superstitions have been extinguished by the progress of scientific knowledge, even the belief in the disastrous consequences attendant on the slaughter of the albatross, which forms the plot of Coleridge's crude Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Comp. Remora and Unicorn.

Face - Cloth. The face cloth is of great antiquity. Strutt tells us that "after the closing of the eyes, &c., a linen cloth was put over the face of the deceased. Thus we are told that Henry the Fourth, in his last illness, seeming to be dead, his Chamberlain covered his face with a linen cloth." Stafford says: "I am so great an enemie to ceremonies, as that I would onelie wish to have that one ceremonie at my buriall, which I had at my birth; I mean, swadling: and yet I am indifferent for that too."

Fairies. In the "British Apollo," 1708, No. I. supernumerary for April, we are told: "The opinion of fairies has been asserted by Pliny and several historians, and Aristotle himself gave some countenance to it, whose words are these : Eo de ò TOTоç &c., i.e. Hic Locus est quem incolunt Pygmei, non est Fabula, sed pusillum Genus ut aiunt: wherein Aristotle plays the sophist. For though by non est Fabula' he seems at first to confirm it, yet coming in at last with his 'ut aiunt,' he shakes the belief he had before put upon it. Our Society, therefore, are of opinion, that Homer was the first author of this conceit, who often used similies, as well to delight the ear as to illustrate his matter: and in his third Iliad compares the Trojane to manes, when they descend against fairies. So that, that which was only a pleasant fiction in the fountain, became a solemn story in the stream, and current still among us. Bishop Percy tells us that,

on the assurance of a learned friend in Wales, the existence of fairies is alluded to by the most ancient British bards, among whom their commonest name was that of the spirits of the mountains. Reliques, iii., 207. "It will afford entertainment," says he, "to a contemplative mind to trace these whimsical opinions up to their origin. Whoever con

siders how early, how extensively, and how uniformly they have prevailed in these nations, will not readily assent to the hypothesis of those who fetch them from the East so late as the time of the Croisades. Whereas it is well known that our Saxon ancestors, long before they left their German forests, believed the existence of a kind of diminutive Demons, or middle species between men and spirits, whom they called Duergar or dwarfs, and to whom they attributed many wonderful performances far exceeding human art." "I made strict inquiries" (Brand says) "after the fairies in the uncultivated wilds of Northumberland, but even there I could only meet with a man who said that he had seen one that had seen fairies. Truth is hard to come at in most cases. None, I believe, ever came nearer to it in this than I have done."

Chaucer is very facetious concerning them in his "Canterbury Tales," where he puts his creed of fairy mythology into the mouth of the Wife of Bath: "In olde dayes of the kyng Arthour Of which that Britouns speken gret honour,

All was this lond fulfilled of fayrie;
The elf-queen with hir joly compaignie,
Daunced ful oft in many a grene mede,
This was the old oppynyoun as I rede.
I spoke of many hundrid yeres ago,
But now can no man see noon elves mo.
For now the grete charite and prayeres
Of lymytours and other holy freres,
That sechen every lond and every

streme,

As thick as motis in the sonne-beme.

That makith that there ben no fayeries
For ther as wont was to walken an elf,
Ther walkith noon but the lymytour
himself,

As he goth in his lymytatioun,
Wommen may now go safely up and
doun,

In every bussch, and under every tre,

There is none other incubus but he," &c. The genius of Shakespear converting singularly happy in its display of the whatever it handled into gold, has been fairy mythology. I know not whether anything can be imagined to go beyond the flights of his imagination on the subject; and it seems to realize all that has creative fancy in giving to been fabled of magic, when he exerts his

"These airy nothings,

A local habitation and a name." That accomplished antiquary, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, long since drew attention to the work of Leo Allatius on certain Greek superstitions of modern times,

printed in 1645, as illustrating the fairy mythology of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and he remarks that at that date at all events the Greeks were as familiar as ourselves with all these legends and fancies, and that Robin Goodfellow or Puck was invested with the same attributes as he is held to possess here. New Illustrations of Shakespear, 1845, i., 286. An amusing scene is introduced into the "Merry Wives of Windsor," 1602, where Falstaff is pinched black and blue by the pretended fairies, Mistress Quickly and her confed

erates.

Selden observes that there was never a merry world since the fairies left dancing and the parson left conjuring. The opinion of the latter kept thieves in awe, and did as much good in a country as a Justice of Peace. In the superstitions and customs concerning children, I have before noticed their practice of stealing unbaptized infants and leaving their own progeny in their stead. Puttenham mentions this as an opinion of the nurses. Arte of English Poesie, 1589, p. 144. It is also noticed in the Irish Hudibras,"

1689:

"Drink dairies dry, and stroke the Cattle;

Steal sucklings, and through key-holes fling,

:

Topeing and dancing in a ring." -P. 122. It was an article in the popular creed concerning fairies, that they were a kind of intermediate beings, partaking of the nature both of men and spirits that they had material bodies and yet the power of making themselves invisible and of passing them through any sort of enclosures. They were thought to be remarkably small in stature, with fair complexions, from which last circumstance they have derived their English name. The habits of both sexes of fairies are represented to have been generally green. With all the passions and wants of human beings, they are represented as great lovers and patrons of cleanliness and propriety, for the observance of which they were said frequently to reward good servants by dropping money into their shoes in the night; and on the other hand they were reported to punish most severely the sluts and slovens by pinching them black and blue. This tradition is illustrated by "Robin Good-Fellow, his Mad Prankes and Merry Jests," 1628, where the tricks of the fairies are related. But Jonson, in his song, "The Pranks of Puck," has deviated from the old prose narrative, which, though not now known in any impression earlier than in 1628, was clearly in existence before Jonson began to write, and also from the metrical tale founded on it, entitled "The Merry

