The Religion of the Ancient Celts Part 27

DIVINATION.

A special cla.s.s of diviners existed among the Celts, but the Druids practised divination, as did also the unofficial layman. Cla.s.sical writers speak of the Celts as of all nations the most devoted to, and the most experienced in, the science of divination. Divination with a human victim is described by Diodorus. Libations were poured over him, and he was then slain, auguries being drawn from the method of his fall, the movements of his limbs, and the flowing of his blood. Divination with the entrails was used in Galatia, Gaul, and Britain.[856] Beasts and birds also provided omens. The course taken by a hare let loose gave an omen of success to the Britons, and in Ireland divination was used with a sacrificial animal.[857] Among birds the crow was pre-eminent, and two crows are represented speaking into the ears of a man on a bas-relief at Compiegne. The Celts believed that the crow had shown where towns should be founded, or had furnished a remedy against poison, and it was also an arbiter of disputes.[858] Artemidorus describes how, at a certain place, there were two crows. Persons having a dispute set out two heaps of sweetmeats, one for each disputant. The birds swooped down upon them, eating one and dispersing the other. He whose heap had been scattered won the case.[859] Birds were believed to have guided the migrating Celts, and their flight furnished auguries, because, as Deiotaurus gravely said, birds never lie. Divination by the voices of birds was used by the Irish Druids.[860]

Omens were drawn from the direction of the smoke and flames of sacred fires and from the condition of the clouds.[861] Wands of yew were carried by Druids--"the wand of Druidism" of many folk-tales--and were used perhaps as divining-rods. Ogams were also engraved on rods of yews, and from these Druids divined hidden things. By this means the Druid Dalan discovered where Etain had been hidden by the G.o.d Mider. The method used may have been that of drawing one of the rods by lot and then divining from the marks upon it. A similar method was used to discover the route to be taken by invaders, the result being supposed to depend on divine interposition.[862] The knowledge of astronomy ascribed by Caesar to the Druids was probably of a simple kind, and much mixed with astrology, and though it furnished the data for computing a simple calendar, its use was largely magical.[863] Irish diviners forecast the time to build a house by the stars, and the date at which S. Columba's education should begin, was similarly discovered.[864]

The _Imbas Forosnai_, "illumination between the hands," was used by the _File_ to discover hidden things. He chewed a piece of raw flesh and placed it as an offering to the images of the G.o.ds whom he desired to help him. If enlightenment did not come by the next day, he p.r.o.nounced incantations on his palms, which he then placed on his cheeks before falling asleep. The revelation followed in a dream, or sometimes after awaking.[865] Perhaps the animal whose flesh was eaten was a sacred one.

Another method was that of the _Teinm Laegha_. The _File_ made a verse and repeated it over some person or thing regarding which he sought information, or he placed his staff on the person's body and so obtained what he sought. The rite was also preceded by sacrifice; hence S.

Patrick prohibited both it and the _Imbas Forosnai_.[866] Another incantation, the _Cetnad_, was sung through the fist to discover the track of stolen cattle or of the thief. If this did not bring enlightenment, the _File_ went to sleep and obtained the knowledge through a dream.[867] Another _Cetnad_ for obtaining information regarding length of life was addressed to the seven daughters of the sea. Perhaps the incantation was repeated mechanically until the seer fell into a kind of trance. Divination by dreams was also used by the continental Celts.[868]

Other methods resemble "trance-utterance." "A great obnubilation was conjured up for the bard so that he slept a heavy sleep, and things magic-begotten were shewn to him to enunciate," apparently in his sleep.

This was called "illumination by rhymes," and a similar method was used in Wales. When consulted, the seer roared violently until he was beside himself, and out of his ravings the desired information was gathered.

When aroused from this ecstatic condition, he had no remembrance of what he had uttered. Giraldus reports this, and thinks, with the modern spiritualist, that the utterance was caused by spirits.[869] The resemblance to modern trance-utterance and to similar methods used by savages is remarkable, and psychological science sees in it the promptings of the subliminal self in sleep.

The _taghairm_ of the Highlanders was a survival from pagan times. The seer was usually bound in a cow's hide--the animal, it may be conjectured, having been sacrificed in earlier times. He was left in a desolate place, and while he slept spirits were supposed to inspire his dreams.[870] Clothing in the skin of a sacrificial animal, by which the person thus clothed is brought into contact with it and hence with the divinity to which it is offered, or with the divine animal itself where the victim is so regarded, is a widespread custom. Hence, in this Celtic usage, contact with divinity through the hide would be expected to produce enlightenment. For a like reason the Irish sacrificed a sheep for the recovery of the sick, and clothed the patient in its skin.[871]

Binding the limbs of the seer is also a widespread custom, perhaps to restrain his convulsions or to concentrate the psychic force.

Both among the continental and Irish Celts those who sought hidden knowledge slept on graves, hoping to be inspired by the spirits of the dead.[872] Legend told how, the full version of the _Tain_ having been lost, Murgan the _File_ sang an incantation over the grave of Fergus mac Roig. A cloud hid him for three days, and during that time the dead man appeared and recited the saga to him.

