{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_34853/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_34853","id":"gutenberg_34853","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34853","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Celts -- Folklore","Celts -- Religion","Fairies","Mythology, Celtic","Paganism"],"text":"</pre>\n\n\n\nProduced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: _From Photograph by the Author_\n\n  THE MYSTIC CENTRE OF THE CELTIC WORLD\n  CARNAC IN A. D. 1909\n  LOOKING TOWARD THE SUNRISE, FROM WITHIN THE CROMLECH,\n    _LES ALIGNEMENTS DU M\u00c9NEC_]\n\n\n\n\n  THE FAIRY-FAITH IN\n  CELTIC COUNTRIES\n\n\n  BY W. Y. EVANS WENTZ\n\n  M.A. STANFORD UNIVERSITY CALIFORNIA U.S.A.\n  DOCTEUR-\u00c8S-LETTRES UNIVERSITY OF RENNES BRITTANY\n  B.SC. JESUS COLLEGE OXON.\n\n\n  HENRY FROWDE\n  OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS\n  LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE\n  1911\n\n\n\n\n  OXFORD: HORACE HART\n  PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY\n\n\n\n\n  THIS BOOK DEPENDS CHIEFLY UPON THE ORAL AND WRITTEN TESTIMONY\n  SO FREELY CONTRIBUTED BY ITS MANY CELTIC AUTHORS,--\n  THE PEASANT AND THE SCHOLAR, THE PRIEST AND THE SCIENTIST,\n  THE POET AND THE BUSINESS MAN, THE SEER AND THE NON-SEER,--\n  AND IN HONOUR OF THEM I DEDICATE IT TO\n  TWO OF THEIR BRETHREN IN IRELAND:\n\n  A. E.,\n  WHOSE UNWAVERING LOYALTY TO THE FAIRY-FAITH\n  HAS INSPIRED MUCH THAT I HAVE HEREIN WRITTEN,\n  WHOSE FRIENDLY GUIDANCE IN MY STUDY OF IRISH MYSTICISM\n  I MOST GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE;\n\n  AND\n\n  WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS,\n  WHO BROUGHT TO ME AT MY OWN ALMA MATER IN CALIFORNIA\n  THE FIRST MESSAGE FROM FAIRYLAND,\n  AND WHO AFTERWARDS IN HIS OWN COUNTRY\n  LED ME THROUGH THE HAUNTS OF FAIRY KINGS AND QUEENS.\n\n  OXFORD\n    _November_ 1911.\n\n\n\n\n'It remains for ever true that the proper study of mankind is man; and\neven early man is not beneath contempt, especially when he proves to\nhave had within him the makings of a great race, with its highest\nnotions of duty and right, and all else that is noblest in the human\nsoul.'\n\nThe Right Hon. SIR JOHN RHYS.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                                 PAGES\n\n  PREFACE                                                      xi-xiii\n\n  INTRODUCTION                                               xv-xxviii\n\n\n  SECTION I\n\n  THE LIVING FAIRY-FAITH\n\n  CHAPTER I\n\n  ENVIRONMENT                                                     1-16\n\n  Psychical Interpretation--The Mysticism of Erin and\n  Armorica--In Ireland--In Scotland--In the Isle of Man--In\n  Wales--In Cornwall--In Brittany.\n\n  CHAPTER II\n\n  THE TAKING OF EVIDENCE                                        17-225\n\n  Method of Presentation--The Logical Verdict--Trustworthiness\n  of Legends--The Fairy-Faith held by the highly educated Celt\n  as well as by the Celtic Peasant--The Evidence is complete\n  and adequate--Its Analysis--The Fairy Tribes dealt with--\n  Witnesses and their Testimony: from Ireland, with\n  Introduction by Dr. Douglas Hyde; from Scotland, with\n  Introduction by Dr. Alexander Carmichael; from the Isle of\n  Man, with Introduction by Miss Sophia Morrison; from Wales,\n  with Introduction by the Right Hon. Sir John Rhys; from\n  Cornwall, with Introduction by Mr. Henry Jenner; and from\n  Brittany, with Introduction by Professor Anatole Le Braz.\n\n  CHAPTER III\n\n  AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE EVIDENCE                226-82\n\n  The Celtic Fairy-Faith as Part of a World-wide Animism--\n  Shaping Influence of Social Psychology--Smallness of Elvish\n  Spirits and Fairies, according to Ethnology, Animism, and\n  Occult Sciences--The Changeling, Belief and its Explanation\n  according to the Kidnap, Human-Sacrifice, Soul-Wandering,\n  and Demon-Possession Theory--Ancient and Modern Magic and\n  Witchcraft shown to be based on definite psychological\n  laws--Exorcisms--Taboos, of Name, Food, Iron, Place--Taboos\n  among Ancient Celts--Food-Sacrifice--Legend of the Dead--\n  Conclusion: the Background of the Modern Belief in Fairies\n  is Animistic.\n\n\n  SECTION II\n\n  THE RECORDED FAIRY-FAITH\n\n  CHAPTER IV\n\n  THE PEOPLE OF THE GODDESS DANA OR THE _SIDHE_                283-307\n\n  The Goddess Dana and the Modern Cult of St. Brigit--The\n  Tuatha De Danann or _Sidhe_ conquered by the Sons of Mil--\n  But Irish Seers still see the _Sidhe_--Old Irish Manuscripts\n  faithfully represent the Tuatha De Danann--The _Sidhe_ as a\n  Spirit Race--_Sidhe_ Palaces--The 'Taking' of Mortals--Hill\n  Visions of _Sidhe_ Women--_Sidhe_ Minstrels and Musicians--\n  Social Organization and Warfare among the _Sidhe_--The\n  _Sidhe_ War-Goddesses, the _Badb_--The _Sidhe_ at the Battle\n  of Clontarf, A. D. 1014--Conclusion.\n\n  CHAPTER V\n\n  BRYTHONIC DIVINITIES AND THE BRYTHONIC FAIRY-FAITH            308-31\n\n  The God Arthur and the Hero Arthur--Sevenfold Evidence to\n  show Arthur as an Incarnate Fairy King--Lancelot the\n  Foster-son of a Fairy Woman--Galahad, the Offspring of\n  Lancelot and the Fairy Woman Elayne--Arthur as a Fairy King\n  in _Kulhwch and Olwen_--Gwynn ab Nudd--Arthur like Dagda,\n  and like Osiris--Brythonic Fairy Romances: their Evolution\n  and Antiquity--Arthur in Nennius, Geoffrey, Wace, and in\n  Layamon--Cambrensis' Otherworld Tale--Norman-French writers\n  of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries--_Romans d'Aventure_\n  and _Romans Bretons_--Origins of the 'Matter of Britain'--\n  Fairy Romance Episodes in Welsh Literature--Brythonic\n  Origins.\n\n  CHAPTER VI\n\n  THE CELTIC OTHERWORLD                                         332-57\n\n  General Ideas of the Otherworld; its Location; its\n  Subjectivity; its Names; its Extent; Tethra one of its\n  kings--The Silver Branch and the Golden Bough; and\n  Initiations--The Otherworld the Heaven-World of all\n  Religions--Voyage of Bran--Cormac in the Land of Promise--\n  Magic Wands--Cuchulainn's Sick-Bed--Ossian's Return from\n  Fairyland--Lanval's going to Avalon--Voyage of Mael-Duin--\n  Voyage of Teigue--Adventures of Art--Cuchulainn's and\n  Arthur's Otherworld Quests--Literary Evolution of idea of\n  Happy Otherworld.\n\n  CHAPTER VII\n\n  THE CELTIC DOCTRINE OF RE-BIRTH                               358-96\n\n  Re-birth and Otherworld--As a Christian Doctrine--General\n  Historical Survey--According to the Barddas MSS.; according\n  to Ancient and Modern Authorities--Re-incarnation of the\n  Tuatha De Danann--King Mongan's Re-birth--Etain's Birth--\n  Dermot's Pre-existence--Tuan's Re-birth--Re-birth among\n  Brythons--Arthur as a Re-incarnate Hero--Non-Celtic\n  Parallels--Re-birth among Modern Celts: in Ireland; in\n  Scotland; in the Isle of Man; in Wales; in Cornwall; in\n  Brittany--Origin and Evolution of Celtic Re-birth Doctrine.\n\n\n  SECTION III\n\n  THE CULT OF GODS, SPIRITS, FAIRIES, AND THE DEAD\n\n  CHAPTER VIII\n\n  THE TESTIMONY OF ARCHAEOLOGY                                 397-426\n\n  Inadequacy of Pygmy Theory--According to the Theories\n  concerning Divine Images and Fetishes, Gods, Daemons, and\n  Ancestral Spirits haunt Megaliths--Megaliths are religious\n  and funereal, as shown chiefly by _Cenn Cruaich_,\n  Stonehenge, Guernsey menhirs, Monuments in Brittany, by the\n  Circular Fairy-Dance as an Ancient Initiatory Sun-Dance, by\n  Breton Earthworks, Archaeological Excavations generally, and\n  by present-day Worship at Indian Dolmens--New Grange and\n  Celtic Mysteries: Evidence of manuscripts; Evidence of\n  Tradition--The Aengus Cult--New Grange compared with Great\n  Pyramid: both have Astronomical Arrangement and same\n  Internal Plan--Why they open to the Sunrise--Initiations in\n  both--Great Pyramid as Model for Celtic Tumuli--Gavrinis and\n  New Grange as Spirit Temples.\n\n  CHAPTER IX\n\n  THE TESTIMONY OF PAGANISM                                     427-41\n\n  Edicts against Pagan Cults--Cult of Sacred Waters and its\n  Absorption by Christianity--Celtic Water Divinities--Druidic\n  Influence on Fairy-Faith--Cult of Sacred Trees--Cult of\n  Fairies, Spirits, and the Dead--Feasts of the Dead--\n  Conclusion.\n\n  CHAPTER X\n\n  THE TESTIMONY OF CHRISTIANITY                                 442-55\n\n  Lough Derg a Sacred Lake originally--Purgatorial Rites as\n  Christianized Survivals of Ancient Celtic Rites--Purgatory\n  as Fairyland--Purgatorial Rites parallel to Pagan Initiation\n  Ceremonies--The Death and Resurrection Rite--Breton Pardons\n  compared--Relation to Aengus Cult and Celtic Cave-Temples--\n  Origin of Purgatorial Doctrine pre-Christian--Celtic and\n  Roman Feasts of dead shaped Christian ones--Fundamental\n  Unity of Mythologies, Religions, and the Fairy-Faith.\n\n\n  SECTION IV\n\n  MODERN SCIENCE AND THE FAIRY-FAITH; AND CONCLUSIONS\n\n  CHAPTER XI\n\n  SCIENCE AND FAIRIES                                           456-91\n\n  Method of Examination: Exoteric and Esoteric aspects--The\n  X-quantity--Scientific attitudes toward the Animistic\n  Hypothesis: Materialistic Theory; Pathological Theory;\n  Delusion and Imposture Theory; Problems of Consciousness:\n  Dreams; Supernormal Lapse of Time--Psychical Research and\n  Fairies: Myers's researches--Present Position of Psychical\n  Research--Psychical Research and Anthropology in Relation to\n  the Fairy-Faith, according to a special contribution from\n  Mr. Andrew Lang--Final Testing of the X-quantity--Conclusion:\n  the Celtic Belief in Fairies and in Fairyland is scientific.\n\n  CHAPTER XII\n\n  THE CELTIC DOCTRINE OF RE-BIRTH AND OTHERWORLD\n  SCIENTIFICALLY EXAMINED                                      492-515\n\n  The Extension of the Terms Fairy and Fairyland--The Real\n  Man as an Invisible Force acting through a Body-Conductor--\n  A Psychical Organ essential for Memory--Pre-existence a\n  Scientific Necessity--The Vitalistic View of Evolution--Old\n  Theory of Heredity disproved--Embryology supports Re-birth\n  Doctrine--Psycho-physical Evolution--Memory of previous\n  Existences in Subconsciousness--Examples--Dream Psychology\n  furnishes clearest Illustrations--No Post-existence without\n  Pre-existence--Resurrection as Re-birth--The Circle of\n  Life--The Mystical Corollary--Conclusion: the Celtic\n  Doctrine of Re-birth and Otherworld is essentially\n  scientific.\n\n\n  INDEX                                                         516-24\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nDuring the years 1907-9 this study first took shape, being then based\nmainly on literary sources; and during the latter year it was\nsuccessfully presented to the Faculty of Letters of the University of\nRennes, Brittany, for the Degree of _Docteur-\u00e8s-Lettres_. Since then I\nhave re-investigated the whole problem of the Celtic belief in Fairies,\nand have collected very much fresh material. Two years ago the scope of\nmy original research was limited to the four chief Celtic countries, but\nnow it includes all of the Celtic countries.\n\nIn the present study, which has profited greatly by criticisms of the\nfirst passed by scholars in Britain and in France, the original literary\npoint of view is combined with the broader point of view of\nanthropology. This study, the final and more comprehensive form of my\nviews about the 'Fairy-Faith', would never have been possible had I not\nenjoyed during many months the kindly advice and constant encouragement\nof Mr. R. R. Marett, Reader in Social Anthropology in the University of\nOxford, and Fellow of Exeter College.\n\nDuring May 1910 the substance of this essay in its pan-Celtic form was\nsubmitted to the Board of the Faculty of Natural Science of Oxford\nUniversity for the Research Degree of Bachelor of Science, which was\nduly granted. But the present work contains considerable material not\ncontained in the essay presented to the Oxford examiners, the Right Hon.\nSir John Rhys and Mr. Andrew Lang; and, therefore, I alone assume\nentire responsibility for all its possible shortcomings, and in\nparticular for some of its more speculative theories, which to some\nminds may appear to be in conflict with orthodox views, whether of the\ntheologian or of the man of science. These theories, however venturesome\nthey may appear, are put forth in almost every case with the full\napproval of some reliable, scholarly Celt; and as such they are chiefly\nintended to make the exposition of the belief in fairies as completely\nand as truly Celtic as possible, without much regard for non-Celtic\nopinion, whether this be in harmony with Celtic opinion or not.\n\nAs the new manuscript of the 'Fairy-Faith' lies before me revised and\nfinished, I realize even more fully than I did two years ago with\nrespect to the original study, how little right I have to call it mine.\nThose to whom the credit for it really belongs are my many kind friends\nand helpers in Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, and\nBrittany, and many others who are not Celts, in the three great\nnations--happily so intimately united now by unbreakable bonds of\ngoodwill and international brotherhood--Britain, France, and the United\nStates of America; for without the aid of all these Celtic and\nnon-Celtic friends the work could never have been accomplished. They\nhave given me their best and rarest thoughts as so many golden threads;\nI have only furnished the mental loom, and woven these golden threads\ntogether in my own way according to what I take to be the psychological\npattern of the Fairy-Faith.\n\nI am under a special obligation to the following six distinguished\nCeltic scholars who have contributed, for my second chapter, the six\nintroductions to the fairy-lore collected by me in their respective\ncountries:--Dr. Douglas Hyde (Ireland); Dr. Alexander Carmichael\n(Scotland); Miss Sophia Morrison (Isle of Man); the Right Hon. Sir John\nRhys (Wales); Mr. Henry Jenner (Cornwall); Professor Anatole Le Braz\n(Brittany).\n\nI am also greatly indebted to the Rev. J. Estlin Carpenter, Principal of\nManchester College, for having aided me with the parts of this book\ntouching Christian theology; to Mr. R. I. Best, M.R.I.A., Assistant\nLibrarian, National Library, Dublin, for having aided me with the parts\ndevoted to Irish mythology and literature; and to Mr. William McDougall,\nWilde Reader in Mental Philosophy in the University of Oxford, for a\nsimilar service with respect to Section IV, entitled 'Science and\nFairies'. And to these and to all the other scholars whose names appear\nin this preface, my heartiest thanks are due for the assistance which\nthey have so kindly rendered in reading different parts of the\n_Fairy-Faith_ when in proof.\n\nWith the deep spirit of reverence which a student feels towards his\npreceptors, I acknowledge a still greater debt to those among my friends\nand helpers who have been my Celtic guides and teachers. Here in Oxford\nUniversity I have run up a long account with the Right Hon. Sir John\nRhys, the Professor of Celtic, who has introduced me to the study of\nModern Irish, and of Arthurian romance and mythology, and has guided me\nboth during the year 1907-8 and ever since in Celtic folk-lore\ngenerally. To Mr. Andrew Lang, I am likewise a debtor, more especially\nin view of the important suggestions which he has given me during the\npast two years with respect to anthropology and to psychical research.\nIn my relation to the Faculty of Letters of the University of Rennes, I\nshall always remember the friendly individual assistance offered to me\nthere during the year 1908-9 by Professor Joseph Loth, then Dean in that\nUniversity, but now of the College of France, in Paris, particularly\nwith respect to Brythonic mythology, philology, and archaeology; by\nProfessor Georges Dottin, particularly with respect to Gaelic matters;\nand by Professor Anatole Le Braz, whose continual good wishes towards my\nwork have been a constant source of inspiration since our first meeting\nduring March 1908, especially in my investigation of _La L\u00e9gende de la\nMort_, and of the related traditions and living folk-beliefs in\nBrittany--Brittany with its haunted ground of Carnac, home of the\nancient Brythonic Mysteries.\n\nW. Y. E. W.\n\n  JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD.\n    _All Saints' Day_, 1911.\n\n\n\n\n'There, neither turmoil nor silence....\n\n'Though fair the sight of Erin's plains, hardly will they seem so after\nyou have known the Great Plain....\n\n'A wonder of a land the land of which I speak; no youth there grows to\nold age....\n\n'We behold and are not beheld.'--The God Midir, in _Tochmarc Etaine_.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n     'I have told what I have seen, what I have thought, and what I have\n     learned by inquiry.'--HERODOTUS.\n\n\nI. THE RELIGIOUS NATURE OF THE FAIRY-FAITH\n\nThere is probably no other place in Celtic lands more congenial, or more\ninspiring for the writing down of one's deeper intuitions about the\nFairy-Faith, than Carnac, under the shadow of the pagan tumulus and\nmount of the sacred fire, now dedicated by triumphant Christianity to\nthe Archangel Michael. The very name of Carnac is significant;[1] and in\ntwo continents, Africa and Europe--to follow the certain evidence of\narchaeology alone[2]--there seem to have been no greater centres for\nancient religion than Karnak in Egypt and Carnac in Brittany. On the\nbanks of the Nile the Children of Isis and Osiris erected temples as\nperfect as human art can make them; on the shores of the Morbihan the\nmighty men who were, as it seems, the teachers of our own Celtic\nforefathers, erected temples of unhewn stone. The wonderful temples in\nYucatan, the temple-caves of prehistoric India, Stonehenge in England,\nthe Parthenon, the Acropolis, St. Peter's at Rome, Westminster Abbey, or\nNotre-Dame, and the Pyramids and temples of Egypt, equally with the\nAlignements of Carnac, each in their own way record more or less\nperfectly man's attempt to express materially what he feels spiritually.\nPerfected art can beautify and make more attractive to the eye and mind,\nbut it cannot enhance in any degree the innate spiritual ideals which\nmen in all ages have held; and thus it is that we read amid the rough\nstone menhirs and dolmens in Brittany, as amid the polished granite\nmonoliths and magnificent temples in Egypt, the same silent message from\nthe past to the present, from the dead to the living. This message, we\nthink, is fundamentally important in understanding the Celtic\nFairy-Faith; for in our opinion the belief in fairies has the same\norigin as all religions and mythologies.\n\nAnd there seems never to have been an uncivilized tribe, a race, or\nnation of civilized men who have not had some form of belief in an\nunseen world, peopled by unseen beings. In religions, mythologies, and\nthe Fairy-Faith, too, we behold the attempts which have been made by\ndifferent peoples in different ages to explain in terms of human\nexperience this unseen world, its inhabitants, its laws, and man's\nrelation to it. The Ancients called its inhabitants gods, genii,\ndaemons, and shades; Christianity knows them as angels, saints, demons,\nand souls of the dead; to uncivilized tribes they are gods, demons, and\nspirits of ancestors; and the Celts think of them as gods, and as\nfairies of many kinds.\n\n\nII. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FAIRY-FAITH\n\nBy the Celtic Fairy-Faith we mean that specialized form of belief in a\nspiritual realm inhabited by spiritual beings which has existed from\nprehistoric times until now in Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales,\nCornwall, Brittany, or other parts of the ancient empire of the Celts.\nIn studying this belief, we are concerned directly with living Celtic\nfolk-traditions, and with past Celtic folk-traditions as recorded in\nliterature. And if fairies actually exist as invisible beings or\nintelligences, and our investigations lead us to the tentative\nhypothesis that they do, they are natural and not supernatural, for\nnothing which exists can be supernatural; and, therefore, it is our duty\nto examine the Celtic Fairy Races just as we examine any fact in the\nvisible realm wherein we now live, whether it be a fact of chemistry,\nof physics, or of biology. However, as we proceed to make such an\nexamination, we shall have to remember constantly that there is a new\nset of ideas to work with, entirely different from what we find in\nnatural sciences, and often no adequate vocabulary based on common human\nexperiences. An American who has travelled in Asia and an Englishman who\nhas travelled in Australia may meet in Paris and exchange travelling\nexperiences with mutual understanding, because both of them have\nexperienced travel; and they will have an adequate vocabulary to\ndescribe each experience, because most men have also experienced travel.\nBut a saint who has known the spiritual condition called ecstasy cannot\nexplain ecstasy to a man who has never known it, and if he should try to\ndo so would discover at once that no modern language is suitable for the\npurpose. His experience is rare and not universal, and men have\ndeveloped no complete vocabulary to describe experiences not common to\nthe majority of mankind, and this is especially true of psychical\nexperiences. It is the same in dealing with fairies, as these are\nhypothetically conceived, for only a few men and women can assert that\nthey have seen fairies, and hence there is no adequate vocabulary to\ndescribe fairies. Among the Ancients, who dealt so largely with\npsychical sciences, there seems to have been a common language which\ncould be used to explain the invisible world and its inhabitants; but we\nof this age have not yet developed such a language. Consequently, men\nwho deny human immortality, as well as men with religious faith who have\nnot through personal psychical experiences transformed that faith into a\nfact, nowadays when they happen to read what Plato, Iamblichus, or any\nof the Neo-Platonists have written, or even what moderns have written in\nattempting to explain psychic facts, call it all mysticism. And to the\ngreat majority of Europeans and Americans, mysticism is a most\nconvenient noun, applicable to anything which may seem reasonable yet\nwholly untranslatable in terms of their own individual experience; and\nmysticism usually means something quite the reverse of scientific\nsimply because we have by usage unwisely limited the meaning of the word\n_science_ to a knowledge of things material and visible, whereas it\nreally means a knowing or a knowledge of everything which exists. We\nhave tried to deal with the rare psychical experiences of Irish, Scotch,\nManx, Welsh, or Breton seers, and psychics generally, in the clearest\nlanguage possible; but if now and then we are charged with being\nmystical, this is our defence.\n\n\nIII. THE METHOD OF STUDYING THE FAIRY-FAITH\n\nIn this study, which is first of all a folk-lore study, we pursue\nprincipally an anthropo-psychological method of interpreting the Celtic\nbelief in fairies, though we do not hesitate now and then to call in the\naid of philology; and we make good use of the evidence offered by\nmythologies, religions, metaphysics, and physical sciences. Folk-lore, a\ncentury ago was considered beneath the serious consideration of\nscholars; but there has come about a complete reversal of scholarly\nopinion, for now it is seen that the beliefs of the people, their\nlegends, and their songs are the source of nearly all literatures, and\nthat their institutions and customs are the origin of those of modern\ntimes. And, to-day, to the new science of folk-lore,--which, as Mr.\nAndrew Lang says, must be taken to include psychical research or\npsychical sciences,--archaeology, anthropology, and comparative\nmythology and religion are indispensable. Thus folk-lore offers the\nscientific means of studying man in the sense meant by the poet who\ndeclared that the proper study of mankind is man.\n\n\nIV. DIVISIONS OF THE STUDY\n\nThis study is divided into four sections or parts. The first one deals\nwith the living Fairy-Faith among the Celts themselves; the second, with\nthe recorded and ancient Fairy-Faith as we find it in Celtic literature\nand mythology; the third, with the Fairy-Faith in its religious aspects;\nand in the fourth section an attempt has been made to suggest how the\ntheories of our newest science, psychical research, explain the belief\nin fairies.\n\nI have set forth in the first section in detail and as clearly as\npossible the testimony communicated to me by living Celts who either\nbelieve in fairies, or else say that they have seen fairies; and\nthroughout other sections I have preferred to draw as much as possible\nof the material from men and women rather than from books. Books too\noften are written out of other books, and too seldom from the life of\nman; and in a scientific study of the Fairy-Faith, such as we have\nundertaken, the Celt himself is by far the best, in fact the only\nauthority. For us it is much less important to know what scholars think\nof fairies than to know what the Celtic people think of fairies. This is\nespecially true in considering the Fairy-Faith as it exists now.\n\n\nV. THE COLLECTING OF MATERIAL\n\nIn June, 1908, after a year's preparatory work in things Celtic under\nthe direction of the Oxford Professor of Celtic, Sir John Rhys, I\nbegan to travel in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany, and to\ncollect material there at first hand from the people who have shaped and\nwho still keep alive the Fairy-Faith; and during the year 1909-10 fresh\nfolk-lore expeditions were made into Brittany, Ireland, and Wales, and\nthen, finally, the study of the Fairy-Faith was made pan-Celtic by\nsimilar expeditions throughout the Isle of Man, and into Cornwall. Many\nof the most remote parts of these lands were visited; and often there\nwas no other plan to adopt, or any method better, or more natural, than\nto walk day after day from one straw-thatched cottage to another, living\non the simple wholesome food of the peasants. Sometimes there was the\npicturesque mountain-road to climb, sometimes the route lay through\nmarshy peat-lands, or across a rolling grass-covered country; and with\neach change of landscape came some new thought and some new impression\nof the Celtic life, or perhaps some new description of a fairy.\n\nThis immersion in the most striking natural and social environment of\nthe Celtic race, gave me an insight into the mind, the religion, the\nmysticism, and the very heart of the Celt himself, such as no mere study\nin libraries ever could do. I tried to see the world as he does; I\nparticipated in his innermost thoughts about the great problem of life\nand death, with which he of all peoples is most deeply concerned; and\nthus he revealed to me the source of his highest ideals and\ninspirations. I daily felt the deep and innate seriousness of his\nancestral nature; and, living as he lives, I tried in all ways to be\nlike him. I was particularly qualified for such an undertaking: partly\nCeltic myself by blood and perhaps largely so by temperament, I found it\neasy to sympathize with the Celt and with his environments. Further,\nbeing by birth an American, I was in many places privileged to enter\nwhere an Englishman, or a non-Celt of Europe would not be; and my\neducation under the free ideals of a new-world democracy always made it\npossible for me to view economic, political, religious, and racial\nquestions in Celtic lands apart from the European point of view, and\nwithout the European prejudices which are so numerous and so greatly to\nbe regretted. But without any doubt, during my sojourn, extending over\nthree years, among the Celts, these various environments shaped my\nthoughts about fairies and Fairyland--as they ought to have done if\ntruth is ever to be reached by research.\n\nThese experiences of mine lead me to believe that the natural aspects of\nCeltic countries, much more than those of most non-Celtic countries,\nimpress man and awaken in him some unfamiliar part of himself--call it\nthe Subconscious Self, the Subliminal Self, the Ego, or what you\nwill--which gives him an unusual power to know and to feel invisible, or\npsychical, influences. What is there, for example, in London, or Paris,\nor Berlin, or New York to awaken the intuitive power of man, that\nsubconsciousness deep-hidden in him, equal to the solitude of those\nmagical environments of Nature which the Celts enjoy and love?\n\nIn my travels, when the weather was too wild to venture out by day, or\nwhen the more favourable hours of the night had arrived, with fires and\ncandles lit, or even during a road-side chat amid the day's journey,\nthere was gathered together little by little, from one country and\nanother, the mass of testimony which chapter ii contains. And with all\nthis my opinions began to take shape; for when I set out from Oxford in\nJune, I had no certain or clear ideas as to what fairies are, nor why\nthere should be belief in them. In less than a year afterwards I found\nmyself committed to the Psychological Theory, which I am herein setting\nforth.\n\n\nVI. THEORIES OF THE FAIRY-FAITH\n\nWe make continual reference throughout our study to this Psychological\nTheory of the Nature and Origin of the Celtic Fairy-Faith, and it is one\nof our purposes to demonstrate that this is the root theory which\nincludes or absorbs the four theories already advanced to account for\nthe belief in fairies. To guide the reader in his own conclusions, we\nshall here briefly outline these four theories.\n\nThe first of them may be called the Naturalistic Theory, which is, that\nin ancient and in modern times man's belief in gods, spirits, or fairies\nhas been the direct result of his attempts to explain or to rationalize\nnatural phenomena. Of this theory we accept as true that the belief in\nfairies often anthropomorphically reflects the natural environment as\nwell as the social condition of the people who hold the belief. For\nexample, amid the beautiful low-lying green hills and gentle dells of\nConnemara (Ireland), the 'good people' are just as beautiful, just as\ngentle, and just as happy as their environment; while amid the\ndark-rising mountains and in the mysterious cloud-shadowed lakes of the\nScotch Highlands there are fiercer kinds of fairies and terrible\nwater-kelpies, and in the Western Hebrides there is the much-dreaded\n'spirit-host' moving through the air at night.\n\nThe Naturalistic Theory shows accurately enough that natural phenomena\nand environment have given direction to the anthropomorphosing of gods,\nspirits, or fairies, but after explaining this external aspect of the\nFairy-Faith it cannot logically go any further. Or if illogically it\ndoes attempt to explain the belief in gods, spirits, or fairies as due\nentirely to material causes, it becomes, in our opinion, like the\npsychology of fifty years ago, obsolete; for now the new psychology or\npsychical research has been forced to admit--if only as a working\nhypothesis--the possibility of invisible intelligences or entities able\nto influence man and nature. We seem even to be approaching a scientific\nproof of the doctrines of such ancient philosophical scientists as\nPythagoras and Plato,--that all external nature, animated throughout and\ncontrolled in its phenomena by daemons acting by the will of gods, is to\nmen nothing more than the visible effects of an unseen world of causes.\n\nIn the internal aspects of the Fairy-Faith the fundamental fact seems\nclearly to be that there must have been in the minds of prehistoric men,\nas there is now in the minds of modern men, a germ idea of a fairy for\nenvironment to act upon and shape. Without an object to act upon,\nenvironment can accomplish nothing. This is evident. The Naturalistic\nTheory examines only the environment and its effects, and forgets\naltogether the germ idea of a fairy to be acted upon; but the\nPsychological Theory remembers and attempts to explain the germ idea of\na fairy and the effect of nature upon it.\n\nThe second theory may be called the Pygmy Theory, which Mr. David\nMacRitchie, who is definitely committed to it, has so clearly set forth\nin his well-known work, entitled _The Testimony of Tradition_. This\ntheory is that the whole fairy-belief has grown up out of a folk-memory\nof an actual Pygmy race. This race is supposed to have been a very\nearly, prehistoric, probably Mongolian race, which inhabited the British\nIslands and many parts of Continental Europe. When the Celtic nations\nappeared, these pygmies were driven into mountain fastnesses and into\nthe most inaccessible places, where a few of them may have survived\nuntil comparatively historical times.\n\nOver against the champions of the Pygmy Theory may be set two of its\nopponents, Dr. Bertram C. A. Windle and Mr. Andrew Lang.[3] Dr. Windle,\nin his Introduction to Tyson's _Philological Essay concerning the\nPygmies of the Ancients_, makes these six most destructive criticisms or\npoints against the theory: (1) So far as our present knowledge teaches\nus, there never was a really Pygmy race inhabiting the northern parts of\nScotland; (2) the mounds with which the tales of little people are\nassociated have not, in many cases, been habitations, but were natural\nor sepulchral in their nature; (3) little people are not by any means\nassociated entirely with mounds; (4) the association of giants and\ndwarfs in traditions confuses the theory; (5) there are fairies where no\npygmies ever were, as, for example, in North America; (6) even Eskimos\nand Lapps have fairy beliefs, and could not have been the original\nfairies of more modern fairy-lore. Altogether, as we think our study\nwill show, the evidence of the Fairy-Faith itself gives only a slender\nand superficial support to the Pygmy Theory. We maintain that the\ntheory, so far as it is provable, and this is evidently not very far, is\nonly one strand, contributed by ethnology and social psychology, in the\ncomplex fabric of the Fairy-Faith, and is, as such, woven round a\npsychical central pattern--the fundamental pattern of the Fairy-Faith.\nTherefore, from our point of view, the Pygmy Theory is altogether\ninadequate, because it overlooks or misinterprets the most essential and\nprominent elements in the belief which the Celtic peoples hold\nconcerning fairies and Fairyland.\n\nThe Druid Theory to account for fairies is less widespread. It is that\nthe folk-memory of the Druids and their magical practices is alone\nresponsible for the Fairy-Faith. The first suggestion of this theory\nseems to have been made by the Rev. Dr. Cririe, in his _Scottish\nScenery_, published in 1803.[4] Three years later, the Rev. Dr. Graham\npublished an identical hypothesis in his _Sketches Descriptive of\nPicturesque Scenery on the Southern Confines of Perthshire_. Mr.\nMacRitchie suggests, with all reason, that the two writers probably had\ndiscussed together the theory, and hence both put it forth. Alfred\nMaury, in _Les F\u00e9es du Moyen-Age_, published in 1843 at Paris, appears\nto have made liberal use of Patrick Graham's suggestions in propounding\nhis theory that the _f\u00e9es_ or fairy women of the Middle Ages are due to\na folk-memory of Druidesses. Maury seems to have forgotten that\nthroughout pagan Britain and Ireland, both much more important for the\nstudy of fairies than Celtic Europe during the Middle Ages, Druids\nrather than Druidesses had the chief influence on the people, and that\nyet, despite this fact, Irish and Welsh mythology is full of stories\nabout fairy women coming from the Otherworld; nor is there any proof, or\neven good ground for argument, that the Irish fairy women are a\nfolk-memory of Druidesses, for if there ever were Druidesses in Ireland\nthey played a subordinate and very insignificant r\u00f4le. As in the case of\nthe Pygmy Theory, we maintain that the Druid Theory, also, is\ninadequate. It discovers a real anthropomorphic influence at work on the\noutward aspects of the Fairy-Faith, and illogically takes that to be the\norigin of the Fairy-Faith.\n\nThe fourth theory, the Mythological Theory, is of very great importance.\nIt is that fairies are the diminished figures of the old pagan\ndivinities of the early Celts; and many modern authorities on Celtic\nmythology and folk-lore hold it. To us the theory is acceptable so far\nas it goes. But it is not adequate in itself nor is it the root theory,\nbecause a belief in gods and goddesses must in turn be explained; and in\nmaking this explanation we arrive at the Psychological Theory, which\nthis study--perhaps the first one of its kind--attempts to set forth.\n\n\nVII. THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING THE FAIRY-FAITH\n\nI have made a very careful personal investigation of the surviving\nCeltic Fairy-Faith by living for many months with and among the people\nwho preserve it; I have compared fairy phenomena and the phenomena said\nto be caused by gods, genii, daemons, or spirits of different kinds and\nrecorded in the writings of ancient, mediaeval, and modern metaphysical\nphilosophers, Christian and pagan saints, mystics, and seers, and now\nmore or less clearly substantiated by from thirty to forty years of\nexperimentation in psychical sciences by eminent scientists of our own\ntimes, such as Sir William Crookes and Sir Oliver Lodge in England, and\nM. Camille Flammarion in France. As a result, I am convinced of the very\ngreat value of a serious study of the Fairy-Faith. The Fairy-Faith as\nthe folk-religion of the Celts ought, like all religions, to be studied\nsympathetically as well as scientifically. To those who take a\nmaterialistic view of life, and consequently deny the existence of\nspirits or invisible intelligences such as fairies are said to be, we\nshould say as my honoured American teacher in psychology, the late Dr.\nWilliam James, of Harvard, used to say in his lectures at Stanford\nUniversity, 'Materialism considered as a system of philosophy never tries\nto explain the _Why_ of things.' But in our study of the Fairy-Faith we\nshall attempt to deal with this _Why_ of things; and, then, perhaps the\nvalue of studying fairies and Fairyland will be more apparent, even to\nmaterialists.\n\nThe great majority of men in cities are apt to pride themselves on their\nown exemption from 'superstition', and to smile pityingly at the poor\ncountrymen and countrywomen who believe in fairies. But when they do so\nthey forget that, with all their own admirable progress in material\ninvention, with all the far-reaching data of their acquired science,\nwith all the vast extent of their commercial and economic conquests,\nthey themselves have ceased to be natural. Wherever under modern\nconditions great multitudes of men and women are herded together there\nis bound to be an unhealthy psychical atmosphere never found in the\ncountry--an atmosphere which inevitably tends to develop in the average\nman who is not psychically strong enough to resist it, lower at the\nexpense of higher forces or qualities, and thus to inhibit any normal\nattempts of the Subliminal Self (a well-accredited psychological entity)\nto manifest itself in consciousness. In this connexion it is highly\nsignificant to note that, as far as can be determined, almost all\nprofessed materialists of the uncritical type, and even most of those\nwho are thinking and philosophizing sceptics about the existence of a\nsupersensuous realm or state of conscious being, are or have been\ncity-dwellers--usually so by birth and breeding. And even where we find\nmaterialists of either type dwelling in the country, we generally find\nthem so completely under the hypnotic sway of city influences and mould\nof thought in matters of education and culture, and in matters touching\nreligion, that they have lost all sympathetic and responsive contact\nwith Nature, because unconsciously they have thus permitted\nconventionality and unnaturalness to insulate them from it. The Celtic\npeasant, who may be their tenant or neighbour, is--if still uncorrupted\nby them--in direct contrast unconventional and natural. He is normally\nalways responsive to psychical influences--as much so as an Australian\nArunta or an American Red Man, who also, like him, are fortunate enough\nto have escaped being corrupted by what we egotistically, to distinguish\nourselves from them, call 'civilization'. If our Celtic peasant has\npsychical experiences, or if he sees an apparition which he calls one of\nthe 'good people', that is to say a fairy, it is useless to try to\npersuade him that he is under a delusion: unlike his\nmaterialistically-minded lord, he would not attempt nor even desire to\nmake himself believe that what he has seen he has not seen. Not only has\nhe the will to believe, but he has the right to believe; because his\nbelief is not a matter of being educated and reasoning logically, nor a\nmatter of faith and theology--it is a fact of his own individual\nexperiences, as he will tell you. Such peasant seers have frequently\nargued with me to the effect that 'One does not have to be educated in\norder to see fairies'.\n\nUnlike the natural mind of the uncorrupted Celt, Arunta, or American Red\nMan, which is ever open to unusual psychical impressions, the mind of\nthe business man in our great cities tends to be obsessed with business\naffairs both during his waking and during his dream states, the\npolitician's with politics similarly, the society-leader's with society;\nand the unwholesome excitement felt by day in the city is apt to be\nheightened at night through a satisfying of the feeling which it\nmorbidly creates for relaxation and change of stimuli. In the slums,\nhumanity is divorced from Nature under even worse conditions, and\nbecomes wholly decadent. But in slum and in palace alike there is\ncontinually a feverish nerve-tension induced by unrest and worry; there\nis impure and smoke-impregnated air, a lack of sunshine, a substitution\nof artificial objects for natural objects, and in place of solitude the\neternal din of traffic. Instead of Nature, men in cities (and\nparadoxically some conventionalized men in the country) have\n'civilization'--and 'culture'.\n\nAre city-dwellers like these, Nature's unnatural children, who grind out\ntheir lives in an unceasing struggle for wealth and power, social\nposition, and even for bread, fit to judge Nature's natural children who\nbelieve in fairies? Are they right in not believing in an invisible\nworld which they cannot conceive, which, if it exists, they--even though\nthey be scientists--are through environment and temperament alike\nincapable of knowing? Or is the country-dwelling, the sometimes\n'unpractical' and 'unsuccessful', the dreaming, and 'uncivilized'\npeasant right? These questions ought to arouse in the minds of\nanthropologists very serious reflection, world-wide in its scope.\n\nAt all events, and equally for the unbeliever and for the believer, the\nstudy of the Fairy-Faith is of vast importance historically,\nphilosophically, religiously, and scientifically. In it lie the germs of\nmuch of our European religions and philosophies, customs, and\ninstitutions. And it is one of the chief keys to unlock the mysteries of\nCeltic mythology. We believe that a greater age is coming soon, when all\nthe ancient mythologies will be carefully studied and interpreted, and\nwhen the mythology of the Celts will be held in very high esteem. But\nalready an age has come when things purely Celtic have begun to be\nstudied; and the close observer can see the awakening genius of the\nmodern Celt manifesting itself in the realm of scholarship, of\nliterature, and even of art--throughout Continental Europe, especially\nFrance and Germany, throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and throughout\nthe new Celtic world of America, as far west as San Francisco on the\ngreat calm ocean of the future facing Japan and China. In truth the\nCeltic empire is greater than it ever was before Caesar destroyed its\npolitical unity; and its citizens have not forgotten the ancient faith\nof their ancestors in a world invisible.\n\nW. Y. E. W.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION I\n\nTHE LIVING FAIRY-FAITH\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nENVIRONMENT\n\n     'In the Beauty of the World lies the ultimate redemption of our\n     mortality. When we shall become at one with nature in a sense\n     profounder even than the poetic imaginings of most of us, we shall\n     understand what now we fail to discern.'--FIONA MACLEOD.\n\n     Psychical interpretation--The mysticism of Erin and Armorica--In\n     Ireland--In Scotland--In the Isle of Man--In Wales--In Cornwall--In\n     Brittany.\n\n\nAs a preliminary to our study it is important, as we shall see later, to\ngive some attention to the influences and purely natural environment\nunder which the Fairy-Faith has grown up. And in doing so it will be\napparent to what extent there is truth in the Naturalistic Theory;\nthough from the first our interpretation of Environment is fundamentally\npsychical. In this first chapter, then, in so far as they can be\nrecorded, we shall record a few impressions, which will, in a way, serve\nas introductory to the more definite and detailed consideration of the\nFairy-Faith itself.\n\nIreland and Brittany, the two extremes of the modern Celtic world, are\nfor us the most important points from which to take our initial\nbearings. Both washed by the waters of the Ocean of Atlantis, the one an\nisland, the other a peninsula, they have best preserved their old racial\nlife in its simplicity and beauty, with its high ideals, its mystical\ntraditions, and its strong spirituality. And, curious though the\nstatement may appear to some, this preservation of older manners and\ntraditions does not seem to be due so much to geographical isolation as\nto subtle forces so strange and mysterious that to know them they must\nbe felt; and their nature can only be suggested, for it cannot be\ndescribed. Over Erin and Armorica, as over Egypt, there hovers a halo\nof romance, of strangeness, of mysticism real and positive; and, if we\nmistake not the language of others, these phrases of ours but echo\nopinions common to many Celts native of the two countries--they who have\nthe first right to testify; and not only are there poets and seers among\nthem, but men of the practical world as well, and men of high rank in\nscholarship, in literature, in art, and even in science.\n\n\nIN IRELAND\n\nIf anyone would know Ireland and test these influences--influences which\nhave been so fundamental in giving to the Fairy-Faith of the past\nsomething more than mere beauty of romance and attractive form, and\nsomething which even to-day, as in the heroic ages, is ever-living and\never-present in the centres where men of the second-sight say that they\nsee fairies in that strange state of subjectivity which the peasant\ncalls Fairyland--let him stand on the Hill of Tara silently and alone at\nsunset, in the noonday, in the mist of a dark day. Let him likewise\nsilently and alone follow the course of the Boyne. Let him enter the\nsilence of New Grange and of Dowth. Let him muse over the hieroglyphics\nof Lough Crew. Let him feel the mystic beauty of Killarney, the\npeacefulness of Glendalough, of Monasterboise, of Clonmacnois, and the\nisolation of Aranmore. Let him dare to enter the rings of fairies, to\ntempt the 'good folk' at their _raths_ and _forts_. Let him rest on the\nancient cairn above the mountain-palace of Finvara and look out across\nthe battlefields of Moytura. Let him wander amid the fairy dells of\ngentle Connemara. Let him behold the Irish Sea from the Heights of\nHowth, as Fionn Mac Cumhail used to do. Let him listen to the\nocean-winds amid Dun Aengus. Let him view the stronghold of Cuchulainn\nand the Red Branch Knights. Let him linger beside that mysterious lake\nwhich lies embosomed between two prehistoric cairns on the summit of\nenchanted Slieve Gullion, where yet dwells invisible the mountain's\nGuardian, a fairy woman. Let him then try to interpret the mysticism of\nan ancient Irish myth, in order to understand why men have been told\nthat in the plain beneath this magic mountain of Ireland mighty warfare\nwas once waged on account of a Bull, by the hosts of Queen Meave against\nthose of Cuchulainn the hero of Ulster. Let him be lost in the mists on\nthe top of Ben Bulbin. Let him know the haunts of fairy kings and queens\nin Roscommon. Let him follow in the footsteps of Patrick and Bridgit and\nColumba. When there are dark days and stormy nights, let him sit beside\na blazing fire of fragrant peat in a peasant's straw-thatched cottage\nlistening to tales of Ireland's golden age--tales of gods, of heroes, of\nghosts, and of fairy-folk. If he will do these things, he will know\nIreland, and why its people believe in fairies.\n\nAs yet, little has been said concerning the effects of clouds, of\nnatural scenery, of weird and sudden transformations in earth and sky\nand air, which play their part in shaping the complete Fairy-Faith of\nthe Irish; but what we are about to say concerning Scotland will suggest\nthe same things for Ireland, because the nature of the landscape and the\natmospheric changes are much the same in the two countries, both inland\nand on their rock-bound and storm-swept shores.\n\n\nIN SCOTLAND\n\nIn the moorlands between Trossachs and Aberfoyle, a region made famous\nby Scott's _Rob Roy_, I have seen atmospheric changes so sudden and so\ncontrasted as to appear marvellous. What shifting of vapours and clouds,\nwhat flashes of bright sun-gleams, then twilight at midday! Across the\nlandscape, shadows of black dense fog-banks rush like shadows of flocks\nof great birds which darken all the earth. Palpitating fog-banks wrap\nthemselves around the mountain-tops and then come down like living\nthings to move across the valleys, sometimes only a few yards above the\ntraveller's head. And in that country live terrible water-kelpies. When\nblack clouds discharge their watery burden it is in wind-driven vertical\nwater-sheets through which the world appears as through an ice-filmed\nwindow-pane. Perhaps in a single day there may be the bluest of heavens\nand the clearest air, the densest clouds and the darkest shadows, the\ncalm of the morning and the wind of the tempest. At night in Aberfoyle\nafter such a day, I witnessed a clear sunset and a fair evening sky; in\nthe morning when I arose, the lowlands along the river were inundated\nand a thousand cascades, large and small, were leaping down the\nmountain-highlands, and rain was falling in heavy masses. Within an hour\nafterwards, as I travelled on towards Stirling, the rain and wind\nceased, and there settled down over all the land cloud-masses so\ninky-black that they seemed like the fancies of some horrible dream.\nThen like massed armies they began to move to their mountain-strongholds,\nand stood there; while from the east came perfect weather and a flood of\nbrilliant sunshine.\n\nAnd in the Highlands from Stirling to Inverness what magic, what\nchanging colours and shadows there were on the age-worn treeless hills,\nand in the valleys with their clear, pure streams receiving tribute from\nunnumbered little rills and springs, some dropping water drop by drop as\nthough it were fairy-distilled; and everywhere the heather giving to the\nmountain-landscape a hue of rich purplish-brown, and to the air an odour\nof aromatic fragrance.\n\nOn to the north-west beyond Inverness there is the same kind of a\ntreeless highland country; and then after a few hours of travel one\nlooks out across the water from Kyle and beholds Skye, where Cuchulainn\nis by some believed to have passed his young manhood learning feats of\narms from fairy women,--Skye, dark, mountainous, majestic, with its\nwaterfalls turning to white spray as they tumble from cliff to cliff\ninto the sound, from out the clouds that hide their mountain-summit\nsources.\n\nIn the Outer Hebrides, as in the Aranmore Islands off West Ireland,\ninfluences are at work on the Celtic imagination quite different from\nthose in Skye and its neighbouring islands. Mountainous billows which\nhave travelled from afar out of the mysterious watery waste find their\nfirst impediment on the west of these isolated Hebridean isles, and they\nfling themselves like mad things in full fury against the wild rocky\nislets fringing the coast. White spray flashes in unearthly forms over\nthe highest cliff, and the unrestrained hurricane whirls it far inland.\nOcean's eternally murmuring sounds set up a responsive vibration in the\nsoul of the peasant, as he in solitude drives home his flocks amid the\nweird gloaming at the end of a December day; and, later, when he sits\nbrooding in his humble cottage at night, in the fitful flickering of a\npeat fire, he has a mystic consciousness that deep down in his being\nthere is a more divine music compared with which that of external nature\nis but a symbol and an echo; and, as he stirs the glowing peat-embers,\nphantoms from an irretrievable past seem to be sitting with him on the\nedge of the half-circle of dying light. Maybe there are skin-clad\nhuntsmen of the sea and land, with spears and knives of bone and flint\nand shaggy sleeping dogs, or fearless sea-rovers resting wearily on\nshields of brilliant bronze, or maybe Celtic warriors fierce and bold;\nand then he understands that his past and his present are one.\n\nCommonly there is the thickest day-darkness when the driving storms come\nin from the Atlantic, or when dense fog covers sea and land; and, again,\nthere are melancholy sea-winds moaning across from shore to shore,\nbending the bushes of the purple heather. At other times there is a\nsparkle of the brightest sunshine on the ocean waves, a fierceness\nforeign to the more peaceful Highlands; and then again a dead silence\nprevails at sunrise and at sunset if one be on the mountains, or, if on\nthe shore, no sound is heard save the rhythmical beat of the waves, and\nnow and then the hoarse cry of a sea-bird. All these contrasted\nconditions may be seen in one day, or each may endure for a day; and the\ndark days last nearly all the winter. And then it is, during the long\nwinter, that the crofters and fisher-folk congregate night after night\nin a different neighbour's house to tell about fairies and ghosts, and\nto repeat all those old legends so dear to the heart of the Celt.\nPerhaps every one present has heard the same story or legend a hundred\ntimes, yet it is always listened to and told as though it were the\nlatest bulletin of some great world-stirring event. Over those little\nislands, so far away to the north, out on the edge of the world, in\nwinter-time darkness settles down at four o'clock or even earlier; and\nthe islanders hurry through with their dinner of fish and oat-bread so\nas not to miss hearing the first story. When the company has gathered\nfrom far and near, pipes are re-filled and lit and the peat is heaped\nup, for the story-telling is not likely to end before midnight. 'The\nhouse is roomy and clean, if homely, with its bright peat fire in the\nmiddle of the floor. There are many present--men and women, boys and\ngirls. All the women are seated, and most of the men. Girls are crouched\nbetween the knees of fathers or brothers or friends, while boys are\nperched wherever--boy-like--they can climb. The houseman is twisting\ntwigs of heather into ropes to hold down thatch, a neighbour crofter is\ntwining quicken root into cords to tie cows, while another is plaiting\nbent grass into baskets to hold meal. The housewife is spinning, a\ndaughter is carding, another daughter is teazing, while a third\ndaughter, supposed to be working, is away in the background conversing\nin low whispers with the son of a neighbouring crofter. Neighbour wives\nand neighbour daughters are knitting, sewing, or embroidering.'[5] Then\nwhen the bad weather for fishing has been fully discussed by the men,\nand the latest gossip by the women, and the foolish talk of the youths\nand maidens in the corners is finished, the one who occupies the chair\nof honour in the midst of the _ceilidh_[6] looks around to be sure that\neverybody is comfortable and ready; and, as his first story begins, even\nthe babes by instinct cease their noise and crying, and young and old\nbend forward eagerly to hear every word. It does not matter if some of\nthe boys and girls do topple over asleep, or even some of the older folk\nas the hour gets late; the tales meet no interruption in their even,\nunbroken flow. And here we have the most Celtic and the most natural\nenvironments which the Fairy-Faith enjoys in Scotland.\n\nThere are still the Southern Highlands in the country around Oban, and\nthe islands near them; and of all these isles none is so picturesque in\nhistory as the one Columba loved so well. Though Iona enjoys less of the\nwildness of the Hebrides furthest west, it has their storm-winds and\nfogs and dark days, and their strangeness of isolation. On it, as\nAdamnan tells us, the holy man fought with black demons who came to\ninvade his monastery, and saw angelic hosts; and when the angels took\nhis soul at midnight in that little chapel by the sea-shore there was a\nmystic light which illuminated all the altar like the brightest\nsunshine. But nowadays, where the saint saw demons and angels the\nIslanders see ghosts and 'good people', and when one of these islanders\nis taken in death it is not by angels--it is by fairies.\n\n\nIN THE ISLE OF MAN\n\nIn the midst of the Irish Sea, almost equidistant from Ireland,\nScotland, and Wales, and concentrating in itself the psychical and\nmagnetic influences from these three Celtic lands, and from Celto-Saxon\nEngland too, lies the beautiful kingdom of the great Tuatha De Danann\ngod, Manannan Mac Lir, or, as his loyal Manx subjects prefer to call\nhim, Mannanan-Beg-Mac-y-Leir. In no other land of the Celt does Nature\nshow so many moods and contrasts, such perfect repose at one time and at\nanother time the mightiness of its unloosed powers, when the baffled sea\nthrows itself angrily against a high rock-bound coast, as wild and\nalmost as weather-worn as the western coasts of Ireland and the\nHebrides.\n\nBut it is Nature's calmer moods which have greater effect upon the Manx\npeople: on the summit of his ancient stronghold, South Barrule Mountain,\nthe god Manannan yet dwells invisible to mortal eyes, and whenever on a\nwarm day he throws off his magic mist-blanket with which he is wont to\ncover the whole island, the golden gorse or purple heather blossoms\nbecome musical with the hum of bees, and sway gently on breezes made\nbalmy by the tropical warmth of an ocean stream flowing from the far\ndistant Mexican shores of a New World. Then in many a moist and\nsweet-smelling glen, pure and verdant, land-birds in rejoicing bands add\nto the harmony of sound, as they gather on the newly-ploughed field or\ndip themselves in the clear water of the tinkling brook; and from the\ncliffs and rocky islets on the coast comes the echo of the multitudinous\nchorus of sea-birds. At sunset, on such a day, as evening calmness\nsettles down, weird mountain shadows begin to move across the\ndimly-lighted glens; and when darkness has fallen, there is a mystic\nstillness, broken only by the ceaseless throbbing of the sea-waves, the\nflow of brooks, and the voices of the night.\n\nIn the moorland solitudes, even by day, there sometimes broods a deeper\nsilence, which is yet more potent and full of meaning for the peasant,\nas under its spell he beholds the peaceful vision, happy and sunlit, of\nsea and land, of gentle mountains falling away in land-waves into\nwell-tilled plains and fertile valleys; and he comes to feel\ninstinctively the old Druidic Fires relit within his heart, and perhaps\nunconsciously he worships there in Nature's Temple. The natural beauty\nwithout awakens the divine beauty within, and for a second of time he,\nout of his subconsciousness, is conscious that in Nature there are\nbeings and inaudible voices which have no existence for the flippant\npleasure-seeking crowds who come and go. To the multitude, his ancestral\nbeliefs are foolishness, his fairies but the creatures of a fervid\nCeltic imagination which readily responds to unusual phenomena and\nenvironments. They will not believe with him that all beauty and harmony\nin the world are but symbolic, and that behind these stand unseen\nsustaining forces and powers which are conscious and eternal; and though\nby instinct they willingly personify Nature they do not know the secret\nof why they do so: for them the outer is reality, the inner\nnon-existent.\n\nFrom the Age of Stone to the civilized era of to-day, the Isle of Man\nhas been, in succession, the home of every known race and people who\nhave flourished in Western Europe; and though subject, in turn, to the\nIrish Gael and to the Welsh Brython, to Northmen and to Danes, to Scots\nand to English, and the scene of sweeping transformations in religion,\nas pagan cults succeeded one another, to give way to the teaching of St.\nPatrick and his disciples St. German and St. Maughold, and this finally\nto the Protestant form of Christianity, the island alone of Celtic lands\nhas been strangely empowered to maintain in almost primitive purity its\nancient constitution and freedom, and though geographically at the very\ncentre of the United Kingdom, is not a part of it. The archaeologist may\nstill read in mysterious symbols of stone and earth, as they lie strewn\nover the island's surface, the history of this age-long panoramic\nprocession of human evolution; while through these same symbols the Manx\nseer reads a deeper meaning; and sometimes in the superhuman realm of\nradiant light, to which since long ago they have oft come and oft\nreturned, he meets face to face the gods and heroes whose early tombs\nstand solitary on the wind-swept mountain-top and moorland, or hidden\naway in the embrace of wild flowers and verdure amid valleys; and in the\ndarker mid-world he sees innumerable ghosts of many of these races which\nhave perished.\n\n\nIN WALES\n\nLess can be said of Wales than of Ireland, or of Scotland as a whole. It\nhas, it is true, its own peculiar psychic atmosphere, different, no\ndoubt, because its people are Brythonic Celts rather than Gaelic Celts.\nBut Wales, with conditions more modernized than is the case in Ireland\nor in the Western Hebrides of Scotland, does not now exhibit in a\nvigorous or flourishing state those Celtic influences which, when they\nwere active, did so much to create the precious Romances of Arthur and\nhis Brotherhood, and to lay the foundations for the Welsh belief in the\n_Tylwyth Teg_, a fairy race still surviving in a few favoured\nlocalities.\n\nWales, like all Celtic countries, is a land of long sea-coasts, though\nthere seems to be, save in the mountains of the north, less of mist and\ndarkness and cloud effects than in Ireland and Scotland. In the south,\nperhaps the most curious influences are to be felt at St. David's Head,\nand in St. David's itself--once the goal for thousands of pilgrims from\nmany countries of mediaeval Europe, and, probably, in pagan times the\nseat of an oracle. And a place of like character is the peninsula of\nGower, south of Swansea. Caerphilly Castle, where the Green Lady reigns\nnow amid its ruined acres, is a strange place; and so is the hill near\nCarmarthen, where Merlin is asleep in a cave with the fairy-woman\nVivian. But in none of these places to-day is there a strong living\nfaith in fairies as there is, for example, in West Ireland. The one\nregion where I found a real Celtic atmosphere--and it is a region where\neverybody speaks Welsh--is a mountainous country rarely visited by\ntravellers, save archaeologists, a few miles from Newport; and its\ncentre is the Pentre Evan Cromlech, the finest cromlech in Wales if not\nin Britain. By this prehistoric monument and in the country round the\nold Nevern Church, three miles away, there is an active belief in the\n'fair-folk', in ghosts, in death-warnings, in death-candles and\nphantom-funerals, and in witchcraft and black magic. Thence on to\nNewcastle-Emlyn and its valley, where many of the Mabinogion stories\ntook form, or at least from where they drew rich material in the way of\nfolk-lore,[7] are environments purely Welsh and as yet little disturbed\nby the commercial materialism of the age.\n\nThere remain now to be mentioned three other places in Wales to me very\nimpressive psychically. These are: ancient Harlech, so famous in\nrecorded Welsh fairy-romance--Harlech with its strange stone-circles,\nand old castle from which the Snowdon Range is seen to loom majestically\nand clear, and with its sun-kissed bay; Mount Snowdon, with its memories\nof Arthur and Welsh heroes; and sacred Anglesey or Mona, strewn with\ntumuli, and dolmens, and pillar-stones--Mona, where the Druids made\ntheir last stand against the Roman eagles--and its little island called\nHolyhead, facing Ireland.\n\nHowever, when all is said, modern Wales is poorer in its fairy\natmosphere than modern Ireland or modern Brittany. Certainly there is a\ngood deal of this fairy atmosphere yet, though it has become less vital\nthan the similar fairy atmosphere in the great centres of Erin and\nArmorica. But the purely social environment under which the Fairy-Faith\nof Wales survives is a potent force which promises to preserve\nunderneath the surface of Welsh national life, where the commercialism\nof the age has compelled it to retire in a state of temporary latency,\nthe ancestral idealism of the ancient Brythonic race. In Wales, as in\nLower Brittany and in parts of Ireland and the Hebrides, one may still\nhear in common daily use a language which has been continuously spoken\nsince unknown centuries before the rise of the Roman empire. And the\nstrong hold which the Druidic _Eisteddfod_ (an annual national congress\nof bards and literati) continues to have upon the Welsh people, in spite\nof their commercialism, is, again, a sign that their hearts remain\nuncorrupted, that when the more favourable hour strikes they will sweep\naside the deadening influences which now hold them in spiritual bondage,\nand become, as they were in the past, true children of Arthur.\n\n\nIN CORNWALL\n\nStrikingly like Brittany in physical aspects, Southern and Western\nCornwall is a land of the sea, of rolling plains and moorlands rather\nthan of high hills and mountains, a land of golden-yellow furze-bloom,\nwhere noisy crowds of black crows and white sea-gulls mingle together\nover the freshly-turned or new-sown fields, and where in the spring-time\nthe call of the cuckoo is heard with the song of the skylark. Like the\nIsle of Man, from the earliest ages Cornwall has been a meeting-place\nand a battle-ground for contending races. The primitive dark Iberian\npeoples gave way before Aryan-Celtic invaders, and these to Roman and\nthen to Germanic invaders.\n\nNature has been kind to the whole of Cornwall, but chiefly upon the\npeninsula whose ancient capital is Penzance (which possibly means 'the\nHoly Headland'), and upon the land immediately eastward and northward of\nit, she has bestowed her rarest gifts. Holding this territory embosomed\nin the pure waters of Ocean, and breathing over it the pure air of the\nAtlantic in spring and in summer calm, when the warm vapours from the\nGulf Stream sweep over it freely, and make it a land of flowers and of\nsinging-birds, Nature preserves eternally its beauty and its sanctity.\nThere are there ruined British villages whose builders are long\nforgotten, strange prehistoric circular sun-temples like fortresses\ncrowning the hill-tops, mysterious underground passage-ways, and crosses\nprobably pre-Christian. Everywhere are the records of the mighty past of\nthis thrice-holy Druid land of sunset. There are weird legends of the\nlost kingdom of Fair Lyonesse, which seers sometimes see beneath the\nclear salt waves, with all its ancient towns and flowery fields; legends\nof Phoenicians and Oriental merchants who came for tin; legends of gods\nand of giants, of pixies and of fairies, of King Arthur in his castle at\nTintagel, of angels and of saints, of witches and of wizards.\n\nOn _Dinsul_, 'Hill dedicated to the Sun,' pagan priests and priestesses\nkept kindled the Eternal Fire, and daily watched eastward for the rising\nof the God of Light and Life, to greet his coming with paeans of\nthanksgiving and praise. Then after the sixth century the new religion\nhad come proclaiming a more mystic Light of the World in the Son of God,\nand to the pious half-pagan monks who succeeded the Druids the Archangel\nSt. Michael appeared in vision on the Sacred Mount.[8] And before St.\nAugustine came to Britain the Celts of Cornwall had already combined in\ntheir own mystical way the spiritual message of primitive Christianity\nwith the pure nature-worship of their ancestors; and their land was\nthen, as it most likely had been in pagan days, a centre of pilgrimages\nfor their Celtic kinsmen from Ireland, from Wales, from England, and\nfrom Brittany. When in later times new theological doctrines were\nsuperimposed on this mysticism of Celtic Christianity, the Sacred Fires\nwere buried in ashes, and the Light and Beauty of the pagan world\nobscured with sackcloth.\n\nBut there in that most southern and western corner of the Isle of\nBritain, the Sacred Fires themselves still burn on the divine hill-tops,\nthough smothered in the hearts of its children. The Cornishman's vision\nis no longer clear. He looks upon cromlech and dolmen, upon ancient\ncaves of initiation, and upon the graves of his prehistoric ancestors,\nand vaguely feels, but does not know, why his land is so holy, is so\npermeated by an indefinable magic; for he has lost his ancestral mystic\ntouch with the unseen--he is 'educated' and 'civilized'. The hand of the\nconqueror has fallen more heavily upon the people of Cornwall than upon\nany other Celtic people, and now for a time, but let us hope happily\nonly for this dark period of transition, they sleep--until Arthur comes\nto break the spell and set them free.\n\n\nIN BRITTANY\n\nAs was pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, Ireland and\nBrittany are to be regarded as the two poles of the modern Celtic world,\nbut it is believed by Celtic mystics that they are much more than this,\nthat they are two of its psychic centres, with Tara and Carnac as two\nrespective points of focus from which the Celtic influence of each\ncountry radiates.[9] With such a psychical point of view, it makes no\ndifference at all whether one scholar argues Carnac to be Celtic and\nanother pre-Celtic, for if pre-Celtic, as it most likely is, it has\ncertainly been bequeathed to the people who were and are Celtic, and its\ninfluence has been an unbroken thing from times altogether beyond the\nhorizon of history. According to this theory (and in following it we\nare merely trying to put on record unique material transmitted to us by\nthe most learned of contemporary Celtic mystics and seers) there seem to\nbe certain favoured places on the earth where its magnetic and even more\nsubtle forces are most powerful and most easily felt by persons\nsusceptible to such things; and Carnac appears to be one of the greatest\nof such places in Europe, and for this reason, as has been thought, was\nprobably selected by its ancient priest-builders as the great centre for\nreligious practices, for the celebration of pagan mysteries, for tribal\nassemblies, for astronomical observations, and very likely for\nestablishing schools in which to educate neophytes for the priesthood.\nTara, with its tributary Boyne valley, is a similar place in Ireland, so\nselected and so used, as, in our study of the cult of fairies and the\ncult of the dead, manuscript evidence will later indicate. And thus to\nsuch psychical and magnetic, or, according perhaps to others, religious\nor traditional influences as focus themselves at Tara and Carnac, though\nin other parts of the two countries as well, may be due in a great, even\nin an essential measure, the vigorous and ever-living Fairy-Faith of\nIreland, and the innate and ever-conscious belief of the Breton people\nin the Legend of the Dead and in a world invisible. For fairies and\nsouls of the dead, though, strictly speaking, not confused, are believed\nto be beings of the subjective world existing to-day, and influencing\nmortals, as they have always existed and influenced them according to\nancient and modern traditions, and as they appear now in the eyes even\nof science through the work of a few pioneer scientists in psychical\nresearch. And it seems probable that subjective beings of this kind,\ngranting their existence, were made use of by the ancient Druids, and\neven by Patrick when the old and new religions met to do battle on the\nHill of Tara. The control of Tara, as a psychical centre, meant the\npsychical control of all Ireland. To-day on the Hill of Tara the statue\nof St. Patrick dwarfs the Liath Stone beside it; at Carnac the Christian\nCross overshadows dolmens and menhirs.\n\nA learned priest of the Roman Church told me, when I met him in Galway,\nthat in his opinion those places in Ireland where ancient sacrifices\nwere performed to pagan or Druid gods are still, unless they have been\nregularly exorcized, under the control of demons (daemons). And what the\nDruids were at Tara and throughout Erin and most probably at Carnac as\nwell, the priests were in Egypt, and the pythonesses in Greece. That is\nto say, Druids, Egyptian priests, priestesses in charge of Greek\noracles, are said to have foretold the future, interpreted omens, worked\nall miracles and wonders of magic by the aid of daemons, who were\nregarded as an order of invisible beings, intermediary between gods and\nmen, and as sometimes including the shades from Hades.\n\nI should say as before, if he who knowing Ireland, the Land of Faerie,\nwould know in the same manner Brittany, the Land of the Dead, let him\nsilently and alone walk many times--in sun, in wind, in storm, in thick\nmist--through the long, broad avenues of stone of the Alignements at\nCarnac. Let him watch from among them the course of the sun from east to\nwest. Let him stand on St. Michael's Mount on the day of the winter\nsolstice, or on the day of the summer solstice. Let him enter the\nsilence of its ancient underground chamber, so dark and so mysterious.\nLet him sit for hours musing amid cromlechs and dolmens, and beside\nmenhirs, and at holy wells. Let him marvel at the mightiest of menhirs\nnow broken and prostrate at Locmariaquer, and then let him ponder over\nthe subterranean places near it. Let him try to read the symbolic\ninscriptions on the rocks in Gavrinis. Let him stand on the \u00cele de Sein\nat sunrise and at sunset. Let him penetrate the solitudes of the Forest\nof Broc\u00e9liande, and walk through the Val-Sans-Retour (Vale-Without-Return).\nAnd then let him wander in footpaths with the Breton peasant through\nfields where good dames sit on the sunny side of a bush or wall,\nknitting stockings, where there are long hedges of furze, golden-yellow\nwith bloom--even in January--and listen to stories about _corrigans_,\nand about the dead who mingle here with the living. Let him enter the\npeasant's cottage when there is fog over the land and the sea-winds are\nblowing across the shifting sand-dunes, and hear what he can tell him.\nLet him, even as he enjoys the picturesque customs and dress of the\nBreton folk and looks on at their joyous _ronde_ (perhaps the relic of a\nlong-forgotten sun-dance), observe the depth of their nature, their\nalmost ever-present sense of the seriousness of human life and effort,\ntheir beautiful characters as their mystic land has shaped them without\nthe artificiality of books and schools, their dreaminess as they look\nout across the ocean, their often perfect physique and fine profiles and\nrosy cheeks, and yet withal their brooding innate melancholy. And let\nhim know that there is with them always an overshadowing consciousness\nof an invisible world, not in some distant realm of space, but here and\nnow, blending itself with this world; its inhabitants, their dead\nancestors and friends, mingling with them daily, and awaiting the hour\nwhen the _Ankou_ (a King of the Dead) shall call each to join their\ninvisible company.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION I\n\nTHE LIVING FAIRY-FAITH\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE TAKING OF EVIDENCE\n\n     'During all these centuries the Celt has kept in his heart some\n     affinity with the mighty beings ruling in the Unseen, once so\n     evident to the heroic races who preceded him. His legends and faery\n     tales have connected his soul with the inner lives of air and water\n     and earth, and they in turn have kept his heart sweet with hidden\n     influence.'--A. E.\n\n     Method of presentation--The logical verdict--Trustworthiness of\n     legends--The Fairy-Faith held by the highly educated Celt as well\n     as by the Celtic peasant--The evidence is complete and\n     adequate--Its analysis--The Fairy-Tribes dealt with--Witnesses and\n     their testimony: from Ireland, with introduction by Dr. Douglas\n     Hyde; from Scotland, with introduction by Dr. Alexander Carmichael;\n     from the Isle of Man, with introduction by Miss Sophia Morrison;\n     from Wales, with introduction by the Right Hon. Sir John Rhys;\n     from Cornwall, with introduction by Mr. Henry Jenner; and from\n     Brittany, with introduction by Professor Anatole Le Braz.\n\n\nI. GENERAL INTRODUCTION\n\nVarious possible plans have presented themselves for setting forth the\nliving Fairy-Faith as I have found it during my travels in the six\nCeltic countries among the people who hold it. To take a bit here and a\nbit there from a miscellaneous group of psychological experiences, fairy\nlegends and stories which are linked together almost inseparably in the\nmind of the one who tells them, does not seem at all satisfactory, nor\neven just, in trying to arrive at a correct result. Classification under\nvarious headings, such, for example, as Fairy Abductions, Changelings,\nor Appearances of Fairies, seems equally unsatisfactory; for as soon as\nthe details of folk-lore such as I am presenting are isolated from one\nanother--even though brought together in related groups--they must be\nrudely torn out of their true and natural environment, and divorced from\nthe psychological atmosphere amidst which they were first presented by\nthe narrator. The same objection applies to any plan of dividing the\nevidence into (1) that which is purely legendary; (2) that which is\nsecond-hand or third-hand evidence from people who claim to have seen\nfairies, or to have been in Fairyland or under fairy influences; and (3)\nthat which is first-hand evidence from actual percipients: these three\nclasses of evidence are so self-evident that every reader will be able\nto distinguish each class for himself as it occurs, and a mechanical\nclassification by us is unnecessary. So no plan seems so good as the\nplan I have adopted of permitting all witnesses to give their own\ntestimony in their own way and in its native setting, and then of\nclassifying and weighing such testimony according to the methods of\ncomparative religion and the anthropological sciences.\n\nIn most cases, as examination will show, the evidence is so clear that\nlittle or no comment is necessary. Most of the evidence also points so\nmuch in one direction that the only verdict which seems reasonable is\nthat the Fairy-Faith belongs to a doctrine of souls; that is to say,\nthat Fairyland is a state or condition, realm or place, very much like,\nif not the same as, that wherein civilized and uncivilized men alike\nplace the souls of the dead, in company with other invisible beings such\nas gods, daemons, and all sorts of good and bad spirits. Not only do\nboth educated and uneducated Celtic seers so conceive Fairyland, but\nthey go much further, and say that Fairyland actually exists as an\ninvisible world within which the visible world is immersed like an\nisland in an unexplored ocean, and that it is peopled by more species of\nliving beings than this world, because incomparably more vast and varied\nin its possibilities.\n\nWe should be prepared in hearing the evidence to meet with some\ncontradictions and a good deal of confusion, for many of the people who\nbelieve in such a strange world as we have just described, and who think\nthey sometimes have entered it or have seen some of its inhabitants,\nhave often had no training at all in schools or colleges. But when we\nhear legendary tales which have never been recorded save in the minds\nof unnumbered generations of men, we ought not on that account to\nundervalue them; for often they are better authorities and more\ntrustworthy than many an ancient and carefully inscribed manuscript in\nthe British Museum; and they are probably far older than the oldest book\nin the world. Let us, then, for a time, forget that there are such\nthings as libraries and universities, and betake ourselves to the Celtic\npeasant for instruction, living close to nature as he lives, and\nthinking the things which he thinks.\n\nBut the peasant will not be our only teacher, for we shall also hear\nmuch of first importance from city folk of the highest intellectual\ntraining. It has become, perhaps always has been in modern times, a\nwidespread opinion, even among some scholars, that the belief in fairies\nis the property solely of simple, uneducated country-folk, and that\npeople who have had 'a touch of education and a little common sense\nknocked into their heads', to use the ordinary language, 'wouldn't be\ncaught believing in such nonsense.' This same class of critics used to\nmake similar remarks about people who said there were ghosts, until the\ntruth of another 'stupid superstition' was discovered by psychical\nresearch. So in this chapter we hope to correct this erroneous opinion\nabout the Fairy-Faith, an opinion chiefly entertained by scholars and\nothers who know not the first real fact about fairies, because they have\nnever lived amongst the people who believe in fairies, but derive all\ntheir information from books and hearsay. In due order the proper sort\nof witnesses will substantiate this position, but before coming to their\ntestimony we may now say that there are men and women in Dublin, in\nother parts of Ireland, in Scotland, in the Isle of Man, and in\nBrythonic lands too, whom all the world knows as educated leaders in\ntheir respective fields of activity, who not only declare their belief\nthat fairies were, but that fairies are; and some of these men and women\nsay that they have the power to see fairies as real spiritual beings.\n\nIn the evidence about to be presented there has been no selecting in\nfavour of any one theory; it is presented as discovered. The only\nliberty taken with some of the evidence has been to put it into better\ngrammatical form, and sometimes to recast an ambiguous statement when I,\nas collector, had in my own mind no doubt as to its meaning.\nTranslations have been made as literal as possible; though sometimes it\nhas been found better to offer the meaning rather than what in English\nwould be an obscure colloquialism or idiomatic expression. The method\npursued in seeking the evidence has been to penetrate as deeply and in\nas natural a way as possible the thoughts of the people who believe in\nfairies and like beings, by living among them and observing their\ncustoms and ways of thought, and recording what seemed relevant to the\nsubject under investigation--chance expressions, and legends told under\nvarious ordinary conditions--rather than to collect long legends or\nliterary fairy-stories. For these last the reader is referred to the\nmany excellent works on Celtic folk-lore. We have sought to bring\ntogether, as perhaps has not been done before, the philosophy of the\nbelief in fairies, rather than the mere fairy-lore itself, though the\ntwo cannot be separated. In giving the evidence concerning fairies, we\nsometimes give evidence which, though akin to it and thus worthy of\nrecord, is not strictly fairy-lore. All that we have omitted from the\nmaterials in the form first taken down are stories and accounts of\nthings not sufficiently related to the world of Faerie to be of value\nhere.\n\nIn no case has testimony been admitted from a person who was known to be\nunreliable, nor even from a person who was thought to be unreliable.\nAccordingly, the evidence we are to examine ought to be considered good\nevidence so far as it goes; and since it represents almost all known\nelements of the Fairy-Faith and contains almost all the essential\nelements upon which the advocates of the Naturalistic Theory, of the\nPygmy Theory, of the Druid Theory, of the Mythological Theory, as well\nas of our own Psychological Theory, must base their arguments, we\nconsider it very adequate evidence. Nearly every witness is a Celt who\nhas been made acquainted with the belief in fairies through direct\ncontact with people who believe in them, or through having heard\nfairy-traditions among his own kindred, or through personal\npsychological experiences. And it is exceedingly fortunate for us that\nan unusually large proportion of these Celtic witnesses are actual\npercipients and natural seers, because the eliminations from the\nFairy-Faith to be brought about in chapter iii by means of an\nanthropological analysis of evidence will be so extensive that,\nscientifically and strictly speaking, there will remain as a residual or\nunknown quantity, upon which our final conclusion must depend, solely\nthe testimony of reliable seer-witnesses. That is to say, no method of\nanthropological dissection of the evidence can force aside consideration\nof the ultimate truth which may or may not reside in the testimony of\nsane and thoroughly reliable seer-witnesses.\n\nOld and young, educated and uneducated, peasant and city-bred, testify\nto the actual existence of the Celtic Fairy-Faith; and the evidence from\nRoman Catholics stands beside that from Protestants, the evidence of\npriests supports that of scholars and scientists, peasant seers have\ntestified to the same kind of visions as highly educated seers; and what\npoets have said agrees with what is told by business men, engineers, and\nlawyers. But the best of witnesses, like ourselves, are only human, and\nsubject to the shortcomings of the ordinary man, and therefore no claim\ncan be made in any case to infallibility of evidence: all the world over\nmen interpret visions pragmatically and sociologically, or hold beliefs\nin accord with their own personal experiences; and are for ever\nunconsciously immersed in a sea of psychological influences which\nsometimes may be explainable through the methods of sociological\ninquiry, sometimes may be supernormal in origin and nature, and hence to\nbe explained most adequately, if at all, through psychical research. Our\nstudy is a study of human nature itself, and, moreover, often of human\nnature in its most subtle aspects, which are called psychical; and the\nmost difficult problem of all is for human nature to interpret and\nunderstand its own ultimate essence and psychological instincts. Our\nwhole aim is to discover what reasonableness may or may not stand behind\na belief so vast, so ancient, so common (contrary to popular non-Celtic\nopinion) to all classes of Celts, and so fundamental a shaping force in\nEuropean history, religion, and social institutions.\n\nWhen we state our conviction that the Fairy-Faith is common to all\nclasses of Celts, we do not state that it is common to all Celts. The\nmaterialization of the age has affected the Fairy-Faith as it has\naffected all religious beliefs the world over. This has been pointed out\nby Dr. Hyde, by Dr. Carmichael, and by Mr. Jenner in their respective\nintroductions for Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall. Nevertheless, the\nFairy-Faith as the folk-religion of the Celtic peoples is still able to\ncount its adherents by hundreds of thousands. Even in many cases where\nChristian theology has been partially or wholly discarded by educated\nCelts, in the country or in the city, as being to them in too many\ndetails out of harmony with accepted scientific truths, the belief in\nfairies has been jealously retained, and will, so it would seem, be\nretained in the future.\n\nWe are now prepared to hear about the _Daoine Maithe_, the 'Good\nPeople', as the Irish call their _Sidhe_ race; about the 'People of\nPeace', the 'Still-Folk' or the 'Silent Moving Folk', as the Scotch call\ntheir _S\u00ecth_ who live in green knolls and in the mountain fastnesses of\nthe Highlands; about various Manx fairies; about the _Tylwyth Teg_, the\n'Fair-Family' or 'Fair-Folk', as the Welsh people call their fairies;\nabout Cornish Pixies; and about _F\u00e9es_ (fairies), _Corrigans_, and the\nPhantoms of the Dead in Brittany. And along with these, for they are\nvery much akin, let us hear about ghosts--sometimes about ghosts who\ndiscover hidden treasure, as in our story of the _Golden Image_--about\ngoblins, about various sorts of death-warnings generally coming from\napparitions of the dead, or from banshees, about death-candles and\nphantom-funerals, about leprechauns, about hosts of the air, and all\nkinds of elementals and spirits--in short, about all the orders of\nbeings who mingle together in that invisible realm called Fairyland.\n\n\nII. IN IRELAND\n\n     Introduction by DOUGLAS HYDE, LL.D., D. Litt., M.R.I.A. (_An\n     Craoibh\u00edn Aoibhinn_), President of the Gaelic League; author of _A\n     Literary History of Ireland_, &c.\n\nWhatever may be thought of the conclusions drawn by Mr. Wentz from his\nexplorations into the Irish spirit-world, there can be no doubt as to\nthe accuracy of the data from which he draws them. I have myself been\nfor nearly a quarter of a century collecting, off and on, the folk-lore\nof Western Ireland, not indeed in the shape in which Mr. Wentz has\ncollected it, but rather with an eye (partly for linguistic and literary\npurposes) to its songs, sayings, ballads, proverbs, and _sg\u00e9alta_, which\nlast are generally the equivalent of the German M\u00e4rchen, but sometimes\nhave a touch of the saga nature about them. In making a collection of\nthese things I have naturally come across a very large amount of\nfolk-belief conversationally expressed, with regard to the 'good people'\nand other supernatural manifestations, so that I can bear witness to the\nfidelity with which Mr. Wentz has done his work on Irish soil, for to a\ngreat number of the beliefs which he records I have myself heard\nparallels, sometimes I have heard near variants of the stories,\nsometimes the identical stories. So we may, I think, unhesitatingly\naccept his subject-matter, whatever, as I said, be the conclusions we\nmay deduce from them.\n\nThe folk-tale (_sean-sg\u00e9al_) or M\u00e4rchen, which I have spent so much time\nin collecting, must not be confounded with the folk-belief which forms\nthe basis of Mr. Wentz's studies. The _sg\u00e9al_ or story is something much\nmore intricate, complicated, and thought-out than the belief. One can\nquite easily distinguish between the two. One (the belief) is short,\nconversational, chiefly relating to real people, and contains no great\nsequence of incidents, while the other (the folk-tale) is long,\ncomplicated, more or less conventional, and above all has its interest\ngrouped around a single central figure, that of the hero or heroine. I\nmay make this plainer by an example. Let us go into a cottage on the\nmountain-side, as Mr. Wentz and I have done so often, and ask the old\nman of the house if he ever heard of such things as fairies, and he will\ntell you that 'there is fairies in it surely. Didn't his own father see\nthe \"forth\"[10] beyond full of them, and he passing by of a moonlight\nnight and a little piper among them, and he playing music that mortal\nman never heard the like?' or he'll tell you that 'he himself wouldn't\nsay agin fairies for it's often he heard their music at the old bush\nbehind the house'. Ask what the fairies are like, and he will tell\nyou--well, pretty much what Mr. Wentz tells us. From this and the like\naccounts we form our ideas of fairies and fairy music, of ghosts,\nmermaids, _p\u00facas_, and so on, but there is no sequence of incidents, no\nhero, no heroine, no story.\n\nAgain, ask the old man if he knows e'er a _sean-sg\u00e9al_ (story or\nM\u00e4rchen), and he will ask you at once, 'Did you ever hear the Speckled\nBull; did you ever hear the Well at the end of the world; did you ever\nhear the Tailor and the Three Beasts; did you ever hear the Hornless\nCow?' Ask him to relate one of these, and if you get him in the right\nvein, which may be perhaps one time in ten, or if you induce the right\nvein, which you may do perhaps nine times out of ten, you will find him\nbegin with a certain gravity and solemnity at the very beginning, thus,\n'There was once, in old times and in old times it was, a king in\nIreland'; or perhaps 'a man who married a second wife'; or perhaps 'a\nwidow woman with only one son': and the tale proceeds to recount the\nlife and adventures of the heroes or heroines, whose biographies told in\nIrish in a sort of stereotyped form may take from ten minutes to half an\nhour to get through. Some stories would burn out a dip candle in the\ntelling, or even last the whole night. But these stories have little or\nnothing to say to the questions raised in this book.\n\nThe problem we have to deal with is a startling one, as thus put before\nus by Mr. Wentz. Are these beings of the spirit world real beings,\nhaving a veritable existence of their own, in a world of their own, or\nare they only the creation of the imagination of his informants, and\nthe tradition of bygone centuries? The newspaper, the 'National' School,\nand the _Zeitgeist_ have answered to their own entire satisfaction that\nthese things are imagination pure and simple. Yet this off-hand\ncondemnation does not always carry with it a perfect conviction. We do\nnot doubt the existence of tree-martins or kingfishers, although nine\nhundred and ninety-nine people out of every thousand pass their entire\nlives without being vouchsafed a glimpse of them in their live state;\nand may it not be the same with the creatures of the spirit world, may\nnot they also exist, though to only one in a thousand it be vouchsafed\nto behold them? The spirit creatures cannot be stuffed and put into\nmuseums, like rare animals and birds, whose existence we might doubt of\nif we had not seen them there; yet they may exist just as such animals\nand birds do, though we cannot see them. I, at least, have often been\ntempted to think so. But the following considerations, partly drawn from\ncomparative folk-lore, have made me hesitate about definitely accepting\nany theory.\n\nIn the first place, then, viewing the Irish spirit-world as a whole, we\nfind that it contains, even on Mr. Wentz's showing, quite a number of\ndifferent orders of beings, of varying shapes, appearances, size, and\nfunctions. Are we to believe that all those beings equally exist, and,\non the principle that there can be no smoke without a fire, are we to\nhold that there would be no popular conception of the banshee, the\nleprechaun, or the _Maighdean-mhara_ (sea-maiden, mermaid), and\nconsequently no tales told about them, if such beings did not exist, and\nfrom time to time allow themselves to be seen like the wood-martin and\nthe kingfisher? This question is, moreover, further complicated by the\nbelief in the appearance of things that are or appear to be inanimate\nobjects, not living beings, such as the deaf coach or the phantom ship\nin full sail, the appearance of which Mr. Yeats has immortalized in one\nof his earliest and finest poems.\n\nAgain, although the _bean-sidhe_ (banshee), leprechaun, _p\u00faca_, and the\nlike are the most commonly known and usually seen creatures of the\nspirit world, yet great quantities of other appearances are believed to\nhave been also sporadically met with. I very well remember sitting one\nnight some four or five years ago in an hotel in Indianapolis, U.S.A.,\nand talking to four Irishmen, one or two of them very wealthy, and all\nprosperous citizens of the United States. The talk happened to turn upon\nspirits--the only time during my entire American experiences in which\nsuch a thing happened--and each man of the four had a story of his own\nto tell, in which he was a convinced believer, of ghostly manifestations\nseen by him in Ireland. Two of these manifestations were of beings that\nwould fall into no known category; a monstrous rabbit as big as an ass,\nwhich plunged into the sea (rabbits can swim), and a white heifer which\nascended to heaven, were two of them. I myself, when a boy of ten or\neleven, was perfectly convinced that on a fine early dewy morning in\nsummer when people were still in bed, I saw a strange horse run round a\nseven-acre field of ours and change into a woman, who ran even swifter\nthan the horse, and after a couple of courses round the field\ndisappeared into our haggard. I am sure, whatever I may believe to-day,\nno earthly persuasion would, at the time, have convinced me that I did\nnot see this. Yet I never saw it again, and never heard of any one else\nseeing the same.\n\nMy object in mentioning these things is to show that if we concede the\nreal objective existence of, let us say, the apparently\nwell-authenticated banshee (_Bean-sidhe_, 'woman-fairy'), where are we\nto stop? for any number of beings, more or less well authenticated, come\ncrowding on her heels, so many indeed that they would point to a far\nmore extensive world of different shapes than is usually suspected, not\nto speak of inanimate objects like the coach and the ship. Of course\nthere is nothing inherently impossible in all these shapes existing any\nmore than in one of them existing, but they all seem to me to rest upon\nthe same kind of testimony, stronger in the case of some, less strong in\nthe case of others, and it is as well to point out this clearly.\n\nMy own experience is that beliefs in the _Sidhe_ (pronounced Shee)\nfolk, and in other denizens of the invisible world is, in many places,\nrapidly dying. In reading folk-lore collections like those of Mr. Wentz\nand others, one is naturally inclined to exaggerate the extent and depth\nof these traditions. They certainly still exist, and can be found if you\ngo to search for them; but they often exist almost as it were by\nsufferance, only in spots, and are ceasing to be any longer a power.\nNear my home in a western county (County Roscommon) rises gently a\nslope, which, owing to the flatness of the surrounding regions, almost\nbecomes a hill, and is a conspicuous object for many miles upon every\nside. The old people called it in Irish _Mullach na Sidhe_. This name is\nnow practically lost, and it is called Fairymount. So extinct have the\ntraditions of the _Sidhe_-folk, who lived within the hill, become, that\na high ecclesiastic recently driving by asked his driver was there an\nIrish name for the hill, and what was it, and his driver did not know.\nThere took place a few years ago a much talked of bog-slide in the\nneighbouring townland of Cloon-Sheever (_Sidhbhair_ or _Siabhra_), 'the\nMeadow of the Fairies,' and many newspaper correspondents came to view\nit. One of the natives told a sympathetic newspaper reporter, 'Sure we\nalways knew it was going to move, that's why the place is named\nCloon-Sheever, the bog was always in a \"shiver\"!' I have never been able\nto hear of any legends attached to what must have at one time been held\nto be the head-quarters of the _Sidhe_ for a score of miles round it.\n\nOf all the beings in the Irish mythological world the _Sidhe_ are,\nhowever, apparently the oldest and the most distinctive. Beside them in\nliterature and general renown all other beings sink into insignificance.\nA belief in them formerly dominated the whole of Irish life. The _Sidhe_\nor Tuatha De Danann were a people like ourselves who inhabited the\nhills--not as a rule the highest and most salient eminences, but I think\nmore usually the pleasant undulating slopes or gentle hill-sides--and\nwho lived there a life of their own, marrying or giving in marriage,\nbanqueting or making war, and leading there just as real a life as is\nour own. All Irish literature, particularly perhaps the 'Colloquy of\nthe Ancients' (_Agallamh na Sen\u00f3rach_) abounds with reference to them.\nTo inquire how the Irish originally came by their belief in these\nbeings, the _Sidhe_ or Tuatha De Danann, is to raise a question which\ncannot be answered, any more than one can answer the question, Where did\nthe Romans obtain their belief in Bacchus and the fauns, or the Greeks\ntheir own belief in the beings of Olympus?\n\nBut granting such belief to have been indigenous to the Irish, as it\ncertainly seems to have been, then the tall, handsome fairies of Ben\nBulbin and the Sligo district, about whom Mr. Wentz tells us so much\ninteresting matter, might be accounted for as being a continuation of\nthe tradition of the ancient Gaels, or _a piece of heredity inherent in\nthe folk-imagination_. I mean, in other words, that the tradition about\nthese handsome dwellers within the hill-sides having been handed down\nfor ages, and having been perhaps exceptionally well preserved in those\ndistricts, people saw just what they had always been told existed, or,\nif I may so put it, they saw what they expected to see.\n\nFin Bheara, the King of the Connacht Fairies in Cnoc Meadha (or\nCastlehacket) in the County Galway, his Queen Nuala, and all the\nbeautiful forms seen by Mr. Wentz's seer-witness (pp. 60 ff.), all the\nbanshees and all the human figures, white women, and so forth, who are\nseen in raths and moats and on hill-sides, are the direct descendants,\nso to speak, of the Tuatha De Danann or the _Sidhe_. Of this, I think,\nthere can be no doubt whatever.\n\nBut then how are we to account for the little red-dressed men and women\nand the leprechauns? Yet, are they any more wonderful than the pygmies\nof classic tradition? Is not the Mermaid to be found in Greece, and is\nnot the Lorelei as Germanic as the Kelpy is Caledonian. If we grant that\nall these are creatures of primitive folk-belief, then how they come to\nbe so ceases to be a Celtic problem, it becomes a world problem. But\ngranted, as I say, that they were all creatures of primitive\nfolk-belief, then their occasional appearances, or the belief in such,\nmay be accounted for in exactly the same way as I have suggested to be\npossible in the case of the Ben Bulbin fairies.\n\nAs for the belief in ghosts or _revenants_ (in Irish _tais_ or\n_taidhbhse_), it seems to me that this may possibly rest to some extent\nupon a different footing altogether. Here we are not confronted by a\ndifferent order of beings of different shapes and attributes from our\nown, but only with the appearances, amongst the living, of men who were\nbelieved or known to be dead or far away from the scene of their\nappearances. Even those who may be most sceptical about the _Sidhe_-folk\nand the leprechauns are likely to be convinced (on the mere evidence)\nthat the existence of 'astral bodies' or 'doubles', or whatever we may\ncall them, and the appearances of people, especially in the hour of\ntheir death, to other people who were perhaps hundreds of miles away at\nthe time, is amply proven. Yet whatever may have been the case\noriginally when man was young, I do not think that this had in later\ntimes any more direct bearing upon the belief in the _Sidhe_, the\nleprechauns, the mermaid, and similar beings than upon the belief in the\nGreek Pantheon, the naiads, the dryads, or the fauns; all of which\nbeliefs, probably arising originally from an animistic source, must have\ndifferentiated themselves at a very early period. Of course every real\napparition, every 'ghost' apparition, tends now, and must have tended at\nall times, to strengthen every spirit belief. For do not ghost\napparitions belong, in a way, to the same realm as all the others we\nhave spoken of, that is, to a realm equally outside our normal\nexperience?\n\nAnother very interesting point, and one hitherto generally overlooked,\nis this, that different parts of the Irish soil cherish different bodies\nof supernatural beings. The North of Ireland believes in beings unknown\nin the South, and North-East Leinster has spirits unknown to the West.\nSome places seem to be almost given up to special beliefs. Any outsider,\nfor instance, who may have read that powerful and grisly book, _La\nL\u00e9gende de la Mort_, by M. Anatole Le Braz, in two large volumes, all\nabout the awful appearances of _Ankou_ (Death), who simply dominates the\nfolk-lore of Brittany, will probably be very much astonished to know\nthat, though I have been collecting Irish folk-lore all my life, I have\nnever met Death figuring as a personality in more than two or three\ntales, and these mostly of a trivial or humorous description, though the\nDeaf Coach (_C\u00f3iste Bodhar_), the belief in which is pretty general,\ndoes seem a kind of parallel to the creaking cart in which _Ankou_\nrides.\n\nI would suggest, then, that the restriction of certain forms of spirits,\nif I may so call them, to certain localities, may be due to race\nintermixture. I would imagine that where the people of a primitive tribe\nsettled down most strongly, they also most strongly preserved the memory\nof those supernatural beings who were peculiarly their own. The\n_Sidhe_-folk appear to be pre-eminently and distinctively Milesian, but\nthe _geancanach_ (name of some little spirit in Meath and portion of\nUlster) may have been believed in by a race entirely different from that\nwhich believed in the _cl\u00faracaun_ (a Munster sprite). Some of these\nbeliefs may be Aryan, but many are probably pre-Celtic.\n\nIs it not strange that while the names and exploits of the great\nsemi-mythological heroes of the various Saga cycles of Ireland,\nCuchulainn, Conor mac Nessa, Finn, Osgar, Oisin, and the rest, are at\npresent the inheritance of all Ireland, and are known in every part of\nit, there should still be, as I have said, supernatural beings believed\nin which are unknown outside of their own districts, and of which the\nrest of Ireland has never heard? If the inhabitants of the limited\ndistricts in which these are seen still think they see them, my\nsuggestion is that the earlier race handed down an account of the\nprimitive beings believed in by their own tribe, and later generations,\nif they saw anything, saw just what they were told existed.\n\nWhilst far from questioning the actual existence of certain spiritual\nforms and apparitions, I venture to throw out these considerations for\nwhat they may be worth, and I desire again to thank Mr. Wentz for all\nthe valuable data he has collected for throwing light upon so\ninteresting a question.\n\n  RATRA, FRENCHPARK,\n    COUNTY ROSCOMMON, IRELAND,\n      _September_ 1910.\n\n\nTHE FAIRY FOLK OF TARA\n\nOn the ancient Hill of Tara, from whose heights the High Kings once\nruled all Ireland, from where the sacred fires in pagan days announced\nthe annual resurrection of the sun, the Easter Tide, where the magic of\nPatrick prevailed over the magic of the Druids, and where the hosts of\nthe Tuatha De Danann were wont to appear at the great Feast of _Samain_,\nto-day the fairy-folk of modern times hold undisputed sovereignty. And\nfrom no point better than Tara, which thus was once the magical and\npolitical centre of the Sacred Island, could we begin our study of the\nIrish Fairy-Faith. Though the Hill has lain unploughed and deserted\nsince the curses of Christian priests fell upon it, on the calm air of\nsummer evenings, at the twilight hour, wondrous music still sounds over\nits slopes, and at night long, weird processions of silent spirits march\nround its grass-grown _raths_ and _forts_.[11] It is only men who fear\nthe curse of the Christians; the fairy-folk regard it not.\n\nThe Rev. Father Peter Kenney, of Kilmessan, had directed me to John\nGraham, an old man over seventy years of age, who has lived near Tara\nmost of his life; and after I had found John, and he had led me from\n_rath_ to _rath_ and then right through the length of the site where\nonce stood the banquet hall of kings and heroes and Druids, as he\nearnestly described the past glories of Tara to which these ancient\nmonuments bear silent testimony, we sat down in the thick sweet grass on\nthe Sacred Hill and began talking of the olden times in Ireland, and\nthen of the 'good people':--\n\n_The 'Good People's' Music._--'As sure as you are sitting down I heard\nthe pipes there in that wood (pointing to a wood on the north-west\nslope of the Hill, and west of the banquet hall). I heard the music\nanother time on a hot summer evening at the Rath of Ringlestown, in a\nfield where all the grass had been burned off; and I often heard it in\nthe wood of Tara. Whenever the _good people_ play, you hear their music\nall through the field as plain as can be; and it is the grandest kind of\nmusic. It may last half the night, but once day comes, it ends.'\n\n_Who the 'Good People' are._--I now asked John what sort of a race the\n'good people' are, and where they came from, and this is his\nreply:--'People killed and murdered in war stay on earth till their time\nis up, and they are among the _good people_. The souls on this earth are\nas thick as the grass (running his walking-stick through a thick clump),\nand you can't see them; and evil spirits are just as thick, too, and\npeople don't know it. Because there are so many spirits knocking (going)\nabout they must appear to some people. The old folk saw the _good\npeople_ here on the Hill a hundred times, and they'd always be talking\nabout them. The _good people_ can see everything, and you dare not\nmeddle with them. They live in _raths_, and their houses are in them.\nThe opinion always was that they are a race of spirits, for they can go\ninto different forms, and can appear big as well as little.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM KILMESSAN, NEAR TARA\n\nJohn Boylin, born in County Meath about sixty years ago, will be our\nwitness from Kilmessan, a village about two miles from Tara; and he,\nbeing one of the men of the vicinity best informed about its folk-lore,\nis able to offer testimony of very great value:--\n\n_The Fairy Tribes._--'There is said to be a whole tribe of little red\nmen living in Glen Odder, between Ringlestown and Tara; and on long\nevenings in June they have been heard. There are other breeds or castes\nof fairies; and it seems to me, when I recall our ancient traditions,\nthat some of these fairies are of the Fir Bolgs, some of the Tuatha De\nDanann, and some of the Milesians. All of them have been seen\nserenading round the western slope of Tara, dressed in ancient Irish\ncostumes. Unlike the little red men, these fairy races are warlike and\ngiven to making invasions. Long processions of them have been seen going\nround the King's Chair (an earthwork on which the Kings of Tara are said\nto have been crowned); and they then would appear like soldiers of\nancient Ireland in review.'\n\n_The Fairy Procession._--'We were told as children, that, as soon as\nnight fell, the fairies from Rath Ringlestown would form in a\nprocession, across Tara road, pass round certain bushes which have not\nbeen disturbed for ages, and join the _gangkena_ (?) or host of\nindustrious folk, the red fairies. We were afraid, and our nurses always\nbrought us home before the advent of the fairy procession. One of the\npasses used by this procession happened to be between two mud-wall\nhouses; and it is said that a man went out of one of these houses at the\nwrong time, for when found he was dead: the fairies had _taken_ him\nbecause he interfered with their procession.'[12]\n\n_Death through Cutting Fairy-Bushes._--'A man named Caffney cut as fuel\nto boil his pot of potatoes some of these undisturbed bushes round which\nthe fairies pass. When he put the wood under the pot, though it spat\nfire, and fire-sparkles would come out of it, it would not burn. The man\npined away gradually. In six months after cutting the fairy-bushes, he\nwas dead. Just before he died, he told his experiences with the wood to\nhis brother, and his brother told me.'\n\n_The Fairies are the Dead._--'According to the local belief, fairies are\nthe spirits of the departed. Tradition says that Hugh O'Neil in the\nsixteenth century, after his march to the south, encamped his army on\nthe _Rath_ or _Fort_ of Ringlestown, to be assisted by the spirits of\nthe mighty dead who dwelt within this _rath_. And it is believed that\nGerald Fitzgerald has been seen coming out of the Hill of Mollyellen,\ndown in County Louth, leading his horse and dressed in the old Irish\ncostume, with breastplate, spear, and war outfit.'\n\n_Fairy Possession._--'Rose Carroll was possessed by a fairy-spirit. It\nis known that her father held communion with evil spirits, and it\nappears that they often assisted him. The Carrolls' house was built at\nthe end of a fairy _fort_, and part of it was scooped out of this\n_fort_. Rose grew so peculiar that her folks locked her up. After two\nyears she was able to shake off the fairy possession by being taken to\nFather Robinson's sisters, and then to an old witch-woman in Drogheda.'\n\n\nIN THE VALLEY OF THE BOYNE\n\nIn walking along the River Boyne, from Slane to Knowth and New Grange, I\nstopped at the cottage of Owen Morgan, at Ross-na-Righ, or 'the Wood of\nthe Kings', though the ancient wood has long since disappeared; and as\nwe sat looking out over the sunlit beauty of Ireland's classic river,\nand in full view of the first of the famous _moats_, this is what Owen\nMorgan told me:--\n\n_How the Shoemaker's Daughter became the Queen of Tara._--'In olden\ntimes there lived a shoemaker and his wife up there near Moat Knowth,\nand their first child was taken by the queen of the fairies who lived\ninside the moat, and a little leprechaun left in its place. The same\nexchange was made when the second child was born. At the birth of the\nthird child the fairy queen came again and ordered one of her three\nservants to take the child; but the child could not be moved because of\na great beam of iron, too heavy to lift, which lay across the baby's\nbreast. The second servant and then the third failed like the first, and\nthe queen herself could not move the child. The mother being short of\npins had used a needle to fasten the child's clothes, and that was what\nappeared to the fairies as a beam of iron, for there was virtue in steel\nin those days.\n\n'So the fairy queen decided to bestow gifts upon the child; and advised\neach of the three servants to give, in turn, a different gift. The first\none said, \"May she be the grandest lady in the world\"; the second one\nsaid, \"May she be the greatest singer in the world\"; and the third one\nsaid, \"May she be the best mantle-maker in the world.\" Then the fairy\nqueen said, \"Your gifts are all very good, but I will give a gift of my\nown better than any of them: the first time she happens to go out of the\nhouse let her come back into it under the form of a rat.\" The mother\nheard all that the fairy women said, and so she never permitted her\ndaughter to leave the house.\n\n'When the girl reached the age of eighteen, it happened that the young\nprince of Tara, in riding by on a hunt, heard her singing, and so\nentranced was he with the music that he stopped to listen; and, the song\nended, he entered the house, and upon seeing the wonderful beauty of the\nsinger asked her to marry him. The mother said that could not be, and\ntaking the daughter out of the house for the first time brought her back\ninto it in an apron under the form of a rat, that the prince might\nunderstand the refusal.\n\n'This enchantment, however, did not change the prince's love for the\nbeautiful singer; and he explained how there was a day mentioned with\nhis father, the king, for all the great ladies of Ireland to assemble in\nthe Halls of Tara, and that the grandest lady and the greatest singer\nand the best mantle-maker would be chosen as his wife. When he added\nthat each lady must come in a chariot, the rat spoke to him and said\nthat he must send to her home, on the day named, four piebald cats and a\npack of cards, and that she would make her appearance, provided that at\nthe time her chariot came to the Halls of Tara no one save the prince\nshould be allowed near it; and, she finally said to the prince, \"Until\nthe day mentioned with your father, you must carry me as a rat in your\npocket.\"\n\n'But before the great day arrived, the rat had made everything known to\none of the fairy women, and so when the four piebald cats and the pack\nof cards reached the girl's home, the fairies at once turned the cats\ninto the four most splendid horses in the world, and the pack of cards\ninto the most wonderful chariot in the world; and, as the chariot was\nsetting out from the Moat for Tara, the fairy queen clapped her hands\nand laughed, and the enchantment over the girl was broken, so that she\nbecame, as before, the prettiest lady in the world, and she sitting in\nthe chariot.\n\n'When the prince saw the wonderful chariot coming, he knew whose it was,\nand went out alone to meet it; but he could not believe his eyes on\nseeing the lady inside. And then she told him about the witches and\nfairies, and explained everything.\n\n'Hundreds of ladies had come to the Halls of Tara from all Ireland, and\nevery one as grand as could be. The contest began with the singing, and\nended with the mantle-making, and the young girl was the last to appear;\nbut to the amazement of all the company the king had to give in (admit)\nthat the strange woman was the grandest lady, the greatest singer, and\nthe best mantle-maker in Ireland; and when the old king died she became\nthe Queen of Tara.'\n\nAfter this ancient legend, which Owen Morgan heard from the old folks\nwhen he was a boy, he told me many anecdotes about the 'good people' of\nthe Boyne, who are little men usually dressed in red.\n\n_The 'Good People' at New Grange._--Between Knowth and New Grange I met\nMaggie Timmons carrying a pail of butter-milk to her calves; and when we\nstopped on the road to talk, I asked her, in due time, if any of the\n'good people' ever appeared in the region, or about New Grange, which we\ncould see in the field, and she replied, in reference to New Grange:--'I\nam sure the neighbours used to see the _good people_ come out of it at\nnight and in the morning. The _good people_ inherited the _fort_.'\n\nThen I asked her what the 'good people' are, and she said:--'When they\ndisappear they go like fog; they must be something like spirits, or how\ncould they disappear in that way? I knew of people,' she added, 'who\nwould milk in the fields about here and spill milk on the ground for the\n_good people_; and pots of potatoes would be put out for the _good\npeople_ at night.' (See chap. viii for additional New Grange folk-lore.)\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF AN IRISH PRIEST\n\nWe now pass directly to West Ireland, in many ways our most important\nfield, and where of all places in the Celtic world the Fairy-Faith is\nvigorously alive; and it seems very fitting to offer the first\nopportunity to testify in behalf of that district to a scholarly priest\nof the Roman Church, for what he tells us is almost wholly the result of\nhis own memories and experiences as an Irish boy in Connemara,\nsupplemented in a valuable way by his wider and more mature knowledge of\nthe fairy-belief as he sees it now among his own parishioners:--\n\n_Knock Ma Fairies._--'Knock Ma, which you see over there, is said to\ncontain excavated passages and a palace where the fairies live, and with\nthem the people they have _taken_. And from the inside of the hill there\nis believed to be an entrance to an underground world. It is a common\nopinion that after consumptives die they are there with the fairies in\ngood health. The wasted body is not taken into the hill, for it is\nusually regarded as not the body of the deceased but rather as that of a\nchangeling, the general belief being that the real body and the soul are\ncarried off together, and those of an old person from Fairyland\nsubstituted. The old person left soon declines and dies.'\n\n_Safeguards against Fairies._--'It was proper when having finished\nmilking a cow to put one's thumb in the pail of milk, and with the wet\nthumb to make the sign of the cross on the thigh of the cow on the side\nmilked, to be safe against fairies. And I have seen them when churning\nput a live coal about an inch square under the churn, because it was an\nold custom connected with fairies.'\n\n_Milk and Butter for Fairies._--'Whatever milk falls on the ground in\nmilking a cow is taken by the fairies, for fairies need a little milk.\nAlso, after churning, the knife which is run through the butter in\ndrying it must not be scraped clean, for what sticks to it belongs to\nthe fairies. Out of three pounds of butter, for example, an ounce or two\nwould be left for the fairies. I have seen this several times.'\n\n_Crossing a Stream, and Fairies._--'When out on a dark night, if pursued\nby fairies or ghosts one is considered quite safe if one can get over\nsome stream. I remember coming home on a dark night with a boy companion\nand hearing a noise, and then after we had run to a stream and crossed\nit feeling quite safe.'\n\n_Fairy Preserves._--'A heap of stones in a field should not be\ndisturbed, though needed for building--especially if they are part of an\nancient tumulus. The fairies are said to live inside the pile, and to\nmove the stones would be most unfortunate. If a house happens to be\nbuilt on a fairy preserve, or in a fairy track, the occupants will have\nno luck. Everything will go wrong. Their animals will die, their\nchildren fall sick, and no end of trouble will come on them. When the\nhouse happens to have been built in a fairy track, the doors on the\nfront and back, or the windows if they are in the line of the track,\ncannot be kept closed at night, for the fairies must march through. Near\nBallinrobe there is an old _fort_ which is still the preserve of the\nfairies, and the land round it. The soil is very fine, and yet no one\nwould dare to till it. Some time ago in laying out a new road the\nengineers determined to run it through the _fort_, but the people rose\nalmost in rebellion, and the course had to be changed. The farmers\nwouldn't cut down a tree or bush growing on the hill or preserve for\nanything.'\n\n_Fairy Control over Crops._--'Fairies are believed to control crops and\ntheir ripening. A field of turnips may promise well, and its owner will\ncount on so many tons to the acre, but if when the crop is gathered it\nis found to be far short of the estimate, the explanation is that the\nfairies have extracted so much substance from it. The same thing is the\ncase with corn.'\n\n_November Eve and Fairies._--'On November Eve it is not right to gather\nor eat blackberries or sloes, nor after that time as long as they last.\nOn November Eve the fairies pass over all such things and make them\nunfit to eat. If one dares to eat them afterwards one will have serious\nillness. We firmly believed this as boys, and I laugh now when I think\nhow we used to gorge ourselves with berries on the last day of October,\nand then for weeks after pass by bushes full of the most luscious fruit,\nand with mouths watering for it couldn't eat it.'\n\n_Fairies as Flies._--'There is an old abbey on the river, in County\nMayo, and people say the fairies had a great battle near it, and that\nthe slaughter was tremendous. At the time, the fairies appeared as\nswarms of flies coming from every direction to that spot. Some came from\nKnock Ma, and some from South Ireland, the opinion being that fairies\ncan assume any form they like. The battle lasted a day and a night, and\nwhen it was over one could have filled baskets with the dead flies which\nfloated down the river.'\n\n_Those who Return from Faerie._--'Persons in a short trance-state of two\nor three days' duration are said to be away with the fairies enjoying a\nfestival. The festival may be very material in its nature, or it may be\npurely spiritual. Sometimes one may thus go to Faerie for an hour or\ntwo; or one may remain there for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years.\nThe mind of a person coming out of Fairyland is usually a blank as to\nwhat has been seen and done there. Another idea is that the person knows\nwell enough all about Fairyland, but is prevented from communicating the\nknowledge. A certain woman of whom I knew said she had forgotten all\nabout her experiences in Faerie, but a friend who heard her objected,\nand said she did remember, and wouldn't tell. A man may remain awake at\nnight to watch one who has been to Fairyland to see if that one holds\ncommunication with the fairies. Others say in such a case that the\nfairies know you are on the alert, and will not be discovered.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF A GALWAY PIPER\n\n_Fairies=Sidhe\u00f3ga._--According to our next witness, Steven Ruan, a piper\nof Galway, with whom I have often talked, there is one class of fairies\n'who are nobody else than the spirits of men and women who once lived\non earth'; and the banshee is a dead friend, relative, or ancestor who\nappears to give a warning. 'The fairies', he says, 'never care about old\nfolks. They only _take_ babies, and young men and young women. If a\nyoung wife dies, she is said to have been _taken_ by _them_, and ever\nafterwards to live in Fairyland. The same things are said about a young\nman or a child who dies. Fairyland is a place of delights, where music,\nand singing, and dancing, and feasting are continually enjoyed; and its\ninhabitants are all about us, as numerous as the blades of grass.'\n\n_A Fairy Dog._--In the course of another conversation, Steven pointed to\na rocky knoll in a field not far from his home, and said:--'I saw a dog\nwith a white ring around his neck by that hill there, and the oldest men\nround Galway have seen him, too, for he has been here for one hundred\nyears or more. He is a dog of the _good people_, and only appears at\ncertain hours of the night.'\n\n_An Old Piper in Fairyland._--And before we had done talking, the\nsubject of fairy-music came up, and the following little story coming\nfrom one of the last of the old Irish pipers himself, about a brother\npiper, is of more than ordinary value:--'There used to be an old piper\ncalled Flannery who lived in Oranmore, County Galway. I imagine he was\none of the old generation. And one time the _good people_ took him to\nFairyland to learn his profession. He studied music with them for a long\ntime, and when he returned he was as great a piper as any in Ireland.\nBut he died young, for the _good people_ wanted him to play for them.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF 'OLD PATSY' OF ARANMORE\n\nOur next witness is an old man, familiarly called 'Old Patsy', who is a\nnative of the Island of Aranmore, off the coast from Galway, and he\nlives on the island amid a little group of straw-thatched fishermen's\nhomes called Oak Quarter. As 'Old Patsy' stood beside a rude stone cross\nnear Oak Quarter, in one of those curious places on Aranmore, where each\npassing funeral stops long enough to erect a little memorial pile of\nstones on the smooth rocky surface of the roadside enclosure, he told me\nmany anecdotes about the mysteries of his native island.\n\n_Aranmore Fairies._--Twenty years or so ago round the _Bedd_ of Dermot\nand Grania, just above us on the hill, there were seen many fairies,\n'crowds of them,' said 'Old Patsy', and a single deer. They began to\nchase the deer, and followed it right over the island. At another time\nsimilar little people chased a horse. 'The rocks were full of them, and\nthey were small fellows.'\n\n_A Fairy Beating--in a Dream._--'In the South Island,' he continued, 'as\nnight was coming on, a man was giving his cow water at a well, and, as\nhe looked on the other side of a wall, he saw many strange people\nplaying hurley. When they noticed him looking at them, one came up and\nstruck the cow a hard blow, and turning on the man cut his face and body\nvery badly. The man might not have been so badly off, but he returned to\nthe well after the first encounter and got five times as bad a beating;\nand when he reached home he couldn't speak at all, until the cock crew.\nThen he told about his adventures, and slept a little. When he woke up\nin the daylight he was none the worse for his beating, for the fairies\nhad rubbed something on his face.' Patsy says he knew the man, who if\nstill alive is now in America, where he went several years ago.\n\n_Where Fairies Live._--When I asked Patsy where the fairies live, he\nturned half around, and pointing in the direction of Dun Aengus, which\nwas in full view on the sharp sky-line of Aranmore, said that there, in\na large tumulus on the hill-side below it, they had one of their\nfavourite abodes. But, he added, 'The rocks are full of them, and they\nare small fellows.' Just across the road from where we were standing, in\na spot near Oak Quarter, another place was pointed out where the fairies\nare often seen dancing. The name of it is _Moneen an Damhsa_, 'the\nLittle Bog of the Dance.' Other sorts of fairies live in the sea; and\nsome of them who live on Aranmore (probably in conjunction with those in\nthe sea) go out over the water and cause storms and wind.\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN\n\nThe following evidence, by the Rev. Father ----, came out during a\ndiscussion concerning spirits and fairies as regarded by Roman Catholic\ntheology, which he and I enjoyed when we met as fellow travellers in\nGalway Town:--\n\n_Of Magic and Place-spirits._--'Magic, according to Catholic theology,\nis nothing else than the solicitation of spiritual powers to help us. If\nevil spirits are evoked by certain irrational practices it is unholy\nmagic, and this is altogether forbidden by our Church. All charms,\nspells, divination, necromancy, or geomancy are unholy magic. Holy magic\nis practised by carrying the Cross in Christ. Now evil magic has been\npractised here in Ireland: butter has been _taken_ so that none came\nfrom the churning; cows have been made to die of maladies; and fields\nmade unproductive. A cow was bought from an old woman in Connemara, and\nno butter was ever had from the cow until exorcism with holy water was\nperformed. This is reported to me as a fact.' And in another relation\nthe Rev. Father ---- said what for us is highly significant:--'My\nprivate opinion is that in certain places here in Ireland where pagan\nsacrifices were practised, evil spirits through receiving homage gained\ncontrol, and still hold control, unless driven out by exorcisms.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF THE TOWN CLERK OF TUAM\n\nTo the town clerk of Tuam, Mr. John Glynn, who since his boyhood has\ntaken a keen interest in the traditions of his native county, I am\nindebted for the following valuable summary of the fairy creed in that\npart of North Galway where Finvara rules:--\n\n_Fairies of the Tuam Country._--'The whole of Knock Ma (_Cnoc\nMeadha_[13]), which probably means Hill of the Plain, is said to be the\npalace of Finvara, king of the Connaught fairies. There are a good many\nlegends about Finvara, but very few about Queen Meave in this region.'\n\n_Famine of 1846-7 caused by Fairies._--'During 1846-7 the potato crop in\nIreland was a failure, and very much suffering resulted. At the time,\nthe country people in these parts attributed the famine to disturbed\nconditions in the fairy world. Old Thady Steed once told me about the\nconditions then prevailing, \"Sure, we couldn't be any other way; and I\nsaw the _good people_ and hundreds besides me saw them fighting in the\nsky over Knock Ma and on towards Galway.\" And I heard others say they\nsaw the fighting also.'\n\n_Fairyland; and the Seeress._--'Fairies are said to be immortal, and the\nfairy world is always described as an immaterial place, though I do not\nthink it is the same as the world of the dead. Sick persons, however,\nare often said to be with the fairies, and when cured, to have come\nback. A woman who died here about thirty years ago was commonly believed\nto have been with the fairies during her seven years' sickness when she\nwas a maiden. She married after coming back, and had children; and she\nwas always able to see the _good people_ and to talk with them, for she\nhad the second-sight. And it is said that she used to travel with the\nfairies at night. After her marriage she lived in Tuam, and though her\npeople were six or seven miles out from Tuam in the country, she could\nalways tell all that was taking place with them there, and she at her\nown home at the time.'\n\n_Fairies on May Day._--'On May Day the _good people_ can steal butter if\nthe chance is given them. If a person enters a house then, and churning\nis going on, he must take a hand in it, or else there will be no butter.\nAnd if fire is given away on May Day nothing will go right for the whole\nyear.'\n\n_The Three Fairy Drops._--'Even yet certain things are due the fairies;\nfor example, two years ago, in the Court Room here in Tuam, a woman was\non trial for watering milk, and to the surprise of us all who were\nconducting the proceedings, and, it can be added, to the great amusement\nof the onlookers, she swore that she had only added \"the three fairy\ndrops\".'\n\n_Food of Fairies._--'Food, after it has been put out at night for the\nfairies, is not allowed to be eaten afterwards by man or beast, not even\nby pigs. Such food is said to have no real substance left in it, and to\nlet anything eat it wouldn't be thought of. The underlying idea seems to\nbe that the fairies extract the spiritual essence from food offered to\nthem, leaving behind the grosser elements.'\n\n_Fairy Warfare._--'When the fairy tribes under the various kings and\nqueens have a battle, one side manages to have a living man among them,\nand he by knocking the fairies about turns the battle in case the side\nhe is on is losing. It is always usual for the Munster fairy king to\nchallenge Finvara, the Connaught fairy king.'\n\n\nCOUNTY SLIGO, AND THE TESTIMONY OF A PEASANT SEER[14]\n\nThe Ben Bulbin country in County Sligo is one of those rare places in\nIreland where fairies are thought to be visible, and our first witness\nfrom there claims to be able to see the fairies or 'gentry' and to talk\nwith them. This mortal so favoured lives in the same townland where his\nfathers have lived during four hundred years, directly beneath the\nshadows of Ben Bulbin, on whose sides Dermot is said to have been killed\nwhile hunting the wild-boar. And this famous old mountain, honeycombed\nwith curious grottoes ages ago when the sea beat against its\nperpendicular flanks, is the very place where the 'gentry' have their\nchief abode. Even on its broad level summit, for it is a high square\ntableland like a mighty cube of rock set down upon the earth by some\nantediluvian god, there are treacherous holes, wherein more than one\nhunter may have been lost for ever, penetrating to unknown depths; and\nby listening one can hear the tides from the ocean three or four miles\naway surging in and out through ancient subterranean channels, connected\nwith these holes. In the neighbouring mountains there are long caverns\nwhich no man has dared to penetrate to the end, and even dogs, it is\nsaid, have been put in them never to emerge, or else to come out miles\naway.\n\nOne day when the heavy white fog-banks hung over Ben Bulbin and its\nneighbours, and there was a weird almost-twilight at midday over the\npurple heather bog-lands at their base, and the rain was falling, I sat\nwith my friend before a comfortable fire of fragrant turf in his cottage\nand heard about the 'gentry':--\n\n_Encounters with the 'Gentry'._--'When I was a young man I often used to\ngo out in the mountains over there (pointing out of the window in their\ndirection) to fish for trout, or to hunt; and it was in January on a\ncold, dry day while carrying my gun that I and a friend with me, as we\nwere walking around Ben Bulbin, saw one of the _gentry_ for the first\ntime. I knew who it was, for I had heard the _gentry_ described ever\nsince I could remember; and this one was dressed in blue with a\nhead-dress adorned with what seemed to be frills.[15] When he came up to\nus, he said to me in a sweet and silvery voice, \"The seldomer you come\nto this mountain the better. A young lady here wants to take you away.\"\nThen he told us not to fire off our guns, because the _gentry_ dislike\nbeing disturbed by the noise. And he seemed to be like a soldier of the\n_gentry_ on guard. As we were leaving the mountains, he told us not to\nlook back, and we didn't. Another time I was alone trout-fishing in\nnearly the same region when I heard a voice say, \"It is ---- barefooted\nand fishing.\" Then there came a whistle like music and a noise like the\nbeating of a drum, and soon one of the _gentry_ came and talked with me\nfor half an hour. He said, \"Your mother will die in eleven months, and\ndo not let her die unanointed.\" And she did die within eleven months. As\nhe was going away he warned me, \"You must be in the house before sunset.\nDo not delay! Do not delay! They can do nothing to you until I get back\nin the castle.\" As I found out afterwards, he was going to _take_ me,\nbut hesitated because he did not want to leave my mother alone. After\nthese warnings I was always afraid to go to the mountains, but lately I\nhave been told I could go if I took a friend with me.'\n\n_'Gentry' Protection._--'The _gentry_ have always befriended and\nprotected me. I was drowned twice but for them. Once I was going to\nDurnish Island, a mile off the coast. The channel is very deep, and at\nthe time there was a rough sea, with the tide running out, and I was\nalmost lost. I shrieked and shouted, and finally got safe to the\nmainland. The day I talked with one of the _gentry_ at the foot of the\nmountain when he was for _taking_ me, he mentioned this, and said they\nwere the ones who saved me from drowning then.'\n\n_'Gentry' Stations._--'Especially in Ireland, the _gentry_ live inside\nthe mountains in beautiful castles; and there are a good many branches\nof them in other countries. Like armies, they have various stations and\nmove from one to another. Some live in the Wicklow Mountains near\nDublin.'\n\n_'Gentry' Control Over Human Affairs._--'The _gentry_ take a great\ninterest in the affairs of men, and they always stand for justice and\nright. Any side they favour in our wars, that side wins. They favoured\nthe Boers, and the Boers did get their rights. They told me they\nfavoured the Japanese and not the Russians, because the Russians are\ntyrants. Sometimes they fight among themselves. One of them once said,\n\"I'd fight for a friend, or I'd fight for Ireland.\"'\n\n_The 'Gentry' Described._--In response to my wish, this description of\nthe 'gentry' was given:--'The folk are the grandest I have ever seen.\nThey are far superior to us, and that is why they are called the\n_gentry_. They are not a working class, but a military-aristocratic\nclass, tall and noble-appearing. They are a distinct race between our\nown and that of spirits, as they have told me. Their qualifications are\ntremendous. \"We could cut off half the human race, but would not,\" they\nsaid, \"for we are expecting salvation.\" And I knew a man three or four\nyears ago whom they struck down with paralysis. Their sight is so\npenetrating that I think they could see through the earth. They have a\nsilvery voice, quick and sweet. The music they play is most beautiful.\nThey _take_ the whole body and soul of young and intellectual people who\nare interesting, transmuting the body to a body like their own. I asked\nthem once if they ever died, and they said, \"No; we are always kept\nyoung.\" Once they take you and you taste food in their palace you cannot\ncome back. You are changed to one of them, and live with them for ever.\nThey are able to appear in different forms. One once appeared to me, and\nseemed only four feet high, and stoutly built. He said, \"I am bigger\nthan I appear to you now. We can make the old young, the big small, the\nsmall big.\" One of their women told all the secrets of my family. She\nsaid that my brother in Australia would travel much and suffer\nhardships, all of which came true; and foretold that my nephew, then\nabout two years old, would become a great clergyman in America, and that\nis what he is now. Besides the _gentry_, who are a distinct class, there\nare bad spirits and ghosts, which are nothing like them. My mother once\nsaw a leprechaun beside a bush hammering. He disappeared before she\ncould get to him, but he also was unlike one of the _gentry_.'[16]\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM GRANGE\n\nOur next witness, who lives about three miles from our last witness, is\nHugh Currid, the oldest man in Grange; and so old is he that now he does\nlittle more than sit in the chimney-corner smoking, and, as he looks at\nthe red glow of the peat, dreaming of the olden times. Hugh knows\nEnglish very imperfectly, and so what he narrated was in the ancient\nGaelic which his fathers spoke. When Father Hines took me to Hugh's\ncottage, Hugh was in his usual silent pose before the fire. At first he\nrather resented having his thoughts disturbed, but in a few minutes he\nwas as talkative as could be, for there is nothing like the mention of\nIreland to get him started. The Father left us then; and with the help\nof Hugh's sister as an interpreter I took down what he said:--\n\n_The Flax-Seller's Return from Faerie._--'An old woman near Lough More,\nwhere Father Patrick was drowned,[17] who used to make her living by\nselling flax at the market, was _taken_ by the _gentry_, and often came\nback afterwards to her three children to comb their hair. One time she\ntold a neighbour that the money she saved from her dealings in flax\nwould be found near a big rock on the lake-shore, which she indicated,\nand that she wanted the three children to have it.'\n\n_A Wife Recovered from the 'Gentry'._--'A man's young wife died in\nconfinement while he was absent on some business at Ballingshaun, and\none of the _gentry_ came to him and said she had been _taken._ The\nhusband hurried home, and that night he sat with the body of his wife\nall alone. He left the door open a little, and it wasn't long before his\nwife's spirit came in and went to the cradle where her child was\nsleeping. As she did so, the husband threw at her a charm of hen's dung\nwhich he had ready, and this held her until he could call the\nneighbours. And while they were coming, she went back into her body, and\nlived a long time afterwards. The body was stiff and cold when the\nhusband arrived home, though it hadn't been washed or dressed.'\n\n\nA TAILOR'S TESTIMONY\n\nOur next witness is Patrick Waters, by trade a tailor, living in\nCloontipruckilish, a cross-road hamlet less than two miles from Hugh\nCurrid's home. His first story is a parallel to one told about the\nminister of Aberfoyle who was _taken_ by the 'good people' (pp. 89\nff.):--\n\n_The Lost Bride._--'A girl in this region died on her wedding-night\nwhile dancing. Soon after her death she appeared to her husband, and\nsaid to him, \"I'm not dead at all, but I am put from you now for a time.\nIt may be a long time, or a short time, I cannot tell. I am not badly\noff. If you want to get me back you must stand at the gap near the house\nand catch me as I go by, for I live near there, and see you, and you do\nnot see me.\" He was anxious enough to get her back, and didn't waste any\ntime in getting to the gap. When he came to the place, a party of\nstrangers were just coming out, and his wife soon appeared as plain as\ncould be, but he couldn't stir a hand or foot to save her. Then there\nwas a scream and she was gone. The man firmly believed this, and would\nnot marry again.'\n\n_The Invisible Island._--'There is an enchanted island which is an\ninvisible island between Innishmurray and the mainland opposite. It is\nonly seen once in seven years. I saw it myself, and so did four or five\nothers with me. A boatman from Sligo named Carr took two strange men\nwith him towards Innishmurray, and they disappeared at the spot where\nthe island is, and he thought they had fallen overboard and been\ndrowned. Carr saw one of the same men in Connelly (County Donegal), some\nsix months or so after, and with great surprise said to him, \"Will you\ntell me the wonders of the world? Is it you I saw drowned near\nInnishmurray?\" \"Yes,\" he said; and then asked, \"Do you see me?\" \"Yes,\"\nanswered Carr. \"But,\" said the man again, \"you do not see me with both\neyes?\" Then Carr closed one eye to be sure, and found that he saw him\nwith one eye only. And he told the man which one it was. At this\ninformation the fairy man blew on Carr's face, and Carr never saw him\nagain.'\n\n_A Dream._--'My father dreamt he saw two armies coming in from the sea,\nwalking on the water. Reaching the strand, they lined up and commenced a\nbattle, and my father was in great terror. The fighting was long and\nbloody, and when it was over every fighter vanished, the wounded and\ndead as well as the survivors. The next morning an old woman who had the\nreputation of talking with the fairies came in the house to my father,\nwho, though greatly disturbed over the dream, had told us nothing of it,\nand asked him, \"Have you anything to tell? I couldn't but laugh at you,\"\nshe added, and before my father could reply, continued, \"Well, Jimmy,\nyou won't tell the news, so I will.\" And then she began to tell about\nthe battle. \"Ketty!\" exclaimed my father at this, \"can it be true? And\nwho were the men beside me?\" When Ketty told him, they turned out to be\nsome of his dead friends. She received her information from a drowned\nman whom she met on the spot where the _gentry_ armies had come ashore;\nand, in the place where they fought, the sand was all burnt red, as from\nfire.'\n\nAs the narrator reflected on this dream story, he remarked about dreams\ngenerally:--'The reason our dreams appear different from what they are\nis because while in them we can't touch the body and transform it.\nPeople believe themselves to be with the dead in dreams.'\n\nDuring September 1909, when I had several fresh interviews with Patrick\nWaters, I verified all of his 1908 testimony such as it appears above;\nand among unimportant anecdotes I have omitted from the matter taken\ndown in 1908 one anecdote about our seer-witness from County Sligo,\nbecause it proved to be capable of opposite interpretations. Patrick\nWaters, however, like many of his neighbours, thoroughly supports Hugh\nCurrid's opinion that our seer-witness 'surely sees something, and it\nmust be the _gentry_'; and of Hugh Currid himself, Patrick Waters said,\n'Hugh Currid did surely see the _gentry_; he saw them passing this way\nlike a blast of wind.' Patrick's fresh testimony now follows, the story\nabout Father Patrick and Father Dominick coming first:--\n\n_Father Patrick and Father Dominick._--'Father Patrick Noan while\nbathing in the harbour at Carns (about three miles north-west of Grange)\nwas drowned. His body was soon brought ashore, and his brother, Father\nDominick Noan, was sent for. When Father Dominick arrived, one of the\nmen who had collected around the body said to him, \"Why don't you do\nsomething for your brother Patrick?\" \"Why don't somebody ask me?\" he\nreplied, \"for I must be asked in the name of God.\" So Jimmy McGowan went\non his knees and asked for the honour of God that Father Dominick should\nbring Father Patrick back to life; and, at this, Father Dominick took\nout his breviary and began to read. After a time he whistled, and began\nto read again. He whistled a second time, and returned to the reading.\nUpon his whistling the third time, Father Patrick's spirit appeared in\nthe doorway.\n\n'\"Where were you when I whistled the first time?\" Father Dominick asked.\n\"I was at a hurling match with the _gentry_ on Mulloughmore strand.\"\n\"And where were you at the second whistle?\" \"I was coming over Corrick\nFadda; and when you whistled the third time I was here at the door.\"\nFather Patrick's spirit had gone back into the body, and Father Patrick\nlived round here as a priest for a long time afterwards.\n\n'There was no such thing as artificial respiration known hereabouts when\nthis happened some fifty or sixty years ago. I heard this story, which I\nknow is true, from many persons who saw Father Dominick restore his\nbrother to life.'\n\n_A Druid Enchantment._--After this strange psychical narrative, there\nfollowed the most weird legend I have heard in Celtic lands about Druids\nand magic. One afternoon Patrick Waters pointed out to me the field,\nnear the sea-coast opposite Innishmurray, in which the ancient menhir\ncontaining the 'enchantment' used to stand; and, at another time, he\nsaid that a bronze wand covered with curious marks (or else interlaced\ndesigns) was found not far from the ruined dolmen and _all\u00e9e couverte_\non the farm of Patrick Bruan, about two miles southward. This last\nstatement, like the story itself, I have been unable to verify in any\nway.\n\n'In times before Christ there were Druids here who enchanted one another\nwith Druid rods made of brass, and metamorphosed one another into stone\nand lumps of oak. The question is, Where are the spirits of these Druids\nnow? Their spirits are wafted through the air, and the man or beast they\nmeet is smitten, while their own bodies are still under enchantment. I\nhad such a Druid enchantment in my hand; it wasn't stone, nor marble,\nnor flint, and had human shape. It was found in the centre of a big rock\non Innis-na-Gore; and round this rock light used to appear at night. The\nman who owned the stone decided to blast it up, and he found at its\ncentre the enchantment--just like a man, with head and legs and\narms.[18] Father Healy took the enchantment away, when he was here on a\nvisit, and said that it was a Druid enchanted, and that to get out of\nthe rock was one part of the releasement, and that there would be a\nsecond and complete releasement of the Druid.'\n\n_The Fairy Tribes Classified._--Finally I asked Patrick to classify, as\nfar as he could, all the fairy tribes he had ever heard about, and he\nsaid:--'The leprechaun is a red-capped fellow who stays round pure\nsprings, generally shoemaking for the rest of the fairy tribes. The\nlunantishees are the tribes that guard the blackthorn trees or sloes;\nthey let you cut no stick on the eleventh of November (the original\nNovember Day), or on the eleventh of May (the original May Day). If at\nsuch a time you cut a blackthorn, some misfortune will come to you.\nPookas are black-featured fellows mounted on good horses; and are\nhorse-dealers. They visit racecourses, but usually are invisible. The\n_gentry_ are the most noble tribe of all; and they are a big race who\ncame from the planets--according to my idea; they usually appear white.\nThe _Daoine Maithe_ (though there is some doubt, the same or almost the\nsame as the _gentry_) were next to Heaven at the Fall, but did not fall;\nthey are a people expecting salvation.'\n\n\nBRIDGET O'CONNER'S TESTIMONY\n\nOur next witness is Bridget O'Conner, a near neighbour to Patrick\nWaters, in Cloontipruckilish. When I approached her neat little cottage\nshe was cutting sweet-pea blossoms with a pair of scissors, and as I\nstopped to tell her how pretty a garden she had, she searched out the\nfinest white bloom she could find and gave it to me. After we had talked\na little while about America and Ireland, she said I must come in and\nrest a few minutes, and so I did; and it was not long before we were\ntalking about fairies:--\n\n_The Irish Legend of the Dead._--'Old Peggy Gillin, dead these thirty\nyears, who lived a mile beyond Grange, used to cure people with a secret\nherb shown to her by her brother, dead of a fairy-stroke. He was drowned\nand _taken_ by the fairies, in the big drowning here during the herring\nseason. She would pull the herb herself and prepare it by mixing spring\nwater with it. Peggy could always talk with her dead relatives and\nfriends, and continually with her brother, and she would tell everybody\nthat they were with the fairies. Her daughter, Mary Short, who inherited\nsome of her mother's power, died here about three or four years ago.\n\n'I remember, too, about Mary Leonard and her daughter, Nancy Waters.\nBoth of them are dead now. The daughter was the first to die, as it\nhappened, and in child-birth. When she was gone, her mother used to wail\nand cry in an awful manner; and one day the daughter appeared to her in\nthe garden, and said, \"The more you wail for me, the more I am in\ntorment. Pray for me, but do not wail.\"'\n\n_A Midwife Story._--'A country nurse was requested by a strange man on\nhorseback to go with him to exercise her profession; and she went with\nhim to a castle she didn't know. When the baby was born, every woman in\nthe place where the event happened put her finger in a basin of water\nand rubbed her eyes, and so the nurse put her finger in and rubbed it on\none of her eyes. She went home and thought no more about it. But one day\nshe was at the fair in Grange and saw some of the same women who were in\nthe castle when the baby was born; though, as she noticed, she only\ncould see them with the one eye she had wet with the water from the\nbasin. The nurse spoke to the women, and they wanted to know how she\nrecognized them; and she, in reply, said it was with the one eye, and\nasked, \"How is the baby?\" \"Well,\" said one of the fairy women; \"and what\neye do you see us with?\" \"With the left eye,\" answered the nurse. Then\nthe fairy woman blew her breath against the nurse's left eye, and said,\n\"You'll never see me again.\" And the nurse was always blind in the left\neye after that.'\n\n\nTHE SPIRIT WORLD AT CARNS\n\nThe Carns or Mount Temple country, about three miles from Grange, County\nSligo, has already been mentioned by witnesses as a 'gentry' haunt, and\nso now we shall hear what one of its oldest and most intelligent native\ninhabitants says of it. John McCann had been referred to, by Patrick\nWaters, as one who knows much about the 'gentry' at first hand, and we\ncan be sure that what he offers us is thoroughly reliable evidence. For\nmany years, John McCann, born in 1830, by profession a carpenter and\nboat-builder, has been official mail-carrier to Innishmurray; and he\nknows quite as much about the strange little island and the mainland\nopposite it as any man living. His neat little cottage is on the shore\nof the bay opposite the beautiful fairy-haunted Darnish Island; and, as\nwe sat within it beside a brilliant peat fire, and surrounded by all the\nfamily, this is what was told me:--\n\n_A 'Gentry' Medium._--'Ketty Rourk (or Queenan) could tell all that\nwould happen--funerals, weddings, and so forth. Sure some spirits were\ncoming to her. She said they were the _gentry_; that the _gentry_ are\neverywhere; and that my drowned uncles and grandfather and other dead\nare among them. A drowned man named Pat Nicholson was her adviser. He\nused to live just a mile from here; and she knew him before he was\ndrowned.'