Note 25 — FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.
Reading edition
This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian mythology. In the "Prose Edda," it is stated, that the gods having captured Loki (the personification of evil), who had fled from their justly excited anger, "dragged him without commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed three sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them."