SACRIFICE, PRAYER, AND DIVINATION.
The Semites are often considered the worst offenders in the matter of
human sacrifice, but in this, according to classical evidence, they were
closely rivalled by the Celts of Gaul. They offered human victims on the
principle of a life for a life, or to propitiate the gods, or in order
to divine the future from the entrails of the victim. We shall examine
the Celtic custom of human sacrifice from these points of view first.
Cæsar says that those afflicted with disease or engaged in battle or
danger offer human victims or vow to do so, because unless man's life be
given for man's life, the divinity of the gods cannot be appeased.[790]
The theory appears to have been that the gods sent disease or ills when
they desired a human life, but that any life would do; hence one in
danger might escape by offering another in his stead. In some cases the
victims may have been offered to disease demons or diseases personified,
such as Celtic imagination still believes in,[791] rather than to gods,
or, again, they may have been offered to native gods of healing. Coming
danger could also be averted on the same principle, and though the
victims were usually slaves, in times of great peril wives and children
were sacrificed.[792] After a defeat, which showed that the gods were
still implacable, the wounded and feeble were slain, or a great leader
would offer himself.[793] Or in such a case the Celts would turn their
weapons against themselves, making of suicide a kind of sacrifice,
hoping to bring victory to the survivors.[794]
The idea of the victim being offered on the principle of a life for a
life is illustrated by a custom at Marseilles in time of pestilence. One
of the poorer classes offered himself to be kept at the public expense
for some time. He was then led in procession, clad in sacred boughs, and
solemnly cursed, and prayer was made that on him might fall the evils of
the community. Then he was cast headlong down. Here the victim stood for
the lives of the city and was a kind of scape-victim, like those at the
Thargelia.[795]
Human victims were also offered by way of thanksgiving after victory,
and vows were often made before a battle, promising these as well as
part of the spoil. For this reason the Celts would never ransom their
captives, but offered them in sacrifice, animals captured being
immolated along with them.[796] The method of sacrifice was slaughter by
sword or spear, hanging, impaling, dismembering, and drowning. Some gods
were propitiated by one particular mode of sacrifice--Taranis by
burning, Teutates by suffocation, Esus (perhaps a tree-god) by hanging
on a tree. Drowning meant devoting the victim to water-divinities.[797]
Other propitiatory sacrifices took place at intervals, and had a general
or tribal character, the victims being criminals or slaves or even
members of the tribe. The sacrificial pile had the rude outline of a
human form, the limbs of osier, enclosing human as well as some animal
victims, who perished by fire. Diodorus says that the victims were
malefactors who had been kept in prison for five years, and that some of
them were impaled.[798] This need not mean that the holocausts were
quinquennial, for they may have been offered yearly, at Midsummer, to
judge by the ritual of modern survivals.[799] The victims perished in
that element by which the sun-god chiefly manifested himself, and by the
sacrifice his powers were augmented, and thus growth and fertility were
promoted. These holocausts were probably extensions of an earlier
slaying of a victim representing the spirit of vegetation, though their
value in aiding fertility would be still in evidence. This is suggested
by Strabo's words that the greater the number of murders the greater
would be the fertility of the land, probably meaning that there would
then be more criminals as sacrificial victims.[800] Varro also speaks of
human sacrifice to a god equated with Saturn, offered because of all
seeds the human race is the best, i.e. human victims are most productive
of fertility.[801] Thus, looked at in one way, the later rite was a
propitiatory sacrifice, in another it was an act of magico-religious
ritual springing from the old rite of the divine victim. But from both
points of view the intention was the same--the promotion of fertility in
field and fold.
Divination with the bodies of human victims is attested by Tacitus, who
says that "the Druids consult the gods in the palpitating entrails of
men," and by Strabo, who describes the striking down of the victim by
the sword and the predicting of the future from his convulsive
movements.[802] To this we shall return.
Human sacrifice in Gaul was put down by the Romans, who were amazed at
its extent, Suetonius summing up the whole religion in a
phrase--_druidarum religionem diræ immanitatis_.[803] By the year 40
A.D. it had ceased, though victims were offered symbolically, the Druids
pretending to strike them and drawing a little blood from them.[804]
Only the pressure of a higher civilisation forced the so-called
philosophic Druids to abandon their revolting customs. Among the Celts
of Britain human sacrifice still prevailed in 77 A.D.[805] Dio Cassius
describes the refinements of cruelty practised on female victims
(prisoners of war) in honour of the goddess Andrasta--their breasts cut
off and placed over their mouths, and a stake driven through their
bodies, which were then hung in the sacred grove.[806] Tacitus speaks of
the altars in Mona (Anglesey) laved with human blood. As to the Irish
Celts, patriotic writers have refused to believe them guilty of such
practices,[807] but there is no _a priori_ reason which need set them
apart from other races on the same level of civilisation in this custom.
