CAL. And all be turn'd to _barnacles_, or apes. Mr. Collins's note, it is presumed, will not be thought worth retaining in any future edition. His account of the barnacle is extremely confused and imperfect. He makes Gerarde responsible for an opinion not his own; he substitutes the name of Holinshed for that of Harrison, whose statement is not so ridiculous as Mr. Collins would make it, and who might certainly have seen the feathers of the barnacles hanging out of the shells, as the _fish barnacle_ or _Lepas anatifera_ is undoubtedly furnished with a _feathered_ beard. The real absurdity was the credulity of Gerarde and Harrison in supposing that the barnacle goose was really produced from the shell of the fish. Dr. Bullein not only believed this himself, but bestows the epithets, _ignorant_ and _incredulous_ on those who did not; and in the same breath he maintains that crystal is nothing more than ice. See his _Bulwarke of defence_, &c. 1562, Folio, fo. 12. Caliban's barnacle is the _clakis_ or tree-goose. Every kind of information on the subject may be found in the _Physica curiosa_ of Gaspar Schot the Jesuit, who with great industry has collected from a multitude of authors whatever they had written concerning it. See lib. ix. c. 22. The works of Pennant and Bewick will supply every deficiency with respect to _rational_ knowledge. ACT V. SCENE 1. Page 140. PRO. Ye _elves_ of hills---- The different species of the fairy tribe are called in the Northern languages _ælfen_, _elfen_, and _alpen_, words of remote and uncertain etymology. The Greek ολβιος, _felix_, is not so plausible an original as the Teutonic _helfen_, _juvare_; because many of these supernatural beings were supposed to be of a mischievous nature, but all of them might very properly be invoked to assist mankind. Some of the northern nations regarded them as the souls of men who in this world had given themselves up to corporeal pleasures, and trespasses against human laws. It was conceived therefore that they were doomed to wander for a certain time about the earth, and to be bound in a kind of servitude to mortals. One of their occupations was that of protecting horses in the stable. See Olaus Magnus _de gentibus septentrionalibus_, lib. iii. cap. xi. It is probable that our fairy system is originally derived from the Fates, Fauns, Nymphs, Dryads, Deæ matres, &c., of the ancients, in like manner as other Pagan superstitions were corruptedly retained after the promulgation of Christianity. The general stock might have been augmented and improved by means of the crusades and other causes of intercourse with the nations of the East. SCENE 1. Page 141. PRO. ... you demy-puppets, that By moonshine do the _green-sour_ ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites----