chapter viii

, on Archaeology).

[12] An Irish mystic, and seer of great power, with whom I have often discussed the Fairy-Faith in its details, regards 'fairy paths' or 'fairy passes' as actual magnetic arteries, so to speak, through which circulates the earth's magnetism.

[13] 'Irish scholars differ as to the signification of _Meadha_. Some say that it is the genitive case of _Meadh_, the name of some ancient chieftain who was buried in the hill. _Knock Magh_ is the spelling often used by writers who hold that the name means "Hill of the Plain".'--JOHN GLYNN.

[14] On September 8, 1909, about a year after this testimony was given, Mr. ----, our seer-witness, at his own home near Grange, told to me again the same essential facts concerning his psychical experiences as during my first interview with him, and even repeated word for word the expressions the 'gentry' used in communicating with him. Therefore I feel that he is thoroughly sincere in his beliefs and descriptions, whatever various readers may think of them. As his neighbours said to me about him--and I interviewed a good many of them--'Some give in to him and some do not'; but they always spoke of him with respect, though a few naturally consider him eccentric. At the time of our second meeting (which gave me a chance to revise the evidence as first taken down) Mr. ---- made this additional statement:--'The _gentry_ do not tell all their secrets, and I do not understand many things about them, nor can I be sure that everything I tell concerning them is exact.'

[15] A learned and more careful Irish seer thinks this head-dress should really be described as an aura.

[16] I have been told by a friend in California, who is a student of psychical sciences, that there exist in certain parts of that state, notably in the Yosemite Valley, as the Red Men seem to have known, according to their traditions, invisible races exactly comparable to the 'gentry' of this Ben Bulbin country such as our seer-witness describes them and as other seers in Ireland have described them, and quite like the 'people of peace' as described by Kirk, the seventh son, in his _Secret Commonwealth_ (see this study, p. 85 n.). These California races are said to exist now, as the Irish and Scotch invisible races are said to exist now, by seers who can behold them; and, like the latter races, are described as a distinct order of beings who have never been in physical embodiments. If we follow the traditions of the Red Men, the Yosemite invisible tribes are probably but a few of many such tribes scattered throughout the North American continent; and equally with their Celtic relatives they are described as a warlike race with more than human powers over physical nature, and as able to subject or destroy men.

[17] This refers to a tale told by Hugh Currid, in August, 1908, about Father Patrick and Father Dominick, which is here omitted because re-investigation during my second visit to Grange, in September, 1909, showed the tale to have been incorrectly reported. The same story, however, based upon facts, according to several reliable witnesses, was more accurately told by Patrick Waters at the time of my re-investigation, and appears on page 51.

[18] It happened that I had in my pocket a fossil, picked out of the neighbouring sea-cliff rocks, which are very rich in fossils. I showed this to Pat to ascertain if what he had had in his hand looked anything like it, and he at once said 'No'.

[19] After this Ossianic fragment, which has been handed down orally, I asked Pat if he had ever heard the old people talk about Dermot and Grania, and he replied:--'To be sure I have. Dermot and Grania used to live in these parts. Dermot stole Finn MacCoul's sister, and had to flee away. He took with him a bag of sand and a bunch of heather; and when he was in the mountains he would put the bag of sand under his head at night, and then tell everybody he met that he had slept on the sand (the sea-shore); and when on the sand he would use the bunch of heather for a pillow, and say he had slept on the heather (the mountains). And so nobody ever caught him at all.'

[20] As to probable proof that there was an Atlantis, see p. 333 n.

[21] This refers to Robert Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, who wrote _The Secret Commonwealth_ (see this study, p. 85 n.).

[22] In going from East Ireland to Galway, during the summer of 1908, I passed through the country near Mullingar, where there was then great excitement over a leprechaun which had been appearing to school-children and to many of the country-folk. I talked with some of the people as I walked through part of County Meath about this leprechaun, and most of them were certain that there could be such a creature showing itself; and I noticed, too, that they were all quite anxious to have a chance at the money-bag, if they could only see the little fellow with it. I told one good-natured old Irishman at Ballywillan--where I stopped over night--as we sat round his peat fire and pot of boiling potatoes, that the leprechaun was reported as captured by the police in Mullingar. 'Now that couldn't be, at all,' he said instantly, 'for everybody knows the leprechaun is a spirit and can't be caught by any blessed policeman, though it is likely one might get his gold if they got him cornered so he had no chance to run away. But the minute you wink or take your eyes off the little devil, sure enough he is gone.'

[23] Cf. David Fitzgerald, _Popular Tales of Ireland_, in _Rev. Celt._, iv. 185-92; and _All the Year Round_, New Series, iii. 'This woman guardian of the lake is called Toice Bhrean, "untidy" or "lazy wench". According to a local legend, she is said to have been originally the guardian of the sacred well, from which, owing to her neglect, Lough Gur issued; and in this rôle she corresponds to Liban, daughter of Eochaidh Finn, the guardian of the sacred well from which issued Lough Neagh, according to the _Dinnshenchas_ and the tale of Eochaidh MacMairido.'--J. F. LYNCH.

[24] It was on the bank of the little river Camóg, which flows near Lough Gur, that the Earl of Desmond one day saw Aine as she sat there combing her hair. Overcome with love for the fairy-goddess, he gained control over her through seizing her cloak, and made her his wife. From this union was born the enchanted son Geróid Iarla, even as Galahad was born to Lancelot by the Lady of the Lake. When Geróid had grown into young manhood, in order to surpass a woman he leaped right into a bottle and right out again, and this happened in the midst of a banquet in his father's castle. His father, the earl, had been put under taboo by Aine never to show surprise at anything her magician son might do, but now the taboo was forgotten, and hence broken, amid so unusual a performance; and immediately Geróid left the feasting and went to the lake. As soon as its water touched him he assumed the form of a goose, and he went swimming over the surface of the Lough, and disappeared on Garrod Island.

According to one legend, Aine, like the Breton _Morgan_, may sometimes be seen combing her hair, only half her body appearing above the lake. And in times of calmness and clear water, according to another legend, one may behold beneath Aine's lake the lost enchanted castle of her son Geróid, close to Garrod Island--so named from Geróid or 'Gerald'.

Geróid lives there in the under-lake world to this day, awaiting the time of his normal return to the world of men (see our chapter on re-birth, p. 386). But once in every seven years, on clear moonlight nights, he emerges temporarily, when the Lough Gur peasantry see him as a phantom mounted on a phantom white horse, leading a phantom or fairy cavalcade across the lake and land. A well-attested case of such an apparitional appearance of the earl has been recorded by Miss Anne Baily, the percipient having been Teigue O'Neill, an old blacksmith whom she knew (see _All the Year Round_, New Series, iii. 495-6, London, 1870). And Moll Riall, a young woman also known to Miss Baily, saw the phantom earl by himself, under very weird circumstances, by day, as she stood at the margin of the lake washing clothes (ib., p. 496).

Some say that Aine's true dwelling-place is in her hill; upon which on every St. John's Night the peasantry used to gather from all the immediate neighbourhood to view the moon (for Aine seems to have been a moon goddess, like Diana), and then with torches (_cliars_) made of bunches of straw and hay tied on poles used to march in procession from the hill and afterwards run through cultivated fields and amongst the cattle. The underlying purpose of this latter ceremony probably was--as is the case in the Isle of Man and in Brittany (see pp. 124 n., 273), where corresponding fire-ceremonies surviving from an ancient agricultural cult are still celebrated--to exorcise the land from all evil spirits and witches in order that there may be good harvests and rich increase of flocks. Sometimes on such occasions the goddess herself has been seen leading the sacred procession (cf. the Bacchus cult among the ancient Greeks, who believed that the god himself led his worshippers in their sacred torch-light procession at night, he being like Aine in this respect, more or less connected with fertility in nature). One night some girls staying on the hill late were made to look through a magic ring by Aine, and lo the hill was crowded with the folk of the fairy goddess who before had been invisible. The peasants always said that Aine is 'the best-hearted woman that ever lived' (cf. David Fitzgerald, _Popular Tales of Ireland_, in _Rev. Celt._, iv. 185-92).

In _Silva Gadelica_ (ii. 347-8), Aine is a daughter of Eogabal, a king of the Tuatha De Danann, and her abode is within the _sidh_, named on her account '_Aine cliach_, now Cnoc Aine, or Knockany'. In another passage we read that Manannan took Aine as his wife (ib., ii. 197). Also see in _Silva Gadelica_, ii, pp. 225, 576.

[25] 'In some local tales the _Bean-tighe_, or _Bean a'tighe_ is termed _Bean-sidhe_ (Banshee), and _Bean Chaointe_, or "wailing woman", and is identified with Aine. In an elegy by Ferriter on one of the Fitzgeralds, we read:--

Aine from her closely hid nest did awake, The woman of wailing from Gur's voicy lake.

'Thomas O'Connellan, the great minstrel bard, some of whose compositions are given by Hardiman, died at Lough Gur Castle about 1700, and was buried at New Church beside the lake. It is locally believed that Aine stood on a rock of Knock Adoon and "keened" O'Connellan whilst the funeral procession was passing from the castle to the place of burial.'--J. F. LYNCH.

A Banshee was traditionally attached to the Baily family of Lough Gur; and one night at dead of night, when Miss Kitty Baily was dying of consumption, her two sisters, Miss Anne Baily and Miss Susan Baily, who were sitting in the death chamber, 'heard such sweet and melancholy music as they had never heard before. It seemed to them like distant cathedral music.... The music was not in the house.... It seemed to come through the windows of the old castle, high in the air.' But when Miss Anne, who went downstairs with a lighted candle to investigate the weird phenomenon, had approached the ruined castle she thought the music came from above the house; 'and thus perplexed, and at last frightened, she returned.' Both sisters are on record as having distinctly heard the fairy music, and for a long time (_All the Year Round_, New Series, iii. 496-7; London, 1870).

