Chapter XI: The Fair Maid (2)

It is impossible to say whether the three-eyed elphin faces illustrated _ante_, page 381, are asters, marguerites, marigolds, or suns: in the centre of one of them is a heart, and without doubt they one and all symbolised the Great Amour or Margret. During excavations at Jerusalem in 1871, the symbol of Three Balls was discovered under the Temple of King Solomon on Mount Moriah: this temple was circular, and it is probable that the name Moriah meant originally Moreye or Big Eye. That the three cavities in question were once ains or eyes is implied by the explorer's statement: "Within this recess are three cylindrical holes 5-1/4 inches in diameter, the lines joining their centres forming the sides of an equilateral triangle. Below this appears once to have been a basin to collect the water, but whatever has been there, it has been violently removed ... there can be little doubt that this is an ancient overflow from the Birket Israil."[740] It is probable that the measure of these three cup-like holes was once 5 inches, and that the resultant fifteen had some original connection with the fifteen besants or basins of Byzantine Britain.

With the _brook Birket Israil_ at Mount Moriah may be connoted the neighbouring "large pool called El Burak": the existence on Mount Moriah of subterranean cisterns or basins known as Solomon's Stables renders it probable that El Burak was El Borak, the fabulous white steed upon which the faithful Mussulman expects one day to ride. The Eyes of the British broks or nags here illustrated are curiously prominent, and in Fig. 396 the _eleven_-eared wheat sprig is springing from a trefoil: with the lily surmounting the CUNO steed may be connoted the two stars or morrow stars which frequently decorate this triune emblem of Good Deed, Good Thought, Good Word: they may be seen to-day on the badges of those little Knights of To-morrow, the Boy Scouts.

The lily appears in the hand of the PIXTILOS figure here illustrated, and among the Pictish emblems found on the vitrified fort at Anwath in Scotland is the puckish design illustrated on page 496, Fig. 293. This was probably a purely symbolic and elementary form of the dolorous and pensive St. John which Christianity figured with a pair of marigolds or marguerites in lieu of feathers or antennae.

Accompanying the Pictish inscription in question were the elaborate barnacles or spectacles reproduced _ante_, page 495: in Crete the barnacles, as illustrated on page 494, are found humanised by a small winged figure holding a wand, and the general effect of the two circles when superimposed is that of the figure 8. The nine-rayed ABRACAX lion as portrayed by the Gnostics, and doubtless a variant of Abracadabra, has its serpentine body twined into an 8; on a Longstone in Brittany there is a figure holding an 8 tipped staff, and the same emblem will be noticed on the coins of the Longostaliti, a _Gaul_ish people who seemingly were so ghoulish as to venerate a _cal_ix or _caul_dron: from the _pair dadeni_ or cauldron of renaissance represented on these astral coins it will be noticed there are emerging two stars and other interesting nicknacks. The locks of hair on the astral figure represented on the coins of Marseilles--a city founded by a colony of Phocean Greeks from Ionia--number exactly eight: in Scotland we have traced the memory of eight ancient hags, the Mothers of the World: in Valencia we have noted the procession of eight scrupulously coiffured Giants, and there is very little doubt that the eight survivors of the Flood,[741] by whom the world was re-peopled, is a re-statement of the same idea of the Gods of the four quarters and their Consorts. In connection with the Ogdoad or Octet of eight gods one may connote the curious erection which once decorated the London Guildhall, the seat of Gogmagog:[742] here, "on each side of the flight of steps was an _octangular_ turreted gallery, balustraded, having an office in each, appropriated to the hallkeeper: these galleries assumed the appearance of arbours from being each surrounded by six palm-trees in ironwork, the foliage of which gave support to a large balcony, having in front a clock (with three dials) elaborately ornamented, and underneath a representation of the Sun, resplendent with gilding; the clock frame was of oak. At the angles were the cardinal virtues, and on the top a curious figure of Time with a young child in his arms."[743] At the village of _Thame_-on-Thames, which the authorities state meant _rest, quiet_, otherwise _tame_ or kindly, gentle _Time_, there is a celebrated figure of St. Kitt, _alias_ Father Time, with the little figure of New Time or _Change_ upon his shoulder. In Etruria a parallel idea would seem to have been current, for Mrs. Hamilton Gray describes an Etruscan work of art inscribed "Isis nourishing Horus, or Truth teaching Time".[744] It is most unusual to find the Twins depicted as old men, or Bald ones with the mystic Lock of Horus on their foreheads, but in the eighteenth-century emblem here reproduced the intention of the deviser is unmistakable, and the central Sun is supported by two Times.

