Archaic England Part 20

_Spica_, which is also the same word as spook, meant ear of corn; the wheatear is proverbially the Staff of Life, and _loaf_, old English _loof_, is the same word as _life_. Not infrequently the _Bona Dea_ was represented holding a loaf in her extended hand, and the same idea was doubtless expressed by the two b.r.e.a.s.t.s upon a dish with which St.

Agatha, whose name means _Good_, is represented. Christianity accounts for this curious emblem by a legend that St. Agatha was tortured by having her b.r.e.a.s.t.s cut off, and it is quite possible that this nasty tale is correctly translated; the original tyrant or torturer being probably Winter, or the reaper Death, which cuts short the fruit fulness of Spring. In the Tartar emblem herewith the Phrygian-capped Deity is holding, like St. Agatha, the symbol of the teat or feeder, or _fodder_.[278]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 76 and 77.--Iberian. From Akerman.]

The wheatear or spica, or _buck_-wheat was a frequent emblem on our British coins, and to account for this it has been suggested that the British did a considerable export trade in corn; but unfortunately for this theory the _spica_ figures frequently upon the coins of Spain and Gaul. As a symbol the buckwheat typified plenty, but in addition to the wheatear proper there appear kindred objects which have been surmised to be, perhaps, fishbones, perhaps fern-leaves. There is no doubt that these mysterious objects are variants of the so-called "_ded_" amulet, which in Egypt was the symbol of the backbone of the G.o.d of Life. This amulet, of which the hieroglyph has been rendered variously as _ded_, _didu_, _tet_, and _tat_, has an ancestry of amazing antiquity, and according to Mackenzie, "in Paleolithic times, at least 20,000 years ago, the spine of the fish was laid on the corpse when it was entombed, just as the 'ded,' amulet, which was the symbol of the backbone of Osiris, was laid on the neck of the Egyptian mummy".[279] Frequently this "ded" emblem took the form of a column or pillar, which symbolised the eternal support and stability of the universe. On the summit of Fig.

85 is a bug, _c.o.c.k_roach, or _c.o.c.k_chafer: in Etruria as in Egypt the bug amulet or _scarabeus_ was as popular as the Eye of Horus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 78 to 84.--British. Nos. 1 to 8 from _Ancient British Coins_ (Evans, J.). No. 4 from _A New Description of England and Wales_ (Anon., 1724).

No. 5 from _English Coins and Tokens_ (Jewitt & Head).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 85.--From _The Correspondences of Egypt_ (Odhner, C. T.).]

In Fig. 68 the spectral Eye was supported by Thoth, whose name varies into Thot, Taut, and numerous intermediate forms, which equate it with _ded_ or _dad_: similarly it will be found that practically every place-name const.i.tuted from Tot or Tat varies into Dot or Dad, _e.g._, Llan_dud_no, where is found the cradle of St. _Tud_no. Sometimes the Egyptians represented two or more pillars termed _deddu_, and this word is traceable in Trinidad, an island which, on account of its three great peaks, was named after _trinidad_, the Spanish for trinity. But _trinidad_ is evidently a very old Iberian word, for its British form was _drindod_, as in the place-name Llandrindod or "Holy Enclosure of the Trinity". The three great mounts on Trinidad, and the three famous medicinal springs at Llandrindod Wells render it probable that the site of Llan_drindod_ was originally a pagan dedication to the _trine teat_, or _triune dad_.

Amid numerous hut circles at Llandudno is a rocking stone known as Cryd-Tudno, or the Cradle of Tudno. Who was the St. Tudno of Llandudno whose cradle or cot, like Kit's Coty in Kent, has been thus preserved in folk-memory? The few facts related of him are manifestly fabulous, but the name itself seemingly preserves one of the numerous sites where the Almighty Child of Christmas Day was worshipped, and the _no_ of _Tudno_ may be connoted with _new_, Greek, _neo_, Danish, _ny_, allied to Sanscrit, _no_, hence _new_, "that which is now".

At Llanamlleck in Wales there is a cromlech known as St. Illtyd's House, near which is a rude upright stone known as Maen-Illtyd, or Illtyd-stone. We may connote this _Ill_tyd with _All_-tyd or All Father, in which respect Illtyd corresponds with the Scandinavian _Ilmatar_, _Almatar_, or All Mother.