[26] 'The _Buachailleen_ is most likely one of the many forms assumed by the shape-shifting Fer Fi, the Lough Gur Dwarf, who at Tara, according to the _Dinnshenchas_ of Tuag Inbir (see _Folk-Lore_, iii; and A. Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_, i. 195 ff.), took the shape of a woman; and we may trace the tales of Geróid Iarla to Fer Fi, who, and not Geróid, is believed by the oldest of the Lough Gur peasantry to be the owner of the lake. Fer Fi is the son of Eogabal of Sídh Eogabail, and hence brother to Aine. He is also foster-son of Manannan Mac Lir, and a Druid of the Tuatha De Danann (cf. _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 225; also _Dinnshenchas_ of Tuag Inbir). At Lough Gur various tales are told by the peasants concerning the Dwarf, and he is still stated by them to be the brother of Aine. For the sake of experiment I once spoke very disrespectfully of the Dwarf to John Punch, an old man, and he said to me in a frightened whisper: "Whisht! he'll hear you." Edward Fitzgerald and other old men were very much afraid of the Dwarf.'--J. F. LYNCH.

[27] 'Compare the tale of Excalibur, the Sword of King Arthur, which King Arthur before his death ordered Sir Bedivere to cast into the lake whence it had come.'--J. F. LYNCH.

[28] 'It is commonly believed by young and old at Lough Gur that a human being is drowned in the Lake once every seven years, and that it is the _Bean Fhionn_, or "White Lady" who thus _takes_ the person.'--J. F. LYNCH.

[29] It was the belief of the Rev. Robert Kirk, as expressed by him in his _Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies_, that the fairy tribes are a distinct order of created beings possessing human-like intelligence and supernormal powers, who live and move about in this world invisible to all save men and women of the second-sight (see this study, pp. 89, 91 n.).

[30] The Rev. Robert Kirk, in his _Secret Commonwealth_, defines the second-sight, which enabled him to see the 'good people', as 'a rapture, transport, and sort of death'. He and our present witness came into the world with this abnormal faculty; but there is the remarkable case to record of the late Father Allen Macdonald, who during a residence of twenty years on the tiny and isolated Isle of Erisgey, Western Hebrides, acquired the second-sight, and was able some years before he died there (in 1905) to exercise it as freely as though he had been a natural-born seer.

[31] In his note to _Le Chant des Trépassés_ (_Barzaz Breiz_, p. 507), Villemarqué reports that in some localities in Lower Brittany on All Saints Night libations of milk are poured over the tombs of the dead. This is proof that the nature of fairies in Scotland and of the dead in Brittany is thought to be the same.

[32] 'In many parts of the Highlands, where the same deity is known, the stone into which women poured the libation of milk is called _Leac na Gruagaich_, "Flag-stone of the Gruagach." If the libation was omitted in the evening, the best cow in the fold would be found dead in the morning.'--ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL.

[33] Dr. George Henderson, in _The Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland_ (Glasgow, 1901), p. 101, says:--'_Shony_ was a sea-god in Lewis, where ale was sacrificed to him at Hallowtide. After coming to the church of St. Mulvay at night a man was sent to wade into the sea, saying: "Shony, I give you this cup of ale hoping that you will be so kind as to give us plenty of sea-ware for enriching our ground the ensuing year." As _o_ from Norse would become _o_, and _fn_ becomes _nn_, one thinks of _Sjöfn_, one of the goddesses in the Edda. In any case the word is Norse.' It seems, therefore, that the Celtic stock in Lewis have adopted the name _Shony_ or _Shoney_, and possibly also the god it designates, through contact with Norsemen; but, at all events, they have assimilated him to their own fairy pantheon, as we can see in their celebrating special libations to him on the ancient Celtic feast of the dead and fairies, Halloween.

[34] This, as Dr. Carmichael told me, I believe very justly represents the present state of folk-lore in many parts of the Highlands. There are, it is true, old men and women here and there who know much about fairies, but they, fearing the ridicule of a younger and 'educated' generation, are generally unwilling to admit any belief in fairies.

[35] The following note by Miss Tolmie is of great interest and value, especially when one bears in mind Cuchulainn's traditional relation with Skye (see p. 4):--'The Koolian range should never be written _Cu-chullin_. The name is written here with a K, to ensure its being correctly uttered and written. It is probably a Norse word; but, as yet, a satisfactory explanation of its origin and meaning has not been published. In Gaelic the range is always alluded to (in the masculine singular) as the Koolian.'

[36] Dr. Alexander Carmichael found that the scene of this widespread tale is variously laid, in Argyll, in Perth, in Inverness, and in other counties of the Highlands. From his own collection of folk-songs he contributes the following verses to illustrate the song (existing in numerous versions), which the maiden while invisible used to sing to the cows of Colin:--

_Crodh Chailean! crodh Chailean! Crodh Chailean mo ghaoil, Crodh Chailean mo chridhe, Air lighe cheare fraoish._

(Cows of Colin! cows of Colin! Cows of Colin of my love, Cows of Colin of my heart, In colour of the heather-hen.)

In one of Dr. Carmichael's versions, 'Colin's wife and her infant child had been lifted away by the fairies to a fairy bower in the glen between the hills.' There she was kept nursing the babes which the fairies had stolen, until 'upon Hallow Eve, when all the bowers were open', Colin by placing a steel tinder above the lintel of the door to the fairy bower was enabled to enter the bower and in safety lead forth his wife and child.

[37] In this beautiful fairy legend we recognize the fairy woman as one of the Tuatha De Danann-like fairies--one of the women of the _Sidhe_, as Irish seers call them.

[38] It is interesting to know that the present inhabitants of Barra, or at least most of them, are the descendants of Irish colonists who belonged to the clan Eoichidh of County Cork, and who emigrated from there to Barra in A. D. 917. They brought with them their old customs and beliefs, and in their isolation their children have kept these things alive in almost their primitive Celtic purity. For example, besides their belief in fairies, May Day, Baaltine, and November Eve are still rigorously observed in the pagan way, and so is Easter--for it, too, before being claimed by Christianity, was a sun festival. And how beautiful it is in this age to see the youths and maidens and some of the elders of these simple-hearted Christian fisher-folk climb to the rocky heights of their little island-home on Easter morn to salute the sun as it rises out of the mountains to the east, and to hear them say that the sun dances with joy that morning because the Christ is risen. In a similar way they salute the new moon, making as they do so the sign of the cross. Finn Barr is said to have been a County Cork man of great sanctity; and he probably came to Barra with the colony, for he is the patron saint of the island, and hence its name. (To my friend, Mr. Michael Buchanan, of Barra, I am indebted for this history and these traditions of his native isle.)

[39] '_Sluagh_, "hosts," the spirit-world. The "hosts" are the spirits of mortals who have died.... According to one informant, the spirits fly about in great clouds, up and down the face of the world like the starlings, and come back to the scenes of their earthly transgressions. No soul of them is without the clouds of earth, dimming the brightness of the works of God, nor can any win heaven till satisfaction is made for the sins of earth.'--ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL, _Carmina Gadelica_, ii. 330.

[40] This curious tale suggests that certain of the fairy women who entice mortals to their love in modern times are much the same, if not the same, as the _succubi_ of Middle-Age mystics. But it is not intended by this observation to confuse the higher orders of the _Sidhe_ and all the fairy folk like the fays who come from Avalon with _succubi_; though _succubi_ and fairy women in general were often confused and improperly identified the one with the other. It need not be urged in this example of a 'fairy woman' that we have to do not with a being of flesh and blood, whatever various readers may think of her.

[41] '"Willy-the-Fairy," otherwise known as William Cain, is the musician referred to by the late Mr. John Nelson (p. 131). The latter's statement that William Cain played one of these fairy tunes at one of our Manx entertainments in Peel is perfectly correct.'--SOPHIA MORRISON.

[42] This is the Mid-world of Irish seers, who would be inclined to follow the Manx custom and call the fairies 'the People of the Middle World'.

[43] 'May 11 == in Manx _Oie Voaldyn_, "May-day Eve." On this evening the fairies were supposed to be peculiarly active. To propitiate them and to ward off the influence of evil spirits, and witches, who were also

## active at this time, green leaves or boughs and _sumark_ or primrose

flowers were strewn on the threshold, and branches of the _cuirn_ or mountain ash made into small crosses without the aid of a knife, which was on no account to be used (steel or iron in any form being taboo to fairies and spirits), and stuck over the doors of the dwelling-houses and cow-houses. Cows were further protected from the same influences by having the _Bollan-feaill-Eoin_ (John's feast wort) placed in their stalls. This was also one of the occasions on which no one would give fire away, and on which fires were and are still lit on the hills to drive away the fairies.'--SOPHIA MORRISON.

[44] I am wholly indebted to Miss Morrison for these Manx verses and their translation, which I have substituted for Mrs. Moore's English rendering. Miss Morrison, after my return to Oxford, saw Mrs. Moore and took them down from her, a task I was not well fitted to do when the tale was told.

[45] It has been suggested, and no doubt correctly, that these murmuring sounds heard on Dalby Mountain are due to the action of sea-waves, close at hand, washing over shifting masses of pebbles on the rock-bound shore. Though this be the true explanation of the phenomenon itself, it only proves the attribution of cause to be wrong, and not the underlying animistic conception of spiritual beings.

[46] In this mythological role, Manannan is apparently a sun god or else the sun itself; and the Manx coat of arms, which is connected with him, being a sun symbol, suggests to us now ages long prior to history, when the Isle of Man was a Sacred Isle dedicated to the cult of the Supreme God of Light and Life, and when all who dwelt thereon were regarded as the Children of the Sun.

[47] Sir John Rhys tells me that this Snowdon fairy-lore was contributed by the late Lady Rhys, who as a girl lived in the neighbourhood of Snowdon and heard very much from the old people there, most of whom believed in the fairies; and she herself then used to be warned, in the manner mentioned, against being carried away into the under-lake Fairyland.

