1884.] Relation of Fairies to Religion.

457
So had I looked some bud of song to find
The careless winds of autumn left behind,
With these of earlier seasons’ growth to bind.

Ah m e! my skies are dark with sudden grief,

A flower lies faded on my garnered sheaf;
Yet let the sunshine gild this virgin leaf, —

The joyous, blessed sunshine of the past,

Still with me, though the heavens are overcast, —
The light that shines while life and memory last.

Go, pictured rhymes, for loving readers m eant;

Bring back the smiles your jocund morning lent,
And warm their hearts with sunbeams yet unspent!
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
B everly F arms, July 24, 1884.

RELA TIO N OF F A IR IE S TO RELIGION.

L i t t l e , if anything, remains to be ion, — that is, if we accept Herbert

added to the genealogical records of Spencer’s definition of religion as an “ a
fairies of Indo-European descent. But 'priori theory of the universe.”
the comparative mythologist, while he The meaning given to the word fa iry
has traced their pedigree, has not told in the dictionaries is so vague, and the
us how belief in them as a class came to use made of it both by poets and prose-
be accepted, nor what was the special writers so much vaguer, that it is well
mission assigned them in the supernat­ at the outset to explain what is really
ural sphere. These questions are with­ meant by it here. The English fairy is
out his province, yet they are of vital derived immediately from the French
importance to all who would study fee or faerie, and remotely from the
aright the development of man’s con­ Latin fatum, fate, destiny. At first, it
ception of the something beyond the sometimes signified illusion, enchant­
world of the senses. Interesting as it ment ; sometimes the land of fairies, or
is to know that the story of Ogier the the earthly paradise of the days of ro­
Dane and Morgan the Fay is but a mance ; but as a rule it was applied to
late version of the Dawn Myth, and the Melusinas and Morganas, or medi­
that the legend of the Wild Huntsman eval representatives of the classic fates.
and his fairy train is but a new form Later, the name was given to the little
of tales once told of the god of the elves of Northern mythology, and finally
winds, it is still more necessary to un­ it became a class designation for the
derstand why these were received in hobgoblins, dwarfs, gnomes, kobolds,
their second signification. The object and all “ such other bugs,” as Reginald
of the present article, therefore, is not Scott, in his scornful skepticism, calls
to go over ground explored by scholars, them, who, though born of paganism,
but to define the position which fairy long remained rivals of the Christian
mythology holds in the history of relig­ saints. In its largest and most extended
458 Relation of Fairies to Religion. [Oetober,
sense, it includes the whole race — no vidual fairies cannot always be referred
matter in what part of the world its dif­ to their radical source, they can as a
ferent branches may be found — of mi­ class be traced to their beginning in the
nor supernatural beings, who have been first rude explanations man made of the
ranked as entirely different in nature, world in which he lives. Like Leib­
substance, and attributes from the su­ nitz, primitive philosophers believe that
preme spiritual hierarchy, and yet have nothing can happen without its sufficient
been placed much higher in the scale of reason, but the only cause they can im­
life than man ; being supposed to pos­ agine for all events is an immediate
sess power vastly superior to his, and personal will. Hence, in their earliest
able, in fact, to exercise a large influ­ speculations they animate all inanimate
ence in shaping his destiny. They stand things, until the unseen world seems as
midway between humanity and divinity. densely populated as the seen. They
Man must have defined his belief in discriminate but little, however, between
one supernatural world and in one spe­ important and insignificant phenomena.
