The following treatise is to some extent a re-statement and partly an
amplification of a theory I have elsewhere advanced.[1] But as that
theory, although it has been advocated by several writers, especially
during the past half-century, is not familiar to everybody, some remarks
of an explanatory nature are necessary. And if this explanation assumes
a narrative form, not without a tinge of autobiography, it is because
this seems the most convenient way of stating the case.
It is now a dozen years or thereabouts since I first read the "Popular
Tales of the West Highlands," by Mr. J.F. Campbell, otherwise known by
his courtesy-title of "Campbell of Islay." Mr. Campbell was, as many
people know, a Highland gentleman of good family, who devoted much of
his time to collecting and studying the oral traditions of his own
district and of many lands. His equipment as a student of West Highland
folklore was unique. He had the necessary knowledge of Gaelic, the
hereditary connection with the district which made him at home with the
poorest peasant, and the sympathetic nature which proved a master-key in
opening the storehouse of inherited belief. It is not likely that
another Campbell of Islay will arise, and, indeed, in these days of
decaying tradition, he would be born too late.
In reading his book, then, for the first time, what impressed me more
than anything else in his pages were statements such as the following:--
"The ancient Gauls wore helmets which represented beasts. The
enchanted king's sons, when they come home to their dwellings, put
off _cochal_ [a Gaelic word signifying], the husk, and become men;
and when they go out they resume the _cochal_, and become animals
of various kinds. May this not mean that they put on their armour?
They marry a plurality of wives in many stories. In short, the
enchanted warriors are, as I verily believe, nothing but real men,
and their manners real manners, seen through a haze of
centuries.... I do not mean that the tales date from any particular
period, but that traces of all periods may be found in them--that
various actors have played the same parts time out of mind, and
that their manners and customs are all mixed together, and truly,
though confusedly, represented--that giants and fairies and
enchanted princes were men ... that tales are but garbled popular
history, of a long journey through forests and wilds, inhabited by
savages and wild beasts; of events that occurred on the way from
east to west, in the year of grace, once upon a time" (I.
cxv.-cxvi.). "The Highland giants were not so big but that their
conquerors wore their clothes; they were not so strong that men
could not beat them, even by wrestling. They were not quite
savages; for though some lived in caves, others had houses and
cattle and hoards of spoil" (I. xcix.). "And though I do not myself
believe that fairies _are_ ... I believe there once was a small
race of people in these islands, who are remembered as fairies, for
the fairy belief is not confined to the Highlanders of Scotland"
(I. c.) "This class of stories is so widely spread, so
matter-of-fact, hangs so well together, and is so implicitly
believed all over the United Kingdom, that I am persuaded of the
former existence of a race of men in these islands who were smaller
in stature than the Celts; who used stone arrows, lived in conical
mounds like the Lapps, knew some mechanical arts, pilfered goods
and stole children; and were perhaps contemporary with some species
of wild cattle and horses and great auks, which frequented marshy
ground, and are now remembered as water-bulls and water-horses, and
boobries, and such like impossible creatures" (IV. 344).
And much more to the same effect,[2] with which it is unnecessary to
trouble the reader. Now, all this was quite new to me. If I had ever
given a second thought to the so-called "supernatural" beings of
tradition, it was only to dismiss them, in the conventional manner as
creatures of the imagination. But these ideas of Mr. Campbell's were
decidedly interesting, and deserving of consideration. It was obvious
that tradition, especially where there had been an intermixture of
races, could not preserve one clear, unblemished record of the past; and
this he fully recognised. But it seemed equally obvious that the
"matter-of-fact" element to which he refers could not have owed its
origin to myth or fancy. The question being fascinating, there was
therefore no alternative but to make further inquiry. And the more it
was considered, the more did his theory proclaim its reasonableness. He
suggests, for example, that certain "fairy herds" in Sutherlandshire
were probably reindeer, that the "fairies" who milked those reindeer
were probably of the same race as Lapps, and that not unlikely they were
the people historically known as Picts. The fact that Picts once
occupied northern Scotland formed no obstacle to his theory. And when I
learned that the reindeer was hunted in that part of Scotland as
recently as the twelfth century, that remains of reindeer horns are
still to be found in the counties of Sutherland, Ross, and Caithness,
sometimes in the very structures ascribed to the Picts, then I perceived
this to be a theory which, to quote his words, "hung well together."
