[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.]
4. The little people or fairies occupy rude stone monuments or are connected with their building. In Brittany they are associated with several of the megalithic remains.[A] "At Carnac, near Quiberon," says M. De Cambry, "in the department of Morbihan, on the sea-shore, is the Temple of Carnac, called in Breton 'Ti Goriquet' (House of the Gories), one of the most remarkable Celtic monuments extant. It is composed of more than four thousand large stones, standing erect in an arid plain, where neither tree nor shrub is to be seen, and not even a pebble is to be found in the soil on which they stand. If the inhabitants are asked concerning this wonderful monument, they say it is an old camp of Cæsar's, an army turned into stone, or that it is the work of the Crions or Gories. These they describe as little men between two and three feet high, who carried these enormous masses on their hands; for, though little, they are stronger than giants. Every night they dance around the stones, and woe betide the traveller who approaches within their reach! he is forced to join in the dance, where he is whirled about till, breathless and exhausted, he falls down, amidst the peals of laughter of the Crions. All vanish with the break of day. In the ruins of Tresmalouen dwell the Courils. They are of a malignant disposition, but great lovers of dancing. At night they sport around the Druidical monuments. The unfortunate shepherd that approaches them must dance their rounds with them till cockcrow; and the instances are not few of persons thus ensnared who have been found next morning dead with exhaustion and fatigue. Woe also to the ill-fated maiden who draws near the Couril dance! nine months after, the family counts one member more. Yet so great is the cunning and power of these dwarfs, that the young stranger bears no resemblance to them, but they impart to it the features of some lad of the village."
[Footnote A: Keightley, 440.]
In India megalithic remains are also associated with little people. "Dwarfs hold a distinct place in Hindu mythology; they appear sculptured on all temples. Siva is accompanied by a body-guard of dwarfs, one of whom, the three-legged Bhringi, dances nimbly. But coming nearer to Northern legend, the cromlechs and kistvaens which abound over Southern India are believed to have been built by a dwarf race, a cubit high, who could, nevertheless, move and handle the huge stones easily. The villagers call them Pandayar."[A]
[Footnote A:Folk Lore, iv. 401.]
Mr. Meadows Taylor, speaking of cromlechs in India, says, "Wherever I found them, the same tradition was attached to them, that they were Morie humu, or Mories' houses; these Mories having been dwarfs who inhabited the country before the present race of men." Again, speaking of the cromlechs of Koodilghee, he states, "Tradition says that former Governments caused dwellings of the description alluded to to be erected for a species of human beings called 'Mohories,' whose dwarfish stature is said not to have exceeded a span when standing, and a fist high when in a sitting posture, who were endowed with strength sufficient to roll off large stones with a touch of their thumb." There are, he also tells us, similar traditions attaching to other places, where the dwarfs are sometimes spoken of as Gujaries.[A]
[Footnote A:Jour. Ethnol. Soc., 1868-69, p. 157.]
Of stone structures built by fairies or little people for the use of others, may be mentioned the churches built by dwarfs in Scotland and Brittany, and described by Mr. MacRitchie, as also the two following instances, taken from widely distant parts of the globe. In Brittany, the dolmen of Manné-er Hrock (Montaigne de la Fee), at Locmariaquer, is said to have been built by a fairy, in order that a mother might stand upon it and look out for her son's ship.[A] In Fiji the following tale is told about the Nanga or sacred stone enclosure:—"This is the word of our fathers concerning the Nanga. Long ago their fathers were ignorant of it; but one day two strangers were found sitting in the Rara (public square), and they said they had come up from the sea to give them the Nanga. They were little men, and very dark-skinned, and one of them had his face and bust painted red, while the other was painted black. Whether these were gods or men our fathers did not tell us, but it was they who taught our people the Nanga. This was in the old times, when our fathers were living in another land—not in this place, for we are strangers here."[B] It is worthy of note that the term "Nanga" applies not merely to the enclosure, but also to the secret society which held its meetings therein.[C]
[Footnote A:Flint Chips, p. 104.]
[Footnote B: Fison,Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xiv, 14.]
[Footnote C: Joske,Internat. Arch. f. Ethnographie, viii. 254.]
5. The little people make their dwellings either in the interior of a stone or amongst stones. I am not here alluding to the stones on the sides of mountains which are the doorways to fairy dwellings, but to a closer connection, which will be better understood from some of the following instances than from any lengthy explanation. The Duergas of the Scandinavian Eddas had their dwelling-places in stones, as we are told in the story of Thorston, who "came one day to an open part of the wood, where he saw a great rock, and out a little way from it a dwarf, who was horridly ugly."[A] In Ireland, in Innisbofin, co. Galway, Professor Haddon relates that the men who were quarrying a rock in the neighbourhood of the harbour refused to work at it any longer, as it was so full of "good people" as to be hot.[B] In England the Pixy-house of Devon is in a stone, and a large stone is also connected with the story of the Frensham caldron, though it is not clear that the fairies lived in the rock itself.[C] Oseberrow or Osebury (vulgoRosebury) Rock, in Lulsey, Worcestershire, was, according to tradition, a favourite haunt of the fairies.[D] In another part of Worcestershire, on the side of the Cotswolds, there is, in a little spinney, a large flat stone, much worn on its under surface, which is called the White Lady's Table. This personage is supposed to take her meals with the fairies at this rock, but what the exact relation of the little people to it as a dwelling-place may be, I have not been able to learn.
[Footnote A: Keightley, 70.]
[Footnote B:Folklore, iv. 49.]
[Footnote C: Ritson, 106, quoting Aubrey'sNatural History of Surrey, iii. 366.]
[Footnote D: Allies,Antiquities and Folk-Lore of Worcestershire, p.443.]
There is an Iroquois tale of dwarfs, in which the summons to the Pigmies was given by knocking upon a large stone.[A] The little people of Melanesia seem also to be associated in some measure with stones. Speaking of these beings, Mr. Codrington says,[B] "There are certain Vuis having rather the nature of fairies. The accounts of them are vague, but it is argued that they had never left the islands before the introduction of Christianity, and indeed have been seen since. Not long ago there was a woman living at Mota who was the child of one, and a very few years ago a female Vui with a child was seen in Saddle Island. Some of these were called Nopitu, which come invisibly, or possess those with whom they associate themselves. The possessed are called Nopitu. Such persons would lift a cocoa-nut to drink, and native shell money would run out instead of the juice and rattle against their teeth; they would vomit up money, or scratch and shake themselves on a mat, when money would pour from their fingers. This was often seen, and believed to be the doing of a Nopitu. In another manner of manifestation, a Nopitu would make himself known as a party were sitting round an evening fire. A man would hear a voice in his thigh, 'Here am I, give me food.' He would roast a little red yam, and fold it in the corner of his mat. He would soon find it gone, and the Nopitu would begin a song. Its voice was so small and clear and sweet, that once heard it never could be forgotten; but it sang the ordinary Mota songs. Such spirits as these, if seen or found, would disappear beside a stone; they were smaller than the native people, darker, and with long straight hair. But they were mostly unseen, or seen only by those to whom they took a fancy. They were the friendly Trolls or Robin Goodfellows of the islands; a man would find a fine red yam put for him on the seat beside the door, or the money which he paid away returned within his purse. A woman working in her garden heard a voice from the fruit of a gourd asking for some food, and when she pulled up an arum or dug out a yam, another still remained; but when she listened to another spirit's panpipes, the first in his jealousy conveyed away garden and all." Amongst the Australians also supernatural beings dwell amongst the rocks, and the Annamites and Arabians know of fairies living amongst the rocks and hills.[C]
[Footnote A: Smith,Myths of Iroquois, ut supra.]
[Footnote B:Journ. Anthrop. Inst., x. 261.]
[Footnote C: Hartland,Science of Fairy Tales, p. 351.]
