, who are great lovers of water ; and some- 
 times they requite the good deed by dropping a piece of 
 money into the basin. A young woman of our town, who 
 declared she had received the reward of sixpence for a like 
 service, told the circumstance to her gossips ; but no six- 
 pence ever came again, and it was generally believed that 
 the Pixies had taken offence by her chattering, as they do 
 not like to have their deeds, good or evil, talked over by 
 mortal tongues." 
 
 The office of some is to steal children ; of others, to lead 
 travellers astray, as Will-o'-the-wisps, or to Pixy-lead them, 
 as it is termed. Some will make confusion in a house by 
 blowing out the candle, or kissing the maids " with a smack, 
 as they ' shriek Who 's this ? ' as the old poet writes, till 
 their grandams come in and lecture them for allowing 
 unseemly freedoms with their bachelors." Others will make 
 noises in walls, to frighten people. In short, everything 
 that is done elsewhere by fairies, boggarts, or other like 
 beings, is done in Devon by the Pixies. 
 
 It is said that they will sometimes aid their favourites in 
 spinning their flax. "I have heard a story about an old
 
 300 GREAT BEITAIX. 
 
 woman in this town," says Mrs. Bray, "who suspected she 
 received assistance of the above nature ; and one evening, 
 coming suddenly into the room, she spied a ragged little 
 creature, who jumped out of the door. She thought she 
 would try still further to win the services of her elfin friend, 
 and so bought some smart new clothes, as big as those made 
 for a doll. These pretty things she placed by the side of 
 her wheel. The Pixy returned, and put them on ; when, 
 clapping her tiny hands, she was heard to exclaim 
 
 Pixy fine, Pixy gay, 
 Pixy now will run away ; 
 
 and off she went. But the ungrateful little creature never 
 spun for the poor old woman after." 
 
 Mrs. Bray has been assured that mothers used frequently 
 to pin their children to their sides, to prevent their being 
 stolen by the Pixies ; and she heard of a woman in Tavistock 
 who avowed that her mother had a child which was stolen 
 by them, as she was engaged hanging out clothes to dry in 
 her garden. She almost broke her heart when she discovered 
 it; but she took great care of the changeling, which so 
 pleased the Pixy, that she soon after gave the woman back 
 her child, who proved eminently lucky in after life. 
 
 The being Pixy-led is a thing very apt to befall worthy 
 yeomen returning at night from fair or market, especially 
 if they sat long at the market-table; and then, says our 
 authority, " he will declare, and offer to take his Bible-oath 
 upon it, that, as sure as ever he 's alive to tell it, whilst his 
 head was running round like a mill-wheel, he heard with 
 his own ears they bits of Pisgies a-laughing and 0,-tacking 
 their hands, all to see he led-astray, and never able to find 
 the right road, though he had travelled it scores of times 
 long agone, by night or by day, as a body might tell." 
 Mr. Thorns, too, was told by a Devon girl, who had often 
 heard of the Pixies, though she had never seen any, that 
 " she once knew a man who, one night, could not find his 
 way out of his own fields, all he could do, until he recollected 
 to turn his coat ; and the moment he did so, he heard the 
 Pixies all fly away, up into the trees, and there they sat 
 and laughed. Oh ! how they did laugh ! But the man then 
 soon found his way out of the field."
 
 ENGLAND. 301 
 
 This turning of the coat, or some other article of dress, 
 is found to be the surest remedy against Pixy-illusion. 
 Mrs. Bray says that the old folk in Tavistock have recourse 
 to it as a preventive against being Pixy-led, if they have 
 occasion to go out after sun-down. It appears to have been 
 formerly in use in other parts of England also ; for Bishop 
 Corbet thus notices it in his "Iter Boreale :" 
 
 William found 
 
 A mean for our deliverance, Turne your cloakea 
 Quoth hee, for Pucke is busy in these oakes ; 
 If ever wee at Bosworth will be found 
 Then turne your clookes, for this is fairy ground. 
 
 In Scandinavia, also, we learn the remedy against being 
 led astray by the Lygtemand, Lyktgubhe, or Will-o'-the- 
 Wisp, is to turn one's cap inside out. 
 
 Mrs. Bray gives, in addition, the following legends, which 
 we have taken the liberty of abridging a little. 
 
 ONE night, about twelve o'clock in the morning, as the good 
 
 folks say, who tell this good tale, Dame the sagefemme 
 
 of Tavistock, had just got comfortably into bed, when 
 rap, rap, rap, came on her cottage door, with such bold and 
 continued noise, that there was a sound of authority in 
 every individual knock. Startled and alarmed by the call, 
 she arose from her bed, and soon learnt that the summons 
 was a hasty one to bid her attend on a patient who needed 
 her help. She opened her door, when the summoner 
 appeared to be a strange, squint-eyed, little, ugly old 
 fellow, who had a look, as she said, very like a certain dark 
 personage, who ought not at all times to be called by his 
 proper name. Xot at all prepossessed in favour of the 
 errand by the visage of the messenger, she nevertheless 
 could not, or dared not, resist the command to follow him 
 straight, and attend on " his wife."
 
 302 GEBA.T BRITAIN. 
 
 " Thy wife! " thought the good dame ; " Heaven forgive 
 me, but as sure as I live I be going to the birth of a little 
 divil." A large coal-black horse, with eyes like balls of fire, 
 stood at the door. The ill-looking old fellow, without more 
 ado, whisked her up on a high pillion in a minute, seated 
 himself before her, and away went horse and riders as if 
 sailing through the air rather than trotting on the ground. 
 How she got to the place of her destination she could not 
 tell ; but it was a great relief to her fears when she found 
 herself set down at the door of a neat cottage, saw a couple 
 of tidy children, and remarked her patient to be a decent 
 looking woman, having all things about her fitting the time 
 and occasion. A fine bouncing babe soon made its appear- 
 ance, who seemed very bold on its entry into life, for it gave 
 the good dame a box on the ear, as, with the coaxing and 
 cajolery of all good old nurses, she declared the " sweet 
 little thing to be very like its father." The mother said 
 nothing to this, but gave nurse a certain ointment, with 
 directions that she should strike (i. e. rub) the child's eyes 
 with it. The nurse performed her task, considering what it 
 could be for. She thought that, as no doubt it was a good 
 thing, she might just as well try it upon her own eyes as 
 well as those of the baby ; so she made free to strike ne 
 of them by way of trial, when, O ye powers of fairy land ! 
 what a change was there ! 
 
 The neat, but homely cottage, and all who were in it, 
 seemed all on a sudden to undergo a mighty transforma- 
 tion ; some for the better, some for the worse. The new- 
 made mother appeared as a beautiful lady attired in white ; 
 the babe was seen wrapped in swaddling clothes of a 
 silvery gauze. It looked much prettier than before, but 
 still maintained the elfish cast of the eye, like his father, 
 whilst two or three children more had undergone a strange 
 metamorphosis. For there sat on either side the bed's head. 
 a couple of little flat-nosed imps, who with "mops and 
 mows," and with many a grimace and grin, were busied to 
 no end in scratching their own polls, or in pulling the fairy 
 lady's ears with their long and hairy paws. The dame who 
 beheld all this, fearing she knew not what, in the house of 
 enchantment, got away as fast as she could, without saying 
 one word about striking her own eye with the magic
 
 ENGLAND, 303 
 
 ointment and what she had seen. The sour-] Coking old 
 fellow once more handed her up on the coal-black-horse, and 
 sent her home in a whip sissa * much faster than she came. 
 
 On the next market-day, when she sallied forth to sell 
 her eggs, she saw the same old fellow busy pilfering sundry 
 articles from stall to stall, and going up to him she enquired 
 about his wife and child. " What ! " exclaimed he, " do you 
 see me to-day ? " " See you ! to be sure I do, as plain as I 
 see the sun in the sky ; and I see you are busy, too." "Do 
 you?" says he, "and pray with which eye do you see all 
 this ? " " "With the right eye to be sure." 
 
 " The ointment ! the ointment ! " cried he. " Take that, 
 for meddling with what did not belong to you ; you shall see 
 me no more." 
 
 He struck her eye as he spoke, and from that hour til] 
 the day of her death she was blind of that eye. 
 
 Two serving-girls in Tavistock said that the Pixies were very 
 kind to them, and used to drop silver for them into a bucket 
 of fair water which they took care to place for them in the 
 chimney-nook every night. Once it was forgotten, and the 
 Pixies forthwith came up to the girls' room, and loudly 
 complained of the neglect. One of them, who happened to 
 be awake, jogged the other, and proposed going down to 
 rectify the omission, but she said, " for her part she would 
 not stir out of bed to please all the pixies in Devonshire." 
 The other went down and filled the bucket, in which, by the 
 way, she found next morning a handfull of silver pennies. 
 As she was returning, she heard the Pixies debating about 
 what they would do to punish the other. Various modes 
 were proposed and rejected ; at last it was agreed to give 
 her a lame leg for a term of seven years, then to be cured 
 by an herb growing on Dartmoor, whose name of seven 
 
 * Whip says he, as Mrs. Bray conjectures.
 
 304 GEE AT BRITAIN. 
 
 syllables was pronounced in a clear and audible tone. This 
 the girl tried by every known means to fix in her memory. 
 But when she awoke in the morning, it was gone, and she 
 could only tell that Molly was to be lame for seven years, 
 and then be cured by an herb with a strange name. As for 
 Molly, she arose dead lame, and so she continued till the end 
 of the period, when one day, as she was picking up a mush- 
 room, a strange-looking boy started up and insisted on 
 striking her leg with a plant which he held in his hand. He 
 did so, and she was cured and became the best dancer in 
 the town. 
 
 AN old woman who lived near Tavistock had in her garden 
 a splendid bed of tulips. To these the Pixies of the neigh- 
 bourhood loved to resort, and often at midnight might they 
 be heard singing their babes to rest among them. By their 
 magic power they made the tulips more beautiful and more 
 permanent than any other tulips, and they caused them to 
 emit a fragrance equal to that of the rose. The old woman 
 was so fond of her tulips that she would never let one of 
 them be plucked, and thus the Pixies were never deprived of 
 their floral bowers. 
 
 But at length the old woman died ; the tulips were taken 
 up, and the place converted into a parsley-bed. Again, 
 however, the power of the Pixies was shown ; the parsley 
 withered, and nothing would grow even in the other beds of 
 the garden. On the other hand, they tended diligently the 
 grave of the old woman, around which they were heard 
 lamenting and singing dirges. They suffered not a weed to 
 grow on it; they kept it always green, and evermore in 
 spring-time spangled with wild flowers. 
 
 Thus far for the Pixies of Devon ; as for the adjoining 
 Somerset, all we have to say is, that a good woman from that 
 county, with whom we were acquainted, used, when making
 
 ENGLAND. 305 
 
 a cake, always to draw a cross upon it. This, she said, was 
 in order to prevent the Vairies from dancing on it. She 
 described these Vairies as being very small people, who, 
 with the vanity natural to little personages, wear high- 
 heeled shoes, and if a new-made cake be not duly crossed, 
 they imprint on it in their capers the marks of their heels. 
 Of the actual existence of the Vairies, she did not seem to 
 entertain the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 In Dorset also, the Pixy-lore still lingers. The being is 
 called Pexy and Colepexy ; the fossil belemnites are named. 
 Colepexies'-fingers ; and the fossil echini, Colepexies'-heads. 
 The children, when naughty, are also threatened with the 
 Pexy, who is supposed to haunt woods and coppices.* 
 
 " In Hampshire," says Captain Grose, " they give the/ 
 name of Colt- Pixy to a supposed spirit or fairy, which in tht 
 shape of a horse wickers, i. e. neighs, and misleads horse& 
 mto bogs, etc." 
 
 The following is a Hampshire legend : f 
 
 A FABMEB, in Hampshire was sorely distressed by the 
 unsettling of his barn. However straightly over-night he 
 laid his sheaves on the threshing-floor for the application of 
 the morning's flail, when morning came, all was topsy-turvy, 
 higgledy-piggledy, though the door remained locked, and 
 there was no sign whatever of irregular entry. Resolved to 
 find out who played him these mischievous pranks, Hodge 
 couched himself one night deeply among the sheaves, and 
 watched for the enemy. At length midnight arrived, the 
 barn was illuminated as if by moonbeams of wonderful 
 brightness, and through the key-hole came thousands of 
 elves, the most diminutive that could be imagined. They 
 immediately began their gambols among the straw, which 
 
 * Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 513. Bonn's edit. 
 t Given in the Literary Gazette for 1825. No. 430.
 
 300 OEEAT BE1TAIK. 
 
 \vaa soon in a most admired disorder. Hodge wondered, but 
 interfered not ; but at last the supernatural thieves began to 
 busy themselves in a way still less to his taste, for each elf 
 set about conveying the crop away, a straw at a time, with 
 astonishing activity and perseverance. The key-hole was 
 still their port of egress and regress, and it resembled the 
 aperture of a bee-hive, on a sunny day in June. The farmer 
 was rather annoyed at seeing his grain vanish in this fashion, 
 when one of the fairies said to another in the tiniest voice 
 that ever was heard " I weat, you weat ? Hodge could 
 contain himself no longer. He leaped out crying, " The 
 devil sweat ye. Let me get among ye ! " when they all flew 
 away so frightened that they never disturbed the barn 
 any more. 
 
 In Suffolk the fairies are called farisees. Not many years 
 ago, a butcher near "Woodbridge went to a farmer's to buy a 
 calf, and finding, as he expressed it, that " the cratur was all 
 o' a muck," he desired the farmer to hang a flint by a string 
 in the crib, so as to be just clear of the calf's head. 
 " Becaze," said he, " the calf is rid every night by the 
 farisees, and the stone will brush them oft*." * 
 
 We once questioned a girl from Norfolk on the subject of 
 Fairy-lore. She said she had often heard of and even seen 
 the Frairies. They were dressed in white, and lived under 
 the ground, where they constructed houses, bridges, and 
 other edifices. It is not safe, she added, to go near them 
 when they appear above ground. 
 
 We now proceed to Yorkshire, where the Boggart and the 
 Barguest used to appear in by-gone days. The former, 
 whose name we will presently explain, is the same as the 
 Brownie or Kobold ; the latter, whose proper name perhaps 
 is Barn-ghaist, or Barn-spirit, keeps without, and usually 
 takes the form of some domestic animal. 
 
 Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 503. Bohn'a edit.
 
 ENGLAND. 307 
 
 3B0jjig;art 
 
 IN the house of an honest farmer in Yorkshire, named 
 George Grilbertson, a Boggart had taken up his abode. He 
 here caused a good deal of annoyance, especially by torment- 
 ing the children in various ways. Sometimes their bread 
 and butter would be snatched away, or their porringers of 
 bread and milk be capsized by an invisible hand ; for the 
 Boggart never let himself be seen ; at other times, the cur- 
 tains of their beds would be shaken backwards and forwards, 
 or a heavy weight would press on and nearly suifocate them. 
 The parents had often, on hearing their cries, to fly to their 
 aid. There was a kind of closet, formed by a wooden parti- 
 tion on the kitchen-stairs, and a large knot having been 
 driven out of one of the deal-boards of which it was made, 
 there remained a hole.* Into this one day the farmer's 
 youngest boy stuck the shoe-horn with which he was amusing 
 himself, when immediately it was thrown out again, and 
 struck the boy on the head. The agent was of course the 
 Boggart, and it soon became their sport (which they called 
 laking f with Boggarf) to put the shoe-horn into the hole and 
 have it shot back at them. 
 
 The Boggart at length proved such a torment that the 
 farmer and his wife resolved to quit the house and let him 
 have it all to himself. This was put into execution, and the 
 farmer and his family were following the last loads of furni- 
 ture, when a neighbour named John Marshall came up 
 "Well, Georgey," said he, "and soa you're leaving t'ould 
 hoose at last ? " " Heigh, Johnny, my lad, I 'm forced 
 tull it ; for that damned Boggart torments us soa, we can 
 
 * The El/bore of Scotland, where it is likewise ascribed to the fairies, 
 Jamieson, s. v. The same opinion prevails in Denmark, where it is said that 
 any one who looks through it will see things he would not otherwise have 
 known: see Thiele, ii. 18. 
 
 f- Tba Anglo-Saxon Icean, latcan, to play. 
 
 x 2
 
 308 OBEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have such 
 a malice again t'poor bairns, it ommost kills my poor dame 
 here at thoughts on't, and soa, ye see, we're forced to flitt 
 loike." He scarce had uttered the words when a voice from 
 a deep upright churn cried out, " Aye, aye, Georgey, we're 
 flitting ye see." " Od damn thee," cried the poor farmer, 
 "if I 'd known thou 'd been there, I wadn't ha' stirred a 
 peg. Nay, nay, it 's no use, Mally," turning to his wife, 
 " we may as weel turn back again to t'ould hoose as be tor- 
 mented in another that's not so convenient." * 
 
 StttoltrsJ a::& 
 
 AN old lady in Yorkshire related as follows : My eldest 
 daughter Betsey was about four years old ; I remember it 
 was on a fine summer's afternoon, or rather evening, I was 
 seated in this chair which I now occupy. The child had 
 been in the garden, she came into that entry or passage 
 from the kitchen (on the right side of the entry was the 
 old parlour-door, on the left the door of the common sitting- 
 room ; the mother of the child was in a line with both the 
 doors) ; the child, instead of turning towards the sitting- 
 room made a pause at the parlour-door, which was open. 
 She stood several minutes quite still ; at last I saw her draw 
 her hand quickly towards her body; she set up a loud 
 shriek and ran, or rather flew, to me crying out " Oh ! 
 Mammy, green man will hab me ! green man win hab me ! " 
 It was a long time before I could pacify her ; I then asked 
 her why she was so frightened. " O Mammy," she said, 
 " all t'parlour is full of addlers and menters." Elves and 
 fairies (spectres ?) I suppose she meant. She said they 
 
 * Wo have abridged this legend from a well-written letter in the Literary 
 Gazette, No. 430 (1825), the writer of which says, he knew the house in 
 which it was said to have occurred. He also says he remembered an old 
 tailor, who said the horn was often pitched at the head of himself and big 
 apprentice, when in the North-country fashion they went to work at the farm- 
 house. Its identity with other legends will be at once perceived.
 
 ENQLAIH). 309 
 
 were dancing, and a little man in a green coat with a gold 
 laced cocked hat on his head, offered to take her hand as ii 
 he would have her as his partner in the dance. The mother, 
 upon hearing this, went and looked into the old parlour, but 
 the fairy vision had melted into thin air. " Such," adds the 
 narrator, " is the account I heard of this vision of fairies. 
 The person is still alive who witnessed or supposed she saw 
 it, and though a well-informed person, still positively asserts 
 the relation to be strictly true.* 
 
 Eitson, who was a native of the bishoprick of Durham, 
 tells us f that the fairies frequented many parts of it ; that 
 they were described as being of the smallest size, and 
 uniformly habited in green. They could, however, change 
 their size and appearance. "A woman," he says, "who had 
 been in their society challenged one of the guests whom she 
 espied in the market selling fairy-butter.J This freedom 
 was deeply resented, and cost her the eye she first saw him 
 with. Some one informed him that an acquaintance of his 
 in "Westmoreland, wishing to see a fairy, was told that 011 
 such a day on the side of such a hill, he should be gratified. 
 He went, and there, to use his own words, " the hobgoblin 
 stood before him in the likeness of a green-coat lad," but 
 anished instantly. This, he said, the man told him. A 
 lemale relation of his own told Mr. Eitson of Eobin Good- 
 fellow's, it would seem, thrashing the corn, churning the 
 butter, drinking the milk, etc., and when all was done, 
 lying before the fire " like a great rough hurgin (hugging r^ 
 bear. " 
 
 * And true no doubt it is, i.e. the- impression made on her imagination was 
 as strong as if the objects had been actually before her. The narrator is the 
 same person who told the preceding Boggart story. 
 
 t Fairy Tales, pp. 24, 56. 
 
 J In Northumberland the common people call a certain fungous excrescence, 
 sometimes found about the roots of old trees, Fairy-butter. After great rains 
 and in a certain degree of putrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency, which, 
 together with its colour, makes it not unlike butter, and hence the name. 
 Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 492, Bohn's edit. 
 
 The Menyn Tylna Teg or Fairy-butter of Wales, we are told in the same 
 place, is a substance found at a great depth in cavities of limestone-rocks when 
 linking for lead-cre. 
 
 Cotnp. Milton, L' Allegro, 105 seq.
 
 310 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 The Barguest used also to appear in the shape of a 
 mastiff-dog arid other animals, and terrify people with his 
 shrikes (shrieks). There was a Barguest named the Pick- 
 tree Brag, whose usual form was that of a little galloway, 
 " in which shape a farmer, still or lately living thereabouts, 
 reported that it had come to him one night as he was going 
 home; that he got upon it and rode very quietly till it 
 came to a great pond, to which it ran and threw him in, and 
 went laughing away" 
 
 In Northumberland the belief in the fairies is not yet 
 extinct. The writer from whom we derive the following 
 legends tells us * that he knew an old man whose dog had 
 pointed a troop of fairies,f and though he could not see 
 them he plainly heard their music sounding like a fiddle and 
 a very small pair of pipes. He also tells us, that many years 
 ago a girl who lived near Nether Witton, as she was return- 
 ing from milking with her pail on her head, saw the fairies 
 playing in the fields, and though she pointed them out to 
 her companions they could not see them. The reason it 
 seemed was her weise or pad for bearing the pail on her 
 head was composed of four-leaved clover, which gives the 
 power of seeing fairies. Spots are pointed out in seques- 
 tered places as the favourite haunts of the elves. A few 
 miles from Alnwick is a fairy-ring, round which if people 
 run more than nine times, some evil will befall them. The 
 children constantly run this number, but nothing will induce 
 them to venture a tenth run. 
 
 A COTTAGES and his wife residing at Nether "Witton were 
 one day visited by a fary and his spouse with their young 
 
 * Richardson, Table-Book, iii. 45 ; see above, p. 297. 
 + This -word, as we may see, is spelt f dries in the following legends ; so we 
 may suppose that fairy is pronounced farry in the North, which has a curioui 
 coincidence with Pert ; see above, p. 15.
 
 ENGLAND. 311 
 
 cliild, which they wished to leave in their charge. The 
 cottager agreed to take care of the child for a certain 
 period when it had to be taken thence. The fary gave the 
 man a box of ointment with which to anoint the child's 
 eyes ; but he had not on any account to touch himself with 
 it, or some misfortune would befal him. For a long time he 
 and his wife were very careful to avoid the dangerous 
 unction ; but one day when his wife was out curiosity over- 
 came his prudence, and he anointed his eyes without any 
 noticeable effect ; but after a while, when walking through 
 Long Horsley Fair, he met the male fary and accosted him. 
 He started back in amazement at the recognition ; but 
 instantly guessing the truth, blew on the eyes of the cot- 
 tager, and instantly blinded him. The child was never more 
 seen. 
 
 ANOTHEE tale relates that a messenger having visited a 
 country midwife or howdie requested her professional 
 assistance in a case where so much secrecy was required 
 that she must be conducted to and from the destined place 
 blindfolded ; she at first hesitated, but her scruples were 
 overcome by a handsome present, the promise of a future 
 reward, and assurance of perfect personal safety. She then 
 submitted to the required condition, mounted behind the 
 messenger on a fleet charger, and was carried forward in an 
 unaccountable manner. The journey was not of long con- 
 tinuance, the steed halted, she dismounted, and was 
 conducted into a cottage where the bandage was removed 
 from her eyes ; everything appeared neat and comfortable. 
 She was shown the woman "in the straw," and performed 
 her office ; but when ready to dress the babe, an old woman, 
 (who, according to the narration, appears to have been the 
 nurse,) put a box of ointment into her hand, requiring her 
 to anoint the child all over with it, but to be careful that it 
 did not touch her own person; she prudently complied,
 
 312 GBEAT BBITAUT. 
 
 though wondering at the motive. "Whilst this operation was 
 going on, she felt an itching in one of her eyes, and in an 
 unguarded moment rubbed it with a finger which had 
 touched the mysterious ointment. And now a new scene 
 forced itself upon her astonished vision, and she saw every- 
 thing in a different light ; instead of the neat cottage, she 
 perceived the large overhanging branches of an ancient oak, 
 whose hollow and moss-grown trunk she had before mistaken 
 for the fire place, glowworms supplied the place of lamps, 
 and, in short, she found herself in the abode of a family of 
 fanes, with faries was she surrounded, and one of their 
 number reposed on her lap. She however retained her self- 
 possession, finished her task, and was conducted homeward 
 m the same manner as she was brought. So far all went 
 well, and the howdie might have carried the secret to her 
 grave, but in after time, on a market-day (in what town the 
 legend saith not,) forgetful of her former caution, she saw 
 the old nurse among the countrywomen, gliding about from 
 one basket to another, passing a little wooden scraper along 
 the rolls of butter, and carefully collecting the particles thus 
 purloined into a vessel hung by her side. After a mutual 
 but silent recognition, the nurse addressed her thus, " Which 
 eye do you see me with?" "With this," innocently 
 answered the other. No sooner had she spoken than a puff 
 from the withering breath of her unearthly companion ex- 
 tinguished the ill-fated orb for ever, and the hag instantly 
 vanished. 
 
 Another version says the Doctor is presented with a 
 box of eye-salve by his conductor ; on using it he sees a 
 splendid portico in the side of a steep hill, through this he 
 is shown into the faries' hall in the interior of the mountain : 
 he performs his office, and on coming out receives a second 
 box ; he rubs one eye, and with it sees the hill in its natural 
 shape ; then thinking to cheat the devil, feigns to rub the 
 other, and gallops off. Afterwards he sees the fary's hus- 
 band stealing corn in the market, when similar consequences 
 befal him as those which occurred unto the woman.
 
 ENGLAND 313 
 
 A WIDOW and her son, a little boy, lived together in a 
 cottage in or near tlie village of Eotkley, Northumberland. 
 One winter's evening the child refused to go to bed with his 
 mother, as he wished to sit up for a whUe longer, "for," 
 said he, " I am not sleepy." The mother finding remon- 
 strance in vain, at last told him that if he sat up by himself 
 the faries would most certainly come and take him away. 
 The boy laughed as his mother went to bed, leaving him 
 sitting by the fire ; he had not been there long, watching the 
 fire and enjoying its cheerful warmth, till a beautiful little 
 figure, about the size of a child's doll, descended the chimney 
 and alighted on the hearth ! The little fellow was somewhat 
 startled at first, but its prepossessing smile as it paced to 
 and fro before him soon overcame his fears, and he inquired 
 familiarly, "What do they ca' thou?" "Ainsel," answered 
 the little thing haughtily, at the same time retorting the 
 question, "And what do they ca' ihou?" " My ainsel'," 
 answered the boy ; and they commenced playing together 
 like two children newiy acquainted. Their gambols con- 
 tinued quite innocently until the fire began to grow dim ; 
 the boy then took up the poker to stir it, when a hot cinder 
 accideutly fell upon the foot of his playmate ; her tiny 
 voice was instantly raised to a most terrific roar, and the boy 
 had scarcely time to crouch into the bed behind his mother, 
 before the voice of the old fary-mother was heard shouting, 
 " Who 's done it ? Who 's done it ? " " Oh ! it was my 
 ainsel!" answered the daughter. "Why, then," said the 
 mother, as she kicked her up the chimney, " what 's all this 
 noise for : there 's nyon (i.e. no one) to blame." 
 
 Such is the sum of what we have been able to collect 
 respecting the popular fairy-lore of England, the largest and 
 most complete collection that, to our knowledge, has ever
 
 314 GKEAT 
 
 been made. "We might venture to add that little more is ever 
 likely to be collected, for the sounds of the cotton-mill, the 
 steam-engine, and, more than all, the whistle of the railway 
 train, more powerful than any exorcists, have banished, or 
 soon will banish, the fairy tribes from all their accustomed 
 haunts, and their name and their exploits will in future be 
 found in works like the present rather than in village 
 tradition. 
 
 As the merry spirit, Puck, is so prominent an actor in the 
 scenes forming our next division, this may be deemed no 
 unfitting place for the consideration of his various appella- 
 tions ; such as Puck, Robin Good-fellow, Bobin Hood, 
 Hobgoblin. 
 
 Puck is evidently the same with the old word PouJce* the 
 original meaning of which would seem to be devil, demon, 
 or evil spirit. We first meet with it in the Vision of Piers 
 Ploughman, where it undoubtedly signifies ' the grand 
 adversary of God and man.' 
 
 When, in this poem,t the Seer beholds Abraham, the per- 
 sonification of Faith, with his " wide clothes," within which 
 lay a Lazar, 
 
 Amonges patriarkes and prophetes, 
 Pleying togideres, 
 
 and asks him what was there, 
 
 Loo ! quod he, and leet me see. Ne no buyrn be oure borgh, 
 
 Lord mercy ! I seide ; Ne bringe us from his daunger ; 
 
 This is a present of muche pris, Out of the poukes pondfold 
 
 What prynce shal it have ? No maynprise may us fecche, 
 
 It is a precious present, quod he, Til he come that I carpe of, 
 
 Ac the pouke it hath attached, Crist is his name, 
 
 And me theremyde, quod that That shall delivere us som day 
 
 man, Out of the devdea power. 
 May no wed us quyte, 
 
 Golding also must have understood Pooke in the sense ol 
 devil, when in the ninth book of his translation of Ovid, 
 
 * Probably pronounced Poke, as still in Worcestershire. Our ancestors 
 frequently used ou or oo for the long o while they expressed the sound of oc 
 by o followed by e t as rote root, coke cook, more moor, pole pool. 
 
 f Passus xvii. v. 11,323 seq. ed. 1842. Comp. w. 8363, 9300, 10,902.
 
 ENGLAND. 315 
 
 unauthorised however by the original, he applies it to the 
 Chimaera, 
 
 The country where Chymaera, that same pooke 
 Hath goatish body, lion's head and brist, and dragon's tayle. 
 
 Spenser employs the word, and he clearly distinguishes it 
 from hob-goblin: 
 
 Ne let housefires nor lightnings helpless harms, 
 
 Ne let the pouke* nor other evil sprites, 
 
 Ne let mischievous witches with their charms, 
 
 Ne let hob-goblins, names whose sense we see not, 
 
 Fray us with things that be not. Epithalamion, v. 340. 
 
 These terms are also distinguished in the poem named The 
 Scourge of Venus : 
 
 And that they may perceive the heavens frown, 
 The poukes and yoblim pull the coverings down. 
 
 In Ben Jonson's play of The Devil is an Ass, the unlucky 
 fiend who gives origin to its name is called Pug, and in the 
 same author's Sad Shepherd the personage named Puck- 
 hairy is, as Gifford justly observes, " not the Fairy or 
 Oriental Puck, though often confounded with him." t In 
 truth, it is first in Shakespeare that we find Puck confounded 
 with the House-spirit, and having those traits of character 
 which are now regarded as his very essence, and have caused 
 his name Pug to be given to the agile mischievous monkey, 
 and to a kind of little dog. 
 
 We will now discuss the origin of this far-famed appella- 
 tion and its derivation. 
 
 In the Slavonic tongues, which are akin to the Teutonic, 
 Bog is God, and there are sleights of etymology which would 
 identify the two terms ; the Icelandic Puki is an evil spirit, 
 and such we have seen was the English Pouke, which easily 
 became Puck, Pug, and Bug; finally, in Friesland the 
 
 Mr. Todd is right, in reading pouke for ponke, an evident typographic 
 error : -wrong in saying, " He is the Fairy, Robin Good-fellow, known by the 
 name of Puck." Robin is the "hob-goblin" mentioned two lines after. 
 
 f* We know nothing of the Oriental origin of Puck, and cannot give ourful. 
 assent to the character of our ancestry, as expressed in the remaining part of 
 Mr. Gifford's note : " but a fiend engendered in the moody minds, and rude a;id 
 gloomy fancies of the barbarous invaders of the North." It is full time to 
 have done with describing the old Gothic race as savages.
 
 316 GEEAT BBITAllf. 
 
 Kobold is called Puk, and in old German we meet with 
 Putz or Butz as the name of a being not unlike the original 
 English Puck.* The Devonshire fairies are called Pixies, 
 and the Irish have their Pooka, and the Welsh their Pwcca, 
 both derived from Pouke or Puck. From Bug comes the 
 Scottish Bogle, (which Gawin Douglas expressly distinguishes 
 from the Brownie) and the Yorkshire Boggart.f The 
 Swedish language has the terms spoTca, spoke ; the Danish 
 spoge, spdgelse, the German, sjmJcen, spuJc, all used of spirits 
 or ghosts, and their apparitions. Perhaps the Scottish 
 pawkey, sly, knowing, may belong to the same family of 
 words. Akin to Bogle was the old English term Puckle, 
 noticed above, which is still retained in the sense of mis- 
 chievous, as in Peregrine Pickle and Little Pickle. It has 
 been conjectured^ that PicTcleharing, the German term for 
 zany or merry-andrew, may have been properly PicTcleJidrin, 
 i.e. the hairy sprite, answering to Jonson's Puck-hairy, and 
 that he may have worn a vesture of hair or leaves to be 
 rough like the Brownie and kindred beings. 
 
 From Bug also come Bugbear, and Bugleboo, or Bugaboo. 
 They owe their origin probably to the Ho ! Ho ! Ho ! given 
 to Puck or Robin Goodfellow, as it was to the Devil (i.e., 
 Pouke) in the Mysteries. Bull-beggar may be only a cor- 
 ruption of Bugbear. 
 
 The following passage from a writer of the present day 
 proves that in some places the idea of Puck as a spirit 
 haunting the woods and fields is still retained. " The pea- 
 
 * Der Putz wfirde uns uber berg und thaler tragen. To frighten 
 children they say Der Butz kommtJ see Grimm, Dent. Mythol. p. 474. 
 
 + The former made by adding the Anglo-Saxon and English el, le ; the latter 
 by adding the English art : see p. 318. 
 
 By Sir F. Palgrave, from whose article in the Quarterly Review, we 
 have derived many of the terms named above. He adds that the Anglo- 
 Saxon pcecan is to deceive, seduce ; the Low-Saxon picken to gambol ; 
 pickeln to play the fool ; pukra, in Icelandic to make a murmuring noise, 
 to steal secretly ; and pukke in Danish to scold. He further adds the 
 Swedish poiica boy, the Anglo-Saxon and Swedish piga and Danish pige girl. 
 If, however, Pouke is connected with the Sclavonic Bog, these at the most can 
 be only derivations from it. By the way boy itself seems to be one of these 
 terms ; the Anglo-Saxon piga, was probably pronounced piya, and a is a mas- 
 culine termination in that language. 
 
 See above, p. 291 . In Low German, however, the Kobold is called Bull- 
 inann, Bullet-matin, Bullerkater, from bullen, bullern, to knock : we Grimm, 
 K* sup. p. 473.
 
 ENGLAND. .317 
 
 santry," says Mr. Allies,* "of Alfrick and those parts of 
 Worcestershire, say that they are sometimes what they call 
 Poake-ledden, that is, that they are occasionally waylaid in 
 the night by a mischievous sprite whom they call Poake, 
 who leads them into ditches, bogs, pools, and other such 
 scrapes, and then sets up a loud laugh and leaves them quite 
 bewildered in the lurch." This is what in Devon is called 
 being Pixy-led. We may observe the likeness here to the 
 Puck of Shakspeare and Drayton, who were both natives of 
 the adjoining county. 
 
 A further proof perhaps of Puck's rural and extern cha- 
 racter is the following rather trifling circumstance. An old 
 name of the fungus named piiffball is puck-fist, which is 
 plainly Puck's-fist, and not puff-fist as Nares conjectured ; 
 for its Irish name is Cos-a-Phooka, or Pooka' s-foot, i.e., 
 Puck's-foot. We' will add by the way, that the Anglo- 
 Saxon J?ulj:er-pre, Wolf's-fist, is rendered in the dictionaries 
 toadstool, mushroom, and we cannot help suspecting that as 
 wolf and elf were sometimes confounded, and wolf and fist 
 are, in fact, incompatible terms, this was originally ^Eljrer-pifc 
 Elf's-fist, and that the mushrooms meant were not the 
 thick ugly toadstools, the "grislie todestooles," of Spenser, 
 but those delicate fungi called in Ireland fairy-mushrooms. 
 and which perhaps in England also were ascribed to the 
 fairies.f 
 
 So much then for Puck ; we will now consider some other 
 terms. 
 
 Robin Goodfellow, of whom we have given above a full 
 account, is evidently a domestic spirit, answering in name 
 and character to the Nisse God-dreng of Scandinavia, the 
 Knecht Ruprecht, i.e., Robin of Germany. He seems to 
 unite in his person the Boggart and Barguest of Yorkshire. 
 
 Hob-goblin is, as we have seen, another name of the same 
 spirit. Goblin is the French gobelin, German Kobold; 
 Hob is Rob, Robin, Bob ; just as Hodge is Roger. We 
 still have the proper names Hobbs, Hobson, like Dix, Dixon, 
 Wills, Wilson ; by the way, Hick, i. e. Dick, from Richard, 
 still remains in Hicks, Hickson. 
 
 * Essay on the Ignis Fatuus, quoted by Thome, 
 f And you whose pastime 
 
 IB to make midnight mushrooms. Tempest, v. 1.
 
 818 GREAT BBITAIN 
 
 Robin Hood, though we can produce no instance of it, 
 must, we think, also have been an appellation of this spirit, 
 and been given to the famed outlaw of merry Sherwood, 
 from his sportive character and his abiding in the recesses of 
 the greenwood. The hood is a usual appendage of the 
 domestic spirit. 
 
 Roguery and sportiveness are, we may see, the characteristics 
 of this spirit. Hence it may have been that the diminutives 
 of proper names were given to him, and even to the Ignis 
 Fatuus, which in a country like England, that was in general 
 dry and free from sloughs and bog-holes, was mischievous 
 rather than dangerous.* But this seems to have been a 
 custom of our forefathers, for we find the devil himself called 
 Old Nick, and Old Davy is the sailor's familiar name forDeath. 
 
 In the Midsummer Night's Dream the fairy says to Puck 
 "Thou Lob of spirits;" Milton has the lubber-fiend, and 
 Eletcher says,t " There is a pretty tale of a witch that had 
 a giant to be her son that was called Lob Lie-by-the-fire." 
 This might lead us to suppose that Lob, whence loby (looby), 
 lubbard, lubber, J and adding the diminutive kin, Lubberkin, 
 a name of one of the clowns in Gay's Pastorals, was an 
 original name of some kind of spirit. We shall presently 
 see that the Irish name of the Leprechaun is actually 
 Lubberkin. As to the origin of the name we have little to 
 say, but it may have had a sense the very opposite of the 
 present one of lubber, and have been connected with the 
 verb to leap. Grimm || tells of a spirit named the Good 
 
 * Jack-o'-the-lanthorn, Will-o'-the-wisp. In Worcestershire they call it 
 Hob-and-his-lanthorn, and HobanyV or Hobredy's-lanthorn. Allies, ut sup. 
 
 f" Knight of the Burning Pestle : see above, p. 309. 
 
 J Ard is the German hart, and is, like it, depreciatory. It is not an Anglo- 
 Saxon termination, but from the Anglo-Saxon boll, dull, we have dullard. 
 May not haygard be hawk-ard, and the French hagard be derived from it, 
 and not the reverse? 
 
 For in Anglo-Saxon dttorcoppe (Poison-head T) is spider, and from dttor- 
 coppe-web, by the usual aphceresis of the two first syllables we put coppe- 
 v>efi, cobweb. May not the same have been the case with lob ? and may not 
 the nasty bug be in a similar manner connected with Puck? As dvergsnat 
 Is in Swedish a cobweb, one might be tempted to suppose that this last, for 
 which no good etymon has been offered, was lob-web ; but the true etymon 
 k. cop-web, from its usual site. 
 
 Upon the cop right of his nose he hedde 
 
 A wert. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, v. 556. 
 
 Deut. Mythol. p. 492.
 
 ENGLAND. 319 
 
 Lubber, to whom the bones of animals used to be offered at 
 Mansfield in Germany ; but we see no resemblance between 
 him and our Lob of spirits ; we might rather trace a 
 connexion with the French Lutin, Lubin.* The phrase of 
 being in or getting into LoVs Pound (like the " Pouke's 
 pondfold,") is easy of explanation, if we suppose Lob to 
 be a sportive spirit. It is equivalent to being PoaJce-ledden 
 or Pixy -led. 
 
 Wight, answering to the German Wicht, seems to have 
 been used in the time of Chaucer for elf or fairy, most 
 probably for such as haunted houses, or it may have had the 
 signification of witch, which is evidently another fornj of it 
 
 In the Miller's Tale the carpenter says, 
 
 i 
 
 I crouche thee from elves and from wights. 
 And 
 
 Jesu Crist, and Seint Bcncdight, 
 
 Blisse this house from every wicked wight I -f 
 
 Urchin is a term which, like elf and such like, we stiL 
 apply to children, but which seems formerly to have been 
 one of the appellations of the fairies. Reginald Scott, as we 
 have seen, places it in his list, and we find it in the following 
 places of the poets : 
 
 Urchins 
 
 Shall for the vast of night that they may work 
 All exercise on thee. Tempest, i. 2. 
 
 * See France. In is a mere termination, perhaps, like on, a diminutive, as 
 in Catin Kate, Robin Bob. Lutin was also spelt Luyton : see p. 42. 
 
 + The two lines which follow 
 
 Fro the nightes mare the witfe Paternoster ! 
 "Where wonest thou Seint Peter's suster ? 
 
 are rather perplexing. We would explain them thus. Bergerac, as quoted 
 by Brand (Pop. Antiq. i. 312. Bonn's edit.) makes a magician say " I teach 
 the shepherds the wolf's paternoster," i. e. one tLit keeps off the wolf. Wife 
 may then be i. q. wight, and wight paternoster be a safeguard against the 
 wights, and we would read the verse thus : " Fro the nightes mare the wite 
 paternoster" sc. blisse it or MS. St. Peter's suster, i. e. wife (see 1 Cor. ix. 5) 
 may have been canonised in the popular creed, and held to be potent against evil 
 beings. The term suster was used probably to obviate the scandal of supposing 
 the first Pope to have beea a married man. This charm is given at greater 
 length ana with some rafiftiiiiM by Cartwright in his Ordinary^ Act iii. sc. 1.
 
 320 GEEAT BBITAIW. 
 
 His spirits hear me, 
 
 And yet I needs must curse ; but they '11 not pinch. 
 Fright me with urchin-sho-ios, pitch me i' the mire, 
 Nor lead me like a fire-brand in the dark 
 Out of my way, unless he bid 'em. Jb. ii. 2. 
 
 Like urchins, ouphs, and fairies. 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4. 
 
 Elves, urchins, goblins all, and little fairyes. 
 
 Mad Pranks, etc., p. 38. 
 
 Great store of goblins, fairies, bugs, nightmares, 
 Urchins, and elves, to many a house repairs. 
 
 Old Poem, in Brand, ii. 514. 
 
 Trip it, litttle urchins all. 
 
 Maid's Metamorphosis. 
 
 Helping all urchin-blasts and ill-luck signs, 
 That the shrewd meddling elfe delights to make. 
 
 Comus, 845. 
 
 Urchin is a hedgehog, as Stevens has justly observed,* and 
 in these lines of Titus Andronicus (ii. 3.) 
 
 A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes, 
 Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins, 
 
 it probably has this sense. "We still call the echinus marinus 
 the Sea-urchin. Still as we have no analogy, but rather the 
 contrary, for transferring the name of an animal to the 
 elves, we feel inclined to look for a different origin of the 
 term as applied to these beings. The best or rather only 
 hypothesis we have met withf is that which finds it in the 
 hitherto unexplained word Grcneas in Beowulf, which may 
 have been Orcenas, and if, as we have supposed,;}; the Anglo- 
 Saxons sometimes pronounced c before e and in the Italian 
 manner, we should have, if needed, the exact word. We 
 would also notice the old German urkinde, which Grimm 
 renders nanus. 
 
 "We now come to the poets. 
 
 In Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon poem, supposed not to be 
 
 * He derives it from the French oursin, but the Ang.-Sax. name of the 
 hedgehog is enrcen. 
 
 t Athenaeum, Oct. !), 1847. 
 { Hist, of England, i. 478, 8vo edit. Deut Mythol. p. 4i9
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 321 
 
 later than the seventh century, we meet with the following 
 verse, 
 
 " Eotenas, and Ylfe, 
 And Orcacas." 
 
 The first of these words is evidently the same as the lotunn 
 or Giants of the northern mythology ; the second is as 
 plainly its Alfar, and we surely may be excused for sup- 
 posing that the last may be the same as its Duergar. 
 
 Layamon, in the twelfth century, in his poetic paraphrase 
 of Wace's Brut,* thus expands that poet's brief notice of the 
 birth of Arthur : 
 
 " Ertur son nom ; de sa bunte 
 Ad grant parole puis este." 
 
 Sone swa he com on eorthe, 
 
 Alven nine ivengen. 
 
 Heo bigolen that child 
 
 Mid galdere swith stronge. 
 
 Heo zeven him mihte 
 
 To beon best alre cnihton. 
 
 Heo zeven him an other thing 
 
 That he scolde beon riche king. 
 
 Heo zeven him that thridde 
 
 That he scolde longe libben. 
 
 Heo zeven that kin-bern 
 
 Custen swithe gode. 
 
 That he was mete-custi 
 
 Of alle quike monnen. 
 
 This the Alven him zef. 
 
 So soon he came on earth, 
 
 Elves received him. 
 
 They enchanted that child 
 
 With magic most strong. 
 
 They gave him might 
 
 To be the best of all knights. 
 
 They gave him another thing 
 
 That he should be a rich king. 
 
 They gave him the third 
 
 That he should long live. 
 
 They gave to that kingly child 
 
 Virtues most good. 
 
 That he was most generous 
 
 Of all men alive. 
 
 This the Elves him gave. 
 
 w. 19254 : se 
 
 If we have made any discovery of importance in the 
 department of romantic literature, it is our identification of 
 Ogier le Danois with the Eddaic Helgi.t We have shown 
 among other points of resemblance, that as the N" orns were 
 at the birth of the one, so the Fees were at that of the 
 other. With this circumstance Layamon was apparently 
 acquainted, and when he wished to transfer it to Arthur as 
 
 * Layamon's Brut, etc., by Sir Frederick Madden. 
 
 f- Tales and Popular Fictions, ch. viii. We do not wonder that this should 
 have eluded previous observation, but it is really surprising that we should 
 have been the first to observe the resemblance between Ariosto's tale of 
 Giocondo and the introductory tale of the Thousand and One Nights. It is 
 also strange that no one should have noticed the similarity between 0?ian'g 
 Carthon and the tale of Soohrab in the Shah-uameh.
 
 322 GHEAT BEITAIK. 
 
 the Norna were no longer known and the Fees had not yet 
 risen into importance, there only remained for him to 
 employ the Elves, which had not yet acquired tiny dimen- 
 sions. Hence then we see that the progress was Norns, 
 Elves, Fees, and these last held their place in the subsequent 
 Fairy tales of France and Italy. 
 
 These potent Elves are still superior to the popular 
 Fairies which we first met with in Chaucer. 
 
 Yet nothing in the passages in which he speaks of them 
 leads to the inference of his conceiving them to be of a dimi- 
 nutive stature. His notions, indeed, on the subject seem 
 very vague and unsettled ; and there is something like a con- 
 fusion of the Elves and Fairies of Romance, as the following 
 passages will show: 
 
 The Wife of Bathes Tale is evidently a Fairy tale. It 
 .hus commences : 
 
 In olde 1 dayes of the king Artour, 
 
 Of which that Bretons speken gret honour, 
 
 All was this lond fulfilled of faerie ;* 
 
 The Elf-quene with her joly compagnie, 
 
 Danced ful oft hi many a grend mede. 
 
 This was the old opinion as I rede ; 
 
 I speke of many hundred yeres ago. 
 
 But now can no man see non elves mo, 
 
 For now the grete charitee and prayeres 
 
 Of limitoures, and other holy freres, 
 
 That serchen every land and every streme, 
 
 As thikke as motes in the sonne-beme, 
 
 Blissing hallos, chambres, kichenes, and boures, 
 
 Citees and burghes, castles highe, and toures, 
 
 Thropes f and berns, shepenes and dairies, 
 
 This maketh that there ben no faeries ; 
 
 For there as wont to walken was an elf, 
 
 There walketh now the limitour himself, 
 
 In undermeles, and in morweninges, 
 
 And sayth his matines and his holy thinges, 
 
 As he goth in his limitatioun. 
 
 Women may now go safely up and down ; 
 
 In every bush and under every tree 
 
 There is none other incubus but he, 
 
 And he ne will don hem no dishonour. 
 
 * Both here and lower down we would take faerie in its first sense. 
 
 t Tkrcpe, tliorpe, or dorp, is a village, the German darf ; Dutch dorp ; we 
 
 may still find it in the names of places, as Althorpe. Dorp occurs frequently in 
 
 Drayton's Polyolbion; it is also useil by Dryden, Hind and Panther, V. 1905 
 
 Undermeles L e. unde-tide (p 51), aftermeal, afternoon.
 
 ENGLAND. 323 
 
 The Fairies therefore form a part of the tale, and they are 
 thus introduced : 
 
 The day was come that homward must he turne ; 
 
 And in his way it happed him to ride, 
 
 In all his care, under a forest side, 
 
 Wheras he saw upon a dance go 
 
 Of ladies foure and twenty, and yet mo : 
 
 Toward this ilke dance he drow ful yerne, 
 
 In hope that he som wisdom shulde lerne ; 
 
 But certainly, er he came fully there, 
 
 Yvanished was this dance, he n'iste not wher ; 
 
 No creature saw he that bare lif, 
 
 Save on the grene he saw sitting a wif, 
 
 A fouler wight ther may no man devise. 
 
 These ladies bear a great resemblance to the Elle-maids of 
 Scandinavia. We need hardly inform our readers that this 
 " foul wight " becomes the knight's deliverer from the immi- 
 nent danger he is in, and that, when he has been forced to 
 marry her, she is changed into a beautiful young maiden. 
 But who or what she was the poet sayeth not. 
 
 In the Marchantes Tale we meet the Faerie attendant on 
 Pluto and Proserpina, their king and queen, a sort of blending 
 of classic and Gothic mythology : 
 
 for to tell 
 
 The beautee of the gardin, and the well 
 That stood under a laurer alway grene ; 
 Ful often time he Pluto, and his quene 
 Proserpina, and alle hir faerie * 
 Disporten hem, and maken melodie 
 About that well, and daunced, as men told. 
 
 A.gain, in the same Tale : 
 
 And so befel in that bright morwe tide, 
 That, in the gardin, on the ferther side, 
 Pluto, that is the king of Faerie, 
 And many a ladye in his compagnie, 
 Folwing his wif, the quene Proserpina, 
 Which that he ravisshed out of Ethna, 
 While that she gadred floures in the mede, 
 (In Claudian ye may the story rede, 
 How that hire in his grisely carte he fette) ; 
 This king of Faerie adouii him sette 
 Upon a benche of turves, fresh and grene. 
 
 * This is the third sense of Faerie. In the next passage it is doubtful 
 whether it be the second or third sense ; we think the latter. 
 
 Y2
 
 324 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 In the conversation which ensues between these august 
 personages, great knowledge of Scripture is displayed ; and 
 the queen, speaking of the "sapient prince," passionately 
 exclaims 
 
 I sete nat of all the vilanie 
 
 That he of women wrote a boterflie ; 
 
 I am a woman nedes moste I speke, 
 
 Or swell unto that time min herte breke. 
 
 Some might suspect a mystery in the queen's thus empha- 
 tically styling herself a woman, but we lay no stress upon it, 
 as Faire Damoselle Pertelote, the hen, who was certainly 
 less entitled to it, does the same. 
 
 In the Man of Lawes Tale the word Elfe is employed, but 
 whether as equivalent to witch or fairy is doubtful. 
 
 This lettre spake, the quene delivered was 
 Of so horrible a fendliche creature, 
 That in the castle, non so hardy was, 
 That any while dorste therein endure. 
 The mother was an elfe by dventure, 
 Y come, by charmes or by sorcerie, 
 And everich man hateth hire compagnie.* 
 
 The Kime of Sir Thopas has been already considered as 
 belonging to romance. 
 
 It thus appears that the works of manners-painting 
 Chaucer give very little information respecting the popular 
 belief in Fairies of his day. Were it not for the sly satire of 
 the passage, we might be apt to suspect that, like one who 
 lived away from the common people, he was willing to 
 represent the superstition as extinct" But now can no 
 man see non elves mo." The only trait that he gives really 
 characteristic of the popular elves is their love of dancing. 
 
 In the poets that intervene between Chaucer and the 
 Maiden Eeign, we do not recollect to have noticed anything 
 of importance respecting Fairies, except the employment, 
 already adverted to, of that term, and that of Elves, by 
 
 * This wife which is of faerie, 
 Of such a childc delivered is, 
 Fro kinde which stante all amis. 
 
 COWER; Legende of Constance.
 
 EKGLAtfD. 325 
 
 translators in rendering the Latin NympTiae. Of the size 
 of these beings, the passages in question give no infor- 
 mation. 
 
 But in Elizabeth's days, " Fairies," as Johnson observes, 
 " were much in fashion ; common tradition had made them 
 familiar, and Spenser's poem had made them great." A just 
 remark, no doubt, though Johnson fell into the common 
 error of identifying Spenser's Fairies with the popular ones 
 
 The three first books of the Faerie Queene were published 
 in 1590, and, as Warton remarks, Fairies became a familiar 
 and fashionable machinery with the poets and poetasters. 
 Shakspeare, well acquainted, from the rural habits of his 
 early life, with the notions of the peasantry respecting these 
 beings, and highly gifted with the prescient power of genius, 
 saw clearly how capable they were of being applied to the 
 production of a species of the wonderful, as pleasing, or 
 perhaps even more so, than the classic gods ; and in the 
 Midsummer-Night's Dream he presented them in combina- 
 tion with the heroes and heroines of the mythic age of 
 Greece. But what cannot the magic wand of genius effect ? 
 We view with undisturbed delight the Elves of Gothic 
 mythology sporting in the groves of Attica, the legitimate 
 haunts of Nymphs and Satyrs. 
 
 Shakspeare, having the Faerie Queene before his eyes, 
 seems to have attempted a blending of the Elves of the 
 village with the Fays of romance. His Fairies agree with 
 the former in their diminutive stature, diminished, indeed, 
 to dimensions inappreciable by village gossips, in their 
 fondness for dancing, their love of cleanliness, and their 
 child-abstracting propensities. Like the Fays, they form a 
 community, ruled over by the princely Oberon and the fair 
 Titania.* There is a court and chivalry : Oberon would 
 have the queen's sweet changeling to be a " Knight of his 
 
 * The derivation of Oberon has been already given (p. 208). The Shaks- 
 pearean commentators have not thought fit to inform us why the poet desig- 
 nates the Fairy-queen, Titania. It, however, presents no difficulty. It wag 
 the belief of those days that the Fairies were the same as the classic Nymphs, 
 the attendants of Diana : " That fourth kind of spritis," says King James, 
 " quhilk be the gentilis was called Diana, and her wandering court, and 
 amongst us called the Phairie." The Fairy-queen was therefore the same as 
 Diana, whom Ovid (Met. iii. 173) styles Titania; Chaucer, as we have seen.- 
 calls her Proserpina.
 
 326 GKEAT BHITA.IK. 
 
 train to trace the forest wild." Like earthly monarchs, he 
 has his jester, " the shrewd and knavish sprite, called Robin 
 Good-fellow." 
 
 The luxuriant imagination of the poet seemed to exult in 
 pouring forth its wealth in the production of these new 
 actors on the mimic scene, and a profusion of poetic imagery 
 always appears in their train. Such lovely and truly British 
 poetry cannot be too often brought to view ; we will there- 
 fore insert in this part of our work several of these gems of 
 our Parnassus, distinguishing by a different character such 
 acts and attributes as appear properly to belong to the Fairy 
 of popular belief. 
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM. 
 
 ACT H. SCENE I. 
 
 Puck and a Fairy. 
 
 Puck. How now, spirit ! whither wander you 1 
 Pai. Over hill, over dale, 
 
 Thorough bush, thorough briar, 
 
 Over park, over pale, 
 
 Thorough flood, thorough fire. 
 
 I do wander every where, 
 
 Swifter than the moones sphere, 
 
 And I serve the Fairy-queen, 
 
 To dew her orbs upon the green. 
 
 The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; 
 
 In their gold coats spots you see. 
 
 Those be rubies, fairy favours, 
 
 In those freckles live their savours. 
 I must go seek some dew-drops here, 
 And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.*' 
 Farewell, thou lob of spirits ! I '11 be gone ; 
 Our queen and all her elves come here anon. 
 
 Puck. The king doth keep his revels here to-night. 
 Take heed the queen come not within his sight ; 
 For Oberon is passing fell and wroth, 
 Because that she, as her attendant, hath 
 A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king, 
 She never had so sweet a changeling ; 
 
 * 'Twas I that led you through the painted meads, 
 Where the light Fairies danced upon the flowers, 
 Hanging on every leaf an orient pearl. 
 
 Wisdom of Dr. Dodypoll, 1600. Steevent. 
 Men of fashion, in that age, wore earrings.
 
 ENGLA.JKJJ. 327 
 
 And jealous Oberon would have the child 
 Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild ; 
 But she. perforce, withholds the loved boy, 
 Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy 
 And now they never meet iii grove or green, 
 By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen, 
 But they do square ; that all their elves, for fear, 
 Creep into acorn cups, and hide them there. 
 
 Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quitfl^ 
 Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite 
 Call'd Robin Good-fellow. Are you not he 
 That frights the maidens of the villagery, 
 Skims milk, and sometimes labours in the quern. 
 And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn; 
 And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm; 
 Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm 1 
 Those that Hob-goblin call you, and sweet Puck, 
 You do their work, and they shall have good luck, 
 Are not you he ? 
 
 P'ock. Thou speakest aright, 
 
 I am that merry wanderer of the night. 
 I jest to Oberon, and make him smile, 
 When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, 
 Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal ; 
 Ai'd sometimes lurk I hi a gossip's bowl, 
 la very likeness of a roasted crab , 
 And when she drinks, against her lips I bob, 
 And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. 
 The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, 
 Sometimes for three-foot stool mistaketh me : 
 Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, 
 And tailor cries, and falls into a cough ; 
 And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe, 
 And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear 
 A merrier hour was never wasted there. 
 
 The haunts of the Fairies on earth are the most rural and 
 romantic that can be selected. They meet 
 
 On hill, in dale, forest or mead, 
 By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, 
 Or on the beached margent of the sea, 
 To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind. 
 
 And the place of Titania's repose is 
 
 A bank whereon the wild thyme blows. 
 Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, 
 Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine. 
 With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
 
 328 GEEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 There sleeps Titania, some time of the night 
 Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight ", 
 And there the snake throws her enameli'd skin, 
 Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. 
 
 The powers of the poet are exerted to the utmost, to 
 convey an idea of their minute dimensions ; and time, with 
 them, moves on lazy pinions. " Come," cries the queen, 
 
 Come now, a roundel and a fairy song, 
 Then for the third part of a minute hence : 
 Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds ; 
 Some war with rear-mice for their leathern wings, 
 To make my small elves coats. 
 
 And when enamoured of Bottom, she directs her Elves that 
 they should 
 
 Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes ; 
 Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, 
 With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries. 
 The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, 
 And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, 
 And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes ; 
 To have my love to bed, and to arise 
 And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, 
 To fan the moon-beams from his sleeping eyes. 
 
 Puck goes " swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow ;" 
 he says, " he '11 put a girdle round about the earth in forty 
 minutes ;" and " We," says Oberon 
 
 We the globe can compass soon, 
 Swifter than the wandering moon. 
 
 They are either not mortal, or their date of life is indeter- 
 minately long ; they are of a nature superior to man, ana 
 speak with contempt of human follies. By night they revel 
 beneath the light of the moon and stars, retiring at the 
 approach of " Aurora's harbinger," * but not compulsively 
 like ghosts and " damned spirits." 
 
 * And the yellow-skirted Fayes 
 
 Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. 
 
 MILTON, Ode on the Nativity, 235.
 
 ENGLAND. 329 
 
 But we (says Oberon) are spirits of atotier sort ; 
 I with the morning's love have oft made sport, 
 And like a forester the groves may tread, 
 Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red, 
 Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams, 
 Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams. 
 
 In the Merry Wives of Windsor, we are introduced to 
 mock-fairies, modelled, of course, after the real ones, but with 
 such additions as the poet's fancy deemed itself authorised 
 to adopt. 
 
 Act IV., Scene IV., Mrs. Page, after communicating to 
 Mrs. Ford her plan of making the fat knight disguise himself 
 as the ghost of Herne the hunter, adds 
 
 Nan Page, my daughter, and my little son, 
 And three or four more of their growth, we 11 dress 
 Like urchins, ouphes,* and fairies, green and white, 
 With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads, 
 And rattles in their hands. 
 
 ***** 
 Then let them all encircle him about, 
 And, fairy-like, to-pinch 1 ^ the unclean knight, 
 And ask him why that hour of fairy revel 
 In their so sacred paths he dares to tread 
 In shape profane. 
 
 And 
 
 My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies, 
 Finely attired in a robe of white. 
 
 In Act V., Scene V., the plot being all arranged, the Fairy 
 
 * Ouph, Steevens complacently tells us, in the Teutonic language, is a 
 fairy ; if by Teutonic he means the German, and we know of no other, he 
 merely showed his ignorance. Ouph is the same as oaf (formerly spelt aulf), 
 and is probably to be pronounced in the same manner. It is formed from elf 
 by the usual change of I into u. 
 
 + i. e. Pinch severely. The Ang.-Sax. ro joined to a verb or part, 
 answers to the German zu or zer. tro-bpecan is to break to pieces, to-fcnipan 
 to drive asunder, scatter. Verbs of this kind occur in the Vision of Piers 
 Ploughman, in Chaucer and elsewhere. The part, is often preceded by all, iu 
 the sense of the German ganz, quite, with which some ignorantly join the to 
 as ail-to ruffled in Comus, 380, instead of all to-ruffled. In Golding's Ovid 
 (p. 15) we meet " With rugged head as white as down, and garments all to- 
 torn ;" in Judges ix. 53, "and all to-brdke his skull." See also Faerie 
 Queene, iv. 7, ; v. 8, 4, 43, 44 ; 9, 10.
 
 380 GHEA.T BE1TAIN. 
 
 rout appears, headed by Sir Hugh, as a Satyr, by ancient 
 Pintol as Hobgoblin, and by Dame Quickly. 
 
 Quick. Fairies black, grey, green, and white, 
 You moonshine revellers and shades of night, 
 You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,* 
 Attend your office and your quality. 
 Crier Hob-goblin, make the fairy 0-yes. 
 
 Put. Elves, list your names ! silence, you airy toys ' 
 Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap ; 
 Where fires thou findtst unraked, and hearths unswept, 
 There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry : 
 Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery. 
 
 Pals. They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die. 
 I '11 wink and couch ; no man their works must eye. 
 
 Pist. Where 's Bead ? Go you, and where you find a maid 
 That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, 
 Raise up the organs of her fantasy, 
 Sleep she as sound as careless infancy ; 
 But those as sleep and think not on their sins, 
 Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins. 
 
 Quick. About, about, 
 
 Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out ; 
 Stnw good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room, 
 That it may stand till the perpetual doom, 
 In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit ; 
 Worthy the owner, and the owner it 
 The several chairs of order look you scour 
 With juice of balm and every precious flower; 
 Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest, 
 With loyal blazon evermore be blest ; 
 And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing, 
 Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring : 
 The expressure that it bears green let it be, 
 Afore fertile-fresh than all t/ie field to see; 
 And " Hony soit qui mal y pense " write, 
 In emerald tufts, flowers, purple, blue, and white ; 
 Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, 
 Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee : 
 Fairies use flowers for their charactery. 
 Away disperse ! but, till 'tis one o'clock, 
 Our dance of custom, round about the oak 
 Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget. 
 
 Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand, yourselves in order set, 
 And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, 
 
 * After all the commentators have written, this line is still nearly unin- 
 telligible to us. It may relate to the supposed origin of the fairies. Foi 
 orphan, Warburton conjectured ouphen, from ouph.
 
 ENGLAND. 331 
 
 To guide our measure round about the tree ; 
 But stay, I smell a man of middle earth.* 
 
 Pal. Heaven defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest 
 He transform me to a piece of cheese. 
 
 Pist. Vile worm I thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birta. 
 
 Quick. With trial fire touch we his finger-end : 
 If he be chaste the flame will back descend, 
 And turn him to no pain ; but if he start, 
 It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. 
 
 Pist. A trial, come. 
 
 Eva. Come, will this wood take fire 1 
 
 Fai. Oh, oh, oh ! 
 
 Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire : 
 About him, fairies, sing a scornful rime ; 
 And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time. 
 
 In Borneo and Juliet the lively and gallant Mercutio 
 mentions a fairy personage, who has since attained to great 
 celebrity, and completely dethroned Titania, we mean Queen 
 Mab,* a dame of credit and renown in Faery. 
 
 " I dreamed a dream to-night," says Romeo. 
 
 " O then," says Mercutio : 
 
 then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. 
 She is the fairies' midwife ; and she comes, 
 In shape no bigger than an agate-stone 
 On the forefinger of an alderman, 
 Drawn with a team of little atomies, 
 Over men's noses as they lie asleep : 
 Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs ; 
 The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers ; 
 The traces, of the smallest spider's web ; 
 The collars of the moonshine's watery beams : 
 Her whip of cricket's bone ; the lash of film : 
 Her waggoner, a small gray-coated gnat, 
 Not half so big as a round little worm 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon (Biban eajrt> or jeajVn ; and is it not also plainly tht 
 Midgard of the Edda ? 
 
 f The origin of Mab is very uncertain ; it may be a contraction of Habundia, 
 see below France. " Mab," says Voss, one of the German translators of 
 Shakspeare, " is not the Fairy-queen, the same with Titania, as some, misled 
 by the word queen, have thought. That word in old English, as in Danish, 
 designates the female sex." He might have added the Ang.-Sax. c^en 
 woman, whence both queen and quean. Voss is perhaps right and elf-queen 
 may have been used in the same manner as the Danish Mle-quinde, 
 Elle-kone for the female Elf. We find Phaer (see above, p. 1 1) using Fairy- 
 queen, as a translation for Nympha.
 
