The moss people or moss folk (, "moss folk", wilde Leute, "wild folk"), also referred to as the wood people or wood folk (Holzleute, "wood folk") or forest folk (Waldleute, "forest-folk"), are a class of fairy folk, variously compared to dwarfs, elves, or spirits, described in the folklore of Germany as having an intimate connection to trees and the forest. In German, the words Schrat and Waldschrat are also used for a moss person. (Compare Old Norse skratti, "goblin".) The diminutive Schrätlein also serves as synonym for a nightmare creature. They are sometimes described as similar to dwarfs, being the same size as children, but "grey and old-looking, hairy, and clad in moss." Sometimes, moss folk are also bigger. In other descriptions they are said to be pretty. Origins Jacob Grimm believed that Gothic skōhsl, used to translate Koine Greek δαιμόνιον (daimonion), "demon", in the New Testament, was related to Old Norse skōgr and Old English sceaga, both meaning "forest", and therefore represented a cognate of the moss people in Gothic folklore. Subsequent authors, however, have related skōhsl with English "shuck" (from Old English scucca, "evil spirit") and German Scheusal, "monster" (from Middle High German schūsel, though by folk etymology identified with scheuen, "to dread", and -sal, a noun suffix). Parallels have been drawn between the moss people and woodwoses. Early descriptions of Germanic beliefs include descriptions of "wood people" by the 6th century Roman historian Jordanes and "woodland women" by the 11th-century Rhenish bishop Burchard of Worms. Furthermore, Grimm recorded the terms wildiu wīp, wildero wībo, wilder wībe, wilden wībe, wildaz wīp (all meaning "wild wife") and wilde fröuwelīn ("wild maiden") from various early medieval texts. In folklore According to legend, these fairies would occasionally borrow items from people or ask for help but would always compensate the owners generously, often with either good advice or bread. It was, however, easy to anger such wood-sprites, either by spurning their gifts (which might be the compensations named above) or by giving them caraway bread – of which they had a particular hatred, often being heard to utter the doggerel rhyme "Kümmelbrot, unser Tod!" ("Caraway bread, our death!"). In certain myths, the moss folk would ask humans for breast milk to feed their young, or steal little human children – motifs found in changeling lore. Moss people, especially the females of the species, are able to send plagues on one hand,