cies of supernatural beings very clearly If they think there is life like their own
before he could conceive of two such in the mighty forest trees, they can see
worlds and two such species. Fairy it also in the lowest underbrush. If
mythology is really the product of a they attribute conscious energy and per­
somewhat advanced stage of religious sonality to the far-distant mountain, so
thought, when the ideal of deity is so likewise do they to the stone picked up
high and scientific knowledge so small near their dwelling. There is for them
that the lesser natural phenomena and a spirit in the gentle summer breeze as
accidents of daily life cannot be account­ in the wild winter tempest, in the tiniest
ed for without the introduction to the star as in the sun and moon. But just
unseen sphere of action of a second or­ as, during the days of Vedic henothe-
der of conscious agents. While, then, ism, whatever god to whom the Hindu
there are fairy-like creatures in all my­ chanced to be praying became for the
thologies, there are genuine fairies only time being the one god, so to men whose
in a few. It is true that it is difficult intellect is at a low degree of develop­
at first to distinguish Greek dryads from ment each animated object or force be­
mediaeval Elle maidens, or the sirens of comes the most important as its pres­
Hellenic waters from the Lorelei of ence is actively felt. There is no dis­
German streams. But the latter are as tinction between the greater and smaller
distinct from the former, from whom, creations of their animistic philosophy,
however, they are descended, as civilized but in the latter lie the germs of future
man is from his cave-dwelling progeni­ fairies. So soon as men, probably
tors ; a fact which a brief examination prompted thereto by their more firmly
of the subject will make evident. established social relations, begin to sys­
Spontaneous generation is no more tematize the ideas they have evolved
common in the creations of the human of supernatural life, they necessarily
mind than it is in those of the physical subordinate local to general phenom­
world. As the existence of the flower ena, individual to more universal con­
implies that of the root and the earth in ceptions. Among almost all existing
which it was planted, so the appearance savages a system of mythology has al­
of full-fledged fairies presupposes their ready replaced the vagueness of prim­
origin in the very groundwork of my­ itive animism. Their heroes have be­
thology. The Adams and Eves of the come cosmical, like the Maui of New
fairy race are to be found in primitive Zealand legendary lore, or the Mano-
animism. That is to say, though indi- bozho of Indian renown. Their chief
1884.] Relation of Fairies to Religion. 459
deities are those which are of equal im­ the sea, and Demeter with the earth,
portance to an entire tribe or people, as, the Greeks could hardly suppose the in­
for example, Messukkummik-Okoi, or ferior personifications of physical forces
mother earth, is to the Algonquins, or and natural phenomena to belong to an­
as Taaroa, the heaven god, is to the So­ other race. What essential difference
ciety Islanders. As the office of king could there be between Pan and his
requires the existence of subjects, so satyrs, Artemis and her nymphs, or
the recognized superiority of these he­ Aphrodite and her naiads ? The kin­
roes and deities necessitates the inferi­ ship of the gods to their attendants is
ority of the others. shown in the fact that many of the lat­
This difference of rank becomes doub­ ter were present at the councils of Zeus,
ly marked in the mythologies of more and were fed upon the divine ambrosia.
civilized nations. Thus the little elves Persian dualism, despite its later high
in the Scandinavian cosmogony are al­ moral interpretation, was not founded
lotted a separate abode from that of the on ethics, and the enmity between Or­
great gods. The fauns and satyrs, dry­ mazd and Ahriman accounted for every
ads and naiads, of Greece are infinitely minute event in the natural world. The
beneath the god of Aeschylus’ Sup­ innumerable gods, spirits, and devils
pliants, he who is the “ king of kings, were enlisted in the ranks of the two
happiest of the happy, and of the per­ chief beings, so that there was no room
fect, perfect in might, — blest Zeus.” in this religious system for belief in an­
The Farvashis and Pairikas of the Zend- other supernatural race. Hinduism and
Avesta are to Ormazd and Ahriman Buddhism, notwithstanding the agnosti­
very much what scouts and spies are to cism of the one and the pantheism of
the generals of two opposing forces. the other, have been so willing to retain
Nagas and Rakshasas are pigmies com­ old gods and demons, and so ready to
pared to the great giant gods, Brahma, admit new ones, and to allow people
Vishnu, and Siva. The Maskim and professing these creeds to add ad libitum
Utuk of the Chaldean demonology are to the population of the one spiritual
not to be named in the same breath as world, that the creation of a second
the mystic triune, Anu, Hea, and Bel. would be equally impossible and super­
However, in none of these cases is an fluous. The pantheism which was the
accurate line drawn between the chief fundamental principle of the later Baby­
deities and the lesser beings. Frey, one lonian religion recognized in all spiritual
of the principal gods in the Eddaic Pan­ beings emanations from Ilu, the great
theon, dwelt in Alfheim with the elves. source of life; so that the Maskim and
And indeed, at times, it was doubtful Utuk, the Alai and Gigim, and the host
whether the latter, together with the of spirits born of Turanian animism
black elves or dwarfs, were not greater differed from the gods of Semitic cul­
than the divinities of Asgard, who were ture in degree, but not in kind. In this
dependent upon them in many ways. gradation of being the triune occupied
W hat would Frey have done without the first rank, the protecting genii the
the ship Skidbladuir, or Odin without la s t; but there was no break in the
his good spear Gungnir, or Thor with­ chain that united them.
out Mjolner ? And these they could In like manner, the pantheism which
never have had, had it not been for underlies the doctrines of mystics, wheth­
the dwarfs who made them. While the er they be of the Orient or the Occi­
Greek gods were associated with the dent, of ancient mediaeval or modern
elements ; while Zeus was still identi­ times, prevents the spirits of these sys­
fied with the heavens, Poseidon with tems from being classified with fairies.
