Archaic England Part 41

436.

[541] Faber, G. S., _The Mysteries of the Cabiri_, i., 220.

[542] _Golden Legend_, iv., 96.

[543] Is. xlv. 7.

[544] Quoted from Eckenstein, Miss Lena, _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_, p. 153.

[545] Keightley, _Fairy Mythology_, p. 285.

[546] The "one heap" of chaos was ill.u.s.trated _ante_, p. 224.

[547] Allen F. Romilly, _Celtic Art_, p. 78.

[548] _Ibid._, p. 188.

[549] The following letter appeared in _Folklore_ of June 29, 1918:--

"Twenty-five years ago an old man in one of the parishes of Anglesey invariably bore or rather wore a sickle over his neck--in the fields, and on the road, wherever he went. He was rather reticent as to the reason why he wore it, but he clearly gave his questioner to understand that it was a protection against evil spirits. This custom is known in Welsh as '_gwisgo'r gorthrwm_,' which literally means 'wearing the oppression'. _Gorthrwm_ = _gor_, an intensifying affix = _super_, and _trwm_ = heavy, so that the phrase perhaps would be more correctly rendered 'wearing the overweight'. It is not easy to see the connection between the practice and the idea either of overweight or oppression; still, that was the phrase in common use.

"For a similar reason, that is, protection from evil spirits during the hours of the night, it was and is a custom to place two scythes archwise over the entrance-side of the wainscot bed found in many of the older cottages of Anglesey.

It is difficult to find evidence of the existence of this practice to-day as the old people no doubt feel that it is contrary to their prevailing religious belief and will not confess their faith in the efficacy of a 'pagan' rite which they are yet loth to abandon.

"R. GWYNEDON DAVIES."

[550] Wright T., _Essays on Arch. Subjects_, i., 26.

[551] Smith, W., _A Smaller Cla.s.sical Dictionary_.

[552] Vol. i., p. 210.

[553] Domesday Ferebi, "probably dwelling of the _comrade_ or partner". Do the authorities mean _friend_?

[554] Mann, L., _Archaic Sculpturings_, p. 30.

[555] _Cf._ _The Alphabet_, i., 12.

[556] Lord Avebury. Preface to _A Guide to Avebury_, p. 5.

[557] Durandus, _Rationale_.

[558] "Ruddy was the sea-beach and the circular revolution was performed by the attendance of the white bands in graceful extravagance when the a.s.sembled trains were a.s.sembled in dancing and singing in cadence with garlands and ivy branches on the brow."--_Cf._ Davies, E. _Mythology of British Druids_.

[559] _History_, V., 5.

[560] _Ancient British Coins_, p. 178.

[561] "Copied by Higgins, _Anacalypsis_, on the authority of Dubois, who states (vol. iii., p. 88), that it was found on a stone in a church in France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred years. Dubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no reference to the story told in Genesis."

[562] It is quite improbable that there was any foundation for Stow's surmise that the epithet Poor was applied to the parish of St. Peter in Brode Street, "for a difference from others of that name, sometimes peradventure a poor parish".

It is, however, possible that the church was dedicated to Peter the Hermit, _i.e._, the poor Peter.

[563] _Cf._ Abelson, J., _Jewish Mysticism_, p. 34.

[564] _Cf._ also Brachet A., _Ety. Dictionary of French Language_: "A two-wheeled carriage which being light _leaps_ up". Had our authorities been considering _phaeton_, this definition might have pa.s.sed muster. Although Skeat connects _phaeton_ with the Solar Charioteer he nevertheless connotes _phantom_.

Why?

[565] Blackie, C., _Place-names_, p. 137.

[566] _Coins of the Ancient Britons_, p. 121.

[567] P. 28.

[568] It is a miracle that this and the other coins ill.u.s.trated on page 364 did not go into the dustbin. The official estimate of their value and interest is expressed in the following reference from Hawkin's _Silver Coins of England_, p. 17:--

"After the final departure of the Romans, about the year 450, the history of the coinage is involved in much obscurity; the coins of that people would of course continue in circulation long after the people themselves had quitted the sh.o.r.es, and it is not improbable that the rude and uncouth pieces, which are imitations of their money, and _are scarce because they are rejected from all cabinets and thrown away as soon as discovered_, may have been struck during the interval between the Romans and Saxons."

The italics are mine, and comment would be inadequate.

Happily, in despite of "the practised numismatist," Time, which antiquates and hath an art to make dust of all things, hath yet spared these minor monuments.

[569] Auburn hair is golden-red--hence I am able to recognise only a remote comparison with _alburnum_, the white sap wood or inner bark of trees.

[570] "We also find Adad numbered among the G.o.ds whom the Syrians wors.h.i.+pped; nevertheless we find but little concerning him, and that little obscure and unsatisfactory, either in ancient or modern writers. Macrobius says, "The a.s.syrians, or rather the Syrians, give the name Adad to the G.o.d whom they wors.h.i.+p, as _the highest_ or greatest," and adds that the signification of this name is the One or the Only. This writer also gives us clearly to understand that the Syrians adored the sun under this name; at least, the surname Adad, which was given to the sun by the natives of Heliopolis, makes them appear as one and the same."--Christmas, H. Rev., _Universal Mythology_, p. 119.

[571] _Discourse concerning Devils_, annexed to _The Discovery of Witchcraft_, Reginald Scot, i., chap. xxi.

[572] _Folklore_, XXV., 4, p. 426.

[573] "The Sun and Moon have been considered as signs of pagan origin, typifying Apollo and Diana," _History of Signboards_, p. 496.

[574] _Proc. of Royal Irish Acad._, x.x.xiv., c. 10-11, pp. 318, 320.

[575] _Ibid._, c. 8, p. 159.

[576] Johnston, Rev. J. B., _The Place-names of England and Wales_, p. 304.

[577] Wilson, J. M., _Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales_, i., 839.

[578] Herbert, A., _Cyclops Christia.n.u.s_, p. 93.

[579] In Ireland an "abbey" is a cell or hermitage.

[580] _Cf._ Guest, Dr., _Origines Celticae_, ii., 223.

[581] The name Cormac is defined as meaning _son of a chariot_. Is it to be a.s.sumed that the followers of Great Cormac understood a physical road car?

[582] Wentz., W. Y. E., _The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries_, p.

341.