the Fians, they are described as
feasting with Fairies in one of their "hollow" mounds.[24] A
Sutherlandshire story relates the adventures of the son of a Fairy
woman, who took service with Ossian, the king of the Fians.[25] One of
the Fians (Caoilte) had a Fairy sweet-heart.[26] Another of them (Oscar)
has an interview with a washerwoman who is a Fairy.[27] A Fenian story
recounts how one day the Fians were working in the harvest-field, in the
Argyleshire island of Tiree, and on that occasion they had "left their
weapons of war in the armoury of the Fairy Hill of Caolas";[28] from
which one is to infer that the Fians made use of Fairy dwellings. In the
same collection of tales we are told[29] that one time when the Fians
were hunting in the Isle of Skye, they left their wives in a dwelling
which bore a title "applied to dwellings of the Elfin race." It is
further stated that one popular belief in the Scottish Highlands is that
the Fians are still lying in the hill of Tomnahurich, near Inverness,
and that "others say they are lying in Glenorchy, Argyleshire."[30] Now,
both the Inverness-shire mound and the mounds in Glenorchy are also
popularly regarded as the abodes of Fairies.[31] The vitrified fort on
Knock-Farril, in Ross-shire, is said to have been one of Fin McCoul's
castles;[32] and Knock-Farril, or rather "a knoll opposite Knock-Farril"
is remembered as the abode of the Fairies of that district.[33]
Glenshee, in Perthshire, is celebrated equally as a Fairy haunt and as a
favourite hunting-ground of the Fians. The Fians, indeed, were said to
have lived by deer-hunting, so much so that Campbell of Islay suggests
that their name signifies "the deer men"; and the deer, it is believed,
"were a fairy race."[34] The famous hound of the famous leader of the
Fians was "a Fairy or Elfin dog." In short, the connection between Fians
and Fairies, recognised in the Gaelic manuscript of eight or ten
centuries ago, is apparent throughout the traditions of the
Gaelic-speaking people.

But if the Fians were either identical with, or closely akin to the
Fairies, they must have been "little people." The belief that they were
so is supported by one traditional Fenian story. This is the well-known
tale of the visit of Fin, the famous chief of the Fians, to a country
known to him and his people as "The Land of the Big Men." The story
tells how Fin sailed from Dublin Bay in his skin-boat, crossed the sea
to that country, and shortly a