[110] See the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1882, vol. i. p. 287.
[111] This I am informed by the writer of the lines quoted.
[112] "The tradition that certain buildings were erected by men who stood in a row and handed the stones from one to the other is quite familiar to me with regard to buildings in Ireland," writes a correspondent (the Rev. J. Ffrench, of Clonegal, Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland); and he furnishes one example:—"Brash, in his 'Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland,' when describing the Round Tower of Ardmore, tells us: 'I have before stated that the materials of which this tower was built were brought from the Mountain of Slieve-Grian, some four or five miles distant. The local legend is that the stones were brought to the spot without "horse or wheel," and laid without the noise of a hammer, the meaning of which is that the stones were all dressed in the quarry, and a line of men being stationed along from the quarry to the tower, the stones were handed from one to the other.'"
While this Irish tradition does not identify these builders with any special race of men, it is noteworthy that their method of building is that which Scottish tradition regards as peculiarly characteristic of the Picts, or "Pechts." Moreover, the building referred to by Brash is of precisely the same order as the Round Tower of Abernethy, said to have been built after the same fashion. And the builders of the Round Tower of Abernethy, as also the builders of the Round Tower of Brechin, are alleged by local tradition to have been "Pechts."
[113] In the "Dissertation on the Origin of the Scottish Language," prefixed to his Scottish Dictionary.
[114] Knox's "Topography of the Tay," Edinburgh, 1831, pp. 108-9.
[115] "History of Brechin," by David D. Black. Edinburgh and Brechin, 1867, 2nd edition, p. 247.
[116] Knox's "Topography," pp. 92-94.
[117] For these references to Oisin and the Feens see Skene's "Book of the Dean of Lismore," pp. 12-14 (English version), and 10-11 (Gaelic). Also Mr. J. F. Campbell's "Leabhar na Feinne," pp. xiii, 47 and 49.
[118] Chambers's "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," 1870, pp. 254-55.
[119] Although the Pechts made use of stone lamps similar to those of the northern Eskimos, it is perhaps too much to assume that the dwellings of the former admitted nothing of the light of day. Mr. Petrie states that the walls of the Pechts' houses "converge towards the top, where they approach so closely that the aperture can be spanned by a stone a couple of feet in length." If this aperture remained open during the day, which seems quite likely, then the above reference as to the ever-burning lamp is only applicable to the dwellings of the northern Greenlanders. For the sake of safety, while their lands were over-run by hostile forces, it is probable that the Pechts did cover the two-foot hole in the roof with a large stone, which itself would need to be hidden by earth and turf. But the fact that such an aperture was left in the building indicates that it was frequently uncovered; perhaps always at night, and also, during times of safety, in the day. In the latter case, the interior of this underground dwelling would thus receive, through the hole overhead, enough light to fill the central chamber with a sort of twilight, although the smaller cells might have been quite in darkness.
[120] See the dictionaries of Armstrong, McLeod and Dewar, and McAlpine. McAlpine also defines the word digh as a "conical mound," "an abode of fairies"; and that more uncommon term is thus employed in an Islay story of Mr. J. F. Campbell's (West Highland Tales, ii, 48).
[121] "Rambles in Northumberland," by S. Oliver, London, 1835, p. 104.
[122] "The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," edited by J. H. Todd, D.D. London, 1867, p. 115. In the above quotation, the word translated "bronze" is finndruine. This is referred to as "a metal, the constituents of which are not well known. O'Clery describes it as prás go n-airgead buailte, 'brass, with silver hammered on to it.'" It is also referred to as "white silver," "silver or white bronze," "brass," and "copper." It was employed to furnish such various articles as "leg armour," the rim of a shield, a royal chessboard, and, further, a bedstead—which surely ought to have been royal also. (Op. cit., pp. ciii-civ. note, and 50 and 94; also Skene's "Celtic Scotland," ii. 507.) The passage relating to buffalo-horns is given in the Gaelic version ("War of the Gaedhil," p. 114), "ocus do chornaibh buabaill." The word corn, of which chornaibh is an inflection, is substantially the Latin cornu. The Scotch-Gaelic dictionaries give it chiefly the signification of "drinking-horn," and "sounding-horn or trumpet." Armstrong states that the drinking-cups of the northern nations were made from the horns of the "urus or European buffalo," referred to by Latin writers: He adds—"One of these immense horns, at least an ox-horn of prodigious size, is still preserved in the Castle of Dunvegan, Isle of Sky." Buabhall itself has the secondary meaning of "trumpet," or "cornet"; but its true meaning is "buffalo." Armstrong subjoins these comparisons—Armorican bual, French bufle, Latin bubulus, Greek boubalos. Also Cornish buaval, with the meaning of "trumpet." And also buabhull-chorn, "a bugle-horn," with which he compares the Welsh bual-gorn. Halliwell has bougil, "a bugle-horn," and bugle, "a buffalo"; and with reference to the latter spelling he says, "hence bugle-horn, a drinking-vessel made of horn; also a hunting-horn." Professor Skeat, who cites Halliwell also, defines "bugle" as "a wild ox." It is clear that these are all merely variants of one word, or rather of two words. The u in "bugle" has originally been broad. The hard c of "corn" has become a guttural in "chorn," and a mere aspirate in "horn," although it is still found as "corn" both in English and Gaelic dictionaries (with a very restricted meaning in the former instance).
