CHAPTER XI

THE FAIR MAID

"We could not blot out from English poetry its visions of the

fairyland without a sense of irreparable loss. No other literature

save that of Greece alone can vie with ours in its pictures of the

land of fantasy and glamour, or has brought back from that

mysterious realm of unfading beauty treasures of more exquisite and

enduring charm."--ALFRED NUTT.

"We have already shown how long and how faithfully the Gaelic and

Welsh peasants clung to their old gods in spite of all the efforts

of the clerics to explain them as ancient kings, or transform them

into wonder-working saints, or to ban them as demons of

Hell."--CHARLES SQUIRE.

In the preceding chapter it was shown that the number eleven was for

some reason peculiarly identified with the Elven, or Elves: in Germany

eleven seems to have carried a somewhat similar significance, for on the

eleventh day of the eleventh month was always inaugurated the Carnival

season which was celebrated by weekly festivities which increased in

mirthful intensity until Shrove Tuesday.[692] Commenting upon this

custom it has been pointed out that "The fates seem to have displayed a

remarkable sense of artistry in decreeing that the Great War should

cease at the moment when it did, for the hostilities came to an end at

the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month".[693]

Etymologists connect the word Fate with fay; the expression _fate_ is

radically _good fay_, and it is merely a matter of choice whether Fate

or the Fates be regarded as Three or as One: moreover the aspect of

Fate, whether grim or beautiful, differs invariably to the same extent

as that of the two fairy mothers which Kingsley introduces into _The

Water Babies_, the delicious Lady Doasyouwouldbedoneby and the

forbidding Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid.

[Illustration: FIG. 353.--Printer's Ornament (English, 1724).]

The Greek _Moirae_ or Fates were represented as either three austere

maidens or as three aged hags: the Celtic _mairae_, of which Rice Holmes

observes that "no deities were nearer to the hearts of Celtic peasants,"

were represented in groups of three; their aspect was that of gentle,

serious, motherly women holding new-born infants in their hands, or

bearing fruits and flowers in their laps; and many offerings were made

to them by country folk in gratitude for their care of farm, and flock,

and home.[694]

In the Etrurian bucket illustrated on page 474, the Magna Mater or Fate

was represented with two children, one white the other black: in the

emblems herewith the supporting Pair are depicted as two Amoretti, and

the Central Fire, Force, or Tryamour is portrayed by three hearts

blazing with the fire of Charity. There is indeed no doubt that the

Three Charities, Three Graces, and Three Fates were merely presentations

of the one unchanging central and everlasting Fire, Phare, or Force.

Among the Latins the Moirae were termed Parcae, and seemingly all

mythologies represent the Great Pyre, Phare, or Fairy as at times a

Fury. In Britain Keridwen--whose name the authorities state meant

_perpetual love_--appears very notably as a Fury, and on certain British

coins she is similarly depicted. What were the circumstances which

caused the moneyers of the period to concentrate such anguish into the

physiognomy of the pherepolis it would be interesting to know: the fact

remains that they did so, yet we find what obviously is the same

fiery-locked figure with an expression unmistakably serene.

[Illustration: FIG. 354.--Printer's Ornament (English, 1724).]

[Illustration: FIGS. 355 to 358.--British.]

[Illustration: FIG. 359.--Mary, in an Oval Aureole, Intersected by

Another, also Oval, but of smaller size. Miniature of

the X. Cent. From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

Tradition seems to have preserved the memory of the Virgin Mary as one

of the Three Greek Moirae or Three Celtic Mairae or Spinners, for

according to an apocryphal gospel Mary was one of the spinsters of the

Temple Veil: "And the High priest said; choose for me by lot who shall

spin the gold and the white and fine linen, and the blue and the

scarlet, and the true purple. And the true purple and the scarlet fell

to the lot of Mary, and she took them and went away to her house."[695]

The purple heart-shaped mulberry in Greek is _moria_, and the Athenian

district known as Moria is supposed to have been so named from its

similitude to a mulberry leaf. In Cornwall the scarlet-berried holly is

known as Aunt Mary's Tree, and as _aunt_ in the West of England was a

title applied in general to _old_ women, it is evident that Aunt Mary of

the Holly Tree must have been differentiated from the little Maid of

Bethlehem. According to _The Golden Legend_ St. Mary died at the age of

seventy-two, a number of which the significance has been partially

noted, and she was reputed to have been fifteen years of age when she

gave birth to the Saviour of the World: the number fifteen is again

connected with St. Mary in the miracle thus recorded of her early

childhood: "And when the circle of three years was rolled round, and the

time of her weaning was fulfilled, they brought the Virgin to the Temple

of the Lord with offerings. Now there were round the temple according to

the fifteen Psalms of Degrees, fifteen steps going up."[696] Up these

mystic fifteen steps we are told that the new-weaned child miraculously

walked unaided.

The New Testament refers to three Marys; in the design overleaf the

figure might well represent Fate, and that there was once a Great and a

Little Mary is somewhat implied by the fact that in Jerusalem adjoining

the church of St. Mary was "another church of St. Mary called the

Little":[697] that there was also at one time a White Mary and a Black

Mary is indubitable from the numerous Black Virgins which still exist in

continental churches. Even the glorious Diana of Ephesus was, as has

been seen, at times represented as black: the name Ephesus, where the

Magna Mater was pre-eminently worshipped, is radically Ephe, and that

Godiva of Coventry was alternatively associated with night is clear from

the fact that the Godiva procession at a village near Coventry included

two Godivas, one white, the other black.[698]

Near King's Cross, London, in the ward of Farendone, used to exist a

spring known as Black Mary's Hole: this name was popularly supposed to

have originated from a negro woman who kept a black cow and used to

draw water from the spring, but tradition also said that it was

originally the Blessed Mary's Well, and that this having fallen into

disrepute at the time of the Reformation the less attractive cognomen

was adopted.[699]

[Illustration: FIG. 360.--Engraving on Pebble, Montastruc, Bruniquel.

FIG. 361.--Dagger-handle in form of mammoth, Bruniquel.

From _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Stone Age_

(B.M.).]

The immense antiquity of human occupation of this site is indicated by

the fact that opposite Black Mary's Hole there was found at the end of

the seventeenth century a pear-shaped flint instrument in the company of

bones of some species of elephant: after lying unappreciated for many

years the tool in question has since been recognised as a piece of human

handiwork, and may fairly claim to be the first of its kind recorded in

this or any other country.[700] That the contemporaries of the mammoth

were no mean artists is proved by the Bruniquel objects--particularly

the engraving on pebble--here illustrated: not only does the elephant

figure on our prehistoric coinage, but it is also found carved on

upwards of a hundred stones in Scotland and notably upon a broch at

_Brechin_ in Forfarshire. Such was the skill of the Brigantian

flintworkers who were settled around Burlington or Bridlington

(Yorkshire, anciently _Deira_) that they successfully fabricated small

fish-hooks out of flint, a feat forcing one to endorse the dictum of T.

Quiller Couch: "This is a matter not unconnected with our present

subject, as the hand which fashioned so skilfully the barbed arrow-head

of flint, and the polished hammer-axes may be fairly associated with a

brain of high capabilities".[701]

[Illustration: FIG. 362.--Probable Restoration of Dagger with Mammoth

Handle. From _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Stone

Age_ (B.M.).]

We have seen that in Scandinavia Mara--doubtless Black Mary--was a

ghastly spectre associated with the Night _Mare_: to this Black Mary may

perhaps be assigned _mar_, meaning to injure or destroy, and probably

also _morose_, _morbid_, and _murder_. We again get the equation _mar_ =

Mary in _marrjan_ the old German for _mar_, for _marrjan_ is equivalent

to the name Marian which is merely another form of Mary. The Maid Marian

who figured in our May-day festivities in association with the sovereign

archer Robin Hood, was obviously not the marrer nor the morose Mary but

the Merry Lady of the Morris Dance, _alias_ the gentle Maiden Vere or

daughter deare of Flora. To White Mary or Mary the Weaver of the scarlet

and true purple, may be assigned _mere_, meaning true and also _merry_,

_mirth_, and _marry_: to Black Mary may be assigned _myrrh_ or _mar_,

meaning bitterness, and it is characteristic of the morose tendency of

clericalism that it is to this root that the authorities attribute the

Mary of Merry England.

The association of the May-fair or Fairy Mother with fifteen, and

merriment is pointed by the custom that the great fair which used to be

held in the Mayfair district of London began on May 1 and lasted for

fifteen days: this fair, we are told, was "not for trade and

merchandise, but for musick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling,

lotteries, stage plays, and drolls".[702] That the Mayfair district was

once dedicated to Holy Vera is possible from Oliver's Mount, the site of

which, now known as Mount Street, is believed to mark a fort erected by

Oliver Cromwell. We have noted an Oliver's Castle at Avebury or

Avereberie, hence it becomes interesting to find an Avery Row in

northern Mayfair, and an Avery Farm Row in Little Ebury Street. The term

Ebury is supposed to mark the site of a Saxon _ea burgh_ or _island

fort_, an assumption which may be correct: at the time of Domesday there

existed here a manor of Ebury, and that this neighbourhood was an _abri_

or sanctuary dedicated to Bur or Bru is hinted in the neighbouring

place-names _Bruton_ Street (adjoining Avery Row, which is equivalent to

Abery Row), _Bour_don Street, _Bur_ton Street, and _Bur_wood Place.

Among the charities of Mayfair is one derived from a benefactor named

Abourne: we have noticed that the tradition of the neighbourhood is that

Kensington Gardens were the haunt of Oberon's fair daughter, and I have

already ventured the suggestion that Bryanstone Square--by which is

Brawn Street--marks the site of a Brawn, Bryan, Obreon, or Oberon

Street. Northwards lies Brondesbury or Bromesbury: at Bromley in Kent

the parish church was dedicated to St. Blaze, and the local fair used to

be held on St. Blaze's Day,[703] and that the Broom or _planta genista_

was sacred to the primal Blaze is further pointed by the ancient custom

of firing broom-bushes on 1st May--the Mayfair's day.[704] In Cornwall

furze used to be hung at the door on Mayday morning: at Bramham or

Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire the custom of making a blaze on the eve of

the Summer Solstice prevailed until the year 1786.[705] By Bromesbury or

Brondesbury is Primrose Hill, which was also known as Barrow Hill: there

are, however, no traces of a barrow on this still virgin soil which was

probably merely a brownlow, brinsley, or brinsmead, unmarked except by

fairy bush or stone.[706] The French for primrose is primevere, and that

the Mayfair was the Prime and Princess of _all_ meads is implied by

Herrick's lines:--

Come with the Spring-time forth, fair Maid, and be

This year again the Meadow's Deity.

Yet ere ye enter, give us leave to set

Upon your head this flowry coronet;

To make this neat distinction from the rest,

You are _the Prime_, and Princesse of the feast:

To which with _silver_ feet lead you the way,

While sweet-breath'd nymphs attend you on this day.

This is your houre; and best you may command,

Since you are Lady of this fairie land.

Full mirth wait on you, and such mirth as shall

Cherrish the cheek, but make none blush at all.

