| Story | Story | Added | Modern
| radicals | accidentals | features | gloss
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
|Youngest | | |
| daughter | | |
|Fountain or | | |
| well the | | |
| locality of | | |
| leading | | |
| incident | | |
|Frog | | |
1. Savage | prince=totem| | |
elements |Frog prince | -- | -- | --
| stays at the| | |
| house of his| | |
| future wife | | |
|Exogamous | | |
| marriage, | | |
| the prince | | |
| coming from | | |
| a foreign | | |
| country | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | |Faithful |
2. Fantastic | | | servant |
element | -- | -- | whose heart | --
| | | is bound by |
| | | iron bands |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |Kingly state
| | | | and its
| | | | trappings--
| | | | the princess
| | | | wears a
| | | | crown on
3. Rank and | -- | -- | -- | ordinary
splendour | | | | occasions,
| | | | and yet
| | | | opens the
| | | | door to a
| | | | visitor
| | | | while at
| | | | dinner
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
III.--OUR LADY'S CHILD
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| Story | Story | Added | Modern
| radicals | accidentals | features | gloss
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| |Naked forest | |
| | woman | |
1. Savage | | captured | |
elements | -- | for wife | -- | --
| |Suspicion that| |
| | she is a | |
| | cannibal | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |Virgin Mary
| | | | and heaven
3. Rank and | | | | the central
splendour | -- | -- | -- | features
| | | | of the
| | | | heroine's
| | | | adventures
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
4. Moral |Punishment | | |
characteristics| for | -- | -- | --
| curiosity | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
IV.--THE YOUTH WHO WANTS TO LEARN TO SHUDDER
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| Story | Story | Added | Modern
| radicals | accidentals | features | gloss
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
|Winning of | | |
| wife by | | |
| service | | |
|Succession to | | |
1. Savage | kingship | | |
elements | through | -- | -- | --
| wife--female| | |
| kinship | | |
|Treasure | | |
| guarded by | | |
| spirits | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| |The adventures| |
2. Fantastic | -- | in the | -- | --
element | | haunted | |
| | castle | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |
3. Rank and | -- | -- | -- |Kingly state
splendour | | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |
4. Moral |Bravery | -- | -- | --
characteristics| | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
V.--THE WOLF AND SEVEN LITTLE KIDS
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| Story | Story | Added | Modern
| radicals | accidentals | features | gloss
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
|Talking |Criticism upon| |
| animals | men as | |
|Cutting open | compared | |
| of the | with | |
1. Savage | animal to | animals, | -- | --
elements | free the | 'truly men | |
| swallowed | are like | |
| kids, and | that' | |
| refilling | | |
| the stomach | | |
| with stones | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
VI.--FAITHFUL JOHN
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| Story | Story | Added | Modern
| radicals | accidentals | features | gloss
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
|Capture of | | |
| bride | | |
|Talking of | | |
| animals | | |
|Three taboos--| | |
| Horse | | |
| Garment | | |
1. Savage | Sucking of | -- | -- | --
elements | breasts | | |
|Sacrifice of | | |
| children and| | |
| sprinkling | | |
| their blood | | |
| on a stone | | |
|Human origin | | |
| stone pillar| | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |Kingly state
3. Rank and | | | | and great
splendour | -- | -- | -- | wealth in
| | | | gold and
| | | | riches
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |
4. Moral | -- |Punishment for| -- | --
characteristics| | curiosity | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
IX.--THE TWELVE BROTHERS
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| Story | Story | Added | Modern
| radicals | accidentals | features | gloss
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
|Going [causing| | |
| to go] away | | |
| of sons, so | | |
| that the | | |
| inheritance | | |
| should fall | | |
1. Savage | to the | Forest life | |
elements | daughter | | -- | --
|Change of | | |
| brothers | | |
| into ravens | | |
|Life dependent| | |
| on an | | |
| outside | | |
| object | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |
3. Rank and | -- | -- | -- |Kingly state
splendour | | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| | | |
4. Moral | -- | -- | -- | --
characteristics| | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
XI.--BROTHER AND SISTER
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
| Story | Story | Added | Modern
| radicals | accidentals | features | gloss
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
|Transformation| | |
| of hero into| | |
1. Savage | roebuck | -- | -- | --
elements | after | | |
| drinking at | | |
| stream | | |
---------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------
There are thus savage elements in seven out of twelve stories, and
the question becomes an important one as to how this is. They are the
stories of the nursery, told by mothers to children, stories kept
alive by tradition, and the only possible answer to our question is
that they contain fragments of the early culture-history of the
ancestors, or at all events the predecessors, of those who have
preserved them for our use. An occasional savage incident might have
been considered a freak of the original narrator, or a borrowing by
one of the countless late narrators of these stories brought home from
savage countries; but statistics disprove both of these suppositions.
It is not accidental but persistent savagery we meet with in the
folk-tale. It is also the savagery to be found amongst modern peoples
still in the savage stage of culture.
This is proved in a very complete manner by Mr. MacCulloch, whose
study provides the material for a statistical survey of story
incidents founded on primitive custom and belief.[110] They are the
most ancient history to which we have access. That this history is
contained in the folk-tales of modern peasantry shows it to have come
from that far-off period which saw the earliest condition of these
people. It is still history, if it tells us of a life which preceded
the written record. It is history of the most valuable description,
for it is to be found nowhere else as relating to the remotest period
of European civilisation. The modern savage is better off in this
respect. He has an outside historian in the traveller and the
anthropologist of modern days. The savage who was ancestor to our own
people had no such means of becoming known to history, or had but very
limited means, and it is only in the deathless tradition that we can
trace him out.
These conclusions have been drawn from that great class of tradition
preserved by historic peoples in historic times, and yet unmistakably
pointing to prehistoric culture. We have been able to show the methods
to be adopted for, and the results of, disengaging the myth which has
gravitated to the historic person or place from the historic facts
which have become part of the legend, and to trace out in the
folk-tale facts which belong to a culture far removed from civilised
life. There are thus revealed two distinct centres of influence, the
traditional centre and the historic centre, and it is obvious that the
question must be asked--which is the more important? It seems to me
equally obvious that the answer must be given in favour of the
historic. History is indebted to tradition for preserving some of the
most remote facts of racial or national life, which but for tradition
would have been lost, and if we are content to use this tradition as a
storehouse from which we may provide ourselves with ancient historical
documents, we can trace out therefrom points in the history of any
given country wherever the traditions have been preserved.
The folk-tale, in point of fact, equally with the personal and local
legend, comes into close contact with history. The periods of history
in the folk-tales are different from those in the legends, but
together these periods reach from prehistoric culture to historic
event. We cannot, however, call this extent of time a continuous
period, and we cannot point to definite stages within the detached
periods. Much more research must be accomplished before it will be
possible to claim such results as these. I have indicated some points
of difficulty, some methods of treatment which appear to me to be
wrong, and to which I shall have again to refer later on; but in the
meantime, from the necessarily incomplete evidence which I have been
able to produce, it is, I think, abundantly clear that folklore has to
be studied from its historical surroundings if we would draw from it
all that it is capable of telling.
III
In the meantime it is well to bear in mind that there is one important
department of history which has always been frankly and unhesitatingly
accepted as history and yet which has no stronger foundation than
tradition, and tradition of the most formal kind. I allude to the
early laws of most of the peoples who have become possessed of an
historic civilisation. These laws have all been preserved by
tradition, are in rhyme or rhythm in order to assist the memory, have
become the sacred repository of a school or class of priests, and have
finally been reduced to writing by a great lawgiver, who by the act of
giving the people written laws has had attributed to him supernatural
origin and powers. That history should have accepted from tradition
such an important section of its material is worth consideration by
itself, apart from its bearing on the present study, and I shall
proceed, therefore, to set out some of the chief facts in this
connection.
There can be no doubt that in the tribal society of Indo-European
peoples the laws and rules which governed the various members of the
tribe were deemed to be sacred and were preserved by tradition. The
opening clauses of the celebrated Laws of Manu illustrate this position.
"The great sages approached Manu, who was seated with a collected mind,
and having worshipped him spoke as follows: Deign, divine one, to
declare to us precisely and in due order the sacred laws of each of the
four chief castes and of the intermediate ones. For thou, O Lord, alone
knowest the purport, the rites, and the knowledge of the soul taught in
this whole ordinance of the self-existent which is unknowable and
unfathomable."[111] They were not only sacred in origin but they dealt
with sacred things, and Sir Henry Maine has drawn the broad conclusion
that "there is no system of recorded law, literally from China to Peru,
which, when it first emerges into notice, is not seen to be entangled
with religious ritual and observance."[112] In Greece the lawgivers were
supposed to be divinely inspired, Minos from Jupiter, Lykurgos from the
Delphic god, Zaleukos from Pallas.[113] The earliest notions of law are
connected with Themis the Goddess of Justice.[114] In Rome it is to
Romulus himself that is attributed the first positive law, and it is by
a college of priests that the laws were preserved.[115] In Scandinavia
the laws were in the custody and charge of the temple priests, and the
accumulated evidence for the sacred origin and connection of the laws is
to be found in the sagas.[116] Among the Celtic peoples it is well known
that the laws were preserved and administered by the Brehons, who are
compared with the Hindu Brahmins by Sir Henry Maine, "with many of their
characteristics altered, and indeed, their whole sacerdotal authority
abstracted by the influence of Christianity."[117] In the Isle of Man
the laws were deemed sacred and known only to the Deemsters.[118]
In all cases laws were preserved by tradition and not by writing and
evidence, and the superior value attached to the traditional record
appears everywhere. The oldest record of Hindu law agrees with the
best authority that it was not founded on writing but "upon immemorial
customs which existed prior to and independent of Brahminism."[119] In
Greece the very nature of the _themistes_ shows that they were
judgments dependent upon traditional custom. In Rome it is the subject
of definite research that the "greater part of Roman law was founded
on the _mores majorum_."[120] In Scandinavia the law speaker was
obliged to recite the whole law within the period to which the tenure
of his office was limited.[121] The Celtic laws are based upon customs
handed down from remote antiquity,[122] and late down in English law
it was admitted as a principle that if oral declarations came into
conflict with written instruments the former had the more binding
authority.[123]
One of the means by which this sacred tradition was preserved was
through the medium of rhythm and verse. Thus, as Sir Henry Maine
explains,
"The law book of Manu is in verse, and verse is one of
the expedients for lessening the burden which the
memory has to bear when writing is unknown or very
little used. But there is another expedient which
serves the same object. This is Aphorism or Proverb.
