ngraving.
Every evening, as soon as the moon rose, they assembled at some convenient
place, took hold of each other's hands, usually in a ring, I think, and
then they had a right merry time of it, you may depend. It did not seem to
make any difference, whether the spot selected for the dance was on the
land or on the sea. Indeed, they could dance pretty well in the air,
without any thing to stand upon. The assemblies held in the palaces of the
king and queen of the fairies, were, at times, splendid in the extreme. No
poet, in his most lofty flights of fancy, ever dreamed of such beauty and
splendor as were exhibited at the fairy court. They rode on milk-white
steeds. Their dresses were of brilliant green, and were rich beyond
conception. When they mingled in the dance, or moved in procession among
the shady groves, or over the delightful meadows, covered with the fairest
of flowers, music, such as mortal lips cannot utter, floated on the breeze.

However, these splendors, astonishing as they were, all vanished in a
moment, whenever the eye of any one gifted with the power of spiritual
communion was turned upon them. Then their treasures of gold and silver
became slate-stones, and their stately halls were turned into damp caverns.
They themselves, instead of being the beautiful creatures they were before,
became ugly as a hedge-fence.

The king of fairy land was called _Oberon_--the queen, _Titania_.
The king used to wear a crown of jewels on his head, and he always carried
a horn in his hand, which set every body around him to dancing, whenever he
blew it. Ben Jonson, a poet who flourished a great many years ago, speaks
very respectfully of fairies and elves, in his poems. In describing the
haunts of his "Sad Shepherd," he says--

"There, in the stocks of trees, white fays do dwell,
And span-long elves that dance about a pool."

Shakspeare, too, in several of his plays, makes us quite familiar with the
fairy people. Shakspeare, you are aware, wrote in the time of Elizabeth,
and as late as that period, there were thousands in England and Scotland in
whose creed the existence of such a race of spirits was a very important
article. It was not long, however, after this, before the superstition
about the fairies--which, at the worst, was a very foolish affair--began to
decline. But that decline brought a dark night to thousands of poor,
innocent men and women; for then came the era of witchcraft, and persons of
e