The Irish texts no doubt exaggerate the number of the victims, but they
certainly attest the existence of the practice. From the _Dindsenchas_,
which describes many archaic usages, we learn that "the firstlings of
every issue and the chief scions of every clan" were offered to Cromm
Cruaich--a sacrifice of the first-born,--and that at one festival the
prostrations of the worshippers were so violent that three-fourths of
them perished, not improbably an exaggerated memory of orgiastic
rites.[808] Dr. Joyce thinks that these notices are as incredible as the
mythic tales in the _Dindsenchas_. Yet the tales were doubtless quite
credible to the pagan Irish, and the ritual notices are certainly
founded on fact. Dr. Joyce admits the existence of foundation sacrifices
in Ireland, and it is difficult to understand why human victims may not
have been offered on other occasions also.
The purpose of the sacrifice, namely, fertility, is indicated in the
poetical version of the cult of Cromm--
"Milk and corn
They would ask from him speedily,
In return for one-third of their healthy issue."[809]
The Nemedian sacrifice to the Fomorians is said to have been two-thirds
of their children and of the year's supply of corn and milk[810]--an
obvious misunderstanding, the victims really being offered to obtain
corn and milk. The numbers are exaggerated,[811] but there can be no
doubt as to the nature of the sacrifice--the offering of an agricultural
folk to the divinities who helped or retarded growth. Possibly part of
the flesh of the victims, at one time identified with the god, was
buried in the fields or mixed with the seed-corn, in order to promote
fertility. The blood was sprinkled on the image of the god. Such
practices were as obnoxious to Christian missionaries as they had been
to the Roman Government, and we learn that S. Patrick preached against
"the slaying of yoke oxen and milch cows and the burning of the
first-born progeny" at the Fair of Taillte.[812] As has been seen, the
Irish version of the Perseus and Andromeda story, in which the victim is
offered not to a dragon, but to the Fomorians, may have received this
form from actual ritual in which human victims were sacrificed to the
Fomorians.[813] In a Japanese version of the same story the maiden is
offered to the sea-gods. Another tale suggests the offering of human
victims to remove blight. In this case the land suffers from blight
because the adulteress Becuma, married to the king of Erin, has
pretended to be a virgin. The Druids announced that the remedy was to
slay the son of an undefiled couple and sprinkle the doorposts and the
land with his blood. Such a youth was found, but at his mother's request
a two-bellied cow, in which two birds were found, was offered in his
stead.[814] In another instance in the _Dindsenchas_, hostages,
including the son of a captive prince, are offered to remove plagues--an
equivalent to the custom of the Gauls.[815]
Human sacrifices were also offered when the foundation of a new building
was laid. Such sacrifices are universal, and are offered to propitiate
the Earth spirits or to provide a ghostly guardian for the building. A
Celtic legend attaches such a sacrifice to the founding of the monastery
at Iona. S. Oran agrees to adopt S. Columba's advice "to go under the
clay of this island to hallow it," and as a reward he goes straight to
heaven.[816] The legend is a semi-Christian form of the memory of an old
pagan custom, and it is attached to Oran probably because he was the
first to be buried in the island. In another version, nothing is said of
the sacrifice. The two saints are disputing about the other world, and
Oran agrees to go for three days into the grave to settle the point at
issue. At the end of that time the grave is opened, and the triumphant
Oran announces that heaven and hell are not such as they are alleged to
be. Shocked at his latitudinarian sentiments, Columba ordered earth to
be piled over him, lest he cause a scandal to the faith, and Oran was
accordingly buried alive.[817] In a Welsh instance, Vortigern's castle
cannot be built, for the stones disappear as soon as they are laid. Wise
men, probably Druids, order the sacrifice of a child born without a
father, and the sprinkling of the site with his blood.[818] "Groaning
hostages" were placed under a fort in Ireland, and the foundation of the
palace of Emain Macha was also laid with a human victim.[819] Many
similar legends are connected with buildings all over the Celtic area,
and prove the popularity of the pagan custom. The sacrifice of human
victims on the funeral pile will be discussed in a later chapter.
