Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore Part 2

These wild riders of the stormy sky, like their prototypes in the Vedas, personify or typify "rain senders." Mr. Kelly says, in the Teutonic form of the myth, the manes of their horses "dropped dew upon the earth, filled the drinking horns for the G.o.ds and the warriors in Odin's hall; and like them, white maidens, elves, and witches offer full goblets and horns to thankless mortals, who usually run away with the beaker after spilling its contents on the ground."

It is a somewhat singular circ.u.mstance that the most celebrated relict of this old pagan superst.i.tion, or myth, is preserved at Edenhall, on the bank of the very river to which I am referring. Tradition says the goblet was secured, in the orthodox way, by an ancestor of the Musgraves, or one of his retainers, ages ago. Sir Walter Scott has rendered the story immortal. He makes the following distich salute the ears of the bold plunderer, as he hurriedly decamps from the fairy revel:--

If this gla.s.s do break or fall, Farewell the luck of Edenhall.

The "Luck of Edenhall," as the very ancient gla.s.s vessel is styled, is believed to be of Venetian manufacture, and dates, probably, from the century preceding the Norman conquest.

The Rev. G. W. c.o.x, in his valuable work on the "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," ranks this cup amongst the numerous phallic symbols. Referring to this subject, he says:--"We have seen the myth starting from its crude and undisguised form, a.s.sume the more harmless shape of goblets or horns of plenty and fertility; of rings and crosses, of rods and spears, of mirrors and lamps. It has brought before us the mysterious s.h.i.+ps endowed with the powers of thought and speech, beautiful cups in which the wearied sun sinks to rest, the staff of wealth and plenty with which Hermes guides the cattle of Helios across the blue pastures of heaven, the cup of Demeter into which the ripe fruit casts itself by an irresistible impulse. We have seen the symbols a.s.sume the character of talismanic tests, by which the refres.h.i.+ng draught is dashed from the lips of the guilty; and, finally, in the exquisite legend of the Sangreal the symbols have become a sacred thing, only the pure in heart may see and touch."

The G.o.ddess of youth (Idunn), with her attendant swans and water-fowl, is not an inapt personification of the lovely Eden, in its lower course; while the wild moors and crags, where the eagles nestled, and amongst which its many tributary streamlets spring, aptly enough answers to the homes of the frost giants, who, in severe winters, held captive the congealed waters.

It may be thought that this, being a Teutonic etymology, is not so satisfactory as if it were Keltic. But its pertinence is corroborated by the fact that, in the Welsh of the present day, _edn_ means fowl or bird, _edyn_ winged one, and _ednyw_ spirit, essence.

Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his work on "First Principles," when treating of "Laws in General," argues elaborately on the order in which the sense of law, or a recognition of "that constant course of procedure" which the term implies, was gradually developed in the human intellect. After showing that there are several derivative principles, some earlier arrived at than others from the relative frequency of the occurring phenomena and their immediate influence upon, or of "personal concern"

to, the aboriginal savage, he has some observations very pertinent to the present question. He says:--"The solidification of water at a low temperature is a phenomenon that is simple, concrete, and of much personal concern. But it is neither so frequent as those which we saw are earliest generalised, nor is the _presence of the antecedent so uniformly conspicuous_. Though in all but tropical climates, mid-winter displays the relation between cold and freezing with tolerable constancy; yet, during the spring and autumn, the occasional appearance of ice in the mornings has not very manifest connection with the coldness of the weather. Sensation being so inaccurate a measure, it is not possible for the savage to experience the definite relation between a temperature of 32 and the congealing of water; and hence the long-continued conception of _personal_ agency. Similarly, but still more clearly, with the winds, the absence of regularity, and the inconspicuousness of the antecedents, allowing the mythological explanation to survive for a great period."

