CHAPTER VII.

"The Feens, then, belonged to the pre-Milesian races, and were connected, not only with Ireland, but likewise with Northern and Central Scotland, England and Wales, and the territory lying between the Rhine and the Elbe.[75] Now, there are just two people mentioned in the Irish records who had settlements in Ireland, and who yet were connected with Great Britain and the region between the Rhine and the Elbe. These were the people termed the Tuatha De Danann, and the Cruithné." So says the learned annotator of "The Dean of Lismore's Book."[76]

These two last-named races, we are told, are both traditionally brought from the Elbe and Rhine districts to Ireland and Scotland, and both are eventually subdued by the later-arriving Milesian Scots. The period given for the Milesian conquest of the Cruithné of Scotland, is the ninth century of the Christian era.

Leaving the "Tuatha De Danann" out of the question in the meantime, let us look at the contemporary and probably kindred "Cruithné." The Cruithné, Cruithneach, or Cruithnigh, are unquestionably deserving of study, for Dr. Skene has shown us[77] that this is merely another name for those people whom history chiefly knows as "the Picts." The traditional "Feens," therefore, are to be identified with the historical "Picts."

Now, although these people are, as we have just seen, believed to have come from the Continental country of "Lochlan" (Scandinavia, in the largest acceptation of that term, or, in its most restricted sense, the region lying between the Rhine and the Elbe), and although there is every reason to believe that they spread themselves all over the British Isles, yet they seem--regarded as "Picts"--to be chiefly associated with North Britain. Their memory is still preserved, topographically, by the name of _Pentland_ (formerly _Petland_ or _Pehtland_, and _Pictland_), which is borne by the stormy firth separating the Orkneys from Caithness, and also by the range of hills lying to the south of Edinburgh. Both of these names are unquestionably derived from the time when there was a "land of the Picts" in either of these neighbourhoods. But the Picts, as such, are remembered all over Scotland, in history and in tradition. It is chiefly in connection with Ireland that they are spoken of as Cruithné.

If the "Feens" of tradition were _Cruithné_, or _Picts_, it is evident that whatever is known with regard to the history, customs, appearance, and language of the Picts will help us to decide as to whether the _Feens_ were really one with the _Finns_ of history, ethnology, and tradition. This, as already remarked, on general grounds, seems very probable. But, when a very able historian assures us that the historical Cruithné or Picts must certainly be at least classed with the Feens of tradition, if these three terms do not actually include one people, we are enabled, by proceeding upon this assumption, to obtain further proofs in corroboration of this belief.

Whether regarded as Feens or as Picts, these people, we are informed, had settlements throughout the British Isles during the earlier centuries of the Christian era, and the country of their origin was Northern Germany (or, more vaguely, Scandinavia); in which country large sections of their kindred continued to dwell, and to maintain a system of confederacy with the Western or British section long after the latter had settled in their new home. This, at any rate, when viewed as Feens.

On the other hand, such a writer as Mr. H. Howorth demonstrates that, during the same period, the Mongoloid races formed a most important, and in some places a preponderating, portion of the inhabitants of the countries of Northern Europe. But, during that period, these Mongolian races have--he points out--been subjected to an unceasing process of expulsion from their neighbours on the south and south-east. If any race, therefore, arrived in the British Islands from the neighbourhood of the Baltic in the centuries immediately preceding or following the birth of Christ, the probability is that that race belonged to one division or another of these dispossessed Ugrian people.

