The Lore of Charms
The Meaning of "Luck"--Symbolism of Charms--Colour
Symbolism--Death as a Change--Food and Charms for the Dead--The
Lucky Pearl--Pearl Goddess--Moon as "Pearl of Heaven"--Sky
Goddess connected with Pearls, Groves, and Wells--Night-shining
Jewels--Pearl and Coral as "Life Givers"--The Morrigan and
Morgan le Fay--Goddess Freyja and Jewels--Amber connected
with Goddess and Boar--"Soul Substance" in Amber, Jet, Coral,
&c.--Enamel as Substitute for Coral, &c.--Precious Metal and
Precious Stones--Goddess of Life and Law--Pearl as a Standard
of Value in Gaelic Trade.
Our ancestors were greatly concerned about their luck. They consulted
oracles to discover what luck was in store for them. To them luck
meant everything they most desired--good health, good fortune,
an abundant food supply, and protection against drowning, wounds
in battle, accidents, and so on. Luck was ensured by performing
ceremonies and wearing charms. Some ceremonies were performed round
sacred bon-fires (bone fires), when sacrifices were made, at holy
wells, in groves, or in stone circles. Charms included precious
stones, coloured stones, pearls, and articles of silver, gold,
or copper of symbolic shape, or bearing an image or inscription.
Mascots, "lucky pigs", &c., are relics of the ancient custom of
wearing charms.
The colour as well as the shape of a charm revealed its particular
influence. Certain colours are still regarded as being lucky or
unlucky ("yellow is forsaken" some say). In ancient times colours
meant much to the Britons, as they did to other peoples. This
fact is brought out in many tales and customs. A Welsh story, for
instance, which refers to the appearance of supernatural beings
attired in red and blue, says, "The red on the one part signifies
burning, and the blue on the other signifies coldness".[135]
[135] Lady Charlotte Guest, _The Mabinogion_ (Story of "Kilwch
and Olwen" and note on "Gwyn the son of Nudd").
On their persisting belief in luck were based the religious ideas and
practices of the ancient Britons. Their chief concern was to protect
and prolong life in this world and in the next. When death came it
was regarded as "a change". The individual was supposed either to
fall asleep, or to be transported in the body to Paradise, or to
assume a new form. In Scottish Gaelic one can still hear the phrase
_chaochail e_ ("he changed") used to signify that "he died".[136]
But after death charms were as necessary as during life. As in
Aurignacian times, luck-charms in the form of necklaces, armlets,
&c., were placed in the graves of the dead by those who used flint,
or bronze, or iron to shape implements and weapons. The dead had to
receive nourishment, and clay vessels are invariably found in ancient
graves, some of which contain dusty deposits. The writer has seen at
Fortrose a deposit in one of these grave urns, which a medical man
identified as part of the skeleton of a bird.
[136] Also _shiubhail e_ which signifies "he went off" (as when
walking).
Necklaces of shells, of wild animals' teeth, and ornaments of ivory
found in Palæolithic graves or burial caves were connected with
the belief that they contained the animating influence or "life
substance" of the mother goddess. In later times the pearl found in
the shell was regarded as being specially sacred.
Venus (Aphrodite) is, in one of her phases, the personification of
a pearl, and is lifted from the sea seated on a shell. As a sky
deity she was connected with the planet that bears her name[137]
and also with the moon. The ancients connected the moon with the
pearl. In some languages the moon is the "pearl of heaven". Dante,
in his _Inferno_, refers to the moon as "the eternal pearl". One of
the Gaelic names for a pearl is _neamhnuid_. The root is _nem_ of
_neamh_, and _neamh_ is "heaven", so that the pearl is "a heavenly
thing" in Gaelic, as in other ancient languages. It was associated
not only with the sky goddess but with the sacred grove in which
the goddess was worshipped. The Gaulish name _nemeton_, of which
the root is likewise _nem_, means "shrine in a grove". In early
Christian times in Ireland the name was applied as _nemed_ to a
chapel, and in Scottish place-names[138] it survives in the form of
_neimhidh_, "church-land", the Englished forms of which are _Navity_,
near Cromarty, _Navaty_ in Fife, "Rosneath", formerly Rosneveth
(the promontory of the _nemed_), "Dalnavie" (dale of the _nemed_),
"Cnocnavie" (hillock of the _nemed_), Inchnavie (island of the
_nemed_), &c. The Gauls had a _nemetomarus_ ("great shrine"), and
when in Roman times a shrine was dedicated to Augustus it was called
_Augustonemeton_. The root _nem_ is in the Latin word _nemus_ (a
grove). It was apparently because the goddess of the grove was the
goddess of the sky and of the pearl, and the goddess of battle as
well as the goddess of love, that Julius Cæsar made a thanksgiving
offering to Venus in her temple at Rome of a corslet of British
pearls.
