C O N T E N T S .

P AG E

I N TR O D U C TI O N ,
C E L TI C M YT H O L O G Y AN D R E LI G I ON ,

C har acte r o f M y th ,

C au se o f M y th ,

Sp read o fM y th ,

T h e Ary a n N atio n ,

A ry an M y th s ,

R es ul ts o f th e eral P ri n ciple s
G en ,

Sou rc e s o fI n formatio n ,

Th e C elts ,

C e lti c C haracteri s ti cs ,

Th e G aul is h R el i g io n ,

D r u i d is m ,

C e lti c R el i g io n i n B ritain an d I rel an d ,

B riti sh R el igio n ,

T he G ae li c G o d s in H istory ,

G o d s o fth e G ael s ,

T he C e lti c E ly s iu m ,

Wels h an d G ael i c E ly siu m ,

C elti c Worsh ip a n d R ites ,

C eltic B uri a l R ite s ,

TH E D R UI D C I RC L E S ,

CE L TI C B U RI A L ,
 L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S .

F ACI NG PAG E
D r M ac B ai n
. an d h is S tu d e n ts , F ron tispiece

D ruid Te mpl e fro m th e N orth ,

Clava C airn s , grou n d pl an ,

N orth an d South ,

Clava, N orthern C airn ,

C rain ish C ircle an d C a irn ,

Sto n eh en ge . grou n d p l an ,

R u de Sto n e M o n um e n ts in I n d ia ,
 I N TR OD U CTI O N .

ALE"A N D E R MAC B AI N ge n erally and rightly regarded

,

as the greatest of our Scottis h Celtic scho lars was ,

born in G len feshie in Badenoch o n 2 2n d July 1 8 5 5

, , , ,

and died on 3r d April 1 907 at Stir ling The an

, , .

ces t ors of his father John MacB ain were reputed

, ,

to hail from L ochaber His mother was M argaret

.

M ackintosh whose peop le were of the M ackintoshes

,

of Tir in ie in Glen Tilt descendants or connections

,

of the ancient Toisea ch of that ilk In MacB ain s

‘
.
'

boyhood his district w as s o thoroughly Gaelic

speaking that at the age of eight or nine he knew
no E nglish while at fifteen his E nglish was still
,

hesitatin g an d though he was quick to observe the

,

errors of others he himself could n ot avoid s imil ar

,

mistakes of gr ammar an d idiom He was bred in a .

Gaelic atmosphere an d in a distri ct which in Virtue

of its ce ntral positio n w as full of the c lan spir it and
clan traditio n s a n e nvironme n t which influenced
,

him strongly thr oughout his life In his early years

.
,

he had his full share of the j oys a n d the hardships

of the Highlan d lad of humble statio n and more ,

tha n his share of the perfervid e n ergy and deter

mination which have raised so many such lads to
honour and fame Some day the full story of
.

MacB ain s early career may be given more comp letely

’

as related by himself i n his Jou r n al a docume n t of ,

vi I N TRO D U CT IO N .

great interest and value I n the Introduction ,

he says ,
I give all my early life up to t he time I
commenced keeping a Journal or the year 1 87 0 , ,

when the jou rn al proper commences and moreover , ,

I also give an account of my ancestors in the said

Introduction Here only a short sketch of these
.

early days can be given He entered Insh School .

on 2 5 t h N ovember 1 863 and left it on 8 th Augus t

, , ,

1 87 0
. From December of 1 870 till mid April 1 87 1 -

he taught quite alone the school of D u n mu llie

, , ,

Boat of Garte n which under him rose from twenty

,

three to fifty seven pupils His salary consisted of

-
.

the fees After this experience and some months of

.

atte n dan ce at B ald o w School where he began Greek , ,

he got work on the O rdnance Survey fir st in Scot ,

land then in Wales He had however no intention

,
.
, ,

of remain ing permanently in the Survey ; his aim

all alo n g was somehow or other to work his way
, ,

to the U niversity His craving for knowledge of

.

every kind was intense ; his m eans of gratifying it

were sle n der ; but he never lost an opportunity .

Before leaving Badenoch he had made good progress

in E nglish History L atin and Mathematics and had
, , ,

contrived by dint of p u rchase and borrowin g to

, ,

read a great deal of sound but exceedingly mis

cellan eou s literature He had tried his hand at
.

poetry and had given it up He had read astronomy .

and done some architectural drawing stirred thereto ,

by seeing the plans of some new buil dings on the

Mackintosh estate He had even tried p ai n ting H e
.
.
 I N TRO DU CTI O N . vii

had the ha b it of taking stock from time to t ime of

his attainments his pers onal belongings books etc
, , ,
.
,

and his physical development and appearance He .

looked upon his little World with the same appraising ,

critical but kin dly eye He kept a ful l and careful

‘

note of his correspondence with his father who had ,

gone to better his fortune in America and was ,

deeply solicitous for his son s welfare O n the ’

.

Or d nan ce Survey he added materially to his stock

of knowledge and became expert in the operations
of surveying but in so far as his main purpose was
,

concerned the service was a failure

, for he left it ,

in 1 873 as poor as when he entered it He n ow .

studied for a short tim e at B aldow School and ,

succeeded in obtaining one of the Grammar S chool

Bursaries provided under the scheme of the Reverend
Dr J Calder Macphail With this assistance in
. . .
,

autumn of 1 874 he entered the Grammar School of

O ld Aberdeen famous then under the Rectorship
, ,

of D r William Dey as a preparatory school for

.
,

Aberdeen U niversity Two years later he entered

.

King s College as s econd Bursar and could at last

’

look forward w ith confidence to some realisation

of his ambition Here he is said to have impressed
.

his fellow students as the ablest man of his year ,

a y ear which included James Adam afterwards of ,

E mm a nuel Co llege C ambridge foremost Platonis t

, ,

of his time Thou gh a good classical scholar

. ,

MacB ain read for honours in philosophy a subj ect ,

w hich in after life be reckoned one of the most bar ren

 I N TR O D U CTI ON .

of studies and graduated in 1 8 80 For a short t ime

,
.

he assisted Dr Dey i n the Grammar Schoo l there

.

after in 1 880 he was appoin ted Rector of R ain in g s

’

, ,

Schoo l I n vern ess under the government of the

, ,

H ighland Trust He oc cupied this post till 1 894

. ,

when R ain in g s School was transferred to the Inver

’

ness Burgh Schoo l Board and thereafter was officially ,

connected with the Secondary Department of the

Invern ess High P ublic School In 1 90 1 his U n i .

versity of Aberdee n honoured him with the honorary

degree of LL D In 1 90 5 Mr Arthur J Balfour
. . . .
,

the n Prime M inister in consideration of his great

,

services to Celtic and specially Gaelic philology

, , ,

history an d literature recommended him to the ,

King for a Civil L ist Pe n s ion of £90 as from I st ,

April of that year Two years later he died suddenly

.

in Stirling where he had gone on business du ring

,

the E aster vacation .

As H eadrn ast er of R ain in g s School MacB ain ’

succeeded in making his school occupy for the N orth

of Scotland a position similar to that held by the
Grammar School of O ld Aberdeen under Dr Dey . .

H is reputatio n attracted to it many of the ablest

l ads from the who le Highland area He taught .

them to think for themselves to insist on having ,

n ot o n ly facts but also so far as in them lay the

, , ,

reasons why these things are so Keen young men .

were not s low to ki n dle at the master s quickening ’

fire They gladly lived laborious nights a n d days

.
,

doing with all their might that which was given

 I NTRO DU CTI O N . ix

them to do R ain in g s School became in those days

.
’

a nursery of students who subsequently took the

highest positio n s in the U niversity c lasses and ,

became usefu l and distinguished men in their various

call ings Some idea of the work is afforded by the
.

fact that in MacB ain s time the school which began

’

under him in 1 880 with a secondary department of

three by 1 890 had sent over one hundred to the
,

U niversities .

While thus actively and successfully engaged in the

work of an arduous profession MacB ain was at the ,

same time carrying on with extraordinary vigour

those Celtic studies which won him a world wide -

reputation Wh en he came to I n verness in 1 880

.
,

the scientific study of Scottish Gaelic had already

begu n under Dr A lexander Cameron of Brodick
.

(ob
. but little substantial progress had been
made In February of 1 88 2 in his first s peech at
.
,

the annual dinner of the Gaelic Society of I n verness ,

M acB ain said : Hitherto the Highlanders have

been too much inclin ed to guess and too litt le in ,

clin ed to accurate scient ific research We want a .

good critical edition of the Gaelic poets ; we want

also a scientific Gaelic Dictionary dealing with the
philology of the language He was then twenty
.

s even and was rapidly qualifying himself to deal

,

w ith the philological requirements O n N ew Y ear s

'
.

Day 1 875 being then a student at the Grammar

, ,

School he had written in his diary

,
I thin k that
I have now a good chance of yet appearing as an
" I N TRO DU C TI O N .

M A on equal terms in education with the

. .
other
literary men of our day a goal which has always
,

been my ambition to a rrive at that I may have ,

confidence in dis cussin g the topics w hich engro s s

the attention of mankind I dr ead to comnn t .

myself through ignorance a n d ere I will appear ( if

,

ever I shall) in public I will be backed up with a

,

complete knowledge of the facts I speak on This .

is high talkin g for a poor student in the second class

of the Grammar School of O ld Aberdeen Here .

he enunciates a guiding principle from which he

never swerved He had ever the true scient ific spirit
.

in his respect for facts and in the pains he took

, ,

and would have others take in verifying them ,

.

N o statement of his is made at haphazard This .

reverence for truth he had the knack of inspiring in

some at least of those who came in contact with
, ,

him .

In Inverness he lived far from U niversity centres

and far fr om libraries He made up for this p artly
.

b y an expenditure on books which must have b ee n

out of proportion to his income and p artly b y the ,

d irection he was able to give to the purchas es of the

local Free L ibrary as a result of which its reference
,

department is exceed ingly complete and useful on

the historical side Inverness itself was at that t ime
.

rich in men of native tal ent and literary instincts .

In particular the Gaelic Society founded in 1 87 1 , ,

by the discussions at its meetings and b y the field

for publication o ffered by its Tra n saction s e xercis ed ,
 I N TR O DU CT IO N . xi
0

an im portant influence There MacB ain found .

compa n ionship that was much to his taste ; he

attended the meetings regularly and contributed ,

eighteen valuable papers to its Tran saction s the ,

first of which was that on C eltic M ythology read on

z 3rd February 1 883 O f the others some of the
, .
,

most important are his edition of the B ook ofD eer

( volum e B a den och H istory Clan s a n d P la ce ,

N a mes ( vol xvi ) P tolemy s G eogra phy ( xviii ) the

’
. . .

l ast of which he himself considered the best thing

he had done the N or se E lemen t in H ighla n d P lace
N a mes ( xix ) E arly H ighlan d P erson al N a mes
.

( xxii) P la ce N a m es o f I n ver n ess—shir e

In addition he wrote the introductions to volumes

,

x xxv
.
-
of the Society s Tra n saction s constituting
.
’

a history of Gaelic literature and of the Gaelic move

ment for the period covered by them To the .

Tr a n saction s of the I n vern ess Scien tific Society an d

F ield Clu b he co n tributed papers on C eltic B u rial
(vol iii ) ; Who w ere the P icts P (vol
. The .

C hieftain ship of Clan Chatta n ( vol He wr ote .

many articles and reviews for the local newspapers .

In addition to all this MacB ain became in 1 886 , ,

editor of the C eltic M agazin e and was also for five ,

years j oint editor of the H ighlan d M on thly All .

MacB ain s articles show how firmly he held to his

’

guidin g principle verified knowledge of the facts

, .

In 1 8 92 in conj unction with his lifelong friend

, ,

the Rev John Kenn edy Caticol Arran a Badenoch

.
, , ,

man MacB ain published R eliqu iae Celticae ( two

,
"ii I NTRO DU CTI O N .

remain of the R e“ -

volumes) being the literary

,
s

Dr Alexander C ameron
.
Brodi c k a lso a nat ive of
, ,

Badenoch In connection with this u n d er t ak mg he

.
,

completed and printed the transcrip tion of the .

F ern a ig M S which Cameron had not l ived to

finish His E tymological G a elic D iction ary appeared
.

in 1 8 96 O n this of course he had spent much

. , ,

time ; in his usual manner he both mastered the ,

principles and made himself acquainted with all

that had been done by scholars British French , , ,

German and Italian The D iction ary w as his crown

.

ing achievement and was at once recogn ised as

,

marking an era in Celtic Philology A second edition .

,

which he did not live to superintend was published ,

by Mr E neas Mackay Stirling in 1 91 1 In 1 902 he

.
, , .

edited Skene s H ighlan ders ofScotlan d w ith valuable

’

and characteristic but all too brief notes In the .

same year in conj unction with Mr John Whyte

, .
,

he edited M acE achen s G aelic D iction ary a most ’

,
'

useful work Along with Mr Whyte he also brought

. .

out H ow to L earn G aelic Wi th a brief but scient ific ,

outline of Gaelic grammar This handbook is now .

in its fourth edition .

The bare statement of MacB ain s achievement in ’

respect of output marks him as possessing extra

ordin ary power o i application Yet it would be a .

complete mistake to regard him as a student only .

He was a full blooded man with a keen enj oyment

-

of life and it is only fair to say with a distinctly

, , ,

Bohemian temperament His leisure for social inter .

 I NTRO DU CT I O N . x iii

course was small ; but he had his o w n circle of

in t imates which for many years met weekly in a
,

spir it of good fellowship remin isce n t at once of the

old L ondon co ffee house days and of the Highland
-

ilidh In congenial company MacB ain became

'
ce .
,

discursive hum orous satir ical charming i n mann er

, , ,

an d personality with the power of making others

,

feel at their best Argument he disliked especially

.
,

on matters within his ow n domain whence he was ,

sometimes accused of dogmatism His dogma .

t ism however was that of a ma n who has based his

, ,

opinion on a wide induction and knows what is

meant by proof but on the other hand does not
,

choose always to rehearse the process by which his

j udgment has been arrived at especially to such as , ,

in any case would not appreciate that process N o

, .

man could be more ge nerous in helping others .

E ither by letter or by conversation the stores of his ,

knowledge were open to all fellow students O f -

.

j ealousy he was who lly free : his one aim was to

add to the sum total of scient ific knowledge to ,

enl arge the kin gdom of facts Sometimes his gen er.

osity was poorly rewarded ; this knowing human ,

nature he took philosophically He had the power

,
.

characteristic of gr eat minds of gettin g straight to

the essentials of a question an d of seeing things in
,

true perspective He had the insight of the philo

.

sopher into the significance of the facts he dealt

with and the consequent power to correlate and

,

illumine them His mind was powerfully analytic

. ,
x iv I N TRO DU C TI O N .

and in nearly if not quite as high a degree y

,
s nthetic .

As a critic while high ly appreciative of good work

,
.

he was not lenient to error especia ly l I

,
f the error
arose from negligence in verifying facts that ought
t o have been verified Charlatans found to their
.

cost that he could wield a gr ievous cudgel But he .

was fair in stateme n t and with native courtesy

,

and nobility of heart he was ready to recognise

the good points even of a weakling His reputation .

among scholars all over E urope w as very high as I ,

have occasion to know from appreciations of his work

by practically all the leading Celtists of his day in
connection with his Civil L ist p ension In his later .

years though his brain was active and his interest

,

unabated he no longer possessed the physical

,

elasticity necessary to continue the strain to which

he had subj ected himself From his youth upwards
.

he had lived a full and hard life and had indeed ,

overtaxed a strong constitution MacB ain had .

more than achieved the ambitions of his boyhood .

The poor struggling Badenoch lad had taken his

place among the scholars of E ur ope ; he had won
the highest academic distinction and national
recognition His premature death was a disast er
.

which to those who knew him well was full of pathos .

The portrait which appears at the b eginning of this

book represents him in his prime My own recol .

lection of him may be quoted from an article in the

Celtic R eview written a few da ys after his death
And now he is gone and Inverness is a less in terest
,
xvi I N TR O D U CTI O N .

This was clearly in dicated i n the preface Another .

criticism was uns cie n tific in the extreme I was .

found fault with for ex cludin g Irish words Why .

it was the be st service I could render to Celtic

philology to present a pure vocabulary of the
,

Scottish dialect of Gaelic As a matter of fact the

. ,

Dictionary is remarkably complete within the limits

assig n ed to it Its conclusions will as a rule t e
. , ,

mai n firm for they are based on facts and they can
, ,

be criticised to any purpose only by experts of e xperi

ence For the ordinary student the wisest course
.

is to try to understand the principles on which the

conclusions are based .

In the application of the prin ciples of scientific

philology to the two special departments of names
of places and personal names Dr MacB ain was so , .
,

far as Scotland is concerned a pioneer In dealing ,

.

with N orse names as they appear now after many

centuries of use in the mouths of Gaelic speakers he ,

came to realise what had not been realised previously ,

namely that such changes as take place between

,

N orse and Gaelic do not occur at haphazard b ut are ,

on the whole regular and capable of being sta ted in

detail C ertain changes are invariable
. others
vary according to district ; others are im possible .

I t follows that the value of any proposed in terpre

t ation depe n ds in the first instance on the accuracy
w ith which the true pronunciation of the name in

Gaelic has been ascertained Additional data often

.
,

of value may of course b e got from charters etc

, ,
,
.
,
 I N TR O DUCTI O N . xvii

but the genuine Gaelic pronunciation comes first .

In dealing w ith Celtic names the same principle ,

holds Success depends on accurate data inter

.
,

prete d in the light of a historical knowledge of the

language and its laws of sound In all MacB ain s .
'

w ork these principles are operative and it is this ,

fact that makes his work a model .

Practically all our knowledge of Highland personal

na me s is due to Dr MacB ain s researches a s set
’
.
,

forth in the I n ver n ess Gaelic S ociety s Tr an saction s

'

and i n the C eltic R eview volume ii These papers

, .
,

however represent but a part of his industry an d of

,

his knowledge of the subj ect He has left MS

. .

coll ections from charter s ources etc bearing o n a ,

.
,

vast number of Highlan d perso n al names and ,

forming a valuable basis of i n terpretation but he ,

himself did not commit the in terpretation to paper .

With regard to the Pictish question Dr MacB ain , .

argued with much force on the one hand again st

Skene s V iew that the language of the P icts was
’

really Gaelic a n d on the other against the view

expressed by Professor Rhys that the P ictish lan
guage w as no n Ar yan Ma cB ain s statemen t of the
-
.
’

case wil l be fou n d in his papers ( 1 ) o n P tolemy s ’

G eogr ap hy (2 ) Who Were the P icts ? ( Inver n ess

Field Club Tran saction s vo l iv ) (3 ) The E thn ology
, . .

of C eltic Scotla n d in his editio n of Ske n e s H igh

’

lan ders pages 3 8 1 40 1

,
-
I n his view the Picts were
.

racially mixed an d linguistically Celtic and the

, ,

form of Celtic spoken by them was of the B retton ic

xviii I NTR O D U C T I ON .

or Cymric branch tha t is O ld Welsh not O ld Gaelic

, , ,
.

With these views most s cholars now agree .

The present volume contains t hr ee of his earlier

essays The essay on Celtic M ythology w as his first
.

contribution to the Tran saction s of the Gaelic Society ,

and while it is interesting historically and contains

much val uable matter both its general attitude and
,

its conclusions have to be considered in the light of

'
sub sequent researches especially Sir J G Frazer s
,
. .

G olden B ou gh O f this Dr MacB ain himself was well

. .

aware and he had in poin t of fact largely ceased to

, , ,

hold by the theories which were in favour at the date

when the essay was written In j ustice to MacB ain .
,

this qualification has to be kept in view N o such .

qualifi cation attaches to the other two essays The ,

D ru id Circles and C eltic B u rial

, False ideas .

a b out the Druids he co n sidered rightly to be the , ,

source of much vain and erroneous specula tion and in ,

this respect he was wont to speak of them together ,

with the Culdees and the Picts of Galloway as the ,

three frauds of Scoto— Celtic history T he essay .

on Celtic B u rial is another token of the keen interest

taken by MacB ain in the archaeological side of
Celtic studies .

The publication of these essays w ill it is hoped , ,

be welcomed by many There is among MacB ain s

.
’

papers ab undant material for several further volumes .

WI LL IAM J WA TS O N
. .

E D I N B U R G H,
M ay , 1 916 .
 C ELTIC MYTHO LO G Y
AND R E LIG IO N

TH E field of Mythology strictly defined embraces

, ,

the fabulous events believed i n by a nation and the

religious doctri n es implied in these But the term
.

is for co n ven ien ce sake extended so as to include

’

the kindred subj ect of folk lore N o w folk lore

-
.
-

includes all thos e popular s tories of which the fair y

tales of our n ursery are a good illustration an d where
,

the religious eleme nt imp lied in Mythology is absent .

The term Celtic Mythology in these papers is u n der

, ,

stood therefore to include the popular traditio ns

, ,

and legend ary tales of the Celts the fabulous actions

,

and exploit s of their heroes and deities the traditions

,

of their early migr ations their fairy tales and the

, ,

popular beliefs in reg ard to the supernatural world

The scope of the discussion will include an intro
d uct or y sectio n or two o n the general pri n ciples
of Mythology— its cause an d spread and the con ,

n ection of the Mythology of the Celt s with those

of the kindred nations of E urope and Asia .

B
10 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI O N .

C H ARAC T E R OF MY T H .

There w as once a farmer an d he had three ,

daughters They were washing clothes at a river

.
.

A hoodie crow came round and he said to the eldest ,

— — ’

one , M pos u mi Will you marry me farmer s

- - -

daughter I wo n t i n deed you ugly brute ’

, ,

an ugly brute is a hoodie said she He c ame to the

’
.
,

second o n e on the morrow an d he said to her , ,

M— pos u mi— Wi 1 t
-
thou w ed me
-
N o t I in ,

deed said she

,
’
an ugly brute is a hood ie The .

third day he said to the youngest M pos u mi ,

- - -

Wilt thou wed me— farmer s d aughter ?

’ ’ ‘
I will
’

wed thee said she a pretty creature is the hoodie

’

,
.

And on the morrow they married .

The hoodie said to her Whether wouldst thou ,

rather that I should be a hoodie by d ay and a man

at night or be a hoodie at n ight an d a man by day
I would rather that thou wert a man by day and a
’
hoodie at night says she After this he was a splen
, .

did fellow by day and a hoodie at night A few days .

after he got married he took her to his own house .

At the birth of the first child there came at night ,

the very fi n est music that ever was heard about the
house E very o n e slept a n d the child was taken
.
,

away Her father came to the d oor in the morning

.
,

an d he w as both sorrowful and wrathful that the

child w as taken away .
12 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI O N .

night But she slept

. he came where she was ,

and let fall a ring on her right hand N ow when she . ,

woke she tried to cat ch hold of him an d she caught

, ,

a feather of his win g He left the feather with her .

,

and went away In the morning she did not know

.

what to do till the house wife told her that he had -

gone over a hill of poison over which she coul d not ,

go without horse shoes on her hands and feet She .

gave her man s clothes and told her to learn smithy

’

ing till she could make horse shoes for herself .

This she did and got over the hill of poison

, .

But on the day of her arrival she found that her ,

husb and was to be married to the daughter of a great

gentleman that was in the town As fes tivities .

were in progress the cook of the house asked the

,

stranger to t ake his place and make the weddin g

meal She watched the bridegroom and let fall the
.
,

ring and feather in the broth intended for him .

With the first spoon he took up the ring with the ,

next the feather He asked for the person who .

cooked the meal an d said that now w as his married

, ,

wife . The spells went offhim They t u rned b ack

’
.

over the hill of poison she thr owing the horse shoes ,

behind her to him as she went a b it forward and he

, ,

foll owing her They went to the t hr ee houses

.

where she had been These were the hous es of his .

three sisters and they took with them their three

sons and they c ame home to their own home and
,
,
”
they w ere happy .

‘
A bridge d f r om C a mpbell s '
Wes t H ighlan d T ales , vol . I , p 63. .
 CH ARACT E R OF M Y TH . 13

Such is a good specimen of the folk tale and the -

folk tales are merely the modern representatives

-

of the old Mythology— merely the detritus as it ,

were of the old myths which dealt with the gods

,

an d the heroes of the race I n the above tale we

.

are in quite a d ifferent world from the practical

and scientific views of the 1 9th century ; we have
birds speaking and acting as rational beings a nd yet ,

exciti ng no wonder to the human beings they come

in co n tact with ; supern atural spells whereby me n
“

may be turn ed into animals ; a marriage with a

bird which partially breaks these spell s and the bird
, ,

becomes a man for part of the day ; super n atural

kidnapping ending in the disappeara nce of the man
,

bird and p u rsuit of him by the wife through fairy

regions of charms an d s pells and untold hardships
a pursuit which e n ds successfully It looks all a .

wild maze of childish nons ens e u nworthy of a mo,

ment s serious consid eratio n ; it would certai nly

’

appear to be a hopeless subj e ct for scien tifi c research

for what could science whose obj ect is truth have
, ,

to do with a tissue of absurdities a n d falsehoods ?

But this V iew is a superficial o n e though it is the ,

one commonly held O n looking more deep ly i n to

.

the matter we shall fi n d that after all there is a

,

method in the madness of Mythology an d that the ,

incongruous mass of tales and broken down myths -

that make up a nation s fo lk lore is susceptible of

’
-

scientific treatment Science first attacks the pro

.

blem by the method of comparison ; it compares

I 4 C ELTIC M Y TH O LO G Y AN D R EL IGI O N .

the myths an d tales of one natio n with those of an

other with the V iew of discovering similarities
,
.

The outlines for examp le of the tale already given

, ,
,

exis t n ot merely in o n e or two more tales in our own

folk lore but can also be traced over all the continent
-

of E urope as well as in many parts of Asia The

,
.

outline of the tale is this— The youngest an d best

of three daughters is married or give n up to some
unsightly being or monster who i n reality is a most ,

beautiful youth but who is u n der certain spells

,

to remain i n a low form of life u ntil some maiden

is fou n d to marry him He then regains his natural
.

form though as a rule only partially ; and the

, , ,

newly married pair have to work out his complete

-

redemption from the spells But j ust as he is about .

,

to be free from the spells the curiosity or disobedience

,

of the wife ruin s everything he disappe ars and then ,

follows for the wife the dark period of wandering

and toil which can be brought to a n end only by
,

the achieveme n t of tasks generally three in number , ,

each hopelessly beyond human powers The hus .

ba nd who meanwhile has forgotten owing to the

, ,

n ature of the spells upon him all about his wife , ,

is on the eve of marrying another when the last ,

task ofall is accomplished by the perseveri n g courage

of the wife The spells the n leave him for ever and
.
,

happiness reigns in the household ever after .

There are in our Highland folk lore one or two -

versions of this same tale The story of the D au gh .

ter of the Skies in Mr Campbell s b ook is one

, .
’

,
 CHARA CT E R or M YTH . 15

variation Here the hoodie crow is replaced by a

.

little doggie an d the wife s disobedie nce is clearly

,
’

brought out while the supern atural ma chinery

,

the magical scis sors an d n eedle for example— 45 ,

much more elaborate The tale also is fou n d i n

.

N orway ; in the N orse tale E a st of the Su n an d ,

West of the Moon the hero appears at first as a

,

white bear who o n his marriage with the heroin e

, , ,

becomes a man by night She must not however .

, ,

see him for light mu s t n ot fall o n his body or else

,

he at o nce disappears But the wife i n stigated .

,

by her mother steals a sight of him by lamp—

,
light ,

with the conseque nce that he awakes an d vanishes .

Then follow her trials pursuit an d recovery o fhim

, , .

The beautiful Greek tale of P syche an d Cupid is but

a variation of the same myth P syche the youngest .
,

of three royal daughters incurs the wrath of Ve n us , ,

who sends Cupid to inspire her with love for some

thing contemptible as Titania in Shakespeare , ,

is made to fall in love with the tran sformed weaver ,

Bottom But Cupid captivated by her beauty

.
, ,

falls i n love with her himself conveys her to a se cret ,

cave an d visit s her o nly at night u nder strict charge

, ,

of her not attempting to see him by any light Her .

j ealous si sters persuad e her that she is married to

some ugly mo ns ter and she accordi ngly determines
,

to disobey his inj unctions and inspect him by lamp ,

light In so doing she allows in her admiratio n

.
,

of his beauty a drop of hot oil to fall o n his shoulder

, ,

an d he awakes an d escapes She su ffers woes

,
.
I 6 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI ON .

untold in her pursuit of him being finally a slave ,

i n the household of Ve n us who treats her very cruelly ,

.

But of course she recovers her lost lover at long

, ,

last An d agai n in India in the old religious

.
, , ,

books of the Brahmi n s is a somewhat simil ar tale ,

the story of U rvasi and F u r ur avas the main features ,

of which are the same as the Gaelic and Greek tales

already given To the E nglish reader the well
. ,

known tale of Beauty and the Beast will at

o n ce oc cur as a n exact parallel to all these An d .
,

if we take the myths where the heroine is the loathly

monster we shall fi nd an equally wide d istribution
,
.

We have the Hi n du tale where the Pri n cess is dis ,

guised as a withered old woman the L oathly

L ady of Teutonic Mythology a n d the C eltic story
of D iarmad s love for the daughter of the king of
’

the L and under the Waves who appears first as a ,

hideous monster and becomes on approaching , ,

D iar mad the most beautiful woman ever see n

,
.

Thus the n we have traced the same myt h among

, ,

natio n s so widely apart as the Celts an d Hindus ,

while i ntermediate between these we foun d it among

, ,

the Greeks an d Teutons And some myths are .

even more widely distributed than that the tale of

the imprisoned maide n and the hero who rescues
her from the dragon or monster appears am ong all
the nations of E urope as well as amo n g many of the
nations of Asia Hence from India i n the E ast .
, ,

to Ireland i n the West we may find a great mass o f ,

mythical tales common to the various nations .

 AU S E
C or M Y TH . 1
7

A n d this being the case it may plain ly become a

,

matter of scientific e n quiry fir st Wh at the cause , ,

of these peculiar myths an d tales can be ? and ,

secondly What the significance is of t heir wide dis

,

tribu tion

C AU SE O F MY T H .

The cau s e and origin of these myths have puzzled

philosophers of all ages a nd it is only a generatio n
,

ago when the first unr avelling of the d iffi cult problem
really took place In olden times their origin was
.

set down to the well— k nown faculty of i nvention

that man poss esses ; they were mere inve ntio n s
and fictio ns most ly purposeless t hough some were
, ,

evidently inten ded for explanatio n s of n atural

phe nomena or of historical events and others again ,

for the co nveyance of moral truth There were .

practically two schools of myth explain ers ; those -

who regarded myths as mere allegories or parables ,

a nd from them extracted codes of moral obligatio n

and hidden k n owledge of the mysteries of nature
an d again those who so to speak
, , ,
ratio n alised ,

the myths— that is to say those who exp lain ed ,

myths as exaggerated real events Some of these .

explained for example Jupiter as king of Crete

, ,

in the pre historic times ; an d again the gian t

-

, ,

that Jack killed according to such explanation s

, ,

was not necessarily far exceeding the natural limits

18 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y A N D R EL I GI O N .

of six or seve n feet in height for the 3 °t

1 to o n l}I
,

l brute O f little
n otice was that he was a big bur y
sense overcome by the astuten ess of a much lesser
,

man But this theory gets i nto gr ave diffi CU ItieS

.

whe n it grapp le s with the supernatural and the

supra n atural i n fact it fails ignomi n iously An d
,
.

as to the allegorical theory while it has n o difficulty

,

i n exp lai n ing Jack the Giant Killer as merely the

perso n ifi catio n of the truth that power of mind is
s uperior to power of bo d y that theory is completely
,

wrecked i n explainin g the myths of Jupiter and the

gods generally N o allegory can explain most of
.

these myths especially the older myths ; while

,

the d ifferent explan ations given by different alle

gor iz er s of eve n the s implest myth s point to a
fund amental error in this theory N ow it must .
,

not be supposed that both allegory and real events

had no share in the formation of myths ; they were ,

indeed mo s t pote nt factors in the later stages of

,

Mythology a n d must have existed all alon g as a

,

cause for myth A n other theory may be n oti ced in

.

passin g as to the origin of myths in regard to the

deities a n d cosmogo n y of the world It may be .

called the degradation theory and the principle ,

of it is this : As all languages were supposed by

theologi an s to be desce n dants of the original Hebrew
to ngue spoke n in E de n so the Mythology of all
,

natio n s must be more or less a broken— down re

m embr an ce of the Hebrew re ligion an d philosophy ,

first imparted to man in the Garden of E den The .

20 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y A N D R EL I GI O N .

and lastly a d iscussion as to the origi n O f language

,

is thus re n dered possible E xactly th e same methods

.

have bee n employed i n the elucidatio n of myths .

with a s uccess that o n the whole is gratifying

,
,
.

In so airy an d fa n ciful a subj ect results of such strict

,

s cientific accuracy cann ot be obtained as in the

kin dred scie nce of lan guage And a good deal of
.

harm has also bee n do n e eve n with scientific methods

, ,

by pressi ng some theories of explanation too far .

So me M ythologists for example are too apt to

, ,

reduce every myth to a myth about the sun and ,

he n ce the evil repute of the solar myth theory .

But this is merely a good theory inj ud iciously used ;

it d oes not alter the fact of the importance in
Mythology of the sun worship .

The theory of the cause of myt h that finds most

favour at the present time is that which explains
myth in connection with and d ependence on lan
, ,

guage while at the same time due regard is had to

the other possible sources of it i n allegory analogy , ,

a n d real though exaggerated event s The way

, ,
.

i n which language gives rise to myth can however , ,

be understood only after a consideration of the

me n tal powers state of cult u re and consequent
, ,

interpretation of n ature which existed among primi

tive and m yth making men L anguage is but the
-
.

physical side as it were of mythology an d the

, , ,

mental side of it must be considered before the action

of language can be appreciated properly The origin .

of myth springs from the same cause as the origin

 CAUS E O F M Y TH . 21
0

of science they are both man s attempt to i nter pret ’

his surroundings M yth is but the badly remembered

.

interpretation of nature given in the youth an d

inexperience of the world when the feelings were
predominant ; science is the same interpretation
in the o ld age of the world given under the i nfluence
,

of the freezing reason s colder part M an in the

’
.

myth making stage was ignorant of the cause an d

-

real character of the mighty n atural forces around

him ign oran t eve n of the u n altering uniformity
fi

of n ature— indeed the o nly thing the Celts said they

wer e afraid of was that the heavens should fall "
The relations of cause and effect they interpreted
by their own feelings and will power every moving -

thing animate or inanimate was regar ded as im

, ,

pelled by a force aki n to that which impell ed ma n

that is by a will force E ven statio n ary nature
,
-
.

the everlasting hills and the solid earth—was en

dowed with feelin g w ill an d thought All the
, ,
.

mental powers that man found controlling his own

actio ns were u nco nsciously transferred to nature .

A personal life w as accordingly attributed to su n ,

moon clouds winds and the other natural powers

, , ,

they were looked upon as performing their special

fu n ctions by means of faculties of mind an d body
analogous to those of ma n or beast The varying .

phenomena of the sk y mom and eve noo n and, ,

black clouded night were the product of the life that

-

dwelt in each The eclipse of the su n for example

. ,

a most dreaded eve n t i n ancient times— w as su p

22 C ELTI C M YTH OL O G Y AN D R ELI GI O N .

posed to be caused by a wild beast attempting to

swallow the lord of day and men poured forth as ,

some savages do yet with timbrels and drums to

,
,

frighten away the mo n s ter The clouds were cows

.

with swelling udders milked by t he su n and wind

,

of heaven—the cattle of the s u n under the care of

the wind The thu n der w as the roar of a mighty
.

beas t the lightning a serpent d ar ting at its prey

,
.

Modern savages are i n much this state of culture ,

and their b eliefs have helped greatly in unravelling

the problem of mythology The ideas which chil
.

dren form of outward nature exemplifies in some

degree the mythic age through which the race in its
childhood passed To a little child not only are
.

all living creatures endowed with human in telli

gence but everything is alive In his world pussy
,
.
,

takes rank with Pa and Ma in point of in telli

gence He b eats the chairs against which he has
.

knocked his head the fire that burns his finger is

naughty fire ; and the stars that shine thr ough
’
his b edroom window are eyes like mamma s or ,

’ ”
pussy s only brighter
It was on these wrong impressions—this anthropo
.
,

morphic view of nature—that lan guage was founded .

