All religions, above the meanest paganism, have possessed a body of priests or functionaries, to whom the knowledge of the faith was confided, and by whom its precepts were enforced. Considering that Mohammed must have been conversant with the constitution and import of the Jewish priesthood, as laid down in the Levitical law, and also acquainted with the arrangements of the Christian church, it is remarkable that he instituted no order of clergy, but, on the contrary, left his religion to be professed by the people at large, without any distinction as to rank or qualification. On this account Mohammedanism has no priesthood, and cannot be said to constitute in any country what we understand by the term church. Wherever it is established as the religion of the community, mosques or chapels have been erected, generally by endowments from wealthy individuals; and these are individually under the charge of a warden, who is custodier of the revenues, and appoints the ministers of religion and inferior servants. Two imâms,' says Mr Lane, are employed to officiate in each of the larger mosques: one of them, called the khateeb, preaches and prays before the congregation on the Friday; the other is an imâm rutib, or ordinary imâm, who recites the five prayers of every day in the mosque, at the head of those persons who may be there at the exact times of those prayers: but in most of the smaller mosques both these offices are performed by one imâm. There are also to each mosque one or more muezzins (to chant the call to prayer), and bowwabs (or doorkeepers); and several other servants are employed to sweep the mosque, spread the mats, light the lamps, and attend the water-wheel by which the tank or fountain, and other receptacles for water, necessary to the performance of ablutions, are supplied. The imâms, and those persons who perform the lower offices, are all paid from the funds of the mosque, and not by any contributions exacted from the people. The condition of the imâms is very different, in most respects, from that of Christian priests. They have no authority above other persons, and do not enjoy any respect but what their reputed piety and learning may obtain them: nor are they a distinct order of men set apart for religious offices, like our clergy, and composing an indissoluble fraternity; for a man who has acted as imâm to a mosque, may be displaced by the warden of that mosque, and, with his employment and salary, loses the title of imam, and has no better chance of being again chosen for a religious minister than any other person competent to perform the office. The imams obtain their livelihood chiefly by other means than the service of the mosque, as their salaries are very small, that of a khateeb being generally about a piastre (nearly 24d. of our money) per month.'

'The Mohammedans,' continues the same authority, 'observe the utmost decorum in their public worship. Their looks and behaviour in the mosque are not those of enthusiastic devotion, but of calm and modest piety. Never are they guilty of a designedly irregular word or action during their prayers. The pride and fanaticism which they exhibit in common life, in intercourse with persons of their own or of a different faith, seem to be dropped on their entering the mosque, and they appear for the time wholly absorbed in the adoration of their Creator.'

Mohammedans have an extreme reverence for a green colour, which is used exclusively as the hue of turbans or other garments by those who claim hereditary de

rally imagine the crescent to be a common symbol of Mohammedanism, as the cross is of Christianity; but we believe this is founded on mistake. The crescent, from a very early period, was a heraldic ensign of Byzantium or Constantinople, and has been appropriated by the Turks since their capture of that city. The Mohammedans are generally affected with the most superstitious reverence for imaginary saints and favourites of God.' They imagine that idiots and lunatics are under the immediate inspiration of Heaven; and, unless these be dangerously mischievous, they are permitted all sorts of license. 'Most of the reputed saints of Egypt,' says Mr Lane, are either lunatics, idiots, or impostors.' Any one who is deranged by religious excitement becomes a welee, or an especial favourite of the Almighty, and is supposed to be gifted with supernatural powers. Almost every celebrated saint, deceased, is honoured by an anniversary birthday festival; and on occasion of these festivals, many persons visit the tomb of the saint, both as a duty and as a supposed means of obtaining a special blessing. Besides the various classes of saints, there are different orders of durweeshes, or dervises, some of whom subsist by begging, and others by performing at religious festivals; a few devote themselves to religious seclusion, and gain a character for exalted piety.

