[1] The mark on Adam's Peak in Ceylon is, by the Buddhists, ascribed to Buddha; by the Mohammedans, to Adam. It reminds one of the story of the lady and the vicar, viewing the moon through a telescope; they saw in it, as they thought, two figures inclined toward each other: "Methinks," says the lady, "they are two fond lovers, meeting to pour forth their vows by earth-light." "Not at all," says the vicar, taking his turn at the glass; "they are the steeples of two neighbouring churches." [2] Faerie Queene, III. c. iii. st. 8, 9, 10, 11. Drayton, Poly-Olbion, Song VI. We fear, however, that there is only poetic authority for this belief. Mr. Todd merely quotes Warton, who says that Spenser borrowed it from Giraldus Cambrensis, who picked it up among the romantic traditions propagated by the Welsh bards. The reader will be, perhaps, surprised to hear that Giraldus says nothing of the demons. He mentions the sounds, and endeavours to explain them by natural causes. Hollingshed indeed (l. i. c. 24.) says, "whereof the superstitious sort do gather many toys." [3] The Haddock. [4] For a well-chosen collection of examples, see the very learned and philosophical preface of the late Mr. Price to his edition of Warton's History of English Poetry, p. 28 _et seq._ [5] In the Middle Ages the gods of the heathens were all held to be devils. [6] Φηρ is the Ionic form of θηρ, and is nearly related to the German _thier_, beast, animal. The Scandinavian _dyr_, and the Anglo-Saxon [Old English: deor], have the same signification; and it is curious to observe the restricted sense which this last has gotten in the English _deer_. [7] Preface to Warton, p. 44; and Breton philologists furnish us with an etymon; not, indeed, of Fairy, but of Fada. "Fada, fata, etc.," says M. de Cambry (Monumens Celtiques), "come from the Breton _mat_ or _mad_, in construction _fat_, good; whence the English, _maid_." [8] D'Herbelot _titre_ Mergian says, "C'est du nom de cette Fée que nos anciens romans ont formé celui de _Morgante la Déconnue_." He here confounds Morgana with Urganda, and he has been followed in his mistake. D'Herbelot also thinks it possible that _Féerie_ may come from _Peri_; but he regards the common derivation from _Fata_ as much more probable. Cambrian etymologists, by the way, say that Morgain is Mor Gwynn, the _White Maid_. [9] These two instances are given by Mdlle. Amélie Bosquet (La Normandie Romanesque, etc. p. 91.) from Dom Martin, _Rel. des Gaulois_, ii. ch. 23 and 24. [10] Gryphus ternarii numeri. [11] De Bell. Got. i. 25.