d was slain by her relatives, while, as a
warning as to the necessity for love's fervour being kept within bounds,
his seven brothers were banished by the chief. The exiles went forth into
the depths of the forest, and in their wanderings after a new land they
crossed a small clearing, in which a little girl, about a span in height,
was seated peeling potatoes. 'Little sister,' they queried, 'how come you
here? where is your home?' 'I am not of homes nor parents,' she replied.
Leaving her, they went still farther into the forest, and had not gone far
when they saw a little man cutting canes, and farther on to the right a
curious-looking house, in front of which sat two diminutive women combing
their hair. Things looked so queer that the travellers hesitated about
approaching nearer, but, eager to find a way out of the forest, they
determined in their extremity to question the strange people. The two
women, when interrogated, turned sharply round, showing eyes of a flashing
red; then looking upward, their eyes became dull and white, and they
immediately ran into the house, the doors and windows of which at once
vanished, the whole taking the form and appearance of an isolated
boulder." Amongst the Maories also we have "te tini ote hakuturi," or "the
multitude of the wood-elves," the little people who put the chips all back
into the tree Rata had felled and stood it up again, because he had not
paid tribute to Tane.[E]

[Footnote A: Quoted by Keightley, p. 62.]

[Footnote B: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 230.]

[Footnote C: Keightley, p. 92, quoting from Thiele.]

[Footnote D: _Folk Lore Journal_, v. 143.]

[Footnote E: Tregear, _Journ. Anth. Inst._, xix. 121.]

7. The association of little people with water as a home is a widespread
notion. The Sea-Trows of the Shetlanders inhabit a region of their own at
the bottom of the sea. They here respire a peculiar atmosphere, and live
in habitations constructed of the choicest submarine productions. They
are, however, not always small, but may be of diverse statures, like the
Scandinavian Necks. In Germany the Water-Dwarfs are also known. At
Seewenheiher, in the Black Forest, a little water-man (_Seemaennlein_) used
to come and join the people, work the whole day along with them, and in
the evening go back into the lakes.[A] The size of the Breton Korrigs or
Korrigan, if we may believe Villemarque in his account of this folk, does
not exceed two feet, but their proportions are mo