SOURCES:
"The Pineys" by Manly Wade Wellman (Weird Tales, Sepember 1950)
After Dark by Manly wade Wellman (1980)

DESCRIPTION: “... The earliest Indians used to say that the Pineys came before the Indians, and that the Pineys learned from the Indians to imitate the looks and ways of men. They're supposed to be rather smallish -- say five feet tall, and slender -- and they stand on short legs and their arms are long and knobby. Some folks claim they wear clothes made of pine straw, some say their bodies are shaggy, like a dog's. They have long heads with sharp faces, like a possum. And their hands have funny fingers. The third finger -- what you call the ring finger -- is longer than the middle one. ... And low skulls, sharp pointed ears, ...glowing eyes like tiny bits of coal.” (“The Pineys” by Manly Wade Wellman”)

NOTES: The Shonokins claim to be the original indiginous people, in North America before the Native Americans. They claim they were driven underground in places like pine forests of New Jersey by aggressive Indian tribes. In fact they are an evil and conniving race. Looking mostly human they have some tell-tale difference, including the middle finger of the hand is the same length as the index finger. Shonokins fear their own dead beyond anything else.

HISTORY: The Pineys were not invented by Wellman but takn from American folklore. It is interesting to compare the history of the Shonokins with that of the Children of the Night by Robert E. Howard. Both races claim to be older than man, being driven into the dark corners by conquering humans.
 

INTERESTING LINK

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