cxv.-cxvi.). "The Highland giants were not so big but that their
conquerors wore their clothes; they were not so strong that men
could not beat them, even by wrestling. They were not quite
savages; for though some lived in caves, others had houses and
cattle and hoards of spoil" (I. xcix.). "And though I do not myself
believe that fairies _are_ ... I believe there once was a small
race of people in these islands, who are remembered as fairies, for
the fairy belief is not confined to the Highlanders of Scotland"
(I. c.) "This class of stories is so widely spread, so
matter-of-fact, hangs so well together, and is so implicitly
believed all over the United Kingdom, that I am persuaded of the
former existence of a race of men in these islands who were smaller
in stature than the Celts; who used stone arrows, lived in conical
mounds like the Lapps, knew some mechanical arts, pilfered goods
and stole children; and were perhaps contemporary with some species
of wild cattle and horses and great auks, which frequented marshy
ground, and are now remembered as water-bulls and water-horses, and
boobries, and such like impossible creatures" (IV. 344).

And much more to the same effect,[2] with which it is unnecessary to
trouble the reader. Now, all this was quite new to me. If I had ever
given a second thought to the so-called "supernatural" beings of
tradition, it was only to dismiss them, in the conventional manner as
creatures of the imagination. But these ideas of Mr. Campbell's were
decidedly interesting, and deserving of consideration. It was obvious
that tradition, especially where there had been an intermixture of
races, could not preserve one clear, unblemished record of the past; and
this he fully recognised. But it seemed equally obvious that the
"matter-of-fact" element to which he refers could not have owed its
origin to myth or fancy. The question being fascinating, there was