Chapter XIV: Down Under (2)

It has been assumed that the means of exit from the dene holes, and from the subterranean city with which they communicated, was a notched pole, and it is difficult to see how any other method was feasible: in this connection the Mandan Indians of North America have a curious legend suggestive of the idea that they must have sprung from some troglodite race. The whole Mandan nation, it is said, once resided in one large village underground near a subterranean lake; a grape-vine extended its roots down to their habitation and gave them a view of the light. Some of the most adventurous climbed up the vine and were delighted with the sight of the earth which they found covered with buffalo and rich with every kind of fruit: men, women, and children ascended by means of the vine (the notched pole?), but when about half the nation had attained the surface of the earth a big or buxom woman, who was clambering up the vine, broke it with her weight and closed upon herself and the rest the light of the Sun. There is seemingly some like relation between this legend and the tradition held by certain hill tribes of the old Konkan kingdom in India, who have a belief that their ancestors came out of a cave in the earth. In connection with this Konkan tale, and with the fact that the Concanii of Spain fed on horses, it may here be noted that not only do traces of the horse occur in the most ancient caves, but that vast deposits of horse bones point to the probability that horses were eaten sacrificially in caves.[950] In the Baron's Cave at Reigate, "There are many bas relief sculptures, Roman soldiers' heads, grotesque masks of monks, horses' heads and other subjects which can only be guessed at":[951] these idle scribblings have been assigned to the Roman soldiery, who are supposed at one time to have garrisoned the castle, and the explanation is not improbable: the favourite divinity of the Roman soldiery was Mithra, the Invincible White Horse, and several admittedly Mithraic Caves have been identified in Britain.[952] It has always been supposed that these were the work of Roman invaders, and in this connection it should be noted that deep in the bowels of the Chislehurst labyrinth there is a clean-cut well about 70 feet deep lined with Roman cement: but granting that the Romans made use of a ready-made cave, it is improbable that they were responsible for the vast net-work of passages which are known to extend under that part of Kent. There is--I believe--a well in the heart of the Great Pyramid; a deep subterranean well exists in one of the series of caves at Reigate.

In his article on the Chislehurst Caves Mr. Nichols inquires, "might not the shafts of these dene holes have lent themselves to the study of the heavenly bodies?" That the Druids were adepts at astronomy is testified by various classical writers, and according to Dr. Smith there are sites in Anglesey still known in Welsh as "the city of the Astronomers," the Place of Studies, and the Astronomers' Circle.[953] There was a famous Holy Well in Dean's Yard, Westminster, and it would almost seem that a well was an integral adjunct of the sacred duns: according to Miss Gordon "there is a well of unknown antiquity at Pentonville under Sadlers Wells Theatre (Clerkenwell), lined with masonry of ancient date throughout its entire depth, similar to the prehistoric wells we have already mentioned in the Windsor Table Mound, on the Wallingford Mound, and the Well used by the first Astronomer Royal at Greenwich".[954] But masonry-lined wells situated in the very bowels of the earth as at Chislehurst and Reigate cannot have served any astronomic purpose; they must, one would think, have been constructed principally for ritualistic reasons. At Sewell, near Dunstable, immediately next to Maiden Bower there once existed a very remarkable dene hole: this is marked on the Ordnance Maps as "site of well," but in the opinion of Worthington Smith, "this dene hole was never meant for a well". It was recently destroyed by railway constructors who explored it to the depth of 116 feet; but, says Worthington Smith, "amateur excavators afterwards excavated the hole to a much greater depth and found more bones and broken pots. The base has never been reached. The work was on the top of a very steep and high bank."[955] On Mount Pleasant at Dunstable was a well 350 feet deep,[956] and any people capable of sinking a narrow shaft to this depth must obviously have been far removed from the savagery of the prime.

In 1835 at _Tin_well, in Rutlandshire, the singular discovery was made of a large subterranean cavern supported in the centre by a stone pillar: this chamber proved on investigation to be "an oblong square extending in length to between 30 and 40 yards, and in breadth to about 8 feet. The sides are of stone, the ceiling is flat, and at one end are two doorways bricked up."[957] About forty years ago, at Donseil in France--or rather in a field belonging to the commune of Saint Sulpice le _Don_seil[958]--a ploughman's horse sank suddenly into a hole: the grotto which this accident revealed was found to have been cut out from soft grey granite in an excellent state of preservation and is thus described: "After passing through the narrow entrance, you make your way with some difficulty down a sloping gallery some 15 yards in length, to a depth beneath the surface of nearly 20 feet; this portion is in the worst condition. Then you find yourself in a _circular gallery_ measuring about 65 feet in circumference, _with the roof supported by a huge pillar_, 18 feet in diameter. It is worth noticing that the walls, which are hewn out of the granite, are not vertical, but convex like an egg. At 19 feet to the left of the inclined corridor, and at an elevation of 30 inches above the level of the soil of the circular gallery, we come upon a small opening, through which it is just possible for a man to squeeze himself: it gives access to a gallery _thirty-three_ feet long, at the bottom of which a loftier and more spacious gallery has been begun, but, apparently, not completed."[959]

I invite the reader to note the significance of these measurements and to compare the general design of the Donseil _souterrain_ with the form of Fig. 474: this is the ground plan of a grotto which was accidentally discovered by some schoolboys in 1835, and exists to-day in the side of _Dane_ Hill, Margate. Its form is very similar to the apparent design of the great two-mile Sanctuary at Avebury, see page 351, and its situation--a dene or valley on the side of a hill--coincides exactly with that of the small Candian cave-shrines dedicated to the serpent goddess. In Candia no temples have been discovered but only small and insignificant household shrines: "It is possible," says Mr. Hall, "that the worship of the gods on a great scale was only carried out in the open air, or the palace court, or in a grave or cave not far distant. Certainly the sacred places to which pilgrimage was made and at which votive offerings were presented, were such groves, rocky gorges, and caves."[960]

