{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_17926/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_17926","id":"gutenberg_17926","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17926","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - British","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairies -- Great Britain","Folklore -- Great Britain","Great Britain -- Antiquities","Picts","Scotland -- Antiquities"],"text":"Produced by Ted Garvin, Taavi Kalju, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreaders Europe at http://dp.rastko.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE I.\n\nSELECTIONAL VIEW AND GROUND PLAN OF UNDERGROUND GALLERY, CALLED _UAMH\nSGALABHAD_, NEAR MOL A DEAS, HUISHNISH, ISLAND OF SOUTH UIST.\n\n_Frontispiece._]\n\n\n\n\nFIANS, FAIRIES\nAND\nPICTS\n\n\nBY\n\nDAVID MACRITCHIE\n\nAUTHOR OF\n\"THE TESTIMONY OF TRADITION\"\n\n\n     \"Sometimes ... it seems that the stones are really\n     speaking--speaking of the old things, of the time when the strange\n     fishes and animals lived that are turned into stone now, and the\n     lakes were here; and then of the time when the little Bushmen lived\n     here, so small and so ugly, and used to sleep in the wild dog\n     holes, and in the 'sloots,' and eat snakes, and shoot the bucks\n     with their poisoned arrows ... Now the Boers have shot them all, so\n     that we never see a little yellow face peeping out among the stones\n     ... And the wild bucks have gone, and those days, and we are\n     here.\"--WALDO, in _The Story of an African Farm._\n\n\n_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_\n\n\nLONDON\nKEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TR\u00dcBNER & CO., LTD.\nPATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD\n1893\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThe following treatise is to some extent a re-statement and partly an\namplification of a theory I have elsewhere advanced.[1] But as that\ntheory, although it has been advocated by several writers, especially\nduring the past half-century, is not familiar to everybody, some remarks\nof an explanatory nature are necessary. And if this explanation assumes\na narrative form, not without a tinge of autobiography, it is because\nthis seems the most convenient way of stating the case.\n\nIt is now a dozen years or thereabouts since I first read the \"Popular\nTales of the West Highlands,\" by Mr. J.F. Campbell, otherwise known by\nhis courtesy-title of \"Campbell of Islay.\" Mr. Campbell was, as many\npeople know, a Highland gentleman of good family, who devoted much of\nhis time to collecting and studying the oral traditions of his own\ndistrict and of many lands. His equipment as a student of West Highland\nfolklore was unique. He had the necessary knowledge of Gaelic, the\nhereditary connection with the district which made him at home with the\npoorest peasant, and the sympathetic nature which proved a master-key in\nopening the storehouse of inherited belief. It is not likely that\nanother Campbell of Islay will arise, and, indeed, in these days of\ndecaying tradition, he would be born too late.\n\nIn reading his book, then, for the first time, what impressed me more\nthan anything else in his pages were statements such as the following:--\n\n     \"The ancient Gauls wore helmets which represented beasts. The\n     enchanted king's sons, when they come home to their dwellings, put\n     off _cochal_ [a Gaelic word signifying], the husk, and become men;\n     and when they go out they resume the _cochal_, and become animals\n     of various kinds. May this not mean that they put on their armour?\n     They marry a plurality of wives in many stories. In short, the\n     enchanted warriors are, as I verily believe, nothing but real men,\n     and their manners real manners, seen through a haze of\n     centuries.... I do not mean that the tales date from any particular\n     period, but that traces of all periods may be found in them--that\n     various actors have played the same parts time out of mind, and\n     that their manners and customs are all mixed together, and truly,\n     though confusedly, represented--that giants and fairies and\n     enchanted princes were men ... that tales are but garbled popular\n     history, of a long journey through forests and wilds, inhabited by\n     savages and wild beasts; of events that occurred on the way from\n     east to west, in the year of grace, once upon a time\" (I.\n     cxv.-cxvi.). \"The Highland giants were not so big but that their\n     conquerors wore their clothes; they were not so strong that men\n     could not beat them, even by wrestling. They were not quite\n     savages; for though some lived in caves, others had houses and\n     cattle and hoards of spoil\" (I. xcix.). \"And though I do not myself\n     believe that fairies _are_ ... I believe there once was a small\n     race of people in these islands, who are remembered as fairies, for\n     the fairy belief is not confined to the Highlanders of Scotland\"\n     (I. c.) \"This class of stories is so widely spread, so\n     matter-of-fact, hangs so well together, and is so implicitly\n     believed all over the United Kingdom, that I am persuaded of the\n     former existence of a race of men in these islands who were smaller\n     in stature than the Celts; who used stone arrows, lived in conical\n     mounds like the Lapps, knew some mechanical arts, pilfered goods\n     and stole children; and were perhaps contemporary with some species\n     of wild cattle and horses and great auks, which frequented marshy\n     ground, and are now remembered as water-bulls and water-horses, and\n     boobries, and such like impossible creatures\" (IV. 344).\n\nAnd much more to the same effect,[2] with which it is unnecessary to\ntrouble the reader. Now, all this was quite new to me. If I had ever\ngiven a second thought to the so-called \"supernatural\" beings of\ntradition, it was only to dismiss them, in the conventional manner as\ncreatures of the imagination. But these ideas of Mr. Campbell's were\ndecidedly interesting, and deserving of consideration. It was obvious\nthat tradition, especially where there had been an intermixture of\nraces, could not preserve one clear, unblemished record of the past; and\nthis he fully recognised. But it seemed equally obvious that the\n\"matter-of-fact\" element to which he refers could not have owed its\norigin to myth or fancy. The question being fascinating, there was\ntherefore no alternative but to make further inquiry. And the more it\nwas considered, the more did his theory proclaim its reasonableness. He\nsuggests, for example, that certain \"fairy herds\" in Sutherlandshire\nwere probably reindeer, that the \"fairies\" who milked those reindeer\nwere probably of the same race as Lapps, and that not unlikely they were\nthe people historically known as Picts. The fact that Picts once\noccupied northern Scotland formed no obstacle to his theory. And when I\nlearned that the reindeer was hunted in that part of Scotland as\nrecently as the twelfth century, that remains of reindeer horns are\nstill to be found in the counties of Sutherland, Ross, and Caithness,\nsometimes in the very structures ascribed to the Picts, then I perceived\nthis to be a theory which, to quote his words, \"hung well together.\"\nFurther, the actual Lapps are a small-statured race, the fairies also\nwere so described, and this, too, I found to be the traditional idea\nregarding the Picts. Here the identification was closer still. Then\ncame the consideration: The fairies lived in hollow hillocks and under\nthe ground: what kind of dwellings are the Picts supposed to have\noccupied? The answer to this question still further strengthened Mr.\nCampbell's conjecture. There yet exist numerous underground structures\nand artificial mounds whose interior shows them to have been\ndwelling-places; and these are in some places known as \"fairy halls\" and\nin others as \"Picts' houses.\" (Illustrations of these are shown in the\npresent volume, and are specially referred to in the annexed paper.)\n\nThe examination, therefore, of this interesting theory not only helped\ngreatly to bear out its probable correctness, but it further began to\nappear that by following this method of inquiry new lights might be\nthrown upon history--perhaps upon very remote history. It was clear that\nthe question was not a simple one. All tradition is obscured by the\ndarkness of time, and genuine fact is mixed up with ideas which belong\nto the world of religion and of myth. Even in Mr. Campbell's own\nstatements there were seeming contradictions. These, however, it is not\nmy present purpose to discuss; since they do not vitally affect his main\ncontention.\n\nThe Lapp-Dwarf parallel was gone into very fully by Professor Nilsson in\nhis _Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia_, written twenty years before\nthe \"West Highland Tales.\" Not that he, either, was the originator of\nthat theory, for it is frequently referred to by Sir Walter Scott, who\naccepted it himself.[3] \"In fact,\" he says, \"there seems reason to\nconclude that these _duergar_ [in English, _dwarfs_] were originally\nnothing else than the diminutive natives of the Lappish, Lettish and\nFinnish nations, who, flying before the conquering weapons of the Asae,\nsought the most retired regions of the north, and there endeavoured to\nhide themselves from their eastern invaders.\" Scott, again, refers us\nback to Einar Gudmund, an Icelandic writer of the second half of the\nsixteenth century, whom I would cite as the earliest \"Euhemerus\" of\nnorthern lands, were it not for the fact that he is obviously much more\nthan a theorist, and is beyond all doubt speaking of an actual race, as\nmay be seen from an incident which he relates.\n\nBut, although the popular memory may retain for many centuries the\nimpress of historical facts, these become inevitably blurred and\nmodified by the lapse of time and the ignorance of the very people who\npreserve the tradition. As an illustration of this, I may cite the\ninstance of the dwarfs of Yesso, referred to in the following pages.\nThese people still survived as a separate community until the first\nhalf of the seventeenth century, if not later. They occupied\nsemi-subterranean or \"pit\" dwellings, and are said to have been under\nfour feet in height. But, although the modern inhabitants of that island\nstill describe them, on the whole, in these terms, a new belief\nregarding them has recently sprouted up in one corner. The A\u00efno word\nsignifying \"pit-dweller\" is also not unlike the word for a burdock leaf.\nIt was known that those dwarfs were little people. Obviously, then,\ntheir name must have meant \"people living under burdock leaves\" (instead\nof \"in pits\"). And so, to some of the modern natives of Yesso, those\nhistorical dwarfs of the seventeenth century \"were so small that if\ncaught in a shower of rain or attacked by an enemy, they would stand\nbeneath a burdock leaf for shelter, or flee thither to hide.\"[4]\n\nIn that instance, we see before our eyes the whole process by which a\nreal race has been transformed into an unreal impossibility, within a\nperiod of two centuries or so. Had the extinction (or modification by\ninter-marriage or by the processes of evolution) of those Yesso dwarfs\ntaken place a thousand years earlier, the difficulty of identifying them\nwould have been greatly increased. After a race has once disappeared\nfrom sight, the popular terms describing it must become more vague and\nconfused with every century. Thus, in a certain traditional Scotch story\nthere is mention of a number of \"little black creatures with spades.\"\nThe description is delightfully comprehensive. It would be quite\napplicable to a gang of Andaman coolies. On the other hand, if we\nexclude the \"spades,\" it might be applied to any \"little black\ncreatures\"--say a colony of tadpoles or of black-beetles. So that, when\na poet or an artist gets hold of a tradition which has reached this\nstage of uncertainty, he may give the reins to his fancy, so long as he\nportrays some kind--any kind--of \"little black creatures.\"[5]\n\nBefore parting altogether from the Yesso dwarfs, notice may be taken of\na folk-tale containing an incident which obviously derives its\nexistence from them, or from a branch of their race. In Mr. Andrew\nLang's \"Green Fairy Book\" there is introduced a certain Chinese \"Story\nof Hok Lee and the Dwarfs.\" It appears to be also current in Japan, to\njudge from a reviewer's remark, that \"the clever artist who has\nillustrated the book must have known the Japanese story, for he gets\nsome of his ideas from the Japanese picture-maker.\" In the story of Hok\nLee the dwarfs are represented as living in subterranean dwellings, and\nin the picture they are portrayed as half-naked, with (for the most\npart) shaggy beards and eyebrows, and bald heads. It is wonderfully near\nthe truth. The baldness is one of the most striking characteristics of\nthose actual dwarfs, and is caused by a certain skin-disease, induced by\ntheir dirty habits, from which a great number of them suffer, or did\nsuffer. The shaggy beards and eyebrows are equally characteristic of the\nrace; and their custom of occupying half-underground dwellings has given\nthem the name by which they are remembered in Japan at the present day.\nThe exact scene of the story is a matter of minor importance. Those\npeople appear to have been known to the Chinese for at least twelve\ncenturies, and to the Japanese for a much longer period. Thus, it was\nquite unnecessary for any novelist in China or Japan to _invent_ such\npeople, since they already existed. As for the details of that\nparticular story, or of any other of the kind, it is not to be supposed\nthat a belief in its historical basis necessarily implies an acceptance\nof every statement contained in it. On this principle, one would be\nbound to accept the truth of every \"snake-story,\" for the simple reason\nthat one believed in the existence of snakes. Still, it is possible, and\nperhaps not improbable, that tales which preserve the memory of those\npeople, may also be fairly accurate in many of the statements made\nregarding them. The reason, however, of introducing this particular\nstory is to show that the Chinese or Japanese romancer did not require\nto _create_ a race of bald-headed, shaggy, half-wild dwarfs, seeing that\nthat had already been done for him by the Creator.\n\nThose to whom this question is a new one will now see what is the point\nof view of the realist or euhemerist with regard to such traditions. He\nsees here and there in the past, through much intervening mist,\nsomething that looks like a real object, and he tries to define its\noutlines. He has no intention of denying, as some have vainly imagined,\nthat there _is_ an intervening mist. Nor, it seems necessary to explain,\ndoes he assume that wherever there is a mist there must be some tangible\nobject behind it. For example, he does not believe that Boreas, or\nZephyrus, or Jack Frost were ever anything but personifications of\ncertain natural forces.