[48] Cf. _Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx_, pp. 683-4 n., where Sir John Rhys says of his friend, Professor A. C. Haddon:--'I find also that he, among others, has anticipated me in my theory as to the origins of the fairies: witness the following extract from the syllabus of a lecture delivered by him at Cardiff in 1894 on _Fairy Tales_:--"What are the fairies?--Legendary origin of the fairies. It is evident from fairy literature that there is a mixture of the possible and the impossible, of fact and fancy. Part of fairydom refers to (1) spirits that never were embodied: other fairies are (2) spirits of environment, nature or local spirits, and household or domestic spirits; (3) spirits of the organic world, spirits of plants, and spirits of animals; (4) spirits of men, or ghosts; and (5) witches and wizards, or men possessed with other spirits. All these, and possibly other elements, enter into the fanciful aspects of Fairyland, but there is a large residuum of real occurrences; these point to a clash of races, and we may regard many of these fairy sagas as stories told by men of the Iron Age of events which happened to men of the Bronze Age in their conflicts with men of the Neolithic Age, and possibly these, too, handed on traditions of the Paleolithic Age."'

[49] This is the one tale I have found in North Wales about a midwife and fairies--a type of tale common to West Ireland, Isle of Man, Cornwall, and Brittany, but in a reverse version, the midwife there being (as she is sometimes in Welsh versions) one of the human race called in by fairies. If evidence of the oneness of the Celtic mind were needed we should find it here (cf. pp. 50, 54, 127, 175, 182, 205). There are in this type of fairy-tale, as the advocates of the Pygmy Theory may well hold, certain elements most likely traceable to a folk-memory of some early race, or special class of some early race, who knew the secrets of midwifery and the use of medicines when such knowledge was considered magical. But in each example of this midwife story there is the germ idea--no matter what other ideas cluster round it--that fairies, like spirits, are only to be seen by an extra-human vision, or, as psychical researchers might say, by clairvoyance.

[50] After this remarkable story, Mrs. Jones told me about another very rare psychical experience of her own, which is here recorded because it illustrates the working of the psychological law of the association of ideas:--'My husband, Price Jones, was drowned some forty years ago, within four miles of Arms Head, near Bangor, on Friday at midday; and that night at about one o'clock he appeared to me in our bedroom and laid his head on my breast. I tried to ask him where he came from, but before I could get my breath he was gone. I believed at the time that he was out at sea perfectly safe and well. But next day, Saturday, at about noon, a message came announcing his death. I was as fully awake as one can be when I thus saw the spirit of my husband. He returned to me a second time about six months later.' Had this happened in West Ireland, it is almost certain that public opinion would have declared that Price Jones had been _taken_ by the 'gentry' or 'good people'.

[51] Here we find the _Tylwyth Teg_ showing quite the same characteristics as Welsh elves in general, as Cornish pixies, and as Breton _corrigans_, or _lutins_; that is, given to dancing at night, to stealing children, and to deceiving travellers.

[52] This folk-belief partially sustains the view put forth in our chapter on Environment, that St. David's during pagan times was already a sacred spot and perhaps then the seat of a druidic oracle.

[53] Here we have an example of the _Tylwyth Teg_ being identified with a prehistoric race, quite in accordance with the argument of the Pygmy Theory. We have, however, as the essential idea, that the _Tylwyth Teg_ heard singing were the spirits of this prehistoric race. Thus our contention that ancestral spirits play a leading part in the fairy-belief is sustained, and the Pygmy Theory appears quite at its true relative value--as able to explain one subordinate ethnological strand in the complex fabric of the belief.

[54] This story is much like the one recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis about a boy going to Fairyland and returning to his mother (see this study, p. 324). The possibility that it may be an independent version of the folk-tale told to Cambrensis which has continued to live on among the people makes it highly interesting.

Mr. Jones gives further evidence on the re-birth doctrine in Wales (pp. 388-9), and concerning Merlin and sacrifice to appease place-spirits (pp. 436-7).

[55] As a result of his researches, the Rev. T. M. Morgan has just published a new work, entitled _The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Newchurch_ (Carmarthen, 1910).

[56] In these last two anecdotes, as in modern 'Spiritualism', we observe a popular practice of necromancy or the calling up of spirits, so-called 'materialization' of spirits, and spirit communication through a human 'medium', who is the _dyn hysbys_, as well as divination, the revealing of things hidden and the foretelling of future events. This is direct evidence that Welsh fairies or the _Tylwyth Teg_ were formerly the same to Welshmen as spirits are to Spiritualists now. We seem, therefore, to have proof of our Psychological Theory (see chap. xi).

[57] Here we have a combination of many distinct elements and influences. As among mortals, so among the _Tylwyth Teg_ there is a king; and this conception may have arisen directly from anthropomorphic influences on the ancient Brythonic religion, or it may have come directly from druidic teachings. The locating of _Gwydion ab Don_, like a god, in a heaven-world, rather than like his counterpart, _Gwynn ab Nudd_, in a hades-world, is probably due to a peculiar admixture of Druidism and Christianity: at first, both gods were probably druidic or pagan, and the same, but _Gwynn ab Nudd_ became a demon or evil god under Christian influences, while _Gwydion ab Don_ seems to have curiously retained his original good reputation in spite of Christianity (cf. p. 320). The name _Gwenhidw_ reminds us at once of Arthur's queen _Gwenhwyvar_ or 'White Apparition'; and the sheep of _Gwenhidw_ can properly be explained by the Naturalistic Theory. It seems, however, that analogy was imaginatively suggested between the Queen _Gwenhidw_ as resembling the Welsh White Lady or a ghost-like being, and her sheep, the clouds, also of a necessarily ghost-like character. All this is an admirable illustration of the great complexity of the Fairy-Faith.

[58] The parallel between this Welsh method of conferring vision and the Breton method is very striking (cf. p. 215).

[59] This is the substance of the story as it was told to me by a gentleman who lives within sight of the farm where the image is said to have been found. And one day he took me to the house and showed me the room and the place in the wall where the find was made. The old manor is one of the solidest and most picturesque of its kind in Wales, and, in spite of its extreme age, well preserved. He, being as a native Welshman of the locality well acquainted with its archaeology, thinks it safe to place an age of six to eight hundred years on the manor. What is interesting about this matter of age arises from the query, Was the image one of the Virgin or of some Christian saint, or was it a Druid idol? Both opinions are current in the neighbourhood, but there is a good deal in favour of the second. The region, the little valley on whose side stands the Pentre Evan Cromlech, the finest in Britain, is believed to have been a favourite place with the ancient Druids; and in the oak groves which still exist there tradition says there was once a flourishing pagan school for neophytes, and that the cromlech instead of being a place for interments or for sacrifices was in those days completely enclosed, forming like other cromlechs a darkened chamber in which novices when initiated were placed for a certain number of days--the interior being called the 'Womb or Court of Ceridwen'.

[60] The same remedy is prescribed in Brittany when mischievous _lutins_ or _corrigans_ lead a traveller astray, in Ireland when the _good people_ lead a traveller astray; and at Rollright, Oxfordshire, England, an old woman told me that it is efficacious against being led astray through witchcraft. Obviously the fairy and witch spell are alike.

[61] The same sort of a story as this is told in Lower Brittany, where the _corrigans_ or _lutins_ slaughter a farmer's fat cow or ox and invite the farmer to partake of the feast it provides. If he does so with good grace and humour, he finds his cow or ox perfectly whole in the morning, but if he refuses to join the feast or joins it unwillingly, in the morning he is likely to find his cow or ox actually dead and eaten.

[62] See Sir John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-Lore: Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), _passim_.

[63] The _New English Dictionary_, s.v. _Pixy_, gives rather vaguely a Swedish dialect word, _pysg_, a small fairy. It also mentions _pix_ as a Devon imprecation, 'a pix take him.' I suspect the last is only an _umlaut_ form of a common Shakespearean imprecation. If not, it is interesting, and reminds one of the fate of Margery Dawe, 'Piskies came and carr'd her away.'

[64] 'Some say that the Phoenicians never came to Cornwall at all, and that their Ictis was Vectis (the Isle of Wight) or even Thanet.'--HENRY JENNER.

[65] 'This is, I think, the usual Cornish belief.'--HENRY JENNER.

[66] 'About Porth Curnow and the Logan Rock there are little spots of earth in the face of the granite cliffs where sea-daisies (thrift) and other wild flowers grow. These are referred to the sea pisky, and are known as "piskies' gardens."'--HENRY JENNER.

[67] I was told by another Cornishman that, in a spirit of municipal rivalry and fun, the Penzance people like to taunt the people of Newlyn (now almost a suburb of Penzance) by calling them _Buccas_, and that the Newlyn townsmen very much resent being so designated. Thus what no doubt was originally an ancient cult to some local sea-divinity called _Bucca_, has survived as folk-humour. (See Mr. Jenner's Introduction, p. 164.)

[68] 'Another version, which is more usual, is that the pisky anointed the person's eyes and so rendered itself visible.'--HENRY JENNER.

[69] This is a natural outcropping of greenstone on a commanding hill just above the vicarage in Newlyn, and concerning it many weird legends survive. In pre-Christian times it was probably one of the Cornish sacred spots for the celebration of ancient rites--probably in honour of the Sun--and for divination.

[70] For more about the Tolcarne Troll see chapter on Celtic Re-birth p. 391.

[71] Mr. John B. Cornish, solicitor, of Penzance, told me that when he once suggested to an old miner who fully believed in the 'knockers', that the noises they were supposed to make were due to material causes, the old miner became quite annoyed, and said, 'Well, I guess I have ears to hear.'

[72] For the Cornish folk-lore already published by Miss M. A. Courtney, the reader is referred to her work, _Cornish Feasts and Folk-Lore_ (Penzance, 1890).

[73] A curious holed stone standing between two low menhirs on the moors beyond the Lanyon Dolmen, near Madron; but in Borlase's time (cf. his _Antiquities of Cornwall_, ed. 1769, p. 177) the three stones were not as now in a direct line. The Men-an-Tol has aroused much speculation among archaeologists as to its probable use or meaning. No doubt it was astronomical and religious in its significance; and it may have been a calendar stone with which ancient priests took sun observations (cf. Sir Norman Lockyer, _Stonehenge and Other Stone Monuments_); or it may have been otherwise related to a sun cult, or to some pagan initiatory rites.

[74] I asked what a nath is, and Mr. Spragg explained:--'A nath is a bird with a beak like that of a parrot, and with black and grey feathers. The naths live on sea-islands in holes like rabbits, and before they start to fly they first run.' The nath, as Mr. Henry Jenner informs me, is the same as the puffin (_Fratercula arctica_), called also in Cornwall a 'sea parrot'.