6. The little people may have their habitation in forests or trees. Such were the Skovtrolde, or Wood-Trolls of Thorlacius,[A] who made their home on the earth in great thick woods, and the beings in South Germany who resemble the dwarfs, and are called Wild, Wood, Timber and Moss People.[B] "These generally live together in society, but they sometimes appear singly. They are small in stature, yet somewhat larger than the Elf, being the size of children of three years, grey and old-looking, hairy and clad in moss. Their lives are attached, like those of the Hamadryads, to the trees, and if any one causes by friction the inner bark to loosen, a Wood-woman dies." In Scandinavia there is also a similarity between certain of the Elves and Hamadryads. The Elves "not only frequent trees, but they make an interchange of form with them. In the churchyard of Store Heddinge, in Zeeland, there are the remains of an oak-wood. These, say the common people, are the Elle King's soldiers; by day they are trees, by night valiant soldiers. In the wood of Rugaard, in the same island, is a tree which by night becomes a whole Elle-people, and goes about all alive. It has no leaves upon it, yet it would be very unsafe to go to break or fell it, for the underground people frequently hold their meetings under its branches. There is, in another place, an elder-tree growing in a farmyard, which frequently takes a walk in the twilight about the yard, and peeps in through the window at the children when they are alone. The linden or lime-tree is the favourite haunt of the Elves and cognate beings, and it is not safe to be near it after sunset."[C] In England, the fairies also in some cases frequent the woods, as is their custom in the Isle of Man, and in Wales, where there was formerly, in the park of Sir Robert Vaughan, a celebrated old oak-tree, named Crwben-yr-Ellyl, or the Elf's Hollow Tree. In Formosa[D] there is also a tale of little people inhabiting a wood. "A young Botan became too ardent in his devotion to a young lady of the tribe, and was slain by her relatives, while, as a warning as to the necessity for love's fervour being kept within bounds, his seven brothers were banished by the chief. The exiles went forth into the depths of the forest, and in their wanderings after a new land they crossed a small clearing, in which a little girl, about a span in height, was seated peeling potatoes. 'Little sister,' they queried, 'how come you here? where is your home?' 'I am not of homes nor parents,' she replied. Leaving her, they went still farther into the forest, and had not gone far when they saw a little man cutting canes, and farther on to the right a curious-looking house, in front of which sat two diminutive women combing their hair. Things looked so queer that the travellers hesitated about approaching nearer, but, eager to find a way out of the forest, they determined in their extremity to question the strange people. The two women, when interrogated, turned sharply round, showing eyes of a flashing red; then looking upward, their eyes became dull and white, and they immediately ran into the house, the doors and windows of which at once vanished, the whole taking the form and appearance of an isolated boulder." Amongst the Maories also we have "te tini ote hakuturi," or "the multitude of the wood-elves," the little people who put the chips all back into the tree Rata had felled and stood it up again, because he had not paid tribute to Tane.[E]
[Footnote A: Quoted by Keightley, p. 62.]
[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 230.]
[Footnote C: Keightley, p. 92, quoting from Thiele.]
[Footnote D:Folk Lore Journal, v. 143.]
[Footnote E: Tregear,Journ. Anth. Inst., xix. 121.]
7. The association of little people with water as a home is a widespread notion. The Sea-Trows of the Shetlanders inhabit a region of their own at the bottom of the sea. They here respire a peculiar atmosphere, and live in habitations constructed of the choicest submarine productions. They are, however, not always small, but may be of diverse statures, like the Scandinavian Necks. In Germany the Water-Dwarfs are also known. At Seewenheiher, in the Black Forest, a little water-man (Seemännlein) used to come and join the people, work the whole day along with them, and in the evening go back into the lakes.[A] The size of the Breton Korrigs or Korrigan, if we may believe Villemarqué in his account of this folk, does not exceed two feet, but their proportions are most exact, and they have long flowing hair, which they comb out with great care. Their only dress is a long white veil, which they wind round their body. Seen at night or in the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great; but in the daylight their eyes appear red, their hair is white, and their faces wrinkled; hence they rarely let themselves be seen by day. They are fond of music, and have fine voices, but are not much given to dancing. Their favourite haunts are the springs, by which they sit and comb their hair.[B] The Maories also have their Water-Pigmies, the Ponaturi, who are, according to Mr. Tregear, elves, little tiny people, mostly dwellers in water, coming ashore to sleep.[C] "The spirits most commonly met with in African mythology," says Mr. Macdonald, "are water or river spirits, inhabiting deep pools where there are strong eddies and under-currents. Whether they are all even seen now-a-days it is difficult to determine, but they must at one time have either shown themselves willingly, or been dragged from their hiding-places by some powerful magician, for they are one and all described. They are dwarfs, and correspond to the Scottish conception of kelpies or fairies. They are wicked and malevolent beings, and are never credited with a good or generous action. Whatever they possess they keep, and greedily seize upon any one who comes within their reach. 'One of them, the Incanti, corresponds to the Greek Python, and another, called Hiti, appears in the form of a small and very ugly man, and is exceedingly malevolent' (Brownlee). It is certain death to see an Incanti, and no one but the magicians sees them except in dreams, and in that case the magicians are consulted, and advise and direct what is to be done."[D]
[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 261.]
[Footnote B: Villemarqué, ibid., 431.]
[Footnote C: Tregear,ut supra.]
[Footnote D:Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xx. 124.]
Dr. Nansen, speaking of the Ignerssuit (plural of Ignersuak, which means "great fire"), says that they are for the most part good spirits, inclined to help men. The entrance to their dwellings is on the sea-shore. According to the Eskimo legend, "The first earth which came into existence had neither seas nor mountains, but was quite smooth. When the One above was displeased with the people upon it, He destroyed the world. It burst open, and the people fell down into the rifts and became Ignerssuit and the water poured over everything."[A] The spirits here alluded to appear to be the same as those described by Mr. Boas as Uissuit in his monograph on the Central Eskimo. He describes them as "a strange people that live in the sea. They are dwarfs, and are frequently seen between Iglulik and Netchillik, where the Anganidjen live, an Innuit tribe whose women are in the habit of tracing rings around their eyes. There are men and women among the Uissuit, and they live in deep water, never coming to the surface. When the Innuit wish to see them, they go in their boats to a place where they cannot see the bottom, and try to catch them with hooks which they slowly move up and down. As soon as they get a bite they draw in the line. The Uissuit are thus drawn up; but no sooner do they approach the surface than they dive down headlong again, only their legs having emerged from the water. The Innuit have never succeeded in getting one out of the water."[A]
[Footnote A: Nansen,ut supra, p. 259.]
[Footnote A:American Bureau of Ethnology, vi. 612.]
8. Amongst habitations not coming under any of the above categories may be mentioned the moors and open places affected by the Cornish fairies, and lastly the curious residences of the Kirkonwaki or Church-folk of the Finns. "It is an article of faith with the Finns that there dwell under the altar in every church little misshapen beings which they call Kirkonwaki, i.e., Church-folk. When the wives of these little people have a difficult labour, they are relieved if a Christian woman visits them and lays her hand upon them. Such service is always rewarded by a gift of gold and silver."[A] These folk evidently correspond to the Kirkgrims of Scandinavian countries, and the traditions respecting both are probably referable to the practice of foundation sacrifices.
[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 488.]