\n\nVarious other considerations have also to be borne in mind; not the\nleast important of which is the fact that the very people who have\npreserved these traditional beliefs have done much to obscure them,\nowing to their want of education. Scott tells a story of a Scotch\npeasant who, discovering a company of gaily-dressed puppets standing in\na thicket, where they had been concealed by a travelling showman, at\nonce concluded that they were \"fairies.\" He had inherited the belief\nthat fairies were \"little people\" who frequented just such places as\nthis; consequently, he decided these were fairies. This fact was\nelicited in court, where the countryman had to appear as a witness. From\nthat time onward his mind ought to have been disabused of his hasty\nbelief. But a man so stupid as to assume that a showman's marionettes\nwere anything else than lifeless dolls, might continue for the rest of\nhis life to recount his marvellous meeting with \"the fairies.\"\nSimilarly, to a tipsy man returning homeward from market, many common\nand every-day objects take on a weird and superhuman aspect, due to no\nother spirits than those he has consumed. From this cause, a large\nnumber of odd stories (such as one told by Mr. William Black of a tipsy\nHebridean) has doubtless arisen. Further, the belief in the existence of\n\"supernatural\" beings has been much utilised by rustic humourists, and\nno doubt also by smugglers and other night-birds, in comparatively\nrecent times. The prolonged absence of a husband, or it may be of a\nwife, could be explained by some wild legend of having been \"stolen by\nthe fairies,\" when a more frank avowal dared not be offered. And\nalthough \"strange tales were told\" regarding the paternity of \"Brian,\"\nin _The Lady of the Lake_, and although Scott adheres to those legends\nin his poem, he does not fail to point out in his appended _Note_ that\nthe story could be explained in a much more rational manner. There have\nbeen many \"Brians.\"\n\nTo give this subject the special attention which it deserves would,\nhowever, swell these introductory notes to an intolerable size; and,\nindeed, their purpose is rather to show what the euhemeristic theory is\nthan what it is not; that is to say, the euhemeristic theory as applied\nto the traditions relating to dwarf races.\n\nIn the work to which I have referred, the opinions enunciated by\nProfessor Nilsson and Mr. J.F. Campbell, together with other\ndevelopments which suggested themselves to me, were duly set forth, and\nwere received, as was to be expected, with every form of comment, from\ncomplete approval to entire dissent. Among the adverse criticisms, some\narose from a misapprehension of the case, while others were due to the\ncritic's imperfect acquaintance with the subject he professed to\ndiscuss. But besides these, there were of course the legitimate\nobjections which can always be urged in matters of a debateable\ncharacter, where there is no positive evidence on either side. With\nregard to such I can at least echo the words of one of the most eminent\nand most courteous of my opponents, M. Charles Ploix, and say for\neuhemerism what he says for naturalism:--\"Tant que la th\u00e9orie sur\nlaquelle il s'appuie n'aura pas \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9montr\u00e9e fausse par des arguments\nd\u00e9cisifs, et surtout tant qu'elle n'aura pas \u00e9t\u00e9 remplac\u00e9e par une\nhypoth\u00e8se plus certaine, il pourra continuer \u00e0 s'affirmer.\"[6]\n\nIt ought to be mentioned that the following paper was written for the\nFolk-Lore Society, at one of whose meetings (in February 1892) it was\nsubsequently read. As, however, the Council of that Society ultimately\ndecided that the paper was unsuited for publication in a journal devoted\nto the study of folk-lore, it now appears in a separate form. One\nadvantage to be derived from this is that the illustrations which\naccompanied the lecture, and which are of much importance in enabling\none to understand the argument, can also be reproduced at the same time.\nIt may be added that, while the theme is capable of much\namplification,[7] have preferred to print the paper as it was written\nfor the occasion referred to. It states, concisely enough, the leading\npoints of the argument.\n\nTo those who are interested in the \"realistic\" interpretation of such\ntraditions, I beg to recommend for reference the following works:--First\nand foremost, there is \"The Anatomy of a Pygmie,\" by Dr. Edward Tyson\n(London, 1699), a book full of suggestive notices. This author has\nundoubtedly reached the \"bed-rock\" of the question; but, owing to his\nera and mental environment, he has not realised that his argument is\nuseless without a consideration of the various stratifications above the\n\"bed-rock.\" Belonging to the same century is the chapter \"Of Pigmies\" in\nSir Thomas Browne's \"Vulgar Errors,\" wherein he makes several very\ninteresting statements, although he argues from the opposite side.\nScattered throughout the writings of Sir Walter Scott, both poetry and\nprose, there are also many references bearing upon this question, from\nthe realistic point of view. In addition to these, there is his\nwell-known treatise \"On the Fairies of Popular Superstition,\" prefaced\nto \"The Tale of Tamlane,\" wherein he states that \"the most distinct\naccount of the duergar [_i.e._ dwergs, or dwarfs], or elves, and their\nattributes, is to be found in a preface of Torf\u00e6us to the history of\nHrolf Kraka [Copenhagen, 1715], who cites a dissertation by Einar\nGudmund, a learned native of Iceland. 'I am firmly of opinion,' says the\nIcelander, 'that these beings are creatures of God, consisting, like\nhuman beings, of a body and rational soul; that they are of different\nsexes, and capable of producing children, and subject to all human\naffections, as sleeping and waking, laughing and crying, poverty and\nwealth; and that they possess cattle and other effects, and are\nobnoxious to death, like other mortals.' He proceeds to state that the\nfemales of this race are capable of procreating with mankind;[8] and\ngives an account of one who bore a child to an inhabitant of Iceland,\nfor whom she claimed the privilege of baptism; depositing the infant for\nthat purpose at the gate of the churchyard, together with a goblet of\ngold as an offering.\"[9] Scott further cites from Jessen's _De\nLapponibus_ similar matter-of-fact details obtained on this subject from\nthe Lapps; who, on their own showing, are inferentially the half-bred\ndescendants of dwarfs.\n\n\"That some of the myths of giants and dwarfs are connected with\ntraditions of real indigenous or hostile tribes is settled beyond\nquestion by the evidence brought forward by Grimm, Nilsson, and\nHanusch,\" observes Dr. E.B. Tylor.[10] And although that eminent\nanthropologist sees a different meaning in many kindred traditions, yet\nhis observations, and the great mass of references which he gives in\nconnection with this single detail, are of much interest to euhemerists\npure and simple. The late Sir Daniel Wilson's \"Caliban\"[11] teems with\nthe realistic doctrine, and so also does a work of (in my opinion) less\nequal merit, \"The Pedigree of the Devil,\"[12] by Mr. Frederic T. Hall.\nIn Mr. R.G. Haliburton's \"Dwarfs of Mount Atlas: with notes as to Dwarfs\nand Dwarf Worship,\"[13] and also in his \"Further Notes\"[14] on that\nsubject, the same idea is prominent. All of these writers, with the\nexception of Sir Thomas Browne (and excluding Dr. Tylor in so far as\nregards some of his deductions), refer practically, though in varying\ndegrees, to the question discussed by Tyson; and in this respect I must\nalso cite my recent work on \"The A\u00efnos\" (pp. 51-66). Of other writers\nwho have not probed quite so deeply, and who possibly may not recognise\nthe necessity for so doing, but who are realists nevertheless, the\nfollowing may be mentioned: M. Paul Monceaux, who, in the _Revue\nHistorique_ of October 1891, deals with the African dwarfs of ancient\nand modern writers;[15] Professor Henri van Elven, the main theme of\nwhose forthcoming work, _Les Nains pr\u00e9historiques de l'Europe\nOccidentale_, formed the subject of a paper recently read by him before\nthe _Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d'Arch\u00e9ologie de Bruxelles;_ and MM. Grandgagnage and De\nReul, cited by Mr. C. Carter Blake, F.G.S., in connection with the\n_Nutons_ of the Belgian bone-caves;[16] as also another writer of the\nLow Countries, Van den Bergh (\"xxx. and 313\"), whom Mr. J. Dirks quotes\nat p. 15 of his _Heidens of Egypti\u00ebrs_, Utrecht, 1850. In Mr. W.G.\nBlack's charming book on Heligoland,[17] one passage (p. 72) recognises\nthat a certain Sylt tradition \"is evidently one of those valuable\nlegends which illuminate dark pages of history. It clearly bears\ntestimony to the same small race having inhabited Friesland in times\nwhich we trace in the caves of the Neolithic age, and of which the\nEsquimaux are the only survivors.\" For many of the kindred traditions in\nthat locality, one cannot do better than refer to Mr. Christian Jensen's\n_Zwergsagen aus Nordfriesland_, contributed to the _Zeitschrift des\nVereins f\u00fcr Volkskunde_ (Berlin, Heft 4, 1892).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n[The foregoing pages were all in type before the appearance of Vol.\nVIII. of the _Biblioth\u00e8que de Carabas_, which contains several\ncriticisms by Mr. Andrew Lang on my \"Testimony of Tradition\" and\n\"Underground Life.\" The already excessive length of this Introduction\nprevents me from now referring more particularly to these observations,\nas I should otherwise have done. In the meantime, however, I beg to\nrefer Mr. Lang to the present work, and to ask him whether he thinks the\nstatements there quoted substantiate his conception of the _Fir Sidhe_\nas a deathless people, occupying some region \"unknown of earth.\"\n\nAn addition to the Bibliography of this subject is made in the\nabove-named volume (p. 88). \"In his _Scottish Scenery_ (1803), Dr.\nCririe suggests that the germ of the Fairy myth is the existence of\ndispossessed aboriginals dwelling in subterranean houses, in some places\ncalled Picts' houses, covered with artificial mounds. The lights seen\nnear the mounds are lights actually carried by the mound-dwellers.\" Mr.\nLang adds: \"Dr. Cririe works out in some detail 'this marvellously\nabsurd supposition,' as the _Quarterly Review_ calls it (vol. lix. p.\n280).\"]\n\n\n[Footnote 1: _The Testimony of Tradition_. Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr\u00fcbner &\nCo., London, 1890.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Such as at pp. ci.-cix. of Vol. I., and pp. 46, 101, and\n275 of Vol. II.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Scott, however, had only imperfectly grasped this idea. In\nnumerous passages he inconsistently refers to \"the little people\" as\npurely the creatures of imagination.]\n\n[Footnote 4: A description of those dwarfs, obtained from Japanese\nrecords and pictures, may be seen in my monograph on \"The A\u00efnos\"\n(Supplement to Vol. IV. of the _Internationales Archiv f\u00fcr\nEthnographie_, Leiden, 1892). Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr\u00fcbner & Co.,\nLondon.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Similarly, the \"little Bushmen\" referred to by Miss Olive\nSchreiner's _Waldo_ (as quoted by me on the title-page) would be\nremembered with as much uncertainty a century hence if the modern\npopulation of South Africa had nothing but tradition to depend upon. (It\nmay be explained, in case of misapprehension on the part of any\ntoo-literal reader, that that quotation is not supposed to prove that\nthe earth-dwellers of the Hebrides were small and ugly, with \"little\nyellow faces,\" any more than it proves the reindeer of Scotland to have\nbeen identical with the wild buck of South Africa. But the cases are\nanalogous, and the quotation seems _\u00e0 propos_.)]\n\n[Footnote 6: _Le Surnaturel dans les Contes Populaires_, Paris, 1891, p.\niv.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Some portions of it I have already amplified: in a pamphlet\nentitled \"The Underground Life,\" Edinburgh, 1892 (privately printed); in\na paper on \"Subterranean Dwellings,\" contributed to _The Antiquary_\n(London: Elliot Stock) of August 1892; and at pp. 52-58 of \"The A\u00efnos,\"\npreviously quoted.]\n\n[Footnote 8: By \"mankind\" need only be understood the race to which\nEinar Gudmund belonged. It is well known that many races apply the term\n\"men\" to themselves alone. At the same time, Gudmund's words may denote\na very marked difference in the two types.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Scott again quotes this story, in fuller detail, in the\nAppendix to _The Lady of the Lake_, Note 3 C.]\n\n[Footnote 10: \"Primitive Culture,\" vol. i. p. 385 (3rd edition).]\n\n[Footnote 11: London, Macmillan and Co., 1873.]\n\n[Footnote 12: London, Tr\u00fcbner and Co., 1883.]\n\n[Footnote 13: London, David Nutt, 1891.]\n\n[Footnote 14: _Asiatic Quarterly Review_, July 1892.]\n\n[Footnote 15: For an exhaustive account of \"The Pygmy Tribes of Africa,\"\ntreated from the purely scientific and ethnological point of view see\nDr. Henry Schlichter's articles in _The Scottish Geographical Magazine_\nof June and July 1892.]\n\n[Footnote 16: _Memoirs_ of the Anthropological Society of London, vol.\niii. 1870, pp. 320, 321.]\n\n[Footnote 17: Blackwood and Sons, 1888.]\n\n\n\n\nFIANS, FAIRIES AND PICTS.\n\n\nThe general belief at the present day is that, of the three designations\nhere classed together, only that of the Picts is really historical. The\nFians are regarded as merely legendary--perhaps altogether mythical\nbeings; and the Fairies as absolutely unreal. On the other hand, there\nare those who believe that the three terms all relate to historical\npeople, closely akin to each other, if not actually one people under\nthree names.