In Ireland and the Highlands, divination by looking into the shoulder-blade of a sheep was used to discover future events or things happening at a distance, a survival from pagan times.[873] The scholiast on Lucan describes the Druidic method of chewing acorns and then prophesying, just as, in Ireland, eating nuts from the sacred hazels round Connla's well gave inspiration.[874] The "priestesses" of Sena and the "Druidesses" of the third century had the gift of prophecy, and it was also ascribed freely to the _Filid_, the Druids, and to Christian saints. Druids are said to have prophesied the coming of S. Patrick, and similar prophecies are put in the mouths of Fionn and others, just as Montezuma's priests foretold the coming of the Spaniards.[875] The word used for such prophecies--_baile_, means "ecstasy," and it suggests that the prophet worked himself into a frenzy and then fell into a trance, in which he uttered his forecast. Prophecies were also made at the birth of a child, describing its future career.[876] Careful attention was given to the utterances of Druidic prophets, e.g. Medb's warriors postponed their expedition for fifteen days, because the Druids told them they would not succeed if they set out sooner.[877]

Mythical personages or divinities are said in the Irish texts to have stood on one leg, with one arm extended, and one eye closed, when uttering prophecies or incantations, and this was doubtless an att.i.tude used by the seer.[878] A similar method is known elsewhere, and it may have been intended to produce greater force. From this att.i.tude may have originated myths of beings with one arm, one leg, and one eye, like some Fomorians or the _Fachan_ whose weird picture Campbell of Islay drew from verbal descriptions.[879]

Early Celtic saints occasionally describe lapses into heathenism in Ireland, not characterised by "idolatry," but by wizardry, dealing in charms, and _fidlanna_, perhaps a kind of divination with pieces of wood.[880] But it is much more likely that these had never really been abandoned. They belong to the primitive element of religion and magic which people cling to long after they have given up "idolatry."

FOOTNOTES:

[790] Caesar, vi. 16.

[791] Rh[^y]s, _CB_{4} 68.

[792] Justin, xxvi. 2; Pomp. Mela, iii. 2.

[793] Diod. Sic. xxii. 9.

[794] See Jullian, 53.

[795] Servius on _aeneid_, iii. 57.

[796] Caesar, vi. 16; Livy, x.x.xviii. 47; Diod. Sic. v. 32, x.x.xi. 13; Athenaeus, iv. 51; Dio Ca.s.s., lxii. 7.

[797] Diod. Sic, x.x.xiv. 13; Strabo, iv. 4; Orosius, v. 16; Schol. on Lucan, Usener's ed. 32.

[798] Caesar, vi. 16; Strabo, iv. 4; Diod. Sic. v. 32; Livy, x.x.xviii. 47.

[799] Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, 529 f.

[800] Strabo, _ibid._ 4. 4.

[801] S. Aug. _de Civ. Dei_, vii. 19.

[802] Tac. _Ann._ xiv. 30; Strabo, iv. 4. 4.

[803] Suet. _Claud._ 25.

[804] Pomp. Mela, iii. 2. 18.

[805] Pliny, _HN_ x.x.x. 4. 13.

[806] Dio. Ca.s.s. lxii. 6.

[807] O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 222; Joyce, _SH_ i. ch. 9.

[808] _RC_ xvi. 35.

[809] _LL_ 213_b_.

[810] See p. 52, _supra_.

[811] See, however, accounts of reckless child sacrifices in Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 252, and Westermarck, _Moral Ideas_, i. 397.

[812] O'Curry, _MC_ Intro, dcxli.

[813] _LU_ 126_a_. A folk-version is given by Larminie, _West Irish Folk-Tales_, 139.

[814] _Book of Fermoy_, 89_a_.

[815] O'Curry, _MC_ Intro. dcxl, ii. 222.

[816] Ad.a.m.nan, _Vita S. Col._ Reeve's ed. 288.

[817] Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_, ii. 317.

[818] Nennius, _Hist. Brit._ 40.

[819] Stokes, _TIG_ xli.; O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 9.

[820] Pliny, _HN_ x.x.x. 1. The feeding of Ethni, daughter of Crimthann, on human flesh that she might sooner attain maturity may be an instance of "medicinal cannibalism" (_IT_ iii. 363). The eating of parents among the Irish, described by Strabo (iv. 5), was an example of "honorific cannibalism." See my article "Cannibalism" in Hastings' _Encycl. of Rel.

and Ethics_, iii, 194.

[821] Diod. Sic. vi. 12; Paus. x. 22. 3; Amm. Marc. xxvii. 4; Livy, xxiii. 24; Solin. xxii. 3.

[822] This custom continued in Ireland until Spenser's time.

[823] Leahy, i. 158; Giraldus, _Top. Hib._ iii. 22; Martin, 109.

[824] Sil. Ital. iv. 213; Diod. Sic. xiv. 115; Livy, x. 26; Strabo, iv.

4. 5; Miss Hull, 92.