Knockdhu, which was afterwards fully explored and measured by Mrs.
Hobson. She describes it as "a souterrain containing six chambers, with
a length of eighty-seven feet exclusive of a flooded chamber."[17] Mrs.
Hobson photographed the entrance to this souterrain, which is reproduced
in Plate VII.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.
ENTRANCE TO SOUTERRAIN AT KNOCKDHU.]
From the foregoing traditions it will be seen that Pechts, Danes, and
fairies are all associated with the remains of primitive man. I may add
that the small pipes sometimes turned up by the plough are called in
different localities Danes', Pechts', or fairies' pipes.
The peasantry regard the Pechts and the Danes as thoroughly human; with
the fairies it is otherwise. They are unearthly beings, fallen angels
with supernatural powers; but, while quick to revenge an injury or a
slight, on the whole friendly to mankind. "It was better for the country
before they went away," was the remark made to me by an old woman from
Garvagh, Co. Derry, and I have heard the same sentiment expressed by
others. They are always spoken of with much respect, and are often
called the "gentry" or the "gentle folk."
We hear of fairy men, fairy women, and fairy children. They may
intermarry with mortals, and an old woman told me she had seen a fairy's
funeral. Now, do these stories give us only a materialistic view of the
spirit world held by early man, or can we also trace in them a
reminiscence of a pre-Celtic race of small stature? The respect paid to
the fairy thorn is no doubt a survival of tree-worship, and in the
banshee we have a weird being who has little in common with mortal
woman. On the other hand, the fairies are more often connected with the
artificial Forts and souterrains than with natural hills and caves.
These forts and souterrains, as we have seen, are also the habitations
of Danes and Pechts. They are sacred spots--to injure them is to court
misfortune; but I have not heard them spoken of as sepulchres.
I have already mentioned that I have rarely, if ever, found among the
peasantry any tradition of fairies a few inches in height. In one of the
tales in "Silva Gadelica" (xiv.) we read, however, of the lupracan being
so small that the close-cropped grass of the green reached to the thigh
of their poet, and the prize feat of their great champion was the hewing
down of a thistle at a single stroke. Such a race could not have built
the souterrains, and probably owe their origin to the imagination of the
medieval story-teller. The lupracan were not, however, always of such
diminutive size. In a note to this story Mr. Standish H. O'Grady quotes
an old Irish manuscript[18] in which a distinctly human origin is
ascribed to these luchorpan or wee-bodies. "Ham, therefore, was the
first that was cursed after the Deluge, and from him sprang the
wee-bodies (pygmies), fomores, 'goatheads' (satyrs), and every other
deformed shape that human beings wear." The old writer goes on to tell
us that this was the origin of these monstrosities, "which are not, as
the Gael relate, of Cain's seed, for of his seed nothing survived the
Flood."[19]
It is true that in this passage the lupracan or wee-bodies are
associated with goatheads; but whether these are purely fabulous beings,
or point to an early race whose features were supposed to resemble those
of goats, or who perhaps stood in totem relationship to goats, it would
be difficult to say. What we have here are two medieval traditions, the
one stating that the pygmies are descendants of Cain, the other classing
them among the descendants of Ham. Does the latter contain a germ of
truth, and is it possible that at one time a people resembling the
pygmies of Central Africa inhabited these islands?
Those who have visited the African dwarfs in their own haunts have been
struck by the resemblance between their habits and those ascribed to the
northern fairies, elves, and trolls.