\n\nTo those unacquainted with the views of the realists, or euhemerists, it\nis necessary to explain that the popular definition of Fairies as\n\"little people\" is one which that school is quite ready to accept. But\nthe conception of such \"little people\" as tiny beings of a\u00ebrial and\nethereal nature, able to fly on a bat's back, or to sip honey from the\nflowers \"where the bee sucks,\" is regarded by the realists as simply\nthe outcome of the imagination, working upon a basis of fact. An\nillustration of this position may be seen in the Far East. There is a\ntradition among the A\u00efnos of Northern Japan that they were preceded by a\nrace of \"little people,\" only a few inches in height, whose\npit-dwellings they still point out. But the pottery and the skeletons\nassociated with these habitations show that not only were their\noccupants of a stature to be measured by feet rather than by inches, but\nalso that, by reason of a certain anatomical peculiarity common to both,\nthe traditional dwarfs were very clearly the ancestors of the A\u00efnos--a\nrace which, though now blended, was once most distinctly a race of\ndwarfs, if one is to believe the earliest Japanese pictures of them.\nSimilarly, the dwarfs of European tradition are believed to have had as\nreal an origin as the little people of A\u00efno legend, at any rate by those\nwho hold the realistic theory.\n\nAny attempt to reconcile the pygmies of the classic writers with actual\ndwarfs of flesh and blood is outside my province. Moreover, this has\nbeen admirably, and, as it seems to me, successfully done quite recently\nby M. Paul Monceaux, in an article in the _Revue Historique,_[18]\nwherein he compares the traditional and historical descriptions with the\nstatements of modern travellers, and draws the inference that the\npygmies of the Greek and Roman writers, sculptors and painters, are all\nderived from actual dwarfs seen by their forefathers in Africa and\nIndia. (Still less doubt is there with regard to the dwarfs in Ancient\nEgyptian paintings.) And whereas Strabo is, says M. Monceaux, the only\nwriter of antiquity who questions the existence of the dwarfs, all the\nothers are on the side of Aristotle, who says--\"This is no fable; there\nreally exists in that region (the sources of the Nile), as people\nrelate, a race of little men, who have small horses and who live in\nholes.\" And these little men were of course the ancestors of\nSchweinfurth's and Stanley's dwarfs.\n\nBut although M. Monceaux confines his identification to equatorial\nAfrica and to India, he does not omit to state that Pliny and other\nwriters speak of dwarf tribes in other localities, and among these are\n\"the vague regions of the north, designated by the name of Thule.\" This\narea, vague enough certainly, is the territory with which Fians and\nPicts are both associated; as, also, of course, the Fairies of North\nEuropean tradition.\n\nThe attributes with which the \"little people\" of North Europe are\naccredited cannot be given in detail here. It is enough to note that\nthey were believed to live in houses wholly or partly underground, the\nlatter kind being described as \"hollow\" mounds, or hills; that when\npeople of taller race entered such subterranean dwellings (as\noccasionally they did) they found the domestic utensils of the dwarfs\nwere of the kind labelled \"pre-historic\" in our antiquarian museums;\nthat the copper vessels which dwarf women sometimes left behind them\nwhen discovered surreptitiously milking the cows of their neighbours,\nwere likewise of an antique form; further, that they helped themselves\nto the beef and mutton of their neighbours, after having shot the\nanimals with flint-headed arrows; that melodies peculiar to them are\nstill sung by the peasants of certain localities; that words used by\nthem are still employed by children in their games; and that many\nfamilies in many districts are believed to have inherited some of their\nblood.[19] Of this intercourse between the taller races and the dwarfs,\nthere are many records in old traditions. In the days of King Arthur,\nwhen, as Chaucer tells us, the land was \"ful-filled of fa\u00ebrie,\" the\nknights errant had usually a dwarf as attendant. One of King Arthur's\nown knights was a Fairy.[20] According to Highland tradition, every\nhigh-caste family of pure Gaelic descent had an attendant dwarf. These\nexamples show the \"little people\" in a not unfriendly light. But many\nother stories speak of them as \"malignant\" foes, and as dreaded\noppressors. Of which the rational explanation is that these various\ntales relate to various localities and epochs.\n\nThe connection visible between Fians and Fairies, between Fians and\nPicts, and between Picts and Fairies, may now briefly be stated.\n\nThe earliest known association of the first two classes occurs in an\nIrish manuscript of the eleventh or twelfth century,[21] wherein it is\nstated that when the ninth-century Danes overran and plundered Ireland,\nthere was nothing \"in concealment under ground in Erinn, or in the\nvarious secret places belonging to Fians or to Fairies\" that they did\nnot discover and appropriate. This statement receives strong\nconfirmation from a Scandinavian record, the _Landn\u00e1ma-bok_, which\nsays[22] that, in or about the year 870, a well-known Norse chief named\nLeif\n\n     \"went on warfare in the west. He made war in Ireland, and there\n     found a large underground house; he went down into it, and it was\n     dark until light shone from a sword in the hand of a man. Leif\n     killed the man, and took the sword and much property.... He made\n     war widely in Ireland, and got much property. He took ten thralls.\"\n\nAlthough the Scandinavian record does not speak of the owner of the\nearth-house as either a \"Fian\" or a \"Fairy,\" it is quite evident that\nthis is an example of the plundering referred to in the Irish chronicle,\nand that the Gaels of Ireland seven or eight centuries ago, if not a\nthousand years ago, regarded the underground people as indifferently\nFians and Fairies.[23]\n\nMany other associations of Fians with Fairies are to be seen. In one of\nthe old traditional ballads regarding the Fians, they are described as\nfeasting with Fairies in one of their \"hollow\" mounds.[24] A\nSutherlandshire story relates the adventures of the son of a Fairy\nwoman, who took service with Ossian, the king of the Fians.[25] One of\nthe Fians (Caoilte) had a Fairy sweet-heart.[26] Another of them (Oscar)\nhas an interview with a washerwoman who is a Fairy.[27] A Fenian story\nrecounts how one day the Fians were working in the harvest-field, in the\nArgyleshire island of Tiree, and on that occasion they had \"left their\nweapons of war in the armoury of the Fairy Hill of Caolas\";[28] from\nwhich one is to infer that the Fians made use of Fairy dwellings. In the\nsame collection of tales we are told[29] that one time when the Fians\nwere hunting in the Isle of Skye, they left their wives in a dwelling\nwhich bore a title \"applied to dwellings of the Elfin race.\" It is\nfurther stated that one popular belief in the Scottish Highlands is that\nthe Fians are still lying in the hill of Tomnahurich, near Inverness,\nand that \"others say they are lying in Glenorchy, Argyleshire.\"[30] Now,\nboth the Inverness-shire mound and the mounds in Glenorchy are also\npopularly regarded as the abodes of Fairies.[31] The vitrified fort on\nKnock-Farril, in Ross-shire, is said to have been one of Fin McCoul's\ncastles;[32] and Knock-Farril, or rather \"a knoll opposite Knock-Farril\"\nis remembered as the abode of the Fairies of that district.[33]\nGlenshee, in Perthshire, is celebrated equally as a Fairy haunt and as a\nfavourite hunting-ground of the Fians. The Fians, indeed, were said to\nhave lived by deer-hunting, so much so that Campbell of Islay suggests\nthat their name signifies \"the deer men\"; and the deer, it is believed,\n\"were a fairy race.\"[34] The famous hound of the famous leader of the\nFians was \"a Fairy or Elfin dog.\" In short, the connection between Fians\nand Fairies, recognised in the Gaelic manuscript of eight or ten\ncenturies ago, is apparent throughout the traditions of the\nGaelic-speaking people.\n\nBut if the Fians were either identical with, or closely akin to the\nFairies, they must have been \"little people.\" The belief that they were\nso is supported by one traditional Fenian story. This is the well-known\ntale of the visit of Fin, the famous chief of the Fians, to a country\nknown to him and his people as \"The Land of the Big Men.\" The story\ntells how Fin sailed from Dublin Bay in his skin-boat, crossed the sea\nto that country, and shortly after landing was captured and taken to the\npalace of the king, where he was appointed court dwarf,[35] and remained\nfor a considerable time the attached and faithful adherent of the king.\nThe collector of this story has assumed that it is purely imaginary. But\nlet it be contrasted with the following extract from the _Heimskringla_.\nThe period is the early part of the eleventh century, and the scene\nNorway: \"There was a man from the Uplands called Fin the Little, and\nsome said of him that he was of Finnish race. He was a remarkable [?\nremarkably] little man, but so swift of foot that no horse could\novertake him.... He had long been in the service of King Hrorek, and\noften employed in errands of trust.... Now when King Hrorek was set\nunder guards on the journey Fin would often slip in among the men of\nthe guard, and followed, in general, with the lads and serving-men; but\nas often as he could he waited upon Hrorek, and entered into\nconversation with him.\"[36] And, like Fin the dwarf in the Gaelic story,\nthis little Fin rendered great service to his king. Now, the\n_Heimskringla_ Fin is unquestionably a historical personage, and the\naccount of him was written by a twelfth century historian. The Gaelic\nstory was only obtained in the Hebrides, and reduced to writing\ntwenty-three years ago. Although Fin of the Fians is stated in Irish\nrecords to be the grandson of a Finland woman,[37] and although the\nScandinavian and the Hebridean tales look very much like two versions of\none story, this cannot precisely be the case, as the Fenian Fin is\nplaced in an earlier era than his namesake of Norway. A dwarf king named\nFin is also remembered in Frisian tradition;[38] and that he and his\nrace were small men is pretty clearly proved by the fact that when one\nof the earth-houses attributed to him was opened some years ago, it was\nfound to contain the bones of a little man.[39] Both of these dwarf\nFins, Little Fin of Norway and Little Fin of Denmark, are undoubtedly\nreal; and there seems no good reason to suppose that the dwarf Fin of\nHebridean tradition was not equally real. Whether they were three\nseparate people is a problem. \"Fin\" appears to have been at one time a\nnot uncommon name, whatever its etymology and that of \"Fian\" may be. At\nany rate, there is nothing in history (which speaks of a close\nintercourse between Scandinavia and the British Isles, in former times),\nand nothing in the ethnology of North-Western Europe, to make us regard\nas mythical the capture and enthralment of any one of these three\n\"little Fins.\" If Fin of the Fians, therefore, was a typical Fian, they\nwere little people.[40]\n\nIn regarding the Fians as a race of dwarfs, I do not overlook the fact\nthat they are also spoken of as \"giants.\" But to assume them to have\nbeen of gigantic stature is both totally at variance with the bulk of\nthe evidence regarding them, and at variance with the fact that the word\n\"giant\" has very frequently been used to denote a savage, or a\ncave-dweller.[41] No more appropriate illustration of this can be found\nthan the local tradition that a certain artificially hollowed rock in\nthe island of Hoy, Orkney, was the abode of \"a giant and his wife.\" Now,\nthis same \"giant\" is also remembered as a \"dwarf,\" and the largest cell\nin his dwelling is only 5 feet 8 inches long. Similarly, there is in\nIceland a certain _Tr\u00f6llakyrkia_ (literally \"the dwarfs' church\") which\nis translated \"the _giants'_ church.\"[42] For these reasons, then, I do\nnot regard any reference to the Fians as \"giants\" as indicating that\nthey were of tall stature; although I see no objection to the assumption\nthat they were savages and cave-dwellers.\n\nFians, then, are closely connected with the \"little people\" called\n\"Fairies.\" The connection between Fians and Picts is equally well\nmarked.\n\nRegarding them historically, Dr. Skene identifies the Fians with one or\nother of two historical races believed to have occupied Ireland before\nthe coming of the Gaels. These two races are known in Irish story as the\nTuatha De and the Cruithn\u00e9.[43] Now, the Tuatha De _are_ the Fairies of\nIreland.[44] Therefore, according to Dr. Skene, the Fians were either\nFairies or Cruithn\u00e9. Now, Cruithn\u00e9 is simply a Gaelic name for the\nPicts. Consequently, the Fians were either Fairies or Picts--according\nto Dr. Skene. In one traditional story, already referred to, the Fians\nseem to be unhesitatingly regarded as Picts. This story, obtained in\nSutherlandshire, tells how a certain king lived for a year with a\n_banshee_, or fairy woman,[45] by whom he had a son. When this son grew\nup he went to the country of the Fians,[46] and there he entered into\nthe service of their king, who was no other than the celebrated Oisin.\nThe Gaelic narrator calls him \"Oisin, Righ na Feinne,\" that is, \"Ossian,\nKing of the Fians\"; but the collector of the story,[47] who had no doubt\nobtained the translation on the spot, renders _Righ na Feinne_ as \"King\nof the Picts.\" No explanation or comment is given, and one is therefore\nled to infer that in Sutherlandshire _Feinne_ is without question\nregarded as a Gaelic name for the Picts. This identity is, indeed, borne\nout otherwise. There is a Gaelic saying in Glenlyon, Perthshire, to the\neffect that \"Fin had twelve castles\" in that glen, and the remains of\nthese \"castles,\" all said to have been built by him and his Fians, and\nof which one in particular is styled \"Castle Fin,\"[48] are known to the\nEnglish-speaking people of Scotland as \"Picts'\" houses. For they belong\nto a peculiar class of structures, all radically alike, and all known,\nin certain districts, as \"Picts' houses.\" The term \"Picts' house\" is\nunknown in the Hebrides, says one writer. \"In the Hebrides tradition is\nentirely silent concerning the Picts ... there the Fenian heroes are the\nbuilders of the duns.\"[49] Yet the self-same class of building is\nelsewhere assigned to the Picts. To these structures I shall presently\nrefer more particularly; but it is enough to note in passing that, just\nas Oisin, King of the Fians, is translated into Ossian, King of the\nPicts, so the dwellings ascribed to the Fians in one locality, are in\nanother said to have been made and inhabited by the Picts.\n\nFians, then, are associated or identified with Fairies, and also with\nPicts. To complete my equilateral triangle, the Picts ought also to be\nregarded as Fairies, or as akin to them.