BRIDE'S BAIRNS
"But, I do not know how it comes to pass, it is the unhappy fashion
of our age to derive everything curious and valuable, whether the
works of art or nature, from foreign countries: as if Providence
had denied us both the genius and materials of art, and sent us
everything that was precious, comfortable, and convenient, at
second-hand only, and, as it were, by accident, from charity of our
neighbours."--BORLASE (1754).
Homer relates that the gods watched the progress of the siege of Troy
from the far-celebrated Mount Ida in Asia Minor: there is another
equally famous Mount Ida in Crete, at the foot of which lived a people
known as the Idaei. With Homer's allusion to "spring-abounding Ida's
lowest spurs," where wandered--
... in the marshy mead
Rejoicing with their foals three thousand mares,
may be connoted his reference to "Hyde's fertile vale,"[506] and there
is little doubt that spring-abounding Idas and Hyde Parks were once as
plentiful as Prestons, Silverdales, and Kingstons.
The name Ida is translated by the dictionaries as meaning _perfect
happiness_, and Ada as _rich gift_: we have already seen that the ideal
pair of Ireland were Great King Conn and Good Queen Eda, and that it was
during the reign of these royal twain that Ibernia, "flowed with the
pure lacteal produce of the dairy".[507]
Hyde Park, now containing Rotten Row at Kensington, occupies the site of
what figured in Domesday Book as the Manor of Hyde: the immediately
adjacent Audley Streets render it possible that the locality was once
known as Aud lea, or meadow, whence subsequent inhabitants derived their
surname. Hyde Park is partly in Paddington, a name which the authorities
decode into "town of the children of Paeda". This Paeda is supposed to
have been a King of Mercia, but he would hardly have been so prolific as
to have peopled a town, and, considered in conjunction with the
neighbouring Praed or _pere Aed_ street, it is more likely that Paeda
was Father Eda, the consort of Maida or Mother Eda, after whom the
adjacent Maida Vale and Maida Hill seemingly took their title. By
passing up Maida Vale one may traverse St. John's Wood, Brondesbury or
Brimsbury, Kensal Green, Cuneburn, and eventually attain the commanding
heights of Caen, or Ken wood, from whence may be surveyed not only
"Hyde's fertile vale," situated on "spring-abounding Ida's lowest
spurs," but a comprehensive sweep of greater London.
According to Tacitus "some say that the Jews were fugitives from the
island of Crete,"[508] and he continues: "There is a famous mountain in
Crete called Ida; the neighbouring tribe, the Idaei, came to be called
Judaei by a barbarous lengthening of the national name". Modern editors
of Tacitus regard this statement as no doubt the invention of some Greek
etymologer, but with reference to the Idaei they speak of this old
Cretan race as "being regarded as a kind of mysterious half-supernatural
beings to whom mankind were indebted for the discovery of iron and the
art of working it".[509]
There is evidence of a similar idealism having once existed among the
Britons and the Jews in the second Epistle of Monk Gildas to the
following effect: "The Britons, contrary to all the world and hostile to
Roman customs, not only in the mass but also in the tonsure, are with
the Jews slaves to the shadows of things to come rather than to the
truth".[510] By "truth" Gildas here of course means his own particular
"doxy," and the salient point of his testimony is the assertion that
practically alone in the world the British and the Jews were dreamy,
immaterial, superstitious idealists. That the Idaeians of Crete, Candia,
or Idaea were singularly pure or candid may be judged from the testimony
of Sir Arthur Evans: "Religion entered at every turn, and it was,
perhaps, owing to the religious control of art that among all the Minoan
representations--now to be numbered by thousands--no single example of
indecency has come to light".[511] Referring to British candour,
Procopius affirms: "So highly rated is chastity among these barbarians
that if even the bare mention of marriage occurs without its completion
the maiden seems to lose her fair fame".[512]
This alleged purity of the British Maid is substantiated by the words
_prude_ and _proud_, both of which like _pretty_, _purity_, and _pride_,
are radically pure Ide. Skeat defines _prude_ as a woman of affected
modesty, and adds "see _prowess_"; but prudery has little connection
with prowess, and is it really necessary to assume that primitive
prudery was "affected"? The Jewish JAH is translated by scholars as
"pure Being"; the passionate adoration of purity is expressed in the
prehistoric hymn quoted _ante_ page 183, Hu the Mighty was pre-eminently
pure, and it is thus likely that the ancient Pere, Jupiter, or Aubrey
meant originally the _Pure_.
We have seen that Jupiter, the divine _Power_, was conceived
indifferently as either a man or an immortal maid: a maid is a virgin,
and the words _maid_ or _mayde_, like Maida, is radically "Mother Ida".
According to Skeat _maid_ is related to Anglo-Saxon _magu_, a son or
kinsman; and one may thus perhaps account for _brother_, _bruder_, or
_frater_, as meaning originally the produce or progeny of the same
_pere_--but not necessarily the same _pair_.
To St. Bride may be assigned not only the terms _bride_ and bridegroom,
or brideman; but likewise _breed_ and _brood_. Skeat connects the latter
with the German _bruhen_ to scald, but a good mother does not scald her
brood, and as St. Bride was known anciently as "The Presiding Care";
even although _bairn_ is the same word as _burn_, we may assume that St.
Bride did not burn her _brat_.
There is a Bridewell and a church of St. Bride in London, but to the
modern Londoner this "greatest woman of the Celtic Church" is
practically unknown. In Hibernia and the Hebrides, however, St. Bride
yet lives, and in the words of a modern writer is "more real than the
great names of history. They, pale shadows moving in an unreal world,
have gone, but she abides. With each revolving year she flits across the
Machar, and her tiny flowers burn golden among the short, green, turfy
grass at her coming. Her herald, the Gillebrighde, the servant of Bride,
calls its own name and hers among the shores, a message that the sea,
the treasury of Mary, will soon yield its abundance to the fisher,
haven-bound by the cold and stormy waters of winter. He sees St. Bride,
the Foster Mother, but his keen vision penetrates a vista far beyond the
ages when Imperial Rome held sway and, in that immemorial past, beholds
her still. In the uncharted regions of the Celtic imagination, she
abides unchanging, her eyes starlit, her raiment woven of fire and dew;
her aureole the rainbow. To him she is older than the world of men, yet
eternally young. She is beauty and purity and love, and time for her has
no meaning. She is a ministering spirit, a flame of fire. It is she who
touches with her finger the brow of the poet and breathes into his heart
the inspiration of his song. She is born with the dawn, and passes into
new loveliness when the sun sets in the wave. The night winds sing her
lullaby, and little children hear the music of her voice and look into
her answering eyes. Who and what, then, is St. Bride? She is Bridget of
Kildare, but she is more. She is the daughter of Dagda, the goddess of
the Brigantes; but she is more. She is the maid of Bethlehem, the tender
Foster Mother; but she is more even than that. She is of the race of the
immortals. She is the spirit and the genius of the Celtic people."[513]
St. Bride was known occasionally as St. Fraid, and Brigit, or Brigid, an
alternative title of the Fair Ide, may be modernised into _Pure Good_.
With her white wand Brigit was said to breathe life into the mouth of
dead Winter, impelling him to open his eyes to the tears, the smiles,
the sighs, and the laughter of Spring, whence to Brid, or Bryth of the
Brythons, may be assigned the word _breathe_; and as Bride was
represented by a sheaf of grain carried joyously from door to door,
doubtless in her name we have the origin of _bread_.
The name Bradbury implies that many barrows were dedicated to Brad;
running into the river Rye of Kent is a river Brede, and as the young
goddess of Crete was known to the Hellenes as Britomart, which means
_sweet maiden_, we may equate Britomart with Britannia. At the village
of Brede in Kent the seat now known as Brede Place is also known as the
Giant's House, whence in all probability St. Bride was the maiden Giant,
Gennet, or Jeanette.
In the province of Janina in Albania is the town of Berat, and the
foundation of either this Berat or else the Beyrout of Canaan was
ascribed by the Greek mythologists to a maiden named Berith or Beroë.
Hail Beroë, fairest offering of the Nereids!
Beroë all hail! thou root of life, thou boast
Of Kings, thou nurse of cities with the world
Coeval; hail thou ever-favoured seat of Hermes ...
With Tethys and Oceanus coeval.
But later poets feign that lovely Beroë
Derived her birth from Venus and Adonis
Soon as the infant saw the light with joy
Old Ocean straight received her in his arms.
And e'en the brute creation shared the pleasure.
... In succeeding years
A sacred town derived its mystic name
From that fair child whose birth coeval was
With the vast globe; but rich Ausonia's sons
The city call Berytus.[514]
The same poet repeatedly maintains that the age of the city of Beroë was
equal to that of the world, and that it could boast an antiquity much
greater than that of Tarsus, Thebes, or Sardis. The reference to Beroë
or Berith as the ever-favoured seat of Hermes implies the customary
equation of Britannia = Athene = Wisdom. The prehistoric car illustrated
in the preceding chapter is reproduced from a stone in Perthshire or
Perithshire, and in a description written in 1569 this stone was then
designated the Thane Stone.[515] That this was an Athene stone is
somewhat implied by the further details, "it had a cross at the head of
it and a goddess next that in a cart, and two horses drawing her and
horsemen under that, and footmen and dogs". The Thanes of Scotland were
probably the official representatives of Athene, or Wisdom, or Justice,
and the dogs of the Thane Stone may be connoted with the Hounds of Diana
or Britomart, and the greyhounds of the English Fairy Queen.
Athene is presumably the same as Ethne, the reputed mother of St.
Columba, and also as Ieithon, the Keltic goddess of speech or _prat_ing,
after whom Anwyl considers the river Ieithon in Radnorshire was named.
This Welsh river-name may be connoted with the river Ythan in Scotland,
and the legend IDA, found upon the reverse of some of the Ikenian coins
of England, may be connoted with the place-name Odestone, or Odstone,
implying seemingly a stone of Od, or Odin.
At Oddendale in Westmorland are the remains of a Druidic circle and
traces of old British settlements: with the Thanestone may be connoted
the carved example illustrated _ante_, page 381, from Dingwall, and also
the decorated "Stone of the Fruitful Fairy," which exists in
Ireland.[516]
The authorities think it possible that the river Idle--a tributary of
the Trent--derived its name from being empty, vain, or useless; but it
is more probable that this small stream was christened by the Idaeans,
and that the resident Nymph or Fruitful Fairy was the idyll, or the
idol, whom they idealised. It is not without significance that the
starting point of the races at Uffington was Idles Bush: "As many as a
dozen or more horses ran, and they started from Idle's Bush which wur a
vine owld tharnin-tree in thay days--a very nice bush. They started from
Idle's Bush as I tell 'ee sir, and raced up to the Rudge-way."[517]
Doubtless there were also many other "Idles Bush's," perhaps at some
time one in every Ideian town or neighbourhood: there is seemingly one
notable survival at Ilstrye or _Ideles_tree, now Elstree near St.
Albans.
That the Idaean ideal was Athene is implied by the adjective _ethnic_.
The word _ethic_ which means, "relating to morals," is connected by
Skeat with _sitte_, the German for custom: there is, however, no seeming
connection between German custom and the Idyllic.[518]
The early followers of Britomart are universally described as an
industrious and peaceful people who made their conquests in arts and
commerce: to them not only was ascribed the discovery of iron and the
working of it, but the Cretan treatment of bronze proves that the
Idaeans were consummate bronzesmiths. In Crete, according to Sir Arthur
Evans, "new and refined crafts were developed, some of them like inlaid
metal-work unsurpassed in any age or country".