Sir Harry Johnston states that anyone who has seen much of the merry,
impish ways of the Central African pygmies "cannot but be struck by
their singular resemblance in character to the elves and gnomes and
sprites of our nursery stories." He warns us, however, against reckless
theorizing, and says: "It may be too much to assume that the negro
species ever inhabited Europe," but adds that undoubtedly to his
thinking "most fairy myths arose from the contemplation of the
mysterious habits of dwarf troglodyte races lingering on still in the
crannies, caverns, forests, and mountains of Europe after the invasion
of neolithic man."[20] Captain Burroughs refers to the stories of these
mannikins to be found in all countries, and adds that "it was of the
highest interest to find some of them in their primitive and aboriginal
state."[21] He speaks of the red and black Akka, and Sir Harry Johnston
also describes the two types of pygmy, one being of a reddish-yellow
colour, the other as black as the ordinary negro. In the yellow-skinned
type there is a tendency on the part of the head hair to be reddish,
more especially over the frontal part of the head. The hair is never
absolutely black--it varies in colour between greyish-greenish-brown,
and reddish.[22] We have seen how Irish fairies and Danes have red hair,
but I should infer of a brighter hue than these African dwarfs. The
average height of the pygmy man is four feet nine inches, of the pygmy
woman four feet six inches,[23] and although we cannot measure fairies,
I think the Ulster expression, "a lump of a boy or girl," would
correspond with this height. I do not know the size of the fairy's foot,
but, as we have seen, both Danes and Pechts have large feet, and so has
the African pygmy.[24] One of the great marks of the fairies is their
vanishing and leaving no trace behind, and Sir Harry Johnston speaks of
the baboon-like adroitness of the African dwarfs in making themselves
invisible in squatting immobility.[25]
Dr. Robertson Smith has shown that "primitive man has to contend not
only with material difficulties, but with the superstitious terror of
the unknown, paralyzing his energies and forbidding him freely to put
forth his strength to subdue nature to his use."[26] In speaking of the
Arabian "jinn," he states "that even in modern accounts _jinn_ and
various kinds of animals are closely associated, while in the older
legends they are practically identified,"[27] and he adds that the
stories point distinctly "to haunted spots being the places where evil
beasts walk by night."[28] He also shows that totems or friendly
demoniac beings rapidly develop into gods when men rise above pure
savagery,[29] and he cites the ancestral god of Baalbek, who was
worshipped under the form of a lion.[30]
If we see, then, that early man, terrified by the wild beasts, whether
lions or reptiles, ascribed to them superhuman powers, may not a similar
mode of thought have caused one race to invest with supernatural
attributes another race, strangers to them, and possibly of inferior
mental development? The big negro is often afraid to withhold his banana
from the pygmy, and the dwarfish Lapps and Finns have long been regarded
as powerful sorcerers by their more civilized neighbours. In like manner
the little woman, inhabiting her underground dwelling at the foot of the
sacred thorn-bush, might well be looked upon as an uncanny being, and in
after-ages popular imagination might transform her into the weird
banshee, the woman of the fairy mound, whose wailing cry betokens death
and disaster.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] Reprinted from the _Antiquary_, August, 1906.
[16] "Voyage to the Hebrides in 1772," p. 229. For a full
discussion of the subject, see Mr. MacRitchie's "Memories of the Picts,"
in the _Scottish Antiquary_ for 1900.
[17] See "Some Ulster Souterrains," _Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute_, vol. xxxix., January-June, 1909. The plan
was drawn by Miss Florence Hobson from the measurements made by Mrs.
Hobson.
[18] Rawl., 486, f.49, 2.
[19] "Silva Gadelica" (translation and notes), pp. 563, 564.
[20] "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii., pp. 516, 517.
[21] "Land of the Pygmies," pp. 173, 174.
[22] "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii. See pp. 527, 530; also
coloured frontispiece.
[23] "Uganda Protectorate," vol. ii., p. 532.
[24] _Ibid._, p. 532.
[25] _Ibid._, p. 513.
[26] "The Religion of the Semites," p. 115.
[27] _Ibid._, pp. 122, 123.
[28] _Ibid._, p. 123.
[29] _Ibid._, note _b_, p. 424.
[30] _Ibid._, p. 425.
Folklore connected with Ulster Raths and Souterrains[31]
As the title of this paper I have given "Folklore connected with
Ulster Raths and Souterrains," but if I used the language of the
country-people I should speak, not of raths and souterrains, but of
forths and coves. In these coves it is believed the fairies dwell, and
here they keep as prisoners women, children, even men. These
subterranean dwellings may not be known to mortals. I heard of a lad
being kept for several days in the fort of the Shimna, near Newcastle,
Co. Down, and I was told that the great rath at Downpatrick had been a
very gentle place, meaning one inhabited by fairies. In neither of these
forts is there, as far as is known, a souterrain, nor is there one in
the old fort at Antrim, a typical rath. In many cases we do find the
entrance to a souterrain is in a fort. I may mention Ballymagreehan
Fort, the stone fort near Altnadua Lough in Co. Down, and Crocknabroom,
near Ballycastle. Although not in Ulster, I may also refer to a fine
example of a rath with a souterrain in it, the Mote of Greenmount,
described by the Rev. J. B. Leslie in his "History of Kilsaran, Co.
Louth."[32]
[Illustration: PLATE VIII. [_R. Welch, Photo._
THE OLD FORT, ANTRIM.]
