Tree, Plant and Animal Worship.
What follows are descriptions and tales from an old source:
What follows are descriptions and tales from an old source:
The Celts had their own cult of trees, but they adopted
local cults--Ligurian, Iberian, and others. The Fagus Deus (the divine beech),
the Sex arbor or Sex arbores of Pyrenean inscriptions, and an anonymous god
represented by a conifer on an altar at Toulouse, probably point to local
Ligurian tree cults continued by the Celts into Roman times. Forests were
also personified or ruled by a single goddess, like Dea Arduinna of the
Ardennes and Dea Abnoba of the Black Forest. But more primitive ideas
prevailed, like that which assigned a whole class of tree-divinities to a
forest, e.g. the Fatæ Dervones, spirits of the oak-woods of Northern Italy. Groups of trees like Sex arbores were venerated, perhaps for their height,
isolation, or some other peculiarity.
The Celts made their sacred places in dark groves, the trees
being hung with offerings or with the heads of victims. Human sacrifices were
hung or impaled on trees, e.g. by the warriors of Boudicca. These, like the
offerings still placed by the folk on sacred trees, were attached to them
because the trees were the abode of spirits or divinities who in many cases had
power over vegetation.
Pliny said of the Celts: "They esteem nothing more sacred than
the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows. But apart from this they choose
oak-woods for their sacred groves, and perform no sacred rite without using oak
branches."
Maximus of Tyre also speaks of the Celtic (? German) image of Zeus as a lofty oak, and an old Irish glossary gives daur, oak, as an early Irish name for god, and glosses it by dia, god. The sacred need-fire may have been obtained by friction from oak-wood, and it is because of the old sacredness of the oak that a piece of its wood is still used as a talisman in Brittany. Other Aryan folk besides the Celts regarded the oak as the symbol of a high god, of the sun or the sky, but probably this was not its earliest significance. (Mr. Chadwick (Jour. Anth. Inst. xxx. 26) connects this high god with thunder, and regards the Celtic Zeus (Taranis, in his opinion) as a thunder-god. The oak was associated with this god because his worshippers dwelt under oaks.) Oak forests were once more extensive over Europe than they are now, and the old tradition that men once lived on acorns has been shown to be well-founded by the witness of archæological finds, e.g. in Northern Italy. A people living in an oak region and subsisting in part on acorns might easily take the oak as a representative of the spirit of vegetation or growth. It was long-lived, its foliage was a protection, it supplied food, its wood was used as fuel, and it was thus clearly the friend of man. Jupiter had agricultural functions, or that, when the equation was made, the earlier spirit of vegetation had become a divinity with functions resembling those of Zeus. The fires were kindled to recruit the sun's life; they were fed with oak-wood, and in them an oak or a human victim representing the spirit embodied in the oak was burned. Hence it may have been thought that the sun was strengthened by the fire residing in the sacred oak; it was thus the original storehouse or reservoir of the fire which was from time to time drawn out to feed the sun. The oak thus became the symbol of a bright god also connected with growth. But, to judge by folk survivals, the older conception still remained potent, and tree or human victim affected for good all vegetable growth as well as man's life, while at the same time the fire strengthened the sun.
For these reasons, and because it was the
most abiding and living thing men knew, it became the embodiment of the spirits
of life and growth. Folk-lore survivals show that the spirit of vegetation in
the shape of his representative was annually slain while yet in full vigour,
that his life might benefit all things and be passed on undiminished to his
successor. Hence the oak or a human being representing the spirit of
vegetation, or both together, were burned in the Midsummer fires. How, then,
did the oak come to symbolise a god equated with Zeus. Though the equation may
be worthless, it is possible that the connection lay in the fact that Zeus and
Maximus of Tyre also speaks of the Celtic (? German) image of Zeus as a lofty oak, and an old Irish glossary gives daur, oak, as an early Irish name for god, and glosses it by dia, god. The sacred need-fire may have been obtained by friction from oak-wood, and it is because of the old sacredness of the oak that a piece of its wood is still used as a talisman in Brittany. Other Aryan folk besides the Celts regarded the oak as the symbol of a high god, of the sun or the sky, but probably this was not its earliest significance. (Mr. Chadwick (Jour. Anth. Inst. xxx. 26) connects this high god with thunder, and regards the Celtic Zeus (Taranis, in his opinion) as a thunder-god. The oak was associated with this god because his worshippers dwelt under oaks.) Oak forests were once more extensive over Europe than they are now, and the old tradition that men once lived on acorns has been shown to be well-founded by the witness of archæological finds, e.g. in Northern Italy. A people living in an oak region and subsisting in part on acorns might easily take the oak as a representative of the spirit of vegetation or growth. It was long-lived, its foliage was a protection, it supplied food, its wood was used as fuel, and it was thus clearly the friend of man. Jupiter had agricultural functions, or that, when the equation was made, the earlier spirit of vegetation had become a divinity with functions resembling those of Zeus. The fires were kindled to recruit the sun's life; they were fed with oak-wood, and in them an oak or a human victim representing the spirit embodied in the oak was burned. Hence it may have been thought that the sun was strengthened by the fire residing in the sacred oak; it was thus the original storehouse or reservoir of the fire which was from time to time drawn out to feed the sun. The oak thus became the symbol of a bright god also connected with growth. But, to judge by folk survivals, the older conception still remained potent, and tree or human victim affected for good all vegetable growth as well as man's life, while at the same time the fire strengthened the sun.
