CHAPTER I._Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore (Chiefly Lancashire and the North of England:) Their Affinity to Others in Widely-Distributed Localities; Their Eastern Origin and Mythical Significance.

Produced by David Edwards, Stephen Blundell and the Online

Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

book was produced from scanned images of public domain

material from the Google Print project.)

Transcriber's Note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.

Archaic, dialect and variant spellings remain as printed. Greek text

has been transliterated and placed within {braces}, the oe ligature

has been transcribed as [oe] and ^ precedes superscript text.

[Illustration: THE SPECTRE HUNTSMAN

C. Potter, Delt.

W. Morton, Sculpt.

_Page 153._]

TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS,

AND

FOLK-LORE,

(CHIEFLY LANCASHIRE AND THE NORTH OF ENGLAND:)

=Their affinity to others in widely-distributed localities;=

THEIR

EASTERN ORIGIN AND MYTHICAL SIGNIFICANCE.

CHARLES HARDWICK,

AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF PRESTON AND ITS ENVIRONS," "MANUAL FOR PATRONS AND

MEMBERS OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES," ETC.

"Thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast

revealed them unto babes."--_Matthew_, c. xi. v. 25.

"Every fiction that has ever laid strong hold of human belief is the

mistaken image of some great _truth_, to which reason will direct

its search, while half reason is content with laughing at the

superstition, and unreason with disbelieving it."--_Rev. J.

Martineau._

MANCHESTER:

A. IRELAND & CO., PALL MALL.

LONDON:

SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT.

1872.

HIS VERY DEAR AND EVER KIND FRIEND,

ELIZA COOK,

THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,

AS A VERY HUMBLE BUT SINCERE TRIBUTE

TO HER POETIC GENIUS

AND

HER PRIVATE WORTH,

BY ITS AUTHOR,

CHARLES HARDWICK.

PREFACE.

Our nursery legends and popular superstitions are fast becoming matters

of history, except in the more remote and secluded portions of the

country. The age of the steam engine, and the electric battery, and the

many other practical adaptations of the triumphs of physical science, is

apparently not the one in which such "waifs and strays" from the

mythical lore of the dim and distant Past are very likely to be much

sought after or honoured. But now that the light of modern

investigation, and especially that ray furnished by recent discoveries

in philological science, has been directed towards their deeper and more

hidden mysteries, profound philosophical historians have begun to

discover that from this apparently desolate literary region much

reliable knowledge may be extracted, leading to conclusions of the most

interesting and important kind, with reference to the early history of

our race. The labours of the brothers Grimm, Dr. Adalbert Kuhn,

Professor Max Müller, the Rev. G. W. Cox, and others, have recently

received considerable attention from philosophic enquirers into the

origin and early development of the people from whom nearly all of the

European, and some of the Asiatic, modern nationalities have sprung.

It is found that many of these imperfect, and sometimes grotesque,

traditions, legends, and superstitions are, in reality, not the

"despicable rubbish" which the "learned" have been in the habit of

regarding them, but rather the crude ore, which, when skilfully smelted

down, yields, abundantly, pure metal well worthy of the literary hammer

of the most profound student in general history, ethnology, or the

phenomena attendant upon psychological development.

Professor Henry Morley, in the chapter on Ethnology, in his "English

Writers," after noticing "how immediately and easily particular words,

common in their application, would become available for common use," and

"how often _images of the seen would become symbols of the unseen_,"

truly says, "The world about us is not simply mirrored, but _informed

with a true soul_, by all the tongues that syllable man's knowledge and

his wants. The subtlest harmonies of life and nature may lie hidden in

the very letters of the alphabet."

The subject has been but recently introduced, in a thoroughly popular

form, to the English reader. Dasent's "Popular Tales from the Norse,"

and occasional papers by local writers, intensified and extended the

interest taken in this species of research. The publication, in 1863, by

Mr. Walter K. Kelly, of his "Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and

Folk-Lore," however, may be said to have given a still greater impetus

to popular investigation in this direction. This is largely to be

attributed to the fact that he has summarised in a very pleasing manner

much of the abstruse learning of the German philologists and

mythologists to whom reference has already been made.

Whilst contemplating the publication of some "Supplementary Notes to the

History of Preston and its Environs," the early chapters of which, of

course, would necessarily deal with what is termed the "pre-historic

period," Mr. Kelly's work came into my hands. I was induced to

considerably enlarge my plan, in consequence of the value I immediately

placed upon its contents, and of the suggestion in the following

paragraph, which appears in its preface:

"In not a few instances I have been able to illustrate Dr. Kuhn's

principles by examples of the folk-lore of Great Britain and Ireland,

and would gladly have done so more copiously had matter for the purpose

been more accessible. My efforts in that direction have made me

painfully aware how much we are behind the Germans, not only as to our

insight into the meaning of such relics of the past, but also as to our

industry in collecting them. The latter defect is indeed a natural

consequence of the former, and it is to be hoped that our local

archæologists will no longer be content to labour under either of them

when once they have found what far-reaching knowledge may be extracted

out of old wives' tales and notions. Only four years ago the editor of

'Notes and Queries' spoke hypothetically (in the preface to 'Choice

Notes') of a time to come when the study of folk-lore (he was I believe

the inventor of that very expressive and sterling word) should have

risen from a pleasant pastime to the rank of a science. Already his

anticipation has been realised, and henceforth every careful collector

of a novel scrap of folk-lore, or of even a well-marked variety of an

old type, may entertain a reasonable hope that he has in some degree

subserved the purposes of the ethnologist and the philosophical

historian."

In 1865-6 I published a series of the "Supplementary Notes" referred to,

in the _Preston Guardian_ newspaper. The general favour with which they

were received, and the increasing interest I felt in the subject,

induced me to continue my researches, with the view to the ultimate

publication of the present volume. The original papers, as well as other

essays afterwards published elsewhere, have not only been carefully

revised, and, in some instances, rearranged, but the quantity of new

matter added in each chapter is such as to render the work in every

respect much more complete, and more worthy of being regarded as having,

in some small degree, "subserved the purposes of the ethnologist and the

philosophical historian." I would gladly persuade myself that I have, at

least, rendered what many regard as frivolous, and others as very

abstruse and very "dry reading," interesting, attractive, and

instructive to the general reader. If I succeed in this respect, my

chief object will have been accomplished.

The various authorities relied upon or quoted are sufficiently indicated

in the body of the work to render a catalogue of them here unnecessary.

I may add, however, that the principal portions of the papers

contributed by my friend, Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., to the

"Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society," have

since been incorporated with a portion of the collection of the late Mr.

Jno. Harland, F.S.A., and published in a volume by F. Warne and Co.,

entitled "Lancashire Folk Lore."

74, HALSTON STREET, HULME,

_Manchester, April, 1872._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF LANCASHIRE AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTIES, AND

REMAINS OF THEIR MYTHOLOGY AND LOCAL NOMENCLATURE.

Etymology. Philology. The Aryan theory of the common origin of most

of the European races of men. Sanscrit. The Rig Vedas. Probable

element of truth at the base of Geoffrey of Monmouth's mythical

History of the Britons. The Brigantes. The Ph[oe]nicians. The

Hyperboreans. Stonehenge. Bel or Baal, the sun-god. The Persian

Ormusd. Temple of Mithras in Northumberland. The "Bronze age." The

Cushites or Hamites of Ancient Arabia. Palæoliths, or ancient stone

weapons. The Belisama (Ribble). Altars dedicated to Belatucadrus in

the North of England. The Brigantes of the East, Spain, Ireland,

and the North of England. The Aryan fire-god Agni, and his

retainers, the Bhrigus, etc. Altars in the North of England

dedicated to Vitires, Vetiris, or Veteres. Vithris (Odin). Vritra

of the Hindoo Vedas. Altars dedicated to Cocidius, The Styx,

Acheron, and Cocytus of the Greeks. The Coccium of Antoninus, at

Walton, near Preston. Ancient local nomenclature. The Belisama. The

Irish god Samhan. The Aryan god Soma. The "heavenly soma." The

amrita or nectar, the "drink of the gods." Madhu. Mead. Brewing and

lightening. Bel, the luminous deity of the Britons. Deification of

rivers. The Wharf, the Lune, etc. The Solway and Eden (Ituna of

Ptolemy). Idunn, the goddess of youth and beauty. Swan maidens.

Eagle shirts. Frost giants, etc. The "Luck of Eden Hall." Phallic

symbols. The Dee (the Seteia of Ptolemy). Dêvas, deities, evil

spirits, devils. The Severn, Sabrina, Varuna. War between the dêvas

and the asuras. The Vedic serpent, Sesha. The chark. Churning the

sea, or brewing soma. The lake of Amara, or of the gods, and the

Sitanta mountains, at the head of the Nile. The second Avatâra of

Vishnu. The Setantii, ancient inhabitants of Lancashire. The Humber

(the Abus of Ptolemy). The Vedic Arbhus. The Elbe. Elemental

strife. The Wash (the Metaris of Ptolemy). The Vedic Mithra, the

friend of Varuna, the god of daylight. Figurative interpretation.

The origin of language. Page 1

CHAPTER II.

FIRE OR SUN WORSHIP AND ITS ATTENDANT SUPERSTITIONS.

Fire worship denounced by the earlier ecclesiastics. Remnant in

modern times. Allhalloween. Beltain fires. Derbyshire tindles and

Lancashire teanlas. African notions of the Sun and Moon. Bonfires.

The gunpowder plot. Midsummer fires. The elder Aryan fire-gods Agni

and Rudra, and their attendants. Prometheus, the fire-bringer, the

inventor of the chark, or earliest fire-kindling instrument.

Original or "need-fire." Cattle disease. Fire superstitions.

Burning wheels, etc. Sacrifices to the god Bel, and to the sun-god

Fro or Fricco, in the North of England, etc. The feast of St. John

the Baptist. Bone-fires. Dragons and serpents. Agni and the

Midsummer demons. Ahi and Kuyava the destroyers of vegetation. The

great Vedic serpent Sesha. St. George and other dragon slayers.

Dragons, fiery serpents, and huge worms of the North of England,

"blasters of the harvest." The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The

monster Grendel, of Hartlepool. Dragons and imprisoned maidens, and

treasure hid in caves. Merlin's prophecy. Red and white dragons.

Dragon poison converted into medical balm. Figurative

interpretation. The thunderstorm reduces the heat, waters the

parched earth, and promotes vegetable growth. A modern hypothesis

as to the origin of dragon superstitions. Page 28

CHAPTER III.

CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPERSTITIONS AND OBSERVANCES.

Christmas amusements. Date of the nativity. Remnants of pagan

superstition denounced by the Church. Etymology of the word Yule.

Commencement of the year at the vernal equinox. Old and new styles.

Old style yet in use in Lancashire. Clerical denunciation of New

Year's gifts. Curious gifts on New Year's Day in Elizabeth's reign.

The wassail bowl. The Saxon "wacht heil" and "drinc heil." Singular

New Year's day superstitions. Meat, drink, money, and candles

interred with the dead. No fire-light or business credit given on

New Year's day. Recent instances in Lancashire. Divination at

Christmas. Red and dark-haired visitors on New Year's morn.

