Chapter XIV: Down Under (4)

[1006] _Cf._ Christmas, H. C., _Universal Mythology_, p. 43.

[1007] In _Wambeh_ we again seem to detect _womb_.

[1008] Quoted from Donnelly, I., _Atlantis_.

[1009] Henry Kilgour, Notes and Queries, 8th January and 19th
February, 1876.

[1010] _The Prehistoric Remains of Caithness_, pp. 70, 71.

[1011] Macnamara, N. C., _Origin and Character of the British
People_, p. 179.

[1012] Read, Sir H., _A Guide to Antiquities of Bronze Age_, p. 17.

[1013] _Races of Britain_, p. 46.

[1014] _Strabo_, III., lv., 5.

[1015] Smith, L. P., _The English Language_, p. 1.

[1016] Triad, 4.

[1017] _Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy_, xxxiv., C. 10, 11, p.
387.

[1018] _Ibid._

[1019] _Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe_, p. 235.

[1020] _Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe_, p. 232.

[1021] _Ilios_, p. xii.

[1022] There were peoples in the Caucasus known as the Britani or
Burtani.

[1023] _Celtic Britain_, p. 268.

[1024] In a subsequent volume I shall trace the Iberian _perro_ or
dog to _Peru_, where the perro or dog was the supreme object
of devotion.

[1025] The capital of old Ceylon was Candy: I am unable to trace the
origin of the port of Colombo.

[1026] Baring-Gould, S., _Curious Myths_, p. 527.

[1027] The inhabitants of Tukopia are described as: "Tall,
light-coloured men with thick manes of long, golden hair ...
wonderful giants, with soft dark eyes, kind smiles, and
child-like countenances". The surroundings of the villages of
this Polynesian island were like well-tended parks, all
brushwood having been carefully removed. "They presented
sights so different in blissful simplicity from what were to
be seen in Melanesia, they all looked so happy, gay, and
alluring, that it hardly needed the invitations of the kind
people, without weapons or suspicion, and with wreaths of
sweet-scented flowers round their heads and bodies, to incline
us to stay." This exquisite morsel of Arcadia was, like other
parts of pure Polynesia, governed by a dynasty of hereditary
chieftains, who were looked up to with the greatest respect,
and to whom honours were paid almost as to demi-gods.--_Cf._
Sir Harry Johnston in _The Westminster Gazette_.

[1028] "I think that the Eponymus of the Argive Danaia was no other
than that of the Israelite Tribe of Dan; only we are so used
to confine ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our
consideration of the Israelites that we treat them as if they
were adscriptigleboe, and ignore the share they may have taken
in the history of the world."--_Ethnology of Europe_, p. 137.

[1029] Cæsar says it took twenty years' study to acquire: other
writers say the Druids taught 20,000 verses.

[1030] _Cf._ _Evenings with a Reviewer_.

[1031] _Y Cymmroder_, xxiii.

[1032] _Cf._ Davies, E., _Celtic Researches_, p. 183.

[1033] In _Ragnarok_ Donnelly argues that the glacial epoch and the
"drift" were due to the earth's collision with one of the many
million comets which are careering through the solar universe.
It would certainly appear probable that such abnormous masses
of ice as are evidenced by the Glacial Period, must have been
the result of abnormous heat first sucking up the lakes and
rivers, and then returning them in the form of clouds, rain,
and snow. Practically all mythologies contain an account of
some unparalleled catastrophe, and in the opinion of Donnelly
the widespread story of man's progenitors emerging from a cave
is based upon the literal probability of man--if he survived
at all--surviving in caverns. Among the numerous myths which
Donnelly cites in support of his ingenious theory is the
following British one: "The profligacy of mankind had provoked
the great Supreme to send a pestilential wind upon the earth.
A pure poison descended, every blast was death. At this time
the patriarch, distinguished for his integrity, was shut up,
together with his select company, in the inclosure with the
strong door (the cave?). Here the just ones were safe from
injury. Presently a tempest of fire arose. It split the earth
asunder to the great deep. The lake Llion burst its bounds,
and the waves of the sea lifted themselves on high around the
borders of Britain, the rain poured down from heaven, and the
waters covered the earth." Donnelly believes that comets were
the origin of the world-wide fiery-dragon myth. In support of
this theory he might have instanced the following Scotch
legend: "There lived once upon a time in Sutherland a great
dragon, very fierce and strong. It was this dragon that burnt
all the fir woods in Ross, Sutherland, and the Reay country,
of which the remains charred, blackened, and half-decayed may
be found in every moss. Magnificent forests they must have
been, but the dragon set fire to them with his fiery breath
and rolled over the whole land. Men fled from before his face
and women fainted when his shadow crossed the sky-line. He
made the whole land desert."--(Henderson, Dr. G. H., Intro. to
_The Celtic Dragon Myth_, p. xxii.) The burnt forests found in
Ireland were noted on p. 21.

