Chapter XII: The Celtic Doctrine of Re-Birth and Otherworld Scientifically Examined (3)

[53] Here we have an example of the _Tylwyth Teg_ being identified with a prehistoric race, quite in accordance with the argument of the Pygmy Theory. We have, however, as the essential idea, that the _Tylwyth Teg_ heard singing were the spirits of this prehistoric race. Thus our contention that ancestral spirits play a leading part in the fairy-belief is sustained, and the Pygmy Theory appears quite at its true relative value--as able to explain one subordinate ethnological strand in the complex fabric of the belief.

[54] This story is much like the one recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis about a boy going to Fairyland and returning to his mother (see this study, p. 324). The possibility that it may be an independent version of the folk-tale told to Cambrensis which has continued to live on among the people makes it highly interesting.

Mr. Jones gives further evidence on the re-birth doctrine in Wales (pp. 388-9), and concerning Merlin and sacrifice to appease place-spirits (pp. 436-7).

[55] As a result of his researches, the Rev. T. M. Morgan has just published a new work, entitled _The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Newchurch_ (Carmarthen, 1910).

[56] In these last two anecdotes, as in modern 'Spiritualism', we observe a popular practice of necromancy or the calling up of spirits, so-called 'materialization' of spirits, and spirit communication through a human 'medium', who is the _dyn hysbys_, as well as divination, the revealing of things hidden and the foretelling of future events. This is direct evidence that Welsh fairies or the _Tylwyth Teg_ were formerly the same to Welshmen as spirits are to Spiritualists now. We seem, therefore, to have proof of our Psychological Theory (see chap. xi).

[57] Here we have a combination of many distinct elements and influences. As among mortals, so among the _Tylwyth Teg_ there is a king; and this conception may have arisen directly from anthropomorphic influences on the ancient Brythonic religion, or it may have come directly from druidic teachings. The locating of _Gwydion ab Don_, like a god, in a heaven-world, rather than like his counterpart, _Gwynn ab Nudd_, in a hades-world, is probably due to a peculiar admixture of Druidism and Christianity: at first, both gods were probably druidic or pagan, and the same, but _Gwynn ab Nudd_ became a demon or evil god under Christian influences, while _Gwydion ab Don_ seems to have curiously retained his original good reputation in spite of Christianity (cf. p. 320). The name _Gwenhidw_ reminds us at once of Arthur's queen _Gwenhwyvar_ or 'White Apparition'; and the sheep of _Gwenhidw_ can properly be explained by the Naturalistic Theory. It seems, however, that analogy was imaginatively suggested between the Queen _Gwenhidw_ as resembling the Welsh White Lady or a ghost-like being, and her sheep, the clouds, also of a necessarily ghost-like character. All this is an admirable illustration of the great complexity of the Fairy-Faith.

[58] The parallel between this Welsh method of conferring vision and the Breton method is very striking (cf. p. 215).

[59] This is the substance of the story as it was told to me by a gentleman who lives within sight of the farm where the image is said to have been found. And one day he took me to the house and showed me the room and the place in the wall where the find was made. The old manor is one of the solidest and most picturesque of its kind in Wales, and, in spite of its extreme age, well preserved. He, being as a native Welshman of the locality well acquainted with its archaeology, thinks it safe to place an age of six to eight hundred years on the manor. What is interesting about this matter of age arises from the query, Was the image one of the Virgin or of some Christian saint, or was it a Druid idol? Both opinions are current in the neighbourhood, but there is a good deal in favour of the second. The region, the little valley on whose side stands the Pentre Evan Cromlech, the finest in Britain, is believed to have been a favourite place with the ancient Druids; and in the oak groves which still exist there tradition says there was once a flourishing pagan school for neophytes, and that the cromlech instead of being a place for interments or for sacrifices was in those days completely enclosed, forming like other cromlechs a darkened chamber in which novices when initiated were placed for a certain number of days--the interior being called the 'Womb or Court of Ceridwen'.

[60] The same remedy is prescribed in Brittany when mischievous _lutins_ or _corrigans_ lead a traveller astray, in Ireland when the _good people_ lead a traveller astray; and at Rollright, Oxfordshire, England, an old woman told me that it is efficacious against being led astray through witchcraft. Obviously the fairy and witch spell are alike.

[61] The same sort of a story as this is told in Lower Brittany, where the _corrigans_ or _lutins_ slaughter a farmer's fat cow or ox and invite the farmer to partake of the feast it provides. If he does so with good grace and humour, he finds his cow or ox perfectly whole in the morning, but if he refuses to join the feast or joins it unwillingly, in the morning he is likely to find his cow or ox actually dead and eaten.

[62] See Sir John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-Lore: Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), _passim_.

[63] The _New English Dictionary_, s.v. _Pixy_, gives rather vaguely a Swedish dialect word, _pysg_, a small fairy. It also mentions _pix_ as a Devon imprecation, 'a pix take him.' I suspect the last is only an _umlaut_ form of a common Shakespearean imprecation. If not, it is interesting, and reminds one of the fate of Margery Dawe, 'Piskies came and carr'd her away.'

[64] 'Some say that the Phoenicians never came to Cornwall at all, and that their Ictis was Vectis (the Isle of Wight) or even Thanet.'--HENRY JENNER.

[65] 'This is, I think, the usual Cornish belief.'--HENRY JENNER.

[66] 'About Porth Curnow and the Logan Rock there are little spots of earth in the face of the granite cliffs where sea-daisies (thrift) and other wild flowers grow. These are referred to the sea pisky, and are known as "piskies' gardens."'--HENRY JENNER.

[67] I was told by another Cornishman that, in a spirit of municipal rivalry and fun, the Penzance people like to taunt the people of Newlyn (now almost a suburb of Penzance) by calling them _Buccas_, and that the Newlyn townsmen very much resent being so designated. Thus what no doubt was originally an ancient cult to some local sea-divinity called _Bucca_, has survived as folk-humour. (See Mr. Jenner's Introduction, p. 164.)

[68] 'Another version, which is more usual, is that the pisky anointed the person's eyes and so rendered itself visible.'--HENRY JENNER.

[69] This is a natural outcropping of greenstone on a commanding hill just above the vicarage in Newlyn, and concerning it many weird legends survive. In pre-Christian times it was probably one of the Cornish sacred spots for the celebration of ancient rites--probably in honour of the Sun--and for divination.

[70] For more about the Tolcarne Troll see chapter on Celtic Re-birth p. 391.

