mechanical arts. From all these advantages, however, after the partial conversion of the Laplanders, the subterranean people have derived no farther credit, than to be confounded with the devils and magicians of the dark ages of Christianity; a degradation which, as will shortly be demonstrated, has been also suffered by the harmless fairies of Albion, and, indeed, by the whole host of deities of learned Greece and mighty Rome. The ancient opinions are yet so firmly rooted, that the Laps of Finland, at this day, boast of an intercourse with these beings, in banquets, dances, and magical ceremonies, and even in more intimate commerce of gallantry. They talk, with triumph, of the feasts which they have shared in the elfin caverns, where wine and tobacco, the productions of the Fairy region, went round in abundance, and whence the mortal guest, after receiving the kindest treatment, and the most salutary counsel, has been conducted to his tent under an escort of his supernatural entertainers.-Jessens, de Lapponibus. The superstitions of the islands of Feroe, concerning their Froddenskemen, or under-ground people, are derived from the duergar of Scandinavia. These beings are supposed to inhabit the interior recesses of mountains, which they enter by invisible passages. Like the Fairies, they are supposed to steal human beings. "It happened," says Debes, p. 354, "a good while since, when the burghers of Bergen had the commerce of Feroe, that there was a man in Servaade, called Jonas Soideman, who was kept by spirits in a mountain during the space of seven years, and at length came out; but lived afterwards in great distress and fear, lest they should again take him away; wherefore people were obliged to watch him in the night." The same author mentions another young man who had been carried away, and, after his return, was removed a second time upon the eve of his marriage. He returned in a short time, and related, that the spirit that had carred him away was in the shape of a most beautiful woman, who pressed him to forsake his bride, and remain with her; urging her own superior beauty, and splendid appearance. He added, that he saw the men who were employed to search for him, and heard them call; but that they could not see him, nor could he answer them, till upon his determined refusal to listen to the spirit's persuasions, the spell ceased to operate." The kidney-shaped West Indian bean, which is sometimes driven upon the shore of the Feroes, is termed by the natives, "the Fairie's kidney." In these traditions of the Gothic and Finnish tribes, we may recognise, with certainty, the rudiments of elfin superstition; but we must look to various other causes for the modifications which it has undergone. These are to be sought, first, in the traditions of the East; 2d, in the wreck and confusion of the Gothic mythology; 3d, in the tales of chivalry; 4th, in the fables of classical antiquity; 5th, in the influence of the Christian religion; 6th, and finally, in the creative imagination of the 16th century. It may be proper to notice the effect of these various causes, before stating the popular behief of our own time, regarding the Fairies. I. To the traditions of the East, the Fairies of Britain owe, I think, little more than the appellation, by which they have been distinguished since the days of the Crusade. The term "Fairy," occurs not only in Chaucer, and in yet older English authors, but also, and more frequently, in the Romance language; from which they seem to have adopted it. Ducange cites the following passage from Gul. Guiart, in Historia Francica, MS. "Plusiers parlent de Guenart, Du Lou, de L'Asne, de Renart, De Faeries et de Songes, De phantosmes et de mensonges." *(Faerie was a general name for illusion; a sense in which it is always (?) used by Chaucer. As an appellation for the elfin race, it is certainly of late date; and perhaps a mere corruption -a name given to the agent from his acts. It is certainly not of northern origin. Some of the earliest French tales of faeric, acknowledge a Breton source: may not the name itself be Celtic? The Lay le Frain, enumerating the subjects of the Breton Lays, informs us expressly, Many ther beth of faery. By some etymologists of that learned class, who not only know whence words come, but also whither they are going, the term Fairy, or Faerie, is derived from Fae, which is again derived from Nympha. It is more probable the term is of Oriental origin, and is derived from the Persic, through the medium of the Arabic. In Persic, the term Peri expresses a species of imaginary being which resembles the Fairy in some of its qualities, and is one of the fairest creatures of romantic fancy. This superstition must have been known to the