la-faée, the reputed half-sister of king Arthur, and the lady of the lake, so frequently noticed in sir Thomas Malorys old history of that monarch.
Le Grand is of opinion that what is called Fairy comes to us from the orientals, and that it is their génies which have produced our fairies; a species of nymphs, of an order superior to these women magicians, to whom they nevertheless 'gave' the same name. In Asia, he says, where the women imprisoned in the harams, prove still, beyond the general servitude, a particular slavery, the romancers have imagined the Peris, who flying in the air, come to soften their captivity, and render them happy.[1] Whether this be so, or not, it is certain that we call the aurora boreales, or active clouds, in the night, perry-dancers.[2]
After all, sir William Ouseley finds it impossible
- ↑ [Fabliaux. 12mo. i. 112.]
- ↑ V. Caylus, Mem. de l'aca. des belles let. xx.
1605, fo. 19.) "Certainly," he adds, "if all the nymphes [or fays], of which I have spoken, have at any time appeared unto men, it cannot be imagined but that they must needs be spirits and divels: and the truth is, that, even at this day, it is thought, in some of the northern regions, they do yet appeare to divers persons; and the report is, that they have a care and doe diligently attend little infantes lying in the cradle; that they doe dresse and undresse them in their swathling clothes, and do performe all that which careful nurses can do unto their children."