In a cave situated at the cross roads at Royston in Hertfordshire, there is the figure of St. Kitt beneath which are apparently eight other figures: these are assumedly "other saints," but the Christian Church does not assign any singular pre-eminence to St. Christopher, and the decorators of the Royston Cave evidently regarded St. Kitt as the Supreme One or God Himself. It is abundantly evident that to our ancestors Kit or Kate was God, Giant, Jeyantt,[745] or Good John: that he was deemed the deity of the ocean is obvious from instances where the water in which he stands is full of crabs, dolphins, and other ocean creatures. I have suggested that Christopher was a representation of _dad_ or Death carrying the soul over the river of Death, _i.e._, "Dowdy" with the spriggan on his back. Among sailors Death is known familiarly as "Old Nick," "Old Davy," or "Davy Jones," and in Cornwall they have a curious and inexplicable saying: "as ancient as the Flood of Dava". I think this Dava must have been the genius of the rivers Dove, Taff and Tavy.

That Kit was connected with the eight of the Cretan Eros figure is further implied by the fact that on the summit of a lofty hill near Royston or Roystone there is, or was, a "hollow oval". The length of this prehistoric monument was stated in 1856 as about 31 feet (originally 33?) and its breadth about 22 feet. "Within this bank are two circular excavations meeting together in the middle and nearly forming the figure eight. Both excavations descend by concentric and contracting rings to the walls which form the sides of the chambers."[746] From this description the monument would appear to be identical in design with the 8-in-an-oval emblem here illustrated, a mediæval papermark traceable to the Italian town of St. Donino. Examples of twin earthwork circles forming the figure 8 are not unknown in Ireland.

At Royston, which, as we shall see, was the Lady Roesia's town, is a place called Cocken Hatch, but whether this is the site of the eight-form monument in question, I am unaware: in the megalithic stone illustrated on p. 638 the Cadi is not only holding an 8 on the tip of his _caduceus_, but he has also a _cadet_ or little son by the hand: _cadi_ is Arabic for a _judge_, and in Wales the Cadi no doubt acted as the final judge. In Celtic the word _cad_ meant war, an implication that in one of his aspects Ked or St. Kitt was the ever-victorious Michael or the all-conquering Nike: there is a Berkshire ballad extant, in which the word _caddling_, meaning fighting, is employed, yet caddling is the same word as _cuddling_. In Scotland, _caddie_ means a messenger or errand boy: Mercury or Hermes was the Messenger of the Gods: among the Greeks, Iris was the Messenger, and Iris was unquestionably the Turkish Orus or St. George. In Arabia, St. George is known as El Khoudr, and it is believed that El Khoudr is not yet dead, but still flies round and round the world: in a subsequent chapter it will be shown that Orus is the same as Horus the Egyptian dragon-slayer; hence Giggras, another of St. George's titles, may be resolved into Mighty Mighty Horus or Eros, and it is possible that the Pictish town of Delginross should read _Tall King Eros_.

The eleven rows of rocks at Carnac extend, it is said, for _eight_ miles, and at the neighbouring Er-lanic are two megalithic circles, one dipping into the sea, the other submerged in deep water: according to Baring-Gould, these two rings are juxtaposed, forming an 8, and lie on the south-east of the island; the first circle consists of 180 stones (twice _nine_), but several are fallen, and it can only be seen complete when the tide is out; one stone is 16 feet high; the second circle can be seen only at low tide.[747]

It is probable that the measurements of the Venus de Quinipily, illustrated on p. 530, are not without significance: the statue stands upon a pedestal, 9 feet high, and the figure itself rises 8 feet high.[748] With eight may be further connoted the eastern teaching of the "Noble Eightfold Path," and also the belief of Western Freemasonry as stated in Mackey's _Lexicon of Freemasonry_: "Eight was esteemed as the first cube (2 × 2 × 2), and signified friendship, prudence, counsel, and justice. It designated the primitive Law of Nature, which supposes all men to be equal." The root of _eight_, _octave_, and _octet_ or _ogdoad_ is _Og_, the primeval giant, who, as we have seen, was reputed to have waded alongside the ark with its eight primordial passengers.

When flourishing, the megalithic monument at Carnac must have dwarfed our dual-circled, two-mile shrine at Avebury: "The labour of its erection," to quote from Deane, "may be imagined from the fact that it originally consisted of eleven rows of stones, about 10,000 in number, of which more than 300 averaged from 15 to 17 feet in height, and from 16 to 20 or 30 feet in girth; one stone even measuring 42 feet in circumference".

One of the commonest of sepulchral finds in Brittany is the stone axe, sometimes banded in alternate stripes of black and white: the axe was pre-eminently a Cretan emblem, and my suggestion that the Carnac stones were originally erected to the honour of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins is somewhat strengthened by the coincidence that the London Church of St. Mary Axe was closely and curiously identified with the legend. According to Stow: "In St. Marie Street had ye of old time a parish church of St. Marie the Virgin, St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins, whose church was commonly called St. Marie at the Axe of the sign of an axe over against the east, and thereof on St. Marie Pellipar". In view of the fact that the town of Ypres boasted an enormous collection of relics of the 11,000 Virgins, the title Pellipar may be reasonably resolved into _Belle power_: the Cretan axe or double axe symbolised almighty _power_.[749]

FIG. 408.--Bronze statuette, Aust-on-Severn, Gloucs.