Even now in our own country much of popular wisdom is
preserved either in old rhymes or in old proverbs, and
it is well ascertained that during the middle ages
much of law, and not a little of medicine, was
preserved among professions, not necessarily clerkly,
by these two agencies."[124]
In Greece the same word, [Greek: nomos], was used for custom and law
as for song. The [Greek: rhetra] (declared law) of Sparta and Taras
was in verse; the laws of Charondas were sung as [Greek: skolia] at
Athens,[125] and Strabo refers to the Mazacenes of Cappadocia as using
the laws of Charondas and appointing some person to be their
law-singer ([Greek: nomodos]), who is among them the declarer of the
laws.[126]
Sir Francis Palgrave, noticing the same characteristic of Teutonic
law, says:--
"It cannot be ascertained that any of the Teutonic
nations reduced their customs into writing, until the
influence of increasing civilisation rendered it
expedient to depart from their primeval usages; but an
aid to the recollection was often afforded as amongst
the Britons, by poetry or by the condensation of the
maxim or principle in proverbial or antithetical
sentences like the Cymric triads. The marked
alliteration of the Anglo-Saxon laws is to be referred
to the same cause, and in the Frisic laws several
passages are evidently written in verse. From hence,
also, may originate those quaint and pithy rhymes in
which the doctrines of the law of the old time are not
unfrequently recorded."[127]
Again, the editors of the Brehon Law Tracts point out that early laws
are handed down "in a rhythmical form; always in language condensed
and antiquated they assume the character of abrupt and sententious
proverbs. Collections of such sayings are found scattered throughout
the Brehon Law Tracts."[128] The sagas contain many verses which
partake of the character of legal formulae, and in Beowulf there seems
to be a definite example. It occurs in the passage describing Beowulf
engaged in his fatal combat with the fiery dragon, when his
"companions," stricken with terror, deserted him, on which Wiglaf
pronounced the following malediction:--
"Now shall the service of treasure,
and the gifts of swords,
all joy of paternal inheritance,
all support
of all your kin depart;
every one of your family
must go about
deprived of his rights
of citizenship;
when far and wide
the nobles shall learn
your flight,
your dishonourable deed.
Death is better
to every warrior
than disgraced life."
Mr. Kemble remarks on this passage, that it is not improbable that the
whole denunciation is a judicial formula, such as we know early
existed, and in regular rhythmical measure.[129]
These early examples may be followed up by others preserved to modern
times. The most significant of these occurs in the Church ceremony of
marriage, which preserves in the vernacular the ancient rhythmical
formula of the marriage laws, and the antiquity of the Church ritual
is proved from the fact that it is accompanied and enforced by the old
rhythmical verse, which is indicative of early legal or ceremonious
usage.
"With this rynge I the wed
And this gold and silver I the geve,
and with my body I the worshipe,
and with all my worldely cathel I the endowe."[130]
Sir Francis Palgrave has noticed the subject, and points out that the
wife is taken
"to have and to hold[131]
from this day forward
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,[132]
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish,
till death us do part
and thereto I plight thee my troth."
These words are inserted in our service according to the ancient canon
of England, and even when the Latin mass was sung by the tonsured
priest, the promises which accompany the delivery of the symbolical
pledge of union were repeated by the blushing bride in a more
intelligible tongue.[133] This is a curious and significant fact, and
as we trace out these rhythmical lines farther back in their original
vernacular, the more clearly distinct is their archaic nature.
According to the usage of Salisbury the bride answered:--
"I take thee, John,
to be my wedded husband,
to have and to hold
fro' this day forward
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sycknesse, in hele,
to be bonere and buxom [obedient]
in bedde and at borde
till death do us part
and thereto I plight thee my trothe."[134]
The Welsh manual in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Hereford
has a slight variation in the form, and an older spelling:--
"Ich N. take thee N.
to my weddid wyf,
for fayroure for foulore,
for ricchere for porer,
for betere for wers,
in sicknesse and in helthe,
forte deth us departe,
and only to the holde
and tharto ich plygtte my treuthe."[135]
To this may be added the many local examples of the preservation of
laws or legal formulae by means of their form in verse. The most
interesting of these, perhaps, is that by which the Kentishman
redeemed his land from the lord by repeating, as it was said, in the
language of his ancestors:--
"Nighon sithe yeld
And nighon sithe geld,
And vif pund for the were,
Ere he become healdere."
The first verse,
"Dog draw
Stable stand
Back berend
And bloody hand"
justified the verderer in his punishment of the offender. In King
Athelstane's grant to the good men of Beverley, and inscribed beneath
his effigy in the Minster,
"Als fre
Mak I the
As heart may think
Or eigh may see,"
we have perhaps the ancient form of manumission or
enfranchisement,[136] just as we have the surrender by a freeman who
gave up his liberty by putting himself under the protection of a
master, and becoming his man, still preserved among children, when one
of them takes hold of the foretop of another and says:--
"Tappie, tappie, tousie, will ye be my man?"[137]
All over the country we meet with these rhyming or rhythmical formulae
which have legal significance. In the north the chief of the
Macdonalds gave grants in the following form:--
"I, Donald, chief of the Macdonalds, give here, in my
castle, a right to Mackay, to Kilmahumag, from this
day till to-morrow and so on for ever."
"Mise Donull nau Donull,
Am shuidh air Dun Donuill,
Toirt coir do Mhac-aigh air Kilmahumaig,
O'n diugh gus a maireach
'S gu la bhrath mar sin."[138]
At Scarborough there is an old proverbial saying as to "Scarborough
Warning," which has had various accounts given of its origin,[139] but
the true explanation of which is that it is the fragment of an ancient
legal formula of the kind we are investigating. Abraham De la Pryme
describes it in his seventeenth-century diary as follows:--
"Scarburg Warning is a proverb in many places of the
north, signifying any sudden warning given upon any
account. Some think it arose from the sudden comeing
of an enemy against the castle there, and haveing
dischargd a broad side, then commands them to
surrender. Others think that the proverb had it's
original from other things, but all varys. However,
this is the true origin thereof.
"The town is a corporation town, and tho' it is very
poor now to what it was formerly, yet it has a ... who
is commonly some poor man, they haveing no rich ones
amongst them. About two days before Michilmass day the
sayd ... being arrayed in his gown of state he mounts
upon horseback, and has his attendants with him, and
the macebear[er] carrying the mace before him, with
two fidlers and a base viol. Thus marching in state
(as bigg as the lord mare of London) all along the
shore side, they make many halts, and the cryer crys
thus with a strange sort of a singing voyce, high and
low:--
"'Whay! Whay! Whay!
Pay your gavelage, ha!
Between this and Michaelmas Day,
Or you'll be fined I, say!'
"Then the fiddlers begins to dance, and caper and
plays, fit to make one burst with laughter that sees
and hears them. Then they go on again and crys as
before, with the greatest majesty and gravity
immaginable, none of this comical crew being seen so
much as to smile all the time, when as spectators are
almost bursten with laughing. This is the true origin
of the proverb, for this custome of gavelage is a
certain tribute that every house pays to the ... when
he is pleased to call for it, and he gives not above
one day warning, and may call for it when he
pleases."[140]
Rhyming tenures have been frequently noted but never understood. They
occur in many parts of the country. The tithingman of Combe Keynes, in
Dorsetshire, is obliged to do suit at Winforth Court, and after
repeating the following incoherent lines, pays threepence and goes
away without saying another word:--
"With my white rod
And I am a fourth post
That three pence makes three
God bless the King, and the lord of the franchise
Our weights and our measures are lawful and true
Good morrow Mr. Steward I have no more to say to you."[141]
It is hardly necessary to quote more examples. They are not unknown to
the historian, but because they are in rhyme they have been hastily
assumed to be spurious or even burlesque.[142] But the evidence of a
rhyming formula is the opposite to this. It is evidence of their
genuineness, and if some of the words appear to be nonsensical it is
due to the fact that the sense of the old formula has been
misunderstood, and has then become gradually altered.
All these rhyming tenures, indeed, find their place among the
traditional examples of legal formulae. They are the local offshoots
preserved because of their legal significance, preserved by those
interested from their legal side. Because they are not preserved in
the formal codes they need not be neglected, and they must not be
misunderstood. They are not to be put on one side by the historian as
freaks of local landowners. They are real descendants by traditional
lines from the times when laws were not written, but kept alive in the
memory by means of such assistance as rhyme could supply, and from the
tribesmen who thus treasured the law they obeyed.[143]
That this branch of recorded law is not only early but tribal is
undoubted, but perhaps it will be well to refer to tribal rhyming
formulae of an independent kind in order to show by parallel evidence
the tribal characteristics. In 1884 Mr. Posnett drew attention to this
important subject, and noted that
"Dr. Brown, in an attempt to sketch the origin of
poetry--an attempt which attracted the attention of
Bishop Percy in his remarks introductory to the
_Reliques_--proposed more than one hundred years ago
to discover the source of the combined dance, song,
melody, and mimetic action of primitive compositions
in the common festivals of clan life. The student of
comparative literature will probably regard Dr.
Brown's theory as a curious anticipation of the
historical method in a study which, in spite of M.
Taine's efforts, has made so little progress as yet.
The clan ethic of inherited guilt and vicarious
punishment has attracted considerable attention. But
the clan poetry of the ancient Arabs and of the
bard-clans, surviving in the Hebrew sons of Asaph or
the Greek Homeridae, has not received that light from
comparative inquiry which the closely connected
problems of primitive music and metre would alone
amply deserve."[144]
Not much has been done since this was penned. Max Mueller had
previously, in 1847, declared that the Rig Veda consisted of the clan
songs of the Hindu people,[145] but the importance of such a
conclusion has been entirely neglected. In the meantime evidence is
accumulating that in Britain there are still preserved many examples
of clan songs. Thus Lord Archibald Campbell has published, in the
first volume of his _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_, some
sixteen or seventeen sagas. Some of these are clan-traditions; and the
editor notes as evidence of their antiquity the fact that none of them
makes any mention of firearms. These clan-traditions all relate to
feuds and vendettas; and in one case it is expressly recorded that the
descendants of one of the foes of the clan, in their account of the
incident narrated, "altered this tradition and reversed the main
facts." This has been followed by a volume definitely devoted to
"clan-traditions,"[146] while in the _Carmina Gadelica_ and many of
the Highland incantations there are preserved specimens of ancient
clan songs.
The most interesting of the tribal songs is that preserved at the
Hawick Common riding. The burgh officers form the van of a pageant
which insensibly carries us back to ancient times, and in some verses
sung on the occasion there is a refrain which has been known for ages
as the slogan of Hawick. It is "Teribus ye teri Odin," which is
probably a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon, "Tyr habbe us, ye Tyr ye
Odin"--May Tyr uphold us, both Tyr and Odin.
Fortunately Dr. Murray has investigated this formula, and I will quote
what he says:--
"A relic of North Anglian heathendom seems to be
preserved in a phrase which forms the local slogan of
the town of Hawick, and which, as the name of a
peculiar local air, and the refrain, or 'owerword' of
associated ballads, has been connected with the
history of the town back to 'fable-shaded eras.'
