warning them of their peculiar nature. A few miles from Alnwick was a
fairy-ring, round which if people ran more than nine times, some evil
was supposed to befall them.

It is generally agreed that fairies were extremely fond of dancing
around oaks, and thus in addressing the monarch of the forest a poet has
exclaimed:


"The fairies, from their nightly haunt,
In copse or dell, or round the trunk revered
Of Herne's moon-silvered oak, shall chase away
Each fog, each blight, and dedicate to peace
Thy classic shade."


In Sweden the miliary fever is said by the peasantry to be caused by the
elf-mote or meeting with elves, as a remedy for which the lichen aphosus
or lichen caninus is sought.

The toadstools often found near these so-called fairy-rings were also
thought to be their workmanship, and in some localities are styled
pixy-stools, and in the North of Wales "fairy-tables," while the
"cheeses," or fruit of the mallow, are known in the North of England as
"fairy-cheeses."

A species of wood fungus found about the roots of old trees is
designated "fairy-butter," because after rain, and when in a certain
degree of putrefaction, it is reduced to a consistency which, together
with its colour, makes it not unlike butter. The fairy-butter of the