Swenne du einest wunschest nach mir, So bin ich endelichen bi dir,

says the lady to the Staufenberger. She adds,

War ich wil da bin ich, Den Wunsch hat mir Got gegeben.

He finds it to be true,

Er wunschte nach der frouwen sin, Bi im so war diu schone sin.

GRIMM, _Deut. Mythol._, p. 391.

[480] In the Shah-nameh, Siyawush, when he foresees his own death by the treachery of Afrasiab, tells his wife Ferengis, the daughter of that monarch, that she will bear a son whom she is to name Ky Khosroo, and who will avenge the death of his father: see Gorres, Heldenbuch von Iran, ii. 32.

[481]

Desi k'a une hoge vint: En cele hoge ot une entree.

M. de Roquefort, in his Glossaire de la Langue Romaine, correctly renders _hoge_ by _colline_. In his translation of this Lai he renders it by _cabane_, not, perhaps, understanding how a hill could be pervious. The story, however, of Prince Ahmed, and the romance of Orfeo and Heurodis (see above, p. 52), are good authority on this point: see also above, pp. 405, 408.

[482] In the Harleian MS. Mandement. M. de Roquefort confesses his total ignorance of this people; we follow his example. May it not, however, be connected with _manant_, and merely signify people, inhabitants?

[483] Roman de Roux, _v._ ii. 234.

[484] See Roquefort, Supplement au Glossaire de la Langue Romaine _s.

v._ Perron.

[485] Barzan-Breiz, Chants Populaires de la Bretagne, recueilles et publies par Th. Hersart de la Villemarque. Paris, 1846. This is a most valuable work and deserving to take its place with the Ballads of Scotland, Scandinavia, and Servia, to none of which is it inferior. To the credit of France the edition which we use is the fourth. How different would the fate of such a work be in this country!

[486] We make this distinction, because in the ballads in which the personage is a Fay, the word used is Korrigan or Korrig, while in that in which the Dwarfs are actors, the words are Korr and Korred. But the truth is, they are all but different forms of Korr. They are all the same, singular and plural. The Breton changes its first consonant like the Irish: see p. 371. We also meet with Crion, Goric, Couril, as names of these beings, but they are only forms of those given above.

[487] Hence we may infer that they came originally from Scandinavia, communicated most probably by the Normans.

[488] Stone-tables. They are called by the same name in Devon and Cornwall; in Irish their appellation is Cromleach.

[489] Barzan-Breiz., i. xlix. 69.

[490]

WELSH. BRETON.

Gweliz mez ken gwelet derven, Gweliz vi ken guelet iar wenn, Gweliz vi ken gwelet iar wenn, Gweliz mez ken gwelet gwezen.

Erioez ne wiliz evelhenn. Gweliz mez ha gweliz gwial, Gweliz derven e Koat Brezal, Biskoaz na weliz kemend all.

[491] The tailor cries "Shut the door! Here are the little _Duz_ of the night" (_Setu ann Duzigou nouz_), and St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, c. xxiii.) speaks of "Daemones quos _Duscios_ Galli nuncupant." It may remind us of our own word _Deuce_.

[492] In the original the word is Korrigan, but see above, p. 431.

[493] From an article signed H--Y in a cheap publication called Tracts for the People. The writer says he heard it in the neighbourhood of the Vale of Goel, and it has every appearance of being genuine.

Villemarque (i. 61) mentions the last circumstance as to the end of the penance of the Korred.

[494] Monumens Celtiques, p. 2. An old sailor told M. de Cambry, that one of these stones covers an immense treasure, and that these thousands of them have been set up the better to conceal it. He added that a calculation, the key to which was to be found in the Tower of London, would alone indicate the spot where the treasure lies.

[495] For what follows we are indebted to the MS. communication of Dr.

W. Grimm. He quotes as his authority the _Zeitung der Gesellschafter_ for 1826.

[496] The former seems to be a house spirit, the _Goblin_, _Follet_, or _Lutin_ of the north of France; the latter is apparently the _Ignis Fatuus_.

[497] So the Yorkshire Bar-guest.

[498] See above, p. 438.

SOUTHERN EUROPE.

O faretrate Ninfe, o agresti Pani, O Satiri e Silvani, o Fauni e Driadi, Najadi ed Amadriadi, e Semidee, Oreadi, e Napee, or siete sole.

SANAZZARO.

Under the title of Southern Europe, we comprise Greece and those nations whose languages are derived from the Latin; Italy, Spain, and France. Of the Fairy-system, if there ever was one, of Portugal we have met with nothing, at least in the works of Camoens, Bernardes, and Lobo.

The reader will, in this part of our work, find little corresponding to the Gothic Dwarfs who have hitherto been our companions. The only one of our former acquaintances that will attend us is honest Hob-goblin, Brownie, Kobold, Nis, or however else he may style himself. And it is very remarkable that we shall meet with him only in those places where the Northmen, the Visigoths or other Scandinavian tribes settled. Whence perhaps it might be concluded that they brought him with them to the South of Europe.

GREECE.

?? te?e??a ??fa d??se??? es??e? a?t???. EURIPIDES.

Like a tender Nymph Within the dewy caves.

The Grecian mythology, like its kindred systems, abounded in personifications.[499] Modified by scenery so beautiful, rich, and various as Hellas presented, it in general assigned the supposed intelligences who presided over the various parts of external nature more pleasing attributes than they elsewhere enjoyed. They were mostly conceived to be of the female sex, and were denominated Nymphs, a word originally signifying a new-married woman.

Whether it be owing to soil, climate, or to an original disposition of mind and its organ, the Greeks have above all other people possessed a perception of beauty of form, and a fondness for representing it. The Nymphs of various kinds were therefore always presented to the imagination, in the perfection of female youth and beauty. Under the various appellations of Oreades, Dryades, Nades, Limniades, Nereides, they dwelt in mountains, trees, springs, lakes, the sea, where, in caverns and grottos, they passed a life whose occupations resembled those of females of human race. The Wood-nymphs were the companions and attendants of the huntress goddess Artemis; the Sea-nymphs averted shipwreck from pious navigators; and the Spring- and River-nymphs poured forth fruitfulness on the earth. All of them were honoured with prayer and sacrifice; and all of them occasionally 'mingled in love'

with favoured mortals.

In the Homeric poems, the most ancient portion of Grecian literature, we meet the various classes of Nymphs. In the Odyssey, they are the attendants of Calypso, herself a goddess and a nymph. Of the female attendants of Circe, the potent daughter of Helios, also designated as a goddess and a nymph, it is said,

They spring from fountains and from sacred groves, And holy streams that flow into the sea.

Yet these nymphs are of divine nature, and when Zeus, the father of the gods, calls together his council,

None of the streams, save Ocean, stayed away, Nor of the Nymphs, who dwell in beauteous groves, And springs of streams, and verdant grassy slades.

The good Eumaeus prays to the Nymphs to speed the return of his master, reminding them of the numerous sacrifices Ulysses had offered to them.