FOOTNOTES:

Grant, O God, Thy protection;And in Thy protection, strength,And in strength, understanding;And in understanding, knowledge,And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice;And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it,And in that love, the love of all existences;And in that love of all existences, the love of God.God and all goodness.

Grant, O God, Thy protection;

And in Thy protection, strength,

And in strength, understanding;

And in understanding, knowledge,

And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice;

And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it,

And in that love, the love of all existences;

And in that love of all existences, the love of God.

God and all goodness.

Some have supposed that Druidism learned its secrets from the Persian Magi, others that the Magi learnt from Druidism. Pliny, speaking of the vanities ofMagiismorMagic, recorded that “Britain celebrates them to-day with such ceremonies it might seem possible that she taught Magic to the Persians”. In Persian philosophy the trinity of Goodness was Good Thought, Good Deed, and Good Word, and in Britain these Three Graces were symbolised by the three Golden Berries of the Mistletoe or Golden Bough. They figure alternatively as Three Golden Balls or Apples growing on a crystal tree. The Mistletoe—sacred alike in Persia and in Britain—was worshipped as the All-Heal, and it was termed the Ethereal Plant, because alone among the vegetable creation it springs etherially in mid-air, and not from earth. Among theadventures of Prince Conneda of Connaught—the young and lovely son of Great and Good King Conn and Queen Eda—was a certain quest involving the most strenuous seeking. Aided by a Druid, the youthful Conneda carried with him a small bottle of extracted All-Heal, and was led forward by a magic ball, which rolled ever in advance. The story (or rather allegory, for it is obviously such) tells us that the Three Golden Apples were plucked from the Crystal Tree in the midst of the pleasure garden, and deposited by Conneda in his bosom. On returning home Conneda planted the Three Golden Apples in his garden, and instantly a great tree bearing similar fruit sprang up. This tree caused all the district to produce an exuberance of crops and fruits, so that the neighbourhood became as fertile and plentiful as the dominion of the Firbolgs, in consequence of the extraordinary powers possessed by the Golden Fruit.[190]

The trefoil or shamrock (figured constantly in Crete) was another symbol of the Three in One, and I have little doubt that at Tara there once existed a picture of St. Patrick holding this almost world-wide emblem. Tara is the same word astriorthreeand in Faërie this number is similarly sacred. The Irish used to march in battle in threes, the Celticmairaeor fairy mothers were generally figured in groups of three, and the gown of the Fairy Queen is said to have been—

Of pansy, pink, and primrose leaves,Most curiously laid on inthreaves.[191]

Of pansy, pink, and primrose leaves,

Most curiously laid on inthreaves.[191]

The word shamrock in Persian isshamrakh, and three to four thousand years ago a Persian poet hymned: “Weworship the pure, the Lord of purity. We worship the universe of the true spirit, visible, invisible, and all that sustains the welfare of the good creation. We praise all good thoughts, all good words, all good deeds, which are and will be, and keep pure all that is good. Thou true and happy Being! we strive to think, to speak, to do only what, of all actions, may promote the two lives, the body and the mind. We beseech the spirit of earth, by means of these best works (agriculture) to grant us beautiful and fertile fields, for believer and unbeliever, for rich and poor. We worship the Wise One who formed and furthered the spirit of the earth. We worship Him with our bodies and souls. We worship Him as being united with the spirits of pure men and women. We worship the promotion of all good, all that is very beautiful, shining, immortal, bright, everything that is good.”

The alleged author of this invocation to the God of Goodness and Beauty lived certainly as early as 1200B.C., some think 2000B.C.: the hymn itself was collected into its present canon during the fourth century of this era, but, like the British Triads and all other Bardic lore, it is supposed to have been long orally preserved. It is perfectly legitimate to compare the literature of Ancient Persia with that of Britain, for the religious systems of the two countries were admittedly almost identical; and until recently Persia was the most generally accepted cradle of the Aryans.

It is impossible to suppose that the earliest compilers and transcribers of the British Triads had access to the MSS. of the hymn just quoted; yet while Persian tradition records, “We worship the promotion of all good, all that is very beautiful, shining, immortal, bright, everything thatis good,” the British Bards seemingly worshipped the promotion of all good, in fact the Three Ultimate Objects of Bardism are on record as being “to reform morals and customs; to secure peace andpraise everything that is good and excellent”.

British literature, British folklore, and British custom, all alike refute Max Müller’s preposterous supposition that the equationGod = Goodis “far too modern, too abstract, too Christian,” and there is manifestly some evidence in favour of the probability that Giant Albion was worshipped as theHoly Goodand theAll Good. There is no known tribe of savages that is destitute of some code of ethics, and it is seemingly a world-wide paradox that spiritual wisdom and low civilisation can, and often do, exist concurrently. Side by side with the childish notions of modern savages, one finds, not infrequently, what Andrew Lang termed, “astonishing metaphysical hymns about the first stirrings of light in darkness, of becoming, of being, which remind us of Hegel and Heraclitus”.[192]The sacred Books of Christendom emanated from one of the crudest and least cultivated of all the subject races of the Roman Empire. It is self-evident that the Hebrews were a predatory and semi-savage tribe who conceived their Divinity as vengeful, cursing, swearing, vomiting, his fury coming up into his face, and his nostrils smoking; nevertheless, as in the Psalms and elsewhere, are some of the noblest and most lofty conceptions of Holiness and Beauty.