Antagonism of the Celtic and Teutonic races. Forecasting the

weather. Twelve days' sleep of the Vedic Ribhus in the house of the

sun-god Savitar. The mistletoe and other plants sprung from the

lightning. The oak and the ash. The heavenly asvattha, the _ficus

religiosa_, of the Aryan mythology, the prototype of the yggdrasil

or cloud-tree of the Scandinavians. Merlin's tree that covers Great

Britain and Ireland. Jack and the bean-stalk. Thorns blossoming on

old Christmas eve. German Christmas trees. The boar's head. The

boar an Aryan type of the wind. His tusks the lightning. Popular

belief that pigs can see the wind. Page 53

CHAPTER IV.

EASTER SUPERSTITIONS AND CEREMONIES.

Sun dancing on Easter morn. Etymology of the word Easter. Original or

need-fire. Easter eggs. The red or golden egg an Aryan sun-type.

Easter eggs protection against fire. Hand-ball playing by the

clergy. Easter mysteries, moralities, or miracle plays. Paschal or

"pace" eggs. Lancashire "pace-egging." Lifting of women on Easter

Monday, and of men on the following day, a custom still practised

in Lancashire. Cross-buns at Easter. Thor's hammer. Ancient

marriage oaks. Mid-lent or "mothering" Sunday. Simnel cakes.

Curious customs in Lancashire and Shropshire. Etymology of the word

"simnel." Braggat Sunday and Braggat ales. Lenten fare. Beans and

peas. Curious ancient and modern superstitions connected therewith.

Touching for the king's evil. Divine right of kings. Page 70

CHAPTER V.

MAY-DAY CEREMONIES AND SUPERSTITIONS.

Mock battle between summer and winter. The vernal equinox. Joy on the

return of Spring. Bell-ringing and horn-blowing. Midnight gathering

of wild flowers and green branches of trees. May-day garlands and

decorations. Rush-bearing in Lancashire. Well dressing in

Derbyshire. The Roman Floralia. May-poles denounced by the

Puritans. King James I. at Hoghton Tower, Lancashire. Speech about

"libertie to piping and honest recreation." Whitsun-ales and Morris

dances. Washington Irving's first sight of a May-pole at Chester.

Modern May-day ceremonies in Cheshire. Gathering hawthorn blossom.

The _Mimosa catechu_, or sacred thorn of India, sprung from the

lightning. The Glastonbury thorn. Singular superstition respecting

it. Children's love of wild flowers. May-day dew good for ladies'

complexions. May-day dew, the milk of the Aryan heavenly cows

(clouds), believed to increase the milk of their earthly

prototypes. Page 83

CHAPTER VI.

WITCHCRAFT.

The Lancashire witches--Dame Demdike, etc. Witch superstitions of

Aryan origin. Dethroned retainers of the elder gods. The Fates or

Destinies. Waxen and clay images. The doom of Meleager. Reginald

Scot on witchcraft in 1584. Opinions of Wierus, a German

physician, in 1563. Singular confessions of presumed witches.

Numbers put to death. The belief in witchcraft countenanced by the

church, the legislature, and the learned. Sir Kenelm Digby's

opinion. Singular medical superstitions. King James I. and Agnes

Simpson, the Scotch witch. The Lancashire witches and Charles I.

Witchcraft in Hertfordshire in 1761. Ralph Gardiner's Malicious

Invective. A Scotch witchfinder. Matthew Hopkins. Laws relating to

witchcraft in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Draci,

cloud-gods, or water-spirits, with hands perforated like colanders.

Singular tradition of the dun cow at Grimsargh, near Preston.

Witches' influence on the butter and milk of cows. Durham,

Yorkshire, and Warwick dun cow traditions. Red cow milk. Ushas, the

Vedic dawn-goddess. Red heifers set apart for sacrifice. Guy of

Warwick and his porridge pot. Black, white, and grey witches. The

Teutonic _deæ matres_, or mother goddesses. The three Fates. The

weird sisters of Shakspere. The "theatrical properties" of witches

of Aryan origin. The sieve, the cauldron, and the broom or besom.

Witches spirits of the air. Hecate the Pandemonium Diana.

Personifications of elemental strife. The brewing of storms. Aryan

root of these superstitions. Hares disguised witches. Boadicea's

hare. The goddess Freyja and her attendant hares. Singular hare

superstition in Cornwall. "Mad as a March hare." Cats weatherwise

animals. Sailors say a frisky cat has got "a gale of wind in her

tail." Sailors' prejudice against commencing a voyage on a Friday.

Singular charge against the Knights Templars. The broom or besom

represents the implement with which the Aryan demi-gods swept the

sky. A type of the winds. Curious Lancashire custom: hanging out a

besom when the lady of the house is absent, to announce to bachelor

friends that bachelor habits may be indulged in. The broom the

oldest wine-bush. Dutch broom-girls. Eight classes of witches.

Gipsies: their Eastern origin. Modern fortune tellers. The witch's

familiar. Singular Somerset, Middlesex, and Lancashire superstitions

at the present day. Witchcraft amongst the Maories, and in

Equatorial Africa. Deathbed of a Burnley witch, and transference

of her familiar spirit with her last breath. Page 96

CHAPTER VII.

FAIRIES AND BOGGARTS.

Puck or Robin Goodfellow. Peris, Pixies, and Ginns. Queen Mab.

Lancashire boggarts and fairies. The bargaist. The fairy of Mellor

Moor, Lancashire. Lumb Farm boggart, near Blackburn. "Boggart Ho'

Clough," near Manchester. George Cheetham's boggart. The devil made

a monk. The headless dog or woman at Preston. Raising the devil.

"Raw head and bloody bones." Edwin Waugh's account of the

Grislehurst boggart. The laying of boggarts. Driving a stake

through the body of a cock buried with the boggart. Sacred or

lightning birds. Superstitions about cocks and hens. Killing a

Lancashire wizard. Cruel sacrifice of chanticleer. Divining by

means of a cock. Boggarts scared by a cock crowing. The cock an

emblem of Æsculapius. The black cock crows in the Niflheim, or

"land of gloom." The lion afraid of a white cock. Father Morolla's

account of the revivification of a dead cock. The cockatrice. A

cruelly slaughtered cock and red cow's milk a sovereign remedy for

consumption. The Scandinavian golden coloured cock's crowing the

signal for the dawn of the Ragnarock, "the great day of arousing."

The Hindoos "cast out devils" by the aid of a cock slaughtered as a

sacrifice. Modern Jewish custom. Game cock feathers in the bed

cause a dying person to linger in pain. Hothersall Hall boggart,

Lancashire, laid beneath a laurel tree, watered with milk. Rowan,

ash, and red thread potential against boggarts, witches, and devils.

Scandinavian and German boggarts. The Hindoo pitris or fathers.

Zwergs, dwarfs, "ancients" or ancestors. Good fairies, elves, etc.

Lord Duffin transported by fairies from Scotland to Paris.

Classical ghost story. Singular superstition, of Eastern character,

at Darwen, Lancashire. A somewhat similar one in Australia. Fairy

rings, their imaginary and real origin. Page 124

CHAPTER VIII.

FERN-SEED AND ST. JOHN'S-WORT SUPERSTITIONS.

Human invisibility. The helmet of Hades or Pluto, and the Teutonic

"invisible cap." Modern references to this singular superstition.

Ferns, luck-bringing plants. Said to have sprung from the

lightning. St. John's-wort. German story of accidental

invisibility. St John's eve. Fern seed, a love charm. Samuel

Bamford's Lancashire story in "Boggart Ho' Clough," near

Manchester. St. John superseded the Scandinavian Baldr. The

_Osmunda regalis_. _Osmunda_, one of the appellations of Thor.

The vervain, a plant of spells and enchantments. The Sanscrit

parna and the modern fern. Origin of the name "Boggart

Ho' Clough." Page 143

CHAPTER IX.

THE SPECTRE HUNTSMAN AND THE FURIOUS HOST.

Hunting the white doe in the Vale of Todmorden, Lancashire. The

"Gabriel Ratchets." The wish-hounds. The "Gabriel hounds" in

Yorkshire. The classic Orion, "the mighty hunter." The classic

white doe and its mediæval descendants. The fair maid of Kent. A

fawn attendant on the Greek deities of the morning. Odin, the wild

huntsman, and the furious host. The Yule host of Iceland.

Personification of storm and tempest. Herod, the "Chasse Maccabei,"

and the Wandering Jew. The "seven whistlers" in Lancashire and

Yorkshire. Restless birds believed to be the souls of the damned

condemned to perpetual motion, on the Bosphorus. The wandering

Odin and his two ravens, representing Thought and Memory. The

Wandering Jew's last appearance in the flesh. Temporary death of

the weather-gods typical of the seasons. Odin slain by the wild

boar. Thammuz and the Greek Adonis. Odin lord of the gallows.

Odin's spear. Roland's "Durandal," the sword of Chrysâôr, of

Theseus, and of Sigurd. Arthur's "Excalibur" and others. Their

Aryan prototype, Indra's thunderbolt. Magic cudgels. The lad and

the "rascally innkeeper." Indra and Vritra, and the Panis. Long

Aryan winters. Hackelberg's coit throwing. King Arthur's similar

exploit in Northumberland. The devil's doings at Kirkby Lonsdale,

at Leyland church, and at Winwick. Etymology of the word "Winwick."

Odin buried in the cloud mountain. Heroes slumbering in caves.

Frederic Barbarossa, Henry the Fowler, Charlemagne, and the

renowned Arthur. Arthur's death and translation to Avalun. The

Eildon Hills and the Sewingshields castle traditions. The

"Helmwind," near Kirkoswald, Cumberland. Sir Tarquin's castle at

Manchester. Arthur's battles on the Douglas. Arthur still alive as

a raven. The Gjallar horn. A Cheshire legend says Arthur reposes in

the "Wizard's Cave," at Alderley Edge. Ancient reputation of

Britain for tempests and pestilential storms. The departure of the

genii. A similar superstition in equatorial Africa. Irish

superstitions. The furious host. Wandering souls of the unquiet

dead. The Aryan Maruts and Ribhus. The approach of the furious

host. The black coach legend. The yelping hound. The stray hound of

Odin. The Lancashire and Dorsetshire black dog fiends. The "Trash"

or "Skriker" of East Lancashire. Cerberus and the Vedic Sarvari.

Hermes and the Vedic Sârameyas. The howling dog, an embodiment of

the wind and herald of death. Recent example of the power of this

superstition in Lancashire. Acute sense of smell probably at the

root of this personification. Dogs supposed to be able to see

spirits. Dr. Marigold's dog and the approach of domestic storms.

Will-o'-whisps, or souls of unbaptised children. The Maruts after a

storm assume the form of new-born babes, as Hermes returned to his

cradle after tearing up the forests. Odin sometimes chases the wild

boar, sometimes Holda, or Bertha, his wife. The hell-hunt. Hell or

Hela, the goddess of death. The English hunt. England the realm of

Hela. Niflheim, the world of mists, and the Greek Hades. Nastrond

and the modern Hell. After death punishment for crimes done in the

body. Valhalla and the Gothic Hell and Devil. Contrast between the

Eastern and Northern notions of Hell, and Shakspere's powerful

description thereof. Wandering spirits of the Greek and Aryan

mythologies. Yorkshire ballad concerning the passage of the soul

over Whinney Moor. Cleveland belief in the efficacy of a gift of a

pair of shoes to a poor man. Salt placed on the stomach of a

corpse. Salt an emblem of eternity and immortality. Flights of

birds. The seven whistlers. The bellowing of cows. Odin and his

host carry off cows. The Milky-way or the _kaupat_ to heaven. The

Ashton heriot. Figurative character of Odin's accessories. Examples

from Greek archæic art of the gradual evolution of mythological

personification from physical phenomena. Orpheus the Aryan Arbhus.