The sanctity of Cretan caves is indisputably proved by the immense number of votive offerings therein found, in many cases encrusted and preserved by stalagmites and stalactites. Among the house shrines of the Mother Goddess and her Son remain pathetic relics of the adoration paid by her worshippers: one of these saved almost intact by Sir Arthur Evans is described as a small room or cell, smaller even than the tiny chapels that dot the hills of Crete to-day--a place where one or two might pray, leave an offering and enjoy community with the divinity rudely represented on the altar ... one-third of the space was for the worshipper, another third for the gifts, the last third for the goddess.[961]

There are diminutive _souterrains_ in Cornwall notably at St. Euny in the parish of Sancreed where the gift niches still remain intact: in many instances these "Giants Holts" are in serpentine form, and the serpentine form of the Margate Grotto is unmistakable. The Mother Goddess of Crete has been found figured with serpents in her hands and coiling round her shoulders: according to Mr. Mackenzie: "Her mysteries were performed in caves as were also the Paleolithic mysteries. In the caves there were sacred serpents, and it may be that the prophetic priestesses who entered them were serpent charmers: cave worship was of immense antiquity. The cave was evidently regarded as the door of the Underworld in which dwelt the snake-form of Mother Earth."[962]

It has been seen that the serpent because of sloughing its skin was the emblem of rejuvenescence, regeneration, and New Birth; it is likely that the word _sanctus_ is radically the same as _snag_, meaning a short branch, and as _snake_, which in Anglo-Saxon was _snaca_: it is certain that the _snake trou_ or snake cave was one of the most primitive _sanctuaries_.[963] Not only is the Margate Grotto constructed in serpentine form, but upon one of the panels of its walls is a Tree of Life, of which two of the scrolls consist of horned serpents: these are most skilfully worked in shells, and from the mouth of each serpent is emerging the triple tongue of Good Thought, Good Deed, Good Word.

The word dean, French _doyen_, is supposed to be the Latin _decanum_ the accusative of decanus, one set over ten soldiers or ten monks: it is, as already suggested, more probable that the original deans were the priests of Diane, and that they worshipped in dene holes, in dens, in denes, on downs, and at dunhills. The word _grot_ is probably the same as _kirit_, the Turkish form of Crete, and as the _Keridwen_ or _Kerid Holy_ of Britain. The ministers of the Cretan Magna Mater were entitled _curetes_, and the modern curate may in all likelihood claim a verbal descent from the Keridwen or Sancreed whose name is behind our _great, crude_, and _cradle_. The Magna Mater of Kirid or Crete was sometimes as already mentioned depicted with a cat upon her head: I have equated the word _cat_ with Kate, Kitty, or Ked, and in all probability the catacombs of Rome anciently Janicula were originally built in her honour. In Scotland _souterrains_ are termed _weems_, a word which is undoubtedly affiliated both in form and idea with womb, tomb, and coombe: the British bards allude frequently to the grave as being the matrix or womb of Ked; as archæologists are well aware, primitive burials frequently consisted of contracting the body into the form of the foetus, depositing it thus in a stone cist, chest, or "coty": and there is little doubt that the St. Anne who figures so prolifically in the catacombs of Janicula, was like St. Anne of Brittany the pre-Christian Anne, Jana, or Diane.

At Caddington by Dunstable there is a Dame Ellen's Wood; Caddington itself is understood to have meant--"the hill meadow of Cedd or Ceadda," and among the prehistoric tombs found in this neighbourhood was the interment illustrated on page 64. It has been cheerily suggested that "the child may have been buried alive with its mother": it may, but it equally may not; the pathetic surround of sea-urchins or popularly-called fairy loaves points to sentiment of some sort, particularly in view of the tradition that whoso keeps a specimen of the fairy loaf in his house shall never lack bread.[964] _Echinus_, the Latin for sea-urchin, is radically the same word as Janus; in the Margate grotto an echinus forms the centre of most of the conchological suns or stars with which the walls are decorated, and a large echinus appears in each of the four top corners of the oblong chamber.

I have suggested that the Kentish Rye, a town which once stood on a conical islet and near to which is an earthwork known nowadays as Rhee wall, was once dedicated to Rhea or Maria, and that Margate owes its designation to the same Ma Rhea or Mother Queen. According to "Morien" _Rhi_ was a Celtic title of the Almighty, and is the root of the word _rhinwedd_ (Virtue): according to Rhys _rhi_ meant _queen_, and was a poetic term for a lady: according to Thomas _Rhea_ is the feminine noun of _rhi_, prince or king; it would thence follow that _regina_, like the French name Rejane, meant originally Queen Gyne, either Queen Woman or Royal Jeanne. There are numerous Ryhalls, Ryhills, and in Durham is a Ryton which figured anciently as Ruyton, Rutune, and _Ruginton_: near Kingston is Raynes Park, and at Hackney, in the neighbourhood of the Seven Sisters and Kingsland Roads, is Wren's Park.

That the Candians colonised the North of Africa is generally supposed, whence it becomes likely that the marvellous excavations at _Rua_ were related to the worship of the serpentine _Rhea_: these are mentioned by Livingstone who wrote: "Tribes live in underground houses in Rua. Some excavations are said to be 30 miles long, and have running rills in them; a whole district can stand a siege in them. The 'writings' therein, I have been told by some of the people, are drawings of animals and not letters, otherwise I should have gone to see them."[965]

The word grotesque admittedly originated from the fantastic designs found so frequently within grottos or grots, and if the natives of Rua could construct a _souterrain_ 30 miles in extent, I see no reason to doubt the accuracy of the tradition that the natives of Reigate had run a tunnel towards Rye which is within a few miles of St. Clement's Caves at Hastings. The _gate_ of Margate and Reigate means _opening_; _wry_ means awry or twisting, and we may probably find the original name of Reigate in the neighbouring place-name Wray Common.