[71] Mr. John B. Cornish, solicitor, of Penzance, told me that when he once suggested to an old miner who fully believed in the 'knockers', that the noises they were supposed to make were due to material causes, the old miner became quite annoyed, and said, 'Well, I guess I have ears to hear.'

[72] For the Cornish folk-lore already published by Miss M. A. Courtney, the reader is referred to her work, _Cornish Feasts and Folk-Lore_ (Penzance, 1890).

[73] A curious holed stone standing between two low menhirs on the moors beyond the Lanyon Dolmen, near Madron; but in Borlase's time (cf. his _Antiquities of Cornwall_, ed. 1769, p. 177) the three stones were not as now in a direct line. The Men-an-Tol has aroused much speculation among archaeologists as to its probable use or meaning. No doubt it was astronomical and religious in its significance; and it may have been a calendar stone with which ancient priests took sun observations (cf. Sir Norman Lockyer, _Stonehenge and Other Stone Monuments_); or it may have been otherwise related to a sun cult, or to some pagan initiatory rites.

[74] I asked what a nath is, and Mr. Spragg explained:--'A nath is a bird with a beak like that of a parrot, and with black and grey feathers. The naths live on sea-islands in holes like rabbits, and before they start to fly they first run.' The nath, as Mr. Henry Jenner informs me, is the same as the puffin (_Fratercula arctica_), called also in Cornwall a 'sea parrot'.

[75] Sometimes it is necessary to turn your coat inside out. A Zennor man said that to do the same thing with your socks or stockings is as good. In Ireland this strange psychological state of going astray comes from walking over a fairy domain, over a confusing-sod, or getting into a fairy pass.

[76] Cf. F. M. Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1887), i. 177-97; following the account of Ann Drann, a servant at Coat-Fual, Plouguernevel (Côtes-du-Nord), November 1855.

[77] My Breton friend, M. Goulven Le Scour, was born November 20, 1851, at Kerouledic in Plouneventer, Finistère. He is an antiquarian, a poet, and, as we shall see, a folk-lorist of no mean ability. In 1902, at the _Congrès d'Auray_ of Breton poets and singers, he won two prizes for poetry, and, in 1901, a prize at the _Congrès de Quimperlé_ or _Concours de Recueils poétiques_.

[78] This story concerns persons still living, and, at M. Le Scour's suggestion, I have omitted their names.

[79] By a Carnac family I was afterwards given a sprig of such blessed box-wood, and was assured that its exorcizing power is still recognized by all old Breton families, most of whom seem to possess branches of it.

[80] This idea seems related to the one in the popular Morbihan legend of how St. Cornely, the patron saint of the country and the saint who presides over the Alignements and domestic horned animals, changed into upright stones the pagan forces opposing him when he arrived near Carnac; and these stones are now the famous Alignements of Carnac.

[81] Luzel, op. cit., iii. 226-311; i. 128-218; ii. 349-54.

[82] Ib., ii. 269; cf. our study, p. 93.

[83] According to the annotations to a legend recorded by Villemarqué, in his _Barzaz Breiz_, pp. 39-44, and entitled the _Submersion de la Ville d'Is_, St. Guenolé was traditionally the founder of the first monastery raised in Armorica; and Dahut the princess stole the key from her sleeping father in order fittingly to crown a banquet and midnight debaucheries which were being held in honour of her lover, the Black Prince.

[84] Luzel, op. cit., ii. 257-68; i. 3-13.

[85] P. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_ (Paris, 1882), i. 100.

[86] General references: Sébillot, ib.; and his _Folk-Lore de France_ (Paris, 1905).

[87] Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i. 73-4.

[88] Ib., i. 102, 103-4.

[89] Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i. 83.

[90] Ib., i. 90-1.

[91] Cf. ib., i. 109.

[92] Cf. ib., i. 74-5, &c.

[93] Cf. Sébillot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i. 74-5, &c.

[94] In Lower Brittany the _corrigan_ tribes collectively are commonly called _Corrikêt_, masculine plural of _Corrik_, diminutive of _Corr_, meaning 'Dwarf'; or _Corriganed_, feminine plural of _Corrigan_, meaning 'Little Dwarf'. Many other forms are in use. (Cf. R. F. Le Men, _Trad. et supers. de la Basse-Bretagne_, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 226-7.)

[95] Cf. _Foyer breton_, i. 199.

[96] By 'E. R.', in _Mélusine_ (Paris), i. 114.

[97] This account about _corrigans_, more rational than any preceding it, may possibly refer to a dream or trance-like state of mind on the part of the young girl; and if it does, we can then compare the presence of a mortal at this _corrigan_ sabbath, or even at the ordinary witches' sabbath, to the presence of a mortal in Fairyland. And according to popular Breton belief, as reliable peasants assure me, during dreams, trance, or ecstasy, the soul is supposed to depart from the body and actually see spirits of all kinds in another world, and to be then under their influence. While many details in the more conventional _corrigan_ stories appear to reflect a folk-memory of religious dances and songs, and racial, social, and traditional usages of the ancient Bretons, the animistic background of them could conceivably have originated from psychical experiences such as this girl is supposed to have had.

[98] Villemarqué, _Barzaz Breiz_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 33, 35.

[99] J. Loth, in _Annales de Bretagne_ (Rennes), x. 78-81.

[100] E. Renan, _Essais de morale et de critique_ (Paris, 1859), p. 451.

[101] In Ireland it is commonly held that a seer beholding a fairy can make a non-seer see it also by coming into bodily _rapport_ with the non-seer (cf. p. 152).

[102] It is sometimes believed that phantom washerwomen are undergoing penance for having wilfully brought on an abortion by their work, or else for having strangled their babe.

[103] Every parish in the uncorrupted parts of Brittany has its own _Ankou_, who is the last man to die in the parish during the year. Each King of the Dead, therefore, never holds office for more than twelve months, since during that period he is certain to have a successor. Sometimes the _Ankou_ is Death itself personified. In the Morbihan, the _Ankou_ occasionally may be seen as an apparition entering a house where a death is about to occur; though more commonly he is never seen, his knocking only is heard, which is the rule in Finistère. In Welsh mythology, Gwynn ab Nudd, king of the world of the dead, is represented as playing a rôle parallel to that of the Breton _Ankou_, when he goes forth with his fierce hades-hounds hunting the souls of the dying. (Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 155.)

[104] Cf. A. Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort_; Introduction by L. Marillier (Paris, 1893), pp. 31, 40.

