David MacRitchie - Fians, Fairies and Picts
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David MacRitchie >> Fians, Fairies and Picts
[Footnote 91: Petrie (_op. cit._, p. 101), quoting from the "History of
the Cemeteries" in the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_.]
[Footnote 92: These two extracts are from _Silva Gadelica_, Eng.
transl., pp. 495 and 544; where the references are, respectively, "Book
of Ballymote, 250 _a b_," and "Kilbride No. 3, Advocates' Library,
Edinburgh, 5."]
[Illustration: PLATES XX. AND XXI.
SECTIONAL VIEW AND GROUND PLAN OF THE DENGHOOG, ISLAND OF SYLT.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXII.
INTERIOR OF THE DENGHOOG, ISLAND OF SYLT.]
PLATES XX. AND XXI.--_The Denghoog, Island of Sylt, North
Friesland._
In addition to my original collection, I am now able to show three views
of the Denghoog, in Sylt, which is the mound referred to on p. 34
(_ante_). Mr. W.G. Black speaks of it thus:--
"There is some confusion as to King Finn's dwelling. As doctors
differ, we may be allowed to claim that it was the Denghoog, close
to Wenningstedt, if only because we descended into that remarkable
dwelling. Externally merely a swelling green mound, like so many
others in Sylt, entrance is gained by a trap-door in the roof, and
decending a steep ladder, one finds himself in a subterranean
chamber, some seventeen by ten feet in size, the walls of which are
twelve huge blocks of Swedish granite; the height of the roof
varies from five feet to six feet. The original entrance appears to
have been a long narrow passage, seventeen feet long and about two
feet wide and high. This mound was examined by a Hamburg professor
in 1868, who found remains of a fireplace, bones of a small man,
some clay urns, and stone weapons. Later, a Kiel professor is said
to have carried off all he found therein to Kiel Museum, and so far
we have not been able to trace the published accounts of his
investigations."[93]
Mr. Christian Jensen, Oevenum, Foehr, to whom I am indebted for these
three views, has favoured me with the following information:--
"The sketches of the Denhoog which I enclose [viz., the Ground Plan
and Sectional View] are from the drawings of Professor Wibel, who
conducted the excavation of it in 1868. From his and C.P. Hansen's
observations I contribute the following statements: Originally, the
mound was higher, but in 1868 it had the form of a truncated cone,
4-1/2 _metres_ [say 14 feet 9 inches] in height. As may be seen from
the picture, it slopes away to the south above the original passage
into the mound, which the dweller made use of as his entrance; so
that the extent is very considerable. The present entrance, as may
be seen from the view of the interior, was made from above, at the
north side, directly opposite the original entrance.... Dr. Wibel
says: 'At the south side of the chamber is the doorway for ingress
and egress, with the passage itself leading from it. This passage,
which was 6 _metres_ [19 feet 8 inches] in length, was lined with
upright blocks of granite and gneiss, with a roofing and floor made
of flagstones of the same kinds of stone. It was opened up all the
way to the mouth of the passage. This [the outer orifice] lay close
to the extremity of the earth and near the floor of the mound, was
closed with earth only, not with a stone, and measured about 1
_metre_ [3 feet 3.4 inches] in height, and 1-1/3 _metre_ in breadth.
On account of these dimensions ... one can only creep through
with difficulty, and for that reason the plan does not show with
accuracy the position of the wall-slabs, and their number is merely
conjectured to be nine.'
"Immediately after this excavation of 17-19 September, 1868, C.P.
Hansen writes as follows:--
"'There are in the island of Sylt hillocks of ancient origin, for
the most part pagan burying-places, but some of which may have
served as the dwelling-places of a primitive people. One such
hillock has just been opened at Wenningstedt. The interior was
found to be a chamber, 17 feet long, 10 feet in breadth, and from 5
to 6 feet in height, with a covered passage about 22 feet long,
trending southward. The walls of this underground room were
composed of twelve large granite blocks, regularly arranged; the
roof consisted of three still larger slabs of the same kind of
rock; the stones which formed the passage were smaller. At one
corner of the floor of the cellar there was a well-defined
fireplace, and near it were urns and flint implements; in the
opposite corner there were many bones lying, apparently unburned,
probably those of the last dweller in the cavern.'"
