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forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skilful with tools.
     Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of ‘the Big Folk’, as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are
     becoming hard to find. They are quick of hearing and sharp-eyed, and though they are inclined to be fat and do not hurry unnecessarily,
     they are nonetheless nimble and deft in their movements. Theypossessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come
     blundering by; and this art they have developed until to Men it may seem magical. But Hobbits have never, in fact, studied
     magic of any kind, and their elusiveness is due solely to a professional skill that heredity and practice, and a close friendship
     with the earth, have rendered inimitable by bigger and clumsier races.
    For they are a little people, smaller than Dwarves: less stout and stocky, that is, even when they are not actually much shorter.
     Their height is variable, ranging between two and four feet of our measure. They seldom now reach three feet; but they have
     dwindled, they say, and in ancient days they were taller. According to the Red Book, Bandobras Took (Bullroarer), son of Isumbras
     the Third, was four foot five and able to ride a horse. He was surpassed in all Hobbit records only by two famous characters
     of old; but that curious matter is dealt with in this book.
    As for the Hobbits of the Shire, with whom these tales are concerned, in the days of their peace and prosperity they were
     a merry folk. They dressed in bright colours, being notably fond of yellow and green; but they seldom wore shoes, since their
     feet had tough leathery soles and were clad in a thick curling hair, much like the hair of their heads, which was commonly
     brown. Thus, the only craft little practised among them was shoe-making; but they had long and skilful fingers and could make
     many other useful and comely things. Their faces were as a rule good-natured rather than beautiful, broad, bright-eyed, red-cheeked,
     with mouths apt to laughter, and to eating and drinking. And laugh they did, and eat, and drink, often and heartily, being
     fond of simple jests at all times, and of six meals a day (when they could get them). They were hospitable and delighted in
     parties, and in presents, which they gave away freely and eagerly accepted.
    It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even
     than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after theirown fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be
     discovered. The beginning of Hobbits lies far back in the Elder Days that are now lost and forgotten. Only the Elves still
     preserve any records of that vanished time, and their traditions are concerned almost entirely with their own history, in
     which Men appear seldom and Hobbits are not mentioned at all. Yet it is clear that Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in
     Middle-earth for many long years before other folk became even aware of them. And the world being after all full of strange
     creatures beyond count, these little people seemed of very little importance. But in the days of Bilbo, and of Frodo his heir,
     they suddenly became, by no wish of their own, both important and renowned, and troubled the counsels of the Wise and the
     Great.
    Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed; but the regions
     in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World,
     east of the Sea. Of their original home the Hobbits in Bilbo’s time preserved no knowledge. A love of learning (other than
     genealogical lore) was far from general among them, but there remained still a few in the older families who studied their
     own books,