Many souterrains have no fort above them. Take, for example, the one
near Scollogstown, Co. Down, with its numerous bridges, which it would
be decidedly unpleasant to face if little men were behind them shooting
arrows. Also Cloughnabrick Cave, near Ballycastle, which is not built
with stones, but hollowed out of the basaltic rock.
Fairies are not the only race connected with raths and souterrains. We
have two others, Danes and Pechts. It is generally believed that the
Danes built the forts; hence we find many of them called "Danes' forts."
I will describe one named from the townland in which it is situated,
Ballycairn Fort. It stands on a high bank overlooking the Bann, about a
mile north of Coleraine. The entire height is about twenty-six feet; at
perhaps twelve feet from the ground a flat platform is reached, and at
one end of this the upper part of the fort rises in a circular form for
about fourteen or fifteen feet. I was told the Danes who built it were
short, stout people, and as they had no wheelbarrows they carried the
earth in their leathern aprons. Here we seem to come in contact with a
very primitive people, probably wearing the skins of wild animals, and
who are said, like the fairies, to have sandy or red hair.
As far as is known no souterrain exists in Ballycairn Fort, although I
was shown a stone at the side which my guide said might be the entrance
to a "cove"; it appeared to me to be simply a piece of rock appearing
above the sod, or possibly a boulder. There is a tradition of fairies
living in this fort, as it is said that in "long ago" times the farmers
used to threaten their boys if they were not doing right, that the
fairies would come out of the fort and carry them away.
Many of the souterrains in this part of the world are now blocked up,
and of some the entrance is no longer known, although they have been
explored within living memory; others have been destroyed. There was a
souterrain a short distance from Ballycairn fort in a field opposite to
Cranogh National School. The master of this school told me that fifteen
or sixteen years ago these underground buildings existed, but now they
have been all quarried away. He also mentioned a tradition that there
was a subterranean passage under the Bann.
On the opposite bank of the river, near Portstewart, I heard of several
of these underground dwellings.
One was on the land of an old farmer eighty-four years of age. He told
me he had been in this cave, but no one could get in now. It had been
hollowed out by man, but the walls were not built of stones. There were
several rooms; you dropped from one to another through a narrow hole.
The rooms were large, but low in the roof; in one of them a quantity of
limpet-shells were found. He added that some said that the Danes had
built these caves, others that the clans made them as places of refuge.
He added that the Danes of those days had sandy hair and were short
people; not like the sturdy Danes of the present day. These are well
known to the seafaring population of Ulster, and we sometimes find the
old Danes spoken of as a tall, fair race; probably this is a true
description of the medieval sea-rovers. The short Danes I should be
inclined to identify with the Tuatha de Danann, and I believe that,
notwithstanding the magical portents which abound in the tales that have
come down to us, we have here a very early people who had made some
progress in the arts.
This double use of the name Dane seems at times to have perplexed the
older writers. The Rev. William Hamilton, in his "Letters on the
North-East Coast of Antrim," published towards the end of the eighteenth
century, gives a description of the coal-mines of Ballycastle[33] and of
the very ancient galleries, with the pillars, left by the prehistoric
miners, supporting the roof, which had been discovered some twelve years
before he wrote. He tells us that the people of the place ascribed them
to the Danes, but argues that these were never peaceable possessors of
Ireland, and that it is not "to the tumultuary and barbarous armies of
the ninth and tenth centuries ... we are to attribute the slow and
toilsome operations of peace." He mentions how the stalactite pillars
found in these galleries marked their antiquity, and ascribes them to
some period prior to the eighth century, "when Ireland enjoyed a
considerable share of civilization."
In the same way John Windele, writing in the _Ulster Journal of
Archæology_ for 1862, speaks of the mines in Waterford having been
worked by the ancient inhabitants, and adds: "One almost insulated
promontory is perforated like a rabbit-burrow, and is known as the
'Danes' Island,' the peasantry attributing these ancient mines, like all
other relics of remote civilisation, to the Danes."[34]
From my own experience I can corroborate this statement. An artificial
island in Lough Sessiagh, in Co. Donegal, was shown to me as the work of
the Danes. The forts on Horn Head and at Glenties are also ascribed to
them.
