The World of Our Ancestors
"All Heals"--Influences of Cardinal Points--The Four Red
Divisions of the World--The Black North, White South, Purple
East, and Dun or Pale East--Good and Bad Words connected
with South and North--North the left, South the right, East
in front, and West behind--Cardinal Points Doctrine in
Burial Customs--Stone Circle Burials--Christian and Pagan
Burial Rites--Sunwise Customs--Raising the Devil in Stone
Circle--Coloured Winds--Coloured Stones raise Winds--The "God
Body" and "Spirit Husk"--Deities and Cardinal Points--Axis
of Stonehenge Avenue--God and Goddesses of Circle--Well
Worship--Lore of Druids.
The ancient superstitions dealt with in the previous chapter afford
us glimpses of the world in which our ancestors lived, and some idea
of the incentives that caused them to undertake long and perilous
journeys in search of articles of religious value. They were as
greatly concerned as are their descendants about their health and
their fate. Everything connected with the deity, or possessing, as
was believed, the influence of the deity, was valuable as a charm or
as medicine. The mistletoe berry was a famous medicine because it was
the fruit of a parasite supposed to contain the "life substance" of a
powerful deity. It was an "All Heal" or "Cure All",[154] yet it was
a quack medicine and quite useless. Red earth was "blood earth"; it
contained the animating principle too. Certain herbs were supposed
to be curative. Some herbs were, and in the course of time their
precise qualities were identified. But many of them continued in
use, although quite useless, because of the colour of their berries,
the shape of their leaves, or the position in which they grew. If
one red-berried plant was "lucky" or curative, all red-berried
plants shared in its reputation. It was because of the lore attached
to colours that dusky pearls were preferred to white pearls, just
as in Ceylon yellow pearls are chiefly favoured because yellow is
the sacred colour of the Buddhists. Richard of Cirencester,[155]
referring to Bede, says that British pearls are "often of the best
kind and of every colour: that is, red, purple, violet, green, but
principally white".
[154] Richard of Cirencester (fourteenth century) says the
mistletoe increased the number of animals, and was considered as
a specific against all poisons (Book I, Chap. IV).
[155] Book I. Chap. V.
In the lore of plants, in religious customs, including burial
customs, and in beliefs connected with the seasons, weather, and
sacred sites, there are traces of a doctrine based on the belief that
good or bad influences "flowed" from the cardinal points, just as
good or bad influences "flowed" from gems, metals, wood, and water.
When, for instance, certain herbs were pulled from the ground, it
was important that one should at the time of the operation be facing
the south. A love-enticing plant had to be plucked in this way, and
immediately before sunrise.
There was much superstition in weather lore, as the beliefs connected
with St. Swithin's Day indicate. Certain days were lucky for removals
in certain directions. Saturday was the day for flitting northward,
and Monday for flitting southward. Monday was "the key of the week".
An old Gaelic saying, repeated in various forms in folk stories, runs:
Shut the north window,
And quickly close the window to the south;
And shut the window facing west,
Evil never came from the east.
South-running water was "powerful" for working protective charms;
north-running water brought evil.
[Illustration: Diagram of the Gaelic Airts (Cardinal Points) and
their Associated Colours referred to in the text
Spring was connected with the east, summer with the south, autumn
with the west, and winter with the north.]
The idea behind these and other similar beliefs was that "the four
red divisions" or the "four brown divisions" of the world were
controlled by deities or groups of deities, whose influences for good
or evil were continually "flowing", and especially when winds were
blowing. A good deity sent a good wind, and a bad deity sent a bad
wind. Each wind was coloured. The north was the airt[156] (cardinal
point) of evil, misfortune, and bad luck, and was coloured black;
the south was the source of good luck, good fortune, summer, and
longevity, and was coloured white; the east was a specially sacred
airt, and was coloured purple-red, while the west was the airt of
death, and was coloured dun or pale. East and south and north and
west were connected. There were various colours for the subsidiary
points of the compass.
[156] This excellent Gaelic word is current in Scotland. Burns
uses it in the line, "O' a' the airts the wind can blaw".
This doctrine was a very ancient one, because we find that in the
Gaelic language the specially good words are based on the word for
the south, and the specially bad ones on the name for the north. In
Welsh and Gaelic the north is on the left hand and the south on the
right hand, the east in front, and the west behind. It is evident,
therefore, that the colour scheme of the cardinal points had a
connection with sun worship. A man who adored the rising sun faced
the east, and had the north on his left and the south on his right.