That the Britons were expert blacksmiths is evident not merely from
their chariot wheels, but also from the superb examples of bronze
art-craft, found notably in the Thames. For the sum of one shilling the
reader may obtain _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Iron Age_,
published by the British Museum, in which invaluable volume two
wonderful examples of prehistoric ironmongery are illustrated in colour.
One of these, a bronze shield discovered at Battersea, is rightly
described by Romilly Allen, as "about the most beautiful surviving piece
of late Celtic metal-work". The Celts, as this same authority observes,
had already become expert workers in metal before the close of the
Bronze Age; they could make beautiful hollow castings for the chapes of
their sword sheaths; they could beat out bronze into thin plates and
rivet them together sufficiently well to form water-tight cauldrons;
they could ornament their circular bronze shields and golden diadems
with repoussé patterns, consisting of corrugations and rows of raised
bosses; and they were not unacquainted with the art of engraving on
metal.[519]
Not only were the Britons expert in ordinary metal-work but they are
believed to have _invented_ the art of enamelled-inlay. Writing in the
third century of the present era, an oft-quoted Greek observed: "They
say that the barbarians who live in Ocean pour colours on heated bronze
and that they adhere, become as hard as stone, and preserve the designs
that are made in them".
It is admitted that nowhere was greater success attained by this art of
the early Iron Age than in Britain, and as Sir Hercules Read rightly
maintains: "There are solid reasons for supposing this particular style
to have been confined to this country".[520] The art of enamelling was
of course practised elsewhere, particularly at Bibracte in Gaul, long
before the Roman Conquest, but in the opinion of Dr. Anderson, the
Bibracte enamels are the work of mere dabblers in the art compared with
the British examples: the home of the art was Britain, and the style of
the patterns, as well as the associations in which the objects decorated
with it were found, demonstrate with certainty that it had reached its
highest stage of indigenous development before it came in contact with
the Roman culture.[521] The evidence of the bronze spear-head points to
the same remarkable conclusions as the evidence of enamelled bronze, and
in the opinion of the latest and best authorities, from its first
inception throughout the whole progress of its evolution the spear-head
of the United Kingdom has a character of its own, one quite different
from those found elsewhere. In no part of the world did the spear-head
attain such perfection of form and fabric as it did in these islands,
and the old-fashioned notion that bronze weapons were imported from
abroad is now hopelessly discredited. "Why, then," ask the authors of
_The Origin, Evolution, and Classification of the Bronze
Spear-Head_,[522] "may not a bronze culture have had its birth in our
country where it ultimately attained a development scarcely equalled,
certainly not surpassed, by that in any other part of the world?"
One of the distinctions of the British spear-head is a certain variety
of tang, of which the only parallel has been found in one of the early
settlements at Troy. Forms also, somewhat similar, have been discovered
in the Islands of the Ægean sea, and in the Terramara deposits of
Northern Italy, but it is the considered opinion of Canon Greenwell and
Parker Brewis, that whatever may be the true explanation of the history
of the general development of a bronze culture in Great Britain and
Ireland, "there can be no doubt whatever that the spear-head in its
origin, progress, and final consummation was an indigenous product of
those two countries, and was manufactured within their limits apart from
any controlling influence from outside".[523]
The magnificent bronze shield and _bric a brac_ found in London were
thus presumably made there, and it is not improbable that the principal
smitheries were situated either at Smithfield in the East, or Smithfield
in the West in the ward of Farringdon or Farendone.
Stow in his _London_ uses the word _fereno_ to denote an ironmonger, in
old French _feron_ meant a smith, and wherever the ancient ferenos or
smiths were settled probably became known as _Farindones_ or _fereno
towns_. Stow mentions several eminent goldsmiths named Farendone; from
_feron_, the authorities derive the surname Fearon, which may be seen
over a shop-front near Farringdon Street to-day.
Modern Farringdon Street leads from Smithfield or Smithy field[524] to
Blackfriars, and it may be suggested that the original Black Friars were
literally freres or brethren, who forged with industrious ferocity at
their fires and furnaces. Without impropriety the early fearons might
have adopted as their motto _Semper virens_: smiting in smithies is
smutty work, and all these terms are no doubt interrelated, but not, I
think, in the sense which Skeat supposes them, _viz._: "Smite, _to
fling_. The original sense was to smear or rub over. 'To rub over,'
seems to have been a sarcastic expression for 'to beat'; we find _well
anoynted_--well beaten."
The word _bronze_ was derived, it is said, from Brundusinum or Brindisi,
a town which was famous for its bronze workers. Brindisi is almost
opposite Berat in Epirus; the smith or _faber_ is proverbially _burly_,
_i.e._, _bur_ like or _brawny_, and it is curious that the terms
_brass_, _brasier_, _burnish_, _bronze_, etc., should all similarly
point to Bru or Brut. With St. Bride or St. Brigit, who in one of her
three aspects was represented as a smith, may be connoted _bright_, and
with Bress, the Consort of Brigit, may be connoted _brass_. And as Bride
was alternatively known as Fraid, doubtless to this form of the name may
be assigned _fer_, _fire_, _fry_, _frizzle_, _furnace_, _forge_,
_fierce_, _ferocious_, and _force_.
That the island of Bru or Barri in South Wales was a reputed home of the
burly _faber_, _feuber_, or Fire Father, is to be inferred from the
statement of Giraldus Cambrensis, that "in a rock near the entrance of
the island there is a small cavity to which if the ear is applied a
noise is heard like that of smiths at work, the blowing of the bellows,
strokes of the hammers, grinding of tools and roaring of
furnaces".[525] It is supposed that Barri island owes its name to a
certain St. Baroc, the remains of whose chapel once stood there: that
St. Baroc was Al Borak, the White Horse or _brok_, upon whom every good
Mussalman hopes eventually to ride, is implied by the story that St.
Baroc borrowed a friend's horse and rode miraculously across the sea
from Pembrokeshire to Ireland.
On the coast between Pembroke and Tenby is Manor_beer_, known anciently
as Maenor Pyrr, that is, says Giraldus, "the mansion of Pyrrus, who also
possessed the island of Chaldey, which the Welsh call Inys Pyrr, or the
island of Pyrrus". But the editor of Giraldus considers that a much more
natural and congenial conjecture may be made in supposing Maenor Pyrr to
be derived from _Maenor_ a _Manor_, and Pyrr, the plural of Por, a lord.
I have already suggested a possible connection between the numerous
_pre_ stones and Pyrrha, the first lady who created mankind out of
stones.
Near Fore Street, in the ward of Farringdon by Smithfield, will be found
Whitecross Street, Redcross Street, and Cowcross Street: the last of
these three cross streets by which was "Jews Garden," may be connoted
with the Geecross of elsewhere. The district is mentioned by Stow as
famous for its coachbuilders, and there is no more reason to assume that
the word _coach_ (French _coche_) was derived from Kocsi, a town in
Hungary, than to suppose that the first coach was a cockney production
and came from Chick Lane or from Cock Lane, both of which neighbour the
Cowcross district in Smithfield. The supposition that the _gig_ or
_coach_ (the words are radically the same) was primarily a vehicle used
in the festivals to Gog the _High High_, or _Mighty Mighty_, is
strengthened by the testimony of the solar chariot illustrated _ante_,
page 405.
Not only were the British famed from the dawn of history[526] for their
car-driving but from the evidence of sepulchral chariots and sepulchral
harness the authorities are of opinion that the fighting car was long
retained by the Kelts, "and its presence in the Yorkshire graves seems
to show that it persisted in Britain longer than elsewhere".[527]
Somewhere in the Smithfield district originally existed what Stow
mentions as Radwell, and this well of the Redcross, or Ruddy rood, may
be connoted with the Rood Lane a mile or so more eastward. Between Rood
Lane and Red Cross Street is Lothbury: the suffix _bury_ (as in
Lothbury, and Aldermanbury) is held by Stow, and also by Camden, to mean
a Court of Justice, and this definition accords precisely with the
theory that the barrow was originally the seat of Justice. At Lothbury
the noise or _bruit_ made by the burly fabers was so vexatious that Stow
seriously defines the place-name _Loth_bury as indicating a _loath_some
locality.[528] The supposition that Cowcross Street, Jews Garden, and
the Redcross or Ruddy rood site were primarily in the occupation of men
of Troy or Droia may possibly be strengthened by the fact that here was
a _Tre_mill brook, and the seat of a Sir Drew Drury. The parish church
of Blackfriars is St. Andrews, there is another St. Andrews within a
bow-shot of Smithfield, and that the "drews" were a skilled family is
obvious from the fact that the name Drew is defined as Teutonic
_skilful_. Both Scandinavians and Germans possess the Trojan tradition;
the All Father of Scandinavia was named _Borr_, Thor, the Hammer God,
was assigned to Troy, and in Teutonic mythology there figure two
celestial Smith-brethren named Sindre and Brok.
The cradle of the Cretan Zeus is assigned sometimes not to Mount Ida but
to the neighbouring Mount Juktas which is described as an extraordinary
"cone". When the Cretan script is deciphered it will probably transpire
that Mount Juktas was associated with Juk, Jock, or Jack, and the name
may be connected with _jokul_, the generic term in Scandinavia for a
snow-covered or white-crowned height. Jack is seemingly the same word as
the Hebrew Isaac, which is defined as meaning _laughter_; Jack may thus
probably be equated with _joke_ and _jokul_ with _chuckle_, all of which
symptoms are the offspring of _joy_ or _gaiety_. To _kyg_, an obsolete
adjective meaning _lively_--and thus evidently a variant of _agog_--are
assigned by our authorities the surnames Keach, Ketch, Kedge, and Gedge.
In connection with _kyg_ Prof. Weekley quotes the line--
_Kygge_ or joly, _jocundus_.
Among the gewgaws found in the sacred shrines of Juktas are numerous
bijou gigs, or coaches, all no doubt once very _juju_, or sacred.
To appreciate the outlook of the "half-supernatural" Idaeans one may
find a partial key in the words of Aratus: "Let us begin with _Zeus_,
let us always call upon and laud his name; all the network of
interwending roads and all the busy markets of mankind are full of
_Zeus_, and all the paths and fair havens of the sea, and everwhere our
hope is in _Zeus_ for we are also his children".[529]
Stow mentions the firmly-rooted tradition that the Cathedral of St. Paul
stands upon the site of an ancient shrine to Jupiter. It may be merely
coincidence that close to St. Paul's once stood an Ypres Hall:[530] in
the immediate vicinity of Old St. Paul's used also to exist a so-called
Pardon Churchyard, perhaps an implication that Ludgate Hill was once
known as _Par dun_ or _Par Hill_. That "Pardon" was equivalent to
"Pradon" is evident from the fact that modern Dumbarton was originally
_Dun Brettan_, or the Briton's Fort. The slope leading from the Southern
side of St. Paul's or Pardon Churchyard, is still named Peter's Hill,
and in view of the Jupiter tradition it is not altogether unlikely that
Peter's Hill was originally _eu Peter's_ Hill, synonymously _Pere dun_.
