st exact, and they have
long flowing hair, which they comb out with great care. Their only dress
is a long white veil, which they wind round their body. Seen at night or
in the dusk of the evening, their beauty is great; but in the daylight
their eyes appear red, their hair is white, and their faces wrinkled;
hence they rarely let themselves be seen by day. They are fond of music,
and have fine voices, but are not much given to dancing. Their favourite
haunts are the springs, by which they sit and comb their hair.[B] The
Maories also have their Water-Pigmies, the Ponaturi, who are, according to
Mr. Tregear, elves, little tiny people, mostly dwellers in water, coming
ashore to sleep.[C] "The spirits most commonly met with in African
mythology," says Mr. Macdonald, "are water or river spirits, inhabiting
deep pools where there are strong eddies and under-currents. Whether they
are all even seen now-a-days it is difficult to determine, but they must
at one time have either shown themselves willingly, or been dragged from
their hiding-places by some powerful magician, for they are one and all
described. They are dwarfs, and correspond to the Scottish conception of
kelpies or fairies. They are wicked and malevolent beings, and are never
credited with a good or generous action. Whatever they possess they keep,
and greedily seize upon any one who comes within their reach. 'One of
them, the Incanti, corresponds to the Greek Python, and another, called
Hiti, appears in the form of a small and very ugly man, and is exceedingly
malevolent' (Brownlee). It is certain death to see an Incanti, and no one
but the magicians sees them except in dreams, and in that case the
magicians are consulted, and advise and direct what is to be done."[D]

[Footnote A: Grimm ap. Keightley, p. 261.]

[Footnote B: Villemarque, ibid., 431.]

[Footnote C: Tregear, _ut supra._]

[Footnote D: _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, xx. 124.]

Dr. Nansen, speaking of the Ignerssuit (plural of Ignersuak, which means
"great fire"), says that they are for the most part good spirits, inclined
to help men. The entrance to their dwellings is on the sea-shore.
According to the Eskimo legend, "The first earth which came into existence
had neither seas nor mountains, but was quite smooth. When the One above
was displeased with the people upon it, He destroyed the world. It burst
open, and the people fell down into the rifts and became Ignerssuit and
the water poured over every