It is told of Saint Illtyd that he befriended a hunted stag, and that like Semele, the wife of Jove, his wife was stricken with blindness for daring to approach too near him. The a.s.sociation of Illtyd with a stag is peculiarly significant in view of the fact that at Llandudno, leading to the cot or cradle of St. Tudno, are the remains of an avenue of standing stones called by a name which signifies "the High Road of the Deer". The branching antlers of the deer being emblems of the dayspring, the rising or _new_ sun, is a fact somewhat confirmatory of the supposition that the Cradle of Tudno was the shrine of the new or Rising Tud, and in all probability the High Road of the Deer was once the scene of some very curious ceremonies.

Many of our old churches even to-day contain in their lofts antlers which formed part of the wardrobe of the ancient mummers or guise dancers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 86.--From _Numismatique Ancienne_.]

In the Ephesian coin herewith Diana--the _divine Ana_--the many-breasted Alma Mater, is depicted in the form of a pillar-palm tree between two stags. Among the golden treasures found by Schliemann at Mykenae, were ornaments representing two stags on the top of a date palm tree with three fronds.[280] The _date_ palm may be connoted with the _ded_ pillar, and the triple-fronded date of Mykenae with the trindod or drindod of Britain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: a.s.syrian Ornament. (Nimroud.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Greek Honeysuckle Ornament.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Greek Honeysuckle Ornament.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sacred Tree (N.W. Palace, Nimroud).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ornament on the Robe of King.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 87.--From _Nineveh_ (Layard).]

The honeysuckle, termed conventionally a palmette, is cla.s.sically represented as either seven or nine-lobed, and this symbol of the Dayspring or of Wisdom was common alike both East and West. The palm branch is merely another form of the fern or fish-bone, and the word palm is radically _alma_, the all nourisher. The palm leaf appears on one of the stones at New Grange, but as Fergusson remarks, "how a knowledge of this Eastern plant reached New Grange is by no means clear".[281] The _feather_ was a further emblem of the same spiritual _father_, _feeder_, or _fodder_, and in Egypt Ma or Truth was represented with a single-feather headdress (_ante_, p. 136). From the mistletoe to the fern, a sprig of any kind was regarded as the spright, spirit, or spurt of new life or new _Thought_ (_Thaut?_), and the forms of this young sprig are innumerable. The gist, ghost, or essence of the Maypole was that it should be a sprout well budded out, whence to this day at Saffron Walden the children on Mayday sing:--

A branch of May we have brought you, And at your door it stands; It is a sprout that is well budded out, The work of our Lord's hands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 88.--From _Irish Antiquities Pagan and Christian_ (Wakeman).]

_Teat_ may be equated with the Gaulish _tout_, the whole or All, and it is probable that the Pelasgian shrine of Dodona was dedicated to that _All One_ or _Father One_. It is noteworthy that the sway of the pre-Grecian Pelasgians extended over the whole of the Ionian coast "beginning from Mykale":[282] this Mykale (_Megale or Michael?_) district is now Albania, and its capital is Janina, _query_ Queen Ina?

It is probable that Kenna, the fairy princess of Kensington who is reputed to have loved Albion, was can_na_, the _New King_ or _New Queen_. On the river Canna in Wales is Llan_gan_ or Llanganna: Llan_gan_ on the river Taff is dedicated to St. Canna, and Llan_gain_ to St.

Synin. All these dedications are seemingly survivals of _King_, _Queen_, or _Saint_, Ina, Una, Une, ain or one. In Cornwall there are several St.

Euny's Wells: near Evesham is Honeybourne, and in Suss.e.x is a Honey Child. Upon Honeychurch the authorities comment, "The connection between a church and honey is not very obvious, and this is probably Church of _Huna_". Quite likely, but not, I think, a Saxon settler.

The ancients supposed that the world was shaped like a bun, and they imagined it as supported by the tet or pillar of the Almighty. It is therefore possible that the Toadstool or Mushroom derived its name not because toads never sit upon it, but because it was held to be a perfect emblem of the earth. In some districts the Mushroom is named "Pooka's foot,"[283] and as the earth is proverbially G.o.d's footstool, the Toad-stool was held seemingly to be the stool of earth supported on the _ded_, or pillar of t.i.tan. The Fairy t.i.tania, who probably once held sway in Tottenham Court Road, may be connoted with the French _teton_, a teat; _tetine_, an udder; _teter_, to milk; and _tetin_, a nipple.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 89.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 90.--The Spirit of Youth. From a French Miniature of the fourteenth century. From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

