344).
And much more to the same effect,[2] with which it is unnecessary to
trouble the reader. Now, all this was quite new to me. If I had ever
given a second thought to the so-called "supernatural" beings of
tradition, it was only to dismiss them, in the conventional manner as
creatures of the imagination. But these ideas of Mr. Campbell's were
decidedly interesting, and deserving of consideration. It was obvious
that tradition, especially where there had been an intermixture of
races, could not preserve one clear, unblemished record of the past; and
this he fully recognised. But it seemed equally obvious that the
"matter-of-fact" element to which he refers could not have owed its
origin to myth or fancy. The question being fascinating, there was
therefore no alternative but to make further inquiry. And the more it
was considered, the more did his theory proclaim its reasonableness. He
suggests, for example, that certain "fairy herds" in Sutherlandshire
were probably reindeer, that the "fairies" who milked those reindeer
were probably of the same race as Lapps, and that not unlikely they were
the people historically known as Picts.
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