Elementals
Nature-spirits or sprites. Every race of men on earth has believed in
these hosts of elemental entities -- some visible, like men, like the beasts,
like the animate plants; and others invisible. The invisible entities have been
called by various names: fairies, sprites, hobgoblins, elves, brownies, pixies,
nixies, leprechauns, trolls, kobolds, goblins, banshees, fawns, devs, jinn,
satyrs, and so forth. The medieval mystics taught that these elemental beings
were of four general kinds: those arising in and frequenting the element of fire
-- salamanders; those arising in and frequenting the element air -- sylphs;
those arising in and frequenting the element water -- undines; those arising in
and frequenting the element earth -- gnomes.