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| tree |
Dr. Evans argues that the original holy object within
the central triliths of Stonehenge was a sacred tree, an oak, image of
the Celtic Zeus. The tree and the stones, once associated with ancestor
worship, had become symbols of a more celestial Spirit or Spirits than
those of departed human beings. But Stonehenge has now been proved to
have been in existence before the arrival of the Celts, hence such a cult must
have been pre-Celtic, though it may quite well have been adopted by the Celts.
Whether this hypothetical cult was practised by a tribe, a group of tribes, or
by the whole people, must remain obscure, and, indeed, it may well be
questioned whether Stonehenge was ever more than the scene of some ancestral
rites.
Other trees--the yew, the cypress, the alder, and the ash,
were venerated, to judge by what Lucan relates of the sacred grove at
Marseilles. The Irish Druids attributed special virtues to the hazel, rowan,
and yew, the wood of which was used in magical ceremonies described in Irish
texts. Fires of rowan were lit by the Druids of rival armies, and
incantations said over them in order to discomfit the opposing host, and the
wood of all these trees is still believed to be efficacious against fairies and
witches.
The Irish bile was a sacred tree, of great age, growing over
a holy well or fort. Five of them are described in the Dindsenchas, and one was
an oak, which not only yielded acorns, but nuts and apples. The mythic trees
of Elysium had the same varied fruitage, and the reason in both cases is
perhaps the fact that when the cultivated apple took the place of acorns and
nuts as a food staple, words signifying "nut" or "acorn"
were transferred to the apple. A myth of trees on which all these fruits grew
might then easily arise. Another Irish bile was a yew described in a poem as a firm strong god, while such phrases in this poem as
"word-pure man," "judgment of origin," "spell of
knowledge," may have some reference to the custom of writing divinations
in ogham on rods of yew. The other bile were ash-trees, and from one of them
the Fir Bile, men of the tree, were named--perhaps a totem-clan. The lives of kings and chiefs appear to have been connected with these trees,
probably as representatives of the spirit of vegetation embodied in the tree,
and under their shadow they were inaugurated. But as a substitute for the king
was slain, so doubtless these pre-eminent sacred trees were too sacred, too
much charged with supernatural force, to be cut down and burned, and the yearly
ritual would be performed with another tree. But in time of feud one tribe
gloried in destroying the bile of another; and even in the tenth century, when
the bile maighe Adair was destroyed by Maeloeohlen the act was regarded with
horror. "But, O reader, this deed did not pass unpunished." Of
another bile, that of Borrisokane, it was said that any house in which a
fragment of it was burned would itself be destroyed by fire.
Tribal and personal names point to belief in descent from
tree gods or spirits and perhaps to totemism. The Eburones were the yew-tree
tribe (eburos); the Bituriges perhaps had the mistletoe for their symbol, and
their surname Vivisci implies that they were called Mistletoe men. If bile (tree) is connected with the name Bile, that of the ancestor of the
Milesians, this may point to some myth of descent from a sacred tree, as in the
case of the Fir Bile, or men of the tree. Other names like
Guidgen (Viduo-genos, son of the tree), Dergen (Dervo-genos, son of the oak), Guerngen (Verno-genos, son of the
alder), imply filiation to a tree. Though these names became
conventional, they express what had once been a living belief. Names borrowed
directly from trees are also found--Eburos or Ebur, yew, Derua or
Deruacus, oak, etc.
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| 1. Tree goddess |
The elder, rowan, and thorn are still planted round houses
to keep off witches, or sprigs of rowan are placed over doorways--a survival
from the time when they were believed to be tenanted by a beneficent spirit
hostile to evil influences. In Ireland and the Isle of Man the thorn is thought
to be the resort of fairies, and they, Eke the woodland fairies or wood
men are probably representatives of the older tree spirits and gods of
groves and forests.
Tree-worship was rooted in the oldest nature worship, and
the Church had the utmost difficulty in suppressing it. Councils fulminated
against the cult of trees, against offerings to them or the placing of lights
before them and before wells or stones, and against the belief that certain
trees were too sacred to be cut down or burned. Heavy fines were levied against
those who practised these rites, yet still they continued. Amator, Bishop of
Auxerre, tried to stop the worship of a large pear-tree standing in the centre
of the town and on which the semi-Christian inhabitants hung animals' heads
with much ribaldry. At last S. Germanus destroyed it, but at the risk of his
life. S. Martin of Tours was allowed to destroy a temple, but the people would
not permit him to attack a much venerated pine-tree which stood beside it--an
excellent example of the way in which the more official paganism fell before
Christianity, while the older religion of the soil, from which it sprang, could
not be entirely eradicated. The Church often effected a compromise. Images of
the gods affixed to trees were replaced by those of the Virgin, but with
curious results. Legends arose telling how the faithful had been led to such
trees and there discovered the image of the Madonna miraculously placed among
the branches. These are analogous to the legends of the discovery of images of
the Virgin in the earth, such images being really those of the Matres.