[75] Sometimes it is necessary to turn your coat inside out. A Zennor man said that to do the same thing with your socks or stockings is as good. In Ireland this strange psychological state of going astray comes from walking over a fairy domain, over a confusing-sod, or getting into a fairy pass.

[76] Cf. F. M. Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1887), i. 177-97; following the account of Ann Drann, a servant at Coat-Fual, Plouguernevel (Côtes-du-Nord), November 1855.

[77] My Breton friend, M. Goulven Le Scour, was born November 20, 1851, at Kerouledic in Plouneventer, Finistère. He is an antiquarian, a poet, and, as we shall see, a folk-lorist of no mean ability. In 1902, at the _Congrès d'Auray_ of Breton poets and singers, he won two prizes for poetry, and, in 1901, a prize at the _Congrès de Quimperlé_ or _Concours de Recueils poétiques_.

[78] This story concerns persons still living, and, at M. Le Scour's suggestion, I have omitted their names.

[79] By a Carnac family I was afterwards given a sprig of such blessed box-wood, and was assured that its exorcizing power is still recognized by all old Breton families, most of whom seem to possess branches of it.

[80] This idea seems related to the one in the popular Morbihan legend of how St. Cornely, the patron saint of the country and the saint who presides over the Alignements and domestic horned animals, changed into upright stones the pagan forces opposing him when he arrived near Carnac; and these stones are now the famous Alignements of Carnac.

[81] Luzel, op. cit., iii. 226-311; i. 128-218; ii. 349-54.

[82] Ib., ii. 269; cf. our study, p. 93.

[83] According to the annotations to a legend recorded by Villemarqué, in his _Barzaz Breiz_, pp. 39-44, and entitled the _Submersion de la Ville d'Is_, St. Guenolé was traditionally the founder of the first monastery raised in Armorica; and Dahut the princess stole the key from her sleeping father in order fittingly to crown a banquet and midnight debaucheries which were being held in honour of her lover, the Black Prince.

[84] Luzel, op. cit., ii. 257-68; i. 3-13.

[85] P. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1882), i. 100.

[86] General references: Sébillot, ib.; and his _Folk-Lore de France_ (Paris, 1905).

[87] Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i. 73-4.

[88] Ib., i. 102, 103-4.

[89] Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i. 83.

[90] Ib., i. 90-1.

[91] Cf. ib., i. 109.

[92] Cf. ib., i. 74-5, &c.

[93] Cf. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i. 74-5, &c.

[94] In Lower Brittany the _corrigan_ tribes collectively are commonly called _Corrikêt_, masculine plural of _Corrik_, diminutive of _Corr_, meaning 'Dwarf'; or _Corriganed_, feminine plural of _Corrigan_, meaning 'Little Dwarf'. Many other forms are in use. (Cf. R. F. Le Men, _Trad. et supers. de la Basse-Bretagne_, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 226-7.)

[95] Cf. _Foyer breton_, i. 199.

[96] By 'E. R.', in _Mélusine_ (Paris), i. 114.

[97] This account about _corrigans_, more rational than any preceding it, may possibly refer to a dream or trance-like state of mind on the part of the young girl; and if it does, we can then compare the presence of a mortal at this _corrigan_ sabbath, or even at the ordinary witches' sabbath, to the presence of a mortal in Fairyland. And according to popular Breton belief, as reliable peasants assure me, during dreams, trance, or ecstasy, the soul is supposed to depart from the body and actually see spirits of all kinds in another world, and to be then under their influence. While many details in the more conventional _corrigan_ stories appear to reflect a folk-memory of religious dances and songs, and racial, social, and traditional usages of the ancient Bretons, the animistic background of them could conceivably have originated from psychical experiences such as this girl is supposed to have had.

[98] Villemarqué, _Barzaz Breiz_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 33, 35.

[99] J. Loth, in _Annales de Bretagne_ (Rennes), x. 78-81.

[100] E. Renan, _Essais de morale et de critique_ (Paris, 1859), p. 451.

[101] In Ireland it is commonly held that a seer beholding a fairy can make a non-seer see it also by coming into bodily _rapport_ with the non-seer (cf. p. 152).

[102] It is sometimes believed that phantom washerwomen are undergoing penance for having wilfully brought on an abortion by their work, or else for having strangled their babe.

[103] Every parish in the uncorrupted parts of Brittany has its own _Ankou_, who is the last man to die in the parish during the year. Each King of the Dead, therefore, never holds office for more than twelve months, since during that period he is certain to have a successor. Sometimes the _Ankou_ is Death itself personified. In the Morbihan, the _Ankou_ occasionally may be seen as an apparition entering a house where a death is about to occur; though more commonly he is never seen, his knocking only is heard, which is the rule in Finistère. In Welsh mythology, Gwynn ab Nudd, king of the world of the dead, is represented as playing a rôle parallel to that of the Breton _Ankou_, when he goes forth with his fierce hades-hounds hunting the souls of the dying. (Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 155.)

[104] Cf. A. Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort_; Introduction by L. Marillier (Paris, 1893), pp. 31, 40.

[105] Cf. Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 47, 46, 7-8, 40, 45, 46.

[106] Cf. Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier, p. 43.

[107] Ib.; Notes by G. Dottin (Paris, 1902), p. 44.

[108] Ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 19, 23, 68.

[109] Cf. ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 53 ff., 68.

[110] A Breton night's entertainment held in a peasant's cottage, stable, or other warm outhouse. In parts of the Morbihan and of Finistère where the old Celtic life has escaped modern influences, almost every winter night the Breton Celts, like their cousins in very isolated parts of West Ireland and in the Western Hebrides, find their chief enjoyment in story-telling festivals, some of which I have been privileged to attend.

[111] The word in the MS. is _boiteux_, and in relation to a devil or demon this seems to be the proper rendering.

[112] B. Spencer and F. T. Gillen, _Nat. Tribes of Cent. Aust._ (London, 1899), chapters xi, xv.

[113] R. H. Codrington, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ x. 261; _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp. 123, 151, &c.; also cf. F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_ (London, 1899), pp. 281 ff., &c.

[114] H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_ (London, 1868), pp. 226-7.

[115] C. G. Leland, _Memoirs_ (London, 1893), i. 34.

[116] R. C. Temple, _Legends of the Panjab_, in _Folk-Lore_, x. 395.

[117] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_ (London, 1900), _passim_.

[118] Hardouin, _Traditions et superstitions siamoises_, in _Rev. Trad. Pop._, v. 257-67.

[119] Ella G. Sykes, _Persian Folklore_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii. 263.

[120] I am directly indebted for this information to a friend who is a member of Lincoln College, Oxford, Mr. Mohammed Said Loutfy, of Barkein, Lower Egypt. Mr. Loutfy has come into frequent and very intimate contact with these animistic beliefs in his country, and he tells me that they are common to all classes of almost all races in modern Egypt. The common Egyptian spellings are _afreet_, in the singular, and _afaareet_ in the plural, for spiritual beings, who are usually described by percipients as of pygmy stature, but as being able to assume various sizes and shapes. The _djinns_, on the contrary, are described as tall spiritual beings possessing great power.

[121] J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folk-Lore_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 131-7, 139-46, 163.

[122] L. Sainéan, _Les Fées méchantes d'après les croyances du peuple roumain_, in _Mélusine_, x. 217-26, 243-54.

[123] Cf. C. G. Leland, _Etruscan Roman Remains in Pop. Trad._ (London, 1892), pp. 162, 165, 223, &c.

[124] H. C. Coote, _The Neo-Latin Fay_, in _Folk-Lore Record_, ii. 1-18.

[125] We cannot here attempt to present, even in outline, all the complex ethnological arguments for and against the existence in prehistoric times of European pygmy races. Attention ought, however, to be called to the remarkable finds recently made in the _Grotte des Enfants_, at Mentone, France. A certain number of well-preserved skeletons of probably the earliest men who dwelt on the present land surface of Europe, which were found there, suggest that different racial stocks, possibly in succession, have preceded the Aryan stock. The first race, as indicated by two small negroid-looking skeletons of a woman, 1,580 mm. (62·21 inches), and of a boy 1,540 mm. (60·63 inches) in height, found in the lowest part of the _Grotte_, was probably Ethiopian. The succeeding race was probably Mongolian, judging from other remains found in another part of the same _Grotte_, and especially from the Chancelade skeleton with its distinctly Eskimo appearance, only 1,500 mm. (59·06 inches) high, discovered near Perigneux, France. The race succeeding this one was possibly the one out of which our own Aryan race evolved. In relation to the Pygmy Theory these recent finds are of the utmost significance. They confirm Dr. Windle's earlier conclusion, that, contrary to the argument advanced to support the Pygmy Theory, the neolithic races of Central Europe were not true pygmies--a people whose average stature does not exceed four feet nine inches (cf. B. C. A. Windle, _Tyson's Pygmies of the Ancients_, London, 1894, Introduction). And, furthermore, these finds show, as far as any available ethnological data can, that there are no good reasons for believing that European and, therefore, Celtic lands were once dominated by pygmies even in epochs so remote that we can only calculate them in tens of thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is very highly probable that a folk-memory of Lappish, Pictish, or other small but not true pygmy races, has superficially coloured the modern fairy traditions of Northern Scotland, of the Western Hebrides (where what may prove to have been Lapps' or Picts' houses undoubtedly remain), of Northern Ireland, of the Isle of Man, and slightly, if indeed at all, the fairy traditions of other parts of the Celtic world (cf. David MacRitchie, _The Testimony of Tradition_, London, 1890; and his criticism of our own Psychological Theory, in the _Celtic Review_, October 1909 and January 1910, entitled respectively, _A New Solution of the Fairy Problem_, and _Druids and Mound-Dwellers_).