 332 GREAT BB1TAIIT. 
 
 Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid ; 
 Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, 
 Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, 
 Time out of mind the fairies' coachmakers. 
 * * * # 
 
 This is that very Mab 
 That plats the manes of horses in the night ; 
 And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs, 
 Which once untangled, much misfortune bode. 
 This is the hag,* when maids lie on their backs, 
 That presses them. 
 
 In an exquisite and well-known passage of the Tempest, 
 higher and more awful powers are ascribed to the Elves : 
 Prospero declares that by their aid he has " bedimmed the 
 noon-tide sun;" called forth the winds and thunder; set 
 roaring war " 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault ;" 
 shaken promontories, and plucked up pines and cedars. 
 He thus invokes them : 
 
 Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves ; f 
 And ye, that on the sands with printless foot 
 Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him, 
 When he comes back ; you demi-puppets that 
 By moonshine do the green-sow ringlets make, 
 Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you whose pastime 
 Is to make midnightrmushrooms, that rejoice 
 To hear the solemn curfew. 
 
 The other dramas of Shakspeare present a few more 
 characteristic traits of the Fairies, which should not be 
 omitted. 
 
 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 
 * i. e, Night-mare. " Many times," says Gull the fairy, " I get on men and 
 women, and so lie on their stomachs, that I cause them great pain ; for which 
 they call me by the name of Hagge or Night-mare." Merry Pranks, etc. p. 42. 
 f- Auraeque et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque, 
 Dique omnes nemorum, dique omnes noctis, adeste. 
 
 Ovid, Met. 1. vii. 198. 
 
 Ye ayres and winds, ye elves of hills, of hrooks, of woods, alone, 
 Of standing lakes, and of the night approach ye everich one. 
 
 GOLDING. 
 
 Golding seems to have regarded, by chance or with knowledge, the Elves as 
 a higher species than the Fairies. Misled by the word elves, Sliakspeare makes 
 sad confusion of classic and Gothic mythology.
 
 EXGLAND. 333 
 
 This bird of dawning singeth all night long ; 
 And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad ; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planet strikes, 
 No fairy takes,* no witch hath power to charm, 
 So hallow'd and so gracious is that time. 
 
 Hamlet, Act. i. sc. 1. 
 
 King Henry IV. wishes it could be proved, 
 
 That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged 
 In cradle-clothes our children where they lay, 
 And called mine Percy, his Plantagenet ! 
 
 The old shepherd in the Winter's Tale, when he finda 
 Perdita, exclaims, 
 
 It was told me, I shou.d be rich, by the fairies : this is some 
 changeling. 
 
 And when his son tells him it is gold that is within the 
 " bearing-cloth," he says, 
 
 This is fairy-gold, boy, and 'twill prove so. We are lucky, boy, and 
 to be so still requires nothing but secresy.^ 
 
 In Cymbeline, the innocent Imogen commits herself to 
 sleep with these words : 
 
 To your protection I commit me, gods ! 
 From fairies and the tempters of the night, 
 Guard me, beseech ye ! 
 
 And when the two brothers see her in their cave, one 
 cries 
 
 But that it eats our victuals, I should think 
 
 Here were a fairy. 
 
 * Take signifies here, to strike, to injure. 
 
 And there lie blasts the tree and talces the cattle. 
 
 Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 4 
 Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken. 
 
 SURREY, Poems, p. 13, Aid. edit. 
 ID our old poetry take also signifies, to give. 
 
 f- But not a word of it, 'tis fairies' treasure, 
 
 Which but revealed brings on the blabber's ruin. 
 
 MASSINGER, Fatal Dowry, Act iv. sc. J 
 A prince's secrets are like fairy favours, 
 Wholesome if kept, but poison if discovered. 
 
 Honest Man's Fortune
 
 334 GKEA.T BEITAUT. 
 
 Ana thinking her to be dead, Guiderius declares 
 
 If he be gone, he 11 make his grave a bed ; 
 With female fairies will his tomb be haunted, 
 And worms will not come to thee. 
 
 The Maydes Metamorphosis of Lylie was acted in 1600, 
 the year the oldest edition we possess of the Midsummer 
 Night's Dream was printed. In Act II. of this piece, 
 Mopso, Joculo, and Frisio are on the stage, and " Enter the 
 Fairies singing and dancing." 
 
 By the moon we sport and play, 
 With the night begins our day ; 
 As we dance the dew doth fall 
 Trip it, little urchins all, 
 Lightly as the little bee, 
 Two by two, and three by three ; 
 And about go we, and about go we. 
 
 Jo. What mawmets are these 1 
 Fris. they be the faieries that haunt these woods. 
 Mop. we shall be pinched most cruelly ! 
 1st fai. Will you have any music, sir ? 
 2d Fai. Will you have any fine music ? 
 3d Fai. Most dainty music ? 
 
 Mop. We must set a face on it now ; there is no flying. 
 No, sir, we very much thank you. 
 1st Fai. but you shall, sir. 
 Fris. No, I pray you, save your labour. 
 2d Fai. 0, sir ! it shall not cost you a penny. 
 Jo. Where be your fiddles ? 
 
 3d Fai. You shall have most dainty instruments, sir ? 
 Mop. I pray you, what might I call you ? 
 1st Fai. My name is Penny. 
 Mop. I am sorry I cannot purse you. 
 Fi-is. I pray you, sir, what might I call you ? 
 2d Fai. My name is Cricket. 
 Fris. I would I were a chimney for your sake. 
 Jo. I pray you, you pretty little fellow, what 's your uaiue 
 3d Fai. My name is little little Prick. 
 Jo. Little little Prick 1 you are a dangerous faierie ' 
 I care not whose hand I were in, so I were out of yours. 
 1st Fai. I do come about the coppes. 
 
 Leaping upon flowers' toppes ; 
 
 Then I get upon a fly, 
 
 She carries me about the sky, 
 
 And trip and go.
 
 ENQLAKD. 335 
 
 2d Pat. When a dew-drop falleth down, 
 
 And doth light upon my crown. 
 
 Then I shake my head and skip, 
 
 And about I trip. 
 Sd Fai. When I feel a girl asleep, 
 
 Underneath her frock I peep, 
 
 There to sport, and there I play, 
 
 Then I bite her like a flea, 
 
 And about I skip. 
 
 Jo. I thought where I should have you, 
 
 1st Fai. Will 't please you dance, sir ? 
 Jo. Indeed, sir, I cannot handle my legs. 
 
 Id Fai. you must needs dance and sing, 
 
 Which if you refuse to do, 
 
 We will pinch you black and blue ; 
 
 And about we go. 
 
 They all dance in a ring, and sing as followeth : 
 
 Round about, round about, in a fine ring a, 
 Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a ; 
 Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a, 
 All about, in and out, for our brave queen a. 
 
 Round about, round about, in a fine ring a, 
 Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a; 
 Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a, 
 All about, in and out, for our brave queen a. 
 
 We have danced round about, in a fine ring a, 
 We have danced lustily, and thus we sing a . 
 All about, in and out, over this green a, 
 To and fro, trip and go, to our brave queen a. 
 
 The next poet, in point of time, who employs the Fairies, 
 is worthy, long-slandered, and maligned Ben Jonson. Hia 
 beautiful entertainment of the Satyr was presented in 1603, 
 to Anne, queen of James I. and prince Henry, at Althorpe, 
 the seat of Lord Spenser, on their way from Edinburgh to 
 London. As the queen and prince entered the park, a 
 Satyr came forth from a "little spinet" or copse, and having 
 gazed the " Queen and the Prince in the face" with admi- 
 ration, again retired into the thicket ; then " there came 
 tripping up the lawn a bevy of Fairies attending on Mab, 
 their queen, who, falling into an artificial ring, began tc 
 dance a round while their mistress spake as .^olloweth :"
 
 336 GBEAT BRITAIN". 
 
 Mob. Hail and welcome, worthiest queen ! 
 
 Joy had never perfect been, 
 
 To the nymphs that haunt this green. 
 
 Had they not this evening seen. 
 
 Now they print it on the ground 
 
 With their feet, in figures round; 
 
 Marks that will be ever found 
 
 To remember this glad stouud. 
 Satyr (peeping out of the bush). 
 
 Trust her not, you bonnibell, 
 
 She will forty leasings tell ; 
 
 I do know her pranks right well. 
 Mob. Satyr, we must have a spell, 
 
 For your tongue it runs too fleet. 
 Sat. Not so nimbly as your feet, 
 
 When about the cream-bowls sweet 
 
 You and all your elves do meet. 
 
 (Here he came hopping forth, and mixing himself with the Fairies, 
 skipped in, out, and about their circle, while they made many offer* 
 to catch him.) 
 
 This is Mob, the mistress Fairy, 
 
 That doth nightly rob the dairy ; 
 
 And can hurt or help the churning 
 
 As she please, without discerning. 
 1st Fai. Pug, you will anon take warning. 
 Sat. She that pinches country wenches, 
 
 If they rub not clean their benches, 
 
 And, with sharper nail, remembers 
 
 When they rake not up their embers ; 
 
 But if so they chance to feast her, 
 
 In a shoe she drops a tester. 
 2rf Fai. Shall we strip the skipping jester ? 
 Sat. This is she that empties cradles, 
 
 Takes out children, puts in ladles ; 
 
 Trains forth midwives in their slumber, 
 
 With a sieve the holes to number, 
 
 And then leads them from her burrows, 
 
 Home through ponds and water-furrows.* 
 1st Fai. Shall not all this mocking stir us? 
 Sat. She can start our Franklin's daughters 
 
 In her sleep with shouts and laughters ; 
 
 And on sweet St. Anna's t night 
 
 Feed them with a promised sight, 
 
 * We do not recollect having met with any account of this prank ; but 
 Jonson is usually BO correct, that we may be certain it was a part of the 
 popular belief. 
 
 f- Whalley was certainly right in proposing to read Agnes. This ceremony 
 is, we believe, still practised in the north cf England on St. Agnes' night. 
 See Brand, i. 34.
 
 ENGLANP. 337 
 
 Some of husbands, some of lovers, 
 
 Which an empty dream discovers. 
 
 1st Pai. Satyr, vengeance near you hovers. 
 
 At length Mab is provoked, and she cries out, 
 
 Fairies, pinch him black and blue. 
 Now you have him make him rue. 
 Sat. hold, mistress Mab, I sue ! 
 
 Mab, when about to retire, bestows a jewel on the Queen, 
 and concludes with, 
 
 Utter not, we you implore, 
 Who did give it, nor wherefore. 
 And whenever you restore 
 Yourself to us you shall have more. 
 Highest, happiest queen, farewell, 
 But, beware you do not tell. 
 
 The splendid Masque of Oberon, presented in 1610, 
 introduces the Fays in union with the Satyrs, Sylvans, and 
 the rural deities of classic antiquity ; but the Fay is here, 
 as one of them says, not 
 
 The coarse and country fairy, 
 
 That doth haunt the hearth and dairy ; 
 
 it is Oberon, the prince of Fairy-land, who, at the crowing 
 of the cock, advances in a magnificent chariot drawn by 
 white bears, attended by Knights and Fays. As the car 
 advances, the Satyrs begin to leap and jump, and a Sylvan 
 thus speaks : 
 
 Give place, and silence ; you were rude too late 
 
 This is a night of greatness and of state ; 
 
 Not to be mixed with light and skipping sport 
 
 A night of homage to the British court, 
 
 And ceremony due to Arthur's chair, 
 
 From our bright master, Oberon the Fair, 
 
 Who with these knights, attendants here preserved 
 
 In Fairy-land, for good they have deserved 
 
 Of yond' high throne, are come of right to pay 
 
 Their annual vows, and all their glories lay 
 
 At 's feet 
 
 z
 
 338 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Another Sylvan says, 
 
 Stand forth, bright faies and elves, and tune your laj 
 Unto his name ; then let your nimble feet 
 Tread subtile circles, that may always meet 
 In point to him. 
 
 There in the stocks of trees white fays* do dweii, 
 And span-long elves that dance about a pool, 
 With each a little changeling in their arms ! 
 
 The Masque of Love Restored presents us " Robin Good- 
 fellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house clean, 
 riddles for the country maids, and does all their other 
 drudgery, while they are at hot-cockles," and he appears 
 therefore with his broom and his canles. 
 
 In Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess we read of 
 
 A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks 
 The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds, 
 By the pale moonshine ; dipping oftentimes 
 Their stolen children, so to make them free 
 From dying flesh and dull mortality. 
 
 And in the Little French Lawyer (iii. 1), one says, " You 
 >valk like Robin Goodfellow all the house over, and every 
 man afraid of you." 
 
 In Randolph's Pastoral of Amyntas, or the Impossible 
 Dowry, a "knavish boy," called Dorylas, makes a fool of a 
 " fantastique sheapherd," Jocastus, by pretending to be 
 Obeion, king of Fairy. In Act i., Scene 3, Jocastus' 
 brother, Mopsus, " a foolish augur," thus addresses him: 
 
 Mop. Jocastus, I love Thestylis abominably, 
 The mouth of my affection waters at her. 
 
 Jo. Be wary, Mopsus, learn of me to scorn 
 The mortals ; choose a better match : go love 
 Some fairy lady ! Princely Oberon 
 Shall stand thy friend, and beauteous Mab, his queen, 
 Give thee a maid of honour. 
 
 * Shakespeare gives different colours to the Fairies; and in some places they 
 VK still thought to be white. See p. 306.
 
 ENGLAND. 339 
 
 Mop. How, Jocastus 1 
 
 Marry a puppet ? Wed a mote i' the sun 1 
 Go look a wife in nutshells 1 Woo a gnat, 
 That 's nothing but a voice ? No, no, Jocastus, 
 I must have flesh and blood, and will have Thestylia : 
 A fig for fairies ! 
 
 Thestylis enters, and while she and Mopsus converse, 
 Jocastus muses. At length he exclaims, 
 
 Jo. It cannot choose but strangely please his highness. 
 The. What are you studying of Jocastus, ha ? 
 Jo. A rare device ; a masque to entertain 
 His Grace of Fairy with. 
 
 T/ie. A masque ! What is 't ? 
 
 Jo. An anti-masque of fleas, which I have taught 
 To dance corrantos on a spider's thread. 
 
 # # * * 
 
 And then a jig of pismires 
 Is excellent. 
 
 Enter DORYLAS. He salutes MOPSUS, and then 
 
 Dor. Like health unto the president of the jigs. 
 I hope King Oberon and his joyall Mab 
 Are well. 
 
 Jo. They are. I never saw their Graces 
 Eat such a meal before. 
 
 Dor. E'en much good do 't them ! 
 
 Jo. They 're rid a hunting. 
 
 Dor. Hare or deer, my lord ? 
 
 Jo. Neither. A brace of snails of the first head. 
 
 ACT i. SCEXE 6. 
 
 Jo. Is it not a brave sight, Dorylas ? Can the mortals 
 Caper so nimbly 1 
 
 Dor. Verily they cannot. 
 
 Jo. Does not King Oberon bear a stately presence ? 
 Mab is a beauteous empress. 
 
 Dor. Yet you kissed her 
 
 With admirable courtship. 
 
 Jo. I do think 
 
 There will be of Jocastus' brood in Fairy. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The. But what estate shall he assure upon me ? 
 
 a
 
 340 GEEAT BBITAIH. 
 
 Jo. A royal jointure, all in Fairy land. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Dorylas knows it 
 A. curious park 
 
 Dor. Paled round about with pickteeth. 
 
 Jo. Besides a house made all of mother-of-pearl, 
 An ivory tennis-court 
 
 Dor. A nutmeg parlour. 
 
 Jo. A sapphire dairy-room. 
 
 Dor. A ginger halL 
 
 Jo. Chambers of agate. 
 
 Dor. Kitchens all of crystal. 
 
 Am. admirable ! This it is for certain. 
 
 Jo. The jacks are gold. 
 
 Dor. The spits are Spanish needles. 
 
 Jo. Then there be walks 
 
 Dor. Of amber. 
 
 Jo. Curious orchards 
 
 Dor. That bear as well in winter as in summer. 
 
 Jo. "Bove all, the fish-ponds, every pond is full 
 
 Dor. Of nectar. Will this please you ! Every grove 
 Stored with delightful birds. 
 
 ACT m. SCENE 2. 
 Dorylas says, 
 
 Have at Jocastus' orchard ! Dainty applea, 
 
 How lovely they look ! Why these are Dorylas' sweetmeata. 
 
 Now must I be the princely Oberon, 
 
 And in a royal humour with the rest 
 
 Of royal fairies attendant, go in state 
 
 To rob an orchard. I have hid my robes 
 
 On purpose in a hollow tree. 
 
 ACT m. SCENE 4. 
 Dorylas vnth a bevy ofFairiet. 
 
 Dor. How like you now, my Grace 1 Is not my countenance 
 Royal and full of majesty 1 Walk not I 
 Like the young prince of pygmies ] Ha, my knaves, 
 We '11 fill our pockets. Look, look yonder, elves ; 
 Would not yon apples tempt a better conscience 
 Than any we have, to rob an orchard 1 Ha ! 
 Fairies, like nymphs with child, must have the things 
 They long for. You sing here a fairy catch 
 In that strange tongue I taught you, while ourself 
 Do climb the trees. Thus princely Oberon 
 Ascends his throne of state.
 
 ENGLAKtf. 341 
 
 Elves. Nos beata Fauni proles, 
 
 Quibus non est magna moles, 
 Quamvis Lunam incolamus. 
 Hortos ssepe frequentamus. 
 
 Furto cuncta magis bella, 
 Furto dulcior puella, 
 Furto omnia decora, 
 Furto poma dulciora. 
 
 Cum mortales lecto jacent, 
 Nobis poma noctu placent ; 
 Ilia tainen sunt ingrata 
 Nisi furto sint parata. 
 
 Jocastus and his man Bromius come upon the Elves while 
 plundering the orchard: the latter is for employing his 
 cudgel on the occasion, but Jocastus is overwhelmed by the 
 condescension of the princely Oberon in coming to his 
 orchard, when 
 
 His Grace had orchards of his own more precious 
 Than mortals can have any. 
 
 The Elves, by his master's permission, pinch Bromius, 
 singing, 
 
 Quoniam per te violamur, 
 Ungues hie experiamur ; 
 Statim dices tibi datam 
 Cutem valde variatam. 
 
 Finally, when the coast is clear, Oberon cries, 
 
 So we are got clean off; come, noble peers 
 Of Fairy, come, attend our royal Grace. 
 Let 's go and share our fruit with our queen Mab 
 And the other dairy-maids ; where of this theme 
 We will discourse amidst our cakes and cream. 
 
 Cum tot poma habeamus, 
 Triumphos laeti jam canamus ; 
 Faunos ego credam ortos, 
 Tantum ut frequentent hortos. 
 
 I domum, Oberon, ad illas, 
 Quse nos manent nunc, ancillaa, 
 Quarum osculeinur sinum, 
 Inter poma lac et vinum.
 
 dhp explored the Jkby Mjftofagy 
 
 CBHSK HMstek, and. A iimfaMsn JOT SMBgoBy, WEU< ine 
 togas of the paefe. IWr faie, fcoiiwer, left a fe^ 
 
 t&ifWXT. 
 
 i"i rgl Ji rmmt* Hi ii iiliiBJii oil t 
 
 '-: _IM: 
 
 >_ _' V-.M :-..-...: :, : 
 
 > JLi A*
 
 EfGULSTO. 343 
 
 As ly Saanes led jfelBeB .a a 
 
 In his Shepherd** Pipe, aba, Bkwrn tibms speda of the 
 
 Fairies: 
 
 1- . L_t -. . :-. -^~- - . _ ; -_,- : .-_i_ 
 
 _- ^ _ 1, ~ 3 1 ._' "_ " ": L V L -: ' 
 
 A "- _ -' "- ~ -: * '- ' " ". V_ 1 . .".'.!_ 
 
 ftr Jiritm tifar rmftrawT nrflmnrr 
 
 - 
 
 - - *- Q^UHW 
 
 -':-:-; :_-;- v .._: >-.- L :_- : :. . _.. 
 
 - ~ . ' . '. .1-1 '-.' - I. ._'"_." ' '-I. 7 '.*'. .- 
 
 J- -JZ1. vr_ .""_"." .1, _ " _1 . >L -v 
 
 ^: J 7.^ i.i_- :: -; ": : ^ v . -... i -, v ^ : .:_. 
 
 DUE Duwlm B uic poci' ***' 
 Fairies lad tine gredUaril afttiaciJimK. Emeu in 
 btoo he does not i*J^gJM*. tioem. Im Scmg TTJ 
 in Caadndgeshiie, sajs, 
 
 - - ' 1^ 1-. : '7 1- --":".: Vr .- 1 -'"-... -1 - ^''.''-L- - 
 A "'._""_ . ..'-: _. __ - .. . : ____ 1 ~ "-"i-I ' . ' ".-_! 1 
 
 csf CTCCTD - 
 df (fiewrim tittssr Hascrricins 
 
 .1: ..._.". . .' 
 
 J- : :-!.:- i.~ i; ;.L . - : ._ :_, 
 
 lijnnlDdai is A defieioiH pas*? of airr amii &neufu] 
 tion. Use desenptian rf Otercaa's pabae in lihe sir. Hab's 
 UBUUU urMi tike godde P^nita^ia. ii>e nad frsais cxf line 
 jealous Oberan, tiae pv^mj OMbamdcu tie mutual arti&pes of 
 Puck and the Faary mids of icnaCTar. Hop, Mop, Pip. Trap, 
 and Co, and tibefinioas eanbail of Oheram mad the
 
 344 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Pigwiggin, mounted on their earwig chargers present 
 altogether an unequalled fancy-piece, set in the rerr best 
 and most appropriate frame of metre. 
 
 It contains, moreover, several traits of traditionary Fairy 
 lore, such as in these lines : 
 
 Hence shadows, seeming idle shapes 
 
 Of little frisking elves and apes, 
 
 To earth do make their wanton skapes 
 
 As hope of pastime hastes them ; 
 Which maids think on the hearth they see, 
 When fires well near consumed be, 
 There dancing hays by two and three, 
 
 Just as their fancy casts them.* 
 
 These make our girls their sluttery rue, 
 By pinching them both black and blue, 
 And put a penny in their shoe, 
 
 The house for cleanly sweeping ; 
 And in their courses make that round, 
 In meadows and in marshes found, 
 Of them so call'd the fairy ground, 
 
 Of which they have the keeping. 
 
 These, when a child haps to be got, 
 
 That after proves an idiot, 
 
 When folk perceive it thriveth not, 
 
 The fault therein to smother, 
 Some silly, doating, brainless calf, 
 That understands things by the half, 
 Says that the fairy left this aulf, 
 
 And took away the other. 
 
 And in these : 
 
 Scarce set on shore but therewithal 
 He meeteth Puck, whom most men call 
 Hobgoblin, and on him doth fall 
 
 With words from frenzy spoken ; 
 " Ho ! ho ! " quoth Puck, " God save your Grace ! 
 Who drest you in this piteous case ? 
 He thus that spoiled my sovereign's face, 
 
 I would his neck were broken. 
 
 This is perhaps the dancing on the hearth of the fairy-ladies to wh'ck 
 Milton alludes : see above, p. 42. " Doth not the warm zeal of an English- 
 man's devotion make them maintain and defend the social hearth as the sanc- 
 tuary and chief place of residence of the tutelary lares and household gods, 
 and the only court where the lady-fairies convene to dance ai.d revel .'"- 
 Paradoxical Assertions, etc. 1664, quoted by Brand, ii. p. 504.
 
 ENGLAND. 345 
 
 This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt. 
 Still walking like a ragged colt, 
 And oft out of a bush doth bolt, 
 
 Of purpose to deceive us j 
 And leading us, makes us to stray 
 Long winter nights out of the way ; 
 And when we stick in mire and clay, 
 
 He doth with laughter leave us. 
 
 In his Poet's Elysium there is some beautiful Fairy 
 poetry, which we do not recollect to have seen noticed any 
 where. This work is divided into ten Nymphals, or pastoral 
 dialogues. The Poet's Elysium is, we are told, a paradise 
 upon earth, inhabited by Poets, Nymphs, and the Muses. 
 
 The poet's paradise this is, 
 To which but few can come, 
 The Muses' only bower of bliss, 
 Their dear Elysium. 
 
 In the eighth Nymphal, 
 
 A nymph is married to a fay, 
 Great preparations for the day, 
 All rites of nuptials they recite you 
 To the bridal, and invite you. 
 
 The dialogue commences between the nymphs Mertilla 
 and Claia: 
 
 M. But will our Tita wed this fay ? 
 C. Yes, and to-morrow is the day. 
 M. But why should she bestow herself 
 
 Upon this dwarfish fairy elf? 
 C. Why, by her smallness, you may find 
 
 That she is of the fairy kind ; 
 
 And therefore apt to choose her make 
 
 Whence she did her beginning take ; 
 
 Besides he 's deft and wondrous airy, 
 
 And of the noblest of the fairy, 
 
 * The reader will observe that the third sense of Fairy is the most usual 
 one in Drayton. It occurs in its second sense two lines further on, twice in 
 Nymphidia, and in the following passage of his third Eclogue, 
 For learned Colin (Spenser) lays his pipes to gage, 
 And is to Fayrie gone a pilgrimage, 
 The more our moan.
 
 346 GEEA.T BRITAIN. 
 
 Chief of the Crickets,* of much fame, 
 In Fairy a most ancient name. 
 
 The nymphs now proceed to describe the bridal array of 
 Tita : her jewels are to be dew-drops ; her head-dress the 
 " yellows in the full-blown rose ;" her gown 
 
 Of pansy, pink, and primrose leaves, 
 Most curiously laid on in threaves ; 
 
 her train the " cast slough of a snake ;" her canopy com- 
 posed of " moons from the peacock's tail," and " feathers from 
 the pheasant's head ;" 
 
 Mix'd with the plume (of so high price), 
 The precious bird of paradise ; 
 
 and it shall be 
 
 Borne o'er our head (by our inquiry) 
 By elfs, the fittest of the fairy. 
 
 Her buskins of the " dainty shell" of the lady-cow. The 
 musicians are to be the nightingale, lark, thrush, and other 
 songsters of the grove. 
 
 But for still music, we will keep 
 The wren and titmouse, which to sleep 
 Shall sing the bride when she 's alone, 
 The rest into their chambers gone ; 
 And like those upon ropes that walk 
 On gossamer from stalk to stalk, 
 The tripping fairy tricks shall play 
 The evening of the wedding day. 
 
 Finally, the bride-bed is to be of roses ; the curtains, tester, 
 and all, of the "flower imperial;" the fringe hung with 
 harebells ; the pillows of lilies, " with down stuft of the 
 butterfly ;" 
 
 For our Tita is to-day, 
 
 To be married to a fay. 
 
 * Mr. Chalmers does not seem to have known that the Crickets were 
 family of note in Fairy. Shakspeare (Merry Wives of Windsor) mentions a 
 Fairy named Cricket ; and 110 hint cf Shakspeare's was lost upon Drayton.
 
 ENGLAND. 347 
 
 In Nymphal iii., 
 
 The fairies are hopping, 
 The small flowers cropping, 
 And with dew dropping, 
 Skip thorow the greaves. 
 
 At barley-break they play 
 Merrily all the day : 
 At night themselves they lay 
 Upon the soft leaves. 
 
 And in Nymphal vi. the forester says, 
 
 The dryads, hamadryads, the satyrs, and the fawns, 
 Oft play at hide-and-seek before me on the lawns ; 
 The frisking fairy oft, when horned Cynthia shines, 
 Before me as I walk dance wanton matachines. 
 
 Herrick is generally regarded as the Fairy-poet, par excel- 
 lence ; but, in our opinion, without sufficient reason, for 
 Dray ton's Fairy pieces are much superior to his. Indeed 
 Herrick's Fairy-poetry is by no means his best ; and we 
 doubt if he has anything to exceed in that way, or perhaps 
 equal, the light and fanciful King Oberon's Apparel of 
 Smith.* 
 
 Milton disdained not to sing 
 
 How faery Mab the junkets eat. 
 She was pinch'd and pull'd, she said ; 
 And he, by friars lantern led,-)- 
 Tells how the drudging Goblin sweat 
 To earn his cream bowl duly set, 
 When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, 
 His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn 
 
 * In the Musarum Delicise. 
 
 f This is a palpable mistake of the poet's. The Friar (see above, p. 291) 
 is the celebrated Friar Rush, who haunted houses, not fields, and was never 
 the same with Jack-o'-the-Lanthorn. It was probably the name Rush, which 
 suggested rushlight, that caused Milton's error. He is the Briider Rausch of 
 Germany, the Broder Ruus of Denmark. His name is either as Grimm 
 thinks, noise, or as Wolf (Von Bruodor Rauschen, p. xxviii.) deems drunkenness, 
 our old word, rouse. Sir Walter Scott in a note on Mann ion, says also " Friar 
 Rush, alias Will-o'-the-Wisp. He was also a sort of Robin Goodfellow and 
 Jack-o'-Lanthorn," which is making precious confusion. Reginald Scot more 
 correctly describes him as being " for all the world such another fellow as this 
 Hudgin," . e. Hodckon : see above, p. 255.
 
 348 6EEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 That ten day-labourers could not end ; 
 Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, 
 And stretch'd out all the chimney's length, 
 Basks at the fire his hairy strength, 
 And, crop-full, out of doors he flings, 
 Ere the first cock his matin rings. 
 
 Regardless of Mr. Gifford's sneer at "those who may 
 undertake the unprofitable drudgery of tracing out the pro- 
 perty of every word, and phrase, and idea in Milton," * we 
 will venture to trace a little here, and beg the reader to 
 compare this passage with one quoted above from Harsenet, 
 and to say if the resemblance be accidental. The truth is, 
 Milton, reared in London, probably knew the popular 
 superstitions chiefly or altogether from books ; and almost 
 every idea in this passage may be found in books that he 
 must have read. 
 
 In the hands of Dryden the Elves of Chaucer lose their 
 indefiniteness. In the opening of the Wife of Bath her 
 Tale, 
 
 The king of elves and little fairy queen 
 Gamboled on heaths and danced on every green. 
 
 And 
 
 In vain the dairy now with mint is dressed, 
 The dairy-maid expects no fairy guest 
 To skim the bowls, and after pay the feast. 
 She sighs, and shakes her empty shoes in vain, 
 No silver penny to reward her pain. 
 
 In the Flower and the Leaf, unauthorised by the old 
 bard, he makes the knights and dames, the servants of the 
 Daisy and of the Agnus Castus, Fairies, subject, like the 
 Italian Fate, to " cruel Demogorgon." 
 
 Pope took equal liberties with his original, as may be 
 seen by a comparison of the following verses with those 
 quoted above : 
 
 About this spring, if ancient fame say true, 
 The dapper elves their moonlight sports pursue : 
 
 * Ben Jonson's Works, vol. ii. p. 499. We shall never cease to regret 
 that the state to which literature has come in this country almost precludes 
 even a hope of our ever being able to publish our meditated edition of Milton'! 
 poerns for which we have been collecting materials these five and twenty 
 years. It would have been very different from Todd's. [Published in 1859.]
 
 ENGLAND. 3~:9 
 
 Their pigmy king and little fairy queen 
 In circling dances gamboled on the green, 
 While tuneful sprites a merry concert made, 
 And airy music warbled through the shade. 
 
 January and May, 459. 
 
 It so befel, in that fair morning tide, 
 
 The fairies sported on the garden's side, 
 
 And in the midst their monarch and his bride. 
 
 So featly tripp'd the light-foot ladies round, 
 
 The knight so nimbly o'er the greensward bound, 
 
 That scarce they bent the flowers or touch'd the ground. 
 
 The dances ended, all the fairy train 
 
 For pinks and daisies search'd the flowery plain. 
 
 Ibid., 31'i. 
 
 With the Kensington Garden f of Tickell, Pope's con- 
 temporary, our Fairy-poetry may be said to have terminated. J 
 Collins, Beattie, and a few other poets of the last century 
 make occasional allusions to it, and some attempts to revive 
 it have been made in the present century. But vain are 
 such efforts, the belief is gone, and divested of it such poetry 
 can produce no effect. The Fairies have shared the fate of 
 the gods of ancient Hellas. 
 
 * Evidently drawn from Dryden's Flower and Leaf, 
 f We meet here for the last time with Fairy iu its collective sense, or 
 rather, perhaps, as the country : 
 
 All Fairy shouted with a general voice. 
 
 J In Mr Halliwell's Illustrations of Fairy Mythology, will be found a good 
 deal of Fairy poetry, for which we have not had space in this work.
 
 350 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 SCOTTISH LOWLANDS. 
 
 When from their hilly dens, at midnight hour, 
 
 Forth rush the airy elves in mimic state, 
 And o'er the moonlight heath with swiftness scour, 
 
 In glittering arms the little horsemen shine. 
 
 EBSKINB. 
 
 THE Scottish Fairies scarcely differ in any essential point 
 from those of England. Like them they are divided into 
 the rural and the domestic. Their attire is green, their 
 residence the interior of the hilb. They appear more 
 attached than their neighbours to the monarchical form of 
 government, for the Fairy king and queen, who seem in 
 England to have been known only by the poets, were recog- 
 nised by law in Caledonia, and have at all times held a place 
 in the popular creed. They would appear also to be more 
 mischievously inclined than the Southrons, and less addicted 
 to the practice of dancing. Thy have, however, had the 
 advantage of not being treated with contempt and neglect 
 by their human countrymen, and may well be proud of the 
 attention shown them by the brightest genius of which 
 their country can boast. There has also been long due 
 from them an acknowledgment of the distinction conferred 
 on them by the editor of the Nithsdale and Galloway Song,* 
 for the very fanciful manner in which he has described their 
 attributes and acts. 
 
 The Scottish Fairies have never been taken by the poets 
 for their heroes or machinery, a circumstance probably to be 
 attributed to the sterner character of Scottish religion. We 
 cannot, therefore, as in England, make a distinction between 
 popular and poetic fairies. 
 
 * Mr. Crotnek. There was, we believe, some false dealing on the part of 
 Allan Cunningham toward this gentleman, such as palming on him hit own 
 rerses as traditionary ones. But the legends arc genuine.
 
 SCOTTISH LOWLA1S*D8. 351 
 
 The earliest notice we have met with of the Fairies is ir 
 Montgomery's Flyting against Polwart, where he says, 
 
 In the hinder end of harvest, at All-hallowe'en, 
 
 When our good neighbours * dois ride, if I read right, 
 Some buckled on a beenwand, and some on a been, 
 
 Ay trottand in troops from the twilight ; 
 Some saddled on a she-ape all graithed in green, 
 
 Some hobland on a hempstalk hovand to the sight ; 
 The king of Phairie and his court, with the elf-queen, 
 
 With many elfish incubus, was ridand that night. 
 
 Elf-land was the name of the realm ruled by the king of 
 Phairie. King Jamesf speaks of him and his queen, and 
 " of sic a jolie court and traine as they had ; how they had a 
 teinde and a dewtie, as it were, of all guidis ; how they natu- 
 rally raid and yeid, eat and drank, and did all other actions 
 lyke natural men and women. I think," concludes the 
 monarch, "it is lyker Virgilis Campi Elysii nor anything 
 that ought to be believed by Christianis." And one of the 
 interlocutors in his dialogue asks how it was that witches 
 have gone to death confessing that they had been " trans- 
 ported with the Phairie to such and such a hill, which, 
 opening, they went in, and there saw a faire queene, who, 
 being now fighter, gave them a stone which had sundry 
 virtues." 
 
 According to Mr. Cromek, who, however, rather sedu- 
 lously keeps their darker attributes out of view, and paints 
 everything relating to them couleur de rose, the Lowland 
 Fairies are of small stature, but finely proportioned ; of a 
 fair complexion, with long yellow hair hanging over their 
 shoulders, and gathered above their heads with combs ol 
 gold. They wear a mantle of green cloth, inlaid with wild 
 flowers ; green pantaloons, buttoned with bobs of silk ; and 
 silver shoon. They carry quivers of " adder-slough," and 
 bows made of the ribs of a man buried where three lairds' 
 
 * This answers to the Deene Mdh, Good People, of the Highlands and 
 Ireland. An old Scottish name, we may add, for a fairy seems to have l*en 
 Bogle, akin to tlie English Pouke, Puck, Puckle ; but differing from tb 
 Boggart. Thus Gawain Douglas says, 
 
 Of Brownyis and of Boggles full is this Beuk. 
 j- Daemonologie, B. III. c. 5.
 
 352 GBEA.T BRITAIN. 
 
 lands meet ; their arrows are made of bog-reed, tipped with 
 white flints, and dipped in the dew of hemlock ; they ride on 
 steeds whose hoofs " would not dash the dew from the cup 
 of a harebell." "With their arrows they shoot the cattle of 
 those who offend them ; the wound is imperceptible to 
 common eyes, but there are gifted personages who can 
 discern and cure it.* 
 
 In their intercourse with mankind they are frequently 
 kind and generous. A young man of Nithsdale, when out 
 on a love affair, heard most delicious music, far surpassing 
 the utterance of ' any mortal mixture of earth's mould.' 
 Courageously advancing to the spot whence the sound 
 appeared to proceed, he suddenly found himself the spec- 
 tator of a Fairy-banquet. A green table with feet of gold, 
 was laid across a small rivulet, and supplied with the finest 
 of bread and the richest of wines. The music proceeded 
 from instruments formed of reeds and stalks of corn. He 
 was invited to partake in the dance, and presented with a 
 cup of wine. He was allowed to depart in safety, and ever 
 after possessed the gift of second sight. He said he saw 
 there several of his former acquaintances, who were become 
 members of the Fairy society. 
 
 We give the following legend on account of its great simi- 
 larity to a Swiss tradition already quoted : 
 
 Two lads were ploughing in a field, in the middle of 
 which was an old thorn-tree, a trysting place of the Fairy- 
 folk. One of them described a circle round the thorn, 
 within which the plough should not go. They were sur- 
 prised, on ending the furrow, to behold a green table placed 
 there, heaped up with excellent bread and cheese, and even 
 wine. The lad who had drawn the circle sat down without 
 hesitation, ate and drank heartily, saying, " Fair fa' the 
 hands whilk gie." His companion whipped on the horses, 
 refusing to partake of the Fairy-food. The other, said Mr. 
 
 * These elf-arrows are triangular pieces of flint, supposed to have been the 
 heads of the arrows used by the aborigines. Though more plentiful in Scot- 
 land they are also found in England and Ireland, and were there also attached 
 to the fairies, and the wounds were also only to be discerned by gifted eyes. 
 In an Anglo-Saxon poem, there occur the words ra jeycoc and ylpa ^ej-coc, 
 t. 6. arrow of the Gods, and arrow of the Elves. Grimm, Deut. Mythol., 
 p. 22.
 
 SCOTTISH LOWLANDS. 353 
 
 Cromek's informant, "thrave like a breckan," and was a 
 proverb for wisdom, and an oracle for country knowledge 
 ever after,* 
 
 The Fairies lend and borrow, and it is counted uncanny to 
 refuse them. A young woman was one day sifting meal 
 warm from the mill, when a nicely dressed beautiful little 
 woman came to her with a bowl of antique form, and re- 
 quested the loan of as much meal as would fill it. Her 
 request was complied with, and in a week she returned to 
 make repayment. She set down the bowl and breathed over 
 it, saying, " Be never toom." The woman lived to a great 
 age, but never saw the bottom of the bowl. 
 
 Another woman was returning late one night from a 
 gossiping. A pretty little boy came up to her and said, 
 " Coupe yere dish-water farther frae yere door-step, it pits 
 out our fire." She complied with this reasonable request, 
 and prospered ever after. 
 
 THE Fairies have a great fondness for getting their babes 
 suckled by comely, healthy young women. A fine young 
 woman of Nithsdale was one day spinning and rocking her 
 first-born child. A pretty little lady in a green mantle, and 
 bearing a beautiful babe, came into the cottage and said, 
 " Gie my bonny thing a suck." The young woman did so, 
 and the lady left her babe and disappeared, saying, " Nurse 
 kin' and ne'er want." The young woman nursed the two 
 children, and was astonished to find every morning, when 
 she awoke, rich clothes for the children, and food of a most 
 
 * " It was till lately believed by the ploughmen of Clydesdale, that if they 
 repeated the rhyme 
 
 Faiiy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop, 
 And I'll gie ye a spurtle off my gadend ! 
 
 three several times on turning their cattle at the terminations of ridges, they 
 would find the said fare prepared for them on reaching the end of the fcurtb 
 furrow." Chambers' Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33. 
 
 A A
 
 354 GHEAT BRITAIN. 
 
 delicious flavour. Tradition says this food tasted like 
 wheaten-bread, mixed with wine and honey. 
 
 When summer came, the Fairy lady came to see her child. 
 She was delighted to see how it had thriven, and, taking it 
 in her arms, desired the nurse to follow her. They passed 
 through some scroggy woods skirting the side of a beautiful 
 green hill, which they ascended half way. A door opened on 
 the sunny side they went in, and the sod closed after them. 
 The Fairy then dropped three drops of a precious liquid 
 on her companion's left eyelid, and she beheld a most deli- 
 cious country, whose fields were yellow with ripening corn, 
 watered by looping burnies, and bordered by trees laden with 
 fruit. She was presented with webs of the finest cloth, and 
 with boxes of precious ointments. The Fairy then moist- 
 ened her right eye with a green fluid, and bid her look. She 
 looked, and saw several of her friends and acquaintances at 
 work, reaping the corn and gathering the fruit. " This," 
 said the Fairy, " is the punishment of evil deeds !" She 
 then passed her hand over the woman's eye, and restored it 
 to its natural power. Leading her to the porch at which she 
 had entered, she dismissed her ; but the woman had secured 
 the wonderful salve. From this time she possessed the faculty 
 of discerning the Fairy people as they went about invisibly ; 
 till one day, happening to meet the Fairy-lady, she attempted 
 to shake hands with her. "What ee d'ye see me wi' ?" 
 whispered she. " Wi' them baith," said the woman. The 
 Fairy breathed on her eyes, and the salve lost its efficacy, 
 and could never more endow her eyes with their preterna- 
 tural power.* 
 
 dfatrn 
 
 THE Fairy Hade, or procession, was a matter ot great im- 
 portance. It took place on the coming in of summer, and 
 the peasantry, by using the precaution of placing a branch 
 
 * See above, pp. 302, 311. Graham also relates this legend in his Picturesque 
 Sketches of Perthshire.
 
 I SCOTTISH LOWLAXDS. 355 
 
 o* rowan over their door, might safely gaze on the cavalcade, 
 as with music sounding, bridles ringing, and voices mingling, 
 it pursued its way from place to place. An old woman of 
 Nithsdale gave the following description of one of these 
 processions : 
 
 " In the night afore Eoodmass I had trysted with a neebor 
 lass a Scots mile frae hame to talk anent buying braws i' the 
 fair. \Ve had nae sutten lang aneath the haw-buss till we 
 heard the loud laugh of fowk riding, wi' the jingling o' 
 bridles, and the clanking o' hoofs. We banged up, thinking 
 they wad ride owre us. We kent nae but it was drunken 
 fowk ridin' to the fair i' the forenight. We glowred roun' 
 and roun', and sune saw it was the Fairie-fowJcs Rode. We 
 cowred down till they passed by. A beam o' light was 
 dancing owre them mair bonnie than moonshine : they were 
 a' wee wee fowk wi' green scarfs on, but ane that rade fore- 
 most, and that ane was a good deal larger than the lave wi' 
 bonnie lang hair, bun' about wi' a strap whilk glinted like 
 stars. They rade on braw wee white naigs, wi' unco lang 
 swooping tails, an' manes hung wi' whustles that the win' 
 played on. This an' their tongue when they sang was like 
 the soun' o' a far awa psalm. Marion an' me was in a brade 
 lea fiel', where they came by us ; a high hedge o' haw-trees 
 keepit them frae gaun through Johnnie Corrie's corn, but 
 they lap a' owre it like sparrows, and gallopt into a green 
 know beyont it. We gaed i' the morning to look at the 
 treddit corn ; but the fient a hoof mark was there, nor a 
 blade broken." 
 
 l)angcltncj. 
 
 BUT the Fairies of Scotland were not, even according to 
 Mr. Cromek, uniformly benevolent. Woman and child 
 abstraction was by no means uncommon with them, and 
 the substitutes they provided were, in general, but little 
 attractive. 
 
 A fine child at Caerlaveroc, in Nithsdale, was observed on
 
 356 GBEAT BKITAllf. 
 
 the second day after its birth, and before it was baptised, to 
 have become quite ill-favoured and deformed. Its yelling 
 every night deprived the whole family of rest ; it bit and 
 tore its mother's breasts, and would lie still neither in tin- 
 cradle nor the arms. The mother being one day obliged to 
 go from home, left it in charge of the servant girl. The 
 poor lass was sitting bemoaning herself " Were it nae for 
 thy girning face, I would knock the big, winnow the corn, 
 und grun the meal." " Lowse the cradle-band," said the 
 child, " and tent the neighbours, and I '11 work yere work." 
 Up he started the wind arose the corn was chopped the 
 outlyers were foddered the hand-mill moved around, as by 
 instinct and the knocking-mill did its work with amazing 
 rapidity. The lass and child then rested and diverted them- 
 selves, till, on the approach of the mistress, it was restored 
 to the cradle, and renewed its cries. The girl took the 
 tirst opportunity of telling the adventure to her mistress. 
 " "What '11 we do with the wee diel ? " said she. " 1 '11 work 
 it a pirn," replied the lass. At midnight the chimney-top 
 was covered up, and every chink and cranny stopped. The 
 fire was blown till it was glowing hot, and the maid speedily 
 undressed the child, and tossed him on the burning coals. 
 He shrieked and yelled in the most dreadful manner, and in 
 an instant the Fairies were heard moaning on every side, 
 aud rattling at the window s, door, and chimney. " In the 
 name of God bring back the bairn," cried the lass. The 
 window flew up, the real child was laid on the mother's lap, 
 and the icee diel flew up the chimney laughing. 
 
 Scparturc of tfjc jFatrtrsf. 
 
 ON a Sabbath morning, all the inmates of a little hamlet 
 had gone to church, except a herd-boy, und a little girl, his 
 sister, who were lounging beside one of the cottages, when 
 just as the shadow of the garden-dial had fallen on the line 
 of noon, they saw a long cavalcade ascending out of the 
 ravine, through the wooded hollow. It winded among the
 
 SCOTTISH LOWLANDS. 357 
 
 knolls and bushes, and turning round the northern gable of 
 the cottage, beside which the sole spectators of the scene 
 were stationed, began to ascend the eminence towards the 
 south. The horses were shaggy diminutive things, speckled 
 dun and grey ; the riders stunted, misgrown, ugly creatures, 
 attired in antique jerkins of plaid, long grey clokes, and 
 little red caps, from under which their wild uncombed locks 
 shot out over their cheeks and foreheads. The boy and his 
 sister stood gazing in utter dismay and astonishment, as 
 rider after rider, each more uncouth and dwarfish than 'the 
 other which had preceded it, passed the cottage and dis- 
 appeared among the brushwood, which at that period covered 
 the hill, until at length the entire rout, except the last rider, 
 who lingered a few yards behind the others, had gone by. 
 " What are you, little manie ? and where are ye going ? " 
 inquired the boy, his curiosity getting the better of his 
 fears and his prudence. " Not of the race of Adam," said 
 the creature, turning for a moment in its saddle, " the 
 people of peace shall never more be seen in Scotland." * 
 
 JJrofomtc. 
 
 THE Nis, Kobold, or Goblin, appears in Scotland under 
 the name of Brownie.f Brownie is a personage of small 
 stature, wrinkled visage, covered with short curly brown hair, 
 and wearing a brown mantle and hood. His residence is the 
 
 * Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone, p. 251. We are happy to have 
 an opportunity of expressing the high feelings of respect and esteem which we 
 entertain for this extraordinary man. Born in the lowest rank of society, and 
 commencing life as a workman in a stone-quarry, he has, by the mere force of 
 natural genius, become not only a most able geologist but an elegant writer, 
 and a sound and discerning critic. Scotland seems to stand alone in producing 
 such men. 
 
 t He is named as we have seen (p. 351) by Gawain Douglas. King Jamc 
 says of him " The spirit called Brownie appeared like a rough man, and 
 haunted divers houses without doing any evil], but doing, as it were, necessarie 
 turns up and down the house ; yet some are so blinded as to believe that thei 
 house was all the sonsier, as they called it, that such spirits resorted there."
 
 358 GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 hollow of tin old tree, a ruined castle, or the abode of man. 
 He is attached to particular families, with whom he has been 
 known to reside, even for centuries, threshing the corn, 
 cleaning the house, and doing everything done by his 
 northern and English brethren. He is, to a certain degree, 
 disinterested ; like many great personages, he is shocked at 
 anything approaching to the name of a bribe or douceur, yet, 
 like them, allows his scruples to be overcome if the thing be 
 done in a genteel, delicate, and secret way. Thus, offer 
 Brownie a piece of bread, a cup of drink, or a new coat and 
 hood, and he flouted at it, and perhaps, in his huff, quitted 
 the place for ever ; but leave a nice bowl of cream, and some 
 fresh honeycomb, in a snug private corner, and they soon 
 disappeared, though Brownie, it was to be supposed, never 
 knew anything of them. 
 
 A good woman had just made a web of linsey-woolsey, 
 and, prompted by her good nature, had manufactured from 
 it a snug mantle and hood for her little Brownie. Not con- 
 tent with laying the gift in one of his favourite spots, she 
 indiscreetly called to tell him it was there. This was too 
 direct, and Brownie quitted the place, crying, 
 
 A new mantle and a new hood ; 
 
 Poor Brownie ! ye 11 ne'er do mair gude ! 
 
 Another version of this legend says, that the gudeman of 
 a farm-house in the parish of Glendevon having left out some 
 clothes one night for Brownie, he was heard to depart, 
 saying, 
 
 Gie Brownie coat, gie Brownie sark, 
 Ye 'se get nae mair o' Brownie's work ! * 
 
 At Leithin-hall, in Dumfrieshire, a Brownie had dwelt, 
 as he himself declared, for three hundred years. He used 
 to show himself but once to each master ; to other persons 
 he rarely discovered more than his hand. One master was 
 greatly beloved by Brownie, who on his death bemoaned him 
 exceedingly, even abstaining from food for many succssoive 
 days. The heir returning from foreign parts to take possession 
 of the estate, Brownie appeared to do him homage, but the 
 Laird., offended at his mean, starved appearance, ordered him 
 
 * Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 33.
 
 SCOTTISH LOWLANDS 359 
 
 meat and driuk, and new livery. Brownie departed, loudl} 
 crying, 
 
 Ca', cuttee, ca' ! 
 
 A' the luck of Leithin Ha' 
 
 Gangs wi' me to Bodsbeck Ha'. 
 
 In a few years Leithin Ha' was in ruins, and " bonnie Bods- 
 beck " nourishing beneath the care of Brownie. 
 
 Others say that it was the gudeman of Bodsbeck that 
 offended the Brownie by leaving out for him a mess of bread 
 and milk, and that he went away, saying, 
 
 Ca, Brownie, ca', 
 
 A' the luck of Bodsbeck awa to Leithenha'. 
 
 Brownie was not without some roguery in his composition. 
 Two lasses having made a fine bowlful of buttered brose, had 
 taken it into the byre to sup in the dark. In their haste 
 they brought but one spoon, so, placing the bowl between 
 them, they supped by turns. "I hae got but three sups," 
 cried the one, "and it's a' dune." "It's a' dune, indeed," 
 cried the other. " Ha, ha, ha!" cried a third voice, " Brownie 
 has got the maist o' it." And Brownie it was who had placed 
 himself between them, and gotten two sups for their one. 
 
 The following story will remind the reader of Hinzelmann. 
 A Brownie once lived with Maxwell, Laird of Dalswinton, 
 and was particularly attached to the Laird's daughter, the 
 comeliest lass in all the holms of ]N r ithsdale. In all her love 
 affairs Brownie was her confidant and assistant ; when she 
 was married, it was Brownie who undressed her for the bridal 
 bed; and when a mother's pains first seized her, and a 
 servant, who was ordered to go fetch the cannie wife, who 
 lived on the other side of the Nith, was slow in getting 
 himself ready, Brownie, though it was one of dark December's 
 stormy nights, and the wind was howling through the trees, 
 wrapped his lady's fur cloak about him, mounted the ser- 
 vant's horse, and dashed through the waves of the foaming 
 Nith He went to the cannie wife, got her up behind him, 
 and, to her terror and dismay, plunged again into the torrent. 
 "Bide nae by the auld pool," said she, " lest we suld meet 
 wi' Brownie." "Fear nae. dame," replied he, "ye've met 
 a' the Brownies ye will meet." He set her down at the hall
 
 360 GREAT 
 
 steps, and went to the stable. There finding the lad, whose 
 embassy he had discharged, but drawing on his boots, he 
 took off the bridle, and by its vigorous application instilled 
 into the memory of the loitering loon the importance of. 
 dispatch. This was just at the time of the Reformation, and 
 a zealous minister advised the Laird to have him baptised 
 The Laird consented, and the worthy minister hid himself in 
 the barn. When Brownie was beginning his night's work, 
 the man of God flung the holy water in his face, repeating 
 at the same time the form of baptism. The terrified Brownie 
 gave a yell of dismay, and disappeared for ever. 
 
 Another name by which the domestic spirit was known in 
 some parts of Scotland was Shellycoat, of which the origin is 
 uncertain.* 
 
 Scotland has also its water-spirit, called Kelpie, who iu 
 some respects corresponds with the Neck of the northern 
 nations. " Every lake," says Graham,t " has its Kelpie, or 
 Water-horse, often seen by the shepherd, as he sat in a 
 summer's evening upon the brow of a rock, dashing along 
 the surface of the deep, or browsing on the pasture-ground 
 upon its verge. Often did this malignant genius of the 
 waters allure women and children to his subaqueous haunts, 
 there to be immediately devoured. Often did he also swell 
 the torrent or lake beyond its usual limits, to overwhelm the 
 hapless traveller in the flood. " J 
 
 We have now gone through nearly the whole of the Gotho- 
 German race, and everywhere have found their fairy system 
 the same a proof, we conceive, of the truth of the position 
 of its being deeply founded in the religious system originally 
 common to the whole race. We now proceed to another, 
 and, perhaps, an older European family, the Celts. 
 
 * Grimm (Deut. Mythol., p. 479) says it is the German Schellenrock, i. e, 
 Bell-coat, from his coat being hung with bells like those of the fools. A Puck 
 he says, once served in a convent in Mecklenburg; for thirty years, in kitchen, 
 and stable, and the only reward he asked was " tunicam de diversis coloribui 
 et tintinnabulis plenam." 
 
 f Sketches of Perthshire, p. 245. 
 
 * In what precedes, we have chiefly followed Mr. Ciomek. Those anxious 
 for further information will meet >t iu 'lie Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 
 and other works.
 
 CELTS AND CYMRY. 
 
 There every herd by sad experience Knows, 
 How winged with fate their elf-shot arrows fly ; 
 
 When the sick ewe her summer-food foregoes, 
 Or, stretched on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie. 
 
 COLLINS. 
 
 UNDEB the former of these appellations we include the inha- 
 bitants of Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, and the Isle 
 of Man ; under the latter, the people of Wales and Brittany. 
 It is, not, however, by any means meant to be asserted that 
 there is in any of these places to be found a purely Celtic or 
 Cymric population. The more powerful Gotho-German 
 race has, every where that they have encountered them, 
 beaten the Celts and Cymry, and intermingled with them, 
 influencing their manners, language, and religion. 
 
 Our knowledge of the original religion of this race is very 
 limited, chiefly confined to what the Roman writers have 
 transmitted to us, and the remaining poems of the Welsh 
 bards. Its character appears to have been massive, simple, 
 and sublime, and less given to personification than those of 
 the more eastern nations. The wild and the plastic powers 
 of nature never seem in it to have assumed the semblance of 
 huge giants and ingenious dwarfs. 
 
 Yet in the popular creed of all these tribes, we meet at 
 the present day beings exactly corresponding to the Dwarfs 
 and Fairies of the Gotho-German nations. Of these beings 
 there is no mention in any works such as the Welsh 
 Poems, and Mabinogion, the Poems of Ossian, or the dif- 
 ferent Irish poems and romances which can by any possi- 
 bility lay claim to an antiquity anterior to the conquests of
 
 862 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 the Northmen. Is it not then a reasonable supposition that 
 the Picts, Saxons, and other sons of the North, brought with 
 them their Dwarfs and Kobolds, and communicated the 
 knowledge of, and belief in, them to their Celtic and Cymric 
 subjects and neighbours ? Proceeding on this theory, we 
 have placed the Celts and Cymry next to and after the 
 Grotho-German nations, though they are perhaps their pre- 
 cursors in Europe. 
 
 IEELAND. 
 
 Like him, the Sprite, 
 Whom maids by night 
 Oft meet in glen that's haunted. 
 
 MOOBE. 
 
 WE commence our survey of the lands of Celts and Cymry 
 with Ireland, as being the first in point of importance, but 
 still more as being the land of our birth. It is pleasing to 
 us, now in the autumn of our life, to return in imagination 
 to where we passed its spring its most happy spring. As 
 we read and meditate, its mountains and its vales, its ver- 
 dant fields and lucid streams, objects on which we probably 
 never again shall gaze, rise up in their primal freshness and 
 beauty before us, and we are once more present, buoyant 
 with youth, in the scenes where we first heard the fairy- 
 legends of which we are now to treat. Even the forms of 
 the individual peasants who are associated with them in our 
 memory, rise as it were from their humble resting-places and 
 appear before us, again awaking our sympathies; for, we 
 will boldly assert it, the Irish peasantry, with all their faults, 
 gain a faster hold on the affections than the peasantry of 
 any other country. We speak, however, particularly of 
 them as they were in our county and in our younger days ; 
 for we fear that they are somewhat changed, aud not for the 
 better. But our present business is with the Irish fairies 
 n*" ~- : 'h the Irish people,
 
 IBELA1SD. 363 
 
 The fairies of Ireland can hardly be said to diifer in any 
 respect from those of England and Scotland. Like them 
 they are of diminutive size, rarely exceeding two feet in 
 height ; they live also in society, their ordinary abode being 
 the interior of the mounds, called in Irish, Raths (Bdhs), in 
 English, Moats, the construction of which is, by the pea- 
 santry, ascribed to the Danes from whom, it might thence 
 perhaps be inferred, the Irish got their fairies direct and 
 not via England. From these abodes they are at times seen 
 to issue mounted on diminutive steeds, in order to take at 
 night the diversion of the chase. Their usual attire is 
 green with red caps.* They are fond of music, but we do 
 not in general hear much of their dancing, perhaps because on 
 account of the infrequency of thunder, the fairy-rings are less 
 numerous in Ireland than elsewhere. Though the fairies 
 steal children and strike people with paralysis and other 
 ailments (which is called being fairy-struck), and shoot their 
 elf-arrows at the cattle, they are in general kind to those 
 for whom they have contracted a liking, and often render 
 them essential service in time of need. They can make 
 themselves visible and invisible, and assume any forms they 
 please. The pretty tiny conical mushrooms which grow so 
 abundantly in Ireland are called Fairy-mushrooms ; a kind 
 of nice regularly-formed grass is named Fairy-flax, and the 
 bells of the foxglove called in some places Fairy -bells, are als j 
 said to have some connexion with the Little People. 
 
 The popular belief in Ireland also is, that the Fairies are 
 a portion of the fallen angels, who, being less guilty than the 
 rest, were not driven to hell, but were suffered to dwell on 
 earth. They are supposed to be very uneasy respecting their 
 condition after the final judgement. 
 
 The only names by which they are known in those parts of 
 Ireland in which the English language is spoken are, Fairies, 
 the Good People,t and the Gentry, these last terms being 
 placatory, like the Greek Eumenides. When, for example, 
 the peasant sees a cloud of dust sweeping along the road, 
 he raises his hat and says, " God speed you, gentlemen !" 
 for it is the popular belief that it is in these cloudy vehicles 
 
 Mr. Croker says, that according to the Minister peasantry the ordinary 
 ttire of the Fairy is a black hat, green coat, white stockings, and red shoe*, 
 f In Irish as in Erse, &A)f;e nj^/c (deene mdh).
 
 .364 CELTS A1TD CTMRT. 
 
 that the Grood People journey from one place to another.* 
 The Irish language has several names for the fairies ; all 
 however are forms or derivations of the word Shia,^ the 
 proper meaning of which seems to he Spirit. The most 
 usual name employed by the Munster peasantry is Shifra ; 
 we are not acquainted with the fairy-belief and terminology 
 of the inhabitants of Connemara and the other wilds of 
 Connaught.J 
 
 Most of the traits and legends of the Irish fairies are con- 
 tained in the Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of 
 Ireland, compiled by Mr. Crofton Croker. As we ourselves 
 aided in that work we must inform the reader that our con- 
 tributions, both in text and notes, contain only Leinster 
 ideas and traditions, for that was the only province with 
 which we were acquainted. We must make the further confes- 
 sion, that some of the more poetic traits which MM. Grimm, 
 in the Introduction to their translation of this work, give 
 as characteristic of the Irish fairies, owe their origin to 
 the fancy of the writers, who were, in many cases, more 
 anxious to produce amusing tales than to transmit legends 
 faithfully. 
 
 The Legend of Knockshegowna (Hill of the Fairy-calf) the 
 first given in that work, relates how the fairies used to 
 torment the cattle and herdsmen for intruding on one of 
 their favourite places of resort which was on this hill. The 
 fairy-queen, it says, having failed in her attempts to daunt 
 a drunken piper who had undertaken the charge of the 
 cattle, at last turned herself into a calf, and, with the piper 
 on her back, jumped over the Shannon, ten miles off, and 
 back again. Pleased with his courage, she agreed to abandon 
 the hill for the future. 
 
 The Legend of Knock-Grafton tells how a little hunch- 
 back, while sitting to rest at nightfall at the side of a Bath 
 or Moat, heard the fairies within singing over and over again, 
 DaLuan, Da Mart! (i.e.,Monday, Tuesday !) and added, weary 
 
 * See above, p. 2fi. 
 
 f They are rtA (shia), rtABn<* (shifra), nACArne (shicdre), rij (shee), 
 r'3e (sheee), rjjm (sheeidh) all denoting, spirit, fairy. The term n*> also 
 signifies a hag, and a hillock, and as an adjective, spiritual. 
 
 + We never heard a fairy-legend from any of the Connaught-men with 
 whom we conversed in our boyhood. Their tales were all of Finn-ma<-Coo' 
 and his heroes.
 
 IRELAND. 365 
 
 with the monotony, Agus da Cadin! (i.e., aud Wednesday !) 
 The fairies were so delighted with this addition to their 
 song that they brought him into the Moat, entertained him, 
 and finally freed him from the iucumbrance of his hump. 
 Another hunchback hearing the story went to the Moat to 
 try if he could meet with the same good fortune. He heard 
 the fairies singing the amended version of the song, and, 
 anxious to contribute, without waiting for a pause or attend- 
 ing to the rhythm or melody, he added Agus da Sena ! (i.e., 
 and Friday.)* His reward was, being carried into the Moat, 
 and having his predecessor's hump placed on his back in 
 addition to his own.f 
 
 In the story named the Priest's Supper, a fisherman, at 
 the request of the fairies, asks a priest who had stopt at his 
 house, whether they would be saved or not at the last day. 
 The priest desired him to tell them to come themselves and 
 put the question to him, but this they declined doing, and 
 the question remained undecided. 
 
 The next three stories are of changelings. The Young 
 Piper, one of our own contributions, will be found in the 
 Appendix. The Changeling has nothing peculiar in it ; but 
 the Brewery of Eggshells is one which we find in many 
 places, even in Brittany and Auvergne. In the present 
 version, the mother puts down eggshells to boil, and to the 
 enquiry of the changeling she tells him that she is brewing 
 them, and clapping his hands he says, " Well ! I 'm fifteen 
 hundred years in the world, and I never saw a brewery of 
 eggshells before ! " 
 
 In the Capture of Bridget Purcel, a girl is struck with a 
 little switch between the shoulders, by something in the form 
 of a little child that came suddenly behind her, and she 
 pined away and died. 
 
 The Legend of Bottle Hill gives the origin of that name, 
 which was as follows. A poor man was driving his only cow 
 
 In Irish, &JA xxojoe (dhia eene). We are inclined to think that he 
 must have added, b]A bAtiOAOjt). 6IA <*oirje (dhia dhardlwen, dhia eene), i. e. 
 Thursday, Friday ; for we can see no reason for omitting Thursday. 
 
 + See below, Brittany and Spain, in both of which th* legend is more 
 perfect; but it is impossible to say which is the original. Parnell's pleasing 
 Fairy Tale is probably formed on this Irish version, yet it agrees moie will 
 the Breton legend.
 
 366 CELTS A5U> CYJJRT. 
 
 to Cork to sell her. As he was going over that hill he was 
 suddenly joined by a strange-looking little old man with a 
 pale withered face and red eyes, to whom he was eventually 
 induced to give his cow in exchange for a bottle, and both 
 cow and purchaser then disappeared. When the poor mar. 
 came home he followed the directions of the stranger, an& 
 spreading a cloth on the table, and placing the bottle on the 
 ground, he said, " Bottle, do your duty ! " and immediately 
 two little beings rose out of it, and having covered the table 
 with food in gold and silver dishes, went down again intc 
 the bottle and vanished. By selling these he got a good deal 
 of money and became rich for one in his station. The 
 secret of his bottle however transpired, and his landlord 
 induced him to sell it to him. But his prosperity vanished 
 with it, and he was again reduced to one cow, and obliged 
 to drive her to Cork for sale. As he journeyed over the 
 same hill he met the same old man, and sold him the cow 
 for another bottle. Having made the usual preparations, he 
 laid it on the ground and said, " Bottle, do your duty ! " but 
 instead of the tiny little lads with their gold and silver dishes, 
 there jumped up out of it two huge fellows with cudgels, 
 who fell to belabouring the whole family. When they had 
 done and were gone back into the bottle, the owner of it, 
 without saying a word, put it under his coat and went to 
 his landlord, who happened to have a great deal of company 
 with him, and sent in word that he was come with another 
 bottle to sell. He was at once admitted, the bottle did its 
 duty, and the men with cudgels laid about them on all 
 present, and never ceased till the original wealth-giving 
 Dottle was restored. He now grew richer than ever, and his 
 son married his landlord's daughter, but when the old man 
 and his wife died, the servants, it is recorded, fighting at 
 their wake, broke the two bottles.* 
 
 The Confessions of Tom Bourke, as it contains a faithful 
 transcript of the words and ideas of that personage, is per- 
 haps the most valuable portion of the work. From this we 
 learn that in Munster the fairies are, like the people them- 
 selves, divided into factions. Thus we are told that, on the 
 
 * This story may remind one of the Wonderful Lamp, and others. Ther 
 Is something of the same kind in the Pentainerone.
 