Arabs, among whom the Persian tales, or romances, even as early as the time of Mahomet, were so popular, that it required the most terrible denunciations of that legislator to proscribe them. Now, in the enunciation of the Arabs, the term Peri would sound Fairy, the letter p not occurring in the alphabet of that nation; and, as the chief intercourse of the early crusaders was with the Arabs, or Saracens, it is probable they would adopt the term according to their pronunciation. Neither will it be considered as an objection to this opinion, that in. Hesychius, the Ionian term, Phereas or Pheres, denotes the satyrs of classical antiquity, if the number of words of Oriental origin in that lexicographer be recollected. Of the Persian Peris, Ousely, in his Persian Miscellanies, has described some characteristic traits, with all the luxuriance of a fancy impregnated with the Oriental associations of ideas.. However vaguely their nature and appearance are described, they are uniformly represented as gentle, amiable females, to whose character beneficence and beauty are essential. None of them are mischievous or malignant; none of them are deformed or diminutive, like the Gothic fairy. Though they correspond in beauty with our ideas of angels, their employments are dissimilar; and, as they have no place in heaven, their abode is different. Neither do they resemble those intelligences, whom, on account of their wisdom, the Platonists denominated demons; nor do they correspond either to the guardian Genii of the Romans, or the celestial virgins of paradise, whom the Arabs denominate Houri. But the Peris hover in the balmy clouds, live in the colours of the rainbow, and, as the exquisite purity of their nature rejects all nourishment grosser than the odours of flowers, they subsist by inhaling the fragrance of the jessamine and rose. Though their existence is not commensurate with the bonds of human life, they are not exempted from the common fate of mortals. With the Peris, in Persian mythology, are contrasted the Dives, a race of beings, who differ from them in sex, appearance, and disposition. These are represented as of the male sex, cruel, wicked, and of the most hideous aspect; or, as they are described by Mr. Finch, with ugly shapes, 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." Though they live very long, their lives are limited, and they are obnoxious to the blows of a human foe. From the malignancy of their nature, they not only wage war with mankind, but persecute the Peris with unremitting ferocity. Such are the brilliant and fanciful colours with which the imaginations of the Persian poets have depicted the charming race of the Peris; and, if we consider the romantic gallantry of the knights of chivalry, and of the crusaders, it will not appear improbable, that their charms might occasionally fascinate the fervid imagination of an amorous troubadour. But, farther; the intercourse of France The Ionic Pheres, of Hesychius, which has been mentioned as a synonym with the Persian Pen, is but a different aspiration of the Attic Onp. (German, thier.) and which, whether applied to Centaurs or Satyrs, could only have been given to mark their affinity with the animal race.-Preface to WARTON, 1824, p. 44. -ED.] and Italy with the Moors of Spain, and the preva- 1 mischievous attributes of several other classes of lence of the Arabic, as the language of science in subordinate spirits, acknowledged by the nations of the dark ages, facilitated the introduction of their the north. The abstraction of children, for example, mythology among the nations of the West. Hence, the well-known practice of the modern Fairy, the romances of France, of Spain, and of Italy, seems, by the ancient Gothic nations, to have rather unite in describing the Fairy as an inferior spirit, in been ascribed to a species of nightmare, or hag, than a beautiful female form, possessing many of the to the berg-elfen, or duergar. In the ancient leamiable qualities of the Eastern Peri. Nay, it seems gend of St. Margaret, of which there is a Saxosufficiently clear, that the romancers borrowed from Norman copy in Hickes' Thesaurus Linguar. Septhe Arabs, not merely the general idea concerning ten. and one, more modern, in the Auchinleck MSS., those spirits, but even the names of individuals that lady encounters a fiend, whose profession it among them. The Peri Mergian Banou, (see was, among other malicious tricks, to injure newHerbelot ap. Peri,) celebrated in the ancient Persian born children and their mothers; a practice afterpoetry, figures in the European romances, under the wards imputed to the Fairies. Gervase of Tilbury, various names of Mourgue La Faye, sister to King in the Otia Imperialia, mentions certain