The Snake grotto at Margate, which is situated almost below a small house named "Rosanna Lodge," is decorated throughout with a most marvellous and beautiful mosaic of shellwork, the like of which certainly exists nowhere else in Britain: the dominant notes of this decoration are roses or rosettes, and raisins or grapes; over the small altar in the oblong chamber, at the extremity, are rising the rays of the Sun. The shells used as a groundwork for this decorative scheme were the yellow periwinkle now naturally grey with antiquity but which, when fresh, must, when illuminated, have produced an effect of golden and surpassing beauty. In the shrines of Candia large numbers of sea-shells, artificially tinted in various colours, have come to light:[966] that the altar at the Cantian Margate grotto was constructed to hold a lamp or a candle cannot be doubted, in which connection one may connote a statement by "Morien" that "All shell grottos with a candle in it (_sic_) were a symbol of the cave of the sun near the margin of the ocean with the soul of the sun in it".[967] There is indeed little doubt that the snake trou under Rosanna Lodge was, like the grotto at St. Sulpice le Donseil, dedicated to le Donseil or _donna sol_. At the mouth of the shrine is a figurine seated, of which, unfortunately, the head is missing, but the right hand is still holding a cup: in Fig. 44 _ante_, page 167, Reason is holding a similar cup into which is distilling _la rosee_, or the dew of Heaven--doubtless the same goblet as was said to be offered to mortals by the fairy Idunns; their earthly representatives, the Aeddons, may be assumed once to have dwelt in the Dane Park or at Addington Street, now leading to Dane Hill where the grotto remains.

We have connected the Cup of Reason with the mystic Cauldron of Keridwen, or "cauldron of four spaces," and have noted among the recipe "the liquor that bees have collected _and resin_," to be prepared "when there is a calm dew falling": another Bard alludes to "the gold-encircled liquor contained in the golden cup," and I have little doubt that resin, rosin, or rosine was valued and venerated as being, like amber, the petrified tears of Apollo. I do not suggest that the Rosanna Lodge in the dene at Margate has any direct relation to the grotto of Reason beneath, but there is evidently a close connection with the small figurine holding a cup and the Lady Rosamond of Rosamond's Well at Woodstock. "There was," says Herbert, "a popular notion of an infernal maze extending from the bottom of Rosamond's Well": this labyrinth almost certainly once existed, for as late as 1718 there were to be seen by the pool at Woodstock the foundations of a very large building which were believed to be the remains of Rosamond's Labyrinth.[968]

The story of Fair Rosamond being compelled to swallow poison is precisely on a par with the monkish legend that St. George was "tortured by being forced to drink a poisoned cup," and how the Rosamond story originated is fairly obvious from the fact that on her alleged tombstone, "among other fine sculptures was engraven the figure of a cup. This, which perhaps at first was an accidental ornament (perhaps only the chalice), might in aftertimes suggest the notion that she was poisoned; at least this construction was put upon it when the stone came to be demolished after the nunnery was dissolved." The above is the opinion of an archæologist who died in 1632, and it is in all probability sound: the actual site of Rosamond's Bower at Woodstock seems to have been known as Godstone, and it was presumably the ancient Ked Stone that gave birth to the distorted legend. According to the Ballad of Fair Rosamond, that maiden was a ladye brighte, and most peerlesse was her beautye founde:--

Her crisped locks like threads of gold
Appeared to each man's sighte,
Her sparkling eyes like Orient pearls
Did cast a heavenlye light.

The blood within her crystal cheekes
Did such a colour drive
As though the lillye and the rose
For mastership did strive.

The ballad continues that the enamoured King--

At Woodstock builded such a bower
The like was never seene,
Most curiously that bower was built
Of stone and timber strong
An hundered and fifty doors[969]
Did to this bower belong,
And they so cunninglye contrived
With turnings round about,
That none but with a clue of thread
Could enter in or out.

According to Drayton, Rosamond's Bower consisted of vaults underground arched and walled with brick and stone: Stow in his _Annals_ quotes an obituary stone reading, _Hic jacet in tumba Rosa Mundi; non Rosa Munda, non redolet sed olet_, which may be Anglicised into, Here lies entombed a mundane Rosa not the Rose of the World; she is not redolent, but "foully doth she stinke". I am inclined, however, to believe that the traditional Rosamond was really and indeed the "cleane flower" and that the ignorant monks added calumny to their other perversions. History frigidly but very fortunately relates that "the tombstone of Rosamond Clifford was taken up at Godstone and broken in pieces, and that upon it were interchangeable weavings drawn out and decked with roses red and green and the picture of the cup, out of which she drank the poison given her by the Queen, carved in stone".[970] At the Cornish village of Sancreed, _i.e._, San Kerid or St. Ked, engraved upon the famous nine foot cross is a similar cup or chalice, out of which rises a tapering fleur de lys: with the word _creed_ may be connoted the fact that the artist of Kirid or Crete, "with a true instinct for beauty, chose as his favourite flowers the lovely lily and iris, the wild gladiolus and crocus, all natives of the Mediterranean basin, and the last three, if not the lily, of his own soil".[971] Opinions differ as to whether the Sancreed lily is a spear head or a fleur de lys: they also differ as to the precise meaning of the cup: in the opinion of Mr. J. Harris Stone, "the vessel or chalice is roughly heart-shaped--that is the main body of it--and the head of the so-called spear is distinctly divided and has cross-pieces which, being recurved, doubtless gave rise to the lily theory of the origin. Now there was an ancient Egyptian cross of the Latin variety rising out of a heart like the mediæval emblem of _Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde_, and this is irresistibly brought to my mind when looking at this Sancreed cross. The emblem I am alluding to is that of Goodness."[972]

With this theory I am in sympathy, and it may be reasonably suggested that the alleged "tombstone" of Rosamond at Godstone was actually a carved megalith analogous to that at Sancreed: the carving on the latter may be comparatively modern, but in all probability the rock itself is the original _crude_ Creed stone, Ked stone, or Good stone, touched up and partly recut.

