Fians, Fairies and Picts Part 2

[Footnote 23: "_Fianaibh ag Sithcuiraibh_"]

[Footnote 24: "_Dan an Fhir s.h.i.+cair"; Leabhar na Feinne_, pp. 94-95.]

[Footnote 25: _Folk-Lore Journal_, vol. vi. 1888, pp. 173-178.]

[Footnote 26: _The Fians_, 1891, p. 64.]

[Footnote 27: _Ibid._ p. 33.]

[Footnote 28: _The Fians_, p. 172. The Fairy Hill referred to is "a hillock, in which there is to be seen a small hollow called the armoury"

(p. 174).]

[Footnote 29: _Ibid._ pp. 12-13, 166, &c.]

[Footnote 30: _Ibid._ pp. 3-4. Glenorchy is said to have teemed with Fenian traditions about the early part of this century (_Proceedings_ of Soc. of Antiq. of Scotland, vol. vii. pp. 237-240).]

[Footnote 31: See my _Testimony of Tradition_, London, 1890, pp. 146-8; and Pennant's "Second Tour in Scotland" (Pinkerton's _Voyages,_ London, 1809, vol. iii. p. 368).]

[Footnote 32: _Proceedings_ of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol.

vii. p. 294, _note_.]

[Footnote 33: See, for example, an article on "Scottish Customs and Folk lore," in _The Glasgow Herald_ of August 1, 1891.]

[Footnote 34: _The Fians_, pp. 78-80.]

[Footnote 35: _Scottish Celtic Review_, 1885, pp. 184-90: _The Fians_, pp. 175-184.]

[Footnote 36: _The Heimskringla_: Dr. Rasmus B. Anderson's 2nd ed.

(1889) of Mr. Samuel Laing's translation from Snorre Sturlason: chap.

lx.x.xiii., _Of Little Fin_.]

[Footnote 37: _Leabhar na Feinne_, p. 34.

[SUBSEQUENT NOTE.--To be very accurate, one ought to say that, in the pedigree referred to, Fin's grandfather (Trenmor) is stated to have married a Finland woman.]]

[Footnote 38: Mr. W.G. Black's _Heligoland_, 1888, chap. iv.]

[Footnote 39: With this Fin of Frisian tradition may be compared Fin, a North-Frisian chief of the fifth century, mentioned in _Beowulf_ and _The Gleeman's Tale_, and whose death is recorded in _The Fight at Finnsburk_.

[SUBSEQUENT NOTE.--A suitable companion to the dwarf Fin of Frisian tradition is mentioned in Harald Hardradi's Saga:--"Tuta, a Frisian, was with King Harald; he was sent to him for show, for he was short and stout, in every respect shaped like a dwarf."--Quoted by Mr.

Du Chaillu at p. 357 of vol. ii. of "The Viking Age."]]

[Footnote 40: In this connection it is worth noting that Sir Walter Scott, in referring to the aboriginal or servile clans in 1745, whom he describes as "half naked, _stinted in growth_, and miserable in aspect,"

includes among them the McCouls, Fin's alleged descendants, who "were a sort of Gibeonites, or hereditary servants to the Stewarts of Appin."

(Waverley, ch. xliv.)]

[Footnote 41: For example, the late Rev. J.G. Campbell, Tiree, says of "the Great Tuairisgeul" that he was "a giant of the kind called _Samhanaich_--that is, one who lived in a cave by the sea-sh.o.r.e, the strongest and coa.r.s.est of any" (_Scottish Celtic Review_, p. 62). That this term was one of contempt, given by Gaelic-speaking people to those "giants" (and apparently based upon their malodorous characteristics), will be seen from Mr. Campbell's further observation (_op. cit._ pp.

140-141):--"It is a common expression to say of any strong offensive smell, _mharbhadh e na Samhanaich_, it would kill the giants who dwell in caves by the sea. _Samk_ is a strong oppressive smell." McAlpine defines _Samk_ as a "bad smell arising from a sick person, or a dirty hot place"; and he further gives the definition "a savage" (quoting Mackenzie). The word _Samhanach_ itself is defined by McAlpine as "a savage," and he cites the Islay saying:--"_chuireadh tu cagal air na samhanaich_," "you would frighten the very savages." From these definitions it will be seen that a word translated "giant" by one is rendered "savage" by another (though neither of these terms expresses the literal meaning). Mr. J.G. Campbell also practically regards it as signifying "cave-dweller," or perhaps a certain special caste of cave-dwellers. With this may be compared McAlpine's "_uamh_, _n.f._, a cave, den; _n.m._, a chief of savages, terrible fellow ... '_cha'n'eil ann ach uamh dhuine_,' 'he is only a savage of a fellow.'" Islay has also another word to denote a Hebridean savage. This is _ciuthach_, "pr.