Mohammedanism, from shortly after the death of its founder, has been divided into two great parties or sects, who split upon the disputes concerning the Caliphate, or spiritual and civil supremacy, and received the name of Sunnites and Shiites. The Sunnites take their appellation from the Sunna, or collections of traditions relating to Islamism, which they believe to be of equal importance with the Koran. The term Shiites signifies heretics, which they are called by the opposite party, from their misbelief. The adherents of the doctrine that Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed, was properly his successor, reject the Sunna. The Turks are Sunnites, and the Persians are Shiites, and each hates the other with implacable animosity. The Sunnites, we believe, are reckoned the orthodox sect, and acknowledge the reigning sultan as the true successor of Mohammed.

Besides differing as to the credibility of the Sunna, and the successorship of the prophet, the Mohammedan world is divided into four minor sects-the Hhanafees, Shafees, Malikees, and Hhambelees, being so called from the respective doctors whose tenets they have adopted. The Turks,' says Mr Lane, are of the first sect, which is the most reasonable.' About the middle of last century, a great schism, or attempt at reformation, broke out in Arabia, headed by Mohammed, son of Abdel Wahab, a pious and learned sheikh. Young Mohammed claimed divine inspiration, and taught, like the Koran (the doctrines of which he but partially received), the existence of an only God, the Creator of the world, the rewarder of the good, and the punisher of the bad; but he rejected all the stories contained in the Koran, especially those concerning Mohammed, whom he considered merely a man beloved of God, but branded the worship of him as a crime directly opposed to the true adoration of the Deity. He also condemned the ornaments and splendour which are found in the mosques and the sepulchres of pretended saints. In short, he stripped Mohammedanism of all its trappings, and reduced it to little else than a pure Theism. All who should oppose this new doctrine were to be destroyed by fire and sword. His doctrines being adopted by some influential chiefs, spread with wonderful celerity, and the Wahabees, as his followers were called, shook the stability of the empire of the Turks in Asia. After a hot war of many years, the Wahabees were suppressed by Mehemet Ali, the late pasha of Egypt; but their doctrines are still far from being exterminated.

Of many of the extravagant superstitions connected or disconnected with religious belief, and which have prevailed both in ancient and modern times, a notice will be found in the following number.

MANKIND have in all ages been prone to the most lamentable superstitions. The enlightened nations of antiquity were no more exempted from them than the most ignorant. The Jews, as we are repeatedly informed in Scripture, could with difficulty be restrained from idolatrous and superstitious practices, and confined to the worship and service of the only true God. This remarkable tendency of the Hebrew nation was in all likelihood caused by their sojourn for the space of four hundred years among the Egyptians, whose whole system of religion was a mass of idolatrous observances. They had a number of ideal gods, to whom they erected temples of prodigious size and architectural splendour; the principal of these deities were Osiris and Isis, which are thought to have been typical of the sun and moon. But they also offered worship to various animals, as the ox or bull (hence the golden calf of the Hebrews), to which they gave the name of Apis; the dog, the wolf, the hawk, the ibis or stork, the cat, and other creatures; they likewise paid adoration to the Nile, personifying it in the crocodile, to which temples were erected, and priests set apart for its service. The Egyptians, notwithstanding their learning (See HISTORY OF ANCIENT NATIONS), also believed in dreams, lucky and unlucky days, omens, charms, and magic. In a word, they were grossly superstitious, and seem to have had but a feeble conception, if any, of the laws which regulate the ordinary phenomena of nature.