\n\nThis undoubtedly is a popular belief. The earliest alleged reference of\nthis kind is placed by one writer in the middle of the fifteenth\ncentury, before the Orkney Islands had passed from the crown of Denmark\nto the crown of Scotland. A manuscript of the then Bishop of Orkney,\ndated Kirkwall 1443, states that when Harald Haarfagr conquered the\nOrkneys in the ninth century, the inhabitants were the two \"nations\" of\nthe _Pap\u00e6_ and the _Peti_, both of whom were exterminated. By the former\nname is understood the Irish missionaries: the _Peti_ were certainly the\nPicts, or Pehts.[50] Now, of these Picts of Orkney it is said, that they\n\"were only a little exceeding pigmies in stature, and worked wonderfully\nin the construction of their cities, evening and morning, but in\nmid-day, being quite destitute of strength, they hid themselves through\nfear in little houses under ground.\"[51]\n\nThe exact date of this statement is at present doubtful, but it is quite\nin accordance with the widespread ideas held throughout Scotland and\nNorthumberland with regard to the Picts: that they were great as\nbuilders, but were of very low stature, and closely akin to Fairies.[52]\nMoreover, they are famous for doing their work during the night.\nWhatever be the explanation of the above curious statement that at\nmid-day they lost their strength and withdrew to their underground\nhouses, it is at any rate interesting to compare with it the remark made\nby the traveller Pennant as he was passing along Glenorchy in 1772. This\nis the entry in his journal:--\"See frequently on the road-sides small\nverdant hillocks, styled by the common people shi an (_sithean_), or the\nFairy-haunt, because here, say they, the fairies, who love not the glare\nof day, make their retreat after the celebration of their nocturnal\nrevels.\"[53] Now, as the \"Picts' houses\" are, to outward appearance,\n\"small verdant hillocks,\" the parallel is very exact. With these two\nreferences compare also the mention, in a quaint old gazetteer printed\nat Cambridge in 1693,[54] of the tribe of the \"Germara,\" defined as \"a\npeople of the Celt\u00e6, who in the day-time cannot see.\" Although the\nauthor usually gives the sources of his information, in this instance he\ngives none. But the statement agrees perfectly with the belief found\neverywhere throughout Northern Europe that \"the dwarfs could not bear\ndaylight, and during the day hid in their holes.\"[55] It really seems\nimpossible to avoid the inference that all this was perfectly true. When\nLeif went down into the underground house in Ireland, he could not see\nat first, though at length he saw in the obscurity the glimmer of his\nopponent's sword. Consequently, the denizens and builders of these\nsubterranean retreats must either have had something very like \"cat's\neyes,\" or else they must in general have had numerous lamps burning.\nThis will be understood by an examination of one or two of the\naccompanying diagrams. It seems to me beyond question that a people\nliving this underground life must have differed very distinctly from\nourselves in the matter of vision; and to them the brightness of noonday\nmust have been blinding. This physical fact--if it be a fact--would\nexplain much that is otherwise strange and incredible in the traditions\nrelating to the Picts--or Pechts, as they were formerly called in\nScotland. However, it is sufficient for my present purpose to note that\nthis peculiarity associates, and indeed identifies, the Picts with the\ndwarfs or fairies of tradition.\n\nHaving thus shown that Fians, Fairies, and Picts are so closely\nassociated as to be, in some aspects, almost indistinguishable from one\nanother, I shall now refer to the structures which are popularly\nbelieved to have been their dwellings. Some of these are wholly\nunderground, others partly so, and others quite above ground. In many\nother ways, also, they vary. But all of them are unquestionably links\nin one special style of structure; of which the most marked feature, or\nat any rate that which is common to all, is the use of what is called\nthe \"cyclopean\" arch. This is formed by the overlapping of the stones in\nthe wall until they almost meet at the dome or apex of the building,\nwhen a heavy \"keystone\" completes this rude arch. The principle of the\narch proper was obviously quite unknown to the originators of such\nstructures.\n\nOf the various Hebridean specimens of these buildings, very interesting\nand complete descriptions have been given by the late Captain Thomas,\nR.N.,[56] and Sir Arthur Mitchell,[57] who visited some of them together\nin 1866. Referring to the most modern examples of this kind of\nstructure, the latter writer says:--\"They are commonly spoken of as\nbeehive houses, but their Gaelic name is _bo'h_ or _bothan_. They are\nnow only used as temporary residences or shealings by those who herd\nthe cattle at their summer pasturage; but at a time not very remote they\nare believed to have been the permanent dwellings of the people.\" And he\nthus describes his first sight of the beehive houses:--\n\n     \"I do not think I ever came upon a scene which more surprised me,\n     and I scarcely know where or how to begin my description of it.\n\n     \"By the side of a burn which flowed through a little grassy glen\n     ... we saw two small round hive-like hillocks, not much higher than\n     a man, joined together, and covered with grass and weeds. Out of\n     the top of one of them a column of smoke slowly rose, and at its\n     base there was a hole about three feet high and two feet wide,\n     which seemed to lead into the interior of the hillock--its\n     hollowness, and the possibility of its having a human creature\n     within it being thus suggested. There was no one, however, actually\n     within the _bo'h_, the three girls, when we came in sight, being\n     seated on a knoll by the burn-side, but it was really in the inside\n     of these two green hillocks that they slept, and cooked their food,\n     and carried on their work, and--dwelt, in short.\"[58]\n\nThese two \"green hillocks,\" and other structures of the same nature, are\nshown in the accompanying diagrams[59] (Plates I.-XVI.), which explain\ntheir formation better than any written description. It is enough here\nto state that they are built of rough stone, without any mortar. \"Though\nthe stone walls are very thick,\" says my authority (p. 62), \"they are\ncovered on the outside with turf, which soon becomes grassy like the\nland round about, and thus secures perfect wind and water tightness.\"\nSometimes they occur in groups, as those shown in Plate III.; of which\nscene Captain Thomas justly remarks that \"at first sight it may be taken\nfor a picture of a Hottentot village rather than a hamlet in the British\nIsles.\"[60] Here there is little or no grassy covering outside, however;\nand consequently none of the hillock-like effect. But this is very well\nshown in Plates VI. and VIII. Of the \"agglomeration of beehives\"\npictured in the latter, Sir Arthur Mitchell observes:--\"It has several\nentrances, and would accommodate many families, who might be spoken of\nas living in one mound, rather than under one roof\" (_op. cit._ pp.\n64-5). Of another such dwelling, now ruined, he says that it could have\naccommodated \"from forty to fifty people.\"\n\nThis last, however (Plates XI. and XII.), represents another variety of\nearth-house, the chambered mound or beehive, with an underground gallery\nleading to it. Of this kind two examples are here shown. And in Plates\nI. and XIII. will be seen specimens of wholly subterranean structures.\nIt is difficult, and indeed hardly necessary, to distinguish between one\nvariety and another of what is practically the same kind of building;\nbut to this last class the term \"earth-house\" is most frequently\naccorded in Scotland. In the broader dialect it is \"yird-house\" or\n\"eirde-house,\" which at once recalls the form \"jord-hus\" in the saga\nwhich tells of Leif's adventure underground in Ireland. The term _weem_\nis also applied to these places in Scotland. This is merely a quickened\npronunciation of the Gaelic _uam_ (or _uamh_), a cave; and it reminds\none that, both in Gaelic and in English, the word \"cave\" is by no means\nrestricted to a _natural_ cavity. Indeed, one of the two artificial\nstructures under consideration is known as _Uamh Sgalabhad_, \"the _cave_\nof Sgalabhad.\" Another old Gaelic name for those underground galleries\nis \"_tung_ or _tunga_\";[61] while another name, by which they are known\nin Lewis is _tigh fo thalaimh_,[62] or \"house beneath the ground.\"\n\n\"Martin, in his description of the Western Islands, printed in 1703,\nwhen their use would appear to have been still remembered, speaks of\nthem [these underground structures] as 'little stone-houses, built under\nground, called earth-houses, which served to hide a few people and their\ngoods in time of war.'\"[63] Dean Monro writes, \"There is sundry coves\nand holes in the earth, coverit with hedder above, quhilk fosters many\nrebellis in the country of the North head of Ywst\" [North Uist].[64]\n\"From O'Flaherty's description of West Connaught, written in 1684, it\nappears,\" observes Captain Thomas,[65] but referring more strictly to\nthe beehive-house, \"that this style of dwelling had already become\narchaic.\" For, although that writer mentions certain \"cloghans\" as being\nstill inhabited, holding forty men in some cases, yet he says they were\n\"so ancient that nobody knows how long ago any of them were made.\" Of\nthe underground galleries another writer says: \"It has been doubted if\nthese houses were ever really used as places of abode.... But as to this\nthere can be no real doubt. The substances found in many of them have\nbeen the accumulated _d\u00e9bris_ of food used by man.... Ornaments of\nbronze have been found in a few of them, and beads of streaked glass. In\nsome cases the articles found would indicate that the occupation of\nthese houses had come down to comparatively recent times.\"[66]\n\nIn conclusion, these remarks of Captain Thomas, who made so thorough a\nstudy of the subject, may be quoted:--\n\n     \"The Pict's house on the Holm of Papay [Orkney] would have held,\n     besides the chiefs at each end, all the families in [the island of]\n     Papay Westray when it was built. Maes howe[67] was for three\n     families--grandees, no doubt; but the numbers it was intended to\n     hold in the _beds_ may be learned by comparing them with the\n     Amazon's House, St. Kilda.\"[68]\n\n     \"I consider the relation between the _boths_ [beehive houses] and\n     the Picts' houses of the Orkneys (and elsewhere) to be evident--the\n     same method of forming the arch, the low and narrow doors and\n     passages, the enormous thickness of the walls, when compared with\n     the interior accommodation--exist in both. When a _both_ is covered\n     with green turf it becomes a chambered tumulus, and when buried by\n     drifting sand it is a subterranean Pict's house.... I regard the\n     comparatively large Picts' houses of the Orkneys as the pastoral\n     residence of the Pictish lord, fitted to contain his numerous\n     family and dependents. Such an one exists on the Holm of Papa\n     Westray, which, according to the Highland method of stowage, would\n     certainly contain a whole clan. When writing the description of it,\n     I had not made acquaintance with a people who would close the door\n     to keep in the smoke, or that nested in holes in a wall like\n     sand-martins....\n\n     \"But the _both_ of the Long Island is only the lodging of the\n     common man or 'Tuathanach,' and is consequently of small\n     dimensions, and not remarkable for comfort. If the modern Highland\n     proprietor or large farmer should ever be induced to lead a\n     pastoral life, and adopt a Pictish architecture in his residence,\n     we might again see a tumulus of twenty feet in height, with its\n     long low passage leading into a large hall with beehive cells on\n     both sides.\"[69]\n\nBut the point of all this is that these dwellings, whether above ground\nor below, are known as _Picts' Houses, Fairy Halls, Elf Hillocks_, \"the\nhidden places of _Fians and Fairies_.\" Thus, the three titles which I\nhave shown to be associated in other ways are all given to the alleged\nbuilders and occupiers of those very archaic and peculiar structures.\n\nIt is true that, in their most modern form, some of those dwellings are\nstill inhabited for months at a time. And their inhabitants are neither\nFians, Fairies nor Picts. But it is among those people that stories of\nFians and Fairies are most rife, and many claim an actual descent from\nthem. And although they are certainly not pigmies, yet they live in a\ndistrict in which the _small_ type of this heterogeneous nation of ours\nis still quite discernible; and that part of the island of Lewis (Uig),\nwhich has longest retained those places as dwellings, is inhabited by a\ncaste whom other Hebrideans describe as small, and regard as different\nfrom themselves.[70] Dr. Beddoe states that the tallest people in the\nUnited Kingdom are to be found in a certain village in Galloway, where\na six-foot man is perfectly common, and many are above that height. It\nis quite certain that such men could not \"nest like sand-martins\" in the\nholes in the wall described by Captain Thomas. And, in proportion as\nsuch Galloway men are to the modern Hebridean mound-dwellers, so are\nthese to the much more archaic race with whom the oldest structures are\nassociated. For a study of the dimensions of these will show that they\ncould not have been conceived, and would not have been built or\ninhabited by any but a race of actual dwarfs; as tradition says they\nwere.\n\n[Footnote 18: \"_La l\u00e9gende des Pygm\u00e9es et les nains de l'Afrique\nequatoriale_\": _Rev. Hist._ t. 47, I. (Sept.-Oct. 1891), pp. 1-64.]\n\n[Footnote 19: For some of these references see Dr. Hibbert's\n\"Description of the Shetland Islands,\" Edinburgh, 1822, pp. 444-451. See\nalso Mrs. J.E. Saxby's \"Folk-Lore from Unst, Shetland\" (in _Leisure\nHour_ of 1880); Mr. W.G. Black's \"Heligoland\", 1888, chap. iv.; and \"The\nFians,\" London, 1891, pp. 2-3.]\n\n[Footnote 20: Gwynn the son of Nudd: for whom see Lady C. Guest's\n\"Mabinogion,\" pp. 223, 263-5, and 501-2.]\n\n[Footnote 21: \"The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill,\" edited by J.H.\nTodd, D.D., London, 1867, pp. 114-115.]\n\n[Footnote 22: I. cc. 4-6 (this reference and the passage is quoted from\nDu Chaillu's \"Viking Age,\" vol. ii. p. 516).]\n\n[Footnote 23: \"_Fianaibh ag Sithcuiraibh_\"]\n\n[Footnote 24: \"_Dan an Fhir Shicair\"; Leabhar na Feinne_, pp. 94-95.]\n\n[Footnote 25: _Folk-Lore Journal_, vol. vi. 1888, pp. 173-178.]\n\n[Footnote 26: _The Fians_, 1891, p. 64.]\n\n[Footnote 27: _Ibid._ p. 33.]\n\n[Footnote 28: _The Fians_, p. 172. The Fairy Hill referred to is \"a\nhillock, in which there is to be seen a small hollow called the armoury\"\n(p. 174).]\n\n[Footnote 29: _Ibid._ pp. 12-13, 166, &c.]