hags, or Arthur; Urgande La Deconnue, protectress of Lamia, who entered into houses in the night-time, Amadis De Gaul; and the Fata Morgana of Boi- to oppress the inhabitants while asleep, injure their ardo and Ariosto. The description of these nymphs, persons and property, and carry off their children. by the troubadours and minstrels, is in no respect He likewise mentions the Draca, a sort of water inferior to those of the Peris. In the tale of Sir spirits, who inveigle women and children into the Launfal, in Way's Fabliaux, as well as in that of recesses which they inhabit, beneath lakes and Sir Gruelan, in the same interesting collection, the rivers, by floating past them, on the surface of the reader will find the fairy of Normandy, or Bretagne, water, in the shape of gold rings or cups. The woadorned with all the splendour of Eastern descrip- men, thus seized, are employed as nurses, and, tion. The fairy Melusina, also, who married Guy after seven years, are permitted to revisit earth. de Lusignan, Count of Poictou, under condition Gervase mentions one woman, in particular, who that he should never attempt to intrude upon her had been allured by observing a wooden dish, or privacy, was of this latter class. She bore the cup, float by her, while washing clothes in a river. Count many children, and erected for him a magni- Being seized as soon as she reached the depths, she ficent castle by her magical art. Their harmony was conducted into one of these subterranean rewas uninterrupted, until the prying husband broke cesses, which she described as very magnificent, the conditions of their union, by concealing himself, and employed as nurse to one of the brood of the to behold his wife make use of her enchanted bath. hag who had allured her. During her residence in Hardly had Melusina discovered the indiscreet in this capacity, having accidentally touched one of truder, than, transforming herself into a dragon, she her eyes with an ointment of serpent's grease, she departed with a loud yell of lamentation, and was perceived, at her return to the world, that she had never again visible to mortal eyes; although, even acquired the faculty of seeing the Draca, when they in the days of Brantome, she was supposed to be intermingle themselves with men. Of this power, the protectress of her descendants, and was heard she was, however, deprived by the touch of her wailing, as she sailed upon the blast round the tur-ghostly mistress, whom she had one day incautiousrets of the castle of Lusignan, the night before it ly addressed. It is a curious fact, that this story, in was demolished. For the full story, the reader may almost all its parts, is current in both the Highlands consult the Bibliotheque des Romans.* and Lowlands of Scotland, with no other variation than the substitution of Fairies for Draca, and the cavern of a hill for that of a river. These water fiends are thus characterized by Heywood, in the Hierarchie Gervase of Tilbury, (pp. 895 and 989,) assures us, that, in his days, the lovers of the Fade, or Fairies, were numerous; and describes the rules of their intercourse with as much accuracy, as if he had himself been engaged in such an affair. Sir David Lindsay also informs us, that a leopard is the proper -armorial bearing of those who spring from such intercourse, because that beast is generated by adultery of the pard and lioness. He adds, that Merlin, the prophet, was the first who adopted this cognizance, because he was "borne of faarie in adultré, and right sua the first Duk of Guyenne was born of a fee; and, therefoir, the arms of Guyenne are a leopard."-MS. on Heraldry, Advocates' Library, w. 4, 13. While, however, the Fairy of warmer climes was thus held up as an object of desire and of affection, those of Britain, and more especially those of Scotland, were far from being so fortunate; but retaining the unamiable qualities, and diminutive size of the Gothic elves, they only exchanged that term for the more popular appellation of Fairies. II. Indeed so singularly unlucky were the British Fairies, that, as has already been hinted, amid the wreck of the Gothic mythology, consequent upon the introduction of Christianity, they seem to have preserved, with difficulty, their own distinct characteristics, while, at the same time, they engrossed the * Upon this, or some similar tradition, was founded the notion, which the inveteracy of national prejudice so easily diffused in Scotland, that the ancestor of the English monarchs, Geoffrey Plantagenet, had actually married a demon. Bowmaker, in or der to explain the cruelty and ambition of Edward I., dedicates a chapter to show "how the Kings of England are descended from the devil, by the mother's side."