L anguage in man s passing to a higher state of

’

culture still kept stereotyped and fixed the old

, , ,

personal explanations and statements about nature ;

the language did not change but man s views of
,
’

natural causes and events changed very much as he

got more civilised— more free from the influence
 CAU SE OF M YTH . 23

of his feelings an d more under the sway of his reason

,

ing powers The k n owledge a nd ideas of earlier men

.

were thus as it were fossilised in language and when

, , ,

the feeling and perso nification impressed on language

had passed into a more intellectual age the result
.
,

was misinterpretation and a too literal acceptance

of many of the warm an d vivid epithets employed
’
of old The personal explanatio n of the sun s mo
.

tion for in stance a nd the attributes and epithets

, ,

given to it all charged with life and feeling were in

, ,

the course of time an d language taken in a more

literal way and since slightly more scientific views
, ,

were held as to the real nature of the sun the old ,

explanations were fastened to a s eparate su n god -

and thus a divorce w as made between the s u n and

the personality give n to it in the old epithets and
explanations The result was that there came to be a
.

sun and a sun god Apollo quite separate-

,
and the ,

history given to this su n god w as taken from the life -

explanations formerly given i n personal and anthro ,

pomorphic language of the su n s d aily and yearly

’

course his ris ing and setting for ex ample

, , ,

expressions which though a nthropomorphic are , ,

still in use A myth can not therefore well arise

.
, ,

unless the true mean ing of a word or phrase has been

forgotten and a fals e meani ng or explanation fastened
on it We may take an exampl e from Greek my
.

thology to illustrate this P rometheus the fir e .

,

bringer is merely the perso nification of the wooden

,

fire drill ; for the word is derived from the same

-
24 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL I G I O N .

source as the Sanscrit praman thas the fire ,

”
machine . Transpla n ted to Greek soil the word ,

lost its original significatio n w ith the loss of the

thing s ignified an d became a mythological name
, ,

for which a n ew etymology had to be coined Now .

,

”
r o m et h i n Greek mea n s provident and
p es , , ,

so Prometheus the fire brin ger w as transformed

,
-

into the wise repres entative of forethought w ho ,

stole the fire from heave n for su ffering humanity ;

a n d a brother was supplied him in the foolish
E pimetheus or afterthought And thereby hangs .

one of the most famous and noble myths of antiquity .

Gaeli c in its modern shape even presents some

, ,

very startling person ifica tion s of natural obj ects .

"
The regular expression for The su n is settin g
is Tha a ghrian dol a laid he going to bed
’ ’

Mr Campbell in his very literal a n d picturesque

.
,

tran slation of the West Highland t ales does not ,

hesitate to follow the Gaelic eve n i n its most personal

metaphors . Beul na h oidhche nightfall -

, ,

is given literally as the mouth of night Gaelic .

poetry too is as a rule much more instin ct with life

, ,

an d feeling in dealing w ith natural o b j ects than

E n glish poetry
’
Ossian s ad dress to the setting
.

s u n may be quoted to show what a mine of metaphor ,

and consequent mythology exists in our poetic ,

and elevated language

A n d ib ag th u go rm pau r
'
as t ar n an s ,

A ru hic gun b he u d ,
’
a s Or b huid h ’
-
ciab h P
Th a do t s an na h -
o id hche d h u it r eid h ,

A gus pailliu n do c hl os ’
s an iar .
 C A U S E O F MYTH . 25

1big n a s tu aidh mu gu mall

’
n cu airt
'

A cho i mhe ad fi r a s
'
gl ain e gru aidh ,
A t ogail fo e agal an ce an n
'

R i d fhaicin n cho aillid h n ad s h u a in .

' ’

G ab hs a ca d al an n ad c hos ,

A ghr ia n is till , 0 d chl os le

’
ao ib hn e a s .

These lines bring us back to the an thropomorphism

of the Vedic hym n s of I n dia to which alo n e in their , ,

richness of perso n ificatio n and mythic power they ,

can be compared .

Al lied to the linguistic theory of myth is also the

simpler case of those myths co n sciously started to
explain the names of nations countries and places , ,
.

A common method of accounting for a nation al

name was to i nvent an an cestor or patriarch who
bore that name in an i n dividual form Britain .
,

so say the myths is so named from Brutus grand

, ,

son o f iE n eas the Troj an hero who first ruled

, ,

here Scotland gets its n ame from Scota the

. ,

daughter of Pharaoh The names of places are .

dealt with i n the same way an d if the n ame is an y , ,

way sig nifican t the myth takes the lines ind icated
,

by the popular etymology of the name This is

the origin of the name of L och N ess : Where -

Loch N ess n ow is there w as once a fine glen A

-
.

woman we n t one day to the well to fetch water ,

and the spring flowed so much that she got frightened ,

left her pit cher and ran for her life Getting to
,
.

the top of a hill she turned about and saw the gle n
,

filled with water Aha said she tha loch a r m

. ,

a n is and hence the lake was called L och N ess -

.
26 C ELTIC M YTH O L O G Y A N D R ELI GI ON .

A somewhat similar account is given of the origin

and name of L och N eagh in Ireland and L och Awe
-

, ,
-

in Argyleshir e .

From such myths as the last we gradually pass to

myths that do not depend in the least on the
quibbling and cha nges of language b ut ar e con , ,

sciously or unconscious ly forged explanations of,

national customs historical events or nat ural

, ,

phenomena Thus the custom among the Picts

.

whereby the successio n was in the female line was ,

mythically explai n ed by Bede thus : The Picts , ,

having invade d Scotla n d came to terms with the

,

indigenous Gaels and as they brought no women

, ,

with them the compa ct w as that if the Gaels

, ,

gave them their daughters as wives the succession ,

would be in the female line Again has the reader .

,

ever thought why the se a is salt Well this is the ,

reason why A man o n ce got possession it is need

.
,

less to detail how of a fairy quern which was good

,

to grind anything o n ly requiring certain cab alistic

,

words to set it going or to stop it A ship captain .

b ought it to grind salt for him on his voyage In .

mid ocean the captain gave the quern the necessary

-

order to grind salt and it did but unfortunately

,

he forgot the incantation for stopping it The .

quern ground on and filled the ship with sal t till

it sank to the b ottom of the sea where the quern ,

is still grinding salt And that is the reason w hy

.

the sea is salt I f any one is sceptical j ust let him

.
,

taste the sea water and he will know its truth

28 C ELT IC M Y TH O LO G Y A N D R EL I GI O N .

nation s language—its modes of thought an d ex

’

pression—ii the roots of the proper names b e em

b ed ded in the language an d co n sequently o b scured
, ,

that myth an d that tal e must belong to that nation .

They b elong to that n ation s inherit ance as much as

’

its langu age O f course care must b e exercised in

.
,

deciding what is really the pecul iar property of a

nation an d distinction made between the various
,

classes into which the materials of mythology and

folk lore fall
-
That certain deities occur in India
.
,

Greece and Germany having the same names and

, ,

the same character is a fact that can no longer be

,

denied That certain heroes too kno w n to Indians

.
, , ,

Greeks and Romans point to one and the same

, ,

origin for these nations both by their name and by

,

their history is a fact by this time admitted by all

,

whose admissio n is of real value As heroes are in .

most cases gods i n disguise there is nothing st artling

,

in the fact that natio n s who had worshipped the

s ame gods should also h ave preserved so me common
legends of demigods or heroes nay even in a later , ,

phase of thought of fair ies an d ghosts The case

, . ,

however b ecomes much more pro b lematical when

,

we ask whether stories al so fables told with a ,

decided moral purpose formed part of that earliest

Ar yan inh eritance Here Max Miiller draw s
a d istinct line between fables with a moral or edu
cative purpose an d the rest of the materials of my
thology and he has clearly d emonstrat ed that many
,

such are b orrowed The fables of [E sop have been

.
 SP R EA D or MYTH . 29,

adopted into every language in E urope and the ,

moral t ales of the Indians after many vicissitud es

, ,

“
found a local habitation in the pages of L a .

Fontain e and others A n other explanation for the

.

distribution of myths is that primitive men worked

in similar grooves wherever they lived man s cir ’

cumstan ces b eing the same his ideas and the ex

,

pression of them will prese n t strong resemblances

everywhere This V iew will account for the myth s
.

that are most widely d istributed over the e art h s ’

surface Jack the Giant Killer for instan ce appears

.
-

, ,

in the Zul u story of Uhlak an yan a who cheats the ,

cannibal giant and his mother to the latter of whom

,

he had b een delivered to be boiled and whom he ,

cunnin gly succeeds i n substituting for himself .

But the theory can apply o nly in a general way ;

to the great body of myths common to certain
nations it cannot apply at all ; it does not touch
their deep and often detailed resemblances What .

harmonises b es t with the facts of mythologic dis

tr ibu tion is the groupin g of nations into families
proved to b e genealogically allied from possessing
a common b ody of myths a nd tales that must be
descended from a parent stock Although the facts .

of comparative mythology are suffi ciently strong of

them selves to prove the common origin of the natio ns
from Ind ia to Ireland yet it is satisfactory that the
,

science of lan guage has already proved the commo n

d escent of thes e natio n s as far at least as la nguage
,

is concerned L ingu ists have called the paren t

.
30 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI ON .

nation from which they have sprung the Aryan

, ,

nation a name which Shall be adopted in this dis

,

cu ssion The only other group of n ations that can

.

satisfactoril y be shown by their language an d my

t hology to possess a commo n descent is the Semitic ,

which includes the Hebrews Chaldeans and Arabians , , .

The Aryan and Semitic races have nothing in common ,

except what is borrowed either in the matter of ,

language or myth When we are told that the Celtic

.

god Bel is the same as the Semitic Baal we may ,

conclude that the assertio n is more than likely .

, ,

both unscientific and untrue .

T H E A RY A N N ATI O N .

From the comparison of roots in the various

present and past descend ants of the original Aryan
tongue and in a less degree from a comp ar ison
, , ,

of their myths we are enabled to form a fair idea

,

of the culture an d religion of the Aryans N ot only .

can radical elements expressing such obj ects and

relations as father mother brother d aughter hus , , , ,

band brother in law cow d og horse cattle ox

,
- -

, , , , , ,

corn mill earth Sky water star and hundreds more

, , , , , , ,

be found identically the same in the various branches ,

of the Aryan to ngue n ow or sometime spoken but , ,

they can also be proved to po s sess the elemen ts of

a mythological phr aseology clearly descended from
a commo n source In the matter of c ul ture the .
,
 TH E AR YA N N ATI ON .
31

Aryans were organised in communities framed o n

the model of the patriarchal hous ehold They had .

adopted a system of regular marriage with an

elaborate grad i ng of kinship s an d marriage affinities .

In the household the father was king and priest ,

for there was also a family religion the wife an d the

rest of the family though sub servie n t to the p atria
,

potestas were far from being Slaves while outside

, ,

the househol d grades an d ranks of n obility or kin

,

ship were strict ly marked Comfortable houses

.

and clustered villages clearings and statio n s with

, ,

paths and roads were in exis tence ; the precious

metals together with copper tin an d bronze were
, , , ,

in use but iron was probably u nk n own The

,
.

domestic an imals had lo n g bee n tamed an d n amed ,

for cattle an d flo cks composed their chief wealth ,

though the plough tilled the field and cor n was grown
and crushed in the mills and quer n s They c ould .

count to one hundred at the very least for the root ,

of cen d hu n d red is commo n to all the descend an t

,
-

tongues and they had d ivided the year into seasons

,

and months— a fact which is especially proved by

the root for mon th being taken from the n ame given
to the moon the measurer
,
They spoke a lan
.

guage that was highly i nflected an d comp lex that

is to say the relation between word s and the relations
,

of time (or ten se) and mood were expressed by

changes i n the termi n atio n s of words On the .

whole the Aryans were h igh in the b arbaric state of

,

culture as O pposed o n the one hand to the savage

, , ,
32 C EL TI C M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI O N .

an d , on the other to the civilised state of

,

progr ess .

In regard to religion a nd M ythology the Ar yans ,

were in much the same stage of advancement as in

their culture ge n erall y As their culture and.

lan guage had required long ages to reach up to the

state of comparative excellence at which they had
arrived so too their religio n must have passed
, , ,

through lower phases until it reach ed the well de

ve10ped cosmos of Ar yan times And as there are .

not wanting many S ig ns of those earlier stages of

belief both in Aryan Mythology and in the My
t hologies of the desce n dant nations , it is necessary
to glance briefly at what these stages may have been .

Belief in the supern atural exists a n d has existed , ,

in all races of men whose beliefs we have any know

ledge oi The lowest phase of this belief is known
.

as Animism a n d consists in believing th at what

,

is presented to us in our dreams and visions has a

real existence Savage man makes no d istinction
.

between his dreaming and waking existence He .

sees the shadows of the d ead in his sleep and ,

firmly b elieves in their obj ective real ity But not .

merely the dead alo n e have Shadows or spirits the

living too have spiri ts or duplicates of self Animals
, , .
,

also and material obj e cts have souls for is n ot the

, , ,

dead hero seen in dreams wearing the gh osts of arms

-

sword and hatchet and such like that he ,

—
possessed in life The worship of ancestors would
appear to have been the first form in which these
 TH E AR Y A N N ATI ON .
33

beliefs took the Shape of an active religion or worship

of higher beings Ancestor worship though first
.
, ,

is by no mean s lost i n subsequent stages for of all ,

forms it is the most persiste n t i n it s survival .

Moder n China a n d an cient Rome are promine n t

proofs of this fact From a n cestors it is a n eas y
.
,

step to worship the ghosts of other persons ; some

times these were looked on as ben eficen t and at other ,

times as maleficen t beings whose help was to be

, ,

invoked or whose wrath was to be deprecated .

Ghosts ancestral and other might inhabit natural

, ,

obj ects— trees rivers wells and animals and this

, , , ,

combined with the worship of the actual ghosts

of these obj ects sometimes gave rise to fetishism
, ,

so well called the worship of stocks and stones .

Totemism again consists i n the worship of a tribal

, ,

badge ; some clan or n ation worship a particular

obj ect gen erally an an imal a form of worship which
, ,

may easily have sprung from ancestor worship ,

Since the ancestral ghost may have taken that par

ticul ar form Some go so far as to as sert that the
.

n ames of some of the H ighland an d Irish clan s

and their badges are remnants or remembrances
of this worship an d appeal in proof is especially made
,

”
to the clan Chattan with its animal crest the
, ,

cat The next stage is the worship of the n ature

.

spirits or the natural powers as seen in obj e cts of

,

outward nature— clouds lightning an d Sky This , , .

gives rise to polytheism proper an d perhaps prior , , ,

to that to hen otheis m as Max Miiller has so well

, ,
34 C EL TIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL IGI ON .

named that totemic worship of one especial

element of nature making it for the moment the su
,

preme deity with all the attributes that are applicable

to it embellished an d exhausted In polytheism .

the plurality of deities is expressed in henotheism

it is implied Polytheism generally presents a
.

dynastic system of gods u n der the rule of one supreme

king or father while henotheism implies a co
,

ordination o i deities These deities

. says Mr , .

Sayce ,
are necessarily suggested by nature ; the
variety of nature overpowers in an infantile state of
society the unity for which the mind of man is ever
yearning Gradually
. however , the attributes
,

applied to the obj ects and powers of nature take

the place of the latter ; the sun becomes Apollo ,

the storm Ares Deities are m u ltiplied with the

.

multiplication of the epithets which the mythopoeic

age changes into d ivi n ities and demi— gods and Side ,

by side w ith a developed Mythology goes a developed

pantheo n . The polytheism which the infinite
,

variety of nature made inevitable continues long ,

after the nature worship that und erlay it has grown

faint and forgotten A time at last comes when even
.

abstract names have to submit to the common

process ; temples are raised to Terror and Fear ,

to L ove and Reverence an d the doom of the old

polytheism of nature is at hand When o n ce the .

spirit of d ivin ity has been breathed into abstractions

of the huma n min d it cannot be long before their
,

essential u n ity is recognised and they are all summed

,
36 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO GY A N D R EL I G I ON .

sky and Jupiter the sk y father is the Roman

, ,
-

versio n of Father in Heave n Fire in all its . ,

manifestations w as an especial obj ect of worship ;

,

Agni is the Vedic name of this deity which appears ,

in L atin ign is and Gaelic ain (heat ) The su n and

,
.

moo n were promi n e n t among the deities the sun ,

bei ng the most i n favo u r perhaps of all the gods , , .

The epithets applied to him are innumerable and , ,

as a consequence scarcely two nations have the ,

same name for the sun— god and nearly all have one ,

or two deities that are phases of solar worship The .

Sanscrit su rya L atin sol ; E nglish su n

,
and , ,

Gaelic solu s present the chief root the first four

, , ,

actually meani n g the sun and being used as the ,

name of the sun deity often -

.

And there were other gods hardly inferior to these

gods such were what we may call the meteoro
logical d eities the regulators of weather an d
w

seasons Prominent among these was the thunder

.

god who brings thunder and rain ; in the Vedic

,

hymns his place is filled by the chief god Indra in

L atin he is the Jupiter Ton an s ; in the N orse
Mythology he appears as Thor who is next in im
,

portance to O din himself and in the Celtic Myt h

ology he is k n own as Taranis The storm god was
, .

wors hipped u nd er the title of Maruts the L atin ,

Mars and Greek Ares The wind had a high position

, .

amo ng the deities but among the d escendant n ations

,

its pos ition is not quite so high unless we connect ,

with it the god Hermes who in Greek Mythology ,

 TH E AR Y A N N ATI ON .
3 7.

is clearly a wind god both in his connection with

music and as messenger to the gods .

The gods we have hitherto discussed belong to the

in tan gible obj ect s of nature— the S ky stars su n , , ,

dawn an d perhaps so too the weather gods

, , ,
.

Max Miiller gives two other possible classes of deified

obj ects ; semi tan gible obj e cts such as trees mou n
-

tains the sea the earth These obj ects supply the
, , .

material for what he calls the semi deities And -

.

thirdly lowest of all are ta n gible obj ects su ch as

, , ,

stocks an d stones and other eleme nts of fetishism .

The worship of semi tangible obj ects shows clearly

-

a remnan t of the old animis m for these obj ects are ,

endowed in savage culture with S pirits of a perso n al

type. The lowest races s ays Mr Tylor , not .
,

onl y t al k of such nature S pirits but deal with them

-

i n a thoroughly personal way which shows how ,

they are modelled o n human souls Modern .

travellers have seen N orth Ameri cans paddling

their canoes past a dan gerous place on the river ,

and thr owi ng in a bit of tobacco with a prayer to

the river S pir it to let them pass An African wood
-
.

cutter who has made the first cut at a great tree

has bee n known to take the precaution of pouring
some palm oil on the ground that the angry tree
-

spirit coming out may stop to lick it up while the ,

man runs for his life The state of min d to which

.

these natur e Spir its belong must have been almost

-

as clearly remembered by the Greeks when they ,

could s till fan cy the n ymphs of the lovely groves

38 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI O N .

and Springs and grassy meadows coming up to the

council of the O lympian gods or the dryads growing ,

with the leafy pines an d oaks and uttering screams ,

”
of pain when the woodman s axe strikes the trunk
’
.

These nature s pirits play a most important part

i n folk lore appearing in the tales of the river demon
-

, ,

the water kelpie who drowns his victim in the whirl

,

pool ; and in the giants trolls and dwarfs who, , ,

represe n t mountain and earth spirits ; the healing

’
waters of sacred wells have only ad opted saints
names i n place of the old pagan deities ; while the
little elves an d fairies of the woods are but dim
recollections of the old forest spirits .

O f magic a word or two may be said It must be

, .

remembered that the gods could change their shape

at pleasure ; their normal shape among Aryan
n ations was the human but they could assu me the
,

shape of partic u lar men or beasts or even of in ,

’
a n imate obj ects for Jupiter came into D an ae s
,

’
prison in a shower of gold Perseus magical hat of
.

darkness and shoes of swiftness belong to the same

cloud changing character Spells and enchantments
-
.

form a n important feature of magical powers and ,

have their origin in spirit explanations of the -

numbing power of frost the relaxing power of heat

, ,

the power of drugs as of the Indian Soma an d doubt

, ,

less in the magnetic influence exerted by some men

and animals notably the serpent A nd if we descend
, .

still lower we find magic as a rule depend on a false

,

u se of analogies The Zulu who has to buy cattle

.
 A RYA N M Y THS .
39

may be seen chewing a bit of wood in order to ,

soften the breast of the seller he is dealing with

for as the wood gets softer in his mouth the sellers ,

heart is supposed als o to soften Such superstitions

.

exist even in our own co u ntry to the present day .

The writer of this has known of a case where a clay

”
body , cor pan cr eadha was actually made and
,

stu ck over with nails an d pins an d placed in a stream

,

channel to waste away A S the clay wasted s o with

.
,

sharp pangs would waste away the person for whom

it w as intended.

The ethical side of the Aryan religion presented

some interesting features The contest between
.

the powers of light and darkn ess—Dyaus and Ind ra

on one side against Ahriman or Vritra the bright ,

sun god against the s n ake god of d arkness Apollo

- -

strangli ng the Python represents a real ethical id ea

,

good overcoming evil Sacrifice and prayer temple

. ,

and altar were known an d sin an d S in offering

,
-

were familiar ideas to the Ar yans A Shadowy .

spirit exis tence after death w as believed in her oes

were taken to the halls of the gods but the kingd om,

of Hades was the general abode of spirits where the ,

good and the evil got their des erts .

ARY AN MY T H S .

We sh all now see how the Aryans d ealt in one or

two cases with the actions of their gods an d how ,
40 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y AN D R ELIGI ON .

this gave rise to a mythical life history of them in

later times It was arou n d the su n god that most
.
-

of these myth s were gathering O ffspring of night .

,

whom he S lays he loves the dawn maiden Daphne

, ,

rosy fin gered morn who flies from his embrace

-

over the az u re plai n s of Heaven but Cinderella , ,

like leaves a golden streak of light b eh ind her

,

whereby she may be followed a n d found The .

s u n has his toil s too in the pursuit storm clouds

,
-

in tercept his path at times even the eclipse monster

swallows him and he has to toil for mean creatures
like men to give them light and heat owing to the ,

S pells put upon him But at length he overtakes .

,

in the evening his morning love the d awn now the

, , ,

evening d awn who consoles him as he descends

,

beneath the wave In some such strains must the

.

’
old Aryans have spoken of the sun s career and
a ctio n s a n d s u ng the praises of the Being who
,

guided his flying coursers over the plains of Heaven .

L ater ages rationalised the myth into the loves and

actio n s of Apollo and Daphne Hercules an d Dej anira , ,

a n d others inn umerable The myth is broken .

down to a folk tale which appears i n a variety of

-

modern forms of which the fair y tale of Cinderella

,

is the best example Cinderella is the youngest

.
,

as usual of three sisters the night watches ; She

,
- -

is i n fact the dawn maiden she is pursued by the

young prince and leaves her glass slipper—her streak

,

of light—behind her by mea n s of which She is ,

identified at last This tale appears also in the

.
 AR Y A N M Y THS .
41

Gaelic popular stories A king s d au ghter has to ’ '

fly with her fairy treasures— the peculiar thing is

that these maidens have al ways treasur es and there ,

generally is as much dispute about them as about the

maide n s themselves ; these treasures appear to be
conne cted with the rain clouds the cows and cattle ,

of the su n The kin g s daughter takes service in

.
’

the new lan d She arrives in goes to a ball unknown ,

to her employers in her fairy dress creates a sen

,

sation so to Speak ; but having to leave in haste

, ,

she loses her glass slipper whereby the enamoured ,

prince is enabled to fi n d her The tale of the .

Hoo d ie Crow with which our d iscussion com

,

men ced would appear to be a broken down myth

,

of the solar C lass and it is accordingly connected

with the nocturnal life of the su n god who then is -

under the S pell of the dark powers The dawn .

maiden pursues him through toils a n d diffi culties ,

and at last frees him from the spells .

A n other fruitful sour ce of myth and worship is

the change of summer into winter when the earth ,

”
has to pass from the ge n ial rul e of the fir e powers
to that of the frost king The earth is S pell .

bou nd during win ter by the machinations of the

,

frost kin g the lovely goddess of summer has been

-

car ried away leaving her mother E arth discon

,

solate ; Proserpi n a gathering flowers herself a ,

"
fairer flower by gloomy Dis is gathered
,
She .

becomes the wife of Pluto god of the lower world , ,

but is allowed to return to her mother for half of the

D
42 C ELTIC M YTH O LO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

year Connected with this myth is the widespread

.

tale of the impris oned maiden There are always .

thr ee characters in the myth the monster or giant ,

who performs the abdu ctio n ; the maid en who is

rich in treasures as well as beautiful and the youth
ful hero the young Apollo who is destined to over
, ,

c ome the monster and his spells .

Some mi n or points may briefly be noticed .

Among the many names of the su n in the Veda ,

he is called the golden handed a very natural

-

simile for the golden rays Shooting fin ger like from -

him The Hindus accordingly rationalise this an d

.
,

tell how Savitri cut o ffhis hand in a s trait and that ,

the priests made a golden hand for him The N orse .

god Tys (Zeus) had also his hand bitten o ff by the

Fenris wolf and the Irish king of the De D an n an s
-

, ,

N u a d a of the Silver Hand lost his hand in fight

,

with the Firbolg giant and the physician D ian cet

,

made him a S ilver one Another wide spread myth

.
-

is to be referred to the same source the su n god '

-

Apollo is the best of archers— the Far d arter -

of Homeric poetry In nearly every Aryan nation

.

there is a historical lege n d telling the doughty deed

of some great archer such is the story of Tell in ,

Switzerland which is typical of the rest The

, .

legend appears i n the German tale of E igel brother ,

of Wayland the s mith god while in Braemar it is

,
-

circumstantially told regarding the ancestor of the

Machardies also a , smith family O f myths .

arising from the wind storm thunder earth and

, , , ,
44 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

to be recognisable in the descendant Celtic languages

and m yths Whatever we find in these must con
.

form regard being had to the development of Celtic

,

peculiarities to what we k n ow to have been true of

,

the myths an d la n guage of the parent Aryan tongue ,

or of those of one or two of the other Aryan nations .

Anything in Celtic myth lan guage or customs

, , ,

inconsistent with an Aryan descent or of a plainl y ,

non Aryan character must first of all be distrusted

-

until its existence among the Celts and them alone , ,

has been established on indubitable grounds Nor .

must explanations of Celtic phe n omena be accepted

which would imply relationship with races outside
the Aryan stock— such as with the Semitic or Hebrew
ra ce until clear historical or other proof is adduced
, .

The a priori argument against such a connection

is so strong that special care must b e exercised in
allowing non Aryan explanations to appear It is
-

needless to remark that until lately the Celts suffered

much from the inj udicious and unscientific theories
of Celtic enthusiasts and it has been only by the
,

patient industry of the Germans that full recognition

has been given to the proper position of the Celts
among the other Indo E uropean nations E ven
-

yet in Scotland too little attention is paid to the

, ,

scientific facts established in Celtic ethn ology and

philology For this state of matters th ere is n ow
.

little excuse more especially as within the last year

,

or two the results of Continental and British learning

have been put before the pu blic in the works of Mr .
 S OU R C E S O F I N F O RMATI ON .
45

E ltonand Professor Rhys to both of whom the ,

present writer must express his great obligations .

SO U RC E S O F I N F O R M AT I O N .

O f the old Celtic n ations— their culture and their

r el gion — w e have n o n ative account N o Celtic
'

language has got a ny literary remains earlier than

the seventh century at farthest a nd even these are ,

but glosses or marginal Gaelic equivalen ts of L atin

words i n man uscripts The oldest manuscripts
.

of con nected works cann ot be traced farther back

than the eleventh century By this period Chr istian
.

ity had asserted its sway at least in n ame and the

, ,

old paganism remained o n ly i n the customs an d the

heroic and folk tales of the n atio n : What religio n
-

existed in Irelan d an d Britain a thousan d years before

this period of the o ldest manuscripts must be dis
covered ifit can at all from some other source than
, ,

contemporary n ative evidence Y et we are not .

without a fair idea of what the old Celtic religion

was The sources of our information in deciphering
.

what Professor R hys has called the weather worn

history of the Celts are these Roman an d Greek
writers have left contemporary accounts of Celtic
history religion and customs though in the case of
, , ,

religion and customs such accou nts are scrappy

,

in deed and the history is generally a statement

,
46 C EL T I C M Y TH OLO GY AN D R EL IGI ON .

of contemporary actio n s and the relations of the

Celt s to the favoured races of Rome and Greece .

N ext to the s e come the monuments and inscriptions

of a n cie n t Gaul and Br itain These comprise mostly
.

the votive inscriptions to the deities the statues , ,

and the coinage of the period The names of places .

,

especially of rivers have indicated Celtic localities

, ,

m igration s and religious beliefs for how numerous

,

are for insta n ce the rivers with the name Dee

, ,

( goddess) showi ng the wide spread worship of water

,
-

and rivers among the Celts E xamination also of

the rude sto n e mo n umen ts and the barrows of pre
hi stor ic times has elucidated much that is dark
i n Celtic History while the examination of physical
,

characteristics in the race has helped even more to

clear up diff iculties of ethnology A j udicious use .

of the oldest heroic and folk tales must d ivulge

some secrets in regard to Myt hology if not to history ,

while modern folk tales and customs lend S pecial

-

aid in reflecting light on the past An intelligent .

scrutiny of the Roma n cale n dar of sain ts will disclose

a few more Celtic divinities in the realms of saint
dom for where the Church did not make demons
or heroes of the ancient gods it did the next best ,

thing— it made sai n ts of them In the same way we .

can recognise Pagan festivals and customs in a

Christian guise ; the Church festivals are nearly
all the result of assimilating the existing religious
customs And lastly to steady our whole results
.
, , ,

we have to remem b er that the Celts are an Ar yan

 S OU RC E S O F I N F O RMATI ON .
4 7O

people and that expla n ations of their customs and

,

religions must follow the ordin ary lines of the other

Aryan nations Where there are differen ces—and
.

there are man y such— these must be caused by the

fact that the Celts assimilated with themselves an
earlier population N oti ce has already been take n
.

of the Pictish law of suc cessio n where descent is ,

traced through the mother This implies clearly .

a low V iew of the state of matrimo ny and on e clearly ,

opposed to an Aryan source We are therefore .

fairly j ustified i n regarding the Picts as strongly

admixed with a n on Aryan race -
.

In thus recon stru ct n g the past history of the

'

Celts at least three cl asses of savan ts are pressed

,

into our service Firs t and foremost is the philologist i

.
,

who has within the last ge n eratio n or two completely

revolutionised the s cie nce of eth nology He has .

Shown in the clearest mann er possible the common

descent of most of the E uropean natio n s at least ,

as far as language is co n cer n ed an d that means a ,

vast amou n t for la nguage is followed by a common

,

mythology an d in a less degr ee by commo n cus

, , ,

toms. The next savant we draw upo n is the

anthropologist or rather the physiologist
, , , he
examin es the remains of an cie n t man an d the
characteristi cs of modern man an d cl assifies accord ,

in gly
. A n d thir dly we have t he archae ologist
, , ,

who exam ines prehistoric remains and impl ements .

These three classes of workers do n ot well agree ;

Professor Huxley despises the ethn ological result s
48 C ELTIC M Y TH OL O GY A N D R ELI GI ON .

of linguistic scienc e while Professor Rhys does not

,

conceal his contempt for those who decide on national

descent by skin and skull ; and Mr Fergusson .

will not leave his rude stone monuments to

consider what either of them may s ay Two such .

men as Mr Tylor and Mr E lton are therefore

. .
, ,

to the ordinary student simply invaluable guides

, ,

fr om the fact that they attempt to combine the

researches of all thr ee From the materials collected
.

from these three sources we shall proceed to give a

,

short account of the Celts and their religio n .

THE C E LT S .

When or where the people lived who spoke the

original Aryan tongue is n ot known with any cer
”
tainty It seems probable
. says one writer , ,

that their home was somewhere in South western -

Asia and the time of their dispersio n not less than

,

t hree thousand years before Christ Fick holds .

that they S plit up first into two parts a nswering ,

to the modern Asiatic and E uropean Aryans The .

E uropean branch agai n broke up into two—the

South western E u ropean division and the N orthern
-

E uropean d ivisio n The latter included the Slav

. onic
( Russians and old Prussians) and the Teutonic ,

( E nglish Germans N orse

, , races ; while the
,

Southern branch comprised the Greek L atin and , ,

Celtic races The order in which they are en umer

.
 TH E C EL TS .
49

ated above shows the order of their arrival in E urope

first came the C elts leading the van of the Southern
divisio n while the Sclavs brought up the rear of all
, .

It has been remarked that for the purpose of attaining

political great n ess the Celts came too soon the Sclavs ,

too late The lin e of Celtic migr ation across E urope

.

has been traced in the n ame s of places especially ,

the river names The Do n and the D n ieper would

.

appear to prove that they cross ed the Russian

steppes Y et there are evide nt traces of the Celt s
.

o n the [E ge an se a and we have the River Stru m on

,

on the Thracian coast which is clearly Celtic from the ,

existence of the s which was lo st i n Greek itself ;

,

and we may add the famous Mount Pin dus in

Greece " I n an y case however be their route
.
, ,

whatever we please we find the Celts in the earliest

,

records we have of them in possessio n of the greatest

portion of Western E u rope At the time of their .

takin g Rome in 3 90 B C the Celts would appear . .

,

to have possessed as they certainly did two centu ries

,

later N othern Italy Fra nce Belgium an d part of

, , , ,

Germany most of Spain Britai n and Ireland

, , , .

How much of the middle of E urope they then held

is unknown but that they did possess part of what
,

now is Germany is clear fr om the names of places ,

and also from the fact that the Germa n s have in ,

common with the Celts many myths which must ,

have then been absorbed by the Germa ns in absorbin g

the Celtic population About 220 B C the Romans . . .

Se e Ku hn '
s B e it raege , V o l . viii p ,
.
4 .
SO C ELT I C M YTH OLO G Y AN D R ELI GI ON .

co n quered N other n Italy a hundred ye ar s later they

,

conquered the Mediterran ean coast of France and ,

seve n ty years afterwards Cae sar co n quered the whole

of Fra n ce and completely crushed the Gallic power :
.

That is briefly the political S ide of their history .

But there are two points to notice in their in ternal

history of special importance in the present inquiry .

The Celts in entering E urope found the country

, ,

inhabited and this previous population a n on

, ,

Aryan one of course they either exterminated or

,

absorbed It is therefore of vital importance

.
, ,

to know as much as possible about this previous

population for naturally its customs beliefs and
, , , , , ,

i n a much less degree its lan guage were absorbed

, ,

by the conquering Celt From the evidence of .

language and customs alone Professor Rhys has , ,

in his work on Celtic Britain been able to prove ,

the existence of a previous non Celtic and non -

Aryan population i n Britain The Pictish custom .

of succession already mentioned a n d the continual ,

reference in classical writers to some British nations

who had community of wives—Cae sar erroneously
attributes this to all Britain alike Celt a n d n on Celt ,
-

—point to a low idea of matrimony that must have

belonged to the previous population Again in .
,

the list of Kings given for the Picts the names are ,

not of an Aryan or Celtic type Aryan n ames were

always compounds however much denuded by time
, ,

but these Pictish names are monosyllabic and un

meaning The frequency of animal names in Pictish
.
52 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y A N D R ELI GI O N .

with the n ose overhung at its root heavy cheek ,

bones and prominent chin ; these last differing

,

much from the straight faced oval headed men -

,
-

who ar e recognised as Celts and Aryans The dark .

”
skinned race of Britain is called the Silurian ,

from the a n cient tribe so named by Tacitus in the

”
Val eof the Severn and described by him as Iberian
,

in appearance The fair race Mr E lton designates

. .

”
the Finnish from its apparent Finnish or U grian
,

affi n ities The Picts would appear to be for the most

.

part of this race doubtless with a strong admixture

, ,

in after times of the pure Celtic stock The .

archaeologist u n fortunately can n ot help us much

, , ,

but it is believed that this Finnish race were the

builders of the huge stone monuments scattered
all o ver E urope—d olmens cromlechs and Druid , ,

circles while the barrows of both the ante Celtic

,
-

races exist .

The influence exerted by these previous races on

Celtic custom s a n d religion must doubtless have
been co n siderable The strangeness of the lower
.

mythology prevailing in Wales and B ritann y

’

might afford some evide n ce in favo u r of its pre

Celtic origin But no cou n try in E urope is fr ee from
.

those gross superstitions which seem to indicate

an u n derworld of barbarism and remnants of for
gotten nations not wholly permeated by the culture
of the dominant races Professor Rhys goes so
.

far as to refer Druidism to the Silurian race because ,

Caesar mentions Britain as the birthplace of that .

