Archaic England Part 25

It is not unlikely that the Princess Kenna was Ken _new_ or the Crescent Moon, and the consociation at Kensington of Kenna with Oberon, permits not only the connotation of Oberon with his Fay mother Morgana, but also permits the supposition that Cuneval, the parent of Rialobran, was either _Cune strong_ or _valiant_. It is obvious that the most valiant and most valorous would inevitably become rulers, whence perhaps why in Celtic _bren_ became a generic term for _prince_: the words _bren_ and _prince_ are radically the same, and stand in the same relation to one another as St. Bron to his variant St. Piran.

Oberon or Obreon, the leader of the Brownies, Elves, or Alpes, may I think be further traced in Cornwall at Carn Galva, for this Carn of Galva, _Mighty_ Elf or Alva, was, it is said, once the seat of a benignant giant named Holi_burn_. The existence of Alva or Ellie-stones is implied by the fairly common surnames Alvastone, Allistone, and Ellistone, and it is probable that Livingstone was originally the same name as Elphinstone.

From the Aubry, Obrean, Peron stones, or Brownlows were probably promulgated the celebrated _Brehon_ laws:[336] as is well known the primitive Prince or Baron sat or stood in the centre of his _barrow_, _burra_, or _bury_, and ranged around him each at his particular stone stood the subordinate _peers_, _brehons_ (lawyers), and _barons_ of the realm. A _peer_ means an equal, and it is therefore quite likely that the _Pre_stons of Britain mark circles where the village peers held their parish or parochial meetings.

With the English Preston the Rev. J. B. Johnston connotes Presteign, and he adds: "In Welsh Presteign is Llanandras, or Church of St.

Andrews".[337] This illuminating fact enables us to connect the Perry stones with the cross of St. Andrew or _Ancient Troy_, and as Troy was an offshoot of Khandia we may reasonably accept Crete as the starting-point of Aubrey's worldwide tours. That Candia was the home of the gentle magna mater is implied by the ubiquitous dove: in Hibernia the name Caindea is translated as being Gaelic for _gentle G.o.ddess_, and we shall later connect this lady with "Kate Kennedy," whose festival is still commemorated at St. Andrews.

To the East of Cape Khondhro in Crete, and directly opposite the town of Candia or Herakleion, lies the islet of Dhia: in Celtic _dia_, _dieu_, or _duw_ meant G.o.d,[338] and as in Celtic _Hugh_ meant _mind_, we may translate _dieu_ as having primarily implied _good Hu_, the good Mind or _Brain_. In a personal sense the Brain is the Lord of Wits, whence perhaps why _Obreon_--as Keightley spells Oberon--was said to be the Emperor of Fairyland, attended by a court and special courtiers, among whom are mentioned _Perri_wiggen, _Perri_winkle, and Puck.

At the south-eastern extremity of Dhia is a colossal spike, peak, or _pier_, ent.i.tled Cape Apiri, and we may connote Apiri with the Iberian town named Ipareo. The coinage of Ipareo pourtrays "a sphinx walking to the left," at other times it depicted the Trinacria or walking legs of Sicily and the Isle of Man. The Three Legs of Sicily were represented with the face of Apollo, as the hub or _bogel_, and the ancient name of Sicily was _Hyper_eia. On the Feast Day of the a.s.sumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sicilians or Hypereians hold what they still term the "Festival of the _Bara_". An immense machine of about 50 feet high is constructed, designing to represent heaven; and in the midst is placed a young female personating the Virgin, with an image of Jesus on her right hand; round the Virgin twelve little children turn vertically, representing so many seraphim, and below them twelve more children turn horizontally, as cherubim; lower down in the machine a sun turns vertically, with a child at the extremity of each of the four princ.i.p.al radii of his circle, who ascend and descend with his rotation, yet always in an erect posture; and still lower, reaching within about 7 feet of the ground, are placed twelve boys who turn horizontally without intermission around the princ.i.p.al figure, designing thereby to exhibit the twelve apostles, who were collected from all corners of the earth, to be present at the decease of the Virgin, and witness her miraculous a.s.sumption. This huge machine is drawn about the princ.i.p.al streets by st.u.r.dy monks, and it is regarded as a particular favour to any family to admit their children in this divine exhibition, although the poor infants themselves do not seem long to enjoy the honours they receive as seraphim, cherubim, and apostles; the constant twirling they receive in the air making some of them fall asleep, many of them sick, and others more grievously ill.[339]