In early Christian Gaelic literature it is stated that on the Day
of Judgment the goats (sinners) will be sent to the north (the left
hand) and the sheep (the justified) to the south (the right hand).
The same system can be traced in burial customs. Many of the ancient
graves lie east and west. Graves that lie north and south may have
been those of the members of a different religious cult, but in some
cases it is found that the dead were placed in position so that they
faced the east. In the most ancient graves in Egypt men were laid on
their right sides with their feet directed towards the "red north"
and their faces towards the golden east. Women were laid on the left
sides facing the east. Red was in ancient Egypt the male colour, and
white and yellow the female colours; the feet of the men were towards
the red north and those of women towards the white or yellow south.
All ancient British burials were not made in accordance with
solar-cult customs. It can be shown, however, in some cases that,
although a burial custom may appear to be either of local or of
independent origin, the fundamental doctrine of which it was an
expression was the same as that behind other burial customs.
Reference may be made, by way of illustration, to the graves at the
stone circle of Hakpen Hill in the Avebury area. In the seventeenth
century a large number of skeletons were here unearthed. Dr. Toope of
Oxford, writing in 1685, has recorded in this connection:[157]
"About 80 yards from where the bones were found is a
temple,[158] 40 yards diameter, with another 15 yards; round
about bones layd so close that scul (skull) toucheth scul.
Their feet all round turned towards the temple, one foot below
the surface of the ground. At the feet of the first order lay
the head of the next row, the feet always tending towards the
temple."
[157] Quoted by Sir H. Colt Hoare in _Ancient Wiltshire_, II. p.
63.
[158] Stone circle.
Here the stone circle is apparently the symbol of the sun and the
"Mecca" from which the good influence or "luck" of the sun emanated
and gave protection. One seems to come into touch with the influence
of an organized priesthood in this stone circle burial custom.
The more ancient custom of burying the dead so that the influences
of the airts might be exercised upon them according to their deserts
seems, however, to have been deep-rooted and persistent. In England,
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland the custom obtained until recently of
reserving the north side of a churchyard for suicides and murderers;
the "black north" was the proper place for such wrong-doers, who
were refused Christian rites of burial, and were interred according
to traditional pagan customs. The east was reserved chiefly for
ecclesiastics, the south for the upper classes, and the west for the
poorer classes. Funeral processions still enter the older churchyards
from the east, and proceed in the direction of the sun towards the
open graves. Suicides and murderers were carried in the opposite
direction ("withershins about").[159] The custom of dealing out cards
"sunwise", of stirring food "sunwise", and other customs in which
turning to the right (the south) is observed, appear to be relics of
the ancient belief in the influences of the airts. Some fishermen
still consider it unlucky to turn their boats "against the sun".
It was anciently believed, as references in old ballads indicate,
that a tempest-stricken vessel turned round three times against the
sun before it sank. According to a belief that has survival in some
parts of the north of Scotland, the devil will appear in the centre
of a stone circle if one walks round it three times "against the
sun" at midnight. Among the ancient Irish warriors, Professor W. J.
Watson tells me, it was a mark of hostile intent to drive round a
fort keeping the left hand towards it. The early Christian custom of
circulating chapels and dwelling-houses "sunwise" was based on the
pagan belief that good influences were conjured in this way.
[159] In Gaelic _deis-iùil_ means a turning sunwise (by the right
or south) from east to west, and _tual_, i.e. _tuath-iùil_, a
turning by the north or left from east to west. _Deis_ is the
genitive of _Deas_ (south, right hand), and _Tuath_ is north or
left hand.
As the winds were coloured like the airts from which they blew, it
was believed that they could be influenced by coloured objects. In
his description of the Western Isles, Martin, a seventeenth century
writer, referring to the Fladda Chuan Island, relates:
"There is a chapel in the isle dedicated to St. Columba. It has
an altar in the east end and therein a blue stone of a round
form on it, which is always moist. It is an ordinary custom,
when any of the fishermen are detained in the isle by contrary
winds, to wash the blue stone with water all round, expecting
thereby to procure a favourable wind.... And so great is the
regard they have for this stone, that they swear decisive oaths
upon it."