\n\nHere we have, clearly enough, a case of 'mediumship', or of\ncommunication with the dead, as in modern Spiritualism. And the\nfollowing story, which like this last has numerous Irish parallels,\nillustrates an ancient and world-wide animistic belief, that in\nsickness--as in dreams--the soul goes out of the body as at death, and\nmeets the dead in their own fairy world.\n\n_The Clairvoyance of Mike Farrell._--'Mike Farrell, too, could tell all\nabout the _gentry_, as he lay sick a long time. And he told about Father\nBrannan's youth, and even the house in Roscommon in which the Father was\nborn; and Father Brannan never said anything more against Mike after\nthat. Mike surely saw the _gentry_; and he was with them during his\nillness for twelve months. He said they live in _forts_ and at Alt Darby\n(\"the Big Rock\"). After he got well, he went to America, at the time of\nthe famine.'\n\n_The 'Gentry' Army._--'The _gentry_ were believed to live up on this\nhill (Hill of the Brocket Stones, _Cluach-a-brac_), and from it they\nwould come out like an army and march along the road to the strand. Very\nfew persons could see them. They were thought to be like living people,\nbut in different dress. They seemed like soldiers, yet it was known they\nwere not living beings such as we are.'\n\n_The Seership of Dan Quinn._--'On Connor's Island (about two miles\nsouthward from Carns by the mainland) my uncle, Dan Quinn, often used to\nsee big crowds of the _gentry_ come into his house and play music and\ndance. The house would be full of them, but they caused him no fear.\nOnce on such an occasion, one of them came up to him as he lay in bed,\nand giving him a green leaf told him to put it in his mouth. When he did\nthis, instantly he could not see the _gentry_, but could still hear\ntheir music. Uncle Dan always believed he recognized in some of the\n_gentry_ his drowned friends. Only when he was alone would the _gentry_\nvisit him. He was a silent old man, and so never talked much; but I know\nthat this story is as true as can be, and that the _gentry_ always took\nan interest in him.'\n\n\nUNDER THE SHADOW OF BEN BULBIN AND BEN WASKIN\n\nI was driving along the Ben Bulbin road, on the ocean side, with Michael\nOates, who was on his way from his mountain-side home to the lowlands to\ncut hay; and as we looked up at the ancient mountain, so mysterious and\nsilent in the shadows and fog of a calm early morning of summer, he told\nme about its invisible inhabitants:--\n\n_The 'Gentry' Huntsmen._--'I knew a man who saw the _gentry_ hunting on\nthe other side of the mountain. He saw hounds and horsemen cross the\nroad and jump the hedge in front of him, and it was one o'clock at\nnight. The next day he passed the place again, and looked for the tracks\nof the huntsmen, but saw not a trace of tracks at all.'\n\n_The 'Taking' of the Turf-Cutter._--After I had heard about two boys who\nwere drowned opposite Innishmurray, and who afterwards appeared as\napparitions, for the _gentry_ had them, this curious story was\nrelated:--'A man was cutting turf out on the side of Ben Bulbin when a\nstrange man came to him and said, \"You have cut enough turf for to-day.\nYou had better stop and go home.\" The turf-cutter looked around in\nsurprise, and in two seconds the strange man had disappeared; but he\ndecided to go home. And as soon as he was home, such a feeling came over\nhim that he could not tell whether he was alive or dead. Then he took to\nhis bed and never rose again.'\n\n_Hearing the 'Gentry' Music._--At this Michael said to his companion in\nthe cart with us, William Barber, 'You tell how you heard the music';\nand this followed:--'One dark night, about one o'clock, myself and\nanother young man were passing along the road up there round Ben Bulbin,\nwhen we heard the finest kind of music. All sorts of music seemed to be\nplaying. We could see nothing at all, though we thought we heard voices\nlike children's. It was the music of the _gentry_ we heard.'\n\nMy next friend to testify is Pat Ruddy, eighty years old, one of the\nmost intelligent and prosperous farmers living beside Ben Bulbin. He\ngreeted me in the true Irish way, but before we could come to talk about\nfairies his good wife induced me to enter another room where she had\nsecretly prepared a great feast spread out on a fresh white cloth, while\nPat and myself had been exchanging opinions about America and Ireland.\nWhen I returned to the kitchen the whole family were assembled round the\nblazing turf fire, and Pat was soon talking about the 'gentry':--\n\n_Seeing the 'Gentry' Army._--'Old people used to say the _gentry_ were\nin the mountains; that is certain, but I never could be quite sure of it\nmyself. One night, however, near midnight, I did have a sight: I set out\nfrom Bantrillick to come home, and near Ben Bulbin there was the\ngreatest army you ever saw, five or six thousand of them in armour\nshining in the moonlight. A strange man rose out of the hedge and\nstopped me, for a minute, in the middle of the road. He looked into my\nface, and then let me go.'\n\n_An Ossianic Fragment._--'A man went away with the _good people_ (or\n_gentry_), and returned to find the townland all in ruins. As he came\nback riding on a horse of the _good people_, he saw some men in a quarry\ntrying to move a big stone. He helped them with it, but his saddle-girth\nbroke, and he fell to the ground. The horse ran away, and he was left\nthere, an old man'[19] (cf. pp. 346-7).\n\n\nA SCHOOLMASTER'S TESTIMONY\n\nA schoolmaster, who is a native of the Ben Bulbin country, offers this\ntestimony:--'There is implicit belief here in the _gentry_, especially\namong the old people. They consider them the spirits of their departed\nrelations and friends, who visit them in joy and in sorrow. On the death\nof a member of a family, they believe the spirits of their near\nrelatives are present; they do not see them, but feel their presence.\nThey even have a strong belief that the spirits show them the future in\ndreams; and say that cases of affliction are always foreshown in a\ndream.\n\n'The belief in changelings is not now generally prevalent; but in olden\ntimes a mother used to place a pair of iron tongs over the cradle before\nleaving the child alone, in order that the fairies should not change the\nchild for a weakly one of their own. It was another custom to take a\nwisp of straw, and, lighting one end of it, make a fiery sign of the\ncross over a cradle before a babe could be placed in it.'\n\n\nWITH THE IRISH MYSTICS IN THE _SIDHE_ WORLD\n\nLet us now turn to the Rosses Point country, which, as we have already\nsaid, is one of the very famous places for seeing the 'gentry', or, as\neducated Irish seers who make pilgrimages thither call them, the\n_Sidhe_. I have been told by more than one such seer that there on the\nhills and Greenlands (a great stretch of open country, treeless and\ngrass-grown), and on the strand at Lower Rosses Point--called Wren Point\nby the country-folk--these beings can be seen and their wonderful music\nheard; and a well-known Irish artist has shown me many drawings, and\npaintings in oil, of these _Sidhe_ people as he has often beheld them at\nthose places and elsewhere in Ireland. They are described as a race of\nmajestic appearance and marvellous beauty, in form human, yet in nature\ndivine. The highest order of them seems to be a race of beings evolved\nto a superhuman plane of existence, such as the ancients called gods;\nand with this opinion, strange as it may seem in this age, all the\neducated Irish seers with whom I have been privileged to talk agree,\nthough they go further, and say that these highest _Sidhe_ races still\ninhabiting Ireland are the ever-young, immortal divine race known to the\nancient men of Erin as the Tuatha De Danann.\n\nOf all European lands I venture to say that Ireland is the most\nmystical, and, in the eyes of true Irishmen, as much the Magic Island of\nGods and Initiates now as it was when the Sacred Fires flashed from its\npurple, heather-covered mountain-tops and mysterious round towers, and\nthe Greater Mysteries drew to its hallowed shrines neophytes from the\nWest as well as from the East, from India and Egypt as well as from\nAtlantis;[20] and Erin's mystic-seeing sons still watch and wait for the\nrelighting of the Fires and the restoration of the old Druidic\nMysteries. Herein I but imperfectly echo the mystic message Ireland's\nseers gave me, a pilgrim to their Sacred Isle. And until this mystic\nmessage is interpreted, men cannot discover the secret of Gaelic myth\nand song in olden or in modern times, they cannot drink at the\never-flowing fountain of Gaelic genius, the perennial source of\ninspiration which lies behind the new revival of literature and art in\nIreland, nor understand the seeming reality of the fairy races.\n\n\nAN IRISH MYSTIC'S TESTIMONY\n\nThrough the kindness of an Irish mystic, who is a seer, I am enabled to\npresent here, in the form of a dialogue, very rare and very important\nevidence, which will serve to illustrate and to confirm what has just\nbeen said above about the mysticism of Ireland. To anthropologists this\nevidence may be of more than ordinary value when they know that it\ncomes from one who is not only a cultured seer but who is also a man\nconspicuously successful in the practical life of a great city:--\n\n_Visions._--\n\nQ.--Are all visions which you have had of the same character?\n\nA.--'I have always made a distinction between pictures seen in the\nmemory of nature and visions of actual beings now existing in the inner\nworld. We can make the same distinction in our world: I may close my\neyes and see you as a vivid picture in memory, or I may look at you with\nmy physical eyes and see your actual image. In seeing these beings of\nwhich I speak, the physical eyes may be open or closed: mystical beings\nin their own world and nature are never seen with the physical eyes.'\n\n_Otherworlds._--\n\nQ.--By the inner world do you mean the Celtic Otherworld?\n\nA.--'Yes; though there are many Otherworlds. The _T\u00edr-na-nog_ of the\nancient Irish, in which the races of the _Sidhe_ exist, may be described\nas a radiant archetype of this world, though this definition does not at\nall express its psychic nature. In _T\u00edr-na-nog_ one sees nothing save\nharmony and beautiful forms. There are other worlds in which we can see\nhorrible shapes.'\n\n_Classification of the 'Sidhe'._--\n\nQ.--Do you in any way classify the _Sidhe_ races to which you refer?\n\nA.--'The beings whom I call the _Sidhe_, I divide, as I have seen them,\ninto two great classes: those which are shining, and those which are\nopalescent and seem lit up by a light within themselves. The shining\nbeings appear to be lower in the hierarchies; the opalescent beings are\nmore rarely seen, and appear to hold the positions of great chiefs or\nprinces among the tribes of Dana.'\n\n_Conditions of Seership._--\n\nQ.--Under what state or condition and where have you seen such beings?\n\nA.--'I have seen them most frequently after being away from a city or\ntown for a few days. The whole west coast of Ireland from Donegal to\nKerry seems charged with a magical power, and I find it easiest to see\nwhile I am there. I have always found it comparatively easy to see\nvisions while at ancient monuments like New Grange and Dowth, because I\nthink such places are naturally charged with psychical forces, and were\nfor that reason made use of long ago as sacred places. I usually find it\npossible to throw myself into the mood of seeing; but sometimes visions\nhave forced themselves upon me.'\n\n_The Shining Beings._--\n\nQ.--Can you describe the shining beings?\n\nA.--'It is very difficult to give any intelligible description of them.\nThe first time I saw them with great vividness I was lying on a\nhill-side alone in the west of Ireland, in County Sligo: I had been\nlistening to music in the air, and to what seemed to be the sound of\nbells, and was trying to understand these aerial clashings in which wind\nseemed to break upon wind in an ever-changing musical silvery sound.\nThen the space before me grew luminous, and I began to see one beautiful\nbeing after another.'\n\n_The Opalescent Beings._--\n\nQ.--Can you describe one of the opalescent beings?\n\nA.--'The first of these I saw I remember very clearly, and the manner of\nits appearance: there was at first a dazzle of light, and then I saw\nthat this came from the heart of a tall figure with a body apparently\nshaped out of half-transparent or opalescent air, and throughout the\nbody ran a radiant, electrical fire, to which the heart seemed the\ncentre. Around the head of this being and through its waving luminous\nhair, which was blown all about the body like living strands of gold,\nthere appeared flaming wing-like auras. From the being itself light\nseemed to stream outwards in every direction; and the effect left on me\nafter the vision was one of extraordinary lightness, joyousness, or\necstasy.\n\n'At about this same period of my life I saw many of these great beings,\nand I then thought that I had visions of Aengus, Manannan, Lug, and\nother famous kings or princes among the Tuatha De Danann; but since then\nI have seen so many beings of a similar character that I now no longer\nwould attribute to any one of them personal identity with particular\nbeings of legend; though I believe that they correspond in a general way\nto the Tuatha De Danann or ancient Irish gods.'\n\n_Stature of the 'Sidhe'._--\n\nQ.--You speak of the opalescent beings as great beings; what stature do\nyou assign to them, and to the shining beings?\n\nA.--'The opalescent beings seem to be about fourteen feet in stature,\nthough I do not know why I attribute to them such definite height, since\nI had nothing to compare them with; but I have always considered them as\nmuch taller than our race. The shining beings seem to be about our own\nstature or just a little taller. Peasant and other Irish seers do not\nusually speak of the _Sidhe_ as being little, but as being tall: an old\nschoolmaster in the West of Ireland described them to me from his own\nvisions as tall beautiful people, and he used some Gaelic words, which I\ntook as meaning that they were shining with every colour.'\n\n_The worlds of the 'Sidhe.'_--\n\nQ.--Do the two orders of _Sidhe_ beings inhabit the same world?\n\nA.--'The shining beings belong to the mid-world; while the opalescent\nbeings belong to the heaven-world. There are three great worlds which we\ncan see while we are still in the body: the earth-world, mid-world, and\nheaven-world.'\n\n_Nature of the 'Sidhe.'_--\n\nQ.--Do you consider the life and state of these _Sidhe_ beings superior\nto the life and state of men?\n\nA.--'I could never decide. One can say that they themselves are\ncertainly more beautiful than men are, and that their worlds seem more\nbeautiful than our world.\n\n'Among the shining orders there does not seem to be any individualized\nlife: thus if one of them raises his hands all raise their hands, and if\none drinks from a fire-fountain all do; they seem to move and to have\ntheir real existence in a being higher than themselves, to which they\nare a kind of body. Theirs is, I think, a collective life, so\nunindividualized and so calm that I might have more varied thoughts in\nfive hours than they would have in five years; and yet one feels an\nextraordinary purity and exaltation about their life. Beauty of form\nwith them has never been broken up by the passions which arise in the\ndeveloped egotism of human beings. A hive of bees has been described as\na single organism with disconnected cells; and some of these tribes of\nshining beings seem to be little more than one being manifesting itself\nin many beautiful forms. I speak this with reference to the shining\nbeings only: I think that among the opalescent or _Sidhe_ beings, in the\nheaven-world, there is an even closer spiritual unity, but also a\ngreater individuality.'\n\n_Influence of the 'Sidhe' on Men._--\n\nQ.--Do you consider any of these _Sidhe_ beings inimical to humanity?\n\nA.--'Certain kinds of the shining beings, whom I call wood beings, have\nnever affected me with any evil influences I could recognize. But the\nwater beings, also of the shining tribes, I always dread, because I felt\nwhenever I came into contact with them a great drowsiness of mind and, I\noften thought, an actual drawing away of vitality.'\n\n_Water Beings Described._--\n\nQ.--Can you describe one of these water beings?\n\nA.--'In the world under the waters--under a lake in the West of Ireland\nin this case--I saw a blue and orange coloured king seated on a throne;\nand there seemed to be some fountain of mystical fire rising from under\nhis throne, and he breathed this fire into himself as though it were his\nlife. As I looked, I saw groups of pale beings, almost grey in colour,\ncoming down one side of the throne by the fire-fountain. They placed\ntheir head and lips near the heart of the elemental king, and, then, as\nthey touched him, they shot upwards, plumed and radiant, and passed on\nthe other side, as though they had received a new life from this chief\nof their world.'\n\n_Wood Beings Described._--\n\nQ.--Can you describe one of the wood beings?\n\nA.--'The wood beings I have seen most often are of a shining silvery\ncolour with a tinge of blue or pale violet, and with dark\npurple-coloured hair.'\n\n_Reproduction and Immortality of the 'Sidhe'._--\n\nQ.--Do you consider the races of the _Sidhe_ able to reproduce their\nkind; and are they immortal?\n\nA.--'The higher kinds seem capable of breathing forth beings out of\nthemselves, but I do not understand how they do so. I have seen some of\nthem who contain elemental beings within themselves, and these they\ncould send out and receive back within themselves again.\n\n'The immortality ascribed to them by the ancient Irish is only a\nrelative immortality, their space of life being much greater than ours.\nIn time, however, I believe that they grow old and then pass into new\nbodies just as men do, but whether by birth or by the growth of a new\nbody I cannot say, since I have no certain knowledge about this.'\n\n_Sex among the 'Sidhe'._--\n\nQ.--Does sexual differentiation seem to prevail among the Sidhe races?\n\nA.--'I have seen forms both male and female, and forms which did not\nsuggest sex at all.'\n\n_'Sidhe' and Human Life._--\n\nQ.--(1) Is it possible, as the ancient Irish thought, that certain of\nthe higher _Sidhe_ beings have entered or could enter our plane of life\nby submitting to human birth? (2) On the other hand, do you consider it\npossible for men in trance or at death to enter the _Sidhe_ world?\n\nA.--(1) 'I cannot say.' (2) 'Yes; both in trance and after death. I\nthink any one who thought much of the _Sidhe_ during his life and who\nsaw them frequently and brooded on them would likely go to their world\nafter death.'\n\n_Social Organization of the 'Sidhe'._--\n\nQ.--You refer to chieftain-like or prince-like beings, and to a king\namong water beings; is there therefore definite social organization\namong the various _Sidhe_ orders and races, and if so, what is its\nnature?\n\nA.--'I cannot say about a definite social organization. I have seen\nbeings who seemed to command others, and who were held in reverence.\nThis implies an organization, but whether it is instinctive like that of\na hive of bees, or consciously organized like human society, I cannot\nsay.'\n\n_Lower 'Sidhe' as Nature Elementals._--\n\nQ.--You speak of the water-being king as an elemental king; do you\nsuggest thereby a resemblance between lower _Sidhe_ orders and what\nmediaeval mystics called elementals?\n\nA.--'The lower orders of the _Sidhe_ are, I think, the nature elementals\nof the mediaeval mystics.'\n\n_Nourishment of the Higher 'Sidhe'._--\n\nQ.--The water beings as you have described them seem to be nourished and\nkept alive by something akin to electrical fluids; do the higher orders\nof the _Sidhe_ seem to be similarly nourished?\n\nA.--'They seemed to me to draw their life out of the Soul of the World.'\n\n_Collective Visions of 'Sidhe' Beings._--\n\nQ.--Have you had visions of the various _Sidhe_ beings in company with\nother persons?\n\nA.--'I have had such visions on several occasions.'\n\nAnd this statement has been confirmed to me by three participants in\nsuch collective visions, who separately at different times have seen in\ncompany with our witness the same vision at the same moment. On another\noccasion, on the Greenlands at Rosses Point, County Sligo, the same\n_Sidhe_ being was seen by our present witness and a friend with him,\nalso possessing the faculty of seership, at a time when the two\npercipients were some little distance apart, and they hurried to each\nother to describe the being, not knowing that the explanation was\nmutually unnecessary. I have talked with both percipients so much, and\nknow them so intimately that I am fully able to state that as\npercipients they fulfil all necessary pathological conditions required\nby psychologists in order to make their evidence acceptable.\n\n\nPARALLEL EVIDENCE AS TO THE _SIDHE_ RACES\n\nIn general, the rare evidence above recorded from the Irish seer could\nbe paralleled by similar evidence from at least two other reliable Irish\npeople, with whom also I have been privileged to discuss the\nFairy-Faith. One is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the other is\nthe wife of a well-known Irish historian; and both of them testify to\nhaving likewise had collective visions of _Sidhe_ beings in Ireland.\n\nThis is what Mr. William B. Yeats wrote to me, while this study was in\nprogress, concerning the Celtic Fairy Kingdom:--'I am certain that it\nexists, and will some day be studied as it was studied by Kirk.'[21]\n\n\nINDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FROM THE _SIDHE_ WORLD\n\nOne of the most remarkable discoveries of our Celtic researches has been\nthat the native population of the Rosses Point country, or, as we have\ncalled it, the _Sidhe_ world, in most essentials, and, what is most\nimportant, by independent folk-testimony, substantiate the opinions and\nstatements of the educated Irish mystics to whom we have just referred,\nas follows:--\n\n_John Conway's Vision of the 'Gentry'._--In Upper Rosses Point, Mrs. J.\nConway told me this about the 'gentry':--'John Conway, my husband, who\nwas a pilot by profession, in watching for in-coming ships used to go\nup on the high hill among the Fairy Hills; and there he often saw the\n_gentry_ going down the hill to the strand. One night in particular he\nrecognized them as men and women of the _gentry_; and they were as big\nas any living people. It was late at night about forty years ago.'\n\n_Ghosts and Fairies._--When first I introduced myself to Owen Conway, in\nhis bachelor quarters, a cosy cottage at Upper Rosses Point, he said\nthat Mr. W. B. Yeats and other men famous in Irish literature had\nvisited him to hear about the fairies, and that though he knew very\nlittle about the fairies he nevertheless always likes to talk of them.\nThen Owen began to tell me about a man's ghost which both he and Bran\nReggan had seen at different times on the road to Sligo, then about a\nwoman's ghost which he and other people had often seen near where we\nwere, and then about the exorcizing of a haunted house in Sligo some\nsixty years ago by Father McGowan, who as a result died soon afterwards,\napparently having been killed by the exorcized spirits. Finally, I heard\nfrom him the following anecdotes about the fairies:--\n\n_A Stone Wall overthrown by 'Fairy' Agency._--'Nothing is more certain\nthan that there are fairies. The old folks always thought them the\nfallen angels. At the back of this house the fairies had their pass. My\nneighbour started to build a cow-shed, and one wall abutting on the pass\nwas thrown down twice, and nothing but the fairies ever did it. The\nthird time the wall was built it stood.'\n\n_Fairies passing through Stone Walls._--'Where MacEwen's house stands\nwas a noted fairy place. Men in building the house saw fairies on horses\ncoming across the spot, and the stone walls did not stop them at all.'\n\n_Seeing the 'Gentry'._--'A cousin of mine, who was a pilot, once went to\nthe watch-house up there on the Point to take his brother's place; and\nhe saw ladies coming towards him as he crossed the Greenlands. At first\nhe thought they were coming from a dance, but there was no dance going\nthen, and, if there had been, no human beings dressed like them and\nmoving as they were could have come from any part of the globe, and in\nso great a party, at that hour of the night. Then when they passed him\nand he saw how beautiful they were, he knew them for the _gentry_\nwomen.'\n\n'Michael Reddy (our next witness) saw the _gentry_ down on the\nGreenlands in regimentals like an army, and in daylight. He was a young\nman at the time, and had been sent out to see if any cattle were\nastray.'\n\nAnd this is what Michael Reddy, of Rosses Point, now a sailor on the\nship _Tartar_, sailing from Sligo to neighbouring ports on the Irish\ncoast, asserts in confirmation of Owen Conway's statement about him:--'I\nsaw the _gentry_ on the strand (at Lower Rosses Point) about forty years\nago. It was afternoon. I first saw one of them like an officer pointing\nat me what seemed a sword; and when I got on the Greenlands I saw a\ngreat company of _gentry_, like soldiers, in red, laughing and shouting.\nTheir leader was a big man, and they were ordinary human size. As a\nresult [of this vision] I took to my bed and lay there for weeks. Upon\nanother occasion, late at night, I was with my mother milking cows, and\nwe heard the _gentry_ all round us talking, but could not see them.'\n\n_Going to the 'Gentry' through Death, Dreams, or Trance._--John\nO'Conway, one of the most reliable citizens of Upper Rosses Point,\noffers the following testimony concerning the 'gentry':--'In olden times\nthe _gentry_ were very numerous about _forts_ and here on the\nGreenlands, but rarely seen. They appeared to be the same as any living\nmen. When people died it was said the _gentry_ took them, for they would\nafterwards appear among the _gentry_.'\n\n'We had a ploughman of good habits who came in one day too late for his\nmorning's work, and he in excuse very seriously said, \"May be if you had\ntravelled all night as much as I have you wouldn't talk. I was away with\nthe _gentry_, and save for a lady I couldn't have been back now. I saw a\nlong hall full of many people. Some of them I knew and some I did not\nknow. The lady saved me by telling me to eat no food there, however\nenticing it might be.\"'\n\n'A young man at Drumcliffe was _taken_ [in a trance state], and was with\nthe _Daoine Maithe_ some time, and then got back. Another man, whom I\nknew well, was haunted by the _gentry_ for a long time, and he often\nwent off with _them_' (apparently in a dream or trance state).\n\n_'Sidhe' Music._--The story which now follows substantiates the\ntestimony of cultured Irish seers that at Lower Rosses Point the music\nof the _Sidhe_ can be heard:--'Three women were gathering shell-fish, in\nthe month of March, on the lowest point of the strand (Lower Rosses or\nWren Point) when they heard the most beautiful music. They set to work\nto dance with it, and danced themselves sick. They then thanked the\ninvisible musician and went home.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF A COLLEGE PROFESSOR\n\nOur next witness is the Rev. Father ----, a professor in a Catholic\ncollege in West Ireland, and most of his statements are based on events\nwhich happened among his own acquaintances and relatives, and his\ndeductions are the result of careful investigation:--\n\n_Apparitions from Fairyland._--'Some twenty to thirty years ago, on the\nborders of County Roscommon near County Sligo, according to the firm\nbelief of one of my own relatives, a sister of his was _taken_ by the\nfairies on her wedding-night, and she appeared to her mother afterwards\nas an apparition. She seemed to want to speak, but her mother, who was\nin bed at the time, was thoroughly frightened, and turned her face to\nthe wall. The mother is convinced that she saw this apparition of her\ndaughter, and my relative thinks she might have saved her.\n\n'This same relative who gives it as his opinion that his sister was\n_taken_ by the fairies, at a different time saw the apparition of\nanother relative of mine who also, according to similar belief, had been\n_taken_ by the fairies when only five years old. The child-apparition\nappeared beside its living sister one day while the sister was going\nfrom the yard into the house, and it followed her in. It is said the\nchild was _taken_ because she was such a good girl.'\n\n_Nature of the Belief in Fairies._--'As children we were always afraid\nof fairies, and were taught to say \"God bless _them_! God bless _them_!\"\nwhenever we heard them mentioned.\n\n'In our family we always made it a point to have clean water in the\nhouse at night for the fairies.\n\n'If anything like dirty water was thrown out of doors after dark it was\nnecessary to say \"_Hugga, hugga salach!_\" as a warning to the fairies\nnot to get their clothes wet.\n\n'Untasted food, like milk, used to be left on the table at night for the\nfairies. If you were eating and food fell from you, it was not right to\ntake it back, for the fairies wanted it. Many families are very serious\nabout this even now. The luckiest thing to do in such cases is to pick\nup the food and eat just a speck of it and then throw the rest away to\nthe fairies.\n\n'Ghosts and apparitions are commonly said to live in isolated\nthorn-bushes, or thorn-trees. Many lonely bushes of this kind have their\nghosts. For example, there is Fanny's Bush, Sally's Bush, and another I\nknow of in County Sligo near Boyle.'\n\n_Personal Opinions._--'The fairies of any one race are the people of the\npreceding race--the Fomors for the Fir Bolgs, the Fir Bolgs for the\nDananns, and the Dananns for us. The old races died. Where did they go?\nThey became spirits--and fairies. Second-sight gave our race power to\nsee the inner world. When Christianity came to Ireland the people had no\n_definite_ heaven. Before, their ideas about the other world were vague.\nBut the older ideas of a spirit world remained side by side with the\nChristian ones, and being preserved in a subconscious way gave rise to\nthe fairy world.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM COUNTY ROSCOMMON\n\nOur next place for investigation will be the ancient province of the\ngreat fairy-queen Meave, who made herself famous by leading against\nCuchulainn the united armies of four of the five provinces of Ireland,\nand all on account of a bull which she coveted. And there could be no\nbetter part of it to visit than Roscommon, which Dr. Douglas Hyde has\nmade popular in Irish folk-lore.\n\n_Dr. Hyde and the Leprechaun._--One day while I was privileged to be at\nRatra, Dr. Hyde invited me to walk with him in the country. After we had\nvisited an old _fort_ which belongs to the 'good people', and had\nnoticed some other of their haunts in that part of Queen Meave's realm,\nwe entered a straw-thatched cottage on the roadside and found the good\nhouse-wife and her fine-looking daughter both at home. In response to\nDr. Hyde's inquiries, the mother stated that one day, in her girlhood,\nnear a hedge from which she was gathering wild berries, she saw a\nleprechaun in a hole under a stone:--'He wasn't much larger than a doll,\nand he was most perfectly formed, with a little mouth and eyes.' Nothing\nwas told about the little fellow having a money-bag, although the woman\nsaid people told her afterwards that she would have been rich if she had\nonly had sense enough to catch him when she had so good a chance.[22]\n\n_The Death Coach._--The next tale the mother told was about the death\ncoach which used to pass by the very house we were in. Every night until\nafter her daughter was born she used to rise up on her elbow in bed to\nlisten to the death coach passing by. It passed about midnight, and she\ncould hear the rushing, the tramping of the horses, and most beautiful\nsinging, just like fairy music, but she could not understand the words.\nOnce or twice she was brave enough to open the door and look out as the\ncoach passed, but she could never see a thing, though there was the\nnoise and singing. One time a man had to wait on the roadside to let the\nfairy horses go by, and he could hear their passing very clearly, and\ncouldn't see one of them.\n\nWhen we got home, Dr. Hyde told me that the fairies of the region are\nrarely seen. The people usually say that they hear or feel them only.\n\n_The 'Good People' and Mr. Gilleran._--After the mother had testified,\nthe daughter, who is quite of the younger generation, gave her own\nopinion. She said that the 'good people' live in the _forts_ and often\ntake men and women or youths who pass by the _forts_ after sunset; that\nMr. Gilleran, who died not long ago, once saw certain dead friends and\nrecognized among them those who were believed to have been _taken_ and\nthose who died naturally, and that he saw them again when he was on his\ndeath-bed.\n\nWe have here, as in so many other accounts, a clear connexion between\nthe realm of the dead and Fairyland.\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF A LOUGH DERG SEER\n\nNeil Colton, seventy-three years old, who lives in Tamlach Townland, on\nthe shores of Lough Derg, County Donegal, has a local reputation for\nhaving seen the 'gentle folk', and so I called upon him. As we sat round\nhis blazing turf fire, and in the midst of his family of three sturdy\nboys--for he married late in life--this is what he related:--\n\n_A Girl Recovered from Faerie._--'One day, just before sunset in\nmidsummer, and I a boy then, my brother and cousin and myself were\ngathering bilberries (whortleberries) up by the rocks at the back of\nhere, when all at once we heard music. We hurried round the rocks, and\nthere we were within a few hundred feet of six or eight of the _gentle\nfolk_, and they dancing. When they saw us, a little woman dressed all in\nred came running out from them towards us, and she struck my cousin\nacross the face with what seemed to be a green rush. We ran for home as\nhard as we could, and when my cousin reached the house she fell dead.\nFather saddled a horse and went for Father Ryan. When Father Ryan\narrived, he put a stole about his neck and began praying over my cousin\nand reading psalms and striking her with the stole; and in that way\nbrought her back. He said if she had not caught hold of my brother, she\nwould have been _taken_ for ever.'\n\n_The 'Gentle Folk'._--'The _gentle folk_ are not earthly people; they\nare a people with a nature of their own. Even in the water there are men\nand women of the same character. Others have caves in the rocks, and in\nthem rooms and apartments. These races were terribly plentiful a hundred\nyears ago, and they'll come back again. My father lived two miles from\nhere, where there were plenty of the _gentle folk_. In olden times they\nused to take young folks and keep them and draw all the life out of\ntheir bodies. Nobody could ever tell their nature exactly.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM COUNTY FERMANAGH\n\nFrom James Summerville, eighty-eight years old, who lives in the country\nnear Irvinestown, I heard much about the 'wee people' and about\nbanshees, and then the following remarkable story concerning the 'good\npeople':--\n\n_Travelling Clairvoyance through 'Fairy' Agency._--'From near Ederney,\nCounty Fermanagh, about seventy years ago, a man whom I knew well was\ntaken to America on Hallow Eve Night; and _they_ (the _good people_)\nmade him look down a chimney to see his own daughter cooking at a\nkitchen fire. Then _they_ took him to another place in America, where he\nsaw a friend he knew. The next morning he was at his own home here in\nIreland.\n\n'This man wrote a letter to his daughter to know if she was at the place\nand at the work on Hallow Eve Night, and she wrote back that she was. He\nwas sure that it was the _good people_ who had taken him to America and\nback in one night.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM COUNTY ANTRIM\n\nAt the request of Major R. G. Berry, M.R.I.A., of Richill Castle,\nArmagh, Mr. H. Higginson, of Glenavy, County Antrim, collected all the\nmaterial he could find concerning the fairy-tradition in his part of\nCounty Antrim, and sent to me the results, from which I have selected\nthe very interesting, and, in some respects, unique tales which\nfollow:--\n\n_The Fairies and the Weaver._--'Ned Judge, of Sophys Bridge, was a\nweaver. Every night after he went to bed the weaving started of itself,\nand when he arose in the morning he would find the dressing which had\nbeen made ready for weaving so broken and entangled that it took him\nhours to put it right. Yet with all this drawback he got no poorer,\nbecause the fairies left him plenty of household necessaries, and\nwhenever he sold a web [of cloth] he always received treble the amount\nbargained for.'\n\n_Meeting Two Regiments of 'Them'._--'William Megarry, of Ballinderry, as\nhis daughter who is married to James Megarry, J.P., told me, was one\nnight going to Crumlin on horseback for a doctor, when after passing\nthrough Glenavy he met just opposite the Vicarage two regiments of\n_them_ (the fairies) coming along the road towards Glenavy. One regiment\nwas dressed in red and one in blue or green uniform. _They_ were playing\nmusic, but when they opened out to let him pass through the middle of\n_them_ the music ceased until he had passed by.'\n\n\nIN CUCHULAINN'S COUNTRY: A CIVIL ENGINEER'S TESTIMONY\n\nIn the heroic days of pagan Ireland, as tradition tells, the ancient\nearthworks, now called the Navan Rings, just outside Armagh, were the\nstronghold of Cuchulainn and the Red Branch Knights; and, later, under\nPatrick, Armagh itself, one of the old mystic centres of Erin, became\nthe ecclesiastical capital of the Gaels. And from this romantic country,\none of its best informed native sons, a graduate civil engineer of\nDublin University, offers the following important evidence:--\n\n_The Fairies are the Dead._--'When I was a youngster near Armagh, I was\nkept good by being told that the fairies could take bad boys away. The\nsane belief about the fairies, however, is different, as I discovered\nwhen I grew up. The old people in County Armagh seriously believe that\nthe fairies are the spirits of the dead; and they say that if you have\nmany friends deceased you have many friendly fairies, or if you have\nmany enemies deceased you have many fairies looking out to do you harm.'\n\n_Food-Offerings to Place-Fairies._--'It was very usual formerly, and the\npractice is not yet given up, to place a bed, some other furniture, and\nplenty of food in a newly-constructed dwelling the night before the time\nfixed for moving into it; and if the food is not consumed, and the\ncrumbs swept up by the door in the morning, the house cannot safely be\noccupied. I know of two houses now that have never been occupied,\nbecause the fairies did not show their willingness and goodwill by\ntaking food so offered to them.'\n\n\nON THE SLOPES OF SLIEVE GULLION\n\nIn climbing to the summit of Cuchulainn's mountain, which overlooks\nparts of the territory made famous by the 'Cattle Raid of Cooley', I met\nJohn O'Hare, sixty-eight years old, of Longfield Townland, leading his\nhorse to pasture, and I stopped to talk with him about the 'good\npeople'.\n\n'The _good people_ in this mountain,' he said, 'are the people who have\ndied and been _taken_; the mountain is enchanted.'\n\n_The 'Fairy' Overflowing of the Meal-Chest._--'An old woman came to the\nwife of Steven Callaghan and told her not to let Steven cut a certain\nhedge. \"It is where we shelter at night,\" the old woman added; and Mrs.\nCallaghan recognized the old woman as one who had been _taken_ in\nconfinement. A few nights later the same old woman appeared to Mrs.\nCallaghan and asked for charity; and she was offered some meal, which\nshe did not take. Then she asked for lodgings, but did not stop. When\nMrs. Callaghan saw the meal-chest next morning it was overflowing with\nmeal: it was the old woman's gift for the hedge.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF TWO DROMINTEE PERCIPIENTS\n\nAfter my friend, the Rev. Father L. Donnellan, C.C., of Dromintee,\nCounty Armagh, had introduced me to Alice Cunningham, of his parish, and\nshe had told much about the 'gentle folk', she emphatically declared\nthat they do exist--and this in the presence of Father Donnellan--because\nshe has often seen them on Carrickbroad Mountain, near where she lives.\nAnd she then reported as follows concerning enchanted Slieve Gullion:--\n\n_The 'Sidhe' Guardian of Slieve Gullion._--'The top of Slieve Gullion is\na very _gentle_ place. A fairy has her house there by the lake, but she\nis invisible. She interferes with nobody. I hear of no _gentler_ places\nabout here than Carrickbroad and Slieve Gullion.'\n\nFather Donnellan and I called next upon Thomas McCrink and his wife at\nCarrifamayan, because Mrs. McCrink claims to have seen some of the 'good\npeople', and this is her testimony:--\n\n_Nature of the 'Good People'._--'I've heard and felt the _good people_\ncoming on the wind; and I once saw them down in the middle field on my\nfather's place playing football. They are still on earth. Among them are\nthe spirits of our ancestors; and these rejoice whenever good fortune\ncomes our way, for I saw them before my mother won her land [after a\nlong legal contest] in the field rejoicing.\n\n'Some of the _good people_ I have thought were fallen angels, though\nthese may be dead people whose time is not up. We are only like shadows\nin this world: my mother died in England, and she came to me in the\nspirit. I saw her plainly. I ran to catch her, but my hands ran through\nher form as if it were mere mist. Then there was a crack, and she was\ngone.' And, finally, after a moment, our percipient said:--'The fairies\nonce passed down this lane here on a Christmas morning; and I took them\nto be suffering souls out of Purgatory, going to mass.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF A DROMINTEE SEERESS\n\nFather Donnellan, the following day, took me to talk with almost the\noldest woman in his parish, Mrs. Biddy Grant, eighty-six years old, of\nUpper Toughal, beside Slieve Gullion. Mrs. Grant is a fine specimen of\nan Irishwoman, with white hair, clear complexion, and an expression of\ngreat natural intelligence, though now somewhat feeble from age. Her\nmind is yet clear, however; and her testimony is substantiated by this\nstatement from her own daughter, who lives with her:--'My mother has the\npower of seeing things. It is a fact with her that spirits exist. She\nhas seen much, even in her old age; and what she is always telling me\nscares me half to death.'\n\nThe following is Mrs. Grant's direct testimony given at her own home, on\nSeptember 20, 1909, in answer to our question if she knew anything about\nthe 'good people':--\n\n_Seeing the 'Good People' as the Dead._--'I saw _them_ once as plain as\ncan be--big, little, old, and young. I was in bed at the time, and a boy\nwhom I had reared since he was born was lying ill beside me. Two of\n_them_ came and looked at him; then came in three of _them_. One of\n_them_ seemed to have something like a book, and he put his hand to the\nboy's mouth; then he went away, while others appeared, opening the back\nwindow to make an avenue through the house; and through this avenue came\ngreat crowds. At this I shook the boy, and said to him, \"Do you see\nanything?\" \"No,\" he said; but as I made him look a second time he said,\n\"I do.\" After that he got well.\n\n'These _good people_ were the spirits of our dead friends, but I could\nnot recognize them. I have often seen them that way while in my bed.\nMany women are among them. I once touched a boy of theirs, and he was\njust like feathers in my hand; there was no substance in him, and I knew\nhe wasn't a living being. I don't know where they live; I've heard they\nlive in the _Carrige_ (rocks). Many a time I've heard of their _taking_\npeople or leading them astray. They can't live far away when they come\nto me in such a rush. They are as big as we are. I think these fairy\npeople are all through this country and in the mountains.'\n\n_An Apparition of a 'Sidhe' Woman?_--'At a wake I went out of doors at\nmidnight and saw a woman running up and down the field with a strange\nlight in her hand. I called out my daughter, but she saw nothing, though\nall the time the woman dressed in white was in the field, shaking the\nlight and running back and forth as fast as you could wink. I thought\nthe woman might be the spirit of Nancy Frink, but I was not sure.' (Cf.\npp. 60 ff., 83, 155, 215.)\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM LOUGH GUR, COUNTY LIMERICK\n\nOne of the most interesting parts of Ireland for the archaeologist and\nfor the folk-lorist alike is the territory immediately surrounding Lough\nGur, County Limerick. Shut in for the most part from the outer world by\na circle of low-lying hills on whose summits fairy goddesses yet dwell\ninvisibly, this region, famous for its numerous and well-preserved\ncromlechs, dolmens, menhirs, and tumuli, and for the rare\nfolk-traditions current among its peasantry, has long been popularly\nregarded as a sort of Otherworld preserve haunted by fairy beings, who\ndwell both in its waters and on its land.\n\nThere seems to be no reasonable doubt that in pre-Christian times the\nLough Gur country was a very sacred spot, a mystic centre for\npilgrimages and for the celebration of Celtic religious rites, including\nthose of initiation. The Lough is still enchanted, but once in seven\nyears the spell passes off it, and it then appears like dry land to any\none that is fortunate enough to behold it. At such a time of\ndisenchantment a Tree is seen growing up through the lake-bottom--a Tree\nlike the strange World-Tree of Scandinavian myth. The Tree is covered\nwith a Green Cloth, and under it sits the lake's guardian, a woman\nknitting.[23] The peasantry about Lough Gur still believe that beneath\nits waters there is one of the chief entrances in Ireland to\n_T\u00edr-na-nog_, the 'Land of Youth', the Fairy Realm. And when a child is\nstolen by the Munster fairies, 'Lough Gur is conjectured to be the place\nof its unearthly transmutation from the human to the fairy state.'[23]\n\nTo my friend, Count John de Salis, of Balliol College, I am indebted for\nthe following legendary material, collected by him on the fairy-haunted\nLough Gur estate, his ancestral home, and annotated by the Rev. J. F.\nLynch, one of the best-informed antiquarians living in that part of\nSouth Ireland:--\n\n_The Fairy Goddesses, Aine and Fennel (or Finnen)._--'There are two\nhills near Lough Gur upon whose summits sacrifices and sacred rites used\nto be celebrated according to living tradition. One, about three miles\nsouth-west of the lake, is called Knock Aine, Aine or Ane being the name\nof an ancient Irish goddess, derived from _an_, \"bright.\" The other, the\nhighest hill on the lake-shores, is called Knock Fennel or Hill of the\nGoddess Fennel, from _Finnen_ or _Finnine_ or _Fininne_, a form of\n_fin_, \"white.\" The peasantry of the region call Aine one of the Good\nPeople;[24] and they say that Fennel (apparently her sister goddess or\na variant of herself) lived on the top of Knock Fennel' (termed Finnen\nin a State Paper dated 1200).\n\n_The Fairy Boat-Race._--'Different old peasants have told me that on\nclear calm moonlight nights in summer, fairy boats appear racing across\nLough Gur. The boats come from the eastern side of the lake, and when\nthey have arrived at Garrod Island, where the Desmond Castle lies in\nruins, they vanish behind Knock Adoon. There are four of these phantom\nboats, and in each there are two men rowing and a woman steering. No\nsound is heard, though the seer can see the weird silvery splash of the\noars and the churning of the water at the bows of the boats as they\nshoot along. It is evident that they are racing, because one boat gets\nahead of the others, and all the rowers can be seen straining at the\noars. Boats and occupants seem to be transparent, and you cannot see\nexactly what their nature is. One old peasant told me that it is the\nshining brightness of the clothes on the phantom rowers and on the women\nwho steer which makes them visible.\n\n'Another man, who is about forty years of age, and as far as I know of\ngood habits, assures me that he also has seen this fairy boat-race, and\nthat it can still be seen at the proper season.'\n\n_The Bean-Tighe._[25]--'The _Bean-tighe_, the fairy housekeeper of the\nenchanted submerged castle of the Earl of Desmond, is supposed to appear\nsitting on an ancient earthen monument shaped like a great chair and\nhence called _Suidheachan_, the \"Housekeeper's Little Seat,\" on Knock\nAdoon (Hill of the Fort), which juts out into the Lough. The\n_Bean-tighe_, as I have heard an old peasant tell the tale, was once\nasleep on her Seat, when the _Buachailleen_[26] or \"Little Herd Boy\"\nstole her golden comb. When the _Bean-tighe_ awoke and saw what had\nhappened, she cast a curse upon the cattle of the _Buachailleen_, and\nsoon all of them were dead, and then the \"Little Herd Boy\" himself died,\nbut before his death he ordered the golden comb to be cast into the\nLough.'[27]\n\n_Lough Gur Fairies in General._--'The peasantry in the Lough Gur region\ncommonly speak of the _Good People_ or of the _Kind People_ or of the\n_Little People_, their names for the fairies. The leprechaun indicates\nthe place where hidden treasure is to be found. If the person to whom he\nreveals such a secret makes it known to a second person, the first\nperson dies, or else no money is found: in some cases the money is\nchanged into ivy leaves or into furze blossoms.\n\n'I am convinced that some of the older peasants still believe in\nfairies. I used to go out on the lake occasionally on moonlight nights,\nand an old woman supposed to be a \"wise woman\" (a seeress), hearing\nabout my doing this, told me that under no circumstances should I\ncontinue the practice, for fear of \"Them People\" (the fairies). One\nevening in particular I was warned by her not to venture on the lake.\nShe solemnly asserted that the \"Powers of Darkness\" were then abroad,\nand that it would be misfortune for me to be in their path.[28]\n\n'Under ordinary circumstances, as a very close observer of the Lough Gur\npeasantry informs me, the old people will pray to the Saints, but if by\nany chance such prayers remain unanswered they then invoke other powers,\nthe fairies, the goddesses Aine and Fennel, or other pagan deities, whom\nthey seem to remember in a vague subconscious manner through tradition.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM A COUNTY KERRY SEER\n\nTo another of my fellow students in Oxford, a native Irishman of County\nKerry, I am indebted for the following evidence:--\n\n_A Collective Vision of Spiritual Beings._--'Some few weeks before\nChristmas, 1910, at midnight on a very dark night, I and another young\nman (who like myself was then about twenty-three years of age) were on\nhorseback on our way home from Limerick. When near Listowel, we noticed\na light about half a mile ahead. At first it seemed to be no more than a\nlight in some house; but as we came nearer to it and it was passing out\nof our direct line of vision we saw that it was moving up and down, to\nand fro, diminishing to a spark, then expanding into a yellow luminous\nflame. Before we came to Listowel we noticed two lights, about one\nhundred yards to our right, resembling the light seen first. Suddenly\neach of these lights expanded into the same sort of yellow luminous\nflame, about six feet high by four feet broad. In the midst of each\nflame we saw a radiant being having human form. Presently the lights\nmoved toward one another and made contact, whereupon the two beings in\nthem were seen to be walking side by side. The beings' bodies were\nformed of a pure dazzling radiance, white like the radiance of the sun,\nand much brighter than the yellow light or aura surrounding them. So\ndazzling was the radiance, like a halo, round their heads that we could\nnot distinguish the countenances of the beings; we could only\ndistinguish the general shape of their bodies; though their heads were\nvery clearly outlined because this halo-like radiance, which was the\nbrightest light about them, seemed to radiate from or rest upon the head\nof each being. As we travelled on, a house intervened between us and the\nlights, and we saw no more of them. It was the first time we had ever\nseen such phenomena, and in our hurry to get home we were not wise\nenough to stop and make further examination. But ever since that night I\nhave frequently seen, both in Ireland and in England, similar lights\nwith spiritual beings in them.' (Cf. pp. 60 ff., 77, 133, 155, 215,\n483.)\n\n_Reality of the Spiritual World._--'Like my companion, who saw all that\nI saw of the first three lights, I formerly had always been a sceptic as\nto the existence of spirits; now I know that there is a spiritual world.\nMy brother, a physician, had been equally sceptical until he saw, near\nour home at Listowel, similar lights containing spiritual beings and was\nobliged to admit the genuineness of the phenomena.\n\n'In whatever country we may be, I believe that we are for ever immersed\nin the spiritual world; but most of us cannot perceive it on account of\nthe unrefined nature of our physical bodies. Through meditation and\npsychical training one can come to see the spiritual world and its\nbeings. We pass into the spirit realm at death and come back into the\nhuman world at birth; and we continue to reincarnate until we have\novercome all earthly desires and mortal appetites. Then the higher life\nis open to our consciousness and we cease to be human; we become divine\nbeings.' (Recorded in Oxford, England, August 12, 1911.)\n\n\nIII. IN SCOTLAND\n\n     Introduction by ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL, Hon. LL.D. of the University of\n     Edinburgh; author of _Carmina Gadelica_.\n\nThe belief in fairies was once common throughout Scotland--Highland and\nLowland. It is now much less prevalent even in the Highlands and\nIslands, where such beliefs linger longer than they do in the Lowlands.\nBut it still lives among the old people, and is privately entertained\nhere and there even among younger people; and some who hold the belief\ndeclare that they themselves have seen fairies.\n\nVarious theories have been advanced as to the origin of fairies and as\nto the belief in them. The most concrete form in which the belief has\nbeen urged has been by the Rev. Robert Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, in\nPerthshire.[29] Another theory of the origin of fairies I took down in\nthe island of Miunghlaidh (Minglay); and, though I have given it in\n_Carmina Gadelica_, it is sufficiently interesting to be quoted here.\nDuring October 1871, Roderick Macneill, known as 'Ruaraidh mac Dhomhuil,'\nthen ninety-two years of age, told it in Gaelic to the late J. F.\nCampbell of Islay and the writer, when they were storm-stayed in the\nprecipitous island of Miunghlaidh, Barra:--\n\n'The Proud Angel fomented a rebellion among the angels of heaven, where\nhe had been a leading light. He declared that he would go and found a\nkingdom for himself. When going out at the door of heaven the Proud\nAngel brought prickly lightning and biting lightning out of the doorstep\nwith his heels. Many angels followed him--so many that at last the Son\ncalled out, \"Father! Father! the city is being emptied!\" whereupon the\nFather ordered that the gates of heaven and the gates of hell should be\nclosed. This was instantly done. And those who were in were in, and\nthose who were out were out; while the hosts who had left heaven and had\nnot reached hell flew into the holes of the earth, like the stormy\npetrels. These are the Fairy Folk--ever since doomed to live under the\nground, and only allowed to emerge where and when the King permits. They\nare never allowed abroad on Thursday, that being Columba's Day; nor on\nFriday, that being the Son's Day; nor on Saturday, that being Mary's\nDay; nor on Sunday, that being the Lord's Day.\n\n  God be between me and every fairy,\n  Every ill wish and every druidry;\n  To-day is Thursday on sea and land,\n  I trust in the King that they do not hear me.\n\nOn certain nights when their _bruthain_ (bowers) are open and their\nlamps are lit, and the song and the dance are moving merrily, the\nfairies may be heard singing lightheartedly:--\n\n  Not of the seed of Adam are we,\n  Nor is Abraham our father;\n  But of the seed of the Proud Angel,\n  Driven forth from Heaven.'\n\nThe fairies entered largely into the lives and into the folk-lore of the\nHighland people, and the following examples of things named after the\nfairies indicate the manner in which the fairies dominated the minds of\nthe people of Gaeldom:--_teine sith_, 'fairy fire' (_ignis fatuus_);\n_breaca sith_, 'fairy marks,' livid spots appearing on the faces of the\ndead or dying; _marcachd shith_, 'fairy riding,' paralysis of the spine\nin animals, alleged to be brought on by the fairy mouse riding across\nthe backs of animals while they are lying down; _piob shith_, 'fairy\npipe' or 'elfin pipe', generally found in ancient underground houses;\n_miaran na mna sithe_, 'the thimble of the fairy woman,' the fox-glove;\n_lion na mna sithe_, 'lint of the fairy woman,' fairy flax, said to be\nbeneficial in certain illnesses; and _curachan na mna sithe_, 'coracle\nof the fairy woman,' the shell of the blue valilla. In place-names\n_sith_, 'fairy,' is common. Glenshee, in Perthshire, is said to have\nbeen full of fairies, but the screech of the steam-whistle frightened\nthem underground. There is scarcely a district of the Highlands without\nits fairy knoll, generally the greenest hillock in the place. 'The black\nchanter of Clan Chattan' is said to have been given to a famous\nMacpherson piper by a fairy woman who loved him; and the Mackays have a\nflag said to have been given to a Mackay by a fairy sweetheart. The\nwell-known fairy flag of Dunvegan is said to have been given to a\nMacleod of Macleod by a fairy woman; and the Macrimmons of Bororaig,\npipers to the Macleods of Macleod, had a chanter called '_Sionnsair\nairgid na mna sithe_', 'the silver chanter of the fairy woman.' A family\nin North Uist is known as _Dubh-sith_, 'Black fairy,' from a tradition\nthat the family had been familiar with the fairies in their secret\nflights and nightly migrations.\n\nDonald Macalastair, seventy-nine years of age, crofter, Druim-a-ghinnir,\nArran, told me, in the year 1895, the following story in Gaelic:--'The\nfairies were dwelling in the knoll, and they had a near neighbour who\nused to visit them in their home. The man used to observe the ways of\nthe fairies and to do as they did. The fairies took a journey upon them\nto go to Ireland, and the man took upon him to go with them. Every\nsingle fairy of them caught a ragwort and went astride it, and they were\npell-mell, every knee of them across the Irish Ocean in an instant, and\nacross the Irish Ocean was the man after them, astride a ragwort like\none of themselves. A little wee tiny fairy shouted and asked were they\nall ready, and all the others replied that they were, and the little\nfairy called out:--\n\n  My king at my head,\n  Going across in my haste,\n  On the crests of the waves,\n  To Ireland.\n\n\"Follow me,\" said the king of the fairies, and away they went across the\nIrish Ocean, every mother's son of them astride his ragwort. Macuga\n(Cook) did not know on earth how he would return to his native land, but\nhe leapt upon the ragwort as he saw the fairies do, and he called as he\nheard them call, and in an instant he was back in Arran. But he had got\nenough of the fairies on this trip itself, and he never went with them\nagain.'\n\nThe fairies were wont to take away infants and their mothers, and many\nprecautions were taken to safeguard them till purification and baptism\ntook place, when the fairy power became ineffective. Placing iron about\nthe bed, burning leather in the room, giving mother and child the milk\nof a cow which had eaten of the _mothan_, pearl-wort (_Pinguicula\nvulgaris_), a plant of virtue, and similar means were taken to ensure\ntheir safety. If the watching-women neglected these precautions, the\nmother or child or both were spirited away to the fairy bower. Many\nstories are current on this subject.\n\nSometimes the fairies helped human beings with their work, coming in at\nnight to finish the spinning or the house-work, or to thresh the\nfarmer's corn or fan his grain. On such occasions they must not be\nmolested nor interfered with, even in gratitude. If presented with a\ngarment they will go away and work no more. This method of getting rid\nof them is often resorted to, as it is not easy always to find work for\nthem to do.\n\n_Bean chaol a chot uaine 's na gruaige buidhe_, 'the slender woman of\nthe green kirtle and of the yellow hair,' is wise of head and deft of\nhand. She can convert the white water of the rill into rich red wine and\nthe threads of the spiders into a tartan plaid. From the stalk of the\nfairy reed she can bring the music of the lull of the peace and of the\nrepose, however active the brain and lithe the limb; and she can rouse\nto mirth and merriment, and to the dance, men and women, however\ndolorous their condition. From the bower could be heard the pipe and the\nsong and the voice of laughter as the fairies 'sett' and reeled in the\nmazes of the dance. Sometimes a man hearing the merry music and seeing\nthe wonderful light within would be tempted to go in and join them, but\nwoe to him if he omitted to leave a piece of iron at the door of the\nbower on entering, for the cunning fairies would close the door and the\nman would find no egress. There he would dance for years--but to him the\nyears were as one day--while his wife and family mourned him as dead.\n\nThe flint arrow-heads so much prized by antiquarians are called in the\nHighlands _Saighead sith_, fairy arrows. They are said to have been\nthrown by the fairies at the sons and daughters of men. The writer\npossesses one which was thrown at his own maid-servant one night when\nshe went to the peatstack for peats. She was aware of something whizzing\nthrough the silent air, passing through her hair, grazing her ear and\nfalling at her feet. Stooping in the bright moonlight the girl picked up\na fairy arrow!\n\n'But faith is dead--such things do not happen now,' said a courteous\ninformant. If not quite dead it is almost dead, hastened by the\nshifting of population, the establishment of means of communication, the\ninflux of tourists, and the scorn of the more materialistic of the\nincomers and of the people themselves.\n\n  EDINBURGH,\n    _October_ 1910.\n\n\nABERFOYLE, THE COUNTRY OF ROBERT KIRK\n\nMy first hunt for fairies in Scotland began at Aberfoyle, where the\nHighlands and the Lowlands meet, and in the very place where Robert\nKirk, the minister of Aberfoyle, was _taken_ by them, in the year 1692.\nThe minister spent a large part of his time studying the ways of the\n'good people', and he must have been able to see them, for he was a\nseventh son. Mrs. J. MacGregor, who keeps the key to the old churchyard\nwhere there is a tomb to Kirk, though many say there is nothing in it\nbut a coffin filled with stones, told me that Kirk was taken into the\nFairy Knoll, which she pointed to just across a little valley in front\nof us, and is there yet, for the hill is full of caverns, and in them\nthe 'good people' have their homes. And she added that Kirk appeared to\na relative of his after he was _taken_, and said that he was in the\npower of the 'good people', and couldn't get away. 'But,' says he, 'I\ncan be set free if you will have my cousin do what I tell him when I\nappear again at the christening of my child in the parsonage.' According\nto Mr. Andrew Lang, who reports the same tradition in more detail in his\nadmirable Introduction to _The Secret Commonwealth_, the cousin was\nGrahame of Duchray, and the thing he was to do was to throw a dagger\nover Kirk's head. Grahame was at hand at the christening of the\nposthumous child, but was so astonished to see Kirk appear as Kirk said\nhe would, that he did not throw the dagger, and so Kirk became a\nperpetual prisoner of the 'good people'.\n\nAfter having visited Kirk's tomb, I called on the Rev. William M.\nTaylor, the present successor of Kirk, and, as we sat together in the\nvery room where Kirk must have written his _Secret Commonwealth_, he\ntold me that tradition reports Kirk as having been _taken_ by the\nfairies while he was walking on their hill, which is but a short way\nfrom the parsonage. 'At the time of his disappearance, people said he\nwas _taken_ because the fairies were displeased with him for prying into\ntheir secrets. At all events, it seems likely that Kirk was taken ill\nvery suddenly with something like apoplexy while on the Fairy Knoll, and\ndied there. I have searched the presbytery books, and find no record of\nhow Kirk's death really took place; but of course there is not the least\ndoubt of his body being in the grave.' So thus, according to Mr. Taylor,\nwe are to conclude that if the fairies carried off anything, it must\nhave been the spirit or soul of Kirk. I talked with others round\nAberfoyle about Kirk, and some would have it that his body and soul were\nboth _taken_, and that what was buried was no corpse at all. Mrs.\nMargaret MacGregor, one of the few Gaelic speakers of the old school\nleft in Aberfoyle, holds another opinion, for she said to me, 'Nothing\ncould be surer than that the _good people_ took Kirk's spirit only.'\n\nIn the Aberfoyle country, the Fairy-Faith, save for the stories about\nKirk, which will probably persist for a long time yet, is rapidly\npassing. In fact it is almost forgotten now. Up to thirty years ago, as\nMr. Taylor explained, before the railway reached Aberfoyle, belief in\nfairies was much more common. Nowadays, he says, there is no real\nfairy-lore among the peasants; fifty to sixty years ago there was. And\nin his opinion, 'the fairy people of three hundred years ago in Scotland\nwere a distinct race by themselves. They had never been human beings.\nThe belief in them was a survival of paganism, and not at all an\noutgrowth of Christian belief in angelic hosts.'\n\n\nA SCOTCH MINISTER'S TESTIMONY\n\nA Protestant minister of Scotland will be our next witness. He is a\nnative of Ross-shire, though he draws many of his stories from the\nWestern Hebrides, where his calling has placed him. Because he speaks\nfrom personal knowledge of the living Fairy-Faith as it was in his\nboyhood and is now, and chiefly because he has had the rare privilege\nof conscious contact with the fairy world, his testimony is of the\nhighest value.\n\n_Reality of Fairies._--'When I was a boy I was a firm believer in\nfairies; and now as a Christian minister I believe in the possibility\nand also the reality of these spiritual orders, but I wish only to know\nthose orders which belong to the realm of grace. It is very certain that\nthey exist. I have been in a state of ecstasy, and have seen spiritual\nbeings which form these orders.[30]\n\n'I believe in the actuality of evil spirits; but people in the Highlands\nhaving put aside paganism, evil spirits are not seen now.'\n\nThis explanation was offered of how fairies may exist and yet be\ninvisible:--'Our Saviour became invisible though in the body; and, as\nthe Scriptures suggest, I suppose we are obliged to concede a similar\npower of invisibility to spirits as well, good and evil ones alike.'\n\n_Precautions against Fairies._--'I remember how an old woman pulled me\nout of a fairy ring to save me from being _taken_.\n\n'If a mother takes some bindweed and places it burnt at the ends over\nher babe's cradle, the fairies have no power over the child. The\nbindweed is a common roadside convolvulus.\n\n'As a boy, I saw two old women passing a babe over red-hot coals, and\nthen drop some of the cinders in a cup of water and give the water to\nthe babe to drink, in order to cure it of a fairy stroke.'\n\n_Fairy Fights on Halloween._--'It is a common belief now that on\nHalloween the fairies, or the fairy hosts, have fights. Lichens on\nrocks after there has been a frost get yellowish-red, and then when they\nthaw and the moisture spreads out from them the rocks are a bright red;\nand this bright red is said to be the blood of the fairies after one of\ntheir battles.'\n\n_Fairies and the Hump-back._--The following story by the present witness\nis curious, for it is the same story of a hump-back which is so\nwidespread. The fact that in Scotland the hump is removed or added by\nfairies as it is in Ireland, in Cornwall by pixies, and in Brittany by\n_corrigans_, goes far to prove the essential identity of these three\norders of beings. The story comes from one of the remote Western\nHebrides, Benbecula:--'A man who was a hump-back once met the fairies\ndancing, and danced with their queen; and he sang with them, \"Monday,\nTuesday, Wednesday,\" so well that they took off his hump, and he\nreturned home a straight-bodied man. Then a tailor went past the same\nplace, and was also admitted by the fairies to their dance. He caught\nthe fairy queen by the waist, and she resented his familiarity. And in\nsinging he added \"Thursday\" to their song and spoilt it. To pay the\ntailor for his rudeness and ill manners, the dancers took up the hump\nthey had just removed from the first man and clapped it on his back, and\nthe conceited fellow went home a hump-back.'\n\n_Libations to Fairies._--'An elder in my church knew a woman who was\naccustomed, in milking her cows, to offer libations to the fairies.[31]\nThe woman was later converted to Christ and gave up the practice, and as\na result one of her cows was _taken_ by the fairies. Then she revived\nthe practice.\n\n'The fairy queen who watches over cows is called _Gruagach_ in the\nIslands, and she is often seen. In pouring libations to her and her\nfairies various kinds of stones, usually with hollows in them, are\nused.[32]\n\n'In Lewis libations are poured to the goddess [or god] of the sea,\ncalled _Shoney_,[33] in order to bring in seaweed. Until modern times in\nIona similar libations were poured to a god corresponding to Neptune.'\n\n\nIN THE HIGHLANDS\n\nI had the pleasure as well as the great privilege of setting out from\nInverness on a bright crisp September morning in company with Dr.\nAlexander Carmichael, the well-known folk-lorist of Scotland, to study\nthe Fairy-Faith as it exists now in the Highlands round Tomatin, a small\ncountry village about twenty miles distant. We departed by an early\ntrain; and soon reaching the Tomatin country began our search--Dr.\nCarmichael for evidence regarding rare and curious Scotch beliefs\nconnected with folk-magic, such as blood-stopping at a distance and\nremoving motes in the eye at a distance, and I for Highland ghosts and\nfairies.\n\nOur first experience was with an old man whom we met on the road between\nthe railway station and the post office, who could speak only Gaelic.\nDr. Carmichael talked with him awhile, and then asked him about fairies,\nand he said there were some living in a cave some way off, but as the\ndistance was rather too far we decided not to call on them. Then we went\non to see the postmaster, Mr. John MacDougall, and he told us that in\nhis boyhood the country-folk round Tomatin believed thoroughly in\nfairies. He said they thought of them as a race of spirits capable of\nmaking themselves visible to mortals, as living in underground places,\nas _taking_ fine healthy babes and leaving changelings in their place.\nThese changelings would waste away and die in a short time after being\nleft. So firmly did the old people believe in fairies then that they\nwould ridicule a person for not believing. And now quite the reverse\nstate has come about.[34]\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF JOHN DUNBAR OF INVEREEN\n\nWe talked with other Highlanders in the country round Tomatin, and heard\nonly echoes, mostly fragmentary, of what their forefathers used to\nbelieve about fairies. But at Invereen we discovered John Dunbar, a\nHighlander, who really knows the Fairy-Faith and is not ashamed to\nexplain it. Speaking partly from experience and partly from what he has\nheard his parents relate concerning the 'good people', he said:--\n\n_The Sheep and the Fairy-Hunting._--'I believe people saw fairies, but I\nthink one reason no one sees them now is because every place in this\nparish where they used to appear has been put into sheep, and deer, and\ngrouse, and shooting. According to tradition, Coig na Fearn is the place\nwhere the last fairy was seen in this country. Before the big sheep\ncame, the fairies are supposed to have had a premonition that their\ndomains were to be violated by them. A story is told of a fight between\nthe sheep and fairies, or else of the fairies hunting the sheep:--James\nMacQueen, who could traffic with the fairies, whom he regarded as ghosts\nor spirits, one night on his old place, which now is in sheep, was lying\ndown all alone and heard a small and big barking of dogs, and a small\nand big bleating of sheep, though no sheep were there then. It was the\nfairy-hunting he heard. \"I put an axe under my head and I had no fear\ntherefore,\" he always repeated when telling the story. I believe the man\nsaw and heard something. And MacQueen used to aid the fairies, and on\nthat account, as he was in the habit of saying, he always found more\nmeal in his chest than he thought he had.'\n\n_Fairies._--'My grandmother believed firmly in fairies, and I have heard\nher tell a good many stories about them. They were a small people\ndressed in green, and had dwellings underground in dry spots. Fairies\nwere often heard in the hills over there (pointing), and I believe\nsomething was there. They were awful for music, and used to be heard\nvery often playing the bagpipes. A woman wouldn't go out in the dark\nafter giving birth to a child before the child was christened, so as not\nto give the fairies power over her or the child. And I have heard people\nsay that if fairies were refused milk and meat they would _take_ a horse\nor a cow; and that if well treated they would repay all gifts.'\n\n_Time in Fairyland._--'People would be twenty years in Fairyland and it\nwouldn't seem more than a night. A bridegroom who was _taken_ on his\nwedding-day was in Fairyland for many generations, and, coming back,\nthought it was next morning. He asked where all the wedding-guests were,\nand found only one old woman who remembered the wedding.'\n\n_Highland Legend of the Dead._--As I have found to be the case in all\nCeltic countries equally, fairy stories nearly always, in accordance\nwith the law of psychology known as 'the association of ideas', give\nplace to or are blended with legends of the dead. This is an important\nfactor for the Psychological Theory. And what follows proves the same\nideas to be present to the mind of Mr. Dunbar:--'Some people after death\nare seen in their old haunts; no mistake about it. A bailiff had false\ncorn and meal measures, and so after he died he came back to his\ndaughter and told her he could have no peace until the measures were\nburned. She complied with her father's wish, and his spirit was never\nseen again. I have known also of phantom funerals of people who died\nsoon afterwards being seen on the road at night.'\n\n\nTO THE WESTERN HEBRIDES\n\nFrom Inverness I began my journey to the Western Hebrides. While I\nwaited for the steamer to take me from Kyle to the Isle of Skye, an old\nman with whom I talked on the docks said this about Neill Mackintosh, of\nBlack Island:--'You can't argue with the old man that he hasn't seen\nfairies. He can tell you all about them.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM THE ISLE OF SKYE\n\nMiss Frances Tolmie, who was born at Uignish, Isle of Skye, and has\nlived many years in the isle in close touch with some of its oldest\nfolk, contributes, from Edinburgh, the evidence which follows. The first\ntwo tales were told in the parish of Minginish a number of years ago by\nMary Macdonald, a goat-herd, and have their setting in the region of the\nKoolian[35] range of mountains on the west side of Skye.\n\n_The Fatal Peat Ember._--'An aged nurse who had fallen fast asleep as\nshe sat by the fire, was holding on her knees a newly-born babe. The\nmother, who lay in bed gazing dreamily, was astonished to see three\nstrange little women enter the dwelling. They approached the unconscious\nchild, and she who seemed to be their leader was on the point of lifting\nit off the nurse's lap, when the third exclaimed:--\"Oh! let us leave\nthis one with her as we have already taken so many!\" \"So be it,\" replied\nthe senior of the party in a tone of displeasure, \"but when that peat\nnow burning on the hearth shall be consumed, her life will surely come\nto an end.\" Then the three little figures passed out. The good wife,\nrecognizing them to be fairies, sprang from her bed and poured over the\nfire all the water she could find, and extinguished the half-burnt\nember. This she wrapped carefully in a piece of cloth and deposited at\nthe very bottom of a large chest, which afterwards she always kept\nlocked.\n\n'Years passed, and the babe grew into a beautiful young woman. In the\ncourse of time she was betrothed; and, according to custom, not\nappearing in public at church on the Sunday preceding the day appointed\nfor her marriage, remained at home alone. To amuse herself, she began to\nsearch the contents of all the keeping-places in the house, and came at\nlast to the chest containing the peat ember. In her haste, the good\nmother had that day forgotten the key of the chest, which was now in the\nlock. At the bottom of the chest the girl found a curious packet\ncontaining nothing but a morsel of peat, and this apparently useless\nthing she tossed away into the fire. When the peat was well kindled the\nyoung girl began to feel very ill, and when her mother returned was\ndying. The open chest and the blazing peat explained the cause of the\ncalamity. The fairy's prediction was fulfilled.'\n\n_Results of Refusing Fairy Hospitality._--'Two women were walking toward\nthe Point when one of them, hearing churning going on under a hillock,\nexpressed aloud a wish for some butter-milk. No sooner had she spoken\nthan a very small figure of a woman came out with a bowlful and offered\nit to her, but the thirsty woman, ignorant of fairy customs and the\npenalty attending their infringement, declined the kind offer of\nrefreshment, and immediately found herself a prisoner in the hillock.\nShe was led to an apartment containing a chest full of meal and a great\nbag of wool, and was told by the fairy that when she had eaten all the\nmeal and spun all the wool she would be free to return to her home. The\nprisoner at once set herself to eating and spinning assiduously, but\nwithout apparent result, and despairing of completing the task consulted\nan old man of very sad countenance who had long been a captive in the\nhillock. He willingly gave her his advice, which was to wet her left eye\nwith saliva each morning before she settled down to her task. She\nfollowed this advice, and gradually the wool and the meal were\nexhausted. Then the fairy granted her freedom, but in doing so cursed\nthe old man, and said that she had it in her power to keep him in the\nhillock for ever.'\n\n_The Fairies' 'Waulking' (Fulling)._--'At Ebost, in Bracadale, an old\nwoman was living in a little hut, with no companion save a wise cat. As\nwe talked, she expressed her wonder that no fairies are ever seen or\nheard nowadays. She could remember hearing her father tell how he, when\na herd-boy, had heard the fairies singing a \"waulking\" song in\nDun-Osdale, an ancient and ruined round tower in the parish of\nD\u00f9irinish, and not far from Hel\u00e9val _mhor_ (great) and Hel\u00e9val _bheag_\n(less)--two hills occasionally alluded to as \"Macleod's Tables\". The\nyouth was lying on the grass-grown summit of the ruin, and heard them\ndistinctly. As if with exultation, one voice took the verse and then the\nwhole company joined in the following chorus: \"_Ho! fir-e! fair-e,\nfoirm! Ho! Fair-eag-an an cl\u00f2!_ (Ho! well done! Grand! Ho! bravo the web\n[of homespun]!)\"'\n\n_Crodh Chailean._--'This tale was related by Mr. Neil Macleod, the bard\nof Skye:--\"Colin was a gentleman of Clan Campbell in Perthshire, who was\nmarried to a beautiful maiden whom the fairies carried off on her\nmarriage-day, and on whom they cast a spell which rendered her invisible\nfor a day and a year. She came regularly every day to milk the cows of\nher sorrowing husband, and sang sweetly to them while she milked, but he\nnever once had the pleasure of beholding her, though he could hear\nperfectly what she sang. At the expiry of the year she was, to his great\njoy, restored to him.\"'[36]\n\n_Fairy Legend of the Macleod Family._--'There is a legend told of the\nMacleod family:--Soon after the heir of the Macleods was born, a\nbeautiful woman in wonderful raiment, who was a fairy woman or banshee\n(there were joyous as well as mourning banshees) appeared at the castle,\nand went directly to the babe's cradle. She took up the babe and chanted\nover it a series of verses, and each verse had its own melody. The\nverses foretold the future manhood of the young child, and acted as a\nprotective charm over its life. Then she put the babe back into its\ncradle, and, going out, disappeared across the moorlands.\n\n'For many generations it was a custom in the Macleod family that whoever\nwas the nurse of the heir must sing those verses as the fairy woman had\nsung them. After a time the song was forgotten, but at a later period it\nwas partially recovered, and to-day it is one of the proud folk-lore\nheritages of the Macleod family.'[37]\n\n_Origin and Nature of the Fairy-Faith._--Finally, with respect to the\norigin and nature of the Scotch Fairy-Faith, Miss Tolmie states:--'As a\nchild I was not permitted to hear about fairies. At twenty I was seeking\nand trying to understand the beliefs of my fathers in the light of\nmodern ideas. I was very determined not to lose the past.\n\n'The fairy-lore originated in a cultured class in very ancient times.\nThe peasants inherited it; they did not invent it. With the loss of\nGaelic in our times came the loss of folk-ideals. The classical and\nEnglish influences combined had a killing effect; so that the\ninstinctive religious feeling which used to be among our people when\nthey kept alive the fairy-traditions is dead. We have\nintellectually-constructed creeds and doctrines which take its place.\n\n'We always thought of fairies as mysterious little beings living in\nhills. They were capricious and irritable, but not wicked. They could do\na good turn as well as a bad one. They were not aerial, but had bodies\nwhich they could make invisible; and they could make human bodies\ninvisible in the same way. Besides their hollow knolls and mounds there\nseemed to be a subterranean world in which they also lived, where things\nare like what they are in this world.'\n\n\nTHE ISLE OF BARRA,[38] WESTERN HEBRIDES\n\nWe pass from Cuchulainn's beautiful island to what is now the most\nCeltic part of Scotland--the Western Hebrides, where the ancient life is\nlived yet, and where the people have more than a faith in spirits and\nfairies. And no one of the Western Hebrides, perhaps excepting the tiny\nisland of Erisgey, has changed less during the last five hundred years\nthan Barra.\n\nOur Barra guide and interpreter, Michael Buchanan, a native and a\nlife-long resident of Barra, is seventy years old, yet as strong and\nactive as a city man at fifty. He knows intimately every old man on the\nisland, and as he was able to draw them out on the subject of the 'good\npeople' as no stranger could do, I was quite willing, as well as obliged\non account of the Scotch Gaelic, to let him act on my behalf in all my\ncollecting on Barra. Mr. Buchanan is the author of a little book called\n_The MacNeils of Barra Genealogy_, published in the year 1902. He was\nthe official interpreter before the Commission of Inquiry which was\nappointed by the British Parliament in 1883 to search into the\noppression of landlordism in the Highlands and Islands, and he acted in\nthe same capacity before the Crofters' Commission and the Deer-Forest\nCommission. We therefore feel perfectly safe in allowing him to present,\nbefore our jury trying the Fairy-Faith, the evidence of the\nGaelic-speaking witnesses from Barra.\n\n\nJOHN MACNEIL'S TESTIMONY\n\nWe met the first of the Barra witnesses on the top of a rocky hill,\nwhere the road from Castlebay passes. He was carrying on his back a sack\nof sand heavy enough for a college athlete, and he an old man between\nseventy and eighty years of age. Michael Buchanan has known John MacNeil\nall his life, for they were boys together on the island; and there is\nnot much difference between them in age, our interpreter being the\nyounger. Then the three of us sat down on a grassy knoll, all the world\nlike a fairy knoll, though it was not; and when pipes were lit and the\nweather had been discussed, there was introduced the subject of the\n'good people'--all in Gaelic, for our witness now about to testify knows\nno English--and what John MacNeil said is thus interpreted by Michael\nBuchanan:--\n\n_A Fairy's Visit._--'Yes, I have' (in answer to a question if he had\nheard of people being _taken_ by the 'good people' or fairies). 'A fairy\nwoman visited the house of a young wife here in Barra, and the young\nwife had her baby on her breast at the time. The first words uttered by\nthe fairy woman were, \"Heavy is your child;\" and the wife answered,\n\"Light is everybody who lives the longest.\" \"Were it not that you have\nanswered my question,\" said the fairy woman, \"and understood my meaning,\nyou should have been less your child.\" And then the fairy woman\ndeparted.'\n\n_Fairy-Singing._--'My mother, and two other women well known here in\nBarra, went to a hill one day to look after their sheep, and, a thick\nfog coming on, they had to rest awhile. They then sat down upon a knoll\nand began to sing a _walking_ (cloth-working) song, as follows:--\"It is\nearly to-day that I have risen;\" and, as they sang, a fairy woman in the\nrocks responded to their song with one of her own.'\n\n_Nature of Fairies._--Then the question was asked if fairies were men or\nspirits, and this is the reply:--'I never saw any myself, and so cannot\ntell, but they must be spirits from all that the old people tell about\nthem, or else how could they appear and disappear so suddenly? The old\npeople said they didn't know if fairies were flesh and blood, or\nspirits. They saw them as men of more diminutive stature than our race.\nI heard my father say that fairies used to come and speak to natural\npeople, and then vanish while one was looking at them. Fairy women used\nto go into houses and talk and then vanish. The general belief was that\nthe fairies were spirits who could make themselves seen or not seen at\nwill. And when they _took_ people they _took_ body and soul together.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF JOHN CAMPBELL, NINETY-FOUR YEARS OLD\n\nOur next witness from Barra is John Campbell, who is ninety-four years\nold, yet clear-headed. He was born on Barra at Sgalary, and lives near\nthere now at Breuvaig. We were on our way to call at his home, when we\nmet him coming on the road, with a cane in each hand and a small sack\nhanging from one of them. Michael saluted him as an old acquaintance,\nand then we all sat down on a big boulder in the warm sunshine beside\nthe road to talk. The first thing John wanted was tobacco, and when this\nwas supplied we gradually led from one subject to another until he was\ntalking about fairies. And this is what he said about them:--\n\n_The Fairy and the Fountain._--'I had a companion by the name of James\nGalbraith, who was drowned about forty years ago, and one time he was\ncrossing from the west side of the island to the east side, to the\ntownship called Sgalary, and feeling thirsty took a drink out of a\nspring well on the mountain-side. After he had taken a drink, he looked\nabout him and saw a woman clad in green, and imagined that no woman\nwould be clad in such a colour except a fairy woman. He went on his way,\nand when he hadn't gone far, looked back, and, as he looked, saw the\nwoman vanish out of his sight. He afterwards reported the incident at\nhis father's house in Sgalary, and his father said he also had seen a\nwoman clad in clothes of green at the same place some nights before.'\n\n_A Step-son Pitied by the Fairies._--'I heard my father say that a\nneighbour of his father, that is of my grandfather, was married twice,\nand had three children from the first marriage, and when married for the\nsecond time, a son and daughter. His second wife did not seem to be kind\nenough to the children of the first wife, neglecting their food and\nclothing and keeping them constantly at hard work in the fields and at\nherding.\n\n'One morning when the man and his second wife were returning from mass\nthey passed the pasture where their cows were grazing and heard the\nenjoyable _skirrels_ of the bagpipes. The father said, \"What may this\nbe?\" and going off the road found the eldest son of the first wife\nplaying the bagpipes to his heart's pleasure; and asked him earnestly,\n\"How did you come to play the bagpipes so suddenly, or where did you get\nthis splendid pair of bagpipes?\" The boy replied, \"An old man came to me\nwhile I was in the action of roasting pots in a pit-fire and said, 'Your\nstep-mother is bad to you and in ill-will towards you.' I told the old\nman I was sensible that that was the case, and then he said to me, 'If I\ngive you a trade will you be inclined to follow it?' I said yes, and the\nold man then continued, 'How would you like to be a piper by trade?' 'I\nwould gladly become a piper,' says I, 'but what am I to do without the\nbagpipes and the tunes to play?' 'I'll supply the bagpipes,' he said,\n'and as long as you have them you'll never want for the most delightful\ntunes.'\" The male descendants of the boy in question were all famous\npipers thereafter, and the last of them was a piper to the late Cluny\nMacPherson of Cluny.'\n\n_Nature of Fairies._--At this point, Michael turned the trend of John's\nthoughts to the nature of fairies, with the following result:--'The\ngeneral belief of the people here during my father's lifetime was that\nthe fairies were more of the nature of spirits than of men made of flesh\nand blood, but that they so appeared to the naked eye that no difference\ncould be marked in their forms from that of any human being, except that\nthey were more diminutive. I have heard my father say it was the case\nthat fairy women used to take away children from their cradles and leave\ndifferent children in their places, and that these children who were\nleft would turn out to be old men.\n\n'At Barra Head, a fairy woman used to come to a man's window almost\nevery night as though looking to see if the family was home. The man\ngrew suspicious, and decided the fairy woman was watching her chance to\nsteal his wife, so he proposed a plan. It was then and still is the\ncustom after thatching a house to rope it across with heather-spun\nropes, and, at the time, the man was busy spinning some of them; and he\ntold his wife to take his place that night to spin the heather-rope, and\nsaid he would take her spinning-wheel. They were thus placed when the\nfairy woman made the usual look in at the window, and she seeing that\nher intention was understood, said to the man, \"You are yourself at the\nspinning-wheel and your wife is spinning the heather-rope.\"\n\n'I have heard it said that the fairies live in knolls on a higher level\nthan that of the ground in general, and that fairy songs are heard from\nthe faces of high rocks. The fairies of the air (the fairy or spirit\nhosts) are different from those in the rocks. A man whom I've seen,\nRoderick MacNeil, was lifted by the hosts and left three miles from\nwhere he was taken up. The hosts went at about midnight. A man awake at\nmidnight is in danger. Cows and horses are sometimes shot in place of\nmen' (and why, will be explained by later witnesses).\n\n_Father MacDonald's Opinions._--We then asked about the late Rev. Donald\nMacDonald, who had the reputation of knowing all about fairies and\nspirits when he lived here in these islands, and John said:--'I have\nheard my wife say that she questioned Father MacDonald, who was then a\nparish priest here in Barra, and for whom she was a housekeeper, if it\nwas possible that such beings or spirits as fairies were in existence.\nHe said \"Yes\", and that they were those who left Heaven after the fallen\nangels; and that those going out after the fallen angels had gone out\nwere so numerous and kept going so long that St. Michael notified Christ\nthat the throne was fast emptying, and when Christ saw the state of\naffairs he ordered the doors of Heaven to be closed at once, saying as\nhe gave the order, \"Who is out is out and who is in is in.\" And the\nfairies are as numerous now as ever they were before the beginning of\nthe world.' (Cf. pp. 47, 53, 67, 76, 85, 109, 113, 116, 129, 154, 205,\n212.)\n\nHere we left John, and he, continuing on his way up the mountain road in\nan opposite direction from us and round a turn, disappeared almost as a\nfairy might.\n\n\nAN AGED PIPER'S TESTIMONY\n\nWe introduce now as a witness Donald McKinnon, ninety-six years old, a\npiper by profession; and not only is he the oldest man on Barra, but\nalso the oldest man among all our witnesses. He was born on the Island\nof South Uist, one of the Western Hebrides north of Barra, and came to\nBarra in 1836, where he has lived ever since. In spite of being four\nyears less than a hundred in age, he greeted us very heartily, and as he\ndid not wish us to sit inside, for his chimney happened not to be\ndrawing very well, and was filling the straw-thatched cottage with peat\nsmoke, we sat down outside on the grass and began talking; and as we\ncame to fairies this is what he said:--\n\n_Nature of Fairies._--'I believe that fairies exist as a tribe of\nspirits, and appear to us in the form of men and women. People who saw\nfairies can yet describe them as they appeared dressed in green. No\ndoubt there are fairies in other countries as well as here.\n\n'In my experience there was always a good deal of difference between the\nfairies and the hosts. The fairies were supposed to be living without\nmaterial food, whereas the hosts were supposed to be living upon their\nown booty. Generally, the hosts were evil and the fairies good, though I\nhave heard that the fairies used to _take_ cattle and leave their old\nmen rolled up in the hides. One night an old witch was heard to say to\nthe fairies outside the fold, \"We cannot get anything to-night.\" The old\nmen who were left behind in the hides of the animals _taken_, usually\ndisappeared very suddenly. I saw two men who used to be lifted by the\nhosts. They would be carried from South Uist as far south as Barra Head,\nand as far north as Harris. Sometimes when these men were ordered by the\nhosts to kill men on the road they would kill instead either a horse or\na cow; for in that way, so long as an animal was killed, the injunction\nof the hosts was fulfilled.' To illustrate at this point the idea of\nfairies, Donald repeated the same legend told by our former witness,\nJohn Campbell, about the emptying of Heaven and the doors being closed\nto keep the remainder of its population in. Then he told the following\nstory about fairies:--\n\n_The Fairy-Belt._--'I heard of an apprentice to carpentry who was\nworking with his master at the building of a boat, a little distance\nfrom his house, and near the sea. He went to work one morning and forgot\na certain tool which he needed in the boat-building. He returned to his\ncarpenter-shed to get it, and found the shed filled with fairy men and\nwomen. On seeing him they ran away so greatly confused that one of the\nwomen forgot her gird (belt), and he picked it up. In a little while she\ncame back for the gird, and asked him to give it her, but he refused to\ndo so. Thereupon she promised him that he should be made master of his\ntrade wherever his lot should fall without serving further\napprenticeship. On that condition he gave her the gird; and rising early\nnext morning he went to the yard where the boat was a-building and put\nin two planks so perfectly that when the master arrived and saw them, he\nsaid to him, \"Are you aware of anybody being in the building-yard last\nnight, for I see by the work done that I am more likely to be an\napprentice than the person who put in those two planks, whoever he is.\nWas it you that did it?\" The reply was in the affirmative, and the\napprentice told his master the circumstances under which he gained the\nrapid mastership of his trade.'\n\n\nACROSS THE MOUNTAINS\n\nIt was nearing sunset now, and a long mountain-climb was ahead of us,\nand one more visit that evening, before we should begin our return to\nCastlebay, and so after this story we said a hearty good-bye to Donald,\nwith regret at leaving him. When we reached the mountain-side, one of\nthe rarest of Barra's sights greeted us. To the north and south in the\ngolden glow of a September twilight we saw the long line of the Outer\nHebrides like the rocky backbone of some submerged continent. The scene\nand colours on the land and ocean and in the sky seemed more like some\nmagic vision, reflected from Faerie by the 'good people' for our\ndelight, than a thing of our own world. Never was air clearer or sea\ncalmer, nor could there be air sweeter than that in the mystic\nmountain-stillness holding the perfume of millions of tiny blossoms of\npurple and white heather; and as the last honey-bees were leaving the\nbeautiful blossoms their humming came to our ears like low, strange\nmusic from Fairyland.\n\n\nMARIAN MACLEAN OF BARRA, AND HER TESTIMONY\n\nOur next witness to testify is a direct descendant of the ancient\nMacNeils of Barra. Her name now is Marian MacLean; and she lives in the\nmountainous centre of Barra at Upper Borve. She is many years younger\nthan the men who have testified, and one of the most industrious women\non the island. It was already dark and past dinner-time when we entered\nher cottage, and so, as we sat down before a blazing peat-fire, she at\nonce offered us some hot milk and biscuits, which we were only too glad\nto accept. And, as we ate, we talked first about our hard climb in the\ndarkness across the mountains, and through the thick heather-bushes, and\nthen about the big rock which has a key-hole in it, for it contains a\nsecret entrance to a fairy palace. We had examined it in the twilight as\nwe came through the mountain pass which it guards, and my guide Michael\nhad assured me that more than one islander, crossing at the hour we\nwere, had seen some of the fairies near it. We waited in front of the\nbig rock in hopes one might appear for our benefit, but, in spite of our\nstrong belief that there are fairies there, not a single one would come\nout. Perhaps they came and we couldn't see them; who knows?\n\n_Fairies and Fairy Hosts ('Sluagh')._[39]--'O yes,' Marian said, as she\nheard Michael and myself talking over our hot milk, 'there are fairies\nthere, for I was told that the Pass was a notable fairy haunt.' Then I\nsaid through Michael, 'Can you tell us something about what these\nfairies are?' And from that time, save for a few interruptions natural\nin conversation, we listened and Marian talked, and told stories as\nfollows:--\n\n'Generally, the fairies are to be seen after or about sunset, and walk\non the ground as we do, whereas the hosts travel in the air above places\ninhabited by people. The hosts used to go after the fall of night, and\nmore particularly about midnight. You'd hear them going in fine weather\nagainst a wind like a covey of birds. And they were in the habit of\nlifting men in South Uist, for the hosts need men to help in shooting\ntheir javelins from their bows against women in the action of milking\ncows, or against any person working at night in a house over which they\npass. And I have heard of good sensible men whom the hosts took,\nshooting a horse or cow in place of the person ordered to be shot.\n\n'There was a man who had only one cow and one daughter. The daughter was\nmilking the cow at night when the hosts were passing, and that human\nbeing whom the hosts had lifted with them was her father's neighbour.\nAnd this neighbour was ordered by the hosts to shoot the daughter as she\nwas milking, but, knowing the father and daughter, he shot the cow\ninstead. The next morning he went where the father was and said to him,\n\"You are missing the cow.\" \"Yes,\" said the father, \"I am.\" And the man\nwho had shot the cow said, \"Are you not glad your cow and not your\ndaughter was _taken_? For I was ordered to shoot your daughter and I\nshot your cow, in order to show blood on my arrow.\" \"I am very glad of\nwhat you have done if that was the case,\" the father replied. \"It was\nthe case,\" the neighbour said.\n\n'My father and grandfather knew a man who was carried by the hosts from\nSouth Uist here to Barra. I understand when the hosts take away earthly\nmen they require another man to help them. But the hosts must be\nspirits. My opinion is that they are both spirits of the dead and other\nspirits not the dead. A child was taken by the hosts and returned after\none night and one day, and found at the back of the house with the palms\nof its hands in the holes in the wall, and with no life in its body. It\nwas dead in the spirit. It is believed that when people are dropped from\na great height by the hosts they are killed by the fall. As to fairies,\nmy firm opinion is that they are spirits who appear in the shape of\nhuman beings.'\n\nThe question was now asked whether the fairies were anything like the\ndead, and Marian hesitated about answering. She thought they were like\nthe dead, but not to be identified with them. The fallen-angel idea\nconcerning fairies was an obstacle she could not pass, for she said,\n'When the fallen angels were cast out of Heaven God commanded them\nthus:--\"You will go to take up your abodes in crevices, under the earth,\nin mounds, or soil, or rocks.\" And according to this command they have\nbeen condemned to inhabit the places named for a certain period of time,\nand when it is expired before the consummation of the world, they will\nbe seen as numerous as ever.'\n\nNow we heard two good stories, the first about fairy women spinning for\na mortal, the second about a wonderful changeling who was a magic\nmusician:--\n\n_Fairy-Women Spinners._--'I have heard my father, Alexander MacNeil, who\nwas well known to Mr. [Alexander] Carmichael and to Mr. J. F. Campbell\nof Islay, say that his father knew a woman in the neighbourhood who was\nin a hurry to have her stock of wool spun and made into cloth, and one\nnight this woman secretly wished to have some women to help her. So the\nfollowing morning there appeared at her house six or seven fairy women\nin long green robes, all alike chanting, \"A wool-card, and a\nspinning-wheel.\" And when they were supplied with the instruments they\nwere so very desirous to get, they all set to work, and by midday of\nthat morning the cloth was going through the process of the hand-loom.\nBut they were not satisfied with finishing the work the woman had set\nbefore them, but asked for new employment. The woman had no more\nspinning or weaving to be done, and began to wonder how she was to get\nthe women out of the house. So she went into her neighbour's house and\ninformed him of her position in regard to the fairy women. The old man\nasked what they were saying. \"They are earnestly petitioning for some\nwork to do, and I have no more to give them,\" the woman replied. \"Go you\nin,\" he said to her, \"and tell them to spin the sand, and if then they\ndo not move from your house, go out again and yell in at the door that\nDun Borve is in fire!\" The first plan had no effect, but immediately on\nhearing the cry, \"Dun Borve is in fire!\" the fairy women disappeared\ninvisibly. And as they went, the woman heard the melancholy wail, \"Dun\nBorve is in fire! Dun Borve is in fire! And what will become of our\nhammers and anvil?\"--for there was a smithy in the fairy-dwelling.'\n\n_The Tailor and the Changeling._--'There was a young wife of a young man\nwho lived in the township of Allasdale, and the pair had just had their\nfirst child. One day the mother left her baby in its cradle to go out\nand do some shearing, and when she returned the child was crying in a\nmost unusual fashion. She fed him as usual on porridge and milk, but he\nwasn't satisfied with what seemed to her enough for any one of his age,\nyet every suspicion escaped her attention. As it happened, at the time\nthere was a web of home-made cloth in the house waiting for the tailor.\nThe tailor came and began to work up the cloth. As the woman was going\nout to her customary shearing operation, she warned the tailor if he\nheard the child continually crying not to pay much attention to it,\nadding she would attend to it when she came home, for she feared the\nchild would delay him in his work.\n\n'All went well till about noon, when the tailor observed the child\nrising up on its elbow and stretching its hand to a sort of shelf above\nthe cradle and taking down from it a yellow chanter [of a bagpipe]. And\nthen the child began to play. Immediately after the child began to play\nthe chanter, the house filled with young fairy women all clad in long\ngreen robes, who began to dance, and the tailor had to dance with them.\nAbout two o'clock that same afternoon the women disappeared unknown to\nthe tailor, and the chanter disappeared from the hands of the child also\nunknown to the tailor; and the child was in the cradle crying as usual.\n\n'The wife came home to make the dinner, and observed that the tailor was\nnot so far advanced with his work as he ought to be in that space of\ntime. However, when the fairy women disappeared, the child had enjoined\nupon the tailor never to tell what he had seen. The tailor promised to\nbe faithful to the child's injunctions, and so he said nothing to the\nmother.\n\n'The second day the wife left for her occupation as usual, and told the\ntailor to be more attentive to his work than the day before. A second\ntime at the same hour of the day the child in the cradle, appearing more\nlike an old man than a child, took the chanter and began to play. The\nsame fairy women filled the house again, and repeated their dance, and\nthe tailor had to join them.\n\n'Naturally the tailor was as far behind with his work the second day as\nthe first day, and it was very noticeable to the woman of the house when\nshe returned. She thereupon requested him to tell her what the matter\nmight be. Then he said to her, \"I urge upon you after going to bed\nto-night not to fondle that child, because he is not your child, nor is\nhe a child: he is an old fairy man. And to-morrow, at dead tide, go down\nto the shore and wrap him in your plaid and put him upon a rock and\nbegin to pick that shell-fish which is called limpet, and for your life\ndo not leave the shore until such a time as the tide will flow so high\nthat you will scarcely be able to wade in to the main shore.\" The woman\ncomplied with the tailor's advice, and when she had waded to the main\nshore and stood there looking at the child on the rock, it cried to her,\n\"You had a great need to do what you have done. Otherwise you'd have\nseen another ending of your turn; but blessing be to you and curses on\nyour adviser.\" When the wife arrived home her own natural child was in\nthe cradle.'\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF MURDOCH MACLEAN\n\nThe husband of Marian MacLean had entered while the last stories were\nbeing told, and when they were ended the spirit was on him, and wishing\nto give his testimony he began:--\n\n_Lachlann's Fairy Mistress._--'My grandmother, Catherine MacInnis, used\nto tell about a man named Lachlann, whom she knew, being in love with a\nfairy woman. The fairy woman made it a point to see Lachlann every\nnight, and he being worn out with her began to fear her. Things got so\nbad at last that he decided to go to America to escape the fairy woman.\nAs soon as the plan was fixed, and he was about to emigrate, women who\nwere milking at sunset out in the meadows heard very audibly the fairy\nwoman singing this song:--\n\n  What will the brown-haired woman do\n  When Lachlann is on the billows?\n\n'Lachlann emigrated to Cape Breton, landing in Nova Scotia; and in his\nfirst letter home to his friends he stated that the same fairy woman was\nhaunting him there in America.'[40]\n\n_Abduction of a Bridegroom._--'I have heard it from old people that a\ncouple, newly married, were on their way to the home of the bride's\nfather, and for some unknown reason the groom fell behind the\nprocession, and seeing a fairy-dwelling open along the road was taken\ninto it. No one could ever find the least trace of where he went, and\nall hope of seeing him again was given up. The man remained with the\nfairies so long that when he returned two generations had disappeared\nduring the lapse of time. The township in which his bride's house used\nto be was depopulated and in ruins for upwards of twenty years, but to\nhim the time had seemed only a few hours; and he was just as fresh and\nyouthful as when he went in the fairy-dwelling.'\n\n_Nature of Fairies._--Previous to his story-telling Murdoch had heard us\ndiscussing the nature and powers of fairies, and at the end of this\naccount he volunteered, without our asking for it, an opinion of his\nown:--'This (the story just told by him) leads me to believe that the\nspirit and body [of a mortal] are somehow mystically combined by fairy\nenchantment, for the fairies had a mighty power of enchanting natural\npeople, and could transform the physical body in some way. It cannot be\nbut that the fairies are spirits. According to my thinking and belief\nthey cannot be anything but spirits. My firm belief, however, is that\nthey are not the spirits of dead men, but are the fallen angels.'\n\nThen his wife Marian had one more story to add, and she at once, when\nshe could, began:--\n\n_The Messenger and the Fairies._--'Yes, I have heard the following\nincident took place here on the Island of Barra about one hundred years\nago:--A young woman taken ill suddenly sent a messenger in all haste to\nthe doctor for medicine. On his return, the day being hot and there\nbeing five miles to walk, he sat down at the foot of a knoll and fell\nasleep; and was awakened by hearing a song to the following air: \"Ho,\nho, ho, hi, ho, ho. Ill it becomes a messenger on an important message\nto sleep on the ground in the open air.\"'\n\nAnd with this, for the hour was late and dark, and we were several miles\nfrom Castlebay, we bade our good friends adieu, and began to hunt for a\nroad out of the little mountain valley where Murdoch and Marian guard\ntheir cows and sheep. And all the way to the hotel Michael and I\ndiscussed the nature of fairies. Just before midnight we saw the welcome\nlights in Castlebay across the heather-covered hills, and we both\nentered the hotel to talk. There was a blazing fire ready for us and\nsomething to eat. Before I took my final leave of my friend and guide, I\nasked him to dictate for me his private opinions about fairies, what\nthey are and how they appear to men, and he was glad to meet my request.\nHere is what he said about the famous folk-lorist, the late Mr. J. F.\nCampbell, with whom he often worked in Barra, and for himself:--\n\n\nMICHAEL BUCHANAN'S DEPOSITION CONCERNING FAIRIES\n\n'I was with the late Mr. J. F. Campbell during his first and second tour\nof the Island of Barra in search of legendary lore strictly connected\nwith fairies, and I know from daily conversing with him about fairies\nthat he held them to be spirits appearing to the naked eye of the\nspectator as any of the present or former generations of men and women,\nexcept that they were smaller in stature. And I know equally that he,\nholding them to be spirits, thought they could appear or disappear at\nwill. My own firm belief is that the fairies were or are only spirits\nwhich were or are seen in the shape of human beings, but smaller as\nregards stature. I also firmly believe in the existence of fairies as\nsuch; and accept the modern and ancient traditions respecting the ways\nand customs of various fairy tribes, such as John Mackinnon, the old\npiper, and John Campbell, and the MacLeans told us. And I therefore have\nno hesitation in agreeing with the views held by the late Mr. J. F.\nCampbell regarding fairies.'\n\n\nTHE RECITERS' LAMENT, AND THEIR STORY\n\nThe following material, so truly Celtic in its word-colour and in the\nprofound note of sadness and lamentation dominating it, may very\nappropriately conclude our examination of the Fairy-Faith of Scotland,\nby giving us some insight into the mind of the Scotch peasants of two\ngenerations ago, and into the then prevailing happy social environment\nunder which their belief in fairies flourished. For our special use Dr.\nAlexander Carmichael has rendered it out of the original Gaelic, as this\nwas taken down by him in various versions in the Western Hebrides. One\nversion was recited by Ann Macneill, of Barra, in the year 1865, another\nby Angus Macleod, of Harris, in 1877. In relation to their belief in\nfairies the anti-clerical bias of the reciters is worth noting as a\ncurious phenomenon:--\n\n'That is as I heard when a hairy little fellow upon the knee of my\nmother. My mother was full of stories and songs of music and chanting.\nMy two ears never heard musical fingers more preferable for me to hear\nthan the chanting of my mother. If there were quarrels among children,\nas there were, and as there will be, my beloved mother would set us to\ndance there and then. She herself or one of the other crofter women of\nthe townland would sing to us the mouth-music. We would dance there till\nwe were seven times tired. A stream of sweat would be falling from us\nbefore we stopped--hairful little lassies and stumpy little fellows.\nThese are scattered to-day! scattered to-day over the wide world! The\npeople of those times were full of music and dancing stories and\ntraditions. The clerics have extinguished these. May ill befall them!\nAnd what have the clerics put in their place? Beliefs about creeds, and\ndisputations about denominations and churches! May lateness be their\nlot! It is they who have put the cross round the heads and the\nentanglements round the feet of the people. The people of the Gaeldom of\nto-day are anear perishing for lack of the famous feats of their\nfathers. The black clerics have suppressed every noble custom among the\npeople of the Gaeldom--precious customs that will never return, no never\nagain return.' (Now follows what the Reciters heard upon the knee of\ntheir mother):--\n\n'\"I have never seen a man fairy nor a woman fairy, but my mother saw a\ntroop of them. She herself and the other maidens of the townland were\nonce out upon the summer _sheiling_ (grazing). They were milking the\ncows, in the evening gloaming, when they observed a flock of fairies\nreeling and setting upon the green plain in front of the knoll. And, oh\nKing! but it was they the fairies themselves that had the right to the\ndancing, and not the children of men! Bell-helmets of blue silk covered\ntheir heads, and garments of green satin covered their bodies, and\nsandals of yellow membrane covered their feet. Their heavy brown hair\nwas streaming down their waist, and its lustre was of the fair golden\nsun of summer. Their skin was as white as the swan of the wave, and\ntheir voice was as melodious as the mavis of the wood, and they\nthemselves were as beauteous of feature and as lithe of form as a\npicture, while their step was as light and stately and their minds as\nsportive as the little red hind of the hill. The damsel children of the\n_sheiling_-fold never saw sight but them, no never sight but them, never\naught so beautiful.\n\n'\"There is not a wave of prosperity upon the fairies of the knoll, no,\nnot a wave. There is no growth nor increase, no death nor withering upon\nthe fairies. Seed unfortunate they! They went away from the Paradise\nwith the One of the Great Pride. When the Father commanded the doors\nclosed down and up, the intermediate fairies had no alternative but to\nleap into the holes of the earth, where they are, and where they will\nbe.\"\n\n'This is what I heard upon the knee of my beloved mother. Blessings be\nwith her ever evermore!'\n\n\nIV. IN THE ISLE OF MAN\n\n     Introduction by SOPHIA MORRISON, Hon. Secretary of the Manx\n     Language Society.\n\nThe Manx hierarchy of fairy beings people hills and glens, caves and\nrivers, mounds and roads; and their name is legion. Apparently there is\nnot a place in the island but has its fairy legend. Sir Walter Scott\nsaid that the 'Isle of Man, beyond all other places in Britain, was a\npeculiar depository of the fairy-traditions, which, on the Island being\nconquered by the Norse, became in all probability chequered with those\nof Scandinavia, from a source peculiar and more direct than that by\nwhich they reached Scotland and Ireland'.\n\nA good Manxman, however, does not speak of fairies--the word _ferish_, a\ncorruption of the English, did not exist in the island one hundred and\nfifty years ago. He talks of 'The Little People' (_Mooinjer veggey_),\nor, in a more familiar mood, of 'Themselves', and of 'Little Boys'\n(_Guillyn veggey_), or 'Little Fellas'. In contradistinction to mortals\nhe calls them 'Middle World Men', for they are believed to dwell in a\nworld of their own, being neither good enough for Heaven nor bad enough\nfor Hell.\n\nAt the present moment almost all the older Manx peasants hold to this\nbelief in fairies quite firmly, but with a certain dread of them; and,\nto my knowledge, two old ladies of the better class yet leave out cakes\nand water for the fairies every night. The following story, illustrative\nof the belief, was told to me by Bill Clarke:--\n\n'Once while I was fishing from a ledge of rocks that runs out into the\nsea at Lag-ny-Keilley, a dense grey mist began to approach the land, and\nI thought I had best make for home while the footpath above the rocks\nwas visible. When getting my things together I heard what sounded like a\nlot of children coming out of school. I lifted my head, and behold ye,\nthere was a fleet of fairy boats each side of the rock. Their\nriding-lights were shining like little stars, and I heard one of the\n_Little Fellas_ shout, \"_Hraaghyn boght as earish broigh, skeddan dy\nliooar ec yn mooinjer seihll shoh, cha nel veg ain_\" (Poor times and\ndirty weather, and herring enough at the people of this world, nothing\nat us). Then they dropped off and went agate o' the flitters.'\n\n'Willy-the-Fairy,' as he is called, who lives at Rhenass, says he often\nhears the fairies singing and playing up the Glen o' nights. I have\nheard him sing airs which he said he had thus learned from the _Little\nPeople_.[41]\n\nAgain, there is a belief that at Keeill Moirrey (Mary's Church), near\nGlen Meay, a little old woman in a red cloak is sometimes seen coming\nover the mountain towards the _keeill_, ringing a bell, just about the\nhour when church service begins. Keeill Moirrey is one of the early\nlittle Celtic cells, probably of the sixth century, of which nothing\nremains but the foundations.\n\nAnd the following prayer, surviving to our own epoch, is most\ninteresting. It shows, in fact, pure paganism; and we may judge from it\nthat the ancient Manx people regarded Manannan, the great Tuatha De\nDanann god, in his true nature, as a spiritual being, a Lord of the Sea,\nand as belonging to the complex fairy hierarchy. This prayer was given\nto me by a Manxwoman nearly one hundred years old, who is still living.\nShe said it had been used by her grandfather, and that her father prayed\nthe same prayer--substituting St. Patrick's name for Manannan's:--\n\n  _Manannan beg mac y Leirr, fer vannee yn Ellan,\n  Bannee shin as nyn maatey, mie goll magh\n  As cheet stiagh ny share lesh bio as marroo \"sy vaatey\"._\n\n  (Little Manannan son of Leirr, who blest our Island,\n  Bless us and our boat, well going out\n  And better coming in with living and dead [fish] in the boat).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt seems to me that no one of the various theories so far advanced\naccounts in itself for the Fairy-Faith. There is always a missing\nfactor, an unknown quantity which has yet to be discovered. No doubt the\nPygmy Theory explains a good deal. In some countries a tradition has\nbeen handed down of the times when there were races of diminutive men in\nexistence--beings so small that their tiny hands could have used the\nflint arrow-heads and scrapers which are like toys to us. No such\ntradition exists at the present day in the Isle of Man, but one might\nhave filtered down from the far-off ages and become innate in the\nfolk-memory, and now, unknown to the Manx peasant, may possibly suggest\nto his mind the troops of _Little People_ in the shadowy glen or on the\nlonely mountain-side. Again, the rustling of the leaves or the sough of\nthe wind may be heard by the peasant as strange and mysterious voices,\nor the trembling shadow of a bush may appear to him as an unearthly\nbeing. Natural facts, explainable by modern science, may easily remain\ndark mysteries to those who live quiet lives close to Nature, far from\nsophisticated towns, and whose few years of schooling have left the\ndepths of their being undisturbed, only, as it were, ruffling the\nshallows.\n\nBut this is not enough. Even let it be granted that nine out of every\nten cases of experiences with fairies can be analysed and explained\naway--there remains the tenth. In this tenth case one is obliged to\nadmit that there is something at work which we do not understand, some\nforce in play which, as yet, we know not. In spite of ourselves we feel\n'There's Powers that's in'. These Powers are not necessarily what the\nsuperstitious call 'supernatural'. We realize now that there is nothing\nsupernatural--that what used to be so called is simply something that we\ndo not understand at present. Our forefathers would have thought the\ntelephone, the X-rays, and wireless telegraphy things 'supernatural'. It\nis more than possible that our descendants may make discoveries equally\nmarvellous in the realms both of mind and matter, and that many things,\nwhich nowadays seem to the materialistically-minded the creations of\ncredulous fancy, may in the future be understood and recognized as part\nof the one great scheme of things.\n\nSome persons are certainly more susceptible than others to these unknown\nforces. Most people know reliable instances of telepathy and\npresentiment amongst their acquaintances. It seems not at all contrary\nto reason that both matter and mind, in knowledge of which we have not\ngone so very far after all, may exist in forms as yet entirely unknown\nto us. After all, beings with bodies and personalities different from\nour own may well inhabit the unseen world around us: the Fairy Hound,\nwhite as driven snow, may show himself at times among his mundane\ncompanions; _Fenodyree_ may do the farm-work for those whom he favours;\nthe _Little People_ may sing and dance o' nights in Colby Glen. Let us\nnot say it is 'impossible'.\n\n  PEEL, ISLE OF MAN,\n    _September_ 1910.\n\n\nON THE SLOPES OF SOUTH BARRULE\n\nI was introduced to the ways and nature of Manx fairies in what is\nprobably the most fairy-haunted part of the isle--the southern slopes of\nSouth Barrule, the mountain on whose summit Manannan is said to have had\nhis stronghold, and whence he worked his magic, hiding the kingdom in\ndense fog whenever he beheld in the distance the coming of an enemy's\nship or fleet. And from a representative of the older generation, Mrs.\nSamuel Leece, who lives at Ballamodda, a pleasant village under the\nshadow of South Barrule, I heard the first story:--\n\n_Baby and Table Moved by Fairies._--'I have been told of _their_ (the\nfairies') taking babies, though I can't be sure it is true. But this did\nhappen to my own mother in this parish of Kirk Patrick about eighty\nyears since: She was in bed with her baby, but wide awake, when she felt\nthe baby pulled off her arm and heard the rush of _them_. Then she\nmentioned the Almighty's name, and, as _they_ were hurrying away, a\nlittle table alongside the bed went round about the floor twenty times.\nNobody was in the room with my mother, and she always allowed it was the\n_little fellows_.'\n\n\nMANX TALES IN A SNOW-BOUND FARM-HOUSE\n\nWhen our interesting conversation was over, Mrs. Leece directed me to\nher son's farm-house, where her husband, Mr. Samuel Leece, then happened\nto be; and going there through the snow-drifts, I found him with his son\nand the family within. The day was just the right sort to stir Manx\nmemories, and it was not long before the best of stories about the\n'little people' were being told in the most natural way, and to the\ngreat delight of the children. The grandfather, who is eighty-six years\nof age, sat by the open fire smoking; and he prepared the way for the\nstories (three of which we record) by telling about a ghost seen by\nhimself and his father, and by the announcement that 'the fairies are\nthought to be spirits'.\n\n_Under 'Fairy' Control._--'About fifty years ago,' said Mr. T. Leece,\nthe son, 'Paul Taggart, my wife's uncle, a tailor by trade, had for an\napprentice, Humphrey Keggan, a young man eighteen or nineteen years of\nage; and it often happened that while the two of them would be returning\nhome at nightfall, the apprentice would suddenly disappear from the side\nof the tailor, and even in the midst of a conversation, as soon as they\nhad crossed the burn in the field down there (indicating an adjoining\nfield). And Taggart could not see nor hear Humphrey go. The next morning\nHumphrey would come back, but so worn out that he could not work, and he\nalways declared that _little men_ had come to him in crowds, and used\nhim as a horse, and that with them he had travelled all night across\nfields and over hedges.' The wife of the narrator substantiated this\nstrange psychological story by adding:--'This is true, because I know my\nUncle Paul too well to doubt what he says.' And she then related the two\nfollowing stories:--\n\n_Heifer Killed by Fairy Woman's Touch._--'Aunt Jane was coming down the\nroad on the other side of South Barrule when she saw a strange woman'\n(who Mr. T. Leece suggested was a witch) 'appear in the middle of the\ngorse and walk right over the gorse and heather in a place where no\nperson could walk. Then she observed the woman go up to a heifer and put\nher hand on it; and within a few days that heifer was dead.'\n\n_The Fairy Dog._--'This used to happen about one hundred years ago, as\nmy mother has told me:--Where my grandfather John Watterson was reared,\njust over near Kerroo Kiel (Narrow Quarter), all the family were\nsometimes sitting in the house of a cold winter night, and my great\ngrandmother and her daughters at their wheels spinning, when a little\nwhite dog would suddenly appear in the room. Then every one there would\nhave to drop their work and prepare for _the company_ to come in: they\nwould put down a fire and leave fresh water for _them_, and hurry off\nupstairs to bed. They could hear _them_ come, but could never see them,\nonly the dog. The dog was a fairy dog, and a sure sign of their coming.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY OF A HERB-DOCTOR AND SEER\n\nAt Ballasalla I was fortunate enough to meet one of the most interesting\nof its older inhabitants, John Davies, a Celtic medicine-man, who can\ncure most obstinate maladies in men or animals with secret herbs, and\nwho knows very much about witchcraft and the charms against it. 'Witches\nare as common as ducks walking barefooted,' he said, using the duck\nsimile, which is a popular Manx one; and he cited two particular\ninstances from his own experience. But for us it is more important to\nknow that John Davies is also an able seer. The son of a weaver, he was\nborn in County Down, Ireland, seventy-eight years ago; but in earliest\nboyhood he came with his people to the Isle of Man, and grew up in the\ncountry near Ramsay, and so thoroughly has he identified himself with\nthe island and its lore, and even with its ancient language, that for\nour purposes he may well be considered a Manxman. His testimony about\nManx fairies is as follows:--\n\n_Actual Fairies Described._--'I am only a poor ignorant man; when I was\nmarried I couldn't say the word \"matrimony\" in the right way. But one\ndoes not have to be educated to see fairies, and I have seen them many a\ntime. I have seen them with the naked eye as numerous as I have seen\nscholars coming out of Ballasalla school; and I have been seeing them\nsince I was eighteen to twenty years of age. The last one I saw was in\nKirk Michael. Before education came into the island more people could\nsee the fairies; now very few people can see them. But _they_ (the\nfairies) are as thick on the Isle of Man as ever _they_ were. _They_\nthrong the air, and darken Heaven, and rule this lower world. It is only\ntwenty-one miles from this world up to the first heaven.[42] There are\nas many kinds of fairies as populations in our world. I have seen some\nwho were about two and a half feet high; and some who were as big as we\nare. I think very many such fairies as these last are the lost souls of\nthe people who died before the Flood. At the Flood all the world was\ndrowned; but the Spirit which God breathed into Adam will never be\ndrowned, or burned, and it is as much in the sea as on the land. Others\nof the fairies are evil spirits: our Saviour drove a legion of devils\ninto a herd of swine; the swine were choked, but not the devils. You\ncan't drown devils; it is spirits they are, and just like a shadow on\nthe wall.' I here asked about the personal aspects of most fairies of\nhuman size, and my friend said:--'_They_ appear to me in the same dress\nas in the days when they lived here on earth; the spirit itself is only\nwhat God blew into Adam as the breath of life.'\n\nIt seems to me that, on the whole, John Davies has had genuine visions,\nbut that whatever he may have seen has been very much coloured in\ninterpretation by his devout knowledge of the Christian Bible, and by\nhis social environment, as is self-evident.\n\n\nTESTIMONY OF A BALLASALLA MANXWOMAN\n\nA well-informed Manxwoman, of Ballasalla, who lives in the ancient stone\nhouse wherein she was born, and in which before her lived her\ngrandparents, offers this testimony:--\n\n_Concerning Fairies._--'I've heard a good deal of talk about fairies,\nbut never believed in them myself; the old people thought them the\nghosts of the dead or some such things. They were like people who had\ngone before (that is, dead). If there came a strange sudden knock or\nnoises, or if a tree took a sudden shaking when there was no wind,\npeople used to make out it was caused by the fairies. On the 11th of\nMay[43] we used to gather mountain-ash (_Cuirn_) with red berries on it,\nand make crosses out of its sprigs, and put them over the doors, so that\nthe fairies would not come in. My father always saw that this was done;\nhe said we could have no luck during the year if we forgot to do it.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY GIVEN IN A JOINER'S SHOP\n\nGeorge Gelling, of Ballasalla, a joiner, has a local reputation for\nknowing much about the fairies, and so I called on him at his workshop.\nThis is what he told me:--\n\n_Seeing the Fairies._--'I was making a coffin here in the shop, and,\nafter tea, my apprentice was late returning; he was out by the hedge\njust over there looking at a crowd of _little people_ kicking and\ndancing. One of them came up and asked him what he was looking at; and\nthis made him run back to the shop. When he described what he had seen,\nI told him they were nothing but fairies.'\n\n_Hearing Fairy Music._--'Up by the abbey on two different occasions I\nhave heard the fairies. They were playing tunes not of this world, and\non each occasion I listened for nearly an hour.'\n\n_Mickleby and the Fairy Woman._--'A man named Mickleby was coming from\nDerbyhaven at night, when by a certain stream he met two ladies. He\nsaluted them, and then walked along with them to Ballahick Farm. There\nhe saw a house lit up, and they took him into it to a dance. As he\ndanced, he happened to wipe away his sweat with a part of the dress of\none of the two strange women who was his partner. After this adventure,\nwhenever Mickleby was lying abed at night, the woman with whom he danced\nwould appear standing beside his bed. And the only way to drive her away\nwas to throw over her head and Mickleby a linen sheet which had never\nbeen bleached.'\n\n_Nature of Fairies._--'The fairies are spirits. I think they are in this\ncountry yet: A man below here forgot his cow, and at a late hour went to\nlook for her, and saw that crowds of fairies like little boys were with\nhim. [St.] Paul said that spirits are thick in the air, if only we could\nsee them; and we call spirits fairies. I think the old people here in\nthe island thought of fairies in the same way.'\n\n_The Fairies' Revenge._--William Oates now happened to come into the\nworkshop, and being as much interested in the subject under discussion\nas ourselves, offered various stories, of which the following is a\ntype:--'A man named Watterson, who used often to see the fairies in his\nhouse at Colby playing in the moonlight, on one occasion heard them\ncoming just as he was going to bed. So he went out to the spring to get\nfresh water for them; and coming into the house put the can down on the\nfloor, saying, \"Now, little beggars, drink away.\" And at that (an insult\nto the fairies) the water was suddenly thrown upon him.'\n\n\nA VICAR'S TESTIMONY\n\nWhen I called on the Rev. J. M. Spicer, vicar of Malew parish, at his\nhome near Castletown, he told me this very curious story:--\n\n_The Taking of Mrs. K----._--'The belief in fairies is quite a living\nthing here yet. For example, old Mrs. K----, about a year ago, told me\nthat on one occasion, when her daughter had been in Castletown during\nthe day, she went out to the road at nightfall to see if her daughter\nwas yet in sight, whereupon a whole crowd of fairies suddenly\nsurrounded her, and began taking her off toward South Barrule Mountain;\nand, she added, \"I couldn't get away from _them_ until I had called my\nson.\"'\n\n\nA CANON'S TESTIMONY\n\nI am greatly indebted to the Rev. Canon Kewley, of Arbory, for the\nvaluable testimony which follows, and especially for his kindness in\nallowing me to record what is one of the clearest examples of a\ncollective hallucination I have heard about as occurring in the\nfairy-haunted regions of Celtic countries:--\n\n_A Collective Hallucination._--'A good many things can be explained as\nnatural phenomena, but there are some things which I think cannot be.\nFor example, my sister and myself and our coachman, and apparently the\nhorse, saw the same phenomenon at the same moment: one evening we were\ndriving along an avenue in this parish when the avenue seemed to be\nblocked by a great crowd of people, like a funeral procession; and the\ncrowd was so dense that we could not see through it. The throng was\nabout thirty to forty yards away. When we approached, it melted away,\nand no person was anywhere in sight.'\n\n_The Manx Fairy-Faith._--'Among the old people of this parish there is\nstill a belief in fairies. About eighteen years ago, I buried a man, a\nstaunch Methodist, who said he once saw the road full of fairies in the\nform of little black pigs, and that when he addressed them, \"In the name\nof God what are ye?\" they immediately vanished. He was certain they were\nthe fairies. Other old people speak of the fairies as the _little folk_.\nThe tradition is that the fairies once inhabited this island, but were\nbanished for evil-doing. The elder-tree, in Manx _tramman_, is supposed\nto be inhabited by fairies. Through accident, one night a woman ran into\nsuch a tree, and was immediately stricken with a terrible swelling which\nher neighbours declared came from disturbing the fairies in the tree.\nThis was on the borders of Arbory parish.'\n\nThe Canon favours the hypothesis that in much of the folk-belief\nconcerning fairies and Fairyland there is present an instinct, as seen\namong all peoples, for communion with the other world, and that this\ninstinct shows itself in another form in the Christian doctrine of the\nCommunion of Saints.\n\n\nFAIRY TALES ON CHRISTMAS DAY\n\nThe next morning, Christmas morning, I called at the picturesque\nroadside home of Mrs. Dinah Moore a Manxwoman living near Glen Meay; and\nshe contributed the best single collection of Manx folk-legends I\ndiscovered on the island. The day was bright and frosty, and much snow\nstill remained in the shaded nooks and hollows, so that a seat before\nthe cheerful fire in Mrs. Moore's cottage was very comfortable; and with\nmost work suspended for the ancient day of festivities in honour of the\nSun, re-born after its death at the hands of the Powers of Darkness, all\nconditions were favourable for hearing about fairies, and this may\nexplain why such important results were obtained.\n\n_Fairy Deceit._--'I heard of a man and wife who had no children. One\nnight the man was out on horseback and heard a little baby crying beside\nthe road. He got off his horse to get the baby, and, taking it home,\nwent to give it to his wife, and it was only a block of wood. And then\nthe old fairies were outside yelling at the man: \"_Eash un oie, s'cheap\nt'ou mollit!_\" (Age one night, how easily thou art deceived!).'\n\n_A Midwife's Strange Experience._--'A strange man took a nurse to a\nplace where a baby boy was born. After the birth, the man set out on a\ntable two cakes, one of them broken and the other one whole, and said to\nthe nurse: \"Eat, eat; but don't eat of the cake which is broken nor of\nthe cake which is whole.\" And the nurse said: \"What in the name of the\nLord am I going to eat?\" At that all the fairies in the house\ndisappeared; and the nurse was left out on a mountain-side alone.'\n\n_A Fairy-Baking._--'At night the fairies came into a house in Glen\nRushen to bake. The family had put no water out for them; and a\nbeggar-man who had been left lodging on the sofa downstairs heard the\nfairies say, \"We have no water, so we'll take blood out of the toe of\nthe servant who forgot our water.\" And from the girl's blood they mixed\ntheir dough. Then they baked their cakes, ate most of them, and poked\npieces up under the thatched roof. The next day the servant-girl fell\nill, and was ill until the old beggar-man returned to the house and\ncured her with a bit of the cake which he took from under the thatch.'\n\n_A Changeling Musician._--'A family at Dalby had a poor idiot baby, and\nwhen it was twenty years old it still sat by the fire just like a child.\nA tailor came to the house to work on a day when all the folks were out\ncutting corn, and the idiot was left with him. The tailor began to\nwhistle as he sat on the table sewing, and the little idiot sitting by\nthe fire said to him: \"If you'll not tell anybody when they come in,\nI'll dance that tune for you.\" So the little fellow began to dance, and\nhe could step it out splendidly. Then he said to the tailor: \"If you'll\nnot tell anybody when they come in, I'll play the fiddle for you.\" And\nthe tailor and the idiot spent a very enjoyable afternoon together. But\nbefore the family came in from the fields, the poor idiot, as usual, was\nsitting in a chair by the fire, a big baby who couldn't hardly talk.\nWhen the mother came in she happened to say to the tailor, \"You've a\nfine chap here,\" referring to the idiot. \"Yes, indeed,\" said the tailor,\n\"we've had a very fine afternoon together; but I think we had better\nmake a good fire and put him on it.\" \"Oh!\" cried the mother, \"the poor\nchild could never even walk.\" \"Ah, but he can dance and play the fiddle,\ntoo,\" replied the tailor. And the fire was made; but when the idiot saw\nthat they were for putting him on it he pulled from his pocket a ball,\nand this ball went rolling on ahead of him, and he, going after it, was\nnever seen again.' After this strange story was finished I asked Mrs.\nMoore where she had heard it, and she said:--'I have heard this story\never since I was a girl. I knew the house and family, and so did my\nmother. The family's name was Cubbon.'\n\n_The Fenodyree's (or 'Phynnodderee's') Disgust._--'During snowy weather,\nlike this, the Fenodyree would gather in the sheep at night; and during\nthe harvest season would do the threshing when all the family were abed.\nOne time, however, just over here at Gordon Farm, the farmer saw him,\nand he was naked; and so the farmer put out a new suit of clothes for\nhim. The Fenodyree came at night, and looking at the clothes with great\ndisgust at the idea of wearing such things, said:--\n\n  _Bayrn_ da'n chione, doogh da'n chione,\n  Cooat da'n dreeym, doogh da'n dreeym,\n  Breechyn da'n toin, doogh da'n toin,\n  Agh my she lhiat Gordon mooar,\n  Cha nee lhiat Glion reagh Rushen.\n\n  (Cap for the head, alas! poor head,\n  Coat for the back, alas! poor back,\n  Breeches for the breech, alas! poor breech,\n  But if big Gordon [farm] is thine,\n  Thine is not the merry Glen of Rushen.)[44]\n\nAnd off he went to Glen Rushen for good.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM THE KEEPER OF PEEL CASTLE\n\nFrom Mrs. Moore's house I walked on to Peel, where I was fortunate in\nmeeting, in his own home, Mr. William Cashen, the well-known keeper of\nthe famous old Peel Castle, within whose yet solid battlements stands\nthe one true round tower outside of Ireland. I heard first of all about\nthe fairy dog--the _Moddey Doo_ (Manx for Black Dog)--which haunts the\ncastle; and then Mr. Cashen related to me the following anecdotes and\ntales about Manx fairies:--\n\n_Prayer against the Fairies._--'My father's and grandfather's idea was\nthat the fairies tumbled out of the battlements of Heaven, falling\nearthward for three days and three nights as thick as hail; and that one\nthird of them fell into the sea, one third on the land, and one third\nremained in the air, in which places they will remain till the Day of\nJudgement. The old Manx people always believed that this fall of the\nfairies was due to the first sin, pride; and here is their prayer\nagainst the fairies:--\"_Jee saue mee voish cloan ny moyrn_\" (God\npreserve me from the children of pride [or ambition]).'\n\n_A Man's Two Wives._--'A Ballaleece woman was captured by the fairies;\nand, soon afterwards, her husband took a new wife, thinking the first\none gone for ever. But not long after the marriage, one night the first\nwife appeared to her former husband and said to him, and the second wife\noverheard her: \"You'll sweep the barn clean, and mind there is not one\nstraw left on the floor. Then stand by the door, and at a certain hour a\ncompany of people on horseback will ride in, and you lay hold of that\nbridle of the horse I am on, and don't let it go.\" He followed the\ndirections carefully, but was unable to hold the horse: the second wife\nhad put some straw on the barn floor under a bushel.'\n\n_Sounds of Infinity._--'On Dalby Mountain, this side of\nCronk-yn-Irree-Laa the old Manx people used to put their ears to the\nearth to hear the Sounds of Infinity (_Sheean-ny-Feaynid_), which were\nsounds like murmurs. They thought these sounds came from beings in\nspace; for in their belief all space is filled with invisible\nbeings.'[45]\n\n\nTO THE MEMORY OF A MANX SCHOLAR\n\nSince the following testimony was written down, its author, the late Mr.\nJohn Nelson, of Ramsey, has passed out of our realm of life into the\nrealm invisible. He was one of the few Manxmen who knew the Manx\nlanguage really well, and the ancient traditions which it has preserved\nboth orally and in books. In his kindly manner and with fervent loyalty\ntoward all things Celtic, he gave me leave, during December 1909, to\npublish for the first time the interesting matter which follows; and,\nwith reverence, we here place it on record to his memory:--\n\n_A Blinding by Fairies._--'My grandfather, William Nelson, was coming\nhome from the herring fishing late at night, on the road near Jurby,\nwhen he saw in a pea-field, across a hedge, a great crowd of _little\nfellows_ in red coats dancing and making music. And as he looked, an old\nwoman from among them came up to him and spat in his eyes, saying:\n\"You'll never see us again\"; and I am told that he was blind afterwards\ntill the day of his death. He was certainly blind for fourteen years\nbefore his death, for I often had to lead him around; but, of course, I\nam unable to say of my own knowledge that he became blind immediately\nafter his strange experience, or if not until later in life; but as a\nyoung man he certainly had good sight, and it was believed that the\nfairies destroyed it.'\n\n_The Fairy Tune._--'William Cain, of Glen Helen (formerly Rhenass), was\ngoing home in the evening across the mountains near Brook's Park, when\nhe heard music down below in a glen, and saw there a great glass house\nlike a palace, all lit up. He stopped to listen, and when he had the new\ntune he went home to practise it on his fiddle; and recently he played\nthe same fairy tune at Miss Sophia Morrison's Manx entertainment in\nPeel.'\n\n_Manannan the Magician._--Mr. Nelson told a story about a _Buggane_ or\n_Fenodyree_, such as we already have, and explained the _Glashtin_ as a\nwater-bull, supposed to be a goblin half cow and half horse, and then\noffered this tradition about Manannan:--'It is said that Manannan was a\ngreat magician, and that he used to place on the sea pea-shells, held\nopen with sticks and with sticks for masts standing up in them, and then\nso magnify them that enemies beheld them as a strong fleet, and would\nnot approach the island. Another tradition is that Manannan on his three\nlegs (the Manx coat of arms) could travel from one end to the other of\nhis isle with wonderful swiftness, moving like a wheel.'[46]\n\n\nTESTIMONY OF A FARMER AND FISHERMAN\n\nFrom the north of the island I returned to Peel, where I had arranged to\nmeet new witnesses, and the first one of these is James Caugherty, a\nfarmer and fisherman, born in Kirk Patrick fifty-eight years ago, who\ntestified (in part) as follows:--\n\n_Churn Worked by Fairies._--'Close by Glen Cam (Winding Glen), when I\nwas a boy, our family often used to hear the empty churn working in the\nchurn-house, when no person was near it, and they would say, \"Oh, it's\nthe _little fellows_.\"'\n\n_A Remarkable Changeling Story._--'Forty to fifty years ago, between St.\nJohn's and Foxdale, a boy, with whom I often played, came to our house\nat nightfall to borrow some candles, and while he was on his way home\nacross the hills he suddenly saw a little boy and a little woman coming\nafter him. If he ran, they ran, and all the time they gained on him.\nUpon reaching home he was speechless, his hands were altered (turned\nawry), and his feet also, and his fingernails had grown long in a\nminute. He remained that way a week. My father went to the boy's mother\nand told her it wasn't Robby at all that she saw; and when my father was\nfor taking the tongs and burning the boy with a piece of glowing turf\n[as a changeling test], the boy screamed awfully. Then my father\npersuaded the mother to send a messenger to a doctor in the north near\nRamsey \"doing charms\", to see if she couldn't get Robby back. As the\nmessenger was returning, the mother stepped out of the house to relieve\nhim, and when she went into the house again her own Robby was there. As\nsoon as Robby came to himself all right, he said a little woman and a\nlittle boy had followed him, and that just as he got home he was\nconscious of being taken away by them, but he didn't know where they\ncame from nor where they took him. He was unable to tell more than this.\nRobby is alive yet, so far as I know; he is Robert Christian, of\nDouglas.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF KEYS\n\nMr. T. C. Kermode, of Peel, member of the House of Keys, the Lower House\nof the Manx Parliament, very kindly dictated for my use the following\nstatement concerning fairies which he himself has seen:--\n\n_Reality of Fairies._--'There is much belief here in the island that\nthere actually are fairies; and I consider such belief based on an\nactual fact in nature, because of my own strange experience. About forty\nyears ago, one October night, I and another young man were going to a\nkind of Manx harvest-home at Cronk-a-Voddy. On the Glen Helen road, just\nat the Beary Farm, as we walked along talking, my friend happened to\nlook across the river (a small brook), and said: \"Oh look, there are the\nfairies. Did you ever see them?\" I looked across the river and saw a\ncircle of supernatural light, which I have now come to regard as the\n\"astral light\" or the light of Nature, as it is called by mystics, and\nin which spirits become visible. The spot where the light appeared was a\nflat space surrounded on the sides away from the river by banks formed\nby low hills; and into this space and the circle of light, from the\nsurrounding sides apparently, I saw come in twos and threes a great\ncrowd of little beings smaller than Tom Thumb and his wife. All of them,\nwho appeared like soldiers, were dressed in red. They moved back and\nforth amid the circle of light, as they formed into order like troops\ndrilling. I advised getting nearer to them, but my friend said, \"No, I'm\ngoing to the party.\" Then after we had looked at them a few minutes my\nfriend struck the roadside wall with a stick and shouted, and we lost\nthe vision and the light vanished.'\n\n_The Manx Fairy-Faith._--'I have much evidence from old Manx people, who\nare entirely reliable and God-fearing, that they have seen the fairies\nhunting with hounds and horses, and on the sea in ships, and under other\nconditions, and that they have heard their music. They consider the\nfairies a complete nation or world in themselves, distinct from our\nworld, but having habits and instincts like ours. Social organization\namong them is said to be similar to that among men, and they have their\nsoldiers and commanders. Where the fairies actually exist the old people\ncannot tell, but they certainly believe that they can be seen here on\nearth.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM A PAST PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER\n\nMr. J. H. Kelly, Past Provincial Grand Master of the Isle of Man\nDistrict of Oddfellows, a resident of Douglas, offers the following\naccount of a curious psychical experience of his own, and attributes it\nto fairies:--\n\n_A Strange Experience with Fairies._--'Twelve to thirteen years ago, on\na clear moonlight night, about twelve o'clock, I left Laxey; and when\nabout five miles from Douglas, at Ballagawne School, I heard talking,\nand was suddenly conscious of being in the midst of an invisible throng.\nAs this strange feeling came over me, I saw coming up the road four\nfigures as real to look upon as human beings, and of medium size, though\nI am certain they were not human. When these four, who seemed to be\nconnected with the invisible throng, came out of the Garwick road into\nthe main road, I passed into a by-road leading down to a very peaceful\nglen called Garwick Glen; and I still had the same feeling that\ninvisible beings were with me, and this continued for a mile. There was\nno fear or emotion or excitement, but perfect calm on my part. I\nfollowed the by-road; and when I began to mount a hill there was a\nsudden and strange quietness, and a sense of isolation came over me, as\nthough the joy and peace of my life had departed with the invisible\nthrong. From different personal experiences like this one, I am firmly\nof the opinion and belief that the fairies exist. One cannot say that\nthey are wholly physical or wholly spiritual, but the impression left\nupon my mind is that they are an absolutely real order of beings not\nhuman.'\n\n     Invoking Little Manannan, son of Leirr, to give us safe passage\n     across his watery domain, we now go southward to the nearest\n     Brythonic country, the Land of Arthur, WALES.\n\n\nV. IN WALES\n\n     Introduction by The Right Hon. SIR JOHN RHYS, M.A., D.Litt.,\n     F.B.A., Hon. LL.D. of the University of Edinburgh; Professor of\n     Celtic in the University of Oxford; Principal of Jesus College;\n     author of _Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx_, &c.\n\nThe folk-lore of Wales in as far as it concerns the Fairies consists of\na very few typical tales, such as:--\n\n(1) The Fairy Dance and the usual entrapping of a youth, who dances with\nthe Little People for a long time, while he supposes it only a few\nminutes, and who if not rescued is taken by them.\n\n(2) There are other ways in which recruits may be led into Fairyland and\ninduced to marry fairy maidens, and any one so led away is practically\nlost to his kith and kin, for even if he be allowed to visit them, the\nvisit is mostly cut short in one way or another.\n\n(3) A man catches a fairy woman and marries her. She proves to be an\nexcellent housewife, but usually she has had put into the\nmarriage-contract certain conditions which, if broken, inevitably\nrelease her from the union, and when so released she hurries away\ninstantly, never to return, unless it be now and then to visit her\nchildren. One of the conditions, especially in North Wales, is that the\nhusband should never touch her with iron. But in the story of the Lady\nof Llyn y Fan Fach, in Carmarthenshire, the condition is that he must\nnot strike the wife without a cause three times, the striking being\ninterpreted to include any slight tapping, say, on the shoulder. This\nstory is one of the most remarkable on record in Wales, and it recalls\nthe famous tale of Undine, published in German many years ago by De La\nMotte Fouqu\u00e9. It is not known where he found it, or whether the people\namong whom it was current were pure Germans or of Celtic extraction.\n\n(4) The Fairies were fond of stealing nice healthy babies and of leaving\nin their place their own sallow offspring. The stories of how the right\nchild might be recovered take numerous forms; and some of these stories\nsuggest how weak and sickly children became the objects of systematic\ncruelty at the hands of even their own parents. The changeling was\nusually an old man, and many were the efforts made to get him to betray\nhis identity.