Archaic England Part 14

[154] Hone, W., _Everyday Book_, i., col. 566.

[155] The _New English Dictionary_ notes the following "forms" of "pigeon," _pejon_, _pejoun_, _pegion_, _pegyon_, _pigin_, _pigen_, _pigion_, _pygon_. The supposed connection between pigeon and _pipio_, "I chirp," is surely remote, for young pigeons do not "chirp".

[156] Mrs. Hamilton Gray in _The Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria_, writes: "I was particularly struck with one large carved group, which bore a greater resemblance to a Hindoo representation of a trinity than anything not Indian I have ever seen. Did we not know the thing to be impossible, I should be tempted on the strength of this sculptured stone to a.s.sert that Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu must at some former period have found adorers in Etruria. Three monstrous faces, growing together, one full face in the middle and a profile on each side" (p. 309).

[157] The official etymology of _June_ is "probably from root of Latin _juvenis_, _junior_," but where is the sense in this?

[158] Baring-Gould, S., _Curious Myths_, p. 5.

[159] _Curious Myths_, p. 23.

[160] Gray, Mrs. Hamilton, _Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria_, pp.

187, 189.

[161] _h.e.l.l._, c. xx.

[162] Yeats, W. B., _Fairy and Folk-tales of the Irish Peasantry_, p. 306.

[163] "Theta," _The Thorn Tree, being a History of Thorn Worship_.

London, 1863, p. 127.

[164] _Faerie Queene_, Book XI., c. ix., st. 70-71.

[165] Hone, W., _Everyday Book_, 111., col. 27.

[166] Keightley, T., _Fairy Mythology_, p. 138.

[167] Davies, E., _Myth of Brit. Druids_, pp. 203, 204.

[168] Baring-Gould, _Curious Myths_, p. 194.

[169] Spence, Lewis, _Myths of Mexico and Peru_, p. 170.

[170] P. 159.

[171] _Surnames_, p. 230.

[172] The ecclesiastical _raison d'etre_ for St. Andrew's situation is stated as having been "_to the end that his pain should endure the longer_".

[173] "Diogenes Laertius, in the proem of his philosophical history, reckons the Druids among the chief authors of the barbarous theology and philosophy, long anterior to the Greeks, their disciples: and Phurnutus, in his treatise of the Nature of the G.o.ds, says most expressly that among the many and various fables which the antient Greecs had about the G.o.ds, some were derived from the Mages, the Africans, and Phrygians, and others from other nations: for which he cites Homer as a witness, nor is there anything that bears a greater witness to itself."--Toland, _History of Druids_. London, 1814, p.

106.

[174] _Ancient Britain_, p. 284.

[175] Keightley, _Fairy Mythology_, p. 818.

[176] Anon., _The Fairy Family_, 1857.

[177] Keightley, _Fairy Mythology_, pp. 25, 441.

[178] Quoted from Davies, E., _Celtic Researches_, p. 560.

[179] Livy mentions that during the Macedonian War a Gaulish soldier foretold an eclipse of the moon to the Roman Army (Liber XLIV., c. x.x.xvii.).

[180] "A few years ago it would have been deemed the height of absurdity to imagine that the English and the Hindus were originally one people, speaking the same language, and clearly distinguished from other families of mankind; and yet comparative philology has established this fact by evidence as clear and irresistible as that the earth revolves round the sun."--Smith, Dr. Wm., _Lectures on the English Language_, p. 2.

[181] Keightley, _Fairy Mythology_, p. 290.

[182] Canon ffrench, _Prehistoric Faith in Ireland_, p. 80.

[183] _Cf._ Frazer, Sir J. G., _Psyche's Task_, pp. 7, 14.

[184] _Cf._ _Ibid._

[185] _Curious Myths_, p. 557.

[186] _Cf._ Keightley, T., _Fairy Mythology_, p. 298.

[187] There is a certain section of Christianity that still revels in hymns such as the following:--

"His nostrils breathe out fiery streams, He's a consuming fire, His jealous eyes His wrath inflame And raise His vengeance higher."

[188] This and the several subsequent quotations from Bardic "Philosophy" are taken from the collection published in 1862, by the Welsh MSS. Society, under the t.i.tle _Barddas_.

Whatever may be the precise date of these axioms the ideas they express well repay careful consideration.

[189] According to Caesar the Druidic philosophy was transmitted orally for the purpose of strengthening the memory. The disciples of Pythagoras followed a similar precept, hence when the majority of them were destroyed in a fire the axioms of Pythagoras were largely lost. That the traditional tales of Ireland were maintained in their verbal integrity for untold years is implied by Mr. Yeats' statement: "In the Parochial Survey of Ireland it is recorded how the story-tellers used to gather together of an evening, and if any had a different version from the others, they would all recite theirs and vote, and the man who had varied would have to abide by their verdict. In this way stories have been handed down with such accuracy, that the long tale of Dierdre was, in the earlier decades of this century, told almost word for word, as in the very ancient MSS. in the Royal Dublin Society. In one case only it varied, and then the MSS. was obviously wrong--a pa.s.sage had been forgotten by the copyist.

But this accuracy is rather in the folk and bardic tales than in the fairy legends, for these vary widely, being usually adapted to some neighbouring village or local fairy-seeing celebrity."--Yeats, W. B., _Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry_, p. 11.

[190] _Cf._ Yeats, W.B., _Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry_, p. 318.

[191] Keightley, T., _Fairy Mythology_, p. 346.

[192] _Myth, Ritual and Religion_, 1. 186.

CHAPTER V

GOG AND MAGOG

"Scarce stand the vessels hauled upon the beach, And bent on marriages the young men vie To till new settlements, while I to each Due law dispense and dwelling place supply, When from a tainted quarter of the sky Rank vapours, gathering, on my comrades seize, And a foul pestilence creeps down from high."

--VIRGIL, _The aeneid._

The British Chronicles relate that when Brute and his companions reached these sh.o.r.es the island was then uninhabited, save only for a few giants. Seemingly these natives did not oppose the Trojan landing, for the story runs that "Nought gave Corineus (Brute's second-in-command) greater pleasure than to wrestle with the giants of whom there was a greater plenty in Cornwall than elsewhere". On a certain day, however, the existing relations ceased, owing to an obnoxious native named Goemagog, who, accompanied by a score of companions, interrupted a sacred function which the Trojans were holding. From the recommendations of the pious aeneas, it would seem that the Trojans had suffered similarly in other directions:--