Diana, akin to the 'unknown deity' of the Cimbri, and equivalent to the Armorican Dianhoff, i. e., di-anhoff, 'the not unlovely, unexceptionable, irreproachable ' the 'tria Virginis ora Dianæ,' also claim a passing note. "Luna in cœlo, Diana in terris, et Hecate in inferis." Thus Luna, or Cimbric Llun, is derived from llu, 'a host of heaven,' and 'un, uno, una,' 'united with,' or one with,' as Llu-un, and Llu-una, Llun and Luna. The Etruscan tablet has Llus, or Lus, and na=Lusna. The cœlo,' from ceulaw, to coagulate, or ceulo, a vacuum, the root of koos,—hence 'cav-eis ad sidera cæli,' from cau, hollow. There is, however, another root to cæl-um, in coel, 'belief, trust, omen,' which I believe to have been primarily the druidical Umbric or Cimbric interpretation of the heavenly abode. Diana, as above,-hence the Thana of the Etrusci, probably corrupted by them after the capture of Umbrian territories about 300 years before the foundation of Rome. The terris' is derived from tir, earth, land. The d and t were mutable into th. Hecate, or He-cast-e, from he, daring, and cast, gast, a canis fæminia, a bitch,—hence, Proserfina Prosarffyna, from pro, across, against, sarff, a creeping thing, a serpent, and yna, there,-i. e., in the regions below. "Serpentes atque Videres The 'inferis,' or uffern, a place of torment, is derived from uf, what is over, or spread, aud ffer, or ffern, 'dense, concrete,'-hence infern-us, avern-us. The latter term is derived from gwern, a swamp, or palus inferna. "Tardaque palus inamabilis undân "Allegat, et novies styx interfusa coercet.” Ceres Cir-es, from cir, a bounty, a boon, an offering a benefit, and es, a germinal sprig,-hence flava, et alma Ceres,' 'nutrit rura Ceres,' in allusions to the drink-offerings and gifts of placenta, cakes or dough, and loads of branches, made to her by men, women, and children of Israel, as one of the frame-work of heaven,' a 'Regina Cali,' and the pollicitatrix pluviarum, as we learn in Tertullian and in Jeremiah. Vesta, or Gwèste, from gwês, heat, fire, and eiste, the act of sitting, (safiad would have been the act of standing),-hence, "Hic locus est Vestæ, qui Pallada servat et ignem.” Whence εoria, a focus. Compare Cic. de nat. ii., 67. As Vesta is invariably represented and spoken of as sitting before a table of perpetual fire, would not 'sedendo' be the better reading, according to Roman artists, who must have been supposed to have accurately sketched the Goddess, either from ocular demonstration, or historical recollections, in that verse of Ovid commencing with "stat vi terra suâ, vi stando Vesta vocatur," or "stat vi terra suâ, sedendo Vesta vocatur." Bellona, Bellawn, or Bellon, from bel, war, and llawn, ‘full, abounding in,' or llon, glad, exulting in,-hence, "Dea bellorum præses. It Janus, the "God of the Year, who presided over the gates of heaven," was taken from the Cimmerian Dianws, or Dianaf, i. e., dia, or di, a negative prefix, signifying without, and anaf, a blemish, a wound, as a guardian of peace and suppressor of war. is equivalent to the Dianan of our cognate Veneti, 'the amiable deity,' the dispenser of tranquility. Let the student, irrespective of former prejudices, analyse the following expressions, as Jo-vis for dio-vis, dia for ja or da, as dia-eta== zeta, and Jan-us for di-anaf, or Dian-us. Æolus, Deus Ventorum, from awel, a gale, a breeze, a wind,— hence the Hebrew y, aaul, ael, or cnaawl, a tempest, a storm, and awλ-os, changeable, inconstant. "Hic vasto rex Eolus antro "Luctantes ventos, tempestatesque sonoras 'Imperio premit.' 66 Aes-culap Ais-culap Æs-culap-ius, is derived either from ysu, to consume, to do away with, or iachau, to heal, and clwyf, a disease. Vallancey, however, derives it from aisci in the Phenian, or Phoenician dialect, to heal, and scalp, a rock, on which it is surmised "that a temple was built to perform healing miracles." In either case the true interpretation has been elicited from the Cimmerian, or Celtic; whether the medicus practised as a Druid meddyg, a Punic fider, or an Irish Feathair, i. e., a teacher, or a doctor, on an âs, a plane, or on an alp, a craggy rock, or exclusively on a rock abutting on the plane, as âs-alp, or scealp. The Пarako, though mentioned in Herodotus, are not embraced in the category of Grecian gods, yet still come within the compass of the Cimmerian, as imaged off-shoots of its primeval Asiatic stock, and were early borrowed by the Phoenician and Carthaginian mariners to form the figureheads of their commercial navy. The obsolete expression patas, or ffatas, is derived from fad, 'a mask,' and tas, a fascia, a band, a fillet whereby to form a grouped-head as a grotesque representation of their heroes whom they invoked in time of danger during their oceanic voyages. The Spaniards and the Maltese have not yet given up this pagan absurdity. Now, let us see how others have derived this term. Some," says Vallancey, "from the ignorance of the Grecian authors, have thought that it was an