Elemental Spirits, beings who, according to the popular belief of the middle ages, presided over the four 'elements,' living in and ruling them. The elemental spirits of fire were called Salamanders; those of water, Undines; those of the air, Sylphs; and those of the earth, Gnomes. Paracelsus wrote a treatise upon them, and they play a part in Pope's masterpiece of mock-heroic poetry, The Rape of the Lock.
Elemental Spirits
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 4: Dionysius to Friction, p. 287
Source scan(s): p. 0296