With the "silver feet" of the Meadow Maid may be connoted the curious

custom of the London Merrymaids thus described by a French visitor to

England in the time of Charles II.: "On the first of May, and the five

or six days following, all the pretty young country girls, that serve

the town with milk, dress themselves up very neatly and borrow abundance

of silver plate whereof they make a pyramid which they adorn with

ribbons and flowers, and carry upon their heads instead of their common

milk-pails."[707] That this pyramid or pyre of silver represented a

crown or halo is further implied by an engraving of the eighteenth

century depicting a fiddler and two milk-maids dancing, one of the maids

having on her head a silver plate. It is probable that this symbolised

the moon, and that the second dancer represented the sun, the twain

standing for the Heavenly Pair, or the Powers of Day and Night.

In Ireland there is little doubt that St. Mary was bracketed

inextricably with St. Bride, whence the bardic assertion:--

There are _two_ holy virgins in heaven

By whom may I be guarded

Mary and St. Brighed.[708]

In a Latin Hymn Brighid--"the Mary of the Gael"--is startlingly

acclaimed as the Magna Mater or Very Queen of Heaven:--

Brighid who is esteemed the Queen of the true God

Averred herself to be _Christ's Mother_, and made herself such by

words and deeds.[709]

At Kildare where the circular pyreum assuredly symbolised the central

Fire, the servants of Bride were known indeterminately as either

Maolbrighde or Maolmuire, _i.e._, servants of Brighde, or servants of

Muire, and it is probable that _Muire_, the Gaelic form of Mary, was

radically _mother ire_, the word _ire_ being no doubt the same as _ur_,

an Aryan radical meaning _fire_, whence _ar_son, _ar_dent, etc. The

circular pyreum of Bride or Brighit the Bright, may be compared with the

"round church of St. Mary" in Gethsemane: here the Virgin was said to

have been born, and on the round church in question containing her

sepulchre it was fabled that "the rain never falls although there is no

roof above it".[710] This circular church of St. Mary was thus like the

circular hedge of St. Bride open to the skies, and it is highly probable

that the word Mary, Mory, Maree, etc., sometimes meant _mor_, _mawr_, or

_Big_ Eye. The golden centre or Bull's Eye will be subsequently

considered, meanwhile it is relevant to _Mor eye_ to point out that less

than 200 years ago it was customary to sacrifice a bull on 25th

August--a most ardent period of the year--to the god Mowrie and his

"devilians" on the Scotch island of Inis Maree, evidently Mowrie's

island.[711] At other times and in other districts, Mowrie, Muire, or

Mary was no doubt equated with the Celtic Saints Amary and Omer: the

surviving words _amor_, _amour_, pointing logically to the conclusion

that _love_ was Mary's predominant characteristic. There is no radical

distinction between _amour_ and _humour_, both words probably enshrining

the adjectival _eu_, meaning soft, gentle, pleasing, and propitious:

humour is merriment. A notable connection with Mary and _amour_ is found

in Germany where Mother Mary is alternately Mother Ross or Rose: not

only is the rose the symbol of _amour_, but the word _rose_ is evidently

a corrosion of _Eros_, the Greek title of Cupid or Amor. Miss

Eckenstein states: "I have come across Mother Ross in our own [English]

chapbook literature,"[712] whence it becomes significant to find that

Myrrha, the Virgin Mother of the Phrygian Adonis, was the consort of a

divine Smith, or Hammer-god named Kinyras. The word Kinyras may thus

reasonably be modernised into King Eros, and it is not unlikely that

inquiries at Ross, Kinross, and Delginross would elicit a connection

between these places and the God of Love.

[Illustration: FIG. 363.--From _Cities of Etruria_ (Dennis, C.).]

[Illustration: FIG. 364.--From _Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian

Symbolism_ (Inman, C. W.).]

The authorities are slovenly content to equate Mary with Maria, Muire,

Marion, etc., assigning all these variations without distinction to

_mara_, or bitterness: with regard to Maria, however, it may be

suspected that this form is more probably to be referred to Mother

Rhea, and more radically to _ma rhi_, _i.e._, Mother Queen, Lady, or

Princess. That the word was used as generic term for Good Mother or Pure

Mother is implied by its almost universal employment: thus not only was

Adonis said to be the son of Myrrha, but Hermes was likewise said to be

the child of Maia or Myrrha. The Mother of the Siamese Saviour was

entitled Maya Maria, _i.e._, the Great Mary; the Mother of Buddha was

Maya; Maia was a Roman Flower goddess, and it is generally accepted that

_May_, the month of the Flower goddess, is an Anglicised form of Maia.

[Illustration: FIG. 365.--Maya, the Hindoo Goddess, with a Cruciform

Nimbus. Hindostan Iconography. From _Ancient Pagan and

Modern Christian Symbolism_ (Inman, C. W.).]

The _earliest known_ allusion to the morris dance occurs in the church

records of Kingston-on-Thames, where the morris dancers used to dance in

the parish church.[713] There are in Britain not less than forty or

fifty Kingstons, three Kingsburys, four Kentons, seven Kingstons, one

Kenstone, and four Kingstones: all these may have been the towns or

seats of tribal Kings, but under what names were they known before Kings

settled there? It is highly improbable that royal residences were

planted in previously uninhabited spots, and it is more likely that our

Kings were crowned and associated with already sacred sites where stood

a royal and super-sacred stone analogous to the Scotch _Johnstone_. This

was certainly the case at Kingston-on-Thames where there still stands in

the market-place the holy stone on which our ancient Kings were crowned:

near by is _Can_bury Park, and it would not surprise me if the original

barrow or mound of _Can_ were still standing there. The surname Lovekyn,

which appears very prominently in Kingston records, may be connoted with

the adjective _kind_, and it is probable that Moreford, the ancient name

of Kingston-on-Thames, did not--as is supposed--mean _big ford_, but

Amor or Mary ford. In Spain and Portugal (Iberia) the name Maria is

bestowed indiscriminately upon men and women: that the same

indistinction existed in connection with St. Marine may be inferred from

the statement in _The Golden Legend_: "St. Marine was a noble virgin,

and was _one only_ daughter to her father who changed the habit of his

daughter so that she seemed and was taken for his son and not a

woman".[714]

If the Mary of the Marigolds or "winking marybuds," which "gin to ope

their golden eyes," was Mary or Big Eye, it may also be surmised that

San Marino was the darling of the Mariners, and was the chief Mary-maid,

Merro-maid or Mermaid: although the New Testament does not associate the

Virgin Mary with _mare_ the sea, amongst her titles are "Myrhh of the

Sea," "Lady of the Sea," and "Star of the Sea". At St. Mary's in the

Scillies, in the neighbourhood of Silver Street, is a castle known as

Stella Maria: this castle is "built with salient angles resembling the

rays of a star," and Pelistry Bay on the opposite side of the islet was

thus presumably sacred to Belle Istry, the Beautiful Istar or Star. It

has often been supposed that Start Point was named after Astarte, and

there is every probability that the various rivers Stour, including the

Kentish Great Stour and Little Stour, were also attributed to Istar or

Esther. The Greek version of the Book of _Esther_--a varient of

Istar--contains the remarkable passage, "A little fountain became a

river, and there was light, and the sun, and much water": in the

neighbourhood of the Kentish Stour is Eastry; in Essex there is a Good

Easter and a High Easter, and in Wilts and Somerset are Eastertowns. In

England the sun was popularly supposed to dance at Eastertide, and _in

Britain alone_ is the Easter festival known under this name: the ancient

Germans worshipped a Virgin-mother named Ostara, whose image was common

in their consecrated forests.

What is described as the "camp" surrounding St. Albans is called the

Oyster Hills, and amid the much water of the Thames Valley is an

Osterley or Oesterley. On the Oyster Hills at St. Albans was an hospice

for infirm women, dedicated to St. Mary de Pree, the word _pree_ here

being probably _pre_, the French for a meadow--but Verulam may have been

_pre land_, for in ancient times it was known alternatively as Vrolan or

_Bro_lan.[715] The Oesterley or Oester meadow in the Thames Valley,

sometimes written Awsterley, was obviously common ground, for when Sir

Thomas Gresham enclosed it his new park palings were rudely torn down

and burnt by the populace, much to the offence of Queen Elizabeth who

was staying in the place at the time. Notwithstanding the royal

displeasure, complaints were laid against Gresham "by sundry poor men

for having enclosed certain common ground to the prejudice of the poor".

Next Osterley is Brentford, where once stood "the Priory of the Holy

Angels in the Marshlands": other accounts state that this organisation

was a "friary, hospital, or fraternity of the Nine holy orders of

Angels". With this holy Nine may be connoted the Nine Men's Morrice and

the favourite Mayday pageant of "the Nine Worthies". As _w_ and _v_ were

always interchangeable we may safely identify the "worthies" with the

"virtues," and I am unable to follow the official connection between

_worth_ and _verse_: there is no immediate or necessary relation between

them. The Danish for _worth_ is _vorde_, the Swedish is _varda_, and

there is thus little doubt that _worthy_ and _virtue_ are one and the

same word. In _Love's Labour's Lost_ Constable Dull expresses his

willingness to "make one in a dance or so, or I will play the tabor to

the Worthies and let them dance the Hey".

Osterley is on the river Brent, which sprang from a pond "vulgarly

called Brown's Well,"[716] whence it is probable that the Brent vulgarly

derived its name from Oberon, the All _Parent_. Brentford was the

capital of Middlesex; numerous pre-historic relics have been found

there, and that it was a site of immemorial importance is testified by

its ancient name of Breninford, supposed to mean King's Road or Way. But

bren_en_ is the plural of bren--a Prince or King, and two fairy Princes

or two fairy Kings were traditionally and proverbially associated with

the place. In Cowper's _Task_ occur the lines:--

United yet divided twain at once So sit two kings of Brentford on one

throne.

Prior, in his _Alma_, refers to the two Kings as being "discreet and

wise," and it is probable that in Buckingham's _The Rehearsal_, of which

the scene is laid at Brentford, we have further scraps of genuine and

authentic tradition. _The Rehearsal_ introduces us to two true Kings and

two usurpers: the true Kings who are represented as being very fond of

one another come on to the stage hand-in-hand, and are generally seen

_smelling at one rose_ or one nosegay. Imagining themselves being

plotted against, one says to the other:--

Then spite of Fate we'll thus combined stand

And like true brothers still walk hand in hand.

Driven from their throne by usurpers, nevertheless, towards the end of

the play, "the two right Kings of Brentford descend in the clouds

singing in white garments, and three fiddlers sitting before them in

green". Adjacent to Brentford is the village of Twickenham where at the

parish church used to prevail a custom of giving away on Easter Day the

divided fragments of two great cakes.[717] This apparently innocuous

ceremony was, however, in 1645 deemed to be a superstitious relic and

was accordingly suppressed. We have seen that charity-cakes were

distributed at Biddenden in commemoration of the Twin Sisters; we have

also seen that St. Michael was associated with a great cake named after

him, hence it is exceedingly probable that Twickenham of the Two Easter

Cakes was a seat of the Two or Twa Kings who survived in the traditions

of the neighbouring Breninford or King's Ford.

[Illustration: FIGS. 366 to 370.--British. From Akerman.]

