Fairy Tales, Now First Collected

Front matter

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED

TWO DISSERTATIONS:

ON PYGMIES.

Dissertation 1

The existence of a little nation of diminutive people engaged in, almost, continual wars with the cranes, is an opinion of such high antiquity as to be coeval with the rudiments of the heathen mythology. , who flourished 907 years before the vulgar æra, is, universally, admitted to be the earliest poet whose works remain, and, though totally blind and unable either to read or write (no written characters being known to the Greeks till many centuries after his time), he had recourse to his invention and, with a harp in his hand, went about various countries, singing and playing, as a bard or rhapsodist, and was well rewarded for his poetical effusions, which being fabulous stories, of his own composition, of gods, heroes, wars, battles, sieges, voyages, adventures and miracles, altogether incredible and impossible, and of persons, things, cities and countries, which never existed, but in his fertile invention and ingenious fabrication, [and with] which every one who heard him was delighted; and, in process of time, four or five centuries after his death, when his countrymen, the learned Greeks, possessing admirable memories and 'having,' some how or other, got an alphabet and being made capable to read and write, these delightful and ingenious compositions of our blind bard have, fortunately, come down to the present times, in the course of 2000 years or upward. When, therefore, translations have become common in, almost, every learned language, particularly, in our own, of which we are possessed of one so excellent that it has been, happily, said:

So much, dear Pope, thy English Iliad charms, When pity melts us or when passion warms, That after-ages shall, with wonder, seek Who 'twas translated Homer into Greek:

we are at liberty to conceive that the account of the Pygmies, as found in the , is there given and preserved, from ancient and established tradition and, possibly, recorded in history or celebrated in epic poetry, long before the time of Homer:

So, when inclement winters vex the plain With piercing frosts or thick-descending rain,

To warmer seas the cranes embody'd fly, With noise and order, through the mid-way sky, To Pygmy nations wounds and death they bring And all the war descends upon the wing.

, likewise, had mentioned the Pygmies, in some work now lost, as we learn from .

[Birds] in the spring-time, says , betake themselves from a warm country to a cold one, out of fear of heat to come, as the cranes do, which come from the Scythian fields to the higher marshes, whence the Nile flows, in which place they are said to fight with the Pygmies. For that is not a fable, but, certainly, the genus as well of the men, as, also, of the horses is little (as it is said) and dwell in caves, whence they have received the name Troglodytes, from those coming near them.

, indeed, speaks "of a little people, under the middle stature of men 'coming' up to certain Nasamonians who were wandering in Africa and knew not the language of each other: but does not call them Pygmies or give them any other name. Cambyses, however, as he, elsewhere, says, went into the temple of Vulcan [in Egypt] and, with much derision, ridiculed his image, forasmuch as the statue of Vulcan was very like to the Phœnician Pataicks, which they carried about in the prows of their gallies: which those who saw not, it was indicated to him to be those in the image of a Pygmean-man.

"Middle India has black men, who are called Pygmies, using the same language as the other Indians they are, however, very little that the greatest do not exceed the height of two cubits and, the most part, only, of one cubit and a half. But they nourish the longest hair, hanging down unto the knees and even below: moreover, they carry a beard more at length than any other men: but, what is more, … after this promised beard is risen to them, they never after use any clothing, but send down, truly, the hairs from the back much below the knees, but draw the beard before down to the feet: afterward, when they have covered the whole body with hairs, they bind themselves, using those in the place of a vestment. … They are, moreover, apes and deformed. Their sheep, however, are equal to our lambs: their oxen and asses approach to the magnitude of our rams; their horses, likewise, mules and other beasts do not outreach. Of these Pygmies, the king of the Indians, has three thousand in his train: for they are very skilful archers. They are, however, most just and use the same laws as the other Indians. They hunt hares and foxes, not with dogs, but crows, kites, rooks and eagles. There is a lake among them, having the compass of eight hundred measures, containing 625 feet each, to which, as no wind blows, oil swims above: which, truly, they draw out of the middle of it with vessels, sailing through it in little ships and use it."