From _A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age_
(B.M.).]

According to an Assyrian hymn, Istar, the immaculate great _Star_, the "Lady Ruler of the Host of Heaven," the "Lady of Ladies," "Goddess without peer," who shaped the lives of all mankind was the "Stately world-Queen sov'ran of the Sky".

Adored art thou in every sacred place,
In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines.
Where is thy name not lauded? Where thy will
Unheeded, and thy images not made?[750]

In the caves or "fetish shrines" of Crete have been found rude figurines of the Mother and the Child, and it is probable that the pathetically crude bronze statuettes here illustrated represent the austere wielder of the wand of doom. Fig. 407 comes from Iberia where it was discovered in the vicinity of what was undoubtedly a shrine near the pass over the Sierra _Morena_ at Despena _Perros_: Fig. 408 comes from the English village of Aust-on-Severn. The place-name Aust appears in Domesday as Austreclive, and the authorities suppose it to have meant "not _East_ as often thought, but the Roman Augusta": I doubt whether any Roman Augusta ever troubled to claim a mere cleeve, and it is more probable that Austreclive was a cleft or pass sacred to the austere Austre. There is an Austrey at Atherstone, an Austerfield at Bawtry, and an "Austrells" at Aldridge: this latter, which may be connoted with the Oyster Hills round Verulam, the authorities assume to have meant "Austerhill, hill of the hearth, forge or furnace". That Istar was the mighty Hammer Smith is probable, for the archaic hymnist writes:--

I thee adore--
The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong.

In all likelihood the head-dress of our figurines was intended to denote the crescent moon for the same hymnist continues:--

O Light divine,
Gleaming in lofty splendour over the earth,
Heroic daughter of the moon, O hear!
O stately Queen,
At thought of thee the world is filled with fear,
The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth
All spirits pause and all mankind bow down
With reverence for thy name ... O Lady Judge
Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze
On sinners with compassion, and each morn
Leadest the wayward to the rightful path.
Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair,
O Shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh
With feet unwearied.

I have suggested that the circle of Long Meg and her daughters originally embodying the idea of a Marygold, Marguerite, or Aster, was erected to the honour of St. Margaret the Peggy, or Pearl of Price, and it is possible that the oyster or producer of the pearl may have derived its name from Easter or Ostara: that Astarte was St. Margaret is obvious from the effigies herewith, and the connection is further pointed by the already noted fact that in the neighbourhood of St. Margaret's, Westminster, there prevailed traditions of a Giantess named Long Meg. This powerful Maiden was evidently Margaret or Invicta, on the War-path, her pugilistic exploits being far-famed: it is particularly related that Long Meg distinguished herself in the wars at Bulloigne, whence it will probably prove that "Bulloigne" was associated with the War Maid whom the Romans termed Bellona, and that both Bulloigne and Bologna were originally shrines of Bello gina, either the _Beautiful Woman_ or the _War Queen_.

That Istar, "the heroic daughter of the moon," was Bellona or the Queen of War is clear from the invocation--

O hear!
Thou dost control our weapons and award
In battles fierce the Victory at will,
O crowned majestic Fate. Ishtar most high,
Who art exalted above all the gods,
Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge
With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray.
_The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong_,
Thy will is urgent brooking no delay,
Thy hand is violent, thou _queen of war_,
Girded with battle and enrobed with fear,
Thou sov'ran wealder of the wand of Doom,
The heavens and earth are under thy control.

There is very little doubt that the heroic Long Meg of Westminster was alternatively the Mary Ambree of old English ballad: in Ben Jonson's time apparently any remarkable virago was entitled a Mary Ambree, and the name seems to have been particularly associated with Ghent.[751] As the word Ambree is radically _bree_, it is curious to find John of Gaunt, who is associated with Kensington, also associated with Carn Brea in Cornwall: here, old John of Gaunt is believed to have been the last of the giants, and to have lived in a castle on the top of Carn Brea, whence in one stride he could pass to a neighbouring town four miles distant. The Heraldic Chain of SSS was known as John of Gaunt's chain: the symbol of SSS occurs frequently on Candian or Cretan monuments, and it is probable that John of Gaunt's chain was originally Jupiter's, or Brea's chain.[752]

The name Ghent, Gand, or Gaunt may be connoted not only with Kent or Cantium, and Candia or Crete, but also with Dr. Lardner's statement: "That the full moon was the chief feast among the ancient Spaniards is evident from the fact that _Agandia or Astartia_ is the name for Sunday among the Basques".