The subject of Pigmy races and fairy tales cannot be considered to have been in any sense fully treated without some consideration of a theory which, put forward by various writers and in connection with the legends of diverse countries, has recently been formulated by Mr. MacRitchie in a number of most interesting and suggestive books and papers. An early statement of this theory is to be found in a paper by Mr. J.F. Campbell, in which he stated, "It is somewhat remarkable that traditions still survive in the Highlands of Scotland which seem to be derived from the habits of Scotch tribes like the Lapps in our day. Stories are told in Sutherlandshire about a 'witch' who milked deer; a 'ghost' once became acquainted with a forester, and at his suggestion packed all her plenishing on a herd of deer, when forced to flit by another and a bigger 'ghost;' the green mounds in which 'fairies' are supposed to dwell closely resemble the outside of Lapp huts. The fairies themselves are not represented as airy creatures in gauze wings and spangles, but they appear in tradition as small cunning people, eating and drinking, living close at hand in their green mound, stealing children and cattle, milk and food, from their bigger neighbours. They are uncanny, but so are the Lapps. My own opinion is that these Scotch traditions relate to the tribes who made kitchen-middens and lake-dwellings in Scotland, and that they were allied to Lapps."[A] Such in essence is Mr. MacRitchie's theory, which has been so admirably summarised by Mr. Jacobs in the first of that series of fairy-tale books which has added a new joy to life, that I shall do myself the pleasure of quoting his statement in this place. He says: "Briefly put, Mr. MacRitchie's view is that the elves, trolls, and fairies represented in popular tradition are really the mound-dwellers, whose remains have been discovered in some abundance in the form of green hillocks, which have been artificially raised over a long and low passage leading to a central chamber open to the sky. Mr. MacRitchie shows that in several instances traditions about trolls or 'good people' have attached themselves to mounds which long afterwards, on investigation, turned out to be evidently the former residence of men of smaller build than the mortals of to-day. He goes on further to identify these with the Picts— fairies are called 'Pechs' in Scotland—and other early races, but with these ethnological equations we need not much concern ourselves. It is otherwise with the mound traditions and their relation, if not to fairy tales in general, to tales about fairies, trolls, elves, &c. These are very few in number, and generally bear the character of anecdotes. The fairies, &c., steal a child; they help a wanderer to a drink and then disappear into a green hill; they help cottagers with their work at night, but disappear if their presence is noticed; human midwives are asked to help fairy mothers; fairy maidens marry ordinary men, or girls marry and live with fairy husbands. All such things may have happened and bear no sucha priorimarks of impossibility as speaking animals, flying through the air, and similar incidents of the folk-tale pure and simple. If, as archaeologists tell us, there was once a race of men in Northern Europe very short and hairy, that dwelt in underground chambers artificially concealed by green hillocks, it does not seem unlikely that odd survivors of the race should have lived on after they had been conquered and nearly exterminated by Aryan invaders, and should occasionally have performed something like the pranks told of fairies and trolls."[B] In the same place, and also in another article,[C] the writer just quoted has applied this theory to the explanation of the story of "Childe Rowland."
[Footnote A:Journ. Ethnol. Soc., 1869-70, p. 325.]
[Footnote B:English Fairy Tales, p. 241.]
[Footnote C:Folk Lore, ii. 126.]
Mr. MacRitchie has, in another paper,[A] collected a number of instances of the use of the wordSithin connection with hillocks and tumuli, which are the resort of the fairies. Here also he discusses the possible connection of that word with that ofTshud, the title of the vanished supernatural inhabitants of the land amongst the Finns and other "Altaic" Turanian tribes of Russia, as in other places he has endeavoured to trace a connection between the Finns and the Feinne. Into these etymological questions I have no intention to enter, since I am not qualified to do so, nor is it necessary, as they have been fully dealt with by Mr. Nutt, whose opinion on this point is worthy of all attention.[B] But it may be permitted to me to inquire how far Mr. MacRitchie's views tally with the facts mentioned in the foregoing section. I shall therefore allude to a few points which appear to me to show that the origin of the belief in fairies cannot be settled in so simple a manner as has been suggested, but is a question of much greater complexity—one in which, as Mr. Tylor says, more than one mythic element combines to make up the whole.
[Footnote A:Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland, iii. 367.]
[Footnote A:Folk and Hero Tales from Argyleshire, p. 420.]
(1.) In the first place, then, it seems clear, so far as our present knowledge teaches us, that there never was a really Pigmy race inhabiting the northern parts of Scotland.
The scanty evidence which we have on this point, so far as it goes, proves the truth of this assertion. Mr. Carter Blake found in the Muckle Heog of the Island of Unst, one of the Shetlands, together with stone vessels, human interments of persons of considerable stature and of great muscular strength. Speaking of the Keiss skeletons, Professor Huxley says that the males are, the one somewhat above, and the other probably about the average stature; while the females are short, none exceeding five feet two inches or three inches in height.[A] And Dr. Garson, treating of the osteology of the ancient inhabitants of the Orkneys, says that the female skeleton which he examined was about five feet two inches in height, i.e., about the mean height of the existing races of England.[B] There is no evidence that Lapps and Eskimo ever visited these parts of the world; and if they did, as we have seen, their stature, though stunted, cannot fairly be described as pigmy. Even if we grant that the stature of the early races did not average more than five feet two inches, which, by the way, was the height of the great Napoleon, it is more than doubtful whether it fell so far short of that of succeeding races as to cause us to imagine that it gave rise to tales about a race of dwarfs.
[Footnote A: Laing,Prehistoric Remains of Caithness, p. 101.]
[Footnote B:Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xiii. 60.]
(2.) The mounds with which the tales of little people are associated have not, in many cases, been habitations, but were natural or sepulchral in their nature. It may, of course, be argued that the story having once arisen in connection with one kind of mound, may, by a process easy to understand, have been transferred to other hillocks similar in appearance, though diverse in nature. It is difficult to see, however, how this could have occurred in Yorkshire and other parts of England, where it is not argued that the stunted inhabitants of the North ever penetrated. It is still more difficult to explain how similar legends can have originated in America in connection with mounds, since there never were Pigmy races in that continent.
(3.) The rude and simple arrangements of the interior of these mound dwellings might have, in the process of time, become altered into the gorgeous halls, decked with gold and silver and precious stones, as we find them in the stories; they might even, though this is much more difficult to understand, have become possessed of the capacity for being raised upon red pillars. But there is one pitch to which, I think, they could never have attained, and that is the importance which they assume when they become the external covering of a large and extensive tract of underground country. Here we are brought face to face with a totally different explanation, to which I shall recur in due course.
(4.) The little people are not by any means associated entirely with mounds, as the foregoing section is largely intended to show. Their habitations may be in or amongst stones, in caves, under the water, in trees, or amongst the glades of a forest; they may dwell on mountains, on moors, or even under the altars of churches. We may freely grant that some of these habitations fall into line with Mr. MacRitchie's theory, but they are not all susceptible of such an explanation.
(5.) The association of giants and dwarfs in certain places, even the confusion of the two races, seems somewhat difficult of explanation by this theory. In Ireland the distinction between the two classes is sharper than in other places, since, as Sir William Wilde pointed out, whilst every green rath in that island is consecrated to the fairies or "good people," the remains attributed to the giants are of a different character and probably of a later date. In some places, however, a mound similar to those often connected with fairies is associated with a giant, as is the case at Sessay parish, near Thirsk,[A] and at Fyfield in Wiltshire. The chambered tumulus at Luckington is spoken of as the Giant's Caves, and that at Nempnet in Somersetshire as the Fairy's Toot. In Denmark, tumuli seem to be described indifferently as Zettestuer (Giants' Chambers) or Troldestuer (Fairies' Chambers).[B] In "Beowulf" a chambered tumulus is described, in the recesses of which were treasures watched over for three hundred years by a dragon. This barrow was of stone, and the work of giants.
Seah on enta geweorc, Looked on the giant's work, hû ða stân-bogan, how the stone arches, stapulinn-faeste, on pillars fast, êce eorð-reced the eternal earth-house innan healde. held within.
[Footnote A:Folk Lore, i. 130.]
[Footnote B:Flint Chips, p. 412.]