The names of the Severn and the Dee, and some other rivers or estuaries, will admit of similar interpretation from similar sources. Mr. Kelly says:--"The collective appellation of the Vedic G.o.ds is Devas, and this name has pa.s.sed into most of the Indo-European languages; for corresponding to the Sanscrit _deva_ is the Latin _deus_, Greek _theos_, Lithuanian _dewas_, Lettish _dews_, Old Prussian _deiws_, Irish _dia_, Welsh _duw_, Cornish _duy_. Amongst the German races the word _deva_ survives only in the Norse plural _tvar_, G.o.ds; and amongst those of the Sclave stock the Servians alone preserve a trace of it in the word _diw_, giant. The daevas of the Medes and Persians were in early times degraded from the rank of G.o.ds to that of demons by a religious revolution, just as the heathen G.o.ds of the Germans were declared by the Christian missionaries to be devils; and the modern Persian _div_, and Armenian _dev_, mean an evil spirit. Deva is derived from _div_, heaven (properly 'the s.h.i.+ning'), and means the heavenly being."

This appears to be a satisfactory and conclusive answer to a very pertinent question put by George Borrow in the last chapter of his work on "Wild Wales." He says:--"How is it that the Sanscrit _devila_ stands for what is wise and virtuous, and the English devil for all that is desperate and wicked?" A similar answer is given to this question by the fate which the Teutonic G.o.ds of Western Europe underwent on the final triumph of Christianity. Dasent says:--"They were cast down from honour, but not from power. They lost their genial kindly influence as the protectors of men and the origin of all things good; but their existence was tolerated; they became powerful for ill, and degenerated into malignant demons."

In the Hindoo mythology, it appears revolutions took place at a very early date. In the early Vedic hymns Deva is "addressed as Dyanish pita, _i.e._, Heaven Father, and his wife is Mata Prithivi, Mother Earth. He is the Zeus Pater of the Greeks, the Jupiter of the Romans, the German Tius, and the Norse Tyr. Dyanish pita was the G.o.d of the blue firmament, but even in the Vedic times his grandeur was considerably on the wane.

Indra, the new lord of the firmament, had left him little more than a t.i.tular sovereignty in his own domain, while Varuna, another heavenly monarch, who was still in the plenitude of his power, commanded more respect than the _roi faineant_, his neighbour. The all-covering Varuna,[6] the Uranos of the Greeks, was lord of the celestial sea and of the realm of light above it, that highest heaven in which the Fathers dwelt with their King Yama. After the southern branch of the Aryans had entered India, Varuna was brought down from the upper regions, to be thenceforth the G.o.d of the earthly sea, which had then for the first time become known to his votaries."

May not this Varun be possibly the true root of the name Severn?

Etymologists are not at all agreed as to its derivation. Some say it was anciently called Hafren, and that this term is identical with Severn, the latter being merely a corruption of the former. This is the prevalent opinion. The Severn, indeed, yet retains the name Hafren, from its source to Llanidloes. Its princ.i.p.al upper tributary which enters it a little below Welshpool is called the Vyrnwy. May not this be the true Welsh root of the word? If such be the case, there is nothing improbable in the conjecture that Hafren is a Keltic corruption of the Sanscrit Varun, especially as the _f_ and _v_ are readily "convertible." The Se may be a prefix, of which more anon.[7]

Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his "British History," states that King Locrin divorced his queen Guendolna, and married a beautiful captive named Estrildis. On the death of the king, the divorced queen commanded "Estrildis and her daughter Sabre to be thrown into the river now called the Severn, and published an edict through all Britain that the river should bear the damsel's name, hoping by this to perpetuate her memory, and by that the infamy of her husband. So that to this day the river is called in the British tongue Sabren, which by the corruption of the name is, in another language, Sabrina."

Milton, speaking of Sabrina as the G.o.ddess of the river, styles her "the daughter of Locrine, that had the sceptre from his father Brute." As the mythical or rather non-historical character of Brute and his progeny is now almost universally conceded, it is not improbable that the river named the maiden (if she ever existed in the flesh) rather than that her immersion changed its designation. Sabrina, or Savrina (for the _b_ and _v_ are convertible), may therefore but be the Latinised form of the old Welsh Hafren and the Sanscrit Varuna, with the prefix _se_ added thereto.