The Greeks and Romans possessed an equally insufficient idea of an omnipresent and omnipotent God, the creator and ruler of the universe. Their notions of divinity, like those of other Pagans, were grovelling and contemptible. The gods whom they adored were imagined to have been at one period rulers or heroes on earth, and still had their habitation somewhere within the Grecian territory, or at no great distance from it. Besides their belief in this vain mythology, both Greeks and Romans put faith in divination, oracles, the magical power of amulets, and dreams. Bees, ants, and various reptiles and beasts, were imagined to have the power of giving omens of good or bad fortune. The phenomena of the atmosphere and planetary bodies were likewise a fertile source of superstitious delusions; and so also were certain signs or marks on the intestines of victims slain as sacrifices at the altars. The mode of sacrificing in Greece is worthy of observation. Bulls, goats, sheep, pigeons, cocks, and other creatures, were immolated to the gods of the country. Sometimes there was a hecatomb, or sacrifice of a hundred animals at a time, to appease the manes or restless spirits of the deceased. A notion prevailed that the animals to be sacrificed would show signs of satisfaction on being brought to the altars, if the gods to whom they were offered felt pleased with the oblation. On bringing forward a bull or goat, the officiating priest drew a knife from the forehead to the tail, at which, if the victim struggled, it was rejected, as not acceptable to the gods; but if it stood quietly at the altar, then they thought the gods were pleased with it: yet a bare non-resistance was not thought sufficient, unless it gave its assent by a gracious nod. To try if it would nod, they poured water or barley into its ear. Being satisfied with the sign, the priest proceeded to pour wine, and sometimes fruits and frankincense, between the horns of the victim, and afterwards struck it down, and bled it to death. Great dexterity was requisite in striking down and bleeding a victim; for if it did not fall at once upon the ground, or stamped, or kicked, or struggled to be loose, or did not bleed freely, or seemed to die with pain, it was thought unacceptable to the gods; all these being unlucky omens. To the celestial gods, sacrifices were made in the morning about sunrise; but to the deities No. 77.

of the lower regions, who were supposed to hate the light of day, they were made at midnight. It was customary on some occasions to dance round the altars whilst they sang the sacred hymns, which consisted of three stanzas or parts. The pouring out of libations of wine to the gods, and a thousand other follies, were perpetrated and believed. The appearance of comets and eclipses were ominous of great public disasters, it being the general belief that they were special signs made to warn mankind of approaching troubles; in all which we see a lamentable proof of the follies and weakness to which even a refined people may be exposed if ignorant of the laws of nature.

The superstitious delusions of the Greeks and Romans may be said to have died out at the final dismemberment of the Roman empire, and the overrunning of western Europe by the Gothic nations. The introduction of Christianity also tended powerfully to root out the old superstitious usages, though a few survived to a later date. For these reasons, the superstitions and matters of credulous belief which afterwards affected the people of northern and western Europe, including the British islands, were in a great measure of Scandinavian and Gothic origin.

SCANDINAVIAN SUPERSTITIONS.

The superstitions of the European Northmen, or Scandinavians-under which term are included the early inhabitants of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland -were of a kind remarkably accordant with the cold and stern character of the regions which they occupied. Like the ancient Greeks, the Scandinavians had seats of the gods and of the blest, which they called Asgard and Walhalla (or Valhalla), and these bore the same relation in their character to the Olympus and Elysium of the Greeks, that the countries of the north, with their stormy climes, their icy mountains, and perilous waters, bore to the perfumed and verdant plains of Hellas, and the fair blue skies overhanging the smooth Ionian Sea. Nothing could afford better proof of the utterly fanciful nature of all these mythologies, than the fact, that they were thus modelled and modified in every case by the earthly habits, the wants and likings, the territorial position, and ignorance of geography and astronomy, of the individual tribes among whom they respectively originated.

The deification of one or more great princes or rulers seems to have constituted the basis of the Scandinavian, as well as of every other Pagan mythology. Odin, the supreme deity of the Scandinavians, and the ruler of heaven and earth, appears, like the Hellenic Jupiter, to have been a distinguished chief and warrior of early times. Although it is asserted by some that a divinity of the name of Odin was worshipped from the most remote ages, there is reason to believe that the worship of this personage, in the north at least, had its real origin a few centuries before the commencement of the Christian era, when a powerful chieftain of the name was driven by the Romans from his dominions between the Euxine and Caspian, and took refuge in Scandinavia, the whole of which he subjected to his sway. Like Mohammed, this chief appears to have established a new religion, of which he himself assumed to be the earthly head, as the servant or minister of a divine being of the same name. In the course of time, however, this distinction was entirely lost, and the persons and acts of the divine and earthly Odin became inextricably blended in the mythology and traditions of the north. The great records of the religious and legendary knowledge of the Scandinavians are the Eddas and Sagas of Iceland, partly written in poetry and partly in prose. The oldest of the Eddas, a series of poetical fragments, was col

