A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients

by Edward Tyson

III.

The little people of story and legend have a much wider area of distribution than those of real life, and it is the object of this section to give some idea of their localities and dwellings. Imperfect as such an account must necessarily be, it will yet suffice I trust in some measure to show that, like the England of Arthurian times, all the world is "fulfilled of faëry."

In dealing with this part of the subject, it would be possible, following the example of Keightley, to treat the little folk of each country separately. But a better idea of their nature, and certainly one which for my purpose will be more satisfactory, can, I think, be obtained by classifying them according to the nature of their habitations, and mentioning incidentally such other points concerning them as it may seem advisable to bring out.

1. In the first place, then, fairies are found dwelling in mounds of different kinds, or in the interior of hills. This form of habitation is so frequently met with in Scotch and Irish accounts of the fairies, that it will not be necessary for me to burden these pages with instances, especially since I shall have to allude to them in a further section in greater detail. Suffice it to say, that many instances of such an association in the former country will be found in the pages of Mr. MacRitchie's works, whilst as to the latter, I shall content myself by quoting Sir William Wilde's statement, that every green "rath" in that country is consecrated to the "good people." In England there are numerous instances of a similar kind. Gervase of Tilbury in the thirteenth century mentions such a spot in Gloucestershire: "There is in the county of Gloucester a forest abounding in boars, stags, and every species of game that England produces. In a grovy lawn of this forest there is a little mount, rising in a point to the height of a man." With this mount he associates the familiar story of the offering of refreshment to travellers by its unseen inhabitants. In Warwickshire, the mound upon which Kenilworth Castle is built was formerly a fairy habitation.[A] Ritson[B] mentions that the "fairies frequented many parts of the Bishopric of Durham." There is a hillock or tumulus near Bishopton, and a large hill near Billingham, both of which used in former time to be "haunted by fairies." Even Ferry-hill, a well-known stage between Darlington and Durham, is evidently a corruption of "Fairy-hill." In Yorkshire a similar story attaches to the sepulchral barrow of Willey How,[C] and in Sussex to a green mound called the Mount in the parish of Pulborough.[D] The fairies formerly frequented Bussers Hill in St. Mary's Isle, one of the Scilly group.[E] The Bryn-yr-Ellyllon,[F] or Fairy-hill, near Mold, may be cited as a similar instance in Wales, which must again be referred to.

[Footnote A: Testimony of Tradition, p. 142.]

[Footnote B: Op. cit., p. 56.]

[Footnote C: Folk Lore, ii. 115.]

[Footnote D: Folk Lore Record, i. 16 and 28.]

[Footnote E: Ritson, p. 62.]

[Footnote F: Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, p. 433.]

The pages of Keightley's work contain instances of hill-inhabiting fairies in Scandinavia, Denmark, the Isle of Rugen, Iceland, Germany, and Switzerland. It is not only in Europe, however, that this form of habitation is to be met with; we find it also in America. The Sioux have a curious superstition respecting a mound near the mouth of the Whitestone River, which they call the Mountain of Little People or Little Spirits; they believe that it is the abode of little devils in the human form, of about eighteen inches high and with remarkably large heads; they are armed with sharp arrows, in the use of which they are very skilful. These little spirits are always on the watch to kill those who should have the hardihood to approach their residence. The tradition is that many have suffered from their malice, and that, among others, three Maha Indians fell a sacrifice to them a few years since. This has inspired all the neighbouring nations, Sioux, Mahas, and Ottoes, with such terror, that no consideration could tempt them to visit the hill.[A]

[Footnote A: Lewis and Clarke, Travels to the Source of the Missouri
River. Quoted in Flint Chips, p. 346. The tale is also given in Folk
Lore, Oriental and American (Gibbings & Co.), p. 45.]