As a remarkable instance of this seeming universal paradox, one may refer to Micah, a Hebrew, whose work first appeared in writing about 300b.c.There is in Micah some of the best philosophy ever penned, yet the status ofthe tribe among whom he lived and to whom he addressed himself, was barbarous and brutal. Of this, an example is found in Chapter III, where the prophet writes: “And I said, Hear I pray you, O heads of Jacob and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgement? who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin off them, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron”.

As a parallel to this cannibalism it is thus quite conceivable that while some of the MacAlpines were lauding Albani, others were larding their weaker brethren for the laird’s table: but the whole trend of Alban custom and Alban literature renders the supposition unlikely. There is extant a British Triad inculcating the three maxims for good health as “cheerfulness, temperance, and early rising”. There is another enunciating the three cares that should occupy the mind of every man as: “To worship God, to avoid injuring any one, and to act justly towards every living thing”. The latter of these is curiously reminiscent of Micah’s Triadic utterance: “He hath showed thee O man what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with God”.

FOOTNOTES:[140]Toland,History of the Druids, p. 428.[141]Cf.Poste, B.,Britannic Researches, p. 110.[142]The Lost Language of Symbolism, 1912.[143]The earliest example of Irish Bardism is to the following effect:—I invoke thee ErinBrilliant Brilliant sea,Fertile Fertile Hill,Wavy Wavy WoodFlowing Flowing stream,Fishy Fishy Lake, etc.[144]Haslam, W.,Perran Zabuloe, p. 8.[145]Survey of London, Ev. Lib., p. 132.[146]Golden Legend, III, 248.[147]Skeat postulates a mute vowel by derivinglazaror leper fromEleazer—He whom God assists.[148]Extinct Civilisations of the East, p. 104.[149]I have a chapter of evidence in MSS. supporting this suggestion.[150]Frazer, Sir J. G.,Folklore in the Old Testament, iii., 45.[151]Bulfinch put the horse before the cart when he wrote: “As the name of the god signifiesall, Pan came to be considered a symbol of the universe and personification of nature.”[152]Wavrin, John de,Chronicles.[153]This name is supposed to have meant a miser or father of pennies. Thepennyis said to have been so named from thepenorheadfigured upon it.[154]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, i., col. 566.[155]TheNew English Dictionarynotes the following “forms” of “pigeon,”pejon,pejoun,pegion,pegyon,pigin,pigen,pigion,pygon. The supposed connection between pigeon andpipio, “I chirp,” is surely remote, for young pigeons do not “chirp”.[156]Mrs. Hamilton Gray inThe Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria, writes: “I was particularly struck with one large carved group, which bore a greater resemblance to a Hindoo representation of a trinity than anything not Indian I have ever seen. Did we not know the thing to be impossible, I should be tempted on the strength of this sculptured stone to assert that Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu must at some former period have found adorers in Etruria. Three monstrous faces, growing together, one full face in the middle and a profile on each side” (p. 309).[157]The official etymology ofJuneis “probably from root of Latinjuvenis,junior,” but where is the sense in this?[158]Baring-Gould, S.,Curious Myths, p. 5.[159]Curious Myths, p. 23.[160]Gray, Mrs. Hamilton,Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria, pp. 187, 189.[161]Hell., c. xx.[162]Yeats, W. B.,Fairy and Folk-tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 306.[163]“Theta,”The Thorn Tree, being a History of Thorn Worship. London, 1863, p. 127.[164]Faërie Queene, Book XI., c. ix., st. 70-71.[165]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, 111., col. 27.[166]Keightley, T.,Fairy Mythology, p. 138.[167]Davies, E.,Myth of Brit. Druids, pp. 203, 204.[168]Baring-Gould,Curious Myths, p. 194.[169]Spence, Lewis,Myths of Mexico and Peru, p. 170.[170]P. 159.[171]Surnames, p. 230.[172]The ecclesiasticalraison d’êtrefor St. Andrew’s situation is stated as having been “to the end that his pain should endure the longer”.[173]“Diogenes Lærtius, in the proem of his philosophical history, reckons the Druids among the chief authors of the barbarous theology and philosophy, long anterior to the Greeks, their disciples: and Phurnutus, in his treatise of the Nature of the Gods, says most expressly that among the many and various fables which the antient Greecs had about the Gods, some were derived from the Mages, the Africans, and Phrygians, and others from other nations: for which he cites Homer as a witness, nor is there anything that bears a greater witness to itself.”—Toland,History of Druids. London, 1814, p. 106.[174]Ancient Britain, p. 284.[175]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, p. 818.[176]Anon.,The Fairy Family, 1857.[177]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, pp. 25, 441.[178]Quoted from Davies, E.,Celtic Researches, p. 560.[179]Livy mentions that during the Macedonian War a Gaulish soldier foretold an eclipse of the moon to the Roman Army (Liber XLIV., c. xxxvii.).[180]“A few years ago it would have been deemed the height of absurdity to imagine that the English and the Hindus were originally one people, speaking the same language, and clearly distinguished from other families of mankind; and yet comparative philology has established this fact by evidence as clear and irresistible as that the earth revolves round the sun.”—Smith, Dr. Wm.,Lectures on the English Language, p. 2.[181]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, p. 290.[182]Canon ffrench,Prehistoric Faith in Ireland, p. 80.[183]Cf.Frazer, Sir J. G.,Psyche’s Task, pp. 7, 14.[184]Cf. Ibid.[185]Curious Myths, p. 557.[186]Cf.Keightley, T.,Fairy Mythology, p. 298.[187]There is a certain section of Christianity that still revels in hymns such as the following:—“His nostrils breathe out fiery streams,He’s a consuming fire,His jealous eyes His wrath inflameAnd raise His vengeance higher.”[188]This and the several subsequent quotations from Bardic “Philosophy” are taken from the collection published in 1862, by the Welsh MSS. Society, under the titleBarddas. Whatever may be the precise date of these axioms the ideas they express well repay careful consideration.[189]According to Cæsar the Druidic philosophy was transmitted orally for the purpose of strengthening the memory. The disciples of Pythagoras followed a similar precept, hence when the majority of them were destroyed in a fire the axioms of Pythagoras were largely lost. That the traditional tales of Ireland were maintained in their verbal integrity for untold years is implied by Mr. Yeats’ statement: “In the Parochial Survey of Ireland it is recorded how the story-tellers used to gather together of an evening, and if any had a different version from the others, they would all recite theirs and vote, and the man who had varied would have to abide by their verdict. In this way stories have been handed down with such accuracy, that the long tale of Dierdre was, in the earlier decades of this century, told almost word for word, as in the very ancient MSS. in the Royal Dublin Society. In one case only it varied, and then the MSS. was obviously wrong—a passage had been forgotten by the copyist. But this accuracy is rather in the folk and bardic tales than in the fairy legends, for these vary widely, being usually adapted to some neighbouring village or local fairy-seeing celebrity.”—Yeats, W. B.,Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 11.[190]Cf.Yeats, W.B.,Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 318.[191]Keightley, T.,Fairy Mythology, p. 346.[192]Myth, Ritual and Religion, 1. 186.