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lected from oral tradition in the eleventh century, and the others are of later date. The acts of the deities and heroes of the north, their loves and wars, the crea tion of the world, and prophetic revelations, form the general subject of these pieces.

The Scandinavians, like the Greeks, believed that the universe was originally a chaos, or mass of confused vapours, peopled by a race of Rimthursar, or evil spirits of gigantic bulk. A being of nobler nature sprang up among these, named Bure, from whom were descended Odin and his two brothers Vile and Ve. These younger divinities followed exactly the same course with the northern giants that was pursued by Jupiter and his brothers with regard to the Titans, or older and gigantic deities of Greece. Odin began to war with the Rimthursar, and having at last overcome their great chief Ymer, he created the world out of that giant's body. His flesh became the mould, his bones the rocks, his hair the vegetable tribes, his blood the ocean, and his skull the heavens, at the four corners of which were placed certain dwarfs, called North, South, East, and West, whose duty it was to sustain the celestial dome. After this, the luminaries of the sky were set in their places, and the order of the seasons appointed. Natt (Night) wedded one of the Aser, or celestial family of Odin, and gave birth to Dag (Day). These deities travel alternately round the world in cars, drawn by single horses. Every great body, as in the Grecian mythology, was represented by a divinity. Frigga, or the Earth, was the daughter of Odin, and also became his wife. The inhabitants of the earth, or mankind, were created by Odin and his brothers. Two pieces of wood, the one of ash and the other of elm, formed the materials of the first pair of mortals, who were distinguished for personal beauty and intellectual ability.

Balder, the second son of Odin, was the most beautiful and amiable of the Aser, or gods. Unlike the rest of his brethren, he was fond of peace, and had the power of allaying tempests, and acting as a mediator, to avert divine wrath. His decrees were irrevocable. In some points he resembled the Apollo of the Greeks, but the general qualities of that personage found a closer representative in Braga or Bragi, the god of eloquence and poetry. Niord, the god of the sea, and his son Freys, the god of rain, were also important deities of the north. Every element, or important natural phenomenon, was under the guidance, in like manner, of some celestial personage. Frigga, the Scandinavian Juno, was the bestower of fertility and plenty. Freia, or Freya, the daughter of Niord, was the Venus of Asgard and the patroness of matrimony. Freia was assisted in her duties by Siona and Sofna, the first of whom made lovers faithful, while the other reconciled them when they quarrelled. Eyra was the physician of the gods. There were various other minor divinities in the Scandinavian mythology, though not nearly so many as in the Grecian roll. The deficiency was made up among the northerns by the assignment of more multitudinous duties to the greater deities. Thus Odin, from the extent of his government, received as many as one hundred and twenty distinct names, each indicating some individual quality ascribed to him.

The great hall appointed for the reception of the spirits of the brave, when they left earth for the seat of the gods, was called Valhalla. Twelve beautiful, yet terrible nymphs, named Valkyries (choosers of the slain), were the guides of the good spirits to the hall of Valhalla, and supplied them with mead. The occupation of drinking this northern nectar, and of eating the fat of the wild boar Serimner-which, after serving as the daily food of thousands, became whole again every night-filled up all those intervals of time in Valhalla that were not passed in fighting. None but those who had shown surpassing bravery on earth were admitted into this Scandinavian paradise; and when there, their daily amusement was to fight with one another till all, or nearly all, were cut in pieces. But little harm was done in this way, for the spiritual bodies soon reunited, and enabled the warriors to appear, entire in lithe and limb, at the feasts that followed these extraordinary engagements. The skulls of enemies were the drinkingcups used at the entertainments of Valhalla, and the guests are described as being almost perpetually in a