That the Two or Twa Kings of Twickenham were associated with Two Fires

is suggested by the alternative name Twi_ttan_ham: in Celtic _tan_ meant

fire, and the term has survived in _tan_dsticker, _i.e._, fire-sticks,

or matches: it has also survived in _tinder_, "anything for kindling

fires from a spark," and in _etincelle_, the French for spark. In

Etruria Jupiter was known as Tino or Tin, and on the British Star-hero

coin here illustrated the legend reads TIN: the town of Tolentino, with

which one of the St. Nicholas's was associated in combination with a

star, was probably a shrine of Tall Ancient Tino; in modern Greece Tino

is a contracted form of Constantine. The Bel_tan_ or Bel_tein_ fires

were frequently in pairs or twins, and there is a saying still current

in Ireland--"I am between Bels fires," meaning "I am on the horns of a

dilemma". The Dioscuri or Two Kings were always associated with fires or

stars: they were the _beau-ideal_ warriors or War Boys, and to them was

probably sacred the "Warboy's Wood" in Huntingdon, where on May Day the

poor used to go "sticking" or gathering fuel. The Dioscuri occur

frequently on Roman coins, and it will be noticed that the British

Warboy is often represented with a star, and with the palm branch of

Invictus. On the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary it is said that

an angel appeared before her bearing "a bough of the palm of

paradise--and the palm shone by right great clearness and was like to a

green rod whose leaves shone like to the morrow star".[718] There is

very little doubt that the mysterious fish-bone, fern-leaf, spike, ear

of corn, or back-bone, which figures so frequently among the "what-nots"

of our ancient coinage represented the green and magic rod of Paradise.

[Illustration: FIG. 371.--Star or Bush (MS., circa 1425). From _The

History of Signboards_ (Larwood & Hotten).]

At Twickenham is Bushey Park, which is assumed to have derived its name

from the bushes in which it abounded: for some reason our ancestors

combined their Bush and Star inn-signs into one, _vide_ the design

herewith: we have already traced a connection between _bougie_--a

candle, and the _Bogie_ whose habitation was the brakes and bushes:

whence it is not unlikely that Bushey Park derived its title from the

Elphin fires, Will-o-the-wisps, or bougies which must have danced

nightly when Twickenham was little better than a swamp. The Rev. J. B.

Johnston decodes Bushey into "Byssa's" isle or peninsula, and it is not

improbable that Bushey in Hertfordshire bears the same interpretation,

only I do not think that the supposititious Byssa, Bissei, or Bisi was

an Anglo-Saxon. That "Bisi" was Bogie or Puck is perhaps implied further

by the place-name Den_bies_ facing Boxhill: we have already noted in

this district Bagdon, Pigdon, Bookham, and Pixham, whence Denbies,

situated on the brow of Pigdon or Bagdon, suggests that here seemingly

was the actual Bissei's den. The supposititious Bissei assigned to

Bushey may be connoted with the giant Bosow who dwelt by repute on

Buzza's Hill just beyond Hugh Town, St. Mary's. According to Miss

Courtney the Cornish family of Bosow are traceable to the giant of

Buzza's Hill.[719] Presumably to Puck or Bog, are similarly traceable

the common surnames Begg, Bog, etc.

By the Italians the phosphorescent lights or bougies of St. Elmo are

known not as Castor and Pollux, but as the fires of St. Peter and St.

Nicholas: the name Nicholas is considered to mean "Victory of the

People"; in Greek _nike_ means _victory_: we have seen that in Russia

Nicholas was equated with St. Michael, in face of which facts it is

presumptive that St. Nicholas was Invictus, or the Unconquerable. In

London, at Paternoster Lane used to stand "the fair parish church of St.

Michael called Paternoster,"[720] and that St. Nicholas was originally

"Our Father" or Paternoster is implied by the corporate seal of

Yarmouth: this represents St. Nicholas supported on either side by

angels, and bears the inscription _O Pastor Vere Tibi Subjectis

Miserere_. It must surely have savoured of heresy to hail the supposed

Nicholas of Patara in Lycia as _O Pastor Vere_, unless in popular

estimation St. Nicholas was actually the Great Pastor or True Feeder:

that Nicholas was indeterminately either the Father or the Mother is

deducible from the fact that in Scotland the name Nicholas is commonly

bestowed on girls.

In France and Italy prayers are addressed to Great St. Nicholas, and it

is probable that there was always a Nichol and a Nicolette or _nucleus_:

we are told that St. Nicholas, whose mother's name was Joanna, was born

at Patara, and that he became the Bishop of Myra: on his fete day the

proper offering was a cock, and that Nicholas or Invictus was the

chanteur or Chanticleer, is implied by the statement: "St. Nicholas went

abroad in most part in London singing after the old fashion, and was

received with many people into their houses, and had much good cheer, as

ever they had in many places": on Christmas Eve St. Nicholas still

wanders among the children, notwithstanding the sixteenth century

censure--"thus tender minds to worship saints and wicked things are

taught".

Nicholas is an extended form of Nike, Nick, or Neck, and the frequent

juxtaposition of St. Nicholas and St. George is an implication that

these Two Kings were once the Heavenly Twins. We have already noted an

Eleven Stone at Trenuggo--the _abode of Nuggo?_ and there is a

likelihood that Nuggo or Nike was there worshipped as One and Only, the

_Unique_: that he was Lord of the Harvests is implied by the fabrication

of a harvest doll or Neck. According to Skeat _neck_ originally meant

the nape or knop of the neck; it would thus seem that _neck_--Old

English _nekke_--was a synonym for knob or knop. In Cornwall Neck-day

was the great day of the year, when the Neck was "cried"[721] and

suspended in the ingle nook until the following year: in the words of an

old Cornishwoman: "There were Neck cakes, much feasting and dancing all

the evening. Another great day was Guldise day when the corn was drawn:

Guldise cakes and a lump of pease-pudding for every one."[722]

Near London Stone is the Church of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, and at Old

Jewry stood St. Mary Cole Church: it is not unlikely that this latter

was originally dedicated to Old King Cole, the father of the lovely

Helen and the Merry Old Soul whose three fiddlers may be connoted with

the three green fiddlers of the Kings of Brentford. The great bowl of

Cole, the _ghoul_ of other ages, may be equated with the _cauldron_ or

_calix_ of the Pastor Vere: the British word for _cauldron_ was _pair_,

and the Druidic bards speak with great enthusiasm of "their cauldron,"

"the cauldron of Britannia," "the cauldron of Lady Keridwen," etc. This

cauldron was identified with the Stone circles, and the Bardic poets

also speak of a mysterious _pair dadeni_ which is understood to mean

"the cauldron of new birth or rejuvenescence".[723] The old artists

seemingly represented the Virtues as emerging from this cauldron as

three naked boys or Amoretti, for it is said that St. Nicholas revived

three murdered children who had been pickled in brine by a wicked

inn-keeper who had run short of bacon. This miracle is his well-known

emblem, and the murder story by which the authorities accounted for the

picture is probably as silly and brutal an afterthought as the horrid

"tortures" and protracted dolours of other saints. Nevertheless some

ghoulish and horrible practices seem to have accompanied the worship of

the cauldron, and the author of _Druidism Exhumed_ reproduces a Scotch

sculpture of a cauldron out of which protruding human legs are waving

ominously in the air.

St. Nicholas of Bari is portrayed resuscitating three youths from three

tubs: that Nicholas was radically the Prince of Peace is implied,

however, from the exclamation "Nic'las!" which among children is

equivalent to "fainites": the sign of truce or fainites is to cross the

two fore-fingers into the form of the _treus_ or cross.

St. Nicholas is the unquestioned patron of all children, and in the past

bands of lads, terming themselves St. Nicholas' Clerks or St. Nicholas'

Knights, added considerably to the conviviality of the cities.

Apparently at all abbeys once existed the custom of installing upon St.

Nicholas' Day a Boy Bishop who was generally a choir or singing boy:

this so-called Bearn Bishop or Barnebishop was decked, according to one

account, in "a myter of cloth and gold with _two knopps_ of silver gilt

and enamelled," and a study of the customs prevailing at this amazing

festival of the Holy Innocent leaves little doubt that the Barnebishop

personified the conception of the Pastor Vere in the aspect of a lad or

"knave". The connection between _knop_ and _knave_ has already been

traced, and the "two knopps" of the episcopal knave or bairnbishop

presumably symbolised the _bren_ or breasts of Pastor Vere, the

celestial Parent: it has already been suggested that the knops on Figs.

30 to 38 (p. 149) represented the Eyes or Breasts of the All Mighty.

In Irish _ab_ meant _father_ or _lord_, and in all probability St.

Abb's Head, supposedly named after a Bishop Ebba, was once a seat of

Knebba worship: that Cunobe was the Mighty Muse, singing like St.

Nicholas after the old fashion, is evident from the British coin

illustrated on page 305, a sad example of carelessness, declension, and

degradation from the Macedonian Philippus.

The festival of the Burniebishop was commemorated with conspicuous pomp

at Cambrai, and there is reason to think that this amazing institution

was one of Cambrian origin: so fast and furious was the accompanying

merriment that the custom was inevitably suppressed. The only Manor in

the town of Brentford is that of Burston or Boston, whence it is

probable that Brentford grew up around a primeval Bur stone or

"Denbies". That the place was famous for its merriment and joviality is

sufficiently evidenced by the fact that in former times the parish rates

"were mainly supported by the profits of public sports and diversions

especially at Whitsuntide".[724]

According to _The Rehearsal_ when the True Kings or Two Kings,

accompanied by their retinue of three green-clad fiddlers, descended

from the clouds, a dance was then performed: "an ancient dance of right

belonging to the Kings of Brentford, but since derived with a little

alteration to the Inns of Court". On referring to the famous pageants of

the Inns of Court we find that the chief character was the Lord of

Misrule, known otherwise as the King of Cockneys or Prince of Purpool.

We have seen that the Hobby Horse was clad in purple, and that Mary was

weaver of the true purple--a combination of true blue and scarlet. The

authorities connote _purple_, French _purpre_, with the Greek

_porphureos_, "an epithet of the surging sea," and they ally it with

the Sanscrit _bhur_, meaning _to be active_. The cockney, and very

active Prince of Purpool or Portypool was conspicuously celebrated at

Gray's Inn which occupies the site of the ancient Manor of _Poripool_,

and the ritual--condemned and suppressed by the Puritans as "popish,

diabolical, and antechristian"--seems invariably to have started by a

fire or phare lighted in the hall: this at any rate was the custom and

status with which the students at St. John's, Oxford, opened the

proceedings on All Hallows' Eve.

The Druidic Bards allude to their sacred pyreum, or fire-circle, as a

_pair dadeni_, and that a furious Fire or Phare was the object of their

devotion is obvious from hymns such as--

Let burst forth ungentle

The horse-paced ardent fire!

Him we worship above the earth,

Fire, fire, low murmuring in its dawn,

High above our inspiration,

Above every spirit

Great is thy terribleness.[725]

_Pourpre_ or _purple_, the royal or imperial colour, was doubtless

associated with the Fire of Fires, and the connection between this word

and _porphureos_ must, I think, be sought in the idea of _pyre furious_

or _fire furious_, rather than any epithet of the surging sea. The Welsh

for purple is _porffor_.

Either within or immediately adjacent to the Manor of Poripool or

Purpool were some famous springs named Bagnigge Wells: at the corner of

Bathhurst Street, Paddington, was a second Bagnigge Wells, and the

river Fleet used also at one time to be known as the Bagnigge. This

ubiquitous Bagnigge was in all probability _Big Nigge_ or Big Nicky--

Know you the Nixies gay and fair?

Their eyes are black and green their hair,

They lurk in sedgy shores.