The surname Pardon may still be found in this Godliman Street
neighbourhood, where in Stow's time stood not only Burley House, but
likewise Blacksmiths Hall. A funeral _pyre_ is a fire; a _phare_ is a
lighthouse, and the intense purity of Bride's fire, phare, or pyre is
implied by the fact that it was not suffered to be blown by human breath
but by bellows only. From time immemorial the Fire of Bride was tended
by nineteen holy maids, each of whom had the care of the Fire for one
night in turn: on the twentieth night the nineteenth maid, having piled
wood upon the fire, said: "Brigit, take charge of your own fire, for
this night belongs to you". The tale ends that ever on the twentieth
morning the fire had been miraculously preserved.[531]
The patron saint of engineers is Barbara or Varvara, the sacred pyre of
Bride was maintained within a circle or periphery of stakes and
brushwood, and close at hand were certain very beautiful meadows called
St. Bridget's pastures, in which no plough was ever suffered to turn a
furrow. The words _mead_ and _meadow_ are the same as _maid_ and
_maida_, whence it seems to follow that all meadows were dedicated to
Bride, the pretty Lady of the Kine. Homer's "fertile vale of Hyde," and
the Londoner's Hyde Park, were alike probably idealised and sacred
meadows corresponding to the Irish Mag-Ithe or Plains of Ith; it is not
unlikely that all _heaths_ were dedicated to _Ith_. To the Scandinavian
Ith or Ida Plains we find an ancient poet thus referring: "I behold
Earth rise again with its evergreen forests out of the deep ... the
Anses meet on Ida Plain, they talk of the mighty earth serpent, and
remember the great decrees, and the ancient mysteries of the unknown
God". After foretelling a time when "All sorrows shall be healed and
Balder shall come back," the poet continues: "Then shall Hoeni choose
the rods of divination aright, and the sons of the _Twin Brethren_ shall
inhabit the wide world of the winds".[532]
[Illustration: FIG. 266.--Etruscan Bucket, Offida, Picenum. From _A
Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age_, p.
17.]
In Fig. 266--an Etrurian bucket--two diminutive Twin Brethren are being
held by the _Bona Dea_--a winged Ange or Anse--who is surmounted by the
symbolic cockle or coquille. The fact that this bucket was found at
Offida renders it possible that the mother here represented was known
to the craftsman who portrayed her as _Offi divine_, otherwise Hipha,
Eve, or Good Iva. It will be noticed that the child on the right is
white, that on the left black, and I have elsewhere drawn attention to
many other emblems in which two A's, Alphas, Alifs, or Elves were
similarly portrayed, the one as white, the other as black.[533] The
intention of the artist seems to have been to express the current
philosophy of a Prime or Supreme supervising both good and evil, light
and dark, or day and night. Pliny says that British women used to attend
certain religious festivals with their nude bodies painted black like
Ethiopians, and there is probably some close connection between this
obscure function, and the fact that Diana of the Ephesians, the
many-breasted All-mother of Life, was portrayed at times as white, at
times as black. There must be a further connection between this black
and white _Bona Dea_, and the fact that in the Lady Godiva processions
near Coventry, which took place at the opening of the Great May Fair
festival, there were two Godivas, one of whom was the natural colour but
the other was dyed black.[534]
The _Bona Dea_ of Egypt, like the figure on the Etrurian bucket, was
represented holding in her arms two children, one white and one black;
and the two circles at Avebury, lying within the larger Avereberie or
periphery, were probably representative of Day and Night circled by
all-embracing and eternal Time.
The Twin Brethren or Gemini are most popularly known as Castor and
Pollux, and the propitious figures of these heavenly Twins were carved
frequently upon the _prows_ of ancient ships. The phosphorescent stars
or Will-o-the-wisps, which during storms sometimes light upon the masts
of ships, used to be known as St. Elmo's Fires: St. Elmo is obviously
St. Alma or St. All Mother, and the St. Helen with whom she is
identified is seemingly St. Alone. It was believed that two stars were
propitious, but that a solitary one boded bad luck; according to Pliny a
single St. Elmo's fire was called Helen, "but the two they call Castor
and Pollux, and invoke them as gods".
[Illustration: FIG. 267.--From _Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
Symbolism_ (Inman, C. W.)]
The appearance of the will-o-the-wisps, Castor and Pollux, was held to
be an argument that the tempest was caused by "a sulphurous spirit
rarefying and violently moving the clouds, for the cause of the fire is
a sulphurous and bituminous matter driven downwards by the impetuous
motion of the air and kindled by much agitation". I quote this passage
as justifying the suggestion that _sulphur_--the yellow and fiery--is
radically _phur_, and that _brimstone_, or _brenstoon_, as Wyclif has
it, may be the stone of Brim or Bren, which burns.
The identification of Castor and Pollux with stars or _asters_, enables
us to equate Castor as the White god or Day god, for _dextra_, the Latin
for right, is _de castra_, _i.e._, _good great astra_. The white child
in Fig. 266 is that on the _right_ hand of the _Bona Dea_: that Pollux
was the dark, _sinister_, _sinistra_, or left-hand power, is somewhat
confirmed by the fact that the Celtic Pwll was the Pluto or deity of the
underworld. Possibly the Latin _castra_, meaning a fort, originated from
the idea that Castor was the heroic Invictus who has developed into St.
Michael and St. George. The _sin_ of _sinister_ may possibly be the
Gaelic _sen_, meaning senile, and the implication follows that the dark
twin was the old in contradistinction to the new god.
The French for nightmare is _cauche_mar, the French for left is
_gauche_, and it is the left-hand mairy, or fairy, in Fig. 266 which is
the shady one. Not only does _gauche_ mean _left_, but it also implies
awkward, uncanny, and inept, whence it is to be feared that the Gooches,
the Goodges, and their affiliated tribes were originally "Blackfriars,"
and followers of the Black God. I have already suggested that the Gogs
were unpopular among the Greeks, and the intensity of their feeling is
seemingly reflected by the Greek adjective _kakos_[535] (the English
_gagga_?), which means evil, dirty, or unpleasant.
Castor and Pollux, or the Fires of St. Helen, were known along the
shores of the Mediterranean as St. Telmo's Fires, the word Telmo being
seemingly _t Elmo_ or Good Alma. By the Italians they are known as the
Fires of St. Peter and St. Nicholas; Peter here corresponding probably
to the _auburn_ Aubrey, and Nicholas to "Old Nick".
It was fabled that Castor and Pollux were alike immortal, that like day
and night they periodically died, but that whenever one of the brothers
expired the other was restored to life, thus sharing immortality between
them. "There was," says Duncan, "an allusion to this tradition in the
Roman horse-races, where a single rider galloped round the course
mounted on one horse while he held another by the rein."[536] This
ceremony becomes more interesting when we find that the cauchemar, the
nightmare, or the blackmare used in England to be known as the
"ephialtes".[537] That this ill-omened _hipha_, or hobby, was ill-boding
Helena, seems somewhat to be confirmed by the custom in Cumberland of
allotting to servants the years' allowance for horse-meat on St.
Helen's, Eline's, or Elyn's day.[538] It is believed that horse meat is
now taboo in Britain, because the eating of horse was so persistently
denounced by Christianity as a heathen rite.
[Illustration: FIG. 268.--British Altar. By kind permission of the
authorities of the British Museum.
[_To face page 479._]
I have shown elsewhere some of the innumerable forms under which the
fires of Elmo, or the heavenly Twain, were represented. In England it is
evident that a pair of horses served as one form of expression, for
among the treasures at the British Museum is an article which is thus
described: "Bronze plate representing an altar decorated with blue,
green, and red sunk enamels, and evidently unfinished, hence native work
of the fourth or fifth century. Found in the river Thames, 1847". The
principal decoration of this bijou altar--significantly 7 inches
high--is two winged steeds supporting a demijohn, vase, or phial, the
handles of which, in the form of [SS], are detached from the vase, but
are emerging flame-like from the supporters' heads. The fact of these
steeds appearing upon an "altar" is evidence of their sacred character,
and one finds apparently the same two beasts delineated on a bucket,
_vide_ Fig. 270. This so termed "barbaric production," discovered in an
Aylesford gravel pit belonging to a gentleman curiously named Wagon, is
attributed to the first century B.C., and has been compared unfavourably
with the Etruscan bucket reproduced on page 474. The authorities of the
British Museum comment upon it as follows: "The effect of barbaric
imitation during two or three centuries may be appreciated by comparing
the Etruscan _cista_ of the _fourth century_, with the Aylesford bucket
of the _first century_ B.C. The first thing to be noticed is the absence
from the latter of the heavy solid castings that form the feet and
handle-attachments of the classical specimen. Such work was beyond the
range of the British artificer, who was never successful with the human
or animal form, but there is an evident desire to reproduce the salient
features of the prototype. The solid uppermost band of the Etruscan
specimen is represented by a thin embossed strip at Aylesford, while the
classical motives are woefully caricatured. Minor analogies are noticed
later, but the degradation of the ornament may fitly be dwelt on here
as showing the limitations, and at the same time the originality of the
native craftsman."
[Illustration: FIG. 269.--Bronze-mounted bucket, Aylesford. From _A
Guide to Antiquities of the Early Iron Age_ (B.M.).]
[Illustration: FIG. 270.--Embossed frieze of bucket, Aylesford. From
_A Guide to Antiquities of the Early Iron Age_
(B.M.).]
I confess myself unable either to appreciate or dwell upon the alleged
degradation of this design, or the woeful inadequacy of the
craftmanship. The bold execution of the spirals proves that the British
artist--had such been his intent--could without difficulty have
delineated a copybook horse: what, however, he was seemingly aiming at
was a facsimile of the heraldic and symbolic beasts which our coins
prove were the cherished insignia of the country, and these "deplorable
abortions" I am persuaded were no more barbarous or unsuccessful than
the grotesque lions and other fantastics which figure in the Royal Arms
to-day.
In all probability the Aylesford bucket was made in the neighbourhood
where it was found, for at Aylesford used to stand a celebrated "White
Horse Stone". The attendant local legend--that anyone who rode a beast
of this description was killed on or about the spot[539]--is seemingly a
folk-memory of the time when the severe penalty for riding a white mare
was death.[540] The place-name Aylesbury is derived by the authorities
from _bury_, a fortified place of, and _Aegil_, the Sun-archer of
Teutonic mythology: the head-dress of the face constituting the hinge of
the Aylesford bucket consists of two circles which correspond in idea
with the two children in the arms of the Etruscan hinge. That the bucket
was originally a sacerdotal and sacred vessel is implied not only by the
word but by the ancient custom thus recorded: "First on a pillar was
placed a perch on the sharp prickled back whereof stood this idol ...
in his left hand he held up a wheel, and in his right he carried a pail
of water wherein were flowers and fruits".[541] I have elsewhere
reproduced several emblems of Jupiter and Athene each seated on a "sharp
prickled back," _i.e._, a _broccus_, saw, or zigzag, symbolic of the
shaggy solar rays.
[Illustration: FIGS. 271 to 273.--British. From Akerman.]
