_Fairy Dances._--It might perhaps throw some light on this fanciful
subject, were we to view it in connexion with the operation of the
phenomenon termed the "odylic light," emitted from magnetic substances.
The Baron von Riechenbach, in his _Researches on Magnetism, &c._,
explains the cause of somewhat similar extraordinary appearances in the
following manner:--
"High on the Brocken there are rocky summits which are strongly
magnetic, and cause the needle to deviate: these rocks contain
disseminated magnetic iron ore; ... the necessary consequence is
that they send up odylic flames.... Who could blame persons imbued
with the superstitious feelings of their age, if they saw, under
these circumstances, the devil dancing with his whole train of
ghosts, demons, and witches? The revels of the Walpurgisnacht must
now, alas! vanish, and give place to the sobrieties of
science--science, which with her touch dissipates one by one all
the beautiful but dim forms evoked by phantasy."
Should such a thing as the odylic light satisfactorily explain the
phenomenon of ghosts, fairies, &c., we should happily be relieved from
the awkward necessity of continuing to treat their existence as "old
wives' fables," or the production of a disordered imagination.