_kewach_, described in the Long Island as naked wild men living in caves" (J.F. Campbell, Tales, iii. 55, _n._). One of these "kewachs"

figures in the story of Diarmaid and Grainne, and one version says that he "came in from the western ocean in a coracle with two oars (_curachan_)" (_The Fians_, p. 54). (His name a.s.sumes various shapes--_e.g._, Ciofach Mac a Ghoill, Ciuthach Mac an Doill, Ceudach Mac Righ nan Collach.) These three terms--_samhanach, uamh dhuine_, and _ciuthach_--all seem to indicate one and the same race of people. And these are probably the people referred to by Pennant when he says, speaking of the civilised races of the Hebrides in the beginning of the seventeenth century:--"Each chieftain had his armour-bearer, who preceded his master in time of war, and, by my author's (Timothy Pont's MS., Advocates' Library, Edinburgh) account in time of peace; for they went armed even to church, in the manner the North Americans do at present [1772] in the frontier settlement, and for the same reason, the dread of savages." (Pinkerton's _Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 322.)]

[Footnote 42: Hibbert's "Description of the Shetland Islands,"

Edinburgh, 1822, pp. 444-451. With regard to the "Dwarfie Stone" of Hoy, the following references may be given:--"Jo. Ben," 1529, at p. 449 of Barry's "History of the Orkney Islands," 2nd ed., London, 1808; and other writers subsequent to 1529. These speak of this stone as the abode of a "giant." Sir Walter Scott (_The Pirate_, Note P.) and many others invariably say "a dwarf."

Note also J.F. Campbell (_W.H. Tales_, p. xcix): "The Highland giants were not so big, but that their conquerors wore their clothes." Also the dwarf in Ramsay's "Evergreen" who says that he was engendered "of giants' kind."]

[Footnote 43: _Dean of Lismore's Book_, p. lxxvi.; _Celt. Scot._, vol.

i. p. 131; vol. iii. chap. iii.; &c.]

[Footnote 44: _Celt. Scot._ iii. 106-7.]

[Footnote 45: In this tale, the phonetic spelling _ben-ce_ shows the unusual aspirated form _bean-s.h.i.+the_. She is elsewhere spoken of as the Lady of Innse Uaine, and her son is the hero of the tale _Gille nan Cochla-Craicinn_.]

[Footnote 46: According to a clergyman of the seventeenth century, the Hebrides and a part of the Western Highlands const.i.tuted "the country of the Fians," (_Testimony of Tradition_, p. 45.)]

[Footnote 47: Miss Dempster: "The Folk-Lore of Sutherlands.h.i.+re,"

Folk-Lore Journal, vol. vi. 1888, p. 174.]

[Footnote 48: _Proc. of the Soc. of Antiq. of Scot._, vol. vii. p. 294.]

[Footnote 49: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. vii. pp. 165 and 192.]

[Footnote 50: "They are plainly no other than the Peihts, Picts, or Piks ... the Scandinavian writers generally call the Piks Peti, or Pets: one of them uses the term Petia, instead of Pictland (Saxo-Gram.); and, besides, the frith that divides Orkney from Caithness is usually denominated Petland Fiord in the Icelandic Sagas or histories." (Barry's _Orkney_, p. 115.)]

[Footnote 51: _Proc. of the Soc. of Antiq. of Scot._, vol. iii. p. 141: also vol. vii. p. 191. This quotation is made by the late Captain Thomas, R.N., a sound archaeologist; but I have to add that in the doc.u.ment of 1443, as given in Barry's _Orkney_ (2nd ed., London, 1808, pp. 401-419), while I find the statement as to the two native races, I find nothing about the stature or habits of the Picts. Captain Thomas twice quotes his statement, and as at one place he refers, not to the Bishop of 1443, but (vol. iii. p. 141) to "the Earl of Orkney's chaplain, writing about 1460," it is possible he had two ma.n.u.scripts of the fifteenth century in view.

[SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.--The Bishop's words are as follows:--

"_Istas insulas primitus Peti et Pape inhabitabant. Horum alteri scilicet Peti parvo superantes pigmeos statura in structuris urbium vespere et mane mira operantes, meredie vero cunctis viribus prorsus dest.i.tuti in subterraneis domunculis pre timore latuerunt._"--From his treatise _De Orcadibus Insulis_, reprinted in the "Bannatyne Miscellany," 1855, p. 33.]]

[Footnote 52: _Testimony of Tradition_, pp. 58-60, 65, 67-74, 79-80.]

[Footnote 53: Pennant's Second Tour in Scotland; Pinkerton's _Voyages_, London, 1809, p. 368.]

[Footnote 54: Linguae Romanae, Dictionarium, Luculentum Novum.]

[Footnote 55: Du Chaillu: _Land of the Midnight Sun_, vol. ii. pp.

421-2. This also is one of the articles of belief in Shetland, with regard to the _trows_, as the trolls are there called.]

[Footnote 56: _Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. of Scot_. (First Series), vol.

iii. pp. 127-144; vol. vii. pp. 153-195.]

[Footnote 57: _The Past in the Present_, Edinburgh, 1880, pp. 58-72.]

[Footnote 58: _The Past in the Present_, p. 59.]

[Footnote 59: Reproduced by permission of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.]