460 Relation of Fairies to Religion. [October,
As primitive men ascribe human life to activity is likewise manifested in the
everything, so mystics have believed all moral sphere. But if, with this advance
natural objects and forces to be animated in abstract reasoning, exact knowledge
with a reasoning faculty. But where be not increased, there will be a discrep­
the conclusions of the former result ancy between belief and experience.
from an inability to understand auy Men who know nothing of the true laws
rule but that of caprice, those of the of the physical world, nor of the inter­
latter are brought about by the recog­ dependence of cause and effect, attrib­
nition of a perfect harmony reigning ute to every natural phenomenon and
throughout the world. The order of extraordinary event a personal interfer­
the cosmos, they declare, is preserved ence. The ignorant miner ascribes to
because all things, having emanated in a basilisk or a gnome that which the
a gradual progression from one supreme scientist explains as the action of car­
inconceivable source, contain a spark of bonic acid gas. The imprudent man,
the universal spirit which enables each who understands nothing of his diges-
to perform its task in the great scheme tive organs, thinks he is visited by a
of the universe. “ It is necessary,” says vampire, when the physician knows that
Cornelius Agrippa, “ that the earth should a too hearty supper is the occasion of
have the reason of terrene things, and his distress. Now, when this ignorance
water of watery things ; and so in the is general, and not confined to individu­
rest.” According to such systems, the als, and when, at the same time, wholly
spirits of earth and water, of fire and unmoral actions can be referred to nei­
air, are no more fairies than the souls of ther god nor devil, a belief will inevi­
human beings. But the doctrine that tably arise in a lower species of super­
men could hold communication with natural beings, who, while they are pow­
them has often been corrupted by the erless to govern the universe or to di­
Wagners of mysticism, and then the un­ rect their own fate, hold no insignificant
dines and gnomes, the salamanders and sway over human beings.
sylphs, of the Kabbalists have been ma­ This is what has actually occurred in
terialized. In which case they can be the great monotheisms, Judaism, Ma­
included with the nymphs of the unini­ hometanism, and Christianity. The
tiated. Jews, while they obtained minor spirits
But when the rule of the supreme from foreign sources, remained faithful
supernatural powers is recognized to be to Jehovah, but the people who em­
not in, but over, nature, and when mo­ braced Christianity and Mahometanism
rality is made the mainspring of their were compelled to sacrifice their chief
activity, it is impossible to believe that gods. In Arabia, tribal deities, one
the elements are immediately animated after another, perished before the cres­
by deity, or that divinities act from self- cent of Islam. In Europe, when the
interest. When religious ideals have cross of Christ was raised, the bright
reached this stage, a god, to seem a god beautiful Apollos and Aphrodites of the
to men, must, in his relations to them, South faded into phantoms or degener­
be prompted by his desire for their good, ated into devils and the Odins and Bal-
and not from selfish impulses. If the ders of the North were hastened to a
chief spirits be now waited on by atten­ Ragnarok, from which the only awaken­
dants, the latter must be inspired by ing was in fairy-land. But the decree
similar motives ; and should they be op­ which banished the high gods did not
posed by a devil, it also logically follows affect the minor beings of paganism.
that he must be incited by a counter­ The people, although converted to the
determination to work evil to men. His new creeds, had always been keenly sen-
1 8 8 4 .] Relation of Fairies to Religion. 461

sitive to the influence of the genii, of during which Adam was under excom­
the naiads and dryads, of the alfs and munication he begat spirits, demons, and
the duergar, who haunted every stream spectres of the night, as it is written.”
and cavern, every mountain and forest, Eve, also, it is added, became during
every city and desert; and these spirits that time the parent of a like uncanny
survived as fairies, long after the my­ brood. One difficulty leads to another.
thologies to which they properly be­ As the Hindus, after they placed the
longed had been destroyed. It was the earth on the back of an elephant, had
same with all the nations won over to to give tli at animal a tortoise to stand
Islam and Christianity. In Persia, the upon, so, after the schedim had been
divs and peris, who had originally served thus accounted for, the question arose
under Ormazd and Ahriman, were iden­ as to whence came the spirits by whom
tified with the Mahometan ginns. The Adam and Eve had produced such mon­
compromise which was made by medi­ strosities. The rabbis, however, were
eval Europeans between the forsaken always ready with their explanations.
