The fairy element in English poetry.

The theories about the origin of the belief in fairies are so confused and intermingled that is is impossible to divide one sharply from another. Traces of three different lines of idea may, however, be detached. The first theory states that, when the paleolithic men were driven from their homes by races more advanced in civilized arts, they took refuge among the rocks and caves of the wilder parts of the country. Here, of necessity, they were forced to penetrate into the secrets of Nature; they located the minerals, acquired an uncanny power of foretelling the weather, learned to move with astonishing swiftness, to conceal themselves in holes invisible to their conquerors, and so on. [...