The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries Part 56

sabbath, to the presence of a mortal in Fairyland. And according to popular Breton belief, as reliable peasants a.s.sure me, during dreams, trance, or ecstasy, the soul is supposed to depart from the body and actually see spirits of all kinds in another world, and to be then under their influence. While many details in the more conventional _corrigan_ stories appear to reflect a folk-memory of religious dances and songs, and racial, social, and traditional usages of the ancient Bretons, the animistic background of them could conceivably have originated from psychical experiences such as this girl is supposed to have had.

[98] Villemarque, _Barzaz Breiz_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 33, 35.

[99] J. Loth, in _Annales de Bretagne_ (Rennes), x. 78-81.

[100] E. Renan, _Essais de morale et de critique_ (Paris, 1859), p. 451.

[101] In Ireland it is commonly held that a seer beholding a fairy can make a non-seer see it also by coming into bodily _rapport_ with the non-seer (cf. p. 152).

[102] It is sometimes believed that phantom washerwomen are undergoing penance for having wilfully brought on an abortion by their work, or else for having strangled their babe.

[103] Every parish in the uncorrupted parts of Brittany has its own _Ankou_, who is the last man to die in the parish during the year. Each King of the Dead, therefore, never holds office for more than twelve months, since during that period he is certain to have a successor.

Sometimes the _Ankou_ is Death itself personified. In the Morbihan, the _Ankou_ occasionally may be seen as an apparition entering a house where a death is about to occur; though more commonly he is never seen, his knocking only is heard, which is the rule in Finistere. In Welsh mythology, Gwynn ab Nudd, king of the world of the dead, is represented as playing a role parallel to that of the Breton _Ankou_, when he goes forth with his fierce hades-hounds hunting the souls of the dying. (Cf.

Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 155.)

[104] Cf. A. Le Braz, _La Legende de la Mort_; Introduction by L.

Marillier (Paris, 1893), pp. 31, 40.

[105] Cf. Le Braz, _La Legende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 47, 46, 7-8, 40, 45, 46.

[106] Cf. Le Braz, _La Legende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier, p. 43.

[107] Ib.; Notes by G. Dottin (Paris, 1902), p. 44.

[108] Ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 19, 23, 68.

[109] Cf. ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 53 ff., 68.

[110] A Breton night's entertainment held in a peasant's cottage, stable, or other warm outhouse. In parts of the Morbihan and of Finistere where the old Celtic life has escaped modern influences, almost every winter night the Breton Celts, like their cousins in very isolated parts of West Ireland and in the Western Hebrides, find their chief enjoyment in story-telling festivals, some of which I have been privileged to attend.

[111] The word in the MS. is _boiteux_, and in relation to a devil or demon this seems to be the proper rendering.

[112] B. Spencer and F. T. Gillen, _Nat. Tribes of Cent. Aust._ (London, 1899), chapters xi, xv.

[113] R. H. Codrington, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ x. 261; _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp. 123, 151, &c.; also cf. F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_ (London, 1899), pp. 281 ff., &c.

[114] H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_ (London, 1868), pp. 226-7.

[115] C. G. Leland, _Memoirs_ (London, 1893), i. 34.

[116] R. C. Temple, _Legends of the Panjab_, in _Folk-Lore_, x. 395.

[117] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_ (London, 1900), _pa.s.sim_.

[118] Hardouin, _Traditions et superst.i.tions siamoises_, in _Rev. Trad.

Pop._, v. 257-67.

[119] Ella G. Sykes, _Persian Folklore_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii. 263.

[120] I am directly indebted for this information to a friend who is a member of Lincoln College, Oxford, Mr. Mohammed Said Loutfy, of Barkein, Lower Egypt. Mr. Loutfy has come into frequent and very intimate contact with these animistic beliefs in his country, and he tells me that they are common to all cla.s.ses of almost all races in modern Egypt. The common Egyptian spellings are _afreet_, in the singular, and _afaareet_ in the plural, for spiritual beings, who are usually described by percipients as of pygmy stature, but as being able to a.s.sume various sizes and shapes. The _djinns_, on the contrary, are described as tall spiritual beings possessing great power.

[121] J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folk-Lore_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp.

131-7, 139-46, 163.

[122] L. Sainean, _Les Fees mechantes d'apres les croyances du peuple roumain_, in _Melusine_, x. 217-26, 243-54.

[123] Cf. C. G. Leland, _Etruscan Roman Remains in Pop. Trad._ (London, 1892), pp. 162, 165, 223, &c.

[124] H. C. Coote, _The Neo-Latin Fay_, in _Folk-Lore Record_, ii. 1-18.