We have already seen that Cain was identified with "the Man in the Moon," that _cann_ was the Cornish for _full moon_, and we have connoted the fairy Kenna of Kensington with the New Moon: the old English _cain_, meaning _fair_ or bright, is clearly connected with _candid_ and _candescent_. Kenna is the saint to whom the village of Keynsham on the Somersetshire Avon is dedicated, and St. Kenna is said there to have lived in the heart of a wood. To the north of Kensington lies St. John's Wood, and also the ancient seat named Caen or Ken Wood: this Ken Wood, which is on the heights of Highgate, and is higher than the summit of St. Paul's, commands a panoramic view of the metropolis that can nowhere else be matched. Akin to the words _ken_, _cunning_, and _canny_, is the Christian name Conan which is interpreted as being Celtic for _wisdom_. The Celtic names Kean and Kenny--no doubt akin to Coyne--meant _vast_, and in Cornish _ken_ meant _pity_. On the river Taff there is a Llan_gain_ of which the church is dedicated to St. Canna, and on the Welsh river Canna there is a Llan_ganna_ or Llan_gan_: at Llan_daff_ by Car_diff_ is Canon's Park.

There is a celebrated well in Cornwall known as St Kean's, St. Kayne's, St. Keyne's, or St. Kenna's, and the supposed peculiarity of this fountain is that it confers mastery or chieftainship upon whichever of a newly-wedded couple first drinks at it after marriage. St. Kayne or St. Kenna is also said to have visited St. Michael's Mount, and to have imparted the very same virtue to a stone seat situated dizzily on the height of the chapel tower: "whichever, man or wife, sits in this chair first _shall rule_ through life": this double tradition associating rule and mastery with St. Kayne makes it justifiable to equate the "Saint" with _kyn_, _princess_ and with _khan_ the _great Han_ or King. There was a well at Chun Castle whose waters supposedly bestowed perpetual youth: _can_, meaning a drinking vessel, is the root of _canal_, _channel_, or _kennel_, meaning water course: we have already connoted the word _demijohn_ or Dame Jeanne with the Cornish well termed Joan's Pitcher, and this root is seemingly responsible for _canopus_, the Egyptian and Greek term for the human-headed type of vase as illustrated on page 301. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ for 3rd January, 1852, quotes the following song sung by children in South Wales on New Year's morning, _i.e._, 1st January, when carrying a can of water newly drawn from the well:--

Here we bring new water
From the well so clear,
For to worship God with
The happy New Year.
Sing levez dew, sing levez dew,
The water and the wine;
The seven bright gold wires
And the bugles they do shine.

Sing reign of Fair Maid
With gold upon her toe,
Open you the west door,
and let the old Year go.
Sing reign of Fair Maid
With gold upon her chin,
Open you the east door,
And let the New Year in.

We have traced Maggie Figgy of St. Levan on her titanic chair supervising the surging waters of the ocean, and there is little doubt that the throne of St. Michael's was the corresponding seat of Micah, the Almighty King or Great One. The equation of Michael = Kayne may be connoted with the London Church now known as St. Nicholas _Acon_: this name appearing mysteriously in ancient documents as alternatively "Acun," "Hakoun," "Hakun," and "Achun" it is supposed may have denoted a benefactor of the building. In Cornish _ughan_ or _aughan_ meant _supreme_; in Welsh _echen_ meant _origins_ or _sources_,[753] and as _Nicholas_ is the same word as _nucleus_ it is impossible now to say whether St. Nicholas Acon was a shrine of the _Great One_ or of _echen_ the little Nicholas or _nucleus_. Probably as figured at Royston where Kitt is bearing the Cadet or the small _chit_ upon his shoulder, the two conceptions were concurrent: on the opposite side of the Royston Cave is figured St. Katherine, Kathleen, or Kate: Catarina means _the pure one_, but _catha_ as in _catholic_ also means the universal, and there is no doubt that St. Kathleen or Kate was a personification of the Queen of the Universe.

Cendwen or Keridwen, _alias_ Ked, was represented by the British Bards as a mare, whale, or ark, whence emerged the universe: the story of Jonah and the whale is a variant of the Ark legend, and it is not without significance that the Hebridean island of Iona is identified as the locale of a miraculous "Whale of wondrous and immense size lifting itself up like a mountain floating on the surface".[754] Notwithstanding the forbidding aspect of this monster, St. Columba's disciple quiets the fears of his companion by the assurance: "Go in peace; thy faith in Christ shall defend thee from this danger, I and that beast are under the power of God".