Puck." Jonson attributes to Robin, on what appears to be insufficient authority what the "Mad Prankes" and the poem give to the fairies Pinch and Pach. Hazlitt's Fairy Tales, &c., 1875. Thus Lluellin :

"We nere pity girles, that doe Find no treasure in their shoe, But are nip't by the tyrannous fairy. List the noice of the chaires, Wakes the wench to her pray'rs Queen Mab comes worse than a witch in,. Back and sides she entailes

To the print of her nailes, She'l teach her to snort in the kitchin." And in Browne's "Pastorals," 1614:

"Where oft the Fairy Queen

At twy-light sate and did command her
Elues
To pinch those maids that had not swept
their shelues:

And further, if by maidens ouer-sight Within doores water were not brought at night:

Or if they spread no table, set no bread, They shall haue nips from toe vnto the

head:

And for the maid that had perform'd each thing

She in the water-paile bade leaue a ring."

Roxb. Lib., ed. i., 66. Lilly, in his "Life and Times," tells us that fairies love neatness and cleanness of apparel, a strict diet, and upright life: fervent prayers unto God," he adds, "conduce much to the assistance of those who are curious these ways." He means, it should seem, those who wish to cultivate an acquaintance with them. Concerning fairies, King James has the following passages: "That there was a king and queene of Phairie, that they had a jolly court and traine-they had a teynd and dutie, as it were of all goods--they naturally rode and went, eate and dranke, and did all other actions like natural men and women. Witches have been transported with thephairie to a hill, which opening, they went in and there saw a faire Queen, who being now lighter, gave them a stone that had sundrie vertues." Demonology, p. 132. In Poole's "Parnassus," 1657, are given the names of the fairy court: "Oberon the Emperor, Mab the Empress. Perriwiggin, Perriwinckle, Puck, Hob-goblin, Tomalin, Tom Thumb, Courtiers. Hop, Mop, Drop, Pip, Trip, Skip, Tub, Tib, Tick, Pink, Pin, Quick, Gill, Im, Tit, Wap, Win, Nit, the maids of honour. Nymphidia, the mother of the Maids." An old writer undertakes to explain why Englishmen creep to the chimney in winter and summer also: "Doth not the

warm zeal of an Englishman's devotion (who was ever observed to contend most stifly pro aris et focis) make them maintain and defend the sacred hearth, as the sanctuary and chief place of residence of the tutelary lares and household gods, and the only court where the lady fairies convene to dance and revel?" Paradoxical Assertions by R. H., 1664, part 2, p. 14. Randolph, in his "Amyntas," 1638, describes the Queen's palace: A curious

park paled round about with pick-teetha house made all with mother of pearle an ivory tennis court-a nutmeg parlour -a saphyre dairy room-a ginger hallchambers of agate--kitchens all of crystal

the jacks are gold-the spits are all of Spanish needles. "Grant that the sweet fairies may nightly put money in shoes, and sweepe your house cleane," occurs as one of the good wishes introduced by Holiday in his Marriage of the Arts," 1618, signat. E verso.

OC

Gertrude. Good lord, that there are no fairies nowadays, Syn.

Syndefy. Why, Madam?

Gertrude. To do miracles, and bring ladies money."-Eastward Hoe, 1605, v. i. "My grandmother," says the author of "Round about our Coal Fire," (circa 1730), "has often told me of fairies dancing upon our greene, and that they were little little creatures clothed in green." The author has these farther particulars of the popular notions concerning them. The moment anyone saw them and took notice of them, they were struck blind of an eye. They lived under ground, and generally came out of a molehill." The same writer has the subsequent passage: "When the master and mistress were laid on their pillows, the men and maids, if they had a game at romps and blundered up stairs, or jumbled a chair, the next morning every one would swear 'twas the fairies, and that they heard them stamping up and down stairs all night, crying Water's lock'd, Water's lock'd, when there was not water in every pail in the kitchen." P. 42. I know not why, but they are reported to have been particularly fond of making cakes, and to have been very noisy during the operation. It was a common superstition that, if the gifts or favours of a fairy were revealed by the recipient, they vanished or were discontinued. Of this we have an example in the injunction given by the fairy to Sir Launfal, and elsewhere. Field, in "A Woman's a Weathercock," 1612, makes Nevill say to Scudamore:

"I see you labour with some serious
thing,

And think (like fairy's treasure) to re-
veal it
Will cause it vanish."

we meete

A very man, who had not cloven feete, Tho' William, still of little faith, doth doubt,

'Tis Robin or some spirit walkes about. Strike him, quoth he, and it will turne to aire,

Crosse yourselves thrice, and strike him -strike him that dare

Thought I, for sure this massie Forester In blows will prove the better conjurer." The Bishop was right, for it proved to be the keeper of the forest, who showed them their way which they had lost. The following on the same subject is from the ode by Collins on The Superstitions of the Highlands, 1788:

-'Still 'tis said, the Fairy people meet Beneath each birken shade on mead or hill.

There each trim lass, that skims the milky store,

To the swart tribes their creamy bowls allots;

By night they sip it round the cottage door,

While airy minstrels warble jocund

notes."

I have printed in my Fairy Mythology of Shakespear, 1875, some 'Conjurations for Fairies," from two MSS. In the three old madrigals from Ravenscroft and Weelkes, inserted in the same volume, there seems to be no sufficient distinction made between two things very broadly distinct, I apprehend the fairies or nymphs of Grecian mythology and the fairies or elves or modern European folklore.

Compare Knockers. The historian Wace informs us, in "Le Roman de Rou," that he went expressly to the forest of Brecheliant, in Bretagne, on a report which had reached him that there fairies were to be veritably seen; but he hunted