"Neatness and Cleanness of Apparel, a strict Diet,

an upright Life, fervent Prayers unto God, "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.

Chaucer, who was born in a much darker Age, , saw clearer into this Matter: He is very facetious concerning them in his Canterbury Tales: He puts his Creed of Fairy Mythology into the Mouth of his Wife of Bath, thus:

In the old Dayes of the King Artour,
All was this Lond fulfilled of Fayry,

The

Elf-Quene with her jolie Company,t

Daunsed

*The Stone Arrow Heads of the old Inhabitants of this Island (that are sometimes found) are vulgarly supposed to be Weapons shot by Fairies at Cattle, They are called Elf-shots. To these are attributed any of the Disorders the Cattle have.-In order to effect a Cure, the Cow is to be touched by an Elf shot, or made to drink the Water, in which one has been dipped.

Şee Pennant's Tour.

+ Some ascribe that Phænomenon of the Circle or Ring, supposed by the Vulgar to be traced by the Fairies in their Dances, to the Effects of Lightning, as being frequently produced after Storms of that Kind, and by the Colour and Brittleness of the Grass Roots when first observed.-Others maintain that these Circles are made by Ants, which are frequently found in great Numbers in them. A pleasant Mead,

Where Fairies often did their Measures tread,
Which in the Meadow made such Circles green,
As if with Garlands it had crowned been.

Within one of these Rounds was to be seen

A Hillock rise, where oft the Fairy-Queen

At Twilight sat, and did command her Elves

To pinch those Maids that had not swept their Shelves:
And further, if by Maiden's Oversight,

Within Doors Water were not brought at Night;

Or

Daunsed full oft in many a grene Mede*,

This was the old Opinion, as I rede.

I speke of many hundred Yere agoe,
But now can no Man se no Elfes mo.
For now the grete Charite and Prayers
Of Limitours and other holy Frères,

That serchen every Lond and

every Streme,
As thik as Motes in the Sunne Beme,

This maketh, that there ben now no Faires,
For there as wont to walken was an Elfe,
There walketh now the Limitour himself,
And as he goeth in his Limitacioune,
Wymen may now go safely up and downe,
There nis none other Incubus but het: &c.

Or if they spread no Table, set no Bread,
They should have Nips trom Toe unto the Head:
And for the Maid that had perform'd each Thing,
She in the Water Pail bade leave a Ring.

From

Browne's Britan. Pastorals, p. 41. See also Dr. Percy's Songs on the Subject, Vol. III. Collect. Ballads. * Sive illic Lemurum populus sub nocte choreas Plauserit exiguas, viridesque attriverit herbas. Mons Catherinæ. p. 9.

It were invidious not to favour my Reader here with Dr. Percy's Account of Fairies, in his Observations on the old Ballads on that Subject. The Reader will observe (says he) that our simple Ancestors had reduced all these Whimsies to a Kind of System, as regular and perhaps more consistent than many Parts of classic Mythology: A Proof of the extensive Influence and vast Antiquity of these Superstitions. Mankind, and especially the common People, could not every where have been so unanimously agreed concerning these arbitrary Notions, if they had not prevailed among them for many Ages. Indeed (he farther observes) a learned Friend in Wales assures the Editor, that the Existence of Fairies and Goblins is alluded to by the most antient British Bards, who mention them under various Names, one of the most common of which signifies "the Spirits of the Mountains."

The common People of Northumberland call a certain fungous Excrescence, that is sometimes found about the Roots of old Trees, Fairy Butter. I conjecture that when a Quantity of Rain falls, it

K 2

reduces

From the subsequent Passage in Shakespear, the walking of Spirits seems to have been enjoined by Way of Penance.

Hamlet:

The Ghost speaks thus in

"I am thy Father's Spirit,

"Doom'd for a certain Time to walk the Night,

"And for the Day confin'd to fast in Fires,

"Till the foul Crimes done in my Days of Nature
"Are burnt and purg'd away."