The fairy Nokke, Neck, or Nickel, is said to have been a great musician

who sat upon the water's edge and played a golden harp, the harmony of

which operated on all nature:[726] sometimes he is represented as a

complete horse who could be made to work at the plough if a bridle of

particular kind were used: he is also represented as half man and half

horse, as an aged man with a long beard, as a handsome young man, and as

a pretty little boy with golden hair and scarlet cap. That Big Nigge

once haunted the Bagnigge Wells is implied by the attendant legend of

Black Mary, Black Mary's Hole being the entrance, or immediately

adjacent, to one of the Bagnigge springs: similarly, as has been noted,

Peg Powler, and Peg this or that, haunted the streams of Lancashire.

We have seen that Keightley surmised the word _pixy_ to be the endearing

diminutive _sy_ added to Puck, whence, as in Nancy, Betsy, Dixie, and so

forth, Nixy may similarly be considered as _dear little Nick_. In

Suffolk, the fairies are known as farisees, seemingly, _dear little

fairies_, and our ancestors seem to have possessed a pronounced

partiality for similar diminutives: we find them alluding to the Blood

of the Lambkin, an expression which Adamnan's editors remark as "a bold

instance of the Celtic diminutive of endearment so characteristic of

Adamnan's style": they add: "Throughout Adamnan's work, diminutives are

constantly used, and these in most cases are used in a sense of

endearment difficult to convey in English, perfectly natural as they are

in the mouth of the kindly and warm-hearted Irish saint. In the present

case Dr. Reeves thinks the diminutives may indicate the poorness of the

animals from the little there was to feed them upon."[727] As the

traditions of Fairyland give no hint for the assumption of any rationing

or food-shortage it seems hardly necessary to consider either the

pixies, the farisees, or the nixies as either half-starved or even

impoverished.

In Scandinavia and Germany the nixies are known as the nisses, and they

there correspond to the brownies of Scotland: according to Grimm the

word _nisse_ is "Nicls, Niclsen, _i.e._, Nicolaus, Niclas, a common name

in Germany and the North, which is also contracted to Klas, Claas"; but

as _k_ seems invariably to soften into _ch_, and again into _s_, it is a

perfectly straight road from Nikke to Nisse, and the adjective _nice_ is

an eloquent testimonial to the Nisses' character. Some Nisses were

doubtless _nice_, others were obviously nasty, noxious, and nocturnal:

the Nis of Jutland is in Friesland called Puk, and also Niss-Puk,

Nise-Bok, and Niss-Kuk: the _Kuk_ of this last mentioned may be connoted

with the fact that the customary offering to St. Nicholas was a

cock--the symbol of the Awakener--and as St. Nicholas was so intimately

connected with Patara, the cock of St. Peter is no doubt related to the

legend.

St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, customarily travels by night: the nixies

were black-eyed; Old Nick was always painted black; _nox_, or night, is

the same word as nixy; and _nigel_, _night_, or _nicht_ all imply

blackness. According to Cæsar: "all the Gauls assert that they are

descended from the god Dis, and say that this tradition has been handed

down by the Druids. For that reason they compute the divisions of every

season not by the number of days but by nights; they keep birthdays, and

the beginnings of months and years in such an order that the day follows

the night."[728] The expressions fortnight, and sen'night thus not only

perpetuate an idea of great antiquity but one which is philosophically

sound: to our fore-runners Night was no wise evil, but the beneficent

Mother of a Myriad Stars: the fairies revelled in the dark, and in eyes

of old "the vast blue night was murmurous with peris wings"[729].

The place-name Knightsbridge is probably a mis-spelling of Neyte, one of

the three manors into which Kensington was once divided: the other two

were Hyde and Ebury, and it is not unlikely that these once constituted

a trinity--Hyde being the Head, Ebury the Brightness, and Neyte--Night.

The Egyptian represented Nut, Naut, or Neith as a Mother Goddess with

two children in her arms, one white the other black: to her were

assigned the words: "I am what has been, what is, and what will be," and

her worshippers declared: "She hath built up life from her own body". In

Scandinavia Nat was the Mother of all the gods: she was said to be an

awe-inspiring, adorable, noble, and beneficent being, and to have her

home on the lower slopes of the Nida mountains: _nid_ is the French for

_nest_, and with Neyte may be connoted _nuit_, the French for _night_.

That St. Neot was _le nuit_ is implied by the tradition that the Church

of St. Neot in Cornwall was built not only by night, but entirely by

Neot himself who drew the stones from a neighbouring quarry, aided only

by the help of reindeer. These magic reindeer are obviously the animals

of St. Nick, and it is evidently a memory of Little Nick that has

survived in the tradition that St. Neot was a saint of very small

stature--somewhere about 15 inches high.[730] With Mother _Nat_ of

Scandinavia, and Mother _Naut_ or Neith of Egypt, may be connoted

Nutria, a Virgin-Mother goddess of Etruria; a divine nurse with whose

name may be connected _nutrix_ (nurse) and _nutriment_.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of seafarers and there are innumerable

dedications to him at the seaside: that Nikke was Neptune is

unquestionable, and connected with his name is doubtless _nicchio_ the

Italian for a shell. From _nicchio_ comes our modern _niche_, which

means a shell-like cavity or recess: in the British EPPI coin,

illustrated on page 284, the marine monster may be described as a nikke,

and the apparition of the nikke as a perfect horse might not ineptly be

designated a _nag_.

I have elsewhere illustrated many representations of the Water-Mother,

the Mary-Maid, the Mermaid, the Merrow-Maid, or as she is known in

Brittany--Mary Morgan. The resident nymph or genius of the river

Se_vern_ was named Sa_brina_; the Welsh for the Severn is Ha_vren_, and

thus it is evident that the radical of this river name is _brina_,

_vren_, or _vern_: the British Druids recognised certain governing

powers named _feraon: fern_ was already noted as an Iberian word meaning

_anything good_, whence it is probable that in Havren or Severn the

affix _ha_ or _se_ was either the Greek _eu_ or the British and Sanscrit

_su_, both alike meaning the _soft, gentle, pleasing_, and

_propitious_.

Sabrina fair,

Listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,

In twisted braids of lilies, knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair.

In the neighbourhood of Bryanstone Square is Lissom Grove, a corruption

of Lillestone Grove: here thus seemingly stood a stone sacred to the

Lily or the All Holy, and the neighbouring church of St. Cyprian

probably marks the local memory of a traditional _sy brian_, _Sabrina_,

or _dear little brownie_.

Near Silchester, on the boundary line between Berks and Hants, is a

large stone known as the Imp stone, and as this was formerly called the

Nymph stone,[731] it is probable that in this instance the Imp stone was

a contraction of Imper or Imber stone--the Imp being the Nymph of the

amber-dropping hair. The Scandinavians believed that the steed of the

Mother Goddess Nat produced from its mouth a froth, which consisted of

honey-dew, and that from its bridle dropped the dews in the dales in the

morning: the same idea attached to the steeds of the Valkyre, or War

Maidens, from whose manes, when shaken, dew dropped into the deep dales,

whence harvests among the people.[732]

Originally, _imp_ meant a scion, a graft, or an offspring, a sprout, or

sprig: _sprig_, _spright_, _spirit_, _spirt_, _sprout_, and _sprack_ (an

old English word meaning lively, perky, or pert), are all radically

_pr_: in London the sparrow "was supposed to be the soul of a dead

person";[733] in Kent, a sparrow is termed a _sprug_, whence it would

appear that this pert, perky, little bird was once a symbol of the

sprightly sprout, sprite, or spirit.

[Illustration: FIG. 372.--Six-winged angel holding lance, wings

crossed on breast, arrayed in robe and mantle. (From

Didron.)]

Stow mentions that the fair parish church of St. Michael called

Paternoster when new built, was made a college of St. Spirit and St.

Mary. All birds in general were symbols of St. Spirit, but more

particularly the Columba or Culver,[734] which was pre-eminently the

emblem of Great Holy Vere: we have already illustrated a half white,

half black, six-winged representation of this sacred sign of simplicity

and love, and the six-winged angel here reproduced is, doubtless,

another expression of the far-spread idea:--

The embodied spirit has a thousand heads,

A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, around

On every side, enveloping the earth,

Yet filling space no larger than a span.

He is himself this very universe;

He is whatever is, has been, and shall be;

He is the lord of immortality.[735]

It is difficult to conceive any filthiness or evil of the dove, yet the

hagiologists mention "a foul dove or black culver," which is said to

have flown around the head of a certain holy Father named Nonnon.[736]

We may connote this Nonnon with Nonna or Non, the reputed mother of St.

David, for of St. David, we are told, his birth was heralded by angels

thirty years before the event, and that among other miracles (such as

restoring sight to the blind), doves settled on his shoulders. Dave or

Davy is the same word as dove; in Welsh _dof_ means _gentle_, and it is

more probable that the gentle dove derived its title from this word than

as officially surmised from the Anglo-Saxon _dufan_, "to plunge into".

According to Skeat, _dove_ means literally _diver_, but doves neither

dive nor plunge into anything: they have not even a diving flight. The

Welsh are known familiarly as Taffys, and the Church of Llan_daff_ is

supposed to mean Church on the River Taff: it is more probable that

Llandaff was a shrine of the Holy Dove, and that David with the doves

upon his shoulder was a personification of the Holy Spirit or Wisdom.

_Non_ is the Latin for _not_, and the black dove associated with Nonnon

or _not not_ was no doubt a representation of that _Neg_ation,

non-existence or inscrutable void, which existed before the world was,

and is otherwise termed Chaos or Cause. That Wisdom or the Holy Spirit

was conceived as the primal and inscrutable _Darkness_, is evident from

the statement in _The Wisdom of Solomon_: "For God loveth none but him

that dwelleth with Wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and

above all the orders of stars: being compared with the light _she is

found before it_."

The Nonnon of whom "it seemed that a foul dove or black culver flew

about him whilst he was at Mass at the alter" was said to be the Bishop

of Heliopolis, _i.e._, the city of the Sun, and he comes under notice

in connection with St. Pelagienne--"said of _pelagus_ which is as much

to say as the _sea_". The interpretation further placed upon St.

Pelagienne is that "she was the sea of iniquity, and the flood of sins,

but she plunged after into the sea of tears and washed her in the flood

of baptism". That poor Pelagienne was the Water Mother of Mary Morgan is

implied further by the fragment of autobiography--"I have been called

from my birth Pelagienne, but for the pomp of my clothing men call me

Margaret":[737] we have seen that Pope Joanna of Engelheim was also

called Margaret, whence it is to be suspected that although it is true

that _pelagus_ meant _the sea_ St. Pelagienne was primarily the _Bella_

or beautiful _Jeanne_, _i.e._, Mary Morgan or Morgiana.

[Illustration: FIGS. 373 to 376.--Greek. From Barthelemy.]

On the coins of King _Janus_ of Sicily there figured a dove; _jonah_,

_yuneh_, or _Ione_ are the Hebrew and Greek terms for dove; the Ionian

Greeks were worshippers of the dove, and the consociation of St. Columbe

Kille or the "little dove of the church" with the Hebridean island of

Iona is presumptive evidence of the worship of the dove in Iona. In the

Rhodian Greek coins here illustrated the reverse represents the rhoda or

rose of Rhodes, and the obverse head may be connoted with the story of

St. Davy with the dove settled on his shoulder: that the dove was also

an English emblem is obvious from the British coins, Figs. 377 to 384;

the dove will also be found frequently introduced on the contemned

_sceattae_ illustrated _ante_, page 364.

[Illustration: FIG. 377.--British. From Akerman.]

[Illustration: FIG. 378.--British. From Evans.]

[Illustration: FIGS. 379 to 384.--British (Channel Islands). From

Barthelemy.]