ape, from its affinity to πιθηκος." "Monsieur Morin agrees with Scaliger, and both think it should be read fatas; the letter p with an hiatus being equal to f; they therefore ascribe this divinity to Vulcan, the supreme deity of the Egyptians, remarkable for his skill and knowledge." [But where, in all this, is the derivation and interpretation?] Fathas, in Irish, signifies 'skill, knowledge, and also divine poetry.' M. Bullet very justly derives Patakoi from the (Cimbro) Celtic pat vel vat vel båd, a boat, a skiff; to which may be added that oichi signifies champions,-and thence bâd, oichi, or Patakoi, may signify main champions, or skilful mariners." But Whether these Scaligerian or Bulletian derivations throw any new or extra light on the dwarfish figure-heads of Phoenician ships described by Herodotus, I leave the philological and historical student to decide for himself as to the naturalness of each interpretation. From the examples already given of the unmistakeable Cimmerian origin of Hellenistic and Roman theogony, I find I must draw a line of demarcation somewhere, as I only purported to give a dozen Hyperborean plagiarisms to satisfy the unrequited appetite of the root-eating school of detractors; and must now proceed to discuss the mysterious contents of a bardic druidical document that will necessarily entail on us a flying visit to the far east, even to the Babylonian and Ninevehian banks of the Pereth and Hiddekel, in quest of other gods or goddesses, who, also, must have had a corresponding share of universal wonderment in days of yore, and who, directly, or indirectly, have something to do, as will be seen in the sequel, either by way of comment or illustration, with our Britannia antiquissima, and the Παμπαλαιοι Δρυιδαι of an immemorial world. Gronyn bâch o wîr etto yn erbyn y byd. LET us pursue this subject from another point of view, and try to work out afresh the problem as partially developed by Taliesinian formulæ in reference to Bel and his worship. The subjoined passage from Taliesin, and supposed to be an immemorial liturgical formula of devotion, will, I trust, when analogically examined and put into juxtaposition with authors of the past, help to interpret shades of thought in connection with objects of druid worship, hitherto but ill understood. True it is that the enigmatical language in which the ideas are clothed was adopted on certain fixed principles of reticence and exclusiveness, so that the outer world, uninitiated in the classics of the druids, might not penetrate the veil of mystery attached to the ceremonial. The Sibylline phraseology, so to speak, independently of the sentiments therein contained, must have seemed as figurative and enigmatical to the audience of that day as the knowledge of Latin is to the spell-bound majority of Papal adherents, or as the style and allusions of Bantine or Ugubian tables, or the roots of primeval Umbrian or Etruscan formulæ are incomprehensible to the un-Celtic classic of our own day, however prominent or imposing his learning as regards the elementa et semina rerum vel radices linguarum mortuarum. This paragraph has been very skillfully handled and paraphrased by two of our most accomplished Cimbric scholars, the Rev. E. Davies, and Owen Pughe, L.L.D., as follows: DAVIES. Y rhodd yn yr aur gorn Y gyllell ar flaenor y praidd A Manhogan y brenin PUGHE. Diod mewn aur gyrn Ar blaenoriaieth oddwrth Feli With regard to these apparently antagonistic interpretations, Carnhuanawc, the Cimbric historian, intimates his belief that it is next to impossible to base any definite or well-regulated tenets of druidism upon fragmental portions so antique and mystified. However mysterious or Cabiric the text may be as a tout ensemble, to the generality of readers, yet methinks I seem to view gleams of Eastern light issuing forth in all the formal meed of ceremonial praise and worship, as personified in Bel, during the prehistoric age of Ynys Fel-the Honey Isle of the Hyperborean sea, centuries, probably, prior either to its Cimbric or Grecian designations of Ynys Prydain, Albion, or.Bpıravvia, respectively. By collating the two readings with each other and the text, and by comparing them with Homeric and Virgilian synonymes, we shall be able to arrive at something like a tangible and intelligible result. This process of reconciliation will be still further elucidated by a future study of Babylonian monograms as revealing correlative adhesiveness to Assyrian theogony. The officiating priest or druid, then, is made to say, by one annotator, "Yn gyfrwys i'th foliannaf "A'r Blaenoriaeth oddiwrth Feli." "With subtleness will I give praise unto thee "And the supremacy from Beli, "Son of Manhogan, the king." acording to the other, "With seriousness will I The questions to be propounded, therefore, are: To whom was praise or worship given? From whom and to whom was supremacy delegated and conferred? At what period did this druidical act of devotion approximately originate? |