well known. Five men, chosen by lot from amongst their fellows, crossed
the desert of Lybia, and, having marched several days in deep sand,
perceived trees growing in the midst of the plain. They approached and
commenced to eat the fruit which they bore. Scarcely had they begun to
taste it, when they were surprised by a great number of men of a stature
much inferior to the middle height, who seized them and carried them off.
They were eventually taken to a city, the inhabitants of which were black.
Near this city ran a considerable river whose course was from west to
east, and in which crocodiles were found. In his account of the Akkas, Mr.
Stanley believed that he had discovered the representatives of the Pigmies
mentioned in this history. Speaking of one of these, he says,[A]
"Twenty-six centuries ago his ancestors captured the five young Nasamonian
explorers, and made merry with them at their villages on the banks of the
Niger." It may be correct to say that, at the period alluded to, the dwarf
races of Africa were in more continuous occupancy of the land than is now
the case, but such an identification as that just mentioned gives a false
idea of the position of the Pigmies of Herodotus. De Quatrefages, after a
most careful examination of the question in all its aspects, finds himself
obliged to conclude, either that the Pigmy race seen by the Nasamonians
still exists on the north of the Niger, which has been identified with the
river alluded to by Herodotus, but has not, up to the present, been
discovered; or that it has disappeared from those regions.
[Footnote A: _Op. supra cit._, ii. 40.]
Pomponius Mela has also his account of African Pigmies. Beyond the Arabian
Gulf, and at the bottom of an indentation of the Red Sea, he places the
Panchæans, also called Ophiophagi, on account of the fact that they fed
upon serpents. More within the Arabian bay than the Panchæans are the
Pigmies, a minute race, which became exterminated in the wars which it was
compelled to wage with the Cranes for the preservation of its fruits. The
region indicated somewhat corresponds with that which is assigned to the
Dokos by their describer. In this district, too, other dwarf races have
been reported. The French writer whom I have so often cited says, "The
tradition of Eastern African Pigmies has never been lost by the Arabs. At
every period the geographers of this nation have placed their River of
Pigmies much more to the south. It is in this region, a little to the
north of the Equator, and towards the 32° of east longitude, that the Rev.
Fr. Léon des Avanchers has found the Wa-Berrikimos or Cincallès, whose
stature is about four feet four inches. The information gathered by M.
D'Abbadie places towards the 6° of north latitude the Mallas or
Mazé-Malléas, with a stature of five feet. Everything indicates that there
exist, at the south of the Galla country, different negro tribes of small
stature. It seems difficult to me not to associate them with the Pigmies
of Pomponius Mela. Only they have retreated farther south. Probably this
change had already taken place at the time when the Roman geographer wrote;
it is, therefore, comprehensible that he may have regarded them as having
disappeared."
Tyson (p. 29) quotes the following passage from Photius:--"That Nonnosus
sailing from Pharsa, when he came to the farthermost of the islands, a
thing very strange to be heard of happened to him; for he lighted on some
(animals) in shape and appearance like men, but little of stature, and of
a black colour, and thick covered with hair all over their bodies. The
women, who were of the same stature, followed the men. They were all
naked, only the elder of them, both men and women, covered their privy
parts with a small skin. They seemed not at all fierce or wild; they had a
human voice, but their dialect was altogether unknown to everybody that
lived about them, much more to those that were with Nonnosus. They lived
upon sea-oysters and fish that were cast out of the sea upon the island.
They had no courage for seeing our men; they were frighted, as we are at
the sight of the greatest wild beast." It is not easy to identify this
race with any existing tribe of Pigmies, but the hairiness of their
bodies, and above all their method of clothing themselves, leave no doubt
that in this account we have a genuine story of some group of
small-statured blacks.
From the foregoing account it will be seen that it is possible with more
or less accuracy and certainty to identify most of those races which,
described by the older writers, had been rejected by their successors.
Time has brought their revenge to Aristotle and Pliny by showing that they
were right, where Tyson, and even Buffon, were wrong.
III.
The little people of story and legend have a much wider area of
distribution than those of real life, and it is the object of this section
to give some idea of their localities and dwellings. Imperfect as such an
account must necessarily be, it will yet suffice I trust in some measure
to show that, like the England of Arthurian times, all the world is
"fulfilled of faëry."