, in his , alludes to some old story, not now to be found:

Another show'd, where the Pygmæan dame, Profaning Junos venerable name, Turn.'d to an airy crane, descends from far And, with her Pygmy subjects, wages war."

says that "More within the Arabian bay than the Panchæans were, the Pygmies, a minute race, and which ended in fighting against the cranes for planted fruits."

According to Sir the "gret ryvere that men clepen Dalay … gothe thorghe the lond of Pygmans: where that the folk ben of litylle stature, that ben but 3 span long: and thei ben right faire and gentylle, aftre here quantytees, bothe the men and the wommen. And thei maryen hem, whan thei ben half yere of age, and geten children. And thei lyven not but. 6 yeer or 7 at the moste. And he that lyvethe 8 yeer, men holden him there righte passynge old. These men ben the beste worcheres of gold, sylver, cotoun, sylk, and of alle suche thinges, of ony other that be in the world. And thei han oftentymes werre with the briddes of the contree, that thei taken and eten. This litylle folk nouther labouren in londes ne in vynes. But thei han grete men amonges hem, of oure stature, that tylen the lond, and labouren amonges the vynes for hem. And of the men of oure stature, han thei als grete skorne and wondre, as we wolde have among us of geauntes, yif thei weren amonges us. There is a gode cytee, amonges othere, where there is duellinge gret plentee of the lytylle folk: and it is a gret cytee; and a fair; and the men ben grete, that duellen amonges hem: but whan thei geten ony children, thei ben als litylle as the Pygmeyes: and therfore thei ben alle, for the moste part, alle Pygmeyes; for the nature of the lond is suche. The grete cane let kepe this cytee fulle wel: for it is his. And alle be it, that the Pygmeyes ben lytylle, yit thei ben fulle resonable, aftre here age, and connen bothen wytt, and gode and malice, ynow."

"At the north poynt of Lewis [one of the Hebrides, or Western isles] there is a little ile callit The Pygmies ile, with ane little kirk in it of ther own handey-wark, within this kirk the ancients of that countrey of the Lewis says, that the said Pigmies has been cirdit thair. Maney men of divers countreys has delvit upe dieplie the flure of the litle kirke and i myselve, amanges the leave and hes found in it, deepe under the erthe, certain banes and round heads of wonderfull little quantity, allegit to be the banes of the said Pigmies, quhilk may be lykely, according to sundry historys that we reid of the Pigmies. but i leave this far of it to the ancients of Lewis."

The inland parts, in some places of the coast of Coromandel, toward the hills, are covered with immense and impenetrable forests, which afford a shelter for all sort of wild beasts: but, in that which forms the inland-boundary of the Carnatic rajahs dominions, there is one singular species of creatures, of which Mr. , the author of performed, by himself, in the year 1750, (the second edition whereof was published, by the writer, at London, in 1772, in two volumes, octavo,) had heard much in India, and of the truth of which, he says, the following fact that happened sometime before his arrival there, may serve for an attestation:

Vencajee, a merchant of that country, and an inhabitant on the sea-coast, sent up to Bombay, to the then governor of it, mr. Horne, a couple of these creatures, as a present, by a coasting vessel,

of which one captain Boag was the master, and the make of which, according to his description, and that of others, was as follows:

They were scarcely two feet high, walked erect, and had perfectly a human form. They were of a sallow white, without any hair, except in those parts in which it is customary for mankind to have it. By their melancholy, they seemed to have a rational sense of their captivity, and had many of the human actions. They made their bed very orderly, in the cage in which they were sent up, and, on being viewed, would endeavour to conceal, with their hands, those parts which modesty forbids manifesting. The joints of their knees were not reëntering like those of monkeys, but saliant like those of men; a circumstance they have in common with the ouran-outangs in the eastern parts of India, in Sumatra, Java, and the Spice-islands, of which these seem to be the diminutives, though with nearer approaches of resemblance to the human species. But, though the navigation from the Carnatic coast to Bombay is of a very short run, whether the sea-air did not agree with them, or they could not brook their confinement, or captain Boag had not properly consulted their provision, the female, sickening, first died, and the male, giving all the demonstrations of grief, seemed to take it so to heart, that he refused to eat, and, in two days after, followed her. The captain, on his return to Bombay, reporting this to the governor, was by him asked, what he had done with the bodies; he said, he had flung them over-board. Being further asked, why he did not keep them in spirits, he replied bluntly, he did not think of it. Upon this the governor wrote afresh to Vencajee, and desired him to procure another couple, at any rate, as he should grudge no expense to be master of such a curiosity. Vencajees answer was, He would very willingly oblige him, but that he was afraid it would not be in his power: that these creatures came from a forest, about seventy leagues up the country, where the inhabitants catch them on the skirts of it; but they were so exquisitely cunning and shy, that this scarcely happened once. in a century.

