Chapter XVII Historical Summary
The evidence dealt with in the foregoing chapters throws considerable light on the history of early man in Britain. We really know more about pre-Roman times than about that obscure period of Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement which followed on the withdrawal of the Roman army of occupation, yet historians, as a rule, regard it as “pre-historic” and outside their sphere of interest. As there are no inscriptions and no documents to render articulate the archæological Ages of Stone and Bronze, they find it impossible to draw any definite conclusions.
It can be urged, however, in criticism of this attitude, that the relics of the so-called “pre-historic age” may be found to be even more reliable than some contemporary documents of the “historic” period. Not a few of these are obviously biassed and prejudiced, while some are so vague and fragmentary that the conclusions drawn from them cannot be otherwise than hypothetical in character. A plainer, clearer, and more reliable story is revealed by the bones and the artifacts and the surviving relics of the intellectual life of our remote ancestors than by the writings of some early chroniclers and some early historians. It is possible, for instance, in consequence of the scanty evidence available, to hold widely diverging views regarding the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic problems. Pro-Teutonic and pro-Celtic protagonists involve us invariably in bitter controversy. That contemporary documentary evidence, even when somewhat voluminous, may fail to yield a clear record of facts is evident from the literature that deals, for instance, with the part played by Mary Queen of Scots in the Darnley conspiracy and in the events that led to her execution.
The term “pre-historic” is one that should be discarded. It is possible, as has been shown, to write, although in outline, the history of certain ancient race movements, of the growth and decay of the civilization revealed by the cavern art of Aurignacian and Magdalenian times, of early trade and of early shipping. The history of art goes back for thousands of years before the Classic Age dawned in Greece; the history of trade can be traced to that remote period when Red Sea shells were imported into Italy by Crô-Magnon man; and the history of British shipping can be shown to be as old as those dug-outs that foundered in ancient Scottish river beds before the last land movement had ceased.
The history of man really begins when and where we find the first clear traces of his activities, and as it is possible to write not only regarding the movements of the Crô-Magnon races, but of their beliefs as revealed by burial customs, their use of body paint, the importance attached to shell and other talismans, and their wonderful and high attainments in the arts and crafts, the European historical period can be said to begin in the post-Glacial epoch when tundra conditions prevailed in Central and Western Europe and Italy was connected with the North African coast.
In the case of ancient Egypt, historical data have been gleaned from archæological remains as well as from religious texts and brief records of historical events. The history of Egyptian agriculture has been traced back beyond the dawn of the Dynastic Age and to that inarticulate period before the hieroglyphic system of writing had been invented, by the discovery in the stomachs of the bodies of proto-Egyptians, naturally preserved in hot dry sands, of husks of barley and of millet native to the land of Egypt.197
The historical data so industriously accumulated in Egypt and Babylonia have enabled excavators to date certain finds in Crete, and to frame a chronological system for the ancient civilization of that island. Other relics afford proof of cultural contact between Crete and the mainland, as far westward as Spain, where traces of Cretan activities have been discovered. With the aid of comparative evidence, much light is thrown, too, on the history of the ancient Hittites, who have left inscriptions that have not yet been deciphered. The discoveries made by Siret in Spain and Portugal of unmistakable evidence of Egyptian and Babylonian cultural influence, trade, and colonization are, therefore, to be welcomed. The comparative evidence in this connection provides a more reliable basis than has hitherto been available for Western European archæology. It is possible for the historian to date approximately the beginning of the export trade in jet from England—apparently from Whitby in Yorkshire—and of the export trade in amber from the Baltic, and the opening of the sea routes between Spain and Northern Europe. The further discovery of Egyptian beads in south-western England, in association with relics of the English “Bronze Age”, is of far-reaching importance. A “prehistoric” period surely ceases to be “prehistoric” when its relics can be dated even approximately. The English jet found in Spain takes us back till about 2500 b.c., and the Egyptian beads found in England till about 1300 b.c.
The dating of these and other relics raises the question whether historians should accept, without qualification, or at all, the system of “Ages” adopted by archæologists. Terms like “Palæolithic” (Old Stone) and “Neolithic” (New Stone) are, in most areas, without precise chronological significance. As applied in the historical sense, they tend to obscure the fact that the former applies to a most prolonged period during which more than one civilization arose, flourished, and decayed. In the so-called “Old Stone Age” flint was worked with a degree of skill never surpassed in the “New Stone Age”, as Aurignacian and Solutrean artifacts testify; it was also sometimes badly worked from poorly selected material, as in Magdalenian times, when bone and horn were utilized to such an extent that archæologists would be justified in referring to a “Bone and Horn Age”.
Before the Neolithic industry was introduced into Western Europe and the so-called “Neolithic Age” dawned, as it ended, at various periods in various areas, great climatic changes took place, and the distribution of sea and land changed more than once. Withal, considerable race movements took place in Central and Western Europe. In time new habits of life were introduced into our native land that influenced more profoundly the subsequent history of Britain than could have been possibly accomplished by a new method of working flint. The most important cultural change was effected by the introduction of the agricultural mode of life.
It is important to bear in mind in this connection that the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Babylonia were based on the agricultural mode of life, and that when this mode of life passed into Europe a complex culture was transported with it from the area of origin. It was the early agriculturists who developed shipbuilding and the art of navigation, who first worked metals, and set a religious value on gold and silver, on pearls, and on certain precious stones, and sent out prospectors to search for precious metals and precious gems in distant lands. The importance of agriculture in the history of civilization cannot be overestimated. In so far as our native land is concerned, a new epoch was inaugurated when the first agriculturist tilled the soil, sowed imported barley seeds, using imported implements, and practising strange ceremonies at sowing, and ultimately at harvest time, that had origin in a far-distant “cradle” of civilization, and still linger in our midst as folk-lore evidence, testifies to the full. In ancient times the ceremonies were regarded as being of as much importance as the implements, and the associated myths were connected with the agriculturists’ Calendar, as the Scottish Gaelic Calendar bears testimony.
Instead, therefore, of dividing the early history of man in Britain into periods, named after the materials from which he made implements and weapons, these should be divided so as to throw light on habits of life and habits of thought. The early stages of civilization can be referred to as the “Pre-Agricultural”, and those that follow as the “Early Agricultural”.
Under “Pre-Agricultural” come the culture stages, or rather the industries known as (1) Aurignacian, (2) Solutrean, and (3) Magdalenian. These do not have the same chronological significance everywhere in Europe, for the Solutrean industry never disturbed or supplemented the Aurignacian in Italy or in Spain south of the Cantabrian Mountains, nor did Aurignacian penetrate into Hungary, where the first stage of Modern Man’s activities was the Solutrean. The three stages, however, existed during the post-Glacial period, when man hunted the reindeer and other animals favouring similar climatic conditions. The French archæologists have named this the “Reindeer Age”. Three later industries were introduced into Europe during the Pre-Agricultural Age. These are known as (1) Azilian, (2) Tardenoisian, and (3) Maglemosian. The ice-cap was retreating, the reindeer and other tundra animals moved northward, and the red deer arrived in Central and Western Europe. We can, therefore, refer to the latter part of the Pre-Agricultural times as the “Early Red Deer Age”.
There is Continental evidence to show that the Neolithic industry was practised prior to the introduction of the agricultural mode of life. The “Early Agricultural Age”, therefore, cuts into the archæological “Neolithic Age” in France. Whether or not it does so in Britain is uncertain.
At the dawn of the British “Early Agricultural Age” cultural influences were beginning to “flow” from centres of ancient civilization, if not directly, at any rate indirectly. As has been indicated in the foregoing pages, the Neolithic industry was practised in Britain by a people who had a distinct social organization and engaged in trade. Some Neolithic flints were of Eastern type or origin. The introduction of bronze from the Continent appears to have been effected by seafaring traders, and there is no evidence that it changed the prevailing habits of thought and life. Our ancestors did not change their skins and their ideas when they began to use and manufacture bronze. A section of them adopted a new industry, but before doing so they had engaged in the search for gold. This is shown by the fact that they settled on the granite in Devon and Cornwall, while yet they were using flints of Neolithic form which had been made elsewhere. Iron working was ultimately introduced. The Bronze and Iron “Ages” of the archæologists can be included in the historian’s “Early Agricultural Age”, because agriculture continued to be the most important factor in the economic life of Britain. It was the basis of its civilization; it rendered possible the development of mining and of various industries, and the promotion of trade by land and sea. In time the Celtic peoples—that is, peoples who spoke Celtic dialects—arrived in Britain. The Celtic movement was in progress at 500 b.c., and had not ended after Julius Cæsar invaded southern England. It was finally arrested by the Roman occupation, but continued in Ireland. When it really commenced is uncertain; the earliest Celts may have used bronze only.
The various Ages, according to the system suggested, are as follows:—
1. The Pre-Agricultural Age.
Sub-divisions: (A) the Reindeer Age with the Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian industries; (B) the Early Red Deer Age with the Azilian, Tardenoisian, and Maglemosian industries.
2. The Early Agricultural Age.
Sub-divisions: (A) the Pre-Celtic Age with the Neolithic, copper and bronze industries; (B) the Celtic Age with the bronze, iron, and enamel industries.
3. The Romano-British Age.
Including in Scotland (A) the Caledonian Age and (B) the Early Scoto-Pictish Age; and in Ireland the Cuchullin Age, during which bronze and iron were used.
The view favoured by some historians that our ancestors were, prior to the Roman invasion, mere “savages” can no longer obtain. It is clearly without justification. Nor are we justified in perpetuating the equally hazardous theory that early British culture was of indigenous origin, and passed through a series of evolutionary stages in isolation until the country offered sufficient attractions to induce first the Celts and afterwards the Romans to conquer it. The correct and historical view appears to be that from the earliest times Britain was subjected to racial and cultural “drifts” from the Continent, and that the latter outnumbered the former.
In the Pre-Agricultural Age Crô-Magnon colonists reached England and Wales while yet in the Aurignacian stage of civilization. As much is indicated by the evidence of the Paviland cave in South Wales. At a later period, proto-Solutrean influence, which had entered Western Europe from North Africa, filtered into England, and can be traced in those caverns that have yielded evidence of occupation. The pure Solutrean culture subsequently swept from Eastern Europe as far westward as Northern Spain, but Britain, like Southern Spain and Italy, remained immune to it. Magdalenian culture then arose and became widespread. It had relations with the earlier Aurignacian and owed nothing to Solutrean. England yields undoubted traces of its influence, which operated vigorously at a time when Scotland was yet largely covered with ice. Certain elements in Aurignacian and Magdalenian cultures appear to have persisted in our midst until comparatively recent times, especially in connection with burial customs and myths regarding the “sleeping heroes” in burial caverns.
The so-called “Transition Period” between the Upper Palæolithic and Neolithic Ages is well represented, especially in Scotland, where the land rose after early man’s arrival, and even after the introduction of shipping. As England was sinking when Scotland was rising, English traces of the period are difficult to find. This “Transition Period” was of greater duration than the archæological “Neolithic Age”.
Of special interest is the light thrown by relics of the “Transition Period” on the race problem. Apparently the Crô-Magnons and other peoples of the Magdalenian Age were settled in Britain when the intruders, who had broken up Magdalenian civilization on the Continent, began to arrive. These were (1) the Azilians of Iberian (Mediterranean) type; (2) the Tardenoisians, who came through Italy from North Africa, and were likewise, it would appear, of Mediterranean racial type; and (3) the Maglemosians, who were mainly a fair, tall people of Northern type. The close proximity of Azilian and Maglemosian stations in western Scotland—at the MacArthur cave (Azilian) and the Drumvaragie shelter (Maglemosian) at Oban, for instance—suggests that in the course of time racial intermixture took place. That all the fair peoples of England, Scotland, and Ireland are descended from Celts or Norwegians is a theory which has not taken into account the presence in these islands at an early period, and before the introduction of the Neolithic industry, of the carriers from the Baltic area of Maglemosian culture.
We next pass to the so-called Neolithic stage of culture,198 and find it affords fuller and more definite evidence regarding the early history of our native land. As has been shown, there are data which indicate that there was no haphazard distribution of the population of England when the Neolithic industry and the agricultural mode of life were introduced. The theory must be discarded that “Neolithic man” was a wanderer, whose movements depended entirely on those of the wild animals he hunted, as well as the further theory that stone implements and weapons were not used after the introduction of metals. There were, as can be gathered from the evidence afforded by archæological remains, settled village communities, and centres of industry in the Age referred to by archæologists as “Neolithic”. The Early Agricultural Age had dawned. Sections of the population engaged in agriculture, sections were miners and workers of flint, sections were hunters and fishermen, sections searched for gold, pigments for body paint, material for ornaments of religious value, &c., and sections engaged in trade, not only with English and Scottish peoples, but with those of the Continent. The English Channel, and probably the North Sea, were crossed by hardy mariners who engaged in trade.