Again, the very small flint implements frequently found in Celtic lands and elsewhere have perhaps very reasonably been attributed to a long-forgotten pygmy race; though we must bear in mind in this connexion that it would be very unwise to conclude definitely that no race save a small-statured race could have made and used such implements: American Red Men were, when discovered by Europeans, and still are, making and using the tiniest of arrow-heads, precisely the same in size and design as those found in Celtic lands and attributed to pygmies. The use of small flint implements for special purposes, e. g. arrows for shooting small game like birds, for spearing fish, and for use in warfare as poisoned arrows, seems to have been common to most primitive peoples of normal stature. Contemporary pygmy races, far removed from Celtic lands, are also using them, and no doubt their prehistoric ancestors used them likewise.

[126] J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_ (London, 1891), p. 239. An Irish dwarf is minutely described in _Silva Gadelica_ (ii. 116), O'Grady's translation. Again, in Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_ (B. XII. cc. i-ii) a dwarf is mentioned.

[127] Campbell, _The Fians_, p. 265.

[128] S. H. O'Grady, _Silva Gadelica_ (London, 1892), ii. 199.

[129] Commentary on the _Senchas Már_, i. 70-1, Stokes's translation, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 256-7.

[130] Sir John Rhys, _Hibbert Lectures_ (London, 1888), p. 592. Dwarfs supernatural in character also appear in the _Mabinogion_, and one of them is an attendant on King Arthur. In Béroul's _Tristan_, Frocin, a dwarf, is skilled in astrology and magic, and in the version by Thomas we find a similar reference.

[131] Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} i. 385.

[132] Cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p. 57.

[133] Hunt, _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 294; cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p. 57.

[134] Smith, _Myths of the Iroquois_, in _Amer. Bur. Eth._, ii. 65.

[135] Skeat, _Malay Magic_, p. 329.

[136] Monier-Williams, _Brahminism and Hinduism_ (London, 1887), p. 236.

[137] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 152.

[138] _Dwarfs in the East_, in _Folk-Lore_, iv. 401-2.

[139] Lacouperie, _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, v; cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., pp. 21-2.

[140] A. H. S. Landor, _Alone with the Hairy Ainu_ (London, 1893), p. 251; also Windle, op. cit., Intro., pp. 22-4.

[141] J. G. Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2} (London, 1900), i. 248 ff.

[142] Cf. A. Wiedemann, _Ancient Egyptian Doctrine Immortality_ (London, 1895), p. 12.

[143] Cf. A. E. Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_ (London, 1909), p. 186.

[144] Examples are in Orcagna's fresco of 'The Triumph of Death', in the Campo Santo of Pisa (cf. A. Wiedemann, _Anc. Egy. Doct. Immort._, p. 34 ff.); and over the porch of the Cathedral Church of St. Trophimus, at Arles.

[145] Cf. Crawley, op. cit., p. 187.

[146] General references: Eliphas Levi, _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie_ (Paris); Paracelsus; A. E. Waite, _The Occult Sciences_ (London, 1891).

[147] W. B. Yeats, _Irish Fairy and Folk-Tales_ (London), p. 2.

[148] W. B. Yeats, _The Celtic Twilight_ (London, 1902), p. 92 n.

[149] In this connexion should be read Mr. Jenner's Introduction, pp. 167 ff.

[150] Cf. Cririe, _Scottish Scenery_ (London, 1803), pp. 347-8; P. Graham, _Sketches Descriptive of Picturesque Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire_ (Edinburgh, 1812), pp. 248-50, 253; Mahé, _Essai sur les Antiquités du Départ. du Morbihan_ (Vannes, 1825); Maury, _Les Fées du Moyen-Age_ (Paris, 1843).

[151] David MacRitchie, _Druids and Mound Dwellers_, in _Celtic Review_ (January 1910); and his _Testimony of Tradition_.

[152] K. Meyer and A. Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_ (London, 1895-7), ii 231-2.

[153] Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 61.

[154] Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore_, pp. 356, 359.

[155] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 201; Jubainville, _Cyc. Myth. Irl._, pp. 106-8.

[156] E. O'Curry, _Manners and Customs_ (Dublin, 1873), I. cccxx; from _Book of Ballymote_, fol. 145, b. b.

[157] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 286.

[158] Ib., p. 275.

[159] Ib., pp. 226, 208-9.

[160] Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_, p. 114.

[161] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 289.

[162] Ib., p. 194.

[163] Cf. Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_, chap. iv.

[164] For a thorough and scientific discussion of this matter, see J. L. Nevius, _Demon Possession_ (London, 1897).

[165] N. G. Mitchell-Innes, _Birth, Marriage, and Death Rites of the Chinese_, in _Folk-Lore Journ._, v. 225. Very curiously, the pagan Chinese mother uses the sign of the cross against the demon as Celtic mothers use it against fairies; and no exorcism by Catholic or Protestant to cure a fairy changeling or to drive out possessing demons is ever performed without this world-wide and pre-Christian sign of the cross (see pp. 270-1).

[166] R. R. Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_ (London, 1909), p. 58, &c.; p. 67.

[167] W. James, _Confidences of a 'Psychical Researcher'_, in _American Magazine_ (October 1909).

[168] Frazer, _The Golden Bough_{3} (London, 1911), i. 220.

[169] Frazer, _The Golden Bough_,{3} i. 221-2.

[170] Ib., chap. iv.

[171] See Apuleius, _De Deo Socratis_; Cicero, _De Natura Deorum_ (lib. i); Iamblichus, _De Mysteriis Aegypt., Chaldaeor., Assyrior._; Plato, _Timaeus, Symposium, Politicus, Republic_, ii. iii. x; Plutarch, _De Defectu Oraculorum, The Daemon of Socrates, Isis and Osiris_; Proclus, _Commmentarius in Platonis Alcibiadem_.

[172] Pliny, _Natural History_, xxx. 14.

[173] Cf. G. Dottin, _La Religion des Celtes_ (Paris, 1904), p. 44.

[174] The neo-Platonists generally, including Porphyry, Julian, Iamblichus, and Maximus, being persuaded of man's power to call up and control spirits, called white magic _theurgy_, or the invoking of good spirits, and the reverse _goêty_, or the calling up and controlling of evil spirits for criminal purposes. Cf. F. Lélut, _Du Démon de Socrate_ (Paris, 1836).

If white magic be correlated with religion as religion is popularly conceived, namely the cult of supernatural powers friendly to man, and black magic be correlated with magic as magic tends to be popularly conceived, namely witchcraft and devil-worship, we have a satisfactory historical and logical basis for making a distinction between religion and magic; religion (including white magic) is a social good, magic (black magic) is a social evil. Such a distinction as Dr. Frazer makes is untenable within the field of true magic.

[175] Cf. B. Jowett, _Dialogues of Plato_ (Oxford, 1892), i. 573.

[176] Cf. Meyer and Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_ (London, 1895-7), i. 146.

[177] Campbell, _The Fians_, p. 195.

[178] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, i. 261.

[179] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xv. 307.

[180] From the _Conception of Mongán_, cf. Meyer, _Voyage of Bran_, i. 77.

[181] Quoted and summarized from _Projectors of 'Malicious Animal Magnetism'_, in _Literary Digest_, xxxix. No. 17, pp. 676-7 (New York and London, October 23, 1909).

[182] Cf. Nevius, _Demon Possession_, pp. 300-1.

[183] For a fuller discussion of the history of witchcraft see _The Superstitions of Witchcraft_, by Howard Williams, London, 1865.

[184] Cf. J. Quicherat, _Procès_ (Paris, 1845), _passim_.

[185] Ib., i. 178.

[186] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, pp. 127, 200, 202-3 ff.

[187] Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._ (Paris, 1848), ii. 541-2, &c.

[188] W. Stokes, _Tripartite Life_ (London, 1887), pp. 13, 115.

[189] I am personally indebted to Dr. W. J. Watson, of Edinburgh, for having directed my attention to this curious passage, and for having pointed out its probable significance in relation to druidical practices.

[190] Adamnan, _Life of S. Columba_, B. II, cc. xvi, xvii.

[191] For this fact I am personally indebted to Mrs. W. J. Watson, of Edinburgh.

[192] Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, pp. clxxx, 303, 305; from _Book of Armagh_, fo. 9, A 2, and fo. 9, B 2.

[193] Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._, ii. 545, 431, 233.

[194] See _Instruction sur le Rituel_, par l'Évêque de Toulon, iii. 1-16. 'In the Greek rite (of baptism), the priest breathes thrice on the catechumen's mouth, forehead, and breast, praying that every unclean spirit may be expelled.'--W. Bright, _Canons of First Four General Councils_ (Oxford, 1892), p. 122.

[195] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_ (Paris, 1835), xiii. 254-66.

[196] _De Incarnatione Verbi_ (ed. Ben.), i. 88; cf. Godescard, op. cit., xiii. 254-66.

[197] Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xiii. 263-4.

[198] Par Joly de Choin, Évêque de Toulon, i. 639.

[199] Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._, ii. 335.

[200] Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 162.

[201] J. E. Mirville, _Des Esprits_ (Paris, 1853), i. 475.

[202] _Instructions sur le Rituel_, par Joly de Choin, iii. 276-7.

[203] G. Evans, _Exorcism in Wales_, in _Folk-Lore_, iii. 274-7.

[204] W. Crooke, in _Folk-Lore_, xiii. 189-90.

[205] For ancient usages see F. Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_ (London, 1877), pp. 103-4; Iamblichus and other Neo-Platonists; and for modern usages see Marett, _Threshold of Religion_, chap. iii.

[206] Cf. Marett, _Is Taboo a Negative Magic?_ in _The Threshold of Religion_, pp. 85-114.

[207] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 277.

[208] Eastman, _Dacotah_, p. 177; cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 52 n.

[209] Shortland, _Trad. of New Zeal._, p. 150; cf. Tylor, op. cit., ii. 51-2.

[210] Precisely like Celtic peasants, primitive peoples often fail to take into account the fact that the physical body is in reality left behind upon entering the trance state of consciousness known to them as the world of the departed and of fairies, because there they seem still to have a body, the ghost body, which to their minds, in such a state, is undistinguishable from the physical body. Therefore they ordinarily believe that the body and soul both are taken.

[211] Frazer, _Golden Bough_,{2} _passim_.

[212] Cf. ib., i. 344 ff., 348; iii. 390.

[213] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, pp. 177, 218-9.

