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SPIRIT BASIS OF BELIEF AND CUSTOM
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were cast out of heaven were sent into hell, some reigned in the sky, some in the earth, some in the waters, and some in the woods.1 The Rosicrusians (A. D. 160) ?) peopled the air with Sylphs, the earth with Gnomes, the fire with Salamanders, and the water with Nymphs. Boh or Hobgoblin was afterwards, or at least was better, known as Puck or as Robiu Good-fellow. Shakespeare (1600) describes Robin as a shrewd and a knavish sprite, wlio frights the maidens of the villagers and skims milk. He sometimes labonus with the quern or hand-mill, makes the churning of the breathless housewife useless, works the drink so that it bears no barm, and misleads night wanderers, langbing at the harm.93 In England, aboat 1620, the lending spirits were genii, fanns, satyrs, wood nymphs, foliots, fairies, robin good-fellows, and trulls. The bigger kind of spirits were hob-goblins, who ground corn, cut wood and mended iron. In Welsh mines, in 1750, fairies were often heard at work. They were friendly and guided the human miners to rich veins. In 1800, a demon called Barguest, haunted Yorkshire lanes and forboded death.87 In 1830, bogles (bug a scare crow) drove all traffic from the Gallows Lane at Lincoln. During the last three hundred years English poets hare maintained the belief in countless spirits. According to Milton (1660):-" Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth anseen, both when we wako and when we sleep."999 And two hundred and fifty years later, in spite of the desolation of progress, the poet eye of Coleridge had the same vision as Milton : "Oh ye numberless and rapid travellers, what car instunned, what sense unmad. dened, might bear up against the rushing of your congregatel wings?"100
So many forms of the devil do the seventeenth century witch-trials show that it seems the vlevil might alone people the earth. Man in many forms, beautiful women, yonths, priests, and black men: of animals the cat, toad, rabbit, pig, rat, dog, deer, ass, and snake: of birds the crow, kite, chicken, magpie, goosc, and duck: of insects the bee, fly, and flea: of other shapes a winged child, a ball, a bay-stack, a tree-trunk, and a coach wheel. These secm a collection of the leading objects which in former times were believed to be spirit-liomes. In seventeenth century Scotland, among the noble army of spirits held in respect and constantly seen were devils, bull.beggars, witches, elves, hags, faeries, Satyrs, Pans, Fawns, Sylvans, Kit with the Canstic, Tritons, centanrs, dwarfs, giants, imps, calcars (+), conjurers, nymphs, changlings Incubus, Robin Good-fellow, the man in the oak, the hell wnine, the fire-drake, the pickle, Tom Thumb, Hob-Goblin, Tom Tombler, Boneless, and others. In Scotland, in 1670, the common people called familiars white Devils. They were the same as the usefal spirits formerly known as Brownie and Robin Good-fellow. They passed as human beings. Sharpe tells of a lady who had a little old serving man, Ethert, who was really a familiar. Beaumont, about the same time, had two familiars to wait on him, brown women three feet high in black net-work gowns and white caps with lace. In Europe, at this time (1650), were seven good and seven bad familiars or evil genii. The good genji adapted themselves to the character of each person's soul. They suggested good, but if the soul preferred evil the seven good genii gare place to their seven evil companions. In Scotland, in the county of Kircudbright, in 1730, people firmly believed in ghosta, hob-goblins, fairies, elves, witches, and wizards. The ghosts and spirits often appeared at night. The people used many charms and incantations to preserve themselves, their cattle and houses from the malevolence of witches, wizards and evil spirits, and believed in the beneficial effects of these charms. They frequently saw the devil, who made wicked attacks upon them when they were engaged in their religions exercises. They believed in benevolent
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Skent's Piers the Ploughman, p. 110.
92 Op.cit. p. 110.. Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Scene I. p. 99.
Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. p. 125. * Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 124. * Gentleman'. Magazine Library, "Popular Superstitions," pp. 152-154. » Hone's Everyday Book, Vol. II. . 557 : Demonoloyyarul Witcheraft, p. 38. * Gentleman's Magazine Library. Manners and Customs," p. 32. Paradise Lost, Book iv. line 677.
1Tragedy of Remors, Act I, Scene 2. 1 Compare Notes and Queries, Vol. V. pp. 421.423. Fifth Series.. • Reginald Scott's Discovery of Vitchcraft, p. 192. • Sharpe's Witcheraft in Scotland, p. 142. • Op. cit. p. 218.
• Reginald Scott's Discovery of Witchcraft, p. 496.
