.. that tales are but garbled popular
history, of a long journey through forests and wilds, inhabited by
savages and wild beasts; of events that occurred on the way from
east to west, in the year of grace, once upon a time" (I.
cxv.-cxvi.). "The Highland giants were not so big but that their
conquerors wore their clothes; they were not so strong that men
could not beat them, even by wrestling. They were not quite
savages; for though some lived in caves, others had houses and
cattle and hoards of spoil" (I. xcix.). "And though I do not myself
believe that fairies _are_ ... I believe there once was a small
race of people in these islands, who are remembered as fairies, for
the fairy belief is not confined to the Highlanders of Scotland"
(I. c.) "This class of stories is so widely spread, so
matter-of-fact, hangs so well together, and is so implicitly
believed all over the United Kingdom, that I am persuaded of the
former existence of a race of men in these islands who were smaller
in stature than the Celts; who used stone arrows, lived in conical
mounds like the Lapps, knew some mechanical arts, pilfered goods
and stole children; and were perhaps contemporary with some species
of wild cattle and horses and great auks, which frequented marshy
ground, and are now remembered as water-bulls and water-horses, and
boobries, and such like impossible creatures" (IV.
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