[Illustration: FIG. 385.--The Father, Represented as Slightly

Different to the Son. French Miniature of the Close of

the XIII. Cent. From _Christian Iconography_

(Didron).]

[Illustration: FIG. 386.--The Divine Dove, in a Radiating Aureole.

From a French Miniature of the XV. Cent. From

_Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Illustration: FIG. 387.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Illustration: FIG. 388.--God the Father, with a Bi-Triangular

Nimbus; God the Son, with a Circular Nimbus; God the

Holy Ghost, without a Nimbus, and within an Aureole.

(Fresco at Mount Athos.) From _Christian Iconography_

(Didron).]

[Illustration: FIG. 389.--The Three Divine Persons, Adorned with the

Cruciform Nimbus. Miniature of the close of the XIII.

Cent. MS. in the Bibliothèque Royale. From _Christian

Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Illustration: FIG. 390.--God the Father, and God the Son, with

Features Exactly Identical. French Miniature of the

commencement of the XIII. Cent. From _Christian

Iconography_ (Didron).]

Among the golden treasures unearthed by Schliemann at Mykenae was a

miniature "model of a temple" on which are seated two pigeons with

uplifted wings:[738] among the curious and interesting happenings which

occurred during the childhood of the Virgin Mary it is recorded that

"Mary was in the Temple of the Lord as if she were a dove that dwelt

there, and she received food as from the hand of an angel": Fig. 380

appears to illustrate this dove dwelling in a Temple. The legend

continues that when the Holy Virgin attained the age of twelve years

the Angel of the Lord caused an assembly of all the widowers each of

whom was ordained to bring with him his rod: the High Priest then took

these rods and prayed over them, but there came no sign: at last Joseph

took his rod "and behold a dove came out of the rod and flew upon

Joseph's head".[739] It is said by Lucian that in the most sacred part

of the temple of Hieropolis, the holy city of Syria, were three figures

of which the centre one had a golden dove upon its head: not only was no

name given to this, but the priests said nothing concerning its origin

or form, calling it simply "The sign": according to the British

Bards--"To Addav came the sign. It was taught by Alpha, and it was the

earliest polished melody of Holy God, and by a wise mouth it was

canticled." There is little doubt that the descending dove with wings

outstretched was a variant of the three rays or Broad Arrow, that the

_awen_ was the _Iona_, and that this same idea was conveyed by the

Three _ains_, or _eyen_, Eyes, Golden Balls, or pawnbroker's sign. It is

recorded of St. Nicholas of Bari, the patron saint of pawnbrokers, that

immediately he was born he stood up in the basin in which he was being

washed and remained with hands clasped, and uplifted eyes, for two

hours: in later life he became wealthy, and threw into a window on three

successive nights a bag of gold as a dowry for three impoverished and

sore-tempted maidens. In commemoration of these three bags of gold St.

Nicholas became the patron saint of pawnbrokers whose sign of the Three

Golden Balls is a conversion of the three anonymous gifts.

[Illustration: FIG. 391.--From Barthelemy.]

[Illustration: FIG. 392.--British (Channel Islands). From

Barthelemy.]

In Hebrew the Three Apples, Eyes, or Golden Balls are called _ains_ or

fountains of living water, and to this day in Wales a spring of water is

called in Welsh the Eye of the Fountain or the Water Spring. It will be

remembered that the sister of St. Nonna, and therefore the aunt of St.

Davy, was denominated Gwen of the Three Breasts, _Tierbron_, or three

breasts, may be connoted with three-eyed Thor, and the combination of

Eyes and Sprigs is conspicuously noticeable in Fig. 39, page 364: one

will also note the head of No. 49 on the same plate.

The Three Holy Children on the reverse of Fig. 391--a Byzantine

coin--are presumably the offspring of St. Michael _alias_ Nichol on the

obverse: the arms of Cornwall consist of fifteen golden balls called

_besants_; the county motto is One and All. Of St. Nicholas of Tolentino

who became a friar at the age of _eleven_, we are told that a star

rested over his altar and preceded him when he walked, and he is

represented in Art with a lily in his hand--the symbol of his pure

life--and a star over his head: that Nicolette was identified with the

Little Star or Stella Maris is clear from Troubadour _chansons_, such as

the following from that small classic _Aucassin and Nicolette_--

Little Star I gaze upon,

Sweetly drawing to the moon,

In such golden haunt is set

Love, and bright-haired Nicolette.

God hath taken from our war

Beauty, like a shining star.

Ah, to reach her, though I fell

From her Heaven to my Hell.

Who were worthy such a thing,

Were he emperor or king?

Still you shine, oh, perfect Star,

Beyond, afar.

It is impossible to say whether the three-eyed elphin faces illustrated

_ante_, page 381, are asters, marguerites, marigolds, or suns: in the

centre of one of them is a heart, and without doubt they one and all

symbolised the Great Amour or Margret. During excavations at Jerusalem

in 1871, the symbol of Three Balls was discovered under the Temple of

King Solomon on Mount Moriah: this temple was circular, and it is

probable that the name Moriah meant originally Moreye or Big Eye. That

the three cavities in question were once ains or eyes is implied by the

explorer's statement: "Within this recess are three cylindrical holes

5-1/4 inches in diameter, the lines joining their centres forming the

sides of an equilateral triangle. Below this appears once to have been a

basin to collect the water, but whatever has been there, it has been

violently removed ... there can be little doubt that this is an ancient

overflow from the Birket Israil."[740] It is probable that the measure

of these three cup-like holes was once 5 inches, and that the resultant

fifteen had some original connection with the fifteen besants or basins

of Byzantine Britain.

[Illustration: FIG. 393.--From _The Recovery of Jerusalem_ (Wilson

and Warren).]

With the _brook Birket Israil_ at Mount Moriah may be connoted the

neighbouring "large pool called El Burak": the existence on Mount Moriah

of subterranean cisterns or basins known as Solomon's Stables renders it

probable that El Burak was El Borak, the fabulous white steed upon which

the faithful Mussulman expects one day to ride. The Eyes of the British

broks or nags here illustrated are curiously prominent, and in Fig. 396

the _eleven_-eared wheat sprig is springing from a trefoil: with the

lily surmounting the CUNO steed may be connoted the two stars or morrow

stars which frequently decorate this triune emblem of Good Deed, Good

Thought, Good Word: they may be seen to-day on the badges of those

little Knights of To-morrow, the Boy Scouts.

[Illustration: FIGS. 394 to 396.--British. From Evans.]

[Illustration: FIG. 397.--British (Channel Islands). From

Barthelemy.]

The lily appears in the hand of the PIXTILOS figure here illustrated,

and among the Pictish emblems found on the vitrified fort at Anwath in

Scotland is the puckish design illustrated on page 496, Fig. 293. This

was probably a purely symbolic and elementary form of the dolorous and

pensive St. John which Christianity figured with a pair of marigolds or

marguerites in lieu of feathers or antennae.

[Illustration: FIG. 398.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Illustration: FIG. 399.--From _An Essay on Ancient Gems_ (Walsh,

R.).]

[Illustration: FIG. 400.--Gaulish. From Akerman.]

[Illustration: FIGS. 401 and 402.--Gaulish. From Akerman.]

[Illustration: Fig. 403.--From _Symbolism of the East and West_

(Aynsley, Mrs. Murray).]

[Illustration: FIG. 404.--English Eighteenth Century Printer's

Ornament.]

Accompanying the Pictish inscription in question were the elaborate

barnacles or spectacles reproduced _ante_, page 495: in Crete the

barnacles, as illustrated on page 494, are found humanised by a small

winged figure holding a wand, and the general effect of the two circles

when superimposed is that of the figure 8. The nine-rayed ABRACAX lion

as portrayed by the Gnostics, and doubtless a variant of Abracadabra,

has its serpentine body twined into an 8; on a Longstone in Brittany

there is a figure holding an 8 tipped staff, and the same emblem will be

noticed on the coins of the Longostaliti, a _Gaul_ish people who

seemingly were so ghoulish as to venerate a _cal_ix or _caul_dron: from

the _pair dadeni_ or cauldron of renaissance represented on these astral

coins it will be noticed there are emerging two stars and other

interesting nicknacks. The locks of hair on the astral figure

represented on the coins of Marseilles--a city founded by a colony of

Phocean Greeks from Ionia--number exactly eight: in Scotland we have

traced the memory of eight ancient hags, the Mothers of the World: in

Valencia we have noted the procession of eight scrupulously coiffured

Giants, and there is very little doubt that the eight survivors of the

Flood,[741] by whom the world was re-peopled, is a re-statement of the

same idea of the Gods of the four quarters and their Consorts. In

connection with the Ogdoad or Octet of eight gods one may connote the

curious erection which once decorated the London Guildhall, the seat of

Gogmagog:[742] here, "on each side of the flight of steps was an

_octangular_ turreted gallery, balustraded, having an office in each,

appropriated to the hallkeeper: these galleries assumed the appearance

of arbours from being each surrounded by six palm-trees in ironwork, the

foliage of which gave support to a large balcony, having in front a

clock (with three dials) elaborately ornamented, and underneath a

representation of the Sun, resplendent with gilding; the clock frame was

of oak. At the angles were the cardinal virtues, and on the top a

curious figure of Time with a young child in his arms."[743] At the

village of _Thame_-on-Thames, which the authorities state meant _rest,

quiet_, otherwise _tame_ or kindly, gentle _Time_, there is a celebrated

figure of St. Kitt, _alias_ Father Time, with the little figure of New

Time or _Change_ upon his shoulder. In Etruria a parallel idea would

seem to have been current, for Mrs. Hamilton Gray describes an Etruscan

work of art inscribed "Isis nourishing Horus, or Truth teaching

Time".[744] It is most unusual to find the Twins depicted as old men, or

Bald ones with the mystic Lock of Horus on their foreheads, but in the

eighteenth-century emblem here reproduced the intention of the deviser

is unmistakable, and the central Sun is supported by two Times.

In a cave situated at the cross roads at Royston in Hertfordshire, there

is the figure of St. Kitt beneath which are apparently eight other

figures: these are assumedly "other saints," but the Christian Church

does not assign any singular pre-eminence to St. Christopher, and the

decorators of the Royston Cave evidently regarded St. Kitt as the

Supreme One or God Himself. It is abundantly evident that to our

ancestors Kit or Kate was God, Giant, Jeyantt,[745] or Good John: that

he was deemed the deity of the ocean is obvious from instances where the

water in which he stands is full of crabs, dolphins, and other ocean

creatures. I have suggested that Christopher was a representation of

_dad_ or Death carrying the soul over the river of Death, _i.e._,

"Dowdy" with the spriggan on his back. Among sailors Death is known

familiarly as "Old Nick," "Old Davy," or "Davy Jones," and in

Cornwall they have a curious and inexplicable saying: "as ancient as the

Flood of Dava". I think this Dava must have been the genius of the

rivers Dove, Taff and Tavy.

[Illustration: FIG. 405.--St. Christopher. From Royston Cave.

[_To face page 640._ ]

[Illustration: FIG. 406.--Mediæval Paper mark. From _Les Filigranes_

(Briquet, C. M.).]