[137] When depicted with star-spangled garments she was the
goddess of the starry sky ("Milky Way") like the Egyptian Hathor
or Nut.
[138] Professor W. J. Watson, _Place-names of Ross and Cromarty_,
pp. 62-3.
The Irish goddess Nemon was the spouse of the war god Neit. A Roman
inscription at Bath refers to the British goddess N[)e]m[)e]t[)o]na.
The Gauls had a goddess of similar name. In Galatia, Asia Minor, the
particular tree connected with the sky goddess was the oak, as is
shown by the name of their religious centre which was _Dru-nemeton_
("Oak-grove"). It will be shown in a later chapter that the sacred
tree was connected with the sky and the deities of the sky, with the
sacred wells and rivers, with the sacred fish, and with the fire,
the sun, and lightning. Here it may be noted that the sacred well is
connected with the holy grove, the sky, the pearl, and the mother
goddess in the Irish place-name _Neamhnach_ (Navnagh),[139] applied
to the well from which flows the stream of the Nith. The well is
thus, like the pearl, "the heavenly one". The root _nem_ of _neamh_
(heaven) is found in the name of St. Brendan's mother, who was called
_Neamhnat_ (Navnat), which means "little" or "dear heavenly one".
In _neamhan_ ("raven" and "crow") the bird form of the deity is
enshrined.
[139] Dr. Joyce, _Irish Names of Places_, Vol. I, p. 375.
[Illustration:
Upper picture by courtesy of Director, British School of Rome
MEGALITHS
Upper: Dolmen near Birori, Sardinia. Lower: Tynewydd Dolmen.]
Owing to its connection with the moon, the pearl was supposed to
shine by night. The same peculiarity was attributed to certain
sacred stones, to coral, jade, &c., and to ivory. Munster people
perpetuate the belief that "at the bottom of the lower lake of
Killarney there is a diamond of priceless value, which sometimes
shines so brightly that on certain nights the light bursts forth with
dazzling brilliancy through the dark waters".[140] Night-shining
jewels are known in Scotland. One is suppose to shine on Arthur's
Seat, Edinburgh, and another on the north "souter" of the Cromarty
Firth.[141] Another sacred stone connected with the goddess was the
onyx, which in ancient Gaelic is called _nem_. Night-shining jewels
are referred to in the myths of Greece, Arabia, Persia, India,
China, Japan, &c. Laufer has shown that the Chinese received their
lore about the night-shining diamond from "Fu-lin" (the Byzantine
Empire).[142]
[140] _Ibid._, Vol. II, p. 378.
[141] The two headlands, the "souters" or "sutors", are supposed
to have been so called because they were sites of tanneries.
[142] _The Diamond_ (Chicago, 1915).
The ancient pearl-fishers spread their pearl-lore far and wide. It
is told in more than one land that pearls are formed by dew-drops
from the sky. Pliny says the dew-or rain-drops fall into the shells
of the pearl-oyster when it gapes.[143] In modern times the belief
is that pearls are the congealed tears of the angels. In Greece the
pearl was called _margaritoe_, a name which survives in Margaret,
anciently the name of a goddess. The old Persian name for pearl is
_margan_, which signifies "life giver". It is possible that this is
the original meaning of the name of Morgan le Fay (Morgan the Fairy),
who is remembered as the sister of King Arthur, and of the Irish
goddess Morrigan, usually Englished as "Sea-queen" (the sea as the
source of life), or "great queen". At any rate, Morgan le Fay and the
Morrigan closely resemble one another. In Italian we meet with Fata
Morgana.
[143] _Natural History_, Book IX. Chap. LIV.
The old Persian word for coral is likewise _margan_. Coral was
supposed to be a tree, and it was regarded as the sea-tree of the
sea and sky goddess. Amber was connected, too, with the goddess. In
northern mythology, amber, pearls, precious stones, and precious
metals were supposed to be congealed forms of the tears of the
goddess Freyja, the Venus of the Scandinavians.
