ion of the little people to it as a dwelling-place may be, I
have not been able to learn.

[Footnote A: Keightley, 70.]

[Footnote B: _Folklore_, iv. 49.]

[Footnote C: Ritson, 106, quoting Aubrey's _Natural History of Surrey_,
iii. 366.]

[Footnote D: Allies, _Antiquities and Folk-Lore of Worcestershire_,
p.443.]

There is an Iroquois tale of dwarfs, in which the summons to the Pigmies
was given by knocking upon a large stone.[A] The little people of
Melanesia seem also to be associated in some measure with stones. Speaking
of these beings, Mr. Codrington says,[B] "There are certain Vuis having
rather the nature of fairies. The accounts of them are vague, but it is
argued that they had never left the islands before the introduction of
Christianity, and indeed have been seen since. Not long ago there was a
woman living at Mota who was the child of one, and a very few years ago a
female Vui with a child was seen in Saddle Island. Some of these were
called Nopitu, which come invisibly, or possess those with whom they
associate themselves. The possessed are called Nopitu. Such persons would
lift a cocoa-nut to drink, and native shell money would run out instead of
the juice and rattle against their teeth; they would vomit up money, or
scratch and shake themselves on a mat, when money would pour from their
fingers. This was often seen, and believed to be the doing of a Nopitu. In
another manner of manifestation, a Nopitu would make himself known as a
party were sitting round an evening fire. A man would hear a voice in his
thigh, 'Here am I, give me food.' He would roast a little red yam, and
fold it in the corner of his mat. He would soon find it gone, and the
Nopitu would begin a song. Its voice was so small and clear and sweet,
that once heard it never could be forgotten; but it sang the ordinary Mota
songs. Such spirits as these, if seen or found, would disappear beside a
stone; they were smaller than the native people, darker, and with long
straight hair. But they were mostly unseen, or seen only by those to whom
they took a fancy. They were the friendly Trolls or Robin Goodfellows of
the islands; a man would find a fine red yam put for him on the seat
beside the door, or the money which he paid away returned within his
purse. A woman working in her garden heard a voice from the fruit of a
gourd asking for some food, and when she pulled up an arum or dug out a
yam, another still remained; but when she listened to