At an early period in the Early Agricultural Age and before bronze working was introduced, England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, were influenced more directly than had hitherto been the case by the high civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, and especially by their colonies in South-western Europe. The recent Spanish finds indicate that a great “wave” of high Oriental culture was in motion in Spain as far back as 2500 b.c., and perhaps at an even earlier period. Included among Babylonian and Egyptian relics in Spain are, as has been stated, jet from Whitby, Yorkshire, and amber from the Baltic. Apparently the colonists had trading relations with Britain. Whether the “Tin Land”, which was occupied by a people owing allegiance to Sargon of Akkad, was ancient Britain is quite uncertain. It was more probably some part of Western Europe. That Western European influence was reaching Britain before the last land movement had ceased is made evident by the fact that the ancient boat with a cork plug, which was found in Clyde silt at Glasgow, lay 25 feet above the present sea-level. The cork plug undoubtedly came from Spain or Italy, and the boat is of Mediterranean type.199 It is evident that long before the introduction of bronze working the coasts of Britain were being explored by enterprizing prospectors, and that the virgin riches of our native land were being exploited. In this connection it is of importance to find that the earliest metal artifacts introduced into our native islands were brought by traders, and that those that reached England were mainly of Gaulish type, while those that reached Ireland were Spanish. The Neolithic industry does not appear to have been widespread in Ireland, where copper artifacts were in use at a very early period.
A large battle-axe of pure copper, described by Sir David Brewster in 1822 (Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Vol. VI, p. 357), was found at a depth of 20 feet in Ratho Bog, near Edinburgh. Above it were 9 feet of moss, 7 feet of sand, and 4 feet of hard black till-clay. “It must have been deposited along with the blue clay”, wrote Brewster, “prior to the formation of the superincumbent stratum of sand, and must have existed before the diluvial operations by which that stratum was formed. This opinion of its antiquity is strongly confirmed by the peculiarity of its shape, and the nature of its composition.” The Spanish discoveries have revived interest in this important find.
As has been indicated, jet, pearls, gold, and tin appear to have been searched for and found before bronze working became a British industry. That the early prospectors had experience in locating and working metals before they reached this country there can be little doubt. There was a psychological motive for their adventurous voyages to unknown lands. The distribution of the megalithic monuments and graves indicates that metals were found and worked in south-western England, in Wales, in Derbyshire, and Cumberland, that jet was worked at Whitby, and that metals were located in Ireland and Scotland. Gold must have been widely distributed during the period of the great thaw. It is unlikely that traces of alluvial gold, which had been located and well worked in ancient times, should remain until the present time. In Scotland no traces of gold can now be found in a number of districts where, according to the records, it was worked as late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Some of the surviving Scottish megalithic monuments may mark the sites of ancient goldfields that were abandoned in early times when the supplies of precious metal became exhausted. The great circles of Callernish in Lewis and Stennis in Orkney are records of activity in semi-barren areas. Large communities could not have been attracted to these outlying islands to live on the produce of land or sea. Traces of metals, &c., indicate that, in both areas in ancient times, the builders of megalithic monuments settled in remote areas in Britain for the same reason as they settled on parts of the Continent. A gold rod has been discovered in association with the “Druid Temple” at Leys, near Inverness. The Inverness group of circles may well have been those of gold-seekers. In Aberdeenshire a group of megalithic monuments appears to have been erected by searchers for pearls. Gold was found in this county in the time of the Stuart kings.
The close association of megalithic monuments with ancient mine workings makes it impossible to resist the conclusion that the worship of trees and wells was closely connected with the religion of which the megalithic monuments are records. Siret shows that the symbolic markings on typical stone monuments are identical with those of the tree cult. Folk-lore and philological data tend to support this view. From the root nem are derived the Celtic names of the pearl, heaven, the grove, and the shrine within the grove (see Chap. XIII). The Celts appear to have embraced the Druidic system of the earlier Iberians in Western Europe, whose culture had been derived from that of the Oriental colonists.
The Oriental mother goddess was connected with the sacred tree, with gold and gems, with pearls, with rivers, lakes, and the sea, with the sky and with the heavenly bodies, long centuries before the Palm-tree cult was introduced into Spain by Oriental colonists. The symbolism of pearls links with that of jet, the symbolism of jet with that of Baltic amber, and the symbolism of Baltic amber with that of Adriatic amber and of Mediterranean coral. All these sacred things were supposed to contain, like jasper and turquoise in Egypt, the “life substance” of the mother goddess who had her origin in water and her dwelling in a tree, and was connected with the sky and “the waters above the firmament”. Coral was supposed to be her sea tree, and jet, amber, silver, and gold were supposed to grow from her fertilizing tears. Beliefs about “grown gold” were quite rife in mediæval Britain.200
It should not surprise us, therefore, to find traces of Oriental religious conceptions in ancient Britain and Ireland. These have apparently passed from country to country, from people to people, from language to language, and down the Ages without suffering great change. Even when mixed with ideas imported from other areas, they have preserved their original fundamental significance. The Hebridean “maiden-queen” goddess, who dwells in a tree and provides milk from a sea-shell, has a history rooted in a distant area of origin, where the goddess who personified the life-giving shell was connected with the cow and the sky (the Milky Way), as was the goddess Hathor, the Egyptian Aphrodite. The tendency to locate imported religious beliefs no doubt provides the reason why the original palm tree of the goddess was replaced in Britain by the hazel, the elm, the rowan, the apple tree, the oak, &c.
On the Continent there were displacements of peoples after the introduction of bronze, and especially of bronze weapons. There was wealth and there was trade to attract and reward the conqueror. The Eastern traders of Spain were displaced. Some appear to have migrated into Gaul and North Italy; others may have found refuge in Ireland and Britain. The sea-routes were not, however, closed. Ægean culture filtered into Western Europe from Crete, and through the Hallstatt culture centre from the Danubian area. The culture of the tribes who spoke Celtic dialects was veined with Ægean and Asiatic influences. In time Continental Druidism imbibed ideas regarding the Transmigration of Souls and the custom of cremation from an area in the East which had influenced the Aryan invaders of India.
The origin of the Celts is obscure. Greek writers refer to them as a tall, fair people. They were evidently a branch of the fair Northern race, but whether they came from Northern Europe or Northern Asia is uncertain. In Western Europe they intruded themselves as conquerors and formed military aristocracies. Like other vigorous, intruding minorities elsewhere and at different periods, they were in certain localities absorbed by the conquered. In Western Europe they were fused with Iberian communities, and confederacies of Celtiberians came into existence.
