The _penates_ of the Romans, according to honest Reginald Scot, were “the domesticall gods, or rather divels, that were said to make men live quietlie within doores. But some think that _Lares_ are such as trouble private houses. _Larvæ_ are said to be spirits that walk onelie by night. _Vinculi terrei_ are such as was Robin Goodfellowe, that would supplie the office of servants, speciallie of maides, as to make a fier in the morning, sweepe the house, grind mustard and malt, drawe water, etc. These also rumble in houses, drawe latches, go up and down staiers,” etc. (_Discoverie of Witchcraft_, London, 1584, p. 521). A more modern writer says “The Latins have called the fairies _lares_ and _larvæ_, frequenting, as they say, houses, delighting in neatness, pinching the slut, and rewarding the good housewife with money in her shoe” (_Pleasaunt Treatise of Witches_, 1673, p. 53). This, however, is nothing but the character of an English fairy applied to the name of a Roman _lar_ or _larva_. It might have been wished, too, that Scot, a man unquestionably of great learning, had referred, by name and work and book and chapter, to those ancient authors from whom he derived his information upon the Roman _penates_, etc. What idea our Saxon ancestors had of the fairy which they called _œlf_, a word explained by Lye as equivalent to _lamia_, _larva_, _incubus_, _ephialtes_, we are utterly at a loss to conceive. The nymphs, the satyrs, and the fauns, are frequently noticed by the old traditional historians of the north; particularly _Saxo–grammaticus_, who has a curious story of three nymphs of the forest, and Hother, King of Sweden and Denmark, being apparently the originals of the weird, or wizard, sisters of Macbeth (B. 3, p. 39). Others are preserved by Olaus Magnus, who says they had so deeply impressed into the earth, that the place they have been used to, having been (apparently) eaten up in a circular form with flagrant heat, never brings forth fresh grass from the dry turf. This nocturnal sport of monsters, he adds, the natives call The Dance of the Elves (B. 3, c. 10). “In John Milesius any man may reade Of divels in Sarmatia honored, Call’d _Kottri_, or _Kibaldi_; such as wee Pugs and Hob–goblins call. Their dwellings bee In corners of old houses least frequented, Or beneath stacks of wood: and these convented, Make fearfull noise in buttries and in dairies; Robin Goodfellowes some, some call them fairies. In solitarie roomes these uprores keepe, And beat at dores to wake men from their sleepe; Seeming to force locks, be they ne’re so strong, And keeping Christmasse gambols all night long. Pots, glasses, trenchers, dishes, pannes, and kettles, They will make dance about the shelves and settles, As if about the kitchen tost and cast, Yet in the morning nothing found misplac’t.” (Heywood’s _Hierarchie of Angells_, 1635, fo. p. 574.)