The mounds have sometimes been made by giants and afterwards inhabited by dwarfs, as in the case of the Nine-hills, already alluded to. In others, they are at the same time inhabited by giants, dwarfs, and others, as in the story of the Dwarf's Banquet,[A] and still more markedly in the Wunderberg. "The celebrated Wunderberg, or Underberg, on the great moor near Salzburg, is the chief haunt of the Wild-women. The Wunderberg is said to be quite hollow, and supplied with stately palaces, churches, monasteries, gardens, and springs of gold and silver. Its inhabitants, beside the Wild-women, are little men, who have charge of the treasures it contains, and who at midnight repair to Salzburg to perform their devotions in the cathedral; giants, who used to come to the church of Grödich and exhort the people to lead a godly and pious life; and the great Emperor Charles V., with golden crown and sceptre, attended by knights and lords. His grey beard has twice encompassed the table at which he sits, and when it has the third time grown round it, the end of the world and the appearance of the Antichrist will take place."[B]
[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, 130.]
[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, 234.]
In the folk-tales of the Magyars we meet with a still more remarkable confusion between these two classes of beings. Some of the castles described in these stories are inhabited by giants, others by fairies. Again, the giants marry; their wives are fairies, so are their daughters. They had no male issue, as their race was doomed to extermination. They fall in love, and are fond of courting. Near Bikkfalva, in Háromszék, the people still point out the "Lover's Bench" on a rock where the amorous giant of Csigavár used to meet his sweetheart, the "fairy of Veczeltetö."[A]
[Footnote A:Folk Tales of the Magyars, p. xxix.]
(6.) Tales of little people are to be found in countries where there never were any Pigmy races. Not to deal with other, and perhaps more debatable districts, we find an excellent example of this in North America. Besides the instances mentioned in the foregoing section, the following may be mentioned. Mr. Leland, speaking of the Un-a-games-suk, or Indian spirits of the rocks and streams, says that these beings enter far more largely, deeply, and socially into the life and faith of the Indians than elves or fairies ever did into those of the Aryan race.[A] In his Algonquin Legends the same author also alludes to small people.
[Footnote A:Memoirs, i. 34.]
Dr. Brinton tells me that the Micmacs have tales of similar Pigmies, whom they call Wig[)u]l[)a]d[)u]mooch, who tie people with cords during their sleep, &c. Mr. L.L. Frost, of Susanville, Lassen County, California, tells us how, when he requested an Indian to gather and bring in all the arrow-points he could find, the Indian declared them to be "no good," that they had been made by the lizards. Whereupon Mr. Frost drew from him the following lizard-story. "There was a time when the lizards were little men, and the arrow-points which are now found were shot by them at the grizzly bear. The bears could talk then, and would eat the little men whenever they could catch them. The arrows of the little men were so small that they would not kill the bears when shot into them, and only served to enrage them." The Indian could not tell how the little men became transformed into lizards.[A] Again, the Shoshones of California dread their infants being changed by Ninumbees or dwarfs.[B]
[Footnote A:Folk Lore Journal, vii. 24.]
[Footnote B: Hartland,ut supra, p. 351.]
Finally, every one has read about the Pukwudjies, "the envious little people, the fairies, the pigmies," in the pages of Longfellow's "Hiawatha."[A] It ought to be mentioned that Mr. Leland states that the red-capped, scanty-shirted elf of the Algonquins was obtained from the Norsemen; but if, as he says, the idea of little people has sunk so deeply into the Indian mind, it cannot in any large measure have been derived from this source.[B]
[Footnote A: xviii.]
[Footnote B:Etrusco Roman Remains, p. 162.]
(7.) The stunted races whom Mr. MacRitchie considers to have formed the subjects of the fairy legend have themselves tales of little people. This is true especially of the Eskimo, as will have been already noticed, a fact to which my attention was called by Mr. Hartland.
For the reasons just enumerated, I am unable to accept Mr. MacRitchie's theory as a complete explanation of the fairy question, but I am far from desirous of under-estimating the value and significance of his work. Mr. Tylor, as I have already mentioned, states, in a sentence which may yet serve as a motto for a work on the whole question of the origin of the fairy myth, that "various different facts have given rise to stories of giants and dwarfs, more than one mythic element perhaps combining to form a single legend—a result perplexing in the extreme to the mythological interpreter."[A] And I think it may be granted that Mr. MacRitchie has gone far to show that one of these mythic elements, one strand in the twisted cord of fairy mythology, is the half-forgotten memory of skulking aborigines, or, as Mr. Nutt well puts it, the "distorted recollections of alien and inimical races." But it is not the only one. It is far from being my intention to endeavour to deal exhaustively with the difficult question of the origin of fairy tales. Knowledge and the space permissible in an introduction such as this would alike fail me in such a task. It may, however, be permissible to mention a few points which seem to impress themselves upon one in making a study of the stories with which I have been dealing. In the first place, one can scarcely fail to notice how much in common there is between the tales of the little people and the accounts of that underground world, which, with so many races, is the habitation of the souls of the departed. Dr. Callaway has already drawn attention to this point in connection with the ancestor-worship of the Amazulu.[B] He says, "It may be worth while to note the curious coincidence of thought among the Amazulu regarding the Amatongo or Abapansi, and that of the Scotch and Irish regarding the fairies or 'good people.' For instance, the 'good people' of the Irish have assigned to them, in many respects the same motives and actions as the Amatongo. They call the living to join them, that is, by death; they cause disease which common doctors cannot understand nor cure; they have their feelings, interests, partialities, and antipathies, and contend with each other about the living. The common people call them their friends or people, which is equivalent to the termabakubogiven to the Amatongo. They reveal themselves in the form of the dead, and it appears to be supposed that the dead become 'good people,' as the dead among the Amazulu become Amatongo; and in funeral processions of the 'good people' which some have professed to see, are recognised the forms of those who have just died, as Umkatshana saw his relatives amongst the Abapansi. The power of holding communion with the 'good people' is consequent on an illness, just as the power to divine amongst the natives of this country. So also in the Highland tales, a boy who had been carried away by the fairies, on his return to his own home speaks of them as 'our folks,' which is equivalent toabakwetu, applied to the Amatongo, and among the Highlands they are called the 'good people' and 'the folk.' They are also said to 'live underground,' and are therefore Abapansi or subterranean. They are also, like the Abapansi, called ancestors. Thus the Red Book of Clanranald is said not to have been dug up, but to have been found on the moss; it seemed as if the ancestors sent it." There are other points which make in the same direction. The soul is supposed by various races to be a little man, an idea which at once links the manes of the departed with Pigmy people. Thus Dr. Nansen tells us that amongst the Eskimo a man has many souls. The largest dwell in the larynx and in the left side, and are tiny men about the size of a sparrow. The other souls dwell in other parts of the body, and are the size of a finger-joint.[C] And the Macusi Indians[D] believe that although the body will decay, "the man in our eyes" will not die, but wander about; an idea which is met with even in Europe, and which perhaps gives us a clue to the conception of smallness in size of the shades of the dead. Again, the belief that the soul lives near the resting-place of its body is widespread, and at least comparable with, if not equivalent to, the idea that the little people of Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and India live in the sepulchral mounds or cromlechs of those countries. Closely connected with this is the idea of the underground world, peopled by the souls of the departed like the Abapansi, the widespread nature of which idea is shown by Dr. Tylor. "To take one example, in which the more limited idea seems to have preceded the more extensive, the Finns,[E] who feared the ghost of the departed as unkind, harmful beings, fancied them dwelling with their bodies in the grave, or else, with what Castrén thinks a later philosophy, assigned them their dwelling in the subterranean Tuonela. Tuonela was like this upper earth; the sun shone there, there was no lack of land and water, wood and field, tilth and meadow; there were bears and wolves, snakes and pike, but all things were of a hurtful, dismal kind; the woods dark and swarming with wild beasts, the water black, the cornfields bearing seed of snake's teeth; and there stern, pitiless old Tuoni, and his grim wife and son, with the hooked fingers with iron points, kept watch and ward over the dead lest they should escape."
[Footnote A:Primitive Culture, i. 388.]
[Footnote B:Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 226.]
[Footnote C: Nansen,ut supra, p. 227.]
[Footnote D: Tylor,ut supra, i. 431.]
[Footnote E: Tylor,ut supra, ii. 80.]