If the above relation, concludes our author, should be true, as there is no reason to doubt it, we have here a proof, that the existence of pygmies is not entirely fabulous, as nothing can nearer approach the description of them.

Dissertation 2

The earliest mention of Fairies is made by , if, that is, his English translator have, in this instance, done him justice:

Where round the bed, whence Achelöus springs, The wat'ry Fairies dance in mazy rings."

These nymphs he supposes to frequent or reside in woods, hills, the sea, fountains, grottos, &c.; whence they are peculiarly called Naiads, Dryads, and Nereids:

What sounds are these that gather from the shores, The voice of nymphs that haunt the sylvan bow'rs, The fair-hair'd dryads of the shady wood, Or azure daughters of the silver flood!" >> Odys. B. 6, V. 122.

The original word, indeed, is nymphs, which, it must be confessed, furnishes an accurate idea of the fays (fees or fates) of the ancient French and Italian romances; wherein they are represented as females of inexpressible beauty, elegance, and every kind of personal accomplishment, united with magic, or supernatural power. Such, for instance, as the Calypso of Homer, or the Alcina of Ariosto. 'Agreeably' to this idea it is that Shakspeare makes Antony say, in allusion to Cleopatra,

"To this Great Fairy I'll commend thy acts,"

meaning this grand assemblage of power and beauty. Such, also, is the character of the ancient nymphs, spoken of by the Roman poets: as , for instance:

Fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestes, Panaque, Sylvanumque senem, Nymphasque sorores."

They, likewise, occur in other passages, as well as in Horace:

<>"3 gelidum nemus Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori—:"

and, still more frequently, in .

Not far from Rome, as we are told by , was a place formerly called Ad Nymphas, and, at this day, Santa Ninfa; which, without doubt, he adds, in the language of our ancestors, would have been called The place of Fays.

The word faée, or fée, among the French, is derived, according to , from the barbarous Latin fadus, or fada. In Italian fata. , in his (D. 3, c. 88) speaks of "some of this kind of larvæ, which they named fadæ, we have heard to be lovers:" and, in his relation of a nocturnal contest between two knights (c. 94), he exclaims "What shall I say? I know not if it were a true horse, or if it were a fairy, (fadus), as men assert." From the Roman de Partenay, or de Lezignan, MS. Du Cange cites

Le chastean fut fait d'une fée Si comme il est partout retrait."

Hence, he says, faërie for spectres:

Plusieurs parlant de Guenart, Du Lou, de l'Asne, et de Renart, De faëries, et de songes, De fantosmes, et de mensonges."

The same Gervase explains the Latin Fata (fée, French) a divining woman, an inchantress, or a witch, (D. 3, c. 88).

Master , in his Histoire des ducs de Normendie (confounded by many with the ), describing the fountain of Berenton, in Bretagne, says:

fine block|ppoem| {italic} En la forest et environ, Mais jo ne sais par quel raison La scut l'en les fées veeir, Se li Breton nos dient veir, &c."

(In the forest and around, I wot not by what reason found There may a man the fairies spy, If Britons do not tell a lie.)

but it may be difficult to conceive an accurate idea from the mere name, of the popular French Fays or fairys of the twelfth century.