Further, the actual Lapps are a small-statured race, the fairies also
were so described, and this, too, I found to be the traditional idea
regarding the Picts. Here the identification was closer still. Then
came the consideration: The fairies lived in hollow hillocks and under
the ground: what kind of dwellings are the Picts supposed to have
occupied? The answer to this question still further strengthened Mr.
Campbell's conjecture. There yet exist numerous underground structures
and artificial mounds whose interior shows them to have been
dwelling-places; and these are in some places known as "fairy halls" and
in others as "Picts' houses." (Illustrations of these are shown in the
present volume, and are specially referred to in the annexed paper.)
The examination, therefore, of this interesting theory not only helped
greatly to bear out its probable correctness, but it further began to
appear that by following this method of inquiry new lights might be
thrown upon history--perhaps upon very remote history. It was clear that
the question was not a simple one. All tradition is obscured by the
darkness of time, and genuine fact is mixed up with ideas which belong
to the world of religion and of myth. Even in Mr. Campbell's own
statements there were seeming contradictions. These, however, it is not
my present purpose to discuss; since they do not vitally affect his main
contention.
The Lapp-Dwarf parallel was gone into very fully by Professor Nilsson in
his _Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia_, written twenty years before
the "West Highland Tales." Not that he, either, was the originator of
that theory, for it is frequently referred to by Sir Walter Scott, who
accepted it himself.[3] "In fact," he says, "there seems reason to
conclude that these _duergar_ [in English, _dwarfs_] were originally
nothing else than the diminutive natives of the Lappish, Lettish and
Finnish nations, who, flying before the conquering weapons of the Asae,
sought the most retired regions of the north, and there endeavoured to
hide themselves from their eastern invaders." Scott, again, refers us
back to Einar Gudmund, an Icelandic writer of the second half of the
sixteenth century, whom I would cite as the earliest "Euhemerus" of
northern lands, were it not for the fact that he is obviously much more
than a theorist, and is beyond all doubt speaking of an actual race, as
may be seen from an incident which he relates.
But, although the popular memory may retain for many centuries the
impress of historical facts, these become inevitably blurred and
modified by the lapse of time and the ignorance of the very people who
preserve the tradition. As an illustration of this, I may cite the
instance of the dwarfs of Yesso, referred to in the following pages.
These people still survived as a separate community until the first
half of the seventeenth century, if not later. They occupied
semi-subterranean or "pit" dwellings, and are said to have been under
four feet in height. But, although the modern inhabitants of that island
still describe them, on the whole, in these terms, a new belief
regarding them has recently sprouted up in one corner. The Aïno word
signifying "pit-dweller" is also not unlike the word for a burdock leaf.
It was known that those dwarfs were little people. Obviously, then,
their name must have meant "people living under burdock leaves" (instead
of "in pits"). And so, to some of the modern natives of Yesso, those
historical dwarfs of the seventeenth century "were so small that if
caught in a shower of rain or attacked by an enemy, they would stand
beneath a burdock leaf for shelter, or flee thither to hide."[4]
In that instance, we see before our eyes the whole process by which a
real race has been transformed into an unreal impossibility, within a
period of two centuries or so. Had the extinction (or modification by
inter-marriage or by the processes of evolution) of those Yesso dwarfs
taken place a thousand years earlier, the difficulty of identifying them
would have been greatly increased. After a race has once disappeared
from sight, the popular terms describing it must become more vague and
confused with every century. Thus, in a certain traditional Scotch story
there is mention of a number of "little black creatures with spades."
The description is delightfully comprehensive. It would be quite
applicable to a gang of Andaman coolies. On the other hand, if we
exclude the "spades," it might be applied to any "little black
creatures"--say a colony of tadpoles or of black-beetles. So that, when
a poet or an artist gets hold of a tradition which has reached this
stage of uncertainty, he may give the reins to his fancy, so long as he
portrays some kind--any kind--of "little black creatures."[5]
Before parting altogether from the Yesso dwarfs, notice may be taken of
a folk-tale containing an incident which obviously derives its
existence from them, or from a branch of their race. In Mr. Andrew
Lang's "Green Fairy Book" there is introduced a certain Chinese "Story
of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs." It appears to be also current in Japan, to
judge from a reviewer's remark, that "the clever artist who has
illustrated the book must have known the Japanese story, for he gets
some of his ideas from the Japanese picture-maker." In the story of Hok
Lee the dwarfs are represented as living in subterranean dwellings, and
in the picture they are portrayed as half-naked, with (for the most
part) shaggy beards and eyebrows, and bald heads. It is wonderfully near
the truth. The baldness is one of the most striking characteristics of
those actual dwarfs, and is caused by a certain skin-disease, induced by
their dirty habits, from which a great number of them suffer, or did
suffer. The shaggy beards and eyebrows are equally characteristic of the
race; and their custom of occupying half-underground dwellings has given
them the name by which they are remembered in Japan at the present day.
