pPanf^i) o^ tKe Salrle^. 69 



Or like the circle where the signes we tracke, 



And learned shcpheards call't the zodiacke ; 



Within one of these rounds was to be scene 



A hillock rise, where oft the Fairie queene 



At twilight sat, and did command her Elves 



To ]>inch those maids that had not swept their shelves ; 



And further, if by maiden's oversight, 



Within doors water were not brought at night, 



Or if they spread no table, set no breafl, 



They should have nips from toe unto the head, 



And for the maid that had jierformed each thing, 



She in the water-pail bade leave a ring." 



St. John's Eve was undoubtedly chosen for important com- 

 munication between the distant Elfin groves and the settlements of 

 men, on account of its mildness, brightness, and unequalled beauty. 

 Has not Shakspeare told us, in his ' Midsummer's Night's Dream,' of 

 the domgs, on this night, of Oberon, Ariel, Puck, Titania, and her 

 Fairy followers? — 



" The darling puppets of romance's view ; 



Fairies, and Sprites, and Goblin Elves we call them, 



Famous for patronage of lovers true ; 



No harm they act, neither shall harm befall them, 



So do not thou with crabbed frowns appal them." 



Yet timorous and ill-informed folk, mistrusting the kindly disposi- 

 tion of Elves and Fairies, took precautions for excluding Elfin 

 visitors from their dwellings by hanging over their doors boughs 

 of St. John's Wort, gathered at midnight on St. John's Eve. A 

 more kmdly feeling, however, seems to have prevailed at Christmas 

 time, when boughs of evergreen were everywhere hung in houses in 

 order that the poor frost-bitten Elves of the trees might hide them- 

 selves therein, and thus pass the bleak winter in hospitable shelter. 



iJaii*^ pFantJi). 



In Devonshire the flowers of Stitchwort are known as Pixies. 



Of plants which are specially affected by the Fairies, first 

 mention should be made of the Elf Grass [Vesleria ccerulea), known 

 in Germany as Elfcnkraut or Elfgvas. This is the Grass forming 

 the Fairy Rings, round which, with aerial footsteps, have danced 



" Ye demi-puppets, that 

 By moonlight do the green sour ringlets make, 

 Whereof the ewe not bites." — Shakspeare' s Tempest. 



The Cowslip, or Fairy Cup, Shakspeare tells us forms the 

 couch of Ariel — the " dainty Ariel " who has so sweetly sung of 



his Fairy life- 



Where the bee sucks, there lurk I ; 



In a Cowslip's bell I lie ; 



There I couch when owls do cry ; 



On a bat's back I do fly 



After summer merrily. 



Merrily, merrily, shall I live now 



Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.' 



