Myth._ 49, 619, 657, 661-664.
[729] Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2}, ii. 281, 315.
[730] Caesar, v. 21, 27. Possibly the Dea Bibracte of the Aeduans was a
beaver goddess.
[731] O'Curry, _MC_ ii. 207; Elton, 298.
[732] Girald. Cambr. _Top. Hib._ ii. 19, _RC_ ii. 202; _Folk-Lore_, v.
310; _IT_ iii. 376.
[733] O'Grady, ii. 286, 538; Campbell, _The Fians_, 78; Thiers, _Traite
des Superstitions_, ii. 86.
[734] Lady Guest, ii. 409 f.
[735] Blanchet, i. 166, 295, 326, 390.
[736] See p. 209, _supra_.
[737] Diod. Sic. v. 30; _IT_ iii. 385; _RC_ xxvi. 139; Rh[^y]s, _HL_
593.
[738] _Man. Hist. Brit._ p. x.
[739] Herodian, iii. 14, 8; Duald MacFirbis in Irish _Nennius_, p. vii;
Caesar, v. 10; _ZCP_ iii. 331.
[740] See Reinach, "Les Carnassiers androphages dans l'art
gallo-romain," _CMR_ i. 279.
[741] See Holder, _s.v._
[742] Rh[^y]s, _CB_{4} 267.
[743] Caesar, v. 12.
[744] Dio Cassius, lxii. 2.
[745] See a valuable paper by N.W. Thomas, "Survivance du Culte des
Animaux dans le Pays de Galles," in _Rev. de l'Hist. des Religions_,
xxxviii. 295 f., and a similar paper by Gomme, _Arch. Rev._ 1889, 217 f.
Both writers seem to regard these cults as pre-Celtic.
[746] Gomme, _Ethnol. in Folklore_, 30, _Village Community_, 113.
[747] Dio Cass. lxxii. 21; Logan, _Scottish Gael_, ii. 12.
[748] Joyce, _SH_ ii. 529; Martin, 71.
[749] _RC_ xxii. 20, 24, 390-1.
[750] _IT_ iii. 385.
[751] Waldron, _Isle of Man_, 49; Train, _Account of the Isle of Man_,
ii. 124.
[752] Vallancey, _Coll. de Reb. Hib._ iv. No. 13; Clement, _Fetes_, 466.
For English customs, see Henderson, _Folklore of the Northern Counties_,
125.
[753] Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2}, ii. 380, 441, 446.
[754] For other Welsh instances of the danger of killing certain birds,
see Thomas, _op. cit._ xxxviii. 306.
[755] Frazer, _Kingship_, 261; Stokes, _RC_ xvi. 418; Larminie, _Myths
and Folk-tales_, 327.
[756] See Rh[^y]s, _Welsh People_, 44; Livy, v. 34.
[757] Cf. _IT_ iii. 407, 409.
[758] Caesar, v. 14.
[759] Strabo, iv. 5. 4.
[760] Dio Cass. lxxvi. 12; Jerome, _Adv. Jovin._ ii. 7. Giraldus has
much to say of incest in Wales, probably actual breaches of moral law
among a barbarous people (_Descr. Wales_, ii. 6).
[761] _RC_ xii. 235, 238, xv. 291, xvi. 149; _LL_ 23_a_, 124_b_. In
various Irish texts a child is said to have three fathers--probably a
reminiscence of polyandry. See p. 74, _supra_, and _RC_ xxiii. 333.
[762] _IT_ i. 136; Loth, i. 134 f.; Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 308.
[763] Zimmer, "Matriarchy among the Picts," in Henderson, _Leabhar nan
Gleann_.
[764] See p. 259, _infra_.
[765] See p. 274, _infra_.
CHAPTER XV.
COSMOGONY.
Whether the early Celts regarded Heaven and Earth as husband and wife is
uncertain. Such a conception is world-wide, and myth frequently explains
in different ways the reason of the separation of the two. Among the
Polynesians the children of heaven and earth--the winds, forests, and
seas personified--angry at being crushed between their parents in
darkness, rose up and separated them. This is in effect the Greek myth
of Uranus, or Heaven, and Gaea, or Earth, divorced by their son Kronos,
just as in Hindu myth Dyaus, or Sky, and Prithivi, or Earth, were
separated by Indra. Uranus in Greece gave place to Zeus, and, in India,
Dyaus became subordinate to Indra. Thus the primitive Heaven personified
recedes, and his place is taken by a more individualised god. But
generally Mother Earth remains a constant quantity. Earth was nearer man
and was more unchanging than the inconstant sky, while as the producer
of the fruits of the earth, she was regarded as the source of all
things, and frequently remained as an important divinity when a crowd of
other divinities became prominent. This is especially true of
agricultural peoples, who propitiate Earth with sacrifice, worship her
with orgiastic rites, or assist her processes by magic. With advancing
civilisation such a goddess is still remembered as the friend of man,
and, as in the Eleusinia, is represented sorrowing and rejoicing like
man himself. Or where a higher religion ousts the older one, the ritual