 IRELAKD. SG7 
 
 occasion of the death of Bourke's mother, the two parties 
 fought for three continuous nights, to decide whether she 
 should be buried with her own or her husband's people 
 (i. e. family). Bourke also had sat for hours lookirg ut two 
 parties of the Good People playing at the popular game of 
 hurling, in a meadow at the opposite side of the river, with 
 their coats and waistcoats off, and white handkerchiefs on 
 the heads of one, and red on these of the other party. 
 
 A man whom Tom knew was returning one evening from 
 a fair, a little elevated of course, when he met a berrin 
 (i. e. funeral), which he joined, as is the custom; but, to his 
 surprise, there was no one there that he knew except one 
 man, and he had been dead for some years. When the berrin 
 was over, they gathered round a piper, and began to dance 
 in the churchyard. Davy longed to be among them, and the 
 man that he knew came up to him, and bid him take out a 
 partner, but on no account to give her the usual kiss. He 
 accordingly took out the purtiest girl in the ring, and danced 
 a jig with her, to the admiration of the whole company ; but 
 at the end he forgot the warning, and complied with the 
 custom of kissing one's partner. All at once everything 
 vanished ; and when Davy awoke next morning, he found 
 himself lying among the tombstones. 
 
 Another man, also a little in liquor, was returning one 
 night from a berrin. The moon was shining bright, and 
 from the other side of the river came the sounds of merri- 
 ment, and the notes of a bagpipe. Taking off his shoes and 
 stockings, he waded across the river, and there he found a 
 great crowd of people dancing on the Inch* on the other 
 side. He mingled with them without being observed, and 
 he longed to join in the dance ; for he had no mean opinion 
 of his own skill. He did so, but found that it was not to be 
 compared to theirs, they were so light and agile. He was 
 going away quite in despair, when a little old man, who was 
 looking on with marks of displeasure in his face, came up to 
 him, and telling him he was his friend, and his father's 
 
 * Inis, pronounced sometimes Inch, (like the Hebrew Ee (<x) and the 
 Indian Dsib } is either island or coast, bank of sea or river. The Ang.-Sax. 
 1 7> ( ee ) 9eenl9 to have had the same extent of signification, hence Chelsea, 
 Battersea, etc., which never could have been islands. Perhaps J>eojV6ij 
 {worth//, worth) was similar, as wcnl, werth, in German is an island.
 
 368 I;ELTS AND 
 
 friend, bade him go into the ring and call for a lilt. He 
 complied, and all were amazed at his dancing ; he then got 
 a table and danced on it, and finally he span round and 
 round on a trencher. "When he had done, they wanted him 
 to dance again ; but he refused with a great oath, and 
 instantly he found himself lying on the Inch with only a 
 white cow grazing beside him. On going home, he got a 
 shivering and a fever. He was for many days out of his 
 mind, and recovered slowly; but ever after he had great 
 skill in fairy matters. The dancers, it turned out, had 
 belonged to a different faction, and the old man who gave 
 him his skill to that to which he himself was attached. 
 
 In these genuine confessions it is very remarkable that 
 the Good People are never represented as of a diminutive 
 size ; while in every story that we ever heard of them in 
 Leinster, they were of pygmy stature. The following account 
 of their mode of entering houses in Ulster gives them 
 dimensions approaching to those of Titania's ' small elves.' 
 
 A Fairy, the most agile, we may suppose, of the part)', is 
 selected, who contrives to get up to the keyhole of the d'oor, 
 carrying with him a piece of thread or twine. With this he 
 descends on the inside, where he fastens it firmly to the 
 floor, or some part of the furniture. Those without then 
 ' haul taut and belay,' and when it is fast they prepare 
 to march along this their perilous Es-Sirat, leading to the 
 paradise of pantry or parlour, in this order. First steps up 
 the Fairy-piper, and in measured pace pursues his adven- 
 turous route, playing might and main an invigorating elfin- 
 march, or other spirit-stirring air; then one by one the 
 rest of the train mount the cord and follow his steps. Like 
 the old Romans, in their triumphal processions, they pass 
 beneath the lofty arch of the keyhole, and move down along 
 the other side. Lightly, one by one, they then jump down 
 on the floor, to hold their revels or accomplish their thefts. 
 
 "We have never heard of any being, in the parts of Ireland 
 with which we are acquainted, answering to the Boggart, 
 Brownie, or Nis. A farmer's family still, we believe, living 
 in the county of Wicklow, used to assert that in their grand- 
 father's time they never had any trouble about washing up 
 plates and dishes ; for they aad only to leave them collected
 
 IRELAND. 309 
 
 in a certain part of the house for the Good People, \vtio 
 would come in and wash and clean them, and in the morning 
 everything would be clean and in its proper place. 
 
 Yet in the county of Cork it would seem that the Cluri- 
 caun, of which we shall presently speak, used to enact the 
 part of Nis or Boggart. Mr. Croker tells a story of a little 
 being, which he calls a Cluricaun, that haunted the cellar 
 of a Mr. Macarthy, and in a note on this tale he gives the 
 contents of a letter informing him of another ycleped Little 
 Wildbeaii, that haunted the house of a Quaker gentleman 
 named Harris, and which is precisely the Nis or Boggart 
 This "Wildbean, who kept to the cellar, would, if one of the 
 servants through negligence left the beer-barrel running, 
 wedge himself into the cock and stop it, till some one came 
 to turn it. His dinner used to be left for him in the cellar, 
 and the cook having, one Friday, left him nothing but part 
 of a herring and some cold potatoes, she was at midnighc 
 dragged out of her bed, and down the cellar-stairs, and so 
 much bruised that she kept her bed for three weeks. In 
 order at last to get rid of him, Mr. Harris resolved to 
 remove, being told that if he went beyond a running stream 
 the Cluricaun could not follow him. The last cart, filled 
 with empty barrels and such like, was just moving off, when 
 from the bung-hole of one of them Wildbean cried out, 
 " Here, master ! here we go all together ! " " What ! " said 
 Mr. Harris, " dost thou go also ?" " Yes, to be sure, master. 
 Here we go, all together ! " "In that case, friend," replied 
 Mr. Harris, " let the carts be unloaded ; we are just as well 
 where we are." It is added, that " Mr. Harris died soon 
 after, but it is said the Cluricaun still haunts the Harris 
 family." 
 
 In another of these Fairy Legends, Teigue of the Lee, who 
 haunted the house of a Mr. Pratt, in the county of Cork, 
 bears a strong resemblance to the- Hinzelmanu of Germany. 
 To the story, which is exceedingly well told by a member of 
 the society of Friends, now no more, also the narrator of 
 the Legend of Bottle-hill, Mr. Croker has in his notes added 
 some curious particulars. 
 
 A being named the Fear Dearg (i. e. Red Man) is also 
 known in Munster. A tale named The Lucky Guest, which 
 Mr. Croker gives as taken down verbatim from the mouth of
 
 370 CELTS AKD CTMET. 
 
 the narrator by Mr. M'Clise, the artist, gives the fullest 
 account of this being. A girl related that, when she was 
 quite a child, one night, during a storm of wind and rain, a 
 knocking was heard at the door of her father's cabin, and a 
 voice like that of a feeble old man craving admission. On 
 the door's being opened, there came in a little old man, 
 about two feet and a half high, with a red sugar-loaf hat and 
 a long scarlet coat, reaching down nearly to the ground, his 
 hair was long and grey, and his face yellow and wrinkled. 
 He went over to the fire (which the family had quitted in 
 their fear), sat down and dried his clothes, and began smoking 
 a pipe which he found there. The family went to bed, and 
 in the morning he was gone. In about a month after he 
 began to come regularly every night about eleven o'clock. 
 The signal which he gave was thrusting a hairy arm through 
 a hole in the door, which was then opened, and the family 
 retired to bed, leaving him the room to himself. If they did 
 not open the door, some accident was sure to happen next 
 day to themselves or their cattle. On the whole, however, 
 his visits brought good luck, and the family prospered, till 
 the landlord put them out of their farm, and they never saw 
 the Fear Dearg more. 
 
 As far as our knowledge extends, there is no being in the 
 Irish rivers answering to the Nix or Kelpie ; but on the 
 sea coast the people believe in beings of the same kind as 
 the Mermen and Mermaids. The Irish name is Merrow,* and 
 legends are told of them similar to those of other countries. 
 Thus the Lady of Gollems resembles the Mermaid-wife and 
 others which we have already related. Instead, however, of 
 an entire dress, it is a kind of cap, named Cohuleen Driuth, 
 without which she pannot return to her subaqueous abode. 
 Other legends tell of matrimonial unions formed by mortals 
 with these sea-ladies, from which some families in the south 
 claim a descent. The Lord of Dunkerron, so beautifully 
 told in verse by Mr. Croker, relates the unfortunate termi- 
 nation of a marine amour of one of the 0' Sullivan family. 
 The Soul-cages alone contains the adventures of a Merman. 
 
 * Mr. Croker says this is moruach, sea-maid ; the only word we find in 
 O'Reilly is ti)uififii;5eAc (mtfn'ryoeA). We Lave met no term answering 
 to merman.
 
 IBELAND. 371 
 
 The Irish Pooka* (puc<x) is plainly the English Pouke, 
 Puck, and would seem, like it, to denote an evil spirit. The 
 notions respecting it are very vague. A boy in the moun- 
 tains near Killarney told Mr. Croker that " old people used 
 to say that the Pookas were very numerous in the times long 
 ago. They were wicked-minded, black-looking, bad things, 
 that would come in inform of wild colts, with chains hanging 
 about them. They did great hurt to benighted travellers." 
 Here we plainly have the English Puck ; but it is remarkable 
 that the boy should speak of Pookas in the plural number. 
 In Leinster, it was always the, not a Pooka, that we heard 
 named. When the blackberries begin to decay, and the 
 seeds to appear, the children are told not to eat them any 
 longer, as the Pooka has dirtied on them. 
 
 The celebrated fall of the Liffey, near Ballymore Eustace, 
 is named Pool-a-Phooka, or The Pooka's Hole. Near Ma- 
 croom, in the county of Cork, are the ruins of a castle built 
 on a rock, named Carrig-a-Phooka, or The Pooka's Rock. 
 There is an old castle not far from Dublin, called Puck's 
 Castle, and a townland in the county of Kildare is named 
 Puckstown. The common expression play the Puck is the 
 same as play the deuce, play the Devil. 
 
 The most remarkable of the Fairy-tribe in Ireland, and 
 one which is peculiar to the country, is the Leprechaun.f 
 This is a being in the form of an old man, dressed as he is 
 described in one of the following tales. He is by profession 
 a maker of brogues ; he resorts in general only to secret and 
 retired places, where he is discovered by the sounds which 
 he makes hammering his brogues. He is rich, like curmud- 
 geons of his sort, and it is only by the most violent threats 
 
 * It is a rule of the Irish language, that the initial consonant of an oblique 
 case, or of a word in regimine, becomes aspirated ; thus Pooka (nom.), na 
 Phooka (gen.), mac son, a mhic (vie) my son. 
 
 f- In Irish lobamcii) (lubarkiri) ; the Ulster name is Logheryman, in Irish 
 locAttttjAi) (lucharman). For the Cork term Cluricaun, the Kerry Lurioaun 
 and the Tipperary Lurigadaun, we have found 710 equivalents in the Irish 
 dictionaries. The short o in Iri;?h, we map observe, is pronounced as in 
 French and Spanish, i. e. as u in but, cut ; at nearly as a in fa 1 !,. It may he 
 added, on account of the following tales, that in Kildare and the adjoinhig 
 counties the short English u, in but, cut, etc., is invariably pronounptd as in 
 pull, full, while this u is pronounced as that in but, cut. 
 
 B B 2
 
 372 CELTS A2TD CTMRT. 
 
 of doing him some bodily harm, that he can be made to 
 show the place where his treasure lies ; bufc if the person 
 who has caught him can be induced (a thing that always 
 happens, by the way) to take his eyes off him, he vanishes, 
 and with him the prospect of wealth. The only instance of 
 more than one Leprechaun being seen at a time is that which 
 occurs in one of the following tales, which wap related by an 
 old woman, to the writer's sister and early companion, now 
 no more. 
 
 Yet the Leprechaun, though, as we said, peculiar to 
 Ireland, seems indebted to England, at least, for his name. 
 En Irish, as we have seen, he is called Lobairein, and it 
 would not be easy to write the English Lubberkin more 
 accurately with Irish letters and Irish sounds. Leprechaun 
 is evidently a corruption of that word.* In the time of 
 Elizabeth and James, the word Lubrican was used in 
 England to indicate some kind of spirit. Thus Drayton 
 gives as a part of Nymphidia's invocation of Proserpina : 
 
 By the mandrake's dreadful groans ; 
 By the Lubrican's sad moans ; 
 By the noise of dead men's bones 
 In chamel-house rattling. 
 
 That this was the Leprechaun is, we think, clear ; for in 
 the Honest Whore of Decker and Middleton, the following 
 words are used of an Irish footman : 
 
 As for your Irish Lubrican, that spirit 
 
 Whom by preposterous charms thy lust has raised. 
 
 Part H. L l.f 
 
 AVe thus have the Leprechaun as a well-known Irish fairy, 
 though his character was not understood, in the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 The two following tales we ourselves heard from the 
 peasantry of Kildare in our boyhood : J 
 
 * The Ulster Lucharman also has such an English look, that we should be 
 tempted to derive it from the Ang.-Sax. Idcan, Icecan, to play. Loki Lojemand, 
 or Loki Playman, is a name of the Eddaic deity Loki in the Danish ballads. 
 
 t In the place of the Witch of Edmonton usually quoted with this, Lubrick 
 it plainly the Latin lubricus. 
 
 It will be observed that these, as well as the Young Piper in the Appen-
 
 ISSLA3TD. 373 
 
 OLIVER Tom Fwich-(i.e. Fitz)pathrick, as people used to 
 call him, was the eldest son o' a comfortable farmer, who 
 lived nigh hand to Morristo wn-Lattin, not far from the 
 Liffey. Tom was jist turned o' nine-an'-twinty, whin he 
 met wid the follyin' advinthur, an' he was as cllver, clane, 
 tight, good-lukin' a boy as any in the whole county Kildare. 
 One fine day in harvist (it was a holiday) Tom was takin' a 
 ramble by himsilf thro' the land, an' wint sauntherin' along 
 the sunny side uv a hidge, an' thiukin' in himsilf, whare id 
 be the 'grate harm if people, instid uv idlin' an' goin' about 
 doin' nothin' at all, war to shake out the hay, an' bind and 
 stook th' oats that was lyin' an the ledge, 'specially as the 
 weather was raither brokin uv late, whin all uv a suddint he 
 h'ard a clackin' sort o' n'ise jist a little way fornint him, in the 
 hidge. " Dear me," said Tom, " but isn't it now raaly 
 surprisin' to hear the stonechatters singin' so late in the 
 saison." So Tom stole an, goin' on the tips o' his toes to 
 thry iv he cud git a sight o' what was makin' the n'ise, to 
 see iv he was right in his guess. The n'ise stopt ; but as 
 Tom luked sharp thro' the bushes, what did he see in a 
 neuk o' the hidge but a brown pitcher that might hould 
 about a gallon an' a haff o' liquor ; an' bye and bye he seen 
 a little wee deeny dawny bit iv an ould man, wid a little 
 motty iv a cocked hat stuck an the top iv his head, an' a 
 deeshy daushy leather apron hangin' down afore him, an' he 
 pulled out a little wooden stool, an' stud up upon it, and 
 dipped a little piggen into the pitcher, an' tuk out the full 
 av it, an' put it beside the stool, an' thin sot down undher 
 the pitcher, an' begun to work at puttiu' a heelpiece an a 
 bit iv a brogue jist fittin' fur himsilf. 
 
 dix, are related in the character of a peasant. This was in accordance with a 
 frame that was proposed for the Fairy Legends, but which proved too difficult 
 of execution to be adopted.
 
 374 CELTS ASTD CTMET. 
 
 "Well, by the powers!" said Tom to himsilf, "I aften 
 hard tell o' the Leprechauns, an', to tell God's thruth, 
 I nivir rightly believed in thim, but here 's won o' thim in 
 right airnest ; if I go knowin'ly to work, I 'm a med man. 
 They say a body must nivir take their eyes aff o' thim, or 
 they'll escape." 
 
 Tom now stole an a little farther, wid his eye fixed an the 
 little man jist as a cat does wid a mouse, or, as we read in 
 books, the rattlesnake does wid the birds he wants to 
 inchant. So, whin he got up quite close to him, " God bless 
 your work, honest man," sez Tom. The little man raised up 
 his head, an' " Thank you kindly," sez he. " I wundher 
 you 'd be workin' an the holiday," sez Tom. "That's my 
 own business, an' none of your's," was the reply, short 
 enough. " Well, may be, thin, you 'd be civil enough to tell 
 us, what you 've got in the pitcher there," sez Tom. "Aye, 
 will I, wid pleasure," sez he: "it's good beer." " Beer! " 
 sez Tom : " Blud an' turf, man, whare did ye git it ? " 
 " Whare did I git it, is it ? why I med it to be shure ; an' 
 what do ye think I med it av ? " " Divil a one o' me 
 knows," sez Tom, "but av malt, I 'spose; what ilse?" 
 " 'Tis there you 're out ; I med it av haith." " Av haith ! " 
 sez Tom, burstin' .out laughin'. " Shure you don't take me 
 to be sich an omedhaun as to b'lieve that ? " " Do as ye 
 plase," sez he, " but what I tell ye is the raal thruth. Did 
 ye nivir hear tell o' the Danes ?" " To be shure I did," sez 
 Tom, " warn't thim the chaps we gev such a lickin' whin 
 they thought to take Deny frum huz ? " " Hem," sez 
 the little man dhrylv, "is that all ye know about the 
 matther ? " " Well, but about thim Danes," sez Tom. " Why 
 all th' about thim is," said he, "is that whin they war here 
 they taught huz to make beer out o' the haith, an' the 
 saicret 's in my family ivir sense." " Will ye giv a body a 
 taste o' yer beer to thry ? " sez Tom. " I '11 tell ye what it 
 is, young man, it id be fitther fur ye to be lukin' afther yer 
 father's propirty thi'n to be botherin' dacint, quite people 
 wid yer foolish questions. There, now, while you 're idlin' 
 away yer time here, there 's the cows hav' bruk into th' 
 oats, an' are knockin' the corn all about." 
 
 Tom was taken so by surprise wid this, that he was jist an 
 the very point o' turnin' round, whin he recollicted himsilf.
 
 IEELAND. 375 
 
 So, afeard that the like might happin agin, he med a grab at 
 the Leprechaun, an' cotch him up in his hand, but in his 
 hurry he ovirset the pitcher, and spilt all the beer, so that he 
 couldn't git a taste uv it to tell what sort it was. He thin 
 swore what he wouldn't do to him iv he didn't show him 
 whare his money was. Tom luked so wicked, an' so bloody- 
 minded, that the little man was quite frightened. " So," 
 sez he, " come along wid me a couple o' fields aff, an' I ! li 
 show ye a crock o' gould." So they wint, an' Tom held the 
 Leprechaun fast in his hand, an' nivir tuk his eyes frum aff 
 uv him, though they had to crass hidges an' ditches, an' a 
 cruked bit uv a bog (fur the Leprechaun seemed, out o' 
 pure mischief, to pick out the hardest and most conthrairy 
 way), till at last they come to a grate field all full o' 
 bolyawn buies* an' the Leprechaun pointed to a big 
 bolyawn, an' sez he, " Dig undher that bolyawn, an' you '11 
 git a crock chuck full o' goulden guineas." 
 
 Tom, in his hurry, had nivir minded the bringin' a fack t 
 wid him, so he thought to run home and fetch one, an' that 
 he might know the place agin, he tuk aff one o' his red 
 garthers, and tied it round the bolyawn. " I s'pose," sez 
 the Leprechaun, very civilly, " ye 've no further occashin 
 fur me ? " " No," sez Tom, " ye may go away now, if ye like, 
 and Grod speed ye, an' may good luck attind ye whareivir ye 
 go." " Well, good bye to ye, Tom Fwichpathrick," sed the 
 Leprechaun, " an' much good may do ye wid what ye '11 git." 
 
 So Tom run fur the bare life, till he come home, an' got a 
 fack, an' thin away wid him as hard as he could pilt back 
 to the field o' bolyawns ; but whin he got there, lo an' 
 behould, not a bolyawn in the field, but had a red garther, 
 the very idintical model o' his own, tied about it ; an' a* to 
 diggin' up the whole field, that was all nonsinse, fur there 
 was more nor twinty good Irish acres in it. So Tom come 
 home agin wid his lack an his shouldher, a little cooler 
 nor he wint ; and many 's the hearty curse he gev the 
 Leprechaun ivry time he thought o' the nate turn he sarved 
 him.J 
 
 * Lit. Yellow-stick, the ragwort or ragweed, which grows to a great size 
 in Ireland. 
 
 + A kind of spade with but one step, used in Leinster. 
 All that is said in this legend about the beer is a pure fiction, for we
 
 376 CELTS A.KD CTMKT. 
 
 Ecprcdjatm in tfjc <artien. 
 
 THERE'S a sort o' people that every body must have met 
 wid sum time or another. I mane thim people that pur- 
 tinds not to b'lieve in things that in their hearts they do 
 b'lieve in, an' are mortially afeard o' too. Now Failey* 
 Mooney was one o' these. Failey (iv any o' yez knew him) 
 was a rollockin', rattlin', divil-may-care sort ov a chap like 
 but that 's neither here nor there ; he was always talkin' one 
 nonsinse or another ; an' among the rest o' his fooleries, he 
 purtinded not to b'lieve in the fairies, the Leprechauns, an' 
 the Poocas, an' he evin sumtimes had the impedince to pur- 
 tind to doubt o' ghosts, that every body b'lieves in, at any 
 rate. Yit sum people used to wink an' luk knowin' whin 
 Failey was gostherin', fur it was obsarved that he was mighty 
 shy o' crassin' the foord o' Ahnamoe afther nightfall ; an' 
 that whin onst he was ridin' past the ould church o' Tipper 
 in the dark, tho' he 'd got enough o' pottheen into him to 
 make any man stout, he med the horse trot so that there 
 was no keepin' up wid him, an' iv'ry now an' thin he'd throw 
 a sharp luk-out ovir his lift shouldher. 
 
 Well, one night there was a parcel o' the neighbours sittin' 
 dhrinkin' an' talkin' at Larry Reilly's public-house, an' 
 Failey was one o' the party. He was, as usual, gittin' an 
 wid his nonsinse an' baldherdash about the fairies, an' swearin' 
 that he didn't b'lieve there was any live things, barrin' min 
 
 never heard of a Leprechaun drinking or smoking. It is, however, a tradition 
 of the peasantry, that the Danes used to make beer of the heath. It was a 
 Protestant fanner in the county of Cavan, that showed such knowledge of the 
 siege of Derry ; the Catholic gardener who told us this story, knew far better. 
 It is also the popular belief that the Danes keep up their claim on Ireland, 
 and that a Danish father, when marrying his daughter, gives her a portion in 
 Ireland. 
 
 * i. e. Fejix. On account of the Romish custom of naming after Saints, 
 Felix, Thaddseus, Terence, Augustine, etc., are common names among tho 
 peasantry.
 
 IRELAND. 877 
 
 an' bastes, an' birds and fishes, an' sich like tilings as a body 
 cud see, an' he wint on talkin' in so profane a way o' the 
 good people, that som o' the company grew timid an' begun 
 to crass thimsilves, not knowin' what might happin', whin 
 an ould woman called Mary Hogan wid a long blue cloak 
 about her, that was sittin' in the chimbly corner smokin' 
 her pipe widout takin' the laste share in the conversation, 
 tuk the pipe out o' her mouth, an' threw the ashes out o' it, 
 an' spit in the fire, an' turnin' round, luked Failey straight 
 in the face. " An' so you don't b'lieve there 's sich things 
 as Leprechauns, don't ye ? " sed she. 
 
 Well, Failey luked rayther daunted, but howsumdivir 
 he sed nothin'. " Why, thin, upon my throth, an' it well 
 becomes the likes o' ye, an' that 's nothin' but a bit uv a 
 gossoon, to take upon yer to purtind not to b'lieve what yer 
 father, an' yer father's father, an' his father afore him, 
 nivir med the laste doubt uv. But to make the matther 
 short, seein' 's b'lievin' they say, an' I, that might be yer 
 gran' mother, tell ye there is sich things as Leprechauns, an' 
 what 's more, that I mysilf seen one o' thim, there 's fur ye, 
 now ! " 
 
 All the people in the room luked quite surprised at this, 
 an' crowded up to the fireplace to listen to her. Failey 
 thried to laugh, but it wouldn't do, nobody minded him. 
 
 "I remimber," sed she, "some time afther I married the 
 honest man, that 's now dead and gone, it was by the same 
 token jist a little afore I lay in o' my first child (an' that 's 
 many a long day ago), I was sittin', as I sed, out in our little 
 bit o' a gardin, wid my knittin' in my hand, watchin' sum 
 bees we had that war goin' to swarm. It was a fine sun- 
 shiny day about the middle o' June, an' the bees war hum- 
 min' and flyin' backwards an' forwards frum the hives, an' 
 the birds war chirpin' an' hoppin' an the bushes, an' the 
 buttherflies war flyin' about an' sittin' an the flowers, an' 
 ev'ry thing smelt so fresh an' so sweet, an' I felt so happy, 
 that I hardly knew whare I was, Well, all uv a suddint, I 
 heard among sum rows of banes we had in a corner o' the 
 gardin, a n'ise that wint tick tack, tick tack, jist fur all the 
 world as iv a brogue-maker was puttin' an the heel uv a 
 pump. ' The Lord presarve us,' sed I to mysilf, ' whal in 
 the world can that be ? ' So I laid down my knittin', an'
 
 378 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 got up, an' stole ovir to the banes, an' nivir believe me iv I 
 didn't see, sittin' right forenint me, in the very middle of 
 tbim, a bit of an ould man, not a quarther so big as a new- 
 born child, wid a little cocked hat an his head, an' a dudeen 
 in his mouth, smokin' away ; an' a plain, ould-fashioned, 
 dhrab-coloured coat, wid big brass buttons upon it, an his 
 back, an' a pair o' massy silver buckles in his shoes, that 
 a'most covered his feet they war so big, an' he workin' away 
 as hard as ivir he could, heelin' a little pair o' pumps. The 
 instant minnit I clapt my two eyes upon him I knew him to 
 be a Leprechaun, an' as I was stout an' foolhardy, sez I to 
 him ' God save ye honist man ! that 's hard work ye 're at 
 this hot day.' He luked up in my face quite vexed like ; so 
 wid that I med a run at him an' cotch hould o' him in 
 my hand, an' axed him whare was his purse o' money! 
 ' Money ? ' sed he, ' money annagh ! an' whare on airth id a 
 poor little ould crathur like mysilf git money ?' 'Come, come,' 
 sed I, ' none o' yer thricks upon thravellers ; doesn't every 
 body know that Leprechauns, like ye, are all as rich as the 
 divil himsilf.' So I pulled out a knife I 'd in my pocket, 
 an' put on as wicked a face as ivir I could (an' in throth, 
 that was no aisy matther fur me thin, fur I was as comely 
 an' good-humoured a lukin' girl as you'd see frurn this to 
 Ballitore) an' swore by this and by that, if he didn't 
 instantly gi' me his purse, or show me a pot o' goold, I 'd 
 cut the nose aff his face. Well, to be shure, the little man 
 did luk so frightened at hearin' these words, that I a'most 
 found it in my heart to pity the poor little crathur. ' Thin,' 
 sed he, ' come wid me jist a couple o' fields aff, an' I '11 show 
 ye whare I keep my money.' So I wint, still houldin' him 
 fast in my hand, an' keepin' my eyes fixed upon him, whin 
 all o' a suddint I h'ard a whiz-z behind me. ' There ! there !' 
 cries he, ' there's yer bees all swarmin' an' goin' aff wid 
 thimsilves like blazes.' I, like a fool as I was, turned my 
 head round, an' whin I seen nothin' at all, an' luked back aV 
 the Leprechaun, an' found nothin' at all at all in my hand- 
 fur whin I had the ill luck to take my eyes aff him, ye see, 
 he slipped out o' my fingers jist as iv he was med o' fog or 
 smoke, an' the sarra the fut he iver come nigh my garden 
 agin."
 
 379 
 
 Hcprrrfjautuf. 
 
 MBS. L. having heard that Molly Toole. an old woman who 
 held a few acres of land from Mr. L., had seen Leprechatma, 
 resolved to visit her, and learn the truth from her own lips. 
 Accordingly, one Sunday, after church, she made her appear- 
 ance at Molly's residence, which was no very common 
 thing extremely neat and comfortable. As she entered, 
 every thing looked gay and cheerful. The sun shone bright 
 in through the door on the earthen floor. Molly was seated 
 at the far side of the fire in her arm-chair ; her daughter 
 Mary, the prettiest girl on the lands, was looking to the 
 dinner that was boiling ; and her son Mickey, a young man 
 of about two-and-twenty, was standing lolling with his back 
 against the dresser. 
 
 The arrival of the mistress disturbed the stillness that had 
 hitherto prevailed. Mary, who was a great favourite, hastened 
 to the door to meet her, and shake hands with her. Molly 
 herself had nearly got to the middle of the floor when the 
 mistress met her, and Mickey modestly staid where he was 
 till he should catch her attention. " then, musha ! but 
 isn't it a glad sight for my ould eyes to see your own silf 
 undher my roof ? Mary, what ails you, girl ? and why don't 
 you go into the room and fetch out a good chair for the 
 misthress to sit down upon and rest herself?" " 'Deed faith, 
 mother, I 'm so glad I don't know what I 'm doin'. Sure 
 you know 1 didn't see the misthress since she cum down 
 afore." 
 
 Mickey now caught Mrs. L.'s eye, and she asked him how 
 he did. " By Gorra, bravely, ma'am, thank you," said he, 
 giving himself a wriggle, while his two hands and the small 
 of his back rested on the edge of the dresser. 
 
 " Now, Mary, stir yourself, alanna," said the old woman, 
 " and get out the bread and butther. Sure you know the 
 misthress can't but be hungry afther her walk." " O, never 
 mind it, Molly ; it 's too much trouble." " Throuble, indeed !
 
 380 CELTS AND CYMRT. 
 
 it 's as nice buttler, ma'am, as iver you put a tooth in ; 
 and it was Mary herself that med it." " O, then I must 
 taste it." 
 
 A nice half griddle of whole-meal b*ead and a print of 
 fresh butter were now produced, and Molly helped the mis- 
 tress with her own hands. As she was eating, Mary kept 
 looking in her face, and at last said, " Ah then, mother, 
 doesn't the misthress luk mighty well ? Upon my faikins, 
 ma'am, I never seen you luking half so handsome." " Well ! 
 and why wouldn't she luk well ? And niver will she luk 
 betther nor be betther nor I wish her." " Well, Molly, I 
 think I may return the compliment, for Mary is prettier 
 than ever ; and as for yourself, I really believe it 's young 
 again you're growing." "Why, Grod be thanked, ma'am, 
 I 'm stout and hearty ; and though I say it mysilf, there 's 
 not an ould woman in the county can stir about betther nor 
 me, and I 'm up ivery mornin' at the peep of day, and rout 
 them all up out of their beds. Don't I. ? " said she, looking 
 at Mary. " Faith, and sure you do, mother," replied Mickey j 
 " and before the peep of day, too ; for you have no marcy in 
 you at all at all." " Ah, in my young days," continued the 
 old woman, " people weren't slugabeds ; out airly, home late 
 that was the way wid thim." " And usedn't people to 
 see Leprechauns in thim days, mother ?" said Mickey, laugh- 
 ing. "Hould your tongue, you saucy cub, you," cried 
 Molly; "what do you know about thim?" "Lepre- 
 chauns ?" said Mrs. L.. gladly catching at the opportunity; 
 " did people really, Molly, see Leprechauns in your young 
 days ?" " Yes, indeed, ma'am ; some people say they did," 
 replied Molly, very composedly. " O com' now, mother," 
 cried Mickey, " don't think to be goin' it upon us that away ; 
 you know you seen thim one time yoursilf, and you hadn't 
 the gumption in you to cotch thim, and git their crocks of 
 gould from thim." " Now, Molly, is that really true that 
 you saw the Leprechauns?" "'Deed, and did I, ma'am; 
 but this boy 's always laughin' at me about thim, and that 
 makes me rather shy in talkin' o' thim." " Well, Molly, 
 I won't laugh at you; so, come, tell me how you paw 
 them." 
 
 " Well, ma'am, you see it was whin I was jist about the 
 age of Mary, there. I was comin' home late one Monday
 
 IRELAND. 381 
 
 evenin' from the market ; for my aunt Kitty, God be mar- 
 ciful to her ! would keep me to take a cup of tay. It was in 
 the summer time, you see, ma'am, much about the middle of 
 June, an' it was through the fields I come. Well, ma'am, ag 
 I was sayin', it was late in the evenin', that is, the sun was 
 near goin' down, an' the light was straight in my eyes, an' I 
 come along through the bog-meadow ; for it was shortly 
 afther I was married to him that 's gone, an' we wor livin' in 
 this very house you 're in now ; an' thin whin I come to the 
 castle-field the pathway you know, ma'am, goes right 
 through the middle uv it an' it was thin as fine a field of 
 whate, jist shot out, as you 'd wish to luk at ; an' it was a 
 purty sight to see it wavin' so beautifully wid every air of 
 wind that was goin' over it, dancin' like to the music of a 
 thrush, that was singin' down below in the hidge.* Well, 
 ma'am, I crasst over the style that 's there yit, and wint 
 along fair and aisy, till I was near about the middle o' the 
 field, whin somethin' med me cast my eyes to the ground, a 
 little before me ; an' thin I saw, as sure as I 'm sittin' here, 
 no less nor three o' the Leprechauns, all bundled together 
 like so miny tailyors, in the middle o' the path before me. 
 They worn't hammerin' their p\imps, nor makin' any kind of 
 n'ise whatever ; but there they wor, the three little fellows, 
 wid their cocked hats upon thim, an' their legs gothered up 
 undher thim, workin' away at their thrade as hard as may be, 
 If you wor only to see, ma'am, how fast their little ilbows 
 wint as they pulled out their inds ! Well, every one o' thim 
 had his eye cocked upon me, an' their eyes wor as bright as 
 the eye of a frog, an' I cudn't stir one step from the spot 
 
 * In our Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 16, we noticed the coincidence 
 between this and a passage in an Arabic author. We did not theu recollect 
 the following verses of Milton, 
 
 The willows and the hazle copses green 
 
 Shall now no more be seen 
 
 Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
 
 I/ycidas, 42. 
 
 The simile of the moon among the stars in the same place, we have since 
 found in the Nibelungen Lied (st. 285), and in some of our old poets, and 
 Hammer says (Schirin i. note 7), that it occurs even to satiety in Oiiental 
 poetry. In like manner Camoens' simile of the mirror, mentioned in the same 
 place, occurs in Poliziano's Stanze i. 64.
 
 382 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 for the life o' me. So I turned my head round, aud prayed 
 to the Lord in his marcy to deliver me from thim, and when 
 I wint to luk at thim agin, ma'am, not a sight o' thim was 
 to be seen: they wor gone like a dhrame." "But, Molly, 
 why did you not catch them?" "I was afeard, ma'am, 
 that 's the thruth uv it ; but maybe I was as well widout 
 thim. I niver h'ard tell of a Leprechaun yit that wasn't too 
 many for any one that cotch him." "Well, and Molly, do 
 you think there are any Leprechauns now?" "It's my 
 belief, ma'am, they 're all gone out of the country, cliver and 
 clane, along wid the Fairies ; for I niver hear tell o' thim 
 now at all." 
 
 Mrs. L. having now attained her object, after a little more 
 talk with the good old woman, took her leave, attended by 
 Mary, who would see her a piece of the way home. And 
 Mary being asked what she thought of the Leprechauns, 
 confessed her inability to give a decided opinion : her mother, 
 she knew, was incapable of telling a lie, and yet she had her 
 doubts if there ever were such things as Leprechauns. 
 
 The following tale of a Cluricaun, related by the writer of 
 the Legend of Bottle Hill, is of a peculiar character. We 
 have never heard anything similar of a Leprechaun. 
 
 CIjc Etttlc 
 
 " Now tell me, Molly," said Mr. Coote to Molly Cogan, as 
 he met her on the road one day, close to one of the old gate- 
 way s of Kilmallock, " did you ever hear of the Cluricaun ?" 
 " Is it the Cluricaun ? Why, thin, to be shure ; aften an' 
 aften. Many 's the time I h'ard my father, rest his sowl ! 
 tell about 'em over and over agin." " But did you ever 
 see one, Molly did you ever see one yourself?" "Och! 
 no, I niver seen one in my life ; but my gran' father, that 's 
 my father's father, you know, he seen one, one time, an' 
 cotch him too." " Caught him ! Oh ! Molly, tell me how 
 was that."
 
 IBELiftTD. 388 
 
 " "Why, thin, I '11 tell ye. My gran'father, you see, was 
 out there above in the bog, dhrawin' home turf, an' the poor 
 ould mare was tir't afther her day's work, an' the ould man 
 wint out to the stable to look afther her, an' to see if she 
 was aitin' her hay; an' whin he come to the stable door there, 
 my dear, he h'ard sumthin' hammerin', hammerin', ham- 
 merin', jist for all the wurld like a shoemaker makin' a shoe, 
 and whis'lin' all the time the purtiest chune he iver h'ard in 
 his whole life afore. Well, my gran'father he thought it was 
 the Cluricaun, an' he sed to himsilf, sez he, ' I '11 ketch you, 
 if I can, an' thin I '11 have money enough always.' So he 
 opened the door very quitely, an' didn't make a taste o' 
 n'ise in the wurld, an' luked all about, but the niver a bit 
 o' the little man cud he see anywhare, but he h'ard hia 
 hammerin' and whis'lin', an' so he luked and luked, till at 
 last he seen the little fellow ; an' whare was he, do ye think, 
 but in the girth undher the mare ; an' there he was, wid hia 
 little bit ov an apron an him, an' his hammer in his hand, an' 
 a little red night-cap an his head, an' he makin' a shoe ; an 
 he was so busy wid his work, an' was hammerin' an' whis'lin' 
 so loud, that he niver minded my gran'father, till he cotch 
 him fast in his hand. ' Faix, I have ye now,' says he, ' an' 
 I '11 niver let ye go till 1 git yer purse that 's what I won't ; 
 so give it here at onst to me, now.' ' Stop, stop,' says the 
 Clurieaun ; ' stop, stop,' says he, ' till I get it for ye.' So my 
 gran'father, like a fool, ye see, opened his hand a little, an' 
 the little weeny chap jumped away laughin', an' he niver 
 seen him any more, an' the divil a bit o' the purse did he git ; 
 only the Cluricaun left his little shoe that he was makin'. 
 An' my gran'father was mad enough wid himself for lettin' 
 him go ; but he had the shoe all his life, an' my own mother 
 tould me she aftin seen it, an' had it in her hand ; an' 'twas 
 the purtiest little shoe she ivir seen." " An' did you see it 
 yourself, Molly?" "Oh! no, my dear, 'twas lost long 
 afore I was born ; but my mother tould me aftin an' aftiu 
 enough."
 
 384 CELTS A3D OTMR-/. 
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 
 
 Huar Prownie coad agiis otirochd, 
 Agus cha dian Prownie opar tullidh. 
 
 Brownie has got a cowl and coat, 
 And never more will work a jot 
 
 STEWART. 
 
 COLONIES of Gothic Fairies, it would appear, early 
 established themselves in the Highlands, and almost every 
 Lowland, German, and Scandinavian Fairy or Dwarf-tale 
 will there find its fellow. The Gaelic Fairies are very hand- 
 some in their persons ; their usual attire is green. They 
 dance and sing, lend and borrow, and they make cloth and 
 shoes in an amazingly short space of time. They make their 
 raids upon the low country, and carry off women and 
 children ; they fetch midwives to assist at the birth of their 
 children, and mortals have spent a night at the fairy revels, 
 and next morning found that the night had extended a 
 hundred years. Highland fairies also take the diversion of 
 the chase. " One Highlander," says Mc.Culloch,* " in 
 passing a mountain, hears the tramp of horses, the music of 
 the horn, and the cheering of the huntsmen ; when suddenly 
 a gallant crew of thirteen fairy hunters, dressed in green, 
 sweep by him, the silver bosses of their bridles jingling in 
 the night breeze." 
 
 - f The Gael call the Fairies Daoine Shi',f (Dheene SJiee) 
 and their habitations Shians, or Tomhans. These are a sort 
 of turrets, resembling masses of rock or hillocks. By day 
 they are indistinguishable, but at night they are frequently 
 lit up with great splendour. 
 
 Brownie, too, ' shows his honest face ' in the Highlands ; 
 
 * Account of the Highlands, etc. iv. 358. 
 
 f* Men of Peace, perhaps the Stille-folk, Still-people, or rather, merely 
 Fairy- or Spirit-people. See above p. 364.
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 385 
 
 and the mischievous water-Kelpie also appears In his equine 
 form, and seeks to decoy unwary persons to mount him, 
 that he may plunge with his rider into the neighbouring 
 loch or river. 
 
 The Highlanders have nearly the same ideas as their Shet- 
 land neighbours, respecting the seals. 
 
 The following legends will illustrate what we have stated.* 
 
 trg'fJ Inqutrp. 
 
 
 A. CLERGYMAN was returning home one night after visiting 
 a sick member of his congregation. His way led by a lake, 
 and as he proceeded he was surprised to hear most melodious 
 strains of music. He sat down to listen. The music 
 seemed to approach coming over the lake accompanied by a 
 light. At length he discerned a man walking on the water, 
 attended by a number of little beings, some bearing lights, 
 others musical instruments. At the beach the man dis- 
 missed his attendants, and then walking up to the minister 
 saluted him courteously. He was a little grey-headed old 
 man, dressed in rather an unusual garb. The minister 
 having returned his salute begged of him to come and sit 
 beside him. He complied with the request, and on being 
 asked who he was, replied that he was one of the Daoine Shi. 
 He added that he and they had originally been angels, but 
 having been seduced into revolt by Satan, they had been cast 
 down to earth where they were to dwell till the day of 
 doom. His object now was, to ascertain from the minister 
 what would be their condition after that awful day. The 
 minister then questioned him on the articles of faith ; but 
 as his answers did not prove satisfactory, and as in repeating 
 the Lord's Prayer, he persisted in saying wert instead of art 
 
 " See Stewart, The Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders. Edinburgh., 
 1823. As Mr. Stewart's mode of narrating is not the very best, we have 
 taken the liberty of re-writing a*id abridging the legends. 
 
 CC
 
 386 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 in heaven, he did not feel himself justified in holding out any 
 hopes to him. The fairy then gave a cry of despair and 
 flung himself into the loch, and the minister resumed hia 
 journey. 
 
 ;$Han in rtjc 
 
 A FARMEB named Macgillivray, one time removed from the 
 neighbourhood of Cairngorm in Strathspey to the forest of 
 G-lenavon, in which the fairies are said to reside. Late one 
 night, as two of his sons, Donald and Eory, were in search 
 of some of his sheep that had strayed, they saw lights 
 streaming from the crevices of a fkiry turret which in the 
 day time had only the appearance of a rock. They drew 
 nigh to it, and there they heard jigs and reels played 
 inside in the most exquisite manner. Eory was so fasci- 
 nated that he proposed that they should enter and take part 
 in the dance. Donald did all he could to dissuade him, but 
 in vain. He jumped into the Shian, and plunged at once 
 into the whirling movements of its inhabitants. Donald was 
 in great perplex^y, for he feared to enter the Shian. All he 
 could do therefore was to put his mouth to one of the cre- 
 vices, and calling, as the custom was, three times on his 
 brother, entreating him in the most moving terms, to come 
 away and return home. But his entreaties were unheeded 
 and he was obliged to return alone. 
 
 Every means now was resorted to for the recovery of 
 Eory, but to no purpose. His family gave him up for lost, 
 when a Duin Glichd or "Wise man, told Donald to go to the 
 place where he had lost his brother, a year and a day from 
 the time, and placing in his garments a rowan-cross, to enter 
 the Shian boldly, and claim him in the divine name, and if 
 he would not come voluntarily, to seize him and drag him 
 out ; for the fairies would have no power to prevent him. 
 After some hesitation Donald assented. At the appointed 
 time he approached the Shian at midnight. It was full of 
 revelry, and the merry dance was going on as before. Donald
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 387 
 
 had his terrors no doubt, but they gave way to his fraternal 
 affection. He entered and found Bory in the midst of a 
 Highland Fling, and running up to him, seized him by the 
 collar, repeating the words dictated by the Wise man. Rory 
 agreed to go provided he would let him finish his dance ; for 
 he had not been, he assured him, more than half an hour in 
 the place, but Donald was inexorable, and took him home to 
 his parents. Eory would never have believed that his half- 
 hour had been a twelvemonth, " did not the calves grown now 
 into stots, and the new-born babes now toddling about the 
 house, at length convince him that in his single reel he had 
 danced for a twelvemonth and a day." 
 
 C$n0 
 
 NEAELT three hundred years ago, there dwelt in Strathspey 
 two fiddlers, greatly renowned in their art. One Christina's 
 they resolved to go try their fortune in Inverness. On 
 arriving in that town they took lodgings, and as was the 
 custom at that time, hired the bellman to go round announc- 
 ing their arrival, their qualifications, their fame, and their 
 terms. Soon after they were visited by a venerable-looking 
 grey-haired old man, who not only found no fault with, but 
 actually offered to double their terms if they would go with 
 him. They agreed, and he led them out of the town, and 
 brought them to a very strange-looking dwelling which 
 seemed to them to be very like a Shian. The money, how- 
 ever, and the entreaties of their guide induced them to 
 enter it, and their musical talents were instantly put into 
 requisition, and the dancing was such as in their lives they 
 had never witnessed. 
 
 When morning came they took their leave highly gratified 
 with the liberal treatment they had received. It surprised 
 them greatly to find that it was out of a hill and not a house 
 that they issued, and when they came to the town, they 
 could not recognise any place or person, every thing seemed 
 
 cc 2
 
 388 CELTS ATTD CTMET. 
 
 so altered. While they and the townspeople were in mutual 
 amazement, there came up a very old man, who on hearing 
 their story, said : " You are then the two men who lodged 
 with my great-grandfather, and whom Thomas Rimer, it was 
 supposed, decoyed to Tomnafuracb. Tour friends were 
 greatly grieved on your account, but it is a hundred years 
 ago, and your names are now no longer known." It was 
 the Sabbath day and the bells were tolling ; the fiddlers, 
 deeply penetrated with awe at what had occurred, entered 
 the church to join in the offices of religion. They sat in 
 silent meditation while the bell continued ringing, but the 
 moment that the minister commenced the service they 
 crumbled away into dust. 
 
 MANY years ago there dwelt in Strathspey a midwife of 
 great repute. One night just as she was going to bed, she 
 heard a loud knocking at the door, and on opening it she 
 saw there a man and a grey horse, both out of breath. The 
 rider requested her to jump up behind him and come away 
 to assist a lady who was in great danger. He would not 
 even consent to her stopping to change her dress, as it would 
 cause delay. She mounted and away they went at full 
 speed. On the way she tried to learn from the rider whither 
 she was going, but all she could get from him was, that 
 she would be well paid. At length he let out that it was to 
 a fairy-lady he was taking her. Nothing daunted, however, 
 she went on, and on reaching the Shian, she found that her 
 services were really very much needed. She succeeded in 
 bringing a fine boy to the light, which caused so much joy, 
 that the fairies desired her to ask what she would, and if it 
 was in their power, it should be granted. Her desire was 
 that success might attend herself and her posterity in all 
 similar operations. The gift was conferred and it continued, 
 it was said, with her great-grandson, at the time the collector 
 of these legends wrote.
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 389 
 
 JFatrs fcomiimnfl Oatmeal. 
 
 A FAIEY came one day from one of the turrets of Craig-ail- 
 naic to the wife of one of the tenants in Delnabo, and asked 
 her to lend her a firlot of oatmeal for food for her family, 
 promising to repay it soon, as she was every moment expect- 
 ing an ample supply. The woman complied with this request, 
 and after, as was the custom of the country, having regaled 
 her with bread, cheese, and whiskey, she went, as was usual, 
 to see her a part of the way home. When they had reached 
 the summit of an eminence near the town, the Beanshi told 
 her she might take her meal home again as she was now 
 abundantly supplied. The woman did as desired, and as 
 she went along she beheld the corn-kiln of an adjacent 
 farm all in a blaze. 
 
 A FABMEE in Strathspey was one day engaged in sowing 
 one of his fields and singing at his work. A fairy damsel of 
 great beauty came up to him and requested him to sing for 
 her a favourite old Gaelic song named Niglian Donne na 
 Bual. He complied, and she then asked him to give her 
 some of his corn. At this he demurred a little and wished 
 to know what she would give him in return. She replied 
 with a significant look that his seed would never fail him. 
 He then gave to her liberally and she departed. He went 
 on sowing, and when he had finished a large field, he found 
 that his bag was as full and as heavy as when he began. He 
 then sowed another field of the same size, with the same 
 result, and satisfied with his day's work, he threw the bag 
 on his shoulder and went home. Just as he was entering
 
 300 CELTS AJTD CTMET. 
 
 the barn-door he was met by his wife, a foolish talkative body 
 with a tongue as long, and a head as empty as the church 
 bell, who, struck with the appearance of the bag after a day's 
 sowing, began to ask him about it. Instantly it became 
 quite empty. " I'll be the death of you, you foolish woman," 
 roared out the farmer ; " if it were not for your idle talk, 
 that bag was worth its weight in gold." 
 
 Cfje ^-talrn jr. 
 
 THE tacksman (*. e. tenant) of the farm of Auchriachan in 
 Strathavon, while searching one day for his goats on a hill 
 in Grlenlivat, found himself suddenly enveloped in a dense 
 fog. It continued till night came on when he began to give 
 himself up to despair. Suddenly he beheld a light at no 
 great distance. He hastened toward it, and found that it 
 proceeded from a strange-looking edifice. The door was 
 open, and he entered, but great was his surprise to meet 
 there a woman whose funeral he had lately attended. From 
 her he learned that this was an abode of the fairies for whom 
 she kept house, and his only chance of safety, she said, was 
 in being concealed from them ; for which purpose she hid him 
 in a corner of the apartment. Presently in came a troop of 
 fairies, and began calling out for food. An old dry-looking 
 fellow then reminded them of the miserly, as he styled him 
 tacksman of Auchriachan, and how he cheated them out of 
 their lawful share of his property, by using some charms 
 taught him by his old grandmother. "He is now from 
 home," said he, "in search of our allies,* his goats, and his 
 family have neglected to use the charm, so come let us have 
 his favourite ox for supper." The speaker was Thomas 
 Rimer, and the plan was adopted with acclamation. " But 
 what are we to do for bread ? " cried one. " We '11 have 
 
 * " The goats are supposed to be upon a very good understanding with the 
 fairies, and possessed of more cunning and knowledge than their appearance 
 lespeaks." Stewart: see Wales.
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 391 
 
 Auchriachan's new baked bread," replied Thomas ; "his wife 
 forgot to cross the first bannock."* So said, so done. The 
 ox was brought in and slaughtered before the eyes of his 
 master, whom, while the fairies were employed about their 
 cooking, his friend gave an opportunity of making his 
 escape. 
 
 The mist had now cleared away and the moon was 
 shining. Auchriachan therefore soon reached his home. 
 His wife instantly produced a basket of new-baked ban- 
 nocks with milk and urged him to eat. But his mind was 
 running on his ox, and his first question was, who had 
 served the cattle that night. He then asked the son who laid 
 done it if he had used the charm, and he owned he had for- 
 gotten it. " Alas ! alas ! " cried he, " my favourite ox is no 
 more." " How can that be ?" said one of the sons, " I saw 
 him alive and well not two hours ago." " It was nothing but 
 a fairy stock," cried the father. " Bring him out here." The 
 poor ox was led forth, and the farmer, after abusing it and 
 those that sent it, felled it to the ground. The carcase was 
 flung down the brae at the back of the house, and the bread 
 was sent after it, and there they both lay untouched, for it 
 was observed that neither cat nor dog would put a tooth in 
 either of them. 
 
 gtaltn 
 
 EOT, who lived in Grlenbroun, in the parish of Aber- 
 nethy, being out one night on the hills in search of his 
 cattle, met a troop of fairies, who seemed to have got a prize 
 of some sort or other. Eecollecting that the fairies are 
 obliged to exchange whatever they may have with any one who 
 offers them anything, however low in value, for it, he flung 
 his bonnet to them, crying Shuis s/o slumus sheen (i. e., mine 
 is yours and yours is mine). The fairies dropped their 
 booty, which proved to be a Sassenach (English) lady whom 
 the dwellers of the Shian of Coir-laggac had carried away 
 
 * See above, p. 305.
 
 302 OKLTS AND CTMBT. 
 
 from her own country, leaving a stock in her place which, 
 of course, died and was buried. John brought her home, 
 and she lived for many years in his house. " It happened, 
 however, in the course of time," said the Gaelic narrator, 
 " that the new king found it necessary to make the great 
 roads through these countries by means of soldiers, for 
 the purpose of letting coaches and carriages pass to the 
 northern cities ; and those soldiers had officers and com- 
 manders in the same way as our fighting army have now. 
 Those soldiers were never great favourites in these countries, 
 particularly during the time that our kings were alive ; and 
 consequently it was no easy matter for them, either officers 
 or men, to procure for themselves comfortable quarters." 
 But John Roy would not keep up the national animosity to the 
 cottan dearg (red-coats), and he offered a residence in his house 
 to a Saxon captain and his son. When there they could 
 not take their eyes off the English lady, and the son re- 
 marked to his father what a strong likeness she bore to his 
 deceased mother. The father replied that he too had been 
 struck with the resemblance, and said he could almost fancy 
 she was his wife. He then mentioned her name and those 
 of some persons connected with them. The lady by these 
 words at once recognised her husband and son, and honest 
 John Boy had the satisfaction of reuniting the long-sepa- 
 rated husband and wife, and receiving their most grateful 
 acknowledgments.* 
 
 * There is a similar legend in Scandinavia. As a smith was at work in his 
 forge late one evening, he heard great wailing out on the road, and hy the 
 light of the red-hot iron that he was hammering, he saw a woman whom a 
 Troll was driving along, bawling at her " A little more ! a little more !" He 
 ran out, put the red-hot iron between them, and thus delivered her from the 
 power of the Troll (see p. 108). He led her into his house and that night 
 she was delivered of twins. In the morning he waited on her husband, who 
 he supposed must be in great affliction at the loss of his wife. But to his 
 surprise he saw there, in bed, a woman the very image of her he had saved 
 from the Troll. Knowing at once what she must be, he raised an axe he had 
 in his hand, and cleft her skull. The matter was soon explained to the satis- 
 faction of the husband, who gladly received his real wife and her twins. 
 Thiele, i. 88. Oral.
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 393 
 
 A COUPLE of Strathspey lads who dealt in whiskey that 
 never paid duty, which they used to purchase in Grlenlivat, 
 and sell at Badenoch and Fort William, were one night 
 laying in stock at Grlenlivat when they heard the child in the 
 cradle give a piercing cry, just as if it had been shot. The 
 mother, of course, blessed it, and the Strathspey lads took no 
 further notice, and soon after set out with their goods. 
 They had not gone far when they found a fine healthy child 
 lying all alone on the road-side, which they soon recognised 
 as that of their friend. They saw at once how the thing 
 was. The fairies had taken away the real child and left a 
 stock, but, owing to the pious ejaculation of the mother, they 
 had been forced to drop it. As the urgency of their business 
 did not permit them to return, they took the child with 
 them, and kept it till the next time they had occasion to 
 visit Grlenlivat. On their arrival they said nothing about 
 the child, which they kept concealed. In the course of con- 
 versation, the mother took occasion to remark that the 
 disease which had attacked the child the last time they were 
 there had never left it, and she had now little hopes of its 
 recovery. As if to confirm her statement, it continued 
 uttering most piteous cries. To end the matter at once, the 
 lads produced the real child healthy and hearty, and told how 
 they had found it. An exchange was at once effected, and 
 they forthwith proceeded to dispose of their new charge. 
 For this purpose they got an old creel to put him in and 
 some straw to light under it. Seeing the serious turn 
 matters were likely to take, he resolved not to await the 
 trial, but flew up the smoke-hole, and when at the top he 
 cried out that things would have gone very differently with 
 them had it not been for the arrival of their guests.
 
 394 CELTS A3TD CTMKT. 
 
 THEEE once dwelt on the northern coast, not far from Taigh 
 Jan Crot Callow (John d 1 Or oaf s Souse), a man who gained 
 his living by fishing. He was particularly devoted to the 
 killing of the seals, in which he had great success. One 
 evening just as he had returned home from his usual occupa- 
 tion, he was called upon by a man on horseback who was an 
 utter stranger to him, but who said that he was come on the 
 part of a person who wished to make a large purchase of seal- 
 skins from him, and wanted to see him for that purpose that 
 very evening. He therefore desired him to get up behind 
 him and come away without any delay. Urged by the hope 
 of profit he consented, and away they went with such speed 
 that the wind which was in their backs seemed to be in their 
 faces. At length they reached the verge of a stupendous 
 precipice overhanging the sea, where his guide bade him 
 alight, as they were now at the end of their journey. " But 
 where," says he, "is the person you spoke of?" " You'll 
 see him presently," said the guide, and, catching hold of him, 
 he plunged with him into the sea. They went down and 
 down, till at last they came to a door which led into a range 
 of apartments inhabited by seals, and the man to his amaze- 
 ment now saw that he himself was become one of these 
 animals. They seemed all in low spirits, but they spoke 
 kindly to him, and assured him of his safety. His guide 
 now produced a huge gully or joctaleg, at sight of which, 
 thinking his life was to be taken away, he began to cry for 
 mercy. " Did you ever see this knife before ? " said the 
 guide. He looked at it and saw it was his own, which he had 
 that very day stuck into a seal who had made his escape 
 with it sticking in him. He did not, therefore, attempt to 
 deny that it had been his property. " Well," said the guide, 
 " that seal was my father. He now lies dangerously ill, and 
 as it is only you that can cure him, I have brought you 
 hither." He then led him into an inner room, where the old
 
 SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. 305 
 
 seal lay suffering grievously from a cut in bis hind quarters. 
 He was then desired to lay his hand on the wound, at which 
 it instantly healed, and the patient arose hale and sound. 
 All now was joy and festivity in the abode of the seals, and 
 the guide, turning to the seal-hunter, said, " I will now take 
 you back to your family, but you must first take a solemn 
 oath never again to kill a seal as long as you live." Hard 
 as the condition was, he cheerfully accepted it. His guide 
 then laid hold on him, and they rose up, up, till they reached 
 ^he surface of the sea, and landed at the cliff. He breathed 
 on him and they resumed the human form. They then 
 mounted the horse and sped away like lightning till they 
 reached the fisherman's house. At parting his companion 
 left with him such a present as made him think light of 
 giving over his seal-hunting. 
 
 Two Brownies, man and woman, were attached to the 
 ancient family of Tullochgorm, in Strathspey. The former 
 was named Brownie-Clod, from a habit he had of flinging 
 clods at passers-by ; the latter was called Maug Vuluchd 
 (i.e., Hairy Mag), on account of her great quantity of 
 hair. She was a capital housekeeper, and used invisibly 
 io lay out the table in the neatest and handiest manner. 
 Whatever was called for came as if floating through the air. 
 She kept a very strict hand over the maids, with whom she 
 was no great favourite, as she reported their neglect of duty 
 to their mistress. Brownie-Clod was not so pawky, and he 
 was constantly overreached by the servants, with whom he 
 used to make contracts. He, however, was too able for them 
 on one occasion. He had agreed with two of them to do 
 their whole winter's threshing for them, on condition of get- 
 ting in return an old coat and a Kilmaraock hood to which 
 he had taken a fancy. He wrought away manfully, and 
 they had nothing to do but lie at their ease on the straw and 
 look on. But before the term was expired they laid the
 
 396 CELTS AKX CTMEI 
 
 coat and hood for him in the barn. The moment Brownie 
 laid his eyes upon them he struck work, using the words 
 prefixed to this section of our volume. 
 
 Martyn describes the Brownie of the Western Isles as a 
 tall man, and he tells a story of his invisibly directing a per- 
 son, at Sir Norman M'Leod's, who was playing at draughts, 
 where to place his men. 
 
 THEBE is also in the Highlands a rough hairy spirit, called 
 the Urisk. The following legend will display his nature and 
 character : 
 
 To the very great annoyance of a Highland miller, and to 
 the injury of the machinery, his mill, he found, used to be 
 set to work at night when there was nothing in it to grind. 
 One of his men offered to sit up, and try to discover who it 
 was that did it ; and, having kindled a good turf-fire, sat by 
 it to watch. Sleep, however, overcame him, and when he 
 awoke about midnight, he saw sitting opposite him a rough 
 shaggy being. Nothing daunted, he demanded his name, 
 and was told that it was Urisk. The stranger, in return, 
 asked the man his name, who replied that it was Myself. 
 The conversation here ended, and Urisk soon fell fast asleep. 
 The man then tossed a panful of hot ashes into his shaggy 
 lap, which set his hair all on fire. In an agony, and scream- 
 ing with the pain, he ran to the door, and in a loud yelling 
 tone several of his brethren were heard to cry out, " What 's 
 the matter with you? " " Oh ! he set me on fire !" "Who ? " 
 " Myself! " " Then put it out yourself," was the reply.* 
 
 * Told, without naming his authority, by the late W. S. Rose, :a th 
 Quarterly Review for 1825.
 
 ISLE OF MA*'. 397 
 
 ISLE OF MAN. 
 
 Mona once hid from those that search the main, 
 Where thousand elfin shapes abide. 
 
 COLLINS. 
 
 THE Isle of Man, peopled by Celts, and early and frequently 
 visited and colonised by the Northmen, has also its Fairies, 
 which differ little from those of the greater islands between 
 which it lies. An English gentleman, named Waldron, who 
 resided in the island in the early part of the last century, 
 was curious about its Fairy-lore, and he has recorded a 
 number of the legends which he heard.* His book, indeed, 
 has been the chief source whence Eitson, Sir Walter Scott,t 
 and others, have drawn their illustrations of English Fairy- 
 lore in general, and the subsequent inquiries of Mr. Train 
 have enabled him to add but very little to it. We will here 
 relate some of these legends : 
 
 The great peculiarity of the Manks Fairies, according to 
 Mr. Waldron, is their fondness for riding, and this not on 
 little steeds of their own, or on the small breed of the 
 country, but on the large English and Irish horses, whicli 
 are brought over and kept by the gentry. Nothing, it was 
 said, was more common than to find in the morning horses 
 covered with foam and sweat, and tired to death, which had 
 been shut up at night in the stable. One gentleman assured 
 Mr. Waldron that three or four of his best horses had been 
 killed with these nocturnal exercises. 
 
 They called them the Good People, and said that their 
 reason for dwelling in the hills and woods was, their dislike 
 of the vices of towns. Hence the houses which they deigned 
 to visit were thought to be blest. In these houses, a tub or 
 
 * Description of the Isle of Man. London, 1731. 
 
 t In bis Essay on Fairies in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and i 
 tbe notes on Feveril of the Peak.
 
 398 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 pail of clean water was always left for them to bathe in. 
 Good, however, as they were, they used to change children. 
 Mr. Waldron saw one of these changelings ; it was nearly 
 six years old, but was unable to walk or even stand, or move 
 its limbs. Its complexion was delicate, and it had the finest 
 hair in the world. It never cried or spoke, and it ate 
 scarcely anything ; it rarely smiled, but if any one called it 
 Fairy-elf, it would frown and almost look them through. Its 
 mother, who was poor, was often obliged to go out for whole 
 days a-charing, and leave it by itself, and when the neigh- 
 bours would look in on it through the window, they always 
 saw it laughing and in great delight, whence they judged 
 that it had agreeable company with it, more especially as let 
 it be left ever so dirty, the mother on her return found it 
 with a clean face, and its hair nicely combed out. 
 
 A MAN being desirous of disposing of a horse he had at 
 that time no great occasion for, and riding him to market for 
 that purpose, was accosted in passing over the mountains by 
 a little man in a plain dress, who asked him if he would 
 sell his horse. " 'Tis the design I am going on," replied he : 
 on which the other desired to know the price. " Eight 
 pounds," said he. "No," returned the purchaser, " I will 
 give no more than seven, which if you will take, here is 
 your money." The owner thinking he had bid pretty fair, 
 agreed with him, and the money being told out, the one 
 dismounted and the other got on the back of the horse, 
 which he had no sooner done than both beast and rider sunk 
 into the earth immediately, leaving the person who had 
 made the bargain in the utmost terror and consternation. 
 As soon as he had a little recovered himself, he went 
 directly to the parson of the parish, and related what had 
 passed, desiring he would give his opinion whether he ought 
 to make use of the money he had received or not. To whicli
 
 ISLE OF MAN. 399 
 
 he replied, that as he had made a fair bargain, and no way 
 circumvented nor endeavoured to circumvent the buyer, he 
 saw no reason to believe, in case it was an evil spirit, it 
 could have any power over him. On this assurance, he went 
 home well satisfied, and nothing afterwards happened to give 
 him any disquiet concerning this affair. This was told to 
 Waldron by the person to whom it happened. 
 
 A MAN one time was led by invisible musicians for several 
 miles together, and not being able to resist the harmony, 
 followed till it conducted him to a large common, where 
 were a great number of little people sitting round a table, 
 and eating and drinking in a very jovial manner. Among 
 them were some faces whom he thought he had formerly 
 seen, but forbore taking any notice, or they of him, till the 
 little people offering him drink, one of them, whose features 
 seemed not unknown to him, plucked him by the coat, and 
 forbade him whatever he did to taste anything he saw before 
 him, "For if you do," added he, "you will be as I am, and 
 return no more to your family." The poor man was much 
 affrighted, but resolved to obey the injunction. Accordingly, 
 a large silver cup, filled with some sort of liquor, being put 
 into his hand, lie found an opportunity to throw what it 
 contained on the ground. Soon after, the music ceasing, all 
 the company disappeared, leaving the cup in his hand, and 
 he returned home, though much wearied and fatigued. He 
 went the next day, and communicated to the minister of the 
 parish all that had happened, and asked his advice, how he 
 should dispose of the cup, to which the parson replied, he^ 
 could not do better than to devote it to the service of the 
 church, and this very cup, they say, is that which is now 
 used for the consecrated wine in Kirk Merlugh.
 
