THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

54 ORIGIN AND NATURE
the latter part of the century, the fairy is again defined
as Lamia g6 and as Strega, and lamia, in addition to
other meanings, is rendered as :
Also a witch, a sorceresse or a hag. Also women that were thought
to haue such eies as they could put out and put in at their pleasure,
or rather certaine diuels in a counterfeit shape, which with flattering~
allured faire yoong springals and boies, and taking vpon them
the likenes and fashion of women were thought to deuoure them
and bring them to destruction. Some thought them to be ladies of
the fairies or such as make children afraide, or such witches as
sucke childrens blood to kill them.
Strega, a witch, a sorceresse, a charmer, a hag or fairie such as
our elders thought to change the fauour of children.
These are the definitions of the fairy also that appear
in Minsheu's The Guide into the tongues, of 1617 :
Fairie 8 Belg: VBerlick siue Vrkselik, i. timendus, horibilis, terri-
bilis, h vresen, i. timere: propter terrorem quem inopinato suo
aduentu incutere solent. B. Toouerinne, h tooueren, i. incantare:
traduntur enim juuenes ac potissimum speciosos incantationibus in
sui amorem pellicere, ac pellectos deuorare. T. NBcht mummel,
B nacht, i. nox & mummel, i. larua: q. noctis larua. Quo nomine
Lamias quoque appellatas fuisse testatur. Philostrat: in Apollon,
& Cael: Rhodig: lib: 29 cap: 5. L. LBmia, ae & LBmiae, arum.
. . . 1. insatiabili gulae auiditate deglutio, propter rationem suprh
allatam. Ab antiquis, mulieres esse putabantur, siue verihs
daemonum quaedam phantasmata, quae formosarum mulierum
specie assumpta, pueros pariter & juuenes blanditijs allectos vorare
credebantur. Hae quum foris essent egregiae oculata, domi
96 See Bourne, Antiq. Vulgares, 1725, p. 83: '' NOW in all this there
is really nothing, but an old fabulous Story, which has been handed
down even to our Days from the Times of Heathenism, of a certain
Sort of Beings called Lamiae, which were esteem'd so mischievous
and cruel, as to take away young Children and slay them. These,
together with the Fauns, the Gods of the Woods, seem to have form'd
the Notion of Fairies."