-FORDUN, Chron. lib. 9, cap. 6. The lord of a certain castle, called Espervel, was unfortunate enough to have a wife of the same class. Having observed, for several years, that she always left the chapel before the mass was concluded, the baron, in a fit of obstinacy or curiosity, ordered his guard to detain her by force; of which the consequence was, that unable to support the elevation of the host, she retreated through the air, carrying with her one side of the chapel, and several of the congregation. "Spirits, that have o'er water government, They trouble seas, flouds, rivers, brookes, and wels, At wreckes some present are; another sort, The following Frisian superstition, related by Schott, in his Physica Curiosa, p. 362, on the authority of Cornelius a Kempen, coincides more accurately with the popular opinions concerning the Fairies, than even the draca of Gervase, or the water spirits of Thomas Heywood.-"In the time of the Emperor Lotharius, in 830," says he, "many spectres infested Friesland, particularly the white nymphs of the ancients, which the moderns deno Indeed, many of the vulgar account it extremely dangerous to touch any thing which they may happen to find, without saining (blessing) it, the snares of the enemy being notorious and well-attested. A poor woman of Teviotdale, having been fortu. nate enough, as she thought herself, to find a wooden beetle, at the very time when she needed such an implement, seized it without pronouncing the proper blessing and carrying it home, laid it above her bed, to be ready for employment in the morning. At midnight, the window of her cottage opened. and a loud voice was heard, calling upon some one within, by a strange and uncouth name which I have forgotten. The terrified cottager ejaculated a prayer, which, we may suppose, ensured her personal safety; while the enchanted implement of housewifery, tumbling from the bed stead, departed by the window with no small noise and precipitation. In a humorous fugitive tract, the late Dr. Johnson is introduced as disputing the authenticity of an apparition, merely because the spirit assumed the shape of a tea-pot, and of a shoulder of mutton. No doubt, a case so much in point as that we have now quoted, would have removed his incredulity. minate witte wiven, who inhabited a subterraneous ( the inhabitants of this cave might be Antipodes, yet, cavern, formed in a wonderful manner, without hu- as many such stories are related of the Fairies, it is man art, on the top of a lofty mountain. These probable that this narration is of the same kind. Of were accustomed to surprise benighted travellers, a similar nature seems to be another superstition, shepherds watching their herds and flocks, and wo-mentioned by the same author, concerning the ringmen newly delivered, with their children; and con- ing of invisible bells, at the hour of one, in a field in vey them into their caverns, from which subterra- the vicinity of Carleol, which, as he relates, was denean murmurs, the cries of children, the groans and nominated Laikibraine, or Lai ki brait. From all lamentations of men, and sometimes imperfect these tales, we may perhaps be justified in supposing words, and all kinds of musical sounds, were heard that the faculties and habits ascribed to the Fairies, to proceed." The same superstition is detailed by by the superstition of latter days, comprehend seveBekker, in his World Bewitch'd, p. 196, of the Eng- ral, originally attributed to other classes of inferior lish translation. As the different classes of spirits spirits. were gradually confounded, the abstraction of children seems to have been chiefly ascribed to the elves, or Fairies; yet not so entirely as to exclude hags and witches from the occasional exertion of their ancient privilege. In Germany, the same confusion of classes has not taken place. In the beautiful ballads of the Erl King, the Water King, and the Mer-Maid, we still recognise the ancient traditions of the Goths concerning the wald-clven, and the draca. III. The notions, arising from the spirit of chivalry, combined to add to the Fairies certain qualities, less atrocious indeed, but equally formidable, with those which they derived from the last-mentioned source, and alike inconsistent with the powers of the duergar, whom we may term their primitive prototype. From an early period, the daring temper of the northern tribes urged them to defy even the supernatural powers. In the days of Cæsar, the Suevi were described, by their countrymen, as a people, A similar superstition, concerning abstraction by with whom the immortal gods dared not venture to demons, seems, in the time of Gervase of Tilbury, to contend. At a later period, the historians of Scanhave pervaded the greatest part of