And in the steed of such Good-fellow sprites With milke and creame that friends for him prepar'd (Though in the morning all things safe remaine,) Shall have his breakfast with a rope and butter; To which let all his fellows be invited, That with such deeds of darknesse are delighted." Skinner Bogle-boe, which seems, at least in sound, to bear some affinity to hob-goblin, is said to be derived from the Welsh bwgwly, to terrify, and boe, a frightful sound invented by nurses to intimidate their children into good behaviour, with the idea of some monster about to take them away. seems to fetch it from buculus, i. e. bos boans, a lowing ox. See Lye's Junii Etymolog. in verbo. Well has etymology been called 'eruditio ad libitum.' Boggle-bo, says Coles, in his Latin Dictionary, 1678, (now corruptly termed Bugabow,) signified "an ugly wide-mouthed picture carried about with May-games." It is perhaps nothing more than the diminutive of bug, a terrifying object. In Mathews's Bible, Psalm xci. (v. 5) is rendered, "Thou shalt not nede to be afraied for any bugs by night." In the Hebrew it is "terror of the night;" a curious passage, evidently alluding to that horrible sensation the night-mare, which in all ages has been regarded as the operation of evil spirits. Compare Douce's Illustr. of Shakespeare, i. 328. Boh, Warton tells us, was one of the most fierce and formidable of the Gothic generals, and the son of Odin; the mention of whose name only was sufficient to spread an immediate panic among his enemies. Few will question the probability of an opinion that has the sanction of the very ingenious person who has advanced this: it is an additional instance of the inconstancy of fame. The terror of warriors has dwindled down into a name contemptible with men, and only retained for the purpose of intimidating children. A reflection as mortifying to human vanity as that of Hamlet, whose imagination traced the noblest dust of Alexander till he found it stopping a bung-hole. Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, viii. 219, ed. 1789-90, speaking of the general of the Persian monarch Chosroes, in the beginning of the seventh century, says: "The name of Narses was the formidable sound with which the Assyrian mothers were accustomed to terrify their infants." The same writer, xi. 146, speaking of our Richard Plantagenet, Cœur de Lion, who was in Palestine, 1192, says: "The memory of this lion-hearted prince, at the distance of sixty years, was celebrated in proverbial sayings by the grandsons of the Turks and Saracens against whom he had fought: his tremendous name was employed by the Syrian mothers to silence their infants; and if a horse suddenly started from the way, his rider was wont to exclaim, Dost thou think King Richard is in that bush?" Ibid. xii. 166, he says, speaking of Huniades, titular King of Hungary, about A.D. 1456, "By the Turks, who employed his name to frighten their perverse children, he was corruptly denominated Jancus Lain, or the wicked." Amongst the objects to terrify children, we must not forget Rawhead and Bloodybones, who twice occurs in Butler's Hudibras: And again : "Turns meek and secret sneaking ones "Made children with your tones to run for't, As bad as Bloody-bones or Lunsford." Lunsford was an officer's name, said to have been cruel to women and children. See Grainger, ii. 243, note. 517 POPULAR NOTIONS CONCERNING THE APPARITION OF THE DEVIL. THERE is no vulgar story of the devil's having appeared anywhere without a cloven foot. It is observable also that this infernal enemy, in graphic representations of him, is seldom or never pictured without one. The learned Sir Thomas Browne is full on this subject of popular superstition in his Vulgar Errors: "The ground of this opinion at first," says he, "might be his frequent appearing in the shape of a goat, ,"2 (this accounts also for his horns and tail,) "which answer this description. This was the opinion of the ancient Christians concerning the apparition of Panites, Fauns, and Satyrs; and of this form we read of one that appeared to Anthony in the Wilderness. The same is also confirmed from expositions of Holy Scripture. For whereas it is said, Thou shalt not offer unto devils: the original word is Seghuirim, that is, rough and hairy goats, because in that shape the devil most often appeared, as is expounded by the Rabins, as Tremellius hath also explained, and as the word Ascimah, the God of Emath, is by some conceived." He observes, also, that the goat was the emblem of the sin-offering, and is the emblem of sinful men at the day of judgment.3 'Othello says, in the Moor of Venice: "I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable; which Dr. Johnson explains: "I look towards his feet to see if, according to the common opinion, his feet be cloven." 2 There is a popular superstition relative to goats: they are supposed never to be seen for twenty-four hours together; and that once in that space, they pay a visit to the devil in order to have their beards combed. This is common both in England and Scotland. 