Of all these varieties of human sacrifice, those offered for fertility,
probably at Beltane or Midsummer, were the most important. Their
propitiatory nature is of later origin, and their real intention was to
strengthen the divinity by whom the processes of growth were directed.
Still earlier, one victim represented the divinity, slain that his life
might be revived in vigour. The earth was sprinkled with his blood and
fed with his flesh in order to fertilise it, and possibly the
worshippers partook sacramentally of the flesh. Propitiatory holocausts
of human victims had taken the place of the slain representative of a
god, but their value in promoting fertility was not forgotten. The
sacramental aspect of the rite is perhaps to be found in Pliny's words
regarding "the slaying of a human being as a most religious act and
eating the flesh as a wholesome remedy" among the Britons.[820] This may
merely refer to "medicinal cannibalism," such as still survives in
Italy, but the passage rather suggests sacramental cannibalism, the
eating of part of a divine victim, such as existed in Mexico and
elsewhere. Other acts of cannibalism are referred to by classical
writers. Diodorus says the Irish ate their enemies, and Pausanias
describes the eating the flesh and drinking the blood of children among
the Galatian Celts. Drinking out of a skull the blood of slain
(sacrificial) enemies is mentioned by Ammianus and Livy, and Solinus
describes the Irish custom of bathing the face in the blood of the slain
and drinking it.[821] In some of these cases the intention may simply
have been to obtain the dead enemy's strength, but where a sacrificial
victim was concerned, the intention probably went further than this. The
blood of dead relatives was also drunk in order to obtain their virtues,
or to be brought into closer _rapport_ with them.[822] This is analogous
to the custom of blood brotherhood, which also existed among the Celts
and continued as a survival in the Western Isles until a late date.[823]
One group of Celtic human sacrifices was thus connected with primitive
agricultural ritual, but the warlike energies of the Celts extended the
practice. Victims were easily obtained, and offered to the gods of war.
Yet even these sacrifices preserved some trace of the older rite, in
which the victim represented a divinity or spirit.
Head-hunting, described in classical writings and in Irish texts, had
also a sacrificial aspect. The heads of enemies were hung at the
saddle-bow or fixed on spears, as the conquerors returned home with
songs of victory.[824] This gruesome picture often recurs in the texts.
Thus, after the death of Cúchulainn, Conall Cernach returned to Emer
with the heads of his slayers strung on a withy. He placed each on a
stake and told Emer the name of the owner. A Celtic _oppidum_ or a
king's palace must have been as gruesome as a Dayak or Solomon Island
village. Everywhere were stakes crowned with heads, and the walls of
houses were adorned with them. Poseidonius tells how he sickened at such
a sight, but gradually became more accustomed to it.[825] A room in the
palace was sometimes a store for such heads, or they were preserved in
cedar-wood oil or in coffers. They were proudly shown to strangers as a
record of conquest, but they could not be sold for their weight in
gold.[826] After a battle a pile of heads was made and the number of the
slain was counted, and at annual festivals warriors produced the tongues
of enemies as a record of their prowess.[827]
These customs had a religious aspect. In cutting off a head the Celt
saluted the gods, and the head was offered to them or to ancestral
spirits, and sometimes kept in grove or temple.[828] The name given to
the heads of the slain in Ireland, the "mast of Macha," shows that they
were dedicated to her, just as skulls found under an altar had been
devoted to the Celtic Mars.[829] Probably, as among Dayaks, American
Indians, and others, possession of a head was a guarantee that the ghost
of its owner would be subservient to its Celtic possessor, either in
this world or in the next, since they are sometimes found buried in
graves along with the dead.[830] Or, suspended in temples, they became
an actual and symbolical offering of the life of their owners, if, as is
probable, the life or soul was thought to be in the head. Hence, too,
the custom of drinking from the skull of the slain had the intention of
transferring his powers directly to the drinker.[831] Milk drunk from
the skull of Conall Cernach restored to enfeebled warriors their
pristine strength,[832] and a folk-survival in the Highlands--that of
drinking from the skull of a suicide (here taking the place of the slain
enemy) in order to restore health--shows the same idea at work. All
these practices had thus one end, that of the transference of spirit
force--to the gods, to the victor who suspended the head from his house,
and to all who drank from the skull. Represented in bas-relief on houses
or carved on dagger-handles, the head may still have been thought to
possess talismanic properties, giving power to house or weapon. Possibly
this cult of human heads may have given rise to the idea of a divine
head like those figured on Gaulish images, or described, e.g., in the
story of Bran. His head preserved the land from invasion, until Arthur
disinterred it,[833] the story being based on the belief that heads or
bodies of great warriors still had a powerful influence.[834] The
representation of the head of a god, like his whole image, would be
thought to possess the same preservative power.
