ing ignorance as to the natural causes of
conception were widely spread among primeval men. The fact that most
trees are fertilised by the wind (which carries to their female
flowers the invisible powder, or pollen, of the male flowers,
conveyed in the case of smaller plants which have gay-coloured flowers
by bees and butterflies) may have been noticed by primitive man, and
have started the belief that there are fertilising spirits or demons
in the air. However the fancy arose, it is only a parallel to the
strange fancies as to spontaneous generation of all sorts of animals
and plants current 200 years ago among civilised men. And, further, it
is worth noting that the uncanny belief in the "incubus" which was
generally prevalent in the Middle Ages may possibly be considered as a
survival in (or incursion into) Europe of the primitive spiritual
theory of all human conception, and of the fertilising activity of the
haunting spirits of the air which was held by primeval man, and is
still found in full force among the Arunta tribes of Australia.

"Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis
Exceptantque leves auras et saepe sine ullis
Conjugiis vento gravidae, mirabile dictu."

Georgic iii. 275.

(Facing the west on lofty rocks
All stand and sniff the buoyant breeze
And often--marvellous to tell--
Without conjunction with a sire,
Bear young engendered by the wind.)

CHAPTER XV

THE PYGMY RACES OF MEN

The tradition of the existence of dwarfs, not as isolated examples,
but as a race with their own customs, government, and language is
familiar among civilised people, and exists among scattered and remote
savages. We have all heard of them in that treasury of primitive
beliefs--the nursery. Therefore, the fact that there are at this
moment in various parts of the world dwarf or pygmy tribes of men,
living in proximity to but apart from those races which have a stature
identical with our own, has a great fascination and interest. Some few
races of men have an average height of an inch, or thereabouts,
greater than that of the people of the British Islands, whilst some
are shorter by as much as two or three inches. But, on the whole, it
may be said that, putting aside the pygmy races, of which I am about
to write, mankind generally does not show a very striking range of
normal stature--the mass in any race or region of the globe varying
from 5 ft. 4 in. to 5 ft. 8 in., a