That Kit was connected with the eight of the Cretan Eros figure is

further implied by the fact that on the summit of a lofty hill near

Royston or Roystone there is, or was, a "hollow oval". The length of

this prehistoric monument was stated in 1856 as about 31 feet

(originally 33?) and its breadth about 22 feet. "Within this bank are

two circular excavations meeting together in the middle and nearly

forming the figure eight. Both excavations descend by concentric and

contracting rings to the walls which form the sides of the

chambers."[746] From this description the monument would appear to be

identical in design with the 8-in-an-oval emblem here illustrated, a

mediæval papermark traceable to the Italian town of St. Donino. Examples

of twin earthwork circles forming the figure 8 are not unknown in

Ireland.

At Royston, which, as we shall see, was the Lady Roesia's town, is a

place called Cocken Hatch, but whether this is the site of the

eight-form monument in question, I am unaware: in the megalithic stone

illustrated on p. 638 the Cadi is not only holding an 8 on the tip of

his _caduceus_, but he has also a _cadet_ or little son by the hand:

_cadi_ is Arabic for a _judge_, and in Wales the Cadi no doubt acted as

the final judge. In Celtic the word _cad_ meant war, an implication

that in one of his aspects Ked or St. Kitt was the ever-victorious

Michael or the all-conquering Nike: there is a Berkshire ballad extant,

in which the word _caddling_, meaning fighting, is employed, yet

caddling is the same word as _cuddling_. In Scotland, _caddie_ means a

messenger or errand boy: Mercury or Hermes was the Messenger of the

Gods: among the Greeks, Iris was the Messenger, and Iris was

unquestionably the Turkish Orus or St. George. In Arabia, St. George is

known as El Khoudr, and it is believed that El Khoudr is not yet dead,

but still flies round and round the world: in a subsequent chapter it

will be shown that Orus is the same as Horus the Egyptian dragon-slayer;

hence Giggras, another of St. George's titles, may be resolved into

Mighty Mighty Horus or Eros, and it is possible that the Pictish town of

Delginross should read _Tall King Eros_.

The eleven rows of rocks at Carnac extend, it is said, for _eight_

miles, and at the neighbouring Er-lanic are two megalithic circles, one

dipping into the sea, the other submerged in deep water: according to

Baring-Gould, these two rings are juxtaposed, forming an 8, and lie on

the south-east of the island; the first circle consists of 180 stones

(twice _nine_), but several are fallen, and it can only be seen complete

when the tide is out; one stone is 16 feet high; the second circle can

be seen only at low tide.[747]

It is probable that the measurements of the Venus de Quinipily,

illustrated on p. 530, are not without significance: the statue stands

upon a pedestal, 9 feet high, and the figure itself rises 8 feet

high.[748] With eight may be further connoted the eastern teaching of

the "Noble Eightfold Path," and also the belief of Western Freemasonry

as stated in Mackey's _Lexicon of Freemasonry_: "Eight was esteemed as

the first cube (2 × 2 × 2), and signified friendship, prudence, counsel,

and justice. It designated the primitive Law of Nature, which supposes

all men to be equal." The root of _eight_, _octave_, and _octet_ or

_ogdoad_ is _Og_, the primeval giant, who, as we have seen, was reputed

to have waded alongside the ark with its eight primordial passengers.

When flourishing, the megalithic monument at Carnac must have dwarfed

our dual-circled, two-mile shrine at Avebury: "The labour of its

erection," to quote from Deane, "may be imagined from the fact that it

originally consisted of eleven rows of stones, about 10,000 in number,

of which more than 300 averaged from 15 to 17 feet in height, and from

16 to 20 or 30 feet in girth; one stone even measuring 42 feet in

circumference".

One of the commonest of sepulchral finds in Brittany is the stone axe,

sometimes banded in alternate stripes of black and white: the axe was

pre-eminently a Cretan emblem, and my suggestion that the Carnac stones

were originally erected to the honour of St. Ursula and the 11,000

Virgins is somewhat strengthened by the coincidence that the London

Church of St. Mary Axe was closely and curiously identified with the

legend. According to Stow: "In St. Marie Street had ye of old time a

parish church of St. Marie the Virgin, St. Ursula and the 11,000

Virgins, whose church was commonly called St. Marie at the Axe of the

sign of an axe over against the east, and thereof on St. Marie

Pellipar". In view of the fact that the town of Ypres boasted an

enormous collection of relics of the 11,000 Virgins, the title Pellipar

may be reasonably resolved into _Belle power_: the Cretan axe or double

axe symbolised almighty _power_.[749]

[Illustration: FIG. 407.--Bronze statuette, Despeña Perros.

FIG. 408.--Bronze statuette, Aust-on-Severn, Gloucs.

From _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age_

(B.M.).]

According to an Assyrian hymn, Istar, the immaculate great _Star_, the

"Lady Ruler of the Host of Heaven," the "Lady of Ladies," "Goddess

without peer," who shaped the lives of all mankind was the "Stately

world-Queen sov'ran of the Sky".

Adored art thou in every sacred place,

In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines.

Where is thy name not lauded? Where thy will

Unheeded, and thy images not made?[750]

In the caves or "fetish shrines" of Crete have been found rude figurines

of the Mother and the Child, and it is probable that the pathetically

crude bronze statuettes here illustrated represent the austere wielder

of the wand of doom. Fig. 407 comes from Iberia where it was discovered

in the vicinity of what was undoubtedly a shrine near the pass over the

Sierra _Morena_ at Despena _Perros_: Fig. 408 comes from the English

village of Aust-on-Severn. The place-name Aust appears in Domesday as

Austreclive, and the authorities suppose it to have meant "not _East_ as

often thought, but the Roman Augusta": I doubt whether any Roman Augusta

ever troubled to claim a mere cleeve, and it is more probable that

Austreclive was a cleft or pass sacred to the austere Austre. There is

an Austrey at Atherstone, an Austerfield at Bawtry, and an "Austrells"

at Aldridge: this latter, which may be connoted with the Oyster Hills

round Verulam, the authorities assume to have meant "Austerhill, hill of

the hearth, forge or furnace". That Istar was the mighty Hammer Smith is

probable, for the archaic hymnist writes:--

I thee adore--

The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong.

In all likelihood the head-dress of our figurines was intended to denote

the crescent moon for the same hymnist continues:--

O Light divine,

Gleaming in lofty splendour over the earth,

Heroic daughter of the moon, O hear!

O stately Queen,

At thought of thee the world is filled with fear,

The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth

All spirits pause and all mankind bow down

With reverence for thy name ... O Lady Judge

Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze

On sinners with compassion, and each morn

Leadest the wayward to the rightful path.

Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair,

O Shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh

With feet unwearied.

I have suggested that the circle of Long Meg and her daughters

originally embodying the idea of a Marygold, Marguerite, or Aster, was

erected to the honour of St. Margaret the Peggy, or Pearl of Price, and

it is possible that the oyster or producer of the pearl may have derived

its name from Easter or Ostara: that Astarte was St. Margaret is obvious

from the effigies herewith, and the connection is further pointed by the

already noted fact that in the neighbourhood of St. Margaret's,

Westminster, there prevailed traditions of a Giantess named Long Meg.

This powerful Maiden was evidently Margaret or Invicta, on the

War-path, her pugilistic exploits being far-famed: it is particularly

related that Long Meg distinguished herself in the wars at Bulloigne,

whence it will probably prove that "Bulloigne" was associated with the

War Maid whom the Romans termed Bellona, and that both Bulloigne and

Bologna were originally shrines of Bello gina, either the _Beautiful

Woman_ or the _War Queen_.

[Illustration: FIG. 409.--St. Margaret. From Westminster Abbey. From

_The Cross: Christian and Heathen_ (Brock, M.).]

[Illustration: FIG. 410.--Astarte, the Syrian Venus. From a Coin in

the British Museum. From _The Cross: Christian and

Heathen_ (Brock, M.).]

That Istar, "the heroic daughter of the moon," was Bellona or the Queen

of War is clear from the invocation--

O hear!

Thou dost control our weapons and award

In battles fierce the Victory at will,

O crowned majestic Fate. Ishtar most high,

Who art exalted above all the gods,

Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge

With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray.

_The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong_,

Thy will is urgent brooking no delay,

Thy hand is violent, thou _queen of war_,

Girded with battle and enrobed with fear,

Thou sov'ran wealder of the wand of Doom,

The heavens and earth are under thy control.

There is very little doubt that the heroic Long Meg of Westminster was

alternatively the Mary Ambree of old English ballad: in Ben Jonson's

time apparently any remarkable virago was entitled a Mary Ambree, and

the name seems to have been particularly associated with Ghent.[751] As

the word Ambree is radically _bree_, it is curious to find John of

Gaunt, who is associated with Kensington, also associated with Carn Brea

in Cornwall: here, old John of Gaunt is believed to have been the last

of the giants, and to have lived in a castle on the top of Carn Brea,

whence in one stride he could pass to a neighbouring town four miles

distant. The Heraldic Chain of SSS was known as John of Gaunt's chain:

the symbol of SSS occurs frequently on Candian or Cretan monuments, and

it is probable that John of Gaunt's chain was originally Jupiter's, or

Brea's chain.[752]

The name Ghent, Gand, or Gaunt may be connoted not only with Kent or

Cantium, and Candia or Crete, but also with Dr. Lardner's statement:

"That the full moon was the chief feast among the ancient Spaniards is

evident from the fact that _Agandia or Astartia_ is the name for Sunday

among the Basques".

We have already seen that Cain was identified with "the Man in the

Moon," that _cann_ was the Cornish for _full moon_, and we have connoted

the fairy Kenna of Kensington with the New Moon: the old English

_cain_, meaning _fair_ or bright, is clearly connected with _candid_

and _candescent_. Kenna is the saint to whom the village of Keynsham on

the Somersetshire Avon is dedicated, and St. Kenna is said there to have

lived in the heart of a wood. To the north of Kensington lies St. John's

Wood, and also the ancient seat named Caen or Ken Wood: this Ken Wood,

which is on the heights of Highgate, and is higher than the summit of

St. Paul's, commands a panoramic view of the metropolis that can nowhere

else be matched. Akin to the words _ken_, _cunning_, and _canny_, is the

Christian name Conan which is interpreted as being Celtic for _wisdom_.

The Celtic names Kean and Kenny--no doubt akin to Coyne--meant _vast_,

and in Cornish _ken_ meant _pity_. On the river Taff there is a

Llan_gain_ of which the church is dedicated to St. Canna, and on the

Welsh river Canna there is a Llan_ganna_ or Llan_gan_: at Llan_daff_ by

Car_diff_ is Canon's Park.

There is a celebrated well in Cornwall known as St Kean's, St. Kayne's,

St. Keyne's, or St. Kenna's, and the supposed peculiarity of this

fountain is that it confers mastery or chieftainship upon whichever of a

newly-wedded couple first drinks at it after marriage. St. Kayne or St.

Kenna is also said to have visited St. Michael's Mount, and to have

imparted the very same virtue to a stone seat situated dizzily on the

height of the chapel tower: "whichever, man or wife, sits in this chair

first _shall rule_ through life": this double tradition associating rule

and mastery with St. Kayne makes it justifiable to equate the "Saint"

with _kyn_, _princess_ and with _khan_ the _great Han_ or King. There

was a well at Chun Castle whose waters supposedly bestowed perpetual

youth: _can_, meaning a drinking vessel, is the root of _canal_,

_channel_, or _kennel_, meaning water course: we have already connoted

the word _demijohn_ or Dame Jeanne with the Cornish well termed Joan's

Pitcher, and this root is seemingly responsible for _canopus_, the

Egyptian and Greek term for the human-headed type of vase as illustrated

on page 301. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ for 3rd January, 1852,

quotes the following song sung by children in South Wales on New Year's

morning, _i.e._, 1st January, when carrying a can of water newly drawn

from the well:--

Here we bring new water

From the well so clear,

For to worship God with

The happy New Year.