Before the great Celtic movements into Western Europe began—that is, before 500 b.c.—Britain was invaded by a broad-headed people, but it is uncertain whether they came as conquerors or as peaceful traders. In time these intruders were absorbed. The evidence afforded by burial customs and surviving traces of ancient religious beliefs and practices tends to show that the culture of the earlier peoples survived over large tracts of our native land. An intellectual conquest of conquerors or intruders was effected by the indigenous population which was rooted to the soil by agriculture and to centres of industry and trade by undisturbed habits of life.
Although the pre-Celtic languages were ultimately displaced by the Celtic—it is uncertain when this process was completed—the influence of ancient Oriental culture remained. In Scotland the pig-taboo, with its history rooted in ancient Egypt, has had tardy survival until our own times. It has no connection with Celtic culture, for the Continental Celts were a pig-rearing and pork-eating people, like the Ægæan invaders of Greece. The pig-taboo is still as prevalent in Northern Arcadia as in the Scottish Highlands, where the descendants not only of the ancient Iberians but of intruders from pork-loving Ireland and Scandinavia have acquired the ancient prejudice and are now perpetuating it.
Some centuries before the Roman occupation, a system of gold coinage was established in England. Trade with the Continent appears to have greatly increased in volume and complexity. England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland were divided into small kingdoms. The evidence afforded by the Irish Gaelic manuscripts, which refer to events before and after the Roman conquest of Britain, shows that society was well organized and that the organization was of non-Roman character. Tacitus is responsible for the statement that the Irish manners and customs were similar to those prevailing in Britain, and he makes reference to Irish sea-trade and the fact that Irish sea-ports were well known to merchants. England suffered more from invasions before and after the arrival of Julius Cæsar than did Scotland or Ireland. It was consequently incapable of united action against the Romans, as Tacitus states clearly. The indigenous tribes refused to be allies of the intruders.201
In Ireland, which Pliny referred to as one of the British Isles, the pre-Celtic Firbolgs were subdued by Celtic invaders. The later “waves” of Celts appeared to have subdued the earlier conquerors, with the result that “Firbolg” ceased to have a racial significance and was applied to all subject peoples. There were in Ireland, as in England, upper and lower classes, and military tribes that dominated other tribes. Withal, there were confederacies, and petty kings, who owed allegiance to “high kings”. The “Red Branch” of Ulster, of which Cuchullin was an outstanding representative, had their warriors trained in Scotland. It may be that they were invaders who had passed through Scotland into Northern Ireland; at any rate, it is unlikely that they would have sent their warriors to a “colony” to acquire skill in the use of weapons. There were Cruithne (Britons) in all the Irish provinces. Most Irish saints were of this stock.
The pre-Roman Britons had ships of superior quality, as is made evident by the fact that a British squadron was included in the great Veneti fleet which Cæsar attacked and defeated with the aid of Pictones and other hereditary rivals of the Veneti and their allies. In early Roman times Britain thus took an active part in European politics in consequence of its important commercial interests.
When the Romans reached Scotland the Caledonians, a people with a Celtic tribal name, were politically predominant. Like the English and Irish pre-Roman peoples, they used chariots and ornamented these with finely worked bronze. Enamel was manufactured or imported. Some of the Roman stories about the savage condition of Scotland may be dismissed as fictions. Who can nowadays credit the statement of Herodian202 that the warriors of Scotland in Roman times passed their days in the water, or Dion Cassius’s203 story that they were wont to hide in mud for several days with nothing but their heads showing, and that despite their fine physique they fed chiefly on herbs, fruit, nuts, and the bark of trees, and, withal, that they had discovered a mysterious earth-nut and had only to eat a piece no larger than a bean to defy hunger and thirst. The further statement that the Scottish “savages” were without state or family organization hardly accords with historical facts. Even Agricola had cause to feel alarm when confronted by the well-organized and well-equipped Caledonian army at the battle of Mons Grampius, and he found it necessary to retreat afterwards, although he claimed to have won a complete victory. His retreat appears to have been as necessary as that of Napoleon from Moscow. The later invasion of the Emperor Severus was a disastrous one for him, entailing the loss of 50,000 men.
A people who used chariots and horses, and artifacts displaying the artistic skill of those found in ancient Britain, had reached a comparatively high state of civilization. Warriors did not manufacture their own chariots, the harness of their horses, their own weapons, armour, and ornaments; these were provided for them by artisans. Such things as they required and could not obtain in their own country had to be imported by traders. The artisans had to be paid in kind, if not in coin, and the traders had to give something in return for what they received. Craftsmen and traders had to be protected by laws, and the laws had to be enforced.
The evidence accumulated by archæologists is sufficient to prove that Britain had inherited from seats of ancient civilization a high degree of culture and technical skill in metal-working, &c., many centuries before Rome was built. The finest enamel work on bronze in the world was produced in England and Ireland, and probably, although definite proof has not yet been forthcoming, in Scotland, the enamels of which may have been imported and may not. Artisans could not have manufactured enamel without furnaces capable of generating a high degree of heat. The process was a laborious and costly one. It required technical knowledge and skill on the part of the workers. Red, white, yellow, and blue enamels were manufactured. Even the Romans were astonished at the skill displayed in enamel work by the Britons. The people who produced these enamels and the local peoples who purchased them, including the Caledonians, were far removed from a state of savagery.
Many writers, who have accepted without question the statements of certain Roman writers regarding the early Britons and ignored the evidence that archæological relics provide regarding the arts and crafts and social conditions of pre-Roman times, have in the past written in depreciatory vein regarding the ancestors of the vast majority of the present population of these islands, who suffered so severely at the altar of Roman ambition. Everything Roman has been glorified; Roman victories over British “barbarians” have been included among the “blessings” of civilization. Yet “there is”, as Elton says, “something at once mean and tragical about the story of the Roman conquest.... On the one side stand the petty tribes, prosperous nations in minature, already enriched by commerce and rising to a homely culture; on the other the terrible Romans strong in their tyranny and an avarice which could never be appeased.”204
It was in no altruistic spirit that the Romans invaded Gaul and broke up the Celtic organization, or that they invaded Briton and reduced a free people to a state of bondage. The life blood of young Britain was drained by Rome, and, for the loss sustained, Roman institutions, Roman villas and baths, and the Latin language and literature were far from being compensations. Rome was a predatory state. When its military organization collapsed, its subject states fell with it. Gaul and Britain had been weakened by Roman rule; the ancient spirit of independence had been undermined; native initiative had been ruthlessly stamped out under a system more thorough and severe than modern Prussianism. At the same time, there is, of course, much to admire in Roman civilization.
