[97] The Picts, Inverness, 1921 (lecture delivered to the Gaelic Society of Inverness and reprinted from The Inverness Courier).
[98] The fact that in the Scottish Lowlands the fairies were sometimes called "Pechts" has been made much of by those who contend that the prototypes of the fairies were the original inhabitants of Western Europe. This theory ignores the well-established custom of giving human names to supernatural beings. In Scotland the hill-giants (Fomorians) have been re-named after Arthur (as in Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh), Patrick (Inverness), Wallace (Eildon Hills), Samson (Ben Ledi), &c. In like manner fairies were referred to as Pechts. The Irish evidence is of similar character. The Danann deities were consigned to fairyland. Donald Gorm, a West Highland chief, gave his name to an Irish fairy. Fairyland was the old Paradise. Arthur, Thomas the Rhymer, Finn-mac-Coul, &c., became "fairy-men" after death. A good deal of confusion has been caused by mistranslating the Scottish Gaelic word sith (Irish sidhe) as "fairy". The word sith (pronounced shee) means anything unearthly or supernatural, and the "peace" of supernatural life—of death after life, as well as the silence of the movements of supernatural beings. The cuckoo was supposed to dwell for a part of the year in the underworld, and was called eun sith ("supernatural bird"). Mysterious epidemics were sith diseases. There were sith (supernatural) dogs, cats, mice, cows, &c., as well as sith men and sith women.
[99] Rough Stone Monuments, pp. 82 et seq.
[100] De Bello Gallico, Book III, Chapter II.
[101] Manners of the Germans, Chapter XLV. The boar was the son of a sow-goddess. Demeter had originally a sow form.
[102] Scandinavian Britain (London, 1908), pp. 61-3.
[103] Rhys, Celtic Britain (4th ed.), pp. 152, 317.
[104] O'Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, Vol. III, p. 136.
[105] Agricola, Chap. XI.
[106] "The rule is", writes Beddoe in this connection (The Anthropological History of Europe, p. 53), "that an anthropological type is never wholly dispossessed or extirpated".