Sing levez dew, sing levez dew,

The water and the wine;

The seven bright gold wires

And the bugles they do shine.

Sing reign of Fair Maid

With gold upon her toe,

Open you the west door,

and let the old Year go.

Sing reign of Fair Maid

With gold upon her chin,

Open you the east door,

And let the New Year in.

We have traced Maggie Figgy of St. Levan on her titanic chair

supervising the surging waters of the ocean, and there is little doubt

that the throne of St. Michael's was the corresponding seat of Micah,

the Almighty King or Great One. The equation of Michael = Kayne may be

connoted with the London Church now known as St. Nicholas _Acon_: this

name appearing mysteriously in ancient documents as alternatively

"Acun," "Hakoun," "Hakun," and "Achun" it is supposed may have denoted

a benefactor of the building. In Cornish _ughan_ or _aughan_ meant

_supreme_; in Welsh _echen_ meant _origins_ or _sources_,[753] and as

_Nicholas_ is the same word as _nucleus_ it is impossible now to say

whether St. Nicholas Acon was a shrine of the _Great One_ or of _echen_

the little Nicholas or _nucleus_. Probably as figured at Royston where

Kitt is bearing the Cadet or the small _chit_ upon his shoulder, the two

conceptions were concurrent: on the opposite side of the Royston Cave is

figured St. Katherine, Kathleen, or Kate: Catarina means _the pure one_,

but _catha_ as in _catholic_ also means the universal, and there is no

doubt that St. Kathleen or Kate was a personification of the Queen of

the Universe.

Cendwen or Keridwen, _alias_ Ked, was represented by the British Bards

as a mare, whale, or ark, whence emerged the universe: the story of

Jonah and the whale is a variant of the Ark legend, and it is not

without significance that the Hebridean island of Iona is identified as

the locale of a miraculous "Whale of wondrous and immense size lifting

itself up like a mountain floating on the surface".[754] Notwithstanding

the forbidding aspect of this monster, St. Columba's disciple quiets the

fears of his companion by the assurance: "Go in peace; thy faith in

Christ shall defend thee from this danger, I and that beast are under

the power of God".

It has been seen that Night was not necessarily esteemed as evil, nor

were the nether regions considered to be outside the radius of the

Almighty: that Nicholas, Nixy, or Nox was the black or nether deity is

obvious, yet without doubt he was the same conception as the Babylonish

"exalted One of the nether world, Him of the radiant face, yea radiant;

the exalted One of the nether world, Him of the dove-like voice, yea

dove-like".[755]

That St. Margaret was the White Dove rather than the foul Culver is

probable from her representation as the Dragon-slayer, and it is

commonly accepted that this almost world-wide emblem denoted Light

subduing Darkness, Day conquering Night, or Good overcoming Evil. But

there is another legend of St. Margaret to the effect that the maid so

meek and mild was swallowed by a Dragon: her cross, however, haply stuck

in its throat, and the beast perforce let her free by incontinently

bursting (date uncertain); in Art St. Margaret therefore appears as

holding a cross and rising from a dragon, although as Voragine candidly

admits--"the story is thought to be apocryphal". We have seen that Magus

or the Wandering Jew was credited with the feat of wriggling out of a

post--"and they saw that he was no other than a beardless youth and fair

faced": that the adventure of Maggie was the counterpart to that of

Magus is rendered probable by the fact that St. Margaret's birth is

assigned to Antioch, a city which was alternatively known as Jonah. With

Jonah or Iona may be connoted the British Aeon--

Aeon hath seen age after age in long succession,

But like a serpent which has cast its skin,

Rose to new life in youthful vigour strong.

In Calmet's _Biblical Dictionary_ there is illustrated a medal of

ancient Corinth representing an old man in a state of decrepitude

entering a whale, but on the same medal the old man renewed is shown to

have come out of the same fish in a state of infancy.

Among the Greeks Apollo or the Sun was represented as riding on a

dolphin's back: the word _dolphin_ is connected with _delphus_, the

womb, and doubtless also with _Delphi_, the great centre of Apollo

worship and the legendary navel of the Universe. Alpha has been noted as

the British name of Noah's wife, and it is probable that Delphi meant at

one time the Divine Alpha or Elf: in the Iberian coin here illustrated

(origin uncertain) the little Elf or spriggan is equipped with a cross;

in the coin of Carteia (Spain) the inscription XIDD probably corresponds

to the name which the British Bards wrote--"Ked".

[Illustration: FIGS. 411 and 412.--Iberian. From Akerman.]

In India the Ark or Leviathan of Life is represented as half horse or

half mare, and among the Phoenicians the word _hipha_ denoted both

_mare_ and _ship_: in Britain the _Magna Mater_, Ked, was figured as the

combination of an old giantess, a hen, a mare, and as a ship which set

sail, lifted the Bard from the earth and swelled out like a ship upon

the waters. Davies observes: "And that the ancient Britons actually did

portray this character in the grotesque manner suggested by our Bard

appears by several ancient British coins where we find a figure

compounded of a bird, a boat, and a mare". The coin to which Davies here

refers is that illustrated on page 596, Fig. 356: that the Babylonians

built their ships in the combined form of a mare and fish is clear from

the illustration overleaf.

The most universal and generally understood emblem of peace is a dove

bearing in its beak an olive-branch,[756] or sprig, and this emblem is

intimately associated with the Ark: among the poems of the Welsh Bard

Aneurin is the expectation--

The crowned Babe will come like Iona

Out of the belly of the whale; great will be his dignity.

He will place every one according to his merits,

He is the principal strong tower of the Kingdom.[757]

[Illustration: FIG. 413.--A Galley (Khorsabad). From _Nineveh_

(Layard).]

[Illustration: FIGS. 414 and 415.--British (Channel Islands). From

Barthelemy.]

As Iona means dove, the culver on the hackney's back (Fig. 415) is

evidently St. Columba, and the crowned Babe in Fig. 414 is in all

probability that same "spriggan on Dowdy's back," or Elphin, as the

British Bards speak so persistently and mysteriously of "liberating". In

Egypt the spright is portrayed rising from a maculate or spotted beast,

and in all these and parallel instances the emblem probably denoted

rejuvenescence or new birth; either Spring _ex_ Winter, Change _ex_

Time, the Seen from the Unseen, Amor _ex_ Nox, Visible from Invisible,

or New from Old.

[Illustration: FIG. 416.--From _The Correspondences of Egypt_

(Odhler).]

[Illustration: FIG. 417.--Mediæval Papermark. From _Les Filigranes_

(Briquet, C. M.).]

The eight parents from the Ark may be connoted with Aught from Naught,

for _eight_ is the same word as _aught_ and _naught_ is the same word as

_night_, _nuit_, or _not_: _naughty_ means evil, whence the legend of

Amor being born from Nox or Night might perhaps have been sublimated

into the idea of Good emerging even from things noxious or

nugatory.[758] Yet in the Cox and Box like rule of Night and Day the

all-conquering Nikky was no doubt regarded as _unique_: "Shining and

vanishing in the beauteous circle of the Hours, dwelling at one time in

gloomy Tartarus, at another elevating himself to Olympus giving ripeness

to the fruits": it is not unlikely that the ruddy _nectarine_ was

assigned to him, and similarly _nectar_ the celestial drink of the gods,

or _ambrosia_ in a liquid form.

Of the universally recognised Dualism the black and white magpie was

evidently an emblem, and the superstitions in connection with this bird

are still potent. The Magpie is sometimes called Magot-pie, and

Maggoty-pie, and for this etymology Skeat offers the following

explanation: "Mag is short for Magot--French _Margot_, a familiar form

of _Marguerite_, also used to denote a Magpie. This is from Latin

_Margarita_, Greek _Margarites_, a pearl." There is no material

connection between a pearl and a Magpie, but both objects were alike

emblems of the same spiritual Power or Pair: between Margot and Istar

the same equation is here found, for in Kent magpies were known

popularly as _haggisters_.[759] Although I have deemed _hag_ to mean

_high_ it will be remembered that in Greek _hagia_ meant holy, whence

haggister may well have been understood as _holy ister_.

Layamon in his _Brut_ mentions that the Britons at the time of Hengist's

invasion "Oft speak stilly and discourse with whispers of two young men

that dwell far hence; the one hight Uther the other Ambrosie". Of these

fabulous Twain--the not altogether forgotten Two Kings of their

ancestors--we may equate Uther with the _uter_ or womb of Night and

Aurelie Ambrosie with Aurora the Golden Sunburst.

It is probable that the Emporiae, some of whose elphin horse coins were

reproduced on page 281, were worshippers of Aurelie Ambrosie or "St.

Ambrose" of whom it will be remembered: "some said that they saw a star

upon his body": it is also not unlikely that our Mary Ambree or Fair

Ambree was the daughter of Amber, the divine Umpire and the Emperor of

the Empyrean. The ballad recalls:--

There was none ever like Mary Ambree,

Shee led upp her souldiers in battaile array

'Gainst three times theyr number by breake of the day;

Seven howers in skirmish continued shee,

Was not this a brave bonny lasse, Mary Ambree?[760]

The sex of this braw Maiden was disguised under a knight's panoply, and

it was only when the fight was finished that her personality was

revealed.

No captain of England; behold in your sight

Two breasts in my bosome, and therefore no knight,

No knight, sons of England, nor captain you see,

But a poor simple lass called Mary Ambree.

If the reader will turn back to the Virago coins illustrated _ante_, p.

596, which I think represent _Ked_ in the aspect of _Hecate_--the names

are no doubt cognate--he will notice the pastoral crook of the little

Shepherdess or Bishop of all souls, and there is little doubt that these

figures depict what a Welsh Bard termed "the winged genius of the

splendid crosier".

Although Long Meg of Westminster was said to be a Virago, and was

connected in popular opinion with "Bulloigne," it is not unlikely that

Bulloigne was a misconception of Bulinga; the ornamental water of what

is now St. James' Park is a reconstruction of what was originally known

as Bulinga Fen, and in that swamp it is probable that

Kitty-with-her-canstick, _alias_ Belinga the _Beautiful Angel_, was

supposed to dwell. The name Bolingbroke implies the existence somewhere

of a Bolinga's brook where Belle Inga might also probably have been seen

"dancing to the cadence of the stream"; in Shropshire is an earthwork

known as Billings Ring, and at Truro there is a Bolingey which is

surmised to have meant "isle of the Bollings". These Bollings were

presumably related to the Billings of Billingsgate and elsewhere,[761]

and the Bellinge or Billing families were almost certainly connected

with Billing, the race-hero of the Angles and Varnians. According to

Rydberg the celestial Billing "represents the evening and the glow of

twilight, and he is ruler of those regions of the world where the

divinities of light find rest and peace": Billing was the divine

defender of the Varnians or Varinians, which word, says Rydberg, "means

'defenders' and the protection here referred to can be none other than

that given to the journeying divinities of light when they have reached

the Western horizon".[762]

[Illustration: FIG 418.--Adapted from the Salisbury Chapter Seal.

From _The Cross: Christian and Pagan_ (Brock, M.).]