[214] Cf. Eleanor Hull, _Old Irish Tabus or Geasa_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii. 41 ff.

[215] Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_,{2} i. 233 ff., 343.

[216] Cf. E. J. Gwynn, _On the Idea of Fate in Irish Literature_, in _Journ. Ivernian Society_ (Cork), April 1910.

[217] Cf. our evidence, pp. 38, 44; also Kirk's _Secret Commonwealth_ (c. i), where it is said of the 'good people' or fairies that their bodies are so 'plyable thorough the Subtilty of the Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear att Pleasure. Some have Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and delecat, that they are fed by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that pierce lyke pure Air and Oyl'.

[218] _Laws_, iv; cf. Jowett, _Dialogues of Plato_, v. 282-90.

[219] Chief general references: _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_ (Paris, 1884) and _L'Épopée celtique en Irlande_ (Paris, 1892)--both by H. D'Arbois de Jubainville. Chief sources: The _Book of Armagh_, a collection of ecclesiastical MSS. probably written at Armagh, and finished in A. D. 807 by the learned scribe Ferdomnach of Armagh; the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ or 'Book of the Dun Cow', the most ancient of the great collections of MSS. containing the old Irish romances, compiled about A. D. 1100 in the monastery of Clonmacnoise; the _Book of Leinster_, a twelfth-century MS. compiled by Finn Mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare; the _Yellow Book of Lecan_ (fifteenth century); and the _Book of Lismore_, an old Irish MS. found in 1814 by workmen while making repairs in the castle of Lismore, and thought to be of the fifteenth century. The _Book of Lismore_ contains the _Agallamh na senórach_ or 'Colloquy of the Ancients', which has been edited by S. H. O'Grady in his _Silva Gadelica_ (London, 1892), and by Whitley Stokes, _Ir. Texte_, iv. 1. For additional texts and editions of texts see Notes by R. I. Best to his translations of _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_ (Dublin, 1903).

[220] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 144-5.

[221] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 266-7. From the way they are described in many of the old Irish manuscripts, we may possibly regard the Tuatha De Danann as reflecting to some extent the characteristics of an early human population in Ireland. In other words, on an already flourishing belief in spiritual beings, known as the _Sidhe_, was superimposed, through anthropomorphism, an Irish folk-memory about a conquered pre-Celtic race of men who claimed descent from a mother goddess called Dana.

[222] Page 10, col. 2, ll. 6-8; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 143.

[223] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 581 n.; and _Cóir Anmann_, in _Ir. Texte_, III, ii. 355.

[224] Kuno Meyer's trans. in _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 300.

[225] Cf. Standish O'Grady, _Early Bardic Literature_ (London, 1879), pp. 65-6.

[226] L. U.; cf. A. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 157-8.

[227] Before Caeilte appears, Patrick is chanting Mass and pronouncing benediction 'on the rath in which Finn Mac Cumall (the slain leader of the Fianna) has been: the rath of Drumderg'. This chanting and benediction act magically as a means of calling up the ghosts of the other Fianna, for, as the text continues, thereupon 'the clerics saw Caeilte and his band draw near them; and fear fell on them before the tall men with their huge wolf-dogs that accompanied them, _for they were not people of one epoch or of one time with the clergy_. Then Heaven's distinguished one, that pillar of dignity and angel on earth, Calpurn's son Patrick, apostle of the Gael, rose and took the aspergillum to sprinkle holy water on the great men; floating over whom until that day there had been [and were now] a thousand legions of demons. Into the hills and "skalps", into the outer borders of the region and of the country, the demons forthwith departed in all directions; after which the enormous men sat down' (_Silva Gadelica_, ii. 103). Here, undoubtedly, we observe a literary method of rationalizing the ghosts of the Fianna; and their sudden and mysterious coming and personal aspects can be compared with the sudden and mysterious coming and personal aspects of the Tuatha De Danann as recorded in certain Irish manuscripts.

[228] Kuno Meyer's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, x. 214-27. This tale is probably as old as the ninth or tenth century, so far as its present form is concerned, though representing very ancient traditions (Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 209).

[229] Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xxii. 36-40. This text is one of the earliest with references to fairy beings, and may go back to the eighth or ninth century as a literary composition, though it too represents much older traditions.

[230] E. O'Curry, _Lectures on Manuscript Materials_ (Dublin, 1861), p. 504.

[231] In the _Book of Leinster_, pp. 245-6; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 269.

[232] Cf. _Mesca Ulad_, Hennessy's ed., in _Todd Lectures_, Ser. 1 (Dublin, 1889), p. 2.

[233] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 273-6.

[234] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 273-6.

[235] Cf. _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 222-3.

[236] Ib., ii. 343-7.

[237] Ib., ii. 94-6.

[238] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 204-20.

[239] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 290-1. In many old texts mortals are not forcibly _taken_; but go to the fairy world through love for a fairy woman; or else to accomplish there some mission.

No doubt the most curious elements in this text are those which represent the prince and his warrior companions, fresh come from Fairyland, as in some mysterious way so changed that they must neither dismount from their horses and thus come in contact with the earth, nor allow any mortal to touch them; for to his father the king who came forward in joy to embrace him after having mourned him as dead, Laeghaire cried, 'Approach us not to touch us!' Some unknown magical bodily transmutation seems to have come about from their sojourn among the Tuatha De Danann, who are eternally young and unfading--a transmutation apparently quite the same as that which the 'gentry' are said to bring about now when one of our race is taken to live with them. And in all fairy stories no mortal ever returns from Fairyland a day older than on entering it, no matter how many years may have elapsed. The idea reminds us of the dreams of mediaeval alchemists who thought there exists, if one could only discover it, some magic potion which will so transmute every atom of the human body that death can never affect it. Probably the Christian scribe in writing down these strange words had in mind what Jesus said to Mary Magdalene when she beheld him after the Resurrection:--'Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father.' The parallel would be a striking and exact one in any case, for it is recorded that Jesus after he had arisen from the dead--had come out of Hades or the invisible realm of subjectivity which, too, is Fairyland--appeared to some and not to others--some being able to recognize him and others not; and concerning the nature of Jesus's body at the Ascension not all theologians are agreed. Some believe it to have been a physical body so purified and transmuted as to be like, or the same as, a spiritual body, and thus capable of invisibility and of entrance into the Realm of Spirit. The Scotch minister and seer used this same parallel in describing the nature and power of fairies and spirits (p. 91); hence it would seem to follow, if we admit the influence in the Irish text to be Christian, that early, like modern Christians, have, in accordance with Christianity, described the nature of the _Sidhe_ so as to correspond with what we know it to be in the Fairy-Faith itself, both anciently and at the present day.

[240] _Death of Muirchertach_, Stokes's trans., in _Rev. Celt._, xxiii. 397.

[241] Cf. J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (Paris, 1889), i. 38-52.

[242] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 187-92.

[243] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 142-4.

[244] Campbell, _The Fians_, pp. 79-80. In _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 522, it is stated that the mother of Ossian bore him whilst in the shape of a doe. The mother of Ossian in animal shape may be an example of an ancient Celtic totemistic survival.

[245] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 311-24.

[246] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 311-24.

[247] For an enumeration of the Tuatha De Danann chieftains and their respective territories see _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 225.

[248] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 285.

[249] I am personally indebted for these names to Dr. Douglas Hyde.

[250] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 284-9; cf. _Rev. Celt._, iii. 347.

[251] Cf. E. S. Hartland, _Science of Fairy Tales_ (London, 1891), cc. x-xi.

[252] Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xvi. 274-5.

[253] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 222 ff.; ii. 290. In another version of the second tale, referred to above (on page 295), Laeghaire and his fifty companions enter the fairy world through a _dún_.

[254] Sometimes, as in _Da Choca's Hostel_ (_Rev. Celt._, xxi. 157, 315), the _Badb_ appears as a weird woman uttering prophecies. In this case the _Badb_ watches over Cormac as his doom comes. She is described as standing on one foot, and with one eye closed (apparently in a bird's posture), as she chanted to Cormac this prophecy:--'I wash the harness of a king who will perish.'

[255] Synonymous names are _Badb-catha_, _Fea_, _Ana_. Cf. _Rev. Celt._, i. 35-7.

[256] Cf. Hennessy, _Ancient Irish Goddess of War_, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 32-55.

[257] Stokes, _Second Battle of Moytura_, in _Rev. Celt._, xii. 109-11.

[258] Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse Bretagne_, iii. 296-311.

[259] The Celtic examples recall non-Celtic ones: the raven was sacred among the ancient Scandinavians and Germans, being looked upon as the emblem of Odin; in ancient Egypt and Rome commonly, and to a less extent in ancient Greece, gods often declared their will through birds or even took the form of birds; in Christian scriptures the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the semblance of a dove; and it is almost a world-wide custom to symbolize the human soul under the form of a bird or butterfly. Possibly such beliefs as these are relics of a totemistic creed which in times long previous to history was as definitely held by the ancestors of the nations of antiquity, including the ancient Celts, as any totemistic creed to be found now among native Australians or North American Red Men. At all events, in the story of a bird ancestry of Conaire we seem to have a perfectly clear example of a Celtic totemistic survival--even though Dr. Frazer may not admit it as such (cf. _Rev. Celt._, xxii. 20, 24; xii. 242-3).

[260] Hennessy, _The Ancient Irish Goddess of War_, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 32-57.

[261] _Aoibheall_, who came to tell Brian Borumha of his death at Clontarf, was the family banshee of the royal house of Munster. Cf. J. H. Todd, _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_ (London, 1867), p. 201.

[262] Hyde, _Literary History of Ireland_, p. 440.

[263] Cf. Hennessy, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 39-40. In place of _badb_, Dr. Hyde (_Lit. Hist. Irl._, p. 440) uses the word _vulture_.

[264] Hennessy, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 52.