It has been seen that Night was not necessarily esteemed as evil, nor were the nether regions considered to be outside the radius of the Almighty: that Nicholas, Nixy, or Nox was the black or nether deity is obvious, yet without doubt he was the same conception as the Babylonish "exalted One of the nether world, Him of the radiant face, yea radiant; the exalted One of the nether world, Him of the dove-like voice, yea dove-like".[755]

That St. Margaret was the White Dove rather than the foul Culver is probable from her representation as the Dragon-slayer, and it is commonly accepted that this almost world-wide emblem denoted Light subduing Darkness, Day conquering Night, or Good overcoming Evil. But there is another legend of St. Margaret to the effect that the maid so meek and mild was swallowed by a Dragon: her cross, however, haply stuck in its throat, and the beast perforce let her free by incontinently bursting (date uncertain); in Art St. Margaret therefore appears as holding a cross and rising from a dragon, although as Voragine candidly admits--"the story is thought to be apocryphal". We have seen that Magus or the Wandering Jew was credited with the feat of wriggling out of a post--"and they saw that he was no other than a beardless youth and fair faced": that the adventure of Maggie was the counterpart to that of Magus is rendered probable by the fact that St. Margaret's birth is assigned to Antioch, a city which was alternatively known as Jonah. With Jonah or Iona may be connoted the British Aeon--

Aeon hath seen age after age in long succession,
But like a serpent which has cast its skin,
Rose to new life in youthful vigour strong.

In Calmet's _Biblical Dictionary_ there is illustrated a medal of ancient Corinth representing an old man in a state of decrepitude entering a whale, but on the same medal the old man renewed is shown to have come out of the same fish in a state of infancy.

Among the Greeks Apollo or the Sun was represented as riding on a dolphin's back: the word _dolphin_ is connected with _delphus_, the womb, and doubtless also with _Delphi_, the great centre of Apollo worship and the legendary navel of the Universe. Alpha has been noted as the British name of Noah's wife, and it is probable that Delphi meant at one time the Divine Alpha or Elf: in the Iberian coin here illustrated (origin uncertain) the little Elf or spriggan is equipped with a cross; in the coin of Carteia (Spain) the inscription XIDD probably corresponds to the name which the British Bards wrote--"Ked".

In India the Ark or Leviathan of Life is represented as half horse or half mare, and among the Phoenicians the word _hipha_ denoted both _mare_ and _ship_: in Britain the _Magna Mater_, Ked, was figured as the combination of an old giantess, a hen, a mare, and as a ship which set sail, lifted the Bard from the earth and swelled out like a ship upon the waters. Davies observes: "And that the ancient Britons actually did portray this character in the grotesque manner suggested by our Bard appears by several ancient British coins where we find a figure compounded of a bird, a boat, and a mare". The coin to which Davies here refers is that illustrated on page 596, Fig. 356: that the Babylonians built their ships in the combined form of a mare and fish is clear from the illustration overleaf.

The most universal and generally understood emblem of peace is a dove bearing in its beak an olive-branch,[756] or sprig, and this emblem is intimately associated with the Ark: among the poems of the Welsh Bard Aneurin is the expectation--

The crowned Babe will come like Iona
Out of the belly of the whale; great will be his dignity.
He will place every one according to his merits,
He is the principal strong tower of the Kingdom.[757]

As Iona means dove, the culver on the hackney's back (Fig. 415) is evidently St. Columba, and the crowned Babe in Fig. 414 is in all probability that same "spriggan on Dowdy's back," or Elphin, as the British Bards speak so persistently and mysteriously of "liberating". In Egypt the spright is portrayed rising from a maculate or spotted beast, and in all these and parallel instances the emblem probably denoted rejuvenescence or new birth; either Spring _ex_ Winter, Change _ex_ Time, the Seen from the Unseen, Amor _ex_ Nox, Visible from Invisible, or New from Old.

The eight parents from the Ark may be connoted with Aught from Naught, for _eight_ is the same word as _aught_ and _naught_ is the same word as _night_, _nuit_, or _not_: _naughty_ means evil, whence the legend of Amor being born from Nox or Night might perhaps have been sublimated into the idea of Good emerging even from things noxious or nugatory.[758] Yet in the Cox and Box like rule of Night and Day the all-conquering Nikky was no doubt regarded as _unique_: "Shining and vanishing in the beauteous circle of the Hours, dwelling at one time in gloomy Tartarus, at another elevating himself to Olympus giving ripeness to the fruits": it is not unlikely that the ruddy _nectarine_ was assigned to him, and similarly _nectar_ the celestial drink of the gods, or _ambrosia_ in a liquid form.

Of the universally recognised Dualism the black and white magpie was evidently an emblem, and the superstitions in connection with this bird are still potent. The Magpie is sometimes called Magot-pie, and Maggoty-pie, and for this etymology Skeat offers the following explanation: "Mag is short for Magot--French _Margot_, a familiar form of _Marguerite_, also used to denote a Magpie. This is from Latin _Margarita_, Greek _Margarites_, a pearl." There is no material connection between a pearl and a Magpie, but both objects were alike emblems of the same spiritual Power or Pair: between Margot and Istar the same equation is here found, for in Kent magpies were known popularly as _haggisters_.[759] Although I have deemed _hag_ to mean _high_ it will be remembered that in Greek _hagia_ meant holy, whence haggister may well have been understood as _holy ister_.