Mr. Christian Jensen gives an account of "Der Denghoog bei Wenningstedt"
in the "Beilage zu Nr. 146 der Flensburger Nachrichten" of 25th June
1893, in which he says:
"... On the floor of the chamber, three separate divisions were
distinctly visible, of which one, situated on the east side, showed
traces of having been a fireplace. Professor Wibel found several
fragments of human bones, which evidently belonged only to _one_
individual, as no portion was duplicated; also a few animals'
bones. There was an extraordinary number of fragments of pottery,
belonging to about 24 different urns, of which 11 could be put
together. Their form and ornamentation were both fine and varied,
an interesting witness to the ceramics of the grey past.... Among
the stone implements found were a great many flint-knives; two
stone hatchets, two chisels, and a gouge, all of flint, and a disc
of porphyry were also obtained. Several mineral substances,
quartzite, rubble-stones, gravel, ochre, a sinter-heap--these are
less interesting than the seven amber beads which, with some
charcoal, completes the list of objects found. Referring to former
investigations of galleried mounds [_gangbauten_], which seem to
have been used in some cases as burying-places, in others as
dwellings, Dr. Wibel observes, in answer to the question resulting
from his discovery, as to whether the Denghoog ought to be regarded
as a sepulchre or as a dwelling, that, as Nilsson has already said,
all gallery-mounds were originally dwellings, and occasionally
became utilised as tombs. In the case of the Denghoog, this fact is
demonstrated by the fireplace, the scattered potsherds, the amber
beads, &c."
[Footnote 93: _Heligoland_, Edin. and Lond., 1888, pp. 84-85.]
Of the little woodcut which forms the Tailpiece of this volume, it is
hardly necessary to say that it represents some popular ideas regarding
"the little people." The woodcut of which this is a facsimile is one of
those contained in the eighteenth-century chap-book, "_Round about our
Coal Fire_; or, Christmas Entertainments," and it heads the chapter "_Of
Fairies, their Use and Dignity_." "They generally came out of a
Mole-hill," it is said; "they had fine Musick always among themselves,
and Danced in a Moonshiny Night around, or in a Ring as one may see at
this Day upon every Common in _England_, where Mushroones [_sic_] grow,"
The size of the mushroom, so elegantly depicted in the foreground, is
quite on a scale suitable to the stature ultimately accorded to the
little people in many districts; so also is the mole-hill. But the tree,
and the Satanic head in the foliage, are curiously out of proportion.
* * * * *
An examination of these various diagrams will show that the more
primitive of those structures were obviously built by a small-sized
race; some of the passages being quite impassable to large men of the
present day. This peculiarity was noticed by Scott when visiting the
"brochs" of Shetland, a kindred class of structures (none of which are
here shown). "These Duns or Picts' Castles are so small," he says,
writing in his Diary in August 1814, "it is impossible to conceive what
effectual purpose they could serve excepting a temporary refuge for the
chief." This reflection was suggested to him by the Broch of
Cleik-him-in (now usually written Clickemin), near Lerwick; and in
describing it he says: "The interior gallery, with its apertures, is so
extremely low and narrow, being only about three feet square, that it is
difficult to conceive how it could serve the purpose of communication.