[265] Chief general reference: Sir John Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_ (Oxford, 1891). Chief sources: Nennius, _Historia Britonum_ (circa 800); Geoffrey of Monmouth, _Historia Regum Britanniae_ (circa 1136); Wace, _Le Roman de Brut_ (circa 1155); Layamon's _Brut_ (circa 1200); Marie de France, _Lais_ (twelfth-thirteenth century); _The Four Ancient Books of Wales_ (twelfth-fifteenth century), edited by W. F. Skene; _The Mabinogion_ (based on the _Red Book of Hergest_, a fourteenth-century manuscript), edited by Lady Charlotte Guest, Sir John Rhys and J. G. Evans, and Professor J. Loth; Malory, _Le Morte D'Arthur_ (1470); _The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales_, collected out of ancient manuscripts (Denbigh, 1870); _Iolo Manuscripts_, a selection of ancient Welsh manuscripts (Llandovery, 1848).

[266] In a Welsh poem of the twelfth century (see W. F. Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, Edinburgh, 1868, ii. 37, 38) wherein the war feats of Prince Geraint are described, his men, who lived and fought a long time after the period assigned to Arthur, are called the men of Arthur; and, as Sir John Rhys thinks, this is good evidence that the genuine Arthur was a mythical figure, one might almost be permitted to say a god, who overshadows and directs his warrior votaries, but who, never descending into the battle, is in this respect comparable with the Irish war-goddess the _Badb_ (cf. Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, London, 1904, p. 236).

[267] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, chap. 1.

[268] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 24, 48. Sir John Rhys sees good reasons for regarding Arthur as a culture hero, because of Arthur's traditional relation with agriculture, which most culture heroes, like Osiris, have taught their people (ib., pp. 41-3).

[269] Cf. G. Maspero, _Contes populaires de l'Égypte Ancienne_{3} (Paris, 1906), Intro., p. 57.

[270] Sommer's Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_, iii. 1.

[271] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 9.

[272] I am indebted to Professor J. Loth for help with this etymology.

[273] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 22.

[274] i. 10; ii. 21{b}; iii. 70; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 60.

[275] See Williams' _Seint Greal_, pp. 278, 304, 341, 617, 634, 658, 671; Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 61.

[276] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 51, 35; and see our study, pp. 374-6.

[277] _Chevalier de la Charrette_ (ed. by Tarbé), p. 22; _Romania_, xii. 467, 515; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.

[278] _Romania_, xii. 467-8, 473-4; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 55.

[279] Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 93-4.

[280] _Romania_, xii. 508; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.

[281] Book XIX, c. i.

[282] In the _Lebar Brecc_ there is a tract describing eight Eucharistic Colours and their mystical or hidden meaning; and green is so described that we recognize in its Celtic-Christian symbolism the same essential significance as in the writings of both pagan and non-Celtic Christian mystics, thus:--'This is what the Green denotes, when he (the priest) looks at it: that his heart and his mind be filled with great faintness and exceeding sorrow: for what is understood by it is his burial at the end of life under mould of earth; for green is the original colour of every earth, and therefore the colour of the robe of Offering is likened unto green' (Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 189). During the ceremonies of initiation into the Ancient Mysteries, it is supposed that the neophyte left the physical body in a trance state, and in full consciousness, which he retained afterwards, entered the subjective world and beheld all its wonders and inhabitants; and that coming out of that world he was clothed in a robe of sacred green to symbolize his own spiritual resurrection and re-birth into real life--for he had penetrated the Mystery of Death and was now an initiate. Even yet there seems to be an echo of the ancient Egyptian Mysteries in the Festival of Al-Khidr celebrated in the middle of the wheat harvest in Lower Egypt. Al-Khidr is a holy personage who, according to the belief of the people, was the Vizier of Dhu'l-Karnen, a contemporary of Abraham, and who, never having died, is still living and will continue to live until the Day of Judgement. And he is always represented 'clad in green garments, whence probably the name' he bears. Green is thus associated with a hero or god who is immortal and unchanging, like the Tuatha De Danann and fairy races (see Sir Norman Lockyer's _Stonehenge and Other Stone Monuments_, London, 1909, p. 29). In modern Masonry, which preserves many of the ancient mystic rites, and to some extent those of initiation as anciently performed, green is the symbol of life, immutable nature, of truth, and victory. In the evergreen the Master Mason finds the emblem of hope and immortality. And the masonic authority who gives this information suggests that in all the Ancient Mysteries this symbolism was carried out--green symbolizing the birth of the world and the moral creation or resurrection of the initiate (_General History, Cyclopedia, and Dictionary of Freemasonry_, by Robert Macoy, 33{o}, New York, 1869).

[283] _Myv. Arch._, i. 175. The text itself in this work is said to be copied from the _Green Book_--now unknown. Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._ p. 56 n.

[284] In this text, the Gwenhwyvar who is in the power of Melwas is referred to as Arthur's second wife Gwenhwyvar, for according to the Welsh Triads (i. 59; ii. 16; iii. 109) there are three wives of Arthur all named Gwenhwyvar. As Sir John Rhys observes, no poet has ever availed himself of all three, for the evident reason that they would have spoilt his plot (_Arth. Leg._, p. 35).

[285] D. ab Gwilym's Poetry (London, 1789), poem cxi, line 44. Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 66.

[286] Malory, Book I, c. xxv. One account of Arthur's sword _Caledvwlch_ or _Caleburn_ describes it as having been made in the Isle of Avalon (Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_, ii. 322 n.; also _Myv. Arch._, ii. 306).

[287] Malory, Book IX, c. xv; Sir John Rhys takes the Lady of the Lake who sends Arthur the sword and the one who aids him afterwards (though, apparently by error, two characters in Malory) as different aspects of the one lake-lady _Morgen_ (_Arth. Leg._, p. 348).

[288] Merlin explained to Arthur that King Loth's wife was Arthur's own sister (Sommer's _Malory_, i. 64-5); and King Loth is one of the rulers of the Otherworld.

[289] Book XXI, c. vi.

[290] This poem, according to Gaston Paris, was translated during the late twelfth century from a French original now lost (_Romania_, x. 471). Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 127.

[291] Malory, Book XII, cc. iii-x; Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 145, 164. Galahad, however, does not belong to the more ancient Arthurian romances at all, so far as scholars can determine; and, therefore, too much emphasis ought not to be placed on this episode in connexion with the character of Arthur.

[292] We should like to direct the reader's attention to the interesting similarity shown between this old story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ and the fairy legend which we found living in South Wales, and now recorded by us on page 161, under the title of _Einion and Olwen_. As we have there suggested, the legend seems to be the remnant of a very ancient bardic tale preserved in the oral traditions of the people; and the prevalence of such bardic traditions in a part of Wales where some of the _Mabinogion_ stories either took shape, or from where they drew folk-lore material, would make it probable that there may even be some close relationship between the Olwen of the story and the Olwen of our folk-tale. If it could be shown that there is, we should be able at once to regard both Olwens as 'Fair-Folk' or of the _Tylwyth Teg_, and the quest of Kulhwch as really a journey to the Otherworld to gain a fairy wife.

[293] We may even have in the story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ a symbolical or mystical account of ancient Brythonic rites of initiation, which have also directly to do with the spiritual world and its invisible inhabitants.

[294] Cf. J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (Paris, 1889), p. 252 n.

[295] Cf. J. Loth, _Le Mabinogi de Kulhwch et Olwen_ (Saint-Brieuc, 1888), Intro., p. 7.

[296] Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_ (London, 1849), ii. 323 n.

[297] Cf. R. H. Fletcher, _Arthurian Material in the Chronicles_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, x. 20-1.

[298] Fletcher, ib., x. 29; 26.

[299] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 7; and Rhys, _The Welsh People_{3} (London, 1902), p. 105.

[300] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., x. 43-115; from ed. by San-Marte (A. Schulz), _Gottfried's von Monmouth Hist. Reg. Brit._ (Halle, 1854), Eng. trans. by A. Thompson, _The British History_, &c. (1718).

[301] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., pp. 117-44.

[302] Sir Frederic Madden, _Layamon's Brut_ (London, 1847), ii. 384. Here the Germanic elves are by Layamon made the same in character and nature as Brythonic elves or fairies.

[303] Madden, _Layamon's Brut_, ii. 144.

[304] J. Bédier's ed., _Société des anciens textes français_ (Paris, 1902).

[305] E. Muret's ed., _Société des anciens textes français_ (Paris, 1903).

[306] A. C. L. Brown, _The Knight and the Lion_; also, by same author, _Iwain_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, vii. 146, &c.

[307] _Celtic Mag._, xii. 555; _Romania_ (1888); cf. Brown, ib.

[308] J. Loth, _Les Romans arthuriens_, in _Rev. Celt._, xiii. 497.

[309] _Bibliotheca Normannica_, iii, _Die Lais der Marie de France_, pp. 86-112.

[310] Cf. W. H. Schofield, _The Lays of Graelent and Lanval, and the Story of Wayland_, in Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass. of America, xv. 176.

[311] Cf. Schofield, _The Lay of Guingamor_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, v. 221-2.

[312] For editions, and fuller details of the fairy elements, see De La Warr B. Easter, _A Study of the Magic Elements in the_ ROMANS D'AVENTURE _and the_ ROMANS BRETONS (Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, 1906). See also Lucy A. Paton, _Studies in the Fairy Mythology of the Arthurian Romance_, Radcliffe College Monograph XIII (New York, 1903).

[313] Perc., vi. 235; cf. Easter's Dissertation, p. 42 n.

[314] _Joufrois_, 3179 ff.; ed. Hofmann und Muncker (Halle, 1880); cf. Easter's Diss., pp. 40-2 n.

[315] _Brun_, 562 ff., 3237, 3251, 3396, 3599 ff.; ed. Paul Meyer (Paris, 1875); cf. ib., pp. 42 n., 44 n.

[316] E. Anwyl, _The Four Branches of the Mabinogi_, in _Zeit. für Celt. Phil._ (London, Paris, 1897), i. 278.

[317] Cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 19, 21.

[318] _Black Book of Caermarthen_, xvii, stanza 7, ll. 5-8. This book dates from 1154 to 1189 as a manuscript; cf. Skene, _Four Anc. Books_, i. 3, 372.

[319] Stanzas 19-20. This book took shape as a manuscript from the fourteenth to fifteenth century, according to Skene. Cf. Skene, _Four Anc. Books_, i. 3, 464.

[320] See _A Fugitive Poem of Myrddin in his Grave. Red Book of Hergest_, ii. Skene, ib., i. 478-81, stanza 27.

