diff options
Diffstat (limited to '18041.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 18041.txt | 1726 |
1 files changed, 1726 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/18041.txt b/18041.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c77baf --- /dev/null +++ b/18041.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1726 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Celtic Religion, by Edward Anwyl + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Celtic Religion + in Pre-Christian Times + + +Author: Edward Anwyl + + + +Release Date: March 23, 2006 [eBook #18041] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC RELIGION*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1906 Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd. edition by David +Price, ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +CELTIC RELIGION +IN PRE-CHRISTIAN TIMES + + +By +EDWARD ANWYL, M.A. + +LATE CLASSICAL SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD +PROFESSOR OF WELSH AND COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY AT +THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH +ACTING-CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL WELSH BOARD +FOR INTERMEDIATE EDUCATION + +LONDON +ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD +16 JAMES STREET HAYMARKET +1906 + +Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty + + + + +FOREWORD + + +It is only as prehistoric archaeology has come to throw more and more +light on the early civilisations of Celtic lands that it has become +possible to interpret Celtic religion from a thoroughly modern viewpoint. +The author cordially acknowledges his indebtedness to numerous writers on +this subject, but his researches into some portions of the field +especially have suggested to him the possibility of giving a new +presentation to certain facts and groups of facts, which the existing +evidence disclosed. It is to be hoped that a new interest in the +religion of the Celts may thereby be aroused. + +E. ANWYL. + +ABERYSTWYTH, +_February_ 15, 1906. + + + + +CHAPTER I--INTRODUCTORY: THE CELTS + + +In dealing with the subject of 'Celtic Religion' the first duty of the +writer is to explain the sense in which the term 'Celtic' will be used in +this work. It will be used in reference to those countries and districts +which, in historic times, have been at one time or other mainly of Celtic +speech. It does not follow that all the races which spoke a form of the +Celtic tongue, a tongue of the Indo-European family, were all of the same +stock. Indeed, ethnological and archaeological evidence tends to +establish clearly that, in Gaul and Britain, for example, man had lived +for ages before the introduction of any variety of Aryan or Indo-European +speech, and this was probably the case throughout the whole of Western +and Southern Europe. Further, in the light of comparative philology, it +has now become abundantly clear that the forms of Indo-European speech +which we call Celtic are most closely related to those of the Italic +family, of which family Latin is the best known representative. From +this it follows that we are to look for the centre of dissemination of +Aryan Celtic speech in some district of Europe that could have been the +natural centre of dissemination also for the Italic languages. From this +common centre, through conquest and the commercial intercourse which +followed it, the tribes which spoke the various forms of Celtic and +Italic speech spread into the districts occupied by them in historic +times. The common centre of radiation for Celtic and Italic speech was +probably in the districts of Noricum and Pannonia, the modern Carniola, +Carinthia, etc., and the neighbouring parts of the Danube valley. The +conquering Aryan-speaking Celts and Italians formed a military +aristocracy, and their success in extending the range of their languages +was largely due to their skill in arms, combined, in all probability, +with a talent for administration. This military aristocracy was of +kindred type to that which carried Aryan speech into India and Persia, +Armenia and Greece, not to speak of the original speakers of the Teutonic +and Slavonic tongues. In view of the necessity of discovering a centre, +whence the Indo-European or Aryan languages in general could have +radiated Eastwards, as well as Westwards, the tendency to-day is to +regard these tongues as having been spoken originally in some district +between the Carpathians and the Steppes, in the form of kindred dialects +of a common speech. Some branches of the tribes which spoke these +dialects penetrated into Central Europe, doubtless along the Danube, and, +from the Danube valley, extended their conquests together with their +various forms of Aryan speech into Southern and Western Europe. The +proportion of conquerors to conquered was not uniform in all the +countries where they held sway, so that the amount of Aryan blood in +their resultant population varied greatly. In most cases, the families +of the original conquerors, by their skill in the art of war and a +certain instinct of government, succeeded in making their own tongues the +dominant media of communication in the lands where they ruled, with the +result that most of the languages of Europe to-day are of the Aryan or +Indo-European type. It does not, however, follow necessarily from this +that the early religious ideas or the artistic civilisation of countries +now Aryan in speech, came necessarily from the conquerors rather than the +conquered. In the last century it was long held that in countries of +Aryan speech the essential features of their civilisation, their +religious ideas, their social institutions, nay, more, their inhabitants +themselves, were of Aryan origin. + +A more critical investigation has, however, enabled us to distinguish +clearly between the development of various factors of human life which in +their evolution can follow and often have followed more or less +independent lines. The physical history of race, for instance, forms a +problem by itself and must be studied by anthropological and ethnological +methods. Language, again, has often spread along lines other than those +of race, and its investigation appertains to the sphere of the +philologist. Material civilisation, too, has not of necessity followed +the lines either of racial or of linguistic development, and the search +for its ancient trade-routes may be safely left to the archaeologist. +Similarly the spread of ideas in religion and thought is one which has +advanced on lines of its own, and its investigation must be conducted by +the methods and along the lines of the comparative study of religions. + +In the wide sense, then, in which the word 'Celtic religion' will be used +in this work, it will cover the modes of religious thought prevalent in +the countries and districts, which, in course of time, were mainly +characterised by their Celtic speech. To the sum-total of these +religious ideas contributions have been made from many sources. It would +be rash to affirm that the various streams of Aryan Celtic conquest made +no contributions to the conceptions of life and of the world which the +countries of their conquest came to hold (and the evidence of language +points, indeed, to some such contributions), but their quota appears to +be small compared with that of their predecessors; nor is this +surprising, in view of the immense period during which the lands of their +conquest had been previously occupied. Nothing is clearer than the +marvellous persistence of traditional and immemorial modes of thought, +even in the face of conquest and subjugation, and, whatever ideas on +religion the Aryan conquerors of Celtic lands may have brought with them, +they whose conquests were often only partial could not eradicate the +inveterate beliefs of their predecessors, and the result in the end was +doubtless some compromise, or else the victory of the earlier faith. + +But the Aryan conquerors of Gaul and Italy themselves were not men who +had advanced up the Danube in one generation. Those men of Aryan speech +who poured into the Italian peninsula and into Gaul were doubtless in +blood not unmixed with the older inhabitants of Central Europe, and had +entered into the body of ideas which formed the religious beliefs of the +men of the Danube valley. The common modifications of the Aryan tongue, +by Italians and Celts alike, as compared with Greek, suggests contact +with men of different speech. Among the names of Celtic gods, too, like +those of other countries, we find roots that are apparently irreducible +to any found in Indo-European speech, and we know not what pre-Aryan +tongues may have contributed them. Scholars, to-day, are far more alive +than they ever were before to the complexity of the contributory elements +that have entered into the tissue of the ancient religions of mankind, +and the more the relics of Celtic religion are investigated, the more +complex do its contributory factors become. In the long ages before +history there were unrecorded conquests and migrations innumerable, and +ideas do not fail to spread because there is no historian to record them. + +The more the scanty remnants of Celtic religion are examined, the clearer +it becomes that many of its characteristic features had been evolved +during the vast period of the ages of stone. During these millennia, men +had evolved, concomitantly with their material civilisation, a kind of +working philosophy of life, traces of which are found in every land where +this form of civilisation has prevailed. Man's religion can never be +dissociated from his social experience, and the painful stages through +which man reached the agricultural life, for example, have left their +indelible impress on the mind of man in Western Europe, as they have in +every land. We are thus compelled, from the indications which we have of +Celtic religion, in the names of its deities, its rites, and its +survivals in folk-lore and legend, to come to the conclusion, that its +fundamental groundwork is a body of ideas, similar to those of other +lands, which were the natural correlatives of the phases of experience +through which man passed in his emergence into civilised life. To +demonstrate and to illustrate these relations will be the aim of the +following chapters. + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE CHIEF PHASES OF CELTIC CIVILISATION + + +In the chief countries of Celtic civilisation, Gaul, Cisalpine and +Transalpine, Britain and Ireland, abundant materials have been found for +elucidating the stages of culture through which man passed in prehistoric +times. In Britain, for example, palaeolithic man has left numerous +specimens of his implements, but the forms even of these rude implements +suggest that they, too, have