At any rate, the size fully justifies the tradition prevalent here, as
well as in the south of Scotland, that the Picts were a diminutive
race." Of the Broch of Mousa he says: "The uppermost gallery is so
narrow and low that it was with great difficulty I crept through it,"--a
feat which baffled the present writer.[94] In all those cases, of
course, it is understood one has to crawl. As with the Lapps and the
Eskimos, creeping was much more a matter of course with the builders of
those places than it is with us. After getting through such passages it
happens that, in several instances, the roof is higher than is required
for the tallest living man. An admirable example of such a place is the
underground "Picts' House" at Pitcur, in Forfarshire, which would be
quite a palace to people of a small race, and very likely figures as
such in some popular tale; its dimensions and appearance considerably
magnified with every century.[95] But even this "fairy palace" was
entered by narrow, downward-sloping passages, similar to that seen in
the Frontispiece, down and up which the dwellers had to crawl. An
underground gallery such as that of Ardtole (near Ardglass, County
Down), is somewhat puzzling, because, while one chamber off it rises to
a height of 5 feet 3 inches, another is only 3-1/2 feet high; and the
main gallery, for 70 feet of its length, is 4-1/2 feet high, with a
width of 3 feet 4 inches. The inference from this seems to be that the
occupants were under 4-1/2 feet in height. If they had intended to crawl
along the 70 feet, they did not require so high a roof; whereas, if they
walked, and if they were more than 4-1/2 feet in height, they would need
to walk the 70 feet in a stooping posture, a constraint which they could
easily have avoided by raising the roof a foot or two. The highest roof
in all this souterrain being 5 feet 3, it does not seem likely that the
builders were taller than that; and there seems more reason to believe
that they were much smaller. Another such gallery in Sutherlandshire is
"nowhere more than 4-1/2 feet in height, and for the greater part of its
length only 2 feet wide, expanding to 3-1/2, for about 3 feet only from
the inner end." Still more restricted is the "rath-cave" of Ballyknock,
in the parish of Ballynoe, barony of Kinnatalloon, County Cork. "The
cave is a mere cutting in the clayey subsoil, and is roofed with flags
resting on the clayey banks of the cutting, of which the length is about
100 feet, and the height and width from 3 to 3-1/2 feet, except that the
width to a height of 2 feet is hardly a foot at the N.W. turn, 23 feet
from the N.E. end, and at a point 27 feet from the S.E. end.... Right
below the aperture ... was a short pillar-stone, deeply scored with
Oghams ... [and] many of the roofing slabs were seen ... to be inscribed
with Oghams, some large and others minute."[96]
"This class of structures deserves a careful study," observes Captain
Thomas, referring to the souterrains of the north-west of Scotland;[97]
"for the room or accommodation afforded by this mode of building is
exceedingly small when compared with the labour expended in procuring
it; besides, the doorway or entry is often so contracted that no bulky
object, not even a very stout man, could get in ... But what are we to
think when the single passage is so small that only a child could crawl
through it?"
[Footnote 94: On the very topmost course of all, the gallery dwindles
into such insignificant dimensions that not even a dwarf (as one would
naturally understand that term) could creep along it. Scott cannot have
meant this very extremity. With regard to it, I should be inclined to
say that it was merely the necessary finish of the gallery, not intended
to be used any more than the spaces beside the eaves of a house.]
[Footnote 95: The tendency to "idealisation on the part of the narrator"
is referred to, in this connection, by Mr. Joseph Jacobs, at p. 242 of
his "English Fairy Tales" (London, D. Nutt, 1890).]
[Footnote 96: _Jour. Roy. Soc. Antiq. Ireland_, 1891 (Third Quarter), p.
517. It is not inappropriate to add that one of these inscriptions
reads: "Branan, son of Ochal," and that the decipherer (the Rev. Edmond
Barry, M.R.I.A.) identifies this latter name with "the name of a King of
the Fairies of Connaught (_Ri Side Connacht_)": _op. cit._, pp. 524-525.
The Ardtole souterrain is described in the Journal of the same Society
(July-October, 1889, p. 245), by Mr. Seaton F. Milligan, M.R.I.A.; and
the one in Sutherlandshire is referred to by Dr. Joseph Anderson (at p.
289 of "Scotland in Pagan Times: The Iron Age," Edinburgh, 1883).]
[Footnote 97: _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._ (First Series), vol. vii. pp.
185-6.]
[Illustration]
_Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. London & Edinburgh._
