Notwithstanding the progressive increase of knowledge, and proportional decay of superstition in the Highlands, these genii are still supposed by many of the people to exist in the woods and sequestered valleys of the mountains, where they frequently appear to the lonely traveller, clothed in green, with dishevelled hair floating over their shoulders, and with faces more blooming than the vermeil blush of a summer evening. At night, in particular, when fancy assimilates to its own preconceived ideas every appearance and every sound, the wandering enthusiast is frequently entertained by their music, more melodious than he ever heard. It is curious to observe how much this agreeable delusion corresponds with the superstitious opinion of the Romans concerning the same class of genii represented under different names. Lucretius, an acute philosopher, brilliant poet, and most accomplished disciple of Zeno, after describing the predisposing causes of _echoes_, sums up their effects on uncultivated minds in the following beautiful lines:-- "_Sex etiam, aut septem loca vidi reddere voces. Unam cum jaceres: ita colles collibus ipsis Verba repulsantes iterabant dicta referre. Haec loca capripedes Satyros, Nymphasque tenere Finitimi fingunt, et Faunos esse loquuntur: Quorum noctivago strepitu, ludoque jocanti Adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi, Chordarumque sonos fieri, dulceisque querelas, Tibia quas fundit, digitis pulsata canentum: Et genus agricolum late sentiscere, cum Pan Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans, Unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hianteis, Fistula sylvestrem ne cesset fundere Musam. Caetera de genere hoc monstra, ac portenta loquuntur, Ne loca deserta ab Divis quoque forte putentur Sola tenere: ideo jactant miracula dictis: Aut aliqua ratione alia dicuntur, ut omne Humanum genus est avidum nimis auricularum._"[2] For the sake of those readers to whom Latin is an unknown tongue, we add the following translation by Thomas Creech:--