The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries Part 53

---- Cult of, 412 ff.

---- Nature of, 285 ff., 296 n., 310, 313 n.-4, 335, 351, 355, 376, 379, 411, 492.

---- Welsh parallels to, 329.

_Tylwyth Teg_: _see_ Fairy, Names.

---- Breton parallel to, 211.

---- Origin of, 163.

Ulster, 3, 344-5, 370, 373, 374.

Undine, Tale of, 135.

Undines, 241.

Uthr Bendragon, 310.

_Viellee_, 6 n., 221.

Virgin, Holy, the, 394 n., 428, 451.

Vision, 60-2, 65-7, 80, 83, 91, 117, 122, 124-6, 133-4, 139, 140-1, 143, 145, 152, 155, 158, 182, 214-5, 230, 242, 286, 296, 334, 356: _see_ Clairvoyance, and Seers.

---- Conferring of, 77, 152, 215.

---- Explanation of, 485 ff.

---- Science and, 459, 476.

Vitalism, 493 ff.

Vivian, 10, 189, 315, 329.

Wace, 308 n., 323.

_Wales, Archaiology of_, 394.

---- _Four Ancient Books of_, 308 n., 328-31; age of, 331.

Wands, 52, 202, 343-4.

White Lady, 28, 82 n., 152 n., 310.

Witch, 34, 36, 121-2, 124 n., 174, 248, 264, 272, 304, 306, 389, 430.

---- Definition of, 263.

Witchcraft, 10, 12, 34, 36, 122, 153-4, 159 n., 167, 248, 253-65, 272, 281.

---- Theory of, 263.

Footnotes:

[1] Quite appropriately it means _place of cairns_ or _tumuli_--those prehistoric monuments religious and funereal in their purposes. _Carnac_ seems to be a Gallo-Roman form. According to Professor J. Loth, the Breton (Celtic) forms would be: old Celtic, _Carnaco-s_; old Breton (ninth-eleventh century), _Carnoc_; Middle Breton (eleventh-sixteenth century), _Carneuc_; Modern Breton, _Carnec_.

[2] For we cannot offer any proof of what at first sight appears like a philological relation or ident.i.ty between _Carnac_ and _Karnak_.

[3] Andrew Lang, Kirk's _Secret Commonwealth_ (London, 1893), p. xviii; and _History of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1900-07).

[4] Cf. David MacRitchie's published criticisms of our Psychological Theory in _The Celtic Review_ (January 1910), ent.i.tled _Druids and Mound-Dwellers_; also his first part of these criticisms, ib. (October 1909), ent.i.tled _A New Solution of the Fairy Problem_.

[5] Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_ (Edinburgh, 1900), i, p.

xix.

[6] The _ceilidh_ of the Western Hebrides corresponds to the _veillee_ of Lower Brittany (see pp. 221 ff.), and to similar story-telling festivals which formerly flourished among all the Celtic peoples. 'The _ceilidh_ is a literary entertainment where stories and tales, poems, and ballads, are rehea.r.s.ed and recited, and songs are sung, conundrums are put, proverbs are quoted, and many other literary matters are related and discussed.'--Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_, i, p.

xviii.

[7] I am indebted for this information to the late Mr. Davies, the competent scholar and antiquarian of Newcastle-Emlyn, where for many years he has been vicar.

[8] In the Gnosis, St. Michael symbolizes the sun, and thus very appropriately at St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, at Mont St. Michel, Carnac, and also at Mont St. Michel on the coast of Normandy, replaced the Great G.o.d of Light and Life, held in supreme honour among the ancient Celts.

[9] In this connexion we may think of the North and South Magnetic Poles of the earth as centres of definite yet invisible forces which can be detected, and to some extent measured scientifically.

[10] Anglo-Irish for _rath_, a circular earthen fort.

[11] Throughout Ireland there are many ancient, often prehistoric, earthworks or tumuli, which are popularly called _forts_, _raths_, or _duns_, and in folk-belief these are considered fairy hills or the abodes of various orders of fairies. In this belief we see at work a definite anthropomorphism which attributes dwellings here on earth to an invisible spirit-race, as though this race were actually the spirits of the ancient Irish who built the _forts_. As we proceed, we shall see how important and varied a part these earthworks play in the Irish Fairy-Faith (cf. chapter viii, on Archaeology).

[12] An Irish mystic, and seer of great power, with whom I have often discussed the Fairy-Faith in its details, regards 'fairy paths' or 'fairy pa.s.ses' as actual magnetic arteries, so to speak, through which circulates the earth's magnetism.

[13] 'Irish scholars differ as to the signification of _Meadha_. Some say that it is the genitive case of _Meadh_, the name of some ancient chieftain who was buried in the hill. _Knock Magh_ is the spelling often used by writers who hold that the name means "Hill of the Plain".'--JOHN GLYNN.

[14] On September 8, 1909, about a year after this testimony was given, Mr. ----, our seer-witness, at his own home near Grange, told to me again the same essential facts concerning his psychical experiences as during my first interview with him, and even repeated word for word the expressions the 'gentry' used in communicating with him. Therefore I feel that he is thoroughly sincere in his beliefs and descriptions, whatever various readers may think of them. As his neighbours said to me about him--and I interviewed a good many of them--'Some give in to him and some do not'; but they always spoke of him with respect, though a few naturally consider him eccentric. At the time of our second meeting (which gave me a chance to revise the evidence as first taken down) Mr.

---- made this additional statement:--'The _gentry_ do not tell all their secrets, and I do not understand many things about them, nor can I be sure that everything I tell concerning them is exact.'

[15] A learned and more careful Irish seer thinks this head-dress should really be described as an aura.

[16] I have been told by a friend in California, who is a student of psychical sciences, that there exist in certain parts of that state, notably in the Yosemite Valley, as the Red Men seem to have known, according to their traditions, invisible races exactly comparable to the 'gentry' of this Ben Bulbin country such as our seer-witness describes them and as other seers in Ireland have described them, and quite like the 'people of peace' as described by Kirk, the seventh son, in his _Secret Commonwealth_ (see this study, p. 85 n.). These California races are said to exist now, as the Irish and Scotch invisible races are said to exist now, by seers who can behold them; and, like the latter races, are described as a distinct order of beings who have never been in physical embodiments. If we follow the traditions of the Red Men, the Yosemite invisible tribes are probably but a few of many such tribes scattered throughout the North American continent; and equally with their Celtic relatives they are described as a warlike race with more than human powers over physical nature, and as able to subject or destroy men.

[17] This refers to a tale told by Hugh Currid, in August, 1908, about Father Patrick and Father Dominick, which is here omitted because re-investigation during my second visit to Grange, in September, 1909, showed the tale to have been incorrectly reported. The same story, however, based upon facts, according to several reliable witnesses, was more accurately told by Patrick Waters at the time of my re-investigation, and appears on page 51.