[105] Cf. Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 47, 46, 7-8, 40, 45, 46.

[106] Cf. Le Braz, _La Légende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier, p. 43.

[107] Ib.; Notes by G. Dottin (Paris, 1902), p. 44.

[108] Ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 19, 23, 68.

[109] Cf. ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 53 ff., 68.

[110] A Breton night's entertainment held in a peasant's cottage, stable, or other warm outhouse. In parts of the Morbihan and of Finistère where the old Celtic life has escaped modern influences, almost every winter night the Breton Celts, like their cousins in very isolated parts of West Ireland and in the Western Hebrides, find their chief enjoyment in story-telling festivals, some of which I have been privileged to attend.

[111] The word in the MS. is _boiteux_, and in relation to a devil or demon this seems to be the proper rendering.

[112] B. Spencer and F. T. Gillen, _Nat. Tribes of Cent. Aust._ (London, 1899), chapters xi, xv.

[113] R. H. Codrington, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ x. 261; _The Melanesians_ (Oxford, 1891), pp. 123, 151, &c.; also cf. F. W. Christian, _The Caroline Islands_ (London, 1899), pp. 281 ff., &c.

[114] H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_ (London, 1868), pp. 226-7.

[115] C. G. Leland, _Memoirs_ (London, 1893), i. 34.

[116] R. C. Temple, _Legends of the Panjab_, in _Folk-Lore_, x. 395.

[117] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_ (London, 1900), _passim_.

[118] Hardouin, _Traditions et superstitions siamoises_, in _Rev. Trad. Pop._, v. 257-67.

[119] Ella G. Sykes, _Persian Folklore_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii. 263.

[120] I am directly indebted for this information to a friend who is a member of Lincoln College, Oxford, Mr. Mohammed Said Loutfy, of Barkein, Lower Egypt. Mr. Loutfy has come into frequent and very intimate contact with these animistic beliefs in his country, and he tells me that they are common to all classes of almost all races in modern Egypt. The common Egyptian spellings are _afreet_, in the singular, and _afaareet_ in the plural, for spiritual beings, who are usually described by percipients as of pygmy stature, but as being able to assume various sizes and shapes. The _djinns_, on the contrary, are described as tall spiritual beings possessing great power.

[121] J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folk-Lore_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 131-7, 139-46, 163.

[122] L. Sainéan, _Les Fées méchantes d'après les croyances du peuple roumain_, in _Mélusine_, x. 217-26, 243-54.

[123] Cf. C. G. Leland, _Etruscan Roman Remains in Pop. Trad._ (London, 1892), pp. 162, 165, 223, &c.

[124] H. C. Coote, _The Neo-Latin Fay_, in _Folk-Lore Record_, ii. 1-18.

[125] We cannot here attempt to present, even in outline, all the complex ethnological arguments for and against the existence in prehistoric times of European pygmy races. Attention ought, however, to be called to the remarkable finds recently made in the _Grotte des Enfants_, at Mentone, France. A certain number of well-preserved skeletons of probably the earliest men who dwelt on the present land surface of Europe, which were found there, suggest that different racial stocks, possibly in succession, have preceded the Aryan stock. The first race, as indicated by two small negroid-looking skeletons of a woman, 1,580 mm. (62·21 inches), and of a boy 1,540 mm. (60·63 inches) in height, found in the lowest part of the _Grotte_, was probably Ethiopian. The succeeding race was probably Mongolian, judging from other remains found in another part of the same _Grotte_, and especially from the Chancelade skeleton with its distinctly Eskimo appearance, only 1,500 mm. (59·06 inches) high, discovered near Perigneux, France. The race succeeding this one was possibly the one out of which our own Aryan race evolved. In relation to the Pygmy Theory these recent finds are of the utmost significance. They confirm Dr. Windle's earlier conclusion, that, contrary to the argument advanced to support the Pygmy Theory, the neolithic races of Central Europe were not true pygmies--a people whose average stature does not exceed four feet nine inches (cf. B. C. A. Windle, _Tyson's Pygmies of the Ancients_, London, 1894, Introduction). And, furthermore, these finds show, as far as any available ethnological data can, that there are no good reasons for believing that European and, therefore, Celtic lands were once dominated by pygmies even in epochs so remote that we can only calculate them in tens of thousands of years. Nevertheless, it is very highly probable that a folk-memory of Lappish, Pictish, or other small but not true pygmy races, has superficially coloured the modern fairy traditions of Northern Scotland, of the Western Hebrides (where what may prove to have been Lapps' or Picts' houses undoubtedly remain), of Northern Ireland, of the Isle of Man, and slightly, if indeed at all, the fairy traditions of other parts of the Celtic world (cf. David MacRitchie, _The Testimony of Tradition_, London, 1890; and his criticism of our own Psychological Theory, in the _Celtic Review_, October 1909 and January 1910, entitled respectively, _A New Solution of the Fairy Problem_, and _Druids and Mound-Dwellers_).

Again, the very small flint implements frequently found in Celtic lands and elsewhere have perhaps very reasonably been attributed to a long-forgotten pygmy race; though we must bear in mind in this connexion that it would be very unwise to conclude definitely that no race save a small-statured race could have made and used such implements: American Red Men were, when discovered by Europeans, and still are, making and using the tiniest of arrow-heads, precisely the same in size and design as those found in Celtic lands and attributed to pygmies. The use of small flint implements for special purposes, e. g. arrows for shooting small game like birds, for spearing fish, and for use in warfare as poisoned arrows, seems to have been common to most primitive peoples of normal stature. Contemporary pygmy races, far removed from Celtic lands, are also using them, and no doubt their prehistoric ancestors used them likewise.

[126] J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_ (London, 1891), p. 239. An Irish dwarf is minutely described in _Silva Gadelica_ (ii. 116), O'Grady's translation. Again, in Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_ (B. XII. cc. i-ii) a dwarf is mentioned.

[127] Campbell, _The Fians_, p. 265.

[128] S. H. O'Grady, _Silva Gadelica_ (London, 1892), ii. 199.

[129] Commentary on the _Senchas Már_, i. 70-1, Stokes's translation, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 256-7.

[130] Sir John Rhys, _Hibbert Lectures_ (London, 1888), p. 592. Dwarfs supernatural in character also appear in the _Mabinogion_, and one of them is an attendant on King Arthur. In Béroul's _Tristan_, Frocin, a dwarf, is skilled in astrology and magic, and in the version by Thomas we find a similar reference.

