text:  If we remember still further that the pedigree of these trifling insects of the brain these children of the quip does not stop even in the venerable pages of Hierocles--that Greek "Joe"--but loses itself like a Welsh genealogy in the darkest gloom of antiquity we ought not to be surprised that ancient legends being often shattered fragments and dim shadowings-forth of mystic and hierophantic philosophy should be found with many of their principal features unaltered in the popular traditions of different ages and countries