 400 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 A WOMAN related that being great with child, and expecting 
 every moment the good hour, as she lay awake one night in 
 her bed, she saw seven or eight little women come into her 
 chamber, one of whom had an infant in her arms. They 
 were followed by a man of the same size with themselves, 
 but in the habit of a minister. One of them went to the 
 pail, and finding no water in it, cried out to the others, what 
 must they do to christen the child ? On which they replied 
 it should be done in beer. TVith that the seeming parson 
 took the child in his arms, and performed the ceremony of 
 baptism, dipping his head into a great tub of strong beer, 
 which the woman had brewed the day before to be ready for 
 her lying-in. She said they baptised the infant by the name 
 of Joan, which made her know she was pregnant of a girl, 
 as it proved a few days after when she was delivered. She 
 added, that it was common for the fairies to make a mock 
 christening when any person was near her time, and that, 
 according to what child, male or female, they brought, such 
 should the woman bring into the world. 
 
 A WOMAN who lived about two miles distant from Balla- 
 salli, and used to serve Mr. "Waldron's family with butter, 
 made him once very merry with a story she told him of 
 her daughter, a girl of about ten years old, who being sent 
 over the fields to the town for a pennyworth of tobacco for 
 her father, was on the top of a mountain surrounded by a 
 great number of little men, who would not suffer her to 
 pass any farther. Some of them said she should go with
 
 ISLE OP MAS. 401 
 
 them, and accordingly laid hold of her ; but one, seeming 
 more pitiful, desired they would let her alone, which thev 
 refusing, there ensued a quarrel, and the person who took 
 her part fought bravely in her defence. This so incensed 
 the others, that to be revenged on her for being the cause, 
 two or three of them seized her, and pulling up her 
 clothes, whipped her heartily ; after which, it seems, they 
 had no farther power over her, and she ran home direct!} 
 telling what had befallen her, and showing her buttocks, on 
 which were the prints of several small hands. Several of 
 the town's-people went with her to the mountain ; and she 
 conducting them to the spot, the little antagonists were 
 gone, but had left behind them proofs, as the good woman 
 said, that what the girl had informed them was true, for 
 there was a great deal of blood to be seen on the stones. 
 This did she aver with all the solemnity possible. 
 
 A YOUNG sailor coming off a long voyage, though it was late 
 at night, chose to land rather than lie another night in the 
 vessel. Being permitted to do so, he was set on shore at 
 Douglas. It happened to be a fine moonlight night, and very 
 dry, being a small frost ; he therefore forbore going into any 
 house to refresh himself, but made the best of his way to the 
 house of a sister he had at Kirk-Merlugh. As he was going 
 over a pretty high mountain, he heard the noise of horses, 
 the halloo of a huntsman, and the finest horn in the world. 
 He was a little surprised that any one pursued those kinds 
 of sports in the night ; but he had not time for much reflec- 
 tion before they all passed by him so near, that he was able 
 to count what number there was of them, which he said was 
 thirteen, and that they were all dressed in green, and gal- 
 lantly mounted. He was so well pleased with the sight, that 
 he would gladly have followed could he have kept pace with 
 them. He crossed the footway, however, that he might see
 
 402 CELTS AJTD CYMRY. 
 
 them again, which he did more than once, and lost not the 
 sound of the horn for some miles. At length being arrived 
 at his sister's, he tells her the story, who presently clapped 
 her hands for joy that he was come home safe; "for," said 
 she, " those you saw vf ere fairies, and 'tis well they did not 
 take you away with them." 
 
 Cljr Jfftrtflcr zriQ tfjc JFatrg. 
 
 A FIBDLEE having agreed with a person, who was a stranger, 
 for so much money, to play to some company he should bring 
 him to, all the twelve days of Christmas, and received earnest 
 for it, saw his new master vanish into the earth the moment 
 he had made the bargain. Nothing could be more terrified 
 than was the poor fiddler. He found he had entered himself 
 into the Devil's service, and looked on himself as already 
 damned ; but having recourse to a clergyman, he received 
 some hope. He ordered him, however, as he had taken 
 earnest, to go when he should be called, but that whatever 
 tunes should be called for, to play none but psalms. On the 
 day appointed the same person appeared, with whom he 
 went, but with what inward reluctance it is easy to guess ; 
 and punctually obeying the minister's directions, the com- 
 pany to whom he played were so angry, that they all vanished 
 at once, leaving him at the top of a high hill, and so bruised 
 and hurt, though he was not sensible when or from what 
 hand he received the blows, that he got not home without 
 the utmost difficulty. 
 
 THE Phynnodderee, or Hairy-one, is a Manks spirit of the 
 same kind with the Brownie or the Kobold. He is said to 
 have been a fairy who was expelled from the fairy society.
 
 ISLE OF A1JLN'. 108 
 
 The cause was, he courted a pretty Manks maid who lived 
 in a bower beneath the blue tree of Glen Aldyn, and there- 
 fore was absent from the Fairy court during the Re-hollys 
 vooar yn ouyr, or harvest-moon, being engaged dancing hi 
 the merry glen of Rushen. He is condemned to remain iu 
 the Isle of Man till doomsday, in a wild form, covered with 
 long shaggy hair, whence his name. 
 
 He is very kind and obliging to the people, sometimes 
 driving home the sheep, or cutting and gathering the hay, if 
 he sees a storm coming on. On one of these occasions, a 
 farmer having expressed his displeasure with him for not 
 having cut the grass close enough to the ground, he let him 
 cut it himself the next year ; but he went after him stubbing 
 up the roots so fast, that it was with difficulty that the 
 farmer could escape having his legs cut off. For several 
 years no one would venture to mow that meadow ; at length 
 a soldier undertook it, and by beginning in the centre of the 
 field, and cutting round, as if on the edge of a circle, keeping 
 one eye on the scythe, and looking out for the Phynnodderee 
 with the other, he succeeded in cutting the grass in safety. 
 
 A gentleman having resolved to build a large house on his 
 property, at a place called Sholt-e-will, near the foot of Sna- 
 field mountain, caused the stones to be quarried on the 
 beach. There was one large block of white stone which he 
 was very anxious to have, but all the men in the parish could 
 not move it. To their surprise, the Phynnodderee in the 
 course of one night conveyed all the stones that had been 
 quarried, the great white one included, up to the proposed 
 site, and the white stone is there still to be seen. The 
 gentleman, to reward the Phynnodderee, caused some clothes 
 to be left for him in one of his usual haunts. When he saw 
 them, he lifted them up one by one, saying in Manks : 
 
 Bayrm da'n choine, dy doogh da'n choine, 
 
 Cooat da'n dreeym, dy doogh da'n dreeym, 
 
 Breechyn da'n toyn, dy doogh da'n toyn, 
 
 Agh my she Ihiat ooiley, shoh cha nee Ihiat Glen reagh Rushoo. 
 
 Cap for the head, alas, poor head ! 
 
 Coat for the back, alas, poor back ! 
 
 Breeches for the breech, alas, poor breech ! 
 
 If these be all thine. tlne cannot be the merry glen of Kuslieix 
 
 DD2
 
 404 CELTS A3TD CTMET. 
 
 And he departed with a melancholy wail, and has never been 
 seen since. The old people say, "There has not been a 
 merry world since he lost his ground."* 
 
 WALES. 
 
 It was the Druid's presage, who had long 
 In Geirionydd'sj airy temple marked 
 The songs that from the Gwyllion J rose, of eve 
 The children, in the bosom of the lakes. 
 
 TALTESM. 
 
 THE oldest account we have met with of Welsh Fairies is in 
 the Itinerary of Giraldus Cambrensis, who, in the year 1188, 
 accompanied Archbishop Baldwin in his tour through Wales, 
 undertaken for the purpose of exciting the zeal of the people 
 to take part in the crusade then in contemplation. 
 
 Griraldus, who was an attentive observer of nature and of 
 mankind, has in this work given many beautiful descriptions 
 of scenery, and valuable traits of manners. He is liberal of 
 legends of saints, but such was the taste of his age. Among 
 his narratives, however, he gives the two following, which 
 show that there was a belief in South Wales in beings similar 
 to the Fairies and Hobgoblins of England. 
 
 (Talc of. 
 
 A SHORT time before our days, a circumstance worthy of 
 note occurred in these parts, which Elidurus, a priest, most 
 strenuously affirmed had befallen himself. When he was a 
 
 * Train, Account of the Isle of Man, ii. p. 148. 
 
 t A lake, on whose banks Taliesin resided. 
 
 * These Mr. Davies thinks correspond to the Gallicenae of Mela : we 
 Brittany.
 
 WALES. 405 
 
 vouth of twelve years, since, as Solomon says, " The root of 
 learning is bitter, although the fruit is sweet," and was 
 following his literary pursuits, in order to avoid the discipline 
 and frequent stripes inflicted on him by his preceptor, he 
 ran away, and concealed himself under the hollow bank of a 
 river ; and, after fasting in that situation for two days, two 
 little men of pygmy stature appeared to him, saying, " If 
 you will come with us, we will lead you into a country full 
 of delights and sports." Assenting, and rising up, he fol- 
 lowed his guides through a path, at first subterraneous and 
 dark, into a most beautiful country, adorned with rivers and 
 meadows, woods and plains, but obscure, and not illuminated 
 with the full light of the sun. All the days were cloudy, and 
 the nights extremely dark, on account of the absence of the 
 moon and stars. The boy was brought before the king, and 
 introduced to him in the presence of the court ; when, having 
 examined him for a long time, he delivered him to his son, 
 who was then a boy. These men were of the smallest sta- 
 ture, but very well proportioned for their size. They were 
 all fair-haired, with luxuriant hair falling over their shoulders, 
 like that of women. They had horses proportioned to them- 
 selves, of the size of greyhounds. They neither ate flesh nor 
 fish, but lived on milk diet, made up into messes with saffron. 
 They never took an oath, for they detested nothing so much 
 as lies. As often as they returned from our upper hemi- 
 sphere, they reprobated our ambition, infidelities, and incon- 
 stancies. They had no religious worship, being only, as it 
 seems, strict lovers and reverers of truth. 
 
 The boy frequently returned to our hemisphere, sometimes 
 by the way he had first gone, sometimes by another ; at first 
 in company with others, and afterwards alone, and confided 
 his secret only to his mother, declaring to her the manners, 
 nature, and state of that people. Being desired by her to 
 bring a present of gold, with which that region abounded, he 
 stole, while at play with the king's son, the golden ball with 
 which he used to divert himself, and brought it to his mother 
 in great haste ; and when he reached the door of his father's 
 house, but not unpursued, and was entering it in a great 
 hurry, his foot stumbled on the threshold, and, falling down 
 into the room where his mother was sitting, the two Pygmies 
 seized the ball, which had dropped from his hand, and
 
 406 CELTS ATST) CTMET. 
 
 departed, spitting at and deriding the boy. On recovering 
 from his fall, confounded with shame, and execrating the evil 
 counsel of his mother, he returned by the usual track to the 
 subterraneous road, but found no appearance of any passage, 
 though he searched for it on the banks of the river for nearly 
 the space of a year. Having been brought back by his friends 
 and mother, and restored to his right way of thinking and 
 his literary pursuits, he attained in process of time the rank 
 of priesthood. Whenever David the Second, bishop of St. 
 David's, talked to him in his advanced state of life concerning 
 this event, he could never relate the particulars without 
 shedding tears. 
 
 He had also a knowledge of the language of that nation, 
 and used to recite words of it he had readily acquired in his 
 younger days. These words, which the bishop often re- 
 peated to me, were very conformable to the Greek idiom. 
 When they asked for water, they said, Udor udorum, which 
 signifies " Bring water ;" for TTdor, in their language, as 
 well as in the Greek, signifies water ; and Dwr also, in the 
 British language, signifies water. When they want salt, 
 they say, Halgein udorum, "Bring salt." Salt is called 
 aXs in Greek, and Halen in British ; for that language, from 
 the length of time which the Britons (then called Trojans, 
 and afterwards Britons from Brito, their leader) remained 
 in Greece after the destruction of Troy, became, in many 
 instances, similar to the Greek.* 
 
 " If," says the learned archdeacon, "a scrupulous inquirer 
 should ask my opinion of the relation here inserted, I answer, 
 with Augustine, ' admiranda fore divina miracula non dispu- 
 tatione discutienda ;' nor do I, by denial, place bounds to 
 the Divine power ; nor, by affirming insolently, extend that 
 power which cannot be extended. But on such occasions I 
 always call to mind that saying of Hieronymus : " Multa," 
 says he, ' incredibilia reperies et non verisimilia, quae nihilo- 
 minus tamen vera sunt.' These, and any such that might 
 occur, I should place, according to Augustine's opinion, 
 among those things which are neither to be strongly affirmed 
 nor denied." 
 
 * Giraldus Cainbrensis, Itinerarium Cambric, 1. i. c. 8, translated by Sif 
 R. C. Hoare.
 
 WA.LES. 407 
 
 David Powel, who edited this work in 1585, thinks that 
 ibis legend is written in imitation of the relation of Eros the 
 Armenian, in Plato, or taken from Polo's account of the 
 garden of the Old Man of the Mountain.* 
 
 Again Giraldus writes, " In these parts of Penbroch it 
 has happed, in our times, that unclean spirits have conversed 
 with mankind, not indeed visibly, but sensibly ; for they 
 manifested their presence at first in the house of one Stephen 
 Wiriet, and some time after of William Not, by throwing 
 iirt and such things as rather indicate an intention of 
 mockery and injury. In the house of William, the spirit 
 used to make rents and holes in both linen and woollen gar- 
 ments, to the frequent loss of both host and guest, from 
 which injury no care and no bolts could protect them. In 
 the house of Stephen, which was still more extraordinary, 
 the spirit used to converse with people ; and when they 
 taunted him, which they frequently did out of sport, he 
 used to charge them openly with those actions of theirs, 
 from their birth, which they least wished to be heard or 
 known by others. If you ask the cause and reason of this 
 matter, I do not take on me to assign it ; only this, that it, 
 as is said, used to be the sign of a sudden change, either 
 from poverty to riches, or rather from riches to desolation 
 and poverty, as it was found to be a little after with both of 
 these. But this I think worthy of remark, that places can- 
 not be freed from illusions of this kind by the sprinkling of 
 holy water, not merely of the ordinary, but even of the great 
 kind ; nor by the aid of any ecclesiastical sacrament. Nay, 
 the priests themselves, when coming in with devotion, and 
 fortified as well with the cross as with holy water, were 
 forthwith among the first defiled by the dirt thrown at them. 
 From which it would appear that both sacramentals and 
 sacraments defend from hurtful, not harmless things, and 
 from injury, not from illusion." f 
 
 * Very likely indeed that Elidurus, or Giraldus either, should kuow any 
 tiling of Plato o; of Marco Polo, especially as the ktter was not yet bora ! 
 t Book i. chap. 12.
 
 408 CELTS AND CTMET 
 
 IN the mountains near Brecknock, says Davies,* there is a 
 small lake, to which tradition assigns some of the properties 
 of the fabled Avernus. I recollect a Mabinogi, or mytho- 
 logic tale, respecting this piece of water, which runs thus : 
 
 In ancient times a door in a rock near this lake was 
 found open upon a certain day every year. I think it was 
 May-day. Those who had the curiosity and resolution to 
 enter were conducted by a secret passage, which terminated 
 in a small island in the centre of the lake. Here the 
 visitors were surprised with the prospect of a most enchant- 
 ing garden stored with the choicest fruits and flowers, and 
 inhabited by the Tylwyth Teg, or Fair Family, a kind of 
 Fairies, whose beauty could be equalled only by the courtesy 
 and affability which they exhibited to those who pleased 
 them. They gathered fruit and flowers for each of their 
 guests, entertained them with the most exquisite music, dis- 
 closed to them many secrets of futurity, and invited them to 
 stay as long as they should find their situation agreeable. 
 But the island was secret, and nothing of its produce must 
 be carried away. The whole of this scene was invisible to 
 those who stood without the margin of the lake. Only an 
 indistinct mass was seen in the middle ; and it was observed 
 that no bird would fly over the water, and that a soft strain 
 of music at times breathed with rapturous sweetness in the 
 breeze of the morning. 
 
 It happened upon one of these annual visits that a sacri- 
 legious wretch, when he was about to leave the garden, put 
 a flower, with which he had been presented, in bis pocket ; 
 but the theft boded him no good. As soon as he had touched 
 unhallowed ground the flower vanished and he lost his 
 senses. Of this injury the Fair Family took no notice at 
 the time. They dismissed their guests with their accus- 
 tomed courtesy, and the door was closed as usual. But their 
 
 * Mythology and Rites of the British Druid*.
 
 WALES. 409 
 
 resentment ran high. For though, as the tale goes, the 
 Tylwyth Teg and their garden undoubtedly occupy the spot 
 to this day, though the birds still keep at a respectful dis- 
 tance from the lake, and some broken strains of music are 
 still heard at times, yet the door which led to the island 
 has never re-opened, and from the date of this sacrilegious 
 act the Cymry have been unfortunate. 
 
 Some time after this, an adventurous person attempted to 
 draw off the water, in order to discover its contents, when a 
 terrific form arose from the midst of the lake, commanding 
 him to desist, or otherwise he would drown the country. 
 
 These Tylwyth Teg are, as we see, regarded as Fairies, 
 but we think improperly ; for diminutive size is an attribute 
 of the Fairies in all parts of the British Isles, and Mr. Owen 
 (in his Welsh Dictionary, s. v.) expressly says that such is 
 not the case with these beings. 
 
 Spirit at tfj* Wan. 
 
 AMONG the mountains of Carmarthen, lies a beautiful and 
 romantic piece of water, named The Van Pools. Tradition 
 relates, that after midnight, on New Tear's Eve, there appears 
 on this lake a being named The Spirit of the Van. She is 
 dressed in a white robe, bound by a golden girdle ; her hair 
 is long and golden, her face is pale and melancholy ; she sits 
 in a golden boat, and manages a golden oar. 
 
 Many years ago there lived in the vicinity of this lake a 
 young farmer, who having heard imich of the beauty of this 
 spirit, conceived a most ardent desire to behold her, and be 
 satisfied of the truth. On the last night of the year, he 
 therefore went to the edge of the lake, which lay calm and 
 bright beneath the rays of the full moon, and waited anxiously 
 for the first hour of the New Tear. It came, and then he 
 beheld the object of his wishes gracefully guiding her golden 
 gondola to and fro over the lake. The moon at length sank
 
 410 CELTS A.SO CTMET. 
 
 behind the mountains, the stars grew dim at the approach 
 of dawn, and the fair spirit was on the point of vanishing, 
 when, unable to restrain himself, he called aloud to her to 
 stay and be his wife ; but with a faint cry she faded from his 
 view. Night after night he now might be seen pacing the 
 shores of the lake, but all in vain. His farm was neglected, 
 his person wasted away, and gloom and melancholy were 
 impressed on his features. At length he confided his secret 
 to one of the mountain-sages, whose counsel Avas a "Welsh 
 one, by the way to assail the fair spirit with gifts of cheese 
 and bread ! The counsel was followed ; and on Midsummer 
 Eve the enamoured swain went down to the lake, and let fall 
 into it a large cheese and a loaf of bread. But all was vain ; 
 no spirit rose. Still he fancied that the spot where he had 
 last seen her shone with more than wonted brightness, and 
 that a musical sound vibrated among the rocks. Encouraged 
 by these signs, he night after night threw in loaves and 
 cheeses, but still no spirit came. At length New Year's 
 Eve returned. He dressed himself in his best, took his 
 largest cheese and seven of his whitest loaves, and repaired 
 to the lake. At the turn of midnight, he dropped them 
 slowly one by one into the water, and then remained in 
 silent expectation. The moon was hid behind a cloud, but 
 by the faint light she gave, he saw the magic skiff appear, 
 and direct its course for where he stood. Its owner stepped 
 ashore, and hearkened to the young man's vows, and con- 
 sented to become his wife. She brought with her as her 
 dower flocks and herds, and other rural wealth. One charge 
 she gave him, never to strike her, for the third time he 
 should do so she would vanish. 
 
 They married, and were happy. After three or four years 
 they were invited to a christening, and to the surprise of all 
 present, in the midst of the ceremony, the spirit burst into 
 tears. Her husband gave an angry glance, and asked her 
 why she thus made a fool of herself ? She replied, " The 
 poor babe is entering in a world of sin and sorrow, and 
 misery lies before it ; why should I rejoice ? " He gave her 
 a push. She warned him that he had struck her once. 
 Again they were, after some time, invited to attend the 
 funeral of that very child. The spirit now laughed, and 
 danced, and sang. Her husband's wrath was excited, and he
 
 WALES. 411 
 
 asked her why she thus made a fool of herself? " The 
 babe," she said, " has left a world of sin and sorrow, and 
 escaped the misery that was before it, and is gone to be good 
 and happy for ever and ever. Why, then, should I weep ? " 
 He gave her a push from him, and again she warned him. 
 Still they lived happily as before. At length they were 
 invited to a wedding, where the bride was young and fair, 
 the husband a withered old miser. In the midst of the 
 festivity, the spirit burst into a copious flood of tears, and to 
 her husband's angry demand of why she thus made a fool of 
 herself, she replied in the hearing of all, " Because summer 
 and winter cannot agree. Youth is wedded to age for paltry 
 gold. I see misery here, and tenfold misery hereafter, to be 
 the lot of both. It is the devil's compact." Forgetful of 
 her warnings, the husband now thrust her from him with 
 real anger. She looked at him tenderly and reproachfully, 
 and said, " Tou have struck me for the third and last time. 
 Farewell ! " 
 
 So saying, she left the place. He rushed out after her, 
 and just reached his home in time to see her speeding to the 
 lake, followed by all her flocks and herds. He pursued her, 
 but in vain ; his eyes never more beheld her.* 
 
 As far as we have been able to learn, the belief in Fairies 
 is confined in Wales to the southern counties of Glamorgan, 
 
 * Abridged from " A Day at the Van Pools ;" MS. of Miss Beale, tbe author 
 of " Poems'' and of " The Vale of the Towey," a most delightful volume. We 
 have since received from our gifted friend the following additional information. 
 " Since writing this letter, I have heard a new version of the last part of the 
 Spirit of the Van. The third offence is said to be, that she and her husband 
 were ploughing ; he guiding the plough, and she driving the horses. The 
 horses went wrong, and the husband took up something and threw it at them, 
 which struck her. She seized the plough and went off, followed by the flocks 
 and herds she had brought with her to Van Pool, where they all vanished, and 
 the mark of the ploughshare is shown on the mountain at this present day. 
 She left her children behind her, who became famous as doctors. Jones was 
 their name, and they lived at a place called Muddfi. In them was said to 
 have originated the tradition of the seventh son, or Septimus, being born for 
 the healing art ; as for many generations, seven sons were regularly born in 
 each family, the seventh of whom became the doctor, and wonderful in bin 
 profession. It is said even now, that the Jones of Muddfi are, or were, until 
 very recently, clever doctors." A. B. A somewhat different version of tbj 
 logend is given by Mr. Croker, iii. 256.
 
 412 CELTS A3TD C1MET. 
 
 Carmarthen, and Pembroke, the parts into wlich the Saxons 
 had penetrated farthest, and where they of course had 
 exercised most influence. In these counties the popular 
 belief in these beings is by no means yet extinct, and their 
 attributes in the creed of the Welsh peasant are similar to 
 those of their British and Irish kindred. 
 
 The usual name given to the fairies in these parts of 
 Wales, is Y Dynon Bach Teg, i. e. The Little Fair People. 
 Ellyll, in the plural Ellyllon, also signifies an Elf, from 
 which word, indeed, it may have been derived. The bells of 
 the Digitalis or fox-glove are called Menyg Ellylon, or the 
 Elves'-gloves ; in Ireland, also, they are connected with the 
 fairies. The toadstools or poisonous mushrooms are named 
 Bwyd Ellyllon, or Elves'-food. Perhaps, however, it is not 
 the large ugly toadstools that are so named, but those pretty 
 small delicate fungi, with their conical heads, which are 
 named Fairy-mushrooms in Ireland, where they grow so 
 plentifully. Finally, there was formerly in the park of Sir 
 Robert Vaughan a celebrated old oak-tree, named Crwben- 
 yr-Ellyll, or The Elf's Hollow-tree. The popular belief 
 respecting these Ellyllon is, that they are the souls of 
 the ancient Druids, who, being too good for relegation to 
 Hell, and too evil for re-admittance to Heaven, are permitted 
 to wander among men upon earth till the last day, when 
 they also will enter on a higher state of being.* 
 
 The legends of which we will now proceed to give a 
 specimen, were collected and published in the latter half of 
 the eighteenth century, by a Welsh clergyman, who seems to 
 have entertained no doubt whatever of the truth of the 
 adventures contained in them.f 
 
 The two daughters of a respectable farmer in the parish 
 of Bedwellty were one day out hay-making with their man 
 
 * For the chief part of our knowledge respecting the fairy lore of Wales 
 we are indebted to the third or supplemental volume of the Fairy Legends, in 
 which Mr. Croker, with the aid of Dr. Owen Pugh and other Welsh scholars, 
 has given a fuller account of the superstitions of the people of the Principality, 
 than is, we believe, to be found any where else. 
 
 f A Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the County of Monmouth and the 
 Principality of Wales, by the Rev. Edward Jones of the Tiarch. For our 
 extracts from this work we are indebted to Mr. Croker.
 
 WALES. 413 
 
 and maid servant and a couple of their neighbours, when on 
 a hill, about quarter of a mile distant, they saw a large flock 
 of sheep. Soon after, they saw them going up to a place 
 half a mile off, and then going out of their sight as if they 
 vanished in the air. About half-an-hour before sunset, they 
 saw them again, but not all alike ; for some saw them like 
 sheep, some like greyhounds, some like swine, and some like 
 naked infants. They appeared in the shade of the mountain 
 between them and the sun, and the first sight was as if they 
 rose out of the earth. " This was a notable appearance of 
 the fairies, seen by credible witnesses. The sons of infidelity 
 are very unreasonable not to believe the testimonies of so 
 many witnesses of the being of spirits." 
 
 E. T. going home by night over Bedwellty Mountains, 
 saw the fairies on each side of him. Some of them were 
 dancing. He also heard the sound of a bugle-horn, as if 
 people were hunting. He began to grow afraid, but recol- 
 lecting to have heard that if, on seeing the fairies, you draw 
 out your knife, they will vanish, he did so, and saw them 
 no more. " This the old gentleman sincerely related to me. 
 He was a sober man, and of the strictest veracity." 
 
 A young man having gone early one morning to a barn to 
 feed oxen, when he had done, lay down on the hay to rest. 
 As he lay he heard the sound of music approaching the 
 barn, and presently came in a large company, wearing 
 striped clothes (some more gay than others), and commenced 
 dancing to their music. He lay quite still, thinking to 
 escape their notice ; but a woman, better dressed than the 
 others, came up to him with a striped cushion, with a tassel 
 at each corner, and put it under his head. Some time after, 
 a cock was heard to crow, which seemed either to surprise 
 or displease them, and they hastily drew the cushion from 
 under his head, and went away. 
 
 P. W., "an honest virtuous woman," related that one 
 time, when she was a little girl on her way to school, she saw 
 the fairies dancing under a crab-tree. As they appeared to 
 be children of her own size, and had small pleasant music, 
 she went and joined in their exercise, and then took them to 
 dance in an empty barn. This she continued to do for three 
 or four years. As she never could hear the sound of their 
 feet, she always took off her shoes, supposing noise to be
 
 414 CELTS AND 
 
 displeasing to them. They were of small stature, looked 
 rather old, and wore blue and green aprons. Her grand- 
 father, who kept school in the parish-church, used, when 
 going home from it late in the evening, to see the fairies 
 dancing under an oak, within two or three fields of the 
 church. 
 
 The learned writer gives finally a letter to himself, from a 
 " pious young gentleman " of Denbighshire, dated March 24, 
 1772, in which he informs him, that about fifteen years 
 before, as himself, his sister, and two other little girls were 
 playing at noon of a summer's day in a field, they saw a 
 company of dancers, about seventy yards from them. Owing 
 to the rapidity of their whirling motions, they could not 
 count them, but guessed them at fifteen or sixteen. They 
 were in red, like soldiers, with red handkerchiefs spotted 
 with yellow, on their heads. As they were gazing and 
 wondering at them, one of the dancers came running towards 
 them. The children, in a fright, made for an adjacent stile. 
 The girls got over, but the boy was near being caught, and 
 on looking back when over, he saw the red man stretching 
 his arms after him over the stile, which it would seem he 
 had not the power to cross. When they came to the house, 
 which was close at hand, they gave the alarm, and people 
 went out to search the fields, but could see nothing. The 
 little man was very grim-looking, with a copper-coloured 
 face. His running-pace was rather slow, but he took great 
 strides for one of his size. 
 
 The following legends were collected in 1827, in the Yale 
 of Neath, in Glamorganshire, by a lady with whom we 
 became acquainted when travelling through North Wales, in 
 the preceding autumn.* 
 
 An old woman assured our fair friend, that she one time, 
 many years before, saw the fairies to the number of some 
 hundreds. They were very small, were mounted on little 
 white horses, not bigger than dogs, and rode four a-breast. 
 It was almost dusk at the time, and they were not a quarter 
 
 * The lady's name was Williams. The legends were originally intended 
 for the present work, but circumstances caused them to appear in the supple- 
 mental volume of the Irish Fairy Legends. We have abridged them.
 
 WALES. 415 
 
 of a mile from her. Another old -woman said that her 
 father had often seen the fairies riding in the air on little 
 white horses, but he never saw them come down on the 
 ground. He also used to hear their music in the air. She 
 had heard, too, of a man who had been five-and-twenty years 
 with the fairies, and thought he had been away only five 
 minutes. 
 
 RHYS and Llewellyn, two farmer's servants, who had been 
 all day carrying lime for their master, were driving in the 
 twilight their mountain ponies before them, returning home 
 from their work. On reaching a little plain, Rhys called to 
 his companion to stop and listen to the music, saying it was 
 a tune to which he had danced a hundred times, and must go 
 and have a dance now. He bade him go on with the horses, 
 and he would soon overtake him. Llewellyn could hear 
 nothing, and began to remonstrate ; but away sprang Rhys, 
 and he called after him in vain. He went home, put up the 
 ponies, ate his supper, and went to bed, thinking that Rhys 
 had only made a pretext for going to the ale-house. But 
 when morning came, and still no sign of Rhys, he told his 
 master what had occurred. Search was then made every- 
 where, but no Rhys could be found. Suspicion now fell 
 upon Llewellyn of having murdered him, and he was thrown 
 into prison, though there was no evidence against him. A 
 farmer, however, skilled in fairy-matters, having an idea of 
 how things might have been, proposed that himself and some 
 Dthers should accompany Llewellyn to the place where he 
 parted with Rhys. On coming to it, they found it green as 
 the mountain ash. "Hush!" cried Llewellyn, "I hear 
 music, I hear sweet harps." We all listened, says the 
 narrator, for I was one of them, but could hear nothing. 
 " Put your foot on mine, David," said he to me (his own 
 foot was at the time on the outward edge of the fairy-ring). 
 I did so, and so did we all, one after another, and then we 
 heard the sound of many harps, and saw within a circle,
 
 416 CELTS AITD CTMBT. 
 
 about twenty feet across, great numbers of litt.e people of 
 the size of children of three or four years old, dancing 
 round and round. Among them we saw Rhys, and Llewellyn 
 catching him by the smock-frock, as he came by him, pulled 
 him out of the circle. " Where are the horses ? where are 
 the horses ? " cried he. " Horses, indeed ! " said Llewellyn. 
 Rhys urged him to go home, and let him finish his dance, in 
 which he averred he had not been engaged more than five 
 minutes. It was by main force they took him from the 
 place. He still asserted he had been only five minutes away, 
 and could give no account of the people he had been with. 
 He became melancholy, took to his bed, and soon after died. 
 "The morning after," says the narrator, "we went to look 
 at the place, and we found the edge of the ring quite red, as 
 if trodden down, and I could see the marks of little heels, 
 about the size of my thumb-nail. " 
 
 Gitto Barf). 
 
 GITTO BACH,* who was a fine boy, used often to ramble to 
 the top of the mountain to look after his father's sheep. On 
 his return, he would show his brothers and sisters pieces 
 of remarkably white paper, like crown-pieces, with letters 
 stamped upon them, which he said were given him by the 
 little children with whom he used to play on the mountain. 
 One day he did not return, and during two whole years no 
 account could be got of him, and the other children were 
 beginning to go up the mountain, and bring back some of 
 those white crown-pieces. At length, one morning, as their 
 mother opened the door, she saw Gitto sitting on the 
 threshold, with a bundle under his arm. He was dressed, 
 and looked exactly as when she last had seen him. To her 
 inquiry of where he had been for so long a time, he replied 
 that it was only the day before he had left her ; and he bade 
 her look at the pretty clothes the little children on the 
 mouctain had given him for dancing with them to the music 
 
 * Gitto U the dim. of Griffith : bach (beg IT.) is little.
 
 WALES. 417 
 
 ot their harps. The dress in the bundle was of very white 
 paper, without seam or sewing. The prudent mother com- 
 mitted it to the flames. 
 
 "This," said the narrator, "made me more anxious than 
 ever to see the fairies," and his wish was gratified by a 
 gipsy, who directed him to find a four-leaved clover, and 
 put it with nine grains of wheat on the leaf of a book which 
 she gave him. She then desired him to meet her next night 
 by moonlight on the top of Craig y Dinis. She there 
 washed his eyes with the contents of a phial which she had, 
 and he instantly saw thousands of fairies, all in white, 
 dancing to the sounds of numerous harps. They then 
 placed themselves on the edge of the hill, and sitting down 
 and putting their hands round their knees, they tumbled 
 down one after another, rolling head-over-heels till they 
 disappeared in the valley. 
 
 Another old man, who was present at the preceding narra- 
 tion, averred that he had often seen the fairies at waterfalls ; 
 particularly at that of Sewyd yr Rhyd in Cwm Pergwm, 
 Vale of Neath, where a road runs between the fall and the 
 rock. As he stood behind the fall, they appeared in all the 
 colours of the rainbow, and their music mingled with the 
 noise of the water. They then retired into a cavern, which 
 they had made in the rock, and, after enjoying themselves 
 there, ascended the rock, and went oif through the moun- 
 tains, the sounds of their harps dying away as they receded. 
 
 ONE of those old farm-houses, where the kitchen and cow- 
 house are on the same floor, with only a low partition 
 between them, was haunted by the fairies. If the family- 
 were at their meals in the kitchen, they were racketing in 
 the cow-house, and if the people were engaged about the 
 cows, the fairies were making a riot in the kitchen. One 
 day, when a parcel of reapers were at their harvest-dinner 
 
 B E
 
 418 CELTS AXD CTMltT. 
 
 in the kitchen, the elves, who were laughing and' dancing 
 above, threw down such a quantity of dust and dirt as 
 quite spoiled the dinner. While the mistress of the house was 
 m perplexity about it, there came in an old woman, who, on 
 hearing the case, said she could provide a remedy. She then 
 told her in a whisper to ask six of the reapers to dinner next 
 day in the hearing of the fairies, and only to make as much 
 pudding as could be boiled in an egg-shell. She did as 
 directed, and when the fairies saw that a dinner for six men 
 was put down to boil in an egg-shell, there was great stir 
 and noise in the cow-house, and at length one angry voice 
 was heard to say, " We have lived long in this world ; we 
 were born just after the earth was made, and before the 
 acorn was planted, and yet we never saw a harvest-dinner 
 dressed in an egg-shell ! There must be something wrong 
 in this house, and we will stop here no longer." They went 
 away and never returned. 
 
 The fairies are said to take away children, and leave 
 changelings.* They also give pieces of money, one of which 
 is found every day in the same place as long as the finder 
 keeps his good fortune a secret. One peculiarity of the 
 Cambrian fairies is, that every Friday night they comb the 
 goats' beards "to make them decent for Sunday." 
 
 We hear not of Brownies or Kobolds in the Welsh 
 houses* now, but Puck used to haunt Wales as well as 
 Ireland. His Welsh name, Pwcca, is the same as his Irish 
 one. In Brecon there is Cwm Pwcca, or Puck's Glen, and 
 though an iron-foundry has in a great measure scared him 
 from it, yet he occasionally makes his appearance. As a 
 man was returning one night from his work, he saw a light 
 before him, and thought he discerned some one that carried 
 it. Supposing it to be one of his fellow-workmen with a 
 lanthorn, he quickened his pace to come up with him, 
 wondering all the while how so short a man as he appeared 
 to be could get over the ground so fast. He also fancied 
 he was not going the right way, but still thought that he 
 who had the light must know best. At last, he came up 
 
 * See Brittarty.
 
 BEITTANT. 419 
 
 with him, and found himself on the very edge of one of the 
 precipices of Cwm Pwcca, down which another step would 
 have carried him. The Pwcca, for it was he, sprang over 
 the glen, turned round, held the light above his head, and 
 then with a loud laugh put it out and vanished. 
 
 BBITTANY. 
 
 Mut unt este noble Barun 
 Cil de Bretaine li Bretun. 
 
 MARIE DE FBAUOS. 
 
 Thise oldfe gentil Bretons in hir dayes 
 Of diverse aventurts maden hives. 
 
 CHAUCER. 
 
 BBITTANY, the ancient Armorica, retains perhaps as un- 
 mixed a population as any part of Western Europe. Its 
 language has been, however, like the Welsh and the Celtic 
 dialects, greatly affected by the Latin and Teutonic. The 
 ancient intercourse kept up with Wales and Cornwall by 
 the Bretons, who were in a great measure colonists from 
 these parts of Britain, caused the traditions and poetry of 
 the latter to be current and familiar in Little Britain, as 
 that country was then called. To poetry and music, indeed, 
 the whole Celto- Cymric race seem to have been strongly 
 addicted ; and, independently of the materials which Brit- 
 tany may have supplied for the history of Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth, many other true or romantic adventures were 
 narrated by the Breton poets in their Lais. Several of 
 these Lais were translated into French verse in the 
 thirteenth century by a poetess named Marie de France, 
 resident at the court of the English monarchs of the house 
 of Plantagenet, to one of whom, probably Henry the Third, 
 her Lais are dedicated.* This circumstance may account 
 
 Poesies de Marie de France, par De Roquefort. Paris, 1820. If any one 
 should suspect that these are not genuine translations from the Breton, his 
 doubts will be dispelled by reading the original of the Lai du Lauttic in the 
 Barzan-Breiz (i. 24) presently to be noticed.
 
 420 CELTS AWD CTMET. 
 
 for the Lais being better known in England than in France, 
 The only manuscript containing any number of them is in 
 the Harleian Library ; for those of France contain but five 
 Lais. The Lai du Fresne was translated into English ; and 
 from the Lai de Lanval and Lai de Graeient which last by 
 the way is not in the Harleian Collection Chestre made 
 bis Launfal Miles, or Sir Launfal. Chaucer perhaps took 
 tue concluding circumstance of his Dream from the Lai de 
 Eliduc. 
 
 In some of these Lais we meet with what may be regarded 
 as Fairy machinery. The word Fee, indeed, occurs only 
 once;* but in the Lais de Gugemer, de Lanval, d'Ywenec, 
 and de Graeient, personages are to be met with differing in 
 nothing from the Fays of Romance, and who, like them, 
 appear to be human beings endowed with superior powers. 
 
 The origin of the Breton Kerrigan, as they are called, has 
 been sought, and not improbably, in the Gallicense f 01 
 ancient Gaul, of whom Pomponius Mela thus writes: 
 " Sena,J in the British sea, opposite the Ofismician coast, is 
 remarkable for an oracle of the Gallic God. Its priestesses, 
 holy in perpetual virginity, are said to be nine in number. 
 They are called Gallicenae, and are thought to be endowed 
 with singular powers, so as to raise by their charms the 
 winds and seas, to turn themselves into what animals they will, 
 to cure wounds and diseases incurable by others, to know 
 and predict the future ; but this they do only to navigators 
 who go thither purposely to consult them." 
 
 "We have here certainly all the attributes of the Damoi- 
 selles of the Lais of Marie de France. The doe whom 
 Gugemer wounds speaks with a human voice. The lady who 
 loved Lanval took him away into an island, and Graeient and 
 his mistress crossed a deep and broad river to arrive at her 
 country, which perhaps was also an island in the original 
 Breton Lai. The part most difficult of explanation ia the 
 secret manner in which these dames used to visit their 
 
 * See above, p. 21. 
 
 t The Bas-Breton Kerrigan or Korrigwen differs, as we may see, but 
 little from GaUican. Strabo (i. p .304) says that Demeter and KOTO, were 
 worshipped in an island in these parts. 
 
 Sena is supposed to be L'Isle des Saints, nearly opposite Brest. 
 Pomp. Mela, iii. 6.
 
 421 
 
 joverei; but perhaps the key is to be found in the Lai 
 d'Twenec, of which, chiefly on that account, we give an 
 analysis. The hero of that Lai differs not in point of power 
 from these ladies, and as he is a real man, with the power 
 of assuming at will the shape of a bird, so it is likely they 
 were real women, and that it was in the bird-shape they 
 entered the chambers of their lovers. Graelent's mistress 
 says to him,* 
 
 I shall love you trewely ; 
 But one thing I forbid straitly, 
 You must not utter a word aperte 
 Which might our love make discoverte. 
 I will give uuto you richly, 
 Gold and silver, clothes, and fee. 
 Much love shall be between us two- 
 Night and day I'll go to you : 
 You '11 see me come to you alwiy 
 With me laugh and talk you may. 
 You shall no comrade have to see, 
 Or who shall know my privacy, 
 * * * 
 
 Take care now that you do not boast 
 Of things by which I may be lost. 
 
 The lady says to Lanval, 
 
 When you would speak to me of ought 
 
 You must in no place form the thought 
 
 Where no one could meet his amie 
 
 Without reproach and villainie 
 
 I will be presently with you, 
 
 All your commands ready to do ; 
 
 No one but you will me see, 
 
 Or hear the words that come from me. 
 
 She also had previously imposed on the knight the obliga- 
 tion of secresy. 
 
 As a further proof of the identity of the Korrigan and 
 the Grallicenae, it may be remarked, that in the evidently 
 very ancient Breton poem, Ar-Eannou, or The Series, we 
 
 * It might seem iardly necessary to inform the reader that these verses 
 and those that follow, are our own translations, from Marie de France. Yet 
 tome have taken them for old English verses.
 
 422 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 meet the following passage: "There are tine Korrigen, 
 who dance, with flowers in their hair, and robes of wh'te 
 wool, around the fountain, by the light of the full moon." * 
 
 I HAVE in thought and purpose too, 
 Of Ywenec to tellen you 
 Of whom he born was, his sire's fame, 
 How first he to his mother came. 
 He who did beget Ywenec 
 Y-cleped was Eudemarec. 
 
 There formerly lived in Britain a man who was rich and 
 old. He was Avoez or governor of Caerwent on the 
 Doglas, and lord of the surrounding country. Desirous of 
 having an heir to his estates, he espoused a maiden " cour- 
 teous and sage, and passing fair." She was given to him 
 because he was rich, and loved by him for her beauty. Why 
 should I say more, but that her match was not to be found 
 between Lincoln and Ireland ? " Great sin did they who 
 gave her him," adds the poet. 
 
 On account of her rare beauty, the jealous husband now 
 turned all his thoughts to keeping her safe. To this end he 
 shut her up in his tower, in a large room, to which no one 
 had access but himself and his sister, an old widow, without 
 whose permission the young wife was forbidden to speak to 
 any even of her female attendants. In this tower the suspi- 
 cious husband immured his lovely bride for seven years, 
 during which time they had no children, nor did she ever 
 leave her confinement on any account. She had neithei 
 chamberlain nor huissier to light the tapers in her chambei 
 when she would retire, and the poor lady passed her time 
 
 * E korole nao c'horrigan, 
 
 Bleunvek ho bleo, gwisket gloan, 
 Kelc'h ar feunteun, d'al loar-gann. 
 
 VILLEMARQUE, Barzan-BrWy i. 8. 
 The c'h expresses the cultural.
 
 BRITTANY. 423 
 
 weeping, sighing, and lamenting ; and from grief and neglect 
 of herself losing all her beauty. 
 
 The month of April was entering, 
 When every bird begins to sing ; 
 Her lord arose at early day, 
 And to the wood he takes his way. 
 
 Before he set out he called up the old dame to fasten the 
 door after him. This done, she took her psalter and retired 
 to another room to chant it. The imprisoned lady awoke in 
 tears, seeing the brightness of the sun, and thus began 
 her moan : 
 
 Alas ! said she, why born was I ? 
 Right grievous is my destiny : 
 In this towere imprisoned, 
 I ne'er shall leave it till I 'm dead. 
 
 She marvels at the unreasonable jealousy of her old husband, 
 curses her parents, and all concerned in giving her to a man 
 not only so unamiable, but who was of so tough a constitu- 
 tion that the chance of his dying seemed infinitely remote. 
 
 When baptised he was to be, 
 In hell's rivere deep dipt was he ; 
 Hard are his sinews, hard each vein, 
 And lively blood they all contain. 
 Oft have I heard the people tell, 
 That in this country there befell 
 Adventures in the days of yore, 
 That did to joy grieved hearts restore ; 
 Knights met with damsels, fair and gent, 
 In all things unto their talent ; 
 And dames met lovers courteous, 
 Handsome, and brave, and generous ; 
 So that they never blamed were, 
 For save themselves none saw them e'er.* 
 If this may be, or ever was, 
 Or any it befallen has, 
 May God, who hath all might and power, 
 My wish perform for me this hour. 
 
 Scarcely had she uttered this pious wish, when she per- 
 
 This manifestly alludes to Lanval or Graelent, or similar stories.
 
 424 CELTS AND CTMRT. 
 
 ceived the shadow of a large bird at a narrow window. The 
 bird now flew into the room. He had jesses on his legs, and 
 appeared to be a goss-hawk.* He placed himself before the 
 lady, and in a few minutes after became a handsome gentle 
 knight. The lady was terrified at the sight, and covered her 
 head ; but the knight was courteous, and addressed her, 
 
 Lady, said be, be not thus stirred ; 
 A goss-hawk is a gentle bird. 
 If my secrete should be obscure, 
 Attend, and I will you assure ; 
 Maketh now of me your lovere, 
 For that it is I am come here. 
 Long have I loved you and admired, 
 And in my heart have much desired ; 
 I ne'er have loved save you alone, 
 And save you never shall love none ; 
 But I could never come to you, 
 Nor from own countrie issue, 
 If you had not required me : 
 Your lover now I may well be. 
 
 The lady was now re-assured : she uncovered her head, and 
 told the knight she would accept him as her Dru, if she 
 
 f 
 
 were satisfied that he believed in God. On this head, he 
 assures her, 
 
 I hi the Creator believe, 
 Who did from misery us relieve, 
 In which us Adam our sire put, 
 By eating of that bitter fruit : 
 He is, and was, and ever he 
 To sinners life and light will be. 
 
 And to put the matter out of all doubt, he directs her to 
 feign sickness, and send for the chaplain, when he under- 
 takes to assume her form, and receive the holy Sacrament. 
 The dame does accordingly ; and the old woman, after many 
 objections, at length sends for the chaplain. 
 
 * It follow*, in M. de Roquefort's edition, 
 
 " Deci ne muez fu ou desis." 
 
 Of which we can make no sense, and the French translation gives DO aid. IB 
 the Ilarleian MS. it is 
 
 " De cine muez fu ou de sis," 
 which is more intelligible.
 
 BRITTANY 425 
 
 And he with all due speed did hie, 
 And brought the Corpus Domini. 
 The knight received the holy sign, 
 And from the chalice drank the wine :* 
 The chaplain then his way is gone 
 The old dame shut the doors anon. 
 
 The scruples of the lady being now entirely removed, she 
 grants le don (Tamoureuse tnerci, and the bliss of the lovers 
 is complete. At length the knight takes his leave, and in 
 reply to the lady's question, of when she should see him 
 again, he tells her that she has only to wish for him, and the 
 wish will be fulfilled by his appearance ;t but he warns her 
 to beware of the old woman, who will closely watch her, 
 assuring her at the same time that a discovery will be his 
 certain death. 
 
 The lady now bids adieu to all sadness and melancholy, 
 and gradually regains all her former beauty. She desires no 
 longer to leave her tower ; for, night or day, she has only to 
 express a wish, and her knight is with her. The old lord 
 marvels greatly at this sudden change, and begins to distrust 
 the fidelity of his sister. On revealing his suspicions, her 
 replies fully satisfy him on that head, and they concert 
 between them how to watch the young wife, and to discover 
 her secret. After an interval of three days, the old lord 
 tells his wife that the king has sent for him, and that he 
 must attend him, but will soon return. He sets out, arid 
 the old woman having closed the door as usual after him, 
 
 * This tends to prove that this is a translation from the Breton ; for Inno- 
 cent III., in whose pontificate the cup was first refused to the laity, died in 
 1216, when Henry III., to whom Marie is supposed to have dedicated her Lais, 
 wag a child. 
 
 f The same was the case with the Wiinschelweib ( Wish-woman) of 
 German romance. 
 
 Swenne du finest wiinschest nach mir, 
 
 So bin ich endelichen bi dir, 
 says the lady to the Staufenberger. She adds, 
 
 War ich wil da bin ich, 
 
 Den Wunsch hat mir Got gegeben. 
 He finds it to be true, 
 
 Er wunschte nach der frouwen gin, 
 
 Bi iiu so war diu schone sin. 
 
 GRIMM, Dent. Mytkol., p. 39;.
 
 4:26 CELTS AND CTMET. 
 
 gets behind a curtain to watch. The lady now wishes, for 
 her lover, and instantly he is with her, and they continue 
 together till it is time to rise. He then departs, leaving the 
 spy, who had seen how he came and went, terrified at the 
 strange metamorphosis. 
 
 When the husband, who was at no great distance, came 
 home, his spy informed him of the strange aifair. Greatly 
 grieved and incensed at this, he began to meditate the 
 destruction of his rival. He accordingly got four pikes 
 made, with steel-heads so sharp that 
 
 No razor under heaven's sheen 
 Was ever yet so sharp and keen. 
 
 These he set at the window through which the knight was 
 used to enter. Next day he feigns to go to the chase, the 
 old woman returns to her bed to sleep, and the lady anxiously 
 expects "him whom she loveth loyally," 
 
 And says that he may come safely, 
 And with her at all leisure be. 
 
 So said, so done : the bird was at the window ; but alas ! 
 too eager for caution, he overlooked the pikes, and, flying 
 against them, was mortally wounded. Still he entered the 
 chamber and threw himself on the bed, which his blood soon 
 filled, and thus addressed his distracted mistress : 
 
 He said unto her " My sweet friend, 
 
 For you my life comes to an end ; 
 
 I often told you 't would be so, 
 
 That your fair cheer would work us woe." 
 
 When she heard this she swooned away, 
 
 And long time there for dead she lay ; 
 
 Her gently to herself he brought, 
 
 And said, that grief availeth nought ; 
 
 That she by him a son would bear, 
 
 Valiant and wise, and debonair ; 
 
 He would dispel her sorrows all. 
 
 Ywenec she should him call. 
 
 He woulde" vengeance for their sake 
 
 Upon their trait'rous enemy take.* 
 
 In the Sh&h-nameh, Siyawush, when he foresees his own death by the
 
 BR1TTJLNT. 427 
 
 Exhausted with loss of blood, he can stay no longer. He 
 departs; and the lady, uttering loud cries of woe, leaps 
 after him, unapparelled as she is, out of the window, which 
 was twenty feet from the ground, and pursues him by the 
 traces of his blood. 
 
 Along his path strayed the daine, 
 
 Until unto a hill she came.* 
 
 Into this hill one entrance led ; 
 
 It with the blood was all sprinkled. 
 
 Before her she can nothing see ; 
 
 Whereat she thinketh full surely 
 
 Her lover thither is gone in. 
 
 She entereth with niickle teen ; 
 
 Within it light ne found she none ; 
 
 Thorow it still she goeth on, 
 
 Until she from the hill issued 
 
 In a fair meadow, rich and good. 
 
 With blood she stained found the grass, 
 
 At which she much dismayed was ; 
 
 The trace lay of it on the ground. 
 
 Quite near she there a city found ; 
 
 With walls it was enclosed all. 
 
 There was not house, nor tower, nor hall, 
 
 That did not seem of silver fair : 
 
 The Mandeventf right wealthy are. 
 
 Before the town lay marshes rude, 
 
 The forest, and wild solitude. 
 
 On the other side, toward the donj6n, 
 
 The water all around did run ; 
 
 And here the shippes did enter, 
 
 More thanne three hundred they were. 
 
 The lower gate wide open lay ; 
 
 Therein the lady took her way, 
 
 treachery of Afrasiab, tells his wife Ferengis, the daughter of that monarch, that 
 he will bear a son whom she is to name Ky Khosroo, and who will avenge 
 the death of his father : see Gorres, Heldenbuch von Iran, ii. 32. 
 * Desi k'a une hoge vint : 
 En cole hoge ot une entree. 
 
 M. de Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Romaine, correctly renders 
 hoge by colline. In his translation of this Lai he renders it by cabane, not, 
 perhaps, understanding how a hill could be pervious. The story, however, of 
 Prince Ahmed, and the romance of Orfeo and Heurodis (see above, p. 52), are 
 good authority on this point : see also above, pp. 405, 408. 
 
 ) In the Harleian MS. Mandement. M. de Roquefort confesses his total 
 ignorance of this people ; we follow his example. May it not, howevei, b 
 connected with manant, and merely * ; gnify people, inhabitants?
 
 428 CELTS AND CTMBT. 
 
 Stil following the blood, that fell 
 The townd thorow to the castl. 
 Unto her spake* there no one, 
 Ne man nor woman found she none. 
 She to the palace came ; with blood 
 The steps she found were all embrued ; 
 She entered then a low ohambere ; 
 A knight she found fast sleeping there ; 
 She knew him not she passed on 
 To a larger chamber came anon ; 
 A bed, and nothing more, there found, 
 A knight was on it sleeping sound. 
 Still farther passed on the dame ; 
 Unto the third chambere she came, 
 Where she gan find her lover's bed. 
 The posts were gold enamelled ; 
 I could not price the clothes aright : 
 The chandeliers and tapers bright, 
 Which night and day burned constantly, 
 Were worth the gold of a citee. 
 
 She finds her lover at the point of death. 
 
 At seeing his wretched state the unhappy lady swoons 
 again. The expiring knight endeavours to console her ; and, 
 foretelling his own death on that day, directs her to depart, 
 lest his people in their grief should ill treat her as the cause 
 of his death. She, however, protests that she will stay and 
 die with him, as, if she returns, her husband will put her to 
 death. The knight repeats his consolations, and gives her a 
 ring, which, whue she wears, her husband will retain no 
 remembrance of what relates to her. At the same time he 
 gives her his sword, which she is to keep safely and to give 
 to her son when grown up and become a valiant knight. He 
 says, she then 
 
 Unto a festival will go ; 
 
 Her lord will thither wend also ; 
 
 Unto an abbey they will come, 
 
 Where they will see a stately tomb, 
 
 Will learn the story of the dead, 
 
 And how he was there buried. 
 
 There thou the sword shalt to him reach, 
 
 And all the adventure then teach, 
 
 How he was born, who was his sire ; 
 
 His deeds enough will then admire. 
 
 He then gave her a dress of fine silk, and insisted on her
 
 BEITTANT. 429 
 
 departure. She is with difficulty induced to leave him, and 
 is hardly half a league from the place when she hears the 
 bells tolling, and he cries of grief of the people for the 
 death of their lord. She faints four times, but at length 
 recovering retraces her steps, and returns to her tower. Her 
 husband makes no inquiry, and gives her no farther uneasi- 
 ness. She bare a son, as Eudemarec had foretold, and named 
 him Ywenec. As he grew up, there was not his peer in the 
 kingdom for beauty, valour, and generosity. 
 
 After Ywenec had been dubbed a knight, his supposed 
 father was summoned to attend the feast of St. Aaron at 
 Carlion. He went, accompanied by his wife aud Ywenec. 
 On their way, they stopped at a rich abbey, ^here they were 
 received with the utmost hospitality. Next day, when they 
 asked to depart, the abbot entreated them to stay a little 
 longer till he should show them the rest of the abbey. They 
 consented, and after dinner, 
 
 On entering the chapter-room, 
 They found a large and stately tomb, 
 Covered with rich tapestry, 
 Bordered with gold embroidery. 
 At head and feet and sides there were 
 Twenty tapers burning clear ; 
 Of fine gold were the chandeliers ; 
 Of amethyst were the censeres, 
 With which they incensed alway, 
 For great honour, this tomb each day. 
 
 The curiosity of the visitors was excited by the sight of this 
 magnificent tomb, and they learned, on inquiry, that therein 
 lay one of the noblest and most valiant knights that had ever 
 lived. He had been king of that country, and had been slain 
 at Caerwent for the love of a lady, leaving a vacancy in the 
 throne which had never been since filled, it being reserved, 
 tccording to his last commands, for his son by that lady. 
 "When the Dame heard this, she called aloud to her son, 
 
 " Fair son, you now have heard," she said, 
 "That God hath us to this place led. 
 It is your father here doth lie, 
 Whom this old man slew wrongfully." 
 
 She then gave him the sword she had kept so long, relating
 
 430 CELTS AJTD CTMET. 
 
 the whole story to him. At the conclusion she fainted on 
 the tomb, and expired. Pilled with rage and grief, Twenec 
 at one blow struck off the head of the old man, and avenged 
 both his father and mother. The lady was buried in the 
 coffin with him whom she had loved, and the people joyfully 
 acknowledged Twenec as king of the country. 
 
 Long time after mad.en they, 
 Who heard this Adventure, a Lay 
 Of the grief and the dolour 
 That for love these did endure. 
 
 There are still to be seen in Brittany the rock, the cavern, 
 the fountain, the hole, the valley, etc., of the Fees. 
 
 The forest of Brezeliande, near Quintin, was, in the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries, regarded as the chief seat of Breton 
 wonders. It contained the tomb of Merlin. Robert de 
 "Wace, hearing of the wonders of this forest, visited it ; but, 
 by his own account, to little purpose. 
 
 La allai je merveilles querre (chercher), 
 
 Vis la foret et vis la terre ; 
 
 Merveilles quis (ckerchai) mais ne trovai, 
 
 Fol m'en revins, fol y allai ; 
 
 Fol y allai, fol m'en revins, 
 
 Folie quis, por fol me tins.* 
 
 There were also the Fountain of Berenton and the Pe 
 (block, or steps) Merveilleux. 
 
 En Bretagne ce treuve-on 
 
 Une Fontaine et un Perron ; 
 
 Quant on gette 1'iaue (eau) dessus 
 
 Si vente et tonne et repluit jus (d bos). 
 
 Huon de Mery was more fortunate than Wace. He 
 sprinkled the Perron from the golden basin which hung 
 from the oak that shaded it, and beheld all the marvels. t ' 
 
 Such is the result of our inquiries respecting the Fairy 
 
 * Roman de Roux, v. ii. 234. 
 
 t See Roquefort, Supplement au Glosaaire de la Lanm* Romaine s. v. 
 Perron.
 
 BBITTAHT. 431 
 
 system of the " olde gentil Bretons." Owing to the praise- 
 worth) labours of a Breton gentleman of tho present day,* 
 we are enabled to give the following account of it as it 
 actually prevails in Brittany. 
 
 Our author divides the Breton fairies into two classes, 
 the Fays (Fees) and the Dwarfs (Nains) ; of which the 
 Breton name seems to be Korrig or Kerrigan, and Korr or 
 Korred.f The former he identifies, as we have seen, very 
 plausibly, with the Gallicenae of Mela ; for he says that the 
 ancient Welsh bards declare that they reverenced a being of 
 the female sex named Korid-gwen, i. e. Korid-woman, to 
 whom they assigned nine virgins as attendants. To this 
 being Taliesin gives a magic vase, the edges of which are 
 adorned with pearl, and it contains the wondrous water of 
 bardic genius and of universal knowledge. 
 
 The Kerrigan, our authority further states, can predict the 
 future, assume any form they please, move from place to 
 place with the rapidity of thought, cure maladies by the aid 
 of charms which they communicate to their favourites. Their 
 size is said not to exceed two feet, but their proportions are 
 most exact ; and they have long flowing hair, which they 
 comb out with great care. Their only dress is a long white 
 veil, which they wind round their body. Seen at night, or 
 in the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great ; but in the 
 daylight their eyes appear red, their hair white, and their 
 faces wrinkled ; hence they rarely let themselves be seen by 
 day. They are fond of music, and have fine voices, but are 
 not much given to dancing. Their favourite haunts are the 
 springs, by which they sit and comb their hair. They are 
 
 * Barzan-Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, recueilles et publics par 
 Th. Hersart de la Villemarque'. Paris, 1846. This is a most valuable work 
 and deserving to take its place with the Ballads of Scotland, Scandinavia, and 
 Seivia, to none of which is it inferior. To the credit of France the edition 
 which we use is the fourth. How different would the fate of such a work be 
 in this country ! 
 
 f We make this distinction, because in the ballads in which the personage 
 is a Fay, the word used is Kerrigan or Korrig, while in that in which the 
 Dwarfs are actors, the words are Korr and Korred. But the truth is, they are 
 all but different forms of Korr. They are all the same, singular and plural, 
 The Breton changes its first consonant like the Irish: see p. 371. We also 
 meet with Crion, Goric, Couril, as names of these beings, but they are onlj 
 forms of those given above.
 
 432 CELTS AKD CTMET. 
 
 said to celebrate there every returning spring a great noc- 
 turnal festival. On the sod at its brink is spread a table-cloth 
 white as the driven snow, covered with the most delicious 
 viands. In the centre is a crystal cup, which emits such 
 light that there is no need of lamps. At the end of the 
 banquet a cup goes round filled with a liquor, one drop of 
 which would make one as wise as God himself. At the 
 approach of a mortal the whole vanishes. 
 
 Like fairies in general the Korrigan steal children, against 
 which the remedy usually employed is, to place the child 
 under the protection of the Virgin, by putting a rosary or 
 a scapulary about its neck. They are also fond of uniting 
 themselves with handsome young men to regenerate, as the 
 peasants say, their accursed race. The general belief re- 
 specting them is, that they were great princesses who, 
 having refused to embrace Christianity when it was preached 
 in Armorica by the Apostles, were struck by the curse of 
 God. Hence it is that they are said to be animated by a 
 violent hatred of religion and the clergy. The sight of a 
 soutane, or the sound of a bell, puts them to flight ; but 
 the object of greatest abhorrence to them is the Holy 
 Virgin. The last trait to be noticed of these beings is, 
 that, like similar beings in other countries, their breath is 
 deadly. 
 
 The reader must have observed the strong resemblance 
 which the Korrigan bear to the Elle-maids of Scandinavia. 
 In like manner the Korred are very similar to the Trolls.* 
 These are usually represented as short and stumpy with 
 shaggy hair, dark wrinkled faces, little deep-set eyes, but 
 bright as carbuncles Their voice is cracked and hollow : 
 their hands have claws like a cat's ; their feet are horny like 
 those of a goat. They are expert smiths and coiners ; they 
 are said to have great treasures in the dolmen^ in which 
 they dwell, and of which they are regarded as the builders. 
 They dance around them by night, and wo to the belated 
 peasant who, passing by, is forced to join in their roundel ; 
 
 * Hence we may infer that they came originally from Scandinavia, commu- 
 nicated most probably by the Normans. 
 
 t Stone-tables. They are called by the same name in Devon and Cornwall; 
 in Irish their appellation is Cromleach.
 
 BHITTANT. 433 
 
 he usually dies of exhaustion. Wednesday is their holiday ; 
 the first Wednesday in May their annual festival, which they 
 celebrate with dancing, singing, and music. They have tht 
 same aversion to holy things as the Korrigan ; like them, too, 
 they can fortell events to come. The Korrid is always fur- 
 nished with a large leathern purse, which is said to be full of 
 gold ; but if any one succeeds in getting it from him, he finds 
 nothing in it but hair and a pair of scissors. 
 
 The Bretons also believe in Mermaids ; they name them 
 Morgan (sea-women) and Morverc'h (sea-daughters), and say 
 that they draw down to their palaces of gold and crystal at 
 the bottom of the sea or of ponds, those who venture impru- 
 dently too near the edge of the water. Like the mermaids 
 they sing and comb their golden hair. In one of the ballads 
 we read, " Fisher, hast thou seen the mermaid combing her 
 hair, yellow as gold, by the noontide sun, at the edge of the 
 water ? " "I have seen the fair mermaid. I have also 
 heard her singing ; her songs were plaintive as the waves."* 
 
 In M. ViUemarque's collection there are three ballads 
 relating to the Korrigan and Korred. The following is a 
 faithful translation of the first of them in the exact measure 
 of the original. All the Breton poetry is rimed, very fre- 
 quently in triads or tercets. 
 
 tije Horrtflan. 
 
 TEE Lord Nann and his bride so fair 
 In early youth united were, 
 In early youth divided were. 
 
 The lady lay-in yesternight 
 
 Of twins, their skin as snow was white, 
 
 A boy and girl, that glad his sight. 
 
 " What doth thy heart desire, loved one, 
 For giving me so fair a son ? 
 Say, and at once it shall be done. 
 
 * Barzan-Breiz., '. xlix. 69.
 
 434 CELTS AND CYMRY. 
 
 " A woodcock from the pool of the glyn, 
 Or roebuck from the forest green ? " 
 
 " The roebuck's flesh is savoury, 
 
 But for it thou to the wood should' st hie." 
 
 Lord Nann when he these words did hear, 
 He forthwith grasped his oaken spear, 
 
 And vaulting on his coal-black steed 
 Unto the green-wood hied with speed. 
 
 tVTien he unto the wood drew nigh, 
 A fair white doe he there did spy, 
 
 And after her such chase he made, 
 
 The ground it shook beneath their tread. 
 
 And after her such chase made he, 
 From his brows the water copiously 
 
 And from his horse's sides ran down. 
 The evening had now come on, 
 
 And he came where a streamlet flowed 
 Fast by a Kerrigan's abode ; 
 
 And grassy turf spread all around. 
 
 To quench his thirst he sprang to ground. 
 
 The Korrig at her fount sat there 
 A-combing of her long fair hair. 
 