[131] Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} i. 385.

[132] Cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p. 57.

[133] Hunt, _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 294; cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p. 57.

[134] Smith, _Myths of the Iroquois_, in _Amer. Bur. Eth._, ii. 65.

[135] Skeat, _Malay Magic_, p. 329.

[136] Monier-Williams, _Brahminism and Hinduism_ (London, 1887), p. 236.

[137] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 152.

[138] _Dwarfs in the East_, in _Folk-Lore_, iv. 401-2.

[139] Lacouperie, _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, v; cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., pp. 21-2.

[140] A. H. S. Landor, _Alone with the Hairy Ainu_ (London, 1893), p. 251; also Windle, op. cit., Intro., pp. 22-4.

[141] J. G. Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2} (London, 1900), i. 248 ff.

[142] Cf. A. Wiedemann, _Ancient Egyptian Doctrine Immortality_ (London, 1895), p. 12.

[143] Cf. A. E. Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_ (London, 1909), p. 186.

[144] Examples are in Orcagna's fresco of 'The Triumph of Death', in the Campo Santo of Pisa (cf. A. Wiedemann, _Anc. Egy. Doct. Immort._, p. 34 ff.); and over the porch of the Cathedral Church of St. Trophimus, at Arles.

[145] Cf. Crawley, op. cit., p. 187.

[146] General references: Eliphas Levi, _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie_ (Paris); Paracelsus; A. E. Waite, _The Occult Sciences_ (London, 1891).

[147] W. B. Yeats, _Irish Fairy and Folk-Tales_ (London), p. 2.

[148] W. B. Yeats, _The Celtic Twilight_ (London, 1902), p. 92 n.

[149] In this connexion should be read Mr. Jenner's Introduction, pp. 167 ff.

[150] Cf. Cririe, _Scottish Scenery_ (London, 1803), pp. 347-8; P. Graham, _Sketches Descriptive of Picturesque Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire_ (Edinburgh, 1812), pp. 248-50, 253; Mahé, _Essai sur les Antiquités du Départ. du Morbihan_ (Vannes, 1825); Maury, _Les Fées du Moyen-Age_ (Paris, 1843).

[151] David MacRitchie, _Druids and Mound Dwellers_, in _Celtic Review_ (January 1910); and his _Testimony of Tradition_.

[152] K. Meyer and A. Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_ (London, 1895-7), ii 231-2.

[153] Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 61.

[154] Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore_, pp. 356, 359.

[155] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 201; Jubainville, _Cyc. Myth. Irl._, pp. 106-8.

[156] E. O'Curry, _Manners and Customs_ (Dublin, 1873), I. cccxx; from _Book of Ballymote_, fol. 145, b. b.

[157] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 286.

[158] Ib., p. 275.

[159] Ib., pp. 226, 208-9.

[160] Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_, p. 114.

[161] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 289.

[162] Ib., p. 194.

[163] Cf. Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_, chap. iv.

[164] For a thorough and scientific discussion of this matter, see J. L. Nevius, _Demon Possession_ (London, 1897).

[165] N. G. Mitchell-Innes, _Birth, Marriage, and Death Rites of the Chinese_, in _Folk-Lore Journ._, v. 225. Very curiously, the pagan Chinese mother uses the sign of the cross against the demon as Celtic mothers use it against fairies; and no exorcism by Catholic or Protestant to cure a fairy changeling or to drive out possessing demons is ever performed without this world-wide and pre-Christian sign of the cross (see pp. 270-1).

[166] R. R. Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_ (London, 1909), p. 58, &c.; p. 67.

[167] W. James, _Confidences of a 'Psychical Researcher'_, in _American Magazine_ (October 1909).

[168] Frazer, _The Golden Bough_{3} (London, 1911), i. 220.

[169] Frazer, _The Golden Bough_,{3} i. 221-2.

[170] Ib., chap. iv.

[171] See Apuleius, _De Deo Socratis_; Cicero, _De Natura Deorum_ (lib. i); Iamblichus, _De Mysteriis Aegypt., Chaldaeor., Assyrior._; Plato, _Timaeus, Symposium, Politicus, Republic_, ii. iii. x; Plutarch, _De Defectu Oraculorum, The Daemon of Socrates, Isis and Osiris_; Proclus, _Commmentarius in Platonis Alcibiadem_.

[172] Pliny, _Natural History_, xxx. 14.

[173] Cf. G. Dottin, _La Religion des Celtes_ (Paris, 1904), p. 44.

[174] The neo-Platonists generally, including Porphyry, Julian, Iamblichus, and Maximus, being persuaded of man's power to call up and control spirits, called white magic _theurgy_, or the invoking of good spirits, and the reverse _goêty_, or the calling up and controlling of evil spirits for criminal purposes. Cf. F. Lélut, _Du Démon de Socrate_ (Paris, 1836).

If white magic be correlated with religion as religion is popularly conceived, namely the cult of supernatural powers friendly to man, and black magic be correlated with magic as magic tends to be popularly conceived, namely witchcraft and devil-worship, we have a satisfactory historical and logical basis for making a distinction between religion and magic; religion (including white magic) is a social good, magic (black magic) is a social evil. Such a distinction as Dr. Frazer makes is untenable within the field of true magic.

[175] Cf. B. Jowett, _Dialogues of Plato_ (Oxford, 1892), i. 573.

[176] Cf. Meyer and Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_ (London, 1895-7), i. 146.

[177] Campbell, _The Fians_, p. 195.

[178] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, i. 261.

[179] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xv. 307.

[180] From the _Conception of Mongán_, cf. Meyer, _Voyage of Bran_, i. 77.

[181] Quoted and summarized from _Projectors of 'Malicious Animal Magnetism'_, in _Literary Digest_, xxxix. No. 17, pp. 676-7 (New York and London, October 23, 1909).

[182] Cf. Nevius, _Demon Possession_, pp. 300-1.

[183] For a fuller discussion of the history of witchcraft see _The Superstitions of Witchcraft_, by Howard Williams, London, 1865.

[184] Cf. J. Quicherat, _Procès_ (Paris, 1845), _passim_.

[185] Ib., i. 178.

[186] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, pp. 127, 200, 202-3 ff.

[187] Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._ (Paris, 1848), ii. 541-2, &c.

[188] W. Stokes, _Tripartite Life_ (London, 1887), pp. 13, 115.

[189] I am personally indebted to Dr. W. J. Watson, of Edinburgh, for having directed my attention to this curious passage, and for having pointed out its probable significance in relation to druidical practices.