[Illustration:
Valentine
ONE OF THE GREAT TRI-LITHONS, STONEHENGE
(see page 174)]
The moist stone had an indwelling spirit, and was therefore a
holy object which made vows and agreements of binding character. In
Japan a stone of this kind is called _shintai_ ("god body"). The
Gaelic name for a god body is "_cuach anama_" ("soul shrine", or
"spirit-case", or "spirit-husk"). _Coich na cno_ is the shell of
a nut. The Chinese believe that moist and coloured stones are the
"eggs" of weather-controlling dragons.
The connection between blue and the mother goddess is of great
antiquity. Imitation cowries and other shells in blue enamelled
terra-cotta have been found in Egyptian graves. Blue was the colour
of the "luck stone" of Hathor, the sky and water goddess whose
symbols included the cowrie. The Brigantes of ancient Britain had,
according to Seneca, blue shields. Shields were connected with the
goddess of war. In Gaelic, blue is the luck colour for womens'
clothing.[160] English and Scottish fishermen still use blue as a
mourning colour. When a death takes place, a blue line is painted
round a fishing-boat. The desire for protection by invoking the blue
goddess probably gave origin to this custom.
[160] The following stanza is from the "Book of Ballymote":
Mottled to simpletons; blue to women;
Crimson to kings of every host;
Green and black to noble laymen;
White to clerics of proper devotion.
As influences came from the coloured airts, so did the great deities
and the groups of minor deities associated with them. The god Lugh,
for instance, always comes in the old stories from the north-east,
while the goddess Morrigan comes from the north-west.[161] The fierce
wind-raising Scottish goddess of spring comes from the south-west.
All over Britain the fairies come from the west and on eddies of wind
like the Greek nereids. In Scotland the evil-working giants come
from the black north. It was believed that the dead went westward
or south-westward towards Paradise. The fact that the axis of
Stonehenge circle and avenue points to the north-east is of special
interest when we find that the god Lugh, a Celtic Apollo, came from
that airt. Either Lugh, or a god like him, may have been invoked to
come through the avenue or to send his influence through it, while
the priests walked in procession round the circle sunwise. Apparently
the south-west part of the circle, with its great trilithons,
resembling the portals of the goddess Artemis, was specially
consecrated to a goddess like the Scottish Cailleach ("Old Wife")
who had herds of wild animals, protected deer from huntsmen, raised
storms, and transformed herself into a standing stone. The Gaulish
goddess Ro-smerta ("very smeared") is regularly associated with the
god identified with Mercury. The god Smertullis is equated with Essus
(the war god) by d'Arbois de Jubainville.
[161] In the Cuchullin Saga Lugh is "a lone man out of the
north-eastern quarter". When the cry of another supernatural
being is heard, Cuchullin asks from which direction it came. He
is told "from the north-west". The goddess Morrigan then appeared.
The differently coloured winds were divine influences and revealed
their characters by their colours. It was apparently because water
was impregnated with the influences of the deities that wind and
water beliefs were closely associated. Holy and curative wells
and sacred rivers and lakes were numerous in ancient Britain and
Ireland. Offerings made at wells were offerings made to a deity.
These offerings might be gold and silver, as was the case in Gaul,
or simply pins of copper. A good many wells are still known as "pin
wells" and "penny wells". The metals and pearls and precious stones
supposed to contain vital substance were offered to the deities so
as to animate them. The images of gods were painted red for the same
reason, or sacrifices were offered and their altars drenched with
blood. In Ireland children were sacrificed to a god called Crom
Cruach and exchanged for milk and corn. As a Gaelic poem records:
Great was the horror and the scare of him.
The ancient doctrines of which faint or fragmentary traces survive
in Britain and Ireland may have been similar to those taught by the
Druids in Gaul. According to Pomponius Mela, these sages professed to
know the secrets of the motions of the heavenly bodies and the will
of the gods.[162] Strabo's statement that the Druids believed that
"human souls and the world were immortal, but that fire and water
would sometime prevail" is somewhat obscure. It may be, however, that
light is thrown on the underlying doctrine by the evidence given in
the next chapter regarding the beliefs that fire, water, and trees
were intimately connected with the chief deity.
[162] In a Cuchullin saga the hero, addressing the charioteer,
says: "Go out, my friend, observe the stars of the air, and
ascertain when midnight comes". The Irish Gaelic _grien-tairisem_
is given in an eighth-or ninth-century gloss. It means
"sun-standing", and refers to the summer solstice.