 She combed it with a comb of gold 
 These ladies ne'er are poor, we 're told. 
 
 " Hash man," cried she, "how dost thou dare 
 To come disturb my waters fair ! 
 
 " Thou shalt unto me plight thy fay, 
 Or seven years thou shalt waste away, 
 Or thou shalt die ere the third day." 
 
 " To thee my faith plight will I ne er 
 For I am married now a vear.
 
 BEITTANT. 43.") 
 
 " I shall not surely waste away, 
 Nor shall I dio ere the third day ; 
 
 " I shall not die within three days, 
 But when it unto God shall please." 
 
 " Good mother, mine, if you love me, 
 See that my bed made ready be, 
 For I have ta'en a malady. 
 
 " Let not one word tu my wife be told ; 
 In three days I shall lie in the mould, 
 A Korrigan has thus foretold." 
 
 And when three days were past and gone, 
 The young wife asked this question, 
 
 " My mother-in-law, now tell me why 
 The bells all ring thus constantly ? 
 
 " And why the priests a low mass sing, 
 All clad in white, as the bells ring ? " 
 
 " Last night a poor man died whom we 
 A lodging gave through charity." 
 
 " My mother-in-law, tell me, I pray, 
 
 My Lord Nann whither is he gone away ? " 
 
 " My daughter, to the town he 's gone, 
 To see thee he will come anon." 
 
 " Good mother-in-law, to church to fare, 
 Shall I my red or blue gown wear ? " 
 
 " The custom now is, daughter dear, 
 At church always in black to appear." 
 
 As they crossed o'er the churchyard-wall, 
 On her husband's grave her eye did fall. 
 
 " Who is now de id of our family, 
 
 That thus fresh dug our ground I see ? " 
 
 F V 2
 
 436 CELTS AITD CT3TET. 
 
 " Alas ! my child, the truth can I 
 Not hide : thy husband there doth lie." 
 
 On her two knees herself she cast 
 
 And rose no more, she breathed her last. 
 
 It \vas a marvel to see, men say, 
 The night that followed the day, 
 The lady in earth by her lord lay, 
 
 To see two oak-trees themselves rear 
 From the new-made grave into the air ; 
 
 And on their branches two doves white, 
 Who there were hopping gay and light ; 
 
 "Which sang when rose the morning-ray 
 And then toward heaven sped away. 
 
 This ballad is very remarkable. Its similarity to that of 
 Sir Olof, so celebrated in Scandinavia, and of which we have 
 already given two variations out of fifteen, must strike 
 every one ; in its concluding stanzas also it resembles other 
 Scandinavian and English ballads. On the other hand, the 
 White Doe and the Kerrigan at the fount remind us of the 
 Lais of Marie de France. Our opinion on the whole is, 
 that the ballad belongs to Scandinavia, whence it was 
 brought at an early period by the Normans, we might say 
 only for its Christian air in both countries and naturalised 
 in the usual manner. It is rather strange that there is 
 neither an English nor a Scottish version of it. 
 
 The next lay, which is entirely composed in tercets, is the 
 story of a changeling. In order to recover her own child 
 the mother is advised by the Virgin, to whom she has 
 prayed, to prepare a meal for ten farm-servants in an egg- 
 shell, which will make the Korrid speak, and she is then to 
 whip him well till he cries, and when he does so he will be 
 taken away. The woman does as directed : the Korr asks 
 what she is about : she tells him : " For ten, dear mother, in 
 an eggshell ! I have seen the egg before I saw the white 
 hen . I have seen the acorn before I saw the tree : I hare
 
 437 
 
 seen the acorn and I have seen the shoot : I have seen the 
 oak in the wood of Brezal, but never saw I such a thing as 
 this." " Thou hast seen too many things, my son," replied 
 she, and began to whip him, when one came crying, " Don't 
 beat him, give him back to me ; I have not done yours any 
 injury. He is king in our country." When the woman 
 went home she found her own child sleeping sweetly in the 
 cradle. He opened his eyes and said, " Ah ! mother, I have 
 been a long time asleep ! " 
 
 Among the Welsh legends above related, that of the 
 Fairies Banished has some resemblance to this ; but M. 
 Villemarque says that he was told a changeling-story by the 
 Glamorgan peasantry, precisely the same as the Breton 
 legend. In it the changeling is heard muttering to himself 
 in a cracked voice, " I have seen the acorn before I saw the 
 oak : I have seen the egg before I saw the white hen : I 
 have never seen the like of this." It is remarkable that 
 these words form a rimed triad or tercet nearly the same 
 with that in the Breton ballad,* whence M. Villemarque is 
 led to suspect that the legend is anterior to the seventh 
 century, the epoch of the separation of the Britons of Wales 
 and Armorica. But as changelings seem to have come from 
 the North, we cannot consent to receive this theory. He 
 also quotes from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin, 
 "There is in this forest," said Merlin the Wild, "an oak 
 laden with years : I saw it when it was beginning to grow. . . 
 I saw the acorn whence it rose, germinate and become a twig. . . 
 1 have then lived a long time." This would, in our opinion, 
 tend to show that this was an ordinary formula in the 
 British language. 
 
 The third and last of those ballads tells, and not without 
 humour, how Paskou-Hir, i. <?., Long-Paskou, the tailor, 
 one Friday evening, entered the abode of the Korred, and 
 there dug up and carried home a concealed treasure. They 
 
 * WELSH. BRBTOK. 
 
 Oweliz inez ken gwelet derven, Gweliz vi ken guelet iar wenn, 
 
 Gweliz vi ken gwelet iar wenn, Gweliz mez ken gwelet gwezen. 
 
 Eriocz ne wiliz evelhenn. Gweliz mez ha gweliz gwial, 
 
 Gweliz derven e Koat Brezal, 
 Biskoaz na weliz kemend all.
 
 438 CELTS A>*D CY31RT. 
 
 pursued him, and came into the court-yard dancing with 
 might and main, and singing, 
 
 Dilun, dimeurs, dimerclier 
 Ha diriaou, ha digwener. 
 
 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 
 And Thursday, and Friday. 
 
 Finding the door secured* they mount the roof and break 
 a hole through which they get in, and resume their dance on 
 the floor, still singing, Monday, Tuesday, etc., and calling 
 on the tailor to come and join them and they would teach 
 him a dance that would crack his back-bone, and they end 
 by telling him that the money of the Korr is good for 
 nothing. 
 
 Another version says, that it was a baker who stole the 
 treasure, and, more cunning than the tailor, he strewed the 
 floor of his house with hot ashes and cinders on which the 
 Korred burned their feet. This made them scamper off, but 
 before they went they smashed all his crockerv and earthen- 
 ware. Their words were, "In lannik-ann-lrevou's house 
 we burnt our horny feet and made a fine mess of his 
 crockery." 
 
 The following legend will explain the song of the Korred. 
 
 D.inrr attir =-ong at tfjr !\nrrrtr. 
 
 THE valley of G-oel was a celebrated haunt of the Korred.t 
 It was thought dangerous to pass through it at night lest 
 one should be forced to join in their dances, and thus 
 perhaps lose his life. One evening, however, a peasant and 
 
 * The tailor cries "Shut the door ! Here are the little Ihtz of the night " 
 (Setu aim Duzigou, nouz), and St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, c. xxiii.) speaks 
 t" " Daemones quos Duscios Galli nuncupant." It may remind us of our own 
 word Deuce. 
 
 t In the original the word is Korrigan, hut fee above, p. 431.
 
 BEITTANT. 439 
 
 Ins wife thoughtlessly did so, and they soon found them- 
 selves enveloped by the dancing sprites, who kept singing 
 
 Lez y, Lez hon, 
 Bas an arer zo gant hon ; 
 
 Lez on, Lez y, 
 Bas an arer zo gant y. 
 
 Let him go, let him go, 
 For he has the wand of the plough ; 
 
 Let her go, let her go, 
 For she has the wand of the plough. 
 
 It seems the man had in his hand thefourche, or short stick, 
 which is used as a plough-paddle in Brittany, and this was a 
 protection, for the dancers made way for them to go out of 
 the ring. 
 
 When this became known, many persons having fortified 
 themselves with a fourcJie, gratified their curiosity by wit- 
 nessing the dance of the Korred. Among the rest were two 
 tailors, Peric and Jean, who, being merry fellows, dared 
 each other to join in the dance. They drew lots, and the 
 lot fell upon Peric, a humpbacked red-haired, but bold stout 
 little fellow. He went up to the Korred and asked per- 
 mission to take share in their dance. They granted it, and 
 all went whirling round and round, singing 
 
 Dilun, Dimeurs, Dimerc'her. 
 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. 
 
 Peric, weary of the monotony, when there was a slight pause 
 at the last word, added 
 
 Ha Diriaou, ha Digwener. 
 And Thursday and Friday. 
 
 Mat ! mat ! (good ! good !) cried they, and gathering round 
 him, they offered him his choice of beauty, rank, or riches. 
 He laughed, and only asked them to remove his hump and 
 change the colour of his hair. They forthwith took hold ot 
 him and tossed him up into the air, throwing him from hand 
 to hand till at last he lighted on his feet with a flat back 
 and fine long black hair.
 
 440 CELTS AND 
 
 When Jean saw and heard of the change he resolved to 
 try what he could get from the potent Korred, so a few 
 evenings after he went and was admitted to the dance, which 
 now went to the words as enlarged by Peric. To make iia 
 addition he shouted out, 
 
 Ha Disadarn, ha DisuL 
 And Saturday and Sunday. 
 
 " What more ? what more ? " cried the Korred, but he only 
 went on repeating the words. They then asked him what 
 he would have, and he replied riches. They tossed him up, 
 and kept bandying him about till he cried for mercy, and on 
 coming to the ground, he found he had got Peric's hump and 
 red hair. 
 
 It seems that the Korred were condemned to this con- 
 tinual dancing, which was never to cease till a mortal should 
 join in their dance, and after naming all the days of the 
 week, should add, Ha cetu chu er sizun, " And now the week 
 is ended." They punished Jean for coming so near the end 
 and then disappointing them.* 
 
 We add the following circumstances from other authorities: 
 At Carnac, near Quiberon, says M. de Cambry, in the 
 department of Morbihan, on the sea-shore, is the Temple of 
 Carnac, called in Breton "Ti Groriquet" {Souse of the Gorics), 
 one of the most remarkable Celtic monuments extant. It is 
 composed of more than four thousand large stones, standing 
 erect in an arid plain, where neither tree nor shrub is to be 
 seen, and not even a pebble is to be found in the soil on 
 which they stand. If the inhabitants are asked concerning 
 this wonderful monument, they say it is an old camp of 
 Caesar's, an army turned into stone, or that it is the work, of 
 the Crions or Gorics. These they describe as little men 
 between two and three feet high, who carried these enormous 
 masses on their hands ; for, though little, they are stronger 
 than giants. Every night they dance around the stones ; 
 
 * From an article signed H Y in a cheap publication called Tiacts for 
 the People. The writer says he heard it in the neighbourhood of the Vale of 
 Goel, and it has every appearance of being genuine. Villemarque(i. 61) men 
 tions the last circumstance as to the end of the penance of the Korred.
 
 BEITTANT, 441 
 
 and vroe befcide the traveller who approaches within their 
 reach ! he is forced to join in the dance, where he is whirled 
 about till, breathless and exhausted, he falls down, amidst 
 the peals of laughter of the Crions. All vanish with the 
 break of day.* 
 
 In the ruins of Tresmalouen dwell the Courils.f They are 
 of a malignant disposition, but great lovers of dancing. At 
 night they sport around the Druidical monuments. The 
 unfortunate shepherd that approaches them must dance their 
 rounds with them till cock-crow ; and the instances are not 
 few of persons thus ensnared who have been found next 
 morning dead with exhaustion and fatigue. Woe also to the 
 ill-fated maiden who draws near the Couril dance ! nine 
 months after, the family counts one member more. Tet so 
 great is the power and cunning of these Dwarfs, that the 
 young stranger bears no resemblance to them, but they 
 impart to it the features of some lad of the village. 
 
 A number of little men, not more than a foot high, dwell 
 under the castle of Morlaix. They live in holes in the 
 ground, whither they may often be seen going, and beating 
 on basins. They possess great treasures, which they some- 
 times bring out ; and if any one pass by at the time, allow 
 him to take one handful, but no more. Should any one 
 attempt to fill his pockets, the money vanishes, and he is 
 instantly assailed by a shower of boxes in the ear from 
 invisible hands. 
 
 The Bretons also say that there are spirits who silently 
 skim the milk-pans in the dairies. They likewise speak of 
 Sand Tan y Tad (St. John and Father), who carry five lights 
 at their finger-ends, which they make spin round and round 
 like a wheel. J 
 
 There is a species of malignant beings, called Night- 
 
 * Monumens Celtiqurg, p. 2. An old sailor told M. de Cambry, that one 
 of these stones covers an immense treasure, and that these thousands of them 
 have been set up the better to conceal it. He added that a calculation, the 
 key to which was to be found in the Tower of London, would alone indicate 
 the spot where the treasure lies. 
 
 t For what follows we are indebted to the MS. communication of Dr. W, 
 Orimm. He quotes as his authority the Zeitimfj der Gcsellschafter for 1826. 
 
 J The former seems to be a house spirit, the Goblin, Follet, or Lutin ol 
 the north of France : the latter is apparently the Ignis Fatuus.
 
 442 CELTS A>*D CTilliT. 
 
 washers (Eur cnnnerez noz), who appear on the banks of 
 streams, and call on the passers-by to aid them to wash the 
 linen of the dead. If any one refuses, they drag him into 
 the water and break his arms. 
 
 About Morlaix the people are afraid of evil beings they 
 call Teurst. One of these, called Teursaponliet, appears in 
 the likeness of some domestic animal.* In the district of 
 Yannes is a colossal spirit called Teus,f or Bugemoz, who 
 appears clothed in white between midnight and two in the 
 morning. His office is to rescue victims from the Devil. He 
 epreads his mantle over them, and they are secure. The 
 Devil 3omes over the ocean ; but, unable to endure the look 
 of the good spirit, he sinks down again, and, the object of 
 the spirit accomplished, he vanishes. 
 
 * So the Yorkshire Bar-guest, 
 t See above, p. 438.
 
 SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 O faretrate Ninfe, o agresti Pan!, 
 O Satiri e Silvani, o Fauni e Driadi, 
 Najadi ed Amadriadi, e Semidee, 
 Oreadi, e Napee, or siete sole. 
 
 SANAZZABO. 
 
 the title of Southern Europe, we comprise Greece 
 and those nations whose languages are derived from the 
 Latin ; Italy, Spain, and France. Of the Fairy-system, if 
 there ever was one. of Portugal we have met with nothing, 
 at least in the works of Camoens, Bernardes, and Lobo. 
 
 The reader will, in this part of our work, find little corre- 
 sponding to the Gothic Dwarfs who have hitherto been our 
 companions. The only one of our former acquaintances 
 that will attend us is honest Hob-goblin, Brownie, Kobold, 
 Nis, or however else he may style himself. And it is very 
 remarkable that we shall meet with him only in those places 
 where the Northmen, the Visigoths or other Scandinavian 
 tribes settled. Whence perhaps it might be concluded that 
 they brought him with them to the South of Europe. 
 
 GEEECE. 
 
 at irnBlt itrfui. EL'KIPIDES. 
 
 Like a tender Nymph 
 "Within the dewy caves. 
 
 THE Grecian mythology, like its kindred systems, abounded 
 in personifications.* Modified by scenery so beautiful, rich, 
 
 * See our Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy, where (p. 237 J most of 
 what follows will be found, with notes.
 
 444 SOUTHEBN EUBOPE. 
 
 and various as Hellas presented, it in general assigned the 
 supposed intelligences who presided over the various parts 
 of external nature more pleasing attributes than they else- 
 where enjoyed. They were mostly conceived to be of the 
 female sex, and were denominated Nymphs, a word originally 
 signifying a new-married woman. 
 
 Whether it be owing to soil, climate, or to an original dis- 
 position of mind and its organ, the Greeks have above all 
 other people possessed a perception of beauty of form, and a 
 fondness for representing it. The Nymphs of various kinds 
 were therefore always presented to the imagination, in the 
 perfection of female youth and beauty. Under the various 
 appellations of Oreades, Dryades, Na'ides, Limniades, 
 Nereides, they dwelt in mountains, trees, springs, lakes, the 
 sea, where, in caverns and grottos, they passed a life whose 
 occupations resembled those of females of human race. The 
 Wood-nymphs were the companions and attendants of the 
 huntress goddess Artemis; the Sea-nymphs averted ship- 
 wreck from pious navigators ; and the Spring- and River- 
 nymphs poured forth fruitfulness on the earth. All of them 
 were honoured with prayer and sacrifice ; and all of them 
 occasionally ' mingled in love' with favoured mortals. 
 
 In the Homeric poems, the most ancient portion of 
 Grecian literature, we meet the various classes of Nymphs. 
 In the Odyssey, they are the attendants of Calypso, herself 
 a goddess and a nymph. Of the female attendants of Circe, 
 the potent daughter of Helios, also designated as a goddess 
 and a nymph, it is said, 
 
 They spring from fountains and from sacred groves, 
 And holy streams that flow into the sea. 
 
 Yet these nymphs are of divine nature, and when Zeus, the 
 father of the gods, calls together his council, 
 
 None of the streams, save Ocean, stayed away, 
 Nor of the Nymphs, who dwell in beauteous groves, 
 And springs of streams, and verdant grassy slades. 
 
 The good Eumseus prays to the Nymphs to speed the return 
 of his master, reminding them of the numerous sacrifices
 
 GREECE. 445 
 
 Ulysses had offered to them. In another part of the poem, 
 their sacred cave is thus described: 
 
 But at the harbour's head a long-leafed olive 
 
 Grows, and near to it lies a lovely cave, 
 
 Dusky and sacred to the Nymphs, whom men 
 
 Call Naides. In it large craters lie, 
 
 And two-eared pitchers, all of stone, and there 
 
 Bees build their combs. In it, too, are long looms 
 
 Of stone, and there the Nymphs do weave their robes, 
 
 Sea-purple, wondrous to behold. Aye-flowing 
 
 Waters are there ; two entrances it hath ; 
 
 That to the north is pervious unto men ; 
 
 That to the south more sacred is, and there 
 
 Men enter not, but 'tis the Immortals' path. 
 
 Yet though thus exalted in rank, the Homeric Nymphs fre- 
 quently ' blessed the bed' of heroes ; and many a warrior 
 who fought before Troy could boast descent from a Nais or 
 a Nereis. 
 
 The sweet, gentle, pious, Ocean-nymphs, who in the Pro- 
 metheus of JEschylus appear as the consolers and advisers 
 of its dignified hero, seem to hold a nearly similar relation 
 with man to the supernal gods. Beholding the misery 
 inflicted on Prometheus by the power of Zeus, they 
 cry, 
 
 May never the all-ruling 
 Zeus set his rival power 
 
 Against my thoughts ; 
 Nor may I ever fail 
 The gods, with holy feasts 
 Of sacrifices, drawing near, 
 Beside the ceaseless stream. 
 
 Of father Ocean : 
 Nor may I err in words ; 
 But this abide with me 
 
 And never fade away. 
 
 One of the most interesting species of Nymphs is the 
 Dryads, or Hamadryads, those personifications of the vege- 
 table life of plants. In the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, 
 we find the following full and accurate description of them. 
 Aphrodite, wheii she informs Anchises of her pregnancy,
 
 446 SOU1IIEBN EUROPE. 
 
 and her shame to have it known among the gods, savs of the 
 child : 
 
 But him, when first he sees the sun's clear light, 
 
 The Nymphs shall rear, the mountain-haunting Nymphs, 
 
 Deep-bosomed, who on this mountain great 
 
 And holy dwell, who neither goddesses 
 
 Nor women are. Their life is long ; they eat 
 
 Ambrosial food, and with the deathless frame 
 
 The beauteous dance. With them, in the recess 
 
 Of lovely caves, well-spying Argos-siayer 
 
 And the Sileni mix in love. Straight pines 
 
 Or oaks high-headed spring with them upon 
 
 The earth man-feeding, soon as they are born ; 
 
 Trees fair and flourishing ; on the high hills 
 
 Lofty they stand ; the Deathless' sacred grove 
 
 Men call them, and with iron never cut. 
 
 But when the fate of death is drawing near, 
 
 First wither on the earth the beauteous trees, 
 
 The bark around them wastes, the branches fall, 
 
 And the Nymph's soul at the same moment leaves 
 
 The sun's fair light. 
 
 They possessed power to reward and punish these who 
 prolonged or abridged the existence of their associate-tree. 
 In the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, Phineus thus ex- 
 plains to the heroes the cause of the poverty of Peraebius : 
 
 But he was paying the penalty laid on 
 
 Hi a father's crime ; for one tune, cutting trees 
 
 Alone among the hills, he spurned the prayer 
 
 Of the Hamadryas Nymph, who, weeping sore, 
 
 With earnest words besought him not to cut 
 
 The trunk of an oak tree, which, with herself 
 
 Coeval, had endured for many a year. 
 
 But, in the pride of youth, he foolishly 
 
 Cut it ; and to him and to his race the Nymph 
 
 Gave ever after a lot profitless. 
 
 The Scholiast gives on this passage the following tale from 
 Charon of Lampsacus : 
 
 A man, named Rhoecus, happening to see an oak just 
 ready to fall to the ground, ordered his slaves to prop it. 
 The Nymph, who had been on the point of perishing with 
 the tree, came to him and expressed her gratitude to him 
 for having saved her life, and at the same time desired him
 
 IX-LLY. 447 
 
 to ask what reward he would. Ehoecus then requested her 
 to permit him to be her lover, and the Nymph acceded to 
 his wishes. She at the same time charged him strictly to 
 avoid the society of every other woman, and told him that a 
 bee should be her messenger. One time the bee happened 
 to come to Ehoecus as he was playing at draughts, and he 
 made a rough reply. This so incensed the Nymph that she 
 deprived him of sight. 
 
 Similar was the fate of the Sicilian Daphnis.* A Nais 
 loved him and forbade him to hold intercourse with any other 
 woman under pain of loss of sight. Long he abstained, 
 though tempted by the fairest maids of Sicily. At length a 
 princess contrived to intoxicate him : he broke his vow, and 
 the threatened penalty was inflicted. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 Faune Nympharum fugientum amator, 
 Per meos fines et aprica rura 
 Lenis incedas, abeasque parvis 
 ./Equus alumnis. 
 
 HORATIUS. 
 
 UNFORTUNATELY for our knowledge of the ancient Italian 
 mythology, the ballad-poetry of Rome is irrecoverably lost. 
 A similar fate has befallen the literature of Etruria, Umbria, 
 and other parts of the peninsula. The powerful influence 
 exercised by Grecian genius over the conquerors of the 
 Grecian states utterly annihilated all that was national and 
 domestic in literature. Not but that Latin poetry abounds 
 in mythologic matter ; but it is the mythology of Greece, 
 not of Italy ; and the reader of Virgil and Ovid will observe 
 with surprise how little of what he meets in their works is 
 Italian. 
 
 So much however of the population of ancient Italy, 
 
 * Partheniui Erotica, chap. xxix.
 
 148 8OUTHEEK EUROPE. 
 
 particularly of Latium, was Pelasgian, that it is natural to 
 suppose a great similarity between the religious systems of 
 Latium and Hellas. The Latins do not, however, appear to 
 have believed in choirs of Nymphs. Those we read of, sucli 
 as Egeria, Anna Perenna, Juturna, are all solitary, al] 
 dwellers of fountains, streams, and lakes. The Italian Diana 
 did not, like the Grecian Artemia, speed over the mountains 
 attended by a train of buskined nymphs. No Dryads sought 
 to avert the fate of their kindred trees no Nereides sported 
 on the waves. 
 
 Dwarfish deities they had none. "We are indeed told of 
 the Lars, particularly the rural Lars, as answering to the 
 Gothic Dwarfs ; but no proofs are offered except the diminu- 
 tive size of their statues. This we hold to amount to 
 nothing. Are we to suppose the following lines of Plautus to 
 have been delivered by an " eyas ? " 
 
 Lest any marvel who I am, I shall 
 
 Briefly declare it. I am the family Lar 
 
 Of this house whence you see me coming out. 
 
 'Tis many years now that I keep and guard 
 
 This family ; both father and grandsire 
 
 Of him that has it now, I aye protected. 
 
 Now his grandsire intrusted me a treasure 
 
 Of gold, that I, unknown to all, should keep it. 
 
 ***** 
 
 He has one daughter, who, each day with wine 
 Or incense, or with something, worships me. 
 She gives me crowns, and I in recompense 
 Have now made Euclio find the treasure out, 
 That if he will, he may more readily 
 Get her a match.* 
 
 The Lars were a portion of the Etrurian religion. The 
 Etruscan word Lar signifies Lord, with which it has a 
 curious but casual resemblance.f The Lars were regarded, 
 like the Grecian heroes, as being the souls of men who, after 
 death, still hovered about their former abodes, averting 
 dangers from, and bestowing blessings on, the inhabitants. 
 They differed from the Penates, who were, properly speak- 
 
 Aulularia, Prologue. 
 
 f See our Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 543 ; and our Ovid's Faiti, 
 Excursus IT.
 
 ITALY. 44i) 
 
 ing, Gods, beings of a higher nature, personifications of 
 natural powers, the givers of abundance and wealth. 
 
 The old Italians, it appears, believed in a being, we know 
 not of what size, called an Incubo, that watched over trea- 
 sure. " But what they say I know not," says Petronius,* 
 but I have heard how he snatched the cap of an Incubo and 
 found a treasure." 
 
 Respecting the Fairy mythology of the modern Italians, 
 what we have been able to collect is very little. 
 
 The people of Naples, we are told,t believe in a being 
 very much resembling the Incubo, whom they call the 
 Monaciello, or Little Monk. They describe him as a short, 
 thick kind of little man, dressed in the long garments of a 
 monk, with a broad-brimmed hat. He appears to people in 
 the dead of the night, and beckons to them to follow him. 
 If they have courage to do so, he leads them to some place 
 where treasure is concealed. Several are said to have made 
 sudden fortunes through him. In the Neapolitan story-book, 
 named the Pentamerone, of which we shall presently give an 
 account, we meet with a Monaciello of a very different 
 character from this guardian of hidden treasure. 
 
 In the second tale of the first day of that work, when the 
 prince in the night heard the noise made by the Fairy in his 
 room, "he thought it was some chamber-boy coming to 
 lighten his purse for him, or some Monaciello to pull the 
 clothes off him." And in the seventh tale of the third day 
 of the same collection, when Corvetto had hidden himself 
 under the Ogre's J bed to steal his quilt, " he began to pull 
 
 * Satyricon, ch. 38. Sunt qui eumdem (Hercules) Incubonem esse velint. 
 Schol. Hor. Sat. ii. 6, 13. 
 
 ( Viessieux, Italy and the Italians, vol. i. pp. 161, 162. 
 
 J L'huorco, the Oreo of Bojardo and Ariosto, probably derived from the 
 Latin Orcus : see Mythol. of Greece and Italy, p. 527. In this derivation we 
 find that we had been anticipated by Minucci in his notes on the Malmantile 
 Bacquistato, c. ii. st. 50. 
 
 In a work, from which we have derived some information (Lettres sur les 
 Contes des Fe'es, Paris, 1826), considerable pains are taken, we think to little 
 purpose, to deduce the French Ogre from the O'igours,a Tartar tribe, who with 
 the other tribes of that people invaded Europe in the twelfth century. In the 
 Glossaire de la Langue Roniaine, Ogre is explained by Hongrois. Any one, 
 lowever, that reads the Pentamerone will see that the ugly, cruel, man-eating 
 
 a *
 
 450 8OUTHEBN ETTROPE. 
 
 quite gently, when the Ogre awoke, and bid his wife not to 
 pull the clothes that way, or she 'd strip him, and he would 
 get his death of cold." " Why, it 's you that are stripping 
 me," replied the Ogress, "and you have not left a stitch on 
 me." " Where the devil is the quilt ? " says the Ogre ; and 
 putting his hand to the gronnd, he happened to touch the 
 face of Corvette, and immediately began to shout out, " The 
 Monaciello, the Monaciello, hola ! candles ! run, run ! " 
 Corvetto, meanwhile, got off with his prize through the 
 window.* 
 
 It is quite clear that the Monaciello is the same kind ol 
 being as the House-spirit of the Gotho-Grerman nations. 
 He seems to belong peculiarly to Naples, for we have not 
 heard of him in any other part of Italy. Now we are to 
 recollect that this was the very place in which the Normans 
 settled, and so he may be their Nis or Kobold ;t or, as he 
 is so very like the Spanish Duende, he may be that being 
 introduced by the Aragonese, who seem to have exercised so 
 much influence over the language and manners of the people 
 of Naples. 
 
 The belief in Mermaids also prevailed in modern Italy. 
 In the reign of Eoger, king of Sicily, a young man happen- 
 ing to be bathing in the sea late in the evening, perceived 
 that something was following him. Supposing it to be one 
 of his companions, he caught it by the hair, and dragged it 
 on shore. But finding it to be a maiden of great beauty 
 and of most perfect form, he threw his cloak about her, and 
 took her home, where she continued with him till they had a 
 son. There was one thing however which greatly grieved 
 him, which was the reflection that so beautiful a form should 
 be dumb, for he had never heard her speak. One day he 
 was reproached by one of his companions, who said that it 
 
 Huorco is plainly an Ogre ; and those expert at the tours de passe passe of 
 etymology will be at no loss to deduce Ogre from Oreo. See Tales and Popu- 
 lar Fiction*, p. 223. 
 
 * In another of these tales, it is said of a young man, who, on breakmp 
 open a cask, found a beautiful maiden in it, that he stood for a while co/mmc o 
 c/dllo che ha visto lo Monaciello. 
 
 t See Tales and Popular Fictions, chap. is. p. 269 ; see also Spain and 
 1'rance.
 
 ITALY. 451 
 
 was a spectre, and not a real woman, that he had at home : 
 being both angry and terrified, he laid his hand on the hilt 
 of his sword, and urged her with vehemence to tell him who 
 or what she was, threatening if she did not do so, to kill the 
 child before her eyes. The spirit only saying, that he had 
 lost a good wife by forcing her to speak, instantly vanished, 
 leaving her son behind. A few years after, as the boy was 
 playing on the sea-shore with his companions, the spirit hia 
 mother dragged him into the sea, where he was drowned.* 
 
 We now come to the Fate of romance and tale. 
 The earliest notice that we can recollect to have seen of 
 these potent ladies is in the Orlando Innamorato, where we 
 meet the celebrated Fata Morgana, who would at first appear 
 to be, as a personification of Fortune, a being of a higher 
 order. 
 
 Ivi una fata nomata Morgana, 
 
 Che a le genti diverse dona 1'oro ; 
 
 Quanto e per tutto il mondo or se ne spande 
 
 Convien che ad essa prima si dimande. 
 
 L. i. c. xxv. st. 5. ed. 1831. 
 
 But we afterwards find her in her proper station, subject, 
 with the Fate and Witches, to the redoubtable Demogorgon.f 
 When Orlando, on delivering Zilante from her, makes her 
 swear by that awful power, the poet says : 
 
 Sopra ogni fata e quel Demogorgone 
 (Non so se mai 1'odiste raccontare) 
 E giudica tra loro e fa ragione, 
 E quel che piace a lui pud di lor fare. 
 La notte si cavalca ad un montone, 
 Travarca le montagne e passa il mare, 
 E strigie, e fate, e fantasinie vane 
 Batte con serpi vive ogni dimane. 
 
 Se le ritrova la dimane al mondo. 
 Perche non ponno al giorno comparire, 
 Tanto le batte al colpo furibondo 
 Che volentier vorrien poter morire. 
 
 * Vincentius apud Kornmann, de Miraculis Vivorum. 
 f This being, unknown to classic mythology, is first mentioned by Lactan- 
 this. It was probably from Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum that Bojardo got 
 his knowledge of him. 
 
 GG2
 
 452 SOUTIIEBff EUROPE. 
 
 Or le incatena gift nel mar profondo, 
 Or sopra il vento scalze le fa gire, 
 Or per il fuoco dietro a se le mena ; 
 A cui da questa, a cui quell' altra pena. 
 
 L. H. c. xiii. st. 27, 23. 
 
 According to Ariosto,* Demogorgon has a splendid temple 
 palace in the Himalaya mountains, whither every fifth 
 year the Fate are all summoned to appear before him, 
 and give an account of their actions. They travel through 
 the air in various strange conveyances, and it is no easy 
 matter to distinguish between their convention and a Sabbath 
 of the Witches. 
 
 "We meet with another Fata in Bojardo,f the beautiful 
 Silvanella, who raised a tomb over Narcissus, and then dis- 
 solved away into a fountain. 
 
 When Brandamarte opens the magnificent tomb and kisses 
 the hideous serpent that thrusts out its head, it gradually 
 becomes a beautiful maiden. 
 
 Questa era Febosilla quella fata, 
 
 Che edificato avea 1'alto palaccio 
 
 E '1 bel giardino e quella sepoltura, 
 
 Ove un gran tempo e stata in pena dura. 
 
 Perche una fata non pud morir mai, 
 Sin che non giunge il giorno del giudizio, 
 Ma ben ne la sua forma dura assai, 
 Mill* anni o piu, si come io aggio indizio. 
 Poi (siccome di questa io vi contai 
 Qua! fabbricato avea il bell' edifizio) 
 In serpe si tramuta e stawi tanto 
 Che di baciarla alcuii si doni il vanto. 
 
 L. u. c. xx vi. st. 14, 15 
 
 The other Fate who appear in this poem are Le Fate 
 Nera and Bianca, the protectresses of Gkiidone and Aquilante; 
 the Fata della Fonte, from whom Mandricardo obtains the 
 arms of Hector, and finally Alcina, the sister of Morgana, 
 who carries off Astolfo. Dragontina and Falerina, the 
 owners of such splendid gardens, may also have been Fate, 
 though they are not called so by the poet. 
 
 I Cinque Canti, c. i. st. 1 . seq. f Lib. ti. xvii. 56, seq.
 
 ITALY. 453 
 
 Alcina re-appears in great splendour in the Orlando 
 Furioso, where she is given a sister named Logistilla, an? 
 both, like Morgana in the preceding poem, are in a great 
 measure allegorical. "We also obtain there a glimpse of the 
 White and Black Fate. The Maga Manto of Dante be- 
 comes here a Fata, and we meet her in the form of a serpent ; 
 to account for which she says, 
 
 Nascemmo ad un punto che d' ogni altro male 
 
 Siamo capaci fuor che della morte. 
 
 Ma giunta e con questo essere immortale 
 
 Condizioa non men del morir forte ; 
 
 Ch' ogni settimo giorno ognuna d certa 
 
 Che la sua forma in biscia si converta. 
 
 C. xliiL st 98. 
 
 Elsewhere (x. 52) the poet tells us that 
 
 Morir non puote alcuna fata mai 
 
 Fin che il Sol gira, o il ciel non muta stilo. 
 
 In the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso the Fate appear for 
 the last time in Italian poetry;* but in greater number, 
 and, we may say, greater splendour than elsewhere. There 
 are two classes of them, the beneficent and protective, and 
 the seductive and injurious. The terms Maga and Incan- 
 tatrice, as well as Fata, are applied to them all indifferently. 
 The good Fairy-ladies are TJrganda, termed La savia and 
 La sconosciuta,^ the guardian of Amadigi, and the fair 
 Oriana ; Silvana or Silvanella who stands in a similar rela- 
 tion to Alidoro ; Lucina, also named La Donna del Lago, 
 another protectress of Alidoro and of his lady-love, the fair 
 warrior Mirinda, sister of Amadigi ; Eufrosina, the sister ot 
 Lucina ; Argea, called La Eeina della Fate, the protectress 
 of Floridante, to whom, after making him undergo various 
 trials, she gives her daughter Filidora in marriage ; finally, 
 Argea' s sister Filidea. The Fate whose character resembles 
 that of Alcina are Morganetta, Nivetta, and Carvilia, the 
 
 * There is, however, a Maga or Fata named Falsirena in the Adone of 
 Marini. 
 
 t La Sabia and La Desconocida of the original romance, which Taw 
 follows very closely in everything relating to Amadis and Oriana.
 
 454 SOUTHERN ETTBOPE. 
 
 three daughters of Morgana. Beside these then are two Fate 
 of neutral character, Dragontina, who formed a palace, temple 
 and gardens, in which, at the desire of her father, she 
 enchanted a young prince and his wife ; and Montana, who, 
 to avenge the fate of her lover, slain hy Alidoro, enchanted 
 that warrior in a temple which she had raised to the memory 
 of the fallen.* 
 
 Ma veggiam ch' io non stessi troppo a bada 
 Con qucste Alcine e Morgane. 
 
 The earliest collections of European Fairy-tales in prose 
 belong to Italy. In 1550, Straparola, a native of Caravaggio, 
 in the Milanese, published at Venice his Notti Piacevoli, a 
 collection of tales, jokes, and riddles, of which several, and 
 those the best, are Fairy-tales. These were translated into 
 French in 1560-76, and seem to have been the origin of the 
 so well known Contes des Fees. Perrault's Puss in Boots 
 (Le Ghat JSotte,) and the Princess Fairstar (Belle Etoile?) 
 and many others of Madame D'Aulnoy's, who borrowed 
 largely from the Notti Piacevoli, are to be found in Straparola. 
 In 1637, eighty-seven years after the Notti Piacevoli 
 appeared at Naples, and in the Neapolitan dialect, the 
 Pentamerone, the best collection of Fairy-tales ever written, t 
 The author, Giambattista Basile,J had spent his youth in 
 Candia, and then passed several years rambling through 
 Italy. He seems to have carefully treasured up all the tales 
 
 * Few of our readers, we presume, are acquainted with this poem, and they 
 will perhaps be surprised to learn that it is, after the Furioso, the most beau- 
 tiful romantic poem in tbe Italian language, graceful and sweet almost to 
 excess. It is strange that it should be neglected in Italy also. One cause 
 may be its length (One Hundred Cantos), another the constant and inartificial 
 breaking off of the stories, and perhaps the chief one, its serious moral tone so 
 different from that of Ariosto. It might be styled The Legend of Constancy, 
 for the love of its heroes and heroines is proof against all temptations. Mr. 
 Panizzi's charge of abounding in scandalous stories, is not correct, for it is in 
 reality more delicate than even the Faerie Queene. Ginguene, who admired 
 it, appreciates it far more justly. 
 
 t See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 183. The Pentamerone we may 
 observe, was not a title given to it by the author ; in like manner the only 
 title Fielding gave his great work was The History of a Foundling. 
 
 t He was brother to Adriana aid uncle to Leonora Baroni, the ladies whoM 
 musical talents Milton celebrate*.
 
 ITALY. 455 
 
 he heard, and he wrote and published them, under the 
 feigned name of Gian Alesio Abbatutis, in his native dialect, 
 not long before his death. 
 
 In the Tales and Popular Fictions we gave some trans- 
 lations from the Notti Piacevoli, the only ones in English, 
 and they will probably remain such, as the work is not one 
 likely ever to be translated. In the same work we gave two 
 from the Pentamerone, and three (the Dragon, G-agliuso, and 
 the Groatface) in the former edition of the present work. 
 Most certainly we were the first to render any of these 
 curious tales into English, and we look back with a mixture 
 of pleasure and surprise at our success in the unaided 
 struggle with an idiom so different from the classic Italian.* 
 We fancied that we had been the first to make translations 
 from it into any language, but we afterwards learned that of 
 the two tales in our other work, the one, Peruonto, had been 
 translated into French (probably by the Abbe Galiani) for 
 the Cabinet des Fees, the other, the Serpent into German, 
 by M. Grimm.f Of late, this most original work has been 
 brought within the reach of ordinary readers by two trans- 
 lations, the one in German by Felix Liebrecht, who has given 
 the work complete with few omissions ; the other in English 
 by Mr. J. E. Taylor, who has made a selection of thirty tales, 
 and these most carefully expurgated, in order that agreeably 
 to its second title, it might form a book of amusement even 
 for children a most difficult task, and in which his success 
 has been far greater than might have been anticipated. All 
 our own translations have been incorporated in it, and we can 
 safely refer to it those who wish to know the real character 
 and nature of the Pentamerone. 
 
 Whatever name Basile might give his book it is quite 
 plain that he never could have meant it merely for children. 
 The language alone is proof enough on that head. It is, 
 besides, full of learned allusions and of keen satire, so that it 
 
 * Ex.gr. Fiutne it thiume; Fiore, ahiure ; Piaggia, chiaja ; Piombo, 
 ehiummo ; Biondo, gkiunno. There are likewise numerous Hispanicisms. 
 Thus gaiola in Gagliuso which we all rendered coffin, is the Spanish jaula, 
 cage, and the meaning apparently is that he would have the cat stuffed and pu 
 in a glass-case ; in like manner calling the eyes suns (as in na belleZM a dcjl 
 tole) occurs in the plays of Calderon. 
 
 f In the Taschenburh fiir altdeuUcher Zeit und Kunst, 1816.
 
 456 SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 could only be understood and relished by grown persons, for 
 whose amusement it was apparently designed ; and its tales 
 are surely not much more extravagant than some of those in 
 Ariosto and the other romantic poets. It in fact never waa 
 a child's book like the Contes de ma Mere 1' Oie. It haa 
 now become very scarce; we could not at Naples meet 
 with a copy of it, or even with any one who had read it. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Duendecillo, duendecillo, 
 Quien quiera que seas 6 fueras, 
 El dinero que tu das 
 En lo que mandares ruelve. 
 
 C.VLDEBOX, La Dama Duende. 
 
 we inquired after the fairy-system of Spain, we 
 were told that there was no such thing, for that the Inqui- 
 sition had long since eradicated all such ideas. Most 
 certainly we would not willingly be regarded as partisans of 
 the Holy Office, yet still we must express our doubt of the 
 truth of this charge. In Senor Llorente's work, as far as 
 we can recollect, there is no account of prosecutions for 
 Duende-heresy ; and even to the Holy Office we should 
 give its due. Still, with all our diligence, our collection of 
 Iberian fairy-lore is extremely scanty. 
 
 Our earliest authority for Spain, as for other countries, is 
 the celebrated marshall of Champagne, Gervase of Tilbury, 
 who thus relates : 
 
 at |}ctcr 2Jc Caitnam. 
 
 IK the bishop rick of G-erunda (i. e. G-erona), and the pro- 
 vince of Catalonia, stands a mountain which the natives call 
 Convagum. It is very steep, and on its summit is a lake of
 
 SPAIN. 457 
 
 dark water, so deep that it cannot be fathomed. The abode 
 of the Demons is in this lake ; and if a stone, or anything 
 else, be thrown into it, there rises from it an awful tempest. 
 Not far from this mountain, in a village named Junchera, 
 lived a man named Peter de Cabinam, who being one day 
 annoyed by the crying of his little girl, wished in his anger 
 that the Demons might fetch her away. The child instantly 
 vanished snatched away by invisible hands and was seen 
 no more. Time passed on ; and it was seven years after 
 this event, when a man belonging to the village, as he was 
 one day rambling about the foot of the mountain, met a 
 man weeping bitterly, and bewailing his hard fate. On 
 inquiry, he said that he had now been seven years in the 
 mountain under the power of the Demons, who employed 
 him as a beast of burden. He added, that there was also a 
 girl in the mountain, the daughter of Peter de Cabinam of 
 Junchera, a servant like himself; but that they were tired 
 of her, and would restore her to her father if he came to 
 claim her. When this information came to Peter de Cabi- 
 nam, he forthwith ascended the mountain, and going to the 
 edge of the lake, he besought the Demons to give him back 
 his child. Like a sudden gust of wind she came, tall in 
 stature, but wasted and dirty, her eyes rolling wildly, and 
 her speech inarticulate. The father, not knowing what to 
 do with her, applied to the Bishop of Gerunda, who took 
 this opportunity of edifying his people by exhibiting the 
 girl to them, and warning them against the danger of wishing 
 that the Demons had their children. Some time after the 
 man also was released, and from him the people learned that 
 at the bottom of the lake there was a large palace, with a 
 wide gate, to which palace the Demons repaired from all 
 parts of the world, and which no one could enter but them- 
 selves, and those they brought thither.* 
 
 * Otia Imperialia, p. 982, The Demong must have been acme kind of 
 fairies : see above, p. 4.
 
 458 SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 t0ut of tljc $ourfc cf 
 
 As Don Diego Lopez, lord of Biscay, was one day lying 
 in wait for the wild boar, he heard the voice of a woman 
 who was singing. On looking around, he beheld on the 
 summit of a rock a damsel, exceedingly beautiful, and richly 
 attired. Smitten with her charms, he proffered her his 
 hand. In reply, she assured him that she was of high 
 descent, but frankly accepted his proffered hand ; making, 
 however, one condition he was never to pronounce a holy 
 name. Tradition says that the fair bride had only one 
 defect, which was, that one of her feet was like that of a 
 goat. Diego Lopez, however, loved her well, and she bore 
 him two children, a daughter, and a son named Iniguez 
 Guerra. 
 
 Now it happened one day, as they were sitting at dinner, 
 that the lord of Biscay threw a bone to the dogs, and a 
 mastiff and a spaniel quarrelled about it, and the spaniel 
 griped the mastiff by the throat, and throttled him. " Holy 
 Mary ! " exclaimed Don Diego, " who ever saw the like ? " 
 Instantly the lady caught hold of the hands of her children ; 
 Diego seized and held the boy, but the mother glided through 
 the air with the daughter, and sought again the mountains 
 whence she had come. Diego remained alone with his son ; 
 and some years after, when he invaded the lands of the 
 Moors, he was made captive by them, and led to Toledo. 
 Iniguez Guerra, who was now grown up, was greatly grieved 
 at the captivity of his father, and the men of the land told 
 him that his only hope was to find his mother, and obtain 
 her aid. Iniguez made no delay ; he rode alone to the well- 
 known mountains, and when he reached them, behold ! his 
 fairy-mother stood there before him on the summit of a rock. 
 " Come unto me," said she, "for well do I know thy errand." 
 And she called to her Pardalo, the horse that ran without a 
 rider in the mountains, and she put a bridle into his mouth, 
 and bade Iniguez mount him, and told him that he must not
 
 SPAIN. 459 
 
 give him either food or water, or unsaddle or unbridle him, 
 or put shoes upon his feet, and that in one day the demon- 
 steed would carry him to Toledo. And Iniguez obeyed the 
 injunctions of his mother, and succeeded in liberating his 
 father ; but his mother never returned.* 
 
 In the large collection of Spanish ballads named El 
 Komancero Castellano, the only one that treats of fairy-lore 
 is the following, which tells of the enchantment of the King 
 of Castille's daughter by seven fairies, t for a period of seven 
 years. It is of the same character as the fairy-tales of France 
 and Italy. 
 
 il.i Infantine. 
 
 A CAZAB va el caballero, 
 A cazar como solia. 
 Los perros lleva cansados, 
 El falcon perdido avia. 
 
 Arrimarase a un roble, 
 Alto es a maravilla, 
 En un ramo mas alto 
 Viera estar una Infantina. 
 
 Cabellos de su cabeza 
 Todo aquel roble cobrian ; 
 " No te espantes, caballero 
 Ni tengas tamana grima. 
 
 '' Hija soy del buen rey 
 Y de la reina de Castilla ; 
 Siete fadas me fadaron,J 
 En brazos de una ama mia, 
 
 * Related by Sir Francis Palgrave, but without giving any authority, in 
 the Quarterly Review, vol. xxii. See France. 
 
 f In Don Quixote (part i. chap. 50) we read of "los siete castillos de las 
 liete Fadas " beneath the lake of boiling pitch, and of the fair princess wno 
 was enchanted in one of them. 
 
 J Fada is certainly the elided part, of this verb, for the Latin mode ol
 
 460 SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 " Que andase loa siete afioe 
 Sola en esta montina.* 
 Hoy se cumplan los anoa 
 mafiana, en aquel dia. 
 
 " For Dios te ruego, caballero 
 Llevesme en tu compania, 
 Si quisieres por muger, 
 Si no sea por amiga." 
 
 " Espereis me vos, senora, 
 Esta manana, aquel dia ; 
 Ire yo tomar consejo 
 De una madre que tenia." 
 
 La nina le respondiera, 
 T estas palabras, decia : 
 " mal haya el caballero 
 ( Que sola deja la nina ! " 
 
 El se va a tomar consejo, 
 T ella queda en la montina. 
 Aconsejdle su madre 
 Que la tomase por amiga. 
 
 Quando volvid el caballero 
 No la hallara en la montina. 
 Tio la que la llevaban, 
 Com muy grande caballeria. 
 
 El caballero, que lo ha visto, 
 En el suelo se caia. 
 Desque en si hubo tornado 
 Estas palabras decia : 
 
 elision (see above p. 7.) was retained in Spanish as well as Italian. Thus quedo, 
 jwnto, harto, marchito, vacio, enjuto, violento, &c., come from quedar, juntar, 
 hartar, &c. As the Spanish, following the Latin, also frequently uses the 
 past as a present participle, as un hombre atrevido, "a daring man;" and the 
 same appears to take place in Italian, as un Iiuomo accorto, saputo, aweduto, 
 dupietato and even in French, as un homme rfftechi, disespire ; may we 
 not say that fada, fata, fee, is enchanting rather than enchanted ? 
 * Montina is a small wood.
 
 SPAIN. 461 
 
 " Caballero que tal pierde 
 Muy grandes penas merecia. 
 To mismo sere el alcalde, 
 To me sere la justicia, 
 Que me cortan pies y manos, 
 Y me arrastran por fa villa."* 
 
 $Jqptto tl Carcabatra. 
 
 PEPITO EL CoECOVADO,t a gay lively little hunchback, used 
 to gain his living by his voice and his guitar ; for he was a 
 general favourite, and -was in constant request at weddings 
 and other festivities. He was going home one night from 
 one of these festive occasions, being under engagement for 
 another in the morning, and, as it was in the celebrated 
 Sierra Morena, he contrived to lose his way. After trying 
 in vain to find it, he wrapped his cloak about him, and lay 
 down for the night at the foot of a cork-tree. He had 
 hardly, however, gone to sleep, when he was awakened by 
 the sound of a number of little voices singing to an old air 
 with which he was well acquainted, 
 
 Lunes y Martes y Miercoles tres 
 
 over and over again. Deeming this to be imperfect, he 
 struck in, adding, 
 
 Jueves y Viernes y Sabado seis. 
 
 The little folk were quite delighted, and for hours thq 
 mountain rang with 
 
 Lunes y Martes y Miercoles tres, 
 Jueves y Viernes y Sabado seis. 
 
 Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday three, 
 Thursday and Friday and Saturday, six. 
 
 * Romancero Castellano por Depping, ii.p. 198, 2nd edit. A translation of 
 this romance will be found in Thorns' s Lays and Legends of Spain. 
 
 f- i.e. Joey the Hunchback. Pepito is the dim. of Pepc, i.e. Jose, Joseph.
 
 462 SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 They finally crowded round Pepito, and bade him ask what 
 he would for having completed their song so beautifully. 
 After a little consideration, he begged to have his hump 
 removed. So said so done, he was in an instant one of the 
 straightest men in all Spain. On his return home, every 
 one was amazed at the transformation. The story soon got 
 wind, and another hunchback, named Cirillo, but unlike 
 Pepito, as crooked in temper as in person, having learned 
 from him where the scene of his adventure lay, resolved to 
 proceed thither and try his luck. He accordingly reached 
 the spot, sat under the cork-tree, and saw and heard all that 
 Pepito had heard and seen. He resolved also to add to the 
 song, and he struck in with " Y Domingo siete" (and Sunday 
 seven) ; but whether it was the breach of rhythm, or the 
 mention of the Lord's Day that gave offence, he was 
 instantly assailed with a shower of blows or pinches, and to 
 make his calamity the greater, Pepito' s hump was added to 
 his own.* 
 
 We thus may see that there are beings in Spain also 
 answering to the various classes of Fairies. But none of 
 these have obtained the same degree of reputation as the 
 House-spirit, whose Spanish name is Duende or Trasgo. In 
 Torquemada's Spanish Mandeville, as the old English version 
 of it is named, there is a section devoted to the Duende, in 
 which some of his feats, such as pelting people with stones, 
 clay, and such like, are noticed, and in the last century the 
 learned Father Feijoo wrote an essay on Duendes,f i.e. on 
 House-spirits ; for he says little of the proper Spanish 
 Duende, and his examples are Hodiken and the Kobolds, of 
 
 * See Thoms's Lays and Legends of Spain, p. 83. It was related, he says, 
 to a friend of his by the late Sir John Malcolm, who had heard it in Spain. 
 It is also briefly related (probably on the same authority) in the Quarterly 
 Review, vol. xxii. (see above pp. 364, 438). Redi, in his Letters, gives another 
 form of it, in which the scene is at Benevento, the agents are witches, and 
 the hump is taken off, senza verun suo dolor, with a saw of butter. Y 
 Domingo siete is, we are told, a common phrase when any thing is said or 
 done mal a propos. 
 
 f- Teatro Critico, torn. ii. His object is to disprove their existence, and he 
 very justly says that the Duende was usually a knavish servant who had his 
 own reasons for making a noise and disturbing the family. This theory wit 
 ftlso explain the Duende-tales of Torquemada.
 
 SPAIN. 403 
 
 which he had read in Agricola and other writers. On the 
 whole, perhaps, the best account of the Duende will be 
 found in Calderon's spritely comedy, named La Dama 
 Duende. 
 
 In this piece, when Cosme, who pretends that he had 
 seen the Duende when he put out his candle, is asked by his 
 master what he was like, he replies : 
 
 Era un fraile 
 Tamanito, y tcnia puesto 
 Un cucurucho tamano ; 
 Que por estas senas creo 
 Que era duende capuchino. 
 
 This cucurucho was a long conical hat without a brim 
 worn by the clergy in general, : nd not by the Capuchins 
 alone. A little before, Cosme, when seeking to avert the 
 appearance of the Duende, recites the following lines, which 
 have the appearance of being formed from some popular 
 charm against the House-spirit : 
 
 Senora dama duende, 
 Duelase de mi ; 
 Que soy nino y solo, 
 Y nunca en tal me vL 
 
 In De Solis' very amusing comedy of Un Bobo hace 
 Ciento, Dona Ana makes the following extremely pretty 
 application of the popular idea of the Duende : 
 
 Yo soy, don Luis, una dama 
 Que no conozco este duende 
 Del amor, si no es por fama. 
 
 In another of his plays (El Amor al Uso'), a lady says : 
 
 Amor es duende importuno 
 Que al mundo asombrando trae ; 
 Todos dicen que le ay, 
 Y no le ha visto ninguno. 
 
 The lines from Calderon prefixed to this section of our 
 work, show that money given by the Duende was as unsub- 
 stantial as fairy-money in general. This is confirmed by 
 Don Quixote, who tells his rather covetous squire, that " los
 
 464 SOUTHERN EITBOl'E. 
 
 tesoros de los caballeros andantes son, como los de los 
 Duendes, aparentes y falsos." 
 
 The Spaniards seem also to agree with the people of other 
 countries in regarding the Fairies as being fallen angels. 
 One of their most celebrated poets thus expresses himself: 
 
 Disputase por hombres entendidos 
 Si fuc de los caidos este duende. 
 
 Some Spanish etymologists say that Duende is a contrac- 
 tion of Dueno de casa ; others, that it comes from the Arabic 
 Duar, (dwelling) the term used for the Arab camps on the 
 north-coast of Africa. To us it appears more probable that 
 the Visigoths brought their ancient popular creed with them 
 to Spain * also, and that as Duerg became Drac in Pro- 
 vence, it was converted into Duende in Spain.f It is further 
 not quite impossible that Duerg may be also the original o* 
 Trasgo, a word for which we believe no etymon has beer; 
 proposed. 
 
 * See Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 269. 
 
 ( The change of r and n is not without examples. Thus we have 
 tpyvpov and argentum ; water, English; vand, Danish; vatn, Swedish. 
 Oriitofero is Cristofano in Tuscan ; homine, nomine, sanguine, are hombre, 
 nombre, sangre, Spanish. In Duerg when r hecame n, euphony changed g 
 to d t or vice versa. The changes words undergo when the derivation is 
 certain, are often curious. Alguacil, Spanish, is El-weseer A rah, as Azucena 
 Spanish, Cecem Portuguese (white-lily) is Susan Arab; Guancia (cheek) Italian, 
 is Wange German ; NUWTOICTOS has become Lepanto. It might not he safe 
 to assert that the Persian gurk and our wolf are the same, and yet the letters 
 in them taken in order are all comniutable. Our God be with you has shrunk 
 to Goodbye, and the Spanish Vuestra merced to Usted, pr. Uste. There must, 
 by the way, some time or other, have been an intimate connexion between 
 Spain and England, so many of our familiar words seem to have a Spanish 
 origin. Thus ninny is from nino : booby from 6060 ; pucker from pucfiero ; 
 launch (a boat) from lancha ; and perhaps monkey (if not from mannikin) 
 from mono, monico. We pronounce our colonel like the Spanish corond.
 
 4C5 
 
 FKANCE. 
 
 Poorqaoi faut-il s'emorveiller 
 Que la raison la mieux senses, 
 I.osse souvent de veiller, 
 Far des contes d'ogre et de fte 
 Ingenieusement bercee, 
 Prenne plaisir a sommeiller ? 
 
 PEEEAULT. 
 
 THE Fairy mythology of France may be divided, as respects 
 . its locality, into two parts, that of Northern and that of 
 Southern France, the Langue d'Oil and the Langue d'Oc. 
 We will commence with the latter, as adjacent to Spain. Of 
 its mythology, Grervase of Tilbury, who resided in the king- 
 dom of Aries, has left us some interesting particulars, and 
 other authorities enable us to trace it down to the present 
 day. Speaking of the inhabitants of Aries, Gervase thus 
 expresses himself: 
 
 " They also commonly assert, that the Dracs assume the 
 human form, and come early into the public market-place 
 without any one being thereby disturbed. These, they say, 
 have their abode in the caverns of rivers, and occasionally, 
 floating along the stream in the form of gold rings or cups, 
 entice women or boys who are bathing on the banks of the 
 river ; for, while they endeavour to grasp what they see, they 
 are suddenly seized and dragged down to the bottom : and 
 this, they say, happens to none more than to suckling women, 
 who are taken by the Dracs to rear their unlucky offspring ; 
 and sometimes, after they have spent seven years there, they 
 return to our hemisphere. These women say that they lived 
 with the Dracs and their wives in ample palaces, in the 
 caverns and banks of rivers. We have ourselves seen one of 
 these women, who was taken away while washing clothes on 
 the banks of the Ehone. A wooden bowl floated along by 
 her, and, in endeavouring to catch it, having got out into the
 
 460 SOUTHERN 
 
 deep water, she was carried down by a Drac, and made nurse 
 to his son below the water. She returned uninjured, and 
 was hardly recognised by her husband and friends after seven 
 years' absence. 
 
 " After her return she related very wonderful things, such 
 as that the Dracs lived on people they had carried off, and 
 turned themselves into human forms ; and she said that one 
 day, when the Drac gave her an eel-pasty to eat, she hap- 
 pened to put her fingers, that were greasy with the fat, to 
 one of her eyes and one side of her face, and she immediately 
 became endowed with most clear and distinct vision under the 
 water. When the third year of her time was expired, and 
 she had returned to her family, she very early one morning 
 met the Drac in the market-place of Beaucaire. She knew 
 him at once, and saluting him, inquired about the health of 
 her mistress and the child. To this the Drac replied, 
 ' Harkye,' said he, ' with which eye do you see me ? ' She 
 pointed to the eye she had touched with the fat : the Drac 
 immediately thrust his finger into it, and he was no longer 
 visible to any one."* 
 
 Eespecting the Dracs, Grervase farther adds : 
 " There is also on the banks of the Ehone, under a guard- 
 house, at the North-gate of the city of Aries, a great pool of 
 the river. ... In these deep places, they say that the Dracs 
 are often seen of bright nights, in the shape of men. A few 
 years ago there was, for three successive days, openly heard 
 the following words in the place outside the gate of the city, 
 which I have mentioned, while the figure as it were of a man 
 ran along the bank : ' The hour is passed, and the man does 
 not come.' On the third day, about the ninth hour, while 
 that figure of a man raised his voice higher than usual, a 
 young man ran simply to the bank, plunged in, and was 
 swallowed up ; and the voice was heard no more." 
 
 The word Drac is apparently derived from Draco ; but we 
 are inclined to see its origin in the Northern Duerg. We 
 must recollect that the Visigoths long occupied Provence 
 and Languedoc. It is, we apprehend, still in use. Fa Je 
 Drac, in Provenc,al, signifies Faire le diable.^ Goudelin, a 
 
 Otia Imperialia, p. 987 : see above p. 302 et alib. 
 f Like the Irish Play tlte Puck, above, p. 371.
 
 FRANCE. 46V 
 
 Proven9al poet of the seventeenth century, begins his Caste 
 en 1'Ayre with these lines : 
 
 Belomen qu' yeufarS U Drac 
 Se jamay trobi dins un sac 
 Cine 6 sies mil ante pistolos 
 Espessos como de redolos. 
 
 The following curious narrative also occurs in Gervase's 
 work, and might seem to belong to Provence : 
 
 " Seamen tell that one time as a ship was sailing in the 
 Mediterranean sea, which sea we call ours, she was sur- 
 rounded by an immense number of porpoises (delphinos), and 
 that when an active young man, one of the crew, had wounded 
 one of them with a weapon, and all the rest of them had 
 rapidly sought the bottom, a sudden and awful tempest 
 enveloped the ship. While the sailors were in doubt of their 
 lives, lo ! one in the form of a knight came borne on a steed 
 on the sea, and demanded that, for the salvation of all the 
 rest, the person who had wounded the porpoise should be 
 delivered up to him. The sailors were in an agony between 
 their own danger and their aversion to expose their comrade 
 to death, which seemed to them to be most cruel, and they 
 thought it infamous to consult their own safety at the 
 expense of the life of another. At last the man himself, 
 deeming it better that all should be saved at the cost of one, 
 as they were guiltless, than that such a number of people 
 should run the risk of destruction on account of his folly, 
 and lest by defending him they should become guilty, devoted 
 himself to the death he merited, and voluntarily mounted 
 the horse behind the rider, who went over the firm water, 
 taking his road along it as if it had been the solid land, la 
 a short time he reached a distant region, where he found 
 lying in a magnificent bed the knight whom he had wounded 
 the day before as a porpoise. He was directed by his guide 
 to pull out the weapon which was sticking in the wound, and 
 when he had done so, the guilty right hand gave aid to the wound. 
 This being done, the sailor was speedily brought back to the 
 ship, and restored to his companions. Hence it is, that fron: 
 that time forth sailors have ceased to hunt the porpoises."* 
 
 Otia Tmper. p. 981 : see above, p. 394. It does not appear that the 
 bode ot these ponxrnc-knights was beneath the water. 
 
 n H 2
 
 468 SOUTHERN EUKOPJB. 
 
 Gervase also describes the Kobold, or House-spirit, the 
 Esprit Follet, or Goblin of the North of France. 
 
 " There are," says he, " other demons, commonly called 
 Follets, who inhabit the houses of simple country people, 
 and can be kept away neither by water nor exorcisms ; and 
 as they are not seen, they pelt people as they are going in 
 at the door with stones, sticks, and domestic utensils. Their 
 words are heard like those of men, but their form does not 
 appear. I remember to have met several wonderful stories 
 of them in the Vita Abbreviata, et Miraculis beatissimi 
 Antonii."* 
 
 Elsewheret he speaks of the beings which he says are 
 called Lamiae, who, he relates, are used to enter houses siid- 
 denly, ransack the jars and tubs, pots and pitchers, take the 
 children out of the cradles, light lamps or candles, and 
 sometimes oppress those who are sleeping. 
 
 Either Gervase mistook, or the Fadas of the south of 
 France were regarded as beings different from mankind. The 
 former is, perhaps, the more likely supposition. He thus 
 speaks of them : " This, indeed, we know to be proved even- 
 day by men who are beyond all exception; that we have heard 
 of some who were lovers of phantoms of this kind, J which 
 they call Fadas ; and when they married other women, they 
 died before consummating the marriage. We have seen most 
 of them live in great temporal felicity, who when they with- 
 drew themselves from the embraces of these Fadas, or dis- 
 covered the secret, lost not only their temporal prosperity, 
 but even the comfort of wretched life." 
 
 " In the legend of St. Armentaire, composed about 1300, 
 by Raymond, a gentleman of Provence, we read of the Fee 
 Esterelle, and of the sacrifices to her, who used to give 
 barren women beverages to drink, to make them fruitful ; 
 and of a stone called La Lauza de la Fada ; that is the Fairy- 
 stone on which they used to sacrifice to her." || 
 
 Otia Imper. p. 897. See above p. 407. Orthone, the House-spirit, who, 
 according to Froissart, attended the Lord of Corasse, in Gaacony, resembled 
 Hinzeltnann in many points. + Ibid. 
 
 t Hujusmodi larvarum. He classes the Fadas with Sylvans and Pans. 
 
 P. 989. Speaking of the wonderful horse of Giraldus de Cabreriit f 
 Oervase says, Si Fadus erat, i. e. says Leibnitz, incantatus, ut Fadce, Fatce, 
 PP'CS. 
 
 i. Cambry, Monumens Critiques, p. 342. The author says, that Esterelle,
 
 FRANCE. 469 
 
 Even at the present day the belief in the Fadas seems to 
 linger in Provence and the adjoining districts. 
 
 " On the night of the 31st of December," says Du Mege,* 
 the " Fees (Hadas) enter the dwellings of their worshipers. 
 They bear good-luck in their right, ill-luck in their left-hand. 
 Care has been taken to prepare for them in a clean retired 
 room, such a repast as is suited to them. The doors and 
 windows are left open ; a white cloth is laid on a table with 
 a loaf, a knife, a vessel full of water or wine, and a cup. A 
 lighted candle or wax taper is set in the centre of the table. 
 It is the general belief that those who present them with 
 the best food may expect all kinds of prosperity for their 
 property and their family ; while those who acquit them- 
 selves grudgingly of their duty toward the Fees, or who 
 neglect to make preparations worthy of these divinities, may 
 expect the greatest misfortunes." 
 
 From the following passage of the Koman de Guillaume 
 au Court-Nez it would appear that three was the number 
 of the Hadas. 
 
 Coustume avoient les gens, par veritez, 
 Et en Provence et en autres regnez. 
 Tables m6toient et sieges ordenez, 
 Et sur la table iij blans pains buletez, 
 lij poz de vins et iij henez de les 
 Et par encoste iert li enfes posez.-f* 
 
 as well as all the Fairies, was the moon. This we very much doubt. He 
 derives her name from the Breton Escler, Brightness, Lauza, from Lac'h 
 (Irish Clock), a flat stone. 
 