Not only this Hypereian Feast but the machine itself is termed the _Bara_, whence it is evident that, like St. Michael, _Aubrey_ or Aber the Confluence, was regarded as the Camber, Synagogue, Yule or Holy Whole, and the fact that the Sicilian Bara is held upon the day of St.

Alipius indicates some intimate connection with St. Alf or Alpi. The Walking Sphinx of the Iparean coins is identified by M. Lenormant as the Phoenician deity Aion, and according to Akerman the type was doubtless chosen in compliment to Albinus, who was born at Hadrumetum, a town not far from Carthage.[340] What was the precise connection between this Aion and Albinus I am unaware.

Among the coins of Iberia some bear the inscriptions ILIBERI, ILIBEREKEN, and ILIBERINEKEN, which accord with Pliny's reference to the Iliberi or Liberini. Liber was the Latin t.i.tle of the G.o.d of Plenty, whence _liberal_, _liberty_, _labour_, etc., and seemingly the _Elibers_ or Liberins deified these virtues as attributes of the Holy Aubrey or the Holy Brain-King.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 170.--Iberian. From Akerman.]

Directly opposite Albania, the country of the _Epirotes_--known anciently as _Epirus_--is _Cantabria_ at the heel of Italy, and we meet again with the Cantabares in Iberia where they occupied Cantabria which comprised Alava. It may be noted in pa.s.sing that in Epirus the olive was a supersacred tree: according to Miss Harrison--some of whose words I have italicised--this Moria, or Fate Tree, was the _very life_ of Athens; the _life_ of the _olive_ which fed her and lighted her was the _very life_ of the city. When the Persian host sacked the Acropolis they burnt the holy olive, and it seemed that all was over. But next day it put forth a new shoot and the people knew that the city's life still _lived_. Sophocles sang of the glory of the wondrous _life-tree_ of Athens:--

The untended, the self-planted, self-defended from the foe, Sea-grey, children-nurturing olive tree that here delights to grow, None may take nor touch nor harm it, headstrong youth nor age grown bold For the round of Morian Zeus has been its watcher from of old; He beholds it, and, Athene, thy own sea-grey eyes behold.

From _Epirus_ one is attracted to the river _Iberus_ or _Ebro_ which is bounded by the _Pyrenees_, and had the town of _Hibera_ towards its mouth. Of the Iberian people in general Dr. Lardner states: "They are represented as tenacious of freedom, but those who inhabited the coasts were probably still more so of gain". I am at a loss to know why this offensive suggestion is gratuitously put forward, as the Iberians are said to have been remarkably slender and active and to have held corpulency in much abhorrence.[341] Of the Spanish Cantabres we are told that the consciousness of their strength gave them an air of calm dignity and a decision in their purposes not found in any other people of the Peninsula. "Their loud wailings at funerals, and many other of their customs strongly resemble those of the Irish."[342]

_Pere_ and _parent_ are radically the same word, and that the Iberians reverenced their _peres_ is obvious from the fact that _parricides_ were conducted beyond the bounds of the Kingdom and there slain; their very bones being considered too polluted to repose in their native soil.[343]

Lardner refers to the unbending resolution, persevering energy, and native grandeur of the Cantabrians, but he contemptuously rejects Strabo's "precious information" that some of the Spanish tribes had for 6000 years possessed writing, metrical poems, and even laws. In view of the superior number of Druidical remains which are found in certain parts of Spain it is not improbable that the Barduti of Iberia corresponded with the Bards or Boreadae of Britain.