[140]Toland,History of the Druids, p. 428.

[141]Cf.Poste, B.,Britannic Researches, p. 110.

[142]The Lost Language of Symbolism, 1912.

[143]The earliest example of Irish Bardism is to the following effect:—I invoke thee ErinBrilliant Brilliant sea,Fertile Fertile Hill,Wavy Wavy WoodFlowing Flowing stream,Fishy Fishy Lake, etc.

[143]The earliest example of Irish Bardism is to the following effect:—

I invoke thee ErinBrilliant Brilliant sea,Fertile Fertile Hill,Wavy Wavy WoodFlowing Flowing stream,Fishy Fishy Lake, etc.

I invoke thee Erin

Brilliant Brilliant sea,

Fertile Fertile Hill,

Wavy Wavy Wood

Flowing Flowing stream,

Fishy Fishy Lake, etc.

[144]Haslam, W.,Perran Zabuloe, p. 8.

[145]Survey of London, Ev. Lib., p. 132.

[146]Golden Legend, III, 248.

[147]Skeat postulates a mute vowel by derivinglazaror leper fromEleazer—He whom God assists.

[148]Extinct Civilisations of the East, p. 104.

[149]I have a chapter of evidence in MSS. supporting this suggestion.

[150]Frazer, Sir J. G.,Folklore in the Old Testament, iii., 45.

[151]Bulfinch put the horse before the cart when he wrote: “As the name of the god signifiesall, Pan came to be considered a symbol of the universe and personification of nature.”

[152]Wavrin, John de,Chronicles.

[153]This name is supposed to have meant a miser or father of pennies. Thepennyis said to have been so named from thepenorheadfigured upon it.

[154]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, i., col. 566.

[155]TheNew English Dictionarynotes the following “forms” of “pigeon,”pejon,pejoun,pegion,pegyon,pigin,pigen,pigion,pygon. The supposed connection between pigeon andpipio, “I chirp,” is surely remote, for young pigeons do not “chirp”.

[156]Mrs. Hamilton Gray inThe Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria, writes: “I was particularly struck with one large carved group, which bore a greater resemblance to a Hindoo representation of a trinity than anything not Indian I have ever seen. Did we not know the thing to be impossible, I should be tempted on the strength of this sculptured stone to assert that Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu must at some former period have found adorers in Etruria. Three monstrous faces, growing together, one full face in the middle and a profile on each side” (p. 309).

[157]The official etymology ofJuneis “probably from root of Latinjuvenis,junior,” but where is the sense in this?

[158]Baring-Gould, S.,Curious Myths, p. 5.

[159]Curious Myths, p. 23.

[160]Gray, Mrs. Hamilton,Sepulchres of Ancient Etruria, pp. 187, 189.

[161]Hell., c. xx.

[162]Yeats, W. B.,Fairy and Folk-tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 306.

[163]“Theta,”The Thorn Tree, being a History of Thorn Worship. London, 1863, p. 127.

