quod
simplicitatem fortunatonum_ _colonorum amplectuntur, et cum nocturnas
propter domesticas operas agunt vigilias, subito clausis januis ad
ignem califiunt, et ranunculus ex sinu projectas, prunis impositas
concedunt, senili vultu, facie corrugata, statura pusilli, dimidium
pollicis non habentes. Panniculis consertis induuntur, et si quid
gestandum in domo fuerit, aut onerosi opens agendum, ad operandum se
jungunt citius humana facilitate expediunt. Id illis insitum est, ut
obsequi possint et obesse non possint_."--Otia. Imp. p. 980. In every
respect, saving only the feeding upon frogs, which was probably
an attribute of the Gallic spirits alone, the above description
corresponds with that of the Scottish Brownie. But the latter,
although, like Milton's lubbar fiend, he loves to stretch himself
by the fire[53], does not drudge from the hope of recompence. On the
contrary, so delicate is his attachment, that the offer of reward,
but particularly of food, infallibly occasions his disappearance for
ever[54]. We learn from Olaus Magnus, that spirits, somewhat similar
in their operations to the Brownie, were supposed to haunt the Swedish
mines. The passage, in the translation of 1658, runs thus: "This
is collected in briefe, that in northerne kingdomes there are great
armies of devils, that have their services, which they perform with
the inhabitants of these countries: but they are most frequent in
rocks and mines, where they break, cleave, and make them hollow: which
also thrust in pitchers and buckets, and carefully fit wheels and
screws, whereby they are drawn upwards; and they shew themselves to
the labourers, when they list, like phantasms and ghosts." It seems no
improbable conjecture, that the Brownie is a legitimate descendant of
the _Lar Familiaris_ of the ancients.

[Footnote 53:

--how the drudging goblin swet,
To earn the cream-bowl, duly set;
When, in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shadowy flail had thresh'd the corn,
That ten day-lab'rers could not end;
Then lies him down the lubbar fiend,
And, stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength;
And, crop-full, out of doors he flings,
E'er the first cock his matin rings.

_L'Allegro_.

When the menials in a Scottish family protracted their vigils around
the kitchen fire, Brownie, weary of being excluded from the midnight
hearth, sometimes appeared at the door, seemed to watch their
departure, and