[190] Adamnan, _Life of S. Columba_, B. II, cc. xvi, xvii.

[191] For this fact I am personally indebted to Mrs. W. J. Watson, of Edinburgh.

[192] Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, pp. clxxx, 303, 305; from _Book of Armagh_, fo. 9, A 2, and fo. 9, B 2.

[193] Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._, ii. 545, 431, 233.

[194] See _Instruction sur le Rituel_, par l'Évêque de Toulon, iii. 1-16. 'In the Greek rite (of baptism), the priest breathes thrice on the catechumen's mouth, forehead, and breast, praying that every unclean spirit may be expelled.'--W. Bright, _Canons of First Four General Councils_ (Oxford, 1892), p. 122.

[195] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_ (Paris, 1835), xiii. 254-66.

[196] _De Incarnatione Verbi_ (ed. Ben.), i. 88; cf. Godescard, op. cit., xiii. 254-66.

[197] Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xiii. 263-4.

[198] Par Joly de Choin, Évêque de Toulon, i. 639.

[199] Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._, ii. 335.

[200] Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 162.

[201] J. E. Mirville, _Des Esprits_ (Paris, 1853), i. 475.

[202] _Instructions sur le Rituel_, par Joly de Choin, iii. 276-7.

[203] G. Evans, _Exorcism in Wales_, in _Folk-Lore_, iii. 274-7.

[204] W. Crooke, in _Folk-Lore_, xiii. 189-90.

[205] For ancient usages see F. Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_ (London, 1877), pp. 103-4; Iamblichus and other Neo-Platonists; and for modern usages see Marett, _Threshold of Religion_, chap. iii.

[206] Cf. Marett, _Is Taboo a Negative Magic?_ in _The Threshold of Religion_, pp. 85-114.

[207] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 277.

[208] Eastman, _Dacotah_, p. 177; cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 52 n.

[209] Shortland, _Trad. of New Zeal._, p. 150; cf. Tylor, op. cit., ii. 51-2.

[210] Precisely like Celtic peasants, primitive peoples often fail to take into account the fact that the physical body is in reality left behind upon entering the trance state of consciousness known to them as the world of the departed and of fairies, because there they seem still to have a body, the ghost body, which to their minds, in such a state, is undistinguishable from the physical body. Therefore they ordinarily believe that the body and soul both are taken.

[211] Frazer, _Golden Bough_,{2} _passim_.

[212] Cf. ib., i. 344 ff., 348; iii. 390.

[213] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, pp. 177, 218-9.

[214] Cf. Eleanor Hull, _Old Irish Tabus or Geasa_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii. 41 ff.

[215] Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_,{2} i. 233 ff., 343.

[216] Cf. E. J. Gwynn, _On the Idea of Fate in Irish Literature_, in _Journ. Ivernian Society_ (Cork), April 1910.

[217] Cf. our evidence, pp. 38, 44; also Kirk's _Secret Commonwealth_ (c. i), where it is said of the 'good people' or fairies that their bodies are so 'plyable thorough the Subtilty of the Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear att Pleasure. Some have Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and delecat, that they are fed by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that pierce lyke pure Air and Oyl'.

[218] _Laws_, iv; cf. Jowett, _Dialogues of Plato_, v. 282-90.

[219] Chief general references: _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_ (Paris, 1884) and _L'Épopée celtique en Irlande_ (Paris, 1892)--both by H. D'Arbois de Jubainville. Chief sources: The _Book of Armagh_, a collection of ecclesiastical MSS. probably written at Armagh, and finished in A. D. 807 by the learned scribe Ferdomnach of Armagh; the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ or 'Book of the Dun Cow', the most ancient of the great collections of MSS. containing the old Irish romances, compiled about A. D. 1100 in the monastery of Clonmacnoise; the _Book of Leinster_, a twelfth-century MS. compiled by Finn Mac Gorman, Bishop of Kildare; the _Yellow Book of Lecan_ (fifteenth century); and the _Book of Lismore_, an old Irish MS. found in 1814 by workmen while making repairs in the castle of Lismore, and thought to be of the fifteenth century. The _Book of Lismore_ contains the _Agallamh na senórach_ or 'Colloquy of the Ancients', which has been edited by S. H. O'Grady in his _Silva Gadelica_ (London, 1892), and by Whitley Stokes, _Ir. Texte_, iv. 1. For additional texts and editions of texts see Notes by R. I. Best to his translations of _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_ (Dublin, 1903).

[220] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 144-5.

[221] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 266-7. From the way they are described in many of the old Irish manuscripts, we may possibly regard the Tuatha De Danann as reflecting to some extent the characteristics of an early human population in Ireland. In other words, on an already flourishing belief in spiritual beings, known as the _Sidhe_, was superimposed, through anthropomorphism, an Irish folk-memory about a conquered pre-Celtic race of men who claimed descent from a mother goddess called Dana.

[222] Page 10, col. 2, ll. 6-8; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 143.

[223] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 581 n.; and _Cóir Anmann_, in _Ir. Texte_, III, ii. 355.

[224] Kuno Meyer's trans. in _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 300.

[225] Cf. Standish O'Grady, _Early Bardic Literature_ (London, 1879), pp. 65-6.

[226] L. U.; cf. A. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 157-8.

[227] Before Caeilte appears, Patrick is chanting Mass and pronouncing benediction 'on the rath in which Finn Mac Cumall (the slain leader of the Fianna) has been: the rath of Drumderg'. This chanting and benediction act magically as a means of calling up the ghosts of the other Fianna, for, as the text continues, thereupon 'the clerics saw Caeilte and his band draw near them; and fear fell on them before the tall men with their huge wolf-dogs that accompanied them, _for they were not people of one epoch or of one time with the clergy_. Then Heaven's distinguished one, that pillar of dignity and angel on earth, Calpurn's son Patrick, apostle of the Gael, rose and took the aspergillum to sprinkle holy water on the great men; floating over whom until that day there had been [and were now] a thousand legions of demons. Into the hills and "skalps", into the outer borders of the region and of the country, the demons forthwith departed in all directions; after which the enormous men sat down' (_Silva Gadelica_, ii. 103). Here, undoubtedly, we observe a literary method of rationalizing the ghosts of the Fianna; and their sudden and mysterious coming and personal aspects can be compared with the sudden and mysterious coming and personal aspects of the Tuatha De Danann as recorded in certain Irish manuscripts.