It is probable that "The Five Wells" at Taddington, "the Five Kings at Doddington," where also is "the Duddo Stone," likewise Dod Law at Doddington; Dowdeswell, Dudsbury, and the Cornish Dodman, are all referable originally to the fairy t.i.tan or the celestial Daddy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 91.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

In accordance with universal wont this t.i.tan or Almighty, "this senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid," was conceived as anon a tiny toddling tot or Tom-t.i.t-tot, anon as Old t.i.thonus, the doddering dotard: the Swedish for _death_ or _dead_ is _dod_; the German is _tod_. _Tod_ is an English term for a fox, and Thot was the fox or _jackal_-headed maker-of-tracts or guide: thought is invariably the guide to every action, and Divine Thought is the final bar to which the human soul comes up for judgment. It has already been seen that in Europe the holder of the sword and scales was Michael, and there is reason to suppose that the Dog-headed t.i.tanic Christopher, who is said to have ferried travellers _pick-a-back_ across a river, was at one time an exquisite conception of Great Puck or Father Death carrying his children over the mystic river. By the _pagans_--the unsophisticated villagers among whom Pucca mostly survived--Death was conceived as not invariably or necessarily frightful, but sometimes as a lovely youth. In Fig. 91 Death is Amor or Young Love, and in Fig. 90 an angel occupies the place of Giant Christopher: the words _death_ and _dead_ are identical with _dad_ and _tod_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 92.--Figure of Christ, beardless. Roman Sculpture of the IV. cent.

From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 93.--Iberian. From Akerman.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 94.--From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]

The Christian emblems herewith represent Christ supported by the Father or Mother upon a veil or scarf, which is probably intended for the rainbow or spectrum: the pagan Europa was represented, _vide_ Fig. 93, holding a similar emblem. According to mythology, Iris or the Rainbow was like Thot or Mercury, the Messenger of the G.o.ds, and the symbolists delighted to blend into their hieroglyphs that same elusive ambiguity as separates Iris from Eros and the blend of colours in the spectrum.

In the ninth century a learned monk expressed the opinion that only two words of the old Iberian language had then survived: one of these was _fern_, meaning _anything good_, and with it we may connote the Fern Islands among which stands the Megstone. Ferns, the ancient capital of Leinster, attributes its foundation to a St. Mogue, and St. Mogue's Well is still existing in the precincts of Ferns Abbey. The equation of Long Meg and her Daughters with Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins is supported by the tradition that the original name of St. Ursula's husband was Holofernes,[284] seemingly Holy Ferns or Holy Phoroneus.

What is described as "the highest term in Grecian history" was the ancestral Inachus, the father of a certain Phoroneus. The fabulous Inachus[285]--probably the Gaelic divinity Oengus[286]--is the _Ancient Mighty Life_, and Phoroneus is radically fern or frond. There figures in Irish mythology "a very ancient deity" whose name, judging from inscriptions, was Feron or Vorenn, and it is noteworthy that Oengus is a.s.sociated particularly with New Grange, where the fern palm leaf emblem has been preserved. The Dutch for _fern_ is _varen_, and the root of all these terms is _fer_ or _ver_: the Latin _ferre_ is the root of _fertile_, etc., and in connection with the Welsh _ver_, which means essence, may be noted _ver_ the Spring and _vert_, green, whence _verdant, verdure, vernal,_ and _infernal_(?).

Among the ferns whose spine-like fishbone fronds seemingly caused them to be accepted as emblems of the fertile Dayspring or the permeating Spirit of all Life, the _osmunda_ was particularly a.s.sociated with the Saints and G.o.ds: in the Tyrol it is still placed over doors for Good Luck, and one species of Osmunda (_Crispa_) is in Norway called St.

Olaf's Beard. This is termed by Gerarde the Herb Christopher, and the Latin _crispa_ somewhat connects it with Christopher. The name Osmund is Teutonic for _divine protector_, but more radically Osmunda was _oes munda_, or the _Life of the World_. In Devonshire the Pennyroyal is also known as _organ_, _organy_, _organie_, or _origane_, all of which are radically the same as _origin_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 95 to 102.--British. Nos. [ ] to [ ] from Akerman.

Nos. [ ] to [ ] from Evans.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 103.--Green Man (Roxburghe Ballads, circa 1650).--From _The History of Signboards_ (Larwood & Hotten).]