Thor is described as the god of thunder, and the strongest of beings, earthly or heavenly. He is the son of Odin and Frigga, or, in other words, of the Sun and the Earth. When he moves, the earth trembles. He holds in his hand a powerful hammer called the Crusher (miölner), with which he annihilates all who oppose him, and who offend the gods. In battle, Thor is always girt with a magic girdle, which has the power of inspiring him with a divine fury, and redoubling his strength. On his right hand he wears an iron gauntlet, with which he grasps and wields the formidable crusher. This latter instrument was forged by a dwarf named Sindri, the prototype of the deformed blacksmith-deities of the Greeks, Vulcan and his Cyclops. The hammer possesses the wonderful power of never missing its aim, and when launched at any object, returns to the hand of Thor, after having destroyed his foe. Thor is sometimes called Aukistor, or Thor of the Car, from his riding on a chariot, drawn by two powerful he-goats, named Sangniostr and Tangrisner. This deity has a spouse named Sipia, famous for her beautiful hair.

After Odin, Thor was the most cherished deity of Scandinavia, and had statues and temples erected to him everywhere. The statues of him were usually formed of clay, and represented a tall figure, with a red-painted beard, indicative of the lightning which he was supposed to wield. Bread and meat were supplied daily to the god by his worshippers, and at stated times libations were poured out in his honour.

nounced the arrival of morning that these terrible heroes arose from table, to issue to the field of battle through the five hundred and forty gates of Valhalla, and hack each other to pieces anew. Such was the never-ending round of employment destined for the departed heroes of Scandinavia.

The mythology of the Scandinavians survived till a much later date than any other system of heathen worship in Europe. It was not abolished till the eleventh century. St Olaf, king of Norway, and a zealous supporter of Christianity, usually receives the credit of having overturned this most barbarous form of religion. In the course of his efforts to Christianise his subjects, he ordered a statue of Thor, and the pedestal on which it stood, to be broken in pieces, and showed the people that the meat which had been laid down for the use of the god was not eaten by him, but by a host of rats and other vermin that had formed a lodgment about the foundation of the colossal image. Whatever might have been the influence of the mythology of the Scandinavians in Britain, it disappeared shortly after its overthrow on the continent of Europe, or only lingered in a kind of traditional existence amidst the remote islands of Orkney and Shetland, till finally banished by the progress of a more general intelligence. The dread names of Odin, Thor, and other deities of the north, who for centuries weighed down the human faculties, and kept up the reign of superstition, are now only perpetuated in the appellations affixed to some of the days of the week. Thus

our term Wednesday is derived from Odin's or Wodin's day, that being the day of the week in which the northern Jupiter, or supreme ruler of the gods, was most honoured and worshipped. Thursday is from Thor, the second in dignity among these fabulous deities as this day was called Dies Jovis by the Romans, we have here a confirmation that Thor the thunderer was equivalent either to Mars, or the thundering Jove of the Grecian mythology. Friday takes its appellation from Freya, the daughter of Niord, and corresponds with the Dies Veneris, or Venus day of the Greeks and Romans. Saturday is derived in the same manner from the god Saeter of the Scandinavians, and Saturn of the Greeks. Tuesday, or anciently Tiesday (a pronunciation still preserved in Scotland), is supposed to be from Tisa, the wife of Thor, and the reputed goddess of justice. Sunday and Monday were respectively named from the Sun and Moon, both by the northern and southern nations of Europe, from a remote period of time. The circumstance of there being such a marked resemblance between the characters of the deities whose names were employed to distinguish the same days of the week both by Greeks and Scandinavians, is not a little remarkable, and has never, as far as we know, been the subject of explanation by philologists or antiquaries. The fact is only certain, that the names of the days of the week now used by every civilised people, are founded upon the mythological observances of either the Grecian or the Scandinavian races.

