Why Trees and Wells were Worshipped
Ancient British Idols--Pagan Temples--Animism and Goddess
Worship--Trees and Wells connected with Sky--Life Principle in
Water--Sacred Berries, Nuts, and Acorns--Parasite as "King of
Trees"--Fire-making Beliefs--Tree and Thunder-god--The Sacred
Fish--Salmon as form of the Dragon--The Dragon Jewel--Celtic
Dragon Myth--The Salmon and the Solar Ring--Polycrates
Story--The St. Mungo Legends--Glasgow Coat of Arms--Holy Fire
from the Hazel--Hunting the Wren, Robin, and Mouse--Mouse
Lore and Mouse Deity--Mouse-Apollo in Britain--Goddess Bride
or Brigit--The Brigantian Chief Deity--Goddess of Fire,
Healing, Smith-work, and Poetry--Bride's Bird, Tree, and
Well--Mythical Serpents--Soul Forms--Souls in Reptiles,
Animals, and Trees--Were-animals--The Butterfly Deity--Souls as
Butterflies--Souls as Bees--a Hebridean Sea-god.
Gildas, a sixth-century churchman, tells us that the idols in ancient
Britain "almost surpassed in number those of Egypt". That he did not
refer merely to standing stones, which, as we have seen, were "idols"
to the Gaels, is evident from his precise statements that some idols
could be seen in his day "mouldering away within or without the
deserted temples", and that they had "stiff and deformed features".
"Mouldering" suggests wood. Gildas states further that besides
worshipping idols the British pagans were wont to pay "divine honour"
to hills and wells and rivers. Reference is made in the _Life of
Columba_ to a well which was worshipped as a god.
The British temples are referred to also by Pope Gregory the Great,
who in a.d. 601 addressed a letter to Abbot Mellitus, then on a
mission to England, giving him instructions for the guidance of
Augustine of Canterbury. The Pope did not wish to have the heathen
buildings destroyed, "for", he wrote, "if those are well constructed,
it is requisite that they can be converted from the worship of demons
to the service of the true God.... Let the idols that are in them be
destroyed."[163]
[163] Bede, _Historia Ecclesiastica_, Lib. I, cap. 30.
The temples in question may have been those erected during the
Romano-British period. One which stood at Canterbury was taken
possession of by St. Augustine after the conversion of King
Ethelbert, who had worshipped idols in it. The Celtic peoples may,
however, have had temples before the Roman invasion. At any rate
there were temples as well as sacred groves in Gaul. Poseidonius of
Apamea refers to a temple at Toulouse which was greatly revered and
richly endowed by the gifts of numerous donors. These gifts included
"large quantities of gold consecrated to the gods". The Druids
crucified human victims who were sacrificed within their temples.
Diodorus Siculus refers as follows to a famous temple in Britain:
"There is in that island a magnificent temple of Apollo and a
circular shrine, adorned with votive offerings and tablets with
Greek inscriptions suspended by travellers upon the walls. The
kings of that city and rulers of the temples are the Boreads
who take up the government from each other according to the
order of their tribes. The citizens are given up to music,
harping and chaunting in honour of the sun."
Some writers have identified this temple with Stonehenge circle.
Layamon informs us in his _Brute_, however, that the temple of Apollo
was situated in London. Of course there may have been several temples
to this god or the British deity identified with him.
It may be that the stone circles were regarded as temples. It may be,
too, that temples constructed of wattles and clay were associated
with the circles. In Pope Gregory's letter reference is made to the
custom of constructing on festival days "tabernacles of branches of
trees around those churches which have been changed from heathen
temples", and to the pagan custom of slaying "oxen in sacrifices to
demons". Pytheas refers to a temple on an island opposite the mouth
of the Loire. This island was inhabited by women only, and once a
year they unroofed and reroofed their temple. In the Hebrides the
annual custom of unroofing and reroofing thatched houses is not yet
obsolete; it may originally have had a religious significance.
