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Tyson, Edward, 1650-1708

"A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients"

Keightley, 130.]
[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, 234.]
In the folk-tales of the Magyars we meet with a still more remarkable
confusion between these two classes of beings. Some of the castles
described in these stories are inhabited by giants, others by fairies.
Again, the giants marry; their wives are fairies, so are their daughters.
They had no male issue, as their race was doomed to extermination. They
fall in love, and are fond of courting. Near Bikkfalva, in Haromszek, the
people still point out the "Lover's Bench" on a rock where the amorous
giant of Csigavar used to meet his sweetheart, the "fairy of
Veczeltetoe."[A]
[Footnote A: _Folk Tales of the Magyars_, p. xxix.]
(6.) Tales of little people are to be found in countries where there never
were any Pigmy races. Not to deal with other, and perhaps more debatable
districts, we find an excellent example of this in North America. Besides
the instances mentioned in the foregoing section, the following may be
mentioned. Mr. Leland, speaking of the Un-a-games-suk, or Indian spirits
of the rocks and streams, says that these beings enter far more largely,
deeply, and socially into the life and faith of the Indians than elves or
fairies ever did into those of the Aryan race.


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