Representations of sacred trees are occasionally met with on
coins, altars, and ex votos. If the interpretation be correct which sees a
representation of part of the Cúchulainn legend on the Paris and Trèves altars,
the trees figured there would not necessarily be sacred. But otherwise they may
depict sacred trees.
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| 2. Mistletoe |
Pliny describes other Celtic herbs of grace. Selago was
culled without use of iron after a sacrifice of bread and wine--probably to the
spirit of the plant. The person gathering it wore a white robe, and went with
unshod feet after washing them. According to the Druids, Selago preserved one
from accident, and its smoke when burned healed maladies of the eye. Samolus
was placed in drinking troughs as a remedy against disease in cattle. It was
culled by a person fasting, with the left hand; it must be wholly uprooted, and
the gatherer must not look behind him. Vervain was gathered at sunrise after
a sacrifice to the earth as an expiation--perhaps because its surface was about
to be disturbed. When it was rubbed on the body all wishes were gratified; it
dispelled fevers and other maladies; it was an antidote against serpents; and
it conciliated hearts. A branch of the dried herb used to asperge a banquet-hall
made the guests more convivial.
The ritual used in gathering these plants--silence, various
tabus, ritual purity, sacrifice--is found wherever plants are culled whose
virtue lies in this that they are possessed by a spirit. Other plants are still
used as charms by modern Celtic peasants, and, in some cases, the ritual of
gathering them resembles that described by Pliny. In Irish sagas plants have
magical powers. Fairy herbs placed in a bath restored beauty to
women bathing therein. During the Táin Cúchulainn's wounds were healed with
balsams and healing herbs of fairy potency, and Diancecht used
similar herbs to restore the dead at the battle of Mag-tured.
Animal Worship
Animal worship pure and simple had declined among the Celts
of historic times, and animals were now regarded mainly as symbols or
attributes of divinities. The older cult had been connected with the pastoral
stage in which the animals were divine, or with the agricultural stage in which
they represented the corn-spirit, and perhaps with totemism. We shall study
here traces of the older animal cults; the transformation of animal
gods into symbols; and traces of totemism.
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| Bull |
A cult of a swine-god Moccus has been referred to. The boar
was a divine symbol on standards, coins, and altars, and many bronze images of
the animal have been found. These were temple treasures, and in one case the
boar is three-horned. But it was becoming the symbol of a goddess, as is seen
by the altars on which it accompanies a goddess, perhaps of fertility, and by a
bronze image of a goddess seated on a boar. The altars occur in Britain, of
which the animal may be the emblem--the "Caledonian monster" of
Claudian's poem. The Galatian Celts abstained from eating the swine, and
there has always been a prejudice against its flesh in the Highlands. This has
a totemic appearance. But the swine is esteemed in Ireland, and in the texts
monstrous swine are the staple article of famous feasts. These may have been
legendary forms of old swine-gods, the feasts recalling sacrificial feasts on
their flesh. Magic swine were also the immortal food of the gods. But the boar
was tabu to certain persons, e.g. Diarmaid, though whether this is the
attenuated memory of a clan totem restriction is uncertain. In Welsh story the
swine comes from Elysium--a myth explaining the origin of its domestication,
while domestication certainly implies an earlier cult of the animal. When
animals come to be domesticated, the old cult restrictions, e.g. against eating
them, usually pass away. For this reason, perhaps, the Gauls, who worshipped an
anthropomorphic swine-god, trafficked in the animal and may have eaten it. (Strabo, iv. 4. 3, says these swine attacked
strangers. Varro, de Re Rustica, ii. 4, admires their vast size. Cf. Polyb. ii.
4.)
A Welsh story also tells of the magic boar, the Twrch Trwyth, hunted by
Arthur, possibly a folk-tale reminiscence of a boar divinity. Place-names
also point to a cult of the swine, and a recollection of its divinity may
underlie the numerous Irish tales of magical swine. The magic swine which
issued from the cave of Cruachan and destroyed the young crops are suggestive
of the theriomorphic corn-spirit in its occasional destructive aspect. Bones
of the swine, sometimes cremated, have been found in Celtic graves in Britain
and at Hallstadt, and in one case the animal was buried alone in a tumulus at
Hallstadt, just as sacred animals were buried in Egypt, Greece, and elsewhere. When the animal was buried with the dead, it may have been as a sacrifice to
the ghost or to the god of the underworld.