ANGLO-SAXON SUPERSTITIONS.

At a comparatively early era, the mythology and minor superstitions of the Scandinavians, as well as the follies of Druidism, disappeared in Britain as the familiar superstitions of the Anglo-Saxon race became predominant. Like the Scandinavians of the north, the Anglo-Saxons deduced their descent from Odin, whom they worshipped along with Thor, Freya, and other imaginary deities of the Gothic people. They also worshipped idols emblematic of the sun, moon, earth, and various seasons and circumstances. In particular, they sacrificed to one goddess called Eostre, in the month of April, and her name still expresses the festival of Easter in the Christian church. In token of devotional feelings towards the sun, they solemnised a festival to that luminary on the day of December in which the days began to lengthen, a log of wood being burnt on the occasion, as an emblem of returning light and heat. From this ancient practice, therefore, may be traced the custom of burning the Yule log at Christmas, which is still continued in many parts of England. Among the Anglo-Saxon superstitions was included a belief in giants, dwarfs, and elves, all of a spiritual order, but partaking in some degree of human attributes and feelings. In the term elfi or elves, we have one of the earliest traces on record of those ideal fairy tribes who afterwards figured in the familiar superstitions of the British islands. The Gothic nations, of whom the Anglo-Saxons were a branch, had various orders of elves, who were understood to haunt the fields, the woods, mountains, and waters, and received denominations accordingly, as field-elfin, dun-elfin, &c. Whether this varied race of spirits originated in the East, whence so many superstitions spread into ancient Europe, is not satisfactorily known, although it is probable that they did, and were of the same genus as the peri of the Persians, a being not dissimilar in character to our fay or fairy. Both in the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon superstitions, elves formed an important order of beings, not unlike in character to the demigods, naïads, dryads, and other imaginary spirits of the Greek and Roman mythologies, and, like them, exerted a certain influence over human affairs.

Besides a belief in these mysterious elfin tribes, the Anglo-Saxons brought with them to England the still darker and more dangerous doctrines of witchcraft and divination, before which the reasoning powers of the people quailed, and all intellectual advancement was

impeded. The general introduction of Christianity about the year 600, abolished, as a matter of course, the grosser Pagan observances, but failed to extirpate the more familiar and less obvious superstitions of the people. Witchcraft, wizardry, magic, divination, preparations of charms, and other mystic follies having no foundation in truth, continued to flourish, although opposed both by the more intelligent clergy and the kings. It is from the statutes, indeed, which Alfred, Canute, and other monarchs passed for the prevention of magical practices, that we chiefly know their nature and extent. Wiglaer, a wizard, and wicca, a witch, are persons severely denounced. Penalties are enjoined if any one should destroy another by wiccecraeft. They appear to have used philters; for it is declared a crime in any one to use witchcraft, or potions to produce another's love. Canute enjoins his people not to worship fire or floods, wells or stones, or any sort of tree; not to frame death-spells, either by lot or otherwise; and not to effect anything by phantoms. Wizards, we also learn, pretended to the power of letting loose tempests, and controlling the visible operations of nature.