\n\n(5) There is a widespread story of the fairy husband procuring for his\nwife the attendance of a human midwife. The latter was given a certain\nointment to apply to the baby's eyes when she dressed it. She was not to\ntouch either of her own eyes with it, but owing to an unfailing accident\nshe does, and with the eye so touched she is enabled to see the fairies\nin their proper shape and form. This has consequences: The fairy husband\npays the midwife well, and discharges her. She goes to a fair or market\none day and observes her old master stealing goods from a stall, and\nmakes herself known to him. He asks her with which eye she sees him. She\ntells him, and the eye to which he objects he instantly blinds.\n\n(6) Many are the stories about the fairies coming into houses at night\nto wash and dress their children after everybody is gone to bed. A\nservant-maid who knows her business leaves a vessel full of water for\nthem, and takes care that the house is neat and tidy, and she then\nprobably finds in the morning some fairy gift left her, whereas if the\nhouse be untidy and the water dirty, they will pinch her in her sleep,\nand leave her black and blue.\n\n(7) The fairies were not strong in their household arrangements, so it\nwas not at all unusual for them to come to the farm-houses to borrow\nwhat was wanting to them.\n\nIn the neighbourhood of Snowdon the fairies were believed to live\nbeneath the lakes, from which they sometimes came forth, especially on\nmisty days, and children used to be warned not to stray away from their\nhomes in that sort of weather, lest they should be kidnapped by them.\nThese fairies were not Christians, and they were great thieves. They\nwere fond of bright colours. They were sharp of hearing, and no word\nthat reached the wind would escape them. If a fairy's proper name was\ndiscovered, the fairy to whom it belonged felt baffled.[47]\n\nSome characteristics of the fairies seem to argue an ancient race, while\nother characteristics betray their origin in the workshop of the\nimagination; but generally speaking, the fairies are heterogeneous,\nconsisting partly of the divinities of glens and forests and mountains,\nand partly of an early race of men more or less caricatured and equipped\nby fable with impossible attributes.[48]\n\n  JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD,\n    _October_ 1910.\n\n\nOur field of research in the Land of Arthur includes all the coast\ncounties save Cardiganshire, from Anglesey on the north to\nGlamorganshire on the south. At the very beginning of our investigation\nof the belief in the _Tylwyth Teg_, or 'Fair Folk' in the Isle of\nAnglesey or Mona, the ancient stronghold of the Druids, we shall see\nclearly that the testimony offered by thoroughly reliable and prominent\nnative witnesses is surprisingly uniform, and essentially animistic in\nits nature; and in passing southward to the end of Wales we shall find\nthe Welsh Fairy-Faith with this same uniformity and exhibiting the same\nanimistic background everywhere we go.\n\n\nTESTIMONY OF AN ANGLESEY BARD\n\nMr. John Louis Jones, of Gaerwen, Anglesey, a native bard who has taken\nprizes in various Eisteddfods, testifies as follows:--\n\n_Tylwyth Teg's Visits._--'When I was a boy here on the island, the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ were described as a race of little beings no larger than\nchildren six or seven years old, who visited farm-houses at night after\nall the family were abed. No matter how securely closed a house might\nbe, the _Tylwyth Teg_ had no trouble to get in. I remember how the old\nfolk used to make the house comfortable and put fresh coals on the fire,\nsaying, \"Perhaps the _Tylwyth Teg_ will come to-night.\" Then the\n_Tylwyth Teg_, when they did come, would look round the room and say,\n\"What a clean beautiful place this is!\" And all the while the old folk\nin bed were listening. Before departing from such a clean house the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ always left a valuable present for the family.'\n\n_Fairy Wife and Iron Taboo._--'A young man once caught one of the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ women, and she agreed to live with him on condition that\nhe should never touch her with iron. One day she went to a field with\nhim to catch a horse, but in catching the horse he threw the bridle in\nsuch a way that the bit touched the _Tylwyth Teg_ woman, and all at once\nshe was gone. As this story indicates, the _Tylwyth Teg_ could make\nthemselves invisible. I think they could be seen by some people and not\nby other people. The old folk thought them a kind of spirit race from a\nspirit world.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM CENTRAL ANGLESEY\n\nOwing to the very kindly assistance of Mr. E. H. Thomas, of Llangefni,\nwho introduced me to the oldest inhabitants of his town, in their own\nhomes and elsewhere, and then acted as interpreter whenever Welsh alone\nwas spoken, I gleaned very clear evidence from that part of Central\nAnglesey. Seven witnesses, two of whom were women, ranging in age from\nseventy-two to eighty-nine years, were thus interviewed, and each of\nthem stated that in their childhood the belief in the _Tylwyth Teg_ as a\nnon-human race of good little people--by one witness compared to singing\nangels--was general. Mr. John Jones, the oldest of the seven, among much\nelse, said in Welsh:--'I believe personally that the _Tylwyth Teg_ are\nstill existing; but people can't see them. I have heard of two or three\npersons being together and one only having been able to see the _Tylwyth\nTeg_.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM TWO ANGLESEY CENTENARIANS\n\nPerhaps nowhere else in Celtic lands could there be found as witnesses\ntwo sisters equal in age to Miss Mary Owen and Mrs. Betsy Thomas, in\ntheir hundred and third and hundredth year respectively (in 1909). They\nlive a quiet life on their mountain-side farm overlooking the sea, in\nthe beautiful country near Pentraeth, quite away from the rush and noise\nof the great world of commercial activity; and they speak only the\ntongue which their prehistoric Kimric ancestors spoke before Roman, or\nSaxon, or Norman came to Britain. Mr. W. Jones, of Plas Tinon, their\nneighbour, who knows English and Welsh well, acted as interpreter. The\nelder sister testified first:--\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg's' Nature._--'There were many of the _Tylwyth Teg_ on the\nLlwydiarth Mountain above here, and round the Llwydiarth Lake where they\nused to dance; and whenever the prices at the Llangefni market were to\nbe high they would chatter very much at night. They appeared only after\ndark; and all the good they ever did was singing and dancing. Ann\nJones, whom I knew very well, used often to see the _Tylwyth Teg_\ndancing and singing, but if she then went up to them they would\ndisappear. She told me they are an invisible people, and very small.\nMany others besides Ann Jones have seen the _Tylwyth Teg_ in these\nmountains, and have heard their music and song. The ordinary opinion was\nthat the _Tylwyth Teg_ are a race of spirits. I believe in them as an\ninvisible race of good little people.'\n\n_Fairy Midwife and Magic Oil._--'The _Tylwyth Teg_ had a kind of magic\noil, and I remember this story about it:--A farmer went to Llangefni to\nfetch a woman to nurse his wife about to become a mother, and he found\none of the _Tylwyth Teg_, who came with him on the back of his horse.\nArrived at the farm-house, the fairy woman looked at the wife, and\ngiving the farmer some oil told him to wash the baby in it as soon as it\nwas born. Then the fairy woman disappeared. The farmer followed the\nadvice, and what did he do in washing the baby but get some oil on one\nof his own eyes. Suddenly he could see the _Tylwyth Teg_, for the oil\nhad given him the second-sight. Some time later the farmer was in\nLlangefni again, and saw the same fairy woman who had given him the oil.\n\"How is your wife getting on?\" she asked him. \"She is getting on very\nwell,\" he replied. Then the fairy woman added, \"Tell me with which eye\nyou see me best.\" \"With this one,\" he said, pointing to the eye he had\nrubbed with the oil. And the fairy woman put her stick in that eye, and\nthe farmer never saw with it again.'[49]\n\n_Seeing 'Tylwyth Teg'._--The younger sister's testimony is as\nfollows:--'I saw one of the _Tylwyth Teg_ about sixty years ago, near\nthe Tynymyndd Farm, as I was passing by at night. He was like a little\nman. When I approached him he disappeared suddenly. I have heard about\nthe dancing and singing of the _Tylwyth Teg_, but never have heard the\nmusic myself. The old people said the _Tylwyth Teg_ could appear and\ndisappear when they liked; and I think as the old people did, that they\nare some sort of spirits.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM AN ANGLESEY SEERESS\n\nAt Pentraeth, Mr. Gwilyn Jones said to me:--'It always was and still is\nthe opinion that the _Tylwyth Teg_ are a race of spirits. Some people\nthink them small in size, but the one my mother saw was ordinary human\nsize.' At this, I immediately asked Mr. Jones if his mother was still\nliving, and he replying that she was, gave me her address in Llanfair.\nSo I went directly to interview Mr. Jones's mother, Mrs. Catherine\nJones, and this is the story about the one of the _Tylwyth Teg_ she\nsaw:--\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' Apparition._--'I was coming home at about half-past ten\nat night from Cemaes, on the path to Simdda Wen, where I was in service,\nwhen there appeared just before me a very pretty young lady of ordinary\nsize. I had no fear, and when I came up to her put out my hand to touch\nher, but my hand and arm went right through her form. I could not\nunderstand this, and so tried to touch her repeatedly with the same\nresult; there was no solid substance in the body, yet it remained beside\nme, and was as beautiful a young lady as I ever saw. When I reached the\ndoor of the house where I was to stop, she was still with me. Then I\nsaid \"Good night\" to her. No response being made, I asked, \"Why do you\nnot speak?\" And at this she disappeared. Nothing happened afterwards,\nand I always put this beautiful young lady down as one of the _Tylwyth\nTeg_. There was much talk about my experience when I reported it, and\nthe neighbours, like myself, thought I had seen one of the _Tylwyth\nTeg_. I was about twenty-four years old at the time of this\nincident.'[50]\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM A PROFESSOR OF WELSH\n\nJust before crossing the Menai Straits I had the good fortune to meet,\nat his home in Llanfair, Mr. J. Morris Jones, M.A. (Oxon.), Professor of\nWelsh in the University College at Bangor, and he, speaking of the\nfairy-belief in Anglesey as he remembers it from boyhood days, said:--\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg.'_--'In most of the tales I heard repeated when I was a\nboy, I am quite certain the implication was that the _Tylwyth Teg_ were\na kind of spirit race having human characteristics, who could at will\nsuddenly appear and suddenly disappear. They were generally supposed to\nlive underground, and to come forth on moonlight nights, dressed in\ngaudy colours (chiefly in red), to dance in circles in grassy fields. I\ncannot remember having heard changeling stories here in the Island: I\nthink the _Tylwyth Teg_ were generally looked upon as kind and\ngood-natured, though revengeful if not well treated. And they were\nbelieved to have plenty of money at their command, which they could\nbestow on people whom they liked.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM NORTH CARNARVONSHIRE\n\nUpon leaving Anglesey I undertook some investigation of the Welsh\nfairy-belief in the country between Bangor and Carnarvon. From the\noldest Welsh people of Treborth I heard the same sort of folk-lore as\nwe have recorded from Anglesey, except that prominence was given to a\nflourishing belief in _Bwganod_, goblins or bogies. But from Mr. T. T.\nDavis Evans, of Port Dinorwic, I heard the following very unusual story\nbased on facts, as he recalled it first hand:--\n\n_Jones's Vision._--'William Jones, who some sixty years ago declared he\nhad seen the _Tylwyth Teg_ in the Aberglaslyn Pass near Beddgelert, was\npublicly questioned about them in Bethel Chapel by Mr. Griffiths, the\nminister; and he explained before the congregation that the Lord had\ngiven him a special vision which enabled him to see the _Tylwyth Teg_,\nand that, therefore, he had seen them time after time as little men\nplaying along the river in the Pass. The minister induced Jones to\nrepeat the story many times, because it seemed to please the\ncongregation very much; and the folks present looked upon Jones's vision\nas a most wonderful thing.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM SOUTH CARNARVONSHIRE\n\nTo Mr. E. D. Rowlands, head master of the schools at Afonwen, I am\nindebted for a summary of the fairy-belief in South Carnarvonshire:--\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg.'_--'According to the belief in South Carnarvonshire, the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ were a small, very pretty people always dressed in white,\nand much given to dancing and singing in rings where grass grew. As a\nrule, they were visible only at night; though in the day-time, if a\nmother while hay-making was so unwise as to leave her babe alone in the\nfield, the _Tylwyth Teg_ might take it and leave in its place a\nhunchback, or some deformed object like a child. At night, the _Tylwyth\nTeg_ would entice travellers to join their dance and then play all sorts\nof tricks on them.'[51]\n\n_Fairy Cows and Fairy Lake-Women._--'Some of the _Tylwyth Teg_ lived in\ncaves; others of them lived in lake-bottoms. There is a lake called Llyn\ny Morwynion, or \"Lake of the Maidens\", near Festiniog, where, as the\nstory goes, a farmer one morning found in his field a number of very\nfine cows such as he had never seen before. Not knowing where they came\nfrom, he kept them a long time, when, as it happened, he committed some\ndishonest act and, as a result, women of the _Tylwyth Teg_ made their\nappearance in the pasture and, calling the cows by name, led the whole\nherd into the lake, and with them disappeared beneath its waters. The\nold people never could explain the nature of the _Tylwyth Teg_, but they\nalways regarded them as a very mysterious race, and, according to this\nstory of the cattle, as a supernatural race.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM MERIONETHSHIRE\n\nMr. Louis Foster Edwards, of Harlech, recalling the memories of many\nyears ago, offers the following evidence:--\n\n_Scythe-Blades and Fairies._--'In an old inn on the other side of\nHarlech there was to be an entertainment, and, as usual on such\noccasions, the dancing would not cease until morning. I noticed, before\nthe guests had all arrived, that the landlady was putting scythe-blades\nedge upwards up into the large chimney, and, wondering why it was, asked\nher. She told me that the fairies might come before the entertainment\nwas over, and that if the blades were turned edge upwards it would\nprevent the fairies from troubling the party, for they would be unable\nto pass the blades without being cut.'\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' and their World._--'There was an idea that the _Tylwyth\nTeg_ lived by plundering at night. It was thought, too, that if anything\nwent wrong with cows or horses the _Tylwyth Teg_ were to blame. As a\nrace, the _Tylwyth Teg_ were described as having the power of\ninvisibility; and it was believed they could disappear like a spirit\nwhile one happened to be observing them. The world in which they lived\nwas a world quite unlike ours, and mortals taken to it by them were\nchanged in nature. The way a mortal might be taken by the _Tylwyth Teg_\nwas by being attracted into their dance. If they thus took you away, it\nwould be according to our time for twelve months, though to you the time\nwould seem no more than a night.'\n\n\nFAIRY TRIBES IN MONTGOMERYSHIRE\n\nFrom Mr. D. Davies-Williams, who outlined for me the Montgomeryshire\nbelief in the _Tylwyth Teg_ as he has known it intimately, I learned\nthat this is essentially the same as elsewhere in North and Central\nWales. He summed up the matter by saying:--\n\n_Belief in Tylwyth Teg._--'It was the opinion that the _Tylwyth Teg_\nwere a real race of invisible or spiritual beings living in an invisible\nworld of their own. The belief in the _Tylwyth Teg_ was quite general\nfifty or sixty years ago, and as sincere as any religious belief is\nnow.'\n\nOur next witness is the Rev. Josiah Jones, minister of the\nCongregational Church of Machynlleth; and, after a lifetime's experience\nin Montgomeryshire, he gives this testimony:--\n\n_A Deacon's Vision._--'A deacon in my church, John Evans, declared that\nhe had seen the _Tylwyth Teg_ dancing in the day-time, within two miles\nfrom here, and he pointed out the very spot where they appeared. This\nwas some twenty years ago. I think, however, that he saw only certain\nreflections and shadows, because it was a hot and brilliant day.'\n\n_Folk-Beliefs in General._--'As I recall the belief, the old people\nconsidered the _Tylwyth Teg_ as living beings halfway between something\nmaterial and spiritual, who were rarely seen. When I was a boy there was\nvery much said, too, about corpse-candles and phantom funerals, and\nespecially about the _Bwganod_, plural of _Bwgan_, meaning a sprite,\nghost, hobgoblin, or spectre. The _Bwganod_ were supposed to appear at\ndusk, in various forms, animal and human; and grown-up people as well as\nchildren had great fear of them.'\n\n_A Minister's Opinion._--'Ultimately there is a substance of truth in\nthe fairy-belief, but it is wrongly accounted for in the folk-lore: I\nonce asked Samuel Roberts, of Llanbrynmair, who was quite a noted Welsh\nscholar, what he thought of the _Tylwyth Teg_, of hobgoblins, spirits,\nand so forth; and he said that he believed such things existed, and that\nGod allowed them to appear in times of great ignorance to convince\npeople of the existence of an invisible world.'\n\n\nIN CARDIGANSHIRE; AND A FOLK-LORIST'S TESTIMONY\n\nNo one of our witnesses from Central Wales is more intimately acquainted\nwith the living folk-beliefs than Mr. J. Ceredig Davies, of Llanilar, a\nvillage about six miles from Aberystwyth; for Mr. Davies has spent many\nyears in collecting folk-lore in Central and South Wales. He has\ninterviewed the oldest and most intelligent of the old people, and while\nI write this he has in the press a work entitled _The Folk-Lore of Mid\nand West Wales_. Mr. Davies very kindly gave me the following outline of\nthe most prominent traits in the Welsh fairy-belief according to his own\ninvestigations:--\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg_.'--'The _Tylwyth Teg_ were considered a very small\npeople, fond of dancing, especially on moonlight nights. They often came\nto houses after the family were abed; and if milk was left for them,\nthey would leave money in return; but if not treated kindly they were\nrevengeful. The changeling idea was common: the mother coming home would\nfind an ugly changeling in the cradle. Sometimes the mother would\nconsult the _Dynion Hysbys_, or \"Wise Men\" as to how to get her babe\nback. As a rule, treating the fairy babe roughly and then throwing it\ninto a river would cause the fairy who made the change to appear and\nrestore the real child in return for the changeling.'\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' Marriage Contracts._--'Occasionally a young man would see\nthe _Tylwyth Teg_ dancing, and, being drawn into the dance, would be\ntaken by them and married to one of their women. There is usually some\ncondition in the marriage contract which becomes broken, and, as a\nresult, the fairy wife disappears--usually into a lake. The marriage\ncontract specifies either that the husband must never touch his fairy\nwife with iron, or else never beat or strike her three times. Sometimes\nwhen fairy wives thus disappear, they take with them into the lake their\nfairy cattle and all their household property.'\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' Habitations._--'The _Tylwyth Teg_ were generally looked\nupon as an immortal race. In Cardiganshire they lived underground; in\nCarmarthenshire in lakes; and in Pembrokeshire along the sea-coast on\nenchanted islands amid the Irish Sea. I have heard of sailors upon\nseeing such islands trying to reach them; but when approached, the\nislands always disappeared. From a certain spot in Pembrokeshire, it is\nsaid that by standing on a turf taken from the yard of St. David's\nCathedral, one may see the enchanted islands.'[52]\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' as Spirits of Druids._--'By many of the old people the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ were classed with spirits. They were not looked upon as\nmortal at all. Many of the Welsh looked upon the _Tylwyth Teg_ or\nfairies as the spirits of Druids dead before the time of Christ, who\nbeing too good to be cast into Hell were allowed to wander freely about\non earth.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM A WELSHMAN NINETY-FOUR YEARS OLD\n\nAt Pontrhydfendigaid, a village about two miles from the railway-station\ncalled Strata Florida, I had the good fortune to meet Mr. John Jones,\nninety-four years old, yet of strong physique, and able to write his\nname without eye-glasses. Both Mr. J. H. Davies, Registrar of the\nUniversity College of Aberystwyth, and Mr. J. Ceredig Davies, the\neminent folk-lorist of Llanilar, referred me to Mr. John Jones as one of\nthe most remarkable of living Welshmen who could tell about the olden\ntimes from first-hand knowledge. Mr. John Jones speaks very little\nEnglish, and Mr. John Rees, of the Council School, acted as our\ninterpreter. This is the testimony:--\n\n_Pygmy-sized 'Tylwyth Teg'._--'I was born and bred where there was\ntradition that the _Tylwyth Teg_ lived in holes in the hills, and that\nnone of these _Tylwyth Teg_ was taller than three to four feet. It was a\ncommon idea that many of the _Tylwyth Teg_, forming in a ring, would\ndance and sing out on the mountain-sides, or on the plain, and that if\nchildren should meet with them at such a time they would lose their way\nand never get out of the ring. If the _Tylwyth Teg_ fancied any\nparticular child they would always keep that child, taking off its\nclothes and putting them on one of their own children, which was then\nleft in its place. They took only boys, never girls.'\n\n_Human-sized 'Tylwyth Teg'._--'A special sort of _Tylwyth Teg_ used to\ncome out of lakes and dance, and their fine looks enticed young men to\nfollow them back into the lakes, and there marry one of them. If the\nhusband wished to leave the lake he had to go without his fairy wife.\nThis sort of _Tylwyth Teg_ were as big as ordinary people; and they were\noften seen riding out of the lakes and back again on horses.'\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' as Spirits of Prehistoric Race._--'My grandfather told me\nthat he was once in a certain field and heard singing in the air, and\nthought it spirits singing. Soon afterwards he and his brother in\ndigging dikes in that field dug into a big hole, which they entered and\nfollowed to the end. There they found a place full of human bones and\nurns, and naturally decided on account of the singing that the bones and\nurns were of the _Tylwyth Teg_.'[53]\n\n_A Boy's Visit to the 'Tylwyth Teg's' King._--'About eighty years ago,\nat Tynylone, my grandfather told me this story: \"A boy ten years old was\noften whipped and cruelly treated by his schoolmaster because he could\nnot say his lessons very well. So one day he ran away from school and\nwent to a river-side, where some little folk came to him and asked why\nhe was crying. He told them the master had punished him; and on hearing\nthis they said, 'Oh! if you will stay with us it will not be necessary\nfor you to go to school. We will keep you as long as you like.' Then\nthey took him under the water and over the water into a cave\nunderground, which opened into a great palace where the _Tylwyth Teg_\nwere playing games with golden balls, in rings like those in which they\ndance and sing. The boy had been taken to the king's family, and he\nbegan to play with the king's sons. After he had been there in the\npalace in the full enjoyment of all its pleasures he wished very much to\nreturn to his mother and show her the golden ball which the _Tylwyth\nTeg_ gave him. And so he took the ball in his pocket and hurried through\nthe cave the way he had come; but at the end of it and by the river two\nof the _Tylwyth Teg_ met him, and taking the ball away from him they\npushed him into the water, and through the water he found his way home.\nHe told his mother how he had been away for a fortnight, as he thought,\nbut she told him it had been for two years. Though the boy often tried\nto find the way back to the _Tylwyth Teg_ he never could. Finally, he\nwent back to school, and became a most wonderful scholar and\nparson.\"'[54]\n\n\nIN MERLIN'S COUNTRY; AND A VICAR'S TESTIMONY\n\nThe Rev. T. M. Morgan, vicar of Newchurch parish, two miles from\nCarmarthen, has made a very careful study of the folk-traditions in his\nown parish and in other regions of Carmarthenshire, and is able to\noffer us evidence of the highest value, as follows:--[55]\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' Power over Children._--'The _Tylwyth Teg_ were thought to\nbe able to take children. \"You mind, or the _Tylwyth Teg_ will take you\naway,\" parents would say to keep their children in the house after dark.\nIt was an opinion, too, that the _Tylwyth Teg_ could transform good\nchildren into kings and queens, and bad children into wicked spirits,\nafter such children had been _taken_--perhaps in death. The _Tylwyth\nTeg_ were believed to live in some invisible world to which children on\ndying might go to be rewarded or punished, according to their behaviour\non this earth. Even in this life the _Tylwyth Teg_ had power over\nchildren for good or evil. The belief, as these ideas show, was that the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ were spirits.'\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' as Evil Spirits._--A few days after my return to Oxford,\nthe Rev. T. M. Morgan, through his son, Mr. Basil I. Morgan, of Jesus\nCollege, placed in my hands additional folk-lore evidence from his own\nparish, as follows:--'After Mr. Wentz visited me on Thursday, September\n30, 1909, I went to see Mr. Shem Morgan, the occupier of Cwmcastellfach\nfarm, an old man about seventy years old. He told me that in his\nchildhood days a great dread of the fairies occupied the heart of every\nchild. They were considered to be evil spirits who visited our world at\nnight, and dangerous to come in contact with; there were no good spirits\namong them. He related to me three narratives touching the fairies':--\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg's' Path._--The first narrative illustrates that the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ have paths (precisely like those reserved for the Irish\n_good people_ or for the Breton dead), and that it is death to a mortal\nwhile walking in one of these paths to meet the _Tylwyth Teg_.\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' Divination._--The second narrative I quote:--'A farmer of\nthis neighbourhood having lost his cattle, went to consult _y dyn\nhysbys_ (a diviner), in Cardiganshire, who was friendly with the\nfairies. Whenever the fairies visited the diviner they foretold future\nevents, secrets, and the whereabouts of lost property. After the farmer\nreached the diviner's house the diviner showed him the fairies, and then\nwhen the diviner had consulted them he told the farmer to go home as\nsoon as he could and that he would find the cattle in such and such a\nplace. The farmer did as he was directed, and found the cattle in the\nvery place where the _dyn hysbys_ told him they would be.' And the third\nnarrative asserts that a man in the parish of Trelech who was\nfraudulently excluded by means of a false will from inheriting the\nestate of his deceased father, discovered the defrauder and recovered\nthe estate, solely through having followed the advice given by the\n_Tylwyth Teg_, when (again as in the above account) they were called up\nas spirits by a _dyn hysbys_, a Mr. Harries, of Cwrt y Cadno, a place\nnear Aberystwyth.[56]\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM A JUSTICE OF THE PEACE\n\nMr. David Williams, J.P., who is a member of the Cymmrodorion Society of\nCarmarthen, and who has sat on the judicial bench for ten years, offers\nus the very valuable evidence which follows:--\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' and their King and Queen._--'The general idea, as I\nremember it, was that the _Tylwyth Teg_ were only visitors to this\nworld, and had no terrestrial habitations. They were as small in stature\nas dwarfs, and always appeared in white. Often at night they danced in\nrings amid green fields. Most of them were females, though they had a\nking; and, as their name suggests, they were very beautiful in\nappearance. The king of the _Tylwyth Teg_ was called _Gwydion ab Don_,\n_Gwyd_ referring to a temperament in man's nature. His residence was\namong the stars, and called _Caer Gwydion_. His queen was _Gwenhidw_. I\nhave heard my mother call the small fleece-like clouds which appear in\nfine weather the _Sheep of Gwenhidw_.'[57]\n\n_'Tylwyth Teg' as Aerial Beings._--Mr. Williams's testimony continues,\nand leads us directly to the Psychological or Psychical Theory:--'As\naerial beings the _Tylwyth Teg_ could fly and move about in the air at\nwill. They were a special order of creation. I never heard that they\ngrew old; and whether they multiplied or not I cannot tell. In character\nthey were almost always good.'\n\n_Ghosts and Apparitions._--Our conversation finally drifted towards\nghosts and apparitions, as usual, and to Druids. In the chapter dealing\nwith Re-birth (pp. 390-1) we shall record what Mr. Williams said about\nDruids, and here what he said about ghosts and apparitions:--'Sixty\nyears ago there was hardly an individual who did not believe in\napparitions; and in olden times Welsh families would collect round the\nfire at night and each in turn give a story about the _Tylwyth Teg_ and\nghosts.'\n\n_Conferring Vision of a Phantom Funeral._--'There used to be an old man\nat Newchurch named David Davis (who lived about 1780-1840), of Abernant,\nnoted for seeing phantom funerals. One appeared to him once when he was\nwith a friend. \"Do you see it? Do you see it?\" the old man excitedly\nasked. \"No,\" said his friend. Then the old man placed his foot on his\nfriend's foot, and said, \"Do you see it now?\" And the friend replied\nthat he did.'[58]\n\n_Magic and Witchcraft._--Finally, we shall hear from Mr. Williams about\nWelsh magic and witchcraft, which cannot scientifically be divorced from\nthe belief in fairies and apparitions:--'There used to be much\nwitchcraft in this country; and it was fully believed that some men, if\nadvanced scholars, had the power to injure or to bewitch their\nneighbours by magic. The more advanced the scholar the better he could\ncarry on his craft.'\n\n\nADDITIONAL EVIDENCE FROM CARMARTHENSHIRE\n\nMy friend, and fellow student at Jesus College, Mr. Percival V. Davies,\nof Carmarthen, contributes, as supplementary to what has been recorded\nabove, the following evidence, from his great-aunt, Mrs. Spurrell, also\nof Carmarthen, a native Welshwoman who has seen a _canwyll gorff_\n(corpse-candle):--\n\n_Bendith y Mamau._--'In the Carmarthenshire country, fairies (_Tylwyth\nTeg_) are often called _Bendith y Mamau_, the \"Mothers' Blessing.\"'\n\n_How Ten Children Became Fairies._--'Our Lord, in the days when He\nwalked the earth, chanced one day to approach a cottage in which lived a\nwoman with twenty children. Feeling ashamed of the size of her family,\nshe hid half of them from the sight of her divine visitor. On His\ndeparture she sought for the hidden children in vain; they had become\nfairies and had disappeared.'\n\n\nIN PEMBROKESHIRE; AT THE PENTRE EVAN CROMLECH\n\nOur Pembrokeshire witness is a maiden Welshwoman, sixty years old, who\nspeaks no English, but a university graduate, her nephew, will act as\nour interpreter. She was born and has lived all her life within sight\nof the famous Pentre Evan Cromlech, in the home of her ancestors, which\nis so ancient that after six centuries of its known existence further\nrecord of it is lost. In spite of her sixty years, our witness is as\nactive as many a city woman of forty or forty-five. Since her girlhood\nshe has heard curious legends and stories, and, with a more than\nordinary interest in the lore of her native country, has treasured them\nall in her clear and well-trained memory. The first night, while this\nwell-stored memory of hers gave forth some of its treasures, we sat in\nher own home, I and my friend, her nephew, on one side in a\nchimney-seat, and she and her niece on the other side in another,\nexposed to the cheerful glow and warmth of the fire. When we had\nfinished that first night it was two o'clock, and there had been no\ninterruption to the even flow of marvels and pretty legends. A second\nnight we spent likewise. What follows now is the result, so far as we\nare concerned with it:--\n\n_Fairies and Spirits._--'Spirits and fairies exist all round us,\ninvisible. Fairies have no solid bodily substance. Their forms are of\nmatter like ghostly bodies, and on this account they cannot be caught.\nIn the twilight they are often seen, and on moonlight nights in summer.\nOnly certain people can see fairies, and such people hold communication\nwith them and have dealings with them, but it is difficult to get them\nto talk about fairies. I think the spirits about us are the fallen\nangels, for when old Doctor Harris died his books on witchcraft had to\nbe burned in order to free the place where he lived from evil spirits.\nThe fairies, too, are sometimes called the fallen angels. They will do\ngood to those who befriend them, and harm to others. I think there must\nbe an intermediate state between life on earth and heavenly life, and it\nmay be in this that spirits and fairies live. There are two distinct\ntypes of spirits: one is good and the other is bad. I have heard of\npeople going to the fairies and finding that years passed as days, but I\ndo not believe in changelings, though there are stories enough about\nthem. That there are fairies and other spirits like them, both good and\nbad, I firmly believe. My mother used to tell about seeing the\n\"fair-folk\" dancing in the fields near Cardigan; and other people have\nseen them round the cromlech up there on the hill (the Pentre Evan\nCromlech). They appeared as little children in clothes like soldiers'\nclothes, and with red caps, according to some accounts.'\n\n_Death-Candles Described._--'I have seen more than one death-candle. I\nsaw one death-candle right here in this room where we are sitting and\ntalking.' I was told by the nephew and niece of our present witness that\nthis particular death-candle took an untrodden course from the house\nacross the fields to the grave-yard, and that when the death of one of\nthe family occurred soon afterwards, their aunt insisted that the corpse\nshould be carried by exactly the same route; so the road was abandoned\nand the funeral went through the ploughed fields. Here is the\ndescription of the death-candle as the aunt gave it in response to our\nrequest:--'The death-candle appears like a patch of bright light; and no\nmatter how dark the room or place is, everything in it is as clear as\nday. The candle is not a flame, but a luminous mass, lightish blue in\ncolour, which dances as though borne by an invisible agency, and\nsometimes it rolls over and over. If you go up to the light it is\nnothing, for it is a spirit. Near here a light as big as a pot was seen,\nand rays shot out from it in all directions. The man you saw here in the\nhouse to-day, one night as he was going along the road near Nevern, saw\nthe death-light of old Dr. Harris, and says it was lightish green.'\n\n_Gors Goch Fairies._--Now we began to hear more about fairies:--'One\nnight there came a strange rapping at the door of the ancient manor on\nthe Gors Goch farm over in Cardiganshire, and the father of the family\nasked what was wanted. Thin, silvery voices said they wanted a warm\nplace in which to dress their children and to tidy them up. The door\nopened then, and in came a dozen or more little beings, who at once set\nthemselves to hunting for a basin and water, and to cleaning themselves.\nAt daybreak they departed, leaving a pretty gift in return for the\nkindness. In this same house at another time, whether by the same party\nof little beings or by another could not be told, a healthy child of the\nfamily was _changed_ because he was unbaptized, and a frightful-looking\nchild left in his place. The mother finally died of grief, and the other\nchildren died because of the loss of their mother, and the father was\nleft alone. Then some time after this, the same little folks who came\nthe first time returned to clean up, and when they departed, in place of\ntheir former gifts of silver, left a gift of gold. It was not long\nbefore the father became heir to a rich farm in North Wales, and going\nto live on it became a magician, for the little people, still\nbefriending him, revealed themselves in their true nature and taught him\nall their secrets.'\n\n_Levi Salmon's Control of Spirits._--'Levi Salmon, who lived about\nthirty years ago, between here and Newport, was a magician, and could\ncall up good and bad spirits; but was afraid to call up the bad ones\nunless another person was with him, for it was a dangerous and terrible\nordeal. After consulting certain books which he had, he would draw a\ncircle on the floor, and in a little while spirits like bulls and\nserpents and other animals would appear in it, and all sorts of spirits\nwould speak. It was not safe to go near them; and to control them Levi\nheld a whip in his hand. He would never let them cross the circle. And\nwhen he wanted them to go away he always had to throw something to the\nchief spirit.'\n\n_The Haunted Manor and the Golden Image._--I offer now, in my own\nlanguage, the following remarkable story:--The ancient manor-house on\nthe Trewern Farm (less than a mile from the Pentre Evan Cromlech) had\nbeen haunted as long as anybody could remember. Strange noises were\noften heard in it, dishes would dance about of their own accord, and\nsometimes a lady dressed in silk appeared. Many attempts were made to\nlay the ghosts, but none succeeded. Finally things got so bad that\nnobody wanted to live there. About eighty years ago the sole occupants\nof the haunted house were Mr. ---- and his two servants. At the time, it\nwas well known in the neighbourhood that all at once Mr. ---- became\nvery wealthy, and his servants seemed able to buy whatever they wanted.\nEverybody wondered, but no one could tell where the money came from; for\nat first he was a poor man, and he couldn't have made much off the farm.\nThe secret only leaked out through one of the servants after Mr. ----\nwas dead. The servant declared to certain friends that one of the\nghosts, or, as he thought, the Devil, appeared to Mr. ---- and told him\nthere was an image of great value walled up in the room over the main\nentrance to the manor. A search was made, and, sure enough, a large\nimage of solid gold was found in the very place indicated, built into a\nrecess in the wall. Mr. ---- bound the servants to secrecy, and began to\nturn the image into money. He would cut off small pieces of the image,\none at a time, and take them to London and sell them. In this way he\nsold the whole image, and nobody was the wiser. After the image was\nfound and disposed of, ghosts were no longer seen in the house, nor were\nunusual noises heard in it at night. The one thing which beyond all\ndoubt is true is that when Mr. ---- died he left his son an estate worth\nabout \u00a350,000 (an amount probably greatly in excess of the true one);\nand people have always wondered ever since where it came from, if not in\npart from the golden image.[59]\n\nHundreds of parallel stories in which, instead of ghosts, fairies and\ndemons are said to have revealed hidden treasure could be cited.\n\n\nIN THE GOWER PENINSULA, GLAMORGANSHIRE\n\nOur investigations in Glamorganshire cover the most interesting part,\nthe peninsula of Gower, where there are peculiar folk-lore conditions,\ndue to its present population being by ancestry English and Flemish as\nwell as Cornish and Welsh. Despite this race admixture, Brythonic\nbeliefs have generally survived in Gower even among the non-Celts; and\nbecause of the Cornish element there are pixies, as shown by the\nfollowing story related to me in Swansea by Mr. ----, a well-known\nmining engineer:--\n\n_Pixies._--'At Newton, near the Mumbles (in Gower), an old woman, some\ntwenty years ago, assured me that she had seen the pixies. Her father's\ngrey mare was standing in the trap before the house ready to take some\nproduce to the Swansea market, and when the time for departure arrived\nthe pixies had come, but no one save the old woman could see them. She\ndescribed them to me as like tiny men dancing on the mare's back and\nclimbing up along the mare's mane. She thought the pixies some kind of\nspirits who made their appearance in early morning; and all mishaps to\ncows she attributed to them.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM AN ARCHAEOLOGIST\n\nThe Rev. John David Davis, rector of Llanmadoc and Cheriton parishes,\nand a member of the Cambrian Archaeological Society, has passed many\nyears in studying the antiquities and folk-lore of Gower, being the\nauthor of various antiquarian works; and he is without doubt the oldest\nand best living authority to aid us. The Rector very willingly offers\nthis testimony:--\n\n_Pixies and 'Verry Volk'._--'In this part of Gower, the name _Tylwyth\nTeg_ is never used to describe fairies; _Verry Volk_ is used instead.\nSome sixty years ago, as I can remember, there was belief in such\nfairies here in Gower, but now there is almost none. Belief in\napparitions still exists to some extent. One may also hear of a person\nbeing pixy-led; the pixies may cause a traveller to lose his way at\nnight if he crosses a field where they happen to be. To take your coat\noff and turn it inside out will break the pixy spell.[60] The _Verry\nVolk_ were always little people dressed in scarlet and green; and they\ngenerally showed themselves dancing on moonlight nights. I never heard\nof their making changelings, though they had the power of doing good or\nevil acts, and it was a very risky thing to offend them. By nature they\nwere benevolent.'\n\n_A 'Verry Volk' Feast._--'I heard the following story many years\nago:--The tenant on the Eynonsford Farm here in Gower had a dream one\nnight, and in it thought he heard soft sweet music and the patter of\ndancing feet. Waking up, he beheld his cow-shed, which opened off his\nbedroom, filled with a multitude of little beings, about one foot high,\nswarming all over his fat ox, and they were preparing to slaughter the\nox. He was so surprised that he could not move. In a short time the\n_Verry Volk_ had killed, dressed, and eaten the animal. The feast being\nover, they collected the hide and bones, except one very small leg-bone\nwhich they could not find, placed them in position, then stretched the\nhide over them; and, as the farmer looked, the ox appeared as sound and\nfat as ever, but when he let it out to pasture in the morning he\nobserved that it had a slight lameness in the leg lacking the missing\nbone.'[61]\n\n\nFAIRIES AMONG GOWER ENGLISH FOLK\n\nThe population of the Llanmadoc region of Gower are generally English by\nancestry and speech; and not until reaching Llanmorlais, beyond\nLlanridian, did I find anything like an original Celtic and\nWelsh-speaking people, and these may have come into that part within\ncomparatively recent times; and yet, as the above place-names tend to\nprove, in early days all these regions must have been Welsh. It may be\nargued, however, that this English-speaking population may be more\nCeltic than Saxon, even though emigrants from England. In any case, we\ncan see with interest how this so-called English population now echo\nBrythonic beliefs which they appear to have adopted in Gower, possibly\nsympathetically through race kinship; and the following testimony\noffered by Miss Sarah Jenkins, postmistress of Llanmadoc, will enable us\nto do so:--\n\n_Dancing with Fairies._--'A man, whose Christian name was William, was\nenticed by the fairy folk to enter their dance, as he was on his way to\nthe Swansea market in the early morning. They kept him dancing some\ntime, and then said to him before they let him go, \"Will dance well; the\nlast going to market and the first that shall sell.\" And though he\narrived at the market very late, he was the first to sell anything.'\n\n_Fairy Money._--'An old woman, whom I knew, used to find money left by\nthe fairies every time they visited her house. For a long time she\nobserved their request, and told no one about the money; but at last she\ntold, and so never found money afterwards.'\n\n_Nature of Fairies._--'The fairies (_verry volk_) were believed to have\nplenty of music and dancing. Sometimes they appeared dressed in bright\nred. They could appear and disappear suddenly, and no one could tell how\nor where.'\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nMuch more might easily be said about Welsh goblins, about Welsh fairies\nwho live in caves, or about Welsh fairy women who come out of lakes and\nrivers, or who are the presiding spirits of sacred wells and\nfountains,[62] but these will have some consideration later, in Section\nIII. For the purposes of the present inquiry enough evidence has been\noffered to show the fundamental character of Brythonic fairy-folk as we\nhave found them. And we can very appropriately close this inquiry by\nallowing our Welsh-speaking witness from the Pentre Evan country,\nPembrokeshire, to tell us one of the prettiest and most interesting\nfairy-tales in all Wales. The name of Taliessin appearing in it leads us\nto suspect that it may be the remnant of an ancient bardic tale which\nhas been handed down orally for centuries. It will serve to illustrate\nthe marked difference between the short conversational stories of the\nliving Fairy-Faith and the longer, more polished ones of the traditional\nFairy-Faith; and we shall see in it how a literary effect is gained at\nthe expense of the real character of the fairies themselves, for it\ntransforms them into mortals:--\n\n_Einion and Olwen._--'My mother told the story as she used to sit by the\nfire in the twilight knitting stockings:--\"One day when it was cloudy\nand misty, a shepherd boy going to the mountains lost his way and walked\nabout for hours. At last he came to a hollow place surrounded by rushes\nwhere he saw a number of round rings. He recognized the place as one he\nhad often heard of as dangerous for shepherds, because of the rings. He\ntried to get away from there, but he could not. Then an old, merry,\nblue-eyed man appeared. The boy, thinking to find his way home, followed\nthe old man, and the old man said to him, 'Do not speak a word till I\ntell you.' In a little while they came to a _menhir_ (long stone). The\nold man tapped it three times, and then lifted it up. A narrow path with\nsteps descending was revealed, and from it emerged a bluish-white light.\n'Follow me,' said the old man, 'no harm will come to you.' The boy did\nso, and it was not long before he saw a fine, wooded, fertile country\nwith a beautiful palace, and rivers and mountains. He reached the palace\nand was enchanted by the singing of birds. Music of all sorts was in\nthe palace, but he saw no people. At meals dishes came and disappeared\nof their own accord. He could hear voices all about him, but saw no\nperson except the old man--who said that now he could speak. When he\ntried to speak he found that he could not move his tongue. Soon an old\nlady with smiles came to him leading three beautiful maidens, and when\nthe maidens saw the shepherd boy they smiled and spoke, but he could not\nreply. Then one of the girls kissed him; and all at once he began to\nconverse freely and most wittily. In the full enjoyment of the\nmarvellous country he lived with the maidens in the palace a day and a\nyear, not thinking it more than a day, for there was no reckoning of\ntime in that land. When the day and the year were up, a longing to see\nhis old acquaintances came on him; and thanking the old man for his\nkindness, he asked if he could return home. The old man said to him,\n'Wait a little while'; and so he waited. The maiden who had kissed him\nwas unwilling to have him go; but when he promised her to return, she\nsent him off loaded with riches.\n\n'\"At home not one of his people or old friends knew him. Everybody\nbelieved that he had been killed by another shepherd. And this shepherd\nhad been accused of the murder and had fled to America.\n\n'\"On the first day of the new moon the boy remembered his promise, and\nreturned to the other country; and there was great rejoicing in the\nbeautiful palace when he arrived. Einion, for that was the boy's name,\nand Olwen, for that was the girl's name, now wanted to marry; but they\nhad to go about it quietly and half secretly, for the _fair-folk_\ndislike ceremony and noise. When the marriage was over, Einion wished to\ngo back with Olwen to the upper world. So two snow-white ponies were\ngiven them, and they were allowed to depart.\n\n'\"They reached the upper world safely; and, being possessed of unlimited\nwealth, lived most handsomely on a great estate which came into their\npossession. A son was born to them, and he was called Taliessin. People\nsoon began to ask for Olwen's pedigree, and as none was given it was\ntaken for granted that she was one of the _fair-folk_. 'Yes, indeed,'\nsaid Einion, 'there is no doubt that she is one of the _fair-folk_,\nthere is no doubt that she is one of the very _fair-folk_, for she has\ntwo sisters as pretty as she is, and if you saw them all together you\nwould admit that the name is a suitable one.' And this is the origin of\nthe term _fair-folk_ (_Tylwyth Teg_).\"'\n\nFrom Wales we go to the nearest Brythonic country, Cornwall, to study\nthe fairy-folk there.\n\n\nVI. IN CORNWALL\n\n     Introduction by HENRY JENNER, Member of the Gorsedd of the Bards of\n     Brittany; Fellow and Local Secretary for Cornwall of the Society of\n     Antiquaries; author of _A Handbook of the Cornish Language_, &c.\n\nIn Cornwall the legends of giants, of saints, or of Arthur and his\nknights, the observances and superstitions connected with the\nprehistoric stone monuments, holy wells, mines, and the like, the\nstories of submerged or buried cities, and the fragments of what would\nseem to be pre-Christian faiths, have no doubt occasional points of\ncontact with Cornish fairy legends, but they do not help to explain the\nfairies very much. Yet certain it is that not only in Cornwall and other\nCeltic lands, but throughout most of the world, a belief in fairies\nexists or has existed, and so widespread a belief must have a reason for\nit, though not necessarily a good one. That which with unconscious\nhumour men generally call 'education' has in these days caused those\nlower classes, to whom the deposit of this faith was entrusted, to be\nashamed of it, and to despise and endeavour to forget it. And so now in\nCornwall, as elsewhere at that earlier outbreak of Philistinism, the\nReformation,\n\n  From haunted spring and grassy ring\n    Troop goblin, elf and fairy,\n  And the kelpie must flit from the black bog-pit,\n    And the brownie must not tarry.\n\nBut, in spite of Protestantism, school-boards, and education committees,\n'pisky-pows' are still placed on the ridge-tiles of West Cornish\ncottages, to propitiate the piskies and give them a dancing-place, lest\nthey should turn the milk sour, and St. Just and Morvah folk are still\n'pisky-led' on the Gump (_an \u00dbn Gumpas_, the Level Down, between Ch\u00fbn\nCastle and Carn Kenidjack), and more rarely St. Columb and Roche folk on\nGoss Moor. It will not do to say that it is only another form of\n'whisky-led'. That is an evidently modern explanation, invented since\nthe substitution of strange Scottish and Irish drinks for the good\n'Nantes' and wholesome 'Plymouth' of old time, and it does not fit in\nwith the phenomena. It was only last winter, in a cottage not a hundred\nyards from where I am writing, that milk was set at night for piskies,\nwho had been knocking on walls and generally making nuisances of\nthemselves. Apparently the piskies only drank the 'astral' part of the\nmilk (whatever that may be) and then the neighbouring cats drank what\nwas left, and it disagreed with them. I cannot vouch for the truth of\nthe part about the piskies and the 'astral' milk--I give it as it was\ntold to me by the occupant of the cottage, who was not unacquainted with\n'occult' terminology--but I do know that the milk was consumed, and that\nthe cats, one of which was my own, were with one accord unwell all over\nthe place. But for the present purpose it does not matter whether these\nthings really happened or not. The point is that people thought they\nhappened.\n\nRobert Hunt, in his _Popular Romances of the West of England_, divided\nthe fairies of Cornish folk-lore into five classes: (1) the Small\nPeople; (2) the Spriggans; (3) the Piskies; (4) the Buccas, Bockles, or\nKnockers; (5) the Brownies. This is an incorrect classification. The\n_Pobel Vean_ or Small People, the Spriggans, and the Piskies are not\nreally distinguishable from one another. Bucca, who properly is but one,\nis a deity not a fairy, and it is said that at Newlyn, the great seat of\nhis worship, offerings of fish are still left on the beach for him. His\nname is the Welsh _pwca_, which is probably 'Puck', though Shakespeare's\nPuck was just a pisky, and it may be connected with the general\nSlavonic word _Bog_, God; so that if, as some say, _buccaboo_ is really\nmeant for _Bucca-du_, Black Bucca, this may be an equivalent of\n_Czernobog_, the Black God, who was the Ahriman of Slavonic dualism, and\n_Bucca-widn_ (White Bucca), which is rarer, though the expression does\ncome into a St. Levan story, may be the corresponding _Bielobog_.\n_Bockle_, which personally I have never heard used, suggests the\nScottish _bogle_, and both may be diminutives of _bucca_, _bog_,\n_bogie_, or _bug_, the last in the sense in which one English version\ntranslates the _timor nocturnus_ of Psalm XC. 5, not in that of _cimex\nlectularius_. But _bockle_ and _brownie_ are probably both foreign\nimportations borrowed from books, though a 'brownie' _eo nomine_ has\nbeen reported from Sennen within the last twenty years.\n\nThe Knockers or Knackers are mine-spirits, quite unconnected with Bucca\nor bogles. The story, as I have always heard it, is that they are the\nspirits of Jews who were sent by the Romans to work in the tin mines,\nsome say for being concerned in the Crucifixion of our Lord, which\nsounds improbable. They are benevolent spirits, and warn miners of\ndanger.\n\nBut the only true Cornish fairy is the Pisky, of the race which is the\n_Pobel Vean_ or Little People, and the Spriggan is only one of his\naspects. The Pisky would seem to be the 'Brownie' of the Lowland Scot,\nthe _Duine Sith_ of the Highlander, and, if we may judge from an\ninteresting note in Scott's _The Pirate_, the 'Peght' of the Orkneys. If\n_Daoine Sith_ really means 'The Folk of the Mounds' (barrows), not 'The\nPeople of Peace', it is possible that there is something in the theory\nthat Brownie, _Duine Sith_, and 'Peght', which is Pict, are only in\ntheir origin ways of expressing the little dark-complexioned aboriginal\nfolk who were supposed to inhabit the barrows, cromlechs, and _all\u00e9es\ncouvertes_, and whose cunning, their only effective weapon against the\nmere strength of the Aryan invader, earned them a reputation for magical\npowers. Now _Pisky_ or _Pisgy_ is really _Pixy_. Though as a patriotic\nCornishman I ought not to admit it, I cannot deny, especially as it\nsuits my argument better, that the Devon form is the correct one. But\nafter all there has been always a strong Cornish element in Devon, even\nsince the time when Athelstan drove the Britons out of Exeter and set\nthe Tamar for their boundary, and I think the original word is really\nCornish. The transposition of consonants, especially when _s_ is one of\nthem, is not uncommon in modern Cornish English. _Hosged_ for\n_hogshead_, and _haps_ for _hasp_ are well-known instances. If we take\nthe root of _Pixy_, _Pix_, and divide the double letter _x_ into its\ncomponent parts, we get _Piks_ or _Pics_, and if we remember that a\nfinal _s_ or _z_ in Cornish almost always represents a _t_ or _d_ of\nWelsh and Breton (cf. _tas_ for _tad_, _nans_ for _nant_, _bos_ for\n_bod_), we may not unreasonably, though without absolute certainty,\nconjecture that _Pixy_ is _Picty_ in a Cornish form.[63]\n\nWithout begging any question concerning the origin, ethnology, or\nhomogeneity of those who are called 'Picts' in history, from the times\nof Ammianus Marcellinus and Claudian until Kenneth MacAlpine united the\nPictish kingdom with the Scottish, we can nevertheless accept the fact\nthat the name 'Pict' has been popularly applied to some pre-Celtic race\nor races, to whom certain ancient structures, such as 'vitrified forts'\nand 'Picts' houses' have been attributed. In Cornwall there are\ninstances of prehistoric structures being called 'Piskies' Halls' (there\nis an _all\u00e9e couverte_ so called at Bosahan in Constantine), and\n'Piskies' Crows' (_Crow_ or _Craw_, Breton _Krao_, is a shed or hovel;\n'pegs' craw' is still used for 'pig-sty'); and there are three genuine\nexamples of what would in Scotland be called 'Picts' Houses' just\noutside St. Ives in the direction of Zennor, though only modern\nantiquaries have applied that name to them. In the district in which\nthey are, the fringe of coast from St. Ives round by Zennor, Morvah,\nPendeen, and St. Just nearly to Sennen, are found to this day a strange\nand separate people of Mongol type, like the Bigaudens of Pont l'Abb\u00e9\nand Penmarc'h in the Breton Cornouailles, one of those 'fragments of\nforgotten peoples' of the 'sunset bound of Lyonesse' of whom Tennyson\ntells. They are a little 'stuggy' dark folk, and until comparatively\nmodern times were recognized as different from their Celtic neighbours,\nand were commonly believed to be largely wizards and witches. One of Mr.\nWentz's informants seems to attribute to Zennor a particularly virulent\nbrand of pisky, and Zennor is the most primitive part of that district.\nPossibly the more completely unmixed ancestors of this race were 'more\nso' than the present representatives; but, be this as it may, if _Pixy_\nis really _Picty_, it would seem that, like the inhabitants of the\nextreme north of the British Isles, the south-western Britons eventually\napplied the fairly general popular name of the mysterious, half dreaded,\nhalf despised aboriginal to a race of preternatural beings in whose\nexistence they believed, and, with the name, transferred some of the\nqualities, attributes, and legends, thus producing a mixed mental\nconception now known as 'pisky' or 'pixy'.\n\nThere seems to have been always and everywhere (or nearly so) a belief\nin a race, neither divine nor human, but very like to human beings, who\nexisted on a 'plane' different from that of humans, though occupying the\nsame space. This has been called the 'astral' or the 'fourth-dimensional'\nplane. Why 'astral'? why 'fourth-dimensional'? why 'plane'? are\nquestions the answers to which do not matter, and I do not attempt to\ndefend the terms, but you must call it something. This is the belief to\nwhich Scott refers in the introduction to _The Monastery_, as the\n'beautiful but almost forgotten theory of astral spirits or creatures of\nthe elements, surpassing human beings in knowledge and power, but\ninferior to them as being subject, after a certain space of years, to a\ndeath which is to them annihilation'. The subdivisions and elaborations\nof the subject by Paracelsus, the Rosicrucians, and the modern\ntheosophists are no doubt amplifications of that popular belief, which,\nthough rather undefined, resembles the theory of these mystics in its\nmain outlines, and was probably what suggested it to them.\n\nThese beings are held to be normally imperceptible to human senses, but\nconditions may arise in which the 'astral plane' of the elementals and\nthat part of the 'physical plane' in which, if one may so express it,\nsome human being happens to be, may be in such a relation to one another\nthat these and other spirits may be seen and heard. Some such condition\nis perhaps described in the story of Balaam the soothsayer, in that\nincident when 'the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw, and\nbehold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about\nElisha', and possibly also in the mysterious 'sound of a going in the\ntops of the mulberry trees' which David heard; but no doubt in these\ncases it was angels and not elementals. It may also be allowable to\nsuggest, without irreverence, that the Gospel stories of the\nTransfiguration and Ascension are connected with the same idea, though\nthe latter is expressed in the form of the geocentric theory of the\nuniverse.\n\nThe Cornish pisky stories are largely made up of instances of contact\nbetween the two 'planes', sometimes accidental, sometimes deliberately\ninduced by incantations or magic eye-salve, yet with these stories are\noften mingled incidents that are not preternatural at all. How, when,\nand why this belief arose, I do not pretend even to conjecture; but\nthere it is, and though of course the holders of it do not talk about\n'planes', that is very much the notion which they appear to have.\n\nI do not think that the piskies were ever definitely held to be the\nspirits of the dead, and while a certain confusion has arisen, as some\nof Mr. Wentz's informants show, I think it belongs to the confused\neschatology of modern Protestants. To a pre-Reformation Cornishman, or\nindeed to any other Catholic, the idea was unthinkable. 'Justorum animae\nin manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum malitiae: visi sunt\noculis insipientium mori: illi autem sunt in pace,' and the\ntransmigration of the souls of the faithful departed into another order\nof beings, not disembodied because never embodied, was to them\nimpossible. Such a notion is on a par with the quaint but very usual\nhope of the modern 'Evangelical' Christian, so beautifully expressed in\none of Hans Andersen's stories, that his departed friends are promoted\nto be 'angels'. There may be, perhaps, an idea, as there certainly is in\nthe Breton Death-Faith, that the spirits of the faithful dead are all\nround us, and are not rapt away into a _distant_ Paradise or Purgatory.\nThis may be of pre-Christian origin, but does not contradict any article\nof the Christian faith. The warnings, apparitions, and hauntings, the\n'calling of the dead' at sea, and other details of Cornish\nDeath-Legends, seem to point to a conception of a 'plane' of the dead,\nsimilar to but not necessarily identical with that of the elementals.\nUnder some quite undefined conditions contact may occur with the\n'physical plane', whence the alleged incidents; but this Cornish\nDeath-Faith, though sometimes, as commonly in Brittany, presenting\nsimilar phenomena, has in itself nothing to do with piskies, and as for\nthe unfaithful departed, their destination was also well understood, and\nit was not Fairyland. There are possible connecting links in the not\nvery common idea that piskies are the souls of unbaptized children, and\nin the more common notion that the _Pobel Vean_ are, not the disembodied\nspirits, but the living souls and bodies of the old Pagans, who,\nrefusing Christianity, are miraculously preserved alive, but are\ncondemned to decrease in size until they vanish altogether. Some\nauthorities hold that it is the race and not the individual which\ndwindles from generation to generation.\n\nThis last idea, as well as the name 'pixy', gives some probability to\nthe conclusion that, as applied to Cornwall, Mr. MacRitchie's theory\nrepresents a part of the truth, and that on to an already existing\nbelief in elementals have been grafted exaggerated traditions of a dark\npre-Celtic people. These were not necessarily pygmies, but smaller than\nCelts, and may have survived for a long time in forests and hill\ncountries, sometimes friendly to the taller race, whence come the\nstories of piskies working for farmers, sometimes hostile, which may\naccount for the legends of changelings and other mischievous tricks.\nThis is how it appears to one who knows his Cornwall in all its aspects\nfairly well, but does not profess to be an expert in folk-lore.\n\n  BOSPOWES, HAYLE, CORNWALL,\n    _July_ 1910.\n\n\nOur investigation of the Fairy-Faith in Cornwall covers the region\nbetween Falmouth and the Land's End, which is now the most Celtic; and\nthe Tintagel country on the north coast. It is generally believed that\nancient Cornish legends, like the Cornish language, are things of the\npast only, but I am now no longer of that opinion. Undoubtedly Cornwall\nis the most anglicized of all Celtic lands we are studying, and its\nfolk-lore is therefore far from being as virile as the Irish folk-lore;\nnevertheless, through its people, racially mixed though they are, there\nstill flows the blood and the inspiration of a prehistoric native\nancestry, and among the oldest Cornish men and women of many an isolated\nvillage, or farm, there yet remains some belief in fairies and pixies.\nMoreover, throughout all of Old Cornwall there is a very living faith in\nthe Legend of the Dead; and that this Cornish Legend of the Dead, with\nits peculiar Brythonic character, should be parallel as it is to the\nBreton Legend of the Dead, has heretofore, so far as I am aware, not\nbeen pointed out. I am giving, however, only a very few of the Cornish\ndeath-legends collected, because in essence most of them are alike.\n\n\nA CORNISH HISTORIAN'S TESTIMONY\n\nI was privileged to make my first call in rural Cornwall at the pretty\ncountry home of Miss Susan E. Gay, of Crill, about three miles from\nFalmouth; and Miss Gay, who has written a well-known history of Falmouth\n(_Old Falmouth_, London, 1903), very willingly accorded me an interview\non the subject of my inquiry, and finally dictated for my use the\nfollowing matter:--\n\n_Pixies as 'Astral Plane' Beings._--'The pixies and fairies are little\nbeings in the human form existing on the 'astral plane', who may be in\nthe process of evolution; and, as such, I believe people have seen them.\nThe 'astral plane' is not known to us now because our psychic faculty of\nperception has faded out by non-use, and this condition has been brought\nabout by an almost exclusive development of the physical brain; but it\nis likely that the psychic faculty will develop again in its turn.'\n\n_Psychical Interpretation of Folk-Lore._--'It is my point of view that\nthere is a basis of truth in the folk-lore. With its remnants of occult\nlearning, magic, charms, and the like, folk-lore seems to be the remains\nof forgotten psychical facts, rather than history, as it is often\ncalled.'\n\n\nPEASANT EVIDENCE FROM THE CRILL COUNTRY\n\nMiss Gay kindly gave me the names of certain peasants in the Crill\nregion, and from one of them, Mrs. Harriett Christopher, I gleaned the\nfollowing material:--\n\n_A Pisky Changeling._--'A woman who lived near Breage Church had a fine\ngirl baby, and she thought the piskies came and took it and put a\nwithered child in its place. The withered child lived to be twenty years\nold, and was no larger when it died than when the piskies brought it. It\nwas fretful and peevish and frightfully shrivelled. The parents believed\nthat the piskies often used to come and look over a certain wall by the\nhouse to see the child. And I heard my grandmother say that the family\nonce put the child out of doors at night to see if the piskies would\ntake it back again.'\n\n_Nature of Piskies._--'The piskies are said to be very small. You could\nnever see them by day. I used to hear my grandmother, who has been dead\nfifty years, say that the piskies used to hold a fair in the fields near\nBreage, and that people saw them there dancing. I also remember her\nsaying that it was customary to set out food for the piskies at night.\nMy grandmother's great belief was in piskies and in spirits; and she\nconsidered piskies spirits. She used to tell so many stories about\nspirits [of the dead] coming back and such things that I would be afraid\nto go to bed.'\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM CONSTANTINE\n\nOur witnesses from the ancient and picturesque village of Constantine\nare John Wilmet, seventy-eight years old, and his good wife, two most\nexcellent and well-preserved types of the passing generation of true\nCornish stock. John began by telling me the following tale about an\n_all\u00e9e couverte_--a tale which in one version or another is apt to be\ntold of most Cornish megaliths:--\n\n_A Pisky-House._--'William Murphy, who married my sister, once went to\nthe pisky-house at Bosahan with a surveyor, and the two of them heard\nsuch unearthly noises in it that they came running home in great\nexcitement, saying they had heard the piskies.'\n\n_The Pisky Thrasher._--'On a farm near here, a pisky used to come at\nnight to thrash the farmer's corn. The farmer in payment once put down a\nnew suit for him. When the pisky came and saw it, he put it on, and\nsaid:--\n\n  Pisky fine and pisky gay,\n  Pisky now will fly away.\n\nAnd they say he never returned.'\n\n_Nature of Piskies._--'I always understood the piskies to be little\npeople. A great deal was said about ghosts in this place. Whether or not\npiskies are the same as ghosts I cannot tell, but I fancy the old folks\nthought they were.'\n\n_Exorcism._--'A farmer who lived two miles from here, near the Gweek\nRiver, called Parson Jago to his house to have him quiet the ghosts or\nspirits regularly haunting it, for Parson Jago could always put such\nthings to rest. The clergyman went to the farmer's house, and with his\nwhip formed a circle on the floor and then commanded the spirit, which\nmade its appearance on the table, to come down into the circle. While on\nthe table the spirit had been visible to all the family, but as soon as\nit got into the ring it disappeared; and the house was never haunted\nafterwards.'\n\n\nAT ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, MARAZION\n\nOur next place for an investigation of the surviving Cornish Fairy-Faith\nis Marazion, the very ancient British town opposite the isle called St.\nMichael's Mount. (From Constantine I walked through the country to this\npoint, talking with as many old people as possible, but none of them\nknew very much about ancient Cornish beliefs.) It is believed, though\nthe matter is very doubtful, that Marazion was the chief mart for the\ntin trade of Celtic Britain, and that the Mount--sacred to the Sun and\nto the Pagan Mysteries long before Caesar crossed the Channel from\nGaul--sheltered the brilliantly-coloured sailing-ships of the\nPhoenicians.[64] In such a romantic town, where Oriental merchants and\nCeltic pilgrims probably once mingled together, one might expect some\nsurvival of olden beliefs and customs.\n\n_Piskies._--To Mr. Thomas G. Jago, of Marazion, with a memory extending\nbackwards more than seventy years, he being eighty years old, I am\nindebted for this statement about the pisky creed in that locality:--'I\nimagine that one hundred and fifty years ago the belief in piskies and\nspirits was general. In my boyhood days, piskies were often called \"the\nmites\" (little people): they were regarded as little spirits. The word\n_piskies_ is the old Cornish brogue for pixies. In certain grass fields,\nmushrooms growing in a circle might be seen of a morning, and the old\nfolks pointing to the mushrooms would say to the children, \"Oh, the\npiskies have been dancing there last night.\"'\n\nTwo more of the oldest natives of Marazion, among others with whom I\ntalked, are William Rowe, eighty-two years old, and his married sister\nseventy-eight years old. About the piskies Mr. Rowe said this:--'People\nwould go out at night and lose their way and then declare that they had\nbeen pisky-led. I think they meant by this that they fell under some\nspiritual influence--that some spirit led them astray. The piskies were\nsaid to be small, and they were thought of as spirits.'[65] Mr. Rowe's\nsister added:--'If we as children did anything wrong, the old folks\nwould say to us, \"The piskies will carry you away if you do that\nagain.\"'\n\n_Witch-Doctors._--I heard the following witch-story from a lawyer, a\nnative of the district, who lives in the country just beyond\nMarazion:--'Jimmy Thomas, of Wendron parish, who died within the last\ntwenty-five years, was the last witch-doctor I know about in West\nCornwall. He was supposed to have great power over evil spirits. His\nimmediate predecessor was a woman, called the \"Witch of Wendron\", and\nshe did a big business. My father once visited her in company with a\nfriend whose father had lost some horses. This was about seventy to\neighty years ago. The witch when consulted on this occasion turned her\nback to my father's companion, and began talking to herself in Cornish.\nThen she gave him some herbs. His father used the herbs, and no more\nhorses died: the herbs were supposed to have driven all evil spirits out\nof the stable.'\n\n\nIN PENZANCE: AN ARCHITECT'S TESTIMONY\n\nPenzance from earliest times has undoubtedly been, as it is now, the\ncapital of the Land's End district, the Sacred Land of Britain. And in\nPenzance I had the good fortune to meet those among its leading citizens\nwho still cherish and keep alive the poetry and the mystic lore of Old\nCornwall; and to no one of them am I more indebted than to Mr. Henry\nMaddern, F.I.A.S. Mr. Maddern tells me that he was initiated into the\nmysteries of the Cornish folk-lore of this region when a boy in Newlyn,\nwhere he was born, by his old nurse Betty Grancan, a native Zennor\nwoman, of stock probably the most primitive and pure in the British\nIslands. At his home in Penzance, Mr. Maddern dictated to me the very\nvaluable evidence which follows:--\n\n_Two Kinds of Pixies._--'In this region there are two kinds of pixies,\none purely a land-dwelling pixy and the other a pixy which dwells on the\nsea-strand between high and low water mark.[66] The land-dwelling pixy\nwas usually thought to be full of mischievous fun, but it did no harm.\nThere was a very prevalent belief, when I was a boy, that this\nsea-strand pixy, called _Bucca_,[67] had to be propitiated by a _cast_\n(three) of fish, to ensure the fishermen having a good _shot_ (catch) of\nfish. The land pixy was supposed to be able to render its devotees\ninvisible, if they only anointed their eyes with a certain green salve\nmade of secret herbs gathered from Kerris-moor.[68] In the invisible\ncondition thus induced, people were able to join the pixy revels, during\nwhich, according to the old tradition, time slipped away very, very\nrapidly, though people returned from the pixies no older than when they\nwent with them.'\n\n_The Nurse and the Ointment._--'I used to hear about a Zennor girl who\ncame to Newlyn as nurse to the child of a gentleman living at\nZimmerman-Cot. The gentleman warned her never to touch a box of ointment\nwhich he guarded in a special room, nor even to enter that room; but one\nday in his absence she entered the room and took some of the ointment.\nSuspecting the qualities of the ointment, she put it on her eyes with\nthe wish that she might see where her master was. She immediately found\nherself in the higher part of the orchard amongst the pixies, where they\nwere having much _junketing_ (festivity and dancing); and there saw the\ngentleman whose child she had nursed. For a time she managed to evade\nhim, but before the _junketing_ was at an end he discovered her and\nrequested her to go home; and then, to her intense astonishment, she\nlearned that she had been away twenty years, though she was unchanged.\nThe gentleman scolded her for having touched the ointment, paid her\nwages in full, and sent her back to her people. She always had the one\nregret, that she had not gone into the forbidden room at first.'\n\n_The Tolcarne Troll._--'The fairy of the Newlyn Tolcarne[69] was in some\nways like the Puck of the English Midlands. But this fairy, or troll,\nwas supposed to date back to the time of the Phoenicians. He was\ndescribed as a little old pleasant-faced man dressed in a tight-fitting\nleathern jerkin, with a hood on his head, who lived invisible in the\nrock. Whenever he chose to do so he could make himself visible. When I\nwas a boy it was said that he spent his time voyaging from here to Tyre\non the galleys which carried the tin; and, also, that he assisted in the\nbuilding of Solomon's Temple. Sometimes he was called \"the Wandering\nOne\", or \"Odin the Wanderer\". My old nurse, Betty Grancan, used to say\nthat you could call up the troll at the Tolcarne if while there you held\nin your hand three dried leaves, one of the ash, one of the oak, and one\nof the thorn, and pronounced an incantation or charm. Betty would never\ntell me the words of the charm, because she said I was too much of a\nsceptic. The words of such a Cornish charm had to pass from one believer\nto another, through a woman to a man, and from a man to a woman, and\nthus alternately.'[70]\n\n_Nature of Pixies._--'Pixies were often supposed to be the souls of the\nprehistoric dwellers of this country. As such, pixies were supposed to\nbe getting smaller and smaller, until finally they are to vanish\nentirely. The country pixies inhabiting the highlands from above Newlyn\non to St. Just were considered a wicked sort. Their great ambition was\nto change their own offspring for human children; and the true child\ncould only be got back by laying a four-leaf clover on the changeling. A\n_winickey_ child--one which was weak, frail, and peevish--was of the\nnature of a changeling. Miner pixies, called \"knockers\", would accept a\nportion of a miner's _croust_ (lunch) on good faith, and by knocking\nlead him to a rich mother-lode, or warn him by knocking if there was\ndanger ahead or a cavern full of water; but if the miner begrudged them\nthe _croust_, he would be left to his own resources to find the lode,\nand, moreover, the \"knockers\" would do all they could to lead him away\nfrom a good lode. These mine pixies, too, were supposed to be spirits,\nsometimes spirits of the miners of ancient times.'[71]\n\n_Fairies and Pixies._--'In general appearance the fairies were much the\nsame as pixies. They were small men and women, much smaller than dwarfs.\nThe men were swarthy in complexion, and the women had a clear complexion\nof a peach-like bloom. None ever appeared to be more than\nfive-and-twenty to thirty years old. I have heard my nurse say that she\ncould see scores of them whenever she picked a four-leaf clover and put\nit in the wisp of straw which she carried on her head as a cushion for\nthe bucket of milk. Her theory was that the richness of the milk was\nwhat attracted them. Pixies, like fairies, very much enjoyed milk, and\npeople of miserly nature used to put salt around a cow to keep the\npixies away; and then the pixies would lead such mean people astray the\nvery first opportunity that came. According to some country-people, the\npixies have been seen in the day-time, but usually they are only seen at\nnight.'\n\n\nA CORNISH EDITOR'S OPINION\n\nMr. Herbert Thomas, editor of four Cornish papers, _The Cornishman_,\n_The Cornish Telegraph_, _Post_, and _Evening Times_, and a true Celt\nhimself, has been deeply interested in the folk-lore of Cornwall, and\nhas made excellent use of it in his poetry and other literary\nproductions; so that his personal opinions, which follow, as to the\nprobable origin of the fairy-belief, are for our study a very important\ncontribution:--\n\n_Animistic Origin of Belief in Pixies._--'I should say that the modern\nbelief in pixies, or in fairies, arose from a very ancient Celtic or\npre-Celtic belief in spirits. Just as among some savage tribes there is\nbelief in gods and totems, here there was belief in little spirits good\nand bad, who were able to help or to hinder man. Belief in the\nsupernatural, in my opinion, is the root of it all.'\n\n\nA CORNISH FOLK-LORIST'S TESTIMONY\n\nIn Penzance I had the privilege of also meeting Miss M. A. Courtney, the\nwell-known folk-lorist, who quite agrees with me in believing that there\nis in Cornwall a widespread Legend of the Dead; and she cited a few\nspecial instances in illustration, as follows:--\n\n_Cornish Legend of the Dead._--'Here amongst the fishermen and sailors\nthere is a belief that the dead in the sea will be heard calling if a\ndrowning is about to occur. I know of a woman who went to a clergyman to\nhave him exorcize her of the spirit of her dead sister, which she said\nappeared in the form of a bee. And I have heard of miners believing that\nwhite moths are spirits.'[72]\n\n\nEVIDENCE FROM NEWLYN\n\nIn Newlyn, Mrs. Jane Tregurtha gave the following important testimony:--\n\n_The 'Little Folk'._--'The old people thoroughly believed in the _little\nfolk_, and that they gambolled all over the moors on moonlight nights.\nSome pixies would rain down blessings and others curses; and to remove\nthe curses people would go to the wells blessed by the saints. Whenever\nanything went wrong in the kitchen at night the pixies were blamed.\nAfter the 31st of October [or after Halloween] the blackberries are not\nfit to eat, for the pixies have then been over them' (cf. the parallel\nIrish belief, p. 38).\n\n_Fairy Guardian of the Men-an-Tol._[73]--'At the Men-an-Tol there is\nsupposed to be a guardian fairy or pixy who can make miraculous cures.\nAnd my mother knew of an actual case in which a changeling was put\nthrough the stone in order to get the real child back. It seems that\nevil pixies changed children, and that the pixy at the Men-an-Tol being\ngood, could, in opposition, undo their work.'\n\n_Exorcism._--'A spirit was put to rest on the Green here in Newlyn. The\nparson prayed and fasted, and then commanded the spirit to _teeme_ (dip\ndry) the sea with a limpet shell containing no bottom; and the spirit is\nsupposed to be still busy at this task.'\n\n_Piskies as Apparitions._--When I talked with her in her neat cottage at\nNewlyn, Miss Mary Ann Chirgwin (who was born on St. Michael's Mount in\n1825) told me this:--'The old people used to say the piskies were\napparitions of the dead come back in the form of little people, but I\ncan't remember anything more than this about them.'\n\n\nAN ARTIST'S TESTIMONY\n\nOne of the members of the Newlyn Art School was able to offer a few of\nhis own impressions concerning the pixies of Devonshire, where he has\nfrequently made sketches of pixies from descriptions given to him by\npeasants:--\n\n_Devonshire Pixies._--'Throughout all the west of Devonshire, anywhere\nnear the moorlands, the country people are much given to belief in\npixies and ghosts. I think they expect to see them about the twilight\nhour; though I have not found anybody who has actually seen a pixy--the\nbelief now is largely based on hearsay.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM THE HISTORIAN OF MOUSEHOLE\n\nTo Mr. Richard Harry, the historian of Mousehole, I am indebted for\nthese remarks about the nature and present state of the belief in pixies\nas he observes it in that region:--\n\n_The Pixy Belief._--'The piskies, thought of as little people who appear\non moonlight nights, are still somewhat believed in here. If interfered\nwith too much they are said to exhibit almost fiendish powers. In a\ncertain sense they are considered spiritual, but in another sense they\nare much materialized in the conceptions of the people. Generally\nspeaking, the belief in them has almost died out within the last fifty\nyears.'\n\n\nA SEAMAN'S TESTIMONY\n\n'Uncle Billy Pender,' as our present witness is familiarly called, is\none of the oldest natives of Mousehole, being eighty-five years old; and\nmost of his life has been passed on the ocean, as a fisherman, seaman,\nand pilot. After having told me the usual things about piskies, fairies,\nspirits, ghosts, and the devil, Uncle Billy Pender was very soon talking\nabout the dead:--\n\n_Cornish Legend of the Dead._--'I was up in bed, and I suppose asleep,\nand I dreamt that the boy James came to my bedside and woke me up by\nsaying, \"How many lights does Death put up?\" And in the dream there\nappeared such light as I never saw in my life; and when I woke up\nanother light like it was in the room. Within three months afterwards we\nburied two grand-daughters out of this house. This was four years ago.'\nWhen this strange tale was finished, Uncle Billy Pender's daughter, who\nhad been listening, added:--'For three mornings, one after another,\nthere was a robin at our cellar door before the deaths, and my husband\nsaid he didn't like that.'\n\nThen Uncle Billy told this weird Breton-like tale:--'\"Granny\" told about\na boat named _Bl\u00fccher_, going from Newlyn to Bristol with six thousand\nmackerel, which put in at Arbor Cove, close to Padstow, on account of\nbad weather. The boat dragged her anchors and was lost. \"Granny\"\nafterwards declared that he saw the crew going up over the Newlyn Slip;\nand the whole of Newlyn and Mousehole believed him.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY BY TWO LAND'S END FARMERS\n\nIn the Sennen country, within a mile of the end of Britain, I talked\nwith two farmers who knew something about piskies. The first one,\nCharles Hutchen, of Trevescan, told me this legend:--\n\n_A St. Just Pisky._--'Near St. Just, on Christmas Day, a pisky carried\naway in his cloak a boy, but the boy got home. Then the pisky took him a\nsecond time, and again the boy got home. Each time the boy was away for\nonly an hour' (probably in a dream or trance state).\n\n_Seeing the Pisky-Dance._--Frank Ellis, seventy-eight years old, of the\nsame village of Trevescan, then gave the following evidence:--'Up on\nSea-View Green there are two rings where the piskies used to dance and\nplay music on a moonlight night. I've heard that they would come there\nfrom the moors. _Little people_ they are called. If you keep quiet when\nthey are dancing you'll see them, but if you make any noise they'll\ndisappear.' Frank Ellis's wife, who is a very aged woman, was in the\nhouse listening to the conversation, and added at this point:--'My\ngrandmother, Nancy Maddern, was down on Sea-View Green by moonlight and\nsaw the piskies dancing, and passed near them. She said they were like\nlittle children, and had red cloaks.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM A SENNEN COVE FISHERMAN\n\nJohn Gilbert Guy, seventy-eight years old, a retired fisherman of Sennen\nCove, offers very valuable testimony, as follows:--\n\n_'Small People'._--'Many say they have seen the _small people_ here by\nthe hundreds. In Ireland they call the _small people_ the fairies. My\nmother believes there were such things, and so did the old folks in\nthese parts. My grandmother used to put down a good furze fire for\n_them_ on stormy nights, because, as she said, \"_They_ are a sort of\npeople wandering about the world with no home or habitation, and ought\nto be given a little comfort.\" The most fear of _them_ was that they\nmight come at night and change a baby for one that was no good. My\nmother said that Joan Nicholas believed the fairies had changed her\nbaby, because it was very small and cross-tempered. Up on the hill\nyou'll see a round ring with grass greener than anywhere else, and that\nis where the _small people_ used to dance.'\n\n_Danger of Seeing the 'Little People'._--'I heard that a woman set out\nwater to wash her baby in, and that before she had used the water the\n_small people_ came and washed their babies in it. She didn't know about\nthis, and so in washing her baby got some of the water in her eyes, and\nthen all at once she could see crowds of _little people_ about her. One\nof them came to her and asked if she was able to see their crowd, and\nwhen she said \"Yes,\" the _little people_ wanted to take her eyes out,\nand she had to clear away from them as fast as she could.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM A CORNISH MINER\n\nWilliam Shepherd, a retired miner of Pendeen, near St. Just, where he\nhas passed all his life, offers us from his own experiences under the\nearth the evidence which follows:--\n\n_Mine Piskies._--'There are mine-piskies which are not the \"knockers\".\nI've heard old men in the mines say that they have seen them, and they\ncall them the _small people_. It appears that they don't like company,\nfor they are always seen singly. The \"knockers\" are spirits, too, as one\nmight say. They are said to bring bad luck, while the _small people_ may\nbring good luck.'\n\n\nTESTIMONY FROM KING ARTHUR'S COUNTRY\n\nLeaving the Land's End district and South Cornwall, we now pass\nnorthward to King Arthur's country. Our chief researches there are to be\nmade outside the beaten track of tourists as far as possible, in the\ncountry between Camelford and Tintagel. At Delabole, the centre of this\ndistrict, we find our first witness, Henry Spragg, a retired\nslate-quarryman, seventy years old. Mr. Spragg has had excellent\nopportunities of hearing any folk-lore that might have been living\nduring his lifetime; and what he offers first is about King Arthur:--\n\n_King Arthur._--'We always thought of King Arthur as a great warrior.\nAnd many a time I've heard old people say that he used to appear in this\ncountry in the form of a nath.'[74] This was all that could be told of\nKing Arthur; and the conversation finally was directed toward piskies,\nwith the following results:--\n\n_Piskies._--'A man named Bottrell, who lived near St. Teath, was\npisky-led at West Down, and when he turned his pockets inside out he\nheard the piskies going away laughing.[75] Often my grandmother used to\nsay when I got home after dark, \"You had better mind, or the piskies\nwill carry you away.\" And I can remember hearing the old people say that\nthe piskies are the spirits of dead-born children.' From pixies the\nconversation drifted to the spirit-hounds 'often heard at night near\ncertain haunted downs in St. Teath parish', and then, finally, to\nordinary Cornish legends about the dead.\n\nOur next witnesses from Delabole are John Male, eighty-two years old,\none of the very oldest men in King Arthur's country, and his wife; and\nall of Mr. Male's ancestors as far back as he can trace them have lived\nin the same parish.\n\n_Piskies in General._--Mr. Male remarked:--'I have heard a good deal\nabout the piskies, but I can't remember any of the old women's tales. I\nhave heard, too, of people saying that they had seen the piskies. It was\nthought that when the piskies have misled you they show themselves\njumping about in front of you; they are a race of little people who live\nout in the fields.' Mrs. Male had now joined us at the open fire, and\nadded:--'Piskies always come at night, and in marshy ground there are\nround places called pisky beds where they play. When I was little, my\nmother and grandmother would be sitting round the fire of an evening\ntelling fireside stories, and I can remember hearing about a pisky of\nthis part who stole a new coat, and how the family heard him talking to\nhimself about it, and then finally say:--\n\n  Pisky fine and pisky gay,\n  Pisky's got a bright new coat,\n  Pisky now will run away.\n\nAnd I can just remember one bit of another story: A pisky looked into a\nhouse and said:--\n\n  All alone, fair maid?\n  No, here am I with a dog and cat,\n  And apples to eat and nuts to crack.'\n\n_Tintagel Folk-Beliefs._--A retired rural policeman of the Tintagel\ncountry, where he was born and reared, and now keeper of the Passmore\nEdwards Art Gallery at Newlyn, offered this testimony from\nTintagel:--'In Tintagel I used to sit round the fire at night and hear\nold women tell so much about piskies and ghosts that I was then afraid\nto go out of doors after darkness had fallen. They religiously believed\nin such things, and when I expressed my doubts I was driven away as a\nrude boy. They thought if you went to a certain place at a certain hour\nof the night that you could there see the piskies as little spirits. It\nwas held that the piskies could lead you astray and play tricks on you,\nbut that they never did you any serious injury.' Of the Arthurian\nfolk-legend at Tintagel he said:--'The spirit of King Arthur is supposed\nto be in the Cornish chough--a beautiful black bird with red legs and\nred beak.'\n\nWe now leave Great Britain and cross the English Channel to Little\nBritain, the third of the Brythonic countries.\n\n\nVII. IN BRITTANY\n\n     Introduction by ANATOLE LE BRAZ, Professor of French Literature,\n     University of Rennes, Brittany; author of _La L\u00e9gende de la Mort, Au\n     Pays des Pardons_, &c.\n\nMON CHER MONSIEUR WENTZ,\n\nIl me souvient que, lors de votre soutenance de th\u00e8se devant la Facult\u00e9\ndes Lettres de l'Universit\u00e9 de Rennes, un de mes coll\u00e8gues, mon ami, le\nprofesseur Dottin, vous demanda:\n\n'Vous croyez, dites-vous, \u00e0 l'existence des f\u00e9es? En avez-vous vu?'\n\nVous r\u00e9pond\u00eetes, avec autant de phlegme que de sinc\u00e9rit\u00e9:\n\n'Non. J'ai tout fait pour en voir, et je n'en ai jamais vu. Mais il y a\nbeaucoup de choses que vous n'avez pas vues, monsieur le professeur, et\ndont vous ne songeriez cependant pas \u00e0 nier l'existence. Ainsi fais-je \u00e0\nl'\u00e9gard des f\u00e9es.'\n\nJe suis comme vous, mon cher monsieur Wentz: je n'ai jamais vu de f\u00e9es.\nJ'ai bien une amie tr\u00e8s ch\u00e8re que nous avons baptis\u00e9e de ce nom, mais,\nmalgr\u00e9 tous ses beaux dons magiques, elle n'est qu'une humble mortelle.\nEn revanche, j'ai v\u00e9cu, tout enfant, parmi des personnes qui avaient\navec les f\u00e9es v\u00e9ritables un commerce quasi journalier.\n\nC'\u00e9tait dans une petite bourgade de Basse-Bretagne, peupl\u00e9e de paysans \u00e0\nmoiti\u00e9 marins, et de marins \u00e0 moiti\u00e9 paysans. Il y avait, non loin du\nvillage, une ancienne gentilhommi\u00e8re que ses propri\u00e9taires avaient\ndepuis longtemps abandonn\u00e9e pour on ne savait au juste quel motif. On\ncontinuait de l'appeler le 'ch\u00e2teau' de Lanascol, quoiqu'elle ne f\u00fbt\nplus gu\u00e8re qu'une ruine. Il est vrai que les avenues par lesquelles on y\nacc\u00e9dait avaient conserv\u00e9 leur aspect seigneurial, avec leurs quadruples\nrang\u00e9es de vieux h\u00eatres dont les vastes frondaisons se miraient dans de\nmagnifiques \u00e9tangs. Les gens d'alentour se risquaient peu, le soir, dans\nces avenues. Elles passaient pour \u00eatre, \u00e0 partir du coucher du soleil,\nle lieu de promenade favori d'une 'dame' que l'on d\u00e9signait sous le nom\nde _Groac'h Lanascol_,--la 'Fe\u00e9 de Lanascol'.\n\nBeaucoup disaient l'avoir rencontr\u00e9e, et la d\u00e9peignaient sous les\ncouleurs, du reste, les plus diverses. Ceux-ci faisaient d'elle une\nvieille femme, marchant toute courb\u00e9e, les deux mains appuy\u00e9es sur un\ntron\u00e7on de b\u00e9quille avec lequel, de temps en temps, elle remuait, \u00e0\nl'automne, les feuilles mortes. Les feuilles mortes qu'elle retournait\nainsi devenaient soudain brillantes comme de l'or et s'entrechoquaient\navec un bruit clair de m\u00e9tal. Selon d'autres, c'\u00e9tait une jeune\nprincesse, merveilleusement par\u00e9e, sur les pas de qui s'empressaient\nd'\u00e9tranges petits hommes noirs et silencieux. Elle s'avan\u00e7ait d'une\nmajestueuse allure de reine. Parfois elle s'arr\u00eatait devant un arbre, et\nl'arbre aussit\u00f4t s'inclinait comme pour recevoir ses ordres. Ou bien,\nelle jetait un regard sur l'eau d'un \u00e9tang, et l'\u00e9tang frissonnait\njusqu'en ses profondeurs, comme agit\u00e9 d'un mouvement de crainte sous la\npuissance de son regard.\n\nOn racontait sur elle cette curieuse histoire:--\n\nLes propri\u00e9taires de Lanascol ayant voulu se d\u00e9faire d'un domaine qu'ils\nn'habitaient plus, le manoir et les terres qui en d\u00e9pendaient furent mis\nen adjudication chez un notaire de Plouaret. Au jour fix\u00e9 pour les\nench\u00e8res nombre d'acheteurs accoururent. Les prix \u00e9taient d\u00e9j\u00e0 mont\u00e9s\ntr\u00e8s haut, et le domaine allait \u00eatre adjug\u00e9, quand, \u00e0 un dernier appel\ndu crieur, une voix f\u00e9minine, tr\u00e8s douce et tr\u00e8s imp\u00e9rieuse tout\nensemble, s'\u00e9leva et dit:\n\n'Mille francs de plus!'\n\nIl y eut grande rumeur dans la salle. Tout le monde chercha des yeux la\npersonne qui avait lanc\u00e9 cette surench\u00e8re, et qui ne pouvait \u00eatre qu'une\nfemme. Mais il ne se trouva pas une seule femme dans l'assistance. Le\nnotaire demanda:\n\n'Qui a parl\u00e9?'\n\nDe nouveau, la m\u00eame voix se fit entendre.\n\n'Groac'h Lanascol!' r\u00e9pondit-elle.\n\nCe fut une d\u00e9bandade g\u00e9n\u00e9rale. Depuis lors, il ne s'\u00e9tait jamais\npr\u00e9sent\u00e9 d'acqu\u00e9reur, et voil\u00e0 pourquoi, r\u00e9p\u00e9tait-on couramment,\nLanascol \u00e9tait toujours \u00e0 vendre.\n\nSi je vous ai entretenu \u00e0 plaisir de la F\u00e9e de Lanascol, mon cher\nmonsieur Wentz, c'est qu'elle est la premi\u00e8re qui ait fait impression\nsur moi, dans mon enfance. Combien d'autres n'en ai-je pas connu, par la\nsuite, \u00e0 travers les r\u00e9cits de mes compatriotes des gr\u00e8ves, des champs\nou des bois! La Bretagne est rest\u00e9e un royaume de f\u00e9erie. On n'y peut\nvoyager l'espace d'une lieue sans c\u00f4toyer la demeure de quelque f\u00e9e m\u00e2le\nou femelle. Ces jours derniers, comme j'accomplissais un p\u00e8lerinage\nd'automne \u00e0 l'hallucinante for\u00eat de Paimpont, toute hant\u00e9e encore des\ngrands souvenirs de la l\u00e9gende celtique, je croisai, sous les opulents\nombrages du Pas-du-Houx, une ramasseuse de bois mort, avec qui je ne\nmanquai pas, vous pensez bien, de lier conversation. Un des premiers\nnoms que je pronon\u00e7ai fut naturellement celui de Viviane.\n\n'Viviane!' se r\u00e9cria la vieille pauvresse. 'Ah! b\u00e9nie soit-elle, la\nbonne Dame! car elle est aussi bonne que belle.... Sans sa protection,\nmon homme, qui travaille dans les coupes, serait tomb\u00e9, comme un loup,\nsous les fusils des gardes....' Et elle se mit \u00e0 me conter comme quoi\nson mari, un tantinet braconnier comme tous les b\u00fbcherons de ces\nparages, s'\u00e9tant port\u00e9, une nuit, \u00e0 l'aff\u00fbt du chevreuil, dans les\nenvirons de la Butte-aux-Plaintes, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 surpris en flagrant d\u00e9lit\npar une tourn\u00e9e de gardes. Il voulut fuir: les gardes tir\u00e8rent. Une\nballe l'atteignit \u00e0 la cuisse: il tomba, et il s'appr\u00eatait \u00e0 se faire\ntuer sur place, plut\u00f4t que de se rendre, lorsque, entre ses agresseurs\net lui, s'interposa subitement une esp\u00e8ce de brouillard tr\u00e8s dense qui\nvoila tout,--le sol, les arbres, les gardes et le bless\u00e9 lui-m\u00eame. Et il\nentendit une voix sortie du brouillard, une voix l\u00e9g\u00e8re comme un bruit\nde feuilles, murmurer \u00e0 son oreille: 'Sauve-toi, mon fils: l'esprit de\nViviane veillera sur toi jusqu'\u00e0 ce que tu aies ramp\u00e9 hors de la for\u00eat.'\n\n'Telles furent les propres paroles de la f\u00e9e,' conclut la ramasseuse de\nbois mort.\n\nEt, d\u00e9votement, elle se signa, car la religieuse Bretagne--vous le\nsavez--v\u00e9n\u00e8re les f\u00e9es \u00e0 l'\u00e9gal des saintes.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJ'ignore s'il faut rattacher les lutins au monde des f\u00e9es, mais, ce qui\nest s\u00fbr, c'est que cette charmante et malicieuse engeance a toujours\npullul\u00e9 dans notre pays. Je me suis laiss\u00e9 dire qu'autrefois chaque\nmaison avait le sien. C'\u00e9tait quelque chose comme le petit dieu p\u00e9nate.\nTant\u00f4t visible, tant\u00f4t invisible, il pr\u00e9sidait \u00e0 tous les actes de la\nvie domestique. Mieux encore: il y participait, et de la fa\u00e7on la plus\nefficace. A l'int\u00e9rieur du logis, il aidait les servantes, soufflait le\nfeu dans l'\u00e2tre, surveillait la cuisson de la nourriture pour les hommes\nou pour les b\u00eates, apaisait les cris de l'enfant couch\u00e9 dans le bas de\nl'armoire, emp\u00eachait les vers de se mettre dans les pi\u00e8ces de lard\nsuspendues aux solives. Il avait pareillement dans son lot le\ngouvernement des \u00e9tables et des \u00e9curies: gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 lui, les vaches\ndonnaient un lait abondant en beurre, et les chevaux avaient la croupe\nronde, le poil luisant. Il \u00e9tait, en un mot, le bon g\u00e9nie de la famille,\nmais c'\u00e9tait \u00e0 la condition que chacun e\u00fbt pour lui les \u00e9gards auxquels\nil avait droit. Si peu qu'on lui manqu\u00e2t, sa bont\u00e9 se changeait en\nmalice et il n'\u00e9tait point de mauvais tours dont il ne f\u00fbt capable\nenvers les gens qui l'avaient offens\u00e9, comme de renverser le contenu des\nmarmites sur le foyer, d'embrouiller la laine autour des quenouilles, de\nrendre infumable le tabac des pipes, d'emm\u00ealer inextricablement les\ncrins des chevaux, de dess\u00e9cher le pis des vaches ou de faire peler le\ndos des brebis. Aussi s'effor\u00e7ait-on de ne le point m\u00e9contenter. On\nrespectait soigneusement toutes ses habitudes, toutes ses manies. C'est\nainsi que, chez mes parents, notre vieille bonne Filie n'enlevait jamais\nle tr\u00e9pied du feu sans avoir la pr\u00e9caution de l'asperger d'eau pour le\nrefroidir, avant de le ranger au coin de l'\u00e2tre. Si vous lui demandiez\npourquoi ce rite, elle vous r\u00e9pondait:\n\n'Pour que le lutin ne s'y br\u00fble pas, si, tout \u00e0 l'heure, il s'asseyait\ndessus.'\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIl appartient encore, je suppose, \u00e0 la cat\u00e9gorie des hommes-f\u00e9es, ce\n_Bugul-Noz_, ce myst\u00e9rieux 'Berger de la nuit' dont les Bretons des\ncampagnes voient se dresser, au cr\u00e9puscule, la haute et troublante\nsilhouette, si, d'aventure, il leur arrive de rentrer tard du labour. On\nn'a jamais pu me renseigner exactement sur le genre de troupeau qu'il\nfaisait pa\u00eetre, ni sur ce que pr\u00e9sageait sa rencontre. Le plus souvent,\non la redoute. Mais, comme l'observait avec raison une de mes\nconteuses, Lise Bellec, s'il est pr\u00e9f\u00e9rable d'\u00e9viter le _Bugul-Noz_, il\nne s'ensuit pas, pour cela, que ce soit un m\u00e9chant Esprit. D'apr\u00e8s elle,\nil remplirait plut\u00f4t une fonction salutaire, en signifiant aux humains,\npar sa venue, que la nuit n'est pas faite pour s'attarder aux champs ou\nsur les chemins, mais pour s'enfermer derri\u00e8re les portes closes et pour\ndormir. Ce berger des ombres serait donc, somme toute, une mani\u00e8re de\nbon pasteur. C'est pour assurer notre repos et notre s\u00e9curit\u00e9, c'est\npour nous soustraire aux exc\u00e8s du travail et aux emb\u00fbches de la nuit\nqu'il nous force, brebis imprudentes, \u00e0 regagner promptement le bercail.\n\nSans doute est-ce un r\u00f4le tut\u00e9laire \u00e0 peu pr\u00e8s semblable qui, dans la\ncroyance populaire, est d\u00e9volu \u00e0 un autre homme-f\u00e9e, plus sp\u00e9cialement\naffect\u00e9 au rivage de la mer, comme l'indique son nom de _Yann-An-\u00d4d_. Il\nn'y a pas, sur tout le littoral maritime de la Bretagne ou, comme on\ndit, dans tout l'_armor_, une seule r\u00e9gion ou l'existence de ce 'Jean\ndes Gr\u00e8ves' ne soit tenue pour un fait certain, d\u00fbment constat\u00e9,\nind\u00e9niable. On lui pr\u00eate des formes variables et des aspects diff\u00e9rents.\nC'est tant\u00f4t un g\u00e9ant, tant\u00f4t un nain. Il porte tant\u00f4t un 'suroit' de\ntoile huil\u00e9e, tant\u00f4t un large chapeau de feutre noir. Parfois, il\ns'appuie sur une rame et fait penser au personnage \u00e9nigmatique, arm\u00e9 du\nm\u00eame attribut, qu'Ulysse doit suivre, dans l'_Odyss\u00e9e_. Mais, toujours,\nc'est un h\u00e9ros marin dont la mission est de parcourir les plages, en\npoussant par intervalles de longs cris stridents, propres \u00e0 effrayer les\np\u00eacheurs qui se seraient laiss\u00e9 surprendre dehors par les t\u00e9n\u00e8bres de la\nnuit. Il ne fait de mal qu'\u00e0 ceux qui r\u00e9calcitrent; encore ne les\nfrappe-t-il que dans leur int\u00e9r\u00eat, pour les contraindre \u00e0 se mettre \u00e0\nl'abri. Il est, avant tout, un 'avertisseur'. Ses cris ne rappellent pas\nseulement au logis les gens attard\u00e9s sur les gr\u00e8ves; ils signalent aussi\nle dangereux voisinage de la c\u00f4te aux marins qui sont en mer et, par l\u00e0,\nsuppl\u00e9ent \u00e0 l'insuffisance du mugissement des sir\u00e8nes ou de la lumi\u00e8re\ndes phares.\n\nRemarquons, \u00e0 ce propos, qu'on rel\u00e8ve un trait analogue dans la l\u00e9gende\ndes vieux saints armoricains, pour la plupart \u00e9migr\u00e9s d'Irlande. Un de\nleurs exercices coutumiers consistait \u00e0 d\u00e9ambuler de nuit le long des\nc\u00f4tes o\u00f9 ils avaient \u00e9tabli leurs oratoires, en agitant des clochettes\nde fer battu dont les tintements \u00e9taient destin\u00e9s, comme les cris de\n_Yann-An-\u00d4d_, \u00e0 pr\u00e9venir les navigateurs que la terre \u00e9tait proche.\n\nJe suis persuad\u00e9 que le culte des saints, qui est la premi\u00e8re et la plus\nfervente des d\u00e9votions bretonnes, conserve bien des traits d'une\nreligion plus ancienne o\u00f9 la croyance aux f\u00e9es jouait le principal\nr\u00f4le. Et il en va de m\u00eame, j'en suis convaincu, pour ces mythes\nfun\u00e9raires que j'ai recueillis sous le titre de _La L\u00e9gende de la Mort_\nchez les Bretons armoricains. A vrai dire, dans la conception bretonne,\nles morts ne sont pas morts; ils vivent d'une vie myst\u00e9rieuse en marge\nde la vie r\u00e9elle, mais leur monde reste, en d\u00e9finitive, tout m\u00eal\u00e9 au\nn\u00f4tre et, sit\u00f4t que la nuit tombe, sit\u00f4t que les vivants proprement dits\ns'abandonnent \u00e0 la mort momentan\u00e9e du sommeil, les soi-disant morts\nredeviennent les habitants de la terre qu'ils n'ont jamais quitt\u00e9e. Ils\nreprennent leur place \u00e0 leur foyer d'autrefois, ils vaquent \u00e0 leurs\nanciens travaux, ils s'int\u00e9ressent au logis, aux champs, \u00e0 la barque;\nils se comportent, en un mot, comme ce peuple des hommes et des\nfemmes-f\u00e9es qui formait jadis une esp\u00e8ce d'humanit\u00e9 plus fine et plus\nd\u00e9licate au milieu de la v\u00e9ritable humanit\u00e9.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJ'aurais encore, mon cher monsieur Wentz, bien d'autres types \u00e0 \u00e9voquer,\ndans cet intermonde de la f\u00e9erie bretonne qui, chez mes compatriotes, ne\nse confond ni avec ce monde-ci, ni avec l'autre, mais participe \u00e0 la\nfois de tous les deux, par un singulier m\u00e9lange de naturel et de\nsurnaturel. Je n'ai voulu, en ces lignes rapides, que montrer la\nrichesse de la mati\u00e8re \u00e0 laquelle vous avez, avec tant de conscience et\nde ferveur, appliqu\u00e9 votre effort. Et maintenant, que les f\u00e9es vous\nsoient douces, mon cher ami! Elles ne seront que justes en favorisant de\ntoute leur tendresse le jeune et brillant \u00e9crivain qui vient de\nrestaurer leur culte en r\u00e9novant leur gloire.\n\n  RENNES,\n    ce 1{er} _novembre_ 1910.\n\n\n    My dear Mr. Wentz,\n\n    I recollect that, at the time of your examination on your thesis\n    before the Faculty of Letters of the University of Rennes, one of my\n    colleagues, my friend Professor Dottin, put to you this question:--\n\n    'You believe, you assert, in the existence of fairies? Have you seen\n    any?'\n\n    You answered, with equal coolness and candour:\n\n    'No. I have made every effort to do so, and I have never seen any.\n    But there are many things which you, sir, have not seen, and of\n    which, nevertheless, you would not think of denying the existence.\n    That is my attitude toward fairies.'\n\n    I am like you, my dear Mr. Wentz: I have never seen fairies. It is\n    true that I have a very dear lady friend whom we have christened by\n    that name [fairy], but, in spite of all her fair supernatural gifts,\n    she is only a humble mortal. On the other hand, I lived, when a mere\n    child, among people who had almost daily intercourse with real\n    fairies.\n\n    That was in a little township in Lower Brittany, inhabited by\n    peasants who were half sailors, and by sailors who were half\n    peasants. There was, not far from the village, an ancient\n    manor-house long abandoned by its owners, for what reason was not\n    known exactly. It continued to be called the 'Ch\u00e2teau' of Lanascol,\n    though it was hardly more than a ruin. It is true that the avenues\n    by which one approached it had retained their feudal aspect, with\n    their fourfold rows of ancient beeches whose huge masses of foliage\n    were reflected in splendid pools. The people of the neighbourhood\n    seldom ventured into these avenues in the evening. They were\n    supposed to be, from sunset onwards, the favourite walking-ground of\n    a 'lady' who went by the name of _Groac'h Lanascol_, the 'Fairy of\n    Lanascol'.\n\n    Many claimed to have met her, and described her in colours which\n    were, however, the most varied. Some represented her as an old woman\n    who walked all bent, her two hands leaning on a stump of a crutch\n    with which, in autumn, from time to time she stirred the dead\n    leaves. The dead leaves which she thus stirred became suddenly\n    shining like gold, and clinked against one another with the clear\n    sound of metal. According to others, it was a young princess,\n    marvellously adorned, after whom there hurried curious little black\n    silent men. She advanced with a majestic and queenly bearing.\n    Sometimes she stopped in front of a tree, and the tree at once bent\n    down as if to receive her commands. Or again, she would cast a look\n    on the water of a pool, and the pool trembled to its very depths, as\n    though stirred by an access of fear beneath the potency of her look.\n\n    The following strange story was told about her:--\n\n    The owners of Lanascol having desired to get rid of an estate which\n    they no longer occupied, the manor and lands attached to it were put\n    up to auction by a notary of Plouaret. On the day fixed for the\n    bidding a number of purchasers presented themselves. The price had\n    already reached a large sum, and the estate was on the point of\n    being knocked down, when, on a last appeal from the auctioneer, a\n    female voice, very gentle and at the same time very imperious, was\n    raised and said:\n\n    'A thousand francs more!'\n\n    A great commotion arose in the hall. Every one's eyes sought for the\n    person who had made this advance, and who could only be a woman. But\n    there was not a single woman among those present. The notary asked:\n\n    'Who spoke?'\n\n    Again the same voice made itself heard.\n\n    'The Fairy of Lanascol!' it replied.\n\n    A general break-up followed. From that time forward no purchaser has\n    ever appeared, and, as the current report ran, that was the reason\n    why Lanascol continued to be for sale.\n\n    I have designedly quoted to you the story of the Fairy of Lanascol,\n    my dear Mr. Wentz, because she was the first to make an impression\n    on me in my childhood. How many others have I come to know later on\n    in the course of narratives from those who lived with me on the\n    sandy beaches, in the fields or the woods! Brittany has always been\n    a kingdom of Faerie. One cannot there travel even a league without\n    brushing past the dwelling of some male or female fairy. Quite\n    lately, in the course of an autumn pilgrimage to the hallucinatory\n    forest of Paimpont (or Broc\u00e9liande), still haunted throughout by the\n    great memories of Celtic legend, I encountered beneath the thick\n    foliage of the Pas-du-Houx, a woman gathering faggots, with whom I\n    did not fail, as you may well imagine, to enter into conversation.\n    One of the first names I uttered was naturally that of Vivian.\n\n    'Vivian!' cried out the poor old woman. 'Ah! a blessing on her, the\n    good Lady! for she is as good as she is beautiful.... Without her\n    protection my good man, who works at woodcutting, would have fallen,\n    like a wolf, beneath the keepers' guns....' And she began to narrate\n    to me 'as how' her husband, something of a poacher like all the\n    woodcutters of these districts, had one night gone to watch for a\n    roebuck in the neighbourhood of the Butte-aux-Plaintes, and had been\n    caught red-handed by a party of keepers. He sought to fly: the\n    keepers fired. A bullet hit him in the thigh: he fell, and was\n    making ready to let himself be killed on the spot, rather than\n    surrender, when there suddenly interposed between him and his\n    assailants a kind of very thick mist which covered everything--the\n    ground, the trees, the keepers, and the wounded man himself. And he\n    heard a voice coming out of the mist, a voice gentle like the\n    rustling of leaves, and murmuring in his ear: 'Save thyself, my son:\n    the spirit of Vivian will watch over thee till thou hast crawled out\n    of the forest.'\n\n    'Such were the actual words of the fairy,' concluded the\n    faggot-gatherer. And she crossed herself devoutly, for pious\n    Brittany, as you know, reveres fairies as much as saints.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    I do not know if _lutins_ (mischievous spirits) should be included\n    in the fairy world, but what is certain is that this charming and\n    roguish tribe has always abounded in our country. I have been told\n    that formerly every house had its own. It (the _lutin_) was\n    something like the little Roman household god. Now visible, now\n    invisible, it presided over all the acts of domestic life. Nay more;\n    it shared in them, and in the most effective manner. Inside the\n    house it helped the servants, blew up the fire on the hearth,\n    supervised the cooking of the food for men or beasts, quieted the\n    crying of the babe lying in the bottom of the cupboard, and\n    prevented worms from settling in the pieces of bacon hanging from\n    the beams. Similarly there fell within its sphere the management of\n    the byres and stables: thanks to it the cows gave milk abounding in\n    butter, and the horses had round croups and shining coats. It was,\n    in a word, the good genius of the house, but conditionally on every\n    one paying to it the respect to which it had the right. If\n    neglected, ever so little, its kindness changed into spite, and\n    there was no unkind trick of which it was not capable towards people\n    who had offended it, such as upsetting the contents of the pots on\n    the hearth, entangling wool round distaffs, making tobacco\n    unsmokeable, mixing a horse's mane in inextricable confusion, drying\n    up the udders of cows, or stripping the backs of sheep. Therefore\n    care was taken not to annoy it. Careful attention was paid to all\n    its habits and humours. Thus, in my parents' house, our old maid\n    Filie never lifted the trivet from the fire without taking the\n    precaution of sprinkling it with water to cool it, before putting it\n    away at the corner of the hearth. If you asked her the reason for\n    this ceremony, she would reply to you:\n\n    'To prevent the _lutin_ burning himself there, if, presently, he sat\n    on it.'\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    Further, I suppose there should be included in the class of male\n    fairies that _Bugul-Noz_, that mysterious Night Shepherd, whose tall\n    and alarming outline the rural Bretons see rising in the twilight,\n    if, by chance, they happen to return late from field-work. I have\n    never been able to obtain exact information about the kind of herd\n    which he fed, nor about what was foreboded by the meeting with him.\n    Most often such a meeting is dreaded. Yet, as one of my female\n    informants, Lise Bellec, reasonably pointed out, if it is preferable\n    to avoid the _Bugul-Noz_ it does not from that follow that he is a\n    harmful spirit. According to her, he would rather fulfil a\n    beneficial office, in warning human beings, by his coming, that\n    night is not made for lingering in the fields or on the roads, but\n    for shutting oneself in behind closed doors and going to sleep. This\n    shepherd of the shades would then be, take it altogether, a kind of\n    good shepherd. It is to ensure our rest and safety, to withdraw us\n    from excesses of toil and the snares of night, that he compels us,\n    thoughtless sheep, to return quickly to the fold.\n\n    No doubt it is an almost similar protecting office which, in popular\n    belief, has fallen to another male fairy, more particularly attached\n    to the seashore, as his name, _Yann-An-\u00d4d_, indicates. There is not,\n    along all the coast of Brittany or, as it is called, in all the\n    _Armor_, a single district where the existence of this 'John of the\n    Dunes' is not looked on as a real fact, fully proved and undeniable.\n    Changing forms and different aspects are attributed to him.\n    Sometimes he is a giant, sometimes a dwarf. Sometimes he wears a\n    seaman's hat of oiled cloth, sometimes a broad black felt hat. At\n    times he leans on an oar and recalls the enigmatic personage,\n    possessed of the same attribute, whom Ulysses has to follow, in the\n    _Odyssey_. But he is always a marine hero whose office it is to\n    traverse the shores, uttering at intervals long piercing cries,\n    calculated to frighten away fishermen who may have allowed\n    themselves to be surprised outside by the darkness of night. He only\n    hurts those who resist; and even then would only strike them in\n    their own interest, to force them to seek shelter. He is, before\n    all, one who warns. His cries not only call back home people out\n    late on the sands; they also inform sailors at sea of the dangerous\n    proximity of the shore, and, thereby, make up for the insufficiency\n    of the hooting of sirens or of the light of lighthouses.\n\n    We may remark, in this connexion, that a parallel feature is\n    observed in the legend of the old Armorican saints, who were mostly\n    emigrants from Ireland. One of their usual exercises consisted in\n    parading throughout the night the coasts where they had set up their\n    oratories, shaking little bells of wrought iron, the ringing of\n    which, like the cries of _Yann-An-\u00d4d_, was intended to warn voyagers\n    that land was near.\n\n    I am persuaded that the worship of saints, which is the first and\n    most fervent of Breton religious observances, preserves many of the\n    features of a more ancient religion in which a belief in fairies\n    held the chief place. The same, I feel sure, applies to those\n    death-myths which I have collected under the name of the Legend of\n    the Dead among the Armorican Bretons. In truth, in the Breton mind,\n    the dead are not dead; they live a mysterious life on the edge of\n    real life, but their world remains fully mingled with ours, and as\n    soon as night falls, as soon as the living, properly so called, give\n    themselves up to the temporary sleep of death, the so-called dead\n    again become the inhabitants of the earth which they have never\n    left. They resume their place at their former hearth, devote\n    themselves to their old work, take an interest in the home, the\n    fields, the boat; they behave, in a word, like the race of male and\n    female fairies which once formed a more refined and delicate species\n    of humanity in the midst of ordinary humanity.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    I might, my dear Mr. Wentz, evoke many other types from this\n    intermediate world of Breton Faerie, which, in my countrymen's mind,\n    is not identical with this world nor with the other, but shares at\n    once in both, through a curious mixture of the natural and\n    supernatural. I have only intended in these hasty lines to show the\n    wealth of material to which you have with so much conscientiousness\n    and ardour devoted your efforts. And now may the fairies be\n    propitious to you, my dear friend! They will do nothing but justice\n    in favouring with all their goodwill the young and brilliant writer\n    who has but now revived their cult by renewing their glory.\n\n      RENNES,\n      _November_ 1, 1910.\n\n\nBRETON FAIRIES OR _F\u00c9ES_\n\nIn Lower Brittany, which is the genuinely Celtic part of Armorica,\ninstead of finding a widespread folk-belief in fairies of the kind\nexisting in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, we find a widespread\nfolk-belief in the existence of the dead, and to a less extent in that\nof the _corrigan_ tribes. For our Psychological Theory this is very\nsignificant. It seems to indicate that among the Bretons--who are one of\nthe most conservative Celtic peoples--the Fairy-Faith finds its chief\nexpression in a belief that men live after death in an invisible world,\njust as in Ireland the dead and fairies live in Fairyland. This opinion\nwas first suggested to me by Professor Anatole Le Braz, author of _La\nL\u00e9gende de la Mort_, and by Professor Georges Dottin, both of the\nUniversity of Rennes. But before evidence to sustain and to illustrate\nthis opinion is offered, it will be well to consider the less important\nBreton _f\u00e9es_ or beings like them, and then _corrigans_ and _nains_\n(dwarfs).\n\n_The 'Grac'hed Coz'._--F. M. Luzel, who collected so many of the popular\nstories in Brittany, found that what few _f\u00e9es_ or fairies there are\nalmost always appear in folk-lore as little old women, or as the Breton\nstory-teller usually calls them, _Grac'hed coz_. I have selected and\nabridged the following legendary tale from his works to illustrate the\nnature of these Breton fairy-folk:--\n\nIn ancient times, as we read in _La Princesse Blondine_, a rich nobleman\nhad three sons; the oldest was called Cado, the second, M\u00e9liau, and the\nyoungest, Yvon. One day, as they were together in a forest with their\nbows and arrows, they met a little old woman whom they had never seen\nbefore, and she was carrying on her head a jar of water. 'Are you able,\nlads,' Cado asked his two brothers, 'to break with an arrow the jar of\nthe little old woman without touching her?' 'We do not wish to try it,'\nthey said, fearing to injure the good woman. 'All right, I'll do it\nthen, watch me.' And Cado took his bow and let fly an arrow. The arrow\nwent straight to its mark and split the jar without touching the little\nold woman; but the water wet her to the skin, and, in anger, she said to\nthe skilful archer: 'You have failed, Cado, and I will be revenged on\nyou for this. From now until you have found the Princess Blondine all\nthe members of your body will tremble as leaves on a tree tremble when\nthe north wind blows.' And instantly Cado was seized by a trembling\nmalady in all his body. The three brothers returned home and told their\nfather what had happened; and the father, turning to Cado, said: 'Alas,\nmy unfortunate son, you have failed. It is now necessary for you to\ntravel until you find the Princess Blondine, as the _f\u00e9e_ said, for that\nlittle old woman was a _f\u00e9e_, and no doctor in the world can cure the\nmalady she has put upon you.'[76]\n\n_'F\u00e9es' of Lower Brittany._--Throughout the Morbihan and Finist\u00e8re, I\nfound that stories about _f\u00e9es_ are much less common than about\n_corrigans_, and in some localities extremely rare; but the ones I have\nbeen fortunate enough to collect are much the same in character as those\ngathered in the C\u00f4tes-du-Nord by Luzel, and elsewhere by other\ncollectors. Those I here record were told to me at Carnac during the\nsummer of 1909; the first one by M. Yvonne Daniel, a native of the \u00cele\nde Croix (off the coast north-west of Carnac); and the others by M.\nGoulven Le Scour.[77]\n\n'The little \u00cele de Croix was especially famous for its old _f\u00e9es_; and\nthe following legend is still believed by its oldest inhabitants:--\"An\naged man who had suffered long from leprosy was certain to die within a\nshort time, when a woman bent double with age entered his house. She\nasked from what malady he suffered, and on being informed began to say\nprayers. Then she breathed upon the sores of the leper, and almost\nsuddenly disappeared: the _f\u00e9e_ had cured him.\"'\n\n'It is certain that about fifty years ago the people in Finist\u00e8re still\nbelieved in _f\u00e9es_. It was thought that the _f\u00e9es_ were spirits who came\nto predict some unexpected event in the family. They came especially to\nconsole orphans who had very unkind step-mothers. In their youth, Tanguy\ndu Chatel and his sister Eudes were protected by a _f\u00e9e_ against the\nmisfortune which pursued them; the history of Brittany says so. In L\u00e9on\nit is said that the _f\u00e9es_ served to guide unfortunate people, consoling\nthem with the promise of a happy and victorious future. In the\nCornouailles, on the contrary, it is said that the _f\u00e9es_ were very\nevilly disposed, that they were demons.\n\n'My grandmother, Marie Le Bras, had related to me that one evening an\nold _f\u00e9e_ arrived in my village, Kerouledic (Finist\u00e8re), and asked for\nhospitality. It was about the year 1830. The _f\u00e9e_ was received; and\nbefore going to bed she predicted that the little daughter whom the\nmother was dressing in night-clothes would be found dead in the cradle\nthe next day. This prediction was only laughed at; but in the morning\nthe little one was dead in her cradle, her eyes raised toward Heaven.\nThe _f\u00e9e_, who had slept in the stable, was gone.'\n\nIn these last three accounts, by M. Le Scour, we observe three quite\ndifferent ideas concerning the Breton fairies or _f\u00e9es_: in Finist\u00e8re\nand in L\u00e9on the _f\u00e9es_ are regarded as good protecting spirits, almost\nlike ancestral spirits, which originally they may have been; in the\nCornouailles they are evil spirits; while in the third account, about\nthe old _f\u00e9e_--and in the legend of the leper cured by a _f\u00e9e_--the\n_f\u00e9es_ are rationalized, as in Luzel's tale quoted above, into\nsorceresses or _Grac'hed Coz_.\n\n_Children Changed by 'F\u00e9es'._--M. Goulven Le Scour, at my request, wrote\ndown in French the following account of actual changelings in\nFinist\u00e8re:--'I remember very well that there was a woman of the village\nof Kergoff, in Plouneventer, who was called ----,[78] the mother of a\nfamily. When she had her first child, a very strong and very pretty boy,\nshe noticed one morning that he had been changed during the night; there\nwas no longer the fine baby she had put to bed in the evening; there\nwas, instead, an infant hideous to look at, greatly deformed,\nhunchbacked, and crooked, and of a black colour. The poor woman knew\nthat a _f\u00e9e_ had entered the house during the night and had changed her\nchild.\n\n'This changed infant still lives, and to-day he is about seventy years\nold. He has all the possible vices; and he has tried many times to kill\nhis mother. He is a veritable demon; he often predicts the future, and\nhas a habit of running abroad during the night. They call him the\n\"Little _Corrigan_\", and everybody flees from him. Being poor and infirm\nnow, he has been obliged to beg, and people give him alms because they\nhave great fear of him. His nick-name is Olier.\n\n'This woman had a second, then a third child, both of whom were seen by\neverybody to have been born with no infirmity; and, in turn, each of\nthese two was stolen by a _f\u00e9e_ and replaced by a little hunchback. The\nsecond child was a most beautiful daughter. She was _taken_ during the\nnight and replaced by a little girl babe, so deformed that it resembled\na ball. If her brother Olier was bad, she was even worse; she was the\nterror of the village, and they called her Anniac. The third child met\nthe same luck, but was not so bad as the first and second.\n\n'The poor mother, greatly worried at seeing what had happened, related\nher troubles to another woman. This woman said to her, \"If you have\nanother child, place with it in the cradle a little sprig of box-wood\nwhich has been blessed (by a priest), and the _f\u00e9e_ will no longer have\nthe power of stealing your children.\" And when a fourth child was born\nto the unfortunate woman it was not stolen, for she placed in the cradle\na sprig of box-wood which had been blessed on Palm Sunday (_Dimanche des\nRameaux_).[79]\n\n'The first three children I knew very well, and they were certainly\nhunchbacked: it is pretended in the country that the _f\u00e9es_ who come at\nnight to make changelings always leave in exchange hunchbacked infants.\nIt is equally pretended that a mother who has had her child so changed\nneed do nothing more than leave the little hunchback out of doors crying\nduring entire hours, and that the _f\u00e9e_ hearing it will come and put the\ntrue child in its place. Unfortunately, Yvonna ---- did not know what\nshe should have done in order to have her own children again.'\n\n_Transformation Power of 'F\u00e9es'._--At Kerallan, near Carnac, this is\nwhat Madame Louise Le Rouzic said about the transformation power of\n_f\u00e9es_:--'It is said that the _f\u00e9es_ of the region when insulted\nsometimes changed men into beasts or into stones.'[80]\n\n_Other Breton Fairies._--Besides the various types of _f\u00e9es_ already\ndescribed, we find in Luzel's collected stories a few other types of\nfairy-like beings: in _Les Compagnons_ (The Companions),[81] the _f\u00e9e_\nis a magpie in a forest near Rennes--just as in other Celtic lands,\nfairies likewise often appear as birds (see our study, pp. 302 ff.); in\n_La Princesse de l'\u00c9toile Brillante_ (The Princess of the Brilliant\nStar),[81] a princess under the form of a duck plays the part of a fairy\n(cf. how fairy women took the form of water-fowls in the tale entitled\nthe _Sick Bed of Cuchulainn_ (see our study, p. 345); in _Pipi Menou et\nles Femmes Volantes_ (Pipi Menou and the Flying Women),[81] there are\nfairy women as swan-maidens; and then there are yet to be mentioned _Les\nMorgans de l'\u00eele d'Ouessant_ (The _Morgans_ of the Isle of Ushant), who\nlive under the sea in rare palaces where mortals whom they love and\nmarry are able to exist with them. In some legends of the _Morgans_,\nlike one recorded by Luzel, the men and women of this water-fairy race,\nor the _Morgans_ and _Morganezed_, seem like anthropomorphosed survivals\nof ancient sea-divinities, such, for example, as the sea-god called\n_Shony_, to whom the people of Lewis, Western Hebrides, still pour\nlibations that he may send in sea-weed, and the sea-god to whom\nanciently the people of Iona poured libations.[82]\n\n_The 'Morgan'._--To M. J. Cuillandre (Glanmor), President of the\n_F\u00e9d\u00e9ration des \u00c9tudiants Bretons_, I am indebted for the following\nweird legend of the _Morgan_, as it is told among the Breton fisher-folk\non the \u00cele Mol\u00e8ne, Finist\u00e8re:--'Following a legend which I have\ncollected on the \u00cele Mol\u00e8ne, the _Morgan_ is a fairy eternally young, a\nvirgin seductress whose passion, never satisfied, drives her to despair.\nHer place of abode is beneath the sea; there she possesses marvellous\npalaces where gold and diamonds glimmer. Accompanied by other fairies,\nof whom she is in some respects the queen, she rises to the surface of\nthe waters in the splendour of her unveiled beauty. By day she slumbers\namid the coolness of grottoes, and woe to him who troubles her sleep. By\nnight she lets herself be lulled by the waves in the neighbourhood of\nthe rocks. The sea-foam crystallizes at her touch into precious stones,\nof whiteness as dazzling as that of her body. By moonlight she moans as\nshe combs her fair hair with a comb of fine gold, and she sings in a\nharmonious voice a plaintive melody whose charm is irresistible. The\nsailor who listens to it feels himself drawn toward her, without power\nto break the charm which drags him onward to his destruction; the bark\nis broken upon the reefs: the man is in the sea, and the _Morgan_ utters\na cry of joy. But the arms of the fairy clasp only a corpse; for at her\ntouch men die, and it is this which causes the despair of the amorous\nand inviolate _Morgan_. She being pagan, it suffices to have been\ntouched by her in order to suffer the saddest fate which can be reserved\nto a Christian. The unfortunate one whom she had clasped is condemned to\nwander for ever in the trough of the waters, his eyes wide open, the\nmark of baptism effaced from his forehead. Never will his poor remains\nknow the sweetness of reposing in holy ground, never will he have a tomb\nwhere his kindred might come to pray and to weep.'\n\n_Origin of the 'Morgan'._--The following legendary origin is attributed\nto the _Morgan_ by M. Goulven Le Scour, our Carnac witness:--'Following\nthe old people and the Breton legends, the _Morgan_ (_Mari Morgan_ in\nBreton) was Dahut, the daughter of King Gradlon, who was ruler of the\ncity of Is. Legend records that when Dahut had entered at night the\nbedchamber of her father and had cut from around his neck the cord which\nheld the key of the sea-dike flood-gates, and had given this key to the\nBlack Prince, under whose evil love she had fallen, and who, according\nto belief, was no other than the Devil, St. Guenol\u00e9 soon afterwards\nbegan to cry aloud, \"Great King, arise! The flood-gates are open, and\nthe sea is no longer restrained!\"[83] Suddenly the old King Gradlon\narose, and, leaping on his horse, was fleeing from the city with St.\nGuenol\u00e9, when he encountered his own daughter amid the waves. She\npiteously begged aid of her father, and he took her up behind him on the\nhorse; but St. Guenol\u00e9, seeing that the waters were gaining on them,\nsaid to the king, \"Throw into the sea the demon you have behind you, and\nwe shall be saved!\" Thereupon Gradlon flung his daughter into the abyss,\nand he and St. Guenol\u00e9 were saved. Since that time, the fishermen\ndeclare that they have seen, in times of rough sea and clear moonlight,\nDahut, daughter of King Gradlon, sitting on the rocks combing her fair\nhair and singing, in the place where her father flung her. And to-day\nthere is recognized under the Breton name _Marie Morgan_, the daughter\nwho sings amid the sea.'\n\n_Breton Fairyland Legends._--In a legend concerning Mona and the king of\nthe _Morgans_, much like the Christabel story of English poets, we have\na picture of a fairyland not under ground, but under sea; and this\nlegend of Mona and her _Morgan_ lover is one of the most beautiful of\nall the fairy-tales of Brittany.[84] Another one of Luzel's legends,\nconcerning a maiden who married a dead man, shows us Fairyland as a\nworld of the dead. It is a very strange legend, and one directly bearing\non the Psychological Theory; for this dead man, who is a dead priest,\nhas a palace in a realm of enchantment, and to enter his country one\nmust have a white fairy-wand with which to strike 'in the form of a\ncross' two blows upon the rock concealing the entrance.[84] M. Paul\nS\u00e9billot records from Upper Brittany a tradition that beneath the\nsea-waves there one can see a subterranean world containing fields and\nvillages and beautiful castles; and it is so pleasant a world that\nmortals going there find years no longer than days.[85]\n\n_Fairies of Upper Brittany._[86]--Principally in Upper Brittany, M.\nS\u00e9billot found rich folk-lore concerning _f\u00e9es_, though some of his\nmaterial is drawn from peasants and fishermen who are not so purely\nCeltic as those in Lower Brittany; and he very concisely summarizes the\nvarious names there given to the fairy-folk as follows:--'They are\ngenerally called _F\u00e9es_ (Fairies), sometimes _F\u00eates_ (Fates), a name\nnearer than _f\u00e9es_ to the Latin _Fata_; _F\u00eate_ (fem.) and _F\u00eate_ (mas.)\nare both used, and from _F\u00eate_ is probably derived _Faito_ or _Faitaud_,\nwhich is the name borne by the fathers, the husbands, or the children of\nthe _f\u00e9es_ (Saint-Cast). Near Saint-Briac (Ille-et-Vilaine) they are\nsometimes called _Fions_; this term, which is applied to both sexes,\nseems also to designate the mischievous _lutins_ (sprites). Round the\nMen\u00e9, in the cantons of Collin\u00e9e and of Moncontour, they are called\n_Margot la F\u00e9e_, or _ma Comm\u00e8re_ (my Godmother) _Margot_, or even the\n_Bonne Femme_ (Good Woman) _Margot_. On the coast they are often enough\ncalled by the name of _Bonnes Dames_ (Good Ladies), or of _nos Bonnes\nM\u00e8res les F\u00e9es_ (our Good Mothers the Fairies); usually they are spoken\nof with a certain respect.'[87] As the same authority suggests, probably\nthe most characteristic _F\u00e9es_ in Upper Brittany are the _F\u00e9es des\nHoules_ (Fairies of the Billows); and traditions say that they lived in\nnatural caverns or grottoes in the sea-cliffs. They form a distinct\nclass of sea-fairies unknown elsewhere in France or Europe.[88] M.\nS\u00e9billot regards them as sea-divinities greatly rationalized. Associated\nwith them are the _fions_, a race of dwarfs having swords no bigger than\npins.[88] A pretty legend about magic buckwheat cakes, which in\ndifferent forms is widespread throughout all Brittany, is told of these\nlittle cave-dwelling fairies:--\n\nLike the larger _f\u00e9es_ the _fions_ kept cattle; and one day a black cow\nbelonging to the _fions_ of Pont-aux-Hommes-N\u00e9es ate the buckwheat in\nthe field of a woman of that neighbourhood. The woman went to the\n_fions_ to complain, and in reply to her a voice said: 'Hold your\ntongue; you will be paid for your buckwheat!' Thereupon the _fions_ gave\nthe woman a cupful of buckwheat, and promised her that it would never\ndiminish so long as none should be given away. That year buckwheat was\nvery scarce, but no matter how many buckwheat cakes the woman and her\nfamily ate there was never diminution in the amount of the fairy\nbuckwheat. At last, however, the unfortunate hour came. A rag-gatherer\narrived and asked for food. Thoughtlessly the woman gave him one of her\nbuckwheat cakes, and suddenly, as though by magic, all the rest of the\nbuckwheat disappeared for ever.\n\nAlong the Rance the inhabitants tell about _f\u00e9es_ who appear during\nstorms. These storm-fairies are dressed in the colours of the rainbow,\nand pass along following a most beautiful _f\u00e9e_ who is mounted in a boat\nmade from a nautilus of the southern seas. And the boat is drawn by two\nsea-crabs. In no other place in Brittany are similar _f\u00e9es_ said to\nexist.[89] In Upper Brittany, as in Lower Brittany, the _f\u00e9es_ generally\nhad their abodes in tumuli, in dolmens, in forests, in waste lands where\nthere are great rocks, or about menhirs; and many other kinds of spirits\nlived in the sea and troubled sailors and fisher-folk. Like all\nfairy-folk of Celtic countries, those of Upper Brittany were given to\nstealing children. Thus at Dinard not long ago there was a woman more\nthan thirty years old who was no bigger than a girl of ten, and it was\nsaid she was a fairy changeling.[90] In Lower Brittany the _taking_ of\nchildren was often attributed to dwarfs rather than to _f\u00e9es_, though\nthe method of making the changeling speak is the same as in Upper\nBrittany, namely, to place in such a manner before an open fire a number\nof eggshells filled with water that they appear to the changeling--who\nis placed where he can well observe all the proceedings--like so many\nsmall pots of cooking food; whereupon, being greatly astonished at the\nunusual sight, he forgets himself and speaks for the first time, thus\nbetraying his demon nature.\n\nThe following midwife story, as told by J. M. Comault, of Gouray, in\n1881, is quite a parallel to the one we have recorded (on p. 54) as\ncoming from Grange, Ireland:--A midwife who delivered a _Margot la f\u00e9e_\ncarelessly allowed some of the fairy ointment to get on one of her own\neyes. The eye at once became clairvoyant, so that she beheld the _f\u00e9es_\nin their true nature. And, quite like a midwife in a similar story about\nthe _f\u00e9es des houles_, this midwife happened to see a _f\u00e9e_ in the act\nof stealing, and spoke to her. Thereupon the _f\u00e9e_ asked the midwife\nwith which eye she beheld her, and when the midwife indicated which one\nit was, the _f\u00e9e_ pulled it out.[91]\n\nGenerally, like their relatives in insular Celtdom, the fairies of Upper\nBrittany could assume various forms, and could even transform the human\nbody; and they were given to playing tricks on mortals, and always to\ntaking revenge on them if ill-treated. In most ways they were like other\nraces of fairies, Celtic and non-Celtic, though very much\nanthropomorphosed in their nature by the peasant and mariner.\n\nAs a rule, the _f\u00e9es_ of Upper Brittany are described in legend as young\nand very beautiful. Some, however, appear to be centuries old, with\nteeth as long as a human hand, and with backs covered with seaweeds, and\nmussels, or other marine growths, as an indication of their great\nage.[92] At Saint-Cast they are said to be dressed (like the _corrigans_\nat Carnac, see p. 208) in _toile_, a kind of heavy linen cloth.[92]\n\nOn the sea-coast of Upper Brittany the popular opinion is that the\n_f\u00e9es_ are a fallen race condemned to an earthly exile for a certain\nperiod. In the region of the Men\u00e9, canton of Collin\u00e9e, the old folk say\nthat, after the angels revolted, those left in paradise were divided\ninto two parts: those who fought on the side of God and those who\nremained neutral. These last, already half-fallen, were sent to the\nearth for a time, and became the _f\u00e9es_.[92]\n\nThe general belief in the interior of Brittany is that the _f\u00e9es_ once\nexisted, but that they disappeared as their country was changed by\nmodern conditions. In the region of the Men\u00e9 and of Erc\u00e9\n(Ille-et-Vilaine) it is said that for more than a century there have\nbeen no _f\u00e9es_; and on the sea-coast, where it is still firmly believed\nthat the _f\u00e9es_ used to live in the billows or amid certain grottoes in\nthe cliffs against which the billows broke, the opinion is that they\ndisappeared at the beginning of the last century. The oldest Bretons say\nthat their parents or grandparents often spoke about having seen _f\u00e9es_,\nbut very rarely do they say that they themselves have seen _f\u00e9es_. M.\nS\u00e9billot found only two who had. One was an old needle-woman of\nSaint-Cast, who had such fear of _f\u00e9es_ that if she was on her way to do\nsome sewing in the country, and it was night, she always took a long\ncircuitous route to avoid passing near a field known as the _Couvent des\nF\u00e9es_. The other was Marie Ch\u00e9hu, a woman eighty-eight years old.[93]\n\n\nTHE _CORRIGAN_ RACE[94]\n\nIt is the _corrigan_ race, however, which, more than _f\u00e9es_ or fairies,\nforms a large part of the invisible inhabitants of Brittany; and this\nrace of _corrigans_ and _nains_ (dwarfs) may be made to include many\nkinds of _lutins_, or as they are often called by the peasant, _follets_\nor _esprits follets_ (playful elves). Though the peasants both in Upper\nand in Lower Brittany may have no strong faith in _f\u00e9es_, most of them\nsay that _corrigans_, or _nains_, and mischievous house-haunting spirits\nstill exist. But in a few localities, as M. S\u00e9billot discovered, there\nis an opinion that the _lutins_ departed with the _f\u00e9es_, and with them\nwill return in this century, because during each century with an odd\nnumber like 1900, the fairy tribes of all kinds are said to be visible\nor to reappear among men, and to become invisible or to disappear during\neach century with an even number like 1800. So this is the visible\ncentury.\n\n_Corrigans_ and _follets_ only show themselves at night, or in the\ntwilight. No one knows where they pass the day-time. Some _lutins_ or\n_follets_, after the manner of Scotch kelpies, live solitary lives in\nlakes or ponds (whereas _corrigans_ are socially united in groups or\nfamilies), and amuse themselves by playing tricks on travellers passing\nby after dark. Souvestre records a story showing how the _lutins_ can\nassume any animal form, but that their natural form is that of a little\nman dressed in green; and that the _corrigans_ have declared war on them\nfor being too friendly to men.[95] From what follows about _lutins_, by\nM. Goulven Le Scour, they show affinity with Pucks and such\nshape-shifting hobgoblins as are found in Wales:--'The _lutins_ were\nlittle dwarfs who generally appeared at cross-roads to attack belated\ntravellers. And it is related in Breton legends that these _lutins_\nsometimes transformed themselves into black horses or into goats; and\nwhoever then had the misfortune to encounter them sometimes found his\nlife in danger, and was always seized with great terror.' But generally,\nwhat the Breton peasant tells about _corrigans_ he is apt to tell at\nanother time about _lutins_. And both tribes of beings, so far as they\ncan be distinguished, are the same as the elfish peoples--pixies in\nCornwall, Robin Good-fellows in England, goblins in Wales, or brownies\nin Scotland. Both _corrigans_ and _lutins_ are supposed to guard hidden\ntreasure; some trouble horses at night; some, like their English\ncousins, may help in the house-work after all the family are asleep;\nsome cause nightmare; some carry a torch like a Welsh death-candle; some\ntrouble men and women like obsessing spirits; and nearly all of them are\nmischievous. In an article in the _Revue des Traditions Populaires_ (v.\n101), M. S\u00e9billot has classified more than fifty names given to _lutins_\nand _corrigans_ in Lower Brittany, according to the form under which\nthese spirits appear, their peculiar traits, dwelling-places, and the\ncountry they inhabit.\n\nLike the fairies in Britain and Ireland, the _corrigans_ and the Cornish\npixies find their favourite amusement in the circular dance. When the\nmoon is clear and bright they gather for their frolic near menhirs, and\ndolmens, and tumuli, and at cross-roads, or even in the open country;\nand they never miss an opportunity of enticing a mortal passing by to\njoin them. If he happens to be a good-natured man and enters their sport\nheartily, they treat him quite as a companion, and may even do him some\ngood turn; but if he is not agreeable they will make him dance until he\nfalls down exhausted, and should he commit some act thoroughly\ndispleasing to them he will meet their certain revenge. According to a\nstory reported from Lorient (Morbihan)[96] it is taboo for the\n_corrigans_ to make a complete enumeration of the days of the week:--\n\n_The 'Corrigan' Taboo._--'At night, the _corrigans_ dance, singing,\n\"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday\"; they are prohibited from\ncompleting the enumeration of the days of the week. A _corrigan_ having\nhad the misfortune to permit himself to be tempted to add \"Saturday\",\nimmediately became hunchbacked. His comrades, stupefied and distressed,\nattempted in vain to knock in his hump with blows of their fists.'\n\n_'Corrigans' at Carnac._--How the tradition of the dancing _corrigans_\nand their weekday song still lives, appears from the following accounts\nwhich I found at and near Carnac, the first account having been given\nduring January 1909 by Madame Marie Ezanno, of Carnac, then sixty-six\nyears old:--'The _corrigans_ are little dwarfs who formerly, by\nmoonlight, used to dance in a circle on the prairies. They sang a song\nthe couplet of which was not understood, but only the refrain,\ntranslated in Breton: \"_Di Lun_ (Monday), _Di Merh_ (Tuesday), _Di\nMerhier_ (Wednesday).\"\n\n'They whistled in order to assemble. Where they danced mushrooms grew;\nand it was necessary to maintain silence so as not to interrupt them in\ntheir dance. They were often very brutal towards a man who fell under\ntheir power, and if they had a grudge against him they would make him\nsubmit to the greatest tortures. The peasants believed strongly in the\n_corrigans_, because they thus saw them and heard them. The _corrigans_\ndressed in very coarse white linen cloth. They were mischievous spirits\n(_esprits follets_), who lived under dolmens.'\n\nOne morning, M. Lemort and myself called upon Madame Louise Le Rouzic in\nher neat home at Kerallan, a little group of thatched cottages about a\nmile from Carnac. As we entered, Madame Le Rouzic herself was sitting on\na long wooden bench by the window knitting, and her daughter was\nwatching the savoury-smelling dinner as it boiled in great iron pots\nhanging from chains over a brilliant fire on the hearth. Large gleaming\nbrass basins were ranged on a shelf above the broad open chimney-place\nwherein the fire burned, and massive bedsteads carved after the Breton\nstyle stood on the stone floor. When many things had been talked about,\nour conversation turned to _corrigans_, and then the good woman of the\nhouse told us these tales:--\n\n_'Corrigans' at Church._--'In former times a young girl having taken the\nkeys of the church (presumably at Carnac) and having entered it, found\nthe _corrigans_ about to dance; and the _corrigans_ were singing,\n\"_Lundi, Mardi_\" (Monday, Tuesday). On seeing the young girl, they\nstopped, surrounded her, and invited her to dance with them. She\naccepted, and, in singing, added to their song \"_Mercredi_\" (Wednesday).\nIn amazement, the _corrigans_ cried joyfully, \"She has added something\nto our song; what shall we give her as recompense?\" And they gave her a\nbracelet. A friend of hers meeting her, asked where the fine bracelet\ncame from; and the young girl told what had happened. The second girl\nhurried to the church, and found the _corrigans_ still dancing the\n_rond_. She joined their dance, and, in singing, added \"_Jeudi_\"\n(Thursday) to their song; but that broke the cadence; and the\n_corrigans_ in fury, instead of recompensing her wished to punish her.\n\"What shall we do to her?\" one of them cried. \"Let the day be as night\nto her!\" the others replied. And by day, wherever she went, she saw only\nthe night.'\n\n_The 'Corrigans'' Sabbath._--'Where my grandfather lived,' continued\nMadame Le Rouzic, 'there was a young girl who went to the sabbath of the\n_corrigans_; and when she returned and was asked where she had been,\nsaid, \"I have travelled over water, wood, and hedges.\" And she related\nall she had seen and heard. Then one night, afterwards, the _corrigans_\ncame into the house, beat her, and dragged her from bed. Upon hearing\nthe uproar, my grandfather arose and found the girl lying flat on the\nstone floor. \"Never question me again,\" she said to him, \"or they will\nkill me.\"'[97]\n\n_'Corrigans' as Fairies._--Some Breton legends give _corrigans_ the\nchief characteristics of fairies in Celtic Britain and Ireland; and\nVillemarqu\u00e9 in his _Barzaz Breiz_ (pp. 25-30) makes the Breton word\n_corrigan_ synonymous with _f\u00e9e_ or fairy, thus:--'_Le Seigneur Nann et\nla F\u00e9e (Aotrou Nann hag ar Corrigan)_.' In this legend the _corrigan_\nseems clearly enough to be a water-fairy: 'The _Korrigan_ was seated at\nthe edge of her fountain, and she was combing her long fair hair.' But\nunlike most water-fairies, the _F\u00e9e_ lives in a grotto, which, according\nto Villemarqu\u00e9, is one of those ancient monuments called in Breton\n_dolmen_, or _ti ar corrigan_; in French, _Table de pierres_, or _Grotte\naux F\u00e9es_--like the famous one near Rennes. The fountain where the _F\u00e9e_\nwas seated seems to be one of those sacred fountains, which, as\nVillemarqu\u00e9 says, are often found near a _Grotte aux F\u00e9es_, and called\n_Fontaine de la F\u00e9e_, or in Breton, _Feunteun ar corrigan_. In another\nof Villemarqu\u00e9's legends, _L'Enfant Suppos\u00e9_, after the egg-shell test\nhas been used and the little _corrigan_-changeling is replaced by the\nreal child, the latter as though all the while it had been in an\nunconscious trance-state--which has a curious bearing on our\nPsychological Theory--stretches forth its arms and awakening exclaims,\n'Ah! mother, what a long time I have been asleep.'[98] And in _Les\nNains_ we see the little _Duz_ or dwarfs inhabiting a cave and guarding\ntreasures.[98]\n\nIn his introduction to the _Barzaz Breiz_, Villemarqu\u00e9 describes _les\nkorrigan_, whom he equates with _les f\u00e9es_, as very similar to ordinary\nfairies. They can foretell the future, they know the art of war--quite\nlike the Irish 'gentry' or Tuatha De Danann--they can assume any animal\nform, and are able to travel from one end of the world to another in the\ntwinkling of an eye. They love feasting and music--like all Celtic\nfairy-folk; and dance in a circle holding hands, but at the least noise\ndisappear. Their favourite haunts are near fountains and dolmens. They\nare little beings not more than two feet high, and beautifully\nproportioned, with bodies as aerial and transparent as those of wasps.\nAnd like all fairy, or elvish races, and like the Breton _Morgans_ or\nwater-spirits, they are given to stealing the children of mortals.\nProfessor J. Loth has called my attention to an unpublished Breton\nlegend of his collection, in which there are fairy-like beings\ncomparable to these described by Villemarqu\u00e9; and he tells me, too, that\nthroughout Brittany one finds to-day the counterpart of the Welsh\n_Tylwyth Teg_ or 'Fair Family', and that both in Wales and Brittany the\n_Tylwyth Teg_ are popularly described as little women, or maidens, like\nfairies no larger than children.\n\n_Fairies and Dwarfs._--Where Villemarqu\u00e9 draws a clear distinction is\nbetween these _korrigan_ and _f\u00e9es_ on the one hand, and the _nains_ or\ndwarfs on the other. These last are what we have found associated or\nidentified with _corrigans_ in the Morbihan. Villemarqu\u00e9 describes the\n_nains_ as a hideous race of beings with dark or even black hairy\nbodies, with voices like old men, and with little sparkling black eyes.\nThey are fond of playing tricks on mortals who fall into their power;\nand are given to singing in a circular dance the weekday song. Very\noften _corrigans_ regarded as _nains_, equally with all kinds of\n_lutins_, are believed to be evil spirits or demons condemned to live\nhere on earth in a penitential state for an indefinite time; and\nsometimes they seem not much different from what Irish Celts, when\ntalking of fairies, call fallen angels. _Le Nain de Kerhuiton_,\ntranslated from Breton by Professor J. Loth, in part illustrates\nthis:--Upon seeing water boiling in a number of egg-shells ranged before\nan open fire, a _polpegan_-changeling is so greatly astonished that he\nunwittingly speaks for the first time, and says, 'Here I am almost one\nhundred years old, and never such a thing have I yet seen!' 