There is nothing decadent or seriously wrong with the drawing of the
steeds delineated in Figs. 271 and 272, although the "what-not"
proceeding from the mouth of the Geho is somewhat perplexing. This is
seemingly a ribbon or a chain, and like the perfect chain surrounding
our SOLIDO coins, and the chain which will be noted upon the Trojan
spindle whorl illustrated on page 583, was probably intended to portray
what the ancients termed Jupiter's Chain: "All things," says Marcus
Aurelius, "are connected together by a sacred chain, and there is not
one link in it which is not allied with the whole chain, for all things
have been so blended together as to form a perfect whole, on which the
symmetry of the universe depends. There is but one world, and it
comprehends everything; one God endued with ubiquity; one eternal
matter; and one law, which is the Reason common to all intelligent
creatures."
[Illustration: FIGS. 274 to 276.--British. From Evans, and from
Barthelemy.]
A chain of pearls is proceeding from the mouth of the little figure
which appears on some of the Channel Island coins, _vide_ the DRUCCA
example herewith: students of fairy-tale are familiar with the story of
a Maid out of whose mouth, whenso'er she opened it fell jewels, and that
this fairy Maid was Reason is implied by the present day compliment in
the East, "Allah! you are a wise man, you spit pearls." The DRUCCA coin
is officially described as a "female figure standing to the left, her
right hand holding a serpent (?)" and it is quite likely that the
serpent or symbol of Wisdom was intended by the artist. There is no
question about the serpents in the Tyrian coin here illustrated, where
on either side of the Maiden they are represented with almost precisely
the same [SS] form as the [SS] proceeding from the mouths of the two
steeds on the British "altar". In the latter case the centre is a vase
or demijohn, in the former the centre is a Maid or Virgin. Without a
doubt this BER virgin is Beroë or Berith, the _pherepolis_ of Beyrout:
in Fig. 278 the two serpents are associated with a phare, fire, or pyre;
from the mouth of the British "Jupiters," illustrated in Figs. 274 and
275, the same two serpentine flames or S's are emerging.
The word BER, as has been seen, is equivalent to Vir, and in all
probability the word _virgin_ originally carried the same meaning as
_burgeon_. That old Lydgate, the monk of _Bery_, knew all about Vera and
how she made the buds to burgeon is obvious from his lines:--
Mightie Flora Goddesse of fresh flowers
Which clothed hath the soyle in lustie greene,
Made buds spring with her sweet showers
By influence of the sunne-shine
To doe pleasaunce of intent full cleane,
Unto the States which now sit here
Hath _Vere_ down sent her own daughter deare.
[Illustration: FIGS. 277 and 278.--From _Ancient Pagan and Modern
Christian Symbolism_ (Inman, C. W.).]
[Illustration: FIG. 279.--Bas Relievo on the Portal of the Temple of
Montmorillon in France. From _Antiquities of Cornwall_
(Borlase).]
It is evident that Vere is here the equivalent of Proserpine, the Maid
who was condemned to spend one-half her time in Hades, and that "Verray"
was occasionally noxious is implied by the old sense attributed to this
word of _nightmare_, _e.g._, Chaucer:--
Lord Jesus Christ and Seynte Benedykte
Bless this house from every wikked wight
Fro nyghte's _verray_, etc.
Some authorities connoted this word _verray_ with Werra, a Sclavonic
deity, and the connection is probably well founded: the Cornish Furry
dance was also termed the Flora dance.
[Illustration: FIG. 280.--The Church as a Dove with Six Wings. A
Franco-German Miniature of the XI. Cent. From
_Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]
The name Proserpine is seemingly akin to Pure Serpent--the same Serpent,
perhaps, whose form is represented _in extenso_ at Avebury: the _Bona
Dea_ of Crete was figured holding serpents and the nude figure on the
left of Fig. 279 has been ingeniously, and, I think, rightly interpreted
by Borlase as Truth, or Vera. It was doubtless some such similar emblem
as originated the ridiculous story that St. Christine of Tyre was
"tortured" by having live serpents placed at her breasts: "The two asps
hung at her breasts and did her no harm, and the two adders wound them
about her neck and licked up her sweat."[542] Not only is this suffering
Christine assigned to Tyre (in Italy), but she is said to have been
enclosed in a certain _tower_ and to have been set upon a burning _tour_
or wheel. Christine is the feminine of Christ, and that Christ was
identified with _Sophia_ or Wisdom is obvious from the design herewith.
[Illustration: FIG. 281.--Jesus Christ as Saint Sophia. Miniature of
Lyons, XII. Cent. From _Christian Iconography_
(Didron).]
The Sicilian coins of Janus depicted Columba or the Dove, and the same
symbol of the Cretan, Epheia, Britomart, Athene, or Rhea figures in the
hand of the Elf on page 627, and on the reverse of other British coins
illustrated on the same page. The Dove is the acknowledged symbol of the
Holy Ghost, yet the symbolists depicted even the immaculate Dove as
duplex: the six wings of the parti-coloured Columba have in all
probability an ultimate connection with the six beneficent
world-supervisors of the Persian philosophy.
[Illustration: FIG. 282.--The Holy Ghost, as a Child, Floating on the
Waters. From a Miniature of the XIV. Cent. From
_Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]
In the Christian emblem below, the Holy Ghost is represented as a Child
floating on the Waters of Chaos between the circles of Day and Night,
and that the Supreme was the Parent alike of both Good and Evil is
expressed in the verse: "I form the light and create darkness; I make
peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things." The preceding
sentence runs: "There is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else."[543] That this idea was prevalent among the Druids of the west is
strongly to be inferred from an ancient chant still current among the
Bretons, which begins--
Beautiful child of the Druid, answer me right well.
What would'st thou that I should sing?
Sing to me the series of number one, that I may learn it this very day.
There is no series for one, for One is Necessity alone.
The father of death, there is nothing before and nothing after.[544]
The _Magna Mater_ of Fig. 266 might thus appropriately have been known
as Fate, Destiny, Necessity, or Fortune. _Fortuna_ is radically _for_,
and with the Fortunes or fates may be connoted the English fairies known
as Portunes. The Portunes are said to be peculiar to England, and are
known by the French as Neptunes: the English Portunes are represented as
diminutive little people who, "if anything is to be carried into the
house, or any laborious work to be done, lend a hand and finish it
sooner than any man could".[545] A jocular and amiable little people who
loved to warm themselves at the fire.
[Illustration: FIG. 283.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]
Among the heathen chants of the Spanish peasantry is one in which the
number One stands for the wheel of Fortune, and the number six "for the
loves you hold". These six loves may be connoted with the six pinions of
the Dove illustrated on page 486, and that Janus of the Dove was
regarded as the Chaos, Ghost, or Cause is obvious from the words which
are put into his mouth by Ovid: "The ancients called me Chaos (for I am
the original substance). Observe, how I can unfold the deeds of past
times. This lucid air, and the three other bodies which remain, fire,
water, and earth, formed one heap.[546] As soon as this mass was
liberated from the strife of its own discordant association, it sought
new abodes. Fire flew upwards: air occupied the next position, and earth
and water, forming the land and sea, filled the middle space. Then I,
who was a globe, and formless, assumed a countenance and limbs worthy of
a god. Even now, as a slight indication of my primitive appearance, my
front and back are the same."
In the mouth of Fig. 283 is the wheel of the four quarters, and variants
of this wheel-cross form the design of a very large percentage of
English coins: I here use the word English in preference to British as
"there was no native coinage either in Scotland, Wales, or Ireland": in
England alone have prehistoric British coins been found,[547] and in
England alone apparently were they coined. Somewhat the same conclusions
are indicated by the wheel-cross which is peculiar to Wales, Cornwall,
and the Isle of Man: neither in Scotland or Ireland does the circular
form exist.[548]
[Illustration: FIG. 284.--Cretan Seal.]
[Illustration: FIG. 285.--British. From _English Coins and Tokens_
(Jewitt & Head).]
[Illustration: FIG. 286.--British. From Evans.]
Among the seals of Crete there has been found one figuring a ship and
two half-moons: it has been supposed that this token signified that the
devotee had ventured on a two months' voyage and signalised the
successful exploit by the fabrication of an _ex voto_; but if the
subject in question actually represents a material vessel one may
question whether the mariner could successfully have negotiated even a
two hours' trip. The pair of crescents which figure so frequently on
the wheel-cross coins of Britain probably implied the twin lily-white
maids of Druidic folk-song, and the superstitions in connection with
this symbol of the two _sickles_--the word is essentially the same as
_cycle_, Greek _kuklos_--seem in Anglesea or Mona even to linger
yet.[549] Among sepulchral offerings found in a prehistoric barrow near
Bridlington or Burlington, were "two pieces of flint chipped into the
form of crescents,"[550] and it is possible that Ida the Flame bearer,
whose name is popularly connected with _flame bearer_ or Flamborough
Head, was not the Anglian chieftain, but the divine Ida, Head, or Flame
to whom all Forelands and Headlands were dedicated. With Bridlington or
Burlington may be connoted the fact that this town of the children of
Brid is situated in the Deira district, which was occupied by the
Parisii: this name is by some authorities believed to be only a
corruption of that of the Frisii, originally settlers from the opposite
coast of Friesland.
The Etruscan name for Juno was Cupra, which may be connoted with Cabira,
one of the titles of Venus, also with Cabura, the name of a fountain in
Mesopotamia wherein Juno was said to bathe himself. The mysterious
deities known as the Cabiri are described as "mystic divinities (?
Phoenician origin) worshipped in various parts of the ancient world.
The meaning of their name, their character, and nature are quite
uncertain".[551] Faber, in his _Dissertation on the Mysteries of the
Cabiri_, states that the Cabiri were the same as the Abiri:[552] in
Hebrew _Cabirim_ means the Mighty Ones, and there is seemingly little
doubt that Cabiri was originally _great abiri_. In Candia or Talchinea,
the Cabiri were worshipped as the Telchines, and as _chin_ or _khan_
meant in Asia Minor Priest as well as King, and as the offices of Priest
and King were anciently affiliated, the term _talchin_ (which as we have
seen was applied to St. Patrick) meant seemingly _tall_ or _chief
King-Priest_. The custom of Priest-Kings adopting the style and titles
of their divinities renders it probable that the historical Telchins
worshipped an archetypal Talchin. The original Telchins are described by
Diodorus, as first inhabiting Rhodes, and the Colossus of Rhodes was
probably an image of the divine _Tall King_ or _Chief King_.
It is related that Rhea entrusted the infant Neptune to the care of the
Telchines who were children of the sea, and that the child sea-god was
reared by them in conjunction with Caphira or Cabira, the daughter of
Oceanus. As Faber observes: "Caphira is evidently a mere variation of
Cabira," and he translates Cabira as _Great Goddess_: in view of the
evidence already adduced one might likewise translate it Great _Power_,
Great _Pyre_, or Great _Phairy_. The Cabiri are often equated with the
Dioscuri or Great _Pair_, and these Twain were not infrequently
expressed symbolically by Twin circles.
[Illustration: FIG. 287.--Mykenian. FIG. 288.--Cretan. FIG.
289.--Scotch. From _Myths of Crete and Prehellenic
Europe_ (Mackenzie, D. A.).]
