Demideity

Definitions

"The river of which I write, is a stream of considerable beauty, though small pretensions; and is the least known of the two or three Eskes of the British Islands. It has the merit of extreme clearness and purity; and its crystal waters meet the tide as pellucid as when they gushed from the parent lake, for no defiling manufactory has been established on the banks. Nature, too, has given the river's course so slight an inclination, that it is untortured by rapids or cataracts, and moves along at a calm and philosophic pace; never losing its temper, or getting into a burst of fluvial passion, ending in froth and folly. No sound, save the murmur of a gentle current, is heard along our quiet river; and if, in times of yore, it had been ornamented by an attendant suite of demideities, like the Grecian streams, a naiad might have invited a mountain hamadryade to breakfast, and thereafter, both might have reclined on the flowery bank, in amicable colloquy, without a ripple on the placid stream big enough to wet their garters."

Etymology