It was known that those dwarfs were little people. Obviously, then,
their name must have meant "people living under burdock leaves" (instead
of "in pits"). And so, to some of the modern natives of Yesso, those
historical dwarfs of the seventeenth century "were so small that if
caught in a shower of rain or attacked by an enemy, they would stand
beneath a burdock leaf for shelter, or flee thither to hide."[4]
In that instance, we see before our eyes the whole process by which a
real race has been transformed into an unreal impossibility, within a
period of two centuries or so. Had the extinction (or modification by
inter-marriage or by the processes of evolution) of those Yesso dwarfs
taken place a thousand years earlier, the difficulty of identifying them
would have been greatly increased. After a race has once disappeared
from sight, the popular terms describing it must become more vague and
confused with every century. Thus, in a certain traditional Scotch story
there is mention of a number of "little black creatures with spades."
The description is delightfully comprehensive. It would be quite
applicable to a gang of Andaman coolies.
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