3 It is observed in the Connoisseur, No. 109, that "the famous Sir Thomas Browne refuted the generally-received opinion, that the devil is black, has horns* upon his head, wears a long curling tail and a cloven stump: nay has even denied that, wheresoever he goes, he always leaves a smell of brimstone behind him." * Sir Thomas Browne informs us, "that the Moors describe the devil and terrible objects white." Vulgar Errors, p. 281. In Sphinx and Edipus, or a Helpe to Discourse, 8vo. Lond. 1632, p. 271, we read, that "the devil never appears in the shape of a dove, or a lamb, but in those of goats, dogs, and cats, or such like; and that to the witch of Edmunton he appeared in the shape of a dog, and called his name Dom." In Massinger's Virgin Martyr, 1658, act iii. sc. 1, Harpax, an evil spirit, following Theophilus, in the shape of a secretary, speaks thus of the superstitious Christian's description of his infernal master: "I'll tell you what now of the devil: Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, ed. 1665, p. 85, has the following curious passage on this subject: "In our childhood, our mother's maids have so terrified us with an ugly devil, having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, and a tail in his breech, eyes like a bason, fangs like a dog, claws like a bear, a skin like a niger, and a voyce roaring like a lyon, whereby we start and are afraid when we hear one cry Bough!" He adds: "And they have so frayed us with bul-beggars, spirits, witches, urchens, elves, hags, fairies, satyrs, pans, faunes, sylens, Kit with the canstick, tritons, centaures, dwarfes, gyants, imps, calcars, conjurers, nymphes, changlings, incubus, Robin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the mare, the man in the oak, the hell-wain, the fire-drake, the puckle, Tom-thumbe, hob-goblin, Tom-tumbler, boneless, and such other bugs, that we are afraid of our own shadowes; insomuch that some never feare the devil but in a dark night, &c." The learned and pious Mede, also, in his Discourses, has ventured some thoughts on this subject, as follows: "The devil could not appear in humane shape, while man was in his integrity; because he was a spirit fallen from his first glorious perfection, and therefore must appear in such shape which might argue his imperfection and abasement, which was the shape of a beast; otherwise, no reason can be given why he should not rather have appeared to Eve in the shape of a woman than of a serpent. But, since the fall of man, the case is altered; now we know he can take upon him the shape of man. He appears, it seems, in the shape of man's imperfection, either for age or deformity, as like an old man (for so the witches say); and perhaps it is not altogether false, which is vulgarly affirmed, that the devil, appearing in human shape, has always a deformity of some uncouth member or other: as though he could not yet take upon him human shape entirely, for that man himself is not entirely and utterly fallen, as he is."l This infernal visitant appears in no instance to have been treated with more sang froid on his appearing, or rather, perhaps, his imagined appearance, than by one Mr. White of Dorchester, Assessor to the Westminster Assembly at Lambeth, as published by Mr. Samuel Clark: "The devil, in a light night, stood by his bed-side: he looked awhile whether he would say or do anything, and then said, *If thou hast nothing else to do, I have; and so turned himself to sleep." Baxter's World of Spirits, p. 63. He adds, that "many say it from Mr. White himself." One has only to wonder, on this occasion, that a person who could so effectually lay the devil, could have been induced to think, or rather dream of raising him. An essayist in the Gent. Mag., Oct. 1732, ii. 1001, observes, that, "As for the great evil spirit, it is for his interest to be masked and invisible. Amongst his sworn vassals and subjects he may allow himself to appear in disguise at a public pawwawing (which is attested by a cloud of travellers), but there is no instance of his appearing among us, except that produced by Mr. Echard, to a man in so close confederacy with him, that it was reasonable to suppose they should now and then contrive a personal meeting.' Old Nick is the vulgar name of this evil being2 in the North of England, and is a name of great antiquity. There is a great deal of learning concerning it in Olaus Wormius's Danish Monuments. We borrowed it from the title of an evil genius among the ancient Danes. They say he has often appeared on the sea and on deep rivers in the shape of a seamonster, presaging immediate shipwreck and drowning to seamen.3 Mede, Disc. 40.-Grose says, "Although the devil can partly transform himself into a variety of shapes, he cannot change his cloven foot, which will always mark him under every appearance." 2 Thus Butler, in Hudibras, iii., i. 1313: "Nick Machiavel had ne'er a trick, (Though he gives name to our Old Nick.)" We may observe on this passage, however, that he was called Old Nick many ages before the famous, or rather infamous Nicholas Machiavel was born. 3 See Lye's Junii Etymolog. in v. Nick. A writer in the Gent. Mag. for March 1777, xlvii. 119, says: "Nobody has accounted for the devil's |