[459] Montelius’ Les Temps préhistoriques en Suède, par S. Reinach, p. 126. (Paris, 1895).
[460] H. Schliemann, Mycenae (London, 1878), p. 213.
[461] Walhouse, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vii. 21. These Dravidians are slightly taller than the pure Negritos, their probable ancestors; and Indian tradition considers them to be the builders of the Indian dolmens, just as Celtic tradition considers fairies and corrigans (often described as dark or even black-skinned dwarfs) to be the builders of dolmens and megaliths among the Celts. Apparently, in such folk-traditions, which correctly or incorrectly regard fairies, corrigans, or Dravidians as the builders of ancient stone monuments, there has been preserved a folk-memory of early races of men who may have been Negritos (pygmy blacks). These races, through a natural anthropomorphic process, came to be identified with the spirits of the dead and with other spiritual beings to whom the monuments were dedicated and at which they were worshipped. Here, again, the Pygmy Theory is seen at its true relative value: it is subordinate to the fundamental animism of the Fairy-Faith.
[462] J. Déchelette, Manuel d’Archéologie préhistorique (Paris, 1908), i. 468, 302, 308, 311, 576, 610, &c.
[463] This famous chambered tumulus ‘measures nearly 700 feet in circumference, or about 225 feet in diameter, and between 40 and 50 feet in height’ (G. Coffey, in Rl. Ir. Acad. Trans. [Dublin, 1892], xxx. 68).
[464] G. Coffey, in Rl. Ir. Acad. Trans., xxx. 73-92.
[465] Fol. 190 b; trans. O’Curry, Lectures, p. 505.
[466] Mr. Coffey quotes from the Senchus-na-Relec, in L. U., this significant passage:—‘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)’ (G. Coffey, op. cit., xxx. 77). The manuscript, however, being late and directly under Christian influence, echoes but imperfectly very ancient Celtic tradition: the immortal god-race are therein rationalized by the transcribers, and made subject to death.
[467] W. C. Borlase, Dolmens of Ireland (London, 1897), ii. 346 n.
[468] As translated in the Silva Gadelica, ii. 109-11.