Gildas's reference to the worship of hills, wells, and rivers is
by some writers regarded as evidence of the existence in ancient
Britain of the "primitive belief" in spirits. This stage of religious
culture is called Animism (Spiritism). The discovery, however, that
a goddess was worshipped in Aurignacian times by the Crô-Magnon
peoples in Western Europe suggests that Animistic beliefs were
not necessarily as ancient as has been assumed. It may be that
what we know as Animism was a product of a later period when there
arose somewhat complex ideas about the soul or the various souls
in man, and the belief became widespread that souls could not only
transform themselves into animal shapes, but could enter statues
and gravestones. This conception may have been confused with
earlier ideas about stones, shells, &c., being impregnated with
"life substance" (the animating principle) derived from the mother
goddess. Backward peoples, who adopted complex religious beliefs
that had grown up in centres of civilization, may not always have
had a complete understanding of their significance. It is difficult
to believe that even savages, who adopted the boats invented in
Egypt from those peoples that came into touch with them, were always
entirely immune to other cultural influences, and retained for
thousands of years the beliefs supposed to be appropriate for those
who were in the "Stone Age".
Our concern here is with the ancient Britons. It is unnecessary for
us to glean evidence from Australia, South America, or Central Africa
to ascertain the character of their early religious conceptions
and practices. There is sufficient local evidence to show that a
definite body of beliefs lay behind their worship of trees, rivers,
lakes, wells, standing stones, and of the sun, moon, and stars. Our
ancestors do not appear to have worshipped natural objects either
because they were beautiful or impressive, but chiefly because they
were supposed to contain influences which affected mankind either
directly or indirectly. These influences were supposed to be under
divine control, and to emanate, in the first place, from one deity or
another, or from groups of deities. A god or goddess was worshipped
whether his or her influence was good or bad. The deity who sent
disease, for instance, was believed to be the controller of disease,
and to him or her offerings were made so that a plague might cease.
Thus in the _Iliad_ offerings are made to the god Mouse-Apollo, who
had caused an epidemic of disease.
Trees and wells were connected with the sky and the heavenly bodies.
The deity who caused thunder and lightning had his habitation at
times in the oak, the fir, the rowan, the hazel, or some other tree.
He was the controller of the elements. There are references in Gaelic
charms to "the King of the Elements".
The belief in an intimate connection between a well, a tree, and the
sky appears to have been a product of a quaint but not unintelligent
process of reasoning.[164] The early folk were thinkers, but their
reasoning was confined within the limits of their knowledge, and
biassed by preconceived ideas. To them water was the source of all
life. It fell from the sky as rain, or bubbled up from the underworld
to form a well from which a stream flowed. The well was the mother
of the stream, and the stream was the mother of the lake. It was
believed that the well-water was specially impregnated with the
influences that sustained life. The tree that grew beside the well
was nourished by it. If this tree was a rowan, its red berries were
supposed to contain in concentrated form the animating influence of
the deity; the berries cured diseases, and thus renewed youth, or
protected those who used them as charms against evil influences. They
were luck-berries. If the tree was a hazel, its nuts were similarly
efficacious; if an oak, its acorns were regarded likewise as
luck-bringers. The parasitic plant that grew on the tree was supposed
to be stronger and more influential than the tree itself. This
belief, which is so contrary to our way of thinking, is accounted for
in an old Gaelic story in which a supernatural being says:
"O man that for Fergus of the feasts dost kindle fire ... never
burn the King of the Woods. Monarch of Innisfail's forest the
woodbine is, whom none may hold captive; no feeble sovereign's
effort it is to hug all tough trees in his embrace."
[164] Of course it does not follow that the reasoning originally
took place in these islands. Complex beliefs were imported at an
early period. These were localized.
The weakly parasite was thus regarded as being very powerful. That
may be the reason why the mistletoe was reverenced, and why its
milk-white berries were supposed to have curative and life-prolonging
qualities.
Although the sacred parasite was not used for firewood, it served
as a fire-producer. Two fire-sticks, one from the soft parasite and
one from the hard wood of the tree to which it clung, were rubbed
together until sparks issued forth and fell on dry leaves or dry
grass. The sparks were blown until a flame sprang up. At this flame
of holy fire the people kindled their brands, which they carried
to their houses. The house fires were extinguished once a year and
relit from the sacred flames. Fire was itself a deity, and the deity
was "fed" with fuel. "Need fires" (new fires)[165] were kindled
at festivals so that cattle and human beings might be charmed
against injury. These festivals were held four times a year, and
the "new-fire" custom lingers in those districts where New Year's
Day, Midsummer, May Day, and Hallowe'en bon-fires are still being
regularly kindled.
[165] In Gaelic these are called "friction fires".