[228] Kuno Meyer's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, x. 214-27. This tale is probably as old as the ninth or tenth century, so far as its present form is concerned, though representing very ancient traditions (Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 209).

[229] Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xxii. 36-40. This text is one of the earliest with references to fairy beings, and may go back to the eighth or ninth century as a literary composition, though it too represents much older traditions.

[230] E. O'Curry, _Lectures on Manuscript Materials_ (Dublin, 1861), p. 504.

[231] In the _Book of Leinster_, pp. 245-6; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 269.

[232] Cf. _Mesca Ulad_, Hennessy's ed., in _Todd Lectures_, Ser. 1 (Dublin, 1889), p. 2.

[233] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 273-6.

[234] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 273-6.

[235] Cf. _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 222-3.

[236] Ib., ii. 343-7.

[237] Ib., ii. 94-6.

[238] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 204-20.

[239] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 290-1. In many old texts mortals are not forcibly _taken_; but go to the fairy world through love for a fairy woman; or else to accomplish there some mission.

No doubt the most curious elements in this text are those which represent the prince and his warrior companions, fresh come from Fairyland, as in some mysterious way so changed that they must neither dismount from their horses and thus come in contact with the earth, nor allow any mortal to touch them; for to his father the king who came forward in joy to embrace him after having mourned him as dead, Laeghaire cried, 'Approach us not to touch us!' Some unknown magical bodily transmutation seems to have come about from their sojourn among the Tuatha De Danann, who are eternally young and unfading--a transmutation apparently quite the same as that which the 'gentry' are said to bring about now when one of our race is taken to live with them. And in all fairy stories no mortal ever returns from Fairyland a day older than on entering it, no matter how many years may have elapsed. The idea reminds us of the dreams of mediaeval alchemists who thought there exists, if one could only discover it, some magic potion which will so transmute every atom of the human body that death can never affect it. Probably the Christian scribe in writing down these strange words had in mind what Jesus said to Mary Magdalene when she beheld him after the Resurrection:--'Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father.' The parallel would be a striking and exact one in any case, for it is recorded that Jesus after he had arisen from the dead--had come out of Hades or the invisible realm of subjectivity which, too, is Fairyland--appeared to some and not to others--some being able to recognize him and others not; and concerning the nature of Jesus's body at the Ascension not all theologians are agreed. Some believe it to have been a physical body so purified and transmuted as to be like, or the same as, a spiritual body, and thus capable of invisibility and of entrance into the Realm of Spirit. The Scotch minister and seer used this same parallel in describing the nature and power of fairies and spirits (p. 91); hence it would seem to follow, if we admit the influence in the Irish text to be Christian, that early, like modern Christians, have, in accordance with Christianity, described the nature of the _Sidhe_ so as to correspond with what we know it to be in the Fairy-Faith itself, both anciently and at the present day.

[240] _Death of Muirchertach_, Stokes's trans., in _Rev. Celt._, xxiii. 397.

[241] Cf. J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (Paris, 1889), i. 38-52.

[242] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 187-92.

[243] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 142-4.

[244] Campbell, _The Fians_, pp. 79-80. In _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 522, it is stated that the mother of Ossian bore him whilst in the shape of a doe. The mother of Ossian in animal shape may be an example of an ancient Celtic totemistic survival.

[245] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 311-24.

[246] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 311-24.

[247] For an enumeration of the Tuatha De Danann chieftains and their respective territories see _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 225.

[248] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 285.

[249] I am personally indebted for these names to Dr. Douglas Hyde.

[250] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 284-9; cf. _Rev. Celt._, iii. 347.

[251] Cf. E. S. Hartland, _Science of Fairy Tales_ (London, 1891), cc. x-xi.

[252] Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xvi. 274-5.

[253] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 222 ff.; ii. 290. In another version of the second tale, referred to above (on page 295), Laeghaire and his fifty companions enter the fairy world through a _dún_.

[254] Sometimes, as in _Da Choca's Hostel_ (_Rev. Celt._, xxi. 157, 315), the _Badb_ appears as a weird woman uttering prophecies. In this case the _Badb_ watches over Cormac as his doom comes. She is described as standing on one foot, and with one eye closed (apparently in a bird's posture), as she chanted to Cormac this prophecy:--'I wash the harness of a king who will perish.'

[255] Synonymous names are _Badb-catha_, _Fea_, _Ana_. Cf. _Rev. Celt._, i. 35-7.

[256] Cf. Hennessy, _Ancient Irish Goddess of War_, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 32-55.

[257] Stokes, _Second Battle of Moytura_, in _Rev. Celt._, xii. 109-11.

[258] Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse Bretagne_, iii. 296-311.

[259] The Celtic examples recall non-Celtic ones: the raven was sacred among the ancient Scandinavians and Germans, being looked upon as the emblem of Odin; in ancient Egypt and Rome commonly, and to a less extent in ancient Greece, gods often declared their will through birds or even took the form of birds; in Christian scriptures the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the semblance of a dove; and it is almost a world-wide custom to symbolize the human soul under the form of a bird or butterfly. Possibly such beliefs as these are relics of a totemistic creed which in times long previous to history was as definitely held by the ancestors of the nations of antiquity, including the ancient Celts, as any totemistic creed to be found now among native Australians or North American Red Men. At all events, in the story of a bird ancestry of Conaire we seem to have a perfectly clear example of a Celtic totemistic survival--even though Dr. Frazer may not admit it as such (cf. _Rev. Celt._, xxii. 20, 24; xii. 242-3).

[260] Hennessy, _The Ancient Irish Goddess of War_, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 32-57.

[261] _Aoibheall_, who came to tell Brian Borumha of his death at Clontarf, was the family banshee of the royal house of Munster. Cf. J. H. Todd, _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_ (London, 1867), p. 201.

[262] Hyde, _Literary History of Ireland_, p. 440.

[263] Cf. Hennessy, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 39-40. In place of _badb_, Dr. Hyde (_Lit. Hist. Irl._, p. 440) uses the word _vulture_.

[264] Hennessy, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 52.

