Part 12 (1/2)

Yet we should be sorry to charge the Established Church or its clergy, some of whom are most earnest and hard-working men, with the sins of their paris.h.i.+oners. The following extract from St. Columba's magnificent Hymn, will show what the early Irish saints thought of pagan superst.i.tions:

”I adore not the voice of birds, Nor sneezing, nor lots in this world, Nor a boy, nor chance, nor woman: My Druid is Christ, the Son of G.o.d; Christ, Son of Mary, the great Abbot, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

[138] _Aengus_.--

”Died the branch, the spreading tree of gold, Aenghus the laudable.”

--Four Masters, p. 153. The branches of this tree have indeed spread far and wide, and the four great families mentioned above have increased and multiplied in all parts of the world.

[139] _Year_ 503.--The Four Masters give the date 498, which O'Donovan corrects both in the text and in a note.

[140] _Broccan's Hymn_.--This Hymn was written about A.D. 510. See the translation in Mr. Whitley Stokes' _Goidilica_, Calcutta, 1866.

Privately printed.

[141] _Saints_.--St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Brigid. See Reeves'

_Ecc. Anti. of Down and Connor_, p. 225, and Giraldus Cambrensis, d. 3, cap. 18.

[142] _Domhnach Airgid_.--See O'Curry, _MS. Materials_, p. 321, for a complete verification of the authenticity of this relic. The Tripart.i.te Life of St. Patrick mentions the gift of this relic by the saint to _St.

MacCarthainn_. Dr. Petrie concludes that the copy of the Gospels contained therein, was undoubtedly the one which was used by our apostle. We give a fac-simile of the first page, which cannot fail to interest the antiquarian.

[143] _Famine years_.--During the famous, or rather infamous, Partry evictions, an old man of eighty and a woman of seventy-four were amongst the number of those who suffered for their ancient faith. They were driven from the home which their parents and grandfathers had occupied, in a pitiless storm of sleet and snow. The aged woman utters some slight complaint; but her n.o.ble-hearted aged husband consoles her with this answer: ”The sufferings and death of Jesus Christ were bitterer still.”

Sixty-nine souls were cast out of doors that day. Well might the _Times_ say: ”These evictions are a hideous scandal; and the bishop should rather die than be guilty of such a crime.” Yet, who can count up all the evictions, ma.s.sacres, tortures, and punishments which this people has endured?

CHAPTER X.

[Gothic: The Religion of Ancient Erinn]--The Druids and their Teaching--The Irish were probably Fire-wors.h.i.+ppers--[Gothic: The Customs of Ancient Erinn]--Similarity between Eastern and Irish Customs--Beal Fires--Hunting the Wren--”Jacks,” a Grecian game--”Keen,” an Eastern Custom--Superst.i.tions--The Meaning of the Word--What Customs are Superst.i.tious and what are not--Holy Wells--[Gothic: The Laws of Ancient Erinn]--Different kinds of Laws--The Lex non Scripta and the Lex Scripta--Christianity necessitated the Revision of Ancient Codes--The Compilation of the Brehon Laws--Proofs that St. Patrick a.s.sisted thereat--Law of Distress--Law of Succession--[Gothic: The Language of Ancient Erinn]--Writing in pre-Christian Erinn--Ogham Writing--[Gothic: Antiquities of pre-Christian Erinn]--Round Towers--Cromlechs--Raths--Crannoges.

Eastern customs and eastern superst.i.tions, which undoubtedly are a strong confirmatory proof of our eastern origin, abounded in ancient Erinn. Druidism was the religion of the Celts, and druidism was probably one of the least corrupt forms of paganism. The purity of the divinely-taught patriarchal wors.h.i.+p, became more and more corrupted as it pa.s.sed through defiled channels. Yet, in all pagan mythologies, we find traces of the eternal verity in an obvious prominence of cultus offered to one G.o.d above the rest; and obvious, though grossly misapplied, glimpses of divine attributes, in the many deified objects which seemed to symbolize his power and his omnipotence.

The Celtic druids probably taught the same doctrine as the Greek philosophers. The metempsychosis, a prominent article of this creed, may have been derived from the Pythagoreans, but more probably it was one of the many relics of patriarchal belief which were engrafted on all pagan religions. They also taught that the universe would never be entirely destroyed, supposing that it would be purified by fire and water from time to time. This opinion may have been derived from the same source.

The druids had a _pontifex maximus_, to whom they yielded entire obedience,--an obvious imitation of the Jewish custom. The nation was entirely governed by its priests, though after a time, when the kingly power developed itself, the priestly power gave place to the regal. Gaul was the head-quarters of druidism; and thither we find the Britons, and even the Romans, sending their children for instruction. Eventually, Mona became a chief centre for Britain. The Gaedhilic druids, though probably quite as learned as their continental brethren, were more isolated; and hence we cannot learn so much of their customs from external sources. There is no doubt that the druids of Gaul and Britain offered human sacrifices; it appears almost certain the Irish druids did not.