been evolved from still more primitive +types. Some antiquarians have thought to detect such earlier types in +the stones that have been named 'eoliths' found in Kent, but, though +these 'eoliths' may possibly show human use, the question of their +history is far from being settled. It is certain, however, that man +succeeded in maintaining himself for ages in the company of the mammoth, +the cave-bear, and other animals now extinct. Whether palaeolithic man +survived the Ice Age in Britain has not so far been satisfactorily +decided. In Gaul, however, there is fair evidence of continuity between +the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods, and this continuity must +obviously have existed somewhere. Still in spite of the indications of +continuity, the civilisation of primitive man in Gaul presents one aspect +that is without any analogues in the life of the palaeolithic men of the +River Drift period, or in that of man of the New Stone Age. The feature +in question is the remarkable artistic skill shown by the cave men of the +Dordogne district. Some of the drawings and carvings of these men reveal +a sense of form which would have done credit to men of a far later age. A +feature such as this, whatever may have been its object, whether it arose +from an effort by means of 'sympathetic magic' to catch animals, as M. +Salomon Reinach suggests, or to the mere artistic impulse, is a standing +reminder to us of the scantiness of our data for estimating the lines of +man's religious and other development in the vast epochs of prehistoric +time. + +We know that from the life of hunting man passed into the pastoral stage, +having learned to tame animals. How he came to do so, and by what +motives he was actuated, is still a mystery. It may be, as M. Salomon +Reinach has also suggested, that it was some curious and indefinable +sense of kinship with them that led him to do so, or more probably, as +the present writer thinks, some sense of a need of the alliance of +animals against hostile spirits. In all probability it was no motive +which we can now fathom. The mind of early man was like the unfathomable +mind of a boy. From the pastoral life again man passed after long ages +into the life of agriculture, and the remains of neolithic man in Gaul +and in Britain give us glimpses of his life as a farmer. The ox, the +sheep, the pig, the goat, and the dog were his domestic animals; he could +grow wheat and flax, and could supplement the produce of his farm by +means of hunting and fishing. Neolithic man could spin and weave; he +could obtain the necessary flint for his implements, which he made by +chipping and polishing, and he could also make pottery of a rude variety. +In its essentials we have here the beginnings of the agricultural +civilisation of man all the world over. In life, neolithic man dwelt +sometimes in pit-dwellings and sometimes in hut-circles, covered with a +roof of branches supported by a central pole. In death, he was buried +with his kin in long mounds of earth called barrows, in chambered cairns +and cromlechs or dolmens. The latter usually consist of three standing +stones covered by a cap-stone; forming the stony skeleton of a grave that +has been exposed to view after the mound of earth that covered it has +been washed away. In their graves the dead were buried in a crouching +attitude, and fresh burials were made as occasion required. Sometimes +the cromlech is double, and occasionally there is a hole in one of the +stones, the significance of which is unknown, unless it may have been for +the ingress and egress of souls. Graves of the dolmen or cromlech type +are found in all the countries of Western Europe, North Africa, and +elsewhere, wherever stone suitable for the purpose abounds, and in this +we have a striking illustration of the way in which lines of development +in man's material civilisation are sooner or later correlated to his +geographical, geological, and other surroundings. The religious ideas of +man in neolithic times also came into correlation with the conditions of +his development, and the uninterpreted stone circles and pillars of the +world are a standing witness to the religious zeal of a mind that was +haunted by stone. Before proceeding to exemplify this thesis the +subsequent trend of Celtic civilisation may be briefly sketched. + +Through the pacific intercourse of commerce, bronze weapons and +implements began to find their way, about 2000 B.C. or earlier, from +Central and Southern Europe into Gaul, and thence into Britain. In +Britain the Bronze Age begins at about 1500 or 1400 B.C., and it is +thought by some archaeologists that bronze was worked at this period by +the aid of native tin in Britain itself. There are indications, however, +that the introduction of bronze into Britain was not by way of commerce +alone. About the beginning of the Bronze period are found evidences in +this island of a race of different type from that of neolithic man, being +characterised by a round skull and a powerful build, and by general +indications of a martial bearing. The remains of this race are usually +found in round barrows. + +This race, which certainly used bronze weapons, is generally believed to +have been the first wave that reached Britain of Aryan conquerors of +Celtic speech from the nearest part of the continent, where it must have +arrived some time previously, probably along the Rhine valley. As the +type of Celtic speech that has penetrated farthest to the west is that +known as the Goidelic or Irish, it has not unreasonably been thought that +this must have been the type that arrived in Britain first. There are +indications, too, that it was this type that penetrated furthest into the +west of Gaul. Its most marked characteristic is its preservation of the +pronunciation of U as 'oo' and of QU, while the 'Brythonic' or Welsh +variety changed U to a sound pronounced like the French 'u' or the German +'u' and also QU to P. There is a similar line of cleavage in the Italic +languages, where Latin corresponds to Goidelic, and Oscan and Umbrian to +Brythonic. Transalpine Gaul was probably invaded by Aryan-speaking Celts +from more than one direction, and the infiltration and invasion of new- +comers, when it had once begun, was doubtless continuous through these +various channels. There are cogent reasons for thinking that ultimately +the dominant type of Celtic speech over the greater part of Gaul came to +be that of the P rather than the QU type, owing to the influx from the +East and Northeast of an overflow from the Rhine valley of tribes +speaking that dialect; a dialect which, by force of conquest and culture, +tended to spread farther and farther West. Into Britain, too, as time +went on, the P type of Celtic was carried, and has survived in Welsh and +Cornish, the remnants of the tongue of ancient Britain. We know, too, +from the name Eporedia (Yvrea), that this dialect of Celtic must have +spread into Cisalpine Gaul. The latter district may have received its +first Celtic invaders direct from the Danube valley, as M. Alexandre +Bertrand held, but it would be rash to assume that all its invaders came +from that direction. In connection, however, with the history of Celtic +religion it is not the spread of the varying types of Celtic dialect that +is important, but the changes in the civilisation of Gaul and Britain, +which reacted on religious ideas or which introduced new factors into the +religious development of these lands. + +The predatory expeditions and wars of conquest of military Celtic tribes +in search for new homes for their superfluous populations brought into +prominence the deities of war, as was the case also with the ancient +Romans, themselves an agricultural and at the same time a predatory race. +The prominence of war in Celtic tribal life at one stage has left us the +names of a large number of deities that were identified with Mars and +Bellona, though all the war-gods were not originally such. In the Roman +calendar there is abundant evidence that Mars was at one time an +agricultural god as well as a god of war. The same, as will be shown +later, was the probable history of some of the Celtic deities, who were +identified in Roman times with Mars and Bellona. Caesar tells us that +Mars had at one time been the chief god of the Gauls, and that in Germany +that was still the case. In Britain, also, we find that there were +several deities identified with Mars, notably Belatucadrus and Cocidius, +and this, too, points in the direction of a development of religion under +military influence. The Gauls appear to have made great strides in +military matters and in material civilisation during the Iron Age. The +culture of the Early Iron Age of Hallstatt had been developed in Gaul on +characteristic lines of its own, resulting in the form now known as the +La Tene or Marnian type. This type derives it name from the striking +specimens of it that were discovered at La Tene on the shore of Lake +Neuchatel, and in the extensive cemeteries of the Marne valley, the +burials of which cover a period of from 350-200 B.C. It was during the +third century B.C. that this characteristic culture of Gaul reached its +zenith, and gave definite shape to the beautiful curved designs known as +those of Late-Celtic Art. Iron appears to have been introduced into +Britain about 300 B.C., and the designs of Late-Celtic Art are here +represented best of all. Excellent specimens of Late-Celtic culture have +been found in Yorkshire and elsewhere, and important links with +continental developments have been discovered at Aylesford, Aesica, +Limavady, and other places. Into the development of this typical Gaulish +culture elements are believed to have entered by way of the important +commercial avenue of the Rhone valley from Massilia (Marseilles), from +Greece (_via_ Venetia), and possibly from Etruria. Prehistoric +archaeology affords abundant proofs that, in countries of Celtic speech, +metal-working in bronze, iron, and gold reached a remarkably high pitch +of perfection, and this is a clear indication that Celtic countries and +districts which were on the line of trade routes, like the Rhone valley, +had attained to a material civilisation of no mean character before the +Roman conquest. In Britain, too, the districts that were in touch with +continental commerce had, as Caesar tells us, also developed in the same +direction. The religious counterpart of this development in civilisation +is the growth in many parts of Gaul, as attested by Caesar and by many +inscriptions and place-names, of the worship of gods identified with +Mercury and Minerva, the deities of civilisation and commerce. It is no +accident that one of the districts most conspicuous for this worship was +the territory of the Allobrogic confederation, where the