The nightmare. The Maruts. The Valkyrs or wild riders of Germany.

The "Black Lad" of Ashton-under-Lyne. The wild rider. The demon

Tregeagle, or tyrant lord of Cornwall, and his endless labours.

Tam O'Shanter and the witches. Bottomless pools. Sir Francis Drake

and the hearse drawn by headless horses. The wish hounds. Poetic

sympathy. The Ashton "Black Lad" or tyrant lord. Bamford's poem

"The Wild Rider." Earthly heroes substituted for Odin. Page 153

CHAPTER X.

GIANTS, MYTHICAL AND OTHERWISE.

The Giant's Dance, Stonehenge. The Ramayana and giants of Ceylon. The

wild men of Hanno, the Carthaginian. Gorillas. The giants of

Lancashire, Shropshire, Cornwall, Ireland, and India compared.

Gogmagog and Corineus. The Cyclops. Patagonian and other modern

giants. Giants and monsters according to Pliny. Shakspere's

monsters. The Amorites. The giants Og and Sihon. Remains of the

ancient cities of Bashan. Sir Jno. Mandeville's Indian giants. Red

Indian traditions of giants and gigantic pachyderms. Discoveries of

huge fossil bones. Aryan Râkshasas or Atrins (devourers). Giants

and devils. Milton's fallen angels. The trolls and giants of

Scandinavia. Dethroned deities. The Æsir gods. Their overthrow by

the light of the Christian dispensation. Nikarr, an appellation of

Odin, the Old Nick of the present day. Giants degraded forms of

original Aryan personifications of the forces of nature. Ancient

and modern examples. Allegory. Lord Bacon's opinion. Passage into

the heroes of romance. The King Arthur legends. The Anglo-Saxon

poem, Beowulf. The monster Grendel of Hartlepool. The Arthur legend

of Tarquin and Sir Lancelot, at Manchester. The Round table.

Anachronisms in romance literature. The "Sangreal." Urien, the

Arthur of the North of England. The Welsh bards, Taliesin and

Llywarch Hen or the Old. Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of

Newbury. Walter Map. Giants' coits and erratic boulders. Lancashire

and Cheshire giants, near Stockport. Chivalry and the plundering

Barons of the middle ages. Mythical Dwarfs. Tom Thumb. Connection

of Druidical with Brahminical superstition. Page 197

CHAPTER XI.

WERE-WOLVES AND THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.

Bodies of birds and animals supposed to be tenanted by the souls of

men. Instances from Shakspere. The Druids. The Egyptian,

Pythagorean, and the Hindoo Doctrines. The Taliesin romance. The

bell-tolling ox at Woolwich. Were-wolves. Irish were-wolves. King

John a were-wolf. Greek and Roman were-wolves. German were-wolves.

Swan shirts and eagle shirts. Irish Mermaids. Bears. Detection of

were-wolves. Vampires. Witches transformed into cats. Were-wolves,

like witches, burnt at the stake. The witches' magic bridle, which

transformed human beings into horses. Lancashire witches

transformed into greyhounds. Margery Grant, a recently deceased

Scotch witch, sometimes transformed into a pony, and sometimes into

a hare. Men transformed into crocodiles. Owl transformations. The

owl, the baker, and the baker's daughter. Bakers transformed into a

cuckoo and a woodpecker. The White Doe of Rylstone. The Manx wren,

the robin, the stork, etc., each supposed to enshrine the soul of a

human being. Men transformed into leopards, etc., in Africa. Greek

Lykanthropy. Aryan conception of the howling wind as a wolf. The

souls of the damned were-wolves in Hell. The wolf a personification

of the darkness of the Night. Greek forms of this myth in Apollo

and Latona his mother. Personifications of natural phenomena.

Children suckled by wolves. Page 224

CHAPTER XII.

SACRED AND OMINOUS BIRDS, ETC.

Sacred Birds. Beautiful Welsh legend of the robin. Stork legends in

Germany. Their nests built upon wheels (sun emblems) placed on the

roofs of houses. Remains in Danish "Kitchen middens." Birds of evil

omen. The owl. Shakspere's profound insight. Cuckoo superstitions.

Transformation of cuckoos into sparrowhawks. The cuckoo the

messenger of Thor. The wren hunted to death in the Isle of Man,

Ireland, and some parts of France. A sacred bird in England.

Swallows and crickets. Ravens, crows, jackdaws, etc., ominous birds.

Lancashire superstitions of this class. The "Seven Whistlers." The

Woodpecker. Picus and Pilumnus. Fire and soul bringers. Weather

prophets. The stormy petrel, the heron, and the crane. The

lady-bird. Rats leaving ships about to founder at sea. Page 242

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DIVINING OR "WISH"-ROD, AND SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING TREES AND PLANTS.

Searching for hidden treasure at Cuerdale, near Preston. Midnight

excavations on the site of the Roman station at Walton, near

Preston. How to prepare a divining rod. The rowan tree. Divination

by upright rods. Recent attempt to discover metallic ores by the

divining rod. Anecdote of M. Linnæus. Form of the wish-rod. The

mystic number three. The mistletoe. Neptune's Trident. The

horseshoe, a divining instrument. Other divining instruments. The

mandrake. Resemblance in form to the human body. The caduceus or

the rod of Hermes. Modern conjurer's magic wands. The palasa tree

or the "imperial _mimosa_" of the East. Aryan legend of its

lightning origin. The mountain ash, the thorn, etc. Bishop Heber's

anecdote respecting the Hindoo form of the superstition. African

sacred trees. Recent instances of this superstition in England,

Scotland, and Australia. The pastoral crook, and the lituus, or

staff, of the ancient augurs, etc. Phallic symbols. Novel use of

the Bible. The divining rod but of recent importation into

Cornwall. Recent instances of divination or "dowzing" for water.

Finding drowned bodies. "Corpse candles." Page 252

CHAPTER XIV.

WELL WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH WATER.

Well worship. Medical virtues of water. Symbol of purity. Sacred

wells. St. Helen's well, at Brindle, near Preston. Curious examples

of local corruption of names. Pin dropping. Pin wells in France,

Wales, Scotland, Northumberland, and the West of England. A form of

divination. Protection against hanging. Other curious forms of this

superstition. Curing rickets in children and insanity. Reported

miraculous cures. Well dressing. Recent death of Margery Grant, a

"Scotch witch," who worked cures with holy water. The deification

of rivers and streams. Ancient lake dwellings, Healing lake in

Scotland. Bottomless pools. Stagnant water. Jenny Greenteeth.

"Nickar, the soulless." Scotch kelpies. Burns's "Address to the

Deil." Superstition on the Solway. African superstition of this

class. Page 267

CHAPTER XV.

CONCLUSION.

Antiquity of the superstitions commented upon. The common origin of

most of them. Tenacity of superstition and traditionary lore. Some

perhaps have resulted from similar conditions, without any

necessary connection with each other. Supposed communication of

America with Asia in ancient times. Phallic worship in Central

America. Singular custom in the Polynesian Islands. Migration of

the Miocene flora. The Atlantis of the Ancients. Superstitions in

Abyssinia and the Malay Archipelago. Traditions and superstitions

frequently glide into each other. Instances. Scotch warriors at

Preston. Sunken churches. Secret passages beneath rivers. All

ruined castles, abbeys, etc., said to have been battered by

Cromwell's cannon. Recent discoveries in Sanscrit. Max Müller's

interpretation of Greek myths. Anthropomorphism, or the

personification of natural forces. Growth of a myth. Vedic and

other examples. Wordsworth's interpretation of Greek myths.

Figurative expression, the groundwork of all poetry, at the root of

all language. Shakspere's appreciation of the poetic value of

popular mythology. Importance of the study of these despised

superstitions to philological, ethnological, and psychological

science, as well as to the sound philosophical interpretation of

general history. Page 283

TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS,

AND

FOLK-LORE.

CHAPTER I.

THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF LANCASHIRE AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTIES, AND

REMAINS OF THEIR MYTHOLOGY AND LOCAL NOMENCLATURE.

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

_Shakspere._

On several occasions, when discussing obscure questions of early

topography or ancient nomenclature, although readily acknowledging the

value of all facts in connection with genuine etymological science, I

have recommended great caution in the use of this powerful but somewhat

capricious archæological ally. I yet retain a strong impression that

this caution is still a necessary condition of truly scientific

historical or antiquarian research. Consequently, several of the

presumed etymologies in the present work are advanced with diffidence,

and with a thorough conviction that some of them may prove to be

illusive. The suggestion of a probability, however, is a very different

thing to dogmatic assertion in such matters, a practice which cannot be

too much condemned.

It is not very many years since the writer of the article "Language," in

Knight's Cyclopædia, felt it his duty, in introducing the subject, to

use the following strong expressions:--

"That division of grammar which is called etymology has been disgraced

by such puerile trifling, and has been pursued with such an utter

disregard to anything like scientific principles, as to create in the

minds of many persons a suspicion against everything presented to their

notice under the name of etymology. Such persons have viewed etymology

as nothing else than a dexterous play upon words, and have looked upon

etymologists as little better than indifferent punsters. That the

generality of writers upon this subject scarcely deserve any better

appellation will hardly be denied by anyone who has studied etymology on

true philological principles; and, if any doubt were entertained upon

the point, it would only be necessary to refer to such works as Damm's

'Homeric Lexicon,' and Lennep's 'Etymology of the Greek Language,' which

are full of such wild conjectures and such extravagant etymologies, that

we cannot be surprised that a study which has produced such results

should have been considered ridiculous and absurd."

The writer afterwards refers to the extent, and explains the nature of

the progress which had been made during the twenty or thirty years

previous to the date of his own paper. (1839). He justly attributes this

progress to the "comparison of many languages with each other;" but he

especially insists that "nothing has perhaps contributed to this

improvement more than the discovery of Sanscrit (for as it has been

justly observed, it may properly be called a discovery), which was found

to bear such a striking resemblance both in its more important words and

in its grammatical forms to the Latin and Greek, the Teutonic and

Sclavonic languages, as to lead to the conclusion that all must have

been derived from a common source."

An able writer in the _Saturday Review_ truly describes the science of

comparative philology as "the great discovery of modern scholarship, the

discovery which more than any other unites distant ages and countries in

one tie of brotherhood." Hence its great value to antiquarian students

of every class.

Further investigation has fully demonstrated the truth of the views thus

expressed. Not only is the affinity of the languages now admitted

without dispute, but the consanguinity of the peoples and the identity

of many of their popular traditions and superstitions have been

demonstrated with scientific precision by such writers as the brothers

Grimm, Dr. Kuhn, Dr. Roth, Max Müller, Farrer, Dasent, the Rev. G. W.

Cox, and others, who have devoted special attention to the subject.

This common ancestry is sometimes styled Indo-European; but the phrase

being open to objection, as including more than the precise facts

justify, the term Aryan, or Arian, is now generally preferred. Some

writers regard the Aryans as descendants of Japhet, and the Semitic

tribes as the progeny of Shem. In the latter they include the Hebrews,

the Ph[oe]nicians, the Arabs, and Ethiopians; and their languages are

radically distinct from those of the Aryan family. The country about the

upper Oxus river, now mainly included in the dominions of the Khan of

Bockhara, is generally agreed upon as the locality from whence the

various members of the Aryan family originally migrated, some northward

and westward over Europe, and others southward and eastward into India.