During the obscure post-Roman period England was occupied by Angles and Saxons and Jutes, who have been credited with the wholesale destruction of masses of the Britons. The dark-haired survivors were supposed to have fled westward, leaving the fair intruders in undisputed occupation of the greater part of England. But the indigenous peoples of the English mining areas were originally a dark-haired and sallow people, and the invading Celts were mainly a fair people. Boadicea was fair-haired like Queen Maeve of Ireland. The evidence collected of late years by ethnologists shows that the masses of the English population are descended from the early peoples of the Pre-Agricultural and Early Agricultural Ages. The theory of the wholesale extermination by the Anglo-Saxons of the early Britons has been founded manifestly on very scant and doubtful evidence.
What the Teutonic invasions accomplished in reality was the destruction not of a people but of a civilization. The native arts and crafts declined, and learning was stamped out, when the social organization of post-Roman Britain was shattered. On the Continent a similar state of matters prevailed. Roman civilization suffered decline when the Roman soldier vanished.
Happily, the elements of “Celtic” civilization had been preserved in those areas that had escaped the blight of Roman ambition. The peoples of Celtic speech had preserved, as ancient Gaelic manuscripts testify, a love of the arts as ardent as that of Rome, and a fine code of chivalry to which the Romans were strangers. The introduction of Christianity had advanced this ancient Celtic civilization on new and higher lines. When the Columban missionaries began their labours outside Scotland and Ireland, they carried Christianity and “a new humanism” over England and the Continent, “and became the teachers of whole nations, the counsellors of kings and emperors”. Ireland and Scotland had originally received their Christianity from Romanized England and Gaul. The Celtic Church developed on national lines. Vernacular literature was promoted by the Celtic clerics.
In England, as a result of Teutonic intrusions and conquests, Christianity and Romano-British culture had been suppressed. The Anglo-Saxons were pagans. In time the Celtic missionaries from Scotland and Ireland spread Christianity and Christian culture throughout England.
It is necessary for us to rid our minds of extreme pro-Teutonic prejudices. Nor is it less necessary to avoid the equally dangerous pitfall of the Celtic hypothesis. Christianity and the associated humanistic culture entered these islands during the Roman period. In Ireland and Scotland the new religion was perpetuated by communities that had preserved pre-Roman habits of life and thought which were not necessarily of Celtic origin or embraced by a people who can be accurately referred to as the “Celtic race”. The Celts did not exterminate the earlier settlers. Probably the Celts were military aristocrats over wide areas.
Before the fair Celts had intruded themselves in Britain and Ireland, the seeds of pre-Celtic culture, derived by trade and colonization from centres of ancient civilization through their colonies, had been sown and had borne fruit. The history of British civilization begins with neither Celt nor Roman, but with those early prospectors and traders who entered and settled in the British Isles when mighty Pharaohs were still reigning in Egypt, and these and the enterprising monarchs in Mesopotamia were promoting trade and extending their spheres of influence. The North Syrian or Anatolian carriers of Eastern civilization who founded colonies in Spain before 2500 b.c. were followed by Cretans and Phœnicians. The sea-trade promoted by these pioneers made possible the opening up of overland trade routes. It was after Pytheas had (about 300 b.c.) visited Britain by coasting round Spain and Northern France from Marseilles that the volume of British trade across France increased greatly and the sea-routes became of less importance. When Carthage fell, the Romans had the trade of Western Europe at their mercy, and their conquests of Gaul and Britain were undoubtedly effected for the purpose of enriching themselves at the expense of subject peoples. We owe much to Roman culture, but we owe much also to the culture of the British pre-Roman period.
Footnotes
1 Book of Llan Daf.
2 Dr. Hugh Cameron Gillies in Home Life of the Highlanders, Glasgow, 1911, pp. 85 et seq.
3 A pestle or stone was used to pound grain in hollowed slabs or rocks before the mechanical mill was invented.
4 Primitive Man.
5 Men of the Old Stone Age (1916), pp. 240-1.
6 British Museum—A Guide to the Antiquities of the Stone Age, p. 76 (1900).
7 Miller had adopted the “stratification theory” of Professor William Robertson of Edinburgh University, who, in his The History of America (1777), wrote: “Men in their savage state pass their days like the animals round them, without knowledge or veneration of any superior power”.
8 Custom and Myth (1910 edition), p. 13. Lang’s views regarding flints are worthless.
9 The last division of the Tertiary period.
10 It must be borne in mind that the lengths of these periods are subject to revision. Opinion is growing that they were not nearly so long as here stated.
11 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. XLIII, 1913.
12 For principal references see The Races of Europe, W. Z. Ripley, pp. 172 et seq., and The Anthropological History of Europe, John Beddoe (Rhind lectures for 1891; revised edition, 1912), p. 47.
13 That is, the tall representatives of the Crô-Magnon races.
14 Men of the Old Stone Age, pp. 335-6.
15 Myths of the New World, p. 163.
16 Cults of the Greek States, Vol. V. p. 243.
17 Budge, Gods of the Egyptians. Vol. I, p. 203.
18 De Groot, The Religious System of China, Book I, pp. 216-7.
19 Ibid., Book I, pp. 28 and 332.
20 I am indebted to the Abbé Breuil for this information which he gave me during the course of a conversation.
21 Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, Vol. I, p. 358. These scarabs have not been found in the early Dynastic graves. Green malachite charms, however, were used in even the pre-Dynastic period.
22 The Myths of the New World, p. 294. According to Bancroft the green stones were often placed in the mouths of the dead.
23 Laufer, Jade, pp. 294 et seq. (Chicago, 1912).
24 Men of the Old Stone Age, pp. 297-8.
25 Primitive Man (Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. VII).
26 Les Grottes de Grimaldi (Baousse-Rousse), Tome I, fasc. II—Géologie et Paléontologie (Monaco, 1906), p. 123.
27 Prehistoric Britain, pp. 142-3.
28 London, 1917.
29 Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, pp. 84-91.
