Fig'ment, n.

n. [Lat. figmentum, from fingere, root fig, to form, shape, invent, feign; It. figmento.] An invention; a fiction; something feigned or imagined. “Social figments, feints, and formalisms.” E. B. Browning.

Especially when the figments presented to them involve the fearful and the terrible. W. Scott.