\n\n[Footnote 30: _Ibid._ pp. 3-4. Glenorchy is said to have teemed with\nFenian traditions about the early part of this century (_Proceedings_ of\nSoc. of Antiq. of Scotland, vol. vii. pp. 237-240).]\n\n[Footnote 31: See my _Testimony of Tradition_, London, 1890, pp. 146-8;\nand Pennant's \"Second Tour in Scotland\" (Pinkerton's _Voyages,_ London,\n1809, vol. iii. p. 368).]\n\n[Footnote 32: _Proceedings_ of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol.\nvii. p. 294, _note_.]\n\n[Footnote 33: See, for example, an article on \"Scottish Customs and Folk\nlore,\" in _The Glasgow Herald_ of August 1, 1891.]\n\n[Footnote 34: _The Fians_, pp. 78-80.]\n\n[Footnote 35: _Scottish Celtic Review_, 1885, pp. 184-90: _The Fians_,\npp. 175-184.]\n\n[Footnote 36: _The Heimskringla_: Dr. Rasmus B. Anderson's 2nd ed.\n(1889) of Mr. Samuel Laing's translation from Snorre Sturlason: chap.\nlxxxiii., _Of Little Fin_.]\n\n[Footnote 37: _Leabhar na Feinne_, p. 34.\n\n[SUBSEQUENT NOTE.--To be very accurate, one ought to say that,\nin the pedigree referred to, Fin's grandfather (Trenmor) is stated to\nhave married a Finland woman.]]\n\n[Footnote 38: Mr. W.G. Black's _Heligoland_, 1888, chap. iv.]\n\n[Footnote 39: With this Fin of Frisian tradition may be compared Fin, a\nNorth-Frisian chief of the fifth century, mentioned in _Beowulf_ and\n_The Gleeman's Tale_, and whose death is recorded in _The Fight at\nFinnsburk_.\n\n[SUBSEQUENT NOTE.--A suitable companion to the dwarf Fin of\nFrisian tradition is mentioned in Harald Hardradi's Saga:--\"Tuta, a\nFrisian, was with King Harald; he was sent to him for show, for he was\nshort and stout, in every respect shaped like a dwarf.\"--Quoted by Mr.\nDu Chaillu at p. 357 of vol. ii. of \"The Viking Age.\"]]\n\n[Footnote 40: In this connection it is worth noting that Sir Walter\nScott, in referring to the aboriginal or servile clans in 1745, whom he\ndescribes as \"half naked, _stinted in growth_, and miserable in aspect,\"\nincludes among them the McCouls, Fin's alleged descendants, who \"were a\nsort of Gibeonites, or hereditary servants to the Stewarts of Appin.\"\n(Waverley, ch. xliv.)]\n\n[Footnote 41: For example, the late Rev. J.G. Campbell, Tiree, says of\n\"the Great Tuairisgeul\" that he was \"a giant of the kind called\n_Samhanaich_--that is, one who lived in a cave by the sea-shore, the\nstrongest and coarsest of any\" (_Scottish Celtic Review_, p. 62). That\nthis term was one of contempt, given by Gaelic-speaking people to those\n\"giants\" (and apparently based upon their malodorous characteristics),\nwill be seen from Mr. Campbell's further observation (_op. cit._ pp.\n140-141):--\"It is a common expression to say of any strong offensive\nsmell, _mharbhadh e na Samhanaich_, it would kill the giants who dwell\nin caves by the sea. _Samk_ is a strong oppressive smell.\" McAlpine\ndefines _Samk_ as a \"bad smell arising from a sick person, or a dirty\nhot place\"; and he further gives the definition \"a savage\" (quoting\nMackenzie). The word _Samhanach_ itself is defined by McAlpine as \"a\nsavage,\" and he cites the Islay saying:--\"_chuireadh tu cagal air na\nsamhanaich_,\" \"you would frighten the very savages.\" From these\ndefinitions it will be seen that a word translated \"giant\" by one is\nrendered \"savage\" by another (though neither of these terms expresses\nthe literal meaning). Mr. J.G. Campbell also practically regards it as\nsignifying \"cave-dweller,\" or perhaps a certain special caste of\ncave-dwellers. With this may be compared McAlpine's \"_uamh_, _n.f._, a\ncave, den; _n.m._, a chief of savages, terrible fellow ... '_cha'n'eil\nann ach uamh dhuine_,' 'he is only a savage of a fellow.'\" Islay has\nalso another word to denote a Hebridean savage. This is _ciuthach_, \"pr.\n_kewach_, described in the Long Island as naked wild men living in\ncaves\" (J.F. Campbell, Tales, iii. 55, _n._). One of these \"kewachs\"\nfigures in the story of Diarmaid and Grainne, and one version says that\nhe \"came in from the western ocean in a coracle with two oars\n(_curachan_)\" (_The Fians_, p. 54). (His name assumes various\nshapes--_e.g._, Ciofach Mac a Ghoill, Ciuthach Mac an Doill, Ceudach Mac\nRigh nan Collach.) These three terms--_samhanach, uamh dhuine_, and\n_ciuthach_--all seem to indicate one and the same race of people. And\nthese are probably the people referred to by Pennant when he says,\nspeaking of the civilised races of the Hebrides in the beginning of the\nseventeenth century:--\"Each chieftain had his armour-bearer, who\npreceded his master in time of war, and, by my author's (Timothy Pont's\nMS., Advocates' Library, Edinburgh) account in time of peace; for they\nwent armed even to church, in the manner the North Americans do at\npresent [1772] in the frontier settlement, and for the same reason, the\ndread of savages.\" (Pinkerton's _Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 322.)]\n\n[Footnote 42: Hibbert's \"Description of the Shetland Islands,\"\nEdinburgh, 1822, pp. 444-451. With regard to the \"Dwarfie Stone\" of Hoy,\nthe following references may be given:--\"Jo. Ben,\" 1529, at p. 449 of\nBarry's \"History of the Orkney Islands,\" 2nd ed., London, 1808; and\nother writers subsequent to 1529. These speak of this stone as the abode\nof a \"giant.\" Sir Walter Scott (_The Pirate_, Note P.) and many others\ninvariably say \"a dwarf.\"\n\nNote also J.F. Campbell (_W.H. Tales_, p. xcix): \"The Highland giants\nwere not so big, but that their conquerors wore their clothes.\" Also the\ndwarf in Ramsay's \"Evergreen\" who says that he was engendered \"of\ngiants' kind.\"]\n\n[Footnote 43: _Dean of Lismore's Book_, p. lxxvi.; _Celt. Scot._, vol.\ni. p. 131; vol. iii. chap. iii.; &c.]\n\n[Footnote 44: _Celt. Scot._ iii. 106-7.]\n\n[Footnote 45: In this tale, the phonetic spelling _ben-ce_ shows the\nunusual aspirated form _bean-shithe_. She is elsewhere spoken of as the\nLady of Innse Uaine, and her son is the hero of the tale _Gille nan\nCochla-Craicinn_.]\n\n[Footnote 46: According to a clergyman of the seventeenth century, the\nHebrides and a part of the Western Highlands constituted \"the country of\nthe Fians,\" (_Testimony of Tradition_, p. 45.)]\n\n[Footnote 47: Miss Dempster: \"The Folk-Lore of Sutherlandshire,\"\nFolk-Lore Journal, vol. vi. 1888, p. 174.]\n\n[Footnote 48: _Proc. of the Soc. of Antiq. of Scot._, vol. vii. p. 294.]\n\n[Footnote 49: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. vii. pp. 165 and 192.]\n\n[Footnote 50: \"They are plainly no other than the Peihts, Picts, or Piks\n... the Scandinavian writers generally call the Piks Peti, or Pets: one\nof them uses the term Petia, instead of Pictland (Saxo-Gram.); and,\nbesides, the frith that divides Orkney from Caithness is usually\ndenominated Petland Fiord in the Icelandic Sagas or histories.\" (Barry's\n_Orkney_, p. 115.)]\n\n[Footnote 51: _Proc. of the Soc. of Antiq. of Scot._, vol. iii. p. 141:\nalso vol. vii. p. 191. This quotation is made by the late Captain\nThomas, R.N., a sound arch\u00e6ologist; but I have to add that in the\ndocument of 1443, as given in Barry's _Orkney_ (2nd ed., London, 1808,\npp. 401-419), while I find the statement as to the two native races, I\nfind nothing about the stature or habits of the Picts. Captain Thomas\ntwice quotes his statement, and as at one place he refers, not to the\nBishop of 1443, but (vol. iii. p. 141) to \"the Earl of Orkney's\nchaplain, writing about 1460,\" it is possible he had two manuscripts of\nthe fifteenth century in view.\n\n[SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.--The Bishop's words are as follows:--\n\n\"_Istas insulas primitus Peti et Pape inhabitabant. Horum alteri\nscilicet Peti parvo superantes pigmeos statura in structuris urbium\nvespere et mane mira operantes, meredie vero cunctis viribus prorsus\ndestituti in subterraneis domunculis pre timore latuerunt._\"--From his\ntreatise _De Orcadibus Insulis_, reprinted in the \"Bannatyne\nMiscellany,\" 1855, p. 33.]]\n\n[Footnote 52: _Testimony of Tradition_, pp. 58-60, 65, 67-74, 79-80.]\n\n[Footnote 53: Pennant's Second Tour in Scotland; Pinkerton's _Voyages_,\nLondon, 1809, p. 368.]\n\n[Footnote 54: Lingu\u00e6 Roman\u00e6, Dictionarium, Luculentum Novum.]\n\n[Footnote 55: Du Chaillu: _Land of the Midnight Sun_, vol. ii. pp.\n421-2. This also is one of the articles of belief in Shetland, with\nregard to the _trows_, as the trolls are there called.]\n\n[Footnote 56: _Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot_. (First Series), vol.\niii. pp. 127-144; vol. vii. pp. 153-195.]\n\n[Footnote 57: _The Past in the Present_, Edinburgh, 1880, pp. 58-72.]\n\n[Footnote 58: _The Past in the Present_, p. 59.]\n\n[Footnote 59: Reproduced by permission of the Society of Antiquaries of\nScotland.]\n\n[Footnote 60: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. iii. p. 137.]\n\n[Footnote 61: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. vii. p. 168 _n._ This\nappears to me to be a phonetic spelling of the _diongna_ mentioned in\nthe passage relating to the plunderings of the Danes in the ninth\ncentury.]\n\n[Footnote 62: _Ibid._ p. 171. On the same page, the form _Ugh talamkant_\nis given.]\n\n[Footnote 63: _Chambers's Encyclop\u00e6dia_, new ed., s.v. Earth-house.]\n\n[Footnote 64: Quoted in _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vii. 172. The\nreference is \"Ag. Rep. Heb. p. 782.\"]\n\n[Footnote 65: _Op. cit._ vol. iii. p. 140.]\n\n[Footnote 66: John Stuart, LL.D., _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, viii. pp.\n23 _et seq._]\n\n[Footnote 67: Plates XIV.-XVI. Compare also Plates XVII.-XIX.]\n\n[Footnote 68: _Op. cit._, vii. 191.]\n\n[Footnote 69: _Op. cit._, iii. 133.]\n\n[Footnote 70: _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland_,\nvol. iii. (First Series), p. 129. The district of Barvas is specially\nreferred to by Captain Thomas.]\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n\nMost of the illustrations here given are reproductions of some of the\nplates accompanying Captain Thomas's papers in the _Proceedings of the\nSociety of Antiquaries of Scotland_. In explanation of their details the\nfollowing extracts may be made.\n\n\nPLATE I. (Frontispiece).--_Uamh Sgalabhad, South Uist._\n\n(From Plate XXXV. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\nCaptain Thomas thus describes his descent into and exploration of this\nearth-house:--\"An irregular hole was pointed out by the little lassie\nbefore alluded to, and some of my party quickly disappeared below\nground. As they did not immediately return, I thought it was time to\nfollow, and squeezing through the ruinated entrance (_a_), I entered the\nusual kind of gallery, which descended into the ground at a sharp angle.\nAt the bottom, on the right-hand side, was the usual guard-cell (_b_);\nthe sides of dry-stone masonry, but the end was the face of a rock _in\nsitu_. Proceeding on, the roof rose and the gallery widened to what was\nthe main chamber (_c_), which was 7 feet high under the apex of the\ndome, and 4 feet broad. Upon the west side of this chamber, and about 2\nfeet from the ground, is a recess, about 2 feet square and 4 feet long.\nAt the further end, and in the same right line, the gallery (_d_)\nbecame low (2-1/2 feet) and narrow (2 feet). Again the roof rose, and\nthe gallery widened till stopt, in face, by a large transported rock\n(_f_); to the right of the rock a rectangular chamber (_e_), 2 feet\nbroad, extended 4 feet, and ended against rock _in situ_. Round, and\nbeyond the rock (_f_), the wall of the left side of the gallery was\nbuilt, but the passage was so narrow (_g_) that I contented myself by\nlooking through it. This incomprehensible narrowness is a feature in the\nbuildings of this period. Some of Captain Otter's officers pushed\nthrough into the small chamber (_h_); beyond this the gallery was\nruinated and impassable; the total length explored was 45 feet.\"[71]\n\n[Footnote 71: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. vii. (First Series), pp.\n167-8.]\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE II.\n\nFIG. 8.\n\n\n\"It is of a bee-hive form, about 18 feet in diameter, 9 feet high, and\ncovered with green turf outside.\"\n\n_a_ _a_. doors; 3 feet high, \"higher and better formed than is usual.\"\n\n_b_. fireplace (having a chimney above, which is exceptional).\n\n_c_. row of stones marking off _d._\n\n_d_. bed on floor.\n\n_e_ _e_ _e_. small recesses in wall.\n\n\nFIG. 9.\n\nDwelling and Dairy joined, \"of the usual bee-hive shape, and green with\nthe growing turf.\" Dairy \"6 feet square on floor, but roundish\nexternally.\"\n\n_a_. doorway; \"easily closed with a creel, a bundle of heather, or a\nstraw mat.\"\n\n_b_. \"a very low interior doorway.\"\n\n_c_. doorway of dairy.\n\n_d_. fireplace; \"the smoke escaping through a hole in the apex of the\ndome.\"\n\n_e_. \"the usual row of stones.\"\n\n_f_. \"a litter of hay and rushes for a bed.\"\n\n_g_. niches in wall.\n\n_i_ _j_ _k_ _l_. various utensils.]\n\nPLATE II.--_Bee-Hive Houses at Uig, Lewis._\n\n(From Plate XXXI. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\n_Fig. 8._ Captain Thomas selects this as \"the most modern, and at the\nsame time the last, in all probability, that will be constructed in this\nmanner\"--viz., \"roofed by the horizontal or cyclopean arch, _i.e._, by a\nsystem of overlapping stones.\" \"The woman who was living in it [about\n1869] told us it was built for his shieling by Dr. Macaulay's\ngrandfather, who was tacksman [leaseholder] of Linshader ... and I\nconclude that it was made about ninety years back.\"[72]\n\n_Fig. 9._ Sir Arthur Mitchell says of this compound \"bee-hive\"\nhouse:--\"The greatest height of the living room--in its centre, that\nis--was scarcely 6 feet. In no part of the dairy was it possible to\nstand erect. The door of communication between the two rooms was so\nsmall that we could get through it only by creeping. The great\nthickness of the walls, 6 to 8 feet, gave this door, or passage of\ncommunication, the look of a tunnel, and made the creeping through it\nvery real. The creeping was only a little less real in getting through\nthe equally tunnel-like, though somewhat wider and loftier passage,\nwhich led from the open air into the first or dwelling room.\"[73]\n\n[Footnote 72: _Op. cit._, p. 161.]\n\n[Footnote 73: _The Past in the Present_, p. 60.]\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE III.\n\nBEE-HIVE HOUSES, FIDIGIDH IOCHDRACH, UIG, LEWIS, HEBRIDES. Inhabited\n1859.]\n\nPLATE III.--_Bee-Hive Houses at Uig, inhabited in 1859._\n\n(From Plate XII. of Vol. III. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\nSee p. 47, _ante_.\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE IV.\n\nBEEHIVE-HOUSES (BOTHAN) MEABHAG, FOREST OF HARRIS.]\n\nPLATE IV.--_Bee-Hive Houses at Meabhag, Forest of Harris._\n\n(From Plate X. of Vol. III. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\nAt the date of Captain Thomas's visit (1861) a man was still living who\nhad been born in one or other of these dwellings.\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE V.\n\nGROUND PLAN OF RUINED _BOTH_ AT BAILE FHLODAIDH, ON THE NORTH SIDE OF\nTHE ISLAND OF BENBECULA.\n\n_a_. \"scarcely 18 in. wide.\"]\n\nPLATE V.--_Ground Plan of Bee-Hive House, Island of Benbecula._\n\n(From Plate XXXII. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE VI.\n\nSECTIONAL VIEW AND GROUND PLAN OF MOUND DWELLING, CALLED _BOTH\nSTACSEAL_, SITUATED MIDWAY BETWEEN STORNOWAY AND CARLOWAY, LEWIS,\nHEBRIDES.\n\n\"A hole (_e_), called the Farlos, is left in the apex of the roof for\nthe escape of the smoke, and is closed with a turf or flat stone as\nrequisite.\"\n\n_Height of Dome, 7 feet._\n\n_a, b. Doorways._\n\n_c. Fireplace._\n\n_d. Row of stones for seats._\n\n_e. Centre. (Distance from e to end of cells, 7 feet.)_\n\n_f, g, h. Cells or bed-places._\n\n_f is \"2 feet wide and 15 inches high at the inner end; is 5 feet long\nand 3 feet high at the mouth. The opposite cell (g) is of the same\ndimensions. The third cell (h) is 4 feet wide at the mouth, 5 feet long,\ndecreasing to 2-1/2 feet wide at the head, where it is 16 inches high.\"_\n\nThe above is given by Captain Thomas as an example of such dwellings\n\"having oven-like bed-places around the internal area. This interesting\nsummer house illustrates the most antique form of dormitory; but in the\nwinter houses the floor of the bedroom was raised three or four feet\nabove the ground.\" (Compare the side cells in Maes-How, Orkney.)]\n\nPLATE VI.--_Chambered Mound (Both Stacseal), near Stornoway,\nLewis._\n\n(From Plate XXXII. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\nWith reference to the _farlos_, or smoke-hole (otherwise \"sky-light\"),\nwhich, in this instance, is at a height of 7 feet from the floor of the\ndwelling, Captain Thomas remarks:--\"A man, on standing upright, can\noften put his head out of the hole and look around\" (_op. cit._, vol.\niii., p. 130 _n._). This suggests the following story, told by Mr. J.F.\nCampbell (_West Highland Tales_, vol. ii., pp. 39-40):\n\n     \"There was a woman in Baile Thangusdail, and she was out seeking a\n     couple of calves; and the night and lateness caught her, and there\n     came rain and tempest, and she was seeking shelter. She went to a\n     knoll with the couple of calves, and she was striking the\n     tether-peg into it. The knoll opened. She heard a gleegashing\n     (_gliogadaich_) as if a pot-hook were clashing beside a pot. She\n     took wonder, and she stopped striking the tether-peg. A woman put\n     out her head and all above her middle, and she said, 'What business\n     hast thou to be troubling this tulman [mound] in which I make my\n     dwelling?' 'I am taking care of this couple of calves, and I am but\n     weak. Where shall I go with them?' 'Thou shalt go with them to that\n     breast down yonder. Thou wilt see a tuft of grass. If thy couple of\n     calves eat that tuft of grass, thou wilt not be a day without a\n     milk cow as long as thou art alive, because thou hast taken my\n     counsel.'\n\n     \"As she said, she never was without a milk cow after that, and she\n     was alive fourscore and fifteen years after the night that was\n     there.\"\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE VII.\n\nGROUND PLAN OF _BOTHAN GEARRAIDH NA H'AIRDE MOIRE_, UIG LEWIS, HEBRIDES.\n\n_a. Dwelling apartments._\n\n_b. Fosgarlan or Porch._\n\n_c. Cuiltean or Milk cupboards._\n\n_d. Stonebench or Bedplace._\n\n_AB. Line of Section._\n\n_CD. View as represented as restored._]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE VIII.\n\nSECTION AND ELEVATION OF _BOTHAN GEARRAIDH NA H'AIRDE MOIRE_, UIG,\nLEWIS, HEBRIDES, AND VIEW OF SAME IF RESTORED.]\n\nPLATES VII. AND VIII.--_\"Agglomeration of Bee-Hives\" at Uig,\nLewis._\n\n(From Plates XV. and XVI. of Vol. III. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\n     \"By far the most singular of all these structures, and probably\n     unique in the Long Island, is at Gearraidh na h-Airde Moire,\n     on the shore of Loch Resort. I cannot describe it better than by\n     bidding you suppose twelve individual bee-hive huts all built\n     touching each other, with doors and passages from one to the other.\n     The diameter of this gigantic booth is 46 feet, and [it] is nearly\n     circular in plan. The height of the doors and passages about 2-1/2\n     feet; and under the smokehole (_farlos_), in two of the chambers,\n     the height was 6-1/2 feet.... I am informed that, so late as 1823,\n     this _both_ was inhabited by four families.\" (Captain Thomas,\n     _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. iii., p. 139.)\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE IX.\n\nPLAN AND ELEVATION OF A BOTH _at Gearraidh Aird Mhor, Uig, Lewis._\n\n_a. dwellings._\n\n_b. fosgarlan or porch._\n\n_c. cuiltean or milk cupboards._\n\n_d. doors._\n\n_e. farlos or smokehole._\n\n\"One of a group of three at the garry of Aird Mhor, close to the shore\nand near the mouth of Loch Resort, Uig, Lewis. This compound _both_ has\nevidently been intended for two related families ... but there is no\ninterior communication between the dwellings.\" (_Op. cit. p. 144._)]\n\nPLATE IX.--_Compound \"Both\" situated near the above._\n\n(From Plate XIV. of Vol. III. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE X.\n\nGROUND PLAN AND SECTIONAL VIEW OF SEMI-SUBTERRANEAN _BOTH_ AND\nUNDERGROUND GALLERY, MEAL NA H-UAMH, MOL A DEAS, HUISHNISH, ISLAND OF\nSOUTH UIST.]\n\nPLATE X.--_\"Both\" and Underground Gallery at Meall na h-Uamh,\nHuishnish, South Uist._\n\n(From Plate XXXIII. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\n    \"I have next to notice,\" says Captain Thomas (_op. cit._, p. 164),\n    \"that form of bo'h, Pict's house, or clochan, whichever name may be\n    adopted by arch\u00e6ologists, to which a hypogeum or subterranean\n    gallery is attached.... [The present example] is in South Uist,\n    about half a mile inland from Moll a Deas (South Beach); and the\n    Moll is about one mile and a half to the south of Husinish (Husness,\n    _i.e._, Houseness). The site of the bo'h is called Meall na [h-]\n    Uamh, or Cave Lump [more correctly, the Mound of the Cave, or\n    'Weem.'] It consists of a partly excavated oval dwelling chamber\n    (_a_), 7 feet by 14 feet on the floor; the dome roof has fallen in;\n    there are two _cuiltean_, or niches in the wall. A low curved\n    subterranean passage (_b_), about 2-1/2 feet square and 20 feet in\n    length, leads into an elongated bee-hive chamber (_c_), 13 feet by 5\n    feet, and 6-3/4 feet high; from thence an entrance (_d_), 2 feet by\n    2 feet, admits to a small circular chamber or cell (_e_), 5 feet in\n    diameter and 5 feet high. The main passage inclines downwards, so\n    that the floor of the second chamber (_c_) is nearly 3 feet lower\n    than that of the first (_a_); and that of the inner one (_e_) a foot\n    below the second (_c_).\"\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XI.\n\nGROUND PLAN OF _BOTH_ AND UNDERGROUND GALLERY, OR _TIGH LAIR_, NEAR MOL\nA DEAS, HUISHNISH, ISLAND OF SOUTH UIST.]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XII.\n\nRESTORED ELEVATION OF ANCIENT BOTH AND SECTION OF HYPOGEUM OR TIGH LAIR,\nON THE LINE a, k, NEAR MOL A DEAS, HUISHNISH, SOUTH UIST.\n\n\"These piers were about 4 feet high, 4 feet to 6 feet long, and 1-1/2\nfoot to 2 feet broad; and there was a passage of from 1 foot to 2 feet\nin width between the wall and them.\"\n\n\"On a small, flattish terrace, where the hill sloped steeply, an area\nhad been cleared by digging away the bank, so that the wall of the\nhouse, for nearly half its circumference, was the side of the hill,\nfaced with stone.... The hypogeum or subterranean gallery is on a level\nwith the floor, pierced towards the hill, and is entered by a very small\ndoorway [marked _d_ on Ground Plan, Plate XI.].... It is but 18 inches\nhigh and 2 feet broad, so that a very stout or large man could not get\nin.\" (_Op. cit._, pp. 166, 167.)]\n\nPLATES XI. AND XII.--_\"Both\" and Underground Gallery at\nHuishnish, South Uist._\n\n(From Plates XXXIV. and XXXV. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the\nSociety of Antiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\n     \"An ancient dwelling, semi-subterranean, exists at Nisibost, Harris\n     [and is described in vol. iii. of the _Proceedings_, p. 140].... A\n     still finer example exists near to Meall na h-Uamh, in South\n     Uist.... The bo'h, or Pict's house, as it would be called in the\n     Orkneys--but the name is unknown in the Long Island--that I am\n     about to describe lies less than half a mile above the shepherd's\n     house; but so little curiosity had that individual that he was\n     entirely unacquainted with it; and I believe it would never have\n     been found by us but for a little terrier (in its etymological\n     sense, of course) of a daughter. The child was only acquainted with\n     the two here drawn [of which the other--viz., _Uamh Sgalabhad_, is\n     here reproduced as Plate I., frontispiece]; but there may be many\n     more waiting the researches of the zealous antiquary.\" (Captain\n     Thomas, _op. cit._, p. 165.)\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XIII.\n\nGROUND PLAN AND ENTRANCE OF UNDERGROUND GALLERY AT PAIBLE, TARANSAY,\nHARRIS.\n\n\"The drawing is from a photograph of the entrance, which is 2 feet 10\ninches high and 1-1/2 foot broad. The sea flows up to it at high\ntides.\"]\n\nPLATE XIII.--_Underground Gallery at Paible, Taransay, Harris._\n\n(From Plate XXIX. of Vol. VII. of _Proceedings of the Society of\nAntiquaries of Scotland_, First Series.)\n\nDescribing this earth-house, Captain Thomas says:--\"The\ndrawing is from a photograph of the entrance, which is 2 feet 10 inches\nhigh and 1-1/2 foot broad. The sea flows up to it at high tides. On\ncrawling in, there is seen the usual guard-cell (_b_), close beside the\nentrance, but so small that we may be sure the sentinel, if there was\none, must have been a light weight; in fact, we are almost driven to the\nconclusion that there were no Bantings in those days. This guard-cell is\nbut 2 feet 5 inches high, and 3 feet in width. The gallery then turns at\na right angle to the left hand. We excavated it for 22 feet.... When\ndigging, we came upon two broken stone dishes (corn-crushers?) now in\nthe Museum [Society of Antiquaries of Scotland]; and above the gallery\nwere most of the bones of a small ox, placed orderly together.... Bones\nof the seal were common, and a few of the eagle.\" (_Op. cit._, p. 169.)\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XIV.\n\nMAES-HOW, ORKNEY.]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XV.\n\nINTERIOR OF MAES-HOW, ORKNEY\n\n(_Facing inner doorway of gallery_).\n\n_Cell or Bed in Wall._]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XVI.\n\nSECTIONAL VIEW AND GROUND PLAN OF MAES-HOW.]\n\nPLATES XIV., XV., AND XVI.--_Maes-How, Orkney._\n\nThese plates represent the \"Pict's house\" referred to by Captain Thomas\n(pp. 50-51, _ante_), with regard to which he says:--\"Maes howe was for\nthree families--grandees, no doubt; but the numbers it was intended to\nhold in the _beds_ may be learned by comparing them with the Amazon's\nHouse, St. Kilda.\"\n\nThe structure last named is described by Captain Thomas and Mr. T.S.\nMuir in vol. iii. of the _Proceedings_ (pp. 225-228), where it is\nstated:--\"The Amazon's House is of the same class with our earliest\nstone buildings--belonging to the era of cromlechs, stone-circles,\nPicts' castles, &c.; but while in other parts of Britain the style and\ntype have vanished for a thousand years, in the Outer Hebrides we find\nthem (in the Bothan [_i.e._, 'boths' or 'bee-hive houses'] of Uig)\ncontinued to the present day.\" The following additional remarks by\nCaptain Thomas are also of interest in this connection:--\"It appears\nthat besides the Tigh na Bhanna ghaisgach (Ty-na-Van-a-ghas-gec), or\nAmazon's House--and of whom all tradition, except her name, has\ngone--there are the remains of other submerged dwellings and hypogea.\nMiss Euphemia MacCrimmon, the oldest inhabitant of that far-off island,\ntells that a certain Donald Macdonald and John Macqueen, on passing a\nhillock, heard churning going on within. And about thirty years ago,\nwhen digging into the hillock to make the foundations of a new house,\nthey discovered what seemed to be the fairies' residence, built of\nstones inside, and holes in the wall, or croops, as they call them, as\nin Airidh na Bhannaghaisgach.\"[74]\n\nIt will be noticed that the \"beds\" in Maes-How are on a higher level\nthan the floor of the main chamber. \"In the winter houses,\" observes\nCaptain Thomas,[75] \"the floor of the bed-place was raised 3 or 4 feet\nabove the ground.\"\n\nThe original use of Maes-How is a matter of opinion, and some have\nassumed it to belong to the class of sepulchral mounds, although there\nis no evidence in support of this belief. For many reasons, the opinions\nof Captain Thomas are endorsed by the present writer. It may be added\nthat, prior to 1861, when the mound was opened, local tradition had\ndeclared that it was the residence of a \"hog-boy,\" or mound-dweller.\n\n[Footnote 74: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._ (First Series), vol. vii. p.\n172.]\n\n[Footnote 75: _Op. cit._, p. 164.]\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XVII.\n\nTHE BRUGH OF THE BOYNE, NEW GRANGE, COUNTY MEATH]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.\n\nDOORWAY OF THE BRUGH OF THE BOYNE.]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XIX.\n\nGROUND PLAN OF THE BRUGH OF THE BOYNE (as at present explored).]\n\nPLATES XVII., XVIII., AND XIX.--_Brugh of the Boyne, New\nGrange, County Meath._\n\nThe diagrams here shown are from drawings by Mr. W.F. Wakeman, the\nveteran Irish arch\u00e6ologist.[76] With reference to the spiral carvings at\nthe doorway of the Brugh, it may be mentioned that \"the same kind of\nornament appears on a stone found amidst a heap which had once been a\n'Pict's-house' in the island of Eday, Orkney;\"[77] and that in Orkney,\nalso, there has been found, in an underground house, a large stone\n\"saucer,\" or \"tray,\" resembling the two shown in the ground plan of the\nBrugh. (There appears to be no settled opinion as to the uses of those\n\"saucers.