Layamon in his _Brut_ mentions that the Britons at the time of Hengist's invasion "Oft speak stilly and discourse with whispers of two young men that dwell far hence; the one hight Uther the other Ambrosie". Of these fabulous Twain--the not altogether forgotten Two Kings of their ancestors--we may equate Uther with the _uter_ or womb of Night and Aurelie Ambrosie with Aurora the Golden Sunburst.

It is probable that the Emporiae, some of whose elphin horse coins were reproduced on page 281, were worshippers of Aurelie Ambrosie or "St. Ambrose" of whom it will be remembered: "some said that they saw a star upon his body": it is also not unlikely that our Mary Ambree or Fair Ambree was the daughter of Amber, the divine Umpire and the Emperor of the Empyrean. The ballad recalls:--

There was none ever like Mary Ambree,
Shee led upp her souldiers in battaile array
'Gainst three times theyr number by breake of the day;
Seven howers in skirmish continued shee,
Was not this a brave bonny lasse, Mary Ambree?[760]

The sex of this braw Maiden was disguised under a knight's panoply, and it was only when the fight was finished that her personality was revealed.

No captain of England; behold in your sight
Two breasts in my bosome, and therefore no knight,
No knight, sons of England, nor captain you see,
But a poor simple lass called Mary Ambree.

If the reader will turn back to the Virago coins illustrated _ante_, p. 596, which I think represent _Ked_ in the aspect of _Hecate_--the names are no doubt cognate--he will notice the pastoral crook of the little Shepherdess or Bishop of all souls, and there is little doubt that these figures depict what a Welsh Bard termed "the winged genius of the splendid crosier".

Although Long Meg of Westminster was said to be a Virago, and was connected in popular opinion with "Bulloigne," it is not unlikely that Bulloigne was a misconception of Bulinga; the ornamental water of what is now St. James' Park is a reconstruction of what was originally known as Bulinga Fen, and in that swamp it is probable that Kitty-with-her-canstick, _alias_ Belinga the _Beautiful Angel_, was supposed to dwell. The name Bolingbroke implies the existence somewhere of a Bolinga's brook where Belle Inga might also probably have been seen "dancing to the cadence of the stream"; in Shropshire is an earthwork known as Billings Ring, and at Truro there is a Bolingey which is surmised to have meant "isle of the Bollings". These Bollings were presumably related to the Billings of Billingsgate and elsewhere,[761] and the Bellinge or Billing families were almost certainly connected with Billing, the race-hero of the Angles and Varnians. According to Rydberg the celestial Billing "represents the evening and the glow of twilight, and he is ruler of those regions of the world where the divinities of light find rest and peace": Billing was the divine defender of the Varnians or Varinians, which word, says Rydberg, "means 'defenders' and the protection here referred to can be none other than that given to the journeying divinities of light when they have reached the Western horizon".[762]

That Billing and the Ingles were connected with Barkshire, the county of the Vale of the White Horse or Brok, is implied by place-names such as Billingbare by Inglemeer Pond in the East, by Inkpen Beacon--originally Ingepenne or Hingepenne--in the South, and by Inglesham near Fearnham and Farringdon in the West. Near Inglemeer is Shinfield and slightly westward is Sunning, which must once have been a place of uncanny sanctity for "it is amazing that so inconsiderable a village should have been the See of _eight_ Bishops translated afterwards to Sherborn and at last to Salisbury."[763] The seal of Salisbury represents the Maiden of the Sun and Moon, and it is probable that the place-name Maidenhead, originally Madenheith, near Marlow (Domesday Merlawe--Mary low or hill?) did not, as Skeat so aggressively assumes, mean a _hythe_ or landing place for maidens, but Maiden_heath_, a heath or mead sacred to the braw Maiden.

With the Farens and the Varenians may be connoted the Cornish village of Trevarren or the abode of Varren: this is in the parish of St. Columb, where Columba the Dove is commemorated not as a man but as a Virgin Martyr. Many, if not all, Cornish villages had their so-called "Sentry field" and the Broad Sanctuary at St. Margaret's, Westminster, no doubt marks the site of some such sanctuary or city of refuge as will be considered in a following chapter. That St. Margaret the Meek or Long Meg was the _Bride_ of the adjacent St. Peter is a reasonable inference, and it is probable that "Broad Sanctuary" was originally hers. According to _The Golden Legend_: "Margaret is Maid of a precious gem or ouche[764] that is named a Margaret. So the blessed Margaret was white by virginity, little by humility, and virtuous by operation. The virtue of this stone is said to be against effusion of blood, against passion of the heart, and to comfortation of the spirit." I am unable to trace any immediate connection between St. Margaret and the Dove, but an original relation is implied by the epithets which are bestowed by the Gaels to St. Columbkille of Iona who is entitled "The Precious Gem," "The Royal Bright Star," "The Meek," "The Wise," and "The Divine Branch who was in the yoke of the Pure Mysteries of God". These are titles older than the worthy monk whose biography was written by Adamnan: they belong to the archetypal Columba or Culver. There is a river Columb in Devonshire upon which stands the town of Cullompton: in Kent is Reculver once a Royal town of which "the root is unknown, but the present form has been influenced by old English _culfre_, _culfer_, a culver-dove or wood-pigeon".