A possible survival of the sacrifice of the aged may be found in a
Breton custom of applying a heavy club to the head of old persons to
lighten their death agonies, the clubs having been formerly used to kill
them. They are kept in chapels, and are regarded with awe.[835]
Animal victims were also frequently offered. The Galatian Celts made a
yearly sacrifice to their Artemis of a sheep, goat, or calf, purchased
with money laid by for each animal caught in the chase. Their dogs were
feasted and crowned with flowers.[836] Further details of this ritual
are unfortunately lacking. Animals captured in war were sacrificed to
the war-gods by the Gauls, or to a river-god, as when the horses of the
defeated host were thrown into the Rhine by the Gaulish conquerors of
Mallius.[837] We have seen that the white oxen sacrificed at the
mistletoe ritual may once have been representatives of the
vegetation-spirit, which also animated the oak and the mistletoe. Among
the insular Celts animal sacrifices are scarcely mentioned in the texts,
probably through suppression by later scribes, but the lives of Irish
saints contain a few notices of the custom, e.g. that of S. Patrick,
which describes the gathering of princes, chiefs, and Druids at Tara to
sacrifice victims to idols.[838] In Ireland the peasantry still kill a
sheep or heifer for S. Martin on his festival, and ill-luck is thought
to follow the non-observance of the rite.[839] Similar sacrifices on
saints' days in Scotland and Wales occurred in Christian times.[840] An
excellent instance is that of the sacrifice of bulls at Gairloch for the
cure of lunatics on S. Maelrubha's day (August 25th). Libations of milk
were also poured out on the hills, ruined chapels were perambulated,
wells and stones worshipped, and divination practised. These rites,
occurring in the seventeenth century, were condemned by the Presbytery
of Dingwall, but with little effect, and some of them still
survive.[841] In all these cases the saint has succeeded to the ritual
of an earlier god. Mr. Cook surmises that S. Maelrubha was the successor
of a divine king connected with an oak and sacred well, the god or
spirit of which was incarnate in him. These divine kings may at one time
have been slain, or a bull, similarly incarnating the god or spirit, may
have been killed as a surrogate. This slaying was at a later time
regarded as a sacrifice and connected with the cure of madness.[842] The
rite would thus be on a parallel with the slaying of the oxen at the
mistletoe gathering, as already interpreted. Eilean Maree (Maelrubha),
where the tree and well still exist, was once known as Eilean mo righ
("the island of my king"), or Eilean a Mhor Righ ("of the great king"),
the king having been worshipped as a god. This piece of corroborative
evidence was given by the oldest inhabitant to Sir Arthur Mitchell.[843]
The people also spoke of the god Mourie.
Other survivals of animal sacrifice are found in cases of cattle-plague,
as in Morayshire sixty years ago, in Wales, Devon, and the Isle of Man.
The victim was burned and its ashes sprinkled on the herd, or it was
thrown into the sea or over a precipice.[844] Perhaps it was both a
propitiatory sacrifice and a scape-animal, carrying away the disease,
though the rite may be connected with the former slaying of a divine
animal whose death benefited all the cattle of the district. In the
Hebrides the spirits of earth and air were propitiated every quarter by
throwing outside the door a cock, hen, duck, or cat, which was supposed
to be seized by them. If the rite was neglected, misfortune was sure to
follow. The animal carried away evils from the house, and was also a
propitiatory sacrifice.
The blood of victims was sprinkled on altars, images, and trees, or, as
among the Boii, it was placed in a skull adorned with gold.[845] Other
libations are known mainly from folk-survivals. Thus Breton fishermen
salute reefs and jutting promontories, say prayers, and pour a glass of
wine or throw a biscuit or an old garment into the sea.[846] In the
Hebrides a curious rite was performed on Maundy Thursday. After midnight
a man walked into the sea, and poured ale or gruel on the waters, at the
same time singing:
"O God of the sea,
Put weed in the drawing wave,
To enrich the ground,
To shower on us food."