The introduction of Christianity, as has been mentioned, failed to dissipate the familiar superstitions of the English; a circumstance which can excite no surprise, as no pains were taken to enlighten the understandings of the people, or make them acquainted with the true causes of natural phenomena. We accordingly find that from the seventh to the sixteenth century the belief in demons, spirits, lubber-fiends, and elves, of every shade and character, prevailed without intermission, and with no further challenge from the clergy than as being individually manifestations of the devil, on whom now the whole load of superstition was based. One goblin in particular formed the theme of innumerable legends. What was his name originally in continental Europe, whence he emigrated with the Anglo-Saxons, is of little consequence; in England he became known by the title of Father Rush, from a belief that he had on one occasion personated a monk or friar, and, to serve his own malignant purposes, had in that capacity long imposed on a religious brotherhood; afterwards, this appellation went out of repute, and he was popularly known and feared by the familiar name of Robin Goodfellow, and performed many useful services in the rural districts. It is not a little strange that both monks and clergy sanctioned these fancies, and increased their number by the propagation of legends, which we venture to say could not now receive the approbation of a single individual, lay or clerical, in England. Of these it is only necessary to mention the absurd stories which were fabricated and circulated respecting Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who died in the year 988. When a boy, he is stated to have studied theology so sedulously as to reduce him to the point of death, when he was suddenly restored by some divine medicine sent to him by an angel in a storm. So extraordinary a circumstance could not but demand grateful thanksgivings, and Dunstan started from his bed, and ran with full speed towards the church. Satan met him in the way, surrounded with numerous black dogs, and endeavoured to defeat his pious intention. But Dunstan was not to be overcome; he instantly prayed for ability, and was enabled to cudgel the devil and his black dogs so effectually, that they left him and the angel together; the latter of whom, finding the church door fastened, took up the pious youth in his arms, and conveyed him to his devotions through the roof. Another time the devil attempted to intrude himself upon St Dunstan's studies in his laboratory; but the saint speedily punished his impertinence, by taking from the fire his tongs, which were red hot, and with them seized the nose of the fiend, who was thereupon glad to make his escape. It is lamentable to think how such vain imaginations should have so long weighed upon the understandings of the people, and engrafted a habitual dread of the supernatural, which till this day exerts an influence over the untutored mind.

Fairies.

Among the various supernatural beings to whom the ignorance and credulity of mankind have given an imaginary existence, the fairies occupy a prominent place, and are especially worthy of notice. The characters of different classes of spirits have become so mingled and confounded together in the lapse of time, that it is difficult to define individual species with correctness and precision; but there is one characteristic which appears to distinguish the fairy from every other being of a similar order. Most spirits could contract and diminish their bulk at will; but the fairy alone seems to have been regarded as essentially small in size. The majority of other spirits, also, such as dwarfs, brownies, and the like, are represented as deformed creatures, whereas the fairy has almost uniformly been described as a beautiful miniature of the human being, perfect in face and form. These points of distinction, with a dress of pure green, are the principal features which serve to mark the personal individuality of the fairies as a supernatural race.

The origin of the fairy superstition is ascribed by most writers to the Celtic people; but the blending of the Gothic tribes with the Celts led to the admixture of many attributes of the northern spirits with those proper to the fairies. Thus the latter race, which appears to have been intrinsically good and benevolent, has been gifted with attributes of the very opposite kind, borrowed from the trolls and elves of the north. In Scotland, and other countries where the Celtic traditions predominated, the fairies retained in part the original and better features of their character, and were usually called the Good Neighbours, or the Men of Peace; but even there their character was deteriorated by a considerable leaven of elfin or dwarfish malignancy. This evil part of their nature caused much annoyance to mankind, and more especially their propensity to the kidnapping of human beings. Unchristened infants were chiefly liable to this calamity, but sometimes adult men and women were also carried off. The reason for these abductions is to be found, according to the authorities on this subject, in the necessity which the fairies lay under of paying 'kane,' as it was called, to the master-fiend; or, in other words, of yielding up one of their number septennially into his hands by way of tribute. They greatly preferred on such occasions to make a scape-goat of some member of the human family. They also carried off young married women to be nurses to their infants; and in Ireland, at this day, when a young woman falls a victim to puerperal disease, the more ignorant of the country people assert that she has been removed for this purpose.