The fact that fire came from a tree induced the early people to
believe that it was connected with lightning, and therefore with the
sky god who thundered in the heavens. This god was supposed to wield
a thunder-axe or thunder-hammer with which he smote the sky (believed
to be solid) or the hills. With his axe or hammer he shaped the
"world house".
In Scotland, a goddess, who is remembered as "the old wife",[166]
was supposed to wield the hammer, or to ride across the sky on a
cloud and throw down "fire-balls" that set the woods in flame. Here
we find, probably as a result of culture mixing, a fusion of beliefs
connected with the thunder god and the mother goddess.
[166] According to some, Isis is a rendering of a Libyan name
meaning "old wife".
Rain fell when the sky deity sent thunder and lightning. To early
man, who took fire from a tree which was nourished by a well, fire
and water seemed to be intimately connected.[167] The red berries
on the sacred tree were supposed to contain fire, or the essence of
fire. When he made rowan-berry wine, he regarded it as "fire water"
or "the water of life". He drank it, and thus introduced into his
blood fire which stimulated him. In his blood was "the vital spark".
When he died the blood grew cold, because the "vital spark" had
departed from it.
[167] This connection can be traced in ancient Egypt. The sun
and fire were connected, and the sun originally rose from the
primordial waters. The sun's rays were the "tears" of Ra (the sun
god). Herbs and trees sprang up where Ra's tears fell.
In the water fire lived in another form. Fish were found to be
phosphorescent. The fish in the pool was at any rate regarded as a
form of the deity who nourished life and was the origin of life. A
specially sacred fish was the salmon. It was observed that this fish
had red spots, and these were accounted for by the myth that the red
berries or nuts from the holy tree dropped into the well and were
swallowed by the salmon. The "chief" or "king" of the salmon was
called "the salmon of wisdom". If one caught the "salmon of wisdom"
and, when roasting it, tasted the first portion of juice that came
from its body, one obtained a special instalment of concentrated
wisdom, and became a seer, or magician, or Druid.
The salmon was reverenced also because it was a migratory fish. Its
comings and goings were regular as the seasons, and seemed to be
controlled by the ruler of the elements with whom it was intimately
connected. One of its old Gaelic names was _orc_ (pig). It was
evidently connected with that animal; the sea-pig was possibly a form
of the deity. The porpoise was also an _orc_.[168]
[168] So was a whale. The Latin orca is a Celtic loan-word.
Milton uses the Celtic whale-name in the line
The haunt of seals, and orca, and sea-mews' clang.
--_Paradise Lost_, Book XI, line 835.
Hidden in the well lay a great monster which in Gaelic and Welsh
stories is referred to as "the beast", "the serpent", or "the great
worm". Ultimately it was identified with the dragon with fiery
breath. An Irish story connects the salmon and dragon. It tells that
a harper named Cliach, who had the powers of a Druid, kept playing
his harp until a lake sprang up. This lake was visited by a goddess
and her attendants, who had assumed the forms of beautiful birds. It
was called Loch Bél Seád ("lake of the jewel mouth") because pearls
were found in it, and Loch Crotto Cliach ("lake of Cliach's harps").
Another name was Loch Bél Dragain ("dragon-mouth lake"), because
Ternog's nurse caught "a fiery dragon in the shape of a salmon"
and she was induced to throw this salmon into the loch. The early
Christian addition to the legend runs: "And it is that dragon that
will come in the festival of St. John, near the end of the world,
in the reign of Flann Cinaidh. And it is of it and out of it shall
grow the fiery bolt which will kill three-fourth of the people of the
world."[169] Here fire is connected with the salmon.
[169] O'Curry, _Manuscript Materials_, pp. 426-7.
The salmon which could transform itself into a great monster guarded
the tree and its life-giving berries and the treasure offered to
the deity of the well. Apparently its own strength was supposed
to be derived from or concentrated in the berries. The queen of
the district obtained the supernatural power she was supposed to
possess from the berries too, and stories are told of a hero who was
persuaded to enter the pool and pluck the berries for the queen.
He was invariably attacked by the "beast", and, after handing the
berries to the queen, he fell down and died. There are several
versions of this story. In one version a specially valued gold ring,
a symbol of authority, is thrown into the pool and swallowed by the
salmon. The hero catches and throws the salmon on to the bank. When
he plucks the berries, he is attacked by the monster and kills it.
Having recovered the ring, he gives it to the princess, who becomes
his wife. Apparently she will be chosen as the next queen, because
she has eaten the salmon and obtained the gold symbol.
