FOOTNOTES:
“Trois pas du côté du banc,
Et trois pas du côté du lit;
Trois pas du côté du coffre,
Et trois pas—— Revenez ici.”
(Old Song of the Dancing Master.)
[19] All passages bearing on this point have been gathered together in two learned works by M. Maury (Les Fées, 1843; and La Magie, 1860). See also Grimm.
[20] A body of tales by the Trouvères of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.—Trans.
[21] This loyalty of hers is very touching indeed. In the fifth century the peasants braved persecution by parading the gods of the old religion in the shape of small dolls made of linen or flour. Still the same in the eighth century. The Capitularies threaten death in vain. In the twelfth century, Burchard, of Worms, attests their inutility. In 1389, the Sorbonne inveighs against certain traces of heathenism, while in 1400, Gerson talks of it as still a lively superstition.
[22] A. Maury, Magie, 159.
[23] This is a favourite haunt of the little rogue’s. To this day the Swiss, knowing his tastes, make him a present of some milk. His name among them is troll (drôle); among the Germans kobold, nix. In France he is called follet, goblin, lutin; in England, Puck, Robin Goodfellow. Shakespeare says, he does sleepy servants the kindness to pinch them black and blue, in order to rouse them.