Different words have been sung to the tune from time
to time, and none of those now extant can lay claim to
any antiquity; but associated with all, and yet
identified with none, the refrain '_Tyr-ibus ye Tyr ye
Odin_,' Tyr haeb us, ye Tyr ye Odin! Tyr keep us, both
Tyr and Odin! (by which name the tune also is known)
appears to have come down, scarcely mutilated, from
the time when it was the burthen of the song of the
gleo-mann or scald, or the invocation of a heathen
Angle warrior, before the northern Hercules and the
blood-red lord of battles had yielded to the 'pale
god' of the Christians."
[Illustration: THE AULD CA-KNOWE: CALLING THE BURGESS ROLL]
[Illustration: HAWICK MOAT AT SUNRISE]
And in a note Dr. Murray adds:--
"The ballad now connected with the air of 'Tyribus'
commemorates the laurels gained by the Hawick youth at
and after the disastrous battle, when, in the words of
the writer,
"'Our sires roused by "Tyr ye Odin,"
Marched and joined their king at Flodden.'
Annually since that event the 'Common-Riding' has
been held, on which occasion a flag or 'colour'
captured from a party of the English has been with
great ceremony borne by mounted riders round the
bounds of the common land, granted after Flodden to
the burgh; part of the ceremony consisting in a mock
capture of the 'colour' and hot pursuit by a large
party of horsemen accoutred for the occasion. At the
conclusion 'Tyribus' is sung, with all the honours, by
the actors in the ceremony, from the roof of the
oldest house in the burgh, the general population
filling the street below, and joining in the song with
immense enthusiasm. The influence of modern ideas is
gradually doing away with much of the parade and
renown of the Common-Riding. But 'Tyr-ibus ye Tyr ye
Odin' retains all its local power to fire the lieges,
and the accredited method of arousing the burghers to
any political or civil struggle is still to send round
the drums and fifes, 'to play Tyribus' through the
town, a summons analogous to that of the Fiery Cross
in olden times. Apart from the words of the slogan,
the air itself bears in its wild fire all the tokens
of a remote origin."[147]
We could not get better evidence than this of the survival of tribal
custom, custom that is distinctly connected with tribes rather than
with places or individuals, with groups of people who, now bound
together by local considerations and influences, have only recently
passed away from the far more ancient influences of the tribe. Alike
in the forms of historical codes and in traditional local remains, we
have found evidence of the use of rhyme for the preservation of
unwritten rules and forms; and this use restores to tradition an
important branch of its material.
We have thus ascertained that there is direct and acknowledged
indebtedness of history to tradition. Its extent covers a wide area of
culture progress, and of unbroken continuity from tribal to historic
times. The legal codes of the barbaric tribes of Western Europe are
the direct successors of the traditional originals; and because these
legal codes, equally with their unwritten predecessors, cannot be
dispensed with by the historian, they find their place unquestioned
among genuine historical material. They are no more, and no less,
historical than other traditional material. They are part of the life
of the people rescued from prehistoric days, and they tell us of these
days by the same sanction and the same methods as the rest of the
traditional material which has been so strangely and so persistently
neglected by the historian. The whole of tradition, and not selected
parts of it, must be brought into use if we would follow scientific
method, and I claim this for the study of folklore on the strength of
the results which have now been brought together.
[Illustration: ONE OF FIVE STONE CIRCLES IN THE FIELDS OPPOSITE THE
GLEBE OF NYMPHSFIELD]
[Illustration: CARN-AN-CHLUITHE
TO COMMEMORATE THE DEFEAT AND DEATH OF THE YOUTHS OF THE DANANNS]
[Illustration: THE CAIRN OF BALLYMAGIBBON NEAR THE ROAD PASSING FROM
CONG TO CROSS]
IV
Here, however, we are close up to an important point of controversy.
The mythologists claim tradition as theirs. It does not, they assert,
give us the history but the mythology of our race. It tells us not of
the men but of the gods. In explaining how this comes about, however,
they have fallen into errors which it is not only necessary to correct
but which are fundamental in their effects. We shall be better able
later on to discuss the extremely important question of the
position of the prehistoric tradition amidst historic life and
surroundings, if we try to understand what the mythologists have done
and not done in their attempts to claim exclusive property in the
folk-tale. They have entirely denied or ignored all history contained
in the folk-tale, and they have proceeded upon the assumption, the
bald assumption not accompanied by any kind of proof, that the
folk-tale contains nothing but the remnants of a once prevalent system
of mythology. They ignore all the proofs brought forward by
folklorists to the contrary, such proofs, for instance, as Mr.
Knowles, Sir Richard Temple and others have produced concerning the
Hindu folk-tale. What is not true of the Hindu folk-tale cannot be
true of its Celtic or Teutonic or Scandinavian parallel, and yet in
the most recent study of Celtic tradition, Mr. Squire takes its mythic
origin for granted, and works through his ingenious statement without
let or hindrance from other points of view. But even his
thorough-going methods compel him to stop short at certain points, and
to admit that he has come across historic fact. Thus he agrees that
the Fir-Bolgs "were not really gods but the pre-Aryan race which the
Gaels, when they landed in Ireland, found already in occupation,"[148]
and yet when he treats of the fight of the Fir-Bolgs with the Tuatha
de Danann, and is confronted with Sir William Wilde's proofs that the
monuments on the plain of Moytura are in agreement with the traditions
concerning them, and point to the account of the battle being
historical,[149] all that Mr. Squire can admit is that "certainly the
coincidences are curious." He disposes of them on the ground that the
"people of the goddess Danu are too obviously mythical to make it
worth while to seek any standing ground for them in the world of
reality." That standing ground might be found connected with the
Tuatha de Danann in many places, but Mr. Squire will have it that it
is impossible, because "it was about this period that the mythology of
Ireland was being rewoven into spurious history."[150] It is not,
however, upon the mistakes of other inquirers[151] that the
mythologists may rest a good claim for their own view. The _Historia
Britonum_ of Geoffrey of Monmouth disposes of neither the myths nor
the history of the Celts. It shows myth in its secondary position, in
the handling of those who would make it all history, just as now there
are scholars who would make it all myth. In front of the legends
attaching to persons and places is the history of these persons and
places. Behind these legends lies the domain of the unattached and
primitive folk-tale, Mr. Campbell's _Highland Tales_, Kennedy's
_Fireside Stories of Ireland_, and those English tales which have been
rescued by Mr. Clodd and others. This makes it impossible to see in
the hero-legends naught else than the intangible realm of Celtic gods
and goddesses.
Equally impossible is it to create for them a home in a system of
"state religion," and yet a state religion is a necessary part of the
evidence for mythological origins.[152] There was no Celtic state.
Emphatically this was so. Everything we know about the Celts of
Britain, both before and after the Roman conquest, both in Britain,
where the Roman power was upheld for four centuries, and in Ireland,
where the Roman power never penetrated, the Celts were possessed of a
tribal, not a state polity; lived in tribal strongholds, not in Celtic
cities; occupied tribal territories, not countries formed into states;
elected tribal chiefs in primitive fashion, and not kings with state
ceremonial; and when they come under the dominion of an incipient
state policy after the conquest of the English and the Northmen, their
laws are promulgated and codified, and show that both Welsh and Irish
codes are tribal, not state law.
Not only do I fail to discover a state religion of the Celts, but I do
not find it among the Teutons. There is greater evidence of
discrepancies than of agreement in all the European religions, but
these have not been dwelt upon by scholars. Professor York Powell, in
one of his illuminating studies on Teutonic heathendom, is the only
authority I know of who argues against the idea of a systematised
religion. "It is important that we should at once throw aside the idea
that there was any _system_, any organized pantheon in the religion of
these peoples. Their tribes were small and isolated, and each had its
own peculiar gods and observances, although the mould of each faith
was somewhat similar. Hence there were varieties of religious customs
among the Goths, Swedes, Saxons, and Angles."[153]
[Illustration: ALTAR DEDICATED TO THE FIELD DEITIES OF BRITAIN
FOUND AT CASTLE HILL ON THE WALL OF ANTONINUS PIUS]
Now if there was no state there could be no state religion. What
existed of worship and religion was tribal. These are the historical
facts, which have been neglected by students of myth and saga. I
shall have to point out in greater detail presently what these tribal
conditions mean to studies in folklore, but the word of warning and
protest must come here, for it is unconsciously the conception of a
Celtic state religion which gives even the semblance of possibility
for Celtic mythology to be found in every hero-legend. It is, in
short, the neglect of this among other historical facts which has led
the folklorist into error of a somewhat magnificent kind. He attempts
to create out of the myths of a people a mythology which provides gods
to be worshipped, faiths to be organised, and beliefs to be the
standards of life and conduct. Thus, as I have pointed out
elsewhere,[154] Sir John Rhys has, in his acute identification of the
worship of the water-god Lud on the Thames and of Nod on the
Severn,[155] introduced the idea of a great Celtic worship established
on these two great rivers as parts of a definite system of Celtic
religion, whereas examination proves that the parallel faiths of two
perfectly distinct Celtic tribes, the Silures on the Severn and the
Trinovantes on the Thames, were welded into a common worship of the
god of the waters by the masters of Celtic Britain, the Romans. There
was no Celtic organisation which commanded both Severn and Thames
until the Romans occupied the country, and occupying the country they
adopted into their own religion the native gods and, fortunately for
us, recorded their adoption in the pavements of their houses or their
temples.[156]
Mr. A. B. Cook goes much further than Sir John Rhys. He attempts to
dig out the European sky-god from all sorts of queer places, all sorts
of forgotten records, thereby producing a wealth of folklore parallels
for which every student must be profoundly thankful. But he does not
make it anywhere clear that this universal god was gloriously apparent
to his worshippers. There is no established connection between the
sky-god and those who worshipped the sky-god, and we seek in vain
amidst all the brilliant researches, which have been held to produce
evidence of the sky-god, for evidence that he was worshipped by the
Aryan-speaking Celt and Teuton. In point of fact, we never get at the
worshippers at all. There is the assumption of a state mythology
without any evidence for the existence of the state.