The exact scene of the story is a matter of minor importance. Those
people appear to have been known to the Chinese for at least twelve
centuries, and to the Japanese for a much longer period. Thus, it was
quite unnecessary for any novelist in China or Japan to _invent_ such
people, since they already existed. As for the details of that
particular story, or of any other of the kind, it is not to be supposed
that a belief in its historical basis necessarily implies an acceptance
of every statement contained in it. On this principle, one would be
bound to accept the truth of every "snake-story," for the simple reason
that one believed in the existence of snakes. Still, it is possible, and
perhaps not improbable, that tales which preserve the memory of those
people, may also be fairly accurate in many of the statements made
regarding them. The reason, however, of introducing this particular
story is to show that the Chinese or Japanese romancer did not require
to _create_ a race of bald-headed, shaggy, half-wild dwarfs, seeing that
that had already been done for him by the Creator.
Those to whom this question is a new one will now see what is the point
of view of the realist or euhemerist with regard to such traditions. He
sees here and there in the past, through much intervening mist,
something that looks like a real object, and he tries to define its
outlines. He has no intention of denying, as some have vainly imagined,
that there _is_ an intervening mist. Nor, it seems necessary to explain,
does he assume that wherever there is a mist there must be some tangible
object behind it. For example, he does not believe that Boreas, or
Zephyrus, or Jack Frost were ever anything but personifications of
certain natural forces.
Various other considerations have also to be borne in mind; not the
least important of which is the fact that the very people who have
preserved these traditional beliefs have done much to obscure them,
owing to their want of education. Scott tells a story of a Scotch
peasant who, discovering a company of gaily-dressed puppets standing in
a thicket, where they had been concealed by a travelling showman, at
once concluded that they were "fairies." He had inherited the belief
that fairies were "little people" who frequented just such places as
this; consequently, he decided these were fairies. This fact was
elicited in court, where the countryman had to appear as a witness. From
that time onward his mind ought to have been disabused of his hasty
belief. But a man so stupid as to assume that a showman's marionettes
were anything else than lifeless dolls, might continue for the rest of
his life to recount his marvellous meeting with "the fairies."
Similarly, to a tipsy man returning homeward from market, many common
and every-day objects take on a weird and superhuman aspect, due to no
other spirits than those he has consumed. From this cause, a large
number of odd stories (such as one told by Mr. William Black of a tipsy
Hebridean) has doubtless arisen. Further, the belief in the existence of
"supernatural" beings has been much utilised by rustic humourists, and
no doubt also by smugglers and other night-birds, in comparatively
recent times. The prolonged absence of a husband, or it may be of a
wife, could be explained by some wild legend of having been "stolen by
the fairies," when a more frank avowal dared not be offered. And
although "strange tales were told" regarding the paternity of "Brian,"
in _The Lady of the Lake_, and although Scott adheres to those legends
in his poem, he does not fail to point out in his appended _Note_ that
the story could be explained in a much more rational manner. There have
been many "Brians."
To give this subject the special attention which it deserves would,
however, swell these introductory notes to an intolerable size; and,
indeed, their purpose is rather to show what the euhemeristic theory is
than what it is not; that is to say, the euhemeristic theory as applied
to the traditions relating to dwarf races.
In the work to which I have referred, the opinions enunciated by
Professor Nilsson and Mr. J.F. Campbell, together with other
developments which suggested themselves to me, were duly set forth, and
were received, as was to be expected, with every form of comment, from
complete approval to entire dissent. Among the adverse criticisms, some
arose from a misapprehension of the case, while others were due to the
critic's imperfect acquaintance with the subject he professed to
discuss. But besides these, there were of course the legitimate
objections which can always be urged in matters of a debateable
character, where there is no positive evidence on either side. With
regard to such I can at least echo the words of one of the most eminent
and most courteous of my opponents, M. Charles Ploix, and say for
euhemerism what he says for naturalism:--"Tant que la théorie sur
laquelle il s'appuie n'aura pas été démontrée fausse par des arguments
décisifs, et surtout tant qu'elle n'aura pas été remplacée par une
hypothèse plus certaine, il pourra continuer à s'affirmer."[6]
It ought to be mentioned that the following paper was written for the
Folk-Lore Society, at one of whose meetings (in February 1892) it was
subsequently read. As, however, the Council of that Society ultimately
decided that the paper was unsuited for publication in a journal devoted
to the study of folk-lore, it now appears in a separate form. One
advantage to be derived from this is that the illustrations which
accompanied the lecture, and which are of much importance in enabling
one to understand the argument, can also be reproduced at the same time.
