604 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 
monsters (Highland, Lowland, Teutonic, Australian); (c) beliefs of fisher-folk 
(Hebrides, East Coast of Scotland). 
Any attempt to prove particular ethnic influences is a matter of difficulty, 
especially in Scotland, where (a) races have mingled, and (6) civilisation and 
religion have altered so many old beliefs. 
Yet there is a possibility of arriving at some definite results by a careful 
comparison of folk-beliefs with earlier race-traditions, and older Pagan beliefs 
where these are available, and with the characteristics of the folk themselves. 
Illustrations of this may be drawn from the fairy-belief as found in three dis- 
tricts of Scotland—the West Highlands, the Lowlands, and the northern districts 
and islands, representing respectively and in the main, Celtic, Teutonic, and 
Scandinavian cultures. Similarity of general beliefs in fairies and in kindred 
beings prevails in all parts of the world. The main differences must be looked 
for rather in the setting and in the characteristics of the fairies themselves 
than in the actions related of them, &c. :— 
1. Highland fairies : connection with Irish fairies and with earlier divinities ; 
the Tuatha Dé Danaan; greater romanticism and imagination. 
2. Lowland fairies: homely, rough, boisterous humour; connection with 
Teutonic elves. 
3. Northern: names and certain characteristics show connection with the 
fairy-folk of Scandinavia. 
While in both Highland and Lowland groups there is a similarity of occu- 
pation ascribed to fairies, yet more particularly in the Highlands certain things 
reflect the life of the folk quite accurately. 
In the Highlands the belief is much more animistic than in the Lowlands. 
Connegtion of fairies and the dead. In the Lowlands the belief is mixed up 
with witchcraft. 
Different aspects of Highland and Lowland tales about fairies. 
The fairy-belief is wrapped up with the life of the folk in the Highlands 
more than in the Lowlands, and is much more a living belief. 
Other branches of folk-belief show similar results :—. 
1. The old Celtic civilisation and the heroic sagas. Influence on thought and 
life of the people, and on Médrchen. Lack of this in the Lowlands. ‘Traces in 
place-names. 
2. Characteristic names given to archeological remains in both regions. 
Greater vitality and complexity of folk-belief is shown in the Highland 
regions than in the Lowlands. 
As examples of beliefs still active there may be cited :—The evil eye, second 
sight, and shape-shifting. 
There is an urgent need of collecting and preserving the details of folk-belief. 
(iv.) Ethnological Traces in Scottish Folklore. 
By J. W. Broptz-Innes. : 
Of the original inhabitants of Scotland before the, first coming of the Celts 
practically nothing is known. Picts, Fomors, Cave men, River drift men, all 
is obscure—but here and there old and unidentified folk-tales may some day 
give a clue. ‘There were various migrations of Celts, Iberi, and Celtiberians, 
and if the Tuatha de Danaan could be identified with the Danai of Homer, it 
might account for similarities with Greek legends. And if the Iberi were 
the same as Ibri, and thus connected with Hebrews, and with the Ibah-Erri, 
the men of the river, or the Crossers-over, the parallelism between Gaelic and 
Old Testament stories would have a special interest. It may be possible 
in some such way to analyse the blend of the old Celtic folk-tales which are 
much the same in Ireland and in the Western Hebrides. These cover a wide 
range, from the Ossianic myths and Bardic tales, which are epic, through 
such stories as those of Finvara and the Riders of the Sidh, which are 
chivalrous and romantic, and akin to the Arthurian, to the Fairy-Faith and 
the stories of Elementals, and to simple nature myths. On to these again was 
grafted the Scandinavian cycle of legends, brought by the Norse invaders and 