The use of the souterrains was not confined to prehistoric times. The
one at Greenmount appears to have been inhabited by the medieval Danes,
as a Runic inscription, engraved on a plate of bronze, has been
discovered in it, the only one as yet found in Ireland. In 1317 every
man dwelling in an ooan, or caher's souterrain, was summoned to join the
army of Domched O'Brian.[35] The French traveller, Jorevin de Rocheford,
speaks of subterranean vaults where the peasants assembled to hear
Mass,[36] and in still more recent times the smuggler and the distiller
of illicit whisky found them convenient places of concealment.
In a former paper I referred to the lost secret of the heather beer, and
the tragic ending of the last of the Danes.[37] As the story was told me
near Ballycairn Fort, the father said: "Give my son the first lilt of
the rope, and I will reveal our secret"; but when the son was dead the
father cried: "Slay me also, for none shall ever know how the heather
beer was brewed!"
In a paper read to this club Mr. McKean[38] mentioned that this story
had been told to him in Kerry, where I, too, heard it. It appears to be
almost universal in Ulster. When visiting Navan Fort, the ancient
Emania, near Armagh, I was told that on this fort the Danes made heather
beer. I asked if any heather grew in the neighbourhood, but the answer
was, not now. There are variants of the tale. In some parts of Donegal
it is wine, not beer, that the Danes are said to have made. As a rule
the slaughter is taken for granted, and very little said about it; but a
farmer in Co. Antrim gave me a full account of the massacre, how at a
great feast a Roman Catholic sat beside each Dane, and at a given signal
plunged his dirk into his neighbour's side, until only one man and his
son remained alive; then followed the usual sequel.
These short Danes are said to have had large feet, and one man described
their arms as so long that they could pick anything off the ground
without stooping. Long arms are also a characteristic of the traditional
dwarf of Japan, probably an ancestor of the Aino.[39] As I mentioned in
a previous paper,[40] large feet are also a traditional characteristic
of the Pechts, who are generally said to have been clad in skins or in
grey clothes. They have occasionally superhuman attributes ascribed to
them. The same man who spoke of the long arms of the Danes said the
Pechts could creep through keyholes--they were like "speerits"--and he
evidently regarded both them and the fairies as evil spirits. At the
same time he said they would thresh corn or work for a man, but if they
were given food, they would be offended, and go away.
I think the close connection between Danes, Pechts, and fairies will be
apparent to all, although the fairy has more supernatural
characteristics, and in the banshee assumes a very weird form. Lady
Fanshawe has described the apparition she saw when staying, in 1649,
with the Lady Honora O'Brien, as a woman in white, with red hair and
ghastly complexion, who thrice cried "Ahone!" and vanished with a sigh
more like wind than breath. This was apparently the ghost of a murdered
woman, who was said to appear when any of the family died, and that
night a cousin of their hostess had passed away.[41] Similar stories, as
we all know, exist at the present day.
Except in the case of the banshee, fairies rarely partake of the nature
of ghosts, and I should note that in her description of the apparition
Lady Fanshawe does not use the word "banshee." In many respects the
fairies are akin to mortals--there are fairy men, fairy women, and fairy
children. Fairies often live under bushes, and I was told in Co. Armagh
that it would be a very serious matter to cut down a "lone" thorn-bush;
those growing in rows were evidently less sacred. Did the thorn-bush
hide the entrance to the subterranean dwelling?
The fairies are quick to revenge an injury or an encroachment on their
territory. A fire which occurred at Dunree on Lough Swilly was
attributed to the fairies, who were supposed to be angry because the
military had carried the works of their modern fort too near the fairy
rock. In some places the raths have been cultivated, but, as a rule,
this is looked upon as very unlucky, and sure to bring dire misfortune
on the man who attempts it. On the other hand, there appears to be no
objection to growing crops on the top of a souterrain. Many are, it is
true, afraid to enter these dark abodes, and others consider it unwise
to carry anything out of them. I have never heard them spoken of as
tombs, and the fairies are regarded, not as ghosts, but as fallen
angels, to whom no Church holds out a hope of salvation. Only in one
instance did a woman tell me that as fairies were good to the poor, she
thought there would be hope for them hereafter. The Irish fairy remains
a pagan; the ancient well of pre-Christian days may be consecrated to
the Christian saint, and patterns held beside it, but no pious pilgrim
prays on the rath or below the fairy rock.
