rge chrystal,
of a figure somewhat oval, was kept by the priests to work charms by;
water poured upon it at this day is given to cattle against diseases;
these stones are now preserved by the oldest and most superstitious in
the country; they were once common in Ireland."

[948] "Fairy Queen," bk. iii. c. 2; see Singer's "Shakespeare,"
vol. ix. p. 82.

[949] Boisteau's "Theatrum Mundi," translated by John Alday (1574).

[950] 1849, vol. iii. pp. 60, 61.

Further allusions to fortune-tellers occur in "Comedy of Errors" (v. 1),
and "Merry Wives of Windsor" (iv. 2).

It appears, too, that the trade of fortune-telling was, in Shakespeare's
day, as now, exercised by the wandering hordes of gypsies. In "Antony
and Cleopatra" (iv. 12), the Roman complains that Cleopatra

"Like a right gipsy, hath, at fast and loose,
Beguil'd me to the very heart of loss."

_Giants._ The belief in giants and other monsters was much credited in
olden times, and, "among the legends of nearly every race or tribe, few
are more universal than those relating to giants or men of colossal size
and superhuman power."[951] That such stories were current in
Shakespeare's day, is attested by the fact that the poet makes Othello
(i. 3), in his eloquent defence before the Senate of Venice, when
explaining his method of courtship, allude to

"the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders."

[951] See Hardwick's "Traditions, Superstitions, and
Folk-Lore," 1872, pp. 197, 224.

In "The Tempest" (iii. 3), Gonzalo relates how--

"When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men,
Whose heads stood in their breasts?"

And after the appearance of Prospero's magic repast, Sebastian says:

"Now I will believe
That there are unicorns; that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne; one phoenix
At this hour reigning there."

Among the numerous references to giants by Shakespeare, we may quote the
following. In "2 Henry VI." (ii. 3), Horner says: "Peter, have at thee
with a downright blow [as Bevis of Southampton fell upon
Ascapart]."[952]

[952] The addition in brackets is rejected by the editors of
the Globe edition.

Ascapar