'Ah! son of\nSatan!' then cries out the mother, as she comes from her place of hiding\nand beats the _polpegan_--who thus by means of the egg-shell test has\nbeen tricked into revealing his demon nature.[99] In a parallel story,\nreported by Villemarqu\u00e9 in his _Barzaz Breiz_ (p. 33 n.), a\n_nain_-changeling is equally astonished to see a similar row of\negg-shells boiling before an open fire like so many pots of food, and\ngives himself away through the following remark:--'I have seen the acorn\nbefore the oak; I have seen the egg before the white chicken: I have\nnever seen the equal to this.'\n\n_Nature of the 'Corrigans'._--As to the general ideas about the\n_corrigans_, M. Le Scour says:--'Formerly the _corrigans_ were the\nterror of the country-folk, especially in Finist\u00e8re, in the Morbihan,\nand throughout the C\u00f4tes-du-Nord. They were believed to be souls in pain\ncondemned to wander at night in waste lands and marshes. Sometimes they\nwere seen as dwarfs; and often they were not seen at all, but were heard\nin houses making an infernal noise. Unlike the _lavandi\u00e8res de nuits_\n(phantom washerwomen of the night), they were heard only in summer,\nnever in winter.'\n\n\nTHE BRETON LEGEND OF THE DEAD\n\nWe come now to the Breton Legend of the Dead, common generally to all\nparts of Armorica, though probably even more widespread in Lower\nBrittany than in Upper Brittany; and this we call the Armorican\nFairy-Faith. Even where the peasants have no faith in _f\u00e9es_ or fairies,\nand where their faith in _corrigans_ is weak or almost gone, there is a\nstrong conviction among them that the souls of the dead can show\nthemselves to the living, a vigorous belief in apparitions,\nphantom-funerals, and various death-warnings. As Professor Anatole Le\nBraz has so well said in his introduction to _La L\u00e9gende de la Mort_,\n'the whole conscience of these people is fundamentally directed toward\nthat which concerns death. And the ideas which they form of it, in spite\nof the strong Christian imprint which they have received, do not seem\nmuch different from those which we have pointed out among their pagan\nancestors. For them, as for the primitive Celts, death is less a change\nof condition than a journey, a departure for another world.' And thus it\nseems that this most popular of the Breton folk-beliefs is genuinely\nCeltic and extremely ancient. As Renan has said, the Celtic people are\n'a race mysterious, having knowledge of the future and the secret of\ndeath'.[100] And whereas in Ireland unusual happenings or strange\naccidents and death are attributed to fairy interference, in Brittany\nthey are attributed to the influence of the dead.\n\nThe Breton Celt makes no distinction between the living and the dead.\nAll alike inhabit this world, the one being visible, the other\ninvisible. Though seers can at all times behold the dead, on November\nEve (_La Toussaint_) and on Christmas Eve they are most numerous and\nmost easily seen; and no peasant would think of questioning their\nexistence. In Ireland and Scotland the country-folk fear to speak of\nfairies save through an euphemism, and the Bretons speak of the dead\nindirectly, and even then with fear and trembling.\n\nThe following legend, which I found at Carnac, will serve to illustrate\nboth the profundity of the belief in the power of the dead over the\nliving in Lower Brittany, and how deeply the people can be stirred by\nthe predictions of one who can see the dead; and the legend is quite\ntypical of those so common in Armorica:--\n\n_Foretelling Deaths._--'Formerly there was a woman whom spirits\nimpelled to rise from her bed, it made no difference at what hour of the\nnight, in order to behold funerals in the future. She predicted who\nshould die, who should carry the corpse, who the cross, and who should\nfollow the _cort\u00e8ge_. Her predictions frightened every one, and made her\nsuch a terror to the country that the mayor had threatened to take legal\nproceedings against her if she continued her practice; but she was\ncompelled to tell the things which the spirits showed her. It is about\nten years since this woman died in the hospital at Auray.'\n\n_Testimony of a Breton Seeress._--There lives in the little hamlet of\nKerlois, less than a mile from Carnac, a Breton seeress, a woman who\nsince eight years of age has been privileged to behold the world\ninvisible and its inhabitants, quite like the woman who died at Auray.\nShe is Madame Eug\u00e9nie Le Port, now forty-two years old, and what she\ntells of things seen in this invisible world which surrounds her, might\neasily be taken for Irish legends about fairies. Knowing very little\nFrench, because she is thoroughly Breton, Madame Le Port described her\nvisions in her own native tongue, and her eldest daughter acted as\ninterpreter. I had known the good woman since the previous winter, and\nso we were able to converse familiarly; and as I sat in her own little\ncottage, in company with her husband and daughters, and with M. Lemort,\nwho acted as recording secretary, this is what she said in her clear\nearnest manner in answer to my questions:--\n\n'We believe that the spirits of our ancestors surround us and live with\nus. One day on a road from Carnac I encountered a woman of Kergoellec\nwho had been dead eight days. I asked her to move to one side so that I\ncould pass, and she vanished. This was eleven o'clock in the morning. I\nsaw her at another time in the Marsh of Breno; I spoke, but she did not\nreply. On the route from Plouharnel (near Carnac) I saw in the day-time\nthe funeral of a woman who did not die until fifteen days afterwards. I\nrecognized perfectly all the people who took part in it; but the person\nwith me saw nothing. Another time, near three o'clock in the afternoon,\nand eight days before her death, I saw upon the same route the funeral\nof a woman who was drowned. And I have seen a phantom horse going to the\nsabbath, and as if forced along against its will, for it reared and\npawed the earth. When Pierre Rouzic of Kerlois died, I saw a light of\nall colours between heaven and earth, the very night of his death. I\nhave seen a woman asleep whose spirit must have been free, for I saw it\nhovering outside her body. She was not awakened [at the time] for fear\nthat the spirit would not find its body again.' In answer to my question\nas to how long these various visions usually lasted, Madame Le Port\nsaid:--'They lasted about a quarter of an hour, or less, and all of them\ndisappeared instantaneously.' As Madame Le Port now seemed unable to\nrecall more of her visions, I finally asked her what she thought about\n_corrigans_, and she replied:--'I believe they exist as some special\nkind of spirits, though I have never seen any.'\n\n_Proof that the Dead Exist._--This is what M. Jean Couton, an old\nBreton, told me at Carnac:--'I am only an old peasant, without\ninstruction, without any education, but let me tell you what I think\nconcerning the dead. Following my own idea, I believe that after death\nthe soul always exists and travels among us. I repeat to you that I have\nbelief that the dead are seen; I am now going to prove this to you in\nthe following story:--\n\n'One winter evening I was returning home from a funeral. I had as\ncompanion a kinswoman of the man just buried. We took the train and soon\nalighted in the station of Plouharnel. We still had three kilometres to\ngo before reaching home, and as it was winter, and at that epoch there\nwas no stage-coach, we were obliged to travel afoot. As we were going\nalong, suddenly there appeared to my companion her dead relative whom we\nhad buried that day. She asked me if I saw anything, and since I replied\nto her negatively she said to me, \"Touch me, and you will see without\ndoubt.\" I touched her, and I saw the same as she did, the person just\ndead, whom I clearly recognized.'[101]\n\n_Phantom Washerwomen._--Concerning a very popular Breton belief in\nphantom washerwomen (_les lavandi\u00e8res de nuits_; or in Breton, _cannered\nnoz_), M. Goulven Le Scour offers the following summary:--'The\n_lavandi\u00e8res de nuits_ were heard less often than the _corrigans_, but\nwere much more feared. It was usually towards midnight that they were\nheard beating their linen in front of different washing-places, always\nsome way from the villages. According to the old folk of the past\ngeneration, when the phantom washerwomen would ask a certain passer-by\nto help them to wring sheets, he could not refuse, under pain of being\nstopped and wrung like a sheet himself. And it was necessary for those\nwho aided in wringing the sheets to turn in the same direction as the\nwasherwomen; for if by misfortune the assistant turned in an opposite\ndirection, he had his arms wrung in an instant. It is believed that\nthese phantom washerwomen are women condemned to wash their mortuary\nsheets during whole centuries; but that when they find some mortal to\nwring in an opposite direction, they are delivered.'[102]\n\n_Breton Animistic Beliefs._--M. Z. Le Rouzic, a Breton Celt who has\nspent most of his life studying the archaeology and folk-lore of the\nMorbihan, and who is at present Keeper of the Miln Museum at Carnac,\nsummarizes for us the state of popular beliefs as he finds them existing\nin the Carnac country now:--'There are few traditions concerning the\n_f\u00e9es_ in the region of Carnac; but the belief in spirits, good and\nbad--which seems to me to be the same as the belief in _f\u00e9es_--is\ngeneral and profound, as well as the belief in the incarnation of\nspirits. And I am convinced that these beliefs are the reminiscences of\nancient Celtic beliefs held by the Druids and conserved by\nChristianity.'\n\nIn Finist\u00e8re, as purely Breton as the Morbihan, I found the Legend of\nthe Dead just as widespread, and the belief in spirits and the\napparitional return of the dead quite as profound; but nothing worth\nrecording concerning fairies. The stories which follow were told to me\nby M. Pierre Vichon, a pure Breton Celt, born at Lescoff, near the\nPointe du Raz, Finist\u00e8re, in 1842. Peter is a genuine old 'sea-dog',\nhaving made the tour of the globe, and yet he has not lost the innate\nfaith of his ancient ancestors in a world invisible; for though he says\nhe cannot believe all that the people in his part of Finist\u00e8re tell\nabout spirits and ghosts, he must have a belief that the dead as spirits\nexist and influence the living, because of his own personal\nexperience--one of the most remarkable of its kind. Peter speaks Breton,\nFrench, and English fluently, and since he had an opportunity for the\nfirst time in seventeen months of using English, he told me the stories\nin my own native language:--\n\n_Pierre Vichon's Strange Experience._--'Some forty years ago a strange\nthing happened in my life. A relative of mine had taken service in the\nAustrian army, for by profession he was a soldier, though at first he\nhad begun to study for the priesthood. During the progress of the war I\nhad no news from him; and, then one day while I was on the deck of a\nNorwegian ship just off Dover (England), my fellow sailors heard a noise\nas though of a gun being discharged, and the whirr of a shot. At the\nsame moment I fell down on the deck as though mortally wounded, and lay\nin an unconscious state for two hours. When the news came, it was\nascertained that at the very moment I fell and the gun-report was heard,\nmy relative in Austria had been shot in the head and fell down dead. And\nhe had been seen to throw his hands up to his head to grasp it just as I\ndid.'\n\n_An Apparition of the Dead._--'I had another relative who died in a\nhospital near Christiania, Norway; and on the day he died a sister of\nmine, then a little girl, saw his spirit appear here in Lescoff, and she\neasily recognized it; but none of her girl companions with her at the\ntime saw the spirit. After a few days we had the news of the death, and\nthe time of it and the time of my sister's seeing the spirit coincided\nexactly.'\n\nIn all the peninsula of which the famous and dangerous Pointe du Raz is\nthe terminus, similar stories are current. And among the fisher-folk\nwith whom I lived on the strange and historic \u00cele de Sein, the Legend of\nthe Dead is even more common.\n\n_The Dead and Fairies Compared._--Without setting down here in detail\nnumerous other death-legends which we have collected, we may now note\nhow much the same are the powers and nature of the dead and spirits in\nBrittany, and the power and nature of the fairy races in Celtic Britain\nand Ireland. Thus the Breton dead strike down the living just as fairies\nare said to do; the _Ankou_,[103] who is a king of the dead, and his\nsubjects, like a fairy king and fairies, have their own particular paths\nor roads over which they travel in great sacred processions;[104] and\nexactly as fairies, the hosts of the dead are in possession of the earth\non November Eve, and the living are expected to prepare a feast and\nentertainment for them of curded-milk, hot pancakes, and cider, served\non the family table covered with a fresh white table-cloth, and to\nsupply music. The Breton dead come to enjoy this hospitality of their\nfriends; and as they take their places at the table the stools are heard\nto move, and sometimes the plates; and the musicians who help to\nentertain them think that at times they feel the cold breath of the\ninvisible visitors. Concerning this same feast of the dead (_La\nToussaint_) Villemarqu\u00e9 in his _Barzaz Breiz_ (p. 507) records that in\nmany parts of Brittany libations of milk are poured over or near\nancestral tombs--just as in Ireland and Scotland libations of milk are\npoured to fairies. And the people of Armorica at other times than\nNovember Eve remember the dead very appropriately, as in Ireland the\nIrish remember fairies. The Breton peasant thinks of the dead as\nfrequently as the Irishman thinks of fairies. One day while I was\nwalking toward Carnac there was told to me in the most ordinary manner a\nstory about a dead man who used to be seen going along the very road I\nwas on. He quite often went to the church in Carnac seeking prayers for\nhis soul. And almost every man or woman one meets in rural Lower\nBrittany can tell many similar stories. If a mortal should happen to\nmeet one of the dead in Brittany and be induced to eat food which the\ndead sometimes offer, he will never be able to return among the\nliving,[105] for the effect would be the same as eating fairy-food. Like\nghosts and fairies in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, in Brittany the dead\nguard hidden treasure. It is after sunset that the dead have most power\nto strike down the living,[105] and to _take_ them just as fairies do. A\nnatural phenomenon, a malady, a death, or a tempest may be the work of a\nspirit in Brittany,[105] and in Ireland the work of a fairy. The Breton\ndead, like the Scotch fairies described in Kirk's _Secret Commonwealth_,\nare capable of making themselves visible or invisible to mortals, at\nwill.[105] Their bodies--for they have bodies--are material,[105] being\ncomposed of matter in a state unknown to us; and the bodies of daemons\nas described by the Ancients are made of congealed air. The dead in\nBrittany have forms more slender and smaller in stature than those of\nthe living;[105] and herein we find one of the factors which supporters\nof the Pygmy Theory would emphasize, but it is thoroughly psychical. Old\nBreton farmers after death return to their farms, as though come from\nFairyland; and sometimes they even take a turn at the ploughing.[105] As\nin Ireland, so in Brittany, the day belongs to the living, and the\nnight, when a mortal is safer indoors than out, to spirits and the\ndead.[105] The Bretons take great care not to counterfeit the dead nor\nto speak slightingly of them,[106] for, like fairies, they know all that\nis done by mortals, and can hear all that is said about them, and can\ntake revenge. Just as in the case of all fairies and goblins, the dead\ndisappear at first cock-crow.[107] The world of the dead, like the land\nof Faerie or the Otherworld, may be underground, in the air, in a hill\nor mountain like a fairy palace, under a river or sea, and even on an\nisland out amid the ocean.[107] As other Celts do against evil spirits\nand fairies, the Breton peasants use magic against evil souls of the\ndead,[108] and the priests use exorcisms. The Breton realm of the dead\nequally with the Irish Fairyland is an invisible world peopled by other\nkinds of spirits besides disembodied mortals and fairies.[109] The dead\nhaunt houses just as Robin Good-fellows and brownies, or pixies and\ngoblins, generally do. The dead are fond of frequenting cross-roads, and\nso are all sorts of fairies. In Brittany one must always guard against\nthe evil dead, in Cornwall against pixies, in other Celtic lands against\ndifferent kinds of fairies. In Ireland and Scotland there is the\nbanshee, in Wales the death-candle, in Brittany the _Ankou_ or king of\nthe dead, to foretell a death. And as the banshee wails before the\nancestral mansion, so the _Ankou_ sounds its doleful cry before the door\nof the one it calls.[109] There seems not to be a family in the Carnac\nregion of the Morbihan without some tradition of a warning coming before\nthe death of one of its members. In Ireland only certain families have a\nbanshee, but in Brittany all families. Professor Le Braz has devoted a\nlarge part of his work on _La L\u00e9gende de la Mort_ to these Breton\ndeath-warnings or _intersignes_. They may be shades of the dead under\nmany aspects--ghostly hands, or ghosts of inanimate objects. They may\ncome by the fall of objects without known cause; by a magpie resting on\na roof--just as in Ireland; by the crowing of cocks, and the howling of\ndogs at night. They may be death-candles or torches, dreams, peculiar\nbodily sensations, images in water, phantom funerals, and death-chariots\nor death-coaches as in Wales.\n\nThe Bretons may be said to have a Death-Faith, whereas the other Celts\nhave a Fairy-Faith, and both are a real folk-religion innate in the\nCeltic nature, and thus quite as influential as Christianity. Should\nChristianity in some way suddenly be swept away from the Celt he would\nstill be religious, for it is his nature to be so. And as Professor Le\nBraz has suggested to me, Carnac with its strange monuments of an\nunknown people and time, and wrapped in its air of mystery and silence,\nis a veritable Land of the Dead. I, too, have felt that there are\nstrange, vague, indefinable influences at work at Carnac at all times of\nthe day and night, very similar to those which I have felt in the most\nfairy-haunted regions of Ireland. We might say that all of Brittany is a\nLand of the Dead, and ancient Carnac its Centre, just as Ireland is\nFairyland, with its Centre at ancient Tara.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nWe can very appropriately conclude our inquiry about Brittany with a\nvery beautiful description of a _Veill\u00e9e_ in Lower Brittany, written\ndown in French for our special use by the Breton poet, M. Le Scour, of\nCarnac, and here translated. M. Le Scour draws the whole picture from\nlife, and from his own intimate experience. It will serve to give us\nsome insight into the natural literary ability of the Breton Celts, to\nillustrate their love of tales dealing with the marvellous and the\nsupernormal, and is especially valuable for showing the social\nenvironment amidst which the Fairy-Faith of Lower Brittany lives and\nflourishes, isolated from foreign interference:--\n\n_A 'Veill\u00e9e'[110] in Lower Brittany._--'The wind was blowing from the\neast, and in the intermittent moonlight the roof of the thatched cottage\nalready gleamed with a thin covering of snow which had fallen since\nsunset. Each comer reached on the run the comfortable bakehouse, wherein\nAlain Corre was at work kneading his batch of barley bread; and the\nfather Le Scour was never the last to arrive, because he liked to get\nthe best seat in front of the bake-oven.\n\n'Victor had promised us for that night a pretty story which no person\nhad ever heard before. I was not more than fourteen years old then, but\nlike all the neighbours I hurried to get a place in order to hear\nVictor. My mother was already there, making her distaff whirr between\nher two fingers as she sat in the light of a rosin candle, and my\nbrother Yvon was finishing a wooden butter-spoon. Every few minutes I\nand my little cousin went out to see if it was still snowing, and if\nVictor had arrived.\n\n'At last Victor entered, and everybody applauded, the young girls\nlengthening out their distaffs to do him reverence. Then when silence\nwas restored, after some of the older men had several times shouted out,\n\"Let us commence; hold your tongues,\" Victor began his story as\nfollows:--\n\n'\"Formerly, in the village of Kastel-Laer, Plouneventer (Finist\u00e8re),\nthere were two neighbours; the one was Paol al Ludu and the other Yon\nRustik. Paol al Ludu was a good-for-nothing sort of fellow; he gained\nhis living easily, by cheating everybody and by robbing his neighbours;\nand being always well dressed he was much envied by his poorer\nacquaintances. Yon Rustik, on the contrary, was a poor, infirm, and\nhonest man, always seeking to do good, but not being able to work, had\nto beg.\n\n'\"One evening our two men were disputing. Paol al Ludu treated Yon\nshamefully, telling him that it would be absurd to think an old lame man\nsuch as he was could ever get to Paris; 'But I,' added Paol, 'am going\nto see the capital and amuse myself like a rich _bourgeois_.' At this,\nYon offered to bet with Paol that in spite of infirmities he would also\ngo to Paris; and being an honest man he placed his trust in God. The\nwager was mutually agreed to, and our two men set out for Paris by\ndifferent routes.\n\n'\"Paol al Ludu, who had no infirmities, arrived at Paris within three\nweeks. He followed the career of a thief, and deceived everybody; and as\nhe was well dressed, people had confidence in him. The poor Yon Rustik,\non the contrary, did not travel rapidly. He was obliged to beg his way,\nand being meanly dressed was compelled to sleep outdoors when he could\nnot find a stable. At the end of a month he arrived in a big forest in\nthe region of Versailles, and having no other shelter for the night\nchose a great oak tree which was hollowed by the centuries and lined\nwith fungi within. In front of this ancient oak there was a fountain\nwhich must have been miraculous, for it flowed from east to west, and\nYon had closely observed it.\n\n'\"Towards midnight Yon was awakened by a terrible uproar; there were a\nhundred _corrigans_ dancing round the fountain. He overheard one of them\nsay to the others: 'I have news to report to you; I have cast an evil\nspell upon the daughter of the King, and no mortal will ever be able to\ncure her, and yet in order to cure her nothing more would be needed than\na drop of water from this fountain.' The _corrigan_ who thus spoke was\nupon two sticks[111] (crippled), and commanded all the others. The\nbeggar having understood the conversation, awaited impatiently the\ndeparture of the _corrigans_. When they were gone, he took a little\nwater from the fountain in a bottle, and hurried on to Paris, where he\narrived one fine morning.\n\n'\"In the house where Yon stopped to eat his crust of dry bread he heard\nit reported that the daughter of the King was very ill, and that the\nwisest doctors in France had been sent for. Three days later, Yon Rustik\npresented himself at the palace, and asked audience with the King, but\nas he was so shabbily dressed the attendants did not wish to let him\nenter. When he strongly insisted, they finally prevailed upon the King\nto receive him; and then Yon told the King that he had come to cure the\nprincess. Thereupon the King caused Yon to be fittingly dressed and\npresented before the sick-bed; and Yon drew forth his bottle of water,\nand, at his request, the princess drank it to the last drop. Suddenly\nshe began to laugh with joy, and throwing her arms about the neck of the\nbeggar thanked him: she was radically cured. At once the King gave\norders that his golden coach of state be made ready; and placing the\nprincess and the beggar on one seat, made a tour throughout all the most\nbeautiful streets of Paris. Never before were such crowds seen in Paris,\nfor the proclamation had gone forth that the one who had made the\nmiraculous cure was a beggar.\n\n'\"Paol al Ludu, who was still in Paris, pressed forward to see the royal\ncoach pass, and when he saw who sat next to the princess he was beside\nhimself with rage. But before the day was over he discovered Yon in the\ngreat hotel of the city, and asked him how it was that he had been able\nto effect the cure; and Yon replied to his old rival that it was with\nthe water of a miraculous fountain, and relating everything which had\npassed, explained to him in what place the hollow oak and the fountain\nwere to be found.\n\n'\"Paol did not wait even that night, but set off at once to find the\nmiraculous fountain. When he finally found it the hour was almost\nmidnight, and so he hid himself in the hollow of the oak, hoping to\noverhear some mysterious revelation. Midnight had hardly come when a\nfrightful uproar commenced: this time the crippled _corrigan_ chief was\nswearing like a demon, and he cried to the others, 'The daughter of the\nKing has been cured by a beggar! He must have overheard us by hiding in\nthe hollow of that d----d old oak. Quick! let fire be put in it, for it\nhas brought us misfortune.'\n\n'\"In less than a minute, the trunk of the oak was in flames; and there\nwere heard the cries of anguish of Paol al Ludu and the gnashing of his\nteeth, as he fought against death. Thus the evil and dishonest man ended\nhis life, while Yon Rustik received a pension of twenty thousand\nfrancs, and was able to live happy for many years, and to give alms to\nthe poor.\"'\n\nHere M. Le Scour ends his narrative, leaving the reader to imagine the\nenthusiastic applause and fond embraces bestowed upon Victor for this\nmost marvellous story, by the happy gathering of country-folk in that\ncosy warm bakehouse in Lower Brittany, while without the cold east wind\nof winter was whirling into every nook and corner the falling flakes of\nsnow.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe evidence from Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, and\nBrittany, which the living Celtic Fairy-Faith offers, has now been\nheard; and, as was stated at the beginning of the inquiry, apparently\nmost of it can only be interpreted as belonging to a world-wide doctrine\nof souls. But before this decision can be arrived at safely, all the\nevidence should be carefully estimated according to anthropological and\npsychological methods; and this we shall proceed to do in the following\nchapter, before passing to Section II of our study.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION I\n\nTHE LIVING FAIRY-FAITH\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE EVIDENCE\n\n     Anthropology is concerned with man and what is in man--_humani\n     nihil a se alienum putat_.--ANDREW LANG.\n\n     The Celtic Fairy-Faith as part of a World-wide Animism--Shaping\n     Influence of Social Psychology--Smallness of Elvish Spirits and\n     Fairies, according to Ethnology, Animism, and Occult Sciences--The\n     Changeling Belief and its explanation according to the Kidnap,\n     Human-Sacrifice, Soul-Wandering, and Demon-Possession\n     Theory--Ancient and Modern Magic and Witchcraft shown to be based\n     on definite psychological laws--Exorcisms--Taboos, of Name, Food,\n     Iron, Place--Taboos among Ancient Celts--Food-Sacrifice--Legend of\n     the Dead--Conclusion: The background of the modern belief in\n     Fairies is animistic.\n\n\nTHE CELTIC FAIRY-FAITH AS PART OF A WORLD-WIDE ANIMISM\n\nThe modern belief in fairies, with which until now we have been\nspecifically concerned, is Celtic only in so far as it reflects Celtic\ntraditions and customs, Celtic myth and religion, and Celtic social and\nenvironmental conditions. Otherwise, as will be shown throughout this\nand succeeding chapters, it is in essence a part of a world-wide\nanimism, which forms the background of all religions in whatever stage\nof culture religions exist or to which they have attained by evolution,\nfrom the barbarism of the Congo black man to the civilization of the\nArchbishop of Canterbury; and as far back as we can go into human\norigins there is some corresponding belief in a fairy or spirit realm,\nas there is to-day among contemporary civilized and uncivilized races of\nall countries. We may therefore very profitably begin our examination\nof the living Fairy-Faith of the Celts by comparing it with a few\nexamples, taken almost at random, from the animistic beliefs current\namong non-Celtic peoples.\n\nTo the Arunta tribes of Central Australia, furthest removed in space\nfrom the Celts and hence least likely to have been influenced by them,\nlet us go first, in order to examine their doctrine of ancestral\n_Alcheringa_ beings and of the _Iruntarinia_, which offers an almost\ncomplete parallel to the Celtic belief in fairies. These _Alcheringa_\nbeings and _Iruntarinia_--to ignore the secondary differences between\nthe two--are a spirit race inhabiting an invisible or fairy world. Only\ncertain persons, medicine-men and seers, can see them; and these\ndescribe them as thin and shadowy, and, like the Irish _Sidhe_, as\nalways youthful in appearance. Precisely like their Celtic counterparts\nin general, these Australian spirits are believed to haunt inanimate\nobjects such as stones and trees; or to frequent totem centres, as in\nIreland demons (daemons) are believed to frequent certain places known\nto have been anciently dedicated to the religious rites of the\npre-Christian Celts; and, quite after the manner of the Breton dead and\nof most fairies, they are said to control human affairs and natural\nphenomena. All the Arunta invariably regard themselves as incarnations\nor reincarnations of these ancestral spirit-beings; and, in accordance\nwith evidence to be set forth in our seventh chapter, ancient and modern\nCelts have likewise regarded themselves as incarnations or\nreincarnations of ancestors and of fairy beings. Also the Arunta think\nof the _Alcheringa_ beings exactly as Celts think of fairies: as real\ninvisible entities who must be propitiated if men wish to secure their\ngoodwill; and as beneficent and protecting beings when not offended, who\nmay attach themselves to individuals as guardian spirits.[112]\n\nAmong the Melanesian peoples there is an equally firm faith in spiritual\nbeings, which they call _Vui_ and _Wui_, and these beings have very\nmany of the chief attributes of the _Alcheringa_ beings.[113]\n\nIn Africa, the _Amatongo_, or _Abapansi_ of Amazulu belief, have\nessentially the same motives for action toward men and women, and\nexhibit the same powers, as the Scotch and Irish peasants assign to the\n'good people'. They _take_ the living through death; and people so\n_taken_ appear afterwards as apparitions, having become _Amatongo_.[114]\n\nIn the New World, we find in the North American Red Men a race as much\ngiven as the Celts are to a belief in various spirits like fairies. They\nbelieve that there are spirits in lakes, in rivers and in waterfalls, in\nrocks and trees, in the earth and in the air; and that these beings\nproduce storms, droughts, good and bad harvests, abundance and scarcity\nof game, disease, and the varying fortunes of men. Mr. Leland, who has\ncarefully studied these American beliefs, says that the _Un \u00e0\ngames-suk_, or little spirits inhabiting rocks and streams, play a much\nmore influential part in the social and religious life of the North\nAmerican Red Men than elves or fairies ever did among the Aryans.[115]\n\nIn Asia there is the well-known and elaborate animistic creed of the\nChinese and of the Japanese, to be in part illustrated in subsequent\nsections. In popular Indian belief, as found in the Panjab, there is no\nessential difference between various orders of beings endowed with\nimmortality, such as ghosts and spirits on the one hand, and gods,\ndemi-gods, and warriors on the other; for whether in bodies in this\nworld or out of bodies in the invisible world, they equally live and\nact--quite as fairies do.[116] Throughout the Malay Peninsula, belief in\nmany orders of good and bad spirits, in demon-possession, in exorcism,\nand in the power of black magicians is very common.[117] But in the\n_Phi_ races of Siam we discover what is probably the most important and\ncomplete parallel to the Celtic Fairy-Faith existing in Asia.\n\nAccording to the Siamese folk-belief, all the stars and various planets,\nas well as the ethereal spaces, are the dwelling-places of the\n_Th\u00e9vadas_, gods and goddesses of the old pre-Buddhist mythology, who\ncorrespond pretty closely to the Tuatha De Danann of Irish mythology;\nand this world itself is peopled by legions of minor deities called\n_Phi_, who include all the various orders of good and bad spirits\ncontinually influencing mankind. Some of these _Phi_ live in forests, in\ntrees, in open spaces; and watercourses are full of them. Others inhabit\nmountains and high places. A particular order who haunt the sacred trees\nsurrounding the Buddhist temples are known as _Phi nang mai_; and since\n_nang_ is the word for female, and _mai_ for tree, they are comparable\nto tree-dwelling fairies, or Greek wood-nymphs. Still another order\ncalled _Chao phum phi_ (gods of the earth) are like house-frequenting\nbrownies, fairies, and pixies, or like certain orders of _corrigans_ who\nhaunt barns, stables, and dwellings; and in many curious details these\n_Chao phum phi_ correspond to the Penates of ancient Rome. Not only is\nthe worship of this order of _Phi_ widespread in Siam, but to every\nother order of _Phi_ altars are erected and propitiatory offerings made\nby all classes of the Siamese people.[118]\n\nBefore passing westwards to Europe, in completion of our rapid folk-lore\ntour of the world, we may observe that the Persians, even those who are\nwell educated, have a firm belief in _jinns_ and _afreets_, different\norders of good and bad spirits with all the chief characteristics of\nfairies.[119] And modern Arabs and Egyptians and Egyptian Turks hold\nsimilar animistic beliefs.[120]\n\nIn Europe, the Greek peasant as firmly believes in nymphs or nereids as\nthe Celtic peasant believes in fairies; and nymphs, nereids, and fairies\nalike are often the survivals of an ancient mythology. Mr. J. C. Lawson,\nwho has very carefully investigated the folk-lore of modern Greece,\nsays: 'The nereids are conceived as women half-divine yet not immortal,\nalways young, always beautiful, capricious at best, and at their worst\ncruel. Their presence is suspected everywhere. I myself had a nereid\npointed out to me by my guide, and there certainly was the semblance of\na female figure draped in white, and tall beyond human stature, flitting\nin the dusk between the gnarled and twisted boles of an old olive-yard.\nWhat the apparition was, I had no leisure to investigate; for my guide\nwith many signs of the cross and muttered invocations of the Virgin\nurged my mule to perilous haste along the rough mountain path.' Like\nCeltic fairies, these Greek nereids have their queens; they dance all\nnight, disappearing at cock-crow; they can cast spells on animals or\nmaladies on men and women; they can shift their shape; they _take_\nchildren in death and make changelings; and they fall in love with young\nmen.[121]\n\nAmong the Roumain peoples the widespread belief in the _Iele_ shows in\nother ways equally marked parallels with the Fairy-Faith of the Celts.\nThese _Iele_ wait at cross-roads and near dwellings, or at village\nfountains or in fields and woods, where they can best cast on men and\nwomen various maladies. Sometimes they fall in love with beautiful young\nmen and women, and have on such occasions even been controlled by their\nmortal lovers. They are extremely fond of music and dancing, and many a\nshepherd with his pipes has been favoured by them, though they have\ntheir own music and songs too. The Albanian peoples have evil fairies,\nno taller than children twelve years old, called in Modern Greek [Greek:\nta ex\u00f4tika], 'those without,' who correspond to the _Iele_. Young\npeople who have been enticed to enter their round dance afterwards waste\naway and die, apparently becoming one of 'those without'. These Albanian\nspirits, like the 'good people' and the Breton dead, have their own\nparticular paths and retreats, and whoever violates these is struck and\nfalls ill.[122] These parallels from Roumain lands are probably due to\nthe close Aryan relationship between the Roumains, the Greeks, and the\nCelts. The _Iele_ seem nothing more than the nymphs and nereids of\nclassical antiquity transformed under Christian influence into beings\nwho contradict their original good character, as in Celtic lands the\nfairy-folk have likewise come to be fallen angels and evil spirits.\n\nThere is an even closer relationship between the Italian and Celtic\nfairies. For example, among the Etruscan-Roman people there are now\nflourishing animistic beliefs almost identical in all details with the\nFairy-Faith of the Celts.[123] In a very valuable study on the Neo-Latin\nFay, Mr. H. C. Coote writes:--'Who were the Fays--the _fate_ of later\nItaly, the _f\u00e9es_ of mediaeval France? For it is perfectly clear that\nthe _fatua_, _fata_, and _f\u00e9e_ are all one and the same word.' And he\nproceeds to show that the race of immortal damsels whom the old natives\nof Italy called _Fatuae_ gave origin to all the family of _f\u00e9es_ as\nthese appear in Latin countries, and that the Italians recognized in the\nGreek nymphs their own _Fatuae_.[124]\n\nIt is quite evident that we have here discovered in Italy, as we\ndiscovered in Greece and Roumain lands, fairies very Celtic in\ncharacter; and should further examination be made of modern European\nfolk-lore yet other similar fairies would be found, such, for example,\nas the elves of Germany and of Scandinavia, or as the _servans_ of the\nSwiss peasant. And in all cases, whether the beliefs examined be Celtic\nor non-Celtic, Aryan or non-Aryan, from Australia, Polynesia, Africa,\nAmerica, Asia, or Europe, they are in essence animistically the same, as\nlater sections in this chapter will make clear. But while the\nparallelism of these beliefs is indicated it is, of course, not meant\nfor a moment that in all of the cases or in any one of the cases the\nspecific differences are not considerable. The ground of comparison\nconsists simply in those generic characteristics which these\nfairy-faiths, as they may be called, invariably display--characteristics\nwhich we have good precedent for summing up in the single adjective\nanimistic.\n\n\nSHAPING INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY\n\nFor the term animism we have to thank Dr. E. B. Tylor, whose _Primitive\nCulture_, in which the animistic theory is developed, may almost be said\nto mark the beginning of scientific anthropology. In this work, however,\nthere is a decided tendency (which indeed displays itself in most of the\nleading anthropological works, as, for example, in those by Dr. Frazer)\nto regard men, or at any rate primitive men, as having a mind absolutely\nhomogeneous, and therefore as thinking, feeling, and acting in the same\nway under all conditions alike. But a decided change is beginning to\nmanifest itself in the interpretation of the customs and beliefs of the\nruder races. It is assumed as a working principle that each ethnic group\nhas or tends to have an individuality of its own, and, moreover, that\nthe members of such a group think, feel, and act primarily as the\nrepresentatives, so to speak, of that ethnic individuality in which they\nlive, move, and have their being. That is to say, a social as contrasted\nwith an individual psychology must, it is held, pronounce both the first\nand last word regarding all matters of mythology, religion, and art in\nits numerous forms. The reason is that these are social products, and as\nsuch are to be understood only in the light of the laws governing the\nworkings of the collective mind of any particular ethnic group. Such a\nmethod is, for instance, employed in Mr. William McDougall's _Social\nPsychology_, in Mr. R. R. Marett's _Threshold of Religion_, and in many\nanthropological articles to be found in _L'Ann\u00e9e Sociologique_.\n\nIf, therefore, we hold by this new and fruitful method of social\npsychology we must be prepared to treat the Fairy-Faith of the Celtic\npeoples also in and for itself, as expressive of an individuality more\nor less unique. It might, indeed, be objected that these peoples are not\na single social group, but rather a number of such groups, and this is,\nin a way, true. Nevertheless their folk-lore displays such remarkable\nhomogeneity, from whatever quarter of the Celtic world it be derived,\nthat it seems the soundest method to treat them as one people for all\nthe purposes of the student of sociology, mythology, and religion.\nGranting, then, such a unity in the beliefs of the pan-Celtic race, we\nare finally obliged to distinguish as it were two aspects thereof.\n\nOn the one hand there is shown, even in the mere handful of non-Celtic\nparallels, which for reasons of space we have been content to cite, as\nwell as in their Celtic equivalents, a generic element common to all\npeoples living under primitive conditions of society. It is emphatically\na social element, but at the same time one which any primitive society\nis bound to display. On the other hand, in a second aspect, the Celtic\nbeliefs show of themselves a character which is wholly Celtic: in the\nFairy-Faith, which is generically animistic, we find reflected all sorts\nof specific characteristics of the Celtic peoples--their patriotism,\ntheir peculiar type of imagination, their costumes, amusements,\nhousehold life, and social and religious customs generally. With this\nfact in mind, we may proceed to examine certain of the more specialized\naspects of the Fairy-Faith, as manifested both among Celts and\nelsewhere.\n\n\nTHE SMALLNESS OF ELVISH SPIRITS AND FAIRIES\n\n_Ethnological or Pygmy Theory_\n\nIn any anthropological estimate of the Fairy-Faith, the pygmy stature so\ncommonly attributed to various orders of Celtic and of non-Celtic\nfairies should be considered. Various scholarly champions of the Pygmy\nTheory have attempted to explain this smallness of fairies by means of\nthe hypothesis that the belief in such fairies is due _wholly_ to a\nfolk-memory of small-statured pre-Celtic races;[125] and they add that\nthese races, having dwelt in caverns like the prehistoric Cave Men, and\nin underground houses like those of Lapps or Eskimos, gave rise to the\nbelief in a fairy world existing in caverns and under hills or\nmountains. When analysed, our evidence shows that in the majority of\ncases witnesses have regarded fairies either as non-human nature-spirits\nor else as spirits of the dead; that in a comparatively limited number\nof cases they have regarded them as the souls of prehistoric races; and\nthat occasionally they have regarded the belief in them as due to a\nfolk-memory of such races. It follows, then, from such an analysis of\nevidence, that the Pygmy Theory probably does explain some ethnological\nelements which have come to be almost inseparably interwoven with the\nessentially animistic fabric of the primitive Fairy-Faith. But though\nthe theory may so account for such ethnological elements, it disregards\nthe animism that has made such interweaving possible; and, on the whole,\nwe are inclined to accept Mr. Jenner's view of the theory (see p. 169).\nSince the Pygmy Theory thus fails entirely to provide a basis for what\nis by far the most important part of the Fairy-Faith, a more adequate\ntheory is required.\n\n_Animistic Theory_\n\nThe testimony of Celtic literature goes to show that leprechauns and\nsimilar dwarfish beings are not due to a folk-memory of a real pygmy\nrace, that they are spirits like elves, and that the folk-memory of a\nLappish-like people (who may have been Picts) evidently was confused\nwith them, so as to result in their being anthropomorphosed. Thus, in\n_Fionn's Ransom_, there is reference to an under-sized apparently\nLappish-like man, who may be a Pict; and as Campbell, who records the\nancient tale, has observed, there are many similar traditional Highland\ntales about little men or even about true dwarfs who are good\nbowmen;[126] but it is very certain that such tales have often blended\nwith other tales, in which supernatural figures like fairies play a\nr\u00f4le; and, apparently, the former kind of tales are much more historical\nand modern in their origin, while the latter are more mythological and\nextremely archaic. This blending of the natural or ethnological and the\nsupernatural--in quite the same manner as in the modern Fairy-Faith--is\nclearly seen in another of Campbell's collected tales, _The Lad with the\nSkin Coverings_,[127] which in essence is an otherworld tale: 'a little\nthickset man in a russet coat,' who is a magician, but who otherwise\nseems to be a genuine Lapp dressed in furs, is introduced into a story\nwhere real fairy-like beings play the chief parts. Again, in Irish\nliterature, we read of a _loch luchra_ or 'lake of the pygmies'.[128]\nLight is thrown upon this reference by what is recorded about the\nleprechauns and Fergus:--While asleep on the seashore one day, Fergus\nwas about to be carried off by the _luchorp\u00e1in_; 'whereat he awoke and\ncaught three of them, to wit, one in each of his two hands, and one on\nhis breast. \"Life for life\" (i. e. protection), say they. \"Let my three\nwishes (i. e. choices) be given,\" says Fergus. \"Thou shalt have,\" says\nthe dwarf, \"save that which is impossible for us.\" Fergus requested of\nhim knowledge of passing under loughs and linns and seas. \"Thou shalt\nhave,\" says the dwarf, \"save one which I forbid to thee: thou shalt not\ngo under Lough Rudraide [which] is in thine own country.\" Thereafter the\n_luchuirp_ (little bodies) put herbs into his ears, and he used to go\nwith them under seas. Others say the dwarf gave his cloak to him, and\nthat Fergus used to put it on his head and thus go under seas.'[129] In\nan etymological comment on this passage, Sir John Rhys says:--'The\nwords _luchuirp_ and _luchorp\u00e1in_ [Anglo-Irish leprechaun] appear to\nmean literally \"small bodies\", and the word here rendered _dwarf_ is in\nthe Irish _abac_, the etymological equivalent of the Welsh _avanc_, the\nname by which certain water inhabitants of a mythic nature went in\nWelsh....'[130]\n\nBesides what we find in the recorded Fairy-Faith, there are very many\nparallel traditions, both Celtic and non-Celtic, about various classes\nof spirits, like leprechauns or other small elvish beings, which Dr.\nTylor has called nature-spirits;[131] and apparently all of these can\nbest be accounted for by means of the animistic hypothesis. For example,\nin North America (as in Celtic lands) there is no proof of there ever\nhaving been an actual dwarf race, but Lewis and Clark, in their _Travels\nto the Source of the Missouri River_, found among the Sioux a tradition\nthat a hill near the Whitestone River, which the Red Men called the\n'Mountain of Little People' or 'Little Spirits', was inhabited by pygmy\ndemons in human form, about eighteen inches tall, armed with sharp\narrows, and ever on the alert to kill mortals who should dare to invade\ntheir domain. So afraid were all the tribes of Red Men who lived near\nthe mountain of these little spirits that no one of them could be\ninduced to visit it.[132] And we may compare this American\nspirit-haunted hill with similar natural hills in Scotland said to be\nfairy knolls: one near the turning of a road from Reay Wick to Safester,\nIsle of Unst;[133] one the well-known fairy-haunted Tomnahurich, near\nInverness;[133] and a third, the hill at Aberfoyle on which the 'people\nof peace' took the Rev. Robert Kirk when he profaned it by walking on\nit; or we may equate the American hill with the fairy-haunted Slieve\nGullion and Ben Bulbin in Ireland.\n\nThe Iroquois had a belief that they could summon dwarfs, who were\nsimilar nature-spirits, by knocking on a certain large stone.[134]\nLikewise the Polong, a Malay familiar spirit, is 'an exceedingly\ndiminutive female figure or mannikin'.[135] East Indian nature-spirits,\ntoo, are pygmies in stature.[136] In Polynesia, entirely independent of\nthe common legends about wild races of pygmy stature, are myths about\nthe spirits called _wui_ or _vui_, who correspond to European dwarfs and\ntrolls. These little spirits seem to occupy the same position toward the\nMelanesian gods or culture heroes, Qat of the Banks Islands and Tagaro\nof the New Hebrides, as daemons toward Greek gods, or as good angels\ntoward the Christian Trinity, or as fairy tribes toward the Brythonic\nArthur and toward the Gaelic hero Cuchulainn.[137] Similarly in Hindu\nmythology pygmies hold an important place, being sculptured on most\ntemples in company with the gods; e. g. Siva is accompanied by a\nbodyguard of dwarfs, and one of them, the three-legged Bhringi, is a\ngood dancer[138]--like all _corrigans_, pixies, and most fairies.\n\nBeyond the borders of Celtic lands--in Southern Asia with its islands,\nin Melanesia with New Guinea, and in Central Africa--pygmy races,\ngenerally called Negritos, exist at the present day; but they themselves\nhave a fairy-faith, just as their normal-sized primitive neighbours\nhave, and it would hardly be reasonable to argue that either of the two\nfairy-faiths is due to a folk-memory of small-statured peoples. Ancient\nand thoroughly reliable manuscript records testify to the existence of\npygmies in China during the twenty-third century B. C.;[139] yet no one\nhas ever tried to explain the well-known animistic beliefs of modern\nChinamen in ghosts, demons, and in little nature-spirits like fairies,\nby saying that these are a folk-memory of this ancient pygmy race. In\nYezo and the Kurile Islands of Japan still survive a few of the hairy\nAinu, a Caucasian-like, under-sized race; and their immediate\npredecessors, whom they exterminated, were a Negrito race, who,\naccording to some traditions, were two to three feet in stature, and,\naccording to other traditions, only one inch in stature.[140] Both pygmy\nraces, the surviving and the exterminated race, seem independently to\nhave evolved a belief in ghosts and spirits, so that here again it need\nnot be argued that the present pre-Buddhist animism of the Japanese is\ndue to a folk-memory of either Ainus or Negritos.\n\nFurther examination of the animistic hypothesis designed to explain the\nsmallness of elvish spirits leads away from mere mythology into\npsychology, and sets us the task of finding out if, after all, primitive\nideas about the disembodied human soul may not have originated or at\nleast have helped to shape the Celtic folk conception of fairies as\nsmall-statured beings. Mr. A. E. Crawley, in his _Idea of the Soul_ (pp.\n200-1, 206), shows by carefully selected evidence from ancient and\nmodern psychologies that 'first among the attributes of the soul in its\nprimary form may be placed its size', and that 'in the majority of cases\nit is a miniature replica of the person, described often as a mannikin,\nor homunculus, of a few inches in height'. Sometimes the soul is\ndescribed as only about three inches in stature. Dr. Frazer shows,\nlikewise, that by practically all contemporary primitive peoples the\nsoul is commonly regarded as a dwarf.[141]\n\nThe same opinions regarding the human soul prevailed among ancient\npeoples highly civilized, i. e. the Egyptians and Greeks, and may have\nthence directly influenced Celtic tradition. Thus, in bas-relief on the\nEgyptian temple of _D\u00ear el Bahri_, Queen Hatsheps\u00fb Ramaka is making\nofferings of perfume to the gods, while just behind her stands her _Ka_\n(soul) as a pygmy so little that the crown of its head is just on a\nlevel with her waist.[142] The _Ka_ is usually represented as about half\nthe size of an ordinary man. In the _Book of the Dead_, the _Ba_, which\nlike the _Ka_ is one of the many separable parts of the soul, is\nrepresented as a very little man with wings and bird-like body.\n\nOn Greek vases the human soul is depicted as a pygmy issuing from the\nbody through the mouth; and this conception existed among Romans and\nTeutons.[143] Like their predecessors the Egyptians, the Greeks also\noften represented the soul as a small winged human figure, and Romans,\nin turn, imagined the soul as a pygmy with butterfly wings. These ideas\nreappear in mediaeval reliefs and pictures wherein the soul is shown as\na child or little naked man going out of the dying person's mouth;[144]\nand, according to C\u00e6dmon, who was educated by Celtic teachers, angels\nare small and beautiful[145]--quite like good fairies.\n\n_Alchemical and Mystical Theory_\n\nIn the positive doctrines of mediaeval alchemists and mystics, e. g.\nParacelsus and the Rosicrucians, as well as their modern followers, the\nancient metaphysical ideas of Egypt, Greece, and Rome find a new\nexpression; and these doctrines raise the final problem--if there are\nany scientific grounds for believing in such pygmy nature-spirits as\nthese remarkable thinkers of the Middle Ages claim to have studied as\nbeings actually existing in nature. To some extent this interesting\nproblem will be examined in our chapter entitled _Science and Fairies_;\nhere we shall simply outline the metaphysical theory, adding the\ntestimony of some of its living advocates to explain the smallness of\nelvish spirits and fairies.\n\nThese mediaeval metaphysicians, inheritors of pre-Platonic, Platonic,\nand neo-Platonic teachings, purposely obscured their doctrines under a\ncovering of alchemical terms, so as to safeguard themselves against\npersecution, open discussion of occultism not being safe during the\nMiddle Ages, as it was among the ancients and happily is now again in\nour own generation. But they were quite scientific in their methods, for\nthey divided all invisible beings into four distinct classes: the\nAngels, who in character and function are parallel to the gods of the\nancients, and equal to the Tuatha De Danann of the Irish, are the\nhighest; below them are the Devils or Demons, who correspond to the\nfallen angels of Christianity; the third class includes all Elementals,\nsub-human Nature-Spirits, who are generally regarded as having pygmy\nstature, like the Greek daemons; and the fourth division comprises the\nSouls of the Dead, and the shades or ghosts of the dead.\n\nFor us, the third class, which includes spirits of pygmy-like form, is\nthe most important in this present discussion. All its members are of\nfour kinds, according as they inhabit one of the four chief elements of\nnature.[146] Those inhabiting the earth are called Gnomes. They are\ndefinitely of pygmy stature, and friendly to man, and in fairy-lore\nordinarily correspond to mine-haunting fairies or goblins, to pixies,\n_corrigans_, leprechauns, and to such elves as live in rocks, caverns,\nor earth--an important consideration entirely overlooked by champions of\nthe Pygmy Theory. Those inhabiting the air are called Sylphs. These\nSylphs, commonly described as little spirits like pygmies in form,\ncorrespond to most of the fairies who are not of the Tuatha De Danann or\n'gentry' type, and who as a race are beautiful and graceful. They are\nquite like the fairies in Shakespeare's _Midsummer-Night's Dream_; and\nespecially like the aerials in _The Tempest_, which, according to Mr.\nMorton Luce, a commentator on the drama, seem to have been shaped by\nShakespeare from his knowledge of Rosicrucian occultism, in which such\nspirits hold an important place. Those inhabiting the water are called\nUndines, and correspond exactly to the fairies who live in sacred\nfountains, lakes, or rivers. And the fourth kind, those inhabiting the\nfire, are called Salamanders, and seldom appear in the Celtic\nFairy-Faith: they are supreme in the elementary hierarchies. All these\nElementals, who procreate after the manner of men, are said to have\nbodies of an elastic half-material essence, which is sufficiently\nethereal not to be visible to the physical sight, and probably\ncomparable to matter in the form of invisible gases. Mr. W. B. Yeats has\ngiven this explanation:--'Many poets, and all mystic and occult writers,\nin all ages and countries, have declared that behind the visible are\nchains on chains of conscious beings, who are not of heaven but of the\nearth, who have no inherent form, but change according to their whim, or\nthe mind that sees them. You cannot lift your hand without influencing\nand being influenced by hordes. The visible world is merely their skin.\nIn dreams we go amongst them, and play with them, and combat with them.\nThey are, perhaps, human souls in the crucible--these creatures of\nwhim.'[147] And bringing this into relation with ordinary fairies, he\nsays:--'Do not think the fairies are always little. Everything is\ncapricious about them, even their size. They seem to take what size or\nshape pleases them.'[147] In _The Celtic Twilight_ Mr. Yeats makes the\nstatement that the 'fairies in Ireland are sometimes as big as we are,\nsometimes bigger, and sometimes, as I have been told, about three feet\nhigh.'[148]\n\nMrs. X, a cultured Irishwoman now living in County Dublin, who as a\npercipient fulfils all the exacting requirements which psychologists and\npathologists would demand, tells me that very frequently she has had\nvisions of fairy beings in Ireland, and her own classification and\ndescription of these fairy beings, chiefly according to their stature,\nare as follows:--'Among the usually invisible races which I have seen in\nIreland, I distinguish five classes. (1) There are the Gnomes, who are\nearth-spirits, and who seem to be a sorrowful race. I once saw some of\nthem distinctly on the side of Ben Bulbin. They had rather round heads\nand dark thick-set bodies, and in stature were about two and one-half\nfeet. (2) The Leprechauns are different, being full of mischief, though\nthey, too, are small. I followed a leprechaun from the town of Wicklow\nout to the _Carraig Sidhe_, \"Rock of the Fairies,\" a distance of half a\nmile or more, where he disappeared. He had a very merry face, and\nbeckoned to me with his finger. (3) A third class are the Little People,\nwho, unlike the Gnomes and Leprechauns, are quite good-looking; and they\nare very small. (4) The Good People are tall beautiful beings, as tall\nas ourselves, to judge by those I saw at the _rath_ in Rosses Point.\nThey direct the magnetic currents of the earth. (5) The Gods are really\nthe Tuatha De Danann, and they are much taller than our race. There may\nbe many other classes of invisible beings which I do not know.'\n(Recorded on October 16, 1910.)\n\nAnd independently of the Celtic peoples there is available very much\ntestimony of the most reliable character from modern disciples of the\nmediaeval occultists, e. g. the Rosicrucians, and the Theosophists, that\nthere exist in nature invisible spiritual beings of pygmy stature and of\nvarious forms and characters, comparable in all respects to the little\npeople of Celtic folk-lore. How all this is parallel to the Celtic\nFairy-Faith is perfectly evident, and no comment of ours is\nnecessary.[149]\n\nThis point of view, presented by mediaeval and modern occult sciences\nand confirmed by Celtic and non-Celtic percipients, when considered in\nrelation to its non-Celtic sources and then at once contrasted with\nancient and modern Celtic beliefs of the same character which constitute\nit--to be seen in the above Gaelic and Brythonic manuscript and other\nevidence, and in C\u00e6dmon's theory that angels are small beings--plunges\nus into the very complex and extremely difficult problem how far fairies\nas pygmy spirits may be purely Celtic, and how far they may reflect\nbeliefs not Celtic. The problem, however, is far too complicated to be\ndiscussed here; and one may briefly say that there seems to have been a\ntime in the evolution of animism when the ancient Celts of Britain, of\nIreland, and of Continental Europe too, held, in common with the ancient\nGreeks, Romans, and Teutons, an original Aryan doctrine. This doctrine,\nafter these four stocks separated in possession of it, began to evolve\nits four specialized aspects which we now can study; and in the Irish\nUniversities of the early Christian centuries, when Ireland was the\ncentre of European learning, the classical and Celtic aspects of it met\nfor the first time since their prehistoric divorcement. There, as is\nclearly seen later among the mediaeval alchemists and occultists, a new\ninfluence--from Christian theology--was superadded to the ancient\nanimistic beliefs of Europe as they had evolved up to that time.\n\n_Conclusion_\n\nThe ethnological argument, after allowing for all its shortcomings,\nsuggests that small-statured races like Lapps and Eskimos (though not\nnecessarily true pygmy races, of whose existence in Europe there is no\nproof available) did once inhabit lands where there are Celts, and that\na Celtic folk-memory of these could conceivably have originated a belief\nin certain kinds of fairies, and thus have been a shaping influence in\nthe animistic traditions about other fairies. The animistic argument\nshows that pygmies described in Celtic literature and in Celtic and\nnon-Celtic mythologies are nearly always to be thought of as non-human\nspirits; and that there is now and was in past ages a world-wide belief\nthat the human soul is in stature a pygmy. The philosophical argument of\nalchemists and mystics, in a way, draws to itself the animistic\nargument, and sets up the hypothesis that the smallness of elves and\nfairies is due to their own nature, because they actually exist as\ninvisible tribes of non-human beings of pygmy size and form.\n\n\nTHE CHANGELING BELIEF\n\nThe smallness of fairies, which has just been considered, and the belief\nin changelings are the two most prominent characteristics of the\nFairy-Faith, according to our evidence in chapter ii; and we are now to\nconsider the second. The prevalent and apparently the only important\ntheories which are current to explain this belief in changelings may be\ndesignated as the Kidnap Theory and the Human-Sacrifice Theory. These we\nshall proceed to estimate, after which there will be introduced newer\nand seemingly more adequate theories.\n\n_Kidnap Theory_\n\nSome writers have argued that the changeling belief merely reflects a\ntime when the aboriginal pre-Celtic peoples held in subjection by the\nCelts, and forced to live in mountain caverns and in secret retreats\nunderground, occasionally kidnapped the children of their conquerors,\nand that such kidnapped children sometimes escaped and told to their\nCeltic kinsmen highly romantic tales about having been in an underground\nfairy-world with fairies. Frequently this argument has taken a slightly\ndifferent form: that instead of unfriendly pre-Celtic peoples it was\nmagic-working Druids who--either through their own choice or else,\nhaving been driven to bay by the spread of Christianity, through force\nof circumstances--dwelt in secret in chambered mounds or souterrains, or\nin dense forests, and then stole young people for recruits, sometimes\npermitting them, years afterwards, when too old to be of further use, to\nreturn home under an inviolable vow of secrecy.[150] And Mr. David\nMacRitchie in supporting his own Pygmy Theory has made interesting\nmodern elaborations of these two slightly different theories concerning\nchangelings.[151]\n\nAs already pointed out, there are definite ethnological elements blended\nin the other parts of the complex Fairy-Faith; and so in this part of\nit, the changeling belief, there are conceivably more of such elements\nwhich lend some support to the Kidnap Theory. In itself, however, as we\nhope to show conclusively, the Theory, failing to grasp the essential\nand underlying character of this belief, does not adequately explain it.\n\n_Human-Sacrifice Theory_\n\nAlfred Nutt advanced a theory, which anticipated one part of our own,\nthat 'the changeling story is found to be connected with the antique\nconception of life and sacrifice'. And he wrote:--'It is at least\npossible that the sickly and ailing would be rejected when the time came\nfor each family to supply its quota of victims, and this might easily\ntranslate itself in the folk-memory into the statement that the fairies\nhad carried off the healthy' (alone acceptable as sacrifice) 'and left\nin exchange the sickly.'[152] Though our evidence will not permit us to\naccept the theory (why it will not will be clear as we proceed) that\nsome such sacrificial customs among the ancient Celts entirely account\nfor the changeling story, yet we consider it highly probable that the\ntheory helps to explain particular aspects of the complex tradition, and\nthat the underlying philosophy of sacrifice extended in an animistic\nway, as we shall try to extend it, probably offers more complete\nexplanation.\n\nThus, the Mexicans believed that the souls of all sacrificed children\nwent to live with the god Tlaloc in his heaven-world.[153] Among the\nGreeks, a sacrificed victim appears to have been sent as a messenger,\nbearing a message repeated to him before death to some god.[154] On the\nfuneral pile of Patroclus were laid Trojan captives, together with\nhorses and hounds, a practice corresponding to that of American Red Men;\nthe idea being that the sacrificed Trojans and the horses and hounds as\nwell, were thus sent to serve the slain warriors in the otherworld.\nAmong ourselves in Europe and in America it is not uncommon to read in\nthe daily newspaper about a suicide as resulting from the belief that\ndeath alone can bring union with a deceased sweetheart or loved one.\nThese examples, and very many parallel ones to be found the world over,\nseem to furnish the key to the theory of sacrifice: namely, that by\nextinguishing life in this world it is transmitted to the world of the\ngods, spirits, and the dead.\n\nBoth Sir John Rhys and D'Arbois de Jubainville have shown that the\nIrish were wont to sacrifice the first-born of children and of\nflocks.[155] O'Curry points out a clear case of human sacrifice at an\nancient Irish funeral[156]:--'Fiachra then brought fifty hostages with\nhim from Munster'; and, when he died, 'the hostages which he brought\nfrom the south were buried alive around the _Fert_ (burial mound) of\nFiachra.' More commonly the ancient Celts seem to have made sacrifices\nto appease place-spirits before the erection of a new building, by\nsending to them through death the soul of a youth (see p. 436).\n\nIt is in such animistic beliefs as these, which underlie sacrifice, that\nwe find a partial solution of the problem of changeling belief. But the\nsacrifice theory is also inadequate; for, though changelings may in some\ncases in ancient times have conceivably been the sickly children\ndiscarded by priests as unfit for sending to the gods or fairies, how\ncan we explain actual changelings to be met with to-day in all Celtic\nlands? Some other hypothesis is evidently necessary.\n\n_Soul-Wandering Theory_\n\nComparative study shows that non-Celtic changeling beliefs parallel to\nthose of the Celts exist almost everywhere, that they centre round the\nprimitive idea that the human soul can be abstracted from the body by\ndisembodied spirits and by magicians, and that they do not depend upon\nthe sacrifice theory, though animistically closely related to it. For\nexample, according to the Lepers' Islanders, ghosts steal men--as\nfairies do--'to add them to their company; and if a man has left\nchildren when he died, one of whom sickens afterwards, it is said that\nthe dead father takes it.'[157] In Banks Island, Polynesia, the ghost of\na woman who has died in childbirth is greatly dreaded: as long as her\nchild is on earth she cannot proceed to Panoi, the otherworld; and the\nrelatives take her child to another house, 'because they know that the\nmother will come back to take its soul.'[158] When a Motlav child\nsneezes, the mother will cry, 'Let him come back into the world! let him\nremain.' Under similar circumstances in Mota, the cry is, 'Live; roll\nback to us!' 'The notion is that a ghost is drawing a child's soul\naway.' If the child falls ill the attempt has succeeded, and a wizard\nthrows himself into a trance and goes to the ghost-world to bring the\nchild's soul back.[159] In the islands of Kei and Kisar a belief\nprevails that the spirits of the dead can take to themselves the souls\nof the living who go near the graves.[160] Sometimes a Polynesian mother\ninsists on being buried with her dead child; or a surviving wife with\nher dead husband, so that there will be no separation.[161] These last\npractices help to illustrate the Celtic theory behind the belief that\nfairies can abduct adults.\n\nThroughout Melanesia sickness is generally attributed to the soul's\nabsence from the body, and this state of disembodiment is believed to be\ndue to some ghost's or spirit's interference,[162] just as among Celts\nsickness is often thought to be due to fairies having taken the soul to\nFairyland. An old Irish piper who came up to Lady Gregory's home at\nCoole Park told us that a certain relative of his, a woman, had lain in\na semi-conscious state of illness for months, and that when she\nrecovered full consciousness she declared she had been with the 'good\npeople'.\n\nFolk-beliefs like all the above, which more adequately explain the\nchangeling idea than the Human-Sacrifice Theory, are world-wide, being\nat once Celtic and non-Celtic.[163]\n\n_Demon-Possession Theory_\n\nThere has been among many peoples, primitive and civilized, a\ncomplementary belief to the one that evil spirits or ghosts may steal a\nsoul and so cause in the vacated body illness if the abduction is\ntemporary, and death if it is permanent: namely, a belief that demons,\nwho sometimes may be souls of the dead, can possess a human body while\nthe soul is out of it during sleep, or else can expel the soul and\noccupy its place.[164] When complete possession of this character takes\nplace there is--as in 'mediumship'--a change of personality, and the\nmanner, thoughts, actions, language, and the whole nature of the\npossessed person are radically changed. Sometimes a foreign tongue, of\nwhich the subject is ignorant, is fluently spoken. When the possession\nis an evil one, as Dr. Nevius has observed in China, where the phenomena\nare common, the change of character is in the direction of immorality,\nfrequently in strong contrast with the character of the subject under\nnormal conditions, and is often accompanied by paroxysms and contortions\nof the body, as I have often been solemnly assured by Celts is the case\nin a changeling. (See M. Le Scour's account on page 198, of three\nchangelings that he saw in one family in Finist\u00e8re; and compare what is\nsaid about fairy changelings in Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales,\nand Cornwall.)\n\nA conception like that among the Chinese, of how an evil spirit may\ndispossess the soul inhabiting a child's or adult's body, seems to be\nthe basis and original conception behind the fairy-changeling belief in\nall Celtic and other countries. When a child has been changed by\nfairies, and an old fairy left in its place, the child has been,\naccording to this theory, dispossessed of its body by an evil fairy,\nwhich a Chinaman calls a demon, while the leaving behind of the old\nfairy accounts for the changed personality and changed facial expression\nof the demon-possessed infant. The Chinese demon enters into and takes\ncomplete possession of the child's body while the child's soul is out of\nit during sleep--and all fairies make changelings when a babe is asleep\nin its cradle at night, or during the day when it is left alone for a\nshort time. The Chinese child-soul is then unable to return into its\nbody until some kind of magical ceremony or exorcism expels the\npossessing demon; and through precisely similar methods, often aided by\nChristian priests, Celts cure changelings made by fairies, pixies, and\n_corrigans_. In the following account, therefore, apparently lies the\nroot explanation of the puzzling beliefs concerning fairy changelings so\ncommonly met with in the Celtic Fairy-Faith:--'To avert the calamity of\nnursing a demon, dried banana-skin is burnt to ashes, which are then\nmixed with water. Into this the mother dips her finger and paints a\ncross upon the sleeping babe's forehead. In a short time the demon soul\nreturns--for the soul wanders from the body during sleep and is\nfree--but, failing to recognize the body thus disguised, flies off. The\ntrue soul, which has been waiting for an opportunity, now approaches the\ndormant body, and, if the mark has been washed off in time, takes\npossession of it; but if not, it, like the demon, failing to recognize\nthe body, departs, and the child dies in its sleep.'[165]\n\nIn relation to this Demon-Possession Theory, the writer has had the\nopportunity of observing carefully some living changelings among the\nCelts, and is convinced that in many such cases there is an undoubted\nbelief expressed by the parents and friends that fairy-possession has\ntaken place. This belief often translates itself naturally into the\nfolk-theory that the body of the child has also been changed, when\nexamination proves only a change of personality as recognized by\npsychologists; or, in a distinct type of changelings, those who exhibit\ngreat precocity in childhood combined with an old and wizened\ncountenance, there is neither a changed personality nor\ndemon-possession, but simply some abnormal physical or mental condition,\nin the nature of cretinism, atrophy, marasmus, or arrested development.\nOne of the most striking examples of a changeling exists at\nPlouharnel-Carnac, Brittany, where there is now living a dwarf Breton\nwhom I have photographed and talked with, and who may possibly combine\nin himself both the abnormal psychical and the abnormal pathological\nconditions. He is no taller than a normal child ten years old, but being\nover thirty years old he is thick-set, though not deformed. All the\npeasants who know him call him 'the Little _Corrigan_', and his own\nmother declares that he is not the child she gave birth to. He once said\nto me with a kind of pathetic protest, 'Did M. ---- tell you that I am a\ndemon?'\n\n_Conclusion_\n\nThe Kidnap Theory, resting entirely upon the ethnological and social or\npsychological elements which we have elsewhere pointed out as existing\nin the superficial aspects of the essentially animistic Fairy-Faith as a\nwhole, is accordingly limited in its explanation of this specialized\npart of the Fairy-Faith, the changeling belief, to these same elements\nwhich may exist in the changeling belief. And, on the showing of\nanthropology, the other theories undoubtedly offer a more adequate\nexplanation.\n\nBy means of sacrifice, according to its underlying philosophy, man is\nable to transmit souls from this world to the world where dwell the gods\nand fairy-folk both good and evil. Thus, had Abraham sacrificed Isaac,\nthe soul of Isaac would have been taken to heaven by Jehovah as fairies\ntake souls to Fairyland through death. But the difference is that in\nhuman sacrifice men do voluntarily and for specific religious ends what\nvarious kinds of fairies or spirits would do without human intervention\nand often maliciously, as our review of ancient and modern theories of\nsacrifice has shown. Gods and fairies are spiritual beings; hence only\nthe spiritual part of man can be delivered over to them.\n\nMelanesians and other peoples whose changeling beliefs have now been\nexamined, regard all illness and death as the result of spirit\ninterference; while Celts regard strange maladies in children and in\nadults as the result of fairy interference. And to no Celt is death in\nearly life a natural thing: if it comes to a child or to a beautiful\nyouth in any way whatsoever, the fairies have taken what they coveted.\nIn all mythologies gods have always enjoyed the companionship of\nbeautiful maidens, and goddesses the love of heroic youths; and they\nhave often taken them to their world as the Tuatha De Danann took the\ngreat heroes of the ancient Celts to the Otherworld or Avalon, and as\nthey still in the character of modern fairies abduct brides and young\nmothers, and bridegrooms or other attractive young men whom they wish to\nhave with them in Fairyland (see our chapters iv-vi).\n\nWhere sacrifice or death has not brought about such complete transfer or\nabduction of the soul to the fairy world, there is only a temporary\nabsence from human society; and, meanwhile, the vacated body is under a\nfairy spell and lies ill, or unconscious if there is a trance state. If\nthe body is an infant's, a fairy may possess it, as in the Chinese\ntheory of demon-possession. In such cases the Celts often think that the\nliving body is that of another child once _taken_ but since grown too\nold for Fairyland; though the rational explanation frequently is purely\npathological. Looked at philosophically, a fairy exchange of this kind\nis fair and evenly balanced, and there has been no true robbery. And in\nthis aspect of the changeling creed--an aspect of it purely\nCeltic--there seems to be still another influence apart from human\nsacrifice, soul-abductions, demon or fairy-possession, and disease;\nnamely, a greatly corrupted folk-memory of an ancient re-birth doctrine:\nthe living are taken to the dead or the fairies and then sent back\nagain, after the manner of Socrates' argument that the living come from\nthe dead and the dead from the living (cf. our chapter vii). In all such\nexchanges, the economy of Nature demands that the balance between the\ntwo worlds be maintained: hence there arose the theories of human\nsacrifice, of soul abduction, of demon or fairy-possession; and in all\nthese collectively is to be found the complete psychological explanation\nof the fairy-changeling and fairy-abduction beliefs among ancient and\nmodern Celts as these show themselves in the Fairy-Faith. All remaining\nclasses of changelings, which fall outside the scope of this clearly\ndefined psychological theory, are to be explained pathologically.\n\n\nMAGIC AND WITCHCRAFT\n\nThe evidence from each Celtic country shows very clearly that magic and\nwitchcraft are inseparably blended in the Fairy-Faith, and that human\nbeings, i. e. 'charmers,' _dynion hysbys_, and other magicians, and\nsorceresses, are often enabled through the aid of fairies to perform the\nsame magical acts as fairies; or, again, like Christian priests who use\nexorcisms, they are able, acting independently, to counteract fairy\npower, thereby preventing changelings or curing them, saving churnings,\nhealing man or beast of 'fairy-strokes', and, in short, nullifying all\nundesirable influences emanating from the fairy world. A correct\ninterpretation of these magical elements so prominent in the Fairy-Faith\nis of fundamental importance, because if made it will set us on one of\nthe main psychical highways which traverse the vast territory of our\nanthropological inquiry. Let us, then, undertake such an interpretation,\nfirst setting up, as we must, some sort of working hypothesis as to what\nmagic is, witchcraft being assumed to be a part of magic.\n\n_Theories of Modern Anthropologists_\n\nWe may define magic, as understood by ancients and moderns, civilized or\nnon-civilized, apart from conjuring, which is mere jugglery and\ndeception of the senses, as the art of controlling for particular ends\nvarious kinds of invisible forces, often, and, as we hold, generally\nthought of as intelligent spirits. This is somewhat opposed to Mr.\nMarett's point of view, which emphasizes 'pre-animistic influences',\ni. e. 'powers to which the animistic form is very vaguely attributed if\nat all.' And, in dealing with the anthropological aspects of\nspell-casting in magical operations, Mr. Marett conceives such a magical\nact to be in relation to the magician 'generically, a projection of\nimperative will, and specifically one that moves on a supernormal\nplane', and the victim's position towards this invisible projected force\nto be 'a position compatible with _rapport_'.[166] He also thinks it\nprobable that the essence of the magician's supernormal power lies in\nwhat Melanesians call _mana_.[166] In our opinion _mana_ may be equated\nwith what William James, writing of his attitude toward psychical\nphenomena, called a universally diffused 'soul-stuff' leaking through,\nso to speak, and expressing itself in the human individual.[167] On this\nview, Mr. Marett's theory would amount to saying that magicians are able\nto produce magical effects because they are able to control this\n'soul-stuff'; and our evidence would regard all spirits and fairies as\nportions of such universally diffused _mana_, 'soul-stuff', or, as\nFechner might call it, the 'Soul of the World'. Moreover, in essence,\nsuch an idea of magic coincides, when carefully examined, with what\nancient thinkers like Plato, Iamblichus, the Neo-Platonists generally,\nand mediaeval magicians like Paracelsus and Eliphas Levi, called magic;\nand agrees with ancient Celtic magic--judging from what Roman historians\nhave recorded concerning it, and from Celtic manuscripts themselves.\n\nOther modern anthropologists have set up far less satisfactory\ndefinitions of magic. According to Dr. Frazer, for example, magic\nassumes, as natural science does, that 'one event follows another\nnecessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual or\npersonal agency'.[168] Such a theory is not supported by the facts of\nanthropology; and does not even apply to those specialized and often\nsuperficial kinds of magic classed under it by Dr. Frazer as\n'sympathetic and imitative magic', i. e. that through which like produces\nlike, or part produces whole. To our mind, sympathetic and imitative\nmagic (to leave out of account many fallacious and irrational\nritualistic practices, which Dr. Frazer includes under these loose\nterms), _when genuine_, in their varied aspects are directly dependent\nupon hypnotic states, upon telepathy, mind-reading, mental suggestion,\nassociation of ideas, and similar processes; in short, are due to the\noperation of mind on mind and will on will, and, moreover, are\nrecognized by primitive races to have this fundamental character. Or,\naccording to the Fairy-Faith, they are caused by a fairy or disembodied\nspirit acting upon an embodied one, a man or woman; and not, as Dr.\nFrazer holds, through 'mistaken applications of one or other of two\ngreat fundamental laws of thought, namely, the association of ideas by\nsimilarity and the association of ideas by contiguity in space or\ntime'.[169]\n\nThe mechanical causation theory of magic, as thus set forth in _The\nGolden Bough_, does not imply _mana_ or will-power, as Mr. Marett's more\nadequate theory does in part: Dr. Frazer wishes us to regard animistic\nreligious practices as distinct from magic.[170] Nevertheless, in direct\nopposition to Dr. Frazer's view, the weight of the evidence from the\npast and from the present, which we are about to offer, is decidedly\nfavourable to our regarding magic and religion as complementary to one\nanother and, for all ordinary purposes of the anthropologist, as in\nprinciple the same. The testimony touching magicians in all ages, Celtic\nmagic and witchcraft as well, besides that resulting from modern\npsychical research, tends to establish an almost exclusively animistic\nhypothesis to account for fairy magical phenomena and like phenomena\namong human beings; and with these phenomena we are solely concerned.\n\n_Among the Ancients_[171]\n\nAmong the more cultured Greeks and Romans--and the same can be said of\nmost great nations of antiquity--it was an unquestioned belief that\ninnumerable gods, placed in hierarchies, form part of an unbroken\nspiritual chain at the lowest end of which stands man, and at the\nhighest the incomprehensible Supreme Deity. These gods, having their\nabodes throughout the Universe, act as the agents of the Unknown God,\ndirecting the operation of His cosmic laws and animating every star and\nplanet. Inferior to these gods, and to man also, the ancients believed\nthere to be innumerable hosts of invisible beings, called by them\ndaemons, who, acting as the servants of the gods, control, and thus in a\nsecondary sense create, all the minor phenomena of inanimate and animate\nnature, such as tempests, atmospheric disturbances generally, the\nfailure of crops or their abundance, maladies and their cure, good and\nevil passions in men, wars and peace, and all the blessings and curses\nwhich affect the purely human life.\n\nMan, being of the god-race and thus superior to these lower, servile\nentities, could, like the gods, control them if adept in the magical\nsciences; for ancient Magic, about which so much has been written and\nabout which so little has been understood by most people in ancient,\nmediaeval, and modern times, is according to the wisest ancients nothing\nmore than the controlling of daemons, shades, and all sorts of secondary\nspirits or elementals by men specially trained for that purpose.\nSufficient records are extant to make it evident that the fundamental\ntraining of Egyptian, Indian, Assyrian, Greek, Roman, and Druid priests\nwas in the magical or occult sciences. Pliny, in his _Natural History_,\nsays:--'And to-day Britain practises the art [of magic] with religious\nawe and with so many ceremonies that it might seem to have made the art\nknown to the Persians.'[172] Herein, then, is direct evidence that the\nCeltic Fairy-Faith, considered in its true psychic nature, has been\nimmediately shaped by the ancient Celtic religion; and, as our witness\nfrom the Isle of Skye so clearly set forth, that it originated among a\ncultured class of the Celts more than among the peasants. And, in\naccordance with this evidence, Professor Georges Dottin, who has made a\nspecial study of the historical records concerning Druidism,\nwrites:--'The Druids of Ireland appear to us above all as magicians and\nprophets. They foretell the future, they interpret the secret will of\nthe _f\u00e9es_ (fairies), they cast lots.'[173] Thus, in spite of the\npopular and Christian reshaping which the belief in fairies has had to\nendure, its origin is easily enough discerned even in its modern form,\ncovered over though this is with accretions foreign to its primal\ncharacter.\n\nMagic was the supreme science because it raised its adepts out of the\nordinary levels of humanity to a close relationship with the gods and\ncreative powers. Nor was it a science to be had for the asking, 'for\nmany were the wand-bearers and few the chosen.' Roman writers tell us\nthat neophytes for the druidic priesthood often spent twenty years in\nsevere study and training before being deemed fit to be called Druids.\nWe need not, however, in this study enter into an exposition of the\nordeals and trials of candidates seeking magical training, or else\ninitiation into the Mysteries. There were always two schools to which\nthey could apply, directly opposed in their government and policy--the\nschool of white magic and the school of black magic; the former being a\nschool in which magical powers were used in religious rites and always\nfor good ends, the latter a school in which all magical powers were used\nfor wholly selfish and evil ends. In both schools the preliminary\ntraining was the same; that is to say, the first thing taught to the\nneophyte was self-control. When he proved himself absolutely his own\nmaster, when his teachers were certain that he could not be dominated by\nanother will or by any outside or psychic influence, then for the first\ntime he was permitted to exercise his own iron will in controlling\ndaemons, ghosts, and all the elemental hosts of the air--either as a\nwhite magician or as a black magician.[174]\n\nThe magical sciences taught (an idea which still holds its ground, as\none can discover in modern India) that by formulas of invocation, by\nchants, by magic sounds, by music, these invisible beings can be made to\nobey the will of the magician even as they obey the will of the gods.\nThe calling up of the dead and talking with them is called necromancy;\nthe foretelling through spiritual agency and otherwise of coming events\nor things hidden, like the outcome of a battle, is called divination;\nthe employment of charms against children so as to prevent their growing\nis known as fascination; to cause any ill fortune or death to fall upon\nanother person by magic is sorcery; to excite the sexual passions of man\nor woman, magical mixtures called philtres are used. Almost all these\ndefinitions apply to the practices of black magic. But the great schools\nknown as the Mysteries were of white magic, in so far as they practised\nthe art; and such men as Pythagoras, Plato, and Aeschylus, who are\nsupposed to have been initiated into them, always held them in the\nhighest reverence, though prohibited from directly communicating\nanything of their esoteric teachings concerning the origin and destiny\nof man, the nature of the gods, and the constitution of the universe and\nits laws.\n\nIn Plato's _Banquet_ the power or function of the daemonic element in\nnature is explained. Socrates asks of the prophetess Diotima what is the\npower of the daemonic element (personified as Love for the purposes of\nthe argument), and she replies:--'He interprets between gods and men,\nconveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of\nmen, and to men the commands and replies of the gods; he is the mediator\nwho spans the chasm which divides them, and therefore in him all is\nbound together, and through him the arts of the prophets and priests,\ntheir sacrifices and mysteries and charms, and all prophecy and\nincantation find their way. For God mingles not with man; but through\nthe daemonic element (or Love) all the intercourse and converse of God\nwith man, whether awake or asleep, is carried on. The wisdom which\nunderstands this is spiritual.'[175]\n\n_Among the Ancient Celts_\n\nIf we turn now directly to Celtic magic in ancient times, we discover\nthat the testimony of Pliny is curiously confirmed by Celtic\nmanuscripts, chiefly Irish ones, and that then, as now, witchcraft and\nfairy powers over men and women are indistinguishable in their general\ncharacter. Thus, in the _Echtra Condla_, 'the Adventures of Connla,' the\nfairy woman says of Druidism and magic:--'Druidism is not loved, little\nhas it progressed to honour on the Great Strand. When his law shall come\nit will scatter the charms of Druids _from journeying on the lips of\nblack, lying demons_'--so characterized by the Christian\ntranscribers.[176] In _How Fionn Found his Missing Men_, an ancient tale\npreserved by oral tradition until recorded by Campbell, it is said that\n'Fionn then went out with Bran (his fairy dog). There were millions of\npeople (apparitions) out before him, called up by some sleight of\nhand'.[177] In the _Leabhar na h-Uidre_, or 'Book of the Dun Cow' (p. 43\na), compiled from older manuscripts about A. D. 1100, there is a clear\nexample of Irish fetishism based on belief in the power of demons:--'...\nfor their swords used to turn against them (the Ulstermen) when they made\na false trophy. Reasonable [was] this; for demons used to speak to them\nfrom their arms, so that hence their arms were safeguards.'[178]\n\nShape-shifting quite after the fairy fashion is very frequently met\nwith in old Celtic literature. Thus, in the Rennes _Dinnshenchas_ there\nis this passage showing that spirits or fairies were regarded as\nnecessary for the employment of magic:--'Folks were envious of them\n(Faifne the poet and his sister Aige): so they loosed elves at them who\ntransformed Aige into a fawn' (the form assumed by the fairy mother of\nOisin, see p. 299 n.), 'and sent her on a circuit all round Ireland, and\nthe fians of Meilge son of Cobthach, king of Ireland, killed her.'[179]\nA fact which ought to be noted in this connexion is that kings or great\nheroes, rather than ordinary men and women, are very commonly described\nas being able to shift their own shape, or that of other people; e. g.\n'Mongan took on himself the shape of Tibraide, and gave Mac an Daimh the\nshape of the cleric, with a large tonsure on his head.'[180] And when\nthis fact is coupled with another, namely the ancient belief that such\nkings and great heroes were incarnations and reincarnations of the\nTuatha De Danann, who form the supreme fairy hierarchy, we realize that,\nhaving such an origin, they were simply exercising in human bodies\npowers which their divine race exercise over men from the fairy world\n(see our chapter iv).\n\nIn Brythonic literature and mythology, magic and witchcraft with the\nsame animistic character play as great or even a greater r\u00f4le than in\nGaelic literature and mythology. This is especially true with respect to\nthe Arthurian Legend, and to the _Mabinogion_, some of which tales are\nregarded by scholars as versions of Irish ones. Sir John Rhys and\nProfessor J. Loth, who have been the chief translators of the\n_Mabinogion_, consider their chief literary machinery to be magic (see\nour chapter v).\n\nSo far it ought to be clear that Celtic magic contains much animism in\nits composition, and that these few illustrations of it, selected from\nnumerous illustrations in the ancient Fairy-Faith, confirm Pliny's\nindependent testimony that in his age the Britons seemed capable of\ninstructing even the Persians themselves in the magical arts.\n\n_European and American Witchcraft_\n\nIn a general way, the history of witchcraft in Europe and in the\nAmerican colonies is supplementary to what has already been said, seeing\nthat it is an offshoot of mediaeval magic, which in turn is an offshoot\nof ancient magic. Witchcraft in the West, in probably a majority of\ncases, is a mere fabric of absurd superstitions and practices--as it is\nshown to be by the evidence brought out in so many of the horrible legal\nand ecclesiastical processes conducted against helpless and eccentric\nold people, and other men and women, including the young, often for the\nsake of private revenge, and generally on no better foundation than\nhearsay and false accusations. In the remaining instances it undoubtedly\narose, as ancient witchcraft (black magic) seems to have arisen, through\nthe infiltration of occult knowledge into uneducated and often\ncriminally inclined minds, so that what had formerly been secretly\nguarded among the learned, and generally used for legitimate ends,\ndegenerated in the hands of the unfit into black magic. In our own age,\na parallel development, which adequately illustrates our subject of\ninquiry, has taken place in the United States: fragments of magical lore\nbequeathed by Mesmer and his immediate predecessors, the alchemists,\nwere practically and honestly applied to the practice of magnetic\nhealing and healing through mental suggestion by a small group of\npractitioners in Massachusetts, and then with much ingenuity and real\ngenius were applied by Mary Baker Eddy to the interpretation of\nmiraculous healing by Jesus Christ. Hence arose a new religion called\nChristian Science. But this religious movement did not stop at mental\nhealing: according to published reports, during the years 1908-9 the\nleader of the New York First Church of Christ, Scientist, was deposed,\nand, with certain of her close associates, was charged with having\nprojected daily against the late Mrs. Eddy's adjutant a current of\n'malicious animal magnetism' from New York to Boston, in order to bring\nabout his death. The process is said to have been for the deposed\nleader and her friends to sit together in a darkened room with their\neyes closed. 'Then one of them would say: \"You all know Mr. ----. You\nall know that his place is in the darkness whence he came. If his place\nis six feet under ground, that is where he should be.\" Then all present\nwould concentrate their minds on the one thought--Mr. ---- and six feet\nunder ground.' And this practice is supposed to have been kept up for\ndays. Mrs. ----, who gives this testimony, is a friend of the victim,\nand she asserts that these evil thought-waves slowly but surely began\nhis effacement, and that had the black magicians down in New York not\nbeen discovered in time, Mr. ---- could not have withstood the\nforces.[181] Perhaps so enlightened a country as the United States may\nin time see history repeat itself, and add a new chapter to witchcraft;\nfor the true witches were not the kind who are popularly supposed to\nride on broomsticks and to keep a house full of black cats, and the\nsooner this is recognized the better.\n\nAccording to this aspect of Christian Science, 'malicious animal\nmagnetism' (or black magic), an embodied spirit, i. e. a man or woman,\npossesses and can employ the same magical powers as a disembodied\nspirit--or, as the Celts would say, the same magical powers as a\nfairy--casting spells, and producing disease and death in the victim.\nAnd this view coincides with ordinary witchcraft theories; for witches\nhave been variously defined as embodied spirits who have ability to act\nin conjunction with disembodied spirits through the employment of\nvarious occult forces, e. g. forces comparable to Mesmer's odic forces,\nto the Melanesian _mana_, or to the 'soul-stuff' postulated by William\nJames, or, as Celts think, to forces focused in fairies themselves. So,\nalso, according to Mr. Marett's view, there is a state of _rapport_\nbetween the victim and the magician or witch; and where such a state of\n_rapport_ exists there is some _mana_-like force passing between the two\npoles of the magical circuit, whether it be only unconscious mental or\nelectrical force emanating from the operator, or an extraneous force\nbrought under control and concentrated in some such conscious unit as we\ndesignate by the term 'spirit', 'devil', or 'fairy'.\n\nIn conformity with this psychical or animistic view of witchcraft, in\nthe Capital Code of Connecticut (A. D. 1642) a witch is defined as one\nwho 'hath or consorteth with a familiar spirit'.[182] European codes, as\nillustrated by the sixth chapter of Lord Coke's _Third Institute_, have\nparallels to this definition:--'A witch is a person which hath\nconference with the devil; to consult with him to do some act.'[182] And\nupon these theories, not upon the broomstick and black-cat conception,\nwere based the trials for witchcraft during the seventeenth century.\n\nThe Bible, then so frequently the last court of appeal in such matters,\nwas found to sustain such theories about witches in the classical\nexample of the Witch of Endor and Saul; and the idea of witchcraft in\nEurope and America came to be based--as it probably always had been in\npagan times--on the theory that living persons could control or be\ncontrolled by disembodied spirits for evil ends. Hence all black\nmagicians, and what are now known as 'spirit mediums', were made liable\nby law to the death penalty.[183]\n\nIn mediaeval Europe the great difficulty always was, as is shown in the\ntrials of Jeanne d'Arc, to decide whether the invisible agent in magical\nprocesses, such as was imputed to the accused, was an angel or a demon.\nIf an angel, then the accused was a saint, and might become a candidate\nfor canonization; but if a demon, the accused was a witch, and liable to\na death-sentence. The wisest old doctors of the University of Paris, who\nsat in judgement (or were consulted) in one of Jeanne's trials, could\nnot fully decide this knotty problem, nor, apparently, the learned\nchurchmen who also tried her; but evidently they all agreed that it was\nbetter to waive the question. And, finally, an innocent peasant girl who\nhad heard Divine Voices, and who had thereby miraculously saved her king\nand her country, was burned at the stake, under the joint direction of\nEnglish civil and ecclesiastical authorities, and, if not technically,\nat least practically, with the full approval of the corresponding French\nauthorities, at Rouen, France, May 30, A. D. 1431.[184] In April, A. D.\n1909, almost five centuries afterwards, it has been decided with tardy\njustice that Jeanne's Voices were those of angels and not of demons, and\nshe has been made a saint.\n\nHow the case of Jeanne d'Arc bears directly upon the Fairy-Faith is\nself-evident: One of the first questions asked by Jeanne's inquisitors\nwas 'if she had any knowledge of those who went to the Sabbath with the\nfairies? or if she had not assisted at the assemblies held at the\nfountain of the fairies, near Domremy, around which dance malignant\nspirits?' And another question exactly as recorded was this:--'_Interrogu\u00e9e\ns'elle croiet point au devant de aujourduy, que les f\u00e9es feussent maulvais\nesperis: respond qu'elle n'en s\u00e7avoit rien._'[185]\n\n_Conclusion_\n\nFinally, we may say that what medicine-men are to American Indians, to\nPolynesians, Australians, Africans, Eskimos, and many other contemporary\nraces, or what the mightier magicians of modern India are to their\npeople, the 'fairy-doctors' and 'charmers' of Ireland, Scotland, and Man\nare to the Gaels, and the '_Dynion Hysbys_' or 'Wise Men' of Wales, the\nwitches of Cornwall, and the seers, sorceresses, and exorcists of\nBrittany are to the Brythons. These Gaelic and Brythonic magicians and\nwitches, and 'fairy mediums', almost invariably claim to derive their\npower from their ability to see and to communicate with fairies,\nspirits, and the dead; and they generally say that they are enabled\nthrough such spiritual agencies to reveal the past, to foretell the\nfuture, to locate lost property, to cast spells upon human beings and\nupon animals, to remove such spells, to cure fairy strokes and\nchangelings, to perform exorcisms, and to bring people back from\nFairyland.\n\nWe arrive at the following conclusion:--If, as eminent psychical\nresearchers now postulate (and as many of them believe), there are\nactive and intelligent disembodied beings able to act psychically upon\nembodied men in much the same way that embodied men are known ordinarily\nto act psychically upon one another, then there is every logical and\ncommon-sense reason for extending this psychical hypothesis so as to\ninclude the ancient, mediaeval, and modern theory of magic and\nwitchcraft, namely, that what embodied men and women can do in magical\nways, as for example in hypnotism, disembodied men and women can do.\nFurther, if fairies, in accord with reliable testimony from educated and\ncritical percipients, hypothetically exist (whatever their nature may\nbe), they may be possessed of magical powers of the same sort, and so\ncan cast spells upon or possess living human beings as Celts believe and\nassert. And this hypothesis coincides in most essentials with the one we\nused as a basis for this discussion, that, in accordance with the\nMelanesian doctrine of control of ghosts and spirits with their inherent\n_mana_, magical acts are possible.[186] This in turn applied to the\nCelts amounts to a hypothetical confirmation of the ancient druidical\ndoctrine that through control of fairies or demons (daemons) Druids or\nmagicians could control the weather and natural phenomena connected with\nvegetable and animal processes, could cast spells, could divine the\nfuture, could execute all magical acts.\n\n\nEXORCISMS\n\nAccording to the testimony of anthropology, exorcism as a religious\npractice has always flourished wherever animistic beliefs have furnished\nit with the necessary environment; and not only has exorcism been a\nfundamental part of religious practices in past ages, but it is so at\nthe present day. Among Christians, Celtic and non-Celtic, among\nfollowers of all the great historical religions, and especially among\nEast Indians, Chinese, American Red Men, Polynesians, and most Africans,\nthe expelling of demons from men and women, from animals, from inanimate\nobjects, and from places, is sanctioned by well-established rituals.\nExorcism as applied to the human race is thus defined in the\n_Dictionnaire de Th\u00e9ologie_ (Roman Catholic) by L'Abb\u00e9\nBergier:--'_Exorcism_--conjuration, prayer to God, and command given to\nthe demon to depart from the body of persons possessed.' The same\nauthority thus logically defends its practice by the Church:--'Far from\ncondemning the opinion of the Jews, who attributed to the demon certain\nmaladies, that divine Master confirmed it.'[187] And whenever exorcism\nof this character has been or is now generally practised, the\nprofessional exorcist appears as a personage just as necessary to\nsociety as the modern doctor, since nearly all diseases were and to some\nextent are still, both among Christians and non-Christians, very often\nthought to be the result of demon-possession.\n\nWhen we come to the dawn of the Christian period in Ireland and in\nScotland, we see Patrick and Columba, the first and greatest of the\nGaelic missionaries, very extensively practising exorcism; and there is\nevery reason to believe (though the data available on this point are\nsomewhat unsatisfactory) that their wide practice of exorcism was quite\nas much a Christian adaptation of pre-Christian Celtic exorcism, such as\nthe Druids practised, as it was a continuation of New Testament\ntradition. We may now present certain of the data which tend to verify\nthis supposition, and by means of them we shall be led to realize how\nfundamentally such an animistic practice as exorcism must have shaped\nthe Fairy-Faith of the Celts, both before and after the coming of\nChristianity.\n\n'Once upon a time,' so the tale runs about Patrick, 'his foster-mother\nwent to milk the cow. He also went with her to drink a draught of new\nmilk. Then the cow goes mad in the byre and killed five other kine: a\ndemon, namely, entered her. There was great sadness on his\nfoster-mother, and she told him to bring the kine back to life. Then he\nbrought the kine to life, so that they were whole, and he cured the mad\none. So God's name and Patrick's were magnified thereby.'[188] On\nanother occasion, when demons came to Ireland in the form of black\nbirds, quite after the manner of the Irish belief that fairies assume\nthe form of crows (see pp. 302-5), the Celtic ire of Patrick was so\naroused in trying to exorcize them out of the country that he threw his\nbell at them with such violence that it was cracked, and then he\nwept:--'Now at the end of those forty days and forty nights' [of\nPatrick's long fast on the summit of Cruachan Aigle or Croagh Patrick,\nIreland's Holy Mountain] 'the mountain was filled with black birds, so\nthat he knew not heaven or earth. He sang maledictive psalms at them.\nThey left him not because of this. Then his anger grew against them. He\nstrikes his bell at them, so that the men of Ireland heard its voice,\nand he flung it at them, so that a gap broke out of it, and that [bell]\nis \"Brigit's Gapling\". Then Patrick weeps till his face and his chasuble\nin front of him were wet. No demon came to the land of Erin after that\ntill the end of seven years and seven months and seven days and seven\nnights. Then the angel went to console Patrick and cleansed the\nchasuble, and brought white birds round the Rick, and they used to sing\nsweet melodies for him.'[188] In Adamnan's _Life of S. Columba_ it is\nsaid that 'according to custom', which in all probability was\nestablished in pagan times by the Druids and then maintained by their\nChristian descendants, it was usual to exorcize even a milk vessel\nbefore milking, and the milk in it afterwards.[189] Thus Adamnan tells\nus that one day a youth, Columban by name, when he had finished milking,\nwent to the door of St. Columba's cell carrying the pail full of new\nmilk that, _according to custom_, the saint might exorcize it. When the\nholy man had made the sign of the cross in the air, the air 'was greatly\nagitated, and the bar of the lid, driven through its two holes, was shot\naway to some distance; the lid fell to the ground, and most of the milk\nwas spilled on the soil.' Then the saint chided the youth,\nsaying:--'Thou hast done carelessly in thy work to-day; for thou hast\nnot cast out the demon that was lurking in the bottom of the empty pail,\nby tracing on it, before pouring in the milk, the sign of the Lord's\ncross; and now not enduring, thou seest, the virtue of the sign, he has\nquickly fled away in terror, while at the same time the whole of the\nvessel has been violently shaken, and the milk spilled. Bring then the\npail nearer to me, that I may bless it.' When the half-empty pail was\nblessed, in the same moment it was refilled with milk. At another time,\nthe saint, to destroy the practice of sorcery, commanded Silnan, a\npeasant sorcerer, to draw a vessel full of milk from a bull; and by his\ndiabolical art Silnan drew the milk. Then Columba took it and\nsaid:--'Now it shall be proved that this, which is supposed to be true\nmilk, is not so, but is blood deprived of its colour by the fraud of\ndemons to deceive men; and straightway the milky colour was turned into\nits own proper quality, that is, into blood.' And it is added that 'The\nbull also, which for the space of one hour was at death's door, wasting\nand worn by a horrible emaciation, in being sprinkled with water blessed\nby the Saint, was cured with wonderful rapidity.'[190]\n\nAnd to-day, as in the times of Patrick and Columba, exorcism is\npractised in Ireland and in the Western Hebrides of Scotland by the\nclergy of the Roman Church against fairies, demons, or evil spirits,\nwhen a person is possessed by them--that is to say, 'fairy-struck,' or\nwhen they have entered into some house or place; and on the Scotch\nmainland individual Protestants have been known to practise it. A\nhaunted house at Balechan, Perthshire, in which certain members of the\nPsychical Research Society had taken up summer quarters to\n'investigate', was exorcized by the late Archbishop of Edinburgh,\nassisted by a priest from the Outer Isles.[191]\n\nAmong the nine orders of the Irish ecclesiastical organization of\nPatrick's time, one was composed of exorcists.[192] The official\nceremony for the ordination of an exorcist in the Latin Church was\nestablished by the Fourth Council of Carthage, and is indicated in\nnearly all the ancient rituals. It consists in the bishop giving to the\ncandidate the book of exorcisms and saying as he does so:--'Receive and\nunderstand this book, and have the power of laying hands upon demoniacs,\nwhether they be baptized, or whether they be catechumens.'[193] By a\ndecree of the Church Council of Orange, making men possessed of a demon\nineligible to enter the priesthood, it would seem that the number of\ndemoniacs must have been very great.[193] As to the efficacy of\nexorcisms, the church Fathers during the first four centuries, when the\nPlatonic philosophy was most influential in Christianity, are\nagreed.[193]\n\nIn estimating the shaping influences, designated by us as fundamental,\nwhich undoubtedly were exerted upon the Fairy-Faith through the practice\nof exorcism, it is necessary to realize that this animistic practice\nholds a very important position in the Christian religion which for\ncenturies the Celtic peoples have professed. One of the two chief\nsacraments of Christianity, that of Baptism, is preceded by a definitely\nrecognized exorcism, as shown in the Roman Ritual, where we can best\nstudy it. In the Exhortation preceding the rite the infant is called a\nslave of the demon, and by baptism is to be set free. The salt which is\nplaced in the mouth of the infant by the priest during the ceremony has\nfirst been exorcized by special rites. Then there follows before the\nentrance to the baptismal font a regular exorcism pronounced over the\nchild: the priest taking some of his own saliva on the thumb of his\nright hand, touches the child's ears and nostrils, and commands the\ndemon to depart out of the child. After this part of the ceremony is\nfinished, the priest makes on the child's forehead a sign of the cross\nwith holy oil. Finally, in due order, comes the actual baptism.[194] And\neven after baptismal rites have expelled all possessing demons,\nprecautions are necessary against a repossession: St. Augustine has said\nthat exorcisms of precaution ought to be performed over every Christian\ndaily; and it appears that faithful Roman Catholics who each day employ\nholy water in making the sign of the cross, and all Protestants who pray\n'lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil', are employing\nsuch exorcisms:[195] St. Gregory of Nazianzus writes, 'Arm yourself with\nthe sign of the cross which the demons fear, and before which they take\ntheir flight'[196]; and by the same sign, said St. Athanasius, 'All the\nillusions of the demon are dissipated and all his snares\ndestroyed.'[197] An eminent Catholic theologian asserts that saints who,\nsince the time of Jesus Christ, have been endowed with the power of\nworking miracles, have always made use of the sign of the cross in\ndriving out demons, in curing maladies, and in raising the dead. In the\n_Instruction sur le Rituel_,[198] it is said that water which has been\nblessed is particularly designed to be used against demons; in the\n_Apostolic Constitutions_, formulated near the end of the fourth\ncentury, holy water is designated as a means of purification from sin\nand of putting the demon to flight.[199] And nowadays when the priest\npasses through his congregation casting over them holy water, it is as\nan exorcism of precaution; or when as in France each mourner at a grave\ncasts holy water over the corpse, it is undoubtedly--whether done\nconsciously as such or not--to protect the soul of the deceased from\ndemons who are held to have as great power over the dead as over the\nliving. Other forms of exorcism, too, are employed. For example, in the\n_Lebar Brecc_, it is said of the Holy Scripture that 'By it the snares\nof devils and vices are expelled from every faithful one in the\nChurch'.[200] And from all this direct testimony it seems to be clear\nthat many of the chief practices of Christians are exorcisms, so that,\nlike the religion of Zoroaster, the religion founded by Jesus has come\nto rest, at least in part, upon the basic recognition of an eternal\nwarfare between good and bad spirits for the control of Man.\n\nThe curing of diseases through Christian exorcism is by no means rare\nnow, and it was common a few centuries ago. Thus in the eighteenth\ncentury, beginning with 1752 and till his death, Gassner, a Roman priest\nof Closterle, diocese of Coire, Switzerland, devoted his life to curing\npeople of possessions, declaring that one third of all maladies are so\ncaused, and fixed his head-quarters at Elwangen, and later at Ratisbon.\nHis fame spread over many countries of Europe, and he is said to have\nmade ten thousand cures solely by exorcism.[201] And not only are human\nills overcome by exorcism, but also the maladies of beasts: at Carnac,\non September 13, there continues to be celebrated an annual f\u00eate in\nhonour of St. Cornely, the patron saint of the country and the saint who\n(as his name seems to suggest) presides over domestic _horned_ animals;\nand if there is a cow, or even a sheep suffering from some ailment which\nwill not yield to medicine, its owner leads it to the church door\nbeneath the saint's statue, and the priest blesses it, and, as he does\nso, casts over it the exorcizing holy water. The Church Ritual\ndesignates two forms of Benediction for such animals, one form for those\nwho are ordinarily diseased, and another for those suffering from some\ncontagious malady. In each ceremony there comes first the sprinkling of\nthe animal with holy water as it stands before the priest at the church\ndoor; and then there follows in Latin a direct invocation to God to\nbless the animal, 'to extinguish in it all diabolical powers,' to defend\nits life, and to restore it to health.[202]\n\nIn 1868, according to Dr. Evans, an old cow-house in North Wales was\ntorn down, and in its walls was found a tin box containing an exorcist's\nformula. The box and its enclosed manuscript had been hidden there some\nyears previously to ward off all evil spirits and witchcraft, for\nevidently the cattle had been dying of some strange malady which no\ndoctors could cure. Because of its unique nature, and as an illustration\nof what Welsh exorcisms must have been like, we quote the contents of\nthe manuscripts both as to spelling and punctuation as checked by Sir\nJohn Rhys with the original, except the undecipherable symbols which\ncome after the archangels' names:--\n\n  '[C] Lignum sanctae crusis defendat me a malis presentibus\n  preateritus & futuris; interioribus & exterioribus [C] [C]\n  Daniel Evans [C] [C] Omnes spiritus laudet Dominum: Mosen\n  habent & prophetas. Exergat Deus & disipenture inimiciessus\n  [C] \u00b7 [C] O Lord Jesus Christ I beseech thee to preserve\n  me Daniel Evans; and all that I possess from the power\n  of all evil men, women; spirits, or wizards, or hardness of\n  heart, and this I will trust thou will do by the same power\n  as thou didst cause the blind to see the lame to walk and\n  they that were possesed with unclean spirits to be in their\n  own minds Amen Amen [C] [C] [C] [C] pater pater pater Noster\n  Noster Noster aia aia aia Jesus [C] Christus [C] Messyas [C]\n  Emmanuel [C] Soter [C] Sabaoth [C] Elohim [C] on [C] Adonay\n  [C] Tetragrammaton [C] Ag : : [C] Panthon [C] ... reaton\n  [C] Agios [C] Jasper [C] Melchor [C] Balthasar Amen [C][C][C]\n  [*][J][*][V][*][M][T][S][T][J][T][Mo].[O][*][J][*][Mo][C][C] And by\n  the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Hevenly Angels\n                        being our Redeemer and Saviour from\n  Gabriel [_symbols_]   all witchcraft and from assaults of the\n  Michail [_symbols_]   Devil Amen [C] O Lord Jesus Christ\n  I beseech thee to preserve me and all that I possess from\n  the power of all evil men; women; spirits; or wizards\n  past, present, or to come inward and outward Amen [C] [C].'[203]\n\nFrom India Mr. W. Crooke reports similar exorcisms and charms to cure\nand to protect cattle.[204] Thus there is employed in Northern India the\n_Ajayp\u00e2l jantra_, i. e. 'the charm of the Invincible Protector,' one of\nVishnu's titles, in his character as the earth-god Bh\u00fbmiya--in Scotland\nit would be the charm of the Invincible Fairy who presides over the\nflocks and to whom libations are poured--in order to exorcize diseased\ncattle or else to prevent cattle from becoming diseased. This _Ajayp\u00e2l\njantra_ is a rope of twisted straw, in which chips of wood are inserted.\n'In the centre of the rope is suspended an earthen platter, inside which\nan incantation is inscribed with charcoal, and beside it is hung a bag\ncontaining seven kinds of grain.' The rope is stretched between two\npoles at the entrance of a village, and under it the cattle pass to and\nfro from pasture. The following is the incantation found on one of the\nearthen saucers:--'O Lord of the Earth on which this cattle-pen stands,\nprotect the cattle from death and disease! I know of none, save thee,\nwho can deliver them.' In the Morbihan, Lower Brittany, we seem to see\nthe same folk-custom, somewhat changed to be sure; for on St. John's\nDay, the christianized pagan sun-festival in honour of the summer\nsolstice, in which fairies and spirits play so prominent a part in all\nCeltic countries, just outside a country village a great fire is lit in\nthe centre of the main road and covered over with green branches, in\norder to produce plenty of smoke, and then on either side of this fire\nand through the exorcizing smoke are made to pass all the domestic\nanimals in the district as a protection against disease and evil\nspirits, to secure their fruitful increase, and, in the case of cows,\nabundant milk supply. Mr. Milne, while making excavations in the Carnac\ncountry, discovered the image of a small bronze cow, now in the Carnac\nMuseum, and this would seem to indicate that before Christian times\nthere was in the Morbihan a cult of cattle, preserved even until now,\nno doubt, in the Christian f\u00eate of St. Cornely, just as in St. Cornely's\nFountain there is preserved a pagan holy well.\n\nIt ought now to be clear that both pre-Christian and Christian exorcisms\namong Celts have shaped the Fairy-Faith in a very fundamental manner.\nAnd anthropologically the whole subject of exorcism falls in line with\nthe Psychological Theory of the nature and origin of the belief in\nfairies in Celtic countries.\n\n\nTABOOS\n\nWe find that taboos, or prohibitions of a religious and social\ncharacter, are as common in the living Fairy-Faith as exorcisms. The\nchief one is the taboo against naming the fairies, which inevitably\nresults in the use of euphemisms, such as 'good people', 'gentry',\n'people of peace', _Tylwyth Teg_ ('Fair Folk'), or _bonnes dames_ ('good\nladies'). A like sort of taboo, with its accompanying use of euphemisms,\nexisted among the Ancients, e. g. among the Egyptians and Babylonians,\nand early Celts as well, in a highly developed form; and it exists now\namong the native peoples of Australia, Polynesia, Central Africa,\nAmerica, in Indian systems of Yoga, among modern Greeks, and, in fact,\nalmost everywhere where there are vestiges of a primitive culture.[205]\nAnd almost always such a taboo is bound up with animistic and magical\nelements, which seem to form its background, just as it is in our own\nevidence.\n\nTo discuss name taboo in all its aspects would lead us more deeply into\nmagic and comparative folk-lore than we have yet gone, and such\ndiscussion is unnecessary here. We may therefore briefly state that the\nroot of the matter would seem to be that the name and the dread power\nnamed are so closely associated in the very concrete thought of the\nprimitive culture that the one virtually is the other: just as one\ninevitably calls up the other for the modern thinker, so it is that, in\nthe world of objective fact, for the primitive philosopher the one is\nequivalent to the other. The primitive man, in short, has projected his\nsubjective associations into reality. As regards euphemisms, the process\nof development possibly is that first you employ any substitute name,\nand that secondly you go on to employ such a substitute name as will at\nthe same time be conciliatory. In the latter case, a certain\nanthropomorphosing of the power behind the taboo would seem to be\ninvolved.[206]\n\nNext in prominence comes the food taboo; and to this, also, there are\nnon-Celtic parallels all the world over, now and in ancient times. We\nmay take notice of three very striking modern parallels:--A woman\nvisited her dead brother in Panoi, the Polynesian Otherworld, and 'he\ncautioned her to eat nothing there, and she returned'.[207] A Red Man,\nAhak-tah, after an apparent death of two days' duration, revived, and\ndeclared that he had been to a beautiful land of tall trees and\nsinging-birds, where he met the spirits of his forefathers and uncle.\nWhile there, he felt hunger, and seeing in a bark dish some wild rice,\nwished to eat of it, but his uncle would allow him none. In telling\nabout this psychical adventure, Ahak-tah said:--'Had I eaten of the food\nof spirits, I never should have returned to earth.'[208] Also a New\nZealand woman visited the Otherworld in a trance, and her dead father\nwhom she met there ordered her to eat no food in that land, so that she\ncould return to this world to take care of her child.[209]\n\nAll such parallels, like their equivalents in Celtic belief, seem to\nrest on this psychological and physiological conception in the\nfolk-mind. Human food is what keeps life going in a human body; fairy\nfood is what keeps life going in a fairy body; and since what a man eats\nmakes him what he is physically, so eating the food of Fairyland or of\nthe land of the dead will make the eater partake of the bodily nature\nof the beings it nourishes. Hence when a man or woman has once entered\ninto such relation or communion with the Otherworld of the dead, or of\nfairies, by eating their food, his or her physical body[210] by a subtle\ntransformation adjusts itself to the new kind of nourishment, and\nbecomes spiritual like a spirit's or fairy's body, so that the eater\ncannot re-enter the world of the living. A study of food taboos confirms\nthis conclusion.[211]\n\nA third prominent taboo, the iron taboo, has been explained by exponents\nof the Pygmy Theory as pointing to a prehistoric race in Celtic lands\nwho did not know iron familiarly, and hence venerated it so that in time\nit came to be religiously regarded as very efficacious against spirits\nand fairies. Undoubtedly there may be much reason in this explanation,\nwhich gives some ethnological support to the Pygmy Theory. Apparently,\nhowever, it is only a partial explanation of iron taboo in general,\nbecause, in many cases, iron in ancient religious rites certainly had\nmagical properties attributed to it, which to us are quite unexplainable\nfrom this ethnological point of view;[212] and in Melanesia and in\nAfrica, where iron is venerated now, the same explanation through\nethnology seems far-fetched. But at present there seem to be no\navailable data to explain adequately this iron taboo, though we have\nstrong reasons for thinking that the philosophy underlying it is based\non mystical conceptions of virtues attributed--reasonably or\nunreasonably--to various metals and precious stones, and that a careful\nexamination of alchemical sciences would probably arrive at an\nexplanation wholly psychological.\n\nBesides many other miscellaneous taboos noticeable in the evidence,\nthere is a place taboo which is prominent. Thus, if an Irishman cuts a\nthorn tree growing on a spot sacred to the fairies, or if he violates a\nfairy preserve of any sort, such as a fairy path, or by accident\ninterferes with a fairy procession, illness and possibly death will come\nto his cattle or even to himself. In the same way, in Melanesia,\nviolations of sacred spots bring like penalties: 'A man planted in the\nbush near Olevuga some coco-nut and almond trees, and not long after\ndied,' the place being a spirit preserve;[213] and a man in the Lepers'\nIsland lost his senses, because, as the natives believed, he had\nunwittingly trodden on ground sacred to Tagaro, and 'the ghost of the\nman who lately sacrificed there was angry with him'.[213] In this case\nthe wizards were called in and cured the man by exorcisms,[213] as\nIrishmen, or their cows, are cured by the exorcisms of 'fairy-doctors'\nwhen 'fairy-struck' for some similar violation. The animistic background\nof place taboos in the Fairy-Faith is in these cases apparent.\n\n_Among Ancient Celts_\n\nIn the evidence soon to be examined from the recorded Fairy-Faith, we\nshall find taboos of various kinds often more prominent than in the\nliving Fairy-Faith.[214] So essential are they to the character of much\nof the literary and mythological matter with which we shall have to deal\nin the following chapters, that at this point some suggestions ought to\nbe made concerning their correct anthropological interpretation.\n\nAlmost every ancient Irish taboo is connected with a king or with a\ngreat hero like Cuchulainn; and, in Ireland especially, all such kings\nand heroes were considered of divine origin, and as direct incarnations,\nor reincarnations of the Tuatha De Danann, the true Fairies, originally\ninhabitants of the Otherworld. (See our chapter vii.) As Dr. Frazer\npoints out to have been the case among non-Celts, with whom the same\ntheory of incarnated divinities has prevailed, royal taboos are to\nisolate the king from all sources of danger, especially from all magic\nand witchcraft, and they act in many cases 'so to say, as electrical\ninsulators' to preserve him or heroes who are equally divine.[215]\n\nThe early Celts recognized an intimate relationship between man and\nnature: unperceived by man, unseen forces--not dissimilar to what\nMelanesians call _Mana_--(looked on as animate and intelligent and\nfrequently individual entities) guided every act of human life. It was\nthe special duty of Druids to act as intermediaries between the world of\nmen and the world of the Tuatha De Danann; and, as old Irish literature\nindicates clearly, it was through the exercise of powers of divination\non the part of Druids that these declared what was taboo or what was\nunfavourable, and also what it was favourable for the divine king or\nhero to perform. As long as man kept himself in harmony with this unseen\nfairy-world in the background of nature, all was well; but as soon as a\ntaboo was broken, disharmony in the relationship--which was focused in a\nking or hero--was set up; and when, as in the case of Cuchulainn, many\ntaboos were violated, death was inevitable and not even the Tuatha De\nDanann could intercede.\n\nBreaking of a royal or hero taboo not only affects the violator, but his\nsubjects or followers as well: in some cases the king seems to suffer\nvicariously for his people. Almost every great Gaelic hero--a god or\nGreat Fairy Being incarnate--is overshadowed with an impending fate,\nwhich only the strictest observance of taboo can avoid.[216]\n\nIrish taboo, and inferentially all Celtic taboo, dates back to an\nunknown pagan antiquity. It is imposed at or before birth, or again\nduring life, usually at some critical period, and when broken brings\ndisaster and death to the breaker. Its whole background appears to rest\non a supernatural relationship between divine men and the Otherworld of\nthe Tuatha De Danann; and it is very certain that this ancient\nrelationship survives in the living Fairy-Faith as one between ordinary\nmen and the fairy-world. Therefore, almost all taboos surviving among\nCelts ought to be interpreted psychologically or even psychically, and\nnot as ordinary social regulations.\n\n\nFOOD-SACRIFICE\n\nFood-sacrifice plays a very important r\u00f4le in the modern Fairy-Faith,\nbeing still practised, as our evidence shows, in each one of the Celtic\ncountries. Without any doubt it is a survival from pagan times, when, as\nwe shall observe later (in chapter iv. 291, and elsewhere), propitiatory\nofferings were regularly made to the Tuatha De Danann as gods of the\nearth, and, apparently, to other orders of spiritual beings. The\nanthropological significance of such food-sacrifice is unmistakable.\n\nWith the same propitiatory ends in view as modern Celts now have in\noffering food to fairies, ancient peoples, e. g. the Greeks and Romans,\nmaintained a state ritual of sacrifices to the gods, genii, daemons, and\nto the dead. And such sacrifices, so essential a part of most ancient\nreligions, were based on the belief, as stated by Porphyry in his\n_Treatise Concerning Abstinence_, that all the various orders of gods,\ngenii or daemons, enjoy as nourishment the odour of burnt offerings. And\nlike the Fairy-Folk, the daemons of the air live not on the gross\nsubstance of food, but on its finer invisible essences, conveyed to them\nmost easily on the altar-fire.[217] Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, and other\nleading Greeks, as well as the Romans of a like metaphysical school,\nunite in declaring the fundamental importance to the welfare of the\nState of regular sacrifices to the gods and to the daemons who control\nall natural phenomena, since they caused, if not neglected, abundant\nharvests and national prosperity. For unto the gods is due by right a\npart of all things which they give to man for his happiness.\n\nThe relation which the worship of ancestors held to that of the gods\nabove, who are the Olympian Gods, the great Gods, and to the Gods below,\nwho are the Gods of the Dead, and also to the daemons, and heroes or\ndivine ancestors, is thus set forth by Plato in his _Laws_:--'In the\nfirst place, we affirm that next after the Olympian Gods, and the Gods\nof the State, honour should be given to the Gods below.... Next to these\nGods, a wise man will do service to the daemons or spirits, and then to\nthe heroes, and after them will follow the sacred places of private and\nancestral Gods, having their ritual according to law. Next comes the\nhonour of living parents.'[218]\n\nIt is evident from this direct testimony that the same sort of\nphilosophy underlies food-sacrifice among the Celts and other peoples as\nwe discovered underlying human-sacrifice, in our study of the Changeling\nBelief; and that the Tuatha De Danann in their true mythological nature,\nand fairies, their modern counterpart, correspond in all essentials to\nGreek and Roman gods, genii, and daemons, and are often confused with\nthe dead.\n\n\nTHE CELTIC LEGEND OF THE DEAD\n\nThe animistic character of the Celtic Legend of the Dead is apparent;\nand the striking likenesses constantly appearing in our evidence between\nthe ordinary apparitional fairies and the ghosts of the dead show that\nthere is often no essential and sometimes no distinguishable difference\nbetween these two orders of beings, nor between the world of the dead\nand fairyland. We reserve for our chapter on _Science and Fairies_ the\nscientific consideration of the psychology of this relationship, and of\nthe probability that fairies as souls of the dead and as ghosts of the\ndead actually exist and influence the living.\n\n\nGENERAL CONCLUSION\n\nThe chief anthropological problems connected with the modern\nFairy-Faith, as our evidence presents it, have now been examined, at\nsufficient length, we trust, to explain their essential significance;\nand problems, to some extent parallel, connected with the ancient\nFairy-Faith have likewise been examined. There remain, however, very\nmany minor anthropological problems not yet touched upon; but several of\nthe most important of these, e. g. various cults of gods, spirits,\nfairies, and the dead, and folk-festivals thereto related (see Section\nIII); the circular fairy-dance (see pp. 405-6); or the fairy world as\nthe Otherworld (see chap. vi), or as Purgatory (see chap. x), will\nreceive consideration in following chapters, and so will certain very\ndefinite psychological problems connected with dreams, and trance-like\nstates, with supernormal lapse of time, and with seership. We may now\nsum up the results so far attained.\n\nWhether we examine the Fairy-Faith as a whole or whether we examine\nspecialized parts of it like those relating to the smallness of fairies,\nto changelings, to witchcraft and magic, to exorcisms, to taboos, and to\nfood-sacrifice, in all cases comparative folk-lore shows that the\nbeliefs composing it find their parallels the world over, and that\nfairy-like beings are objects of belief now not only in Celtic\ncountries, but in Central Australia, throughout Polynesia, in Africa,\namong American Red Men, in Asia generally, in Southern, Western, and\nNorthern Europe, and, in fact, wherever civilized and primitive men hold\nreligious beliefs. From a rationalist point of view anthropologists\nwould be inclined to regard the bulk of this widespread belief in\nspiritual beings as being purely mythical, but for us to do so and stop\nthere would lead to no satisfactory solution: the origin of myth itself\nneeds to be explained, and one of the chief objects of our study\nthroughout the remainder of this book is to make an attempt at such an\nexplanation, especially of Celtic myth.\n\nAgain, if we examine all fairy-like beings from a certain superficial\npoint of view, or even from the mythological point of view, it is easy\nto discern that they are universally credited with precisely the same\ncharacters, attributes, actions, or powers as the particular peoples\npossess who have faith in them; and then the further fact emerges that\nthis anthropomorphosing is due directly to the more immediate social\nenvironment: we see merely an anthropomorphically coloured picture of\nthe whole of an age-long social evolution of the tribe, race, or nation\nwho have fostered the particular aspect of this one world-wide\nfolk-religion. But if we look still deeper, we discover as background to\nthe myths and the social psychology a profound animism. This animism\nappears in its own environment in the shading away of the different\nfairy-like beings into spirits and ghosts of the departed. Going deeper\nyet, we find that such animistic beliefs as concern themselves\nexclusively with the realm of the dead are in many cases apparently so\nwell founded on definite provable psychical experiences on the part of\nliving men and women that the aid of science itself must be called in to\nexplain them, and this will be done in our chapter entitled _Science and\nFairies_.\n\nSo far it ought to be clear that already our evidence points to a very\nrespectable residue in the experiences of percipients, which cannot be\nexplained away--as can the larger mass of the evidence--as due to\nethnological, anthropomorphic, naturalistic, or sociological influences\non the Celtic mind; and for the present this must be designated as the\n_x_ or unknown quantity in the Fairy-Faith. In chapter xi this _x_\nquantity, augmented by whatever else is to be elicited from further\nevidence, will be specifically discussed.\n\nThese points of view derived from our anthropological examination of the\nchief parts of the evidence presented by the living Fairy-Faith will be\nkept constantly before us as we proceed further; and what has been\ndemonstrated anthropologically in this chapter will serve to interpret\nwhat is to follow until chapter xi is reached. With this tentative\nposition we pass to Section II of this study, and shall there begin to\nexamine, as we have just done with their modern Fairy-Faith, the ancient\nFairy-Faith of the Celts.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION II\n\nTHE RECORDED FAIRY-FAITH\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE PEOPLE OF THE GODDESS DANA (_TUATHA D\u00c9 DANANN_) OR THE _SIDHE_\n(PRONOUNCED _SHEE_)[219]\n\n     'So firm was the hold which the ethnic gods of Ireland had taken\n     upon the imagination and spiritual sensibilities of our ancestors\n     that even the monks and christianized bards never thought of\n     denying them. They doubtless forbade the people to worship them,\n     but to root out the belief in their existence was so impossible\n     that they could not even dispossess their own minds of the\n     conviction that the gods were real supernatural beings.'--STANDISH\n     O'GRADY.\n\n     The Goddess Dana and the modern cult of St. Brigit--The Tuatha De\n     Danann or _Sidhe_ conquered by the Sons of Mil--But Irish seers\n     still see the _Sidhe_--Old Irish MSS. faithfully represent the\n     Tuatha De Danann--The _Sidhe_ as a spirit race--_Sidhe_\n     palaces--The 'Taking' of mortals--Hill visions of _Sidhe_\n     women--_Sidhe_ minstrels and musicians--Social organization and\n     warfare among the _Sidhe_--The _Sidhe_ war-goddesses, the\n     _Badb_--The _Sidhe_ at the Battle of Clontarf, A. D.\n     1014--Conclusion.\n\n\nThe People of the Goddess Dana, or, according to D'Arbois de\nJubainville, the People of the god whose mother was called Dana,[220]\nare the Tuatha De Danann of the ancient mythology of Ireland. The\nGoddess Dana, called in the genitive Danand, in middle Irish times was\nnamed Brigit.[220] And this goddess Brigit of the pagan Celts has been\nsupplanted by the Christian St. Brigit[220]; and, in exactly the same\nway as the pagan cult once bestowed on the spirits in wells and\nfountains has been transferred to Christian saints, to whom the wells\nand fountains have been re-dedicated, so to St. Brigit as a national\nsaint has been transferred the pagan cult rendered to her predecessor.\nThus even yet, as in the case of the minor divinities of their sacred\nfountains, the Irish people through their veneration for the good St.\nBrigit, render homage to the divine mother of the People who bear her\nname Dana,--who are the ever-living invisible Fairy-People of modern\nIreland. For when the Sons of Mil, the ancestors of the Irish people,\ncame to Ireland they found the Tuatha De Danann in full possession of\nthe country. The Tuatha De Danann then retired before the invaders,\nwithout, however, giving up their sacred Island. Assuming invisibility,\nwith the power of at any time reappearing in a human-like form before\nthe children of the Sons of Mil, the People of the Goddess Dana became\nand are the Fairy-Folk, the _Sidhe_ of Irish mythology and romance.[221]\nTherefore it is that to-day Ireland contains two races,--a race visible\nwhich we call Celts, and a race invisible which we call Fairies. Between\nthese two races there is constant intercourse even now; for Irish seers\nsay that they can behold the majestic, beautiful _Sidhe_, and according\nto them the _Sidhe_ are a race quite distinct from our own, just as\nliving and possibly more powerful. These _Sidhe_ (who are the 'gentry'\nof the Ben Bulbin country and have kindred elsewhere in Ireland,\nScotland, and probably in most other countries as well, such as the\ninvisible races of the Yosemite Valley) have been described more or less\naccurately by our peasant seer-witnesses from County Sligo and from\nNorth and East Ireland. But there are other and probably more reliable\nseers in Ireland, men of greater education and greater psychical\nexperience, who know and describe the _Sidhe_ races as they really are,\nand who even sketch their likenesses. And to such seer Celts as these,\nDeath is a passport to the world of the _Sidhe_, a world where there is\neternal youth and never-ending joy, as we shall learn when we study it\nas the Celtic Otherworld.\n\nThe recorded mythology and literature of ancient Ireland have, very\nfaithfully for the most part, preserved to us clear pictures of the\nTuatha De Danann; so that disregarding some Christian influence in the\ntexts of certain manuscripts, much rationalization, and a good deal of\npoetical colouring and romantic imagination in the pictures, we can\neasily describe the People of the Goddess Dana as they appeared in pagan\ndays, when they were more frequently seen by mortals than now. Perhaps\nthe Irish folk of the olden times were even more clairvoyant and\nspiritual-minded than the Irish folk of to-day. So by drawing upon these\nwritten records let us try to understand what sort of beings the _Sidhe_\nwere and are.\n\n\nNATURE OF THE _SIDHE_\n\nIn the _Book of Leinster_[222] the poem of _Eochaid_ records that the\nTuatha De Danann, the conquerors of the Fir-Bolgs, were hosts of\n_siabra_; and _siabra_ is an Old Irish word meaning fairies, sprites, or\nghosts. The word fairies is appropriate if restricted to mean fairies\nlike the modern 'gentry'; but the word _ghosts_ is inappropriate,\nbecause our evidence shows that the only relation the _Sidhe_ or real\nFairies hold to ghosts is a superficial one, the _Sidhe_ and ghosts\nbeing alike only in respect to invisibility. In the two chief Irish\nMSS., the _Book of the Dun Cow_ and the _Book of Leinster_, the Tuatha\nDe Danann are described as 'gods and not-gods'; and Sir John Rhys\nconsiders this an ancient formula comparable with the Sanskrit _deva_\nand _adeva_, but not with 'poets (_d\u00e9e_) and husbandmen (_an d\u00e9e_)' as\nthe author of _C\u00f3ir Anmann_ learnedly guessed.[223] It is also said, in\nthe _Book of the Dun Cow_, that wise men do not know the origin of the\nTuatha De Danann, but that 'it seems likely to them that they came from\nheaven, on account of their intelligence and for the excellence of their\nknowledge'.[224] The hold of the Tuatha De Danann on the Irish mind and\nspirit was so strong that even Christian transcribers of texts could not\ndeny their existence as a non-human race of intelligent beings\ninhabiting Ireland, even though they frequently misrepresented them by\nplacing them on the level of evil demons,[225] as the ending of the\nstory of the _Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn_ illustrates:--'So that this was a\nvision to Cuchulainn of being stricken by the people of the _Sid_: for\nthe demoniac power was great before the faith; and such was its\ngreatness that the demons used to fight bodily against mortals, and they\nused to show them delights and secrets of how they would be in\nimmortality. It was thus they used to be believed in. So it is to such\nphantoms the ignorant apply the names of _Side_ and _Aes Side_.'[226] A\npassage in the _Silva Gadelica_ (ii. 202-3) not only tends to confirm\nthis last statement, but it also shows that the Irish people made a\nclear distinction between the god-race and our own:--In _The Colloquy\nwith the Ancients_, as St. Patrick and Caeilte are talking with one\nanother, 'a lone woman robed in mantle of green, a smock of soft silk\nbeing next her skin, and on her forehead a glittering plate of yellow\ngold,' came to them; and when Patrick asked from whence she came, she\nreplied: 'Out of _uaimh Chruachna_, or \"the cave of Cruachan\".' Caeilte\nthen asked: 'Woman, my soul, who art thou?' 'I am _Scothniamh_ or\n\"Flower-lustre\", daughter of the Daghda's son Bodhb derg.' Caeilte\nproceeded: 'And what started thee hither?' 'To require of thee my\nmarriage-gift, because once upon a time thou promisedst me such.' And as\nthey parleyed Patrick broke in with: 'It is a wonder to us how we see\nyou two: the girl young and invested with all comeliness; but thou\nCaeilte, a withered ancient, bent in the back and dingily grown grey.'\n'Which is no wonder at all,' said Caeilte, 'for no people of one\ngeneration or of one time are we: _she is of the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann, who\nare unfading and whose duration is perennial; I am of the sons of\nMilesius, that are perishable and fade away_.' The exact distinction is\nbetween Caeilte, a withered old ancient--in most ways to be regarded as\na ghost called up that Patrick may question him about the past history\nof Ireland--and a fairy-woman who is one of the _Sidhe_ or Tuatha De\nDanann.[227]\n\nIn two of the more ancient Irish texts, the _Echtra Nerai_[228] or\n'Expedition of Nera', a preliminary tale in the introduction to the\n_T\u00e1in b\u00f3 Cuailnge_ or 'Theft of the Cattle of Cuailnge'; and a passage\nfrom the _Togail Bruidne d\u00e2 Derga_, or 'Destruction of Da Derga's\nHostel',[229] there seems no reasonable doubt whatever about the Tuatha\nDe Danann or _Sidhe_ being a race like what we call spirits. The first\ntext describes how Ailill and Medb in their palace of Cruachan\ncelebrated the feast of _Samain_ (November Eve, a feast of the dead even\nin pre-Christian times). Two culprits had been executed on the day\nbefore, and their bodies, according to the ancient Irish custom, were\nleft hanging from a tree until the night of _Samain_ should have passed;\nfor on that night it was dangerous to touch the bodies of the dead while\ndemons and the people of the _Sidhe_ were at large throughout all\nIreland, and mortals found near dead bodies at such a time were in great\ndanger of being _taken_ by these spirit hosts of the Tuatha De Danann.\nAnd so on this very night, when thick darkness had settled down, Ailill\ndesired to test the courage of his warriors, and offered his own\ngold-hilted sword to any young man who would go out and tie a coil of\ntwisted twigs around the leg of one of the bodies suspended from the\ntree. After many had made the attempt and failed, because unable to\nbrave the legions of demons and fairies, Nera alone succeeded; but his\nsuccess cost him dear, for he finally fell under the power both of the\ndead man, round whose legs he had tied the coil, and of an elfin host:\nwith the dead man's body on his back, Nera was obliged to go to a\nstrange house that the thirst of the dead man might be assuaged therein;\nand the dead man in drinking scattered 'the last sip from his lips at\nthe faces of the people that were in the house, so that they all died'.\nNera carried back the body; and on returning to Cruachan he saw the\nfairy hosts going into the cave, 'for the fairy-mounds of Erinn are\nalways opened about Halloween.' Nera followed after them until he came\nto their king in a palace of the Tuatha De Danann, seemingly in the\ncavern or elsewhere underground; where he remained and was married to\none of the fairy women. She it was who revealed to Nera the secret\nhiding-place, in a mysterious well, of the king's golden crown, and then\nbetrayed her whole people by reporting to Nera the plan they had for\nattacking Ailill's court on the Halloween to come. Moreover, Nera was\npermitted by his fairy wife to depart from the _s\u00edd_; and he in taking\nleave of her asked: 'How will it be believed of me that I have gone into\nthe _s\u00edd_?' 'Take fruits of summer with thee,' said the woman. 'Then he\ntook wild garlic with him and primrose and golden fern.' And on the\nfollowing November Eve when the _s\u00edd_ of Cruachan was again open, 'the\nmen of Connaught and the black hosts of exile' under Ailill and Medb\nplundered it, taking away from it the crown of Briun out of the well.\nBut 'Nera was left with his people in the _s\u00edd_, and has not come out\nuntil now, nor will he come till Doom.'\n\nAll of this matter is definitely enough in line with the living\nFairy-Faith: there is the same belief expressed as now about November\nEve being the time of all times when ghosts, demons, spirits, and\nfairies are free, and when fairies _take_ mortals and marry them to\nfairy women; also the beliefs that fairies are living in secret places\nin hills, in caverns, or under ground--palaces full of treasure and open\nonly on November Eve. In so far as the real fairies, the _Sidhe_, are\nconcerned, they appear as the rulers of the Feast of the Dead or\n_Samain_, as the controllers of all spirits who are then at large; and,\nallowing for some poetical imagination and much social psychology and\nanthropomorphism, elements as common in this as in most literary\ndescriptions concerning the Tuatha De Danann, they are faithfully enough\npresented.\n\nThe second text describes how King Conaire, in riding along a road\ntoward Tara, saw in front of him three strange horsemen, three men of\nthe _Sidhe_:--'Three red frocks had they, and three red mantles: three\nred steeds they bestrode, and three red heads of hair were on them. Red\nwere they all, both body and hair and raiment, both steeds and men.'\n'Who is it that fares before us?' asked Conaire. 'It was a taboo of mine\nfor those Three to go before me--the three Reds to the house of Red. Who\nwill follow them and tell them to come towards me in my track?' 'I will\nfollow them,' says L\u00e9 fri flaith, Conaire's son. 'He goes after them,\nlashing his horse, and overtook them not. There was the length of a\nspearcast between them: but they did not gain upon him and he did not\ngain upon them.' All attempts to come up with the red horsemen failed.\nBut at last, before they disappeared, one of the Three said to the\nking's son riding so furiously behind them, 'Lo, my son, great the news.\nWeary are the steeds we ride. We ride the steeds of Donn Tetscorach (?)\nfrom the elfmounds. Though we are alive we are dead. Great are the\nsigns: destruction of life: sating of ravens: feeding of crows, strife\nof slaughter: wetting of sword-edge, shields with broken bosses in hours\nafter sundown. Lo, my son!' Then they disappear. When Conaire and his\nfollowers heard the message, fear fell upon them, and the king said:\n'All my taboos have seized me to-night, since those Three [Reds] [are\nthe] banished folks (?).' In this passage we behold three horsemen of the\n_Sidhe_ banished from their elfmound because guilty of falsehood.\nVisible for a time, they precede the king and so violate one of his\ntaboos; and then delivering their fearful prophecy they vanish. These\nthree of the Tuatha De Danann, majestic and powerful and weird in their\nmystic red, are like the warriors of the 'gentry' seen by contemporary\nseers in West Ireland. Though dead, that is in an invisible world like\nthe dead, yet they are living. It seems that in all three of the textual\nexamples already cited, the scribe has emphasized a different element in\nthe unique nature of the Tuatha De Danann. In the _Colloquy_ it is their\neternal youth and beauty, in the _Echtra Nerai_ it is their supremacy\nover ghosts and demons on _Samain_ and their power to steal mortals away\nat such a time, and in this last their respect for honesty. And in each\ncase their portrayal corresponds to that of the 'gentry' and _Sidhe_ by\nmodern Irishmen; so that the old Fairy-Faith and the new combine to\nprove the People of the God whose mother was Dana to have been and to be\na race of beings who are like mortals, but not mortals, who to the\nobjective world are as though dead, yet to the subjective world are\nfully living and conscious.\n\nO'Curry says:--'The term (_s\u00eddh_, pron. _shee_), as far as we know it,\nis always applied in old writings to the palaces, courts, halls, or\nresidences of those beings which in ancient Gaedhelic mythology held the\nplace which ghosts, phantoms, and fairies hold in the superstitions of\nthe present day.'[230] In modern Irish tradition, 'the People of the\n_Sidhe_,' or simply the _Sidhe_, refer to the beings themselves rather\nthan to their places of habitation. Partly perhaps on account of this\npopular opinion that the _Sidhe_ are a subterranean race, they are\nsometimes described as gods of the earth or _dei terreni_, as in the\n_Book of Armagh_; and since it was believed that they, like the modern\nfairies, control the ripening of crops and the milk-giving of cows, the\nancient Irish rendered to them regular worship and sacrifice, just as\nthe Irish of to-day do by setting out food at night for the fairy-folk\nto eat.\n\nThus after their conquest, these _Sidhe_ or Tuatha De Danann in\nretaliation, and perhaps to show their power as agricultural gods,\ndestroyed the wheat and milk of their conquerors, the Sons of Mil, as\nfairies to-day can do; and the Sons of Mil were constrained to make a\ntreaty with their supreme king, Dagda, who, in _C\u00f3ir Anmann_ (\u00a7 150), is\nhimself called an earth-god. Then when the treaty was made the Sons of\nMil were once more able to gather wheat in their fields and to drink the\nmilk of their cows;[231] and we can suppose that ever since that time\ntheir descendants, who are the people of Ireland, remembering that\ntreaty, have continued to reverence the People of the Goddess Dana by\npouring libations of milk to them and by making them offerings of the\nfruits of the earth.\n\n\nTHE PALACES OF THE _SIDHE_\n\nThe marvellous palaces to which the Tuatha De Danann retired when\nconquered by the race of Mil were hidden in the depths of the earth, in\nhills, or under ridges more or less elevated.