In place of this obvious necessity we get an immense abstraction,
worked out with all the subtle ingenuity and learning of the Cambridge
professor. Mr. Cook has, in fact, used the materials he has collected
with such amazing care to project therefrom just those mythological
conceptions which Celt and Teuton would have worked out for themselves
if they, like the Hindu and the Greek, had developed the state while
they were still free to develop their own native beliefs. This they
never did, and so their fire worship did not advance beyond its early
stages. It was separated from nature worship to become the servant of
the European tribes. It helped them to develop tribal and family
institutions. It produced for them a tribal and family worship. It did
not get beyond this, because Roman institutions and Christianity stood
in the way and prevented tribal fire worship from becoming
anthropomorphised into a mythology. This need not cause us to doubt
that the analogies claimed by these scholars are true analogies. There
were among the Celtic peoples, as among other branches of the race to
which Celt, Greek, Teuton, Scandinavian, and Hindu belonged, the
incipient elements which would go to make up a national or state
mythology, when the nation or the state emerged, as it did emerge in
the case of Greece and of Rome, from its tribal originals. But the
Celtic state did not emerge from tribalism in Britain; the Celtic
heroes were always tribal heroes. They were, as Hereward and Arthur
were, real human flesh and blood, fighting and raiding and loving and
feasting in their tribal fashion as the later heroes did in their
national fashion; because of their success as tribal heroes they had
attached to them the tribal myths; because they died as nobly as
Cuchulain died they left imperishable records among those for whom
they died. They were more than gods to the Celtic tribesman--they were
kinsmen.
The false conception of a state religion before there was a state,
appears in other studies not primarily based upon folklore research,
and not having in view anthropological results. It is the basis of the
remarkable researches of Sir Norman Lockyer as to the astrological and
solar origin of Stonehenge and other circles, and in his chapter which
deals with the question, "Where did the British worship originate?" he
finds himself bound to the theory of a borrowed civilisation which
established the solar system.[157] This borrowed civilisation is
Egyptian, but it is too much to ask mythology to supply not only a
complete system of belief but a civilisation which belongs to it. What
is needed is independent evidence of the civilisation. Without such
independent evidence it is impossible to accept the deduction drawn
only from one sphere of information.
The error of transferring to the domain of mythology events and
occurrences which belong to history, is followed by an error of
another sort, namely, the transferring to some general department of
human belief the particular beliefs of a people, or of tribes of
people. It is wrong to continue to label particular cults as nature
myths, when they have already been transferred from that position to a
more definite position among the beliefs of a people. Thus even so
good a scholar as Mr. A. B. Cook, rightly interpreting Greek evidence
of the hill-top fires and of the house fire, yet denies to the exactly
corresponding Irish evidence the same interpretation, and argues that
"the ritual of Samain, at which all the hearths in Ireland were
supplied with fresh fire from a common centre at Tlachtga [is] almost
certainly solar," and that "we shall not be far wrong if we suppose
that the solar fires of Beltaine were the ritual of the sky god
connected with the Ash of Uisnech."[158] Mr. Frazer, too, has
interpreted these bonfires as mainly sun charms, and he sees in the
Balder myth, and in the peasant customs all over Europe, which he
asserts illustrate this myth, an ancient ritual which originally
marked the beginning of the new year, when the tree spirit, or spirit
of vegetation, was burned, the special reasons why the deity of
vegetation should die by fire being that as "light and heat are
necessary to vegetable growth, on the principle of sympathetic magic,
by subjecting the personal representative of vegetation to their
influence you secure a supply of these necessaries for trees and
crops."[159] Mr. Frazer goes far afield for evidence. He does not see
that the fire ceremonies which he collects from all Europe have a
specialised significance, even in their last stages of existence as
survivals, which is not found among the Incas, the African tribes, the
hill tribes of India, and the Chinese, whom he cites as providing the
required parallels. Parallel practices are not necessarily evidence of
parallels in culture, and it is the failure to locate properly the
several examples in relationship to each other which produces a loose
and inadequate conception of the relics of fire worship in European
countries, and the refusal to recognise its special place as the cult
of a tribal people.[160] Another example of this fundamental error
takes us in the very opposite direction to that of Dr. Frazer. Thus
Dr. Gummere, in a recent study dealing with Germanic origins,[161]
sees nothing in the fire cult of the Indo-European people but a
branch, and apparently an undeveloped branch, of general nature
worship, not specially Germanic or Indo-European, not specialised by
the tribes and clans of these people into a cult far more closely
connected with their doings and their life than mere participation in
the general primitive nature worship could have afforded.
The danger of searching for a general system of belief and worship
from the beliefs and rites of peoples not ethnically, geographically,
or politically connected is very great, and I venture to think that
even Mr. Frazer's remarkable researches into the agricultural rites of
European peoples do not take count of one important consideration. I
think his constructive hypothesis is too complex in process and too
systematic in form to have been the actual living faith of the varied
paganism of the European peoples. It would have meant as organised an
institution as the Christian Church itself, and of this there is no
evidence whatever. It would have meant an exclusive agricultural
ceremony, and of this there is strong evidence to the contrary. It
would have meant a deep system of philosophy, penetrating from the
highest to the lowest of the people, and of this there is no evidence.
The plain fact is that the historical conditions have been altogether
left out of consideration in these matters, and we consequently do not
get a complete study. We get the advocate's position. The case for the
mythological interpretation of folklore has been put with full
strength, but it is not the entire case.
V
This short survey of the relationship of tradition to history would
not answer its purpose if we did not consider the complementary
position which history bears to tradition. This may best be done by
reference to the period before that occupied by contemporary native
record. The history here alluded to is, properly speaking, only
derived from one source, namely, the works of foreign or outside
authorities. It is written by observers from a civilised country,
travelling among the more primitive peoples of another land, and the
Greek and Latin authors who relate particulars of early Britain were
of this class. Their narratives have to be compared with the
traditions written down as history by professed historians, who lived
long after the events happened to which the traditions are said to
relate, but who recorded the traditions of the people preserved in the
monasteries by devotees who were of the people, or by the songs and
rhymes which, as Henry of Huntingdon states explicitly, were used for
the purpose.
Both the observations of the foreign historians and travellers and the
recorded traditions from native sources have been treated with scant
courtesy whenever they cannot be explained according to the views of
each particular inquirer into the period to which they refer. They
have been alternatively the subject of dispute or neglect by students
for a long series of years. They consist of items which do not fit in
with Celtic or Teutonic institutions as we know them from other and
more detailed sources. They offend against the national pride because
they tell of a condition of savagery. They do not appeal to the
historian, because the historian knows little and cares nothing at all
about the condition of savagery. If, therefore, they are not rejected
as true history, they are purposely neglected. They are in any event
never taken into consideration by the right method, and they stand
over for examination by any one who will take the trouble to deal with
them by the light and test of modern research.
It is not my purpose to deal with these matters now, but it is
advisable that we should try to understand two things--first, how they
have been dealt with by the historian; secondly, their true place in
history.
The Greek and Latin authors who have stated of peoples living in
Britain many characteristics which do not belong to civilisation or
even to the borders of civilisation, range from Pytheas the Greek in
the middle of the fourth century before our era down to the Latin
poets of the early fifth century anno Domini. They all refer to the
British savage. He is cannibalistic, incestuous, naked, possesses his
wives in common, lives on wild fruits and not cultivated cereals,
indulges in head-hunting, has no settled living-place which can be
called a house, and generally betrays the characteristics of pure
savagery.[162] Altogether there is a fairly substantial range of
material for the formation of a reasonable conception of the condition
of savagery in Britain.
[Illustration: ROMAN SCULPTURED STONE FOUND AT ARNIEBOG, CUMBERNAULD,
DUMBARTONSHIRE, SHOWING A NAKED BRITON AS A CAPTIVE]
We need not dwell long upon the earlier of our historians who have
neglected or contested the statements of the authorities they use.
They hardly possessed the material for scientific treatment, and
personal predilections were the governing factors of any opinion which
is expressed. John Milton, in his brave attempt to tell the story of
early England, does not so much as allude to these disagreeable
points. Hume disdainfully passes by the whole subject and practically
begins with the Norman conquest. Lappenberg says of the group marriage
of the Britons that it "is probably a mere Roman fable."[163] Innes
accepts the views of the classical authorities and argues from them in
his own peculiar way,[164] but Sullivan will have it that the
materials afforded from classical sources are worthless: "they consist
of mere hearsay reports without any sure foundation, and in many cases
not in harmony with the results of modern linguistic and archaeological
investigations."[165] Neither Turner nor Palgrave has any doubt as to
the authority of these early accounts,[166] and Dr. Giles accepts the
accounts which he so usefully collected from the original
authorities.[167]
The modern historian cannot, however, be so incidentally treated. He
lives in the age of the comparative sciences and of anthropological
research. He sometimes uses, though in a half-hearted and incomplete
fashion, the results of inquirers in these fields of research, but he
nowhere deals with the problem fully. His sins are not general, but
special. He agrees with one statement of his original authority and
disagrees with another, and we are left with a chaos of opinion
founded upon no accepted principle. If the earlier historians accepted
or rejected historical records without much reason for either course,
the later historians have no right to follow them. The terms "savage"
and "barbarian," indulged in by the Greek and Roman writers, cannot be
rejected by modern authorities simply because they are too harsh. They
cannot be considered merely in the nature of accusations against the
standing and position of our ancestors, made by advocates anxious to
blacken the national character. Even scholars like Mr. Skene, Mr.
Elton, and Sir John Rhys, though inclined to weigh these passages by
the light of ethnographic research, throw something like doubt upon
the exact extent to which they may be taken as evidence. Mr. Elton,
though admitting that the early "romances of travel" afford some
evidence as to the habits of our barbarian ancestors, cannot quite get
as far in his belief as to think that the account of "the Irish tribes
who thought it right to devour their parents" is much more than a
traveller's tale.[168] Sir John Rhys is not quite sure that the
account by Caesar of the communal marriages of the British is "not a
passage from some Greek book of imaginary travels among imaginary
barbarians which Caesar had in his mind,"[169] though he notes
elsewhere that "the vocabulary of the Celts will be searched in vain
for a word for son or daughter as distinguished from boy or girl" as a
fact of no little negative importance in relation to Caesar's "ugly
account;"[170] and he has similar doubts to express, noteworthy among
them being the passage from Pliny which illustrates the Godiva
story.[171] Mr. Skene lays stress upon the fact that Tacitus "neither
alludes to the practice of their staining their bodies with woad nor
to the supposed community of women among them;" and he offers some
kind of excuse for the Roman evidence as to the tattooing with
representations of animals,[172] evidence which Sir John Rhys, too, is
chary of accepting in its full sense. Mr. Pearson reluctantly accepts
Caesar's account of the group marriage and the human sacrifice of the
Druids, but he ignores all else, including the attested cannibalism of
the Atticotti, though he mentions that tribe in another
connection.[173] Sir James Ramsay agrees that the Britons tattooed
their bodies with woad, recognises the fact that their matrimonial
customs were polyandric, and that brother-and-sister marriage
obtained, and generally accepts the prevalent ideas as to Celtic
Druidism with its sacrificial rites and the system of "state worship."
