Folklore as an Historical Science Part 9

[122] _Anc. Laws of Ireland_, iv. p. vii.

[123] This appears very strongly in the famous twelfth-century law case which Longchamp pleaded so successfully. _Rotuli curia Regis_, i. p.

lxii.

[124] _Early Law and Custom_, 9; _cf._ Burnell and Hopkins, _Ordinances of Manu_, pp. xx, x.x.xi. It is worth while quoting here the following interesting note from a letter from the Marquis di Spineto printed in Clarke's _Travels_, viii. 417:--

"From the most remote antiquity men joined together, and wis.h.i.+ng either to amuse themselves or to celebrate the praises of their G.o.ds sang short poems to a fixed tune. Indeed, generally speaking, _the laws by which they were governed_, the events which had made the greatest impression on their minds, the praises which they bestowed upon their G.o.ds or on their heroes were all sung long before they were written, and I need not mention that according to Aristotle this is the reason why the Greeks gave the same appellation to laws and to songs."

[125] The references are all given in Smith's _Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ sub ????. Aristotle in the _Problems_, 19, 28, definitely says, "Before the use of letters men sang their laws that they might not forget them, as the custom continues yet among the Agathyrsoi."

[126] Lib. xii. cap. ii. 9.

[127] _Hist. English Commonwealth_, 43.

[128] _Anc. Laws of Ireland_, iv. pp. viii, x.

[129] Hampson's _Origines Patriciae_, 106-107; Kemble, line 5763 _et seq._

[130] Proctor's _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p. 410.

[131] _Hist. Eng. Commonwealth_, ii. p. cx.x.xvi. Littleton points out the legal antiquity and importance of these words: "no conveyance can be made without them." See Wheatley's _Book of Common Prayer_ (quoting Littleton), p. 406.

[132] The York manual had the additional clause, "for fairer for fouler." See Wheatley, _loc. cit._, p. 406.

[133] Palgrave, _loc. cit._

[134] _Ibid._

[135] _Manuale et processionale ad usum insiquis ecclesiae Evoracensis_, Surtees Society, 1875. See also _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1752, p. 171; Proctor's _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p. 409, for other examples.

[136] Palgrave, _English Commonwealth_, i. 43.

[137] Chambers, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, 115.

[138] Sinclair's _Stat. Acc. of Scotland_, x. 534.

[139] Chambers, _Book of Days_, January 19; Nichols, _Fuller's Worthies_, 494.

[140] _Diary of De la Pryme_ (Surtees Society), 126. It may be noted here that Kelly, _Curiosities of Indo-European Traditions_, 179, notes the preservation of an ancient law for the preservation of the oak and the hazel in a traditional proverbial rhyme.

[141] Hazlitt, _Tenures of Land_, 80; other examples refer to the Hundred of Cholmer and Dancing, in Ess.e.x, 75; to Kilmersdon, in Somersets.h.i.+re, 182; to Hopton, in Salop, 165. John of Gaunt is responsible for many of these curious and interesting remains of tribal antiquity. Bisley's _Handbook of North Devon_, 28, refers to one relating to the manor of Umberleigh, near Barnstaple, and I have a note from Mr. Edmund Wrigglesworth, of Hull, of a parallel to this being preserved by tradition only. There is a tradition respecting the estate of Sutton Park, near Biggleswade, Bedfords.h.i.+re, which states that it formerly belonged to John of Gaunt, who gave it to an ancestor of the present proprietor, one Roger Burgoyne, by the following grant:--

"I, John of Gaunt, Do give and do grant, To Roger Burgoyne And the heirs of his loin Both Sutton and Potton Until the world's rotten."

Potton was a neighbouring village to Sutton. There is a moated site in the park called "John o' Gaunt's Castle," see _Notes and Queries_, tenth series, vi. 466. _Cf._ Aubrey, _Collections for Wilts_, 185, for an example at Midgehall; Cowell's _Law Interpreter_, 1607, and the _Dictionarum Rustic.u.m_, 1704, for the custom of East and West Enborn, in Berks, which was made famous by Addison's _Spectator_ in 1714.

[142] Sometimes these are called "burlesque conveyances." See an example quoted in _Hist. MSS. Commission_, v. 459.

[143] It is well to bear in mind the great force of ancient tribal law, which was personal, upon localities. Nottingham is divided into two parts, one having primogeniture and the other junior right as the rule of descent. Southampton and Exeter have also local divisions. But perhaps the most striking example is at Breslau, where there co-existed, until 1st January, 1840, five different particular laws and observances in regard to succession, the property of spouses, etc., the application of which was limited to certain territorial jurisdictions; not unfrequently the law varied from house to house, and it even happened that one house was situated on the borders of different laws, to each of which, therefore, it belonged in part; Savigny, _Private Int. Law_, cap. i. sect. iv.

[144] _Academy_, February, 1884; _Percy Reliques_, edit. Wheatley, i.

384.

[145] _Trans. British. a.s.sociation_, 1847, p. 321.

[146] Series No. V., published in 1895.

[147] _Philological Society Papers_, 1870-2, pp. 18, 248; Dr. Murray gives the air in an appendix. See also a note by Mr. Danby Fry in the _Antiquary_, viii. 164-6, 269-70; and _The Hawick Tradition_, by R. S.

