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THE GUDEMAN'S CROFT.

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hasten his own death? the second, Was he encouraged or induced to do so? We see that he "accepted the option" (of death?) because tired of this world; and thereon obtained promises of heavenly blessings and posthumous honours on earth. The latter he certainly enjoyed. The words show that Oran had an alternative, and the result proves that he accomplished the lot which he had chosen; for "he soon after died, having been but a short while sick."

This narrative is at least a sufficient excuse for the "fabulous story," which does not involve any conclusion that might not be in some degree deduced from the explanation of this ecclesiastical event in Innes' Ecclesiastical History, and the Life of St. Columba by Adamnan.1

Among the Celtic population of Ireland, "when any one gets a fall he springs up, and turning about three times to the right, digs a hole in the ground with his knife or sword, and cuts out a turf, for they imagine there is a spirit in the earth."" Those minute portions of untilled land, once so numerous in Scotland, and usually called "the gudeman's croft," have in later times, it is assumed, been offered to the devil. His right, however, may be disputed; and as possession cannot be proved, the law of prescription will not avail. "The spirit of the earth" I believe to have a better title than "the spirit of evil" to these petty lairdships. Many green places

1 The story of St. Oran will also be found in Pennant's Voyage to Scotland, vol. i. pp. 286, 287.

Camden's Britannia by Gibson, vol. ii. p. 378.

in fields or on moors were, and some still are, left undisturbed by cultivation as the domains of a heathen spirit. The latest instance of the dedication of land to a spirit is contained in Professor J. Y. Simpson's address to the Society of Antiquaries at Edinburgh in 1861, in these words: "In the same district"-viz., within twenty miles of Edinburgh-"a relative of mine bought a farm not very many years back. Amongst his first acts after taking possession was the enclosing a small triangular corner of one of the fields within a stone-wall. The corner cut off, and which still remains cut off, was the goodman's croft'—an offering to the spirit of evil, in order that he might abstain from ever blighting or damaging the rest of the farm."

Besides more important objects of worship, the Celts,1 judging from a few recorded facts, and the remains of many superstitions, had an infinity of local and inferior genii. Of these some were supposed to be benevolent, but the majority were considered mischievous. The numerous names of elves or imps in Gaelic is of itself a proof of a Celtic belief in a crowded inferior pantheon. Not only mountains and hills, rivers and fountains, had their peculiar deities, but even in the present day many a green mound in the vales, or bright sequestered spot in the mountains, is shunned by sturdy peasants who would not fear the hostility of any mortal.

1 These remarks are equally applicable to the inhabitants of the Celtic parts of Gaul; to Brittany as well as

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FIELD DEITIES OF BRITAIN.

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The prefect of a Gaulish cohort, who erected an altar on the limits of Caledonia, has summed up in small compass the whole invisible heathen world of the country. His altar is dedicated "To the field deities and deities of Britain."

1 It was found at Castle-hill, on the wall of Antoninus, and is described in Stewart's Caledonia Romana.

CHAPTER VII.

WORSHIP OF FOUNTAINS, LAKES, AND RIVERS.

Fountains, Lakes, and Rivers worshipped by Eastern Nations as well as by the Celts-Fountains dedicated to the Sun-Worship of Fountains not yet extinct-Sacred Wells and Heathen Temples often contiguousExamples of such Sites chosen for Christian Churches-Heathen Rites and Christian Ceremonies at Wells-In Persia, as in Caledonia, Trees near Springs hung with Scraps of Clothing-Joan of Arc accused of attending a Meeting of Witches at a Fountain-Belief that certain Individuals or Families have the Power of bringing Rain when required-The Water-Cross and Relic of St. Columba-Well in Strathfillan used in Cases of Insanity-Certain Lochs with Sanatory Powers-Superstitious use of Water taken from Fords where Funerals had crossed the River Avon-Worship of Trees-Trees general Objects of Worship-The Worship of the Oak in Britain-Joan of Arc and the Fairy Oak-Sacred Trees-Tree at Anuradhapoora in Ceylon-All-sufficing Tree of Buddhist Cosmogony-Groves in connection with Primitive Stone MonumentsThe Rowan-tree.

IN

N early ages fountains were sometimes, if not generally, dedicated to the sun; also to Apollo. Water was worshipped by the ancient Persians, and still is by the Hindus. The river Indus was a god; the Ganges remains an object of profound veneration. Besides water and the ocean personified as gods, many streams and fountains in India, and also in Ceylon, have their individual deities or genii, of various

1 Herodotus, Melpomene, clviii.-clxxxii.; Pliny, Nat. History, b. ii. c. 106; Quin. Curt. b. iv. c. vii.

WORSHIP AT WELLS.

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degrees of power, who receive proportionate adoration or homage. The same worship of rivers and fountains prevailed in Britain and other countries of Western Europe.

Besides the testimony of Gildas1 to the worship of rivers and fountains by the inhabitants of Britain, laws, civil and ecclesiastical, fulminated both in Gaul and Britain' against such practices, leave no doubt of their prevalence amongst the Celtic inhabitants of these countries. Pagan ceremonies connected with this worship exist in the present day in various parts of the United Kingdom, and in the last century were more particularly cherished in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall, and not less so in Brittany: that is to say, in all those places where a Celtic population had the most enduring and predominating influence.

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There are various circumstances connected with the superstitious practices retained by the Celts that may be cited in proof that their worship of fountains was connected with the worship of the sun. Beltane Day and Midsummer Eve were the times particularly chosen for the resort of invalids to holy wells. At these seasons mothers carrying their sick children," and crowds of people afflicted with every kind of bodily ail

1 Gildas, Mon. Hist. Brit. vii.

2 Liber Poenitentialis of Abp. Theod. xxvii. 18; Canons of King Edgar, No. 16, in Thorpe's Ancient Laws of England, vol. ii. pp. 34, 249; Canons of Saint Anselm.

Making offerings to wells, trees, and earth-fast rocks is denounced in a Saxon homily preserved in Cambridge

Library. Wright's Superstitions of
England, vol. i. p. 242.

3 Souvestre's Derniers Bretons, vol. i. pp. 23, 24, 90; Finistere, by Chevalier de Fremenville, pp. 104, 131, 135, 227, etc. etc.

See article "Baal and Beltane."

5 Brand's History of Newcastle-onTyne, vol. ii. p. 54.

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