506 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 301. 



as a home for retreating nationalities : wit- 

 ness as late as the eleventh century the 

 resistance offered by Hereward in the Isle 

 of Ely to the Norman Conqueror and his 

 mail-clad warriors. 



In reasoning backwards from the stories 

 about the Little People to a race in some 

 respects on a level with Australian savages, 

 we come probably in contact with one of the 

 very earliest populations of these islands. 

 It is needless to say that we have no data 

 to ascertain how long that occupation may 

 have been uncontested, if at all, or what 

 progress was made in the course of it : per- 

 haps archeology will be able some day to 

 help us to form a guess on that subject. 

 But the question more immediately press- 

 ing for answer is, with what race outside 

 Wales may one compare or identify the 

 ancient stock caricatured in Welsh faiiy 

 tales? N"ow, in the Lowlands of Scotland, 

 together with the Orkneys and Shetlauds, 

 the place of our fairies is to some extent 

 taken by the Picts, or, as they are there 

 colloquially called, 'the Pechts.' My in- 

 formation about the Pechts comes mostly 

 from recent writings on the subject by 

 Mr. David MacEitchie, of Edinburgh, from 

 whom one learns, among other things, that 

 certain underground — or partially under- 

 ground — habitations in Scotland are as- 

 scribed to the Pechts. ISTow one kind of 

 these Pechts' dwellings appears from the 

 outside like hillocks covered with grass, so 

 as presumably not to attract attention, an 

 object which was further helped by making 

 the entrance very low and as inconspicuous 

 as possible. But one of the most remark- 

 able things about them is the fact that the 

 cells or apartments into which they are 

 divided are frequently so small that their 

 inmates must have been of very short 

 stature, like our Welsh fairies. Thus, 

 though there appears to be no reason for 

 regarding the northern Picts themselves as 

 an undersized race, there must have been a 



people of that description in their country. 

 Perhaps archeologists may succeed in 

 classifying the ancient habitations in the 

 North accordingly — that is, to tell us what 

 class of them were built by the Picts and 

 what by the Little People whom they may 

 be supposed to have found in possession of 

 that part of our island. 



In Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland 

 the fairies derive their more usual appella- 

 tions from a word sid or s'dli (genitive side), 

 which may perhaps be akin to the Latin 

 scdes and have meant a seat, settlement, or 

 station ; but whatever its exact meaning 

 may have originally been, it came to be 

 applied to the hillocks or mounds within 

 which the Little People made their abodes. 

 Thus, Aes Side as a name for the fairies may 

 be rendered by mound people or hill folk ; 

 fer side, ' a fairy man,' by a mound man ; 

 and ben side by a mound woman or banshee. 

 They were also called simply side, which 

 would seem to be an adjective closely allied 

 with the simpler word sid. 



But to leave this question of their names, 

 let me direct your attention for a moment 

 to one of the most famous kings of the 

 fairies of ancient Erin : he was called Mider 

 of Bri Leith, said to be a hill to the west of 

 Ardagh, in the present county of Longford. 

 There he had his mound, to which he once 

 carried the queen of Eochaid Airem, mon- 

 arch of Ireland. It was some time before 

 Eochaid could discover what had become of 

 her, and he ordered Dalan, his druid, to 

 find it out. So the druid, when he had 

 been unsuccessful for a whole year, pre- 

 pared four twigs of yew and wrote on them 

 in Ogam. Then it was revealed to him 

 through his keys of seership and through 

 the Ogam writing that the queen was in the 

 sid of Bri Leith, having been taken thither 

 by Mider. By this we are probably to un- 

 derstand that the druid sent forth the Ogam 

 twigs as letters of enquiry to other druida 

 in different parts of the country ; but in any 



