FAIRIES, imaginary beings, who oc cupied a distinguished place in the tra ditional superstitions of the nations of Western Europe, and especially in these islands. Their English name is proba bly derived from " fair," or has the same etymology with that word ; and, although some similarity has been traced between them and the Penis of the Persians (pro nounced Feri by the Arabians,) it is not probable that the resemblance of name is more than accidental. There is also a distinction between the fairy of the Eng lish and the Fata or prophetic sibyl of the Italians, from which last the French Fee is derived; although the French, in their romantic mythology, have some what mingled the characteristics of the two. The British fairies, also, although they have something in common with the Dwergas or Gnomes of the Scandinavian mythology, are not identical with them ; they are in fact peculiar to people of Celtic race, and the notions respecting them prevalent among the Celtic popula tion in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland tally to a remarkable degree. The popular belief, however, was nowhere invested with so poetical a character as in the Lowlands of Scotland, where it forms a main ingredient in the beautiful ballad poetry of the district. The fairies of the Scottish and English mythology are diminutive beings, who render themselves occasionally visible to men, especially in exposed places, on the sides of hills, or in the glades of forests, which it is their custom to frequent. They have also dealings with men, but of an uncertain and unreal character. Their presents are sometimes valuable ; but generally accompanied, in that case, with some condition or peculiarity which renders them mischievous : more often they are unsubstantial, and turn into dirt or ashes in the hands of those to whom they have been given. Mortals have been occasion ally transported into Fairy-land, and have found that all its apparent splendor was equally delusive. One of the most
ordinary employments of fairies, in vul gar superstition, is that of stealing chil dren at nurse, and substituting their own offspring in place of them, which after a short time perish or are carried away. The popular belief in fairies has been made the subject of poetical amplifica tion in the hands of so many of the greatest writers, from Shakspeare to Scott, that it is not easy to disentangle the embellishments with which it has been invested from the original notions on which they are founded. The Fata of the Italians, who figures in their romantic epics, and from whom the French have made the Fee of their fairy tales, is quite a different personage : a female magician, sometimes benevolent, and sometimes ma levolent, part aking herself of the super natural character, and peculiarly gifted with the spirit of prophecy. Such is the Fate Morgana, to whom the celebrated optical delusion occasionally produced in the Straits of Messina was formerly at tribute(' by popular belief —Fairy of the mine, an imaginary being supposed to inhabit mines, wandering about in the drifts and chambers, always employed, yet effecting nothing.—Pairy ring or circle, a phenomenon frequently seen in the fields, consisting of a round bare path with grass in the middle, formerly as cribe.] to the dances of the fairies. It has been supposed by some, that these rings are the effect of lightning; but a more rational theory ascribes them to a kind of fungus which grows in a circle from the centre outwards, destroying the grass as it extends, while the interior of the eirele is enriched by the decayed roots of the fungi.