y left
undisturbed such of it as they perceived on the fairy-rings,
apprehensive that the fairies should in revenge destroy their beauty.
Nor was it considered safe to put the foot within the rings, lest they
should be liable to the fairies' power.[32] The "Athenian Oracle" (i.
397) mentions a popular belief that "if a house be built upon the ground
where fairy rings are, whoever shall inhabit therein does wonderfully
prosper."

[32] Douce's "Illustrations of Shakespeare," p. 112.

Speaking of their dress, we are told that they constantly wore green
vests, unless they had some reason for changing their attire. In the
"Merry Wives of Windsor" (iv. 4) they are spoken of as--

"Urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white."

And further on (v. 4):

"Fairies, black, grey, green, and white."

The fairies of the moors were often clad in heath-brown or lichen-dyed
garments, whence the epithet of "Elfin-grey."[33]

[33] Ritson's "Fairy Mythology," 1878, pp. 26, 27.

The legends of most countries are unanimous in ascribing to the fairies
an inordinate love of music; such harmonious sounds as those which
Caliban depicts in "The Tempest" (iii. 2) being generally ascribed to
them:

"The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again."

In the "Midsummer-Night's Dream" (ii. 3), when Titania is desirous of
taking a nap, she says to her attendants:

"Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song."

And further on (iii. 1) she tells Bottom:

"I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep."

The author of "Round About our Coal Fire"[34] tells us that "they had
fine musick always among themselves, and danced in a moonshiny night,
around, or in, a ring."

[34] Quoted by Brand, "Pop. Antiq.," vol. ii. p. 481.

They were equally fond of dancing, and we are told how they meet--

"To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind;"

and in the "Maydes' Metamorphosis" of Lyly, the fairies, as they dance,
sing:

"Round about, round about, in a fine ring a,
Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing a,
Trip and go, to and fro, over this green a,
All