[265] Chief general reference: Sir John Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_ (Oxford, 1891). Chief sources: Nennius, _Historia Britonum_ (circa 800); Geoffrey of Monmouth, _Historia Regum Britanniae_ (circa 1136); Wace, _Le Roman de Brut_ (circa 1155); Layamon's _Brut_ (circa 1200); Marie de France, _Lais_ (twelfth-thirteenth century); _The Four Ancient Books of Wales_ (twelfth-fifteenth century), edited by W. F. Skene; _The Mabinogion_ (based on the _Red Book of Hergest_, a fourteenth-century manuscript), edited by Lady Charlotte Guest, Sir John Rhys and J. G. Evans, and Professor J. Loth; Malory, _Le Morte D'Arthur_ (1470); _The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales_, collected out of ancient manuscripts (Denbigh, 1870); _Iolo Manuscripts_, a selection of ancient Welsh manuscripts (Llandovery, 1848).

[266] In a Welsh poem of the twelfth century (see W. F. Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, Edinburgh, 1868, ii. 37, 38) wherein the war feats of Prince Geraint are described, his men, who lived and fought a long time after the period assigned to Arthur, are called the men of Arthur; and, as Sir John Rhys thinks, this is good evidence that the genuine Arthur was a mythical figure, one might almost be permitted to say a god, who overshadows and directs his warrior votaries, but who, never descending into the battle, is in this respect comparable with the Irish war-goddess the _Badb_ (cf. Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, London, 1904, p. 236).

[267] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, chap. 1.

[268] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 24, 48. Sir John Rhys sees good reasons for regarding Arthur as a culture hero, because of Arthur's traditional relation with agriculture, which most culture heroes, like Osiris, have taught their people (ib., pp. 41-3).

[269] Cf. G. Maspero, _Contes populaires de l'Égypte Ancienne_{3} (Paris, 1906), Intro., p. 57.

[270] Sommer's Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_, iii. 1.

[271] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 9.

[272] I am indebted to Professor J. Loth for help with this etymology.

[273] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 22.

[274] i. 10; ii. 21{b}; iii. 70; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 60.

[275] See Williams' _Seint Greal_, pp. 278, 304, 341, 617, 634, 658, 671; Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 61.

[276] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 51, 35; and see our study, pp. 374-6.

[277] _Chevalier de la Charrette_ (ed. by Tarbé), p. 22; _Romania_, xii. 467, 515; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.

[278] _Romania_, xii. 467-8, 473-4; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 55.

[279] Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 93-4.

[280] _Romania_, xii. 508; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.

[281] Book XIX, c. i.

[282] In the _Lebar Brecc_ there is a tract describing eight Eucharistic Colours and their mystical or hidden meaning; and green is so described that we recognize in its Celtic-Christian symbolism the same essential significance as in the writings of both pagan and non-Celtic Christian mystics, thus:--'This is what the Green denotes, when he (the priest) looks at it: that his heart and his mind be filled with great faintness and exceeding sorrow: for what is understood by it is his burial at the end of life under mould of earth; for green is the original colour of every earth, and therefore the colour of the robe of Offering is likened unto green' (Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 189). During the ceremonies of initiation into the Ancient Mysteries, it is supposed that the neophyte left the physical body in a trance state, and in full consciousness, which he retained afterwards, entered the subjective world and beheld all its wonders and inhabitants; and that coming out of that world he was clothed in a robe of sacred green to symbolize his own spiritual resurrection and re-birth into real life--for he had penetrated the Mystery of Death and was now an initiate. Even yet there seems to be an echo of the ancient Egyptian Mysteries in the Festival of Al-Khidr celebrated in the middle of the wheat harvest in Lower Egypt. Al-Khidr is a holy personage who, according to the belief of the people, was the Vizier of Dhu'l-Karnen, a contemporary of Abraham, and who, never having died, is still living and will continue to live until the Day of Judgement. And he is always represented 'clad in green garments, whence probably the name' he bears. Green is thus associated with a hero or god who is immortal and unchanging, like the Tuatha De Danann and fairy races (see Sir Norman Lockyer's _Stonehenge and Other Stone Monuments_, London, 1909, p. 29). In modern Masonry, which preserves many of the ancient mystic rites, and to some extent those of initiation as anciently performed, green is the symbol of life, immutable nature, of truth, and victory. In the evergreen the Master Mason finds the emblem of hope and immortality. And the masonic authority who gives this information suggests that in all the Ancient Mysteries this symbolism was carried out--green symbolizing the birth of the world and the moral creation or resurrection of the initiate (_General History, Cyclopedia, and Dictionary of Freemasonry_, by Robert Macoy, 33{o}, New York, 1869).

[283] _Myv. Arch._, i. 175. The text itself in this work is said to be copied from the _Green Book_--now unknown. Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._ p. 56 n.

[284] In this text, the Gwenhwyvar who is in the power of Melwas is referred to as Arthur's second wife Gwenhwyvar, for according to the Welsh Triads (i. 59; ii. 16; iii. 109) there are three wives of Arthur all named Gwenhwyvar. As Sir John Rhys observes, no poet has ever availed himself of all three, for the evident reason that they would have spoilt his plot (_Arth. Leg._, p. 35).

[285] D. ab Gwilym's Poetry (London, 1789), poem cxi, line 44. Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 66.

[286] Malory, Book I, c. xxv. One account of Arthur's sword _Caledvwlch_ or _Caleburn_ describes it as having been made in the Isle of Avalon (Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_, ii. 322 n.; also _Myv. Arch._, ii. 306).

[287] Malory, Book IX, c. xv; Sir John Rhys takes the Lady of the Lake who sends Arthur the sword and the one who aids him afterwards (though, apparently by error, two characters in Malory) as different aspects of the one lake-lady _Morgen_ (_Arth. Leg._, p. 348).

[288] Merlin explained to Arthur that King Loth's wife was Arthur's own sister (Sommer's _Malory_, i. 64-5); and King Loth is one of the rulers of the Otherworld.

[289] Book XXI, c. vi.

[290] This poem, according to Gaston Paris, was translated during the late twelfth century from a French original now lost (_Romania_, x. 471). Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 127.

[291] Malory, Book XII, cc. iii-x; Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 145, 164. Galahad, however, does not belong to the more ancient Arthurian romances at all, so far as scholars can determine; and, therefore, too much emphasis ought not to be placed on this episode in connexion with the character of Arthur.

[292] We should like to direct the reader's attention to the interesting similarity shown between this old story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ and the fairy legend which we found living in South Wales, and now recorded by us on page 161, under the title of _Einion and Olwen_. As we have there suggested, the legend seems to be the remnant of a very ancient bardic tale preserved in the oral traditions of the people; and the prevalence of such bardic traditions in a part of Wales where some of the _Mabinogion_ stories either took shape, or from where they drew folk-lore material, would make it probable that there may even be some close relationship between the Olwen of the story and the Olwen of our folk-tale. If it could be shown that there is, we should be able at once to regard both Olwens as 'Fair-Folk' or of the _Tylwyth Teg_, and the quest of Kulhwch as really a journey to the Otherworld to gain a fairy wife.

