the small folk familiarly spoken of everywhere, though known among different people by various names. They are usually represented as of small and graceful human shape, although they may appear in any form they choose. Among almost all peoples there is a classification of fairies into good and evil spirits, the good spirits inhabiting the air and the evil ones dwelling underground. In northern Europe the fairies are divided into two races: the elves, graceful, sportive fairies who dance about the woods and often take a beneficent interest in the affairs of human beings; and the dwarfs, or gnomes, who dwell underground and are the guardians of the jewels and metals hidden in the earth. They are for the most part somewhat malicious spirits, although their cleverness and their ability to forge wonderful weapons make them of great use to mankind if they can be induced to be favorable. A part of the dwarfs, known as trolls, live in the hills and often emerge to steal from men not only personal property, but women and children. These little beings are regarded, not as immortal, but as living for a very long period. Besides these spirits which inhabit the earth, there is supposed to be, by most northern nations, a class of nixies, water spirits, who, though not distinctly malicious, are very fond of enticing men or carrying them off by force to their caves in the sea. Among these nixies the most famous was the Lorelei, who from her cliff on the Rhine lured sailors to death by her beauty and the sweetness of her song. Undines, a sort of water spirits, are supposed to enter sometimes into various relations with human beings. If an undine marries a mortal and bears a child, she receives a soul. In Ireland, pixies are certain small beings into whom enter the souls of children who die unbaptized. In Ireland, too, as in Scotland, there is a belief in banshees, little old women who take up their abode in all houses of any importance and announce the death of a member of a family by wailing or by appearing in mortal form. Perhaps the most perfect ideal of the fairy type is the Persian peri, who lives upon perfume and tries by loving deeds to win an entrance to paradise, from which she is shut out by her lack of a soul. Of course each nation adapts its fairies somewhat to its own customs. Thus, the Russian fairy is regarded as clad always in furs; the Chinese fairy wears a queue, and the Hindoo fairy has the wisdom of the Brahmins. English fairies are thought of chiefly in connection with the flowery fields and woods, about which they are supposed to dance on summer nights. Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream gives a vivid idea of some of the more common fairy myths in England. The origin of these creatures of the imagination is probably similar to that of all myths. Every phase of nature which demands accounting for is explained as the manifestation of some supernatural being. As education increases, the belief in fairies of course diminishes, but among the uneducated peasant classes the belief is still strong in most countries. There is a large literature of fairy tales, among the best of which are Hans Christian Andersen's and Grimm's Fairy Tales. These, of course, deal not only with fairies but with all sorts of supernatural beings and treat often of everyday objects as if they were possessed of intelligence and the power of speech.