In dealing with this part of the subject, it would be possible, following
the example of Keightley, to treat the little folk of each country
separately. But a better idea of their nature, and certainly one which for
my purpose will be more satisfactory, can, I think, be obtained by
classifying them according to the nature of their habitations, and
mentioning incidentally such other points concerning them as it may seem
advisable to bring out.
1. In the first place, then, fairies are found dwelling in mounds of
different kinds, or in the interior of hills. This form of habitation is
so frequently met with in Scotch and Irish accounts of the fairies, that
it will not be necessary for me to burden these pages with instances,
especially since I shall have to allude to them in a further section in
greater detail. Suffice it to say, that many instances of such an
association in the former country will be found in the pages of Mr.
MacRitchie's works, whilst as to the latter, I shall content myself by
quoting Sir William Wilde's statement, that every green "rath" in that
country is consecrated to the "good people." In England there are numerous
instances of a similar kind. Gervase of Tilbury in the thirteenth century
mentions such a spot in Gloucestershire: "There is in the county of
Gloucester a forest abounding in boars, stags, and every species of game
that England produces. In a grovy lawn of this forest there is a little
mount, rising in a point to the height of a man." With this mount he
associates the familiar story of the offering of refreshment to travellers
by its unseen inhabitants. In Warwickshire, the mound upon which
Kenilworth Castle is built was formerly a fairy habitation.[A] Ritson[B]
mentions that the "fairies frequented many parts of the Bishopric of
Durham." There is a hillock or tumulus near Bishopton, and a large hill
near Billingham, both of which used in former time to be "haunted by
fairies." Even Ferry-hill, a well-known stage between Darlington and
Durham, is evidently a corruption of "Fairy-hill." In Yorkshire a similar
story attaches to the sepulchral barrow of Willey How,[C] and in Sussex to
a green mound called the Mount in the parish of Pulborough.[D] The fairies
formerly frequented Bussers Hill in St. Mary's Isle, one of the Scilly
group.[E] The Bryn-yr-Ellyllon,[F] or Fairy-hill, near Mold, may be cited
as a similar instance in Wales, which must again be referred to.
[Footnote A: _Testimony of Tradition_, p. 142.]
[Footnote B: _Op. cit._, p. 56.]
[Footnote C: _Folk Lore_, ii. 115.]
[Footnote D: _Folk Lore Record_, i. 16 and 28.]
[Footnote E: _Ritson_, p. 62.]
[Footnote F: Dawkins, _Early Man in Britain_, p. 433.]
The pages of Keightley's work contain instances of hill-inhabiting fairies
in Scandinavia, Denmark, the Isle of Rugen, Iceland, Germany, and
Switzerland. It is not only in Europe, however, that this form of
habitation is to be met with; we find it also in America. The Sioux have a
curious superstition respecting a mound near the mouth of the Whitestone
River, which they call the Mountain of Little People or Little Spirits;
they believe that it is the abode of little devils in the human form, of
about eighteen inches high and with remarkably large heads; they are armed
with sharp arrows, in the use of which they are very skilful. These little
spirits are always on the watch to kill those who should have the
hardihood to approach their residence. The tradition is that many have
suffered from their malice, and that, among others, three Maha Indians
fell a sacrifice to them a few years since. This has inspired all the
neighbouring nations, Sioux, Mahas, and Ottoes, with such terror, that no
consideration could tempt them to visit the hill.[A]
[Footnote A: Lewis and Clarke, _Travels to the Source of the Missouri
River._ Quoted in _Flint Chips_, p. 346. The tale is also given in _Folk
Lore, Oriental and American_ (Gibbings & Co.), p. 45.]