Amber, like pearls, was sacred to the mother goddess because her life
substance (the animating principle) was supposed to be concentrated
in it. The connection between the precious or sacred amber and the
goddess and her cult animal is brought out in a reference made by
Tacitus to the amber collectors and traders on the southern shore
of the Baltic. These are the Æstyans, who, according to Tacitus,
were costumed like the Swedes, but spoke a language resembling the
dialect of the Britons. "They worship", the historian records,
"the mother of the gods. The figure of a wild boar is the symbol
of their superstition; and he who has that emblem about him thinks
himself secure even in the thickest ranks of the enemy without any
need of arms or any other mode of defence."[144] The animal of the
amber goddess was thus the boar, which was the sacred animal of the
Celtic tribe, the Iceni of ancient Britain, which under Boadicea
revolted against Roman rule. The symbol of the boar (remembered as
the "lucky pig") is found on ancient British armour. On the famous
Witham shield there are coral and enamel. Three bronze boar symbols
found in a field at Hounslow are preserved in the British Museum. In
the same field was found a solar-wheel symbol. "The boar frequently
occurs in British and Gaulish coins of the period, and examples have
been found as far off as Gurina and Transylvania."[145] Other sacred
cult animals were connected with the goddess by those people who
fished for pearls and coral or searched for sacred precious stones or
precious metals.
[144] Tacitus, _Manners of the Germans_, Chap. XLV.
[145] _British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron
Age_, pp. 135-6.
At the basis of the ancient religious system that connected coral,
shells, and pearls with the mother goddess of the sea, wells, rivers,
and lakes, was the belief that all life had its origin in water.
Pearls, amber, marsh plants, and animals connected with water were
supposed to be closely associated with the goddess who herself had
had her origin in water. Tacitus tells that the Baltic worshippers
of the mother goddess called amber _glesse_. According to Pliny[146]
it was called _glessum_ by the Germans, and he tells that one of
the Baltic islands famous for its amber was named _Glessaria_. The
root is the Celtic word _glas_, which originally meant "water" and
especially life-giving water. Boece (_Cosmographie_, Chapter XV)
tells that in Scotland the belief prevailed that amber was generated
of sea-froth. It thus had its origin like Aphrodite. _Glas_ is now a
colour term in Welsh and Gaelic, signifying green or grey, or even
a shade of blue. It was anciently used to denote vigour, as in the
term _Gaidheal glas_ ("the vigorous Gael" or "the ambered Gael", the
vigour being derived from the goddess of amber and the sea); and in
the Latinized form of the old British name Cuneglasos, which like the
Irish Conglas signified "vigorous hound".[147] Here the sacred hound
figures in place of the sacred boar.
[146] _Natural History_, Book XXXVIII, Chapter III.
[147] Rhys rejects the view of Gildas that "Cuneglasos" meant
"tawny butcher".
From the root _glas_ comes also _glaisin_, the Gaelic name for woad,
the blue dyestuff with which ancient Britons and Gaels stained or
tattooed their bodies with figures of sacred animals or symbols,[148]
apparently to secure protection as did those who had the boar symbol
on their armour. For the same reason Cuchullin, the Irish Achilles,
wore pearls in his hair, and the Roman Emperor Caligula had a pearl
collar on his favourite horse. Ice being a form of water is in French
_glacé_, which also means "glass". When glass beads were first
manufactured they were regarded, like amber, as depositories of "life
substance" from the water goddess who, as sky goddess, was connected
with sun and fire. Her fire melted the constituents of glass into
liquid form, and it hardened like jewels and amber. These beads
were called "adder stones" (Welsh _glain neidre_ and "Druid's gem"
or "glass"--in Welsh _Gleini na Droedh_ and in Gaelic _Glaine nan
Druidhe_).
[148] Herodian, Lib. III, says of the inhabitants of Caledonia,
"They mark their bodies with various pictures of all manner of
animals".
A special peculiarity about amber is that when rubbed vigorously
it attracts or lifts light articles. That is why it is called in
Persian Kahruba (_Kah_, straw; _ruba_, to lift). This name appears in
modern French as _carabé_ (yellow amber). In Italian, Spanish, and
Portuguese it is _carabe_. No doubt the early peoples, who gathered
Adriatic and Baltic amber and distributed it and its lore far and
wide, discovered this peculiar quality in the sacred substance. In
Britain, jet was used in the same way as amber for luck charms and
ornaments. Like amber it becomes negatively electric by friction.
Bede appears to have believed that jet was possessed of special
virtue. "When heated", he says, "it drives away serpents."[149] The
Romans regarded jet as a depository of supernatural power[150] and
used it for ornaments. Until comparatively recently jet was used in
Scotland as a charm against witchcraft, the evil eye, &c. "A ring
of hard black schistus found in a cairn in the parish of Inchinan",
writes a local Scottish historian, "has performed, if we believe
report, many astonishing cures."[151] Albertite, which, like jet and
amber, attracts light articles when vigorously rubbed, was made into
ornaments. It takes on a finer lustre than jet but loses it sooner.
