in Perthshire, is celebrated equally as a Fairy haunt and as a favourite hunting-ground of the Fians.  The Fians, indeed, were said to have lived by deer-hunting, so much so that Campbell of Islay suggests that their name signifies “the deer men”; and the deer, it is believed, “were a fairy race."[34] The famous hound of the famous leader of the Fians was “a Fairy or Elfin dog.”  In short, the connection between Fians and Fairies, recognised in the Gaelic manuscript of eight or ten centuries ago, is apparent throughout the traditions of the Gaelic-speaking people.

But if the Fians were either identical with, or closely akin to the Fairies, they must have been “little people.”  The belief that they were so is supported by one traditional Fenian story.  This is the well-known tale of the visit of Fin, the famous chief of the Fians, to a country known to him and his people as “The Land of the Big Men.”  The story tells how Fin sailed from Dublin Bay in his skin-boat, crossed the sea to that country, and shortly after landing was captured and taken to the palace of the king, where he was appointed court dwarf,[35] and remained for a considerable time the attached and faithful adherent of the king.  The collector of this story has assumed that it is purely imaginary.  But let it be contrasted with the following extract from the Heimskringla.  The period is the early part of the eleventh century, and the scene Norway:  “There was a man from the Uplands called Fin the Little, and some said of him that he was of Finnish race.  He was a remarkable [? remarkably] little man, but so swift of foot that no horse could overtake him....  He had long been in the service of King Hrorek, and often employed in errands of trust....  Now when King Hrorek was set under guards on the journey Fin would often slip in among the men of the guard, and followed, in general, with the lads and serving-men; but as often as he could he waited upon Hrorek, and entered into conversation with him."[36] And, like Fin the dwarf in the Gaelic story, this little Fin rendered great service to his king.  Now, the Heimskringla Fin is unquestionably a historical personage, and the account of him was written by a twelfth century historian.  The Gaelic story was only obtained in the Hebrides, and reduced to writing twenty-three years ago.  Although Fin of the Fians is stated in Irish records to be the grandson of a Finland woman,[37] and although the Scandinavian and the Hebridean tales look very much like two versions of one story, this cannot precisely be the case, as the Fenian Fin is placed in an earlier era than his namesake of Norway.  A dwarf king named Fin is also remembered in Frisian tradition;[38] and that he and his race were small men is pretty clearly proved by the fact that when one of the earth-houses attributed to him was opened some years ago, it was found to contain the bones of a little man.[39] Both of these dwarf Fins, Little Fin of Norway and Little Fin of