In Vienne, in Dauphiny, is Le puit des fées, or Fairy-well. These fays, it must be confessed, have a strong resemblance to the nymphs of the ancients, who inhabited in caves, and fountains. Upon a little rock, which overlooks the Rhone, are three round holes, which Nature alone has formed, although it seem, at first sight, that Art has laboured after her. They say that they were formerly frequented by Fays; that they were full of water, when it rained; and that they there, frequently, took the pleasure of the bath; than which they had not one more charming.

, an eminent geographer, and, in point of time, far anterior to Pliny, relates, that beyond a mountain in Æthiopia, called by the Greeks the high mountain, burning, he says, with perpetual fire, is a hill spread over a long tract by extended shores, whence they rather go to see wide plains, than to behold [the habitations] of Pans and Satyrs. Hence, he adds, this opinion received faith, that, whereas, in these parts is nothing of culture, no seats of inhabitants, no footsteps; a waste solitude in the day, and a more waste silence; frequent fires shine, by night; and camps, as it were, are seen widely spread; cymbals and tympans sound, and sounding pipes are heard, more than human. These invisible essences, however, are both anonymous, and nondescript.

The penates of the Romans, according to honest , were "the domesticall gods, or rather divels, that were said to make men live quietlie within doores. But some think that Lares are such as trouble private houses. Larvæ are said to be spirits that walke onélie by night. Vinculi terrei are such as was Robin Good-fellowe, that would supplie the office of servants, speciallie of maides; as to make a fier in the morning, sweepe the house, grind mustard and malt, drawe water, &c., these also rumble in houses, drawe latches, go up and downe staiers, &c." A more modern writer says "The Latins have called" the fairies "lares and larvæ, frequenting, as they say, houses, delighting in neatness, pinching the slut, and rewarding the good housewife with money in her shoe." This, however, is nothing but the character of an English fairy applied to the name of a Roman lar or larva. It might have been wished, too, that Scot, a man, unquestionably, of great learning had referred, by name, and work, and book and chapter, to those ancient authors from whom he derived his information upon the Roman penates, &c.

What idea our Saxon ancestors had of the Fairy, which they called ælp, a word explained by Lye as equivalent to "lamia, larva, incubus, ephialtes;" we are utterly at a loss to conceive.

The nymphs, the satyrs, and the fawns, are frequently noticed by the old traditional historians of the north: particularly Saxo-grammaticus, who has a curious story of three nymphs of the forest and Hother king of Sweden and Denmark, being apparently the originals of the weird, or wizard, sisters of Macbeth. Others are preserved by , who says they had so deeply impressed into the earth, that the place they have been used to, having been (apparently) eaten up, in a circular form, with flagrant heat, never brings forth fresh grass from the dry turf. This nocturnal sport of monsters, he adds, the natives call The dance of the elves.

In John Milesius any man may reade Of divels in Sarmatia honored,

Call'd Kottri, or Kibaldi; such as wee Pugs and Hob-goblins call. Their dwellings bee In corners of old houses least frequented, Or beneath stacks of wood: and these convented, Make fearefull noise in buttries and in dairies; Robin Good-fellowes some, some call them fairies. In solitarie roomes these uprores keepe, And beat at dores to wake men from their sleepe; Seeming to force locks, be they ne're so strong, And keeping Christmasse gambols all night long. Pots, glasses, trenchers, dishes, pannés, and kettles, They will make dance about the shelves and settles, As if about the kitchen tost and cast, Yet in the morning nothing found misplac't."

, a prodigious reader of romance, has, likewise, given an apt idea of the ancient fays:

Fairer than famed of old, or fabled since Of Fairy damsels met in forest wide By knights of Logres, and of Liones, Lancelot, or Pelleas, or Pellenore."

These ladies, in fact, are by no means unfrequent in those fabulous, it must be confessed, but, at the same time, ingenious and entertaining histories; as, for instance, Melusine, or Merlusine, the heroine of a very ancient romance in French verse; and who was, occasionally, turned into a serpent; Morgan la-faée, the reputed half-sister of king Arthur, and the lady of the lake, so frequently noticed in sir s old history of that monarch.

