Notes

The Pouke or Phooka, as the word is pronounced, means, in plain terms, the Evil One. "Playing the puck," a common Anglo-lrish phrase, is equivalent to "playing the devil." Much learning has been displayed in tracing this word through various languages, vide Quar- terly Review [vol. xxii] &c. The commentators on Shakspeare derive the beautiful and frolicksome Puck of the Midsummer Night's Dream from the mischievous Pouke. -- Vide Drayton's Nymphidia "This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt, Still walking like a ragged colt," &c. In Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamosphoses (1587) we find, " -- and the countrie where Chymaera, that same Pooke, Hath goatish bodie," &c. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Irish Phooka, in its nature, perfectly resembles the Mahr ; and we have only to observe, that there is a particular German tradition of a spirit, which sits among reeds and alder bushes ; and which, like the Phooka, leaps upon the back of those who pass by in the night, and does not leave them till they faint and fall to the earth. THE BROTHERS GRIMM.