Our princ.i.p.al and most reliable information about this religion, is derived from Caesar. His account of the learning of its druids, of their knowledge of astronomy, physical science, mechanics, arithmetic, and medicine, however highly coloured, is amply corroborated by the casual statements of other authors.[144] He expressly states that they used the Greek character in their writings, and mentions tables found in the camp of the Helvetii written in these characters, containing an account of all the men capable of bearing arms.

It is probable that Irish druidical rites manifested themselves princ.i.p.ally in Sun-wors.h.i.+p. The name of Bel, still retained in the Celtic Beltinne, indicates its Phoenician origin; Baal being the name under which they adored that luminary. It is also remarkable that Grian, which signifies the sun in Irish, resembles an epithet of Apollo given by Virgil,[145] who sometimes styles him Grynaeus. St. Patrick also confirms this conjecture, by condemning Sun-wors.h.i.+p in his Confession, when he says: ”All those who adore it shall descend into misery and punishment.” If the well-known pa.s.sage of Diodorus Siculus may be referred to Ireland, it affords another confirmation. Indeed, it appears difficult to conceive how any other place but Ireland could be intended by the ”island in the ocean over against Gaul, to the north, and not inferior in size to Sicily, the _soil of which is so fruitful_ that they mow there twice in the year.”[146] In this most remarkable pa.s.sage, he mentions the skill of their harpers, their sacred groves and _singular temple of round form_, their attachment to the Greeks by a singular affection from _old times_, and their tradition of having been visited by the Greeks, who left offerings which were noted in _Greek letters_.

Toland and Carte a.s.sume that this pa.s.sage refers to the Hebrides, Rowlands applies it to the island of Anglesea; but these conjectures are not worth regarding. We can scarcely imagine an unprejudiced person deciding against Ireland; but where prejudice exists, no amount of proof will satisfy. It has been suggested that the Irish pagan priests were not druids properly so called, but magi;[147] and that the Irish word which is taken to mean druid, is only used to denote persons specially gifted with wisdom. Druidism probably sprung from magism, which was a purer kind of wors.h.i.+p, though it would be difficult now to define the _precise_ limits which separated these forms of paganism. If the original pagan religion of ancient Erinn was magism, introduced by its Phoenician colonizers, it is probable that it had gradually degenerated to the comparatively grosser rites of the druid before the advent of St.

Patrick. His destruction of the idols at Magh Slecht is unquestionable evidence that idol wors.h.i.+p[148] was then practised, though probably in a very limited degree.

The folklore of a people is perhaps, next to their language, the best guide to their origin. The editor of Bohn's edition of the Chronicle of Richard of Cirencester remarks, that ”many points of coincidence have been remarked in comparing the religion of the Hindoos with that of the ancient Britons; and in the language of these two people some striking similarities occur in those proverbs and modes of expression which are derived from national and religious ceremonies.”[149] We are not aware of any British customs or proverbs which bear upon this subject, nor does the writer mention any in proof of his a.s.sertion: if, however, for Britons we read Irish, his observations may be amply verified.

The kindly ”G.o.d save you!” and ”G.o.d bless all here!” of the Irish peasant, finds its counterpart in the eastern ”G.o.d be gracious to thee, my son!” The partiality, if not reverence, for the number seven, is indicated in our churches. The warm-hearted hospitality of the very poorest peasant, is a practical and never-failing ill.u.s.tration of the Hindoo proverb, ”The tree does not withdraw its shade even from the woodcutter.”

The celebration of St. John's Eve by watchfires, is undoubtedly a remnant of paganism, still practised in many parts of Ireland, as we can aver from personal knowledge; but the custom of pa.s.sing cattle through the fire has been long discontinued, and those who kindle the fires have little idea of its origin, and merely continue it as an amus.e.m.e.nt. Kelly mentions, in his _Folklore_, that a calf was sacrificed in Northamptons.h.i.+re during the present century, in one of these fires, to ”stop the murrain.” The superst.i.tious use of fire still continues in England and Scotland, though we believe the Beltinne on St. John's Eve is peculiar to Ireland. The hunting of the wren[150] on St. Stephen's Day, in this country, is said, by Vallancey, to have been originated by the first Christian missionaries, to counteract the superst.i.tious reverence with which this bird was regarded by the druids. Cla.s.sic readers will remember the origin of the respect paid to this bird in pagan times. The peasantry in Ireland, who have never read either Pliny or Aristotle, are equally conversant with the legend.

The common and undignified game of ”jacks” also lays claim to a n.o.ble ancestry. In Mr. St. John's work on _The Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece_, he informs us that the game was a cla.s.sical one, and called _pentalitha._ It was played with five _astragals_--knuckle-bones, pebbles, or little b.a.l.l.s--which were thrown up into the air, and then attempted to be caught when falling on the back of the hand. Another Irish game, ”p.r.i.c.king the loop,” in Greece is called _himantiliginos_, p.r.i.c.king the garter. Hemestertius supposes the Gordian Knot to have been nothing but a variety of the himantiliginos. The game consists in winding a thong in such an intricate manner, that when a peg is inserted in the right ring, it is caught, and the game is won; if the mark is missed, the thong unwinds without entangling the peg.