The Kelts, the Teutons, the Greeks, Latins, Letts, and Sclaves are all

European branches of this original stock. The Persians and the high

caste Hindoos are the principal descendants of the southern and

south-eastern migration. The chief elements of the British population at

the present time are Keltic, represented by the Welsh, Irish, and Gaelic

tribes, and the Teutonic, which includes Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and

Danish and Norse Scandinavians.

The non-Aryan races inhabiting Europe are not relatively very extensive

or important. The chief are the Magyars and the Turks. There are besides

some Tatars and Ugrians in Russia, a few Basques in the south-west of

France and on the neighbouring Spanish frontier, and the Laps and Fins

in Northern Europe.

The oldest writings extant in the Sanscrit branch of the Aryan tongue

are termed the "Vedas." These works include a collection of hymns

chanted or sung by the earlier south-eastern emigrants. It is believed

this collection was formed about fourteen hundred years before the birth

of Christ. According to ancient Hindoo authority, these hymns are coeval

with creation. It is asserted that Brahma breathed them from his own

mouth, or, in other words, that he milked them out from fire, air, and

the sun. Some traditions state that they wore scattered abroad or lost;

and that a great sage, "Vyasa, the arranger," collected them together

about 5,000 years ago. Vyasa, who was assisted in his labours by many

other sages, taught the Vedic literature or religion to four distinct

pupils. Payla learnt the Rig Veda, Vais'ampayana the Yajur Veda, Jaimini

the Sama Veda, and Sumantu the Atharvan'a. The three first-mentioned are

named collectively the sacred Trayi, or the Triad. These versions were

afterwards much extended and commented upon by after sages.

The term Veda is derived from the Sanscrit root _vid_, which signifies

to know. It implies the sum of all knowledge. By another etymology it is

held to imply revealed knowledge, or that species of wisdom which

contains within itself the evidence of its own truth. Rig is from the

root _rich_, to laud, and implies that the Vedic knowledge is delivered

in the form of hymns of praise.

Max Müller regards the Vedas as containing the key note of all

religion, natural as well as revealed. They exhibit a belief in God, a

perception of the difference between good and evil, and a conviction

that the Deity loveth the one and hateth the other. The degenerate

religion of the modern Hindoos, and especially the worship of Krishnah,

is described by a recent writer, as (in comparison with that of the

Vedas) "a moral plague, the ravages of which are as appalling as they

are astounding."

Walter Kelly says:--"The Sanscrit tongue, in which the Vedas are

written, is the sacred language of India; that is to say, the oldest

language, the one which was spoken, as the Hindoos believe, by the gods

themselves, when gods and men were in frequent fellowship with each

other, from the time when Yama descended from heaven to become the first

of mortals. This ancient tongue may not be the very one which was spoken

by the common ancestors of Hindoos and Europeans, but at least it is its

nearest and purest derivative; nor is there any reason to believe that

it is removed from it by more than a few degrees. Hence the supreme

importance of the Sanscrit vocabulary and literature as a key to the

languages and supernatural lore of ancient and modern Europe."

This discovery of the Sanscrit writings, and especially of the Vedas,

has already exercised considerable influence upon etymological science.

Before its introduction the main element in such inquiries consisted in

the tracing _backwards_ words corrupted or obscure in modern English to

their original roots in Keltic, Teutonic, Greek, or Latin. The Sanscrit,

however, being a _written_ form of one of the earliest of the varieties

of these cognate tongues, gives the etymological student the advantage

of a flank or rear position, by means of which he may sometimes decipher

the meaning of a doubtful term, by the inverse or _ascending_ process,

and thus gain some knowledge of its original meaning, perhaps long since

lost by the descendants of those who first introduced it into the

ancient language of Great Britain.[1]

It is by no means improbable that the idle historical legends related by

Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth, respecting the arrival of Brutus and

his Trojan followers in Britain, after the destruction of Priam's

imperial city by the allied Greeks, may have just so much foundation in

fact as might be furnished by a time-honoured tradition respecting the

eastern home from which our remote ancestors originally migrated. The

natives of Britain, on first coming in contact with the early merchants

and traders from the Mediterranean shores, would doubtless hear

something of the Iliad and the Æneid, with the heroes of which they

might innocently confound their own remote and vaguely conceived

demi-deities or warlike human ancestry. Notwithstanding the just

contempt in which these legends are held by modern historians, there

still exists a kind of instinctive faith that a very remote tradition,

however much it may have been overlaid and disfigured by relatively

modern inventions, lies at the base of the main story. Emigrants from

Iberia (situated between the Caspian and the Euxine Seas) are said to

have settled in Greece (the Pelasgi), and in Tuscany and Spain (the

Iberians). In Laurent's "Ancient Geography" is the following

passage:--"In the Caucasus were found the Bruchi, the modern Burtani or

Britani, a free tribe, rich in silver and gold." It is not improbable

that the advent of emigrants of this tribe in England may underlie the

legend of the Trojan Brutus and his followers. Eastern Albania too may

have contributed, along with its neighbours, to the migratory hordes

which passed to the west. The earliest name by which Britain was known

to the Greeks and Romans is Albion. The Gaels of Scotland still speak of

the island as Albin. In Merlin's famous prophecy, in Geoffrey of

Monmouth's British History, the country is frequently named Albania. The

universal tradition of the North German and Scandinavian tribes is that

they came from the neighbourhood of the Caucasus to the North West of

Europe. An early Odin is said to have introduced from the east the

worship of the sun. Another at the head of the Æsir warriors imported

the Runic alphabet. He is styled Mid Othin. Two other chiefs of this

name figure in their legendary history.

Dr. Leigh held the opinion that the Brigantes, and especially the

Setantii, or the Lancashire portion of the then population, were a mixed

race, consisting of Kelts, Ph[oe]nicians, and Armenians. His only

reason for this conjecture appears to have been based on the fact that

one of the chief rivers was named Belisama, which, he says, "in the

Ph[oe]nician language, signifies the Moon or the Goddess of Heaven," and

that Ribel, now the name of the same river, in the Armenian tongue

signifies Heaven. Mr. Thornber says "Belisama means Queen of Heaven, and

that the Romans paid divine honours to the Ribble under the title of

Minerva Belisama." This conjecture apparently rests on the statement of

Leigh, and the fact that the Roman temple at Ribchester was dedicated to

Minerva. There appears to be, however, some error here respecting the

sex of Bel. The Ph[oe]nician "Queen of Heaven," or "Queen of the Stars,"

was named Astroarche or Astarte. She is supposed by some to be identical

with the Greek Juno, or Selene (the moon), by others she is regarded as

the planet Venus. The Armenians were a branch of the Aryan family, and

the Ph[oe]nicians, as I have before said, were of the Semitic stock.[2]

Sanchuniathon, the ancient Ph[oe]nician historian, says that the

Ph[oe]nicians worshipped the sun as "the only lord of heaven," under the

name Beelsamen, which was equivalent to the Greek Zeus or the Latin

Jupiter. Baal is formed from a root which signifies, and is literally

equivalent to, lord or owner. A Maltese inscription "Malkereth Baal

Tsor," is interpreted "King of the city, Lord of Tyre." In the

Septuagint Baal is called Hercules; in the Ph[oe]nician language Orcul,

light of all. One writer adds "Baal was Saturn; others have considered

Baal to be the planet Jupiter. A supreme idol might easily be compared

with those of other nations; hence arose this variety of opinions."

Amongst the many conjectures as to the origin of Stonehenge is one put

forth by Godfrey Higgins, that it was built by Druids, "the priests of

Oriental colonies, who emigrated from India." Mr. Davis, the author of

"Celtic Researches," refers to a passage in Diodorus Siculus, in which

it is stated, on the authority of Hecatæus, that a round temple existed

in Britain dedicated to Apollo. Mr. Davis conjectures that Stonehenge is

the edifice referred to.

The late Rev. John Williams, Archdeacon of Cardigan, in "Essays,"

published in 1858, strongly advocates the "Hyperborean theory," founded

on the passage in Diodorus referred to. This view of the case implies

that the Hyperboreans migrated mainly by water from Central Asia, not

long after the days of Noah; that they eventually occupied Great

Britain, Spain, and Gaul, west of the Alps; that the Druid priests of

Stonehenge were in sympathy and constant communication with those of

Delphi; that they were civilised to a large extent, and were intimately

related by blood with the Pelasgians of Ancient Greece.

The ancient name of this remarkable relic of the past is unfortunately

lost, "Stonehenge" being evidently of Saxon origin, and in no way

connected with its architects; the tale told by Nennius, about the

murder of four hundred and sixty British nobles, through the treachery

of Hengist, being a later romance invented to account for its Saxon

name, Stanhengist. W. G. Palgrave, in his "Central and Eastern Arabia,"

describes the ruins of a "structure" which so nearly resembles the

famous Wiltshire relic, that he calls it an "Arabian Stonehenge." He

adds that the natives spoke of a similar ancient edifice as still

existing in a part of the country which he did not visit.

Sir John Lubbock in his "Pre-historic Times," after alluding to the

mythical character of the expedition to Ireland of Aurelius Ambrosius

and Merlin, as related by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in search of the sacred

materials employed in the erection of the megalithic edifice, says the

larger stones are evidently similar in lithological character to the

immense numbers yet strewn over Salisbury plain, and locally termed

"Sarcens." He adds,--

"Stonehenge is generally considered to mean the hanging stones, as

indeed was long ago suggested by Wace, an Anglo-Norman poet, who says:

Stanhengues ont mom Englois

Pieres pandues en Francois,

but it is surely more natural to derive the last syllable from the

Anglo-Saxon word 'ing,' a field; as we have Keston, originally

Kyst-staning, the field of stone coffins. What more natural than that a

new race, finding this magnificent ruin, standing in solitary grandeur

on Salisbury Plain, and able to learn nothing of its origin, should call

it simply the _place of stones_? What more unnatural than that they

should do so, if they knew the name of him in whose honour it was

erected?"

After disposing of some other arguments in favour of a post-Roman date

for the edifice, and expressing his conviction that this structure and

its kindred one at Abury were used as temples for worship, Sir John

Lubbock says,--

"Stonehenge may then I think be regarded as a monument of the Bronze

Age, though apparently it was not all erected at one time, the inner

circle of small unwrought blue stones being probably older than the

rest; as regards Abury, since the stones are all in their natural

condition, while those of Stonehenge are roughly hewn, it seems

reasonable to conclude that Abury is the older of the two, and belongs

either to the close of the Stone Age, or to the commencement of that of

Bronze."

Some writers regard the British or Keltic god Bel or Beil as not

immediately the Belus or Baal of the Asiatic nations, but that it

"designates _an exalted luminous deity_, peculiar to the Celts." This is

the view of Jacob Grimm, and it is endorsed by W. K. Kelly. Another

writer thinks that "the general character of Asiatic idolatry renders it

likely that Baal meant originally the true lord of the universe, _and

that his worship degenerated_ into the worship of a powerful body in the

material world."