[123] Dr. Todd (op. cit., p. 40, note), in referring to another instance in which these terms occur, says:—"The words here used, Dún, Daingen, Dingna, all signify a fort or fortress. It is not easy to define the precise difference between them. Dún ... seems to signify a fortified hill or mound. Daingen (dungeon) is a walled fort or strong tower; hence daingnigim, I fortify. Dingna [which he translates 'mound' in the above instance] is apparently only another form of the same word. Cf. 'Zeuss,' p. 30n.
[124] Op. cit., p. 115, note.
[125] Even the expression "fo thalmain" may be held to denote the "conical hill" of the fairies. Talmhainn is certainly the genitive of talamh, "the ground"; and so "fo thalmain" signifies "under the ground." But tolman particularly denotes "a mound." And it, or the variant tulman, is used in a fairy tale of the island of Barra (Campbell's "West Highland Tales," ii. 39) with special reference to one of those abodes of the "little people." It may be added that the word translated the "solitudes" of the Feens, etc., might also be rendered the "secret places" or "concealed places."
[126] "Leabhar na Feinne," pp. 94-95.
[127] The "fairy mound" was also known as a "how" or "haug," and its people as "how-folk." To "break," or break into a "how," in the hope of obtaining treasure (an early form of burglary), was a well-known custom of the Danes.
[128] "The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," pp. clxxviii-clxxix, note 5, and pp. 172-173.
[129] Dr. Todd, in mentioning this and the other relative circumstances, refers the reader to "Mr. O'Kearney's Introd. to the 'Feis Tighe Chonain' (Ossianic Soc.) p. 98 sq."—and to O'Flaherty's "Ogygia," iii. c. 22, p. 200.
[130] See Sir W. R. Wilde's "Beauties of the Boyne," Dublin, 1849, p. 202. The same work refers (p. 24) to "sidh Nectain, the fairy hill of Nechtain," where the river Boyne rises, but does not state whether early Dane or modern archæologist has ever investigated it. (It is now known as the Hill of Carbury.)
[131] "Scottish Dictionary," s. v. Fane.
[132] See the "Revue des Traditions populaires," Nov. 1889, p. 613. The reader is there referred to M. Paul Sébillot's "Contes populaires de la Haute-Bretagne" for those Fions; and also to Bézier's "Inventaire des monuments mégalithiques de l'Ille-et-Vilaine," (p. 26) for certain Feins, who seem very likely to be the same people.
[133] "Revue des Traditions populaires," Oct. 1889, pp. 515-519.
[134] These "Christian" fairies appear to be remembered as women; like the banshee or fairy woman of Ireland and Gaelic-Scotland.
[135] Another illustration of these special features is afforded by the church at Eckwadt, in Denmark, which is said to have been built by a "hill-man," or dwarf. In this case, also, the last stone was not put on. Of this builder, too, it is stated that "he worked only during the night."—(Thorpe's Northern Mythology, III. 38-39).
[136] In this mysterious method of working,—first preparing the stones in a quarry at some distance off, and then conveying them to the chosen site, and erecting them according to a pre-arranged method, and all in the course of a single night (as the nature and dimensions of the buildings rendered quite possible)—one seems to discern one of the methods by which those dwarf tribes asserted and maintained the "supernatural" qualities ascribed to them.
[137] For these latter references, see pp. 99-100 post. Of course, the "aprons" of the traditional dwarfs, it need hardly be added, were leather aprons.
[138] Volkskunde: "Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Folklore," 2e Jaargang, 9e Aflevering, p. 182.