[1034] All these "heretics" claimed to be the real possessors of the
true Christian doctrine, and they charged Rome with being
_Mère sotte_, an ignorant and blatant usurper: the incessant
and insidious conflict which was carried on between Gnosticism
and Rome has been considered in _A New Light on the
Renaissance_, also in _The Lost Language of Symbolism_, and
with the exception of a few surface errors there is little in
those volumes which I should now rewrite. The murderous
campaign which was launched against the Albigenses not only
failed seemingly to stamp them out, but if Baring-Gould's
opinion is valid the descendants of the Albigenses are even
to-day not extinct. In _Cliff Castles_ he writes as follows:
"There was a curious statement made in a work by E. Bose and
L. Bonnemere in 1882, which if true would show that a
lingering paganism is to be found among these people. It is to
this effect: 'What is unknown to most is that at the present
day there exist adepts of the worship (of the Celts) as
practised before the Roman invasion, with the sole exception
of human sacrifices, which they have been forcibly obliged to
renounce. They are to be found on the two banks of the Loire,
on the confines of the departments of Allier and
Saone-et-Loire, where they are still tolerably numerous,
especially in the latter department. They are designated in
the country as Les Blancs, because that in their ceremonies
they cover their heads with a white hood, and their priests
are vested like the Druids in a long robe of the same colour.
They surround their proceedings with profound mystery; their
gatherings take place at night in the heart of large forests,
about an old oak, and as they are dispersed through the
country over a great extent of land, they have to start for
the assembly from different points at close of day so as to be
able to reach home again before daybreak. They have four
meetings in the year, but one, the most solemn, is held near
the town of La Clayette under the presidence of the high
priest. Those who come from the greatest distance do not reach
their homes till the second night, and their absence during
the intervening day alone reveals to the neighbours that they
have attended an assembly of the Whites. Their priests are
known, and are vulgarly designated as the bishops or
archbishops of the Whites; they are actually druids or
archdruids.... We have been able to verify these interesting
facts brought to our notice by M. Parent, and our personal
investigations into the matter enable us to affirm the
exactitude of what has been advanced.' If there be any truth
in this strange story we are much more disposed to consider
the Whites as relics of a Manichæan or Albigensian sect than
as a survival of Druidism." P. 46.

[1035] _Origin and Meaning of Apple Cults._

[1036] "Lords and Commons of England--Consider what nation whereof
ye are, and whereof ye are the Governors: a nation not slow
and dull, but of a quick, ingenious and piercing spirit; acute
to invent, subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the
reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar
to. Therefore, the studies of learning in her deepest sciences
have been so ancient and so eminent among us, that writers of
good antiquity and able judgment have been persuaded that the
School of Pythagoras, and the Persian Wisdom, took beginning
from the old philosophy of this Island, Britain."--Milton.

[1037] In _The Lost Language of Symbolism_ I anticipated this
opinion.

[1038] Writing of the Pied Piper story Mr. Ernest Rhys observes:
"There is every reason to believe that Hamelin was as near
home as Newton, Isle of Wight, and that the Weser, deep and
wide, was the Solent".--Preamble to _Fairy Gold_ (Ev.
Library).

[1039] _Proc. of Royal Irish Academy_, xxxiv., C., No. 8, p. 140.