30 G. A. Reisner. Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der, Vol. I, 1908, Plates 6 and 7.
31 Jackson’s Shells, pp. 128, 174, 176, 178.
32 Dr. Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadeiica, Vol. II, pp.247 et seq. Mr. Wilfrid Jackson, author of Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture, tells me that the “blue-eyed limpet” is our common limpet—Patella vulgata—the Lepas, Patelle, Jambe, Œil de boue, Bernicle, or Flie of the French. In Cornwall it is the “Crogan”, the “Bornigan”, and the “Brennick”. It is “flither” of the English, “flia” of the Faroese, and “lapa” of the Portuguese. A Cornish giant was once, according to a folk-tale, set to perform the hopeless task of emptying a pool with a single limpet which had a hole in it. Limpets are found in early British graves and in the “kitchen middens”. They are met with in abundance in cromlechs, on the Channel Isles and in Brittany, covering the bones and the skulls of the dead. Mr. Jackson thinks they were used like cowries for vitalizing and protecting the dead.
33 Breasted, Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 130.
34 Hamlet, V. i.
35 Men of the Old Stone Age, pp.304-5.
36 A Red Sea cowry shell (Cyprœa minor) found on the site of Hurstbourne station (L. & S. W. Railway, main line) in Hampshire, was associated with “Early Iron Age” artifacts. (Paper read by J. R. le B. Tomlin at meeting of Linnæan Society, June 14, 1921.)
37 For references see my Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe, pp.30-31.
38 Notes to Thalaba, Book V, Canto 36.
39 Henry V, V, iii, 6.
40 For other examples see Mr. Legge’s article in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1899. p. 310.
41 The Abbé Breuil, having examined the artifacts associated with the Western Scottish harpoons, inclines to refer to the culture as “Azilian-Tardenoisian”. At the same time he considers the view that Maglemosian influence was operating is worthy of consideration. He notes that traces of Maglemosian culture have been reported from England. The Abbé has detected Magdalenian influence in artifacts from Campbeltown, Argyllshire (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland, 1921-2).
42 Eirikr Magnusson in Notes on Shipbuilding and Nautical Terms, London, 1906.
43 Pronounced ma-haw’-baw’-rata (the two final a’s are short).
44 The Orkneyinga Saga, p. 182, Edinburgh, 1873, and Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vol. VIII.
45 Clement Reid, Submerged Forests, pp. 45-7. London, 1913.
46 The dates of the greatest disasters on record are 1421, 1532, and 1570. There were also terrible inundations in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and in 1825 and 1855.
47 It was not necessarily barbarous because metal weapons had not been invented.
48 Submerged Forests, p. 120.
49 The Cairo Scientific Journal, Vol. III. No. 32 (May, 1909), p. 105.
50 Antiquity of Man in Europe, p. 274, Edinburgh, 1914. The term “Neolithic” is here rather vague. It applies to the Azilians and Maglemosians as well as to later peoples.
51 Breasted, A History of Egypt, pp. 96-7.
52 Wollaston, Pygmies and Papuans (The Stone Age To-day in Dutch New Guinea), London, 1912, pp. 53 et seq.
53 Westervelt, Legends of Old Honolulu, pp. 97 et seq.
54 Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 48.
55 Cæsar’s Gallic War, Book III, c. 13-15.
56 Agricola, Chap. XII.
57 Smith, Roman Empire.
58 Strabo—IV, c. 1-13.
59 Satapatha-Brahmana, Pt. V, “Sacred Books of the East”, XLIV, pp. 187, 203, 236. 239, 348-50.
60 Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1921.
61 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1917-18, pp. 149 et seq.
62 See my Myths of Crete and pre-Hellenic Europe under “Obsidian” in Index.
63 R. W. Cochrane Patrick, Early Records relating to Mining in Scotland. Edinburgh, 1878, p. xxviii.
64 The Damnonii or Dumnonii.
65 The Fir-domnann were known as “the men who used to deepen the earth”, or “dig pits”. Professor J. MacNeil in Labor Gabula, p. 119. They were thus called “Diggers” like the modern Australians. The name of the goddess referred to the depths (the Underworld). It is probable she was the personification of the metal-yielding earth.
66 Alford, A Report on Ancient and Prospective Gold Mining in Egypt, 1900, and Mining in Egypt (by Egyptologist).
67 Celtic Britain, pp. 44 et seq. (4th edition).
68 Rough Stone Monuments, London, 1912, pp. 147-8.
69 The Scottish pearling beds have suffered great injury in historic times. They are the property of the “Crown”, and no one takes any interest in them except the “pearl poachers”.
70 L’Anthropologie, 1921, contains a long account of his discoveries.
71 The colours blue and green were obtained from copper.
72 Nat. Hist., VII, 56 (57), § 197.
73 Timagenes (c. 85-5 b.c.), an Alexandrian historian, wrote a history of the Gauls which was made use of by Ammianus Marcellinus (a.d. fourth century), a Greek of Antioch, and the author of a history of the Roman Emperors.
74 Prehistoric Britain, p. 145.
75 The Relationship between the Geographical Distribution of Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Mines, pp. 21 et seq.
76 A worm crept from the heart of a dead Phœnix, and gave origin to a new Phœnix.—Herodotus, II, 73.
77 Rendel Harris, The Ascent of Olympus, p. 2.
78 Annals of Tacitus, Book XIV, Chapter 29-30.
79 The Journal of Egyptian Archæology, Vol. I, part I, pp. 18-19.
80 It may be that Celtic chronology will have to be readjusted in the light of recent discoveries.
81 Iliad, XXIII, 75 (Lang, Leaf, and Myers’ translation, p. 452).
82 The Mythology of the Eddas, pp. 538-9 (Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, second series, Vol. XII).
83 Boudicca was her real name.
84 Introduction to O’Curry’s Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, Vol. I, pp. ccclxix et seq.
85 Orcas is a Celtic word signifying “young boar”.
86 Celtic Britain, p. 44.
87 Ep. X, 22.
88 Celtic Britain (4th edition), p. 212.
89 Tacitus, Agricola, Chap. XII.
90 Agricola, Chap. XXI.
91 Races of Europe, p. 436.
92 The Ancient Egyptians, p. 58.
93 Englished “Damnonians” (Chapter IX).
94 Tacitus says that the Brigantes were in point of numbers the most considerable folk in Britain (Agricola, Chapter XVII).
95 Evidently Cuchullin and other heroes of the “Red Branch” in Ireland were descended from peoples who had migrated into Ireland from Britain. Their warriors in the old manuscript tales receive their higher military training in Alba. It is unlikely they would have been trained in a colony.
96 Ancient sacred stones with horses depicted on them survive in Scotland. In Harris one horse-stone remains in an olf church tower.
97 The Picts, Inverness, 1921 (lecture delivered to the Gaelic Society of Inverness and reprinted from The Inverness Courier).