The Rose is the familiar emblem of St. George or Oros who, according to some accounts, was the son of Princess Sophia the Wise: his legs were of massive silver up to the knees, and his arms were of pure gold from the elbows to the wrists. According to other traditions George was born at Coventry, and "is reported to have been marked at his birth (forsooth!) with a red bloody cross on his right hand".[973] The first adventure of St. George was the salvation of a fair and precious princess named Sabra from a foul dragon who venomed the people with his breath and this adventure is located at Silene: with this Silene may be connoted the innocent Una, who in some accounts occupies the position of the Lady Sabra: Sabra is suggestive of Sabrina, the little Goddess of the river Severn, whose name we have connected with the soft, gentle, pleasing and propitious Brina: that St. Burinea, the pretty daughter of Angus whose memory is sanctified as the patron of St Burian's or Eglos_berrie_, was originally _pure_ Una is more likely than that this alleged Maiden was an historic personage of the sixth century.

The series of excavations at Reigate, of which the principal is the Baron's Cave, extends to a Red Cross Inn which marks the vicinity where stood the chapel of the Holy Cross, belonging to the Priory of the Virgin and Holy Cross: about a mile from Reigate in a little brook (the Bourne Water) used to stand a great stone stained red by the victims of a water Kelpie, who had his lair beneath. The Kelpie was exorcised by a vicar of Buckland: nevertheless the stone remained an object of awe to the people, which, says Mr. Ogilvie, "was regarded as a vile superstition by a late vicar who had the stone removed to demonstrate to his parishioners that there was nothing under it, but some of the old folks remember the story yet".[974] Part of Reigate is known as Red Hill, obviously from the red sandstone which abounds there: at Bristol or Bristowe, _i.e_., the Stockade of Bri, the most famous church is that of St. Mary Redcliffe: the Mew stone off Devonshire is red cliff, the inscriptions at Sinai are always on red stone, and there is little doubt that red rock was particularly esteemed to be the symbol of gracious Aine, the Love Mother. In Domesday the Redcliff of St. Mary appears as Redeclive,[975] and may thus also have meant Rood Cleeve: in London we have a Ratcliffe Highway, and in Kensington a Redcliffe Square.

In what is now the Green Park, Mayfair, used to be a Rosamond's Pool: with Rosamond, the Rose of the World, and Rosanna--whose name may be connoted with the inscription RU NHO or QUEEN NEW,[976] which occurs on one of the Sancreed crosses may also be connoted St. Rosalie of Sicily or Hypereia, whose grotto and fete still excite "an almost incredible enthusiasm". The legend of St. Rosalie represents her as--

Something much too fair and good
For human nature's daily food,

and her mysterious evanishment is accounted for by the tradition that, disgusted by the frivolous life and empty gaiety of courts, she voluntarily retired herself into an obscure cavern, where her remains are now supposed to be buried under wreaths of imperishable roses which are deposited by angels.[977]

According to ecclesiastical legend the beloved St. Rosalie--whose fete is celebrated in Sicily on the day of St. Januarius--was the daughter of a certain Tancred, the first King of Sicily: it is not unlikely that this Tancred was Don Cred or Lord Cred, a relation of the Cornish Sancreed.[978] Sancreed is supposed to derive its name as being "an abstract dedication to the Holy Creed": but it is alternatively known as San_cris_: the Cretans, or Kiridians, or Eteocretes claimed Cres the Son of Jupiter by the nymph Idea as their first King, and they traced their descent from Cres. In a subsequent volume we shall consider this Cres at greater length, and shall track him to India in the form of Kristna, to whose grace the subterranean cross at Madura seems to have been dedicated. In Celtic _cris_ meant pure, holy; _crios_ meant the Sun:[979] the principal site of Apollo-worship was the island of Crissa; in England Christy[980] is a familiar surname, and I am convinced that the Christ tradition in Britain owed little to the Roman mission of Augustine, but was of far older origin. We may perhaps trace the original transit of Cris to Sancris at Carissa, now Carixa, in Spain: among the numerous coins of this district some as figured herewith bear the legend Caris, some bear the head of the young Hercules, others a female head.[981] As in classic Latin _C_ was invariably pronounced hard, it is probable that the maiden Caris was Ceres, and that the Cretan pair are responsible for Kerris Roundago, an egg-like monument near Sancreed; also for Cresswell in Durham where is the famous Robin Hood Cave:[982] one may further trace Caris at Carisbrook near Ryde, at the diminutive Criss Brook near Maidstone, and at the streamlet Crise in Santerre.

The town of Carissa, now Carixa, may be connoted with the synonymous _cross_ or _crux_: the Cornish for _cross_ was _crows_, and at Crows-an-Rha, near St. Buryans, there is a celebrated wayside cross or crouch.[983] That Caris was _carus_ or _dear_, and that he was the inception of _charis_ or charity will also eventually be seen: I have elsewhere suggested that _charis_, or _love_, was originally 'k Eros or Great Eros; in the Christian emblem here illustrated Christ is associated with a rose cross, which is fabricated from the four hearts, and thus constitutes the _Rosa mystica_. At Kerris Roundago are four megaliths.

The Sancris cup or chalice[984] might legitimately be termed a _cruse_: Christ's first miracle was the conversion of a cruse or can of water into wine, and the site of this miracle was Cana. The _souterrain_ of St. Sulpice le Donseil is situated in a district known as La Creuse, and the solitary pillar in the heart of this grotto, as also that in the Margate grotto, and that in the _souterrain_ at Tinwell, were probably symbols of what the British Bard describes as "Christ the concealed pillar of peace". The Celtic Christs here reproduced from an article in _The Open Court_ by Dr. Paul Carus are probably developments of ancient Prestons or Jupiter Stones: the connection between these crude Christs and Cres, the Son of Jupiter, by the nymph Idea, is probably continuous and unbroken.