cultus and the new one reappears to-day These spirits, they asserted, were the
among the Roman Catholic Indians of last of living beings created by God,
North America. The latter, just as the and, because daylight had faded away
former did of old, adore Christ and rev­ before he had completed his task, he
erence his mother and the saints, but could not give them bodies, as he had
they cling to the tales and traditions of originally intended to do. They were
their forefathers, and have populated a therefore not pure spirits, like the an­
vast fairyland with the spirits and he­ gels, but merely imperfect creations, and
roes which figured in them. hence they and all their descendants
The theories developed as a raison possess natures semi-spiritual, semi-mor­
d’etre for the fairies are as significant tal. “ Six things,” the Talmud teaches,
as they are curious. The rabbis, with “ are said respecting schedim. In three
that familiar knowledge of the unknown particulars they are like angels, and in
which usually exists in exact proportion three they resemble men. They have
to man’s ignorance of the known, de­ wings, like angels ; like angels, they fly
clared the schedim to be the offspring of from one end of the world to the other;
Lilith, the night-walking spectre. and they know the future, as angels do,
“ Not a drop of her blood was human, with this difference, that they learn by
But she was made like a soft, fair woman.” listening behind the veil what angels
Having quarreled with Adam, whose first have revealed to them within. In three
wife she was, because he disputed her respects they resemble men : they eat
equal rights, she, as the rabbis affirm, and drink, like m en; they beget and
married Samael, chief of the fallen an­ increase, like m en; and, like men, they
gels, by whom she had a large family die.”
of imps and hobgoblins. Other rabbis Mahometans were not a whit less
maintained that they were the children daunted by the mysteries of the un­
Adam had by intercourse with spirits. known than the Talmudists. Had they
The Bible says, “ And Adam lived one been the counselors of Allah when he
hundred and thirty years, and begat a created the universe, they could not
son in his own likeness after his image,” have been more certain of what then
and the Talmudists wisely concluded took place. The ginns, they declared,
that this meant that until then his sons were beings created by him before he
and daughters were not after his own called man into life, and were made, not
image, but, according to Rabbi Jere­ of common clay, but of fire, like the an­
miah Ben Eliezer, “ in all these years gels, from whom, however, they differed
462 Relation of Fairies to Religion. [October,
in being of a grosser nature. Influenced sin was less grievous than that of the hosts
by the rabbinical philosophy, Mahomet of Satan, and whose nature, after the
taught that the ginns eat and drink, fall, was therefore less morally perverse.
propagate their kind, and are subject to They haunt air, earth, fire, and water,
death. When they were the sole in­ and are unable to rise to heavenly things
habitants of the earth, they paid no at­ or to descend to pure evil. Tertullian,
tention to the prophets sent to admonish too, made a distinction between the rebel
them, and so they were driven by Eblis, angels headed by Satan and those who
or Slieitan, and his hosts, or, according had committed the much milder offense
to the Persian legend, by Tahmurath, of loving the daughters of men and of
to Mount Q’af, the mountain-chain that showing them how to dye wool and
encircles the globe. There they took paint their faces. Justin M artyr referred
up their headquarters, but — and in this to the demons or spirits who are the off­
particular their identification with pre- spring of the amours of transgressing
Mahometan spirits is shown — individ­ angels with mortal women. Origen,
uals of the race sought an abode in every Lactantius, and indeed almost all the
corner of the w orld: in the water and earliest authorities, agreed that the spir­
on land, in lonely deserts and in crowd­ its who hold this intermediate position
ed cities, in tombs and in houses. So are grosser in substance than the heav­
entire was the faith in them that Ma­ enly legions, and that they often assume
homet believed that he, as last of the material shape in order to work out
prophets, was sent to convert them as their designs, just as the devils were
well as men. Nor did he think his mis­ supposed to do. Therefore, while the
sion would be in vain, for once, in a vis­ old gods and goddesses were said to
ion, he saw them in multitudes bowing be illusions raised by Satan, fairy-like
in adoration before him, and listening to apparitions were attributed to interme­
the message which had been scornfully diate spirits. But even among saints
rejected by his fellow-beings. This be­ and fathers this Maya-like explanation
lief is substantiated in the Qur’an, where, could not always destroy belief in the
in the chapter relating to the ginns, real presence of the minor beings of
these beings declare of themselves, — the old mythologies. St. Jerome, in his
“ And of us are some who are pious, life of the Hermit Paul, gravely relates
and of us are some who are otherwise ; the meetings of St. Anthony witli cen­
we are in separate bands. taurs and goat-footed, horned dwarfs,
“ And verily of us are some who are with whom he held conversations and
Muslims, and of us some are trespassers ; exchanged compliments.