It may be that this story had its origin in the practice of
offering a human sacrifice to the deity of the pool, so that the
youth-renewing red berries might be obtained for the queen, the human
representative of the deity. Her fate was connected with the ring
of gold in which, as in the berries, the influence of the deity was
concentrated.
Polycrates of Samos, a Hellenic sea-king, was similarly supposed
to have his "luck" connected with a beautiful seal-stone, the most
precious of his jewels. On the advice of Pharaoh Amasis of Egypt he
flung it into the sea. According to Herodotus, it was to avert his
doom that he disposed of the ring. But he could not escape his fate.
The jewel came back; it was found a few days later in the stomach of
a big fish.
In India, China, and Japan dragons or sea monsters are supposed
to have luck pearls which confer great power on those who obtain
possession of them. The famous "jewel that grants all desires" and
the jewels that control the ebb and flow of tides are obtained from,
and are ultimately returned to, sea-monsters of the dragon order.
The British and Irish myths about sacred gold or jewels obtained from
the dragon or one of its forms were taken over with much else by the
early Christian missionaries, and given a Christian significance.
Among the legends attached to the memory of the Irish Saint Moling is
one that tells how he obtained treasure for Christian purposes. His
fishermen caught a salmon and found in its stomach an ingot of gold.
Moling divided the gold into three parts--"one third for the poor,
another for the ornamenting of shrines, a third to provide for labour
and work".
The most complete form of the ancient myth is, however, found in the
life of Glasgow's patron saint, St. Kentigern (St. Mungo). A queen's
gold ring had been thrown into the River Clyde, and, as she was
unable, when asked by the king, to produce it, she was condemned to
death and cast into a dungeon. The queen appealed to St. Kentigern,
who instructed her messenger to catch a fish in the river and bring
it to him. A large fish "commonly called a salmon" was caught. In
its stomach was found the missing ring. The grateful queen, on her
release, confessed her sins to the saint and became a Christian.
St. Mungo's seal, now the coat of arms of Glasgow, shows the salmon
with a ring in its mouth, below an oak tree, in the branches of
which sits, as the oracle bird, a robin red-breast. A Christian bell
dangles from a branch of the tree.
[Illustration: Seal of City of Glasgow, 1647-1793, showing Tree,
Bird, Salmon, and Bell]
That the Glasgow saint took the place of a Druid,[170] so that the
people might say "Kentigern is my Druid" as St. Columba said "Christ
is my Druid", is suggested by his intimate connection, as shown in
his seal, with the sacred tree of the "King of the Elements", the
oracular bird (the thunder bird), the salmon form of the deity, and
the power-conferring ring. As the Druids produced sacred fire from
wood, so did St. Kentigern. It is told that when a youth his rivals
extinguished the sacred fire under his care. Kentigern went outside
the monastery and obtained "a bough of growing hazel and prayed to
the 'Father of Lights'". Then he made the sign of the cross, blessed
the bough, and breathed on it.
[170] Professor W. J. Watson says in this connection: "The
Celtic clerics stepped in to the shoes of the Druids. The people
regarded them as superior Druids."
"A wonderful and remarkable thing followed. Straightway fire
coming forth from heaven, seizing the bough, as if the boy had
exhaled flames for breath, sent forth fire, vomiting rays,
and banished all the surrounding darkness.... God therefore
sent forth His light, and led him and brought him into the
monastery.... That hazel from which the little branch was taken
received a blessing from St. Kentigern, and afterwards began to
grow into a wood. If from that grove of hazel, as the country
folks say, even the greenest branch is taken, even at the
present day, it catches fire like the driest material at the
touch of fire...."
A red-breast, which was kept as a pet at the monastery, was hunted
by boys, who tore off its head. Kentigern restored the bird to life.
The robin was hunted down in some districts as was the wren in other
districts. An old rhyme runs:
A robin and a wren
Are God's cock and hen.
In Pagan times the oracular bird connected with the holy tree was
sacrificed annually. The robin represented the god and the wren
(Kitty or Jenny Wren) the goddess in some areas. In Gaelic, Spanish,
Italian, and Greek the wren is "the little King" or "the King of
Birds". A Gaelic folk-tale tells that the wren flew highest in a
competition held by the birds for the kingship, by concealing itself
on an eagle's back. When the eagle reached its highest possible
altitude, the wren rose above it and claimed the honour of kingship.
