ore
elaborately in a separate book, entitled "The Testimony of Tradition,"
worked it out and fortified it with an array of arguments philological,
historical, topographical, and traditional. He claims to have
established that the fairies of the Celtic and Teutonic races are
neither more nor less than the prehistoric tribes whom they conquered
and drove back, and whose lands they now possess. He identifies these
mysterious beings with the Picts of Scotland, the Feinne of the Scottish
Highlands and of Ireland, and the Finns and Lapps of Scandinavia. And he
suggests that the Eskimo, the Ainos, and I know not what other dwarfish
races, are relics of the same people; while Santa Klaus, the patron
saint of children, is only a tradition of the wealthy and beneficent
character borne by this ill-used folk. Primarily his arguments are
concerned with Scotland and Ireland. He builds much on the howes or
barrows, called in Scotland Picts' houses, which in both countries bear
the reputation of being the haunt of fairies or dwarfs, and some of
which seem to have been in fact dwelling-places. He quotes Dr. Karl
Blind to show that Finns intermarried with the Shetlanders, and that
they were believed to come over in the form of seals, casting aside
their sealskins when they landed. In this connection he relates how the
Finn women were captured by taking possession of their sealskins,
without which they could not get away from their captors. He also shows
that illimitable riches and magical powers were ascribed to the Picts
and to the Finns, and that the Lapps were pre-eminent in witchcraft.

I shall leave it to Celtic scholars to deal with Mr. MacRitchie's
remarkable etymologies and with his historical arguments, confining
myself to one or two observations on the traditional aspect of the
theory. Now I should be the last to undervalue any traces of history to
be found in tradition. I have elsewhere drawn attention to the
importance of the study of this element in folk-tales;[245] and I am
quite ready to admit that nothing is more likely than the transfer to
the mythical beings of Celtic superstition of some features derived from
alien races. Savages and barbarians are in the habit of imputing to
strangers and foes in greatly extended measure the might of witchcraft
they claim for themselves. And the wider the differences between
themselves and the foreigners, the more mysterious to them are the
habits and appearance of the latter, and the