[164]Faërie Queene, Book XI., c. ix., st. 70-71.

[165]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, 111., col. 27.

[166]Keightley, T.,Fairy Mythology, p. 138.

[167]Davies, E.,Myth of Brit. Druids, pp. 203, 204.

[168]Baring-Gould,Curious Myths, p. 194.

[169]Spence, Lewis,Myths of Mexico and Peru, p. 170.

[170]P. 159.

[171]Surnames, p. 230.

[172]The ecclesiasticalraison d’êtrefor St. Andrew’s situation is stated as having been “to the end that his pain should endure the longer”.

[173]“Diogenes Lærtius, in the proem of his philosophical history, reckons the Druids among the chief authors of the barbarous theology and philosophy, long anterior to the Greeks, their disciples: and Phurnutus, in his treatise of the Nature of the Gods, says most expressly that among the many and various fables which the antient Greecs had about the Gods, some were derived from the Mages, the Africans, and Phrygians, and others from other nations: for which he cites Homer as a witness, nor is there anything that bears a greater witness to itself.”—Toland,History of Druids. London, 1814, p. 106.

[174]Ancient Britain, p. 284.

[175]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, p. 818.

[176]Anon.,The Fairy Family, 1857.

[177]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, pp. 25, 441.

[178]Quoted from Davies, E.,Celtic Researches, p. 560.

[179]Livy mentions that during the Macedonian War a Gaulish soldier foretold an eclipse of the moon to the Roman Army (Liber XLIV., c. xxxvii.).

[180]“A few years ago it would have been deemed the height of absurdity to imagine that the English and the Hindus were originally one people, speaking the same language, and clearly distinguished from other families of mankind; and yet comparative philology has established this fact by evidence as clear and irresistible as that the earth revolves round the sun.”—Smith, Dr. Wm.,Lectures on the English Language, p. 2.

[181]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, p. 290.

[182]Canon ffrench,Prehistoric Faith in Ireland, p. 80.

[183]Cf.Frazer, Sir J. G.,Psyche’s Task, pp. 7, 14.

[184]Cf. Ibid.

[185]Curious Myths, p. 557.

[186]Cf.Keightley, T.,Fairy Mythology, p. 298.

[187]There is a certain section of Christianity that still revels in hymns such as the following:—“His nostrils breathe out fiery streams,He’s a consuming fire,His jealous eyes His wrath inflameAnd raise His vengeance higher.”

[187]There is a certain section of Christianity that still revels in hymns such as the following:—

“His nostrils breathe out fiery streams,He’s a consuming fire,His jealous eyes His wrath inflameAnd raise His vengeance higher.”

“His nostrils breathe out fiery streams,

He’s a consuming fire,

His jealous eyes His wrath inflame

And raise His vengeance higher.”

[188]This and the several subsequent quotations from Bardic “Philosophy” are taken from the collection published in 1862, by the Welsh MSS. Society, under the titleBarddas. Whatever may be the precise date of these axioms the ideas they express well repay careful consideration.

[189]According to Cæsar the Druidic philosophy was transmitted orally for the purpose of strengthening the memory. The disciples of Pythagoras followed a similar precept, hence when the majority of them were destroyed in a fire the axioms of Pythagoras were largely lost. That the traditional tales of Ireland were maintained in their verbal integrity for untold years is implied by Mr. Yeats’ statement: “In the Parochial Survey of Ireland it is recorded how the story-tellers used to gather together of an evening, and if any had a different version from the others, they would all recite theirs and vote, and the man who had varied would have to abide by their verdict. In this way stories have been handed down with such accuracy, that the long tale of Dierdre was, in the earlier decades of this century, told almost word for word, as in the very ancient MSS. in the Royal Dublin Society. In one case only it varied, and then the MSS. was obviously wrong—a passage had been forgotten by the copyist. But this accuracy is rather in the folk and bardic tales than in the fairy legends, for these vary widely, being usually adapted to some neighbouring village or local fairy-seeing celebrity.”—Yeats, W. B.,Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 11.

[190]Cf.Yeats, W.B.,Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, p. 318.

[191]Keightley, T.,Fairy Mythology, p. 346.

[192]Myth, Ritual and Religion, 1. 186.

“Scarce stand the vessels hauled upon the beach,And bent on marriages the young men vieTo till new settlements, while I to eachDue law dispense and dwelling place supply,When from a tainted quarter of the skyRank vapours, gathering, on my comrades seize,And a foul pestilence creeps down from high.”—Virgil,The Æneid.

“Scarce stand the vessels hauled upon the beach,

And bent on marriages the young men vie

To till new settlements, while I to each

Due law dispense and dwelling place supply,

When from a tainted quarter of the sky

Rank vapours, gathering, on my comrades seize,

And a foul pestilence creeps down from high.”

—Virgil,The Æneid.

