FOOTPKINTS OF VANISHED RACES IN CORNWALL. 297 



that of Bas Navarre, the same word takes the form of PusJca 

 and. puchka ; thus piska pich-Ica, or puchkha-hat means a little man 

 or a dwarf. "^^" The Ivernians and ancient Basques are supposed 

 to have been of the same race ; so this explanation of the word 

 " Piskey " is interesting. In Ireland the same conflict occurred, 

 tradition declaring that the Milesians (Ivernians) expelled the 

 Fairy race (dwarfs) from the Emerald Isle.^^ So it was in 

 Scotland, where the Dwarfs in legend, were called Duergars or 

 Drows.^** Like all existing Pigmy races, the Cornish Dwarfs 

 were hunters alone, and on being driven to the woods and 

 morasses, found their means of subsistence decreasing, so that 

 they were compelled to make nightly forays on the herds 

 of cattle kept by the Ivernians, as already mentioned, 

 shooting at them with their little stone-tipped arrows ; from 

 which nightly raids probably arose the tradition that the little 

 flint-arrow heads in Scotland were the darts shot at the cattle by 

 the fairies. ^''^ The Pigmies also dug hollows underground and in 

 banks, and dwelt there, originating the stories that the fairies 

 lived underground and within the hills. Chased into the darkest 

 recesses of the forests, the Dwarfs seldom appeared, and their 

 diminutive forms, seen in the dusk flitting amongst the trees, 

 gave rise to the tales of Satyrs in Europe, and of the similar 

 tradition of the Ourisks, or demons of the woods, held by the 

 Gaelic Celts of Scotland.^''^ From these causes a semi-superna- 

 tural character was attached to the Pigmies in Britain, as they 

 became fewer, and were more rarely seen. 



This conflict of extermination was proceeding when the 

 Gaelic Celts, the vanguard of the great Aryan or Indo-European 

 race, entered Britain. With the entry of the Celts into Britain 

 a new era begins, for the Celts introduced bronze into our 

 country. The date of the arrival of the Celts in Britain is quite 

 uncertain. About B.C. 330, the geographer Pytheas voyaged 



187 7'he Dolmens of Ireland, vol. iii., p. 913. 



188. Elton's Origins of English History, p. 139. 



189. Demonology and rFzVc/zc-rt/)?, by Sir Walter Scotl, pp. 122-123. Also Eians, 

 Fairies and Picts, by Mr. David MacRitchie, p. x. (Introduction). 



190. Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, hy Sir John Kvans, pp. 365, 

 366. 



191. Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 113. 