but of us who are Muslims, they strive To the people whose abjuration of
after right direction, and as for the tres­ the earlier religions was but nominal
passers, they are fuel for hell.” the doctrine which reduced nymphs and
Christians had no dogmatic utterance elves, dwarfs and satyrs, to phantoms
upon the subject in their sacred books, and illusions was untenable. They had
and it therefore became with them, in been for so many years familiar with
the words of Postellus, “ full of contro- the habits and customs, the appearance
versie and ambiguitie.” Doctors and and even the habitations, of these crea­
theologians, poets and peasants, were all tures, that they would as soon have
alike at liberty to hold their own views, questioned their own bodily existence
so long as these did not encroach upon as that of their fairy neighbors. So
dogma. Those of the former were taint­ general was the conviction that the lat­
ed by oriental mysticism. Atbenagoras ter had bodies, and that they married,
taught that there are fallen angels whose begot children, ate and drank, in the
1884.] Relation of Fairies to Religion. 463
same way as mortals, that most of the are the materialized souls of infants
popular theories accounting for their who die without baptism ; the fays of
oriffin, differing from those of learned romance are beings possessing spirits,
theologians, gave them men for ances­ but not immortal souls. The inhabitants
tors. They were a branch of the hu­ of the Welsh “ green meadows of the
man family, laboring under a curse. sea ” are unbaptized Druids, who of
Now, they were the descendants of course could not enter heaven, and who
Cain. From him, according to Beowulf, were too good to be consigned to h ell;
“ . . . monstrous births
and the korrigan of Brittany are the
all sprang forth, princesses of Armorica, so transformed
eotens and elves because they gave a deaf ear to the
and orkens,
so likewise the Giants
preachers of Christ’s gospel. The con­
who against God waiv'd sciousness of their loss is the reason fre­
for a long space. quently given for the ill-will of the fairy
He for that gave them their reward.”
race to mankind, and to it is attributed
Again, they were children of Adam and the special fury which seizes them on
Eve, who because they had been hidden Friday, when an encounter with them
from God Almighty on one occasion is dangerous for men and women. For
when he visited their parents were des­ “ This is the day when the fairy kind
tined by him forever after to live in­ Sit weeping alone for their hopeless lot,
And the wood-maiden sighs to the moaning
visible to their brothers and sisters. wind,
“ What man hides from God, God will And the mermaiden weeps in her crystal g ro t;
hide from man,” he had said, and at For this is a day when a deed was done
once they had been banished to mounds For which they had neither part nor share :
For the children of clay was salvation wrought,
and hills and rocks. The quaint Ice­ But not for the forms of earth and air.
landic version of this legend treats And ever the mortal is most forlorn
cleanliness as nearly akin to godliness, Who meeteth their race on Friday morn.”
for it was because these children were When God and his arch-enemy, the
not washed that Eve concealed them. principle of evil, are believed to be gov­
I t seems to have occurred sometimes erned by a desire for or against the
to true believers that these fairy de­ moral welfare of men, the latter are so
scendants of Adam and Eve, or of Cain, assured of a regularity in their actions
had on the whole not been losers by that they know how by certain large
being so cursed. A life of feasting and means to defend themselves against the
revelry, together with much more than one and to conciliate the other. But
mortal power and wealth, far out­ nothing short of unceasing vigilance can
weighed, when measured in the scales disarm the malice or win the favor of
of material pleasure, the pain-laden por­ beings whose conduct is without any
tion of mankind. It was probably to definite end. Consequently, in the three
counterbalance their temporal superi­ monotheisms a second creed, with cere­
ority that, less fortunate than the Ma­ monial and commandments, has flour­
hometan ginns, they were cut off from ished side by side with the chief cultus,
all hopes of spiritual joys. Christ, it the latter being sometimes really, if not.
was said, did not include them in his nominally, subordinate to it. Even when
scheme of redemption. By gaining an the children of Israel were not stray­
earthly paradise, they lost heaven. In ing after foreign gods, or making for
almost all the theories advanced to ac­ themselves golden calves, they constant­
count for their origin, the hopelessness ly turned from Jehovah to the schedim.
