FOOTNOTES:

Fig. 431.—Sixteenth Century Printer’s Ornament.

In the emblem herewith thealanor cheery old Pater is associated like Nehelennia with the fruits of the earth, amongst which one may perhaps recognisecoddlinsand other varieties of Allan apple.

The Cornish Allantide was celebrated on the night of Hallow’een, and as Sir George Birdwood rightly remarks the English Arbor Day—if it be ever resuscitated—should be fixed on the first of November or old “Apple FruitDay,” now All Hallows[808]or All Saint’s Day, the Christian substitute for the Roman festival of Pomona; also of the first day of the Celtic Feast of Shaman or Shony the Lord of Death. Shaman may in all probability be equated with Joe alone, and Shony with poor John alone alone: Shony, as has been seen, was an Hebridean ocean-deity, and the omniscient Oannes or John of Sancaniathon, the Phœnician historian, lived half his time in ocean: the Eros or Amoretto here illustrated from Kanauj may be connoted with Minnussinchen or the little Sinjohn of Tartary.

Fig. 432.—From Kanauj. FromSymbolism of the East and West(Aynsley, Mrs. Murray).

With the apple orchard Pomona or of the Pierre, Pere, or Pater Alone, the monocle and monarch of the universe, may be connoted the far-famed paradise of Prester or PresbyterJohn: this mythical priest-king is rendered sometimes as PresteCuan, sometimes asUn Khanor John King-Priest, and sometimes as Ken Khan: he was clearly a personification of the King of Kings, and his marvellous Kingdom, which streamed with honey and was overflowing with milk, was evidently none other than Paradise or the Land of Heaven. “Mediæval credulity” believed that this so-called “Asiatic phanton,” in whose country stood the Fountain of Youth and many other marvels, was attended by seven kings, twelve archbishops, and 365 counts: the seventy-two kings and their kingdoms said to be the tributaries of Prester John may be connoted with theseventy-two dodecans of the Egyptian and Assyrian Zodiac: these seventy-two dodecans I have already connoted with the seventy-two stones constituting the circle of Long Meg. Facing the throne of Prester John—all of whose subjects were virtuous and happy—stood a wondrous mirror in which he saw everything that passed in all his vast dominions. The mirror or monocle of Prester John is obviously the speculum of Thoth, Taut, or Doddy, and I suspect that the seventy-two dodecans of the Egyptian and Chaldean Zodiac were the seventy-two Daddy Kings of Un Khan’s Empire: none may take, nor touch, nor harm it—

For the round of Morian Zeus has been its watcher from of oldHe beholds it and Athene thy own sea-grey eyes behold.[809]

For the round of Morian Zeus has been its watcher from of old

He beholds it and Athene thy own sea-grey eyes behold.[809]

The first written record of Preste Cuan figures in the chronicles of the Bishop of Freisingen (1145): the name Freisingen is radicallysingen: and it is quite probable that the Bungen Strasse at Hamelyn identified with the Pied Piper was actually the scene of a “Poor John, Alone, Alone,” incident such as Brand thus describes: “I remember to have seen one of these impostors some years ago in the North of England, who made a very hermit-like appearance and went up and down the streets of Newcastle with a long train of boys at his heels muttering, ‘Poor John alone, alone!’ I thought he pronounced his name in a manner singularly plaintive,”[810]we have seen that the Wandering Jew was first recorded at St. Albans: the ancient name for Newcastle-on-Tyne—where he seems to have made his last recorded appearance—wasPandon. With thepanshenor pope of Tartary may be connoted the probability that the rosy Allan apple of Newlyn was apippen: the parish of “Lynn or St. Margaret,” not only includes the wards of Paradise and Jews Lane, but we find there also an Albion Place, and the curious name Guanock; modern Kings Lynn draws its water supply from a neighbouringGaywood.

In the year 1165 a mysterious letter circulated in Europe emanating, it was claimed, from the great Preste Cuan, and setting forth the wonders and magnificence of his Kingdom: this epistle was turned into verse, sung all over Europe by thetrouveres, and its claims to universal dominion taken so seriously by Pope Alexander that thisPontiff orPontifex[811]published in 1177 a counter-blast in which he maintained that the Christian professions of the mysterious Priest King were worse than worthless, unless he submitted to the spiritual claims of the See of Rome. There is little doubt that the popular Epistle of Prester John was the wily concoction of the Gnostic Trouveres or Merry Andrews, and that the unimaginative Pope who was so successfully stung into a reply, was no wise inferior in perception to the scholars of recent date who have located to their own satisfaction the mysterious Kingdom of Prester John in Tartary, in Asia Minor, or in Abyssinia: by the same peremptory and supercilious school of thought the Garden of Eden has been confidently placed in Mesopotamia, and the Irish paradise of Hy Breasil, “not unsuccessfully,” identified with Labrador.