Those on shore took up the strain in chorus.[847] Thus the rite was
described by one who took part in it a century ago, but Martin, writing
in the seventeenth century, gives other details. The cup of ale was
offered with the words, "Shony, I give you this cup of ale, hoping that
you will be so kind as to send plenty of seaweed for enriching our
ground for the ensuing year." All then went in silence to the church and
remained there for a time, after which they indulged in an orgy
out-of-doors. This orgiastic rite may once have included the intercourse
of the sexes--a powerful charm for fertility. "Shony" was some old
sea-god, and another divinity of the sea, Brianniul, was sometimes
invoked for the same purpose.[848] Until recently milk was poured on
"Gruagach stones" in the Hebrides, as an offering to the Gruagach, a
brownie who watched over herds, and who had taken the place of a
god.[849]
PRAYER.
Prayer accompanied most rites, and probably consisted of traditional
formulæ, on the exact recital of which depended their value. The Druids
invoked a god during the mistletoe rite, and at a Galatian sacrifice,
offered to bring birds to destroy grasshoppers, prayer was made to the
birds themselves.[850] In Mona, at the Roman invasion, the Druids raised
their arms and uttered prayers for deliverance, at the same time cursing
the invaders, and Boudicca invoked the protection of the goddess
Andrasta in a similar manner.[851] Chants were sung by the "priestesses"
of Sena to raise storms, and they were also sung by warriors both before
and after a battle, to the accompaniment of a measured dance and the
clashing of arms.[852] These warrior chants were composed by bards, and
probably included invocations of the war-gods and the recital of famous
deeds. They may also have been of the nature of spells ensuring the help
of the gods, like the war-cries uttered by a whole army to the sound of
trumpets.[853] These consisted of the name of a god, of a tribe or clan,
or of some well-known phrase. As the recital of a divine name is often
supposed to force the god to help, these cries had thus a magical
aspect, while they also struck terror into the foe.[854] Warriors also
advanced dancing to the fray, and they are depicted on coins dancing on
horseback or before a sword, which was worshipped by the Celts.[855] The
Celtiberian festival at the full moon consisted entirely of dancing. The
dance is a primitive method of expressing religious emotion, and where
it imitates certain actions, it is intended by magical influence to
crown the actions themselves with success. It is thus a kind of acted
prayer with magical results.
DIVINATION.
A special class of diviners existed among the Celts, but the Druids
practised divination, as did also the unofficial layman. Classical
writers speak of the Celts as of all nations the most devoted to, and
the most experienced in, the science of divination. Divination with a
human victim is described by Diodorus. Libations were poured over him,
and he was then slain, auguries being drawn from the method of his fall,
the movements of his limbs, and the flowing of his blood. Divination
with the entrails was used in Galatia, Gaul, and Britain.[856] Beasts
and birds also provided omens. The course taken by a hare let loose gave
an omen of success to the Britons, and in Ireland divination was used
with a sacrificial animal.[857] Among birds the crow was pre-eminent,
and two crows are represented speaking into the ears of a man on a
bas-relief at Compiègne. The Celts believed that the crow had shown
where towns should be founded, or had furnished a remedy against poison,
and it was also an arbiter of disputes.[858] Artemidorus describes how,
at a certain place, there were two crows. Persons having a dispute set
out two heaps of sweetmeats, one for each disputant. The birds swooped
down upon them, eating one and dispersing the other. He whose heap had
been scattered won the case.[859] Birds were believed to have guided the
migrating Celts, and their flight furnished auguries, because, as
Deiotaurus gravely said, birds never lie. Divination by the voices of
birds was used by the Irish Druids.[860]
Omens were drawn from the direction of the smoke and flames of sacred
fires and from the condition of the clouds.[861] Wands of yew were
carried by Druids--"the wand of Druidism" of many folk-tales--and were
used perhaps as divining-rods. Ogams were also engraved on rods of yews,
and from these Druids divined hidden things. By this means the Druid
Dalan discovered where Etain had been hidden by the god Mider. The
method used may have been that of drawing one of the rods by lot and
then divining from the marks upon it. A similar method was used to
discover the route to be taken by invaders, the result being supposed to
depend on divine interposition.[862] The knowledge of astronomy ascribed
by Cæsar to the Druids was probably of a simple kind, and much mixed
with astrology, and though it furnished the data for computing a simple
calendar, its use was largely magical.[863] Irish diviners forecast the
time to build a house by the stars, and the date at which S. Columba's
education should begin, was similarly discovered.[864]
The _Imbas Forosnai_, "illumination between the hands," was used by the
_Filé_ to discover hidden things. He chewed a piece of raw flesh and
placed it as an offering to the images of the gods whom he desired to
help him. If enlightenment did not come by the next day, he pronounced
incantations on his palms, which he then placed on his cheeks before
falling asleep. The revelation followed in a dream, or sometimes after
awaking.[865] Perhaps the animal whose flesh was eaten was a sacred one.
