Empire unusual suggested

72 PASSPORT TO MAGONIA THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH 73
... in which little men of dwarfish, and even pigmy, size, figure as
good bowmen, slaying men of large size, and powerful make, by their
dexterity in the use of the bow and arrow. 20
In spite of their small size, they are understood to have been
of very considerable strength. They were not "undersized in the
same way that children arc, but full-grown individuals, undersized
and sinew}', or muscular."
These dwarfs or pygmies are called Na Amhuisgean or, more
correctly, Na h-Amhuisgean. The English phonetics for the
Gaelic "amhuisg" would be "awisk." The same beings are sometimes
found under the names Tamhasg and Amhuish, and these
words uniformly designate dwarfs. It is ironic, therefore, that in
one talc (''The Lad with the Skin Garments," quoted by Mac-
Dougall) the awisks address a human intruder as "O little man"
while he in turn calls them "big men all."
Now one point must absolutely be cleared up. Were there or
were there not races of dwarfs living among the West and Middle
Europeans of antiquity? Were the legends about the fairies and
the elves based on the fact that the ancient inhabitants of the
northern parts of the British Isles were such a race? Historical
and archaeological researchers definitely say no, and we must
agree with them. Yet several writers, such as David MacRitchic,
claim there arc indications in this direction, and of course such
indications would be crucial to any theory concerning the nature
of the humanoids." 1
In a book published in London in 1894, Tyson's Essay Concerning
the Pygmies of the Ancients, Professor Windle, of Birmingham,
remarks that a race of dwarfs supplied the "best warriors"
and bodyguard of several kings. Tyson made an extensive study
of the dwarf races and quotes the Greek historian Ctesias:
Middle India has black men, who are called Pygmies, using the
same language as the other Indians. ... Of these Pygmies, the king
of the Indians has three thousand in his train; for they are very
skillful archers.
And he adds:
There seem to have been near lake Zerrah, in Persia, Negrito [pygmy
black] tribes who are probably aboriginal, and may have formed the
historic black guard of the ancient kings of Susania.
Tyson's work, to which Windle provided the Preface, was written
in the seventeenth century. After calling attention to the remark
by Ctesias, it goes on:
Talentonius and Bartholine think that what Ctesias relates of the
Pygmies, as their being very good archers, very well illustrates this
Text of Ezekiel.
The Ezekiel text in question appears thus in the King James Bible:
The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about,
and the Gammadims were in thy towers. 22
The Genevan translation printed in Edinburgh in 1579 also
has "Gammadims" glossed "valorous men." In the Vulgate, however,
it runs thus:
Filii Arvad cum Exercitu tuo supra Muros tuos per circuitum, et
Pygmaei in Turribus tuis fuerunt.
And indeed, the English Bishops' Bible of 1572 and 1575 does not
have "Gammadims" but "Pygmenians." Without going into
further detail, it is clear that the Gaelic story of a guard of dwarf
warriors is not an isolated case.
If we return now to David MacRitchic's quotation from the
Flemish folklore journal Ons Volksleven, we can learn more:
The Fenlanders [a race dwelling in our country prior to the Kelts]
were little, but strong, dexterous, and good swimmers, they lived by
hunting and fishing. Adam of Bremen in the eleventh century thus
pictures their descendants or race: "They had large heads, flat faces,
flat noses, and large mouths. They lived in caves of the rocks, which
they quitted in the night-time for the purpose of committing sanguinary
outrages." The Keltic people, and later those of German
race, so tall and strong, could hardly look upon such little folk as
human beings. They must have regarded them as strange, mysterious
creatures. And when these negroes or Fenlanders had lived for a
long enough time hidden, for fear of the new people, in their grottoes,
especially when they at length fell into decay through poverty,
or died out, they became changed in the imagination of the dreamy
Germans into mysterious beings, a kind of ghosts or gods. 23