The origin of the not yet entirely exploded superstition respecting the

"divine right of kings" may have something to do with this primæval sun

or fire worship. The Anglo-Saxon princes claimed descent from Odin or

Woden, who, as will afterwards be shown, is evidently the Teutonic

representative of the Aryan Indra, or the luminous or lightning-god. A

recent writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ says:--

"Every king of Egypt considered himself a direct descendant of the sun,

and over his name was 'Son of the Sun;' and as the sun was Phrè, so each

king was called Phrè. As in the East at the present time, the Ottoman

Emperor is termed by the Arabs, 'Sooltan ebn Sooltan'--Emperor son of an

Emperor. The king considered that his authority and the virtues and

powers of his rule were direct emanations from the solar disc. This idea

is beautifully set forth in a device from a tomb in the cemetery of El

Emarna, where may be observed Ammophis, with his queen and their

children, standing at a window or gallery of their palace, and are all

engaged in throwing to their subjects, who are standing below with hands

upraised to receive them, collars of distinction, vases, rings of money,

symbols of life, and other blessings. These gifts the disc of the sun,

which is represented above, is in the act of bestowing upon them. The

king and his family were the only media of communication between the

sun, the source of all blessings, and the people. This is significantly

set forth by the rays which projected life into their mouths, and

infused into their hearts courage, wisdom, and justice."

Frances Power Cobbe, in her "Cities of the Past," after visiting the

ruins of Baalbec, quotes several beautiful passages from Du Perron's

_Zend Avesta_, illustrative of the purity of the sentiment of the

earlier fire-worshippers. She says:--

"In what degree this high Persian faith (still existing in no ignoble

type among the Parsees of India) was connected with the sun-worship of

the gross Ph[oe]nician mythology, it is hard to conjecture. Perhaps

there was no relation at all, and Baal (or Bel), the sun-god, never

received in his impure fanes the homage of a true worshipper of Ormusd,

the supremely wise Lord, of whom the _Zend Avesta_ only tells us his

light is hidden under all that shines. At least the faith of which

Heliogabalus was hierophant had fallen as low as ever the religious

sentiment of human nature may be debased. Yet does the 'golden star,'

Zoroaster, throw a mysterious halo over the fire worship of East and

West; that faith which blazed out in the Bactrian plains before the dawn

of history, and which lights yet its memorial fires each midsummer eve

in the vales of the Christian Scotland and Ireland."

She might have added, at least until very recently, the hills and dales

of Lancashire and some other parts of England.

It is not improbable that before the corruption referred to took place,

the Keltic emigrants to this country may have arrived at their western

home, and so have introduced the worship of Baal or Bel in something

like its pristine purity; and hence the distinction between the famous

deity of Heliopolis and his presumed representative in Britain. A

semi-subterranean temple, dedicated to the worship of Mithras, the

Persian Sun or Apollo, was discovered in 1822 at Housesteads,

Northumberland (Borcovicus), on the line of the great Roman wall. Mr.

Hodgson describes it in detail in a contribution to the Arch. ÆL. O.S.,

vol. 1. This worship appears to have belonged to the debased form

referred to. It evoked edicts from several Roman emperors decreeing its

suppression, but without avail. This cruel and degrading superstition

was, however, not introduced into the western portion of the "old

world," until shortly before the advent of Christ. An altar, dedicated

to this deity, found in the cave temple at Housesteads, was erected A.D.

253. Remains of Mithraic worship have been found at York and Chester,

and other places, including Chesterholm (Vindolana), and Rutchester

(Vindobala), on the line of the great Roman wall. This worship of

Mithras is evidently but a corrupt descendant from the ancient Aryan

adoration of Mithra, the god of daylight.

From these and other reasons, yet to be advanced, I am inclined to

regard the introduction of the British god Bel or Beil as appertaining

to a much earlier epoch in our history than the advent of the

Ph[oe]nician merchants, who, most probably, did visit the Belisama,

Portus Setantiorum, and other harbours on the Lancashire and Cheshire

coast, for trading purposes, but at a relatively much more recent

period.

Mr. John Baldwin, in his "Pre-historic Nations," contends that the

"Bronze Age in Western Europe was introduced by a foreign people of the

Cushite race, culture, and religion, and that for a very long period it

was controlled and directed by their influence." He further adds:--

"The first settlements of the Arabian Cushites in Spain and Northern

Africa cannot have been later than 5,000 years before the Christian

era.... Probably the Cushite race, religion, and civilisation first went

to the ancient Finnic people of Britain, Gaul, and the Scandinavian

countries from Spain and Africa. The beginning of the Bronze Age in

these countries was much older than the period of Tyre. The Tyrian

establishments in those western countries seem to have been later than

the Aryan immigration that created the Keltic peoples and languages; and

it may be that the Tyrians introduced the 'Age of Iron' not long after

their arrival, for it was evidently much older than the time of the

Romans."

Professor Nilsson refers the ancient bronze instruments, etc., to

Ph[oe]nician influence, and describes some sculpture on two stones on a

tumulus near Kivik, which, Mr. Baldwin observes, "even Sir John Lubbock

admits, 'may fairly be said to have a Ph[oe]nician or Egyptian

appearance.'"

Mr. Baldwin traces to Arabian Cushite colonies the very ancient

civilisation of Egypt, Caldea, and the southern portion of India, as

well as Ph[oe]nicia and the western nations. Another stone, described by

Professor Nilsson, is an obelisk symbolising Baal. Referring to this

monument, Mr. Baldwin says:--

"The festival of Baal or Balder, celebrated on midsummer night in the

upper part of Norway, reveals the Cushite race, for the midnight fire in

presence of the midnight sun did not originate in that latitude. This

festival of Baal was celebrated in the British Islands until recent

times. Baal has given such names as Baltic, Great and Little Belt,

Belteburga, Baleshangen, and the like." He asks, "What other people

could have brought the worship of Baal to Western Europe in pre-historic

times? We see them in the stone circles, in the ruins at Abury and

Stonehenge, in the festival of Baal that lingered until our own times;

and there is something for consideration in the fact that Arabia has

still the ruins of ancient structures precisely like Stonehenge. It is

probable that the Arabians, or their representatives in Spain and North

Africa, went northward and began the Age of Bronze more than 2,000 years

before Gades [Cadiz] was built."

Mr. Baldwin draws a marked distinction between the modern Mohammedan

Semitic population of Arabia and their great Cushite, Hamite, or

Ethiopian predecessors. The former, he says, "are comparatively modern

in Arabia," they have "appropriated the reputation of the old race," and

have unduly occupied the chief attention of modern scholars.

Dr. Hooker, at the meeting of the British Association in 1868, described

a race of men in a district of Eastern Bengal, who erect, at the present

day, monuments similar to those termed, in Western Europe, Druidical.

With his own eyes he had seen "dolmens" and "cromlechs" not six months

old. He says that they call a stone by the same name as is given to it

in the Keltic idioms of Wales and Brittany, though, he adds, little of

the character of their language is yet known.

Sir John Lubbock, referring to the very ancient stone weapons found in

Denmark, Switzerland, France, England, and other countries, termed

_palæoliths_, says:--"Some implements of the same type have been found

in Spain, in Assyria, and in India. The latter have been described by

Mr. Bruce Foote; they were found in the Madras and North Arcot

districts, and are of quartzite, and in several cases were found by

Messrs. Foote and King, _in situ_, at depths of from three to ten feet.

The specimens figured will show how closely they resemble our European

specimens, and it is interesting that in the words of Mr. Foote, 'the

area, over which the lateritic formations were spread, has undergone, as

already stated, great changes since their deposition. A great part of

the formation has been removed by denudation, and deep valleys cut into

them are now occupied by the alluvium of various rivers.'"

In several parts of Britain, and especially in Cumberland, altars have

been found dedicated by Roman legionaries or their auxiliaries to a god

named Belatucadrus. Mr. Thomas Wright (Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 292),

after referring to a small one erected at Ellanborough by Julius

Civilis, says:--

"Several others dedicated to this deity have been found at Netherby,

Castlesteads, Burgh-on-the-sands, Bankshead, and other places. In some

instances, as in an altar found at Drumburgh, the deity is addressed by

the epithet, DEO SANCTO BELATVCADRO. In some altars he is identified

with Mars, as on one found at Plumpton Wall, dedicated DEO MARTI

BELATVCADRI ET NVMINIB AVGG. Several attempts have been made to derive

the name from Hebrew, Welsh, or Irish, and it has been hastily taken for

granted that this god was identical with the Ph[oe]nician Baal. Altars

to Belatucadrus have been found at Kirkby Thore, at Welp Castle, and at

Brougham, in Westmorland. The one at Brougham was dedicated by a man

named Andagus, which sounds like a Teutonic name."

Since the preceding paragraphs were written, I have seen in the

Manchester Natural History Museum, a rude altar dedicated to this god,

which, I am informed, was found some years ago at Ribchester, on the

Ribble. As I had not previously seen or heard of it, it is not mentioned

in my published "History of Preston and its Environs." The inscription

is somewhat defaced, but the DEO MARTI BELATVCADRI is very distinct. It

appears, like the one found at Plumpton Wall, to have been dedicated to

this god, and to the gods of the emperor (NVMINIB AVGG), or, as some

think, to the reigning emperor himself. The dedicator is Julius

Augustalis, the prefect of some military corps, the name of which I

cannot, at present, satisfactorily decipher.

The compounding of the name of _Baal_ or _Bel_ with other words is

common, as in the ancient name of the Ribble--_Belisama_. This

_Belatucadrus_ appears to belong to this class, at least so far as

_cadrus_ is concerned, for at Risingham, in Northumberland, an altar was

found dedicated to MOGONT CAD, which may perhaps mean, when written in

full, in the nominative case, MOGONTIS CADRUS. Horsley imagined it

probable that the CAD had reference to the _Gadeni_, a Caledonian tribe;

but Mr. Wright regards this as very doubtful. The Welsh word _cad_ means

war, battle, tumult, etc. May not CADRUS, therefore, be a Keltic synonym

for Mars?

Other altars have been found dedicated to gods that may probably be

traced to an Eastern origin. One found at Birrens, in Scotland, exhibits

a winged deity, holding a spear in her right hand and a globe in her

left. The dedication is to the goddess _Brigantia_. Mr. Wright says:--

"It was supposed this was the deity of the Brigantes, but I am not aware

that this country was ever called _Brigantia_, and it is not probable

the conqueror would worship the deity of a vanquished tribe. I feel more

inclined to think the name was taken from _Brigantium_, in Switzerland,

a town which occupied the site of the modern Bregentz. An altar found at

Chester was dedicated DEAE NYMPHAE BRIG, which in this case would be 'To

the Nymph Goddess of Brigantium.'"

Another ancient city styled Brigantium, now Briançon, was situated on an

opposite spur of the Alps, in the country of the Taurini, now Piedmont.

Ancient geographers speak of a tribe of Thracians, who were styled

Briges. In Laurent's work, the river at present named the Barrow, in

Ireland, is termed the Birgus. A people on the eastern coast of Ireland

were called Brigantes, and the name Brigantina is still retained in the

province of Gallicia, in Spain. Some authorities contend that the

Gaedhels or Gaels, the Gaelic or Erse element of our population,

originally entered Ireland and the south-west of England from Spain.

From Ireland they spread, northward, to the western isles and highlands

of Scotland, and westward, to the Isle of Man and the North of England

and Wales. In one of the preserved extracts from the lost book of Drom

Sneachta, supposed to have been written before the advent of St.

Patrick, is what is termed "the Prime Story of Irruption and Migration."