That St. Columba of Iona was both the White and the Black Culver is implied by his two names of Colum (dove) and Crimthain (wolf): that the great Night-dog or wolf was for some reason connected with the _nutrix_ (_vide_ the coin illustrated on page 364, and the Etrurian Romulus and Remus legend) is obvious, apart from the significance of the word _wolf_ which is radically _olf_. Columbas' mother, we are told, was a certain royal Ethne, the _eleventh_ in descent from Cathair Mor, a King of Leinster: Leinster was a _stadr_, _ster_, or place of the Laginenses, and that Columba was a personification of Young Lagin or the Little _Holy King_ of Yule is implied (apart from much other evidence) in the story that one of his visitors "could by no means look upon his face, suffused as it was with a marvellous glow, and he immediately fled in great fear".

Among the Gaels the Little Holy King of Tir an Og, or the Land of the Young, was Angus Og or Angus the youthful: when discussing Angus (_excellent virtue_) in connection with the ancient goose and the cain goose I was unaware that the Greek for goose is _ken_. In the far-away Hebrides the men, women, and children of Barra and South Uist (or Aust?) still hold to a primitive faith in St. Columba, St. Bride, or St. Mary, and as a shealing hymn they sing the following astonishingly beautiful folk-song:--

Thou, gentle Michael of the white steed,
Who subdued the Dragon of blood,
For love of God and the Son of Mary
Spread over us thy wing, shield us all!
Spread over us thy wing, shield us all!

Mary, beloved! Mother of the White Lamb
Protect us, thou Virgin of nobleness,
Queen of Beauty! Shepherdess of the flocks!
Keep our cattle, surround us together,
Keep our cattle, surround us together.

Thou Columkille, the friendly, the kind,
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit Holy,
Through the Three-in-One, through the Three,
Encompass us, guard our procession,
Encompass us, guard our procession.

Thou Father! Thou Son! Thou Spirit Holy!
Be the Three-One with us day and night,
On the Machair plain, on the mountain ridge,
The Three-One is with us, with His arm around our head,
The Three-One is with us, with His arm around our head.

But the Boatmen of Barray sing for the last verse:--

Thou Father! Thou Son! Thou Spirit Holy!
Be the Three-One with us day and night,
And on the crested wave, or on the mountain side,
Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head,
Our Mother is there, and Her arm is under our head.[765]

FOOTNOTES:

[692] _The Evening Standard_, 12th Nov., 1918.

[693] _Ibid._

[694] _Ancient Britain_, p. 283.

[695] _Cf._ Stoughton, Rev. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_,
p. 9.

[696] _Cf._ Stoughton, Rev. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_,
p. 5.

[697] Wright, T., _Travels in the East_, p. 39.

[698] Windle, Sir B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 116.

[699] Mitton, G. E., _Clerkenwell_, p. 79.

[700] B.M., _Guide to Antiquities of Stone Age_, p. 26.

[701] _Holy Wells of Cornwall._

[702] Mitton, G. E., _Mayfair_, p. 1.

[703] Walford, E., _Greater London_.

[704] Bonwick, E., _Irish Druids_, p. 208.

[705] Hardwick, C., _Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore_, p.
34.

[706] The surname Brinsmoad still survives in the Primrose Hill
neighbourhood.

[707] _Faiths and Folklore_, ii., 401.

[708] Herbert, A., _Cyclops Christianus_, p. 114.

[709] _Ibid._, p. 114.

[710] _Travels in the East_, p. 28.

[711] Donnelly, I., _Atlantis_, p. 428.

[712] _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_, p. 82.

[713] Walford, E., _Greater London_, ii., 305.

[714] iii., 226.

[715] _A New Description of England_, p. 112.

[716] _A New Description of England_, p. 118.

[717] Walford, E., _Greater London_, i., 77.

[718] _Golden Legend_, iv., p. 235.

[719] _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p. 114.

[720] Stow, p. 217.

[721] In some parts this ceremony was known as "crying the Mare":
in Wales the horse of the guise or goose dancers was known as
Mari Lhwyd.

[722] Mrs. George of Sennen Cove.

[723] Irvine, C., _St. Brighid and her Times_, p. 6.

[724] _Greater London_, l., p. 40.

[725] Quoted, _St. Brighid and Her Times_, p. 7.

[726] Keightley, I., _F. M._, pp. 139-49.

[727] Huyshe, W., _Life of Columba_, p. 129.

[728] _De Bello Gallico_, p. 121.

[729] See Appendix B, p. 873.

