Archaic England Part 46

[594] _De bello Gallico_, v., 21.

[595] Blackie, C., _Dictionary of Place-names_, p. 21.

[596] Garnier, Col., _The Wors.h.i.+p of the Dead_, p. 240.

[597] Thomas, J., _Brit. Antiquissima_, p. 108.

[598] The choral music of the Teutons did not create a favourable impression on the mind of Tacitus, _vide_ his account of a primitive Hymn of Hate: "The Germans abound with rude strains of verse, the reciters of which, in the language of the country, are called Bards. With this barbarous poetry they inflame their minds with ardour in the day of action, and prognosticate the event from the impression which it happens to make on the minds of the soldiers, who grow terrible to the enemy, or despair of success, as the war-song produces an animated or a feeble sound. Nor can their manner of chanting this savage prelude be called the tone of human organs: it is rather a furious uproar; a wild chorus of military virtue.

The vociferation used upon these occasions is uncouth and harsh, at intervals interrupted by the application of their bucklers to their mouths, and by the repercussion bursting out with redoubled force."--_Germania_, I., iii., p. 313.

[599] Blackman, Winifred S., _The Rosary in Magic and Religion_, Folklore, xxiv., 4.

[600] Wright, E. M., _Rustic Speech and Folklore_, p. 303.

[601] _Cf._ Hazlitt, W. Carew, _Faiths and Folklore_, i., p. 314.

[602] c.o.c.kney dialect is closely akin to Kentish, and abounds in venerable verbal relics: "The stranger enters, but he nonetheless pays his toll; he does not leave any mark on London, but London leaves an indelible stamp upon him. The children of the foreigner, the children of the Yorks.h.i.+reman or Lancastrian, belong in speech neither to Yorks.h.i.+re nor Lancas.h.i.+re, they become more c.o.c.kney than the c.o.c.kneys; and even the alien voices of the east end, notably less musical than those of our own people, take on the tones of London's ancient speech."--MacBride, Mackenzie, _London's Dialect, An Ancient form of English Speech, with a Note on the Dialects of the North of England, and the Midlands and Scotland_, p.

8.

[603] Bliss, J. B., _A Mound of Many Cities or Tell el Hesy Excavated_.

[604] I was unaware of this rather corroborative evidence when I put forward the suggestion five years ago that _Egypt_ was radically _ypte_ or _Good Eye_.

[605] The Iberians and Jews also possessed a never-to-be-uttered sacred Name.

[606] _Barddas_, p. 95.

[607] _Ibid._, p. 251.

[608] _Barddas_, p. 23.

[609] As also was the Bardic conception of G.o.d, summed up in the Triad:--

"Three things which G.o.d cannot but be; whatever perfect Goodness ought to be; whatever perfect Goodness would desire to be; and whatever perfect Goodness can be."

Again--

"There is nothing beautiful but what is just; There is nothing just but _love_; There is no love but G.o.d."

And thus it ends. Tydain, the Father of Awen, sang it, says the Book of Sion Cent (_Barddas_, p. 219).

[610] Eckenstein, L., _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_, p.

146.

[611] Ill.u.s.trated on page opposite.

[612] This name appears on maps sometimes as Salla Key, sometimes as Salakee.

[613] Tonkin, J. C., _Lyonesse_, p. 38.

[614] Randolph (1657).

[615] Johnson, W., _Byways_, p. 185.

[616] Hazlitt, W. Carew, _Faiths and Folklore_, i., 309.

[617] Quoted from Harrison, J., _Ancient Art and Ritual_, p. 188.

[618] _Folklore_, XXV., iv., p. 426.

[619] Larwood and Hotten, _Hist. of Signboards_, p. 504.

[620] _Cf._ Borlase, W., _Cornwall_, pp. 193, 201.

[621] One may connote this ceremony with the Bardic triad: "G.o.d is the measuring rod of all truth, all justice, and all goodness, therefore He is a yoke on all, and all are under it, and woe to him who shall violate it".

[622] See Fig. 331, p. 538.

[623] Quoted from _Science of Language_, Max Muller, p. 540.

[624] Sabean Litany attributed to Enoch.

[625] _G. L._, v. 185, 195.

[626] Walford E., _Greater London_, vol. ii., p. 299.

[627] Dennis G., _Cities of Etruria_.

[628] _Cornwall_, vol. i., 397; _Victoria County Histories_.

[629] _Cornwall_, vol. i., 394; _Victoria County Histories_.

[630] Blackie's _Dictionary of Place-Names_ defines G.o.dmanham as follows: "the holy man's dwelling, the site of an idol temple destroyed under the preaching of Paulinus whose name it bears," p. 98.

[631] "The year before last I went to Bodavon Mountain to take photographs of the cromlech that used to lie there. When I got there, however, I found the place absolutely bare, not a vestige of the cromlech remaining. On making inquiries, a road newly metalled was pointed out to me, and I was told that the cromlech had been used for that purpose. This was done despite the fact that many tons of loose stone are lying on the mountain-side close by."--Griffith, John E., _The Cromlechs of Anglesey and Carnarvon_, 1900.

[632] Huyshe, W., _Life of St. Columba_, p. 176.

[633] Hazlitt, W. Carew, _Faiths and Folklore_, i., 210.

[634] "The metrical historian Hardyng twice employed but without explaining the appellation _stone Hengels_, 'which called is the Stone Hengles certayne'. This reads like _lapides Anglorum_ or _lapides Angelorum_."--Herbert, A., _Cyclops Christia.n.u.s_, p. 165.

[635] "Who would ween, in this worlds realm, that Hengest thought to deceive the king who had his daughter. For there is never any man, that men may not over-reach with treachery. They took an appointed day, that these people should come together with concord and with peace, in a plain that was pleasant beside Ambresbury; the place was _Aelenge_; now hight it Stonehenge. There Hengest the traitor, either by word or by writ, made known to the king; that he would come with his forces, in honour of the king; but he would not bring in retinue but three hundred knights, the wisest men of all that he might find. And the king should bring as many on his side bold thanes, and who should be wisest of all that dwelt in Britain, with their good vestments, all without weapons, that no evil, should happen to them, through confidence of the weapons. Thus they it spake, and eft they it brake; for Hengest the traitor thus gan he teach his comrades, that each should take a long saex (knife), and lay be his shank, within his hose, where he it might hide.

When they came together, the Saxons and Britons, then quoth Hengest, most deceitful of all knights: 'Hail be thou, lord king, each is to thee thy subject! If ever any of thy men hath weapon by his side, send it with friends.h.i.+p far from ourselves, and be we in amity, and speak we of concord; how we may with peace our lives live.' Thus the wicked man spake there to the Britons. Then answered Vortiger--here he was too unwary--'If here is any knight so wild, that hath weapon by his side, he shall lose the hand through his own brand, unless he soon send it hence'. Their weapons they sent away, then had they nought in hand; knights went upward, knights went downward, each spake with other as if he were his brother.

"When the Britons were mingled with the Saxons, then called Hengest of knights most treacherous: 'Take your saexes, my good warriors, and bravely bestir you and spare ye none!'

n.o.ble Britons were there, but they knew not of the speech, what the Saxish men said them between. They drew out the saexes, all aside; they smote on the right side, they smote on the left side; before and behind they laid them to the ground; all they slew that they came nigh; of the king's men there fell four hundred and five, woe was the king alive!"--Layamon, _Brut._.