FOOTPKfNTS OF VAJsHSHED RACES IN COR]SrWALL. 299 



chamber. ^'^^ As a further evidence of the Mongolian character of 

 the Iveruiaiis, it may be said that the central underground area 

 of these dwellings has smaller chambers opening into it, exactly 

 as we find in the semi-underground habitations, which are now 

 constructed by the wild Koraks of Eastern Siberia,^-* The 

 traditions of Northern Scotland declare that these " Picts 

 Houses" were constructed by a race of dwarfs.™ Other rude 

 buildings above ground, but linked together, are found in the 

 Hebrides,^"** where thej^ are also called " Picts Houses." The 

 circular ruined stone towers in the Orkneys and Shetlands, called 

 "Brochs" or "Burghs," are also said to have been built by 

 dwarfs. -"^^ They resemble, in a remarkable manner, the ancient 

 ruined stone towers in Sardinia, called Nurraghis, and they have 

 also a wonderful resemblance to the "Picts Houses." Evidently 

 they were built by the same race. 



Now, in Cornwall, we have some of these strange under- 

 ground dwellings. They exist at Pendeen, Bolleit, Boscaswell, 

 and at Chapel Euny, and they have been well described by 

 Mr. Blight,-*^^ Mr. Edmonds,2o^' and Mr. Borlase,^"^ and they have 

 been declared by Mr, Blight and Mr. Borlase to strikingly 

 resemble the Picts' Houses of Northern Scotland. They were 

 underground places of refuge, in which the Ivernians hid from 

 their Celtic enemies. Mr. Borlase says, that as iron weapons and 

 Roman pottery wei'e found in the underground dwellings at 



igy. See Meiiioiiso/ the Anthropological Society, vol. ii., 1865-66, pp. 226-231, for 

 accounts of the Picts Houses, by Mr. Anderson. And Ibid, pp. 216-225, for Mr. George 

 Petrie's descriptions of them. 



19S. Tent Life in Siberia, by G. Kennan, pp. 173-176. 



199. " The Homes of the Picts," by David MacRitchie, in the Reliquary and 

 Illnstf ated Archceologist, April, 1901. 



200. See also Mr. MacRitche's Fians, Fairies, and Picts, pp. 46-52. 



201. Ibid, p. 75. The Brochs are also described in Memoirs of the Anthropolo- 

 gical Society , vol. ii., 1S65-6, pp. 216-221. Lord Avebury gives a good photograph of 

 the Burgh [Broch] of Mousa in the Shetlands in Prehistoric 'J'intes, p. 50. Readers of 

 Sir Walter Scott's I'irate will remember that the dwelling of Noma was in a ruined 

 Burgh on a promontory 



202. (;apt. Oliver describes these Nurraghis in Transactions of the Anthropo- 

 logical Institnie, vol. iv., 1875, p. 95. He says that they exactly resemble the Scotch 

 Burghs. 



203. Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, 1864, p. 6. 



204. 'I lie Land's End District, pp. 51, 52. He refers to the dwellings at 

 Bosporthennis. 



205. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 1868, p. i5i. S;e Mr. Borlase 

 also in Transactions of Penzance A'atural History Society, vol. i., 1880-4, p. 31. 



