WHO WERE THE FAIRIES ? 271 



In a word, the two stories have convertible 

 terms. 



The matter is, however, not quite so simple as 

 might appear from what has just been said. Mr. 

 MacRitchie's thesis contains the suggestion that 

 the early tribes whose recollections have become 

 handed down to later generations as fairy tales 

 were small-sized, even pigmy people. 



Now it is undoubtedly true that there are pigmy 

 races in certain parts of the world. There is the 

 well-known case of the pigmies of the Central 

 African forests discovered by Stanley, and in this 

 connexion one may note that pigmy races in Africa 

 were mentioned by Aristotle. " They (the Cranes) 

 came out of Scythia to the Lakes above Egypt 

 whence the Nile flows ! This is the place where- 

 abouts the Pigmies dwell. For this is no fable but 

 a truth. Both they and the horses, as 'tis said, are 

 of a small kind. They are Troglodytes and live in 

 caves." And the same tale appears in Homer : 



So when the inclement winters vex the plain 

 With piercing frosts or thick-descending rain, 

 To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, 

 With noise and order, through the midway sky ; 

 To pigmy nations wounds and death they bring 

 And all the war descends upon the wing. 



For a long time it was supposed that these stories 

 were but stories and had no foundation of fact, 

 and Tyson's Essay, which was a sort of appendix 

 to his Anatomy of a Pigmy, i.e., of a Chimpanzee 

 one of the first attempts at a study in Compar- 

 ative Anatomy was intended to show that the 