 W EL SH AN D GA EL S
.
53

cultus and it is of a ch ar acter which he considers

,

non Ar yan It is almost cer tain that second S ight

-
.
-

an d other ecstatic moods must be referred to the pre

Celtic races .

WE LS H AN D G AE LS .

The second point in the internal history of the

Celts is the fact that the race is divided into two
great divis ions caus ed by the languages used by
,

each The differen ce between Welsh and Gaelic

.

is very great yet not so great as to preclude their

,

being classed as one race making up one of the Aryan

,

branches The differe n ce between the two languages

.

can be traced as far back as history goes and b y , ,

monuments and in scriptions can be followed back

for two thousand years when still the Gaelic race was
,

very different in l anguage from the Welsh or British .

It woul d appear that the Celts overran E urope in

two succes sive waves of conqu est The first wave .

was the Gaelic one it was followed b y the Welsh

we may rather call it the Gaul ish wave The Gauls .

push ed the Gaels fr Om France into Britain and

Irelan d and then followed them into Britain When
,
.

British history begins with the Christian era France ,

an d Belgium were Gau lish or Welsh speaking and

-

so also was the E astern p art of E ngland and the ,

Scotch L owlands while Corn wall and Devon most ,

of Wales Cumberland Galloway and the surround

, , ,

in g counties north of the Forth and all Ireland

, ,
54 C ELTIC M YTH O L O G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

b el o nged to the Gaels It must be remem b ered

.

that a good portion of the population n orth of the

Grampians were probably no n Celtic By the end -
.

of the seventh century of this era no Gael lived in

E ngland ; the British tribes had b een driven b ack
to the corners of the coun try by the Saxons and they ,

ab sorb ed the old Gaelic population Ireland was .

still al together Celtic and so remained practically

,

till the 13 th century an d later .

The last wave of the Celts was in its turn pressed

on from two sides First the Romans overran
.

and garrisoned Gaul a n d then E ngland which they

, ,

kept for four hundred years much as we keep India

,

at present Then the Teuto nic nations pressed

.

on France from the north conquered it and were

,

ab sorb ed ; while i n E ngland they conquered and

absorbed the old populatio n leaving the old Welsh
,

population to the wes tern shores The eastern .

portion of Ireland w as conquered an d settled in ,

an d the rest has been gr adually falling under the

sway of the E nglish tongu e The Celtic sp eakin g .

-

peoples at present are the Bretons of B rit an n y ,

the Welsh the Irish and the Highlanders The

, , .

total num b er who can understand a Celtic tongue

is according to M Sebillo t three millions and a
, .
,

half (R ev Celt iv
.
, .
,

C E L TI C C H AR AC T E R ISTI C S .

O f the physical characteristics of the Celts except ,

to S how unity or diversity of descent it would be ,

 C ELTI C C HARACT E RI S TIC S .
55

needless to s peak in discussing their mythology ;

but there are so many Irish legends bearing upon
the early ethnology of these islands with co n tinual ,

referen ce to sm all dark men tall brow n haired and ,

-

fair haired races that it is n ecessary to at leas t

-

glance at the questio n The unanimity of ancient .

opinio n in making the Celt s tall an d fair haired -

has already bee n noticed and in the myths the ideal ,

of beauty is as a rule what is told of the summer

, ,

isles of the West where dwelt a divine race of the

,

”
pure Celtic type long faced yellow haired hunters
- -

, ,

and goddesses w ith hair like gold or the flower of the

broom Another type of b eauty w as recognised :
.

Peredu r or P ercival of Wales as well as the lady ,

Deirdre of Irish story would have n o cons ort u nles s

,

the hair w as black as the raven s wing the Skin as ’

w hite as snow and the two red S pots i n the cheeks

,

as red as the blood of the bird which the rave n was

eating in the s n ow But if you look at the Celtic

.
,

cou n tries says the author of L och E t ive and the

,
-

So ns of U isn ach that is cou n tries i n which

, ,

Celti c w as S poke n in old time or is S poke n n ow you , ,

fi nd a predominance of dark hair There would .

seem therefore to have bee n a decided change i n

, ,

the colour of the hair amo ng the Celts since the

times of Cae sar and Tacitus but whether this is due
to mingling of races or is conn ected with a higher
nervous activit v for fair— haired children become
,

dark haired as the nervous system becomes more

-

active by years is a question which though im

, ,
56 C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R ELI GI O N .

portant for the mythologist to know in its bearing

on the migration and borrowing of myths and
ma nn ers yet cannot be decided in the present state
,

of knowledge We have still among us the remnants

.

of the small dark people and if Professor Rhys , ,

is right the Highlands must mostly in race he of

,

the fair Finnish type that anteceded the Celts with ,

j ust su fficient of the Celtic conqueror among them

as to take his language and general man n ers .

There is however a more wonderful agreement

, , ,

in the mental characteristics formerly attributed

to the Celts with what we now regard as the Celtic
character Roman writers have noticed their won
.

wo n derful quickness of apprehension their im ,

pressibility a n d great craving for knowledge qualities ,

which have rendered the Celt a very assimilable

being in the fusion of races They were ge nerous .

to a degree prompt in action but not very capable ,

of sustained effort Caesar is never tired S peaking

.

of the mobilitas — changeableness—o f the Gauls ,

”
an d also of their celerity both mental and physical
,
.

Another featur e noticed from the very first and still ,

noticeable in the Celts is their fondness for colour

,

loudness we might say both in colour an d sound

, , ,

musical or other has been especially attractive to

,

them They appear i n flaming tartan dresses before

.

the walls of Rome in 3 90 B C as we see from both . .

,

Livy and Virgil They wear

. says D io dorus ,

Sicu lus a writer o fthe I st century D C

, bracelets , . .
,

and armlets and round their necks thick rings all

, ,
 C EL TI C C HARAC T E RISTICS .
57

of gold and costly finger rings and even golden

, ,

corselets ; they have dyed tu n ics flowered with ,

colours of every kind and striped cloaks fastened

,

with a brooch and divided into numerous many

,
,

coloured squares .I n this description we have the

tartan but u n fortun ately the kilt had not yet made
,

its appearance the Gauls and ancient Britons .

actually wore tartan trousers Their love of orna

ment and colour appears strongly i n the mythic
tales equally of Wal es Ireland and the Highlands
, ,

indeed s o rich is the descriptio n i n one Welsh tale

,

that at the e n d of it we are told that no one knows

the Dream of R hon abw y without a book neither ,

bard nor gifted s eer becaus e of the various colours

that were on the horses an d the many wondrous
,

colours of the arms and of the panoply and of the

,

precious scarfs and of the virtue bearing stones

,
-
.

We can trace among the Celts the same succession

of political life that we fi nd in some of the other
Ar yan nations n otably the Greeks a nd the Romans
, .

The patriarchal system of Aryan times had give n

place on E uropean soil to kings who were merely ,

larger editions of the patriarch of old They were .

kings of the H omeric type for the Irish kings are

n ot accurately represented i n the lives of the saint s
as Pharaohs surrou nded with Druids a n d magicians .

The kin g consulted the Chiefs be n eath him and the ,

people after this consultation were told of his

, ,

pleasure but could o nl y apparently murmur

, , ,

approval or disapproval I n the course of time

.
,

E
58 C ELTIC M YTH O LO G Y A N D R EL I GI O N .

the chiefs abolished the kingly power and conducted ,

matters themselves as an oligarchy often cruelly ,

oppressing the common people In Greece the . ,

o ligarchy was overthrown by some clever man who

sided with the common people and through them , ,

”
made himself tyrant as they called it
, The .

last step was the abolition of tyr anny and the setting
up of a democracy Rome Shows much the same
.

historical sequence only the t yrant does not appear

,

the oligarchy extended some privileges to the com

mons and a sort of union w as estab lished which
, , ,

however in the end fail ed and gave place to an

, , ,

Imperial sway Among the Gauls we have distinct

.

”
traces of all these phenomena though as Pro , ,

fessor Rhys says no Gaulish Herodotus or Livy

,

”
was found to commit them to the pages of history .

Gaul would appear to have j ust passed through the

stage when tyr ants and oligarchs were struggling
with the people for Ce sar found everywhere the
sulking and plotting representatives of the fallen
dynasties and readil y turned them into use either
, ,

in bringing information about what was going on

in the senates of the peoples who had expelled their
ancestors from the o ffice of king or i n keeping their ,

states in subj ection by appo inting them kings in

the room of their fathers and under Roman pro
t ection . N o wonder then that C ae sar tells us that
Gaul was torn asunder by factions Britain had .

yet retai n ed its ki ngs and appe ars to have lost

,

them only when the Island was conquered by the

6o C ELT I C M YTH OLO G Y A ND R EL I G I ON .

ceden ce . If they quarrelled ab out the food they ,

would get up and fight it to the death and some

tirn es the guests were entertained w ith swordplay ,

and sometimes even a man would cons ent to die

to amuse the rest so careless were they of life Their
,
.

conduct and appearance i n b attle and in the chase

”
are no less important for u s to notice We seem .
,

says Mr E lton
. to s ee the B rigan tian soldier with
, ,

his brightly painted shield his pair of j avelins an d

-

his sword hilt as white as the whale s bone -

his matted hair supplied the want of a helmet and ,

a leather j erkin served as a cuirass When the line .

of battle was formed the champions ran out to ,

insult and provoke the foe the chiefs rode up an d

down on their white chargers shining in golden
breastplates others drove the war chariots alo ng the
,

front with soldiers leaning out b efore their captain

,

to cast their spears and han dst on es : the grou nd

shook with the prancing of horses and the noise of ,

the chariot wheels We are recall ed to scenes of

.

old Irish life which so strangely reproduce the world

of the Greek heroes and the war u pon the plains of
Troy We see the hunters following the cry of the
.

bou n d s t hr ough the green plains and sloping glens ;

the ladies at the feast in the woods the game roasting ,
’
on the hazel S pits fish and flesh of b oar and badger
-

, ,

and the great b ronz e cauldrons at the fireplace in

the cave The hero Cuchulain passes in his chariot
.
, ,

brandishing the heads of the slain he S peak s with

his hors es the Gray and Dewy Red like Achilles
,
-
’

,
 THE GA U L ISH R EL IGI ON . 6 1,

on the banks of Scamander The horses in Homeric .

,

fashion weep tears of blood and fight by their

,

’
master s S ide ; his sword shines redly in his hand ,

the light of valour hovers round him an d a goddess ,

takes an earthly form to be near him and to help

him in the fray .

T H E G AU L I S H R E L I G IO N .

The religion of the Gauls is the only Celtic religion

of which we have any descriptio n such as it is left , , .

N ow we S hould be j ustified in assuming that the

,

Gau lish religion is fairly representative of what the

old religion of the British and Irish Celts was even ,
’
though we had not Tacitu s direct testimony to this
being the case The descriptions we have of the
.

Gau lish religion are sufficiently meagre Three .

chapters of Caesar a few l ines from D iodoru s Mela

, , ,

and Strabo some scattered al lusions in Pliny

, ,

fifteen lines fr om Luca n and a statement from the

,

Greek Tirn agen es reproduced in Ammianus Mar

cellin us are practically al l our authorities The
,
.

statues and inscriptio n s preserved to our time are

almost our o n ly authority for the names of the deities ;
while the calendar of the Church saints
,
local ,

festivities and traditions render some little help ,

in this and also in matters of ritual .

Cae sar s Sketch of the Gaulish pantheon though

’
,

meagr e is yet the best We owe it entirely to the

,
.

fact that for practical p ur poses the Gaulish religion

62 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO GY AN D R EL IGI O N .

was much the same as the Roman with the exception ,

of Druidism which he doubtless saw wou ld be a

,

source of danger unless it could be assimilated to

,

Roman ideas and practices We are therefore . , ,

prepared from our knowledge of the Aryan descent

,

of the Celts to believe what Cae sar says when he

,

w rites that the ideas of the Gauls with regard to the

gods were much the same as those of other nations ,

mean ing espe cially Romans and Greeks He tells .

u s that the god most worshipped was Mercury ;

that is to s ay the Gaulish god was not named

,

Mercury but corresponded in his attributes to that

,

Roma n deity Cae sar unfortunately does not

.
, ,

record the n ative n ames for these deities They .

regarded Mercur y as the inventor of ar ts presiding ,

over trade and commerce and mean s of communi ,

cation between people After him came the deities

.

answering to the Roman Apollo Mars Jupiter , , ,

and Minerva Apollo drove away diseases Minerva ,

taught the useful arts of life Jupiter held the sway ,

of Heaven and Mars ruled the department of war

, .

To Mars they would vow what they shoul d capture

in war and when they conquered they woul d sacrifice
,

the cattle and heap up the other wealth in mounds

, ,

in consecrated places and no one would dare touch

,

or steal these treasures both from fear of the gods

,

and from the extreme cruelty of the punishment

that would follow detection Ce sar also notices .

a feature of Celtic character which is still persistent

in the race The nation he says is very much
.
, ,
 TH E GA UL I SH R EL IGI ON . 63

given to religious matters And on this account .

,

he proceeds those who are affected with d iseases

,

of a rather serious character a nd those who are in ,

great dangers either sacrifice human beings or

, ,

make a vow to that effect and at thes e sacrifices

they employ the Druids They think he says .
, ,

that the Deity cannot be appeased unless human

life is given up for human life an d they have even ,

national sacrifices of this ki n d They make huge .

images of wickerwork insid e which they place human

,

beings alive ; a n d this they set on fire and the ,

victims perish Ge n erally the victims are crimin als

.
,

but if criminals are wanting they have recourse to ,

innocent persons Thes e human sacrifices seem

.

horrible to our modern minds and to the Romans , ,

though familiar with the idea of human sacrifice ,

for in the time of the Second P u n ic war they them , ,

selves resorted in their religious terror to the sacri

,

ficin g of a male and female G au l and it was not until ,

the I st century before Christ that the Senate formally

forbade such sacrifices even in Rome— to the Romans
even the Gaul s appeared reckless in their massacres ,

such occurring too when there did not appear to

, ,

be any special danger Strabo says that it was a

.

tenet of the Druids that the harvest would be rich

in proportion to the richness of the harvest of death . .

Another article of the Gaulish cr eed is given by

Ca sar The Gauls he says assert that they are
. , ,

all spru ng from Pluto ( the god of the lower world) ,

for so the Druids teach Hence therefore they

.
, ,
64 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

reckon by nights instead of days In regard to .

the belief which Cae sar record s it is probably only ,

a mythical way of re cording a belief common to

most n ations in their barbarous state that they are ,

the aboriginal i nhabitants an d sprung from the

s oil o n whi ch they dwel l As to the Gauls reckoning
.

by nights i n stead of days Ca sar is scarcely right in

,

traci ng to it the belief that they are sprung from

Pluto the Greeks origin ally thus counted their time ,

and the Germans also computed their time the same

way j ust as we still speak of fortnights and sen
,

nights while the Welsh word for week w ythn os

, , ,

mean s —
eight nights ”
The mythical meaning of
.

the custom is quite clear the night was supposed

to give birth to the day and the sun for Chaos is
before Kosmos N ight before Day in mythology
, , .

Hence the n ight is before the day in the order of

time This fact is embodied in the well known
.
-

”
Gaelic expression Thig an oid hche roim h n latha
,
’

which applies to all the festivals of the calendar ,

with the exception of that referred to in the other

p hr ase An I mid bheadaidh thig an latha roimh
, ,

”
n o idhche
’
.

We have thus seen from Caesar that in the Gaulish

religion a Pluto reigned in darkness and a Jupiter ,

in heave n ; that M ars was the lord of war ; that

Apollo Mercury and Minerva brought precious
, ,

gifts to mankind The poet L ucan has preserved

.

to us though i n an obsc u re fashion the names of

, ,

three Gaul ish gods in the celebrated lines

 TH E GA UL ISH R EL IGI ON . 65

E t q uib u s immitis placat ur s an g uin e diro

Te u t a t e s ho rre n s q u e fe ris al t arib us E s u s ,

E t Tar an is Scy thicae n on mitior D ian ae .

We have here the grim Teu tates B sus with fearful ,

sacrifices and Taranis whose altars were no les s

, ,

cruel than those of Scythian Dian a O f B sus but .

little ca n be s aid ; no trace of him exisits outside

Gau l where statues a n d at least one inscriptio n
, , ,

bearing his name have been found Teu t ates likely .

,

from the same root as the Gaelic tu ath people has , ,

been identified with various deities ; probably he

was the war— god defender of the peop le at whose
, ,

altars captives poured forth their blood It does .

no appear that his name was used on British soil

Mr E lton thin ks that his place in this cou ntry
.

”
w as fil led by Camu lu s a word which appears
,

on Br itish coin s in connection with warlike emblems ,

an d is used as a compound in the n ames of several

military statio n s of the Roman period Taranis .

w as the N orther n Jupiter worshipped by the Britons

, ,

also under epithets derived from the words for

,

thunder and rain He answers to the N orse god

.

Thor the head of the meteorological gods who

, ,

regulate the weather a nd the seaso ns who can

w ithhold the rain a n d the dew or blacken the ,

heaven s with clouds an d win d or drive in the tempest ,

with chariot an d hors es of fir e The Irish D in n .

Sen cku s mentio n s this thunder god as E tiru n ,

an idol of the Brito n s .

Two other names of deities are preserved to u s in

66 C ELTIC MYTH OL O GY A N D R EL I GI ON .

the classical writers L ucian Speaks of a sort of

.

Gaulish Hercu les represented as an old man dra w ing

,

a large multitude after him by cords fastened to their

ears and his tongue an d he was their god of letters
,

and eloquence and they called him O gmios This

,
.

name appears afterwards as that of the Irish sacred

or ru n ic alphabet so named from its inventor Ogrn a
, , ,

the son of E lathan evidently a degr aded deity,

.

Again one or two other writers mention the god

,

B elen u s a name common in inscriptions and i n proper

,

names O f perso n s The inscriptio n s also give ac

. ,

cording to the Gallo Romanic habit the L atin God

-

as well with whom he was identified : we have

,

such a combination often as B elen u s Apollo thus ,

making him the equivalent to the Roman su n and

healing god This B elen u s is the famous deity of
-
.

the Druids according to the school O fN eo D ru idists -

the investigators into the system of the Druids ,

lately rampant among us As a rule B elen u s or .

, ,

rather Bel as he was c alled by them was identified

, ,

with the Phenician Baal and no end of theories ,

were started on such suppositions The word .

B elen u s may however be from the same root as

, ,

Apollo and probably is from that root as Mr

, ,

Moberly has pointed out in his notes to Cae sar That .

his worship was connected with solar rites is evident

from the m anner in which Ausonius des cribes his
temple at Bayeux ; but he was also especially
c onnected with health giving waters and herbs -

an d was worshipped at medicinal resorts under

68 C ELTI C M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI O N .

is given as the principal name to which is attached

as epithet the local Gaulish equivale n t We there .

fore meet w th combi n atio n s like these :

, Marti
”
Segomo n i Marti Catu rigi
, Merc u rio Artaio , ,

Iovi B agn iati Apollin i Vir o tu t i

,
etc The , .

Gaulish and British goddess B elisama is the most , ,

important to notice ; s he a n swered to the L atin

Minerva goddess of arts who along with Mercury
, , , ,

was the most human O fall the deities of Gaul The .

goddesses of the heali ng spri ngs were honoured as

the compa n io n s Of Apollo Divine beings every .

where mediated between man and heaven Foun .

tains rivers an d hills had their d eities and the sea

, , ,

nym ph O fthe Breton shore is still revered under the

title of St Anne E very village was protected by
. .

local deities with the generic title of Matris or

,

Mothers n ames which appear in gr eat numbers

,

on the inscriptio n s and which survive we are told

, , ,

i n medie val lege n ds as the Wh ite L adies the Thr ee ,

Fairies the Weird Sisters and the Wild Women

, ,

of the Woods Some again of the lesser deities

.
, ,

appear as the giants of our folk tales Such has -

.

been the fate O f Gargantua an Old Gaulish deity ,

of N ormandy whose festivals are not unknown yet

, ,

and whose fame appears on the pages of Rabelais .

There were also i n numerable private or family '

gods answering to the Roman Penates and L ares

,
,

of whom inscriptions a n d statues testify .

 DRU ID IS M . 6q

D RU I DI SM .

O ne feature Of
the Gaul ish religion stil l rem ains
to be discussed an d that too perhaps its mos t
, , ,

important one We have discussed the religious

.

beliefs of the people but not their ecclesiasti cal

,

polity This is known as Druidism although that

.
,

term is commonly made to inclu d e all that we k now

of the Gaulish religion as well But the Druids .

were rather the philos ophers an d divines of the

G auI s ; and as what we kn ow of their opinions
,

and practices is somewhat remar kable it is better ,

not to confuse their system with the ordinary Aryan

religion of the Gauls Here again it must be re
.
, ,

peat ed that our informatio n is meagre ; in fact ,

with regard to the D ruids no less meagre and far ,

more unsatis factory than our comp aratively poor

information about their general religion Indeed .
,

with the addition O ftwo cha pters in Ce sar a sen tence ,

in Cicero and nigh a dozen lines of Lucan our

‘

, ,

authorities for Druidism are in cluded in the enumera

tion already made in regard to Gaulish religion in
general N o monuments or inscriptions can help
.

us
, nor can we trust in the slightest d egree the
referenc es made to Druidi sm by early Irish or Wel sh
writers the Druids of I r ish history are mere con
j urors an d magicians N either can any customs
.

or religious survivals be referred to Druidic belief

or usage But it may be at the start premised that
.
70 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO GY A N D R EL IGI ON .

there is perhaps little to know and that it is entirely

, , ,

due to Ce sar s accou n t of them probab ly itself

’

somewhat exaggerated i n its political aspect and ,

certainly misread by moder n wr iters under the

influence of their knowledge of medie val ecclesi
a sticism that this exaggerated O pinion of Druidism
,

is prevalent SO little is known and the little that

. ,

is known is so interesti ng that it O pened quite a new

,

world for fancies and s peculations O mne ignotum .

pro magn ifico est ; the u nknown passes for the

,

magnificent Here was an unknown and u n

.

knowable land where in circular temples of stone

, ,

and mid groves of oak in vestments of stainless ,

white and ornaments of glittering gold stalked

, ,

maj estically the Druids hol d ing high converse w ith

,

their disciples on the nature of the one God for -

such philosophers could only be monotheists —ou

the immortality of the soul the courses of the stars , ,

and in fact on all the mighty problems of life

, ,
.

Dr Smith tells us that they alone kept the fir st

.

tradition Of monotheism intact in the West ; and

Reynaud but a generation ago found in their
, ,

human sacrifices only the consequence of the idea ,

dominant now as in the days of the Druids that the ,

higher the victim the more complete the atonement

O ffered to the Deity for the sins of man John .

Toland at the end of the 1 7th century an Irishman

, ,

of fertile imagination and advanced opinions ,

possessed of no small learning was the first to lead ,

the way into the undiscovered country O fDruidism .

 DR U IDI S M .
71

The references in P liny were made to disclose a pomp

and ritual that could vie with the best d ays O f the
Chur ch of Rome ; surplices of white—incidentally
worn as may be seen from P liny—were their usual
,

dress w ith golden ornaments sa crifice utens ils and

, ,

amulets all O f gold The megalithic monumen t s

, .

circles cromlechs and me nhirs were of cours e their

, , ,

work— their temples an d their altars and these ,

also showed their k n owledge of the mechanical

powers N ay cairns an d barrows were Druidic
.
,

remains an d vetrified forts " E verything u n ex

,

plain ed i n arche ological monuments in social ,

customs and in proverbial language must be Druidic

, .

Dr Smith of the Sean n Dana followed Toland

.
, ,

and made a most unscrupulous u se of his classical

authorities Welsh and Fre n ch writers took the
.

same view of the Old religion of Gaul and Celtoman ia ,

reigned supreme in this obscure region u n til lately ,

the light O f moder n criticism w as allowed to shi n e

through the overhanging mis t of no nsensical specu
lation .

All that can with certainty be known of the Druids

will firs t be briefly given apart from any pers o n al
,

theories Ce sar is again our first an d best authority

. .

In the digression i n his 6 th book o n the ma nn ers ,

and customs O f the Gauls a nd Germans he tells ,

us that all me n O f any consideration or position

were included among either the Druids or the nobles .

The Druids co n duct public and private s acrifi ces ,

and interpret omens Y oung men flock to them for

.
72 C EL TIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R ELI GI ON .

instruction ; and they are hel d in great honour ;

for they have the decision of all controversies pu blic ,

and private ; they are j udges in cases O f crime ,

murder and disputes in regard to succession or

,

boundaries ; a n d whoever abides not by their de

cisio n is excommunicated— a most severe pu nish

ment for such are reckoned sacrilegists and men

, ,

flee from their presence for fear of disaster from

contact with them A C hief Druid presid es over
.

them having supreme authority He may be

,
.

elected with or without votin g and they at times ,

resort to war to decid e the matter They meet .

at an appointed time of the year in the territories ‘

of the Car n u tes in the middle of Gaul where there

, ,

is a consecrated place ; and there all come who

have disputes an d abide bv their decisio n s It is
, .

thought that the system w as founded in Britain and ,

thence transferred to G aul and those who at the

,

prese n t time wish to know it thoroughl y as a rule ,

pro ceed there to learn it The Druids are wont to

.

hold aloof from war and pay no taxes being thus

, ,

free from mi litary service and Civil duties U nder .

the i nd u cement of such great rewards man y come ,

themselves into their ranks or are se n t by their ,

parents and friends With them they learn Off a

.

great number of lines of poetry so that some remain ,

u n der training for twenty years And they do .

not regard it allowable by divine laws to commit

these things to writing though i n secular matters
,

they u se Greek letters The reason for this seems

.
 DR U IDISM .
73

to be twofold that they do not wish either their

,

system to be mad e public or their pupils to fail to

,

cultivate their memory by trus tin g to writi ng as ,

generally happens whe n books can be res orted to .

Their chief do ctri n e is that souls do n ot perish but ,

pass after death from one i ndividual to anot her ,

an d this—the removal of the fear of death —they

thin k the greatest inciteme n t to valour They .

theorise largely on astronomy on the size of the ,

univers e an d the earth on nature and on the power

, ,

an d might of the gods an d i n these matters they

,

instruct th e youth Ce sar further o n tells that the

.

Druids presided at the human s a crifices an d in the ,

7th book he gives u s to k n ow that the [E d u an

magistrates at least were elected by them Cicero
, , .
,

in his treatise o n Divin atio n written a few years

,

later introdu ces his brother Q uintu s as s aying

,

The prin ciples of divin atio n are n ot overlooked

amo ng barbarous n atio ns eve n as for ins ta n ce in
, , ,

Gaul there are the Druids one O fwhom D ivit iacu s

, ,

the lE du an I knew ; he w as a gues t of yours a n d

,

great in your prais es H e profes sed to know natural

.

philosophy which the Greeks call phys iology

, ,
’

an d he us ed to tell partly by augury partly by ,

conj ecture what w as to happen i n the future

, .

Cicero s co n temporary D iod o ru s Sicu lus tells

’

, ,

us that among the Gaul s were b ards certain ,

philosophers and divi n es n amed Druids and s ooth ,

“
sayers adding that
,
the sys tem of P ythagoras
held sway amo ng them that is the doctrine of the
, ,
 74 C E LTIC M YTH O LO G Y AN D R E LI G I O N .

transmigration of souls To this doctrine Varelius .

Maximus refers when he says : O ne would have

laughed at thes e long trousered philosophers [the -

Druids] if we had n ot found their doctrine under

,

the cloak O fP ythagoras Strabo his contemporary

. ,

in the first century of our era gives u s a short account ,

O f the Druids half of which is but a variation of

,

Ce sar s sketch
’
Amongst the G auls
. he s ays , ,

there are gen erally three d ivisions of men especially ,

reverenced the Bard s the Vates a n d the Druids

, , , .

The bard s composed and chan ted hym n s ; the

Vates occupied themselves with the sacrifices and
the study of n ature while the Druids j oined to the
study of n ature that of moral philosophy The .

belief in their j ustice is so great that the d ecision

both of pub lic and private d is putes is referred to
them an d they have before n ow by their decision
,

preve n ted battle All cases of murder are particularly

.

referred to them When there are plenty of these

.

they imagine there wil l be a plentiful harvest Both .

these a n d the others [Bards and Vates] assert that

the soul is indestructible and likewi s e the world ,

but that fire a nd water will o n e day have thef

mastery .An d further on he says that wi thout "
t he Druids the Gaul s never sacrifice .

Another geographer Pompon iu s Mela refers , ,

to the Druids but adds nothing to our knowledge

, ,

merely echoing Ce sar s description L ucan who

’

.
,

died in 65 has been quoted i n the former section

,

for the names of the Gaulish gods ; but he further

76 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AN D R ELI G I O N .

of the Gauls connecting the rites naturally enough

,

with the Druids who presided The next im .

portant f etish he mentions is the clu b moss ( selago) -

it m u st be touched by no metal b ut plucked b y the ,

right hand passed through the tunic u nder the left ,

w ith a thievish gest ur e ; the worshipper must be

d ressed in white with feet washed and b are
, an d

the plant must be c arried in a new cloth The D ruids .

held that it was a char m against all misfortunes ,

and the smoke of its burn ing leaves cur ed diseases

of the eye In much the same way they thought
.

the samolus or water pimpernel a talisman

, ,

against murrain in cattle Vervain was another .

”
plant,
ab out which the Gaulish magi raged ,

which cured everything and had to b e gathered ,

at the rise of the dog star an d when neither sun nor

-

moon was seen But these plant superstitions

.

and ceremonies have nothing especially Druidic

ab out them they are common among other nations
’ ’
as well Pliny s account of the serpent s egg
the an gu in u m—is more important an d sp ecial
.

’
The sn ake s egg was s aid to be produced from the
frothy sweat of a number of s erpents writhing in an
entangled mass and to be tossed up into the air
,

as soon as formed The Druid who w as fortun ate

.

enough to catch it in his cloak as it fell rode Off at

full speed pursued b y the serpents until stopp ed by
, ,

a running stream I f tried the egg woul d swim

.
,

in water though cas ed in gold Pliny says he s aw .

one himself about the size of a moderately l arge

,
 DR U IDISM .
77

apple with a cartilaginous rind studded with

, ,

”
cavities like the arms of a polypus A Roman .

knight w as making use of it in court to gain an u n fair

verdict and for this was put to death by Claudiu s
,

the E mperor And lastly in speaking of magic

.
, ,

an d its vanities he says that Britain celebrates

,

them to d ay with such ceremonies that it might

”
seem possible that she taught magic to the Persians ,

an d Gaul was overrun with magic art s even up

to our own time until Tiberius Ce sar d id away
,

with the Druids and this class of prophets and

”
medicine men This passage has puzzled many
-
.

commentators for if the Druids were done away

,

with how does Pliny elsewhere mention them as

,

still existent in Gaul And to add to the difficulty ,

Suetonius a gen eration later says that Claudius

, ,

abolished entirely the religion of the Druids a religion ,

of d readfu l barbarity and forbidden o n ly the,

R oman citizens u n der Augustus Pliny an d .

Suetonius do not agree as to which E mperor abolished

Druidism nor can we well believe that it was alto
,

gether abolished even the n : it would appear that

only the hum an sacrifices an d c ertai n modes of
divination were put a stop to Strabo indeed .
, ,

says as much ; and we can see from Tacitus that

the prophecies of the Druids incurred politic al wrath
as late as Vespasian s time—after the abolitio n of
’

Druidism according to Pliny Human sacrifices

,
.

an d probably medd lin g in politics were sure to bring

, ,

the wrath O f Rome on the system Tacitus gives .

78 C ELTI C M YTH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI O N .

us an insight of how at times the Romans did put a

stop to these phases of Druidism In describing .

the attack of the Romans on Mona or Anglesea , ,

he represents the legions as awe struck by the -

appearance O f the D ruids amid their opponents

’

ranks pouring c ur ses and vengeance on their heads

, ,

with hands upraised to heaven But they were rolled

.

in their own fires and the groves sacred to grim

,

s uperstitions were cut do w n for he adds they , ,

hold it lawful to sacrifice captives at their a ltars

an d to consult the go d s from the movements of

human entrails After the first century writers

.
,

s peak of Druid ism as a thing of the past evidently

the decrees of the E mperors had d one away with
its fi er cer elements O f superstition and the purer ,

and more philosophical parts had been absorbed

into the usual Roman faith Christianity at least
.
, ,

had no contest with Druidism either in Gaul or in

E ngland It may be mentioned that Ammin au s
.

Marcellinus in the fourth c entury gives us a few

, ,

lines on the Old and long extinct Druidism After .

n oticing the foundation O f Marseil les by a Phocean

colon y he says that when the people in those parts
,

got gradually civilised the learned studies which

,

had been begun by the bards the E uhages (pro ,

bably a corruption of Vates) and the Druids throve ,

vigorously O f these he says the Druids were the

.
, ,

intellectual superiors of the others and were formed ,

into unions in accor d ance w ith the precepts of

Pythagoras where deep and hidden problems were
,
 D RUID I S M .
7g

discuss ed and lo okin g from a lofty philosophic

,

pinnacle on human affairs they pro n oun ced human ,

souls immortal .

Such is the history of Druid ism in Gaul an d early

B ritain of it s course i n Irela n d we have no dire ct
i
informatio n It is o nly when Christian ity has been
.

long established an d Druidism a thi ng of the remote

,

past that we have writers who s peak o fthe Druids

,

and in their eyes the Druids were but magicians that

attend ed the courts of the pagan kings The lives .

of the pio n eer sain t s Patrick an d Columba are full

, ,

O f contest s between them selves and the royal

magicians who are called i n the Gaeli c D ru id and in
,

the L atin versio n s M agi But in all the n umerous .

references t o them in Irish chronicles and tales

there is n o hin t given O f Druidism being either a
system of philosophy or religion the Druids of Irish
story are mere magician s and divi n ers sometimes ,

only conj urors But as s u ch— as magicians— the

.

Druids play a mo st importan t part i n Irish pagan

history as chro n icled by the long posterior Christ ian
,

writers From the prime val lan ding of P ar tho lan

.

with his three Druids to the days O f Columba w e

, ,

have themselves and the bards exercising magic

and divining power s The seco nd fabled sett lers
.

O f Ireland the N em ed ian s meet the invading

,
'

Fomorians with magi c spells ; but the fairy host

of the Tu atha De Dann an are par excellen ce the
masters O fDruidi c art Their power over the forces
of N ature—o ver sea wind and storms— shows them
.

, ,
80 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI ON .

plai nly to be o n ly degraded gods who allow the sons ,

of Miled to land after showing them their power

and sovereignty as deities over the island The .

kings and chiefs had Druids about them to i n terpret

omens an d to work spel ls but there is no reference
to these Druids bei ng a priestly class an d their pow er ,

was limited to the functions of mere divination and

sorcery Two of the most famous Druids were
.

Cat hbadh Drui d O f Conchobar M ac N essa the

, ,

i n structor of Cuchulain who among man y other

, ,

t hings foretells the fate of Deirdre an d the sons

,

of U isn ach even before Deirdre w as born ; and

,

Mogh Ruith O fMunster who single handed Opposed

,
-

Cormac an d his Druids and drove them by his ,

magic fire and storm spells out of Munster The

-
.

Druids of King L oegaire O ppose St Patrick with .

their magic arts ; o n e of them causes snow to fall

so thickly that men soon find themselves neck deep -

i n it a n d at another time he brings over the land an

,

E gyptia n dark n ess that might be felt But the saint .

defeat s them even on their ow n ground much as

, ,

Moses defeats the E gyptian magicians St Columba . .

,

i n Adamn an s life of him is s imilarly represented as

’

overcoming the spells of the northern Druids .

Broich e n Druid to Ki n g B ru d e caused s uch a storm

, ,

and darkness on L och N ess that the navigation -

appeared impossible u n til the saint gave orders

,

that the sails should be u n furled and a start made

.
.

Then everything became calm a n d settled We are .

also told in many instances how the Druid s worked

 DR U IDISM . 8 1.

these spel ls A wisp of hay over which an incan

.
,

tation was made when cast on a person caused

, ,

idiocy and deformity The Druidic wan d plays

.

an important p art a blow from it causing tran s

,

formations and spells It must be remarked too

.
, ,

that the wood used for wan ds an d Druidic rites and

fir es w as not the oak at all as in Gaul : sacred ,

wood among the Irish Druids would appear to have

been the yew hawthor n and more especially the
, , , ,

rowan tree Divination was an importa n t feature

.

of Druidic accomplishments and there were various ,

forms of it P ure Druidic divination sometimes

.

co n sisted i n watchi ng the Druid ic fire— how the

smoke and flame we nt Sometimes the Druid .

woul d chew a bit of raw flesh with incantatio n or

oration and a n in vocatio n to the gods and then ,

gen erally the future was revealed to him Some .

times if this failed he had to place his two han ds

, ,

upo n his two cheeks and fall into a divin e sleep a ,

“
method kn own as illumination by the palms of
the hands .Fion n u s ed to chew his thumb whe n
he wanted an y supernatural k n owledge The bards .
,

too were d iviners at times a fact that would appear

, ,

to show their ancient connection with the Druids .