98 The fact that in the Scottish Lowlands the fairies were sometimes called “Pechts” has been made much of by those who contend that the prototypes of the fairies were the original inhabitants of Western Europe. This theory ignores the well-established custom of giving human names to supernatural beings. In Scotland the hill-giants (Fomorians) have been re-named after Arthur (as in Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh), Patrick (Inverness), Wallace (Eildon Hills), Samson (Ben Ledi), &c. In like manner fairies were referred to as Pechts. The Irish evidence is of similar character. The Danann deities were consigned to fairyland. Donald Gorm, a West Highland chief, gave his name to an Irish fairy. Fairyland was the old Paradise. Arthur, Thomas the Rhymer, Finn-mac-Coul, &c., became “fairy-men” after death. A good deal of confusion has been caused by mistranslating the Scottish Gaelic word sith (Irish sidhe) as “fairy”. The word sith (pronounced shee) means anything unearthly or supernatural, and the “peace” of supernatural life—of death after life, as well as the silence of the movements of supernatural beings. The cuckoo was supposed to dwell for a part of the year in the underworld, and was called eun sith (“supernatural bird”). Mysterious epidemics were sith diseases. There were sith (supernatural) dogs, cats, mice, cows, &c., as well as sith men and sith women.
99 Rough Stone Monuments, pp. 82 et seq.
100 De Bello Gallico, Book III, Chapter II.
101 Manners of the Germans, Chapter XLV. The boar was the son of a sow-goddess. Demeter had originally a sow form.
102 Scandinavian Britain (London, 1908), pp. 61-3.
103 Rhys, Celtic Britain (4th ed.), pp. 152, 317.
104 O’Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, Vol. III, p. 136.
105 Agricola, Chap. XI.
106 “The rule is”, writes Beddoe in this connection (The Anthropological History of Europe, p. 53), “that an anthropological type is never wholly dispossessed or extirpated”.
107 The Anthropological History of Europe (new edition, Paisley, 1912), p. 50.
108 Cæsar (De Bello Gallico, VI, XIV, 4) says the Druids believed the soul passed from one individual to another.
109 A Spaniard of the first century a.d.
110 Book V. Chap. XXVIII.
111 Pliny (Book XXX) says Britain seems to have taught Druidism to the Persians. Siret’s view, given in the concluding part of this chapter, that Druidism was of Eastern origin, is of special interest in this connection.
112 Celtic Religion, p. 62.
113 Avalon, Emain Ablach, &c.
114 The south was on the right and signified heaven, while the north was on the left and signified hell.
115 Bacon wrote: “Mistletoe groweth chiefly upon crab trees, apple trees, sometimes upon hazels, and rarely upon oaks; the mistletoe whereof is counted very medicinal. It is evergreen in winter and summer, and beareth a white glistening berry; and it is a plant utterly differing from the plant on which it groweth.”
116 The Annals of Tacitus, XIV, 30. The theory that mediæval witches were the priestesses of a secret cult that perpetuated pre-Roman British religion is not supported by Gaelic evidence. The Gaelic “witches” had no meetings with the devil, and never rode on broomsticks. The Gaelic name for witchcraft is derived from English and is not old.
117 “Every weapon has its demon” is an old Gaelic saying.
118 According to the Dingwall records knowledge of “future events in reference especialle to lyfe and death” was obtained by performing a ceremony in connection with the hollowed stone.
119 L’Anthropologie, 1921. Tome XXX, pp. 235 et seq.
120 “Comb of the honey and milk of the nut” (in Gaelic cir na meala ’is bainne nan cnò) was given as a tonic to weakly children, and is still remembered, the Rev. Kenneth MacLeod, Colonsay, informs me.
121 Standish H. O’Grady, Silva Gadelica, p. 505.
122 A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland, pp. 100-2 and 367-8.
123 Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, under Soma and Madhu.
124 Joyce, Irish Names of Places, Vol. I, pp. 507-9, Vol. II, pp. 206-7 and 345· Marsh mallows (leamh) appear to have been included among the herbals of the milk-cult as the soma-plant was in India.
125 Revue Celtique, Vol. XIII, p. 75.
126 Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 67.
127 Henderson’s Survivals, p. 218.
128 Rowan-berry wine was greatly favoured. There are Gaelic references to “the wine of the apple (cider)”.
129 George Nicholson, Encyclopædia of Horticulture, under “Oak”.
130 Curragh is connected with the Latin corium, a hide.
131 Schliemann, Troy and Its Remains, p. 232.
132 Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. XXI, p. 129.
133 It was because Zeus had been suckled by a sow that the Cretans, as Athenæus records, “will not taste its flesh” (Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, Vol. I, p. 37). In Ireland the dog was taboo to Cuchullin. There is a good deal of Gaelic lore about the sacred cow.
134 L’Anthropologie (1921), pp. 268 et seq.
135 Lady Charlotte Guest, The Mabinogion (Story of “Kilwch and Olwen” and note on “Gwyn the son of Nudd”).
136 Also shiubhail e which signifies “he went off” (as when walking).
137 When depicted with star-spangled garments she was the goddess of the starry sky (“Milky Way”) like the Egyptian Hathor or Nut.
138 Professor W. J. Watson, Place-names of Ross and Cromarty, pp. 62-3.
139 Dr. Joyce, Irish Names of Places, Vol. I, p. 375.
140 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 378.
141 The two headlands, the “souters” or “sutors”, are supposed to have been so called because they were sites of tanneries.
142 The Diamond (Chicago, 1915).
143 Natural History, Book IX. Chap. LIV.
144 Tacitus, Manners of the Germans, Chap. XLV.
145 British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age, pp. 135-6.
146 Natural History, Book XXXVIII, Chapter III.
147 Rhys rejects the view of Gildas that “Cuneglasos” meant “tawny butcher”.
148 Herodian, Lib. III, says of the inhabitants of Caledonia, “They mark their bodies with various pictures of all manner of animals”.
149 Book I. Chapter I.
150 Pliny, Lib. XXXVI. cap. 34.
151 Ure’s History of Rutherglen and Kilbride, p. 219.
152 Joyce, A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland, p. 478.
153 Professor W. J. Watson has drawn my attention to an interesting reference to amber. In the Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol. II, p. 18, under “Celtic Inscriptions of France and Italy”, Sir John Rhys deals with Vebrumaros, a man’s name. The second element in this name is māros (great); the first, uebru, “is perhaps to be explained by reference to the Welsh word gwefr (amber)”. Rhys thought the name meant that the man was distinguished for his display of amber “in the adornment of his person”. The name had probably a deeper significance. Amber was closely associated with the mother goddess. One of her names may have been “Uebru”. She personified amber.