The probability is that every community attributed the Kingdom of Un Khan to its own immediate locality, and that like the land of the Pied Piper it was popularly supposed to be joining the town and close at hand. In thefifteenth century a hard-headed French traveller who had evidently fallen into the hands of some whimsical mystic, recorded: “There was also atPeraa Neapolitan, called Peter of Naples, with whom I was acquainted. He said he was married in the country of Prester John, and made many efforts to induce me to go thither with him. I questioned him much respecting this country, and he told me many things which I shall here insert, but I know not whether what he said be the truth, and shall not therefore warrant any part of it.” Upon this honeymoon the archæologist, Thomas Wright, comments: “The manner in which our traveller here announces the relation of the Neapolitan shows how little he believed it; and in this his usual good sense does not forsake him. This recital is, in fact, but a tissue of absurd fables and revolting marvels, undeserving to be quoted, although they may generally be found in authors of those times. They are, therefore, here omitted; most of them, however, will be found in the narrative of John de Maundeville.”[812]

We have seen that the Wandering Jew was alternatively termed Magus, a fact already connoted with the seventy-two stones of Long Meg, or Maggie: it was said that Un Khan was sprung from the ancient race of the Magi,[813]andI think that the solar circle at Shanagolden by Canons Island Abbey, on the Shannon in the country of the Ganganoi, was anabriof Ken Khan, Preste Cuan, or Un Khan.

The rath or dun of Shanid or Shenet, as illustratedante,p. 55, has a pit in its centre which, says Mr. Westropp, “I can only suppose to have been the base of some timber structure”: whether this central structure was originally a well, a tower, or a pole, it no doubt stood as a symbol of either the Tower of Salvation, the Well of Life, or the Tree of Knowledge. There is little doubt that this solar wheel or wheel of Good Fortune—which as will be remembered was occasionally depicted with four deacons or divine kings, a variant of the seventy-two dodecans—was akin to what British Bardism alluded to as “the melodious quaternion of Peter,” or “the quadrangular delight of Peter, the great choir of the dominion”;[814]it was also akin to the design on the Trojan whorl which Burnouf has described as “the four epochs (quarters) of the month or year, and the holy sacrifice”.[815]

The English earthwork illustrated in Fig. 433 (A) is known by the name of Pixie’s Garden, and its form is doubtless that of one among many varieties of “the quadrangular delight of Peter”. A pixy is an elf orouphe, and the Pixie’s Garden ofUffculme Down (Devon) may be connoted in idea with “Johanna’s Garden” at St. Levans: Johanna, as we have seen, was associated with St. Levan (the home of Maggie Figgie), and in the words of Miss Courtney: “Not far from the parish of St. Levan is a small piece of ground—Johanna’s Garden—which is fuller of weeds than of flowers”.[816]I suspect that Johanna, likePope Joan of Engelheim and Janicula, was the fabulous consort of Prester John or Un Khan.

Fig. 433.—FromEarthwork of England(A. Hadrian Allcroft).

Fig. 434.—FromSymbolism of the East and West(Aynsley, Mrs. Murray).

Fig. 433 (B) represents two diminutive earthworks which once existed on Bray Down inDorsetshire: these little Troytowns or variants of the quadrangular delight of Peter may be connoted with the obverse design of the Thorguttalisman found near Appleby and illustrated onpage 675: the two crescent moons may be connoted with two sickles still remembered in Mona, and the twice-eight crescents surrounding Fig. 434 which is copied from a mosaic pavement found at Gubbio, Italy.

Fig. 435.—FromThe Word in the Pattern(Watts, Mrs. G.F.).

The Pixie’s Garden illustrated in Fig. 433 (A) obviously consists of four T’s centred to one base and the elaborate svastika, illustrated in Fig. 435, is similarly distinguished by four concentric T’s. The Kymbri or Cynbro customarily introduced the figure of a T into the thatch of their huts, and it is supposed thatty, the Welsh for a house or home, originated from this custom. We have seen that the Druids trained their super sacred oak tree (Hebrewallon) into the form of the T or Tau, which they inscribed Thau (ante,p. 393), and astyin Celtic also meantgood, the four T’s surrounding the svastika of Fig. 435 would seem to be an implication of all surrounding beneficence, good luck, orall bien.

The Cynbro are believed to have made use of the T—Ezekiel’s mark of election—as a magic preservative against fire and all other misfortunes, whence it is remarkable to find that even within living memory atCamberwell by Peckham near London, thechi-shaped or ogee-shaped[817]angle irons, occasionally seen in old cottages, were believed to have been inserted “in order to protect the house fromfire as well as from falling down”.[818]

Fig.436.—Celtic Emblem. FromMyths of Crete(Mackenzie, D. A.).Figs.437 and 438.—Mediæval Papermarks. FromLes Filigranes(Briquet, C. M.).

Fig.436.—Celtic Emblem. FromMyths of Crete(Mackenzie, D. A.).

Figs.437 and 438.—Mediæval Papermarks. FromLes Filigranes(Briquet, C. M.).

Commenting upon Fig. 435, which is taken from a Celticcross at Carew in Wales, Mrs. G. F. Watts observes: “This symbol was used by British Christians to signify the labyrinth or maze of life round which was sometimes written the words “God leadeth”.[819]Among the Latin races the Intreccia or Solomon’s Knot, which consists frequently of three strands, is regarded as an emblem of the divine Being existent without beginning and without end—an unbroken Unity: coiled often into the serpentine form of an S it decorates Celtic crosses and not infrequently into the centre of the maze is woven thesvastikaor Hammer of Thor. The word Svastika is described by oriental scholars as being composed ofsvastiandka: according to the Dictionariessvastimeanswelfare, health, prosperity, blessing, joy, happiness, andbliss: in one senseka(probably thechi[Greek: ch]) had the same meaning, butkaalso meant “The Who,”“The Inexplicable,” “The Unknown,” “The Chief God,” “The Object of Worship,” “The Lord of Creatures,” “Water,” “The Mind or Soul of the Universe”.