of their eternal salvation is prominently As it is said in the New Republic, a
set forth. Thus, the Devonshire pixies man who regretfully cancels his faith in
464 Relation of Fairies to Religion. [October,
the Deity may forget the loss of his God with power to destroy whomsoever they
when his portmanteau is mislaid. In chanced to meet. Children flogged or
like manner, the fear of Jehovah’s dis­ allowed to go out after four in the after­
pleasure could escape the memory of noon, between June 17th and July 9th,
the Jews in their anxiety not to incur fell victims to the demon Ketef, then
that of Samuel or Lilith. There was let loose, and wandering like a raging
but one Jehovah, and he, even in his lion, seeking whom he might devour.
wrath, was just. But there were innu­ Even if a man’s nose bled, it was the
merable schedim, and since they could schedim who caused it. I t is no wonder
bear children, their numbers ever in­ that the rites and practices by which
creased, and their malevolence was ruled the designs of these demons could be
by caprice. In all his goings-out and frustrated became as important as at­
comings-in, in his waking and sleeping tendance at the synagogues and the tem­
hours, in disease and in health, man was ple. There was scarcely an action or
subject to their persecutions. Because duty of the day in the fulfillment of
the creator had not given them bodies, which the Jew did not bear the schedim
they sought to obtain possession of those in mind. His breakfast was converted
of their human rivals, to whom they into a religious ceremony to free him
therefore allowed but little peace. In from them. His family, friends, or ser­
the daytime, they would not permit men vants who lived with him were a pro­
and women to go into the street with­ tection to him against Lilith, who could
out pressing upon them from either side do as she chose with mortals sleeping
by hundreds and thousands. They fol­ alone in a house. His bedposts were
lowed them in multitudes to the tem­ marked with the inscription Kt Zelo
ple and the synagogues, where, in the Chuizlilith, a charm which effectually
struggle, if not for existence, at least disarmed her. H e would not drink bor­
for Standing-room, they tore their clothes rowed water or step across that which
and beat them black and blue. So great had been spilt, because he thought by
were their numbers that Abba Benja­ so doing he annoyed the demons. Nei­
min says, “ If our eyes were permitted ther would he drink water by night, for
to see the malignant sprites that beset us, he would then have become the victim
we could not rest on account of them.” of Shaviri, the demon of blindness. The
Nor did their malignance cease with enormous power of the fairy demons
daylight. At night man was exposed which caused them to be such deadly
not only to the attacks of the night-vis­ foes made them invaluable as allies.
iting Lilith, but to those of whole armies Under rare circumstances, a man could
of demons, — a fact easily proved. For obtain command over them, and then
if he strewed ashes about his bedside he seemed almost as great as Jehovah.
before going to sleep, the next morning This, therefore, was represented as a
he would find in them countless foot­ most exceptional event, Solomon being
marks, looking like those of fowls. At the only human being who ever gained
certain times and places their supremacy full ascendency. The miracles which
was greater than at others. Vigilance he performed by the aid of the subject­
against them had to be redoubled from ed spirits were no less wonderful than
the Passover to Pentecost. Woe to the those worked by Jehovah. The swal­
unwary Jew who ventured beyond his lowing of Jonah by the whale or the as­
doorsteps after dark on Wednesdays cent of Elias and Enoch to heaven was
and Saturdays; for Agrath, daughter of surpassed by the marvelous journeys
Machloth, and her eighteen myriads of through the air made by Solomon and
followers were then abroad, all endowed his court on the masiic carpet spread by
1884.] Relation of Fairies to Religion. 465
scliedim. The fall of the walls of Jer­ tures and the temporal aid which were
icho at the sound of Joshua’s trumpets denied to them by the Christian Deity.
was equaled by the rise of those of the Wine, women, and song were the reward
temple at Jerusalem under the hands of of mortals who pledged faith to fairies.
