If we see, then, that early man, terrified by the wild beasts, whether lions or reptiles, ascribed to them superhuman powers, may not a similar mode of thought have caused one race to invest with supernatural attributes another race, strangers to them, and possibly of inferior mental development? The big negro is often afraid to withhold his banana from the pygmy, and the dwarfish Lapps and Finns have long been regarded as powerful sorcerers by their more civilized neighbours. In like manner the little woman, inhabiting her underground dwelling at the foot of the sacred thorn-bush, might well be looked upon as an uncanny being, and in after-ages popular imagination might transform her into the weird banshee, the woman of the fairy mound, whose wailing cry betokens death and disaster.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] Reprinted from the Antiquary, August,
1906.
[16] "Voyage to the Hebrides in 1772," p. 229. For a full discussion of the subject, see Mr. MacRitchie's "Memories of the Picts," in the Scottish Antiquary for 1900.
[17] See "Some Ulster Souterrains," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. xxxix., January-June, 1909. The plan was drawn by Miss Florence Hobson from the measurements made by Mrs. Hobson.
[18] Rawl., 486, f.49, 2.
[19] "Silva Gadelica" (translation and notes), pp. 563, 564.
[20] "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii., pp. 516, 517.
[21] "Land of the Pygmies," pp. 173, 174.