 * Monuments religieux des Voices Tectosages, ap. Mile. Bosquet, Nor- 
 mandie, etc., p. 92 : see above, pp. 161, 342. 
 
 f- See Leroux de Lincy, ap. Mile. Bosquet, p. 93, who adds " In Lower 
 Normandy, in the arrondissement of Bayeux, they never neglect laying a table 
 for the protecting genius of the babe about to be born ;" see our note on Virg. 
 Buc. iv. 63. In a collection of decrees of Councils made by Burchard of 
 Worms, who died in 1024, we read as follows : " Fecisti, ut quaedam muliercs 
 in quibusdam temporibus anni facere solent, ut in domo tua mensam praepareg 
 et tuos cibos et potum cum tribus cultellis supra mensam poneres, ut si venis- 
 sent tres illae sorores quas antiqua posteritas et antiqua stultitia Parcas nomi- 
 navit, ibi reficirentur . . . ut credens illas quas tu dicis esse sorores tibi posse anl 
 hie aut in futuro prodesse?" GRIMM. Deut. Mythol. Anhang, p. xxxviii., where 
 we are also told that these Parcae could give a man at his birth the power of 
 becoming a Werwolf. All this, however, does not prove that they were the 
 origin of the Fee* : see above, p. 6.
 
 470 BOUTHEBN EUROPE. 
 
 Some years ago a lady, named Marie Aycard, published a 
 volume named "Ballades et Chants populaires de la Pro- 
 vence," two of which seem to be founded on popular legends. 
 She names the one La Fee aux Cheveux Verts, and in it 
 relates the story of a young mariner of Marseilles who was 
 in the habit of rowing out to sea by himself in the evening. 
 On one of these occasions he felt himself drawn down by au 
 invisible power, and on reaching the bottom found himself 
 at the gate of a splendid palace, where he was received by a 
 most beautiful fairy, only her hair was green. She at once 
 told him her love, to which he responded as she wished, and 
 after detaining him some time she dismissed him, giving him 
 two fishes, that he might account for his absence by saying 
 that he had been fishing. The same invisible power brought 
 him back to his boat, and he reached home at sunrise. The 
 size and form of his fishes, such as had never been seen, 
 excited general wonder ; but he feared the fairy too much to 
 reveal his secret. An invincible attraction still drew him to 
 the submarine palace, but at last he saw a maiden whose 
 charms, in his eyes, eclipsed those of the fairy. He now 
 fled the sea-shore, but every time he approached his mistress 
 he received an invisible blow, and he continually was haunted 
 by threatening voices. At length he felt an irresistible desire 
 to go out again to sea. When there he was drawn down 
 as before to the palace, but the fairy now was changed, and 
 saying, " You have betrayed me you shall die," she caused 
 him to be devoured by the sea-monsters. But other accounts 
 gay that she kept him with her till age had furrowed his brow 
 with wrinkles, and then sent him back to poverty on earth. 
 
 The other legend named Le Lutin tells how seven little 
 boys, regardless of the warnings of their old grandmother, 
 would go out at night on various affairs. As they went 
 along a pretty little black horse came up to them, and they 
 all were induced to mount on his back. When they met any 
 of their playmates they invited them also to mount, and the 
 back of the little horse, stretched so that at last he had on 
 him not less than thirty little boys. He then made with all 
 speed for the sea, and plunging into it with them they were 
 all drowned.* 
 
 * This may remind us of the Neck or Kelpie above, p. 1 62. It seem* 
 confirmatory of our theoiy respecting the Visigoths, p. 466.
 
 FRANCE. 471 
 
 Passing to Auvergne we find Gregory of Tours in the 
 sixth century thus relating an event which happened in his 
 youth. A man was going one morning to the forest, and he 
 took the precaution to have his breakfast, which he was 
 taking with him, blessed before he set out. Coming to the 
 river, before it was yet day, he drove his bullock-cart into 
 the ferry-boat (in ponte qui super navem est), and when he 
 was about half-way over he heard a voice saying, " Down 
 with him! down with him! be quick!" (Merge, merge, ne 
 moreris /) to which another replied, " I should have done it 
 without your telling me if something holy did not prevent 
 me ; for I would have you to know that he is fortified with 
 the priest's blessing, so that I cannot hurt him."* 
 
 Miss Costello t heard in Auvergne a story of a changeling, 
 which the mother, by the direction of the Cure, took to the 
 market-place, where she whipped it well, till its mother, La 
 Fee du Grand Cascade, brought her back her own child. 
 She also relates at great length a legend which she styles 
 La Blonde de la Roche, in which a young lady, instructed 
 by her nurse, learns to change her form, and thus become 
 a companion of the Fees, who are beings of tiny dimensions. 
 Afterwards, when she is married, they take away her children, 
 but she manages to recover them. 
 
 " La Tioul de las Fadas is within five and a half leagues 
 of St. Flour, at Pirols, a village of Haute Auvergne. It is 
 composed of six large rude stones, covered by a seventh, 
 larger and more massive than the rest ; it is twelve feet long, 
 and eight and a half wide. The tradition relates that a Fee 
 who was fond of keeping her sheep on the spot occupied by 
 this monument, resolved to shelter herself from the wind and 
 rain. For this purpose she went far, very far, (lien loin, 
 lien loin) in search of such masses of granite, as six yoke of 
 oxen could not move, and she gave them the form of a 
 little house. She carried, it is said, the largest and heaviest 
 of them on the top of her spindle, and so little was she in- 
 commoded by the weight of it, that she continued to spin all 
 the way." \ 
 
 Greg. Tur. De Glor. Confess, ch. xxxi., ap. Grimin. p. 466. 
 t Pilgrimage to Auvergne, ii, p. 294, teq. 
 J Cambry, Monuments Celtiques, p. 232.
 
 472 SOUTH KRX EUKOl'E. 
 
 The following legend is traditional in Perigord : 
 Embosomed in the forest of the canton of La Double, 
 near the road leading from Perigueux to Eiberac, is a 
 monument named Roque Brun. It consists of four enormous 
 rocks placed two and two, so as to form an alley ten feet 
 long and six wide. A fifth rock, higher and thicker than 
 the others, closes this space on the west. The whole is 
 covered by a huge mass of rock, at least twelve feet by seven, 
 and from three to four feet thick. There can be no doubt of 
 its being the work of man, and it is remarkable that the 
 stone composing it is different from that of the soil on which 
 it stands.* The tradition of the canton, however, is, that 
 many thousand years ago there was a Fee who was the 
 sovereign of the whole country, and having lost her husband 
 in a battle fought in this very place she resolved to bury 
 him on the spot. She therefore called six of her pages, and 
 ordered them to fetch, each one of these stones, and to place 
 them in the order which they still maintain. They instantly 
 obeyed, and they carried and arranged the huge masses as 
 easily as if they had been only rose-leaves. When the tomb 
 was completed, the Fairy ascended it, and turning to the 
 east, she thrice cursed, in a voice of thunder, whoever should 
 henceforth dare even to touch this monument of her royal 
 spouse. Many an instance is still recorded by the peasantry 
 of those who dared and were punished.f 
 
 The Fairy-lore of the North of France, at least of Nor- 
 mandy, is, as was to be expected, similar to that of the other 
 portions of the Gotho-German race. We meet it in the fees 
 or fairies, and the lutins or gobelins, which answer to the 
 Kobolds, Nisses, and such like of those nations.]; 
 
 The Fees are small and handsome in person ; they are 
 
 * It is evidently a cromleach. What is said of the nature of the stones it 
 also true of Stonehenge. 
 
 t Lettres de Madame S. a sa Fille. Perigueux, 1830 : by M. Jouannet 
 of Bordeaux. 
 
 See Mile. Bosquet, La Normandie Romanesque et Merveilleuse, and the 
 works there quoted by this learned and ingenious lady. What follows is so 
 extremely like what we have seen above of the Korrigan of the adjacent 
 Brittany, that we hope she has been careful not to transfer any of their traits 
 to her Fee*.
 
 FRANCE. 473 
 
 fond of dancing in the night-time, and in their dances which 
 are circular they form the Cercles des Fe.es, or fairy-rings. 
 If any one approaches their dance, he is irresistibly impelled 
 to take part in it. He is admitted with the greatest 
 courtesy ; but as the whirling movement increases, and goes 
 faster and faster, his head becomes giddy, and he falls to 
 the ground utterly exhausted. Sometimes the fees amuse 
 themselves by flinging him up to a great height in the air, 
 and, if not killed by the fall, he is found next morning full of 
 bruises. These little beings, it is also said, haunt solitary 
 springs, where they wash their linen, which they then dry by 
 way of preference on the Druidic stones, if at hand, and lay 
 up in the hollows of rocks or barrows, thence named 
 Chambres or Grottes des Fees. But, further, it is said of 
 them, like the Lutins, they select particular farms to which 
 they resort at night, and there making use of horses, harness 
 and utensils of all kinds, they employ themselves at various 
 kinds of work, of which, however, no traces remain in the 
 morning. They are fond of mounting and galloping the 
 horses ; their seat is on the neck, and they tie together locks 
 of the mane to form stirrups. Their presence, however, 
 always brings luck, the cattle thrive where they arc, the 
 utensils of which they have made use, if broken are mended 
 and made as good as new. They are altogether most kind 
 and obliging, and have been known to give cakes to those to 
 whom they have taken a fancy. 
 
 The Fees of Normandy are, like others, guilty of child- 
 changing. A countrywoman as she was one day carrying 
 her child on her arm met a Fee similarly engaged, who pro- 
 posed an exchange. But she would not consent, even 
 though, she said, the Fee's babe were nine times finer than 
 her own. A few days after, having left her child in the 
 house when she went to work in the fields, it appeared to 
 her on her return that it had been changed. She imme- 
 diately consulted a neighbour, who to put the matter to 
 the proof, broke a dozen eggs and ranged the shells before 
 the child, who instantly began to cry out, Oh! what a 
 number of cream-pots ! Oh ! what a number of cream-pots ! 
 The matter was now beyond doubt, and the neighbour 
 next advised to make it cry lustily in order to bring 
 its real mother to it. This also succeeded ; the Fee came
 
 474 SOUTHERN ETTHOPE. 
 
 imploring them to spare her child, and the real one should 
 be restored. 
 
 There is another kind of Fees known in Normandy by the 
 name of Dames Blanches, or White Ladies, who are of a less 
 benevolent character. These lurk in narrow places, such as 
 ravines, fords and bridges, where passengers cannot well 
 avoid them, and there seek to attract their attention. The 
 Dame Blanche sometimes requires him whom she thus meets 
 to join her in a dance, or to hand her over a plank. If he 
 does so she makes him many courtesies, and then vanishes. 
 One of these ladies named La Dame a" Aprigny, used to 
 appear in a winding narrow ravine which occupied the place 
 of the present Rue Saint Quentin at Bayeux, where, by her 
 involved dances, she prevented any one from passing. She 
 meantime held out her hand, inviting him to join her, and if 
 he did so she dismissed him after a round or two ; but if ho 
 drew back, she seized him and flung him into one of the 
 ditches which were full of briars and thorns. Another Dame 
 Blanche took her station on a narrow wooden bridge over the 
 Dive, in the district of Falaise, named the Pont d' Angot. She 
 sat on it and would not allow any one to pass unless he went 
 on his knees to her ; if he refused, the Fee gave him over to 
 the lutins, the cats, owls, and other beings which, under her 
 sway, haunt the place, by whom he was cruelly tormented. 
 
 Near the village of Puys, half a league to the north-east of 
 Dieppe, there is a high plateau, surrounded on all sides by 
 large entrenchments, except that over the sea, where the 
 cliffs render it inaccessible. It is named La Cite de Limes 
 orLa Gamp de Cesar or simply Le Catel or Cartel. Tradition 
 tells that the Fees used to hold a fair there, at which all 
 sorts of magic articles from their secret stores were offered 
 for sale, and the most courteous entreaties and blandishments 
 were employed to induce those vrho frequented it to become 
 purchasers. But the moment any one did so, and stretched 
 forth his hand to take the article he had selected, the 
 perfidious Fees seized him and hurled him down the cliffs. 
 
 Such are the accounts of the Fees still current in Nor- 
 mandy. To these we may add that of Dame Abonde or 
 Habonde, current in the middle ages. William of Auvergne, 
 bishop of Paris, who died in the year 1248, thus writes : 
 
 " Sunt et aliae ludificationes malignorum spiritorum quaa
 
 FRANCE. 475 
 
 faciunt interdum in nemoribus et locis amoenis, et frondosis 
 arboribus, ubi apparent in similitudine puellarum aut ma- 
 tronarum ornatu muliebri et Candida; interdum etiam in 
 stabulis, cum luminaribus cereis, ex quibus apparent distilla- 
 tiones in comis et collis equorum et comas ipsorum diligenter 
 tricatce ; et audies eos, qui talia se vidisse fatentur, dicentes 
 veram ceram esse quae de luminaribus hujusmodi stillaverat. 
 De illis vero substantiis quae apparent in domibus quas 
 dominas nocturnas et principem earum vocant Dominant 
 Abundiam pro eo quod domibus, quas frequentant, abundan- 
 tiam bonorum temporalium praestare putantur non aliter 
 tibi sentiendum est neque aliter quam quemadmodum de 
 illis audivisti. Quapropter eo usque invaluit stultitia 
 hominum et insania vetularum ut vasa vini et receptacula 
 ciborum discooperta relinquant, et omnino nee obstruent 
 neque claudant eis noctibus quibus ad domos suos eas 
 credunt adventuras ; ea de causa videlicet ut cibos et potus 
 quasi paratos inveniant, et eos absque difficultate apparitionis 
 pro beneplacito sumant."* 
 
 Dame Abonde is also mentioned in the same century in 
 the celebrated Roman de la Rose as follows : 
 
 Qui les cine sens ainsinc deceit 
 
 Par les fantosmes qu'il re9oit, 
 
 Dont maintes gens par lor folie 
 
 Cuident estre psir nuit estries (alles) 
 
 Errans avecques Dame Habonde. 
 
 Et dient que par tout le monde 
 
 Si tiers enfant de nacion (nawsance) 
 
 Sunt de ceste condicion, 
 
 Qu'ils vont trois fois en la semaine, 
 
 Li cum destinee les maine (mine), 
 
 Et par tous ces ostex (htitek) se boutent, 
 
 Ne cles ne barres ne redoutent. 
 
 Ains sen entrent par les fendaces (fentet) 
 
 Par chatieres et par crevaces. 
 
 Et se portent des cors les ames 
 
 Et vont avec les bonnes dames 
 
 Par leur forains et par maisons. 
 
 Et le prouvent par tiex (ces) raisons : 
 
 Que les diversites veues 
 
 No sont pas en lor liz (lits) venues, 
 
 * Opera i. 1036; Paris, 1674, ap. Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 261
 
 470 SOrTHEEN EUEOPE. 
 
 Ains (ami It.) mint lor ames que laborent 
 Et par le monde ainsinc sen coreiit.* 
 
 In these places we find that Abundia is a queen or ruler 
 over a band of what we may call fairies, who enter houses at 
 night, feast there, twist the horses' manes, etc. This may 
 remind us at once of Shakespeare's Queen Mab, whom, though 
 only acquainted with Habundia through a passage in Hey- 
 wood,f we conjectured to have derived her name from that 
 of this French dame.J Chaucer, by the way, always spells 
 habundance with an h, which may have become m as it does 
 n in Numps from Humphrey ; so Edward makes Ned, Oliver 
 Noll, etc. 
 
 The Lutin or Gobelin of Normandy hardly differs in any 
 respect from the domestic spirit of Scandinavia and Germany. 
 He is fond of children and horses ; and if the proverb 
 
 Ou il y a belle fille et bon vin 
 La aussi hante le lutin 
 
 lie not, of young maidens also. He caresses the children, 
 and gives them nice things to eat, but he ako whips and 
 pinches them if naughty. || He takes great care of the 
 horses, gallops them at times, and lutines their manes, i.e., elfs 
 
 * Ap. Grimm, ut sup. Douce (111. of Shak. i. 382) was, we believe, the 
 firs' who directed attention to Abundia. He quotes from an old fabliau : 
 Ceste richesse nus abonde, 
 Nos 1'avons de par Dame Abonde. 
 + One kind of these the Italians False name ; 
 Fe the French ; we Sybils ; and the same 
 Others White Nymphs ; and those that have them seen, 
 Night Ladies some, of which Habundia queen. 
 
 Hierarchic, viii. p. 507. 
 
 J Mr. Thorns prefers a derivation from the Cymric, Mdb, boy, child. 
 There is no satisfactory derivation of Lutin, for we cannot regard as such 
 Grimm's a luctu. Gobelin, Goblin, or Goubelin, is evidently the same as 
 Kobold. Follet (from fol, fou) and Farfadet, are other names. Both 
 Gobelin and Lutin were in use in the llth century. Orderic Vitalis, speaking 
 of the demon whom St. Tauriu drove out of the temple of Diana, says, Hunt, 
 vulgus Gobelinum appellat, and Wace (Roman de Rou, v 9715) says of the 
 familiar of bishop Mauger who excommunicated the Conqueror 
 
 Ne sei s'esteit lutin ou non. 
 
 || Mothers also threaten their children with him. Le gobelin vout mangera, 
 te gobelin vous emportera. Pfent L'ABBE, Etymologic, i. p. 262.
 
 FRANCE. 477 
 
 or plaits and twists them in an inexplicable manner. So fond, 
 indeed, is he of this amusement, that it is related that when 
 one time two young girls fell asleep in a stable, he lutined 
 their hair in such a way that they had to cut it all off. Some- 
 times the Lutin takes the form of a young villager, and struts 
 about with great complacency. On such occasions it is ne- 
 cessary to call him Bon Grarc,on, a thing the Norman pea- 
 sant never neglects to do. At other times he appears under 
 the form of a horse ready bridled and saddled. If any peasant, 
 weary after his day's work, is induced to mount him in order 
 to ride home, he begins to kick and fling and rear and bound, 
 and ends by jerking him into a marsh or a ditch full of water. 
 When he takes this form he is called Le Cheval Bayard, 
 probably after the famous steed of the Paladin Einaldo. 
 
 The following tradition of " Le Lutin, ou le Fe amou- 
 reux," is related in the neighbourhood of Argentan : 
 
 A Fe was fond of a pretty young paysanne, and used to 
 come every evening when she was spinning at her fireside, 
 and take his seat on a stool opposite to her, and keep gazing 
 on her fair face. The ungrateful object of this respectful 
 attention, however, told her husband the whole story, and 
 in his jealous mood he resolved to have his revenge of the 
 amorous Lutin. Accordingly, he heated the girdel (galetiere) 
 red-hot, and placed it on the seat which he used to occupy, 
 and then dressing himself in his wife's clothes, he sat in her 
 place, and began to spin as well as he could. The Fe came 
 as usual, and instantly perceived the change. " Where," 
 said he, " is La-belle belle of yesterday evening, who draws, 
 draws, and keeps always twirling, while you, you turn, turn, 
 and never twirl ? " He, however, went and took his usual 
 seat, but immediately jumped up, screaming with pain. 
 His companions, who were at hand, inquired the cause. 
 " I am burnt," cried he. " Who burned you ? " cried they. 
 " Myself," replied he ; for this the woman had told him was 
 her husband's name. At this they mocked at him and went 
 away.* 
 
 The best way, it is said, to banish a Lutin who haunts a 
 
 * In another French tale a man to deceive a Fe'e, put on his wife's clothei 
 and was minding the child, but she said as the came in, " Non, tu ne point la 
 belle d'hier au soir, tu ne files, ni ne vogues, ni ton fuseau ne t'enveloppet," 
 and to punish him she tunied some apples that were roasting on the hearth intc 
 peas. SCHREIBER <//>. GRIM" 385.
 
 t7S SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 house, is to scatter flax-seed in the room that he most fre- 
 quents. His love of neatness and regularity will not allow 
 him to let it lie there, and he soon gets tired of picking it up, 
 and so he goes away. 
 
 A Lutin, named the Nain Rouge, haunts the coast of 
 Normandy. He is kind in his way to the fishermen, and 
 often gives them valuable aid; but he punishes those who do 
 not treat him with proper respect. Two fishermen who lived 
 near Dieppe, were going one day to Pollet. On their way 
 they found a little boy sitting on the road-side ; they asked 
 him what he was doing there. " I am resting myself," said 
 he, " for I am going to Berneville " (a village within a league 
 of Pollet.) They invited him to join company ; he agreed, 
 and amused them greatly with his tricks as they went along. 
 At last, when they came to a pond near Berneville, the mali- 
 cious urchin caught up one of them, and flung him, like a 
 shuttlecock, up into the air over it ; but, to his great disap- 
 pointment, he saw him land safe and sound at the other side. 
 " Thank your patron-Saint," cried he, with his cracked voice, 
 " for putting it into your mind to take some holy water when 
 you were getting up this morning. But for that you 'd have 
 got a nice dip." * 
 
 A parcel of children were playing on the strand at Pollet, 
 when Le Petit Homme Rouge came by. They began to 
 make game of him, and he instantly commenced pelting them 
 with stones at such a rate that they found it necessary to 
 seek refuge in a fishing-boat, where, for the space of an hour, 
 as they crouched under the hatches, they heard the shower 
 of stones falling so that they were sure the boat must be 
 buried under them. At length the noise ceased, and when 
 they ventured to peep out, not a stone was to be seen. 
 
 There is also in Normandy a kind of spirits called Lubins, 
 which take the form of wolves, and enter the churchyards 
 under the guidance of a chief, who is quite black. They are 
 very timorous, and at the least noise they fly, crying " Robert 
 est mort ! Robert est mort ! " People say of a timorous man, 
 " II apeur de Lubins / " f 
 
 See above, p. 471. 
 
 f Lulrin may be only another form of Lutin, and connected with th 
 English Lob. Its likeness to loup may have given occasion to the fiction of 
 their taking the lupine form.
 
 FRANCE. 479 
 
 A belief in Fees, similar to those which we nave denomi- 
 nated Fairies of Romance, seems to have prevailed all over 
 France during the middle ages. 
 
 The great Bertrand Duguesclin married a lady named 
 Tiphaine, " extraite do noble lignee," says his old biographer ; 
 " laquello avoit environ vingt-quatre ans, ne onques n'avoit 
 ete mariee et estoit bonne et sage, et moult experte aux arts 
 d'astronomie ; aucuns disoient qu'elle estoit faee mais non 
 estoit, mais estoit ainsi inspiree et de la Grace de Dieu." 
 
 One of the chief articles of accusation against the heroic 
 and unfortunate Maid of Orleans, was " Que souvent alloit 
 a une belle fontaine au pais de Lorraine, laquelle elle nom- 
 moit bonne fontaine aux Fees nostre Seigneur, et en icelui 
 lieu tous ceulx de pays quand ils avoient fiebvre Us alloient 
 pour recouvrer garison, et la alloit souvent la dite Jehanne 
 la Fueelle, sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine ombroit, et 
 s'apparurent a elle St. Katerine et St. Marguerite." * She 
 was also asked " Si elle sait rien de ceux qui vont avecq les 
 
 Of these Fees the most celebrated is Melusina, who was 
 married to the Count of Lusignan. Toward the end of the 
 fourteenth century, Jean d' Arras collected the traditions 
 relating to her, and composed what he called her " Chronicle." 
 Stephen, a Dominican of the house of Lusignan, took up the 
 history written by Jean D'Arras, gave it consistency, and 
 cast such splendour about his heroine, that several noble 
 houses were ambitious of showing a descent from her. Those 
 of Luxembourg and Rohan even falsified their genealogies 
 for that purpose; and the house of Sassenage, though it 
 might claim its descent from a monarch, preferred Melusina, 
 and to gratify them it was feigned that when she quitted 
 Lusignan she retired to the grot of Sassenage, in Dauphiny. 
 
 The following is a slight sketch of the story of the fair 
 Melusina. J 
 
 Ange par la figure, et serpent par le reste. 
 
 DE LILLE. 
 
 * Chartier. t See above, p. 475. 
 
 Histoire de Melusine, tiree des Clroniques de Poftou. Paris, 169& 
 Dobenek, des Deutschen Mittelalter und Volksglauben.
 
 480 feC U Till. KX 
 
 of fHrlustna. 
 
 ELINAS, king of Albania, to divert his grief for the death of 
 his wife, amused himself with hunting. One day, at the 
 chase, he went to a fountain to quench his thirst : as he 
 approached it he heard the voice of a woman singing, and on 
 coming to it he found there the beautiful Fay Pressina. 
 
 After some time the Fay bestowed her hand upon him, on 
 the condition that he should never visit her at the time of 
 her lying-in. She had three daughters at a birth : Melusina, 
 Melior, and Palatina. Nathas, the king's son by a former 
 wife, hastened to convey the joyful tidings to his father, who, 
 without reflection, flew to the chamber of the queen, and 
 entered as she was bathing her daughters. Pressina, on 
 seeing him, cried out that he had broken his word, and she 
 must depart; and taking up her three daughters, she 
 disappeared. 
 
 She retired to the Lost Island ;* so called because it was 
 only by chance any, even those who had repeatedly visited it, 
 could find it. Here she reared her children, taking them 
 every morning to a high mountain, whence Albania might be 
 seen, and telling them that but for their father's breach of 
 promise they might have lived happily in the distant land 
 which they beheld. When they were fifteen years of age, 
 Melusina asked her mother particularly of what their father 
 had been guilty. On being informed of it, she conceived the 
 design of being revenged on him. Engaging her sisters to 
 join in her plans, they set out for Albania : arrived there, 
 they took the king and all his wealth, and, by a charm, 
 inclosed him in a high mountain, called Brandelois. On 
 telling their mother what they had done, she, to punish them 
 for the unnatural action, condemned Melusina to becomo 
 every Saturday a serpent, from the waist downwards, till she 
 
 * i. e. Cepbalonia, see above, p. 41.
 
 FRANCE. 4S 1 
 
 should meet a man who would marry her under the con- 
 dition of never seeing her on a Saturday, and should keep hia 
 promise. She inflicted other judgements on her two sisters, 
 iess severe in proportion to their guilt. Melusina now went 
 roaming through the world in search of the man who was to 
 deliver her. She passed through the Black Forest, and that 
 of Ardennes, and at last she arrived in the forest of Colom- 
 biers, in Poitou, where all the Fays of the neighbourhood 
 came before her, telling her they had been waiting for her to 
 reign in that place. 
 
 Raymond having accidentally killed the count, his uncle, 
 by the glancing aside of his boar-spear, was wandering by 
 night in the forest of Colombiers. He arrived at a fountain 
 that rose at the foot of a high rock. This fountain was 
 called by the people the Fountain of Thirst, or the Fountain 
 of the Fays,* on account of the many marvellous things 
 which had happened at it. At the time, when Raymond 
 arrived at the fountain, three ladies were diverting them- 
 selves there by the light of the moon, the principal of whom 
 was Melusina. Her beauty and her amiable manners quickly 
 won his love : she soothed him, concealed the deed he had 
 done, and married him, he promising on his oath never to 
 desire to see her on a Saturday. She assured him that a 
 breach of his oath would for ever deprive him of her whom 
 he so much loved, and be followed by the unhappiness of 
 both for life. Out of her great wealth, she built for him, in 
 the neighbourhood of the Fountain of Thirst, where he first 
 saw her, the castle of Lusignan. She also built La Rochelle, 
 Cloitre Malliers, Mersent, and other places. 
 
 But destiny, that would have Melusina single, was 
 incensed against her. The marriage was made unhappy 
 by the deformity of the children born of one that was 
 enchanted; but still Raymond's love for the beauty that 
 ravished both heart and eyes remained unshaken. Destiny 
 now renewed her attacks. Raymond's cousin had excited 
 him to jealousy and to secret concealment, by malicious 
 suggestions of the purport of the Saturday retirement of 
 
 * It is at this day (1698) corruptly called La Font de Sec; and every year iu 
 the month of May a fair is held in the neighbouring mead, where the pastry-cooks 
 sell figures of women, bien c&iffees, called Merlusines. French Author's XoLt 
 
 I I
 
 482 BOUTHEBIT ETJEOPE. 
 
 the countess. He hid himself ; and then saw how the lovely 
 form of Melusina ended below in a snake, gray and sky- 
 blue, mixed with white. But it was not horror that seized 
 him at the sight, it was infinite anguish at the reflection 
 that through his breach of faith he might lose his lovely wife 
 for ev*. Yet this misfortune had not speedily come on him, 
 were it not that his son, Greoffroi with the tooth,* had burned 
 his brother Freimund, who would stay in the abbey of 
 Malliers, with the abbot and a hundred monks. At which 
 the afflicted father, count Raymond, when his wife Melusina 
 was entering his closet to comfort him, broke out into these 
 words against her, before all the courtiers who attended 
 her : " Out of my sight, thou pernicious snake and odious 
 serpent ! thou contaminator of my race ! " 
 
 Melusina' s former anxiety was now verified, and the evil 
 that had lain so long in ambush had now fearfully sprung on 
 him and her. At these reproaches she fainted away ; and 
 when at length she revived, full of the profoundest grief, she 
 declared to him that she must now depart from him, and, in 
 obedience to a decree of destiny, fleet about the earth in pain 
 and suffering, as a spectre, until the day of doom ; and that 
 only when one of her race was to die at Lusignan would she 
 become visible. 
 
 Her words at parting were these : 
 
 " But one thing will I say unto thee before I part, that 
 thou, and those who for more than a hundred years shall 
 succeed thee, shall know that whenever I am seen to hover 
 over the fair castle of Lusignan, then will it be certain that 
 in that very year the castle will get a new lord ; and though 
 
 Eeople may not perceive me in the air, yet they will see me 
 y the Fountain of Thirst ; and thus shall it be so long as 
 the castle stands in honour and flourishing especially on 
 the Friday before the lord of the castle shall die." Imme- 
 diately, with wailing and loud lamentation, she left the castle 
 of Lusignan,t and has ever since existed as a spectre of the 
 might. Raymond died as a hermit on Monserrat. 
 
 * A boar's tusk projected from his mouth. According to Brantflme, a 
 figure of him, cut in stone, stood at the portal of the Melusine tower, which 
 was destroyed in 1574. 
 
 + At her departure she left the mark of her foot on the stone of one of tho 
 windows, where it remained till the castle was destroyed.
 
 FRANCE. 483 
 
 The president de Boissieu says,* that she chose for her 
 retreat one of the mountains of Saasenage, near Grenoble, 
 on account of certain vats that are there, and to which she 
 communicated a virtue which makes them, at this day, one 
 of the seven wonders of Dauphine. They are two in num- 
 ber, of great beauty, and so admirably cut in the rock, that 
 it is easy to see they are not the work of unaided nature. 
 The virtue which Melusina communicated to them was, that 
 of announcing, by the water they contain, the abundance or 
 scantiness of the crops. When there is to be an abundant 
 harvest, it rises over the edges, and overflows ; in middling 
 years, the vats are but half full ; and when the crops are to 
 fail, they are quite dry. One of these vats is consecrated 
 to corn, the other to wine. 
 
 The popular belief was strong in France that she used to 
 appear on what was called the tower of Melusina as often as 
 any of the lords of the race of Lusignan was to die ; and that 
 when the family was extinct, and the castle had fallen to the 
 crown, she was seen whenever a king of France was to depart 
 this life. Mezeray informs us that he was assured of the 
 truth of the appearance of Melusina on this tower previous 
 to the death of a Lusignan, or a king of France, by people 
 of reputation, and who were not by any means credulous. 
 She appeared in a mourning dress, and continued for a long 
 time to utter the most heart-piercing lamentation. 
 
 The following passage occurs in Brantome's Eloge of the 
 Duke of Montpensier, who in 1574 destroyed Lusignan, and 
 several other retreats of the Huguenots : 
 
 " I heard, more than forty years ago, an old veteran say, 
 that when the Emperor Charles V. came to France, they 
 brought him by Lusignan for the sake of the recreation of 
 hunting the deer, which were there in great abundance in 
 fine old parks of France ; that he was never tired admiring 
 and praising the beauty, the size, and the chef d'oeuvre of 
 that house, built, which is more, by such a lady, of whom he 
 made them tell him several fabulous tales, which are there 
 quite common, even to the good old women who washed their 
 linen at the fountain, whom Queen Catherine of Medicis, 
 mother to the king, would also question and listen to. Some 
 
 In his poem of Melusiua, dedicated to Christina of Sweden. 
 
 n2
 
 484 BOUTHEBN EUKOPE. 
 
 told her that they used sometimes to see her come to the 
 fountain to bathe in it, in the form of a most beautiful 
 woman, and in the dress of a widow. Others said that they 
 used to see her, but very rarely, and that on Saturday even- 
 ing, (for in that state she did not let herself be seen,) 
 bathing, half her body being that of a very beautiful lady, 
 the other half ending in a snake : others, that she used to 
 appear a-top of the great tower in a very beautiful form, and 
 as a snake. Some said, that when any great disaster was to 
 come on the kingdom, or a change of reign, or a death, or 
 misfortune among her relatives, who were the greatest people 
 of France, and were kings, that three days before she was 
 heard to cry, with a cry most shrill and terrible, three 
 times. 
 
 " This is held to be perfectly true. Several persons of that 
 place, who have heard it, are positive of it, and hand it from 
 father to son ; and say that, even when the siege came on, 
 many soldiers and men of honour who were there affirmed it. 
 But it was when the order was given to throw down and 
 destroy her castles that she uttered her loudest cries and 
 wails. This is perfectly true, according to the saying of 
 people of honour. Since then she has not been heard. Some 
 old wives, however, say she has appeared to them, but very 
 rarely." 
 
 Jean d' Arras declares that Serville, who defended the 
 castle of Lusignan for the English against the Duke of Berri, 
 swore to that prince, upon his faith and honour, " that, three 
 days before the surrender of the fortress, there entered into 
 his chamber, though the doors were shut, a large serpent, 
 enamelled with white and blue, which came and struck its 
 tail several times against the feet of the bed where he was 
 lying with his wile, who was not at all frightened at it, 
 though he was very much so ; and that when he seized his 
 sword, the serpent changed all at once into a woman, and 
 said to him, How, Serville, you who have been at so many 
 sieges and battles, are you afraid! Know that I am the mis- 
 tress of this castle, which I have built, and that you must 
 surrender it very soon. When she had ended these words 
 she resumed her serpent-shape, and glided away so swiftly 
 that he could not perceive her." The author adds, that the 
 prince told him that other credible people had sworn to him
 
 FftAKCE. 485 
 
 that they too had seen her at the same time in other places 
 in the neighbourhood, and in the same form. 
 
 The old castle of Pirou, on the coast of the Cotentin, in 
 Lower Normandy, likewise owes its origin to the Fees.* 
 These were the daughters of a great lord of the country, who 
 was a celebrated magician. They built the castle long before 
 the time of the invasions of the Northmen, and dwelt there 
 in peace and unity. But when these pirates began to make 
 their descents on the coast, the Fees, fearing their violence, 
 changed themselves into wild geese, and thus set them at 
 defiance. They did not, however, altogether abandon their 
 castle ; for the elders of the place assert that every year, on 
 the first of March, a flock of wild geese returns to take pos- 
 session of the nests they had hollowed out for themselves in 
 its walls. It was also said that when a male child was born 
 to the illustrious house of Pirou, the males of these geese, 
 displaying their finest grey plumage, strutted about on the 
 pavement in the courts of the castle ; while, if it was a girl, 
 the females, in plumage whiter than snow, took precedence 
 then over the males. If the new-born maiden was to be a 
 nun, it was remarked that one of them did not join with the 
 rest, but kept alone in a corner, eating little, and deeply 
 sighing. 
 
 The following traditions are attached to the castles of 
 Argouges and Kanes, in Normandy : t 
 
 One of the lords of Argouges, when out hunting one day, 
 met a bevy of twenty ladies of rare beauty, all mounted on 
 palfreys white as the driven snow. One of them appeared to 
 be their queen, and the lord of Argouges became all at once 
 so deeply enamoured of her, that he offered on the spot to 
 marry her. This lady was fee ; she had for a long time past 
 secretly protected the Sire d' Argouges, and even caused him 
 to come off victorious in a combat with a terrible giant. As 
 she loved the object of her care, she willingly accepted his 
 troth, but under the express condition that he should never 
 pronounce in her presence the name of Death. So light a 
 
 * Mile Bosquet, ut sup. p. 1 00. 
 
 + Mile. Bosquet, ut sup. p. 98. The castle of Argouges is near Bayeuxy 
 that of Ranee is in the arrondisscment of Armenian.
 
 486 SOUTHEBN ErBOPE. 
 
 condition caused no difficulty ; the marriage took place under 
 the happiest auspices, and lovely children crowned their 
 union. The fatal word was never heard, and then- happiness 
 seemed without alloy. It came to pass, however, one day at 
 length, that the wedded pair were preparing to give their 
 presence at a tournament. The lady was long at her toilet, 
 and her husband waited for her with impatience. At length 
 she made her appearance. " Fair dame," said he, when he 
 saw her, "you would be a good person to send to fetch 
 Death ; for you take long enough to perform what you are 
 about."* Hardly had he pronounced the fatal word when, 
 uttering a piercing cry, as if actually struck by death, the 
 Fee lady disappeared, leaving the mark of her hand on the 
 gate. She comes every night clad in a white robe, and 
 wanders round and round the castle, uttering deep and con- 
 tinuous groans, amid which may be heard, in funereal notes, 
 Death! Death I ^ 
 
 The same legend, as we have said, adheres to the castle of 
 Eanes, where, however, it was on the top of a tower that the 
 Fee vanished, leaving, like Melusina, the mark of her foot on 
 the battlements, where it is still to be seen. 
 
 In explication of the former legend, M. Pluque observes, 
 that at the siege of Bayeux by Henry I., in 1106, Eobert 
 d'Argouges vanquished in single combat a German of huge 
 stature ; and that the crest of the house of Argouges is 
 Faith, under the form of a woman naked to the waist, seated 
 in a bark, with the motto, or war-cry, A la Fe ! (i. e. a la 
 foi /) which the people pronounce A la Fee ! 
 
 So far the genuine French Fees. On the revival of learn- 
 ing they appear to have fallen into neglect, till the memory 
 of them was awakened by the appearance of the translation 
 of the Italian tales of Straparola, many of which seem to have 
 become current among the people ; and in the end of the 
 seventeenth century, the Contes des Fees of Perrault, Madame 
 d' Aulnoy, and their imitators and successors, gave them vogue 
 throughout Europe. These tales are too well known to our 
 readers to require us to make any observations on them. 
 
 * This proverbial expression is to be met with in various languages : te 
 Grimm, Dent. Mythol. p. 802. f See above, p. 458.
 
 EASTERN EUROPE. 
 
 tip the bill I went, and gazed round, 
 
 Hoping golden maids to see ; 
 Trooping lovely maidens came, who 
 
 Round the hill danced merrily. 
 
 All the sweetest ditties singing, 
 
 Sweetest ditties that might be ; 
 Bearing fragrant apple-blossoms, 
 
 These fair maidens came to me. 
 
 LETTISH SONG. 
 
 EUEOPE is inhabited on the east and north-east, from the 
 Frozen Ocean to the Adriatic, by two extensive races named 
 the Finns and the Slaves. The former dwell round the 
 northern edge of Scandinavia by the Icy Ocean, and on the 
 east and south-east of the Baltic. The Majjars, or the 
 dominant portion of the people of Hungary, are also of 
 Finnish origin. The Slaves who are akin to the Gotho- 
 Q-erman race are also widely spread. This stem numbers 
 among its branches the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Ser- 
 vians, and the nations dwelling north-east of the Adriatic. 
 Our knowledge of the popular mythology of both races is 
 very limited. 
 
 FINNS. 
 
 Bee ! thou little mundane bird 1 
 Fly away to where I bid thee; 
 O'er the moon, beneath the sun, 
 Behind the lofty heaven's stars, 
 Close by the Wain's axle fly 
 To the great Creator's court. 
 
 FIHNISH Brae. 
 
 OF the mythology of the Finnish race, the first possibly that 
 appeared in Europe, and one of the most widely spread in 
 the world, our knowledge, as we have just stated, is very
 
 488 EASTERN EUEOPE. 
 
 slight. It appears, however, either to have influenced that 
 of the Gothic race, or to have been affected hy it. 
 
 The Finlanders, Laplanders, and other nations of this race, 
 who are neighbours of the Scandinavians and Germans, 
 believe, like them, in Dwarfs and Kobolds. The former they 
 describe as having a magnificent region under the ground, to 
 which mortals are sometimes admitted and are there 
 sumptuously entertained, getting plenty of tobacco and 
 brandy, and other things esteemed by them delicious. 
 
 It is an article of faith with the Finns that there dwell 
 under the altar in every church little misshapen beings 
 which they call Kirkonwalci, i. e., Church-folk. When the 
 wives of these little people have a difficult labour they are 
 relieved if a Christian woman visits them and lays her hand 
 upon them. Such service is always rewarded by a gift of 
 gold and silver.* 
 
 The Kobold of Finland is called Para (from the Swedish 
 Bjara) ; he steals the milk from other people's cows, carries 
 and coagulates it in his stomach, and then disgorges it into 
 the churn of his mistress. There is a species of mushroom, 
 which if it be fried with tar, salt and sulphur, and then 
 beaten with a rod, the woman who owns the Kobold will 
 quickly appear, and entreat to spare him. 
 
 The Alp, or nightmare, is called Painajainen, *. e., Presser. 
 It resembles a white maid, and its brightness illumines the 
 whole room. It causes people to scream out wofully ; it 
 also hurts young children, and makes them squint. The 
 remedy against it is steel or a broom placed under the 
 pillow. The House-spirit named Tonttu (the Swedish 
 Tomtegubbe) is also common in Finland, t The Esthonians 
 believe that the Neck has fish's teeth. 
 
 An Esthonian legend relates that one time a girl was 
 stopt by a pretty boy that had on him a handsome peasant's 
 belt and forced to scratch his head a little. She did so, and 
 while she was so engaged she was, without her knowledge, 
 fastened to him by his belt, but the rubbing of her hand set 
 him to sleep. Meanwhile a woman passed by, who came up 
 and asked the girl what she was doing there. She told her 
 
 * Mnemosyne, Abo 1821, ap. Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 426. 
 j- Rubs, Finland und seine Bewohner.
 
 FINNS. 489 
 
 the whole matter, and as she was speaking she freed herself 
 from the belt. The boy, however, slept sounder than ever 
 and his mouth was wide open. The woman who had come 
 nearer cried at once, Ha ! that 's a Ndkki (Neck,) see his 
 foh's teeth ! The Neck instantly vanished.* 
 
 The following Esthonian legend, though the Devil is the 
 subject, strongly resembles some of those of France and 
 Great Britain : 
 
 A man who had charge of the granary of a farm-house 
 was sitting one day moulding buttons in lead. The Devil 
 came by, saluted him, and said, "What are you doing 
 there ? " "I am moulding eyes." " Eyes ! could you make 
 me new ones ? " " To be sure I could ; but I have none by 
 me at present." " Will you then do it another time ? " 
 "That will I." "When shall I come again?" "When- 
 ever you please." Next day the Devil came to get his new 
 eyes. " Will you have them large or small ? " said the man. 
 " Very large." The man then put a large quantity of lead 
 down to melt, and said, " I cannot make them for you, 
 unless you first let me tie you fast." He then made him 
 lie on his back on a bench and tied him down with good 
 strong thick ropes. When the Devil was thus fast bound he 
 asked the man what his name was. " My name is Myself 
 (Issi)," replied he. "That's a good name, I know none 
 better." The lead was now melted ; the Devil opened his 
 eyes as wide as he could, expecting to get the new ones. 
 " Now, I 'm going to pour it out," said the man, and he 
 poured the melting lead into the eyes of the Devil, who 
 jumped up with the bench on his back, and ran away. As 
 he passed by some people who were ploughing, they asked 
 him " Who did that to you ? " " Myself did it ( Jm teggi)^ 
 replied the Devil. The people laughed and said, " K you 
 did it yourself, keep it yourself." The Devil died of his new 
 eyes, and since then no one has seen the Devil any more.f 
 
 The Hungarians or Madyars (Magyars) as they call them- 
 
 * Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 459. 
 
 t Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 979. This is the fourth place where we have 
 met this story. Could they have all come from the Odyssey, the hero of 
 which tells the Cyclops, whom he blinds, that his name ig Nobody ?
 
 490 EA.8TEBH EUEOPE. 
 
 selves, are, as we nave seen, a portion of the Finnish race. 
 Two collections of their popular tales have been published of 
 late years. The editor of one of them which we have read,* 
 assures us that he took them from the lips of an old 
 Hungarian soldier, who knew no language but his own, 
 "We therefore cannot but regard the tales as genuine, 
 though the mode and tone in which they are narrated by the 
 editor are not always the best. They contain no traits of 
 popular mythology, a circumstance not a little remarkable, 
 rather resembling the French and Italian Fairy tales. 
 Several of them, however, are very pleasing. We regret 
 that we have not seen the other collection, which is appa- 
 rently of greater value. f 
 
 SLAVES. 
 
 Whatsoe'er at eve had raised the workmen, 
 Did the Vila raze ere dawn of morning. 
 
 BOWBING, Servian Popular Poetry. 
 
 A DEMON, in the attire of a mourning widow, used, in the 
 Eastern Russia, to go through the fields at noon in harvest- 
 time, and break the legs and arms of the workmen, who 
 failed, when they saw her, to fall on their faces. There was 
 a remedy, however, against this. Trees, long venerated, 
 grew in the adjacent wood, the bark of which being laid on 
 the wound, removed the pain and healed it.J 
 
 The Vends believe in a similar being ; but a Vend knows 
 that when he converses with her for an hour together about 
 flax and the preparation of it, if he always contradicts her, 
 or says the paternoster backwards without stopping, he is 
 secure. 
 
 The Russians also believe in a species of water and wood- 
 
 * Goal, Marchen der Magyaren. Wien, 1822. 
 
 f 1 Mailath, Magyarische Sagen Mahrchen, etc., 2 vols, 8vo. Stutg. 1 837. 
 J Delrio, Lib. ii. Sect. 2. Boxhorn Resp. Mcecov. Par* I. 
 Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 447.
 
 SLATES. 491 
 
 maids, called Eusalki. They are of a beautiful form, with 
 long green hair ; they swing and balance themselves on the 
 branches of trees bathe in lakes and rivers play on the 
 surface of the water and wring their locks on the green 
 meads at the water's-edge. It is chiefly at Whitsuntide 
 that they appear, and the people then singing and dancing, 
 weave garlands for them, which they cast into the stream.* 
 
 The following is the Polish form of a legend which we 
 have already met with in several places : t 
 
 There came to a nobleman an unknown man, who called 
 himself Iskrzycki (spark Qvjirestone), and offered to engage 
 in his service. The contract was drawn up and signed, when 
 the master perceived that Iskrzycki had horse's hoofs, and 
 he accordingly wanted to break off the agreement ; but the 
 servant stood on his right, and declared that he would enter 
 on his duties, even against his master's will. From this 
 time forwards he took up his abode invisibly in the stove, 
 and performed all the tasks set him. People gradually grew 
 accustomed to him, but at last the lady prevailed on her 
 lord to remove, and he hired another estate. His people 
 left the castle, and they had already gone the greater part of 
 the way, when on a bad part of the road the carriage was 
 near turning over, and the lady gave a loud cry of terror. 
 Immediately a voice answered from behind the carriage 
 " Never fear ! Iskrzycki is with you ! " The lord and his 
 lady now saw that there was no way of getting rid of him, 
 so they went back to the old house, and lived there on good 
 terms with their servant till the term of the engagement had 
 arrived. 
 
 The Servian ballads, that have lately appeared,}: have 
 made us acquainted with an interesting species of beings 
 called Vilas. These are represented as mountain-nymphs, 
 young and beautiful, clad in white, with long flying hair. 
 Their voice is said to resemble that of the woodpecker. 
 They shoot, according to popular belief, deadly arrows at 
 
 * Mone, vol. i. p. 1 44. Grimm, Deut. Mythol. p. 460. 
 
 t Grimm, ut sup. p. 480. 
 
 J Published by Wuk and translated by Talvi and others into German, by 
 Bovvring into English.
 
 402 EASTEKN EUROPE. 
 
 men, ar d sometimes carry off children, whom their mothers 
 in their anger have consigned to them or the devil : yet the 
 general character of the Vilas is to injure none but those who 
 intrude upon their kolos, or roundels. 
 
 The Vilas sometimes appear gaily dancing their kolos 
 beneath the branches of the Vishnia or Vistula cherry ; some- 
 times a Vila is introduced comforting the sorrows of an 
 enamoured deer; at other times collecting storms in the 
 heavens ; * now foretelling to a hero his impending death ; t 
 now ruthlessly casting down each night the walls of a rising 
 fortress, till a young and lovely female is immured within 
 them.J She usually rides a seven-year old hart, with a bridle 
 made of snakes. 
 
 The following are specimens of these Servian ballads : 
 
 Vila*. 
 
 CHERBT ! dearest Cherry ! 
 Higher lift thy branches, 
 Under which the Vilas 
 Dance their magic roundels. 
 Them before Eadisha 
 Dew from flowers, lashes, 
 Leadeth on two Vilas, 
 To the third he sayeth 
 " Be thou mine, O Vila! 
 Thou shalt, with my mother, 
 In tbe cool shade seat thee ; 
 feott silk deftly spinning 
 From the golden distaff." J 
 
 * Bowring, p. 1 75. Sabejam oblake, Cloud-gatherer, is an epithet of the 
 Vila, answering to the N6^)eAr^y<;^T;s of the Grecian Zeus. 
 
 t Death of Kralwich Marko. Bowring, p. 97. 
 
 The building of Skadra. Ibid. p. 64. 
 
 We have made this translation from a German version in the Wienji 
 Jahrbiicher, vol. xxx. which is evidently more faithful than Bowring's.
 
 SLATES. 193 
 
 Drcr 
 
 A TOTTX& deer track' d his way through the lone lorest 
 
 One lonely day another came in sadness 
 
 And the third dawn'd, and brought him sighs and sorrow j 
 
 Then he address' d him to the forest Vila : 
 
 " Toung deer," she said, " thou wild one of the forest ! 
 
 Now tell me what great sorrow has oppress'd thee; 
 
 Why wanderest thou thus in the forest lonely : 
 
 Lonely one day another day in sadness 
 
 And the third day with sighs and anguish groaning ? " 
 
 And thus the young deer to the Vila answered : 
 " O thou sweet sister ! Vila of the forest ! 
 Me has indeed a heavy grief befallen ; 
 For I once had a fawn, mine own beloved, 
 And one sad day she sought the running water ; 
 She enter'd it, but came not back to bless me. 
 Then, tell me, has she lost her way and wander'd ? 
 Was she pursued and captured by the huntsman 'f 
 Or has she left me ? has she wholly left me 
 Loving some other deer and I forgotten ? 
 Oh, if she has but lost her way, and wanders, 
 Teach her to find it bring her back to love me ! 
 Oh, if she has been captured by the huntsman, 
 Then may a fate as sad as mine await him ! 
 But if she has forsaken me if, faithless, 
 She loves another deer, and I forgotten 
 Then may the huntsman speedily o'ertake her/' * 
 
 We have already observed how almost all nations compare 
 female beauty to that of the beings of their legendary creed. 
 With the Servians the object of comparison is the lovely 
 
 * Bowringr, This version differs considerably from the German one of Talvi 
 We feel quite o>nv>nced that the English translator has mistaken the sense.
 
 494 EASTEBN EUROPE. 
 
 Vila. " She is fairer than the mountain- Vila," is the highest 
 praise of woman's beauty. In the ballad of The Sister of 
 the Kapitan Leka, it is said of the heroine Rossandra, that 
 in no country, either Turkey, or the land of the Kauran, or 
 Jowrs, was her fellow to be found. No white Bula (Moham- 
 medan), no Vlachin (Greek), no slender Latiness (Roman 
 Catholic), could compare with her, 
 
 And who on the hills hath seen the Vila 
 E'en the Vila, brother, must to her yield. 
 
 The swiftness of the Vila also affords a subject of com- 
 parison : a fleet horse is said to be " Vilaish," or " swift 
 as a Vila." 
 
 The Morlacchi of Dalmatia, as Sir Gardner Wilkinson 
 informs us,* believe also in the Vila. They describe her as 
 a handsome female, who accompanies the man who is her 
 favourite everywhere he goes, and causes all his undertakings 
 to prosper. One thus favoured is termed Vilenik. Another 
 of their objects of belief is the Macieh, who appears in the 
 form of a boy, with a cap on his head, and is always 
 laughing. Any one to whom he appears gets the power 
 of commanding him. If ordered to bring money, he usually 
 steals it from one of the neighbours, and if taxed with his 
 dishonesty, he goes to the sea and comes back dripping and 
 with money. 
 
 * Dalmatia and Montenegro, etc.
 
 AFRICANS, JEWS, ETC. 
 
 Lead from the hills the voice of riot comes, 
 Where Yumboes shout and beat their Jaloff drums. 
 
 T. K. 
 
 THIS division of our work is somewhat miscellaneous, not 
 being restricted to any particular race, or to any determinate 
 part of the earth's surface. It contains merely such matters 
 as appeared to us to be worthy of note, but which we could 
 not include in any of the preceding sections. 
 
 AFEICANS. 
 
 When evening's shades o'er Goree's isle extend, 
 The nimble Yumboes from the Paps descend, 
 Slily approach the natives' huts, and steal, 
 With secret hand, the pounded coos-coos meal. 
 
 T. K. 
 
 THE Jaloff inhabitants of the mainland of Africa, opposite 
 the isle of Goree, believe in a species of beings who have a 
 striking and surprising correspondence with the Gothic 
 Fairies. They call them Yumboes, and describe them aa 
 being about two feet high, of a white colour, as every thing 
 preternatural is in Africa. It is remarkable that, acting on 
 the same principle as the Greeks, who called their Furies 
 Eumenides, and the Scots and Irish, who style the Fairies 
 Good Neighbours, or Good People, the Africans call the 
 Yumboes, Bakhna Eakhna, or Good People. The dress of
 
 496 
 
 the Yumboes exacily corresponds with that of the natives, 
 and they imitate their actions in every particular. They 
 attach themselves to particular families ; and whenever any 
 of their members die, the Yumboes are heard to lament 
 them, and to dance upon their graves. The Moors believe 
 the Yumboes to be the souls of their deceased friends. 
 
 The chief abode of the Yumboes is a subterraneous 
 dwelling on the Paps, the hills about three miles distant 
 from the coast. Here they dwell in great r/.agnificence, and 
 many wonderful stories are told of those persons, particu- 
 larly Europeans, who have been received and entertained in 
 the subterraneous residence of the Yumboes : of how they 
 were placed at richly furnished tables ; how nothing but 
 hands and feet were to be seen, which laid and removed the 
 various dishes ; of the numerous stories the underground 
 abode consisted of; the modes of passing from one to the 
 other without stairs, etc., etc. 
 
 In the evening the Yumboes come down to the habitation 
 of man, wrapped close in their pangs* with only their eyes 
 and nose risible. They steal to the huts, where the women 
 are pounding in mortars the coos-coos, or corn, watch till the 
 pounders are gone for sieves to searce the meal, and then 
 slily creep to the mortars, take out the meal, and carry it off 
 in their pangs, looking every moment behind them, to see if 
 they are observed or pursued ; or they put it into calabashes, 
 and arranging them selves in a row, like the monkeys, convey 
 it from hand to hand, till it is placed in safety. 
 
 They are also seen at night in their canoes, out fishing in 
 the bay. They bring their fish to land, and, going to the 
 fires kindled by the natives to keep away the wild beasts, 
 they steal each as much fire as will roast his fish. They 
 bury palm-wine, and when it becomes sour they drink of it 
 till it intoxicates them, and then make a great noise, beating 
 J aloft' drums on the hills.t 
 
 * The Pang (Span, pa&o, cloth) is an oblong piece of cotton cloth, which 
 the natives manufacture and wear wrapped round their bodies. 
 
 f- For the preceding account of the Yumboes we are indebted to a young 
 lady, who spent several years of her childhood at Goree. What she related tc 
 us she had heard from her maid, a Jaloff woman, who spoke no language but 
 Jaloff.
 
 497 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 PSALM xci. 5. Cfiadlaki 
 And the Hazikeen shall not come near thy tents. 
 
 Ir has long been an established article of belief among the 
 Jews that there is a species of beings which they call 
 Shedeem,* Shehireem,t or Mazikeen. J These beings exactlv 
 correspond to the Arabian Jinn ; and the Jews hold that it 
 is by means of them that all acts of magic and enchantment 
 are performed. 
 
 The Talmud says that the Shedeem were the offspring of 
 Adam. After he had eaten of the Tree of life, Adam was 
 excommunicated for one hundred and thirty years. " In all 
 those years," saith Rabbi Jeremiah Ben Eliezar, " during 
 which Adam was under excommunication, he begat spirits, 
 demons, and spectres of the night, as it is written, ' Adam 
 lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat children in hi a 
 likeness and in his image,' which teaches, that till that time 
 he had not begotten them in his own likeness." In 
 Berashith Rabba, R. Simon says, " During all the one 
 hundred and thirty years that Adam was separate from Eve, 
 male spirits lay with her, and she bare by them, and female 
 spirits lay with Adam, and bare by him." 
 
 These Shedeem or Mazikeen are held to resemble the 
 
 * rP~\V from ~\T\e to lay waste, Dcut. xxxii. 17. 
 f Q'TJW fr m "IJW horreo, Isaiah, xiis 22. 
 
 + i % P*TO from pn to hurt. 
 Moses Edrehi, our informant, says that the Mazikeen are called SM tb 
 
 Arabic language, snoon (.jJ i)> i- e- Jinn. 
 
 R K
 
 493 JEWS. 
 
 angels in three things. They can see and not be seen ; they 
 have wings and can fly ; they know the future. In three 
 respects they resemble mankind : they eat and drink ; they 
 marry and have children; they are subject to death, lit 
 may be added, they have the power of assuming any form 
 they please ; and so the agreement between them and the 
 Jinn of the Arabs is complete. 
 
 Moses Edrehi, a learned Jew of Morocco, has translated 
 into Spanish for us several of the tales of the Mazikeen con- 
 tained in the Talmud and Rabbinical writings. We select 
 the following as specimens ; and according to our usual 
 custom, adhere strictly to our original. 
 
 Srofcrn 
 
 THEEE was a man who was very rich, and who had but one 
 only son. He bestowed upon him every kind of instruction, 
 so that he became very learned and of great talent. 
 
 Before his death the old man gave a great entertainment, 
 and invited all the chief people of the city ; and when the 
 entertainment was over, he called his son, and made him 
 swear, in the name of the great God of the whole universe, 
 that he never would travel or go out of his own country. 
 He then left him the whole of his riches on this condition, 
 and made him sign a paper to that effect, with sufficient 
 witnesses, in the presence of all that company, and he 
 gave the paper into the custody of one of the principal 
 persons. 
 
 Some years after the death of his father, there came a 
 very large ship from India, laden with merchandise of great 
 value. The captain when he arrived inquired after the 
 father of this young man, and the people said unto him that 
 he was dead, but that he had left a son, and they conducted 
 the captain to the young man's dwelling. The captain then 
 said unto him, " Sir, I have brought hither much property
 
 JEWS. 499 
 
 belonging to thy father, and as there is much property of thy 
 father's still remaining, if thou wilt come with me, thou 
 wilt be able to obtain much riches, for thou canst recover all 
 that is owing unto thy father." He made answer unto the 
 captain and said, that he could not travel, as he had taken an 
 oath unto his father that he never would go out of the 
 country. The captain, however, ceased not every day to 
 persuade him, until at length he gave him his word that he 
 would go with him. He then went unto the learned Eabbin 
 that were at that time, to see if they would give him abso- 
 lution respecting the oath he had sworn unto his father. 
 But they counselled him not to leave the country. But his 
 eagerness to acquire more riches was so great, that he would 
 not hearken unto the counsel of any one. So he finally took 
 his resolution, and went away with the captain. 
 
 ]N"ow, when they were in the midst of the sea, lo ! the ship 
 went to pieces, and all the merchandise that was on board 
 was lost, and all the people were drowned, save only this 
 young man, who got upon a plank. And the watec carried 
 him about from one place unto another, until it cast him upon 
 the land. But here he was in danger of starving, and had 
 nothing to eat but the herbs of the field, or to drink but the 
 running water. 
 
 One day an exceeding large eagle drew near unto him, and 
 seated himself on the ground before him. As he was now 
 reduced to despair, and had b'ttle hopes of being able to 
 preserve his life, and knew not where he was, he resolved to 
 mount this eagle, and to sit upon his back. He accordingly 
 mounted the bird, and the eagle flew with him until he 
 brought him unto a country that was inhabited, where he 
 left him.* When he saw that he was in a land where there 
 were people, he was greatly rejoiced, and he immediately 
 inquired where the great Rabbi of that country dwelt. But 
 all the people that were there stood raocking at him, and 
 cursing him, and saying that he should die, because he had 
 broken the oath he had sworn unto his father. "When he 
 heard this he was greatly astonished at their knowing it, 
 but he went to the house of the chief person among them 
 who said unto him that he should abide in his house unti] 
 
 Com p. Laiic, Thousand and One Nights, iii. p. 91. 
 
 KK 2
 
 500 JEWS. 
 
 they did him justice, because in that country they were all 
 Mazikeen. and they wanted to kill him because he deserved 
 death on account of the oath to his father, which he had 
 broken. " Therefore," said he, " when they will sentence 
 thee, and will lead thee forth to punishment, cry aloud and 
 say, I call for justice before God and the king ! The king 
 will then do his utmost to deliver thee out of their hands, 
 and thou wilt remain alive." 
 
 Accordingly, when he was tried before the senate, and 
 before their princes and great men, he was found guilty, and 
 sentenced to death, according to the law of God. And when 
 they led him forth to be slain, he put his fingers before 
 God, and before his majesty the king.* When they heard 
 this, they took him before the king, who examined him, and 
 saw that, in justice, he was worthy of death. But the king 
 asked him if he had studied or knew the law of Moses, or 
 had studied the Talmud, and various authors ; and he saw 
 that he was very learned, and a great Rabbi, and it grieved 
 him much that he should be put to death. The king, there- 
 fore, begged that they would defer his execution until the 
 following day, for he wished to give his case a little further 
 consideration. At this they all held their peace, and 
 departed. 
 
 JS"ext day all the senators, governors, chief men, and all 
 the people of the city, came together to see and hear the 
 sentence of the king, and also to behold the death of this 
 man, as it would be for them a very curious sight. Now, 
 while they were all standing there assembled, before the 
 king came forth from his palace to give his judgement, he 
 called for this man who was condemned to death, and asked 
 him if he was willing to remain with him and teach his 
 children what he knew, as, in such case, he would do his 
 utmost to deliver him from death. He made answer that he 
 was willing. The king then went forth from his palace, and 
 seated himself upon his throne of judgement, and called all 
 the chief men, and all the people, and spake unto them in 
 this sort : 
 
 " Sirs, it is a truth that you have adjudged this man to 
 death, which he deserves : but there is no rule without au 
 
 * To signify that he appealed to them.
 
 JEWS. 501 
 
 exception, and I believe that this man hath not yet come to 
 his time that he should die. For if it was the "will of God 
 that he should die, he would have died along with the rest 
 of the people who were on board the same ship with him 
 when the ship went to pieces, and not have escaped as he 
 hath done. Again, if it was the will of God that he should 
 die, he would not have reached the land, and an eagle would 
 not have come and brought him hither amongst us. In like 
 manner, God hath delivered him from you, for he might 
 have been slain by you. He hath thus been delivered out 
 of these manifold and great perils, and it therefore seemeth 
 unto me that he should live ; as for the sin that he hath 
 committed, in breaking his oath, it is between him and God, 
 who shall reward him for it one day or other. He shall 
 therefore be free from us ; and I ordain that no one shall 
 touch him, or do him any evil ; and whosoever troubleth 
 him shall be put to death." 
 
 When they heard these words of the king, they all ex- 
 pressed themselves well pleased at his decision ; and the 
 man remained in the house of the king, teaching his chil- 
 dren. He continued in the palace for three years, highly 
 respected by every one, and greatly esteemed by the king 
 for his talents and his capacity. 
 
 Now it came to pass that the king was obliged to set 
 forth with an army, to war against one of the provinces of 
 his kingdom which had rebelled. As he was on the point 
 to set out, he called for this man, and gave him all the keys 
 of his palaces and his treasures, and said unto him, " Behold ! 
 tliou mayest view every thing that is in the land and in the 
 palaces ; but thou hast here a golden key of one palace which 
 thou must beware of opening, for on the day that thou 
 openest it I will slay thee." Then, charging the people to 
 respect and attend to him, the king took his leave of him 
 and departed. When the king was gone, he began to open 
 and examine all the palaces, and all the curiosities, which 
 were such as he had never seen in his life, and all the 
 treasures of the greatest riches that could be in the world ; 
 in short, he saw mountains upon mountains of diamonds of 
 great weight, and other things of various kinds, most admi- 
 rable to behold. But when he had seen all, he was not 
 satisfied ; he wanted to see more. And as his desire was
 
 n02 JEWS. 
 
 very great, he would open the other palace ; find he thought 
 he should suffer no injury thereby, so that he resolved to 
 open it. Five or six times he drew nigh to open it, and as 
 often he drew back in fear : at length he took courage and 
 opened it. 
 
 There were seven apartments, one within the other, and 
 every apartment was full of different rich and curious things 
 In the seventh apartment was the princess, with other 
 women, all richly dressed, and very beautiful. "When the 
 princess saw him, she gave a sigh, and said, "Man, it 
 grieveth me for thee ! how art thou come hither ? Where 
 is thy regard for the advice of my father, who entreated thee 
 not to open this palace, when he gave thee the keys of his 
 palaces and his treasures, and straitly charged thee not to 
 come hither ? Know now that my father is coming, and 
 that he will surely slay thee. But if thou wilt follow my 
 counsel, and wilt espouse me, I will save thee ; but thou 
 must give unto me thy oath, that thou wilt do it." He 
 replied that he would, and he sware unto her, and gave it 
 unto her in writing. She then said unto him, " When my 
 father asketh thee why thou hast opened the palace, thou 
 shalt make answer, and say that thou desirest to marry me, 
 and then he will let thee escape, and not slay thee." 
 
