wilds of Scotland should produce a necromancer, of whose life the most marvellous events are intimately connected with the beautiful mythology of Persia. About the year 1270, flourished at Ercildoune, in the county of Berwick*, Thomas Lermont, commonly called Thomas the Rymer, or Thomas of Ercildoune. This extraordinary character, the Merlin of the North, was held in the highest veneration as a poet, a prophet, and a magician. His supernatural powers were universally ascribed to an intercourse with the Queen of Fairy, a being not of a diminutive form like the fairies of more modern poetry, but endowed with the most exquisite symmetry and beauty of person, and whose attractions were such as almost irresistibly to allure and charm those who beheld her.

Exactly of this nature were the Peris of Persia; and the term Fairy, or Faërie, observes Mr. Scott, is probably of oriental origin, and derived from the Persic, through the medium of the Arabic. "In Persic, the term Peri," he continues, “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 Ro

* See Irving's Lives of the Scotch Poets, vol. i. p. 227.

mances, 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 Pnot 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. Of the Persian Peris, OUSELEY, in his Persian Miscellanies, has described some characteristic traits, with all the luxuriance of a fancy impregnated with the oriental association of ideas. However vaguely their nature and appearance is 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 dæmons; 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 bounds of human life, they are not exempted from the common fate of mortals.—Such are the brilliant and fanciful colours in 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 further, the intercourse of France and Italy with the Moors of Spain, and the prevalence of the Arabic as the language of science in the dark ages, facilitated the introduction of their mythology amongst the nations of the West. Hence, the romances of France, of Spain, and of Italy, unite in describing the fairy as an inferior spirit, in a beautiful female form, possessing many of the amiable qualities of the eastern Peri. Nay, it seems sufficiently clear, that the romancers borrowed from the Arabs, not merely the general idea concerning those spirits, but even the names of individuals amongst them.—

The description of these nymphs, by the troubadours and minstrels, is in no respect inferior to those of the Peris *."

That the fairy whose charms are supposed to have fascinated this ancient bard of Scotland is a creature of Persian imagination, and of the same species as the Morgain la Faye of King Arthur, the Urgande la Deconnue of Amadis de Gaul, and the Fata Morgana of Ariosto, is rendered probable from the nature of the traditions which have for near five hundred years prevailed in the north relative to this supernatural union. Thomas of Ercildoune, it is said, having accidentally met the Queen of Fairy on Huntly banks with hound and hawk, according to the costume of the fairies, was so enamoured with her appearance that he ventured to kiss her lips, and from that moment became subject to her will. She immediately conveyed him to Fairy-land, indued him with prophetic powers, and taught him all things, past, present, and to come. "After seven years residence," says Mr. Scott," he was permitted to return to the earth, to enlighten and astonish his countrymen; still, however, remaining bound to return to his royal mistress, when she should intimate her pleasure. Accordingly, while

* Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scotish Border, vol. ii. p. 174, 1st edition.

THOMAS was making merry with his friends in the tower of Erceldoune, a person came running in, and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading the street of the village. The prophet instantly arose, left his habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to the forest, whence he was never seen to return. According to the popular belief, he still "drees his weird" in Fairy-land, and is one day expected to revisit earth. In the mean while, his memory is held in the most profound respect. The Eildon Tree *, from beneath the shade of which he delivered his prophecies, now no longer exists; but the spot is marked by a large stone, called Eildon Tree Stone. A neighbouring rivulet takes the name of the Bogle Burn, (Goblin Brook) from the rhymer's supernatural visitants+." "Tradition further relates," adds Mr. Leyden, "that a shepherd was once conducted into the interior recesses of Eildon Hills, by a venerable personage, whom he discovered to be the famous rhymer, and who showed him an immense number of steeds in their capa

* Eildon is a high hill, terminating in three conical summits, immediately above the town of Melrose, where are the admired ruins of a magnificent monastry.-SCOTT.

+ Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scotish Border, vol. i. p. 248.