In southern France—the Land of the Troubadours—the Solomon’s Knot, as illustrated in Fig. 438, is alternatively known aslacs d’amour, or the knot of the Annunciation: this design consists, as will be noted, of a svastika extended into a rose or maze, and a precisely similar emblem is found in Albany. The titlelacs d’amouror lakes of love, consociated with the synonymous knot of the Annunciation, is seemingly further confirmation of the equationamour= Mary: another form of knot is illustrated in Fig. 440, and this the reader will compare with Fig. 439, representing a terra-cotta tablet found by Schliemann at Troy.

Fig. 439.—FromTroy(Schliemann).Figs. 440 and 441.—Mediæval Papermarks. FromLes Filigranes(Briquet, C. M.).

Fig. 439.—FromTroy(Schliemann).

Figs. 440 and 441.—Mediæval Papermarks. FromLes Filigranes(Briquet, C. M.).

It will be remembered that according to the Pierrot legend St. Peter looking out from the Walls of Heaven detected what he first took to be a rosebud in the snow: the name Piers, which like Pearce is a variant of Peter, is essentiallypieros, either Father Rose or Father Eros. The rood or rhoda pierre here illustrated is a Rose cross, and is conspicuously decorated with intreccias, or Solomon’sKnots: whether the inscription—which looks curiously Arabic—has ever been deciphered I am unable to say; it would, however, seem that the Andrew or Chi cross, which figures upon it, permits the connection of this Chooyvan rood with Choo or Jou.

Fig. 442.—FromA New Description of England(Anon, 1724).

Fig. 443.—From Evans.

Among the whorls from Troy, Burnouf has deciphered objects which he describes as a wheel in motion; others as theRosa mystica; others as the three stations of the Sun, or the three mountains. The Temple of Solomon was situated on Mount Moriah, one of the three holy hills of Hierosolyma, and it is probable that Meru, the paradisepeak of Buddhism, was like Mount Moriah, originally Amour. That the wheel coins of England were symbolic of the Apple Orchard, the Garden of the Rose, or of the Isles called Fortunate is further pointed by the variant here illustrated, which is unmistakeably aRosa mystica.

As has been pointed out by Sir George Birdwood it was the Apple Tree of the prehistoric Celtic immigrants that gave to the whole peninsular of the West of England—Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, the mystic name of “Ancient Avalon,” or Apple Island:—

Deep meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns,And bowery hollows, crowned with summer seas.

Deep meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns,

And bowery hollows, crowned with summer seas.

Fig. 443a—British. From Evans.