[139] Op. cit., 2e Jaar. 5e Afl., p. 89.
[140] Op. cit., 2e Jaar. 5e Afl., p. 89.
[141] Heligoland; by William George Black, Blackwood & Sons, 1888, Chapter IV.
[142] Mr. Charles de Kay, in The Century of July 1889, p. 437.
[143] See Mr. Ralston's review in The Academy of May 11, 1889.
[144] These trials and executions for "witchcraft" were the precursors of those which were carried down almost into our own times; and the above allusions to the "wickedness" of those rites only serve to strengthen the growing belief that the relentless persecution of "witches" was based upon most reasonable grounds, and that the motives actuating the "persecutors" were far higher and more sensible than a mere fanatical and narrow-minded hatred of paganism.
[145] For these extracts, see Thorpe's Northern Mythology, I., 14, 212, 213, 214, and 238.
[146] The flat stone, supported on three or four posts, or pillars (as Thorpe calls them), upon which the seid-woman stood, is very suggestive of the cromleac or dolmen. (Cf. the grottes aux fées of Brittany.)
[147] The magical power of the Finns is still recognized by the Swedish peasantry of to-day. An illustration of this appears in an anecdote related in the London Standard of 26 January, 1877, with regard to a Swedish lady "who had been so ill-advised as to insult a Finn, whose magical powers exceed those of the gipsies."
[148] It is no doubt owing to the infusion of Spanish blood in Southern Ireland, still visible in the complexion, as well as in the surnames (such as Costello and Jago, i.e., Diego) of people in that neighbourhood, that this Fierna receives the most un-British title of "Don" prefixed to his name.
[149] Compare this tradition, recorded by Thorpe (Northern Mythology, III., 39):—"In very old times the dwarfs had long wars with men, and also with one another."
[150] "The Death of Diarmaid," by Allan MacRuaridh. See the "Dean of Lismore's Book," p. 30 (Eng. version), and p. 21 (Gaelic).
[151] "Dean of Lismore's Book," pp. 141-43 (Eng.) and 108-11 (Gaelic version).
[152] "History of Ireland"; Reign of Cormac Ulfada.
[153] "West Highland Tales," I. xiii.
[154] The Lay of Osgar: "West Highland Tales," III. 304-5.
[155] He adds:—"Some of these horns, which are of an amazing size, are in the custody of the Duke of Athole, and of Mr. Farquharson of Invercauld."
[156] "Tales," II. 107. The story referred to is on pp. 102-6.
[157] See "Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.": First Series, VIII. p. 186, et seq. (with a special reference to pp. 205-6).
[158] For Mr. Campbell's references, see "West Highland Tales," I., ci.-cix., and II., 46. This parallel has also been drawn by Miss Gordon Cumming ("From the Hebrides to the Himalayas," Vol. I., p. 183).
[159] Scots Magazine, Vol. III., 1818, p. 154.
[160] One of Mrs. Ewing's "Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales": The Laird and the Man of Peace.
[161] George Sinclair, in "Satan's Invisible World Discovered."
[162] See Ritson's "Annals," Vol. I. p. 12 (quoted from Dion Cassius, L. 76, c. 12).
[163] Which appears in the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," 1885-86, pp. 76-90.
[164] Mr. A. Jervise, "The Land of the Lindsays," Edinburgh, 1853, p. 265.
[166] The Latin term Picti, though pointing to another characteristic of the dwarfs, is not here taken into account, as it misinterprets the original word.
[167] John Stuart, LL.D., "Proc. of the Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," 1st Series, viii. 23 et seq.
[168] Examples of those "burrows," or underground galleries, in Ulster are given by Mr. S. F. Milligan, M.R.I.A. (Jour. of Roy. Hist. and Arch. Assn. of Ireland, No. 80, Vol. IX., Fourth Series, pp. 245-246), who remarks:—"These souterraines are good examples of the dwelling-places of a very early race of settlers in this country."
[169] "Memoirs of Anthropological Society of London," vol. ii. 1865-6, p. 343.
[170] Knox's "Topography," etc., Edin., 1831, p. 211, note.
[171] Regarding the original home of the Picts, there is considerable difference of opinion among ancient writers; but the above traditional belief receives support from the statement that "by Bede, by the 'Historia Britonum,' and by the Welsh traditions, they appear as a people coming from Scythia, and acquiring first Orkney, and afterwards Caithness, and then spreading over Scotland from the north."—(Skene's Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, p. xcvi.)