The divinity of the serpent is proved by the occurrence of a
horned serpent with twelve Roman gods on a Gallo-Roman altar. In other cases
a horned or ram's-headed serpent appears as the attribute of a god, and we have
seen that the ram's-headed serpent may be a fusion of the serpent as a chthonian
animal with the ram, sacrificed to the dead. In Greece Dionysus had the form
both of a bull and a horned serpent, the horn being perhaps derived from the
bull symbol. M. Reinach claims that the primitive elements of the Orphic myth
of the Thracian Dionysos-Zagreus--divine serpents producing an egg whence came
the horned snake Zagreus, occur in dislocated form in Gaul. There enlacing
serpents were believed to produce a magic egg, and there a horned serpent was
worshipped, but was not connected with the egg. But they may once have been
connected, and if so, there may be a common foundation both for the Greek and
the Celtic conceptions in a Celtic element in Thrace. The resemblances,
however, may be mere coincidences, and horned serpents are known in other
mythologies--the horn being perhaps a symbol of divinity. The horned serpent
sometimes accompanies a god who has horns, possibly Cernunnos, the underworld
god, in accordance with the chthonian character of the serpent. In the
Cúchulainn cycle Loeg on his visit to the Other-world saw two-headed
serpents--perhaps a further hint of this aspect of the animal. In all these instances of animal cults examples of the
tendency to make the divine animal anthropomorphic have been seen. We have now
to consider some instances of the complete anthropomorphic process.
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| Bear goddess |
Similarly a cult of the stag seems to have given place to
that of a god with stag's horns, represented on many bas-reliefs, and probably
connected with the underworld. The stag, as a grain-eater, may have been
regarded as the embodiment of the corn-spirit, and then associated with the
under-earth region whence the corn sprang, by one of those inversions of
thought so common in the stage of transition from animal gods to gods with
animal symbols. The elk may have been worshipped in Ireland, and a three
antlered stag is the subject of a story in the Fionn saga. Its third antler,
like the third horn of bull or boar, may be a sign of divinity.
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| Epona |
A statuette of a horse, with a dedication to a god Rudiobus,
otherwise unknown, may have been carried processionally, while a mule has a
dedication to Segomo, equated elsewhere with Mars. A mule god Mullo, also
equated with Mars, is mentioned on several inscriptions. The connection with
Mars may have been found in the fact that the October horse was sacrificed to
him for fertility, while the horse was probably associated with fertility among
the Celts. The horse was sacrificed both by Celts and Teutons at the Midsummer
festival, undoubtedly as a divine animal. Traces of the Celtic custom survive
in local legends, and may be interpreted in the fuller light of the Teutonic
accounts. In Ireland a man wearing a horse's head rushed through the fire, and
was supposed to represent all cattle; in other words, he was a surrogate for
them. The legend of Each Labra, a horse which lived in a mound and issued from
it every Midsummer eve to give oracles for the coming year, is probably
connected with the Midsummer sacrifice of the horse. Among the Teutons the
horse was a divine sacrificial animal, and was also sacred to Freyr, the god of
fertility, while in Teutonic survivals a horse's head was placed in the
Midsummer fire. The horse was sporadically the representative of the
corn-spirit, and at Rome the October horse was sacrificed in that capacity and
for fertility. Among the Celts, the horse sacrificed at Midsummer may have
represented the vegetation-spirit and benefited all domestic animals--the old rite
surviving in an attenuated form, as described above.
Perhaps the goddess Damona was an animal divinity, if her
name is derived from damatos, "sheep," cognate to Welsh dafad,
"sheep," and Gaelic damh, "ox." Other divine animals, as
has been seen, were associated with the waters, and the use of beasts and birds
in divination doubtless points to their divine character. A cult of bird-gods
may lurk behind the divine name Bran, "raven," and the reference to
the magic birds of Rhiannon in the Triads. Animal worship is connected with totemism, and certain
things point to its existence among the Celts, or to the existence of
conditions out of which totemism was elsewhere developed. These are descent
from animals, animal tabus, the sacramental eating of an animal, and exogamy.
Descent from animals.