He rests his views for much of this upon the anthropological evidence
in support of it.[174] Mr. Lang on behalf of Scotland, and Dr. Joyce
on behalf of Ireland, have their say on the evidence. Mr. Lang seems
to accept Caesar's evidence "if correctly reported," throws doubts upon
the ethnological value of such customs, and declares roundly that to
found theories upon such evidence as archaeology provides "is the
province of another science, not of history."[175] Dr. Joyce says that
in early Greek and Roman writers there is not much reliable
information about Ireland, though he believes them when they talk of
students from Britain residing in Ireland and of books existing in
Ireland in the fourth century.[176]
This meagre result from the historians seems to me to be most
unfortunate. Even when the testimony of early writers is accepted, it
is accepted without the necessary filling in which such an acceptance
warrants. Bare acceptance does not tell us much. Each recorded fact
has a relationship to surrounding facts, should lead us to associated
facts which, escaping observation by early writers, can nevertheless
be restored. In history they are isolated and unconnected, because of
the faults of the historian who records them. Anthropologically they
belong to a wider grouping, reveal a connection with each other which
is otherwise unsuspected, and prepare themselves for treatment on a
larger platform. The historian has used them for the unprofitable
controversy ranging round the question of early Celtic civilisation,
whereas they clearly belong to the history of early man, and even the
folklorist does not disdain to cast them on one side when they do not
suit his purpose.[177]
It is still more unfortunate that Sir Henry Maine should have sought
to enhance the value of his Indian evidence by contrasting it with
what he calls "the slippery testimony concerning savages which is
gathered from travellers' tales,"[178] and that Mr. Herbert Spencer
should have replied to this in an angry note, declaring that he was
aware "that in the eyes of most, antiquity gives sacredness to
testimony, and that so what were travellers' tales when they were
written in Roman days have come in our days to be regarded as of
higher authority than like tales written by recent or living
travellers."[179] The scorn passed upon "travellers' tales," the
application of the term "romance" to the early descriptions of
voyages, have done the same amount of mischief to these early chapters
of history as the constant disbelief in the value of tradition has
done to the testimony of folklore.
Now I do not recall these controversies, or lay stress upon what
appear to me to be the shortcomings of the historian and folklorist in
their relationship to each other, for the purpose of reawakening old
antagonisms. I have merely selected a few illustrations of the present
position of the subject in order that it may be seen how essential it
is to proceed on other lines. All the items which have formed the
subject of dispute, together with others which have escaped
attention--items which have found their way into history by accident,
which are by nature fragmentary and isolated, which do not connect up
with anything that is distinctively Celtic or Teutonic, and which do
not apparently fit in with any standard common to themselves--must
command attention if only because they alone cannot be cut out of
history when items standing side by side with them are allowed to
remain, and in the end it can, I think, be shown that they command
attention because of their inherent value.
The method of investigation as to the importance and significance of
these earliest historical records must be anthropological. They are in
point of fact so much anthropological data relating to Britain. It is
no use calling them history, and then defining that history as bad
history simply because as history the recorded facts do not appear to
be credible. As a matter of fact they belong to the prehistory period
of Britain, and to test their value scientific methods are required.
In the first place, anthropology shows that there is no _prima facie_
necessity for calling them Celtic, thus identifying them with that
portion of our ancestry which is Celtic in race; for there is evidence
of a non-Celtic race existing in prehistoric times, and existing down
to within historic times, if not to modern times. Mr. Willis Bund has
recently summarised the evidence from archaeology, philology, and
tradition as it appears in a particularly valuable local study of
ancient Cardiganshire, stating it "to be agreed that there was more
than one race of early inhabitants, and two of the sources say that
there was an original race and at least two distinct races of
invaders," and further, "that whoever the original inhabitants were
they were not Celts."[180] These original inhabitants, who were not
Celts, have left their remains in the barrows and megalithic monuments
which still exist in various parts of the country, and anthropologists
show that they have not entirely disappeared from among the race
distinctions observable among the people of these islands. If it is
possible to proceed from this to another stage, and to show from the
British evidence what Mr. Risley has so well illustrated from the
Indian evidence, namely, that gradations of race types as shown by
anthropometrical indices correspond with gradations of social
precedence and social organisation,[181] it may yet be possible to
prove that the people who were not Celts were the people with whom
originated those recorded customs and beliefs which are rejected as
too savage for the Celt. Unfortunately, we know nothing about them,
except the isolated scraps which are to be picked up from the early
historians. This compels us to turn to other sources of information,
and when we do this we find that British folklore preserves in
traditional custom, rite, belief, and folk-tale, parallels to each and
every item of savagery mentioned by the early historians of Britain;
and further, that anthropology shows clearly enough that among the
customs and beliefs of primitive races there are to be found parallels
to every item of custom and belief recorded of early Britain. This
gets rid of one of our greatest difficulties, and disposes of Dr.
Sullivan's unwarranted assertion to the contrary (_ante_, p. 113). The
recorded customs and beliefs of early Britain are proved by this means
not to be impossible or improbable factors in the elements of the
British prehistoric race. It will not be possible to term them
inventions of romance or of false testimony, simply on the ground that
they are not found elsewhere. On the contrary it will, I think, be
difficult to resist the conclusion that inventions such as these,
covering a wide and ascertained area of sociological and early
religious development, could hardly have been made by historians
having the limited range of knowledge possessed by the native and
classical writers who are responsible for the facts. It is an easy,
but not a satisfactory method of criticism to declare what is not to
one's liking to be invention and romance, and it has until late years
been difficult to combat such an argument. The battle has raged round
wordy disputes, the merits of which are governed by the abilities of
the respective disputants; that this is no longer possible is due to
the fact that there have entered into the fray the methods and results
of folklore which prevent the terms invention and romance from being
applied, except where there is good independent reason for their use.
* * * * *
I have now dealt with all the points which appear to be necessary in
order to show the inherent relationship of folklore to history, and I
have shown causes for resisting the claims of mythology to appropriate
what it chooses of folklore, and then to reject all the rest from
consideration. I have dealt (1) with examples of local traditions and
hero-traditions, in their relation to history and historical
conditions; (2) with the folk-tale in its retention of details of
early historic conditions, and of the picture of early tribal
organisation, and in that its structure is based upon the events of
savage social conceptions; (3) with the early laws and rules of tribal
society preserved by tradition and accepted in historical times; (4)
with the claims of mythology to interpret the meaning of folk-tales,
and the reasons for rejecting this claim; and (5) with the treatment
by historians of statements by classical writers as to the condition
of the peoples inhabiting Britain before the dawn of civilisation. I
think it will be admitted that, without pretending in any way to have
exhausted the evidence, or even to have thoroughly comprehended and
satisfactorily stated it under each of these heads, a very
considerable claim has been made out for the historical value of
folklore. If so much has been gained it will rest with folklorists to
pursue investigations on these lines, and it will remain with the
historian to consider the results wherever his research leads him into
domains where the evidence of folklore is obtainable.
It will be seen that the problems which the two sciences, history and
folklore, have to solve in conjunction are not a few and that they are
extremely complex. They cannot be solved if history and folklore are
separated; they may be solved if the professors in each work together,
both recognising what there is of value in the other. History in its
earliest stages is either entirely dependent upon foreign
authorities, or it has to follow the practice of the earlier and
unscientific historian and to deny that there is any history, or at
all events any history worth recording, before the advent, perhaps the
accidental advent, of an historian on native ground. History in its
later stages is dependent upon the personal tastes or ability of each
historian for the record of events and facts. Folklore in its earliest
stages has brought down from the most ancient times memories of
ancient polity, faith, custom, rite, and thought. In its later stages
it has preserved custom, rite, and belief amid the attacks of the
progressive civilisation which has been developed, and it has clothed
heroes of later times with the well-worn trappings of those of old.
Combined history and folklore can restore much of the picture of early
times, and can work through the fulness of later times with some
degree of success. There is needed for this work, however, a clear
conception of the position properly held by both sciences, together
with established rules of research. This is more particularly needed
in the department of folklore. I do not pretend to be able to
formulate these rules. In the subjects dealt with in this chapter I
have indicated a few of the points which must be raised, and my object
will be in the remaining chapters to set forth some of the conditions
which it appears to me necessary to consider in connection with the
problems with which folklore is concerned as one of the historical
sciences.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr. Kemble gives an important illustration of this proposition in
his _Saxons in England_, i. 331.
[2] I would refer the reader to Prof. York Powell's brilliant lecture
on "A Survey of Modern History," printed in his biography by Mr. Oliver
Elton, ii. 1-13, for an admirable summary of this view.
[3] _View of the State of Ireland_, 1595, p. 478.
[4] Asser's _Life of Alfred_, by W. H. Stevenson, 262.
[5] It is not worth while unduly emphasising this point, but the
peculiar habit of classing fictional literature as folklore and
thereupon condemning the value of tradition is very prevalent. Mr.
Nutt, in dealing with the Troy stories in British history, adopts this
method, and denies the existence of historic tradition on the strength
of it, _Folklore_, xii. 336-9.
[6] This expression was recently allowed in our old friend _Notes and
Queries_ in a singularly unsuitable case, 10th ser. vii. 344.
[7] I am not sure this is always the fault of those who are not
folklorists. I recently came across a dictum of one of the most
distinguished folklorists, Mr. Andrew Lang, which is certainly much in
the same direction. "As a rule tradition is the noxious ivy that creeps
about historical truth, and needs to be stripped off with a ruthless
hand. Tradition is a collection of venerable and romantic blunders. But
a tradition which clings to a permanent object in the landscape, a tall
stone, a grassy, artificial tumulus, or even an old tree, may be
unexpectedly correct."--_Morning Post_, 2 November, 1906.
[8] It is worth while referring to Mr. MacRitchie's article in _Trans.
International Folklore Congress_ on the historical aspect of Folklore;
but Professor York Powell has said the strongest word in its favour in
his all too short address as President of the Folklore Society, see
_Folklore_, xv. 12-23.
[9] Chapter xi. of Tylor's _Early History of Mankind_.
[10] Spenser, _View of the State of Ireland_, 1595 (Morley reprint),
77.
[11] Perhaps the most remarkable testimony to the foundation of the
folk-tale and ballad in the events of history is to be found in a
statement made to the _Tribune_, 14 September, 1906, by Mr. Mitra, once
proprietor and editor of the _Deccan Post_, with regard to the
agitation against the partition of Bengal into two provinces. Mr. Mitra
deliberately states that "the best test of finding out Hindu feeling
towards the British Government is to see whether there are any ballads
or nursery rhymes in the Bengali language against the British. You can
have it from me, and I challenge contradiction, that there is no single
ballad or nursery rhyme in the Bengali language which is against the
British." This is where the soul of the people speaks out.