There are many references in the cla.s.sics to certain so-called Hyperboreans, in particular the oft-quoted pa.s.sage from Diodorus of Sicily or Hypereia: "Hecataeus and some other ancient writers report that there is an island about the bigness of Sicily, situated in the ocean, opposite to the northern coast of Celtica (Gaul), inhabited by a people called Hyperboreans, because they are 'beyond the north wind'.

The climate is excellent, and the soil is fertile, yielding double crops. The inhabitants are great wors.h.i.+ppers of Apollo, to whom they sing many, many hymns. To this G.o.d they have consecrated a large territory, in the midst of which they have a magnificent round temple, replenished with the richest offerings. Their very city is dedicated to him, and is full of musicians and players on various instruments, who every day celebrate his benefits and perfections."

Claims to being the original Hyperborea have been put in by scholars from time to time on behalf of Stonehenge, the Hebrides, Hibernia, Scythia, Tartary, and Muscovy, "stretching quite to Scandinavia or Sweden and Norway": the locality is still unsettled and will probably remain so, for there is some reason to suppose that the Hyperboreans were a sect or order akin perhaps to the Albigenses, Cathari, Bridge Builders, Comacine Masters, Templars, and other Gnostic organizations of the Dark Ages.

The chief Primary Bard of the West was ent.i.tled Taliesin, which Welsh scholars translate into _Radiant Brow_: the _brow_ is the seat of the _brain_, and the two words stand to each other in the same relation as Aubrey to Auberon.

Commenting upon the Elphin _bairn_, ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 162, Akerman observes that it is supposed to ill.u.s.trate the Gaulish myth of the Druid Abaris to whom Apollo is said to have given an arrow on which he travelled magically through the air. It is an historic fact that a physical Abaris visited Athens where he created a most favourable impression; it is likewise a fact that Irish literature possesses the account of a person called Abhras, which perfectly agrees with the description of the Hyperborean Abaris of Diodorus and Himerius. The cla.s.sic Abaris went to Greece to whip up subscriptions for a temple: the Irish Abhras is said to have gone to distant parts in quest of knowledge, returning by way of Scotland where he remained seven years and founded a new system of religion. In Irish Abar means "G.o.d the first Cause," and as in Ireland _cad_ (which is our _good_) meant _holy_, the magic word Abracadabra may be reasonably resolved into _Abra, Good Abra_. As already mentioned the Irish cried _Aber!_ when rus.h.i.+ng into battle, and the word was no doubt used likewise at peaceful feasts and festivals. The inference would thus seem that the t.i.tle of Abaris was a.s.sumed by the chief Druid or High Priest who personified during his tenure of office the archetypal Abaris. It is well known that the priest or king enacted in his own person the mysteries of the faith; and it is not improbable that chief Guedia.n.u.s, whose sacred play was so rudely disturbed by St. Sampson, was personifying at the time the _Good Ja.n.u.s_ or Genius.

If my suggestion that Taliesin or _Radiant Brow_ was a generic t.i.tle a.s.sumed by every Primary-Chief-Bard in Britain for the time being be correct, it is likely that the same principle applied elsewhere than in Wales. The first bard mentioned in Ireland was Amergin, which resolves into _Love King_, and may thus be equated with Homer the blind old man of Chios. The supposedly staid and gloomy Etrurians attributed all their laws and wisdom to an elphin child who was unexpectedly thrown up from the soil by a plough. As the Etrurian name for Cupid was Epeur, in all probability the aged child on Fig. 171 represents this elphin high-brow, and with _Epeur_ may be connoted the Etrurian _Per_ugia--probably the same word as Phrygia. The local saint of Peru_gia_, the _land of Peru_ (_?_) was known as Good John of Perugia: in Hibernia St. Ibar is mentioned as being "like John the Baptist".[344]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 171.--From Barthelemy.]