If this were so--if the Cruithné or Picts, who came to Britain from the Baltic lands, were one with, or closely akin to, the Finns and Lapps--their characteristics must have been those of such people. For example, their religious beliefs. Now, one cannot read Dr. Skene's references to the heathen religion of the Cruithné without seeing that it strongly resembles that of the Lapps and Finns.[78] Without quoting these references in detail, it may be pointed out that the power of bringing on a snowstorm and darkness, and unfavourable winds, was among the mysteries of the Pictish priests. And this gift of commanding the elements was peculiarly associated with the Finns and Lapps, as it still is with the Eskimo "sorcerers" of Greenland. "In the Middle Ages," says a writer on sorcery,[79] "the name of _Finn_ was equivalent to sorcerer." And as the same writer observes that "the old authors often confounded the Finns with the Lapps, and when they speak of Finns, it is very difficult to know which of these two peoples they refer to" (a confusion of terms which we have already had occasion to remark), we may here use the term _Finn_ to denote both divisions. Tentatively, at any rate. The actual Lapps appear to have been the most powerful magicians of all that caste. "It is proved by numerous documents," continues M. Tuchmann, "that the Finns called the Lapps sorcerers, although they themselves were reputed to be great magicians; but they regarded themselves as inferior to their neighbours, for they habitually said, when speaking of their most famous sorcerers: 'He is a veritable Lapp.'"[80] However, since "Finn" has so frequently been used to denote the whole group, and since the most recent examples of these people in the British Isles, namely, the magic-working Finns of Shetland, have borne that title, we may adhere to the practice of referring to both divisions as "Finns."

The Picts or Cruithné, therefore, practised the magic of the Finns. That is, the _Feens_ practised the magic of the _Finns_.[81]

Again, when we look at certain weapons used by the _Feens_, a similar resemblance is visible. According to a tradition, taken down from the recital of an old Hebridean, the spears or darts of the Feens, which were known in Gaelic as "_tunnachan_," were of this description: "They were sticks with sharp ends made on them, and these ends burned and hardened in the fire. They [the Feens] used to throw them from them, and they could aim exceedingly with them, and they could drive them through a man. They used to have a bundle with them on their shoulders, and a bundle in their oxters [under their arm-pits]. I myself have seen one of them that was found in a moss, that was as though it had been hardened in the fire."[82] "This, then," justly remarks Mr. Campbell, "gives the popular notion of the heroes [the Feens], and throws them back beyond the iron period."

While the fashion of referring to "periods" of iron, bronze, etc., is very apt to mislead (since contiguous peoples have been, and are, in different "periods" of this nature, at the same moment of time), it is at least clear from the above tradition that the most primitive form of dart was associated with the Feens. But, although this species of weapon is of great antiquity, it does not follow that a tradition which relates to people who employed it, is necessarily of great antiquity also. Or that those javelin-men were at all "prehistoric." We have already seen that a race of people employed darts in exactly the same way when fishing--or, perhaps, more correctly, when seal-hunting--within British waters, only two hundred years ago. And the people who in this respect resembled the _Feens_ of Gaelic folk-lore are themselves remembered as _Finns_.

But perhaps the readiest and surest way of obtaining something like a true conception of these legendary Feens, is to regard them from the ethnological point of view, as well, that is, as our imperfect information will allow. We shall therefore look at them in this aspect, whether considered as _Picts_ or _Cruithné_ or as _Feens_.

The great hero of the Feenic legends, and the "King" or "General" of the Feens of Ireland, was the famous "Finn" or "Fionn." If the battle of Gawra was really fought in the third century, as is alleged, and if this "Fionn" was a real man, and not the type or "eponymus" of his race, then he ought to be assigned to the third century. For he is said to have been present at that battle, where his grandson was slain and the supremacy of his race destroyed. At any rate, whether he lived at that date or not, and whether he was an individual or merely a personification of his race, Fionn figures throughout the tales of these people as a very Feen of the Feens.

Now, among the many stories told of him, there is one, entitled "How Fin[83] went to the Kingdom of the Big Men." It is unnecessary to give all the particulars of this tale. But Fin is pictured as starting from Dublin Bay in his little coracle (_curachan_) on his voyage to the country of the Big Men. Although he is described as "hoisting the spotted, towering sails," they cannot have been very large, or very many, for the coracle was so small that "Fin was guide in her prow, helm in her stern, and tackle in her middle," and when he landed on the coast of the Big Men's country, he drew his tiny vessel, unaided, up into the dry grass, above the tide-mark. It ought to be added, however, that this coracle was an open boat, capable of holding at least four persons; as is shown on the return voyage.