[293] We may even have in the story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ a symbolical or mystical account of ancient Brythonic rites of initiation, which have also directly to do with the spiritual world and its invisible inhabitants.

[294] Cf. J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (Paris, 1889), p. 252 n.

[295] Cf. J. Loth, _Le Mabinogi de Kulhwch et Olwen_ (Saint-Brieuc, 1888), Intro., p. 7.

[296] Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_ (London, 1849), ii. 323 n.

[297] Cf. R. H. Fletcher, _Arthurian Material in the Chronicles_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, x. 20-1.

[298] Fletcher, ib., x. 29; 26.

[299] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 7; and Rhys, _The Welsh People_{3} (London, 1902), p. 105.

[300] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., x. 43-115; from ed. by San-Marte (A. Schulz), _Gottfried's von Monmouth Hist. Reg. Brit._ (Halle, 1854), Eng. trans. by A. Thompson, _The British History_, &c. (1718).

[301] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., pp. 117-44.

[302] Sir Frederic Madden, _Layamon's Brut_ (London, 1847), ii. 384. Here the Germanic elves are by Layamon made the same in character and nature as Brythonic elves or fairies.

[303] Madden, _Layamon's Brut_, ii. 144.

[304] J. Bédier's ed., _Société des anciens textes français_ (Paris, 1902).

[305] E. Muret's ed., _Société des anciens textes français_ (Paris, 1903).

[306] A. C. L. Brown, _The Knight and the Lion_; also, by same author, _Iwain_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, vii. 146, &c.

[307] _Celtic Mag._, xii. 555; _Romania_ (1888); cf. Brown, ib.

[308] J. Loth, _Les Romans arthuriens_, in _Rev. Celt._, xiii. 497.

[309] _Bibliotheca Normannica_, iii, _Die Lais der Marie de France_, pp. 86-112.

[310] Cf. W. H. Schofield, _The Lays of Graelent and Lanval, and the Story of Wayland_, in Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass. of America, xv. 176.

[311] Cf. Schofield, _The Lay of Guingamor_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, v. 221-2.

[312] For editions, and fuller details of the fairy elements, see De La Warr B. Easter, _A Study of the Magic Elements in the_ ROMANS D'AVENTURE _and the_ ROMANS BRETONS (Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, 1906). See also Lucy A. Paton, _Studies in the Fairy Mythology of the Arthurian Romance_, Radcliffe College Monograph XIII (New York, 1903).

[313] Perc., vi. 235; cf. Easter's Dissertation, p. 42 n.

[314] _Joufrois_, 3179 ff.; ed. Hofmann und Muncker (Halle, 1880); cf. Easter's Diss., pp. 40-2 n.

[315] _Brun_, 562 ff., 3237, 3251, 3396, 3599 ff.; ed. Paul Meyer (Paris, 1875); cf. ib., pp. 42 n., 44 n.

[316] E. Anwyl, _The Four Branches of the Mabinogi_, in _Zeit. für Celt. Phil._ (London, Paris, 1897), i. 278.

[317] Cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 19, 21.

[318] _Black Book of Caermarthen_, xvii, stanza 7, ll. 5-8. This book dates from 1154 to 1189 as a manuscript; cf. Skene, _Four Anc. Books_, i. 3, 372.

[319] Stanzas 19-20. This book took shape as a manuscript from the fourteenth to fifteenth century, according to Skene. Cf. Skene, _Four Anc. Books_, i. 3, 464.

[320] See _A Fugitive Poem of Myrddin in his Grave. Red Book of Hergest_, ii. Skene, ib., i. 478-81, stanza 27.

[321] Chief general references: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _L'Épopée celtique en Irlande_, _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_; Kuno Meyer and Alfred Nutt, _The Happy Otherworld and the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth_. Chief sources: the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ (A. D. 1100); the _Book of Leinster_ (twelfth century); the _Lais_ of Marie de France (twelfth to thirteenth century); the _White Book of Rhyderch_, Hengwrt Coll. (thirteenth to fourteenth century); the _Yellow Book of Lecan_ (fifteenth century); the _Book of Lismore_ (fifteenth century); the _Book of Fermoy_ (fifteenth century); the _Four Ancient Books of Wales_ (twelfth to fifteenth century).

[322] One of the commonest legends among all Celtic peoples is about some lost city like the Breton Is, or some lost land or island (cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, c. xv, and _Celtic Folk-Lore_, c. vii); and we can be quite sure that if, as some scientists now begin to think (cf. Batella, _Pruebas geológicas de la existencia de la Atlántida_, in _Congreso internacional de Americanistas_, iv., Madrid, 1882; also Meyers, _Grosses Konversations-Lexikon_, ii. 44, Leipzig und Wien, 1903) Atlantis once existed, its disappearance must have left from a prehistoric epoch a deep impress on folk-memory. But the Otherworld idea being in essence animistic is not to be regarded, save from a superficial point of view, as conceivably having had its origin in a lost Atlantis. The real evolutionary process, granting the disappearance of this island continent, would seem rather to have been one of localizing and anthropomorphosing very primitive Aryan and pre-Aryan beliefs about a heaven-world, such as have been current among almost all races of mankind in all stages of culture, throughout the two Americas and Polynesia as well as throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. (Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 62, 48, &c.)

[323] _White Book of Rhyderch_, folio 291{a}; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 268-9.

[324] From _Echtra Condla_, in the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_. Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 192-3.

[325] Cf. Eleanor Hull, _The Silver Bough in Irish Legend_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii.

[326] Cf. Eleanor Hull, op. cit., p. 431.

[327] Classical parallels to the Celtic Otherworld journeys exist in the descent of Dionysus to bring back Semele, of Orpheus to recover his beloved Eurydike, of Herakles at the command of his master Eurystheus to fetch up the three-headed Kerberos--as mentioned first in Homer's _Iliad_ (cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 48); and chiefly in the voyage of Odysseus across the deep-flowing Ocean to the land of the departed (Homer, _Odyss._ xi).

[328] Servius, _ad Aen._, vi. 136 ff.

[329] _Voy. of Bran_, i, pp. 2 ff. The tale is based on seven manuscripts ranging in age from the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ of about A. D. 1100 to six others belonging to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries (cf. ib., p. xvi).