Another method was that of the _Teinm Laegha_. The _Filé_ made a verse
and repeated it over some person or thing regarding which he sought
information, or he placed his staff on the person's body and so obtained
what he sought. The rite was also preceded by sacrifice; hence S.
Patrick prohibited both it and the _Imbas Forosnai_.[866] Another
incantation, the _Cétnad_, was sung through the fist to discover the
track of stolen cattle or of the thief. If this did not bring
enlightenment, the _Filé_ went to sleep and obtained the knowledge
through a dream.[867] Another _Cétnad_ for obtaining information
regarding length of life was addressed to the seven daughters of the
sea. Perhaps the incantation was repeated mechanically until the seer
fell into a kind of trance. Divination by dreams was also used by the
continental Celts.[868]
Other methods resemble "trance-utterance." "A great obnubilation was
conjured up for the bard so that he slept a heavy sleep, and things
magic-begotten were shewn to him to enunciate," apparently in his sleep.
This was called "illumination by rhymes," and a similar method was used
in Wales. When consulted, the seer roared violently until he was beside
himself, and out of his ravings the desired information was gathered.
When aroused from this ecstatic condition, he had no remembrance of what
he had uttered. Giraldus reports this, and thinks, with the modern
spiritualist, that the utterance was caused by spirits.[869] The
resemblance to modern trance-utterance and to similar methods used by
savages is remarkable, and psychological science sees in it the
promptings of the subliminal self in sleep.
The _taghairm_ of the Highlanders was a survival from pagan times. The
seer was usually bound in a cow's hide--the animal, it may be
conjectured, having been sacrificed in earlier times. He was left in a
desolate place, and while he slept spirits were supposed to inspire his
dreams.[870] Clothing in the skin of a sacrificial animal, by which the
person thus clothed is brought into contact with it and hence with the
divinity to which it is offered, or with the divine animal itself where
the victim is so regarded, is a widespread custom. Hence, in this Celtic
usage, contact with divinity through the hide would be expected to
produce enlightenment. For a like reason the Irish sacrificed a sheep
for the recovery of the sick, and clothed the patient in its skin.[871]
Binding the limbs of the seer is also a widespread custom, perhaps to
restrain his convulsions or to concentrate the psychic force.
Both among the continental and Irish Celts those who sought hidden
knowledge slept on graves, hoping to be inspired by the spirits of the
dead.[872] Legend told how, the full version of the _Táin_ having been
lost, Murgan the _Filé_ sang an incantation over the grave of Fergus mac
Roig. A cloud hid him for three days, and during that time the dead man
appeared and recited the saga to him.
In Ireland and the Highlands, divination by looking into the
shoulder-blade of a sheep was used to discover future events or things
happening at a distance, a survival from pagan times.[873] The scholiast
on Lucan describes the Druidic method of chewing acorns and then
prophesying, just as, in Ireland, eating nuts from the sacred hazels
round Connla's well gave inspiration.[874] The "priestesses" of Sena and
the "Druidesses" of the third century had the gift of prophecy, and it
was also ascribed freely to the _Filid_, the Druids, and to Christian
saints. Druids are said to have prophesied the coming of S. Patrick, and
similar prophecies are put in the mouths of Fionn and others, just as
Montezuma's priests foretold the coming of the Spaniards.[875] The word
used for such prophecies--_baile_, means "ecstasy," and it suggests that
the prophet worked himself into a frenzy and then fell into a trance, in
which he uttered his forecast. Prophecies were also made at the birth of
a child, describing its future career.[876] Careful attention was given
to the utterances of Druidic prophets, e.g. Medb's warriors postponed
their expedition for fifteen days, because the Druids told them they
would not succeed if they set out sooner.[877]
Mythical personages or divinities are said in the Irish texts to have
stood on one leg, with one arm extended, and one eye closed, when
uttering prophecies or incantations, and this was doubtless an attitude
used by the seer.[878] A similar method is known elsewhere, and it may
have been intended to produce greater force. From this attitude may have
originated myths of beings with one arm, one leg, and one eye, like some
Fomorians or the _Fachan_ whose weird picture Campbell of Islay drew
from verbal descriptions.[879]
Early Celtic saints occasionally describe lapses into heathenism in
Ireland, not characterised by "idolatry," but by wizardry, dealing in
charms, and _fidlanna_, perhaps a kind of divination with pieces of
wood.[880] But it is much more likely that these had never really been
abandoned. They belong to the primitive element of religion and magic
which people cling to long after they have given up "idolatry."