[12] It is printed, and I have used this print, in Blomefield's
_History of Norfolk_ (1769), iii. 506, from which source I quote the
facts concerning it. Sir William Dugdale's account goes on to connect
it with a monument in the church, but this part of the local version is
to be considered presently.
[13] See the _Diary_ printed by the Surtees Society, p. 220.
[14] The legend was also printed in that popular folk-book, _New Help
to Discourse_, so often printed between 1619 and 1656, and Mr. Axon
transcribed this version for the _Antiquary_, xi. 167-168; and see my
notes in _Gent. Mag. Lib. English Traditions_, 332-336.
[15] I happen to possess the original cutting of this version preserved
among my great-grandfather's papers.
[16] These words are, "I am not a Bigot in Dreams, yet I cannot help
acknowledging the Relation of the above made a strong Impression on
me."
[17] _Leeds Mercury_, January 3rd, 1885, communicated by Mr. Wm.
Grainge of Harrogate.
[18] Mr. Axon says it is current in Lancashire and in Cornwall,
_Antiquary_, xi. 168; Sir John Rhys gives two Welsh versions in his
_Celtic Folklore_, ii. 458-462, 464-466; a Yorkshire version in ballad
form is to be found in Castillo's _Poems in the North Yorkshire
Dialect_ (1878), under the title of "T' Lealholm Chap's lucky dreeam,"
_Antiquary_, xii. 121; an Ayrshire variant relates to the building of
Dundonald Castle, and is given in Chambers's _Pop. Rhymes of Scotland_,
236.
[19] Blomefield, _Hist. of Norfolk_, iii. 507, suggests that the animal
carving represents a bear. There is nothing to confirm this and readers
may judge for themselves by reference to the illustrations, which are
from photographs taken in Swaffham Church.
[20] I discussed the details in the _Antiquary_, vol. x. pp. 202-205.
[21] This story was communicated by "W.F." to the _St. James's
Gazette_, March 15th, 1888. Its continuation, in order to point a
moral, does not belong to the real story, which is contained in the
part I have quoted.
[22] _Saga Library_, _Heimskringla_, iii. 126.
[23] These have been collected and commented upon with his usual
learning and research, by Mr. Hartland in the _Antiquary_, xv. 45-48.
Blomefield, in his _History of Norfolk_, iii. 507, points out that the
same story is found in Johannes Fungerus' _Etymologicon Latino-Graecum_,
pp. 1110-1111, though it is here narrated of a man at Dort in Holland,
and in _Histoires admirables de nostre temps_, par Simon Goulart,
Geneva, 1614, iii. p. 366. Professor Cowell, in the third volume of the
_Cambridge Antiquarian Society Transactions_, p. 320, has printed a
remarkable parallel of the story which is to be found in the great
Persian metaphysical and religious poem called the Masnavi, written by
Jalaluddin, who died about 1260. J. Grimm discussed these
treasure-on-the-bridge stories in _Kleinere Schriften_, iii. 414-428,
and did not attach much value to them.
[24] It is not unimportant in this connection to find that London
itself assumes an exceptional place in tradition. Mr. Frazer notes a
German legend about London, _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), iii. 235;
Pausanias, v. 292. Mr. Dale has drawn attention to the Anglo-Saxon
attitude towards Roman buildings in his _National Life in Early English
Literature_, 35.
[25] See _Archaeologia_, xxv. 600; xxix. 147; xl. 54; _Arch. Journ._, i.
112.
[26] I have worked this point out in my _Governance of London_.
[27] Bishop Kennett, quoted in _Notes and Queries_, fourth series, ix.
258.
[28] Mommsen's account of the Pontifex Maximus should be consulted,
_Hist. Rome_, i. 178; and _cf._ Fowler, _Roman Festivals_, 114, 147,
214.
[29] Mrs. Gomme, _Traditional Games_, i. 347.
[30] Bingley, _North Wales_, 1814, p. 252.
[31] See my _Folklore Relics of Early Village Life_, 29; Tylor,
_Primitive Culture_, i. 97. This case was reported in the newspapers at
the time of its occurrence. It came to England from the _London and
China Telegraph_, from which the _Newcastle Chronicle_, 9 February,
1889, copied the following statement:--
"The boatmen on the Ganges, near Rajmenal, somehow came to believe that
the Government required a hundred thousand human heads as the
foundation for a great bridge, and that the Government officers were
going about the river in search of heads. A hunting party, consisting
of four Europeans, happening to pass in a boat, were set upon by the
one hundred and twenty boatmen, with the cry 'Gulla Katta,' or
cut-throats, and only escaped with their lives after the greatest
difficulty."
[32] I have worked out this fact in my _Governance of London_, 46-68,
202-229.
[33] See Turner, _Hist. of Anglo-Saxons_, ii. 207-222; _Y Cymmrodor_,
xi. 61-101.
[34] A passage in William of Malmesbury points to the fact of the
Bretons in the time of Athelstan looking upon themselves as exiles
from the land of their fathers. Radhod, a prefect of the church at
Avranches, writes to King Athelstan as "Rex gloriose exultator
ecclesiae ... deprecamur atque humiliter invocamus qui in exulatu et
captivitate nostris meritis et peccatis, in Francia commoramur" etc.,
_De Gestis Regum Anglorum_ (Rolls Ed.), i. 154.
[35] Rhys, _Celtic Folklore_, ii. 466. Sir John Rhys acknowledges his
indebtedness to me for lending him my Swaffham notes, but at that time
I had not formed the views stated above and Sir John Rhys confessed his
difficulty in classifying and characterising these stories (p. 456).
[36] In the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, anno 418, and in _Ethelward's
Chronicle_, A.D. 418, it is recorded that "those of the Roman race who
were left in Britain bury their treasures in pits, thinking that
hereafter they might have better fortune, which never was the case."
[37] Buried treasure legends are worth examining carefully, especially
with reference to their geographical distribution, with a view of
ascertaining how far they follow the direction of the Roman, English,
Danish and Norman Conquests. See Henderson, _Folklore of Northern
Counties_, 320, for Yorkshire examples, and _Folklore Record_, i. 16,
for an interesting Sussex example.
The Danish part of Lincoln, near Sleaford, has numerous treasure
legends, see Rev. G. Oliver, _Existing Remains of Ancient Britons
between Lincoln and Sleaford_, pp. 29 _et seq._
Mr. W. J. Andrew has proved in the _British Numismatic Journal_ (1st
ser. i. 9-59) that traditions of buried treasure may be verified a
thousand years after the laying down of the hoard. This has reference
to the famous Cuerdale find of coins. The people of Walton-le-Dale, on
the Ribble, had a legend that if you stood on a certain headland and
looked up the valley to Ribchester "you would gaze over the greatest
treasure that England had ever seen." The farmers tried excavations,
and the divining rod is said to have been used.
The tradition was true. In May, 1840, the hoard was accidentally found,
near Cuerdale Hall, within forty yards of the stream, by men who were
repairing the southern bank. A willow tree, still in its prime, was
planted to mark the spot. We do not know how much bullion was scattered
by the finders, but there was recovered a mass of ingots, armlets,
chains, rings, and so on, amounting to 1000 oz., with over 7000 silver
coins. They lay in a crumbling leaden case, within a decomposed chest
of wood. There were about 1060 English silver coins, whereof 919 were
of the reign of King Alfred. There were 2020 from Northumbrian
ecclesiastical mints, and 2534 of King Canute, with 1047 foreign coins,
mainly French. The treasure had belonged to the Scandinavian invaders
in the host of the Danish Kings of Northumbria, and very many bore the
mark of York, the Danish capital. The chest was the treasure-chest of
the Danes. The money had been seized in England, 890-897; on French
coasts, 897-910; and collected among the Danes of Northumbria about
911. In that year, we know, the Danes raided Mercia, and were followed
by the English King and thoroughly defeated. Their treasurer, Osberth,
was killed, and it is argued that the Danes fell back by the Roman
road, and were trying to cross into Northumbria by the ford at
Cuerdale, but that, the ford being dangerous, they were obliged to bury
their treasure-chest forty yards on the southern bank of the river.
They were unable to cross, were cooped up in a bend of the stream, and
were all put to the sword. Mr. Lang discussed this from the folklore
point of view in the _Morning Post_, 2nd November, 1906, and concludes
that "granting that none who knew the site of the deposit escaped, the
theory marches well, and quite accounts for the presence of the hoard
where it was found. The Danish rearguard defending the line of the
Darwen would know that their treasure was hurried forward and probably
concealed, but would not know the exact spot."
Another good example is recorded in the _Antiquary_, xiv. 228. Further
Henderson notes that the Borderers of England and Scotland entrusted
their buried treasure to the brownie (_Folklore of Northern Counties_,
248). This is exactly the same idea which exists throughout India.
"Hidden treasures are under the special guardianship of supernatural
beings. The Singhalese, however, divide the charge between demons and
cobra capellas. Various charms are resorted to by those who wish to
gain the treasures. A puja is sufficient with the cobras, but the
demons require a sacrifice. Blood of a human being is the most
important, but the Kappowas have hitherto confined themselves to a
sacrifice of a white cock, combining its blood with their own, drawn by
a slight puncture in the hand or foot. A Tamil, however, has resorted
to human sacrifice as instanced by a case reported in the _Ceylon
Times_."--_Indian Antiquary_, 1873. ii. p. 125.
[38] Morris, _Heimskringla_, ii. 13.
[39] Laing's _Heimskringla_, ii. 260.
[40] Rhys, _The Arthurian Legend_, 7. Squire, in his recent _Mythology
of the British Islands_, states the case for "the mythological coming
of Arthur" in cap. xxi. of his book.
[41] As, for instance, in the case of Taliesin and Ossian, see Squire,
_Mythology of the British Islands_, 318; Rhys, _Celtic Mythology_, 551;
Nutt's Notes to _Mabinogion_.
I suppose the most ancient example of the duplication process is that
of Dion Cassius (iii. 5), who suggests an earlier Romulus and Remus in
order to account for the early occupation of the Palatine Hill at Rome.
Middleton's _Anc. Rome_, 45.
[42] It is interesting to find that, with independent investigation,
Mr. Bury explains on the lines I adopt the traditional part of the life
of St. Patrick. See his _Life of St. Patrick_, p. 111.
[43] Freeman, _Hist. Norm. Conq._, iv. 467.
[44] Wright, _Essays_, i. 244, notes this point; see also Freeman,
_Hist. Norm. Conq._, iv. 828, and the preface to my edition of
Macfarlane's _Camp of Refuge_ (Historical Novels Series), where I have
discussed this subject at length.
[45] _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, iii. 52.
[46] Russell, _Kett's Rebellion_, p. 6.
[47] Kemble's _Horae Ferales_, 108.