The British Chronicles relate that when Brute and his companions reached these shores the island was then uninhabited, save only for a few giants. Seemingly these natives did not oppose the Trojan landing, for the story runs that “Nought gave Corineus (Brute’s second-in-command) greater pleasure than to wrestle with the giants of whom there was a greater plenty in Cornwall than elsewhere”. On a certain day, however, the existing relations ceased, owing to an obnoxious native named Goemagog, who, accompanied by a score of companions, interrupted a sacred function which the Trojans were holding. From the recommendations of the pious Æneas, it would seem that the Trojans had suffered similarly in other directions:—

When thy vessels, ranged upon her shore,Rest from the deep, and on the beach ye lightThe votive altars, and the gods adore,Veil then thy locks, with purple hood bedight,And shroud thy visage from a foeman’s sight,Lest hostile presence, ’mid the flames divine,Break in, and mar the omen and the rite.This pious use keep sacred, thou and thine,The sons of sons unborn, and all the Trojan line.[193]

When thy vessels, ranged upon her shore,

Rest from the deep, and on the beach ye light

The votive altars, and the gods adore,

Veil then thy locks, with purple hood bedight,

And shroud thy visage from a foeman’s sight,

Lest hostile presence, ’mid the flames divine,

Break in, and mar the omen and the rite.

This pious use keep sacred, thou and thine,

The sons of sons unborn, and all the Trojan line.[193]

The graceless Goemagog and his ruffianly crew did passing cruel slaughter on the British, howbeit at the last the Britons, rallying from all quarters, prevailed against them and slew all save only Goemagog. Him, Brute had ordered to be kept alive as he was minded to see a wrestling bout betwixt him and Corineus, “who was beyond measure keen to match himself against such a monster”. Corineus, all agog and o’erjoyed at the sporting prospect, girded himself for the encounter, and flinging away his arms challenged Goemagog to a bout at wrestling. After “making the very air quake with their breathless gaspings,” the match ended by Goemagog being lifted bodily into the air, carried to the edge of the cliff, and heaved over.[194]

One cannot read Homer without realising that this alleged incident was in closest accord with the habits and probabilities of the time. Alike among the Greeks and the Trojans wrestling was as popular and soul-absorbing a pastime as it is to-day, or was until yesterday, among Cornishmen:—

Tired out we seek the little town, and runThe sterns ashore and anchor in the bay,Saved beyond hope and glad the land is won,And lustral rites, with blazing altars, payTo Jove, and make the shores of Actium gayWith Ilian games, as, like our sires, we stripAnd oil our sinews for the wrestler’s play,Proud, thus escaping from the foeman’s grip,Past all the Argive towns, through swarming Greeks, to slip.[195]

Tired out we seek the little town, and run

The sterns ashore and anchor in the bay,

Saved beyond hope and glad the land is won,

And lustral rites, with blazing altars, pay

To Jove, and make the shores of Actium gay

With Ilian games, as, like our sires, we strip

And oil our sinews for the wrestler’s play,

Proud, thus escaping from the foeman’s grip,

Past all the Argive towns, through swarming Greeks, to slip.[195]

The untoward Goemagog was probably one of an elementary big-boned tribe whose divinities were Gog and Magog, and there are distinct traces, at any rate, of Magog in Ireland. According to De Jubainville, “the various races that have successively inhabited Ireland trace themselves back to common ancestors descended from Magog or Gomer, son of Japhet, so that the Irish genealogy traditions are in perfect harmony with those of the Bible”.[196]

The figures of Gog and Magog used until recently to be cut into the slope of Plymouth Hoe: in Cambridgeshire, are the Gogmagog hills; at the extremity of Land’s End are two rocks known respectively as Gog and Magog, and there is an unfavourable allusion to the same twain inRevelation.[197]Gog and Magog are the “protectors” of London, and at civic festivals their images used with pomp and circumstance to be paraded through the City.

In some parts of Europe the civic giants were represented as beingeightin number, and the Christian Clergy inherited with their office the incongruous duty of keeping them in good order. One of these ceremonials is described by an eye-witness writing in 1809, who tells us that in Valencia no procession of however little importance took place, without being preceded by eight statues of giants of a prodigious height. “Four of them represented the four quarters of the world, and the other four their husbands. Their heads were made of paste-board, and of an enormous size, frizzled and dressed in the fashion. Men, covered with drapery falling on the ground, carried them at the head of the procession, making them dance, jump, bow, turn, and twist about. The people paid more attention to these gesticulations than to the religious ceremony whichfollowed them. The existence of the giants was deemed of sufficient importance to require attention as to the means of perpetuating them; consequently there was a considerable foundation in Valencia for their support. They had a house belonging to them where they were deposited. Two benefices were particularly founded in honour of them; and it was the duty of the Ecclesiastics who possessed these benefices to take care of them and of their ornaments, particular revenues being assigned for the expense of their toilettes.”[198]

Four pairs of elemental gods were similarly worshipped in Egypt, each pair male and female, and theseeightprimeval Beings were known as the Ogdoad or Octet. In Scotland, the Earth Goddess who is said to have existed “from the long eternity of the world,” is sometimes described as being the chief ofeight“big old women,” at other times as “a great big old wife,” and with this untoward Hag we may equate the English “Awd Goggie” who was supposed to guard orchards.

