tself shall have an end;
By day, they scour earth's caverned space;
At midnight's witching hour, ascend.

This is the horn, and hound, and horse,
That oft the 'lated peasant hears;
Appalled, he signs the frequent cross,
When the wild din invades his ears.

Dwarfs and Gnomes

Beings of the dwarf race swarmed on the banks of Rhine. First and
foremost among these are the gnomes, who guard the subterranean
treasures, but who on occasion reveal them to mortals. We meet with
these very frequently under different guises, as, for instance, in the
case of the 'Cooper of Auerbach,' and the Yellow Dwarf who appears in
the legend of Elfeld. The Heldenbuch, the ancient book in which are
collected the deeds of the German heroes of old, says that "God gave the
dwarfs being because the land on the mountains was altogether waste and
uncultivated, and there was much store of silver and gold and precious
stones and pearls still in the mountains. Wherefore God made the dwarfs
very artful and wise, that they might know good and evil right well, and
for what everything was good. Some stones give great strength, some make
those who carry them about them invisible. That is called a mist-cap,
and therefore did God give the dwarfs skill and wisdom. Therefore they
built handsome hollow-hills, and God gave them riches."

Keightley, in his celebrated Fairy Mythology, tells of a class of dwarfs
called Heinzelmaennchen, who used to live and perform their exploits
in Cologne. These were obviously of the same class as the brownies of
Scotland, Teutonic house-spirits who attached themselves to the owners
of certain dwellings, and Keightley culled the following anecdote
regarding them from a Cologne publication issued in 1826:

"In the time that the Heinzelmaennchen were still there, there was in
Cologne many a baker who kept no man, for the little people used always
to make, overnight, as much black and white bread as the baker wanted
for his shop. In many houses they used to wash and do all their work for
the maids.

"Now, about this time, there was an expert tailor to whom they appeared
to have taken a great fancy, for when he married he found in his house,
on the wedding-day, the finest victuals and the most beautiful utensils,
which the little folk had stolen elsewhere and brought to their
favourite. When, with time, his family increased, the little ones used
to give the tailor's wife considerable aid in her hou