The bard ic divinatio n is k n own as illumin atio n

by rhyme s whe n the b ard in an ec static state
,

pours forth a floo d of poetry at the e n d of which he ,

brings out the particular fact that is required to be

kno w n Connected with this is the power of poetic
.

satire If a man refused a gift the hard could

. ,
82 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI O N .

satirise him in such a way that personal i nj ury

would result such as blisters and deformities
,
.

Irish Druidism consists therefore merely of magic

, ,

an d d ivi n ation it is not a philosoph y nor a religion

, ,

nor a system It is q uite true that we have at least

. , ,

an echo n ow an d the n of the time when Druidism

in Ireland an d Scotland was something different ,

and when even hu man sacrifices were Offered .

C olumba in commencing the build ing O f his church

,

at Iona ad dressed his followers i n words which

,

clearly point to human sacrifice . It is good for

us, says he , that our roots shoul d go under the
earth here it is permitted that one of you should go
u n der the c lay of this isla nd to hallow it The .

story goe s on to say that Odran arose read ily and ,

spoke thus If t hou shoul d st take me I am ready ,

”
for that . Columba read il y accepte d his offer ,

and then Od ran went to heaven an d Columba ,

founded the churc h of Hi . It is said that a human

being was slain at the foundation Of E main the ,

mythic capital of U lster and in N en n ius we have

a remarkable story told of Kin g Vortigern He was .

trying to build a castle on Snowdon but somehow , ,

though he gathered ever so much material every ,

time it was spirited away during the night .

He sought counsel from his magi ( the Irish

translation cal ls them Druid s) and they told him
,

that he must find a child born without a father ,

and must put him to death a n d sprinkle with his

,

blood the ground where the castle was to stand .

84 C ELT I C M YTH OLO G Y A ND R ELI G I O N .

mem b ered that at a certain stage of culture nations ,

are apt to consider their neighbours provided they ,

are in a lower stage of civilization much more ,

religious than themselves The Romans always

.

b elieved the E tru rians to be more versed in religious

matters than themselves SO too the Gauls pro
.
, ,

bably looked on British Druidism with its pristine ,

grimness of practices as the source of their own

,
.

while in reality their O w n was doubtless an inde

pendent but more enlightened development Pro .

fessor Rhys considers Druidism to be of a non Aryan

-

character and calls it the religion of the pre Celtic

,
-

tribes from the Baltic to Gibraltar N ow in what

,
. ,

we have left us recorded Of Druidism there is ah

solu t ely nothing that can be pointed to as non Aryan
-
.

The strong priestly caste presented to us in Ce sar ,

a s divided off from the nobles and the commons ,

can be somewhat paralleled in the Hinduism of

India with its rigidly priestly caste Of Brahmans ,

who monopolised all religious rites And Brah .

manism is an Aryan religion Among the Gauls . ,

from the superstitious cast of their minds a pri estly ,

class was sure to arise to a position of supreme

power Their human sacrifices can be matched
.
,

in some degree by actual instances of such and by

, ,

rites which pointed to them as previously e xistent ,

among other Aryan nations including those Of ,

Greece and Rome ; only here as b efore the im , ,

pression able and superstitious character of the

Gauls drove them to greater excesses The doctrine .
 C ELTIC R EL IGI ON I N BRITAI N A N D IR EL A N D . 850

of the transmigration of the soul is a tenet of both

Brahmans and Buddhists of Aryan I n dia and it
, ,

found its cl assical developme n t in the views O f the

Greek P ythagoras The position and fame O f the
.

Druids as magicians is as Pli ny poin ts out of the

, ,

same nature as those of the Magi of Aryan P ersia .

Some again think it absu rd that if the Druids

were s uch phil osophers as they are represented to
,

have been they would be so superstitious as to

,

practise human sacrifices and other w ild rites

, .

But there is no incongruity in at once being philo

sophic and superstitious the human mind is very
hospitable in its entertainme n t O f quite opposite
opinions especially i n moral and religious matters
,

for there is a wide di fferen ce between theories of the

intellect an d practices prompted by the emotions .

C E L TI C RE LI G IO N I N B RITAI N AN D
I R E L AN D .

In tracing the history of Celtic religion we have

,

establis hed that the religion of the Gauls fully

represents the pagan religion of both the great
branches of the Celtic race— the Brythonic (Gauls
an d Welsh) a n d the Goidelic ( Gaeli c races) From.

Ce sar s account O f the religio n O f the Gauls to the

’

first native notices O f even the history of Celtic

Britain and Ireland there is practically a period
,

of a thousand years During the interval Chris

. ,
 86 C ELTIC MYTH O L O G Y A N D R EL IGI O N .

tia n ityhad es tablished its sway nominally at least , ,

over the whole land and paganism w as for centuries

,

a thing O f the past It may however be remarked

.
, ,

that on r or two L ati n ecclesiastic 11histories appeared

in the eighth ce n tury— n otably the works of Ad am man
and Bede but we in vain scan the pages left u s of
,

their works for a ny definite information as to the

previous religion Gildas a century before either
.
,

of these writers makes only a passing reference to

,

the O ld fa ith I shall not says he enumerate

, ,

t hose diabolical idols O f my country which almost ,

surpassed i n n umber those of E gypt an d of which ,

we still see [C ir o A D 5 60 } some mould ering away

. .

within or without the d es erted temples with stiff ,

and deformed features as was cus tomary N or will .

I call out upon the mountains fountains or bills , , ,

or upon the rivers which n ow are subservient to the

,

u s e of men but once were an abomination and

,

destruction to them and to which the blind people

,

p aid divine honour O ur knowledge of the local

.

development O fCeltic religion in Britain an d Ireland

cannot be O btained directly from co n temporary
history we have it is true some British ins criptions
, ,

of the R oman period which give mid a host of

, ,

minor and local deities o n e or two important gods

, .

But our information must be drawn nearly all , ,

from the heroic poems and tales which do n ot date ,

much earlier than a thousand years ago and most

are far later than thi s period For i n formation .

as to the ritual of the O ld religion local customs ,

88 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y A N D R EL I GI ON .

The great deity B elin u s appears in the pages of

, ,

Geo ffrey of Monmouth as a mere mortal conqueror

,
.

”
In company with his brother B r en n u s or Bran , ,

he marched to the siege of Rome when G abiu s ,

and P orsena were consuls " Gargantua appears

twice as a British King under the title O fG urgiu n t
,
.

Cam u lus the war god

,
who gave his name to
-

Camulodunum now C ol Chester is presented as

,
-

Coel Hen Old King C o u l

, O fthe song who gave ,

his n ame to the Ar yshire district of Kyle The god .

,

N od en s is the N udd of Welsh and King N u ada

, , ,

O fIrish s tory and L ir the sea god is immortalised

,
-

in the pages of Shakespeare as an old British king ,

’
Some of the go d s fight under Arth u r s banner an d ,

perish on the battlefield of Camlan along with him , .

There is consequently a considerable amount of

, , ,

co n fusion in the Welsh tales which does not appear ,

in the more consistent tales of Ireland Probably .

,

there were kings of the names of Beli Coel U rien . , ,

and Arthur and there certainly were ki ngs and

,

chiefs, of the names Of B ren n u s Cassibelau n us , ,

and Caractacus but their history is irretrievably

,

mixed up w ith that of d eities and demigod s possessed ,

of similar names Thus Bran the Blessed is a son

.
, ,

of Lir a personage of such gigantic proportions

,

that no house could hold him an d evide n tly a ,

degrad ed god possibly a war god He next appears

,
-
.

as father of Caradoc for whom he is sent as hostage

,

to Rome when the latter is conquered by Claud ius

, .

In Rome he is converted to Chr istianity which he ,

 BRITISH R EL IGI ON . 89

introduced into Britain and hence his name of ,

Bran the Blessed And again he is brother of

.

B elin us an d the same as the B ren n u s of the Roma n

,

historians who sacked Rome in B C 3 90 It is

, . . .
,

therefore a matter of great difficulty to take either

,

history or myth out O fthe confusion in Welsh poetry

and tradition caused by a litt le kn owledge of
,

C lassical a n d Biblical history a history which is ,

interwoven with native myth s an d facts .

The inscriptio n s Of Roman times show that the

religious co nditio n O f Britain then differed in no
respect from that of Gaul The local deities were .

assimilated to the corresponding deities of R ome ,

and we have i n Britai n combinatio n s like those

met with in Gaul the Roman deity has the corres
ponding Britis h name attached to him on the votive
inscription by way of epithet Thus at Bath altars .
, ,

are dedicated to Sul Min erva Su l being a goddess

-

unknown elsewhere O n the Roman wall between

.
,

the Forth and Clyde the name of M ars Camu lu s

,
-

appears o n the inscriptio ns among many others ,

to the genii O f the places the spirits of the ,

mountain and the flood and to San cta Britan nia ,

and Brigantia the godd esses of Britain an d the

,

land of the Briga ntes respectively The most .

interesting inscriptions were those found in the

temple of a god discovered at L ydney Park in ,

Gloucestershire On e inscription bears to be to the

.

great god N odon which proves the temple to

,

have bee n dedic ated to the worship of N odon a ,

G
90 C ELTIC M YTH O LO G Y AN D R ELIGI ON .

god of the deep sea figured on a bronze plaque

,

as a Triton or N eptune borne by s ea horses and

-

surrounded by a laughing crowd of N ereids This .

deity is ide ntified w ith the legendary N ud d known ,

in Welsh fiction only as the father of famous sons

and i n Irish story as King N u ada of the Sil ver Hand ,

who fought the two battles O f Moy tura and fell ,

in the seco n d before Balor O f the E vil E ye the ,

Kin g of the Fomorians .

Passing however to the Welsh legends and myths

, ,

preserved in the Ancient Books O f Wales and

in the prose Mabinogion we can easily eliminate
,

three pri ncipal families O f deities the children of ,

Don O f N udd and of L ir

, ,
O f these the .

first are purely Welsh the second—the children of

,

N udd— have Irish equivalents both in name an d

Of fice while the children of Lir belong equally to
,

both nations The family O f Don is evidently

.

c o nn ected with the s k

y and its changes He has .

given his n ame in Welsh to the constellation of

Cassiopeia called L lys Don the court of Don The
, ,
.

milky way is named after his son Gwydion Caer , ,

Gwydion the city of Gwydion ; and his daughter

,

Arian rhod silver circled

,
-
in habits the bright
,

C ircle of stars which is called the N orthern Crown .

With the name Don may be compared that of the

father of the Irish hero D iarmat son of Donn , .

Gwydio n is the greatest of enchanters—a prince of

the powers of the air He can change the forms
.

of trees men and a n imal s and along w ith Math

, , , ,
92 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I O N .

We are told that God placed him over the brood

of devils in Annwn lest they shoul d destroy the ,

present race A Saint of the name of Collen one

.

day hear d two men conversing about Gwyn n ap

N udd and saying that he was King of Annwn and
,

the fairies Hold your tongue quickly

. says ,

”
Collen ,
these are but devils Hold thou thy .

tongue said they

,
thou shal t receive a reproof
,

from him And sure enough the Saint was sum

.

mon ed to the p al ace of Gwynn on a neighb ouring

hill top where he was kindly received and bid
, ,

sit down to a sumptuous repast I will not eat

the leaves of the trees said Collen ; for he saw ,

through the enchantments of Gwynn and b y the , ,

u se of some holy water caused G w ynn and his ,

castle to d isappear in the twinkling of an eye The .

story is interesting as showing how the early mission

,

aries dealt w ith the n ative gods Gwyn n according .

,

to St Collen is merely a demon His connection

.
, .

with the lower world is brought out b y his fight

with G w ythyr the s on of G reidw al for Cordelia
, , ,

the daughter of L ir or L ud She is represen t ed .

as a splendid maiden daughter of the sea god Lir ,

-

a blossom of flowering seas at once a Venus ,

an d a Proserpine goddess O f the summer flowers

, ,

for whom there is a fight between the powers of the

worlds a b ove and b elow the e arth res pectively
P eace w as made between these two deities on these
these conditions that the maiden sho uld remain
’
in her father s house without advantage to either ,
 B RI TISH R EL I G I ON .
93 .

of them and that Gwynn ap N udd and G w ythyr

, , ,

the son of G reidw al should fight for her every first

,

of May from thenceforth till the day of doom and

, ,

that whichever O f them should be conqueror the n ,

”
should have the maiden .

We have thus discovered in Don and his children

the powers of sky and air answering to Jove and
,

his O lympians of Classical Mythology : in N udd

and his son Gwynn we have probably found the
powers that rule over the land O f shades corre ,

spon din g to Pluto or Dis ; and we now come to

consider the third family of British deities L ir and ,

his Children whom we S hall find to be the British

,

and Gaelic equivalents of N eptune the sea god ,

-

and Aphrodite d aughter of the foam

,
L ir ,

or as the Welsh spell the name Llyr is the same as, ,

the Gaelic lear found in the O ssianic poems a n d

, ,

sign ifying the sea L ir is therefore the perso n i

.

fication of the sea—the sea deified He is a deity .

common to both Britons a n d Gaels indeed it may ,

rather be said that he is more properly a deity of

the Gaels transferred into the British pantheon .

The epithet L lediaith or half spee ch

,
that is
-

, ,

dialect which is attached to his name goes to

, ,

Show that he was not a deity of native British origin .

We are therefore j ustified in co n sidering L ir as the

sea deity O f the a n cie n t remnant O f the Gaels s till ‘

surviving and mai n tai ning their ground in Wales

in the fifth c entury and represented as then expelled
,

by Cu n edd a and his so n s They were however.

, ,
94 C ELT I C MYTH OLO GY A N D R EL IGI ON .

more probably slowly absorbed by the Welsh Who ,

were then pressed westwards by the Saxons All .

the legends preserved in Welsh connected with L ir ,

and his family point to a strong Gaelic influence

, ,

if not to a Gaelic origin O f L ir himself nothing .

is said in the Welsh legends beyond his being the

father of so man y Children in Ireland he is repre
sented as striving for the sovereignty of the Tu atha
De Dan n an the Gaelic gods with Bove Derg son
-

, , ,

of the Dagda an d when defeated in his asp irations

, , ,

as ret iring to Sidh Fionnachaidh Here he leads

-
.

the life of a provincial chief and all else that we ,

know of him is the cruel transformation of his four

children by their wicked aunt and stepmother .

Lir has also another name at least he must have

had another name or else Manannan his son and , , ,

Cordelia his daughter must each have had two

, ,

fathers In some traditions they are both repre

.

sented as the C hildren of L lud The same confusion .

,

of course appears in the Irish genealogy of Man

,

nanan for the most part he is known as the son of

L ir but in the genealogies he is set do w n as the son
,

of Alloid doubtless the original or at least the

, , , ,

equivalent of L lud Professor Rhys thinks that .

Llud stands for N udd the N changin g i n to L l because , ,

L lud also received the title of L law E r ein t silver ,

”
handed j ust as the Irish King N u ad a d id and the
,

principle of alliteration required the changing of

Nudd Llaw E r ein t into L lu d Llaw E rein t And .

N udd besides was somehow a god of the sea ;

, ,
96 C ELTI C MYTH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI ON .

aunus and retired to Harlech where the birds of ,

Rhiannon kept them enchanted by their music

for seven years ; and after this they feasted for
eighty years more at G w ales in P en vro from which ,

place they set out to L ondo n an d buried Bran s head

’

with its face to France As long as Bran s head was

.

left there facing France no invasion of Britain could

be successful U nfortunately Ar thur exhumed the
.

head declaring that he would maintain the country

,

against a ny foe w ithout need of supernat u ral safe

guard In his subsequent career Manannan is see n
.

to be a deity who presides over arts and commerce ,

a god who is deep in counsel He and another .

of the mythic seven wander about doing ar tifi cers

’

work he successively tries sad dle making shoe -

making and shieldmak in g trades in which he out

, ,

distances all competitors as a matter of course .

From the Irish accounts of him Man anna n Mac L ir , ,

appears to be a god of sea and wi nd Cormac Arch .

,

bishop o i Cashel of the ninth century describes

, ,

him in his glossary like a true E uhemerist as M an ,

an n an mac lir a re n owned trader who d welt i n the

,

Island of Ma n He was the best pil ot i n the west

.

of E u rope Through acquaintance with the sky

.

he knew the quarter in which woul d be fair weather

and foul weather and when each of these two seasons
,

would change Hence the Scots and the Brito ns

.

called him a god of the sea a n d hence they said he

,

was son of the sea that is mac lir so n of the sea

, , , .
’

Ma n ann a n is otherwise represented as one of the

 BRITI S H R ELIGI ON .
97
.

Tu atha De Dan nan chiefs He was the possessor

- -
.

of that wo n derful steed men tioned in the story of

the children of Tu irean n Luga of the Lo ng .

Arms rode the steed of Manannan Ma c L ir n amely ,

E n barr of the Flowing M ane n o warrior w as ever

killed on the back of this steed for she w as as swift ,

as the cold clear wind of spring and she travelled ,

with equal ease on land and on sea He wore Man .

’
ann an s coat O f mail ; n o one could be wounded
through it or above it or below it H e had on his
, .

breast Man an n an s breast — plate which n o wea po n

’

could pierce M an an n an s s word The Answerer

.
’

, ,

hung at his left side no one ever recovered from its

wound ; an d those who were opposed to it i n the
battle fi eld were so terrified by looking at it that
-

their stre ngth left them an d they became weaker

”
than wome n In the curious story called the
.

Sick be d O fCuchulai n n
-

Manan nan is represented

,

as a fairy chief who deserts his fairy bride Fand ,

but Fand is helped an d loved by Cuchulainn mortal ,

though he w as Manannan on discovering this

.
,

returns to his wife a n d sh akes his magic cloak between

her an d Cuchulai nn so that they s hould n ever
,

meet agai n This magic cloak had also the e ffect

.

of produci ng forgetful n ess Of the pas t O f Man .

annan Mr E lto n says

, . In him we see perso n ified
the sp len dour and swiftness of the sun ; the god
rushes over the waves like a wheel O ffire and his
thr ee legged shape recalls the giant strides of Vishnu
-
.

He was the patron O ftraffi c an d mercha ndise The .

98 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI ON .

best weapons and j ewels from across the sea were

thought to be gifts from the go d .

Branwen white bosom

,
the daughter of Lir
-

, ,

is the central figure of the most tragic of Welsh

myths She is married to Matholw ch King of
. ,

Ireland who treats her badly Her brother Bran

,
.
,

coming to know O f it invades Irela n d The Irish

,
.

yield an d build a house big enough for Bran to enter

,

into a thing he n ever hitherto could get so enormous

, ,

was his size But the Irish had decided to murder

.

their guests at the first feast in the great house .

’
The cleverness of one of Bran s men foils their pur
pose there is however a general slaughter in which
, , ,

the Irish have at first the best of it for they possess ,

a caul dron into which when any one is dipped that

, ,

is dead he comes to life h ale and sound But the

, .

cauldron is discovered by the already men tion ed .

’
one of Bran s men and he breaks it Bran is killed
,
.
,

and only seven return of his people to Wales The .

story as a whole is a very widely spread one ; it -

appears in about a d ozen forms in Teutonic lands

the Volsung Saga and the N ibelung story being the
most famous forms of it Probably there are in .

the myth the evidences of a time when Celt and

Teuton lived not too amicably together on the banks
of the Rhine a suppositio n which would obviate
,

the necessity of supposi ng the Celtic version a

borrowed one inferior though it may be in some
,

details Another legend represents Branwen or

.

B ran gw ain e as helping the loves illicit though they ,

I OO C E LT I C M YT H OLO G Y AN D R EL I G I O N .

peculiarity : so great was the heat of his nature

that when it rai n ed hardest whatever he carried ,

remained dry for a han dbreadth above and a hand

breadth b elow his hand and when his comp anions
were coldest he was to them as fuel with which to
'
light their fire Such was Arthur s steward
.

Hephaestus and V ulca n do equal ly mean duties

in the halls of O lym pus The gods laugh h eartily .

at the limping gait an d ungainly appearance of

Hephaestus as he hands round the cup of nectar .

’
SO is Kai often the butt of Arthu r s knights Another .

’
of Arthur s knights may be mentioned as prob ably
a degraded war deity O wain the son of U rien .
,

R heged is never mentioned in the Older poems and

,

tales without reference to his army of ravens which ,

rose as he waved his wand and swept men into ,

the air and dropped them piecemeal on the ground .

We are here reminded of the Irish war goddess who

so often appears as and is indeed named the sc ald
, ,

crow (B adb) O din too has his ravens to consult

.
, ,

w ith and to act as his messengers

, Many others .

of Arthur s heroes p ar take O f the s ame myt hic al

’

type ; of Arthur himself we shal l speak again in

considering the Celtic hero tales At present it -

.
,

is suffi cient to say that Arthur is at least as mythical , ,

as any O fthe rest we have mentioned .

N or must we overlook Carid w en who is considered ,

even by the Welsh them selves their g oddess of ,

nature She is po ssessed of a cauldron of inspir

.

ation an d science which as Mr N utt points out

, , .
,
 BRITISH R EL IGI ON . I OI

may be regarded as a symbol of the reproductive

power O f the earth It is doubtless this same .

caul dron that has appeared in the story OfBranwen

the daughter of L ir : when the dead heroes were
plunged into it they were resuscitated The Tu atha .

De Dann an were possessed i n Scythia of a similar

-

cauldron similarly employed Car id w en the tale

, .
,

says set her caul dron to boil an d placed G w io n

, ,

Bach the dwarf and the bli nd M orda to wat ch it

, , ,

chargi n g them not to su f

fer it to cease boiling for a
year and a day Towards the en d of the year three
.
,

drops Of the boiling liquor spluttered out upo n the

hand of G w ion and suddenly putting his hand in
,

his mouth because of the heat the futur e an d ,

present were revealed to him The caul dron burst .

,

the fairy returned and G w ion had to ru n for his

,

life Pu rsued at once by Carid w en he changed

.
,

himself i n to a hare and fled But she changed her .

self into a greyhound and tur ned him A nd he ran .

towards the river and became a fish she took the

form of an otter an d gave chas e H e then became .

a bird and she a hawk an d as she was swooping

, ,

down upon him he fell among a heap of wheat an d

became o n e of the grains She however became .
, ,

a high crested black hen s cratched the heap found

-

, ,

him and swallowed him H e w as thereafter born

,
.

as a beautiful boy whom Carid w en had n ot the ,

heart to kill She put him in a leather sack an d

. ,

cast him into the sea Bein g washed ashore he was . ,

discovered and brought to Prince E lphin to whom

, ,
10 2 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AN D R EL I GI ON .

he immed iately child though he was began to sing

, ,

most elegant poetry This youthful poet was none

.

else than Taliesin prince of song and the chief

, ,

”
of the bards of the west The poems ascribed .

to Taliesin have been called the romance of metem

psychosis The Druidical do ctrine of the trans
.

migration O i sou ls is thought to be hidden in the

”
poet s accou n t of his wonderful trans formations
’
.

A spe cime n or two out of many such may be

quoted .

I h ave been in a m ul titu de of s h apes ,

B e fo re I assu me d a co n sist en t form ,

I h a ve b ee n a s wo rd n ar row v arieg a te d , ,

I h a ve b een a t e a r in t he air
I h a ve b e e n t he d u ll e st of s t ars ,

I h av e b een a wo rd a m on g le tte rs ,

I h a ve b ee n a b ook in t he o rigin .

And again
I h a ve b e en a so w , h a ve bee n a b u ck
I ,

I h a ve b ee n a s a ge I h a v e b ee n a s n o u t
, ,

I h a ve b e e n a ho rn I h ave bee n a wild so w

, ,

h a ve bee n s ho u t in b a tt le
"
I a .

E vidently there is in these poems of Taliesin the

broken down remembrance of the old Druidic cult
-
.

True enough the poet does show a wonderful an d

suspicious acquaintance with the Metamorphoses
of O vid an d his account of Pythagorean doctrines ,

as he also d oes with even Irish mytholog y for he ,

Speaks O f his place in Caer Sidi doubtless the Irish ,

Side thus
,

C omple te is my ch air in C ae r Sidi ,

No one will be a fiiic te d with dise ase o r o ld age t ha t may be in it .

I O4 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R ELI GI ON .

manner which though d issimilar in details is yet

,
,

the same in result Following a strange woman

.

that he saw one day he came to a h ill side where

, ,

she entered by a concealed door Finn attempted

.

to follow her inside and had his hand on the d oor

,

post when the door suddenl y shut on him an d

,

j ammed his thumb With d ifficulty extricating

.

his thumb he very naturally shoved the hurt member

,

i n to his mouth whe n 10 he found himself possessed

,

of the gift of seeing fut ur e events This gift how .

,

ever he possessed only when he bruised his thumb

,

in his mouth .

T H E G AE L I C G O DS IN H IST O RY .

Material for reconstructing the O lympus of the

Gaels is n ot at all so scanty as we have found it to
be in the case of the Welsh There is it is true
.
, ,

no general description of the Irish O lympus but ,

references to particular deities are not uncommon .

The earliest reference to an y Irish gods occurs

in one of the oldest monuments we possess
O f the Gaelic language ; a manuscript of the
St Gall Monastery contains incantations to the
.

powers Dian cecht and Goibniu This manuscript .

Zeuss sets down as of the eighth centur y and it is ,

therefore eleve n hundred years old Cormac s

, .
’

glossary originally composed in the ninth century

,

mentio n s as deities Art Ana B u an an n Brigit Neit

, , , ,
 TH E GA EL IC G O D S IN HISTO R Y . 105
1

and Manannan Keating quotes from the Book

.

O f Invasio n s a poem that makes the Dagda king

of heaven an d he further en u m er ates B adb M acha
, , ,

and Morrighan as the three goddesses of the Tu atha

de— Dananu The Tu atha de D an an n themselves
.
- -

appear ofte n i n the tales as the fairy host the Side ,

that dwel l in the L an d of Promise they interfere

in the affairs of mortals long after they are repre
sented as having been‘ expelled from Ireland thus , ,

if not actually men tio n ed as having been the pagan

gods of the Gael yet despite the rampa n t E u hemer
, ,

ism of Irish tales and his tories implicitly considered ,

as such A n d again by adopting the same method

.
,

as in the case of the Welsh myths we shall make the ,

Irish myths and his tories with their imposi ng ar ray

,

of invasions a n d gen ealogies deliver up the deities ,

they have consigned to the ranks of kings and heroes .

We must however firs t briefly indicate the leading

, ,

points of early Irish history as set down in the ,

sober pages of their own ann alists Forty days .

before the flood the L ady Caesair granddaughter ,

of N oah with fifty girls and three men came to

, ,

Ireland This is reckoned as the first i nvasion

.

or takin g of I reland O f course she an d her

.

company all perished when the flood came—a ll ,

with one doubtful exceptio n For some legends .

,

with more patriotism than piety represent F ion n tan , ,

the husband of Ca esair as actually surviving the

,

flood The way in which he accomplished this

.

feat is unlike that of the ancestor of the Macleans ,

H
To 6 C ELT IC M YTH OLO GY A N D R ELI G I ON .

who weathered the flood in an ark of his own Fionn .

tan when the flood began was cast into a deep sleep
, ,
,

which continued for a year and when he woke he ,

fou n d himself in his own house at Dun Tu lcha in -

Kerry somewhere ( for O Cur ry has not been able

’

exactly to localise this important event) He lived .

here contemporaneously with the various dynasties

that ruled in Ireland down to the time of Dermot
i n the sixth cent ury of our era He then appears .

for the last time with eighteen companies of his

,

”
descen dants in order to settle a boundar y dispute
, ,

since he was the Oldest man in the world and must ,

know all the facts This story is not b elieved in

.

by the more pious O f the historians for it too fl a ,

grantly contradicts the Scriptures It therefore .

,

’
falls under O Curry s category of wild stories ;
’

these are stories which contain some historic truth ,

but are so overloaded with the fictions of the imagin

ation as to be nearly valueless The Irish historians "
“

have as much horror of a blank in their history ,

as n ature was once supposed to have of a vacuum .

The L ady Caesair fills the blank before the flood

Par tholan and his colony fill the first b lank after
the flood He came from Migdon ia the middle of ,

Greece ,twenty two years before the birth Of

-

Abraham and w as the ninth in des cent from N oah

, ,

all the intermediate names being duly given He .

was not in the island ten years when the Fomorian s ,

or sea rovers disturbed him These Fomorians

-

, .

were a constant source of troub le to all succeeding

1 08 C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I ON .

with his family went to Mona and from th ere po u red

, ,

their descendant s into the islan d which is now ,

called Britain after their leader Britan Mael

,
The , .

Firbolgs the descendan ts of Starn so n of N emed

, , ,

being oppre ss ed in Greece much as the Israelites ,

were in E gypt returned to Ireland and took posses

, ,

sion of it They were called the Firbolgs we

.
,

are told from the bags of leather they used to have

,

in Greece for carrying soil to put on the bare rocks ,

that they might make flowery plains under blossom

”
of them . The Firbolgs held Ireland for thirty
six years and then they were invaded by their
,

12 th cousins the Tu atha de Da mann the descendants

,
- -

of Jarbon n el son of N emed, N ext to the Mil esian .

colony yet to come the Tu atha de D an an n are the

,
- -

most important by far O f the colonists for in them ,

we shall by and bye discover the Irish gods What

- -
.

the annalists tell of them is briefly this They came .

from the north of E urope bringing with them four ,

precious j ewels ; the fir st was the L ia Fail the ,

Stone of Virtue or Fate for wherever it w as there , ,

a person O fthe race of Scots must reign the sword

of L uga L am fad a the spear of the same and the
cauldron of the Dagda from which a company ,

never went away unsatisfied The Tu atha landed .

in Ireland on the first of May either 1 90 0 or 1500 ,

years before Christ for the chronologies differ by

,

only a few hu ndred years They bu rned their ships .

as a sign of no retreat and for three days con ,

cealed themselves in a mist O f sorcery They then .

 TH E GA EL IC G O DS I N HIST O RY . To g

demanded the Firbolgs to yield which however , , ,

they would not do an d the great battle of Mo ytura ,

South was fought The Firbolgs were routed with .

immense slaughter N u ad a leader of the Tu atha .

,

D é in the battle lost his hand i n the fight but Cred n e

, ,

Cerd the art ifi cer made a silver one for him an d

, , ,

Diancecht the physician fitted it o n while Miach

, , , ,

his son infused feeling and motio n into every j oi n t

,

and vein of it For thirty years the Tu at ha held

.

undisputed possessio n of E rin but the Fomorian s , ,

who were continually hovering about the coast ,

now made a determined effort to conquer them .

The battle of Mo ytura N orth was fought between

them In it N u ad a of the Silver Han d fell an d so
.
,

did Balor O fthe E vil E ye leader of the Fomorians , .

He was slain by his gran dso n L uga O fthe L ong Arms ,

who was practically leader O f the Tuatha a n d who ,

succeeded to the kingship on the death of N u ad a .

After a reign of forty years Luga died and was ,

succeeded by the Dagda MOT the central figure ,

of the Tu atha de D an an n and in the pages of our

- -

E uhemerist ann alists an inscrutable a n d misty ,

personage O Cu rr y vent u res even to call him a

.
’

demigod The Dagda was the twenty fourth i n

.
-

descent from N oah let it be observed that N emid

w as the twelfth i n descent The Firbolg chiefs also .

were in the twenty fourth generatio n from N oah -

.

Among the leading personages of the Tu atha were

Manannan the son of Al loid or L ir Ogma son of
, ,

E lathan and brother of the Dagda surnamed

,
Su r ,
I IO C ELT I C M YTH OLO GY AN D R ELI G I O N .

face Goibniu the smith L u chtin e the carpenter ;

, ,

D an an n mother of their gods

,
Brigit the poetess ,

Badb Macha and Morrigan their three goddesses

, , , ,

says Keating The Tu atha held E rin for nigh two

.

hundred years b ut whe n MacCu ill MacCecht and

, , ,

MacG rein e who were so called because Coll Cecht

, , ,

an d G rian the hazel the plough and the sun were

, , , ,

gods O f worship to them were rul ing over Ireland ,

with their respective quee n s Banba F odla an d , ,

E ire (three names of Ireland) the l ast colony of all ,

appeared on the southern coast These were the .

Milesians or Gaels from Sp ain and the E ast They .

were in no respect related to the previou s rac es ,

except that they were equally with them descended

from N oah Golam Miled after whom they were
called Milesians b ei ng the twenty—
, ,

fo urth from N oah

,

in direct descent They were also called Gaels or

.

G aidels from an ancestor G ad e lu s seventh in descent

, ,

from N oah and s on of Scota d aughter O f Pharaoh

, ,
.

The family lived for the most part in E gypt b ut ,

Golam Miled who was al so married to a second

,

Scota daughter O f Pharaoh settled in Spain The

, , .

sons of Miled to avenge a relative s murder res olved

’

, ,

to invade E rin U nder the leadership of Heber

. ,

B eremon and Amergin an d accomp anied b y Scota

, , ,

a vast army in many ships in vaded Ireland No .

resistance was o ffered at first The Milesian s arrived .

at Tara and there met the three kings and queens

,

of the Tuatha de D an an n The latter complained

- -
.

of b eing taken by surprise and asked the Milesians ,

I I Z C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL I GI ON .

in law and in the care and seizure O f l and and of

,

cattle Mythic perso n s constan tly flit across the

.

page ; the demigods become mere mortal chiefs ,

a n d the last reflectio n s of the sun god appear -

in the features of Cuchulainn an d Fi nn .

There are many interpretatio n s put upon the

history that we have j ust summarily given N atur .

ally enough ethnological theories form the greater

,

part of s uch expla n atio n s The leading in vasions .

of the Firbolgs Fomorians Tu atha de— ,

Dannan and ,
-

Milesians are made u se of to refute or support some

,

favourite theory about the various races that go

to compos e the Irish natio n Two hu n dred years .

ago an Irish genealogist of the name of D u balt ach ,

MacF irbisigh advanced the theory doubtless sup

, ,

ported by tradition that every one who is whit e

,

s ki nn ed brow n haired bountiful in the bestowal

,
-

on the bard s of j ewels wealth and rings not afraid , , ,

of batt l e or combat is of the Clan n a Miled (the ,

-

Mile sians) every one who is fair— haired big vin , ,

d ictive skilled in music druidry and magic all

, , , ,

these are of the Tu atha de D an an n ; whil e the - -

black haired loud—

-
tongued mischievous tale bear
, , ,
-

ing i nhospitable churls the disturbers of assemblies

, , ,

who love n ot music and e n tertainmen t these are ,

”
of the Feru bolg and the other conquered peoples
-
.

Skene in modern times gives this theory of Mac

, ,

F ir bisigh in our modern terms the Firbolgs belong

to the Iberian or N eolithic and pre Celtic tribes ; -

the Celts themselves are divided into Gaels an d

 TH E GA EL IC G O D S IN HISTO RY . I I 3

Britons ; the Gaelic branch is again subdivided

into ( I ) a fair skinned large— limbed and red hair ed
-

race—the P icts of Caledonia and the Tu atha—

-

, ,

de
D an an n of Ireland and (z) a fair sk inn ed brown ,
-

”
haired race of a less Germanic type represented
, ,

in Ireland by the Milesian s an d in Scotland by the ,

band of invadin g Scots We have already presented .

the best modern scienti fic views o n the ethnology

of these islands there would appear to have bee n
three races A primitive small dark long , , ,

headed race of the Basque type in language and

,

Iberian in physique a fair tall rough featured , ,

-

round headed and rough limbed race also pre

-

,
-

Celtic which w e calle d the Fin nish ; and

, the
Celts fair straight feat ured long headed and tall
, ,
-

,
-

and belonging to the Arya n family We might .

equate the Firbolgs with the dark Iberian race ;

the Tu atha de D an an n with the Finn ish race and
- -

the Milesians with the Celts The legendary an d .

traditio n al accou n t can easily be fitted into the

present scientific View of the subj ect But after .
,

all the truth of such a theory must be gravely

,

doubted even its agr eemen t w ith proper scientific

methods in su ch case must be questio n ed We may
’

grant that the strong contrast betwee n a small

dark race and a tall fair race might give ri se to a
myt h like that of the Fir bolgs and Tu atha de -

D an an n s But in Wales where the contrast is even

. ,

stronger no such myth exists Again the Milesians .

were really fair haired and n ot brown—

,

-
haired ; the
I I 4 C ELTIC MYTH OLO GY AN D R ELI GI ON .

heroes of U lster are all fair or yellow haired and so -

are the Fen i It is best therefore to adopt a purely

. , ,

mythological explanation of the matter Despite .

its pseudo— historical character the whole history ,

of the invasions of the Firbolg De— D an an n s and , ,

F omorian s appear s to be a Gaelic cou n terpart of

what we see in Greek mythology the war of the ,

rough and u n tamed powers of earth sea and fire , , ,

again st the orderly cosmos of the O l ympians ; the

war in short of the gian ts and Titans against Zeus
, ,

and his brothers The Fir bolgs may be therefore

. , ,

looked upon as the earth powers too much stress -

need not be laid o n the fact that they and their

brethren the Fir D omn an s were wont to dig the
,
-

soil make pits and carry earth in bags to make

, ,

flowery plains of bare rocks b ut it should be noticed

that they always meet the Tu atha de D an an n as - -

natives of the soil repelling i n vaders The gods of .

the soil O ften belong to a pre Aryan people while -

the greater gods the O lympians and the Tu atha de

,
-

Damann are intrusive the divinities of the new

, ,

comers into the land the patrons of warriors and,

sea faring
-
men Behind these last there often
.

stand deities O f older birth those who had been ,

worshipped in ancient days by the simple and settled

folk of the land Such were Pan or Hermes of
.

