page_title: Five Children and It
section_title: The Psammead
hierarchical_section_title: Five Children and It / Characters / The Psammead
caption_attribution_description: English: Frontispiece of Edith Nesbit's "Five Children and It". (Original upload said "Illustration by H. R. Miller. Frontispiece from the 1902 edition.") Español: Portada de "Cinco niños y esto", de Edith Nesbit.
context_page_description: Five Children and It is a children's novel by English author E. Nesbit. It was originally published in 1902 in the Strand Magazine under the general title The Psammead, or the Gifts, with a segment appearing each month from April to December. The stories were then expanded into a novel which was published the same year. It is the first volume of a trilogy that includes The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet. The book has never been out of print since its initial publication.
context_section_description: In Five Children and It, the Psammead is described as having "eyes [that] were on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes; it had ears like a bat's ears, and its tubby body was shaped like a spider's and covered with thick soft fur; its legs and arms were furry too, and it had hands and feet like a monkey's" and whiskers like a rat's. When it grants wishes it stretches out its eyes, holds its breath and swells alarmingly.
  The five children find the Psammead in a gravel-pit, which used to be seashore. There were once many Psammeads, but the others died because they got cold and wet. It is the only one of its kind left. It is thousands of years old, and remembers pterodactyls and other ancient creatures. When the Psammeads were around they granted wishes that were then mostly for food. The wished-for objects turned into stone at sunset if they were not used that day, but this does not apply to the children's wishes because what they wish for is so much more fantastic than the wishes the Psammead granted in the past. 
  The word "Psammead", pronounced "sammyadd" by the children in the story, appears to be a coinage by Nesbit from the Greek ψάμμος "sand" after the pattern of dryad, naiad and oread, implicitly signifying "sand-nymph". However, its hideous appearance is very unlike traditional Greek nymphs, who generally resemble beautiful young maidens.
  The character was notably played in three BBC Television serials of the 1990s by the puppeteer Francis Wright.
caption: The Psammead in frontispiece by H. R. Millar
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