commerce of the +Rhone valley found its most remarkable development. From this sketch of +Celtic civilisation it will readily be seen how here as elsewhere the +religious development of the Celts stood closely related to the +development of their civilisation generally. It must be borne in mind, +however, that all parts of the Celtic world were not equally affected by +the material development in question. Part of the complexity of the +history of Celtic religion arises from the fact that we cannot be always +certain of the degree of progress in civilisation which any given +district had made, of the ideas which pervaded it, or of the absorbing +interests of its life. Another difficulty, too, is that the accounts of +Celtic religion given by ancient authorities do not always harmonise with +the indisputable evidence of inscriptions. The probability is that the +religious practices of the Celtic world were no more homogeneous than its +general civilisation, and that the ancient authorities are substantially +true in their statements about certain districts, certain periods, or +certain sections of society, while the inscriptions, springing as they do +from the influence of the Gallo-Roman civilisation, especially of Eastern +Gaul and military Britain, give us most valuable supplementary evidence +for districts and environments of a different kind. The inscriptions, +especially by the names of deities which they reveal, have afforded most +valuable clues to the history of Celtic religion, even in stages of +civilisation earlier than those to which they themselves belong. In the +next chapter the correlation of Celtic religious ideas to the stages of +Celtic civilisation will be further developed. + + + + +CHAPTER III--THE CORRELATION OF CELTIC RELIGION WITH THE GROWTH OF CELTIC +CIVILISATION + + +In dealing with the long vista of prehistoric time, it is very difficult +for us, in our effort after perspective, not to shorten unduly in our +thoughts the vast epochs of its duration. We tend, too, to forget, that +in these unnumbered millennia there was ample time for it to be possible +over certain areas of Europe to evolve what were practically new races, +through the prepotency of particular stocks and the annihilation of +others. During these epochs, again, after speech had arisen, there was +time enough to recast completely many a language, for before the dawn of +history language was no more free from change than it is now, and in +these immense epochs whatever ideas as to the world of their surroundings +were vaguely felt by prehistoric men and formulated for them by their +kinsmen of genius, had abundant time in which to die or to win supremacy. +There must have been aeons before the dawn even of conscious animism, and +the experiment of trying sympathetic magic was, when first attempted, +probably regarded as a master-stroke of genius. The Stone Age itself was +a long era of great if slow progress in civilisation, and the evolution +of the practices and ideas which emerge as the concomitants of its +agricultural stage, when closely regarded, bear testimony to the mind's +capacity for religious progress in the light of experience and +intelligent experiment, and at the same time to the errors into which it +fell. The Stone Age has left its sediment in all the folk-lore of the +world. To the casual observer many of the ideas embedded in it may seem +a mass of error, and so they are when judged unhistorically, but when +viewed critically, and at the same time historically, they afford many +glimpses of prehistoric genius in a world where life was of necessity a +great experiment. The folk-lore of the world reveals for the same stages +of civilisation a wonderful uniformity and homogeneity, as Dr. J. G. +Frazer has abundantly shown in his _Golden Bough_. This uniformity is +not, however, due to necessary uniformity of origin, but to a great +extent to the fact that it represents the state of equilibrium arrived at +between minds at a certain level and their environment, along lines of +thought directed by the momentum given by the traditions of millennia, +and the survival in history of the men who carefully regarded them. The +apparently unreasoned prohibitions often known as 'taboos,' many of which +still persist even in modern civilised life, have their roots in ideas +and experiences which no speculation of ours can now completely fathom, +however much we may guess at their origin. Many of these ancient +prohibitions have vanished under new conditions, others have often +survived from a real or supposed harmony with new experiences, that have +arisen in the course of man's history. After passing through a stage +when he was too preoccupied with his material cares and wants to consider +whether he was haunted or not, early man in the Celtic world as +elsewhere, after long epochs of vague unrest, came to realise that he was +somehow haunted in the daytime as well as at night, and it was this sense +of being haunted that impelled his intellect and his imagination to seek +some explanation of his feelings. Primitive man came to seek a solution +not of the Universe as a whole (for of this he had no conception), but of +the local Universe, in which he played a part. In dealing with Celtic +folk-lore, it is very remarkable how it mirrors the characteristic local +colouring and scenery of the districts in which it has originated. In a +country like Wales, for example, it is the folk-lore of springs, caves, +mountains, lakes, islands, and the forms of its imagination, here as +elsewhere, reflect unmistakably the land of its origin. Where it depicts +an 'other world,' that 'other world' is either on an island or it is a +land beneath the sea, a lake, or a river, or it is approachable only +through some cave or opening in the earth. In the hunting-grounds of the +Celtic world the primitive hunter knew every cranny of the greater part +of his environment with the accuracy born of long familiarity, but there +were some peaks which he could not scale, some caves which he could not +penetrate, some jungles into which he could not enter, and in these he +knew not what monsters might lurk or unknown beings might live. In +Celtic folk-lore the belief in fabulous monsters has not yet ceased. Man +was surrounded by dangers visible and invisible, and the time came when +some prehistoric man of genius propounded the view that all the objects +around him were no less living than himself. This animistic view of the +world, once adopted, made great headway from the various centres where it +originated, and man derived from it a new sense of kinship with his +world, but also new terrors from it. Knowing from the experience of +dreams that he himself seemed able to wander away from himself, he +thought in course of time that other living things were somehow double, +and the world around him came to be occupied, not merely with things that +were alive, but with other selves of these things, that could remain in +them or leave them at will. Here, again, this new prehistoric philosophy +gave an added interest to life, but it was none the less a source of +fresh terrors. The world swarmed with invisible spirits, some friendly, +some hostile, and, in view of these beings, life had to be regulated by +strict rules of actions and prohibitions. Even in the neolithic stage +the inhabitants of Celtic countries had attained to the religious ideas +in question, as is seen not only by their folk-lore and by the names of +groups of goddesses such as the Matres (or mothers), but by the fact that +in historic times they had advanced well beyond this stage to that of +named and individualised gods. As in all countries where the gods were +individualised, the men of Celtic lands, whether aborigines or invaders, +had toiled along the steep ascent from the primitive vague sense of being +haunted to a belief in gods who, like Esus, Teutates, Grannos, Bormanus, +Litavis, had names of a definite character. + +Among the prohibitions which had established themselves among the races +of Celtic lands, as elsewhere, was that directed against the shedding of +the blood of one's own kin. There are indications, too, that some at any +rate of the tribes inhabiting these countries reckoned kinship through +the mother, as in fact continued to be the case among the Picts of +Scotland into historic times. It does not follow, as we know from other +countries, that the pre-Aryan tribes of Gaul and Britain, or indeed the +Aryan tribes themselves in their earliest stage, regarded their original +ancestors as human. Certain names of deities such as Tarvos (the bull), +Moccos (the pig), Epona (the goddess of horses), Damona (the goddess of +cattle), Mullo (the ass), as well as the fact that the ancient Britons, +according to Caesar, preserved the hen, the goose, and the hare, but did +not kill and eat them, all point to the fact that in these countries as +elsewhere certain animals were held in supreme respect and were carefully +guarded from harm. Judging from the analogy of kindred phenomena in +other countries, the practice of respecting certain animals was often +associated with the belief that all the members of certain clans were +descended from one or other of them, but how far this system was +elaborated in the Celtic world it is hard to say. This phenomenon, which +is widely known as totemism, appears to be suggested by the prominence +given to the wild boar on Celtic coins and ensigns, and by the place +assigned on some inscriptions and bas-reliefs to the figure of a horned +snake as well as by the effigies of other animals that have been +discovered. It is not easy to explain the beginnings of totemism in Gaul +or elsewhere, but it should always be borne in mind that early man could +not regard it as an axiomatic truth that he was the superior of every +other animal. To reach that proud consciousness is a very high step in +the development of the human perspective, and it is to the credit of the +Celts that, when we know them in historic times, they appear to have +attained to this height, inasmuch as the human form is given to their +deities. It is not always remembered how great a step in religious +evolution is implied when the gods are clothed with human attributes. M. +Salomon Reinach, in his account of the vestiges of totemism among the +Celts, suggests that totemism was merely the hypertrophy of early man's +social sense, which extended from man to the animals around him. This +may possibly be the case, but it is not improbable that man also thought +to discover in certain animals much-needed allies against some of the +visible and invisible enemies that beset him. In his conflict with the +malign powers around him, he might well have regarded certain animals as +being in some respects stronger combatants against those powers than +himself; and where they