After landing, Fin encountered a "big wayfarer" (_tais-dealach mòr_), who informed him that his king had long been in want of a dwarf (_troich_), and that Fin would suit him capitally. "He took with him Fin; but another big man (_fear mòr_) came, and was going to take Fin from him. The two fought; but when they had torn each other's clothes, they left it to Fin to judge. He chose the first one. He took Fin with him to the palace of the king, whose worthies and high nobles assembled to see the little man (_an duine bhig_"). And then and there Fin was installed as the royal dwarf.[84]

In this story, then, we have the tacit admission that, not far from Fin's home at the hill of Allen, Kildare, there was a country whose inhabitants were so much taller than the race of Fin, that the latter were mere dwarfs beside them. Now, this is precisely _the most striking_ characteristic of the kayak-using Finns of Shetlandic tradition.

The _Finns_ of Shetland folk-lore are, says Mr. Karl Blind, "reckoned among the _Trows_." The king of the _Feens_ was hailed in the country of the big men as a _Troich_. And these are simply two forms of the same word. _Troich_ or _droich_, among Gaelic-speaking people, is softened into _trow_ or _drow_ among the English-speaking Shetlanders.[85] In both cases it signifies "dwarf."

And, just as the Shetlanders have memories of a race of small men, who, in spite of their mean stature, were a terror to the taller people, whom they oppressed and took tribute from, so have the Gaelic-speaking people a mass of legends which also tell of similar dwarfish but dreaded tyrants. The former designate their dwarfs "Finns": if the Gaelic traditions are not equally definite, they at least suggest that a caste of "Feens," who levied a tax upon the Gaelic-speaking people, were themselves dwarfs in stature. And the Highland tales abound in stories of fierce and tyrannical dwarfs.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] It is to be remembered that "Lochlan," the term used to denote the territory last named, was ultimately applied to the whole of Scandinavia, and _may_ have been used in its widest sense at the period here referred to.

[76] Introduction, p. lxxvi. In the above, I have again taken the liberty of modifying the various designations.

[77] "Celtic Scotland," vol. i, p. 131; vol. iii, chap, iii, etc. _See_ also his "Chronicles of the Picts and Scots."

[78] "Celtic Scotland," vol. ii, pp. 108-16.

[79] M. J. Tuchmann, in "Mélusine," t. iv, no. 16.

[80] Mr. Charles de Kay, in one of the valuable articles already referred to, remarks ("Woman in Early Ireland," _Century Magazine_, July 1889, p. 439): "Although in the Kalewala the tribes of Pohjola, or the Lapps, are considered foul magicians, and ever the foe of the heroes of Kaleva, or the Finns, yet it is from Pohjola that Waïnamoïnen and his comrades always take their brides by force or by purchase." This quotation not only confirms the above account of M. Tuchmann, but it also illustrates the fact that even the most antagonistic races do not refrain from mixing their blood. Thus it may be seen how Lapps and Finns could eventually become almost identified. And the "Heimskringla" shows us how, in turn, this composite Finno-Lapp race could later on become blended with that of the Haralds and Sigurds of the Sagas.

[81] This has already been propounded by the late Mr. J. F. Campbell ("West Highland Tales," iv, 29-30).

[82] "West Highland Tales," iii, 394-5.

[83] So spelt in the English translation given by the Rev. John G. Campbell, minister of Tiree, in _The Scottish Celtic Review_, Glasgow, 1885, pp. 184-90.

[84] Referring to the component parts of Fin's army on a certain occasion, Mr. Charles de Kay remarks ("Early Heroes of Ireland," _Century Magazine_, June 1889, p, 200): "The battalion of 'middle-sized men' and that of 'small men' we may understand as recruited from the true hunter and fisher tribes, who gave the name Fenian to the army itself, and Fion to the folk-hero."

[85] _Trow_ is the favourite form among the Shetlanders; but other forms are given by Edmondston in his "Glossary," such as _drow_, _troll_, _troil_, _troilya_, and _trolld_. The Shetland terms are, therefore, also variants of the Scandinavian _troll_, following a common Scotch tendency, which modifies _boll_, _knoll_, _poll_, _roll_, etc., into _bow_, _know_, _pow_, _row_, etc. (the vowel sound being as in _now_). But whichever form may be the oldest, it is manifest that _trow_ or _drow_, and _troich_ or _droich_, are radically one.