[172] Dwelt (cf. Dutch wonen, Germ. wohnen).
[173] This feature does not accord with the appearance of modern Orkney or the Hebrides, but both groups were once thickly wooded. Buchanan refers to various Hebridean islands as being "darkened with wood" in the sixteenth century.
[174] Couples.
[175] Balks (cross-beams).
[176] From Jamieson's Scotch version, as given by Scott.
[177] Well-chosen.
[178] The dwarf is here addressing the settler by the name of his new possession.
[179] Build.
[180] It ought to be added that he is only an "elf" by adoption; but this does not affect the general situation. He bears all the outward characteristics of the dwarfs.
[181] Mrs. Jessie E. Saxby, "Folklore from Unst, Shetland" (Leisure Hour, 1880).
[182] Dr. Joseph Anderson, in his Introduction to the "Orkneyinga Saga," p. ci.
[183] In an article ("From the Heart of the Wolds") contributed to the Cornhill Magazine of August 1882, the following is stated with regard to the traditions of this part of Lincolnshire:—"Ghosts, bogies, and the supernatural generally have utterly vanished from this commonplace district before schools and newspapers. Even an old lady more than ninety years old said to us, 'Fairies and shag-boys! lasses are often skeart at them, but I never saw none, though I have passed many a time after dark a most terrible spot for them on the road at Thorpe.'" The identity of "shag-boy" with "hog-boy" (as used in Orkney) is asserted by the writer of the Cornhill article; who also states:—"In an adjoining field [near Beelsby] lingers one of the few legends of this prosaic district. A treasure is supposed to be hidden in it, and at times two little men, wearing red caps, something like the Irish leprechauns, may be seen intently digging for it." These little "red-caps" are not identified with the "shag-boys," but popular tradition generally would pronounce them to be the same people.
[184] One is apt to talk of this introductory passage as though it had actually penetrated a previously existing mound. But the construction of all those chambered mounds shows plainly that the original stone structure, not only the central building but the long passage of approach, was originally reared upon the surface of the level ground, in the open air. And that the "fairy hillock" had no existence at all until the builders of the stone structure had heaped above it all—chamber and gallery—the mass of earth and stones that afterwards transformed the whole exterior into a "green hillock," and thus completely disguised its real nature from all but the initiated.
[185] For these details see Colonel Forbes Leslie's "Early Races of Scotland," vol. ii. pp. 338-40.
[186] Even with this roof-light the interior of the dwelling can only have received a limited supply of daylight. And this explains the statement made by a Scotch peasant who was taken by a "fairy" woman into her abode. "Being asked by the judge [before whom he was tried for 'witchcraft'] whether the place within the hill, which he called a hall, were light or dark, he said 'Indifferent, as it is with us in the twilight.'"
At night, when the abode of the "hillmen" was lit up with the glow of the fire, the cavity above the building, and the atmosphere overhead, must have also received some share of the firelight. This would account for the statement made by Wallace (who wrote at the period when "Evil Spirits also called Fairies" were "frequently seen in several of the [Orkney] Isles dancing and making merry,") to the effect that, "in the Parish of Evie, near the Sea, are some small Hillocks, which frequently, in the Night time, appear all in a fire." And when Mrs. Ewing, in her "Old-Fashioned Fairy Tales," says that shian is "a Gaelic name for fairy towers, which by day are not to be told from mountain crags," she evidently alludes to the same feature.
[187] See the description in an Appendix to Pennant's Tour, written by the then minister of the parish of Reay, Sutherlandshire.
[188] "Popular Tales of the West Highlands," vol. ii. pp. 97-101. In the Book of Clanranald, a portion of which is translated by Dr. Skene, a certain "Huisdinn," whose paternal grandfather was Donald of the Isles, is stated to have been also the grandson (through his mother) of "Giolla Phadraig." This "Huisdinn" appears to have lived in the fifteenth century. (See Celtic Scotland, III., 408-409.)
[189] "Heligoland," 1888, pp. 84-85.
[190] For fuller information as to Maes-how, and references to more detailed accounts, see Dr. Anderson's "Orkneyinga Sage," Introduction, pp. ci-cviii.