The mounds or hills inhabited by the fairies are, however, of very diverse kinds, as we discover when we attempt to analyse their actual nature. In some cases they are undoubtedly natural elevations. Speaking of the exploration of the Isle of Unst, Hunt[A] says that the term "Fairy Knowe" is applied alike to artificial and to natural mounds. "We visited," he states, "two 'Fairy Knowes' in the side of the hill near the turning of the road from Reay Wick to Safester, and found that these wonderful relics were merely natural formations. The workmen were soon convinced of this, and our digging had the effect of proving to them that the fairies had nothing to do with at least two of these hillocks." The same may surely be said of that favourite and important fairy haunt Tomnahurich, near Inverness, though Mr. MacRitchie seems to think that an investigation, were such possible, of its interior, might lead to a different explanation.

[Footnote A: Anthrop. Mems., ii. 294.]

In other cases, and these are of great importance in coming to a conclusion as to the origin of fairy tales, the mounds inhabited by the little people are of a sepulchral nature. This is the case in the instance of Willey How, which, when explored by Canon Greenwell, was found, in spite of its size and the enormous care evidently bestowed upon its construction, to be merely a cenotaph. A grave there was, sunk more than twelve feet deep in the chalk rock; but no corporeal tenant had ever occupied it.

This fact is still more clearly shown in the remarkable case mentioned by Professor Boyd Dawkins. A barrow called Bryn-yr-Ellyllon (Fairy-hill), near Mold, was said to be haunted by a ghost clad in golden armour which had been seen to enter it. The barrow was opened in the year 1832, and was found to contain the skeleton of a man wearing a golden corselet of Etruscan workmanship.

The same may be said respecting that famous fairy-hill in Ireland, the Brugh of the Boyne, though Mr. MacRitchie seems to regard it as having been a dwelling-place. Mr. Coffey in a most careful study appears to me to have finally settled the question.[A] He speaks of the remains as those of probably the most remarkable of the pre-Christian cemeteries of Ireland. Of the stone basins, whose nature Mr. MacRitchie regards as doubtful, he says, "There can be hardly any doubt but that they served the purpose of some rude form of sarcophagus, or of a receptacle for urns." Mr. Coffey quotes the account from the Leadhar na huidri respecting cemeteries, in which Brugh is mentioned as amongst the chief of those existing before the faith (i.e. before the introduction of Christianity). "The nobles of the Tuatha de Danann were used to bury at Brugh (i.e. the Dagda with his three sons; also Lugaidh, and Oe, and Ollam, and Ogma, and Etan the Poetess, and Corpre, the son of Etan), and Cremthain followed them, because his wife Nar was of the Tuatha Dea, and it was she solicited him that he should adopt Brugh as a burial-place for himself and his descendants, and this was the cause that they did not bury at Cruachan." Mr. Coffey also quotes O'Hartagain's poem, which seems to bear in Mr. MacRitchie's favour:—

"Behold the sidhe before your eyes:
It is manifest to you that it is a king's mansion,
Which was built by the firm Dagda;
It was a wonder, a court, a wonderful hill."

[Footnote A: Tumuli at New Grange. Trans. Roy. Irish Academy, XXX. 1.]

But certain of the expressions in this are evidently to be taken figuratively, since Mr. Coffey states, in connection with this and other quotations, that their importance consists in that they establish the existence at a very early date of a tradition associating Brugh na Boinne, the burial-place of the kings of Tara, with the tumuli on the Boyne. The association of particular monuments with the Dagda and other divinities and heroes of Irish mythology implies that the actual persons for whom they were erected had been forgotten, the pagan traditions being probably broken by the introduction of Christianity. The mythological ancestors of the heroes and kings interred at Brugh, who probably were even contemporarily associated with the cemetery, no doubt subsequently overshadowed in tradition the actual persons interred there.

Finally, it seems that the fairy hills may have been actual dwelling-places, fortified or not, of prehistoric peoples. Such were no doubt some of the Picts' houses so fully dealt with by Mr. MacRitchie, though Petrie[A] seems to have considered that many of these were sepulchral in their nature. Such were also the Raths of Ireland and fortified hills, like the White Cater Thun of Forfarshire.