Le Grand is of opinion that what is called Fairy comes to us from the orientals, and that it is their génies which have produced our fairies; a species of nymphs, of an order superior to these women magicians, to whom they nevertheless 'gave' the same name. In Asia, he says, where the women imprisoned in the harams, prove still, beyond the general servitude, a particular slavery, the romancers have imagined the Peris, who flying in the air, come to soften their captivity, and render them happy. Whether this be so, or not, it is certain that we call the aurora boreales, or active clouds, in the night, perry-dancers.

After all, sir finds it impossible

to give an accurate idea of what the Persian poets designed by a perie; this aërial being not resembling our fairies. The strongest resemblance he can find is in the description of Milton in . The sublime idea which Milton entertained of a fairy vision corresponds rather with that which the Persian poets have conceived of the peries:

Their port was more 'than' human as they stood; I took it for a faëry vision Of some gay creatures of the element That in the colours of the rainbow live, And play i'th' plighted clouds."

It is, by no means, credible, however that Milton had any knowledge of the oriental peries; though his enthusiastic or poetical imagination might have easily peopled the air with spirits.

There are two sorts of fays, according to 'M. le Grand.' The one a species of nymphs or divinities; the others, more properly called sorceresses, or women instructed in magic. From time immemorial, in the abbey of Poissy, founded by St. Lewis, they said every year a mass to preserve the nuns from the power of the fays. When the process of the damsel of Orleans was made, the doctors demanded, for the first question, "If she had knowledge of those who went to the sab- bath with the fays? or if she had not assisted at the assemblies held at the fountain of the fays, near Domprein, around which 'dance' malignant spirits?" The journal of Paris, under Charles VI. and Charles VII. pretends that she confessed that, at the age of twenty-seven years, she frequently went, in spite of her father and mother, to a fair fountain in the country of Lorraine, which 'she' named the good fountain to the fays our lord.

, in his chapter "Of Fauns and Satyrs," says "there are, likewise, others, whom the vulgar name Follets, who inhabit the houses of the simple rustics, and can be driven away neither by holy-water, nor exorcisms; and because they are not seen, they afflict those who are entering with stones, billets, and domestic furniture; whose words, for certain, are heard in the human manner, and their forms do not appear." He is speaking of England.

This Follet seems to resemble our Puck, or Robin Good-fellow, whose pranks are recorded in an old song, and who was sometimes useful, and sometimes mischievous. Whether or not he were the fairy-spirit of whom Milton

Tells how the drudging goblin swet, To ern his cream-bowle duly set, When, in one night, ere glimps of morn, His shadowy flail hath thresh'd the corn, That ten day-labourers could not end, Then lies him down, the lubbar fend; And stretch'd out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength; And crop-full out of dores he flings, Ere the first cock his matin rings,"

is a matter of some difficulty. Perhaps the giant-son of the witch, that had the devils mark about her, (of whom "there is a pretty tale"), that was called Lob-lye-by-the-fire, was a very different personage from Robin Good-fellow, whom, however, he in some respects appears to resemble. A near female relation of the compiler, who was born and brought up in a small village in the bishopric of Durham, related to him many years ago several circumstances which confirmed the exactitude of Miltons description; she, particularly, told of his thrashing the corn, churning the butter, drinking the milk, &c. and, when all was done, "lying before the fire like a great rough hurgin bear."

In another chapter Gervase says, "As, among men, Nature produces certain wonderful things, so spirits, in airy bodies, who assume, by divine permission the mocks they make. For, behold, England has certain dæmons (dæmons, I call them, though I know not but I should say secret forms of unknown generation), whom the French call Neptunes, the English Portunes. With these it is natural that they take advantage of the simplicity of fortunate peasants; and when, by reason of their domestic labours, they perform their nocturnal vigils, of a sudden, the doors being shut, they warm themselves at the fire, and eat little frogs, cast out of their bosoms, and put upon the burning coals; with an antiquated countenance; a wrinkled face; diminutive in stature, not having [in length] half a thumb. They are clothed with rags patched together; and, if any thing should be to be carried on in the house, or any kind of laborious work to be done, they join themselves to the work, and expedite it with more than human facility. It is natural to these, that they may be obsequious, and may not be hurtful. But one little mode, as it were, they have of hurting. For when, among the ambiguous shades of night, the English, occasionally ride alone, the Portune, sometimes, unseen, couples himself to the rider; and, when he has accompanied him, going on, a very long time, at length, the bridle being seized, he leads him up to the hand in the mud, in which while, infixed, he wallows, the Portune, departing, sets up a laugh; and so, in this kind of way, derides human simplicity."