The emblem of the double disc, "barnacle," or "spectacle ornament" is
found most frequently in Scotland where it is attributed to the Picts:
sometimes the discs are undecorated, others are elaborated by a zigzag
or zed, which apparently signified the Central and sustaining _Power_,
Fire, or Force. Figs. 287 and 288 from Crete represent the discs
transfixed by a _broca_ or spike and the winged ange or angel with a
wand--the magic rod or wand which invariably denoted Power--may be
designated King Eros. In Scotland the central _brocco_, _i.e._, skewer,
shoot, or stalk is found sprouting into what one might term _broccoli_,
and in Fig. 291 the dotted eyes, wheels, or paps are elaborated into
sevens which possibly may have symbolised the seven gifts of the Holy
Spirit. Notable examples of this disc ornament occur at Doo Cave in
Fife, and as the Scotch refer to a Dovecote as "Doocot," it may be
suggested that Doo Cave was a Dove Cave sacred to the _deux_, or _duo_,
or Dieu. Other well-known specimens are found on a so-called "Brodie"
stone and on the Inchbrayock stone in Forfarshire. Forfar, I have
already suggested, was a land of St. Varvary: Overkirkhope, where the
symbol also occurs, was presumably the hope or hill of Over, or _uber_,
Church, and Ferriby,[553] in Lincolnshire, where the emblem is again
found, was in all probability a _by_ or abode of Ferri. The name Cupar
may be connoted with Cupra--the Juno of Etruria--and Inchbrayock is
radically Bray or Brock.
[Illustration: FIGS. 290 to 292.--Scotch. From _Archaic Sculpturings_
(Mann, L. M.).]
Sometimes the discs--which might be termed _Brick a Brack_ or, Bride's
Bairns--are centred by what looks like a tree (French _arbre_) or, in
comparison with Fig. 295, from the catacombs, might be an anchor: it has
no doubt rightly been assumed that this and similar carvings symbolised
the Tree of Life with Adam and Eve on either hand. According to a recent
writer: "The symbol group of a man and woman on either side of a tree
with a serpent at times introduced is of pre-Christian origin. The
figures narrowly considered as Adam and Eve and broadly as the human
family are accompanied by the Tree which stands for Knowledge, and the
serpent which represents Wisdom. This old world-wide symbol seems to
crop up in Pictland twisted and changed in a curious fashion."[554] One
of these fantastic forms is, I think, the feathered elphin or
_antennaed_ solar face of Fig. 293.
[Illustration: FIGS. 293 and 294.--From _Archaic Sculpturings_ (Mann,
L. M.).]
[Illustration: FIG. 295.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]
Among the ancients the word _Eva_, not only denoted _life_, but it also
meant _serpent_: the jumbled traditions of the Hebrews associated Eve
and the Serpent unfavourably, but according to an early sect of Gnostic
Christians known as the Ophites, _i.e._, _Evites_, or "Serpentites," the
Serpent of Genesis was a personification of the Good principle, who
instructed Eve in all the learning of the world which has descended to
us. There is frequent mention in the Old Testament of a people called
the Hivites or Hevites, so called because, like the Christian Ophites,
they were worshippers of the serpent. We meet again with Eff the serpent
in F the fifth letter of the alphabet: this letter, according to Dr.
Isaac Taylor, was formed originally like a horned or sacred serpent, and
the two strokes of our F are the surviving traces of the two horns.[555]
[Illustration: FIG. 296.--From _A Dictionary of Non-Classical
Mythology_ (Edwardes and Spence).]
The term Hivites is sometimes interpreted to mean Midlanders, which
seems reasonable as they lived in the middle of Canaan. In connection
with these serpent-worshipping Midlanders or Hivites it is significant
that not only is the English Avebury described as being "situated in the
very centre or heart of our country,"[556] but that it is geographically
the very nave or bogel of the surrounding neighbourhood.
[Illustration: FIG. 297.--British. From Akerman.]
Eva is in all probability the source of the word _ivy_, German _epheu_,
for the evergreen ivy is notoriously a long-lived plant, and even by the
early Christian Church[557] Ivy was accepted as the emblem of life and
immortality. As immortality was the primary dogma of the Druids, hence
perhaps why they and their co-worshippers decked themselves with wreaths
of this undying and seemingly immortal plant.[558] The figure of the
Græco-Egyptian "Jupiter," known as Serapis, appears (supported by the
Twins) surrounded by an ivy wreath, and that the ancient Jews ivy-decked
themselves like the British on festival occasions is evident from the
words of Tacitus: "Their priests it is true made use of fifes and
cymbals: they were crowned with wreaths of ivy, and a vine wrought in
gold was seen in their temple".[559] The leaf on the British VIRI coin
here illustrated has been held to be a vine "which does not appear to
have been borrowed from any Roman coin," but, continues Sir John Evans,
"whether this was an original type to signify the fertility of the soil
in respect of vines or adapted from some other source it is hard to
say".[560] If the device be a Vine leaf it probably symbolised the True
Vine; if a fig leaf it undoubtedly was the sign of Maggie Figgy, the
Mother of Millions, and the Ovary of Everything: the Sunday before
Easter used to be known as Fig Sunday, and on this occasion figs were
eaten in large quantities.
[Illustration: FIG. 298.--Thrones.--Fiery Two-winged Wheels. From
Didron.]
[Illustration: FIG. 299.--The Trinity under the Form of Three
Circles. From a French Miniature of the close of the
XIII. Cent. From Didron.]
[Illustration: FIG. 300.--French MS., XIII. Cent. From Didron.]
From Aubrey's plan of the Overton circle constituting the head of the
serpent at Avebury, it will be seen that the neck was carefully
modelled, and that a pair of barrows appeared at the mouth (see _ante_,
page 335). This head of the Eve or serpent was a stone circle distant
about a mile from the larger peripheries, and the whole design covered
upwards of two miles of country. As already noted the serpent was the
symbol of immortality and rejuvenescence, because it periodically
sloughed its skin and reappeared in one more beautiful.
[Illustration: FIG. 301.--From _Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
Symbolism_ (Inman, C. W.).[561]]
That the two and the three circles were taken over intact by
Christianity is evident from the emblems illustrated on p. 499, and that
the French possessed the tradition of Good Eva or the Good Serpent is
manifest from Fig. 300.
The Iberian inscription around Fig. 301--a French example--has not been
deciphered, but it is sufficiently evident that the emblem represents
the Iberian Jupiter with Juno and the Tree of Life.
[Illustration: FIG. 302.--God the Father, without a Nimbus and
Beardless, Condemning Adam to Till the Ground and Eve
to Spin the Wool. From _Christian Iconography_
(Didron).]
The Jews or Judeans of to-day are known indifferently as either Jews or
Hebrews, and it would seem that Jou was "Hebrew," or, as the Italians
write the word, Ebrea: the French for Jew is _juif_, evidently the same
title as Jove or Jehovah.
In Fig. 302, Jehovah is rather surprisingly represented as a _puer_ or
boy: as already mentioned, the Eros of Etruria was named Epeur, and it
is possible that the London church of St. Peter le Poor--which stood in
Brode Street next Pawlet or Little Paul House--was originally a shrine
of Jupiter the _puer_, or Jupiter the Boy.[562]
In the design now under consideration the Family consists of three--the
Almighty and Adam and Eve--but frequently the holy group consists of
five, the additional two probably being Cain and Abel, Cain who slew his
brother Abel, being obviously Night or Evil. In the emblems here
illustrated which are defined by Briquet as "cars"; four cycles are
supported by a broca or spike, constituting the mystic five. In Jewish
mysticism the Chariot of Jehovah, or Yahve, was regarded as "a kind of
mystic way leading up to the final-goal of the soul".[563]
[Illustration: FIGS. 303 to 306.--Mediæval Paper Marks. From _Les
Filigranes_ (Briquet, C. M.).]
The number of the Cabiri was indeterminate, and there is a probability
that the sacerdotal Solar Chariot of the Cabiri, whether four or
two-wheeled, originated the term cabriolet, whence our modern cab. I
have elsewhere reproduced two pillars bearing the legend CAB, and we
might assume that the two-wheeled vehicle illustrated, _ante_, page 454,
represented a cab were it not for the official etymology of _cabriolet_.
This term, we are told, is from _cabriole_, a caper, leap of a goat,
"from its supposed lightness".[564] I have never observed a cab either
skipping like a ram, or capering like a goat; and in the days before
springs the alleged skittishness of the cab must have been even less
marked. In any case the particular vehicle illustrated _ante_, page 454,
cannot with propriety be termed "a caperer," for it is reproduced by the
editor of Adamnan's _Life of Columba_, as being no doubt the type of car
in which the Saint, even without his lynch pins, successfully drove a
sedate and undeviating course.
The goat or _caper_ was a familiar emblem of _Jupiter_, and our words
_kid_ and _goat_ are doubtless the German _gott_: the horns and the
hoofs of the Solar goat--see _ante_, page 361--are perpetuated in the
current notions of "Old Nick," and in many parts of Europe Saints
Nicholas and Michael are equated;[565] hence there is very little doubt
that these two once occupied the position of the two Cabiri, Nick or
_Nixy_ being _nox_ or night, and Michael--Light or Day.
The Gaulish coin here illustrated is described by Akerman, as "Two goats
(?) on their hind legs face to face; the whole within a beaded circle":
on the reverse is a hog, and some other animal represented with a
_broccus_, or saw on its back. As this is a coin of the people
inhabiting Agedincum Senonum (now Sens), the revolving twain are
probably _gedin_--either _goats_, _kids_, or _gods_, and the baroque
animal with the _broccus_ on its back may be identified with a _boar_.
There is not much evidence in this coin, which was found at
_Brettenham_, Norfolk, of "degradation" from the Macedonian stater
illustrated _ante_, page 394, nevertheless, Sir John Evans sturdily
maintains: "the degeneration of the head of Apollo into two boars and a
wheel, impossible as it may at first appear, is in fact but a
comparatively easy transition when once the head has been reduced into a
form of regular pattern".[566]
[Illustration: FIG. 307.--Gaulish. From Akerman.]
The Meigle in Perthshire, where the two-wheeled barrow or barouche was
inscribed on the Thane stone, may be equated with St. Michael, and upon
another stone at the same Meigle there occurs a carving which is defined
as a group of four men placed in svastika form, one hand of each man
holding the foot of the other. The author of _Archaic Sculpturings_
describes this attitude as indicating the unbreakable character of the
association of each figure with its neighbours, and expresses the
opinion: "This elaborate variant of the symbol seems to symbolise aptly
the four quarters of the earth, each quarter being represented by a man.
The four quarters make a complete circle, and therefore all humanity,
through love and affinity, should join from the four parts and form one
inseparable bond of brotherhood."[567]
[Illustration: FIG. 308.--British. From Evans.]
The wheel of _For_tune was sometimes represented by _four_ kings, one on
each quadrant, and this emblem was used not only as an inn-sign, but
also in churches, notably in Norfolk--the land of the Ikeni. The authors
of _A History of Signboards_ cite continental examples surviving at
Sienna, and in San Zeno at Verona. The wheels of San Zeno, Sienna, or
Verona may be connoted with the Sceatta wheel-coin figured in No. 39 of
page 364 _ante_, and with the seemingly revolving seals on the coin here
illustrated.[568] The Sceatta four beasts connected by astral spokes are
probably intended to denote seals, the phoca or seal having, as we have
seen (_ante_, page 224), been associated with Chaos or Cause. In all
probability the _phoca_ was a token of the Phocean Greeks who founded
Marseilles: the phoca was pre-eminently associated with _Pro_teus, and
in the _Faroe_ Islands they have a curious idea that seals are the
soldiers of _Pharaoh_ who was drowned in the sea. Pharaoh, or _Peraa_,
as the Egyptian wrote it, was doubtless the representative Priest-King
of Phra, the Egyptian Sun-god, and the drowning of Pharaoh in the Red
Sea was probably once a phairy-tale based on the blood-red demise of a
summer sun sinking beneath the watery horizon.
