14
ON FAIRIES.
"Plusieurs parlant de Guenart,Du Lou, de l'Asne, et de Renart,De faëries, et de songes,De fantosmes, et de mensonges."
The same Gervase explains the Latin Fata (fée, French) a divining woman, an inchantress, or a witch, (D. 3, c. 88).
Master Wace, in his Histoire des ducs de Normendie (confounded by many with the Roman de Rou), describing the fountain of Berenton, in Bretagne, says:
"En la forest et environ,Mais jo ne sais par quel raisonLa scut l'en les fées veeir,Se li Breton nos dient veir, &c."
(In the forest and around,I wot not by what reason foundThere may a man the fairies spy,If Britons do not tell a lie.)
but it may be difficult to conceive an accurate idea from the mere name, of the popular French Fays or fairys of the twelfth century.
In Vienne, in Dauphiny, is Le puit des fées, or Fairy-well. These fays, it must be confessed, have a strong resemblance to the nymphs of the ancients, who inhabited in caves, and fountains. Upon a
