Perrault's fairy godmothers (unlike the fairies of real legend) are machinery of his own, and even he dispenses with Fairies altogether in _Blue Beard_, _Hop o' my Thumb_, and _Puss in Boots_; while in _Les Trois Souhaits_ the mythological machinery of the classics is employed, and Jupiter does what a fairy might have done. It is true that the key of the forbidden door, in _Blue Beard_, is said to be _Fee_; but this only means that, like the seven-leagued Boots in _Hop o' my Thumb_ ('elles estoient Fees'), the key has magical qualities. The part of Fairies, then, is very restricted, even in Perrault, while, in traditional _Maerchen_ all over the world, Fairies or beings analogous to the Fairies appear comparatively seldom. In spite of this the Fairies have so successfully asserted their title over popular tales, that a few words on their character and origin seem not out of place. Fairies are doubtless much older than their name; as old as the belief in spirits of woods, hills, lonely places, and the nether world. The familiar names, _fees_, _fades_, are apparently connected with _Fatum_, the thing spoken, and with _Fata_, the Fates who speak it, and the God _Fatuus_, or Faunus, and his sister or wife _Fatua_[23]. Preller quotes the _Fatuae_ as spiritual maidens of the forests and elements, adding the other names of _Sagae_ and _Sciae_, to Fatuae, and Fata[24]. He compares the Slavonic Wilis: and, to be brief, the Apsaras of India, the Nereids of ancient and modern Greece, and the Good Ladies and Fairies of Scotland, with many of the Melanesian Vuis, forest-haunting spirits, are all of the same class, are fairy beings informing the streams and wilds. To these good folk were ascribed gifts of prophecy, commonly exercised beside the cradle of infancy, _deabus illis quae fata nascentibus canunt, et dicuntur Carmentes_[25]. As Maury shows[26], the local Fairies of Roman Gaul were propitiated with altars: FATIS DERVONIBUS V. S. L. M. M. RVFNVS SEVERVS. Just as the Scotch Fairies are euphemistically styled 'The Good Folks,' 'The People of Peace,' the 'Good Ladies,' so it befell the daughter of Faunus. She was styled 'The Good Goddess,' and her real name was tabooed[27].