Arcadia Dionysus O fThrace and Demeter and Dione

, ,
.

The Firbolgs may therefore be looked on as either

, ,

the homely gods of preceding tribes of the non

Aryan races or as answering to the giants and Titans
,
1 16 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y A N D R EL I G I ON .

of her forehead The Tu atha de D an an n s will

.
- -

therefore be simply the gods that be n eficially direct

,

the powers of sk y air sea an d earth ; they will

, , ,

correspond exactly to Zeus Poseidon Pluto and , , ,

the rest of the Grecian god world who benignly -

rule over the heavens the sea and the shades The
, ,
.

Milesians w ill accordingly be merely the mai n body

of the Gaelic people whose gods the Tu atha de
,
-

D an an n are Why there is n o more Open acknow

.

ledgment of the Tu atha de Damann as the pagan - -

gods of the Gael may easil y be accounted for The .

accounts we have are long posterior to the intro

duction of Christian ity ; and it w as a principle of
the early Christian Church to assimilate to itself ,

following the true Roman fashion all native religions ,

.

The native gods were made saints (especially the

female divinities such as B rigit ) fairies demons
, , , ,

a n d kings Christia n ity was about five hundred

.

years established before we have a n y native record

of events the further back we go the n earer do the
Tu atha D e come to be gods
-

E ven in the 8th .

century a n Irish monk could still invoke Goibniu

and Diancecht the Tu at ha gods answering to Vulcan
,

and Aesculapius for relief from and protection

, ,

against pain
, .

G O DS OF THE G AE L S .

Whatever interpretation we give to the Feru

bolg and the Fomorians there can be little question ,
 G O DS O F TH E G AEL S . 1 17

as to the fact that the Tu atha D e D an an n are the - -

Gaelic gods The Irish historians as we saw r e

.
, ,

present them as kings with subj ects but eve n they ,

find it difficult to hide the fact that some of these

kings an d queens afterwards appear on the scene
of history in a super natural fashion The myths -
.

and tales however make n o scruple to tell u s that

, ,

the Tu atha De D an an n still live in Fairyland an d

- -

often take part in human affairs In a very ancient .

tract which records a di al ogue between St P atrick .

and Caoilte Mac Ronain they are spoke n O f as ,

sprites or fairies with corporeal and material

,

forms but imb ued with immortality

, Their skill .

in magic shown in their manipulation of storms

, ,

clouds and darkness is in sisted on in all the myths

, , ,

and is a source of trouble to the historians an d

ann alists who regard them as mere mortals
, They .

”
were call ed gods says Keating , from the wo n der ,

fuln ess of their de eds of sorcery To them is first .

applied the term Side which in modern Gaelic ,

means fairy but which in the case of the Tu atha

,

De D an an n has a much wider sign ification for it

-

implies a sort of god like exis tence in the L and of

-

”
Promise The Book of Armagh calls the Side
.

deos terrenos earthl y gods whom we are told

, , ,

in F iacc s hymn when P atrick came the peopl es

’

, ,

adored tuatha adorta is Side Sid was a ter m .

applied to the green knoll s wh ere some of these

deified mortals were supposed to dwell : the word
appears in the modern Gaelic silk and sithecm a ,
1 18 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y A N D R ELIGI O N .

mound or rather a fairy mound The Tu atha De .

-

Damann were also called Aes Side a es being here ,

used in the sense of race and not of age We .

may remark that the N orse gods were also kno w n

as the Aes or Aesir one of the many remarkable
,

coin cidences in words and in actions between the

Irish gods and the deities of Asg ar d .

In attempting to reconstruct the Gaelic god— world

from the almost hopeless ruins in which piety an d
time have laid it we must not merely remember
,

the Aryan character of it but also Ce s ar s brief

’

account of the Gaulish O lympus There can be .

little doubt but that the Gaelic and Gaulish Olympi

were similar in outline a n d probably also in details
, .

We shall therefore expect Mercury to be the most

, ,

important of the Gaeli c deities while Apollo Mars , , ,

Jupiter an d Minerva take rank after him These

,
.

deities and others as w a s pointed ou t represent

, ,

the personified powers of nature—the wind the ,

su n
,
the storm the sk y and the moon N o t only
, ,
.

are these elements perso nified as d eities and so

worshipped but we also find the elements in their
,

imperson ified state as it were invoked for aid and

, ,

for good faith The classical examples of this are

.

extremely n umerous O ne instance wi ll suffi ce :

.

In Virgil [E neas and L atinus are represented as

,

swearing by the sun the earth the sea the stars

, , , ,

by the Almighty Father and his Spouse by M ars ,

and Janus by the spring an d rivers the ether and the

, ,

deities of the sea The first instance of such an

.
1 20 C ELTIC M YTH O LO G Y AN D R ELI GI O N .

mean s is yet u n decided Though the Dagda is .

very often me n tioned yet little information is given ,

about him He was one of the leaders of the Tu atha

.

De— Damann from Scythia to Irelan d and he brought ,

with him from Murias a magical cauldron capable

of satisfying the hunger of everyone He is the .

most renowned of all the Tu a tha for his S kill in

Druidism With L uga he makes and carries out a l
.

the arrangements of the second battle of Mo ytura ,

i n which however he w as wounded with a poisoned

, ,

weapon by the amazon queen Cethlen n The venom .

of that wound caused his death 1 20 years later .

For eighty years previous to his death he ruled the ,

Tu a tha as king There is little in these meagre

.

details to help us to a true notion of the character

of the Dagda It is in the epithets attached to his
.

n ame and the incidental references to him scattered

, ,

through many tales that we can hope to understand ,

his po s ition among the gods He is called E ochaidh .

Olla thair that is Chevalier All father a n d fu rther

, ,
-

, , ,

”
R u ad ro fhessa the red one of all knowledge .

The epithet Olla thair —All father— puts him on -

a level with Jupiter Zeus and O din he is the father

, ,

of gods and men king of heaven and earth Zeus

, .
,

we know is the S ky god the ben efi cen t power O f

,
-

light and life who regulates the atmosphere and its

,

phenomena— notably the thunder— for the good of ,

men : O din is however a wind god more than a

, ,
-

sky god answering rather to the Roman Mercury

-

an d the Greek Hermes than to Jove and Zeus Is .

 G O DS O F TH E GA EL S . 121

the Dagda a wind god or a light god or a fire god

- - -

Mr Fitzgeral d classes him with O din as a sky and

.

wind god and appeals to the epithet E o chaid

-

—
horseman—as confirmatio n ; for horseman and
huntsman are nearly allied and seem rather to ,

belon g to the wi n d deity as in the case of O din ,

they do so apply Mr E lto n makes the Dagda. .

a spir it of heat who ruled all fires i n earth and heaven ,

for he in terprets the n ame after O D on ovan as sigui ’

fyin g the great good fire The V iew which we .

will ad ept on the matter differs from both the fore

going The Dagda represents rather the sky god
.
-

exactly the Roman Jove He is the All father ; .

-

he is the Red o n e— the sk y in certain states being so

-

j ust as at other times he is said to be greyer than

the gr ey mist — who is all wise he is the Dagda -

the good father or good one the deus optimus

- -

maximus the benign providence who arranges

, , ,

provides and, superintends everything His .

cauldron is in terpreted by s ome as the canopy O f

heaven like the thunder god Thor he possess ed a -

, ,

ha nd sto n e which ret u r n ed of itself to the place

-

’
from which it w as thrown j ust as Thor s hammer ,

the thunder bolt — did -

.

The most important deity i n the Gaelic pantheon

must have been Mercury which of the Tu atha— De
D an an n was he ? The honour of bei ng the god
most worshipped by the Gael must fall to Manannan ,

the son of L ir whose attributes we have already

,

discussed Manannan is always a deity he is n ever

.
I ZZ C ELTI C MYTH O LO GY AN D R EL I G I ON .

a mortal hero like the others We represen ted him

'

as god of sea and wind as opposed to Mr E lton s ,

.

view who made him a su n god There is little doub t

,
-

but Manannan is a w ind god he possesses all the -

prominent requisites of such a deity He is the own er .

of the wonderful steed E n barr of the flowing mane

, , ,

who is swift as the cold clear wind of spring ; his

also is the sword fr om whose wound there was no
,

recovery ; and he possessed the curious mantle

that will cause people never to meet again The .

three characteristic posses sions of O din are his

sword his mantle and his horse Sleipnir The
, ,
.

sword is the lightning the mantle is the air and

Clouds and the grey horse Sleipnir is the rushing
,

grey cloud driven b y the wind O din is as already .

,

said mostly a wind god ; so too is Manannan

,
-

, , .

Both deities however usurped features b elonging

, ,

to more departmental god s in proportion as they ,

took the fir st place in the worship of the people .

Manannan also possessed the wonder fu l canoe which

could hold any numb er of people suiting its size ,

to them and which obeyed the will of those it bore

, ,

and swept over the ocean as fast as the March wind .

He too instituted the Feast of Age known as

, , ,

the feast of G obn en n the smith Whoever was .

pres ent at it and p artook of the food and drink

, ,

was free ever after from sickness decay and old age , , .

The L and of Promise is often identified w ith I h is

M kan ami or Isle of Man which was ruled over by
, ,

Manannan b ut his connection w ith the land of

,
12 4 C ELT I C M Y T H OLO G Y AN D R EL I G I ON .

Druids . The light you see is the brightness of the

face and the flashing O f the we apons of L uga of the
L ong Arms our deadly enemy
,
He also poss essed .

the swiftness and keenness of the ocean wind god - -

Ma n annan for we are told that he rode Man an n an s

’

mare E n barr of the flowing mane that is the driving , ,

wind ; his coat O f mail— the clouds ; and he is

further represented as having Man an n an s sword
’

the lightning flash But this last is doubtful for

.
,

two of the precious j ewels that the Tu a tha De -

Damann took from the east are L uga s sword and

’

his spear Gae B u aifn each tempered in the ,

poisoned blood of adders These weapons are .

’
merely the flashing rays of the su n j ust as L uga s ,

helmet Can n barr glittered with dazzling brightness

, , ,

with two precious stones set in it one in front and ,

one behind Whenever he took off the helmet we

.
,

are told that his face shone like the sun on a dry
summer day His deeds are also
. sunlike in
their character He first frees the Tu atha from the
.

hated tribute which was imposed on them after a

temporary success on the part of the Fomorians .

We are told that he put a Druidical spell on the

plundered cattle and sent all the m ilch cows home
,

to their owners leaving the dry cows to cum b er his

,

enemies The cows of the su n god are famous in

.
-

all mythologies they are the clouds O fheaven that

bring rain and moisture to men when shone upon ,

’
by the rays of the su n L uga s gr eatest feat is the
.

overthrow of the Fomorians at Moytura For year s .

 G O DS O F THE GA EL S .
5
12

he had been preparing for this great fight He .

summoned all the artists and artificers of ren own

an d got arms in readin ess He him self lent his help
.

to each tradesman for he was a skilled carpenter

, ,

maso n smith harper druid physician cup bearer

, , , , ,
-

and goldsmith one who embodied i n himself

,

”
all these arts an d professions as he described ,

himself on one occasion When the so n s of Tu ren n

.

slew his father he made them procure for him as

,

eric or fine several weapon s of importance an d

,

several salves with a view to using them in the great

,

struggle against the stormy ocean powers Such .

were the apples of H isbern a which could cure any ,

S ickness an d would return to the own er even when

thrown away ; the pig s skin whos e touch made
’

whole ; the spear the slaughterer —whose fiery ,

blazing head was always kept i n the water

the steeds and chariot of Dobar— the steeds
which travel with equal ease on land and
sea ; the pigs of Asal whosoever eats a part of
them shall not suffer from ill health — even when
killed to day they are alive to—
-
morrow ; an d the
hou nd whelp F ailin is that shines like the s u n on
-

summer day—before him every wild beast falls to

earth powerless In the battle O fMo yt ura he killed
. ,

Balor of the E vil E ye That worthy had already

.

tur ned N u ad a Of the Silver Han d i nto stone an d ,

many more De D an an n and j us t as he was open ing

-

it on L uga the latter flung a sling sto n e

,
at it ,

which passed through it and Balor s brain N ow

’
.
 1 26 C EL TI C MYTH OLO G Y A N D R EL I G I O N .

Balor was his grandfather and it had been foretold

,

that he should be slain by his grandson I n view of .

this he kept his only child a daughter Aethlen n , , ,

secluded in a tower where man and the id ea of

,

man were to be strictly excluded But in vain . .

She became the wife of Cian the son of Diancecht , ,

the physician and L uga w as the offspring We must

,
.

note his connection with the god of healing ; that

god is his grandfather In Greek mythology .
,

Aesculapius is the s on of Apollo The name Luga .

,

too is suggestive ; it is doubtless from the root

,

lu c to S hine and it is in teresting to observe that the

, ,

N orse fire god also master of many arts though

-

, ,

evil arts is called L oki The epithet L amf

, . a da ,

long arms remi n ds us of the far darter Apollo and

,
-

refers to the long shooting rays of the sun — a most

-

appropriate epithet .

Cormac informs us in his Glossary that N eith

was the god of battle among the pagan Gael and ,

that N emon was his wife information which is ,

repeated in other and later manuscripts with some

variatio n s and additions We are vouchsafed no
.

’
further information as t oN eith s character or actions
only he appears in some of the inevitable pedigrees ,

and we are told that N eit son of Indu and his two
, ,

wives Badb and N em ain were slain at Ailech by

, ,

N ept ur ( l) of the F om orian s With N emain

may be compared the British war goddess N emeton a ,

whose n ame appears on an inscription along with

that of Mars L u cetiu s There would appear to have
.
128 C EL TI C M YTH OLO G Y A N D R EL I G I ON .

and his son O wen with the army of ravens are , ,

clearly war deities .

The goddess Ana or Aine (gen An an n ) has been .

called the queen of heaven and co n nected with the ,

worship of the moon Cormac describes her as .

mater d eoru m H ibern en siu m —mother O f the

”
Irish gods Well she used to nourish the gods
. ,

he adds and in a n other place he says

,
As Ana ,

was mother of the gods so B u an an n was mother ,

of the Fiann (heroes) Cam d en fou n d in his time

.

survival of moon worship When they see the

-
.

moon first after the change he says commonly , ,

’
they how the knee and say the L ord s Prayer and ,

then with a loud voice they speak to the moon

, , ,

thus L eave u s whole and sou n d as thou hast found

us.
i)
Keating gives the name O f this goddess as
,

D an an n and explains the Tu atha De D an an n as

,
- -

the worshippers of the gods of Dananu the gods of ,

D an an n being according to him Brian I u char ba

, , , ,

and I u char These thr ee gods are k n own on other

.

myths as the children O fTur en n slain as Keating , ,

himself says by L uga L amfad a The goddess

, .

B u an an n mentioned i n con n ection with Ana or

,

An an n appears i n the story of the great Druid

,

Mogh Ruith as his patron to whose Sid he fares to ,

consult her in his difficulties .

Minerva is the fifth and last deity mentioned by

Ce sar as worshipped by the Gauls — their goddess
of arts and industry A passage in Solin u s and .
,

another in G iraldu s Cambren sis enable us to decide , ,

 G O DS O F TH E GAEL S . 1 29
0

with ab solute certainty what goddess answered

,

among the Gaels to the position of Minerva Solin u s .

(first century A D ) says that in Britai n Minerva

. .
,

presides over the hot Springs an d that in her temple,

there flamed a perpetual fir e which never whitened

into ashes but h ardened I nto a stro ng mass
, .

G ir aldus ( 1 2 th century A D ) inform s us that at the

. .

Shr ine of St Brigit at Kildare the fire is never

.
,

allowed to go out and though such heaps of wood

,

have bee n consumed Since the time of the Virgin ,

yet there has been no accumulation of ashes E ach .

of her nin eteen nuns has the care of the fire for a
single night in turn and on the evenin g before the
,

twentieth night the last n un ha ving heaped wood

, ,

upon the fir e says Brigit take charge o fyour own

, , ,

’
fire for this night b elongs to you
, She then leaves .

the fir e and in the morning it is found that the

,

fire has not gone out an d that the us ual qu antity

,

of fuel has been used This sacred fire was kept

.

burnin g continually for centuries an d was finall y ,

extinguished only with the extinction of the monas

,

teries by Henry V II I Brigit therefore is the Gaelic

.
, ,

Minerva She is goddes s of the household fire ;

.

her position is that of the hearth goddes s Vesta ,

as much as that of Minerva for evidently she is ,

primarily a fire goddess Her name is probably

-
.

from the same root as the E nglish bright Gaelic ,

br eo
. The British goddes s Brigantia is doub tless
, ,

the same as the I rish Brigit Mr Whitley Stokes . .

picks out the follow in giin stan ces in proof of her

I 30 C ELT I C M Y T H OLO GY A N D R EL I G I O N .

character as a fir e goddess she was born at sunrise

-

her breath revives the dead a house in which she

stays flames up to heaven she is fed with the milk
of a white r ed eared cow a fiery pillar rises from her
-

head and she remains a virgin like the Roman

goddess V esta and her virgins—V esta whom
,

, , ,

O vid tells u s to consider nothing else than the

living fl ame which ca n produce no bodies
,
Cor .

mac calls her the daughter O f the D agda This .

Brigit he says
,
is a poetess a goddess whom
, ,

.poets worshipped Her sisters were Brigit woman

.
,

of healing Brigit woman of smith work that is , ,

goddesses ; these are the three daughters of the

D agda D ou b tless these three daughters thus
.
,

distinguished b y Cormac are one and the same ,

person Brigit therefore was goddess of fire the

.
, , ,

hearth and the home .

The rest Ofthe Gaelic pantheon may b e dismissed

in a few sent ences Angus Mac ind— oc the only
.
-

choice one son of Y outh or Perfection has b een

well c alled the E ros— the Cupid—Ofthe Gael
, ,

He
w as represented with a h ar p an d attended b y b light ,

b irds his own t ransformed kisses at whose singing

, ,

love arose in the hearts of youths and m aidens He .

is the son of the Dagda and he lives at the Brugh ,

of the Boyne in one weir d tale he is represented

as the son O f the Boyne He is the patron god of .

D iarmat whom he helps in escapin g from the wrath

,

of Finn when D iar m at elop ed w ith G r ain n e The

, .

River Boyne is als o connected with the ocean god -

132 CE LTIC MYTH OLO G Y A ND R EL I G I O N .

Angus the Beautiful gave his name to Angus

Man an n an s name appears in the Isle of Man and as
’
,

the old name O fthe district at the mouth of the Forth ,

still seen in Clack Mannan -

.

T H E C E L TI C E L Y S IU M .

All the Aryan n ations originally believed in the

existence after death of the human so u l This
, , .

belief had its root in the animism of a more

b arbaric period of their existence and held its place ,

in the rem n ants of ancestral worship we meet with in

Rome and Greece and in the many myths bearing
,

on the land of shades E vidently too the pre.

, ,

Aryan tribes of E urope were strong believers in the

fut u re existe n ce O fma n s second self his soul Their
’

, .

barrows dolmens and sto n e circles poin t distinctly

, ,
-

to their revere n ce for the dead and their belief in ,

their continued existe n ce in another sphere of

nature from which they visited helped and ad
, ,

monished their living representatives Ancestor .

worship clearly was their main creed Hence the .

vividness of the belief of the early N orthern Aryans

Celts and Teutons—in future existence and their ,

clinging to ancestor worship so long may arise ,

from their mingling with a people who was in that

stage of belief ; whereas at the dawn of our era ,

i n Greece and Rome the whole doctrine of a future

,

state belonged to the region of languid half belief -

.

The aristocracy and the phil osophers entirely dis

 TH E C ELTIC ELY SI U M . I 33

believed it Ce sar as supreme pontiff of Rome

.
, ,

declared in his pl a ce in the senate his utter disbelief

, ,

in another life and the stern Cato but mildly replied

,

that their ances tors men perhaps as wise as Ce sar , , , ,

believed that the gu ilty after death were s en t to , ,

noisome abodes full of all horr ors a nd terrors But

, .

the classical belief even at its best— in the poems of ,

Homer—gives but a poor shadowy comfortless , ,

existence to the spirits of the dead They lived .

in Hades a country which comprised various d istricts

,

of woe and of bliss s uch as it w as The ghost o f

, .

Achil les says to U lysses Rather would I li ve on

'
eart h as a poor man s hireling than reig n amo n g ,

all the de ad The gods lived on the heights of

.

O lympus aloft in heave n an d far apart from the

, ,

hated abode of the dead which lay u n der the earth ,

and ocean Mortals were all consig n ed to the grisly

.

realm of P luto even the demi god H ercules though -

livin g in O lympus had his g hostly mortal co un t e ,

p art in Hades Amo ng the R oman s ancestor .

,

worship had a stronger force than in Greece their

feast of the dead w as duly celebrated i n the latter
half of February when Chaplets were laid o n their ,

tombs and fr uit salt cor n soaked i n w in e and

, , , ,

violets were the least costly o fferings presen ted to

,

them The d eification of the E mperors was merely

.

a further development of this an cestor worship .

The remembrance of the festival of the dead is still

kept up in the R oman calendar as the feast of All
Souls The Celts of Brittan y preserve still the
.
13 4 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y A N D R ELI G I ON .

remembrance of the ancestor worship on this day ;

they put cakes and sweet meats on the graves and ,

at night make up the fire and leave the fragments

of the supper on the table for the souls of the dead
,

of the family who will come to visit their home .

The Celts would appear to have had a much more

vivid belief in future existence than either the Greeks
or the Romans We may pass over the Druidic
.

doctrine of transmigration ; it was doubtless not

the popular view of futur e life We know as much
.

from some side references in one or two classi cal

writers So realistic was the Celtic belief in exis
.

tence after death that money loans were granted

on the understanding that they were to be repaid
beyond the grave Valerius Maximus laughs at the
.

Gauls for lending money which should be paid

the creditor in the other world for they believed ,

”
that the soul was immortal Mela tells us one of
.

the Druid ic doctrines that was publicly preached

and nationally believed in n amely that the soul
, ,

was eternal and that there was another life in the

land of Shades . Accordingly he adds they
, ,

burn and bury along with the dead whatever w as

once usefu l to them when alive Business accounts .

and deb t claims used to be transferred to the next

world and some even w illin e cast themselves on
,

the funeral piles of their relatives under the im

pression that they would live with them hereafter .

D io d oru s Sicu lu s informs us that at the funeral

of their dead some threw letters addressed to their
13 6 C ELTIC MYTH OLO GY A N D R ELI GI ON .

Beyond the westermost point o f the Gallic shore ,

he says is the place where U lysses summoned the

,

shades (as Homer has it ) There are he ar d the .

tearful cries of fleeting ghosts the natives see their

p a llid forms and ghostly figures moving on to their
last abod e The traditions of Brittany with t ru e
. ,

C elti c tenacity still bear traces of t his be lief ; at

,

the furthest extremity of t h at district where Cape ,

Raz j uts into the Western Sea lies the Bay of So ul s , ,

where departed S pirits sail offa cross the sea in ghostly

ships to the h appy isles P rocopius in the 6th .
,

century enables us to understand what the peasants

,

of N orthern Gaul believed i n regard to the Happy

Isles and to Britain in p a rticular He confuses
,
.

Britai n with a fabulous island called B rittia one ,

half of which is habitable ; b ut the other half

fby a wall is s et apart to be the home of
d ivi d e d o f ,

gho s ts The fisherme n on the continent opposite

.

t o B rittia performed the functions of ferrymen for

the dead At night they perceive the door to be
.

shake n and they hear a certain indistinct voice su m

,

moning them to their work They proceed to the .

shore under compulsion of a necessity they cannot

understand Here they perceive vessels— not their
.

own— ap parently without passengers E mbarking .

,

they take the oars and feel as if they had a burden

,

on board in the shape of unseen passengers which ,

sometimes S inks the boat to within a fin ger breadth -

of the water They s ee no one . After rowing for .

an hour they reach B rittia really a mortal j ourney

, ,
 TH E C ELTIC ELY S I U M . 13
2
of over twenty four hours Ar rived at B rittia
-
.
,

they hear the names of their passengers and their

dignities called over and an wered ; and on the s

ghosts all landing they are wafted back to the

,

”
habitable world .

SO far we have dis covered among the early Celts

an intense co n viction in a perso n al existence in
another world where they married and gave i n
,

marriage and in to which business transaction s

,

of this world might be tran sferred Its loc ality w a s .

to the west—an island in the land of the settin g su n ,

or possibly a coun try under the wester n waves ,

for the traditions of Brittan y Cornwall Wales , , ,

Ireland and Scotland co n tinually insist on the

,

existence of such a land Buried cities ar e recorded

.

as existing to the westward of every prominent

Celtic cape that s u n ken district of L yo n esse which

appears in al l Brytho n ic traditions The very .

earthly character of the Celtic world of the d eparted

is seen in the surviving remembrances of it still
’
existent despite all the Chur ch s efforts in the
, ,

mythic tales ; an E ar thly Paradise it truly was .

We do not find much i n Wels h myth bearing on the

matter it is i n Irish and Gaelic t ales that we have
the material for j udging of the character of the Celtic
E lysium .
13 8 C ELTIC MYTH OL O G Y A N D R ELIGI ON .

WE L S H AN D G AE L I C E L Y SI U M .

The Welsh Hades w as kn own as Annwn It .

possessed kings chiefs and commons somewhat

, , ,

like those of this world only vastly superior the

,

”
comeliest and best equipped people ever seen .

Pw yll Pri n ce of D yved ( South west Wales) whil e

,
-

one day out h unting lost his companions in his eager

,

pursuit of a stag Hearing a cry of hounds near

.

him he approached and saw the stag brought down

, ,

by other dogs than his own Then he looked at .

the colour of the dogs staying not to look at the stag

, ,

and of all the hounds that he had seen in the world ,

he had never seen any that were like unto t hese .

For their hair was of a brilliant shin ing white and

their ears were re d ; and as the whiteness of their
bodies shone s o did the redness of their ears glisten
,
.

He drove them from the stag and set on it his own ,

dogs Immediately there came upon him a man

.

dressed all in grey and mounted on a grey horse ,

a nd he reviled w 11 for his discourtesy in turn

ing offhis hou nds P w yll o ffered to make reparation
.
,

a n d his o ffer w as accepted The stranger said .

that he was Arawn King of one half of Annwn ,

-

and he was at war with H avgan the other King ,

.

P w yll if he liked could overthrow H avgan who was

, , ,

to come exactly a year thereafter against Arawn .

Would Pw yll change places with him and meet

H avgan ? He would give him his own personal
1 40 C ELT I C M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

The other reference of importance to this E arthly

O ther world is in the story of Arthur D ying on
-
.

the battle fi eld of Camlan he is carried away to he al

-

O fhis wounds to the vale of Avi lion which Tenny ,

son catching the true idea of the Welsh mythic

,

paradise describes thus : Arthur dying speaks to

, , ,

Bedivere
go in g a lon g w ay
I a m
T o the islan d v alle y O f Avilion
-

Where f all s n o t hail o r rain o r an y sn ow

, , ,

N o r e ve r win d b lows lo u dl y b u t it lies

D e e p me ad o w d h appy f air wit h o rch ard l awn s
’
-
, ,

An d b owery ho ll ows crown e d with su mm e r se a .

And here Arthur still lives on destined one day to ,

appear and set free his Cambrians from the hateful

yoke of the Saxon .

The myths in Ireland be aring on the existence

of a happy western land are very numerous and
important The names given to this land vary
.
,

but they have a general reference to happiness all

save the name Tir—
,

fa—
tonn the U nder wave ,
-

L and The names generally met with are Tir

.

Tairn gire L and of Promise

, Mag Mell Plains ,

of Happiness Tir nam beo L and of the L iving- -

Tir nan og L and of the Y oung

- -

, and O B reas ail ’

B reasal s Isle Whether there is any distinction

’

implied in these names cannot well be said There .

would seem to be something of a difference b etween

the U nder wave L and and the P lains of Happiness
-

the latter may have rather been the abode O fthe gods ,
 W EL SH AN D GA ELI C ELY SIUM . 14 1

where Manannan lived with Fann his wife as the ,

myths have it Tir fa— tonn looks rather like the

.
-

Gaelic Hades the abode of the dead The Gaelic

, .

version of D iarmat s soj ourn there gives strong

’

colour to such a supposition an d the early Middle ,

Age legends in regard to St Pat rick s Pur gatory .

’

below L ough Dearg—the precursors of Dante and

Mil ton s descriptions—lend great countenance to
’

such a distinction between Tir ia tonn and Mag - -

Mell .

The myths may be grouped i n three divisions .

There are fir st the myths where a mortal is sum

, ,

mon ed in an enchanti n g song by a fai ry bei ng who

, ,

has fallen in love with the mortal to a land of beauty ,

and happiness an d ever youthful life ; second ’

-

there are myths which tell how a hero has U lysses ,

like paid a business visit to the other world ; an d

, ,

thirdly the accounts of many voyages of discovery

,

’
in search of the Happy Isles an d the Traveller s ,

Tales O fthe wonders seen To the first class belong .

three very remarkable Irish myths the Courtship

of E t ain the story of Con d la Cam and O ssia n i n
, ,

Tir nan og The outlin e of the story is as follows

- -
.

There suddenly appears before a kingly company

a fairy being who chants for some particular person ,

in the company loved by the fairy a son g descriptive ,

of the glori es and pleasures of the L and of the E ver

you ng The perso n SO addressed cannot choose
.

but love the fairy and go to the wonderful land ,

.

In Ossian s case alone have we got an account of the

’
142 C ELTI C M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I O N .

career of the enchanted one in Tir nan og N iam - — .

of the Golden Hair suddenly presents herself b efore

the Feni tells her love for O ssian and says
,
I ,

place you under o b ligations which no true heroes

break through—to come w ith me on my white
steed to Tir nan og the most delightful and renown ed
- -

country under the sun Jewels and gold there are .

in ab undance and honey and w ine the trees b ear

,

fruit and blossoms and green leaves all the year

rou nd Fe asting an d mus ic and harmless pastimes
.

are there each day Y ou will get a hu ndred swords .

,

and ro b es of riches t loom ; a hundred steed s an d ,

hounds of keenest scent ; numberless herds and ,

sheep with fleeces of gold a hundred maidens

merry and young sweeter of mouth than the music ,

of b irds a hundred suits of armour and a sword , ,

gold handled that never missed a stroke Decline

-

, .

Shall not come on you nor death nor decay These , , .

,

and much more that p asseth all mention shall b e ,

yours and myself as your wife I

, N eedless is it
to recoun t how O ssian went the wonders he saw ,

by the way and the feats he did ; how he found

,

Tir nan og all that it was painted b y the Princess

- -

N iam h ow after three hundred years he returned

, ,

to earth on the white steed from whose b ack he was ,

forbidden to dismount how he fell from the steed

when helping the poor we akly mortals that he found
then on e arth to raise a huge stone and how th e
steed rushed off and left him old and w ithered and ,

blind amon gllit tle men

, .
1 44 C ELTI C MYTH OLO G Y A N D R EL I GI ON .

D iarmat arriving at the bottom of it finds himself

, ,

in a most beautiful territory where he does many ,

deeds of valour and helps a distressed prince to a

,

throne The Highland tale represents him as shelter

.

ing a loathly creature that turns out to be a most

beautiful lady u nder spells She is the daughter .

of the King of the L and under the Waves After .

presenting D iarm at with a fairy castle a n d living ,

with him some time she left him for her o w n country
, ,

a Slight quarrel havi n g occurred He followed her .

,

crossed on the Charon boat much as already ,

’
described in L oeg s case and arrived at an island
, ,

where down went the boat to a land under the sea I

Here D iarmat found his love but she was deadly ,

sick to be cured only by a drink from a magical

,

cup in the possessio n of the King of Wonderland .

This is procured by the help of the messenger of

”
the other world who advised him to have nothing
,

to do w ith the King s silver or gold or even w ith the

’

daughter an ad vice which D iarmat took for after

, ,

healing her he took a dislike to her

, D iarmat .
,

therefore was allowed to return from the realms of

,

death .

The Voyagers Tales of Ireland can compare

’

for sensuous imagination very favoura b ly with any

’
other country s Travellers Tales
’
N aturally .

e nough the tales deal altogether with sea voyages

,
-

generally to some western islands and t hey must ,

an d do co n tain many reminiscences of t he Happy

Isles where the dead live and the gods reign De
, .
 W EL SH A N D GAEL I C EL YSI U M . 1 45

spite the monkish garb they at times assume for ,

two of the most importa n t are undertaken by monks ,

the old heathenism peeps out at every turn Some .

times we hear of a man living i n a happy islan d

with the sou ls of all his d escendants as birds givi ng
musi c around him Sometimes we get a glimpse
.

of the earthl y paradise where the travellers saw

, ,

a gr eat number of people beautiful and glorious ,

looki ng wearing rich garments adorned and radiant

,

all over feasti ng j oyously and drinking from em

,

bossed vessels of red gold The voyagers also heard

.

their cheerful festive songs and they marvelled ,

gr eatly an d their hearts were fu ll of gladness at al l

,

the happiness they saw and heard But they did .

n ot ve nture to lan d They pass occasionally in ‘o

.

the regions of spirits an d are brought in to co n tact

,

with the living an d the dead The won ders they .

meet with often point a moral for th ere are pu nish ,

ments for w ickedness O n o n e islan d was found a

.

man digging with a spade the handle of which ,

was on fir e for o n earth he was accustomed to dig

,

o n Sunday O n an other isl and was found a burly

.

miller feeding his mill with all the perishable things

of which people are so choice and niggardly i n t his
world . Islands of lamentatio n an d i slands of
laughing are visited ; gorgeo us palaces a nd towns ,

both above an d below the waves are seen and duly , ,

describ ed The principal voyagers were St Brendan

.
.
,

the sons of U a Corra and Maeld uin .

N O ar gument as to the character of the in habi

1 46 C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY A N D R EL IGI O N .

tants of the next world can be drawn from the modern

names given to it F laithemn as or Gaelic Flaith
. , ,

eamhn as meant ,
glory in its original sense ,

being derived from the word Flaithem a lord , ,

with the abstract termination—a s Innis an .

,

island forms n o part of the word so that the Old

, ,

d erivatio n an d its consequent theories Isl and

of chiefs —fal l to the ground In the same way do .

the many weird speculations upon the place of

pai n fail U ffern in Welsh and I frin n or I u tham ,
, .
, ,

in Gaelic are both borrowed from the L atin word

, ,

I nf em u m much to the misfortune of those Druidic

,

theories that m ake the Celtic hell an Isle of the

”
Cold Wave s Both F laitheamhn as and I frin n are
.

Chri s tian ideas and have no counterpart in the

,

Pagan Mythology of the Celts O ur Celtic myths .

warrant u s to speak but of an earthly Paradise a ,

home of sensuous e ase for the departed soul The .

glimpses of places of woe in the Voyagers Tales ’

are too much inspired by Chr istian thought to render

S peculation up on the Celtic prison house for the -

soul possible .

What character of body did the S pirits of the dead

p ossess according to the opinions of the Celts ?
,

The sensuous paradise argues a material body capable

of both physical enj oyments and sorrows The gods .
,

of cour se had bodies somewhat a n alogous to those

,

of men these bodies were celestial but yet quite ,

as substantial as human bodies The difference .

was that they were not subj ect to the trammels

1 48 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AND R EL IGI ON .

