[258] See above, pp. 19, 169; below, _Ireland_; and Grimm, _ut sup._ p. 1216. The swan-dresses also occur in the Arabian tales of Jahânshâh and Hassan of Bassora in Trebutien's Arabian Nights. [259] Poésies de Marie de France, i. 177, _seq._ DWARFS. Fort, fort! Mich schau' die Sonne nicht, Ich darf nicht langer harren; Mich Elfenkind vor ihren Licht Sähst du sum Fels erstarren. LA MOTTE FOUQUÉ. Away! let not the sun view me, I dare no longer stay; An Elfin-child thou wouldst me see, To stone turn at his ray. These beings are called Zwerge (_Dwarfs_), Berg- and Erd-mänlein (_Hill_ and _Ground-mannikins_), the Stille Volk (_Still-people_), and the Kleine Volk (_Little-people_).[260] The following account of the Still-people at Plesse will give the popular idea respecting them.[261] At Plesse, a castle in the mountains in Hesse, are various springs, wells, clefts and holes in the rocks, in which, according to popular tradition, the Dwarfs, called the Still-people, dwell. They are silent and beneficent, and willingly serve those who have the good fortune to please them. If injured they vent their anger, not on mankind, but on the cattle, which they plague and torment. This subterranean race has no proper communication with mankind, but pass their lives within the earth, where their apartments and chambers are filled with gold and precious stones. Should occasion require their visit to the surface of the earth, they accomplish the business in the night, and not by day. This Hill-people are of flesh and bone, like mankind, they bear children and die, but in addition to the ordinary faculties of humanity, they have the power of making themselves invisible, and of passing through rocks and walls, with the same facility as through the air. They sometimes appear to men, lead them with them into clifts, and if the strangers prove agreeable to them, present them with valuable gifts.[262] _The Hill-Man at the Dance._