CHAPTER VII. 



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LOSELY allied to the Fairy family, the Well 

 Fays, and the Naiades, are the Sylvans of the 

 Grseco- Roman mythology, which everywhere 

 depicts groves and forests as the dwelling-places 

 and resorts of merry bands of Dryads, Nymphs, 

 Fauns, Satyrs, and other light-hearted frequenters 

 of the woods. Mindful of this, Horace, when 

 extolling the joys and peacefulness of sylvan 

 retirement, sings : — 



" Me the cool woods above the rest advance, 



Where the rough Satyrs with the light Nymphs dance." 



The Dryads were young and beautiful nymphs who were 

 regarded as semi-goddesses. Deriving their name from the Greek 

 word drus, a tree, they were conceived to dwell in trees, groves, 

 and forests, and, according to tradition, were wont to inflict 

 injuries upon people who dared to injure the trees they inhabited 

 and specially protected. Notwithstanding this, however, they 

 frequently quitted their leafy habitations, to wander at will and 

 mingle with the wood nymphs in their rural sports and dances. 

 They are represented veiled and crowned with flowers. Such a 

 sylvan deity Rinaldo saw in the Enchanted Forest, when 



" An aged Oak beside him cleft and rent. 

 And from his fertile hollow womb forth went 

 (Clad in rare weeds and strange habiliment) 

 A full-grown Nymph." 



The Hamadryads were only females to the waist, their lower 

 parts merging into the trunks and roots of trees. Their life and 

 power terminated with the existence of the tree over which they 

 presided. These sylvan deities had long flowing hair, and bore in 

 their hands axes wherewith to protect the tree with which they 

 were associated and on the existence of which their own life 