From this we learn that the ancient Milesian inhabitants themselves had

traditions respecting their advent from Spain, which referred to the

prior occupation of the country by two other branches of the Gaelic

race, viz., the Firbolgs and the Tuatha dé Dannan. The story says the

Milesians left Scythia for Egypt, but returned, and afterwards migrated

to Spain by way of Greece. After a long residence in the peninsula, they

built the city of Bragantia. About 1700 B.C., a colony of them landed at

the mouth of the Slaney, in Wexford, under the command of the eight sons

of Milesias or Galamah. In two battles they defeated their predecessors,

and divided the country amongst themselves. The Cymri, another branch of

the Keltic stock, on the contrary, entered Britain from Gaul, and were,

eventually, to a considerable extent, driven upon the Gaelic tribes in

the West of England and Wales by the pressure of their Teutonic

successors. Professor H. Morley says that that portion of the population

"in the North of England, who battled against the gradual progress of

expulsion," was "known as Briganted, fighting thieves. Brigant is Welsh

for thief and highlander." Brig and Brigant meaning top or summit, in

modern Welsh, and Brigantwys the people of the summit, Brigantes has

doubtless only originally meant the dwellers in the hilly country. The

habits of the brigands of Greece, Spain, and Italy, of the present day,

sufficiently account for its application to mountain hordes organised

for the purposes of plunder and bloodshed.

Perhaps the Aryan mythology will supply a common source for all these

local appellations. Walter K. Kelly ("Curiosities of Indo-European

Tradition") says:--"Agni, the god of fire (Latin, _ignis_), has for

retainers the Bhrigus and the Angirases. They are his priests on earth

whilst they dwell there in mortal form; and after death they are his

friends and companions in heaven. They are also the companions of the

clouds and storms"--in other words, personifications of some

characteristics of clouds and storms. He afterwards speaks of "_Bhrigu,

the father of a mythological family of that name_." The root of the word

means "_fulgent burning_." The Bhrigus and a kindred mythical race, the

Phlegyans, incurred the displeasure of the gods. The latter were

condemned to the torments of Tartarus. Bhrigu, being an ancestor of the

Brahmans, was more leniently treated. His father, Varuna, however, sent

him "on a penitential tour to several hells, that he might see how the

wicked are punished, and be warned by their fate."

The clouds and storms of the Alpine mountains and the Lancashire and

Yorkshire hills would amply justify the appellation of the term

Brigantium, or the country of the Brigantes, in the minds of Aryan

emigrants, to both localities. The Bhrigus, according to Dr. Kuhn, were

"brewers" of storms, or yielders of the heavenly soma, the drink of the

gods; in other words, the distillers of rain water, which rendered the

earth fruitful. The country of the Brigantes is the term given by the

Roman historians to that part of England which lies north of the Humber

and the Mersey, and includes the lesser tribes named the Volantii and

the Setantii, or Sistuntii, which occupied the western or Lancashire

coast, and perhaps that of Cumberland.

Another very common name on altars in the north of England is Vitires,

Vetiris, or Veteres. Mr. Thomas Wright regards this as a "foreign

deity," and thinks "it must have belonged to a national mythology." But

he adds, "As the altars were dedicated apparently by people of widely

different countries, they give us no assistance in appropriating this

deity. The word has been supposed to be identical with Vithris, one of

the names of the northern Odin, the Woden of the Germans." This name for

Odin has evidently some relationship to the Vritra (or Ahi, the dragon)

of the Hindoo Vedas.

Some altars have been found at Lancaster and in Cumberland, dedicated to

Cocidius or Cocideus. According to the Ravenna manuscript, it is

probable a temple to this god existed near the Roman Wall, of sufficient

importance to name the place Fanococidi. The name of this god may

probably be traced to an Aryan source. I can, however, at present, offer

no better suggestion than that it may have some reference to the Stygian

ferryman, which is of Aryan origin. The river or arm of the sea over

which the dead are ferried, by Charon, is variously named by the Greeks

as the Styx, the Acheron, and the Cocytus. Perhaps the latter term may

likewise furnish a clue to the derivation of the name Coccium of the

Itineraries, which I and others have placed at Walton, near Preston.[3]

It has previously been suggested by others that this station may have

been named after either the god Cocidius or the Emperor Cocceius Nerva.

The assumption that it was derived from Cocytus or Cocidius would in no

way vitiate the truthfulness of the usual derivation from the Keltic

_coch gwi_, or red water, from the red rock in the Ribble, as it is easy

to imagine such a description to have been given to the "river of

death." That the station was named after Cocceius Nerva is improbable,

as all the known evidence, including the site, coins, and the British

foundation beneath the Roman remains, indicate it to have been one of

Agricola's posts. He entered Lancashire in the year 79, and Nerva did

not commence his reign until 96. He only reigned about two years.

A very large proportion of the names of mountains and streams in any

part of Britain are corruptions, in a greater or lesser degree, of words

belonging to the aboriginal or Keltic tongue. With the aid of the Welsh,

the Gaelic, and the Irish, the meaning of many can be satisfactorily

ascertained, such as the Darwen (Dwrgwen, white, or beautiful stream),

Wyre (gwyr, pure, lively), Old Man (alt maen, high hill), Pennygent

(Penygwyn, white head or summit), or, which I think better, Pen y gwynt,

windy head or summit, from its exposed situation. Others are, however,

by no means so satisfactorily explained on similar grounds. Mr. Davies

in a very able contribution to the Philological Society's Transactions,

on "The Races of Lancashire," with reference to the Ribble, says:--

"The name of this well known river has much perplexed antiquarian

philologists. I can only venture to suggest that it may be compounded of

rhe (active, fleet), and bala (a shooting out, a discharge, the outlet

of a lake), and may refer to its rapid course as an estuary."

With our knowledge, from Ptolemy, of the existence of a "Belisama

Estuarium" on the Lancashire coast, in the second century, and which can

be otherwise shown, on the best available evidence, to apply to the

Ribble, the Rhi-bell, or River Bell, is a much more satisfactory

derivation; and more especially so as a god _bel_ or _beil_ of the

_beltain_ fires is conceded (as I have previously shown) to the early

Keltic inhabitants of Britain. The altar, recently found at Ribchester,

dedicated to the British god Belatucadrus, proves, at least, that

votaries of that deity dwelt in the Ribble valley, as well as in

Cumberland, &c.

Godfrey Higgins, in his "Celtic Druids," speaks of Samhan or Saman as

"one of the gods, the most revered in Ireland." He says:--"An annual

solemnity was instituted to his honour, which is yet celebrated on the

evening of the first day of November, which yet at this day is called

the _Oidhche Samhna_, or the night of _Samhan_." He further informs us

that he was "also called _Bal-Sab_ or Lord of Death," and that "_Samhan_

was also the sun, or rather the image of the sun," and adds:--

"These attributes of _Samhan_ seem at first contradictory, but they are

not unusual amongst the heathen gods. With the Greeks, Dionysos, the

good Demiurge, is identified with Hades. In Egypt, Osiris was the lord

of Death; with the Scandinavians, Odin, the god beneficent, was, at the

same time, King of the infernal regions. This deity was above all the

others whom we have named, but he was below the supreme being Baal. If

Samhan were the sun, as we see he was, he answers to Mithra of the

Persians, who was the middle link between Oromasdes and

Arimanes--between the Creator and the Destroyer, and was called the

_Preserver_."[4]

With the aid of the Hindoo Vedas, perhaps some light may be thrown on

this subject, as well as upon the origin of the names of some other

rivers in the neighbourhood, which have hitherto eluded satisfactory

explanation.

The gods of the Vedas appear to have been, more or less,

personifications of what were termed "the elements." The sun, the moon,

the sky or firmament, the dawn and evening twilight, the sea, lightning,

clouds, rain, wind, frost, fire, &c., and their attendant active

phenomena, contributed mainly to the construction of their mythological

edifice. Indra was god of the firmament, the earliest thunderer, the

forerunner of Zeus, Jupiter and Thor; Agni was the god of fire, and Soma

was the deity who brought down to earth the celestial liquor, the "drink

of the gods," the amrita of the Vedas, the nectar of the Greeks. Soma

was so designated because the "soma plant, which the Hindoos now

identify with the _Asclepias acida_ or _Sarcostemma viminale_,"

contained "a milky juice of a sweetish sub-acid flavour, which, being

mixed with honey and other ingredients, yielded to the enraptured

Aryans the first fermented liquor their race had ever known." All

celestial or atmospheric phenomena were named from earthly objects.

Clouds were called rocks and cows, and the mountain streams of the

former and the milk of the latter were the liquid nourishers and

fertilisers of the soil. The lightning-god was believed to pierce the

rock or the rain cloud, and so water the parched earth. Walter Kelly

says:--

"The identity of the heavenly soma with the cloud-water, and the close

connection in which fire and soma are brought in various Aryan legends,

prove that the drink of the gods was conceived to be a product of the

storm. It appears also that the earthly soma was boiled or brewed before

it was fermented, whence it must have followed, as a matter of course,

that its divine counterpart should be supposed to undergo the same

process. Hence it is manifest that we cannot claim for any of the later

ages the credit of having invented the metaphor involved in the common

saying, 'It's brewing a storm.' In that phrase, as in many others, we

only repeat the thoughts of our primæval ancestors."

Dr. Kuhn identifies the modern word _brew_ with the _brajj_ of the Rig

Veda, which has reference to the roasting of barley for brewing

purposes, and is intimately connected with the Bhrigus, beings who

"brewed and lightened" the heavenly soma out of the stormy phenomena of

the mountain regions. In the Welsh of the present day, _brygu_ means to

grow out, to overspread. One modern Welsh word, _brwysg_, means drunk,

and another _brwys_, fertile, luxuriant. The double use of the term at

the present time, is, therefore, in singular harmony with the hypothesis

of Kuhn, and adds much to its probability. Kelly says:--"One of the

synonyms of soma is _madhu_, which means a mixed drink; and this word is

the _methu_ of the Greeks, and the _mead_ of our own Saxon, Norse, and

Celto-British ancestors."

Near Rutchester, in Northumberland, the ancient Vindobala, is an

excavation made in the solid rock, the cause or use of which is not with

certainty known. It is 12 feet long, 4-1/2 feet broad, and 2 feet deep,

"and has a hole close to the bottom at one end." It is locally named the

"Giant's Grave." It is not improbable, from remains discovered near it,

that it has had some connection with a temple dedicated to the worship

of Mithras. A manuscript by Sir David Smith, preserved in Alnwick

Castle, referring to this singular excavation, says:--"The old peasants

here have a tradition that the Romans made a beverage somewhat like beer

of the bells of heather (heath), and that this trough was used in the

process of making such drink." Dr. Collingwood Bruce, commenting on the

above, says:--"The opinion long prevailed in Northumberland that the

_Picts_ had the art of preparing an intoxicating liquor from

heather-bells, and that the secret died with them."

The names of the gods underwent much change as time advanced, and the

race was scattered. Bel became the _luminous deity_ of some of the

settlers in Britain; Soma became a higher deity in importance than Indra

or Agni, and absorbed their attributes. In the Zend version the drink

soma is spelled haoma. The hymns addressed to Soma, in a later age, are

styled Sama Vedas. Hence it may easily be inferred the Belisama of

Ptolemy is a Latinised form of the British words which indicated that

the Ribble water was the "liquor of the gods" furnished by Bel and Sama

for the fertilisation of the earth. The hoary rocky mountains of

Pennygent, Ingleborough, and Pendle, and the storm-clouds that contended

with lightning about their summits, furnish sufficiently characteristic

natural phenomena to justify the appropriateness of the appellation.

