I. To the traditions of the east, the Fairies of Britain owe, I think,
little more than the appellation, by which they have been distinguished
since the days of the crusade. The term "Fairy," occurs not only
in Chaucer, and in yet older English authors, but also, and more
frequently, in the romance language; from which they seem to have
adopted it. Ducange cites the following passage from Gul. Guiart, in
_Historia Francica_, MS.

Plusiers parlent de Guenart,
Du Lou, de L'Asne, de Renart,
De _Faeries_ et de Songes,
De phantosmes et de mensonges.

The _Lay le Frain_, enumerating the subjects of the Breton Lays, informs
us expressly,

Many ther beth _faery_.

By some etymologists of that learned class, who not only know whence
words come, but also whither they are going, the term _Fairy_, or
_Faerie_, is derived from _Fae_, which is again derived from _Nympha_.
It is more probable the term is of oriental origin, and is derived from
the Persic, through the medium of the Arabic. In Persic, the term _Peri_
expresses a species of imaginary being, which resembles the Fairy in
some of its qualities, and is one of the fairest creatures of romantic
fancy. This superstition must have been known to the Arabs, among whom
the Persian tales, or romances, even as early as the time of Mahomet,
were so popular, that it required the most terrible denunciations of
that legislator to proscribe them. Now, in the enunciation of the Arabs,
the term _Peri_ would sound _Fairy_, the letter _p_ not occurring in
the alphabet of that nation; and, as the chief intercourse of the early
crusaders was with the Arabs, or Saracens, it is probable they would
adopt the term according to their pronounciation. Neither will it be
considered as an objection to this opinion, that in Hesychius, the
Ionian term _Phereas_, or _Pheres_, denotes the satyrs of classical
antiquity, if the number of words of oriental origin in that
lexicographer be recollected. Of the Persian Peris, Ouseley, in his
_Persian Miscellanies_, has described some characteristic traits, with
all the luxuriance of a fancy, impregnated with the oriental association
of ideas. However vaguely their nature and appearance is described, they
are uniformly represented as gentle, amiable females, to whose character
beneficence and beauty are essential. None of them are mischievous or
malignant; none of them are deformed or diminutive, like the Gothic
fairy. Though they correspond in bea