[Footnote A: Anthrop. Mems., ii. 216.]

The interior of the mound-dwellings, as described in the stories, is a point to which allusion should be made. Sometimes the mound contains a splendid palace, adorned with gold and silver and precious stones, like the palace of the King of Elfland in the tale of "Childe Rowland." In the Scandinavian mound-stories we find a curious incident, for they are described as being capable of being raised upon red pillars, and as being so raised when the occupants gave a feast to their neighbours. "There are three hills on the lands of Bubbelgaard in Funen, which are to this day called the Dance-hills, from the following occurrence. A lad named Hans was at service in Bubbelgaard, and as he was coming one evening past the hills, he saw one of them raised on red pillars, and great dancing and much merriment underneath."[A] This feature is met with in several of the stories collected by Keightley, and is made use of in Cruikshank's picture, which forms the frontispiece to that volume. Lastly, in a number of cases there is not merely a habitation, but a vast country underneath the mound. An instance of this occurs in the tale of John Dietrich from the Isle of Rügen. Under the Nine-hills he found "that there were in that place the most beautiful walks, in which he might ramble along for miles in all directions, without ever finding an end of them, so immensely large was the hill that the little people lived in, and yet outwardly it seemed but a little hill, with a few bushes and trees growing on it."[B]

[Footnote A: Quoted by Keightley (p. 9), from Thiele, i. 118.]

[Footnote B: Keightley, 178.]

2. The haunts of the fairies may be in caves, and examples of this form of dwelling-place are to be met with in different parts of the world. The Scandinavian hill people live in caves or small hills, and the Elves or dwarfs of La Romagna "dwell in lonely places, far away in the mountains, deep in them, in caves or among old ruins and rocks," as Mr. Leland,[A] who gives a tale respecting these little people, tells us. A Lithuanian tale[B] tells "how the hero, Martin, went into a forest to hunt, accompanied by a smith and a tailor. Finding an empty hut, they took possession of it; the tailor remained in it to cook the dinner, and the others went forth to the chase. When the dinner was almost ready, there came to the hut a very little old man with a very long beard, who piteously begged for food. After receiving it, he sprang on the tailor's neck and beat him almost to death. When the hunters returned, they found their comrade groaning on his couch, complaining of illness, but saying nothing about the bearded dwarf. Next day the smith suffered in a similar way; but when it came to Martin's turn, he proved too many and too strong for the dwarf, whom he overcame, and whom he fastened by the beard to the stump of a tree. But the dwarf tore himself loose before the hunters came back from the forest and escaped into a cavern. Tracing him by the drops of blood which had fallen from him, the three companions came to the mouth of the cavern, and Martin was lowered into it by the two others. Within it he found three princesses, who had been stolen by three dragons. These dragons he slew, and the princesses and their property he took to the spot above which his comrades kept watch, who hoisted them out of the cavern, but left Martin in it to die. As he wandered about disconsolately, he found the bearded dwarf, whom he slew. And soon afterwards he was conveyed out of the cavern by a flying serpent, and was able to punish his treacherous friends, and to recover the princesses, all three of whom he simultaneously married."

[Footnote A: Etrusco Roman Remains, p. 222.]

[Footnote B: Folk Lore Record, i. 85. Mr. Hartland points out to me that this tale, being a Marchen, does not afford quite such good evidence of belief as actually or recently existing as a saga.]

Amongst the Magyars,[A] also, in some localities caves are pointed out as the haunts of fairies, such as the caves in the side of the rock named Budvár, the cave Borza-vára, near the castle of Dame Rapson; another haunt of the fairies is the cave near Almás, and the cold wind known as the "Nemere" is said to blow when the fairy in Almás cave feels cold. On one occasion the plague was raging in this neighbourhood; the people ascribed it to the cold blast emanating from the cave; so they hung shirts before the mouth of the cave and the plague ceased.