The Dee is described as the Seteia Estuarium by Ptolemy. The Roman city Deva (Chester) was situated on its banks. The _se_ is generally regarded as a prefix in this case, and it may likewise be so in the word Severn.

_D_ and _t_ being convertible, the names of the river and city evidently spring from one root. The Rev. John Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, in interpreting the term Se-tan-tiu, says it may mean "the inferior or southerly country of water, and express the particular position of Lancas.h.i.+re with respect to the Volantii and the sea."[8]

The Se, in these cases, may have a somewhat similar import, or it may have reference to the Vedic great serpent Sesha, concerning which there is a curious story in the Hindoo poems. The Devas had been at war with their enemies, the Asuras, and, being thirsty with the work (or the country needing rain), a truce was agreed upon, and both sides joined their efforts "in churning the ocean to procure amrita" (or soma) "the drink of immortality. They took Mount Mandara for a churning stick, and wrapping the great serpent Sesha round it for a rope, they made the mountain spin round to and fro, the Devas pulling at the serpent's tail, and the Asuras at its head. Mount Mandara was more anciently written Manthara, and Manthara is the Sanscrit name of the churning stick which is used by every dairy in India."[9] The purely figurative character of this is easily seen. It is but another form of expressing the fertilisation of the earth by means of the rain which is engendered by the "strife of the elements." The churning stick and cord are but another form of the Hindoo pramantha, or fire churn, "or chark," by which the sacred or "need-fire" was produced amongst the Greeks and Romans, as well as the Keltae and other Aryan tribes, before the discovery of the use of flint and steel. The "chark" represented the power of the sun, and it is not impossible our remote Eastern ancestors were aware that the sun really does, in a sense, "churn" or "brew" the ocean water, and distribute its vapours over mountain and plain, and by this means convert even an otherwise barren wilderness into a fertile garden, making it literally "blossom like the rose."

That this superst.i.tion has not yet become extinct in India is attested by the following paragraph, which appeared in the newspapers in the year 1869:--"The inhabitants of Burmah have an idea that pulling at a rope will produce rain. Two parties tug against each other. One is a raining party, the other is a fair weather party. By previous arrangement the rain party are allowed to be victorious. On the occasion of the late continued drought this proceeding was attended with the happiest results."

Geoffrey of Monmouth says that an "invading king of the Huns, named Humber, was defeated by Locrin on the banks of that river, and drowned in its flood, on account of which it has since borne his name." This, of course, is merely idle romance. Some writers contend that the name was originally Chumber, that Northumberland means North c.u.mri-land, of which the present c.u.mberland is a relic. It is not improbable that the Mersey derived its name from Mercia, or the territory from the boundary river.

It, in conjunction with the Humber, divided Northumbria from Mercia during the heptarchy. The Mersey is still called the Ches.h.i.+re Waters by some of the inhabitants on the south-west of Manchester.

It is somewhat singular that no Roman writer or Itinerary mentions the Humber. Ptolemy speaks of a river Abus, which is generally identified with that stream, but this helps us not to the etymology of the modern name. It is not altogether improbable, however, that the Aryan mythology may throw some light upon the ancient appellations. We are informed by Max Muller that, previous to the dispersion of the Aryan tribes, the Ribhus were called Arbhus, and that this latter term is identical with the Greek Orpheus. From this root likewise is derived the German Alb or Alp; plural _Elbe_ or Elfen; English Elf, with its plural Elves. In the modern Welsh the word _elod_ means intelligence, spirit, _elaeth_ spiritual being, and _elford_ both demon and intellectual existence. The Rev. G. W. c.o.x says that Alpheios, the mythic huntsman, "is the child of the waters.... He is, in short, the Elf, or water sprite, whose birth-place is the Elbe, or flowing stream." If the name of the German river _Elbe_ (Albis) be derived from this source, the probability is heightened that the Abus of Ptolemy may have intimate relations.h.i.+p to the Aryan Arbhus, or Ribhus. These mystic beings were followers, like the Bhrigus and the Maruts, of Agni and Indra, "personifications of fire and firmament." Kelly says:--"The element of the Ribhus is rather that of the sunbeams or the lightning, though they too rule the winds, and sing, like the Maruts, the loud song of the storm.[10] Their name means the 'artificers,' and not even the divine workman of Olympus was more skilled than they in all kinds of handicraft. The armour and weapons of the G.o.ds, the chariots of the Asvins (deities of the dawn), the thunderbolt and the lightning steed of Indra, were of their workmans.h.i.+p.