It is impossible not to see a connection between such conceptions as these and the underground habitations of the little people entered by the green mound which covered the bones of the dead. But the underground world was not only associated with the shades of the departed; it was in many parts of the world the place whence races had their origin, and here also we meet in at least one instance known to me with the conception of a little folk. A very widespread legend in Europe, and especially in Scandinavia, according to Dr. Nansen, tells how the underground or invisible people came into existence. "The Lord one day paid a visit to Eve as she was busy washing her children. All those who were not yet washed she hurriedly hid in cellars and corners and under big vessels, and presented the others to the Visitor. The Lord asked if these were all, and she answered 'Yes;' whereupon He replied, 'Then those which aredulde(hidden) shall remainhulde(concealed, invisible). And from them the huldre-folk are sprung."[A] There is also the widespread story of an origin underground, as amongst the Wasabe, a sub-gens of the Omahas, who believe that their ancestors were made under the earth and subsequently came to the surface.[B] There is a similar story amongst the Z[=u]nis of Western New Mexico. In journeying to their present place of habitation, they passed through four worlds, all in the interior of this, the passage way from darkness to light being through a large reed. From the inner world they were led by the two little war-gods, Ah-ai-[=u]-ta and M[=a]-[=a]-s[=e]-we, twin brothers, sons of the Sun, who were sent by the Sun to bring this people to his presence.[C] From these stories it would appear that the underground world, whether looked upon as the habitation of the dead or the place of origination of nations, is connected with the conception of little races and people. That it is thus responsible for some portion of the conception of fairies seems to me to be more than probable.
[Footnote A: Nansen,ut supra, p. 262.]
[Footnote B: Dorset,Omaha Sociology. American Bureau of Ethnology, iii. 211.]
[Footnote C: Stevenson,Religious Life of Zuni Child. American Bureau ofEthnology, v. 539.]
It is hardly necessary to allude to those spirits which animistic ideas have attached amongst other objects and places, to trees and wells. They are fully dealt with in Dr. Tylor's pages, and must not be forgotten in connection with the present question.
To sum up, then, it appears as if the idea, so widely diffused, of little, invisible, or only sometimes visible, people, is of the most complex nature. From the darkness which shrouds it, however, it is possible to discern some rays of light. That the souls of the departed, and the underground world which they inhabit, are largely responsible for it, is, I hope, rendered probable by the facts which I have brought forward. That animistic ideas have played an important part in the evolution of the idea of fairy peoples, is not open to doubt. That to these conceptions were superadded many features really derived from the actions of aboriginal races hiding before the destroying might of their invaders, and this not merely in these islands, but in many parts of the world, has been, I think, demonstrated by the labours of the gentleman whose theory I have so often alluded to. But the point upon which it is desired to lay stress is that the features derived from aboriginal races are only one amongst many sources. Possibly they play an important part, but scarcely, I think, one so important as Mr. MacRitchie would have us believe.
Concerning the PYGMIES, THE CYNOCEPHALI, THE SATYRS and SPHINGES OF THEANCIENTS,
Wherein it will appear that they were all either APES or MONKEYS; and notMEN, as formerly pretended.
By Edward Tyson M.D.
A Philological Essay Concerning the PYGMIES OF THE ANCIENTS.
Having had the Opportunity of Dissecting this remarkable Creature, which not only in theoutward shapeof the Body, but likewise in the structure of many of the Inward Parts, so nearly resembles a Man, as plainly appears by theAnatomyI have here given of it, it suggested the Thought to me, whether this sort ofAnimal, might not give the Foundation to the Stories of thePygmiesand afford an occasion not only to thePoets, butHistorianstoo, of inventing the many Fables and wonderful and merry Relations, that are transmitted down to us concerning them? I must confess, I could never before entertain any other Opinion about them, but that the whole was aFiction: and as the first Account we have of them, was from aPoet, so that they were only a Creature of the Brain, produced by a warm and wanton Imagination, and that they never had any Existence or Habitation elsewhere.
In this Opinion I was the more confirmed, because the most diligent Enquiries of late into all the Parts of the inhabited World, could never discover any suchPunydiminutiveRaceofMankind. That they should be totally destroyed by theCranes, their Enemies, and not a Straggler here and there left remaining, was a Fate, that even thoseAnimalsthat are constantly preyed upon by others, never undergo. Nothing therefore appeared to me more Fabulous and Romantick, than theirHistory, and the Relations about them, thatAntiquityhas delivered to us. And not onlyStraboof old, but our greatest Men of Learning of late, have wholly exploded them, as a merefigment; invented only to amuse, and divert the Reader with the Comical Narration of their Atchievements, believing that there were never any such Creatures in Nature.
This opinion had so fully obtained with me, that I never thought it worth the Enquiry, how they came to invent such Extravagant Stories: Nor should I now, but upon the Occasion of Dissecting thisAnimal: For observing that 'tis call'd even to this day in theIndianorMalabarLanguage,Orang-Outang, i.e. aManof theWoods, orWild-men; and being brought fromAfrica, that part of the World, where thePygmiesare said to inhabit; and it's presentStaturelikewise tallying so well with that of thePygmiesof the Ancients; these Considerations put me upon the search, to inform my self farther about them, and to examine, whether I could meet with any thing that might illustrate theirHistory. For I thought it strange, that if the whole was but a meer Fiction, that so many succeeding Generations should be so fond of preserving aStory, that had no Foundation at all in Nature; and that theAncientsshould trouble themselves so much about them. If therefore I can make out in thisEssay, that there were suchAnimalsasPygmies; and that they were not aRaceofMen, butApes; and can discover theAuthors, who have forged all, or most of the idle Stories concerning them; and shew how the Cheat in after Ages has been carried on, by embalming the Bodies ofApes, then exposing them for theMenof the Country, from whence they brought them: If I can do this, I shall think my time not wholly lost, nor the trouble altogether useless, that I have had in this Enquiry.
My Design is not to justifie all the Relations that have been given of thisAnimal, even by Authors of reputed Credit; but, as far as I can, to distinguish Truth from Fable; and herein, if what I assert amounts to a Probability, 'tis all I pretend to. I shall accordingly endeavour to make it appear, that not only thePygmiesof the Ancients, but also theCynocephali, andSatyrsandSphingeswere onlyApesorMonkeys, notMen, as they have been represented. But the Story of thePygmiesbeing the greatest Imposture, I shall chiefly concern my self about them, and shall be more concise on the others, since they will not need so strict an Examination.
We will begin with the PoetHomer, who is generally owned as the first Inventor of the Fable of thePygmies, if it be a Fable, and not a true Story, as I believe will appear in the Account I shall give of them. NowHomeronly mentions them in aSimile, wherein he compares the Shouts that theTrojansmade, when they were going to joyn Battle with theGræcians, to the great Noise of theCranes, going to fight thePygmies: he saith,[A]
[Greek: Ai t' epei oun cheimona phygon, kai athesphaton ombronKlangae tai ge petontai ep' okeanoio rhoaon'Andrasi pygmaioisi phonon kai kaera pherousai.] i.e.
Quæ simul ac fugere Imbres, Hyememque Nivalem Cum magno Oceani clangore ferantur ad undas Pygmæis pugnamque Viris, cædesque ferentes.
[Footnote A:Homer. Iliad. lib. 3. ver. 4.]
Or asHelius Eobanus Hessusparaphrases the whole.[A]
Postquam sub Ducibus digesta per agmina stabantQuæque fuis, Equitum turmæ, Peditumque Cohortes,Obvia torquentes Danais vestigia TroësIbant, sublato Campum clamore replentes:Non secus ac cuneata Gruum sublime volantumAgmina, dum fugiunt Imbres, ac frigora Brumæ,Per Coelum matutino clangore feruntur,Oceanumque petunt, mortem exitiumque cruentumIrrita Pigmæis moturis arma ferentes.
[Footnote A:Homeri Ilias Latino Carmine reddita ab Helio Eobano Hesso.]