Europe. In dinavia paint their heroes and champions, not as Catalonia," says the author, "there is a lofty moun- bending at the altar of their deities, but wandering tain, named Cavagum, at the foot of which runs a into remote forests and caverns, descending into the river with golden sands, in the vicinity of which recesses of the tomb, and extorting boons, alike from there are likewise mines of silver. This mountain gods and demons, by dint of the sword and battleis steep, and almost inaccessible. On its top, which axe. I will not detain the reader by quoting inis always covered with ice and snow, is a black and stances in which heaven is thus described as having bottomless lake, into which if a stone be thrown, a been literally attempted by storm. He may consult tempest suddenly rises; and near this lake, though Saxo, Olaus Wormius, Olaus Magnus, Torfæus, Barinvisible to men, is the porch of the palace of de- tholin, and other northern antiquaries. With such mons. In a town adjacent to this mountain, named ideas of superior beings, the Normans, Saxons, and Junchera, lived one Peter de Cabinam. Being one other Gothic tribes, brought their ardent courage to day teazed with the fretfulness of his young daugh- ferment yet more highly in the genial climes of the ter, he, in his impatience, suddenly wished that the south, and under the blaze of romantic chivalry. devil might take her; when she was immediately Hence, during the dark ages, the invisible world was borne away by the spirits. About seven years after- modelled after the material: and the saints, to the wards, an inhabitant of the same city, passing by protection of whom the knights-errant were accusthe mountain, met a man, who complained bitterly tomed to recommend themselves, were accoutred of the burden he was constantly forced to bear. like preux chevaliers, by the ardent imaginations of Upon inquiring the cause of his complaining, as he their votaries. With such ideas concerning the indid not seen to carry any load, the man related, that habitants of the celestial regions, we ought not to be he had been unwarily devoted to the spirits by an surprised to find the inferior spirits, of a more dubious execration, and that they now employed him con- nature and origin, equipped in the same disguise. stantly as a vehicle of burden. As a proof of his as- Gervase of Tilbury (Otia Imperial. ap. Scrip. rer. sertion, he added, that the daughter of his fellow- Brunsvic, vol. i. p. 797) relates the following popucitizen was detained by the spirits, but that they were lar story concerning a Fairy Knight." Osbert, a willing to restore her, if her father would come and bold and powerful baron, visited a noble family in demand her on the mountain. Peter de Cabinam, the vicinity of Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely. on being informed of this, ascended the mountain to Among other stories related in the social circle of the lake, and, in the name of God, demanded his his friends, who, according to custom, amused each daughter; when a tall, thin, withered figure, with other by repeating ancient tales and traditions, he wandering eyes, and almost bereft of understanding, was informed, that if any knight, unattended, enwas wafted to him in a blast of wind. After some tered an adjacent plain by moonlight, and challenged time, the person, who had been employed as the ve- an adversary to appear, he would be immediately biele of the spirits, also returned, when he related encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight. Oswhere the palace of the spirits was situated; but add-bert resolved to make the experiment, and set out, ed, that none were permitted to enter but those who attended by a single squire, whom he ordered to redevoted themselves entirely to the spirits; those who main without the limits of the plain, which was had been rashly committed to the devil by others, surrounded by an ancient intrenchment. On rebeing only permitted, during their probation, to enter peating the challenge, he was instantly assailed by the porch. It may be proper to observe, that the an adversary, whom he quickly unhorsed, and seizsuperstitious idea, concerning the lake on the top of ed the reins of his steed. During this operation, his the mountain, is common to almost every high hill ghostly opponent sprung up, and, darting his spear, in Scotland. Wells, or pits, on the top of high hills, like a javelin, at Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. were likewise supposed to lead to the subterranean Osbert returned in triumph with the horse, which habitations of the Fairies. Thus Gervase relates, he committed to the care of his servants. The horse (p. 975,) that he was informed the swineherd of was of a sable