Cuchulainn himself to meet King L oegaire The

,
.

famous champion appeared to him o n e morning

S plendidly dressed w ith his chariot horses and
, , ,

C harioteer t he same as whe n alive

,
All is minutely .

“
described the C harioteer for instance was a lan k , , ,

tall stooped freckle faced ma n He had curling

, ,
-
.

reddish hair upon his head He had a circlet of .

bronze upon his forehead which ke pt his hair from

his face ; and cups O f gold upon his poll behind ,

into which his hair coiled a small w inged cape on

him with its buttoning at his elbows a goad of
,

”
red gold in his hand by whic h he urged his horses
, .

The substantial ghosts of dead heroes are in the

myths generally classed as Side among whom also ,

the gods were classed This of course arose from .

, ,

a con fusion The Side I take it were the ghosts

.
, ,

of the glorious dead dwelli n g in t heir barrows or

tumuli (the sid) At these barrows doubtless
.
, ,

they were worshipped in accordance with the cus

toms o i ancestor worship This cannot be proved .

with satisfaction from the Gaelic myths alone but ,

if we refer to the belief and rites of the N ors e

peoples we shall see plenty evidence of the worship
,

Of the dead in t heir barrows In the L and nama .

bok we read that at one pla ce there was a harrow

high place made there and sacrifices began to ,

be performed there for they believed that they died

,

u n to these hills The editors of the lately published

.

work ,Corpus Po eticu m Boreale b ring forward ,

quite an array of evidence in proof of the sacredn ess

 W EL S H AND GA EL I C ELYSIUM . 1 49

of these houses an d barrows an d the b elief ,

that dead ancestors lived an other life there and took ,

an interest in the living O f the spirit life and the

.

behaviour of the dead they say there is some

, ,

evidence In the Older ac counts they ar e feasting

.

happil y and busying themselves with the good of

,

their living ki n dred with whom they are still united

,

in intense sympathy O f the ritual names

.

of the worshipped dead the old est we know is Anse

,
’

which survived in Iceland into the Middle Ages ,

in the sense of guardian spiri t or ge nius of a hill .

E lf is another name used of spirits of the dead

’

oi divine spirits gener al ly—as the Anses and the

E lves of Loka Senna L ater in Christian times
-
.
, ,

’
it sinks in Scandinavia to mean fairy
Th ere were evil spirits—S pirits of b ad men— an d even
.

vampir es an d the like su ch as the dreadful Glam

,

and unhal lowed S pirits and monsters We may .

thus argue that the Side or Aes Side ( compare Anse -

or Aesir above) were properly the divine ancestors ,

and that the gods origi n ally in Pagan times quite

,

distin ct from them w ere afterwards confused w ith

,

”
the side as we have them in the myt hs But
,
.

a still greater confusion overtook these names and

ideas as time and Christianity ad vanced The .

side got mixed up with the elves the earth ,

and wood powers j ust as they did amo ng the N orse

,

and the modern sith is a mixture of tumul us

dweller and wood nymph The gods have almost
entirely left the scene only the L ares—the Gru a
-
.
15 0 C ELTIC M YTH O LO GY A N D R ELIGI ON .

gachs and B rown ies are left O f old among the . ,

Pagan Gael there were doubtless ghosts somewhat

-

, , ,

an alagous to those of present superstitions but they ,

were clearly those of unhallowed men as we have ,

seen in the case of the N orse beliefs The modern .

ghosts follow the analogy of the dwellers in the

Greek Hades and n ot of the i n habitants of the
,

E arthly Paradise of the Gaels that L and of the ,

L eal Where the su n sinks in the west They grew .

up during the Middle Ages under the S hadow of the

Roman Church .

C E L TI C WO RS H I P AN D R IT E S .

A brief glance at the places and rites of worship

a nd burial among the ancient Celts will conclude
the religious aspect of their Mythology The Celts .

worshipped i n temples and in groves ; both are

freque n tly referred to in the classical w r it ers U n .

fortu n ately n o des criptio n of an y Celtic temple is

vouchsafed us ; the natural conclusion we must
come to is that they must have been similar how ,

ever rude to the temples O f the kind red races of

,

Greece and Rome Celtic houses were constructed

.

of wood : great houses says Strabo , arched , ,

constructed Of planks an d wicker and covered with ,

”
a heavy thatched roof They were circular high
.
, ,

and with either a conical or domed roof This .

descriptio n applies to the very earliest Celtic build

ings those of Britain and rural Gaul for the Gauls
, ,
15 2 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AN D R EL IGI ON .

dresses This however operates but to a limited

.
, ,

extent the Je w ish temple unlike their rude stone ,

altars was built of hew n stone made ready before

, ,

being brought to the temple so that there was ,

neither hammer nor axe n or an y tool of ir on heard

, ,

i n the house while it w as building In this way .

a met al usi n g people reconciled the Old w ith the

-

new phase of cult u re and we cannot suppose that

,

the Celts eve n if they did us e stone circles which

, ,

is most improbable would not h a ve reconciled them

,

to their state of culture by dressing and shaping

the stones as indeed the Bronze Age builders of
, , ,

Stonehenge had begun to do .

Along with temples the classical writers con,

tin u ally me n tion groves as es pecial places where

Celtic worship w as conducted A grove was a secret .

reces s embowered by tall trees and marked by ,

votive o fferings insignia of the gods and an altar

, ,

of stone or some equivalent The distinguishin g

, .

features of a grove were se crecy and sacredness .

Groves are prior in time to temples a n d Grimm has ,

analysed the Teutonic words for temple to

”
signify wood or even grove He says .

The earliest seat of heathen worship was in groves ,

whether on mountain or in pleas ant mead ; there

the first temples were afterwards buil t and there ,

also were the tribunals of the nation The cl as sical .

words for temple—L atin templu m Greek temen os , , , ,

both from the root tem to cut mean origin ally a , , , ,

cle aring — a forest clearing in fact The Greek , .

 C ELTIC W O RSHI P AN D RITE S . 1 5 3.

temen os which may mean a sacred grove is often

, ,

used in speaking of Celtic places of worship The .

Gaulish word of like signification was n emeton which ,

appears in several place names i n Britain Gaul -

, ,

and Asia Minor in the latter country the Galatian

council of the twelve tetrarchies met a t a place
called D ryn emeton that is oak—
, grove In old
,
.

Irish the word appears as n emed a chapel and is

, , ,

the same in root as the Gaelic n eamh heaven and , ,

the L atin n emn s a grove L u can in the following

, .
,

lines gives u s a vivid description of a Gaulish grove

, ,

dwelling on the superstitio n s an d mirac les connected

with it and alluding to the worship of the secretum
,

illu d
, the abstract existence which Tacitus says ,

the Germans reverenced who here as elsewhere in, ,

religion differed but little from the Celts

, .

A grove in v iola te fro m le n gt h of age

, ,

Wit h in terwoven b ran ches m az y c age ’

E n clo se d a d arke n e d s p ace of e arth a n d a ir ,

With chill y s h a de s where s un co ul d e n ter n e e r

,
’
.

Ifhe re n o t t he ru stic god s n o r s at yrs s por t

,

N o r s yl v an s gods of gr oves wit h n ymphs res o rt

, ,

B u t b a rb ar o u s p r ies ts o n alt ars dire a do re

, ,

Their gods an d st a in e a ch t ree with hum an gore

,
.

I fmira cle s of o ld can b e re ceive d

An d p iou s t ale s of gods can be b e have d ,

There n o t t he fe athere d son gs ter b uilds her n e st

N o r lon e ly den s con ce al th e s a v a ge b e a s t
There n o tempestu o us win ds p resu me to fl y ,

E v n lightn in gs glan ce a loof o bliq u el y b y

’
.
,

N or e ve r bree zes lift or lay th e le a ve s ,

B u t s hive rin g ho rr o r in the b r an ches he aves

The p le n te o u s s tre am t he d arken e d fo un t ain s le a ve s
Th e ima ges of gods a mo urn fu l b an d
, ,
15 4 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY A N D R ELI GI ON .

Ha ve n e er b een sh ape d so ru de b y artist s h an d

’
’

M is sh ape n fo rms with lim b s lopp e d off fo r t h s t an d .

The ve r y p la ce wit h o a ks a ll ho ar a n d dre ar

,
,

I n s pires the g azer s s o ul with n u m b in g fe ar

’

Tis n o t t he d e ities of wo n te d for m

’

The y wo rs hip thu s mid t e rr o rs a n d al arm

’

B u t gods u n kn own —
,

it b u t in cre as e s fe a r
T he y do n o t kn ow t he god s they so re ve re .

O ft as f am e t e ll s t he e a rt h in t hr o b s of w o e
, ,

I s he ar d t o gr o an f ro m holl ow d e p ths b e low

The b ale fu l ye w tho u gh de a d h as o ft b e en see n
, ,

T o rise fr om e arth an d s p rin g wit h du sky green

Wit h s p a r klin g fl ames the tree s un b urnin g shin e
, ,

An d r o u n d t he ir b oles p r odigio u s se r p en ts t win e .

The p io u s wo r shippe rs a pp r o ach n o t n e ar ,

B u t s h un t heir gods an d kn e el wit h d is t an t fe ar

The p rie s t himself whe n P hoeb u s god of light
, , ,

R ollin g h as re ache d his full m e ridian he ight

, ,

0 1 n ight r u les all d re a ds t o a pp r o ach t he place

,

An d s h un s t he mas te r of t he gr ove to f ace .

The favour ite tree among the Gau ls for groves was
”
the oak the Druids says Pliny choose groves
, ,

of oak and condu ct no sacr ifice without its leaf ,

and he suggests that the name Druid is from the

same root as Greek D rn s an oak a derivation which , ,

is yet the only one worth consideration of the many

suggested The sacredness of groves and of trees
.

has not yet died out among the Celts In Ireland .

it is counted especially unlucky to cut down trees

in raths and such early structur es Mr Kinahan . .
,

in the Folklore Record for 1 882 says —A ,

man near Kilmaganny County Kilkenny came to

, , ,

me in a great state of mind one morning as the ,

previous night some one had cut a thorn tree in a

1 56 C ELTI C M YTH OLO G Y A ND R EL IGI ON .

1 7th centu ry It was a huge misshapen figure

. ,

7 feet high with a large and uncouth body a fl atten ed

, ,

bust and eyes nose and mouth like those O f an

, , ,

E gyp tian idol We meet in Irish history with the

.

mystical fig ur e of Crom or Crom— Cru aich K in g idol ,

-

of E rin first in the reign of King Tiern mas ( 1 543

, ,

who we are told died along with three

, ,

fourths of his people whil st they were ic adrad

”
Chr oim Chr oich rig id aill hE ren n
-
and a second
, , ,

’
time in St Pat rick s life who found at Mag
, ,

Slecht adoration plain in Cavan Crom Cruaich ,

-

the chief idol of E rin covered with gold and ,

silver and having twelve other idol s about it

,

covered with brass The saint caused the earth to

.

swallow these up as far as their heads where they ,

still were as a Sign of the miracle when the pious

, ,

Middle Age scribe was writing

-
.

The Gaulish altars an d also the Gaelic altars were

pillars of stone inscribed with emblems of the su n
and moon or a beast bird or something which
, , ,

symbolised some force of nature dealba nan

dula — representations of the elements as Cormac ,

calls them Another featur e of Celtic groves and

.

temples consisted of the many votive tablets and

images with representation of limbs faces and
, , ,

bodily parts hung up on the walls or susp ended

,

from the trees These were set up as th ank

.

o fferings for rescue from some S ickness or p ain in the

part represe n ted or with a view that relief from
,

pain might come The rag bush b y the modern

.
-
 C ELTI C WO RSHI P AN D RIT E S . 15
'
7

wells and the crutches and other accessories of

,

infi rmities left at holy wells are a remnan t of a n cient ,

and an alogous beliefs in the deities of the fountains .

'
A more ghastly sight however would be presented, ,

by the many heads of animals and possibly of , , ,

men hu ng up in the groves like trophies of the chase , ,

but really intended as votive O fferings an d rendered , ,

at times all the ghastlier by havi n g their mouths

,

prized and kept open by sticks of wood This .

custom is still kept in remembrance in modern

architectural designs .

For Celtic religious rites we have to trust almost

entirely in attemptin g to discover them to the
, ,

superstitions and customs of Christian and modern

times Superstition is the survival i n another
.
,

phase of culture of earlier religion and science At

,
.

present we S h al l o n ly deal with some customs and

superstitions that appear to bear on Celtic religious
ritual leaving the wider questio n of quaint customs
,

and sup erstitions to be dealt with afterwards The .

classical writers mention but little Of Celtic rites .

The human sacrifices attracted most attention

They sacrifice me n says D iod or u s striking
, ,

them at the place above the diaphragm [on the

back Strabo says] an d from their fall the con vu l
, , ,

sion of the limbs an d the flow of the blood they ,

predict the future When the Romans put a

.

stop to their human sacrifices vestiges how , ,

ever remained as Mela says O fthe old but abolished

, , ,

savagery and j ust as they refrain from going the

,
I SS C ELTI C M Y TH OLO G Y A N D R ELI GI O N .

whole length of slaughter they nevertheless touch ,

and graze the persons devoted to sacrifice after

bringing them to the altars An interesting .

parallel to this in modern times occu ts in the Samoan

islands There cann ibalism has for ages been
.

unknown yet the punishment that carries the highest

,

disgrace among them is to put the delinquent into a

cold oven an evident survival from the time when
,

such a person would be roasted and eaten The .

remembran ce of these old Celtic human sacrifices

was u n til lately kept up at the Beltane fires .

The only religious rites of any consequence that

can be p ointed to are those connected with the
worship of fire and the changes of the year It .

must not be supposed that the Celts were greater

worshippers of fir e sun and moon than the other
, ,

E uropean nations and that this worship was dis

,

tin ctive O f them The fir e worship w as equally

.

as strong among Teutons Romans and Greeks as , ,

among the Celts and quite as long m aintained

,

into modern times But Celtic idiosyncracies bring

.

some features of the worship and practices into

gr eater prominence The custom of showin g re
.

veren ce by walking round perso n s or things keeping ,

the right hand towards them is derived from the ,

app arent course of the sun and is kn own as d eiseil ,

(dextm lis) ,
—
right hand wise -
”
In India the old .

name for the custom is similarly the right hand -

turn ,da kshiman kri The need fir e — Gaelic

.
-

tein e eigin n —is a

-
survival from a very ancient
 C EL TIC M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I G I ON .

bar supplied with levers in two u pright pieces

, ,

of wood into which it was inserted at each end

,
.

In all cases w ithin Christian historic times the need

, ,

fire w as lighted as a charm against the plague ,

whether it attacked men or cattle Fire has always .

been considered the purifier par excellen ce and ,

clearly no fire could be SO pure as the need fire -

which was there an d then produced for the fir st time .

But though latterly restricted to being a ch arm

against the plague the need fire show s clear traces
,
-

of a higher religious purpose These fir es were .

lighted at the gr eat festivals of the solar and lu nar

year an d from them all the fires of the neighbourhood
, ,

previously extinguished were re lighted Priests

,
-
.
,

we know presided at these sacred fires and men and

, ,

cattle were passed through them as Cormac and ,

others tell us O ne of St Patrick s fir st struggles

. .
’

w ith King L oegaire was over the sacred Beltane ( P)

fire. Fire is kindled by him at that place o n E aster

E ve says a Middle Irish life of the saint
,
-

L eogaire
is e n raged when he sees the fire For that was a .

prohibition of Tara which the Gael had and no one ,

durst kindle a fire in Irelan d on that day until it

had been ki n dled firs t at Tara at the solemnity .

An d the Druids said u nless that fire be quenched

before this n ight he whose fire it is shall have the
,

kingdom O f Ireland for ever But that fire was

.
’

n ot quenched and the boldness of the missionary

, ,

along with the inevitable miracles brought L oegaire ,

and his people to the side of the Saint an d Christianity .

 C ELTI C W O RSHI P A ND RI TE S . 161

The need fire and the sunwise turn

-
d eiseil -

, ,

are but the outward embodiments of the great

worship of fire and light The discovery how to
.

make fire at will was a tremendous step in human

progr ess and has impressed itself on the oldes t
,

mythologies in the many myths in regard to the

“
descent of fire I n India the god is taken down
.

from his hiding place in heaven and given to man ,

and his Sign is the wooden fire drill prama n tha -

,
.

Prometheus and his history represent the Greek

equivalent myth The sun was reverenced by
imita tion of its course —
.

the deiseil though also , ,

as still on the Continent an

y day the Gaels at ,

Beltane morn worshipped the risin g sun by takin g

off the caps and saluting him with failte
,

or hail For distin ctive instances of rites

.

we must have recourse to the Observances

and cus toms of certain festal days throughout the
year .

The year is a sol ar period the unit of w hich is the

,

day but ancient peoples fel t the want of an inter

,

mediate reckoner of time and this was found in the

,

moon and its monthly period In fact the moon .

,

was the measurer of time par excellen ce as the words ,

for month in E nglish L atin Greek and Gaelic

, ,

prove for they are from the root of moon

,
Its .

four phases give rise to weeks of seven or eight days ,

eight among the Romans ; and the Celts as well ,

as the Teutons and Gree ks reckoned their time by

,

nights an d not b y days Pliny informs us that

,
.
1 62 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY A N D R EL I GI O N .

the Celtic year and the Celtic months began on the

6th day of the moon Customs and superstitions
.

in regard to the moon and its waxing and waning

still survive i n connectio n with the cutti n g of wood
or turf the starti ng of new enterprises or of a
,

j ourn ey and such like The lunar time does not

,
.

square with the solar time of revolution and the ,

ancients were in endless confusion in regard to their

calendars The Celts corrected lunar by solar
.

time every thirty years which Pliny tells us was their

,

cycle The month may have been alternately 29

.

an d 3 0 days to suit the 2 9§ days of lunar revolution

, ,

and possibly by having 1 3 lunar months for eleven

years of the thirty they managed to make the solar
,

fit with the lunar time to within a few days The .

year was originally divided into two seasons

summer and winter gum and sum and then S pring
, ,

was added the name of which differs in root in the

,

two great branches of the Celtic race The week .

is most probably non Celtic in idea and also in -

names to a very great extent The Welsh names .

of the days of the week are Roman ; the Gaelic

names are mixed Roman an d Christia n Sunday
, .

is Di d omhn u ich (dies domin ica)

-
Monday D i ,

luain (dies L une ) Tuesday Di Mairt (dies Martis) ,

-

Wednesday Di ciad aoin (dies primi jejn n ii

,
-
day ,

of first fast for religious people as Bede tells us ,

fasted on Wednesdays as well as Fridays) a purely ,

church name Thursday Di ard aoin or I rish D ia ,

-

, ,

d ard aoin day b etween two fasts ;

, Friday D i ,
164 C ELT I C MY TH OLO G Y A ND R EL I G I O N .

Cormac s reference to this pagan festival is the firs t

’

add most important B ellt ain e i e bil tene , . .

,

a goodly fire i e two fires whi ch D ruids used to make

, . .

through incantations (or with great inc antations) ,

and they used to bring the cattle to those fires as a

”
preser vative against diseas es of each year Here .

we have to note that the fire was made by D ruid ic

incantations which means no more than that it was
,

”
made by the tin egin or need fire method and that
,
-

it w as a preservative against disease in cattle Cor .

mac s derivation has the misfortune of making a

’

wrong division of the syll ables of the word which

are beallt—
,

n iu n or belt ane ,
not bel tane We - -
.

must rej ect any derivation that SO divides the word ,

and hold that the latter part of the word has nothing
to do with tein e fire but is probably the—n termin
, , ,

ation of most words of time Hence derivations .

which connect the word with the fire of Baal or Bel

are out of place gr anting that such a god as Bel is
,

Celtic an d not invented for the occasion B elin u

, .
,

is the Celtic Apoll o Mr Fitzgerald s derivation

. .
’

of Beltane from b ile tin eadh

, fir e tree-

is to be ,
-

rej ected on the gr ound of wrong division of the word ,

and his instances adduced of the existence in Ireland

of usages pointing to a belief in a world tree O f the -

N orse type appear to be too slight and too little ,

founded on general Ce especi ally Scottish tra ,

dition s in regard to the festival The world .

tree and consequent m ay pole are not distin ctively

,
-

, ,

if at all Celtic in this connection

, The first of .
 C ELTIC WO RSH IP A N D RIT E S . 16 5
0

says M B Arbois de Jubainville

’
May , . was con ,

secrated to Beltene one of the n ames of the god O f

,

death the god who gave and took away life the root
, ,

in this case being the pre historic infinitive beltin -

to die Why the festival of the beginn in g of the

.

summer the outburst of nature an d the conquest

, ,

of the death an d winter powers should be sacred ,

not to the god of life and light but to his opposite , ,

is a thing which this derivation and theory cannot

account for The N ovember feast might well be
.

one where the loss of the su n god and victory of the -

god of death were commemorated but the first of ,

summer is far from appropriate for this Both in .

Welsh an d Gaelic myt h the vi ctory of the light

gods is indicated o n the first of May G w yn fights
for Cordelia an d the Tu atha de D an an n overcame
,

the Firbolg the E arth powers on that day Grimm

, , .

hesitatingly hints what appears to be the true

derivation — The N orse sun god is called B al der -

and he suggests that this is connected with Lithuanian

baltas ,white The conn ection of Beltan e with
.

these two words is confirmed by the Gaelic s aying

of la buid he B ealltuin n yellow May day ,
-

which may be a reminiscence of the primary meaning

of Beltane .

We have numerous accounts of the Beltane rites ,

all pointing to fire an d sun worship—phases of puri

fication sacrifice and divination
,
O ne of the best
,
.

accounts is given in the O ld Statistical Account

of the parish of Callander U pon the fir st of .
1 66 C ELTI C MYTH OLO G Y A N D R ELI GI ON .

May it says
, which is called B eltan or B al tein
,
-

all the boys in a township or hamlet meet on the

moors They cut a table in the green sod of a ro und
. ,

figure by casting a trench in the gr ound of such

,

circumference as to hold the whole company They .

kindle a fire and dress a repast of eggs and milk in

the consistence of a custard They knead a cake .

of oatmeal which is toasted at the embers against

,

a stone After the custard is eaten up they divide

. ,

the cake into so many portions as S imilar as possible

,

to one another in size and shape as there are persons ,

in the company They daub one of these portions

.

all over with charcoal until it be perfectly black .

They put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet .

E very one blindfold draws out a portion

, , He who .

holds the bonnet is entitled to the last bit Who “

ever draws the black bit is the devoted person who

,

is to be sacrificed to Baal whose favour they implore

,

in re n dering the year productive O f the sustenance

of man and beast There is little doubt of these
.

inhuman sacrifices having been once o ffered i n this

country as well as in the E ast al though they n ow
, ,

pass from the act of sacrificing and only compel ,

the devoted person to lea p three times through the

flames ; with which the ceremonies of the festival
are closed To this sensible account and its
.

inferences all but the reference to Baal we agree

, ,

ful ly Most authorities hold with Corm ac that

.
, ,

there were two fires between which and through

,

which they passed their cattle and even their chil

1 68 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY A N D R EL I GI ON .

which thus typified the descending course of the sun

onward till next solstice is represented on Celtic ,

gr ound by the occasional use of a wheel for pro

du cin g the tin egin but more especially by the c us tom
,

in some districts of rolling the Beltane bannocks

from the hill summit down its side Shaw remarks : .

They made the Deas— sail [at Midsummer] about

their fields of corn w ith burning torches of wood
in their hands to obt ain a blessing on their corn
,
.

This I have often seen more in deed in the L ow lan ds

, , ,

than in the Highlan ds O n Midsummer E ve they

.
,

kindle fires n ear their corn field s an d wal k round ,

them with b urni n g torches In Cornwall last .

century they used to peramb ul ate the villages carry

ing lighted torches and in Ireland the E ve of Mid
,

summer was honoured with bonfir es rou n d w hich

they carried tor ches .

The S pecially Celtic feast or F eill was held

some five weeks later on the I st Au gust Lammas
, ,

”
Day It is c al led in Scottish Gaelic L u n asdu in n
.
,

" ”
in I rish L u n asd old I rish L ugn as ad the fair
, ,

of L ug The legend says that L uga of the L ong

.

Arms the Tu atha De D an an n king instituted this

, ,

fair in honour of his foster mother Tailtiu queen -

of the Firbolgs Hence the place where it w as held

.

was called Tailtiu after her and is the modern ,

Telt ow n The fair was held however in al l the

.
, ,

capitals of ancient Ireland on that day Games .

and manly sports ch aracterised the assemblies .

L uga it may be noted is the su n god who thus

, ,
-

,
 C ELTIC W O RSHIP AN D RIT E S . 1 69

institutes the festival and it is remarkable that at

,

ancient Lyons in France c al led of old L ug dunum

, ,
-

a festival was held o n this very d ay whi ch was ,

famous over all Gaul .

E qual to Belta n e in importa nc e w as the solem n ity

of Hallowe en known in Gaelic as Samhu in n or
’

”
summeren d Like B eltan it was sacred to the
.

gods of light and O f earth Ceres Apollo and Dis , ,

also must have been the deities whose worship

,

was honoured The earth goddess was celebrated

.

for the ingathering of the fruit s Apollo or B elin u s

and Proserpine were bewailed for their disappearing
from earth and D is who was god of death an d
, ,

winter s cold an d who w as especially worshipped

’

by the Celts as Ce sar says was implored for m ercy

, , ,

and his subj ects the manes of the dead had Special
, ,

worship dire cted to them It w as i n deed a great .

, ,

festival —the fes tival of fire fruits and death The , ,

.

features that sti ll remai n i n popular customs in regard

to Hallowe en c learly show its co nn ection with t he
’

gods of fire an d fate ; bonfires an d divination are

its characteristics The Statistical A ccount al
.
,

ready quoted s ays oi Hallowe en On All

’

Saint s E ven they set up bonfires in every village

’
.

When the bonfire is consumed the ashes are carefully ,

collected in the form of a circle There is a s to n e .

put in n ear the circumference for every person

, ,

of the several families interested in the bo n fire ,

and whatever stone is moved out O fits place or in

jured before next morning the person represented ,

M
1 70 C ELTI C M YTH OLO GY A N D R ELI GI O N

by that stone is devoted or f ey and is supposed not

,

to live twelve months from that day A some .

what similar custom is recorded by P ennant as ex

istin g in N orth Wales where every family made a
,

great bonfire i n the most co n spicuous place near

the house and when the fire w as extingu ished every
, ,

one threw a white stone i n to the ashes having first ,

marked it If next morni n g any of these stones is

.

fou nd wa n ti ng they have a notion that the person

,

who threw it in wi ll die before next Hallowe en .

We can o nl y refer to the various laughable and serious

’
methods of divi n ation resorted to o n Hallowe en
night to read into the future ; our n ational poet
Burns has left us a graphic pictur e of the night and
’

its ceremonies in Hallo w e en It may he remarked

.

that the mystic apple plays a n important part in

these ceremo nies as it also does in so many Celtic
,

fairy tales The custom in various parts of keeping

.

a heap of cakes called s ou l cakes to give away to all

,
-

comers a n d more especially to the poor clearly

, ,

commemorates the ancie n t o ffering to the dead of

food on this night What was ded icated in Pagan
.

times to the man es of the dead is in modern times ,

converted into doles of bread to the poor as Mr , .

Tylor points out .

Martin records a religious rite of the L ews people

that must not be passed over here The inh abi .

tants O fthis island had an an cient custom to sacrifice

to a sea god called Shon y at H allo tide in the
-

following manner —The inh abitants round the

,
I 72 C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R ELI GI ON .

visiting ruined chapels and cir culating them ,

divini ng by putting the head into a hole in a stone ,

and the worshippin g O fwells and sto n es The bulls .

were sacrifi ced i n an e heathenish mann er for

the recovery of man and beas t from dise as e A .

Morayshire farmer s ome thirty years ago in the ,

c as e of a murrain lighted the need fire with all due

,
-

ceremony then dug a pit and sacrifi ced an ox to the

,

unkn own spirit Sacrifice of cocks for epilepsy

.

has not been infrequent in modern times ; this is

done by burying them alive .

O ther festival days retain a spice of heathen

Celti cism about them yet The last night of the .

year the fire must not be all owed to go out an d there ,

is a particular dislike at this time to give a neighbour

a kindling or even light for a pipe a feeling ,

which in some degree e xists at Beltane and

Hallowe en Candlemas day is k n own as L a F heill
’
.

B righd e St Brigit s day who is reall y the canonised

’

, ,

fir e goddess the Vesta of the heathen Gaels

-

, Some .

customs i n regard to her worship were mentioned

already and Martin relates an interesting custom
,

in the Western Isles on Candlemas s howing St ,

Brigit C learly in the aspect of Vesta the hearth ,

a n d home goddess The mistress and servants .

of each family take a sheaf of oats and dress it up

’

i n women s apparel put it in a large basket and lay

, ,

a wooden club by it and thi s they call B riid s bed

,
’
-

and the n they cry thrice B riid is come B riid is

, ,

”
welcome N ext morning they look in the ashes
.
 C ELTIC B U RIA L RITE S . 173

to see the impression of B riid s club there and if ’

they do they reckon it a true presage of a good crop

and prosperous year and the contrary they regard
,

an ill omen Shrove Tuesday w as a great day

.

in the Highlands for cock fightin g then each

-

schol ar brought cocks to fight an d decide who should

be king and queen of the school for the ensuing year .

It was al so a noted day for b all playi ng Its popu -

.

larity for nut b urning and mar riage divination by

- -

putting symbolic articles into brose or cakes is yet

great.

C E L TI C B U RIA L RI T E S .

The customs at burial and the disposal of the dead

among the early Celts can only be discovered in a
general way The earlier Aryan races evidently
.

burned the bod i es O f the dead preserved the bones ,

in urns and raised over them a circ u lar mound

, .

The poems of Homer present us with what may be

regar ded as typical examples of early Greek and Celtic
burial s A pyre of wood w as co nstructed and on
.

the top of it the body was laid Sheep and oxen .

were slain their fat was placed about an d upon the

,

b ody and their carcases were heaped around it

,
.

Jars of honey and oil were placed on the pile Horses .

,

favourite dogs and captives were slain and cast

,

on the pyre and the whole set on fire A wail was

,
.
1 74 C ELT I C M YTH OLO GY A ND R EL I G I ON .

raised and the dead addressed by name When the .

fire burned low it was finally extinguished with

,

wine the b ones were collected

,
the whitened
bones as the poet says—and placed in an urn of
,

gold Then they dug a gr ave and raised over it

. ,

a mound In histori c tim es in Greece and Republi

.
,

can Rome the burning of the dead was the exception

,

not the rule ; but i n Imperial Rome the custom

revived and b ecame the rule while inhu mation
, , ,

at least of the better c lasses was the exception , ,

Christianity however finally stopped the burning

, ,

of the dead The old mounds had also developed

.

in to the elegance of b uilt tombs vaults and monu , ,

ments with inscriptions an d other accessories of

civilisation Among the Celts of Gaul in C e sar s time
’

.
,

evidently the Homeric age of burial was still prevalen t

all the classical writers of that and the su cceeding

century tes tify to the burning of the bodies am ong

the Gauls but they are Silen t as to the character
,

O f the tom b s Their funerals Ce sar says are

.
, ,

magn ificent and costly con sidering their civilis ation

,

and all that they think w as dear to them whe n alive

they put in the fire even animals and shortly before
,

this generation the slaves an d dependents that they

were considered to have loved were burned along ,

with them in the regular performance of funeral

rites . Mela confirms this fully They burn
and b ury al ong with the dead whatever is of u se to
them when alive and there were sone who of their
, ,

own free will cast themselves on the funeral piles

,
1 76 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI ON .

story of his death w as brought to her the e ffect s ,

of which killed her in these words ,

C hi mi mi n cu
’
n se o b h ag, chi
’

Leis an d rin n
'
mo r un an t -
sealg,
’
S 0 na b ion mhuin n le is
'
an t r inir ,

caire ar Sin n s a n II ir
’ ‘
le D earg .

I see h awk I see the ho un d

t he , ,

With which m y love pe rfo rme d the ch ase ,

A n d as t he t hree t o him we re b o un d ,

L e t u s in e a rt h wit h D e a rg h ave p la ce .

What kind of tomb was erected over them 9 I n

answer to this question we are at once referred to ,

the numerous barrows and tumuli scattered over the

country and more especi al ly in Ireland where the
, ,

remarkable mounds on the Boyne could not fail to

attract the attentio n of all ages The traditions .

and history of the mound raising period have in -

other countries passed away says Standish O G r ady ,

’

very truly ; but in Ireland they have been all

preserved in their ori ginal ful n ess and vigour hardly ,

a hue has faded hardly a mi n ute circumstance h as

,

been su ffered to decay A proud claim is this ,

and one which for the very uniqueness among the

nations that it postulates for Ireland invites criticism ,

and suspicion The E uhemerist historians and

.

scribes of Ireland have woven an intimate chain O f

connection between every event of their modest ( I)
’
four thousand years chronology and the topography
of their country be it the fortunes of Cesair before
the Flood or of P arto lan immediately after or of
,
,
 C ELTIC B U RIA L RIT E S .

Brian B oromh a generation or two before the writer s ’

time yet every event is chro nicled with a minuteness

,

of genealogy detail an d localisation that is quite

, ,

oblivious of the perspective of time the lo ng roll ,

of ages with their change of customs and the u n cer ,

tainty as to the far distan t past We saw that the .

Irish gods were changed to ki ngs n ay more their , ,

tombs can still be seen on the banks of the Boy n e I

There are the barrow s of the Dagda and his heroes ,

and there too Cuchul ai n rests beneath his mou n d

, , .

But j ust about his time E ochaid Aiream had i n tro

du ced the practice of simple b u rial be n eath the earth ,

and had abolished the Old custom of burying the dead

by raising gr eat heaps of stones over their bodies .

These barr ows are mythologically considered pre

, ,

Celtic ; they are beyond the ken of Irish history

and myth j ust as much as the Cromlechs are which
, ,

popular arch e ology accou n ts for as the Beds of

D iarmat and G r ain n e or Grann a s Beds —the
’

beds occupied by this pair i n their flight before Finn .

Considered again arche ologically they belo n g also

, ,

to the races that preceded the Celts as the character ,

of the interments and of the accompanying articles

proves We have however conti nued refere n ce
. , ,

i n the myths and tales to the burial of early Chris tia n

times— the grave the stone over it and the in
, ,

scription How little the Irish writers u n derstood

.

the change of customs wrought by time is see n i n

the description by a n Irish w riter of the 1 2 th ce n tury
of the bu rial of Patroclus at Troy Achilles built
1 78 C ELT I C M YTH OLO GY A ND R EL IGI ON .

his tom b and he set up his stone and wrote his name
,
.

Homer s accoun t has already been given The Irish

’

man describ ed the custom o fhis ow n time as e xisting

in the time of the Troj an War .
 “ " "
THE D RU ID C I RC LES .

TH E cir cles of rude u n dressed stones found i n various

,

parts of the British Isles have been for the last two
centuries alike the puzzle and the co n ten tion gr ound
of arche ologists At the present time the theories
.
,

as to their origin and u se are at least as numerous

as the individuals who treat of them and in such ,

a chaos of opi n ions a ration al co nclusio n is difficult

,

O f attai n me n t Much however has been done

.
, ,

during the last quarter of a ce n tury in clearing up

the beliefs and customs O fprimitive man an d more ,

accurate knowledge has been obtained about modern

savages : in fact a n ew s cie n ce has been added to
,

the man y other ologies this o n e being called

,

Anthr opology— the s cience of ma n an d civilisation .

Much has also been do n e i n s ettling the leading poin ts

of E ur opea n ethnology for the scien ce of language
has bee n accepted as the basis an d main source of
study in tracing the affi n ity of the nations of E urope ,

and the result is that the leading facts of the eth

n olo
gy of E urope are know n and fixed In .

regard to the British Isles quite a small revolution

,

has occurred s i n ce the publicatio n of Mr E lto n s .

"The d r a win gs of D r u id Tern ple Clav a C airn s—n o rth an d

,

sou th. an d t he n o rt he rn cairn of Cla va a re from o rigin al

etch in gs b y M r . S mar t who g ave v alu ab le assis t an ce an d
,

s u gg es t io n s thro u gho u t .
1 82 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI ON .

work on the O rigins of E nglish History where tht ,

ethnology of Britain is dealt with in the light of al

the modern resear ches on ancient institutions
history language an d antiquities —whether humar
, ,

crania or human works of art and u s e From alI .

these scientific sour ces we are enabled to cast a

reflective light upon the darkness that shrouds
the so called Druid c ircles and their builders The
-
.

cause of failure in the usual theories is a commot

one ; a p riori conceptions are formed as to the
builders and the purpose of the circles and the facts ,

are made unmerciful ly to square with such ideas .

