FAIRIES FAKIIl. 



137 



preparations for the approaching contest. In the 

 earlier part of his career, he suffered various checks 

 from the royalist forces, especially one in 1643, at 

 Adderton Moor. At the battle of Marston Moor he 

 redeemed his credit, and the earl of Essex resigning 

 the command of the parliamentary army, Fairfax was 

 made general-in-chief in his room. After the victory 

 at Naseby, to the gaining of which his courage and 

 conduct mainly contributed, he marched into the 

 western counties, quelling all opposition as ' lie 

 advanced. When the king fell into the power of the 

 prevailing party, considerable jealousy appears to 

 have been entertained by Oliver Cromwell and his 

 adherents of Fairfax, who seems to have been far 

 from wishing to push matters to the extremity to 

 which they afterwards went ; and it is said that, in 

 order to prevent his interference with the execution 

 of Charles, Harrison, at Cromwell's instigation, 

 detained him, under pretext of worship, at a distance 

 from Whitehall, until the blow was struck. Never- 

 theless he still adhered to the party with which he 

 had hitherto acted, and continued in employment, 

 though more than suspected of disaffection, till, 

 being ordered to march against the revolted Scottish 

 Presbyterians, he positively declined the command, 

 and retired for a while from public life. At the 

 restoration he crossed over to Holland for the pur- 

 pose of congratulating Charles II. on his accession, 

 and was formally reconciled to that monarch. His 

 leisure he dedicated to the cultivation of letters, 

 especially of antiquities. He left behind him a few 

 miscellaneous pieces, among which is a sketch of 

 his own public lite, printed in one 12mo vol. 1699. 

 He died in 1671. 



FAIRIES, FAIRY TALES. Every child knows 

 that fairies are a kind of good and bad spirits. The 

 former are usually the most beautiful women in the 

 world, the latter the most hateful monsters. They 

 are often found present by the cradle, or the deci- 

 sive moments in life, to influence the fate of the indi- 

 vidual. They have great power, united with great 

 knowledge, and their wands work wonders. Still, 

 both their knowledge and power are limited, as is 

 also their free agency ; they can only act under 

 certain circumstances, which it is not in their power 

 to control ; for more powerful than fairy or magic 

 influence is the mysterious working of fate. Who 

 has not felt a desire to solve the riddle of the some- 

 times almost miraculous concatenation of events in 

 life, by the agency of these active sprites, and to 

 imbody the invisible agents of nature in visible 

 forms ? In an age of ignorance, the imagination 

 easily substitutes a poetical mythology in the place 

 of natural causes. The native land of this fairy 

 mythology is Arabia, from whence it was brought to 

 Europe oy the Troubadours. The European name 

 fairy comes frorafatum, fate. The Italians still call 

 a fairy fata. Fairies are often mentioned in the 

 traditions of the Italians, who, as well as the Ara- 

 bians, had stories of a country inhabited by fairies. 



The poetical belief in the existence of fairies, was 

 introduced into France in the twelfth century, by 

 Lancelot of the Lake. The wonderful power of the 

 Lady of the Lake increased a taste for fairies in 

 France and foreign countries, which Philip, count of 

 Flanders (1191), contributed not a little to extend. 

 The higher classes believed their existence as describ- 

 ed in romances ; the people saw them every where, 

 but particularly in ruined castles, or such as were 

 surrounded with forests (the fairy Melusine ruled in 

 the castle of Lusignan) ; but they also dwelt around 

 fountains and trees. They played an important part 

 in the romances of chivalry and fabliaux, and gave 

 them a peculiar charm ; they constituted their ma- 

 chinery, and the romantic epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, 



and others, are not a little indebted to them. They 

 were naturalized in England before the time of 

 Chaucer and Spenser ; and tales of their doings were 

 so widely spread, and so fixed in the popular belief, 

 that they did not appear extraordinary or ummtural 

 when brought upon the stage by Shakspeare. They 

 were easily reconciled to the Christian doctrine of 

 good and evil spirits, and Tasso, in his Jerusalem 

 Delivered, attempted to reduce to a poetical system 

 these spiritual beings, partly Christian and partly 

 heathen. 



In the last part of the seventeenth century, the 

 true fairy tales first became popular, and here also 

 the Italians appear to have taken the lead. The 

 Pentameron, by Basilio, enlarged by Alessio Abba- 

 tutis, led the way. In 1667, circumstances connected 

 with the private history of Louis XIV. brought these 

 tales into vogue in France, after the revocation of the 

 edict of Nantes, 1685, and after Perrault had pub- 

 lished the Co-ntes de ma Merel'Oye, in 1697, he was 

 immediately imitated by a multitude of authors. The 

 learned Orientalist Antoine Galland appears to have 

 been led to translate the Arabian Tales, the Thousand 

 and One Nights (see Arabian Nights), which appeared 

 in 1704, by the prevailing love for fairy tales. The 

 popularity of the fairy tales appears from the multi- 

 tude of similar stories which have since appeared. 

 The best have been collected in the Cabinet des Fees 

 (Paris and Geneva, 1786, 37 vols.), the last volume 

 of which contains an account of the authors. The 

 principal critics of Boileau's school, who ranked 

 judgment higher than imagination, set themselves 

 vehemently against them ; but they continued to be 

 fashionable till satiety produced disgust. It then 

 began to be seen that Hamilton, who wrote such ex- 

 cellent fairy tales himself, might have been in the 

 right in his ridicule of them. 



FAIRWEATHER MOUNTAIN ; on the West 

 coast of North America, 100 miles S. E. Admiralty 

 bay ; Ion. 137 W. ; lat. 59 N. It is one of the 

 principal summits of the Cordillera of New Norfolk, 

 rising, according to accurate observations, to the 

 height of 14,900 feet above the level of the sea, and 

 is covered with perpetual snow. 



FAIRY CIRCLE, or RING ; a phenomenon fre- 

 quent in the fields, &c., formerly supposed to be 

 traced by the fairies in their dances. There are two 

 kinds : one of about seven yards in diameter, con- 

 taining a round, bare path, a foot broad, with green 

 grass in the middle of it. The other is of different, 

 bigness, encompassed with a circumference of grass, 

 greener and fresher than that in the middle. Some 

 attribute them to lightning, and others to a kind of 

 fungus which breaks and pulverizes the soil. 



FAKE ; one of the circles or windings of a cable 

 or hawser, as it lies disposed in a coil. The fakes 

 are greater or smaller, in proportion to the extent or 

 space which a cable is allowed to occupy where it 

 lies. 



FAKIR, or SENASSY ; a kind of fanatics, in the 

 East Indies, who retire from the world, and give 

 themselves up to contemplation. They endeavour 

 to gain the veneration of the people by absurd and 

 cruel penances. Some roll themselves in the dirt. 

 Others hold an arm raised in one position so long 

 that it becomes withered, and remains fixed in this 

 position for life. Others keep the hands clasped 

 together so long that the nails grow into the flesh, 

 and come out on the other side. Others turn their 

 faces over the shoulder, or the eyes towards the end 

 of the nose, till they become unchangeably fixed in 

 this direction. They make a vow of poverty, and to 

 live at the expense of the faitliful. Some of them, 

 however, possess money and land. There are Mo- 

 hammedan and Hindoo fakirs : the number of the 