They made their old decrepid parents young and supple-jointed again. But the feat for which they were most renowned is the revival of the slaughtered cow on which the G.o.ds had feasted. Out of the hide alone these wonder-working Ribhus reproduced the perfect living animal; and this they did not once, but again and again. _In other words, out of a small portion of the imperishable cloud that had melted away in rain and seemed destroyed, they reproduced its whole form and substance._"

Similar feats were ascribed to the Northern thunder-G.o.d, Thor, whose practice it was to kill the two buck goats that drew his car, cook them for supper, and bring them to life again next morning by touching them with his hammer.

Kelly further adds that in "the gloomy season of the winter solstice the Ribhus _sleep for twelve days in the house of the sun-G.o.d Savitar_; then they _wake up and prepare the earth to clothe itself anew with vegetation, and the_ FROZEN WATERS TO FLOW _again_."

The tributaries of the Humber are remarkable on account of their liabilities to sudden floods; and their constant recurrence, after long periods of drought, would suggest to a primaeval people the interference of celestial beings which possessed the attributes a.s.signed to these Arbhus or Ribhus. Referring to the Greek form of this myth, Kelly says:--

"We see how the cruder idea of the Ribhus sweeping trees and rocks in wild dance before them by the force of their stormy song grew under the beautifying touch of the h.e.l.lenic imagination into the legend of that master of the lyre whose magic tones made _torrents pause and listen, rocks and trees descend with delight from their mountain beds_, and moved even Pluto's unrelenting heart to pity."

The estuary on the opposite coast of Britain to the Severn, now known as the Wash, is called by Ptolemy, Metaris. May not this name have had, originally, some connection with Varuna's friend Mithra? Kelly says:--

"When the sun was still a wheel, a store of gold, a swan or a flamingo, an eagle, falcon, horse, and many other things, it was also the eye of Varuna; just as amongst the Anglo-Saxons and other Germans it was held to be the eye of Woden. Varuna and Mithra (the friend), _the G.o.d of daylight_, used to sit together at morning on a golden throne, and journey at even in a brazen car."

The sun, at the dawn at least, gilded the waves of the eastern estuary, and shed its ruddier glow at evening on the western or Severn sea. Under any interpretation, the coincidence of so many names and half-hidden characteristics, to say the least, is very remarkable.

There is nothing extravagant in this attempt to show that the terms thus applied conveyed both a literal, or earthly, as well as a figurative, or celestial, meaning. All mythology is fas.h.i.+oned out of such materials.

Primitive languages are limited in the number of their words, and, of necessity, are highly figurative. The tongues of all the North American Indians, as well as those of the tribes of Aryan and Semitic origin, markedly exhibit this peculiarity. Farrer, in his essay on the "Origin of Language," says:--

"To call things which we have never seen before by the name of that which most nearly resembles them is a practice of every-day life. That children at first call all men 'father' and all women 'mother' is an observation as old as Aristotle. The Romans gave the name of Lucanian _ox_ to the elephant, and _camelopardus_ to the giraffe, just as the New Zealanders are stated to have called horses _large dogs_. The astonished Caffers gave the name of _cloud_ to the first parasol which they had seen; and similar instances might be adduced almost indefinitely. They prove that it is an instinct, if it be not a necessity, to borrow for the unknown the names already used for things known."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The _Pall Mall Gazette_, of January, 1867, contained a paragraph announcing the success which had attended the labours of M. Lejean, who had been sent by the French government "on a journey of scientific exploration to India and the Persian Gulf." M. Lejean, in a letter from Abushehr (Bendershehr), reports to the French Minister of Public Instruction, discoveries "of so extraordinary a nature," that the writer in the _Gazette_ "scarcely likes to repeat them without further confirmation." Amongst other matters, he says:--"They extend from the oldest times to the Alexandrine period, and from the Arians to Buddhism.