[Footnote A: Jones and Kropf, Folk Tales of the Magyars, pp. xxxvi. et seq.]

In a widely distant part of the world, the Battaks-Karo,[A] of the high ground north of Lake Toba in Sumatra, believe in three classes of mysterious beings, one of which closely corresponds with the fairies of Europe. The first group are called Hantous; they are giants and dead Begous (i.e. definitely dead souls), who inhabit Mount Sampouran together with the second group. These are called Omangs; they are dwarfs who marry and reproduce their species, live generally in mountains, and have their feet placed transversely. They must be propitiated, and those making the ascent of Mount Sébayak sacrifice a white hen to them, or otherwise the Omangs would throw stones at them. They carry off men and women, and often keep them for years. They love to dwell amongst stones, and the Roumah Omang, which is one of their favourite habitations, is a cavern. The third group, or Orangs Boumans, resemble ordinary beings, but have the power of making themselves invisible. They come down from the mountains to buy supplies, but have not been seen for some time. Westenberg, from whom this information is quoted, regards the last class as being proscribed Battaks, who have fled for refuge to the mountains. Passing to another continent, the Iroquois[B] have several stories about Pigmies, one of whom, by name Go-ga-ah, lives in a little cave.

[Footnote A: L'Anthropologie, iv. 83.]

[Footnote B: Smith, Myths of the Iroquois. American Bureau of
Ethnology, ii. 65.]

3. The little people may occupy a castle or house, or the hill upon which such a building is erected, or a cave under it. Without dwelling upon the Brownies and other similar distinctly household spirits, there are certain classes which must be mentioned in this connection. The Magyar fairies live in castles on lofty mountain peaks. They build them themselves, or inherit them from giants. Kozma enumerates the names of about twenty-three castles which belonged to fairies, and which still exist. Although they have disappeared from earth, they continue to live, even in our days, in caves under their castles, in which caves their treasures lie hidden. The iron gates of Zeta Castle, which have subsided into the ground and disappeared from the surface, open once in every seven years. On one occasion a man went in there, and met two beautiful fairies whom he addressed thus, "How long will you still linger here, my little sisters?" and they replied, "As long as the cows will give warm milk."

Like the interior of some of the mound-dwellings already mentioned, these fairy caves are splendid habitations. "Their subterranean habitations are not less splendid and glittering than were their castles of yore on the mountain peaks. The one at Firtos is a palace resting on solid gold columns. The palace at Tartod and the gorgeous one of Dame Rapson are lighted by three diamond balls, as big as human heads, which hang from golden chains. The treasure which is heaped up in the latter place consists of immense gold bars, golden lions with carbuncle eyes, a golden hen with her brood, and golden casks, filled with gold coin. The treasures of Fairy Helen are kept in a cellar under Kovászna Castle, the gates of the cellar being guarded by a magic cock. This bird only goes to sleep once in seven years, and anybody who could guess the right moment would be able to scrape no end of diamond crystals from the walls and bring them out with him. The fairies who guard the treasures of the Pogányvár (Pagan Castle) in Marosszék even nowadays come on moonlight nights to bathe in the lake below."[A] In Brittany, "a number of little men, not more than a foot high, dwell under the castle of Morlaix. They live in holes in the ground, whither they may often be seen going, and beating on basins. They possess great treasures, which they sometimes bring out; and if any one pass by at the time, allow him to take one handful, but no more. Should any one attempt to fill his pockets, the money vanishes, and he is instantly assailed by a shower of boxes on the ear from invisible hands."[B] In the Netherlands, the "Gypnissen," "queer little women," lived in a castle which had been reared in a single night.[C] The Ainu have tales of the Poiyaumbe, a name which means literally "little beings residing on the soil" (Mr. Batchelor says that "little" is probably meant to express endearment or admiration, but one may be allowed to doubt this). The Ainu, who is the hero of the story, "comes to a tall mountain with a beautiful house built on its summit. Descending, for his path had always been through the air, by the side of the house, and looking through the chinks of the door, he saw a little man and a little woman sitting beside the fireplace."[D]

[Footnote A: Folk Tales of the Magyars, p. xxxviii.]