[48] Perhaps the most interesting example in a minor way comes from
Shrewsbury. In the Abbey Church, forming part of a font, is the upper
stone of a cross (supposed to have been the Weeping Cross) which was
discovered at St. Giles's churchyard. It had been immemorially fixed in
the ditch bank, and all traces of its origin were quite lost, except
that an old lady, who was born in 1724, remembered having seen in her
youth, persons kneeling before this stone and praying. The transmission
of the tradition through very nearly three centuries proved correct,
for on its being loosened by the frosts of a severe winter, it fell,
and its religious distinction became immediately apparent from the
sculpture with which it was adorned.--_Eddowes' Shrewsbury Journal_,
5th October, 1889.
[49] _Gent. Mag. Lib. Popular Superstitions_, 121. The importance of
this tradition may be tested by reference to my book on the _Governance
of London_, 96-98.
[50] _Archaeologia_, xxvi. 369-370. One could give many additional
examples from all parts of the country, and undoubtedly they are worth
collecting. I cannot refrain from quoting the following, as it is from
an out-of-the-way source. At Seagry, in Wilts, is an ancient farm, one
field of which was known as "Peter's Orchard." The author of a local
history records the following: "It has been handed down from generation
to generation that in a field on this farm a church was built on the
site of an ancient heathen burial ground. In order to test the accuracy
of this tradition, in the autumn of 1882 I had excavations made on the
spot, which I will now describe. The field contains about ten acres,
and presents a very singular appearance. In removing the sods, about
two feet from the surface we discovered extensive stone foundations,
extending for a considerable distance over the field. From the charred
appearance of the stones they had evidently suffered from fire, thus
supporting the tradition of some of the oldest inhabitants that the
ancient church had been destroyed by fire. On continuing the search we
found, about two feet below these foundations, a quantity of early
British pottery, the remains of broken urns, some charred bones, and
heads of small spears. The following is an extract from a letter which
I have received from a gentleman, whose family have been connected with
this parish for over two hundred years, and who has given me great
assistance. He says: My father was born at Startley in 1784, and
remained there until about 1840. Both he and my grandfather were deeply
imbued with old folklore. I well remember them constantly speaking of
the firm belief handed down to them of the heathen burial places at
Seagry, and of the supposed ruins of a church and some religious house
at Seagry. I think the discoveries made (on the very spot mentioned by
tradition) in August, 1882, are abundant proof that after the lapse of
more than nine centuries actual verification of the carefully
transmitted tradition has at last been found."--_Bath Herald_, 1st
September, 1883. If references to other examples were needed I should
like to note Sir William Wilde's illustration as to "how far the
legend, the fairy tale, the local tradition, or the popular
superstition may have been derived from absolute historic
fact."--_Lough Corrib_, 121, 123.
[51] _Echoes from the Counties_ (1880), p. 30.
[52] Grierson, _The Silent Trade_ (1903).
[53] Pearson's _Chances of Death_, ii. 90. The reader should consult
Dr. Pearson's entire study on this subject, chapters ix. and x., which
may be compared with Mr. MacCulloch's _Childhood of Fiction_, 5-15, and
more particularly with Mr. Hartland's _Science of Fairy Tales_.
[54] In 1881 I read a paper before the Folklore Society on "Some
Incidents in the story of the Three Noodles by means of reference to
facts," _Folklore Record_, iv. 211, and in 1883 I published in the
_Antiquary_, two papers on "Notes on Incidents in Folk-tales," based
upon the same idea.
[55] Introduction, p. lxix.
[56] Introduction, p. lxxvii.
[57] Page 12.
[58] _Ibid._, p. 26.
[59] _Ibid._, p. 5.
[60] _Tales of the Highlands_, i. p. 251.
[61] Kennedy, _loc. cit._, p. 77.
[62] _Ibid._, p. 90.
[63] See Beda, _Hist. Ecclesia_, lib. i. cap. 25.
[64] See vol. i. p. 253.
[65] Miss Frere's _Old Deccan Days_, p. 279.
[66] AElian, _Var. Hist._, lib. xiii. cap. xxxiii.
[67] _Folklore Record_, vol. iv. p. 57.
[68] _Asiatic Researches_, xvii. p. 502.
[69] _Folklore Record_, vol. iii. p. 284.
[70] Campbell's _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_, i. 308.
[71] Joyce, _Old Celtic Romances_, 38, 75, 153, 177, 270. In the _Silva
Gadelica_, by Mr. Standish O'Grady, the assembly is described sitting
in a circle, vol. ii. p. 159, and Tara is also described, vol. ii. 264,
358, 360, 384.
[72] Miss Cox's admirable study and analysis of the Cinderella
group of stories includes the Catskin variants, which number
seventy-seven.--_Cinderella_, pp. 53-79.
[73] _Studies in Ancient History_, p. 62.
[74] Sproat's _Scenes and Studies of Savage Life_, p. 96.
[75] See his _Early Hebrew Life_, p. 85.
[76] Frazer, _Adonis, Attis, and Osiris_, 27-28.
[77] Todd and Herbert, _Irish Version of Nennius_, p. 89.
[78] _Indian Antiq._, iii. 32.
[79] _Laws of Manu_ (Buehler), ix. 127; _Apastamba Gautama_ (Buehler),
xxviii. 18.
[80] Sir Henry Maine in his _Early Law and Custom_, p. 91.
[81] A most remarkable instance of an actual case of running away from
a marriage, resulting in adventures which might easily become folk-tale
adventures if the story were once started on its traditional life, is
to be found in Shooter's _Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country_, pp.
60-71.
[82] _West Highland Tales_, vol. i. p. lxix.
[83] Kennedy's _Fireside Stories of Ireland_, p. 64.
[84] _Old Deccan Days_, p. 52.
[85] _Ibid._, p. 233.
[86] "Standing-place."
[87] _Journ. Ethnol. Soc._, _loc. cit._
[88] _New Statistical Account of Scotland_, xiv. 273.
[89] Ure's _Agriculture of Kinross_, 57.
[90] _Archaeologia_, l. 195-214.
[91] Du Chaillu's _Land of the Midnight Sun_, i. 393.
[92] Tupper, _Punjab Customary Law_, ii. 188.
[93] _Cobden Club Essays--Primogeniture._
[94] Morris, _Saga Library_, ii. 194.
[95] _Journ. Ethnol. Soc._, ii. 336.
[96] Elton, _Origins of English History_, 91; _cf._ Du Chaillu, _Land
of the Midnight Sun_, i. 393; Morris's _Sagas_, ii. 194.
[97] Breeks, _Hill Tribes of India_, 108.
[98] Mavor's _Collection of Voyages_, iv. 41.
[99] _Anecdotes and Traditions_ (Camden Soc.), 85.
[100] _Mythologie der Volkssagen und Volksmaerchen._
[101] Geiger, _Hist. Sweden_, 31, 32.
[102] Elton, _Origins of English History_, 92.
[103] Aubrey, _Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme_, 14.
[104] Nutt, _Legend of the Holy Grail_, 44.
[105] _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1850, i. 250-252.
[106] _Journ. Ethnol. Soc._, ii. 337.
[107] Elton's _Origins_, 92.
[108] Mr. Jacobs (_Folklore_, i. 405) objected to my interpretation of
this story because--first, the Latin rhyme appearing in the Gaelic
tale, the twelfth-century Latin story and the German inscription "tell
for the origination of the story in one single place in historic
times;" and, secondly, because a Kashmir story (Knowles' _Folk-tales of
Kashmir_, 241), based on the same main incident, omits the minor
incident of the mallet altogether. The answer to the first objection is
that the Latin rhyme has been attached, in historic times, to the
ancient folk-tale; and to the second objection, that the Kashmir story
preserves the main incident of surrender of property upon reaching old
age, and omits the more savage incident of killing, because the Kashmir
people are in a stage of culture which still allowed of the surrender
of property, but, like the Scandinavians, did not allow of the killing
of the aged. Similarly, an English parallel to this form of the variant
is preserved by De la Pryme in his _Diary_ (Surtees Society), 162. It
must be remembered that the Kashmiris occupy a land which is referred
to by Herodotos (iii. 99-105) as in the possession of people who killed
their aged (_cf._ Latham, _Ethnology of India_, 199); and if my reading
of the evidence is correct, this is also the case of the Highland
peasant.
[109] Dr. Pearson advocates statistical methods in his _Chances of
Death_, ii. 58, 75-77, and shows by examples the value of them.
[110] MacCulloch, _Childhood of Fiction_: "Some of the things which in
these old-world stories form their fascination, have had their origin
in sordid fact and reality" (p. vii).
[111] Buehler, _Laws of Manu_, i.: "In Vedic mythology Manu is the heros
eponymos of the human race and by his nature belongs both to gods and
to men" (p. 57). _Cf._ Burnell and Hopkins, _Ordinances of Manu_, p.
25.
[112] _Early Law and Custom_, 5.
[113] Pausanias, iii. 2(4).
[114] Maine, _Ancient Law_, 4; Grote, _Hist. of Greece_, iii. 101.
[115] Ortolan, _Hist. Roman Law_, 50; Maine, _Early Law and Custom_, 6.
[116] Morris, _Saga Library_, i. p. xxx; Dasent, _Burnt Njal_, i. xlvi.
[117] _Early Law and Custom_, 162.
[118] Manx Society Publications, xviii. 21-22.
[119] Strabo, lib. xv. cap. 1, pp. 709, 717; J. D. Mayne, _Hindu Law
and Usage_, 4, 13.
[120] Mackenzie, _Roman Law_, 11; _cf._ Pais, _Anc. Legends of Roman
Hist._, 139.
[121] Dasent, _Burnt Njal_, i. p. lvii, and Vigfusson and Powell,
_Origines Islandicae_, i. 348.
[122] _Anc. Laws of Ireland_, iv. p. vii.
[123] This appears very strongly in the famous twelfth-century law case
which Longchamp pleaded so successfully. _Rotuli curia Regis_, i. p.
lxii.
[124] _Early Law and Custom_, 9; _cf._ Burnell and Hopkins, _Ordinances
of Manu_, pp. xx, xxxi. It is worth while quoting here the following
interesting note from a letter from the Marquis di Spineto printed in
Clarke's _Travels_, viii. 417:--
"From the most remote antiquity men joined together, and wishing either
to amuse themselves or to celebrate the praises of their gods sang
short poems to a fixed tune. Indeed, generally speaking, _the laws by
which they were governed_, the events which had made the greatest
impression on their minds, the praises which they bestowed upon their
gods or on their heroes were all sung long before they were written,
and I need not mention that according to Aristotle this is the reason
why the Greeks gave the same appellation to laws and to songs."
[125] The references are all given in Smith's _Dict. of Greek and Roman
Antiquities_ sub [Greek: nomos]. Aristotle in the _Problems_, 19, 28,
definitely says, "Before the use of letters men sang their laws that
they might not forget them, as the custom continues yet among the
Agathyrsoi."
