282 FOOTPRINTS OF VANISHED RACES IN CORNWALL. 



jeet/^ and lias shown that the " Plots Houses " of Scotland, and 

 fairy legends of the north, maj'' be traced to a race of prehistoric 

 dwarfs. That able Celtic scholar. Professor Phys, has, lately, in 

 a valuable work,™ set forth the view that a dwarf race inhabited 

 Britain previous to the Celtic invasion, and these views have met 

 with general acceptance. 



I would apply these conclusions to Cornwall. We have our 

 legends of Piskies, Fairies and " Little People." As these 

 stories are now understood in Europe to refer to a real race of 

 prehistoric dwarfs, so I believe we may understand them with 

 reference to Cornwall. I believe, then, that our piskies and fairies 

 were genuine Cornish dwarfs belonging to a real race of diminu- 

 tive human beings. As to the fairies, they had a similar origin. 

 They were not the dethroned 'gods of the heathen Celts,*" nor 

 were they the spirits of unbaptized children, or of Druids who 

 had rejected Christianity,*^ but they were originally dwarfs and 

 pigmies similar to the piskies. This also will explain the tradition 

 existing among the French peasantry, that the fairies were 

 mortal,*^ and the stories that long ago they were actually killed 

 in Wales ! Cornwall, then, was in the early days of the Neolithic 

 age, inhabited by a race of pigmies, like the bushnien of South 

 Afi'ica, and whom, for convenience, I shall call the " Piskey- 

 Dwarfs." 



The diminutive iliiit arrow-heads, found all over Western 

 Euro]3e, furnish another proof of the existence of these pigmies. 

 These little arrow-heads occur in France, some only half-an-inch 

 long being figured by M. de Mortillet.*^ '^'hey have been found 

 in a kitchen-midden at Hastings,**^ they abound in Ireland,*^ and 

 the Pev. Reginald Gatty has found large numbers of them in 

 Yorkshire.*'' They are found also in Germany and in Poland. In 



78. In his valuable works The Testimony of Tradition and Fians, Fairies, and 

 Picts. 



79. Celtic Folklore, 



80. Elton's Origins of English History, -p- 213. 



81. Matthews' History of St Ives, Lelant, Touediiack,and Zennor, p. 382. 



82. La France Prehistoriqne, by M. E. Cartailhac, p. 163. 



83. Formation de la Nation Francaise, p, 250. 



84. Journal of the Anthropological Instittdefl^ov&raheT, x&g^. Sir John Evans 

 has figured some of the minute arrow-heads. 



85. Transactions of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1895, pp. 41- 63, 



86. Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, by Sir John Evans, p, 325, 