[Footnote B: Grimm, apud Keightley, 441.]

[Footnote C: Testimony of Tradition, p. 86.]

[Footnote D: Folk Lore Journal, vi. 195.]

4. The little people or fairies occupy rude stone monuments or are connected with their building. In Brittany they are associated with several of the megalithic remains.[A] "At Carnac, near Quiberon," says M. De Cambry, "in the department of Morbihan, on the sea-shore, is the Temple of Carnac, called in Breton 'Ti Goriquet' (House of the Gories), one of the most remarkable Celtic monuments extant. It is composed of more than four thousand large stones, standing erect in an arid plain, where neither tree nor shrub is to be seen, and not even a pebble is to be found in the soil on which they stand. If the inhabitants are asked concerning this wonderful monument, they say it is an old camp of Cæsar's, an army turned into stone, or that it is the work of the Crions or Gories. These they describe as little men between two and three feet high, who carried these enormous masses on their hands; for, though little, they are stronger than giants. Every night they dance around the stones, and woe betide the traveller who approaches within their reach! he is forced to join in the dance, where he is whirled about till, breathless and exhausted, he falls down, amidst the peals of laughter of the Crions. All vanish with the break of day. In the ruins of Tresmalouen dwell the Courils. They are of a malignant disposition, but great lovers of dancing. At night they sport around the Druidical monuments. The unfortunate shepherd that approaches them must dance their rounds with them till cockcrow; and the instances are not few of persons thus ensnared who have been found next morning dead with exhaustion and fatigue. Woe also to the ill-fated maiden who draws near the Couril dance! nine months after, the family counts one member more. Yet so great is the cunning and power of these dwarfs, that the young stranger bears no resemblance to them, but they impart to it the features of some lad of the village."

[Footnote A: Keightley, 440.]

In India megalithic remains are also associated with little people. "Dwarfs hold a distinct place in Hindu mythology; they appear sculptured on all temples. Siva is accompanied by a body-guard of dwarfs, one of whom, the three-legged Bhringi, dances nimbly. But coming nearer to Northern legend, the cromlechs and kistvaens which abound over Southern India are believed to have been built by a dwarf race, a cubit high, who could, nevertheless, move and handle the huge stones easily. The villagers call them Pandayar."[A]

[Footnote A: Folk Lore, iv. 401.]

Mr. Meadows Taylor, speaking of cromlechs in India, says, "Wherever I found them, the same tradition was attached to them, that they were Morie humu, or Mories' houses; these Mories having been dwarfs who inhabited the country before the present race of men." Again, speaking of the cromlechs of Koodilghee, he states, "Tradition says that former Governments caused dwellings of the description alluded to to be erected for a species of human beings called 'Mohories,' whose dwarfish stature is said not to have exceeded a span when standing, and a fist high when in a sitting posture, who were endowed with strength sufficient to roll off large stones with a touch of their thumb." There are, he also tells us, similar traditions attaching to other places, where the dwarfs are sometimes spoken of as Gujaries.[A]

[Footnote A: Jour. Ethnol. Soc., 1868-69, p. 157.]

Of stone structures built by fairies or little people for the use of others, may be mentioned the churches built by dwarfs in Scotland and Brittany, and described by Mr. MacRitchie, as also the two following instances, taken from widely distant parts of the globe. In Brittany, the dolmen of Manné-er Hrock (Montaigne de la Fee), at Locmariaquer, is said to have been built by a fairy, in order that a mother might stand upon it and look out for her son's ship.[A] In Fiji the following tale is told about the Nanga or sacred stone enclosure:—"This is the word of our fathers concerning the Nanga. Long ago their fathers were ignorant of it; but one day two strangers were found sitting in the Rara (public square), and they said they had come up from the sea to give them the Nanga. They were little men, and very dark-skinned, and one of them had his face and bust painted red, while the other was painted black. Whether these were gods or men our fathers did not tell us, but it was they who taught our people the Nanga. This was in the old times, when our fathers were living in another land—not in this place, for we are strangers here."[B] It is worthy of note that the term "Nanga" applies not merely to the enclosure, but also to the secret society which held its meetings therein.[C]

[Footnote A: Flint Chips, p. 104.]