And further arch e ologists are u n fortunately toc

, ,

apt in their eager pursuit of relics a n d remain s to ,

forget the living savage examples and to ignore ,

the labours of students of savage and barbaric

beliefs and customs They in fact ignore the anthro
.

pologist ; and what is more they S how too often

, ,

a very irritating ignorance and unappreciation oi

the facts established by the science of language ,

which has so revolutionised our conceptions upon

E uropean ethnology .

I intend dealing with the question of the Druid

circles from an anthropologist point of view and my ,

argument will run in two main lines positive an d ,

negative The positive argmn en t wil l after a general

.
,

description of the C haracteristics and geographical

distribution of stone circles consider the historv
,

and tradition in regar d to them and then inquire ,

if any such or simil ar structures are set up or used

 TH E DR U I D CIRC LE S . 185

stones which so often accompanies mounds and

,

cairns and which sometimes also appears alo n e

, ,

though not so often These mounds may be of .

ear th or stone and their purpose is as a rule for

, , ,

burial though cair ns might have also been raised

,

for the sake of remembrance wit n ess an d , ,

boundary marks The burial mound or barrow may

.

have a cist in it— that is four slabs of s to n e set i n

,

box form and with another slab super imposed

,
-

These cists were intended to receive the bodies or

the urns The cists when exposed that is when
.
,

the earth of the mou n d is all cleared away appear ,

as a box of large S labs w ith a slab covering it ;

,

and this des criptio n with the additio n that the stones
,

are large or megalithic is true of a perfect

, , dolme n
or cromlech The dolmen co ns ists of at leas t
.

two supporting stones a nd o n e covering stone but ,

it usually has side sto n es as well as end sto n es The .

true dolme n s are found u n attended by any trace of

tumulus which shows that they were erected in
,

dependent O i any mound or cairn N evertheless .

,

the best antiquarian s are of opinion that they were

intended for burial purposes and not for altars of ,

worship as the
,
Druid t heorists have held .

Whether they were a development from the sto n e

cists is perhaps an O pen question A n other feature
, ,
.

of certain barrows is the in ternal chamber This .

chamber is generally circul ar and built by over ,

lapping the stones at a certain height and thus ,

gradually n arrowing the circle until at last the apex

 1 86 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI ON .

of the chamber can be closed with one slab The .

chambered cairns at Clava will illustrate the principle

of this construction Here there is a foundation
.

laid of very large stones— some three feet high and ,

on this a course or two of stones is laid not per ,

pen d icu larly as is more usual but with a backward ,

inclinatio n At from fo u r to five feet high the stones

. ,

begin to overlap all round until at last at a height , ,

probably of eleve n or twelve feet the cir cle coul d be ,

closed by a single sto n e thus forming a domed

,

chamber of a doze n feet in diameter and height

,
.

L eading to this chamber there may be a passage made

of two walls of stone with slabs across The found
,
.

ation stones of the passage are usually large

-

megalithic i n fact N ow two points are to be

, .
,

noticed here accordin g to the theory of the archi

,

tect u r al development of these structures main tained

by Mr Fergusson If the cairn or mound is removed
.
,

leavin g only its megalithic foundations there remain ,

an i n terior circle of closely placed stones with an -

ave n ue leading into it Hence the avenue .

or alig n ment of stones may be regarded as a de

velopm en t of the passage into the chamber of the
mound at least from an architectur al point of view
, .

These avenues of stone are common in France ,

but we have a good spec imen of them in L ews where ,

at Callernish we find a n avenue of megalithic

,

pillars —sto n es six or seven feet high on the average ,

leading to an interior circle of 42 feet diameter .

The peculiarity at Callernish is that there branch

1 88 C ELT I C M Y TH OLO GY A N D R EL I G I O N .

tion the e xistence of a ditch or trench exterior to a

circle or to a mound Such ditches have passages
.

leading across them—a fact which throws some light

on the passages of the Clava middle cairn Speci .

mens O fthese are to be seen in Derby and Cumber

land To sum up we find circles conn ected with
.
,

mounds either inside the mound round its b ase or

, , ,

at a d istance outside we find circles connected with

or surroundin g dolmens whether mound covered or -

not—some dolme n s as in India being indeed on

,

, , , ,

the top of the mou n d we find circles with avenues

leading into them and we find them with menhirs
,

and with trenches A n d there may b e a com

.

bination of two or more of these along with c ircles .

Further it is amply clear that circles avenues

, , ,

dolmens and menhir s were set up independent of any

,

earth mounds or c airns .

A more particular description of the Invern ess

shire stone circles will tend greatly to elucidate the
subj ect more especially as the cir cles are so
,

numerous so well preserved on the whole and so

, ,

definite in their character and development The .

I nverness and Strathn air n circles have been ex

hau st ively mapped and described by Mr Fraser . ,

C E of Inverness in a paper to the local Field Club

. .
, , ,

and to him I am in the main i n deb ted for measure

ments and details There are altogether twenty
.

five circles more or less preserved within the water

, ,

shed oi the N air n and some twelve or fourteen

,

between that and the River N ess and extending ,

 TH E DR U ID CIRC LE S . 189,

as far as L och N ess The prin cipal stone circles

.

and remain s are at Tordarroch Gask Clava N ewton , , ,

of Petty Druid Temple a n d Dore s The general

, , .

characteristics of these circles are thes e They

consist of three concentric rin gs of u ndressed boulder
or flag stones fixed on end (2) The outer ring varies
,

in diameter from 60 to 12 6 feet— averaging 96 feet ,

and consists of lo n g sto n es from n in e to twelve in ,

number s et at nearly regular i n tervals the tallest

, ,

being at the south side and the size gradually ,

diminishing towards the n orth side of the circle ;

(3) The middle ring varies from 2 2 to 88 feet
average being 5 3 feet — in diameter an d con sists of ,

smaller boulders—few flags being used— set on e nd

close together with a slight slope towards the ce n tre
,

of the circle and their best an d flattest face outward

,
.

The largest stones are here again on the south Side ,

and the smallest on the n orth (4) A third an d cen

tral rin g concen tric with the other two from 1 2 to
— averagin g 1 feet —
, ,

3 2 feet i n diameter 9 co n sists of

stones or flags set on e n d close together O f course .

the accuracy of the concentricity of the cir cles cann ot

be depe n ded o n ; they are ofte n slightly eccentric .

They are built on lo w lying or flat ground as a rule

-

and where stones are abu n dan t A n e n trance .

or avenue to the inmost ring can be distinguished

in four or five cases o n ly an d its directio n varies ,

from 5 5 E to s 4 1 W the average directio n being

.
°
. .
0
.
,

that of the su n at one o clock It is only at Clava’

.
,

and only in two cases there that chambers are found ,

190 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

constructed on the i n nermost ring and bounded by ,

the middle ring But thr ee others present traces

.

of a cair n of stones having existed between the middle

and in nermost ri ngs which we may call ring cair ns
, ,

but no S ign of a n e n trance passage while two which

have an avenue or passage (Cro ftr oy a n d Druid
Temple) do n ot present a ny clear traces O fever hav
ing had a cair n — certainly not the Druid Temple
circles A S to the process of building them it would
.
,

seem as if the outer ring was s et up fir st and the ,

other two rings thereafter while any chambered ,

or ring cair n wou ld be built on these as a foun dation .

Another interesting series of stone circles exists

in Badenoch and U pper Strathspey The principal .

circles are at D elfoor Ballinluig Aviemore and

, , ,

Tu llo chgor m—half a doze n altogether

- -
They all
partake more or less of the ring cairn type there is
a n outer circle from 70 to 10 1 feet i n diameter ;
a middle one from 40 to 62 and an inner with a dia
meter varying from about 1 2 to 2 5 feet—average ,

2 0 feet
. The outer ring is in every case unfortunately
incomplete but it appears to average ten or eleven
,

stones the largest of which some nine feet high

, , ,

are to the south and the lowest on the north side

, .

The circle at G rain ish two miles north of Aviemore

,

Station is typical of the rest and in deed typical

, , , ,

of all these ring cairns This circle has been known

.

for a century or more O ssian Macpherson

.
,

and his other n amesake R ev John Macpherson .

,

speak of it as Druidic and in this the historian

,
192 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI ON .

c ircle of small stones it is quite round a n d 18 feet ,

in diameter There are several su ch around here

. ,

n ot far from the circ les all partaking of the same

,

type Most O f them have bee n distur b ed The

. .

Strathspey Gaelic name for these stone circles and

cairns is N a carrachan which implies a nomina
,

tive singular car evidently from the same root

,

as cairn .

The examination a n d study o f these Inverness

shire c ircles and rude stone monuments raise the
most important questions as to the intention and
the plan of construction of stone circles The thr ee .

concentric cir cles seem developed architecturally ,

speaking from the chambered cairn encircled at

, ,

its base and with an other c ircle at a distance

,
.

The next step would seem to have been the ring

cairn Possibly the reason for the ring cair n may
.

co n sist in the fact that the buil ders could not on ,

their bee— hive system and with the stones they used
, ,

as seen in the chambered cairns at Clava construct ,

chambers o n so large a diameter as all the undoubted

ring cairns have i n their in n ermost circle such as ,

those of Clava Gask G r ain ish and D elfoor all of

, , , ,

which are over 2 0 feet in diameter The third step .

might have been to drop the building of the ring

cair n which would thus leave the three concentric
,

circles so peculiar in their character in that they

, ,

have a middle circle evidently designed for forming

a n outer rin g in te n ded to bound a cairn so as to keep
it together Druid Temple at L eys Inverness
.
, ,
I 94 C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL I GI O N .

in whom modern research recognizes the old deities

of the Gael—besides these there are the battle
fields of the two Moytu ras the tower fields ,

as the name means which are literally strewn with

,

circles mounds and stones The stone circles

, ,
.

here are often alone a n d ofte n in connection w ith

,

the mounds cairns and dolmens It was on these

, ,
.

Moytu r a plains that the fairy heroes overcame

their foes of ocea n and of land—the Fomorians and
the F ir b olgs so Irish history says and the dates
-

of these events are only some nineteen centuries

before our era I In E ngland several good spec imens
,

of stone circles still remain in the remote districts ,

such as Cornwall and Cumberland they are often

single cir cles unatte n ded by a n y other str ucture ;
but there is a te n dency towards their existing in
groups some cir cles i ntersecting one another even
,

such groups as at B ot allick in C ornwall Sta nton ,

Drew in Somersetshir e and others The most , .

famous stone mo n uments in E ngland or in these ,

Isles are those of Stonehenge an d Avebury The

, .

remains at Avebury from the immense size O f the

,

outer circle ( 1 200 feet) and its external rampart its ,

remains of two sets of contiguous circles each set ,

being form ed of two concentric rings of stones and ,

its two remarkable avenues of stone each of more ,

tha n a mile in length the one winding to the south

,

east the other to the south west— these remains

,
-

have brought Avebury into rivalry with Stonehenge ,

with which it contests the honour of having been ,

 THE DR U I D CIR C LE S . 1 95

as some think vaguely heard of by the Greeks before

,

the Christian era Sto n ehenge however though

.
, ,

much less i n extent— its outer circle is only 100 feet

in diameter which is j ust about the average of the
,

outer circles of Inverness shire is much better - fl

preserved and much better known It differs in .

various ways from the usual type of circles and their

accompaniments though preserving the ge n eral
,

featur es I n the first place the sto n es are dressed

.

so far as to render them more suitable for contact

with or superimposition of other ston es Sto n ehenge

, ,
.

”
is therefore not quite a
, ,
rude stone monument .

This dressing of the stones was connected with

another though less u n ique feature of these cir cles
, , .

This is wh at is k n own as the trilithons These .

are composed of two upright pillar stones set

somewhat ap ar t with a nother sto n e passing on the
,

top from the one to the other The trilithon is .

common i n Asiatic monuments but not in E uropean , ,

and Mr Fergusson is of opin io n that architecturally

.
, ,

it is o n ly an improved d ohn en standin g on two legs ,

instead Of four An earthen vallum surrounded

.

the outer circle at a distance from it of I 00 feet

The outer circle itself was 1 00 feet in diameter an d ,

con sisted originally of thirty square piers Spaced ,

tolerably equally but only twenty Six of these can -

now be identified in whole or p art ,

They were ,

eviden t ly all con nected by a co n tinuous sto n e

,

impost or architrave of which o n ly six are n ow in

,

position Passing over the smaller and more

.
196 C ELTI C M Y TH OLO G Y A ND R EL I G I O N .

doubtful second circle we come to the five great ,

trilithons the plan and position of which are now

,

quite settled Their height is from 16 to 2 1 feet

.
.

high They form a horse shoe plan two pair s

.
-

on each side and one pair at the middle O fthe bend

,
.

Inside this inner circ le or horse shoe are ten or -

eleven stones more or less in situ ,

they are of
ig n eous rock such as is n ot to be found nearer than
,

Cornwall or even Ireland The highest is over 7 .

feet but the others are generally sm al ler They

,
.

seem to go in pairs about 3 feet apart and may have ,

formed the supports of trilithons Between the .

outer circle and the great trilithons there are the

remains of another circ le of stone some 5 feet high , ,

and if it was complete — which is doubtful it would ,

co n s ist of over forty stones of which only some S ix ,

teen remain Within the in n er horse shoe there is a

.
-

sto n e in a recumbent position called the Altar ,

stone but whether its proper place was here or else

,

where we cannot now say E xcavations inside the .

Stonehenge circles have led to no satisfactory con

elusion b ecause they were instituted too long ago
, ,

first in 1 620 ; and though bones and armour are ,

men tioned we cannot say whether the b ones were

,

human or the armour of ir on Fragments of Roman .

a nd British pottery have been found in it but the

best antiquaries are of O pinion that the c ircles belong
to the Bronze Age and to a late period even in it
, .

Bronze Age b arrows surr oun d it belonging as is , ,

shown by the chippings of the igneous stone O f the

198 C ELTI C M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I O N .

in the outer circles N one of the cists

. says ,

Maj or Palmer opened by the Sinai expedition

,

cont ained anything in addition to the skeleton ,

except in one in stance when some marine shells,

an d worked flin t s were found though other e x ,

plorers foun d a lance and arrow heads of fl int in

-

an other In only one case were these circles found

.

associated with the bee hive hous es and opinions

-

differ as to whether the s ame race buil t them b oth ,

though they ar e all agreed that these remains are

pre historic—b uilt by a people anteceden t to the
-

Jew s and the rest of the Semites and long anterior

, ,

to the E xodus In regard to the L and of Moab

. ,

Canon Tristram says In Moab are three classes

of prime val monuments : sto n e circles dolmens -

, ,

and cairns each in great abundance in three different

,

parts of the country but never side b y side The

, .

cairns exclusively range in the east on the Spurs of ,

the Arab ian desert ; the stone circles south of ,

C allirrhoe ; and the dolmens north of that valley , .

The fact wou ld seem to in dicate three neigh b ouring

tribes co e xistent in the pre—
,
-
historic period each ,

with distinct funeral or religious customs O f .

course the modern Ara b attributes all thes e dolmens

,
”
to the Jinn s .

What then is the origin and history of these stone

, ,

circles ? We may apply to history to etymology , ,

and to tradition in vain The historians of the .

ancient world took practic ally no notice of them .

Ce sar may have stood among the pillared stones of

 TH E DR U I D CI RC LE S . I 99 O

Car nac watching the fight between his fleet and that
,

of the Veneti but as these monuments did not inter

, ,

fere with his martial or political designs he as is his , ,

wont makes no reference to them

, D iod o rus .

Sicu lus quoting from older sources makes a w ild

, ,

reference to an isla n d over against Celtica (Gaul ) ,

not less in size than Sicily lying u n der the P olar ,

Bear and inhabited by the p er bor ean s so called

, ,
-

because they lie beyond the blasts of the north wind

Wherefore the worship of Apollo
takes precedence of all others and from the daily ,

and continuous singing of his praises the people ,

are as it were his priests

, There exists in the islan d
, .

a magnificent grove (temen os) of Apollo and a re ,

mar kable temple of round (dome) Shape adorned ,

with man y votive offerings This very u n satis .

factory passage was gr eedily seized upon by those

that favo u red the Druidic origin O f the stone
circles but it may be doubted if the island referred
,

to was Britain at all— for D iod oru s knew Britai n

perfectly well and would have likely told us so if
, ,

this Hyperborean island was the same as Britain .

And again no people is more mythical than these

,

Hyperborean s or dwellers beyond the N orth wind

The temple too w as n ot merely rou n d ; it w as
, ,

also dome shaped like the Gaulish and British

-

houses How far does this agree with Stonehenge

.

It is useless to build or prop any theory on such a

passage as this In the sth century and o n to the
. ,

1 1th century we meet with constant edicts of chur ch

,
200 C ELTIC M YTH O LO GY AN D R EL IGI O N .

councils against worship and sacrifice upon stones

even the stones themselves were obj ects of worship .

In 45 2 the Council of Arles decreed that if in any

, ,

diocese any infidel lighted torches or worshipped

,

trees fountains or stones he should be guilty of

, , ,

sacrilege Stones trees and fountai n s form the , ,

co n tinual burde n of these edicts This worship .

of sto n es an d sacrifices upon them we need not

connect with stone cir cles for there is no detail given ,

as to the character of the wor s hip or the monumen ts

worshipped or at which worship took place It is

,
.

very probable however that the stones referred to

, ,

were those on the gr aves and ar ound the mounds

of the dead Ancestor worship w as strong among
.

Celt and Teuton and we k n ow from old N orse ,

literature that the family tumulus or howe was not

merely a place of worship but also a place of council ,
.

In the L and nama bok we read that at o n e place

- -

there w as a harrow high place made there ,

and sacrifices began to be performed there for they ,

believ ed that they died into these hills The use .

of these howes as places of meeting and in villages

, ,

as places of festive resort Whereo n the May pole ,

-

tree might flourish will also explain why the stone ,

cir cles were used at least on two historic occasions

, ,

in Scotland as places of solemn meeting In 1 349 .

the E arl of Ross and the Bishop of Aberdeen met

at the standing sto n es of Rayne and in 1 3 80 Alex , ,

”
ander ,Wolf of Badenoch su mmoned to meet him ,

at Rait near Kingussie the Bishop of Moray who

, , ,
20 2 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI O N .

temple of Druidic worship Toland clenched this

.

w ith all the scholarship he could command and not ,

merely claimed Stonehenge and such like structures

‘
as Druidic but all pre historic cairns dolmens
,
-

, ,

as well as circles a n d S ingle stones were made places

of Druidic worship . And from that time till a
generation or two ago the Druidic theory held almost
unquestioned sway .

The foregoing account is all that history can say

of the rude stone monuments of E urope ; Roman
and Greek history know them not— w e except the
Cyclopean tombs of Mycen e and their mythic his
tory ; and even the references in early Christian
times are too vague to be of any satisfactory u se ;
and should we grant the stone monuments mentioned
to be the rude stone circles we could not be sure that
,

the Celts and Teutons of the 5 th to the 1 1 th cen

t u ries were using them for their primitive purpose .

I n Asiatic history these monuments fare no better

, .

O ld Jewish history refers several times to altars of

rude stones and to stone monum ents s et up for re
membran ce of events and for witness of compact
,

but when closely examined these accounts refer to

, ,

little more than a second hand use of the pre Jewish

- -

monuments or give merely a popular explanation

,

of the cair n s and monu ments of some long ante

c ede n t race.

Popular tradition and the examination or

etymology O f the names applied to these rude stone
monuments yield even worse results than historical
 TH E DR U I D CI RC LE S . 20
3
investigation O ne thing is to be noted ; popular
.

tradition knows nothing of the Druids in co nnection

with these C ircles The nearest approach to the
.

Druidic theory is where in o n e case the popular

myth reg ar ds the stones as men tran sformed by the
magic of the Druids In fact there is no rational .
,

tradition in reg ard to them They belon g to a p er iod .

to w hich the oldest tra dition or history ofthe p res en t

race can n ot reach For the accounts given of them
.

are mythical and the n ames given to them are either

,

of the same mythic type or ar e mere general terms , ,

signifying cairns stone monuments or s tone heaps

, , .

For example the famous circles of Stanton Drew

,

are said to have been a bridal party tur n ed into

stone ; a circle in Cornwall whi ch is called Dance ,

Maine or the dance of stones is said to represent a

, ,

party of maidens transformed into stone for dancing

on the Sabbath day We may learn from G iraldu s
.

that Sto n ehenge or the hanging stones

,
w as ,

known once as the Giants Dance In Brittany

’
.

the avenues of Car n ac are regarded as petrified

battalions and detached menhir s are their com
,

manders who were SO transformed for offering

,

violence to St Cornily These French groups of

. .

”
ston es are variously attributed to the unknown
gods the fair ies an d the devil get the best share of
them though extin ct popular deities like Gargantua
, , ,

Rabelais hero may be met w ith We meet with

’

,
.

”
Grottoes of the Feys Stones of the Feys , ,

” ”
Devil s Chair
’
Devil s Q uoits
,
Staff Of G ar ’

,
20 4 C ELT IC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

gan tu a and Gargantua s Q uoit

,
The covered ’
.

alleys or continuous cromlechs of Drenthe in Hol ,

land are known as

, Giants Beds — H u n ebeds
’
.

In Ireland the cromlechs or dolmens are known as

,

the Beds of D iarmat and G ran u a or simple ,

G ran u a s Beds —the beds which this pair of lovers

’

made u se of i n their flight over Ireland when p u rsued

by Fionn And it is here interesting to note as so
.
,

far confirmatory of this worthy myth that the ,

Arab shepherds of the present day recline on these

pre historic dolmens and watch their sheep on the
-

plains The tumuli are of course fairy mounds ;

.
, ,

the Gaelic name is sithean a word derived from sith , ,

“
fair y allied to the N orse word seithr
, magic ,

charm Sin gle stones are variously accounted for

.

sometimes we meet with names indicative of wors hip ,

Clach aoraidh — worship stone and Clach ,

sleu chd a — gen u flect ion stone But as often as not .

, ,

the names have merely a reference to stones or stone

monuments as for instance already mentio n ed in
, ,

the case of Strathspey The term clachan as applied

.
,

to church in Scotch Gaelic has been adduced as ,

proving that the ch urches are the descendants

of the stone circles where Druid worship was held ;
but it has first to be proved that the stone circles
are themselves kn own as the clachans The word .

in Irish signifies hamlet causeway or grave yard , ,

-

but it is also applied in an arche ological sense to the

stone built cells ascribed to the old Christian anchor
-

ites and its Scotch Gaelic mean ing of ch u rch is

,
20 6 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I ON .

shipping there and each stone appears to be the

,

image or fetish of the particular deity worshipped .

These deities are therefore all local and special

, , ,

and as the Brahmins are opposed to the cult they ban

it by every means in their power These D ekkan .

rude stone monuments are not necessarily circular

the stones may be arranged in lines or even irregu
larly so that we ca n not deduce much argu ment
,

from the mere circular form of some of these monu

ments We o n ly note their religious purpose And
. .
,

again in the hills of Assam we find rude stone monu

,

ments still set up and probably their u se bears more

,

on our present inquiry than the cir cles of D ekk an .

Among the Khasias a b arbaric tribe there the wor , ,

ship o f deceased ancestors prevails They burn .

their dead a n d raise to their ho n ou r menhirs of stone

either singly or in groups but they do not arrange ,

them in circles The num b er of stones must be odd

.

3 5 7 but also 10 if made into two fives

, , , The
, .

worship too is O fa very practical kind If a Khasian

, , .

gets in to trouble or sickness he prays to some ,

deceased ancestor or relative promising to erect a ,

stone in his honour if he helps him—a promise which

he faithfully performs if the dep arted appears to ,

have helped him In regard to these Indian rude

.

stone monuments and their b earing on E uropean

pre historic ones Mr Tylor says :
-

, It appears .

that the Khasias O f north east India have gone on -

to modern times setting up such rude pillars as

memorials of the d ead so that it may be reasonably ,
 THE DRUI D CIR C LE S . 2 07

guessed that those of Brittany for instance had the

, ,

same purpose Another kin d of rude stone structures

.

well known in E urope are the cromlechs

-
or stone
circles formed of upright stones in a ring su ch as ,

Stanton Drew not far from Bristol There is proof

, .

that the stone circles have often to do with burials ,

for they may surround a bu rial mound or have a

dolmen in the middle But considering how t ombs
.

are apt to be temples where the ghost of the buried

chief or prophet is worshipped it is likely that such
,

stone cir cles should al so serve as temples as in the ,

case of South India at the present time where cocks ,

are actu al ly sacrificed to the vil lage deity who is ,

represented b y the l ar ge stone in the centre of a

cromlech (stone circle) Su ch is Mr Tylor s theory
. .
’

in regard to these structures and that is the view of

,

them which I shall endeavour to maintain and prove

in this paper while at the same time I Shall further
,

end eavour to make clear what races probably did

build them and what races certainly did not .

Having now considered the character of the stone

circles their geographical distribution their history
, ,

as it presents itself in a n cient authors and docu

ments their popular names and their mythic history
,

in modern times and having lastly discovered that

, , ,

rude stone monuments an d even stone circles are set

,

up an d still used in India and that their use there

, ,

is in connection with religious rites whil e in Khasia

’

, , ,

they were connect ed further with burial to a certain

extent let us briefly review the theories of the
,
20 8 C ELTI C M YT H OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI O N .

learned in regard to their purpose and use And .

,

first there comes the Druidic theory started in the

, ,

1 7 th centur y and still held by antiquaries of repute

men like Colonel Forbes L eslie who have done really -

admirable work The Druids were the priests of the

.

Celts in Gaul a n d Britain They formed if Ce sar . ,

may be trusted a very powerful caste matched only

, , ”

by the nobility ; they monopolised the power Of

j udges soothsayers medicine men priests edu
, ,
-

, ,

cation ist s and poets Besides the ordinary poly

,
.

theism which they shared with Greece and Rome ,

the Druids believed in the transmigration of souls

and theorised on the universe—its size and laws ,

an d on the power and maj esty of the gods Their .

position in Ce sar s Gaul looks like an anticipation

’

of the Middle Age ecclesiastics We j ust know .

enough of these Druids to wish that we knew much

more b ut n ot enough to bu il d much of a
,

superstructure of religion and philosophy upon .

N evertheless the meagre details that are left us so

,

fired the imagination of some modern writer s that

a system of Druidism was attri b uted to the
Celts which in religious experience and phil osophic
,

breadth could rival any in the modern world and far ,

surpass any religion of antiquity The Druids .

of fi ciated not merely in temples but in gr oves :

this we gather from the classical authors Groves .

are retired S pots wood surrounded where no stones

,
-

were necessary at all ; but what of the temples ?

N ow the Greek and Roman writers do not describ e
 TH E DR U ID C IR C LE S . 2 09

any Celtic or D ruidic temple as far as I know ,

the inference from this might b e that the Celtic

temples were like the Roman temples or more ,

probably like the Celtic houses great houses ,

as Strabo says d ome shaped

, constructed of ,

planks and wicker with a heavy thatched roof

, .

The houses were wooden except in the Gaulish ,

towns and so woul d the templ es b e in ru ral districts

,

and in Britain which was in a more primitive state

,

than Gaul in respect to to w ns The Druidic argu .

ment may b e put in this form We are not told -

what kin d of temples the C elts and their Druids had

therefore the Druids worshipped in the stone circles
Or the matter may be put in this way—We know
.
,

but little of the Druids and we know nothing of

,

the cir cles therefore the D ru ids worshipped in the

,

stone circles But why shoul d they worship in

.

stone circles 2 Well the a n swer is this as given

, ,

by the D ru idic theorists : It is the solar circl e

these circles have a solar reference ; the su n was
worshipp ed in them O thers think these avenues
.

and circles are signs of a worship of snakes and

dragons and the whole system of Baal worship
,
-

and such like was transplanted from Phenicia and

E gypt into Gaul and more especi al ly into Britain
,
.

Besides the fact that the Druidic argument proceeds

on vicious logical premises I will later on prove that
,

Celtic priests could have nothing to do with the

building of rude stone circles And if we look abroad .

at the circles of India Algeria and Arabia did the

, , ,
ZI O C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

the Druids also build them The Sinai circles we ,

saw were extremely like the Scotch cir cles ; were

,

there Celtic Druids in Sinai to erect them ? The

theory that the circles were temples of Druidic wor
ship fails therefore on two grounds first there is no ,

evidence for it that can stand the test of scientific

or logical investigation secondly there is much posi,

tive evidence against it— the state of cultur e of the

the Celts and the common connection of the circles
with sepult u re for example
, .

The theory that finds most favour at the present

day is that which connects the circles With the burial
of the dead The circles surrou n ded places of
.

sepulture We saw that the c ircles of Si n ai were

.

undoubtedly in connection with sepulture and in ,

regard to the circles in the British Islands Mr Fer , .

gusson s ays O ut of 200 circles which are found

in these isla n ds at least one—
, half o n being dug out , ,

have yielded sepulchral deposits O ne half are still.

-

u ntouched by the excavator and the remainder , ,

which have not yielded their secret are mostly ,

the larger circles He thinks it cannot be denied

.

that circles up to 1 00 feet diameter are sepulchr al ,

and if s o why should not the rest above that limit

,

be so also Mr F ergu sson s estimate of th e n umber

.
’

of circles in the British Isles is far short of the truth

there are over 2 00 circles in Scotland alone This .

greatly weakens his argument on the proportion

of sepulchral and non sepulchral circles Besides
-
.
,

it cannot be said that circles unaccompanied by any

2 12 C ELTI C M Y T H OLO G Y AN D R ELI GI O N .

builders so Mr F ergu sson suggests what a pity it

, . ,

was to hide away such handsome structures under a

mound of earth or cairn of stones ? Added to this
may be taken the circumstance that some unfinished
mounds must have existed which wou ld still further ,

suggest the idea of leavin g the mere foundation of

stones bare without any mound superimposed Mr .

Fergusson amply proves in opposition to those ,

theorists who hold that all these structures especially ,

dolmens were once covered by mounds which the

,

progress of agriculture and building removed that ,

such could not have been the case with most of

them An examination of our Inverness shire -

circles would show that many of them such as ,

Druid Temple were never anything but three

,

concentric circles and never had a trace of mou nd

,

or cairn Callernish is a standing disproof of this

.

theory that c ircles and avenues are merely dis

,

mantled chambered cairns ; they may have been

uncompleted cairns that is cairns whose foundations
, ,

were laid but they certainly were never covered

,

by stone or earth Mr Wakeman the eminent

. .
,

Irish archa ologist points out that not only were

,

dolmens and circles built bare without super -

structure—but that instead of the progress of time

,

and cultivation denuding them they have actually ,

in many cases been covered with moss to a depth

which from the well known rate of growth of peat
,
-

makes them at least some four thousand years old .

Mr Wakeman also says :

. From the stone cist
 TH E DR U I D CIRC LE S . 2 13
0

composed of four fl ag stones set on edge and covered

-

by a fifth to the spacious chambers found within

,

gigantic cairns like those of N ew Grange and D ow th ,

thr ough all pecul iar ities of siz e and structural com
plication we have for foundatio n sim ply the cromleac
,

(dolmen) idea O n Mr F ergu sson s development

’
. .

theory we can account for two concentric C ircles

ofclosely set ston es the megal ithic foun dation was
made to do duty for the moun d ; we can also ,

by this th eory account for their circul ar shape

, ,

for a mound must be circul ar and so must the b ee ,

hive chambers b e also ; but w ith all this granted , ,

how are we to accou n t for the outer circle which is ,

built round the tumulus or cairn and at a distance ,

from it Clearly the theory of architectural

,

development fails here and Mr F ergu sson manfully

, .

admits that it does He suggests w ith caution

.
, ,

a possible resemblance in origin between them and

the rails of the Indian Buddhists—these rails being
composed of rows of tall stone pil lars set at intervals
around the Buddhist d agoba But as he says of .

thes e Buddhist raiIS It is difficult to see what

‘

these stone pillar s or posts were originally intended

”
for and suggests that it was for the hanging of
,

garlands he does not help us much to an explanation

,

by this anal ogy His other suggestion that these

.

stones set at intervals for med part of the outer

, ,

earthen rampart that su rrou n ded the mounds at

first and afterwards were ret ained on the disuse of
,

the vallum of earth does not look so very h appy

,
2 14 C ELTI C M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

as the rest of his development theory though it may ,

fit in with the evolution of the inner circles from

chambered mounds .

In refutation of any theory that would maintain

that between these stones might have been built
any earthen or woode n barrier of which the stones ,

would form the leadi n g supports we may adduce ,

the fact that in the I n verness Shir e circles the stones

-

o n the south are very tall whil e those on the north

,

side are very small so small at times as to render

,

such a u se altogether impracticable O n all theories .

in regard to the use of stone cir cles in connection

with burials Canon Greenwell in his epoch making
, ,
-

”
book on British Barrows says : It has been
,

suggested by some that the e n closing circles were

merely made to support the mound at its base .

It is only necessary to remark i n refutatio n of this ,

s urmise that the circle is often within the mound is

, ,

sometimes a trench and is as before mentioned

, , ,

nearly always incomplete O thers have and with

.
,

more reason supposed them to be marks of taboo

, ,

a fence to preserve the habitation of the dead from

desecration but the fact that so many are within
, ,

and must always have been concealed by the barrow , ,

appears to me to be inconsistent with this explana

tio n I think it more probable if the notion of a
.
,

fence is to be entertained that they were intended to

,

prevent the exit of the spirit of those buried within ,

rather than to guard agai n st disturbance from with

out A dread o f inj ury by the spirits of the dead
.
2 16 C ELTI C MY TH OLO GY A N D R EL I G I O N .

all round the tower Access is o b tained b y a single

.

outside door into the interior and thence b y stairs ,

up into the galleries There may be a series of .

ground chambers in the wall at its b ase Miss .

Maclagan in her b ook on Hill Forts maintains

, ,

that Stonehenge is practically the base of a broch

the two outer circles form the foundation of the
outer wall while the two inner circles for m the base
,

of the inner wall—the gr eat trilithons were merely

doorposts an d lintels The theory is ingenious ;
.

the brochs if stripped to their megal ithic found

,

ation s would present an outer and inner ring while

, ,

the cham b ers at the b ase if we assume these carried ,

all round would give two int erm ediate cir cl es

, But .

where is the stone material gone to in nearly every

case ? It must b e assum ed here again as in the ,

b u rial theory that the material has b een all

,

removed or that onl y megalithic foundations were

,

laid and the work left in complete Then there are

, .

several practical o b j ections these megalithic pill ars

are unsuit ed for foun dation stones as they stand ,

and there is no trace of the outer circles having ever

been anything else than they are now ; nor is it easy
to see what practical u se they could b e put to in
b u ilding or fencing Burial deposits have been.

found in the cham b ered c airns and within the circles , ,

and this does not accord with their having been

dwelling houses Miss Maclagan however has the
-

usual argumen t in such cases —

.
, ,

a rgu mentu m ad

ignora ntia m The b ur ials . b elonged pro b ab ly to

2 18 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

deal more for community of origin as regards lan

,

guage is followed by the same in regard to religion

and institutions—political and social A common .

language will not of course prove that nations

, ,

are all descended from the same racial stock for a ,

superior race may impose upon a weaker or less

civilised one its own la nguage with consequent
religion and customs L anguage therefore is a
. , ,

test more of culture than of racial descent Some .

four thousand years ago more or less a race now

, ,

called the Ar yan bega n i n separate bands to impose

upon the previous inhabitants its rule and its lan
guage an d the consequence has been that at the
,

present time E urope is possessed by Aryan speaking -

peoples with the exception of unimportant remnants

,

like the Basques and Finns or late intruders like the

,

Turks The nations that existed before the Ar yan

.

supremacy were doubtless amalgamated and their ,

i n fluence must be felt in national and trib al differ

e n ces of physique in the vocabulary and idiom Of
,

the present Aryan languages and in the religious

,

beliefs and the customs of the present races May .

n ot also the monuments of their hands built for ,

their habitation their religion or their dead still

, , ,

exist amo ng u s ? We shall see The Aryan race .

had attained a certain high stage of culture The .

state was founded on a patriarchal basis and there ,

were kings and the family was the unit and starting
,

point of the organisation monogamy was the rule

agriculture was known they had towns and roads
 THE DR U I D CI RC LE S . 2 19
0

metals were used including t he precious ones and

, ,

the more useful such as copper tin and bronze

, , , ,

and in over runnin g E urope they had iron their

,
-

religion was polytheistic—the worship O f the higher

obj ects of na tu re under anthropomorphic form ,

with a strong admixtur e of ancestor worship and -

oth er lower forms O f the Ar yan races the Celts

.
,

made their appearance in the West first at the ,

dawn of history O ccupying N orthern Italy the ,

U pper Danube Switzerland France and the L ow

, ,

Coun tries most of Sp ain and all Brit ain and Ireland
, ,
.

