Part 7 (1/2)

[30] Bingley, _North Wales_, 1814, p. 252.

[31] See my _Folklore Relics of Early Village Life_, 29; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 97. This case was reported in the newspapers at the time of its occurrence. It came to England from the _London and China Telegraph_, from which the _Newcastle Chronicle_, 9 February, 1889, copied the following statement:--

”The boatmen on the Ganges, near Rajmenal, somehow came to believe that the Government required a hundred thousand human heads as the foundation for a great bridge, and that the Government officers were going about the river in search of heads. A hunting party, consisting of four Europeans, happening to pa.s.s in a boat, were set upon by the one hundred and twenty boatmen, with the cry 'Gulla Katta,' or cut-throats, and only escaped with their lives after the greatest difficulty.”

[32] I have worked out this fact in my _Governance of London_, 46-68, 202-229.

[33] See Turner, _Hist. of Anglo-Saxons_, ii. 207-222; _Y Cymmrodor_, xi. 61-101.

[34] A pa.s.sage in William of Malmesbury points to the fact of the Bretons in the time of Athelstan looking upon themselves as exiles from the land of their fathers. Radhod, a prefect of the church at Avranches, writes to King Athelstan as ”Rex gloriose exultator ecclesiae ... deprecamur atque humiliter invocamus qui in exulatu et captivitate nostris meritis et peccatis, in Francia commoramur” etc., _De Gestis Regum Anglorum_ (Rolls Ed.), i. 154.

[35] Rhys, _Celtic Folklore_, ii. 466. Sir John Rhys acknowledges his indebtedness to me for lending him my Swaffham notes, but at that time I had not formed the views stated above and Sir John Rhys confessed his difficulty in cla.s.sifying and characterising these stories (p. 456).

[36] In the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, anno 418, and in _Ethelward's Chronicle_, A.D. 418, it is recorded that ”those of the Roman race who were left in Britain bury their treasures in pits, thinking that hereafter they might have better fortune, which never was the case.”

[37] Buried treasure legends are worth examining carefully, especially with reference to their geographical distribution, with a view of ascertaining how far they follow the direction of the Roman, English, Danish and Norman Conquests. See Henderson, _Folklore of Northern Counties_, 320, for Yorks.h.i.+re examples, and _Folklore Record_, i. 16, for an interesting Suss.e.x example.

The Danish part of Lincoln, near Sleaford, has numerous treasure legends, see Rev. G. Oliver, _Existing Remains of Ancient Britons between Lincoln and Sleaford_, pp. 29 _et seq._

Mr. W. J. Andrew has proved in the _British Numismatic Journal_ (1st ser. i. 9-59) that traditions of buried treasure may be verified a thousand years after the laying down of the h.o.a.rd. This has reference to the famous Cuerdale find of coins. The people of Walton-le-Dale, on the Ribble, had a legend that if you stood on a certain headland and looked up the valley to Ribchester ”you would gaze over the greatest treasure that England had ever seen.” The farmers tried excavations, and the divining rod is said to have been used.

The tradition was true. In May, 1840, the h.o.a.rd was accidentally found, near Cuerdale Hall, within forty yards of the stream, by men who were repairing the southern bank. A willow tree, still in its prime, was planted to mark the spot. We do not know how much bullion was scattered by the finders, but there was recovered a ma.s.s of ingots, armlets, chains, rings, and so on, amounting to 1000 oz., with over 7000 silver coins. They lay in a crumbling leaden case, within a decomposed chest of wood. There were about 1060 English silver coins, whereof 919 were of the reign of King Alfred. There were 2020 from Northumbrian ecclesiastical mints, and 2534 of King Canute, with 1047 foreign coins, mainly French. The treasure had belonged to the Scandinavian invaders in the host of the Danish Kings of Northumbria, and very many bore the mark of York, the Danish capital. The chest was the treasure-chest of the Danes. The money had been seized in England, 890-897; on French coasts, 897-910; and collected among the Danes of Northumbria about 911. In that year, we know, the Danes raided Mercia, and were followed by the English King and thoroughly defeated. Their treasurer, Osberth, was killed, and it is argued that the Danes fell back by the Roman road, and were trying to cross into Northumbria by the ford at Cuerdale, but that, the ford being dangerous, they were obliged to bury their treasure-chest forty yards on the southern bank of the river.

They were unable to cross, were cooped up in a bend of the stream, and were all put to the sword. Mr. Lang discussed this from the folklore point of view in the _Morning Post_, 2nd November, 1906, and concludes that ”granting that none who knew the site of the deposit escaped, the theory marches well, and quite accounts for the presence of the h.o.a.rd where it was found. The Danish rearguard defending the line of the Darwen would know that their treasure was hurried forward and probably concealed, but would not know the exact spot.”

Another good example is recorded in the _Antiquary_, xiv. 228. Further Henderson notes that the Borderers of England and Scotland entrusted their buried treasure to the brownie (_Folklore of Northern Counties_, 248). This is exactly the same idea which exists throughout India.

”Hidden treasures are under the special guardians.h.i.+p of supernatural beings. The Singhalese, however, divide the charge between demons and cobra capellas. Various charms are resorted to by those who wish to gain the treasures. A puja is sufficient with the cobras, but the demons require a sacrifice. Blood of a human being is the most important, but the Kappowas have hitherto confined themselves to a sacrifice of a white c.o.c.k, combining its blood with their own, drawn by a slight puncture in the hand or foot. A Tamil, however, has resorted to human sacrifice as instanced by a case reported in the _Ceylon Times_.”--_Indian Antiquary_, 1873. ii. p. 125.

[38] Morris, _Heimskringla_, ii. 13.

[39] Laing's _Heimskringla_, ii. 260.

[40] Rhys, _The Arthurian Legend_, 7. Squire, in his recent _Mythology of the British Islands_, states the case for ”the mythological coming of Arthur” in cap. xxi. of his book.

[41] As, for instance, in the case of Taliesin and Ossian, see Squire, _Mythology of the British Islands_, 318; Rhys, _Celtic Mythology_, 551; Nutt's Notes to _Mabinogion_.

I suppose the most ancient example of the duplication process is that of Dion Ca.s.sius (iii. 5), who suggests an earlier Romulus and Remus in order to account for the early occupation of the Palatine Hill at Rome.

Middleton's _Anc. Rome_, 45.

[42] It is interesting to find that, with independent investigation, Mr. Bury explains on the lines I adopt the traditional part of the life of St. Patrick. See his _Life of St. Patrick_, p. 111.

[43] Freeman, _Hist. Norm. Conq._, iv. 467.

[44] Wright, _Essays_, i. 244, notes this point; see also Freeman, _Hist. Norm. Conq._, iv. 828, and the preface to my edition of Macfarlane's _Camp of Refuge_ (Historical Novels Series), where I have discussed this subject at length.

[45] _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, iii. 52.

[46] Russell, _Kett's Rebellion_, p. 6.

[47] Kemble's _Horae Ferales_, 108.