Celtic names implying descent from animals or plants are of two classes, clan and personal names. If the latter are totemistic, they must be derived from the former, since totemism is an affair of the clan, while the so-called personal totem, exemplified by the American Indian manitou, is the guardian but never the ancestor of a man. Some clan names have already been referred to. Others are the Bibroci of south-east Britain, probably a beaver clan (bebros), and the Eburones, a yew-tree clan (eburos). Irish clans bore animal names: some groups were called "calves," others "griffins," others "red deer," and a plant name is seen in Fir Bile, "men of the tree." Such clan totemism perhaps underlies the stories of the "descendants of the wolf" at Ossory, who became wolves for a time as the result of a saintly curse. Cormac mac Art, suckled by a she-wolf, of Lughaid mac Con, "son of a wolf-dog," suckled by that animal, and of Oisin, whose mother was a fawn, and who would not eat venison, are perhaps totemistic, while to totemism or to a cult of animals may be ascribed what early travellers in Ireland say of the people taking wolves as god-fathers and praying to them to do them no ill. In Wales bands of warriors at the battle of Cattraeth are described in Oneurin's Gododin as dogs, wolves, bears, and ravens, while Owein's band of ravens which fought against Arthur, may have been a raven clan, later misunderstood as actual ravens. Certain groups of Dalriad Scots bore animal names--Cinel Gabran, "Little goat clan," and Cinel Loarn, "Fox clan." Possibly the custom of denoting Highland clans by animal or plant badges may be connected with a belief in descent from plants or animals. On many coins an animal is represented on horseback, perhaps leading a clan, as birds led the Celts to the Danube area, and these may depict myths telling how the clan totem animal led the clan to its present territory. Such myths may survive in legends relating how an animal led a saint to the site of his church. Celtic warriors wore helmets with horns, and Irish story speaks of men with cat, dog, or goat heads. These may have been men wearing a head-gear formed of the skin or head of the clan totem, hence remembered at a later time as monstrous beings, while the horned helmets would be related to the same custom. Solinus describes the Britons as wearing animal skins before going into battle. Were these skins of totem animals under whose protection they thus placed themselves? The "forms of beasts, birds, and fishes" which the Cruithne or Picts tattooed on their bodies may have been totem marks, while the painting of their bodies with woad among the southern Britons may have been of the same character, though Cæsar's words hardly denote this. Certain marks on faces figured on Gaulish coins seem to be tattoo marks.
Other instances of lycanthropy were associated with certain
families. The belief in lycanthropy might easily attach itself to existing
wolf-clans, the transformation being then explained as the result of a curse. The stories of
Celtic names implying descent from animals or plants are of two classes, clan and personal names. If the latter are totemistic, they must be derived from the former, since totemism is an affair of the clan, while the so-called personal totem, exemplified by the American Indian manitou, is the guardian but never the ancestor of a man. Some clan names have already been referred to. Others are the Bibroci of south-east Britain, probably a beaver clan (bebros), and the Eburones, a yew-tree clan (eburos). Irish clans bore animal names: some groups were called "calves," others "griffins," others "red deer," and a plant name is seen in Fir Bile, "men of the tree." Such clan totemism perhaps underlies the stories of the "descendants of the wolf" at Ossory, who became wolves for a time as the result of a saintly curse. Cormac mac Art, suckled by a she-wolf, of Lughaid mac Con, "son of a wolf-dog," suckled by that animal, and of Oisin, whose mother was a fawn, and who would not eat venison, are perhaps totemistic, while to totemism or to a cult of animals may be ascribed what early travellers in Ireland say of the people taking wolves as god-fathers and praying to them to do them no ill. In Wales bands of warriors at the battle of Cattraeth are described in Oneurin's Gododin as dogs, wolves, bears, and ravens, while Owein's band of ravens which fought against Arthur, may have been a raven clan, later misunderstood as actual ravens. Certain groups of Dalriad Scots bore animal names--Cinel Gabran, "Little goat clan," and Cinel Loarn, "Fox clan." Possibly the custom of denoting Highland clans by animal or plant badges may be connected with a belief in descent from plants or animals. On many coins an animal is represented on horseback, perhaps leading a clan, as birds led the Celts to the Danube area, and these may depict myths telling how the clan totem animal led the clan to its present territory. Such myths may survive in legends relating how an animal led a saint to the site of his church. Celtic warriors wore helmets with horns, and Irish story speaks of men with cat, dog, or goat heads. These may have been men wearing a head-gear formed of the skin or head of the clan totem, hence remembered at a later time as monstrous beings, while the horned helmets would be related to the same custom. Solinus describes the Britons as wearing animal skins before going into battle. Were these skins of totem animals under whose protection they thus placed themselves? The "forms of beasts, birds, and fishes" which the Cruithne or Picts tattooed on their bodies may have been totem marks, while the painting of their bodies with woad among the southern Britons may have been of the same character, though Cæsar's words hardly denote this. Certain marks on faces figured on Gaulish coins seem to be tattoo marks.
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| Werewolf |
It is not impossible that an early wolf-totem may have been
associated, because of the animal's nocturnal wanderings in forests, with the
underworld whence, according to Celtic belief, men sprang and whither they
returned, and whence all vegetation came forth. The Gallo-Roman Silvanus,
probably an underworld god, wears a wolf-skin, and may thus be a wolf-god.
There were various types of underworld gods, and this wolf-type--perhaps a
local wolf-totem ancestor assimilated to a local "Dispater"--may have
been the god of a clan who imposed its mythic wolf origin on other clans. Some
Celtic bronzes show a wolf swallowing a man who offers no resistance, probably
because he is dead. The wolf is much bigger than the man, and hence may be a
god. These bronzes would thus represent a belief setting forth the return of
men to their totem ancestor after death, or to the underworld god connected
with the totem ancestor, by saying that he devoured the dead, like certain Polynesian
divinities and the Greek Eurynomos.