\")\n\nIn connection with the identification of this mound with the \"Brugh of\nthe Boyne\" of ancient Irish history, the following remarks may be\nquoted. The Rev. Father O'Laverty, in the Journal of the Royal Society\nof Antiquaries of Ireland (December, 1892, p. 430) thus observes:--\n\n     \"In his very valuable work, _The Boyne and Blackwater_, Sir William\n     Wilde appears to me to have used convincing arguments to prove that\n     _Brugh-na-Boinne_ ... was ... on the left bank of the Boyne,\n     convenient to the ford of _Ros-na-righ_ (Rossnaree) at Knowth,\n     Dowth, and Newgrange. To Sir William's arguments one point only was\n     wanting: the old name had disappeared.... It is now more than\n     thirty years since I went to Newgrange for the special purpose of\n     investigating that matter. I explained to Mr. Maguire, then of\n     Newgrange, and to his son, that _Brugh-na-Boinne_ signified 'the\n     town, or dwelling-place, on the Boyne,' that the word _Brugh_ would\n     assume the modern form _Bro_, as in Brughshane (pronounced\n     Broshane), and many other townland names, and that _na-Boinne_, 'of\n     the Boyne,' would probably cease to be used as unnecessary at the\n     site. I need not say that I was greatly pleased when they informed\n     me that the field in which is the mound of Newgrange is called the\n     _Bro-Park_, while in the immediate vicinity are the _Bro-Farm_, the\n     _Bro-Mill_, and the _Bro-Cottage_.\" [And also, they might have\n     added, the mansion of _Broe House_.]\n\nAny one, therefore, who duly considers the matter, in relation to the\nstatements of both of these writers, will see that the mound at New\nGrange is the _Brugh-na-Boinne_ of Irish history and tradition. And this\nname, says Father O'Laverty, \"signified 'the town, or dwelling-place, on\nthe Boyne.'\" What, then, are the earliest associations with this \"town\nor dwelling-place?\"\n\nIt is said[78] to have been built by a celebrated \"king and oracle\" of\nthe people known as the Tuatha D\u00e9, Dea, or De Danann, and to have been\nthe residence of himself and others of his race. This chief (Eochaid\n_Ollathair_) is usually referred to as \"the Dagda,\" or \"the Daghda M\u00f2r\";\nand of his nation it is asserted that, after having invaded Ireland and\nconquered its native \"Fir-Bolgs,\" they were themselves conquered in\nturn by a later race of immigrants, the Gaels. This \"Brugh,\" therefore,\nis said to have been the residence of the Dagda, and, after him, of\nAngus, one of his sons. Consequently, it is very frequently styled \"the\nBrugh of Angus, son of the Dagda,\" an appellation which assumes various\nforms.[79] Latterly, it seems to have been most generally known as \"the\nBrugh\" (_par excellence_), or, more simply still, as \"Brugh.\" In the\nBook of Leinster it is specified as one of \"Ireland's three undeniable\neminences [_dindgna_]\"[80]; while \"an ancient poem by Mac Nia, son of\nOenna (in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 190 b.),\" styles it \"a king's\nmansion\" and a \"_s\u00eddh_.\" The same MS. (32 _a b_) gives the variant _S\u00eddh\nan Bhrogha_, rendered by Dr. Standish O'Grady \"the fairy fort of the\n_Brugh_ upon the Boyne.\"[81] This word \"_s\u00eddh_,\" which was\napplied--probably in the first place--to hollow mounds such as this, but\nwhich was also applied to the dwellers in them, gave the Tuatha De\nDanann their most popular name. Because it was on account of their\nresidence in \"the green mounds, known by the name of _S\u00eddh_,\" that they\nwere called \"the _Fir S\u00eddhe_ [_i.e._, men of the _s\u00eddhs_], or Fairies,\nof Ireland.\"[82] The one word, indeed (_s\u00eddh_), became indifferently\napplied to the dwellings and the dwellers. Whichever was the earliest\nmeaning of that word, there is little dubiety as to the etymology of\n_Siabhra_. In one copy of the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_,[83] it is stated\nthat the Tuatha De Danann \"were called _Siabhras_.\" O'Reilly defines\n_siabhra_ as \"a fairy,\" and _siabhrach_ as \"fairy-like\"; while \"a fairy\nmansion\" is _siabhrugh_. With Connellan, again, _siabhrog_ is \"a fairy.\"\nIt seems quite evident that these are all corruptions of _s\u00eddh-bhrugh_\n(otherwise _S\u00eddh an Bhrogha_, as above), and that _Siabhra_, as applied\nto the _dwellers_, was simply a transference from the name denoting\ntheir _dwellings_.\n\nNumerous as are the references to this mound as a \"dwelling-place,\" its\nname figures prominently in the list of the ancient cemeteries of\nIreland. _Relec in Broga_, \"the Cemetery of the Brugh,\" is referred to\nas one of \"the three cemeteries of Idolaters,\" in an Irish manuscript of\nthe twelfth century (or earlier), the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ cited above.\nOf the two others, one is \"the Cemetery of Cruachan\"; and, by glancing\nat it, in the first place, we shall obtain a good idea of the Cemetery\nof the Brugh. \"We find that the monuments within the cemetery at\nRathcroghan,\"[84] says Mr. Petrie, \"are small circular mounds, which,\nwhen examined, are found to cover rude, sepulchral chambers formed of\nstone, without cement of any kind, and containing unburned bones.\"[85]\nAnd the twelfth-century scribe whom Mr. Petrie largely quotes, says that\nthere were fifty such mounds (_cnoc_) in the cemetery at Cruachan. This\nmedi\u00e6val scholar has copied a poem on the subject, \"ascribed to Dorban,\na poet of West Connaught,\" wherein it is said that it is not in the\npower of poets or of sages to reckon the number of heroes under the\nCruachan mounds, and that there is not a hillock (_cnoc_) in that\ncemetery \"which is not the grave of a king or royal prince, or of a\nwoman, or warlike poet.\" In another verse, he says that _each_ of the\nfifty mounds had a warrior under it; and, altogether, it appears that,\nalthough their number could doubtless be \"reckoned,\" yet the burial\nmounds of Cruachan, in or about the twelfth century, much exceeded fifty\nin number. \"Fifty\" is simply used by the poet and his commentator to\nshow that, like the two other cemeteries of the triad (each of which is\nalso said to have had fifty) the Cemetery of Cruachan contained about a\nthird of the pagan notables of Ireland.\n\nFrom this we see that, about the twelfth century, the Cemetery of the\nBrugh contained at least fifty sepulchral mounds such as those described\nby Mr. Petrie at Cruachan. Mr. Petrie further quotes two passages from\nthe _Dinnsenchus_, which specify in the following terms some of the most\nfamous of those \"monuments\" at the Brugh:--\n\n     \"The Grave [or Stone Cairn, _Leacht_] of the Dagda; the Grave of\n     Aedh Luirgnech, son of the Dagda; the Graves of Cirr and Cuirrell,\n     wives of the Dagda--'these are two hillocks [_da cnoc_]'; the Grave\n     of Esclam, the Dagda's Brehon, 'which is called _Fert-Patric_ at\n     this day'; the Cashel [or Stone Enclosure] of Angus, son of\n     Crunmael; the Cave [_Derc_] of Buailcc Bec; the Stone Cairn\n     [_Leacht_] of Cellach, son of Maelcobha; the Stone Cairn [_Leacht_]\n     of the steed of Cinaedh, son of Irgalach; the Prison [_Carcar_] of\n     Liath-Macha; the 'Glen' of the Mata; the Pillar Stone of Buidi, the\n     son of Muiredh, where his head is interred; the Stone of Benn; the\n     Grave of Boinn, the wife of Nechtan; the 'Bed' of the daughter of\n     Forann; the _Barc_ of Crimthann Nianar, in which he was interred;\n     the Grave of Fedelmidh, the Lawgiver; the _Cumot_ of Cairbre\n     Lifeachair; the _Fulacht_ of Fiachna Sraiphtine.\"\n\nThese, of course, are only some of the most famous of the sepulchral\nmonuments which existed in the Cemetery of the Brugh eight or nine\ncenturies ago. Since that time, most of them have disappeared, their\nstones having been presumably built into castles, mansions, cottages and\nwalls, while the bones of the queens and heroes have fertilised the soil\nof the neighbouring farms. But there still remain a few\n\"standing-stones\" and \"moats\" in the vicinity of the Brugh, all of which\nmay be included in the above list.\n\nI have cited that list for the reason that modern antiquaries, or many\nof them, have assumed that _S\u00edd in Broga_ and _Relec in Broga_ are\nsynonymous terms, and that when a king or hero is recorded to have been\nburied \"at Brugh,\" that means that he was buried _in_ the Brugh itself.\nIn other words, that a place which was known as Fert-Patrick in or about\nthe twelfth century, as also the \"cashel\" and the many hillocks, graves,\nand cairns mentioned in the list--not to speak of innumerable\nothers--were all situated in the chamber which is shown in Plate XIX. It\ndoes not require a moment's reflection to convince one that this is an\nerroneous assumption. Nor is it warranted by the \"History of the\nCemeteries\" itself, which always speaks of the burials having been \"_at_\nBrugh.\"[86]\n\nOne other statement, however, must be referred to. In another verse of\nDorban's poem, mentioned above, it is said that \"the host of Meath\" are\nburied \"_ar l\u00e1r in Broga tuathaig_.\" This is rendered by Petrie, \"in the\nmiddle of the lordly Brugh.\" The translation is no doubt good; and it is\nopen to any one to deduce therefrom that the chamber shown in the plan\ncontained at one time the skeletons of the host of Meath. In that case,\nthe \"host\" must have been very limited in number; and anyone who has\ncrawled along the sixty-foot passage into the Brugh, and who adopts this\nview, must wonder a little as to how the corpses were conveyed along\nthat passage, and as to the reasons which must have induced some people\n(prior to 1699, when the chamber was almost, if not altogether, void of\nsuch relics)[87] to drag all those bones out again, at much personal\ninconvenience. But \"_ar l\u00e1r in Broga_\" may also mean \"in the [burying-]\nground of the Brugh\"; and the descriptions quoted above from the\n_Dinnsenchus_ show quite clearly that the ground in which \"the host of\nMeath\" were buried embraced a considerable tract of land, dotted over\nwith mounds and monuments, differing only in degree from those of a\nmodern cemetery.[88]\n\nThe twelfth-century commentator of Dorban's poem states:\n\n     \"The nobles of the Tuatha De Danann (with the exception of seven of\n     them who were interred at Talten [which was the third 'Cemetery of\n     the Idolaters']) were buried at Brugh, _i.e._, Lugh, and Oe, son of\n     Ollamh, and Ogma, and Carpre, son of Etan, and Etan (the poetess)\n     herself, and the Dagda and his three sons (_i.e._, Aedh, and\n     Oengus, and Cermait), and a great many others besides of the\n     Tuatha De Dananns, and Firbolgs and others.\"[89]\n\nBut, afterwards, \"the race of Heremon, _i.e._, the kings of Tara,\" who\nused to bury at Cruachan (because that was the chief seat in their\nspecial principality of Connaught) came to bury at Brugh. \"The first\nking of them that was interred at Brugh\" was a certain Crimthann,\nsurnamed _Nianar_, the son of Lughaidh Riabh-n-derg;[90] and the reason\nwhy Crimthann decided to abandon the burying-place of his forefathers\nwas \"because his wife Nar was of the Tuatha Dea, and it was she\nsolicited him that he should adopt Brugh as a burial-place for himself\nand his descendants, and this was the cause that they did not bury at\nCruachan.\"[91] It would appear that the ruling dynasty of the Tuatha Dea\nhad ended in a female, both on account of Nar's action in this matter,\nand because her husband became known by her name--as Nianar\n(_Niadk-N\u00e1ir_) or \"Nar's Champion.\"\n\nThis Nar is a very interesting personage in the present connection.\nBecause, being one of the Tuatha Dea, she was a _siabhra_, or woman of\nthe _s\u00eddhs_; otherwise, a _bean-s\u00edde_ (modernised into \"banshee\"). This\nis plainly stated in two other Irish manuscripts, with an additional\nexplanation which is very apposite. It is said that Crimthann was called\nNar's Champion \"because his wife Nar _thuathchaech_ out of the _s\u00eddhes_,\nor of the Pict-folk [_a s\u00eddaib no do Chruithentuaith_], she it was that\ntook him off on an adventure.\" A companion statement is that made in\nanother manuscript to the effect that \"Nar _thuathchaech_, the\ndaughter of Lotan of the Pict-folk [_N\u00e1r thuathchaech ingen Lotain do\nChruithentuaith_], was the mother of Feradach _finnfhechtnach_,\" or \"the\nbrightly prosperous\"--a king of Ireland.[92]\n\nIncidentally, therefore, in considering the Brugh of the Boyne and the\npeople most associated with it, we find very distinct confirmation of\nthe main part of the contention in the foregoing treatise. From these\nextracts it is evident that those early writers regarded _siabhra,\nfear-s\u00eddh, bean-s\u00eddh_, and _daoine-s\u00eddh_ (words which may also be\ninterpreted \"mound-dweller\") as ordinary folk-names for the Picts; just\nin the same way as any historian of the frontier wars in North America\nwould understand by \"Red-skin\" and \"Greaser\" the more classic \"Indian\"\nand \"Mexican.\"\n\n[Footnote 76: Earlier illustrations, from drawings made in 1724 by Mr.\nSamuel Molyneux, a Dublin student, may be seen in Part II. of \"A Natural\nHistory of Ireland,\" Dublin, 1726. Other eighteenth-century\nrepresentations of the same place occur in a volume of old plates,\nbelonging to the Society of Antiquaries (London). This volume is\nendorsed \"Celtic Remains; I,\" and its contents form part of (says the\nfly-leaf) \"a collection of plates from the Arch\u00e6ologia collected by Mr.\nAkerman when the Society's Stock was sold off and arranged more or less\nin Classes.\" The views of the Brugh will be found at pp. 239, 253, and\n254 (Plates XIX.-XXII.). Colonel Forbes Leslie has two excellent plates,\nfrom drawings of his own, in his _Early Races of Scotland_ (Edin. 1866),\nvol. ii.; where he also refers to Wilde's _Boyne and Blackwater_ and\nWakeman's _Irish Antiquities_. A recent work, illustrating the same\nsubject, but which I have not yet had an opportunity of seeing, is Mr.\nGeorge Coffey's \"Tumuli and Inscribed Stones at New Grange, Dowth, and\nKnowth,\" Dublin, 1893.]\n\n[Footnote 77: Forbes Leslie's _Early Races of Scotland_, vol. ii. p.\n335, _note_.]\n\n[Footnote 78: O'Curry's _Lectures_, Dublin, 1861, p. 505.]\n\n[Footnote 79: For most of which see Dr. Standish O'Grady's _Silva\nGadelica_, pp. 102-3, 146, 233, 474, and 484.]\n\n[Footnote 80: _Silva Gadelica_ (English translation), pp. 474 and 520.]\n\n[Footnote 81: _Op. cit._ (English translation), p. 522.]\n\n[Footnote 82: Skene's _Celtic Scotland_, vol. iii. pp. 106-7.]\n\n[Footnote 83: Class H. 3, 17, Trinity College, Dublin. [I quote from Mr.\nPetrie's \"Round Towers,\" Trans, of Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xx. (Dublin,\n1845), p. 98.]]\n\n[Footnote 84: Rath Chruachain, Co. Roscommon: the cemetery was styled\n_Relig na Riogh_, or the Cemetery of Kings.]\n\n[Footnote 85: _Op. cit._, p. 106.]\n\n[Footnote 86: \"_Is in Brug, or Bruig_.\" Mr. Petrie invariably translates\nthis as \"at\" Brugh. But I observe that Dr. Standish O'Grady (_Silva\nGadelica_, p. 256; and p. 289 of English translation) renders the Gaelic\nparticle by English \"in.