The Religion of the Ancient Celts Part 21

[604] See p. 349, _infra_.

[605] Cf. Ptolemy's [Greek: Deouana] and [Greek: Deouna] (ii. 3. 19, 11.

29); the Scots and English Dee; the Divy in Wales; Deve, Dive, and Divette in France; Devon in England; Deva in Spain (Ptolemy's [Greek: Deoua], ii. 6. 8). The Shannon is surnamed even in the seventh century "the G.o.ddess" (_Trip. Life_, 313).

[606] Holder, _s.v._; D'Arbois, _PH_ ii. 119, thinks _Matrona_ is Ligurian. But it seems to have strong Celtic affinities.

[607] Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 27-29, _RC_ iv. 137.

[608] On the whole subject see Pictet, "Quelques noms celtiques de rivieres," _RC_ ii. 1 f. Orosius, v. 15. 6, describes the sacrifices of gold, silver, and horses, made to the Rhone.

[609] Maury, 18. By extension of this belief any divinity might appear by the haunted spring. S. Patrick and his synod of bishops at an Irish well were supposed to be _sid_ or G.o.ds (p. 64, _supra_.) By a fairy well Jeanne d'Arc had her first vision.

[610] Greg. Tours, _Vita Patr._ c. 6.

[611] See Reinach, _Catal. Sommaire_, 23, 115; Baudot, _Rapport sur les fouilles faits aux sources de la Seine_, ii. 120; _RC_ ii. 26.

[612] For these tablets see Nicolson, _Keltic Studies_, 131 f.; Jullian, _RC_ 1898.

[613] Sebillot, ii. 195.

[614] Prologue to Chrestien's _Conte du Graal_.

[615] Sebillot, ii. 202 f.

[616] Ibid. 196-197; Martin, 140-141; Dalyell, 411.

[617] Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 366; _Folk-Lore_, viii. 281. If the fish appeared when an invalid drank of the well, this was a good omen. For the custom of burying sacred animals, see Herod, ii. 74; aelian, xiii.

26.

[618] Gomme, _Ethnol. in Folklore_, 92.

[619] _Trip. Life_, 113; Tigernach, _Annals_, A.D. 1061.

[620] Mackinley, 184.

[621] Burne, _Shropshire Folk-Lore_, 416; Campbell, _WHT_ ii. 145.

[622] _Old Stat. Account_, xii. 465.

[623] S. Patrick, when he cleared Ireland of serpents, dealt in this way with the worst specimens. S. Columba quelled a monster which terrified the dwellers by the Ness. Joyce, _PN_ i. 197; Ad.a.m.nan, _Vita Columb._ ii. 28; Kennedy, 12, 82, 246; _RC_ iv. 172, 186.

[624] _RC_ xii. 347.

[625] For the water-horse, see Campbell, _WHT_ iv. 307; Macdongall, 294; Campbell, _Superst.i.tions_, 203; and for the Manx _Glashtyn_, a kind of water-horse, see Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 285. For French cognates, see Berenger-Feraud, _Superst.i.tions et Survivances_, i. 349 f.

[626] Reinach, _CMR_ i. 63.

[627] Orosius, v. 15. 6.

[628] _LU_ 2_a_. Of Eochaid is told a variant of the Midas story--the discovery of his horse's ears. This is also told of Labraid Lore (_RC_ ii. 98; Kennedy, 256) and of King Marc'h in Brittany and in Wales (Le Braz, ii. 96; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ 233). Other variants are found in non-Celtic regions, so the story has no mythological significance on Celtic ground.

[629] Ptol. ii. 2. 7.

[630] Campbell, _WHT_ iv. 300 f.; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 284; Waldron, _Isle of Man_, 147.

[631] Macdougall, 296; Campbell, _Superst.i.tions_, 195. For the Uruisg as Brownie, see _WHT_ ii. 9; Graham, _Scenery of Perthshire_, 19.

[632] Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ ii. 431, 469, _HL_, 592; _Book of Taliesin_, vii.

135.

[633] Sebillot, ii. 340; _LL_ 165; _IT_ i. 699.

[634] Sebillot, ii. 409.

[635] See Pughe, _The Physicians of Myddfai_, 1861 (these were descendants of a water-fairy); Rh[^y]s, _Y Cymmrodor_, iv. 164; Hartland, _Arch. Rev._ i. 202. Such water-G.o.ds with lovely daughters are known in most mythologies--the Greek Nereus and the Nereids, the Slavonic Water-king, and the j.a.panese G.o.d Ocean-Possessor (Ralston, _Songs of the Russian People_, 148; Chamberlain, _Ko-ji-ki_, 120).

Manannan had nine daughters (Wood-Martin, i. 135).

[636] Sebillot, ii. 338, 344; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 243; Henderson, _Folk-Lore of the N. Counties_, 262. Cf. the rhymes, "L'Arguenon veut chaque annee son poisson," the "fish" being a human victim, and

"Blood-thirsty Dee Each year needs three, But bonny Don, She needs none."

[637] Sebillot, ii. 339.

[638] _Rendes Dindsenchas_, _RC_ xv. 315, 457. Other instances of punishment following misuse of a well are given in Sebillot, ii. 192; Rees, 520, 523. An Irish lake no longer healed after a hunter swam his mangy hounds through it (Joyce, _PN_ ii. 90). A similar legend occurs with the Votiaks, one of whose sacred lakes was removed to its present position because a woman washed dirty clothes in it (_L'Anthropologie_, xv. 107).

[639] Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 392.

[640] Girald. Cambr. _Itin. Hib._ ii. 9; Joyce, _OCR_ 97; Kennedy, 281; O'Grady, i. 233; Skene, ii. 59; Campbell, _WHT_ ii. 147. The waters often submerge a town, now seen below the waves--the town of Is in Armorica (Le Braz, i. p. x.x.xix), or the towers under Lough Neagh. In some Welsh instances a man is the culprit (Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ i. 379). In the case of Lough Neagh the keeper of the well was Liban, who lived on in the waters as a mermaid. Later she was caught and received the baptismal name of Muirghenn, "sea-birth." Here the myth of a water-G.o.ddess, said to have been baptized, is attached to the legend of the careless guardian of a spring, with whom she is identified (O'Grady, ii. 184, 265).

[641] Roberts, _Cambrian Pop. Antiq._ 246; Hunt, _Popular Romances_, 291; _New Stat. Account_, x. 313.

[642] Thorpe, _Northern Myth._ ii. 78.

[643] Joyce, _PN_ ii. 84. _Slan_ occurs in many names of wells.

Well-worship is denounced in the canons of the Fourth Council of Arles.

[644] Cartailhac, _L'Age de Pierre_, 74; Bulliot et Thiollier, _Mission de S. Martin_, 60.

[645] Sebillot, ii. 284.

[646] Dalyell, 79-80; Sebillot, ii. 282, 374; see p. 266, _infra_.

[647] I have compiled this account of the ritual from notices of the modern usages in various works. See, e.g., Moore, _Folk-Lore_, v. 212; Mackinley, _pa.s.sim_; Hope, _Holy Wells_; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_; Sebillot, 175 f.; Dixon, _Gairloch_, 150 f.

[648] Brand, ii. 68; Greg. _In Glor. Conf._ c. 2.

[649] Sebillot, ii. 293, 296; _Folk-Lore_, iv. 55.