is a mist there must be some tangible
object behind it. For example, he does not believe that Boreas, or
Zephyrus, or Jack Frost were ever anything but personifications of
certain natural forces.

Various other considerations have also to be borne in mind; not the
least important of which is the fact that the very people who have
preserved these traditional beliefs have done much to obscure them,
owing to their want of education. Scott tells a story of a Scotch
peasant who, discovering a company of gaily-dressed puppets standing in
a thicket, where they had been concealed by a travelling showman, at
once concluded that they were "fairies." He had inherited the belief
that fairies were "little people" who frequented just such places as
this; consequently, he decided these were fairies. This fact was
elicited in court, where the countryman had to appear as a witness. From
that time onward his mind ought to have been disabused of his hasty
belief. But a man so stupid as to assume that a showman's marionettes
were anything else than lifeless dolls, might continue for the rest of
his life to recount his marvellous meeting with "the fairies."
Similarly, to a tipsy man returning homeward from market, many common
and every-day objects take on a weird and superhuman aspect, due to no
other spirits than those he has consumed. From this cause, a large
number of odd stories (such as one told by Mr. William Black of a tipsy
Hebridean) has doubtless arisen. Further, the belief in the existence of
"supernatural" beings has been much utilised by rustic humourists, and
no doubt also by smugglers and other night-birds, in comparatively
recent times. The prolonged absence of a husband, or it may be of a
wife, could be explained by some wild legend of having been "stolen by
the fairies," when a more frank avowal dared not be offered. And
although "strange tales were told" regarding the paternity of "Brian,"
in _The Lady of the Lake_, and although Scott adheres to those legends
in his poem, he does not fail to point out in his appended _Note_ that
the story could be explained in a much more rational manner. There have
been many "Brians."

To give this subject the special attention which it deserves would,
however, swell these introductory notes to an intolerable size; and,
indeed, their purpose is rather to show what the euhemeristic theory is
than what it is not; that is to say, the euhemeristic theory as applied
to the traditions relati