well-lit central chamber, and all enclosed in a green hill or mound.
It is of course curious to contrast Mr. Batten's frontispiece with the
central chamber of the How, but the essential features are the same.
Even such a minute touch as the terraces on the hill have their
bearing, I believe, on Mr. MacRitchie's "realistic" views of Faerie.
For in quite another connection Mr. G. L. Gomme, in his recent
"Village Community" (W. Scott), pp. 75-98, has given reasons and
examples for believing that terrace cultivation along the sides of
hills was a practice of the non-Aryan and pre-Aryan inhabitants of
these isles. [Footnote: To these may be added Iona (_cf._ Duke of
Argyll, _Iona_, p. 109).] Here then from a quarter quite unexpected
by Mr. MacRitchie, we have evidence of the association of the King
of Elfland with a non-Aryan mode of cultivation of the soil. By Mr.
Gomme's kindness I am enabled to give an illustration of this.

Altogether it seems not improbable that in such a tale as "Childe
Rowland" we have an idealised picture of a "marriage by capture" of
one of the diminutive non-Aryan dwellers of the green hills with an
Aryan maiden, and her re-capture by her brothers. It is otherwise
difficult to account for such a circumstantial description of the
interior of these mounds, and especially of such a detail as the
terrace cultivation on them. At the same time it must not be thought
that Mr. MacRitchie's views explain all fairy tales, or that his
identifications of Finns = Fenians = Fairies = Sidhe = "Pechs" = Picts,
will necessarily be accepted. His interesting book, so far as it goes,
seems to throw light on tales about mermaids (Finnish women in their
"kayaks,") and trolls, but not necessarily, on fairy tales in general.
Thus, in the present volume, besides "Childe Rowland," there is only
"Tom Tit Tot" in his hollow, the green hill in "Kate Crackernuts," the
"Cauld Lad of Hilton," and perhaps the "Fairy Ointment," that are