A cruse corresponds symbolically to a cauldron or a cup: according to Herbert, "The Cauldron of the Bards was connected by them with Mary in that particular capacity which forms the portentous feature in St. Brighid (_viz._, her _being Christ's Mother_) to the verge of identification. The reason was that divine objects considered by them essentially, and, as it were, sacramentally as being Christ, were prepared within and produced out of that sacred and womb-like receptacle." He then quotes two bardic extracts to the following effect:--

(1) The One Man and our Cauldron,
And our deed, and our word,
With the bright pure Mary daughter of Anne.

(2) Christ, Creator, Emperor and our Mead,
Christ the Concealed, pillar of peace,
Christ, Son of Mary and of my Cauldron, a pure pedigree![985]

The likelihood is that the solitary great Jasper stone in the roof of the four-columned hall at Edrei, the Capital of King Og, was similarly a symbol of the ideal Corner Stone or the Concealed Pillar of Peace.

At Mykenae the celebrated titanic gateway is ornamented by two lions guarding or supporting a solitary pillar or numeral 1: at other times a figure of the Magna Mater takes the place of this ONE, and it is probable that the Io of Mykenae was originally My Kene, _i.e._, Mother Queen or, more radically, Mother Great One. That Io was represented by the horns or crescent moon is obvious from the innumerable idols in the form of cows horns found at Mykenae: we have already connected Cain, Cann, and Kenna with the moon or _choon_, Latin _luna_, French _lune_, otherwise Cynthia or Diana.

Not only was Crete or Candia essentially an island of caves, but the district of the British Cantii seems if anything to have been even more riddled: _canteen_ is a generic term for cellar or cool cave, and the origin of this word is not known. In Mexico _cun_ meant _pudenda muliebris_, in London _cunny_ and _cunt_ carry the same meaning, and with _cenote_, the Mexican for _cistern_, may be connoted our English rivers Kennet and Kent. Dr. Guest refers to the cauldron of _Cend_wen (Keridwen): according to Davidson the magic cup of the Cabiri corresponded to the _Condy_ Cup[986] of the Gnostics which is the same as that in which _Guion_ (Mercury) made his beverage--the beverage of knowledge or divine Kenning, the philosophical Mercury of the mediæval alchemists. Sometimes the Egg or Cup was encircled by two serpents said to represent the Igneous and Humid principles of Nature in conjunction: it is not improbable that the spirals found alike at Mykenae and New Grange represented this dual coil, spire, or maze of Life, and the Coil Dance or the Snail's Creep, which was until recently executed in Cornwall, may have borne some relation to this notion.[987]

In the neighbourhood of Totnes and the river Teign is the world-famous Kent's Cavern,[988] whence has emanated evidence that man was living in what is now Devonshire, contemporaneously with the mammoth, the cave-lion, the woolly rhinoceros, the bison, and other animals which are now extinct. Kent's Cavern is in a hill, _dun_, _tun_, or what the Bretons term a _torgen_, and the _torgen_ containing Kent's Cavern is situated in the Manor of Torwood in the parish of Tor, whence Torbay, Torquay, etc.: in Cornwall _tor_, or _tur_, meant belly, and _tor_ may be equated with _door_, Latin _janua_.

The entrance to Kent's Hole is in the face of a cliff, and the people mentioned in the Old Testament as the _Kenites_ were evidently cliff-cave dwellers, for it is related that Balaam looked on the Kenites and said: "Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock":[989] Kent is the same word as _kind_, meaning _genus_; also as _kind_, meaning affectionate and well-disposed, and it is worthy of note that the cave-dwelling Kenites of the Old Testament were evidently a kindly people for the record reads: "Saul said unto the Kenites 'Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for _ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up_ out of Egypt'.[990] So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites."[991]

There is evidence that Thor's Cavern in Derbyshire was inhabited by prehistoric troglodites; the most high summit in the Peak District is named Kinder Scout, and in the southern side of Kinder Scout is the celebrated Kinderton Cavern: at Kinver in Staffordshire there are prehistoric caves still being lived in by modern troglodites, and at Cantal in France there are similar cave dwellings.

In Derbyshire are the celebrated Canholes and at Cannes, by Maestricht, is an entrance to the amazing grottos of St. Peter: this subterranean quarry is described as a succession of long horizontal galleries supported by an immense number of square pillars whose height is generally from 10 to 20 feet: the number of these vast subterranean alleys which cross each other and are prolonged in every direction cannot be estimated at less than 2000, the direct line from the built up entrance near Fort St. Peter to the exit on the side of the Meuse measures one league and a half. That these works were at one time in the occupation of the Romans, is proved by Latin inscriptions, but evidently the Romans did not do the building for, "underneath these inscriptions you can trace some ill-formed characters traditionally attributed to the Huns; which is ridiculous since the Huns did not build, and therefore had no need of quarries, and moreover were ignorant of the art of writing".[992] In view of the fact that the gigantic cavern farther up the Meuse, is entitled the Han Grotto, this tradition of Hun "writing" is not necessarily ridiculous: the Huns in question, whoever they were, probably were the people who built the Hun's beds and were worshippers of "the One Man and our Cauldron".

The Peter Mount now under consideration does not appear to have been such a Peter's Purgatory as found on "the island of the tribe of Oin": on the contrary its galleries, based on pillars about 16 feet high, are traced on a regular plan. These cross one another at right angles, and their most noticeable feature is the extreme regularity and perfect level of the roof which is enriched with a kind of cornice--a cornice of the severest possible outline, but with a noble simplicity which gives to the galleries a certain monumental aspect.

Within the criss-cross bowels of the Peter Mount is another very remarkable curiosity--a small basin filled with water called Springbronnen ("source of living water") which is incessantly renewed, thanks to the drops falling from the upper portion of a fossil tree fixed in the roof.[993] The modern showman does not vaunt among his attractions a "source of living water," and we may reasonably assume that this appellation belongs to an older and more poetic age: the Hebrew for "fountain of living waters" is _ain_, a word to be connoted with Hun, Han, and St. Anne of the Catacombs: St. Anne is the patron of all springs and wells; at Sancreed is a St. Eunys Well, and the word _aune_ or _avon_ was a generic term for any _gentle flowing_ stream.