[126] Lib. xii. cap. ii. 9.
[127] _Hist. English Commonwealth_, 43.
[128] _Anc. Laws of Ireland_, iv. pp. viii, x.
[129] Hampson's _Origines Patriciae_, 106-107; Kemble, line 5763 _et
seq._
[130] Proctor's _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p. 410.
[131] _Hist. Eng. Commonwealth_, ii. p. cxxxvi. Littleton points out
the legal antiquity and importance of these words: "no conveyance can
be made without them." See Wheatley's _Book of Common Prayer_ (quoting
Littleton), p. 406.
[132] The York manual had the additional clause, "for fairer for
fouler." See Wheatley, _loc. cit._, p. 406.
[133] Palgrave, _loc. cit._
[134] _Ibid._
[135] _Manuale et processionale ad usum insiquis ecclesiae Evoracensis_,
Surtees Society, 1875. See also _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1752, p. 171;
Proctor's _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p. 409, for other
examples.
[136] Palgrave, _English Commonwealth_, i. 43.
[137] Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, 115.
[138] Sinclair's _Stat. Acc. of Scotland_, x. 534.
[139] Chambers, _Book of Days_, January 19; Nichols, _Fuller's
Worthies_, 494.
[140] _Diary of De la Pryme_ (Surtees Society), 126. It may be noted
here that Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Traditions_, 179, notes
the preservation of an ancient law for the preservation of the oak and
the hazel in a traditional proverbial rhyme.
[141] Hazlitt, _Tenures of Land_, 80; other examples refer to the
Hundred of Cholmer and Dancing, in Essex, 75; to Kilmersdon, in
Somersetshire, 182; to Hopton, in Salop, 165. John of Gaunt is
responsible for many of these curious and interesting remains of tribal
antiquity. Bisley's _Handbook of North Devon_, 28, refers to one
relating to the manor of Umberleigh, near Barnstaple, and I have a note
from Mr. Edmund Wrigglesworth, of Hull, of a parallel to this being
preserved by tradition only. There is a tradition respecting the estate
of Sutton Park, near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, which states that it
formerly belonged to John of Gaunt, who gave it to an ancestor of the
present proprietor, one Roger Burgoyne, by the following grant:--
"I, John of Gaunt,
Do give and do grant,
To Roger Burgoyne
And the heirs of his loin
Both Sutton and Potton
Until the world's rotten."
Potton was a neighbouring village to Sutton. There is a moated site in
the park called "John o' Gaunt's Castle," see _Notes and Queries_,
tenth series, vi. 466. _Cf._ Aubrey, _Collections for Wilts_, 185, for
an example at Midgehall; Cowell's _Law Interpreter_, 1607, and the
_Dictionarum Rusticum_, 1704, for the custom of East and West Enborn,
in Berks, which was made famous by Addison's _Spectator_ in 1714.
[142] Sometimes these are called "burlesque conveyances." See an
example quoted in _Hist. MSS. Commission_, v. 459.
[143] It is well to bear in mind the great force of ancient tribal law,
which was personal, upon localities. Nottingham is divided into two
parts, one having primogeniture and the other junior right as the rule
of descent. Southampton and Exeter have also local divisions. But
perhaps the most striking example is at Breslau, where there
co-existed, until 1st January, 1840, five different particular laws and
observances in regard to succession, the property of spouses, etc., the
application of which was limited to certain territorial jurisdictions;
not unfrequently the law varied from house to house, and it even
happened that one house was situated on the borders of different laws,
to each of which, therefore, it belonged in part; Savigny, _Private
Int. Law_, cap. i. sect. iv.
[144] _Academy_, February, 1884; _Percy Reliques_, edit. Wheatley, i.
384.
[145] _Trans. British. Association_, 1847, p. 321.
[146] Series No. V., published in 1895.
[147] _Philological Society Papers_, 1870-2, pp. 18, 248; Dr. Murray
gives the air in an appendix. See also a note by Mr. Danby Fry in the
_Antiquary_, viii. 164-6, 269-70; and _The Hawick Tradition_, by R. S.
Craig and Adam Laing, published at Hawick in 1898.
[148] Squire, _Mythology of the British Islands_, 69.
[149] Wilde, _Lough Corrib_, 210-248. Sir William Wilde has studied the
details of this great fight with great care, and it is impossible to
ignore his evidence as to the monuments of it being extant to this day
among the recorded antiquities of Ireland. The battle lasted four days.
The first day the Fir-Bolg had the best of the fighting, and
pillar-stones erected to the heroes who fell are still in situ.
Clogh-Fadha-Cunga, or long stone of Cong, which stood on the old road
to the east of that village and a portion of which, six feet long, is
still in an adjoining wall, being erected to Adleo of the Dananians,
and Clogh-Fadha-Neal, or long stone of the Neale, at the junction of
the roads passing northwards from Cross and Cong, commemorating the
place where the king stood during the battle. After the battle each
Fir-Bolg carried with him a stone and the head of a Danann to their
king who erected a great cairn to commemorate the event, and this must
be the cairn of Ballymagibbon which stands on the road passing from
Cong to Cross. The well of Mean Uisge is identified as that mentioned
in the MS. accounts of the battle, connected with a striking incident.
After a careful examination of the locality, says Sir William Wilde,
with a transcript of the ancient MS. in his hand, he was convinced of
the identity of a stone heap standing within a circle as the place
where the body of the loyal Fir-Bolg youth was burned. The second day's
battle surged northwards, and at the western shores of Lough Mask,
Slainge Finn, the king's son, pursuing the two sons of Cailchu and
their followers, slew them there, and "seventeen flag stones were stuck
in the ground in commemoration of their death," and by the margin of
the lake in the island of Inish-Eogan there stands this remarkable
monument to this hour. The line of the Fir-Bolg camp can still be
traced with wonderful accuracy. Caher-Speenan, the thorny fort, was a
part of this camp, and still exists. More to the south-east, on the
hill of Tongegee, are the remains of Caher-na-gree, the pleasant fort,
and still further to the east are Lisheen, or little earthen fort, and
Caher-Phaetre, pewter fort. Other forts also exist to give evidence both
of the Fir-Bolg and the Danann lines. The Danann monuments are situate
in the fields opposite the glebes of Nymphsfield. Five remarkable stone
circles still remain within the compass of a square mile, and there are
traces of others. The Fir-Bolgs were defeated on the fourth day and
their king Eochy fell fighting to the last. "A lofty cairn was raised
over his body, and called Carn Eathach, from his name." On the grassy
hill of Killower, or Carn, overlooking Lough Mask, stands to this hour
the most remarkable cairn in the west of Ireland, and there is little
doubt this is the one referred to in the ancient tradition as
commemorating the death of the last Fir-Bolg king in Erin.
[150] Squire, _op. cit._, 76, 138.
[151] Squire, _op. cit._, 230.
[152] Squire, _Mythology_, 399.
[153] See _Life and Writings_ by Oliver Elton, ii. 224.
[154] _Governance of London_, 110-113.
[155] _Celtic Heathendom_, 125-133.
[156] See Bathurst, _Roman Antiquities of Lydney Park_, plates viii.,
xiii., for the famous example dealt with by Sir John Rhys; and Stuart,
_Caledonia Romana_, 309, plate ix. fig. 2, for a dedication to the
"Deities of Britain."
[157] See his _Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments_, chap.
xxii.
[158] See _Folklore_, xv. 306-311, for the Greek evidence; and xvii.
30, 164, for the Irish evidence.
[159] Frazer, _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), iii. 236-316. Mr. Frazer,
however, is inclined to review his explanation of bonfires as
sun-charms; see his _Adonis, Attis and Osiris_, 151, note 4.
[160] The specialisation of the fire cult is illustrated by the Hindu
myth of the Angiras, see Wilson, _Rig Veda Sanhita_, i. p. xxix.
[161] Gummere, _Germanic Origins_, 400-2.
[162] It will be convenient to give the references for the various
details of savage life in Britain. The original extracts are all given
in _Monumenta Historica Britannica_ and in Giles' _History of Ancient
Britons_, vol. ii. Ireland--cannibalism: Strabo, iv. cap. 5, 4, p. 201,
Diodoros, v. 32; promiscuous intercourse: Strabo; birth ceremony:
Solinus, xxii. Scotland--human sacrifice: Solinus, xxii.; promiscuous
intercourse, Solinus, cap. xxii., Xiphilinus from Dio in _Mon. Brit.
Hist._, p. lx., and St. Jerome adv. Jovin., v. ii. 201; nakedness,
Herodian in _Mon. Brit. Hist._, p. lxiv, and Xiphilinus, _ibid._, p.
lx. Britain--head-hunting, Strabo, iv. 1-4, pp. 199-201, Diodoros, v.
29; tattooing, Caesar, _De bello Gallico_, v. 12, Pliny, _Nat. Hist._,
xxii. i. (2); promiscuous intercourse, Caesar, _ibid._, v. 14,
Xiphilinus in _Mon. Brit. Hist._, p. lvii.
[163] _History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings_, i. 14.
[164] Innes' _Critical Essay_, 45, 51, 56, 240.
[165] O'Curry's _Manners and Customs of Ancient Irish_, i. p. vi. Dr.
Whitley Stokes has criticised O'Curry's translations as bad, "not from
ignorance, but to a desire to conceal a fact militating against
theories of early Irish civilisation."--_Revue Celtique_, iii. 90-101.
[166] Turner, _Hist. of Anglo-Saxons_, i. 64-74; Palgrave, _Eng. Com._,
i. 467-8.
[167] Giles' _History of Anc. Britons_, i. 231, referring to parallel
customs among the Chinese.
[168] Elton, _Origins of English History_, 82.
[169] Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, 55.
[170] _Celtic Heathendom_, 320, note.
[171] I have dealt with this in my _Ethnology in Folklore_, 36-40.
[172] Skene, _Celtic Scotland_, i. 59, 84.
[173] Pearson, _Hist. of England during the Early and Middle Ages_, i.
15, 21, 35.
[174] Ramsay, _Foundations of England_, i. 9, 11, 30.
[175] Lang, _Hist. of Scotland_, i. 3-5.
[176] Joyce, _Social Hist. of Ireland_, i. 19.
[177] In addition to Mr. Lang and Dr. Joyce, who are folklorists as
well as historians, and who as we have seen do deal with these records
scientifically, the folklorist goes out of his way to reject these
records. Thus Mr. Squire says that "the imputation" which Caesar makes
as to polyandrous customs "cannot be said to have been proved,"
_Mythology of the British Islands_, 30.
[178] _Village Communities_, 17.
[179] _Principles of Sociology_, i. 714.
[180] _Arch. Cambrensis_, 6th ser. v. 3.
[181] _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, xx. 259.