[232] At the time of their\nconquest, Dagda their high king made a distribution of all such palaces\nin his kingdom. He gave one _s\u00edd_ to Lug, son of Ethne, another to Ogme;\nand for himself retained two--one called _Brug na Boinne_, or Castle of\nthe Boyne, because it was situated on or near the River Boyne near Tara,\nand the other called _S\u00edd_ or _Brug Maic ind Oc_, which means Enchanted\nPalace or Castle of the Son of the Young. And this Mac ind Oc was\nDagda's own son by the queen Boann, according to some accounts, so that\nas the name (Son of the Young) signifies, Dagda and Boann, both\nimmortals, both Tuatha De Danann, were necessarily always young, never\nknowing the touch of disease, or decay, or old age. Not until\nChristianity gained its psychic triumph at Tara, through the magic of\nPatrick prevailing against the magic of the Druids--who seem to have\nstood at that time as mediators between the People of the Goddess Dana\nand the pagan Irish--did the Tuatha De Danann lose their immortal\nyouthfulness in the eyes of mortals and become subject to death. In the\nmost ancient manuscripts of Ireland the pre-Christian doctrine of the\nimmortality of the divine race 'persisted intact and without\nrestraint';[233] but in the _Senchus na relec_ or 'History of the\nCemeteries', from the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_, and in the _Lebar gabala_\nor 'Book of the Conquests', from the _Book of Leinster_, it was\ncompletely changed by the Christian scribes.[233]\n\nWhen Dagda thus distributed the underground palaces, Mac ind Oc, or as\nhe was otherwise called Oengus, was absent and hence forgotten. So when\nhe returned, naturally he complained to his father, and the _Brug na\nBoinne_, the king's own residence, was ceded to him for a night and a\nday, but Oengus maintained that it was for ever. This palace was a most\nmarvellous one: it contained three trees which always bore fruit, a\nvessel full of excellent drink, and two pigs--one alive and the other\nnicely cooked ready to eat at any time; and in this palace no one ever\ndied.[234] In the _Colloquy_, Caeilte tells of a mountain containing a\nfairy palace which no man save Finn and six companions, Caeilte being\none of these, ever entered. The Fenians, while hunting, were led thither\nby a fairy woman who had changed her shape to that of a fawn in order to\nallure them; and the night being wild and snowy they were glad to take\nshelter therein. Beautiful damsels and their lovers were the inhabitants\nof the palace; in it there was music and abundance of food and drink;\nand on its floor stood a chair of crystal.[235] In another fairy palace,\nthe enchanted cave of Keshcorran, Conaran, son of Imidel, a chief of the\nTuatha De Danann, had sway; 'and so soon as he perceived that the\nhounds' cry now sounded deviously, he bade his three daughters (that\nwere full of sorcery) to go and take vengeance on Finn for his\nhunting'[236]--just as nowadays the 'good people' take vengeance on one\nof our race if a fairy domain is violated. Frequently the fairy palace\nis under a lake, as in the christianized story of the _Disappearance of\nCaenchomrac_:--Once when 'the cleric chanted his psalms, he saw [come]\ntowards him a tall man that emerged out of the loch: from the bottom of\nthe water that is to say.' This tall man informed the cleric that he\ncame from an under-water monastery, and explained 'that there should be\nsubaqueous inhabiting by men is with God no harder than that they should\ndwell in any other place'.[237] In all these ancient literary accounts\nof the _Sidhe_-palaces we easily recognize the same sort of palaces as\nthose described to-day by Gaelic peasants as the habitations of the\n'gentry', or 'good people', or 'people of peace.' Such habitations are\nin mountain caverns like those of Ben Bulbin or Knock Ma, or in fairy\nhills or knolls like the Fairy-Hill at Aberfoyle on which Robert Kirk is\nbelieved to have been _taken_, or beneath lakes. This brings us directly\nto the way in which the _Sidhe_ or Tuatha De Danann of the olden times\n_took_ fine-looking young men and maidens.\n\n\nHOW THE _SIDHE_ 'TOOK' MORTALS\n\nPerhaps one of the earliest and most famous literary accounts of such a\n_taking_ is that concerning Aedh, son of Eochaid Lethderg son of the\nKing of Leinster, who is represented as contemporary with Patrick.[238]\nWhile Aedh was enjoying a game of hurley with his boy companions near\nthe _s\u00eddh_ of Liamhain Softsmock, two of the _s\u00eddh_-women, who loved the\nyoung prince, very suddenly appeared, and as suddenly took him away with\nthem into a fairy palace and kept him there three years. It happened,\nhowever, that he escaped at the end of that time, and, knowing the\nmagical powers of Patrick, went to where the holy man was, and thus\nexplained himself:--'Against the youths my opponents I (i. e. my side)\ntook seven goals; but at the last one that I took, here come up to me\ntwo women clad in green mantles: two daughters of _Bodhb derg mac an\nDaghda_, and their names _Slad_ and _Mumain_. Either of them took me by\na hand, and they led me off to a garish _brugh_; whereby for now three\nyears my people mourn after me, the _s\u00eddh_-folk caring for me ever\nsince, and until last night I got a chance opening to escape from the\n_brugh_, when to the number of fifty lads we emerged out of the _s\u00eddh_\nand forth upon the green. Then it was that I considered the magnitude of\nthat strait in which they of the _s\u00eddh_ had had me, and away from the\n_brugh_ I came running to seek thee, holy Patrick.' 'That,' said the\nsaint, 'shall be to thee a safeguard, so that neither their power nor\ntheir dominion shall any more prevail against thee.' And so when Patrick\nhad thus made Aedh proof against the power of the fairy-folk, he kept\nhim with him under the disguise of a travelling minstrel until, arriving\nin Leinster, he restored him to his father the king and to his\ninheritance: Aedh enters the palace in his minstrel disguise; and in the\npresence of the royal assembly Patrick commands him: 'Doff now once for\nall thy dark capacious hood, and well mayest thou wear thy father's\nspear!' When the lad removed his hood, and none there but recognized\nhim, great was the surprise. He seemed like one come back from the\ndead, for long had his heirless father and people mourned for him. 'By\nour word,' exclaimed the assembly in their joyous excitement, 'it is a\ngood cleric's gift!' And the king said: 'Holy Patrick, seeing that till\nthis day thou hast nourished him and nurtured, let not the Tuatha De\nDanann's power any more prevail against the lad.' And Patrick answered:\n'That death which the King of Heaven and Earth hath ordained is the one\nthat he will have.' This ancient legend shows clearly that the Tuatha De\nDanann, or _Sidhe_, in the time when the scribe wrote the _Colloquy_\nwere thought of in the same way as now, as able to _take_ beautiful\nmortals whom they loved, and able to confer upon them fairy immortality\nwhich prevented 'that death which the King of Heaven and Earth hath\nordained'.\n\nMortals, did they will it, could live in the world of the _Sidhe_ for\never, and we shall see this more fully in our study of the Otherworld.\nBut here it will be interesting to learn that, unlike Aedh, whom some\nperhaps would call a foolish youth, Laeghaire, also a prince, for he was\nthe son of the king of Connaught, entered a _d\u00fan_ of the _Sidhe_, taking\nfifty other warriors with him; and he and his followers found life in\nFairyland so pleasant that they all decided to enjoy it eternally.\nAccordingly, when they had been there a year, they planned to return to\nConnaught in order to bid the king and his people a final farewell. They\nannounced their plan, and Fiachna of the _Sidhe_ told them how to\naccomplish it safely:--'If ye would come back take with you horses, but\nby no means dismount from off them'; 'So it was done: they went their\nway and came upon a general assembly in which Connaught, as at the year\nexpired, mourned for the aforesaid warrior-band, whom now all at once\nthey perceived above them (i. e. on higher ground). Connaught sprang to\nmeet them, but Laeghaire cried: \"Approach us not [to touch us]: 'tis to\nbid you farewell that we are here!\" \"Leave me not!\" Crimthann, his\nfather, said: \"Connaught's royal power be thine; their silver and their\ngold, their horses with their bridles, and their noble women be at thy\ndiscretion, only leave me not!\" But Laeghaire turned from them and so\nentered again into the _s\u00eddh_, where with Fiachna he exercises joint\nkingly rule; nor is he as yet come out of it.'[239]\n\n\nHILL VISIONS OF _SIDHE_ WOMEN\n\nThere are many recorded traditions which represent certain hills as\nmystical places whereon men are favoured with visions of fairy women.\nThus, one day King Muirchertach came forth to hunt on the border of the\nBrugh (near Stackallan Bridge, County Meath), and his companions left\nhim alone on his hunting-mound. 'He had not been there long when he saw\na solitary damsel beautifully formed, fair-haired, bright-skinned, with\na green mantle about her sitting near him on the turfen mound; and it\nseemed to him that of womankind he had never beheld her equal in beauty\nand refinement.'[240] In the Mabinogion of _Pwyll, Prince of Dyvet_,\nwhich seems to be only a Brythonic treatment of an original Gaelic tale,\nPwyll seating himself on a mound where any mortal sitting might see a\nprodigy, saw a fairy woman ride past on a white horse, and she clad in a\ngarment of shining gold. Though he tried to have his servitor on the\nswiftest horse capture her, 'There was some magic about the lady that\nkept her always the same distance ahead, though she appeared to be\nriding slowly.' When on the second day Pwyll returned to the mound the\nfairy woman came riding by as before, and the servitor again gave\nunsuccessful chase. Pwyll saw her in the same manner on the third day.\nHe thereupon gave chase himself, and when he exclaimed to her, 'For the\nsake of the man whom you love, wait for me!' she stopped; and by mutual\narrangement the two agreed to meet and to marry at the end of a\nyear.[241]\n\n\nTHE MINSTRELS OR MUSICIANS OF THE _SIDHE_\n\nNot only did the fairy-folk of more ancient times enjoy wonderful\npalaces full of beauty and riches, and a life of eternal youth, but they\nalso had, even as now, minstrelsy and rare music--music to which that of\nour own world could not be compared at all; for even Patrick himself\nsaid that it would equal the very music of heaven if it were not for 'a\ntwang of the fairy spell that infests it'.[242] And this is how it was\nthat Patrick heard the fairy music:--As he was travelling through\nIreland he once sat down on a grassy knoll, as he often did in the good\nold Irish way, with Ulidia's king and nobles and Caeilte also: 'Nor were\nthey long there before they saw draw near them a _scol\u00f3g_ or\n\"non-warrior\" that wore a fair green mantle having in it a fibula of\nsilver; a shirt of yellow silk next his skin, over and outside that\nagain a tunic of soft satin, and with a _timp\u00e1n_ (a sort of harp) of the\nbest slung on his back. \"Whence comest thou, _scol\u00f3g_?\" asked the king.\n\"Out of the _s\u00eddh_ of the Daghda's son Bodhb Derg, out of Ireland's\nsouthern part.\" \"What moved thee out of the south, and who art thou\nthyself?\" \"I am Cascorach, son of Cainchinn that is _ollave_ to the\nTuatha De Danann, and am myself the makings of an _ollave_ (i. e. an\naspirant to the grade). What started me was the design to acquire\nknowledge, and information, and lore for recital, and the Fianna's\nmighty deeds of valour, from Caeilte son of Ronan.\" Then he took his\n_timp\u00e1n_ and made for them music and minstrelsy, so that he sent them\nslumbering off to sleep.' And Cascorach's music was pleasing to Patrick,\nwho said of it: 'Good indeed it were, but for a twang of the fairy spell\nthat infests it; barring which nothing could more nearly than it\nresemble Heaven's harmony.'[243] And that very night which followed the\nday on which the _ollave_ to the Tuatha De Danann came to them was the\nEve of _Samain_. There was also another of these fairy _timp\u00e1n_-players\ncalled 'the wondrous elfin man', 'Aill\u00e9n mac Midhna of the Tuatha De\nDanann, that out of _s\u00eddh_ Finnachaidh to the northward used to come to\nTara: the manner of his coming being with a musical _timp\u00e1n_ in his\nhand, the which whenever any heard he would at once sleep. Then, all\nbeing lulled thus, out of his mouth Aill\u00e9n would emit a blast of fire.\nIt was on the solemn _Samain_-Day (November Day) he came in every year,\nplayed his _timp\u00e1n_, and to the fairy music that he made all hands would\nfall asleep. With his breath he used to blow up the flame and so, during\na three-and-twenty years' spell, yearly burnt up Tara with all her\ngear.' And it is said that Finn, finally overcoming the magic of Aill\u00e9n,\nslew him.[243]\n\nPerhaps in the first musician, Cascorach, though he is described as the\nson of a Tuatha De Danann minstrel, we behold a mortal like one of the\nmany Irish pipers and musicians who used to go, or even go yet, to the\nfairy-folk to be educated in the musical profession, and then come back\nas the most marvellous players that ever were in Ireland; though if\nCascorach were once a mortal it seems that he has been quite transformed\nin bodily nature so as to be really one of the Tuatha De Danann himself.\nBut Aill\u00e9n mac Midhna is undoubtedly one of the mighty 'gentry' who\ncould--as we heard from County Sligo--destroy half the human race if\nthey wished. Aill\u00e9n visits Tara, the old psychic centre both for\nIreland's high-kings and its Druids. He comes as it were against the\nconquerors of his race, who in their neglectfulness no longer render due\nworship and sacrifice on the Feast of _Samain_ to the Tuatha De Danann,\nthe gods of the dead, at that time supreme; and then it is that he works\nhis magic against the royal palaces of the kings and Druids on the\nancient Hill. And to overcome the magic of Aill\u00e9n and slay him, that is,\nmake it impossible for him to repeat his annual visits to Tara, it\nrequired the might of the great hero Finn, who himself was related to\nthe same _Sidhe_ race, for by a woman of the Tuatha De Danann he had his\nfamous son Ossian (Oisin).[244]\n\nIn _Gilla d\u00e9_, who is Manannan mac Lir, the greatest magician of the\nTuatha De Danann, disguised as a being who can disappear in the\ntwinkling of an eye whenever he wishes, and reappear unexpectedly as a\n'kern that wore garb of yellow stripes', we meet with another fairy\nmusician. And to him O'Donnell says:--'By Heaven's grace again, since\nfirst I heard the fame of them that within the hills and under the earth\nbeneath us make the fairy music, ... music sweeter than thy strains I\nhave never heard; thou art in sooth a most melodious rogue!'[245] And\nagain it is said of him:--'Then the _gilla decair_ taking a harp played\nmusic so sweet ... and the king after a momentary glance at his own\nmusicians never knew which way he went from him.'[246]\n\n\nSOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND WARFARE AMONG THE _SIDHE_\n\nSo far, we have seen only the happy side of the life of the\n_Sidhe_-folk--their palaces and pleasures and music; but there was a\nmore human (or anthropomorphic) side to their nature in which they wage\nwar on one another, and have their matrimonial troubles even as we\nmoderns. And we turn now to examine this other side of their life, to\nbehold the _Sidhe_ as a warlike race; and as we do so let us remember\nthat the 'gentry' in the Ben Bulbin country and in all Ireland, and the\npeople of Finvara in Knock Ma, and also the invisible races of\nCalifornia, are likewise described as given to war and mighty feats of\narms.\n\nThe invisible Irish races have always had a very distinct social\norganization, so distinct in fact that Ireland can be divided according\nto its fairy kings and fairy queens and their territories even now;[247]\nand no doubt we see in this how the ancient Irish anthropomorphically\nprojected into an animistic belief their own social conditions and\nracial characteristics. And this social organization and territorial\ndivision ought to be understood before we discuss the social troubles\nand consequent wars of the _Sidhe_-folk. For example in Munster Bodb was\nking and his enchanted palace was called the _S\u00edd_ of the Men of\nFemen;[248] and we already know about the over-king Dagda and his Boyne\npalace near Tara. In more modern times, especially in popular\nfairy-traditions, Eevil or Eevinn (_Aoibhill_ or _Aoibhinn_) of the\n_Craig Liath_ or Grey Rock is a queen of the Munster fairies;[249] and\nFinvara is king of the Connaught fairies (see p. 42). There are also the\nIrish fairy-queens Cleeona (_Cliodhna_, or in an earlier form _Clidna_\n[cf. p. 356]) and Aine (see p. 79 above).\n\nWe are now prepared to see the Tuatha De Danann in their domestic\ntroubles and wars; and the following story is as interesting as any, for\nin it Dagda himself is the chief actor. Once when his own son Oengus\nfell sick of a love malady, King Dagda, who ruled all the _Sidhe_-folk\nin Ireland, joined forces with Ailill and Medb in order to compel Ethal\nAnbual to deliver up his beautiful daughter Caer whom Oengus loved. When\nEthal Anbual's palace had been stormed and Ethal Anbual reduced to\nsubmission, he declared he had no power over his daughter Caer, for on\nthe first of November each year, he said, she changed to a swan, or from\na swan to a maiden again. 'The first of November next,' he added, 'my\ndaughter will be under the form of a swan, near the Loch bel Draccon.\nMarvellous birds will be seen there: my daughter will be surrounded by a\nhundred and fifty other swans.' When the November Day arrived, Oengus\nwent to the lake, and, seeing the swans and recognizing Caer, plunged\ninto the water and instantly became a swan with her. While under the\nform of swans, Oengus and Caer went together to the Boyne palace of the\nking Dagda, his father, and remained there; and their singing was so\nsweet that all who heard it slept three days and three nights.[250] In\nthis story, new elements in the nature of the _Sidhe_ appear, though\nlike modern ones: the _Sidhe_ are able to assume other forms than their\nown, are subject to enchantments like mortals; and when under the form\nof swans are in some perhaps superficial aspects like the swan-maidens\nin stories which are world-wide, and their swan-song has the same\nsweetness and magical effect as in other countries.[251]\n\nIn the Rennes _Dinnshenchas_ there is a tale about a war among the 'men\nof the Elfmounds' over 'two lovable maidens who dwelt in the elfmound',\nand when they delivered the battle 'they all shaped themselves into the\nshapes of deer'.[252] Midir's sons under Donn mac Midir, in rebellion\nagainst the Daghda's son Bodh Derg, fled away to an obscure _s\u00eddh_,\nwhere in yearly battle they met the hosts of the other Tuatha De Danann\nunder Bodh Derg; and it was into this _s\u00eddh_ or fairy palace on the very\neve before the annual contest that Finn and his six companions were\nenticed by the fairy woman in the form of a fawn, to secure their\naid.[253] And in another tale, Laeghaire, son of the king of Connaught,\nwith fifty warriors, plunged into a lake to the fairy world beneath it,\nin order to assist the fairy man, who came thence to them, to recover\nhis wife stolen by a rival.[253]\n\n\nTHE _SIDHE_ AS WAR-GODDESSES OR THE _BADB_\n\nIt is in the form of birds that certain of the Tuatha De Danann appear\nas war-goddesses and directors of battle,[254]--and we learn from one of\nour witnesses (p. 46) that the 'gentry' or modern _Sidhe_-folk take\nsides even now in a great war, like that between Japan and Russia. It is\nin their relation to the hero Cuchulainn that one can best study the\nPeople of the Goddess Dana in their r\u00f4le as controllers of human war. In\nthe greatest of the Irish epics, the _Ta\u00edn B\u00f3 Cuailnge_, where\nCuchulainn is under their influence, these war-goddesses are called\n_Badb_[255] (or _Bodb_) which here seems to be a collective term for\n_Neman_, _Macha_, and _Morrigu_ (or _Morrigan_)[256]--each of whom\nexercises a particular supernatural power. _Neman_ appears as the\nconfounder of armies, so that friendly bands, bereft of their senses by\nher, slaughter one another; _Macha_ is a fury that riots and revels\namong the slain; while _Morrigu_, the greatest of the three, by her\npresence infuses superhuman valour into Cuchulainn, nerves him for the\ncast, and guides the course of his unerring spear. And the Tuatha De\nDanann in infusing this valour into the great hero show themselves--as\nwe already know them to be on _Samain_ Eve--the rulers of all sorts of\ndemons of the air and awful spirits:--In the _Book of Leinster_ (fol.\n57, B 2) it is recorded that 'the satyrs, and sprites, and maniacs of\nthe valleys, and demons of the air, shouted about him, for the Tuatha De\nDanann were wont to impart their valour to him, in order that he might\nbe more feared, more dreaded, more terrible, in every battle and\nbattle-field, in every combat and conflict, into which he went.'\n\nThe Battles of Moytura seem in most ways to be nothing more than the\ntraditional record of a long warfare to determine the future spiritual\ncontrol of Ireland, carried on between two diametrically opposed orders\nof invisible beings, the Tuatha De Danann representing the gods of light\nand good and the Fomorians representing the gods of darkness and evil.\nIt is said that after the second of these battles 'The _Morrigu_,\ndaughter of Ernmas (the Irish war-goddess), proceeded to proclaim that\nbattle and the mighty victory which had taken place, to the royal\nheights of Ireland and to its fairy host and its chief waters and its\nriver-mouths'.[257] For good had prevailed over evil, and it was settled\nthat all Ireland should for ever afterwards be a sacred country ruled\nover by the People of the Goddess Dana and the Sons of Mil jointly. So\nthat here we see the Tuatha De Danann with their war-goddess fighting\ntheir own battles in which human beings play no part.\n\nIt is interesting to observe that this Irish war-goddess, the _bodb_ or\n_badb_, considered of old to be one of the Tuatha De Danann, has\nsurvived to our own day in the fairy-lore of the chief Celtic countries.\nIn Ireland the survival is best seen in the popular and still almost\ngeneral belief among the peasantry that the fairies often exercise their\nmagical powers under the form of royston-crows; and for this reason\nthese birds are always greatly dreaded and avoided. The resting of one\nof them on a peasant's cottage may signify many things, but often it\nmeans the death of one of the family or some great misfortune, the bird\nin such a case playing the part of a _bean-sidhe_ (banshee). And this\nfolk-belief finds its echo in the recorded tales of Wales, Scotland, and\nBrittany. In the _Mabinogi_, 'Dream of Rhonabwy,' Owain, prince of\nRheged and a contemporary of Arthur, has a wonderful crow which always\nsecures him victory in battle by the aid of three hundred other crows\nunder its leadership. In Campbell's _Popular Tales of the West\nHighlands_ the fairies very often exercise their power in the form of\nthe common hoody crow; and in Brittany there is a folk-tale entitled\n'_Les Compagnons_'[258] in which the chief actor is a fairy under the\nform of a magpie who lives in a royal forest just outside Rennes.[259]\n\nW. M. Hennessy has shown that the word _bodb_ or _badb_, aspirated\n_bodhbh_ or _badhbh_ (pronounced _bov_ or _bav_), originally signified\nrage, fury, or violence, and ultimately implied a witch, fairy, or\ngoddess; and that as the memory of this Irish goddess of war survives in\nfolk-lore, her emblem is the well-known scald-crow, or royston-crow.[260]\nBy referring to Peter O'Connell's _Irish Dictionary_ we are able to\nconfirm this popular belief which identifies the battle-fairies with the\nroyston-crow, and to discover that there is a definite relationship or\neven identification between the _Badb_ and the _Bean-sidhe_ or banshee, as\nthere is in modern Irish folk-lore between the royston-crow and the fairy\nwho announces a death. _Badb-catha_ is made to equal 'Fionog, a\nroyston-crow, a squall crow'; _Badb_ is defined as a '_bean-sidhe_, a\nfemale fairy, phantom, or spectre, supposed to be attached to certain\nfamilies, and to appear sometimes in the form of squall-crows, or\nroyston-crows'; and the _Badb_ in the three-fold aspect is thus explained:\n'_Macha_, i. e. a royston-crow; _Morrighain_, i. e. the great fairy;\n_Neamhan_, i. e. _Badb catha n\u00f3 feann\u00f3g; a badb catha_, or royston-crow.'\nSimilar explanations are given by other glossarists, and thus the evidence\nof etymological scholarship as well as that of folk-lore support the\nPsychological Theory.\n\n\nTHE _SIDHE_ IN THE BATTLE OF CLONTARF, A. D. 1014\n\nThe People of the Goddess Dana played an important part in human warfare\neven so late as the Battle of Clontarf, fought near Dublin, April 23,\n1014; and at that time fairy women and phantom-hosts were to the Irish\nunquestionable existences, as real as ordinary men and women. It is\nrecorded in the manuscript story of the battle, of which numerous copies\nexist, that the fairy woman Aoibheall[261] came to Dunlang O'Hartigan\nbefore the battle and begged him not to fight, promising him life and\nhappiness for two hundred years if he would put off fighting for a\nsingle day; but the patriotic Irishman expressed his decision to fight\nfor Ireland, and then the fairy woman foretold how he and his friend\nMurrough, and Brian and Conaing and all the nobles of Erin and even his\nown son Turlough, were fated to fall in the conflict.\n\nOn the eve of the battle, Dunlang comes to his friend Murrough directly\nfrom the fairy woman; and Murrough upon seeing him reproaches him for\nhis absence in these words:--'Great must be the love and attachment of\nsome woman for thee which has induced thee to abandon me.' 'Alas O\nKing,' answered Dunlang, 'the delight which I have abandoned for thee is\ngreater, if thou didst but know it, namely, life without death, without\ncold, without thirst, without hunger, without decay, beyond any delight\nof the delights of the earth to me, until the judgement, and heaven\nafter the judgement; and if I had not pledged my word to thee I would\nnot have come here; and, moreover, it is fated for me to die on the day\nthat thou shalt die.' When Murrough has heard this terrible message, the\nprophecy of his own death in the battle, despondency seizes him; and\nthen it is that he declares that he for Ireland like Dunlang for honour\nhas also sacrificed the opportunity of entering and living in that\nwonderful Land of Eternal Youth:--'Often was I offered in hills, and in\nfairy mansions, this world (the fairy world) and these gifts, but I\nnever abandoned for one night my country nor mine inheritance for\nthem.'[262]\n\nAnd thus is described the meeting of the two armies at Clontarf, and the\ndemons of the air and the phantoms, and all the hosts of the invisible\nworld who were assembled to scatter confusion and to revel in the\nbloodshed, and how above them in supremacy rose the _Badb_:--'It will be\none of the wonders of the day of judgement to relate the description of\nthis tremendous onset. There arose a wild, impetuous, precipitate, mad,\ninexorable, furious, dark, lacerating, merciless, combative, contentious\n_badb_, which was shrieking and fluttering over their heads. And there\narose also the satyrs, and sprites, and the maniacs of the valleys, and\nthe witches, and goblins, and owls, and destroying demons of the air and\nfirmament, and the demoniac phantom host; and they were inciting and\nsustaining valour and battle with them.'[263] It is said of Murrough\n(_Murchadh_) as he entered the thick of the fight and prepared to assail\nthe foreign invaders, the Danes, when they had repulsed the Dal-Cais,\nthat 'he was seized with a boiling terrible anger, an excessive\nelevation and greatness of spirit and mind. A bird of valour and\nchampionship rose in him, and fluttered over his head and on his\nbreath'.[264]\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nThe recorded or manuscript Fairy-Faith of the Gaels corresponds in all\nessentials with the living Gaelic Fairy-Faith: the Tuatha De Danann or\n_Sidhe_, the 'Gentry', the 'Good People', and the 'People of Peace' are\ndescribed as a race of invisible divine beings eternally young and\nunfading. They inhabit fairy palaces, enjoy rare feasts and love-making,\nand have their own music and minstrelsy. They are essentially majestic\nin their nature; they wage war in their own invisible realm against\nother of its inhabitants like the ancient Fomorians; they frequently\ndirect human warfare or nerve the arm of a great hero like Cuchulainn;\nand demons of the air, spirit hosts, and awful unseen creatures obey\nthem. Mythologically they are gods of light and good, able to control\nnatural phenomena so as to make harvests come forth abundantly or not at\nall. But they are not such mythological beings as we read about in\nscholarly dissertations on mythology, dissertations so learned in their\ncurious and unreasonable and often unintelligible hypotheses about the\nworkings of the mind among primitive men. The way in which social\npsychology has deeply affected all such animistic beliefs was pointed\nout above in chapter iii. In chapter xi, entitled _Science and Fairies_,\nour position with respect to the essential nature of the fairy races\nwill be made clear.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION II\n\nTHE RECORDED FAIRY-FAITH\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nBRYTHONIC DIVINITIES AND THE BRYTHONIC FAIRY-FAITH[265]\n\n     'On the one hand we have the man Arthur, whose position we have\n     tried to define, and on the other a greater Arthur, a more colossal\n     figure, of which we have, so to speak, but a _torso_ rescued from\n     the wreck of the Celtic pantheon.'--The Right Hon. Sir JOHN\n     RHYS.\n\n     The god Arthur and the hero Arthur--Sevenfold evidence to show\n     Arthur as an incarnate fairy king--Lancelot the foster-son of a\n     fairy woman--Galahad the offspring of Lancelot and the fairy woman\n     Elayne--Arthur as a fairy king in _Kulhwch and Olwen_--Gwynn ab\n     Nudd--Arthur like Dagda, and like Osiris--Brythonic fairy-romances:\n     their evolution and antiquity--Arthur in Nennius, Geoffrey, Wace,\n     and in Layamon--Cambrensis' Otherworld tale--Norman-French writers\n     of twelfth and thirteenth centuries--_Romans d'Aventure_ and\n     _Romans Bretons_--Origins of the 'Matter of Britain'--Fairy-romance\n     episodes in Welsh literature--Brythonic origins.\n\n\nARTHUR AND ARTHURIAN MYTHOLOGY\n\nAs we have just considered the Gaelic Divinities in their character as\nthe Fairy-Folk of popular Gaelic tradition, so now we proceed to\nconsider the Brythonic Divinities in the same way, beginning with the\ngreatest of them all, Arthur. Even a superficial acquaintance with the\nArthurian Legend shows how impossible it is to place upon it any one\ninterpretation to the exclusion of other interpretations, for in one\naspect Arthur is a Brythonic divinity and in another a sixth-century\nBrythonic chieftain. But the explanation of this double aspect seems\neasy enough when we regard the historical Arthur as a great hero, who,\nexactly as in so many parallel cases of national hero-worship,\ncame--within a comparatively short time--to be enshrined in the\nimagination of the patriotic Brythons with all the attributes anciently\nbelonging to a great Celtic god called Arthur.[266] The hero and the god\nwere first confused, and then identified,[267] and hence arose that\nwonderful body of romance which we call Arthurian, and which has become\nthe glory of English literature.\n\nArthur in the character of a culture hero,[268] with god-like powers to\ninstruct mortals in wisdom, and, also, as a being in some way related to\nthe sun--as a sun-god perhaps--can well be considered the human-divine\ninstitutor of the mystic brotherhood known as the Round Table. We ought,\nprobably, to consider Arthur, like Cuchulainn, as a god incarnate in a\nhuman body for the purpose of educating the race of men; and thus, while\nliving as a man, related definitely and, apparently, consciously to the\ninvisible gods or fairy-folk. Among the Aztecs and Peruvians in the New\nWorld, there was a widespread belief that great heroes who had once been\nmen have now their celestial abode in the sun, and from time to time\nreincarnate to become teachers of their less developed brethren of our\nown race; and a belief of the same character existed among the Egyptians\nand other peoples of the Old World, including the Celts. It will be\nfurther shown, in our study of the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth, that\nanciently among the Gaels and Brythons such heroes as Cuchulainn and\nArthur were also considered reincarnate sun-divinities. As a being\nrelated to the sun, as a sun-god, Arthur is like Osiris, the Great\nBeing, who with his brotherhood of great heroes and god-companions\nenters daily the underworld or Hades to battle against the demons and\nforces of evil,[269] even as the Tuatha De Danann battled against the\nFomors. And the most important things in the traditions of the great\nBrythonic hero connect him directly with this strange world of\nsubjectivity. First of all, his own father, Uthr Bendragon,[270] was a\nking of Hades, so that Arthur himself, being his child, is a direct\ndescendant of this Otherworld. Second, the Arthurian Legend traces the\norigin of the Round Table back to Arthur's father, Hades being 'the\nrealm whence all culture was fabled to have been derived'.[271] Third,\nthe name of Arthur's wife, Gwenhwyvar, resolves itself into White\nPhantom or White Apparition, in harmony with Arthur's line of descent\nfrom the region of phantoms and apparitions and fairy-folk.\nThus:--_Gwenhwyvar_ or _Gwenhwyfar_ equals _Gwen_ or _Gwenn_, a\nBrythonic word meaning white, and _hwyvar_, a word not found in the\nBrythonic dialects, but undoubtedly cognate with the Irish word\n_siabhradh_, a fairy, equal to _siabhra_, _siabrae_, _siabur_, a fairy,\nor ghost, the Welsh and the Irish word going back to the form\n_*seibaro_.[272] Hence the name of Arthur's wife means the _white ghost_\nor _white phantom_, quite in keeping with the nature of the Tuatha De\nDanann and that of the fairy-folk of Wales or _Tylwyth Teg_--the 'Fair\nFamily'.\n\nFourth, as a link in the chain of evidence connecting Arthur with the\ninvisible world where the Fairy-People live, his own sister is called\n_Morgan le Fay_ in the romances,[273] and is thus definitely one of the\nfairy women who, according to tradition, are inhabitants of the Celtic\nOtherworld sometimes known as Avalon. Fifth, in the Welsh Triads,[274]\nLlacheu, the son of Arthur and Gwenhwyvar, is credited with clairvoyant\nvision, like the fairy-folk, so that he understands the secret nature of\nall solid and material things; and 'the story of his death as given in\nthe second part of the Welsh version of the Grail, makes him hardly\nhuman at all.'[275] Sixth, the name of Melwas, the abductor of Arthur's\nwife, is shown by Sir John Rhys to mean a prince-youth or a princely\nyouth, and the same authority considers it probable that, as such,\nMelwas or Maelwas was a being endowed with eternal youth,--even as\nMidir, the King of the Tuatha De Danann, who though a thousand years old\nappeared handsome and youthful. So it seems that the abduction of\nGwenhwyfar was really a fairy abduction, such as we read about in the\ndomestic troubles of the Irish fairy-folk, on a level with the abduction\nof Etain by her Otherworld husband Midir.[276] And in keeping with this\nsuperhuman character of the abductor of the White Phantom or Fairy,\nChr\u00e9tien de Troyes, in his metrical romance _Le Conte de la Charrette_,\ndescribes the realm of which Melwas was lord as a place whence no\ntraveller returns.[277] As further proof that the realm of Melwas was\nmeant by Chr\u00e9tien to be the subjective world, where the god-like Tuatha\nDe Danann, the _Tylwyth Teg_, and the shades of the dead equally exist,\nit is said that access to it was by two narrow bridges; 'one called _li\nPonz Evages_ or the Water Bridge, because it was a narrow passage a foot\nand a half wide and as much in height, with water above and below it as\nwell as on both sides'; the other _li Ponz de l'Esp\u00e9e_ or the Sword\nBridge, because it consisted of the edge of a sword two lances in\nlength.[278] The first bridge, considered less perilous than the other,\nwas chosen by Gauvain (Gwalchmei), when with Lancelot he was seeking to\nrescue Gwenhwyfar; but he failed to cross it. Lancelot with great\ntrouble crossed the second. In many mythologies and in world-wide\nfolk-tales there is a narrow bridge or bridges leading to the realm of\nthe dead. Even Mohammed in the _Koran_ declares it necessary to cross a\nbridge as thin as a hair, if one would enter Paradise. And in living\nfolk-lore in Celtic countries, as we found among the Irish peasantry,\nthe crossing of a bridge or stream of water when pursued by fairies or\nphantoms is a guarantee of protection. There is always the mystic water\nbetween the realm of the living and the realm of subjectivity.[279] In\nancient Egypt there was always the last voyage begun on the sacred Nile;\nand in all classical literature Pluto's realm is entered by crossing a\ndark, deep river,--the river of forgetfulness between physical\nconsciousness and spiritual consciousness. Burns has expressed this\nbelief in its popular form in his _Tam O'Shanter_. And in our Arthurian\nparallel there is a clear enough relation between the beings inhabiting\nthe invisible realm and the Brythonic heroes and gods. How striking,\ntoo, as Gaston Paris has pointed out, is the similarity between Melwas'\ncapturing Gwenhwyvar as she was in the woods a-maying, and the rape of\nProserpine by Pluto, the god of Hades, while she was collecting flowers\nin the fields.[280]\n\nA curious matter in connexion with this episode of Gwenhwyvar's\nabduction should claim our attention. Malory relates[281] that when\nQueen Guenever advised her knights of the Table Round that on the morrow\n(May Day, when fairies have special powers) she would go on maying, she\nwarned them all to be well-horsed and _dressed in green_. This was the\ncolour that nearly all the fairy-folk of Britain and Ireland wear. It\nsymbolizes, as many ancient mystical writings declare, eternal youth,\nand resurrection or re-birth, as in nature during the springtime, when\nall vegetation after its death-sleep of winter springs into new\nlife.[282] In the _Myvyrian Archaiology_,[283] Arthur when he has\nreached the realm of Melwas speaks with Gwenhwyvar,[284] he being on a\nblack horse and she on a green one:--'Green is my steed of the tint of\nthe leaves.' Arthur's black horse--black perhaps signifying the dead to\nwhose realm he has gone--being proof against all water, may have been,\ntherefore, proof against the inhabitants of the world of shades and\nagainst fairies:--\n\n  Black is my steed and brave beneath me,\n  No water will make him fear,\n  And no man will make him swerve.\n\nThe fairy colour, in different works and among different authors\ndiffering both in time and country, continues to attach itself to the\nabduction episode. Thus, in the fourteenth century the poet D. ab Gwilym\nalludes to Melwas himself as having a cloak of green:--'The sleep of\nMelwas beneath (or in) the green cloak.' Sir John Rhys, who makes\nthis translation, observes that another reading still of _y glas glog_\nresolves it into a green bower to which Melwas took Gwenhwyvar.[285] In\nany case, the reference is significant, and goes far, in combination\nwith the other references, to represent the White Phantom or Fairy and\nher lover Melwas as beings of a race like the Irish _Sidhe_ or People of\nthe Goddess Dana. And though by no means exhausting all examples tending\nto prove this point, we pass on to the seventh and most important of our\nlinks in the sequence of evidence, the carrying of Arthur to Avalon in a\nfairy ship by fairy women.\n\nFrom the first, Arthur was under superhuman guidance and protection.\nMerlin the magician, born of a spirit or daemon, claimed Arthur before\nbirth and became his teacher afterwards. From the mysterious Lady of the\nLake, Arthur received his magic sword _Excalibur_,[286] and to her\nreturned it, through Sir Bedivere. During all his time on earth the\n'lady of the lake that was always friendly to King Arthur'[287] watched\nover him; and once when she saw him in great danger, like the Irish\n_Morrigu_ who presided over the career of Cuchulainn, she sought to save\nhim, and with the help of Sir Tristram succeeded.[287] The passing of\nArthur to Avalon or Faerie seems to be a return to his own native realm\nof subjectivity. His own sister was with him in the ship, for she was of\nthe invisible country too.[288] And another of his companions on his\nvoyage from the visible to the invisible was his life-guardian Nimue,\nthe lady of the lake. Merlin could not be of the company, for he was\nalready in Faerie with the Fay Vivian. Behold the passing of Arthur as\nMalory describes it:--'... thus was he led away in a ship wherein were\nthree queens; that one was King Arthur's sister, Queen Morgan le Fay;\nthe other was the Queen of Northgalis; the third was the Queen of the\nWaste Lands. Also there was Nimue, the chief lady of the lake, that had\nwedded Pelleas the good knight; and this lady had done much for King\nArthur, for she would never suffer Sir Pelleas to be in no place where\nhe should be in danger of his life.'[289] Concerning the great Arthur's\nreturn from Avalon we shall speak in the chapter dealing with Re-birth.\nAnd we pass now from Arthur and his Brotherhood of gods and fairy-folk\nto Lancelot and his son Galahad--the two chief knights in the Arthurian\nRomance.\n\nAccording to one of the earliest accounts we have of Lancelot, the\nGerman poem by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, as analysed by Gaston Paris, he\nwas the son of King Pant and Queen Clarine of Genewis.[290] In\nconsequence of the hatred of their subjects the royal pair were forced\nto flee when Lancelot was only a year old. During the flight, the king,\nmortally wounded, died; and just as the queen was about to be taken\ncaptive, a fairy rising in a cloud of mist carried away the infant\nLancelot from where his parents had placed him under a tree. The fairy\ntook him to her abode on an island in the midst of the sea, from whence\nshe derived her title of Lady of the Lake, and he, as her adopted son,\nthe name of _Lancelot du Lac_; and her island-world was called the Land\nof Maidens. Having lived in that world of Faerie so long, it was only\nnatural that Lancelot should have grown up more like one of its\nfair-folk than like a mortal. No doubt it was on account of his\nhalf-supernatural nature that he fell in love with the White Phantom,\nGwenhwyvar, the wife of the king who had power to enter Hades and return\nagain to the land of the living. Who better than Lancelot could have\nrescued Arthur's queen? No one else in the court was so well fitted for\nthe task. And it was he who was able to cross one of the magic bridges\ninto the realm of Melwas, the Otherworld, while Gauvain (in the English\nform, Gawayne) failed.\n\nMalory's narrative records how Lancelot, while suffering from the malady\nof madness caused by Gwenhwyvar's jealous expulsion of Elayne his\nfairy-sweetheart,--quite a parallel case to that of Cuchulainn when his\nwife Emer expelled his fairy-mistress Fand,--fought against a wild boar\nand was terribly wounded, and how afterwards he was nursed by his own\nElayne in Fairyland, and healed and restored to his right mind by the\nSangreal. Then Sir Ector and Sir Perceval found him there in the Joyous\nIsle enjoying the companionship of Elayne, where he had been many years,\nand from that world of Faerie induced him to return to Arthur's court.\nAnd, finally, comes the most important element of all to show how\nclosely related Lancelot is with the fairy world and its people, and how\ninseparable from that invisible realm another of the fundamental\nelements in the life of Arthur is--the Quest of the Holy Grail, and the\nstory of Galahad, who of all the knights was pure and good enough to\nbehold the Sacred Vessel, and who was the offspring of the foster-son of\nthe Lady of the Lake and the fairy woman Elayne.[291]\n\nIn the strange old Welsh tale of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ we find Arthur and\nhis knights even more closely identified with the fairy realm than in\nMalory and the Norman-French writers; and this is important, because the\nancient tale is, as scholars think, probably much freer from foreign\ninfluences and re-working than the better-known romances of Arthur, and\ntherefore more in accord with genuine Celtic beliefs and folk-lore, as\nwe shall quickly see. The court of King Arthur to which the youth\nKulhwch goes seeking aid in his enterprise seems in some ways--though\nthe parallel is not complete enough to be emphasized--to be a more\nartistic, because literary, picture of that fairy court which the Celtic\npeasant locates under mountains, in caverns, in hills, and in knolls, a\ncourt quite comparable to that of the Irish _Sidhe_-folk or Tuatha De\nDanann. Arthur is represented in the midst of a brilliant life where, as\nin the fairy palaces, there is much feasting; and Kulhwch being invited\nto the feasting says, 'I came not here to consume meat and drink.'\n\nAnd behold what sort of personages from that court Kulhwch has pledged\nto him, so that by their supernatural assistance he may obtain Olwen,\nherself perhaps a fairy held under fairy enchantment[292]: the sons of\nGwawrddur Kyrvach, whom Arthur had power to call from the confines of\nhell; Morvran the son of Tegid, who, because of his ugliness, was\nthought to be a demon; Sandde Bryd Angel, who was so beautiful that\nmortals thought him a ministering angel; Henbedestyr, with whom no one\ncould keep pace 'either on horseback, or on foot', and who therefore\nseems to be a spirit of the air; Henwas Adeinawg, with whom 'no\nfour-footed beast could run the distance of an acre, much less go beyond\nit'; Sgilti Yscawndroed, who must have been another spirit or fairy, for\n'when he intended to go on a message for his Lord (Arthur, who is like a\nTuatha De Danann king), he never sought to find a path, but knowing\nwhither he was to go, if his way lay through a wood he went along the\ntops of the trees', and 'during his whole life, a blade of reed-grass\nbent not beneath his feet, much less did one ever break, so lightly did\nhe tread'; Gwallgoyc, who 'when he came to a town, though there were\nthree hundred houses in it, if he wanted anything, he would not let\nsleep come to the eyes of any whilst he remained there'; Osla\nGyllellvawr, who bore a short broad dagger, and 'when Arthur and his\nhosts came before a torrent, they would seek for a narrow place where\nthey might pass the water, and would lay the sheathed dagger across the\ntorrent, and it would form a bridge sufficient for the armies of the\nthree Islands of Britain, and of the three islands adjacent, with their\nspoil.' It seems very evident that this is the magic bridge, so often\ntypified by a sword or dagger, which connects the world invisible with\nour own, and over which all shades and spirits pass freely to and fro.\nIn this case we think Arthur is very clearly a ruler of the spirit\nrealm, for, like the great Tuatha De Danann king Dagda, he can command\nits fairy-like inhabitants, and his army is an army of spirits or\nfairies. The unknown author of _Kulhwch_, like Spenser in modern times\nin his _Faerie Queene_, seems to have made the Island of Britain the\nrealm of Faerie--the Celtic Otherworld--and Arthur its king. But let us\ntake a look at more of the men pledged to Kulhwch from among Arthur's\nfollowers: Clust the son of Clustveinad, who possessed clairaudient\nfaculties of so extraordinary a kind that 'though he were buried seven\ncubits beneath the earth, he would hear the ant fifty miles off rise\nfrom her nest in the morning'; and the wonderful Kai, who could live\nnine days and nine nights under water, for his breath lasted this long,\nand he could exist the same length of time without sleep. 'A wound from\nKai's sword no physician could heal.' And at will he was as tall as the\nhighest tree in the forest. 'And he had another peculiarity: so great\nwas the heat of his nature, that, when it rained hardest, whatever he\ncarried remained dry for a handbreadth above and a handbreadth below his\nhand; and when his companions were coldest, it was to them as fuel with\nwhich to light their fire.'\n\nYet besides all these strange knights, Arthur commanded a being who is\nwithout any reasonable doubt a god or ruler of the subjective\nrealm--'Gwynn ab Nudd, whom God has placed over the brood of devils in\nAnnwn, lest they should destroy the present race. He will never be\nspared thence.' Whatever each one of us may think of this wonderful\nassembly of warriors and heroes who recognized in Arthur their chief,\nthey are certainly not beings of the ordinary type,--in fact they seem\nnot of this world, but of that hidden land to which we all shall one day\njourney.[293] But to avoid too much conjecture and to speak with a\ndegree of scientific exactness as to how Arthur and these companions of\nhis are to be considered, let us undertake a brief investigation into\nthe mythological character and nature of the chief one of them next to\nthe great hero--Gwynn ab Nudd. Professor J. Loth has said that 'nothing\nshows better the evolution of mythological personages than the history\nof Gwynn';[294] and in Irish we have the equivalent form of Nudd in the\nname Nuada--famous for having had a hand of silver; and Nuada of the\nSilver Hand was a king of the Tuatha De Danann. The same authority thus\ndescribes Gwynn, the son of Nudd:--'Gwynn, like his father Nudd, is an\nancient god of the Britons and of the Gaels. Christian priests have made\nof him a demon. The people persisted in regarding him as a powerful and\nrich king, the sovereign of supernatural beings.'[295] And referring to\nGwynn, Professor Loth in his early edition of _Kulhwch_ says:--'Our\nauthor has had an original idea: he has left him in hell, to which place\nChristianity had made him descend, but for a motive which does him the\ngreatest honour: God has given him the strength of demons to control\nthem and to prevent them from destroying the present race of men: he is\nindispensable down there.'[295] Lady Guest calls Gwynn the King of\nFaerie,[296] the ruler of the _Tylwyth Teg_ or 'Family of Beauty', who\nare always joyful and well-disposed toward mortals; and also the ruler\nof the Elves (Welsh _Ellyllon_), a goblin race who take special delight\nin misleading travellers and in playing mischievous tricks on men. It is\neven said that Gwynn himself is given to indulging in the same\nmischievous amusements as his elvish subjects.\n\nThe evidence now set forth seems to suggest clearly and even definitely\nthat Arthur in his true nature is a god of the subjective world, a ruler\nof ghosts, demons, and demon rulers, and fairies; that the people of his\ncourt are more like the Irish _Sidhe_-folk than like mortals; and that\nas a great king he is comparable to Dagda the over-king of all the\nTuatha De Danann. Arthur and Osiris, two culture heroes and sun-gods, as\nwe suggested at first, are strikingly parallel. Osiris came from the\nOtherworld to this one, became the first Divine Ruler and Culture Hero\nof Egypt, and then returned to the Otherworld, where he is now a king.\nArthur's father was a ruler in the Otherworld, and Arthur evidently came\nfrom there to be the Supreme Champion of the Brythons, and then returned\nto that realm whence he took his origin, a realm which poets called\nAvalon. The passing of Arthur seems mystically to represent the sunset\nover the Western Ocean: Arthur disappears beneath the horizon into the\nLower World which is also the Halls of Osiris, wherein Osiris journeys\nbetween sunset and sunrise, between death and re-birth. Merlin found the\ninfant Arthur floating on the waves: the sun rising across the waters is\nthis birth of Arthur, the birth of Osiris. In the chapter on Re-birth,\nevidence will be offered to show that as a culture hero Arthur is to be\nregarded as a sun-god incarnate in a human body to teach the Brythons\narts and sciences and hidden things--even as Prometheus and Zeus are\nsaid to have come to earth to teach the Greeks; and that as a\nsixth-century warrior, Arthur, in accordance with the Celtic Doctrine of\nRe-birth, is an ancient Brythonic hero reincarnate.\n\n\nTHE LITERARY EVOLUTION AND THE ANTIQUITY OF THE BRYTHONIC FAIRY-ROMANCES\n\nAfter the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the ancient fairy-romances\nof the Brythons began to exercise their remarkable literary influence as\nwe see it now in the evolution of the Arthurian Legend. And in this\nevolution of the Arthurian Legend we find the proof of the antiquity of\nthe Brythonic Fairy-Faith, just as we find in the old Irish manuscripts\nthe proof of the antiquity of the Gaelic Fairy-Faith.\n\nLong before 1066, Gildas gives the first recorded germs of the Arthurian\nstory in his _De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae_, though they are\nhardly distinguishable as such. His failure to mention the name of\nArthur, though treating of the whole period when Arthur is supposed to\nhave lived, he himself being contemporary with the period, raises the\nvery difficult question which we have already mentioned, Did the mighty\nBrythonic hero ever have an actual historical existence? Almost three\nhundred years later--a period sufficiently removed from Gildas to have\nmade Arthur the supreme champion of the falling Brythons, granting that\nhe did exist during the sixth century as a Brythonic chieftain--in the\n_Historia Britonum_, completed about the year 800, and attributed to\nNennius, Arthur, for the first time in a known manuscript, is mentioned\nas a character of British history.[297] All that can be definitely said\nof the narrative of Nennius 'is that it represents more or less\ninconsistent British traditions of uncertain age'.[297] That it is not\nalways historical, many scholars are agreed. Dr. R. H. Fletcher says,\n'There is always the possibility that Arthur never existed at all, and\nthat even Nennius's comparatively modest eulogy has no firmer foundation\nthan the persistent stories of ancient Celtic myth or the patriotic\nfigments of the ardent Celtic imagination.'[298] Sir John Rhys also\npropounds a similar view.[299] Thus, for example, Nennius states that\nArthur in one battle slew single handed more than nine hundred men; and,\nagain, that the number of Arthur's always-successful battles was twelve,\nas though Arthur were the sun or a sun-god, and his battles the twelve\nmonths of the solar year.[298]\n\nBetween Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth there is an intermediate stage\nin the development of the Arthurian Legend, during which the character\nof Arthur tends to become more romantic; but for our purpose this period\nis of slight importance. Thereafter, by means of Geoffrey's famous\n_Historia Regum Britanniae_, written about 1136, the Arthurian Legend\ngained popularity throughout Western Europe. In this work Arthur ceases\nto be purely historical, and appears as a great king enveloped in the\nmythical atmosphere of a Celtic hero, and with him Merlin and Lear are\nfor the first time definitely enshrined in the literature of\nBritain.[300] Arthur's career is completely sketched in the _Historia_,\nfrom birth to his mysterious departure for the Isle of Avalon after the\nlast fight with Modred, when fairy women take him to cure him of his\nwounds (Book XI, 1-2). Geoffrey, thus the father of the Arthurian Legend\nin English and European literature, was undoubtedly a Welshman who\nprobably had natural opportunities of knowing the true character of\nArthur from genuine Brythonic sources, though we know little about his\nlife. His _Historia_, as the researches of scholars have shown, was the\nsum total in his time of all Arthurian history and myth, whether written\nor orally transmitted, which he could collect; just as Malory's _Le\nMorte d'Arthur_ was a compendium of Arthurian material in the time of\nEdward IV.\n\nThere followed many imitations and translations of the _Historia_. The\nmost important of these appeared in 1155, _Le Roman de Brut_ or 'The\nStory of Brutus', by the Norman poet Wace. The _Brut_, though\nfundamentally a rimed version of the _Historia_, is much more than a\nmere translation: Wace has improved on it; and he gives a convincing\nimpression that he had access to Celtic Arthurian stories not drawn upon\nby Geoffrey, for he gives new touches about Gawain, mentions the\nBritons' expectation of Arthur's return from Faerie, and the institution\nof the Round Table.[301]\n\nSomewhere about the year 1200, Layamon, a simple-hearted Saxon priest,\nwrote another _Brut_, based upon the metrical one by Wace; and in the\nliterature of England, Layamon's work is the most valuable single\nproduction between the Conquest and Chaucer. The life of Layamon is very\nobscure, but it seems reasonably certain that for a long time he lived\non the Welsh marches in North Worcestershire, in the midst of living\nBrythonic traditions, which he used at first hand; and, as a result, we\nfind in his _Brut_ legends not recorded in Geoffrey, or Wace, or in any\nearlier or contemporary literature. For our purposes the most\ninteresting of many interesting additions made by Layamon are the\ncurious passages about the fairy elves at Arthur's birth, and about the\nway in which Arthur was taken by them to their queen Argante in Avalon\nto be cured of his wounds:--'The time came that was chosen, then was\nArthur born. So soon as he came on earth elves took him; they enchanted\nthe child into magic most strong; they gave him might to be the best of\nall knights; they gave him another thing, that he should be a rich king;\nthey gave him the third, that he should live long; they gave to him the\nprince virtues most good, so that he was most generous of all men alive.\nThis the elves gave him, and thus the child thrived.'[302]\n\nIn the last fatal battle Modred is slain and Arthur is grievously\nwounded. As Arthur lies wounded, Constantine, Cador's son, the earl of\nCornwall, and a relative of Arthur, comes to him. Arthur greets him with\nthese words:--'\"Constantine, thou art welcome; thou wert Cador's son. I\ngive thee here my kingdom.... And I will fare to Avalun, to the fairest\nof all maidens, to Argante the queen, and elf most fair, and she shall\nmake my wounds all sound; make me all whole with healing draughts. And\nafterwards I will come [again] to my kingdom, and dwell with the Britons\nwith mickle joy.\" Even with the words, there approached from the sea\nthat was, a short boat, floating with the waves; and two women therein,\nwondrously formed; and they took Arthur anon, and bare him quickly, and\nlaid him softly down, and forth gan depart. Then it was accomplished\nthat Merlin whilom said, that mickle care (sorrow) should be of Arthur's\ndeparture. The Britons believe that he is alive, and dwelleth in Avalun\nwith the fairest of all elves; and the Britons even yet expect when\nArthur shall return.'[303]\n\nDuring this same period, Giraldus Cambrensis (1147-1223) in his\n_Itinerarium Cambriae_ (Book I, c. 8) collected a popular Otherworld\ntale. It is about a priest named Elidorus, who when a boy in Gower, the\nwestern district of Glamorganshire, had free passage between this world\nof ours and an underground country inhabited by a race of little people\nwho spoke a language like Greek. This tends to prove that the\nFairy-Faith was then flourishing among the people of Wales.\n\nIt was chiefly during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the\nArthurian Legend as a thing of literature began to take definite shape.\nThe old romances of the Brythons were cultivated and revised, and\nwritten down by men and women of literary genius. Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes,\nwho recorded a large number of legendary stories in verse, Marie de\nFrance, famous for her _Lais_, Thomas, the author of the chief version\nof the _Tristan_ legend,[304] B\u00e9roul, who recorded a less important\nversion of this legend,[305] and Robert de Boron, who did much to\ndevelop the legend of the Holy Grail, were among the greatest workers in\nthe French Celtic Revival of this time.\n\nProfessor Brown has shown that 'almost every incident in Chr\u00e9tien's\n_Iwain_ was suggested by an ancient Celtic tale, dealing with the\nfamiliar theme of a journey to win a fairy mistress in the\nOtherworld.'[306] The fay whom Iwain marries is called Laudine; and,\nlike one of the fairies who live in sacred waters, she has her favourite\nfountain which the knight guards, as though he were the Black Knight in\nthe old Welsh tale of _The Lady of the Fountain_. Both Gaston Paris and\nAlfred Nutt have also recognized the tale of _Iwain_ as a fairy\nromance.[307] Professor Loth observes that, 'It is not impossible that\nChr\u00e9tien had known, among fairy legends, Armorican legends, concerning\nthe fairies of waters, whose r\u00f4le is identical with that of the Welsh\n_Tylwyth Teg_.'[308]\n\nIn _Lanval_, one of the _Lais_[309] by Marie de France, written during\nthe twelfth century, probably while its author was living in England, we\nhave direct proof that there was then flourishing in Brittany--well\nknown to Marie de France, who was French by birth and training--a\npopular belief in fairy women who lived in the Otherworld, and who could\n_take_ mortals on whom their love fell. It is probable that the older\nlay, to which Marie de France refers in the beginning of her _Lanval_,\nmay have been the anonymous one of _Graelent_, sometimes improperly\nattributed to her. Zimmer and Foerster place the origin of _Graelent_ in\nBrittany[310]; and the similarity of the heroes in the two poems seems\nto be due to a very ancient Brythonic Fairy-Faith. Dr. Schofield sees in\n_Graelent_ an older form of the more polished _Lanval_; and remarks that\nthe chief difference in the two _lais_ is found in the way the hero\nmeets the fairy women. In the case of Lanval, when he leaves the court,\nhe goes to rest beside a river where two beautiful maidens come to him;\nGraelent is alone in the woods when he sees a hind whiter than snow, and\nfollowing it comes to a place where fairy damsels are bathing in a\nfountain. There seems to be no doubt that in both poems the maidens and\ndamsels are fairies quite like the Tuatha De Danann, with power to cast\ntheir spell over beautiful young men whom they wish to have for\nhusbands. In _Guingemor_, another of the old Breton lays, ascribed by\nGaston Paris to Marie de France, we find again fairy-romance episodes\nsimilar to those in _Lanval_ and _Graelent_.[311] The _Lais_ of Marie de\nFrance had many imitators in England. Chaucer, too, has made it clear\nthat he knew a good deal about the old Breton _lais_ and their subjects\nor 'matter', for in the _Prologue to the Frankeleyn's Tale_ he writes:--\n\n  Thise olde gentil Britons in hir dayes\n  Of diverse aventures maden layes,\n  Rymeyed in hir firste Briton tonge.\n\nWe may now briefly examine, in a general way, some of the most\nnoteworthy of the more obscure, but for us important Old French\nfairy-romances of a kindred Brythonic or Arthurian character, called\n_Romans d'Aventure_ and _Romans Bretons_, wherein _f\u00e9es_ appear or are\nmentioned: i. e. _Le Bel Inconnu_, _Blancadin_, _Brun de la Montaigne_,\n_Claris et Laris_, _Dolopathos_, _Escanor_, _Floriant et Florete_,\n_Partonopeus_, _La Vengeance Raguidel_, _Joufrois_, and _Amada et\nYdoine_.[312] In these romances, fairies commonly appear as most\nbeautiful supernormal women who love mortal heroes. They are seen\nchiefly at night, frequenting forests and fountains, and like all\nfairies disappear at or before cock-crow. They are skilled in magic and\nastrology; like the Greek Fates, some of them spin and weave and have\ngreat influence over the lives of mankind. They are represented as\nrelatively immortal, so long is their span of life compared to ours;\nbut, ultimately, they seem to be subject to a change such as we call\ndeath. This indeed is never specifically mentioned, only implied by the\nstatements that they enjoy childhood and then womanhood, being thus\ncreated and not eternal beings. Some are very prominent figures, like\n_Morgain la F\u00e9e_, Arthur's sister. In most cases they are beneficent,\nand frequently act as guardian spirits for their special hero, just as\nthe Lake Lady for Arthur and the _Morrigu_ for Cuchulainn. So strong is\nthe faith in these _f\u00e9es_ that a man meeting unusual success is often\ndescribed as _f\u00e9ed_--that is endowed with fairy power or under fairy\nprotection, as Perceval's adversary, the Knight of the Dragon,\nstates.[313] In _Joufrois_, too, the power of the fairies, or else the\nspecial protection of God, is considered the cause of success in\narms.[314] In _Brun de la Montaigne_, _Morgain la F\u00e9e_ is represented as\nthe cousin of Arthur; and Butor, the father of Brun, mentions several\nlocalities in different lands, which, like the Forest of Broc\u00e9liande in\nBrittany, the chief theatre of this romance, are fairy haunts; and he\nnames them as being under the dominion of Arthur, who is described as a\ngreat fairy king.[315]\n\nSuch fairy romances as the above (and they are but a few examples\nselected from among a vast number) often localized in Brittany, raise\nthe perplexing and far-reaching problem concerning the origin of the\n'Matter of Britain'. The most reasonable position to take with respect\nto this problem would seem to be that Celtic traditions flourished\nwherever there were Gaels and Brythons, that there was much interchange\nof these traditions between one Celtic country and another--especially\nbetween Wales and Ireland and across the channel between Brittany and\nSouth England, including Cornwall and Wales, both before and after the\nChristian era. Further, the Arthurian fairy-romances, based upon such\ninterchanged Celtic traditions, grew up with a Brythonic background,\nchiefly after the Norman Conquest, both in Armorica and in Britain, and\nbecame in the later Middle Ages one of the chief glories of English and\nof European literature.\n\nIn concluding this slight examination of Brythonic fairy-romances, we\nmay very briefly suggest by means of a few selected examples what\nfairies are like in the _Mabinogion_ stories and in the _Four Ancient\nBooks of Wales_. _Kulhwch and Olwen_, the chief literary treasure-house\nof ancient magical and mystical Otherworld and fairy traditions of the\nBrythons, which we have already considered in relation to Arthur,\n'appears to be built upon Arthurian and other legends of native\ngrowth.'[316] Unmistakable Welsh parallels to the Irish fairy-belief\nappear in the _Mabinogi of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed_, where the two chief\nincidents are Pwyll's journey to the Otherworld after he and Arawn its\nruler have exchanged shapes and kingdoms for a year, and the marriage of\nPwyll to a fairy damsel; in the _Mabinogi_ of _Manawyddan_, which\ncontains much magic and shape-shifting, and the description of a fairy\ncastle belonging to Llwyd; and in the _Mabinogi_ of _Branwen, the\nDaughter of Llyr_, where there is the episode of the seven-year feast at\nHarlech over the Head of Bran, during which the Birds of Rhiannon's\nrealm sing so sweetly that time passes abnormally fast. The\nsubject-matter of the four true _Mabinogion_ (composed before the\neleventh century) is, as Sir John Rhys has pointed out, the fortunes\nof three clans of superhuman beings comparable to the Irish Tuatha De\nDanann: (1) the Children of Llyr, (2) the Children of Don, (3) and the\nFamily of Pwyll.[317] Herein, then, the ancient Gaelic and Brythonic\nFairy-Faiths coincide, and show the unity of the Celtic race which\nevolved them.\n\nIn the _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, which are poetical compositions,\nwhereas the _Mabinogion_ tales are prose with extremely little verse,\nthere are certain interesting passages to illustrate the ancient\nFairy-Faith of the Brythons from some of its purest sources. The first\nselected example comes from the _Black Book of Caermarthen_. It is a\npoem, sometimes called the _Avallenau_, from among the poems relating to\nthe Battle of Arderydd; and it represents _Myrddin_ or Merlin, the\nfamous magician of Arthur, quite at the mercy of sprites. The passage is\nan interesting one as showing that in the region where Merlin is\nsupposed to be under the enchantment of the fairy woman Vivian he was\nregarded as no longer able to exercise his wonted control over spirits\nlike fairies. As in ancient non-Celtic belief, where the loss of\nchastity in a magician, that is to say in one able to command certain\norders of invisible beings, always leads to his falling under their\nlawless power, so was it with Merlin when overcome by Vivian. And this\nis Merlin's lamentation:--\n\n  Ten years and forty, as the toy of lawless ones,\n  Have I been wandering in gloom among sprites.\n  After wealth in abundance and entertaining minstrels,\n  I have been [here so long that] it is useless for gloom and sprites to\n      lead me astray.[318]\n\nIn a dialogue between Myrddin and his sister Gwenddydd, contained in the\n_Red Book of Hergest I_,[319] there is a curious reference to ghosts of\nthe mountain who, just like fairies that live in the mountains, steal\naway men's reason when they _strike_ them,--in death which may appear\nnatural, in sickness, or in accident. And after his death--after he has\nbeen _taken_ by these ghosts of the mountain--Myrddin returns as a ghost\nand speaks from the grave a prophecy which 'the ghost of the mountain in\nAber Carav'[320] told him. Not only do these passages prove the Celtic\nbelief in ghosts like fairies to have existed anciently in Wales; but\nthey show also that the recorded Fairy-Faith of the Brythons, like that\nof the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland, directly attests and confirms our\nPsychological Theory. Like a record from the official proceedings of the\nPsychical Research Society itself, they form one of the strongest proofs\nthat fairies, ghosts, and shades were confused, all alike, in the mind\nof the Welsh poet, mingling together in that realm where mortals see\nwith a new vision, and exist with a body invisible to us.\n\nOur study of the literary evolution of the Brythonic fairy-romances\nshows that as early as about the year 800 Arthurian traditions were\nknown, though possibly Arthur himself never had historical existence. By\nabout 1136, when Geoffrey's famous _Historia_ appeared, these traditions\nwere already highly developed in Britain, and Arthur had become a great\nBrythonic hero enveloped in a halo of romance and myth, and, as an\nOtherworld being, was definitely related to Avalon and its fairy\ninhabitants. This new literary material of Celtic origin opened up to\nEurope by Geoffrey rapidly began to influence profoundly the form of\ncontinental as well as English poetry and prose, chiefly through the\nwriters of the Norman-French period of the twelfth and thirteenth\ncenturies. In itself it was in no wise essentially different from what\nwe find as fairy romances in the old Irish manuscripts written during\nthe same and earlier periods. Welsh literature, however it may be\nrelated to Irish, shows a common origin with it. The four true\n_Mabinogion_ as stories are earlier than 1100; _Kulhwch and Olwen_ in\nits present form most probably dates from the latter half of the twelfth\ncentury; the _Four Ancient Books of Wales_ date from the twelfth to the\nfifteenth centuries as manuscripts. In both ancient and modern times\nthere was much interchange of material between Irish Gaels and Brythons;\nand Brittany as well as Britain and Ireland undoubtedly contributed to\nthe evolution of the complex fairy romances which formed the germ of the\nArthurian Legend.\n\nWhen we stop to consider how long it may have taken the Brythonic\nFairy-Faith, as well as that of the Gaels, to become so widespread and\npopular among the Celtic peoples that it could take such definite shape\nas it now shows in all the oldest manuscripts in different languages, we\ncan easily wander backward into periods of enlightenment and\ncivilization beyond the horizon of our little fragments of recorded\nhistory. Who can tell how many ages ago the Fairy-Faith began its first\nevolution, or who can say that there was ever a Celt who did not believe\nin, or know about fairies?\n\n\n\n\nSECTION II\n\nTHE RECORDED FAIRY-FAITH\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE CELTIC OTHERWORLD[321]\n\n     'In Ireland this world and the world we go to after death are not\n     far apart.'--W. B. YEATS.\n\n     'Many go to the Tir-na-nog in sleep, and some are said to have\n     remained there, and only a vacant form is left behind without the\n     light in the eyes which marks the presence of a soul.'--A. E.\n\n     General ideas of the Otherworld: its location; its subjectivity;\n     its names; its extent; Tethra one of its kings--The Silver Branch\n     and the Golden Bough; and Initiations--The Otherworld the\n     Heaven-World of all religions--Voyage of Bran--Cormac in the Land\n     of Promise--Magic Wands--Cuchulainn's Sick-Bed--Ossian's return\n     from Fairyland--Lanval's going to Avalon--Voyage of\n     Mael-Duin--Voyage of Teigue--Adventures of Art--Cuchulainn's and\n     Arthur's Otherworld Quests--Literary Evolution of idea of Happy\n     Otherworld.\n\n\nGENERAL DESCRIPTION\n\nThe Heaven-World of the ancient Celts, unlike that of the Christians,\nwas not situated in some distant, unknown region of planetary space, but\nhere on our own earth. As it was necessarily a subjective world, poets\ncould only describe it in terms more or less vague; and its exact\ngeographical location, accordingly, differed widely in the minds of\nscribes from century to century. Sometimes, as is usual to-day in\nfairy-lore, it was a subterranean world entered through caverns, or\nhills, or mountains, and inhabited by many races and orders of invisible\nbeings, such as demons, shades, fairies, or even gods. And the\nunderground world of the _Sidhe_-folk, which cannot be separated from\nit, was divided into districts or kingdoms under different fairy kings\nand queens, just as the upper world of mortals. We already know how the\nTuatha De Danann or _Sidhe_-folk, after their defeat by the Sons of Mil\nat the Battle of Tailte, retired to this underground world and took\npossession of its palaces beneath the green hills and vales of Ireland;\nand how from there, as gods of the harvest, they still continued to\nexercise authority over their conquerors, or marshalled their own\ninvisible spirit-hosts in fairy warfare, and sometimes interfered in the\nwars of men.\n\nMore frequently, in the old Irish manuscripts, the Celtic Otherworld was\nlocated in the midst of the Western Ocean, as though it were the\n'double' of the lost Atlantis;[322] and Manannan Mac Lir, the Son of the\nSea--perhaps himself the 'double' of an ancient Atlantean king--was one\nof the divine rulers of its fairy inhabitants, and his palace, for he\nwas one of the Tuatha De Danann, was there rather than in Ireland; and\nwhen he travelled between the two countries it was in a magic chariot\ndrawn by horses who moved over the sea-waves as on land. And fairy women\ncame from that mid-Atlantic world in magic boats like spirit boats, to\ncharm away such mortal men as in their love they chose, or else to take\ngreat Arthur wounded unto death. And in that island world there was\nneither death nor pain nor scandal, nought save immortal and unfading\nyouth, and endless joy and feasting.\n\nEven yet at rare intervals, like a phantom, Hy Brasil appears far out on\nthe Atlantic. No later than the summer of 1908 it is said to have been\nseen from West Ireland, just as that strange invisible island near\nInnishmurray, inhabited by the invisible 'gentry', is seen--once in\nseven years. And too many men of intelligence testify to having seen Hy\nBrasil at the same moment, when they have been together, or separated,\nas during the summer of 1908, for it to be explained away as an ordinary\nillusion of the senses. Nor can it be due to a mirage such as we know,\nbecause neither its shape nor position seems to conform to any known\nisland or land mass. The Celtic Otherworld is like that hidden realm of\nsubjectivity lying just beyond the horizon of mortal existence, which we\ncannot behold when we would, save with the mystic vision of the Irish\nseer. Thus in the legend of Bran's friends, who sat over dinner at\nHarlech with the Head of Bran for seven years, three curious birds acted\nas musicians, the Three Birds of Rhiannon, which were said to sing the\ndead back to life and the living into death;--but the birds were not in\nHarlech, they were out over the sea in the atmosphere of Rhiannon's\nrealm in the bosom of Cardigan Bay.[323] And though we might say of that\nOtherworld, as we learn from these Three Birds of Rhiannon, and as\nSocrates would say, that its inhabitants are come from the living and\nthe living in our world from the dead there, yet, as has already been\nset forth in chapter iv, we ought not to think of the _Sidhe_-folk, nor\nof such great heroes and gods as Arthur and Cuchulainn and Finn, who are\nalso of its invisible company, as in any sense half-conscious shades;\nfor they are always represented as being in the full enjoyment of an\nexistence and consciousness greater than our own.\n\nIn Irish manuscripts, the Otherworld beyond the Ocean bears many names.\nIt is _T\u00edr-na-nog_, 'The Land of Youth'; _T\u00edr-Innamb\u00e9o_, 'The Land of\nthe Living'; _T\u00edr Tairngire_, 'The Land of Promise'; _T\u00edr N-aill_, 'The\nOther Land (or World)'; _Mag M\u00e1r_, 'The Great Plain'; and also _Mag\nMell_, 'The Plain Agreeable (or Happy).'\n\nBut this western Otherworld, if it is what we believe it to be--a\npoetical picture of the great subjective world--cannot be the realm of\nany one race of invisible beings to the exclusion of another. In it all\nalike--gods, Tuatha De Danann, fairies, demons, shades, and every sort\nof disembodied spirits--find their appropriate abode; for though it\nseems to surround and interpenetrate this planet even as the X-rays\ninterpenetrate matter, it can have no other limits than those of the\nUniverse itself. And that it is not an exclusive realm is certain from\nwhat our old Irish manuscripts record concerning the Fomorian\nraces.[324] These, when they met defeat on the battle-field of Moytura\nat the hands of the Tuatha De Danann, retired altogether from Ireland,\ntheir overthrow being final, and returned to their own invisible\ncountry--a mysterious land beyond the Ocean, where the dead find a new\nexistence, and where their god-king Tethra ruled, as he formerly ruled\nin this world. And the fairy women of Tethra's kingdom, even like those\nwho came from the Tuatha De Danann of Erin, or those of Manannan's\nocean-world, enticed mortals to go with them to be heroes under their\nking, and to behold there the assemblies of ancestors. It was one of\nthem who came to Connla, son of Conn, supreme king of Ireland; and this\nwas her message to him:--'The immortals invite you. You are going to be\none of the heroes of the people of Tethra. You will always be seen\nthere, in the assemblies of your ancestors, in the midst of those who\nknow and love you.' And with the fairy spell upon him the young prince\nentered the glass boat of the fairy woman, and his father the king, in\ngreat tribulation and wonder, beheld them disappear across the waters\nnever to return.[324]\n\n\nTHE SILVER BRANCH[325] AND THE GOLDEN BOUGH\n\nTo enter the Otherworld before the appointed hour marked by death, a\npassport was often necessary, and this was usually a silver branch of\nthe sacred apple-tree bearing blossoms, or fruit, which the queen of the\nLand of the Ever-Living and Ever-Young gives to those mortals whom she\nwishes for as companions; though sometimes, as we shall see, it was a\nsingle apple without its branch. The queen's gifts serve not only as\npassports, but also as food and drink for mortals who go with her. Often\nthe apple-branch produces music so soothing that mortals who hear it\nforget all troubles and even cease to grieve for those whom the fairy\nwomen _take_. For us there are no episodes more important than those in\nthe ancient epics concerning these apple-tree talismans, because in them\nwe find a certain key which unlocks the secret of that world from which\nsuch talismans are brought, and proves it to be the same sort of a place\nas the Otherworld of the Greeks and Romans. Let us then use the key and\nmake a few comparisons between the Silver Branch of the Celts and the\nGolden Bough of the Ancients, expecting the two symbols naturally to\ndiffer in their functions, though not fundamentally.\n\nIt is evident at the outset that the Golden Bough was as much the\nproperty of the queen of that underworld called Hades as the Silver\nBranch was the gift of the Celtic fairy queen, and like the Silver Bough\nit seems to have been the symbolic bond between that world and this,\noffered as a tribute to Proserpine by all initiates, who made the mystic\nvoyage in full human consciousness. And, as we suspect, there may be\neven in the ancient Celtic legends of mortals who make that strange\nvoyage to the Western Otherworld and return to this world again, an echo\nof initiatory rites--perhaps druidic--similar to those of Proserpine as\nshown in the journey of Aeneas, which, as Virgil records it, is\nundoubtedly a poetical rendering of an actual psychic experience of a\ngreat initiate.\n\nIn Virgil's classic poem the Sibyl commanded the plucking of the sacred\nbough to be carried by Aeneas when he entered the underworld; for\nwithout such a bough plucked near the entrance to Avernus from the\nwondrous tree sacred to Infernal Juno (i. e. Proserpine) none could\nenter Pluto's realm.[326] And when Charon refused to ferry Aeneas across\nthe Stygian lake until the Sibyl-woman drew forth the Golden Bough from\nher bosom, where she had hidden it, it becomes clearly enough a passport\nto Hades, just as the Silver Branch borne by the fairy woman is a\npassport to _T\u00edr N-aill_; and the Sibyl-woman who guided Aeneas to the\nGreek and Roman Otherworld takes the place of the fairy woman who leads\nmortals like Bran to the Celtic Otherworld.[327]\n\n\nTHE OTHERWORLD IDEA LITERALLY INTERPRETED\n\nWith this parallel between the Otherworld of the Celts and that of the\nAncients seemingly established, we may leave poetical images and seek a\nliteral interpretation for the animistic idea about those realms. The\nRites of Proserpine as conducted in the Mysteries of Antiquity furnish\nus with the means; and in what Servius has written we have the material\nready.[328] Taking the letter Y, which Pythagoras said is like life with\nits dividing ways of good and evil, as the mystic symbol of the branch\nwhich all initiates like Aeneas offered to Proserpine in the subjective\nworld while there out of the physical body, he says of the initiatory\nrites:--'He (the poet) could not join the Rites of Proserpine without\nhaving the branch to hold up. And by \"_going to the shades_\" _he_ (the\npoet) _means celebrating the Rites of Proserpine_.'[328] This passage is\ncertainly capable of but one meaning; and we may perhaps assume that\nthe invisible realm of the Ancients, which is called Hades, is like the\nCeltic Otherworld located in the Western Ocean, and is also like, or has\nits mythological counterpart in, the Elysian Fields to the West,\nreserved by the Greeks and Romans for their gods and heroes, and in the\nHappy Otherworld of Scandinavian, Iranian, and Indian mythologies. It\nmust then follow that all these realms--though placed in different\nlocalities by various nations, epochs, traditions, scribes, and poets\n(even as the under-ground world of the Tuatha De Danann in Ireland\ndiffers from that ruled over by one of their own race, Manannan the Son\nof the Sea)--are simply various ways which different Aryan peoples have\nhad of looking at that one great invisible realm of which we have just\nspoken, and which forms the Heavenworld of every religion, Aryan and\nnon-Aryan, known to man. And if this conclusion is accepted, and it\nseems that it must be, merely on the evidence of the literary or\nrecorded Celtic Fairy-Faith, our Psychological Theory stands proven.\n\nThe Rites of Proserpine had many counterparts. Thus, to pass on to\nanother parallel, in the Mysteries of Eleusis the disappearance of the\nMaiden into the under-world, into Hades, the land of the dead, was\ncontinually re-enacted in a sacred drama, and it no doubt was one of the\nprincipal rites attending initiation. In our study of the Celtic\nDoctrine of Re-birth, we shall return to this subject of Celtic\nInitiation.\n\n\nTHE VOYAGE OF BRAN, SON OF FEBAL\n\nWe are well prepared now to enjoy the best known voyages which men,\nheroes, and god-men, are said to have made to Avalon, or the Land of the\nLiving, through the invitation of a fairy woman or else of the god\nManannan himself; and probably the most famous is that of the _Voyage of\nBran, Son of Febal_, as so admirably translated from the original old\nIrish saga by Dr. Kuno Meyer.[329] Perhaps in all Celtic literature no\npoem surpasses this in natural and simple beauty.\n\nOne day Bran heard strange music behind him as he was alone in the\nneighbourhood of his stronghold; and as he listened, so sweet was the\nsound that it lulled him to sleep. When he awoke, there lay beside him a\nbranch of silver so white with blossoms that it was not easy to\ndistinguish the blossoms from the branch. Bran took up the branch and\ncarried it to the royal house, and, when the hosts were assembled\ntherein, they saw a woman in strange raiment standing on the floor.\nWhence she came and how, no one could tell. And as they all beheld her,\nshe sang fifty quatrains to Bran:--\n\n  A branch of the apple-tree from Emain\n  I bring, like those one knows;\n  Twigs of white silver are on it,\n  Crystal brows with blossoms.\n\n  There is a distant isle,\n  Around which sea-horses glisten:\n  A fair course against the white-swelling surge,--\n  Four feet uphold it.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhen the song was finished, 'the woman went from them while they knew\nnot whither she went. And she took her branch with her. The branch\nsprang from Bran's hand into the hand of the woman, nor was there\nstrength in Bran's hand to hold the branch.' The next day, with the\nfairy spell upon him, Bran begins the voyage towards the setting sun. On\nthe ocean he meets Manannan riding in his magic chariot over the\nsea-waves; and the king tells Bran that he is returning to Ireland after\nlong ages. Parting from the Son of the Sea, Bran goes on, and the first\nisland he and his companions reach is the 'Island of Joy', where one of\nthe party is set ashore; the second isle is the 'Land of Women', where\nthe queen draws Bran and his followers to her realm with a magic clew,\nand then entertains them for what seems no more than a year, though 'it\nchanced to be many years'. After a while, home-sickness seizes the\nadventurers and they come to a unanimous decision to return to Ireland;\nbut they depart under a taboo not to set foot on earth, or at least not\ntill holy water has been sprinkled on them. In their coracle they arrive\nbefore a gathering at Srub Brain, probably in West Kerry, and Bran (who\nmay now possibly be regarded as an apparition temporarily returned from\nthe Otherworld to bid his people farewell) announces himself, and this\nreply is made to him:--'We do not know such a one, though the Voyage of\nBran is in our ancient stories.' Then one of Bran's party, in his\neagerness to land, broke the taboo; he 'leaps from them out of the\ncoracle. As soon as he touched the earth of Ireland, forthwith he was a\nheap of ashes, as though he had been in the earth for many hundred\nyears.... Thereupon, to the people of the gathering, Bran told all his\nwanderings from the beginning until that time. And he wrote these\nquatrains in Ogam, and then bade them farewell. And from that hour his\nwanderings are not known.'\n\n\nCORMAC'S ADVENTURE IN THE LAND OF PROMISE[330]\n\nIn _Cormac's Adventure in the Land of Promise_, there is again a magic\nsilver branch with three golden apples on it:--'One day, at dawn in\nMay-time, Cormac, grandson of Conn, was alone on M\u00far Tea in Tara. He saw\ncoming towards him a sedate(?), grey-headed warrior.... A branch of\nsilver with three golden apples on his shoulder. Delight and amusement\nto the full was it to listen to the music of that branch, for men sore\nwounded, or women in child-bed, or folk in sickness, would fall asleep\nat the melody when that branch was shaken.' And the warrior tells Cormac\nthat he has come from a land where only truth is known, where there is\n'neither age nor decay nor gloom nor sadness nor envy nor jealousy nor\nhatred nor haughtiness'. On his promising the unknown warrior any three\nboons that he shall ask, Cormac is given the magic branch. The\ngrey-headed warrior disappears suddenly; 'and Cormac knew not whither\nhe had gone.'\n\n'Cormac turned into the palace. The household marvelled at the branch.\nCormac shook it at them, and cast them into slumber from that hour to\nthe same time on the following day. At the end of a year the warrior\ncomes into his meeting and asked of Cormac the consideration for his\nbranch. \"It shall be given,\" says Cormac. \"I will take [thy daughter]\nAilbe to-day,\" says the warrior. So he took the girl with him. The women\nof Tara utter three loud cries after the daughter of the king of Erin.\nBut Cormac shook the branch at them, so that he banished grief from them\nall and cast them into sleep. That day month comes the warrior and takes\nwith him Carpre Lifechair (the son of Cormac). Weeping and sorrow ceased\nnot in Tara after the boy, and on that night no one therein ate or\nslept, and they were in grief and in exceeding gloom. But Cormac shook\nthe branch at them, and they parted from [their] sorrow. The same\nwarrior comes again. \"What askest thou to-day?\" says Cormac. \"Thy wife,\"\nsaith he, \"even Ethne the Longsided, daughter of Dunlang king of\nLeinster.\" Then he takes away the woman with him.' Thereupon Cormac\nfollows the messenger, and all his people go with him. But 'a great mist\nwas brought upon them in the midst of the plain of the wall. Cormac\nfound himself on a great plain alone'. It is the 'Land of Promise'.\nPalaces of bronze, and houses of white silver thatched with white birds'\nwings are there. 'Then he sees in the garth a shining fountain, with\nfive streams flowing out of it, and the hosts in turn a-drinking its\nwater. Nine hazels of Buan grow over the well. The purple hazels drop\ntheir nuts into the fountain, and the five salmon which are in the\nfountain sever them, and send their husks floating down the streams. Now\nthe sound of the falling of those streams is more melodious than any\nmusic that [men] sing.'[331]\n\nCormac having entered the fairy palace at the fountain beholds 'the\nloveliest of the world's women'. After she has been magically bathed, he\nbathes, and this, apparently, is symbolical of his purification in the\nOtherworld. Finally, at a feast, the warrior-messenger sings Cormac to\nsleep; and when Cormac awakes he sees beside him his wife and children,\nwho had preceded him thither to the Land of Promise. The\nwarrior-messenger who _took_ them all is none other than the great god\nManannan Mac Lir of the Tuatha De Danann.\n\nThere in the Otherworld, Cormac gains a magic cup of gold richly and\nwondrously wrought, which would break into three pieces if 'three words\nof falsehood be spoken under it', and the magic silver branch; and\nManannan, as the god-initiator, says to Ireland's high king:--'Take thy\nfamily then, and take the Cup that thou mayest have it for discerning\nbetween truth and falsehood. And thou shalt have the Branch for music\nand delight. And on the day that thou shalt die they all will be taken\nfrom thee. I am Manannan, son of Ler, king of the Land of Promise; _and\nto see the Land of Promise was the reason I brought [thee] hither...._\nThe fountain which thou sawest, with the five streams out of it, is the\nFountain of Knowledge, and the streams are the five senses through which\nknowledge is obtained (?). And no one will have knowledge who drinketh\nnot a draught out of the fountain itself and out of the streams. The\nfolk of many arts are those who drink of them both.'\n\n'Now on the morrow morning, when Cormac arose, he found himself on the\ngreen of Tara, with his wife and his son and daughter, and having his\nBranch and his Cup. Now that was afterwards [called] \"Cormac's Cup\", and\nit used to distinguish between truth and falsehood with the Gael.\nHowbeit, as had been promised him [by Manannan], it remained not after\nCormac's death.'[332]\n\nThis beautiful tale evidently echoes in an extremely poetical and\nsymbolical manner a very ancient Celtic initiation of a king and his\nfamily into the mystic cult of the mighty god Manannan, Son of the Sea.\nThey enter the Otherworld in a trance state, and on waking are in Erin\nagain, spiritually enriched. The Cup of Truth is probably the symbol of\nhaving gained knowledge of the Mystery of Life and Death, and the\nBranch, that of the Peace and Joy which comes to all who are truly\nInitiated; for to have passed from the realm of mortal existence to the\nRealm of the Dead, of the Fairy-Folk, of the Gods, and back again, with\nfull human consciousness all the while, was equivalent to having gained\nthe Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, the Cup of Truth, and to\nhaving bathed in the Fountain of Eternal Youth which confers triumph\nover Death and unending happiness. Thus we may have here a Celtic\npoetical parallel to the initiatory journey of Aeneas to the Land of the\nDead or Hades.\n\n\nTHE MAGIC WAND OF GODS, FAIRIES, AND DRUIDS\n\nManannan of the Tuatha De Danann, as a god-messenger from the invisible\nrealm bearing the apple-branch of silver, is in externals, though not in\nother ways, like Hermes, the god-messenger from the realm of the gods\nbearing his wand of two intertwined serpents.[333] In modern fairy-lore\nthis divine branch or wand is the magic wand of fairies; or where\nmessengers like old men guide mortals to an underworld it is a staff or\ncane with which they strike the rock hiding the secret entrance.\n\nThe Irish Druids made their wands of divination from the yew-tree; and,\nlike the ancient priests of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, are believed to\nhave controlled spirits, fairies, daemons, elementals, and ghosts while\nmaking such divinations. It will help us to understand how closely the\nancient symbols have affected our own life and age--though we have\nforgotten their relation with the Otherworld--by offering a few\nexamples, beginning with the ancient Irish bards who were associated\nwith the Druids. A wand in the form of a symbolic branch, like a little\nspike or crescent with gently tinkling bells upon it, was borne by them;\nand in the piece called _Mesca Ulad_ or 'Inebriety of the\nUltonians'[334] it is said of the chief bard of Ulster, Sencha, that in\nthe midst of a bloody fray he 'waved the peaceful branch of Sencha, and\nall the men of Ulster were silent, quiet'. In _Agallamh an d\u00e1 Shuadh_ or\nthe 'Dialogue of the two Sages',[335] the mystic symbol used by gods,\nfairies, magicians, and by all initiates who know the mystery of life\nand death, is thus described as a Druid symbol:--'Neidhe' (a young bard\nwho aspired to succeed his father as chief poet of Ulster), 'made his\njourney with a silver branch over him. The _Anradhs_, or poets of the\nsecond order, carried a silver branch, but the _Ollamhs_, or chief\npoets, carried a branch of gold; all other poets bore a branch of\nbronze.'[336] Modern and ancient parallels are world-wide, among the\nmost civilized as among the least civilized peoples, and in civil or\nreligious life among ourselves. Thus, it was with a magic rod that Moses\nstruck the rock and pure water gushed forth, and he raised the same rod\nand the Red Sea opened; kings hold their sceptres no less than Neptune\nhis trident; popes and bishops have their croziers; in the Roman Church\nthere are little wand-like objects used to perform benedictions; high\ncivil officials have their mace of office; and all the world over there\nare the wands of magicians and of medicine-men.\n\n\nTHE SICK-BED OF CUCHULAINN\n\nWe turn now to the story of the _Sick-Bed of Cuchulainn_.[337] And this\nis how the great hero of Ulster was fairy-struck. Manannan Mac Lir,\ntiring of his wife Fand, had deserted her, and so she, wishing to marry\nCuchulainn, went to Ireland with her sister Liban. Taking the form of\ntwo birds bound together by a chain of red gold, Fand and Liban rested\non a lake in Ulster where Cuchulainn should see them as he was hunting.\nTo capture the two birds, Cuchulainn cast a javelin at them, but they\nescaped, though injured. Disappointed at a failure like this, which for\nhim was most unusual, Cuchulainn went away to a menhir where he sat down\nand fell asleep. Then he saw two women, one in a green and one in a\ncrimson cloak; and the woman in green coming up to him laughed and\nstruck him with a whip-like object. The woman in crimson did likewise,\nand alternately the two women kept striking him till they left him\nalmost dead. And straightway the mighty hero of the Red Branch Knights\ntook to his bed with a strange malady, which no Druid or doctor in all\nIreland could cure.\n\nTill the end of a year Cuchulainn lay on his sick-bed at Emain-Macha\nwithout speaking to any one. Then--the day before _Samain_ (November\nEve)--there came to him an unknown messenger who sang to him a wonderful\nsong, promising to cure him of his malady if he would only accept the\ninvitation of the daughters of Aed Abrat to visit them in the\nOtherworld. When the song was ended, the messenger departed, 'and they\nknew not whence he came nor whither he went.' Thereupon Cuchulainn went\nto the place where the malady had been put on him, and there appeared to\nhim again the woman in the green cloak. She let it be known to\nCuchulainn that she was Liban, and that she was longing for him to go\nwith her to the Plain of Delight to fight against Labraid's enemies.\nAnd she promised Cuchulainn as a reward that he would get Fand to wife.\nBut Cuchulainn would not accept the invitation without knowing to what\ncountry he was called. So he sent his charioteer Laeg to bring back from\nthere a report. Laeg went with the fairy woman in a boat of bronze, and\nreturned; and when Cuchulainn heard from him the wonderful glories of\nthat Otherworld of the _Sidhe_ he willingly set out for it.\n\nAfter Cuchulainn had overthrown Labraid's enemies and had been in the\nOtherworld a month with the fairy woman Fand, he returned to Ireland\nalone; though afterwards in a place agreed upon, Fand joined him. Emer,\nthe wife of Cuchulainn, was overcome with jealousy and schemed to kill\nFand, so that Fand returned to her husband the god Manannan and he\nreceived her back again. When she was gone Cuchulainn could not be\nconsoled; but Emer obtained from the Druids a magic drink for\nCuchulainn, which made him forget all about the Otherworld and the fairy\nwoman Fand. And another drink the Druids gave to Emer so that she forgot\nall her jealousy; and then Manannan Mac Lir himself came and shook his\nmantle between Cuchulainn and Fand to prevent the two ever meeting\nagain. And thus it was that the _Sidhe_-women failed to steal away the\ngreat Cuchulainn. The magic of the Druids and the power of the Tuatha De\nDanann king triumphed; and the Champion of Ulster did not go to the\nOtherworld until he met a natural death in that last great fight.[338]\n\n\nOSSIAN'S RETURN FROM FAIRYLAND[339]\n\nOssian too, like Cuchulainn, was enticed into Fairyland by a fairy\nwoman:--She carries him away on a white horse, across the Western Ocean;\nand as they are moving over the sea-waves they behold a fair maid on a\nbrown horse, and she holding in her right hand a golden apple. After the\nhero had married his fairy abductress and lived in the Otherworld for\nthree hundred years, an overpowering desire to return to Ireland and\njoin again in the councils of his dearly beloved Fenian Brotherhood took\npossession of him, and he set out on the same white horse on which he\ntravelled thence with the fairy princess, for such was his wife. And\nshe, as he went, thrice warned him not to lay his 'foot on level\nground', and he heard from her the startling announcement that the\nFenians were all gone and Ireland quite changed.\n\nSafe in Ireland, Ossian seeks the Brotherhood, and though he goes from\none place to another where his old companions were wont to meet, not one\nof them can he find. And how changed is all the land! He realizes at\nlast how long he must have been away. The words of his fairy wife are\ntoo sadly true.\n\nWhile Ossian wanders disconsolately over Ireland, he comes to a\nmultitude of men trying to move an enormous slab of marble, under which\nsome other men are lying. 'Ossian's assistance is asked, and he\ngenerously gives it. But in leaning over his horse, to take up the stone\nwith one hand, the girth breaks, and he falls. Straightway the white\nhorse fled away on his way home, and Ossian became aged, decrepit, and\nblind.'[340]\n\n\nTHE GOING OF LANVAL TO AVALON\n\nThe fairy romances which were recorded during the mediaeval period in\ncontinental Europe report a surprisingly large number of heroes who,\nlike Cuchulainn and Ossian, fell under the power of fairy women or\n_f\u00e9es_, and followed one of them to the Apple-Land or Avalon. Besides\nArthur, they include Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawayne, Ogier, Guingemor and\nLanval (see pp. 325-6). The story of Lanval is told by Marie de France\nin one of her _Lais_, and is so famous a one that we shall briefly\noutline it:--\n\nLanval was a mediaeval knight who lived during the time of King Arthur\nin Brittany. He was young and very beautiful, so that one of the fairy\ndamsels fell in love with him; and in the true Irish fashion--himself\nand his fairy sweetheart mounted on the same fairy horse--the two went\nriding off to Fairyland:--\n\n  On the horse behind her\n  With full rush Lanval jumped.\n  With her he goes away into Avalon,\n  According to what the Briton tells us,\n  Into an isle, which is very beautiful.[341]\n\n\nTHE VOYAGE OF TEIGUE, SON OF CIAN\n\nThere is another type of _imram_ in which through adventure rather than\nthrough invitation from one of the fairy beings, men enter the\nOtherworld; as illustrated by the _Voyage of Mael-Duin_,[342] and by the\nstill more beautiful _Voyage of Teigue, Son of Cian_. This last old\nIrish story summarizes many of the Otherworld elements we have so far\nconsidered, and (though it shows Christian influences) gives us a very\nclear picture of the Land of Youth amid the Western Ocean--a land such\nas Ponce De Leon and so many brave navigators sought in America:--\n\nTeigue, son of Cian, and heir to the kingship of West Munster, with his\nfollowers set out from Ireland to recover his wife and brethren who had\nbeen stolen by Cathmann and his band of sea-rovers from Fresen, a land\nnear Spain. It was the time of the spring tide, when the sea was rough,\nand storms coming on the voyagers they lost their way. After about nine\nweeks they came to a land fairer than any land they had ever beheld--it\nwas the Happy Otherworld. In it were many 'red-laden apple-trees, with\nleafy oaks too in it, and hazels yellow with nuts in their clusters';\nand 'a wide smooth plain clad in flowering clover all bedewed with\nhoney'. In the midst of this plain Teigue and his companions descried\nthree hills, and on each of them an impregnable place of strength. At\nthe first stronghold, which had a rampart of white marble, Teigue was\nwelcomed by 'a white-bodied lady, fairest of the whole world's women';\nand she told him that the stronghold is the abode 'of Ireland's kings:\nfrom Heremon son of Milesius to Conn of the Hundred Battles, who was the\nlast to pass into it'. Teigue with his people moved on till they gained\nthe middle _d\u00fan_, the _d\u00fan_ with a rampart of gold. There also 'they\nfound a queen of gracious form, and she draped in vesture of a golden\nfabric', who tells them that they are in the Earth's fourth paradise.\n\nAt the third _d\u00fan_, the _d\u00fan_ with a silver rampart, Teigue and his\nparty met Connla, the son of Conn of the Hundred Battles. 'In his hand\nhe held a fragrant apple having the hue of gold; a third part of it he\nwould eat, and still, for all he consumed, never a whit would it be\ndiminished.' And at his side sat a young woman of many charms, who spake\nthus to Teigue:--'I had bestowed on him (i. e. felt for him) true\naffection's love, and therefore wrought to have him come to me in this\nland; where our delight, both of us, is to continue in looking at and in\nperpetual contemplation of one another: above and beyond which we pass\nnot, to commit impurity or fleshly sin whatsoever.' Both Connla and his\nfriend were clad in vestments of green--like the fairy-folk; and their\nstep was so light that hardly did the beautiful clover-heads bend\nbeneath it. And the apple 'it was that supported the pair of them and,\nwhen once they had partaken of it, nor age nor dimness could affect\nthem'. When Teigue asked who occupied the _d\u00fan_ with the silver rampart\nthe maiden with Connla made this reply:--'In that one there is not any\none. For behoof of the righteous kings that after acceptance of the\nFaith shall rule Ireland it is that yonder _d\u00fan_ stands ready; and we\nare they who, until such those virtuous princes shall enter into it,\nkeep the same: in the which, Teigue my soul, thou too shalt have an\nappointed place.' 'Obliquely across the most capacious palace Teigue\nlooked away' (as he was observing the beauty of the yet uninhabited\n_d\u00fan_), 'and marked a thickly furnished wide-spreading apple-tree that\nbare blossoms and ripe fruit both. \"What is that apple-tree beyond?\" he\nasked [of the maiden], and she made answer:--\"That apple-tree's fruit it\nis that for meat shall serve the congregation which is to be in this\nmansion, _and a single apple of the same it was that brought (coaxed\naway) Connla to me_.\"'\n\nThen the party rested, and there came towards them a whole array of\nfeminine beauty, among which was a lovely damsel of refined form who\nforetold to Teigue the manner and time of his death, and as a token she\ngave him 'a fair cup of emerald hue, in which are inherent many virtues:\nfor [among other things] though it were but water poured into it,\nincontinently it would be wine'. And this was her farewell message to\nTeigue:--'From that (the cup), let not thine hand part; but have it for\na token: when it shall escape from thee, then in a short time after\nshalt thou die; and where thou shalt meet thy death is in the glen that\nis on Boyne's side: there the earth shall grow into a great hill, and\nthe name that it shall bear will be _croidhe eisse_; there too (when\nthou shalt first have been wounded by a roving wild hart, after which\nAllmarachs will slay thee) I will bury thy body; but thy soul shall come\nwith me hither, where till the Judgement's Day thou shalt assume a body\nlight and ethereal.'\n\nAs the party led by Teigue were going down to the seashore to depart,\nthe girl who had been escorting them asked 'how long they had been in\nthe country'. 'In our estimation,' they replied, 'we are in it but one\nsingle day.' She, however, said: 'For an entire twelvemonth ye are in\nit; during which time ye have had neither meat nor drink, nor, how long\nsoever ye should be here, would cold or thirst or hunger assail you.'\nAnd when Teigue and his party had entered their _currach_ they looked\nastern, but 'they saw not the land from which they came, for\nincontinently an obscuring magic veil was drawn over it'.[343]\n\n\nTHE ADVENTURES OF ART, SON OF CONN\n\nThis interesting _imram_ combines, in a way, the type of tale wherein a\nfairy woman comes from the Otherworld to our world--though in this tale\nshe is banished from there--and the type of tale wherein the Otherworld\nis found through adventure:--\n\nB\u00e9cuma Cneisgel, a woman of the Tuatha De Danann, because of a\ntransgression she had committed in the Otherworld with Gaidiar,\nManannan's son, was banished thence. She came to Conn, high king of\nIreland, and she bound him to do her will; and her judgement was that\nArt, the son of Conn, should not come to Tara until a year was past.\nDuring the year, Conn and B\u00e9cuma were together in Tara, 'and there was\nneither corn nor milk in Ireland during that time.' The Tuatha De Danann\nsent this dreadful famine; for they, as agricultural gods, thus showed\ntheir displeasure at the unholy life of Ireland's high king with the\nevil woman whom they had banished. The Druids of all Ireland being\ncalled together, declared that to appease the Tuatha De Danann 'the son\nof a sinless couple should be brought to Ireland and slain before Tara,\nand his blood mingled with the soil of Tara' (cf. p. 436). It was Conn\nhimself who set out for the Otherworld and found there the sinless boy,\nthe son of the queen of that world, and he brought him back to Tara. A\nstrange event saves the youth:--'Just then they (the assembly of people\nand Druids, with Conn, Art, and Finn) heard the lowing of a cow, and a\nwoman wailing continually behind it. And they saw the cow and the woman\nmaking for the assembly.' The woman had come from the Otherworld to save\nSegda; and the cow was accepted as a sacrifice in place of Segda, owing\nto the wonders it disclosed; for its two bags when opened contained two\nbirds--one with one leg and one with twelve legs, and 'the one-legged\nbird prevailed over the bird with twelve legs'. Then rising up and\ncalling Conn aside, the woman declared to him that until he put aside\nthe evil woman B\u00e9cuma 'a third of its corn, and its milk, and its mast'\nshould be lacking to Ireland. 'And she took leave of them then and went\noff with her son, even Segda. And jewels and treasures were offered to\nthem, but they refused them.'\n\nIn the second part of this complex tale, B\u00e9cuma and Art are together\nplaying a game. Art finally loses, because the men of the _sidh_ (like\ninvisible spirits) began to steal the pieces with which he and the woman\nplay; and, as a result, B\u00e9cuma put on him this taboo:--'Thou shalt not\neat food in Ireland until thou bring with thee Delbchaem, the daughter\nof Morgan.' 'Where is she?' asked Art. 'In an isle amid the sea, and\nthat is all the information that thou wilt get.' 'And he put forth the\ncoracle, and travelled the sea from one isle to another until he came to\na fair, strange island,' the Otherworld. The blooming women of that land\nentertain the prince of Ireland during six weeks, and instruct him in\nall the dangers he must face and the conquests he must make.\n\nHaving successfully met all the ordeals, Art secures Delbchaem, daughter\nof Morgan the king of the 'Land of Wonders', and returns to Ireland.\n'She had a green cloak of one hue about her, with a gold pin in it over\nher breast, and long, fair, very golden hair. She had dark-black\neye-brows, and flashing grey eyes in her head, and a snowy-white body.'\nAnd upon seeing the chaste and noble Delbchaem with Art, B\u00e9cuma, the\nbanished woman of the Tuatha De Danann, lamenting, departs from Tara for\never.[344]\n\n\nOTHERWORLD QUESTS OF CUCHULAINN AND OF ARTHUR\n\nThere is yet the distinct class of tales about journeys to a fairy world\nwhich is a Hades world beneath the earth, or in some land of death,\nrather than amid the waves of the Western Ocean. Thus there is a curious\npoem in the _Book of the Dun Cow_ describing an expedition led by\nCuchulainn to the stronghold of Sc\u00e1th in the land of Sc\u00e1th, or, as the\nname means, land of Shades, where the hero gains the king's\ncauldron.[345] And the poem suggests why so few who invaded that Hades\nworld ever returned--perhaps why, mystically speaking, so few men could\nescape either through initiation or re-birth the natural confusion and\nforgetfulness arising out of death.\n\nIn the _Book of Taliessin_ a weird poem, _Preiddeu Annwfn_, or the\n'Spoils of Annwn', describes, in language not always clear, how the\nBrythonic Arthur made a similar journey to the Welsh Hades world named\nAnnwn, where he, like Cuchulainn in Sc\u00e1th, gained possession of a magic\ncauldron--a pagan Celtic type of the Holy Grail--which furnishes\ninexhaustible food though 'it will not boil the food of a coward'. But\nin stanzas iii and iv of _Preiddeu Annwfn_, Annwn, or Uffern as it is\notherwise called, is not an underground realm, but some world to be\nreached like the Gaelic Land of Promise by sea. Annwn is also called\nCaer Sidi, which in another poem of the _Book of Taliessin_ (No. XIV) is\nthought of as an island of immortal youth amid 'the streams of the\nocean' where there is a food-giving fountain.[346]\n\n\nLITERARY EVOLUTION OF THE HAPPY OTHERWORLD IDEA\n\nWe have now noticed two chief classes of Otherworld legends. In one\nthere is the beautiful and peaceful _T\u00edr Innamb\u00e9o_ or 'Land of the\nLiving' under Manannan's rule across the seas, and its fairy inhabitants\nare principally women who lure away noble men and youths through love\nfor them; in the other there is a Hades world--often confused with the\nformer--in which great heroes go on some mysterious quest. Sometimes\nthis Hades world is inseparable from the underground palaces or world of\nthe Tuatha De Danann. Again, it may be an underlake fairy-realm like\nthat entered by Laeghaire and his fifty companions (see p. 302); or, as\nin _Gilla Decair_,[347] of late composition, it is an under-well land\nwherein Dermot has adventures. And, in a similar tale, Murough, on the\ninvitation of a mysterious stranger who comes out of a lake and then\ndisappears 'like the mist of a winter fog or the whiff of a March wind',\ndives beneath the lake's waters, and is escorted to the palace of King\nUnder-Wave, wherein he sees the stranger as the water-king himself\nsitting on a golden throne (cf. pp. 63-4). In continual feasting there\nMurough passes a day and a year, thinking the time only a few days.[348]\n\nAs a rule the Hades world, or underground and under-wave world, is\nunlike Manannan's peaceful ocean realm, being often described as a place\nof much strife; and mortals are usually induced to enter it to aid in\nsettling the troubles of its fairy inhabitants.\n\nAll the numerous variations of Otherworld tales now extant in Celtic\nliterature show a common pre-Christian origin, though almost all of them\nhave been coloured by Christian ideas about heaven, hell, and purgatory.\nFrom the earliest tales of the over-sea Otherworld type, like those of\nBran, Maelduin, and Connla, all of which may go back to the early eighth\ncentury as compositions, the christianizing influence is already clearly\nbegun; and in the _Voyage of Snedgus and of Mac Riagla_, of the late\nninth century, this influence predominates.[349] Purely Christian texts\nof about the same period or later describe the Christian heaven as\nthough it were the pagan Otherworld. Some of these, like the Latin\nversion of the tale of _St. Brandan's Voyage_, greatly influenced\nEuropean literature, and probably contributed to the discovery of the\nNew World.[349]\n\nThe combination of Christian and pagan Celtic ideas is well shown in the\n_Voyage of the H\u00fai Corra_[350]:--'Thereafter a wondrous island was\nshown to them. A psalm-singing venerable old man, with fair, builded\nchurches and beautiful bright altars. Beautiful green grass therein. A\ndew of honey on its grass. Little ever-lovely bees and fair,\npurple-headed birds a-chanting music therein, so that [merely] to listen\nto them was enough of delight.' But in another passage the Christian\nscribe describes Otherworld birds as souls, some of them in hell:--'\"Of\nthe land of Erin am I,\" quoth the bird, \"and I am the soul of a woman,\nand I am a monkess unto thee,\" she saith to the elder.... \"Come ye to\nanother place,\" saith the bird, \"to hearken to yon birds. The birds that\nye see are the souls that come on Sunday out of hell.\"' Still other\nislands are definitely made into Christian hells full of fire, wherein\nwailing and shrieking men are being mangled by the beaks and talons of\nbirds.\n\nBut sometimes, like the legends about the Tuatha De Danann, the legends\nabout the Otherworld were taken literally and most seriously by some\nearly Irish-Christian saints. Professor J. Loth records a very\ninteresting episode, how St. Malo and his teacher Brandan actually set\nout on an ocean voyage to find the Heaven-world of the pagan\nCelts:--'Saint Malo, when a youth, embarks with his teacher Brandan in a\nboat, in search of that mysterious country; after some days, the waves\ndrive him back rebuffed and discouraged upon the seashore. An angel\nopens his eyes: the land of eternal peace and of eternal youth is that\nwhich Christianity promises to its elect.'[351]\n\nNot only was the Celtic Otherworld gradually changed into a Christian\nHeaven, or Hell, from the eighth century onward, but its divine\ninhabitants soon came to suffer the rationalization commonly applied to\ntheir race; and the transcribers began to set them down as actual\npersonages of Irish history. As we have already observed, the Tuatha De\nDanann were shorn of their immortality, and were given in exchange all\nthe passions and shortcomings of men, and made subject to disease and\ndeath. This perhaps was a natural anthropomorphic process such as is\nmet with in all mythologies. Celtic myth and mysticism, wherein may yet\nbe read the deepest secrets of life and death, supplied names and\nlegends to fill out a christianized scheme of Irish chronology, which\nwas made to begin some six thousand years ago with Adam.\n\nA few of the pagan legends, however, met very fair treatment at the\nhands of poetical and patriotic Christian transcribers. Thus in\n_Adamnan's Vision_,[352] though the Celtic Otherworld has become 'the\nLand of the Saints', its primal character is clearly discernible: to\nreach it a sea voyage is necessary; and it is a land where there is no\npride, falsehood, envy, disease or death, 'wherein is delight of every\ngoodness.' In it there are singing birds, and for sustenance while there\nthe voyagers need only to hear its music and 'sate themselves with the\nodour which is in the Land'.\n\nAgain, in the _Book of Leinster_, and in later MSS., there is a\n_dinnshenchas_ of almost primal pagan purity. It alludes to _Clidna's\nWave_, that of Tuag Inbir:--To Tuag, daughter of Conall, Manannan the\nsea-god sent a messenger, a Druid of the Tuatha De Danann in the shape\nof a woman. The Druid chanted a sleep spell over the girl, and while he\nleft her on the seashore to look for a boat in which to embark for the\n'Land of Everliving Women', a wave of the flood tide came and drowned\nher. But the Oxford version of the same tale doubts whether the maiden\nwas drowned, for it suggests, 'Or maybe it (the wave) was Manannan\nhimself that was carrying her off.'[353] Thus the scribe understood that\nto go to Manannan's world literally meant entering a sleep or trance\nstate, or, what is equivalent in the case of the maiden whom Manannan\nsummoned, the passage through death from the physical body. And still,\nto-day, the Irish peasant believes that the 'good people' take to their\ninvisible world all young men or maidens who meet death; or that one\nunder a fairy spell may go to their world for a short time, and come\nback to our world again.\n\nWe have frequently emphasized how truly the modern Celtic peasant in\ncertain non-commercialized localities has kept to the faith of his pagan\nancestors, while the learned Christian scribes have often departed\nwidely from it. The story of the voyage of Fionn to the Otherworld,[354]\nwhich Campbell found living among Scotch peasants as late as the last\ncentury, adds a striking proof of this assertion. So does Michael\nComyn's peasant version of Ossian in the 'Land of Youth' (as outlined\nabove, p. 346), which, though dating from about 1749, has all the\nnatural character of the best ancient tales, like those about Bran and\nCormac. We are inclined, therefore, to attach a value even higher than\nwe have already done to the testimony of the living Fairy-Faith which\nconfirms in so many parallel ways, as has been shown, the Fairy-Faith of\nthe remote past. Mr. W. B. Yeats, the Irish poet, adequately sums up\nthis matter by saying, 'But the Irish peasant believes that the utmost\nhe can dream was once or still is a reality by his own door. He will\npoint to some mountain and tell you that some famous hero or beauty\nlived and sorrowed there, or he will tell you that Tir-na-nog, the\nCountry of the Young, the old Celtic paradise--the Land of the Living\nHeart, as it used to be called--is all about him.'[355]\n\nAt the end of his long and careful study of the Celtic Otherworld,\nAlfred Nutt arrived at the tentative conclusion which coincides with our\nown, that 'The vision of a Happy Otherworld found in Irish mythic\nromances of the eighth and following centuries is substantially\npre-Christian', that its closest analogues are in Hellenic myth, and\nthat with these 'it forms the most archaic Aryan presentation of the\ndivine and happy land we possess'.[356]\n\n\n\n\nSECTION II\n\nTHE RECORDED FAIRY-FAITH\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTHE CELTIC DOCTRINE OF RE-BIRTH[357]\n\n     'It seems as if Ossian's was a premature return. To-day he might\n     find comrades come back from Tir-na-nog for the uplifting of their\n     race. Perhaps to many a young spirit standing up among us Cailte\n     might speak as to Mongan, saying: \"I was with thee, with\n     Finn.\"'--A. E.\n\n     Re-birth and Otherworld--As a Christian doctrine--General\n     historical survey--According to the Barddas MSS.; according to\n     ancient and modern authorities--Reincarnation of the Tuatha De\n     Danann--King Mongan's re-birth--Etain's birth--Dermot's\n     pre-existence--Tuan's re-birth--Re-birth among Brythons--Arthur as\n     a reincarnate hero--Non-Celtic parallels--Re-birth among modern\n     Celts: in Ireland; in Scotland; in the Isle of Man; in Wales; in\n     Cornwall; in Brittany--Origin and evolution of Celtic Re-birth\n     Doctrine.\n\n\nRELATION WITH THE OTHERWORLD\n\nHowever much the conception of the Otherworld among the ancient Greeks\nmay have differed from that among the Celts, it was to both peoples\nalike inseparably connected with their belief in re-birth. Alfred Nutt,\nwho studied this intimate relation more carefully perhaps than any other\nCeltic folk-lorist, has said of it:--'In Greek mythology as in Irish,\nthe conception of re-birth proves to be a dominant factor of the same\nreligious system in which Elysium is likewise an essential feature.'\nDeath, as many initiates have proclaimed in their mystical writings, is\nbut a going to that Otherworld from this world, and Birth a coming back\nagain;[358] and Buddha announced it as his mission to teach men the way\nto be delivered out of this eternal Circle of Existence.\n\n\nHISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE RE-BIRTH DOCTRINE\n\nAmong ourselves the doctrine may seem a strange one, though among the\ngreat nations of antiquity--the Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, and\nCelts--it was taught in the Mysteries and Priest-Schools, and formed the\ncorner-stone of the most important philosophical systems like those of\nBuddha, Pythagoras, Plato, the Neo-Platonists, and the Druids. The\nAlexandrian Jews, also, were familiar with the doctrine, as implied in\nthe _Wisdom of Solomon_ (viii. 19, 20), and in the writings of Philo. It\nwas one of the teachings in the Schools of Alexandria, and thus directly\nshaped the thoughts of some of the early Church Fathers--for example,\nTertullian of Carthage (circa A. D. 160-240), and Origen of Alexandria\n(circa A. D. 185-254). It is of considerable historical importance for\nus at this point to consider at some length if Christians in the first\ncenturies held or were greatly influenced by the re-birth doctrine,\nbecause, as we shall presently observe, the probable influence of\nChristian on pagan Celtic beliefs may have been at a certain period very\ndeep and even the most important reshaping influence.\n\nAs an examination of Origen's _De Principiis_ proves, Origen himself\nbelieved in the doctrine.[359] But the theologians who created the Greek\ncanons of the Fifth Council disagreed with Origen's views, and\ncondemned Origen for believing, among other things called by them\nheresies, that Jesus Christ will be reincarnated and suffer on earth a\nsecond time to save the daemons,[360] an order of spiritual beings\nregarded by some ancient philosophers as destined to evolve into human\nsouls. Tertullian, contemporary with Origen, in his _De Anima_ considers\nwhether or not the doctrine of re-birth can be regarded as Christian in\nview of the declaration by Jesus Christ that John the Baptist was Elias\n(or Elijah), the old Jewish prophet, come again:--'And if ye are willing\nto receive it (or him), this (John the Baptist) is Elijah, which is to\ncome. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'[361] Tertullian\nconcludes, and modern Christian theologians frequently echo him (upon\ncomparing Malachi iv. 5), that all the New Testament writers mean to\nconvey is that John the Baptist possessed or acted in 'the spirit and\npower' of Elias, but was not actually a reincarnation of Elias, since he\ndid not possess 'the soul and body' of Elias.[362] Had Tertullian been a\nmystic and not merely a theologian with a personal bias against the\nmystery teachings, which bias he shows throughout his _De Anima_, it is\nquite evident that he would have been on this doctrinal matter in\nagreement with Origen, who was both a mystic and a theologian,[363] and,\nthen, probably with such an agreement of these two eminent Church\nFathers on record before the time when Christian councils met to\ndetermine canonical and orthodox beliefs, the doctrine of re-birth would\nnever have been expurgated from Christianity.[364]\n\nIn the _Pistis Sophia_,[365] an ancient Gnostic-Christian work, which\ncontains what are alleged to be some of Jesus Christ's esoteric\nteachings to his disciples, it is clearly stated (contrary to\nTertullian's argument, but in accord with what we may assume Origen's\nview would have been) that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of\nElias.[366] The same work further expounds the doctrine of re-birth as\na teaching of Jesus Christ which applies not to particular personages\nonly, like Elias, but as a universal law governing the lives of all\nmankind.[367]\n\nAs our discussion has made evident, during the first centuries the\nre-birth doctrine was undoubtedly well known to Alexandrian Christians.\nAmong other early Christian theologians and philosophers who held some\nform of a re-birth doctrine, were Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais (circa\n375-414), Boethius, a Roman (circa 475-525), and Psellus, a native of\nAndros (second half of ninth century). In addition to the many\nGnostic-Christian sects, the Manichaeans, who comprised more than\nseventy sects connected with the primitive Church, also promulgated the\nre-birth doctrine.[368] Along with the condemnation of the Gnostics and\nManichaeans as heretical, the doctrine of re-birth was likewise\ncondemned by various ecclesiastical bodies and councils. This was the\ndeclaration by the Council of Constantinople in 553:--'Whosoever shall\nsupport the mythical doctrine of the pre-existence of the Soul, and the\nconsequent wonderful opinion of its return, let him be anathema.' And\nso, after centuries of controversy, the ancient doctrine ceased to be\nregarded as Christian.[369] It is very likely, however, as will be\nshown in due order, that a few of the early Celtic missionaries, always\nfamous for their Celtic independence even in questions touching\nChristian theology and government, did not feel themselves bound by the\ndecisions of continental Church Councils with respect to this particular\ndoctrine.\n\nDuring the mediaeval period in Europe, the re-birth doctrine continued\nto live on in secret among many of the alchemists and mystical\nphilosophers, and among such Druids as survived religious persecution;\nand it has come down from that period to this through Orders like the\nRosicrucian Order--an Order which seems to have had an unbroken\nexistence from the Middle Ages or earlier--and likewise through the\nunbroken traditions of modern Druidism. In our own times there is what\nmay be called a renaissance of the ancient doctrine in Europe and\nAmerica--especially in England, Germany, France, and the United\nStates--through various philosophical or religious societies; some of\nthem founding their teachings and literature on the ancient and\nmediaeval mystical philosophers, while others stand as the\nrepresentatives in the West of the mystical schools of modern India,\nwhich, like modern Druidism, claim to have existed from what we call\nprehistoric times.[370] To-day in the Roman Church eminent theologians\nhave called the doctrine of Purgatory the Christian counterpart of the\nphilosophical doctrine of re-birth;[371] and the real significance of\nthis opinion will appear in our later study of St. Patrick's Purgatory\nwhich, as we hold, is connected more or less definitely with the\npagan-Irish doctrines of the underworld of the _Sidhe_-folk and spirits,\nas well as shades of the dead, and with the Celtic-Druidic Doctrine of\nReincarnation.\n\nScientifically speaking, as shown in the Welsh Triads of Bardism, the\nancient Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth represented for the priestly and\nbardic initiates an exposition of the complete cycle of human evolution;\nthat is to say, it included what we now call Darwinism--which explains\nonly the purely physical evolution of the body which man inhabits as an\ninheritance from the brute kingdom--and also besides Darwinism, a\ncomprehensive theory of man's own evolution as a spiritual being both\napart from and in a physical body, on his road to the perfection which\ncomes from knowing completely the earth-plane of existence. And in time,\njudging from the rapid advance of the present age, our own science\nthrough psychical research may work back to the old mystery teachings\nand declare them scientific. (See chap. xii.)\n\n\nACCORDING TO THE BARDDAS MSS.\n\nWith this preliminary survey of the subject we may now proceed to show\nhow in the Celtic scheme of evolution the Otherworld with all its gods,\nfairies, and invisible beings, and this world with all its visible\nbeings, form the two poles of life or conscious existence. Let us begin\nwith purely philosophical conceptions, going first to the Welsh\n_Barddas_,[372] where it is said 'There are three circles of existence:\nthe circle of Ceugant (the circle of Infinity), where there is neither\nanimate nor inanimate save God, and God only can traverse it; the circle\nof Abred (the circle of Re-birth), where the dead is stronger than the\nliving, and where every principal existence is derived from the dead,\nand man has traversed it; and the circle of Gwynvyd (the circle of the\nwhite, i. e. the circle of Perfection), where the living is stronger\nthan the dead, and where every principal existence is derived from the\nliving and life, that is, from God, and man shall traverse it; nor will\nman attain to perfect knowledge, until he shall have fully traversed the\ncircle of Gwynvyd, for no absolute knowledge can be obtained but by the\nexperience of the senses, from having borne and suffered every condition\nand incident'.[373] ... 'The three stabilities of knowledge: to have\ntraversed every state of life; to remember every state and its\nincidents; and to be able to traverse every state, as one would wish,\nfor the sake of experience and judgement; and this will be obtained in\nthe circle of Gwynvyd.'[374]\n\nThus _Barddas_ expounds the complete Bardic scheme of evolution as one\nin which the monad or soul, as a knowledge of physical existence is\ngradually unfolded to it, passes through every phase of material\nembodiment before it enters the human kingdom, where, for the first time\nexercising freewill in a physical body, it becomes responsible for all\nits acts. The Bardic doctrine as otherwise stated is 'that the soul\ncommenced its course in the lowest water-animalcule, and passed at death\nto other bodies of a superior order, successively, and in regular\ngradation, until it entered that of man. Humanity is a state of liberty,\nwhere man can attach himself to either good or evil, as he\npleases'.[375] Once in the human kingdom the soul begins a second period\nof growth altogether different from that preceding--a period of growth\ntoward divinity; and with this, in our study, we are chiefly concerned.\nIt seems clear that the circle of Gwynvyd finds its parallel in the\nNirvana of Buddhism, being, like it, a state of absolute knowledge and\nfelicity in which man becomes a divine being, a veritable god.[376] We\nsee in all this the intimate relation which there was thought to be\nbetween what we call the state of life and the state of death, between\nthe world of men and the world of gods, fairies, demons, spirits, and\nshades. Our next step must be to show, first, what some other\nauthorities have had to say about this relation, and then, second, and\nfundamentally, that gods or fairy-folk like the _Sidhe_ or Tuatha De\nDanann could come to this world not only as we have been seeing them\ncome as fairy women, fairy men, and gods, at will visible or invisible\nto mortals, but also through submitting to human birth.\n\n\nACCORDING TO ANCIENT AND MODERN AUTHORITIES\n\nFirst, therefore, for opinions; and we may go to the ancients and then\nto the moderns. Here are a few from Julius Caesar:--'In particular they\n(the Druids) wish to inculcate this idea, that souls do not die, but\npass from one body to another.'[377] 'The Gauls declare that they have\nall sprung from their father Dis (or Pluto), and this they say was\ndelivered to them by the Druids.'[377] And the testimony of Caesar is\nconfirmed by Diodorus Siculus,[378] and by Pomponius Mela.[379] Lucan,\nin the _Pharsalia_,[380] addressing the Druids on their doctrine of\nre-birth says:--'If you know what you sing, death is the centre of a\nlong life.' And again in the same passage he observes:--'Happy the folk\nupon whom the Bear looks down, happy in this error, whom of fears the\ngreatest moves not, the dread of death. Hence their warrior's heart\nhurls them against the steel, hence their ready welcome of death, and\nthe thought that it were a coward's part to grudge a life sure of its\nreturn.'[381] Dr. Douglas Hyde, in his _Literary History of Ireland_ (p.\n95), speaking for the Irish people, says of the re-birth doctrine:--'...\nthe idea of re-birth which forms part of half a dozen existing Irish\nsagas, was perfectly familiar to the Irish Gael....' According to\nanother modern Celtic authority, D'Arbois de Jubainville, two chief\nCeltic doctrines or beliefs were the return of the ghosts of the dead\nand the re-birth of the same individuality in a new human body here on\nthis planet.[382]\n\n\nREINCARNATION OF THE TUATHA DE DANANN\n\nWe proceed now directly to show that there was also a belief, probably\nwidespread, among the ancient Irish that divine personages, national\nheroes who are members of the Tuatha De Danann or _Sidhe_ race, and\ngreat men, can be reincarnated, that is to say, can descend to this\nplane of existence and be as mortals more than once. This aspect of the\nCeltic Doctrine of Re-birth has been clearly set forth by the\npublications of such eminent Celtic folk-lorists as Alfred Nutt and Miss\nEleanor Hull. Miss Hull, in her study of _Old Irish Tabus, or\nGesa_,[383] referring to the Cuchulainn Cycle of Irish literature and\nmythology, writes thus:--'There is no doubt that all the chief\npersonages of this cycle were regarded as the direct descendants, or it\nwould be more correct to say, as avatars or reincarnations of the early\ngods. Not only are their pedigrees traced up to the Tuatha D\u00e9 Danann,\nbut there are indications in the birth-stories of nearly all the\nprincipal personages that they are looked upon simply as divine beings\nreborn on the human plane of life. These indications are mysterious,\nand most of the tales which deal with them show signs of having been\naltered, perhaps intentionally, by the Christian transcribers. The\ndoctrine of re-birth was naturally not one acceptable to them.... The\ngoddess Etain becomes the mortal wife of a king of Ireland....\nConchobhar, moreover, is spoken of as a terrestrial god;[384] and\nDechtire, his sister, and the mother of C\u00fachulainn, is called a\ngoddess.[385] In the case of C\u00fachulainn himself, it is distinctly noted\nthat he is the avatar of Lugh lamhfada (long-hand), the sun-deity[386]\nof the earliest cycle. Lugh appears to Dechtire, the mother of\nC\u00fachulainn, and tells her that he himself is her little child, i. e.\nthat the child is a reincarnation of himself; and C\u00fachulainn, when\ninquired of as to his birth, points proudly to his descent from Lugh.\nWhen, too, it is proposed to find a wife for the hero, the reason\nassigned is, that they knew \"that his re-birth would be of himself\" (i.\ne. that only from himself could another such as he have origin).'[387]\nWe have in this last a clue to the popular Irish belief regarding the\nre-birth of beings of a god-like nature. D'Arbois de Jubainville has\nshown,[388] also, that the grandfather of Cuchulainn, son of Sualtaim,\nwas from the country of the _Sidhe_, and so was Ethn\u00e9 Ingub\u00e9, the sister\nof Sualtaim. And Dechtire, the mother of Cuchulainn, was the daughter of\nthe Druid Cathba and the brother of King Conchobhar. Thus the ancestry\nof the great hero of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster is both royal and\ndivine. And Conall Cernach, Cuchulainn's comrade and avenger, apparently\nfrom a tale in the _C\u00f3ir Anmann_ (Fitness of Names), composed probably\nduring the twelfth century, was also a reincarnated Tuatha De Danann\nhero.[389]\n\nPractically all the extant manuscripts dealing with the ancient\nliterature and mythology of the Gaels were written by Christian scribes\nor else copied by them from older manuscripts, so that, as Miss Hull\npoints out, what few Irish re-birth stories have come down to us--and\nthey are probably but remnants of an extensive re-birth literature like\nthat of India--have been more or less altered. Yet to these scholarly\nscribes of the early monastic schools, who kept alive the sacred fire of\nlearning while their own country was being plundered by foreign invaders\nand the rest of mediaeval Europe plunged in warfare, the world owes a\ndebt of gratitude; for to their efforts alone, in spite of a reshaping\nof matter naturally to be expected, is due almost everything recorded on\nparchments concerning pagan Ireland.\n\n\nTHE RE-BIRTH STORY CONCERNING KING MONGAN\n\nWe have preserved to us a remarkable re-birth story in which the\ncharacters are known to be historical.[390] It concerns a quarrel\nbetween the king of Ulster, Mongan, son of Fiachna--who, according to\nthe _Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters_ (i. 245), was killed in A.\nD. 620 by Arthur, son of Bicor--and Forgoll, the poet of Mongan.[391]\nThe dispute between them was as to the place of the death of Fothad\nAirgdech, a king of Ireland who was killed by Cailte, one of the\nwarriors of Find, in a battle whose date is fixed by the _Four Masters_\nin A. D. 285.[392] Forgoll pretended that Fothad had been killed at\nDuffry, in Leinster, and Mongan asserted that it was on the river Larne\n(anciently Ollarba) in County Antrim. Enraged at being contradicted,\neven though it were by the king, Forgoll threatened Mongan with terrible\nincantations; and it was agreed that unless Mongan proved his assertion\nwithin three days, his queen should pass under the control of Forgoll.\nMongan, however, had spoken truly and with certain secret knowledge, and\nfelt sure of winning.\n\nWhen the third day was almost expired and Forgoll had presented himself\nready to claim the wager, there was heard coming in the distance the one\nwhom Mongan awaited. It was Cailte himself, come from the Otherworld to\nbear testimony to the truthfulness of the king and to confound the\naudacious presumptions of the poet Forgoll. It was evening when he\nreached the palace. The king Mongan was seated on his throne, and the\nqueen at his right full of fear about the outcome, and in front stood\nthe poet Forgoll claiming the wager. No one knew the strange warrior as\nhe entered the court, save the king.\n\nCailte, when fully informed of the quarrel and the wager, quickly\nannounced so that all heard him distinctly, 'The poet has lied!' 'You\nwill regret those words,' replied the poet. 'What you say does not well\nbecome you,' responded Cailte in turn, 'for I will prove what I say.'\nAnd straightway Cailte revealed this strange secret: that he had been\none of the companions in arms under the great warrior Find, who was also\nhis teacher, and that Mongan, the king before whom he spoke, was the\nreincarnation of Find:--\n\n'We were with thee,' said Cailte, addressing the king. 'We were with\nFind.' 'Know, however,' replied Mongan, 'that you do wrong in revealing\na secret.' But the warrior continued: 'We were therefore with Find. We\ncame from Scotland. We encountered Fothad Airgdech near here, on the\nshores of the Ollarba. We gave him furious battle. I cast my spear at\nhim in such a manner that it passed through his body, and the iron\npoint, detaching itself from the staff, became fixed in the earth on the\nother side of Fothad. Behold here [in my hand] the shaft of that spear.\nThere will be found the bare rock from the top of which I let fly my\nweapon. There will be found a little further to the east the iron point\nsunken in the earth. There will be found again a little further, always\nto the east, the tomb of Fothad Airgdech. A coffin of stone covers his\nbody; his two bracelets of silver, his two arm-rings, and his\nneck-torque of silver are in the coffin. Above the tomb rises a\npillar-stone, and on the upper extremity of that stone which is planted\nin the earth one may read an inscription in ogam: _Here reposes Fothad\nAirgdech; he was fighting against Find when Cailte slew him_.'\n\nAnd to the consternation of Forgoll, what this warrior who came from the\nOtherworld declared was true, for there were found the place indicated\nby him, the rock, the spear-head, the pillar-stone, the inscription, the\ncoffin of stone, the body in it, and the jewellery. Thus Mongan gained\nthe wager; and the secret of his life which he alone had known was\nrevealed--he was Find re-born[393]; and Cailte, his old pupil and\nwarrior-companion, had come from the land of the dead to aid\nhim[393]:--'It was Cailte, Find's foster-son, that had come to them.\nMongan, however, was Find, though he would not let it be told.'[393] But\nnot only was Mongan an Irish king, he was also a god, the son of the\nTuatha De Danann Manannan Mac Lir: 'this Mongan is a son of Manannan Mac\nLir, though he is called Mongan, son of Fiachna.'[394] And so it is that\nlong after their conquest the People of the Goddess Dana ruled their\nconquerors, for they took upon themselves human bodies, being born as\nthe children of the kings of Mil's Sons.\n\nThere are other episodes which show very clearly the relationship\nbetween Mongan incarnated in a human body and his divine father\nManannan. Thus, 'When Mongan was three nights old, Manannan came for him\nand took him with him to bring up in the Land of Promise, and vowed\nthat he would not let him back into Ireland before he were twelve years\nof age.' And after Mongan has become Ulster's high king, Manannan comes\nto him to rouse him out of human slothfulness to a consciousness of his\ndivine nature and mission, and of the need of action: Mongan and his\nwife were frittering away their time playing a game, when they beheld a\ndark black-tufted little cleric standing at the door-post, who\nsaid:--'\"This inactivity in which thou art, O Mongan, is not an\ninactivity becoming a king of Ulster, not to go to avenge thy father on\nFiachna the Black, son of Deman, though Dubh-Lacha may think it wrong to\ntell thee so....\" Mongan seized the kingship of Ulster, and the little\ncleric who had done the reason was Manannan the great and mighty.'[395]\n\nIn the ancient tale of the _Voyage of Bran_--probably composed in its\npresent form during the eighth, possibly the seventh, century A.\nD.--there is another version of the Mongan Re-birth Story, which, being\nlater in origin and composition than the _Voyage_ itself, was\nundoubtedly clumsily inserted into the manuscript, as scholars\nthink.[396] Therein, Mongan as the offspring of Manannan by the woman of\nLine-mag--quite after the theory of the Christian Incarnation--is\ndescribed as 'a fair man in a body of white clay'. This and what follows\nin the introductory quatrain show how early Celtic doctrines correspond\nto or else were originated by those of the Christians. And the\ntranscriber seeing the parallels, glossed and altered the text which he\ncopied by introducing Christian phraseology so as to fit it in with his\nown idea--altogether improbable--that the references are to the coming\nof Jesus Christ. The references are to Manannan and to the woman of\nLine-mag, who by him was to be the mother of Mongan--as Mary the wife of\nJoseph was the mother of Jesus Christ by God the Father:--\n\n  A noble salvation will come\n  From the King who has created us,\n  A white law will come over seas,\n  Besides being God, He will be man.\n\n  This shape, he on whom thou lookest,\n  Will come to thy parts;\n  'Tis mine to journey to her house,\n  To the woman in Line-mag.\n\n  For it is Moninnan, the son of Ler,\n  From the chariot in the shape of a man,\n\n     *       *       *       *       *\n\n  He will delight the company of every fairy-knoll,\n  He will be the darling of every goodly land,\n  He will make known secrets--a course of wisdom--\n  In the world, without being feared.\n\nTo him is attributed the power of shape-shifting, which is not\ntransmigration into animal forms, but a magical power exercised by him\nin a human body.\n\n  He will be throughout long ages\n  An hundred years in fair kingship\n\n     *       *       *       *\n\n  Moninnan, the son of Ler\n  Will be his father, his tutor.\n\nAt his death\n\n  The white host (the angels or fairies) will take him under a wheel\n      (chariot) of clouds\n  To the gathering where there is no sorrow.[397]\n\n\nTHE BIRTH OF ETAIN OF THE TUATHA DE DANANN[398]\n\nAnother clear example of one of the Tuatha De Danann being born as a\nmortal is recorded in the famous saga of the _Wooing of Etain_. Three\nfragments of this story exist in the _Book of the Dun Cow_. The first\ntells how Etain Echraide, daughter of Ailill and wife of Midir (a great\nking among the _Sidhe_ people) was driven out of Fairyland by the\njealousy of her husband's other wife, and how after being wafted about\non the winds of this world she fell invisibly into the drinking-cup of\nthe wife of Etar of Inber Cichmaine, who was an Ulster chieftain. The\nchieftain's wife swallowed her; and, in due time, gave birth to a\ngirl:--'It was one thousand and twelve years from the first begetting\nof Etain by Ailill to the last begetting by Etar.' Etain, retaining her\nown name, grew up thence as an Irish princess.[399]\n\nOne day an unknown man of very stately aspect suddenly appeared to Etain\nthe princess; and as suddenly disappeared, after he had sung to her a\nwonderful song designed to arouse in her the subconscious memories of\nher past existence among the _Sidhe_:--\n\n  So is Etain here to-day....\n  Among little children is her lot....\n  It is she was gulped in the drink\n  By Etar's wife in a heavy draught.\n\nThe scribe ends this part of the story by letting it be known that Midir\nhas struck off the head of his other wife, Fuamnach, the cause of all\nEtain's trouble.\n\nThe second section of the tale introduces Etain as queen of Eochaid\nAirem, high king of Ireland, and the most curious and important part of\nit shows how she was loved by Ailill Aenguba. Ailill, so far as blood\nkinship went, was the brother of Eochaid, though apparently either an\nincarnation of Midir or else possessed by him: Etain acceded to his\nlove, but he was under a strange love-weakness; and on two occasions\nwhen he attempted to advance his desires an overpowering sleep fell on\nhim, and each time Etain met a man in Ailill's shape--as though it were\nhis 'double'--bemoaning his weakness. On a third occasion she asked who\nthe man was, and he declared himself to be Midir, and besought her to\nreturn with him to the Otherworld. But her worldly or human memory\nclouded her subconscious memory, and she did not recognize Midir, yet\npromised to go with him on gaining Eochaid's permission. After this\nevent, curiously enough, Ailill was healed of his strange love-malady.\n\nIn the third part of the story, Midir and Eochaid are playing games.\nMidir loses the first two and with them great riches, but winning the\nthird claims the right to place his arms about Etain and kiss her.\nEochaid asked a month's delay. The last day of the month had passed. It\nwas night. Eochaid in his palace at Tara awaited the coming of his\nrival, Midir; and though all the doors of the palace had been firmly\nclosed for the occasion, and armed soldiers surrounded the queen, Midir\nlike a spirit suddenly stood in the centre of the court and claimed the\nwager. Then, grasping and kissing Etain, he mounted in the air with her\nand very quickly passed out through the opening of the great chimney. In\nconsternation, King Eochaid and his warriors hurried without the palace;\nand there, on looking up, they saw two white swans flying over Tara,\nbound together by a golden chain.[400]\n\n\nTHE PRE-EXISTENCE OF DERMOT\n\nWith a difficult task before him, Dermot--as was the case with\nMongan--is reminded of his pre-existence as a hero in the Otherworld\nwith Manannan Mac Lir and Angus Oge:--'Now spoke Fergus Truelips, Finn's\nollave, and said: \"Cowardly and punily thou shrinkest, Dermot; for with\nmost potent Manannan, son of Lir, thou studiedst and wast brought up, in\nthe Land of Promise and in the bay-indented coasts; with Angus Oge, too,\nthe Daghda's son, wast most accurately taught; and it is not just that\nnow thou lackest even a moderate portion of their skill and daring, such\nas might serve to convey Finn and his party up this rock or bastion.\" At\nthese words Dermot's face grew red; he laid hold on Manannan's magic\nstaves that he had, and, as once again he redly blushed, by dint of\nskill in martial feats he with a leap rose on his javelin's shafts and\nso gained his two soles' breadth of the solid glebe that overhung the\nwater's edge.'[401]\n\n\nRE-BIRTH OF TUAN\n\nTuan, as the son of Starn, lived one hundred years as the brother of\nPartholon, the first man to reach Ireland; and then, after two hundred\nand twenty years, was re-born as the son of Cairell. This story in its\noldest form is preserved in the _Book of the Dun Cow_, and seems to have\nbeen composed during the late ninth or early tenth century.[402]\n\n\nRE-BIRTH AMONG THE BRYTHONS\n\nSuch then are the re-birth stories of the Gaels. Among the Brythons the\nsame ancient doctrine prevailed, though we have fewer clear records of\nit. Of the Brythonic Re-birth Doctrine as philosophically expounded in\n_Barddas_, mention has already been made.\n\nIn the ancient Welsh story about Taliessin, Gwion after many\ntransformations, magical in their nature, is re-born as that great poet\nof Wales, his mother being a goddess, Caridwen, who dwells beneath the\nwaters of Lake Tegid. In its present mystical form this tale cannot be\ntraced further than the end of the sixteenth century, though the\ntransformation incidents are presupposed in the _Book of Taliessin_, a\nthirteenth-century manuscript.[403] Besides being the re-birth of Gwion,\nTaliessin may be regarded as a bardic initiate high in degree, who is\npossessed of all magical and druidical powers.[403] He made a voyage to\nthe Otherworld, Caer Sidi; and this seems to indicate some close\nconnexion between ancient rites of initiation and his occult knowledge\nof all things.[404] Like the Irish re-birth and Otherworld tales, it\nalso suggests the relation between the world of death or Faerie and the\nworld of human embodiment.\n\nFrom his harrying of Hades, the Brythonic Gwydion secured the Head of\nHades' Cauldron of Regeneration or Re-birth; and when corpses of slain\nwarriors are thrown into it they arise next day as excellent as ever,\nexcept that they are unable to speak; which circumstance may be equal to\nsaying that the ordinary uninitiated man when re-born is unable to speak\nof his previous incarnation, because he has no memory of it. This\nCauldron of Re-birth, like so many objects mentioned in the ancient\nbardic literature, is evidently a mystic symbol: it suggests the same\ncorrespondences, as propounded in the modern _Barddas_, between the dead\nand the living, between death and re-birth; and Gwydion having been a\ngreat culture hero of Wales probably promulgated a doctrine of re-birth,\nand hence is described as being able to resuscitate the dead.[405]\n\n\nKING ARTHUR AS A REINCARNATED HERO\n\nJudging from substantial evidence set forth above in chapter V, the most\nfamous of all Welsh heroes, Arthur, equally with Cuchulainn his Irish\ncounterpart, can safely be considered both as a god apart from the human\nplane of existence, and thus like the Tuatha De Danann or Fairy-Folk,\nand also like a great national hero and king (such as Mongan was)\nincarnated in a physical body. The taking of Arthur to Avalon by his\nlife-guardian, the Lady of the Lake, and by his own sister, and by two\nother fairy women who live in that Otherworld of Sacred Apple-Groves, is\nsufficient in itself, we believe, to prove him of a descent more divine\nthan that of ordinary men. And the belief in his return from that\nOtherworld--a return so confidently looked for by the Brythonic\npeoples--seems to be a belief (whether recognized as such or not) that\nthe Great Hero will be reincarnated as a Messiah destined to set them\nfree. In Avalon, Arthur lives now, and 'It is from there that the\nBritons of England and of France have for a long time awaited his\ncoming'.[406] And Malory expressing the sentiment in his age\nwrites[407]:--'Yet some men say in many parts of England that King\nArthur is not dead, but had by the will of our Lord Jesu into another\nplace; and men say that he shall come again, and he shall win the holy\ncross. I will not say it shall be so, but rather I will say, here in\nthis world he changed his life.' If we consider Arthur's passing and\nexpected return, as many do, in a purely mythological aspect, we must\nthink of him for the time as a sun-god, and yet even then cannot escape\naltogether from the re-birth idea; for, as a study of ancient Egyptian\nmythology shows, there is still the same set of relations.