This deification of rivers was by no means an uncommon occurrence. Sir

William Betham, in his "Gael and Cymbri," says, expressly, "the Celtæ

were much addicted to the worship of fountains and rivers as divinities.

They had a deity called Divona, or the river god." The Wharf, which

springs not far from the source of the Ribble, received these honours

from legionaries of Rome or some of their auxiliaries, who appear to

have worshipped the stream as the water-goddess "Verbeia." The Roman

name appears to be merely a Latin form of the ancient British word of

which the modern name Wharf is a corruption. The Lune, too, appears to

have had similar honours conferred upon it, as is evidenced by an altar

found at Skerton, near Lancaster, inscribed DEO JALONO. The word _Lune_

was anciently written _Lone_, and the hundred is still named Lonsdale.

Indeed, the personification of rivers is not yet extinct. We speak of

"Old Father Thames" to this day.

The Ituna Estuarium of Ptolemy is universally assigned to the Solway,

the chief river entering it being called the Eden at the present time.

As _t_ and _d_ are convertible, and the Latin _i_ was pronounced _e_, as

on the continent now, Eduna most probably expresses to our ears the

ancient sound, which is the exact counterpart of the modern one, the

Latin terminal letter not entering into the question. Does the Vedic and

Teutonic mythologies throw any light on the derivation of this name?

Kelly says:--

"The cloud-maidens are known in the Vedas as _Apas_ (waters), and are

styled brides of the gods (Dêvapatnis) and _Návyah_, _i.e._, navigators

of the celestial sea. Nearly related to them, but less divine, are the

_Apsarases_; damsels whose habitat is between the earth and the sun.

They are the houris of the Vedic paradise, destined to delight the souls

of heroes. Their name means either 'the formless' or 'the water going,'

and they appear to have been personifications of the manifold but

ill-defined forms of the mists; but other natural phenomena may also

have been represented under their image."

Kelly further informs us that these inferior cloud-maidens possessed

raiment or "shirts of swan plumage," by means of which they "transformed

themselves into water-fowl, especially swans." He adds that "the Persian

peris, and the German swan-maidens, changed their forms in the same way,

and by the same means." Indeed, they are "the originals" of these

"swan-maidens," and are closely related to the Elves, Mahrs, and

Valkyries, of the Teutonic mythology. The same writer further states

that "Odin's Valkyries (riders in the wild hunt) had their swan-shirts,

and the Norse goddess Freyja" (from whence our Friday), "had her

falcon-shirt,[5] which she lent to Loki, when he went in quest of Thor's

stolen hammer, and to rescue Idunn," (elsewhere spelled Idhunn) "the

goddess of youth, from captivity among the frost giants. Thiassi, who

kept her in custody, had an eagle-shirt, and his follow giant, Suttungr,

had another, in which he pursued Odin."

These wild riders of the stormy sky, like their prototypes in the Vedas,

personify or typify "rain senders." Mr. Kelly says, in the Teutonic form

of the myth, the manes of their horses "dropped dew upon the earth,

filled the drinking horns for the gods and the warriors in Odin's hall;

and like them, white maidens, elves, and witches offer full goblets and

horns to thankless mortals, who usually run away with the beaker after

spilling its contents on the ground."

It is a somewhat singular circumstance that the most celebrated relict

of this old pagan superstition, or myth, is preserved at Edenhall, on

the bank of the very river to which I am referring. Tradition says the

goblet was secured, in the orthodox way, by an ancestor of the

Musgraves, or one of his retainers, ages ago. Sir Walter Scott has

rendered the story immortal. He makes the following distich salute the

ears of the bold plunderer, as he hurriedly decamps from the fairy

revel:--

If this glass do break or fall,

Farewell the luck of Edenhall.

The "Luck of Edenhall," as the very ancient glass vessel is styled, is

believed to be of Venetian manufacture, and dates, probably, from the

century preceding the Norman conquest.

The Rev. G. W. Cox, in his valuable work on the "Mythology of the Aryan

Nations," ranks this cup amongst the numerous phallic symbols. Referring

to this subject, he says:--"We have seen the myth starting from its

crude and undisguised form, assume the more harmless shape of goblets or

horns of plenty and fertility; of rings and crosses, of rods and spears,

of mirrors and lamps. It has brought before us the mysterious ships

endowed with the powers of thought and speech, beautiful cups in which

the wearied sun sinks to rest, the staff of wealth and plenty with which

Hermes guides the cattle of Helios across the blue pastures of heaven,

the cup of Dêmetêr into which the ripe fruit casts itself by an

irresistible impulse. We have seen the symbols assume the character of

talismanic tests, by which the refreshing draught is dashed from the

lips of the guilty; and, finally, in the exquisite legend of the

Sangreal the symbols have become a sacred thing, only the pure in heart

may see and touch."

The goddess of youth (Idunn), with her attendant swans and water-fowl,

is not an inapt personification of the lovely Eden, in its lower course;

while the wild moors and crags, where the eagles nestled, and amongst

which its many tributary streamlets spring, aptly enough answers to the

homes of the frost giants, who, in severe winters, held captive the

congealed waters.

It may be thought that this, being a Teutonic etymology, is not so

satisfactory as if it were Keltic. But its pertinence is corroborated by

the fact that, in the Welsh of the present day, _edn_ means fowl or

bird, _edyn_ winged one, and _ednyw_ spirit, essence.

Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his work on "First Principles," when treating of

"Laws in General," argues elaborately on the order in which the sense of

law, or a recognition of "that constant course of procedure" which the

term implies, was gradually developed in the human intellect. After

showing that there are several derivative principles, some earlier

arrived at than others from the relative frequency of the occurring

phenomena and their immediate influence upon, or of "personal concern"

to, the aboriginal savage, he has some observations very pertinent to

the present question. He says:--"The solidification of water at a low

temperature is a phenomenon that is simple, concrete, and of much

personal concern. But it is neither so frequent as those which we saw

are earliest generalised, nor is the _presence of the antecedent so

uniformly conspicuous_. Though in all but tropical climates, mid-winter

displays the relation between cold and freezing with tolerable

constancy; yet, during the spring and autumn, the occasional appearance

of ice in the mornings has not very manifest connection with the

coldness of the weather. Sensation being so inaccurate a measure, it is

not possible for the savage to experience the definite relation between

a temperature of 32° and the congealing of water; and hence the

long-continued conception of _personal_ agency. Similarly, but still

more clearly, with the winds, the absence of regularity, and the

inconspicuousness of the antecedents, allowing the mythological

explanation to survive for a great period."

The names of the Severn and the Dee, and some other rivers or estuaries,

will admit of similar interpretation from similar sources. Mr. Kelly

says:--"The collective appellation of the Vedic gods is Dêvas, and this

name has passed into most of the Indo-European languages; for

corresponding to the Sanscrit _dêva_ is the Latin _deus_, Greek _theós_,

Lithuanian _déwas_, Lettish _dews_, Old Prussian _deiws_, Irish _dia_,

Welsh _duw_, Cornish _duy_. Amongst the German races the word _dêva_

survives only in the Norse plural _tìvar_, gods; and amongst those of

the Sclave stock the Servians alone preserve a trace of it in the word

_diw_, giant. The daêvas of the Medes and Persians were in early times

degraded from the rank of gods to that of demons by a religious

revolution, just as the heathen gods of the Germans were declared by the

Christian missionaries to be devils; and the modern Persian _div_, and

Armenian _dev_, mean an evil spirit. Dêva is derived from _div_, heaven

(properly 'the shining'), and means the heavenly being."

This appears to be a satisfactory and conclusive answer to a very

pertinent question put by George Borrow in the last chapter of his work

on "Wild Wales." He says:--"How is it that the Sanscrit _devila_ stands

for what is wise and virtuous, and the English devil for all that is

desperate and wicked?" A similar answer is given to this question by the

fate which the Teutonic gods of Western Europe underwent on the final

triumph of Christianity. Dasent says:--"They were cast down from honour,

but not from power. They lost their genial kindly influence as the

protectors of men and the origin of all things good; but their existence

was tolerated; they became powerful for ill, and degenerated into

malignant demons."

In the Hindoo mythology, it appears revolutions took place at a very

early date. In the early Vedic hymns Dêva is "addressed as Dyanish pitâ,

_i.e._, Heaven Father, and his wife is Mata Prithivi, Mother Earth. He

is the Zeus Pater of the Greeks, the Jupiter of the Romans, the German

Tius, and the Norse Tyr. Dyanish pitâ was the god of the blue firmament,

but even in the Vedic times his grandeur was considerably on the wane.

Indra, the new lord of the firmament, had left him little more than a

titular sovereignty in his own domain, while Varuna, another heavenly

monarch, who was still in the plenitude of his power, commanded more

respect than the _roi fainéant_, his neighbour. The all-covering

Varuna,[6] the Uranos of the Greeks, was lord of the celestial sea and

of the realm of light above it, that highest heaven in which the Fathers

dwelt with their King Yama. After the southern branch of the Aryans had

entered India, Varuna was brought down from the upper regions, to be

thenceforth the god of the earthly sea, which had then for the first

time become known to his votaries."

May not this Varun be possibly the true root of the name Severn?

Etymologists are not at all agreed as to its derivation. Some say it was

anciently called Hafren, and that this term is identical with Severn,

the latter being merely a corruption of the former. This is the

prevalent opinion. The Severn, indeed, yet retains the name Hafren, from

its source to Llanidloes. Its principal upper tributary which enters it

a little below Welshpool is called the Vyrnwy. May not this be the true

Welsh root of the word? If such be the case, there is nothing improbable

in the conjecture that Hafren is a Keltic corruption of the Sanscrit

Varun, especially as the _f_ and _v_ are readily "convertible." The Se

may be a prefix, of which more anon.[7]

Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his "British History," states that King Locrin

divorced his queen Guendol[oe]na, and married a beautiful captive named

Estrildis. On the death of the king, the divorced queen commanded

"Estrildis and her daughter Sabre to be thrown into the river now called

the Severn, and published an edict through all Britain that the river

should bear the damsel's name, hoping by this to perpetuate her memory,

and by that the infamy of her husband. So that to this day the river is

called in the British tongue Sabren, which by the corruption of the name

is, in another language, Sabrina."

Milton, speaking of Sabrina as the goddess of the river, styles her "the

daughter of Locrine, that had the sceptre from his father Brute." As the

mythical or rather non-historical character of Brute and his progeny is

now almost universally conceded, it is not improbable that the river

named the maiden (if she ever existed in the flesh) rather than that her

immersion changed its designation. Sabrina, or Savrina (for the _b_ and

_v_ are convertible), may therefore but be the Latinised form of the old

Welsh Hafren and the Sanscrit Varuna, with the prefix _se_ added

thereto.

The Dee is described as the Seteia Estuarium by Ptolemy. The Roman city

Deva (Chester) was situated on its banks. The _se_ is generally regarded

as a prefix in this case, and it may likewise be so in the word Severn.