It may be added that, while the theme is capable of much
amplification,[7] have preferred to print the paper as it was written
for the occasion referred to. It states, concisely enough, the leading
points of the argument.
To those who are interested in the "realistic" interpretation of such
traditions, I beg to recommend for reference the following works:--First
and foremost, there is "The Anatomy of a Pygmie," by Dr. Edward Tyson
(London, 1699), a book full of suggestive notices. This author has
undoubtedly reached the "bed-rock" of the question; but, owing to his
era and mental environment, he has not realised that his argument is
useless without a consideration of the various stratifications above the
"bed-rock." Belonging to the same century is the chapter "Of Pigmies" in
Sir Thomas Browne's "Vulgar Errors," wherein he makes several very
interesting statements, although he argues from the opposite side.
Scattered throughout the writings of Sir Walter Scott, both poetry and
prose, there are also many references bearing upon this question, from
the realistic point of view. In addition to these, there is his
well-known treatise "On the Fairies of Popular Superstition," prefaced
to "The Tale of Tamlane," wherein he states that "the most distinct
account of the duergar [_i.e._ dwergs, or dwarfs], or elves, and their
attributes, is to be found in a preface of Torfæus to the history of
Hrolf Kraka [Copenhagen, 1715], who cites a dissertation by Einar
Gudmund, a learned native of Iceland. 'I am firmly of opinion,' says the
Icelander, 'that these beings are creatures of God, consisting, like
human beings, of a body and rational soul; that they are of different
sexes, and capable of producing children, and subject to all human
affections, as sleeping and waking, laughing and crying, poverty and
wealth; and that they possess cattle and other effects, and are
obnoxious to death, like other mortals.' He proceeds to state that the
females of this race are capable of procreating with mankind;[8] and
gives an account of one who bore a child to an inhabitant of Iceland,
for whom she claimed the privilege of baptism; depositing the infant for
that purpose at the gate of the churchyard, together with a goblet of
gold as an offering."[9] Scott further cites from Jessen's _De
Lapponibus_ similar matter-of-fact details obtained on this subject from
the Lapps; who, on their own showing, are inferentially the half-bred
descendants of dwarfs.
"That some of the myths of giants and dwarfs are connected with
traditions of real indigenous or hostile tribes is settled beyond
question by the evidence brought forward by Grimm, Nilsson, and
Hanusch," observes Dr. E.B. Tylor.[10] And although that eminent
anthropologist sees a different meaning in many kindred traditions, yet
his observations, and the great mass of references which he gives in
connection with this single detail, are of much interest to euhemerists
pure and simple. The late Sir Daniel Wilson's "Caliban"[11] teems with
the realistic doctrine, and so also does a work of (in my opinion) less
equal merit, "The Pedigree of the Devil,"[12] by Mr. Frederic T. Hall.
In Mr. R.G. Haliburton's "Dwarfs of Mount Atlas: with notes as to Dwarfs
and Dwarf Worship,"[13] and also in his "Further Notes"[14] on that
subject, the same idea is prominent. All of these writers, with the
exception of Sir Thomas Browne (and excluding Dr. Tylor in so far as
regards some of his deductions), refer practically, though in varying
degrees, to the question discussed by Tyson; and in this respect I must
also cite my recent work on "The Aïnos" (pp. 51-66). Of other writers
who have not probed quite so deeply, and who possibly may not recognise
the necessity for so doing, but who are realists nevertheless, the
following may be mentioned: M. Paul Monceaux, who, in the _Revue
Historique_ of October 1891, deals with the African dwarfs of ancient
and modern writers;[15] Professor Henri van Elven, the main theme of
whose forthcoming work, _Les Nains préhistoriques de l'Europe
Occidentale_, formed the subject of a paper recently read by him before
the _Société d'Archéologie de Bruxelles;_ and MM. Grandgagnage and De
Reul, cited by Mr. C. Carter Blake, F.G.S., in connection with the
_Nutons_ of the Belgian bone-caves;[16] as also another writer of the
Low Countries, Van den Bergh ("xxx. and 313"), whom Mr. J. Dirks quotes
at p. 15 of his _Heidens of Egyptiërs_, Utrecht, 1850. In Mr. W.G.
