Fairies -- Great Britain; Folklore -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Antiquities; Picts; Scotland -- Antiquities
"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).
* * * * *
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