[149] Book I. Chapter I.
[150] Pliny, Lib. XXXVI. cap. 34.
[151] Ure's _History of Rutherglen and Kilbride_, p. 219.
The fact that jet, albertite, and other black substances were
supposed to be specially efficacious for protecting black horses and
cattle is of peculiar interest. Hathor, the cow goddess of Egypt,
had a black as well as a white form as goddess of the night sky
and death. She was the prototype of the black Aphrodite (Venus).
In Scotland a black goddess (the _nigra dea_ in Adamnan's _Life of
Columba_) was associated with Loch Lochy.
The use of coral as a sacred substance did not begin in Britain until
the knowledge of iron working was introduced. Coral is not found
nearer than the Mediterranean. The people who first brought it to
Britain must have received it and the beliefs attached to it from the
Mediterranean area. Before reaching Britain they had begun to make
imitation coral. The substitute was enamel, which required for its
manufacture great skill and considerable knowledge, furnaces capable
of generating an intense heat being necessary. It is inconceivable
that so expensive a material could have been produced except for
religious purposes. The warriors apparently believed that coral and
its substitutes protected them as did amber and the boar symbol of
the mother goddess.
At first red enamel was used as a substitute for red coral, but
ultimately blue, yellow, and white enamels were produced. Sometimes
we find, as at Traprain in Scotland, that silver took the place of
white enamel. It is possible that blue enamel was a substitute for
turquoise and lapis lazuli, the precious stones associated with the
mother goddesses of Hathor type, and that yellow and white enamels
were substitutes for yellow and white amber. The Greeks called white
amber "electrum". The symbolism of gold and silver links closely
with that of amber. Possibly the various sacred substances and their
substitutes were supposed to protect different parts of the body.
As much is suggested, for instance, by the lingering belief that
amber protects and strengthens the eyes. The solar cult connected
the ear and the ear-ring with the sun, which was one of the "eyes"
of the world-deity, the other "eye" being the moon. When human ears
were pierced, the blood drops were offered to the sun-god. Sailors
of a past generation clung to the ancient notion that gold ear-rings
exercised a beneficial influence on their eyes. Not only the colours
of luck objects, but their shapes were supposed to ensure luck. The
Swashtika symbol, the U-form, the S-form, and 8-form symbols, the
spiral, the leaf-shaped and equal-limbed crosses, &c., were supposed
to "attract" and "radiate" the influence of the deity. Thus Buddhists
accumulate religious "merit" not only by fasting and praying, but by
making collections of jewels and symbols.
In Britain, as in other countries, the deity was closely associated
as an influence with law. A Roman inscription on a slab found at
Carvoran refers to the mother goddess "poising life and laws in a
balance". This was Ceres, whose worship had been introduced during
the Roman period, but similar beliefs were attached to the ancient
goddesses of Britain. Vows were taken over objects sacred to her, and
sacred objects were used as mediums of exchange. In old Gaelic, for
instance, a jewel or pearl was called a _set_; in modern Gaelic it is
_sed_ (pronounced _shade_). A _set_ (pearl) was equal in value to an
ounce of gold and to a cow. An ounce of gold was therefore a _set_
and a cow was a _set_, too. Three _sets_ was the value of a bondmaid.
The value of three sets was one _cumal_. Another standard of value
was a sack of corn (_miach_).[152]
[152] Joyce, _A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland_, p.
478.
The value attached to gold and pearls was originally magical.
Jewels and precious metals were searched for for to bring wearers
"luck"--that is, everything their hearts desired. The search for
these promoted trade, and the _sets_ were used as a standard of value
between traders. Thus not only religious systems, but even the early
systems of trade were closely connected with the persistent belief in
luck and the deity who was the source of luck.[153]
[153] Professor W. J. Watson has drawn my attention to an
interesting reference to amber. In the _Proceedings of the
British Academy_, Vol. II, p. 18, under "Celtic Inscriptions of
France and Italy", Sir John Rhys deals with Vebrumaros, a man's
name. The second element in this name is _m[=a]ros_ (great); the
first, _uebru_, "is perhaps to be explained by reference to the
Welsh word _gwefr_ (amber)". Rhys thought the name meant that the
man was distinguished for his display of amber "in the adornment
of his person". The name had probably a deeper significance.
Amber was closely associated with the mother goddess. One of her
names may have been "Uebru". She personified amber.