[321] Chief general references: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _L'Épopée celtique en Irlande_, _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_; Kuno Meyer and Alfred Nutt, _The Happy Otherworld and the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth_. Chief sources: the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ (A. D. 1100); the _Book of Leinster_ (twelfth century); the _Lais_ of Marie de France (twelfth to thirteenth century); the _White Book of Rhyderch_, Hengwrt Coll. (thirteenth to fourteenth century); the _Yellow Book of Lecan_ (fifteenth century); the _Book of Lismore_ (fifteenth century); the _Book of Fermoy_ (fifteenth century); the _Four Ancient Books of Wales_ (twelfth to fifteenth century).

[322] One of the commonest legends among all Celtic peoples is about some lost city like the Breton Is, or some lost land or island (cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, c. xv, and _Celtic Folk-Lore_, c. vii); and we can be quite sure that if, as some scientists now begin to think (cf. Batella, _Pruebas geológicas de la existencia de la Atlántida_, in _Congreso internacional de Americanistas_, iv., Madrid, 1882; also Meyers, _Grosses Konversations-Lexikon_, ii. 44, Leipzig und Wien, 1903) Atlantis once existed, its disappearance must have left from a prehistoric epoch a deep impress on folk-memory. But the Otherworld idea being in essence animistic is not to be regarded, save from a superficial point of view, as conceivably having had its origin in a lost Atlantis. The real evolutionary process, granting the disappearance of this island continent, would seem rather to have been one of localizing and anthropomorphosing very primitive Aryan and pre-Aryan beliefs about a heaven-world, such as have been current among almost all races of mankind in all stages of culture, throughout the two Americas and Polynesia as well as throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. (Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 62, 48, &c.)

[323] _White Book of Rhyderch_, folio 291{a}; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 268-9.

[324] From _Echtra Condla_, in the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_. Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 192-3.

[325] Cf. Eleanor Hull, _The Silver Bough in Irish Legend_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii.

[326] Cf. Eleanor Hull, op. cit., p. 431.

[327] Classical parallels to the Celtic Otherworld journeys exist in the descent of Dionysus to bring back Semele, of Orpheus to recover his beloved Eurydike, of Herakles at the command of his master Eurystheus to fetch up the three-headed Kerberos--as mentioned first in Homer's _Iliad_ (cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 48); and chiefly in the voyage of Odysseus across the deep-flowing Ocean to the land of the departed (Homer, _Odyss._ xi).

[328] Servius, _ad Aen._, vi. 136 ff.

[329] _Voy. of Bran_, i, pp. 2 ff. The tale is based on seven manuscripts ranging in age from the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ of about A. D. 1100 to six others belonging to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries (cf. ib., p. xvi).

[330] This tale exists in several manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; i. e. _Book of Ballymote_, and _Yellow Book of Lecan_, as edited and translated by Stokes, in _Irische Texte_, III. i. 183-229; cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 190 ff.; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 326-33.

[331] The fountain is a sacred fountain containing the sacred salmon; and the nine hazels are the sacred hazels of inspiration and poetry. These passages are among the most mystical in Irish literature. Cf. pp. 432-3.

[332] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Irische Texte_ (Leipzig, 1891), III. i. 211-16.

[333] The Greeks saw in Hermes the symbol of the Logos. Like Manannan, he conducted the souls of men to the Otherworld of the gods, and then brought them back to the human world. Hermes 'holds a rod in his hands, beautiful, golden, wherewith he spellbinds the eyes of men whomsoever he would, and wakes them again from sleep'--in initiations; while Manannan and the fairy beings lure mortals to the fairy world through sleep produced by the music of the Silver Branch.--Hippolytus on the Naasenes (from the Hebrew _Nachash_, meaning a 'Serpent'), a Gnostic school; cf. G. R. S. Mead, _Fragments of a Faith Forgotten_, pp. 198, 201. Or again, 'the Caduceus, or Rod of Mercury (Hermes), and the Thyrsus in the Greek Mysteries, which conducted the soul from life to death, and from death to life, figured forth the serpentine power in man, and the path whereby it would carry the "man" aloft to the height, if he would but cause the "Waters of the Jordan" to "flow upwards".'--G. R. S. Mead. ib., p. 185.

[334] Cf. Hennessy's ed. in _Todd Lectures_, ser. I. i. 9.

[335] Among the early ecclesiastical manuscripts of the so-called _Prophecies_. See E. O'Curry, _Lectures_, p. 383.

[336] Cf. Eleanor Hull, op. cit., pp. 439-40.

[337] Now in three versions based on the _L. U._ MS. Our version is collated from O'Curry's translation in _Atlantis_, i. 362-92, ii. 98-124, as revised by Kuno Meyer, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 152 ff.; and from Jubainville's translation in _L'Ép. celt. en Irl._, pp. 170-216.

[338] As Alfred Nutt pointed out, 'There is no parallel to the position or to the sentiments of Fand in the post-classic literature of Western Europe until we come to Guinevere and Isolt, Ninian and Orgueilleuse' (_Voy. of Bran_, i. 156 n.).

[339] See poem _Tir na nog_ (Land of Youth), by Michael Comyn, composed or collected about the year 1749. Ed. by Bryan O'Looney, in _Trans. Ossianic Soc._, iv. 234-70.

[340] Laeghaire, who also came back from Fairyland on a fairy horse, and fifty warriors with him each likewise mounted, to say good-bye for ever to the king and people of Connaught, were warned as they set out for this world not to dismount if they wished to return to their fairy wives. The warning was strictly observed, and thus they were able to go back to the _Sidhe_-world (see p. 295).

[341] Cf. _Bibliotheca Normannica_, iii, _Die Lais der Marie de France_, pp. 86-112.

[342] Cf. Stokes's trans., in _Rev. Celt._, ix. 453-95, x. 50-95. Most of the tale comes from the _L. U._ MS.; cf. _L'Ép. celt. en Irl._, pp. 449-500.

[343] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 385-401. The MS. text, _Echira Thaidg mheic Chéin_, or 'The Adventure of Cian's son Teigue', is found in the _Book of Lismore_.

[344] Summarized and quoted from translation by R. I. Best, in _Ériu_, iii. 150-73. The text is found in the _Book of Fermoy_ (pp. 139-45), a fifteenth-century codex in the Royal Irish Academy.

[345] Folios 113-15, trans. O'Beirne Crow, _Journ. Kilkenny Archae. Soc._ (1870-1), pp. 371-448; cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 260-1.

[346] Cf. Skene, _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, i. 264-6, 276, &c.

[347] Cf. _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 301 ff., from Additional MS. 34119, dating from 1765, in British Museum.

[348] _Giolla an Fhiugha_, or 'The Lad of the Ferrule', trans. by Douglas Hyde, in _Irish Texts Society_, London, 1899.

[349] Cf. Meyer and Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 147, 228, 230, 235; 161.

[350] The bulk of the text comes from the _Book of Fermoy_. Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xiv. 59, 49, 53, &c.

[351] J. Loth, _L'Émigration bretonne en Armorique_ (Paris, 1883), pp. 139-40.

[352] Ed. and trans. by W. Stokes, Calcutta, 1866. This _Vision_ has been erroneously ascribed to the celebrated Abbot of Iona, who died in 703; but Professor Zimmer has regarded it as a ninth-century composition; cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 219 ff.

[353] Cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 195 ff.

[354] See J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_, pp. 260-7.

[355] _The Literary Movement in Ireland_, in _Ideals in Ireland_, ed. by Lady Gregory (London, 1901), p. 95.

[356] Cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 331.

[357] General reference: _Essay upon the Irish Vision of the happy Otherworld and the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth_, by Alfred Nutt in Kuno Meyer's _Voyage of Bran_. Chief sources: _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_; _Book of Leinster_; _Four Ancient Books of Wales_; _Mabinogion_; _Silva Gadelica_; _Barddas_, a collection of Welsh manuscripts made about 1560; and the _Annals of the Four Masters_, compiled in the first half of the seventeenth century.

[358] Cf. Plato, _Republic_, x; _Phaedo_; _Phaedrus_, &c.; Iamblichus, _Concerning the Mysteries of Egypt, Chaldaea, Assyria_; Plutarch, _Mysteries of Isis (De Iside et Osiride)_.

[359] He says:--'I, for my part, suspect that the spirit was implanted in them (rational creatures, men) from without' _(De Principiis_, Book I, c. vii. 4);... 'the cause of each one's actions is a pre-existing one; and then every one, according to his deserts, is made by God either a vessel unto honour or dishonour' (ib., Book III, c. i. 20). 'Whence we are of opinion that, seeing the soul, as we have frequently said, is immortal and eternal, it is possible that, in the many and endless periods of duration in the immeasurable and different worlds, it may descend from the highest good to the lowest evil, or be restored from the lowest evil to the highest good' (ib., Book III, c. i, 21);... 'every one has the reason in himself, why he has been placed in this or that rank in life' (ib., Book III, c. v, 4).

[360] Cf. Bergier, _Origène_, in _Dict. de Théologie_, v. 69.

[361] _Holy Bible_, Revised Version, St. Matt. xi. 14-15; cf. St. Matt. xvii. 10-13, St. Mark ix. 13, St. Luke vii. 27, St. John i. 21.

[362] Tertullian's conclusion is as follows:--'These substances ("soul and body") are, in fact, the natural property of each individual; whilst "the spirit and power" (cf. Mal. iv. 5) are bestowed as external gifts by the grace of God, and so may be transferred to another person according to the purpose and will of the Almighty, as was anciently the case with respect to the spirit of Moses' (cf. Num. xii. 2).--_De Anima_ c. xxxv; cf. trans, in _Ante-Nicene Christian Library_ (Edinburgh, 1870), xv. 496-7.

[363] Origen says:--'But that there should be certain doctrines not made known to the multitude, which are [revealed] after the exoteric ones have been taught, is not a peculiarity of Christianity alone, but also of philosophic systems, in which certain truths are exoteric and others esoteric' (_Origen against Celsus_, Book I, c. vii).

[364] How Tertullian almost literally accepted the re-birth doctrine is shown in his _Apology_,