FOOTNOTES:[766]Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,And my original country is the region of the summer stars;Idno and Heinin called me Merddin,At length every king will call me Taliesin.I was with my Lord in the highest sphere,On the fall of Lucifer into the depth of hellI have borne a banner before Alexander;I know the names of the stars from north to south;I have been on the galaxy at the throne of the Distributer;I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain;I conveyed the Divine Spirit to the level of the vale of Hebron;I was in the court of Don before the birth of Gwdion.I was instructor to Eli and Enoc;I have been winged by the genius of the splendid crosier;I have been loquacious prior to being gifted with speech;I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God;I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrod;I have been the chief director of the work of the tower on Nimrod;I am a wonder whose origin is not known.I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra;I have been in India when Roma was built,I am now come here to the remnant of Troia.I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass:I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan;I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen;I have been bard of the harp to Lleon or Lochlin,I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynvelyn,For a day and a year in stocks and fetters,I have suffered hunger for the Son of the Virgin,I have been fostered in the land of the Deity,I have been teacher to all intelligences,I am able to instruct the whole universe.I shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earthAnd it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.[767]A New Description of England(1724), p. 57.[768]Braxfield Road at modern Brockley may mark the site of this meadow.[769]Wilson, J.,Imperial Gazetteer, i., 946.[770]Cf.Cun, coin,ante,p. 666.[771]P. 494.[772]Cf.Pierrot’s Family Tree.T.P.’s Weekly, 1st August, 1914.[773]Wilson, J.,Imperial Gazetteer, ii., 584.[774]Toland,History of Druids, p. 356.[775]Cf. Gomme, Sir L.,Folklore as an Historic Science, pp. 43, 44.[776]Cf.Gomme, Sir L.,Folklore as an Historic Science, p. 44.[777]A New Description of England, p. 65.[778]Morte D’Arthur, Bk. xviii, ch. viii.[779]Hazlitt, W. Carew,Faiths and Folklore, i., 12.[780]“Lageniensis,” p. 86.[781]Taliesin orRadiant Browclaims to have been Merlin.[782]“All the old traditions which give an interest to the Forest continue to be current there. The Fairies, who are kind to children, are still reported to be seen in their white apparel upon the banks of the Fountain; and the Fountain itself (whose waters are now considered salubrious) is still said to be possessed of its marvellous rain-producing properties. In seasons of drought the inhabitants of the surrounding parishes go to it in procession, headed by theirfivegreat banners, and their priests, ringing bells and chanting Psalms. On arriving at the Fountain, the Rector of the Canton dips the foot of the Cross into its waters, and it is sure to rain before a week elapses.”“Brecilicn etait une de ces forets sacrees qu’habitaient les pretresses du druidisme dans le Gaule; son nom et celui de sa vallee l’attesteraient a defaut d’autre temoignage; les noms de lieux sont les plus surs garans des evenemens passés.”—Cf.Notes onThe Mabinogion(Everyman’s Library), p. 383-90.[783]Mitton, G. E.,Hampstead and Marylebone.[784]Probably the Glamorganshire “Tabernae Amnis,” now Bont y Von.[785]Fearbal or sometimes Fibal. The “Merry Devil” associated in popular tradition with Edmonton beyond Islington was known by the name of Peter Fabell: I think he was originally “the Angel,” and that the names Fearbal or Fabell meantFairy or Fay Beautiful.[786]“Morien,”Light of Britannia, p. 61.[787]I am inclined to think that theeena deena dina duxof childrens’ games may be a similarly ancient survival.[788]There was also an Aballo, now Avalon, in France: there is also near Dodona in Albania an Avlona or Valona. A correspondent ofThe Westminster Gazettepoints out that: “Valona is but a derivative of the Greek (both ancient and modern)Balanos. This is clearer still if you realise that the Greekbis (and no doubt in ancient days also was) pronounced like an Englishv: thus,valanos.”[789]Travels in the East, p. 152.[790]According to Malory: “Merlin made the Round Table in tokening of roundness of the world, for by the Round Table is the world signified by right, for all the world, Christian and heathen, repair unto the Round Table; and when they are chosen to be of the fellowship of the Round Table they think them more blessed and more in worship than if they had gotten half the world; and ye have seen that they have lost their fathers and their mothers, and all their kin, and their wives and their children, for to be of your fellowship.”—Morte D’Arthur, Book xiv. 11.[791]Fenner, W.,Pasquils Palinodia, 1619.[792]Faiths and Folklore, ii., 401.[793]Ibid., 402.[794]Aneurin’sGododin.[795]Cf.“Laganiensis,”Irish Folklore, p. 35.[796]Cf. New Light on Renaissance, p. 169.[797]Birdwood, Sir G., preface toSymbolism of East and West, p. xvi.[798]Hazlitt, W. Carew,Faiths and Folklore, ii., 402.[799]Cf. Aucassin and Nicoletté, Everyman’s Library.[800]Fraser, J. B.,Persia, p. 129.[801]At Looe in Cornwall the site of what was apparently the ancient forum or Fore street, is now known as “Hannafore”. Opposite is St. George’s Islet. The connection between George and Hanover suggests that St. George was probably the patron saint of Hanover.[802]Hardwick, C.,Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore, p. 159.[803]Thelungsare the organs ofhaleine.[804]Courtney, Miss M. E.,Cornish Feasts, p. 3.[805]Johnson, W.,Folk Memory, p. 212.[806]Cf. ibid., p. 211.[807]The authorities are perplexed by this place-name. “O. E.Llynnmeans usually a torrent running over a rock which does not exist here. Its later meaning, a pool, is not recorded until 1577”.[808]The Elsdale Street at Hackney which is found in close contact with Paradise Passage, Well Street, and Paragon Road may mark an original Elves or Ellie’s Dale. Leading to “The Grove” isPigwellPassage.[809]Ante, p. 323.[810]Cf.Hardwick, C.,Trad. Super. and Folklore, p. 159.[811]This word means evidently much more than, as supposed,bridge builder.[812]The Rev. Baring-Gould quotes portions of this epistle in hisCurious Myths of the Middle Ages, but its contents are evidently distasteful to him as he breaks off: “I may be spared further extracts from this extraordinary letter which proceeds to describe the church in which Prester John worships, by enumerating the precious stones of which it is constructed, and their special virtues”: as a matter of fact, the account is an agreeable fairy-tale or fable which is no more extravagant than the account of the four-square, cubical, golden-streeted New Jerusalem attributed to the Revelations of St. John.[813]Chambers’Encyclopædia, viii., 398.[814]Guest, Dr.,Origines Celtica, ii., 182.[815]Cf.Schliemann,Troy.[816]Cornish Feasts, p. 76.[817]Cf. ante,p. 345, Fig. 183, No. 10.[818]Aynsley, Mrs. Murray,Symbolism of the East and West, p. 60.[819]The Word in the Pattern.

[766]Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,And my original country is the region of the summer stars;Idno and Heinin called me Merddin,At length every king will call me Taliesin.I was with my Lord in the highest sphere,On the fall of Lucifer into the depth of hellI have borne a banner before Alexander;I know the names of the stars from north to south;I have been on the galaxy at the throne of the Distributer;I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain;I conveyed the Divine Spirit to the level of the vale of Hebron;I was in the court of Don before the birth of Gwdion.I was instructor to Eli and Enoc;I have been winged by the genius of the splendid crosier;I have been loquacious prior to being gifted with speech;I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God;I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrod;I have been the chief director of the work of the tower on Nimrod;I am a wonder whose origin is not known.I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra;I have been in India when Roma was built,I am now come here to the remnant of Troia.I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass:I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan;I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen;I have been bard of the harp to Lleon or Lochlin,I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynvelyn,For a day and a year in stocks and fetters,I have suffered hunger for the Son of the Virgin,I have been fostered in the land of the Deity,I have been teacher to all intelligences,I am able to instruct the whole universe.I shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earthAnd it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.

[766]

Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,And my original country is the region of the summer stars;Idno and Heinin called me Merddin,At length every king will call me Taliesin.I was with my Lord in the highest sphere,On the fall of Lucifer into the depth of hellI have borne a banner before Alexander;I know the names of the stars from north to south;I have been on the galaxy at the throne of the Distributer;I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain;I conveyed the Divine Spirit to the level of the vale of Hebron;I was in the court of Don before the birth of Gwdion.I was instructor to Eli and Enoc;I have been winged by the genius of the splendid crosier;I have been loquacious prior to being gifted with speech;I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God;I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrod;I have been the chief director of the work of the tower on Nimrod;I am a wonder whose origin is not known.I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra;I have been in India when Roma was built,I am now come here to the remnant of Troia.I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass:I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan;I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen;I have been bard of the harp to Lleon or Lochlin,I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynvelyn,For a day and a year in stocks and fetters,I have suffered hunger for the Son of the Virgin,I have been fostered in the land of the Deity,I have been teacher to all intelligences,I am able to instruct the whole universe.I shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earthAnd it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.

Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,And my original country is the region of the summer stars;Idno and Heinin called me Merddin,At length every king will call me Taliesin.

Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,

And my original country is the region of the summer stars;

Idno and Heinin called me Merddin,

At length every king will call me Taliesin.

I was with my Lord in the highest sphere,On the fall of Lucifer into the depth of hellI have borne a banner before Alexander;I know the names of the stars from north to south;I have been on the galaxy at the throne of the Distributer;I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain;I conveyed the Divine Spirit to the level of the vale of Hebron;I was in the court of Don before the birth of Gwdion.I was instructor to Eli and Enoc;I have been winged by the genius of the splendid crosier;I have been loquacious prior to being gifted with speech;I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God;I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrod;I have been the chief director of the work of the tower on Nimrod;I am a wonder whose origin is not known.I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra;I have been in India when Roma was built,I am now come here to the remnant of Troia.

I was with my Lord in the highest sphere,

On the fall of Lucifer into the depth of hell

I have borne a banner before Alexander;

I know the names of the stars from north to south;

I have been on the galaxy at the throne of the Distributer;

I was in Canaan when Absalom was slain;

I conveyed the Divine Spirit to the level of the vale of Hebron;

I was in the court of Don before the birth of Gwdion.

I was instructor to Eli and Enoc;

I have been winged by the genius of the splendid crosier;

I have been loquacious prior to being gifted with speech;

I was at the place of the crucifixion of the merciful Son of God;

I have been three periods in the prison of Arianrod;

I have been the chief director of the work of the tower on Nimrod;

I am a wonder whose origin is not known.

I have been in Asia with Noah in the ark,

I have seen the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra;

I have been in India when Roma was built,

I am now come here to the remnant of Troia.

I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass:I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan;I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen;I have been bard of the harp to Lleon or Lochlin,I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynvelyn,For a day and a year in stocks and fetters,I have suffered hunger for the Son of the Virgin,I have been fostered in the land of the Deity,I have been teacher to all intelligences,I am able to instruct the whole universe.I shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earthAnd it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.

I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass:

I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan;

I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene;

I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen;

I have been bard of the harp to Lleon or Lochlin,

I have been on the White Hill, in the court of Cynvelyn,

For a day and a year in stocks and fetters,

I have suffered hunger for the Son of the Virgin,

I have been fostered in the land of the Deity,

I have been teacher to all intelligences,

I am able to instruct the whole universe.

I shall be until the day of doom on the face of the earth

And it is not known whether my body is flesh or fish.

[767]A New Description of England(1724), p. 57.

[768]Braxfield Road at modern Brockley may mark the site of this meadow.

[769]Wilson, J.,Imperial Gazetteer, i., 946.

[770]Cf.Cun, coin,ante,p. 666.

[771]P. 494.

[772]Cf.Pierrot’s Family Tree.T.P.’s Weekly, 1st August, 1914.

[773]Wilson, J.,Imperial Gazetteer, ii., 584.

[774]Toland,History of Druids, p. 356.

[775]Cf. Gomme, Sir L.,Folklore as an Historic Science, pp. 43, 44.

[776]Cf.Gomme, Sir L.,Folklore as an Historic Science, p. 44.

[777]A New Description of England, p. 65.

[778]Morte D’Arthur, Bk. xviii, ch. viii.

[779]Hazlitt, W. Carew,Faiths and Folklore, i., 12.

[780]“Lageniensis,” p. 86.

[781]Taliesin orRadiant Browclaims to have been Merlin.

[782]“All the old traditions which give an interest to the Forest continue to be current there. The Fairies, who are kind to children, are still reported to be seen in their white apparel upon the banks of the Fountain; and the Fountain itself (whose waters are now considered salubrious) is still said to be possessed of its marvellous rain-producing properties. In seasons of drought the inhabitants of the surrounding parishes go to it in procession, headed by theirfivegreat banners, and their priests, ringing bells and chanting Psalms. On arriving at the Fountain, the Rector of the Canton dips the foot of the Cross into its waters, and it is sure to rain before a week elapses.”“Brecilicn etait une de ces forets sacrees qu’habitaient les pretresses du druidisme dans le Gaule; son nom et celui de sa vallee l’attesteraient a defaut d’autre temoignage; les noms de lieux sont les plus surs garans des evenemens passés.”—Cf.Notes onThe Mabinogion(Everyman’s Library), p. 383-90.

“Brecilicn etait une de ces forets sacrees qu’habitaient les pretresses du druidisme dans le Gaule; son nom et celui de sa vallee l’attesteraient a defaut d’autre temoignage; les noms de lieux sont les plus surs garans des evenemens passés.”—Cf.Notes onThe Mabinogion(Everyman’s Library), p. 383-90.

[783]Mitton, G. E.,Hampstead and Marylebone.

[784]Probably the Glamorganshire “Tabernae Amnis,” now Bont y Von.

[785]Fearbal or sometimes Fibal. The “Merry Devil” associated in popular tradition with Edmonton beyond Islington was known by the name of Peter Fabell: I think he was originally “the Angel,” and that the names Fearbal or Fabell meantFairy or Fay Beautiful.

