CHAPTER VI. 



SParit/ of tfie iJairie/ al^t) riaiac|e/, 



r'j^^^^TJENTURIES before Milton wrote that "Millions of 

 ilf^^^^^^lli spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both 

 when we wake, and when we sleep," our Saxon 

 ancestors, whilst yet they inhabited the forests 

 of Germany, believed in the existence of a 

 diminutive race of beings — the " missing link " 

 II i r^y^tWiTrflf 1^ between men and spirits — to whom they attri- 

 J^ ** ^*^ ^**'^ l buted extraordinary actions, far exceeding the 

 capabilities of human art. Moreover, we have it on the authority 

 of the father of English poetry that long, long ago, in those 

 wondrous times when giants and dwarfs still deigned to live in the 

 same countries as ordinary human beings, 



" In the olde dayes of King Artour, 

 Of which the Bretons speken gret honour, 

 All was this land fulfilled of faerie; 

 The Elf-quene and hire joly compaynie 

 Danced full oft in many a grene mede. 

 This was the old opinion as I rede." 



The old Welsh bards were accustomed to sing their belief that 

 King Arthur was not dead, but conveyed away by the fairies into 

 some charmed spot where he should remain awhile, and then 

 return again to reign with undiminished power. These wondrous 

 inhabitants of Elf-land — these Fays, Fairies, Elves, Little Folk, 

 Pixies, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Dwarfs, Pigmies, Gnomes, and Trolls 

 are all more or less associated with the plant kingdom. They 

 make their habitations in the leafy branches of trees, or dwell in 

 the greater seclusion of their hollow trunks ; they dally and gambol 

 among opening buds and nodding blossoms; they hide among 

 blushing Roses and fragrant shrubs ; they dance amid the Butter- 

 cups, Daisies, and Meadow-Sweet of the grassy meads; and, as 

 Shakspeare says, they " use flowers for their charactery." 



Grimm tells us that in Germany the Elves are fond of 

 inhabiting Oak trees, the holes in the trunks of which are deemed 

 by the people to be utilised by the Fairies as means of entry and 