[Footnote B: Fison, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xiv, 14.]

[Footnote C: Joske, Internat. Arch. f. Ethnographie, viii. 254.]

5. The little people make their dwellings either in the interior of a stone or amongst stones. I am not here alluding to the stones on the sides of mountains which are the doorways to fairy dwellings, but to a closer connection, which will be better understood from some of the following instances than from any lengthy explanation. The Duergas of the Scandinavian Eddas had their dwelling-places in stones, as we are told in the story of Thorston, who "came one day to an open part of the wood, where he saw a great rock, and out a little way from it a dwarf, who was horridly ugly."[A] In Ireland, in Innisbofin, co. Galway, Professor Haddon relates that the men who were quarrying a rock in the neighbourhood of the harbour refused to work at it any longer, as it was so full of "good people" as to be hot.[B] In England the Pixy-house of Devon is in a stone, and a large stone is also connected with the story of the Frensham caldron, though it is not clear that the fairies lived in the rock itself.[C] Oseberrow or Osebury (vulgo Rosebury) Rock, in Lulsey, Worcestershire, was, according to tradition, a favourite haunt of the fairies.[D] In another part of Worcestershire, on the side of the Cotswolds, there is, in a little spinney, a large flat stone, much worn on its under surface, which is called the White Lady's Table. This personage is supposed to take her meals with the fairies at this rock, but what the exact relation of the little people to it as a dwelling-place may be, I have not been able to learn.

[Footnote A: Keightley, 70.]

[Footnote B: Folklore, iv. 49.]

[Footnote C: Ritson, 106, quoting Aubrey's Natural History of Surrey, iii. 366.]

[Footnote D: Allies, Antiquities and Folk-Lore of Worcestershire, p.443.]

There is an Iroquois tale of dwarfs, in which the summons to the Pigmies was given by knocking upon a large stone.[A] The little people of Melanesia seem also to be associated in some measure with stones. Speaking of these beings, Mr. Codrington says,[B] "There are certain Vuis having rather the nature of fairies. The accounts of them are vague, but it is argued that they had never left the islands before the introduction of Christianity, and indeed have been seen since. Not long ago there was a woman living at Mota who was the child of one, and a very few years ago a female Vui with a child was seen in Saddle Island. Some of these were called Nopitu, which come invisibly, or possess those with whom they associate themselves. The possessed are called Nopitu. Such persons would lift a cocoa-nut to drink, and native shell money would run out instead of the juice and rattle against their teeth; they would vomit up money, or scratch and shake themselves on a mat, when money would pour from their fingers. This was often seen, and believed to be the doing of a Nopitu. In another manner of manifestation, a Nopitu would make himself known as a party were sitting round an evening fire. A man would hear a voice in his thigh, 'Here am I, give me food.' He would roast a little red yam, and fold it in the corner of his mat. He would soon find it gone, and the Nopitu would begin a song. Its voice was so small and clear and sweet, that once heard it never could be forgotten; but it sang the ordinary Mota songs. Such spirits as these, if seen or found, would disappear beside a stone; they were smaller than the native people, darker, and with long straight hair. But they were mostly unseen, or seen only by those to whom they took a fancy. They were the friendly Trolls or Robin Goodfellows of the islands; a man would find a fine red yam put for him on the seat beside the door, or the money which he paid away returned within his purse. A woman working in her garden heard a voice from the fruit of a gourd asking for some food, and when she pulled up an arum or dug out a yam, another still remained; but when she listened to another spirit's panpipes, the first in his jealousy conveyed away garden and all." Amongst the Australians also supernatural beings dwell amongst the rocks, and the Annamites and Arabians know of fairies living amongst the rocks and hills.[C]

[Footnote A: Smith, Myths of Iroquois, ut supra.]