Aschmodai and his legions. It was very Fresh, clean houses and a full larder
natural that after their return from the awaited the friends of nisses and brown­
Captivity the Jews were less prone to ies. To obtain their present good-will
relapses into idolatry and polytheism the far-distant pleasures of heaven were
than they had ever been before. It was at times forfeited. During the Middle
because of their demonology that their Ages tales of saints and martyrs who
monotheism was in the end triumphant. scorned the world and the flesh were
It is, however, in connection with rivaled by stories of heroes who, like
Christianity that this minor cultus has the British King Gavran, departed in
gained its greatest magnitude. Nor is search of an earthly paradise. Not a
it strange that this should have been so. few among true believers would have
The Hebrews, as has been seen, when proclaimed the fate of a King Arthur-
they borrowed demons and angels from in the Isle of Avilion happier than-
other creeds did not alter the main prin­ that of a St. Peter guarding the gate
ciples of their religious belief. Though of heaven. Like a challenge to the
Mahometanism was much more spirit­ doctrine of penance and discipline, of
ual than the systems it replaced, its doc­ the nothingness of this life and the all­
trines were still so of the earth, earthy, importance of the next, rang out the
that they were suited to the compre­ legends of Tannhauser happy in the
hension of converts. But Christianity, Ilorselberg, and Ogier the Dane con­
in supplanting paganism, necessitated a tent in fairy-land. The tenderness felt
radical change. It not only called for for the fairy folk also revealed itself in
the abandonment of polytheism for a the unwillingness of the people to be­
monotheistic worship, but it held up a lieve in the impossibility of their eter­
rigid asceticism and a spiritual code of nal salvation. Some of the dwarfs and
morals to men who either, as in Greece kobolds of folk-lore went to church and
and Borne, had kept their philosophy sang hymns. Ilinzelmann, the famous
and morality distinct from their religion, household sprite, indignantly cried out
or else, as in Northern and Central Eu­ to the priest who came to exorcise him,
rope, could not yet appreciate the high­ “ I am a Christian, like any other man,
er ethics or grasp an abstract idea. and I hope to be saved ! ” When, in
While rites and ceremonies, feasts and the Scandinavian legend, the priest told
fasts, once held in honor of Odin and the neckan that before he would be re­
Zeus, of Aphrodite and Freya, could be deemed his pilgrim’s staff would bear
retained by consecrating them to Christ leaves,
and the Virgin Mother, it was impossi­ “ . ■. to, the staff it budded !
ble to ascribe to the latter the physical It greened, it branched, it waved ! ’*
and sensual qualities of earlier deities. Even the dwarf met by St. Anthony
Though the people were baptized and made profession of faith in Christ the
swore allegiance to Christ, they remained Redeemer, and begged for the prayers
pagan at heart. And it was for this of the saint. But the voice of rebellion
reason that they continued so devoted which thus found utterance was not often
to the fairy family, to whom the chief heard. As a rule, the pleasures of fairy­
characteristics of the forsaken gods had land are represented as being, like the
been transferred, and to whom, therefore, Elle maidens, fair to look upon, but hol­
they could apply for the earthly rap- low. Fairy music aiid dances are en-
v o l . l iv . — no. 324. 30
 466 Relation of Fairies to Religion. [October,
trancing, but he who crosses the elfin pitiated throughout Europe by food and
ring or listens to the singing of the drink, and these offerings ranked as not
Lorelei is lost forever. The fairy wine- in the least less important than the
cup is seductive, but that upon which prayers and ceremonies of legitimite
its contents fall is consumed as with ritual. Brownies, nisses, and damovays
fire. Beautiful and bewitching beyond were conciliated by a corner left for
man’s power of resistance, the fairy at­ them in the chimney-place and a bowl
tractions can but bring misery and woe. of porridge, and attention to their com­
The dance goes well in the grove, but forts was as important a duty as the
what of Sir Olaf ? Sweet is the kiss of recital of morning and evening prayers.
the fountain fay, but how fares it with In a word, so great was the priority, at
the spirit of him she kisses ? one time, of the fairy kingdom that there
But whether friends or foes, all were seemed a probability of the higher su­
alike agreed in believing in the exist­ pernatural world being reduced to its
ence and immediate neighborhood of fair­ level. In many mediaeval legends Satan
ies. A man could not ride out without degenerates into an easily fooled giant
risking an encounter with a Puck or or hungry demon, like those of pagan
a will-o’-the-wisp. He could not ap­ mythologies. St. Michael and St. George
proach a stream in safety unless he play together at bowls, whence comes
closed his ears to the sirens’ songs and the sound of thunder; or else they shake
his eyes to the fair form of the mer­ their beds and pluck feathers and down,
maid. In the hillside were the dwarfs, which in falling to earth turn into snow.
in the forest Queen Mab and her court. St. Collen visits fairy-land and converses
Brownie ruled over him in his house, with its king, and St. Brandain builds
and Robin Goodfellow in his walks and his cathedral on the site pointed out to
wanderings. From the moment a Chris­ him by fairies. Pilate, like Barbarossa
tian came into the world until his de­ in the Kyfhauser, sits in a subterranean
parture therefrom, he was at the mercy cave, and there he reads and re-reads
of the fairy folk, and his devices to elude the sentence he passed upon Christ.