colour, as well as his whole accoutreWilliam Peverell, an English baron, having lost a ments, and apparently of great beauty and vigour. brood-sow, descended through a deep abyss, in the He remained with his keeper till cock-crowing, middle of an ancient ruinous castle, situated on the when, with eyes flashing fire, he reared, spurned the top of a hill, called Bech, in search of it. Though a ground, and vanished. On disarming himself, Osviolent wind commonly issued from this pit, he found bert perceived that he was wounded, and that one it calm; and pursued his way, till he arrived at a of his steel boots was full of blood. Gervase adds, subterraneous region, pleasant and cultivated, with that as long as he lived, the scar of his wound openreapers cutting down corn, though the snow remained afresh on the anniversary of the eve on which he ed on the surface of the ground above. Among the ears of corn he discovered his sow, and was permitted to ascend with her, and the pigs which she had farrowed." Though the author seems to think that encountered the spirit."* Less fortunate was the gallant Bohemian knight, who, travelling by night with a single companion, came in sight of a fairy • The unfortunate Chatterton was not, probably, acquainted host, arrayed under displayed banners. Despising the remonstrances of his friend, the knight pricked forward to break a lance with a champion who advanced from the ranks, apparently in defiance. His companion beheld the Bohemian overthrown, horse and man, by his aerial adversary; and returning to the spot next morning, he found the mangled corpse of the knight and steed.-Hierarchie of Blessed Angels, p. 554. To the same current of warlike ideas, we may safely attribute the long train of military processions which the Fairies are supposed occasionally to exhibit. The elves, indeed, seem in this point to be identified with the aerial host, termed, during the middle ages, the Milites Herlikini, or Herleurini, celebrated by Pet. Blesensis, and termed, in the life of St. Thomas of Canterbury, the Familia Helliquinii. The chief of this band was originally a gallant knight and warrior; but, having spent his whole possessions in the service of the emperor, and being rewarded with scorn, and abandoned to subordinate oppression, he became desperate, and, with his sons and followers, formed a band of robbers. After committing many ravages, and defeating all the forces sent against him, Hellequin, with his whole troop, fell in a bloody engagement with the imperial host. His former good life was supposed to save him from utter reprobation; but he and his followers were condemned after death, to a state of wandering, which should endure till the last day. Retaining their military habits, they were usually seen in the act of justing together, or in similar warlike employments. See the ancient French Romance of Richard sans Peur. Similar to this was the Nacht Lager, or midnight camp, which seemed nightly to beleaguer the walls of Prague, "With ghastly faces throng'd, and fiery arms," but which disappeared upon recitation of the magical words, Vezelé, Vezelé, ho! ho! ho!-For similar delusions, see DELBIUS, pp. 294, 295. The martial spirit of our ancestors led them to defy these aerial warriors: and it is still currently believed, that he who has courage to rush upon a fairy festival, and snatch from them their drinking cup or horn, shall find it prove to him a cornucopia of good fortune, if he can bear it in safety across a running stream. Such a horn is said to have been presented to Henry I., by a lord of Colchester.GERVAS TILB. p. 980. A goblet is still carefully preserved in Edenhall, Cumberland, which is supposed to have been seized at a banquet of the elves by one of the ancient family of Musgrave; or, as others say, by one of their domestics, in the manner above described. The Fairy train vanished, crying aloud, Some faint traces yet remain, on the Borders, of a conflict of a mysterious and terrible nature, between mortals and the spirits of the wilds. The superstition is incidentally alluded to by Jackson, at the beginning of the 17th century. The fern seed, which is supposed to become visible only on St. John's eve,t and at the very moment when the Baptist was born, is held by the vulgar to be under the special protection of the Queen of Faery. But, as the seed was supposed to have the quality of rendering the possessor invisible at pleasure, and to be also of sovereign use in charms and incantations, persons of courage, addicted to these mysterious arts, were wont to watch in solitude, to gather it at the moment when it should become visible. The particular charms,, by which they fenced themselves during this vigil, are now unknown; but it was reckoned