In the Isle of Man the wren used to be hunted on St. Stephen's Day.
Elsewhere it was hunted on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The dead
bird was carried on a pole at the head of a procession and buried
with ceremony in a churchyard.
In Scotland the shrew mouse was hunted in like manner, and buried
under an apple tree. A standing stone in Perthshire is called in
Gaelic "stone of my little mouse". As there were mouse feasts in
ancient Scotland, it would appear that a mouse god like Smintheus
(Mouse-Apollo) was worshipped in ancient times. Mouse cures were at
one time prevalent. The liver of the mouse[171] was given to children
who were believed to be on the point of death. They rallied quickly
after swallowing it. Roasted mouse was in England and Scotland a
cure for whooping-cough and smallpox. The Boers in South Africa are
perpetuating this ancient folk-cure.[172] In Gaelic folk-lore the
mouse deity is remembered as _lucha sith_ ("the supernatural mouse").
[171] In old Gaelic the liver is the seat of life.
[172] Mrs. E. Tawse Jollie, Hervetia, S. Melsetter, S. Rhodesia,
writes me under October 12, 1918, in answer to my query, that the
Boers regard _striep muis_ (striped mice) as a cure for "weakness
of the bowel" in children, &c.
There still survive traces of the worship of a goddess who is
remembered as Bride in England and Scotland, and as Brigit in
Ireland. A good deal of the lore connected with her has been attached
to the memory of St. Brigit of Ireland.
February 1st (old style) was known as Bride's Day. Her birds were
the wood linnet, which in Gaelic is called "Bird of Bride", and
the oyster catcher called "Page of Bride", while her plant was the
dandelion (_am bearnan brìde_), the "milk" of which was the salvation
of the early lamb. On Bride's Day the serpent awoke from its winter
sleep and crept from its hole. This serpent is called in Gaelic
"daughter of Ivor", _an ribhinn_ ("the damsel"), &c.
The white serpent was, like the salmon, a source of wisdom and
magical power. It was evidently a form of the goddess. Brigit was
the goddess of the Brigantes, a tribe whose territory extended from
the Firth of Forth to the midlands of England.[173] The Brigantes
took possession of a part of Ireland where Brigit had three forms as
the goddess of healing, the goddess of smith-work, and the goddess
of poetry, and therefore of metrical magical charms. Some think her
name signifies "fiery arrow". She was the source of fire, and was
connected with different trees in different areas. The Bride-wells
were taken over by Saint Bride.
[173] In a Roman representation of her at Birrens, in Perthshire,
she is shown as a winged figure holding a spear in her right hand
and a globe in her left. An altar in Chester is dedicated to
"De Nymphæ Brig". Her name is enshrined in Bregentz (anciently
Brigantium), a town in Switzerland.
The white serpent, referred to in the legends associated with
Farquhar, the physician, and Michael Scott, sometimes travelled very
swiftly by forming itself into a ring with its tail in its mouth.
This looks like the old Celtic solar serpent. If the serpent were
cut in two, the parts wriggled towards a stream and united as soon
as they touched water. If the head were not smashed, it would become
a _beithis_, the biggest and most poisonous variety of serpent.[174]
The "Deathless snake" of Egypt, referred to in an ancient folk-tale,
was similarly able to unite its severed body. Bride's serpent links
with the serpent dragons of the Far East, which sleep all winter
and emerge in spring, when they cause thunder and send rain, spit
pearls, &c. Dr. Alexander Carmichael translates the following Gaelic
serpent-charm:
To-day is the day of Bride,
The serpent shall come from his hole;
I will not molest the serpent
And the serpent will not molest me.
[174] The _beithis_ lay hidden in arms of the sea and came ashore
to devour animals.
De Visser[175] quotes the following from a Chinese text referring to
the dragons:
If we offer a deprecatory service to them,
They will leave their abodes;
If we do not seek the dragons
They will also not seek us.
[175] _The Dragon in China and Japan_ (1913).
The serpent, known in Scotland as _nathair challtuinn_ ("snake
of the hazel grove"), had evidently a mythological significance.
Leviathan is represented by the Gaelic _cirein cròin_ (sea-serpent),
also called _mial mhòr a chuain_ ("the great beast of the sea")
and _cuairtag mhòr a chuain_ ("the great whirlpool of the sea");
a sea-snake was supposed to be located in Corryvreckan whirlpool.