were not physically stronger, some of them, like +the snake, had a cunning and a subtlety that seemed far to surpass his +own. In course of time certain bodies of men came to regard themselves +as being in special alliance with some one animal, and as being descended +from that animal as their common ancestor. The existence side by side of +various tribes, each with its definite totem, has not yet been fully +proved for the Gaulish system, and may well have been a developed social +arrangement that was not an essential part of such a mode of thought in +its primary forms. The place of animal-worship in the Celtic religion +will be more fully considered in a later chapter. Here it is only +indicated as a necessary stage in relation to man's civilisation in the +hunting and the pastoral stages, which had to be passed through before +the historic deities of Gaul and Britain in Roman times could have come +into being. Certain of the divine names of the historic period, like +Artio (the bear-goddess), Moccus (the pig), Epona (the mare), and Damona +(the sheep), bear the unmistakable impress of having been at one time +those of animals. + +As for the stage of civilisation at which totemism originated, there is +much difference of opinion. The stage of mind which it implies would +suggest that it reflects a time when man's mind was preoccupied with wild +beasts, and when the alliances and friendships, which he would value in +life, might be found in that sphere. There is much plausibility in the +view put forward by M. Salomon Reinach, that the domestication of animals +itself implies a totemistic habit of thought, and the consequent +protection of these animals by means of taboos from harm and death. It +may well be that, after all, the usefulness of domestic animals from a +material point of view was only a secondary consideration for man, and a +happy discovery after unsuccessful totemistic attentions to other +animals. We know not how many creatures early man tried to associate +with himself but failed. + +In all stages of man's history the alternation of the seasons must have +brought some rudiments of order and system into his thoughts, though for +a long time he was too preoccupied to reflect upon the regularly +recurring vicissitudes of his life. In the pastoral stage, the sense of +order came to be more marked than in that of hunting, and quickened the +mind to fresh thought. The earth came to be regarded as the Mother from +whom all things came, and there are abundant indications that the earth +as the Mother, the Queen, the Long-lived one, etc., found her natural +place as a goddess among the Celts. Her names and titles were probably +not in all places or in all tribes the same. But it is in the +agricultural stage that she entered in Celtic lands, as she did in other +countries, into her completest religious heritage, and this aspect of +Celtic religion will be dealt with more fully in connection with the +spirits of vegetation. This phase of religion in Celtic countries is one +which appears to underlie some of its most characteristic forms, and the +one which has survived longest in Celtic folk-lore. The Earth-mother +with her progeny of spirits, of springs, rivers, mountains, forests, +trees, and corn, appears to have supplied most of the grouped and +individualised gods of the Celtic pantheon. The Dis, of whom Caesar +speaks as the ancient god of the Gauls, was probably regarded as her son, +to whom the dead returned in death. Whether he is the Gaulish god +depicted with a hammer, or as a huge dog swallowing the dead, has not yet +been established with any degree of certainty. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--CELTIC RELIGION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUALISED DEITIES + + +Like other religions, those of the Celtic lands of Europe supplemented +the earlier animism by a belief in spirits, who belonged to trees, +animals, rocks, mountains, springs, rivers, and other natural phenomena, +and in folk-lore there still survives abundant evidence that the Celt +regarded spirits as taking upon themselves a variety of forms, animal and +human. It was this idea of spirits in animal form that helped to +preserve the memory of the older totemism into historic times. It is +thus that we have names of the type of Brannogenos (son of the raven), +Artogenos (son of the bear), and the like, not to speak of simpler names +like Bran (raven), March (horse), surviving into historic times. Bronze +images, too, have been found at Neuvy-en-Sullias, of a horse and a stag +(now in the Orleans museum), provided with rings, which were, as M. +Salomon Reinach suggests, probably used for the purpose of carrying these +images in procession. The wild boar, too, was a favourite emblem of +Gaul, and there is extant a bronze figure of a Celtic Diana riding on a +boar's back. At Bolar, near Nuits, there was discovered a bronze mule. +In the museum at Mayence is a bas-relief of the goddess of horses, Epona +(from the Gaulish _Epos_=Lat. _equus_, horse), riding on horseback. One +of the most important monuments of this kind is a figure of Artio, the +bear-goddess (from Celtic _Artos_, a bear), found at Muri near Berne. In +front of her stood a figure of a bear, which was also found with her. The +bull of the Tarvos Trigaranos bas-relief of Notre Dame was also in all +likelihood originally a totem, and similarly the horned serpents of other +bas-reliefs, as well as the boar found on Gaulish ensigns and coins, +especially in Belgic territory. There is a representation, too, of a +raven on a bas-relief at Compiegne. The name 'Moccus,' which is +identified with Mercury, on inscriptions, and which is found inscribed at +Langres, Trobaso, the valley of the Ossola and the Borgo san Dalmazzo, is +undoubtedly the philological equivalent of the Welsh _moch_ (swine). In +Britain, too, the boar is frequently found on the coins of the Iceni and +other tribes. In Italy, according to Mr. Warde Fowler, the pig was an +appropriate offering to deities of the earth, so that in the widespread +use of the pig as a symbol in the Celtic world, there may be some ancient +echo of a connection between it and the earth-spirit. Its diet of +acorns, too, may have marked it out, in the early days of life in forest- +clearings, as the animal embodiment of the oak-spirit. In the legends of +the Celtic races, even in historic times, the pig, and especially the +boar, finds an honoured place. In addition to the animals +aforementioned, the ass, too, was probably at one time venerated in one +of the districts of Gaul, and it is not improbable that Mullo, the name +of a god identified with Mars and regarded as the patron of muleteers, +mentioned on inscriptions (at Nantes, Craon, and Les Provencheres near +Craon), meant originally 'an ass.' The goddess Epona, also, whose +worship was widely spread, was probably at one time an animal goddess in +the form of a mare, and the name of another goddess, Damona, either from +the root _dam_=Ir. _dam_, (ox); or Welsh _daf-ad_ (sheep), may similarly +be that of an ancient totem sheep or cow. Nor was it in the animal world +alone that the Celts saw indications of the divine. While the chase and +the pastoral life concentrated the mind's attention on the life of +animals, the growth of agriculture fixed man's thoughts on the life of +the earth, and all that grew upon it, while at the same time he was led +to think more and more of the mysterious world beneath the earth, from +which all things came and to which all things returned. Nor could he +forget the trees of the forest, especially those which, like the oak, had +provided him with their fruit as food in time of need. The name Druid, +as well as that of the centre of worship of the Gauls of Asia Minor, +Drunemeton (the oak-grove), the statement of Maximus of Tyre that the +representation of Zeus to the Celts was a high oak, Pliny's account of +Druidism (_Nat. Hist_., xvi. 95), the numerous inscriptions to Silvanus +and Silvana, the mention of Dervones or Dervonnae on an inscription at +Cavalzesio near Brescia, and the abundant evidence of survivals in folk- +lore as collected by Dr. J. G. Frazer and others, all point to the fact +that tree-worship, and especially that of the oak, had contributed its +full share to the development of Celtic religion, at any rate in some +districts and in some epochs. The development of martial and commercial +civilisation in later times tended to restrict its typical and more +primitive developments to the more conservative parts of the Celtic +world. The fact that in Caesar's time its main centre in Gaul was in the +territory of the Carnutes, the tribe which has given its name to +Chartres, suggests that its chief votaries were mainly in that part of +the country. This, too, was the district of the god Esus (the eponymous +god of the Essuvii), and in some degree of Teutates, the cruelty of whose +rites is mentioned by Lucan. It had occurred to the present writer, +before finding the same view expressed by M. Salomon Reinach, that the +worship of Esus in Gaul was almost entirely local in character. With +regard to the rites of the Druids, Caesar tells us that it was customary +to make huge images of wickerwork, into which human beings, usually +criminals, were placed and burnt. The use of wickerwork, and the +suggestion that the rite was for purifying the land, indicates a +combination of the ideas of tree-worship with those of early agricultural +life. When the Emperor Claudius is said by Suetonius to have suppressed +Druidism, what is meant is, in all probability, that the more inhuman +rites were suppressed, leading, as the Scholiasts on Lucan seem to +suggest, to a substitution of animal victims for men. On the side of +civil administration and education, the functions of the Druids, as the +successors of the primitive medicine men and magicians, doubtless varied +greatly in different parts of Gaul and Britain according to the progress +that had been made in the differentiation of functions in social life. +The more we investigate the state of the Celtic world in ancient times, +the clearer it becomes, that in civilisation it was very far from being +homogeneous, and this heterogeneity of civilisation must have had its +influence on religion as well as on other social phenomena. The natural +conservatism of agricultural life, too, perpetuated many practices even +into comparatively late times, and of these we catch a glimpse in Gregory +of Tours, when he tells us that at Autun the goddess Berecyntia was +worshipped, her image being carried on a wagon for the protection of the +fields and the vines. It is not impossible that by Berecyntia Gregory +means the goddess Brigindu, whose name occurs on an inscription at Volnay +in the same district of Gaul. The belief in corn-spirits, and other +ideas