nor shrub is to be seen, and not even a pebble is to be found in the soil on which they stand.  If the inhabitants are asked concerning this wonderful monument, they say it is an old camp of Caesar’s, an army turned into stone, or that it is the work of the Crions or Gories.  These they describe as little men between two and three feet high, who carried these enormous masses on their hands; for, though little, they are stronger than giants.  Every night they dance around the stones, and woe betide the traveller who approaches within their reach! he is forced to join in the dance, where he is whirled about till, breathless and exhausted, he falls down, amidst the peals of laughter of the Crions.  All vanish with the break of day.  In the ruins of Tresmalouen dwell the Courils.  They are of a malignant disposition, but great lovers of dancing.  At night they sport around the Druidical monuments.  The unfortunate shepherd that approaches them must dance their rounds with them till cockcrow; and the instances are not few of persons thus ensnared who have been found next morning dead with exhaustion and fatigue.  Woe also to the ill-fated maiden who draws near the Couril dance! nine months after, the family counts one member more.  Yet so great is the cunning and power of these dwarfs, that the young stranger bears no resemblance to them, but they impart to it the features of some lad of the village.”

[Footnote A:  Keightley, 440.]

In India megalithic remains are also associated with little people.  “Dwarfs hold a distinct place in Hindu mythology; they appear sculptured on all temples.  Siva is accompanied by a body-guard of dwarfs, one of whom, the three-legged Bhringi, dances nimbly.  But coming nearer to Northern legend, the cromlechs and kistvaens which abound over Southern India are believed to have been built by a dwarf race, a cubit high, who could, nevertheless, move and handle the huge stones easily.  The villagers call them Pandayar."[A]

[Footnote A:  Folk Lore, iv. 401.]

Mr. Meadows Taylor, speaking of cromlechs in India, says, “Wherever I found them, the same tradition was attached to them, that they were Morie humu, or Mories’ houses; these Mories having been dwarfs who inhabited the country before the present race of men.”  Again, speaking of the cromlechs of Koodilghee, he states, “Tradition says that former Governments caused dwellings of the description alluded to to be erected for a species of human beings called ‘Mohories,’ whose dwarfish stature is said not to have exceeded a span when standing, and a fist high when in a sitting posture, who were endowed with strength sufficient to roll off large stones with a touch of their thumb.”  There are, he also tells us, similar traditions attaching to other places, where the dwarfs are sometimes spoken of as Gujaries.[A]

[Footnote A:  Jour.  Ethnol.  Soc., 1868-69, p. 157.]