In many individual names the first part is the name of an
animal or plant, the second is usually genos, "born from," or
"son of," e.g. Artigenos, Matugenos, "son of the bear"
(artos, matu-); Urogenos, occurring as Urogenertos, "he who has the
strength of the son of the urus"; Brannogenos, "son of the
raven"; Cunogenos, "son of the dog." These names may be
derived from clan totem names, but they date back to a time when animals,
trees, and men were on a common footing, and the possibility of human descent
from a tree or an animal was believed in. Professor Rhŷs has argued from the
frequency of personal names in Ireland, like Cúrói, "Hound of Roi,"
Cú Corb, "Corb's Hound," Mac Con, "Hound's Son," and
Maelchon, "Hound's Slave," that there existed a dog totem or god, not
of the Celts, but of a pre-Celtic race. This assumes that totemism was
non-Celtic, an assumption based on preconceived notions of what Celtic
institutions ought to have been. The names, it should be observed, are
personal, not clan names.
Animal tabus.
Besides the dislike of swine's flesh already noted among certain Celtic groups, the killing and eating of the hare, hen, and goose were forbidden among the Britons. Cæsar says they bred these animals for amusement, but this reason assigned by him is drawn from his knowledge of the breeding of rare animals by rich Romans as a pastime, since he had no knowledge of the breeding of sacred animals which were not eaten--a common totemic or animal cult custom. The hare was used for divination by Boudicca, doubtless as a sacred animal, and it has been found that a sacred character still attaches to these animals in Wales. A cock or hen was ceremonially killed and eaten on Shrove Tuesday, either as a former totemic animal, or, less likely, as a representative of the corn-spirit. The hare is not killed in certain districts, but occasionally it is ceremonially hunted and slain annually, while at yearly fairs the goose is sold exclusively and eaten. Elsewhere, e.g. in Devon, a ram or lamb is ceremonially slain and eaten, the eating being believed to confer luck. The ill-luck supposed to follow the killing of certain animals may also be reminiscent of totemic tabus. Fish were not eaten by the Pictish Meatæ and Caledonii, and a dislike of eating certain fresh-water fish was observed among certain eighteenth century Highlanders. It has been already seen that certain fish living in sacred wells were tabu, and were believed to give oracles. Heron's flesh was disliked in Ireland, and it was considered unlucky to kill a swan in the Hebrides. Fatal results following upon the killing or eating of an animal with which the eater was connected by name or descent are found in the Irish sagas. Conaire was son of a woman and a bird which could take human shape, and it was forbidden to him to hunt birds. On one occasion he did so, and for this as well as the breaking of other tabus, he lost his life. It was tabu to Cúchulainn, "the hound of Culann," to eat dog's flesh, and, having been persuaded to do this, his strength went from him, and he perished. Diarmaid, having been forbidden to hunt a boar with which his life was connected, was induced by Fionn to break this tabu, and in consequence he lost his life by one of the boar's bristles entering his foot, or (in a variant) by the boar's killing him. Another instance is found in a tale of certain men transformed to badgers. They were slain by Cormac, and brought to his father Tadg to eat. Tadg unaccountably loathed them, because they were transformed men and his cousins. In this tale, which may contain the débris of totemic usage, the loathing arises from the fact that the badgers are men--a common form of myths explanatory of misunderstood totemic customs, but the old idea of the relation between a man and his totem is not lost sight of. The other tales may also be reminiscent of a clan totem tabu, later centred in a mythic hero. Perhaps the belief in lucky or unlucky animals, or in omens drawn from their appearance, may be based on old totem beliefs or in beliefs in the divinity of the animals.
Besides the dislike of swine's flesh already noted among certain Celtic groups, the killing and eating of the hare, hen, and goose were forbidden among the Britons. Cæsar says they bred these animals for amusement, but this reason assigned by him is drawn from his knowledge of the breeding of rare animals by rich Romans as a pastime, since he had no knowledge of the breeding of sacred animals which were not eaten--a common totemic or animal cult custom. The hare was used for divination by Boudicca, doubtless as a sacred animal, and it has been found that a sacred character still attaches to these animals in Wales. A cock or hen was ceremonially killed and eaten on Shrove Tuesday, either as a former totemic animal, or, less likely, as a representative of the corn-spirit. The hare is not killed in certain districts, but occasionally it is ceremonially hunted and slain annually, while at yearly fairs the goose is sold exclusively and eaten. Elsewhere, e.g. in Devon, a ram or lamb is ceremonially slain and eaten, the eating being believed to confer luck. The ill-luck supposed to follow the killing of certain animals may also be reminiscent of totemic tabus. Fish were not eaten by the Pictish Meatæ and Caledonii, and a dislike of eating certain fresh-water fish was observed among certain eighteenth century Highlanders. It has been already seen that certain fish living in sacred wells were tabu, and were believed to give oracles. Heron's flesh was disliked in Ireland, and it was considered unlucky to kill a swan in the Hebrides. Fatal results following upon the killing or eating of an animal with which the eater was connected by name or descent are found in the Irish sagas. Conaire was son of a woman and a bird which could take human shape, and it was forbidden to him to hunt birds. On one occasion he did so, and for this as well as the breaking of other tabus, he lost his life. It was tabu to Cúchulainn, "the hound of Culann," to eat dog's flesh, and, having been persuaded to do this, his strength went from him, and he perished. Diarmaid, having been forbidden to hunt a boar with which his life was connected, was induced by Fionn to break this tabu, and in consequence he lost his life by one of the boar's bristles entering his foot, or (in a variant) by the boar's killing him. Another instance is found in a tale of certain men transformed to badgers. They were slain by Cormac, and brought to his father Tadg to eat. Tadg unaccountably loathed them, because they were transformed men and his cousins. In this tale, which may contain the débris of totemic usage, the loathing arises from the fact that the badgers are men--a common form of myths explanatory of misunderstood totemic customs, but the old idea of the relation between a man and his totem is not lost sight of. The other tales may also be reminiscent of a clan totem tabu, later centred in a mythic hero. Perhaps the belief in lucky or unlucky animals, or in omens drawn from their appearance, may be based on old totem beliefs or in beliefs in the divinity of the animals.
