imaginary beings of both sexes and human shape, who are fabled to frequent the haunts of men, to dance in meadows, and to be distinguished by a variety of fantastic actions, either innocent or mischievous. In traditions and romances they are frequently represented as beings of diminutive stature and exquisite beauty; and sometimes as women of an order superior to human nature, yet subject to wants, passions, accidents, and even death; sprightly and benevolent whilst young and handsome; morose, peevish, and malignant if ugly or in the decline of their beauty; generally robed in green, but fond also of appearing in white; from which circumstance they were sometimes called the White Ladies.

Concerning these imaginary beings, Jervaise of Tilley, marshal of the kingdom of Arles, who lived in the beginning of the thirteenth century, thus writes:—"It has been asserted by persons of unexceptionable credit, that fairies used to select lovers from among men, and rewarded their attachment with an affluence of worldly goods; but if they deserted them or revealed the connection, they smarted severely for such indiscretion." Similar tales were current in Languedoc; and throughout the province there was not a village without some ancient seat or cavern which had the honour of being a fairy's residence, or at least some spring in which a fairy used to leave its tiny form. This idea of fairies has a near affinity with that of the Greeks and Romans concerning the nymphs of the woods, mountains, and springs; and an ancient scholiast on Theocritus says, that "the nymphs are demons (spirits) which appear on the mountains in the figure of women." The Arabs and other orientals have also their Peris, of whom they entertain notions somewhat similar to those held in the west respecting fairies.

Fairies have usually been described as of small stature, though capable of assuming various forms and dimensions. It is scarcely necessary to add that the most charming representation of these children of romantic fancy is to be found in the Midsummer Night's Dream. For an elaborate account of fairies in general, see Keightley's Fairy Mythology, 2 vols. 8vo, in which the legends of different countries are collected.

Fairy of the Mine, an imaginary being, fabled to inhabit mines; wandering about the drifts and chambers, always employed in cutting ore, turning the windlass, &c., but effecting nothing. The Germans believed in two species; one fierce and malevolent, the other harmless. Such is the relation of Agricola, in his book De Animalibus Subterraneis.