THE ELIZABETHAN FAIRIES

APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS 93
the ewe not bites " on nearly every heath of England
and in most of the records of their existence:
Wittness those rings and roundelayes
Of theirs, which yet remaine; lZ4
Also Travellers in the Night, and such as watch their Flocks and
Heards, are wont to be compassed about with many strange Ap-
paritions: . . . yet sometimes they make so great and deep im-
pression into the Earth, that the place they are used to, being onely
burnt round with extream heat, no gras will grow up there. The
Inhabitants call this Night-sport of these Monsters, the Dance of
Fayries.lZ6
With dancing as their characteristic gesture, it is no
wonder that the appearance of the fairies was accom-
panied "with noyse of musick and minstralsie " and
" withal1 . . . such musicke . . . that Orpheus, that fa-
mous Greeke fidler (had hee beene alive), compared to
one of these had beene as infamous as a Welch-harper
that playes for cheese and onions."
Sometimes they zppeared to the " clear sound of ring-
ing bridles," or to LL the finest horn in the world," ''' or
circled Windsor forest to the noise of rattles,lZ8 or danced
their ringlets to " the whistling wind," which changed
into the discordance of " ane hiddeous vglie sowche of
wind," 130 and " sic ane dynn as heavin and erd had gane
Temp., V, I.
124 Corbet, Faerye's Farewell, p. 582.
01aus Magnus, De Gentibus Septentrionalibus Historia, 1658
trans., p. 43.
lZ6 Robin Goodfellow; his mad prankes, and merry Jests, Halliwell
rpt., p. 125.
Waldron, Isle of Man, p. 33.
M. W. of W., IV, 4.
lZ9 M. N. D., 11, 2.
lao Pitcairn, Crirn. Trials, Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 53.