The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries Part 65

[493] Augustin, _de Serm. Dom. in Monte_, ii. 5; cf. Tylor, _P. C._,{4} ii. 427-8.

[494] Ezek. viii. 16. The popular opinion that Christians face the east in prayer, or have altars eastward because Jerusalem is eastward, does not fit in with facts.

[495] Cf. Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 88; also Tylor, _Prim.

Cult._,{4} ii. 48-9.

[496] Though not a Mason, the writer draws his knowledge from Masons of the highest rank, and from published works by Masons like Mr. Carty's _The Great Pyramid Jeezeh_.

[497] Cf. Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_, ii. 347 n.

[498] C. Piazzi Smyth, _Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid_ (London, 1890).

[499] Flinders Petrie, _The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, pp. 169, 222.

[500] C. Piazzi Smyth, op. cit.

[501] In 1770, when New Grange apparently was not covered with a growth of trees as now, Governor Pownall visited it and described it as like a pyramid in general outline: 'The pyramid in its present state' is 'but a ruin of what it was' (Coffey, op. cit., x.x.x. 13).

[502] Le Dr. G. de C., _Locmariaquer et Gavr'inis_ (Vannes, 1876), p.

18.

[503] According to Le Dr. G. de C., op. cit., p. 18.

[504] Mr. Coffey says of similar details in Irish tumuli:--'In the construction of such chambers it is usual to find a sort of sill or low stone placed across the entrance into the main chamber, and at the openings into the smaller chambers or recesses; such stones also occur laid at intervals across the bottom of the pa.s.sages. This forms a marked feature in the construction at Dowth, and in the cairns on the Loughcrew Hills, but is wholly absent at New Grange' (op. cit., x.x.x. 15). New Grange, however, has suffered more or less from vandalism, and originally may have contained similar stone sills.

[505] Flinders Petrie, _The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, p. 216.

[506] Maspero, op. cit., p. 69 n., &c. The world-wide anthropomorphic tendency to construct tombs for the G.o.ds and for the dead after the plan of earthly dwellings is as evident in the excavations at Mycenae as in ancient Egypt and in Celtic lands.

[507] Cf. Bruns, _Canones apostolorum et conciliorum saeculorum_, ii.

133.

[508] Cf. F. Maa.s.sen, _Concilia aevi merovingici_, p. 133.

[509] Cf. Boretius, _Capitularia regum Francorum_, i. 59; for each of the above references cf. Jubainville, _Le culte des menhirs dans le monde celtique_, in _Rev. Celt._, xxvii. 317.

[510] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_, p. 427.

[511] See Villemarque _sur Bretagne_.

[512] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_, p. 326; quoted from _De Glor. Conf._, c. 2.

[513] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_, p. 326; quoted from _De Glor. Conf._, c. 2.

[514] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_, p. 326; quoted from _Goth._, lib. ii.

[515] A. W. Moore, in _Folk-Lore_, v. 212-29.

[516] Cf. Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, p. 247.

[517] Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_, iii. 729.

[518] Stokes, _Tripart.i.te Life of Patrick_, pp. 99-101.

[519] Ib., text, pp. 123, 323, and Intro., p. 159.

[520] Book II, 69-70; see our study, p. 267.

[521] Rennes _Dinnshenchas_, Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xv. 457.

[522] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_, p. 323.

[523] The Celts may have viewed the mistletoe on the sacred oak as the seat of the tree's life, because in the winter sleep of the leafless oak the mistletoe still maintains its own foliage and fruit, and like the heart of a sleeper continues pulsing with vitality. The mistletoe thus being regarded as the heart-centre of the divine spirit in the oak-tree was cut with a golden sickle by the arch-druid clad in pure white robes, amid great religious solemnity, and became a vicarious sacrifice or atonement for the wors.h.i.+ppers of the tree G.o.d. (Cf. Frazer, _G. B._,{2} iii. 447 ff.)

[524] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, xvi. 95; cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 218.

[525] _Dissert._, viii; cf. Rhys, ib., p. 219.

[526] Meineke's ed., xii. 5, 1; cf. Rhys, ib., p. 219. The oak-tree is pre-eminently the holy tree of Europe. Not only Celts, but Slavs, wors.h.i.+pped amid its groves. To the Germans it was their chief G.o.d; the ancient Italians honoured it above all other trees; the original image of Jupiter on the Capitol at Rome seems to have been a natural oak-tree.

So at Dodona, Zeus was wors.h.i.+pped as immanent in a sacred oak. Cf.

Frazer, _G. B._,{2} iii. 346 ff.

[527] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_, pp. 333-4; quotation from _Hist. du Maine_, i.

17.

[528] Cf. Mahe, _Essai_, p. 334; quoted from _Lib._ VII, _indict._ i, _epist._ 5.

[529] Stokes, _Tripart.i.te Life_, p. 409.

[530] Cf. Wood-Martin, _Traces of the Older Faiths in Ireland_, i. 305.

[531] W. Gregor, _Notes on Beltene Cakes_, in _Folk-Lore_, vi. 5.

[532] Temple, _Legends of the Panjab_, in _Folk-Lore_, x. 406.

[533] Lefevre, _Le Culte des Morts chez les Latins_, in _Rev. Trad.

Pop._, ix. 195-209.

[534] See _Folk-Lore_, vi. 192.

[535] The term 'People of Peace' seems, however, to have originated from confounding _sid_, 'fairy abode,' and _sid_, 'peace.'

[536] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 102.

[537] The crocodile as the mystic symbol of Sitou provides one key to unlock the mysteries of what eminent Egyptologists have erroneously called animal wors.h.i.+p, erroneously because they have interpreted literally what can only be interpreted symbolically. The crocodile is called the 'son of Sitou' in the _Papyrus magique_, Harris, pl. vi, ll.

8-9 (cf. Maspero, _Les Contes populaires de l'egypte Ancienne_,[539]

Intro., p. 56); and as the waters seem to swallow the sun as it sinks below the horizon, so the crocodile, as Sitou representing the waters, swallows the Children of Osiris, as the Egyptians called themselves. On the other hand, Osiris is typified by the white bull, in many nations the sun emblem, white being the emblem of purity and light, while the powers of the bull represent the masculinity of the sun, which impregnates all nature, always thought of as feminine, with life germs.

[538] Cf. Maspero, op. cit., Intro., p. 49.