DRAKES or Grak or Krat or Drachen are English, German and Scandinavian fire fairies who are said to smell like rotten eggs, and their presence is usually only betrayed by the stench, though they are sometimes glimpsed as a flaming ball. They only take on the character of fire when they fly, when they look like streaks of flame or fiery balls with long tails. They move into a house and keep the firewood dry and bring gifts of gold and grain to the master of the house. The bond is between the male head of the house and the male drake, and is a serious pact, often written in blood. [Originally the spirits of the drakes were kept imprisoned in carved mandrake roots.] The drake takes care of the house, barn and stables, making sure that the pantry and money chest are well stocked. They can travel the world in a split second, and bring their masters a present back from far away places. In return, the master keeps the drake fed and treated with respect. Should the drake be insulted the house will not be there long. If you see a drake on its travels, take shelter, for they leave behind a poisonous sulfurous fug. If you quickly shout "half and half" or throw a knife at the creature, then the drake may drop some of its booty in your lap. If two people together see a drake, they should cross their legs in silence, take the fourth wheel off the wagon and take shelter. The drake will then be compelled to leave them some of his haul. They are flying dragons known in Anglo Saxon England. Drake appears in many place names like Drakenage Farm [‘Drake’s Ridge] in Warks, and Drakelow [Dragon Mound] nr Stourbridge.

DJINN or Jin or Ginn or Jinn or Genie or Jan  [‘Spirit’] (Jinnee m., jinniyeh f..) In elemental lore, Djinn is king of the fire fairies. Djinn are Arabian fairies mentioned in the Koran.  A tradition says that the djinn were formed of "smokeless fire," i.e. the fire of the wind Simoom, while others say they are the offspring of fire with fire in their veins instead of blood, or alternatively they are composed of air. They were created 2000 years before Adam was made from earth, but will be annihilated at the Final Judgment. Prophets were sent from time to time to instruct and admonish them, but on their continued disobedience, an army of angels appeared, driving them from the earth to the regions of the islands, making many prisoners, and slaughtering many more. Among the prisoners was a young Jinnee named Azâzel [Azazeel, or El-Harith, afterwards called Iblees or Iblis from his despair], who grew up among the angels, and became at last their chief. When Adam was created, God commanded the angels to worship him and they all obeyed except Iblees, who, for his disobedience, was tuned into a Sheytan or devil, and he became the father of the Sheytans. There are five varieties of djinn from the very powerful Marid, to the Afreet, the Sheytans [or Shaitan], and the Jinn to the least powerful order, the Jann [or Jan]. When the Arabs poured water on the ground, let down a bucket into a well, or enter a bath, they would ask the permission of the djinn, "Permission" [Destoor] or, "Permission, ye blessed!" Good djinn are very beautiful and the bad ones very ugly, though they are shapeshifters and can appear as humans, monsters, cats, ostriches, dogs and snakes. The evil djinn cause sandstorms and waterspouts. When the Zôba’ah, a whirlwind that raises the sand in the form of a pillar of tremendous height, is seen sweeping over the desert, the Arabs, who believe it to be caused by the flight of an evil Jinnee, cry, "Iron! Iron!" All djinn hate iron and can be bound with magic words and talismans to reveal the future. They can fly up to the heavens and listen to the words of angels. They have great powers of magic, They are long lived, but can be destroyed by men, other djinn and shooting stars flung at them from heaven. The djinn mate and have families like human beings. Their country is Jinnistan and its capital the City of Jewels, though they may take up abodes in wells, rivers, ruins, ovens, and market places. While a human man may marry a female jinniyeh, a human female may not marry a male jinnee. The offspring of a human-djinn union has the attributes of both.

WILL O’THE WISP is a curious light seen flickering in the distance over swamps and marshes. In many parts of the world the will o’the wisp is attributed to the bog fairies or mischievous imps who appear as balls of light to lead travellers astray or fairies who carry lanterns to guide the unwary over cliff tops or into marshland. If a person follows one they may meet their death in a bog or a deep pool, though some lights have been helpful, and shown travellers to safety. Some particularly vicious will o'the wisps have chased terrified people through mire and thorns, leaving them stranded amid peals of malicious laughter. Some say that the lights are the souls of dead children as are the British spunkies. Others say that will o'the wisps are the souls of greedy men with hidden treasure, money lenders and swindlers, or people neither good enough for heaven nor evil enough for hell. In Northern Europe such lights are seen hovering over the tombs or burial mounds of warriors, and thought to be the souls of the dead, guarding the treasure buried within the grave. In German and Swedish lore the lights belong to the souls of those who, in life, disregarded boundary markers and stole a neighbour's land. In Italy they are souls in purgatory. Seeing a will o'the wisp or corpse may be an omen of death, either for the person who sees it, or someone they love.

FIRE ELEMENTALS are spirits composed solely from one element. The ancients believed that a spirit inhabited every stream, hill, tree, and natural thing. Following the theory of the four elements the Neoplatonists divided these spirits into four classes, each associated with one of the elements. However, it was the sixteenth century alchemist, doctor and philosopher Paracelsus who gave them their familiar names. He called the elemetal spirits of fire Vulcans or salamanders [from the Greek meaning ‘fireplace’] and are usually portrayed as the newts of the same name. According to Paracelsus, while sylphs and undines are kindly disposed towards humans, salamanders cannot be approached or approach humans, and gnomes are usually malevolent. Paracelsus declared that while man is made of three substances, the spiritual, the astral, and visible or terrestrial and exists in all three, elementals live exclusively in only one of the elements. They occupy a position between men and pure spirits, though they have blood and bones, they eat and sleep and mate and produce offspring. They are not immortal but can succumb to disease. They live in dwellings that are made of special materials ‘as different from the substances we know as the web of a spider is different from our linen’. He said that elementals have no souls and are incapable of spiritual development. Some occultists believe that fairies are elementals, spirit-beings made up of one element only - earth, air, fire or water. Sinistrari described beings of an intermediate nature between the angels and man, capable of independent thought and of choosing good or evil, composed of one of the four elements. Ritual magicians, modern witches and Pagans call upon the spirits of the four elements. They maintain that they are beings who have evolved along another line to humans. In the Cabala they are called the Shedim.