The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries Part 63

And Amairgen also says:--'I am,' [Taliessin] 'I have been' (_Book of Invasions_; cf. _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 91-2; cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p.

549; cf. Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, i. 276 ff.).

In later times, especially among non-bardic poets, there has been a similar tendency to misinterpret this primitive mystical Celtic pantheism into the corrupt form of the re-birth doctrine, namely transmigration of the human soul into animal bodies. Dr. Douglas Hyde has sent to me the following evidence:--'I have a poem, consisting of nearly one hundred stanzas, about a pig who ate an Irish ma.n.u.script, and who by eating it recovered human speech for twenty-four hours and gave his master an account of his previous embodiments. He had been a right-hand man of Cromwell, a weaver in France, a subject of the Grand Signor, &c. The poem might be about one hundred or one hundred and fifty years old.' It is probable that the poet who composed this poem intended to add a touch of modern Irish humour by making use of the pig. We should, nevertheless, bear in mind that the pig (or, as is more commonly the rule, the wild boar) holds a very curious and prominent position in the ancient mythology of Ireland, and of Wales as well. It was regarded as a magical animal (cf. p. 451 n.); and, apparently, was also a Druid symbol, whose meaning we have lost. Possibly the poet may have been aware of this. If so, he does not necessarily imply transmigration of the human soul into animal bodies; but is merely employing symbolism.

[403] See _Taliessin_ in the _Mabinogion_, and the _Book of Taliessin_ in Skene's _Four Ancient Books_, i. 523 ff.; cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 84, and Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 548, 551.

[404] Cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 548-50.

[405] Cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 259; and _Arth. Leg._, p. 252.

[406] Loth, _Les Mabinogion, Kulhwch et Olwen_, p. 187 n.

[407] _Le Morte D'Arthur_, Book XXI, c. vii.

[408] See works on Egyptian mythology and religion, by Maspero; also Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 84, &c.

[409] F. L. Griffith, _Stories of the High-priests of Memphis_ (Oxford, 1900), c. iii. The text of this story is written on the back of two Greek doc.u.ments, bearing the date of the seventh year of the Emperor Claudius (A. D. 46-7), not before published.

[410] It is interesting to compare with this episode the episodes of how the magic of St. Patrick prevailed over the magic of the Druids when the old and the new religions met in warfare on the Hill of Tara, in the presence of the high king of Ireland and his court.

[411] E. A. Wallis Budge, _The G.o.ds of the Egyptians_ (London, 1904), p. 3.

[412] Prescott, _Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of Peru_.

[413] W. Crooke, _The Legends of Krishna_, in _Folk-Lore_, xi. 2-3 ff.

[414] _Laws of Manu_, vii. 8, trans, by G. Buhler.

[415] A. B. Cook, _European Sky-G.o.d_, in _Folk-Lore_, xv. 301-4.

[416] Cf. Lucian, _Somn._, 17, &c. See Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 13; also Tertullian, _De Anima_, c. xxviii, where Pythagoras is described as having previously been Aethalides, and Euphorbus, and the fisherman Pyrrhus.

[417] Cf. Huc, _Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet_, i.

279 ff.

[418] The doctrine of kingly rule by divine right was subst.i.tuted after the conversion of the Roman Empire for the very ancient belief that the emperor was a G.o.d incarnate (not necessarily reincarnate); and the same christianized aspect of a pre-Christian doctrine stands behind the English kings.h.i.+p at the present day.

[419] A curious parallel to this Irish doctrine that through re-birth one suffers for the sins committed in a previous earth-life is found in the Christian scriptures, where in asking Jesus about a man born blind, 'Rabbi, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?' the disciple exhibits what must have been a popular Jewish belief in re-birth quite like the Celtic one. See St. John ix. 1-2.

Though the Rabbis admitted the possibility of ante-natal sin in thought, this pa.s.sage seems to point unmistakably to a Jewish re-birth doctrine.