That Billing and the Ingles were connected with Barkshire, the county of

the Vale of the White Horse or Brok, is implied by place-names such as

Billingbare by Inglemeer Pond in the East, by Inkpen Beacon--originally

Ingepenne or Hingepenne--in the South, and by Inglesham near Fearnham

and Farringdon in the West. Near Inglemeer is Shinfield and slightly

westward is Sunning, which must once have been a place of uncanny

sanctity for "it is amazing that so inconsiderable a village should have

been the See of _eight_ Bishops translated afterwards to Sherborn and at

last to Salisbury."[763] The seal of Salisbury represents the Maiden of

the Sun and Moon, and it is probable that the place-name Maidenhead,

originally Madenheith, near Marlow (Domesday Merlawe--Mary low or hill?)

did not, as Skeat so aggressively assumes, mean a _hythe_ or landing

place for maidens, but Maiden_heath_, a heath or mead sacred to the braw

Maiden.

With the Farens and the Varenians may be connoted the Cornish village of

Trevarren or the abode of Varren: this is in the parish of St. Columb,

where Columba the Dove is commemorated not as a man but as a Virgin

Martyr. Many, if not all, Cornish villages had their so-called "Sentry

field" and the Broad Sanctuary at St. Margaret's, Westminster, no doubt

marks the site of some such sanctuary or city of refuge as will be

considered in a following chapter. That St. Margaret the Meek or Long

Meg was the _Bride_ of the adjacent St. Peter is a reasonable inference,

and it is probable that "Broad Sanctuary" was originally hers. According

to _The Golden Legend_: "Margaret is Maid of a precious gem or

ouche[764] that is named a Margaret. So the blessed Margaret was white

by virginity, little by humility, and virtuous by operation. The virtue

of this stone is said to be against effusion of blood, against passion

of the heart, and to comfortation of the spirit." I am unable to trace

any immediate connection between St. Margaret and the Dove, but an

original relation is implied by the epithets which are bestowed by the

Gaels to St. Columbkille of Iona who is entitled "The Precious Gem,"

"The Royal Bright Star," "The Meek," "The Wise," and "The Divine Branch

who was in the yoke of the Pure Mysteries of God". These are titles

older than the worthy monk whose biography was written by Adamnan: they

belong to the archetypal Columba or Culver. There is a river Columb in

Devonshire upon which stands the town of Cullompton: in Kent is Reculver

once a Royal town of which "the root is unknown, but the present form

has been influenced by old English _culfre_, _culfer_, a culver-dove or

wood-pigeon".

That St. Columba of Iona was both the White and the Black Culver is

implied by his two names of Colum (dove) and Crimthain (wolf): that the

great Night-dog or wolf was for some reason connected with the _nutrix_

(_vide_ the coin illustrated on page 364, and the Etrurian Romulus and

Remus legend) is obvious, apart from the significance of the word _wolf_

which is radically _olf_. Columbas' mother, we are told, was a certain

royal Ethne, the _eleventh_ in descent from Cathair Mor, a King of

Leinster: Leinster was a _stadr_, _ster_, or place of the Laginenses,

and that Columba was a personification of Young Lagin or the Little

_Holy King_ of Yule is implied (apart from much other evidence) in the

story that one of his visitors "could by no means look upon his face,

suffused as it was with a marvellous glow, and he immediately fled in

great fear".

Among the Gaels the Little Holy King of Tir an Og, or the Land of the

Young, was Angus Og or Angus the youthful: when discussing Angus

(_excellent virtue_) in connection with the ancient goose and the cain

goose I was unaware that the Greek for goose is _ken_. In the far-away

Hebrides the men, women, and children of Barra and South Uist (or Aust?)

still hold to a primitive faith in St. Columba, St. Bride, or St. Mary,

and as a shealing hymn they sing the following astonishingly beautiful

folk-song:--

Thou, gentle Michael of the white steed,

Who subdued the Dragon of blood,

For love of God and the Son of Mary

Spread over us thy wing, shield us all!

Spread over us thy wing, shield us all!

Mary, beloved! Mother of the White Lamb

Protect us, thou Virgin of nobleness,

Queen of Beauty! Shepherdess of the flocks!

Keep our cattle, surround us together,

Keep our cattle, surround us together.

Thou Columkille, the friendly, the kind,

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit Holy,

Through the Three-in-One, through the Three,

Encompass us, guard our procession,

Encompass us, guard our procession.

Thou Father! Thou Son! Thou Spirit Holy!

Be the Three-One with us day and night,

On the Machair plain, on the mountain ridge,

The Three-One is with us, with His arm around our head,

The Three-One is with us, with His arm around our head.

But the Boatmen of Barray sing for the last verse:--

Thou Father! Thou Son! Thou Spirit Holy!

Be the Three-One with us day and night,

And on the crested wave, or on the mountain side,

Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head,

Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head.[765]

FOOTNOTES:

[692] _The Evening Standard_, 12th Nov., 1918.

[693] _Ibid._

[694] _Ancient Britain_, p. 283.

[695] _Cf._ Stoughton, Rev. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_,

p. 9.

[696] _Cf._ Stoughton, Rev. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_,

p. 5.

[697] Wright, T., _Travels in the East_, p. 39.

[698] Windle, Sir B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 116.

[699] Mitton, G. E., _Clerkenwell_, p. 79.

[700] B.M., _Guide to Antiquities of Stone Age_, p. 26.

[701] _Holy Wells of Cornwall._

[702] Mitton, G. E., _Mayfair_, p. 1.

[703] Walford, E., _Greater London_.

[704] Bonwick, E., _Irish Druids_, p. 208.

[705] Hardwick, C., _Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore_, p.

34.

[706] The surname Brinsmoad still survives in the Primrose Hill

neighbourhood.

[707] _Faiths and Folklore_, ii., 401.

[708] Herbert, A., _Cyclops Christianus_, p. 114.

[709] _Ibid._, p. 114.

[710] _Travels in the East_, p. 28.

[711] Donnelly, I., _Atlantis_, p. 428.

[712] _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_, p. 82.

[713] Walford, E., _Greater London_, ii., 305.

[714] iii., 226.

[715] _A New Description of England_, p. 112.

[716] _A New Description of England_, p. 118.

[717] Walford, E., _Greater London_, i., 77.

[718] _Golden Legend_, iv., p. 235.

[719] _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p. 114.

[720] Stow, p. 217.

[721] In some parts this ceremony was known as "crying the Mare":

in Wales the horse of the guise or goose dancers was known as

Mari Lhwyd.

[722] Mrs. George of Sennen Cove.

[723] Irvine, C., _St. Brighid and her Times_, p. 6.

[724] _Greater London_, l., p. 40.

[725] Quoted, _St. Brighid and Her Times_, p. 7.

[726] Keightley, I., _F. M._, pp. 139-49.

[727] Huyshe, W., _Life of Columba_, p. 129.

[728] _De Bello Gallico_, p. 121.

[729] See Appendix B, p. 873.

[730] _Cf._ Courtney, Miss M. E., _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p.

105.

[731] Wilson, J., _Imperial Gazetteer_, i., 1042.

[732] Rydberg, V., _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 361.

[733] Windle, Sir B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 63.

[734] The _cul_ of _culver_ or _culfre_ and _columba_ was probably

the Irish _Kil_: hence the _umba_ of _columba_ may be

connoted with _imp_.

[735] Rig-Veda (mandala X, 90).

[736] _Golden Legend_, v., 235.

[737] _Golden Legend_, v., 236.

[738] Mykenae, p. 267.

[739] Stoughton, Dr. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_, p. 9.

[740] Wilson and Warren, _The Recovery of Jerusalem_, i., 166.

[741] Noah, Shem, Ham, Japhet, and their respective wives.

[742] Gogmagog is also found at Uriconium, now Wroxeter, in

Shropshire. Since suggesting a connection between Gog and

Coggeshall in Essex, I find that Coggeshall was traditionally

associated with a giant whose remains were said to have been

found. _Cf._ Hardwick, C., _Traditions, Superstitions and

Folklore_, p. 205.

[743] Thornbury, W., _Old and New London_, i., 386.

[744] _Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria_, p. 16.

[745] The civic giant of Salisbury is named Christopher.

[746] _Archæologia_, from _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. i., p.

124.

[747] _Brittany_, p. 232.

[748] Aynsley, Mrs. Murray, _Symbolism of the East and West_, p.

87.

[749] I have elsewhere reproduced examples of the double axe

crossed into the form of an ex (X). Sir Walter Scott observes

that in North Britain "it was no unusual thing to see

females, from respect to their supposed views into futurity,

and the degree of divine inspiration which was vouchsafed to

them, arise to the degree of HAXA, or chief priestess, from

which comes the word _Hexe_, now universally used for a

witch". He adds: "It may be worth while to notice that the

word Haxa is still used in Scotland in its sense of a

druidess, or chief priestess, to distinguish the places where

such females exercised their ritual. There is a species of

small intrenchment on the western descent of the Eildon

hills, which Mr. Milne, in his account of the parish of

Melrose, drawn up about eighty years ago, says, was

denominated _Bourjo_, a word of unknown derivation, by which

the place is still known. Here a universal and subsisting

tradition bore that human sacrifices were of yore offered,

while the people assisting could behold the ceremony from the

elevation of the glacis which slopes inward. With this place

of sacrifice communicated a path, still discernible, called

the _Haxellgate_, leading to a small glen or narrow valley

called the _Haxellcleuch_--both which words are probably

derived from the Haxa or chief priestess of the pagans"

(_Letters on Demonology_). It may be suggested that the

mysterious _bourjo_ was an _abri_ of pere Jo or Jupiter. The

Scotch _jo_ as in "John Anderson my Jo," now signifying

_sweetheart_, presumably meant joy.

[750] _Cf._ McKenzie, Donald A., _Myths of Babylonia_, p. 18.

[751] Mary Ambree

Who marched so free,

To the siege of Gaunt,

And death could not daunt

As the ballad doth vaunt.

[752] In Kirtlington Park (Oxon) was a Johnny Gaunt's pond in

which his spirit was supposed to dwell. A large ash tree was

also there known as Johnny Gaunt's tree.

[753] Herbert, A., _Cyclops_, p. 202.

[754] _Life of Columba_, p. 40.

[755] _Cf._ Mackenzie, D. A., _Myths of Babylonia_, p. 86.

[756] There is a London church entitled "St. Nicholas Olave".

[757] _Cf._ Morien, _Light of Britannia_, p. 67.

[758] Skeat connotes _naughty_ with "_na_ not, _wiht_ a whit, see

no and whit": it would thus seem to have been equivalent to

_no white_, which is black or nocturnal.

[759] Hardwick, C., _Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore_, p.

254.

[760] The _seven_ hours in skirmish are suggestive of the Fair maid

with gold upon her toe:--

The _seven_ bright gold wires

And the bugles they do shine,

_ante_, p. 650.

[761] Presumably Billingham River in Durham was a home of the

Billings: there is a Billingley in Darfield parish,

Yorkshire, a Billingsley in Bridgenorth, Salop: Billingbear

in Berks is the seat of Lord Braybrook: Billingford _or

Pirleston_ belonged to a family named Burley: at Billington

in Bradley parish, Staffs, is a commanding British camp known

as Billington Bury. Billinge Hill, near Wigan, has a beacon

on the top and commands a view of Ingleborough.

[762] _Teutonic Mythology_.

[763] _A New Description of England_, 1724, p. 61.

[764] An _ouche_ is a _bugle_: "the bugles they do shine".

[765] Quoted from _Adamnan's Life of Columba_ (Huyshe, W.).