The French pseudo-novel "Comte de Gabalis" (1670) was important in passing sylphs into the literary sphere. It appears to have originated the derivative term "sylphid" (French "sylphide"), which it uses as the feminine counterpart to "sylph". While modern scholars consider "Comte de Gabalis" to have been intended as a satire of occult philosophy, many of its contemporaries considered it to be an earnest exposition of occult lore. Its author, Abbé de Montfaucon de Villars, was assassinated on the road in 1673 and one rumor had it that he had been killed by a gang of sylphs for disclosing their secrets.