By [Greek: andrasi pygmaioisi] therefore, which is the Passage upon which they have grounded all their fabulous Relations of thePygmies, why may notHomermean onlyPygmiesorApeslikeMen. Such an Expression is very allowable in aPoet, and is elegant and significant, especially since there is so good a Foundation in Nature for him to use it, as we have already seen, in theAnatomy of the Orang-Outang. Nor is aPoettied to that strictness of Expression, as anHistorianorPhilosopher; he has the liberty of pleasing the Reader's Phancy, by Pictures and Representations of his own. If there be a becoming likeness, 'tis all that he is accountable for. I might therefore here make the sameApologyfor him, asStrabo[A] do's on another account for hisGeography, [Greek: ou gar kat' agnoian ton topikon legetai, all' haedonaes kai terpseos charin]. That he said it, not thro' Ignorance, but to please and delight: Or, as in another place he expresses himself,[B] [Greek: ou gar kat' agnoian taes istorias hypolaepteon genesthai touto, alla tragodias charin].Homerdid not make this slip thro' Ignorance of the trueHistory, but for the Beauty of hisPoem. So that tho' he calls themMen Pygmies, yet he may mean no more by it, than that they were likeMen. As to his Purpose, 'twill serve altogether as well, whether this bloody Battle be fought between theCranesandPygmæan Men, or theCranesandApes, which from their Stature he callsPygmies, and from their shapeMen; provided that when theCranesgo to engage, they make a mighty terrible noise, and clang enough to fright these littleWightstheir mortal Enemies. To have called them onlyApes, had been flat and low, and lessened the grandieur of the Battle. But thisPeriphrasisof them, [Greek: andres pygmaioi], raises the Reader's Phancy, and surprises him, and is more becoming the Language of an Heroic Poem.
[Footnote A:Strabo Geograph. lib. 1. p.m. 25.]
[Footnote B:Straboibid. p.m. 30.]
But how came theCranesandPygmiesto fall out? What may be the Cause of this Mortal Feud, and constant War between them? ForBrutes, likeMen, don't war upon one another, to raise and encrease their Glory, or to enlarge their Empire. Unless I can acquit my self herein, and assign some probable Cause hereof, I may incur the same Censure asStrabo[A] passed on several of theIndian Historians, [Greek: enekainisan de kai taen 'Omaerikaen ton Pygmaion geranomachin trispithameis eipontes], for reviewing theHomericalFight of theCranesandPygmies, which he looks upon only as a fiction of the Poet. But this had been very unbecomingHomerto take aSimile(which is designed for illustration) from what had no Foundation in Nature. HisBetrachomyomachia, 'tis true, was a meer Invention, and never otherwise esteemed: But hisGeranomachiahath all the likelyhood of a true Story. And therefore I shall enquire now what may be the just Occasion of this Quarrel.
[Footnote A:Strabo Geograph. lib. 2. p.m. 48.]
Athenæus[A] out ofPhilochorus, and so likewiseÆlian[B], tell us a Story, That in the Nation of thePygmiesthe Male-line failing, oneGeranawas the Queen; a Woman of an admired Beauty, and whom the Citizens worshipped as a Goddess; but she became so vain and proud, as to prefer her own, before the Beauty of all the other Goddesses, at which they grew enraged; and to punish her for her Insolence, Athenæus tells us that it wasDiana, butÆliansaith 'twasJunothat transformed her into aCrane, and made her an Enemy to thePygmiesthat worshipped her before. But since they are not agreed which Goddess 'twas, I shall let this pass.
[Footnote A:Athenæi Deipnosoph. lib. 9 p.m. 393.]
[Footnote B:Ælian. Hist. Animal. lib. 15. cap. 29.]
Pomponius Melawill have it, and I think some others, that these cruel Engagements use to happen, upon theCranescoming to devour theCornthePygmieshad sowed; and that at last they became so victorious, as not only to destroy their Corn, but them also: For he tells us,[A]Fuere interiùs Pygmæi, minutum genus, & quod pro satis frugibus contra Grues dimicando, defecit.This may seem a reasonable Cause of a Quarrel; but it not being certain that thePygmiesused to sowCorn, I will not insist on this neither.
[Footnote A:Pomp. Mela de situ Orbis, lib. 3. cap. 8.]
Now what seems most likely to me, is the account thatPlinyout ofMegasthenes, andStrabofromOnesicritusgive us; and, provided I be not obliged to believe or justifieallthat they say, I could rest satisfied in great part of their Relation: ForPliny[B] tells us,Veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere, & Ova, Pullosque earum Alitum consumere: That in the Spring-time the whole drove of thePygmiesgo down to the Sea side, to devour theCranesEggs and their young Ones. So likewiseOnesicritus,[B] [Greek: Pros de tous trispithamous polemon einai tais Geranois (hon kai Homaeron daeloun) kai tois Perdixin, ous chaenomegetheis einai; toutous d' eklegein auton ta oa, kai phtheirein; ekei gar ootokein tas Geranous; dioper maedamou maed' oa euriskesthai Geranon, maet' oun neottia;] i.e.That there is a fight between thePygmiesand theCranes (asHomerrelates)and thePartridgeswhich are as big asGeese;for thesePygmiesgather up their Eggs, and destroy them; theCraneslaying their Eggs there; and neither their Eggs, nor their Nests, being to be found any where else. 'Tis plain therefore from them, that the Quarrel is not out of anyAntipathythePygmieshave to theCranes, but out of love to their own Bellies. But theCranesfinding their Nests to be robb'd, and their young Ones prey'd on by these Invaders, no wonder that they should so sharply engage them; and the least they could do, was to fight to the utmost so mortal an Enemy. Hence, no doubt, many a bloody Battle happens, with various success to the Combatants; sometimes with great slaughter of thelong-necked Squadron; sometimes with great effusion ofPygmæanblood. And this may well enough, in aPoet'sphancy, be magnified, and represented as a dreadful War; and no doubt of it, were one aSpectatorof it, 'twould be diverting enough.
[Footnote A:Plinij. Hist. Nat.lib. 7. cap. 2. p.m. 13.]
[Footnote B:Strab. Geograph. lib. 15. pag. 489.]
——-Si videas hocGentibus in nostris, risu quatiere: sed illic,Quanquam eadem assiduè spectantur Prælia, ridetNemo, ubi tota cohors pede non est altior uno.[A]
[Footnote A:Juvenal. Satyr. 13 vers. 170.]
This Account therefore of these Campaigns renewed every year on this Provocation between theCranesand thePygmies, contains nothing but what a cautious Man may believe; andHomer's Similein likening the great shouts of theTrojansto the Noise of theCranes, and the Silence of theGreeksto that of thePygmies, is very admirable and delightful. ForAristotle[B] tells us, That theCranes, to avoid the hardships of the Winter, take a Flight out ofScythiato theLakesabout theNile, where thePygmieslive, and where 'tis very likely theCranesmay lay their Eggs and breed, before they return. But these rudePygmiesmaking too bold with them, what could theCranesdo less for preserving their Off-spring than fight them; or at least by their mighty Noise, make a shew as if they would. This is but what we may observe in all other Birds. And thus far I think ourGeranomachiaorPygmæomachialooks like a true Story; and there is nothing inHomerabout it, but what is credible. He only expresses himself, as aPoetshould do; and if Readers will mistake his meaning, 'tis not his fault.
[Footnote B:Aristotle. Hist. Animal. lib. 8. cap. 15. Edit. Scalig.]
