]XTI:tACTS. A'IGHTIY'S "FAIRY MYTHDLOGT'." OItlGTN 01 e THK WORD "FAIRY. n Like every other word in eztensive use, whose dorivstion Lsuot hisraScally certain, the wordfa/bts obtaine vorieu and opposiLe etymons. Meyric Ca;aun, and those who like him dedu everythinj from a cltmlc source, however unlikely, dervefai, from the Greek s; .(fpdro), which Hesychius interprets Centaurs [p, us ias been justJy observed. (preface to Warton) is the Ionic form of ,, has is nearly related Co the Gemran tAr, beasts. animals. The Scandinavian dr and the same aignification ;. and it is curiou. to 5beerye the restried sense. the word ham ?ynp/at, en in the English deer]; or think that f�, whence fm,-y; is the last syllable a Sir W. Ouseley derives.it from the Hebrew 'e (pAe), beauty; Skinner from the Anglo-Saxon ]:apart, to fare, to go; others from f,'es, conrpnions; or thLuk that Fairy-folk is Fair folk. Finally, it has been queried if it be not Cltic [preface to Warton, p. 44; and Brett,n, philolo.qi.t, furnishes us with an � tmo, de,d, (Moumens Cehiques), come from the Breton nt or mad, u co,wtruction/af, good; wh, nce the. English, Bur, no theory is so plauaiBle, or is supported By such nnmes, as that .which de,hce the English Fairy from the Perian Peri. It is s:dd that the Paymn foe, whom the warriors of the Cross encountered in Palestine, spoke only Arabic, the alphabet of which language, it is well-known, ses mo p, and terefore organcally substitutes an f in such foreign words as contain the former letter; coosequently, Peri became in the month of an Arab Feri. whence the crusaders .and pilg, ima, who carried back to Europe the marvettom tale of Asia, introduced into the West the Arab,oPersian word jai,.y. It is far added,tthat the Morgai, or Morgana, mo celebrated inld minanee, is Mcrjn t'eri, equally celebrated al.l ov.e.r the East. All that is wanting to this so very plausible theory is sometking hke l,roo.f, and pome sl]ght agreement with the ordinary rules of etymology. Hd Feere, or Fairy, originally signified the individual in the French anti- English, the only languages in which the wo.& occurs, we might fel disposed to acquiesce in it. But they ,'o not: and even ff they did, how should we deduce. fim them the Italian Fate and the Spanish Fade or Hada (words which unquetto,ably stand. for the same . imaginry being)unlesaon the incitle by which Meag.e dedu? Lutnj from Lemur e --the first letter being the same iu bo*h to the fazr Merjan Pen (D'Herbelot .. calls h,r M[erjan Bantu [D'Herbelot ttre [ergia,,, ays, "C'est du nora de cette F&
- . l.ue ,es antions romans ont form& clui de ,lfortante la D.con. nue. He lere confounds
, za,,r,,a witl Urganda, and he has been f,,llowe, I in bin're,stake. D'Herbelot also thi.k .it possible that Fer/e my come from Peri; but he regards the cornman dertva, z,m from Fate as much more proable. Cambrian etymoh,gsts say that Motgain is Mot Gwynn, the White Maid]), we fancy a little too much iml,ortanee has been attached to her.. Her name, am far as we can learn, only occurs in the Cahermnn Nameh, a Turkish roma,ce, translated perhaps from the Peralan. All the foregoing etymologiee, be it observed, are the conjetS. urea of English