The British coins inscribed Ver are believed to have emanated from Verulam or St. Albans, but the same VER, VIR, or kindred legend is found upon the coins of Iberia and Gaul. It is not improbable that Verulam was at one time the chief city in Albion, but the place which now claims to be the mother city is Canterbury or Duro_vern_. The ancient name of Canterbury is supposed to have been bestowed upon it by the Romans, and to have denoted _evergreen_; but Canterbury is not physically more evergreen than every other spot in verdant England: Canterbury is, however, permeated with relics, memories, and traditions of St. George; and St. George is still addressed in Palestine as the "evergreen green one". Green was the symbol of rejuvenescence and immortality, and "the Green Man" of our English Inn Signs, as also the Jack-in-Green who used to figure along with Maid Marian and the Hobby Horse in the festivities of May Day, was representative of the May King or the Lord of Life. The colour green, according to the Ecclesiastical authorities, still signifies "hope, plenty, mirth, youth, and prosperity": as the colour of living vegetation, it was adopted as a symbol of life, and Angels and Saints, _particularly St. John_, are represented clad in green. In Gaul the Green Man was evidently conceived as Ver Galant, and the two cups, one inverted, in all probability implied Life and Death. According to Christian Legend, St. George was tortured by being forced to drink two cups, whereof the one was prepared to make him mad, the other to kill him by poison. The prosperity of an emblem lies entirely in the Eye, and it is probable that all the alleged dolours to which George was subjected are nothing more than the morbid misconceptions of men whose minds dwelt normally on things most miserable and conceived little higher. Thus seemingly the light-shod Mercury was degraded into George's alleged torture of being "made to run in red hot shoes": the heavy pillars laid upon him suggest that he was once depicted bearing up the pillars of the world: the wheel covered with razors and knives to which he was attached imply the solar wheel of Kate or Catarina: the posts to which he was fastened by the feet and hands were seemingly a variant of the _deddu_, and the sledge hammers with which he was beaten were, like many other of the excruciating torments of the "saint," merely and inoffensively the emblems of the Heavenly Hercules or Invictus.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 104.--From _The Everyday Book_ (Hone, W.).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 105.--Ver Galant (Rue Henri, Lyons, 1759). From _The History of Signboards_.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 106.--Green Man and Still (Harleian Collection, 1630). _Ibid._]

Maid Marion, who was not infrequently a.s.sociated with St. George, is radically _Maid Big Ion_, or _Fairy Ion_, and that St. George was also a marine saint is obvious from the various Channels which still bear his name. The ensign of the Navy is the red cross on a white ground, known originally as the Christofer or Jack, and in Fig. 106 the Green Man is represented with the scales of a Merman, or Blue John. The Italian for blue is _vera_; _vera_ means _true_; "true blue" is proverbial; and that Old George was Trajan, Tarchon, Tarragone, or _Dragon_ is obvious from the dragon-slaying incident. Little George has already been identified by Baring-Gould with Tammuz, the Adonis, or Beauty, who is identified with the Sun:[287] "Thou shining and vanishing in the beauteous circle of the Horae, dwelling at one time in gloomy Tartarus, at another elevating thyself to Olympus, giving ripeness to the fruits".[288]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 107.--From _The Everyday Book_ (Hone, W.).]

The St. George of Diospolis, the City of Light, who by the early Christians was hailed as "the Mighty Man," the "Star of the Morning,"

and the "Sun of Truth," figures in Cornwall, particularly at Helston, where there is still danced the so-called _Furry_ dance: Helston, moreover, claims to show the great granite stone which was intended to cover the mouth of the Nether Regions, but St. Michael met Satan carrying it and made him drop it.

It is unnecessary to labour the obvious ident.i.ty between Saints George and Michael: "George," meaning _husbandman_, _i.e._, the Almighty in a bucolic aspect, is merely another t.i.tle for the archangel, but more radically it may be traced to _geo_ (as in _ge_ology, _ge_ography, _ge_ometry) and _urge_, _i.e._, _earth urge_. It is physically true that farmers urge the earth to yield her increase, and until quite recently, relics of the festival of the sacred plough survived in Britain. Within living memory farmers in Cornwall turned the first sod to the formula "In the name of G.o.d let us begin":[289] in China, where the Emperor himself turns the first sod, much of the ancient ceremonies still survive.