them were many. Unhappy was the Charles’s Wain becomes the wagon in
mother who neglected to lay a pair of which Elias and other saints, and even
scissors or of tongs, a knife or her hus­ the Saviour himself, journey to heaven.
band’s breeches, in the cradle of her Prayers are addressed to the beard of
new-born infant; for if she forgot, then the first person of the Trinity. The Vir­
was she sure to receive a changeling in gin Mother disputes supremacy over the
its place. Great was the loss of the hearts of knights with Morgan the Fay,
child to whose baptism the fairies were and wears their rings upon her linger ;
not invited, or the bride to whose wed­ or else she is found like a hamadryad,
ding the nix, or water-spirit, was not bid­ dwelling within a tree, as was the case on
den. If the inhabitants of Thale did the Heinzenberg, near Zell. Religion was
not throw a black cock annually into drawn down to the comprehension of
the Bode, one of them was claimed as the people. Fortunately for the purity
' his lawful .victim by the nickelmann of Christianity, the ever-developing spirit
dwelling in that stream. The Russian of rationalism made the long continuance
peasant who failed to present the ru- of this childlike stage of belief impossi­
salka. or water-sprite, he met at Whit­ ble, and Christ, the Virgin, and all the
sun'ide with a handkerchief o r a piece heavenly court were gradually reestab­
torn from his or her clothing was doomed lished in their proper sphere.
to death. Spirits of i he four elements, Just as individual dwarfs and kobolds
of earth, fire, air, and water, were pro­ departed forever and aye when people
1884.] A n English Literary Cousin. 467
became too curious in regard to them, demonstrates absolutely that natural phe­
so as men have sought to know more of nomena and physical forces act accord­
earth and the living things it contains ing to law, and are not subject to chance
the spirits have fled from tree and rock, interference from conscious agents. A
from stream and cavern. Not that the better understanding of the sequence
belief in them has been entirely de­ of cause and effect and the law of conti­
stroyed. In the East ginns are still nuity has established the fact that even
realities to Mahometans. In the West the most extraordinary, or what seems
there are many among the peasantry the most accidental, occurrence is the
who place implicit faith in the “ good inevitable result of previous events,
people.” Savages and barbarous tribes, though these may not always be appar­
despite their Christianity, remain true ent to man. Before this scientific in­
to the Glooskap and the Mikamwess of vestigation of nature the beautiful fays
their forefathers. But these are mere and Elle maidens, the thrifty dwarfs and
survivals of primitive forms of thought. merry Pucks, fade away, even as the
The whole tendency of modern culture old frost and snow covered man in the
is antagonistic to the animistic concep­ Chippewa legend melted at the approach
tion of nature. Increase in exact knowl­ of the spring-breathing, rose-garlanded
edge does away with the necessity which youth. As the voice of Science increases
brought fairies and spirits of the ele­ in strength, the horns of Elfland blow
ments into existence, for positive science ever fainter and fainter.
Elizabeth Robins Pennell.

A N E N G L ISH LITER A R Y COUSIN.

P e r h a p s every reader of Haw­ have been fairly inherited from his an­
thorne's Old Home will remember his cestors on the mother’s side, wdio were
delightfully unscrupulous appropriation Pennsylvania Quakers. But the kind
of Leigh Hunt as a sort of stray Amer­ of excellence that distinguished him —
ican, with whom it behooved him to his fineness, subtilty, and grace — was
fraternize. “ There was not an English that which the richest cultivation has
trait in him from head to foot, morally, heretofore tended to develop in the hap­
intellectually, or physically,” wrote our pier examples of American genius, and
willful romancer: “ beef, ale or stout, which, though I say it reluctantly, is
brandy or port-wine, entered not at all perhaps wThat our future intellectual ad­
into his composition. . . . It was on vancement may make general among us.
account of the fineness of his nature His person, at all events, was thoroughly
generally that the English appreciated American, and of the best type, as were
him no better, and left this sw^eet and also his manners ; for we are the best
delicate poet poor and with scanty lau­ as well as the worst mannered people in
rels, in his declining age. It was not, I the world.”
think, from his American blood that It goes toward the confirmation of
Leigh Hunt derived either his amiabil­ Hawthorne’s theory that Benjamin West,
ity or his peaceful inclinations; at least, the painter, who married one of Leigh
I do not see how we can reasonably Hunt’s relatives, once told him that,
claim the former quality as a national meeting himself or any of his broth­
characteristic, though the latter might ers on the street, and knowing naught
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