[420] It is interesting to note in connexion with these two complementary ideas what has been written by Mr. Standish O'Grady concerning strange phenomena witnessed at the time of Charles Parnell's funeral:--'While his followers were committing Charles Parnell's remains to the earth, the sky was bright with strange lights and flames. Only a coincidence possibly; and yet persons not superst.i.tious have maintained that there is some mysterious sympathy between the human soul and the elements.... Those strange flames recalled to my memory what is told of similar phenomena said to have been witnessed when tidings of the death of the great Christian Saint, Columba, overran the north-west of Europe, as perhaps truer than I had imagined.'--_Ireland: Her Story_, pp.

211-12.

[421] Cf. M. Lenihan, _Limerick; its History and Antiquities_ (Dublin, 1866), p. 725.

[422] I take this to mean, somewhat as in the similar case of Dechtire, the mother of Cuchulainn (see p. 369, above), that the kind of soul or character which will be reincarnated in the child is determined by the psychic prenatal conditions which a mother consciously or unconsciously may set up. If this interpretation, as it seems to be, is correct, we have in this Welsh belief a surprising comprehension of scientific laws on the part of the ancient Welsh Druids--from whom the doctrine comes--which equals, and surpa.s.ses in its subtlety, the latest discoveries of our own psychological embryology, criminology, and so-called laws of heredity.

[423] The reader is referred to the Rev. T. M. Morgan's latest publication, _The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Newchurch, Carmarthens.h.i.+re_ (Carmarthen, 1910), pp. 155-6.

[424] I found, however, that the original re-birth doctrine has been either misinterpreted or else corrupted--after Dr. Tylor's theory--into transmigration into animal bodies among certain Cornish miners in the St. Just region.

[425] The primitive character of the Incarnation doctrine is clear: Origen, in refuting a Jewish accusation against Christians, apparently the natural outgrowth of deep-seated hatred and religious prejudice on the part of the Jews, that Jesus Christ was born through the adultery of the Virgin with a certain soldier named Panthera, argues 'that every soul, for certain mysterious reasons (I speak now according to the opinions of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Empedocles, whom Celsus frequently names), is introduced into a body, and introduced according to its deserts and former actions'. And, according to Origen's argument, to a.s.sign to Jesus Christ a birth more disgraceful than any other is absurd, because 'He who sends souls down into the bodies of men' would not have thus 'degraded Him who was to dare such mighty acts, and to teach so many men, and to reform so many from the ma.s.s of wickedness in the world'. And Origen adds:--'It is probable, therefore, that this soul also which conferred more benefit by its residence in the flesh than that of many men (to avoid prejudice, I do not say "all"), stood in need of a body not only superior to others, but invested with all excellence'

(_Origen against Celsus_, Book I, c. x.x.xii).

It is interesting to compare with Origen's theology the following pa.s.sage from the _Pistis Sophia_, wherein Jesus in the alleged esoteric discourse to his disciples refers to the pre-existence of their souls:--'I took them from the hands of the twelve saviours of the treasure of light, according to the command of the first mystery. These powers, therefore, I cast into the wombs of your mothers, when I came into the world, and they are those which are in your bodies this day'

(_Pistis Sophia_, i. II, Mead's translation).

[426] Cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 27 ff., 45 ff., 54 ff., 98-102.

[427] Cf. ib., p. 105.

[428] In this chapter, largely the result of my own special research and observations in Celtic archaeology, I wish to acknowledge the very valuable suggestions offered to me by Professor J. Loth, both in his lectures and personally.

[429] See David MacRitchie, _Fians, Fairies, and Picts_; also his _Testimony of Tradition_.

[430] Myers, in the _Survival of the Human Personality_ (ii. 55-6), shows that 'the departed spirit, long after death, seems pre-occupied with the spot where his bones are laid'. Among contemporary uncultured races there exists a theory parallel to this one arrived at through careful scientific research, namely, that ghosts haunt graves and monuments connected with the dead: according to the Australian Arunta the 'double' hovers near its body until the body is reduced to dust, the spirit or soul of the deceased having separated from this 'double' or ghost at the time of death or soon afterwards (Spenser and Gillen, _Nat.