The London figures of Gog and Magog—constructed of wicker work—had movable eyes which, to the great joy of the populace, were caused to roll orgoggleas the images were perambulated. Skeat thinks the wordgogis “of imitative origin,” but it is more likely thatgogglewas originally Gogoeuilor Gog Eye. The Irish and Gaelic for Goggle-eyed isgogshuileach, which the authorities refer togog, “to move slightly” andsuil, “an eye”.

At Gigglewick or Giggles-fort in Yorkshire (ancientlyDeira), there is a celebrated well of which the famed peculiarity is its eightfold flow, and it was of this Giggle Well that Drayton wrote inPolyolbion:—

At Giggleswick where I a fountain can you show,Thateighttimes a day is said to ebb and flow.

At Giggleswick where I a fountain can you show,

Thateighttimes a day is said to ebb and flow.

In Cornwall at St. Isseys there used to be a sacred fountain known as St. Giggy’s Well, and as every stream and fount was the supposed home of jinns or genii it is possible that “SaintGiggy” may be equated withigigi, a word meaning in Babylonian mythology “the spirits of Heaven”. Jinn or Genie may also be connoted with a well near Launceston known as Joan’s Pitcher, the pitcher or vase whence the living waters were poured being a constantly recurring emblem of Mother Nature. It will be noticed in Fig. 25, p. 142, and in Fig. 256, p. 428.

The French have an expressiona gogo(“origin unknown”) which means at one’s ease, or in clover; in old Frenchgogue(“origin unknown”) meant pleasantry or fun, andgoguenarda funmaker, or a jester. All these and kindred terms are probably correlate to the jovial Gogmagog carnivals and festivals. In London the house of Gog and Magog is the Guildhall in Aldermanbury: if born within the sound of the bells of the neighbouring St. Mary-le-Bow a Londoner is entitled to be termed acockney; Cockayne is an old and romantic term for London, and it would therefore seem likely that among the cluster of detacheddunswhich have now coalesced into London, the followers of Gog and Magog had a powerful and perhaps aboriginal footing. Around Londonderry in Ireland are the memories of a giant Gig na Gog, and at Launceston in Cornwall there used to be held a so-called Giglot Fair. At thisa gogofestival every wench was at liberty to bestow the eye of favour,ogle, or lookgougou, on any swain she fancied: whence obviously the whole village was agog, or full of eagerness, and much ogling, giggling, goggling, and gougounarderie.

In Cornwallgoogoumeans a cave, den, souterrain, or “giants holt,” and there are several reasons to suppose that the Gogmagogei or gougouites were troglodytes. “Son of Man,” said Ezekiel, “set thy face against Gog the Land of Magog,” and to judge from similar references, it would seem that the followers of Gogmagog were ill-favoured and unloved. Sir John Maundeville (1322) mentions in his Travels, that in the Land of Cathay towards Bucharia, and Upper India, the Jews of ten lineages “who are called Gog and Magog” were penned up in some mountains called Uber. This name Uber we shall show is probably the same asobr, whence the Generic termHebrew, and it is said by Maundeville that between those mountains of Uber were enclosed twenty-two kings, with their people, that dwelt between the mountains of Scythia.[199]Josephus mentions that the Scythians were called Magogoei by the Greeks: by some authorities the Scythians are equated with the Scotti or Scots. There are still living in Cornwall the presumed descendants of what have been termed the “bedrock” race, and these people still exhibit in their physiognomies the traces of Oriental or Mongoloid blood. The early passage tombs of Japan are, according to Borlase, (W. C.), literally counterparts in plan and construction of those giant-graves or passage-tombs which are prevalent in Cornwall, and, speaking of the inhabitants of Cornwall and Wales, Dr. Beddoe says: “I think some reason can be shown for suspecting the existence of traces of some Mongoloid race in the modern population of Wales and the West of England. The most notable indication is the oblique or Chinese eye. I have noted thirty-four persons with oblique eyes. Their heads include a wide range ofrelative breadth. In other points the type stands out distinctly. The cheek bones are almost always broad: the brows oblique, in the same direction as the eyes; the chin as a rule narrow and angular; the nose often concave and flat, seldom arched; and the mouth rather inclined to be prominent.... The iris is usually hazel or brown, and the hair straight, dark-brown, black, or reddish.” “It is,” he adds, “especially in Cornwall that this type is common.”

Our British Giants, Gog, Magog, Termagol, and the rest of the terrible tribe, sprang, according to Scottish myth, from thethirty-threedaughters of Diocletian, a King of Syria, or Tyria. Thesethirty-threeprimeval women drifted in a ship to Britain, then uninhabited, where they lived in solitude, until an order of demons becoming enamoured of them, took them to wife and begot a race of giants. Anthropology and tradition thus alike refer the Magogoei to Syria, or Phœnicia, and there would seem to be numerous indications that between these people and the ethereal, romantic, and artistic Cretans there existed a racial, integral, antipathy.

The Gogonians may be connoted with the troglodyte Ciconians, or Cyclops, to whom Homer so frequently and unfavourably alludes, and the one-eyed Polyphemus of Homer is obviously one and the same with Balor, the one-eyed giant of Tory Isle in Ireland. This Balor or Conann the Great, as he is sometimes termed, was cock-eyed, one terrible eye facing front, the other situated in the back of his head facing to the rear. To this day the fateful eye of Balor is the Evil Eye in Ireland, whence anyone is liable to be o’erwished. Ordinarily the dreadful optic was close shut, but at times his followers raised the eyelid with an iron hook, whereupon the glance of Baler’s eye blastedeverything and everybody upon whom it fell. On one occasion the fateful eye of Balor is said to have overflowed with water, causing a disastrous flood; whence, perhaps, why a watery eye is termed a “Balory” or “Blearyeye”. That Balor was Gog may be inferred from Belerium or Bolerium, being the name applied by Ptolemy to the Land’s End district where still stand the rocks called Gog and Magog. That Balor was Polyphemus, the Cyclopean Ciconian, is probable from the fact that he was blinded by a spear driven into his ill-omened eyeball, precisely as Polyphemus was blinded by a blazing stake from Ulysses. Did the unlettered peasantry of Tory Isle derive this tale from Homer, or did Homer get the story from Ogygia, a supposedly ancient name for Erin? Not only is there an identity between the myth of Balor and Polyphemus, but, further—to quote D’arbois de Jubainville—“As fortune strangely has it the Irish nameBalorhas preserved its identity withBelleros, whom the poems of Homer and Hesiod and many other Greek writers have handed down to us in the compoundBellero-phontes, ‘slayer of Belleros’”.[200]

The author ofThe Odysseydescribes the Ciconians as a race endued with superior powers, but as troubling their neighbours with frequent wrongs:—

... o’er the Deep proceeding sad, we reach’dThe land at length, where, giant-sized and freeFrom all constraint of law, the Cyclops dwellThey, trusting to the Gods, plant not, or plough. . . . . . . . . . . . . .No councils they convene, no laws contriveBut in deep caverns dwell, found on the headsOf lofty mountains.

... o’er the Deep proceeding sad, we reach’d

The land at length, where, giant-sized and free

From all constraint of law, the Cyclops dwell

They, trusting to the Gods, plant not, or plough

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

No councils they convene, no laws contrive

But in deep caverns dwell, found on the heads

Of lofty mountains.

Apparently some of these same lawless and predatory troglodytes were at one time dwelling in Wales, for a few miles further north of Aberystwith we find the place-name Goginan there applied to what is described as “a locality with extensive lead-mines”. The Welsh for cave isogof, orgogof, and in Cornish not onlygougou, but alsougo, orhugomeant the same: thusogandgogwould seem to have been synonymous, a conclusion confirmed in many other directions, such asgoggleandogle. In Hebrew,ogmeant gigantic, mighty, or long-necked, which evidently is the same word as the Britishuch, Germanhoch, meaninghigh; whence, there is every probability thatOg, orGog, meant primarilyHigh-High, or theMost High, and Magog,Mother Most High.

Okehampton, on the river Okement in Devonshire, held, like Launceston, a giglet fair, whence it is probable that Kigbear, the curious name of a hamlet in Okehampton, took its title from the sameKigas was responsible forgiglet. There are numerous allusions in the classics to a Cyclopean rocking-stone known as the Gigonian Rock, but the site of this famous oracle is not known. Joshua refers to the coast of Og, King of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, and that this obnoxious ruler was a troglodyte is manifest from his subterranean capital at Edrei, which is in existence to this day, and will be described later. That at one time Og was a god of the ocean may be deduced from the Rabbinic tradition that he walked by the side of the ark during the flood, and the waters came up only to his knees. From the measurements of Og’s famous bedstead it has been calculated that Og himself “was aboutninefeet high”.[201]

In Hebrewogis also understood to meanhe who goes in a circle, which is suggestive of the Sun or Eye of Heaven. That the sun was the mighty, all-seeingoglerorgogglerof the universe is a commonplace among the poets, whence Homer, alluding to the Artist of the World, observes: “His spy the Sun had told him all”. To the jocund Sun, which on Easter Day in particular was supposed to dance, may be referred the joyfulgigues, orjigsof our ancestors. Gig also meant a boy’s top, and to the same source may be assigned whirligig. Shec is the Irish form of Jack, andgigansorgiganticare both radically Jack or Jock. In English, Jack means many things, from a big fresh-water fish to a jack pudding, and from Jack-in-Green to Jack-a-lanthorn: Skeat defines it,inter alia, as a saucy fellow, and in this sense it is the same as a young cock. Among the characteristics of Mercury—the Celtic Ogmius, or Hercules—were versatility, fascination, trickery, and cunning: sometimes he is described as “a mischievous young thief,” whence, perhaps, the old wordcog, which meant cheating, or trickery.

The names Badcock, Adcock, Pocock, Bocock, Meacock, and Maycock, as also Cook and Cox, are all familiar ones in London or Cockayne. As Prof. Weekley observes, “many explanations have been given to the suffixcock, but I cannot say that any of them have convinced me. Both Cock and Cocking are found as early personal names.”[202]In London or Cockaigne, coachmen used to swear, “By Gog and Magog,”[203]and it may prove that “ByGosh” is like the surnames Goodge and Gooch, an inflection of Gog.

Cogs are the teeth or rays upon a wheel, and that cogmeant sun or fire is implied by the wordcook,i.e., baked or fried.Cochis Welsh forred,kakkwas the Mayan for fire; in the same languagekinmeantsunandocmeant head, and among the PeruviansMama Cochawas the title of the Mother of all Mankind. Ascokeis cooked coal, one might better refer that term tocook, than, as officially at present, tocolk, the core of an apple. It is difficult to appreciate any marked resemblance between coke and the core of an apple.

The authorities connote Cockayne withcookery, and there is undoubtedly a connection, but the faerie Cockayne was more probably the Land of All Highest Ayne. The German for cock ishahn, and the cock with his jagged scarlet crest was pre-eminently the symbol of the good Shine. Chanticleer, the herald of the dawning sun, was the cognisance of Gaul, and East and West he symbolised the conqueror of darkness:—

Aurora’s harbinger—whoScatters the rear of darkness thin.

Aurora’s harbinger—who

Scatters the rear of darkness thin.

The Cockayne of London, France, Spain and Portugal was a degraded equivalent to the Irish Tir nan Og, which means the Land of the Young, and the word Cockayne is probably cognate with Yokhanan, the Hebrew form of John, meaning literally, “God is gracious”. According to Wright, “the ancient Greeks had their Cockaigne. Athenæus has preserved some passages from lost poets of the best age of Grecian literature, where the burlesque on the golden age and earthly paradise of their mythology bears so striking a resemblance to our descriptions of Cockaigne, that we might almost think, did we not know it to be impossible, that in the one case whole lines hadbeen translated from the other.”[204]The probability is, that the poems, like all ancient literature, were long orally preserved by the bards of the two peoples.

In Irish mythology, it is said of Anu, the Great Mother, that well she used to cherish the circle of the Gods; in England Ked or Kerid was “the Great Cherisher,” and her symbol as beingperpetual lovewas, with great propriety, that ideal mother, the hen. The wordhen, according to Skeat, is from the “Anglo-Saxonhana, a cock,” literally “a singer from his crowing”. But a crowinghenis notoriously a freak and an abomination.

In Lancashire there is a place called Ainsworth or Cockey: in Yorkshire there is a river Cock, and near Biggleswade is a place named Cockayne Hatley: the surname Cockayne is attributed to a village in Durham named Coken. In Northumberland is a river Cocket or Coquet, and in this district in the parish of St. John Lee is Cocklaw. Cockshott is an eminence in Cumberland and Cocks Tor—whereon are stone circles and stone rows—is a commanding height in Devon. In Worcestershire is Cokehill, and it is not improbable that Great and Little Coggeshall in Essex, as also the Oxfordshire place-name Coggo, Cogges, or Coggs, are all referable to Gog.

In Northamptonshire is a place known asCogenhoeorCooknoe, and in seemingly all directions Cook, Cock, and Gog will be found to be synonymous. The place-name Cocknage is officially interpreted as having meant “hatch, half-door, or wicket gate of the cock,” but this is not very convincing, for no cock is likely to have had sufficient prestige to name a place. The Cornish place-name Cogynos, is interpreted as “cuckoo in the moor,” but cuckoosare sylvan rather than moorland birds: the wordcuckoo, nevertheless, may imply that this bird was connected with Gog, for the Welsh for cuckoo iscog, and in Scotland the cuckoo is known as agaukorgowk. These terms, as also the Cornishguckaw, may be decayed forms of the Latincuculus, Greekkokkuz, or there are equal chances that they are more primitive. In Cornwall, on 28th April, there used to be held a so-called Cuckoo Feast.[205]

There is an English river Cocker: acockerwas a prize fighter, and it is possible that the expression, “not according to cocker,” may contain an allusion older than popularly supposed. There are rivers namedOck, both in Berks and Devon, and at Derby there is an Ockbrook: there is an Ogwell in Devon, a river Ogmore in Glamorganshire, and a river Ogwen in Carnarvon. In Wiltshire is an Ogbourne or river Og, and on the Wiltshire Avon there is a prehistoric British camp called Ogbury. This edifice may be described asgiganticfor it covers an area of 62 acres, is upwards of a mile in circuit, and has a rampart 30 to 33 feet high.[206]The number 33 occurred in connection with the original British giants, said to be 33 in number, and we shall meet with 30 or 33 frequently hereafter.Ogre(of unknown origin), meaning a giant, may be connoted with the Iberianogro, and withhaugrthe Icelandic word for hill, with which etymologers connect the adjectivehuge: the old Gaulish for a hill washogeorhogue,[207]and the probability would seem to be that Og andhugewere originally the same term. There is a huge earthwork at Uig inScotland, the walls of which, like those at Ogbury in Wiltshire, measure 30 feet in height.

The surname Hogg does not necessarily imply a swinish personality: more probably the original Hoggs were like the Haigs, followers of the Hagman, who was commemorated in Scotland during the Hogmanay festivities. In Turkeyagameanslordorchief officer, and in Greecehagiameans holy, whence the festival of Hogmanay has been assumed to be a corruption of the Greek wordshagia mene, inholy month. If this were so it would be interesting to know how these Greek terms reached Scotland, but, as a matter of fact, Hogmanay does not last a month: at the outside it was a fête of three weeks, and more particularly three nights.

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