ave attained, and that is the importance which they assume
when they become the external covering of a large and extensive tract of
underground country. Here we are brought face to face with a totally
different explanation, to which I shall recur in due course.

(4.) The little people are not by any means associated entirely with
mounds, as the foregoing section is largely intended to show. Their
habitations may be in or amongst stones, in caves, under the water, in
trees, or amongst the glades of a forest; they may dwell on mountains, on
moors, or even under the altars of churches. We may freely grant that some
of these habitations fall into line with Mr. MacRitchie's theory, but they
are not all susceptible of such an explanation.

(5.) The association of giants and dwarfs in certain places, even the
confusion of the two races, seems somewhat difficult of explanation by
this theory. In Ireland the distinction between the two classes is sharper
than in other places, since, as Sir William Wilde pointed out, whilst
every green rath in that island is consecrated to the fairies or "good
people," the remains attributed to the giants are of a different character
and probably of a later date. In some places, however, a mound similar to
those often connected with fairies is associated with a giant, as is the
case at Sessay parish, near Thirsk,[A] and at Fyfield in Wiltshire. The
chambered tumulus at Luckington is spoken of as the Giant's Caves, and
that at Nempnet in Somersetshire as the Fairy's Toot. In Denmark, tumuli
seem to be described indifferently as Zettestuer (Giants' Chambers) or
Troldestuer (Fairies' Chambers).[B] In "Beowulf" a chambered tumulus is
described, in the recesses of which were treasures watched over for three
hundred years by a dragon. This barrow was of stone, and the work of
giants.

Seah on enta geweorc, Looked on the giant's work,
hu etha stan-bogan, how the stone arches,
stapulinn-faeste, on pillars fast,
ece eoreth-reced the eternal earth-house
innan healde. held within.

[Footnote A: _Folk Lore_, i. 130.]

[Footnote B: _Flint Chips_, p. 412.]

The mounds have sometimes been made by giants and afterwards inhabited by
dwarfs, as in the case of the Nine-hills, already alluded to. In others,
they are at the same time inhabited by giants, dwarfs, and others, as in
the story of the Dwarf's Banquet,[A] and still more markedly in the
Wunder