[Footnote B: Journ. Anthrop. Inst., x. 261.]

[Footnote C: Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, p. 351.]

6. The little people may have their habitation in forests or trees. Such were the Skovtrolde, or Wood-Trolls of Thorlacius,[A] who made their home on the earth in great thick woods, and the beings in South Germany who resemble the dwarfs, and are called Wild, Wood, Timber and Moss People.[B] "These generally live together in society, but they sometimes appear singly. They are small in stature, yet somewhat larger than the Elf, being the size of children of three years, grey and old-looking, hairy and clad in moss. Their lives are attached, like those of the Hamadryads, to the trees, and if any one causes by friction the inner bark to loosen, a Wood-woman dies." In Scandinavia there is also a similarity between certain of the Elves and Hamadryads. The Elves "not only frequent trees, but they make an interchange of form with them. In the churchyard of Store Heddinge, in Zeeland, there are the remains of an oak-wood. These, say the common people, are the Elle King's soldiers; by day they are trees, by night valiant soldiers. In the wood of Rugaard, in the same island, is a tree which by night becomes a whole Elle-people, and goes about all alive. It has no leaves upon it, yet it would be very unsafe to go to break or fell it, for the underground people frequently hold their meetings under its branches. There is, in another place, an elder-tree growing in a farmyard, which frequently takes a walk in the twilight about the yard, and peeps in through the window at the children when they are alone. The linden or lime-tree is the favourite haunt of the Elves and cognate beings, and it is not safe to be near it after sunset."[C] In England, the fairies also in some cases frequent the woods, as is their custom in the Isle of Man, and in Wales, where there was formerly, in the park of Sir Robert Vaughan, a celebrated old oak-tree, named Crwben-yr-Ellyl, or the Elf's Hollow Tree. In Formosa[D] there is also a tale of little people inhabiting a wood. "A young Botan became too ardent in his devotion to a young lady of the tribe, and was slain by her relatives, while, as a warning as to the necessity for love's fervour being kept within bounds, his seven brothers were banished by the chief. The exiles went forth into the depths of the forest, and in their wanderings after a new land they crossed a small clearing, in which a little girl, about a span in height, was seated peeling potatoes. 'Little sister,' they queried, 'how come you here? where is your home?' 'I am not of homes nor parents,' she replied. Leaving her, they went still farther into the forest, and had not gone far when they saw a little man cutting canes, and farther on to the right a curious-looking house, in front of which sat two diminutive women combing their hair. Things looked so queer that the travellers hesitated about approaching nearer, but, eager to find a way out of the forest, they determined in their extremity to question the strange people. The two women, when interrogated, turned sharply round, showing eyes of a flashing red; then looking upward, their eyes became dull and white, and they immediately ran into the house, the doors and windows of which at once vanished, the whole taking the form and appearance of an isolated boulder." Amongst the Maories also we have "te tini ote hakuturi," or "the multitude of the wood-elves," the little people who put the chips all back into the tree Rata had felled and stood it up again, because he had not paid tribute to Tane.[E]

[Footnote A: Quoted by Keightley, p. 62.]

[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 230.]

[Footnote C: Keightley, p. 92, quoting from Thiele.]

[Footnote D: Folk Lore Journal, v. 143.]

[Footnote E: Tregear, Journ. Anth. Inst., xix. 121.]