On Midsummer Day in England children used to chant--
Barnaby Bright, Barnaby Bright,
The longest day and the shortest night,
whence it would appear that Barnaby was the _auburn_[569] divinity who
was further connected with the burnie bee, lady bird, or "Heaven's
little chicken". The rhyme--
Burnie bee, Burnie bee, fly away home
Your house is on fire, your children will burn,
is supposed by Mannhardt to have been a charm intended to speed the sun
across the dangers of sunset, in other words, the house on fire, or
welkin of the West.
The name Barnabas or Barnaby is defined as meaning _son of the master_
or _son of comfort_; Bernher is explained as _lord of many children_,
and hence it would seem that St. Barnaby may be modernised into
Bairnsfather. In this connection the British Bryanstones may be connoted
with the Irish Bernesbeg and with "The Stone of the Fruitful Fairy".
Bertram is defined by the authorities as meaning _fair and pure_, and
Ferdy or Ferdinand, the Spanish equivalent of this name, may be
connoted with the English Faraday.
[Illustration: FIG. 309.--Jehovah, as the God of Battles. Italian
Miniature, close of the XII. Cent. From _Christian
Iconography_ (Didron).]
[Illustration: FIG. 310.--Emblem of the Deity. _Nineveh_ (Layard).]
The surname Barry, with which presumably may be equated variants such as
Berry and Bray, is translated as being Celtic for _good marksman_: the
Cretans were famed archers, and the archery of the English yeomen was in
its time perhaps not less famous. If Barry meant _good marksman_, it is
to be inferred that the archetypal Barry was Jou, Jupiter, or Jehovah as
here represented, and as there is no known etymology for _yeoman_, it
may be that the original _yeomen_ were like the Barrys, "good marksmen".
The Greeks portrayed Apollo, and the Tyrians Adad, as a Sovereign
Archer, and as the lord of an unerring bow. The name Adad is seemingly
ad-ad, a duplication of Ad probably once meaning _Head Head_, or _Haut
Haut_,[570] and the Celtic _dad_ or _tad_ is presumably a corroded form
of Adad. The famous archer Robin Hood, now generally accepted as a myth
survival, will be considered later; meanwhile it may here be noted that
the authorities derive the surnames Taddy, Addy, Adkin, Aitkin, etc.,
from _Adam_. One may connote Adkin or Little Ad with Hudkin, a Dutch and
German elf akin to Robin Goodfellow: "Hudkin is a very familiar devil,
who will do nobody hurt, except he receive injury; but he cannot abide
that, nor yet be mocked. He talketh with men friendly, sometimes
visibly, sometimes invisibly. There go as many tales upon this Hudkin in
some parts of Germany as there did in England on Robin Goodfellow."[571]
To this Hud the Leicestershire place-name Odestone or Odstone near
Twycross--_query_ Two or Twa cross--may be due.
I have suggested that the word _bosom_ or _bosen_, was originally the
plural of _boss_, whence it is probable that the name Barnebas meant the
Bairn, Boss, or teat. The word _bosse_ was also used to denote a
fountain or gush, and the Boss Alley, which is still standing near St.
Paul's, may mark either the site of a spring, or more probably of what
was known as St. Paul's Stump. As late as 1714 the porters of
Billingsgate used to invite the passer-by to _buss_ or kiss Paul's
Stump; if he complied they gave him a name, and he was compelled to
choose a godfather: if he refused to conform to the custom he was lifted
up and bumped heavily against the stump. This must have been the relic
of an extremely ancient formality, and it is not unlikely that the
Church of Boston in Norfolk covers the site of a similar stump: Boston,
originally _Icken_hoe, a haw or hill of Icken, is situated in what was
once the territory of the Ikeni, and its church tower to this day is
known as "Boston Stump". At Boskenna (_bos_ or abode of _ikenna_?) in
the parish of St. Buryan, Cornwall, is a stone circle, and a cromlech
"thought to have been the seat of an arch Druid". The chief street of
Boston is named Burgate, there is a Burgate at Canterbury near which are
Bossenden Woods, and Bysing Wood.
In the West of England the numerous _bos-_ prefixes generally mean
_abode_: one of the earliest abodes was the beehive hut, which was
essentially a boss.
At Porlock (Somerset) is Bossington Beacon; there is a Bossington near
Broughton, and a Bosley at Prestbury, Cheshire. In the immediate
proximity of Bosse Alley, London, Stow mentions a Brickels Lane, and
there still remains a Brick Hill, Brooks Wharf, and Broken Wharf. It is
not improbable that the river Walbrook which did _not_ run around the
_walls_ of London but passed immediately through the heart of the city
was named after Brook or Alberick, or Oberon: in any case the generic
terms _burn_, _brook_, and _bourne_ (Gothic _brunna_, a spring or well),
have to be accounted for, and we may seemingly watch them forming at the
English river Brue, and at least two English bournes, burns, or brooks
known as Barrow.
We have already considered the pair of military saints famous at
Byzantium or St. Michael's Town: in the neighbourhood of Macclesfield,
Cheshire, is a Bosley: the Bosmere district in Cumberland includes a
Mickfield, in view of which it becomes interesting to note, near Old
Jewry, in London, the parish church of St. Michael, called St. Michael
at Bassings hall. With Michael at Bassings hall may be connoted St.
Michael of Guernsey, an island once divided into two great fiefs, of
which one was the property of Anchetil Vicomte du _Bessin_. The bussing
of St. Paul's Stump or the Bosse of Billingsgate had evidently its
parallel in the Fief du Bessin, for Miss Carey in her account of the
Chevauchee of St. Michael observes that, "the one traditional dance
connected with all our old festivals and merry-makings has always been
the one known as _A mon beau Laurier_, where the dancers join hands and
whirl round, curtsey, and kiss a central object".[572]
We may reasonably assume that John Barton, who is mentioned by Stow as a
great benefactor to the church of St. Michael, was either John Briton,
or John of some particular Barton, possibly of the neighbouring Pardon
Churchyard. The adjacent Bosse Alley is next _Huggen_ Lane, wherein is
the Church of All Hallows, and running past the church of St. Michael at
Bassings hall is another _Hugan_ Lane. _Gyne_, as in gynæcology, is
Greek for _woman_, whence the _gyne_ or _queen_ of the Ikenian
_Icken_hoe or Boston Stump, may have meant simply woman, maiden,
_queen_, or "a flaunting extravagant _quean_". Somewhat east from the
Sun tavern,[573] on the north side of this Michael's church, is Mayden
Lane, "now so called," says Stow, "but of old time Ingene Lane, or Ing
Lane": "down lower," he continues, "is Silver Street (I think of
Silversmiths dwelling there)". It has been seen that Silver Streets are
ubiquitous in England, and as this Silver Street is in the immediate
proximity of Adle Street and Ladle Lane, there is some presumption that
Silver was here the Leda, or Lady, or Ideal, by whom it was said that
Jupiter in the form of a swan became the Parent of the Heavenly twins or
Fairbairns. We have considered the sign of the Swan with two necks as
found near Goswell Road, and the neighbouring _Goose_ Lane, Wind_goose_
Lane, Pente_cost_ Lane, and _Chis_well Street are all in this connection
interesting. I have already suggested that Angus, Aengus, or Oengus, the
pre-Celtic divinity of New Grange, meant _ancient goose_: Oengus was
alternatively known as Sen-gann or Old Gann, connected with whom were
two young Ganns who were described sometimes as the sons of Old Gann,
sometimes as his father. In the opinion of Prof. Macalister Oengus,
_alias_ Dagda mor, the Great Good Fire, _alias_ Sengann, "was not
originally _son_ of the two youths, but _father_ of the two youths, and
he thus falls into line with other storm gods as the parent of
Dioscuri."[574]
There is little doubt that Aengus, the _ancient goose_, the Father of
St. Bride, was Sengann the Old Gander, and in connection with St.
Michael's goose it is noteworthy that Sinann, the Goddess of the
Shannon, was alternatively entitled Macha. Mr. Westropp informs[575] us
that Sengann was the god of the Ganganoi who inhabited Connaught, hence
no doubt he was the same as Great King Conn, and Sinann was the same as
Good Queen Eda.
At the north end of London Bridge stands Old Swan Pier, upon the site
of which was once Ebgate, an ancient water-gate. "In place of this
gate," says Stow, "is now a narrow passage to the Thames called Ebgate
Lane, but more commonly the Old Swan." _Eb_gate may be connoted with the
neighbouring Abchurch Lane, where still stands what Stow termed "the
parish church of St. Marie _Ab_church, _Ape_church, or _Up_church, as I
have read it," and this same root seemingly occurs in the Upwell of St.
Olave _Up_well distant only a few hundred yards. This spot accurately
marks the _hub_ of ancient London, and there is here still standing the
once-famous London stone: "some have imagined," says Stow, "the same to
be set up by one John, or Thomas Londonstone, dwelling there against,
but more likely it is that such men have taken name of the stone than
the stone of them".
There is little doubt that London stone, where oaths were sworn and
proclamations posted, was the Perry stone of the men who made the six
main roads or tribal tracks which centred there, of which great wheel
_Ab_church formed seemingly the _hob_ or _hub_. Abchurch was in all
probability originally a church of Hob, and it may aptly be described as
one of the many primitive _abbeys_: there is an Ibstone at Wallingford,
which the modern authorities--like the "John Londonstone" theorists of
Stow's time--urge, was probably Ipa's stone: there is an Ipsley at
Redditch, assumed to be either _aspentree meadow_ or perhaps _Aeppas
mead_. Ipstones at Cheadle, we are told, "may be from a man as above";
of Hipswell in Yorkshire Mr. Johnston concludes, "there is no name at
all likely here, so this must be well at the hipple or little heap". But
as Hipswell figures in Leland as _Ipres_well, is there any absolute
_must_ about the "hipple," and is it not possible that Ipres or
Hipswell may have been dedicated to the same _hipha_ or _hip_, the Prime
Parent of our Hip! Hip! Hip! who was alternatively the Ypre of Ypres
Hall and Upwell by Abchurch? At Halifax there is a _Hipper_holme which
appeared in Domesday as _Huperun_, and here the authorities are really
and seriously nonplussed. "It seems hard to explain Huper or Hipper.
There is nothing like it in _Onom_, unless it be Hygebeort or Hubert;
but it may be a dissimilated form of _hipple_, _hupple_, and mean 'at
the little heaps'."[576]
Let us quit these imaginary "little heaps" and consider the position at
the Halifax Hipperholme, or Huperun. The church here occupied the site
of an ancient hermitage said to have been dedicated to St. John the
Baptist, the Father of hermits, and to have possessed as a sacred relic
the alleged true face of St. John: my authority continues that this
attracted great numbers of pilgrims who "approached by four ways, which
afterwards formed the main town thoroughfares concentrating at the
parish church; and it is supposed to have given rise to the name
Halifax, either in the sense of _Holy Face_ with reference to the face
of St. John, or in the sense of _Holy ways_ with reference to the four
roads, the word _fax_ being Old Norman French for _highways_".[577] More
recent authorities have compared the word with Carfax at Oxford, which
is said to mean Holy fork, or Holy road, converging as in a fork. The
roads at Carfax constitute a four-limbed cross; Oxenford used to be
considered "the admeasured centre of the whole island";[578] it was
alternatively known as Rhydychain, whence I do not think that
Rhydychain meant a ford for oxen, but more probably either _Rood King_,
or _Ruddy King_.
