well puts it, the "distorted recollections of
alien and inimical races." But it is not the only one. It is far from
being my intention to endeavour to deal exhaustively with the difficult
question of the origin of fairy tales. Knowledge and the space permissible
in an introduction such as this would alike fail me in such a task. It
may, however, be permissible to mention a few points which seem to impress
themselves upon one in making a study of the stories with which I have
been dealing. In the first place, one can scarcely fail to notice how much
in common there is between the tales of the little people and the accounts
of that underground world, which, with so many races, is the habitation of
the souls of the departed. Dr. Callaway has already drawn attention to
this point in connection with the ancestor-worship of the Amazulu.[B] He
says, "It may be worth while to note the curious coincidence of thought
among the Amazulu regarding the Amatongo or Abapansi, and that of the
Scotch and Irish regarding the fairies or 'good people.' For instance, the
'good people' of the Irish have assigned to them, in many respects the
same motives and actions as the Amatongo. They call the living to join
them, that is, by death; they cause disease which common doctors cannot
understand nor cure; they have their feelings, interests, partialities,
and antipathies, and contend with each other about the living. The common
people call them their friends or people, which is equivalent to the term
_abakubo_ given to the Amatongo. They reveal themselves in the form of the
dead, and it appears to be supposed that the dead become 'good people,' as
the dead among the Amazulu become Amatongo; and in funeral processions of
the 'good people' which some have professed to see, are recognised the
forms of those who have just died, as Umkatshana saw his relatives amongst
the Abapansi. The power of holding communion with the 'good people' is
consequent on an illness, just as the power to divine amongst the natives
of this country. So also in the Highland tales, a boy who had been carried
away by the fairies, on his return to his own home speaks of them as 'our
folks,' which is equivalent to _abakwetu_, applied to the Amatongo, and
among the Highlands they are called the 'good people' and 'the folk.' They
are also said to 'live underground,' and are therefore Abapansi or
subterranean. They are also, like the Abapansi, called ancestors. Thus the
Red Book of