Mr. Gay, in Imitation of the Stile of our old Ennius, gives us a fine Description of one of these haunted Houses.

"Now there spreaden a Rumour that everich Night
"The Rooms ihaunted been by many a Sprite,
"The Miller avoucheth, and all thereabout,
"That they full oft hearen the hellish Rout;
"Some saine they hear the gingling of Chains,
"And some hath hearde the Psautrie's Straines,
"At Midnight some the heedless Horse imeet,
"And some espien a Corse in a white Sheet*,
"And oother Things, Faye, Elfin and Elfe,
"And Shapes that Fear createn to itself.”.

I subjoin here some Parts of a finely-written Conversation between the Servants in Mr. Addison's Comedy of the Drummer, or the Haunted House. It will be thought much to our Purpose.

"Gardiner.

reduces it to a Consistency, which together with its Colour, makes it not unlike Butter: Hence the Name.

I have met with a Man who said 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!

*The learned Moresin traces thus to its Origin the Popish Superstition, relative to the coming again, as it is commonly called,

or

"Gardiner. I marvel, John, how he (the Spirit) gets into the House when all the Gates are shut.

Butler. Why look ye, Peter, your Spirit will creep you into an Augre-hole;-he'll whisk ye through a Key-hole, without so much as justling against one of the Wards.

Coachman. I believe I saw him last Night in the Town Close.

Gard. Ay! how did he appear?

Couch. Like a white Horse.

But. Pho, Robin, I tell ye he has never appeared yet but in the Shape of the Sound of a Drum.

Coach. This makes one almost afraid of one's own Shadow. As I was walking from the Stable t'other Night, without my Lanthorn, I fell across a Beam, -and thought I had stumbled over a Spirit.

But. Thou might'st as well have stumbled over

or walking of Spirits: Animarum ad nos regressus ita est ex Manilio, lib. 1. astron. cap. 7. de lacteo circulo.

An major densa stellarum turba corona,
Contexit flammas & crasso lumine candet,
Et fulgore nitet collato clarior orbis.
An fortes animæ, dignataque nomina cœlo
Corporibus resoluta suis, terræque remissa.

Huc migrant ex orbe, suumque habitantia cœlum;
Ethereos vivunt annos, mundoque fruuntur.

Lege Palingenesiam Pythagoricam apud Ovid. in Metam. et est observatum Fabii Pont. max. disciplina, ut atro die manibus parentare non liceret, ne infesti manes fierent, Alex. ab, Alex. lib. 5. cap. 26.

Hæc cum legerent Papani & his alia apud alios similia, voluerunt et suorum defunctorum animas ad eos reverti & nunc certiores facere rerum earum, quæ tum in Cœlis, tum apud Inferos geruntur, nunc autem terrere domesticos insanis artibus: &c.

a Straw. Why a Spirit is such a little, little Thing, that I have heard a Man, who was a great Scholar, say, that he'll dance ye a Lancashire Hornpipe upon the Point of a Needle. As I sat in the Pantry last Night, the Candle methought burnt blue, and the spay'd Bitch look'd as if she saw something.

Gard. Ay, I warrant ye, she hears him many a Time, and often when we don't."

Thus also in another Scene:

"Gard. Pr'ythee, John, what Sort of a Creature is a Conjurer?

But. Why he's made much as other Men are, if it was not for his long grey Beard.-His Beard is at least Half a Yard long, he's dressed in a strange dark Cloke, as black as a Coal:-He has a long white Wand in his Hand.

Coach. I fancy 'tis made out of Witch Elm. Gard. I warrant you if the Ghost appears, he'll whisk ye that Wand before his Eyes, and strike you the Drumstick out of his Hand.

But. No; the Wand, look ye, is to make a Circle, and if he once gets the Ghost in a Circle, then he has him.-A Circle, you must know, is a Conjurer's Trap.

Coach. But what will he do with him, when he has him there?

But. Why then he'll overpower him with his Learning.

Gard.