\" To decide between two Gaelic scholars is not\nwithin my province. But if Dr. O'Grady understands \"the Brugh\" to be\nsynonymous with _S\u00eddh an Bhrogha_ (as perhaps he does not), the adoption\nof his reading would lead to an inference which is opposed to common\nsense.]\n\n[Footnote 87: Molyneux, writing in 1725, says that \"when first the cave\nwas opened, the bones of two dead bodies entire, not burnt, were found\nupon the floor.\" Colonel Forbes Leslie remarks: \"Llhuyd, the antiquary,\nwriting in 1699, makes no mention of any human remains being found in\nit.\"]\n\n[Footnote 88: Since the above was written, the quarterly number, June\n1893, of the _Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_\nhas been issued, and a note therein confirms the suspicion, indicated in\nMr. Wakeman's drawing, that the whole mound is not yet explored. But the\nabove remarks are applicable in any case.]\n\n[Footnote 89: Petrie: _op. cit._, p. 106.]\n\n[Footnote 90: That is, Lughaidh of the Red Stripes; \"meaning that on his\nperson he had two such: one as girdle round his middle, another as\nnecklace round his neck.\" (_Silva Gadelica_, English translation, p.\n544.)]\n\n[Footnote 91: Petrie (_op. cit._, p. 101), quoting from the \"History of\nthe Cemeteries\" in the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_.]\n\n[Footnote 92: These two extracts are from _Silva Gadelica_, Eng.\ntransl., pp. 495 and 544; where the references are, respectively, \"Book\nof Ballymote, 250 _a b_,\" and \"Kilbride No. 3, Advocates' Library,\nEdinburgh, 5.\"]\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATES XX. AND XXI.\n\nSECTIONAL VIEW AND GROUND PLAN OF THE DENGHOOG, ISLAND OF SYLT.]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE XXII.\n\nINTERIOR OF THE DENGHOOG, ISLAND OF SYLT.]\n\nPLATES XX. AND XXI.--_The Denghoog, Island of Sylt, North\nFriesland._\n\nIn addition to my original collection, I am now able to show three views\nof the Denghoog, in Sylt, which is the mound referred to on p. 34\n(_ante_). Mr. W.G. Black speaks of it thus:--\n\n     \"There is some confusion as to King Finn's dwelling. As doctors\n     differ, we may be allowed to claim that it was the Denghoog, close\n     to Wenningstedt, if only because we descended into that remarkable\n     dwelling. Externally merely a swelling green mound, like so many\n     others in Sylt, entrance is gained by a trap-door in the roof, and\n     decending a steep ladder, one finds himself in a subterranean\n     chamber, some seventeen by ten feet in size, the walls of which are\n     twelve huge blocks of Swedish granite; the height of the roof\n     varies from five feet to six feet. The original entrance appears to\n     have been a long narrow passage, seventeen feet long and about two\n     feet wide and high. This mound was examined by a Hamburg professor\n     in 1868, who found remains of a fireplace, bones of a small man,\n     some clay urns, and stone weapons. Later, a Kiel professor is said\n     to have carried off all he found therein to Kiel Museum, and so far\n     we have not been able to trace the published accounts of his\n     investigations.\"[93]\n\nMr. Christian Jensen, Oevenum, F\u00f6hr, to whom I am indebted for these\nthree views, has favoured me with the following information:--\n\n    \"The sketches of the Denhoog which I enclose [viz., the Ground Plan\n    and Sectional View] are from the drawings of Professor Wibel, who\n    conducted the excavation of it in 1868. From his and C.P. Hansen's\n    observations I contribute the following statements: Originally, the\n    mound was higher, but in 1868 it had the form of a truncated cone,\n    4-1/2 _m\u00e8tres_ [say 14 feet 9 inches] in height. As may be seen from\n    the picture, it slopes away to the south above the original passage\n    into the mound, which the dweller made use of as his entrance; so\n    that the extent is very considerable. The present entrance, as may\n    be seen from the view of the interior, was made from above, at the\n    north side, directly opposite the original entrance.... Dr. Wibel\n    says: 'At the south side of the chamber is the doorway for ingress\n    and egress, with the passage itself leading from it. This passage,\n    which was 6 _m\u00e8tres_ [19 feet 8 inches] in length, was lined with\n    upright blocks of granite and gneiss, with a roofing and floor made\n    of flagstones of the same kinds of stone. It was opened up all the\n    way to the mouth of the passage. This [the outer orifice] lay close\n    to the extremity of the earth and near the floor of the mound, was\n    closed with earth only, not with a stone, and measured about 1\n    _m\u00e8tre_ [3 feet 3.4 inches] in height, and 1-1/3 _m\u00e8tre_ in breadth.\n    On account of these dimensions ... one can only creep through\n    with difficulty, and for that reason the plan does not show with\n    accuracy the position of the wall-slabs, and their number is merely\n    conjectured to be nine.'\n\n     \"Immediately after this excavation of 17-19 September, 1868, C.P.\n     Hansen writes as follows:--\n\n     \"'There are in the island of Sylt hillocks of ancient origin, for\n     the most part pagan burying-places, but some of which may have\n     served as the dwelling-places of a primitive people. One such\n     hillock has just been opened at Wenningstedt. The interior was\n     found to be a chamber, 17 feet long, 10 feet in breadth, and from 5\n     to 6 feet in height, with a covered passage about 22 feet long,\n     trending southward. The walls of this underground room were\n     composed of twelve large granite blocks, regularly arranged; the\n     roof consisted of three still larger slabs of the same kind of\n     rock; the stones which formed the passage were smaller. At one\n     corner of the floor of the cellar there was a well-defined\n     fireplace, and near it were urns and flint implements; in the\n     opposite corner there were many bones lying, apparently unburned,\n     probably those of the last dweller in the cavern.'\"\n\nMr. Christian Jensen gives an account of \"Der Denghoog bei Wenningstedt\"\nin the \"Beilage zu Nr. 146 der Flensburger Nachrichten\" of 25th June\n1893, in which he says:\n\n     \"... On the floor of the chamber, three separate divisions were\n     distinctly visible, of which one, situated on the east side, showed\n     traces of having been a fireplace. Professor Wibel found several\n     fragments of human bones, which evidently belonged only to _one_\n     individual, as no portion was duplicated; also a few animals'\n     bones. There was an extraordinary number of fragments of pottery,\n     belonging to about 24 different urns, of which 11 could be put\n     together. Their form and ornamentation were both fine and varied,\n     an interesting witness to the ceramics of the grey past.... Among\n     the stone implements found were a great many flint-knives; two\n     stone hatchets, two chisels, and a gouge, all of flint, and a disc\n     of porphyry were also obtained. Several mineral substances,\n     quartzite, rubble-stones, gravel, ochre, a sinter-heap--these are\n     less interesting than the seven amber beads which, with some\n     charcoal, completes the list of objects found. Referring to former\n     investigations of galleried mounds [_gangbauten_], which seem to\n     have been used in some cases as burying-places, in others as\n     dwellings, Dr. Wibel observes, in answer to the question resulting\n     from his discovery, as to whether the Denghoog ought to be regarded\n     as a sepulchre or as a dwelling, that, as Nilsson has already said,\n     all gallery-mounds were originally dwellings, and occasionally\n     became utilised as tombs. In the case of the Denghoog, this fact is\n     demonstrated by the fireplace, the scattered potsherds, the amber\n     beads, &c.\"\n\n[Footnote 93: _Heligoland_, Edin. and Lond., 1888, pp. 84-85.]\n\n\nOf the little woodcut which forms the Tailpiece of this volume, it is\nhardly necessary to say that it represents some popular ideas regarding\n\"the little people.\" The woodcut of which this is a facsimile is one of\nthose contained in the eighteenth-century chap-book, \"_Round about our\nCoal Fire_; or, Christmas Entertainments,\" and it heads the chapter \"_Of\nFairies, their Use and Dignity_.\" \"They generally came out of a\nMole-hill,\" it is said; \"they had fine Musick always among themselves,\nand Danced in a Moonshiny Night around, or in a Ring as one may see at\nthis Day upon every Common in _England_, where Mushroones [_sic_] grow,\"\nThe size of the mushroom, so elegantly depicted in the foreground, is\nquite on a scale suitable to the stature ultimately accorded to the\nlittle people in many districts; so also is the mole-hill. But the tree,\nand the Satanic head in the foliage, are curiously out of proportion.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAn examination of these various diagrams will show that the more\nprimitive of those structures were obviously built by a small-sized\nrace; some of the passages being quite impassable to large men of the\npresent day. This peculiarity was noticed by Scott when visiting the\n\"brochs\" of Shetland, a kindred class of structures (none of which are\nhere shown). \"These Duns or Picts' Castles are so small,\" he says,\nwriting in his Diary in August 1814, \"it is impossible to conceive what\neffectual purpose they could serve excepting a temporary refuge for the\nchief.\" This reflection was suggested to him by the Broch of\nCleik-him-in (now usually written Clickemin), near Lerwick; and in\ndescribing it he says: \"The interior gallery, with its apertures, is so\nextremely low and narrow, being only about three feet square, that it is\ndifficult to conceive how it could serve the purpose of communication.\nAt any rate, the size fully justifies the tradition prevalent here, as\nwell as in the south of Scotland, that the Picts were a diminutive\nrace.\" Of the Broch of Mousa he says: \"The uppermost gallery is so\nnarrow and low that it was with great difficulty I crept through it,\"--a\nfeat which baffled the present writer.[94] In all those cases, of\ncourse, it is understood one has to crawl. As with the Lapps and the\nEskimos, creeping was much more a matter of course with the builders of\nthose places than it is with us. After getting through such passages it\nhappens that, in several instances, the roof is higher than is required\nfor the tallest living man. An admirable example of such a place is the\nunderground \"Picts' House\" at Pitcur, in Forfarshire, which would be\nquite a palace to people of a small race, and very likely figures as\nsuch in some popular tale; its dimensions and appearance considerably\nmagnified with every century.[95] But even this \"fairy palace\" was\nentered by narrow, downward-sloping passages, similar to that seen in\nthe Frontispiece, down and up which the dwellers had to crawl. An\nunderground gallery such as that of Ardtole (near Ardglass, County\nDown), is somewhat puzzling, because, while one chamber off it rises to\na height of 5 feet 3 inches, another is only 3-1/2 feet high; and the\nmain gallery, for 70 feet of its length, is 4-1/2 feet high, with a\nwidth of 3 feet 4 inches. The inference from this seems to be that the\noccupants were under 4-1/2 feet in height. If they had intended to crawl\nalong the 70 feet, they did not require so high a roof; whereas, if they\nwalked, and if they were more than 4-1/2 feet in height, they would need\nto walk the 70 feet in a stooping posture, a constraint which they could\neasily have avoided by raising the roof a foot or two. The highest roof\nin all this souterrain being 5 feet 3, it does not seem likely that the\nbuilders were taller than that; and there seems more reason to believe\nthat they were much smaller. Another such gallery in Sutherlandshire is\n\"nowhere more than 4-1/2 feet in height, and for the greater part of its\nlength only 2 feet wide, expanding to 3-1/2, for about 3 feet only from\nthe inner end.\" Still more restricted is the \"rath-cave\" of Ballyknock,\nin the parish of Ballynoe, barony of Kinnatalloon, County Cork. \"The\ncave is a mere cutting in the clayey subsoil, and is roofed with flags\nresting on the clayey banks of the cutting, of which the length is about\n100 feet, and the height and width from 3 to 3-1/2 feet, except that the\nwidth to a height of 2 feet is hardly a foot at the N.W. turn, 23 feet\nfrom the N.E. end, and at a point 27 feet from the S.E. end.... Right\nbelow the aperture ... was a short pillar-stone, deeply scored with\nOghams ... [and] many of the roofing slabs were seen ... to be inscribed\nwith Oghams, some large and others minute.\"[96]\n\n\"This class of structures deserves a careful study,\" observes Captain\nThomas, referring to the souterrains of the north-west of Scotland;[97]\n\"for the room or accommodation afforded by this mode of building is\nexceedingly small when compared with the labour expended in procuring\nit; besides, the doorway or entry is often so contracted that no bulky\nobject, not even a very stout man, could get in ... But what are we to\nthink when the single passage is so small that only a child could crawl\nthrough it?\"\n\n[Footnote 94: On the very topmost course of all, the gallery dwindles\ninto such insignificant dimensions that not even a dwarf (as one would\nnaturally understand that term) could creep along it. Scott cannot have\nmeant this very extremity. With regard to it, I should be inclined to\nsay that it was merely the necessary finish of the gallery, not intended\nto be used any more than the spaces beside the eaves of a house.]\n\n[Footnote 95: The tendency to \"idealisation on the part of the narrator\"\nis referred to, in this connection, by Mr. Joseph Jacobs, at p. 242 of\nhis \"English Fairy Tales\" (London, D. Nutt, 1890).]\n\n[Footnote 96: _Jour. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland_, 1891 (Third Quarter), p.\n517. It is not inappropriate to add that one of these inscriptions\nreads: \"Branan, son of Ochal,\" and that the decipherer (the Rev. Edmond\nBarry, M.R.I.A.) identifies this latter name with \"the name of a King of\nthe Fairies of Connaught (_Ri S\u00edde Connacht_)\": _op. cit._, pp. 524-525.\nThe Ardtole souterrain is described in the Journal of the same Society\n(July-October, 1889, p. 245), by Mr. Seaton F. Milligan, M.R.I.A.; and\nthe one in Sutherlandshire is referred to by Dr. Joseph Anderson (at p.\n289 of \"Scotland in Pagan Times: The Iron Age,\" Edinburgh, 1883).]\n\n[Footnote 97: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._ (First Series), vol. vii. pp.\n185-6.]\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n_Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. London & Edinburgh._","title":"Fians, Fairies and Picts","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":19135}