The mounds or hills inhabited by the fairies are, however, of very diverse
kinds, as we discover when we attempt to analyse their actual nature. In
some cases they are undoubtedly natural elevations. Speaking of the
exploration of the Isle of Unst, Hunt[A] says that the term "Fairy Knowe"
is applied alike to artificial and to natural mounds. "We visited," he
states, "two 'Fairy Knowes' in the side of the hill near the turning of
the road from Reay Wick to Safester, and found that these wonderful relics
were merely natural formations. The workmen were soon convinced of this,
and our digging had the effect of proving to them that the fairies had
nothing to do with at least two of these hillocks." The same may surely be
said of that favourite and important fairy haunt Tomnahurich, near
Inverness, though Mr. MacRitchie seems to think that an investigation,
were such possible, of its interior, might lead to a different
explanation.
[Footnote A: _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 294.]
In other cases, and these are of great importance in coming to a
conclusion as to the origin of fairy tales, the mounds inhabited by the
little people are of a sepulchral nature. This is the case in the instance
of Willey How, which, when explored by Canon Greenwell, was found, in
spite of its size and the enormous care evidently bestowed upon its
construction, to be merely a cenotaph. A grave there was, sunk more than
twelve feet deep in the chalk rock; but no corporeal tenant had ever
occupied it.
This fact is still more clearly shown in the remarkable case mentioned by
Professor Boyd Dawkins. A barrow called Bryn-yr-Ellyllon (Fairy-hill),
near Mold, was said to be haunted by a ghost clad in golden armour which
had been seen to enter it. The barrow was opened in the year 1832, and was
found to contain the skeleton of a man wearing a golden corselet of
Etruscan workmanship.
The same may be said respecting that famous fairy-hill in Ireland, the
Brugh of the Boyne, though Mr. MacRitchie seems to regard it as having
been a dwelling-place. Mr. Coffey in a most careful study appears to me to
have finally settled the question.[A] He speaks of the remains as those of
probably the most remarkable of the pre-Christian cemeteries of Ireland.
Of the stone basins, whose nature Mr. MacRitchie regards as doubtful, he
says, "There can be hardly any doubt but that they served the purpose of
some rude form of sarcophagus, or of a receptacle for urns." Mr. Coffey
quotes the account from the Leadhar na huidri respecting cemeteries, in
which Brugh is mentioned as amongst the chief of those existing before the
faith (i.e. before the introduction of Christianity). "The nobles of the
Tuatha de Danann were used to bury at Brugh (i.e. the Dagda with his three
sons; also Lugaidh, and Oe, and Ollam, and Ogma, and Etan the Poetess, and
Corpre, the son of Etan), and Cremthain followed them, because his wife
Nar was of the Tuatha Dea, and it was she solicited him that he should
adopt Brugh as a burial-place for himself and his descendants, and this
was the cause that they did not bury at Cruachan." Mr. Coffey also quotes
O'Hartagain's poem, which seems to bear in Mr. MacRitchie's favour:--
"Behold the sidhe before your eyes:
It is manifest to you that it is a king's mansion,
Which was built by the firm Dagda;
It was a wonder, a court, a wonderful hill."
[Footnote A: _Tumuli at New Grange. Trans. Roy. Irish Academy_, XXX. 1.]
But certain of the expressions in this are evidently to be taken
figuratively, since Mr. Coffey states, in connection with this and other
quotations, that their importance consists in that they establish the
existence at a very early date of a tradition associating Brugh na Boinne,
the burial-place of the kings of Tara, with the tumuli on the Boyne. The
association of particular monuments with the Dagda and other divinities
and heroes of Irish mythology implies that the actual persons for whom
they were erected had been forgotten, the pagan traditions being probably
broken by the introduction of Christianity. The mythological ancestors of
the heroes and kings interred at Brugh, who probably were even
contemporarily associated with the cemetery, no doubt subsequently
overshadowed in tradition the actual persons interred there.
Finally, it seems that the fairy hills may have been actual
dwelling-places, fortified or not, of prehistoric peoples. Such were no
doubt some of the Picts' houses so fully dealt with by Mr. MacRitchie,
though Petrie[A] seems to have considered that many of these were
sepulchral in their nature. Such were also the Raths of Ireland and
fortified hills, like the White Cater Thun of Forfarshire.
[Footnote A: _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 216.]