FOOTNOTES:
[790] Cæsar, vi. 16.
[791] Rh[^y]s, _CB_{4} 68.
[792] Justin, xxvi. 2; Pomp. Mela, iii. 2.
[793] Diod. Sic. xxii. 9.
[794] See Jullian, 53.
[795] Servius on _Æneid_, iii. 57.
[796] Cæsar, vi. 16; Livy, xxxviii. 47; Diod. Sic. v. 32, xxxi. 13;
Athenæus, iv. 51; Dio Cass., lxii. 7.
[797] Diod. Sic, xxxiv. 13; Strabo, iv. 4; Orosius, v. 16; Schol. on
Lucan, Usener's ed. 32.
[798] Cæsar, vi. 16; Strabo, iv. 4; Diod. Sic. v. 32; Livy, xxxviii. 47.
[799] Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, 529 f.
[800] Strabo, _ibid._ 4. 4.
[801] S. Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, vii. 19.
[802] Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 30; Strabo, iv. 4. 4.
[803] Suet. _Claud._ 25.
[804] Pomp. Mela, iii. 2. 18.
[805] Pliny, _HN_ xxx. 4. 13.
[806] Dio. Cass. lxii. 6.
[807] O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 222; Joyce, _SH_ i. ch. 9.
[808] _RC_ xvi. 35.
[809] _LL_ 213_b_.
[810] See p. 52, _supra_.
[811] See, however, accounts of reckless child sacrifices in Ellis,
_Polynesian Researches_, i. 252, and Westermarck, _Moral Ideas_, i. 397.
[812] O'Curry, _MC_ Intro, dcxli.
[813] _LU_ 126_a_. A folk-version is given by Larminie, _West Irish
Folk-Tales_, 139.
[814] _Book of Fermoy_, 89_a_.
[815] O'Curry, _MC_ Intro. dcxl, ii. 222.
[816] Adamnan, _Vita S. Col._ Reeve's ed. 288.
[817] Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_, ii. 317.
[818] Nennius, _Hist. Brit._ 40.
[819] Stokes, _TIG_ xli.; O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 9.
[820] Pliny, _HN_ xxx. 1. The feeding of Ethni, daughter of Crimthann,
on human flesh that she might sooner attain maturity may be an instance
of "medicinal cannibalism" (_IT_ iii. 363). The eating of parents among
the Irish, described by Strabo (iv. 5), was an example of "honorific
cannibalism." See my article "Cannibalism" in Hastings' _Encycl. of Rel.
and Ethics_, iii, 194.
[821] Diod. Sic. vi. 12; Paus. x. 22. 3; Amm. Marc. xxvii. 4; Livy,
xxiii. 24; Solin. xxii. 3.
[822] This custom continued in Ireland until Spenser's time.
[823] Leahy, i. 158; Giraldus, _Top. Hib._ iii. 22; Martin, 109.
[824] Sil. Ital. iv. 213; Diod. Sic. xiv. 115; Livy, x. 26; Strabo, iv.
4. 5; Miss Hull, 92.
[825] Diod. Sic. v. 29; Strabo, iv. 4. 5.
[826] D'Arbois, v. 11; Diod. Sic. v. 29; Strabo, _loc. cit._
[827] _Annals of the Four Masters_, 864; _IT_ i. 205.
[828] Sil. Ital. iv. 215, v. 652; Lucan, _Phar._ i. 447; Livy, xxiii.
24.
[829] See p. 71, _supra_; _CIL_ xii. 1077. A dim memory of head-taking
survived in the seventeenth century in Eigg, where headless skeletons
were found, of which the islanders said that an enemy had cut off their
heads (Martin, 277).
[830] Belloguet, _Ethnol. Gaul._ iii. 100.
[831] Sil. Ital. xiii. 482; Livy, xxiii. 24; Florus, i. 39.
[832] _ZCP_ i. 106.
[833] Loth, i. 90 f., ii. 218-219. Sometimes the weapons of a great
warrior had the same effect. The bows of Gwerthevyr were hidden in
different parts of Prydein and preserved the land from Saxon invasion,
until Gwrtheyrn, for love of a woman, dug them up (Loth, ii. 218-219).