[408] There\nare the sun-symbols always made use of to set forth the doctrine of\nre-birth, be it Egyptian, Indian, Mexican, or Celtic:--the death of a\nmortal like the passing of Arthur is represented by the sun-set on the\nhorizon between the visible world here and the invisible world beyond\nthe Western Ocean, and the re-birth is the sunrise of a new day.\n\n\nNON-CELTIC PARALLELS\n\nAs a non-Celtic parallel to what has preceded concerning the Otherworld\nof the Celts and their Doctrine of Re-birth, we offer the second of the\n_Stories of the High-priests of Memphis_, as published by Mr. F. L.\nGriffith from ancient manuscripts.[409] It is a history of Si-Osiri (the\nson of Osiris), whose father was Setme Khamuas. This wonderful divine\nson when still a child took his human father on a journey to see Amenti,\nthe Otherworld of the Dead; and when twelve years of age he was wiser\nthan the wisest of the scribes and unequalled in magic. At this period\nin his life there arrived in Egypt an Ethiopian magician who came with\nthe object of humbling the kingdom; but Si-Osiri read what was in the\nunopened letter of the stranger, and knew that its bearer was the\nreincarnation of 'Hor the son of the Negress', the most formidable of\nthe three Ethiopian magicians who fifteen hundred years before had waged\nwar with the magicians of Egypt. At that time the Egyptian Hor, the son\nof Pa-neshe, had defeated the great magician of Ethiopia in the final\nstruggle between White and Black Magic which took place in the presence\nof the Pharaoh.[410] And 'Hor the son of the Negress' had agreed not to\nreturn to Egypt again for fifteen hundred years. But now the time was\nelapsed, and, unmasking the character of the messenger, Si-Osiri\ndestroyed him with magical fire. After this, Si-Osiri revealed himself\nas the reincarnation of Hor the son of Pa-neshe, and declared that\nOsiris had permitted him to return to earth to destroy the powerful\nhereditary enemy of Egypt. When the revelation was made, Si-Osiri\n'passed away as a shade', going back again, even as the Celtic Arthur,\ninto the realm invisible from which he came.\n\nAs in ancient Ireland, where many kings or great heroes were regarded as\ndirect incarnations or reincarnations of gods or divine beings from the\nOtherworld, so in Egypt the Pharaohs were thought to be gods in human\nbodies, sent by Osiris to rule the Children of the Sun.[411] In Mexico\nand Peru there was a similar belief.[412] In the Indian _Mah\u00e2bh\u00e2rata_,\nR\u00e2ma and Krishna are at once gods and men.[413] The celebrated\nphilosophical poem known as the _Bhagavadg\u00eet\u00e2_ also asserts Krishna's\ndescent from the gods; and the same view is again enforced and extended\nin the _Hari-vansa_ and especially in the _Bh\u00e2gavata Pur\u00e2na_.[413] The\nIndian _Laws of Manu_ say that 'even an infant king must not be despised\nfrom an idea that he is a mere mortal; for he is a great deity in human\nform'.[414] In ancient Greece it was a common opinion that Zeus was\nreincarnated from age to age in the great national heroes. 'Alexander\nthe Great was regarded not merely as the son of Zeus, but as Zeus\nhimself.' And other great Greeks were regarded as gods while living on\nearth, like Lycurgus the Spartan law-giver, who after his death was\nworshipped as one of the divine ones.[415]\n\nAmong the great philosophers, the ancient doctrine of re-birth was a\npersonal conviction: Buddha related very many of his previous\nreincarnations, according to the _G\u00e2takam\u00e2l\u00e2_; Pythagoras is said to\nhave gone to the temple of Here and recognized there an ancient shield\nwhich he had carried in a previous life when he was Euphorbus, a Homeric\nhero.[416] From what Plato, in his _Meno_, quoted from an old poet, it\nseems very probable that there may be some sort of relationship between\nlegends mentioning the Rites of Proserpine, like the legend of Aeneas in\nVirgil, and certain of the Irish Otherworld and Re-birth legends among\nthe Gaels, as we have already suggested:--'For from whomsoever\nPersephone hath accepted the atonement of ancient woe, their souls she\nsendeth up once more to the upper sun in the ninth year. From these grow\nup glorious kings and men of swift strength, and men surpassing in\npoetical skill; and for all future time they are called holy heroes\namong men.' Among modern philosophers and poets in Europe and America\nthe same ideas find their echo: Wordsworth in his _Ode to Immortality_\ndefinitely inculcates pre-existence; Emerson in his _Threnody_, and\nTennyson in his _De Profundis_, seem committed to the re-birth doctrine,\nand Walt Whitman in his _Leaves of Grass_ without doubt accepted it as\ntrue. Certain German philosophers, too, appear to hold views in harmony\nwith what is also the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth, e. g. Schopenhauer, in\n_The World as Will and Idea_, J. G. Fichte, in _The Destiny of Man_, and\nHerder, in _Dialogues on Metempsychosis_. The Emperor of Japan is still\nthe Divine Child of the Sun, the head of the _Order of the Rising Sun_,\nand is always regarded by his subjects as the incarnation of a great\nbeing. The Great Lama of Thibet is believed to reincarnate immediately\nafter death.[417] William II of Germany seems to echo, perhaps\nunconsciously, the same doctrine when he claims to be ruling by divine\nright.[418]\n\nThat the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth is a direct and complete\nconfirmation of the Psychological Theory of the nature and origin of the\nbelief in fairies is self-evident. Could it be shown to be\nscientifically plausible in itself, as well-educated Celts consider it\nto be--and much evidence to be derived from a study of states of\nconsciousness, e. g. dreams, somnambulism, trance, crystal-gazing,\nchanged personality, subconsciousness, and so forth, indicates that it\nmight be shown to be so--it would effectively prove the theory. Fairies\nwould then be beings of the Otherworld who can enter the human plane of\nlife by submitting to the natural process of birth in a physical body,\nand would correspond to the _Alcheringa_ ancestors of the Arunta. In\nchapter xii following, such a proof of the theory is attempted.\n\n\nRE-BIRTH AMONG MODERN CELTS\n\nOne of the chief objects of this chapter is to show that the Re-birth\nDoctrine of the Celts, like most beliefs bound up with the Fairy-Faith,\nstill survives; thus further proving that Celtic tradition is an\nunbroken thing from times prehistoric until to-day. We shall therefore\nproceed to bring forward the following original material, collected by\nourselves, as evidence on this point:--\n\n_In Ireland_\n\nIn Ireland I found two districts where the Re-birth Doctrine has not\nbeen wholly forgotten. The first one is in the country round Knock Ma,\nnear Tuam. After Mrs. ---- had told me about fairies, I led up to the\nsubject of re-birth, and the most valuable of all my Irish finds\nconcerning the belief was the result. For this woman of Belclare told me\nthat it was believed by many of the old people, when she was a girl\nliving a few miles west of Knock Ma, that they had lived on this earth\nbefore as men and women; but, she added, 'You could hardly get them to\ntalk about their belief. It was a sort of secret which they who held it\ndiscussed freely only among themselves.' They believed, too, that\ndisease and misfortune in old age come as a penalty for sins committed\nin a former life.[419] This expiatory or purgatorial aspect of the\nRe-birth Doctrine seems to have been more widespread than the doctrine\nin its bare outlines; for the Belclare woman in speaking of it was able\nto recall from memories of forty-five or fifty years ago what was then a\npopular story about a disease-worn man and an eel-fisherman:--\n\nThe diseased man as he watches the eel-fisherman taking up his baskets,\ncontrasts his own wretched physical condition with the vigour and good\nhealth of the latter, and attributes the misfortune which is upon\nhimself to bad actions in a life prior to the one he is then living. And\nhere is the unhappy man's lamentation:--\n\n  Fliuch, fuar at\u00e2 mo leabaidh;\n  At\u00e2 fearth\u00e2inn agus geur-ghaoith;\n  At\u00e2im ag \u00eeoc na h-uaille,\n  A's tusa ag faire do chliaibh\u00een.\n\n  (Wet, cold is my bed;\n  There is rain and sharp wind;\n  I am paying for pride,\n  And you watching your [eel-]basket.)\n\nThe teller of the story insisted on giving me these verses in Irish, for\nshe said they have much less meaning in English, and I took them down;\nand to verify them and the story in which they find a place, I went to\nthe cottage a second time. There is no doubt, therefore, that the legend\nis a genuine echo of the religion of pre-Christian Ireland, in which\nreincarnation appears to have been clearly inculcated and was probably\nthe common belief.\n\nI once asked Steven Ruan, the Galway piper, if he had ever heard of such\na thing as people being born more than once here on this earth, seeing\nthat I was seeking for traces of the old Irish Doctrine of Re-birth. The\nanswer he gave me was this:--'I have often heard it said that people\nborn and dead come into this world again. I have heard the old people\nsay that we have lived on this earth before; and I have often met old\nmen and women who believed they had lived before. The idea passed from\none old person to another, and was a common belief, though you do not\nhear much about it now.'\n\nA highly educated Irishman now living in California tells me of his own\nknowledge that there was a popular and sincere belief among many of the\nIrish people throughout Ireland that Charles Parnell, their great\nchampion in modern times, was the reincarnation of one of the old Gaelic\nheroes. This shows how the ancient doctrine is still practically\napplied. There is also an opinion held by certain very prominent\nIrishmen now living in Ireland, with whom I have been privileged to\ndiscuss the re-birth doctrine, that both Patrick and Columba are\nlikewise to be regarded as ancient Gaelic heroes, who were reincarnated\nto work for the uplifting of the Gael.[420]\n\nA legend concerning Lough Gur, County Limerick, indicates that the\nsleeping-hero type of tale is a curious aspect of an ancient re-birth\ndoctrine. In such tales, heroes and their warrior companions are held\nunder enchantment, awaiting the mystic hour to strike for them to issue\nforth and free their native land from the rule of the Saxon. Usually\nthey are so held within a mysterious cavern, as is the case of Arthur\nand his men, according to differently localized Welsh stories; or they\nare in the depths of magic hills and mountains like most Irish heroes.\nThe heroes under enchantment with their companions are to be considered\nas resident in the Otherworld, and their return to human action as a\nreturn to the human plane of life. The Lough Gur legend is about Garret\nFitzgerald, the Earl of Desmond, who rebelled against Queen Elizabeth.\nModern folk-tradition regards him as the guardian deity of the Lough,\nand as dwelling in an enchanted palace situated beneath its waters. As\nCount John de Salis, whose ancestral home is the Lough Gur estate,\nassures me, the peasants of the region declare themselves convinced that\nthe earl once in seven years appears riding across the lake surface on a\nphantom white horse shod with shoes of silver; and they believe that\nwhen the horse's silver shoes are worn out the enchantment will end.\nThen, like Arthur when his stay in Avalon ends, Garret Fitzgerald will\nreturn to the world of human life again to lead the Irish hosts to\nvictory.[421]\n\n_In Scotland_\n\nDr. Alexander Carmichael, author of _Carmina Gadelica_, who as a\nfolk-lorist has examined modern peasant beliefs throughout the Highlands\nand Islands more thoroughly than any other living Scotsman, informs me\nthat apparently there was at one time in the Highlands a definite belief\nin the ancient Celtic Re-birth Doctrine, because he has found traces of\nit there, though these traces were only in the vaguest and barest\noutline.\n\n_In the Isle of Man_\n\nMr. William Cashen, keeper of Peel Castle, reported as follows with\nrespect to a re-birth doctrine in the Isle of Man:--'Here in the Island\namong old Manx people I have heard it said, but only in a joking way,\nthat we will come back to this earth again after some thousands of\nyears. The idea wasn't very popular nor often discussed, and there is no\nbelief in it now to my knowledge. It seems to have come down from the\nDruids.'\n\nThis is Mr. William Oates' testimony, given at Ballasalla:--'Some held a\nbelief in the coming back (re-birth) of spirits. I can't explain it. A\ncertain Manxman I knew used to talk about the transmigration of spirits;\nbut I shall not give his name, since many of his family still live here\non the Island.'\n\nMr. Thomas Kelley, of Glen Meay, had no clear idea about the ancient\nCeltic Doctrine of Re-birth, though he said:--'My grandfather had a\nnotion that he would be back here again at the Resurrection to claim his\nland.' This undoubtedly shows how the Christian doctrine of the\nResurrection and the Celtic one of Re-birth may have blended, both being\nbased on the common idea of a physical post-existence.\n\n_In Wales_\n\nIn the Pentre Evan country where I discovered such rich folk-lore, I\nfound my chief witness from there not unfamiliar with the ancient Celtic\nbelief in Re-birth. One day I asked her if she had ever heard the old\nfolk say that they had lived before on this earth as men and women.\nSomewhat surprised at the question, for to answer it would reveal\nhalf-secret thoughts of which, as it proved, not even her own nephew or\nniece had knowledge, she hesitated a moment, and, then, looking at me\nintently, said with great earnestness, 'Yes; and I often believe myself\nthat I have lived before.' And because of the unusual question, which\nseemed to reveal on my part familiarity with the belief, she added, 'And\nI think you must be of the same opinion as to yourself.' She explained\nthen that the belief was a rare one now, and held by only a few of the\noldest of her old acquaintances in that region, and they seldom talk\nabout it to their children for fear of being laughed at.\n\nMr. J. Ceredig Davies, the well-known folk-lorist of Llanilar, near\nAberystwyth, speaking of the Welsh Re-birth Doctrine, said he remembers,\nwhile in Patagonia, having discussed Druidism with a friend there, the\nlate John Jones, originally of Bala, North Wales, and hearing him\nremark, 'Indeed, I have a half-belief that I have been in this world\nbefore.'\n\nMr. Jones, our witness from Pontrhydfendigaid, offers testimony of the\nhighest value concerning Druidism and the doctrine of re-birth in\nCentral Wales, as follows:--'Taliessin believed in re-birth, and he was\nthe first to interpret the Druidic laws. He believed that from age to\nage he had been in many human bodies. He believed that he possessed the\nsame soul as Enoch and Eli, that he had been a judge sitting on the case\nof Jesus Christ--\"I was a judge at the Crucifixion,\" he is reported as\nsaying--and that he had been a prisoner in bonds at the Court of\nCynfelyn, not far from Aberystwyth, for a year and a day. Two hundred\nyears ago, belief in re-birth was common. Many still held it when I was\na boy. And even yet here in this region some people are imbued with the\nancient faith of the Druids, and firmly believe that the spirit migrates\nfrom one body to another. It is said, too, that a pregnant woman is able\nto determine what kind of a child she will give birth to.'[422]\n\nMr. Jones's use of the phrase 'migrate from one body to another' led us\nto suspect that it might refer to transmigration, i. e. re-birth into\nanimal bodies, which Dr. Tylor in _Primitive Culture_{4} (ii. 6-11, 17,\n&c.) shows is a distorted or corrupted interpretation of what he calls\nthe reasonable and straightforward doctrine of re-birth into human\nbodies only. But when we questioned Mr. Jones further about the matter\nhe said:--'The belief I refer to is re-birth into human bodies. I have\nheard of witches being able to change their own body into the body of an\nanimal or demon, but I never heard of men transmigrating into the bodies\nof animals. Some people have said that the Druids taught transmigration\nof this sort, but I do not think they did--though Welsh poets seem to\nhave made use of such a doctrine for the sake of poetry.'\n\nIn order to gain evidence concerning the Re-birth Doctrine as concrete\nas possible from so important a witness as Mr. Jones, we asked him\nfurther if he could recall the names of one or two of his old\nacquaintances who believed in it; and he said:--'One old character named\nThomas Williams, a dyer by trade, nearly believed in it, and Sh\u00f4n Evan\nRolant firmly believed in it. Rolant was the owner of Old Abbey Farm on\nthe Cross-Wood Estate, and originally was a well-to-do and respectable\nfarmer, but in consequence of mortgages on the estate he lost his\nproperty. After being dispossessed and badly treated, he used to recite\nthe one hundred and ninth Psalm, to bring curses upon those who worked\nagainst him in the dispossession process; and it was thought that he\nsucceeded in bringing curses upon them.'\n\nThe Rev. T. M. Morgan, Vicar of Newchurch parish, near Carmarthen, who\nhas already offered valuable evidence concerning the _Tylwyth Teg_ (see\npp. 149-51), contributes additional material about the Doctrine of\nRe-birth in South Wales:--'My father said there used to be expressed in\nCardiganshire before his time, a belief in re-birth. This was in accord\nwith Druidism, namely, that all human beings formerly existed on the\nmoon, the world of middle light, and the queen of heaven; that those who\nthere lived a righteous life were thence born on the sun, and thence\nonward to the highest heaven; and that those whose moon life had been\nunrighteous were born on this earth of suffering and sin. Through\nright-living on earth souls are able to return to the moon, and then\nevolve to the sun and highest heaven; or, through wrong living on earth,\nsouls are born in the third condition, which is one of utter darkness\nand of still greater suffering and sin than our world offers. But even\nfrom this lowest condition souls can work upwards to the highest glory\nif they strive successfully against evil. The Goddess of Heaven or\nMother of all human beings was known as _Brenhines-y-nef_. I am unable\nto tell if she is the moon itself or lived in the moon. On the other\nhand, the sun was considered the father of all human beings. According\nto the old belief, every new moon brings the souls who were unfit to be\nborn on the sun, to deposit them here on our earth. Sometimes there are\nmore souls seeking embodiment on earth than there are infant bodies to\ncontain them. Hence souls fight among themselves to occupy a body.\nOccasionally one soul tries to drive out from a body the soul already in\npossession of it, in order to possess it for itself. In consequence of\nsuch struggling of soul against soul, men in this world manifest madness\nand tear themselves. Whenever such a condition showed itself, the person\nexhibiting it was called a _Lloerig_ or \"one who is moon-torn\"--_Lloer_\nmeaning moon, and _rhigo_ to notch or tear; and in the English word\n_lunatic_, meaning \"moon-struck\", we have a similar idea.'[423]\n\nMr. David Williams, J.P., of Carmarthen, who has already told us much\nabout Welsh fairies (see pp. 151-3), offers equally valuable information\nabout the 'Three Circles of Existence' and the Druidic scheme of\nsoul-evolution, as follows:--'According to the Druids, there are three\nCircles through which souls must pass. The first is _Cylch y Ceugant_,\nthe second _Cylch Abred_, the third _Cylch y Gwynfyd_. The name of each\ncircle refers to a special kind of spiritual training, and if in\nreaching the second circle you do not gain its perfection by completing\nall its provisions [probably in due order and time], you must begin\nagain in Circle One; but if you reach the perfection of Circle Two you\ngo on to Circle Three. In Circle One, which is unlocated, the soul has\nno condition of bodily existence as in Circle Two. The second Circle\nappears to be a state something like the one we are in now--a mixture of\ngood and evil. The third Circle is a state of perfection and\nblessedness. In it the soul's environments correspond to all its wishes\nand desires, and there is contact with God.' At this point I asked if\nthere was loss of individuality in Circle Three, and Mr. Williams\nreplied:--'No, there is not loss of individuality.' Hence, as we\nsuggest, _Cylch y Gwynfyd_ is the Druidic parallel to the Nirvana of\nIndian metaphysics--being like it, a state of perfect and unlimited\nself-consciousness which man never knows in earth-life. And, finally,\nMr. Williams said in relation to re-birth:--'About the years 1780-1820\nthere lived an old bard in Glamorganshire who was actually a Druid,\nthough he professed to be a Christian as well, and he believed fully in\nre-birth. His common name was Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg); and he\n[with Owen Jones and William O. Pughe] edited the famous _Archaiology of\nWales_.'\n\n_In Cornwall_\n\nMr. Henry Maddern, F.I.A.S., our very important witness from Penzance,\ntestifies as follows concerning a re-birth doctrine in Cornwall:--'Belief\nin reincarnation was very common among the old Cornish peoples. For\nexample, it was believed when an incantation had been pronounced in the\nproper way at the Newlyn Tolcarne, that the Troll who inhabited it could\nembody the person who called him up in any state in which that person\nhad existed during a former age. You had only to name the age or period,\nand you could live your past life therein over again. My nurse, Betty\nGrancan, and an old miner named William Edwards, both believed in\nre-birth, and told me about it. I have heard them relate stories to one\nanother to the effect that a person can go back into the memory of past\nlives. They said that the sex always remains the same from life to\nlife. I have never heard of any belief in transmigration of humans into\nanimals, but in human re-birth only.'[424]\n\n_In Brittany_\n\nIn chapter ii, p. 216, M. Z. Le Rouzic, keeper of the Miln Museum at\nCarnac, says that there is now among his Breton countrymen round Carnac\na general and profound belief that spirits incarnate as men and women;\nand he has told me that this belief exists also in other regions of the\nMorbihan. And I myself found there in this Carnac country of which M. Le\nRouzic speaks, that the doctrine of the reincarnation of ancestors,\nwhich, as he agrees, is the same thing as the incarnation of spirits, is\nquite common, though as a rule only talked about among the Bretons\nthemselves.\n\nM. Le Rouzic restated the belief as he knows it round Carnac, as\nfollows:--'It is incontestable that the belief in the reincarnation of\nspirits is general in our country; and it is believed that the spirits\nembodied now are the spirits of the people of former times.'\n\nAfter Louis Gu\u00e9zel, of the village of St. Columban, a mile from Carnac,\nhad related to me certain legends of the dead, I asked him if he had\never heard that the dead may be born again as men and women here on this\nearth. Contrary to my expectations, the question caused no surprise\nwhatever; and I was at once given the impression that the ancient Celtic\nDoctrine of Re-birth is a thoroughly familiar one to him and to many\nBretons about the Carnac district. As we conversed about the doctrine,\nhe said emphatically, '_C'est la v\u00e9rit\u00e9_' (It is the truth); and in\nillustration told the following anecdotes:--'A woman in a cemetery one\nevening saw the spirits of many dead children begging of her life, and\nreincarnation. A son of my son resembles my grandfather, especially in\nhis mental traits and general character, and the family believe that\nthis son is my grandfather reincarnated.' (Recorded at St. Columban,\nBrittany, August 1909.)\n\nProfessor Anatole Le Braz, in a letter-preface to _Carnac, L\u00e9gendes,\nTraditions, Coutumes et Contes du Pays_ (Nantes, 1909), by M. Z. Le\nRouzic, makes this poetical reference to his friend, its author, and\nthereby admirably echoes the ancient Breton Doctrine of Re-birth:--'You,\nyour eyes, your ears are elsewhere: you are a seer and a hearer of the\nlower regions; you perceive the floating images and you discern the\nhollow sounds of the people of the manes; you live, literally, among\nthem. What am I saying? Under the form and appearance of a man of\nto-day, you are in reality one of them, ascended to the day and\nreincarnated.' Again, speaking of the Alignements of Menec, Professor Le\nBraz adds concerning his friend:--'You have been one of the\npriest-builders who worked at its erection; you have officiated among\nits myriads of columns, presided amid the pomp of great funerals in its\ncyclopean caverns, sprinkled its sepulchral mounds, shaped like tents,\nwith the blood of oxen and of heifers now dear to St. Cornely. And this\nalso you confess to me yourself: these unfathomable epochs remain for\nyou actual and present.'\n\n\nORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE CELTIC DOCTRINE OF RE-BIRTH\n\nIn considering briefly what non-Celtic doctrines could conceivably have\nshaped the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth, two chief streams of influence\nare open to examination. One stream has its source in re-birth doctrines\nlike those set forth by Orphic, Pythagorean, Platonic, and similar\norientally-derived philosophies; while the other arises out of primitive\nChristianity, wherein, as literary and historical evidence suggests,\nre-birth may have been an equally important doctrine; or, at all events,\nthere was a decided tendency, later condemned as heretical, to\nsynthesize the Alexandrian philosophy and the Jewish (which to some\nextent influenced the Alexandrian) with early Church doctrines. This\ntendency is clearly shown by Origen, and by Clemens Alexandrinus,\nanother eminent Father.\n\nWe have a better check on the second stream than on the first, because\nChristianity has a later and more definite origin than any of the\norientally-derived philosophies. Some of the Druids, chiefly of Scotland\nand Wales, who are known to have held the re-birth doctrine before\nconversion, and probably after conversion, as was the case with a modern\nDruid, an editor of the _Archaiology of Wales_ (see p. 391, above),\naccepted the New Faith as a purer form of Druidism and Jesus Christ as\nthe Greatest of Druids. This ready and full acceptance would most likely\nnot have been possible had their cardinal re-birth doctrine been thereby\ncondemned. It would seem, therefore, that a primitive Christian re-birth\ndoctrine may have been openly held by certain of the early Celtic\nmissionaries. These latter, during the centuries when Ireland was the\nuniversity for all Europe, had good opportunities for knowing much about\nthe earliest traditions of Christianity, and they, with their own\nhalf-pagan instincts, would have given approval to such a doctrine\nwithout consulting Rome, just as Church Fathers like Tertullian\ncondemned it on their own personal authority and Origen believed it.\nFurther, if we hold in mind that the doctrine of the Incarnation even\nnow inculcates that the Son pre-existed and united Himself with a human\nsoul in the act of conception, and that it may originally and by some\nIrish saints have been thought of as applying to all mankind in a more\nhumble and less divine way, we seem to see in the Mongan re-birth story,\nwhich Christian transcribers have glossed, evidently with such ideas in\nmind, a proof that on this doctrinal point Christian and Celtic beliefs\ncoalesced.[425] But the Christian beliefs did not originate the Celtic,\nfor scholars have shown that the germ of the Mongan re-birth story, as\nwell as that of the Cuchulainn re-birth episode, is pre-Christian, and\nthat the Etain birth-story dates from a time when Irish myth and history\nwere entirely free from Christian influence.[426] The same original\npagan character is shown in the re-birth episodes existing in Brythonic\nliterature.[427] And, finally, from the testimony of several ancient\nauthorities, e. g. Julius Caesar, Diodorus Siculus, Pomponius Mela, and\nLucan, who wrote, respectively, about 50 B. C., 40 B. C., A. D. 44, and\nA. D. 60 to 65, that the Celts already held the re-birth doctrine, it is\ncertain that any possible influence from the Christian stream instead of\noriginating the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth could merely have modified\nit.\n\nThe question remaining, Would the classical or oriental doctrines of\nre-birth have originated or fundamentally shaped the Celtic re-birth\ndoctrine? is a very difficult one. At present it cannot be answered with\ncertainty either negatively or positively. We may suppose, however, as\nwe did in the case of the parallel Christian re-birth doctrine, a\npossible contact and amalgamation, brought about in various ways, e. g.\nthrough Oriental merchants like the Phoenicians, and travellers who\nvisited Britain in pre-Christian times, but chiefly through the\ncontinental Celts, who had direct knowledge of Greek and Roman culture,\nmeeting their insular brethren beyond the Channel and Irish Sea. All\nsuch ancient contacts push the problem further and further back in time;\nand our easiest and safest course is to state--as we may of the similar\nproblem of the origin of the Celtic Otherworld belief--that available\nfacts of comparative religion, philosophy, and myth, indicate clearly a\nprehistoric epoch when there was a common ancestral stock for the\nMediterranean and pan-Celtic cultures. This may have had its beginnings\nin the Danube country, or in North Europe, as many authorities in\nethnology now hold, or, as others are beginning to hold, in the lost\nAtlantis--the most probable home of the dark pre-Celtic peoples of\nIreland, Isle of Man, Scotland, Britain, Southern and Western Europe,\nand North Africa, who with the Aryans are the joint ancestors of the\nmodern Celts. Both branches of this common Celtic ancestral stock held\nthe re-birth doctrine. And at least from their Aryan ancestors it seems\nto have been inherited by the Celts of history. To attempt a\nhypothetical proof that this race or that race, Egyptian, Phoenician,\nGreek, or Celtic, as the case may be, is alone the originator of this or\nany other particular belief is as useless and as absurd as to attempt\nproof that the Gael has no racial affinity with the Brython. One of the\ngreatest services now being performed by scientific inquiry into human\nproblems is the demonstration of the unreasonableness of assuming\nartificial social barriers separating race from race, religion from\nreligion, and institution from institution, and the declaration that the\nunity and the brotherhood of man is a fact inherent in man's own nature,\nand not a sentimental ideal. But there is specialization and\ndifferentiation everywhere in nature; and while Celtic traditions and\nbeliefs are not fundamentally unlike those found in every age, race, and\ncultural stage, the treatment of this common stock of prehistoric lore\nand mystical religion is in some respects unique, and hence Celtic.\nBeyond this statement we cannot go.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION III\n\nTHE CULT OF GODS, SPIRITS, FAIRIES, AND THE DEAD\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF ARCHAEOLOGY[428]\n\n     'As he spoke, he paused before a great mound grown over with trees,\n     and around it silver clear in the moonlight were immense stones\n     piled, the remains of an original circle, and there was a dark,\n     low, narrow entrance leading therein. \"This was my palace. In days\n     past many a one plucked here the purple flower of magic and the\n     fruit of the tree of life....\" And even as he spoke, a light began\n     to glow and to pervade the cave, and to obliterate the stone walls\n     and the antique hieroglyphics engraven thereon, and to melt the\n     earthen floor into itself like a fiery sun suddenly uprisen within\n     the world, and there was everywhere a wandering ecstasy of sound:\n     light and sound were one; light had a voice, and the music hung\n     glittering in the air.... \"I am Aengus; men call me the Young. I am\n     the sunlight in the heart, the moonlight in the mind; I am the\n     light at the end of every dream, the voice for ever calling to come\n     away; I am desire beyond joy or tears. Come with me, come with me:\n     I will make you immortal; for my palace opens into the Gardens of\n     the Sun, and there are the fire-fountains which quench the heart's\n     desire in rapture.\"'--A. E.\n\n     Inadequacy of Pygmy Theory--According to the theories concerning\n     divine images and fetishes, gods, daemons, and ancestral spirits\n     haunt megaliths--Megaliths are religious and funereal, as shown\n     chiefly by _Cenn Cruaich_, Stonehenge, Guernsey menhirs, monuments\n     in Brittany, by the circular fairy dance as an ancient initiatory\n     sun-dance, by Breton earthworks, archaeological excavations\n     generally, and by present-day worship at Indian dolmens--New Grange\n     and Celtic Mysteries: evidence of manuscripts; evidence of\n     tradition--The Aengus Cult--New Grange compared with Great Pyramid:\n     both have astronomical arrangement and same internal plan--Why they\n     open to the sunrise--Initiations in both--Great Pyramid as model\n     for Celtic tumuli--Gavrinis and New Grange as spirit-temples.\n\n\nIn this chapter we propose to deal with the popular belief among Celtic\npeoples that tumuli, dolmens, menhirs, and in fact most megalithic\nmonuments, prehistoric or historic, are either the abodes or else the\nfavourite haunts of various orders of fairies--of pixies in Cornwall, of\n_corrigans_ in Brittany, of little spirits like pygmies, of spirits like\nmortals in stature, of goblins, of demons, and of ghosts. Interesting\nattempts have been made to explain this folk-belief by means of the\nPygmy Theory of Fairies; and this folk-belief appears to be almost the\nchief one upon which the theory depends.[429] As was pointed out in the\nIntroduction (p. xxiii), possibly one of the many threads interwoven\ninto the complex fabric of the Fairy-Faith round an original psychical\npattern may have been bequeathed by a folk-memory of some unknown,\nperhaps pygmy, races, who may have inhabited underground places like\nthose in certain tumuli. But even though the Pygmy Theory were\naltogether accepted by us the problem we are to consider would still be\nan unsolved one; for how explain by the Pygmy Theory why the folk-memory\nshould always run in psychical channels, and not alone in Celtic lands,\nbut throughout Europe, and even in Australia, America, Africa, and\nIndia.\n\nArchaeological researches have now made it clear that many of the great\ntumuli covering dolmens or subterranean chambers, like that of Mont St.\nMichel (at Carnac) for example, were religious and funereal in their\npurposes from the first; and therefore the Pygmy Theory is far from a\nsatisfactory or adequate explanation. To us the inquiry is similar to an\ninvestigation into the reasons why ghosts should haunt a house, whereas\nthe supporters of the Pygmy Theory forget the ghosts and tell all about\nthe people who may or who may never have lived in the haunted house, and\nwho built it. The megaliths, in the plain language of the folk-belief,\nare haunted by fairies, pixies, _corrigans_, ghosts, and various sorts\nof invisible beings. Like the Psychical Research Society, we believe\nthere may be, or actually are, invisible beings like ghosts, and so\npropose to conduct our investigations from that point of view.[430]\n\n\nMENHIRS, DOLMENS, CROMLECHS, AND TUMULI\n\nTo begin with, we shall concern ourselves with menhirs, dolmens,\ncromlechs, and certain kinds of tumuli--such as are found at Carnac,\nround which _corrigans_ hold their nightly revels, and where ghost-like\nforms are sometimes seen in the moonlight, or even when there is no\nmoon. M. Paul S\u00e9billot in _Le Folk-lore de France_[431] has very\nadequately described the numerous folk-traditions and customs connected\nwith all such monuments, and it remains for us to deal especially with\nthe psychical aspects of these traditions and customs.\n\nThe learned Canon Mah\u00e9 in his _Essai sur les antiquit\u00e9s du d\u00e9partement\ndu Morbihan_ (p. 258), a work of rare merit, published at Vannes in\n1825, holds that not only were the majestic Alignements of Carnac used\nas temples for religious rites, but that the stones themselves of which\nthe Alignements are formed were venerated as the abodes of gods.[432]\nAnd quoting Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Hermes, and others, he shows\nthat the ancients believed that gods and daemons, attracted by sacrifice\nand worship to stone images and other inanimate objects, overshadowed\nthem or even took up their abode in them. This position of Canon Mah\u00e9 is\nconfirmed by a comparative study of Celtic and non-Celtic traditions\nrespecting the theory of what has been erroneously called\n'idol-worship'. All evidence goes to show that idols so called, are\nsimply images used as media for the manifestation of ghosts, spirits,\nand gods: the ancients, like contemporary primitive races, do not seem\never to have actually worshipped such images, but simply to have\nsupplicated by prayer and sacrifice the indwelling deity.[433] The\nancient Egyptians, for example, conceived the _Ka_ or personality as a\nthing separable from the person or body, and hence 'the statue of a\nhuman being represented and embodied a human _Ka_'. Likewise a statue of\na god was the dwelling-place of a divine _Ka_, attracted to it by\ncertain mystical formulae at the time of dedication.[434] Though there\nmight be many statues of the same god no two were alike; each was\nanimated by an independent 'double' which the rites of consecration had\nelicited from the god. These statues, being thus animated by a 'double',\nmanifested their will--as Greek and Roman statues are reported to have\ndone--either by speaking, or by rhythmic movements. The divine virtue\nresiding in the images of the gods was thought to be a sort of fluid,\nanalogous to what we call the magnetic fluid, the aura, &c. It could be\ntransmitted by the imposition of hands and by magic passes, on the nape\nof the neck or along the dorsal spine of a patient;[435] and no doubt\nextraordinary curative properties were attributed to it.\n\nDr. Tylor has brought together examples from all parts of the globe of\nso-called fetishism, which is veneration paid to natural living objects\nsuch as trees, fish, animals, as well as to inanimate objects of almost\nevery conceivable description, including stones, because of the spirit\nbelieved to be inherent or resident in the particular object; and he\nshows that idols originally were fetishes, which in time came to be\nshaped according to the form of the spirit or god supposed to possess\nthem.[436] Mr. R. R. Marett, the originator of the pre-animistic theory,\nbelieves that originally fetishes were regarded as gods themselves, and\nthat gradually they came to be regarded as the dwellings of gods.[437]\nCertain well-defined Celtic traditions entirely fit in with this\ntheory:--e. g. Canon Mah\u00e9 writes, 'In accordance with this strange\ntheory they (the Celts) could believe that rocks, set in motion by\nspirits which animated them, sometimes went to drink at rivers, as is\nsaid of the Peulvan at Noyal-Pontivy' (Morbihan);[438] and I have found\na parallel belief at Rollright, Oxfordshire, England, where it is said\nof the King Stone, an ancient menhir, and, according to some\nfolk-traditions, a human being transformed, that it goes down the hill\non Christmas Eve to drink at the river. In the famous menhir or\npillar-stone on Tara to this day, we have another curious example like\nthe moving statues in Egypt and the Celtic stones which move; for in the\n_Book of Lismore_ the wonderful properties of the _Lia F\u00e1il_, the 'Stone\nof Destiny', are enumerated, and it is said that ever when Ireland's\nmonarch stepped upon it the stone would cry out under him, but that if\nany other person stepped upon it, there was only silence.[439]\n\nIn the _Tripartite Life of St. Patrick_ it is said that Ireland's chief\nidol was at Mag Slecht, and by name 'Cenn Cruaich, covered with gold and\nsilver, and twelve other idols[440] [were] about it, covered with\nbrass'. When Patrick tried to place his crosier on the top of Cenn\nCruaich, the idol 'bowed westward to turn on its right side, for its\nface was from the South, to wit, Tara.... And the earth swallowed the\ntwelve other images as far as their heads, and they are thus in sign of\nthe miracle, and he cursed the demon, and banished him to hell'.[441]\nSir John Rhys points out that _Cenn Cruaich_ means 'Head or Chief of\nthe Mound', and that the story of its inclined position suggests to us\nan ancient and gradually falling menhir planted on the summit of a\ntumulus or hill surrounded by twelve lesser pillar stones, all\nthirteen--itself a sacred number--regarded as the abodes of gods or else\nas gods themselves; and these gods are referred to as the demon\nexorcized from the place by Patrick. The central menhir or Cenn Cruaich\nprobably represents the Solar God, and the twelve menhirs surrounding\nthis probably represent the twelve months of the year.[442] In the\n_Colloquy_ it is said that Patrick went his way 'to sow faith and piety,\nto banish devils and wizards out of Ireland; to raise up saints and\nrighteous, to erect crosses, station-stones, and altars; also to\noverthrow idols and goblin images, and the whole art of sorcery'.[443]\nWelsh tradition says that St. David split the capstone of the Maen Ketti\nCromlech (dolmen)[444] in Gower, in order to prove to the people that\nthere was nothing divine in it.[445]\n\nAccording to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Merlin constructed Stonehenge by\nmagically transporting from Ireland the 'Choir of the Giants',\napparently an ancient Irish circle of stones.[446] The rational\nexplanation of this myth seems to be that the stones of Stonehenge, not\nbelonging to the native rocks of South England, as geologists well know,\nwere probably transported from some distant part of Britain and set up\non Salisbury Plain, because of some magical properties supposed to have\nbeen possessed by them; and most likely 'the stones were regarded as\ndivine or as seats of divine power'.[447] And further (thereby admitting\nthe sacred purpose of the group), Sir John Rhys sees no objection to\nidentifying Stonehenge with the famous temple of Apollo in the island of\nthe Hyperboreans, referred to in the journal of Pytheas' travels.[448]\nAccording to Sir John Rhys's interpretation of this journal, 'the\nkings of the city containing the temple and the overseers of the latter\nwere the Boreads, who took up the government in succession, according to\ntheir tribes. The citizens gave themselves up to music, harping and\nchanting in honour of the Sun-god, who was every nineteenth year wont\nhimself to appear about the time of the vernal equinox, and to go on\nharping and dancing in the sky until the rising of the Pleiades.'[448]\n\nTwo menhirs, roughly hewn to simulate the human form, are yet to be\nfound in Guernsey, Channel Islands, and formerly there was a similar\nmenhir in the Breton village of Baud, Morbihan. One of the Guernsey\nfigures was dug up in 1878 under the chancel of the C\u00e2tel Church, and\nthen placed in the churchyard, so that in this instance it seems highly\nprobable that the Christian Church was built on the site of a sacred\npagan shrine where a cult of stones once existed. The second stone\nfigure (a female), now standing as a gate-post in the churchyard of St.\nMartin's parish, seems also to mark a spot where a pre-Christian\nsanctuary was christianized. The country-people of the district, up to\nthe middle of the last century, considered it lucky to make floral and\neven food offerings to this stone; but in 1860 the churchwarden to\ndestroy its sanctity had it broken in two, though now it has been\nrestored.[449] A like stone image was the famous 'V\u00e9nus de Quinipilly',\nnear Baud, Morbihan. At its base was a stone trough, wherein until late\ninto the seventeenth century the sick were cured by contact with the\nimage, and young men and maidens were wont to bathe to secure love and\nlong life.[449]\n\nCanon Mah\u00e9 recorded in 1825 that the folk-belief located ghosts and\nspirits of the dead round megalithic monuments, more especially those\nknown to have been used for tombs, because the Celts thought them\nhaunted by ancestral spirits;[450] and what was true in 1825 is true\nnow, for there is still in Brittany the association of ancestral\nspirits, _corrigans_, and other spirit-like tribes with tumuli, dolmens,\nmenhirs, and cromlechs, and, as we have shown in chapter ii, a very\nliving faith in the _L\u00e9gende de la Mort_. In describing some curious\ndolmens and cromlechs (stone circles) on the summit of a mountain called\nthe _Clech_ or _Man\u00e9 er kloch_, 'Mountain of the bell,' at Mendon,\nArrondissement de Lorient, Morbihan, the same author gives it as his\nopinion, based on folk-traditions, that the cromlechs, like others in\nBrittany, were places in which the ancient Bretons practised necromancy\nand invoked the spirits of their ancestors, to whom they attributed\ngreat power. He then records a very valuable and interesting tradition\nconcerning these monuments, which seems to indicate clearly a close\nrelationship between the _Poulpiquets_ (another name for _corrigans_),\nthought of as spirits by the peasants, and the magical rites conducted\nin the circles to invoke spirits or daemons:--'The people call the\nstones which are found there the rocks of the _Hos\u00e9gu\u00e9annets_ or\n_Guerrionets_ (who are the same as the _Poulpiquets_); and they declare\nthat at fixed seasons they are in the habit of coming there to celebrate\ntheir mysteries, which would prove that the race of these dwarfs is not\nyet extinct, as I believed.'[451]\n\nWhen we hear how _corrigans_ dance the national Breton _ronde_ or\n_rid\u00e9e_, at or in such cromlechs (themselves, like the dance, circular\nin form), which with other ancient stone monuments and earthworks are\nstill believed to be the favourite haunts of these and kindred\nspirit-tribes, we seem to see, in the light of what Canon Mah\u00e9 records,\na psychical folk-memory about a goblin race who are now thought of as\nfrequenting the very places where anciently such spirits are said to\nhave been invoked by pagan priests for the purposes of divination.\nFurther, it appears that at these sacred centres, as the quoted\ntradition indicates, in prehistoric times Brythonic initiations took\nplace, like those still flourishing among a few surviving American\nIndian tribes (who also dance the circular initiation dance), and among\nother primitive peoples, as we shall more adequately show in the chapter\non St. Patrick's Purgatory. The Breton dance is, therefore, most likely\nthe memorial of an ancient initiation dance, religious in character,\nand, probably, in honour of the sun, being circular in the same way that\ncromlechs dedicated to a sun-cult are circular. Stonehenge, the most\nhighly developed type of the cromlech, was undoubtedly a sun-temple; and\nthe dance anciently held in it, as described by Pytheas, in honour of\nthe god Apollo, was no doubt circular like the Breton national dance,\nand, presumably, initiatory.[452] Through a natural anthropomorphic\nprocess, this circular initiation dance has come to be attributed to\n_corrigans_ in Brittany, to pixies in Cornwall and in England, and to\nfairies in these and other Celtic countries. The idea of fairy tribes in\nsuch a special relation may result from a folk-memory of the actual\ninitiators who, as masked men, represented spirits; and, if this be a\nplausible view, then fairies may be compared to the initiators of\ncontemporary initiation ceremonies among primitive peoples and,\nfollowing Dr. Gilbert Murray's theory, to the Greek satyrs also.[453]\n\nA circular dance like the Breton one still survives among the peasantry\nin the Channel Islands, at least in Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, being\ncelebrated at weddings, but the revolution is now around a person\ninstead of a stone, and to this person obeisance is paid. This tends to\nconfirm our opinion that the dance is the survival of an ancient\nsun-dance, the central figure being typical of the sun deity himself, or\nApollo; and if we design this dance thus [Symbol: sun], we have the\nastronomical emblem still used in all our calendars to represent the\nsun, one which in itself preserves a vast mass of forgotten lore.\nFormerly in Guernsey, the sites of principal dolmens (or cromlechs) and\npillar-stones were visited in sacred procession, and round certain of\nthem the whole body of pilgrims 'solemnly revolved three times from east\nto west'--as the sun moves.[454]\n\nAgain, according to Canon Mah\u00e9,[455] the bases and lower parts of the\nsides of four singular barrows at Co\u00ebt-bihan blend in such a way as to\nform an enclosed court, and one of the barrows has been pierced as\nthough for a passage-way into this court. And he holds that it is more\nthan probable that these ancient earthworks when first they were raised,\nand others like them in various Celtic lands, witnessed many mystic and\nreligious rites and sacred tribal assemblies. The supposition that the\nCo\u00ebt-bihan earthworks were originally dedicated to pagan religious\nusages is very much strengthened by the fact that in very early times a\nChristian chapel was erected near them.[456] Mont St. Michel at Carnac\nis another example of a pagan tumulus dedicated to a Christian saint;\nand, as Sir John Rhys says, the Archangel Michael appears in more\nplaces than one in Celtic lands as the supplanter of the dark\npowers.[457] Not only were tumuli thus transferred by re-dedication from\npagan gods to Christian saints, but dolmens and menhirs as well. Thus,\nfor example, at Plouharnel-Carnac (Morbihan) there is a menhir\nsurmounted by a Christian cross, just as at Dol (Ille-et-Vilaine) a\nwooden crucifix surmounts the great menhir, and at Carnac there is a\ndolmen likewise christianized by a stone cross-mounted on the\ntable-stone. Again, M. J. D\u00e9chelette in his _Manuel d'Arch\u00e9ologie\nPr\u00e9historique, Celtique et Gallo-Romaine_ (p. 380) describes a dolmen at\nPlouaret (C\u00f4tes-du-Nord) converted into a chapel dedicated to the Seven\nSaints, and another dolmen at Saint-Germain-de-Confolens (Charente)\nlikewise transformed into a place of worship. Miss Edith F. Carey thus\nexplains the dolmens in the Channel Islands:--'All our old traditions\nprove our dolmens to have been the general rendezvous of our insular\nsorcerers. In sixteenth and seventeenth century manuscripts I have found\nthese dolmens described as \"altars of the gods of the sea\".... One of\nour ancient dolmens retains its ancient name of De Hus, and a\nfifteenth-century \"Perchage\" of Fief de L\u00e9ree tells us that a now\ndestroyed dolmen on our western coast was dedicated to the same god, for\nHeus or Hesus was the War-God of ancient Gaul.'[458] The same writer\ndescribes excavations made at De Hus by Mr. Lukis, and that he found in\na side chamber there two kneeling skeletons, one facing the north, the\nother the south. He considered them to have been of young persons\nprobably interred alive as a funeral or propitiatory sacrifice to some\ntribal chief, or else to a presiding deity of the dolmen. Beside a tomb\nof the early bronze age at the bottom of a large tumulus near\nMammarl\u00f6f, in Sk\u00e5ne, Dr. Oscar Montelius, the famous archaeologist of\nSweden, discovered a circular stone altar on which reposed charcoal and\nthe remains of a burnt animal offering, which undoubtedly was made to\nthe dead.[459] Schliemann made a parallel discovery in an ancient tomb\nat Mycenae, Greece.[460] Curiously, in India to-day the Dravidian\ntribes, a pygmy-like aboriginal race, worship at the ancient dolmens in\ntheir forests and mountains, whether as at tombs and hence to ancestral\nspirits or to gods is not always clear; but the latter form of worship\nis probably more common, since Mr. Walhouse once observed one of their\nmedicine-men performing a propitiatory service to the agricultural or\nearth deities. The medicine-man passed the night in solitude sitting 'on\nthe capstone of a dolmen with heels and hams drawn together and chin on\nknee'--evidently thus to await the advent of the Sun-god.[461]\n\nAll the above illustrations, mostly Celtic ones, tend to prove that\nmenhirs, certain tumuli and earthworks, cromlechs, and dolmens were\noriginally connected with religious usages, chiefly with a cult of gods\nand fairy-like beings, and, though less commonly, with the dead. We pass\nnow to a special consideration of chambered tumuli, to show that the\nsame apparently holds true of them.\n\n\nNEW GRANGE AND CELTIC MYSTERIES\n\nThough, as Professor J. Loth and other eminent archaeologists hold, all\ntumuli containing chambers, and all _all\u00e9es couvertes_ of dolmens,\nshould be considered as designedly funereal in their purposes,\nnevertheless certain of the greater ones, like New Grange and Gavrinis\nmay also properly be considered as places for rendering worship or even\nsacrifice to the dead, and, perhaps, as places for religious pilgrimages\nand sacred rites. This, too, seems to be the opinion of M. J. D\u00e9chelette\nin his work on Celtic and Gallo-Roman archaeology, as he traces from the\nearliest prehistoric times in Europe the evolution of the cult of the\ndead according to the evidence furnished by the ancient megalithic\nmonuments.[462]\n\nTo begin with, let us take as a type for our study the most famous of\nall so-called Celtic tumuli, that of New Grange, on the River Boyne in\nIreland.[463] In Irish literature New Grange is constantly associated\nwith the Tuatha De Danann as one of their palaces, as our fourth chapter\npoints out. Throughout our second section generally, the testimony\nindicates that the essential nature of these fairy-folk is subjective or\nspiritual. These two facts at the outset are very important and\nfundamental, because we expect to show even more clearly than we have\njust done in the case of menhirs, dolmens, cromlechs, and smaller\ntumuli, that the folk-belief under consideration is at bottom a\npsychical one, which has grown up out of a folk-memory of the time when,\nas has just been said, Celtic or pre-Celtic tumuli were used for\ninterments, and probably certain ones among them as places for the\ncelebration of pagan mysteries.\n\nMr. George Coffey, the eminent archaeologist in charge of the\narchaeological collections of the Royal Irish Academy, quotes from\nancient Irish records in the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ and other manuscripts\nto show that the early traditions refer to the Boyne country as the\nburial-place of the kings of Tara, and that sometimes they seem to\nassociate _Brugh-na-Boyne_ with the tumuli on the Boyne,[464] but, no\nexact identification being possible, it cannot be said with certainty\nwhether any one of the three great Boyne tumuli is meant. Even though it\ncould be shown conclusively that some mighty hero or king had actually\nbeen entombed in New Grange, as is likely, in the earth behind the\nchamber, under the chamber's floor, or even within the chamber, still,\nas we have already pointed out, most of the great Irish heroes and kings\nwere in popular belief literally gods incarnate, and, therefore (as\ncommonly among all ancient peoples, civilized and non-civilized, who\nheld the same doctrine), the tomb of such a divine personage came to be\nregarded as the actual dwelling of the once incarnate god, even though\nhis bones were long turned to dust. The _Book of Ballymote_ strengthens\nthis suggestion: in one of its ancient Irish poems, by MacNia, son of\nOenna, preceded by this mystical dedication, 'Ye Poets of Bregia, of\ntruth, not false,' the wonders of the Palace of the Boyne, the Hall of\nthe great god Daghda, supreme king and oracle of the Tuatha de Danann,\nare thus celebrated:--\n\n  Behold the _Sidh_ before your eyes,\n  It is manifest to you that it is a king's mansion,\n  Which was built by the firm Daghda;\n  It was a wonder, a court, an admirable hill.[465]\n\nIt seems clear enough, from the old Irish manuscripts referred to by Mr.\nCoffey,[466] that the Boyne country near Tara was the sacred and\nreligious centre of ancient Ireland, and was used by the Irish in very\nmuch the same way as Memphis and other places on the sacred Nile were\nused by the ancient Egyptians, both as a royal cemetery and as a place\nfor the celebration of pagan mysteries. It is known that most of the\nMysteries of Antiquity were psychic in their nature, having to do with\nthe neophyte's entrance into Hades or the invisible world while out of\nthe physical body, or else with direct communication with gods, spirits,\nand shades of the dead, while in the physical body; and such mysteries\nwere performed in darkened chambers from which all light was excluded.\nThese chambers were often carved out of solid rock, as can be seen in\nthe Rock Temples of India; and when mountain caves or natural caverns\nwere not available, artificial ones were used (see chapter x).\n\nThe places, like Tara and Memphis, where the great men and kings of the\nnations of antiquity were entombed, being the most sacred, were very\noften, on that account, also the places dedicated to the most\nmagnificent temples and to the Mysteries, or among less advanced nations\nto the worship of the dead. On every side of sacred Stonehenge,\nSalisbury Plain is dotted with the burial mounds of unknown heroes and\nchieftains of ancient Britain; while in modern times, even though the\nMysteries are long forgotten, Westminster Abbey, at the centre of the\nplanet's capital, has, in turn, become the hallowed Hall of the Mighty\nDead for the vast British Empire. In view of all these facts, after a\ncareful examination of the famous New Grange tumulus itself, and a study\nof the references to it in old Irish literature, we are firmly of the\nopinion that one cannot be far wrong in describing it as a spirit-temple\nin which were celebrated ancient Celtic or pre-Celtic Mysteries at the\ntime when neophytes, including those of royal blood, were initiated; and\nas such it is directly related to a cult of the Tuatha De Danann or\nFairy-Folk, of spirits, and of the dead. Nor are we alone in this\nopinion. Mr. Coffey himself, we believe, is inclined to favour it; and\nMr. W. C. Borlase, author of _The Dolmens of Ireland_, who is quite\ncommitted to it, says that it is not necessary, as some do, to consider\nNew Grange as an ancient abode of mortal men, for 'the spirits of the\ndead, the fairies, the _Sidhe_, might have had their _brugh_, or\npalace, as well'.[467] And he points out that in the old Irish\nmanuscripts we have proof that it was supposed to be thus used. This\nproof is found in the _Agallamh na Sen\u00f3rach_ or 'Colloquy with the\nAncients' by St. Patrick, from the _Book of Lismore_, a\nfifteenth-century manuscript copied from older manuscripts and now\ntranslated by Standish H. O'Grady:--The three sons of the King of\nIreland, by name Ruidhe, Fiacha, and Eochaid, leaving their nurse's and\nguardian's house, went to _fert na ndruadh_, i. e. 'grave of the\nwizards', north-west of Tara, to ask of their father a country, a\ndomain; but he refused their request, and then they formed a project to\ngain lands and riches by fasting on the _tuatha d\u00e9 Danann_ at the\n_brugh_ upon the Boyne: '\"Lands therefore I will not bestow on you, but\nwin lands for yourself.\" Thereupon they with the ready rising of one man\nrose and took their way to the green of the _brugh_ upon the Boyne\nwhere, none other being in their company, they sat them down. Ruidhe\nsaid: \"What is your plan to-night?\" His brothers rejoined: \"Our project\nis to fast on the _tuatha d\u00e9 Danann_, aiming thus to win from them good\nfortune in the shape of a country, of a domain, of lands, and to have\nvast riches.\" Nor had they been long there when they marked a\ncheery-looking young man of a pacific demeanour that came towards them.\nHe salutes the king of Ireland's sons; they answer him after the same\nmanner. \"Young man, whence art thou? whence comest thou?\" \"Out of yonder\n_brugh_ chequered with the many lights hard by you here.\" \"What name\nwearest thou?\" \"I am the Daghda's son Bodhb Derg; and to the _tuatha d\u00e9\nDanann_ it was revealed that ye would come to fast here to-night, for\nlands and for great fortune.\"' Then with Bodhb Derg, the three sons of\nIreland's king entered into the _brugh_, and the _tuatha d\u00e9 Danann_ went\ninto council, and Midhir Yellow-mane son of the Daghda who presided\nsaid: 'Those yonder accommodate now with three wives, since from wives\nit is that either fortune or misfortune is derived.' And from their\nmarriages with the three daughters of Midhir they derived all their\nwishes--territories and wealth in the greatest abundance. 'For three\ndays with their nights they abode in the _s\u00eddh_.' 'Angus told them to\ncarry away out of _fidh omna_, i. e. \"Oakwood,\" three apple-trees: one in\nfull bloom, another shedding the blossom, and another covered with ripe\nfruit. Then they repaired to the _d\u00fan_, where they abode for three times\nfifty years, and until those kings disappeared; for in virtue of\nmarriage alliance they returned again to the _tuatha d\u00e9 Danann_, and\nfrom that time forth have remained there.'[468]\n\nMr. Borlase, commenting on this passage, suggests its importance in\nproving to us that during the Middle Ages there existed a tradition,\nthus committed to writing from older manuscripts or from oral sources,\nregarding 'the nature of the rites performed in pagan times at those\nplaces, which were held sacred to the heathen mysteries'.[469] The\npassage evidently describes a cult of royal or famous ancestral spirits\nidentified with the god-race of Tuatha De Danann, who, as we know, being\nreborn as mortals, ruled Ireland. These ancestral spirits were to be\napproached by a pilgrimage made to their abode, the spirit-haunted\ntumulus, and a residence in it of three days and three nights during\nwhich period there was to be an unbroken fast. Sacrifices were doubtless\noffered to the gods, or spirit-ancestors; and while they were 'fasted\nupon', they were expected to appear and grant the pilgrim's prayer and\nto speak with him. All this indicates that the existence of invisible\nbeings was taken for granted, probably through the knowledge gained by\ninitiation.\n\nThe _Echtra Nerai_ or the 'Adventures of Nera' (see this study, p. 287),\ncontains a description like the one above, of how a mortal named Nera\nwent into the _Sidhe_-palace at Cruachan; and it is said that he went\nnot only into the cave (_uamh_) but into the _s\u00edd_ of the cave. The term\n_uamh_ or cave, according to Mr. Borlase, indicates the whole of the\ninterior vaulted chamber, while the _s\u00edd_ of that vaulted chamber or\n_uamh_ is intended to refer to 'the _sanctum sanctorum_, or\n_penetralia_ of the spirit-temple, upon entering into which the mortal\ncame face to face with the royal occupants, and there doubtless he lay\nfasting, or offering his sacrifices, at the periods prescribed'.[470]\nThe word _brugh_ refers simply to the appearance of a tumulus, or\nsouterrain beneath a fort or rath, and means, therefore, mansion or\ndwelling-place.[471] And Mr. Borlase adds:--'I feel but little doubt\nthat in the inner chamber at New Grange, with its three recesses and its\nbasin, we have this _s\u00edd of the cave_, and the place where the pilgrims\nfasted--a situation and a practice precisely similar to those which,\nunder Christian auspices, were continued at such places as the Leaba\nMologa in Cork, the original Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg, and\nelsewhere. The practice of lying in stone troughs was a feature of the\nChristian pilgrimages in Ireland. Sometimes such troughs had served the\nprevious purpose of stone coffins. It is just possible that the shallow\nbasins in the cells at Lough Crew, New Grange, and Dowth may, like the\nstone beds or troughs of the saints,[472] have been occupied by the\npilgrims engaged in their devotions. If so, however, they must have sat\nin them in Eastern fashion.'[471]\n\nAgain, in the popular tale called _The Pursuit of Diarmuid and\nGrainn\u00e8_,[473] Aengus, the son of the Dagda, one of the Tuatha De\nDanann, is called Aengus-an-Bhrogha, and connected with the\n_Brugh-na-Boinne_. In the tale Finn says, 'Let us leave this tulach, for\nfear that Aengus-an-Bhrogha and the Tuatha-De-Danann might catch us; and\nthough we have no part in the slaying of Diarmuid, he would none the\nmore readily believe us.' Aengus is evidently an invisible being with\ngreat power over mortals. This is clear in what follows: he transports\nDiarmuid's body to the _Brugh-na-Boinne_, saying, 'Since I cannot\nrestore him to life, I will send a soul into him, so that he may talk to\nme each day.' Thus, as the presiding deity of the _brugh_, Aengus the\nTuatha De Danann could reanimate dead bodies 'and cause them to speak\nto devotees, we may suppose oracularly.'[474] In the _Bruighion\nChaorthainn_ or 'Fort of the Rowan Tree', a Fenian tale, a poet put Finn\nunder taboo to understand these verses:--\n\n  I saw a house in the country\n  Out of which no hostages are given to a king,\n  Fire burns it not, harrying spoils it not.\n\nAnd Finn made reply:--'I understand that verse, for that is the Brugh of\nthe Boyne that you have seen (perhaps, as we suggest, during an\ninitiation), namely, the house of Aengus Og of the Brugh, and it cannot\nbe burned or harried as long as Aengus (a god) shall live.' As Mr.\nBorlase observes, to say that 'no hostages are given to a king' out of\nthe _Brugh_ is probably another way of saying that the dead pay no\ntaxes, or that being a holy place, the _Brugh_ was exempt.[475] This\nlast evidence is from oral tradition, and rather late in being placed on\nrecord; but it is not on that account less trustworthy, and may be much\nmore so than the older manuscripts. Until quite modern times the\nfolk-lore of the Boyne country still echoed similar traditions about\nunknown mystic rites, following what O'Donovan has recorded; for he has\nsaid that Aenghus-an-Bhrogha was considered the presiding fairy of the\nBoyne till quite within recent times, and that his name was still\nfamiliar to the old inhabitants of Meath who were then fast forgetting\ntheir traditions with the Irish language.[476] And this tradition brings\nus to consider what was apparently an Aengus Cult among the ancient\nCeltic peoples.\n\n\nTHE AENGUS CULT\n\nEuhemeristic tradition came to represent the Great God Dagda and his\nsons as buried in a tumulus, probably New Grange, and then called it, as\nI found it called to-day, a fairy mound, a name given also to Gavrinis,\nits Breton parallel. The older and clearer tradition relates how Aengus\ngained possession of the _Brugh_ of the Boyne, and says nothing about\nit as a cemetery, but rather describes it as 'an admirable place, more\naccurately speaking, as an admirable land, a term which betrays the\nusual identification of the fairy mound with the nether world to which\nit formed the entrance'.[477] The myth placing Dagda at the head of the\ndeparted makes him 'a Goidelic Cronus ruling over an Elysium with which\na sepulchral mound was associated'.[477] The displacement of Dagda by\nhis son makes 'Mac Oc (Aengus), who should have been the youthful Zeus\nof the Goidelic world, rejoicing in the translucent expanse of the\nheavens as his crystal bower', a king of the dead.[477]\n\nIn Dun Aengus, the strange cyclopean circular structure, and hence most\nlikely sun-temple, on Aranmore, we have another example of the\nlocalization of the Aengus myth. This fact leads us to believe, after\ndue archaeological examination, that amid the stronghold of Dun Aengus,\nwith its tiers of amphitheatre-like seats and the native rock at its\ncentre, apparently squared to form a platform or stage, were anciently\ncelebrated pagan mysteries comparable to those of the Greeks and less\ncultured peoples, and initiations into an Aengus Cult such as seems to\nhave once flourished at New Grange. At Dun Aengus, however, the mystic\nassemblies and rites, conducted in such a sun-temple, so secure and so\nstrongly fortified against intrusion, no doubt represented a somewhat\ndifferent mystical school, and probably one very much older than at New\nGrange. In the same manner, each of the other circular but less\nimportant cyclopean structures on Aranmore and elsewhere in west Ireland\nmay have been structures for closely related sun-cults. To our mind, and\nwe have carefully and at leisure examined most of these cyclopean\nstructures on Aranmore, it seems altogether fanciful to consider them as\nhaving been _originally_ and _primarily_ intended as places of\nrefuge--_d\u00fans_ or forts. Yet, because the ancient Celts never separated\ncivil and religious functions, such probable sun-temples could have been\nas frequently used for non-religious tribal assemblies as for\ninitiation ceremonies; and nothing makes it impossible for them to have\nbeen in times of need also places for refuge against enemies. We are led\nto this view with respect to Dun Aengus in particular, because the\nAengus of Aranmore is known as Aengus, son of Um\u00f3r, and is associated\nwith the mystic people called the Fir Bolg; and, yet, as Sir John\nRhys thinks, this Aengus, son of Um\u00f3r, and Aengus, son of Dagda, are\ntwo aspects of a single god, a Celtic Zeus.[478] O'Curry's statements\nabout Dun Aengus seem to confirm all this; and there seems to have been\na tale, now lost, about the 'Destruction of _D\u00fan Oengusa_' (in modern\nIrish _D\u00fan Aonghuis_), the Fortress of Aengus.[478]\n\nThis sun-cult, represented in Ireland by the Aengus Cult, can be traced\nfurther: Sir John Rhys regards Stonehenge--a sun-temple also circular\nlike the Irish _d\u00fans_ and Breton cromlechs--as a temple to the Celtic\nZeus, in Irish mythology typified by Aengus, and in Welsh by\nMerlin:--'What sort of a temple could have been more appropriate for the\nprimary god of light and of the luminous heavens than a spacious,\nopen-air enclosure of a circular form like Stonehenge?'[479] In Welsh\nmyth, Math ab Mathonwy, called also 'Math the Ancient', was the greatest\nmagician of ancient Wales, and his relation as teacher to Gwydion ab\nD\u00f4n, the great Welsh Culture Hero, leads Sir John Rhys to consider\nhim the Brythonic Zeus, though Merlin shares with him in this\ndistinction;[480] and since the Gaelic counterpart of Math is Aengus, a\nclose study of Math might finally show a cult in his honour in Wales as\nwe have found in Ireland an Aengus Cult.[481] We may, therefore, with\nmore or less exactness, equate the Aengus Cult as we see it in Irish\nmyth connected chiefly with Dun Aengus and New Grange, with the unknown\ncult practised at Stonehenge, and this in turn with other Brythonic or\npre-Brythonic sun-cults and initiations practised at Carnac, the great\nCeltic Jerusalem in Brittany, and at Gavrinis. All this will be more\nclearly seen after we have set forth what seems a definite and most\nstriking parallel to New Grange, both as a monument erected by man and,\nas we maintain, as a place for religious mysteries--the greatest\nstructure ever raised by human effort, the Great Pyramid.\n\n\nNEW GRANGE AND THE GREAT PYRAMID COMPARED\n\nCaliph Al Mamoun in A. D. 820, by a forced passage, was the first in\nmodern times to enter the Great Pyramid, and he found nowhere a mummy or\nany indications that the structure had ever been used as a tomb for the\ndead. The King's Chamber, so named by us moderns, proved to be a keen\ndisappointment for its first violator, for in it there was neither gold\nnor silver nor anything at all worth carrying away. The magnificent\nchamber contained nothing save an empty stone chest without a lid.\nArchaeologists in Egypt and archaeologists in Ireland face the same\nunsolved problem, namely, the purpose of the empty stone chest without\ninscriptions and quite unlike a mummy tomb, and of the stone basin in\nNew Grange.[482] Certain Egyptologists have supposed that some royal\npersonage must have been buried in the curious granite coffer, though\nthere can be only their supposition to support them, for they have\nabsolutely no proof that such is true, while there is strong\ncircumstantial evidence to show that such is not true. Sir Gardner\nWilkinson in his well-known publications has already suggested that the\nstone chest as well as the Great Pyramid itself were never intended to\nhold a corpse; and it is generally admitted by Egyptologists that no\nsarcophagus intended for a mummy has ever been found so high up in the\nbody of a pyramid as this empty stone chest, except in the Second\nPyramid. Incontestable evidence in support of the highly probable theory\nthat the Great Pyramid was not intended for an actual tomb can be drawn\nfrom two important facts:--(1) 'the coffer has certain remarkable cubic\nproportions which show a care and design beyond what could be expected\nin any burial-coffer'--according to the high authority of Dr. Flinders\nPetrie; (2) the chamber containing the coffer and the upper passage-ways\nhave ventilating channels not known in any other Pyramid, so that\napparently there must have been need of frequent entrance into the\nchamber by living men, as would be the case if used, as we hold, for\ninitiation ceremonies.[483]\n\nIt is well known that very many of the megalithic monuments of the New\nGrange type scattered over Europe, especially from the Carnac centre of\nBrittany to the Tara-Boyne centre of Ireland, have one thing in common,\nan astronomical arrangement like the Great Pyramid, and an entrance\nfacing one of the points of the solstices, usually either the winter\nsolstice, which is common, or the summer solstice.[484] The puzzle has\nalways been to discover the exact arrangement of the Great Pyramid by\nlocating its main entrance. A Californian, Mr. Louis P. McCarty, in his\nrecent (1907) work entitled _The Great Pyramid Jeezeh_, suggests with\nthe most logical and reasonable arguments that the builders of the\nPyramid have placed its main entrance in an undiscovered passage-way\nbeneath the Great Sphinx, now half-buried in the shifting desert sands.\nIf it can be shown that the Sphinx is the real portal, and many things\ntend to indicate that it is, the Great Pyramid is built on the same\nplan as New Grange, that is to say, it opens to the south-east, and like\nNew Grange contains a narrow passage-way leading to a central chamber.\nSouth-easterly from the centre of the Pyramid lies the Sphinx, 5,380\nfeet away, a distance equal to 'just five times the distance of the\n\"diagonal socket length\" of the Great Pyramid from the centre of the\nSubterranean Chamber, under the Pyramid, to the supposed entrance under\nthe Sphinx'[485]--a distance quite in keeping with the mighty\nproportions of the wonderful structure. And what is important, several\neminent archaeologists have worked out the same conclusion, and have\nbeen seeking to connect the two monuments by making excavations in the\nQueen's Chamber, where it is supposed there exists a tunnel to the\nSphinx. In all this we should bear in mind that the present entrance to\nthe Pyramid is the forced one made by the treasure-seeking Caliph.\n\nThis very probable astronomical parallelism between the great Egyptian\nmonument and the Irish one would establish their common religious, or,\nin a mystic sense, their funereal significance. In the preceding chapter\nwe have set forth what symbolical relation the sun, its rising and\nsetting, and its death at the winter equinox, were anciently supposed to\nhold to the doctrines of human death and re-birth. Jubainville,\nregarding the sun among the Celts in its symbolical relation to death,\nwrote, 'In Celtic belief, the dead go to live beyond the Ocean, to the\nsouth-west, there where the sun sets during the greater part of the\nyear.'[486] This, too, as M. Maspero shows, was an Egyptian belief;[487]\nwhile, as equally among the Celts, the east, especially the south-east,\nwhere, after the winter solstice, the sun seems to be re-born or to rise\nout of the underworld of Hades into which it goes when it dies, is\nsymbolical of the reverse--Life, Resurrection, and Re-birth. In this\nlast Celtic-Egyptian belief, we maintain, may be found the reason why\nthe chief megalithic monuments (dolmens, tumuli, and alignements), in\nCeltic countries and elsewhere, have their directions east and west, and\nwhy those like New Grange and Gavrinis open to the sunrise.\n\nGreek temples also opened to the sunrise, and on the divine image within\nfell the first rays of the beautiful god Apollo.[488] In the great\nPeruvian sun-temple at Cuzco, a splendid disk of pure gold faced the\neast, and, reflecting the first rays of the rising sun, illuminated the\nwhole sanctuary.[489] The cave-temple of the Florida Red Men opened\neastward, and within its entrance on festival days stood the priest at\ndawn watching for the first ray of the sun, as a sign to begin the chant\nand offering.[490] The East Indian performs the ablution at dawn in the\nsacred Ganges, and stands facing the east meditating, as Brahma appears\nin all the wondrous glory of a tropical sunrise.[491] And in the same\nAryan land there is an opposite worship: the dreaded Thugs, worshippers\nof devils and of Kali the death-goddess, in their most diabolical rites\nface the west and the sunset, symbols of death.[492] How Christianity\nwas shaped by paganism is nowhere clearer than in the orientation of\ngreat cathedral churches (almost without exception in England), for all\nof the more famous ones have their altars eastward; and Roman Catholics\nin prayer in their church services, and Anglicans in repeating the\nCreed, turn to the east, as the Hindu does. St. Augustine says:--'When\nwe stand at prayer, we turn to the east, where the heaven arises, not as\nthough God were only there, and had forsaken all other parts of the\nworld, but to admonish our mind to turn to a more excellent nature, that\nis, to the Lord.'[493] Though the Jews came to be utterly opposed to\nsun-worship in their later history, they were sun-worshippers at first,\nas their temples opening eastward testify. This was the vision of\nEzekiel:--'And, behold, at the door of the temple of Jehovah, between\nthe porch and the Altar, were about five and twenty men, with their\nbacks toward the temple of Jehovah, and their faces toward the east, and\nthey worshipped the sun toward the east.'[494]\n\nAll this illustrates the once world-wide religion of our race; and shows\nthat sun-cults and sun-symbols are derived from a universal doctrine\nregarding the two states of existence--the one in Hades or the invisible\nlower world where the Sun-god goes at night, and the other in what we\ncall the visible realm which the Sun-god visits daily.[495] The relation\nbetween life and death--symbolically figured in this fundamental\nconception forming the background of every sun-cult--is the foundation\nof all ancient mysteries. Thus we should expect the correspondences\nwhich we believe do exist between New Grange and the Great Pyramid. Both\nalike, in our opinion, were the greatest places in the respective\ncountries for the celebration of the Mysteries. High up in the body of\nthe Great Pyramid, after he had performed the long underground journey,\ntypical of the journey of Osiris or the Sun to the Otherworld or the\nWorld of the Dead, we may suppose (knowing what we do of the Ancient\nMysteries and their shadows in modern Masonic initiations[496]) that the\nroyal or priestly neophyte laid himself in that strange stone coffin\nwithout a lid, for a certain period of time--probably for three days and\nthree nights. Then, the initiation being complete, he arose from the\nmystic death to a real resurrection, a true child of Osiris. In New\nGrange we may suppose that the royal or priestly neophyte, while he\n'fasted on the Tuatha De Danann for three days with their nights', sat\nin that strange stone basin after the manner of the Orient.[497]\n\nThe Great Pyramid seems to be the most ancient of the Egyptian pyramids,\nand undoubtedly was the model for all the smaller ones, which 'always\nbetray profound ignorance of their noble model's chiefest internal\nfeatures, as well as of all its niceties of angle and cosmic harmonies\nof linear measurement'.[498] Dr. Flinders Petrie says:--'The Great\nPyramid at Gizeh (of Khufu, fourth dynasty) unquestionably takes the\nlead, in accuracy and in beauty of work, as well as in size. Not only is\nthe fine work of it in the pavement, casing, King's and Queen's chambers\nquite unexcelled; but the general character of the core masonry is\nbetter than that of any other pyramid in its solidity and\nregularity.'[499] And of the stone coffers he says:--'Taking most of its\ndimensions at their maximum, they agree closely with the same theory as\nthat which is applicable to the chambers; for when squared they are all\neven multiples of a square fifth of a cubit.... There is no other theory\napplicable to every lineal dimension of the coffer; but having found the\n[Greek: pi] proportion in the form of the Pyramid, and in the King's\nChamber, there is some ground for supposing that it was intended also in\nthe coffer, on just one-fifth the scale of the chamber.'[499] And here\nis apparent the important fact we wish to emphasize; the Great Pyramid\ndoes not seem to have been intended primarily, if at all, for the\nentombment of dead bodies or mummies while 'the numerous quasi-copies'\nwere 'for sepulchral purposes'[500] without doubt. There appears to have\nbeen at first a clear understanding of the esoteric usage of the Great\nPyramid as a place for the mystic burial of Initiates, and then in the\ncourse of national decadence the exoteric interpretation of this usage,\nthe interpretation now popular with Egyptologists, led to the erection\nof smaller pyramids for purposes of actual burial. And may we not see in\nsuch pyramid-like tumuli as those of Mont St. Michel, Gavrinis, and New\nGrange copies of these smaller funeral pyramids;[501] or, if not direct\ncopies, at least the result of a similar religious decadence from the\nunknown centuries since the Great Pyramid was erected by the Divine\nKings of prehistoric Egypt as a silent witness for all ages that Great\nMen, Initiates, have understood Universal Law, and have solved the\ngreatest of all human problems, the problem of Life and Death?\n\n\nGAVRINIS AND NEW GRANGE COMPARED\n\nIn conclusion, and in support of the arguments already advanced, I offer\na few observations of my own, made at Gavrinis itself, the most famous\ntumulus in Continental Europe. After a very careful examination of the\ninterior and exterior of the tumulus, an examination extending over more\nthan twelve hours, I am convinced that its curious rock-carvings and\nthose in New Grange are by the same race of people, whoever that race\nmay have been; and that there is sufficient evidence in its construction\nto show that, like New Grange, it was quite as religious as funereal in\nits nature and use. The facts which bear out this view are the\nfollowing. First, there are three strange cavities cut into the body of\nthe stone on the south side of the inner chamber, communicating\ninteriorly with one another, and large enough to admit human hands; if\nused as places in which to offer sacrifice to the dead or fairies, small\nobjects could have been placed in them. In the oldest extant authentic\nrecords of them which I have found it is said of their probable\npurpose:--'Some people look on them as a double noose intended to\nstrangle the [animal] victims which the priest sacrificed; for others\nthey are two rings behind which the hands of the betrothed met each\nother to be married.'[502] Their purpose is certainly difficult enough\nto decipher, perhaps is undecipherable; but one thing about them is\ncertain, namely, that a close examination round their exterior edges and\nwithin them also shows the rock-surface worn smooth as though by ages\nof handling and touching; and it is incontestable that this wearing of\nthe rock-surface by human hands could not have taken place had the inner\nchamber been sealed up and used solely as a tomb. We suggest here, as\nSir James Fergusson in his _Rude Stone Monuments_ (p. 366) has\nsuggested, that the inner chamber of Gavrinis was probably a place for\nthe celebration of religious rites: he advances the opinion that the\nstrange cavities were used to contain holy oil or holy water. There is\nthis second curious fact connected with the tumulus of Gavrinis. On\nentering it--and it opens like New Grange to the sunrise, being oriented\n43\u00b0 60\" to the south-east[503]--one finds placed across the floor of the\nnarrow passage-way as slightly inclined steps rising to the inner\nchamber three or four stones. Two of them, now very prominent, form\nveritable stumbling-blocks, and the one at the threshold of the inner\nchamber is carved quite like the lintel stone above the entrance at New\nGrange.[504] From what we know of ancient mystic cults, there was a\ndarkened chamber approached by a narrow passage-way so low that the\nneophyte must stoop in traversing it to show symbolically his humility;\nand as symbolic of his progress to the Chamber of Death, the _Sanctum\nSanctorum_ of the spirit-temple, there were steps, often purposely\nplaced as stumbling-blocks. The Great Pyramid, evidently, conforms to\nthis mystical plan; and strikes one, therefore, all the more forcibly as\nthe most remarkable structure for initiatory ceremonies ever constructed\non our planet. Thus, Dr. Flinders Petrie says:--'But we are met then by\nan extraordinary idea, that all access to the King's chamber after its\ncompletion must have been by climbing over the plug-blocks, as they lay\nin the gallery, or by walking up the ramps on either side of them. Yet,\nas the blocks cannot physically have been lying in any other place\nbefore they were let down we are shut up to this view.'[505] And as\nEgyptian tombs represented the mansions of the dead,[506] just so Celtic\nor pre-Celtic spirit-temples and place for initiations were always\nconnected with the Underworld of the Dead; and save for such symbolical\narrangements as we see in Gavrinis, and New Grange also, they were\nundistinguishable from tombs used for interments only.\n\nIt seems to us most reasonable to suppose that if, as the old Irish\nmanuscripts show, there were spirit-temples or places for pagan funeral\nrites, or rites of initiation, in Ireland, constructed like other tumuli\nwhich were used only as tombs for the dead (because the ancient cult was\none of ancestor worship and worship of gods like the Tuatha De Danann,\nand spirits), then there must have been others in Brittany also, where\nwe find the same system of rock-inscriptions. Further, in view of all\nthe definite provable relations between Gavrinis and New Grange, we are\nstrongly inclined to regard them both as having the same origin and\npurpose, Gavrinis being for Armorica what New Grange was for Ireland,\nthe royal or principal spirit-temple.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION III\n\nTHE CULT OF GODS, SPIRITS, FAIRIES, AND THE DEAD\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF PAGANISM\n\n     'The cult of forests, of fountains, and of stones is to be\n     explained by that primitive naturalism which all the Church\n     Councils held in Brittany united to proscribe.'--ERNEST RENAN.\n\n     Edicts against pagan cults--Cult of Sacred Waters and its\n     absorption by Christianity--Celtic Water Divinities--Druidic\n     influence on Fairy-Faith--Cult of Sacred Trees--Cult of Fairies,\n     Spirits, and the Dead--Feasts of the Dead--Conclusion.\n\n\nThe evidence of paganism in support of our Psychological Theory\nconcerning the Fairy-Faith is so vast that we cannot do more than point\nto portions of it--especially such portions as are most Celtic in their\nnature. Perhaps most of us will think first of all about the ancient\ncults rendered to fountains, rivers, lakes, trees, and, as we have seen\n(pp. 399 ff.), to stones. There can be no reasonable doubt that these\ncults were very flourishing when Christianity came to Europe, for kings,\npopes, and church councils issued edict after edict condemning\nthem.[507] The second Council of Arles, held about 452, issued the\nfollowing canon:--'If in the territory of a bishop, infidels light\ntorches, or venerate trees, fountains, or stones, and he neglects to\nabolish this usage, he must know that he is guilty of sacrilege. If the\ndirector of the act itself, on being admonished, refuses to correct it,\nhe is to be excluded from communion.'[507] The Council of Tours, in 567,\nthus expressed itself:--'We implore the pastors to expel from the Church\nall those whom they may see performing before certain stones things\nwhich have no relation with the ceremonies of the Church, and also\nthose who observe the customs of the Gentiles.'[508] King Canute in\nEngland and Charlemagne in Europe conducted a most vigorous campaign\nagainst all these pagan worships. This is Charlemagne's edict:--'With\nrespect to trees, stones, and fountains, where certain foolish people\nlight torches or practise other superstitions, we earnestly ordain that\nthat most evil custom detestable to God, wherever it be found, should be\nremoved and destroyed.'[509]\n\nThe result of these edicts was a curious one. It was too much to expect\nthe eradication of the old cults after their age-long existence, and so\none by one they were absorbed by the new religion. In a sacred tree or\ngrove, over a holy well or fountain, on the shore of a lake or river,\nthere was placed an image of the Virgin or of some saint, and\nunconsciously the transformation was made, as the simple-hearted\ncountry-folk beheld in the brilliant images new and more glorious\ndwelling-places for the spirits they and their fathers had so long\nvenerated.\n\n\nTHE CULT OF SACRED WATERS\n\nIn Brittany, perhaps better than in other Celtic countries to-day, one\ncan readily discern this evolution from paganism to Christianity. Thus,\nfor example, in the Morbihan there is the fountain of St. Anne d'Auray,\nround which centres Brittany's most important Pardon; a fountain near\nVannes is dedicated to St. Peter; at Carnac there is the far-famed\nfountain of St. Cornely with its niche containing an image of Carnac's\npatron saint, and not far from it, on the roadside leading to Carnac\nPlage, an enclosed well dedicated to the Holy Virgin; and, less than a\nmile away, the beautiful fountain of St. Columba. Near Ploermel, Canton\nof Ploermel (Morbihan), there is the fountain of Recourrance or St.\nLaurent, in which sailors perform divinations to know the future state\nof the weather by casting on its waters a morsel of bread. If the bread\nfloats, it is a sure sign of fair weather, but if it sinks, of weather\nso bad that no one should take risks by going out in the fishing-boats.\nIn some wells, pins are dropped by lovers. If the pins float, the\nwater-spirits show favourable auspices, but if the pins sink, the maiden\nis unhappy, and will hesitate in accepting the proposal of marriage.\nLong after their conversion, the inhabitants of Concoret (Arrondissement\nde Ploermel, Morbihan) paid divine honours to the fountain of Baranton\nin the druidical forest of Broc\u00e9liande, so famous in the Breton legends\nof Arthur and Merlin:--'For a long time the inhabitants of Concoret ...\nin place of addressing themselves to God or to his Saints in their\nmaladies, sought the remedy in the fountain of Baranton, either by\npraying to it, after the manner of the Gauls, or by drinking of its\nwaters.'[510] In the month of August 1835, when there was an unusual\ndrought in the land, all the inhabitants of Concoret formed in a great\nprocession with banners and crucifix at their head, and with chants and\nringing of church bells marched to this same fountain of Baranton and\nprayed for rain.[511] This curious bit of history was also reported to\nme in July 1909 by a peasant who lives near the fountain, and who heard\nit from his parents; and he added that the foot of the crucifix was\nplanted in the water to aid the rain-making. We have here an interesting\ncombination of paganism and Christianity.\n\nGregory of Tours says that the country-folk of G\u00e9vaudan rendered divine\nhonours to a certain lake, and as offerings cast on its waters linen,\nwool, cheese, bees'-wax, bread, and other things;[512] and Mah\u00e9 adds\nthat gold was sometimes offered,[512] quite after the manner of the\nancient Peruvians, who cast gold and silver of great value into the\nwaters of sacred Lake Titicaca, high up in the Andes. To absorb into\nChristianity the worship paid to the lake near G\u00e9vaudan, the bishop\nordered a church to be built on its shore, and to the people he\nsaid:--'My children, there is nothing divine in this lake: defile not\nyour souls by these vain ceremonies; but recognize rather the true\nGod.'[513] The offerings to the lake-spirits then ceased, and were made\ninstead on the altar of the church. As Canon Mah\u00e9 so consistently sets\nforth, other similar means were used to absorb the pagan cults of sacred\nwaters:--'Other pastors employed a similar device to absorb the cult of\nfountains into Christianity; they consecrated them to God under the\ninvocation of certain saints; giving the saints' names to them and\nplacing in them the saints' images, so that the weak and simple-hearted\nChristians who might come to them, struck by these names and by these\nimages, should grow accustomed to addressing their prayers to God and to\nhis saints, in place of honouring the fountains themselves, as they had\nbeen accustomed to do. This is the reason why there are seen in the\nstonework of so many fountains, niches and little statues of saints who\nhave given their names to these springs.'[514]\n\nProcopius reports that the Franks, even after having accepted\nChristianity, remained attached to their ancient cults, sacrificing to\nthe River Po women and children of the Goths, and casting the bodies\ninto its waters to the spirits of the waters.[514] Well-worship in the\nIsle of Man, not yet quite extinct, was no doubt once very general. As\nA. W. Moore has shown, the sacred wells in the Isle of Man were visited\nand offerings made to them to secure immunity from witches and fairies,\nto cure maladies, to raise a wind, and for various kinds of\ndivination.[515] And no doubt the offerings of rags on bushes over\nsacred wells, and the casting of pins, coins, buttons, pebbles, and\nother small objects into their waters, a common practice yet in Ireland\nand Wales, as in non-Celtic countries, are to be referred to as\nsurvivals of a time when regular sacrifices were offered in divination,\nor in seeking cures from maladies, and equally from obsessing demons who\nwere thought to cause the maladies. In the prologue to Chr\u00e9tien's _Conte\ndu Graal_ there is an account, seemingly very ancient, of how dishonour\nto the divinities of wells and springs brought destruction on the rich\nland of Logres. The damsels who abode in these watery places fed\ntravellers with nourishing food until King Amangons wronged one of them\nby carrying off her golden cup. His men followed his evil example, so\nthat the springs dried up, the grass withered, and the land became\nwaste.[516]\n\nAccording to Mr. Borlase, 'it was by passing under the waters of a well\nthat the _Sidh_, that is, the abode of the spirits called _Sidhe_, in\nthe tumulus or natural hill, as the case might be, was reached.'[517]\nAnd it is evident from this that the well-spirits were even identified\nin Ireland with the Tuatha De Danann or Fairy-Folk. I am reminded of a\nwalk I was privileged to take with Mr. William B. Yeats on Lady\nGregory's estate at Coole Park, near Gort (County Galway); for Mr. Yeats\nled me to the haunts of the water-spirits of the region, along a strange\nriver which flows underground for some distance and then comes out to\nthe light again in its weird course, and to a dark, deep pool hidden in\nthe forest. According to tradition, the river is the abode of\nwater-fairies; and in the shaded forest-pool, whose depth is very great,\nlive a spirit-race like the Greek nymphs. More than one mortal while\nlooking into this pool has felt a sudden and powerful impulse to plunge\nin, for the fairies were then casting their magic spell over him that\nthey might take him to live in their under-water palace for ever.\n\nOne of the most beautiful passages in _The Tripartite Life of Patrick_\ndescribes the holy man at the holy well called Cliabach:--'Thereafter\nPatrick went at sunrise to the well, namely Cliabach on the sides of\nCruachan. The clerics sat down by the well. Two daughters of Loegaire\nson of Niall went early to the well to wash their hands, as was a custom\nof theirs, namely, Ethne the Fair, and Fedelm the Ruddy. The maidens\nfound beside the well the assembly of the clerics in white garments,\nwith their books before them. And they wondered at the shape of the\nclerics, and thought that they were men of the elves or apparitions.\nThey asked tidings of Patrick: \"Whence are ye, and whence have ye come?\nAre ye of the elves or of the gods?\" And Patrick said to them: \"It were\nbetter for you to believe in God than to inquire about our race.\" Said\nthe girl who was elder: \"Who is your god? and where is he? Is he in\nheaven, or in earth, or under earth, or on earth? Is he in seas or in\nstreams, or in mountains or in glens? Hath he sons and daughters? Is\nthere gold and silver, is there abundance of every good thing in his\nkingdom? Tell us about him, how he is seen, how he is loved, how he is\nfound? if he is in youth, or if he is in age? if he is ever-living; if\nhe is beautiful? if many have fostered his son? if his daughters are\ndear and beautiful to the men of the world?\"'[518]\n\nAnd in another place it is recorded that 'Patrick went to the well of\nFindmag. Sl\u00e1n is its name. They told Patrick that the heathen honoured\nthe well as if it were a god.'[519] And of the same well it is said,\n'that the magi, i. e. wizards or Druids, used to reverence the well Sl\u00e1n\nand \"offer gifts to it as if it were a god.\"'[519] As Whitley Stokes\npointed out, this is the only passage connecting the Druids with\nwell-worship; and it is very important, because it establishes the\nrelation between the Druids as magicians and their control of spirits\nlike fairies.[519] As shown here, and as seems evident in Columba's\nrelation with Druids and exorcism in Adamnan's _Life of St.\nColumba_,[520] the early Celtic peoples undoubtedly drew many of their\nfairy-traditions from a memory of druidic rites of divination. Perhaps\nthe most beautiful description of a holy well and a description\nillustrative of such divination is that of Ireland's most mystical well,\nConnla's Well:--'Sinend, daughter of Lodan Lucharglan, son of Ler, out\nof T\u00edr Tairngire (\"Land of Promise, Fairyland\"), went to Connla's Well\nwhich is under sea, to behold it. That is a well at which are the hazels\nand inspirations (?) of wisdom, that is, the hazels of the science of\npoetry, and in the same hour their fruit, and their blossom and their\nfoliage break forth, and these fall on the well in the same shower,\nwhich raises on the water a royal surge of purple. Then the [sacred]\nsalmon chew the fruit, and the juice of the nuts is apparent on their\npurple bellies. And seven streams of wisdom spring forth and turn there\nagain.'[521]\n\nTo these cults of sacred waters numerous non-Celtic parallels could\neasily be offered, but they seem unnecessary with Celtic evidence so\nclear. And this evidence which is already set forth shows that the\norigin of worship paid to sacred wells, fountains, lakes, or rivers, is\nto be found in the religious practices of the Celts before they became\nchristianized. They believed that certain orders of spirits, often\ncalled fairies, and to be identified with them, inhabited, or as was the\ncase with Sinend, who came from the Otherworld, visited these places,\nand must be appeased or approached through sacrifice by mortals seeking\ntheir favours. Canon Mah\u00e9 puts the matter thus:--'The Celts recognized a\nsupreme God, the principle of all things; but they rendered religious\nworship to the genii or secondary deities who, according to them, united\nthemselves to different objects in nature and made them divine by such\nunion. Among the objects were rivers, the sea, lakes and\nfountains.'[522]\n\n\nTHE CULT OF SACRED TREES\n\nThe things said of sacred waters can also be said of sacred trees among\nthe Celts; and, in the case of sacred trees, more may be added about the\nDruids and their relation to the Fairy-Faith, for it is well known that\nthe Druids held the oak and its mistletoe in great religious veneration,\nand it is generally thought that most of the famous Druid schools were\nin the midst of sacred oak-groves or forests. Pliny has recorded that\n'the Druids, for so they call their magicians, have nothing which they\nhold more sacred than the mistletoe[523] and the tree on which it\ngrows, provided only it be an oak (_robur_). But apart from that, they\nselect groves of oak, and they perform no sacred rite without leaves\nfrom that tree, so that the Druids may be regarded as even deriving from\nit their name interpreted as Greek'[524] (a disputed point among modern\nphilologists). Likewise of the Druids, Maximus Tyrius states that the\nimage of their chief god, considered by him to correspond to Zeus, was a\nlofty oak tree;[525] and Strabo says that the principal place of\nassembly for the Galatians, a Celtic people of Asia Minor, was the\nSacred Oak-grove.[526]\n\nJust as the cult of fountains was absorbed by Christianity, so was the\ncult of trees. Concerning this, Canon Mah\u00e9 writes:--'One sees sometimes,\nin the country and in gardens, trees wherein, by trimming and bending\ntogether the branches, have been formed niches of verdure, in which have\nbeen placed crosses or images of certain saints. This usage is not\nconfined to the Morbihan. Our Lady of the Oak, in Anjou, and Our Lady of\nthe Oak, near Orthe, in Maine, are places famous for pilgrimage. In this\nlast province, says a historian, \"One sees at various cross-roads the\nmost beautiful rustic oaks decorated with figures of saints. There are\nseen there, in five or six villages, chapels of oaks, with whole trunks\nof that tree enshrined in the wall, beside the altar. Such among others\nis that famous chapel of Our Lady of the Oak, near the forge of Orthe,\nwhose celebrity attracts daily, from five to six leagues about, a very\ngreat gathering of people.\"'[527]\n\nSaint Martin, according to Canon Mah\u00e9, tried to destroy a sacred\npine-tree in the diocese of Tours by telling the people there was\nnothing divine in it. The people agreed to let it be cut down on\ncondition that the saint should receive its great trunk on his head as\nit fell; and the tree was not cut down.[527] Saint Germain caused a\ngreat scandal at Auxerre by hanging from the limbs of a sacred tree the\nheads of wild animals which he had killed while hunting.[527] Saint\nGregory the Great wrote to Brunehaut exhorting him to abolish among his\nsubjects the offering of animals' heads to certain trees.[528]\n\nIn Ireland fairy trees are common yet; though throughout Celtdom sacred\ntrees, naturally of short duration, are almost forgotten. In Brittany,\nthe Forest of Broc\u00e9liande still enjoys something of the old veneration,\nbut more out of sentiment than by actual worship. A curious survival of\nan ancient Celtic tree-cult exists in Carmarthen, Wales, where there is\nstill carefully preserved and held upright in a firm casing of cement\nthe decaying trunk of an old oak-tree called Merlin's Oak; and local\nprophecy declares on Merlin's authority that when the tree falls\nCarmarthen will fall with it. Perhaps through an unconscious desire on\nthe part of some patriotic citizens of averting the calamity by inducing\nthe tree-spirit to transfer its abode, or else by otherwise hoodwinking\nthe tree-spirit into forgetting that Merlin's Oak is dead, a vigorous\nand now flourishing young oak has been planted so directly beside it\nthat its foliage embraces it. And in many parts of modern England, the\nJack-in-the-Green, a man entirely hidden in a covering of green foliage\nwho dances through the streets on May Day, may be another example of a\nvery ancient tree (or else agricultural) cult of Celtic origin.\n\n\nTHE CULT OF FAIRIES, SPIRITS, AND THE DEAD\n\nThere was also, as we already know, more or less of direct worship\noffered to fairies like the Tuatha De Danann; and sacrifice was made to\nthem even as now, when the Irish or Scotch peasant pours a libation of\nmilk to the 'good people' or to the fairy queen who presides over the\nflocks. In _Fiacc's Hymn_[529] it is said, 'On Ireland's folk lay\ndarkness: the tribes worshipped elves: They believed not the true\ngodhead of the true Trinity.' And there is a reliable legend concerning\nColumbkille which shows that this old cult of elves was not forgotten\namong the early Irish Christians, though they changed the original good\nreputation of these invisible beings to one of evil. It is said that\nColumbkille's first attempts to erect a church or monastery on Iona were\nrendered vain by the influence of some evil spirit or else of demons;\nfor as fast as a wall was raised it fell down. Then it was revealed to\nthe saint that the walls could not stand until a human victim should be\nburied alive under the foundations. And the lot fell on Oran,\nColumbkille's companion, who accordingly became a sacrifice to appease\nthe evil spirit, fairies, or demons of the place where the building was\nto be raised.[530]\n\nAs an illustration of what the ancient practice of such sacrifice to\nplace-spirits, or to gods, must have been like in Wales, we offer the\nfollowing curious legend concerning the conception of Myrddin (Merlin),\nas told by our witness from Pontrhydfendigaid, Mr. John Jones (see p.\n147):--'When building the Castle of Gwrtheyrn, near Carmarthen, as much\nas was built by day fell down at night. So a council of the _Dynion\nHysbys_ or \"Wise Men\" was called, and they decided that the blood of a\nfatherless boy had to be used in mixing the mortar if the wall was to\nstand. Search was thereupon made for a fatherless boy (cf. p. 351), and\nthroughout all the kingdom no such boy could be found. But one day two\nboys were quarrelling, and one of them in defying the other wanted to\nknow what a fatherless boy like him had to say to him. An officer of the\nking, overhearing the quarrel, seized the boy thus tauntingly addressed\nas the one so long looked for. The circumstances were made known to the\nking, and the boy was taken to him. \"Who is your father?\" asked the\nking. \"My mother never told me,\" the boy replied. Then the boy's mother\nwas sent for, and the king asked her who the father of the boy was, and\nshe replied: \"I do not know; for I have never known a man. Yet, one\nnight, it seemed to me that a man noble and majestic in appearance slept\nwith me, and I awoke to find that I had been in a dream. But when I grew\npregnant afterwards, and this wonderful boy whom you now see was\ndelivered, I considered that a divine being or an angel had visited me\nin that dream, and therefore I called his child Myrddin the Magician,\nfor such I believe my son to be.\" When the mother had thus spoken, the\nking announced to the court and wise men, \"Here is the fatherless boy.\nTake his blood and use it in mixing the mortar. The walling will not\nhold without it.\" At this, Myrddin taunted the king and wise men, and\nsaid they were no better than a pack of idiots. \"The reason the walling\nfalls down,\" Myrddin went on to say, \"is because you have tried to raise\nit on a rock which covers two large sea-serpents. Whenever the wall is\nraised over them its weight presses on their backs and makes them\nuneasy. Then during the night they upheave their backs to relieve\nthemselves of the pressure, and thus shake the walling to a fall.\"' The\nstory ends here, but presumably Merlin's statements were found to be\ntrue; and Merlin was not sacrificed, for, as we know, he became the\ngreat magician of Arthur's court.\n\nThere are two hills in the Highlands of Aberdeenshire where travellers\nhad to propitiate the banshee by placing barley-meal cakes near a well\non each hill; and if the traveller neglected the offering, death or some\ndire calamity was sure to follow.[531] It is quite certain that the\nbanshee is almost always thought of as the spirit of a dead ancestor\npresiding over a family, though here it appears more like the tutelary\ndeity of the hills. But sacrifice being thus made, according to the\nfolk-belief, to a banshee, shows, like so many other examples where\nthere is a confusion between divinities or fairies and the souls of the\ndead, that ancestral worship must be held to play a very important part\nin the complex Fairy-Faith as a whole. A few non-Celtic parallels\ndetermine this at once. Thus, exactly as to fairies here, milk is\noffered to the souls of saints in the Panjab, India, as a means of\npropitiating them.[532] M. A. Lef\u00e8vre shows that the Roman Lares, so\nfrequently compared to house-haunting fairies, are in reality quite like\nthe Gaelic banshee; that originally they were nothing more than the\nunattached souls of the dead, akin to Manes; that time and custom made\ndistinctions between them; that in the common language Lares and Manes\nhad synonymous dwellings; and that, finally, the idea of death was\nlittle by little divorced from the worship of the Lares, so that they\nbecame guardians of the family and protectors of life.[533] On all the\ntombs of their dead the Romans inscribed these names: _Manes_, _inferi_,\n_silentes_,[534] the last of which, meaning _the silent ones_, is\nequivalent to the term 'People of Peace' given to the fairy-folk of\nScotland.[535] Nor were the Roman Lares always thought of as inhabiting\ndwellings. Many were supposed to live in the fields, in the streets of\ncities, at cross-roads, quite like certain orders of fairies and demons;\nand in each place these ancestral spirits had their chapels and received\nofferings of fruit, flowers, and of foliage. If neglected they became\nspiteful, and were then known as Lemures.\n\nAll these examples tend to show what the reviewer of Curtin's _Tales of\nthe Fairies and of the Ghost World_ states, that 'The attributes of a\nghost--that is to say, the spirit of a dead man--are indistinguishable\nfrom those of a fairy. And it is well known how world-wide is the\nworship of the dead and the offering of food to them, among uncivilized\ntribes like those of Africa, Australia, and America, as well as among\nsuch great nations as China, Corea, India, and Japan; and in ancient\ntimes it was universal among the masses of the people in Egypt, Greece,\nand Rome.\n\n\nCELTIC AND NON-CELTIC FEASTS OF THE DEAD\n\n_Samain_, as we already know, was the great Celtic feast of the dead\nwhen offerings or sacrifice of various kinds were made to ancestral\nspirits, and to the Tuatha De Danann and the spirit-hosts under their\ncontrol; and _Beltene_, or the first of May, was another day anciently\ndedicated to f\u00eates in honour of the dead and fairies. Chapter ii has\nshown us how November Eve, the modern _Samain_, and like it, All Saints\nEve or _La Toussaint_, are regarded among the Celtic peoples now; and\nthe history of _La Toussaint_ seems to indicate that Christianity, as in\nthe case of the cult of trees and fountains, absorbed certain Celtic\ncults of the dead which centred around the pagan _Samain_ feast of the\ndead, and even adopted the date of _Samain_ (see p. 453).\n\nAmong the ancient Egyptians, so much like the ancient Celts in their\ninnate spirituality and clear conceptions of the invisible world, we\nfind a parallel feast which fell on the seventeenth _Athyr_ of the year.\nThis day was directly dependent upon the progress of the sun; and, as we\nhave throughout emphasized, the ancient symbolism connected with the\nyearly movements of the Great God of Light and Life cannot be divorced\nfrom the ancient doctrines of life and death. To the pre-Christian\nCelts, the First of November, or the Festival of _Samain_, which marked\nthe end of summer and the commencement of winter, was symbolical of\ndeath.[536] _Samain_ thus corresponds with the Egyptian f\u00eate of the\ndead, for the seventeenth _Athyr_ of the year marks the day on which\nS\u00eetou (the god of darkness) killed in the midst of a banquet his brother\nOsiris (the god of light, the sun), and which was therefore thought of\nas the season when the old sun was dying of his wounds. It was a time\nwhen the power of good was on the decline, so that all nature, turning\nagainst man, was abandoned to the divinities of darkness, the\ninhabitants of the Realms of the Dead. On this anniversary of the death\nof Osiris, an Egyptian would undertake no new enterprise: should he go\ndown to the Nile, a crocodile would attack him as the crocodile sent by\nS\u00eetou had attacked Osiris, and even as the Darkness was attacking the\nLight to devour it;[537] should he set out on a journey, he would part\nfrom his home and family never to return. His only course was to remain\nlocked in his house, and there await in fear and inaction the passing of\nthe night, until Osiris, returning from death, and reborn to a new\nexistence, should rise triumphant over the forces of Darkness and\nEvil.[538] It is clear that this last part of the Egyptian belief is\nquite like the Celtic conception of _Samain_ as we have seen Ailill and\nMedb celebrating that festival in their palace at Cruachan.\n\nThere is a great resemblance between the christianized Feast of\n_Samain_, when the dead return to visit their friends and to be\nentertained, for example as in Brittany, and the beautiful festivals\nformerly held in the S\u00eento temples of Japan. Thus at Nikko thousands of\nlanterns were lighted, 'each one representing the spirit of an\nancestor,' and there was masquerading and revelry for the entertainment\nof the visiting spirits.[539] It shows how much religions are alike.\n\nEach year the Roman peoples dedicated two days (February 21-2) to the\nhonouring of the Dead. On the first day, called the _Feralia_, all\nRomans were supposed to remain within their own homes. The sanctuaries\nof all the gods were closed and all ceremony suspended. The only\nsacrifices made at such a time were to the dead, and to the gods of the\ndead in the underworld; and all manes were appeased by food-offerings of\nmeats and cakes. The second day was called _Cara Cognatio_ and was a\ntime of family reunions and feasting. Of it Ovid has said (_Fasti_, ii.\n619), 'After the visit to the tombs and to the ancestors who are no\nlonger [among us], it is pleasant to turn towards the living; after the\nloss of so many, it is pleasant to behold those who remain of our blood\nand to reckon up the generations of our descendants.' And the Greeks\nalso had their feasts for the dead.[540]\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nThe fact of ancient Celtic cults of stones, waters, trees, and fairies\nstill existing under cover of Christianity directly sustains the\nPsychological Theory; and the persistence of the ancient Celtic cult of\nthe dead, as illustrated in the survival of _Samain_ in its modern\nforms, and perhaps best seen now among the Bretons, goes far to sustain\nthe opinion of Ernest Renan, who declared in his admirable _Essais_ that\nof all peoples the Celts, as the Romans also recorded, have most precise\nideas about death. Thus it is that the Celts at this moment are the most\nspiritually conscious of western nations. To think of them as\nmaterialists is impossible. Since the time of Patrick and Columba the\nGaels have been the missionaries of Europe; and, as Caesar asserts, the\nDruids were the ancient teachers of the Gauls, no less than of all\nBritain. And the mysteries of life and death are the key-note of all\nthings really Celtic, even of the great literature of Arthur,\nCuchulainn, and Finn, now stirring the intellectual world.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION III\n\nTHE CULT OF GODS, SPIRITS, FAIRIES, AND THE DEAD\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF CHRISTIANITY\n\n     'The Purgatory of St. Patrick became the framework of another\n     series of tales, embodying the Celtic ideas concerning the other\n     life and its different states. Perhaps the profoundest instinct of\n     the Celtic peoples is their desire to penetrate the unknown. With\n     the sea before them, they wish to know what is to be found beyond\n     it; they dream of the Promised Land. In the face of the unknown\n     that lies beyond the tomb, they dream of that great journey which\n     the pen of Dante has celebrated.'--ERNEST RENAN.\n\n     Lough Derg a sacred lake originally--Purgatorial rites as\n     christianized survivals of ancient Celtic rites--Purgatory as\n     Fairyland--Purgatorial rites parallel to pagan initiation\n     ceremonies--The Death and Resurrection Rite--Breton Pardons\n     compared--Relation to Aengus Cult and Celtic cave-temples--Origin\n     of Purgatorial doctrine pre-Christian--Celtic and Roman feasts of\n     dead shaped Christian ones--Fundamental unity of Mythologies,\n     Religions, and the Fairy-Faith.\n\n\nThe best evidence offered by Christianity with direct bearing on the\nFairy-Faith comes from what may be designated survivals of transformed\npaganism within the Church itself. Various pagan cults, which also came\nto be more or less christianized, have been considered under Paganism;\nand in this chapter we propose to examine the famous Purgatory of St.\nPatrick and the Christian rites in honour of the dead.\n\n\nST. PATRICK'S PURGATORY\n\nIn the south of County Donegal, in Ireland, amid treeless mountains and\nmoorlands, lies Lough Derg or the Red Lake, containing an island which\nhas long been famous throughout Christendom as the site of St. Patrick's\nPurgatory. Even to-day more than in the Middle Ages it is the goal of\nthousands of pious pilgrims who repair thither to be purified of the\naccumulated sins of a lifetime. In this age of commercialism the picture\nis an interesting and a happy one, no matter what the changing voices of\nthe many may have to say about it.\n\nThe following weird legends, which during the autumn of 1909 I found\nsurviving among the Lough Derg peasantry, explain how the lough received\nits present name, and seem to indicate that long before Patrick's time\nthe lough was already considered a strange and mysterious place,\napparently an Otherworld preserve. The first legend, based on two\ncomplementary versions, one from James Ryan, of Tamlach Townland, who is\nseventy-five years old, the other from Arthur Monaghan, a younger man,\nwho lives about three miles from James Ryan, is as follows:--'In his\nflight from County Armagh, Finn Mac Coul took his mother on his\nshoulder, holding her by the legs, but so rapidly did he travel that on\nreaching the shores of the lake nothing remained of his mother save the\ntwo legs, and these he threw down there. Some time later, the Fenians,\nwhile searching for Finn, passed the same spot on the lake-shore, and\nCinen Moul(?), who was of their number, upon seeing the shin-bones of\nFinn's mother and a worm in one, said: \"If that worm could get water\nenough it would come to something great.\" \"I'll give it water enough,\"\nsaid another of the followers, and at that he flung it into the lake\n(later called Finn Mac Coul's lake).[541] Immediately the worm turned\ninto an enormous water-monster. This water-monster it was that St.\nPatrick had to fight and kill; and, as the struggle went on, the lake\nran red with the blood of the water-monster, and so the lake came to be\ncalled Loch Derg (Red Lake).' The second legend, composed of\nfolk-opinions, was related by Patrick Monaghan, the caretaker of the\nPurgatory, as he was rowing me to Saints' Island--the site of the\noriginal purgatorial cave; and this legend is even more important for\nus than the preceding one:--'I have always been hearing it said that\ninto this lough St. Patrick drove all the serpents from Ireland, and\nthat with them he had here his final battle, gaining complete victory.\nThe old men and women in this neighbourhood used to believe that Lough\nDerg was the last stronghold of the Druids in Ireland; and from what I\nhave heard them say, I think the old legend means that this is where St.\nPatrick ended his fight with the Druids, and that the serpents represent\nthe Druids or paganism.'\n\nThese and similar legends, together with what we know about the\npurgatorial rites, lead us to believe that in pre-Christian times Finn\nMac Coul's Lake, later called Lough Derg, was venerated as sacred, and\nthat the cave which then undoubtedly existed on Saints' Island was used\nas a centre for the celebration of pagan mysteries similar in character\nto those supposed to have been celebrated in New Grange. Evidently, in\nthe ordeals and ceremonies of the modern Christian Purgatory of St.\nPatrick, we see the survivals of such pagan initiatory rites. Just as\nthe cults of stones, trees, fountains, lakes, and waters were absorbed\nby the new religion, so, it would seem, were all cults rendered in\nprehistoric times to Finn Mac Coul's Lake and within the island cave.\nThough the present location of the Purgatory is not the original place\nof the old Celtic cults, there having been a transfer from Saints'\nIsland to Station Island, the present place of pilgrimage, where instead\nof the cave there is the 'Prison Chapel', the practices, though\nnaturally much modified and corrupted, retain their primitive outlines.\nPatrick in his time ordered the observance of the following ceremonies\nby all penitents before their entrance into the original cave on Saints'\nIsland;[542] and for a long time they were strictly carried out:--'The\nvisitor must first go to the bishop of the diocese, declare to him that\nhe came of his own free will, and request of him permission to make the\npilgrimage. The bishop warned him against venturing any further in his\ndesign, and represented to him the perils of his undertaking; but if the\npilgrim still remained steadfast in his purpose, he gave him a\nrecommendatory letter to the prior of the island. The prior again tried\nto dissuade him from his design by the same arguments that had been\npreviously urged by the bishop. If, however, the pilgrim still remained\nsteadfast, he was taken into the church to spend there fifteen days in\nfasting and praying. After this the mass was celebrated, the holy\ncommunion administered to him and holy water sprinkled over him, and he\nwas led in procession with reading of litanies to the entrance of the\npurgatory, where a third attempt was made to dissuade him from entering.\nIf he still persisted, the prior allowed him to enter the cave, after he\nhad received the benediction of the priests, and, in entering, he\ncommended himself to their prayers, and made the sign of the cross on\nhis forehead with his own hand. The prior then made fast the door, and\nopened it not again till the next morning, when, if the penitent were\nthere, he was taken out and led with great joy to the church, and, after\nfifteen days' watching and praying, was dismissed. If he was not found\nwhen the door was opened, it was understood that he had perished in his\npilgrimage through purgatory; the door was closed again, and he was\nnever afterwards mentioned'.\n\nAn enormous mass of literary and historical material was recorded during\nthe mediaeval period, in various European vernaculars and in Latin,\nconcerning St. Patrick's Purgatory; and all of it testifies to the\nwidespread influence of the rites which already then as now attracted\nthousands of pilgrims from all parts of Christendom. In the poem of\n_Owayne Miles_,[543] which forms part of this material, we find a\npoetical description of the purgatorial initiatory rites quite\ncomparable to Virgil's account of Aeneas on his initiatory journey to\nHades. The poem records how Sir Owain was locked in the cave, and how,\nafter a short time, he began to penetrate its depths. He had but little\nlight, and this by degrees disappeared, leaving him in total darkness.\nThen a strange twilight appeared. He went on to a hall and there met\nfifteen men clad in white and with heads shaven after the manner of\necclesiastics. One of them told Owain what things he would have to\nsuffer in his pilgrimage, how unclean spirits would attack him, and by\nwhat means he could withstand them. Then the fifteen men left the knight\nalone, and soon all sorts of demons and ghosts and spirits surrounded\nhim, and he was led on from one torture and trial to another by\ndifferent companies of fiends. (In the original Latin legend there were\nfour fields of punishment.) Finally Owain came to a magic bridge which\nappeared safe and wide, but when he reached the middle of it all the\nfiends and demons and unclean spirits raised so horrible a yell that he\nalmost fell into the chasm below. He, however, reached the other shore,\nand the power of the devils ceased. Before him was a celestial city, and\nthe perfumed air which was wafted from it was so ravishing that he\nforgot all his pains and sorrows. A procession came to Owain and,\nwelcoming him, led him into the paradise where Adam and Eve dwelt before\nthey had eaten the apple. Food was offered to the knight, and when he\nhad eaten of it he had no desire to return to earth, but he was told\nthat it was necessary to live out his natural life in the world and to\nleave his flesh and bones behind him before beginning the heavenly\nexistence. So he began his return journey to the cave's entrance by a\nshort and pleasant way. He again passed the fifteen men clad in white,\nwho revealed what things the future had in store for him; and reaching\nthe door safely, waited there till morning. Then he was taken out,\ncongratulated, and invited to remain with the priests for fifteen\ndays.[544]\n\nHere we have clearly enough many of the essential features of the\nunderworld: there is the mystic bridge which when crossed guarantees the\ntraveller against evil spirits, just as in Ireland a peasant believes\nhimself safe when fairies are pursuing him if he can only cross a bridge\nor stream. The celestial city is both like the Christian Heaven and the\n_Sidhe_ world. The eating of angel food by Owain has an effect quite\nlike that of eating food in Fairyland; but Owain, by Christian\ninfluence, is sent back on earth to die 'that death which the King of\nHeaven and Earth hath ordained,' as Patrick said of the prince whom he\nsaved from the _Sidhe_-folk.[545]\n\nA curious story, in which King Arthur himself is made to visit St.\nPatrick's Purgatory, published during the sixteenth century by a learned\nFrenchman, Stephanus Forcatulus, shows how real a relation there is\nbetween Purgatory and the Greek or Roman Hades. Arthur, it is said,\nleaving the light behind him, descended into the cave by a rough and\nsteep road. 'For they say that this cave is an entrance to the shades,\nor at least to purgatory, where poor sinners may get their offences\nwashed out, and return again rejoicing to the light of day.' But\nForcatulus adds that 'I have learnt from certain serious commentaries of\nMerlin, that Gawain, his master of horse, called Arthur back, and\ndissuaded him from examining further the horrid cave in which was heard\nthe sound of falling water which emitted a sulphureous smell, and of\nvoices lamenting as it were for the loss of their bodies'.[546]\n\n\nPURGATORIAL AND INITIATORY RITES\n\nJudging from the above data and from the great mass of similar data\navailable, the religious rites connected with St. Patrick's Purgatory\nare to be anthropologically interpreted in the light of what is known\nabout ancient and modern initiatory ceremonies, similarly conducted. As\nhas already been stated, the original Purgatory which was in a cave on\nSaints' Island is to-day typified by 'Prison Chapel' on Station Island;\nand in this 'Prison Chapel', as formerly in the cave, pilgrims, after\nhaving fasted and performed the necessary preparatory penances, are\nrequired to pass the night. Among the Greeks, neophytes seeking\ninitiation, after similar preparation, entered the cave-shrine recently\ndiscovered at Eleusis, the site of the Great Mysteries, and therein, in\nthe _sanctum sanctorum_, entered into communion with the god and goddess\nof the lower world;[547] whereas in the original Purgatory Sir Owain and\nArthur are described as having come into contact with the Hades-world\nand its beings. In the state cult at Acharaca, Greece, there was another\ncavern-temple in which initiations were conducted.[547] The oracle of\nZeus Trophonius was situated in a subterranean chamber, into which,\nafter various preparatory rites, including the invocation of Agamedes,\nneophytes descended to receive in a very mysterious manner the divine\nrevelations which were afterwards interpreted for them. So awe-inspiring\nwere the descent into the cave and the sights therein seen that it was\npopularly believed that no one who visited the cave ever smiled again;\nand persons of grave and serious aspect were proverbially said to have\nbeen in the cave of Trophonius.[548]\n\nThe worship of Mithras, the Persian god of created light and all earthly\nwisdom, who in time became identified with the sun, was conducted in\nnatural and artificial caves found in every part of the Roman Empire\nwhere his cult flourished until superseded by Christianity; and in these\ncaves very elaborate initiations of seven degrees were carried out. The\ncave itself signified the lower world, into which during the ordeals of\ninitiation the neophyte was supposed to enter while out of the physical\nbody, that the soul might be purged by many trials.[549] In Mexico the\ncavern of Chalchatongo led to the plains of paradise, evidently through\ninitiations; and Mictlan, a subterranean temple, similarly led to the\nAztec land of the dead.[550]\n\nAmong the most widespread and characteristic features of contemporary\nprimitive races we find highly developed mysteries (puberty\ninstitutions) of the same essential character as these ancient\nmysteries. They are to uncivilized youth what the Greek Mysteries were\nto Greek youth, and what colleges and universities are to the youth of\nEurope and America, though perhaps more successful than these last as\nplaces of moral and religious instruction. These mysteries vary from\ntribe to tribe, though in almost all of them there is what corresponds\nto the Death Rite in Freemasonry; that is to say, there is either a\nsymbolical presentation of death in a sacred drama--as there was among\nthe Greeks in their complete initiatory rites--or a state of actual\ntrance imposed upon each neophyte by the priestly initiators. The\n_sanctum sanctorum_ of these primitive mysteries is sometimes in a\nnatural or artificial cavern (as was the rule with respect to the\nAncient Mysteries and St. Patrick's Purgatory on Saints' Island);\nsometimes in a structure specially prepared to exclude the light; or\nelse the neophytes are symbolically or literally buried in an\nunderground place to be resurrected greatly purified and\nstrengthened.[551] And the mystic purification at the sea-shore and\nspiritual re-birth sought in the cave at Eleusis by the highly cultured\nAthenians and their fellow Greeks, or among other cultured and\nuncultured ancient and modern peoples through some corresponding\ninitiation ceremony, find their parallel in the purification and\nspiritual re-birth still sought in the Christian Purgatory, now 'Prison\nChapel', and in the lake waters, amid the solitude of sacred Lough Derg,\nIreland, by thousands of earnest pilgrims from all parts of the\nworld.[552]\n\nThere is a correspondence between this conclusion and what was said\nabout the initiatory aspects of the Aengus Cult; and should we try to\nconnect the Purgatory with some particular sun-cult of a character\nparallel to that of the Aengus Cult we should probably have to name Lug,\nthe great Irish sun-god, because of the significant fact that the\npurgatorial rites on Station Island come to an end on the Festival of\nthe Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the 15th of August, a date which\napparently coincides sufficiently to represent, as it probably does, the\nancient August Lugnasadh, the 1st of August, a day sacred to the sun-god\nLug, as the name indicates.[553]\n\nIf we are to class together the original Purgatory, New Grange,\nGavrinis, and other Celtic underground places, as centres of the highest\nreligious practices in the past, we should expect to discover that many\nsimilar structures or natural caverns existed in pagan Ireland, as\nindeed we find they did. Thus in different Irish manuscripts various\ncaves are mentioned,[554] and most of them, so far as they can be\nlocalized, are traditionally places of supernatural marvels, and often\n(as in the case of the last one enumerated, the Cave of Cruachan) are\ndirectly related to the under-world.[555] Another of these caves is\ndescribed as being under a church, which circumstance suggests that the\nchurch was dedicated over an underground place originally sacred to\npagan worship, and, as we may safely assume, to pagan mysteries.\n\nThe curious custom among early Irish Christians, of retiring for a time\nto a cave, seems to show the lasting into historical times of the pagan\ncave-ritual now surviving at Lough Derg only. The custom seems to have\nbeen common among the saints of Britain and of Scotland;[556] and in\nStokes's _Tripartite Life of Patrick_ (p. 242) there is a very\nsignificant reference to it. In the _Mabinogion_ story of _Kulhwch and\nOlwen_ there seems to be another traditional echo of the times when\ncaves were used for religious rites or worship, in the author's\nreference to the cave of the witch Orddu as being 'on the confines of\nHell'. A cave was thus popularly supposed to lead to Hades or an\nunderworld of fairies, demons, and spirits; again just as in St.\nPatrick's Purgatory. Purely Celtic instances of this kind might be\ngreatly multiplied.\n\n\nPAGAN ORIGIN OF PURGATORIAL DOCTRINE\n\nThe metrical romance of _Orfeo and Herodys_ in Ritson's _Collection of\nMetrical Romances_[557] illustrates how in Britain (and Britain--even\nEngland--is more Celtic than Saxon) the Grecian Hell or Hades was looked\non as identical with the Celtic Fairyland. This is quite unusual; and\nfor us is highly significant. It shows that in Britain, at the time the\nromance was written, there was no essential difference between the\nunderworld of fairies and the underworld of shades. Pluto's realm and\nthe realm where fairy kings and fairy queens held high revelry were the\nsame. The difference is this: Hades was an Egyptian and in turn a Greek\nconception, while Fairyland was a Celtic conception; they differ as the\nimagination at work on a philosophical doctrine differs among the three\npeoples, and not otherwise. And, as Wright has shown, the origin of\nPurgatory in the Roman Church is very obscure. As to the location of\nPurgatory, Roman theology confesses it has nothing certain to say.[558]\nThe natural conclusion, as we suggested in our study of Re-birth, would\nseem to be that the Irish doctrine of the Otherworld in all its aspects,\nbut especially as the underground world of the _Sidhe_ or fairy-folk,\nwas combined with the pagan Graeco-Roman doctrine of Hades in St.\nPatrick's Purgatory, and hence gave rise to the modern Christian\ndoctrine of Purgatory.\n\n\nCHRISTIAN RITES IN HONOUR OF THE DEPARTED\n\nWe may now readily pass from an examination of world-wide rites\nconcerned with death and re-birth, which are based on an ancient\nsun-cult, to an examination of their shadows in the theology of\nChristianity, where they are commonly known as the rites in honour of\nthe departed. It seems to be clear at the outset that the Christian\nF\u00eate in Commemoration of the Dead, according to its history, is an\nadaptation from paganism; and with so many Irish ecclesiastics, or else\ntheir disciples, educated in the Celtic monasteries of Britain and\nIreland, having influence in the Church during the early centuries,\nthere is a strong probability that the Feast of _Samain_ had something\nto do with shaping the modern feast, as we have suggested in the\npreceding chapter; for both feasts originally fell on the first of\nNovember. Roman Catholic writers record that it was St. Odilon, Abbot of\nCluny, who instituted in 998 in all his congregations the F\u00eate in\nCommemoration of the Dead, and fixed its anniversary on the first of\nNovember; and that this f\u00eate was quickly adopted by all the churches of\nthe East.[559] To-day in the Roman Church both the first and second of\nNovember are holy days devoted to those who have passed out of this\nlife. The first day, the F\u00eate of All the Saints (_La Toussaint_), is\nsaid to have originated thus: the Roman Pantheon--Pantheon meaning the\nresidence of all the gods--was dedicated to Jupiter the Avenger, and\nwhen Christianity triumphed the pagan images were overthrown, and there\nwas thereupon originally established, in place of the cult of all the\ngods, the F\u00eate of all the Saints.[560] Why _La Toussaint_ should have\nbecome a feast of the dead would be difficult to say unless we admit the\nancient Celtic feast of the dead as having amalgamated with it. This we\nbelieve is what took place; for if the F\u00eate in Commemoration of the Dead\nwas, as some authorities hold, established by St. Odilon to fall on the\nfirst of November, in direct accord with _Samain_ or Halloween, then at\nsome later period it was displaced by _La Toussaint_, for now it is\ncelebrated on the second of November.\n\nLikewise prayers and masses for the dead, which annually receive\nemphasis on the first two days of November, seem to have had their\norigin in pre-Christian cults. According to Mosheim, in his _Histoire\neccl\u00e9siastique_,[561] the usage of celebrating the Sacrament at the\ntombs of martyrs and at funerals was introduced during the fourth\ncentury; and from this usage the masses for the saints and for the dead\noriginated in the eighth century. Prior to the fourth century we find\nthe newly converted Christians in all parts of Celtic Europe, and in\nmany countries non-Celtic, still rendering a cult to ancestral spirits,\nmaking food offerings at the tombs of heroes, and strictly observing the\nvery ancient November feast, or its equivalent, in honour of the dead\nand fairies. Then, very gradually, in the course of four centuries, the\ncharacter of the Christian cults and feasts of the saints and of the\ndead seems to have been determined. The following citation will serve to\nillustrate the nature of Irish Christian rites in honour of the\ndead:--In the _Lebar Brecc_[562] we read: 'There is nothing which one\ndoes on behalf of the soul of him who has died that doth not help it,\nboth prayer on knees, and abstinence, and singing requiems, and frequent\nblessings. Sons are bound to do penance for their deceased parents. A\nfull year, now, was Maed\u00f3c of Ferns, with his whole community, on water\nand bread, after loosing from hell the soul of Brandub son of Echaid.'\n\nAccording to St. Augustine, the souls of the dead are solaced by the\npiety of their living friends when this expresses itself through\nsacrifice made by the Church;[563] St. Ephrem commanded his friends not\nto forget him after death, but to give proofs of their charity in\noffering for the repose of his soul alms, prayers, and sacrifices,\nespecially on the thirtieth day;[563] Constantine the Great wished to be\ninterred under the Church of the Apostles in order that his soul might\nbe benefited by the prayers offered to the saints, by the mystic\nsacrifice, and by the holy communion.[563] Such prayers and sacrifices\nfor the dead were offered by the Church sometimes during thirty and even\nforty days, those offered on the third, the seventh, and the thirtieth\ndays being the most solemn.[564] The history of the venerable Bede, the\nletters of St. Boniface, and of St. Lul prove that even in the ancient\nAnglican church prayers were offered up for the souls of the dead;[565]\nand a council of bishops held at Canterbury in 816 ordered that\nimmediately after the death of a bishop there shall be made for him\nprayers and alms.[565] At Oxford, in 1437, All Souls College was\nfounded, chiefly as a place in which to offer prayers on behalf of the\nsouls of all those who were killed in the French wars of the fifteenth\ncentury.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nAs seems to be evident from this and the two preceding chapters, all\nthese f\u00eates, rites, or observances of Christianity have a relation more\nor less direct to paganism, and thus to ancient Celtic cults and\nsacrifice offered to the dead, to spirits, and to the Tuatha De Danann\nor Fairies. And the same set of ideas which operated among the Celts to\ncreate their Fairy-Mythology--ideas arising out of a belief in or\nknowledge of the one universal Realm of Spirit and its various orders of\ninvisible inhabitants--gave the Egyptians, the Indians, the Greeks, the\nRomans, the Teutons, the Mexicans, the Peruvians, and all nations their\nrespective mythologies and religions; and we moderns are literally 'the\nheirs of all the ages'.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION IV\n\nMODERN SCIENCE AND THE FAIRY FAITH; AND CONCLUSIONS[566]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nSCIENCE AND FAIRIES\n\n     'Puzzling and weird occurrences have been vouched for among all\n     nations and in every age. It is possible to relegate a good many\n     asserted occurrences to the domain of superstition, but it is not\n     possible thus to eliminate all.'--SIR OLIVER LODGE.\n\n     Method of Examination: Exoteric and Esoteric Aspects--The\n     X-quantity--Scientific Attitudes toward the Animistic Hypothesis:\n     Materialistic Theory; Pathological Theory; Delusion and Imposture\n     Theory--Problems of Consciousness: Dreams; Supernormal Lapse of\n     Time--Psychical Research and Fairies: Myers's Researches--Present\n     Position of Psychical Research--Psychical Research and Anthropology\n     in relation to Fairy-Faith, according to a special contribution\n     from Mr. Andrew Lang--Final Testing of the X-quantity--Conclusion:\n     the Celtic belief in Fairies and in Fairyland is scientific.\n\n\nMETHOD OF EXAMINATION\n\nThe promise made in the Introduction to examine the Why of the belief in\nfairies must now be fulfilled by calling in the aid of modern science.\nTo adduce parallels when studying a religion or a mythology is worth\ndoing, in order to show the fundamental bond which unites all systems of\nbelief in things called spiritual; but it is more important to try to\nunderstand why there should be such parallels and such a unifying\nprinciple behind them. Perhaps there has been too much of a tendency\namong students of folk-lore, and of anthropology as a whole, to be\ncontent to do no more than to discover that the Eskimos in Greenland\nhold a belief in spirits parallel to a belief in spirits held in Central\nAfrica, or that the Greek Pantheon (and possibly the Celtic one as well)\nconsists of goddesses which are apparently pre-Aryan and of gods which\nare apparently Aryan. We, too, have drawn many parallels between the\nCeltic Fairy-Faith and the various fairy-faiths throughout the world;\nbut now we should attempt to find out why there are animistic beliefs at\nall.\n\nThis chapter, then, will confine itself to a scientific examination of\nthe more popular or, as it may be called, the exoteric aspect of the\nFairy-Faith, which has come to us directly from the masses of the Celtic\npeoples. The following chapter, which is corollary to the present one,\nwill deal especially with the mystical aspect or, as this may be called\nby contrast, the esoteric aspect of the same belief, which, in turn, has\ncome to us from learned mystics and seers, who form, in proportion, but\na very small minority of the modern Celts. Each of these complementary\naspects of the Celtic religion undoubtedly has its origin in the\nremotest antiquity. This is probably more readily seen with respect to\nthe former than to the latter. The latter has been esoteric always, and\nin our opinion shows an unbroken tradition (if only a very incomplete\none) from druidic times; and it depends less upon written records,\nbecause the Druids had none, than upon oral transmission from age to\nage. Both aspects of the Fairy-Faith have in modern times absorbed many\nideas from non-Celtic systems of religion and mystical thought. As Mr.\nJenner has suggested in his Introduction for Cornwall, and as certain\ndetails in chapter ii clearly indicate, systems of modern theosophy have\nhad a marked influence in this respect; but it is impossible for us\nto-day to say what parts of the Fairy-Faith are purely Celtic and what\nare not so, because comparative studies prove that mysticism is\nfundamentally the same in all ages and among all peoples. It is\npsychologically true, also, that there must always exist some sort of\naffinity between two sets of thought in order for them to coalesce.\nHence, if modern mysticism (derived from Oriental or other sources) has,\nas we believe, affected Celtic mysticism as handed down from the dim\ndruidic ages, it is merely because the two occupy a common psychical\nterritory. We must therefore be content to examine scientifically the\nFairy-Faith as it now presents itself.\n\nThe analysis of evidence in chapter iii indicates clearly that there is\nin the exoteric part of the modern Celtic belief in fairies considerable\ndegeneration from what must have been in pagan times a widespread and\nhighly developed animistic creed. In the esoteric part of it there will\nbe observed, instead of such degeneracy, a surprisingly elaborate system\nof the most subtle speculation, which parallels that of East Indian\nsystems of metaphysics. If the belief be looked at in this comprehensive\nmanner, it seems to be clear that to some extent at least, as has been\npointed out already (pp. 99, 257), the Fairy-Faith in its purest form\noriginated amongst the most highly educated and scientific Celts of\nancient times rather than among their unlearned fellows. The two aspects\nof the belief form an harmonious whole as they will be presented in this\nSection IV. Chapter xi depends mostly upon the evidence set forth in\nchapter ii. Chapter xii depends mostly upon the evidence set forth in\nchapter vii.\n\nIn chapter iii we examined anthropologically the modern; and (both there\nand in parts of chapters following) the historical and ancient belief in\nfairies in Celtic countries, and found it to be in essence animistic.\nFolk-imagination, social psychology, anthropomorphism generally,\nadequately explained by far the greater mass of the evidence presented;\nbut the animistic background of the belief in question presented\nproblems which the strictly anthropological sciences are unable to\nsolve. The point has now been reached when these problems must be\npresented to physiology and to psychology for solution. If they can be\ncompletely solved by purely rational and physical data, then the\nFairy-Faith as a whole will have to be cast aside as worthless in the\neyes of science.\n\nIn our generation, however, such a casting aside is not to be the fate\nof the folk-religion of the Celts: the following phenomena recorded in\nchapter ii and elsewhere throughout our study, and designated as the x-\nor unknown quantity of the Fairy-Faith, cannot at the present time be\nsatisfactorily explained by science: (1) Collective hallucinations and\nveridical hallucinations; (2) objects moving without contact; (3) raps\nand noises called 'supernatural'; (4) telepathy; (5) seership and\nvisions; (6) dream and trance states manifesting supernormal knowledge;\n(7) 'mediumship' or 'spirit-possession'. Independently of our own Celtic\ndata in their support, the first class of phenomena are supported by an\nenormous mass of good data scientifically collected; the second and\nthird class are less well supported; telepathy is almost generally\naccepted as now being established; the last three classes are\nhypothetically accepted by many authorities in pathology, psychology,\nand psychical research.\n\n\nSCIENTIFIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE ANIMISTIC HYPOTHESIS\n\nAssertions similar to ours, that phenomena like these are incapable of\nbeing explained away by any known laws of orthodox science, have helped\nto bring about a marked division in the ranks of scientific workers. On\none hand there are those scientists who deny the existence of anything\nnot capable of being mathematically tested, weighed, dissected, or\notherwise analysed in laboratories; on the other hand, there are their\ncolleagues who, often in spite of previous bias toward materialism, have\narrived at a personal conviction that an animistic view of man is more\nin harmony with their scientific experience than any other. Both schools\ninclude men eminent in all branches of biological sciences.\n\nMidway between these contending schools are the psycho-physicists who\nmaintain that man is a twofold being composed of a psychical and\nphysical part. Some of them are inclined to favour animism, others are\nunwilling to regard the psychical part of man as separable from the\nphysical part. So the world of science is divided.\n\nUnder such chaotic conditions of science it is our right to accept one\nview or another, or to reject all views and use scientific data\nindependently. There can be no final court of appeal in matters where\nopinion is thus divided, save the experience of coming generations. We\nare therefore content to state our own position and leave it to the\nfuture for rejection or acceptance, as the case may be. To attempt a\ncritical examination of the thousand and one theories occupying the\nmodern arena of scientific controversy about the essential nature of man\nis altogether beyond the scope of this work. We must, nevertheless,\nblaze a rough footpath through the jungle of scientific theories, and,\nat the outset, put on record our opposition to that school of scientific\nworkers who deny to man a supersensuous constitution. Their theory, if\ncarried out to its logical conclusion, is now essentially no different\nfrom Feuerbach's theory at a time when science was far less developed\nthan it is to-day. He held that 'the object of sense, or the sensuous,\nalone is really true, and therefore truth, reality, and the sensible are\none'.[567] To say that we know reality through sensual perception is an\nerror, as all schools of scientists must nowadays admit. Nature is for\never illuding the senses; she masquerades in disguise until science\ntears away her mask. We must always adjust the senses to the world\nitself: where there are only vibrations in ether, man sees light; and in\natmospheric vibrations he hears sound. We only know things through the\nway in which our senses react upon them. We sum up the world-problem by\nsaying: 'consciousness does not exhaust its object, the world.'[567]\nPerceptibility and reality thus not being coincident, man and the\nuniverse remain an unsolved problem, despite the noisy shoutings of the\nmaterialist in his hermetically sealed and light-excluding case called\nsensual perceptions. Science admits that all her explanations of the\nuniverse are mere products of human understanding and perceptions by the\nphysical senses: the universe of science is wholly a universe of\nphenomena, and behind phenomena, as no scientist would dare deny, there\nmust be the noumena, the ultimate causes of all things, as to which\nscience as yet offers no comprehensive hypothesis, much less an answer.\nTo consider the materialistic hypothesis as adequate to account for the\nresiduum or x-quantity of the Fairy-Faith would not even be reasonable,\nand, incontestably, would not be scientific.\n\nWhen scientists holding to the non-animistic view of life are driven\nfrom their now for the most part abandoned fortress built by German\nscientists of the last century, of whom Feuerbach was a type, they, in\nopposing the animists, occupy a more modernly equipped fortress called\nthe Pathological Theory. This theory is that 'mediumship', telepathy,\nhallucinations, or the voluntary and involuntary exercise of any\nso-called 'psychical' faculties on the part of men and women, with the\nresulting phenomena, can be explained as due to abnormal and\nhence--according to its point of view--diseased states of the human\norganism, or to some derangement of bodily functions, leading to\ndelusions resembling those of insanity, which by a sort of hypnosis\ntelepathically induced may even affect researchers and lead them into\nerroneous conclusions. All scientists are in agreement with the\nPathological Theory in so far as it rejects as unworthy of serious\nconsideration all apparitions and abnormal phenomena save those observed\nby sane and healthy percipients under ordinary conditions. And,\naccordingly, whenever there can be shown in our percipients a diseased\nmental or psychical state, we must eliminate their testimony without\nargument. But since we have endeavoured to present no testimony from\nCeltic percipients who are not physically and psychically normal, the\nPathological Theory at best can affect the x-quantity merely\nhypothetically.\n\nThe following admission in regard to visual and auditory hallucinations\nis here worth noting as coming from so thorough an exponent of\nmaterialistic psychology as M. Th\u00e9odule Ribot:--'There must exist\nanatomical and physiological causes which would solve the problem, but\nunfortunately they are hidden from us.' Of these hidden causes, which\nhe thinks create all psychical states of mind or consciousness called by\nhim 'disease of personality', M. Ribot says:--'Our ignorance of the\ncauses stops us short. The psychologist is here like the physician who\nhas to deal with a disease in which he can make out only the symptoms.\nWhat physiological influences are they which thus alter the general tone\nof the organism, consequently of the coenaesthesis, consequently too of\nthe memory? Is it some condition of the vascular system? Or some\ninhibitory action, some arrest of function? We cannot say.'[568] And\nafter six years of most careful experimentation, M. Charles Richet,\nProfessor of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, reached\nthis conclusion:--'There exists in certain persons at certain moments a\nfaculty of acquiring knowledge which has no _rapport_ with our normal\nfaculties of that kind.'[569] We seem to have here the last words of\nscience touching the Pathological Theory.