Perhaps so called ‘small people’ exist in all parts of the
world.
In Taiwan, they are known as ‘mo-sin-a’ (魔神仔) or 'small devil kids', in Southern China, they
are known as 'small mountain' (小山).
Sichuan (四川)
folks think that these small people not only they can cause disasters to
ordinary folks, they can also help them to do their magical biddings. However,
these 'small mountain' people are very narrow minded for even when the human
beings are not talking about them, they may be offended and decided to punish unwary
folks even though these small people are
only about 1 foot tall.
Taiwanese folks believe that small people don’t normally
harm people but they will play pranks on the unwary folks especially the old
and the children. Their most favourite trick is to make a person lost his/her
ways and that this person keeps on walking round and round in an area. Even
though rescue teams passing through this person for several times, no one would
discover him/her not until the small people had enough with him/her; or the
small people’s spell is broken by a magician etc.
Unlike ghosts, these Taiwanese small people are not afraid
of the sunlight. Although these small creatures do not cause harm, they would
push mud and cow dung into the mouth of the lost ones which may cause the
person to suffocate.
As with the counterpart in Sichuan, China, the Taiwanese
small people are normally small, look like kids but their movements are
extremely fast. But in some places, people would think small people are
actually very tall lady with extremely fair complexion.
The Hakka (客家)
calls these small people ‘small hairy gods’ (毛神仔).
Punung
folks (布农) think these small people are
actually a type of small black ghost.
The Amei
tribe (阿美族) who stay
near sea believe the small people can walk on sea, while the Amei tribe that
stay in hillside say that the small people can fly on tree tops. Both of Amei
tribes pointed out that these small people are indeed small black people with
powerful magical power.
Minnan (闽南)
folks call these small people mountain gods (芒神)
and they believe that these mountain gods looks like monkeys with only few
hairs.
Yet there are other folks believe that small people are in
fact spirits of kids who wears red hats.
In other part of the world, they are otherwise known as leprechauns.
Otherwise they sound like ‘tomte’ in Scandinavian countries:
Great article. Yes over here we have the same ones i think & they are still everywhere. They are very well known in aboriginal folklore & mythology. My friend said his grandmother used to feed them every afternoon. He said they would warn her of any danger and could even produce large amounts of the best food. I have heard stories that some like to play tricks and have even been known to throw stones and attack people. They are described as about one or 2 feet in height and covered with hair and have very large teeth. They say the ones with red coloured eyes are the bad or unfriendly ones. Theres lots of information about "Aboriginal HairyMen" on the net & youtube. Maybe they are a close relative. heres a video if anybody is interested.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_O6tb68R9k