Sacramental eating of an animal.
The custom of hunting the wren, found over the whole Celtic area, is connected with animal worship and may be totemistic in origin. In spite of its small size, the wren was known as the king of birds, and in the Isle of Man it was hunted and killed on Christmas or S. Stephen's day. The bird was carried in procession from door to door, to the accompaniment of a chant, and was then solemnly buried, dirges being sung. In some cases a feather was left at each house and carefully treasured, and there are traces of a custom of boiling and eating the bird. In Ireland, the hunt and procession were followed by a feast, the materials of which were collected from house to house, and a similar usage obtained in France, where the youth who killed the bird was called "king." In most of these districts it was considered unlucky or dangerous to kill the bird at any other time, yet it might be ceremonially killed once a year, the dead animal conferred luck, and was solemnly eaten or buried with signs of mourning. Similar customs with animals which are actually worshipped are found elsewhere, and they lend support to the idea that the Celts regarded the wren as a divine animal, or perhaps a totem animal, that it was necessary to slay it ritually, and to carry it round the houses of the community to obtain its divine influence, to eat it sacramentally or to bury it.
The custom of hunting the wren, found over the whole Celtic area, is connected with animal worship and may be totemistic in origin. In spite of its small size, the wren was known as the king of birds, and in the Isle of Man it was hunted and killed on Christmas or S. Stephen's day. The bird was carried in procession from door to door, to the accompaniment of a chant, and was then solemnly buried, dirges being sung. In some cases a feather was left at each house and carefully treasured, and there are traces of a custom of boiling and eating the bird. In Ireland, the hunt and procession were followed by a feast, the materials of which were collected from house to house, and a similar usage obtained in France, where the youth who killed the bird was called "king." In most of these districts it was considered unlucky or dangerous to kill the bird at any other time, yet it might be ceremonially killed once a year, the dead animal conferred luck, and was solemnly eaten or buried with signs of mourning. Similar customs with animals which are actually worshipped are found elsewhere, and they lend support to the idea that the Celts regarded the wren as a divine animal, or perhaps a totem animal, that it was necessary to slay it ritually, and to carry it round the houses of the community to obtain its divine influence, to eat it sacramentally or to bury it.
Probably like customs were followed in
the case of other animals, and these may have given rise to such stories as
that of the eating of MacDatho's wonderful boar, as well as to myths which
regarded certain animals, e.g. the swine, as the immortal food of the gods. Other
examples of ritual survivals of such sacramental eating have already been
noted, and it is not improbable that the eating of a sacred pastoral animal
occurred at Samhain.
Exogamy.
Exogamy and the counting of descent through
the mother are closely connected with totemism, and some traces of both are
found among the Celts. Among the Picts, who were, perhaps, a Celtic group of
the Brythonic stock, these customs survived in the royal house. The kingship
passed to a brother of the king by the same mother, or to a sister's son, while
the king's father was never king and was frequently a "foreigner."