[786]“Morien,”Light of Britannia, p. 61.

[787]I am inclined to think that theeena deena dina duxof childrens’ games may be a similarly ancient survival.

[788]There was also an Aballo, now Avalon, in France: there is also near Dodona in Albania an Avlona or Valona. A correspondent ofThe Westminster Gazettepoints out that: “Valona is but a derivative of the Greek (both ancient and modern)Balanos. This is clearer still if you realise that the Greekbis (and no doubt in ancient days also was) pronounced like an Englishv: thus,valanos.”

[789]Travels in the East, p. 152.

[790]According to Malory: “Merlin made the Round Table in tokening of roundness of the world, for by the Round Table is the world signified by right, for all the world, Christian and heathen, repair unto the Round Table; and when they are chosen to be of the fellowship of the Round Table they think them more blessed and more in worship than if they had gotten half the world; and ye have seen that they have lost their fathers and their mothers, and all their kin, and their wives and their children, for to be of your fellowship.”—Morte D’Arthur, Book xiv. 11.

[791]Fenner, W.,Pasquils Palinodia, 1619.

[792]Faiths and Folklore, ii., 401.

[793]Ibid., 402.

[794]Aneurin’sGododin.

[795]Cf.“Laganiensis,”Irish Folklore, p. 35.

[796]Cf. New Light on Renaissance, p. 169.

[797]Birdwood, Sir G., preface toSymbolism of East and West, p. xvi.

[798]Hazlitt, W. Carew,Faiths and Folklore, ii., 402.

[799]Cf. Aucassin and Nicoletté, Everyman’s Library.

[800]Fraser, J. B.,Persia, p. 129.

[801]At Looe in Cornwall the site of what was apparently the ancient forum or Fore street, is now known as “Hannafore”. Opposite is St. George’s Islet. The connection between George and Hanover suggests that St. George was probably the patron saint of Hanover.

[802]Hardwick, C.,Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore, p. 159.

[803]Thelungsare the organs ofhaleine.

[804]Courtney, Miss M. E.,Cornish Feasts, p. 3.

[805]Johnson, W.,Folk Memory, p. 212.

[806]Cf. ibid., p. 211.

[807]The authorities are perplexed by this place-name. “O. E.Llynnmeans usually a torrent running over a rock which does not exist here. Its later meaning, a pool, is not recorded until 1577”.

[808]The Elsdale Street at Hackney which is found in close contact with Paradise Passage, Well Street, and Paragon Road may mark an original Elves or Ellie’s Dale. Leading to “The Grove” isPigwellPassage.

[809]Ante, p. 323.

[810]Cf.Hardwick, C.,Trad. Super. and Folklore, p. 159.

[811]This word means evidently much more than, as supposed,bridge builder.

[812]The Rev. Baring-Gould quotes portions of this epistle in hisCurious Myths of the Middle Ages, but its contents are evidently distasteful to him as he breaks off: “I may be spared further extracts from this extraordinary letter which proceeds to describe the church in which Prester John worships, by enumerating the precious stones of which it is constructed, and their special virtues”: as a matter of fact, the account is an agreeable fairy-tale or fable which is no more extravagant than the account of the four-square, cubical, golden-streeted New Jerusalem attributed to the Revelations of St. John.

[813]Chambers’Encyclopædia, viii., 398.

[814]Guest, Dr.,Origines Celtica, ii., 182.

[815]Cf.Schliemann,Troy.

[816]Cornish Feasts, p. 76.

[817]Cf. ante,p. 345, Fig. 183, No. 10.

[818]Aynsley, Mrs. Murray,Symbolism of the East and West, p. 60.

[819]The Word in the Pattern.

At bottom, a man is what his thinking is, thoughts being the artists who give colour to our days. Optimists and pessimists live in the same world, walk under the same sky, and observe the same facts. Sceptics and believers look up at the same great stars—the stars that shone in Eden, and will flash again in Paradise.—Dr.J. Fort Newton.

The name under which Jupiter was worshipped in Crete is not yet deciphered, but as we are told that the favourite abode of King Jou at Gnossus was on Mount Olympus where in its delightful recesses he held his court, and administered patriarchal justice; and as we are further told by Julius Firmicus that: “vainly the Cretans to this day adore the tumulus of Jou,” it is fairly obvious that, however many historic King Jou’s there may have been, the archetypal Jou was a lord of the tumulus or dun.

The ancient Irish were accustomed to callanyhill or artificial mound under which lay vaults, ashee, which also is the generic term for fairy: similarly we have noted a connection between the termrath—or dun—andwraith. Although fairies were partial to banks, braes, purling brooks, brakes, and bracken, they particularly loved to congregate in duns or raths, and their rapid motions to and fro these headquarters were believed to create a noise “somewhat resembling the loud humming of bees when swarming from a hive”. I have little doubt that all hills,bryns, or barrows were regarded not only asbruen, orbreasts, but as ethereal beehives, and the superstitions still associated with bees are evidence that bees themselves were once deemed sacred. There are upwards of a thousand localities in Ireland alone where the wordrath,raw,rah,ray, orramarks the site of a fairy rath,[820]and without going so far as to assert that every British -dunor -tonwas a fairydunordounfurther investigation will probably establish an unsuspected multitude of Dunhills or Edens.

Fig. 444.—Birs Nimroud.