[125] We cannot here attempt to present, even in outline, all the complex ethnological arguments for and against the existence in prehistoric times of European pygmy races. Attention ought, however, to be called to the remarkable finds recently made in the _Grotte des Enfants_, at Mentone, France. A certain number of well-preserved skeletons of probably the earliest men who dwelt on the present land surface of Europe, which were found there, suggest that different racial stocks, possibly in succession, have preceded the Aryan stock. The first race, as indicated by two small negroid-looking skeletons of a woman, 1,580 mm. (6221 inches), and of a boy 1,540 mm. (6063 inches) in height, found in the lowest part of the _Grotte_, was probably Ethiopian. The succeeding race was probably Mongolian, judging from other remains found in another part of the same _Grotte_, and especially from the Chancelade skeleton with its distinctly Eskimo appearance, only 1,500 mm. (5906 inches) high, discovered near Perigneux, France. The race succeeding this one was possibly the one out of which our own Aryan race evolved. In relation to the Pygmy Theory these recent finds are of the utmost significance. They confirm Dr. Windle's earlier conclusion, that, contrary to the argument advanced to support the Pygmy Theory, the neolithic races of Central Europe were not true pygmies--a people whose average stature does not exceed four feet nine inches (cf. B. C. A.

Windle, _Tyson's Pygmies of the Ancients_, London, 1894, Introduction).

And, furthermore, these finds show, as far as any available ethnological data can, that there are no good reasons for believing that European and, therefore, Celtic lands were once dominated by pygmies even in epochs so remote that we can only calculate them in tens of thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is very highly probable that a folk-memory of Lappish, Pictish, or other small but not true pygmy races, has superficially coloured the modern fairy traditions of Northern Scotland, of the Western Hebrides (where what may prove to have been Lapps' or Picts' houses undoubtedly remain), of Northern Ireland, of the Isle of Man, and slightly, if indeed at all, the fairy traditions of other parts of the Celtic world (cf. David MacRitchie, _The Testimony of Tradition_, London, 1890; and his criticism of our own Psychological Theory, in the _Celtic Review_, October 1909 and January 1910, ent.i.tled respectively, _A New Solution of the Fairy Problem_, and _Druids and Mound-Dwellers_).

Again, the very small flint implements frequently found in Celtic lands and elsewhere have perhaps very reasonably been attributed to a long-forgotten pygmy race; though we must bear in mind in this connexion that it would be very unwise to conclude definitely that no race save a small-statured race could have made and used such implements: American Red Men were, when discovered by Europeans, and still are, making and using the tiniest of arrow-heads, precisely the same in size and design as those found in Celtic lands and attributed to pygmies. The use of small flint implements for special purposes, e. g. arrows for shooting small game like birds, for spearing fish, and for use in warfare as poisoned arrows, seems to have been common to most primitive peoples of normal stature. Contemporary pygmy races, far removed from Celtic lands, are also using them, and no doubt their prehistoric ancestors used them likewise.

[126] J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_ (London, 1891), p. 239. An Irish dwarf is minutely described in _Silva Gadelica_ (ii. 116), O'Grady's translation. Again, in Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_ (B. XII. cc. i-ii) a dwarf is mentioned.

[127] Campbell, _The Fians_, p. 265.

[128] S. H. O'Grady, _Silva Gadelica_ (London, 1892), ii. 199.

[129] Commentary on the _Senchas Mar_, i. 70-1, Stokes's translation, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 256-7.

[130] Sir John Rhys, _Hibbert Lectures_ (London, 1888), p. 592.

Dwarfs supernatural in character also appear in the _Mabinogion_, and one of them is an attendant on King Arthur. In Beroul's _Tristan_, Frocin, a dwarf, is skilled in astrology and magic, and in the version by Thomas we find a similar reference.

[131] Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} i. 385.

[132] Cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p. 57.

[133] Hunt, _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 294; cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p.

57.

[134] Smith, _Myths of the Iroquois_, in _Amer. Bur. Eth._, ii. 65.

[135] Skeat, _Malay Magic_, p. 329.

[136] Monier-Williams, _Brahminism and Hinduism_ (London, 1887), p. 236.

[137] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 152.

[138] _Dwarfs in the East_, in _Folk-Lore_, iv. 401-2.

[139] Lacouperie, _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, v; cf. Windle, op.

cit., Intro., pp. 21-2.

[140] A. H. S. Landor, _Alone with the Hairy Ainu_ (London, 1893), p.

251; also Windle, op. cit., Intro., pp. 22-4.