connected with the central thought of the farmer's life, show, by +their persistence in Celtic as well as other folklore, how deeply they +had entered into the inner tissue of the agricultural mind, so as to be +linked to its keenest emotions. Here the rites of religion, whether +persuasive as in prayer, or compulsory as in sympathetic magic, whether +associated with communal or propitiatory sacrifice, whether directed to +the earth or to the heaven, all had an intensely practical and terribly +real character, due to man's constant preoccupation with the growth and +storage of food for man and beast. In the hunting, the pastoral, and +above all in the agricultural life, religion was not a matter merely of +imagination or sentiment, but one most intimately associated with the +daily practice of life, and this practical interest included in its +purview rivers, springs, forests, mountains, and all the setting of man's +existence. And what is true of agriculture is true also, in a greater or +less degree, of the life of the Celtic metal-worker or the Celtic sailor. +Even in late Welsh legend Amaethon (old Celtic _Ambactonos_), the patron +god of farming (Welsh _Amaeth_), and Gofannon, the patron god of the +metal-worker (Welsh _gof_, Irish _gobha_), were not quite forgotten, and +the prominence of the worship of the counterparts of Mercury and Minerva +in Gaul in historic times was due to the sense of respect and gratitude, +which each trade and each locality felt for the deity who had rid the +land of monsters, and who had brought man into the comparative calm of +civilised life. + + + + +CHAPTER V--THE HUMANISED GODS OF CELTIC RELIGION + + +One of the most striking facts connected with the Celtic religion is the +large number of names of deities which it includes. These names are +known to us almost entirely from inscriptions, for the most part votive +tablets, in acknowledgment of some benefit, usually that of health, +conferred by the god on man. In Britain these votive tablets are chiefly +found in the neighbourhood of the Roman walls and camps, but we cannot be +always certain that the deities mentioned are indigenous. In Gaul, +however, we are on surer ground in associating certain deities with +certain districts, inasmuch as the evidence of place-names is often a +guide. These inscriptions are very unevenly distributed over Gaulish +territory, the Western and the North-Western districts being very +sparsely represented. + +In the present brief sketch it is impossible to enter into a full +discussion of the relations of the names found on inscriptions to +particular localities, and the light thus thrown on Celtic religion; but +it may be here stated that investigation tends to confirm the local +character of most of the deities which the inscriptions name. Out of +these deities, some, it is true, in the process of evolution, gained a +wider field of worshippers, while others, like Lugus, may even have been +at one time more widely worshipped than they came to be in later times. +Occasionally a name like Lugus (Irish _Lug_), Segomo (Irish, in the +genitive, _Segamonas_), Camulos, whence Camulodunum (Colchester), Belenos +(Welsh _Belyn_), Maponos (Welsh _Mabon_), Litavis (Welsh _Llydaw_), by +its existence in Britain as well as in Gaul, suggests that it was either +one of the ancient deities of the Aryan Celts, or one whose worship came +to extend over a larger area than its fellows. Apart from a few +exceptional considerations of this kind, however, the local character of +the deities is most marked. + +A very considerable number are the deities of springs and rivers. In +Noricum, for example, we have Adsalluta, a goddess associated with Savus +(the river Save). In Britain 'the goddess' Deva (the Dee), and Belisama +(either the Ribble or the Mersey), a name meaning 'the most warlike +goddess,' are of this type. We have again Axona the goddess of the river +Aisne, Sequana, the goddess of the Seine, Ritona of the river Rieu, +numerous nymphs and many other deities of fountains. Doubtless many +other names of local deities are of this kind. Aerial phenomena appear +to have left very few clear traces on the names of Celtic deities. +Vintios, a god identified with Mars, was probably a god of the wind, +Taranucus, a god of thunder, Leucetios, a god of lightning, Sulis (of +Bath) a sun-goddess, but beyond these there are few, if any, reflections +of the phenomena of the heavens. Of the gods named on inscriptions +nearly all are identified with Mercury, Mars, or Apollo. The gods who +came to be regarded as culture-deities appear from their names to be of +various origins: some are humanised totems, others are in origin deities +of vegetation or local natural phenomena. As already indicated, it is +clear that the growth of commercial and civilised life in certain +districts had brought into prominence deities identified with Mercury and +Minerva as the patrons of civilisation. Military men, especially in +Britain, appear to have favoured deities like Belatucadros (the brilliant +in war), identified with Mars. + +About fourteen inscriptions mentioning him have been found in the North +of England and the South of Scotland. The goddess Brigantia (the patron- +deity of the Brigantes), too, is mentioned on four inscriptions: +Cocidius, identified with Mars, is mentioned on thirteen: while another +popular god appears to have been Silvanus. Among the most noticeable +names of the Celtic gods identified with Mercury are Adsmerius or +Atesmerius, Dumiatis (the god of the Puy de Dome), Iovantucarus (the +lover of youth), Teutates (the god of the people), Caletos (the hard), +and Moccus (the boar). Several deities are identified with Mars, and of +these some of the most noticeable names are Albiorix (world-king), +Caturix (battle-king), Dunatis (the god of the fort), Belatucadrus (the +brilliant in war), Leucetius (the god of lightning), Mullo (the mule), +Ollovidius (the all-knowing) Vintius (the wind-god), and Vitucadrus (the +brilliant in energy). The large number of names identified with Mars +reflects the prominent place at one time given to war in the ideas that +affected the growth of the religion of the Celtic tribes. Of the gods +identified with Hercules, the most interesting name is Ogmios (the god of +the furrow) given by Lucian, but not found on any inscription. The +following gods too, among others, are identified with Jupiter: Aramo (the +gentle), Ambisagrus (the persistent), Bussumarus (the large-lipped), +Taranucus (the thunderer), Uxellimus (the highest). It would seem from +this that in historic times at any rate Jupiter did not play a large part +in Celtic religious ideas. + +There remains another striking feature of Celtic religion which has not +yet been mentioned, namely the identification of several deities with +Apollo. These deities are essentially the presiding deities of certain +healing-springs and health-resorts, and the growth of their worship into +popularity is a further striking index to the development of religion +side by side with certain aspects of civilisation. One of the names of a +Celtic Apollo is Borvo (whence Bourbon), the deity of certain hot +springs. This name is Indo-European, and was given to the local fountain- +god by the Celtic-speaking invaders of Gaul: it simply means 'the +Boiler.' Other forms of the name are also found, as Bormo and Bormanus. +At Aquae Granni (Aix-la-Chapelle) and elsewhere the name identified with +Apollo is Grannos. We find also Mogons, and Mogounus, the patron deity +of Moguntiacum (Mainz), and, once or twice, Maponos (the great youth). +The essential feature of the Apollo worship was its association in Gallo- +Roman civilisation with the idea of healing, an idea which, through the +revival of the worship of AEsculapius, affected religious views very +strongly in other quarters of the empire. It was in this conception of +the gods as the guides of civilisation and the restorers of health, that +Celtic religion, in some districts at any rate, shows itself emerging +into a measure of light after a long and toilsome progress from the +darkness of prehistoric ideas. What Caesar says of the practice of the +Gauls of beginning the year with the night rather than with the day, and +their ancient belief that they were sprung from Dis, the god of the lower +world, is thus typified in their religious history. + +In dealing with the deities of the Celtic world we must not, however, +forget the goddesses, though their history presents several problems of +great difficulty. Of these goddesses some are known to us by +groups--Proximae (the kinswomen), Dervonnae (the oak-spirits), Niskai +(the water-sprites), Mairae, Matronae, Matres or Matrae (the mothers), +Quadriviae (the goddesses of cross roads). The Matres, Matrae, and +Matronae are often qualified by some local name. Deities of this type +appear to have been popular in Britain, in the neighbourhood of Cologne +and in Provence. In some cases it is uncertain whether some of these +grouped goddesses are Celtic or Teutonic. It is an interesting parallel +to the existence of these grouped goddesses, when we find that in some +parts of Wales 'Y Mamau' (the mothers) is the name for the fairies. These +grouped goddesses take us back to one of the most interesting stages in +the early Celtic religion, when the earth-spirits or the corn-spirits had +not yet been completely individualised. Of the individualised goddesses +many are strictly local, being the names of springs or rivers. Others, +again, appear to have emerged into greater individual prominence, and of +these we find several associated on inscriptions, sometimes with a god of +Celtic name, but sometimes with his Latin counterpart. It is by no means +certain that the names so linked together were thus associated in early +times, and the fashion may have been a later one, which, like other +fashions, spread after it had once begun. The relationship in some cases +may have been regarded as that of mother and son, in others that of +brother and sister, in others that of husband and wife, the data are not +adequate for the final decision of the question. Of these associated +pairs the following may be noted, Mercurius and Rosmerta, Mercurius and +Dirona, Grannus (Apollo) and Sirona, Sucellus and Nantosvelta, Borvo and +Damona, Cicolluis (Mars) and Litavis, Bormanus and Bormana, Savus and +Adsalluta, Mars and Nemetona. One of these names, Sirona, probably meant +the long-lived one, and was applied to the earth-mother. In Welsh one or +two names have survived which, by their structure, appear to have been +ancient names of goddesses; these are Rhiannon (Rigantona, the great +queen), and Modron (Matrona, the great mother). The other British +deities will be more fully treated by another writer in this series in a +work on the ancient mythology of the British Isles. It is enough to say +that research tends more and more to confirm the view that the key to the +history of the Celtic deities is the realisation of the local character +of the vast majority of them. