272 WHO WERE THE FAIRIES ? 



pigmies of the ancients were really monkeys and 

 thus was one of the earliest essays in euhemeristic 

 folk-lore of what may be called modern times. * 



Further, there are legends, many of a very 

 ancient character, of small races in various parts 

 of the world, such as China and Japan and North 

 America. But the important fact is that in the 

 places where what may legitimately be called the 

 fairy legend most flourishes there is no evidence 

 that there ever was at any period of history any- 

 thing in the nature of a pigmy race. 



This may fairly be said to be the case all over 

 Europe, and it is most emphatically true of these 

 islands. Whatever may have been the differences 

 between the appearances of the earlier races 

 whom we only know by their skeletons and the 

 race as we now know it, and the skeletal differences 

 are surprisingly small, there is no great and remark* 

 able difference of stature between them. There 

 are stunted races like the Lapps and the Esqui- 

 maux, but these, strictly speaking, are not pigmy 

 races, nor is there any evidence that they or any 

 like them inhabited these islands at any time or 

 were sufficiently well-known there to form the 

 substratum of a legend. It is now nearly twenty 

 years since I published my book on the Pigmies, 

 and the statement just made was one which ap- 

 peared in essence in that work. It has only been 

 confirmed by all recent evidence, and much has 

 come to light during the period of time alluded 



* Edward Tyson, M.D., F.R.S., published his book in 1699, His 

 " pig-my " is, I believe or at least its skeleton is in the Natural 

 history Museum at South Kensington. 