\n\nWhen driven from their pathological stronghold, and they maintain that\nthey have not been driven from it, the non-animists always find a safe\nway to cover their retreat by setting up the charge that all psychical\nphenomena are fraudulent or else due to delusion on the part of\nobservers. In reply, psychical researchers readily admit that there is a\nlarge percentage of mere trickery, delusion, and imposture in observed\n'spirit' phenomena; some of which is deliberate on the part of the\n'medium' and some of which is apparently not consciously induced.\nNevertheless, such investigators are not at all willing to say that\nthere is nothing more than this. The Delusion and Imposture Theory will\naccount for a very respectable proportion of these phenomena, but not\nfor all of them, and theoretically we shall admit its application to the\nparallel phenomena attributed to fairies; though it must be acknowledged\nthat 'fairy' phenomena are for the most part spontaneously exhibited\nrather than as in 'Spiritualism' set up through holding _s\u00e9ances_.\nFurther, there are comparatively few 'charmers' or 'wise men'--the fairy\n'mediums' among the Celts--who ever make money out of their ability to\ndeal with the 'good people', or _Tylwyth Teg_; whence the margin of\nencouragement for fraudulent production of 'fairy' phenomena is\nextremely limited when compared with 'Spiritualism'.\n\nAfter twenty-five years of experimentation, more or less continuous,\nwith 'mediums', during which every conceivable test for the detection of\nfraud on their part was applied, William James put his conclusions on\nrecord in these words:--'When imposture has been checked off as far as\npossible, when chance coincidence has been allowed for, when\nopportunities for normal knowledge on the part of the subject have been\nnoted, and skill in \"fishing\" and following clues unwittingly furnished\nby the voice or face of bystanders have been counted in, those who have\nthe fullest acquaintance with the phenomena admit that in good mediums\n_there is a residuum of knowledge displayed_ [italics are James's own]\nthat can only be called supernormal: the medium taps some source of\ninformation not open to ordinary people.'[570] Mr. Andrew Lang, one of\nthe bravest of psychical researchers in England, not only would agree\nwith William James in this, but, having carefully examined the Delusion\nand Imposture Theory from the more commanding point of view of an\nanthropologist, would go further and include classical spiritualistic\nphenomena as well as those existing among contemporary uncultured races.\nHe says:--'Meanwhile, the extraordinary similarity of savage and\nclassical spiritualistic rites, with the corresponding similarity of\nalleged modern phenomena, raises problems which it is more easy to state\nthan to solve. For example, such occurrences as \"rappings\", as the\nmovement of untouched objects, as the lights of the _s\u00e9ance_ room, are\nall easily feigned. But that ignorant modern knaves should feign\nprecisely the same raps, lights, and movements as the most remote and\nunsophisticated barbarians, and as the educated Platonists of the\nfourth century after Christ, and that many of the other phenomena should\nbe identical in each case, is certainly noteworthy.'[571] Evidently,\nthen, there is a large proportion of psychical and 'fairy' phenomena\nwhich remain unexplained even after the Delusion and Imposture Theory\nhas been applied to such phenomena, and in all such cases we must look\nfurther for a scientific explanation.\n\n\nPROBLEMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS\n\nOur chief investigations will at first be directed more especially to\nthe problems common both to psychology and to psychical research,\nnamely, dream and trance states, hallucinations, and possessions, in\norder to show what bearings, if any, they have in the eyes of science\nupon parallel phenomena said to be due to fairies, and set forth in\nchapter ii and anthropologically examined in chapter iii.\n\n_Dreams_\n\nThe popular opinion that dreams are nonsense is quite overthrown by\ndefinite psychological facts. When during sleep our sensory organs are\nexposed to external irritants the impressions physically produced are\ntransmitted to the brain by the nervous system and react in dreams as\nthey would in the waking state, except that the reactions in the two\nstates of consciousness--the dream state and the waking state--differ in\nproportion as the two states differ; but in both the Ego is the real\npercipient.[572] Such stimuli as arise from after-theatre dinners,\nwine-parties, and so forth, produce a well-known type of dreams; and the\nsame stimuli at the same period of time would produce an equal effect,\nthough an altered one, to suit the altered psycho-physical conditions,\nif the waking state were active rather than the dream state, just as\nwould all dreams which arise from pathological disturbances in disease,\nor abnormal physiological functions. This is evident from dreams of a\nmorbid and sensual type, which directly affect the physical organism and\nits functions as parallel waking-states would. In all such dreams of the\nlower order, animal and purely physical tendencies, which are directly\ndue to the state of the body, act very freely: an imperfectly balanced,\ntemporarily deranged, or diseased organism must correspondingly respond\nto its driving forces. And it is clear from comparative study of\nphenomena that these lower kinds of dream states express only the lower\nor animal consciousness, which in most individuals is the predominant or\nonly consciousness even in the waking life; and not the higher\nconsciousness of the Ego or subconsciousness which may be expressed in\nsomnambulism, for 'in somnambulism there awakes an inner, second\nEgo',[573] which is the Subliminal Self of Myers. Dr. G. F. Stout urges\nagainst Myers's theory of the Subliminal Self that 'the usual\nincoherence of dreams is an objection to regarding them as\nmanifestations of a stream of thought equal or superior in systematic\ncomplexity and continuity to that of the waking self',[574] which\nobjection Myers also observed. But if we regard all dreams which are of\nthe lower order as being due to the imperfect response of the body to\nits driving forces because of various bad physical conditions in the\nbody, and recognize that these driving forces depend ultimately on the\nsubconsciousness, the difficulty seems to be met by observing that under\nsuch conditions there is no real mergence of the normal consciousness\ninto the subconsciousness. Hence ordinary dreams are within the ordinary\nspectrum of consciousness; but extra-ordinary dreams pass beyond the\nordinary spectrum into the truly supernormal state of consciousness.\n\nAs all this indicates, dreams are of many classes: those of the lowest\ntype, which we have explained as due to bad physiological conditions in\nthe animal-man; those which are readily explainable as distorted\nreflections of waking actions, often based on some stray thought or\nsuggestion of the day and then comparable to post-hypnotic suggestions.\nOther dreams are demonstrably entirely outside the range of ordinary\nmental or physical disturbances, actions, reflections, or suggestions of\nthe waking life, and seem thus 'to have a wider purview, and to indicate\nthat the record of external events which is kept within us is far fuller\nthan we know'.[575] In some dreams there is reasoning as well as memory,\nand mathematicians have been known to solve problems in sleep: an\nAmerican inventor known to the writer's mother asserted that he had\ndreamt out the details of a certain ice-manufacturing process which\nproved successful when tested; through self-suggestion set up in the\nwaking state, R. L. Stevenson, upon entering the dream state, secured\ndetails for his imaginary romances.[576] Dr. Stout himself, in\ncriticizing Myers's 'Subliminal Self', admits that 'in some very rare\ninstances, a man has achieved, while dreaming, intellectual performances\nequalling or perhaps surpassing the best of which he was capable in\nwaking life';[577] and there are many authentic cases of dream\nexperiences which cannot possibly be explained as revivals of facts\nfallen out of the range of the ordinary memory or consciousness. We seem\nto be led to some hypothesis like this: in dreaming there is mental\nactivity which in the waking state is either functionless or else below\nthe psycho-physical threshold of sensibility; because much that is\nsubconscious in the non-dream state is in the dream state fully\nconscious. And we probably do not remember one quarter of our dreams:\nthey belong to a mainly different order of consciousness.\n\nProfessor Freud's view of dreams coincides pretty generally with this\nview. He holds that the subconsciousness is the storehouse out of which\ndream contents are drawn and acted upon by the dream mind. Very much\ndistortion of the subconscious material takes place in the process, due\nto what he calls the 'endopsychic censor'. In the waking state this\ncensor is always on the alert to keep out of consciousness all\nsubconscious processes or deposits, but in sleep the censor is less\nalert, and allows some subconscious content to escape over into the\nordinary consciousness. The result is a dream distorted out of all\nrecognition of its origin. Such a dream seems to occupy a position\nmidway between what we have classed as the lowest or animal-mind dream\nand the highest or subliminal dream. It possibly shows an harmonious\npsycho-physical condition of the dream life, whereas the lowest type of\ndream shows the preponderance of the physical or animal, and the highest\ntype of dream shows the preponderance of the psychical elements in man.\nFurther, it may be designated as the normal dream, and the other two\ntypes respectively as the physically abnormal and the psychically\nabnormal.\n\nProfessor Freud detects other marked processes in the dream state, all\nof which help to illustrate the part of the Fairy-Faith dependent upon\ndreaming experiences. (1) There is condensation of details frequently in\na proportion so great as one for ten and one for twenty; (2)\ndisplacement of details, or 'a transvaluation of all values'; (3) much\ndramatization; (4) regression, a retrograde movement of abstract mental\nprocesses toward their primary conceptions; and (5) secondary\nelaboration, an attempt to rationalize all dream-material.[578] Also,\nProfessor Freud discovered from his analysis of thousands of dreams that\nthe subconsciousness makes use of a sort of symbolism:--'This symbolism\nin part varies with the individual, but in part is of a typical nature,\nand seems to be identical with the symbolism which we suppose to lie\nbehind our myths and legends. It is not impossible that these latter\ncreations of the people may find their explanation from the study of\ndreams.'[579] Such processes, taken as a whole, show that man possesses\na twofold consciousness, the ordinary consciousness and the\nsubconsciousness. And we have every reason to believe that subconscious\nactivities go on continually, in waking and in sleeping.\n\nBy experiments on his own perfectly healthy children, Wienholt proved\nthat there are natural forces existing whose stimulations are never\nperceived in waking life: he made passes over the face and neck of his\nson with an iron key at the distance of half an inch without touching\nhim, whereupon the boy began to rub those parts and manifested\nuneasiness. Wienholt likewise experimented on his other children with\nlead, zinc, gold, and other metals, and in most cases the children\n'averted the parts so treated, rubbed them, or drew the clothes over\nthem'.[580] Therefore, in sleep the consciousness perceives objects\nwithout physical contact; and this not inconceivably might suggest,\ninversely, that in sleep the human consciousness can affect objects\nwithout physical contact, as it is said fairies and the dead can, and in\nthe way psychical researchers know that objects can be affected.\n\nWe have on record an account of a most remarkable dream quite the same\nin character as dreams wherein certain Celts believe they have met the\ndead or fairies. Professor Hilprecht had a broken Assyrian cylinder in\ncuneiform which he could not decipher; but in a dream an Assyrian priest\nin ancient garb appeared to him and deciphered the inscription. Of this\ndream Myers observed:--'We seem to have reached the utmost intensity of\nsleep faculty within the limits of our ordinary spectrum.'[581]\n\nWe may sum up the results of our examination of dreams by saying that\nscientific analysis of the dream life _in its higher ranges_ proves that\nour Ego is not wholly embraced in self-consciousness, that the Ego\nexceeds the self-consciousness. Instead of a continuity of\nconsciousness which constitutes self-consciousness we have parallel\nstates of consciousness for the one subject, the Ego. Our study of the\nCeltic theory of re-birth, in the following chapter, will further\nexplain this subtle aspect of the dream psychology.\n\nWhen such a conclusion is applied to the Fairy-Faith, the various\ndream-like or trance-like states during which ancient and contemporary\nCelts testify to having been in Fairyland are seen to be scientifically\nplausible. In this aspect then, Fairyland, stripped of all its literary\nand imaginative glamour and of its social psychology, in the eyes of\nscience resolves itself into a reality, because it is one of the states\nof consciousness co-ordinate with the ordinary consciousness. This\nstatement will be confirmed by a brief examination of what is called\n'supernatural lapse of time', and which is invariably connected with\nFairyland.\n\n_'Supernatural' Lapse of Time_\n\nIt has already been made clear that in the dream or somnambulic state\nthere are invariably modifications of time and space relations; and\nthese give rise to what has been termed the 'supernatural lapse of\ntime'. Two conditions are possible: either a few minutes of waking-state\ntime equal long periods in the non-waking state; or else, as is usually\nthe case in the Fairy-Faith, the reverse is true.\n\nThe first condition, which we shall examine first, occasionally appears\nin the Fairy-Faith through such a statement as this:--'Sometimes one may\nthus go to Faerie for an hour or two' (p. 39). Similarly, as physicians\nwell know, patients under narcotics will experience events extending\nover long periods of time within a few minutes of normal time. De\nQuincey, the famous opium-eater, records dreams of ten to sixty years'\nsupernatural duration, and some quite beyond all limits of the waking\nexperience. Fechner records a case of a woman who was nearly drowned and\nthen resuscitated after two minutes of unconsciousness, and who in that\ntime lived over again all her past life.[582] Another even more\nremarkable case than this last concerns Admiral Beaufort, who, having\nfallen into the water, was unconscious also for two minutes, and yet he\nsays that not only during that short space of time did he travel over\nevery incident of his life with the details of 'every minute and\ncollateral feature', but that there crowded into his imagination 'many\ntrifling events which had long been forgotten'.[583]\n\nWe shall now present examples to illustrate the second condition. H\u00f6hne\nwas in an unbroken magnetic sleep from the first of January to the tenth\nof May, and when he came out of it he was overcome with surprise to see\nthat spring had arrived, he having lain down--as he believed--only the\nday before.[584] Had H\u00f6hne been an Irishman, he might very reasonably\nhave explained the situation by saying that he had been with the fairies\nfor what seemed only a night. The Seeress of Prevorst, in a similar\nsleep, passed through a period of six years and five months, and then\nawoke as from a one-night sleep with no memory of what she did during\nthat time; but some time afterwards memory of the period came to her so\ncompletely that she recalled all its details.[585] Old people, and some\nyoung people too, among the Celts, who go to Fairyland for varying\nperiods of time, sometimes extending over weeks (as in a case I knew in\nWest Ireland), have just such dreams or trance-states as this. Another\nexample follows:--Chardel, in fleeing from the Revolution, took ship\nfrom Brittany and was obliged to induce somnambulism on his wife in\norder to overcome her horror of the sea. When the couple landed in\nAmerica and Chardel awakened his wife, she had no recollection whatever\nof the Atlantic voyage, and believed herself still in Brittany.[586]\n\nBoth Helmholtz and Fechner show[587] that the functions of the nervous\nsystem are associated with a definite time-measure, so it follows that\nconsciousness in an organic body like man's depends upon the nervous\nsystem; but, as these examples and similar ones in the Fairy-Faith\nshow, certain conscious states exist independently of the human nerves,\nand they therefore set up a strong presumption that complete\nconsciousness can exist independently of the physical nerve-apparatus.\nAnd in proceeding to submit this presumption of a supersensuous\nconsciousness to the further test of science we shall at the same time\nbe testing the statements made by wholly reliable seer-witnesses, like\nthe Irish mystic and seer (p. 65), that not only can men and women enter\nFairyland during trance-states for a brief period, but that at death\nthey can enter it for an unlimited period. Further, what is for our\nstudy the most important of all statements will likewise be tested,\nnamely, that in Fairyland there are conscious non-human entities like\nthe _Sidhe_ races.\n\n\nPSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND FAIRIES\n\nOur present task, then, is to extend the examination beyond incarnate\nconsciousness into the realm of the new psychology or physical research,\nwhere, as a working hypothesis, it is assumed that there is discarnate\nconsciousness, which by the Celtic peoples is believed to exist and to\nexhibit itself in various individual aspects as fairies.\n\nAs to what science demands as proof of the survival of human\nconsciousness after death, there has been no clear consensus of opinion.\nTo prove merely the existence of 'ghosts' would not do; it is necessary\nto show by a series of proofs (1) that discarnate intelligences exist,\n(2) that they possess complete and persistent personal energy wholly\nwithin themselves, (3) that they are the actual unit of consciousness\nand memory known to have manifested itself on this plane of existence\nthrough particular incarnate personalities now deceased. Various\npsychical researchers assert that they have already reached these proofs\nand are convinced, often in spite of their initial scientific attitude\nof antagonism toward all psychic phenomena, of the survival of the human\nconsciousness after the death of the human body; and we shall proceed to\npresent the testimony of some of them.\n\nIn chapter vii, concerning _Phantasms of the Dead_, forming part of\nFrederick W. H. Myers's _Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily\nDeath_, and in the two chapters which follow, on _Motor Automatism_, and\non _Trance, Possession, and Ecstasy_, all the necessary proofs above\nnoted have been adduced; and the author was thereby one of the very\nfirst psychical researchers to have recorded before the world his\nconversion from the non-animistic hypothesis to the ancient belief that\nMan is immortal; for he admits his conviction that the human\nconsciousness does incontestably survive the decay of the physical body.\nTypes of some of these well-attested and proved cases offered as\nevidence by Myers may be briefly summarized as follows:--Repeated\napparitions indicating intimate acquaintance with some post-mortem fact\nlike the place of burial; single apparitions with knowledge of the\naffairs of surviving friends, or of the impending death of a survivor,\nor of spirits of persons dead after the apparition's decease; cases\nwhere professed spirits manifest knowledge of their earth-life, as of\nsome secret compact made with survivors; cases of apparitional\nappearances near a corpse or a grave; occasional cases of the appearance\nof the dead to several persons collectively.[588] Under motor\nautomatism, some of the most striking phenomena tending toward proof are\ncases where automatic writing has announced a death unknown to the\npersons present; knowledge communicated in a _s\u00e9ance_, not known to any\nperson present, but afterwards proved to have been possessed by the\ndeceased; automatic writing by a child in language unknown to her.\n\nIn chapter ix trance or possession is defined by Myers, in the same list\nof proofs, as 'a development of Motor Automatism resulting at last in a\nsubstitution of personality'; and this harmonizes with the theory of the\ncontrol of a living organism by discarnate spirits, and is supported by\nan overwhelming mass of scientific experiment. Telepathy suggests the\npossibility of communication between the living and the living and\nbetween the living and the dead, and, we may add, between the dead and\nthe dead--as in Fairyland--without the consideration of space or time as\nknown in the lower ranges of mental action; and that the communication\ndoes not depend upon vibrations from a material brain-mass. Telepathy in\nthese first two aspects has been likewise accepted as a scientific fact\nby workers in psychical research like Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver\nLodge, William James, and by many others. All such phenomena as these,\nnow being so carefully investigated and weighed by men thoroughly\ntrained in science, are, so to speak, the protoplasmic background of all\nreligions, philosophies, or systems of mystical thought yet evolved on\nthis planet; and in all essentials they confirm the x-quantity presented\nin the evidence of the Fairy-Faith.\n\nDr. G. F. Stout, an able representative of the school of non-converts to\nthe theories in psychology propounded by Myers and by psychical\nresearch, states his position thus:--'But, at least, my doubt is not\ndogmatic denial, and I agree with Mr. Myers that there is no sufficient\nreason for being peculiarly sceptical concerning communications from\ndeparted spirits. I also agree with him that the alleged cases of such\ncommunication cannot be with any approach to probability explained away\nas mere instances of telepathy.'[589] In addition, Dr. Stout says:--'The\nconception which has been really useful to him is that of telepathy.\nGiven that communication takes place between individual minds unmediated\nby ordinary physical conditions, we may regard intercourse with departed\nspirits as a special case of the same kind of process. And clairvoyance,\nprecognition, &c., may perhaps be referred to telepathic communication\neither with departed spirits or with other intelligences superior to the\nhuman.'[589] In this last phrase, 'intelligences superior to the human',\nDr. Stout assumes our own position, that hypothetically there is good\nreason for thinking that discarnate non-human intelligences--such as the\nIrish call the _Sidhe_--may exist and communicate with, or influence in\nsome unknown way, the living, as during 'mediumship' and in 'seership'.\n\nMr. Andrew Lang points out, in his reply to Dr. Stout's criticism, that\nthe only legitimate scientific resource for overthrowing Myers's\nposition, since the evidence is 'mathematically incapable of explanation\nby chance coincidence', is to say that several people are deliberate\nforgers and liars. And he adds:--'To myself (but only to myself and a\nsmall circle) the evidence is irrefragable, from our lifetime knowledge\nof the percipient.'[590] But the animistic position does not by any\nmeans depend upon the evidence presented by Myers, no matter how\nincontestably reliable it is. We have only to examine the voluminous\npublications of the _Society for Psychical Research_ (London) to realize\nthis, and especially the _Report on the Census of Hallucinations of\nModern Spiritualism_, by Professor Sidgwick's Committee (_P. S. P. R._,\nLondon).\n\n\nPSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND ANTHROPOLOGY IN RELATION TO THE FAIRY-FAITH\n\n_According to a special contribution from Mr. Andrew Lang._\n\nMr. Andrew Lang, who has done a special service to science by showing\nthat psychical research is inseparably related to anthropology, has\nfavoured us with a statement of his own position toward this\nrelationship and has made it directly applicable to the Fairy-Faith. In\na general way, but not in some important details (as indicated in our\nannotations) we agree with Mr. Lang's position, which he states as\nfollows:--\n\n     Mr. Evans Wentz has asked me to define my position towards\n     psychical research in relation to anthropology. I have done so in\n     my book, _The Making of Religion_. The alleged abnormal or\n     supernormal occurrences which psychical research examines are, for\n     the most part, 'universally human,' and, whether they happen or do\n     not happen, whether they are the results of malobservation, or of\n     fraud, or are merely mythical, as _human_ they cannot be wisely\n     neglected by anthropology.\n\n     The fairy-folk, under many names, in many tongues, are everywhere\n     objects of human belief, in Central Australia, in New Zealand, in\n     the isles of the Pacific, as in the British Isles, Lowland or\n     Highland, Celtic in the main, or English in the main, I conceive\n     the various beings, fairies, brownies, _Iruntarinia_, _Djinns_, or\n     what you will, _to be purely mythical_. I am incapable of believing\n     that they are actual entities, who carry off men and women; steal\n     and hide objects (especially as the _Iruntarinia_ do); love or\n     hate, persecute or kiss human beings; practise music, vocal and\n     instrumental; and in short 'play the pliskies' with which they are\n     universally credited by the identical workings of the human fancy.\n     They tend to shade away, on one side, into the denizens of the\n     House of Hades--phantasms of the dead. The belief in such phantasms\n     may be partially based on experience, whether hallucinatory or\n     otherwise and inexplicably produced.[591]\n\n     As far as psychical research studies report of these phantasms it\n     approaches the realm of 'the Fairy Queen Proserpine'. As far as\n     such research examines the historical or contemporary stories of\n     the _Poltergeist_, it touches on fairies: because the Irish, for\n     example, attribute to the agency of fairies the modern\n     _Poltergeist_ phenomena, whether these, in each case, be fraudulent\n     or, up to now, be unexplained.\n\n     There are not more than two or three alleged visions of the\n     traditional fairies in the annals of psychical research; and I have\n     met with but few sane and educated persons who profess to have seen\n     phantoms at all resembling the traditional fairy; while phantasms\n     supposed to be of the dead, the dying, and the absent are\n     frequently reported. On the whole, psychical research has very\n     little concern with the fairy-belief in its typical forms, and if\n     the researcher did find modern cases of fairy visions alleged by\n     sane and educated percipients, he would be apt to explain them by\n     suggestion acting on the subconscious self.[592]\n\n       1 MARLOES ROAD, LONDON, W.\n         _September_ 26, 1910.\n\nConcerning phantasms of the dead into which, as above pointed out, the\nfairy-folk tend to shade away, Mr. Lang has elsewhere said:--'On the\nwhole, if the evidence is worth anything, there are real objective\nghosts, and there are also telepathic hallucinations: so that the\nscientific attitude is to believe in both, if in either.'[593] And he\nshows that while anthropologists have explained all animistic beliefs as\nthe results of primitive men's philosophizing 'on life, death, sleep,\ndreams, trances, shadows, the phenomena of epilepsy, and the illusions\nof starvation', 'normal phenomena, psychological and psychical, might\nsuggest most of the animistic beliefs.'[593] In _The Making of\nReligion_, Mr. Lang has expanded this anthropological argument so as to\nmake it even more fully embrace psychical research.\n\nIf we apply the brilliant results of Mr. Lang's investigations to our\nown, it is apparent that the background of the Fairy-Faith, like that of\nall religions, is animistic, as we have argued in chapter iii; that it\nmust have grown up in ancient times into its traditional form out of a\npre-Celtic followed by a pre-Christian Celtic religion; these latter\ndue, in turn, to actual psychical experiences, such as hallucinations,\nvisions of different sorts, clairvoyance, 'mediumship', and magical\nknowledge on the part of Druid priests and, probably, to some extent, on\nthe part of the common people as well; and, finally, that the living\nFairy-Faith depends not so much upon ancient traditions, oral and\nrecorded, as upon recent and contemporary psychical experiences, vouched\nfor by many 'seers' and other percipients among our witnesses, and now\nplaced on record by us in chapter ii and elsewhere throughout this\nstudy.\n\n\nTHE PRESENT POSITION OF PSYCHICAL RESEARCH\n\nSir William Crookes, the well-known English authority in physical\nscience, was almost the first scientist to become seriously interested\nin psychics, and in Part III of _Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena\ncalled Spiritual, during the Years 1870-1873_ (London), boldly\naffirms:--'It will be seen that the facts are of the most astounding\ncharacter, and seem utterly irreconcilable with all known theories of\nmodern science. Having satisfied myself of their _truth_, it would be\nmoral cowardice to withhold my testimony because my previous\npublications were ridiculed by critics and others.' And this conclusion\nreached forty years ago has not been reversed, but has been confirmed by\none after another of learned scientists on both sides of the Atlantic.\n\nIn 1908, Sir Oliver Lodge, Principal of the University of Birmingham,\nand at present one of the best known of scientists concerned with the\nstudy of spiritual phenomena, stated his position thus:--'On the whole,\nI am of those who, though they would like to see further and still\nstronger and more continued proofs, are of opinion that a good case has\nbeen made out, and that as the best working hypothesis at the present\ntime it is legitimate to grant that lucid moments of intercourse with\ndeceased persons may in the best cases supervene.... The boundary\nbetween the two states--the known and the unknown--is still substantial,\nbut it is wearing thin in places; and like excavators engaged in boring\na tunnel from opposite ends, amid the roar of water and other noises, we\nare beginning to hear now and again the strokes of the pickaxes of our\ncomrades on the other side.'[594] In 1909, Sir Oliver Lodge published\n_The Survival of Man_, in which, after a careful exposition, covering\nover three hundred pages, of the definite results of much scientific\nexperimentation by the best scientists of Europe and America, in such\npsychical phenomena as Telepathy or Thought Transference, Telepathy and\nClairvoyance, Automatism and Lucidity, the following tentative\nconclusion is reached:--'The first thing we learn, perhaps the only\nthing we clearly learn in the first instance, is _continuity_. There is\nno such sudden break in the conditions of existence as may have been\nanticipated; and no break at all in the continuous and conscious\nidentity of genuine character and personality.'[594] And his personal\nconviction is that 'Intelligent co-operation between other than\nembodied human minds than our own ... has become possible'.[595]\n\nWilliam James, who was one of the chief psychical researchers in the\nUnited States, published his conclusions in October 1909; and of\npsychical phenomena he wrote:--'As to there being such real natural\ntypes of phenomena ignored by orthodox science, I am not baffled at all,\nfor I am fully convinced of it.' Of 'mediumship', he postulated the very\ninteresting theory of a universally diffused 'soul-stuff', which\nelsewhere (p. 254) we have referred to as the scientific equivalent to\nthe Polynesian _Mana_: 'My own dramatic sense tends instinctively to\npicture the situation as an interaction between slumbering faculties in\nthe automatist's mind and a cosmic environment of _other consciousness_\nof some sort which is able to work upon them. If there were in the\nuniverse a lot of diffuse soul-stuff, unable of itself to get into\nconsistent personal form, or to take permanent possession of an\norganism, yet always craving to do so, it might get its head into the\nair, parasitically, so to speak, by profiting by weak spots in the\narmour of human minds, and slipping in and stirring up there the\nsleeping tendencies to personate.' Expanding this theory into a\n'pan-psychic' view of the universe and assuming a 'mother-sea' of\nconsciousness, a bank upon which we all draw, James asked these\nquestions about it, which educated Celtic seers ask themselves about the\n_Sidhe_ or Fairy-World and its also collective consciousness or life:\n'What is its own structure? What is its inner topography?... What are\nthe conditions of individuation or insulation in this mother-sea? To\nwhat tracts, to what active systems functioning separately in it, do\npersonalities correspond? Are individual \"spirits\" constituted there?\nHow numerous, and of how many hierarchic orders may these then be? How\npermanent? How transient? And how confluent with one another may they\nbecome?'[596] We should ask the reader to compare this scientific\nattitude with the almost identical attitude taken up with respect to the\n_Sidhe_ Races and the constitution of their world and life by the Irish\nmystic and seer (pp. 60 ff.).\n\nM. Camille Flammarion, the well-known French astronomer, is another of\nthe pioneer psychical researchers; and in his psychic studies, entitled,\nas translated in an English edition, _The Unknown_, recently announced\nthese definite conclusions:--'(1) _The soul exists as a real entity\nindependent of the body._ (2) _It is endowed with faculties still\nunknown to science._ (3) _It is able to act at a distance, without the\nintervention of the senses._' And in his _Mysterious Psychic Forces_\n(Boston, 1907, pp. 452-3), he says:--'The conclusions of the present\nwork concord with those of the former (_The Unknown_).... I may sum up\nthe whole matter with the single statement that there exists in nature,\nin myriad activity, a _psychic element_ the essential nature of which is\nstill hidden from us.'\n\n\nTHE FINAL TESTING OF THE X-QUANTITY\n\nThis chapter can now be brought to its logical conclusion by directly\napplying the results so far attained to our still vigorous x-quantity or\nresiduum gathered out of the Fairy-Faith. We have, although hurriedly,\nblazed a rough pathway through the necessary parts of the jungle of\nscientific theories, and have arrived at a very considerable clearing\nmade by the pioneers, the psychical researchers. We seem, in fact, to\nhave arrived at a point in our long investigations where we can\npostulate scientifically, on the showing of the data of psychical\nresearch, the existence of such invisible intelligences as gods, genii,\ndaemons, all kinds of true fairies, and disembodied men. It is not\nnecessary to produce here, in addition to what already has been set\nforth, the very voluminous detailed evidence of psychical research as to\nthe existence of such intelligences. The general statement may be made\nthat there are hundreds of carefully proven cases of phenomena or\napparitions precisely like many of those which the Celtic peoples\nattribute to fairies.[597]\n\nVarious explanations or theories are offered by our men of science as to\nwhat these invisible intelligences are, for none of our scientists would\nsay that the dead alone are responsible, even in a majority of cases,\nfor the observed phenomena and apparitions, but rather such beings as we\ncall daemons, fairies, and elementals. M. Camille Flammarion says:--'The\ngreater part of the phenomena observed--noises, movement of tables,\nconfusions, disturbances, raps, replies to questions asked--are really\nchildish, puerile, vulgar, often ridiculous, and rather resemble the\npranks of mischievous boys than serious bona-fide actions. It is\nimpossible not to notice this. Why should the souls of the dead amuse\nthemselves in this way? The supposition seems almost absurd.'[598] There\ncould be no better description of the pranks which house-haunting\nfairies like brownies and Robin Goodfellows and elementals enjoy than\nthis; and to suppose that the dead perform such mischievous and playful\nacts is, in truth, absurd. M. Flammarion also says:--'Two inescapable\nhypotheses present themselves. Either it is we who produce these\nphenomena' (and this is not reasonable) 'or it is spirits. But mark this\nwell: these spirits are not necessarily the souls of the dead; for other\nkinds of spiritual beings may exist, and space may be full of them\nwithout our ever knowing anything about it, except under unusual\ncircumstances. _Do we not find in the different ancient literatures,\ndemons, angels, gnomes, goblins, sprites, spectres, elementals, &c.?\nPerhaps these legends are not without some foundation in fact._'[598]\n\nOn 'the phenomena of percussive and allied sound'--such as fairies and\nthe dead are said to produce--Sir William Crookes made this\nreport:--'The intelligence governing the phenomena is sometimes\nmanifestly below that of the medium. It is frequently in direct\nopposition to the wishes of the medium.... The intelligence is\nsometimes of such a character as to lead to the belief that it does not\nemanate from any person present.'[599] In the case of the 'medium' Mr.\nHome, Sir William Crookes used mechanical tests and proved to his own\nsatisfaction that physical objects moved without Mr. Home or any other\nperson being in contact with them,[600] in the way that fairies are\nbelieved to move objects. These phenomena parallel remarkable ancient\nand modern examples of the same nature: e. g. in the affair at\nCideville, France, brought before a magistrate, there is sworn evidence\nby reputable witnesses that pillows and coverlets floated away from a\nbed in which two children were asleep, and that furniture in the house\nmoved without contact.[601] Mrs. Margaret Quinn, originally of\nMullingar, but now of Howth, gave this remarkable testimony:--'When I\nwas a little girl, I lived with my mother in West Meath, near Mullingar.\nA _fort_ was at the back of our house, and mother used to hear music\nplaying round our house all night, and she has seen _them_ (the _good\npeople_). It often happened there at home that we would have clothes out\non the line and they would float off like a balloon at a time when there\nwould not be a bit of wind and in daylight. My mother would come out and\nsay, \"God bless _them_ (the _good people_). _They_ will bring them\nback.\" And then the clothes would slowly come floating back to the\nline.' And in our chapter ii there is other testimony concerning objects\nmoved without contact with human beings, either through the agency of\nfairies or of the dead. After due investigation of such and various\nother phenomena, Sir William Crookes, among other theories to explain\nthem, gives this theory:--'_The actions of a separate order of beings,\nliving on this earth, but invisible and immaterial to us. Able, however,\noccasionally to manifest their presence. Known in almost all countries\nand ages as demons (not necessarily bad), gnomes, fairies, kobolds,\nelves, goblins, Puck, &c._'[602] Here we seem to have what ought to be,\nby this stage of our study, proof of the Psychological Theory of the\nnature and origin of the Fairy-Faith.\n\nLet us now draw a few of the direct parallels thus suggested. Consider\nfirst how a fairy is said to appear, how it is described, and how it\nvanishes, and then compare the facts stated in the following case of a\nphantom reported by Sir William Crookes[603]:--'In the dusk of the\nevening' (just the time when fairies are most easily seen) 'during a\n_s\u00e9ance_ with Mr. Home at my house, the curtains of a window about eight\nfeet from Mr. Home were seen to move. A dark, shadowy, semi-transparent\nform, like that of a man, was then seen by all present standing near the\nwindow, waving the curtain with his hand. As we looked, the form faded\naway and the curtain ceased to move.' The following--Mr. Home as in the\nformer case being the 'medium'--is a still more striking instance:--'A\nphantom form came from a corner of the room, took an accordion in its\nhand, and then glided about the room playing the instrument. The form\nwas visible to all present for many minutes, Mr. Home also being seen at\nthe same time. On its coming rather close to a lady who was sitting\napart from the rest of the company, she gave a slight cry, upon which it\nvanished.' Compare the following types of observed phenomena by the same\nauthority with what our Welsh witness from the Pentre Evan country said\nabout death-candles (p. 155):--'I have seen a luminous cloud floating\nupwards to a picture.' Or, 'I have more than once had a solid\nself-luminous body placed in my hand by a hand which did not belong to\nany person in the room. In the light I have seen a luminous cloud hover\nover a heliotrope on a side-table, break a sprig off, and carry the\nsprig to a lady; and on some occasions I have seen a similar luminous\ncloud visibly condense to the form of a hand and carry small objects\nabout.' Similar lights, parallel to the death lights or death tokens\nobserved by Celtic percipients in Wales and in Brittany, and to what in\nIreland are called the 'lights' of the 'good people' or 'gentry'--all of\nwhich phenomena are traceable to no material causes as yet\ndiscovered--are reported by Iamblichus and others of his school.[604]\nAnd such lights are among phenomena best attested by modern psychical\nresearchers. Supernormally produced music, said to have been produced by\ndaemons, which is parallel to that called by several of our own\npercipients 'fairy' music, was also known to the Neo-Platonists;[604]\nand in the scientific investigations to which Mr. Home was subjected,\nmusical sounds were heard which could not be attributed to any known\nagency. In haunted houses, as psychical research discovers, the rustling\nof dresses, movements of objects, and sounds, often occur spontaneously\nwithout and with the occurrence of apparitions;[604] and these phenomena\nare parallel to certain ones which we have had cited by Celtic\npercipients as due to fairies. Mr. Lang, too, has set forth clearly the\nprobability of real 'haunts' or spirits possessing particular\nplaces--just as fairies are said to possess particular localities or\nbuildings in Celtic lands.\n\n_The Report on the Census of Hallucination_ by Professor Sidgwick's\nCommittee has furnished data sufficiently good to convince many\nscientists that phantoms (comparable in a way with Irish banshees and\nthe Breton _Ankou_) do appear to the living directly before a death as\nthough announcing it.[605] According to other equally reliable data,\nsometimes a phantasmal voice--like certain 'fairy' voices--has given\nnews of a death.[606] Myers and others have studied and recorded many\ncases of the dead appearing, as the Celtic dead appear when they have\nbeen _taken_ to Fairyland.[606]\n\nIn _Phantasms of the Living_, by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore, the\nexplanation of apparitions which are coincident with a death as being\ngenerated by a telepathic influence exerted upon the percipient by the\ndying friend, suggests the most rational interpretation of certain\nparallel kinds of apparitions, of the dead or of fairies, who, as in\nthese last examples, appear dressed in garments. It is that all such\napparitional appearances, coincident with a death or not, are equally\ndue to a telepathic force exerted by an agency independent of the\npercipient. This outside force acts as a stimulus upon the nervous\napparatus of the person to whom it is thus transmitted, and causes him\nto project out of some part of his own consciousness (which part may\nhave passed over into the subconsciousness) a visualized image already\nimpressed there. The image has natural affinity or correspondence with\nthe outside stimulus which arouses it.\n\nSuch an hypothesis curiously agrees in part with the one put forth by\nour seer-witness, the Irish mystic (p. 60 ff.). He would probably agree\nas to the visualization process in most types of ordinary apparitions.\nIn addition, he holds that Nature herself has a memory: there is some\nindefinable psychic element in the earth's atmosphere upon which all\nhuman and physical actions or phenomena are photographed or impressed.\nThese records in Nature's mind correspond to mental impressions in us.\nUnder certain inexplicable conditions, normal persons who are not seers\nmay observe Nature's mental records like pictures cast upon a\nscreen--often like moving pictures. Seers can always see them if they\nwish; and uncritical seers frequently mistake these phantom records or\npictures existing on the psychical envelope of the planet for actual\nevents now occurring, and for actual beings--fairies of various kinds\nand the dead. A recent book entitled _An Adventure_, by Elizabeth\nMorison and Frances Lamont (pseudonyms), adequately illustrates what we\nmean by such phantom pictures. During the year 1901 these two cultured\nladies saw at _le petit Trianon_ of Marie Antoinette records in the mind\nof Nature of past historical events dating from about 1789. Of this\nthere seems not to be the slightest doubt. The fairy boat-race on Lough\nGur, as described by Count John de Salis (p. 80), and the procession\nseen on Tara Hill of fairies 'like soldiers of ancient Ireland in\nreview' (p. 33), probably illustrate the same kind of phenomena (cf. pp.\n55-7, 68, 74, 123, 126, &c.).\n\nBut in visions by natural seers, following again the theory of our Irish\nseer-witness, there is present not only an outside force (as seems to be\nthe case when ordinary apparitions are seen) but also a veridical being\nwith a form and life of its own in a world of its own. Such a real\nentity is as distinct from a picture in the memory of Nature as a living\nperson is distinct from the mental picture which his friend holds and\nprojects as a visualized image when responding to a telepathic stimulus\nsent by him. The natural seer, not being obliged to see with his normal\nsense of vision, need not use the normal method (namely, visualization)\nof responding to the outside telepathic stimulus, and so does not see\nthe ordinary apparitional ghost or fairy. He exercises 'second-sight' or\necstatic vision, and while so doing is in the same plane of\nconsciousness and under the same conditions of perception as the\nintelligence which projects upon him the stimulus inducing automatically\nsuch 'second-sight' or ecstatic vision. Therefore, if the intelligence\nhas a form and nature of its own, the seer and not the non-seer will\nperceive them in their own world while his consciousness is temporarily\nfunctioning there and out of the normal plane of mental action. In other\nwords, in the normal plane the non-seer reacts normally upon the same\nstimulus upon which the seer reacts abnormally. The former percipient\nsees a non-real apparition, a visualized image out of his own\nexperience; the latter claims to see a real being. The real being exists\nnormally under conditions which are abnormal to the non-seer, but which\nto the seer become normal. The visualization of the non-seer is a\nmakeshift, a psycho-physical reaction to a purely psychical stimulus.\n\nIt is mathematically possible to conceive fourth-dimensional beings, and\nif they exist it would be impossible in a third-dimensional plane to see\nthem as they really are. Hence the ordinary apparition is non-real as a\nform, whereas the beings, which wholly sane and reliable seers claim to\nsee when exercising seership of the highest kind, may be as real to\nthemselves and to the seers as human beings are to us here in this\nthird-dimensional world when we exercise normal vision.\n\nConcerning actual demon-possession, which among spiritualists and\npsychical researchers would be called spirit phenomena through\n'mediums', and which, as we have elsewhere pointed out (pp. 249 ff.),\noffers the most rational explanation for the changeling belief and\nrelated Celtic beliefs about fairies, Dr. J. L. Nevius, in his _Demon\nPossession_, offers very important scientific data relating to China.\nDr. F. F. Ellinwood, who like that authority studied strange psychical\nphenomena in the interior districts of the Shantung Province (China) for\nmany years, says in an introductory note to that work:--'Antecedently to\nany knowledge of the New Testament' (so full of cases of\ndemon-possession) 'the people of North China believed fully in the\npossession of the minds and bodies of men by evil spirits.... It has\nalways been understood that the personality of the evil spirit usurped,\nor for the time being supplanted, that of the unwilling victim, and\nacted through his organs and faculties. Physical suffering and sometimes\nviolent paroxysms attended the presence and active influence of the\nspirit.' In the face of so many cases of such phenomena observed in\nChina by the same authorities, Dr. Ellinwood adds, as Dr. Nevius's\nconclusion, that 'no theory has been advanced which so well accords with\nthe facts as the simple and unquestioning conclusion so universally held\nby the Christians of Shantung, viz. that evil spirits do in many\ninstances possess or control the mind and will of human beings'.\nHypnotism shows how one strong and magnetic human will can control the\nmind and will of its subject; the scientific results attained by the\nSociety for Psychical Research in its study of spiritualism show a\ndisembodied will or intelligence controlling and using the body of a\nliving human being; and Dr. Nevius writes:--'Now may not\ndemon-possession be only a different, a more advanced form of\nhypnotism?' Criminal records of Europe and America show many examples of\ncondemned criminals who confessed in all sincerity that some invisible\nor outside influence led them against their better judgement to commit\ncrime; and very often in such examples the past lives of the condemned\nare so good as to set up a strong probability in favour of their belief\nin possession. And altogether in accord with the evidence of modern\nmediumship, as well as that of mediumship among the ancients, Dr. Nevius\nsays of Chinese demon-possession:--'When normal consciousness is\nrestored after one of these attacks, the subject is entirely ignorant of\neverything which has passed during that state. The most striking\ncharacteristic of those cases is that the subject evidences another\npersonality, and the normal personality for the time being is partially\nor wholly dormant. The new personality presents traits of character\nutterly different from those which really belong to the subject in his\nnormal state, and this change of character is, with rare exceptions, in\nthe direction of moral obliquity and impurity. Many persons while\n\"demon-possessed\" give evidence of knowledge which cannot be accounted\nfor in ordinary ways.... They sometimes converse in foreign languages of\nwhich in their normal states they are entirely ignorant. There are often\nheard, in connexion with \"demon possessions\", rappings and noises in\nplaces where no physical cause for them can be found; and tables,\nchairs, crockery, and the like are moved about without, so far as can be\ndiscerned, any application of physical force, exactly as we are told is\nthe case among spiritualists.'[607]\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nOur investigations (and far more exhaustive ones than ours touching\nsimilar psychical phenomena) show, when applied to the residuum or\nx-quantity, these chief results: (1) The Materialistic and the Delusion\nand Imposture Theories can be dismissed as not affecting it. (2)\nAuthorities do not agree in their opinions as to the pathological and\npsychological processes with which we are directly concerned; they are\nquite uncertain how to explain the human brain in all its more subtle\nfunctions, or the sympathetic nervous system and nervous states\ngenerally, in relation especially to human consciousness under various\nabnormal but not diseased conditions of the organism; and they do not\npropose any conclusions as final, but only as very weakly tentative,\nthough some of these are in favour of a psycho-physical view of man in\nwhich there is a close approach to the present more advanced position of\npsychical research. (3) Psychical research has furnished proof\nsufficient to convince such first-class scientists as Sir William\nCrookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, William James, M. Camille Flammarion, and\nothers, that states of consciousness exist in nature outside of, though\nprobably connected with, the consciousness of incarnate human beings,\nand that these intelligences can produce effects on matter and on the\npsychical constitution of man; and some of these scientists consider\ncertain of such intelligences to be discarnate men and women. (4)\nScientific proof has been adduced that there are genuine\nhallucinations--like those relating to fairies--of human-like forms,\nseen by single percipients, or collectively; and such collective\nhallucinations are incapable of being explained away, which is equally\ntrue of apparitions seen by a single percipient to move physical\nobjects. (5) Many of the foremost psychical researchers, including those\nnamed above, accept 'mediumship' or spirit-possession as the best\nworking hypothesis to explain automatism. (6) In the accepted theory of\ntelepathy we have support for assuming that, like hypnosis, it is a\npsychical process, and can be carried on either by two embodied spirits\nor human beings, or by a disembodied spirit and one still incarnate.\nMyers's theories, including that of the Subliminal Self, embody all the\npreceding ones and agree in details with them. (7) The results taken\ntogether harmonize with those attained in our study of psychical\nphenomena attributed by the Celtic peoples to fairies; and, if they be\naccepted, older psychological and pathological theories must be\nthoroughly revised in many cases, or else cast aside as worthless.\nFinally, since we have demonstrated that the background of the\nFairy-Faith, and hence the residuum or x-quantity of it, is like the\nbackground of all religious and mystical beliefs, being animistic, and\nlike them has grown up in ancient times out of definite psychical\nphenomena identical in character with those now studied by science, and\nis kept alive by an unbroken succession of 'seers' and percipients, we\nhave a clear right to set up under scientific authority these tentative\nconclusions: (1) Fairyland exists as a supernormal state of\nconsciousness into which men and women may enter temporarily in dreams,\ntrances, or in various ecstatic conditions; or for an indefinite period\nat death. (2) Fairies exist, because in all essentials they appear to be\nthe same as the intelligent forces now recognized by psychical\nresearchers, be they thus collective units of consciousness like what\nWilliam James has called 'soul-stuff', or more individual units, like\nveridical apparitions. (3) Our examination of living children said to\nhave been changed by fairies shows (see pp. 250-1) (_a_) that many\nchangelings are so called merely because of some bodily deformity or\nbecause of some abnormal mental or pathological characteristics capable\nof an ordinary rational explanation, (_b_) but that other changelings\nwho exhibit a change of personality, such as is recognized by\npsychologists, are in many cases best explained on the Demon-Possession\nTheory, which is a well-established scientific hypothesis.\n\nTherefore, since the residuum or x-quantity of the Fairy-Faith, the\nfolk-religion of the Celtic peoples, cannot be explained away by any\nknown scientific laws, it must for the present stand, and the\nPsychological Theory of the Nature and Origin of the Belief in Fairies\nin Celtic Countries is to be considered as hypothetically established in\nthe eyes of Science. Hence we must cease to look upon the term _fairy_\nas being always a synonym for something fanciful, non-real, absurd. We\nmust also cease to think of the Fairy-Faith as being no more than a\nfabric of groundless beliefs. In short, the ordinary non-Celtic mind\nmust readjust itself to a new set of phenomena which through ignorance\non its part it has been content to disregard, and to treat with ridicule\nand contempt as so much outworn 'superstition'.\n\n\n\n\nSECTION IV\n\nMODERN SCIENCE AND THE FAIRY-FAITH; AND CONCLUSIONS\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE CELTIC DOCTRINE OF RE-BIRTH AND OTHERWORLD SCIENTIFICALLY EXAMINED\n\n     'If all things which partook of life were to die, and after they\n     were dead remained in the form of death, and did not come to life\n     again, all would at last die, and nothing would be alive--what\n     other result could there be?'--SOCRATES, as reported by Plato.\n\n     'The soul, if immortal, existed before our birth. What is\n     incorruptible must be ungenerable.'--HUME.\n\n     'If there be no reasons to suppose that we have existed before that\n     period at which our existence apparently commences, then there are\n     no grounds for supposing that we shall continue to exist after our\n     existence has apparently ceased.'--SHELLEY.\n\n     The extension of the terms Fairy and Fairyland--The real man as an\n     invisible force acting through a body-conductor--A psychical organ\n     essential for memory--Pre-existence a scientific necessity--The\n     vitalistic view of evolution--Old theory of heredity\n     disproved--Embryology supports re-birth doctrine--Psycho-physical\n     evolution--Memory of previous existences in\n     subconsciousness--Examples--Dream psychology furnishes clearest\n     illustrations--No post-existence without\n     pre-existence--Resurrection as re-birth--The Circle of Life--The\n     mystical corollary--Conclusion: the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth and\n     Otherworld is essentially scientific.\n\n\nIn the esoteric Fairy-Faith, the terms Fairy and Fairyland attain their\nbroadest meaning. To the Celtic mystic, the universe is divisible into\ntwo interpenetrating parts or aspects: the visible in which we are now,\nand the invisible which is Fairyland or the Otherworld; and a fairy is\nan intelligent being, either embodied as a member of the human race or\nelse resident in the Otherworld. The latter class includes many distinct\nhierarchies and lower orders. Some, like the highest of the Tuatha De\nDanann, who are the same in character as the gods of the Greeks and\nHindoos, are superhuman; others are the souls of the dead; while many\nare subhuman and have never been embodied in gross physical bodies.\nThese last include daemons (incorrectly regarded by Christian and other\ntheologies as being in all cases evil, and called demons); and other\nlike spirits, such as those which Dr. Tylor, in _Primitive Culture_, has\ndesignated nature spirits (leprechauns, pixies, knockers, _corrigans_,\n_lutins_, _little folk_, elves generally, and their counterparts in all\nnon-Celtic Fairy-Faiths), which are the elementals of mediaeval mystics.\n\nIn the preceding chapter chiefly the lower species of fairies were under\nconsideration, but now the higher orders (including human souls embodied\nand disembodied), in their relation toward one another, are to be\nconsidered independently. It becomes necessary, then, to present here a\nview of life and death not yet scientifically orthodox.\n\nThe Celt in all ages of his long history, like the ancient Greek\nthinkers with whom his ancestors were contemporary, has always been\ninclined, unlike modern scientists, to seek an explanation for the\nphenomena of evolutionary life by postulating a noumenal world of causes\nas the background of the phenomenal world of effects. To-day, the rapid\nmarch of scientific pioneers, chiefly those in psychical research, is\nbringing our own cold and exact science very close to that indefinable\nboundary which separates the two worlds; and for that reason alone a\npresentation of the Celtic theory of the causes operating to produce\ndeath and birth will be, at least by way of suggestion, of some value.\n\nFacts of common everyday knowledge are apt to lose their significance\nthrough too great familiarity. A fact of this character is that when\neach child is born it must awaken into life. Often it is not known\nwhether the newly-born babe is dead or alive until it stretches forth\nits arms and breathes or cries. And this phenomenon of our first\nawakening and entry upon the visible plane of life and conscious action\nseems to corroborate what the early Celt who thoughtfully observed it\nheld to be true, and what the Celt of to-day holds to be true: that the\nmaterial substance composing the body of man is merely a means of\nexpression for life, a conductor for an unknown force which exhibits\nvolition and individual consciousness; just as material substance in a\ncondition called inanimate is a conductor for another unknown force\ncalled electricity, which does not exhibit any volition or\nconsciousness. Destroy the human body, and there is no manifestation of\nits life force; destroy a wire, and there is no manifestation of\nelectric light: the human body seems to be merely incidental in the\nhistory of the individual consciousness, as a wire is incidental to\nelectric light.\n\nBut is this consciousness of man which we call life simply a phenomenon\nof matter non-existent without a physical means of expression, or does\nit--like electricity after the wire is destroyed--continue to exist in\nan unmanifested state when the human body is cold and motionless in\ndeath? And in the case of a child born dead has this consciousness found\nsome organic imperfection in the newly-constructed infant body which\nmade its manifestation impossible? A few thoughts to aid in answering\nthese questions will probably suggest themselves if we briefly consider\nthe great difference between a human body in life and a human body in\ndeath. In life, there is the highly organized, delicately adjusted,\nperfectly balanced human body responding to the will of an invisible\npower; and it is admitted by all schools of philosophers, moralists, and\nscientists that this invisible power--whatever it may be--is the real\nman.\n\nThis invisible power, beginning its manifestation through a microscopic\nbit of germ-plasm, gradually builds for itself a more and more complex\nphysical habitation, until, after the short space of nine months, it\nclaims membership among the ranks of men. During the many years of its\nsojourn on our planet, it renews its habitation many times. Every atom\nit began with in childhood is discarded and replaced by a new one long\nbefore the age of manhood is reached, and yet upon reaching manhood the\ninvisible power remembers what it did in a child's frame. This indicates\nthat memory or consciousness as a psychical process does not depend\nessentially upon a material brain nor upon a certain grouping of\never-changing brain-substance; for if it did, apparently it would slowly\nand imperceptibly undergo change as completely as the whole physical\nbody and brain. This physiological process furnishes sufficient data to\nallow us to postulate that there is a psychical organ of memory behind\nthe physical sense-consciousness, and that such an organ in itself is,\nat least during a human-life period, unchanging in its composition.\nWithout such an organ, the process of memory when more fully analysed\n(in a way we cannot here attempt) is inexplicable.[608]\n\nThe simplest hypothesis is to conceive that organ as the one connected\nwith the subconsciousness or super-sense-consciousness, by means of\nwhich the invisible power or rememberer is able to remember and to\nimpress its memory upon the temporary and continually unstable physical\nbrain. In the process of memory there must be first of all a thing to be\nremembered; second, a record of that thing to be remembered; and third,\nsomething to remember that thing. The thing remembered is the result of\na conscious experience, the record of it the result of its impress at\nthe time it was experienced, but the rememberer is neither.\n\nThat invisible power, which we have called the real man, animates the\nbody, it places food in it as fuel to produce animal heat, animal\nvitality and force, and tries to keep it in good working order as long\nas possible. If the body is imperfect at birth or becomes so later, that\ninvisible power is forced to act through it imperfectly; if the brain is\ndiseased, there is insanity, if undeveloped, idiocy; and when the body\nceases to respond either perfectly or imperfectly, the invisible power\nmust surrender it entirely, and there is what we call death.\n\nNow what is this invisible power or force which has entirely vanished,\nleaving the physical body and brain cold and motionless? Let us see if\nthere is an answer. Chemical analysis proves that the visible parts of\nthe body of man are merely transformed gases; but in a complete analysis\nof a living body such as man's there are certain elements to be\nconsidered which are always invisible.[609] Thus at death there is\ninstantly a cessation of all bodily consciousness--of all willing,\nthinking, movement. The power which has made the body conscious, and\nwhich cannot be compared to any known form of matter, is entirely gone.\nBut there is left in the body a moment after its departure everything\nwhich we know to be material--the animal heat, the animal magnetism, the\nanimal vitality. When these are gone, the body is cold and stiff, and in\nno essential way unlike any other mass of inert matter. If heat be\napplied to the body, or magnetism, or vital forces, there is nothing in\nit to retain them any more than there would be in a stone. The real man\nis gone. Then the body begins to disintegrate. The law of the\nconservation of energy and the indestructibility of matter makes it\ncertain that in the process of death nothing has been lost, certainly\nnothing material. The animal heat has gone off somewhere in the\natmosphere or in some other matter; the animal magnetism and vitality\nare momentarily lost sight of, but soon they will be attached to other\norganic beings such as plants or animals to begin a new cycle of\nembodiment. The physical constituents of the body will go to their\nappropriate places, into the air as gases, into the water as fluids,\ninto the earth as salts and minerals, and in a short time may form the\nparts of a flower, or fruit, or animal. But where or what is the\nwilling, the thinking, the remembering, the directing force which once\ncontrolled all these and held them together in unity? Ultra-violet rays\nare invisible, but they show their existence through their chemical\naction; similarly a soul or Ego may exist invisibly and show its\nexistence through the vital and physical unity manifested by a living\nhuman being. As we have already seen in the preceding chapter, there are\na number of the first men of science who feel that when all the data of\nthe latest scientific discoveries in the realm of psychology and of\npsychical research are impartially examined there is no escape from some\nsuch hypothesis as the ancient hypothesis of a soul.\n\nIf we accept the soul hypothesis, as it seems we must, and regard a soul\nas an indestructible unit of invisible power possessing consciousness\nand volition, and normally able to exist independently of a human body,\nthen it becomes a logical and a scientific necessity to postulate its\npre-existence, because as such a unit it is indestructible, in\naccordance with the law of the conservation of energy and\nindestructibility of matter. We speak here not of the ordinary soul or\nhuman personal consciousness, but of that Ego which Celtic mystics\nconceive as the permanent principle (though probably itself relative to\nsome still higher power) behind the personality--which, in turn, they\nbelieve is a temporary combination wholly dependent upon the Ego.\nAccordingly, it is scientifically possible for such a soul as a\nhomogeneous unit of force or conscious energy to pass from one mass of\nmatter or physical body to another without disintegration, diminution,\nor loss of its own identity. It is scientifically certain, also, from\nexperiments performed to test the power of resistance to decomposition\nexhibited by the force which we call life in an organic body, that such\na force is capable of outwearing many physical embodiments.[610] Recent\ndemonstrations tend to show that the heredity hypothesis cannot be held\nto account fully for such widely varied character or soul individuality\nas may be exhibited by members of one family. We must therefore account\nfor mental, moral, and certainly psychical inequalities among our race\nby some other hypothesis; and no hypothesis is more scientific, more in\nline with known physiological and psychical processes, or more in accord\nwith the law of evolution, than that of re-birth.\n\nThe theory of the mechanical transmission of acquired characteristics\nin a purely physical manner through the germ-plasm is no longer tenable\nwhen all the data of physiology and psychology are admitted. A\nvitalistic view of evolution is rapidly developing in the scientific\nworld, and the weight of evidence is decidedly in favour of regarding\nall evolutionary processes, reaching from the lowest to the highest\norganisms, as illustrating a gradual unfolding in the sensuous world of\na pre-existing psychical power through an ever-increasing complexity of\nspecialized structures, this complexity being brought about by natural\nselection. Such a view is also strongly supported if not confirmed by\nthe general scientific belief that spontaneous generation of life is and\nalways has been impossible on our planet or on any planet: there must\nhave been life before its physical manifestation or its physical\nevolution began.\n\nWe may regard this psychical power as like a vast reservoir of\nconsciousness ever trying to force itself through matter, the walls of\nthe reservoir. Through the microscopic body of an amoeba there has\npercolated a very minute drop from the reservoir. As evolution advances,\nthe walls of the reservoir become more and more porous, and little by\nlittle the drop increases to a tiny rivulet. Through the higher animals,\nthe tiny rivulet flows as a brook. Through man as he is, the brook flows\nas a deep and broad river. Throughout the completely evolved man of the\nfar distant future, the deep and broad river will have overflowed all\nits banks, it will have inundated and completely overwhelmed the\nanimal-human nature of the individual through whom it flows, as the\nwhole volume of the vast reservoir pours itself out. The ordinary\nconsciousness of man will then have been transmuted into the\nsubconsciousness, of which it had always been a pale reflection. In\nother words, if the theory of the mechanical transmission of acquired\ncharacteristics has failed, as seems to be the case, then we must assume\nthat there is, as the bearer of all gains made from generation to\ngeneration, some sort of psychical or vitalistic principle. This, making\nuse of the germ-plasm merely as a physical basis for its manifestation,\nbegins to build up a body suited to its further evolutionary needs.\n\nThe brilliant discoveries of Dr. Jacques Loeb and of M. Yves Delage have\ndemolished absolutely the old idea that each organ and each tissue\ncontained in embryo in the normal egg-germ must develop in a particular\nand co-ordinate way into a normal organism and after the parental type:\nit is possible to make a head grow where there ought to be feet; and at\nZ\u00fcrich, Standfuss, solely through changing the temperature of his\nlaboratory, was able to obtain from the same species of butterfly forms\nwhich were tropical and forms which were arctic.[611] All this helps to\nestablish the hypothesis, which amounts to certainty, that the\nconformation of a physical body, or even the kind of species to be born,\nis directly determined by physical environment and not by heredity, and\nthat the chief factor to consider in organisms is the life animating the\nbody. Physical environment affects only the physical organism; it does\nnot affect the invisible and unknown life-principle resident within the\nphysical organism.\n\nThe process of fertilization is a physical process. As such it is simply\ninitiatory to embryonic evolution which also is physical. Once the\nproper physical conditions are set up by the parents, life pursues its\nmarvellous progress in the womb of the human mother, from the\namoeba-like initial embryo to man. That is to say, parents set in motion\nthe laws governing the reproduction of physical bodies. They create such\nconditions as enable the invisible life-force to begin its physical\nmanifestation.[612] In the two fused germs from the parents resides the\nphysical inheritance of the offspring, to be outwardly shaped by\nenvironment; but the physical inheritance is a thing distinct from the\npsychical part of the living being, just as much as the dead human body\nis a thing apart from the life which has left it. Though the old\nheredity theory is overthrown by late discoveries, the question as to\nwhat life is in human bodies under all possible environmental conditions\nremains unsolved; and so do the questions why there should be sports in\nnature, which among man are called geniuses, and why every human being\nhas a distinct and highly developed individual character, essentially\nunlike that of his immediate ancestors.\n\nEmbryology proves conclusively that the human embryo retraces in its\ngrowth the evolution of lower life-forms. At first consisting of two\nsingle cells fused into one, it is like the amoeba. By cell-division it\ngrows and progresses step by step through each lower realm of being\nuntil it comes to be a water-creature with gills; and science teaches\nthat all organic life on this planet once dwelt in the seas. It grows\nprogressively out of the water-world stage of organic life into the\nworld of air-breathing creatures. Nature at last achieves her highest\nproduct, and a human being is born out of the Womb of Time. The initial\nmicroscopic bit of germ-plasm is endowed with power of motion, thought,\nand human consciousness, with dominion over all the lower kingdoms\nthrough which by right of ancient conquests it passed in the brief\nperiod of nine months. On every side the problem of life is full of\npoetry and wonder; it is the greatest mystery.\n\nNot only can we thus study the age-long evolution of the physical man,\nbut we have recently acquired sufficient scientific data to lay\nfoundations for a study of the evolution of the psychical man. Thus, for\nexample, instincts seem to be nothing more than habits which through\nunknown periods of time have become so ingrained in the constitution of\nman, and of all animals, that now they have become second nature and\nusually are exercised without the need of reasoning processes. The\ninfluence from innate sensuous experiences rises into consciousness as\nthe life of every normal child and youth unfolds itself; and these\nexperiences in their full expansion, when the age of maturity has been\nreached, constitute in their unity what we call character, which, in one\nsense, may be defined as the sum total of instincts of every kind. From\nsuch a point of view, the psychical or invisible power in man is merely\na bundle of acquired habits which make use of the bodily organism in\norder to express themselves--in the same way, as we have pointed out,\nthat electrical forces manifest their presence through a conductor. If\nthese habits be good, we call their possessor a good man; if evil, we\ncall him an evil man.\n\nThe theory of Charles Darwin suggests that all evolutionary progress is\ndirected to the acquirement of newer and ever higher instincts. And if\nthis process be the true one, that is to say, if all instincts, which in\ntheir finer distinctions mark off species from species in all animal\nkingdoms, be as Darwin thought--and as is to-day more clearly\nevident--the result of a long and gradual evolution through experience\nin a sensuous realm of existence, then it would seem to follow that\nthere must be some kind of a monad (probably a non-sensuous one) to\nwhich such acquired instincts can attach themselves. Such a monad, too,\nmust have been a percipient and hence a recorder of such\never-accumulating experiences throughout an inconceivably long chain of\nlives, and it of itself must, while so perceiving and recording, not be\nsubject to the transitoriness of the sensuous realm wherein it gathers\ntogether these instincts, which in their unified expression form its\npersonality or human character.\n\nIn harmony with the vitalistic view of evolution, which implies a\npre-existent psychical power continually striving to express itself\ncompletely through matter, yet normally able to exist independently of a\nphysical means of expression, we should regard such high mental\nprocesses as judgement, reasoning, analysis and synthesis, and spatial\nperception, along with memory, as resultants of very great experience in\na sensuous world, on which in our present psycho-physical constitution\nsuch processes appear to have direct bearing. In other words, for man to\nbe able to exercise such high mental processes there is need to\npostulate incalculable ages of specialization in the nervous apparatus,\nand in psycho-physical adjustment, of a kind which has thus enabled the\npsychical power to express itself to such a supreme degree in the realm\nof mind and matter. The same vitalistic argument is applicable to the\nlower mental processes and to the instinctual powers in man, because we\ncannot at any time, in viewing the complete evolution of man as a\ntwofold being composed of a physical and a psychical part, force aside\nFechner's conviction that the problem is a psycho-physical one. A study\nof sexual instincts in children seems to confirm this.[613]\n\nSuch a psychical and vitalistic hypothesis is, as we have seen, strongly\nsupported by embryology; and embryology proves conclusively the need of\nlong ages of physical evolution for the development of each tissue and\nhighly specialized organ in the human body. Certain French and German\nand other scientists of the vitalistic school have demonstrated\nphysiologically the need of a pre-existent power as the unifying\nprinciple which attracts and compels material atoms to group themselves\ninto the pattern of the human body[614]--or, as we may add, of any\norganic body. Psychical researchers at the outset of their science seem\napparently to have demonstrated psychologically the post-existence of\nthe personal consciousness-unity; and it is very likely when further\nprogress has been made in psychics that there will arise a logical need\nto postulate, in addition to the personal consciousness-unity, a\nhypothetical pre-existent soul-monad as the unifying principle which\nattracts and compels psychical atoms of experience (if such an\nexpression may be used) to group themselves into the personal\nconsciousness-unity which appears to survive the death of the gross\nphysical body--for a long or short time, as future research may\nshow.[615] Such a soul-monad, to follow the view held by Celtic mystics,\nled by acquired instincts which were transmitted to it through the\npersonality (held by the Celtic esoteric doctrine to be a temporary\ncombination), apparently weaves out of matter the body-unit adapted to\nits further evolution, in a way analogous to that in which a silkworm is\nled by acquired instincts to weave a cocoon. This body-unit is twofold:\n(1) the visible body derived from the visible elements of matter; and\n(2) the invisible or ghost-body derived from the invisible or ethereal\nelements of matter.\n\nStrictly speaking, for the Celtic mystic this soul-monad is something\nupon which the personal consciousness depends for its psychical unity in\nprecisely the same way as the physical body depends upon the personal\nconsciousness for its physical unity. The Celtic mystic holds that just\nas the body-unity falls back again into its primal elements of matter,\nso the personal consciousness-unity (apparently able to survive in the\nghost-body for a long period after its separation from the grosser\nphysical envelope or human body) also in due time is discarded by the\nsoul-monad or individuality, and then falls back into its primal\npsychical constituents. In other words, the Celtic Esoteric Doctrine of\nRe-birth correctly interpreted does not conceive personal immortality,\nbut it conceives a greater kind of immortality--the immortality of the\nunknown principle which gives unity to each temporary personality it\nmakes use of, and which we prefer to designate as the individuality, the\nimpersonator. And this individuality is the bearer of all evolutionary\ngains made in each temporary personality through which it reflects\nitself: it is the permanent evolving principle.\n\nPerhaps an analogy drawn from nature will make the Celtic position\nclearer: we may say that the personality occupies a position between the\nhuman body and the soul-monad, just as the moon occupies a position\nbetween the earth and the sun. Personal consciousness is to the human\nbody what the moonlight is to the earth, merely a pale reflection from a\nthird thing, the soul-monad or individuality, which is the ultimate\nsource of both sets of unities, the material or body-unity in its\ntwofold aspect and the psychical or personal consciousness-unity. Each\npersonality is temporary, while the individuality, like the sun in\nrelation to the earth and moon, is capable of at least a relative\nimmortality: the sun's light, as science holds, existed before there was\nany moon to reflect it on to the earth, and may continue to exist when\nboth the moon and earth are disintegrated. The essential nature of the\nsun's energy or life remains unknown to science; so does the essential\nnature of the energy or life manifesting itself as the individuality.\nThough all such analogies are more or less weak, this one adequately\nfits in with the theories concerning the Celtic Esoteric Doctrine of\nRe-birth which the most learned of contemporary Celts, chiefly mystics,\nhave favoured us with; and it is our rare privilege to put these\ntheories on record for whatever they may be worth. The best hypothesis\nis always the one which best explains all available data, and, to our\nmind, when very minutely examined, in a way which (chiefly for reasons\nof space) cannot be attempted here, this Celtic hypothesis concerning\nthe nature and destiny of man is the best hitherto adduced.[616]\n\nObjectors to the Re-birth Doctrine as held by the Celts and other\npeoples anciently and now, naturally ask why, if we have lived before\nhere on earth in physical bodies, we do not remember it. But the\nshallowness and unscientific nature of this question is at once apparent\nto psychologists who know that there exists in man a subconscious mind\nwhich in the great mass of people is almost totally dormant. 'The\nsubconscious self,' wrote William James, 'is nowadays a well-accredited\npsychological entity.... Apart from all religious considerations, there\nis actually and literally more life in our total soul than we are at any\ntime aware of.' And he added:--'It thus is \"scientific\" to interpret all\notherwise unaccountable invasive alternations of consciousness as\nresults of the tension of subliminal memories reaching a bursting\npoint.'[617] Intuition, which all men have experienced, would seem to be\nthe result of a momentary contact by the physical brain with its\npsychical counterpart--the subconscious self, the individuality as\ndistinguished from the personality.\n\nCertain observed psychological processes in ordinary men and women, who\nnever really know that they have a subconsciousness or Transcendental\nSelf, prove that it exists even for them, and any part of man which\nexists and functions of itself can be developed so as to be consciously\nperceived. This is incontestable. Let us point out a few of these\nobserved and recorded psychological processes. There may be an unsolved\nproblem in the mind, or inability to recall a certain name or fact, and\nthen a sudden, unexpected intuitional solving of the problem and an\ninstantaneous recollecting of the desired facts, at a time when the\nordinary mind may be entirely absorbed in altogether foreign thoughts.\nAgain, many persons through accident or disease have lost their memory\nto such an extent as to require complete re-education, and then in time,\ngradually or instantaneously, as the case may be, have completely\nrecovered it.[618] And we noticed in our study of supernatural lapse of\ntime (p. 469) that at the moment of accidental loss of consciousness, as\nin drowning for example, all forgotten details of life are\ninstantaneously reproduced in a complete panorama. These psychological\nprocesses support what we have said above with respect to a psychical\norgan being behind the sense-consciousness, and seem thus to prove that\nthe subconscious mind is the place for recording permanently all\nexperiences.[619] Under hypnosis, a subject may be requested to perform\na certain act, let us say 11,999 minutes after the moment of making the\nrequest. When the hypnotic condition is removed, the subject has no\npersonal consciousness of the suggestion, but, as different experiments\nhave proved conclusively, he invariably performs the act exactly at the\nexpiration of the 11,999 minutes without knowing why he does so. This\nproves that there is a subconsciousness in man which can take full\ncognizance of such a suggestion, which can keep count of the passing of\ntime and then cause the unconscious personality to act in response to\nits will.[620] Again, in extreme old age people who have come to have an\nimperfect memory or none at all in their normal consciousness, under\nabnormal conditions (which seemingly are due to a temporary influx of a\nlatent psychical power into the physical body and brain, or else to an\nawakening of a dormant force within the physical body and brain\nthemselves) often regain, for a time, complete and clear memory of their\nchildhood. This proves that the memory is somewhere still perfect, and\nthat it does not reside in the consciousness of the age-exhausted\nphysical brain and memory. Albert Moll, in his treatise on hypnotism,\nsays that events in the normal life which have dropped out of memory can\nbe remembered in hypnosis:--'An English officer in Africa was hypnotized\nby Hansen, and suddenly began to speak a strange language. This turned\nout to be Welsh, which he had learnt as a child, but had\nforgotten.'[621] And even memory of acts done in hypnotic somnambulism\ncan be awakened in the normal state.[622] Furthermore, through\npsycho-analysis, as Professor Freud has shown, forgotten dreams and\ndreams which were never complete in the ordinary consciousness can be\nrecovered in their entirety out of the subconsciousness.[623] How many\nof us can recall without some mental stimulus certain acts performed ten\nyears ago? A good deal of our present life is no longer vivid, much of\nit is forgotten, and in old age many of the memories of youth and of\nmature life will be subconscious. If this brain, whose total existence\nis comprised between birth and death, cannot remember in a normal way\nall its own experiences, how could it be expected to know anything at\nall of hypothetical past lives where there were various physical brains\nlong ago disintegrated--unless the hypothetically ever-existing\ntranscendental individuality, whose consciousness is the\nsubconsciousness, be made by some unusual psychical stimuli to transmit\nits memory of the past lives to each new brain it creates? In other\nwords, to have memory of pre-existent conditions there must be\ncontinuity of association with present conditions. If such continuity\nexists, it exists in the subconsciousness. And if it exists therein,\nthen in order to recall in the present personal or ordinary\nconsciousness, which began at birth, memory of an anterior state of\nconsciousness, it would be necessary to hold impressed upon the present\nphysical brain and body a clear and unremittent consciousness of the\nsubconsciousness. In relation to our personal consciousness, apparently\nour greatest powers lie in the subconsciousness which is sleeping and in\nembryo, awaiting to be born into the consciousness of this world through\nthe slow process of evolutionary gestation. In the case of a Buddha, who\non good historical authority is said to have been able to recall all\npast existences from the lowest to the highest, this evolutionary\nprocess seems to have reached completion.[624]\n\nUnder ordinary conditions, individuals have been known to see a place\nwhich they have never seen before, or to do a thing which they have\nnever done before in this life nor in any conscious dream-state, and yet\nfeel that they have seen the place before and done the thing before. M.\nTh. Ribot, in his _Diseases of Memory_ (chapter iv), has brought\ntogether many cases of this kind. Some are undoubtedly explicable as\nforgotten experiences of the present life. Others, to our mind, strongly\nsupport the theory of pre-existent experiences preserved in memory in\nthe subconsciousness.\n\nUnder chloroform, or other anaesthetics, patients often recover for the\ntime being forgotten facts of experience, and sometimes appear to make\nmomentary contact with their subconsciousness and to exhibit therein\nanother personality. In certain well-defined types of double\npersonality, which are not the kind due to demon-possession nor to\nspirit-possession as in 'mediumship', there are two memories, 'each\ncomplete and absolutely independent of the other.'[625] And in similar\ncases, where the subject exhibits alternately numerous personalities, we\nsee the individuality, that is to say the subconscious man, exhibiting,\nas a dramatist might, various characters or personalities of probable\npast existences according as each is most active at the moment.\nSimilarly, crystal-gazing sometimes seems not only to revive lost\nmemories of this life, but also to call up subconscious memories of some\nunknown state of consciousness which may be from a previous life.[626]\n\nM. Ribot has made it clear from his careful study of numerous cases of\namnesia (loss of memory) that 'recollections return in an inverse order\nto that in which they disappear'. For example, a celebrated Russian\nastronomer lost all memory save that of his childhood, and in recovering\nit there appeared first the recollections of youth, then those of middle\nage, then the experiences of later years, and, finally, the most recent\nevents. Many even more marked examples of the law of regression in\namnesia are given by M. Ribot. We conclude from them that all strange\nand apparently long-forgotten facts of experience arising in\nconsciousness out of the subconsciousness, as in the different cases\nwhich have been cited above, would necessarily be those which have been\nthe longest lost to memory; and hence if they cannot be attached to this\npresent life then they can only be derived from a former life, because\nevery primary detail of memory must always originate from an experience\nat some past period of time. M. Ribot himself, in his conclusion to\n_The Diseases of Memory_, makes this significant observation with\nrespect to the law of regression in amnesia:--'This law of regression\nprovides us with an explanation for extraordinary revivification of\ncertain recollections when the mind turns backward to conditions of\nexistence that had apparently disappeared for ever.'\n\nIn dreams there is a great wealth of latent memory; sometimes memory of\nthe present waking life, but often not capable, apparently, of being\nattached to it, nor explicable as due to the soul wandering from the\nbody during sleep: the hypothesis of re-birth seems to be the only\nadequate one here. Certain dreams suggest that man possesses innate\nmemories extending backwards to prehistoric times (cf. p. 5 above). This\nfits in with Professor Freud's theory in his _Die Traumdeutung_, that\n'the dream is nothing else than the concealed fulfilment of a repressed\nwish.' Some dreams are 'in the form of frightful, cruel, horrible\nscenes, which seem frightful to us, but in a certain depth of the\nunconscious satisfy wishes which, in the \"prehistoric\" ages of our own\nmental development, were actually recognized as desires.'[627] This also\nsupports our vitalistic view of the evolution of human instincts. Again,\nin somnambulism there is a much more exalted memory, and clear cases are\non record of facts being then consciously present which cannot be\naccounted for save through the same hypothesis.[628]\n\nIf we keep in mind the psychology of the dream state, we shall probably\nget the clearest intellectual theory as to why, if pre-existence be\ntrue, we do not remember various previous states of existence. In our\npresent state of consciousness we may enter a dream state, in that dream\nstate by dreaming we enter a second dream state, and theoretically,\nthough not by common experience, there may be no limit to superimposed\ndream states, each one in itself a state of consciousness distinct from\nthe waking consciousness. Accordingly, if, as Wordsworth put it, 'our\nbirth is but a sleep and a forgetting' of another state of\nconsciousness, and death the abrupt ending of that sleep of dreams and a\nwaking up, or if the direct opposite be true, and death is the entrance\nto a sleep and dream state of consciousness, it becomes very clear how\ndifficult it would be for us here now either to recall what we may have\ndreamt or have actually done in another state of conscious existence\ncorresponding to our present one. The subtle thinkers of modern India,\nwho completely accept the doctrine of re-birth as a universal law, have\nsummed up this abstruse aspect of the dream psychology as follows:--'The\nfirst or spiritual state was ecstasy; from ecstasy it (the Ego) forgot\nitself into deep sleep; from deep sleep it awoke out of unconsciousness,\nbut still within itself, into the internal world of dreams; from\ndreaming it passed finally into the thoroughly waking state, and the\nouter world of sense.'[629] But our own psychologists are not yet far\nenough advanced to accept this; much more work in psychical research\nmust first be done before it will be possible for them to announce to\nthe West that pre-existence is a necessary condition for post-existence\nwhich they now hypothetically accept. If for the present our standpoint\nbe that of our own psychologists, we may then think of the human\nconsciousness as a spectrum whose central parts alone are visible to us.\nBeyond at either end lies an unseen and to us unknown region, awaiting\nits explorer from the West. 'Each one of us is in reality an abiding\npsychical entity far more extensive than he knows--an individuality\nwhich can never express itself completely through any corporeal\nmanifestation. The Self manifests through the organism; but there is\nalways some part of the Self unmanifested; and always, as it seems, some\npower of organic expression in abeyance or reserve.'[630] William James\nstated the position thus:--'The B. region' (another name for the region\nof subconsciousness), 'then, is obviously the larger part of each of us,\nfor it is the abode of everything that is latent, and the reservoir of\neverything that passes unrecorded and unobserved.'[631]\n\nMen of science see no way of accepting the doctrine of the resurrection\nof the physical body as at present interpreted by Christian theology;\nbut the late Professor Th. Henri Martin, Dean of the Faculty of Letters\nof the University of Rennes, has suggested in his _La Vie future_ that\nthe doctrine may be the exoteric interpretation of a long-forgotten\nesoteric truth; namely, that the soul may be resurrected in a new\nphysical body, and this is scientifically possible.[632]\n\nThe ancient scientists called Life a Circle. In the upper half of this\nCircle, or here on the visible plane, we know that in the physiological\nhistory of man and of all living things there is first the embryonic or\nprenatal state, then birth; and as life, like a sun, rises in its\nnew-born power toward the zenith, there is childhood, youth, and\nmaturity; and then, as it passes the zenith on its way to the horizon,\nthere is decline, old age, and, finally, death; and as a scientific\npossibility we have in the lower half of the Circle, in Hades or the\nOtherworld of the Celts and of all peoples, corresponding processes\nbetween death and a hypothetical but logically necessary re-birth.[633]\n\nThe logical corollary to the re-birth doctrine, and an integral part of\nthe Celtic esoteric theory of evolution, is that there have been human\nraces like the present human race who in past aeons of time have evolved\ncompletely out of the human plane of conscious existence into the divine\nplane of conscious existence. Hence the gods are beings which once were\nmen, and the actual race of men will in time become gods. Man now stands\nrelated to the divine and invisible world in precisely the same manner\nthat the brute stands related to the human race. To the gods, man is a\nbeing in a lower kingdom of evolution. According to the complete Celtic\nbelief, the gods can and do enter the human world for the specific\npurposes of teaching men how to advance most rapidly toward the higher\nkingdom. In other words, all the Great Teachers, e. g. Jesus, Buddha,\nZoroaster, and many others, in different ages and among various races,\nwhose teachings are extant, are, according to a belief yet held by\neducated and mystical Celts, divine beings who in inconceivably past\nages were men but who are now gods, able at will to incarnate into our\nworld, in order to emphasize the need which exists in nature, by virtue\nof the working of evolutionary laws (to which they themselves are still\nsubject), for man to look forward, and so strive to reach divinity\nrather than to look backward in evolution and thereby fall into mere\nanimalism. The stating of this mystical corollary makes the exposition\nof the Fairy-Faith complete, at least in outline.\n\nAs shown by the Barddas MSS. in our chapter vii, the Celtic Doctrine of\nRe-birth is the scientific extension of Darwin's law as corrected,[634]\nthat alone through traversing the Circle of Life man reaches that\ndestined perfection which natural analogies, life's processes as\nexhibited by living things, and evolution, suggest, and from which at\npresent man is so far removed. There seems to emerge this postulate: the\nworld is the object of normal consciousness, the Ego or Soul-Monad the\nobject of subconsciousness; and the subconsciousness cannot be realized\nin the world until through the normal consciousness of man the Ego is\nable to function completely, and so endow man with full\nself-consciousness in matter, which endowment seems to be the goal of\nall planetary evolution.\n\nWe conclude that the Otherworld of the Celts and their Doctrine of\nRe-birth accord thoroughly in their essentials with modern science; and,\naccordingly, with other essential elements in the complete Celtic\nFairy-Faith which we have in the preceding chapter found to be equally\nscientific, establish our Psychological Theory of the Nature and Origin\nof that Fairy-Faith upon a logical and solid foundation; and we now\nsubmit this study to the judgement of our readers. With more complete\nevidence in the future, both from folk-lore and from science, there will\nbe, we trust, a better vindication of the Theory, and perhaps finally\nthere will come about its transformation into what it but seems to us to\nbe now--a Fact.\n\nSome beliefs which a century ago were regarded as absurdities are now\nregarded as fundamentally scientific. In the same way, what in this\ngeneration is heretical alike to the Christian theologian and to the man\nof science may in coming generations be accepted as orthodox.\n\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n  _Adamnan's Vision_, 356.\n\n  Aeneas, Journey of, 336-7, 343, 382, 445.\n\n  Aengus, 62, 292, 301, 376, 397, 413-4.\n\n  ---- Cult of, 415 ff., 450.\n\n  ---- Dun, 2, 41, 416-8.\n\n  _Agallamh_, 28, 283 n., 286, 290, 292, 295, 402, 412.\n\n  ---- _an d\u00e1 Shuadh_, 344.\n\n  Ailill, 288-9, 301, 374-5, 440.\n\n  Aine, 79, 80 n., 83, 301.\n\n  Alchemists, 240, 244, 261, 276, 296 n.\n\n  Alignements, xv, 199 n., 393, 399, 419 ff.:\n    _see_ Archaeology.\n\n  All Saints (_La Toussaint_), 439, 453:\n    _see_ _Samain_, and November Day.\n\n  Angel, 7, 12, 85, 238, 240-1, 263-4, 267, 272, 374:\n    _see_ Fallen Angels, and St. Michael.\n\n  Angels and Science, 481.\n\n  Anglesey, 10, 138-9, 141-2.\n\n  Animism, 55, 226 ff., 282, 457 ff.:\n    _see_ Dead, and Death.\n\n  ---- Pre-, 253, 401.\n\n  ---- Science and, 459 ff.\n\n  _Ankou_, 16, 29, 218, 220.\n\n  ---- Science and, 484.\n\n  _Annwn_, 319, 353.\n\n  Anthropology, 226-82.\n\n  Antrim, 73, 371.\n\n  Apollo, 403, 405-6, 421.\n\n  Apparitions, Science and, 480, 484 ff.\n\n  Aranmore, 2, 4, 40, 416.\n\n  Archaeology, xv, 2, 9, 10, 12-5, 31, 52, 78, 81, 118-9, 137 n., 148,\n        154, 157 n., 163, 165 ff., 172, 179, 210, 221, 234 n., 393,\n        397-426, 450 n.\n\n  Armagh, 74-5, 443.\n\n  ---- _Book of_, 283 n., 291.\n\n  _Art, Voyage of_, 351-2.\n\n  Arthur, 9, 10, 12-3, 82 n., 163, 183, 238, 304, 308 ff., 333-4, 353,\n        381, 429, 437, 441, 447:\n    _see_ Re-birth.\n\n  Arthur, Bird, as, 183, 185.\n\n  Arthurian Legend, 9, 260, 308 ff.:\n    _see_ Arthur.\n\n  Astral Body, 29.\n\n  ---- Light, 133.\n\n  ---- Milk, 164.\n\n  ---- Plane, 167, 171.\n\n  ---- Spirits, 167, 171.\n\n  Avalon, 252, 311, 314-5, 321-4, 330, 347-8, 379, 386.\n\n\n  Bacchus, 28, 80 n.\n\n  _Badb_, 302-7, 309 n.\n\n  _Ballymote, Book of_, 340 n., 410.\n\n  Banshee, 25-6, 81, 99, 220, 304-5, 437-8.\n\n  ---- Science and, 484.\n\n  Baranton, Fountain of, 429.\n\n  Bard, 11, 98, 138, 163, 283, 317 n., 365-6, 378.\n\n  ---- Irish, 344.\n\n  _Barddas_, 365-7, 378-9, 515.\n\n  Barra, 85, 100 ff.\n\n  _Beltene_ (Baaltine), 100 n., 439:\n    _see_ May Day.\n\n  Ben Bulbin, 3, 44, 56, 58, 237, 242, 284, 293, 300.\n\n  B\u00e9roul, 325.\n\n  Boron, Robt. de, 325.\n\n  Boyne, 2, 34, 292, 410, 412, 415.\n\n  Bran, 259, 334.\n\n  ---- _Voyage of_, 329, 338-40, 373.\n\n  Broc\u00e9liande, 15, 188, 327, 435.\n\n  Brownie, 164-5, 207, 220, 229.\n\n  _Bucca_, 164, 175:\n    _see_ Puck.\n\n\n  C\u00e6dmon, 240, 243.\n\n  Cambrensis, Giraldus, 149 n., 324.\n\n  Cardigan, 146, 155, 334, 389.\n\n  Ca(e)ridwen, 157 n., 378.\n\n  Carmarthen, 147, 149 ff., 390.\n\n  ---- _Black Book of_, 329.\n\n  ---- Fall of, 435.\n\n  Carnac, xiii, 199 n., 271, 398-9, 407, 418-9, 428.\n\n  ---- Etymology of, xv.\n\n  ---- Mystic Centre, as, 13-5, 221.\n\n  Carnarvon, 143-4.\n\n  _Ceilidh_, Description of, 6.\n\n  Changelings, 34, 78, 87, 91, 96, 98, 101, 104, 110, 128, 132, 136-7,\n        143, 146, 148, 150, 154, 156, 170-1, 177, 179, 182, 198, 204,\n        210-2, 230, 265, 280-1:\n    _see_ Charms, Fairy.\n\n  ---- Anthropology and, 244-53.\n\n  ---- Explanation of, 491.\n\n  ---- Science and, 487.\n\n  Channel Islands, 403, 406-7.\n\n  Charms, 42, 49, 171, 176, 258-9:\n    _see_ Exorcism.\n\n  ---- Fairy, against, 37-8, 49, 58, 87, 91, 95, 97, 112, 124-5, 132,\n        146, 177, 179, 199, 204, 210, 212, 250, 253, 265, 268, 314.\n\n  ---- Witchcraft, against, 122.\n\n  Chaucer, 326.\n\n  Chr\u00e9tien, 311, 325, 430.\n\n  Christabel, 202.\n\n  Christian Science and Witchcraft, 261-2.\n\n  Christianity, Esoteric, 360 n., 361-2.\n\n  ---- Fairies and, xvi, 42, 70, 91, 115, 152 n., 153, 168-9, 201, 216,\n        245, 253, 257, 259, 266-74, 268, 284-5, 293, 296 n., 320, 349-50,\n        354-7, 370, 373, 407, 410 n., 427 ff., 434 ff., 439, 441, 444 ff.,\n        452 ff.:\n    _see_ Changelings, Cult, Exorcism, Fairy-Faith, and Purgatory.\n\n  Clairvoyance, 55, 73, 140 n., 175, 182, 205, 285, 311:\n    _see_ Second-sight, Seers, and Vision.\n\n  ---- Science and, 473, 478.\n\n  Clontarf, 305 ff.\n\n  _C\u00f3ir Anmann_, 286, 291, 369.\n\n  _Colloquy_: _see_ _Agallamh_.\n\n  Connaught, 42, 289, 295, 300.\n\n  Connemara, xxi, 2.\n\n  Connla, 259, 335, 349-50.\n\n  Coracle (_currach_), 350, 352.\n\n  _Cormac's Voyage_, 340-3.\n\n  _Corrigan_, 15, 92, 159 n., 195, 198, 206 ff., 215, 223-4, 229, 238,\n        241, 250-1, 398, 404-6, 493.\n\n  ---- Etymology of, 206 n.\n\n  Cromlech: _see_ Archaeology.\n\n  ---- Etymology of, 402 n.\n\n  Cruachan, 286, 288-9, 431, 440, 451.\n\n  Crystal-gazing, 510.\n\n  Cuchulainn, 2, 3-4, 70, 74-5, 96 n., 238, 277-8, 302-3, 307, 309, 316,\n        334, 353, 441:\n    _see_ Re-birth.\n\n  ---- _Sick-Bed of_, 286, 345-6.\n\n  ---- Sun-god, as, 310.\n\n  Cult, 100 n., 163, 281, 442:\n    _see_ Arthur, Cuchulainn, _Sidhe_, and Tuatha De Danann.\n\n  ---- Agricultural, 80 n., 279, 291, 351, 408, 435.\n\n  ---- Cattle, of, 199 n., 273.\n\n  ---- Dead, of, 281, 299, 408-9 ff., 436 ff.;\n    Christian, 452-5.\n\n  ---- Fairies, of, 190, 436 ff.\n\n  ---- Gods, of, 118, 164, 175 n., 200, 239, 246, 279, 281, 283, 291, 299,\n        342, 399 ff., 407 ff., 433 ff., 440, 448.\n\n  ---- Saints, of, 83, 190, 193, 284.\n\n  ---- Spirits, of, 124 n., 164, 175, 227, 229, 281, 284, 411 ff., 428-9,\n        436 ff.\n\n  ---- Stones, of, 399 ff., 427-8:\n    _see_ Archaeology.\n\n  ---- Sun, of, 12, 100 n., 127, 132 n., 173, 176 n., 179 n., 309, 321,\n        369, 380, 389-90, 402-3, 405-6, 408, 416 ff., 450-1;\n    Christianity and, 452 ff.;\n    Significance of, 420 ff., 439.\n\n  ---- Trees, of, 176, 229, 427-8, 433 ff.\n\n  ---- Waters, of, 78, 163, 179, 223-4, 284, 427 ff., 450 n.\n\n  Culture Hero, 238, 309, 320-1, 380-2, 417.\n\n\n  _Da Derga's Hostel_, 287.\n\n  Daemons (Demons), 7, 15, 158, 197, 202, 204, 212, 237-8, 241, 249-52,\n        256-9, 263-71, 279-80, 286, 287 n., 288, 303, 306, 310, 314, 360,\n        430, 436, 446.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 493.\n\n  ---- Science and, 480-1, 483.\n\n  Dagda, 286, 291-2, 294, 298, 300-1, 318, 320, 410, 416.\n\n  _Daoine Maithe_, 53, 69.\n\n  Dead, Legend of, 280.\n\n  ---- Breton, 14, 29, 169, 194-5, 212 ff., 392, 404.\n\n  ---- Cornish, 169-70, 178, 180-1, 183.\n\n  ---- Irish, 33, 48, 53, 55, 68, 71-2, 74-7.\n\n  ---- Scotch, 95.\n\n  ---- Welsh, 142 n., 152.\n\n  Death-candle (or Corpse-candle), 10, 145, 153, 155, 207, 220-1.\n\n  Death-coach, 71, 221.\n\n  Death-warning, 10, 169, 180, 213, 220, 304-5.\n\n  Demon-Possession, 228:\n    _see_ Exorcism and Possession.\n\n  ---- Science and, 487 ff.\n\n  ---- Theory of, 249 ff.\n\n  Dermot, 41, 44, 57 n., 354.\n\n  ---- Pre-existence of, 376.\n\n  Devil, 123, 157, 180, 201, 241, 263, 271, 319, 446.\n\n  ---- Worship, 258 n., 421.\n\n  Devonshire Pixies, 179.\n\n  Diana, as Moon-Goddess, 80 n.\n\n  _Dinnshenchas_, 78 n., 81 n., 260, 301.\n\n  Divination, 150, 176 n., 258, 264, 278, 343, 405, 428, 432.\n\n  Dolmen: _see_ Archaeology.\n\n  ---- Etymology of, 402 n.\n\n  Donegal, 61, 72, 442.\n\n  Dowth, 2, 61.\n\n  Dream, 41, 50, 55, 58, 68, 159, 180-1, 281.\n\n  ---- Fairyland and, 490.\n\n  ---- Re-birth and, 383, 511 ff.\n\n  ---- Science and, 459, 464 ff., 508, 511 ff.\n\n  Druids, 10, 12, 14, 31, 52, 82 n., 85, 138, 147, 152, 157 n., 216,\n        256-7, 259, 265-7, 278, 292, 299, 345-6, 351, 356, 441, 444, 457:\n    _see_ Exorcism, Magic, and Magicians.\n\n  Druids, Irish, 343.\n\n  ---- Magic and, 489 n.\n\n  ---- Oak and, 433 ff.\n\n  ---- Re-birth and, 359, 364, 367, 369, 378 n., 387-91, 394.\n\n  ---- Well-worship and, 432.\n\n  _Dun Cow, Book of_: _see_ _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_.\n\n  Dwarfs, 81 n., 192, 195, 203-4, 206 ff., 235, 237-8, 405:\n    _see_ Pygmy.\n\n  _Dynion Hysbys_, 146, 151, 253, 264, 436:\n    _see_ Magicians.\n\n\n  _Echtra Nerai_, 287, 290, 413.\n\n  Ecstasy, 61, 91, 512.\n\n  ---- Fairyland and, 490.\n\n  ---- Science and, 472, 486.\n\n  Ego, Existence of, 496.\n\n  ---- Idea of, 497.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 504 n., 515.\n\n  _Eisteddfod_, 11, 405 n.\n\n  Elementals, 65, 167, 241-2, 256-7.\n\n  ---- Science and, 481.\n\n  _Ellyllon_ (Elves) and Fairies, 233 ff., 432, 493.\n\n  ---- Science and, 483.\n\n  ---- Worship of, 436.\n\n  Elysian Fields, 338, 358, 416.\n\n  Enchantment, 35-6, 52, 113:\n    _see_ Magic.\n\n  ---- Fairy, 35, 75, 78, 113, 199, 301, 386.\n\n  Environment, xvii, xx, xxii, 1 ff., 107, 115, 123, 173, 209, 221, 226,\n        282.\n\n  ---- Science and, 499.\n\n  Erisgey, 91 n., 100.\n\n  Etain, 369.\n\n  ---- Birth of, 374-6, 395.\n\n  Exorcism, 228, 253, 265-74, 277, 281:\n    _see_ Changelings, and Magic.\n\n  ---- Baptism, as, 269-70.\n\n  ---- Dead, of, 178.\n\n  ---- defined, 266.\n\n  ---- Spirits, of, 42, 67, 123, 125, 172, 179, 250, 287 n., 402.\n\n  ---- Welsh, 272.\n\n  Exorcists, 264, 269:\n    _see_ Magicians.\n\n\n  Faerie Queen, 318.\n\n  Fairy: _see_ Apparitions, Angel, Astral Spirits, Banshee, Brownie,\n        _Bucca_, Changelings, _Corrigan_, Cult, Dead, Death, Devil,\n        Dwarfs, Elementals, _Ellyllon_ (_Elves_), Fates, _F\u00e9es_,\n        _Fenodyree_, Fir Bolgs, Fomors, Ghost, Gnomes, Goblin, Goddesses,\n        _Grac'hed coz_, Kelpy, Lapps, Lares, Lemures, Leprechaun,\n        _Lutins_, Manes, Mermaid, _Morgan_, Nereids, Penates, Phantom,\n        Pict, Pixies, Proserpine, Puck, Salamanders, Satyrs,\n        Shape-shifting, _Siabra_, _Sidhe_, Soul, Spirits, Succubi,\n        Swan-Maidens, Sylph, Troll, Tuatha De Danann, Undines, Vivian,\n        White Lady, Witch.\n\n  Fairy Abduction of animals, 93 n., 95, 106, 109.\n\n  ---- Abduction of People, 7, 33, 37, 40, 45-8, 51, 53, 56, 68-9, 72, 75,\n        82 n., 89, 98, 101-2, 104, 109, 113, 120-1, 125, 130, 135, 145,\n        166 n., 174, 181, 219, 245, 248, 251-2, 289-90, 294 ff., 316, 326,\n        342, 347, 353, 356, 431:\n    _see_ Changeling, Otherworld, and Re-birth.\n\n  ---- Army, 33, 50, 55, 57, 68, 74, 133.\n\n  ---- Arrow, 88, 119.\n\n  ---- Astrology, 327.\n\n  ---- Baking, 127.\n\n  ---- Bathing, 136, 155, 182, 326, 342.\n\n  ---- Beating, 41, 72.\n\n  ---- Belt, 106.\n\n  ---- Birds, 200, 220, 267, 302-7, 329, 334, 345, 355, 376:\n    _see_ _Badb_.\n\n  ---- Blinding, 54, 131, 136, 140, 182, 205, 209.\n\n  ---- Boat-Race, 80.\n\n  ---- Borrowing, 136.\n\n  ---- Bush: _see_ Fairy Tree, and Cult of Trees.\n\n  ---- Cattle, 143, 147, 203.\n\n  ---- Churning and, 43, 97, 132, 253.\n\n  ---- Cock-crow and, 220, 327.\n\n  ---- Colour, Green, 10, 103, 106, 110-1, 207, 294, 298, 312-4, 345, 349,\n        352;\n    Red, 32, 72, 131, 133, 142, 152-60, 181, 289-90, 345.\n\n  ---- Crops and, 38, 43, 291:\n    _see_ Cult of Agriculture.\n\n  ---- Curse, 82, 97, 178, 376 n.\n\n  ---- Dance, 41, 56, 72, 86, 88, 92, 111, 116, 124-5, 131, 135, 139,\n        142-3, 146, 148, 155, 159-60, 171, 173, 175, 181-2, 207-9, 211;\n    explanation of, 281;\n    origin of, 405-6.\n\n  ---- Deceit, 127.\n\n  ---- Description of, 46, 60, 68, 77, 116, 122, 133, 141, 177, 187, 200,\n        205, 211, 242-3, 297, 349-50, 352:\n    _see_ Fairy Dress.\n\n  ---- Dog, 40, 120, 122, 129, 134, 259.\n\n  ---- Dress, 45, 55, 67, 74, 95, 103, 116, 123, 131, 133, 143, 155, 160,\n        181, 192, 204-5, 208, 289, 294, 297-8, 339, 345, 349-50, 352.\n\n  ---- Drops, 44.\n\n  ---- Dwelling, 32, 37, 41, 46, 73, 76-8, 86-8, 93, 95, 97, 99 n., 104,\n        108, 110, 112-3, 126, 131, 136, 142, 144, 147-9, 151, 172, 188,\n        200, 203-4, 206, 209, 211, 220, 235, 289, 294, 306, 316-7, 327,\n        416:\n    _see_ Otherworld.\n\n  ---- Festivals, 39.\n\n  ---- Fights, 43, 91.\n\n  ---- Flies, 39.\n\n  ---- Food, 44, 47, 68, 219, 275, 279, 292-3, 349, 353, 356, 447:\n    _see_ Sacrifice, Food.\n\n  ---- Fort (D\u00fan), 2, 24, 31-2, 36, 38, 55, 72, 349-50, 413:\n    _see_ Fairy Dwelling.\n\n  ---- Fountain and, 101, 210, 223, 264, 341-3, 353:\n    _see_ Cult of Waters.\n\n  ---- Fulling, 98.\n\n  ---- Games, 41, 51, 76, 149.\n\n  ---- Guardian, 46, 76, 78, 179, 189-90, 192-3, 197, 207, 211, 219, 273,\n        327, 415, 438.\n\n  ---- Herb, 53, 87, 175.\n\n  ---- Hill (Knoll, and Mound), 79-80, 89, 97, 220, 237, 243, 288, 290,\n        293, 296, 299, 301, 306, 349, 374, 431, 437.\n\n  ---- Hosts (_Sluagh_), xxi, 91, 104, 106, 108.\n\n  ---- Hunchback and, 92, 143, 198-9, 208.\n\n  ---- Hunting, 41, 56, 94, 134.\n\n  ---- Iron and, 34, 87-8, 95, 98 n., 124 n., 138, 144, 147:\n    _see_ Taboo, Iron.\n\n  ---- Island, 49, 147, 220, 316, 334, 339:\n    _see_ Avalon, and Otherworld.\n\n  ---- Kings and Queens, 28, 34, 44, 63, 92, 149-51, 200, 202, 218, 292,\n        300-1, 336, 354.\n\n  ---- Mr. Lang and, 475.\n\n  ---- Love, 112.\n\n  ---- Mid-wife (or Nurse) and, 54, 127, 136, 140, 175, 205.\n\n  ---- Mine and, 165, 182, 241.\n\n  ---- Money (Riches, &c.), 71, 82, 142, 146, 156, 158, 160, 162, 200,\n        289, 297.\n\n  ---- Music, 24, 31, 40, 47, 56-7, 61, 69, 71-2, 74, 81 n., 86, 95, 103,\n        111, 118, 124, 131, 141, 159, 162, 181, 211, 297 ff., 336, 339,\n        340-2, 355-6, 482;\n    Mr. Lang and, 475;\n    Science and, 484.\n\n  ---- Names, 22, 30, 52, 72, 82, 117, 153, 164, 182, 203, 207, 231, 274,\n        293, 307;\n    objects and, 86.\n\n  ---- Natural Phenomena and, xxii, 41, 92, 204, 219, 227, 256, 265, 279,\n        307:\n    _see_ Fairy, Crops; and Sacrifice, Food.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 24, 32, 36, 41, 46, 63 ff., 73, 76-7, 80, 94, 99, 102,\n        104-5, 109, 113-4, 117, 120, 123, 125-6, 133-4, 137-9, 142, 143\n        n., 144-5, 147-8, 150, 152, 171-3, 176-7, 180, 182, 207, 211, 218\n        ff., 235 ff., 243, 254, 279, 307, 327, 409, 496.\n\n  ---- Path (or Pass), 33, 38, 67, 77, 150, 218, 231, 277.\n\n  ---- Pig, as, 126.\n\n  ---- Power, 47, 67, 72, 82, 88, 95, 113, 121, 150, 183, 219, 253, 262,\n        265.\n\n  ---- Prayer, 118, 129.\n\n  ---- Preserves, 38, 78, 277, 293.\n\n  ---- Procession, 33, 57, 67, 74, 79 n., 80 n., 126, 134, 218, 277, 288.\n\n  ---- Prophet, 47, 94, 139, 160, 197, 211, 290, 302 n., 305.\n\n  ---- Reality of, 490, 492 ff.\n\n  ---- Revenge, 92, 95, 97, 125, 142, 146, 177, 180, 191, 196, 199, 205,\n        208-10, 220, 293:\n    _see_ Fairy, Hunchback.\n\n  ---- Ring, 2, 91, 142-3, 148-9, 151, 161, 181-2, 184, 208.\n\n  ---- Science and, 240, 281-2, 307, 456-515.\n\n  ---- Smallness of, 32, 41, 47, 72, 99, 102, 104, 123, 125, 133, 140,\n        143, 146, 148, 151, 155, 159, 171, 173, 176-7, 179-81, 184, 207,\n        211, 219, 233-44, 281.\n\n  ---- Song, 40, 71, 86, 92, 98-9, 101, 104, 112, 114, 118, 139, 143, 148,\n        201-2, 208-9, 301, 339, 342, 345, 375.\n\n  ---- Spell (and Stroke), 53, 91, 126, 136, 159, 164, 173, 218, 219,\n        230-1, 252-3, 265, 268, 286, 297, 326, 330, 345, 356, 431:\n    _see_ Exorcism; Fairy, Hunchback; Magic; and Magicians.\n\n  ---- Spinning, 88, 110.\n\n  ---- Stations, 46.\n\n  ---- Stature, 47, 62, 67-8, 77, 96, 114, 123, 141, 148, 233 ff., 242:\n    _see_ Fairy, Smallness of.\n\n  ---- Tree (or Bush), 33, 70, 78, 126, 277, 292, 435:\n    _see_ Cult of Trees.\n\n  ---- Tribes, 32, 52.\n\n  ---- Tricks, 127, 143, 177, 183-4, 191, 205, 207, 211, 320.\n\n  ---- Visits, 122, 136, 138, 146, 155, 160:\n    _see_ Otherworld.\n\n  ---- Voice (or Talking), 47, 68, 134, 139, 155, 162, 187-9, 203;\n    Science and, 485.\n\n  ---- Wand: _see_ Wands.\n\n  ---- War, 44, 46, 50, 207, 211:\n    _see_ _Sidhe_.\n\n  ---- Water, and, 38, 270, 311-2, 318, 446:\n    _see_ Cult of Waters.\n\n  ---- Weaving, 74.\n\n  ---- Whistle, 46, 208.\n\n  ---- Wife, 135, 138, 146, 148, 162, 200, 289, 297, 318 n., 325, 328,\n        346-7, 412.\n\n  ---- Woman, xxiv, 2, 4, 54, 76-8, 99, 103-4, 110-1, 121, 135, 138, 143,\n        186, 189, 200-2, 286-7, 293, 296-7, 305, 311, 314, 326, 333, 335,\n        337-9, 342, 345-7, 351-2:\n    _see_ _Sidhe_ and Tuatha De Danann.\n\n  Fairy-Faith, African, 228, 281.\n\n  ---- Albanian, 230.\n\n  ---- American, 228, 237, 246, 281.\n\n  ---- Animism of, 282, 458, 477.\n\n  ---- Antiquity of, 99, 163, 178, 194, 213, 216, 221, 231, 244, 256, 266,\n        269, 278, 307, 321, 325, 331, 354, 357, 395, 408, 427, 432, 439,\n        441, 457, 477.\n\n  ---- Arabian, 229.\n\n  ---- Australian, 227, 281.\n\n  ---- Breton, 185, 225.\n\n  ---- Chinese, 228, 250.\n\n  ---- Collecting Evidence of, xix.\n\n  ---- Comparative, 226 ff., 281, 307, 457, 475.\n\n  ---- Cornish, 163-85.\n\n  ---- Degeneration of, 458.\n\n  ---- Egyptian, 229.\n\n  ---- Esoteric, 457-8, 492 ff.\n\n  ---- Etruscan, 231.\n\n  ---- Exoteric, 457-8.\n\n  ---- German, 231.\n\n  ---- Greek, 230, 246.\n\n  ---- Importance of Studying, xxv, 22.\n\n  ---- Indian, 228, 238.\n\n  ---- Interpretation of, xvi, 18, 25, 28-30, 59, 171, 225, 277, 281, 383,\n        471, 489, 515.\n\n  ---- Irish, 23-84.\n\n  ---- Italian, 231.\n\n  ---- Japanese, 228, 440.\n\n  ---- Malay, 228, 238.\n\n  ---- Manx, 117-35.\n\n  ---- Melanesian, 227, 265, 277.\n\n  ---- Metaphysics of, 458.\n\n  ---- Methods of studying, xviii.\n\n  ---- Mexican, 246.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 18, 70, 90, 94, 105, 109, 117-8, 126, 133, 145-6, 225,\n        233, 235-6, 256, 281, 296 n., 307, 433, 438, 458, 477.\n\n  ---- Origin of, xvi, 18, 70, 90, 99, 137, 168, 178, 226, 244-5, 257,\n        398, 432-3, 452, 455, 457-8, 477.\n\n  ---- Persian, 229.\n\n  ---- Philosophy of, 18-20.\n\n  ---- Polynesian, 238, 248, 281.\n\n  ---- Psychical Phenomena and, 459:\n    _see_ Science and Fairies.\n\n  ---- Religion and, xvi, 22, 70, 78, 83, 90, 99, 100 n., 118, 123, 125,\n        152 n., 163, 168, 194, 221, 245, 256-7, 266, 269, 271, 274, 296\n        n., 344, 354, 364, 388, 404, 406-8, 421, 427 ff., 439, 441, 442\n        ff., 450 n., 452 ff., 457-8, 477:\n    _see_ Cult, and Christianity.\n\n  ---- Roumain, 230.\n\n  ---- Scandinavian, 231.\n\n  ---- Science and, 119, 456 ff.\n\n  ---- Scotch, 84-116.\n\n  ---- Siamese, 229.\n\n  ---- State of, in Brittany, 205;\n    in Cornwall, 170, 180;\n    in Highlands, 84, 88, 90, 91, 94, 99.\n\n  ---- Swiss, 231.\n\n  ---- Theology and, 42, 91, 99, 127, 146, 168, 244, 360-3, 365 n., 369,\n        370, 373, 493.\n\n  ---- Theories of, xxi, 20, 84, 118;\n    Delusion and Imposture, 462-4, 489;\n    Druid, xxiii;\n    Materialistic, xxv, 461, 489;\n    Mythological, xxiv;\n    Naturalistic, xxi, 1, 8, 152 n.;\n    Pathological, 461-2, 489;\n    Psychical, 1, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 61, 171, 265, 405, 409, 477, 489 ff.;\n    Psychological, xxii, 20, 95, 202, 211, 253, 274, 305, 330, 338, 383,\n        427, 441, 515;\n    Psycho-Physical, 459-60, 489;\n    Pygmy, xxii, 119, 148 n., 169, 219, 234-5, 241, 245, 276, 398.\n\n  ---- Turkish, 229.\n\n  ---- Unity of, 233, 329, 331, 357, 396.\n\n  ---- Welsh, 135-63.\n\n  ---- X-quantity of, 282;\n    Outlined, 459;\n    Testing of, 480 ff., 490-1.\n\n  Fairyland: _see_ Avalon, Hades, Otherworld, and Purgatory.\n\n  ---- Dead and, 40, 43, 56, 68-9, 72, 123, 194-5, 202, 214, 217, 219-20,\n        251, 280, 350, 490:\n    _see_ Dead, Legend of, and under Death.\n\n  ---- Going to, 40, 43, 55, 65, 68-9, 148, 154, 161, 175, 248, 251-2,\n        295, 299, 302, 306, 348, 413, 469 ff., 490:\n    _see_ Abduction of People, under Fairy; and Changelings.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 18, 39, 43, 60 ff., 70, 84, 120, 123, 137 n., 144, 149\n        n., 150-1, 154, 167, 171, 194-5, 202, 219, 281, 296 n., 310, 312,\n        317, 335, 350, 383, 416, 452, 493:\n    _see_ Otherworld.\n\n  ---- Origin of belief in, 235, 245, 281, 452.\n\n  ---- Reality of, 18, 84, 154, 469, 490, 493, 515.\n\n  ---- Return from, 39, 48-9, 51, 98, 130, 149, 162, 252, 265, 295, 296\n        n., 299, 316, 347:\n    _see_ Changelings.\n\n  ---- Science and, 490.\n\n  ---- Time in, 88, 95, 113, 135, 145, 149, 154, 162, 175-6, 296 n., 329,\n        339, 350, 354, 469 ff., 473.\n\n  Fallen Angels as Fairies, 67, 76, 85, 105-6, 109, 113, 116, 129, 154,\n        205, 212, 231, 241.\n\n  Fand, 316, 345-6.\n\n  Fascination, 258.\n\n  Fasting, 179, 267, 412-4, 422, 445, 447 n.\n\n  Fate, Irish Idea of, 278.\n\n  Fates, 203, 231, 327.\n\n  Feast of Dead, 218, 288-9, 299, 439 ff., 452 ff.:\n    _see_ Dead, Legend of; and November Day.\n\n  _F\u00e9es_, xxiv, 195 ff., 216, 231, 257, 327, 347.\n\n  Fennel, 79, 83.\n\n  _Fenodyree_, 120, 129, 131.\n\n  Fermanagh, 73.\n\n  Fetishism, 259, 401, 402 n.\n\n  _Fiacc's Hymn_, 436.\n\n  Fianna, 287 n., 293, 298, 347, 443.\n\n  Find, Re-birth of, 370-4.\n\n  Finvara, 2, 28, 42, 44, 300.\n\n  Fionn (or Finn), 2, 58 n., 259, 287 n., 292, 298-9, 302, 334, 376,\n        414-5, 441, 443.\n\n  Fir Bolgs, 32, 70, 285, 417.\n\n  Fomors, 70, 303, 307, 310, 335.\n\n  Food-Sacrifice: _see_ Sacrifice.\n\n  _Fountain, Lady of_, 325.\n\n  ---- Cult of: _see_ Cult.\n\n  Fourth Dimension, 167.\n\n  ---- Science and, 487.\n\n  Freemasonry, 313 n., 422, 449.\n\n\n  Galahad, 315-6, 317 n.\n\n  Galway, 39, 42.\n\n  Gauvain, 312, 316, 348, 447.\n\n  Gavrinis, 15, 409 ff., 415, 418, 423-4 ff., 451.\n\n  'Gentry': _see_ Fairy Names.\n\n  Geoffrey, 308 n., 322-3, 330, 403.\n\n  Ghost, 3, 7, 10, 26, 29, 47, 67, 70, 118, 121, 124, 145, 152, 156, 172,\n        180, 184, 191-2, 217, 219-20, 228, 238, 247-9, 257, 265, 277, 280,\n        282, 285, 289, 291, 330, 368, 398-9, 446:\n    _see_ Dead, and Death.\n\n  ---- Fairy and, 438.\n\n  ---- Science and, 19, 477.\n\n  Giant, xxiii, 163, 192.\n\n  Gildas, 321.\n\n  Glamorgan, 158.\n\n  _Glashtin_, 131.\n\n  Gnomes, 241-3.\n\n  ---- Science and, 481, 483.\n\n  Gnosticism, 361-2.\n\n  Goblin, 143, 145, 207, 220, 241, 306.\n\n  Goddess, 78-9, 83, 229, 369, 378, 390, 457.\n\n  Goddess Dana, 283-307.\n\n  ---- Mother, 283, 284 n., 290, 390.\n\n  Gods: _see_ Cult.\n\n  ---- Science and, 480.\n\n  'Good People': _see_ Fairy Names.\n\n  Gospel Stories and Fairy-Faith, 168.\n\n  Gower, 10, 158 ff.\n\n  _Grac'hed coz_, 195 ff.\n\n  Graelent, 326.\n\n  Grail, Holy, 311, 316, 325, 353.\n\n  ---- Holy, Cup, as, 342, 350.\n\n  Grania, 41, 57 n.\n\n  _Gruagach_, 92.\n\n  _Guingemor_, 326, 348.\n\n  Gwenhwyvar, 152 n., 310-4, 316.\n\n  Gwion, Re-birth of, 378.\n\n  Gwydion, 151-2 n., 379, 417.\n\n  Gwynn Ab Nudd, 152 n., 319-20.\n\n\n  Hades, 296 n., 310, 312, 336-8, 352-3, 411, 445.\n\n  ---- Origin of belief in, 452.\n\n  ---- Purgatory, as, 447.\n\n  ---- Science and, 514.\n\n  ---- Sun-cult and, 422.\n\n  Halloween, 38, 91, 93 n., 179:\n    _see_ November Day, and _Samain_.\n\n  Hallucinations: _see_ Apparitions.\n\n  ---- Science and, 459, 461, 464, 490.\n\n  Harlech, 10, 144, 334.\n\n  Hebrides, 4, 7, 9, 90, 100 ff.\n\n  _Hergest, Red Book of_, 308 n., 330.\n\n  Highlands, 5, 7, 93 ff.\n\n  _H\u00fai Corra, Voyage of_, 354.\n\n  Hy Brasil, 334.\n\n  Hypnotism, 255, 265, 466, 488, 507-8.\n\n\n  Iamblichus, 254, 257 n., 400, 484.\n\n  Immortality, Non-personal, 503 ff., 509 n.\n\n  Incantation, 176, 259:\n    _see_ Charms.\n\n  Initiates, 59, 313 n., 336-7, 358, 378, 423-4.\n\n  Initiations, 13, 78, 157 n., 179 n., 257, 313 n., 336-8, 342, 353,\n        378-9, 405-6, 411-2, 415-6, 419, 422, 425, 444 ff., 447 ff.\n\n  Initiations, Celtic, 342-3, 409 ff.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 447 n.\n\n  Innishmurray, 49, 54, 334.\n\n  Inverness, 4, 93.\n\n  _Iolo MS._, 308 n.\n\n  Iona, 7, 93, 436.\n\n\n  Jack-in-the-Green, 435.\n\n  Jeanne d'Arc, 263-4.\n\n  Jews, Re-birth and, 359.\n\n  ---- Sun-cult, and, 421.\n\n\n  Karnak and Carnac, xv.\n\n  Kelpy, xxi, 3, 28, 207.\n\n  Kerry, 61, 83, 340.\n\n  Kirk, Robt., 66, 85, 89, 91 n., 237, 279 n., 293.\n\n  Knowth, 34.\n\n  _Kulhwch and Olwen_, 317-20, 328, 451.\n\n  ---- Date of, 331.\n\n\n  Lake, Lady of, 78, 79 n., 314-7, 327, 379.\n\n  Lancelot, 312, 315-6, 348.\n\n  Land's End, 181.\n\n  Lanval, 325, 326.\n\n  _Lanval's Voyage_, 347-8.\n\n  Lapps, xxiii, 234 n.-5, 244.\n\n  Lares, 438.\n\n  Layamon, 308 n., 323.\n\n  Leaba Mologa, 414.\n\n  _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ (_Book of the Dun Cow_), 259, 285, 292, 353, 374,\n        377, 409.\n\n  ---- Age of, 283 n.\n\n  Lear, 7, 118, 135, 322:\n    _see_ Manannan.\n\n  _Lebar Brecc_, 271, 313 n., 454.\n\n  _Lebar Gabala_, 292.\n\n  _Lecan, Y. B. of_, Age of, 283 n.\n\n  Leinster, 294, 371.\n\n  ---- _Book of_, 285, 292, 303, 356;\n    age of, 283 n.\n\n  Lemures, 438.\n\n  Leprechaun, 25, 28, 47, 52, 71, 82, 235-6, 241, 243, 493.\n\n  ---- Etymology of, 236.\n\n  _Lia F\u00e1il_, 14, 401.\n\n  Libations to Fairies, 36, 92-3, 200, 218, 273, 291.\n\n  Lights, 7, 61, 77, 83, 133, 145, 155, 180, 207, 215.\n\n  ---- Science and, 463, 483-4.\n\n  Limerick, 78, 386.\n\n  _Lismore, Book of_, 401, 412;\n    age of, 283 n.\n\n  Lough Derg, 72, 442 ff.\n\n  Lough Gur, 78, 386.\n\n  Lug, 62, 292, 369, 450.\n\n  _Lugnasadh_, 451.\n\n  _Lutins_, 159 n., 190-1, 206 ff., 493.\n\n  Lyonesse, 12, 167.\n\n\n  _Mabinogion_, 10, 260, 297, 304, 317, 328-9, 451.\n\n  ---- Age of, 308 n., 331.\n\n  ---- Editions of, 308 n.\n\n  _Mael-Duin's Voyage_, 348.\n\n  Magic, 10, 93, 120, 131, 153, 156, 168, 171, 204, 245, 250, 253-65, 281,\n        292, 299, 324, 328, 339, 346, 380-1:\n    _see_ Charms, Divination, Magicians, Necromancy, Fairy Spell, Witches,\n        and Witchcraft.\n\n  ---- Ancient, 255-60.\n\n  ---- Celtic, 256-7, 259-60.\n\n  ---- Fairy, 42, 199, 203, 265, 327.\n\n  ---- Frazer, Dr., and, 254-5.\n\n  ---- Indian, 258, 489 n.\n\n  ---- Religion and, 42, 255, 287 n., 292, 381, 404-5:\n    _see_ Exorcism, and Taboo.\n\n  ---- Roman Church and, 42, 237 n.\n\n  ---- Study of, 257, 489 n.\n\n  ---- Taboo and, 274 ff.\n\n  ---- Theories of, 253.\n\n  Magicians, 131, 156, 227-8, 247, 253-5, 257, 262-5, 268, 299, 329, 344,\n        380-1, 417, 433, 437, 489 n.:\n    _see_ Manannan, and Merlin.\n\n  Magnetism, Animal, 262.\n\n  Malory, 308 n., 312, 315, 323, 380.\n\n  _Mana_, 254-5, 262, 265, 278, 479.\n\n  Manannan, 7, 62, 80 n., 118, 120, 131-2 n., 135, 299, 333, 335, 339,\n        342-3, 345-6, 356, 372-4, 376.\n\n  ---- Hermes, like, 343 n.\n\n  Manes, 438, 441.\n\n  Marazion, 173.\n\n  M\u00e4rchen, 23.\n\n  Marie de France, 308 n., 325-6, 348.\n\n  Math, 417.\n\n  _Matter of Britain_, 328, 331.\n\n  May Day, 312, 435.\n\n  ---- Fairies and, 43, 53, 100 n., 124.\n\n  Meath, 297, 415.\n\n  Meave (_Medb_), 3, 43, 70, 288-9, 301, 440.\n\n  Megaliths, Alignement of, 419 ff.:\n    _see_ Archaeology.\n\n  Melwas, 311, 313-4, 316.\n\n  Menhir: _see_ Archaeology.\n\n  Merionethshire, 144.\n\n  Merlin, 10, 149, 314-5, 321-2, 329-30, 403, 417, 429, 435-7, 447.\n\n  Mermaid, 25, 28.\n\n  _Mesca Ulad_, 344.\n\n  Midir, 302, 311, 374-6, 413.\n\n  Mil, 284, 291:\n    _see_ Milesians.\n\n  Milesians, 32, 287, 303, 349, 372, 377 n.\n\n  Mithras, 448.\n\n  Modred, 322, 324.\n\n  Mongan, 260.\n\n  ---- Re-birth of, 370 ff., 394-5.\n\n  Montgomeryshire, 145.\n\n  Morbihan, xv, 199 n., 273, 399, 401, 403-4, 428.\n\n  _Morgan_, 200-1, 352.\n\n  ---- _le Fay_, 311, 315, 327.\n\n  _Morrigu_, 302-3, 305, 315:\n    _see_ _Badb_.\n\n  Moytura, 2, 303, 335.\n\n  Munster, 300, 348.\n\n  Mysteries, xiii, 14, 59, 173, 257-9, 313 n., 337-8, 343, 359, 365, 377\n        n., 405 ff., 409 ff.\n\n  ---- Celtic, 409 ff., 444 ff.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 411, 422, 448 ff.\n\n  ---- Puberty, 449 ff.\n\n  Mysticism, xvii, 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 13-4, 58-9, 78, 313, 341 n., 356, 360\n        n., 364, 377 n.\n\n  ---- Comparative, 457-8.\n\n  Mythology, Interpretation of Irish, 307.\n\n  ---- Origin of, 281, 455.\n\n\n  Necromancy, 151 n., 258, 404, 489 n.\n\n  Nennius, 308 n., 322.\n\n  Nereids, 230-1.\n\n  New Grange, 2, 36, 61, 409 ff., 451.\n\n  Newlyn, 178 ff.\n\n  Nirvana, Meaning of, 366, 391.\n\n  November Day (or Eve), Origin of, 439, 453.\n\n  ---- Fairies and, 38, 53, 73, 91, 93 n., 100 n., 179, 213, 218, 288-9,\n        301:\n    _see_ _Samain_.\n\n  Nuada, 319.\n\n  Nymphs, 229-31.\n\n\n  Obsession: _see_ Possession.\n\n  Occultism, Discussion of, 240.\n\n  Ogam, 340, 372.\n\n  Ogier, 348.\n\n  Oracles, 10, 15, 410, 448.\n\n  Osiris, xv, 309 n., 310, 320-1, 381, 422, 439-40.\n\n  Ossian (Oisin), 57, 260, 299.\n\n  _Ossian's Voyage_, 346-7, 357.\n\n  Otherworld, 60, 62, 78, 123, 194, 220, 246-7, 252, 277-8, 281, 295, 311,\n        316, 318, 321, 371-3, 443.\n\n  ---- Atlantis and, 33 n., 59.\n\n  ---- Classical, 336-7.\n\n  ---- Description of, 332-8, 340-3, 349 ff.\n\n  ---- Egyptian, 380-1, 422.\n\n  ---- Evolution of idea of, 333 n., 353-7.\n\n  ---- Heaven, as, 354-5, 446.\n\n  ---- Hell, as, 355.\n\n  ---- Interpreted, 70, 285, 337-8, 356, 492.\n\n  ---- Location of, 332-4.\n\n  ---- Names of, 334-5.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 332-8, 340-3, 356-7.\n\n  ---- New Zealand, 275.\n\n  ---- Passport to, 336-7.\n\n  ---- Polynesian, 275.\n\n  ---- Purgatory, as, 281, 354, 364:\n    _see_ Purgatory.\n\n  ---- Re-birth and, 334, 365:\n    _see_ Re-birth.\n\n  ---- Science and, 514-5.\n\n  ---- Virgil on, 336-7, 382, 445.\n\n  ---- Voyages, 328, 335, 338-57, 378-80.\n\n\n  Paimpont, 188:\n    _see_ Broc\u00e9liande.\n\n  Pantheism, Celtic, 377 n.\n\n  Paracelsus, 167, 240, 254.\n\n  Pardon, Breton, 428, 450 n.\n\n  Peel, 129, 132, 387.\n\n  Pembrokeshire, 147, 153, 161.\n\n  Penates, 190, 229.\n\n  Penzance, 12, 174 ff., 391.\n\n  'People of Peace,' Origin of name, 438 n.:\n    _see_ Fairy Names.\n\n  Phallicism, 402 n.\n\n  Phantom: _see_ Apparition, Dead, Death, Fairy, Ghost, and Science and\n        Fairies.\n\n  ---- Coach, 25.\n\n  ---- Funeral, 10, 126, 145, 152, 213-5, 221.\n\n  ---- Horse, 79 n., 215.\n\n  ---- Ship, 25.\n\n  ---- Washerwomen, 212, 216.\n\n  Philtres, 258.\n\n  Phoenicians, 12, 173, 176, 395-6.\n\n  Pict, 165-6, 234 n.-5.\n\n  Pin-Wells, 430.\n\n  Pixies, 158-9, 164 ff., 207, 220, 229, 238, 241, 250, 398, 406, 493.\n\n  ---- Etymology of, 165.\n\n  Pliny on Druids, 256, 259, 260, 433.\n\n  Pluto, 312, 337, 367, 452.\n\n  _Poltergeist_ Phenomena, 67, 74, 88, 120, 124-5, 132, 156, 162, 164,\n        218, 220, 488.\n\n  ---- Fairies and, 475-6, 482, 484.\n\n  ---- Science and, 459, 463, 481, 490.\n\n  Possession, 34, 69, 112, 207, 265, 268 ff., 375:\n    _see_ Demon-Possession, and Exorcism.\n\n  ---- Science and, 472.\n\n  Proserpine, 312, 336-8, 382, 450 n., 475.\n\n  Psychical Research, 14, 255, 265, 365, 459, 461 ff., 471 ff., 493, 497,\n        502 ff.\n\n  ---- Society, 268, 330, 398, 447 n., 488.\n\n  Psychic Centres, 14, 74, 221, 299, 410-1:\n    _see_ Mysteries.\n\n  Psychological Theory: _see_ Fairy-Faith, Theories of.\n\n  Psychology, Social, 232, 251, 282, 289, 307, 458, 469, 475 n., 476 n.\n\n  Puck (_Puca_), 25, 53, 164, 207.\n\n  ---- Science and, 483.\n\n  Purgatory, 169, 364, 405, 414, 442 ff.\n\n  ---- Fairies and, 76.\n\n  ---- Origin of doctrine of, 452.\n\n  Pygmy, xxii-xxiii, 28, 234 n., 236-9, 245, 398:\n    _see_ Fairy-Faith, Theories of, Pygmy.\n\n  Pyramid, xv.\n\n  ---- Celtic tumuli and, 418 ff.\n\n  ---- Purpose of, 423 ff.\n\n\n  Rag-Bushes, 430.\n\n  Rappings and Science, 459, 463, 475 n., 481, 488.\n\n  Re-birth, 5, 9, 64, 84, 227, 252, 313 n., 353, 358-96.\n\n  ---- Arthur and, 310, 315, 321, 323-4, 379-81, 386, 509 n.\n\n  ---- Australian, 227.\n\n  ---- _Barddas MSS._ on, 365-7, 378, 515.\n\n  ---- Brython, 216, 378-80, 392-3.\n\n  ---- Buddha and, 359, 382, 509, 514.\n\n  ---- Christian, 359-63, 387, 391, 393-5, 513.\n\n  ---- Classical Writers on, 367, 395.\n\n  ---- Darwinism and, 365, 501, 515.\n\n  ---- Dermot's, 376.\n\n  ---- Emerson and, 382.\n\n  ---- Esoteric Doctrine of, 377 n., 503-4, 513 n., 514.\n\n  ---- Fichte and, 382.\n\n  ---- Gnostics and, 361-2.\n\n  ---- Greek, 382.\n\n  ---- Herder and, 382.\n\n  ---- Historical Survey of, 359-65.\n\n  ---- Dr. Hyde on, 368.\n\n  ---- Japanese, 383.\n\n  ---- Jewish, 359, 384 n.\n\n  ---- Jubainville on, 368.\n\n  ---- Lama and, 383.\n\n  ---- Manichaean, 362.\n\n  ---- Modern, 364.\n\n  ---- Modern Celtic, 383-93;\n    non-Celtic, 364, 380-3.\n\n  ---- Mongan's, 370.\n\n  ---- Origen on, 359-61, 394.\n\n  ---- Origin and Evolution of Doctrine, 393-6.\n\n  ---- Otherworld and, 338, 358, 452.\n\n  ---- Parnell's, 385.\n\n  ---- Philo and, 359.\n\n  ---- Purgatory and, 364, 384, 452.\n\n  ---- Roman Church and, 364.\n\n  ---- Rosicrucians and, 364.\n\n  ---- Schopenhauer and, 382.\n\n  ---- Science and, 469, 492-513.\n\n  ---- Sex in, 375 n., 391.\n\n  ---- Spiritual, 449.\n\n  ---- Sun and, 310, 321, 380, 420.\n\n  ---- Tennyson and, 382.\n\n  ---- Tertullian on, 359-61, 394.\n\n  ---- Tuan's, 377.\n\n  ---- Tuatha De Danann, of, 367-76.\n\n  ---- Whitman and, 382.\n\n  ---- William II and, 383.\n\n  ---- Wordsworth and, 382.\n\n  Religions, Origin of, 226, 455.\n\n  Robin Good-fellow, 207, 220.\n\n  ---- Science and, 481.\n\n  Roman Catholic Theology and Fairies, 42, 168, 270, 364, 452.\n\n  _Romans Bretons_, 326-8.\n\n  Roscommon, 3, 27, 69, 70.\n\n  Rosicrucians, 167, 240-1, 243, 364.\n\n  Rosses Point, 58, 66, 243.\n\n  Ross-shire, 90.\n\n  Round Table, 309-10, 312, 323.\n\n  Round Tower, 59, 98, 129.\n\n\n  Sabbath, 215, 264.\n\n  ---- _Corrigan_, 209-10 n.\n\n  Sacrifice, 258-9, 413, 429-30, 434 n., 436 ff., 455.\n\n  ---- Animal, 424, 435.\n\n  ---- Food, 281, 404, 408, 437-8, 441, 454;\n    Anthropology and, 279-80;\n    Fairy, to, 36-7, 44, 70, 75, 117, 164, 171, 175, 218, 279-80, 291,\n        437:\n    _see_ Libations.\n\n  ---- Human, 246-7, 251-2, 280, 351, 407, 430, 436.\n\n  Sagas, 30, 368, 374.\n\n  Saints, Communion of, 127.\n\n  Salamanders, 242.\n\n  Salmon, Sacred, 341 n., 433.\n\n  _Samain_, 31, 288-90, 298-9, 345, 439-40, 453:\n    _see_ November Day.\n\n  Satyrs, 303, 306, 406.\n\n  Science and Fairies, 456-515.\n\n  Second-sight, 43, 91 n., 140:\n    _see_ Clairvoyance.\n\n  ---- Science and, 486.\n\n  Seers and Seeresses, xviii, 2, 3, 18, 43-4, 55, 60 ff., 72, 76, 80,\n        82-3, 91, 94, 96, 122, 124, 141, 152, 155, 158, 177, 182, 206,\n        213-4, 217, 227, 242, 264, 284-5, 290, 334, 392-3, 457, 459, 470,\n        477.\n\n  Sein, \u00cele de, 15, 218.\n\n  _Senchus na relec_, 292.\n\n  Serpents, 343.\n\n  ---- St. Patrick and, 444.\n\n  _Sg\u00e9alta_, 23.\n\n  Shakespeare, 164, 241.\n\n  Shape-shifting, 34-5, 47, 79 n., 81 n., 192, 205, 207, 211, 230, 259,\n        293, 301-2, 328, 345, 356, 374, 389.\n\n  _Shoney_, 93, 200.\n\n  _Siabra_ (Ghosts), 285, 310.\n\n  _Sidh_, Definition of, 291.\n\n  _Sidhe_, 27-8, 58-66, 77, 86, 113, 227, 283-307, 314, 334, 352, 431:\n    _see_ Tuatha De Danann.\n\n  ---- Abductions by, 294-6.\n\n  ---- Clontarf, at, 305-7.\n\n  ---- Minstrels and Musicians, 69, 297-300.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 62-4, 285-91, 307.\n\n  ---- Palaces, 291-3, 300-2, 431.\n\n  ---- Science and, 473, 479.\n\n  ---- Society and Warfare, 60, 63, 65, 291, 300-7, 335.\n\n  ---- Visions of, 60 ff., 296-7.\n\n  ---- War-Goddesses, 302.\n\n  ---- World, 60, 62-5, 295.\n\n  Skye, 4, 96, 98, 257.\n\n  Slieve Gullion, 2, 75-6, 237.\n\n  Sligo, 44, 54, 285, 299.\n\n  _Sluagh_, 108:\n    _see_ Fairy Hosts.\n\n  _Snedgus, Voyage of_, 354.\n\n  Snowdon, 10, 136-7 n.\n\n  Sociology of Celts, 233.\n\n  Sorcery, 258, 402.\n\n  Soul, Bee, as, 178.\n\n  ---- Bird, as, 183, 185, 240, 304 n., 355.\n\n  ---- Existence of, 496-7.\n\n  ---- Fairy, as, 147, 169, 176, 179, 183, 235, 493:\n    _see_ Dead.\n\n  ---- Idea of, 178, 215, 239-41, 244, 247-52, 304 n., 355, 360, 390.\n\n  ---- Moth, as, 178, 240, 304 n.\n\n  ---- Seen Disembodied, 215.\n\n  ---- Science and, 480.\n\n  ---- World, of, 65, 254.\n\n  Spenser, 318.\n\n  Sphynx, 419-20.\n\n  Spirits, Nature, 237-8, 240-4, 493.\n\n  Spiritualism, 55, 151 n., 249, 263, 459 ff.\n\n  St. Anne, 428, 450 n.\n\n  _St. Brandan's Voyage_, 354.\n\n  St. Brigit, 3, 284.\n\n  St. Columba, 3, 7, 85, 266-8, 441, 428.\n\n  ---- Human sacrifice and, 436.\n\n  ---- Re-birth and, 385.\n\n  St. Cornely, 199 n., 271, 274, 393, 428.\n\n  St. David, 402.\n\n  St. David's, 10, 147.\n\n  St. Guenol\u00e9, 201.\n\n  St. John's Day, 80 n., 273.\n\n  _St. Malo's Voyage_, 355.\n\n  St. Michael, 12, 407.\n\n  St. Michael's Mount, xv, 12, 15, 173, 398, 407, 423.\n\n  Stonehenge, xv, 403, 405, 411, 417-8.\n\n  Story-telling, 3, 5-7, 23-4, 115, 121, 149, 152, 154, 161, 184, 221.\n\n  St. Patrick, 3, 9, 14, 74, 118, 266-8, 286-7, 292, 294, 297-8, 431-2,\n        441 ff.\n\n  ---- Re-birth and, 385.\n\n  ---- Serpents and, 444.\n\n  _St. Patrick's Tripartite Life_, 402, 431, 451.\n\n  Succubi, 113 n.\n\n  Sun-dance and Fairy-dance, 405-6.\n\n  Swan-maidens, 200, 301.\n\n  Sylph, 241.\n\n\n  Taboo, 79 n., 130, 136, 161, 175, 204, 281, 340, 347, 415.\n\n  ---- Anthropology and, 274-9.\n\n  ---- Celtic, 277-9, 289-90, 295-6 n., 340, 347, 352, 368, 415.\n\n  ---- Food, 47, 68, 127, 219, 275-6, 352.\n\n  ---- Iron, 34, 87-8, 95, 124 n., 135, 138, 144, 147, 276.\n\n  ---- Name, 70, 92, 208-10, 213, 274-5.\n\n  ---- Place, 33, 35, 82, 150, 231, 237, 248, 277, 293.\n\n  _T\u00e1in_, 287, 302.\n\n  Taliessin, 161-2, 337 n., 388.\n\n  ---- _Book of_, 353, 378.\n\n  ---- Re-birth of, 378.\n\n  Tara, 2, 13-5, 31-2, 35, 221, 289, 292, 298-9, 340 ff., 351-2, 376, 381\n        n., 401-2, 410, 419.\n\n  _Teigue's Voyage_, 348-51.\n\n  Telepathy, 120, 217, 255.\n\n  ---- Science and, 459, 472-3, 477-8, 490.\n\n  Tethra, 335.\n\n  Theology: _see_ Fairy-Faith, and Christianity and Fairies.\n\n  Theosophy, 167, 243, 457.\n\n  Thomas's _Tristan_, 325.\n\n  Tintagel, 12, 183-4.\n\n  _Togail_, 287.\n\n  Totem, 178, 227, 299 n., 304 n.\n\n  Trance, 65, 68-9, 181, 210, 248, 275, 281, 343, 356, 383, 472.\n\n  ---- Fairyland and, 469 ff., 490.\n\n  ---- Science and, 459.\n\n  Transmigration, 377 n., 387-9, 392:\n    _see_ Re-birth.\n\n  Tree, Sacred: _see_ Cult.\n\n  _Triads_, 311, 313 n., 365.\n\n  Trinity, The, 238, 436.\n\n  _Tristan_, 325.\n\n  Troll, 176, 238, 391.\n\n  Tuam, 42, 384.\n\n  _Tuan's Re-birth_, 377.\n\n  Tuatha De Danann, 28, 31-2, 59, 62, 70, 211, 229, 241, 243, 252, 260,\n        277-80, 283-307:\n    _see_ _Sidhe_, and Re-birth of.\n\n  ---- Cult of, 412 ff.\n\n  ---- Nature of, 285 ff., 296 n., 310, 313 n.-4, 335, 351, 355, 376, 379,\n        411, 492.\n\n  ---- Welsh parallels to, 329.\n\n  _Tylwyth Teg_: _see_ Fairy, Names.\n\n  ---- Breton parallel to, 211.\n\n  ---- Origin of, 163.\n\n\n  Ulster, 3, 344-5, 370, 373, 374.\n\n  Undine, Tale of, 135.\n\n  Undines, 241.\n\n  Uthr Bendragon, 310.\n\n\n  _Viell\u00e9e_, 6 n., 221.\n\n  Virgin, Holy, the, 394 n., 428, 451.\n\n  Vision, 60-2, 65-7, 80, 83, 91, 117, 122, 124-6, 133-4, 139, 140-1, 143,\n        145, 152, 155, 158, 182, 214-5, 230, 242, 286, 296, 334, 356:\n    _see_ Clairvoyance, and Seers.\n\n  ---- Conferring of, 77, 152, 215.\n\n  ---- Explanation of, 485 ff.\n\n  ---- Science and, 459, 476.\n\n  Vitalism, 493 ff.\n\n  Vivian, 10, 189, 315, 329.\n\n\n  Wace, 308 n., 323.\n\n  _Wales, Archaiology of_, 394.\n\n  ---- _Four Ancient Books of_, 308 n., 328-31;\n    age of, 331.\n\n  Wands, 52, 202, 343-4.\n\n  White Lady, 28, 82 n., 152 n., 310.\n\n  Witch, 34, 36, 121-2, 124 n., 174, 248, 264, 272, 304, 306, 389, 430.\n\n  ---- Definition of, 263.\n\n  Witchcraft, 10, 12, 34, 36, 122, 153-4, 159 n., 167, 248, 253-65, 272,\n        281.\n\n  ---- Theory of, 263.\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes:\n\n[1] Quite appropriately it means _place of cairns_ or _tumuli_--those\nprehistoric monuments religious and funereal in their purposes. _Carnac_\nseems to be a Gallo-Roman form. According to Professor J. Loth, the\nBreton (Celtic) forms would be: old Celtic, _Carnaco-s_; old Breton\n(ninth-eleventh century), _Carnoc_; Middle Breton (eleventh-sixteenth\ncentury), _Carneuc_; Modern Breton, _Carnec_.\n\n[2] For we cannot offer any proof of what at first sight appears like a\nphilological relation or identity between _Carnac_ and _Karnak_.\n\n[3] Andrew Lang, Kirk's _Secret Commonwealth_ (London, 1893), p. xviii;\nand _History of Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1900-07).\n\n[4] Cf. David MacRitchie's published criticisms of our Psychological\nTheory in _The Celtic Review_ (January 1910), entitled _Druids and\nMound-Dwellers_; also his first part of these criticisms, ib. (October\n1909), entitled _A New Solution of the Fairy Problem_.\n\n[5] Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_ (Edinburgh, 1900), i, p.\nxix.\n\n[6] The _ceilidh_ of the Western Hebrides corresponds to the _veill\u00e9e_\nof Lower Brittany (see pp. 221 ff.), and to similar story-telling\nfestivals which formerly flourished among all the Celtic peoples. 'The\n_ceilidh_ is a literary entertainment where stories and tales, poems,\nand ballads, are rehearsed and recited, and songs are sung, conundrums\nare put, proverbs are quoted, and many other literary matters are\nrelated and discussed.'--Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_, i, p.\nxviii.\n\n[7] I am indebted for this information to the late Mr. Davies, the\ncompetent scholar and antiquarian of Newcastle-Emlyn, where for many\nyears he has been vicar.\n\n[8] In the Gnosis, St. Michael symbolizes the sun, and thus very\nappropriately at St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, at Mont St. Michel,\nCarnac, and also at Mont St. Michel on the coast of Normandy, replaced\nthe Great God of Light and Life, held in supreme honour among the\nancient Celts.\n\n[9] In this connexion we may think of the North and South Magnetic Poles\nof the earth as centres of definite yet invisible forces which can be\ndetected, and to some extent measured scientifically.\n\n[10] Anglo-Irish for _rath_, a circular earthen fort.\n\n[11] Throughout Ireland there are many ancient, often prehistoric,\nearthworks or tumuli, which are popularly called _forts_, _raths_, or\n_d\u00fans_, and in folk-belief these are considered fairy hills or the\nabodes of various orders of fairies. In this belief we see at work a\ndefinite anthropomorphism which attributes dwellings here on earth to an\ninvisible spirit-race, as though this race were actually the spirits of\nthe ancient Irish who built the _forts_. As we proceed, we shall see how\nimportant and varied a part these earthworks play in the Irish\nFairy-Faith (cf. chapter viii, on Archaeology).\n\n[12] An Irish mystic, and seer of great power, with whom I have often\ndiscussed the Fairy-Faith in its details, regards 'fairy paths' or\n'fairy passes' as actual magnetic arteries, so to speak, through which\ncirculates the earth's magnetism.\n\n[13] 'Irish scholars differ as to the signification of _Meadha_. Some\nsay that it is the genitive case of _Meadh_, the name of some ancient\nchieftain who was buried in the hill. _Knock Magh_ is the spelling often\nused by writers who hold that the name means \"Hill of the Plain\".'--JOHN\nGLYNN.\n\n[14] On September 8, 1909, about a year after this testimony was given,\nMr. ----, our seer-witness, at his own home near Grange, told to me\nagain the same essential facts concerning his psychical experiences as\nduring my first interview with him, and even repeated word for word the\nexpressions the 'gentry' used in communicating with him. Therefore I\nfeel that he is thoroughly sincere in his beliefs and descriptions,\nwhatever various readers may think of them. As his neighbours said to me\nabout him--and I interviewed a good many of them--'Some give in to him\nand some do not'; but they always spoke of him with respect, though a\nfew naturally consider him eccentric. At the time of our second meeting\n(which gave me a chance to revise the evidence as first taken down) Mr.\n---- made this additional statement:--'The _gentry_ do not tell all their\nsecrets, and I do not understand many things about them, nor can I be\nsure that everything I tell concerning them is exact.'\n\n[15] A learned and more careful Irish seer thinks this head-dress should\nreally be described as an aura.\n\n[16] I have been told by a friend in California, who is a student of\npsychical sciences, that there exist in certain parts of that state,\nnotably in the Yosemite Valley, as the Red Men seem to have known,\naccording to their traditions, invisible races exactly comparable to the\n'gentry' of this Ben Bulbin country such as our seer-witness describes\nthem and as other seers in Ireland have described them, and quite like\nthe 'people of peace' as described by Kirk, the seventh son, in his\n_Secret Commonwealth_ (see this study, p. 85 n.). These California races\nare said to exist now, as the Irish and Scotch invisible races are said\nto exist now, by seers who can behold them; and, like the latter races,\nare described as a distinct order of beings who have never been in\nphysical embodiments. If we follow the traditions of the Red Men, the\nYosemite invisible tribes are probably but a few of many such tribes\nscattered throughout the North American continent; and equally with\ntheir Celtic relatives they are described as a warlike race with more\nthan human powers over physical nature, and as able to subject or\ndestroy men.\n\n[17] This refers to a tale told by Hugh Currid, in August, 1908, about\nFather Patrick and Father Dominick, which is here omitted because\nre-investigation during my second visit to Grange, in September, 1909,\nshowed the tale to have been incorrectly reported. The same story,\nhowever, based upon facts, according to several reliable witnesses, was\nmore accurately told by Patrick Waters at the time of my\nre-investigation, and appears on page 51.\n\n[18] It happened that I had in my pocket a fossil, picked out of the\nneighbouring sea-cliff rocks, which are very rich in fossils. I showed\nthis to Pat to ascertain if what he had had in his hand looked anything\nlike it, and he at once said 'No'.\n\n[19] After this Ossianic fragment, which has been handed down orally, I\nasked Pat if he had ever heard the old people talk about Dermot and\nGrania, and he replied:--'To be sure I have. Dermot and Grania used to\nlive in these parts. Dermot stole Finn MacCoul's sister, and had to flee\naway. He took with him a bag of sand and a bunch of heather; and when he\nwas in the mountains he would put the bag of sand under his head at\nnight, and then tell everybody he met that he had slept on the sand (the\nsea-shore); and when on the sand he would use the bunch of heather for a\npillow, and say he had slept on the heather (the mountains). And so\nnobody ever caught him at all.'\n\n[20] As to probable proof that there was an Atlantis, see p. 333 n.\n\n[21] This refers to Robert Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, who wrote _The\nSecret Commonwealth_ (see this study, p. 85 n.).\n\n[22] In going from East Ireland to Galway, during the summer of 1908, I\npassed through the country near Mullingar, where there was then great\nexcitement over a leprechaun which had been appearing to school-children\nand to many of the country-folk. I talked with some of the people as I\nwalked through part of County Meath about this leprechaun, and most of\nthem were certain that there could be such a creature showing itself;\nand I noticed, too, that they were all quite anxious to have a chance at\nthe money-bag, if they could only see the little fellow with it. I told\none good-natured old Irishman at Ballywillan--where I stopped over\nnight--as we sat round his peat fire and pot of boiling potatoes, that\nthe leprechaun was reported as captured by the police in Mullingar. 'Now\nthat couldn't be, at all,' he said instantly, 'for everybody knows the\nleprechaun is a spirit and can't be caught by any blessed policeman,\nthough it is likely one might get his gold if they got him cornered so\nhe had no chance to run away. But the minute you wink or take your eyes\noff the little devil, sure enough he is gone.'\n\n[23] Cf. David Fitzgerald, _Popular Tales of Ireland_, in _Rev. Celt._,\niv. 185-92; and _All the Year Round_, New Series, iii. 'This woman\nguardian of the lake is called Toice Bhrean, \"untidy\" or \"lazy wench\".\nAccording to a local legend, she is said to have been originally the\nguardian of the sacred well, from which, owing to her neglect, Lough Gur\nissued; and in this r\u00f4le she corresponds to Liban, daughter of Eochaidh\nFinn, the guardian of the sacred well from which issued Lough Neagh,\naccording to the _Dinnshenchas_ and the tale of Eochaidh\nMacMairido.'--J. F. LYNCH.\n\n[24] It was on the bank of the little river Cam\u00f3g, which flows near\nLough Gur, that the Earl of Desmond one day saw Aine as she sat there\ncombing her hair. Overcome with love for the fairy-goddess, he gained\ncontrol over her through seizing her cloak, and made her his wife. From\nthis union was born the enchanted son Ger\u00f3id Iarla, even as Galahad was\nborn to Lancelot by the Lady of the Lake. When Ger\u00f3id had grown into\nyoung manhood, in order to surpass a woman he leaped right into a bottle\nand right out again, and this happened in the midst of a banquet in his\nfather's castle. His father, the earl, had been put under taboo by Aine\nnever to show surprise at anything her magician son might do, but now\nthe taboo was forgotten, and hence broken, amid so unusual a\nperformance; and immediately Ger\u00f3id left the feasting and went to the\nlake. As soon as its water touched him he assumed the form of a goose,\nand he went swimming over the surface of the Lough, and disappeared on\nGarrod Island.\n\nAccording to one legend, Aine, like the Breton _Morgan_, may sometimes\nbe seen combing her hair, only half her body appearing above the lake.\nAnd in times of calmness and clear water, according to another legend,\none may behold beneath Aine's lake the lost enchanted castle of her son\nGer\u00f3id, close to Garrod Island--so named from Ger\u00f3id or 'Gerald'.\n\nGer\u00f3id lives there in the under-lake world to this day, awaiting the\ntime of his normal return to the world of men (see our chapter on\nre-birth, p. 386). But once in every seven years, on clear moonlight\nnights, he emerges temporarily, when the Lough Gur peasantry see him as\na phantom mounted on a phantom white horse, leading a phantom or fairy\ncavalcade across the lake and land. A well-attested case of such an\napparitional appearance of the earl has been recorded by Miss Anne\nBaily, the percipient having been Teigue O'Neill, an old blacksmith whom\nshe knew (see _All the Year Round_, New Series, iii. 495-6, London,\n1870). And Moll Riall, a young woman also known to Miss Baily, saw the\nphantom earl by himself, under very weird circumstances, by day, as she\nstood at the margin of the lake washing clothes (ib., p. 496).\n\nSome say that Aine's true dwelling-place is in her hill; upon which on\nevery St. John's Night the peasantry used to gather from all the\nimmediate neighbourhood to view the moon (for Aine seems to have been a\nmoon goddess, like Diana), and then with torches (_cliars_) made of\nbunches of straw and hay tied on poles used to march in procession from\nthe hill and afterwards run through cultivated fields and amongst the\ncattle. The underlying purpose of this latter ceremony probably was--as\nis the case in the Isle of Man and in Brittany (see pp. 124 n., 273),\nwhere corresponding fire-ceremonies surviving from an ancient\nagricultural cult are still celebrated--to exorcise the land from all\nevil spirits and witches in order that there may be good harvests and\nrich increase of flocks. Sometimes on such occasions the goddess herself\nhas been seen leading the sacred procession (cf. the Bacchus cult among\nthe ancient Greeks, who believed that the god himself led his\nworshippers in their sacred torch-light procession at night, he being\nlike Aine in this respect, more or less connected with fertility in\nnature). One night some girls staying on the hill late were made to look\nthrough a magic ring by Aine, and lo the hill was crowded with the folk\nof the fairy goddess who before had been invisible. The peasants always\nsaid that Aine is 'the best-hearted woman that ever lived' (cf. David\nFitzgerald, _Popular Tales of Ireland_, in _Rev. Celt._, iv. 185-92).\n\nIn _Silva Gadelica_ (ii. 347-8), Aine is a daughter of Eogabal, a king\nof the Tuatha De Danann, and her abode is within the _sidh_, named on\nher account '_Aine cliach_, now Cnoc Aine, or Knockany'. In another\npassage we read that Manannan took Aine as his wife (ib., ii. 197). Also\nsee in _Silva Gadelica_, ii, pp. 225, 576.\n\n[25] 'In some local tales the _Bean-tighe_, or _Bean a'tighe_ is termed\n_Bean-sidhe_ (Banshee), and _Bean Chaointe_, or \"wailing woman\", and is\nidentified with Aine. In an elegy by Ferriter on one of the Fitzgeralds,\nwe read:--\n\n  Aine from her closely hid nest did awake,\n  The woman of wailing from Gur's voicy lake.\n\n'Thomas O'Connellan, the great minstrel bard, some of whose compositions\nare given by Hardiman, died at Lough Gur Castle about 1700, and was\nburied at New Church beside the lake. It is locally believed that Aine\nstood on a rock of Knock Adoon and \"keened\" O'Connellan whilst the\nfuneral procession was passing from the castle to the place of\nburial.'--J. F. LYNCH.\n\nA Banshee was traditionally attached to the Baily family of Lough Gur;\nand one night at dead of night, when Miss Kitty Baily was dying of\nconsumption, her two sisters, Miss Anne Baily and Miss Susan Baily, who\nwere sitting in the death chamber, 'heard such sweet and melancholy\nmusic as they had never heard before. It seemed to them like distant\ncathedral music.... The music was not in the house.... It seemed to come\nthrough the windows of the old castle, high in the air.' But when Miss\nAnne, who went downstairs with a lighted candle to investigate the weird\nphenomenon, had approached the ruined castle she thought the music came\nfrom above the house; 'and thus perplexed, and at last frightened, she\nreturned.' Both sisters are on record as having distinctly heard the\nfairy music, and for a long time (_All the Year Round_, New Series, iii.\n496-7; London, 1870).\n\n[26] 'The _Buachailleen_ is most likely one of the many forms assumed by\nthe shape-shifting Fer Fi, the Lough Gur Dwarf, who at Tara, according\nto the _Dinnshenchas_ of Tuag Inbir (see _Folk-Lore_, iii; and A. Nutt,\n_Voyage of Bran_, i. 195 ff.), took the shape of a woman; and we may\ntrace the tales of Ger\u00f3id Iarla to Fer Fi, who, and not Ger\u00f3id, is\nbelieved by the oldest of the Lough Gur peasantry to be the owner of the\nlake. Fer Fi is the son of Eogabal of S\u00eddh Eogabail, and hence brother\nto Aine. He is also foster-son of Manannan Mac Lir, and a Druid of the\nTuatha De Danann (cf. _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 225; also _Dinnshenchas_ of\nTuag Inbir). At Lough Gur various tales are told by the peasants\nconcerning the Dwarf, and he is still stated by them to be the brother\nof Aine. For the sake of experiment I once spoke very disrespectfully of\nthe Dwarf to John Punch, an old man, and he said to me in a frightened\nwhisper: \"Whisht! he'll hear you.\" Edward Fitzgerald and other old men\nwere very much afraid of the Dwarf.'--J. F. LYNCH.\n\n[27] 'Compare the tale of Excalibur, the Sword of King Arthur, which\nKing Arthur before his death ordered Sir Bedivere to cast into the lake\nwhence it had come.'--J. F. LYNCH.