FOOTPRINTS OF VANISHED RACES IN CORNWALL. 283 



all these regions they are truly of Neolithic age. In Cornwall, 

 also, we have many of them, and those found by Mr Thurstan 

 Peter, in his excavations on Carn Brea, may be seen in the 

 museum of this Institution.^'' These tiny flint arrow-heads 

 must have been fitted to a very small shaft, and must have been 

 shot from a diminutive bow, by a dwarf archer. The Akkas, a 

 race of dwarfs in Central Africa, now use diminutive bows and 

 arrows.^ Now it is singular, that tradition says that these flint 

 arrow-heads were the darts shot at the cattle during the night by 

 the fairies, hence they are often called " Elf Arrows. "^■' In Ire- 

 land they are also known as the arrows of the fairies and elves, 

 magical properties are assigned to them, and the cattle are said 

 to have been wounded by them ^ The simple interpretation of 

 these traditions is, that the Neolithic pigmies in Britain made 

 night attacks on the cattle of their stronger neighbours, as is the 

 habit of the Bushmen of South Africa. 



The little p^.skey dwarfs were the first inhabitants of Britain 

 in the Neolithic age, just as the Bushmen and the Aetas are 

 acknowledged to have been the earliest inhabitants of South 

 Africa and of the Philippines. The Neolithic pigmies entered 

 Britain fi-om the south, probably at the time, when, as Dr. J. 

 A. Geikie has shown, "^ Britain was joined to Europe. The dwarfs 

 spread through Britain, and entered Cornwall. They wandered 

 through our forests and along our shores. They hunted the elk 

 and the deer in our woods, and perhaps like the Bushmen, danced 

 and sang at night to the light of the moon. They found the land 

 silent and empty, and wandered, danced, and hunted alone. In a 

 real sense there were in Cornwall in the a bygone days — 



" Fairies, goblins, gnomes, and elves, 

 Sporting in the woods and dells." 



87, See also Mr, Thurstan Peter's pictures in his paper in The journal of the 

 Royal Institution of Connvall, vol xiii, 1895, pp. 92 — 103. 



88, Les Pygmees by M, de Ouatrefages. p. 265. The Bushmen also use very small 

 arrows, 



89. Ancient Stone Iniplenients of Great Britain, p. 366, 



90. Catalogue of Antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Acadetny, by Sir 

 William Wilde, p. 19. 



gi. Prehistoric Europe, pp. 521, 568. Had there been other and stronger tribes 

 in Britain then the dwarfs would not have dared to enter the land. Hence they were 

 thefrst of the Neolithic tribes. 