Tribes of Cent. Aust._).

[431] See _Les Grottes_, t. i; _Les Menhirs, Les Dolmens, Les Tumulus_, and _Cultes et observances megalithiques_, t. iv.

[432] On April 17, 1909, at Carnac, in a natural fissure in the body of the finest menhir at the head of the Alignement of Kermario, I found quite by chance, while making a very careful examination of the geological structure of the menhir, a Roman Catholic coin (or medal) of St. Peter. The place in the menhir where this coin was discovered is on the south side about fifteen inches above the surface of the ground. The menhir is very tall and smoothly rounded, and there is no possible way for the coin to have fallen into the fissure by accident. Nor is there any probability that the coin was placed there without a serious purpose; and it is an object such as only an adult would possess. An examination of the link remaining on the coin, which no doubt formerly connected it with a necklace or string of prayer-beads, shows that it has been purposely opened so as to free it at the time it was deposited in the stone. Had the coin been accidentally torn away from a chain or string of prayer-beads the link would have presented a different sort of opening. But it would be altogether unreasonable to suppose that by any sort of chance the coin could have reached the place where I found it. I showed the coin to M. Z. Le Rouzic, of the Carnac Museum, and he considers it, as I do, as evidence or proof of a cult rendered to stones here in Brittany. The coin must have been secretly placed in the menhir by some pious peasant as a direct _ex voto_ for some favour received or demanded. The coin is somewhat discoloured, and has probably been some years in the stone, though it cannot be very old. And the offering of a coin to the spirit residing in a menhir is parallel to throwing coins, pins, or other objects into sacred fountains, which, as we know, is an undisputed practice.

[433] Cf. A. C. Kruijt, _Het Animisme in den Indischen Archipel_; quoted in Crawley's _Idea of the Soul_, p. 133.

[434] Cf. Weidemann, _Ancient Egyptian Doct. Immortality_, p. 21.

[435] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_.

[436] Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 143 ff., 169, 172.

[437] Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_, c. i.

[438] Mahe, _Essai_, p. 230.

[439] A famous controversy exists as to whether the Coronation Stone now in Westminster Abbey is the _Lia Fail_, or whether the pillar-stone still at Tara is the _Lia Fail_. See article by E. S. Hartland in _Folk-Lore_, xiv. 28-60.

[440] These 'idols' probably were not true images, but simply unshaped stone pillars planted on end in the earth; and ought, therefore, more properly to be designated fetishes.

[441] Stokes, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 260; Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 200-1.

[442] Very much first-cla.s.s evidence suggests that the menhir was regarded by the primitive Celts both as an abode of a G.o.d or as a seat of divine power, and as a phallic symbol (cf. Jubainville, _Le culte des menhirs dans le monde celtique_, in _Rev. Celt._, xxvii. 313). As a phallic symbol, the menhir must have been inseparably related to a Celtic sun-cult; because among all ancient peoples where phallic wors.h.i.+p has prevailed, the sun has been venerated as the supreme masculine force in external nature from which all life proceeds, while the phallus has been venerated as the corresponding force in human nature.

[443] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 137.

[444] Professor J. Loth says:--'_etymologiquement, le mot est compose de_ CROM, _courbe, arque, formant creux, convexe, et de_ LLECH, _pierre plate_' (_Rev. Celt._, xv. 223, _Dolmen_, _Leach-Derch_, _Peulvan_, _Menhir_, _Cromlech_). In Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, instead of the peculiarly Breton word _dolmen_ (composed of _dol_ [for _tol == tavl_], meaning _table_, and of _men_ [Middle Breton _maen_], meaning _stone_) the word _cromlech_ is used. _Cromlech_ is the Welsh equivalent for the Breton _dolmen_, but Breton archaeologists use _cromlech_ to describe a circle formed by menhirs.

[445] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 193-4.

[446] Ib., p. 192; from Sans-Marte's edition, pp. 108-9, 361.