'Tis not therefore thePoetthat is to be blamed, tho' they would father it all on him; but the fabulousHistoriansin after Ages, who have so odly drest up this Story by their fantastical Inventions, that there is no knowing the truth, till one hath pull'd off those Masks and Visages, wherewith they have disguised it. For tho' I can believeHomer, that there is a fight between theCranesandPygmies, yet I think I am no ways obliged to imagine, that when thePygmiesgo to these Campaigns to fight theCranes, that they ride uponPartridges, asAthenæasfromBasilisanIndian Historiantells us; for, saith he,[A] [Greek: Basilis de en toi deuteroi ton Indikon, oi mikroi, phaesin, andres oi tais Geranois diapolemountes Perdixin ochaemati chrontai;]. For presently afterwards he tells us fromMenecles, that thePygmiesnot only fight theCranes, but thePartridgestoo, [Greek: Meneklaes de en protae taes synagogaes oi pygmaioi, phaesi, tois perdixi, kai tais Geranois polemousi]. This I could more readily agree to, becauseOnesicritus, as I have quoted him already confirms it; and gives us the same reason for this as for fighting theCranes, because they rob their Nests. But whether thesePartridgesare as big asGeese, I leave as aQuære.
[Footnote A:Athenæi Deipnesoph. lib. p. 9. m. 390.]
Megasthenesmethinks inPlinymounts thePygmiesfor this expedition much better, for he sets them not on aPegasusorPartridges, but onRamsandGoats:Fama est(saithPliny[A]) insedentes Arietum Caprarumque dorsis, armatis sagittis, veris tempore universo agmine ad mare descendere. AndOnesicritusin Strabo tells us, That aCranehas been often observed to fly from those parts with a brass Sword fixt in him, [Greek: pleistakis d' ekpiptein geranon chalkaen echousan akida apo ton ekeithen plaegmaton.][B] But whether thePygmiesdo wear Swords, may be doubted. 'Tis true,Ctesiastells us,[C] That theKingofIndiaevery fifth year sends fifty Thousand Swords, besides abundance of other Weapons, to the Nation of theCynocephali, (a fort ofMonkeys, as I shall shew) that live in those Countreys, but higher up in the Mountains: But he makes no mention of any such Presents to the poorPygmies; tho' he assures us, that no less than three Thousand of thesePygmiesare theKingsconstant Guards: But withal tells us, that they are excellentArchers, and so perhaps by dispatching their Enemies at a distance, they may have no need of such Weapons to lye dangling by their sides. I may therefore be mistaken in rendering [Greek: akida] a Sword; it may be any other sharp pointed Instrument or Weapon, and upon second Thoughts, shall suppose it a sort of Arrow these cunningArchersuse in these Engagements.
[Footnote A:Plinij. Nat. Hist.lib. 7. cap. 2. p. 13.]
[Footnote B:Strabo Geograph.lib. 15. p. 489.]
[Footnote C:Vide Photij. Biblioth.]
These, and a hundred such ridiculousFables, have theHistoriansinvented of thePygmies, that I can't but be ofStrabo's mind,[A] [Greek: Rhadion d' an tis Haesiodio, kai Homaeroi pisteuseien haeroologousi, kai tois tragikois poiaetais, hae Ktaesiai te kai Haerodotoi, kai Hellanikoi, kai allois toioutois;] i.e.That one may sooner believeHesiod,andHomer,and theTragick Poetsspeaking of theirHero's,thanCtesiasandHerodotusandHellanicusand such like. So ill an Opinion hadStraboof theIndian Historiansin general, that he censures themallas fabulous;[B] [Greek: Hapantes men toinun hoi peri taes Indikaes grapsantes hos epi to poly pseudologoi gegonasi kath' hyperbolaen de Daeimachos; ta de deutera legei Megasthenaes, Onaesikritos te kai Nearchos, kai alloi toioutoi;] i.e.All who have wrote ofIndiafor the most part, are fabulous, but in the highest degreeDaimachus;thenMegasthenes, Onesicritus,andNearchus,and such like. And as if it had been their greatest Ambition to excel herein,Strabo[C] brings inTheopompus, as bragging, [Greek: Hoti kai mythous en tais Historiais erei kreitton, ae hos Haerodotos, kai Ktaesias, kai Hellanikos, kai hoi ta Hindika syngrapsantes;]That he could foist in Fables into History, better thanHerodotusandCtesiasandHellanicus,and all that have wrote ofIndia. TheSatyristtherefore had reason to say,
——-Et quicquid Græcia mendax Audet in Historia.[D]
[Footnote A:Strabo Geograph.lib. 11. p.m. 350.]
[Footnote B:Strabo ibid.lib. 2. p.m. 48.]
[Footnote C:Strabo ibid.lib. 1 p.m. 29.]
[Footnote D:Juvenal.Satyr.X.vers.174.]
Aristotle,[A] 'tis true, tells us, [Greek: Holos de ta men agria agriotera en tae Asia, andreiotera de panta ta en taei Europaei, polymorphotata de ta en taei libyaei; kai legetai de tis paroimia, hoti aei pherei ti libyae kainon;] i.e.That generally the Beasts are wilder inAsia,stronger inEurope,and of greater variety of shapes inAfrica;for as theProverbsaith, Africaalways produces something new.Pliny[B] indeed ascribes it to the Heat of theClimate, Animalium, Hominumque effigies monstriferas, circa extremitates ejus gigni, minimè mirum, artifici ad formanda Corpora, effigiesque cælandas mobilitate igneâ. ButNaturenever formed a wholeSpeciesofMonsters; and 'tis not theheatof the Country, but the warm and fertile Imagination of theseHistorians, that has been more productive of them, thanAfricait self; as will farther appear by what I shall produce out of them, and particularly from the Relation thatCtesiasmakes of thePygmies.
[Footnote A:Aristotle Hist. Animal, lib. 8. cap. 28.]
[Footnote B:Plin. Nat. Hist.lib. 6. cap. 30. p.m. 741.]
I am the more willing to instance inCtesias, because he tells his Story roundly; he no ways minces it; his Invention is strong and fruitful; and that you may not in the least mistrust him, he pawns his word, that all that he writes, is certainly true: And so successful he has been, how Romantick soever his Stories may appear, that they have been handed down to us by a great many other Authors, and of Note too; tho' some at the same time have looked upon them as mere Fables. So that for the present, till I am better informed, and I am not over curious in it, I shall makeCtesias, and the otherIndian Historians, theInventorsof the extravagant Relations we at present have of thePygmies, and not oldHomer. He calls them, 'tis true, from something of Resemblance of their shape, [Greek: andres]: But theseHistoriansmake them to speak theIndian Language; to use the sameLaws; and to be so considerable a Nation, and so valiant, as that theKingofIndiamakes choice of them for hisCorps de Guards; which utterly spoilsHomer's Simile, in making them so little, as only to fightCranes.
Ctesias's Account therefore of thePygmies(as I find it inPhotius'sBibliotheca,[A] and at the latter end of some Editions ofHerodotus) is this:
[Footnote A:Photij. Bibliothec. Cod.72. p.m. 145.]
[Greek: Hoti en mesae tae Indikae anthropoi eisi melanes, kai kalountai pygmaioi, tois allois homoglossoi Indois. mikroi de eisi lian; hoi makrotatoi auton paecheon duo, hoi de pleistoi, henos haemiseos paecheos, komaen de echousi makrotataen, mechri kai hepi ta gonata, kai eti katoteron, kai pogona megiston panton anthropon; epeidan oun ton pogona mega physosin, ouketi amphiennyntai ouden emation: alla tas trichas, tas men ek taes kephalaes, opisthen kathientai poly kato ton gonaton; tas de ek tou po gonos, emprosthen mechri podon elkomenas. Hepeita peripykasamenoi tas trichas peri apan to soma, zonnyntai, chromenoi autais anti himatiou, aidoion de mega echousin, hoste psauein ton sphyron auton, kai pachy. autoite simoi te kai aischroi. ta de probata auton, hos andres. kai hai boes kai hoi onoi, schedon hoson krioi? kai hoi hippoi auton kai hoi aemionoi, kai ta alla panta zoa, ouden maezo krion; hepontai de toi basilei ton Indon, touton ton pygmaion andres trischilioi. sphodra gar eisi toxotai; dikaiotatoi de eisi kai nomoisi chrontai osper kai hoi Indoi. Dagoous te kai alopekas thaereuousin, ou tois kysin, alla koraxi kai iktisi kai koronais kai aetois.]
