" And these little men were of course the ancestors of
Schweinfurth's and Stanley's dwarfs.
But although M. Monceaux confines his identification to equatorial
Africa and to India, he does not omit to state that Pliny and other
writers speak of dwarf tribes in other localities, and among these are
"the vague regions of the north, designated by the name of Thule." This
area, vague enough certainly, is the territory with which Fians and
Picts are both associated; as, also, of course, the Fairies of North
European tradition.
The attributes with which the "little people" of North Europe are
accredited cannot be given in detail here. It is enough to note that
they were believed to live in houses wholly or partly underground, the
latter kind being described as "hollow" mounds, or hills; that when
people of taller race entered such subterranean dwellings (as
occasionally they did) they found the domestic utensils of the dwarfs
were of the kind labelled "pre-historic" in our antiquarian museums;
that the copper vessels which dwarf women sometimes left behind them
when discovered surreptitiously milking the cows of their neighbours,
were likewise of an antique form; further, that they helped themselves
to the beef and mutton of their neighbours, after having shot the
animals with flint-headed arrows; that melodies peculiar to them are
still sung by the peasants of certain localities; that words used by
them are still employed by children in their games; and that many
families in many districts are believed to have inherited some of their
blood.
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