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--THE CELTIC PRIESTHOOD + + +No name in connection with Celtic religion is more familiar to the +average reader than that of the Druids, yet there is no section of the +history of Celtic religion that has given rise to greater discussion than +that relating to this order. Even the association of the name with the +Indo-European root _dru_-, which we find in the Greek word _drus_, an +oak, has been questioned by such a competent Celtic scholar as M. +d'Arbois de Jubainville, but on this point it cannot be said that his +criticism is conclusive. The writers of the ancient world who refer to +the Druids, do not always make it sufficiently clear in what districts +the rites, ceremonies, and functions which they were describing +prevailed. Nor was it so much the priestly character of the Druids that +produced the deepest impression on the ancients. To some philosophical +and theological writers of antiquity their doctrines and their apparent +affinities with Pythagoreanism were of much greater interest than their +ceremonial or other functions. One thing at any rate is clear, that the +Druids and their doctrines, or supposed doctrines, had made a deep +impression on the writers of the ancient world. There is a reference to +them in a fragment of Aristotle (which may not, however, be genuine) that +is of interest as assigning them a place in express terms both among the +Celts and the Galatae. The prominent feature of their teaching which had +attracted the attention of other writers, such as the historian Diodorus +Siculus and the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria, was the +resemblance of their doctrine concerning the immortality and +transmigration of the soul to the views of Pythagoras. Ancient writers, +however, did not always remember that a religious or philosophical +doctrine must not be treated as a thing apart, but must be interpreted in +its whole context in relation to its development in history and in the +social life of the community in which it has flourished. To some of the +ancients the superficial resemblance between the Druidic doctrine of the +soul's future and the teaching attributed to Pythagoras was the essential +point, and this was enough to give the Druids a reputation for +philosophy, so that a writer like Clement of Alexandria goes so far as to +regard the Druids of the 'Galatae' along with the prophets of the +Egyptians, the 'Chaldaeans' of the Assyrians, the 'philosophers of the +Celts,' and the Magi of the Persians as the pioneers of philosophy among +the barbarians before it spread to the Greeks. The reason for the +distinction drawn in this passage between the 'Druids of the Galatae' and +'the philosophers of the Celts' is not clear. Diodorus Siculus calls +attention to the Druidic doctrine that the souls of men were immortal, +and that after the lapse of an appointed number of years they came to +life again, the soul then entering into another body. He says that there +were certain 'philosophers and theologians' that were called Druids who +were held in exceptional honour. In addition to these, the Celts, he +says, had also seers, who foretold the future from the flight of birds +and by means of the offering of sacrifices. According to him it was +these priestly seers who had the masses in subjection to them. In great +affairs they had, he says, the practice of divination by the slaughter of +a human victim, and the observation of the attitude in which he fell, the +contortions of the limbs, the spurting of the blood, and the like. This, +he states, was an ancient and established practice. Moreover, it was the +custom, according to Diodorus, to make no sacrifice without the presence +of a philosopher (apparently a Druid in addition to the sacrificing +seer), the theory being that those who were authorities on the divine +nature were to the gods intelligible mediators for the offering of gifts +and the presentation of petitions. These philosophers were in great +request, together with their poets, in war as well as in peace, and were +consulted not merely by the men of their own side, but also by those of +the enemy. Even when two armies were on the point of joining battle, +these philosophers had been able, Diodorus says, to step into the space +between them and to stop them from fighting, exactly as if they had +charmed wild beasts. The moral which Diodorus draws from this is, that +even among the wildest of barbarians the spirited principle of the soul +yields to wisdom, and that Ares (the god of war) even there respects the +Muses. It is clear from this account that Diodorus had in mind the three +classes of non-military professional men among the Celts, to whom other +ancient writers also refer, namely, the Bards, the Seers, and the Druids. +His narrative is apparently an expansion, in the light of his reading and +philosophical meditation, of information supplied by previous writers, +notably Posidonius. The latter, too, appears to have been Julius Caesar's +chief authority, in addition to his own observation, but Caesar does not +appear expressly to indicate the triple division here in question. The +account which he gives is important, and would be even more valuable than +it is had he told us how far what he describes was written from his own +personal information, and the degree of variation (if any) of religious +practice in different districts. However, Caesar's statements deserve +the closest consideration. After calling attention to the division of +the Gaulish aristocracy into two main sections, the Druids and the +Knights, he proceeds to speak of the Druids. These were occupied, he +says, with religious matters, they attended to public and private +sacrifices, and interpreted omens. Moreover, they were the teachers of +the country. To them the young men congregated for knowledge, and the +pupils held their teachers in great respect. They, too, were the judges +in public and private disputes: it was they who awarded damages and +penalties. Any contumacy in reference to their judgments was punished by +exclusion from the sacrifices. This sentence of excommunication was the +severest punishment among the Gauls. The men so punished were treated as +outlaws, and cut off from all human society, with its rights and +privileges. Over these Druids there was one head, who wielded the +highest influence among them. On his death the nearest of the others in +dignity succeeded him, or, if several were equal, the election of a +successor was made by the vote of the Druids. Sometimes the primacy was +not decided without the arbitrament of arms. The Druids met at a fixed +time of the year in a consecrated spot in the territory of the Carnutes, +the district which was regarded as being in the centre of the whole of +Gaul. This assembly of Druids formed a court for the decision of cases +brought to them from everywhere around. It was thought, Caesar says, +that the doctrine of the Druids was discovered in Britain and thence +carried over into Gaul. At that time, too, those who wanted to make a +profounder study of it resorted thither for their training. The Druids +had immunity from military service and from the payment of tribute. These +privileges drew many into training for the profession, some of their own +accord, others at the instance of parents and relatives. While in +training they were said to learn by heart a large number of verses, and +some went so far as to spend twenty years in their course of preparation. +The Druids held it wrong to put their religious teaching in writing, +though, in almost everything else, whether public or private affairs, +they made use of Greek letters. Caesar thought that they discouraged +writing on the one hand, lest their teaching should become public +property; on the other, lest reliance upon writing should lessen the +cultivation of the memory. To this risk Caesar could testify from his +own knowledge. Their cardinal doctrine was that souls did not perish, +but that after death they passed from one person to another; and this +they regarded as a supreme incentive to valour, since, with the prospect +of immortality, the fear of death counted for nothing. They carried on, +moreover, many discussions about the stars and their motion, the +greatness of the universe and the lands, the nature of things, the +strength and power of the immortal gods, and communicated their knowledge +to their pupils. In another passage Caesar says that the Gauls as a +people were extremely devoted to religious ideas and practices. Men who +were seriously ill, who were engaged in war, or who stood in any peril, +offered, or promised to offer, human sacrifices, and made use of the +Druids as their agents for such sacrifices. Their theory was, that the +immortal gods could not be appeased unless a human life were given for a +human life. In addition to these private sacrifices, they had also +similar human sacrifices of a public character. Caesar further contrasts +the Germans with the Gauls, saying that the former had no Druids to +preside over matters of religion, and that they paid no attention to +sacrifices. + +In his work on divination, Cicero, too, refers to the profession which +the Druids made of natural science, and of the power of foretelling the +future, and instances the case of the AEduan Diviciacus, his brother's +guest and friend. Nothing is here said by Cicero of the three classes +implied in Diodorus, but Timagenes (quoted in Ammianus) refers to the +three classes under the names 'bardi,' 'euhages' (a mistake for 'vates'), +and 'drasidae' (a mistake for 'druidae'). The study of nature and of the +heavens is here attributed to the second class of seers (vates). The +highest class, that of the Druids, were, he says, in accordance with the +rule of Pythagoras, closely linked together in confraternities, and by +acquiring a certain loftiness of mind from their investigations into +things that were hidden and exalted, they despised human affairs and +declared the soul immortal. We see here the view expressed that socially +as well as intellectually the Druids lived according to the Pythagorean +philosophy. Origen also refers to the view that was prevalent in his +time, that Zamolxis, the servant of Pythagoras, had taught the Druids the +philosophy of Pythagoras. He further states that the Druids practised +sorcery. The triple division of the non-military aristocracy is perhaps +best given by Strabo, the Greek geographer, who here follows Posidonius. +The three classes are the Bards, the Seers (ouateis=vates), and Druids. +The Bards were hymn-writers and poets, the Seers sacrificers