a feat of no small danger, as the person undertaking it was exposed to the most dreadful assaults from spirits, who dreaded the effect of this powerful herb in the hands of a cabalist. "Much discourse," says Richard Bivot, "hath been about gathering of fern seed (which is looked upon as a magical herb) on the night of Midsummer-eve; and I remember I was told of one who went to gather it, and the spirits whisk't by his ears like bullets, and sometimes struck his hat, and other parts of his body; in fine, though he apprehended he had gotten a quantity of it, and secured it in papers, and a box besides, when he came home he found all empty. But, most probably, this appointing of times and hours is of the devil's own institution, as well as the fast, that, having once ensnared people to an obedience to his rules, he may with more facility oblige them to a stricter vassalage."--Pandemonium, Lond. 1684, p. 217. Such were the shades which the original superstition, concerning the Fairies, received from the chivalrous sentiments of the middle ages. IV. An absurd belief in the fables of classical antiquity lent an additional feature to the character of the woodland spirits of whom we treat. Greece and Rome had not only assigned tutelary deities to each province and city, but had peopled, with peculiar spirits, the Seas, the Rivers, the Woods, and the Mountains. The memory of the Pagan creed was not speedily eradicated, in the extensive provinces through which it was once universally received; and, in many particulars, it continued long to mingle with, and influence, the original superstitions of the Gothic nations. Hence, we find the elves occasionally arrayed in the costume of Greece and Rome, and the Fairy Queen and her attendants transformed into Diana and her nymphs, and invested with their attributes and appropriate insignia.-DELRIUS, pp. 168, 807. According to the same author, the Fairy Queen was also called Habundia. Like Diana, who, in one capacity, was denominated Hecate, the goddess The goblet took a name from the prophecy, under of enchantment, the Fairy Queen is identified, in which it is mentioned in the burlesque ballad, com- popular tradition, with the Gyre-Carline, Gay Carmonly attributed to the Duke of Wharton, but in line, or mother witch, of the Scottish peasantry. reality composed by Lloyd, one of his jovial compa- Of this personage, as an individual, we have but few nions. The duke, after taking a draught, had near-notices. She is sometimes termed Nicnevin, and ly terminated "the luck of Edenhall," had not the is mentioned in the Complaynt of Scotland, by butler caught the cup in a napkin, as it dropped from Lindsay in his Dreme, p. 225, edit. 1590, and in his his grace's hands. I understand it is not now sub- Interludes, apud PINKERTON's Scottish Poems, vol. jected to such risks, but the lees of wine are still ap-ii. p. 18. But the traditionary accounts regarding parent at the bottom. "If this glass do break or fall, "God prosper long from being broke, The luck of Edenhall."-Parody on Chevy Chace. with Gervase of Tilbury; yet he seems to allude, in the Battle of Hastings, to some modification of Sir Osbert's adventure: "So who they be that ouphant fairies strike, Their souls shall wander to King Offa's dike." The intrenchment, which served as lists for the combatants, is said by Gervase to have been the work of the Pagan invaders of Britain. In the metrical romance of Arthour and Merlin, we have also an account of Wandlesbury being occupied by the Saracens, i. c. the Saxons; for all Pagans were Saracens with the romancers. I presume the place to have been Wodnesbury, in Wiltshire, situated on the remarkable mound, called Wandsdike, which is obviously a Saxon work.-GOUGH's Camden's Britan nia, pp. 87-96. Pretorius informs us that the member of the German house of Alveschleben received a ring from a Nixe, to which the future fortunes of his line were to be attached. Antherpodemius Plu tonicus, á. p. 113. Another German family, the Ranzaus, held her are too obscure to admit of explanation. In the : This is alluded to by Shakspeare, and other authors of his "Pluto that is king of fayrie-and In the Golden Terge of Dunbar, the same phraseology is adopted: Thus, 44 Thair was Pluto that elricke incubus In cloke of grene, his court usit in sable." "His fader was comen of King Pluto, Queen of Jovis, (Jovis, or perhaps Jews,) and is, | ly in the romance-writers, but even in Chaucer, are with great consistency, married to Mohammed.