Similar rules of succession prevailed in early Aryan royal houses--Greek and
Roman,--and may, as Dr. Stokes thought, have existed at Tara in Ireland, while
in a Fian tale of Oisin he marries the daughter of the king of Tír nan-Og, and
succeeds him as king partly for that reason, and partly because he had beaten
him in the annual race for the kingship. Such an athletic contest for the
kingship was known in early Greece, and this tale may support the theory of the
Celtic priest-kingship, the holder of the office retaining it as long as he was
not defeated or slain. Traces of succession through a sister's son are found in
the Mabinogion, and Livy describes how the mythic Celtic king Ambicatus sent
not his own but his sister's sons to found new kingdoms. Irish and Welsh
divine and heroic groups are named after the mother, not the father--the
children of Danu and of Don, and the men of Domnu. Anu is mother of the gods,
Buanann of heroes. The eponymous ancestor of the Scots is a woman, Scota, and
the earliest colonisers of Ireland are women, not men. In the sagas gods and
heroes have frequently a matronymic, and the father's name is omitted--Lug mac
Ethnend, Conchobar mac Nessa, Indech, son of De Domnann, Corpre, son of Etain,
and others. Perhaps parallel to this is the custom of calling men after their
wives--e.g. the son of Fergus is Fer Tlachtga, Tlachtga's husband. In the
sagas, females (goddesses and heroines) have a high place accorded to them, and
frequently choose their own lovers or husbands--customs suggestive of the
matriarchate. Thus what was once a general practice was later confined to the
royal house or told of divine or heroic personages. Possibly certain cases of
incest may really be exaggerated accounts of misunderstood unions once
permissible by totemic law. Cæsar speaks of British polyandry, brothers, sons,
and fathers sharing a wife in common. Strabo speaks of Irish unions with
mothers and sisters, perhaps referring not to actual practice but to reports of
saga tales of incest. Dio Cassius speaks of community of wives among the
Caledonians and Meatæ, and Jerome says much the same of the Scoti and Atecotti. These notices, with the exception of Cæsar's, are vague, yet they refer to
marriage customs different from those known to their reporters. In Irish sagas
incest legends circle round the descendants of Etain--fathers unite with
daughters, a son with his mother, a woman has a son by her three brothers (just
as Ecne was son of Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba), and is also mother of Crimthan by that son. Brother and sister unions occur both in Irish and Welsh story.
In these cases incest with a mother cannot be explained by
totemic usage, but the cases may be distorted reminiscences of what might occur
under totemism, namely, a son taking the wives of his father other than his own
mother, when those were of a different totem from his own. Under totemism,
brothers and sisters by different mothers having different totems, might
possibly unite, and such unions are found in many mythologies. Later, when
totemism passed away, the unions, regarded with horror, would be supposed to
take place between children by the same mother. According to totem law, a
father might unite with his daughter, since she was of her mother's totem, but
in practice this was frowned upon. Polygamy also may co-exist with totemism,
and of course involves the counting of descent through the mother as a rule.
If, as is suggested by the "debility" of the Ultonians, and by other
evidence, the couvade was a Celtic institution, this would also point to the
existence of the matriarchate with the Celts. To explain all this as pre-Aryan,
or to say that the classical notices refer to non-Aryan tribes and that the
evidence in the Irish sagas only shows that the Celts had been influenced by
the customs of aboriginal tribes among whom they lived is to neglect the fact
that the customs are closely bound up with Celtic life, while it leaves
unexplained the influence of such customs upon a people whose own customs,
according to this theory, were so totally different. The evidence, taken as a
whole, points to the existence of totemism among the early Celts, or, at all
events, of the elements which elsewhere compose it.
Celtic animal worship dates back to the primitive hunting
and pastoral period, when men worshipped the animals which they hunted or
reared. They may have apologised to the animal hunted and slain--a form of
worship, or, where animals were not hunted or were reared and worshipped, one
of them may have been slain annually and eaten to obtain its divine power. Care
was taken to preserve certain sacred animals which were not hunted, and this
led to domestication, the abstinence of earlier generations leading to an
increased food supply at a later time, when domesticated animals were freely
slain. But the earlier sacramental slaying of such animals survived in the
religious aspect of their slaughter at the beginning of winter. The cult of
animals was also connected with totemic usage, though at a later stage this
cult was replaced by that of anthropomorphic divinities, with the older divine
animals as their symbols, sacrificial victims, and the like. This evolution now
led to the removal of restrictions upon slaying and eating the animals. On the
other hand, the more primitive animal cults may have remained here and there.
Animal cults were, perhaps, largely confined to men. With the rise of
agriculture mainly as an art in the hands of women, and the consequent cult of
the Earth-mother, of fertility and corn-spirits probably regarded as female,
the sacramental eating of the divine animal may have led to the slaying and
eating of a human or animal victim supposed to embody such a spirit. Later the
two cults were bound to coalesce, and the divine animal and the animal
embodiment of the vegetation spirit would not be differentiated. On the other hand, when
men began to take part in women's fertility cults, the fact that such spirits
were female or were perhaps coming to be regarded as goddesses, may have led
men to envisage certain of the anthropomorphic animal divinities as goddesses,
since some of these, e.g. Epona and Damona, are female. But with the increasing
participation of men in agriculture, the spirits or goddesses of fertility
would tend to become male, or the consorts or mothers of gods of fertility,
though the earlier aspect was never lost sight of, witness the Corn-Mother. The
evolution of divine priest-kings would cause them to take the place of the
earlier priestesses of these cults, one of whom may have been the divine
victim. Yet in local survivals certain cults were still confined to women, and
still had their priestesses.
The Religion of the Ancient Celts, By J. A. MacCulloch, 1911
Tree goddess: http://pictify.saatchigallery.com/910131/amazing-tree-sculpture-bebe39-looks-so-natural-trees
Bear goddess: https://www.flickr.com/photos/40826712@N00/8370374815
Tree: Wikipedia
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