EXTRACTS. xix
^xlKfft the people to lead a godl v and pious life ; and the great Emperor, Charles Y., Tvith golden orowii and eoeptre, attended by knights and lords. His grey beard has twice enoompassed the table at which be sits ; and when it has the third time grown round it, the end of the world and the appearance of Antichrist will take place. Kobolds. — ^The Kobold is exactly the same being as the Danish Kts, Soottiah Brownie, and English Hob^obUji, He performs the very same services for tiie family to whom he attaches himself. When the Kobold is about coming \ iato any place, he fir»t, in this way, makes trial of the disposition of the family. ^ Se brings chips and sawidust into the house, and throws dirt into the milk vessels. If the master of the house takes care that the chips are not scattered about, and f that the dirt is left in the vessels, and the milk drunk out of them, the Kobold, eomee and stnys in the house as long as t)>ere is one of the family alive. The diiange ^ servants does not affect the Kobold, who still remains. The maid who is going away must commeud him to her successor to take care of him and treat him well. If she does not so, things go ill with her till she is also obliged to ieaiw the place. The history of the celebrated Hinzlemann will give a most full and satisfactory information respecting the nature and prop^ties of KoboJds. Nixss.— The Nixes inhabit lakes and rivers. The man is like any other man, ooly he has green teeth ; he also wears a green hat. The female Nixes appear like l)eautaful maidens. On fine sunny days they may be seen sitting on the banks, or on the branches of the trees, combing their long golden locks. \Vhen any person is shortly to be drowned, the Kixes may be previously seen dancing on the surface of the water. They inhabit a magnificent region below the water, whither they some- times convey mortals A girl from a village near Leipsig was one time at service in the house of a Nix. She said that everything there was very good ; all she had to complain of was that she was obliged to eat her food without salt. The female Nixes frequently go to the market to buy meat : thfj are always dressed with extreme neatness, only a corner of their apron or some other part of their clothes is wet.
WAETON'S " HISTORY OF POETJKT."
How fa.r back the origin of dwarfish agents, who are to be met with in the popular creed of every li)uropean nation, cannot now be precisely ascertained. ube earliest memorials of them in the fiction of Germany and Scandinavia Jireseut us with the same divinities who, in the mythology of Hellas, were known ; 4iy the various names of Cabiri, Hephaesti, Telchines, and Idssan Dactyli.
In otlier countries of Europe the traces of their existence are not so clearly •defined ; and if a few scattered traditions seem to favour a contrary opinion, it is
- «)ually certain that they have been more freqneatly confounded with a kindred race,
the (Brownies or Fairies). The former, as is well known, are the same diroinitive beings with the Lares of Latium, an order of beneficent spirits whom Cicero IT has taught us to consider as nearly identical with the Grecian Dosmon. In Germany ': they have received a long catalogue of appellations, all descriptive of their form, ) ^Mir disposition, or their dress ; but whether marked by the title of Gutichen, \ Brownie, Lar, or Dmmon, we observe in all the same points of general resemblance : ,\ sili have been regarded alike as the guardians of the domestic hearth, the awarders of lntMperity, and the averters of evil. The English Puck, the Scottish Bogle, the French Esprit Follet, or Goblin — the Gobelinus of monkish latiuity, — and the <Serman Kobold are only varied names for the Grecian Kobalus ; whose sole delight consisted in perplexing the human race, and calling up those hsrmless terrors that constantly hover round the minds of the timid. To excite the wrath, indeed, of this Aiiechievoas spirit, was attended with fatal consequences to the luckless objects