This spirit seems to have some resemblance to the Picktree brag, a mischievous barguest that used to haunt that part of the country, in the shape of different animals, particularly of a little galloway; in which shape a farmer, still or lately living thereabout, reported that it had come to him one night as he was going home; that he got upon it, and rode very quietly till it came to a great pond, to which it ran and threw him in, and went laughing away.

He further says, there is, in England, a certain species of demons, which in their language they call Grant, like a one-year-old foal, with straight legs, and sparkling eyes. This kind of demons very often appears in the streets, in the very heat of the day, or about sun-set; and as often as it makes its appearance, portends that there is about to be a fire in that city or town. When, therefore, in the following day or night, the danger is urgent, in the streets, running to and fro, it provokes the dogs to bark, and, while it pretends flight, invites them, following, to pursue, in the vain hope of overtaking it. This kind of illusion creates caution to the watchmen who have the custody of fire, and so the officious race of demons, while they terrify the beholders, are wont to secure the ignorant by their arrival.

Gower, in his tale of Narcissus, professedly from Ovid, says

2 As he cast his loke Into the well,2 He sawe the like of his visage, And wende there were an ymage Of suche a nymphe, as tho was faye."

In his legend of Constance is this passage:

Thy wife which is of fairie Of suche a childe delivered is, Fro kinde, whiche stante all amis."

In another part of his book, is a story "Howe the kynge of Armenis daughter mette on a tyme a companie of the fairy." These "ladies," ride aside "on fayre [white] ambulende horses," clad, very magnificently, but all alike, in white and blue, and wore "corownes on their heades:" but they are not called fays in the poem, nor does the word fay or fairie once occur therein.

The fairies or elves of the British isles are peculiar to this part of the world, and are not, so far as literary information or oral tradition enables us to judge, to be found in any other country. For this fact the authority of father will be decisive, till we acquire evidence of equal antiquity in favour of other nations:

In olde dayes of the king Artour, Of which the Bretons speken gret honour, All was this lond fulfilled of faerie; The elf-quene, with hire joly compagnie,

Danced ful oft in many a grene mede. This was the old opinion as I rede; I speke of many hundred yeres ago; But now can no man see non elves mo, For now the grete charitee and prayeres Of limitoures and other holy freres, That serchen every land, and every streme, As thikke as motes in the sunnebeme, Blissing halles, chambres, kichenes, and boures, Citees and burghes, castles highe and toures, Thropes and bernes, shepenes and dairies, This maketh that ther ben no faeries."

The fairy may be defined as a species of being partly material, partly spiritual; with a power to change its appearance, and be, to mankind, visible or invisible, according to its pleasure. In the old song printed by Peck, Robin Good-fellow, a well-known fairy, professes that he had played his pranks from the time of Merlin, who was the contemporary of Arthur.

Chaucer uses the word faërie as well for the individual, as for the country or system, or what we should now call fairy-land, or fairyism. He knew nothing, it would seem of Oberon, Titania, or Mab, but speaks of

Pluto, that is the king of Faerie, And many a ladie in his compagnie, Folwing his wif, the quene Proserpina, &c."

(, 1. 10101.) From this passage of Chaucer, Mr. Tyrwhitt "cannot help thinking that his Pluto and Proserpina were the true progenitors of Oberon and Titania."

In the progress of , it happed the knight

2in his way.... to ride In all his care, under a forest side, Whereas he saw upon a dance go Of ladies foure-and-twenty, and yet mo. Toward this ilke dance he drow ful yerne, In hope that he som wisdom shulde lerne, But, certainly, er he came fully there, Yvanished was this dance, he wiste not wher."

These ladies appear to have been fairies, though nothing is insinuated of their size. seems to have been upon the prowl here for his "forestside."