It was the custom in Etruria to represent _good genii_ as birds: birds sporting amid foliage are even to-day accepted and understood as symbolic of good genii in Paradise, and birds or _brids_, as we used to spell them, are of course Nature's little singing men, _i.e._, _bards_ or _boreadae_. A percipient observer of the Pictish inscriptions found in Scotland has recently pointed out that, "With the exception of the eagle which conveys a special meaning, shown in many early Scottish stones, the image of a bird is a sign of good omen. Winged creatures, indeed, almost always stand for angelic and spiritual things, whether in pagan or Christian times. The bird symbol involved the conception of ethereality or spirituality. The bird _motif_ occurs in the decoration of metallic objects in the British Islands during the early centuries in this era. I have found in Wigtowns.h.i.+re the image of a bird in bronze.

It belongs to a time early in this era. It occurs within the pentacle symbol engraved on a pebble from the Broch of Burrian, Orkney. Birds are shown within the pedestal of a cross at Farr. Birds with a similar symbolism are found on the Shandwick stone, and on a stone at St.

Vigeans. They are of frequent occurrence in foliageous work, often with the three-berried branch or with the three-lobed leaf, as at Closeburn.

The pagan conception, absorbed into the early Christian ideas, was that the bird represented the disembodied spirit which was reputed to voyage here and there with a lightning celerity, like the flash of a swallow on the wing."[345]

The Bards of Britain attributed the foundation of their order to Hu the First Pillar of the Island, and to unravel the personality of the early Bards will no doubt prove as impracticable as the disclosure of Homer, Amergin, Old Moore, and Old Parr.

No bird has ever uttered note That was not in some first bird's throat, Since Eden's freshness and man's fall No rose has been original.

As St. Bride, whose name may be connoted with _brid_ or _bird_, was the G.o.ddess of eloquence and poetry, the Welsh term Prydain is no doubt cognate with _prydu_ the Welsh for "to compose poetry". Probably _prate_, mediaeval _praten_, meant originally to _preach_ in a fervid, voluble, and sententious manner, but in any case it is impossible to agree with Skeat that _prate_ was "of imitative origin". Imitative of what--a _parrot_?

The _hyper_ of Hyperborean is our word _upper_; _over_, German _uber_, means _aloft_, which is radically _alof_, and _exuberant_ and _exhuberance_ resolve into, _from or out of Auberon_: the _bryony_ is a creeper of notoriously exuberant growth, in Greek _bruein_ means to teem or grow luxuriantly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 172.--From Barthelemy.]

With the river Ebro may be connoted the South Spanish town of Ebora or Epora which is within a few miles of Andura. The coins of this city are inscribed EPORA, AIPORA, and IIPORA, and the "bare bearded head to the right within a laurel garland" may here no doubt be identified with Hyperion, the father of Helios the Sun. In Homer, Helios himself is alluded to as Hyperion, which is the same name as our Auberon: the coins of the Tarragonensian town of Pria, which has been sometimes confused with Baria, in the south of Spain, figure a bull and are inscribed Prianen.

There are in existence certain coins figuring an ear of corn, a pellet, a crescent, the head of Hercules, and a club, inscribed ABRA: the site of this city is unknown, but is believed to have been near Cadiz.

On the banks of the Tagus there was a city named Libora and its coins pourtrayed a horse: in the opinion of Akerman the unbridled horse was the symbol of _liberty_, and it is quite likely that among other interpretations this was one, for it is beyond question that symbolism was never fettered into one solitary and stereotyped form.

The ancient Libora is now known as Talavera la Reyna which may seemingly be modernised into _Tall Vera, the Queen_. The Tarraconensian town of Barea--whose emblem was the thistle--is now known as Vera: the old Portuguese Ebora is now Evora, _uber_ is the German for _over_; Varvara is the Cretan form of Barbara, and it is quite obvious that in various directions Vera and Bera with their derivatives were synonymous terms.

It would seem that Aubrey or Avery toured with his cross into _Helvetia_, planting it particularly at _Ginevra_, now Geneva, and there for the moment we may leave him amid the _Alpine_ Oberland at Berne.