Black's charming book on Heligoland,[17] one passage (p. 72) recognises
that a certain Sylt tradition "is evidently one of those valuable
legends which illuminate dark pages of history. It clearly bears
testimony to the same small race having inhabited Friesland in times
which we trace in the caves of the Neolithic age, and of which the
Esquimaux are the only survivors." For many of the kindred traditions in
that locality, one cannot do better than refer to Mr. Christian Jensen's
_Zwergsagen aus Nordfriesland_, contributed to the _Zeitschrift des
Vereins für Volkskunde_ (Berlin, Heft 4, 1892).
* * * * *
[The foregoing pages were all in type before the appearance of Vol.
VIII. of the _Bibliothèque de Carabas_, which contains several
criticisms by Mr. Andrew Lang on my "Testimony of Tradition" and
"Underground Life." The already excessive length of this Introduction
prevents me from now referring more particularly to these observations,
as I should otherwise have done. In the meantime, however, I beg to
refer Mr. Lang to the present work, and to ask him whether he thinks the
statements there quoted substantiate his conception of the _Fir Sidhe_
as a deathless people, occupying some region "unknown of earth."
An addition to the Bibliography of this subject is made in the
above-named volume (p. 88). "In his _Scottish Scenery_ (1803), Dr.
Cririe suggests that the germ of the Fairy myth is the existence of
dispossessed aboriginals dwelling in subterranean houses, in some places
called Picts' houses, covered with artificial mounds. The lights seen
near the mounds are lights actually carried by the mound-dwellers." Mr.
Lang adds: "Dr. Cririe works out in some detail 'this marvellously
absurd supposition,' as the _Quarterly Review_ calls it (vol. lix. p.
280)."]
[Footnote 1: _The Testimony of Tradition_. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner &
Co., London, 1890.]
[Footnote 2: Such as at pp. ci.-cix. of Vol. I., and pp. 46, 101, and
275 of Vol. II.]
[Footnote 3: Scott, however, had only imperfectly grasped this idea. In
numerous passages he inconsistently refers to "the little people" as
purely the creatures of imagination.]
[Footnote 4: A description of those dwarfs, obtained from Japanese
records and pictures, may be seen in my monograph on "The Aïnos"
(Supplement to Vol. IV. of the _Internationales Archiv für
Ethnographie_, Leiden, 1892). Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,
London.]
[Footnote 5: Similarly, the "little Bushmen" referred to by Miss Olive
Schreiner's _Waldo_ (as quoted by me on the title-page) would be
remembered with as much uncertainty a century hence if the modern
population of South Africa had nothing but tradition to depend upon. (It
may be explained, in case of misapprehension on the part of any
too-literal reader, that that quotation is not supposed to prove that
the earth-dwellers of the Hebrides were small and ugly, with "little
yellow faces," any more than it proves the reindeer of Scotland to have
been identical with the wild buck of South Africa. But the cases are
analogous, and the quotation seems _à propos_.)]
[Footnote 6: _Le Surnaturel dans les Contes Populaires_, Paris, 1891, p.
iv.]
[Footnote 7: Some portions of it I have already amplified: in a pamphlet
entitled "The Underground Life," Edinburgh, 1892 (privately printed); in
a paper on "Subterranean Dwellings," contributed to _The Antiquary_
(London: Elliot Stock) of August 1892; and at pp. 52-58 of "The Aïnos,"
previously quoted.]
[Footnote 8: By "mankind" need only be understood the race to which
Einar Gudmund belonged. It is well known that many races apply the term
"men" to themselves alone. At the same time, Gudmund's words may denote
a very marked difference in the two types.]
[Footnote 9: Scott again quotes this story, in fuller detail, in the
Appendix to _The Lady of the Lake_, Note 3 C.]
[Footnote 10: "Primitive Culture," vol. i. p. 385 (3rd edition).]
[Footnote 11: London, Macmillan and Co., 1873.]
[Footnote 12: London, Trübner and Co., 1883.]
[Footnote 13: London, David Nutt, 1891.]
[Footnote 14: _Asiatic Quarterly Review_, July 1892.]
[Footnote 15: For an exhaustive account of "The Pygmy Tribes of Africa,"
treated from the purely scientific and ethnological point of view see
Dr. Henry Schlichter's articles in _The Scottish Geographical Magazine_
of June and July 1892.]
[Footnote 16: _Memoirs_ of the Anthropological Society of London, vol.
iii. 1870, pp. 320, 321.]
[Footnote 17: Blackwood and Sons, 1888.]