It is reasonable to equate St. Anne of the Catacombs with "Pope Joan" of Engelheim, and it is probable that the original Vatican was the terrestrial seat of the celestial Peter, the Fate Queen or Fate King: with St. Peter's Mount may be connoted the Arabian City of Petra which is entirely hewn out of the solid rock. The connection between the Irish Owen, or Oin, and the Patrick of Patrick's Purgatory has already been considered, and that Janus or Janicula was the St. Peter of the Vatican is very generally admitted: we shall subsequently consider Janus in connection with St. Januarius or January; at Naples there are upwards of two miles of catacombs, and the Capo di _Chino_, under which these occur, may probably be identified with the St. Januarius whose name they bear.

That Janus, the janitor of the Gates of Heaven and of all other gates, was a personification of immortal Time is sufficiently obvious from the attributes which were assigned to him; that the Patrick of Ireland was also the Lord of the 365 days is to be implied from the statement of Nennius that St. Patrick "at the beginning" founded 365 churches and ordained 365 bishops.[994] I was recently accosted in the street by a North-Briton who inquired "what _dame_ is it?": on my failure to catch his meaning his companion pointed to my watch chain and repeated the inquiry "what _time_, is it"; but even without such vivid evidence it is clear that _dame_ and _time_ are mere variants of the same word. It is proverbial that Truth, _alias_ Una, _alias_ Vera, is the daughter of Time: that Time is also the custodian of Truth is a similar commonplace: Time is the same word as Tom, and Tom is a contracted form of Thomas which the dictionaries define as meaning _twin, i.e., twain:_ Thomas is the same name as Tammuz, a Phrygian title of Adonis, and in Fig. 404 (_ante_, p. 639), Time was emblemised as the Twain or Pair; in Fig. 483, Father Time is identified with Veritas or Truth, for the legend runs, "Truth in time brings hidden things to light".[995] The Lady Cynethryth, who dwells proverbially at the bottom of a well, is, of course, daily being brought to light; it is, however, unusual to find her thus depicted clambering from a dene hole or a den. In all probability the "Sir Thomas" who figures in the ballad as Fair Rosamond's custodian was originally Sir Tammuz, Tom, or Time--

And you Sir Thomas whom I truste
To bee my loves defence,
Be careful of my gallant Rose
When I am parted hence.

The relentless Queen who appears so prominently in the story may be connoted with the cruel Stepmother who figures in the Cinderella cycle of tales--a ruthless lady whom I have considered elsewhere. The silken thread by which the Queen reached Rosamond--to whose foot, like Jupiter's chain, it was attached--is paralleled by the thread with which Ariadne guided the fickle Theseus. In an unhappy hour the Queen overcomes the trusty Thomas, and guided by the silken thread--

Went where the Ladye Rosamonde
Was like an Angel sette.

But when the Queen with steadfast eye
Beheld her beauteous face
She was amazed in her minde
At her exceeding grace.

The word _grace_ is the same as _cross_, and grace is the interpretation given by all dictionaries of the name John or Ian: the red cross was originally termed the Jack, and to the Jack, without doubt, was once assigned the meaning "Infinite in the East, Infinite in the West, Infinite in the South. Thus it is said, He who is in the fire, He who is in the heart, He who is in the Sun, they are _One_ and the same:" in _China_ the Svastika is known as the _Wan_.

FOOTNOTES:

[905] Walford, E., _Greater London_, ii., 95.

[906] Mottingham, anciently Modingham, is supposed to be from Saxon
_modig_, proud or lofty, and _ham_, a dwelling. Johnstone
derives it as, "Enclosure of Moding," or "of the Sons of Mod
or Mot". We may assume these people were followers of the
Maid, and that Mottingham was equivalent to Maiden's Home.

[907] Mackenzie, D. A., _Myths of Crete_, p. xlvi.

[908] Borlase, Wm., _Antiquities of Cornwall_, p. 296.

[909] _Cliff Castles_, p. 33.

[910] _Cf._ Baring-Gould, _Cliff Castles_.

[911] Chislehurst is supposed to mean the pebble hurst or wood, but
Chislehurst is on chalk and is less pebbly than many places
adjacent: at Chislehurst is White Horse Hill: Nantjizzel or
_jizzle valley_, in Cornwall, is close to Carn Voel, _alias_
the Diamond House, and thus, I am inclined to think that
Chislehurst was a selhurst or selli's wood sacred to Chi the
great Jehu.

[912] Adams, W. H. A., _Famous Caves and Catacombs_, p. 90.

[913] Spence L., _Myths of Mexico and Peru_, p. 293.

[914] In 1867 Mr. Roach Smith published the following description:
"The ground plan of the caves was like a six-leaved flower
diverging from the central cup which is represented by the
shaft. The central cave of each three is about 14 yards long
and about 6 yards high. The side caves are smaller, about 7
yards long and 2 yards wide. The section is rather singular:
taken from end to end the roof line is horizontal: but the
floor rises at the end of the cave so that a sketch of the
section from end to end of the two principal caves is like
the outline of a boat, the shaft being in the position of the
mainmast. The section across the cave is like the outline of
an egg made to stand on its broader end. They are all hewn
out of the chalk, the tool marks, like those which would be
made by a pick, being still visible."--_Archæologia_, i., 32.

Dr. Munro states: "They are usually found on the higher ground
of the lower reaches of the Thames ... in fact, North Kent and
South Essex appear to be studded with them."--_Prehistoric
Britain_, p. 222.

[915] _Nat. Hist._, lib. xvii., cap. viii.

[916] Part I.

[917] One of the most characteristic symbols of the Ægean is St.
Andrew's Cross: I have suggested that the Scotch Hendrie
meant _ancient drie_ or _drew_, and it is not without
significance that tradition closely connects St. Andrews in
Scotland with the Ægean. The legend runs that St. Rule
arrived at St. Andrews bringing with him a precious relic--no
less than Sanct Androwis Arme. "This Reule," continues the
annalist, "was ane monk of Grece born in Achaia and abbot in
the town of Patras"--Simpkins, J. E., _Fife_, Country
Folklore, vol. vli., p. 243.