* the fairies identified with the ancient inhabitants of But chiefly in Italy were traced many dim charac- the classical hell. Thus Chaucer, in his Marchand's ters of ancient mythology, in the creed of tradition. Tale, mentions Thus, so lately as 1536, Vulcan, with twenty of his Cyclops, is stated to have presented himself suddenly to a Spanish merchant, travelling in the night through the forests of Sicily; an apparition which was followed by a dreadful eruption of Mount Etna. -Hierarchie of Blessed Angels, p. 504. Of this singular mixture, the reader will find a curious specimen in the following tale, wherein the Venus of antiquity assumes the manners of one of the Fays, or Fatæ, of romance. "In the year 1058, a young man of noble birth had been married at Rome, and, But Chaucer, and those poets who have adopted during the period of the nuptial feast, having gone his phraseology, have only followed the romancewith his companions to play at ball, he put his mar- writers; for the same substitution occurs in the roriage-ring on the finger of a broken statue of Venus mance of Orfeo and Heurodis, in which the story of in the area, to remain while he was engaged in the Orpheus and Eurydice is transformed into a beautirecreation. Desisting from the exercise, he found ful romance tale of faery, and the Gothic mythology the finger, on which he had put his ring, contracted engrafted on the fables of Greece. Heurodis is refirmly against the palm, and attempted in vain ei-presented as wife of Orfeo, and Queen of Winchesther to break it or to disengage his ring. He con- ter, the ancient name of which city the romancer, cealed the circumstance from his companions, and with unparalled ingenuity, discovers to have been returned at night with a servant, when he found Traciens, or Thrace. The monarch, her husband, the finger extended, and his ring gone. He dissem- had a singular genealogy :— bled the loss, and returned to his wife; but, whenever he attempted to embrace her, he found himself prevented by something dark and dense, which was tangible, though not visible, interposing between them; and he heard a voice saying, Embrace me! for I am Venus, whom this day you wedded, and I will not restore your ring. As this was constantly repeated, he consulted his relations, who had recourse to Palumbus, a priest skilled in necromancy. He directed the young man to go, at a certain hour of night, to a spot among the ruins of ancient Rome, where four roads met, and wait silently till he saw a company pass by, and then, without uttering a word, to deliver a letter, which he gave him, to a majestic being, who rode in a chariot, after the rest of the company. The young man did as he was directed; and saw a company of all ages, sexes, and ranks, on horse and on foot, some joyful and others sad, pass along; among whom he distinguished a woman in a meretricious dress, who, from the tenuity of her garments, seemed almost naked. She rode on a mule; her long hair, which flowed over her shoulders, was bound with a golden fillet; and in her hand was a golden rod, with which she directed her mule. In the close of the procession, a tall majestic figure appeared in a chariot, adorned with emeralds and pearls, who fiercely asked the young man, 'What he did there?' He presented the letter in silence, which the demon dared not refuse. As soon as he had read, lifting up his hands to heaven, he exclaimed, Almighty God! how long wilt thou endure the iniquities of the sorcerer Palunibus! and immediately despatched some of his attendants, who, with much difficulty, extorted the ring from Venus, and restored it to its owner, whose infernal banns were thus dissolved."-FORDUNI Scotichronicon, vol. i. p. 407, cura GOODALL. But it is rather in the classical character of an infernal Deity, that the Elfin queen may be considered, than as Hecate, the patroness of magic; for not on "In Tyberius tyme, the trew imperatour, Qaben Tynto hills fra skraiping of toun-henis was keipit, Of milk pottage inwart, The Carling luche, and let a fart North Berwik Law. "The King of Fary than come, with elfis many ane, Reposing, unwarily, at noon, under the shade of an With an hundred knights and mo, The kinge hadde a croun on hede, As bright as the sonne it schon." The King of Fairies, who had obtained power over the queen, perhaps from her sleeping at noon in his domain, orders her, under the penalty of being torn to pieces, to await him to-morrow under the ymp tree, and accompany him to Fairy-Land. She relates her dream to her husband, who resolves to accompany her, and attempt her rescue : "A morwe the under tide is come, Right upon that ympe tre. Thai made scheltrom in iche aside, And dye ther everichon, Er the quen schuld fram hem gon: Men wizt never wher she was become." After this fatal catastrophe, Orfeo, distracted for the loss of his queen, abandons his throne, and, with his harp, retires into a wilderness, where he subjects himself to every kind of austerity, and attracts the |