Roguery and sportiveness are, we may see, the characteristics of this spirit. Hence it may have been that the diminutives of proper names were given to him, and even to the Ignis Fatuus, which in a country like England, that was in general dry and free from sloughs and bog-holes, was mischievous rather than dangerous.[371] But this seems to have been a custom of our forefathers, for we find the devil himself called Old Nick, and Old Davy is the sailor's familiar name for Death. * * * * * In the Midsummer Night's Dream the fairy says to Puck "Thou Lob of spirits;" Milton has the _lubber-fiend_, and Fletcher says,[372] "There is a pretty tale of a witch that had a giant to be her son that was called Lob Lie-by-the-fire." This might lead us to suppose that _Lob_, whence _loby_ (looby), _lubbard_, _lubber_,[373] and adding the diminutive _kin_, Lubberkin, a name of one of the clowns in Gay's Pastorals, was an original name of some kind of spirit. We shall presently see that the Irish name of the Leprechaun is actually Lubberkin. As to the origin of the name we have little to say, but it may have had a sense the very opposite of the present one of _lubber_, and have been connected with the verb _to leap_.[374] Grimm[375] tells of a spirit named the Good Lubber, to whom the bones of animals used to be offered at Mansfield in Germany; but we see no resemblance between him and our Lob of spirits; we might rather trace a connexion with the French Lutin, Lubin.[376] The phrase of _being in_ or _getting into Lob's Pound_ (like the "Pouke's pondfold,") is easy of explanation, if we suppose Lob to be a sportive spirit. It is equivalent to being _Poake-ledden_ or _Pixy-led_. * * * * * Wight, answering to the German _Wicht_, seems to have been used in the time of Chaucer for elf or fairy, most probably for such as haunted houses, or it may have had the signification of _witch_, which is evidently another form of it. In the Miller's Tale the carpenter says, I crouchè thee from elvès and from _wights_. And Jesu Crist, and Seint Benedight, Blisse this house from every wicked _wight_![377] Urchin is a term which, like _elf_ and such like, we still apply to children, but which seems formerly to have been one of the appellations of the fairies. Reginald Scott, as we have seen, places it in his list, and we find it in the following places of the poets:-- _Urchins_ Shall for the vast of night that they may work All exercise on thee.--_Tempest_, i. 2. His spirits hear me, And yet I needs must curse; but they'll not pinch. Fright me with _urchin-shows_, pitch me i' the mire, Nor lead me like a fire-brand in the dark Out of my way, unless he bid 'em.--_Ib._ ii. 2. Like _urchins_, ouphs, and fairies. _Merry Wives of Windsor_, iv. 4.