The state of cult ure of the Celts we can discover

by their Ary an descen t to a great extent bu t as ,

they b ecame modified through disseverance from the

rest and through mingling with the pre Celtic
,
-

peoples we require to study every scrap of historical

,

reference we get and also the inscriptions an d other

,

monuments that remain to us of their ancient life

while we have also to study their language their ,

customs their oldest literary efforts and their

, ,

mythic tales legends a nd histories The study of

, ,
.

all these steadied by a reference to the customs

,

and developments of races nearly akin like those ,

of Rome and Greece enables u s to read the weather

,

worn history of the Celts and to know their state ,

of culture Ca s ar and the other classical writers

.

did not per ceive their kinship with the Celts un less
when for political reasons the Senate might call
”
the ZE dui brothers and kin smen yet in their ,

descriptions they take some four fifths of the facts -

2 20 C ELTIC M Y TH OLO G Y AN D R EL I G I O N .

Of their life their hab its and their institutions

, , ,

for granted as being much the same as existed in

Italy and in Rome O nly the oddities differences
. , ,

and signs of ,
barb arian ism were noted ; the
points of coincidence were passed over as nothing
to be wonder ed at though these were generally the
,

most wonderful facts of all The Celtic race was .

in Ca sar s time in ab out as high a state of civili

’

sation as the Romans were ab out the time of the

Punic war a century and a h alf previous They .

possessed a la n guage of equal perhaps sup erior , ,

power to that of Rome they had political systems

of the Grecian type b efore the supremacy of Athens
and they must have had an enormous oral an d , ,

possibly written literatu re In Gaul they built

, .

town s of the Roman type with stone houses temples

, , ,

and such like but rur al G aul and Britain contented

themselves with wooden houses and wooden forti
fi ca tions—stockaded clearings or strong hil l positions .

They seem to have done little in stone b uildings .

They built templ es but they w ere temples and not

stone circles which are not mentioned at all Their
, .

temples could not have bee n much different in con

struction from those of the Greeks and Italians ,

other wise mention would be made of the fact The .

temples were of wood like the house s and lik e the

, , ,

N orthum brian temple of Coifi which was b uil t like ,

a house The Greek writers u se two words in their

.

descr iption of Celtic plac es of worship : th ese ar e

temple and grove (temenos) or consecrat ed allotment
, .
22 2 C ELT I C M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I G I O N .

merely the Celtic priests—a priesthood of more than

ordinary influence and power b ut their doctrines ,

contained little else than was b elieved in then b y

other Aryan races in E urOpe or Asia It is sheer .

impro b ab ility t hat they could have worshipp ed

in stone circles .

If the Celts did not build thes e rude stone monu

ments then some race previous to them and in a
, ,

more b arbaric state of culture must have b ee n the ,

b uilders V arious facts go to show that there e xisted

.

previous to the Celts another people or rather o ther

peoples Professor Rhys has proved from the
.

evidence of language and mythology that there was

a previous race ; while Mr E lton founding on a .
,

study of customs and on the researches of arche olo

gists has st ill further proved the fact Following
,
.

Canon Greenwell and Dr Thur n am and e x tending ,

the significance of their co n clusions Mr E lton , .

is ab le to prove that two races at least existed

previous to the Celtic race There was fir st the .
, ,

small dark skinned long headed race of the N eolithic

,
-

,
-

and later cave age whom Mr E lton c alls I b erian s , .

,

whose descend ants survived in S iluria of Wales ,

in Ireland and in Aquitania and who spoke a lan

, ,

gu age probab ly like the Basque They were the .

builders of the oval barrows The second race was .

t al l rough featured strong lim bed round headed

,
-

,
-

,
-

and fair haired and Mr E lton calls them Finnish

-

, .

or U grian They appear to h ave b een in their

.

Bronze Age whereas the Iberians were in their

,
 TH E DR U I D C IRC LE S . 223

Stone Age The Finnish race may have had a n

.

alph abet if we can attribute to them the numerous

,

unreadable inscriptions rock carvin gs and sk etchin gs

- ~

of the Bronze Age — which appear in Ireland Scot ,

land and Scandinavia They appear to have

, .

subdued the previous race They built the rou n d .

barrows and we have every reason to believe that

,

they were also the buil ders of the rude stone circles ,

their cro w ning effort b eing the temple of Stone

henge We have besides their burial customs
.
,

glimpses possibly of their social cond ition Caesar .

and other writers continually and persistently refer

to races in Britain who had community of wives ,

and there can be no question that there was some

foundation for the rumour N or can we have much .

doubt that the nation referred to was this Finnish

one for it is quite certain that it was not a Celtic
,

or Aryan natio n among whom monogamy was the

,

strict rul e The Pictish custom of succession through

.

the female also establishes among them low ideas

of marriage quite co n sonant with community of
,

wives ; and from this we must conclude that the

Picts were strongly intermixed with if not altogether , ,

a non Aryan race The nakedness an d blue pai n t

-
.

of hist orians is an other feature which as knowledge ,

of the races of Britain advanced the classical writers ,

learned to locate among the inhabitants of N orthern

Scotland .

The long barrows were built by a race anterior

to this Finnish race the Finnish race built the round
2 24 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AN D R EL I GI ON .

barrows chambered cairns and rude stone Circles

, ,
.

They were probably also the builders of the brochs .

The theory that brochs are of N orse origin arises

from ethnological confusion ; for the N orse were
Aryans possessing iron implements and buil ders , ,

like the Germans and Celts of wooden and not of

,

stone buil dings The Picts were Finnish Mr

. . .

Joseph Anderson says that stone Cir cles attain their

principal development i n Pictland proper and are ,

most abundant in the district between the Moray

Firth and the Firth of Tay Those O fthe Scottish
.

circles that have been examined he says have , ,

”
yielded interments of the Bronze Age This better .

development of the circles in Pictland goes to prove

that the circle builders lasted longer in Pictland
than anywhere else and in fact that the builders
, , ,

were the ancestors of the historic Picts and possibly ,

the historic P icts themselves Mr Fergusson from

. .
,

quite another standpoint suggests that Clava is the

,

burial place of the royal family of B ru d e Mac

Maelchon the king whom Columba visited on the
,

banks of the N ess The suggestion is not at al l

.

a bad one .

We shall now draw the threads of our argument

together In our process of elimination we dis
.

covered that the Arya n races buil t no stone circles

the C elts therefore and their Druids had nothing
, , ,

to do with them they are pre Celtic as well as pre-

historic ; the circles are so often connected with

burial that we mav take it for gr anted that they all
 TH E DR U ID CI R C LE S . 22 5 »

origin al ly had to do with buri al but we found also , ,

that in modern times circles and stones were con

,

n ect ed with worship more especially the worship

,

of ancestors E verything points to their having

.

been places of b urial ; they surround dolmens and

barrows or even whe n alone yield at times burial
,

depo sits but their peculiar character coupled with ,

the fact of modern and ancient worship of and at

stones must m ake us pause ere we set b urial down
,

as their sole purpose Would savage or b arbaric

.

man out Ofmere reverence for the dead raise such

, ,

monu ments to their memory ? It remains to con

sider what kind O f worship could b e held at places
of sep u lt ure and why stone cir cles shoul d b e us ed
, .

I n the matter of worship the old theories as to the

,

sun and serpent worship may b e dismissed as out of

place in connection with burial for the worship of ,

the su n as the giver of light and heat has never

had conn ection with death ; Apollo must not be
contaminat ed with death The evident reference .

many of the circles have to the sun s cou rse as for

’

instance that in this distr ict the heaviest stones

are to the south or that the entrance may have a
,

southerly aspect only proves that the light an d heat

,

of the sun were reg ar ded as necessary for the dead

as well . That the existence of solar worship would
add to an d emphasise the sunward tenden cy
the sun reference of the circles—is freely allowed ,

but nothing more can be legitimately deduced fr om

such a fact As for serpent worship it is plain that
. ,
22 6 C ELTI C M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I GI ON .

the advocates of that theory did not quite grasp

the full significan ce of the serpent cultus and its
connection with phallic worship The only worship .

appropriate at the grave is that of deceased ancestors .

A study of the beliefs and customs of savage and

barbaric races makes it abu n da ntly clear that this
is about the earliest shape i n which religion mani
fests itself We must inquire what the an thr opolo
.

gist has to say i n regard to people in this state of

Culture Reverence for the dead and belief in the
'

existence of the Deity are glibly asserted by theorists

as existent among every race but that is a delusion
,
.

Reverence and belief in the sense understood by a

civilised and educated person there are none for ,

savage belief is eminently practical and u n sen ti

mental To proj ect the highest feelings and opinions
.

of civilised man— and these local too—into the ,

early state of man is to overlook the long perspective

,

of time with its evolutio n of ever higher feelin gs

and beliefs The lowest phase of belief has been
.

named by Mr Tylor . an imism ;

,
it consists in
believing that what is presented to us in our dreams
and other hallucinations has a real obj ective existence .

Savage man makes little or no differenc e b etween

his dreaming and waking state ,
He sees the sha
.

dows of the dead in his sleep and believes in their

,

obj ective reality But not merely the dead have

.

shadows or spirits ; the livin g too have a Spirit , ,

duplicate of self The reflection in water proves

.

this no less than the presentiment of the living

2 28 C ELTI C M Y T H OLO G Y A ND R EL IGI O N .

may rise to a conception of a supreme father

The old Old one of the Zulus as they work ,

back from ancestor to ancestor thus arriving at an ,

i dea of a creator akin to the conception of the

,

Ancient of Days O ne s own ancestor may be

’
.

’
good to one ; other people s ancestors may be the
reverse Hence these last have to be propitiated ;
.

evil spirits are worshipped to avoid their wrath .

Thus the ghost of a British Of fi cer was not long ago

worshipped in Ind ia as a god and on his altar his ,

demon worshipping vot ar ies placed what they

-

thought would please and appease him for it had ,

pleased him in this life namely Offerings of cheroots

, ,

and brandy In fact all the ills that life is heir to

,

are among some races attributed to evil spirits ,

while the good is the work of the b en eficen t spirits

an d among such tribes it is t hrough the me d icine

man with his exorcisms there is the only means of

, ,

escape L et it be noted that ancestral ghosts may

.

not merely exist in proper human form but they ,

often assume animal forms and what is more they , ,

may even take up t heir abode in material obj ects

“
trees stones or anything Hence arises fetish
, , .

worship — the worship of stocks and stones .

An d it is also easy to see that we may on the other ,

hand rise from ancestor worship through this

, ,

transmigration idea to the height of polytheism

, ,

with its gods of sun moon and S ky

, , .

This reverence of the savage for the dead is there

fore connecte d with his regard for hims elf His .
 TH E DR U ID CIRC LE S . 22 9

religion as usually happens in higher phases of

,

cul ture is selfish The dead are therefore cared

, .

for and their ab odes become places of worship .

Various ways are adopted for d isposal and worship

of the dead The hut they lived in may be left as a
.

dwelling for them ; the bo dy may be buried in a

canoe or coffin ; a strong tomb may be built over
it or its ashes an d this tomb may be a chamber
,

with access to it to enable the votaries to bring

Offerings Great labour was bestowed on these
.

burial mounds Ofearth and stone N or have we yet .

ceased from this display though we n ow have ,

different methods and far di fferent feelings in our

burial rites Y et there are survival s of ancie n t
.

“ ”
forms . I n the Highlands of S cotland says Mr , .

Tylor, the memory of the old custom [raisi ng of

mounds a nd cairns] is s o strong that the mourners ,

as they may not build the cair n over the grave i n

the churchyard will sometimes set up a little one

,

”
where the fu neral procession h alts on the way .

Our memorial stones over the graves are but the

descendants of the old menhirs ; nor are d olmen
forms absen t in the stone box structur es often placed
over graves In the Churchyard of Rothiemurchus
.
,

on the grave O fShaw Cor fhiaclach the hero of the

-

North Inch at Perth there used to be a row of small

,

pillared stones set round all the sides of the tomb

stone Circles of stone other than such far off
.
-

imitations as this we do not u se now .

Burial a nd worship in early s ociety go hand i n

2 30 C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL IGI ON .

hand and we therefore conclude that these stone

, , ,

cir cles were used for both burial and worship but ,

more especially for worship since mere reverential ,

memorials were at that stage of cult u re an impossi

, ,

bilit y. N evertheless there yet remains one part

of our i n quiry to which an answer has not been
given Why should the stones be set up at in tervals
.
,

and in a circle 9 For all that our inquiry has proved

is that the dead were worshipped at their gra ves
it does not necessarily answer the more particular
question of a peculiar form of grave or burial en
closure The circular form and the pillared stones
.

set at intervals remain after every elimination

, ,

the only difficulty of the enquiry Mr Fergusson . .

developed the idea of the circle from the circular

mound but he could not acco u nt for the stones
,

being set at intervals and not close together Canon

, .

Gree n well suggested as we saw that their u se was to

, ,

fence in the ghost of the departed It is a .

superstition in the Highlan ds yet that evil spirits

can be kept off by drawing a circle round oneself .

Another suggestion made is that the number of

stones may have had something to do with the
number of worshippers as is said to b e the case in
,

the D ekk an It was also the custom at the Hallow

.

’
e en fires for everyone to place a stone in a ring
round the fire as they were leaving and if by next , ,

morning anythin g happened to any of the stones

, ,

the pers o n who placed it there was fated to meet

death or ill during the year The Arabs still set up
.
23 6 C ELTI C M Y TH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI O N .

Celtic —so the ordinary arche ologists say Pagan .

bur ial with iron accompaniments is Teutonic ,

.

It is against this u se of the term Celtic that

I wish to protest It is a wrong use Of it— wrong
.

on historical and scientific grounds The Celts .

are a people perfectly well known historically ;

we meet with them i n ancient history from 5 00 B C
"
. .

downwards and we have them still in modern times

, .

Ancient writers describe their man ners and customs

with fair fulness of detail and modern science has ,

proved that their language belongs to the same type

and is descended of the same stock as t hose of
Greece Rome an d Germany A study of their
, , .

manners and customs as the ancients relate them , ,

a n d as the old Irish literature reveals them presents ,

the same leading features of political and social

orga n isation the same kind of religion and of myth
,

ology and the same ki n d of j udicial system as were

,

prevalent in early times in Rome and Greece .

Celtic institutions are co extensive with the use of -

the Celtic language for language and culture follow

,

each other A Celtic language implies a Celtic

.

culture or stage of C ivilisation A people speaking

, .

a Celtic language need not necessarily be of Celtic

race or descent but they must have Celtic in sti
,

t u tion s and culture A Celtic race may have con

.

quered another race and may have imposed their

,

own language and customs upon them N everthe .

less it must be admitted that customs and in stitu

,

tions j ust as words and idioms of another race

, ,
 C ELTI C B U RIA L . 237

may persist in the amalgamated race indeed ; ,

w hen o n e Ar yan race conquers another the struggle ,

is often long and doubtful as to which language

and institutions wil l prevail for both are there o f ,

a similar class The Ar yan s in contact with any

.
,

other races outside the Semitic always prevail , ,

their langu age and culture bei ng vastly superior .

Philological science has proved that the Celts

belong to the Indo E uropean family of s peech
-

This I n do E uropea n or Aryan race lived together

-

over 3 000 B C somewhere i n M iddl e or E astern

. .

E urope and nearly all the languages of E urope

,

an d the leading languages of I n dia past an d present , ,

including that of P ersia are desce n ded from this

,

ancient Aryan tongue Descended groups situated

.

near o n e an other are more i n timately related thus

Latin an d Celtic are more allied to each other than
either of them is to any other E uropea n language ,

ancient or modern N o w words represent things

.
, ,

actions in stitutions and if we fi n d the same word

, ,

for the same idea in Greek L atin and Celtic we , , ,

are certain that thing action or institution existed

, ,

among them when they lived together In this .

w ay we have a tolerably clear idea of the state o f

civilisatio n among the Italo Celtic race and when -

E uropean history begi n s with Greece and Rome ,

the glimpses we get of Celtic history language and , ,

customs indicate what might be expected a priori

,

from a consideration of the kindred institutions

and languages of Rome and Greece Ancient Gaul .
23 8 C ELTIC MYTH OLO G Y AN D R EL IGI ON .

presents to our view the same po litical featur es as

Greece of Herodotus time or earlier the manners ’
,

an d customs of Gaul remind the Greek historians

of the life in Homer s time and certainly the ’

Gaulish burial customs are described by Cae sar in

language that makes an admirable summary of
Homer s description o fthe burial of Patroclus and
’

Hector Greek burial in the Homeric ages was as

.

follows —A pyr e of wood w as constructed and on ,

the top of it the body was laid Sheep and oxen .

were slain their fat was placed about and upon the
,

body and their carcases were heaped around it

, .

Jars of honey and o il were placed on the pil e Horses .

,

favo u rite dogs and captives were slain and cas t

,

on the pyre and the whole set on fire A wail

, .

w as raised and the dead addressed by name

, When .

the fire burned low it was finally extinguished with

,

w ine , the bones were collected the whitened

bones as the poet says—and placed in an urn of
,

gold Then they dug a grave and raised over it

.
,

a mound Homer al so speaks of the pill ar stone

.
-

that standeth on the barrow of a dead man or of a

"

woman In historic times in Greece and Republi

.
,

can Rome the burning of the dead was the excep tion
, ,

not the rule — inhumation of the body at full le ngth

being the ordinary method of disposal of the dead
but in Imperial Rome the custom revived and ,

became the rule whil e inhu mation at least of the

, ,

better classes w as the exception Christianity

, .
,

however finally stopped the burn ing of the dead

,
240 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I O N .

Their vivid belief in a future existence is ridiculed

by Valerius Maximus a writer practically contem
porary with Mela Money loans are given to ,

b e repaid in the next world because they hold,

men s soul s to be immort al I woul d call them fools

'
.

did these trousered philosophers not have the same

”
belief as lay under the cloak of Pyth agoras The .

scien tific deduction which we can make from the

similarity of language and general ins titutions
among Gree ks Romans and Celts that Celtic
, , ,

b urial customs were identical with those of e arly

Greece and Rome is amply proved from these
,

classical quotations but we can also bring the light

of arche ology to bear on the matter Gaulish .

tom b s wh ich are tumuli with a kernel of stone

,

present ornaments and utensils of b ronz e and iron ,

skeletons of men and animals or c inerary urns , ,

j ust such as we might expect from a p riori reasoning

and fro m the classical references The Celts of .

Brit ain were in a more Homeric age than those of

Gaul ; they used war chariots armour and equip, ,

ments an d conducted war operations in a manner

,

similar to the Homeric heroes That the Irish .

were in a similar style of culture we kn ow from their

oldest writings We have rich remain s of old Irish
.

myth and legend The age of Cu chu lin n which is

‘

.
,

placed by the Irish historians at the beginning of

our era reproduces in a striking and original manner
,

the main features of the Homeric age The war .

Chariots the feasts with the ir chief share and plac e

,
 C ELTIC B U RIA L . 2 41

for the champion the warrior life and occupatio n s

, ,

the chivalrous and n o n chivalrous ideas are all -

mostly the same as in Homer s time The only '

.

thin g we miss is the well greaved form s of the-

Achaeans of Homer ; for the an cient Irish did not ,

as far as their literature shows wear either mail ,

armour or helmets I n this they were like several

.

Celtic tribes who invaded Italy and fought against ,

the Romans in a semi n ude conditio n Hen ce we

-
.

cannot but conclude tha t the Celtic races wherever ,

they appear be they Gaul s Britons or ancient

, , ,

Gaels present the s ame general mann ers and cus

,

toms We may safely conclude that their burial

.

customs were also S imilar to one another and to thos e

of early Greece an d Rome We may in fer that .
,

as in Greece and Rome inhumation existed in early

,

historic times that is in heroic times ; indeed

, ,

inhumation was probably the most common and ,

undoubtedl y was the usual form among the common

people Kings an d chiefs were buried magn ifice ntly
.

in tumuli and cairns ; but the commo n people

buried in cemeteries if they lived in v illages an d
, ,

did not bur n the body P roof for this V iew may
.

be got in the fact that in the old Irish literature

there is not a word about cremation Cremation .

coul d not have extensively exis ted among the

ancient Irish or else their literature would present
,

the fact We know that the early Church had

. ,

in some places on the continent a desperate struggle ,

against the burning of the bodies If Christianit y .

2 42 C ELTIC M YTH OLO G Y AN D R EL I G I O N .

had s uch a struggle i n Ireland record of it has been ,

carefully too careful ly to be true—weeded out of

-

Irish literature .

Here again we have another difference between

, ,

the ancien t Irish and the heroes of the Homeric

‘

time ; the Irish did not burn their dead Yet we .

meet with a custom mentioned by Homer ; he

speaks of the pillar stone on the cairn of a dead man
-

or woman So the Irish co n ti n ually refer to build

.

ing the tomb setting up the pillar stone and what

,
-

, ,

Homer does not mention inscribing on it the name ,

.

Before considering the literary evidence in regard

to old Gaelic bur ial let us consider how archae ology
-

tallies w ith the conclusions we arrive at in regard

to Celtic burial from linguistic science and from
ancient literary documents The Celts entered .

Britain some centuries B C and were then in their . .

,

Iron Age Is there any archae ological trace of this

.

earliest Iron Age It must be pre Roman and pre -

Teutonic ; so we argue on scientific grounds in ,

dependently o f arch aeology As a rule arche olo .

,

gists refuse to believe in a Celtic Iron Age before

the Romans ; it is contrary to their prej udices ,

and every effort is made to explain any remains

that may belong to it as either Roman or Saxon .

Besides burial remains of the Celtic Iron Age are

,

not often met with Dr Joseph Anderson says in . .

regard to Scotland and doubtless truly : The

,

general phenomena of the burials of the Celtic

Paganism of the Iron Age in Scotland are not dis
2 44 C ELTIC M YTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I ON .

Ireland as Anglo —
,
Saxon Canon Greenwell men .

tions several and each time his predecessors

,
no ,

"
doubt by an oversight as he C haritably remarks , ,

make them Anglo Saxon O ne at B o rlas ton in-

. ,

Staffordshire is in some respects typical of the

rest it is described by Jewitt as Anglo—
,

Saxon yet ,

the ornamentatio n he could only parallel from the

collection of the R oyal Iris h Academy The grave .

was seve n feet long by two wide cut in the solid ,

sandsto n e rock fifteen inches deep A deeper holl ow .

had been excavated for the head where the remains ,

of the helmet were found the sword was extended

by the right side and in the left was a knife
, The .

skeleton as Mr Jewitt remarks

, . had as is so , ,

frequently the case in Anglo Saxon in terments -

entirely disappeared The body in Celtic and

.
,

Saxon burials both was placed at full length on its

,

back in a scooped out gr ave ; it was in full dress

-

w ith the sword extended at the side often with other ,

weapons Both the Celts and Teutons practised

.

cremation at the same time as inhumation indeed ,

the burial customs of Celt Roman and Teuton , , ,

when in the same stage of culture were exactly ,

alike It is no wonder that archaeologists have b een

.

led astray when t hey stick to mere archae ology .

We may pass in the last place to the burial

, ,

customs of the ancient Irish as recorded in their ,

literatu re There is a rich literary reference to

.

bur ial but previous to this literature we have the

,

inscriptions of early Celtic and Christian times .

 CELTI C BURIA L .
245

The Gaulish inscriptions Show that a cairn was

raised over the grave and on this cairn a pillar
,

stone O ne in scription i n Gaulish may be given

.
,

the bilingual of Todi At egn ati D ru ticn i carn itu

artvass Coisis D r u ticn os for which the L atin may
,

be given thus At egn ati D ru t i filio lapides (sepu l

crales) con gessit Co isis D ru t i filiu s The Welsh .

in scription at Penmach n o is of quite a similar kin d

it is in very barbarous L atin Car au siu s hic
jacit in hoc co ngeries lapidum Car au siu s lies
”
here in this cairn of stones The book of Arm agh
.
,

100 0 years old records that St P atrick

, sepelivit
.
,

illum aur igam Totum calvu m id e st t o tmael et , ,

con gr egavit lapides erga se u lt u ra m I n Adam

p .

nan s life of Columba we read that Ar tbran an the

’

old chief who was brought to the Saint when i n

,

Skye ,
believed an d was baptis ed an d whe n the ,

baptism was administered to him he died on the

same spot according to the prediction of the Saint
,

an d his companions buried him there raisi n g a heap ,

of ston es over his grave Whitley Stokes one of

. ,

the greatest Celtic scholars n o w living remarks ,

I have n ot met with anything in Celtic literature

showing that the Celts practised cremation But .

the number of sepul chral urns which have been

found in France Britain an d Irelan d proves that
, ,

they like the Greeks either bu r n ed or buried the

, ,

human body They had biers but I cann ot fi n d

. ,

that they used coffi n s Their carn i or cairns (cognate

.

with Greek kran aos 2) seem to have been in variably

246 C ELTI C MYTH OLO GY A N D R EL I G I O N .

composed of stones and thus differed from the ,

Greek tu rn boi L atin tu mu li which might be made

,

either of stones or earth .

Three features of b u ri al co n stantly occur in the

Irish records : thes e are the grave or f ort which
—
,

was dug out a mound or cairn du ma or lecht e

w as raise d above the gr ave ; and a pillar stone -

coirthe or stone lia

,
placed in or upon the moun d
, ,

or cairn Finall y an ins cription w as cut again

. ,

on this pillar stone or lia S imil arly the stile stood

-
.

u pon the tu mbos in Homeric and Greek tim es gener

ally Keating an Iris h historian and antiquary

. ,

of the 1 7th century places this form of burial as ,

his first He says . They used to make a fert

in the earth correspondn in lengt h and breadth
with the corpse ; they then deposited the corpse
therein w ith the soles of the feet turned to the east
, ,

and the crown of the head to the west and put a

cam of stones over it which was call ed a leckt , .

The orientation of the body with sunward face is , ,

Christian though Pagan in its ultimate origin A

, .

quotation or two from the M SS will further elucidate .

the point A MS of the 1 2 th centu ry called the

. .
,

Book of Leinster tell s u s — relating events a dozen,

centuries earlier A grave was dug for F erb ,

and her stone was rais ed and an ins cription in O gam ,

was written and a mound ( duma) was made around

Here the pillar—
,

the stone . stone was set on the

grave and partially covered with the mound
, .

Traces of the old Pagan custom of buryin g arms

248 C ELTI C MYTH OLO G Y A N D R EL IGI ON .

Human victims are recorded in one instance as

being sacrificed King F iachr a in the fourth cen
. ,

tury ret u rned from Munster with fifty hostages

, ,

but he died of his wou n ds by the way and his ,

grave was made and his mou n d was raised and his
, ,

clu iche cain te (games and dirges ) were ins tituted and ,

his O gam name was written and the hostages , ,

which had been brought from the south were buried ,

”
alive round F iachra s grave Though laying the
’
.

body on its back at full le ngth was the ordinary rule ,

it was departed from in special cases We know .

that i n Chr istian times Ch arlemagne like his Pagan ,

predecessor w as buried seated on his thro n e St

,
. .

Patrick s unbelieving contemporary King L o egaire

’

, ,

is recorded in the Book of Armagh to have said :

My father N iall did not allow me to believe but
, , ,

that I should be b u ried o n the heights of Tara like

me n standing up in war And the an notator .

adds Because the heathen are wont to be placed

armed in their tombs with their weapons at hand
, ,

face to face until the day erdathe as the magi have

, ,

—
it that is the day of the j udgment of the L ord
"
.

As a consequence we read in the Dun Cow MS that .

the body of King L o egair e was interred with his

armour on the south east and outside the royal
-

ra th of L oegaire at Tara and his face to the south

, , ,

against L einster as battling again st them for when

, ,

living they were his foes Burial of arms as in

.
,

the foregoing case is mentioned very often ; an

,

old Druidic poem celebrates the fall of Mog

 C ELTIC B U RIA L . 2 49

King of Munster in the second century of

it says
The gr a ve ofM og N eid is on Ma gh Tu alain g
-

With his lan ce a t his shou lder ,

With his cl u b s o ra pid in action

,

With his helme t with his s wor d ,

.

King B athi , in the

fifth ce ntury was buried ,

a ccording to his wish— with his red j avelin in his

hand in the grave and his grave facing the U lster
,

men and his face turned towards them And so

,
.

long as his face w as towards the U lstermen they

w ere defeated and it w as not until they turned
,

D athi s face mouth down ward that they could

’

conquer his people We thus infer that warriors

.
,

at least great warriors were buried with their faces

,

to their foes and sometimes standing straight up

, .

I n Welsh mythology the head of King Bran was

buried facing France and prophecy said that so,

long as it was there and facing so no in vasion could ,

be successful But Arthur in his self con fiden ce

.
,
-

exhumed the head of Bran feeling capable of de ,

fending his country without such aid But alas .

,

his successors failed an d the Britons lost their

,

kingdom .

The heroic tales and ballads of the Scottish Gael ,

though taken down from oral recitation since Mac

pherson s time yet co n tain valuable and authentic
'
,

references to ancient cu stoms I n the story of the .

death of the demi— god Cu chu lin n his foster father ,

-

Conall is represented as having sworn that whosoever

,
25 0 C E L TIC MYTH OLO GY AN D R EL I G I ON .

told him of Cu chu lin n s death should t hat instant '

be slain Cu chu lin n s C harioteer who knew of this

.
’

, ,

tells the fact of his master s death in a roundabout ’

”
way . Well L o egair e
,
says Conall how is , ,

my dear friend Cu chu llin n ? He is well said ,

L o egair e He is at present after making for

.

him self a new house What house has he made

.

Would not his ancestral house do for him ? It

is a house in the new fashion Wh at is the new .

fashion that he has discovered ? 0 it is only ,

a little house Wh en he lays him down straight

.

o n his back on the floor a n d he stretches his legs , ,

his soles touch the one end and his head the other
end of the house and the point of his nose touches
,

the rooftree .That is the same said Conall , ,

as if you said that Cu chu lin n is dead I have .

not told of Cu chu lin n s death I call you as witness

’

to that .
Q u ite right my lad etc Another , , .

version j ust lately recovered in the Isles adds a very

graphic touch Cu chu lin n has a new house with
'

his head reachin g the spars an d the big sword on

his breast The L ay of the Heads which ends ,

the story of Cu chu lin n s death purports to be a ’

dialogue between E mer Cu chu lin n s wife and Conall ,

’

, ,

when the latter tells the n ames of the heroes he has

slain in reve nge for the Cu or Hound that is Cuchu ,

linn Fin ally E mer says

.

Con all it is t im e fo r u s
Cu chulin n in t he h to l ay e a rt

L e t u s fin is h t he diggin g of his g rave — m

H is n arr ow h ar d b e d of s to n e .
25 2 C ELTIC M YT H OLO GY AN D R EL IGI ON .

w as raised over it an d after the in troduction of

,

Ogam writing a pillar —

,
stone was placed in or on
the mou n d with the person s name in O gams There
’
.

is no mention of any co ffin but the L ay of the

,

Heads evidently points to the body being at

times boxed in with stones O ne thing appears
.

to be certain the small box graves three feet by ,

two made of fl ags ton es where the body is cramped

, ,

u p— knees to chin and lying on its side as a rule,

,

are not Celtic graves at all They do not suit

.

the literary references to burial among the Gael ,

nor do they correspond with the finds in Celtic

tumuli in France and Britain These burials must
.
,

therefore be attributed to the earlier race or races

which the Celts found in these islands when they
first came here from mid E urope .
 E R R ATA .

Page 1 9, lin e 4, for A ppollo re a d A pollo .

lin e 1 3 , for paricid e rea d pa rricide .

Pag e 2 4 ,
lin e 2 9, for a s re a d as
’
.

lin e 3 0 , for feidh rea d réidh .

Page 2 5 , lin e 2, for a s read a s

'
.

Pa ge 4 2 , lin e 1 8, fo r D ia ncet re a d D iancecht .

Page 6 5 ,
lin e 3, af te r mitior in sert a m .

Page 6 8 ,
lin e 3, w ith.

lin e 5 , fo r B agn iati r e a d B aginati .

lin e 16 , fo r M a tris rea d M atres .

P age fo r vemfied r ea d vitr ified

’

7 1 , lin e 1 1, .

Page 74 , lin e 1, for Vareliu s r e a d Va leriu s .

lin e 2 9, a ft er 6 5 ad d A D . .

Page 7 8 lin e 19 for A mmin s rea d A mmian u s

, ,
au .

Page 92 lin e 2 1 an d p age 93 lin e 2 for G reidw al read G reida w l

, , , ,
.

Pa ge 1 0 7 lin e 2 6 an d pa ssim fo r F irbolgs read F irbolg

, ,
.

Page 1 1 3 lin e 2 8 for D a na a n s re a d D a n an n

, ,
.

Page 1 1 4 lin e 1 4 et c for F ir D ommms re a d F ir D on na »

, ,
. ,
- -
.

Page 1 16 lin e 2 9 for F ru bolg rea d F irbolg

, ,
e .

Pa ge 1 2 0 lin e 8 fo r al re a d all
, ,
.

Page 1 3 5 lin e 2 9 fo r lelcbili r a d llebilis

, ,
s e .

Page 1 38 , lin e 20, fo r w 11 re ad P w yll .

Page 15 6 , lin es , 5 , 11
,
an d p a ge 2 91 lin e ,
or Cru a ich
6, f re a d
Gw ach.

Page 1 6 0 ,
lin e 20, fo r L eogaire re a d L oegaire .

Page 1 77 ,
lin e 1, for B oro mh re a d B oroimhe .
 N OTE S .

Page 5 3 . H er e p age 93 M a c B ain implie s t h at the G ae l

an d o n

of C orn wall D e von an d Wales k n ow n t o h ave cc

, ,

cu pie d t ho se dis t rict s in t h e l a t t e r p art of t he R om an

o ccu pation of B rit ain were t he dire ct re p re sen t ative s ,

of t he e arly G aelic wa ve of c on q u e st which he m en

tion s o n p age 5 3 His m a tur e vie w is t o b e fo un d
.

on p a ge 3 8 3 of his e dit ion of S ken e s H ighla n d ers

'
.

N o G ael e ver s e t his foot o n B rit ish s oil s a ve fr om

a vess el t h at h ad pu t o u t fr om I r e la n d
"
.

P ages 1 5 0 2 0 9 ,
N o de scrip tion of an y Celtic temple is vou ch
.

s afe d u s G re gory of Tu rin giv es t he foll owin g

.
"

descript ion of the t e m ple of V ass o ca le tis a n ame o f ,

M e r cu riu s D umias the god of t he Ar verni : ,

B ut
Chro cu s kin g of t he A rv ern i cam e an d set o n fir e
, , ,

an d u t t erl y ov er t u rn e d t h a t t em p le which t he y call

in G aulis h V a s so galat e I t w a s built an d st ablished

,
.

in a won de rf u l m an n er I t s w all w a s dou b le ; o n .

t he in side it w a s for m e d of s m all s t on e s b u t o n t he ,

ou t sid e it w a s fo rme d of sq u are st on es he wn T he .

wall h ad a t hickn e ss of thirty feet Within the .

te mple w a s a do rn e d wit h m arbl e an d m o s aic work .

Th e fl oor w a s l aid with marb le an d the r oof w a s

cov ere d wit h l ea d .

Page 1 5 9 . E ight y on e m ar rie d m en-

i a n in e n in es ,
. .
,
.

Pa ge 1 6 4 B elt an e : M acB ain s matu re vie w is given in his

.
’

D iction ary a s foll ows z—b eall tu inn M ay d ay I r , ,

.

béa ltein e E I r bell m e bellta in e

,
. .
( S t oke s) ,

bright fire whe re belo is allie d to E n g ba le b ale

,
.

fir e Ag S ba el Lith ba lms white The G aulish

. .
,
.
,
.

god n ame s B elen os an d B elis a ma are also hen ce an d

-

Sh akesp e ar e s G y m belin e Tw o n e edfir e s we re

’
-
.

lighte d o n B elt an e a m o n g the G ae l b et we en which ,

t he y dr ov e t heir cat tle fo r p u rifi cation an d lu c k

hen ce the p roverb : E ad ar d a t hein e B he allt uin n ,

b et ween t w o B elt an e fir es .

P age 16 9 lin e 6 : for an other possib le vie w 0 D iction ar y 5 v

,
. . .

sa mhm n n
’

P a ge 2 2 5 . Apoll o mu st n o t be con tamin ate d with de ath .

Yet c on sider t he plagu e s en t by Apoll o in I lia d I .