The interior of the mound-dwellings, as described in the stories, is a
point to which allusion should be made. Sometimes the mound contains a
splendid palace, adorned with gold and silver and precious stones, like
the palace of the King of Elfland in the tale of "Childe Rowland." In the
Scandinavian mound-stories we find a curious incident, for they are
described as being capable of being raised upon red pillars, and as being
so raised when the occupants gave a feast to their neighbours. "There are
three hills on the lands of Bubbelgaard in Funen, which are to this day
called the Dance-hills, from the following occurrence. A lad named Hans
was at service in Bubbelgaard, and as he was coming one evening past the
hills, he saw one of them raised on red pillars, and great dancing and
much merriment underneath."[A] This feature is met with in several of the
stories collected by Keightley, and is made use of in Cruikshank's
picture, which forms the frontispiece to that volume. Lastly, in a number
of cases there is not merely a habitation, but a vast country underneath
the mound. An instance of this occurs in the tale of John Dietrich from
the Isle of Rügen. Under the Nine-hills he found "that there were in that
place the most beautiful walks, in which he might ramble along for miles
in all directions, without ever finding an end of them, so immensely large
was the hill that the little people lived in, and yet outwardly it seemed
but a little hill, with a few bushes and trees growing on it."[B]
[Footnote A: Quoted by Keightley (p. 9), from Thiele, i. 118.]
[Footnote B: Keightley, 178.]
2. The haunts of the fairies may be in caves, and examples of this form of
dwelling-place are to be met with in different parts of the world. The
Scandinavian hill people live in caves or small hills, and the Elves or
dwarfs of La Romagna "dwell in lonely places, far away in the mountains,
deep in them, in caves or among old ruins and rocks," as Mr. Leland,[A]
who gives a tale respecting these little people, tells us. A Lithuanian
tale[B] tells "how the hero, Martin, went into a forest to hunt,
accompanied by a smith and a tailor. Finding an empty hut, they took
possession of it; the tailor remained in it to cook the dinner, and the
others went forth to the chase. When the dinner was almost ready, there
came to the hut a very little old man with a very long beard, who
piteously begged for food. After receiving it, he sprang on the tailor's
neck and beat him almost to death. When the hunters returned, they found
their comrade groaning on his couch, complaining of illness, but saying
nothing about the bearded dwarf. Next day the smith suffered in a similar
way; but when it came to Martin's turn, he proved too many and too strong
for the dwarf, whom he overcame, and whom he fastened by the beard to the
stump of a tree. But the dwarf tore himself loose before the hunters came
back from the forest and escaped into a cavern. Tracing him by the drops
of blood which had fallen from him, the three companions came to the mouth
of the cavern, and Martin was lowered into it by the two others. Within it
he found three princesses, who had been stolen by three dragons. These
dragons he slew, and the princesses and their property he took to the spot
above which his comrades kept watch, who hoisted them out of the cavern,
but left Martin in it to die. As he wandered about disconsolately, he
found the bearded dwarf, whom he slew. And soon afterwards he was conveyed
out of the cavern by a flying serpent, and was able to punish his
treacherous friends, and to recover the princesses, all three of whom he
simultaneously married."
[Footnote A: _Etrusco Roman Remains_, p. 222.]
[Footnote B: _Folk Lore Record_, i. 85. Mr. Hartland points out to me that
this tale, being a Marchen, does not afford quite such good evidence of
belief as actually or recently existing as a saga.]
Amongst the Magyars,[A] also, in some localities caves are pointed out as
the haunts of fairies, such as the caves in the side of the rock named
Budvár, the cave Borza-vára, near the castle of Dame Rapson; another haunt
of the fairies is the cave near Almás, and the cold wind known as the
"Nemere" is said to blow when the fairy in Almás cave feels cold. On one
occasion the plague was raging in this neighbourhood; the people ascribed
it to the cold blast emanating from the cave; so they hung shirts before
the mouth of the cave and the plague ceased.
[Footnote A: Jones and Kropf, _Folk Tales of the Magyars_, pp. xxxvi. _et
seq_.]