We have seen that in Irelandfernmeant ancientlyanything good, and also in all probabilityfer enthe Fires or Fairies: at the romantic hill of Cnock-Firinn or theHill of firinnwas supposed to dwell a fairy chief named DonnFirineach,i.e., Donn the Truthful or the Truthteller;[821]evidently, therefore, this Don was a counterpart and consort of Queen Vera, and as he is reputed to have come from Spain his name may be connoted with the Spanishdonwhich, like the Phœnicianadon, is a generic term meaningthe lord. With “Generous Donn the King of Faery” may be connoted the Jewish Adonai, a plural form ofAdon“lord” combined with the pronoun of the first person: when reading the Scriptures aloud the Jews rather than utter the super-sacred word Jhuh, substitute Adonai, and in Jewry Adonai is thus a title of the Supreme Being. Among the Phœnicians Adon orthe lordwas specially applied to the King of Heaven or the Sun and that sacred Nineveh was essentially a dunhill is evidenced by Fig. 444

With Adon may be connoted Adonis, the lovely son of Myrrha and Kinyras, whose name has been absorbed into English as meaning any marvellously well-favoured youth: prior to the festivals of Adonis it was customary to grow forced gardens in earthen orsilverpots, and there would thus seem to have been a close connection in ideas between our English “whytepotqueen” or maiden with the pyramid of silver, and with the symbolic Gardens of Adonis or Eden as grown in Phrygia and Egypt.

Skeat connotes the word maiden—which is an earlier form thanmaid—with the Cornishmaw, a boy: if, however, we readmaasmotherthe wordmaidenbecomesMother Iden, and I have little doubt that the Maiden of mythology and English harvest-homes was the feminine Adonis. Adonis was hymned as the Shepherd of the Twinkling Stars; I have surmised that Long Meg of the seventy-twoDaughters was the Mighty Maiden of the Stars, whence it is interesting to find Skeat connotingmaidenwith Anglo-Saxonmagu, a kinsman: that Long Meg was the All Mother whencemagormaccame to meanchild ofhas already been suggested. Not only does Long Meg of Cumberland stand upon Maiden Way, but there is in the same district a Maidenmoor probably like Maidenhead or Maidenheath, a heath or mead dedicated to the Maid. Our dictionaries define the name May as a contraction of either Mary or Margaret,i.e., Meg: in the immediate neighbourhood of Long Meg is another circle called Mayborough, of which the vallum or enclosure is composed of stones taken from the beds of the Eamount or Eden rivers; in the centre of Mayborough used to stand four magnificent monoliths probably representative of the fourdeaconsor Good Kings who supported the Whytepot Queen.

There is a seat called St. Edans in Ireland close to Ferns where, as will be remembered, is St. Mogue’s Well: in Lincolnshire is a Maidenwell-cum-Farworth, and at Dorchester is a Haydon Hill in the close proximity of Forstone andGoodmanstone. That this Haydon was theGood Manis implied by the stupendous monument near by known as Mew Dun, Mai Dun, or Maiden Castle: thischef d’œuvreof prehistoric engineering, generally believed to be the greatest earthwork in Britain, is an oblong camp extending 1000 yards from east to west with a width of 500 yards, and it occupies an area of 120 acres:[822]entered by four gates the work itself is described as puzzling as a series of mazes, and to reach the interior one is compelled to pass through a labyrinth of defences. The name Dorchester suggests a Droia or Troy camp, and I have little doubt that thelabyrinthine Maiden was a colossal Troy Town or Drayton. Among the many Draytons in England is a Drayton-Parslow, which suggests that it stood near or upon a Parr’s low or a Parr’s lea: out of great Barlow Street, Marylebone, leads Paradise Place and Paradise Passage: there is a Drayton Park at Highbury, and in the immediate proximity an Eden Grove and Paradise Road: there was a Troy Town where Kensington Palace now stands,[823]and in all likelihood there was another one at Drayton near Hanwell and Hounslow. That Hounslow once contained anonsloworange hillseems to me more probable than that it was merely the “burial mound” of an imaginaryHundorHunda: in Domesday Hounslow figures as Honeslow which may be connoted with Honeybourne at Evesham and Honeychurch in Devon. With regard to the latter it has been observed: “The connection between a church and honey is not very obvious, and this is probably Church ofHuna”: the official explanation of “Honeybourne” is—“brook with honey sweet water,” but it is more probable that Queen Una was reputed to dwell there. That Una was not merely the creation of Spenser is evidenced from the fact that in Ireland “Una is often named by the peasantry as regent of the preternaturalSheogtribes”:[824]at St. Mary’s-in-the-Marsh, Thanet, is a Honeychild Manor and an Old Honeychild: with the Three White Balls at Iona it may be noted that on the summit of Hydon Heath (Surrey) is a place marked Hydon’s Ball.

At a distance of “about 110 yards” from Mayborough is another circle known as Arthur’s RoundTable: a mile from Dunstable is a circular camp known as Maiden Bower,whence it is probable that Dunstable meant either Dun staple (market), or that the circular camp there was a “table” of “generous Donn”. That the term “Maiden” used here and elsewhere meansmaidenas we now understand it may be implied from the famous Maiden Stone in Scotland: this sculptured Longstone, now measuring 10 feet in height, bears upon it the mirror and comb which were essentially the emblems of the Mairymaid.

