because of the red feathers upon its breast, as anybody may see; but why should a Red-breast be called 'Robin ?"

"Indeed, Emily," said Mrs. Paulett, "I am afraid that I cannot tell you: you must ask your papa. You know that your papa likes you to ask such questions; for he says that there is a reason for every thing, and especially for all words and names; and that he thinks it very ill-informed and foolish, when people say, that names or words have no meaning, and that things are called so and so, and only because they are so called."

Emily lost no time in putting her question to her papa; but the latter began his reply by confessing that he was not sure he could explain the application of the name of "Robin," though he had his suspicions (he subjoined) as to the real origin. "But first," said he, "you must remember, that it has been a practice, all over the world, to use familiar names for animals, either proper names or descriptive ones, in speaking either to them, or of them. The Swedes call the Redbreast Tommi Liden; the Norwegians, Peter Ros-mad (or Red-breast); and the Germans, Thomas Gierdet. As to descriptive names, the Arabs call a number of animals by the name of ' fathers,' while, by this, they only mean, that they are of a gray colour, or coloured like the heads and beards of aged or gray-headed men; and it is thus that you and your schoolfellows," said he, to Richard, "call a certain large gray fly, of the gnat kind or figure, by the name of Father Longlegs;'-for all the gnats are gray." "But all fathers," said Richard, "have not gray heads nor beards? You have none yourself, papa?"

"The term 'father,' however," observed Mr. Paulett,

" is also applied generally to aged men; and besides, all fathers are old, as compared with boys and girls. But you know that you also make the addition of Old Father Longlegs;' an epithet which may either imply that the insect is 'old,' because it is a 'father;' or, that this is an 'old father,' because it is gray, while other fathers are young. But so much, as to familiar and descriptive names of animals. With respect to proper ones (as Meg, or Mag, or Margery, or Margaret, for a pie or piet; and this of Robin, for a Redbreast), there are many which might be mentioned; but I think that this of Robin,' which is the French diminutive of 'Robert,' has been given to the Redbreast as calling it, in fondness and respect, a fairy." "A fairy, papa," cried Emily?

"Yes, my love, a fairy;" answered Mr. Paulett, " and only in the best form of that fanciful idea; for I need not remind you, that in all your fairy tales and tales of the genii, which have the same meaning, you always read of fairies and genii both good and bad.”

But, la! papa, why should they call a Red-breast a fairy," still pursued the inquisitive Emily?

"A good fairy, because of the gentleness of the manners which we witness in it; because of its entering our houses like a little household god; because of its hanging about us, in our walks, along the hedgerows or in the woods, like a little guardian spirit; because of the softness and noiselessness of its motions, and of the kindness, that is, the esteem which it seems to feel for us: for it receives so prettily, that we are almost as thankful as if it gave! e!"

66

0 рара," ," said the now satisfied Emily; "I shall love Robin better than ever, now that I think he is a fairy; though I know that fairies are all nonsense, and

that there are no such things: but, then, it is so pretty to think and talk of them!"

"You are like my Cumberland shepherd; you are for pleasures of the eye, and of the imagination, as well as for those that are more substantial. But, since you are so sensible a little girl, and, by the help of your mamma, have so well learned that there are no such things as fairies in reality, though you must continually hear of them, either in the poetry of the learned, or in the superstitions of the ignorant; I may add, that I think Gray had some notion (though, perhaps, but indistinctly) of this fairy character of the Red-breast, where, in an omitted verse of his famous Elegy, he says,

And little footsteps lightly print the ground;'

words which may seem to have a double allusion, one to the covering of the Children in the Wood with leaves, by the Robin-red-breasts; and the other to the fabled rings and dances of the fairies."

But why, papa," said Richard, fairy be called Robin, or Robert ?"

"should even a

"I am not sure that I know," replied Mr. Paulett, " and therefore I will say nothing about that; but so it is, that this name implies a fairy throughout Europe: : not the king of the fairies, Oberon; but the most active of them, sometimes called Robin Goodfellow, but who, under another aspect (for it is the same fairies who are good and bad) might also be called Robin Badfellow. As Goodfellow he does all manner of acts of kindness, and as Badfellow, every sort of mischief."

"Then, papa," continued Richard, "he is the same as Puck, in Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream ?"

G

66

He is," returned Mr. Paulett; " and he is the French Robert le Diable.' In the ancient history of Limerick, in Ireland, or so long ago as the twelfth or thirteenth century, there is an account of one Robin Artisson, a fairy who used to sweep the streets before day-light, only to steal the dirt, and carry it away for manure, to the farm of a great lady in the neighbouring city; who, by the way, and as the story went, used to reward and compel him to his work of plunder by means of offerings of peacocks' eyes, and other enchantments; whence, at the least, we see that Ireland knew what it was to have peacocks, and knew the value of manure for its lands, even in the twelfth or thirteenth century, if no earlier! While, for the rest, Robin (meaning Robin the Fairy) is or was always the country name of any midnight robber or outlaw; particularly, or, perhaps, exclusively, if he were very active, and therefore mysterious, committing violence at several distant places within short spaces of time. There has been one of this sort and name, within a few years past, in Sweden; and I fancy that it was in this character that the celebrated robber and outlaw, the Earl of Huntingdon, obtained the name of Robin Hood. 'Robin Hood,' as I take it, is a name having exactly the same meaning as Hobgoblin,' which, in the opposite or bad sense, is the name of Puck or Goodfellow. 'Hob,' like Bob, and Robin, and Dobbin, is a contraction, or at least a change, for Robert;' and 'goblin' (though for reasons which it would be too long to tell you now), means one that wears a hood. Now, as the meteor which is sometimes called Jack o' Lantern, or Jack of the Lantern, is also called Will o' the Wisp, or Will of, or with, the Wisp; so, Robin Hood, as I imagine, signifies Robert of, or with, or in, the Hood;

or Robin the Fairy, or Robert le Diable; or, by another term, Robert the Goblin."

"Some persons very erroneously suppose, that by 'Puck,' we are to understand 'Pug,' or ' a monkey;' and that the denomination is to be ascribed to 'Puck's' mischievous or wanton tricks: and others seem to fancy, that by Hobgoblin,' we mean a hobbling or lame goblin; for which reason, perhaps, Le Sage's Asmodeus is a wooden-legged devil, or 'Le Diable Boiteux.' But, of Hob,' and of Hobgoblin,' I have given you my opinion; and I believe that Puck,' like 'goblin,' implies the wearer of a hood. Puck, pug, poke, peak, are part of a whole string of words of which all have the same general meaning. Hoods have 'peaks' or 'pokes,' or pointed ends, or ends drawn together, and are themselves, for that reason, pokes, peaks, pugs, or pucks; as in the word 'pucker.' Gray calls his ladies, in the Long Story,' the square hoods*;' and Puck is a ' peaked hood' under the same idea. Only, in more simplicity and strictness, there is no occasion for the epithet; for every hood is 'peaked,' or is itself a peak, poke, puck, or pug. A monkey is called pug, and even monkey itself, only because the fur about his head and throat is likened to a hood, or puck, or pug; and, because monks wear hoods or pucks, he is therefore called monkey, or a little monk,' in the same manner that we have a flower called monk's-hood:' and, as to a particular species of monkey, it has the name of capucin, or capuchin, from an order of monks likewise so denominated, and of which the hood is peculiarly conspicuous in their dress; or, from this species only, the whole genus may

* "Cried the square hoods, in woful fidget."