THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

ORIGIN AND NATURE 55
prorsus cacutiebant. Chrysostomus Dion in intima Africa feras
quasdam esse scribit muliebri facie, quae & ipsae Lamiae dicuntur,
vberibus autem totoque corpore adeb specioso vt nullo pictoris
ingenio similes affingi queant, quibus retectis homines in fraudem
alliciant, captosque deuorent. Isidor: B laniando vult, quidam ?I
. . . helol, qua voce noctua, vel nycticorax aut denique Lamia
significari solet, vel dicitur Lamia B rubore & sortibus oculorum,
. . . Nam ex oculis de affectione animi aut moribus, facil; capitur
iudicium, & vero incantatricum quod rubeant & sordescant, quis
non audijt, Maro alludit, oculus fascinat agno~.~~
The identification of the fairies with beings of classi-
cal mythology or with wicked monsters of antiquity was
by no means the only idea of them that prevailed. By a
number of authorities, they were held to be the devil
himself or beings of his substance and nature. The ref-
erence to the fairies in the works of Sir David Lyndesay
would indicate a close resemblance between the " Feind
and the Farie-folk " and the association of the one with
the other as the following passages from Arte Satyre of
the thrie Estaits show :
DISSAIT.
Now am I buskit, and quha can spy -
The Deuill stik me! - gif this be I ?
If this be I, or not, I can not weill say.
Or hes the Feind or Farie-folk borne me away? O7
SPRITVALITIE.
Pas on, Madame, -we knaw 3ow nocht ; -
Or, be him that the warld wrocht !
3our cumming sall be richt deir coft,
Gif 3e mak langer tarie.
96 1617 ed., p. 187.
E. E. T. S., 1865-71, Vol. 35-37-47, pp. 401-402.