It may be added that one feature in the first of the Maes-how diagrams conveys a wrong impression of the probable appearance of the mound, when inhabited; because the "well or pit" ("or crater") is represented as being as solid as the rest of the outer covering. That it gradually became filled up with drift and rubbish, after the dwelling ceased to be occupied, is evident. But when the edifice was newly reared, and as long as people continued to inhabit it, the upper part of the mound was probably a hollow shaft; admitting light and air into the dwelling below; "carrying off the smoke of their fire;" and occasionally serving as a way of ingress and egress.
[191] "West Highland Tales," ii. 39.
[192] Which will be found at pp. 30-32 of "Legends of Scottish Superstition," Edinburgh, 1848.
[193] The Wigtownshire tale perhaps relates rather to an example of the rude underground Fairy Ha', or Pecht's house, described in the beginning of this chapter. While the word "how" signifies in Orkney a haug, or mound; the "howe" of other parts of Scotland means a "hollow." In fact, the story says that the foul water ran down to the entrance of the dwarf's house, which was therefore either an underground gallery of the kind referred to, or else a chambered mound placed on a lower level than the shepherd's cottage.
[195] From "Grantown-on-Spey," by the Rev. A. Gordon (in a "Budget of Holiday Letters," Edinburgh, 1889).
[196] "Lay of the Last Minstrel," Note M.
[197] Chambers, in his "Popular Rhymes" (241-2), has a story corresponding in one feature to that of "Taptillery." This is of a certain Laird of Craufurdland, who had dammed up a stream in order to get at a treasure believed to be hidden in its bed, "when a brownie called out of a bush:
"Pow, pow!
Craufurdland's tower's a' in a low!" [i.e., on fire]
which sent the laird home to save his tower; and when he returned from his fool's errand the dam had been destroyed, and the stream was flowing as before.
[198] Mr. J. H. Dixon, F.S.A.Scot. See "Gairloch," Edin.' 1886, pp. 159-61.
[199] See the modern Scots Magazine, Vol. I., No. 1, Dec., 1887 ("Damh Blàr Bheinn Chrulaist," a sporting story).
[200] This "fairy knowe" is described in the "Archæologia Scotica," vol. v. and the "Proc. of the Soc. of Antiq. of Scot.," 1st Series, ix. 37-38.
[201] Judging from memory, and also from the repellent smallness of the hole into which one was expected to plunge, it seems to the present writer that the human figure seated at the doorway has been drawn too small. If one compares him with the standing figures in the general view, and with the aperture there seen, this criticism will be borne out.
[202] A. de Capell Brooke; A Winter in Lapland, London, 1827, p. 320.
[203] Jeffrey's "Roxburghshire"; 1859, I., 54-5. (Quoted from Leyden.)
[204] "Journal of Roy. Hist. and Archl. Assocn. of Ireland," No. 81, Vol. IX., Fourth Series, p. 327.
[205] See the "Jour, of Roy. Hist. and Archl. Assocn. of Ireland," No. 81, Vol. IX., Fourth Series, p. 266.
[206] See Appendix A.
[207] Celtic Scotland, I., 220.
[208] The Fir-Bolgs themselves, well known to all readers of Irish tradition, have many points in common with the people under discussion. Compare, for example, Lady Ferguson's reference to "a fierce tribe of Firbolgic origin, the Gowanree, who were compelled to labour unremittingly at the earthworks [the Rath of Cruachan], and are said to have completed the dyke in one day." "The Story of the Irish before the Conquest," London, 1868, p. 32.
[209] The Dananns themselves were notably "professors of musical and entertaining performances"; and indeed the term druidh, applied to them also, seems to have indicated the possessor of many accomplishments, in art and in a pseudo-science.
[210] Brugh barragheal na Boinne is the phrase given in "The Glenbard Collection of Gaelic Poetry" (Haszard, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 1888, p. 78) where the above story is told. The term "white-topped" is somewhat vague. Had the word been barrachaol, "pyramidal," the meaning would have been quite clear.
[211] 'Skene's Celt. Scot., III., 106-107. See also p. 93 of the same volume, and pp. 178 and 220 of Vol. I.
[212] The words translated "earth-house," as used by the druidh, are "brugh" and "bruighin." These, as already mentioned, signify "fairy hill" or "underground dwelling of the fairies." But the alternative rendering of "earth-house" has been preferred, as being rather less of an anachronism than the assumption that such dwellings were styled fairy hills before ever they had been assigned to the "fairies."
[215] Dean of Lismore's Book: Introduction, pp. lxiv, lxxvi-lxxviii. (As in former quotations, I have slightly modernized such terms as "Erin," according to Dr. Skene's own rendering of these terms.)