[Illustration: FIG. 311.--From _The Cross: Heathen and Christian_
(Brock, M.).]
In 1190 Halifax was referred to as Haliflex, upon which the Rev. J. B.
Johnston comments: "the _l_ seems to be a scribe's error, and _flex_
must be _feax_. Holy flax would make no sense. In Domesday it seems to
be called Feslei, can the _fes_ be _feax_ too?" In view of the cruciform
streets of Chichester, of our cruciform rood or rota coins, and of the
four rivers supposed by all authorities to flow to the four quarters out
of Paradise, is it not possible that four-quartered Haliflex was a fay's
lea or meadow, whose founders built their "abbey"[579] in the true-face
form of the _Holy Flux_ or Fount, the _ain_ or flow of living water?
Four _ains_ or eyes are clearly exhibited on the emblems here
illustrated, which show the four-quartered sacramental buns or brioches,
whence the modern Good Friday bun has descended.
[Illustration: FIG. 312.--Roman roads. From _A New Description of
England and Wales_ (Anon. 1724).]
It was a prevalent notion among our earliest historians that "In such
estimation was Britain held by its inhabitants, that they made in it
four roads from end to end, which were placed under the King's
protection to the intent that no one should dare to make an attack upon
his enemy on these roads".[580] These four great roads, dating from
the time of King Belinus, and supposedly running from sea to sea, were
probably mythical, but in view of the sanctity of public highways and
the King's Peace which was enforced thereon, it is not improbable that
numerous "Holloways"--now supposed to mean hollow or sunk ways--were
originally and actually _holy ways_.
The Punjaub is so named because it is watered not by four but by five
rivers, and that five streams possessed a mystic significance in British
mythology is evident from the story of Cormac's voyage to the Land of
Paradise or Promise.[581] "Palaces of bronze and houses of white silver,
thatched with white bird's wings are there. Then he sees in the garth a
shining fountain with five streams flowing out of it, and the hosts in
turn a-drinking its water."[582]
It has been recently pointed out that the Celtic conception of Paradise
"offers the closest parallel to the Chinese," whence it is significant
to find that in the Chinese "Abyss of Assembly" there were supposed to
lie five fairy islands of entrancing beauty, which were inhabited by
spirit-like beings termed _shên jên_.[583] I have in my possession a
Chinese temple-ornament consisting of a blue porcelain broccus of five
rays or peaks, which, like the five fundamental cones of the Etruscan
tomb (_ante_, p. 237), in all probability represent the five bergs or
islands of the blessed. The inner circle of Stonehenge consisted of five
upstanding trilithons of which the stones came--by popular repute--from
Ireland. Among the Irish divinities mentioned by Mr. Westropp is not
only the gracious Aine who was worshipped by five Firbolg tribes, but
also an old god who kindled five streams of magic fire from which his
sons--the fathers of the Delbna tribes--all sprang.[584]
It will be remembered that the Avebury district is the boss, gush, or
spring of five rivers, and Avebury or Abury was almost without doubt
another "abbey" or _bri_ of Ab on similar lines to the six-spoked _hub_,
_hob_, or _boss_ of Abchurch, Londonstone. It is difficult to believe
that the six roads meeting at Abchurch arranged themselves so
symmetrically by chance, and it is still more difficult to attribute
them to the Roman Legions.
As Mr. Johnson has pointed out there is a current supposition, seemingly
well based, that some of the supposedly Roman roads represent older
trackways, straightened and adapted for rougher usage.[585] That London
stone at Abchurch was the hub, navel or _bogel_ of the Cantian British
roads may be further implied by the immediately adjacent _Buckle_sbury,
now corrupted into Bucklersbury. Parts of the Ichnield Way--notably at
Broadway--are known as Buckle Street, the term _buckle_ here being
seemingly used in the sense of Bogle or Bogie. It is always the custom
of a later race to attribute any great work of unknown origin to Bogle
or the Devil, _e.g._, the Devil's Dyke, and innumerable other instances.
_Ichnos_ in Greek means _track_, _ichneia_ a _tracking_; whence the
immemorial British track known as the _Ichnield_ Way may reasonably be
connoted with the ancient Via _Egnatio_ near Berat in Albania. That
Albion, like Albania, possessed very serviceable ways before the advent
of any Romans is clear from Cæsar's _Commentaries_. After mentioning the
British rearguard--"about 4000 charioteers only being left"--Cæsar
continues: "and when our cavalry for the sake of plundering and ravaging
the more freely scattered themselves among the fields, he
(Cassivelaunus) used to send out charioteers from the woods by _all the
well-known roads_ and paths, and to the great danger of our horse engage
with them, and this source of fear hindered them from straggling very
extensively".[586]
It has been seen that the Welsh tracks by which the armies marched to
battle were known as Elen's Ways, whence possibly six such Elen's Ways
concentrated in the heart of London, which I have already suggested was
an Elen's dun. In French forests radiating pathways, known as _etoiles_
or stars, were frequent, and served the most utilitarian purpose of
guiding hunters to a central Hub or trysting-place.
One of the marvels which impress explorers in Crete is the excellence of
the ancient Candian roads. According to Tacitus the British, under
Boudicca, chiefly Cantii, Cangians, and Ikeni, "brought into the field
an incredible multitude".[587] The density of the British population in
ancient times is indicated by the extent of prehistoric reliques,
whereas the Roman invaders were never numerically more than a negligible
fraction. It is now admitted by historians that Roman civilisation did
not succeed in striking the same deep roots in British soil as it did
into the nationality of Gaul or Spain. "For one thing, the numbers both
of Roman veterans and of Romanised Britons remained comparatively small;
for another, beyond the Severn and beyond the Humber lay the multitudes
of the un-Romanised tribes, held down only by the terror of the Roman
arms, and always ready to rise and overwhelm the alien culture."[588]
Commenting upon the Icknield Way, Dr. Guest remarks the lack upon its
course of any Roman relics, a want, however, which, as he says, is amply
compensated for by the many objects, mostly of British antiquity, which
crowd upon us as we journey westward--by the tumuli and "camps" which
show themselves on right and left--by the six gigantic earthworks which
in the intervals of eighty miles were raised at widely different periods
to bar progress along this now deserted thoroughfare.[589] In a similar
strain Mr. Johnson writes of the Pilgrim's Way in Surrey: "To my
thinking, the strongest argument for the prehistoric way lies in the
plea expressed by the grim old earthworks and silent barrows which stud
its course, and by the numerous relics dug up here and there, relics of
which we may rest assured not one-half has been put on record."[590]
Tacitus pictures a Briton as reasoning to himself "compute the number of
men born in freedom and the Roman invaders are but a handfull".[591] Is
it in these circumstances likely that the Roman handful troubled to
construct six great arteries or main roads centring to London stone?
The Romans ran military roads from castra to castra, but in Roman eyes
London was merely "a place not dignified with the name of a colony, but
the chief residence of merchants and the great mart of trade and
commerce".[592]
Holloway Road, in London, implies, I think, at least one _Holy Way_, and
there seems to me a probability that London stone was a primitive
Jupiterstone, yprestone, preston, pray stone, or phairy stone, similar
to the holy centre-stone of sacred Athens: "Look upon the dance,
Olympians; send us the grace of Victory, ye gods who come to the heart
of our city, where many feet are treading and incense streams: in sacred
Athens come to the holy centre-stone".
FOOTNOTES:
[506] _Iliad_, Bk. XX., 434.
[507] A King Cunedda figures in Welsh literature as the first
native ruler of Wales, and tradition makes Cunedda a son of
the daughter of Coel, probably the St. Helen who was the
daughter of Old King Cole, and who figures as the London
Great St. Helen and Little St. Helen: possibly, also, as the
ancient London goddess Nehallenia = New Helen, Nelly = Ellen.
[508] _History_, Bk. V.
[509] Church, A. J. and Brodribb, W. J., _The History of Tacitus_,
1873, p. 229.
[510] Quoted in _Celtic Britain_, Rhys, Sir J., p. 74.
[511] Address to British Association.
[512] Quoted in _The Veil of Isis_, Reade, W. W., p. 47.
[513] Wilkie, James, _Saint Bride, the Greatest Woman of the Celtic
Church_.
[514] Nonnus, quoted from _A Dissertation on The Mysteries of the
Cabiri_, Faber, G. S., vol. ii., p. 313.
[515] Huyshe, W., _The Life of St. Columba_, p. 247.
[516] Canon ffrench, _Prehistoric Faith and Worship_, p. 56.
[517] Hughes, T., _The Scouring of the White Horse_, p. 111.
[518] Apart from recent experiences and the records of the Saxon
invaders of this country, one may connote the candid maxims
of the Frederick upon whom the German nation has thought
proper to confer the sobriquet of "Great," _e.g._:--
"It was the genius of successive rulers of our race to be
guided only by self-interest, ambition, and the instinct of
self-preservation."
"When Prussia shall have made her fortune, she will be able
to give herself the air of good-faith and of constancy which
is only suitable for great States or small Sovereigns." "As
for war, it is a profession in which the smallest scruple
would spoil everything."
"Nothing exercises a greater tyranny over the spirit and
heart than religion.... Do we wish to make a treaty with a
Power? If we only remember that we are Christians all is
lost, we shall always be duped."
"Do not blush at making alliances with the sole object of
reaping advantage for yourself. Do not commit the vulgar
fault of not abandoning them when you believe it to be to
your advantage to do so; and, above all, ever follow this
maxim that to despoil your neighbours is to take from them
the means of doing you harm."
In the eyes of the stupid and unappreciative Britons the
Saxons were "swine," and the "loathest of all things," _vide_
Layamon's _Brut_, _e.g._: "Lo! where here before us the
heathen hounds, who slew our ancestors with their wicked
crafts; and they are to us in land _loathest of all things_.
Now march we to them, and starkly lay on them, and avenge
worthily our kindred, and our realm, and avenge the mickle
shame by which they have disgraced us, that they over the
waves should have come to Dartmouth. And all they are
forsworn, and all they shall be destroyed; they shall be all
put to death, with the Lord's assistance! March we now
forward, fast together"--(Everyman's Library, p. 195).
"The Saxons set out across the water, until their sails were
lost to sight. I know not what was their hope, nor the name
of him who put it in their mind, but they turned their boats,
and passed through the channel between England and Normandy.
With sail and oar they came to the land of Devon, casting
anchor in the haven of Totnes. The heathen breathed out
threatenings and slaughter against the folk of the country.
They poured forth from their ships, and scattered themselves
abroad amongst the people, searching out arms and raiment,
firing homesteads and slaying Christian men. They passed to
and fro about the country, carrying off all they found
beneath their hands. Not only did they rob the hind of his
weapon, but they slew him on his hearth with his own knife.
Thus throughout Somerset and a great part of Dorset, these
pirates spoiled and ravaged at their pleasure, finding none
to hinder them at their task"--(_Ibid._, p. 47).
[519] Allen J. Romilly, _Celtic Art in Pagan and Christian Times_,
p. 130.
[520] _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Iron Age_, p. 89.