7. The association of little people with water as a home is a widespread notion. The Sea-Trows of the Shetlanders inhabit a region of their own at the bottom of the sea. They here respire a peculiar atmosphere, and live in habitations constructed of the choicest submarine productions. They are, however, not always small, but may be of diverse statures, like the Scandinavian Necks. In Germany the Water-Dwarfs are also known. At Seewenheiher, in the Black Forest, a little water-man (Seemännlein) used to come and join the people, work the whole day along with them, and in the evening go back into the lakes.[A] The size of the Breton Korrigs or Korrigan, if we may believe Villemarqué in his account of this folk, does not exceed two feet, but their proportions are most exact, and they have long flowing hair, which they comb out with great care. Their only dress is a long white veil, which they wind round their body. Seen at night or in the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great; but in the daylight their eyes appear red, their hair is white, and their faces wrinkled; hence they rarely let themselves be seen by day. They are fond of music, and have fine voices, but are not much given to dancing. Their favourite haunts are the springs, by which they sit and comb their hair.[B] The Maories also have their Water-Pigmies, the Ponaturi, who are, according to Mr. Tregear, elves, little tiny people, mostly dwellers in water, coming ashore to sleep.[C] "The spirits most commonly met with in African mythology," says Mr. Macdonald, "are water or river spirits, inhabiting deep pools where there are strong eddies and under-currents. Whether they are all even seen now-a-days it is difficult to determine, but they must at one time have either shown themselves willingly, or been dragged from their hiding-places by some powerful magician, for they are one and all described. They are dwarfs, and correspond to the Scottish conception of kelpies or fairies. They are wicked and malevolent beings, and are never credited with a good or generous action. Whatever they possess they keep, and greedily seize upon any one who comes within their reach. 'One of them, the Incanti, corresponds to the Greek Python, and another, called Hiti, appears in the form of a small and very ugly man, and is exceedingly malevolent' (Brownlee). It is certain death to see an Incanti, and no one but the magicians sees them except in dreams, and in that case the magicians are consulted, and advise and direct what is to be done."[D]

[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 261.]

[Footnote B: Villemarqué, ibid., 431.]

[Footnote C: Tregear, ut supra.]

[Footnote D: Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xx. 124.]

Dr. Nansen, speaking of the Ignerssuit (plural of Ignersuak, which means "great fire"), says that they are for the most part good spirits, inclined to help men. The entrance to their dwellings is on the sea-shore. According to the Eskimo legend, "The first earth which came into existence had neither seas nor mountains, but was quite smooth. When the One above was displeased with the people upon it, He destroyed the world. It burst open, and the people fell down into the rifts and became Ignerssuit and the water poured over everything."[A] The spirits here alluded to appear to be the same as those described by Mr. Boas as Uissuit in his monograph on the Central Eskimo. He describes them as "a strange people that live in the sea. They are dwarfs, and are frequently seen between Iglulik and Netchillik, where the Anganidjen live, an Innuit tribe whose women are in the habit of tracing rings around their eyes. There are men and women among the Uissuit, and they live in deep water, never coming to the surface. When the Innuit wish to see them, they go in their boats to a place where they cannot see the bottom, and try to catch them with hooks which they slowly move up and down. As soon as they get a bite they draw in the line. The Uissuit are thus drawn up; but no sooner do they approach the surface than they dive down headlong again, only their legs having emerged from the water. The Innuit have never succeeded in getting one out of the water."[A]

[Footnote A: Nansen, ut supra, p. 259.]

[Footnote A: American Bureau of Ethnology, vi. 612.]

8. Amongst habitations not coming under any of the above categories may be mentioned the moors and open places affected by the Cornish fairies, and lastly the curious residences of the Kirkonwaki or Church-folk of the Finns. "It is an article of faith with the Finns that there dwell under the altar in every church little misshapen beings which they call Kirkonwaki, i.e., Church-folk. When the wives of these little people have a difficult labour, they are relieved if a Christian woman visits them and lays her hand upon them. Such service is always rewarded by a gift of gold and silver."[A] These folk evidently correspond to the Kirkgrims of Scandinavian countries, and the traditions respecting both are probably referable to the practice of foundation sacrifices.

[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 488.]