154 Richard of Cirencester (fourteenth century) says the mistletoe increased the number of animals, and was considered as a specific against all poisons (Book I, Chap. IV).
155 Book I. Chap. V.
156 This excellent Gaelic word is current in Scotland. Burns uses it in the line, “O’ a’ the airts the wind can blaw”.
157 Quoted by Sir H. Colt Hoare in Ancient Wiltshire, II. p. 63.
158 Stone circle.
159 In Gaelic deis-iùil means a turning sunwise (by the right or south) from east to west, and tual, i.e. tuath-iùil, a turning by the north or left from east to west. Deis is the genitive of Deas (south, right hand), and Tuath is north or left hand.
160 The following stanza is from the “Book of Ballymote”:
Mottled to simpletons; blue to women;
Crimson to kings of every host;
Green and black to noble laymen;
White to clerics of proper devotion.
161 In the Cuchullin Saga Lugh is “a lone man out of the north-eastern quarter”. When the cry of another supernatural being is heard, Cuchullin asks from which direction it came. He is told “from the north-west”. The goddess Morrigan then appeared.
162 In a Cuchullin saga the hero, addressing the charioteer, says: “Go out, my friend, observe the stars of the air, and ascertain when midnight comes”. The Irish Gaelic grien-tairisem is given in an eighth-or ninth-century gloss. It means “sun-standing”, and refers to the summer solstice.
163 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, Lib. I, cap. 30.
164 Of course it does not follow that the reasoning originally took place in these islands. Complex beliefs were imported at an early period. These were localized.
165 In Gaelic these are called “friction fires”.
166 According to some, Isis is a rendering of a Libyan name meaning “old wife”.
167 This connection can be traced in ancient Egypt. The sun and fire were connected, and the sun originally rose from the primordial waters. The sun’s rays were the “tears” of Ra (the sun god). Herbs and trees sprang up where Ra’s tears fell.
168 So was a whale. The Latin orca is a Celtic loan-word. Milton uses the Celtic whale-name in the line
The haunt of seals, and orca, and sea-mews’ clang.
—Paradise Lost, Book XI, line 835.
169 O’Curry, Manuscript Materials, pp. 426-7.
170 Professor W. J. Watson says in this connection: “The Celtic clerics stepped in to the shoes of the Druids. The people regarded them as superior Druids.”
171 In old Gaelic the liver is the seat of life.
172 Mrs. E. Tawse Jollie, Hervetia, S. Melsetter, S. Rhodesia, writes me under October 12, 1918, in answer to my query, that the Boers regard striep muis (striped mice) as a cure for “weakness of the bowel” in children, &c.
173 In a Roman representation of her at Birrens, in Perthshire, she is shown as a winged figure holding a spear in her right hand and a globe in her left. An altar in Chester is dedicated to “De Nymphæ Brig”. Her name is enshrined in Bregentz (anciently Brigantium), a town in Switzerland.
174 The beithis lay hidden in arms of the sea and came ashore to devour animals.
175 The Dragon in China and Japan (1913).
176 Trevelyan. Folk-lore and Folk-stories of Wales, p. 165.
177 W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, pp. 117 et seq.
178 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, XXVI (1897). p. 23.
179 Laufer, Jade, p. 310.
180 My Schools and Schoolmasters, Chapter VI.
181 Rev. W. Forsyth, Dornoch, in Folk-lore Journal, VI, 171.
182 It has been suggested that “Dane” stands for “Danann”.
183 A text states: “Kindly is she as Bast: terrible is she as Sekhet.”
184 The Gaelic word for “witch” comes from English. Gaelic “witch lore” is distinctive, having retained more ancient beliefs than those connected with the orthodox witches.
185 The “fairy” Queen (the queen of enchantment), who carried off Thomas the Rhymer, appeared as a beautiful woman, but was afterwards transformed into an ugly hag. Thomas laments:
How art thou faded thus in the face,
That shone before as the sun so bricht(bright).
186 Wm. Cashen, Manx Folk-lore (Douglas, 1912), p. 48.
187 King James VI of Scotland and I of England.
188 Ben Jonson’s reference is in A Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies.
189 The Darker Superstitions of Scotland (London, 1834), p. 425, and Athenian Mercury, V, 1, No. 20, p. 13.
190 The south-western Scottish pork trade dates only from the latter part of the eighteenth century. There was trouble at Carlisle custom house when the Lowland Scots began to export cured pork, because of the difference between the English and Scottish salt duty. “For some time”, complained a Scottish writer on agriculture, in June, 1811, “a duty of 2s. per hunderweight has been charged.” Dublin was exporting pork to London in the reign of Henry VIII. A small trade in pork was conducted in eastern Scotland but was sporadic.
191 King James I of England and VI of Scotland detested ling as he detested pork. The food prejudices of the common people thus influenced royalty, although earlier kings and Norman nobles ate pork, eels, &c.
192 The Gaelic word sidh (Irish) or sith (Scottish) means “supernatural” and the “peace” and “silence” of supernatural beings. “Fairy”, as Skeat has emphasized, means “enchantment”. It has taken the place of “fay”, which is derived from fate. The “fay” was a supernatural being.
193 From the root nem in neamh, heaven, nemus, a grove, &c.
194 Rendel Harris, Apple Cults, and The Ascent of Olympus.
195 Called also clach na cineamhuinn (the fatal stone).
196 There is evidence in the Gaelic manuscripts that time was measured by the apparent movements of the stars. Cuchullin, while sitting at a feast, says to his charioteer: “Laeg, my friend, go out, observe the stars of the air, and ascertain when midnight comes”.
197 Elliot Smith, The Ancient Egyptians, p. 42.
198 It must be borne in mind that among the producers and users of Neolithic artifacts were the Easterners who collected and exported ores.
199 The boat dates the silting process rather than the silting process the boat.
200 The ancient belief is enshrined in Milton’s lines referring to “ribs of gold” that “grow in Hell” and are dug out of its hill (Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 688-90).
201 Agricola, Chap. XII.
202 Herodian, III, 14.
203 Dion Cassius (Xiphilinus) LXXVI, 12.
204 Origins of English History, pp. 302-3.
A “List of Illustrations” has been added to the text for the convenience of the reader. It includes Illustrations that were not included in the “List of Plates.”
In the Index the phrase (ill.) has occasionally been moved so as to consistently come after the page to which it refers.