The ancient town of Berne memorises in its museum a famed St. Bernard dog named "Barry," which saved the lives of forty travellers: this "Barry" a.s.sociated with Oberthal may be connoted with "Perro," a shepherd's dog in Wales, whose curious name Borrow was surprised to find corresponded with _perro_, the generic term for _dog_ in Spain.[346]

_Berne_ still maintains its erstwhile sacred Bruin or _bears_ in their bear-pit, but the Gaulish Eburs or Iburii seemingly reverenced not Bruin but the _boar_, _vide_ the EBUR coin here ill.u.s.trated. The capital of the ancient Eburii is now Evreux, and they seem, no doubt for some excellent reason, to have been confused with the Cenomani, a people seemingly akin to our British Cenomagni, Iceni, or Cantii.

Fig. 174, bearing the inscription EBURO, is a coin of the Eburones who inhabited the neighbourhood of Liege. It is a noteworthy fact that the people of Liege are admittedly conspicuous as the most courteous and charming of all Belgians. Their coins were inscribed EBUR, EBURO, and sometimes COM--a curious and unexplained legend which occurs frequently upon the tokens of Britain.

The Celtiberian town of Cunbaria is now known as La Maria, the Kimmeroi were synonymously the Kymbri, and it is not improbable that these dual terms have survived in the _compere_ and _commere_ of modern France. The _peres_ or priests of France, like the parsons, priests, and presbyters of Britain, a.s.sign to infants at Baptism a G.o.d-Father and a G.o.d-Mother, which the French term respectively _parrain_ and _marrain_. _Compere_ and _commere_ figure not only in the Church but also in the Theatre, and it is more than likely that the _commere_ and _compere_ of the modern Revue are the direct descendants of the patriarchal _Abaris_, _Abhras_, _Priest_, and _Presbyter_ of prehistoric times.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 173 and 174.--Gaulish. From Akerman.]

On the Sierra de _Elvira_ near Granada used to stand Ilibiris whose coins are inscribed ILIBERI, ILBRS, ILIBERRIS, LIBER, ILBERNEN, ILBRNAKN, ILBREKN, and these legends may be connoted with the famous Irish Leprechaun, Lobaircin, or Lubarkin who figures less prominently in England as the Lubrican or Lubberkin. Sometimes the Irish knock off the _holy_ and refer simply to "_a little prechaun_," but the more usual form is Lubarkin:[347] this most remarkable of the fairy tribe in Ireland is supposed to be peculiar to that island, but one would probably have once met with him at Brecon, or Brychain at Brecknock, at Brechin in Forfars.h.i.+re, at Birchington in Kent, at Barking near London, and in many more directions. In connection with Iberia in the West there occur references to a giant Bergyon, who may be connoted with Burchun of the Asiatic Buratys. The religion of these Buratys was, said Bell, downright paganism of the grossest kind: he adds the information, "they talk, indeed, of an Almighty and Good Being who created all things, whom they call Burchun; but seem bewildered in obscure and fabulous notions concerning His nature and government".[348] Inquiries may prove that these Burchun-wors.h.i.+pping Buratys were of the Asiatic Iberian race which Strabo supposed were descendants of the Western Iberi.[349]

In addition to Barking near London (Domesday _Berchinges_) there is a Birchin Lane, and buried away in obscurity, opposite the Old Bailey in London, there is standing to-day a small open court ent.i.tled Prujean Square. In connection with this may be connoted the tradition that the origin of the societies of the inns of court is to be found in the law schools existing in the city: the first of these legal inst.i.tutions ent.i.tled Johnstone's Inn,[350] was situated in Newgate; and the vulgarity of the name Johnstone raises a suspicion that Johnstones were as plentiful in Scotland as Prestons in England, both alike being Aubry or Bryanstones, where the Brehon laws were enunciated and administered.

Whether the present Prujean Square marks the site of the original Johnstone, whence Johnstone's Inn, is a matter which may possibly be settled by future inquiry, but the word Prujean, which is _pere John_, renders it extremely likely that the original Johnstone of Johnstone's Inn, Newgate, was alternatively _pere_ Johnstone. If this were so, Prujean Square marks the primary Law Court of the Old Bailey, and at some remote period the officers of the Law merely stepped across the road into more commodious premises.