[834] See p. 338, _infra_. In Ireland, the brain of an enemy was taken
from the head, mixed with lime, and made into a ball. This was allowed
to harden, and was then placed in the tribal armoury as a trophy.
[835] _L'Anthropologie_, xii. 206, 711. Cf. the English tradition of the
"Holy Mawle," said to have been used for the same purpose. Thorns,
_Anecdotes and Traditions_, 84.
[836] Arrian, _Cyneg._ xxxiii.
[837] Cæsar, vi. 17; Orosius, v. 16. 6.
[838] D'Arbois, i. 155.
[839] Curtin, _Tales of the Fairies_, 72; _Folk-Lore_, vii. 178-179.
[840] Mitchell, _Past in the Present_, 275.
[841] Mitchell, _op. cit._ 271 f.
[842] Cook, _Folk-Lore_, xvii. 332.
[843] Mitchell, _loc. cit._ 147. The corruption of "Maelrubha" to
"Maree" may have been aided by confusing the name with _mo_ or _mhor
righ_.
[844] Mitchell, _loc. cit._; Moore, 92, 145; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 305;
Worth, _Hist. of Devonshire_, 339; Dalyell, _passim_.
[845] Livy, xxiii. 24.
[846] Sébillot, ii. 166-167; _L'Anthrop._ xv. 729.
[847] Carmichael, _Carm. Gad._ i. 163.
[848] Martin, 28. A scribe called "Sonid," which might be the equivalent
of "Shony," is mentioned in the Stowe missal (_Folk-Lore_, 1895).
[849] Campbell, _Superstitions_, 184 f; _Waifs and Strays of Celtic
Trad._ ii. 455.
[850] Aelian, xvii. 19.
[851] Tacitus, _Ann._ xiv. 30; Dio Cass. lxii. 6.
[852] Appian, _Celtica_, 8; Livy, xxi. 28, xxxviii. 17, x. 26.
[853] Livy, v. 38, vii. 23; Polybius, ii. 29. Cf. Watteville, _Le cri de
guerre chez les differents peuples_, Paris, 1889.
[854] Livy, v. 38.
[855] Appian, vi. 53; Muret et Chabouillet, _Catalogue des monnaies
gauloises_, 6033 f., 6941 f.
[856] Diod. v. 31; Justin, xxvi. 2, 4; Cicero, _de Div._ ii. 36, 76;
Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 30; Strabo, iii. 3. 6.
[857] Dio Cass. lxii. 6.
[858] Reinach, _Catal. Sommaire_, 31; Pseudo-Plutarch, _de Fluviis_, vi.
4; _Mirab. Auscult._ 86.
[859] Strabo, iv. 4. 6.
[860] Justin, xxiv, 4; Cicero, _de Div._ i. 15. 26. (Cf. the two magic
crows which announced the coming of Cúchulainn to the other world
(D'Arbois, v. 203); Irish _Nennius_, 145; O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 224; cf. for
a Welsh instance, Skene, i. 433.)
[861] Joyce, _SH_ i. 229; O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 224, _MS Mat._ 284.
[862] _IT_ i. 129; Livy, v. 34; Loth, _RC_ xvi. 314. The Irish for
consulting a lot is _crann-chur_, "the act of casting wood."
[863] Cæsar, vi. 14.
[864] O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 46, 224; Stokes, _Three Irish Homilies_, 103.
[865] Cormac, 94. Fionn's divination by chewing his thumb is called
_Imbas Forosnai_ (_RC_ xxv. 347).
[866] _Antient Laws of Ireland_, i. 45.
[867] Hyde, _Lit. Hist. of Ireland_, 241.
[868] Justin, xliii. 5.
[869] O'Grady, ii. 362; Giraldus, _Descr. Camb._ i. 11.
[870] Pennant, _Tour in Scotland_, i. 311; Martin, 111.
[871] Richardson, _Folly of Pilgrimages_, 70.
[872] Tertullian, _de Anima_, 57; _Coll. de Reb. Hib._ iii. 334.
[873] Campbell, _Superstitions_, 263; Curtin, _Tales_, 84.
[874] Lucan, ed. Usener, 33.
[875] See examples in O'Curry, _MS Mat._ 383 f.
[876] Miss Hull, 19, 20, 23.
[877] _LU_ 55.
[878] _RC_ xii. 98, xxi. 156, xxii. 61.
[879] _RC_ xv. 432; _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.M. 2530; Campbell,
_WHT_ iv. 298.
[880] See "Adamnan's Second Vision." _RC_ xii. 441.