\n\n[28] 'It is commonly believed by young and old at Lough Gur that a human\nbeing is drowned in the Lake once every seven years, and that it is the\n_Bean Fhionn_, or \"White Lady\" who thus _takes_ the person.'--J. F.\nLYNCH.\n\n[29] It was the belief of the Rev. Robert Kirk, as expressed by him in\nhis _Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies_, that the fairy\ntribes are a distinct order of created beings possessing human-like\nintelligence and supernormal powers, who live and move about in this\nworld invisible to all save men and women of the second-sight (see this\nstudy, pp. 89, 91 n.).\n\n[30] The Rev. Robert Kirk, in his _Secret Commonwealth_, defines the\nsecond-sight, which enabled him to see the 'good people', as 'a rapture,\ntransport, and sort of death'. He and our present witness came into the\nworld with this abnormal faculty; but there is the remarkable case to\nrecord of the late Father Allen Macdonald, who during a residence of\ntwenty years on the tiny and isolated Isle of Erisgey, Western Hebrides,\nacquired the second-sight, and was able some years before he died there\n(in 1905) to exercise it as freely as though he had been a natural-born\nseer.\n\n[31] In his note to _Le Chant des Tr\u00e9pass\u00e9s_ (_Barzaz Breiz_, p. 507),\nVillemarqu\u00e9 reports that in some localities in Lower Brittany on All\nSaints Night libations of milk are poured over the tombs of the dead.\nThis is proof that the nature of fairies in Scotland and of the dead in\nBrittany is thought to be the same.\n\n[32] 'In many parts of the Highlands, where the same deity is known, the\nstone into which women poured the libation of milk is called _Leac na\nGruagaich_, \"Flag-stone of the Gruagach.\" If the libation was omitted in\nthe evening, the best cow in the fold would be found dead in the\nmorning.'--ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL.\n\n[33] Dr. George Henderson, in _The Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland_\n(Glasgow, 1901), p. 101, says:--'_Shony_ was a sea-god in Lewis, where\nale was sacrificed to him at Hallowtide. After coming to the church of\nSt. Mulvay at night a man was sent to wade into the sea, saying: \"Shony,\nI give you this cup of ale hoping that you will be so kind as to give us\nplenty of sea-ware for enriching our ground the ensuing year.\" As _o_\nfrom Norse would become _o_, and _fn_ becomes _nn_, one thinks of\n_Sj\u00f6fn_, one of the goddesses in the Edda. In any case the word is\nNorse.' It seems, therefore, that the Celtic stock in Lewis have adopted\nthe name _Shony_ or _Shoney_, and possibly also the god it designates,\nthrough contact with Norsemen; but, at all events, they have assimilated\nhim to their own fairy pantheon, as we can see in their celebrating\nspecial libations to him on the ancient Celtic feast of the dead and\nfairies, Halloween.\n\n[34] This, as Dr. Carmichael told me, I believe very justly represents\nthe present state of folk-lore in many parts of the Highlands. There\nare, it is true, old men and women here and there who know much about\nfairies, but they, fearing the ridicule of a younger and 'educated'\ngeneration, are generally unwilling to admit any belief in fairies.\n\n[35] The following note by Miss Tolmie is of great interest and value,\nespecially when one bears in mind Cuchulainn's traditional relation with\nSkye (see p. 4):--'The Koolian range should never be written\n_Cu-chullin_. The name is written here with a K, to ensure its being\ncorrectly uttered and written. It is probably a Norse word; but, as yet,\na satisfactory explanation of its origin and meaning has not been\npublished. In Gaelic the range is always alluded to (in the masculine\nsingular) as the Koolian.'\n\n[36] Dr. Alexander Carmichael found that the scene of this widespread\ntale is variously laid, in Argyll, in Perth, in Inverness, and in other\ncounties of the Highlands. From his own collection of folk-songs he\ncontributes the following verses to illustrate the song (existing in\nnumerous versions), which the maiden while invisible used to sing to the\ncows of Colin:--\n\n  _Crodh Chailean! crodh Chailean!\n  Crodh Chailean mo ghaoil,\n  Crodh Chailean mo chridhe,\n    Air lighe cheare fraoish._\n\n  (Cows of Colin! cows of Colin!\n  Cows of Colin of my love,\n  Cows of Colin of my heart,\n    In colour of the heather-hen.)\n\nIn one of Dr. Carmichael's versions, 'Colin's wife and her infant child\nhad been lifted away by the fairies to a fairy bower in the glen between\nthe hills.' There she was kept nursing the babes which the fairies had\nstolen, until 'upon Hallow Eve, when all the bowers were open', Colin by\nplacing a steel tinder above the lintel of the door to the fairy bower\nwas enabled to enter the bower and in safety lead forth his wife and\nchild.\n\n[37] In this beautiful fairy legend we recognize the fairy woman as one\nof the Tuatha De Danann-like fairies--one of the women of the _Sidhe_,\nas Irish seers call them.\n\n[38] It is interesting to know that the present inhabitants of Barra, or\nat least most of them, are the descendants of Irish colonists who\nbelonged to the clan Eoichidh of County Cork, and who emigrated from\nthere to Barra in A. D. 917. They brought with them their old customs and\nbeliefs, and in their isolation their children have kept these things\nalive in almost their primitive Celtic purity. For example, besides\ntheir belief in fairies, May Day, Baaltine, and November Eve are still\nrigorously observed in the pagan way, and so is Easter--for it, too,\nbefore being claimed by Christianity, was a sun festival. And how\nbeautiful it is in this age to see the youths and maidens and some of\nthe elders of these simple-hearted Christian fisher-folk climb to the\nrocky heights of their little island-home on Easter morn to salute the\nsun as it rises out of the mountains to the east, and to hear them say\nthat the sun dances with joy that morning because the Christ is risen.\nIn a similar way they salute the new moon, making as they do so the sign\nof the cross. Finn Barr is said to have been a County Cork man of great\nsanctity; and he probably came to Barra with the colony, for he is the\npatron saint of the island, and hence its name. (To my friend, Mr.\nMichael Buchanan, of Barra, I am indebted for this history and these\ntraditions of his native isle.)\n\n[39] '_Sluagh_, \"hosts,\" the spirit-world. The \"hosts\" are the spirits\nof mortals who have died.... According to one informant, the spirits fly\nabout in great clouds, up and down the face of the world like the\nstarlings, and come back to the scenes of their earthly transgressions.\nNo soul of them is without the clouds of earth, dimming the brightness\nof the works of God, nor can any win heaven till satisfaction is made\nfor the sins of earth.'--ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL, _Carmina Gadelica_, ii.\n330.\n\n[40] This curious tale suggests that certain of the fairy women who\nentice mortals to their love in modern times are much the same, if not\nthe same, as the _succubi_ of Middle-Age mystics. But it is not intended\nby this observation to confuse the higher orders of the _Sidhe_ and all\nthe fairy folk like the fays who come from Avalon with _succubi_; though\n_succubi_ and fairy women in general were often confused and improperly\nidentified the one with the other. It need not be urged in this example\nof a 'fairy woman' that we have to do not with a being of flesh and\nblood, whatever various readers may think of her.\n\n[41] '\"Willy-the-Fairy,\" otherwise known as William Cain, is the\nmusician referred to by the late Mr. John Nelson (p. 131). The latter's\nstatement that William Cain played one of these fairy tunes at one of\nour Manx entertainments in Peel is perfectly correct.'--SOPHIA MORRISON.\n\n[42] This is the Mid-world of Irish seers, who would be inclined to\nfollow the Manx custom and call the fairies 'the People of the Middle\nWorld'.\n\n[43] 'May 11 == in Manx _Oie Voaldyn_, \"May-day Eve.\" On this evening the\nfairies were supposed to be peculiarly active. To propitiate them and to\nward off the influence of evil spirits, and witches, who were also\nactive at this time, green leaves or boughs and _sumark_ or primrose\nflowers were strewn on the threshold, and branches of the _cuirn_ or\nmountain ash made into small crosses without the aid of a knife, which\nwas on no account to be used (steel or iron in any form being taboo to\nfairies and spirits), and stuck over the doors of the dwelling-houses\nand cow-houses. Cows were further protected from the same influences by\nhaving the _Bollan-feaill-Eoin_ (John's feast wort) placed in their\nstalls. This was also one of the occasions on which no one would give\nfire away, and on which fires were and are still lit on the hills to\ndrive away the fairies.'--SOPHIA MORRISON.\n\n[44] I am wholly indebted to Miss Morrison for these Manx verses and\ntheir translation, which I have substituted for Mrs. Moore's English\nrendering. Miss Morrison, after my return to Oxford, saw Mrs. Moore and\ntook them down from her, a task I was not well fitted to do when the\ntale was told.\n\n[45] It has been suggested, and no doubt correctly, that these murmuring\nsounds heard on Dalby Mountain are due to the action of sea-waves, close\nat hand, washing over shifting masses of pebbles on the rock-bound\nshore. Though this be the true explanation of the phenomenon itself, it\nonly proves the attribution of cause to be wrong, and not the underlying\nanimistic conception of spiritual beings.\n\n[46] In this mythological role, Manannan is apparently a sun god or else\nthe sun itself; and the Manx coat of arms, which is connected with him,\nbeing a sun symbol, suggests to us now ages long prior to history, when\nthe Isle of Man was a Sacred Isle dedicated to the cult of the Supreme\nGod of Light and Life, and when all who dwelt thereon were regarded as\nthe Children of the Sun.\n\n[47] Sir John Rhys tells me that this Snowdon fairy-lore was\ncontributed by the late Lady Rhys, who as a girl lived in the\nneighbourhood of Snowdon and heard very much from the old people there,\nmost of whom believed in the fairies; and she herself then used to be\nwarned, in the manner mentioned, against being carried away into the\nunder-lake Fairyland.\n\n[48] Cf. _Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx_, pp. 683-4 n., where Sir John\nRhys says of his friend, Professor A. C. Haddon:--'I find also that\nhe, among others, has anticipated me in my theory as to the origins of\nthe fairies: witness the following extract from the syllabus of a\nlecture delivered by him at Cardiff in 1894 on _Fairy Tales_:--\"What are\nthe fairies?--Legendary origin of the fairies. It is evident from fairy\nliterature that there is a mixture of the possible and the impossible,\nof fact and fancy. Part of fairydom refers to (1) spirits that never\nwere embodied: other fairies are (2) spirits of environment, nature or\nlocal spirits, and household or domestic spirits; (3) spirits of the\norganic world, spirits of plants, and spirits of animals; (4) spirits of\nmen, or ghosts; and (5) witches and wizards, or men possessed with other\nspirits. All these, and possibly other elements, enter into the fanciful\naspects of Fairyland, but there is a large residuum of real occurrences;\nthese point to a clash of races, and we may regard many of these fairy\nsagas as stories told by men of the Iron Age of events which happened to\nmen of the Bronze Age in their conflicts with men of the Neolithic Age,\nand possibly these, too, handed on traditions of the Paleolithic Age.\"'\n\n[49] This is the one tale I have found in North Wales about a midwife\nand fairies--a type of tale common to West Ireland, Isle of Man,\nCornwall, and Brittany, but in a reverse version, the midwife there\nbeing (as she is sometimes in Welsh versions) one of the human race\ncalled in by fairies. If evidence of the oneness of the Celtic mind were\nneeded we should find it here (cf. pp. 50, 54, 127, 175, 182, 205).\nThere are in this type of fairy-tale, as the advocates of the Pygmy\nTheory may well hold, certain elements most likely traceable to a\nfolk-memory of some early race, or special class of some early race, who\nknew the secrets of midwifery and the use of medicines when such\nknowledge was considered magical. But in each example of this midwife\nstory there is the germ idea--no matter what other ideas cluster round\nit--that fairies, like spirits, are only to be seen by an extra-human\nvision, or, as psychical researchers might say, by clairvoyance.\n\n[50] After this remarkable story, Mrs. Jones told me about another very\nrare psychical experience of her own, which is here recorded because it\nillustrates the working of the psychological law of the association of\nideas:--'My husband, Price Jones, was drowned some forty years ago,\nwithin four miles of Arms Head, near Bangor, on Friday at midday; and\nthat night at about one o'clock he appeared to me in our bedroom and\nlaid his head on my breast. I tried to ask him where he came from, but\nbefore I could get my breath he was gone. I believed at the time that he\nwas out at sea perfectly safe and well. But next day, Saturday, at about\nnoon, a message came announcing his death. I was as fully awake as one\ncan be when I thus saw the spirit of my husband. He returned to me a\nsecond time about six months later.' Had this happened in West Ireland,\nit is almost certain that public opinion would have declared that Price\nJones had been _taken_ by the 'gentry' or 'good people'.\n\n[51] Here we find the _Tylwyth Teg_ showing quite the same\ncharacteristics as Welsh elves in general, as Cornish pixies, and as\nBreton _corrigans_, or _lutins_; that is, given to dancing at night, to\nstealing children, and to deceiving travellers.\n\n[52] This folk-belief partially sustains the view put forth in our\nchapter on Environment, that St. David's during pagan times was already\na sacred spot and perhaps then the seat of a druidic oracle.\n\n[53] Here we have an example of the _Tylwyth Teg_ being identified with\na prehistoric race, quite in accordance with the argument of the Pygmy\nTheory. We have, however, as the essential idea, that the _Tylwyth Teg_\nheard singing were the spirits of this prehistoric race. Thus our\ncontention that ancestral spirits play a leading part in the\nfairy-belief is sustained, and the Pygmy Theory appears quite at its\ntrue relative value--as able to explain one subordinate ethnological\nstrand in the complex fabric of the belief.\n\n[54] This story is much like the one recorded by Giraldus Cambrensis\nabout a boy going to Fairyland and returning to his mother (see this\nstudy, p. 324). The possibility that it may be an independent version of\nthe folk-tale told to Cambrensis which has continued to live on among\nthe people makes it highly interesting.\n\nMr. Jones gives further evidence on the re-birth doctrine in Wales (pp.\n388-9), and concerning Merlin and sacrifice to appease place-spirits\n(pp. 436-7).\n\n[55] As a result of his researches, the Rev. T. M. Morgan has just\npublished a new work, entitled _The History and Antiquities of the\nParish of Newchurch_ (Carmarthen, 1910).\n\n[56] In these last two anecdotes, as in modern 'Spiritualism', we\nobserve a popular practice of necromancy or the calling up of spirits,\nso-called 'materialization' of spirits, and spirit communication through\na human 'medium', who is the _dyn hysbys_, as well as divination, the\nrevealing of things hidden and the foretelling of future events. This is\ndirect evidence that Welsh fairies or the _Tylwyth Teg_ were formerly\nthe same to Welshmen as spirits are to Spiritualists now. We seem,\ntherefore, to have proof of our Psychological Theory (see chap. xi).\n\n[57] Here we have a combination of many distinct elements and\ninfluences. As among mortals, so among the _Tylwyth Teg_ there is a\nking; and this conception may have arisen directly from anthropomorphic\ninfluences on the ancient Brythonic religion, or it may have come\ndirectly from druidic teachings. The locating of _Gwydion ab Don_, like\na god, in a heaven-world, rather than like his counterpart, _Gwynn ab\nNudd_, in a hades-world, is probably due to a peculiar admixture of\nDruidism and Christianity: at first, both gods were probably druidic or\npagan, and the same, but _Gwynn ab Nudd_ became a demon or evil god\nunder Christian influences, while _Gwydion ab Don_ seems to have\ncuriously retained his original good reputation in spite of Christianity\n(cf. p. 320). The name _Gwenhidw_ reminds us at once of Arthur's queen\n_Gwenhwyvar_ or 'White Apparition'; and the sheep of _Gwenhidw_ can\nproperly be explained by the Naturalistic Theory. It seems, however,\nthat analogy was imaginatively suggested between the Queen _Gwenhidw_ as\nresembling the Welsh White Lady or a ghost-like being, and her sheep,\nthe clouds, also of a necessarily ghost-like character. All this is an\nadmirable illustration of the great complexity of the Fairy-Faith.\n\n[58] The parallel between this Welsh method of conferring vision and the\nBreton method is very striking (cf. p. 215).\n\n[59] This is the substance of the story as it was told to me by a\ngentleman who lives within sight of the farm where the image is said to\nhave been found. And one day he took me to the house and showed me the\nroom and the place in the wall where the find was made. The old manor is\none of the solidest and most picturesque of its kind in Wales, and, in\nspite of its extreme age, well preserved. He, being as a native Welshman\nof the locality well acquainted with its archaeology, thinks it safe to\nplace an age of six to eight hundred years on the manor. What is\ninteresting about this matter of age arises from the query, Was the\nimage one of the Virgin or of some Christian saint, or was it a Druid\nidol? Both opinions are current in the neighbourhood, but there is a\ngood deal in favour of the second. The region, the little valley on\nwhose side stands the Pentre Evan Cromlech, the finest in Britain, is\nbelieved to have been a favourite place with the ancient Druids; and in\nthe oak groves which still exist there tradition says there was once a\nflourishing pagan school for neophytes, and that the cromlech instead of\nbeing a place for interments or for sacrifices was in those days\ncompletely enclosed, forming like other cromlechs a darkened chamber in\nwhich novices when initiated were placed for a certain number of\ndays--the interior being called the 'Womb or Court of Ceridwen'.\n\n[60] The same remedy is prescribed in Brittany when mischievous _lutins_\nor _corrigans_ lead a traveller astray, in Ireland when the _good\npeople_ lead a traveller astray; and at Rollright, Oxfordshire, England,\nan old woman told me that it is efficacious against being led astray\nthrough witchcraft. Obviously the fairy and witch spell are alike.\n\n[61] The same sort of a story as this is told in Lower Brittany, where\nthe _corrigans_ or _lutins_ slaughter a farmer's fat cow or ox and\ninvite the farmer to partake of the feast it provides. If he does so\nwith good grace and humour, he finds his cow or ox perfectly whole in\nthe morning, but if he refuses to join the feast or joins it\nunwillingly, in the morning he is likely to find his cow or ox actually\ndead and eaten.\n\n[62] See Sir John Rhys, _Celtic Folk-Lore: Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford,\n1901), _passim_.\n\n[63] The _New English Dictionary_, s.v. _Pixy_, gives rather vaguely a\nSwedish dialect word, _pysg_, a small fairy. It also mentions _pix_ as a\nDevon imprecation, 'a pix take him.' I suspect the last is only an\n_umlaut_ form of a common Shakespearean imprecation. If not, it is\ninteresting, and reminds one of the fate of Margery Dawe, 'Piskies came\nand carr'd her away.'\n\n[64] 'Some say that the Phoenicians never came to Cornwall at all, and\nthat their Ictis was Vectis (the Isle of Wight) or even Thanet.'--HENRY\nJENNER.\n\n[65] 'This is, I think, the usual Cornish belief.'--HENRY JENNER.\n\n[66] 'About Porth Curnow and the Logan Rock there are little spots of\nearth in the face of the granite cliffs where sea-daisies (thrift) and\nother wild flowers grow. These are referred to the sea pisky, and are\nknown as \"piskies' gardens.\"'--HENRY JENNER.\n\n[67] I was told by another Cornishman that, in a spirit of municipal\nrivalry and fun, the Penzance people like to taunt the people of Newlyn\n(now almost a suburb of Penzance) by calling them _Buccas_, and that the\nNewlyn townsmen very much resent being so designated. Thus what no doubt\nwas originally an ancient cult to some local sea-divinity called\n_Bucca_, has survived as folk-humour. (See Mr. Jenner's Introduction, p.\n164.)\n\n[68] 'Another version, which is more usual, is that the pisky anointed\nthe person's eyes and so rendered itself visible.'--HENRY JENNER.\n\n[69] This is a natural outcropping of greenstone on a commanding hill\njust above the vicarage in Newlyn, and concerning it many weird legends\nsurvive. In pre-Christian times it was probably one of the Cornish\nsacred spots for the celebration of ancient rites--probably in honour of\nthe Sun--and for divination.\n\n[70] For more about the Tolcarne Troll see chapter on Celtic Re-birth p.\n391.\n\n[71] Mr. John B. Cornish, solicitor, of Penzance, told me that when he\nonce suggested to an old miner who fully believed in the 'knockers',\nthat the noises they were supposed to make were due to material causes,\nthe old miner became quite annoyed, and said, 'Well, I guess I have ears\nto hear.'\n\n[72] For the Cornish folk-lore already published by Miss M. A. Courtney,\nthe reader is referred to her work, _Cornish Feasts and Folk-Lore_\n(Penzance, 1890).\n\n[73] A curious holed stone standing between two low menhirs on the moors\nbeyond the Lanyon Dolmen, near Madron; but in Borlase's time (cf. his\n_Antiquities of Cornwall_, ed. 1769, p. 177) the three stones were not\nas now in a direct line. The Men-an-Tol has aroused much speculation\namong archaeologists as to its probable use or meaning. No doubt it was\nastronomical and religious in its significance; and it may have been a\ncalendar stone with which ancient priests took sun observations (cf. Sir\nNorman Lockyer, _Stonehenge and Other Stone Monuments_); or it may have\nbeen otherwise related to a sun cult, or to some pagan initiatory rites.\n\n[74] I asked what a nath is, and Mr. Spragg explained:--'A nath is a\nbird with a beak like that of a parrot, and with black and grey\nfeathers. The naths live on sea-islands in holes like rabbits, and\nbefore they start to fly they first run.' The nath, as Mr. Henry Jenner\ninforms me, is the same as the puffin (_Fratercula arctica_), called\nalso in Cornwall a 'sea parrot'.\n\n[75] Sometimes it is necessary to turn your coat inside out. A Zennor\nman said that to do the same thing with your socks or stockings is as\ngood. In Ireland this strange psychological state of going astray comes\nfrom walking over a fairy domain, over a confusing-sod, or getting into\na fairy pass.\n\n[76] Cf. F. M. Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse-Bretagne_ (Paris,\n1887), i. 177-97; following the account of Ann Drann, a servant at\nCoat-Fual, Plouguernevel (C\u00f4tes-du-Nord), November 1855.\n\n[77] My Breton friend, M. Goulven Le Scour, was born November 20, 1851,\nat Kerouledic in Plouneventer, Finist\u00e8re. He is an antiquarian, a poet,\nand, as we shall see, a folk-lorist of no mean ability. In 1902, at the\n_Congr\u00e8s d'Auray_ of Breton poets and singers, he won two prizes for\npoetry, and, in 1901, a prize at the _Congr\u00e8s de Quimperl\u00e9_ or _Concours\nde Recueils po\u00e9tiques_.\n\n[78] This story concerns persons still living, and, at M. Le Scour's\nsuggestion, I have omitted their names.\n\n[79] By a Carnac family I was afterwards given a sprig of such blessed\nbox-wood, and was assured that its exorcizing power is still recognized\nby all old Breton families, most of whom seem to possess branches of it.\n\n[80] This idea seems related to the one in the popular Morbihan legend\nof how St. Cornely, the patron saint of the country and the saint who\npresides over the Alignements and domestic horned animals, changed into\nupright stones the pagan forces opposing him when he arrived near\nCarnac; and these stones are now the famous Alignements of Carnac.\n\n[81] Luzel, op. cit., iii. 226-311; i. 128-218; ii. 349-54.\n\n[82] Ib., ii. 269; cf. our study, p. 93.\n\n[83] According to the annotations to a legend recorded by Villemarqu\u00e9,\nin his _Barzaz Breiz_, pp. 39-44, and entitled the _Submersion de la\nVille d'Is_, St. Guenol\u00e9 was traditionally the founder of the first\nmonastery raised in Armorica; and Dahut the princess stole the key from\nher sleeping father in order fittingly to crown a banquet and midnight\ndebaucheries which were being held in honour of her lover, the Black\nPrince.\n\n[84] Luzel, op. cit., ii. 257-68; i. 3-13.\n\n[85] P. S\u00e9billot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_\n(Paris, 1882), i. 100.\n\n[86] General references: S\u00e9billot, ib.; and his _Folk-Lore de France_\n(Paris, 1905).\n\n[87] S\u00e9billot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i.\n73-4.\n\n[88] Ib., i. 102, 103-4.\n\n[89] S\u00e9billot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_, i.\n83.\n\n[90] Ib., i. 90-1.\n\n[91] Cf. ib., i. 109.\n\n[92] Cf. ib., i. 74-5, &c.\n\n[93] Cf. S\u00e9billot, _Traditions et superstitions de la Haute-Bretagne_,\ni. 74-5, &c.\n\n[94] In Lower Brittany the _corrigan_ tribes collectively are commonly\ncalled _Corrik\u00eat_, masculine plural of _Corrik_, diminutive of _Corr_,\nmeaning 'Dwarf'; or _Corriganed_, feminine plural of _Corrigan_, meaning\n'Little Dwarf'. Many other forms are in use. (Cf. R. F. Le Men, _Trad.\net supers. de la Basse-Bretagne_, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 226-7.)\n\n[95] Cf. _Foyer breton_, i. 199.\n\n[96] By 'E. R.', in _M\u00e9lusine_ (Paris), i. 114.\n\n[97] This account about _corrigans_, more rational than any preceding\nit, may possibly refer to a dream or trance-like state of mind on the\npart of the young girl; and if it does, we can then compare the presence\nof a mortal at this _corrigan_ sabbath, or even at the ordinary witches'\nsabbath, to the presence of a mortal in Fairyland. And according to\npopular Breton belief, as reliable peasants assure me, during dreams,\ntrance, or ecstasy, the soul is supposed to depart from the body and\nactually see spirits of all kinds in another world, and to be then under\ntheir influence. While many details in the more conventional _corrigan_\nstories appear to reflect a folk-memory of religious dances and songs,\nand racial, social, and traditional usages of the ancient Bretons, the\nanimistic background of them could conceivably have originated from\npsychical experiences such as this girl is supposed to have had.\n\n[98] Villemarqu\u00e9, _Barzaz Breiz_ (Paris, 1867), pp. 33, 35.\n\n[99] J. Loth, in _Annales de Bretagne_ (Rennes), x. 78-81.\n\n[100] E. Renan, _Essais de morale et de critique_ (Paris, 1859), p. 451.\n\n[101] In Ireland it is commonly held that a seer beholding a fairy can\nmake a non-seer see it also by coming into bodily _rapport_ with the\nnon-seer (cf. p. 152).\n\n[102] It is sometimes believed that phantom washerwomen are undergoing\npenance for having wilfully brought on an abortion by their work, or\nelse for having strangled their babe.\n\n[103] Every parish in the uncorrupted parts of Brittany has its own\n_Ankou_, who is the last man to die in the parish during the year. Each\nKing of the Dead, therefore, never holds office for more than twelve\nmonths, since during that period he is certain to have a successor.\nSometimes the _Ankou_ is Death itself personified. In the Morbihan, the\n_Ankou_ occasionally may be seen as an apparition entering a house where\na death is about to occur; though more commonly he is never seen, his\nknocking only is heard, which is the rule in Finist\u00e8re. In Welsh\nmythology, Gwynn ab Nudd, king of the world of the dead, is represented\nas playing a r\u00f4le parallel to that of the Breton _Ankou_, when he goes\nforth with his fierce hades-hounds hunting the souls of the dying. (Cf.\nRhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 155.)\n\n[104] Cf. A. Le Braz, _La L\u00e9gende de la Mort_; Introduction by L.\nMarillier (Paris, 1893), pp. 31, 40.\n\n[105] Cf. Le Braz, _La L\u00e9gende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier,\npp. 47, 46, 7-8, 40, 45, 46.\n\n[106] Cf. Le Braz, _La L\u00e9gende de la Mort_; Introduction by Marillier,\np. 43.\n\n[107] Ib.; Notes by G. Dottin (Paris, 1902), p. 44.\n\n[108] Ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 19, 23, 68.\n\n[109] Cf. ib.; Introduction by Marillier, pp. 53 ff., 68.\n\n[110] A Breton night's entertainment held in a peasant's cottage,\nstable, or other warm outhouse. In parts of the Morbihan and of\nFinist\u00e8re where the old Celtic life has escaped modern influences,\nalmost every winter night the Breton Celts, like their cousins in very\nisolated parts of West Ireland and in the Western Hebrides, find their\nchief enjoyment in story-telling festivals, some of which I have been\nprivileged to attend.\n\n[111] The word in the MS. is _boiteux_, and in relation to a devil or\ndemon this seems to be the proper rendering.\n\n[112] B. Spencer and F. T. Gillen, _Nat. Tribes of Cent. Aust._ (London,\n1899), chapters xi, xv.\n\n[113] R. H. Codrington, _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._ x. 261; _The Melanesians_\n(Oxford, 1891), pp. 123, 151, &c.; also cf. F. W. Christian, _The\nCaroline Islands_ (London, 1899), pp. 281 ff., &c.\n\n[114] H. Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_ (London, 1868),\npp. 226-7.\n\n[115] C. G. Leland, _Memoirs_ (London, 1893), i. 34.\n\n[116] R. C. Temple, _Legends of the Panjab_, in _Folk-Lore_, x. 395.\n\n[117] W. W. Skeat, _Malay Magic_ (London, 1900), _passim_.\n\n[118] Hardouin, _Traditions et superstitions siamoises_, in _Rev. Trad.\nPop._, v. 257-67.\n\n[119] Ella G. Sykes, _Persian Folklore_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii. 263.\n\n[120] I am directly indebted for this information to a friend who is a\nmember of Lincoln College, Oxford, Mr. Mohammed Said Loutfy, of Barkein,\nLower Egypt. Mr. Loutfy has come into frequent and very intimate contact\nwith these animistic beliefs in his country, and he tells me that they\nare common to all classes of almost all races in modern Egypt. The\ncommon Egyptian spellings are _afreet_, in the singular, and _afaareet_\nin the plural, for spiritual beings, who are usually described by\npercipients as of pygmy stature, but as being able to assume various\nsizes and shapes. The _djinns_, on the contrary, are described as tall\nspiritual beings possessing great power.\n\n[121] J. C. Lawson, _Modern Greek Folk-Lore_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp.\n131-7, 139-46, 163.\n\n[122] L. Sain\u00e9an, _Les F\u00e9es m\u00e9chantes d'apr\u00e8s les croyances du peuple\nroumain_, in _M\u00e9lusine_, x. 217-26, 243-54.\n\n[123] Cf. C. G. Leland, _Etruscan Roman Remains in Pop. Trad._ (London,\n1892), pp. 162, 165, 223, &c.\n\n[124] H. C. Coote, _The Neo-Latin Fay_, in _Folk-Lore Record_, ii. 1-18.\n\n[125] We cannot here attempt to present, even in outline, all the\ncomplex ethnological arguments for and against the existence in\nprehistoric times of European pygmy races. Attention ought, however, to\nbe called to the remarkable finds recently made in the _Grotte des\nEnfants_, at Mentone, France. A certain number of well-preserved\nskeletons of probably the earliest men who dwelt on the present land\nsurface of Europe, which were found there, suggest that different racial\nstocks, possibly in succession, have preceded the Aryan stock. The first\nrace, as indicated by two small negroid-looking skeletons of a woman,\n1,580 mm. (62\u00b721 inches), and of a boy 1,540 mm. (60\u00b763 inches) in\nheight, found in the lowest part of the _Grotte_, was probably\nEthiopian. The succeeding race was probably Mongolian, judging from\nother remains found in another part of the same _Grotte_, and especially\nfrom the Chancelade skeleton with its distinctly Eskimo appearance, only\n1,500 mm. (59\u00b706 inches) high, discovered near Perigneux, France. The\nrace succeeding this one was possibly the one out of which our own Aryan\nrace evolved. In relation to the Pygmy Theory these recent finds are of\nthe utmost significance. They confirm Dr. Windle's earlier conclusion,\nthat, contrary to the argument advanced to support the Pygmy Theory, the\nneolithic races of Central Europe were not true pygmies--a people whose\naverage stature does not exceed four feet nine inches (cf. B. C. A.\nWindle, _Tyson's Pygmies of the Ancients_, London, 1894, Introduction).\nAnd, furthermore, these finds show, as far as any available ethnological\ndata can, that there are no good reasons for believing that European\nand, therefore, Celtic lands were once dominated by pygmies even in\nepochs so remote that we can only calculate them in tens of thousands of\nyears. Nevertheless, it is very highly probable that a folk-memory of\nLappish, Pictish, or other small but not true pygmy races, has\nsuperficially coloured the modern fairy traditions of Northern Scotland,\nof the Western Hebrides (where what may prove to have been Lapps' or\nPicts' houses undoubtedly remain), of Northern Ireland, of the Isle of\nMan, and slightly, if indeed at all, the fairy traditions of other parts\nof the Celtic world (cf. David MacRitchie, _The Testimony of Tradition_,\nLondon, 1890; and his criticism of our own Psychological Theory, in the\n_Celtic Review_, October 1909 and January 1910, entitled respectively,\n_A New Solution of the Fairy Problem_, and _Druids and Mound-Dwellers_).\n\nAgain, the very small flint implements frequently found in Celtic lands\nand elsewhere have perhaps very reasonably been attributed to a\nlong-forgotten pygmy race; though we must bear in mind in this connexion\nthat it would be very unwise to conclude definitely that no race save a\nsmall-statured race could have made and used such implements: American\nRed Men were, when discovered by Europeans, and still are, making and\nusing the tiniest of arrow-heads, precisely the same in size and design\nas those found in Celtic lands and attributed to pygmies. The use of\nsmall flint implements for special purposes, e. g. arrows for shooting\nsmall game like birds, for spearing fish, and for use in warfare as\npoisoned arrows, seems to have been common to most primitive peoples of\nnormal stature. Contemporary pygmy races, far removed from Celtic lands,\nare also using them, and no doubt their prehistoric ancestors used them\nlikewise.\n\n[126] J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_ (London, 1891), p. 239. An Irish dwarf\nis minutely described in _Silva Gadelica_ (ii. 116), O'Grady's\ntranslation. Again, in Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_ (B. XII. cc. i-ii) a\ndwarf is mentioned.\n\n[127] Campbell, _The Fians_, p. 265.\n\n[128] S. H. O'Grady, _Silva Gadelica_ (London, 1892), ii. 199.\n\n[129] Commentary on the _Senchas M\u00e1r_, i. 70-1, Stokes's translation, in\n_Rev. Celt._, i. 256-7.\n\n[130] Sir John Rhys, _Hibbert Lectures_ (London, 1888), p. 592.\nDwarfs supernatural in character also appear in the _Mabinogion_, and\none of them is an attendant on King Arthur. In B\u00e9roul's _Tristan_,\nFrocin, a dwarf, is skilled in astrology and magic, and in the version\nby Thomas we find a similar reference.\n\n[131] Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} i. 385.\n\n[132] Cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p. 57.\n\n[133] Hunt, _Anthrop. Mems._, ii. 294; cf. Windle, op. cit., Intro., p.\n57.\n\n[134] Smith, _Myths of the Iroquois_, in _Amer. Bur. Eth._, ii. 65.\n\n[135] Skeat, _Malay Magic_, p. 329.\n\n[136] Monier-Williams, _Brahminism and Hinduism_ (London, 1887),\np. 236.\n\n[137] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 152.\n\n[138] _Dwarfs in the East_, in _Folk-Lore_, iv. 401-2.\n\n[139] Lacouperie, _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, v; cf. Windle, op.\ncit., Intro., pp. 21-2.\n\n[140] A. H. S. Landor, _Alone with the Hairy Ainu_ (London, 1893), p.\n251; also Windle, op. cit., Intro., pp. 22-4.\n\n[141] J. G. Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2} (London, 1900), i. 248 ff.\n\n[142] Cf. A. Wiedemann, _Ancient Egyptian Doctrine Immortality_ (London,\n1895), p. 12.\n\n[143] Cf. A. E. Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_ (London, 1909), p. 186.\n\n[144] Examples are in Orcagna's fresco of 'The Triumph of Death', in the\nCampo Santo of Pisa (cf. A. Wiedemann, _Anc. Egy. Doct. Immort._, p. 34\nff.); and over the porch of the Cathedral Church of St. Trophimus, at\nArles.\n\n[145] Cf. Crawley, op. cit., p. 187.\n\n[146] General references: Eliphas Levi, _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute\nMagie_ (Paris); Paracelsus; A. E. Waite, _The Occult Sciences_ (London,\n1891).\n\n[147] W. B. Yeats, _Irish Fairy and Folk-Tales_ (London), p. 2.\n\n[148] W. B. Yeats, _The Celtic Twilight_ (London, 1902), p. 92 n.\n\n[149] In this connexion should be read Mr. Jenner's Introduction, pp.\n167 ff.\n\n[150] Cf. Cririe, _Scottish Scenery_ (London, 1803), pp. 347-8; P.\nGraham, _Sketches Descriptive of Picturesque Scenery on the Southern\nConfines of Perthshire_ (Edinburgh, 1812), pp. 248-50, 253; Mah\u00e9, _Essai\nsur les Antiquit\u00e9s du D\u00e9part. du Morbihan_ (Vannes, 1825); Maury, _Les\nF\u00e9es du Moyen-Age_ (Paris, 1843).\n\n[151] David MacRitchie, _Druids and Mound Dwellers_, in _Celtic Review_\n(January 1910); and his _Testimony of Tradition_.\n\n[152] K. Meyer and A. Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_ (London, 1895-7), ii 231-2.\n\n[153] Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 61.\n\n[154] Lawson, _Modern Greek Folklore_, pp. 356, 359.\n\n[155] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 201; Jubainville, _Cyc. Myth. Irl._, pp.\n106-8.\n\n[156] E. O'Curry, _Manners and Customs_ (Dublin, 1873), I. cccxx; from\n_Book of Ballymote_, fol. 145, b. b.\n\n[157] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 286.\n\n[158] Ib., p. 275.\n\n[159] Ib., pp. 226, 208-9.\n\n[160] Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_, p. 114.\n\n[161] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 289.\n\n[162] Ib., p. 194.\n\n[163] Cf. Crawley, _Idea of the Soul_, chap. iv.\n\n[164] For a thorough and scientific discussion of this matter, see J. L.\nNevius, _Demon Possession_ (London, 1897).\n\n[165] N. G. Mitchell-Innes, _Birth, Marriage, and Death Rites of the\nChinese_, in _Folk-Lore Journ._, v. 225. Very curiously, the pagan\nChinese mother uses the sign of the cross against the demon as Celtic\nmothers use it against fairies; and no exorcism by Catholic or\nProtestant to cure a fairy changeling or to drive out possessing demons\nis ever performed without this world-wide and pre-Christian sign of the\ncross (see pp. 270-1).\n\n[166] R. R. Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_ (London, 1909), p. 58,\n&c.; p. 67.\n\n[167] W. James, _Confidences of a 'Psychical Researcher'_, in _American\nMagazine_ (October 1909).\n\n[168] Frazer, _The Golden Bough_{3} (London, 1911), i. 220.\n\n[169] Frazer, _The Golden Bough_,{3} i. 221-2.\n\n[170] Ib., chap. iv.\n\n[171] See Apuleius, _De Deo Socratis_; Cicero, _De Natura Deorum_ (lib.\ni); Iamblichus, _De Mysteriis Aegypt., Chaldaeor., Assyrior._; Plato,\n_Timaeus, Symposium, Politicus, Republic_, ii. iii. x; Plutarch, _De\nDefectu Oraculorum, The Daemon of Socrates, Isis and Osiris_; Proclus,\n_Commmentarius in Platonis Alcibiadem_.\n\n[172] Pliny, _Natural History_, xxx. 14.\n\n[173] Cf. G. Dottin, _La Religion des Celtes_ (Paris, 1904), p. 44.\n\n[174] The neo-Platonists generally, including Porphyry, Julian,\nIamblichus, and Maximus, being persuaded of man's power to call up and\ncontrol spirits, called white magic _theurgy_, or the invoking of good\nspirits, and the reverse _go\u00eaty_, or the calling up and controlling of\nevil spirits for criminal purposes. Cf. F. L\u00e9lut, _Du D\u00e9mon de Socrate_\n(Paris, 1836).\n\nIf white magic be correlated with religion as religion is popularly\nconceived, namely the cult of supernatural powers friendly to man, and\nblack magic be correlated with magic as magic tends to be popularly\nconceived, namely witchcraft and devil-worship, we have a satisfactory\nhistorical and logical basis for making a distinction between religion\nand magic; religion (including white magic) is a social good, magic\n(black magic) is a social evil. Such a distinction as Dr. Frazer makes\nis untenable within the field of true magic.\n\n[175] Cf. B. Jowett, _Dialogues of Plato_ (Oxford, 1892), i. 573.\n\n[176] Cf. Meyer and Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_ (London, 1895-7), i. 146.\n\n[177] Campbell, _The Fians_, p. 195.\n\n[178] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, i. 261.\n\n[179] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xv. 307.\n\n[180] From the _Conception of Mong\u00e1n_, cf. Meyer, _Voyage of Bran_, i.\n77.\n\n[181] Quoted and summarized from _Projectors of 'Malicious Animal\nMagnetism'_, in _Literary Digest_, xxxix. No. 17, pp. 676-7 (New York\nand London, October 23, 1909).\n\n[182] Cf. Nevius, _Demon Possession_, pp. 300-1.\n\n[183] For a fuller discussion of the history of witchcraft see _The\nSuperstitions of Witchcraft_, by Howard Williams, London, 1865.\n\n[184] Cf. J. Quicherat, _Proc\u00e8s_ (Paris, 1845), _passim_.\n\n[185] Ib., i. 178.\n\n[186] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, pp. 127, 200, 202-3 ff.\n\n[187] Bergier, _Dict. de Th\u00e9ol._ (Paris, 1848), ii. 541-2, &c.\n\n[188] W. Stokes, _Tripartite Life_ (London, 1887), pp. 13, 115.\n\n[189] I am personally indebted to Dr. W. J. Watson, of Edinburgh, for\nhaving directed my attention to this curious passage, and for having\npointed out its probable significance in relation to druidical\npractices.\n\n[190] Adamnan, _Life of S. Columba_, B. II, cc. xvi, xvii.\n\n[191] For this fact I am personally indebted to Mrs. W. J. Watson, of\nEdinburgh.\n\n[192] Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, pp. clxxx, 303, 305; from _Book of\nArmagh_, fo. 9, A 2, and fo. 9, B 2.\n\n[193] Bergier, _Dict. de Th\u00e9ol._, ii. 545, 431, 233.\n\n[194] See _Instruction sur le Rituel_, par l'\u00c9v\u00eaque de Toulon, iii.\n1-16. 'In the Greek rite (of baptism), the priest breathes thrice on the\ncatechumen's mouth, forehead, and breast, praying that every unclean\nspirit may be expelled.'--W. Bright, _Canons of First Four General\nCouncils_ (Oxford, 1892), p. 122.\n\n[195] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_ (Paris, 1835), xiii. 254-66.\n\n[196] _De Incarnatione Verbi_ (ed. Ben.), i. 88; cf. Godescard, op.\ncit., xiii. 254-66.\n\n[197] Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xiii. 263-4.\n\n[198] Par Joly de Choin, \u00c9v\u00eaque de Toulon, i. 639.\n\n[199] Bergier, _Dict. de Th\u00e9ol._, ii. 335.\n\n[200] Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 162.\n\n[201] J. E. Mirville, _Des Esprits_ (Paris, 1853), i. 475.\n\n[202] _Instructions sur le Rituel_, par Joly de Choin, iii. 276-7.\n\n[203] G. Evans, _Exorcism in Wales_, in _Folk-Lore_, iii. 274-7.\n\n[204] W. Crooke, in _Folk-Lore_, xiii. 189-90.\n\n[205] For ancient usages see F. Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_ (London,\n1877), pp. 103-4; Iamblichus and other Neo-Platonists; and for modern\nusages see Marett, _Threshold of Religion_, chap. iii.\n\n[206] Cf. Marett, _Is Taboo a Negative Magic?_ in _The Threshold of\nReligion_, pp. 85-114.\n\n[207] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, p. 277.\n\n[208] Eastman, _Dacotah_, p. 177; cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 52 n.\n\n[209] Shortland, _Trad. of New Zeal._, p. 150; cf. Tylor, op. cit., ii.\n51-2.\n\n[210] Precisely like Celtic peasants, primitive peoples often fail to\ntake into account the fact that the physical body is in reality left\nbehind upon entering the trance state of consciousness known to them as\nthe world of the departed and of fairies, because there they seem still\nto have a body, the ghost body, which to their minds, in such a state,\nis undistinguishable from the physical body. Therefore they ordinarily\nbelieve that the body and soul both are taken.\n\n[211] Frazer, _Golden Bough_,{2} _passim_.\n\n[212] Cf. ib., i. 344 ff., 348; iii. 390.\n\n[213] Codrington, _The Melanesians_, pp. 177, 218-9.\n\n[214] Cf. Eleanor Hull, _Old Irish Tabus or Geasa_, in _Folk-Lore_, xii.\n41 ff.\n\n[215] Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_,{2} i. 233 ff., 343.\n\n[216] Cf. E. J. Gwynn, _On the Idea of Fate in Irish Literature_, in\n_Journ. Ivernian Society_ (Cork), April 1910.\n\n[217] Cf. our evidence, pp. 38, 44; also Kirk's _Secret Commonwealth_\n(c. i), where it is said of the 'good people' or fairies that their\nbodies are so 'plyable thorough the Subtilty of the Spirits that agitate\nthem, that they can make them appear or disappear att Pleasure. Some\nhave Bodies or Vehicles so spungious, thin, and delecat, that they are\nfed by only sucking into some fine spirituous Liquors, that pierce lyke\npure Air and Oyl'.\n\n[218] _Laws_, iv; cf. Jowett, _Dialogues of Plato_, v. 282-90.\n\n[219] Chief general references: _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_\n(Paris, 1884) and _L'\u00c9pop\u00e9e celtique en Irlande_ (Paris, 1892)--both by\nH. D'Arbois de Jubainville. Chief sources: The _Book of Armagh_, a\ncollection of ecclesiastical MSS. probably written at Armagh, and\nfinished in A. D. 807 by the learned scribe Ferdomnach of Armagh; the\n_Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ or 'Book of the Dun Cow', the most ancient of the\ngreat collections of MSS. containing the old Irish romances, compiled\nabout A. D. 1100 in the monastery of Clonmacnoise; the _Book of\nLeinster_, a twelfth-century MS. compiled by Finn Mac Gorman, Bishop of\nKildare; the _Yellow Book of Lecan_ (fifteenth century); and the _Book\nof Lismore_, an old Irish MS. found in 1814 by workmen while making\nrepairs in the castle of Lismore, and thought to be of the fifteenth\ncentury. The _Book of Lismore_ contains the _Agallamh na sen\u00f3rach_ or\n'Colloquy of the Ancients', which has been edited by S. H. O'Grady in\nhis _Silva Gadelica_ (London, 1892), and by Whitley Stokes, _Ir. Texte_,\niv. 1. For additional texts and editions of texts see Notes by R. I.\nBest to his translations of _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_ (Dublin,\n1903).\n\n[220] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 144-5.\n\n[221] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 266-7. From the way they are\ndescribed in many of the old Irish manuscripts, we may possibly regard\nthe Tuatha De Danann as reflecting to some extent the characteristics of\nan early human population in Ireland. In other words, on an already\nflourishing belief in spiritual beings, known as the _Sidhe_, was\nsuperimposed, through anthropomorphism, an Irish folk-memory about a\nconquered pre-Celtic race of men who claimed descent from a mother\ngoddess called Dana.\n\n[222] Page 10, col. 2, ll. 6-8; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 143.\n\n[223] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 581 n.; and _C\u00f3ir Anmann_, in _Ir.\nTexte_, III, ii. 355.\n\n[224] Kuno Meyer's trans. in _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 300.\n\n[225] Cf. Standish O'Grady, _Early Bardic Literature_ (London, 1879),\npp. 65-6.\n\n[226] L. U.; cf. A. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 157-8.\n\n[227] Before Caeilte appears, Patrick is chanting Mass and pronouncing\nbenediction 'on the rath in which Finn Mac Cumall (the slain leader of\nthe Fianna) has been: the rath of Drumderg'. This chanting and\nbenediction act magically as a means of calling up the ghosts of the\nother Fianna, for, as the text continues, thereupon 'the clerics saw\nCaeilte and his band draw near them; and fear fell on them before the\ntall men with their huge wolf-dogs that accompanied them, _for they were\nnot people of one epoch or of one time with the clergy_. Then Heaven's\ndistinguished one, that pillar of dignity and angel on earth, Calpurn's\nson Patrick, apostle of the Gael, rose and took the aspergillum to\nsprinkle holy water on the great men; floating over whom until that day\nthere had been [and were now] a thousand legions of demons. Into the\nhills and \"skalps\", into the outer borders of the region and of the\ncountry, the demons forthwith departed in all directions; after which\nthe enormous men sat down' (_Silva Gadelica_, ii. 103). Here,\nundoubtedly, we observe a literary method of rationalizing the ghosts of\nthe Fianna; and their sudden and mysterious coming and personal aspects\ncan be compared with the sudden and mysterious coming and personal\naspects of the Tuatha De Danann as recorded in certain Irish\nmanuscripts.\n\n[228] Kuno Meyer's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, x. 214-27. This tale is\nprobably as old as the ninth or tenth century, so far as its present\nform is concerned, though representing very ancient traditions (Nutt,\n_Voy. of Bran_, i. 209).\n\n[229] Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xxii. 36-40. This text is one of\nthe earliest with references to fairy beings, and may go back to the\neighth or ninth century as a literary composition, though it too\nrepresents much older traditions.\n\n[230] E. O'Curry, _Lectures on Manuscript Materials_ (Dublin, 1861), p.\n504.\n\n[231] In the _Book of Leinster_, pp. 245-6; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._,\np. 269.\n\n[232] Cf. _Mesca Ulad_, Hennessy's ed., in _Todd Lectures_, Ser. 1\n(Dublin, 1889), p. 2.\n\n[233] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 273-6.\n\n[234] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 273-6.\n\n[235] Cf. _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 222-3.\n\n[236] Ib., ii. 343-7.\n\n[237] Ib., ii. 94-6.\n\n[238] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 204-20.\n\n[239] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 290-1. In many old texts mortals are not\nforcibly _taken_; but go to the fairy world through love for a fairy\nwoman; or else to accomplish there some mission.\n\nNo doubt the most curious elements in this text are those which\nrepresent the prince and his warrior companions, fresh come from\nFairyland, as in some mysterious way so changed that they must neither\ndismount from their horses and thus come in contact with the earth, nor\nallow any mortal to touch them; for to his father the king who came\nforward in joy to embrace him after having mourned him as dead,\nLaeghaire cried, 'Approach us not to touch us!' Some unknown magical\nbodily transmutation seems to have come about from their sojourn among\nthe Tuatha De Danann, who are eternally young and unfading--a\ntransmutation apparently quite the same as that which the 'gentry' are\nsaid to bring about now when one of our race is taken to live with them.\nAnd in all fairy stories no mortal ever returns from Fairyland a day\nolder than on entering it, no matter how many years may have elapsed.\nThe idea reminds us of the dreams of mediaeval alchemists who thought\nthere exists, if one could only discover it, some magic potion which\nwill so transmute every atom of the human body that death can never\naffect it. Probably the Christian scribe in writing down these strange\nwords had in mind what Jesus said to Mary Magdalene when she beheld him\nafter the Resurrection:--'Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto\nthe Father.' The parallel would be a striking and exact one in any case,\nfor it is recorded that Jesus after he had arisen from the dead--had\ncome out of Hades or the invisible realm of subjectivity which, too, is\nFairyland--appeared to some and not to others--some being able to\nrecognize him and others not; and concerning the nature of Jesus's body\nat the Ascension not all theologians are agreed. Some believe it to have\nbeen a physical body so purified and transmuted as to be like, or the\nsame as, a spiritual body, and thus capable of invisibility and of\nentrance into the Realm of Spirit. The Scotch minister and seer used\nthis same parallel in describing the nature and power of fairies and\nspirits (p. 91); hence it would seem to follow, if we admit the\ninfluence in the Irish text to be Christian, that early, like modern\nChristians, have, in accordance with Christianity, described the nature\nof the _Sidhe_ so as to correspond with what we know it to be in the\nFairy-Faith itself, both anciently and at the present day.\n\n[240] _Death of Muirchertach_, Stokes's trans., in _Rev. Celt._, xxiii.\n397.\n\n[241] Cf. J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (Paris, 1889), i. 38-52.\n\n[242] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 187-92.\n\n[243] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 142-4.\n\n[244] Campbell, _The Fians_, pp. 79-80. In _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 522, it\nis stated that the mother of Ossian bore him whilst in the shape of a\ndoe. The mother of Ossian in animal shape may be an example of an\nancient Celtic totemistic survival.\n\n[245] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 311-24.\n\n[246] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 311-24.\n\n[247] For an enumeration of the Tuatha De Danann chieftains and their\nrespective territories see _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 225.\n\n[248] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 285.\n\n[249] I am personally indebted for these names to Dr. Douglas Hyde.\n\n[250] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 284-9; cf. _Rev. Celt._, iii. 347.\n\n[251] Cf. E. S. Hartland, _Science of Fairy Tales_ (London, 1891), cc.\nx-xi.\n\n[252] Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xvi. 274-5.\n\n[253] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 222 ff.; ii. 290. In another version of the\nsecond tale, referred to above (on page 295), Laeghaire and his fifty\ncompanions enter the fairy world through a _d\u00fan_.\n\n[254] Sometimes, as in _Da Choca's Hostel_ (_Rev. Celt._, xxi. 157,\n315), the _Badb_ appears as a weird woman uttering prophecies. In this\ncase the _Badb_ watches over Cormac as his doom comes. She is described\nas standing on one foot, and with one eye closed (apparently in a bird's\nposture), as she chanted to Cormac this prophecy:--'I wash the harness\nof a king who will perish.'\n\n[255] Synonymous names are _Badb-catha_, _Fea_, _Ana_. Cf. _Rev. Celt._,\ni. 35-7.\n\n[256] Cf. Hennessy, _Ancient Irish Goddess of War_, in _Rev. Celt._, i.\n32-55.\n\n[257] Stokes, _Second Battle of Moytura_, in _Rev. Celt._, xii. 109-11.\n\n[258] Luzel, _Contes populaires de Basse Bretagne_, iii. 296-311.\n\n[259] The Celtic examples recall non-Celtic ones: the raven was sacred\namong the ancient Scandinavians and Germans, being looked upon as the\nemblem of Odin; in ancient Egypt and Rome commonly, and to a less extent\nin ancient Greece, gods often declared their will through birds or even\ntook the form of birds; in Christian scriptures the Spirit of God or the\nHoly Ghost descended upon Jesus at his baptism in the semblance of a\ndove; and it is almost a world-wide custom to symbolize the human soul\nunder the form of a bird or butterfly. Possibly such beliefs as these\nare relics of a totemistic creed which in times long previous to history\nwas as definitely held by the ancestors of the nations of antiquity,\nincluding the ancient Celts, as any totemistic creed to be found now\namong native Australians or North American Red Men. At all events, in\nthe story of a bird ancestry of Conaire we seem to have a perfectly\nclear example of a Celtic totemistic survival--even though Dr. Frazer\nmay not admit it as such (cf. _Rev. Celt._, xxii. 20, 24; xii. 242-3).\n\n[260] Hennessy, _The Ancient Irish Goddess of War_, in _Rev. Celt._, i.\n32-57.\n\n[261] _Aoibheall_, who came to tell Brian Borumha of his death at\nClontarf, was the family banshee of the royal house of Munster. Cf. J. H.\nTodd, _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_ (London, 1867), p. 201.\n\n[262] Hyde, _Literary History of Ireland_, p. 440.\n\n[263] Cf. Hennessy, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 39-40. In place of _badb_, Dr.\nHyde (_Lit. Hist. Irl._, p. 440) uses the word _vulture_.\n\n[264] Hennessy, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 52.\n\n[265] Chief general reference: Sir John Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_\n(Oxford, 1891). Chief sources: Nennius, _Historia Britonum_ (circa 800);\nGeoffrey of Monmouth, _Historia Regum Britanniae_ (circa 1136); Wace,\n_Le Roman de Brut_ (circa 1155); Layamon's _Brut_ (circa 1200); Marie de\nFrance, _Lais_ (twelfth-thirteenth century); _The Four Ancient Books of\nWales_ (twelfth-fifteenth century), edited by W. F. Skene; _The\nMabinogion_ (based on the _Red Book of Hergest_, a fourteenth-century\nmanuscript), edited by Lady Charlotte Guest, Sir John Rhys and J. G.\nEvans, and Professor J. Loth; Malory, _Le Morte D'Arthur_ (1470); _The\nMyvyrian Archaiology of Wales_, collected out of ancient manuscripts\n(Denbigh, 1870); _Iolo Manuscripts_, a selection of ancient Welsh\nmanuscripts (Llandovery, 1848).\n\n[266] In a Welsh poem of the twelfth century (see W. F. Skene, _Four\nAncient Books_, Edinburgh, 1868, ii. 37, 38) wherein the war feats of\nPrince Geraint are described, his men, who lived and fought a long time\nafter the period assigned to Arthur, are called the men of Arthur; and,\nas Sir John Rhys thinks, this is good evidence that the genuine\nArthur was a mythical figure, one might almost be permitted to say a\ngod, who overshadows and directs his warrior votaries, but who, never\ndescending into the battle, is in this respect comparable with the Irish\nwar-goddess the _Badb_ (cf. Rhys, _Celtic Britain_, London, 1904, p.\n236).\n\n[267] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, chap. 1.\n\n[268] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 24, 48. Sir John Rhys sees good\nreasons for regarding Arthur as a culture hero, because of Arthur's\ntraditional relation with agriculture, which most culture heroes, like\nOsiris, have taught their people (ib., pp. 41-3).\n\n[269] Cf. G. Maspero, _Contes populaires de l'\u00c9gypte Ancienne_{3}\n(Paris, 1906), Intro., p. 57.\n\n[270] Sommer's Malory's _Morte D'Arthur_, iii. 1.\n\n[271] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 9.\n\n[272] I am indebted to Professor J. Loth for help with this etymology.\n\n[273] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 22.\n\n[274] i. 10; ii. 21{b}; iii. 70; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 60.\n\n[275] See Williams' _Seint Greal_, pp. 278, 304, 341, 617, 634, 658,\n671; Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 61.\n\n[276] Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 51, 35; and see our study, pp.\n374-6.\n\n[277] _Chevalier de la Charrette_ (ed. by Tarb\u00e9), p. 22; _Romania_, xii.\n467, 515; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.\n\n[278] _Romania_, xii. 467-8, 473-4; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 55.\n\n[279] Cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 93-4.\n\n[280] _Romania_, xii. 508; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 54.\n\n[281] Book XIX, c. i.\n\n[282] In the _Lebar Brecc_ there is a tract describing eight Eucharistic\nColours and their mystical or hidden meaning; and green is so described\nthat we recognize in its Celtic-Christian symbolism the same essential\nsignificance as in the writings of both pagan and non-Celtic Christian\nmystics, thus:--'This is what the Green denotes, when he (the priest)\nlooks at it: that his heart and his mind be filled with great faintness\nand exceeding sorrow: for what is understood by it is his burial at the\nend of life under mould of earth; for green is the original colour of\nevery earth, and therefore the colour of the robe of Offering is likened\nunto green' (Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 189). During the\nceremonies of initiation into the Ancient Mysteries, it is supposed that\nthe neophyte left the physical body in a trance state, and in full\nconsciousness, which he retained afterwards, entered the subjective\nworld and beheld all its wonders and inhabitants; and that coming out of\nthat world he was clothed in a robe of sacred green to symbolize his own\nspiritual resurrection and re-birth into real life--for he had\npenetrated the Mystery of Death and was now an initiate. Even yet there\nseems to be an echo of the ancient Egyptian Mysteries in the Festival of\nAl-Khidr celebrated in the middle of the wheat harvest in Lower Egypt.\nAl-Khidr is a holy personage who, according to the belief of the people,\nwas the Vizier of Dhu'l-Karnen, a contemporary of Abraham, and who,\nnever having died, is still living and will continue to live until the\nDay of Judgement. And he is always represented 'clad in green garments,\nwhence probably the name' he bears. Green is thus associated with a hero\nor god who is immortal and unchanging, like the Tuatha De Danann and\nfairy races (see Sir Norman Lockyer's _Stonehenge and Other Stone\nMonuments_, London, 1909, p. 29). In modern Masonry, which preserves\nmany of the ancient mystic rites, and to some extent those of initiation\nas anciently performed, green is the symbol of life, immutable nature,\nof truth, and victory. In the evergreen the Master Mason finds the\nemblem of hope and immortality. And the masonic authority who gives this\ninformation suggests that in all the Ancient Mysteries this symbolism\nwas carried out--green symbolizing the birth of the world and the moral\ncreation or resurrection of the initiate (_General History, Cyclopedia,\nand Dictionary of Freemasonry_, by Robert Macoy, 33{o}, New York, 1869).\n\n[283] _Myv. Arch._, i. 175. The text itself in this work is said to be\ncopied from the _Green Book_--now unknown. Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._ p.\n56 n.\n\n[284] In this text, the Gwenhwyvar who is in the power of Melwas is\nreferred to as Arthur's second wife Gwenhwyvar, for according to the\nWelsh Triads (i. 59; ii. 16; iii. 109) there are three wives of Arthur\nall named Gwenhwyvar. As Sir John Rhys observes, no poet has ever\navailed himself of all three, for the evident reason that they would\nhave spoilt his plot (_Arth. Leg._, p. 35).\n\n[285] D. ab Gwilym's Poetry (London, 1789), poem cxi, line 44. Cf.\nRhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 66.\n\n[286] Malory, Book I, c. xxv. One account of Arthur's sword _Caledvwlch_\nor _Caleburn_ describes it as having been made in the Isle of Avalon\n(Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_, ii. 322 n.; also _Myv. Arch._, ii. 306).\n\n[287] Malory, Book IX, c. xv; Sir John Rhys takes the Lady of the\nLake who sends Arthur the sword and the one who aids him afterwards\n(though, apparently by error, two characters in Malory) as different\naspects of the one lake-lady _Morgen_ (_Arth. Leg._, p. 348).\n\n[288] Merlin explained to Arthur that King Loth's wife was Arthur's own\nsister (Sommer's _Malory_, i. 64-5); and King Loth is one of the rulers\nof the Otherworld.\n\n[289] Book XXI, c. vi.\n\n[290] This poem, according to Gaston Paris, was translated during the\nlate twelfth century from a French original now lost (_Romania_, x.\n471). Cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 127.\n\n[291] Malory, Book XII, cc. iii-x; Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, pp. 145, 164.\nGalahad, however, does not belong to the more ancient Arthurian romances\nat all, so far as scholars can determine; and, therefore, too much\nemphasis ought not to be placed on this episode in connexion with the\ncharacter of Arthur.\n\n[292] We should like to direct the reader's attention to the interesting\nsimilarity shown between this old story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ and the\nfairy legend which we found living in South Wales, and now recorded by\nus on page 161, under the title of _Einion and Olwen_. As we have there\nsuggested, the legend seems to be the remnant of a very ancient bardic\ntale preserved in the oral traditions of the people; and the prevalence\nof such bardic traditions in a part of Wales where some of the\n_Mabinogion_ stories either took shape, or from where they drew\nfolk-lore material, would make it probable that there may even be some\nclose relationship between the Olwen of the story and the Olwen of our\nfolk-tale. If it could be shown that there is, we should be able at once\nto regard both Olwens as 'Fair-Folk' or of the _Tylwyth Teg_, and the\nquest of Kulhwch as really a journey to the Otherworld to gain a fairy\nwife.\n\n[293] We may even have in the story of _Kulhwch and Olwen_ a symbolical\nor mystical account of ancient Brythonic rites of initiation, which have\nalso directly to do with the spiritual world and its invisible\ninhabitants.\n\n[294] Cf. J. Loth, _Les Mabinogion_ (Paris, 1889), p. 252 n.\n\n[295] Cf. J. Loth, _Le Mabinogi de Kulhwch et Olwen_ (Saint-Brieuc,\n1888), Intro., p. 7.\n\n[296] Lady Ch. Guest's _Mabinogion_ (London, 1849), ii. 323 n.\n\n[297] Cf. R. H. Fletcher, _Arthurian Material in the Chronicles_, in\n_Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, x. 20-1.\n\n[298] Fletcher, ib., x. 29; 26.\n\n[299] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 7; and Rhys, _The Welsh People_{3}\n(London, 1902), p. 105.\n\n[300] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., x. 43-115; from ed. by San-Marte (A.\nSchulz), _Gottfried's von Monmouth Hist. Reg. Brit._ (Halle, 1854), Eng.\ntrans. by A. Thompson, _The British History_, &c. (1718).\n\n[301] Cf. Fletcher, op. cit., pp. 117-44.\n\n[302] Sir Frederic Madden, _Layamon's Brut_ (London, 1847), ii. 384.\nHere the Germanic elves are by Layamon made the same in character and\nnature as Brythonic elves or fairies.\n\n[303] Madden, _Layamon's Brut_, ii. 144.\n\n[304] J. B\u00e9dier's ed., _Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des anciens textes fran\u00e7ais_ (Paris,\n1902).\n\n[305] E. Muret's ed., _Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des anciens textes fran\u00e7ais_ (Paris,\n1903).\n\n[306] A. C. L. Brown, _The Knight and the Lion_; also, by same author,\n_Iwain_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes in Phil. and Lit._, vii. 146, &c.\n\n[307] _Celtic Mag._, xii. 555; _Romania_ (1888); cf. Brown, ib.\n\n[308] J. Loth, _Les Romans arthuriens_, in _Rev. Celt._, xiii. 497.\n\n[309] _Bibliotheca Normannica_, iii, _Die Lais der Marie de France_, pp.\n86-112.\n\n[310] Cf. W. H. Schofield, _The Lays of Graelent and Lanval, and the\nStory of Wayland_, in Pub. Mod. Lang. Ass. of America, xv. 176.\n\n[311] Cf. Schofield, _The Lay of Guingamor_, in _Harv. Stud. and Notes\nin Phil. and Lit._, v. 221-2.\n\n[312] For editions, and fuller details of the fairy elements, see De La\nWarr B. Easter, _A Study of the Magic Elements in the_ ROMANS D'AVENTURE\n_and the_ ROMANS BRETONS (Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, 1906). See\nalso Lucy A. Paton, _Studies in the Fairy Mythology of the Arthurian\nRomance_, Radcliffe College Monograph XIII (New York, 1903).\n\n[313] Perc., vi. 235; cf. Easter's Dissertation, p. 42 n.\n\n[314] _Joufrois_, 3179 ff.; ed. Hofmann und Muncker (Halle, 1880); cf.\nEaster's Diss., pp. 40-2 n.\n\n[315] _Brun_, 562 ff., 3237, 3251, 3396, 3599 ff.; ed. Paul Meyer\n(Paris, 1875); cf. ib., pp. 42 n., 44 n.\n\n[316] E. Anwyl, _The Four Branches of the Mabinogi_, in _Zeit. f\u00fcr Celt.\nPhil._ (London, Paris, 1897), i. 278.\n\n[317] Cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 19, 21.\n\n[318] _Black Book of Caermarthen_, xvii, stanza 7, ll. 5-8. This book\ndates from 1154 to 1189 as a manuscript; cf. Skene, _Four Anc. Books_,\ni. 3, 372.\n\n[319] Stanzas 19-20. This book took shape as a manuscript from the\nfourteenth to fifteenth century, according to Skene. Cf. Skene, _Four\nAnc. Books_, i. 3, 464.\n\n[320] See _A Fugitive Poem of Myrddin in his Grave. Red Book of\nHergest_, ii. Skene, ib., i. 478-81, stanza 27.\n\n[321] Chief general references: H. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _L'\u00c9pop\u00e9e\nceltique en Irlande_, _Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais_; Kuno Meyer and\nAlfred Nutt, _The Happy Otherworld and the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth_.\nChief sources: the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ (A. D. 1100); the _Book of\nLeinster_ (twelfth century); the _Lais_ of Marie de France (twelfth to\nthirteenth century); the _White Book of Rhyderch_, Hengwrt Coll.\n(thirteenth to fourteenth century); the _Yellow Book of Lecan_\n(fifteenth century); the _Book of Lismore_ (fifteenth century); the\n_Book of Fermoy_ (fifteenth century); the _Four Ancient Books of Wales_\n(twelfth to fifteenth century).\n\n[322] One of the commonest legends among all Celtic peoples is about\nsome lost city like the Breton Is, or some lost land or island (cf.\nRhys, _Arth. Leg._, c. xv, and _Celtic Folk-Lore_, c. vii); and we\ncan be quite sure that if, as some scientists now begin to think (cf.\nBatella, _Pruebas geol\u00f3gicas de la existencia de la Atl\u00e1ntida_, in\n_Congreso internacional de Americanistas_, iv., Madrid, 1882; also\nMeyers, _Grosses Konversations-Lexikon_, ii. 44, Leipzig und Wien, 1903)\nAtlantis once existed, its disappearance must have left from a\nprehistoric epoch a deep impress on folk-memory. But the Otherworld idea\nbeing in essence animistic is not to be regarded, save from a\nsuperficial point of view, as conceivably having had its origin in a\nlost Atlantis. The real evolutionary process, granting the disappearance\nof this island continent, would seem rather to have been one of\nlocalizing and anthropomorphosing very primitive Aryan and pre-Aryan\nbeliefs about a heaven-world, such as have been current among almost all\nraces of mankind in all stages of culture, throughout the two Americas\nand Polynesia as well as throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. (Cf.\nTylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 62, 48, &c.)\n\n[323] _White Book of Rhyderch_, folio 291{a}; cf. Rhys, _Arth. Leg._,\npp. 268-9.\n\n[324] From _Echtra Condla_, in the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_. Cf. _Le Cycle\nMyth. Irl._, pp. 192-3.\n\n[325] Cf. Eleanor Hull, _The Silver Bough in Irish Legend_, in\n_Folk-Lore_, xii.\n\n[326] Cf. Eleanor Hull, op. cit., p. 431.\n\n[327] Classical parallels to the Celtic Otherworld journeys exist in the\ndescent of Dionysus to bring back Semele, of Orpheus to recover his\nbeloved Eurydike, of Herakles at the command of his master Eurystheus to\nfetch up the three-headed Kerberos--as mentioned first in Homer's\n_Iliad_ (cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 48); and chiefly in the voyage\nof Odysseus across the deep-flowing Ocean to the land of the departed\n(Homer, _Odyss._ xi).\n\n[328] Servius, _ad Aen._, vi. 136 ff.\n\n[329] _Voy. of Bran_, i, pp. 2 ff. The tale is based on seven\nmanuscripts ranging in age from the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_ of about A. D.\n1100 to six others belonging to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth\ncenturies (cf. ib., p. xvi).\n\n[330] This tale exists in several manuscripts of the fourteenth and\nfifteenth centuries; i. e. _Book of Ballymote_, and _Yellow Book of\nLecan_, as edited and translated by Stokes, in _Irische Texte_, III. i.\n183-229; cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 190 ff.; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp.\n326-33.\n\n[331] The fountain is a sacred fountain containing the sacred salmon;\nand the nine hazels are the sacred hazels of inspiration and poetry.\nThese passages are among the most mystical in Irish literature. Cf. pp.\n432-3.\n\n[332] Cf. Stokes's trans. in _Irische Texte_ (Leipzig, 1891), III. i.\n211-16.\n\n[333] The Greeks saw in Hermes the symbol of the Logos. Like Manannan,\nhe conducted the souls of men to the Otherworld of the gods, and then\nbrought them back to the human world. Hermes 'holds a rod in his hands,\nbeautiful, golden, wherewith he spellbinds the eyes of men whomsoever he\nwould, and wakes them again from sleep'--in initiations; while Manannan\nand the fairy beings lure mortals to the fairy world through sleep\nproduced by the music of the Silver Branch.--Hippolytus on the Naasenes\n(from the Hebrew _Nachash_, meaning a 'Serpent'), a Gnostic school; cf.\nG. R. S. Mead, _Fragments of a Faith Forgotten_, pp. 198, 201. Or again,\n'the Caduceus, or Rod of Mercury (Hermes), and the Thyrsus in the Greek\nMysteries, which conducted the soul from life to death, and from death\nto life, figured forth the serpentine power in man, and the path whereby\nit would carry the \"man\" aloft to the height, if he would but cause the\n\"Waters of the Jordan\" to \"flow upwards\".'--G. R. S. Mead. ib., p. 185.\n\n[334] Cf. Hennessy's ed. in _Todd Lectures_, ser. I. i. 9.\n\n[335] Among the early ecclesiastical manuscripts of the so-called\n_Prophecies_. See E. O'Curry, _Lectures_, p. 383.\n\n[336] Cf. Eleanor Hull, op. cit., pp. 439-40.\n\n[337] Now in three versions based on the _L. U._ MS. Our version is\ncollated from O'Curry's translation in _Atlantis_, i. 362-92, ii.\n98-124, as revised by Kuno Meyer, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 152 ff.; and from\nJubainville's translation in _L'\u00c9p. celt. en Irl._, pp. 170-216.\n\n[338] As Alfred Nutt pointed out, 'There is no parallel to the position\nor to the sentiments of Fand in the post-classic literature of Western\nEurope until we come to Guinevere and Isolt, Ninian and Orgueilleuse'\n(_Voy. of Bran_, i. 156 n.).\n\n[339] See poem _Tir na nog_ (Land of Youth), by Michael Comyn, composed\nor collected about the year 1749. Ed. by Bryan O'Looney, in _Trans.\nOssianic Soc._, iv. 234-70.\n\n[340] Laeghaire, who also came back from Fairyland on a fairy horse, and\nfifty warriors with him each likewise mounted, to say good-bye for ever\nto the king and people of Connaught, were warned as they set out for\nthis world not to dismount if they wished to return to their fairy\nwives. The warning was strictly observed, and thus they were able to go\nback to the _Sidhe_-world (see p. 295).\n\n[341] Cf. _Bibliotheca Normannica_, iii, _Die Lais der Marie de France_,\npp. 86-112.\n\n[342] Cf. Stokes's trans., in _Rev. Celt._, ix. 453-95, x. 50-95. Most\nof the tale comes from the _L. U._ MS.; cf. _L'\u00c9p. celt. en Irl._, pp.\n449-500.\n\n[343] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 385-401. The MS. text, _Echira Thaidg mheic\nCh\u00e9in_, or 'The Adventure of Cian's son Teigue', is found in the _Book\nof Lismore_.\n\n[344] Summarized and quoted from translation by R. I. Best, in _\u00c9riu_,\niii. 150-73. The text is found in the _Book of Fermoy_ (pp. 139-45), a\nfifteenth-century codex in the Royal Irish Academy.\n\n[345] Folios 113-15, trans. O'Beirne Crow, _Journ. Kilkenny Archae.\nSoc._ (1870-1), pp. 371-448; cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 260-1.\n\n[346] Cf. Skene, _Four Ancient Books of Wales_, i. 264-6, 276, &c.\n\n[347] Cf. _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 301 ff., from Additional MS. 34119,\ndating from 1765, in British Museum.\n\n[348] _Giolla an Fhiugha_, or 'The Lad of the Ferrule', trans. by\nDouglas Hyde, in _Irish Texts Society_, London, 1899.\n\n[349] Cf. Meyer and Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 147, 228, 230, 235; 161.\n\n[350] The bulk of the text comes from the _Book of Fermoy_. Cf. Stokes's\ntrans. in _Rev. Celt._, xiv. 59, 49, 53, &c.\n\n[351] J. Loth, _L'\u00c9migration bretonne en Armorique_ (Paris, 1883), pp.\n139-40.\n\n[352] Ed. and trans. by W. Stokes, Calcutta, 1866. This _Vision_ has\nbeen erroneously ascribed to the celebrated Abbot of Iona, who died in\n703; but Professor Zimmer has regarded it as a ninth-century\ncomposition; cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 219 ff.\n\n[353] Cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 195 ff.\n\n[354] See J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_, pp. 260-7.\n\n[355] _The Literary Movement in Ireland_, in _Ideals in Ireland_, ed. by\nLady Gregory (London, 1901), p. 95.\n\n[356] Cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 331.\n\n[357] General reference: _Essay upon the Irish Vision of the happy\nOtherworld and the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth_, by Alfred Nutt in Kuno\nMeyer's _Voyage of Bran_. Chief sources: _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_; _Book of\nLeinster_; _Four Ancient Books of Wales_; _Mabinogion_; _Silva\nGadelica_; _Barddas_, a collection of Welsh manuscripts made about 1560;\nand the _Annals of the Four Masters_, compiled in the first half of the\nseventeenth century.\n\n[358] Cf. Plato, _Republic_, x; _Phaedo_; _Phaedrus_, &c.; Iamblichus,\n_Concerning the Mysteries of Egypt, Chaldaea, Assyria_; Plutarch,\n_Mysteries of Isis (De Iside et Osiride)_.\n\n[359] He says:--'I, for my part, suspect that the spirit was implanted\nin them (rational creatures, men) from without' _(De Principiis_, Book\nI, c. vii. 4);... 'the cause of each one's actions is a pre-existing\none; and then every one, according to his deserts, is made by God either\na vessel unto honour or dishonour' (ib., Book III, c. i. 20). 'Whence we\nare of opinion that, seeing the soul, as we have frequently said, is\nimmortal and eternal, it is possible that, in the many and endless\nperiods of duration in the immeasurable and different worlds, it may\ndescend from the highest good to the lowest evil, or be restored from\nthe lowest evil to the highest good' (ib., Book III, c. i, 21);...\n'every one has the reason in himself, why he has been placed in this or\nthat rank in life' (ib., Book III, c. v, 4).\n\n[360] Cf. Bergier, _Orig\u00e8ne_, in _Dict. de Th\u00e9ologie_, v. 69.\n\n[361] _Holy Bible_, Revised Version, St. Matt. xi. 14-15; cf. St. Matt.\nxvii. 10-13, St. Mark ix. 13, St. Luke vii. 27, St. John i. 21.\n\n[362] Tertullian's conclusion is as follows:--'These substances (\"soul\nand body\") are, in fact, the natural property of each individual; whilst\n\"the spirit and power\" (cf. Mal. iv. 5) are bestowed as external gifts\nby the grace of God, and so may be transferred to another person\naccording to the purpose and will of the Almighty, as was anciently the\ncase with respect to the spirit of Moses' (cf. Num. xii. 2).--_De Anima_\nc. xxxv; cf. trans, in _Ante-Nicene Christian Library_ (Edinburgh,\n1870), xv. 496-7.\n\n[363] Origen says:--'But that there should be certain doctrines not made\nknown to the multitude, which are [revealed] after the exoteric ones\nhave been taught, is not a peculiarity of Christianity alone, but also\nof philosophic systems, in which certain truths are exoteric and others\nesoteric' (_Origen against Celsus_, Book I, c. vii).\n\n[364] How Tertullian almost literally accepted the re-birth doctrine is\nshown in his _Apology_, chapter xlviii, concerning the resurrection of\nthe body. It is the corrupted form of the doctrine, viz. transmigration\nof human souls into animal bodies, which he therein, as well as in his\n_De Anima_ and elsewhere, chiefly and logically combats, as Origen also\ncombated it. He first shows why a human soul must return into a human\nbody in accordance with natural analogy, every creature being after its\nown kind always; and then, because the purpose of the Resurrection is\nthe judgement, that the soul must return into its own body. And he\nconcludes:--'It is surely more worthy of belief that a man will be\nrestored from a man, any given person from any given person, but still a\nman; so that the same kind of soul may be reinstated in the same mode of\nexistence, even if not into the same outward form' (_The Apology of\nTertullian for the Christians_; cf. trans. by T. H. Bindley, Oxford,\n1890, pp. 137-9).\n\n[365] British Museum MS. Add. 5114, vellum--a Coptic manuscript in the\ndialect of Upper Egypt. Its undetermined date is placed by Woide at\nlatest about the end of the fourth century. It was evidently copied by\none scribe from an older manuscript, the original probably having been\nthe _Apocalypse of Sophia_, by Valentius, the learned Gnostic who lived\nin Egypt for thirty years during the second century. See the translation\nof the Schwartze's parallel Latin version of _Pistis Sophia_ and its\nintroduction, both by G. R. S. Mead (London, 1896).\n\n[366] The chief passages are as follows, Jesus being the\nspeaker:--'Moreover, in the region of the soul of the rulers, destined\nto receive it, I found the soul of the prophet Elias, in the aeons of\nthe sphere, and I took him, and receiving his soul also, I brought it to\nthe virgin of light, and she gave it to her receivers; they brought it\nto the sphere of the rulers, and cast it into the womb of Elizabeth.\nWherefore the power of the little Ia\u00f4, who is in the midst, and the soul\nof Elias the prophet, are united with the body of John the Baptist. For\nthis cause have ye been in doubt aforetime, when I said unto you, \"John\nsaid, I am not the Christ\"; and ye said unto me, \"It is written in the\nScripture, that when the Christ shall come, Elias will come before him,\nand prepare his way.\" And I, when ye had said this unto me, replied unto\nyou, \"Elias verily is come, and hath prepared all things, according as\nit is written; and they have done unto him whatsoever they would.\" And\nwhen I perceived that ye did not understand that I had spoken concerning\nthe soul of Elias united with John the Baptist, I answered you openly\nand face to face with the words, \"If ye will receive it, John the\nBaptist is Elias who, I said, was for to come\"' (_Pistis Sophia_, Book\nI, 12-13, Mead's translation).\n\n[367] 'The Saviour answered and said unto his disciples:--\"Preach ye\nunto the whole world, saying unto men, 'Strive together that ye may\nreceive the mysteries of light in this time of stress, and enter into\nthe kingdom of light. Put not off from day to day, and from cycle to\ncycle, in the belief that ye will succeed in obtaining the mysteries\nwhen ye return to the world in another cycle'\"' (_Pistis Sophia_, Book\nII, 317, Mead's translation).\n\n[368] Cf. Bergier, _Manich\u00e9isme_, in _Dict. de Th\u00e9ol._, iv. 211-13.\n\n[369] The _Refutation of Irenaeus_, until quite recently, has been the\nchief source of much of our knowledge concerning Gnosticism. It was\nwritten during the second century at Lyons, by Irenaeus, a bishop of\nGaul, far from any direct contact with the still flourishing Gnosticism.\nBut now with the discovery of genuine manuscripts of Gnostic works: (1)\nthe _Askew Codex_, vellum, British Museum, London, containing the\n_Pistis Sophia_ (see above, p. 361 n.) and extracts from the _Books of\nthe Saviour_; (2) the _Bruce Codex_ (two MSS.), papyrus, Bodleian\nLibrary, Oxford, containing the fragmentary _Book of the Great Logos_,\nan unknown treatise, and fragments; and (3) the _Akhmim Codex_\n(discovered in 1896), papyrus, Egyptian Museum, Berlin, containing _The\nGospel of Mary_ (or _Apocryphon of John_), _The Wisdom of Jesus Christ_,\nand _The Acts of Peter_, we are able to check from original sources the\nFathers in many of their writings and canons concerning Gnostic\n'heresies'; and find that Irenaeus, the last refuge of Christian\nhaeresiologists, has so condensed and paraphrased his sources that we\ncannot depend upon him at all for a consistent exposition of Gnostic\ndoctrines, which with more or less prejudice he is trying to refute. It\nis true that the age of these manuscripts has not been satisfactorily\ndetermined; in fact most of them have not yet been carefully studied.\nVery probably, however, as appears to be the case with the _Pistis\nSophia_, they have been copied from manuscripts which were contemporary\nwith or earlier than the time of Irenaeus, and hence may be regarded as\ngood authority in determining Gnostic teachings. (Cf. all of above note\nwith G. R. S. Mead, _Fragments of a Faith Forgotten_, London, 1900, pp.\n147, 151-3.)\n\nMany unprejudiced scholars are now unwilling to admit the rulings of the\nChurch Councils which determined what was orthodox and what heretical\ndoctrines among the Gnostic-Christians, because many of their dogmatic\ndecisions were based upon the unscholarly _Refutation of Irenaeus_ and\nupon other equally unreliable evidence. The data which have accumulated\nin the hands of scholars about early Christian thought and Gnosticism\nare now much more complete and trustworthy than the similar data were\nupon which the Council of Constantinople in 553 based its decision with\nrespect to the doctrine of re-birth; and the truth coming to be\nrecognized seems to be that the Gnostics rather than the Church Fathers,\nwho adopted from them what doctrines they liked, condemning those they\ndid not like, should henceforth be regarded as the first Christian\ntheologians, and mystics. If this view of the very difficult and complex\nmatter be accepted, then modern Christianity itself ought to be allowed\nto resume what thus appears to have been its original position--so long\nobscured by the well-meaning, but, nevertheless, ill-advised\necclesiastical councils--as the synthesizer of pagan religions and\nphilosophies. Some such view has been accepted by many eminent Christian\ntheologians since Origen: i. e. the Cambridge Platonist, Henry More,\nopenly advocated the re-birth doctrine in the seventeenth century; and\nin later times it has been preached from Christian pulpits by such men\nas Henry Ward Beecher and Phillips Brooks.\n\n[370] See A. Bertrand, _La Religion des Gaulois, les Druides et le\nDruidisme_ (Paris, 1897); H. Jennings, _The Rosicrucians_ (London,\n1887); the Work of Paracelsus; H. Cornelius Agrippa, _De Occulta\nPhilosophia_ (Paris, 1567); H. P. Blavatsky's _Isis Unveiled_, and the\n_Secret Doctrine_ (London, 1888); and _Hermetic Works_, by Anna\nKingsford and E. Maitland (London, 1885).\n\n[371] Cf. Bergier, _Purgatoire_, in _Dict. de Th\u00e9ol._, v. 409. A Celt, a\nprofessed faithful and fervent adherent of the Church of Rome, whom I\nmet in the Morbihan where he now lives, told me that he believes\nthoroughly in the doctrine of re-birth, and that it is according to his\nopinion the proper and logical interpretation of the doctrine of\nPurgatory; and he added that there are priests in his Church who have\ntold him that their personal interpretation of the purgatorial doctrine\nis the same. Thus some Roman Catholics do not deny the re-birth\ndoctrine. And such conversations as this with Catholic Celts in Ireland\nand Brittany lead me to believe that to a larger extent than has been\nsuspected the old Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth may have been one of the\nchief foundations for the modern Roman Catholic Doctrine of Purgatory,\nwhose origin is not clearly indicated in any theological works. For us\nthis probability is important as well as interesting, and especially so\nwhen we remember the profound influence which the Celtic St. Patrick's\nPurgatory certainly exerted on the Church during the Middle Ages when\nthe doctrine of Purgatory was taking definite shape (see our chapter x).\n\n[372] _Barddas_ (Llandovery, 1862) is 'a collection (by Iolo Morganwg, a\nBard) of original documents, illustrative of the theology, wisdom, and\nusage of the Bardo-Druidic System of the Isle of Britain'. The original\nmanuscripts are said to have been in the possession of Llywelyn Sion, a\nBard of Glamorgan, about 1560. _Barddas_ shows considerable Christian\ninfluence, yet in its essential teachings is sufficiently distinct.\nThough of late composition, _Barddas_ seems to represent the traditional\nbardic doctrines as they had been handed down orally for an unknown\nperiod of time, it having been forbidden in earlier times to commit such\ndoctrines to writing. We are well aware also of the adverse criticisms\npassed upon these documents; but since no one questions their Celtic\norigin--whether it be ancient or more modern--we are content to use\nthem.\n\n[373] _Barddas_, i, 189-91.\n\n[374] _Barddas_, i, 177.\n\n[375] Preface to _Barddas_, xlii.\n\n[376] One of the greatest errors formerly made by European Sanskrit\nscholars and published broadcast throughout the West, so that now it is\npopularly accepted there as true, is that Nirvana, the goal of Indian\nphilosophy and religion, means annihilation. It does mean annihilation\n(evolutionary transmutation of lower into higher), but only of all those\nforces or elements which constitute man as an animal. The error arose\nfrom interpreting exoterically instead of esoterically, and was a\nnatural result of that system of western scholarship which sees and\noften cares only to examine external aspects. Native Indian scholars who\nhave advised us in this difficult problem prefer to translate _Nirvana_\nas 'Self-realization', i. e. a state of supernormal consciousness (to be\nacquired through the evolution of the individual), as much superior to\nthe normal human consciousness as the normal human consciousness is\nsuperior to the consciousness existing in the brute kingdom.\n\n[377] _De Bel. Gal._, lib. vi. 14. 5; vi. 18. 1.\n\n[378] Book V, 31. 4.\n\n[379] _De Situ Orbis_, iii. c. 2: 'One point alone of the Druids'\nteaching has become generally known among the common people (in order\nthat they should be braver in war), that souls are eternal and there is\na second life among the shades.'\n\n[380] i. 449-62.\n\n[381] Lucan, i. 457-8; i. 458-62.\n\n[382] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 345, 347 ff.\n\n[383] _Folk-Lore_, xii. 64, &c.; also cf. Eleanor Hull, _The Cuchullin\nSaga in Irish Literature_ (London, 1898), Intro., p. 23, &c.\n\n[384] What is probably the oldest form of a tale concerning Conchobhar's\nbirth makes Conchobhar 'the son of a god who incarnated himself in the\nsame way as did Lug and Etain' (cf. _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 73).\n\n[385] See _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_, 101{b}; and _Book of Leinster_,\n123{b}:--'_C\u00fachulainn mc dea dechtiri_.'\n\n[386] We have already mentioned the belief that gods having their abode\nin the sun could leave it to assume bodies here on earth and become\nculture heroes and great teachers (see p. 309).\n\n[387] From _Wooing of Emer_ in _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_; cf. _Voy. of\nBran_, ii. 97.\n\n[388] _L'\u00c9pop\u00e9e celt. en Irl._, p. 11.\n\n[389] Cf. _Voy. of Bran_, ii. p. 74 ff.\n\n[390] In the _Leabhar na h-Uidhre_, 133{a}-134{b}; cf. _Le Cycle Myth.\nIrl._, pp. 336-43; cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 49-52; cf. O'Curry, _Manners\nand Customs_, iii. 175.\n\n[391] Cf. Stokes's ed. _Annals of Tigernach, Third Frag._ in _Rev.\nCelt._ xvii. 178. In the piece called _Tucait baile Mong\u00e2in_ in the\n_Leabhar na h-Uidhre_, p. 134, col. 2, 'Mongan is seen living with his\nwife the year of the death of Ciaran mac int Shair, and of Tuathal\nMael-Garb, that is to say in 544,' following the _Chronicum Scotorum_,\nHennessy's ed., pp. 48-9. As D'Arbois de Jubainville adds, the Irish\nchronicles of this epoch are only approximate in their dates. Thus,\nwhile the _Four Masters_ (i. 243) makes the death of Mongan A. D. 620,\nthe _Annals of Ulster_ makes it A. D. 625, the _Chronicum Scotorum_ A.\nD. 625, the _Annals of Clonmacnoise_, A. D. 624, and _Egerton MS._ 1782\nA. D. 615 (cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 137-9).\n\n[392] J. O'Donovan, _Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters_ (Dublin,\n1856), i. 121.\n\n[393] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 336-43; O'Curry, _Manners and\nCustoms_ iii. 175; _L. U._, 133{a}-134{b}; and _Voy. of Bran_, i. 52.\n\n[394] _Voy. of Bran_, i. 44-5; from _The Conception of Mongan_.\n\n[395] Meyer's version, _Voy. of Bran_, i. 73-4.\n\n[396] Cf. _Voy. of Bran_, i. 137.\n\n[397] _Voy. of Bran_, i. 22-8, quatrains 48-59, &c.\n\n[398] In _L. U._; cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, pp. 311-22; and _Voy. of\nBran_, ii. 47-53.\n\n[399] In the Irish conception of re-birth there is no change of sex: Lug\nis re-born as a boy, in Cuchulainn; Finn as Mongan; Etain as a girl. But\nit seems that Etain as a mortal had no consciousness of her previous\ndivine existence, while Cuchulainn and Mongan knew their non-human\norigin and pre-existence.\n\n[400] Some time after this, according to one part of the tale, Eochaid\nstormed Midir's fairy palace--for the purpose localized in Ireland--and\nwon Etain back, but the fairies cast a curse on his race for this, and\nConaire, his grandson, fell a victim to it. Such a recovering of Etain\nby Eochaid may vaguely suggest a re-birth of Etain, through the power\nexerted by Eochaid, who, being a king, is to be regarded in his\nnon-human nature as one of the Tuatha De Danann himself, like Midir his\nrival.\n\n[401] Cf. _The Gilla decair_, in _Silva Gadelica_, pp. 300-3.\n\n[402] Cf. _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 76 ff. The Christian scribe's version\nfills up the space between Tuan's death and re-birth by making him pass\neighty years as a stag, twenty as a wild boar, one hundred as an eagle,\nand twenty as a salmon (ib., p. 79). In this particular example, the\nuninitiated scribe (evidently having failed to grasp an important aspect\nof the re-birth doctrine as this was esoterically explained in the\nMysteries, namely, that between death and re-birth, while the conscious\nEgo is resident in the Otherworld, the physical atoms of the discarded\nhuman body may transmigrate through various plant and animal bodies)\nappears to set forth as Celtic an erroneous doctrine of the\ntransmigration of the conscious Ego itself (see p. 513 n.). In other\ntexts, for example in the song which Amairgen (considered the Gaelic\nequivalent or even original of the Brythonic Taliessin) sang as he, with\nthe conquering Sons of Mil, set foot on Ireland, there are similar\ntransformations, attributed to certain heroes like Taliessin (see the\n_Mabinogion_) and Tuan mac Cairill during their disembodied states after\ndeath and until re-birth. But these transformations seem to echo\npoetically, and often rationally, a very mystical Celtic pantheism, in\nwhich Man, regarded as having evolved upwards through all forms and\nconditions of existence, is at one with all creation:--\n\n  I am the wind which blows o'er the sea;\n  I am the wave of the deep;\n  I am the bull of seven battles;\n  I am the eagle on the rock;\n  I am a tear of the sun;\n  I am the fairest of plants;\n  I am a boar for courage;\n  I am a salmon in the water;\n  I am a lake in the plain;\n  I am the world of knowledge;\n  I am the head of the battle-dealing spear;\n  I am the god who fashions fire in the head;\n  Who spreads light in the gathering on the mountain?\n  Who foretells the ages of the moon?\n  Who teaches the spot where the sun rests?\n\nAnd Amairgen also says:--'I am,' [Taliessin] 'I have been' (_Book of\nInvasions_; cf. _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 91-2; cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p.\n549; cf. Skene, _Four Ancient Books_, i. 276 ff.).\n\nIn later times, especially among non-bardic poets, there has been a\nsimilar tendency to misinterpret this primitive mystical Celtic\npantheism into the corrupt form of the re-birth doctrine, namely\ntransmigration of the human soul into animal bodies. Dr. Douglas Hyde\nhas sent to me the following evidence:--'I have a poem, consisting of\nnearly one hundred stanzas, about a pig who ate an Irish manuscript, and\nwho by eating it recovered human speech for twenty-four hours and gave\nhis master an account of his previous embodiments. He had been a\nright-hand man of Cromwell, a weaver in France, a subject of the Grand\nSignor, &c. The poem might be about one hundred or one hundred and fifty\nyears old.' It is probable that the poet who composed this poem intended\nto add a touch of modern Irish humour by making use of the pig. We\nshould, nevertheless, bear in mind that the pig (or, as is more commonly\nthe rule, the wild boar) holds a very curious and prominent position in\nthe ancient mythology of Ireland, and of Wales as well. It was regarded\nas a magical animal (cf. p. 451 n.); and, apparently, was also a Druid\nsymbol, whose meaning we have lost. Possibly the poet may have been\naware of this. If so, he does not necessarily imply transmigration of\nthe human soul into animal bodies; but is merely employing symbolism.\n\n[403] See _Taliessin_ in the _Mabinogion_, and the _Book of Taliessin_\nin Skene's _Four Ancient Books_, i. 523 ff.; cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_,\nii. 84, and Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 548, 551.\n\n[404] Cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 548-50.\n\n[405] Cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 259; and _Arth. Leg._, p. 252.\n\n[406] Loth, _Les Mabinogion, Kulhwch et Olwen_, p. 187 n.\n\n[407] _Le Morte D'Arthur_, Book XXI, c. vii.\n\n[408] See works on Egyptian mythology and religion, by Maspero; also\nLenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 84, &c.\n\n[409] F. L. Griffith, _Stories of the High-priests of Memphis_ (Oxford,\n1900), c. iii. The text of this story is written on the back of two\nGreek documents, bearing the date of the seventh year of the Emperor\nClaudius (A. D. 46-7), not before published.\n\n[410] It is interesting to compare with this episode the episodes of how\nthe magic of St. Patrick prevailed over the magic of the Druids when the\nold and the new religions met in warfare on the Hill of Tara, in the\npresence of the high king of Ireland and his court.\n\n[411] E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_ (London, 1904),\np. 3.\n\n[412] Prescott, _Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of Peru_.\n\n[413] W. Crooke, _The Legends of Krishna_, in _Folk-Lore_, xi. 2-3 ff.\n\n[414] _Laws of Manu_, vii. 8, trans, by G. B\u00fchler.\n\n[415] A. B. Cook, _European Sky-God_, in _Folk-Lore_, xv. 301-4.\n\n[416] Cf. Lucian, _Somn._, 17, &c. See Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 13;\nalso Tertullian, _De Anima_, c. xxviii, where Pythagoras is described as\nhaving previously been Aethalides, and Euphorbus, and the fisherman\nPyrrhus.\n\n[417] Cf. Huc, _Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet_, i.\n279 ff.\n\n[418] The doctrine of kingly rule by divine right was substituted after\nthe conversion of the Roman Empire for the very ancient belief that the\nemperor was a god incarnate (not necessarily reincarnate); and the same\nchristianized aspect of a pre-Christian doctrine stands behind the\nEnglish kingship at the present day.\n\n[419] A curious parallel to this Irish doctrine that through re-birth\none suffers for the sins committed in a previous earth-life is found in\nthe Christian scriptures, where in asking Jesus about a man born blind,\n'Rabbi, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he should be born\nblind?' the disciple exhibits what must have been a popular Jewish\nbelief in re-birth quite like the Celtic one. See St. John ix. 1-2.\nThough the Rabbis admitted the possibility of ante-natal sin in thought,\nthis passage seems to point unmistakably to a Jewish re-birth doctrine.\n\n[420] It is interesting to note in connexion with these two\ncomplementary ideas what has been written by Mr. Standish O'Grady\nconcerning strange phenomena witnessed at the time of Charles Parnell's\nfuneral:--'While his followers were committing Charles Parnell's remains\nto the earth, the sky was bright with strange lights and flames. Only a\ncoincidence possibly; and yet persons not superstitious have maintained\nthat there is some mysterious sympathy between the human soul and the\nelements.... Those strange flames recalled to my memory what is told of\nsimilar phenomena said to have been witnessed when tidings of the death\nof the great Christian Saint, Columba, overran the north-west of Europe,\nas perhaps truer than I had imagined.'--_Ireland: Her Story_, pp.\n211-12.\n\n[421] Cf. M. Lenihan, _Limerick; its History and Antiquities_ (Dublin,\n1866), p. 725.\n\n[422] I take this to mean, somewhat as in the similar case of Dechtire,\nthe mother of Cuchulainn (see p. 369, above), that the kind of soul or\ncharacter which will be reincarnated in the child is determined by the\npsychic prenatal conditions which a mother consciously or unconsciously\nmay set up. If this interpretation, as it seems to be, is correct, we\nhave in this Welsh belief a surprising comprehension of scientific laws\non the part of the ancient Welsh Druids--from whom the doctrine\ncomes--which equals, and surpasses in its subtlety, the latest\ndiscoveries of our own psychological embryology, criminology, and\nso-called laws of heredity.\n\n[423] The reader is referred to the Rev. T. M. Morgan's latest\npublication, _The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Newchurch,\nCarmarthenshire_ (Carmarthen, 1910), pp. 155-6.\n\n[424] I found, however, that the original re-birth doctrine has been\neither misinterpreted or else corrupted--after Dr. Tylor's theory--into\ntransmigration into animal bodies among certain Cornish miners in the\nSt. Just region.\n\n[425] The primitive character of the Incarnation doctrine is clear:\nOrigen, in refuting a Jewish accusation against Christians, apparently\nthe natural outgrowth of deep-seated hatred and religious prejudice on\nthe part of the Jews, that Jesus Christ was born through the adultery of\nthe Virgin with a certain soldier named Panthera, argues 'that every\nsoul, for certain mysterious reasons (I speak now according to the\nopinions of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Empedocles, whom Celsus\nfrequently names), is introduced into a body, and introduced according\nto its deserts and former actions'. And, according to Origen's argument,\nto assign to Jesus Christ a birth more disgraceful than any other is\nabsurd, because 'He who sends souls down into the bodies of men' would\nnot have thus 'degraded Him who was to dare such mighty acts, and to\nteach so many men, and to reform so many from the mass of wickedness in\nthe world'. And Origen adds:--'It is probable, therefore, that this soul\nalso which conferred more benefit by its residence in the flesh than\nthat of many men (to avoid prejudice, I do not say \"all\"), stood in need\nof a body not only superior to others, but invested with all excellence'\n(_Origen against Celsus_, Book I, c. xxxii).\n\nIt is interesting to compare with Origen's theology the following\npassage from the _Pistis Sophia_, wherein Jesus in the alleged esoteric\ndiscourse to his disciples refers to the pre-existence of their\nsouls:--'I took them from the hands of the twelve saviours of the\ntreasure of light, according to the command of the first mystery. These\npowers, therefore, I cast into the wombs of your mothers, when I came\ninto the world, and they are those which are in your bodies this day'\n(_Pistis Sophia_, i. II, Mead's translation).\n\n[426] Cf. Nutt, _Voy. of Bran_, ii. 27 ff., 45 ff., 54 ff., 98-102.\n\n[427] Cf. ib., p. 105.\n\n[428] In this chapter, largely the result of my own special research and\nobservations in Celtic archaeology, I wish to acknowledge the very\nvaluable suggestions offered to me by Professor J. Loth, both in his\nlectures and personally.\n\n[429] See David MacRitchie, _Fians, Fairies, and Picts_; also his\n_Testimony of Tradition_.\n\n[430] Myers, in the _Survival of the Human Personality_ (ii. 55-6),\nshows that 'the departed spirit, long after death, seems pre-occupied\nwith the spot where his bones are laid'. Among contemporary uncultured\nraces there exists a theory parallel to this one arrived at through\ncareful scientific research, namely, that ghosts haunt graves and\nmonuments connected with the dead: according to the Australian Arunta\nthe 'double' hovers near its body until the body is reduced to dust, the\nspirit or soul of the deceased having separated from this 'double' or\nghost at the time of death or soon afterwards (Spenser and Gillen, _Nat.\nTribes of Cent. Aust._).\n\n[431] See _Les Grottes_, t. i; _Les Menhirs, Les Dolmens, Les Tumulus_,\nand _Cultes et observances m\u00e9galithiques_, t. iv.\n\n[432] On April 17, 1909, at Carnac, in a natural fissure in the body of\nthe finest menhir at the head of the Alignement of Kermario, I found\nquite by chance, while making a very careful examination of the\ngeological structure of the menhir, a Roman Catholic coin (or medal) of\nSt. Peter. The place in the menhir where this coin was discovered is on\nthe south side about fifteen inches above the surface of the ground. The\nmenhir is very tall and smoothly rounded, and there is no possible way\nfor the coin to have fallen into the fissure by accident. Nor is there\nany probability that the coin was placed there without a serious\npurpose; and it is an object such as only an adult would possess. An\nexamination of the link remaining on the coin, which no doubt formerly\nconnected it with a necklace or string of prayer-beads, shows that it\nhas been purposely opened so as to free it at the time it was deposited\nin the stone. Had the coin been accidentally torn away from a chain or\nstring of prayer-beads the link would have presented a different sort of\nopening. But it would be altogether unreasonable to suppose that by any\nsort of chance the coin could have reached the place where I found it. I\nshowed the coin to M. Z. Le Rouzic, of the Carnac Museum, and he\nconsiders it, as I do, as evidence or proof of a cult rendered to stones\nhere in Brittany. The coin must have been secretly placed in the menhir\nby some pious peasant as a direct _ex voto_ for some favour received or\ndemanded. The coin is somewhat discoloured, and has probably been some\nyears in the stone, though it cannot be very old. And the offering of a\ncoin to the spirit residing in a menhir is parallel to throwing coins,\npins, or other objects into sacred fountains, which, as we know, is an\nundisputed practice.\n\n[433] Cf. A. C. Kruijt, _Het Animisme in den Indischen Archipel_; quoted\nin Crawley's _Idea of the Soul_, p. 133.\n\n[434] Cf. Weidemann, _Ancient Egyptian Doct. Immortality_, p. 21.\n\n[435] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_.\n\n[436] Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 143 ff., 169, 172.\n\n[437] Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_, c. i.\n\n[438] Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 230.\n\n[439] A famous controversy exists as to whether the Coronation Stone now\nin Westminster Abbey is the _Lia F\u00e1il_, or whether the pillar-stone\nstill at Tara is the _Lia F\u00e1il_. See article by E. S. Hartland in\n_Folk-Lore_, xiv. 28-60.\n\n[440] These 'idols' probably were not true images, but simply unshaped\nstone pillars planted on end in the earth; and ought, therefore, more\nproperly to be designated fetishes.\n\n[441] Stokes, in _Rev. Celt._, i. 260; Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 200-1.\n\n[442] Very much first-class evidence suggests that the menhir was\nregarded by the primitive Celts both as an abode of a god or as a seat\nof divine power, and as a phallic symbol (cf. Jubainville, _Le culte des\nmenhirs dans le monde celtique_, in _Rev. Celt._, xxvii. 313). As a\nphallic symbol, the menhir must have been inseparably related to a\nCeltic sun-cult; because among all ancient peoples where phallic worship\nhas prevailed, the sun has been venerated as the supreme masculine force\nin external nature from which all life proceeds, while the phallus has\nbeen venerated as the corresponding force in human nature.\n\n[443] _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 137.\n\n[444] Professor J. Loth says:--'_\u00c9tymologiquement, le mot est compos\u00e9\nde_ CROM, _courbe, arque, formant creux, convexe, et de_ LLECH, _pierre\nplate_' (_Rev. Celt._, xv. 223, _Dolmen_, _Leach-Derch_, _Peulvan_,\n_Menhir_, _Cromlech_). In Cornwall, Wales, and Ireland, instead of the\npeculiarly Breton word _dolmen_ (composed of _dol_ [for _tol == tavl_],\nmeaning _table_, and of _men_ [Middle Breton _maen_], meaning _stone_)\nthe word _cromlech_ is used. _Cromlech_ is the Welsh equivalent for the\nBreton _dolmen_, but Breton archaeologists use _cromlech_ to describe a\ncircle formed by menhirs.\n\n[445] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 193-4.\n\n[446] Ib., p. 192; from Sans-Marte's edition, pp. 108-9, 361.\n\n[447] Ib., p. 193.\n\n[448] Ib., pp. 194-5; cf. _Bibliotheca_ of Diodorus Siculus, ii. c. 47.\n\n[449] Edith F. Carey, _Channel Island Folklore_ (Guernsey, 1909).\n\n[450] Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 198.\n\n[451] Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, pp. 287-9.\n\n[452] The place for holding a _gorsedd_ for modern Welsh initiations,\nunder the authority of which the Eisteddfod is conducted, must also be\nwithin a circle of stones, 'face to face with the sun and the eye of\nlight, as there is no power to hold a _gorsedd_ under cover or at night,\nbut only where and as long as the sun is visible in the heavens'\n(Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 208-9; from _Iolo_ MSS., p. 50).\n\n[453] Recently before the Oxford Anthropological Society, Dr. Murray\nargued that the satyrs of Greek drama may originally have been masked\ninitiators in Greek initiations. (Cf. _The Oxford Magazine_, February 3,\n1910, p. 173.)\n\n[454] Edith F. Carey, op. cit.\n\n[455] Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, pp. 126-9.\n\n[456] Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, pp. 126-9.\n\n[457] Rhys, _Arth. Leg._, p. 339.\n\n[458] Edith F. Carey, op. cit.\n\n[459] Montelius' _Les Temps pr\u00e9historiques en Su\u00e8de_, par S. Reinach, p.\n126. (Paris, 1895).\n\n[460] H. Schliemann, _Mycenae_ (London, 1878), p. 213.\n\n[461] Walhouse, in _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, vii. 21. These Dravidians\nare slightly taller than the pure Negritos, their probable ancestors;\nand Indian tradition considers them to be the builders of the Indian\ndolmens, just as Celtic tradition considers fairies and _corrigans_\n(often described as dark or even black-skinned dwarfs) to be the\nbuilders of dolmens and megaliths among the Celts. Apparently, in such\nfolk-traditions, which correctly or incorrectly regard fairies,\n_corrigans_, or Dravidians as the builders of ancient stone monuments,\nthere has been preserved a folk-memory of early races of men who may\nhave been Negritos (pygmy blacks). These races, through a natural\nanthropomorphic process, came to be identified with the spirits of the\ndead and with other spiritual beings to whom the monuments were\ndedicated and at which they were worshipped. Here, again, the Pygmy\nTheory is seen at its true relative value: it is subordinate to the\nfundamental animism of the Fairy-Faith.\n\n[462] J. D\u00e9chelette, _Manuel d'Arch\u00e9ologie pr\u00e9historique_ (Paris, 1908),\ni. 468, 302, 308, 311, 576, 610, &c.\n\n[463] This famous chambered tumulus 'measures nearly 700 feet in\ncircumference, or about 225 feet in diameter, and between 40 and 50 feet\nin height' (G. Coffey, in _Rl. Ir. Acad. Trans._ [Dublin, 1892], xxx.\n68).\n\n[464] G. Coffey, in _Rl. Ir. Acad. Trans._, xxx. 73-92.\n\n[465] Fol. 190 b; trans. O'Curry, _Lectures_, p. 505.\n\n[466] Mr. Coffey quotes from the _Senchus-na-Relec_, in _L. U._, this\nsignificant passage:--'The nobles of the Tuatha De Danann were used to\nbury at Brugh (i. e. the Dagda with his three sons; also Lugaidh, and Oe,\nand Ollam, and Ogma, and Etan the Poetess, and Corpre, the son of Etan)'\n(G. Coffey, op. cit., xxx. 77). The manuscript, however, being late and\ndirectly under Christian influence, echoes but imperfectly very ancient\nCeltic tradition: the immortal god-race are therein rationalized by the\ntranscribers, and made subject to death.\n\n[467] W. C. Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_ (London, 1897), ii. 346 n.\n\n[468] As translated in the _Silva Gadelica_, ii. 109-11.\n\n[469] Borlase, op. cit., ii. 346-7 n.\n\n[470] Borlase, op. cit., ii. 346-7 n.\n\n[471] Ib., ii. 347 n.\n\n[472] A good example of a saint's stone bed can be seen now at\nGlendalough, the stone bed of St. Kevin, high above a rocky shore of the\nlake.\n\n[473] Coffey, op. cit., xxx. 73-4, from R. I. A. MS., by Michael\nO'Longan, dated 1810, p. 10, and translated by Douglas Hyde.\n\n[474] Coffey, op. cit., xxv. 73-4, from R. I. A. MS. by Michael\nO'Longan, dated 1810, p. 10, and trans. by Douglas Hyde.\n\n[475] Borlase, op. cit., ii. 347 n.\n\n[476] O'Donovan, _Four Masters_, i. 22 n.\n\n[477] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 148-50.\n\n[478] Cf. O'Curry, _Manners and Customs_, ii. 122; iii. 5, 74, 122;\nRhys, _Hib. Lect._, pp. 150, 150 n.; Jubainville, _Essai d'un\nCatalogue_, p. 244.\n\n[479] Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 194.\n\n[480] Math ab Mathonwy's Irish counterpart is Math mac Um\u00f3ir, the\nmagician (_Book of Leinster_, f. 9{b}; cf. Rhys, _Trans. Third Inter.\nCong. Hist. Religions_, Oxford, 1908, ii. 211).\n\n[481] Rhys, ib., pp. 225-6; cf. R. B. _Mabinogion_, p. 60; _Triads_,\ni. 32, ii. 20, iii. 90. A fortified hill-top now known as Pen y Gaer, or\n'Hill of the Fortress', on the western side of the Conway, on a mountain\nwithin sight of the railway station of Tal y Cafn, Carnarvonshire, is\nregarded by Sir John Rhys as the site of a long-forgotten cult of\nMath the Ancient. (Rhys, ib., p. 225).\n\n[482] This stone basin, now in the centre of the inner chamber, seems\noriginally to have stood in the east recess, the largest and most richly\ninscribed. It is 4 feet long, 3 feet 6 inches across, and 1 foot thick.\n(Coffey, op. cit., xxx. 14, 21).\n\n[483] Cf. W. M. Flinders Petrie, _The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_\n(London, 1883), p. 201.\n\n[484] All of the chief megaliths of this type, together with the chief\nalignements, which I have personally inspected--with the aid of a\ncompass--in Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, and\nBrittany, are definitely aligned east and west. It cannot be said,\nhowever, that _all_ megalithic monuments throughout Celtic countries\nshow definite orientation (see D\u00e9chelette's _Manuel d'Arch\u00e9ologie_).\n\n[485] L. P. McCarty, _The Great Pyramid Jeezeh_ (San Francisco, 1907),\np. 402.\n\n[486] Jubainville, _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 28.\n\n[487] Maspero, _Les Contes populaires de l'\u00c9gypte Ancienne_,{3} p. 74 n.\n\n[488] Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 426.\n\n[489] W. H. Prescott, _Conquest of Peru_, i, c. 3.\n\n[490] Rochefort, _Iles Antilles_, p. 365; cf. Tylor, _P. C._,{4} ii. 424.\n\n[491] Colebrooke, _Essays_, vols. i, iv, v; cf. Tylor, _P. C._,{4} 425.\n\n[492] _Illus. Hist. and Pract. of Thugs_ (London, 1837), p. 46; cf.\nTylor, _P. C._,{4} ii. 425.\n\n[493] Augustin, _de Serm. Dom. in Monte_, ii. 5; cf. Tylor, _P. C._,{4}\nii. 427-8.\n\n[494] Ezek. viii. 16. The popular opinion that Christians face the east\nin prayer, or have altars eastward because Jerusalem is eastward, does\nnot fit in with facts.\n\n[495] Cf. Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 88; also Tylor, _Prim.\nCult._,{4} ii. 48-9.\n\n[496] Though not a Mason, the writer draws his knowledge from Masons of\nthe highest rank, and from published works by Masons like Mr. Carty's\n_The Great Pyramid Jeezeh_.\n\n[497] Cf. Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_, ii. 347 n.\n\n[498] C. Piazzi Smyth, _Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid_ (London,\n1890).\n\n[499] Flinders Petrie, _The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, pp. 169,\n222.\n\n[500] C. Piazzi Smyth, op. cit.\n\n[501] In 1770, when New Grange apparently was not covered with a growth\nof trees as now, Governor Pownall visited it and described it as like a\npyramid in general outline: 'The pyramid in its present state' is 'but a\nruin of what it was' (Coffey, op. cit., xxx. 13).\n\n[502] Le Dr. G. de C., _Locmariaquer et Gavr'inis_ (Vannes, 1876), p.\n18.\n\n[503] According to Le Dr. G. de C., op. cit., p. 18.\n\n[504] Mr. Coffey says of similar details in Irish tumuli:--'In the\nconstruction of such chambers it is usual to find a sort of sill or low\nstone placed across the entrance into the main chamber, and at the\nopenings into the smaller chambers or recesses; such stones also occur\nlaid at intervals across the bottom of the passages. This forms a marked\nfeature in the construction at Dowth, and in the cairns on the Loughcrew\nHills, but is wholly absent at New Grange' (op. cit., xxx. 15). New\nGrange, however, has suffered more or less from vandalism, and\noriginally may have contained similar stone sills.\n\n[505] Flinders Petrie, _The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh_, p. 216.\n\n[506] Maspero, op. cit., p. 69 n., &c. The world-wide anthropomorphic\ntendency to construct tombs for the gods and for the dead after the plan\nof earthly dwellings is as evident in the excavations at Mycenae as in\nancient Egypt and in Celtic lands.\n\n[507] Cf. Bruns, _Canones apostolorum et conciliorum saeculorum_, ii.\n133.\n\n[508] Cf. F. Maassen, _Concilia aevi merovingici_, p. 133.\n\n[509] Cf. Boretius, _Capitularia regum Francorum_, i. 59; for each of\nthe above references cf. Jubainville, _Le culte des menhirs dans le\nmonde celtique_, in _Rev. Celt._, xxvii. 317.\n\n[510] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 427.\n\n[511] See Villemarqu\u00e9 _sur Bretagne_.\n\n[512] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 326; quoted from _De Glor. Conf._, c. 2.\n\n[513] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 326; quoted from _De Glor. Conf._, c. 2.\n\n[514] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 326; quoted from _Goth._, lib. ii.\n\n[515] A. W. Moore, in _Folk-Lore_, v. 212-29.\n\n[516] Cf. Rhys, _Arthurian Legend_, p. 247.\n\n[517] Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_, iii. 729.\n\n[518] Stokes, _Tripartite Life of Patrick_, pp. 99-101.\n\n[519] Ib., text, pp. 123, 323, and Intro., p. 159.\n\n[520] Book II, 69-70; see our study, p. 267.\n\n[521] Rennes _Dinnshenchas_, Stokes's trans. in _Rev. Celt._, xv. 457.\n\n[522] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 323.\n\n[523] The Celts may have viewed the mistletoe on the sacred oak as the\nseat of the tree's life, because in the winter sleep of the leafless oak\nthe mistletoe still maintains its own foliage and fruit, and like the\nheart of a sleeper continues pulsing with vitality. The mistletoe thus\nbeing regarded as the heart-centre of the divine spirit in the oak-tree\nwas cut with a golden sickle by the arch-druid clad in pure white robes,\namid great religious solemnity, and became a vicarious sacrifice or\natonement for the worshippers of the tree god. (Cf. Frazer, _G. B._,{2}\niii. 447 ff.)\n\n[524] Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, xvi. 95; cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 218.\n\n[525] _Dissert._, viii; cf. Rhys, ib., p. 219.\n\n[526] Meineke's ed., xii. 5, 1; cf. Rhys, ib., p. 219. The oak-tree\nis pre-eminently the holy tree of Europe. Not only Celts, but Slavs,\nworshipped amid its groves. To the Germans it was their chief god; the\nancient Italians honoured it above all other trees; the original image\nof Jupiter on the Capitol at Rome seems to have been a natural oak-tree.\nSo at Dodona, Zeus was worshipped as immanent in a sacred oak. Cf.\nFrazer, _G. B._,{2} iii. 346 ff.\n\n[527] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, pp. 333-4; quotation from _Hist. du Maine_, i.\n17.\n\n[528] Cf. Mah\u00e9, _Essai_, p. 334; quoted from _Lib._ VII, _indict._ i,\n_epist._ 5.\n\n[529] Stokes, _Tripartite Life_, p. 409.\n\n[530] Cf. Wood-Martin, _Traces of the Older Faiths in Ireland_, i. 305.\n\n[531] W. Gregor, _Notes on Beltene Cakes_, in _Folk-Lore_, vi. 5.\n\n[532] Temple, _Legends of the Panjab_, in _Folk-Lore_, x. 406.\n\n[533] Lef\u00e8vre, _Le Culte des Morts chez les Latins_, in _Rev. Trad.\nPop._, ix. 195-209.\n\n[534] See _Folk-Lore_, vi. 192.\n\n[535] The term 'People of Peace' seems, however, to have originated from\nconfounding _sid_, 'fairy abode,' and _s\u00edd_, 'peace.'\n\n[536] Cf. _Le Cycle Myth. Irl._, p. 102.\n\n[537] The crocodile as the mystic symbol of S\u00eetou provides one key to\nunlock the mysteries of what eminent Egyptologists have erroneously\ncalled animal worship, erroneously because they have interpreted\nliterally what can only be interpreted symbolically. The crocodile is\ncalled the 'son of S\u00eetou' in the _Papyrus magique_, Harris, pl. vi, ll.\n8-9 (cf. Maspero, _Les Contes populaires de l'\u00c9gypte Ancienne_,[539]\nIntro., p. 56); and as the waters seem to swallow the sun as it sinks\nbelow the horizon, so the crocodile, as S\u00eetou representing the waters,\nswallows the Children of Osiris, as the Egyptians called themselves. On\nthe other hand, Osiris is typified by the white bull, in many nations\nthe sun emblem, white being the emblem of purity and light, while the\npowers of the bull represent the masculinity of the sun, which\nimpregnates all nature, always thought of as feminine, with life germs.\n\n[538] Cf. Maspero, op. cit., Intro., p. 49.\n\n[539] Cf. Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_, iii. 854.\n\n[540] Cf. Lef\u00e8vre, _Rev. Trad. Pop._, ix. 195-209.\n\n[541] J. G. Campbell collected in Scotland two versions of a parallel\nepisode, but concerning Loch Lurgan. In both versions the flight begins\nby Fionn's foster-mother carrying Fionn, and in both, when she is tired,\nFionn carries her and runs so fast that when the loch is reached only\nher shanks are left. These he throws out on the loch, and hence its name\nLoch Lurgan, 'Lake of the Shanks.' (_The Fians_, pp. 18-19).\n\n[542] During the seventeenth century, the English government, acting\nthrough its Dublin representatives, ordered this original Cave or\nPurgatory to be demolished; and with the temporary suppression of the\nceremonies which resulted and the consequent abandonment of the island,\nthe Cave, which may have been filled up, has been lost.\n\n[543] Thomas Wright, _St. Patrick's Purgatory_ (London, 1844), pp. 67-8.\n\n[544] Wright, op. cit., p. 69.\n\n[545] In the face of all the legends told of pilgrims who have been in\nPatrick's Purgatory, it seems that either through religious frenzy like\nthat produced in Protestant revivals, or else through some strange\ninfluence due to the cave itself after the preliminary disciplines, some\nof the pilgrims have had most unusual psychic experiences. Those who\nhave experienced fasting and a rigorous life for a prescribed period\naffirm that there results a changed condition, physical, mental, and\nspiritual, so that it is very probable that the Christian pilgrims to\nthe Purgatory, like the pagan pilgrims who 'fasted on' the Tuatha De\nDanann in New Grange, were in good condition to receive impressions of a\npsychical nature such as the Society for Psychical Research is beginning\nto believe are by no means rare to people susceptible to them. Neophytes\nseeking initiation among the ancients had to undergo even more rigorous\npreparations than these; for they were expected while entranced to leave\ntheir physical bodies and in reality enter the purgatorial state, as we\nshall presently have occasion to point out.\n\n[546] Wright, _St. Patrick's Purgatory_, pp. 62 ff.\n\n[547] L. R. Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_ (Oxford, 1907), iii.\n126-98, &c.\n\n[548] Cf. Athenaeus, 614 A; Aristoph., _Nubes_, 508; and Harper's _Dict.\nClass. Lit. and Antiq._, p. 1615.\n\n[549] Cf. O. Seyffert, _Dict. Class. Antiquities_, trans. (London,\n1895), _Mithras_.\n\n[550] Brasseur, _Mexique_, iii. 20, &c.; Tylor, _P. C._,{4} ii. 45.\n\n[551] Cf. Hutton Webster, _Primitive Secret Societies_ (New York, 1908),\np. 38, and _passim_.\n\n[552] In the ancient Greek world the annual celebration of the Mysteries\ndrew great concourses of people from all regions round the\nMediterranean; to the modern Breton world the chief religious Pardons\nare annual events of such supreme importance that, after preparing\nplenty of food for the pilgrimage, the whole family of a pious peasant\nof Lower Brittany will desert farm and work dressed in their beautiful\nand best costumes for one of these Pardons, the most picturesque, the\nmost inspiring, and the highest folk-festivals still preserved by the\nRoman Church; while to Roman Catholics in all countries a pilgrimage to\nLough Derg is the sacred event of a lifetime.\n\nIn the Breton Pardons, as in the purgatorial rites, we seem to see the\nsurvivals of very ancient Celtic Mysteries strikingly like the Mysteries\nof Eleusis. The greatest of the Pardons, the Pardon of St. Anne d'Auray,\nwill serve as a basis for comparison; and while in some respects it has\nhad a recent and definitely historical origin (or revival), this origin\nseems on the evidence of archaeology to have been a restoration, an\nexpansion, and chiefly a Christianization of prehistoric rites then\nalready partly fallen into decay. Such rites remained latent in the\nfolk-memory, and were originally celebrated in honour of the sacred\nfountain, and probably also of Isis and the child, whose terra-cotta\nimage was ploughed up in a neighbouring field by the famous peasant\nNicolas, and naturally regarded by him and all who saw it as of St. Anne\nand the Holy Child. Thus, in the Pardon of St. Anne d'Auray, which\nextends over three days, there is a torch-light procession at night\nunder ecclesiastical sanction; as in the Ceres Mysteries, wherein the\nneophytes with torches kindled sought all night long for Proserpine.\nThere are purification rites, not especially under ecclesiastical\nsanction, at the holy fountain now dedicated to St. Anne, like the\npurification rites of the Eleusinian worshippers at the sea-shore and\ntheir visit to a holy well. There are mystery plays, recently\ninstituted, as in Greek initiation ceremonies; sacred processions, led\nby priests, bearing the image of St. Anne and other images, comparable\nto Greek sacred processions in which the god Iacchos was borne on the\nway to Eleusis. The all-night services in the dimly-lighted church of\nSt. Anne, with the special masses in honour of the Christian saints and\nfor the dead, are parallel to the midnight ceremonies of the Greeks in\ntheir caves of initiation and to the libations to the gods and to the\nspirits of the departed at Greek initiations. Finally, in the Greek\nmysteries there seems to have been some sort of expository sermon or\nexhortation to the assembled neophytes quite comparable to the special\nappeal made to the faithful Catholics assembled in the magnificent\nchurch of St. Anne d'Auray by the bishops and high ecclesiastics of\nBrittany. (For these Classical parallels compare Farnell, _Cults of the\nGreek States_, iii, _passim_.)\n\n[553] Cf. Rhys, _Hib. Lect._, p. 411, &c.\n\n[554] O'Curry, _Lectures_, pp. 586-7.\n\n[555] There is this very significant legend on record about the Cave of\nCruachan:--'Magh Mucrime, now, pigs of magic came out of the cave of\nCruachain, and that is Ireland's gate of Hell.' And 'Out of it, also,\ncame the Red Birds that withered up everything in Erin that their breath\nwould touch, till the Ulstermen slew them with their slings.' (_B. of\nLeinster_, p. 288a; Stokes's trans., in _Rev. Celt._, xiii. 449; cf.\n_Silva Gadelica_, ii. 353.)\n\n[556] Forbes, _Lives of S. Ninian and S. Kentigern_ (Edinburgh, 1874),\npp. 285, 345.\n\n[557] Cf. Wright, _St. Patrick's Purgatory_, pp. 81-2.\n\n[558] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 24; also Bergier, _Dict. de\nTh\u00e9ol._, v. 405.\n\n[559] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 32. But there is some\ndisagreement in this matter of dates: Petrus Damianus, _Vita S.\nOdilonis_, in the Bollandist _Acta Sanctorum_, January 1, records a\nlegend of how the Abbot Odilon decreed that November 2, the day after\nAll Saints' Day, should be set apart for services for the departed (cf.\nTylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 37 n.).\n\n[560] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 1 n.\n\n[561] Part II, sec. 4; c. 4, par. 8; cf. Bergier, _Dict. de Th\u00e9ol._, iv.\n322.\n\n[562] P. 11{a}, l. 19; in Stokes's _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 194.\n\n[563] _Enchiridion_, chap. cx; _Testament of St. Ephrem_ (ed. Vatican),\nii. 230, 236; Euseb., _de Vita Constant._, liv. iv, c. lx. 556, c. lxx.\n562; cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 30-1.\n\n[564] St. Ambroise, _de Obitu Theodosii_, ii. 1197; cf. Godescard, _Vies\ndes Saints_, xi. 31 n.\n\n[565] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 31-2.\n\n[566] I am indebted to Mr. William McDougall, M.A., Wilde Reader in\nMental Philosophy in the University of Oxford, for having read through\nand criticized the first draft of this section; and while he is in no\nway responsible for the views set forth herein, nevertheless his\nsuggestions for the improvement of their scientific framework have been\nof very great value. I must also express my obligation to him for having\nsuggested through his Oxford lectures a good share of the important\nmaterial interwoven into chapter xii touching the vitalistic view of\nevolution.\n\n[567] Cf. C. Du Prel, _Philosophy of Mysticism_ (London, 1889), i. 7,\n11.\n\n[568] T. Ribot, _The Diseases of Personality_; cf. J. L. Nevius, _Demon\nPossession_ (London, 1897), pp. 234-5.\n\n[569] _Proc. S. P. R._ (London), v. 167; cf. A. Lang, _Making of\nReligion_, p. 64.\n\n[570] W. James, _Confidences of a 'Psychical Researcher'_, in _American\nMagazine_ (October 1909).\n\n[571] A. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_ (London, 1896), p. 35.\n\n[572] According to Professor Freud, the well-known neurologist of\nVienna, external stimuli are not admitted to the dream-consciousness in\nthe same manner that they would be admitted to the waking-consciousness,\nbut they are disguised and altered in particular ways (cf. S. Freud,\n_Die Traumdeutung_, 2nd ed., Vienna, 1909; and S. Ferenczi, _The\nPsychological Analysis of Dreams_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._, April 1910,\nNo. 2, xxi. 318, &c.).\n\n[573] Du Prel, op. cit., i. 135.\n\n[574] G. F. Stout, _Mr. F. W. Myers on 'Human Personality and its\nSurvival of Bodily Death'_, in _Hibbert Journal_, ii, No. 1 (London,\nOctober 1903), p. 56.\n\n[575] F. W. H. Myers, _Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily\nDeath_ (London, 1903), i. 131.\n\n[576] R. L. Stevenson, _Across the Plains_, chapter on Dreams.\n\n[577] Stout, op. cit., p. 54.\n\n[578] Freud, op. cit.; Ferenczi, op. cit.; E. Jones, _Freud's Theory of\nDreams_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._, April 1910, No. 2, xxi. 283-308.\n\n[579] Freud, _The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis_, in _Amer.\nJourn. Psych._, April 1910, No. 2, xxi. 203.\n\n[580] Du Prel, op. cit., i. 33.\n\n[581] Myers, op. cit., i. 134.\n\n[582] Fechner, _Zentralblatt f\u00fcr Anthropologie_, p. 774; cf. Du Prel,\nop. cit., i. 92.\n\n[583] Haddock, _Somnolism and Psychism_, p. 213; cf. Du Prel, op. cit.,\ni. 93.\n\n[584] Perty, _Mystische Erscheinungen_, i. 305; cf. Du Prel, op. cit.,\nii. 63.\n\n[585] Kerner, _Seherin v. Prevorst_, p. 196; cf. Du Prel, op. cit., ii.\n65.\n\n[586] Chardel, _Essai de Psychologie_, p. 344; cf. Du Prel, op. cit.,\nii. 64.\n\n[587] Cf. Du Prel, op. cit., i. 88-9.\n\n[588] Myers, op. cit., chapter vi.\n\n[589] Stout, op. cit., pp. 64, 61-2.\n\n[590] Lang, _Mr. Myers's Theory of 'The Subliminal Self'_, in _Hibbert\nJournal_, ii, No. 3 (April 1904), p. 530.\n\n[591] The peculiar and often unique characteristics of the fairy-folk of\nany given fairy-faith, as we have pointed out in chapter iii (pp. 233,\n282), are to be regarded as being merely anthropomorphically coloured\nreflections of the social life or environment of the particular ethnic\ngroup who hold the particular fairy-faith; and, as Mr. Lang here\nsuggests, when they are stripped of these superficial characteristics,\nwhich are due to such social psychology, they become ghosts of the dead\nor other spiritual beings.\n\nOur own researches lead us to the conviction that behind the purely\nmythical aspect of these fairy-faiths there exists a substantial\nsubstratum of real phenomena not yet satisfactorily explained by\nscience; that such phenomena have been in the past and are at the\npresent time the chief source of the belief in fairies, that they are\nthe foundation underlying all fairy mythologies. We need only refer to\nthe following phenomena observed among Celtic and other peoples, and\nattributed by them to 'fairy' or 'spirit' agency: (1) music which\ncompetent percipients believe to be of non-human origin, and hence by\nthe Celts called 'fairy' music, whether this be vocal or instrumental in\nsound; (2) the movement of objects without known cause; (3) rappings and\nother noises called 'supernatural' (cf. pp. 81 n., 481-4, 488; also pp.\n47, 57, 61, 67, 71, 72, 74, 88, 94, 98, 101, 120, 124, 125, 131, 132,\n134, 139, 148, 156, 172, 181, 187, 213, 218, 220, &c.).\n\n[592] It is our hope that this book will help to lessen the marked\ndeficiency of recorded testimony concerning 'fairy' beings and 'fairy'\nphenomena observed by reliable percipients. We have endeavoured to\ndemonstrate that genuine 'fairy' phenomena and genuine 'spirit'\nphenomena are in most cases identical. Hence we believe that if 'spirit'\nphenomena are worthy of the attention of science, equally so are 'fairy'\nphenomena. The fairy-belief _in its typical_ or _conventional aspects_\n(apart from the animism which we discovered at the base of the belief)\nis, as was pointed out in our anthropological examination of the\nevidence (pp. 281-2), due to a very complex social psychology. In this\nchapter we have eliminated all social psychology, as not being the\nessential factor in the Fairy-Faith. Therefore, from our point of view,\nMr. Lang's implied explanation of the typical fairy-visions, that they\nare due to 'suggestion acting on the subconscious self', does not apply\nto the rarer kind of fairy visions which form part of our x-quantity\n(see pp. 60-6, 83-4, &c.). If it does, then it also applies to all\nnon-Celtic visions of spirits, in ancient and in modern times; and the\nanimistic hypothesis now accepted by most psychical researchers, namely,\nthat discarnate intelligences exist independent of the percipient, must\nbe set aside in favour of the non-animistic hypothesis. If, on the other\nhand, it be admitted that 'fairy' phenomena are, as we maintain,\nessentially the same as 'spirit' phenomena, then the belief in fairies\nceases to be purely mythical, and 'fairy' visions by a Celtic seer who\nis physically and psychically sound do not seem to arise from that\nseer's suggestion acting on his own subconsciousness; but certain types\nof 'fairy' visions undoubtedly do arise from suggestion, _coming from a\n'fairy' or other intelligence_, acting on the conscious or subconscious\ncontent of the percipient's mind (cf. pp. 484-7).\n\n[593] Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, pp. 208, 35.\n\n[594] Sir Oliver Lodge, _Psychical Research_, in _Harper's Mag._, August\n1908 (New York and London).\n\n[595] Sir Oliver Lodge, _The Survival of Man_ (London, 1909), p. 339.\n\n[596] James, op. cit., pp. 587-9.\n\n[597] Readers are referred to such authoritative works as the _Phantasms\nof the Living_ (London, 1886), by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore; to the\n_Report on the Census of Hallucinations of Modern Spiritualism_, by\nProfessor Sidgwick's Committee; to the _Naturalisation of the\nSupernatural_ (New York and London, 1908), by F. Podmore; to the\n_Survival of the Human Personality_, by F. W. H. Myers; and other like\nworks, all of which originate from the _Proceedings of the Society for\nPsychical Research_ (London).\n\n[598] C. Flammarion, _Mysterious Psychic Forces_, pp. 441, 431.\n\n[599] Sir Wm. Crookes, _Notes of an Enquiry into Phenomena called\nSpiritual, during the years 1870-73_ (London), Part III, p. 87.\n\n[600] See _Quart. Journ. Science_ (July 1871).\n\n[601] Cf. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, p. 281; and for other\ncases of objects moved without contact see ib., pp. 50, 52, 53, 58, 122\nff. See also F. Podmore's article on _Poltergeists_, in _Proceedings S.\nP. R._, xii. 45-115; and his _Naturalisation of the Supernatural_,\nchapter vii.\n\n[602] Sir Wm. Crookes, op. cit., Part III, p. 100.\n\n[603] Ib., p. 94.\n\n[604] Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, pp. 60, 81, 139, &c.\n\n[605] Using as a basis the data of Professor Sidgwick's Committee and\nthe results earlier obtained by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore (see\n_Phantasms of the Living_), Mr. William McDougall shows concisely the\nprobability of an apparition appearing within twelve hours of the death\nof the individual whom it represents. He says:--'... of all recognized\napparitions of living persons, only one in 19,000 may be expected to be\na death-coincidence of this sort. But the census shows that of 1,300\nrecognized apparitions of living persons 30 are death-coincidences, and\nthat is equivalent to 440 in 19,000. Hence, of recognized\nhallucinations, those coincident with death are 440 times more numerous\nthan we should expect, if no causal relation obtained.' And Mr.\nMcDougall concludes: '... since good evidence of telepathic\ncommunication has been experimentally obtained, the least improbable\nexplanation of these death-apparitions is that the dying person exerts\nupon his distant friend some telepathic influence which generates an\nhallucinatory perception of himself' (_Hallucinations_, in _Ency.\nBrit._, 11th ed., xii. 863).\n\n[606] Myers, op. cit., ii. 65, 45 ff., 49 ff., &c.\n\n[607] Nevius, _Demon Possession_, Introduction, pp. iv, vii; pp. 240-2,\n144-5. In accordance with all such phenomena, psychical researchers have\nlogically called spirits manifesting themselves through the body of a\nliving person possessing spirits. And as in the case of Chinese\ndemon-possession, the phenomena of mediumship often result in the moral\nderangement, insanity, or even suicide on the part of 'mediums' who so\nunwisely exhibit it without special preparation or no preparation at\nall, and too often in complete ignorance of a possible gradual\nundermining of their psychic life, will-power, and even physical health.\nAll of this seems to offer direct and certain evidence to sustain\nChristians and non-Christians in their condemnation of all forms of\nnecromancy or calling up of spirits. The following statement will make\nour position towards mediumship of the most common kind clear:\n\nIn Druidism, for one example, disciples for training in magical sciences\nare said to have spent twenty years in severe study and special\npsychical training before deemed fit to be called Druids and thus to\ncontrol daemons, ghosts, or all invisible entities capable of possessing\nliving men and women. And even now in India and elsewhere there is\nreported to be still the same ancient course of severe disciplinary\ntraining for candidates seeking magical powers. But in modern\nSpiritualism conditions are altogether different in most cases, and\n'mediums' instead of controlling with an iron will, as a magician does,\nspirits which become manifest in _s\u00e9ances_, surrender entirely their\nwill-power and whole personality to them.\n\n[608] Cf. Sigmund Freud, _The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis_,\nin _Amer. Journ. Psych._, xxi, No. 2 (April 1910).\n\n[609] The fact that all matter is capable of assuming a gaseous or\ninvisible state furnishes good scientific reasons for postulating the\nactual existence of intelligent beings possessed of an invisible yet\nphysical body. There may well be on and about our planet many distinct\ninvisible organic life-forms undiscovered by zoologists. To deny such a\npossibility would be unscientific.\n\n[610] Cf. _Communication adress\u00e9e au D{r} J. Dupr\u00e9_, p. 382 of an essay\non _La M\u00e9tempsycose bas\u00e9e sur les Principes de la Biologie et du\nMagn\u00e9tisme physiologique_, in _Le Hasard_ (Paris, 1909), by P. C. Revel.\nCases of regeneration among the aged are known, and these show how the\nsubliminal life-forces try to renew the physical body when it is worn\nout (cf. Revel, ib., p. 372).\n\n[611] Cf. Revel, op. cit., p. 295 ff.\n\n[612] If scientists discover, as they probably will in time, what they\ncall the secret of life, they will not have discovered the secret of\nlife at all. What they will have discovered will be the physical\nconditions under which life manifests itself. In other words, science\nwill most likely soon be able to set up artificially in a laboratory\nsuch physical conditions as exist in nature naturally, and by means of\nwhich life is able to manifest itself through matter. Life will still be\nas great a mystery as it is to-day; though short-sighted materialists\nare certain to announce to an eager world that the final problem of the\nuniverse has been solved and that life is merely the resultant of a\nsubtle chemical compound.\n\n[613] Professor Freud, after long and careful study, arrived at the\nfollowing conclusion:--'The child has his sexual impulse and activities\nfrom the beginning, he brings them with him into the world, and from\nthese the so-called normal sexuality of adults emerges by a significant\ndevelopment through manifold stages.' And Dr. Sanford Bell, in an\nearlier writing entitled _A Preliminary Study of the Emotions of Love\nbetween the Sexes_ (see _Amer. Journ. Psych._, 1902), came to a similar\nconclusion (cf. Freud, op. cit., pp. 207-8).\n\n[614] Cf. Hans Driesch, _The Science and Philosophy of the Organism_\n(London, 1908); and Henri Bergson, _L'\u00c9volution cr\u00e9atrice_ (Paris,\n1908).\n\n[615] This Celtic view of non-personal immortality completely fits in\nwith all the voluminous data of psychical research: after forty years of\nscientific research into psychics there are no proofs yet adduced that\nthe human personality as a self-sufficient unit of consciousness\nsurvives indefinitely the death of its body. Granted that it does\nsurvive as a ghost for an undetermined period, generally to be counted\nin years, during which time it seems to be gradually fading out or\ndisintegrating, there is no reliable evidence anywhere to show that a\npersonality _as such_ has manifested through a 'medium' or otherwise\nafter an interval of one thousand years, or even of five hundred years.\nWe have, in fact, no knowledge of the survival of a human personality\none hundred years after, and probably there are no good examples of such\na survival twenty-five years after the death of the body. Such an\neminent psychical researcher as William James recognized this drift of\nthe data of psychics, and when he died he held the conviction that there\nis no personal immortality (see p. 505 n. following).\n\n[616] Though not inclined toward the vitalistic view of human evolution,\nM. Th. Ribot very closely approaches the Celtic view of the Ego (or\nindividuality) as being the principle which gives unity to different\npersonalities, but he does not have in mind personalities in the sense\nimplied by the Celtic Esoteric Doctrine of Re-birth:--'The Ego\nsubjectively considered consists of a sum of conscious states'\n(comparable to personalities).... 'In brief, the Ego may be considered\nin two ways: either in its actual form, and then it is the sum of\nexisting conscious states; or, in its continuity with the past, and then\nit is formed by the memory according to the process outlined above. It\nwould seem, according to this view, that the identity of the Ego\ndepended entirely upon the memory. But such a conception is only\npartial. Beneath the unstable compound phenomenon in all its protean\nphases of growth, degeneration, and reproduction, there is a something\nthat remains: and this something is the undefined consciousness, the\nproduct of all the vital processes, constituting bodily perception and\nwhat is expressed in one word--the _coen\u00e6sthesis_.' (_The Diseases of\nMemory_, pp. 107-8).\n\nWilliam James, the greatest psychologist of our epoch, after a long and\nfaithful life consecrated to the search after a true understanding of\nhuman consciousness, finally arrived at substantially the same\nconviction as Fechner did, that there is no personal immortality, but\nthat the personality 'is but a temporary and partial separation and\ncircumscription of a part of a larger whole, into which it is reabsorbed\nat death' (W. McDougall, _In Memory of William James_, in _Proc. S. P.\nR._, Part LXII, vol. xxv, p. 28). He thus virtually accepted the\nmystic's view that the personality after the death of the body is\nabsorbed into a higher power, which, to our mind, is comparable with the\nEgo conceived as the unifying principle behind personalities. In one of\nhis last writings, James explained his belief in such a manner as to\nmake it coincide at certain points with the view held by modern Celtic\nmystics which has been presented above; the difference being that,\nunlike these mystics, James was not prepared to say (though he raised\nthe question) whether or not behind the 'mother-sea' of consciousness\nthere is, as Fechner believed, a hierarchy of consciousnesses\n(themselves subordinate to still higher consciousnesses, and comparable\nwith so many Egos or Individualities) which send out emanations as\ntemporary human personalities. The organic psychical forms (if we may\nuse such an expression) of such temporary human personalities would have\nto be regarded from James's point of view as being built up out of the\npsychical elements constituting the 'mother-sea' of consciousness, just\nas the human body is built up out of the physical elements in the realm\nof matter:--'Out of my experience, such as it is (and it is limited\nenough) one fixed conclusion dogmatically emerges, and that is this,\nthat we with our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the\nforest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their\nleaves, and Conanicut and Newport hear each other's foghorns. But the\ntrees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the\nislands also hang together through the ocean's bottom. Just so there is\na continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality'\n(used as synonymous with personality and not in our distinct sense)\n'builds but accidental fences, and into which our several minds plunge\nas into a mother-sea or reservoir. Our \"normal\" consciousness' (the\npersonality as we distinguish it from the Ego or individuality) 'is\ncircumscribed for adaptation to our external earthly environment, but\nthe fence is weak in spots, and fitful influences from beyond break in,\nshowing the otherwise unverifiable common connexion. Not only psychic\nresearch, but metaphysical philosophy and speculative biology are led in\ntheir own ways to look with favour on some such \"pan-psychic\" view of\nthe universe as this.' (W. James, _The Confidences of a Psychical\nResearcher_, in _The American Magazine_, October 1909). Again, James\nwrote:--'The drift of all the evidence we have seems to me to sweep us\nvery strongly towards the belief in some form of superhuman life with\nwhich we may, unknown to ourselves, be co-conscious.' (_A Pluralistic\nUniverse_, New York, 1909, p. 309.)\n\n[617] W. James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_ (London, 1902), pp.\n511, 236 n.\n\n[618] M. Th. Ribot, in _Diseases of Memory_ (London, 1882), pp. 82-98\nff., gives numerous examples of such loss and recovery of memory.\n\n[619] Cf. Freud, op. cit., pp. 192, 204-5, &c.\n\n[620] Cf. A. Moll, _Hypnotism_ (London, 1890), pp. 141 ff., 126.\n\n[621] Cf. A. Moll, _Hypnotism_ (London, 1890), pp. 141 ff., 126.\n\n[622] Cf. Freud, op. cit., p. 192.\n\n[623] Freud, _Die Traumdeutung_, 2nd ed. (Vienna, 1906); cf. S.\nFerenczi, _The Psychological Analysis of Dreams_, in _Amer. Journ.\nPsych._ (April 1910), xxi, No. 2, p. 326.\n\n[624] A similar state of high development is to be assumed for a great\nCeltic hero like Arthur, who were he to be re-born would (as is said to\nhave been the case with King Mongan, the reincarnation of Finn) bring\nwith him memory of his past: unlike the consciousness of the normal man,\nthe consciousness of one of the Divine Ones is normally the\nsubconsciousness, the consciousness of the individuality; and not the\npersonal consciousness, which, like the personality, is non-permanent\n_in itself_. This further illustrates the Celtic theory of non-personal\nimmortality.\n\n[625] Ribot, op. cit., p. 100 ff.\n\n[626] Cf. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, pp. 217 ff. _Blackwood's\nMagazine_, cxxix (January 1881), contains a remarkable account of a\nchild who remembered previous lives. Lord Lindsay, in his _Letters_ (ed.\nof 1847, p. 351), refers to a feeling when he beheld the river Kadisha\ndescending from Lebanon, of having in a previous life seen the same\nscene. Dickens in his _Pictures from Italy_ testifies to a parallel\nexperience. E. D. Walker, in his interesting work on _Reincarnation_\n(pp. 42-5) has brought together many other well-attested cases of people\nwho likewise have thought they could remember fragments of a former\nstate of conscious existence. In his diary, under date of February 17,\n1828, Sir Walter Scott wrote as follows:--'I cannot, I am sure, tell if\nit is worth marking down, that yesterday, at dinner-time, I was\nstrangely haunted by what I would call the sense of pre-existence, viz.\na confused idea that nothing that passed was said for the first time.'\nLockhart, _Life of Scott_ (first ed.), vii. 114. Bulwer Lytton in\n_Godolphin_ (chapter xv), and Edgar Allen Poe in _Eureka_, record\nsimilar experiences. Mr. H. Fielding Hall, in _The Soul of a People_{4}\n(London, 1902), pp. 290-308, reports several very remarkable cases of\nresponsible natives of Burma who stated that they could recall former\nlives passed by them as men and women. Mr. Hall has carefully\ninvestigated these cases, and gives us the impression that they are\nworthy of scientific consideration.\n\n[627] Cf. Ferenczi, op. cit., p. 316, &c. Professor Freud's theory of\ndreams supports entirely, but does not imply our hypothesis that some\n(and probably many) abnormal dreams of a rare kind, whether good or bad\nin tendency, may be due to the latent content of subconsciousness, out\nof which they undoubtedly arise, having been collected and carried over\nfrom a previous state of consciousness parallel to our present one. In\nrespect to our present life Professor Freud holds, as a result of\npsycho-analysis of thousands of dream subjects, that the latent content\nof every dream in the adult is directly dependent upon mental processes\nwhich frequently reach back to the earliest childhood; and he gives\ndetailed cases in illustration. In other words, there is always a latent\ndream-material behind the conscious dream-content, and probably a part\nof it was innate in the child at birth, and hence, according to our\nview, was pre-existent. (Cf. Ernest Jones, _Freud's Theory of Dreams_,\nin _Amer. Journ. Psych._, April 1910, xxi, No. 2, pp. 301 ff.)\n\n[628] Cf. Du Prel, _Philosophy of Mysticism_, ii. 25 ff., 34 ff.\n\n[629] _The Dream of Ravan_, in _Dublin Univ. Mag._, xliii. 468.\n\n[630] Myers, in _Proc. S. P. R._, vii. 305.\n\n[631] James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 483.\n\n[632] The esoteric teaching in many of the mystic schools of antiquity\nwas that the atoms of each human body transmigrate through all lower\nforms of life during the long period supposed to intervene between death\nand re-birth of the individuality. This doctrine seems to be one of the\nmain sources of the corruption which crept into the ancient re-birth\ndoctrines and transformed many of them into doctrines of transmigration\nof the human soul into animal and plant bodies; and some unscrupulous\npriesthoods openly taught such corrupted doctrines as a means of making\nthe ignorant populace submissive to ecclesiastical rule, the theological\ntheory expounded by such priesthoods being that the evil-doer, but not\nthe keeper of the letter of the canonical law, is condemned to expiate\nhis sins through birth in brute bodies. The pure form of the mystic\ndoctrine was that after the lapse of the long period of disembodiment\nthe individuality reconstructs its human body anew by drawing to itself\nthe identical atoms which constituted its previous human body--these\natoms, and not the individuality, having transmigrated through all the\nlower kingdoms. Such an esoteric doctrine probably lies behind the\nexoteric Egyptian teaching that the human soul after the death of its\nbody passes through all plant and animal bodies during a period of three\nthousand years, after which it returns to human embodiment. Some\nscholars have held that the exoteric interpretation of this theory and\nits consequent literal interpretation as a transmigration doctrine led\nthe Egyptians to mummify the bodies of their dead. Cf. Lucretius, _De\nRerum Natura_, Book III, ll. 843-61; and Herodotus, Book II, on Egypt.\n\n[633] Cf. Dr. L. S. Fugairon's _La Survivance de l'\u00e2me, ou la Mort et la\nRenaissance chez les \u00eatres vivants; \u00e9tudes de physiologie et\nd'embryologie philosophiques_ (Paris, 1907); cf. Revel, _Le Hasard_, p.\n457.\n\n[634] Darwin never considered or attempted to suggest what it is that of\nitself really evolves, for it cannot be the physical body which only\n_grows_ from immaturity to maturity and then dissolves. Darwin thus\noverlooked the essential factor in his whole doctrine; while the Druids\nand other ancients, wiser than we have been willing to admit, seem not\nonly to have anticipated Darwin by thousands of years, but also to have\nquite surpassed him in setting up their doctrine of re-birth, which\nexplains both the physical and psychical evolution of man.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPassages in italics are indicated by _italics_.\n\nSuperscripted letters are indicated by {superscript}.\n\nThe original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these\nletters have been replaced with transliterations.\n\nSome quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors\nhave been silently closed while those requiring interpretation have\nbeen left open.\n\nOther punctuation has been corrected without note.\n\nThe following misprints have been corrected:\n  \"Fortelling\" standardized to \"foretelling\" (page 213)\n  \"fom\" corrected to \"from\" (footnote 342)\n  \"Name\" corrected to \"Names\" (Index)\n\nOther than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and\nhyphenation have been retained from the original.\n\nThe following symbols were substituted for images on pages 272 and 273:\n  Maltese cross = [C]\n  Triangle = [T]\n  Jupiter = [J]\n  Mercury = [M]\n  Venus = [V]\n  Saturn = [S]\n  Moon = [Mo]\n  Sun = [O]\n  Large Asterisk [*]\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<pre id=\"pg-footer\">","title":"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":207291}