Kelpies and water horses and water bulls are forms assumed by the
Scottish dragon. There are Far Eastern horse-and bull-dragons.
In ancient British lore there are references to souls in serpent
form. A serpent might be a "double" like the Egyptian "Ka". It
was believed in Wales that snake-souls were concealed in every
farm-house. When one crept out from its hiding-place and died, the
farmer or his wife died soon afterwards. Lizards were supposed to
be forms assumed by women after death.[176] The otter, called in
Scottish Gaelic _Dobhar-chù_ ("water dog") and _Righ nàn Dobhran_
("king of the water" or "river"), appears to have been a soul
form. When one was killed a man or a woman died. The king otter
was supposed to have a jewel in its head like the Indian _n[=a]ga_
(serpent deity), the Chinese dragon, the toad, &c. The king otter was
invulnerable except on one white spot below its chin. Those who wore
a piece of its skin as a charm were supposed to be protected against
injury in battle. Evidently, therefore, the otter was originally a
god like the boar, the image of which, as Tacitus records, was worn
for protection by the Baltic amber searchers of Celtic speech. The
_biasd na srogaig_ ("the beast of the lowering horn") was a Hebridean
loch dragon with a single horn on its head; this unicorn was tall and
clumsy.
[176] Trevelyan. _Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales_, p. 165.
The "double" or external soul might also exist in a tree. Both in
England and Scotland there are stories of trees withering when some
one dies, or of some one dying when trees are felled. Aubrey tells
that when the Earl of Winchelsea began to cut down an oak grove near
his seat at Eastwell in Kent, the Countess died suddenly, and then
his eldest son, Lord Maidstone, was killed at sea. Allan Ramsay, the
Scottish poet, tells that the Edgewell tree near Dalhousie Castle
was fatal to the family from which he was descended, and Sir Walter
Scott refers to it in his "Journal", under the date 13th May, 1829.
When a branch fell from it in July, 1874, an old forester exclaimed
"The laird's deed noo!" and word was received not long afterwards
of the death of the eleventh Earl of Dalhousie. Souls of giants
were supposed to be hidden in thorns, eggs, fish, swans, &c. At
Fasnacloich, in Argyllshire, the visit of swans to a small loch is
supposed to herald the death of a Stewart.
"External souls", or souls after death, assumed the forms of
cormorants, cuckoos, cranes, eagles, gulls, herons, linnets, magpies,
ravens, swans, wrens, &c., or of deer, mice, cats, dogs, &c. Fairies
(supernatural beings) appeared as deer or birds. Among the Scottish
were-animals are cats, black sheep, mice, hares, gulls, crows,
ravens, magpies, foxes, dogs, &c. Children were sometimes transformed
by magicians into white dogs, and were restored to human form by
striking them with a magic wand or by supplying shirts of bog-cotton.
The floating lore regarding were-animals was absorbed in witch-lore
after the Continental beliefs regarding witches were imported into
this country. In like manner a good deal of floating lore was
attached to the devil. In Scotland he is supposed to appear as a goat
or pig, as a gentleman with a pig's or horse's foot, or as a black or
green man riding a black or green horse followed by black or green
dogs. Eels were "devil-fish", and were supposed to originate from the
hairs of horses' manes or tails. Men who ate eels became insane, and
fought horses.
In Scotland butterflies and bees were not only soul-forms but
deities, and there are traces of similar beliefs in England,
Wales, and Ireland. Scottish Gaelic names of the butterfly include
_dealbhan-dé_ ("image" or "form of God"), _dealbh_ signifying
"image", "form", "picture", "idol", or "statue"; _dearbadan-dé_
("manifestation of God"); _eunan-dé_ ("small bird of God");
_teine-dé_ ("fire of God"); and _dealan-dé_ ("brightness of God").
The word _dealan_ refers to (1) lightning, (2) the brightness of the
starry sky, (3) burning coal, (4) the wooden bar of a door, and (5)
to a wooden peg fastening a cow-halter round the neck. The bar and
peg, which gave security, were evidently connected with the deity.
In addition to meaning butterfly, _dealan-dé_ ("the _dealan_ of God")
refers to a burning stick which is shaken to and fro or whirled round
about. When "need fires" (new fires) were lit at Beltain festival
(1st May)--"Beltain" is supposed to mean "bright fires" or "white
fires", that is, luck-bringing or sacred fires--burning brands were
carried from them to houses, all domestic fires having previously
been extinguished. The "new fire" brought luck, prosperity,
health, increase, protection, &c. Until recently Highland boys
who perpetuated the custom of lighting bon-fires to celebrate old
Celtic festivals were wont to snatch burning sticks from them and
run homewards, whirling the _dealan-dé_ round about so as to keep it
burning.
