“No subject could be more interesting than an inquiry into the origin of the superstitions of uncivilized tribes.” (“Philosophy of Magic,” Salverte, vol. i. p. 138.) Salverte remarks that the Fairies “were supposed to be diminutive, aerial beings, beautiful, lively, and beneficent in their intercourse with mortals, inhabiting a region called Fairy Land,—Alf-Heiner,—commonly appearing on earth at intervals, when they left traces of their visits in beautiful green rings, where the dewy sward had been trodden in their moon-light dances.... The investigations of science have traced these rings to a species of fungus,—_Agaricus oreades_,—but imagination still leads us willingly back to the traditional appearance of these diminutive beings in the train of their queen; ... and we also behold her tiny followers dancing away the midnight hours to the sound of the most enchanting music.”—(Idem, vol. i. p. 138, footnote.) There is the following memorandum in Hazlitt’s “Fairy Tales” (London, 1875, p. 35): “Mem., that pigeon’s-dung and nitre steeped in water will make the fayry circles; it draws to it the nitre of the air, and it will never weare out.” “The mushroom has always been associated with fairy-lore. It is mentioned as the fairy dining-table (p. 502); while in the list of foods partaken of by Oberon, we read:— “ ... with a wine, Ne’er ravished with a clustered vine, But gently strained from the side Of a sweet and dainty bride; Brought in a daizy chalice, which He fully quaffed up to bewitch His blood to height.” While Robin Goodfellow is represented as singing,— “When lads and lasses merry be, With possets and with juncates fine, Unseene of all the company, I eat their cakes and sip their wine; And to make sport, I fart and snort, And out the candles I do blow.” —(Brand, Pop. Ant., London, 1872, pp. 476 _et seq._, articles “Fairy Mythology,” and “Robin Goodfellow.”) Herrick describes the food of fairies:— “ ... with a wine Ne’er ravished from the flattering vine, But gentle prest from the soft side Of the most sweet and dainty bride.” —(Herrick, “Hesperides;” also quoted in Hazlitt’s “Fairy Tales,” London, 1875, p. 300.) The “wine” just described would seem to belong, in all fairness, to the classification of Ur-Orgies. A careful search of Shakspeare shows that while perhaps he knew little directly to our purpose, he still had a knowledge that we may utilize; for example, he speaks of the “midnight mushroom,” showing that it was an element of midnight revels of the fairies; he alludes to customs which certainly suggest that slaves and criminals were in early days buried beneath dung-heaps as a punishment; and he can be adduced to prove that the epithet “dunghill” applied to a man, was a most deadly insult; but let the bard speak for himself,—