The necessity for the latter kind of kidnapping shows the fairies to have been family people. They are always represented as living, like mankind, in large societies, and under a monarchical form of government. The Salique law seems to have had no countenance among them; for we more often hear of fairy queens than of fairy kings, though both are frequently spoken of. The Land of Faerie was situated somewhere under ground, and there the royal fairies held their court. In their palaces all was beauty and splendour. Their pageants and processions were far more magnificent than any that Eastern sovereigns could get up, or poets devise. They rode upon milk-white steeds. Their dresses, of brilliant green, were rich beyond conception; and when they mingled in the dance, or moved in procession among the shady groves, or over the verdant lawns of earth, they were entertained with delicious music, such as mortal lips or hands never could emit or produce. At the same time most of the legendary tales on the subject represent these splendours as shadowy and unsubstantial. When the eye of a seer, or any one gifted with supernatural powers, was turned upon the fairy pageantries or banquets, the illusion vanished. Their seeming treasures of gold and silver became slatestones, their stately halls became damp caverns, and they themselves, from being miniature models of human

beauty, became personifications of fantastic ugliness. In short, the Fairy Eden was a day-dream—a thing of show without substance.

This is the general account given of the fairy state, but few of the legends on the subject agree on all points. From a very early period, however, every fairy annalist concurred in giving to the king and queen of the fairies the names of Oberon and Titania. Oberon is the Elb-rich, or Rich Elf, of the Germans, and was endowed with his modern name, as well as with new attributes, by the old French romancers, who represented him as a tiny creature of surpassing loveliness, with a crown of jewels on his head, and a horn in his hand that set all who heard it to the dancing. It was the belief that unchristened children were peculiarly liable to be carried off by the fairies, who sometimes left little changelings of their own blood in place of the infants of mortal kind. Ben Jonson, in his Sad Shepherd,' makes the tending and nurture of human changelings to be one of the favourite elfin employments:

'There, in the stocks of trees, white fays do dwell, And span-long elves, that dance about a pool, With each a little changeling in their arms.' Various charms were used in Scotland for the restoration of stolen children. The most efficacious was believed to be the roasting of the supposititious child upon live embers, when it was understood that the false infant would disappear, and the true one be left in its place. It is to be hoped that this cruel and monstrous practice was seldom followed. The possession of what are called toadstones was also held to be an efficient preservative against the abduction of children by the fairies. In Waldron's Account of the Isle of Man' we find various stories of children kidnapped by the fairies. In one case, where a woman had given birth to a child, her attendants were enticed from the house by a cry of Fire !' and while they were out, the child was taken from the helpless mother by an invisible hand; but the sudden re-entry of some of the gossips compelled the fairies to drop the child, and it was found sprawling on the threshold. The fairies, who seemed to have taken a particular liking to this woman's offspring, tried to carry off her second child in the same way; but failed again. On a third trial they succeeded, and left behind them a changeling, a withered and deformed creature, which neither spoke nor walked during an existence of nine years, and ate nothing but a few herbs. It is to be feared that this changeling superstition must have been the cause of much deplorable cruelty. That very member of a family who, from natural misfortunes and defects, required the kindliest tending, would but too often be neglected and wretchedly misused, on the plea of its being an alien. We may smile at many of the credulous fancies respecting the fairies; but there are in this order of superstitions, as in almost all others, some points which strongly exhibit to us the baleful effects inevitably attendant upon ignorance of every kind.

There

Numberless stories of a ridiculous kind have been told relative to the intercourse of the fairies with mankind. Some of the poor creatures arraigned in Scotland in past times for witchcraft, admitted having had correspondence with the fairies. can be little doubt that these wretched beings, whom the torture forced into the confession of some kind or other of supernatural traffic, were induced to admit an association with fairies, in the hope that this would be looked upon as less sinful than a league with the enemy of mankind. The trials of Bessie Dunlop and Alison Pearson, in the years 1576 and 1588, illustrate this statement. Bessie Dunlop avowed that her familiar was one Thome Reid, the ghost of a soldier slain at Pinkie in 1547, and who after his death seems to have become an inmate of Elf-land. She related that this Thome Reid, who appeared frequently to her in the likeness of an elderly man, graycoated and gray-bearded, wished her to go with him to