There is an eminence called Maiden Bower near Durham which figures alternatively asDunholme; Durham is supposed to mean—“wild beast’s home or lair,” but I see no more reason to assign this ferocious origin to Durham than, say, to Dorchester or Doracestria: Ma, the mistress of Mount Ida, was like Britomart[825]esteemed to be the Mother of all beasts orbrutes, and particularly ofdeer; Diana is generally represented with a deer, and the woody glens of many-crested Ida were indubitably a lair of forest brutes—

Thus Juno spoke, and to her throne return’d,While they to spring-abounding Ida’s heights,Wild nurse of forest beasts, pursued their way.[826]

Thus Juno spoke, and to her throne return’d,

While they to spring-abounding Ida’s heights,

Wild nurse of forest beasts, pursued their way.[826]

Yorkshire, or Eboracum and the surrounding district, the habitat of the Brigantes, was known anciently as Deira: by the Romans Doracestria, or Dorchester was named Durnovaria upon which authority comments: “In thepresent name there is nothing which representsvaria, so that it really seems to mean ‘fist camp’”; doubtless, fisticuffs, boxing-matches, and many other kind of Trojan game were once held at Doracestria as at every other Troy or Drayton.

King Priam, the Mystic King of Troy, is said to have had fifty sons and daughters: the same family is assigned not only to St. Brychan of Cambria, but also to King Ebor, or Ebrauc of York, whence in all probability the Brigantes who inhabited Yorkshire and Cumberland were followers of one and the same Priam, Prime, Broom, Brahm, or Brahma: the name Abraham or Ibrahim is defined as meaning “father of a multitude”. The Kentish Broom Park near Patrixbourne whereby is Hearts Delight, Maydeacon House, and Kingston is on Heden Downs, and immediately adjacent is a Dennehill and Denton: at Dunton Green, near Sevenoaks, the presence of a Mount Pleasant implies that this Dunton was an Eden Town.

There is an Edenkille, or Eden Church at Elgin, and at Dudley is a Haden Cross, supposed to have derived its title “from a family long resident here”: it would be preferable and more legitimate to assign this family name to the site and describe them as the “De Haden’s”. There is a Haddenham at Ely, and at Ely Place, Holborn, opposite St. Andrews, is Hatton Garden: I suggest that Sir Christopher Hatton, like the Hadens of Haden Cross, derived his name from his home, and notvice versa.

In the Hibernian county of Clare is an Eden Vale: Clare Market in London before being pulled down was in the parish of St. ClementDane, here also stood Dane’s Inn, and within a stone’s throw is the church of St. Dunstan. The numerous St. Dunstans were probablyonce Dane stones, or Dun stanes, and the sprightly story of St. Dunstan seizing the nose of a female temptress with the tongs must be relegated to the Apocrypha. In the opinion of Sir Laurence Gomme the predominant cult in Roman London was undoubtedly that of Diana, for the evidence in favour of this goddess includes not only an altar, but other finds connected with her worship: Sir Laurence goes even further than this, stating his conviction that “Diana practically absorbed the religious expression of London”:[827]that London was aLunadunhas already been suggested.

It has always been strongly asserted by tradition that St. Paul’s occupies the site of a church of Diana: if this were so the Diana stones on the summit of Ludgate Hill would have balanced the Dun stones on the opposing bank of the river Fleet, or Bagnigge. We have seen thatmamin Gaelic meant a gently sloping hill; the two dunhills rising from the river Fleet, or Bagnigge, were thus probably regarded like the Paps of Anu at Killarney, as twin breasts of the Maiden: there are parallel “Maiden Paps” near Berriedale (Caithness), others near Sunderland, and others at Roxburgh. According to Stow the famous cross at Cheapside was decorated with a statue of Diana, the goddess, to which the adjoining Cathedral had been formerly dedicated: prior to the Reformation, two jets of water—like the jets in Fig. 44 (p. 167)—prilled from Diana’s naked breast “but now decayed”.

By Claremarket and the church of St. Clement Dane stood Holywell Street, somewhat north of which was yet another well called—according to Stow—Dame Annis theClear, and not far from it, but somewhat West, was alsoone otherclearwater called Perilous Pond. This “perilous” was probably onceperi lass, i.e., perry lass, orpure lass, and the neighbouring Clerkenwell (although the city clerks orclerkenmay in all likelihood have congregated there on summer evenings), was once seemingly sacred to the same type of phairy as the Irish call acluricanne.[828]The original Clerken, or Cluricanne, was in all probability the resplendentclarus, clear, shining,GlareKing, orGloryKing: but it is equally likely that the -kenof Clerken was the endearing diminutivekin, as in Lambkin. That St. Clare was adored by her disciples is clear fromThe Golden Legend, where among other interesting data we are told: “She was crowned with a crown right clear shining that the obscurity of the night was changed into clearness of midday”: we are further told that once upon a time as a certain friar was preaching in her presence: “a right fair child was to fore St. Clare, and abode there a great part of the sermon”. It is thus permissible to assume that this marvellous holy woman, whose doctrine shall “enlumine all the world,” was originally depicted in company of the customary Holy Child, or the Little Glory King.

The original Clerken Well stood in what is now named Ray Street, and quite close to it is Braynes Row; not far distant was Brown’s Wood.[829]The name Sinclair implies an order or a tribe of Sinclair followers, and that the St. Dunstan by St. Clement’s Dane and Claremarket was something more than a monk is obvious from the tradition that “Our Lord shewed miracles for himere he was born”: the marvel in point is that on a certainCandlemas Day the candle of his Mother Quendred[830]miraculously burned full bright so that others came and lighted their tapers at the taper of St. Dunstan’s mother; the interpretation placed upon this marvel was that her unborn child should give light to all England by his holy living.[831]

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