[521] Quoted by J. Romilly Allen, in _Celtic Art_, p. 138.
[522] Rev. Wm. Greenwell and Parker Brewis, _Archæologia_, vol.
lxi., pp. 439, 472 (1909).
[523] Rev. Wm. Greenwell and Parker Brewis, _Archæologia_, vol.
lxi., p. 4.
[524] The standard supposition that Smithfield is a corruption of
_smooth field_ may or may not be well founded.
[525] Bohn's ed., p. 382.
[526] The psychology of Homer's description of the Vulcan menage is
curiously suggestive of a modern visit to the village
blacksmith:--
"Him swelt'ring at his forge she found, intent
On forming twenty tripods, which should stand
The wall surrounding of his well-built house,
The silver-footed Queen approach'd the house,
Charis, the skilful artist's wedded wife,
Beheld her coming, and advanc'd to meet;
And, as her hand she clasp'd, address'd her thus:
'Say, Thetis of the flowing robe, belov'd
And honour'd, whence this visit to our house,
An unaccustom'd guest? but come thou in,
That I may welcome thee with honour due.'
Thus, as she spoke, the goddess led her in,
And on a seat with silver studs adorn'd,
Fair, richly wrought, a footstool at her feet,
She bade her sit; then thus to Vulcan call'd;
'Haste hither, Vulcan; Thetis asks thine aid.'
Whom answer'd thus the skill'd artificer:
'An honour'd and a venerated guest
Our house contains; who sav'd me once from woe,
Then thou the hospitable rites perform,
While I my bellows and my tools lay by.'
He said, and from the anvil rear'd upright
His massive strength; and as he limp'd along,
His tott'ring knees were bow'd beneath his weight.
The bellows from the fire he next withdrew,
And in a silver casket plac'd his tools;
Then with a sponge his brows and lusty arms
He wip'd, and sturdy neck and hairy chest.
He donn'd his robe, and took his weighty staff;
Then through the door with halting step he pass'd;
... with halting gait,
Pass'd to a gorgeous chair by Thetis' side,
And, as her hand he clasp'd, address'd her thus:
'Say Thetis, of the flowing robe, belov'd
And honour'd, whence this visit to our house,
An unaccustom'd guest? say what thy will,
And, if within my pow'r esteem it done.'"
_Iliad_, Bk. XVIII., p. 420-80.
[527] British Museum, _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron
Age_, p. 54.
[528] "Antiquities to be noted therein are: First the street of
Lothberie, Lathberie, or Loadberie (for by all these names
have I read it), took the name (as it seemeth) of berie, or
court of old time there kept, but by whom is grown out of
memory. This street is possessed for the most part by
founders, that cast candlesticks, chafing-dishes, spice
mortars, and such like copper or laton works and do afterward
turn them with the foot, and not with the wheel, to make them
smooth and bright with turning and scrating (as some do term
it), making a loathsome noise to the by-passers that have not
been used to the like, and therefore by them disdainfully
called Lothberie."--_London_ (Ev. Lib.), p. 248.
[529] _Phenomena_, p. xvii.
[530] Stow, _London_, p. 221.
[531] _Giraldus Cambrensis_, p. 97.
[532] _Cf._ Rhys, Sir J., _Celtic Heathendom_, p. 613.
[533] _Cf._ _A New Light on the Renaissance_ and _The Lost Language
of Symbolism_.
[534] Windle, B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 116.
[535] Cacus figures in mythology as a huge giant, the son of
Vulcan, and the stealer of Hercules' oxen.
[536] Duncan, T., _The Religions of Profane Antiquity_, p. 59.
[537] Hazlitt, W. Carew, _Faith and Folklore_, vol. i., p. 210.
[538] A trace of the old sacrificial eating?
[539] Gomme, L., _Folklore as an Historic Science_, p. 43.
[540] See Johnson, W., _Byways of British Archæology_. "Among the
Saxons only a high priest might lawfully ride a mare," p.
436.
[541] Faber, G. S., _The Mysteries of the Cabiri_, i., 220.
[542] _Golden Legend_, iv., 96.
[543] Is. xlv. 7.
[544] Quoted from Eckenstein, Miss Lena, _Comparative Studies in
Nursery Rhymes_, p. 153.
[545] Keightley, _Fairy Mythology_, p. 285.
[546] The "one heap" of chaos was illustrated _ante_, p. 224.
[547] Allen F. Romilly, _Celtic Art_, p. 78.
[548] _Ibid._, p. 188.
[549] The following letter appeared in _Folklore_ of June 29,
1918:--
"Twenty-five years ago an old man in one of the parishes of
Anglesey invariably bore or rather wore a sickle over his
neck--in the fields, and on the road, wherever he went. He
was rather reticent as to the reason why he wore it, but he
clearly gave his questioner to understand that it was a
protection against evil spirits. This custom is known in
Welsh as '_gwisgo'r gorthrwm_,' which literally means
'wearing the oppression'. _Gorthrwm_ = _gor_, an
intensifying affix = _super_, and _trwm_ = heavy, so that
the phrase perhaps would be more correctly rendered 'wearing
the overweight'. It is not easy to see the connection
between the practice and the idea either of overweight or
oppression; still, that was the phrase in common use.
"For a similar reason, that is, protection from evil spirits
during the hours of the night, it was and is a custom to
place two scythes archwise over the entrance-side of the
wainscot bed found in many of the older cottages of Anglesey.
It is difficult to find evidence of the existence of this
practice to-day as the old people no doubt feel that it is
contrary to their prevailing religious belief and will not
confess their faith in the efficacy of a 'pagan' rite which
they are yet loth to abandon.
"R. GWYNEDON DAVIES."
[550] Wright T., _Essays on Arch. Subjects_, i., 26.
[551] Smith, W., _A Smaller Classical Dictionary_.
[552] Vol. i., p. 210.
[553] Domesday Ferebi, "probably dwelling of the _comrade_ or
partner". Do the authorities mean _friend_?
[554] Mann, L., _Archaic Sculpturings_, p. 30.
[555] _Cf._ _The Alphabet_, i., 12.
[556] Lord Avebury. Preface to _A Guide to Avebury_, p. 5.
[557] Durandus, _Rationale_.
[558] "Ruddy was the sea-beach and the circular revolution was
performed by the attendance of the white bands in graceful
extravagance when the assembled trains were assembled in
dancing and singing in cadence with garlands and ivy branches
on the brow."--_Cf._ Davies, E. _Mythology of British
Druids_.
[559] _History_, V., 5.
[560] _Ancient British Coins_, p. 178.
[561] "Copied by Higgins, _Anacalypsis_, on the authority of
Dubois, who states (vol. iii., p. 88), that it was found on a
stone in a church in France, where it had been kept
religiously for six hundred years. Dubois regards it as
wholly astrological, and as having no reference to the story
told in Genesis."
[562] It is quite improbable that there was any foundation for
Stow's surmise that the epithet Poor was applied to the
parish of St. Peter in Brode Street, "for a difference from
others of that name, sometimes peradventure a poor parish".
It is, however, possible that the church was dedicated to
Peter the Hermit, _i.e._, the poor Peter.
[563] _Cf._ Abelson, J., _Jewish Mysticism_, p. 34.
[564] _Cf._ also Brachet A., _Ety. Dictionary of French Language_:
"A two-wheeled carriage which being light _leaps_ up". Had
our authorities been considering _phaeton_, this definition
might have passed muster. Although Skeat connects _phaeton_
with the Solar Charioteer he nevertheless connotes _phantom_.
Why?
[565] Blackie, C., _Place-names_, p. 137.
[566] _Coins of the Ancient Britons_, p. 121.
[567] P. 28.
[568] It is a miracle that this and the other coins illustrated on
page 364 did not go into the dustbin. The official estimate
of their value and interest is expressed in the following
reference from Hawkin's _Silver Coins of England_, p. 17:--
"After the final departure of the Romans, about the year
450, the history of the coinage is involved in much
obscurity; the coins of that people would of course continue
in circulation long after the people themselves had quitted
the shores, and it is not improbable that the rude and
uncouth pieces, which are imitations of their money, and
_are scarce because they are rejected from all cabinets and
thrown away as soon as discovered_, may have been struck
during the interval between the Romans and Saxons."
The italics are mine, and comment would be inadequate.
Happily, in despite of "the practised numismatist," Time,
which antiquates and hath an art to make dust of all things,
hath yet spared these minor monuments.
[569] Auburn hair is golden-red--hence I am able to recognise only
a remote comparison with _alburnum_, the white sap wood or
inner bark of trees.
[570] "We also find Adad numbered among the gods whom the Syrians
worshipped; nevertheless we find but little concerning him,
and that little obscure and unsatisfactory, either in ancient
or modern writers. Macrobius says, "The Assyrians, or rather
the Syrians, give the name Adad to the god whom they worship,
as _the highest_ or greatest," and adds that the
signification of this name is the One or the Only. This
writer also gives us clearly to understand that the Syrians
adored the sun under this name; at least, the surname Adad,
which was given to the sun by the natives of Heliopolis,
makes them appear as one and the same."--Christmas, H. Rev.,
_Universal Mythology_, p. 119.
[571] _Discourse concerning Devils_, annexed to _The Discovery of
Witchcraft_, Reginald Scot, i., chap. xxi.
[572] _Folklore_, XXV., 4, p. 426.
[573] "The Sun and Moon have been considered as signs of pagan
origin, typifying Apollo and Diana," _History of Signboards_,
p. 496.
[574] _Proc. of Royal Irish Acad._, xxxiv., c. 10-11, pp. 318, 320.
[575] _Ibid._, c. 8, p. 159.
[576] Johnston, Rev. J. B., _The Place-names of England and Wales_,
p. 304.
[577] Wilson, J. M., _Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales_, i.,
839.
[578] Herbert, A., _Cyclops Christianus_, p. 93.
[579] In Ireland an "abbey" is a cell or hermitage.
[580] _Cf._ Guest, Dr., _Origines Celticæ_, ii., 223.
[581] The name Cormac is defined as meaning _son of a chariot_. Is
it to be assumed that the followers of Great Cormac
understood a physical road car?
[582] Wentz., W. Y. E., _The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries_, p.
341.
[583] "The inhabitants are called _shên jên_, spirit-like beings, a
term hardly synonymous with _hsien_, though the description
of them is consistent with the recognised characteristics of
_hsien_. The passage runs as follows: 'Far away on the Isle
of Ku-shê there dwell spirit-like beings whose flesh is
[smooth] as ice and [white] as snow, and whose demeanour is
as gentle and unassertive as that of a young girl. They eat
not of the Five Grains, but live on air and dew. They ride
upon the clouds with flying dragons for their teams, and roam
beyond the Four Seas. The _shên_ influences that pervade that
isle preserve all creatures from petty maladies and mortal
ills, and ensure abundant crops every year.'"--Yetts, Major
W. Perceval, _Folklore_, XXX., i., p. 89.
[584] _Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._, xxxiv., c. 8, p. 135.
[585] _Folk Memory_, p. 339.
[586] _De B. Gallico_, v., 19.
[587] Annals, xxxiv.
[588] Hearnshaw, F. J. C., _England in the Making_, p. 22.
[589] _Origines Celticæ_, ii., 240.
[590] _Folk Memory_, p. 349.
[591] _Agricola_, xv.
[592] Tacitus, _Annals_, xxxiii.