We may now ask ourselves the meaning of these legends. The rath and
souterrain are undoubtedly the work of primitive man, yet here we have
the Sidh, inhabited by the fairy and the Tuatha de Danann. In the
"Colloquy of the Ancients"[42] we are told it was out of a Sidh, Finn's
chief musician, the dwarf Cnu deiriol came, and from another Sidh came
Blathnait, whom the small man espoused. It was fairy music which Cnu
taught to the musicians of the Fianna. It was out of a Sidh in the south
that Cas corach, son of the Olave of the Tuatha de Danann, came to the
King of Ulidia.[43]
In Derrick's "Image of Ireland," written in 1578, and published in
1581, the Olympian gods call upon certain little mountain gods, whom I
should be inclined to identify with the fairies, to come to their aid:
"Let therefore little Mountain Gods
A troupe (as thei maie spare)
Of breechlesse men at all assaies,
Both leauvie and prepare
With mantelles down unto the shoe
To lappe them in by night;
With speares and swordes and little dartes
To shield them from despight."[44]
May I, in conclusion, express my belief that in the traditions of
fairies, Danes, and Pechts the memory is preserved of an early race or
races of short stature, but of considerable strength, who built
underground dwellings, and had some skill in music and in other arts?
They appear to have been spread over a great part of Europe. It is
possible that, as larger races advanced, these small people were driven
southwards to the mountains of Switzerland, westward towards the
Atlantic, and northward to Lapland, where their descendants may still be
found. No doubt there is a large supernatural element, especially in the
stories of the fairies; but the same may be said of the tales of witches
in the seventeenth century. The witch was undoubtedly human, yet she was
believed, and sometimes believed herself, to possess superhuman powers,
and to be in communication with unearthly beings. We must also remember
the widespread belief in local spirits or gods, and a taller race of
invaders might well fear the magic of an earlier people long settled in
the country, even if the latter were inferior in bodily and mental
characteristics.
FOOTNOTES:
[31] Read before the Archæological Section of the Belfast
Naturalists' Field Club, February 12, 1908.
[32] Pp. 12-20. Several sections of this rath are given; also a
view showing Greenmount in 1748, and a plan of the same date--both from
Wright's "Louthiana," published in that year.
[33] Part I., Letter IV., Edition 1822.
[34] _Ulster Journal of Archæology_, 1861-62, p. 212.
[35] See "Prehistoric Stone Forts of Northern Clare," by Thomas
J. Westropp, M.A., M.R.I.A. (_Journal of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland_, vol. vi., fifth series, 1896).
[36] See "Illustrations of Irish History," by C. Litton
Falkiner, p. 416. He considers it probable that Jorevin de Rochefort was
Albert Jouvin de Rochefort, Trésorier de France.
[37] See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts, p. 28.
[38] See Annual Report of Belfast Naturalists' Field Club,
1907-08, "A Holiday Trip to West Kerry," p. 73.
[39] See Mr. David MacRitchie's "Northern Trolls," read at the
Folklore Congress, Chicago, 1893, p. 12.
[40] See Ulster Fairies, Danes and Pechts, p. 27.
[41] See "Memoirs of Anne, Lady Fanshawe," edited by Herbert C.
Fanshawe, pp. 57-59.
[42] Translated by Mr. S. H. O'Grady in "Silva Gadelica,"
volume with translation and notes. (For Cnu and Blathnait, see pp.
115-117.)
[43] _Ibid._, pp. 187, 188.
[44] P. 38, Edinburgh, 1883; edited by John Small, M.A.,
F.S.A.Scot.
Traditions of Dwarf Races in Ireland and in Switzerland[45]
In the traditions alike of Switzerland and of Ireland we hear of a
dwarfish people, dwellers in mountain caves or in artificial
souterrains, who are gifted with magical powers. The quaint figure of
the Swiss dwarf with his peaked cap has been made familiar to us by the
carvings of the peasantry, and in Antrim and Donegal the Irish fairy is
said to wear a peaked cap of plaited rushes. With rushes he also makes a
covering for his feet.[46]
Closely allied to the fairy is the Grogach, with his large head and
soft body, who appears to have no bones as he comes tumbling down the
hills. These Grogachs I heard of in North-East Antrim, and in them, as
in the fairies, the supernatural characteristics preponderate. I was
told that both were full of magic, and had come from Egypt.
We have, however, two other small races who are usually regarded by the
peasantry as strictly human, the Pechts and the Danes.[47] Two
traditions regarding Danes exist: sometimes we hear of tall Danes,
doubtless the medieval sea-rovers; sometimes of small Danes, the
builders of many of the raths and souterrains.