He speaks of having discovered ante-Sanscrit idioms (_langues paleo-ariennes_) 'still spoken between Kashmir and Afghanistan by the mountain tribes,' and he undertakes to prove 'that these languages have a more direct connection with the European languages than Sanscrit.'"

Should this prove correct, a careful a.n.a.lysis of this speech or tongue may throw much light, either confirmative or otherwise, on many of the more recondite questions discussed in this work.

[2] Baldwin, however, in his recent work, "Pre-historic Nations,"

contends that the Phnicians, as well as the ancient Egyptians and others, were descended from the old Cus.h.i.+te Arabs, and were therefore "Hamitic" rather than "Semitic" in their origin.

[3] History of Preston and its Environs, p. 36.

[4] The Hindoo Trimurtti or Triad, namely, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, likewise represents the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer.

[5] The falcon, as well as the eagle, was a "fire-bringer or lightning-bird."

[6] "Varuna and the demon Vitri both derive their names from var, vri, to cover, to enfold."

[7] Since the above was written, the Rev. G. W. c.o.x's "Mythology of the Aryan Nations" has been published. At page 78, vol. 2, speaking of the youth of Paris, the seducer of Helen, he says:--"In his early life he has the love of Oinone, the child of the river-G.o.d Kebren, and thus a being akin to the bright maidens who, like Athene and Aphrodite, are born from the waters." In a note he adds "that this name Kebren is probably the same as Severn, the intermediate forms leave little room for doubting."

[8] Since the above was written, I have seen, in Captain Speke's "Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile," the map of Eastern Equatorial Africa, which accompanied a paper, published in the third volume of "Asiatic Researches, in 1801." Speke, referring to this paper, says:--"It was written by Lieutenant Wilford, from the 'Purans' of the ancient Hindus.... It is remarkable that the Hindus have christened the source of the Nile _Amara_, which is the name of a country at the north-east corner of the Victoria N'yanza. This, I think, shows clearly, that the ancient Hindus must have had some kind of communication with both the northern and southern ends of the Victoria N'yanza." I find on this map, on the west side of the inland sea styled "Lake of Amara or of the G.o.ds," a range of hills named "_Sitanta M^ts_." They are in close contiguity to the "_Soma Giri_" or "Mountains of the Moon," and seem to be a lower or inferior branch of that range, bordering upon the waters of the great lake. This appears to be a further confirmation of the high probability which exists that some of the very ancient local nomenclature of Britain and Western Europe is of Eastern origin. Ptolemy speaks not only of a people inhabiting the district of which Lancas.h.i.+re forms a part, which he names the _Setantii_, but of a harbour on the coast, the _Portus Setantiorum_, which I and others have fixed at the Wyre. [See "History of Preston and its Environs." p. 36.]

[9] The second "Avatara" of Vishnu was in the form of a tortoise, when Vishnu placed himself under the mountain Mandara, while the G.o.ds and demons churned the Milky Sea for ambrosia. This incarnation is called the _Kurma_. This churning appears to have produced other miraculous results. Amongst the "gifts" of the ocean on this auspicious occasion, two especially fell to the share of Vishnu himself, namely, a miraculous jewel, named _Kaustubha_, and S'ri, the G.o.ddess of Beauty and Prosperity. The Venus of the Greeks was said to have been produced from the foam of the sea, in the neighbourhood of the island _Cythera_, hence one of the numerous appellations of the G.o.ddess--_Cytherea_.

[10] The modern Welsh word _aban_ signifies din, tumult, uproar.

CHAPTER II.

FIRE OR SUN WORs.h.i.+P AND ITS ATTENDANT SUPERSt.i.tIONS.

Most glorious...o...b.. thou wert a wors.h.i.+p, ere The mystery of thy making was reveal'd!

Thou earliest minister of the Almighty, Which gladden'd, on their mountain tops, the hearts Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they pour'd Themselves in orisons! Thou material G.o.d!