an evil sprite; and in the language of that country, 'at pukra' means
both to make a murmuring noise and to steal clandestinely. The names of
these spirits seem to have originated in their boisterous
temper--'spuken,' Germ. to make a noise: 'spog,' Dan. obstreperous
mirth; 'pukke,' Dan. to boast, scold. The Germans use 'pochin' in the
same figurative sense, though literally it means to strike, beat; and is
the same with our _poke_."

However varied in name, the persons and attributes of these immaterial
beings have no variance which will not readily be accounted for by the
difference of climate, territorial surface, and any priority that one
tribe had gained over another in the march of mind. The relics of such a
system were much more abundant half-a-century ago, and many a tale of
love and violence, garnished with the machinery of that _mythos_, might
have been gleaned from the unwritten learning of the people. Who would
expect to find amongst the rudest of the Irish peasantry--whose
ancestors never knew the use of letters, and by whom, even down to
living generations, the English tongue has not been spoken--a number of
fictions, amongst the rest the tale of Cupid and Psyche--closely
corresponding to that of the Greeks?[7] Who that has been a child does
not recollect the untiring delight with which he listened to those
ingenious arithmetical progressions, reduced to poetry, called "_The
House that Jack built_," and the perils of "_The Old Woman with the
Pig_?" Few even of those in riper years would suspect their Eastern
origin. In the _Sepher Haggadah_ there is an ancient parabolical hymn,
in the Chaldee language, sung by the Jews at the feast of the Passover,
and commemorative of the principal events in the history of that people.
For the following literal translation we are indebted to Dr Henderson,
the celebrated orientalist:--