 He had scarcely ended speaking with her, when the king 
 entered, with his sword drawn in his hand, to slay him. 
 Then he threw himself on the ground, and began to entreat 
 him, and said that he was desirous to marry the princess. 
 When the king heard this, he was rejoiced that he would 
 remain there, and so teach his children all the knowledge he 
 possessed ; for he was of great capacity in everything. He 
 therefore teld him, that he would leave it to his daughter, 
 whether she would have him or not. The king then asked 
 his daughter, and she replied, " What your majesty doth for 
 me is well done." The king then gave his consent for her 
 marriage with him. The contract was made, and notice was 
 given to all the chief persons of the city, and the wedding 
 was appointed to be in two months. 
 
 When the appointed time was come, all the chief men of 
 all the provinces of the kingdom were invited, and a great 
 feast was made to celebrate the marriage of the princess ; 
 and they were married to their great joy and happiness.
 
 JEWS. 503 
 
 On the first night of their marriage, when the husband 
 and the wife were alone, she said unto him, " Behold ! I am 
 not like one of you, and thou seest that, thanks be unto 
 God ! there is no defect in my body; if, therefore, though 
 we have been publicly married with the consent of my 
 father, thou art not content to live with me as husband and 
 wife, thou art at liberty, and no one shall know it ; but if 
 thou art content with all thy will, thou must swear unto me 
 that thou wilt never leave me." He replied, that he was 
 well content with everything ; and he sware unto her, and 
 wrote it down on paper, and signed it with his hand, and 
 gave it unto her ; and they lived happily as man and wife 
 for many years, and they had children ; and his first-born he 
 named Solomon, after the name of king Solomon. 
 
 Immediately after the marriage, the king caused it to be 
 proclaimed that his son-in-law should be the second person 
 in the kingdom to give judgement, and to punish such as 
 should be deserving of punishment. This f.he king did with 
 the consent of all the great men of the country. 
 
 But, after some years, this man began to be very anxious 
 and melancholy ; and his wife asked him many times what it 
 was that ailed him, but he would never tell her the cause : 
 yet she persuaded him so much, that at length he told it 
 unto her, and said, that when he looked upon his children 
 he remembered the other children that he had, and his other 
 wife, and that he yearned to behold them once more. Hia 
 wife replied, " My dear husband, let not this give thee any 
 uneasiness, for if thou wishest to see them, thou canst see 
 them." He answered, "If thou wilt do me this favour and 
 grace, I shall thank thee much." She asked him how long 
 he wished to stay with his wife and children, and he 
 answered, three months ; but she said, " No ; I will give 
 thee the space of a year, on condition, that as soon as the 
 year is expired thou return again unto me." He answered. 
 " If thou show me this favour, I will do all that thou wilt 
 command me." She said, " Take an oath that thou wilt 
 keep thy word." He then sware, and wrote it down ou 
 paper, and gave it unto her. 
 
 She then called one of her servants, and ordered him lo 
 convey him to his own house with all the speed he could 
 maue ; and in the space of a few minutes he found himself
 
 504: JEWS. 
 
 in his own house with his wife and children. The man then 
 asked him if he had any commands for his lady ? He replied, 
 " I have nothing to do with thee or thy lady. I am now 
 with my wife and children ; I know no other, and therefore 
 I have no message to give." The servant then returned to 
 his mistress ; and she asked him what his master had said, 
 and if he had given him any message. He answered, 
 " Madam, if I tell thee what he hath said, thou wilt not 
 believe me." She then pressed him, and he told her all. 
 She said, " It doth not signify." 
 
 He remained, then, very happy with his family ; but at the 
 end of the year his wife sent a messenger unto him to call 
 him back unto her, as the year was expired. But he 
 answered that he would not, and that he had nothing to do 
 with them, as he was a man, and had nothing more to say 
 with them. The messenger returned and told his mistress, 
 and she sent other messengers of greater dignity, for she 
 said this one is not sufficient for him. But he made the 
 same reply that he had made unto the first. She then sent 
 greater still, three or four times ; and at last she was obliged 
 to send her son Solomon. When he saw his son he embraced 
 him, and asked him what he wanted. He told him that his 
 mother had sent him, that he might come back with him, 
 and that if he would not, she would come and avenge herself 
 upon him. His father replied, that he had no mind to depart 
 from his house ; that he would stay with his wife and children, 
 who were human beings like himself. So when his son saw 
 that there was no remedy, and that he would not come with 
 him, he returned unto his mother, and related the whole 
 unto her. 
 
 His mother was then obliged to go herself with her great 
 army. When they arrived at the city where the man dwelt, 
 they said unto the princess that they would go up and slay 
 the man that was her husband, and all the people of the city; 
 but she answered, " No ; they had not permission to kill any 
 one, as all the Hebrews, when they lie down to sleep at night, 
 make their prayers unto God to protect and guard them 
 from all Mazikeen ; so that we have no right or permission 
 to touch them ; and if we do them a mischief, we shall be 
 chastised for it by the God of Israel, who governeth the 
 whole world. Do you, therefore, bide here without the city,
 
 JMVS. 50~> 
 
 and in the morning I and my son Solomon -will arise and go 
 unto the school of the Rabbin and the Sanhedrim, and if 
 they will do me justice with him, well ; if not, 1 will avenge 
 myself upon him and upon them." They all made answer 
 and said, " It is well said." 
 
 In the morning she arose with her son Solomon, and went 
 unto the great school, where the divine Law was taught. 
 They were consulting, when they heard the voice of one 
 crying aloud, and saying, " Sirs, justice before God, and 
 before you, upon such a one, my husband ;" and all the 
 people were amazed, and were in astonishment when thev 
 heard the voice three times, and saw no one. They then 
 sent for the man, who came unto them and related the whole 
 story, and said that he had no mind to go with her. They 
 again heard the voice, which said, " Sirs, here are his oaths, 
 signed by himself, which he sware and signed each time;" 
 and then three written papers fell before them. They read 
 them, and asked him if that was his signature. He said it 
 was. They said onto him, " It is ill done to break so many 
 oaths," and that there was no remedy, but that he should go 
 with her to where he had lived so many years with her, and 
 where she had saved him from death, and he had had children 
 by her. " As for us, we advise thee to go with her, and if 
 thou dost not, it will not come to good ; for she is not an 
 ordinary person, but is a princess, and merits attention, more 
 especially as she hath right on her side." He answered that 
 he would give her Guet (a bill of divorce); but she made 
 answer, that that would not be for her honour. In fine, he 
 refused absolutely to go with her. 
 
 After a great deal of argument, and when she saw that 
 there were no means to persuade him, she said, " Sirs, I am 
 highly obliged and grateful to you ; for I see that you do 
 me the justice of God, and he will not accept it. You are 
 free, and the sin will be upon his soul. Wherefore, sirs, 
 since there is no remedy with him, I entreat that he will 
 suffer me to take leave of him, and to embrace him." He 
 replied that she might, and as soon as she embraced him she 
 drew out his soul, and he died. She then said, " Sirs, here 
 is his son Solomon, who is one of yourselves. I will give 
 him sufficient riches, and he shall be heir along with the 
 children of his other wife, and you will make him among you
 
 506 JEWS. 
 
 a great Rabbi ; for he is of sufficient ability, as you may see 
 if you will examine him. Farewell." So saying, she departed 
 with her army.* 
 
 THERE was once a man who was exceedingly rich, but out of 
 all measure avaricious, and who never had done a good deed 
 in his life, and never had given even the value of a farthing 
 unto the poor. 
 
 It happened one winter's night, between the hours of 
 twelve and one, that a man came and knocked loudly at the 
 door of this miser. He opened the window, and saw a man 
 at the door, and he asked him what it was he wanted. He 
 said that he wanted him to go with him to a village twelve 
 miles distant from the town, to circumcise a young child 
 that would be eight days old in the morning. 
 
 Now you must know, that this man of whom we treat was 
 a Jew and a Moohel. that is, one whose office it is to circum- 
 cise the young children ; and with all his avarice in money 
 matters, he was not avaricious in his office, for he believed 
 in the end of the world, and therefore he did this good 
 action. 
 
 He accordingly agreed to go with the man, and he kindled 
 a fire, and put his clothes before it, and got ready the in- 
 struments he required for performing the ceremony. He 
 then set out along with the strange man, whom he knew 
 not, though it was winter, and dark and rainy ; and they 
 went along, journeying through the wilderness. This 
 
 From a rabbinical book called Mahasee Yenisalemee, t. e. History of a 
 Hebrew of Jerusalem. " Very old," says Moses Edrehi, " and known by the 
 Hebrews to be true " " Moreover," saith he of another tale, "it really hap- 
 pened, because every thing that is written in the Jewish hooks is true ; for no 
 one can print any new book without its being examined and approved of by the 
 greatest and chiefest Rabbin and wise men of that time and city, and the 
 proofs must be very strong and clear ; so that all the wonderful stories in these 
 l>ouks are true." The Jews are not singular in this mode of vouching for the 
 truth of wonderful stories.
 
 JEWS. 507 
 
 unfortunate Moohel, who did not know his -way in the wilder- 
 ness, and in the dark, every now and then fell over the 
 Btones on the way ; but they still went on until they came 
 to a great and lofty mountain in the midst of the wilderness, 
 where people never passed, and where there are no people 
 to be seen, but only dark, dark mountains, that fill with 
 terror those who look upon them. 
 
 The man who came with the Moohel now laid his hand on 
 a great stone of the mountain, so large that five hundred 
 persons could not remove or raise it ; yet he raised it with 
 only one hand. The place then opened, and they both 
 descended. There were many flights of steps, and it was 
 very deep within the earth, and below there was an entire 
 city. They entered then into a palace that was very large 
 and handsome ; it had fine gardens, and there was a great 
 deal of light, and music, and much dancing of men and 
 women. When they saw this Moohel approach, they began 
 to laugh and to mock at him ; but the poor Moohel was 
 greatly astonished at all the things that he saw, and as he 
 stood looking on, he began to consider and reflect upon them; 
 and then he saw that they were not human beings like us, 
 and great fear came upon him ; but he had no means of 
 getting out, or of saving himself, so he constrained himself, 
 and remained quiet. 
 
 Kow the man who had brought him thither was one of 
 their commanders, and a great personage among them. He 
 took him then to the apartment of the lying-in woman, that 
 he might view the child. The man then went away, and 
 left him with the lying-in woman. But the woman groaned 
 in great affliction, and began to weep. The Moohel asked 
 her w hat ailed her ? Then said the woman unto the Moohel, 
 " How didst thou come hither ? Knowest thou in what place 
 thou art, and amongst whom thou art ? " The Moohel replied 
 that he did not, as he had not ventured to speak. The 
 woman then explained, "Thou art in the land of theMazikeen, 
 and all the people that are here are Mazikeen ; but I am a 
 being like unto thyself; for when I was yet young and little, 
 I was once alone in a dark place, and these people took me 
 and brought me hither; and I was married to this husband, 
 who is one of their great men, and who is, moreover, a Jew, 
 for there are different religions among them ; and I also
 
 508 JEWS. 
 
 am a Jewess ; and when this child was born, I spake unto 
 my husband, and entreated of him, that he would get a 
 Moohel to circumcise the babe ; and so he brought thee 
 hither. But thou art in great danger here, and art lost ; for 
 thou wilt never be able to go out from here, and wilt be like 
 one of them. Yet, as I have compassion for thee, and par- 
 ticularly as thou hast, out of kindness, come hither to circum- 
 cise the babe, and out of humanity, I will give thee a counsel 
 that may be of service unto thee; and that is, when they 
 ask thee to eat or to drink, take good heed not to touch 
 anything ; for if thou taste anything of theirs thou wilt 
 become like one of them, and wilt remain here for ever." 
 
 The husband now came in, and they went to the congre- 
 gation to perform the morning prayer. After the prayer, 
 they returned to the house to perform the ceremony of cir- 
 cumcision. The Moohel took a cup of wine, and gave it to 
 taste to the lying-in woman, to the babe, and to all who 
 were invited to the ceremony ; for this is the manner and 
 the custom. But the man who had fetched the Moohel said 
 unto him, " Thou also shouldst taste." The Moohel replied, 
 that he could not, for he had dreamed an evil dream, and 
 that he must fast ; and by this excuse he escaped. But he 
 waited for him till night, and then they brought him meat 
 and drink ; but he replied that he could not eat until he had 
 passed two or three days fasting. When the man who had 
 Drought him thither saw that he would neither eat nor drink 
 for so long a time, he took compassion upon him, and said 
 unto him, " What is the matter with thee, that thou wilt 
 neither eat nor drink ? " " Sir," replied the Moohel, " I ask 
 and desire no other thing but to go home unto my family ; for 
 this week we hold a feast, and I should be with my family. I 
 therefore most humbly supplicate thee to take me unto my 
 own house." He then began to beg and entreat him most 
 earnestly, and the woman also entreated for him. 
 
 The man then said unto him, " Since thou desirest to go 
 home unto thy house, come then with me ; I will give thee 
 a present for thy trouble. Come with me, where thou mayest 
 see and take whatever will seem good unto thee." The 
 Moohel answered, " I do not wish for anything. Thanks be 
 to God ! I am very rich I want for nothing, but to return 
 home unto my family." "Nevertheless," said he, "come
 
 JEWS. r>09 
 
 with me, till I show thee curious things that thou hast never 
 seen in thy life." He was accordingly persuaded; he went 
 with him, and he showed him divers apartments all full of 
 silver, of gold, of diamonds, of all sorts of precious stones, 
 and of other curious and magnificent things, such as he had 
 never seen in his life. 
 
 He thus led him from one chamber to another, and con- 
 tinually asked him if he wished for anything ; for if he did, 
 he might take it. But he still refused, and would take 
 nothing. At length they came to the last chamber, where 
 there was nothing but bunches of keys hanging. The 
 Moohel raised his eyes at seeing such a number of keys, and, 
 lo ! he beheld a bunch of keys that was his own. He began 
 then to reflect deeply ; and the man said unto him, " What 
 dost thou stand gazing at ? I have shown thee many precious 
 and curious things, and yet thou didst not bestow so much 
 attention upon them as upon these old keys, that are of 
 little worth." " Be not oifended, sir," answered the Moohel, 
 " but these keys are so like mine, and I believe they are the 
 same." He took the keys and began to examine them, and 
 to point out each key separately to the man, who at length 
 said unto him, " Thou art right, they are thy keys. Know 
 that I am lord over the hearts of the people who never at 
 any time do good ; and as thou performest this good deed of 
 circumcision, and riskest thy life in dangerous journeys, and 
 goest with all sorts of people to do the commandment of the 
 God of Israel, here, take the keys ! Prom henceforward thy 
 heart will be opened,* and will be good toward the poor, 
 which will cause thee to live a long and a happy life with 
 thy family. Come now with me ; I will carry thee home to 
 thy house and to thy family. Now shut thine eyes." 
 
 He shut his eyes, and instantly found himself in his own 
 house amidst his family. He then began to distribute 
 money to all the poor that were in the land, every week and 
 every month. But the world is always curious to hear novel- 
 ties and strange events, and the people, and even his own 
 wife, as this was a very wonderful thing, pressed him and 
 persuaded him, until at length he was obliged to relate the 
 whole history of what had befallen him, from the beginning 
 
 The moral hcie is aaieuL.
 
 510 JEWS. 
 
 even unto the end ; and it was a matter of great delight to 
 all the world ; and they did much good to the poor, and they 
 all became rich, with great prosperity. And the Moohel 
 lived very long, and spent a great and a happy lite with 
 his family, a pattern and an example unto the whole world.* 
 
 Oje 
 
 IT came to pass in the countries of Africa, in a particular 
 month, during which it is the usage and the custom of the 
 Jews to rise in the night to say their prayers, that a servant, 
 whose business it was to knock at the doors, and to call up 
 the people, found one night an ass (jumento) in the street ; 
 and he mounted upon him, and went riding along and calling 
 up the people. And, as he rode, lo ! the ass began to swell 
 and to increase in size, until he became three hundred yards 
 in height, and reached up even unto the top of the loftiest 
 tower of the church, upon which he set the man, and then 
 went away ; and on the morrow the man was found sitting 
 upon the tower. Now, thou must know that this ass was 
 one of the Mazikeen. 
 
 The Jews have, as it were, brought us back to Asia. As 
 we proceed eastwards from Persia, where we commenced, 
 India first meets our view, but of the numerous beings of its 
 copious and intricate mythology, no class seems to belong to 
 earth unless it be the Yakshas who attend on Kuveras, the 
 Hindoo Plutos, and have charge of his enchanted gardens on 
 the summit of Himalaya, and who bear some resemblance to 
 the Dwarfs. There are also the misshapen Pisachas, who 
 love to dwell in gloom ; the Vidhyadharas, *. e., Masters of 
 Magic, are said to resemble the Jinn of the Arabs ; and the 
 dancing and singing Gandharvas and Apsaresas may be com- 
 pared with the Nymphs of Grecian mythology. 
 
 Eastwards still lies China. Here there is a species of 
 
 * From a very ancient rabbinical book called R. H. It is needless to poim 
 *ut its resemblance to German and other talcs,
 
 CONCLITSTOIT. 511 
 
 beings named Shinseen, who are said to haunt the woods 
 and mountains, where, exempt from the passions and the 
 cares of life, they dwell in a state of blissful ease ; but still 
 exercise an influence over human affairs. Sometimes they 
 appear as old men with long beards ; at other tunes as young 
 maidens, sauntering amid rocks and woods by moonlight.* 
 
 We do not recollect to have met, in our reading, with 
 any other beings bearing a resemblance to what we term 
 Fairies. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 HEBE, then, we conclude. The task which we imposed on 
 ourselves was to collect, arrange, classify, and give under one 
 point of view the various ideas and legends respecting Fairies 
 and similar beings of the popular creed, which lay scattered 
 in a variety of books and a variety of languages. We have 
 marked resemblances, traced coincidences, and offered etymo- 
 logies. Many legends, especially German ones, we know, 
 exist, which are not to be found in this work ; but, in gene- 
 ral, they offer no new traits of popular lore, and most persona 
 will, we apprehend, be content with what we have given. 
 
 The labours of MM. Grimm in this department of philo- 
 sophy can never be too highly praised. They have been, in 
 fact, the creators of it ; and the German Mythology is a 
 work of the most extensive learning, and written in the spirit 
 of true philosophy. And this is no light praise ; for of all 
 subjects, Mythology appears to be the one on which imagina- 
 tion is most apt to run riot. Hence, it has been frequently 
 almost brought into contempt by the wild vagaries of those 
 who have presumed to write on it without judgement or 
 common sense. Though all may not agree with the opinions 
 or deductions in the preceding pages, we trust that they will 
 find in them no traces of ill-regulated imagination. 
 
 As works of this kind have no bearing on material enjoy- 
 ments, the number of those who will think lightly of them 
 in these days will, of course, not be small. But iu the view 
 of sane reason and philosophy, the subject is by no means 
 
 * Seo Dayis's translation cf The Fortunate Union, i. 68.
 
 512 COSCLUSlOtf. 
 
 unimportant, nay, it is even more important than maiij of 
 higher pretensions. To trace the corruption and degrada- 
 tion of the pure religion of the Gospel, has always been held 
 to be a task worthy of the highest intellect : we should not, 
 therefore, despise the present one, which is the same in kind 
 though different in degree. We have seen that all these 
 legendary beings and their characters and acts are remnants 
 of ancient religious systems, the mental offspring of deep- 
 tliinking sages. It is surely, then, not uninteresting to trace 
 them to their present form and condition. Even in a his- 
 toric point of view they are not undeserving of attention. 
 Thus, should our theory on the subject be correct, it is of 
 importance to observe how the tribes around the Baltic, 
 when they made conquests in the Roman Empire, brought 
 with them the religious ideas of their forefathers, and left 
 traces of them, which are discernible even at the present day. 
 Again, nothing more interests the botanist than to find the 
 same plants, modified by local circumstances, growing in 
 widely-distant regions. The interest is similar when we find 
 the same legends, modified also by circumstances, springing 
 up in distant countries, and amongst tribes and nations who 
 could hardly have had any communication.* 
 
 This work is therefore to be regarded as a part of the 
 philosophy of popular fiction. It is not by any means in- 
 tended to be a work of mere amusement, and those who view 
 or represent it in that light will do it manifest injustice. 
 Many of the legends, no doubt, may possess attractions 
 even for children ; but the same is true of the narratives of 
 Herodotus, and still more of those of the Old Testament, 
 and therefore should not derogate from its real importance. 
 At the same time, we have adopted a light and facile style, 
 as that which we deemed best suited to the character of the 
 subject and the taste of this country ; but we trust that this 
 will not lower either our subject or ourselves in the eyes of 
 our readers.f 
 
 * Under the title Similar Legends in the Index, legends of this kind are 
 arranged with references to the places where they occur. 
 
 f- The legends from tho German and other languages are, in general, faith- 
 fally translated, whence the style is at times rude and negligent; Englist 
 legends are for the most p-irt, also, merely transcribed.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Tus following tales are some of those which we contributed to 
 the Irish Fairy Legends. Subjoined is a selection from the versca 
 which we have written on various occasions, chiefly to oblige our 
 lady-friends. They are inserted merely to show that the writer 
 could compose well-rimed stanzas, while he lays no claim what- 
 ever to the title of poet. 
 
 EJtnurr. 
 
 IT was Monday, and a fine October morning. The sun had been 
 some time above the mountains, and the hoar frost and the dew- 
 drops on the gossamers* were glittering in the light, when Thady 
 
 * As we have above given an etymon of cobweb, we will here repeat our 
 note on the word gossamer in the Fairy Legends. 
 
 " Gossamers, Johnson says, are the long white cobwebs which fly in the 
 air in calm sunny weather, and he derives the word from the Low Latin gos- 
 eapium. This is altogether unsatisfactory. The gossamers are the cobwebs 
 which may be seen, particularly of a still autumnal morning, in such numbers 
 on the furze-bushes, and which are raised by the wind and floated through the 
 *ir, as thus exquisitely pictured by Browne in his Britannia's Pastorals (ii. 2), 
 
 The milk-white gossamers not upwards snowed. 
 
 Every lover of nature must have observed and admired the beautiful appear- 
 ance of the gossamers in the early morning, when covered with dew-drops, 
 which, like prisms, separate the rays of light, and shoot the blue, red, yellow, 
 and othsr colours of the spectrum, in bnintuit confusion. Of King Oberon wo 
 aie told 
 
 A riche mantle he did wear, 
 
 Made of tinsel gossamer, 
 
 Bestrew'd over with a few 
 
 Diamond drops of moruing dew. 
 
 A xucn more probable origin of gossamer than that proposed by Johutot 'J> 
 
 II.
 
 51-i THE HARVEST DHsXER 
 
 Byrne, on coming in to get his breakfast, saw his neighbour Paddy 
 Cavenagh, who lived on the other side of the road, at his own 
 door tying his brogues. 
 
 " A good morrow to you, Paddy, honey," said Thady Byrne. 
 
 " Good morrow, kindly, Thady," said Paddy. 
 
 "Why, thin, Paddy, avick, it isn't your airly risin', anyhow 
 that 'ill do you any harm this mornin'." 
 
 " It 's thrue enough for you, Thady Byrne," answered Paddy 
 casting a look up at the sky ; " for I b leeve it 's purty late in the 
 day. But I was up, you see, murdherin' late last night." 
 
 "To be shure, thin, Paddy, it was up at the great dinner, yis- 
 terday, above at the big house you wor." 
 
 " Ay was it ; an' a rattlin' fine dinner we had uv it. too." 
 
 " Why, thin, Paddy, agrah, what 's to ail you now, but you 'd 
 jist sit yourself down here on this piece o' green sod, an' tell us 
 all about it from beginnin' to ind." 
 
 " Niver say the word twist, man ; I '11 give you the whole full 
 an' thrue account uv it, an' welcome." 
 
 They sat down on the roadside, and Paddy thus began. 
 
 " Well, you see, Thady, we 'd a powerful great harvist uv it, 
 you know, this year, an' the min all worked like jewels, as they 
 are ; an' the masther was in great sperits, an' he promis'd he 'd 
 give us all a grand dinner whin the dhrawin'-in was over, an' the 
 corn all safe in the haggard. So this last week, you see, crown'd 
 the business ; an' on Satherday night the last shafe was nately 
 tied an' sint in to the misthress, an' everything was finisht, all to 
 the tatchin' o' the ricks. Well, you see, jist as Larry Toole was 
 come down from headin' the last rick, an' we war takin' away the 
 laddher, out comes the misthress herself long life to her by the 
 light o' the moon ; an', ' Boys,' sez she, ' yez hav' finish'd the 
 harvist bravely, an' I invite yez all to dinner here to-morrow ; 
 an' if yez come airly, yez 'ill git mass in the big hall, widout the 
 throuble o' goin' up all the ways to the chapel for it.' " 
 
 "Why, thin, did she raally say so, Paddy ?" 
 
 " That she did the divil the word o' lie in it." 
 
 " Well, go on." 
 
 " Well, if we didn't set up a shout for her, it 's no matther !" 
 
 * Ay, an' a good right yez had too, Paddy, avick." 
 
 " Well, you see, yistherday mornin' which, God be praised, 
 was as fine a day as iver come out of the sky whin I tuk the 
 beard off o' me, Tom Conner an' I set off together for the big 
 
 suggested by v;hat has been now stated. Oossamer is, we think, a corruption 
 of gorse, or gosssamyt, i. e. the samyt, or finely-woven silken web that lies on 
 thejwse OT furze. Voss, in a note on his Luise (iii. 17), says that the popular 
 belief in Germany is, that the gossamers are woven by the Dwarfs.
 
 T11E HARVEST DINNEE. 515 
 
 house. An' I don't know, Thady, whether it was the fineness 
 o' the day, or the thoughts o' the good dinner we wor to have, or 
 the kindness o' the misthress, that med my heart so light, but I 
 filt, anyhow, as gay as any skylark. Well, whin we got 
 up to the house, there was every one o' the people that 'a in the 
 work, min, women and childher, all come together in the yard ; 
 an' a purty sight it was to luk upon, Thady : they wor all so nate 
 an so clane. an' so happy." 
 
 " Thrue for you, Paddy, agrah ; an' a fine thing it is, too, to 
 work wid a raal gintleman like the masther. But till us, avick, 
 how was it the misthress conthrived to get the mass for yez : 
 shure Father Miley himself, or the codjuthor, didn't come 
 over." 
 
 "No, in troth didn't they, but the misthress managed it betther 
 nor all that. You see, Thady, there 's a priest, an ould friend o' 
 the family's, one Father Mulhall 's on a visit, this fortnight past, 
 up at the big house. He 's as gay a little man as iver spoke, 
 only he 's a little too fond o' the dhrop, the more 's the pity, 
 an' it 's whispered about among the sarvints that by manes uv it 
 lie lost a parish he had down the counthry ; an' he was an his 
 way up to Dublin, whin he stopt to spind a few days wid his 
 ould frinds the masther an' misthress. 
 
 " Well, you see, the misthress on Satherday, widout sayin' a 
 single word uv it to any livin' sowl, writes a letther wid her 
 own hand, an' sinds Tom Freen off wid it to Father Miley, to 
 ax him for a loan o' the vistmints. Father Miley, you know 's 
 a mighty ginteel man intirely, and one that likes to obleege the 
 quolity in anything that doesn't go agin' his juty ; an glad 
 he was to hav' it in his power to sarve the misthress ; an' he sint 
 oft' the vistmints wid all his heart an' sowl an' as civil a letther, 
 Tommy Freen says, for he hard the misthress readin' it, as ivir 
 was pinned." 
 
 " Well, there was an alther, you see, got up in the big hall, 
 jist bechune the two doors if ivir you wor in it ladin' into the 
 store-room, an' the room the childher sleep in ; and whin iviry 
 thing was ready we all come in, an' the priest gev' us as good 
 mass iviry taste as if we wor up at the chapel for it. The mis- 
 thress an' all the family attinded thimsilves, an' they stud jist 
 widinside o' the parlour-door ; and it was raaly surprising Thady, 
 to see how dacently they behaved thimsilves. If they wor all 
 their lives goin' to chapel they cudn't have behaved thimsilves 
 betther nor they did." 
 
 "Ay, Paddy, mavourneen ; I '11 be bail they didn't skit and laugh 
 the way some people would be doin'." 
 
 " Laugh ! not thimsilves, indeed. They 'd more manners, if 
 nothin' else, nor to do that. Well, to go an wid my story : whin 
 
 LL2
 
 516 THE HABVEST DIX.VEH. 
 
 the mass was ovir we wint sthrollin' about the lawn an' place till 
 three o'clock come, an' thin you see the big bell rung out for 
 ilinner, an' may be it wasn't we that wor glad to hear it. So 
 away wid us to the long barn where the dinner was laid out ; 
 an' 'pon my conscience, Thady Byrne, there 's not one word o' lie 
 in what I 'm goin' to tell you ; but at the sight o' so much vittles 
 iviry taste uv appetite in the world lift me, an' I thought I 'd 
 ha' fainted down an the ground that was undher me. There 
 was, you see, two rows o' long tables laid the whole linth o' the 
 barn, an' table cloths spred upon iviry inch o' them ; an' there 
 was rounds o' beef, an' rumps o' beef, an' ribs o' beef, both biled 
 an' roast, an' there was ligs o' mootton, and han's o' pork, and 
 pieces o' fine bacon, an' there was cabbage an' pratees to no 
 ind, an' a knife an' fork laid for iviry body ; an' barrils o' beer 
 an' porther, with the cocks in iviry one o' them, an' moogs an' 
 porringirs in hapes. In all my born days, Thady dear, I nivir 
 laid eyes on sich a load o' vittles." 
 
 " By the powers o' dilph ! Paddy, ahaygar, an' it teas a grand 
 sight shure enough. Tare an' ayjirs ! what ill loock I had not to 
 be in the work this year ! But go on, agra." 
 
 " Well, you see, the masther himself stud up at the iud uv 
 one o' the tables, an' coot up a fine piece o' the beef for us ; and 
 right forenint him at the other ind, sot ould Paddy Byrne, for, 
 though you know he is a farmer himself, yet the misthress is so 
 fond uv him he is sich a mighty dacint man that she would by 
 all manner o' manes hav' him there. Then the priest was at the 
 head o' th' other table, an' said grace for us, an' thin fill to 
 slashin' up another piece o' the beef for us : and forenint him 
 sot Jim Murray the stchewart ; an' shure enough, Thady, it was 
 oursilves that played away in grand style at the beef an' the 
 mootton, an' the cabbage, an' all th' other fine things. An' 
 there was Tom Freen, and all th' other sarvints waitin' upon us 
 an' handin' us dhrink, jist as if we wor so many grand gintle- 
 min that wor dinin' wid the masther. Well, you see, whin we 
 wor about half doon, in walks the misthress hursilf, an' the young 
 masther, an' the young ladies, an' the ladies from Dublin that 'a 
 down on a visit wid the misthress, jist, as she said, to see that we 
 wor happy and merry ovir our dinner ; an' thin, Thady, you see, 
 widout anybody sayin' a single word, we all stud up like one 
 man, an' iviry man an' boy wid his full porringer o' porther in 
 his hand dhrank long Hie an' success to the misthress and 
 masther an' iviry one o' the family. I don't know for others, 
 Thady, but for mysilf, I nivir said a prayer in all my life more 
 from the heart ; and a good right I had, shure, and iviry one that 
 was there, too ; for, to say nothin' o' the dinner, is there tho likes 
 uv her in the whole side o' the counth ry for goodness to the poor,
 
 TI1E HAUVJiST UIAXER. 517 
 
 ^hethir they're sick or they 're well. Would n t 1 niysilf, if it 
 *orn't but for her, be a lone an' desolate mail this blissed 
 day ? " 
 
 " It 's thrue for you, avick, for she brought J udy through it 
 betther nor any docther o' thim all." 
 
 " Well, to make a long story short, we et, an' we dhrauk, an' 
 we laughed, an' we talked, till we wor tirt, an' as soon as it grew 
 dusk, we wor all called agin into the hall : an' there, you see, the 
 misthress had got ovir Tim Connel, the blind piper, an' had sint 
 for all the women that could come, an' the cook had tay for thim 
 down below in the kitchen ; an' they come up to the hall, an' 
 there was chairs set round it for us all to sit upon, an' the misthress 
 come out o' the parlour, an' ' Boys,' says she, ' I hope yez med a 
 good dinnir, an' I Ve bin thinkin' uv yez, you see, an' I Ve got 
 yez plinty o' partnirs, an' it 's your own faults if yez don't spind 
 a pleasint evinin'.' So wid that we set up another shout for the 
 misthress, an' Tim sthvuck up, an' the masther tuk out Nilly 
 Mooney into the middle of the flure to dance a jig, and it was 
 they that futted it nately. Thin the masther called out Dinny 
 Moran, an' dhragged him up to one o' the Dublin young ladies, 
 an' bid Dinny be stout an' ax her out to dance wid him. So 
 Dinny, you see, though he was ashamed to make so free wid the 
 lady, still he was afeard not to do as the masther bid him ; so, 
 by my conscience, he bowled up to her manfully, an' hild out 
 the fist an' axed her out to dance wid him, an' she gev' him her 
 hand in a crack, an' Dinny whipt her out into the middle o' the 
 hall, forenint us all, an' pulled up his breeches an' called out to 
 Tim to blow up ' The Eocks of (Jashel ' for thim. An' thin my 
 jewil if you wor but to see thim ! Diimy flingin' the ligs about 
 as if they 'd fly from off him, an' the lady now here, now there, 
 jist for all the world as if she was a sperit, for not a taste o' 
 n'ise did she make on the flure that ivir was hard ; and Dinny 
 callin' out to Tim to play it up fasther an' fasther, an' Tim almost 
 workin' his elbow through the bag, till at last the lady was fairly 
 tirt, an' Dinny thin clapt his hands an' up jumpt Piggy Reilly, 
 an' she attacked him bouldly, an' danced down Dinny an' thin 
 up got Johnny Regan an' put her down complately. An' sence 
 the world was a world, I b'leeve there nivir was such danciu' 
 seen." 
 
 " The sarra the doubt uv it, avick I 'm sartin' ; they 're all o' 
 thim sich rael fine dancers. An' only to think o' the lady dancin' 
 wid the likes o' Dinny ! " 
 
 " Well, you see, poor ould Paddy Byrne, whin he 1 ears that 
 the womin wor all to be there, in he goes into the parlor to the 
 misthress, an' axes her if he might make so bould as to go home 
 and fetch Ids woman. So the misthress, you see, though you
 
 518 THE HAEYEST DINNEB. 
 
 fcnow Katty Byrne 's no great favourite wid hur, was glad to 
 obleege Paddy, an' so Katty Byrne was there too. An' thin ould 
 Hugh Carr axt hur out to move a minnet wid him, an' there was 
 Hugh, as stiff as if he dined on one o' the spits, wid his black 
 wig an' his long brown coat, an' his blue stockin's, movin' about 
 wid his hat in his hand, an' ladin' Katty about, an' lukin' so soft 
 upon her ; an' Katty, in her stiff mob-cap, wid the ears pinned 
 down undher her chin, an' hur little black hat on the top uv her 
 head ; an' she at one corner curcheyin' to Hugh, an' Hugh at 
 another bowin' to her, an' iviry body wundherin' at thim, they 
 moved it so iligantly." 
 
 " Troth, Paddy, avourneen, that was well worth goin' a mile o' 
 ground to see." 
 
 " Well, you see ; whin the dancin' was ovir they tuk to the 
 singin', an' Bill Carey gev' the ' Wounded Hussar,' an' the ' Poor 
 but Honest So'dger,' in sich style that yi 'd have h'ard him up on 
 the top o' Slee Roo ; an' Dinny Moran an' ould Tom Freen gev' 
 us the best songs they had, an' the priest sung the ' Cruiskeen 
 Laun ' for us gaily, an' one o' the young ladies played an' sung 
 upon a thing widin in the parlor, like a table, that was purtier 
 nor any pipes to listen to." 
 
 " An' didn't Bill giv' yez ' As down by Banna's Banks I 
 sthrayed 1 ' Shure that 's one o' the best songs he has." 
 
 " An' that he did, till he med the very sates shake undher us ; 
 but a body can't renumber iviry thing, you know. Well, where 
 was I ? Oh, ay ! You see, my dear, the poor little priest was all 
 the night long goin' backwards an' forwards, iviry minit, bechune 
 the parlor an' the hall ; an' the sperits, you see, was lyin' opin on 
 the sideboord, an' the dear little man he cudii't, for the life 
 uv him, keep himself from it, so he kipt helpin' himself to a 
 dhrop now an' a dhrop thin, till at last he got all as one as tipsy. 
 So thin he comes out into the hall among us, an' goes about 
 whisperin' to us to go home, an' not to be keepin' the family out 
 o' their bids. But the misthress she saw what he was at, an' 
 she stud up, an' she spoke out an' she said, ' Good people,' sez she, 
 ' uivir mind what the priest says to yez ; yez are my company, 
 an' not his, an' yez are heartily welcum to stay as long as yez 
 like.' So whin he found he cud get no good uv us at all, he 
 rowled off wid himself to his bid ; an' his head, you see, was so 
 bothered wid the liquor he 'd bin takin', that he nivir once 
 thought o' takin' off his boots, but tumbled into bed wid thim 
 upon him, Tommy Freen tould us, whin he wint into the room 
 to luk afther him ; and divil be hi Tim, when he h'ard it but he 
 lilts up the ' Priest in his Boots ;' and, God forgive us. we all burst 
 out laughin' . for shure who could hilp it, if it was the bishop 
 hirnsilfr
 
 T1IE 1IAEVEST DINS EH. 519 
 
 a Troth, it was a shame for yez, anyhow. But Paddy, agrah, 
 did yez come away at all ? " 
 
 " Why at last we did, afther another round o' the punch to the 
 glory an' success o' the family. And now, Thady, comes the most 
 surprisintest part o' the whole story. I was all alone, you see, for 
 my woman, you know, cudn't lave the childher to come to the 
 dance ; so, as it was a fine moonshiny night, nothin' 'ud sarve me 
 but I must go out into the paddock, to luk afther poor Rainbow 
 the plough bullock, that 's got a bad shouldher, and so by that 
 manes, you see, I misst o' the cumpany, an' had to go home all 
 alone by myself. Well, you see, it was out by the back gate 
 I come, an' it was thin about twelve hi the night, as well as I 
 cud jidge by the Plough, an' the moon was shinin' as bright as 
 a silver dish, and there wasn't a sound to be hard, barrin' the 
 screechin' o' the ould owl down in the ivy-wall ; an' I filt it all 
 very pleasant, for I was sumhow rather hearty, you see, wid the 
 dhrink I 'd bin takin' ; for you know, Thady Byrne, I 'm a sober 
 man." 
 
 " That 's no lie for you, Paddy, avick. A little, as they say, 
 goes a great way wid you." 
 
 " Well, you see, an I wint whistlin' to mysilf some o' the 
 chunes they wor singin', and thinkin' uv any thing, shure, but the 
 good people ; whin jist as I come to the cornir o the plantation, 
 an' got a sight o' the big bush, I thought, faith, I seen sum things 
 movin' backwards an' for'ards, an' dancin' like, up in the bush. 
 I was quite sartin it was the fairies that, you know, resort to it, 
 for I cud see, I thought, their little red caps an' green jackits 
 quite plain. Well, I was thinkin', at first, o' goiu' back an' gittin' 
 home through the fields ; but, says I to myself, says I, what sh'uld 
 I be afeard uv ? I 'm an honest man that does nobody any harm ; 
 an' I h'ard mass this mornin' ; an' it 's neither Holly eve nor St. 
 John's eve, nor any other o' their great days, an' they can do me 
 no harm, I 'm sartin. So I med the sign o' the crass, an' an 
 I wint in God's name, till I come right undher the bush ; and 
 what do you think they wor, Thady, afther all ? " 
 
 " Arrah, how can I till 1 But you wor a stout man anyhow, 
 Paddy, agrah ! " 
 
 " Why, thin, what was it but the green laves o' the ould bush, 
 an' the rid bunches o' the haves that war wavin' and shakin' ill 
 the moonlight. Well on I goes till I come to the cornir o' the 
 Crab road, whin I happined to cast my eyes ovir tow'st the little 
 moat in the Moatfield, an' there, by my sowl ' (God forgive me 
 for swaerin',) I seen the fairies in rael airnist." 
 
 " You did, thin, did you ?" 
 
 " Ay, by my faith, did I, an' a mighty purty sight it was to see, 
 too, I can tell you, Thady. The side o' the moat, you see, that
 
 520 THE HARTEST DINNER. 
 
 luks into the field was opin, and out uv it there come the darlint- 
 est little calvacade o' the purtiest little fellows you ivir laid your 
 eyes upon. They wor all dhrest in green huntin' frocks, wid nice 
 little rid caps on their heads, an' they wor all mounted on purty 
 little, long-tailed, white ponies, not so big as young kids, an' they 
 rode two and two so nicely. Well, you see, they tuk right acrass 
 the field, jist abuv the san'pit, an' I was wundherin' in myself 
 what they 'd do whin they come to the big ditch, thinkin' they 'd 
 nivir git ovir it. But I '11 tell you what it is, Thady. Misther 
 Tom and the brown mare, though they 're both o' thim gay good 
 at either ditch or wall, they 're not to be talked uv in the same 
 day wid thim. They tuk the ditch, you see, big as it is, in full 
 sthroke ; not a man o' thim was shuk in his sate, nor lost his 
 rank ; it was pop, pop, pop, ovir wid thim ; and thin, hurra, away 
 wid thim like shot acrass the High Field, in the direction o' the 
 ould church. Well, my dear, while I was sthrainin' my eyes 
 lukin' afther thim, I hears a great rumblin' noise cumin' out o' 
 the moat, an' whin I turned about to luk at it, what did I see but 
 a great ould family coach-an'-six comin' out o' the moat, and 
 niakin' direct for the gate where I was stannin'. Well, says I, 
 I 'in a lost man now, anyhow. There was no use at all, you see, 
 in thinkin' to run for it, for they wor dhrivin' at the rate uv a 
 hunt ; so down I got into the gripe o' the ditch, thinkin' to snake 
 off wid mysilf while they war op'nin' the gate. But, be the laws, 
 the gate flew opin widout a sowl layin' a finger to it, the very 
 instant minnet they come up to it, an' they wheeled down the 
 road jist close to the spot where I was hidin', an' I seen thim as 
 plain as I now see you ; an' a quare sight it was, too, to see ; for 
 not a morsel uv head that ivir was, was there upon one o' the 
 horses, nor on the coachman neither, and yit, for all that, Thady, 
 the Lord Lef 'nint's coach cudn't ha' med a handier nor a shorter 
 turn nor they med out o' the gate ; an' the blind thief uv a coach- 
 man, jist as they wor makin' the wheel, was near takin' the eye 
 out o' me wid the lash uv his long whip, as he was cuttiii' up the 
 horses to show off his dhrivin'. I 've my doubts that the schamer 
 knew I was there well enough, and that he did it all a purpose. 
 Well, as it passed by me, I peept in at the quolity widiuside, an' 
 not a head, no not as big as the head uv a pin, was there among 
 the whole kit o' thim, an' four fine futmin that war stamiiu' 
 behind the coach war jist like the Best o' thim." 
 
 " Well, to be shure, but it was a quare sight." 
 
 " Well, away they wint tattherin' along the road, makin' the 
 fire fly out o' the stones at no rate. So whin I seen they 'd no 
 eyes, I knew it was onpossible they could ivir see me, so up I got 
 out o' the ditch, and afther thim wid me along the road as fast as 
 ivir 1 culd lay fut to ground. But whin I got to the rise o' the
 
 THE YOUSG PIPEK. 521 
 
 hill I seen they wor a great ways a-hea<l o' me, an' they 'd takin tc 
 the fields, an' war makin' off for the ould church too. I thought 
 they might have some business o' their own there, an' that it 
 might not be safe for sthrpjigers to be goin' afther thim ; so as I 
 was by this time near my own house, I wint in and got quietly to 
 bid, widout sayin' anything to the woman about it ; an' long 
 enough it was before I cud git to sleep for thinkin' o' thim, an' 
 that's the raison, Thady, I was up so late this mornin'. But 
 wasn't it a sthrange thing, Thady?" 
 
 " Faith, an' shure it was, Paddy ahayger, as sthrange a thing 
 as ivir was. But are you quite sartin an' shure that you seen 
 thim ?" 
 
 " Am I sartin an' shure I seen thim 1 Am I sartin an' shure I 
 see the nose there on your face ] What was to ail me not to see 
 thim ? Wasn't the moon shinin' as bright as day ? An' didn't 
 they pass widin a yard o' me ? And did ivir any one see me 
 dhrunk, or hear me tell a lie ?" 
 
 " It 's thrue for you, Paddy, no one ivir did, and myself doesn't 
 rightly know what to say to it ?"* 
 
 THERE was livin', it 's not very long ago, on the bordhers o' the 
 county Wicklow, a dacint honest couple, whose names wor 
 Mick Flanagan and Judy Muldoon. These poor people wor 
 
 * In the notes on this story Mr. Crokcr gives the following letter : 
 
 " The accuracy of the following story I can vouch for, having heard it told 
 several times by the person who saw the circumstances. 
 
 " About twenty years back, William Cody, churn-boy to a person near Cork, 
 had, after finishing his day's work, to go through six or eight fields to his own 
 house, about twelve o'clock at night. He was passing alongside of the ditch of a 
 large field, and coming near a quarry, he heard a great cracking of whips on the 
 other side. He went on to a gap in the same ditch, and out rode a little 
 horseman, dressed in green, and mounted in the best manner, who put a whip 
 to his breast, and made him stop until several hundred horsemen, all dressed 
 alike, rode out of the gap at full speed, and swept round a glen. When the last 
 hurseman was clear off, the sentinel clapt spurs to his horse, gave three cracks 
 of his whip, and was out of sight in a second. 
 
 " The person would swear to the truth of the above, as he was quite sobei 
 and sensible at the time. The place had always before the name of being very 
 aii-y [the Scottish drie\. 
 
 " Jinyal Cork Institution, P BATH. 
 
 June 3, 1825."
 
 622 THE TOUXO PIPER. 
 
 blist, as the saying is, wid four childher, all buys : three o' them 
 wor as fine, stout, healthy, goodlukin' childher as ivir the sun 
 shone upon ; an' it was enough to make any Irishman proud of 
 the breed of his counthrymen to see thim about one o'clock on a 
 find summer's day staimin' at their father's cabin-door, wic 1 *heir 
 beautiful, fine flaxen hair hangin' in curls about their heads, an' 
 their cheeks like two rosy apples, an' a big, laughin' potato 
 smokin' in their hand. A proud man, was Mick, o' these fine 
 childher, an' a proud woman, too, was Judy ; an' raison enough 
 they had to be so. But it was far otherwise wid the remainin' 
 one, which was the ouldest ; he was the most miserable, ugly, 
 ill-conditioned brat that ivir God put life into : he was so ill thriven, 
 that he was nivir able to stand alone or to lave his cradle ; he 
 had long, shaggy, matted, curly hair, as black as the sut ; his face 
 was uv a greenish yollow colour ; his eyes wor like two burnin' 
 coals, an' wor for ever movin' in his head, as if they had the 
 parpaitual motion. Before he was a twel'month ould he had a 
 mouth full o' great teeth ; his hands wor like kite's claws, and 
 his legs wor no thicker nor the handle of a whip, and about as 
 straight as a rapin' hook ; to make the matther worse, he had 
 the gut uv a cormorant, and the whinge, and the yelp, and the 
 screech, and the yowl, was never out of his mouth. 
 
 The neighbours all suspicted that he was somethin' not right, 
 more especialy as it was obsarved, that whin people, as they use 
 to do in the counthry, got about the fire, and begun to talk o' 
 religion and good things, the brat, as he lay in the cradle which 
 his mother ginerally put near the fireplace that he might be snug, 
 used to sit up, as they wor hi the middle of their talk, and 
 begin to bellow as if the divil was in him in right airnest : this, 
 as I said, led the neighbours to think that all wasn't right wid 
 him, an' there was a gineral consultashion held one day, about 
 what id be best to do wid him. Some advised to put him out an 
 the shovel, but Judy's pride was up at that. A purty thing, 
 indeed, that a child of her 's shud be put an a shovel, an' flung 
 out on the dunghill jist like a dead kitten or a pisoned rat ; no, 
 no, she wouldn't hear to that at alL One ould woman, who was 
 considhered mighty skilful an' knowin' intirely in fairy matthers 
 sthrongly recomminded to put the tongs in the fire, an' to hate 
 thim rid hot, an' thin to take his nose hi thim, an' that that id, 
 beyant all manner o' doubt, make him tell what he was, an* 
 whare he come from (for the gineral suspishion was, that he was 
 changed by the good people) ; but Judy was too saft-harted, an' 
 too fond o' the imp, so she wouldn't giv' into this plan neither, 
 though iverybody said she was wrong ; and may be so she was, 
 but it 's a hard thing, you know, to blame a mother. Well some 
 advised one thing and some another, at last one spoke of siudiu
 
 THE YOUNG PIPEB. 523 
 
 fur the priest, who was a very holy an' a very lamed n.au, to see it ; 
 to this Judy uv coorse had no objection, but one thing or another 
 always purvinted her doing so, an' the upshot o' the business was 
 that the priest niver seen him at all. Well, things wint on in the 
 ould way for some tune longer. The brat continued yelpin' an' 
 yowlin', an' aitin' more nor his three brothers put together, an' 
 playin' all sorts uv unlucky thricks, for he was mighty mis- 
 chievyously inclined, till it happened one day that Tim Carrol, 
 the blind piper, goin' his rounds, called in and sot down by the 
 fire to hav' a bit o' chat wid the woman o' the house. So afther 
 some time, Tim, who was no churl uv his music, yoked an the 
 pipes an' begvn to bellows away in high style ; whin the 
 instant minnit he begun, the young fellow, who was ]yin' as still 
 as a mouse in his cradle, sot up, an' begun to grin an' to twist his 
 ugly phiz, an' to swing about his long tawny arms, an' to kick 
 out his cracked ligs, an' to show signs o' grate glee at the music. 
 At last nothin' id sarve him but he must git the pipes into his 
 own hands, an', to humour him, his mother axt Tim to lind thim 
 to the child for a minnit. Tim, who was kind to childher, readily 
 consinted ; and, as Tim hadn't his sight, Judy herself brought 
 thim to the cradle, an' wint to put thim an him, but she had no 
 need, for the youth seemed quite up to the business. He buckled 
 an the pipes, set the bellows undher one arm and the bag undher 
 tli' other, an' worked thim both as knowingly as iv he was twinty 
 years at the thrade, an' lilted up " Sheela na Guira," in the finest 
 style that iver was hard. 
 
 Well, all was in amazemint ; the poor woman crast herself. 
 Tim, who, as I tould you afore, was dark an' didn't well know 
 who was playin,' was in grate delight ; an' whin he hard that it was 
 a little prechaun* not aight years ould, that nivir seen a set of 
 pipes in all his days afore, he wished the mother joy iv her 
 son ; offered to take him aff her han's iv she 'd part wid him, 
 swore he was a born piper, a nath'ral jainus, an' declared that 
 in a little time more, wid the help uv a little good tachein' frum 
 hin'.silf, there wouldn't be his match in the whole counthry round. 
 The poor woman was grately delighted to hear all this, partick- 
 larlv as what Tim sed about nath ral jainises put an ind to some 
 mis-givin's that war risin' in hur rnind, laist what the naybours 
 sed about his not bein' right might be only too thrue ; an' it 
 gratified hur too to think that her dear child (for she raely loved 
 the whelp) wouldn't be forced to turn out an' big, but might 
 airn dacent, honest bread fur himsilf. So whin Mick come home 
 in the evenin' frum his work, she up an' she tould him all that 
 happined, an' all that Tim Carrol sed ; an Mick, as was nath'ral, 
 
 * An a' ridgmcnt of Lcprcchaim. see p. 371.
 
 524 THE *OU>G PIPES. 
 
 was very glad to hear it, for the hslpless condition o' the poor 
 crather was a grate throuble to him ; so nixt fair-day he tuk the 
 t)ig to the fair of Naas, and wid what it brought he whipt up, the 
 nixt holiday that come, to Dublin, an' bespoke a bran new set o' 
 pipes o' the proper size fur him, an' the nixt time Tom Doolan 
 wint up wid the cars, in about a fortnight after, the pipes come 
 home, an' the minnit the chap in the cradle laid eyes on thim, he 
 squealed wid delight, an' threw up his punty legs, an' bumped 
 himsilf in his cradle, an' wint an wid a grate many comical 
 thricks ; till at last, to quite him, they gev him the pipes, an 1 
 immajetly he set to an' pulled away at " Jig Polthog," to th' 
 admirashin uv all that hard him. 
 
 Well, the fame uv his skill an the pipes soon spread far an' 
 near, for there wasn't a piper in the nixt three counties cud come 
 near him at all, in Ould Maudha Roo, or the Hare in the 
 Corn, or The Fox Hunther's Jig, or The Piper's Maggot, or any 
 uv the fine ould Irish jigs, that make people dance whether they 
 will or no : an' it was surprisin' to hear him rattle away The 
 Fox Hunt ; you 'd raaly think you hard the hounds givin' tongue, 
 an' the tarriers yelpin' always behind, an' the huntsman an' the 
 whippers-in cheerin' or correctin' the dogs ; it was, in short, the 
 very nixt thing to seein' the hunt itself. The best uv him was, 
 he was no way stingy uvhis music, an' mauy's the merry dance the 
 boys an' the girls o' the neighbourhood used to hav' in his father's 
 cabin ; an' he 'd play up music fur thim that, they sed, used, as 
 it wor, to put quicksilver in their feet ; an' they all declared 
 they nivir moved so light an' so airy to any piper's playin' that 
 ivir they danced to. 
 
 But besides all his fine Irish music, he had one quare chune 
 uv his own, the oddest that iver was hard ; fur the minnit he 
 begun to play it iverything in the house seemed disposed to dance 
 the plates an' porringers used to jingle an the dhresser, the pots 
 an' pot-hooks used to rattle in the chimbley, an' people used even 
 to fancy they felt the stools movin' frum undher thim ; but, how- 
 iver it might be wid the stools, it is sartin that no one cud keep 
 long sittin' an them, fur both ould and young always fell to 
 caperin' as hard as ivir they cud. The girls complained that whin 
 he begun this chune it always threw thim out in their dancin', 
 an' that they nivir cud handle their feet rightly, fur they felt the 
 flure like ice undher thim, an' thimsilves ready iviry minnit to 
 come sprawlin' an their backs or their faces ; the young bachelors 
 that wanted to show aff their dancin' an' their new pumps, an' 
 their bright red or green an' yellow garthers, swore that it con- 
 fused thim so that they cud nivir go rightly through the heel- 
 and-toe, or cover-the-buckle, or any uv their best steps, but felt 
 thimsilves always bedizzied an' bewildhered, an' thin ould an"
 
 THE VOUXG PIPEK. 5'2j 
 
 roung id go jostliu' an' knockin' together in a frightful manner 
 au' whin the anlooky urat had thim all in this way whirligiggiii' 
 about the flnre, he'd grin an' he 'd chuckle an' he 'd chather, jiat 
 fur all the world like Jocko, the monkey, whin he 's played off 
 sum uv his roguery.* 
 
 The oulder he grew the worse he grew, au' by the time he was 
 noine year ould there was no stannin' the house for him ; he was 
 always makin' his brothers burn or scald thiinsilves, or brake 
 their shins ovir the pots an' stools. One time in harvist, he was 
 left at home by himself, an' whin his mother come in she found 
 the cat a horseback on the dog wid hur face to the tail, an' hur 
 legs tied round him, an' the urchin playin' his quare chune to 
 thim, so that the dog wint barking an jumpiu' about, an' puss 
 was miowin' fur the dear life, an' slappin" her tail backwards an' 
 forwards, which whin it id hit agin the dog's chaps, he 'd snap at 
 it an' bite it, an' thin there was the philliloo. Another time the 
 farmer Mick worked wid, a mighty dacint kind uv a man, 
 happened to call in, an' Judy wiped a stool wid her apron an* 
 axed him to sit down an rest himself afther his walk. He was 
 sittin' wid his back to the cradle, an' behind him was a pan o' 
 blood, fur Judy was makin' hog's puddin's ; the lad lay quite 
 still in his nist, an' watched his opportunity till he got ready a 
 hook at the hid uv a piece o' packthread an' he con thrived to 
 fling it so handy that it cotcht in the bob o' the man's nice new 
 wig, an' soused it in the pan o' blood. Another time his mother 
 was comin' in from milkin' the cow, wid the pail an her head, 
 an' the very minnit he saw her, he lilted up his infernal chune, 
 an' the poor woman lettin' go the pail, clapped her hands aside 
 an' begun to dance a jig, an' tumbled the milk all atop uv her 
 husband, who was bringin' in some turf to bile the supper. In 
 short there id be no ind to tellin' all his pranks, an' all the mis- 
 chievyous tricks he played. 
 
 Soon afther, some mischances begun to happen to the farmer's 
 Battle ; a horse tuk the staggers, a fine vale calf died o' the black- 
 lig, an' some uv his sheep o' the rid wather ; the cows begun 
 to grow vicious, an' to kick down the milkpails, an' the roof o' 
 one ind o' the barn fell in ; an' the farmer tuk it into his head 
 that Mick Flannagan's onlooky child was the cause uv all the 
 mischief. So, one day, he called Mick aside, an' sed to him, 
 
 yours is the cause uv it. I am raaly fallin' away 
 nothin', wid frettin', an' I can hardly sleep an my bed at night 
 
 This wonderful tune is, we fear, a transference we made from Scandinavia. 
 Bee above, p. 79.
 
 26 THE TOV>'O PIPEB. 
 
 for thiiikin' o' what may happen afore the mornin'. So 1 'd be 
 glad af you'd luk out fur work somewhare else ; you 're as good 
 a roan as any in the whole counthry, there 's no denyin' it, an' 
 there 's no fear but you '11 have yer choice o' work." To tliis 
 Mick med answer, and sed, " that he was sorry indeed for his 
 losses, and still sorrier that he or his shud be thought to be the 
 cause o' thira ; that, for his own part, he wasn't quite aisy in 
 his mind about that child, but he had him, an' so he must 
 keep him ; " an' he promised to luk out fur another place 
 immajetly. 
 
 So nixt Sunday at chapil, Mick gev out that he was about 
 lavin' the work at John Biordan's, an' immajetly a farmer, 
 who lived a couple o' miles aff, an' who wanted a ploughman (the 
 last one havin' jist left him), come up to Mick, an' offered him a 
 house an' garden, an' work all the year round. Mick, who knew 
 him to be a good employer, immajetly closed wid him. So 
 it was agreed that the farmer shud sind his car to take his 
 little bit o' furniture, an' that he shud remove an the following 
 Thursday. 
 
 Whin Thursday come, the car come accordin' to promise, an' 
 Mick loaded it, an' put the cradle wid the child an' his pipes an 
 the top, an' Judy sat beside it to take care uv him, laste he 
 shud tumble out an' be kilt ; they druv the cow afore tliim, 
 the dog follied ; but the cat, uv coorse, was lift behind : an' the 
 other three childer wint along the road, pickin' haves and black- 
 berries ; for it was a fine day towst the latther ind uv harvist. 
 They had to crass a river ; but as it run through the bottom 
 between two high banks, you didn't see it till you wor close up 
 an it. The young fellow was lyin' purty quite in the bottom o' 
 the cradle, till they come to the head o' the bridge, whin hearin' 
 the roarin' o' the wather (for there was a grate flood in the river, 
 as there was heavy rain for the last two or three days), he sot up 
 in his cradle, an' luked about him ; an' the rninnit he got a sight 
 ov the wather, an' found they wor goin' to take him acrass it, 
 oh ! how he did bellow, an' how he did squeal. " Whisht, 
 alanna," sed Judy, " there 's no fear o' yer ; shure it 's only ovir 
 the stone bridge we 're goin'." " Bad luck to yer, ye ould rip," 
 sez he, " what a purty thrick yuv played me, to bring me here ; " 
 an' he still wint an yellin', and the farther they got an the bridge, 
 the loudher he yelled ; till at last Mick cud hould out no longer ; 
 BO givin' him a skelp o' the whip he had in his han', " Divil 
 choke you, you crukked brat," sez he ; " will you nivir stop 
 bawlin' ? a body can't hear their ears for you." Well, my dear, 
 the instant minnit he felt the thong o' the whip, he jumped up 
 in the cradle, clapped the pipes undher his arm, an' lept clane 
 ovir the battleroints o' the bridge down into the wather. " Oh,
 
 TUE SOUL CAGES. 527 
 
 my child ! my child !" shouted Judy ; "he's clane gone for ivir 
 frum me." Mick an' the rest o' the childher run to the oth^r side 
 o' the bridge an' lukt down, an' they seen him comhr out from 
 undher the arch o' the bridge, sittin' crass-liggs an the top uv a 
 big white-headed wave, an' playin' away an the pipes, jist as if 
 nothin' had happened at all. The river was runnin' very hard, so 
 he was whirled away at a grate rate ; but he played away as fast, 
 ay, and faster nor the river run. They set aff as hard as they 
 cud along the bank ; but as the river med a suddint turn round 
 the hill, about a hundred yards below the bridge, by the time 
 they got there he was out o' sight, an' no one ivir led eyes an 
 him sence ; but the gineral belief is, that he wint home wid the 
 pipes to his own relations the good people to make music fur 
 thim. 
 
 JACK DOGHERTY lived on the coast of the county Clare. Jack 
 was a fisherman, as his father and his grandfather before him 
 nad been. Like them, too, he lived all alone (but for the wife), 
 and just in the same spot, too. People used to wonder why the 
 Dogherty family were so fond of that wild situation, so far away 
 from all human kind, and in the midst of huge scattered rocks, 
 with nothing but the wide ocean to look upon. But they had 
 their own good reasons for it. 
 
 The place was just, in short, the only spot on that part of the 
 coast where anybody could well live ; there was a neat little 
 creek, where a boat might lie as snug as a puffin in her nest, and 
 out from this creek a ledge of sunken rocks ran into the sea. 
 Now, when the Atlantic, according to custom, was raging with a 
 storm, and a good westerly wind was blowing strong on the coast, 
 many 's the richly-laden ship that went to pieces on these rocks ; 
 and then the fine bales of cotton and tobacco, and such like 
 tilings ; and the pipes of wine, and the puncheons of rum, and 
 the casks of brandy, and the kegs of Hollands that used to come 
 ashore. Why, bless you : Duubeg Bay was just like a little 
 estate to the Doghertys. 
 
 Not but that they were kind and humane to a distressed sailor, 
 if ever one had the good luck to get to land ; and many a time, 
 indeed, did Jack put out in his little corrag/i, that would breaet 
 the billows like any gannet, to lend a hand towards Lriii'/ug off
 
 528 TUB SOUL CAGES 
 
 the crew from a wreck. Bat when the ship wi? 3011 e to pieces, 
 and the crew were all lost, who would blame Jack for picking up- 
 all he could find 1 " And who 's the worse of it 1 " said he. 
 " For as to the king, God bless him ! everybody knows he 's rich 
 enough already, without gettin' what 's floatin' in the say." 
 
 Jack, though such a hermit, was a good-natured, jolly fellow. 
 No other, sure, could ever have coaxed Biddy Mahouy to quit her 
 father's snug and warm house in the middle of the town of Ennis, 
 and to go so many miles off to live among the rocks, with the seals 
 and sea-gulls for her next door neighbours. But Biddy knew 
 what 's what, and she knew that Jack was the man for a woman 
 who wished to be comfortable and happy ; for, to say nothing of 
 the fish, Jack had the supplying of half the gentlemen's houses 
 of the country with the Godsends that came into the bay. And 
 she was right in her choice, for no woman ate, drank, or slept 
 better, or made a prouder appearance at Chapel on Sundays than 
 Mrs. Dogherty. 
 
 Many a strange sight, it may well be supposed, did Jack see, 
 and many a strange sound did he hear, but nothing daunted him. 
 So far was he from being afraid of Merrows, or such like beings, 
 that the very first wish of his heart was fairly to meet with one. 
 Jack had heard that they were mighty like Christians, and that 
 luck had always come out of an acquaintance with them. Never, 
 therefore, did he dimly discern the Merrows moving along the 
 face of the waters in their robes of mist, but he made direct for 
 them ; and many a scolding did Biddy, in her own quiet way, 
 bestow upon Jack for spending his whole day out at sea, and 
 bringing home no fish. Little did poor Biddy know the fish Jack 
 was after. 
 
 It was rather annoying to Jack that, though living in a place 
 where the Merrows were as plenty as lobsters, he never could get 
 a right view of one. What vexed him more was, that both nis 
 father and grandfather had often and often seen them ; and he 
 even remembered hearing, when a child, how his grandfather, 
 who was the first of the family that had settled down at the 
 3reek, had been so intimate with a Merrow, that, only for fear of 
 vexing the priest, he would have had him stand for one of his 
 children. This, however, Jack did not well know how to believe. 
 
 Fortune at length began to think that it was only right that 
 Jack should know as much as his father and grandfather knew. 
 Accordingly, one day, when he had strolled a little farther than 
 usual along the coast to the northward, just as he was turning a 
 point, he saw something, like to nothing he had ever seen before, 
 perched upon a rock at a little distance out to sea : it looked green 
 in the body, as well as he could discern at that distance, and he 
 would have sworn, only the thins 1 W?M m possible, that it had a
 
 TILE SOUL CAGES. 529 
 
 Cocked hat in his hand. Jack stood, for a good half hour, strain- 
 ing his eyes and wondering at it, and all the time the thing did 
 uot stir hand or foot. At last Jack's patience was quite worn 
 out, and he gave a loud whistle and a hail, when the Merrow (for 
 such it was) started up, put the cocked hat on its head, and dived 
 down, head foremost, from the rock. 
 
 Jack's curiosity was now excited, and he constantly directed 
 his steps toward the point ; still he could never get a glimpse of 
 the sea-gentleman with the cocked hat ; and with thinking and 
 thinking about the matter, he began at last to fancy he l;ad been 
 only dreaming. One very rough day, however, when the sea was 
 running mountains high, Jack determined to give a look at the 
 Merrow's rock, (for he had always chosen a fine day before,) and 
 then he saw the strange thing cutting capers upon the top of the 
 rock, and then diving down, and then coming up, and then 
 diving down again. Jack had now only to choose his time, 
 (that is, a good blowing day,) and he might see the man of 
 the sea as often as he pleased. All this, however, did not 
 satisfy him, "much will have more;" he wished now to 
 get acquainted with the Merrow, and even in this he suc- 
 ceeded. One tremendous blustery day, before he got to the 
 point wlience he had a view of the Merrow's rock, the storm 
 came on so furiously that Jack was obliged to take shelter in one 
 of the caves which are so numerous along the coast, and there, to 
 his astonishment, he saw, sitting before him, a thing with green 
 hair, long green teeth, a red nose, and pig's eyes. It had a fish's 
 tail, legs with scales on them, and short arms like fins. It wore 
 no clothes, but had the cocked hat under its arm, and seemed 
 engaged thinking very seriously about something. Jack, with all 
 his courage, was a little daunted ; but now or never, thought he ; 
 so up he went boldly to the cogitating fish-man, took off his hat, 
 and made his best bow. 
 