In a widely distant part of the world, the Battaks-Karo,[A] of the high
ground north of Lake Toba in Sumatra, believe in three classes of
mysterious beings, one of which closely corresponds with the fairies of
Europe. The first group are called Hantous; they are giants and dead
Begous (i.e. definitely dead souls), who inhabit Mount Sampouran together
with the second group. These are called Omangs; they are dwarfs who marry
and reproduce their species, live generally in mountains, and have their
feet placed transversely. They must be propitiated, and those making the
ascent of Mount Sébayak sacrifice a white hen to them, or otherwise the
Omangs would throw stones at them. They carry off men and women, and often
keep them for years. They love to dwell amongst stones, and the Roumah
Omang, which is one of their favourite habitations, is a cavern. The third
group, or Orangs Boumans, resemble ordinary beings, but have the power of
making themselves invisible. They come down from the mountains to buy
supplies, but have not been seen for some time. Westenberg, from whom this
information is quoted, regards the last class as being proscribed Battaks,
who have fled for refuge to the mountains. Passing to another continent,
the Iroquois[B] have several stories about Pigmies, one of whom, by name
Go-ga-ah, lives in a little cave.
[Footnote A: _L'Anthropologie_, iv. 83.]
[Footnote B: Smith, _Myths of the Iroquois_. _American Bureau of
Ethnology_, ii. 65.]
3. The little people may occupy a castle or house, or the hill upon which
such a building is erected, or a cave under it. Without dwelling upon the
Brownies and other similar distinctly household spirits, there are certain
classes which must be mentioned in this connection. The Magyar fairies
live in castles on lofty mountain peaks. They build them themselves, or
inherit them from giants. Kozma enumerates the names of about twenty-three
castles which belonged to fairies, and which still exist. Although they
have disappeared from earth, they continue to live, even in our days, in
caves under their castles, in which caves their treasures lie hidden. The
iron gates of Zeta Castle, which have subsided into the ground and
disappeared from the surface, open once in every seven years. On one
occasion a man went in there, and met two beautiful fairies whom he
addressed thus, "How long will you still linger here, my little sisters?"
and they replied, "As long as the cows will give warm milk."
Like the interior of some of the mound-dwellings already mentioned, these
fairy caves are splendid habitations. "Their subterranean habitations are
not less splendid and glittering than were their castles of yore on the
mountain peaks. The one at Firtos is a palace resting on solid gold
columns. The palace at Tartod and the gorgeous one of Dame Rapson are
lighted by three diamond balls, as big as human heads, which hang from
golden chains. The treasure which is heaped up in the latter place
consists of immense gold bars, golden lions with carbuncle eyes, a golden
hen with her brood, and golden casks, filled with gold coin. The treasures
of Fairy Helen are kept in a cellar under Kovászna Castle, the gates of
the cellar being guarded by a magic cock. This bird only goes to sleep
once in seven years, and anybody who could guess the right moment would be
able to scrape no end of diamond crystals from the walls and bring them
out with him. The fairies who guard the treasures of the Pogányvár (Pagan
Castle) in Marosszék even nowadays come on moonlight nights to bathe in
the lake below."[A] In Brittany, "a number of little men, not more than a
foot high, dwell under the castle of Morlaix. They live in holes in the
ground, whither they may often be seen going, and beating on basins. They
possess great treasures, which they sometimes bring out; and if any one
pass by at the time, allow him to take one handful, but no more. Should
any one attempt to fill his pockets, the money vanishes, and he is
instantly assailed by a shower of boxes on the ear from invisible
hands."[B] In the Netherlands, the "Gypnissen," "queer little women,"
lived in a castle which had been reared in a single night.[C] The Ainu
have tales of the Poiyaumbe, a name which means literally "little beings
residing on the soil" (Mr. Batchelor says that "little" is probably meant
to express endearment or admiration, but one may be allowed to doubt
this). The Ainu, who is the hero of the story, "comes to a tall mountain
with a beautiful house built on its summit. Descending, for his path had
always been through the air, by the side of the house, and looking through
the chinks of the door, he saw a little man and a little woman sitting
beside the fireplace."[D]
[Footnote A: _Folk Tales of the Magyars_, p. xxxviii.]
[Footnote B: Grimm, apud Keightley, 441.]
[Footnote C: _Testimony of Tradition_, p. 86.]
[Footnote D: _Folk Lore Journal_, vi. 195.]