“Yes,” said Mrs. Barnham, owner of a cozy cottage in the north of Ireland, “maybe the little people really lived on earth. True, he died out long ago. " Her mother suddenly added: "And maybe one of them stayed."
This phrase became the prelude to the story of a mysterious incident from her childhood. Once, not far from her home, she, a fifteen-year-old girl, was cutting peat with her younger brother. The brother was away for a while, and the sister, immersed in work, suddenly felt a glance on her. She looked up and saw a little man in green clothes and a crimson pointed hat. Recovering from her amazement, the girl loudly called her brother. When he returned, the little man was gone.
Such stories are not uncommon in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Orkney Islands. They are part of numerous legends about the mysterious inhabitants of the hills, who possessed sorcery, disappeared and reappeared at night and in broad daylight.
These creatures have many names: elves, fairies, gnomes, little people. A rare legend or fairy tale of the British Isles goes without their participation. They often became characters in English ballads - remember, for example, the "little honey makers" from "Heather Honey" by R. L. Stevenson.
Who are they really? Scientists-mythologists will say that these are, they say, creatures associated in the minds of ancient people with the spirits of the earth. Some would call them a figment of fantasy. And archaeologists simply suggest visiting the town of Skara Brae on the coast of the Orkney Islands. On the banks of the Skara-Brae lie the usual-looking hills overgrown with green grass.
The fact that they are hollow was revealed only in 1850. Then a fierce storm tore off the top layer of the earth from one such hill. Astonished locals discovered a dwelling hidden in the hill! Masonry walls, miniature beds, low ceilings and doorways - everything was made for people no more than a meter tall! The interior of the underground dwellings was in perfect order. Only the owners were not there.
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Decades have passed. Skara-Brae has become one of the mysteries of modern archeology. Scientists attribute the structures under the hills to the late Neolithic era. The creators of underground houses did not know metal products. They made do with only stone tools.
The diminutive size of the dwellings suggests that their inhabitants were small in stature. Their fate, alas, is sad. The Celts who came to the British Isles drove the small people to the periphery - to the northern lands. But five centuries later, when the Anglo-Saxons, invading from the east, in turn pushed the Celts out of the center, the two races lived side by side.
How long the Celts lived side by side with the mysterious little people is unknown. But it is obvious that it was from there that the stories about stunted creatures living in the earth entered the English folklore.
According to legends, these creatures were powerful and dangerous. By charms, they lured people into their underground dwellings, and when people returned back, it turned out that several years had passed.
The little people also possessed the reserved knowledge of the forces of nature. As if they were commanding the wind, they could send storms or pacify storms. They were feared and shunned. Therefore, they did not touch it for a long time.
The archaeologists who are now excavating in Skara Brae can neither refute nor confirm the ancient legends. But the available facts cannot be called otherwise than strange. The rooms of ancient dwellings are not made for humans. Their sizes are from 36 to 24 sq. m.
They were built deliberately as underground structures. At first, walls were erected from stone slabs, then flooring was made from stones and wood on them. And only then the whole structure was covered with a layer of earth and peat. Only a small opening remained. In the middle of each room was a hearth lined with stones.
Small cabinets for household items and trinkets were also made of stone slabs. Remains of canopies have been preserved over the stone beds. Once, archaeologists are convinced, it was cozy and warm here. The builders made underground passages between the dwellings - they were used by the inhabitants of the hills if they wanted to visit their neighbors.
When archaeologists investigated ancient structures, they were primarily concerned with the riddle: where did the inhabitants of the hills go? Jewelry and dishes were neatly laid in stone cabinets; on the floor, near the exit from one dwelling, a necklace lay like a necklace that had been dropped by someone in a hurry; stone tools and weapons stood untouched. One got the impression that the owners disappeared overnight, leaving this world forever.
The obvious assumption about the armed invasion of people into the village of the small people was not confirmed - the interior decoration of the underground dwellings looked too neat and intact.
Archaeologists drew attention to one more mysterious detail: heaps of sand lay on the floor of the rooms and in the aisles. Most likely, they were brought here by a storm - some researchers suggested. Others just shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment, recalling an old belief: everyone who invades the home of a small people without asking will turn into sand.
Witnesses of the incident will forget their own name, their relatives and will wander around the world in search of lost memory.
The mystery of the disappeared builders of Skara-Brae has not yet been revealed. But the stories of the people who met with the last representatives of the little people are passed from mouth to mouth among the locals. Moreover, they believe that these creatures, trying to preserve the race, can kidnap children from the cradle. Some of the abductees return to the human world after several years.
For example, at the beginning of the XX century. talked about a girl who returned home after a long absence. At first she was ill for a long time, but then she recovered and got used to life among people. But until the end of her life, something out of this world remained in her. Therefore, to this day, residents of those places in North Britain put pieces of iron in the bed of young children. After all, metal, people believe, has magical power over the inhabitants of the hills.