[730] _Cf._ Courtney, Miss M. E., _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p.
105.

[731] Wilson, J., _Imperial Gazetteer_, i., 1042.

[732] Rydberg, V., _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 361.

[733] Windle, Sir B. C. A., _Life in Early Britain_, p. 63.

[734] The _cul_ of _culver_ or _culfre_ and _columba_ was probably
the Irish _Kil_: hence the _umba_ of _columba_ may be
connoted with _imp_.

[735] Rig-Veda (mandala X, 90).

[736] _Golden Legend_, v., 235.

[737] _Golden Legend_, v., 236.

[738] Mykenae, p. 267.

[739] Stoughton, Dr. J., _Golden Legends of the Olden Time_, p. 9.

[740] Wilson and Warren, _The Recovery of Jerusalem_, i., 166.

[741] Noah, Shem, Ham, Japhet, and their respective wives.

[742] Gogmagog is also found at Uriconium, now Wroxeter, in
Shropshire. Since suggesting a connection between Gog and
Coggeshall in Essex, I find that Coggeshall was traditionally
associated with a giant whose remains were said to have been
found. _Cf._ Hardwick, C., _Traditions, Superstitions and
Folklore_, p. 205.

[743] Thornbury, W., _Old and New London_, i., 386.

[744] _Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria_, p. 16.

[745] The civic giant of Salisbury is named Christopher.

[746] _Archæologia_, from _The Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. i., p.
124.

[747] _Brittany_, p. 232.

[748] Aynsley, Mrs. Murray, _Symbolism of the East and West_, p.
87.

[749] I have elsewhere reproduced examples of the double axe
crossed into the form of an ex (X). Sir Walter Scott observes
that in North Britain "it was no unusual thing to see
females, from respect to their supposed views into futurity,
and the degree of divine inspiration which was vouchsafed to
them, arise to the degree of HAXA, or chief priestess, from
which comes the word _Hexe_, now universally used for a
witch". He adds: "It may be worth while to notice that the
word Haxa is still used in Scotland in its sense of a
druidess, or chief priestess, to distinguish the places where
such females exercised their ritual. There is a species of
small intrenchment on the western descent of the Eildon
hills, which Mr. Milne, in his account of the parish of
Melrose, drawn up about eighty years ago, says, was
denominated _Bourjo_, a word of unknown derivation, by which
the place is still known. Here a universal and subsisting
tradition bore that human sacrifices were of yore offered,
while the people assisting could behold the ceremony from the
elevation of the glacis which slopes inward. With this place
of sacrifice communicated a path, still discernible, called
the _Haxellgate_, leading to a small glen or narrow valley
called the _Haxellcleuch_--both which words are probably
derived from the Haxa or chief priestess of the pagans"
(_Letters on Demonology_). It may be suggested that the
mysterious _bourjo_ was an _abri_ of pere Jo or Jupiter. The
Scotch _jo_ as in "John Anderson my Jo," now signifying
_sweetheart_, presumably meant joy.

[750] _Cf._ McKenzie, Donald A., _Myths of Babylonia_, p. 18.

[751] Mary Ambree
Who marched so free,
To the siege of Gaunt,
And death could not daunt
As the ballad doth vaunt.

[752] In Kirtlington Park (Oxon) was a Johnny Gaunt's pond in
which his spirit was supposed to dwell. A large ash tree was
also there known as Johnny Gaunt's tree.

[753] Herbert, A., _Cyclops_, p. 202.

[754] _Life of Columba_, p. 40.

[755] _Cf._ Mackenzie, D. A., _Myths of Babylonia_, p. 86.

[756] There is a London church entitled "St. Nicholas Olave".

[757] _Cf._ Morien, _Light of Britannia_, p. 67.

[758] Skeat connotes _naughty_ with "_na_ not, _wiht_ a whit, see
no and whit": it would thus seem to have been equivalent to
_no white_, which is black or nocturnal.

[759] Hardwick, C., _Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore_, p.
254.

[760] The _seven_ hours in skirmish are suggestive of the Fair maid
with gold upon her toe:--

The _seven_ bright gold wires
And the bugles they do shine,

_ante_, p. 650.

[761] Presumably Billingham River in Durham was a home of the
Billings: there is a Billingley in Darfield parish,
Yorkshire, a Billingsley in Bridgenorth, Salop: Billingbear
in Berks is the seat of Lord Braybrook: Billingford _or
Pirleston_ belonged to a family named Burley: at Billington
in Bradley parish, Staffs, is a commanding British camp known
as Billington Bury. Billinge Hill, near Wigan, has a beacon
on the top and commands a view of Ingleborough.

[762] _Teutonic Mythology_.

[763] _A New Description of England_, 1724, p. 61.

[764] An _ouche_ is a _bugle_: "the bugles they do shine".

[765] Quoted from _Adamnan's Life of Columba_ (Huyshe, W.).