and men of +science, while the Druids, in addition to natural science, practised also +moral philosophy. They were regarded as the justest of men, and on this +account were intrusted with the settlement of private and public +disputes. They had been the means of preventing armies from fighting +when on the very verge of battle, and were especially intrusted with the +judgment of cases involving human life. According to Strabo, they and +their fellow-countrymen held that souls and the universe were immortal, +but that fire and water would sometime prevail. Sacrifices were never +made, Strabo says, without the intervention of the Druids. Pomponius +Mela says that in his time (c. 44 A.D.), though the ancient savagery was +no more, and the Gauls abstained from human sacrifices, some traces of +their former practices still remained, notably in their habit of cutting +a portion of the flesh of those condemned to death after bringing them to +the altars. The Gauls, he says, in spite of their traces of barbarism, +had an eloquence of their own, and had the Druids as their teachers in +philosophy. These professed to know the size and form of the earth and +of the universe, the motions of the sky and stars, and the will of the +gods. He refers, as Caesar does, to their work in education, and says +that it was carried on in caves or in secluded groves. Mela speaks of +their doctrine of immortality, but says nothing as to the entry of souls +into other bodies. As a proof of this belief he speaks of the practice +of burning and burying with the dead things appropriate to the needs of +the living. Lucan, the Latin poet, in his _Pharsalia_, refers to the +seclusion of the Druids' groves and to their doctrine of immortality. The +Scholiasts' notes on this passage are after the manner of their kind, and +add very little to our knowledge. In Pliny's _Natural History_ (xvi, +249), however, we seem to be face to face with another, though perhaps a +distorted, tradition. Pliny was an indefatigable compiler, and appears +partly by reading, partly by personal observation, to have noticed phases +of Celtic religious practices which other writers had overlooked. In the +first place he calls attention to the veneration in which the Gauls held +the mistletoe and the tree on which it grew, provided that that tree was +the oak. Hence their predilection for oak groves and their requirement +of oak leaves for all religious rites. Pliny here remarks on the +consonance of this practice with the etymology of the name Druid as +interpreted even through Greek (the Greek for an oak being _drus_). Were +not this respect for the oak and for the mistletoe paralleled by numerous +examples of tree and plant-worship given by Dr. Frazer and others, it +might well have been suspected that Pliny was here quoting some writer +who had tried to argue from the etymology of the name Druid. Another +suspicious circumstance in Pliny's account is his reference to the +serpent's egg composed of snakes rolled together into a ball. He states +that he himself had seen such an 'egg,' of about the size of an apple. +Pliny, too, states that Tiberius Caesar abolished by a decree of the +Senate the Druids and the kind of seers and physicians the Gauls then +had. This statement, when read in its context, probably refers to the +prohibition of human sacrifices. The historian Suetonius, in his account +of the Emperor Claudius, also states that Augustus had prohibited 'the +religion of the Druids' (which, he says, 'was one of fearful savagery') +to Roman citizens, but that Claudius had entirely abolished it. What is +here also meant, in view of the description given of Druidism, is +doubtless the abolishing of its human sacrifices. In later Latin writers +there are several references to Druidesses, but these were probably only +sorceresses. In Irish the name _drui_ (genitive _druad_) meant a +magician, and the word _derwydd_ in mediaeval Welsh was especially used +in reference to the vaticinations which were then popular in Wales. + +When we analyse the testimony of ancient writers concerning the Druids, +we see in the first place that to different minds the name connoted +different things. To Caesar it is the general name for the non-military +professional class, whether priests, seers, teachers, lawyers, or judges. +To others the Druids are pre-eminently the philosophers and teachers of +the Gauls, and are distinguished from the seers designated _vates_. To +others again, such as Pliny, they were the priests of the oak-ritual, +whence their name was derived. In view of the variety of grades of +civilisation then co-existing in Gaul and Britain, it is not improbable +that the development of the non-military professional class varied very +considerably in different districts, and that all the aspects of Druidism +which the ancient writers specify found their appropriate places in the +social system of the Celts. In Gaul and Britain, as elsewhere, the +office of the primitive tribal medicine-man was capable of indefinite +development, and all the forms of its evolution could not have proceeded +_pari passu_ where the sociological conditions found such scope for +variation. It may well be that the oak and mistletoe ceremonies, for +example, lingered in remote agricultural districts long after they had +ceased to interest men along the main routes of Celtic civilisation. The +bucolic mind does not readily abandon the practices of millennia. + +In addition to the term Druid, we find in Aulus Hirtius' continuation of +Caesar's _Gallic War_ (Bk. viii., c. xxxviii., 2), as well as on two +inscriptions, one at Le-Puy-en-Velay (Dep. Haute-Loire), and the other at +Macon (Dep. Saone-et-Loire), another priestly title, 'gutuater.' At +Macon the office is that of a 'gutuater Martis,' but of its special +features nothing is known. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE CELTIC OTHER-WORLD + + +In the preceding chapter we have seen that the belief was widely +prevalent among Greek and Roman writers that the Druids taught the +immortality of the soul. Some of these writers, too, point out the +undoubted fact, attested by Archaeology, that objects which would be +serviceable to the living were buried with the dead, and this was +regarded as a confirmation of the view that the immortality of souls was +to the Celts an object of belief. The study of Archaeology on the one +hand, and of Comparative Religion on the other, certainly leads to the +conclusion that in the Bronze and the Early Iron Age, and in all +probability in the Stone Age, the idea prevailed that death was not the +end of man. The holed cromlechs of the later Stone Age were probably +designed for the egress and ingress of souls. The food and the weapons +that were buried with the dead were thought to be objects of genuine +need. Roman religion, too, in some of its rites provided means for the +periodical expulsion of hungry and hostile spirits of the dead, and for +their pacification by the offer of food. A tomb and its adjuncts were +meant not merely for the honour of the dead, but also for the protection +of the living. A clear line of distinction was drawn between satisfied +and beneficent ghosts like the Manes, and the unsatisfied and hostile +ghosts like the Lemures and Larvae. To the Celtic mind, when its +analytical powers had come to birth, and man was sufficiently +self-conscious to reflect upon himself, the problem of his own nature +pressed for some solution. In these solutions the breath, the blood, the +name, the head, and even the hair generally played a part, but these +would not in themselves explain the mysterious phenomena of sleep, of +dreams, of epilepsy, of madness, of disease, of man's shadow and his +reflection, and of man's death. By long familiarity with the scientific +or quasi-scientific explanations of these things, we find it difficult to +realise fully their constant fascination for early man, who had his +thinkers and philosophies like ourselves. One very widely accepted +solution of early man in the Celtic world was, that within him there was +another self which could live a life of its own apart from the body, and +which survived even death, burial, and burning. Sometimes this inner +self was associated with the breath, whence, for example, the Latin +'anima' and the Welsh 'enaid,' both meaning the soul, from the root _an_-, +to breathe. At other times the term employed for the second self had +reference to man's shadow: the Greek 'skia,' the Latin 'umbra,' the Welsh +'ysgawd,' the English 'shade.' There are abundant evidences, too, that +the life-principle was frequently regarded as being especially associated +with the blood. Another tendency, of which Principal Rhys has given +numerous examples in his Welsh folk-lore, was to regard the soul as +capable of taking a visible form, not necessarily human, preferably that +of some winged creature. In ancient writers there is no information as +to the views prevalent among the Celts regarding the forms or the abodes +of the spirits of the dead, beyond the statement that the Druids taught +the doctrine of their re-birth. We are thus compelled to look to the +evidence afforded by myth, legend, and folk-lore. These give fair +indications as to the types of earlier popular belief in these matters, +but it would be a mistake to assume that the ideas embodied in them had +remained entirely unchanged from remote times. The mind of man at +certain levels is quite capable of evolving new myths and fresh folk-lore +along the lines of its own psychology and its own logic. The forms which +the soul could take doubtless varied greatly in men's opinions in +different districts and in different mental perspectives, but folk-lore +tends to confirm the view that early man, in the Celtic world as +elsewhere, tended to emphasise his conception of the subtlety and +mobility of the soul as contrasted with the body. Sooner or later the +primitive philosopher was bound to consider whither the soul went in +dreams or in death. He may not at first have thought of any other sphere +than that of his own normal life, but other questions, such as the home +of the spirits of vegetation in or under the earth, would suggest, even +if this thought had not occurred to him before, that the spirits of men, +too, had entrance to the world below. Whether this world was further +pictured in imagination depended largely on the poetic genius of any +given people. The folk-lore of the Celtic races bears abundant testimony +to their belief that beneath this world there was another. The 'annwfn' +of the Welsh was distinctly conceived in the folk-lore embodied in +mediaeval poetry as being 'is elfydd' (beneath the world). In mediaeval +Welsh legend, again, this lower world is regarded as divided into +kingdoms, like this world, and its kings, like Arawn and Hafgan in the +Mabinogi of Pwyll, are represented as being sometimes engaged in +conflict. From this lower world had come to man some of the blessings of +civilisation, and among them the much prized gift of swine. The lower +world could be even plundered by enterprising heroes. Marriages like +that of Pwyll and Rhiannon were possible between the dwellers of the one +world and the other. The other-world of the Celts does not seem, +however, to have been always pictured as beneath the earth. Irish and +Welsh legend combine in viewing it at times as situated on distant +islands, and Welsh folk-lore contains several suggestions of another +world situated beneath the waters of a lake, a river, or a sea. In one +or two passages also of Welsh mediaeval poetry the shades are represented +as wandering in the woods of Caledonia (Coed Celyddon). This was no +doubt a traditional idea in those families that migrated to Wales in post- +Roman times from Strathclyde. To those who puzzled over the fate of the +souls of the dead the idea of their re-birth was a very natural solution, +and Mr. Alfred Nutt, in his _Voyage of Bran_, has called attention to the +occurrence of this idea in Irish legend. It does not follow, however, +that the souls of all men would enjoy the privilege of this re-birth. As +Mr. Alfred Nutt points out, Irish legend seems to regard this re-birth +only as the privilege of the truly great. It is of interest to note the +curious persistence of similar ideas as to death and the other-world in +literature written even in Christian times and by monastic scribes. In +Welsh, in addition to Annwfn, a term which seems to mean the 'Not-world,' +we have other names for the world below, such as 'anghar,' the loveless +place; 'difant,' the unrimmed place (whence the modern Welsh word +'difancoll,' lost for ever); 'affwys,' the abyss; 'affan,' the land +invisible. The upper-world is sometimes called 'elfydd,' sometimes +'adfant,' the latter term meaning the place whose rim is turned back. +Apparently it implies a picture of the earth as a disc, whose rim or lip +is curved back so as to prevent men from falling over into the 'difant,' +or the rimless place. In modern Celtic folk-lore the various local other- +worlds are the abodes of fairies, and in these traditions there may +possibly be, as Principal Rhys has suggested, some intermixture of +reminiscences of the earlier inhabitants of the various districts. Modern +folk-lore, like mediaeval legend, has its stories of the inter-marriages +of natives of this world with those of the other-world, often located +underneath a lake. The curious reader will find several examples of such +stories in Principal Rhys's collection of Welsh and Manx folk-lore. In +Irish legend one of the most classical of these stories is that of the +betrothal of Etain, a story which has several points of contact with the +narrative of the meeting of Pwyll and Rhiannon in the Welsh Mabinogi. The +name of Arthur's wife, Gwenhwyfar, which means 'the White Spectre,' also +suggests that originally she too played a part in a story of the same +kind. In all these and similar narratives, it is important to note the +way in which the Celtic conceptions of the other-world, in Britain and in +Ireland, have been coloured by the geographical aspects of these two +countries, by their seas, their islands, their caves, their mounds, their +lakes, and their mountains. The local other-worlds of these lands bear, +as we might have expected, the clear impress of their origin. On the +whole the conceptions of the other-world which we meet in Celtic legend +are joyous; it is a land of youth and beauty. Cuchulainn, the Irish +hero, for example, is brought in a boat to an exceedingly fair island +round which there is a silver wall and a bronze palisade. In one Welsh +legend the cauldron of the Head of Annwfn has around it a rim of pearls. +One Irish story has a naive description of the glories of the Celtic +Elysium in the words--'Admirable was that land: there are three trees +there always bearing fruit, one pig always alive, and another ready +cooked.' Occasionally, however, we find a different picture. In the +Welsh poem called 'Y Gododin' the poet Aneirin is represented as +expressing his gratitude at being rescued by the son of Llywarch Hen from +'the cruel prison of the earth, from the abode of death, from the +loveless land.' The salient features, therefore, of the Celtic +conceptions of the other-world are their consonance with the suggestions +made by Celtic scenery to the Celtic imagination, the vagueness and +variability of these conceptions in different minds and in different +moods, the absence of any ethical considerations beyond the incentive +given to bravery by the thought of immortality, and the remarkable +development of a sense of possible inter-relations between the two +worlds, whether pacific or hostile. Such conceptions, as we see from +Celtic legend, proved an admirable stimulus and provided excellent +material for the development of Celtic narrative, and the weird and +romantic effect was further heightened by the general belief in the +possibilities of magic and metamorphosis. Moreover, the association with +innumerable place-names of legends of this type gave the beautiful +scenery of Celtic lands an added charm, which has attached their +inhabitants to them with a subtle and unconquerable attachment scarcely +intelligible to the more prosaic inhabitants of prosaic lands. To the +poetic Celt the love of country tends to become almost a religion. The +Celtic mind cannot remain indifferent to lands and seas whose very beauty +compels the eyes of man to gaze upon them to their very horizon, and the +lines of observation thus drawn to the horizon are for the Celt continual +temptations to the thought of an infinity beyond. The preoccupation of +the Celtic mind with the deities of his scenery, his springs, his rivers, +his seas, his forests, his mountains, his lakes, was in thorough keeping +with the tenour of his mind, when tuned to its natural surroundings. In +dealing with Celtic religion, mythology, and legend, it is not so much +the varying local and temporal forms that demand our attention, as the +all-pervading and animating spirit, which shows its essential character +even through the scanty remains of the ancient Celtic world. Celtic +religion bears the impress of nature on earth far more than nature in the +heavens. The sense of the heaven above has perhaps survived in some of +the general Indo-European Celtic terms for the divine principle, and +there are some traces of a religious interest in the sun and the god of +thunder and lightning, but every student of Celtic religion must feel +that the main and characteristic elements are associated with the earth +in all the variety of its local phenomena. The great earth-mother and +her varied offspring ever come to view in Celtic religion under many +names, and the features even of the other-world could not be dissociated +for the Celt from those of his mother-earth. The festivals of his year, +too, were associated with the decay and the renewal of her annual life. +The bonfires of November, May, Midsummer, and August were doubtless meant +to be associated with the vicissitudes of her life and the spirits that +were her children. For the Celt the year began in November, so that its +second half-year commenced with the first of May. The idea to which +Caesar refers, that the Gauls believed themselves descended from Dis, the +god of the lower world, and began the year with the night, counting their +time not by days but by nights, points in the same direction, namely that +the darkness of the earth had a greater hold on the mind than the +brightness of the sky. The Welsh terms for a week and a fortnight, +_wythnos_ (eight nights) and _pythefnos_ (fifteen nights) respectively +confirm Caesar's statement. To us now it may seem more natural to +associate religion with the contemplation of the heavens, but for the +Celtic lands at any rate the main trend of the evidence is to show that +the religious mind was mainly drawn to a contemplation of the earth and +her varied life, and that the Celt looked for his other-world either +beneath the earth, with her rivers, lakes, and seas, or in the islands on +the distant horizon, where earth and sky met. This predominance of the +earth in religion was in thorough keeping with the intensity of religion +as a factor in his daily pursuits. It was this intensity that gave the +Druids at some time or other in the history of the Western Celts the +power which Caesar and others assign to them. The whole people of the +Gauls, even with their military aristocracy, were extremely devoted to +religious ideas, though these led to the inhumanity of human sacrifices. +At one time their sense of the reality of the other-world was so great, +that they believed that loans contracted in this world would be repaid +there, and practical belief could not go much further than that. All +these considerations tend to show how important it is, in the comparative +study of religions, to investigate each religion in its whole +sociological and geographical environment as well as in the etymological +meaning of its terms. + +In conclusion, the writer hopes that this brief sketch, which is based on +an independent study of the main evidence for the religious ideas and +practices of the Celtic peoples, will help to interest students of +religion in the dominant modes of thought which from time immemorial held +sway in these lands of the West of Europe, and which in folk-lore and +custom occasionally show themselves even in the midst of our highly +developed and complex civilisation of to-day. The thought of early man +on the problems of his being--for after all his superstitions reveal +thought--deserve respect, for in his efforts to think he was trying to +grope towards the light. + + + + +SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +RHYS, _Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom_. + +RHYS, _Celtic Folk-lore_, _Welsh and Manx_. + +REINACH, S., _Cultes_, _Mythes et Religion_. + +NUTT, ALFRED, _The Voyage of Bran_. + +SQUIRE, _Mythology of the British Islands_. + +GAIDOZ, _Esqiusse de Mythologie gauloise_. + +BERTRAND, _La Religion des Gaulois_, _les Druides et le Druidisme_. + +FRAZER, _The Golden Bough_. + +JOYCE, _The Social History of Ireland_. + +D'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE, _Les Druides et les dieux celtiques a forme +d'animaux_. + +WINDISCH, _Irische Texte mit Worterbuch_. + +CYNDDELW, _Cymru Fu_. + +FOULKES, _Enwogion Cymru_. + +CAMPBELL, _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CELTIC RELIGION*** + + +******* This file should be named 18041.txt or 18041.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/0/4/18041 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |