FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[323]Cf.Thomas, J. J.,Brit. Antiquissima, p. 29.[324]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, i., 502.[325]Squire, C.,Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland, p. 52.[326]Hazlitt, W. Carew,Faiths and Folklore, ii., 338.[327]Cf.Johnson, W.,Folk Memory, p. 143.[328]Among the many Prestons I have enquired into is one with which I am conversant near Faversham. Here the Manor House is known as Perry Court; similarly there is a Perry Court at a second Preston situated a few miles distant. In the neighbourhood are Perry woods. There is a modern “Purston” at Pontefract, which figured in Domesday under the form “Prestun”.[329]Taylor, Rev. T.,Celtic Christianity of Cornwall, p. 33.[330]Courtney, Miss M. L.,Cornish Feasts and Folklore, p. 123.[331]Haslam, Wm.,Perranzabuloe.[332]Ibid., p. 60.[333]“Mr. W. Mackenzie, Procurator Fiscal of Cromarty, writes me from Dingwall (10th September, 1917), as follows: ‘We are not without some traces and traditions of phallic worship here. There is a stone in theBrahanWood which is said to be a “knocking stone”. Barren women sat in close contact upon it for the purpose of becoming fertile. It serves the purpose of the mandrake in the East. I have seen the stone. It lies in the Brahan Wood about three miles from Dingwall.’”—Frazer, Sir J. G., quoted fromFolklore, 1918, p. 219.[334]Guerber, H. A.,Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages, p. 219.[335]Guerber, H. A.,Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages, p. 221.[336]“The Brehon laws are the most archaic system of law and jurisprudence of Western Europe. This was the code of the ancient Gaels, or Keltic-speaking Irish, which existed in an unwritten form long before it was brought into harmony with Christian sentiments.... It is impossible to study these laws and the manners and customs of the early Irish, together with their land tenure, and to compare them with the laws of Manu, and with the light thrown on the Aryans of India by the Sanskrit writings without coming to the conclusion that they had a common origin.”—Macnamara, N. C.,Origin and Character of the British People, p. 94.[337]Place-names of England and Wales, p. 406.[338]Of the TeutonicTiw, Dr. Taylor observes: “This word was used as the name of the Deity by all the Aryan nations. The Sanskritdeva, the Greektheos, the Latindeus, the Lithuaniandewas, the Ersedia, and the Welshdeware all identical in meaning. The etymology of the word seems to point to the corruption of a pure monotheistic faith.” In Chaldaic and in Hebrewdimeant the Omnipotent, in Irishdemeantgoddess, and in Cornishdaortameantgood. From the elementary formde,di, orda, one traces ramifications such as the Celticdiaorduwmeaning agod. In Sanskrit Dya was the bright heavenly deity who may be equated with the TeutonicTiu, whence our Tuesday, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus, which is equivalent to the Greek Zeus. The same radicald’ is the base ofdies, and ofdieu; ofdivthe Armenian forday; ofdivthe Sanskrit forshine; ofDivathe Sanskrit forday. Our ancestors used to believe that the river Deva or Dee sprang from two sources, and that after a very short course its waters passed entire and unmixed through a large lake carrying out the same quantity of water that it brought in.The word “Dee” seems widely and almost universally to have meantgoodordivine, and it may no doubt be equated with the “Saint Day” who figures so prominently in place-names, and the Christian Calendar.[339]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, i., 1118.[340]Ancient Coins, p. 3.[341]Lardner, D.,History of Spain and Portugal, vol. i, p. 18.[342]Ibid., p. 13.[343]Ibid., p. 6.[344]Macalister, R. A. S.,Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., xxxiv., C., 10-11.[345]Mann, L. M.,Archaic Sculpturings, p. 34.[346]Wild Wales(Everyman’s Library), p. 258.[347]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, p. 523.[348]Bell’sTravels, i., 248.[349]Cf.Guest, Dr.,Origines Celticæ, i., 61.[350]Bellot, H. H. L.,The Temple, p. 12.[351]That there is nothing far-fetched in this possibility is proved by a Vedic Hymncirca2500B.C.: “Enter, O lifeless one, the mother earth, the widespread earth, soft as a maiden in her arms rest free from sin. Let now the earth gently close around you even as a mother gently wraps her infant child in soft robes. Let now the fathers keep safe thy resting-place, and let Yama, the first mortal who passed the portals of Death, prepare thee for a new abiding place.”[352]Near Land’s End isBartinny orPertinny, which is understood to have meantHill of the Fire.[353]At Bradfield is a British camp onBarley Hill. Notable earthworkabrisexist atBrayford,Boringdon Camp, “OldBarrow,”Parracombe, andPrestonbury in Devonshire: atBuriton, andBuryHill in Hampshire: atBreedon Hill,Burrough-on-the-hill, andBuryCamp in Leicestershire: atBoroughHill in Northamptonshire: atBurrowWood,BuryDitches,BuryWalls, and Caerbrein Shropshire: at Carn Brea in Cornwall: atBourton, andBuryCastle, in Somerset: atBarmoor in Warwickshire: atBarbury,BuryCamp, andBuryHill in Wiltshire: atBerrowin Worcestershire. Earthworks are also to be found onBrowdowns,Braydowns,Braywoods, andBurywoods in various directions.[354]F. M., p. 464.[355]“Camps of indubitably British date, Saxon, and Norman entrenchments, to say nothing of minor matters such as dykes and mounds and so-called amphitheatres, all are accredited to a people who very probably had nothing at all to do with many of them.”—Allcroft, A. Hadrian,Earthwork of England, p. 289.[356]The Bull’s head will have been noted on the buckler of Britannia,ante,p. 120.[357]Bohn’s Library, p. 114.[358]Stone, J. Harris,England’s Riviera.[359]Abelson, J.,Jewish Mysticism, p. 31.[360]The authorities equate the names Alberic and Avery.[361]F. M., p. 206.[362]Book xl., chap. i.[363]Friend, Rev. H.,Flowers and Folklore, ii., 474.[364]Myths of Ancient Britain, p. 18.[365]Taylor, Rev. R.,Diegesis, p. 271.[366]Wood, E. J.,Giants and Dwarfs, p. 44.[367]Johnson, W.,Folk Memory, p. 185.[368]Cf.Shandwick or Shandfortante,p. 327, also Shanid, p. 55.[369]Cox, R. Hippesley,A Guide to Avebury, p. 55.[370]Ibid.[371]Folklore, XXIX., i., p. 182.[372]Curious Myths of the Middle Ages.[373]Jupiter is said to have been suckled by a goat.[374]The Sanscrit forpalmistoddy—whence the drink of that name.[375]Proc. of Royal Irish Acad., xxxiv., C., 3, 4.[376]Book IV., 33.[377]Maundeville, in his Travels, mentions that near Hebron, “a sacerdotal city, that is a sanctuary on the Mount of Mamre, is an oak tree which the Saracens calldirpe, which is of Abraham’s time, and people called it the dry tree. They say that it has been there since the beginning of the world, and that it was once green and bore leaves, till the time that our Lord died on the cross, and then it died, and so did all the trees that were then in the world.”—Travels in the East, p. 162.[378]Gen.xxiii.[379]History, v., 2.[380]Guest, Dr.,Origines Celticæ, i., 54.[381]Barddas, p. xxx.[382]VideinscriptionChuckhurst?[383]Dawson, L. H.,A Book of the Saints, p. 221.[384]Skeat considers thatSirrahis “a contemptuous extension ofsire, perhaps by addition ofah!orha!(so Minsheu); Old Frenchsire, Provencialsira”.[385]A Book of the Beginnings.[386]“The Berbers, their language, and their books ought to be fully explored and studied. Archæology and linguistic science have lavished enthusiastic and toilsome study on subjects much less worthy of attention, for these Berbers present the remains of a great civilisation, much older than Rome or Hellas, and of one of the most important peoples of antiquity. Here are ‘ruins’ more promising, and, in certain respects, more important, than the buried ruins of Nineveh; but they have failed to get proper attention, partly because a false chronology has made it impossible to see their meaning and comprehend their importance. The Berbers represent ancient communities whose importance was beginning to decline before Rome appeared, and which were probably contemporary with ancient Chaldea and the old monarchy of Egypt.”—Baldwin, J. D.,Prehistoric Nations, p. 340.[387]Ibid., p. 342.[388]Laing, S., and Huxley, T. H.,The Prehistoric Remains of Caithness, pp. 70, 71.[389]Quoted from Higgens, G.,Celtic Druids.[390]Latham, R. G.,The Varieties of Man, p. 500.[391]“Thy prowess I allow, yet this remember is the gift of Heaven.”—Homer.[392]De Jubainville,Irish Myth. Cycle, p. 84.[393]A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age(B. M.).[394]Wright, E. M.,Rustic Speech and Folklore, p. 334.[395]Rev. Hilderic Friend. This gentleman adds: “Interesting as the study proves, we shall none of us regret that the English nation is daily becoming more and more intelligent and enlightened, and is leaving such follies to the heathen and the past” (vol. ii., 568).[396]As bracken is the plural of brake, fern was once presumably the plural ofpher.[397]See Johnson, W.,Byways in British Archæology, 375-7.[398]Since writing I find that Didron, in vol. ii. ofChristian Iconography, p. 180, illustrates a drawing of Jupiter upon which he comments, “a crown of yew leaves surrounds his head”.[399]Guest, Dr.,Origines Celticæ, i., 12.

[323]Cf.Thomas, J. J.,Brit. Antiquissima, p. 29.

[324]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, i., 502.

[325]Squire, C.,Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland, p. 52.

[326]Hazlitt, W. Carew,Faiths and Folklore, ii., 338.

[327]Cf.Johnson, W.,Folk Memory, p. 143.

[328]Among the many Prestons I have enquired into is one with which I am conversant near Faversham. Here the Manor House is known as Perry Court; similarly there is a Perry Court at a second Preston situated a few miles distant. In the neighbourhood are Perry woods. There is a modern “Purston” at Pontefract, which figured in Domesday under the form “Prestun”.

[329]Taylor, Rev. T.,Celtic Christianity of Cornwall, p. 33.

[330]Courtney, Miss M. L.,Cornish Feasts and Folklore, p. 123.

[331]Haslam, Wm.,Perranzabuloe.

[332]Ibid., p. 60.

[333]“Mr. W. Mackenzie, Procurator Fiscal of Cromarty, writes me from Dingwall (10th September, 1917), as follows: ‘We are not without some traces and traditions of phallic worship here. There is a stone in theBrahanWood which is said to be a “knocking stone”. Barren women sat in close contact upon it for the purpose of becoming fertile. It serves the purpose of the mandrake in the East. I have seen the stone. It lies in the Brahan Wood about three miles from Dingwall.’”—Frazer, Sir J. G., quoted fromFolklore, 1918, p. 219.

[334]Guerber, H. A.,Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages, p. 219.

[335]Guerber, H. A.,Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages, p. 221.

[336]“The Brehon laws are the most archaic system of law and jurisprudence of Western Europe. This was the code of the ancient Gaels, or Keltic-speaking Irish, which existed in an unwritten form long before it was brought into harmony with Christian sentiments.... It is impossible to study these laws and the manners and customs of the early Irish, together with their land tenure, and to compare them with the laws of Manu, and with the light thrown on the Aryans of India by the Sanskrit writings without coming to the conclusion that they had a common origin.”—Macnamara, N. C.,Origin and Character of the British People, p. 94.

[337]Place-names of England and Wales, p. 406.

[338]Of the TeutonicTiw, Dr. Taylor observes: “This word was used as the name of the Deity by all the Aryan nations. The Sanskritdeva, the Greektheos, the Latindeus, the Lithuaniandewas, the Ersedia, and the Welshdeware all identical in meaning. The etymology of the word seems to point to the corruption of a pure monotheistic faith.” In Chaldaic and in Hebrewdimeant the Omnipotent, in Irishdemeantgoddess, and in Cornishdaortameantgood. From the elementary formde,di, orda, one traces ramifications such as the Celticdiaorduwmeaning agod. In Sanskrit Dya was the bright heavenly deity who may be equated with the TeutonicTiu, whence our Tuesday, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus, which is equivalent to the Greek Zeus. The same radicald’ is the base ofdies, and ofdieu; ofdivthe Armenian forday; ofdivthe Sanskrit forshine; ofDivathe Sanskrit forday. Our ancestors used to believe that the river Deva or Dee sprang from two sources, and that after a very short course its waters passed entire and unmixed through a large lake carrying out the same quantity of water that it brought in.The word “Dee” seems widely and almost universally to have meantgoodordivine, and it may no doubt be equated with the “Saint Day” who figures so prominently in place-names, and the Christian Calendar.

The word “Dee” seems widely and almost universally to have meantgoodordivine, and it may no doubt be equated with the “Saint Day” who figures so prominently in place-names, and the Christian Calendar.

[339]Hone, W.,Everyday Book, i., 1118.

[340]Ancient Coins, p. 3.

[341]Lardner, D.,History of Spain and Portugal, vol. i, p. 18.

[342]Ibid., p. 13.

[343]Ibid., p. 6.

[344]Macalister, R. A. S.,Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., xxxiv., C., 10-11.

[345]Mann, L. M.,Archaic Sculpturings, p. 34.

[346]Wild Wales(Everyman’s Library), p. 258.

[347]Keightley,Fairy Mythology, p. 523.

[348]Bell’sTravels, i., 248.

[349]Cf.Guest, Dr.,Origines Celticæ, i., 61.

[350]Bellot, H. H. L.,The Temple, p. 12.

[351]That there is nothing far-fetched in this possibility is proved by a Vedic Hymncirca2500B.C.: “Enter, O lifeless one, the mother earth, the widespread earth, soft as a maiden in her arms rest free from sin. Let now the earth gently close around you even as a mother gently wraps her infant child in soft robes. Let now the fathers keep safe thy resting-place, and let Yama, the first mortal who passed the portals of Death, prepare thee for a new abiding place.”

[352]Near Land’s End isBartinny orPertinny, which is understood to have meantHill of the Fire.

[353]At Bradfield is a British camp onBarley Hill. Notable earthworkabrisexist atBrayford,Boringdon Camp, “OldBarrow,”Parracombe, andPrestonbury in Devonshire: atBuriton, andBuryHill in Hampshire: atBreedon Hill,Burrough-on-the-hill, andBuryCamp in Leicestershire: atBoroughHill in Northamptonshire: atBurrowWood,BuryDitches,BuryWalls, and Caerbrein Shropshire: at Carn Brea in Cornwall: atBourton, andBuryCastle, in Somerset: atBarmoor in Warwickshire: atBarbury,BuryCamp, andBuryHill in Wiltshire: atBerrowin Worcestershire. Earthworks are also to be found onBrowdowns,Braydowns,Braywoods, andBurywoods in various directions.

[354]F. M., p. 464.

[355]“Camps of indubitably British date, Saxon, and Norman entrenchments, to say nothing of minor matters such as dykes and mounds and so-called amphitheatres, all are accredited to a people who very probably had nothing at all to do with many of them.”—Allcroft, A. Hadrian,Earthwork of England, p. 289.

[356]The Bull’s head will have been noted on the buckler of Britannia,ante,p. 120.

[357]Bohn’s Library, p. 114.

[358]Stone, J. Harris,England’s Riviera.

[359]Abelson, J.,Jewish Mysticism, p. 31.

[360]The authorities equate the names Alberic and Avery.

[361]F. M., p. 206.

[362]Book xl., chap. i.

[363]Friend, Rev. H.,Flowers and Folklore, ii., 474.

[364]Myths of Ancient Britain, p. 18.

[365]Taylor, Rev. R.,Diegesis, p. 271.

[366]Wood, E. J.,Giants and Dwarfs, p. 44.

[367]Johnson, W.,Folk Memory, p. 185.

[368]Cf.Shandwick or Shandfortante,p. 327, also Shanid, p. 55.

[369]Cox, R. Hippesley,A Guide to Avebury, p. 55.

[370]Ibid.

[371]Folklore, XXIX., i., p. 182.

[372]Curious Myths of the Middle Ages.

[373]Jupiter is said to have been suckled by a goat.

[374]The Sanscrit forpalmistoddy—whence the drink of that name.

[375]Proc. of Royal Irish Acad., xxxiv., C., 3, 4.

[376]Book IV., 33.

[377]Maundeville, in his Travels, mentions that near Hebron, “a sacerdotal city, that is a sanctuary on the Mount of Mamre, is an oak tree which the Saracens calldirpe, which is of Abraham’s time, and people called it the dry tree. They say that it has been there since the beginning of the world, and that it was once green and bore leaves, till the time that our Lord died on the cross, and then it died, and so did all the trees that were then in the world.”—Travels in the East, p. 162.

[378]Gen.xxiii.

[379]History, v., 2.

[380]Guest, Dr.,Origines Celticæ, i., 54.

[381]Barddas, p. xxx.

[382]VideinscriptionChuckhurst?

[383]Dawson, L. H.,A Book of the Saints, p. 221.

[384]Skeat considers thatSirrahis “a contemptuous extension ofsire, perhaps by addition ofah!orha!(so Minsheu); Old Frenchsire, Provencialsira”.

[385]A Book of the Beginnings.

[386]“The Berbers, their language, and their books ought to be fully explored and studied. Archæology and linguistic science have lavished enthusiastic and toilsome study on subjects much less worthy of attention, for these Berbers present the remains of a great civilisation, much older than Rome or Hellas, and of one of the most important peoples of antiquity. Here are ‘ruins’ more promising, and, in certain respects, more important, than the buried ruins of Nineveh; but they have failed to get proper attention, partly because a false chronology has made it impossible to see their meaning and comprehend their importance. The Berbers represent ancient communities whose importance was beginning to decline before Rome appeared, and which were probably contemporary with ancient Chaldea and the old monarchy of Egypt.”—Baldwin, J. D.,Prehistoric Nations, p. 340.

[387]Ibid., p. 342.

[388]Laing, S., and Huxley, T. H.,The Prehistoric Remains of Caithness, pp. 70, 71.

[389]Quoted from Higgens, G.,Celtic Druids.

[390]Latham, R. G.,The Varieties of Man, p. 500.

[391]“Thy prowess I allow, yet this remember is the gift of Heaven.”—Homer.

[392]De Jubainville,Irish Myth. Cycle, p. 84.

[393]A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age(B. M.).

[394]Wright, E. M.,Rustic Speech and Folklore, p. 334.

[395]Rev. Hilderic Friend. This gentleman adds: “Interesting as the study proves, we shall none of us regret that the English nation is daily becoming more and more intelligent and enlightened, and is leaving such follies to the heathen and the past” (vol. ii., 568).

[396]As bracken is the plural of brake, fern was once presumably the plural ofpher.

[397]See Johnson, W.,Byways in British Archæology, 375-7.

[398]Since writing I find that Didron, in vol. ii. ofChristian Iconography, p. 180, illustrates a drawing of Jupiter upon which he comments, “a crown of yew leaves surrounds his head”.

[399]Guest, Dr.,Origines Celticæ, i., 12.

“Where one might look to find a legitimate national pride in the monuments of our forefathers there seems to be a perverse conspiracy to give the credit to anyone rather than to the Briton, and preferably to the Roman interloper. If any evidence at all be asked for, the chance finding of a coin or two, or of a handful of shivered pottery, is deemed enough. Such evidence is emphatically not enough.”—A. Hadrian Allcroft.

The owld White Harse wants zettin to rights,And the Squire hev promised good cheer,Zo we’ll gee un a scrape to kip un in zhape,And a’ll last for many a year.—Berkshire Ballad.

The owld White Harse wants zettin to rights,

And the Squire hev promised good cheer,

Zo we’ll gee un a scrape to kip un in zhape,

And a’ll last for many a year.

—Berkshire Ballad.

According to Gaelic mythology Brigit was the daughter of the supreme head of the Irish gods of Day, Life, and Light—whose name Dagda Mor, the authorities translate intoGreat Good Fire. Some accounts state there were three Brigits, but these three, like the three Gweneveres or Ginevras who were sometimes assigned to King Arthur, are evidently three aspects of the one and only Queen Vera, Queen Ever, or Queen Fair. Brigit’s husband was the celebrated Bress, after whom we are told every fair and beautiful thing in Ireland was entitled a “bress”.

Brigit and Bress were the parents of three gods entitled Brian, Iuchar, and Uar, and it looks as though these three were equivalent to the Persian trinity of Good Thought, Good Deed, and Good Word. The termwordis derivedby Skeat from a rootwer, meaning to speak, whenceUarwas seeminglywerdeorGood Word.Brian, I have already connoted withbrain, whence Good Brian was probably equivalent to Good Thought, and Iuchar, the third of Bride’s brats, looks curiously likeeu cœur,eu cor, oreu cardia,i.e., soft, gentle, pleasing, and propitiousheart, otherwise Kind Action or Good Deed.

Figs.224 to 231.—British. From Evans.

These three mythic sons constitute the gods of Irish Literature and Art, and are said to have had in common an only son entitled Ecne,[400]whose name, according to De Jubainville, meant “knowledge or poetry”.[401]The legendCunowhich appears so frequently in British coins in connection with Pegasus—the steed of the Muses—or the Hackney, varies intoEcen,videthe examples herewith, and the palm branch or fern leaf constituting the mane points to the probability that the animal portrayed corresponds to “Splendid Mane,” the magic steed of three-legged Mona.

Mona was a headquarters of the British Druids by whom white horses were ceremoniously maintained. Speaking of the peculiar credulity of the German tribes Tacitus observes: “For this purpose a number of milk-white steeds unprophaned by mortal labour are constantly maintained at the public expense and placed to pasture in the religious groves. When occasion requires they are harnessed to a sacred chariot and the priest, accompanied by the king or chief of the state, attends to watch the motions and the neighing of the horses. No other mode of augury is received with such implicit faith by the people, the nobility, and the priesthood. The horses upon these solemn occasions are supposed to be the organs of the gods.”[402]

The horse is said to be exceptionally intelligent,[403]whence presumably why it was elevated into an emblem of Knowing, Kenning, Cunning, and ultimately of the Gnosis.That the Gnostics so regarded it is sufficiently evident apart from the collection of symbolic horses dealt with elsewhere.[404]

The old French forhackneywashaquenee, the old Spanish washacanea, the Italian ischinea, a contracted form ofacchinea: jennet or Little Joan is connected with the Spanishginetewhich has been connoted withZenata, the name of a tribe of Barbary celebrated for its cavalry.

Fig.232.Fig.233.—FromThe Cross: Heathen and Christian(Brock, M.).

Fig.232.

Fig.233.—FromThe Cross: Heathen and Christian(Brock, M.).

That Jeanette was worshipped in Italysub rosa, would appear from the emblem here illustrated, which is taken from the title page of a work published in 1601.[405]The Hackney, the New-moon (Kenna?) and the Staff or Branch are emblems, which, as already seen, occur persistently on British coins, and the legendPhilos ippon in dies crescitreading: “Love of the Horse; in time it will increase,”obviously applied to some philosophy, and not a material taste for stud farms and the turf.

In 1857, during some excavations in Rome in the palace of the Cæsars on the Palatine Hill, an inscription which is described as a “curious scratch on the wall” was brought to light. This so-calledgraffito blasfemohas been held to be a vile caricature of the crucifixion, some authorities supposing the head to be that of a wild ass, others that of a jackal: beneath is an ill-spelt legend in Greek characters to the effect: “Alexamenos worships his god,” and on the right is a meanly attired figure seemingly engaged in worship.[406]

I am unable to recognise either a jackal or a wild ass in the figure in dispute, which seems in greater likelihood to represent a not ill-executed horse’s head. Nor seemingly is the creature crucified, but on the contrary it is supporting the letter “T,” or Tau, an emblem which was so peculiarly sacred among the Druids that they even topped and trained their sacred oak until it had acquired this holy form.[407]The Tau was the sign mentioned by Ezekiel as being branded upon the foreheads of the Elect, and this “curious scratch” of poor Alexamenos attributed to thevery early part of the third century was not, in my humble opinion, the work of some illiterate slave or soldier attached to the palace of the Cæsars, ridiculing the religion of a companion, but more probably the pious work of a Gnostic lover of philosophy: that the Roman church was honeycombed with Gnostic heresies is well known.

The wordphilosophyisphilo sophyor the love of wisdom, butsophi, or wisdom, is radicallyophi, oropi,i.e., the Phœnicianhipha, Greekhippa, a mare: the name Philip is always understood asphil ipor “love of the horse,” and thehobbyhorse of British festivals was almost certainly thehippaor thehippo.

Fig.234.—Macedonian. FromEnglish Coins and Tokens(Jewitt & Head).

Of the 486 varieties of British coins illustrated by Sir John Evans no less than 360 represent a horse in one form or another, whence it is obvious that the hobby horse was once a national emblem of the highest import. In the opinion of this foremost authority all Gaulish and all British coins are contemptible copies of a wondrous Macedonian stater, which circulated at Marseilles, whence the design permeated Gaul and Britain in the form of rude and clownish imitations: this supposed model, the very mark and acme of all other craftsmen, is here illustrated, and the reader can form his own opinion upon its artistic merits. “It appears to me,” says Sir John Evans, “that in most cases the adjuncts found upon the numerous degraded imitations of this type are merely the result of the engraver’s laziness or incompetence, where they are not attributable to his ignorance of what the objects he wascopying were originally designed to represent. And although I am willing to recognise a mythological and national element in this adaptation of the Macedonian stater which forms the prototype of the greater part of the ancient British series, it is but rarely that this element can be traced with certainty upon its numerous subsequent modifications.”[408]

The supposed modifications attributed to the laziness or incompetence of British craftsmen are, however, so astonishing and so ably executed that I am convinced the present theory of feeble imitation is ill-founded. The horses of Philippus are comparatively stiff and wooden by the side of the work of Celtic craftsmen who,when that was their intention, animated their creations with amazing verve andelan. Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt, who regards our early coins as “deplorable abortions,” laments that one remarkable feature in the whole group of numismatic monuments of British and Celtic extraction is the spirit of servile imitation which it breathes, as well as the absence of that religious sentiment which confers a character on the Greek and Roman coinages.[409]How this writer defines religious sentiment I am unaware, but in any case it is difficult to square his assertion with Akerman’s reference to “the great variety of crosses and other totally uninteresting objects” found on thepost-Roman coinage.[410]

We have already noted certain exquisitely modelled coins of Gaul and there are many more yet to be considered. Dr. Jewitt concedes that the imitations were not always servile “having occasionally additional features as drapery, a torque round the neck, a bandlet or what not,” but thiswriter obsequiously follows Sir John Evans in the opinion that the stater of Philip was “seized on by the barbarians who came in contact with Greek civilisation as an object of imitation. In Gaul this was especially the case, and the whole of the gold coinage of that country may be said to consist of imitations more or less rude and degenerate of the Macedonian Philippus.”[411]

Fig.235.—Cambre Castle, from Redruth. FromExcursions in the County of Cornwall(Stockdale, F. W. L.).

In 1769 a hoard of 371 gold British coins was discovered on the Cornish hill known as Carn Bre, near Cambourne, in view of which (and many other archæological finds) Borlase entertained the notion that Carn Bre was a prehistoric sanctuary. This conclusion is seemingly supported by the near neighbourhood of the town Redruthwhich is believed to have meant—rhe druth, or “the swift-flowing stream of the Druids”. It is generally supposed that primitive coins were struck by priests within their sacred precincts,[412]and the extraordinary large collection found upon Carn Bre seems a strong implication that at some period coins were there minted. We find seemingly the Bre of Carn Bre, doubtless the Gaulishabrior sanctuary, recurrent in Ireland, where at Bri Leith it was believed that Angus Mac Oge, the ever-young and lovely son of Dagda Mor, had hisbrughorbri, which meantfairy palace. The Cornish Cambourne, which the authorities suppose to have beenCam bron, and to have meantcrooked hill, was more probably like Carn Bre the seat orabriof King Auberon, “Saint” Bron, or King Aubrey.

Fig.236.—Iberian. From Akerman.Fig.237.—British. From Evans.

Fig.236.—Iberian. From Akerman.

Fig.237.—British. From Evans.

Fig.238.—FromAncient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism(Inman, I.).Fig.239.—Greek. From Barthelemy.

Fig.238.—FromAncient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism(Inman, I.).

Fig.239.—Greek. From Barthelemy.

The generic termcoinis imagined to be derived fromcuneum, the Latin accusative ofcuneus, a wedge, “perhaps,” adds Skeat, “allied to cone”. It is, however, almost an invariable rule to designate coins by the design found upon their face, whence “angel,” “florin,” “rose,” “crown,” “kreuzer” (cross), and so forth. The British penny is supposed to have derived its title from the head—Celticpen—stamped upon it:[413]the Italianducatwas so denominated because it bore the image of aduke, whosecoins were officially known asducati, or “coins of the duchy”; and as not only the legendcuin,cuno, etc., appears upon early coinage, but also an image of an angel which we have endeavoured to show was regarded as theCunorQueen, it seems likely that the wordcoin(Gaeliccuinn) is as old as theCuinlegend, and may have had no immediate relation either withcunneusorcone. Nevertheless, the Queen of Heaven was occasionally depicted on coins in the form of acone, as on the token here illustrated: on the coins of Cyprus Venus was represented under the symbolism of a cone-shaped stone.[414]The ancient minters not only customarily portrayed the features of theirpherepolisor Fairy of the City, but they occasionally rendered her identity fool-proof by inscribing her name at full length as in theArethusacoin here illustrated: some of our seventh-century money bears the legendLux—an allusion to the Light of the World; in the East coins were practically religious manifestos and bore inscriptions such asGod is one;God is the Eternal;There is no God but God Alone;May the Most High Perpetuate His Kingdom; and among the coins of Byzantium is an impression of the Virgin bearing the legendO Lady do thou keep in safety.[415]

The early coinage ofGenoarepresented a gate orjanua; the Roman coin of Janus was known as theAs, an implication that Janus, the first and most venerable of the Roman pantheon, was radicallygenusor King As: in the same way it is customary among us to speak colloquially of “George,” or more ceremoniously of “King George,” and in all probability the full and formal title of the RomanAswas the Janus. On these coins there figured theprowor forefront of a ship, and the sameprowwill be noticed on the tokens of Britannia (ante,p. 120). It is remarkable that even 500 years after the coins of Janus had been out of circulation the youth of Rome used to toss money to the exclamation “Heads or Ships”—a very early instance of thepari mutuel!

In connection with archaic coins it is curious that one cannot get away from John or Ion. The first people to strike coins are believed to have been either the Ionians or the Lydians, both of whom inhabited the locality of ancient Troy:[416]as early as the middle of the seventh centuryB.C., the Ægean island of Ægina, then a great centre of commerce, minted money, but the annalists of China go far further in their claim that as far back as 1091B.C., a coinage was instituted byCheng, the secondKing of Chou.[417]The generic termtokenis radicallyKen,shekelis seemingly allied to Sheik, the Moorish or Berberian for a chief, and withdaric, the Persian coin, one may connote not only Touriack but ultimately Troy or Droia. Ourguineawas so named after gold from Guinea; Guinea presumably was under Touriack or Berber influences, and we shall consider in a subsequent chapter Ogane, a mighty potentate of northern Africa whose toe, like that of Janus, the visitor most reverently kissed.

Figs.240 and 241.—Archaic Carvings.

Figs.242 and 243.—Archaic Carvings.

The Hackney of our early coinage thus not only appears pre-eminently upon it, but the very termscoin,token,chink, andjingle,[418]are permeated with the same root,i.e., Ecna, Ægina, or Jeanne.

That the worship of the Hackney stretches backward into the remotest depths of antiquity is implied by the carvings of prehistoric horse-heads found notably in thetrousor cave shelters of Derbyshire and Dordogne. The discoveries at Torquay in Kent’s Cavern, in Kent’s Copse, (or Kent’s Hole as it is named in ancient maps), included bone, or horn pins, awls, barbed harpoons, and a neatly formed needleprecisely similarto analogous objects found in the rock shelters of Dordogne.[419]Many representations of horses and horse-heads have been found among thecoloured inscriptions at Font de Gaune—the Fount ofGaune, and likewise atCombarelles: the Combar is here seemingly King Bar, and Bruniquel, another famous site of horse remains, is in all probability connected with thebroncho. Perigord, the site of ancient Petrocorii, is radicallyperi, and Petrocorii, the Father or Rock Heart, may be connoted with Iuchar, the brother of Bryan and the father of Ecna, orphilosophy.

In England horse-teeth in association with a flint celt have been found at Wiggonholt in Sussex: the termholtis applied in Cornwall to Pictish souterrains, and it is probable that Wiggonholt was once a holt or hole ofeuIgon: Ægeon was an alternative title of Briareus of the Hundred Hands, and as already shown Briareus was localised by Greek writers upon a British islet (ante,p. 82).

The white horse constituted the arms of Brunswick or Burn’s Wick; horses were carved upon the ancient font atBurnsall in Yorkshire, and that thebronchowas esteemed in Britain by the flint knappers is implied by the etching of a horse’s head found upon a polished horse rib in a cave atCresswell Crags in Derbyshire.Ceresor Demeter was represented as a mare,cresis the root ofcresco—I grow, and among the white horses carved upon the chalk downs of England, one at Bratton was marked by an exaggerated “crescentic tail”. Bratton, or Bra-ton? Hill, whereon this curious brute was carved, may be connoted with Bradon, and Bratton may also be compared withprad, a word which in horsey circles means a horse, whenceprad cove, a dealer in horses: with the white horse at Bratton may be connoted the horse carved upon the downs atPreston near Weymouth. For a mass of miscellaneous and interesting horse-lore the curious reader may refer toMr. Walter Johnson’sByways in British Archæology: the opinion of this painstaking and reliable writer is that the famed white horse of Bratton, like its fellow at Uffington, although usually believed to commemorate victories over the Danes are more probably to be referred to the Late Bronze, or Early Iron Age.

It has already been noted that artificially white horses were inscribed at times on Scotch hills, but these earth-monuments are unrecorded either in Ireland or on the Continent. On the higher part of Dartmoor there is a bare patch on the granite plateau in form resembling a horse, but whether the clearing is artificial is uncertain: the probabilities are, however, in favour of design for the site is known as White Horse Hill.[420]

The White Horse of Berkshire—the shire of the horse, Al Borak, or thebrok?—is situated at Uffington, a name which the authorities decode into town or village of Uffa: I do not think this imaginary “Uffa” was primarily a Saxon settler, and it is more probable that Uffa washipha, the Tyrian title of the Great Mother whose name also meantmare, whence the Hellenichippa. The authorities would like to read Avebury, a form of Abury or Avereberie, asburg of Aeffa, but near Avebury there is a white horse cut upon the slope of a down, and the adjacent place-name Uffcot suggests that here also was anhipha-cot, or cromlech. The ride of Lady Godiva nude upon a white horse was, as we shall see later, probably the survival of an ancient festival representative ofGood Hipha, the St. Ive, or St. Eve, who figures here and there in Britain, otherwise Eve, the Mother of All Living.

There used to be traces at Stonehenge of a currus orhorse-course, and all the evidence is strongly in favour of the supposition that the horse has been with us in these islands for an exceedingly long time.

When defending their shores against the Roman invaders the British cavalry drove their horses into the sea attacking their enemies while in the water, and one of the facts most impressive to Cæsar was the skill with which our ancestors handled their steeds. Speaking of the British charioteers he says: “First they advance through all parts of their Army, and throw their javelins, and having wound themselves in among the troops of horse, they alight and fight on foot; the charioteers retiring a little with their chariots, but posting themselves in such a manner, that if they see their masters pressed, they may be able to bring them off; by this means the Britons have the agility of horse, and the firmness of foot, and by daily exercise have attained to such skill and management, that in a declivity they can govern the horses, though at full speed, check and turn them short about, run forward upon the pole, stand firm upon the yoke, and then withdraw themselves nimbly into their chariots.”[421]

According to Mr. and Mrs. Hawes, two-wheeled chariots are delineated on Gnossian seals, among which is found a four-wheeled chariot having the front wheels armed with spikes:[422]the Britons are traditionally supposed to have attached scythes to their wheels, and Homer’s description of a chariot fight might well have expressed the sensations of the British Jehu:—

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