Narrat præter ista, in media India homines reperiri nigros, qui Pygmæi appellentur. Eadem hos, qua Inda reliqui, lingua uti, sed valde esse parvos, ut maximi duorum cubitorum, & plerique unius duntaxat cubiti cum dimidio altitudinem non excedant. Comam alere longissimam, ad ipsa usque genua demissam, atque etiam infra, cum barba longiore, quàm, apud ullos hominum. Quæ quidem ubi illis promissior esse cæperit, nulla deinceps veste uti: sed capillos multò infra genua à tergo demissos, barbámque præter pectus ad pedes usque defluentem, per totum corpus in orbem constipare & cingere, atque ita pilos ipsis suos vestimenti loco esse. Veretrum illis esse crassum ac longum, quod ad ipsos quoque pedum malleolos pertingat. Pygmeos hosce simis esse naribus, & deformes. Ipsorum item oves agnorem nostrotum instar esse; boves & asinos, arietum fere magnitudine, equos item multosque & cætera jumenta omnia nihilo esse nostris arietibus majora. Tria horum Pygmæorum millia Indorum regem in suo comitatu habere, quod sagittarij sint peritissimi. Summos esse justitiæ cultores iisdemque quibus Indi reliqui, legibus parere. Venari quoque lepores vulpesque, non canibus, sed corvis, milvis, cornicibus, aquilis adhibitis.
In the middle ofIndia(saithCtesias) there are black Men, they are call'dPygmies, using the same Language, as the otherIndians; they are very little, the tallest of them being but two Cubits, and most of them but a Cubit and a half high. They have very long hair, reaching down to their Knees and lower; and a Beard larger than any Man's. After their Beards are grown long, they wear no Cloaths, but the Hair of their Head falls behind a great deal below their Hams; and that of their Beards before comes down to their Feet: then laying their Hair thick all about their Body, they afterwards gird themselves, making use of their Hair for Cloaths. They have aPenisso long, that it reaches to the Ancle, and the thickness is proportionable. They are flat nosed and ill favoured. Their Sheep are like Lambs; and their Oxen and Asses scarce as big as Rams; and their Horses and Mules, and all their other Cattle not bigger. Three thousand Men of thesePygmiesdo attend theKingofIndia. They are goodArchers; they are very just, and use the sameLawsas theIndiansdo. They kill Hares and Foxes, not with Dogs, but with Ravens, Kites, Crows, and Eagles.'
Well, if they are so good Sports-men, as to kill Hares and Foxes with Ravens, Kites, Crows and Eagles, I can't see how I can bring offHomer, for making them fight theCranesthemselves. Why did they not fly theirEaglesagainst them? these would make greater Slaughter and Execution, without hazarding themselves. The only excuse I have is, thatHomer'sPygmieswere realApeslikeMen; but those ofCtesiaswere neitherMennorPygmies; only a Creature begot in his own Brain, and to be found no where else.
Ctesiaswas Physician toArtaxerxes MnemonasDiodorus Siculus[A] andStrabo[B] inform us. He was contemporary withXenophon, a little later thanHerodotus; andHelvicusin hisChronologyplaces him three hundred eighty three years beforeChrist: He is an ancient Author, 'tis true, and it may be upon that score valued by some. We are beholden to him, not only for his Improvements on the Story of thePygmies, but for his Remarks likewise on several other parts ofNatural History; which for the most part are all of the same stamp, very wonderful and incredible; as hisMantichora, hisGryphins, thehorrible Indian Worm, a Fountain ofLiquid Gold, a Fountain ofHoney, a Fountain whose Water will make a Man confess all that ever he did, a Root he calls [Greek: paraebon], that will attract Lambs and Birds, as the Loadstone does filings of Steel; and a great many other Wonders he tells us: all of which are copied from him byÆlian, Pliny, Solinus, Mela, Philostratus, and others. AndPhotiusconcludesCtesias's Account ofIndiawith this passage; [Greek: Tauta graphon kai mythologon Ktaesias. legei t' alaethestata graphein; epagon hos ta men autos idon graphei, ta de par auton mathon ton eidoton. polla de touton kai alla thaumasiotera paralipein, dia to mae doxai tois mae tauta theasamenois apista syngraphein;] i.e.These things(saith he) Ctesiaswrites and feigns, but he himself says all he has wrote is very true. Adding, that some things which he describes, he had seen himself; and the others he had learn'd from those that had seen them: That he had omitted a great many other things more wonderful, because he would not seem to those that have not seen them, to write incredibilities. But notwithstanding all this,Lucian[C] will not believe a word he saith; for he tells us thatCtesiashas wrote ofIndia, [Greek: A maete autos eide, maete allou eipontos aekousen],What he neither saw himself, nor ever heard from any Body else.AndAristotletells us plainly, he is not fit to be believed: [Greek: En de taei Indikaei hos phaesi Ktaesias, ouk on axiopistos.][D] And the same opinionA. Gellius[E] seems to have of him, as he had likewise of several other oldGreek Historianswhich happened to fall into his hands atBrundusium, in his return fromGreeceintoItaly; he gives this Character of them and their performance:Erant autem isti omnes libri Græci, miraculorum fabularumque pleni: res inauditæ, incredulæ, Scriptores veteres non parvæ authoritatis, Aristeas Proconnesius, & Isagonus, & Nicæensis, & Ctesias, & Onesicritus, & Polystephanus, & Hegesias. Not that I think all thatCtesiashas wrote is fabulous; For tho' I cannot believe hisspeaking Pygmies, yet what he writes of theBirdhe calls [Greek: Bittakos], that it would speakGreekand theIndian Language, no doubt is very true; and asH. Stephens[F] observes in his Apology forCtesias, such a Relation would seem very surprising to one, that had never seen nor heard of aParrot.
[Footnote A:Diodor. Siculi Bibliothec. lib. 2. p.m. 118.]
[Footnote B:Strabo Geograph. lib. 14. p. 451.]
[Footnote C:Lucianlib 1.veræ Histor. p.m. 373.]
[Footnote D:Arist. Hist. Animal.lib. 8. cap. 28.]
[Footnote E:A. Gellij. Noctes. Attic.lib. 9. cap. 4.]
[Footnote F:Henr. Stephani de Ctesia Historico antiquissimo disquisitio, ad finem Herodoti.]
But this Story ofCtesias'sspeaking Pygmies, seems to be confirm'd by the Account thatNonnosus, the EmperourJustinian's Ambassador intoÆthiopia, gives of his Travels. I will transcribe the Passage, as I find it inPhotius,[A] and 'tis as follows:
[Footnote A:Photij. Bibliothec.cod. 3. p.m. 7.]
[Greek: Hoti apo taes pharsan pleonti toi Nonnosoi, epi taen eschataen ton naeson kataentaekoti toion de ti synebae, thauma kai akousai. enetuche gar tisi morphaen men kai idean echousin anthropinaen, brachytatois de to megethos, kai melasi taen chroan. hypo de trichon dedasysmenois dia pantos tou somatos. heiponto de tois andrasi kai gynaikes paraplaesiai kai paidaria eti brachytera, ton par autois andron. gymnoi de aesan hapantes; plaen dermati tini mikroi taen aido periekalypron, hoi probebaekotes homoios andres te kai gynaikes. agrion de ouden eped eiknynto oude anaemeron; alla kai phonaen eichon men anthropinaen, agnoston de pantapasi taen dialekton tois te perioikois hapasi, kai polloi pleon tois peri taen Nonnoson, diezon de ek thalattion ostreion, kai ichthyon, ton apo taes thalassaes eis taen naeson aporrhiptomenon; tharsos de eichon ouden. alla kai horontes tous kath' haemas anthropous hypeptaesan, hosper haemeis ta meiso ton thaerion.]