Craig and Adam Laing, published at Hawick in 1898.

[148] Squire, _Mythology of the British Islands_, 69.

[149] Wilde, _Lough Corrib_, 210-248. Sir William Wilde has studied the details of this great fight with great care, and it is impossible to ignore his evidence as to the monuments of it being extant to this day among the recorded antiquities of Ireland. The battle lasted four days.

The first day the Fir-Bolg had the best of the fighting, and pillar-stones erected to the heroes who fell are still in situ.

Clogh-Fadha-Cunga, or long stone of Cong, which stood on the old road to the east of that village and a portion of which, six feet long, is still in an adjoining wall, being erected to Adleo of the Dananians, and Clogh-Fadha-Neal, or long stone of the Neale, at the junction of the roads pa.s.sing northwards from Cross and Cong, commemorating the place where the king stood during the battle. After the battle each Fir-Bolg carried with him a stone and the head of a Danann to their king who erected a great cairn to commemorate the event, and this must be the cairn of Ballymagibbon which stands on the road pa.s.sing from Cong to Cross. The well of Mean Uisge is identified as that mentioned in the MS. accounts of the battle, connected with a striking incident.

After a careful examination of the locality, says Sir William Wilde, with a transcript of the ancient MS. in his hand, he was convinced of the ident.i.ty of a stone heap standing within a circle as the place where the body of the loyal Fir-Bolg youth was burned. The second day's battle surged northwards, and at the western sh.o.r.es of Lough Mask, Slainge Finn, the king's son, pursuing the two sons of Cailchu and their followers, slew them there, and "seventeen flag stones were stuck in the ground in commemoration of their death," and by the margin of the lake in the island of Inish-Eogan there stands this remarkable monument to this hour. The line of the Fir-Bolg camp can still be traced with wonderful accuracy. Caher-Speenan, the th.o.r.n.y fort, was a part of this camp, and still exists. More to the south-east, on the hill of Tongegee, are the remains of Caher-na-gree, the pleasant fort, and still further to the east are Lisheen, or little earthen fort, and Caher-Phaetre, pewter fort. Other forts also exist to give evidence both of the Fir-Bolg and the Danann lines. The Danann monuments are situate in the fields opposite the glebes of Nymphsfield. Five remarkable stone circles still remain within the compa.s.s of a square mile, and there are traces of others. The Fir-Bolgs were defeated on the fourth day and their king Eochy fell fighting to the last. "A lofty cairn was raised over his body, and called Carn Eathach, from his name." On the gra.s.sy hill of Killower, or Carn, overlooking Lough Mask, stands to this hour the most remarkable cairn in the west of Ireland, and there is little doubt this is the one referred to in the ancient tradition as commemorating the death of the last Fir-Bolg king in Erin.

[150] Squire, _op. cit._, 76, 138.

[151] Squire, _op. cit._, 230.

[152] Squire, _Mythology_, 399.

[153] See _Life and Writings_ by Oliver Elton, ii. 224.

[154] _Governance of London_, 110-113.

[155] _Celtic Heathendom_, 125-133.

[156] See Bathurst, _Roman Antiquities of Lydney Park_, plates viii., xiii., for the famous example dealt with by Sir John Rhys; and Stuart, _Caledonia Romana_, 309, plate ix. fig. 2, for a dedication to the "Deities of Britain."

[157] See his _Stonehenge and Other British Stone Monuments_, chap.

xxii.

[158] See _Folklore_, xv. 306-311, for the Greek evidence; and xvii.

30, 164, for the Irish evidence.

[159] Frazer, _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), iii. 236-316. Mr. Frazer, however, is inclined to review his explanation of bonfires as sun-charms; see his _Adonis, Attis and Osiris_, 151, note 4.

[160] The specialisation of the fire cult is ill.u.s.trated by the Hindu myth of the Angiras, see Wilson, _Rig Veda Sanhita_, i. p. xxix.

[161] Gummere, _Germanic Origins_, 400-2.

[162] It will be convenient to give the references for the various details of savage life in Britain. The original extracts are all given in _Monumenta Historica Britannica_ and in Giles' _History of Ancient Britons_, vol. ii. Ireland--cannibalism: Strabo, iv. cap. 5, 4, p. 201, Diodoros, v. 32; promiscuous intercourse: Strabo; birth ceremony: Solinus, xxii. Scotland--human sacrifice: Solinus, xxii.; promiscuous intercourse, Solinus, cap. xxii., Xiphilinus from Dio in _Mon. Brit.

Hist._, p. lx., and St. Jerome adv. Jovin., v. ii. 201; nakedness, Herodian in _Mon. Brit. Hist._, p. lxiv, and Xiphilinus, _ibid._, p.

lx. Britain--head-hunting, Strabo, iv. 1-4, pp. 199-201, Diodoros, v.

29; tattooing, Caesar, _De bello Gallico_, v. 12, Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, xxii. i. (2); promiscuous intercourse, Caesar, _ibid._, v. 14, Xiphilinus in _Mon. Brit. Hist._, p. lvii.