The Governors of Gray's Inn, another most ancient Law School, are ent.i.tled "the Ancients"; _equity_ is radically the same word as _equus_, a horse; and the Mayors, or Mares, of Britain and Brittany seemingly represented the mare-headed Demeter or Good Mother. _Juge_ is _geegee_, our judges still wear _horse_-hair wigs of office, and the figure on the British coin here ill.u.s.trated looks singularly like a _brehon_ or _barrister_ who has been called to the Bar.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 175.--British. From Akerman.]

It is common knowledge that the primitive _Bar_ was a _barrow_, from the summit of which the Druid, King, or Abaris administered justice, and around which presumably were ranged each at his stone the prehistoric barristers or _abaristers_? Even until the eighteenth century the lawyers were a.s.signed each a pillar in St. Paul's Church, and at their respective pillars the Men of Law administered advice. On the summit of Pres...o...b..ry Rings in Devons.h.i.+re evidently once stood a phairie stone, and the name of Prestonpans in Scotland suggests that Prestons were not unknown in Albany.

The laws of Greece were admittedly derived from Crete, and such was the reputation of King Minos that the mythologists made him the Judge of the Under-world. Lycurgus, the Cretan, would not permit his Code to be committed to writing, deeming it more permanent if engraved upon the brain: the Brehon laws of Ireland were enunciated in rhymed triplets termed Celestial Judgments, and the most ancient Law Codes of all nations are a.s.signed without exception to Bards and a divine origin.

Not only were laws enunciated from barrows, but the dead were buried in a barrow, and the knees of the deceased were tucked up under his chin so that the body a.s.sumed the position of an unborn child: in Welsh _bru_ meant the belly or matrix, in Cornish _bry_ meant breast, and the notion seems to have been that the body of the deceased was restored as it were into Abraham's bosom whence it had sprung.[351]

It is a remarkable fact that neither in the Greek nor Latin language is there any equivalent to the word _barrow_, whence it would seem, judging also from the immense number of round and oval barrows found in Britain, that these islands were pre-eminently the home of the barrow, and that the barrow was essentially a British inst.i.tution.

Connected with _barrow_ is the civic _borough_, also the _berg_ or hill: in Cornish _bre_, _bar_, or _per_ meant hill,[352] and _bar_ meant top or summit; _birua_ is the Basque for head, and in Gaelic _barra_ meant supposedly _mount of the circle_.[353]

In Cornish _bron_ meant breast or pap, and one of the most popular heroines of Welsh Romance is the beautiful Bronwen or Branwen, a name which the authorities translate as meaning _Bosom White_. In old English _bosom_ was written _bosen_, and as _en_ was our ancient plural, as in brethr_en_, childr_en_, etc., it is probable that not only did _bosen_ mean the bosses but that _bron_ or breast was originally _bru en_, _bre en_ or _bar en_, _i.e._, the tops or hills. This symbol of the Great Mother was represented frequently by two hills--from the Paps of Anu down to twin barrows, and it was also represented mathematically by two circles.

In Celtic _bryn_ meant hillock or hill, in Cornish _bern_ meant a hayrick, and that the _mows_ or hayricks were made in the form of _bron_, the breast, may be implied from ancient Inn Signs of the Barley Mow. _Bara_ was Cornish for _bread_; in the same language _barn_ meant to judge, _barner_ a judge, and there is good reason to suppose that the t.i.the barns connected with Monasteries and Churches served originally not merely as store-houses, but as Courts of Justice, theatres, and centres of religion. In Cornish _bronter_ meant priest, _priest_ is the same word as _breast_, and the notion of _par_sons being pastors, feeders, or fathers is commemorated in the words themselves. In Cornish _brein_ or _brenn_ meant royal and supreme; the sacred centre stone of King's County in Ireland was situated at Birr, and _birua_ has already been noted as being the Basque for _head_. The probability of these words being connected is strengthened by Keightley's observation: "There must by the way some time or other have been an intimate connection between Spain and England, so many of our familiar words seem to have a Spanish origin".[354]