68 



PYTHEAS. 



has taken place more than once when an ignorant people, 

 living by the side of a more civilized race, and attributing 

 their superiority to magical arts, has been anxious to benefit 

 by their necromancy, and yet afraid to come in contact with 

 the magicians themselves. Thus "the Veddahs of Ceylon, 

 when they wanted arrows, used to bring some flesh in the 

 night, and hang it up in a smith's shop, also a leaf cut in 

 the form they will have their arrows made, and hang by it ; 

 which if the smith do make according to their pattern, they 

 will acquite and bring him more flesh."* If our knowledge 

 of this peculiar mode of barter had been derived from the 

 Veddahs, it would undoubtedly have taken the form of the 

 old European myth. The metallurgists of old, to preserve 

 their monopoly, evidently had a great interest in keeping up 

 this superstition. 



Sir Cornewall Lewis, in the second place, accuses Pytheas 

 of having described the sea round the Lipari islands as being 

 in a boiling state. But we do not know what his exact words 

 were, and cannot fairly judge him, for it makes a great 

 difference whether he was repeating a statement made to 

 him, or making one on his own authority. Moreover, we 

 must remember that there have been submarine eruptions 

 in the Mediterranean, and that the Lipari islands lie between 

 Mount Etna and Vesuvius, in the very centre of an active 



* Knox's Historical Relation of 

 the Island Ceylon. London, 1861. 

 Quoted in the Ethnological Society's 

 Trans, vol. ii. p. 285, N.S. See also 

 Sir J. E. Tennent's Ceylon, vol. i. 

 p. 593. The Belgian form of the 

 myth as related by Schmerling 

 (Ossements fossiles, vol. i. p. 43) 

 still more closely resembles the 

 account given by Knox. Speaking 

 of the caves near Liege, he says: 

 " Ces ouvertures sont connues des 



habitans cle 1'enclroit sous le nom 

 de Trous des Sottais. Us preten- 

 dent que jadis ces grottes servaient 

 d'habitation a une espece huniaine 

 d'une tres petite taille, Sottais, 

 nains, pygmees, qui y vivaient de 

 leur industrie, et restauraient tout 

 ce qn'on deposait pres des ouver- 

 tures, a condition que Von y ajoutdt 

 des vivres. En tres peu de temps 

 ces effets etaient repares, et remis 

 a la meme place." 