 " Your sarvint, sir," said Jack. " Your servant, kindly, Jack 
 Dogherty," answered the Merrow. "To be shure, thin, how well 
 your honour knows my name," said Jack. " Is it I not know 
 your name, Jack Dogherty? Why, man, I knew your grand- 
 father long before he was married to Judy Regan, your grand- 
 mother. Ah, Jack, Jack, 1 was fond of that grandfather of 
 yours ; he was a mighty worthy man in his time. I never met 
 his match above or below, before or since, for suck'ng in a shell- 
 ful of brandy. I hope, my boy," said the old fellow, " I hope 
 
 so manly ; you and I must be better acquainted, if it were only 
 for your grandfather 'a sake. But, Jack, that father of yours wao 
 
 M H
 
 ?\',IQ THE SOUL CAGEB. 
 
 uot the thing ; he had no heaU at all, not he." u I 'm share," 
 #tid Jack, " sense your honour lives down undher the wather, you 
 must be obleeged to dhrink a power to keep any hate in you, at 
 all at all, in such a cruel, damp, cowld place. Well, I often hard 
 of Christhens dhrinkin' like fishes ; and might I be so bould a 
 to ax where you get the sperits?" "Where do you get them 
 yourself, Jack 1 }" said the Merrow, with a knowing look. 
 " Hubbubboo," cries Jack, " now I see how it is ; but I suppose, 
 sir, your honour has got a fine dhry cellar below to keep them 
 in." "Let me alone for that," said the Merrow, with another 
 knowing look. " I 'm shure," continued Jack, " it must be mighty 
 well worth the hiking at." " You may say that, Jack, with your 
 own pretty mouth," said the Merrow ; " and if you meet me here 
 next Monday, just at this time of the day, we will have a little 
 more talk with one another about the matter." 
 
 Jack and the Merrow parted the best friends in the world ; 
 and on Monday they met, and Jack was not a little surprised to 
 see that the Merrow had two cocked hats with him, one under 
 each arm. "Might I make so bould as to ask you, sir," said 
 Jack, " why yer honour brought the two hats wid you to-day ? 
 You wouldn't, shure, be goin' to giv' me one o' them, to keep for 
 the curosity of the thing 1 " " No, no, Jack," said he, " I don't 
 get my hats so easily, to part with them that way ; but I want 
 you to come down and eat a bit of dinner with me, and I brought 
 you the hat to dive with." " The Lord bless and presarve us ! " 
 cried Jack, in amazement, " would you want me to go down to 
 the bottom of the salt say ocean ? Shure I 'd be smoothered and 
 choked up wid the wather, to say nothin' of beiu' dhrownded ! 
 And what would poor Biddy do for me, and what would she say ? " 
 " And what matter what she says, you pinkeen you ? Who 
 cares for Biddy's squalling ? It 's long before your grandfather 
 would have talked in that way. Many 's the time he stuck that 
 same hat on his head, and dived down boldly after me, and many 's 
 the snug bit of dinner, and good shellful of brandy, he and I had 
 together, below under the water." " Is it raally, sir, and no 
 joke ?" said Jack ; "why, thin, sorra' be from me for ivir and a 
 day afther, if I '11 be a bit a worse man nor my grandfather was ! 
 So here goes ; but play me fair now. Here 's nick or nothin' ! " 
 cried Jack. "That's your grandfather all over," said the old 
 fellow. " So come along, my boy, and do as I do." 
 
 They both left the cave, walked into the sea, and then swam a 
 piece until they got to the rock. The Merrow climbed to the top 
 of it, and Jack followed him. On the far side it was as straight 
 as the wall of a house, and the sea lookea so deep that Jack was 
 almost cowed. 
 
 " Now, do you see, Jack," said the Merrow, "just put this hat
 
 THE SOUL CAGES. 531 
 
 on yc or head, and mind to keep your eyes wide open. Take hold 
 of my tail, and follow after me, and you '11 see what you '11 see.' 7 
 In he dashed, and in dashed Jack after him boldly. They went 
 and they went, and Jack thought they 'd never stop going. Many 
 a time did he wish himself sitting at home by the fireside with 
 Biddy : yet, where was the use of wishing now, when he was so 
 many miles as he thought below the waves of the Atlantic ? Still 
 he held hard by the Merrow's tail, slippery as it was. And, at 
 last, to Jack's great surprise, they got out of the water, and he 
 actually found himself on dry land at the bottom of the sea. 
 They landed just in front of a nice little house that was slated 
 veiy neatly with oyster-shells ; and the Merrow, turning about to 
 Jack, welcomed him down. Jack could hardly speak, what with 
 wonder, and what with being out of breath with travelling so fast 
 through the water. He looked about him, and could see no living 
 things, barring crabs and lobsters, of which there were plenty 
 walking leisurely about on the sand. Overhead was the sea like 
 a sky, and the fishes like birds swimming about in it. 
 
 " Why don't you speak, man ? " said the Merrow : " I dare say 
 you had no notion that I had such a snug little concern as this ? 
 Are you smothered, or choked, or drowned, or are you fretting 
 after Biddy, eh ? " " Oh ! not mysilf, indeed," said Jack, showing 
 his teeth with a good-humoured grin, " but who in the world 'ud 
 ivir ha' thought uv seein' sich a thing ? " " Well, come along my 
 lad, and let 's see what they 've got for us to eat 1 " 
 
 Jack was really hungry, and it gave him no small pleasure to 
 perceive a fine column of smoke rising from the chimney, 
 announcing what was going on within. Into the house he followed 
 the Merrow, and there he saw a good kitchen, right well provided 
 with everything. There was a noble dresser, and plenty of pots 
 and pans, with two young Merrows cooking. His host then led 
 him into the room, which was furnished shabbily enough. Not a 
 table or a chair was there in it ; nothing but planks and logs of 
 wood to sit on, and eat off. There was, however, a good fire 
 blazing on the hearth a comfortable sight to Jack. "Come, 
 now, and I '11 show you where I keep you know what," said the 
 Merrow, with a sly look ; and opening a little door, he led Jack 
 into a fine long cellar, well filled with pipes, and kegs, and 
 hogsheads, and barrels. "What do you say to that, Jack 
 Dogherty ? Eh ! May-be a body can't live snug down under 
 the water ! " " The divil the doubt of that," said Jack, 
 u anyhow." 
 
 They went back to the room, and found dinner laid. There 
 was no table-cloth, to be sure but what matter ? It was not 
 always Jack had one at home. The dinner would have been no 
 discredit to the first house in the county on a fast-day. The 
 
 M M 2
 
 532 THE SOUL CAGES. 
 
 choicest of fish, and no wonder, was there. Turbots, and soles, 
 and lobsters, and oysters, and twenty other kinds, were on the 
 planks at once, and plenty of foreign spirits. The wines, the old 
 fellow said, were too cold for his stomach. Jack ate and drank 
 till he could eat no more : then, taking up a shell of brandy, 
 " Here 's to your honour 's good health, sir/' said he, " though 
 l>eggin' your pardon, its mighty odd, that as long as we're 
 acquainted, I don't know your name yit." " That 's true, Jack," 
 replied he ; "I never thought of it before, but better late than 
 never. My name is Coomara." " Coomara ! And a mighty dacint 
 sort of a name it is, too," cried Jack, taking another shellful : 
 " here 's, then, to your good health, Coomara, and may you live 
 these fifty years." " Fifty years ! " repeated Coomara ; " I 'm 
 obliged to you, indeed ; if you had said five hundred, it would 
 have been something worth wishing." " By the laws, sir," said 
 Jack, " yez live to a powerful great age here undher the wather ! 
 Ye knew my grandfather, and he 's dead and gone betther nor 
 sixty years. I 'm shure it must be a mighty healthy place to 
 live in." "No doubt of it ; but come, Jack, keep the liquor stirring." 
 
 Shell after shell did they empty, and to Jack's exceeding 
 surprise, he found the drink never got into his head, owing, I 
 suppose, to the sea being over them, which kept their noddles 
 cool. Old Coomara got exceedingly comfortable, and sang several 
 songs ; but Jack, if his life had depended on it, never could 
 remember any of them. At length said he to Jack, " Now, my 
 dear boy, if you follow me, I 'li show you my curosities ! " He 
 opened a little door, and led Jack into a large room, where Jack 
 saw a great many odds and ends that Coomara had picked up at 
 one time or another. What chiefly took his attention, however, 
 were things like lobster-pots, ranged on the ground along 
 the wall. 
 
 " Well, Jack, how do you like my curosities ? " said old Coo. 
 " Upon my sowkins, sir," said Jack, " they 're mighty well worth 
 the lukin' at ; but might a body make so bould as to ax what 
 thim things like lobster-pots are ? " " Oh, the soul-cages, is it ? " 
 " The what, sir ? " " These things here that I keep the souls hi." 
 " Arrah ! what sowls, sir ? " said Jack in amazement : " shure the 
 fish ha' got no sowls in them ? " " Oh, no," replied Coo, quite 
 coolly, "that they haven't ; but these are the souls of drowned 
 sailors." " The Lord presarve us from all harm ! " muttered 
 Jack, " how in the world did you conthrive to get thim ? " " Easily 
 enough. I 've only when I see a good storm coming on, to set a 
 couple of dozen of these, and then, when the sailors are drowned, 
 and the souls get out of them under the water, the poor things 
 are almost perished to death, not being used to the cold ; so they 
 rauke into my pots for shelter, and then I have t-iem snug, and
 
 THE SOUL CAGES. 533 
 
 fetch them home, and keep them here dry and warm ; and is it 
 not well for them, poor souls, to get into such good quarters ? " 
 
 Jack was so thunderstruck he did not know what to say, so he 
 said nothing. They went back into the dining-room, and had 
 some more brandy, which was excellent, and then, as Jack knew 
 that it must be getting late, and as Biddy might be uneasy, 
 he stood up, and said he thought it was time for him to be on 
 the road. 
 
 " Just as you like, Jack," said Coo, " but take a dock an durrus 
 before you go ; you Ve a cold journey before you." Jack knew 
 better manners than to refuse the parting glass. " I wondher" 
 said he, " will I ivir be able to make out my way home." " What 
 should ail you," said Coo, " when I show you the way ? " Out 
 they went before the house, and Coomara took one of the cocked 
 hats, and put it on Jack's head the wrong way, and then lifted 
 him up on his shoulder that he might launch him up into the 
 water. " Now," says he, giving liim a heave, " you '11 come up 
 just in the same spot you came down in ; and, Jack, mind and 
 throw me back the hat." He canted Jack off his shoulder, and 
 up he shot like a bubble whirr, whirr, whiz away he went up 
 through the water, till he came to the very rock he had jumped 
 off, where he found a landing-place, and then in he threw the hat, 
 which sunk like a stone. 
 
 The sun was just going down in the beautiful sky of a calm 
 summer's evening. The evening star was seen brightly twinkling 
 in the cloudless heaven, and the waves of the Atlantic flashed in a 
 golden flood of light. So Jack, perceiving it was getting late, set 
 off home ; but when he got there, not a word did he say to Biddy 
 of where he had spent his day. 
 
 The state of the poor souls cooped up in the lobster-pots, gave 
 Jack a great deal of trouble, and how to release them cost him a 
 great deal of thought. He at first had a mind to speak to the 
 priest about the matter ; but what could the priest do, and what 
 did Coo care for the priest 1 Besides, Coo was a good sort of an 
 old fellow, and did not think he was doing any harm. Jack had a 
 regard for him too, and it also might not be much to his own 
 credit if it were known that he used to go dine with the Merrows 
 under the sea. On the whole, he thought his best plan would b<? 
 to ask Coo to dinner, and to make him drunk, if he was able, and 
 then to take the hat and go down and turn up the pots. It was 
 first of all necessary, however, to get Biddy out of the way ; for 
 Jack was prudent enough, as she was a woman, to wish to keep 
 the thing secret from her. 
 
 Accordingly, Jack grew mighty pious all of a sudden, and said 
 to Biddy, that he thought it would be for the good of both their 
 wouls if she was to go and take her rounds at Saint John's Well,
 
 534 THE SOUL CAGES. 
 
 near Ennis. Biddy thought so too, and accordingly off she set 
 one fine morning at day dawn, giving Jack a strict charge tc 
 have an eye to the place. The coast being clear, away then went 
 Jack to the rock to give the appointed signal to Coomara, which 
 was, throwing a big stone into the water ; Jack threw, and up 
 sprang Coo. " Good morrow, Jack," said he ; " what do you 
 want with me?" "Jist nothin' at all to spake about, sir," replied 
 Jack; "only to come and take pot-luck wid me, now that Biddy's 
 out of the way ; if I might make so free as to ax you, an' shure 
 it 's myself that 's affcher doin' so." " It 's quite agreeable, Jack, 
 I assure you ; what 's your hour 1 " " Any time that 's most con- 
 vanient to yoursilf, sir : say one o'clock, that you may go home, if 
 you wish it, wid the daylight." " I '11 be with you," said Coo, 
 " never fear me." 
 
 Jack went home and dressed a noble fish dinner, and got out 
 plenty of his best foreign spirits, enough for that matter to make 
 twenty men drunk. Just to the minute came Coo, with his 
 cocked hat under his arm. Dinner was ready ; they sat down, 
 and ate and drank manfully. Jack thinking of the poor souls 
 below in the pots, plied old Coo well with brandy, and encouraged 
 him to sing, hoping to put him under the table, but poor Jack 
 forgot that he had not the sea over his own head now to keep it 
 cooL The brandy got into it and did his business for him, and 
 Coo reeled off home, leaving his entertainer as dumb as a had- 
 dock on a Good Friday. 
 
 Jack never woke till the next morning, and then he was in a 
 sad way. " 'Tis no use at all for me thinkin' to make that ould 
 Rapperee dhrunk," said Jack ; " an' how in this world can I 
 help the poor sowls out o' the lobster pots." After ruminating 
 nearly the whole day, a thought struck him. " I have it," said 
 he, slapping his thigh ; " I '11 be bail Coo nivir saw a dhrop o' 
 raal potyeen as ould as he is, an' that 's the thing to settle him ! 
 Och ! thin isn't it well that Biddy won't be home these two days 
 yit ; I can have another twist at him." Jack asked Coo again, 
 and Coo laughed at him for having no better head ; telling him, 
 he 'd never come up to his grandfather. " Well, but thry me 
 agin," said Jack, " and I '11 be bail to dhrink you dhrunk and 
 sober, and dhrunk agin." " Any thing in my power," said Coo, 
 " to oblige you." 
 
 All this dinner, Jack took care to have his own liquor watered, 
 and to give the strongest brandy he had to Coo. At last, says 
 he, " Pray, sir, did you ivir dhrink any potyeen ? any raal moun- 
 tain-Jew 1 " " No," says Coo ; what 's that, and where does it 
 come from ?" "Oh ! that 's a sacret," said Jack, " but it 's the 
 right stuff; nivir believe me agin if it isn't fifty times better 
 nor brandy or rum either. Biddy's brother jist sint me a prisent
 
 THE SOUL CAGES. 535 
 
 of a little dhrop, in exchange for some brandy, and as you 're an 
 ould frind o the family, I kep it to thrate you wid." " Well 
 let s see what sort of thing it is," said Coo. ' 
 
 The potyeen was the right sort. It was first-rate, and had the 
 real smack on it. Coo was delighted with it ; he drank and he 
 sang, and he laughed and he danced, till he fell on the floor fas- 
 asleep. I hen Jack, who had taken good care to keep himse 
 sober, snapt up the cocked hat, ran off to the rock, leaped in, an 
 soon arrived at Coo's habitation. 
 
 All was as still as a churchyard at midnight not a Merrow 
 young or old, was there. In he went and turned up the pota 
 but nothing did he see, only he heard, he thought, a sort of a 
 little whistle or chirp as he raised each of them. At this he 
 was surprised, till he recollected what the priest had often said 
 that nobody living could see the soul, no more than they could 
 see the wind or the air. Having now done all he could" do for 
 them he set the pots as they were before, and sent a blessing 
 after the poor souls to speed them on their journey wherever 
 they were going. He now began to think of returning ; he put 
 on the hat (as was right,) the wrong way; but when he got 
 out, he found the water so high over his head that he had no 
 hopes of ever getting up into it now that he had net old Coomara 
 to give him a lift. He walked about looking for a ladder, but not 
 one could he find, and not a rock was there in sight. At last he 
 saw a spot where the sea hung rather lower than anywhere else, 
 so he resolved to try there. Just as he came to it, a big cod 
 happened to put down his tail. Jack made a jump and caught 
 hold of it, and the cod, all in amazement, gave a bounce and 
 pulled Jack up. The minute the hat touched the water, pop 
 away Jack was whisked ; and up he shot like a cork, dragging 
 the poor cod, that he forgot to let go, up with him tail foremost. 
 He got to the rock in no time, and without a moment's delay hurried 
 home rejoicing in the good deed he had done. But, meanwhile, 
 there was fine work at home ; for our friend Jack had hardly 
 left the house on his soul-freeing expedition, when back came 
 Biddy from her soul-saving one to the well. When she entered 
 the house and saw the things lying thrie-na hedah on the table 
 before her " Here 's a purty job," said she, " that blackguard of 
 mine what ill-luck I had ivir to marry him he 's picked up 
 some vagabone or other, while I was prayin' for the good of his 
 sowl ; and they Ve bin dhrinkiu' up all the potyeen that my own 
 brother gev' him, and all the sperits, to be shure, that he was to 
 have sould to his honour." Then hearing an outlandish kind of 
 grunt, she looked down and saw Coomara lying under the 
 table. " The blessed Vargin help an' save me," shouted she, " if 
 he hasn't made a rael baste of himself. Well, well, well to be
 
 536 THE SOUL CAGES. 
 
 bhure, I often hard till of a man makin' a baste of himself 
 wid dhrink, but I niver saw it afore ! Oh hone, oh hone, 
 Jack, honey, what 'ill I do wid you, or what 'ill I do widout 
 you 1 How can any dacint woman ivir think of livin' wid a 
 baste ? " 
 
 With such like lamentations, Biddy rushed out of the house, 
 and was going, she knew not where, when she heard the well 
 known voice of Jack, singing a merry tune. Glad enough war 
 Biddy to find him safe and sound, and not turned into a thing 
 that was like neither fish nor flesh. Jack was obliged to tell her 
 all ; and Biddy, though she had half a mind to be angry with 
 him for not telling her before, owned that he had done a great 
 service to the poor souls. Back they both went most lovingly to 
 the house, and Jack wakened up Coomara ; and perceiving the 
 old fellow to be rather dull, he bid him not be cast down, for 'twas 
 many a good man's case ; said it all came of his not being used 
 to the potyeen, and recommended him, by way of cure, to swallow 
 a hair of the dog that bit him. Coo, however, seemed to think 
 he had had quite enough : he got up, quite out of sorts, and with- 
 out having the good manners to say one word in the way of civi- 
 lity, he sneaked off to cool himself by a jaunt through the salt 
 water. 
 
 Coomara never missed the souls. He and Jack continued the 
 best friends in the world ; and no one, perhaps, ever equalled 
 Jack at freeing souls from purgatory ; for he contrived fifty 
 excuses for getting into the house below the sea, unknown to the 
 old fellow ; and then turned up the pots, and let out the souls. 
 It vexed him, to be sure, that he could never see them ; but as 
 he knew the thing to be impossible, he was obliged to be satisfied. 
 Their intercourse continued for several years. However, one 
 morning, on Jack's throwing in a stone, as usual, he got no 
 answer. He flung another, and another ; still there was no reply. 
 He went away, and returned the next morning ; but it was to no 
 purpose. As he was without the hat, he could not go down to 
 see what had become of old Coo ; but his belief was, that the old 
 man, or the old fish, or whatever he was, had either died, or had 
 removed away from that part of the country.* 
 
 * We must here make an honest confession. This story had no foumlatiou 
 but the German legend in p. 259. All that is not to be found there is our 
 own pure invention. Yet we afterwards found that it was well-known on tlio 
 coast of Cork and Wicklow. " But," said one of our informants, " It was 
 things like flower-pots he kept them in." So faithful is popular tradition ID 
 these matters ! In this and the following tale there arc some traits by anothei 
 hand which we are now unable to discriminate.
 
 BABBY OP GA.IBN THIF.EKA. 68? 
 
 SBarrj) of <atrn Cljterna. 
 
 FERMOY, though now so pretty and so clean a town, was once an 
 poor and as dirty a village as any in Ireland. It had neither 
 barracks, nor church, nor school, nor anything to admire. Two- 
 storied houses were but few : its street (for it had but one) was 
 chiefly formed of miserable mud cabins ; nor was tl:e fine scenery 
 around sufficient to induce the traveller to tarry in its palt^., 
 dirty inn, beyond the limits actually required. 
 
 In those days it happened that a regiment of foot was proceed- 
 ing from Dublin to Cork. One company, which left Caher in the 
 morning, had, with ' toilsome march,' passed through Mitchels- 
 town, tramped across the Kilworth mountains ; and, late of an 
 October evening, tired and hungry, reached Fermoy, the last 
 stage but one to their quarters. No barracks, as we have said, 
 were then built there to relieve them ; and every voice was 
 raised, calling to the gaping villagers for the name and residence 
 of the billet-master. 
 
 " Why, thin, can't ye be aisy, now, and let a body tell you," 
 said one. " Shure, thin, how can I answer you all at onst," said 
 another. " Anan ! " cried a third, affecting not to understand the 
 sergeant, who addressed him. " Is it Mr. Consadine you want ? " 
 replied a fourth, answering, d V Irlandaise, the question, by asking 
 another. " Bad luck to the whole breed and seed of the sogers ! " 
 muttered a fifth villager, between his teeth. " It 's come to 
 ate poor people that work for their bread, out of house and home, 
 yez are ?" "Whisht, Teigue, can't you, now ?" said his neigh- 
 bour, jogging the last speaker ; " there 's the house, gintlernen. 
 You see it there, yondher, forenint you, at the bottom of the 
 sthreet, wid the light in the winddy ; or, stay, shure it 's mysilf 
 id think little of runnin' down wid you, poor crathurs ! for 'tis 
 tirt and wairy yez must be afther the road." " That 's an honest 
 fellow," said several of the dust-covered soldiers ; _ and away 
 scampered Ned Flynn, with all the men of war following close at 
 his heels. 
 
 Mr. Consadine, the billet-master, was, as may be supposed, a 
 person of some, and on such occasions as the present, of no small 
 consideration in such a place as Fermoy. He was of a portly 
 build, and of a grave and slow movement, suited at once to his 
 importance and to his size. Three inches of fair linen were at 
 all times visible between his waistband and waistcoat. Hia
 
 538 BARBY OF CAIBK TIIIERKA. 
 
 oreeches-pockets were never buttoned ; and, scorning to conceal 
 the bull-like proportions of his chest and neck, his shirt-collar was 
 generally open, as he wore no cravat ; and a flaxen bob-wig com- 
 monly sat fairly on his head, and squarely on his forehead. Such, 
 then, was Mr. Consadine, billet-master-general and barony sub- 
 constable, who was now just getting to the end of his eighth 
 tumbler, in company with the proctor, who at that moment had 
 begun to talk of coming to something like a fair settlement 
 about his tithes, when Ned Flynn knocked. 
 
 " See who 's at the door, Nilly," said the eldest Miss Con- 
 sadine, raising her voice, and calling to the barefooted servant 
 girl. " "Tis the sogers, sir, is come ! " cried Nelly, running back 
 into the room without opening the door. " I hear the jinketin 
 of their swoords and bagnets on the pavin'-stones." " Divil wel- 
 come them at this hour o' the night," said Mr. Consadine, taking 
 up the candle, and moving off to the room on the opposite side of 
 the hall, which served him for an office. 
 
 Mr. Cousadine's own pen, and that of his son Tcm were now in 
 full employment. The officers were sent to the inn ; the 
 sergeants, corporals, etc., were billeted on those who were on 
 indifferent terms with Mr. Consadine ; for, like a worthy man 
 as he was, he leaned as light as he could on his friends. The 
 soldiers had nearly all departed for their quarters, when one 
 poor fellow, who had fallen asleep, leaning on his musket against 
 the wall, was awakened by the silence, and starting up, he went 
 over to the table at which Mr. Consadine was seated, hoping his 
 worship would give him a good billet. " A good billet, my lad," 
 said the billet-master-general, " that you shall have, and on the 
 biggest house in the whole place. Do you hear, Tom ! make 
 out a billet for this honest man upon Mr. Barry of (Jairn Thierna." 
 " On Mr. Barry of Cairn Thierna !" said Tom, with a look of 
 amazement. " Yes, to be sure, on Mr. Barry of Cairn Thierna 
 the great Barry ! " replied his father, giving a nod. " Isn't he 
 said to keep the grandest house in this part of the counthry ? or 
 stay, Tom, jist hand me over the paper, and I '11 write the billet 
 myself." 
 
 The billet was made out accordingly ; the sand glittered on the 
 signature and broad flourishes of Mr. Consadiue, and the weary 
 grenadier received it with becoming gratitude and thanks. Taking 
 up his knapsack and firelock, he left the office, and Mr. Consa- 
 dine waddled back to the proctor to chuckle over the trick he had 
 played on the soldier, and to laugh at the idea of his search after 
 Barry of Cairn Thierna's house. Truly had he said no house 
 could vie in capacity with Mr. Barry's ; for like Allan A-Pale's, 
 its roof was 
 
 The blue vault of Heaven, with its crescent so pale.
 
 BABET OF CAIRN TIIIEEXA. 539 
 
 Barry of Cairn Thierna was one of the chieftains who, of old, 
 lorded it over the barony of Barrymore, and for some reason or 
 other, he had become enchanted on the mountain of Cairn 
 Thierna, where he was known to live in great state, and was often 
 seen by the belated peasant. 
 
 Mr. Consadine had informed the soldier that Mr. Barry lived a 
 little way out of the town, on the Cork road ; so the poor fellow 
 trudged along for some time with eyes right and eyes left, looking 
 for the great house ; but nothing could he see only the dark 
 mountain of Cairn Thierna before him, and an odd cabin or two 
 on the road-side. At last he met a man, of whom he asked the 
 way to Mr. Barry's. " To Mr. Barry's ? " said the man ; " what 
 Barry is it you want ? " "I can't say exactly in the dark," re- 
 turned the soldier. " Mr. What's-his-name, the billet-master, has 
 given me the direction on my billet ; but he said it was a large 
 house, and I think he called him the great Mr. Barry." " Why, 
 sure, it wouldn't be the great Barry of Cairn Thierna you 'fe 
 asking after 1 " " Aye," said the soldier, " Cairn Thierna that's 
 the place. Can you tell me where it is 1 " " Cairn Thierna ! " 
 repeated the man " Barry of Cairn Thierna ! I '11 show you the 
 way, and welcome ; but it 's the first time in all my born days 
 that ever I h'ard of a soger bein' billeted on Barry of Cairn Thierna. 
 'Tis a quare thing, anyhow, for ould Dick Consadin to be sin din' 
 you up there," continued he ; " but you see that big mountain 
 before you that 's Cairn Thierna. Any one will show you Mr. 
 Barry's when you get to the top of it, up to the big hape of 
 stones." 
 
 The weary soldier gave a sigh as he walked forwards toward 
 the mountain ; but he had not proceeded far when he heard the 
 clatter of a horse coming along the road after him, and, turning 
 his head round, he saw a dark figure rapidly approaching. A tall 
 gentleman, richly dressed, and mounted on a noble gray horse, 
 was soon at his side, when the rider pulled up, and the soldier 
 repeated his inquiry after Mr. Barry of Cairn Thierna. " Why, 
 I 'm Barry of Cairn Thierna, myself," said the gentleman, "and 
 pray what 's your business with me, friend." " I have got a billet 
 on your house, sir," replied the soldier, " from the billet-master of 
 Fermoy." " Did you, indeed," said Mr. Barry ; " well, then, it is 
 not very far off ; follow me and you shall be well taken care of, 
 depend upon it." 
 
 He turned off the road, and led his horse up the steep side of 
 the mountain, followed by the soldier, who was astonished at 
 seeing the horse proceed with so little difficulty, where he was 
 obliged to scramble up, and could hardly find or keep his footing. 
 When they got to the top, there was a house, sure enough, far 
 beycnd any house in Fermoy. It was three stories high, with fiuo
 
 540 BABRY OF CAIBX THIERXA. 
 
 windows, and all lighted up within, as if it was full of grand corn- 
 cany. There was a hall-door, too, with a flight of stone steps 
 tafore it, at which Mr. Barry dismounted, and the door was 
 opened to him by a servant-man, who took his horse round to the 
 stable. Mr. Barry, as he stood at the door, desired the soldier to 
 walk in, and, instead of sending him down to the kitchen, as any 
 other gentleman would have done, brought him into the parlour, 
 and desired to see his billet. " Ay," said Mr. Barry, looking at it 
 and smiling, " I know Dick Consadine well he 's a merry fellow, 
 no doubt, and, if I mistake not, has got some capital good cows 
 down on the inch-field of Carrickabrick ; a sirloin of beef would 
 be no bad thing for supper, my man, eh ? " 
 
 Mr. Barry then called out to some of his attendants, and desired 
 them to lay the cloth, and make all ready, which was no sooner 
 done than a smoking sirloin of beef was placed before them. 
 " Sit down, now, my honest fellow," said Mr. Barry, " you must 
 be hungry after your long day's march." The soldier with a 
 profusion of thanks for such hospitality, and acknowledgments 
 for such condescension, sat down and made, as might be expected, 
 an excellent supper ; Mr. Barry never letting his jaws rest for 
 want of helping until he was fairly unable to eat more. Then 
 the boiling water was brought in, and such a jug of whiskey 
 punch as was made ! Take my word for it, it did not, like 
 honest Robin Craig's, require to be hung out on the bush to let 
 the water drain out of it. 
 
 They sat together a long time, talking over the punch, and 
 the fire was so good, and Mr. Barry himself was so free a 
 gentleman, and had such fine conversation about everything in 
 the world, far or near, that the soldier never felt the night going 
 over him. At last Mr. Barry stood up, saying it was a rule 
 with him that every one in his house should be in bed by twelve 
 o'clock, " And," said he, pointing to a bundle which lay in one 
 corner of the room, " take that to bed with you, it 's the hide 
 of the cow I had killed for your supper ; give it to the billet- 
 master when you go back to Fermoy, in the morning, and tell 
 him that Barry of Cairn Thierna sent it to him. He will soon 
 understand what it means, I promise you ; so, good night, my 
 brave fellow ; I wish you a comfortable sleep and every good 
 fortune ; but I must be off and away out of this long before you 
 are stirring." The soldier gratefully returned his host's good 
 wishes, and went off to the room which was shown him, without 
 claiming, as every one knows he had a right to do, the second best 
 bed in the house. 
 
 Next morning the sun awoke him. He was lying on the broad 
 of his back, and the skylark was singing over him in the beauti- 
 ful blue sky, and the bee was humming close to his ear among
 
 BAKKV OF CA1BX THIEBXA. 541 
 
 the heath. He rubbed his eyes ; nothing did he ste but the 
 clear sky, with two or three light morning clouds floating away. 
 Mr. Barry's fine house and soft feather bed had melted into air, 
 and he found himself stretched on the side of Cairn Thierna, 
 buried in the heath, with the cowhide which had been given him 
 rolled up under his head for a pillow.* 
 
 " Well," said he, " this bates cockfighting, any how ! Didn't I 
 spind the plisantest night I iver spint in my life with Mr. Barry 
 last night ? And what in the world has becom' of the house, 
 and the hall door with the steps, and the very bed that was 
 undher me 1 " He stood up. Not a vestige of a house or any 
 thing like one, but the rude heap of stones on the top of the 
 mountain, could he see ; and ever so far off lay the Blackwater, 
 glittering with the morning sun, and the little quiet village of 
 Fermoy on its banks, from whose chimneys white wreaths of 
 smoke were beginning to rise upwards into the sky. Throwing 
 the cowhide over his shoulder, he descended, not without some 
 difficulty, the steep side of the mountain, up which Mr. Barry 
 had led his horse the preceding night with so much ease ; and 
 he proceeded along the road, pondering on what had befallen 
 him. 
 
 When he reached Fermoy, he went straight to Mr. Consadine's, 
 and asked to see him. " Well, my gay fellow," said the official 
 Mr. Consadine, recognising, at a glance, the soldier ; " what sort 
 of an entertainment did you meet with from Barry of Cairn 
 Thierna?" "The best of good thratement, sir," replied the 
 soldier ; " and well did he spake of you, and he disired me tc 
 give you this cowhide as a token to remimber him by." " Many 
 thanks to Mr. Barry for his generosity," said the billet-master, 
 making a low bow, in mock solemnity ; " many thanks indeed, 
 and a right good skin it is, wherever he got it." 
 
 Mi\ Consadine had scarcely finished the sentence, when he 
 
 * It is not very likely that the inventor of this legend knew anything about 
 the Atnadigi of B. Tasso, yet in that poem we meet this circumstance more 
 than once. In c, ii., when night falls on the young knight Alidoro, in the 
 open country, he finds a pavilion pitched beside a fountain, with lights in it, 
 anu hears a voice which invites him to enter it. He there sups and goes to 
 sleep in a rich bed, and on awaking in the morning (iii. 38) finds himself lying 
 in the open air. Another time (c. viii) he comes to a fair inn, in a wild region, 
 where he is entertained and his wounds are dressed by a gentle damsel, and on 
 awaking in the morning he finds himself lying under a tree. The tent and 
 inn were the work of his protectress, the Fairy Silvana. Another Fairy, Argea, 
 entertains (c. xxxiii.) a king, queen, knight and ladies, in a stately palace. 
 At night they retire to magnificent chambers, and in the morning they find 
 themselves lying in a mead, some under trees, others on the sides of a stream, 
 with mote of the beauties of the ladies displayed than they could have dewed.
 
 542 AILEEN A EOOlf. 
 
 saw his cow-boy running up the street, shor.mg and crying 
 aloud, that the best cow in the Inch-field was lost and gone, and 
 nobody knew what had become of her, or could give the least 
 tidings of her. 
 
 The soldier had spread out the skin on the ground for Mr. 
 Consadine to see it ; and the cow-boy looking at it, exclaimed 
 " That is her hide, wherever she is ; I 'd take my Bible oath to 
 the two small white spots, with the glossy black about thim ; and 
 there 's the very place where she rubbed the hair off her shouldher 
 last Martinmas." Then clapping his hands together, he literally 
 sang " the tune the old cow died of." This lamentation was 
 stopped short by Mr. Consadine : " There is no manner of doubt 
 about it," said he. " It was Barry that kilt my best cow, and all 
 he has left me is the hide o' the poor baste to comfort myself 
 with ; but it will be a warnin' to Dick Consadine, for the rest 
 of his life, nivir again to play off his thricks upon thravellers." 
 
 a l\oon, 
 
 (ELLEN MY LOVE.) 
 
 CARROL O'DALT is the Lochinvar of Ireland. He and Ellen 
 Cavanagh were intimate from childhood. The result was love ; 
 but Ellen's father insisted on her marrying a wealthier suitor. 
 On the wedding-night Carrol came disguised as a harper, and 
 played and sung this air, which he had composed for the occasion. 
 Ellen's tenderness revived in full force ; she contrived to make 
 her father, the bridegroom, and the guests drink to excess, and 
 by morning she and Carrol were beyond pursuit. 
 
 The following lines were written one evening to gratify a lady 
 who wished to have the writer's idea of what Carrol might have 
 sung. The air is generally known under the name of Robin 
 Adair : 
 
 What are the joys wealth and honours bestow f 
 Do they endure like true love's steady glow 1 
 
 Shadows of vanity, 
 
 Mists of the summer sky, 
 
 Soon they disperse and fly, 
 AUeen a roon !
 
 EOUSSEAU'S JUBEAM. 
 
 Time was when Aileeii tripped light as tie 
 Spying young Carrol approach in the dsiwn, 
 Ere the sun's early beam 
 Glittered on lake and stream, 
 Oh ! that was bliss supreme, 
 Aileen a roon ! 
 
 Or when mild even's star beamed in the west, 
 Bringing to nature the season of rest 
 At that sweet hour to rove, 
 Down by yon spreading grove, 
 Breathing forth vows of love, 
 Aileen a roon ! 
 
 Aileen forgets, but her Carrol more true, 
 
 As these patt scenes memory brings to bos view. 
 
 Heaves many a heavy sigh, 
 
 Breaking his heart is nigh 
 
 And canst thou let him die ] 
 Aileen a roon ! 
 
 HDtis'srau's Dream. 
 
 THESE verses are adapted to the well-known air. They were 
 suggested by a passage from Eousseau's works, quoted by Alisou 
 in his Essay on Taste. Though real names are mentioned, the 
 acenery and subject are purely ideal. 
 
 Calmly at eve shone the sun o'er Lake Leman, 
 Bright in his beam lay the watery expanse, 
 Softly the white sails reflected his gleaming, 
 Groves, banks, and trees their slow shadows advance. 
 Cool from the mountains the summer-gale breathed, 
 Laden with fragrance the lake it came o'er ; 
 Leman, exulting, danced joyous beneath it, 
 Light crisped waves gently roll to the shore. 
 
 At that soft hour on the blue Leman rowing, 
 Slowly a sage urged his bark by a grove, 
 Silently musing, his lofty mind glowing, 
 Viewing eartos pomp and the glories above
 
 544 ALEXANDER SELKIRK'S DBEAM. 
 
 As o'er the lake the long shadows extended, 
 Whispering the breeze, lulled each sense to repose ; 
 Calm he reclined, and as slumber descended, 
 Visions of bliss to his fancy arose. 
 
 Heaven to his view seemed arrayed in new glory, 
 Earth breathed forth fragrance and basked in the ray 
 Clad in loose raiment, more white than the hoary 
 Front of Mont Blanc, came a son of the day. 
 Lightly his wand o'er the slumberer extending, 
 While with new joy laughed the earth, sky, and lake ; 
 Love in his accents with soft pity blending, 
 Shedding content, thus the bright vision spake : 
 
 " Hither I come, from my cloud-crowned station, 
 
 Touched with thy grief, to shed balm o'er thy mind ' 
 
 I am the Spirit to whom, at creation, 
 
 Charge was by Heaven o'er this region assigned. 
 
 List to my accents, thou hunted by malice ! 
 
 Let what I utter sink deep in thy breast : 
 
 Fly from mankind, to the lakes, hills, and valleys, 
 
 Thus, thus alone, shall thy spirit find rest. 
 
 " But if again to the world thou now fliest, 
 Thou should return, and again meet thy foes, 
 Think on this hour, when for comfort thou sighest, 
 And the bright scene will dispel all thy woes." 
 Gone was the vision : eve's star now was glancing, 
 Cold came the breeze o'er the blue curling stream ; 
 Waked from his slumber, his heart with joy dancing, 
 Homeward he turned, and still mused on his dream. 
 
 rfe'tf Bream. 
 
 COMPOSED ONE DAT WHEN COHFINKD TO BED BT A COU9 
 AND UNABLE TO BEAD. 
 
 O'ER the isle of Juan Fernandez 
 Cooling shades of evening spread, 
 
 While upon the peaks of Andes 
 Still the tints of day were shed.
 
 ALEXANDER SELKtllii's DEEAM. 645 
 
 From the sea-beat shore returning 
 
 Homeward hied the lonely man, 
 O'er his cheerless fortune mourning, 
 
 As through past days memory ran. 
 
 Soon his brief repast was ended 
 
 And he sought his lowly bed ; 
 Balmy slumber there descended, 
 
 Shedding influence o'er his head. 
 
 Then a vision full of gladness 
 
 Came, sent forth by Him supreme 
 Who his suffering servants' sadness 
 
 Oft dispelleth in a dream. 
 
 In his view the lively dream sets 
 Hills and vales in verdure bright ; 
 
 Where the gaily-prattling streamlets 
 Sparkle in the morning-light. 
 
 Hark ! the holy bell is swinging, 
 Calling to the house of prayer ; 
 
 Loud resounds the solemn ringing 
 Through the still and balmy air. 
 
 Youths and maids from glen and mountain 
 Hasten at the hallowed sound, 
 
 Old men rest by shady fountain, 
 Children lay them on the ground. 
 
 Now the pious throng is streaming 
 Through the temple's portal low ; 
 
 Rapture in each face is beaming 
 Pure devotion's genuine glow. 
 
 Fervently the hoary pastor, 
 
 Humbly bent before his God, 
 Supplicates their heavenly Master 
 
 Them to lead on Sion's road ; 
 
 Owns that all have widely erred 
 From the true, the narrow way, 
 
 That with Him we have no meiit, 
 And no claim of right can lay.
 
 ALEXANDEB SELKIRKS 
 
 Loud then rise in choral measure 
 Hymns of gratitude and praise, 
 
 As, inspired with solemn pleasure, 
 Unto Heaven their strains they raise. 
 
 Now the grave discourse beginneth, 
 WhiQh, ungraced by rhetoric's arts, 
 
 Quick the rapt attention winneth, 
 While it glorious truths imparts ; 
 
 While it tells how kind is Heaven 
 
 To the race of him who fell ; 
 How of old the Son was given 
 
 To redeem from pains of hell ; 
 
 How the Holy Spirit abideth 
 
 In their hearts that hear his call ; 
 
 How our God for all provideth, 
 How His mercy 's over all ; 
 
 How, beyond the grave extending, 
 
 Regions lie of endless bliss ; 
 How our thoughts on that world bending, 
 
 We should careless be of this. 
 
 Once again the raised hymn pealeth 
 
 Notes of joy and jubilee, 
 Praising Him who truth revealeth, 
 
 Dweller of Eternity ! 
 
 Night's dim shades were now retreating, 
 
 Over Andes rose the day, 
 On the hills the kids' loud bleating 
 
 Lingering slumber chased away. 
 
 Birds their merry notes were singing, 
 Joyous at the approach of morn 
 
 Morn that, light and fragrance flinging, 
 Earth doth cherish and adorn. 
 
 Waked by Nature's general chorus 
 Selkirk quits his lonely couch, 
 
 While o'er heaven run colours glonoua, 
 Heralding the suu s approach.
 
 A MOONLIGHT SCENE. 547 
 
 Still the vision hovers o'er him. 
 
 Still the heavenly strains he hears, 
 Setting those bright realms before him 
 
 Where are wiped away all tears. 
 
 All this vain and transitory 
 
 State of mankind here on earth, 
 Weighed with that exceeding glory, 
 
 Now he deems as nothing worth. 
 
 Low he bends in adoration, 
 
 As the sun ascends the sky ; 
 Doubt and fear and lamentation 
 
 With the night's last shadows fly. 
 
 >WCBIYED AKD COMMENCED WHE3J PASSING OVEB PUTXBY HKIDOB (Mi 
 A FIXE MOOJTLIGHT SIGHT IN 6CJQIEB. 
 
 THE moonbeams on the lake are glancing. 
 The nimble bark is now advancing, 
 
 That for this grove is bound. 
 Ye gentle clouds, ah ! hear a lover, 
 And hasten not the moon to cover 
 
 And darkness pour around. 
 
 Doth fancy sport, or do I hear her, 
 As nearer still she comes and nearer, 
 
 Cutting the billows bright ? 
 How still ! scarce even a light breeze flying ! 
 Earth, water, air, at peace are lying 
 
 Beneath the calm moonlight. 
 
 My heart beats high, my soul rejoices, 
 Methinks I hear their merry voices 
 
 She soon will reach the shore. 
 Ah me ! my hopes, my hopes are failing, 
 Yon sable cloud is onwards sailing 
 
 The moon it covers o'er.
 
 548 LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM. 
 
 Now o'er the lake they dubious wander, 
 And on some part remote may strand her, 
 
 Unless they aid obtain. 
 I '11 wave a signal from the summit 
 Of yon high bank, and haply from it 
 
 Some guidance they may gain. 
 
 The cloud moves on, the moonlight beanutb^ 
 And o'er the lovely lady streameth, 
 
 Upon her lofty stand. 
 With joyful shout the boatmen greet her, 
 Her anxious lover hastes to meet her, 
 
 And eager springs to land. 
 
 nines KInttcn m a ^Latin's gftutn. 
 
 IN those blest days, when free from care 
 And happy as the birds in air, 
 
 I roamed the hills and dales, 
 By purling rills oft passed the day, 
 Or on green banks recumbent lay, 
 
 Listening the shepherds' tales, 
 
 My fancy, rising on the wing, 
 "Would visions fair before me bring, 
 
 Of castles high, and towers, 
 With knights in radiant panoply, 
 And ladies of the beaming eye, 
 
 Within their fragrant bowers ; 
 
 Or lead me thence away to shades 
 Of woods, and show me, in the glades, 
 
 The cottages serene, 
 
 Where Peace dwelt with Contend, among 
 The happy, gay Arcadian throng 
 
 That tenanted the scene.
 
 LINES WKITTEN IN AN ALB I'M. 549 
 
 But whether cot or tower arose 
 In vision, at the dawn or close 
 
 Of summer-days, to me, 
 The lovely form of woman still 
 Shone bright by dale, by mead, by rill, 
 
 Amid my extacy. 
 
 I saw her robed in every grace 
 With youth, with loveliness of face, 
 
 And virtue's gentle eye ; 
 And from her tongue heard accents fall, 
 rhat would the rudest heart enthral, 
 
 And raise emotions high. 
 
 But like the Eastern prince, who loved 
 The pictured form of one that moved 
 
 In life full many a year 
 Ere he beheld the light, I deemed 
 The lovely form of which I dreamed 
 
 Would ne'er to me appear. 
 
 And years came on, and years went by, 
 And yet I never found me nigh 
 
 My youthful vision bright. 
 I said, I might as well, I ween, 
 Expect to see the Fairy-queen 
 
 Descend, to bless my sight. 
 
 But often, when we hope it least. 
 
 And when our search has well nigh ceased, 
 
 Good fortune will befall : 
 So I one evening saw a maid, 
 Who every grace and charm displayed 
 
 That decked my Ideal. 
 
 Her portrait here I need not show. 
 For, reader, thou must surely know 
 
 That peerless, gentle maid : 
 To her these lines I consecrate ; 
 And if she smiles I '11 deem, elate, 
 
 My toil far overpaid.
 
 550 TO AMAIfDA. 
 
 Co fimairtfa. 
 
 [These are the verses quoted in the Introduction to the * Tales and Popular 
 Fictions.'' The author was very young when he wrote them : and Amanda 
 was, like Beatrice and Laura, a mere donna di mente, having no real 
 existence.] 
 
 As when a storm in vernal skies 
 
 The face of day doth stain, 
 And o'er the smiling landscape flies, 
 
 With mist and drizzling rain ; 
 If chance the sun look through the showei 
 
 O'er flowery hill and dale, 
 Reviving Nature owns his power, 
 
 And softly sighs the gale : 
 
 So when, by anxious thoughts oppressed. 
 
 My soul sinks in despair, 
 When smiling hope deserts my breast, 
 
 And all is darkness there ; 
 If chance Amanda's form appear. 
 
 The gloom is chased away, 
 My soul once more her soft smiles cheer, 
 
 And joy resumes his sway. 
 
 Then, dear Amanda, since thy smila 
 
 Has power all gloom to charm, 
 Oh ! ever thus my cares beguile, 
 
 And guard my soul from harm. 
 Let Hymen's bands our fates unite, 
 
 What bliss may then be ours ! 
 Our days will glide, like streamlets bright, 
 
 O'erhung with fragrant flowers.
 
 LIXES WBITTEN AT HOME. 551 
 
 WWTTBSf AT ROMH IN THE SPRING OP 1S42. 
 
 FAIR Tibur, once the Muses' home, 
 
 Before us lay ; around 
 Was spread the plain which mighty ROOJ* 
 
 Oft saw with victory crowned. 
 
 The sun rode high, the sky was clear, 
 The lark poured forth his strain, 
 
 And flowers, the firstlings of the year, 
 Shed fragrance o'er the plain. 
 
 A gentle lady turned on me 
 
 Her bright expressive eyes, 
 And bade the flame of poesy 
 
 Within my bosom rise. 
 
 Twas then I felt, I felt, alas ! 
 
 How Time has dealt with me, 
 And how the rays of fancy pass, 
 
 And vanish utterly. 
 
 For time has been when such a view 
 
 And mandate of the fair, 
 With images of brightest hue, 
 
 Had fill'd the land and air : 
 
 While now I strive, and strive in vain, 
 
 To twine poetic flowers, 
 Since from me Time away has ta'en 
 
 Imagination's powers. 
 
 Then lady, be thou geuiie still, 
 
 Let pity sway thy breast ; 
 Accept for deeds the fervent will 
 
 To honour thy behes*.
 
 552 A FA HE WELL 
 
 JfsrctocII 
 
 FAREWELL ! farewell ! the parting hour 
 Is come, and I must leave thee ! 
 
 Oh ! ne'er may aught approach thy bower 
 That might of bliss bereave thee ! 
 
 But ever a perennial rill 
 
 Of joy, so brightly flowing, 
 Keep each fair thought in fragrance still 
 
 Within thy pure mind blowing. 
 
 For life all charm had lost for me, 
 My thoughts were only sadness, 
 
 When fortune led me unto thee 
 To taste once more of gladness. 
 
 I Ve seen the sullen shades of night 
 
 Fair nature's face concealing, 
 And marked how scattered rays of light 
 
 Came morn's approach revealing. 
 
 The light increased, the orb of day 
 Clomb to the mountain's summit ; 
 
 And vale and plain, and stream and bay, 
 Drew life and lustre from it. 
 
 And as it towered in majesty, 
 
 Light all around it shedding, 
 It seemed a monarch, seated high, 
 
 Bliss through his realms wide spreading. 
 
 All nature joyed ; I felt my heart 
 Distend, and fill with pleasure ; 
 
 For heavenly light and warmth impart 
 A bliss we cannot measure. 
 
 This glorious sun to me art thou, 
 Whose light all gloom dispel'cth, 
 
 Before whose majesty I bow 
 When he his power revealeth.
 
 A FABEWELL. 553 
 
 Thy golden locks, thine eyes so blue, 
 
 Thy smile so sweetly playing, 
 Were those first shafts of light that flew, 
 
 The gloom of night warraying. 
 
 But when, more intimately known, 
 
 I found not only beauty, 
 But genius, taste, and truth, thine own, 
 
 Combined with filial duty : 
 
 Then rose the sun, o'er all my soul 
 
 In full effulgence beaming, 
 And tides of joy began to roll 
 
 Beneath his radiance gleaming. 
 
 Time still his noiseless course pursues 
 
 With unremitting vigour, 
 And lovely Spring each year renews 
 
 The waste of Winter's rigour. 
 
 Were mine the power, thus, like Time, 
 
 To wake again life's flowers, 
 And days recall of youthful prime 
 
 Passed in the Muses' bowers ; 
 
 Then, lovely maiden ! fancy-free, 
 
 Rich in each mental treasure, 
 In me thou wouldst a votary see 
 
 Thy will would be my pleasure. 
 
 But while such bliss might not be mine, 
 
 A friendship pure and holy 
 I offered at the hallowed shrine, 
 
 To which my heart turned solely. 
 
 When distant from thee many a mile, 
 
 High waves between us swelling, 
 I'll think upon thy lovely smile, 
 
 Of pure emotion telling. 
 
 The sky will show me thy blue eye ; 
 
 The whispering breeze of even 
 Eecall that voice, whose melody 
 
 Oft lapped my soul in heaven ! 
 
 The sinking sun thy ringlets' gold 
 
 Will show ; but memory only 
 The treasures of thy mind unfold 
 
 To me when musing lonely.
 
 551 YEBSE5 IN AN 
 
 Oh ! may I hope that memory, 
 That power for ever changing, 
 
 Will make thee sometimes think on me, 
 O'er distant mountains ranging ? 
 
 Say me not nay ; let Fancy cheat 
 My soul with bland illusion ; 
 
 And let not Doubt my vision sweet 
 Dispel by rude intrusion. 
 
 WBITTEN AT BATH IN 1840, FOR A LITTLE BOY WHO KEPT AN ALBUM, AD WAI 
 A GBEAT ADMIRER OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRY MEN. 
 
 HAD the kind Muse, young friend, on me 
 
 Her pleasing gifts bestowed, 
 And taught to tread of poesy 
 
 The smooth and flowery road ; 
 
 Then should the deeds of Robin Hood, 
 
 And Little John, so bold, 
 And of the Friar, stout and good, 
 
 In numbers high be told. 
 
 The merry greenwood should resound 
 
 With feats of archery, 
 And antlered deer along should bound 
 
 So light and gracefully ! 
 
 But vain the hopes : 'gainst Fate's decrees 
 
 To struggle I must cease ; 
 I only can write histories 
 
 Of England, Home, and Greece.
 
 FATHER CUDDY S SONO. 655 
 
 JFatfjcr Cirtrtrs's 0113. 
 
 Ot THE LEGEND OF CLOUOH NA CUDDT. 
 
 QTJAM pulchra sunt ova, 
 
 Cum alba et nova 
 In stabulo scite leguntur ; 
 
 Et a Margery bella, 
 
 Quse festiva puella ! 
 Pinguis lardi cum frustis coquuutur. 
 
 Ut belles in prato 
 
 Aprico et lato 
 Sub sole tain laete renident, 
 
 Ova tosta, in mensa 
 
 Mappa bene extensa, 
 Nitidissima lance consident. 
 
 TRANSLATION. 
 
 OH ! 'tis eggs are a treat, 
 When so white and so sweet 
 
 From under the manger they 're taken, 
 And by fair Margery, 
 Och ! tis she 's full of glee, 
 
 They are fried with fat rashers of bacuu. 
 
 Just like daisies all spread 
 O'er a broad sunny mead, 
 
 In the sunbeams so beauteously shiniug, 
 Are fried eggs fair displayed 
 On a dish, when we 've laid 
 
 The cloth and are thinking of dining.
 
 556 THE PRAISES OF MAZEITDEEAK. 
 
 of 
 
 FROM THE SHiH-NistEH OF FERDOUSHE. 
 
 [The object of this version was to give a correct idea of the animated anapaestic 
 measure in which the ShSh-Nameh is written. Our knowledge of Persian 
 was extremely slight; but a friendly Orientalist gave us a faithful line- 
 for-line translation, which we versified, and he and Ram Mohun Roy then 
 compared our version with the original.] 
 
 His hand from the lute hath its melody drawn, 
 And thus rose the song of Mazenderan : 
 May Mazenderan, the land of my birth, 
 Its hills and its dales, be e'er famed o'er the earth : 
 For evermore blooms in its gardens the rose, 
 On its hills nods the tulip, the hyacinth blows ; 
 Its air ever fragrant, its earth flourishing, 
 Cold or heat is not felt, 'tis perpetual spring. 
 The nightingale's lays in the gardens resound ; 
 On the sides of the mountains the stately deer bound, 
 In search evermore of their pastime and food ; 
 With fragrance and colour each season 's bedewed ; 
 Its streams of rose-water unceasingly roll, 
 Whose perfume doth gladness diffuse o'er the soul. 
 In November, December, and January, 
 Full of tulips the ground thou mayest everywhere see ; 
 The springs, unexhausted, flow all through the year ; 
 The hawk at his chase everywhere doth appear. 
 The region of bliss is adorned all o'er 
 With dinars, with rich stuffs, and with all costly store ; 
 The idol-adorers with fine gold are crowned, 
 And girdles of gold gird the heroes renowned. 
 Whoe'er hath not dwelt in that region so bright, 
 His soul knows no pleasure, his heart no delight.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 The worda printed in Italics are those whose origin or meaning is explained. 
 The word " Fairy '' is inclusive of all similar beings. 
 
 Albrich, 206. 
 Alfar, 64. 
 Alguadl, 464. 
 Aniadigi, L', 454. 
 Apsaresas, 510. 
 
 Bakhna Rakhna, 495. 
 
 Barguest, 306, 310. 
 
 Berserkers, 74. 
 
 Boggart, 307. 
 
 Bogles, 316, 351. 
 
 Booby, 464. 
 
 Boy, 316. 
 
 Brownie, 171, 296, 357, 39n. 
 
 Bug, 318. 
 
 Bugaboo, 316. 
 
 Bugbear, 316. 
 
 Bullbeggar, 316. 
 
 Calcar, 291. 
 Cauchemare, 291. 
 Cauld Lad of Hilton, 296. 
 Cluricaun, 371. 
 Cobweb, 318. 
 Colepexy, 305. 
 Colt-Pixy, 305. 
 Crious, 440. 
 
 Cross, 87, 134, 136, 276, 375, 391. 
 Courils, 441. 
 
 Changelings, 125, 166, 227, 300, 355, 
 365, 393, 398, 436, 471, 473, 521. 
 
 Dames Blanches, 474. 
 
 Dame du Lac, 31. 
 
 Daoine Shi', 384. 
 
 Deevs, 15. 
 
 Deuce, 438. 
 
 Drac, 465. 
 
 Duende, 462, 464. 
 
 Duergar, 66. 
 
 Duscii, 438. 
 
 Dwarfs, 94, 157, 174, 206, 264. 
 
 Eddas, 60. 
 Elberich, 208. 
 Elf-arrow, 352. 
 Elf-bore, 307. 
 Elf-queen, 331. 
 Elves, 78, 281. 
 Eugel, 207. 
 
 Fada, 5. 
 
 Fadas, 468. 
 
 Fairy, 4. 
 
 Fairy-bells, 363, 412. 
 
 Fairy-butter, 309. 
 
 Fairy-cup, 88, 109, 237, 283, 284, 
 
 399. 
 Fairy-departure, 127, 223. 257, 273, 
 
 356. 
 Fairy-labour, 122, 261, 275, 301, 
 
 311, 388, 488. 
 Fairy-mushrooms, 303.
 
 558 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Fairy-origin, 75, 147, 150, 213, 265 
 
 363, 385, 412, 432, 464. 
 Fairy-riding, 355, 384, 401, 414, 520 
 Fairy-song, 364, 438, 461. 
 Fairy-wife, 19, 108, 163, 169, 370 
 
 409, 450, 458, 480, 485. 
 Fairy-land, 44. 
 Faerie Queene, 56. 
 Fairies, 28, 290, 350, 363, 385, 397 
 
 412. 
 
 Farisees, 306. 
 Fary, 310. 
 Fata, 5. 
 Fate, 451. 
 Fear Dearg, 369. 
 Fees, 472. 
 Fosse-Grim, 152. 
 Friar Rush, 347. 
 
 Gallicense, 420. 
 
 Gandharvas, 510. 
 
 Gobelins, 476. 
 
 Goldemar, 256. 
 
 Good People, 363, 397, 495. 
 
 Gorics, 440. 
 
 Gossamer, 513. 
 
 Grant, 286. 
 
 Guancia, 464. 
 
 Guid Neighbours, 164, 351. 
 
 Habundia, 474. 
 
 ffada, 5. 
 
 Hadas, 469. 
 
 Hag, 290, 332. 
 
 Haggard, 318. 
 
 Havfrue, 152. 
 
 Havmand, 152. 
 
 Hd-Keplein, 207. 
 
 Hinzelmann, 240. 
 
 Hobgoblin, 317. 
 
 Hodekin, 255. 
 
 Holger Danske, 129. 
 
 House-spirit, 139, 163, 171, 239, 
 265, 287, 291, 296, 307, 357, 369, 
 395, 407, 449, 462, 468, 488. 
 
 Housle-egg, 291. 
 
 Huldrafolk, 79. 
 
 Hyldemoer, 94. 
 
 Incubo, 449. 
 
 Iron, 25, 148, 413, 488. 
 
 Jean de la Bolieta, 265. 
 Jinn, 25. 
 Jinnistan, 16. 
 
 Kaf, 15. 
 
 Kelpie, 360, 385. 
 Kit-wi-the-Canstick, 291 
 Kleine Volk, 216. 
 Klintekonger. 91. 
 Kobold, 239. 
 Korr, 431. 
 Korred, 431. 
 Korrig, 431. 
 Kerrigan, 420, 431. 
 
 Lancelot du Lac, 31. 
 
 Lars, 448. 
 
 Laurin, 207. 
 
 Leprechaun, 371. 
 
 Lob, 318. 
 
 Lob' s pound, 319. 
 
 Lubber, 319. 
 
 Lubin, 478. 
 
 Lubrican, 372. 
 
 Luridan, 172. 
 
 Lutiu, 476. 
 
 Luck of Eden Hall, 29i 
 
 Mab, 331, 476. 
 
 9ieh, 494. 
 Mazikeen, 497. 
 tfelusina, 479. 
 Mermaids, 370, 433, 450. 
 Merrow, 370, 527. 
 fliolner, 70. 
 Monaciello, 449. 
 Monkey, 464. 
 tforgan, 433. 
 tforgana, 5. 
 
 Jorgue la Face, 42, 46. 
 MoeB-people, 230.
 
 Napf-Hau, 265. 
 Neck, 148, 178, 483. 
 Neptunes, 285. 
 Nickur, 162, 163. 
 Ninny, 464. 
 Nisse, 139. 
 Nix, 258. 
 NiJkke, 148. 
 Norm'r, 64. 
 Nymphs, 444. 
 
 Oaf, 329. 
 
 Ob'eron, 38, 289, 325. 
 
 Oennereeske, 231. 
 
 Ogier le Danois, 46. 
 
 Oldenburg Horn, 237. 
 
 Otnit, 208. 
 
 Ouph, 329. 
 
 Pawl-ey, 316. 
 Pentamerone, II, 455. 
 Peries, 15. 
 Pexy, 305. 
 Phynnoderree, 402. 
 Picktree Brag, 310. 
 Pisachas, 510. 
 Pisgies, 298. 
 Pixies, 298. 
 Pixy-led, 300. 
 Poake, 317. 
 Pooka, 371. 
 Fortunes, 285. 
 Pouke, 314. 
 Proud, 103. 
 Puck, 291, 314. 
 Pucker, 464. 
 Pud-fist, 317. 
 Puckle, 316. 
 Pug, 315. 
 Puk, 233. 
 Pwcca, 418. 
 
 Robin Goodfellow, 287, 317. 
 Robin Hood, 318. 
 Runes, 98. 
 Rusalki, 491. 
 St. Oluf, 137. 
 
 55!) 
 
 St. Peter's suster, 319. 
 
 Scogsfru, 153. 
 
 Scrat, Schrat, Schretel. 229. 
 
 Seemurgh, 17. 
 
 Shedeem, 497. 
 
 Shellycoat, 360. 
 
 Shian, 384. 
 
 Shinseen, 5il. 
 
 Shoopiltie, 171, 
 
 Skidbladni, 68. 
 
 Spoorn, 291. 
 
 Steel, see Iron. 
 
 Stout, 103. 
 
 Stille Volk, 216. 
 
 Stromkarl, 152. 
 
 Svend Fselling, 88, 128. 
 
 Similar Legends, ( i.) 19, 163, 169, 
 370. (ii.) 88, 109, 237, 283. 28J, 
 399. (iii.) 115, 366, 398. (iv.)116, 
 232. (v.) 121, 409, 450. 458, 480, 
 485. (vi.) 122, 261, 275, 301, 
 311,388. (viL) 124, 260. (viii.) 
 124, 386, 387, 415. (ix.) 127, 223, 
 257, 273, 356. (x.) 140, 307, 369, 
 491. (xi.) 149, 365, 385. (xii.) 
 220, 226, 289, 295, 352, 389. 
 (xiii.) 228, 261, 287, 289, 299, 
 358, 395, 403. (xiv.) 302, 309, 
 311, 312, 353, 466. (xv.) 304, 
 438, 461. (xvi.) 313, 396, 477, 
 489. 
 
 Take, 338. 
 Tangie, 173. 
 Tarnkappe, 207. 
 Tirfing, 72. 
 Titania, 325. 
 Tomte, 139, 147. 
 Trasgo, 462, 464. 
 Trolls, 94, 102. 
 Trows, 164. 
 Turning coat, 300. 
 Tylwyth Teg, 408. 
 
 Umskiptinger, 160 
 Urchin, 319. 
 Urdar-fount, 64. 
 .Irisk, 396.
 
 500 INDEX. 
 
 Vairies, 305. 
 Vidhyadharas, 510. 
 Vilas, 491. 
 Volmar, 256. 
 
 Wain, 105 
 
 Water-spirits, 147, 162, 163, 171, 
 
 173, 178, 258, 360 385, 409, 433, 
 
 444, 450, 470. 
 Wicht, Wichtlein, 216. 229. 
 
 Wight, 216, 319. 
 Wild-women, 234. 
 Wile Paternoster, 319. 
 Witch, 319. 
 Wolfs-fist, 317. 
 
 Yakshas, 510. 
 Yggdrasil, 64. 
 Yumboes, 495. 
 
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 EDITED BY 
 
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 SALISBURY. By GLEESON WHITE. 2nd Edition, revised. 
 
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 EXETER. By PERCY ADDLESHAW, B.A. 35 Illustrations. 
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 PETERBOROUGH. By Rev. W. D. SWEETING. 51 Illustrations. 
 HEREFORD. By A. HUGH FISHER, A.R.E. 34 Illustrations. 
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 WELLS. By Rev. PERCY DEARMER, M.A. 43 Illustrations. 
 SOUTHWELL. By Rev. ARTHUR DIMOCK, M.A. 37 Illustrations. 
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 In the Press. 
 
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 Uniform with above Series. Now ready. 
 
 ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY. By the Rev. CANON ROUTI.EDGE. 
 BEVERLEY MINSTER. By CHARLES HIATT. 
 
 ' The volumes are handy in size, moderate in price, well illustrated, and written in a 
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 tourist in England.' Times. 
 
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 32 ) 
 
 WEBSTER'S 
 
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 OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
 2118 Pages. 3500 Illustrations. 
 
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 The Appendices comprise a Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World, 
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 a Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fiction, a Brief History of the 
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 Proverbs, &c., a Biographical Dictionary with 10,000 names, &c., &c. 
 
 ' We believe that, all things considered, this will be found to be the best 
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 in fact, who is likely to be posed at an unfamiliar at half-understood word or 
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