_D_ and _t_ being convertible, the names of the river and city evidently

spring from one root. The Rev. John Whitaker, the historian of

Manchester, in interpreting the term Se-tan-tiu, says it may mean "the

inferior or southerly country of water, and express the particular

position of Lancashire with respect to the Volantii and the sea."[8]

The Se, in these cases, may have a somewhat similar import, or it may

have reference to the Vedic great serpent Sesha, concerning which there

is a curious story in the Hindoo poems. The Dêvas had been at war with

their enemies, the Asuras, and, being thirsty with the work (or the

country needing rain), a truce was agreed upon, and both sides joined

their efforts "in churning the ocean to procure amrita" (or soma) "the

drink of immortality. They took Mount Mandara for a churning stick, and

wrapping the great serpent Sesha round it for a rope, they made the

mountain spin round to and fro, the Dêvas pulling at the serpent's tail,

and the Asuras at its head. Mount Mandara was more anciently written

Manthara, and Manthara is the Sanscrit name of the churning stick which

is used by every dairy in India."[9] The purely figurative character of

this is easily seen. It is but another form of expressing the

fertilisation of the earth by means of the rain which is engendered by

the "strife of the elements." The churning stick and cord are but

another form of the Hindoo pramantha, or fire churn, "or chark," by

which the sacred or "need-fire" was produced amongst the Greeks and

Romans, as well as the Keltæ and other Aryan tribes, before the

discovery of the use of flint and steel. The "chark" represented the

power of the sun, and it is not impossible our remote Eastern ancestors

were aware that the sun really does, in a sense, "churn" or "brew" the

ocean water, and distribute its vapours over mountain and plain, and by

this means convert even an otherwise barren wilderness into a fertile

garden, making it literally "blossom like the rose."

That this superstition has not yet become extinct in India is attested

by the following paragraph, which appeared in the newspapers in the year

1869:--"The inhabitants of Burmah have an idea that pulling at a rope

will produce rain. Two parties tug against each other. One is a raining

party, the other is a fair weather party. By previous arrangement the

rain party are allowed to be victorious. On the occasion of the late

continued drought this proceeding was attended with the happiest

results."

Geoffrey of Monmouth says that an "invading king of the Huns, named

Humber, was defeated by Locrin on the banks of that river, and drowned

in its flood, on account of which it has since borne his name." This, of

course, is merely idle romance. Some writers contend that the name was

originally Chumber, that Northumberland means North Cumri-land, of which

the present Cumberland is a relic. It is not improbable that the Mersey

derived its name from Mercia, or the territory from the boundary river.

It, in conjunction with the Humber, divided Northumbria from Mercia

during the heptarchy. The Mersey is still called the Cheshire Waters by

some of the inhabitants on the south-west of Manchester.

It is somewhat singular that no Roman writer or Itinerary mentions the

Humber. Ptolemy speaks of a river Abus, which is generally identified

with that stream, but this helps us not to the etymology of the modern

name. It is not altogether improbable, however, that the Aryan mythology

may throw some light upon the ancient appellations. We are informed by

Max Müller that, previous to the dispersion of the Aryan tribes, the

Ribhus were called Arbhus, and that this latter term is identical with

the Greek Orpheus. From this root likewise is derived the German Alb or

Alp; plural _Elbe_ or Elfen; English Elf, with its plural Elves. In the

modern Welsh the word _elod_ means intelligence, spirit, _elaeth_

spiritual being, and _elford_ both demon and intellectual existence. The

Rev. G. W. Cox says that Alpheios, the mythic huntsman, "is the child of

the waters.... He is, in short, the Elf, or water sprite, whose

birth-place is the Elbe, or flowing stream." If the name of the German

river _Elbe_ (Albis) be derived from this source, the probability is

heightened that the Abus of Ptolemy may have intimate relationship to

the Aryan Arbhus, or Ribhus. These mystic beings were followers, like

the Bhrigus and the Maruts, of Agni and Indra, "personifications of fire

and firmament." Kelly says:--"The element of the Ribhus is rather that

of the sunbeams or the lightning, though they too rule the winds, and

sing, like the Maruts, the loud song of the storm.[10] Their name means

the 'artificers,' and not even the divine workman of Olympus was more

skilled than they in all kinds of handicraft. The armour and weapons of

the gods, the chariots of the Asvins (deities of the dawn), the

thunderbolt and the lightning steed of Indra, were of their workmanship.

They made their old decrepid parents young and supple-jointed again. But

the feat for which they were most renowned is the revival of the

slaughtered cow on which the gods had feasted. Out of the hide alone

these wonder-working Ribhus reproduced the perfect living animal; and

this they did not once, but again and again. _In other words, out of a

small portion of the imperishable cloud that had melted away in rain

and seemed destroyed, they reproduced its whole form and substance._"

Similar feats were ascribed to the Northern thunder-god, Thor, whose

practice it was to kill the two buck goats that drew his car, cook them

for supper, and bring them to life again next morning by touching them

with his hammer.

Kelly further adds that in "the gloomy season of the winter solstice the

Ribhus _sleep for twelve days in the house of the sun-god Savitar_; then

they _wake up and prepare the earth to clothe itself anew with

vegetation, and the_ FROZEN WATERS TO FLOW _again_."

The tributaries of the Humber are remarkable on account of their

liabilities to sudden floods; and their constant recurrence, after long

periods of drought, would suggest to a primæval people the interference

of celestial beings which possessed the attributes assigned to these

Arbhus or Ribhus. Referring to the Greek form of this myth, Kelly

says:--

"We see how the cruder idea of the Ribhus sweeping trees and rocks in

wild dance before them by the force of their stormy song grew under the

beautifying touch of the Hellenic imagination into the legend of that

master of the lyre whose magic tones made _torrents pause and listen,

rocks and trees descend with delight from their mountain beds_, and

moved even Pluto's unrelenting heart to pity."

The estuary on the opposite coast of Britain to the Severn, now known as

the Wash, is called by Ptolemy, Metaris. May not this name have had,

originally, some connection with Varuna's friend Mithra? Kelly says:--

"When the sun was still a wheel, a store of gold, a swan or a flamingo,

an eagle, falcon, horse, and many other things, it was also the eye of

Varuna; just as amongst the Anglo-Saxons and other Germans it was held

to be the eye of Woden. Varuna and Mithra (the friend), _the god of

daylight_, used to sit together at morning on a golden throne, and

journey at even in a brazen car."

The sun, at the dawn at least, gilded the waves of the eastern estuary,

and shed its ruddier glow at evening on the western or Severn sea. Under

any interpretation, the coincidence of so many names and half-hidden

characteristics, to say the least, is very remarkable.

There is nothing extravagant in this attempt to show that the terms thus

applied conveyed both a literal, or earthly, as well as a figurative, or

celestial, meaning. All mythology is fashioned out of such materials.

Primitive languages are limited in the number of their words, and, of

necessity, are highly figurative. The tongues of all the North American

Indians, as well as those of the tribes of Aryan and Semitic origin,

markedly exhibit this peculiarity. Farrer, in his essay on the "Origin

of Language," says:--

"To call things which we have never seen before by the name of that

which most nearly resembles them is a practice of every-day life. That

children at first call all men 'father' and all women 'mother' is an

observation as old as Aristotle. The Romans gave the name of Lucanian

_ox_ to the elephant, and _camelopardus_ to the giraffe, just as the New

Zealanders are stated to have called horses _large dogs_. The astonished

Caffers gave the name of _cloud_ to the first parasol which they had

seen; and similar instances might be adduced almost indefinitely. They

prove that it is an instinct, if it be not a necessity, to borrow for

the unknown the names already used for things known."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The _Pall Mall Gazette_, of January, 1867, contained a paragraph

announcing the success which had attended the labours of M. Lejean, who

had been sent by the French government "on a journey of scientific

exploration to India and the Persian Gulf." M. Lejean, in a letter from

Abushehr (Bendershehr), reports to the French Minister of Public

Instruction, discoveries "of so extraordinary a nature," that the writer

in the _Gazette_ "scarcely likes to repeat them without further

confirmation." Amongst other matters, he says:--"They extend from the

oldest times to the Alexandrine period, and from the Arians to Buddhism.

He speaks of having discovered ante-Sanscrit idioms (_langues

paléo-ariennes_) 'still spoken between Kashmir and Afghanistan by the

mountain tribes,' and he undertakes to prove 'that these languages have

a more direct connection with the European languages than Sanscrit.'"

Should this prove correct, a careful analysis of this speech or tongue

may throw much light, either confirmative or otherwise, on many of the

more recondite questions discussed in this work.

[2] Baldwin, however, in his recent work, "Pre-historic Nations,"

contends that the Ph[oe]nicians, as well as the ancient Egyptians and

others, were descended from the old Cushite Arabs, and were therefore

"Hamitic" rather than "Semitic" in their origin.

[3] History of Preston and its Environs, p. 36.

[4] The Hindoo Trimürtti or Triad, namely, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,

likewise represents the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer.

[5] The falcon, as well as the eagle, was a "fire-bringer or

lightning-bird."

[6] "Varuna and the demon Vitri both derive their names from var, vri,

to cover, to enfold."

[7] Since the above was written, the Rev. G. W. Cox's "Mythology of the

Aryan Nations" has been published. At page 78, vol. 2, speaking of the

youth of Paris, the seducer of Helen, he says:--"In his early life he

has the love of Oinônê, the child of the river-god Kebrên, and thus a

being akin to the bright maidens who, like Athenê and Aphroditê, are

born from the waters." In a note he adds "that this name Kebrên is

probably the same as Severn, the intermediate forms leave little room

for doubting."

[8] Since the above was written, I have seen, in Captain Speke's

"Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile," the map of Eastern

Equatorial Africa, which accompanied a paper, published in the third

volume of "Asiatic Researches, in 1801." Speke, referring to this paper,

says:--"It was written by Lieutenant Wilford, from the 'Purans' of the

ancient Hindus.... It is remarkable that the Hindus have christened the

source of the Nile _Amara_, which is the name of a country at the

north-east corner of the Victoria N'yanza. This, I think, shows clearly,

that the ancient Hindus must have had some kind of communication with

both the northern and southern ends of the Victoria N'yanza." I find on

this map, on the west side of the inland sea styled "Lake of Amara or of

the Gods," a range of hills named "_Sitanta M^ts_." They are in close

contiguity to the "_Soma Giri_" or "Mountains of the Moon," and seem to

be a lower or inferior branch of that range, bordering upon the waters

of the great lake. This appears to be a further confirmation of the high

probability which exists that some of the very ancient local

nomenclature of Britain and Western Europe is of Eastern origin. Ptolemy

speaks not only of a people inhabiting the district of which Lancashire

forms a part, which he names the _Setantii_, but of a harbour on the

coast, the _Portus Setantiorum_, which I and others have fixed at the

Wyre. [See "History of Preston and its Environs." p. 36.]

[9] The second "Avatâra" of Vishnu was in the form of a tortoise, when

Vishnu placed himself under the mountain Mandara, while the gods and

demons churned the Milky Sea for ambrosia. This incarnation is called

the _Kurma_. This churning appears to have produced other miraculous

results. Amongst the "gifts" of the ocean on this auspicious occasion,

two especially fell to the share of Vishnu himself, namely, a miraculous

jewel, named _Kaustubha_, and S'rî, the goddess of Beauty and

Prosperity. The Venus of the Greeks was said to have been produced from

the foam of the sea, in the neighbourhood of the island _Cythera_, hence

one of the numerous appellations of the goddess--_Cytherea_.

[10] The modern Welsh word _aban_ signifies din, tumult, uproar.

Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore (Chiefly Lancashire and the North of England:) Their Affinity to Others in Widely-Distributed Localities; Their Eastern Origin and Mythical Significance. · 第 1 / 15 章