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(pp. 233, 282), are to be regarded as being merely anthropomorphically coloured reflections of the social life or environment of the particular ethnic group who hold the particular fairy-faith; and, as Mr. Lang here suggests, when they are stripped of these superficial characteristics, which are due to such social psychology, they become ghosts of the dead or other spiritual beings.

Our own researches lead us to the conviction that behind the purely mythical aspect of these fairy-faiths there exists a substantial substratum of real phenomena not yet satisfactorily explained by science; that such phenomena have been in the past and are at the present time the chief source of the belief in fairies, that they are the foundation underlying all fairy mythologies. We need only refer to the following phenomena observed among Celtic and other peoples, and attributed by them to 'fairy' or 'spirit' agency: (1) music which competent percipients believe to be of non-human origin, and hence by the Celts called 'fairy' music, whether this be vocal or instrumental in sound; (2) the movement of objects without known cause; (3) rappings and other noises called 'supernatural' (cf. pp. 81 n., 481-4, 488; also pp. 47, 57, 61, 67, 71, 72, 74, 88, 94, 98, 101, 120, 124, 125, 131, 132, 134, 139, 148, 156, 172, 181, 187, 213, 218, 220, &c.).

[592] It is our hope that this book will help to lessen the marked deficiency of recorded testimony concerning 'fairy' beings and 'fairy' phenomena observed by reliable percipients. We have endeavoured to demonstrate that genuine 'fairy' phenomena and genuine 'spirit' phenomena are in most cases identical. Hence we believe that if 'spirit' phenomena are worthy of the attention of science, equally so are 'fairy' phenomena. The fairy-belief _in its typical_ or _conventional aspects_ (apart from the animism which we discovered at the base of the belief) is, as was pointed out in our anthropological examination of the evidence (pp. 281-2), due to a very complex social psychology. In this chapter we have eliminated all social psychology, as not being the essential factor in the Fairy-Faith. Therefore, from our point of view, Mr. Lang's implied explanation of the typical fairy-visions, that they are due to 'suggestion acting on the subconscious self', does not apply to the rarer kind of fairy visions which form part of our x-quantity (see pp. 60-6, 83-4, &c.). If it does, then it also applies to all non-Celtic visions of spirits, in ancient and in modern times; and the animistic hypothesis now accepted by most psychical researchers, namely, that discarnate intelligences exist independent of the percipient, must be set aside in favour of the non-animistic hypothesis. If, on the other hand, it be admitted that 'fairy' phenomena are, as we maintain, essentially the same as 'spirit' phenomena, then the belief in fairies ceases to be purely mythical, and 'fairy' visions by a Celtic seer who is physically and psychically sound do not seem to arise from that seer's suggestion acting on his own subconsciousness; but certain types of 'fairy' visions undoubtedly do arise from suggestion, _coming from a 'fairy' or other intelligence_, acting on the conscious or subconscious content of the percipient's mind (cf. pp. 484-7).

[593] Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, pp. 208, 35.

[594] Sir Oliver Lodge, _Psychical Research_, in _Harper's Mag._, August 1908 (New York and London).

[595] Sir Oliver Lodge, _The Survival of Man_ (London, 1909), p. 339.

[596] James, op. cit., pp. 587-9.

[597] Readers are referred to such authoritative works as the _Phantasms of the Living_ (London, 1886), by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore; to the _Report on the Census of Hallucinations of Modern Spiritualism_, by Professor Sidgwick's Committee; to the _Naturalisation of the Supernatural_ (New York and London, 1908), by F. Podmore; to the _Survival of the Human Personality_, by F. W. H. Myers; and other like works, all of which originate from the _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_ (London).

[598] C. Flammarion, _Mysterious Psychic Forces_, pp. 441, 431.

[599] Sir Wm. Crookes, _Notes of an Enquiry into Phenomena called Spiritual, during the years 1870-73_ (London), Part III, p. 87.

[600] See _Quart. Journ. Science_ (July 1871).

[601] Cf. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, p. 281; and for other cases of objects moved without contact see ib., pp. 50, 52, 53, 58, 122 ff. See also F. Podmore's article on _Poltergeists_, in _Proceedings S. P. R._, xii. 45-115; and his _Naturalisation of the Supernatural_,

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