Souls took the form of a _dealan-dé_ (butterfly). Lady Wilde relates
in _Ancient Legends_ (Vol. I, pp. 66-7) the Irish story of a child
who saw the butterfly form of the soul--"a beautiful living creature
with four snow-white wings"; it rose from the body of a man who had
just died and went "fluttering round his head". The child and others
watched the winged soul "until it passed from sight into the clouds".
The story continues: "This was the first butterfly that was ever seen
in Ireland; and now all men know that the butterflies are the souls
of the dead waiting for the moment when they may enter Purgatory, and
so pass through torture to purification and peace".
In England and Scotland moths were likewise souls of the dead
that entered houses by night or fluttered outside windows, as if
attempting to return to former haunts.
The butterfly god or soul-form was known to the Scandinavians.
Freyja, the northern goddess, appears to have had a butterfly
_avatar_. At any rate, the butterfly was consecrated to her. In
Greece the nymph Psyche, beloved by Cupid, was a beautiful maiden
with the wings of a butterfly; her name signifies "the soul". Greek
artistes frequently depicted the human soul as a butterfly, and
especially the particular species called [Greek: psychê] ("the
soul"). On an ancient tomb in Italy a butterfly is shown issuing
from the open mouth of a death-mask. The Serbians believed that the
butterfly souls of witches arose from their mouths when they slept.
They died if their butterfly souls did not return.[177] Evidence
of belief in the butterfly soul has been forthcoming in Burmah,
where ceremonies are performed to prevent the baby's butterfly soul
following that of a dead mother.[178] The pre-Columbian Americans,
and especially the Mexicans, believed in butterfly souls and
butterfly deities. In China the butterfly soul was carved in jade
and associated with the plum tree;[179] the sacred butterfly was in
Scotland associated apparently with the honeysuckle (_deoghalag_),
a plant containing "life-substance" in the form of honey (_lus a
mheahl_: "honey herb") and milk (another name of the plant being
_bainne-ghamhnach_: "milk of the heifer"). As we have seen, the
honeysuckle was supposed to be more powerful than the tree to which
it clung; like the ivy and mistletoe, it was the plant of a powerful
deity. Its milk and honey names connect it with the Great Mother
goddess who was the source of life and nourishment, and provided the
milk-and-honey elixir of life.
[177] W. R. S. Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, pp. 117
_et seq._
[178] _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, XXVI (1897). p.
23.
[179] Laufer, _Jade_, p. 310.
Bee-souls figure in Scottish folk-stories. Hugh Miller relates a
story of a sleeping man from whose mouth the soul issued in the
form of the bee.[180] Another of like character is related by a
clergyman.[181] Both are located in the north of Scotland, where,
as in the south of England, the custom was prevalent of "telling
the bees" when a death took place, and of placing crape on hives.
The bee-mandible symbol appears on Scottish sculptured stones. Both
the bee and the butterfly were connected with the goddess Artemis.
Milk-yielding fig trees were fertilized by bees or wasps, and the
goddess, especially in her form as Diana of the Ephesians, was
connected with the fig tree, the figs being "teats".
[180] _My Schools and Schoolmasters_, Chapter VI.
[181] Rev. W. Forsyth, Dornoch, in _Folk-lore Journal_, VI, 171.
Little is known regarding the Hebridean sea-god _Seonaidh_
(pronounced "shony"), who may have been a form of the sea-god known
to the Irish as Lir and to the Welsh as Llyr. His name connects him
with the word _seonadh_, signifying "augury", "sorcery", "druidism".
According to Martin, the inhabitants of Lewis contributed the malt
from which ale was brewed for an offering to the gods. At night a man
waded into the sea up to his middle and cried out, "Seonaidh! I give
thee this cup of ale, hoping that thou wilt be so good as to send us
plenty of sea-ware for enriching our ground during the coming year."
He then poured the ale into the sea. The people afterwards gathered
in the church of St. Mulway, and stood still for a time before the
altar on which a candle was burning. When a certain signal was given
the candle was extinguished. The people then made merry in the
fields, drinking ale.