Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/265

Rh articles in the fourth volume of the Archæological Review. His thesis, briefly put, is that the fairy belief has its basis solely in the traditions connected with a short, dark, very strong race, who dwelt in earth-houses, and were subdued by the invading Celts, but retained separate, often independent existence, well on into historical times. Ethnologically, he conceives this race to have had Finnish affinities; historically, to have been known as the Picts. Unfortunately for himself, Mr. MacRitchie attempts to prove far too much; moreover, he indulges in etymological guesswork, such as that the Feinne (the warrior companions of Finn mac Cumhail) were of Finnish race, and that the Gaelic word for fairy, Sidhe (pronounced “Shee”), has some possible connection with the Tshuds, a race of Northern Europe and Asia, ethnologically akin to the Lapps. I have attempted to show (Tales, pp. 418-20) that his arguments respecting the Feinne are based upon a false appreciation of the Fenian documents; indeed, his whole treatment of sources seems to me as unscientific as his etymological theorising. Nevertheless, I must frankly say that he has collected and marshalled an array of facts deserving the most serious consideration; and I think he may be allowed to have made out his case to this extent, that the historical elements in the fairy belief are more numerous and potent than is held by the great majority of students.

Whilst it cannot be said that the past eighteen months have very greatly forwarded our study, yet steady progress has been made. Our knowledge has been enlarged, our criticism is sounder, because better informed. But in no one branch of Celtic antiquities has sufficient material been collected, or has the existing material been sifted with sufficient care to justify dogmatism. At the outset of this article I indicated as approximately true, the hypothesis that the Celtic inhabitants of these islands possessed a considerable archaic culture, many elements of which are preserved to this day in the living folk-lore of these islands. This is substantially the opinion expressed by Mr. York Powell in