[918] _The Gnostics and their Remains_, p. 72.

[919] "It is certain that ancient caves do exist in Palestine which
in form and circumstance, and to some extent also in
decoration, approximate so nearly to the Royston Cave that if
any historical connection could be established between them,
it would scarcely seem doubtful that the one is a copy of the
other."--Beldam, J., _The Royston Cave_, p. 24. According to
the same authority there are indications at the Royston Cave
"of an extreme and primeval antiquity," and he adds, "it
bears, indeed, a strong resemblance in form and dimension to
the ancient British habitation; and certain marks and
decorations in its oldest parts such as indentations and
punctures, giving a diapered appearance to the surface, are
very similar to what is seen in confessedly Druidical and
Phoenician structures," p. 22.

[920] Beldam, J., _The Royston Cave_, p. 24.

[921] In Caledonia dovecots or _doocats_ are still superstitiously
maintained: there may be a connection between _doocat_ and
the "Dowgate" Hill which neighbours the present Cathedral of
St. Paul.

[922] Nichols, W. J., _The Chislehurst Caves and Dene Holes_, p. 5.

[923] Walford, E., _Greater London_, ii., 127.

[924] _Ibid._, p. 131.

[925] Goddard, A. R., _Essex Archæological Society's Transactions_,
vol. vii., 1899.

[926] Courtois, _Dictionaire Geographique de l'Arrondissement de
Saint Omer_, p. 156.

[927] Wilson, J. G., _Gazetteer_, i., 1044.

[928] Eckenstein, L., _Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_, p.
154.

[929] Dan or Don is one of the main European root river names; it
occurs notably in the story of the _Dan_aides who carried
water in broken urns to fill a bottomless vessel, and again
in _Dan_aus who is said to have relieved Argos from drought.

[930] P. 242.

[931] Herbert, A., _Cyclops_, p. 154.

[932] Wright, T., _Patrick's Purgatory_, p. 162.

[933] _Ibid._, p. 231.

[934] _Travels in the East_, p. 2.

[935] "This was the _round_ church of St. Mary, divided into two
stories by slabs of stone; in the upper part are four altars;
on the eastern side below there is another, and to the right
of it an empty tomb of stone, in which the Virgin Mary is
said to have been buried; but who moved her body, or when
this took place, no one can say. On entering this chamber,
you see on the right-hand side a stone inserted in the wall,
on which Christ knelt when He prayed on the night in which He
was betrayed; and the marks of His knees are still seen on
the stone, as if it had been as soft as wax."

[936] Wright comments upon this: "Dr. Clarke is the only modern
traveller who has given any notice of these subterranean
chambers or pits, which he supposes to have been ancient
places of idolatrous worship".

[937] _Cf._ Baring-Gould, _Curious Legends_, p. 238.

[938] _Mysteries of the Cabiri_, ii., 393.

[939] _Cf._ Herbert, A., _Cyclops_, p. 155.

[940] _Ibid._, p. 154.

[941] It is not improbable that the Pied Piper incident was
actually enacted annually at the Koppenburg, and that the
children of Hamelyn were given the treat of being taken
through some brilliantly lit cavern "joining the town and
close at hand". Whether the Koppenburg contains any grottos I
am unable to say.

[942] _Cyclops_, p. 156.

[943] The authorities connect the surnames Kettle and Chettle with
the Kettle or Cauldron of Norse mythology, whence Prof.
Weekley writes: "The renowned Captain Kettle, described by
his creator as a Welshman, must have descended from some
hardy Norse pirate". Why Norse? The word _kettle_, Gaelic
_cadhal_, is supposedly borrowed from the Latin _catillus_, a
small bowl: the Greek for cup is _kotulos_, and it is
probable that _kettle_ and _cotyledon_ are alike radically
Ket, Cot, or Cad. In Scotland _adhan_ meant cauldron, whence
Rust thinks that Edinbro or Dunedin was once a cauldron hill.

[944] Sandringham, near King's Lynn, appeared in Domesday as
Sandersincham: upon this Johnston comments, "Curious
corruption. This is 'Holy Dersingham,' as compared with the
next parish Dersingham. French _saint_, Latin _sanctus_,
Holy."

[945] Ogilvie, J. S., _A Pilgrimage in Surrey_, ii., 183.

[946] _Ibid._, p. 166.

[947] _Ibid._, p. 167. The italics are mine.

[948] "The old Bourne stream, generally known as the 'Surrey Woe
Water,' has already commenced to flow through Caterham
Valley, and at the moment there is quite a strong current of
water rushing through an outlet at Purley.

"There are also pools along its course through Kenley,
Whyteleafe, and Warlingham, which suggest that the stream is
rising at its principal source, in the hills around Woldingham
and Oxted, where it is thought there exists a huge natural
underground reservoir, which, when full, syphons itself out at
certain periods about every seven years.

"Tradition says that when the Bourne flows 'out of season' or
at irregular times it foretells some great calamity. It
certainly made its appearance in a fairly heavy flow in three
of the years of the war, but last year, which will always be
historical for the declaration of the armistice and the prelude
of peace, there was no flow at all."--_The Star_, 15th March,
1919.

[949] "Archæologia" (from _The Gentleman's Magazine_), i., 283.

[950] _Cf._ Johnson, W., _Byeways_, pp. 411, 417.

[951] Ogilvy, J. S., _A Pilgrimage in Surrey_, ii., 164.

[952] That the solar horse was sacred among the Ganganoi of
Hibernia is probable, for: "On that great festival of the
peasantry, St. John's Eve, it is the custom, at sunset on
that evening, to kindle immense fires throughout the country,
built like our bonfires, to a great height, the pile being
composed of turf, bogwood, and such other combustibles as
they can gather. The turf yields a steady, substantial body
of fire, the bogwood a most brilliant flame: and the effect
of these great beacons blazing on every hill, sending up
volumes of smoke from every part of the horizon, is very
remarkable. Early in the evening the peasants began to
assemble, all habited in their best array, glowing with
health, every countenance full of that sparkling animation
and excess of enjoyment that characterise the enthusiastic
people of the land. I had never seen anything resembling it:
and was exceedingly delighted with their handsome,
intelligent, merry faces; the bold bearing of the men, and
the playful, but really modest deportment of the maidens; the
vivacity of the aged people, and the wild glee of the
children. The fire being kindled, a splendid blaze shot up;
and for a while they stood contemplating it, with faces
strangely disfigured by the peculiar light first emitted when
the bogwood is thrown on. After a short pause, the ground was
cleared in front of an old blind piper, the very beau-ideal
of energy, drollery, and shrewdness, who, seated on a low
chair, with a well-plenished jug within his reach, screwed
his pipes to the liveliest tunes and the endless jig began.

"But something was to follow that puzzled me not a little. When
the fire burned for some hours, and got low, an indispensable
part of the ceremony commenced. Every one present of the
peasantry passed through it, and several children were thrown
across the sparkling embers; while a wooden frame of some 8
feet long, with a horse's head fixed to one end, and a large
white sheet thrown over it, concealing the wood and the man on
whose head it was carried, made its appearance. This was
greeted with loud shouts as the '_white horse_'; and having
been safely carried by the skill of its bearer several times
through the fire with a bold leap, it pursued the people, who
ran screaming and laughing in every direction. I asked what the
horse was meant for, and was told it represented all cattle.

"Here was the old pagan worship of Baal, if not of Moloch too,
carried on openly and universally in the heart of a nominally
Christian country, and by millions professing the Christian
name! I was confounded; for I did not then know that Popery is
only a crafty adaptation of pagan idolatries to its own scheme;
and while I looked upon the now wildly excited people, with
their children and, in a figure, all their cattle passing again
and again through the fire, I almost questioned in my own mind
the lawfulness of the spectacle, considered in the light that
the Bible must, even to the natural heart, exhibit it in to
those who confess the true God."--Elizabeth, Charlotte,
_Personal Recollections_, quoted from "S. M." _Sketches of
Irish History_, 1845.

[953] _The Religion of Ancient Britain_, p. 28.

[954] _Prehistoric London_, p. 137.

[955] _Man the Primeval Savage_, p. 328.

[956] _Ibid._, p. 66.

[957] _Archæologia_, i., 29.

[958] _Le donseil_ probably here means _donsol_, or _lord sun_.
Adonis and all the other Sun lords were supposed to have beep
born in a cave on 25th December. We have seen that Michael's
Mount (family name St. Levan), was known alternatively as
_dinsol_.

[959] Adams, W. H. D., _Famous Caves and Catacombs_, p. 183.

[960] _Ægean Archæologia_, p. 156.

[961] Mr. and Mrs. Hawes, _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 65.

[962] _Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe_, p. 183.

[963] "Herodotus in _Book VIII_. says that the ancients worshipped
the Gods and Genii of any place under the form of serpents.
'Set up,' says some one in Persius' _Satires_ (No. 1), 'some
marks of reverence such as the painting of two serpents to
let boys know that the place is sacred.'"--Seymour, F., _Up
Hill and Down Dale in Ancient Etruria_, p. 237.

[964] Johnson, W., _Byways_, p. 304.

[965] _Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society_, 1869.

[966] MacKenzie, D. A., _Myths of Crete_, p. 138.

[967] _Light of Britannia_, p. 200.

[968]_Cf._ _Percy Reliques_ (Everyman's Library), p. 21.

[969] The Baron's Cave at Reigate is "about 150 feet long" (_ante_,
p. 799).

[970] _Percy Reliques_, p. 20.

[971] Hawes, _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 125.

[972] _The Cornish Riviera_, p. 265.

[973] H. O. F., _St. George for England_, p. 15.

[974] _A Pilgrimage in Surrey_, ii., 177.

[975] At Bristol is White Lady's Road.

[976] The curious name Newlove occurs as one of the erstwhile
owners of the Margate grotto: the Lovelace family, for whose
name the authorities offer no suggestions except that it is a
corruption of the depressing Loveless, probably either once
worshipped or acted the Lovelass. This conjecture has in its
favour the fact that "many of our surnames are undoubtedly
derived from characters assumed in dramatic performances and
popular festivities".--Weekley, A. B., _The Romance of
Names_, p. 197. "To this class belong many surnames which
have the form of abstract nouns, _e.g._, _charity_, _verity_,
_virtue_, _vice_. Of similar origin are perhaps, _bliss,
chance, luck_, and _goodluck_."--_Ibid._, p. 197.

[977] With the old English custom of burying the dead in roses, and
with the tradition that at times a white lady with a red rose
in her mouth used to appear at Pen_deen_ cave (Courtney, Miss
M. L., _Cornish Feasts and Folklore_, p. 9), in Cornwall may
be connoted the statement of Bunsen: "The Phoenicians had a
grand flower show in which they hung chaplets and bunches of
roses in their temples, and _on the statue of the goddess
Athena_ which is only a feminine form of Then or Thorn"
(_cf._ Theta, _The Thorn Tree_, p. 40). The probability is
that not only was the rose sacred to Athene but that Danes
Elder (_Sambucus ebulus_), and Danes flower (_Anemone
pulsutilla_) had no original reference to the Danes, but to
the far older Dane, or donna, the white Lady. Both _don_ and
_dan_ are used in English, as the equivalent of _dominus_,
whence Shakespeare's reference to Dan Cupid.

[978] Adams, W. H. D., _Famous Caves and Catacombs_, p. 177.

[979] Davidson, P., _The Mistletoe and its Philosophy_, p. 51.

[980] The term Christ is interpreted as "the anointed".

[981] Akerman, J. Y., _Ancient Coins_, p. 25.