430 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2n-i s. v. i26., may 29. m 



the same continent : after a residence of ninety 

 days, during which they were entertained with 

 honour and hospitality, and regarded and called 

 sacred, they sailed onwards in their course. It 

 is permitted to dwellers in these islands to return 

 to their original country after a series of years : 

 but the majority prefer to remain, either from 

 habit, or because the climate is mild and the 

 soil produces everything in abundance with- 

 out toil. They pass their time in sacrifices and 

 choral solemnities, or in literature and philosophy. 

 To some the deity has appeared in a visible form, 

 not in dreams or signs ; and, addressing them as 

 friends, has prevented their departure from the 

 island. Saturn himself is confined in a deep 

 cavern, sleeping on a golden-coloured rock, sleep 

 being contrived by Jupiter as his chain. From 

 the top of the rock birds fly down, and bring him 

 ambrosia, which fills the whole island with fra- 

 grance. There are likewise genii, the companions 

 of Saturn when he reigned over men and gods, 

 who minister to him ; these divine beings are 

 endued with prophetic powers, and their most 

 important predictions are communicated to Ju- 

 piter as the dreams of Saturn, and they become 

 the foreknowledge of Jupiter. 



In the Treatise de Defectu Oraculorum (c. 18.), 

 by the same writer, one of the interlocutors says 

 that among the many desert isles near Britain 

 some are believed to be the seats of genii and 

 heroes. That he had himself, being on a mission 

 from the Emperor, sailed to one which was next 

 to them, from motives of curiosity ; it had few in- 

 habitants, but they were deemed holy by the 

 Britons, and their persons and property were re- 

 spected as inviolable. When he lately visited the 

 island, the air was shaken, and there were many 

 portents, with hurricanes and lightning. When 

 quiet was restored, the islanders said that one of 

 the supernatural beings had passed away — an 

 event which caused a disturbance in nature. Plu- 

 tarch adds, similarly to the other passage, that in 

 one of the islands Saturn is confined ; that he 

 sleeps under the custody of Briareus ; that sleep 

 is his chain, and that he is attended by minister- 

 ing genii. (Compare Ilesiod, Theog. 734-5.) 



These passages involve the idea of a great open 

 sea encircling the north of Europe, and connected 

 with the Caspian. Other writers had relegated 

 Saturn into these distant regions : for Pliny men- 

 tions that the frozen sea, one day's sail beyond 

 Thule, was called Cronian (iv. 30.). An island 

 in the Western Sea, sacred to Saturn, is likewise 

 mentioned by Avienus, in his Ora Maritima, v. 

 165. Saturn is the king of the Golden Age, and 

 Pindar connects him with the islands of the Blest 

 (jzapa. Kpocou rvpffiv, Ohjmp. ii. 70.). 



Other sacred islands were likewise found in the 

 western and northern seas. According to Pliny, 

 six islands, called the islands of the gods, or the 



Happy Islands, lay oflFthe promontory of the Ar- 

 rotribas, or Cape Finisterre (iv. 36.). Dionysius 

 places the Western Islands, which produced tin, 

 near the Sacred Promontory which was the ex- 

 tremity of Europe (v. 561.). This Sacred Pro- 

 montory, at the western point of Europe, is also 

 mentioned by Strabo (ii. 5. 14., iii. 1, 2.). The 

 sacred promontory of Bacchus, on the coast of the 

 Atlantic, occurs in the Orphic Argonautics, as 

 well as the wooded island of Ceres in the Western 

 Ocean (v. 1172. 1192. 1250.). 



According to Artemidorus, who lived about 

 100 B.C., there was an island near Britain, in 

 which rites were celebrated in honour of Ceres 

 and Proserpine, similar to those celebrated in the 

 island of Samothrace (ap. Strab., iv. 4. 6.). An 

 island off the mouth of the Loire, where orgies 

 and initiations were performed to Bacchus by the 

 Samnite women, is described by Strabo (ih.). In 

 Dionysius certain islands near Britain are the seat 

 of these Bacchic rites, and the nation is designated 

 as that of the Amnitse (v. 570.). 



Mela describes an island named Sena, in the 

 Britannic sea, opposite the country of the Osismii 

 (Bretagne), as renowned for the oracle of a Gallic 

 deity ; its priestesses were nine virgins, who were 

 endued with the power of raising storms by their 

 incantations ; of changing themselves into the 

 shapes of animals ; of curing diseases incurable by 

 human art ; and of predicting the future (iii. 6.). 



According to Avienus (Or. Mai-it. 108.) the 

 island of the Hibernians was called the Sacred 

 Island. Ptolemy states that the southern pro- 

 montory of Ii-eland was called Sacred (ii. 2. 6.). 



Procopius, in his History of the Gothic War 

 (iv. 20.), describes Brittia as an island opposite 

 the mouths of the Rhine, at a distance of 200 

 stadia (25 miles) ; situated between the islands of 

 Thule and Brettania, and inhabited by the three 

 nations of Angili, Frissones, and Britons. For 

 the position of Thule he refers to a former pas- 

 sage (ii. 15.), where he identifies it with Scandi- 

 navia. With respect to Brettania, he represents 

 it as lying to the west, opposite the extremity of 

 Spain, and divided from the Continent by an in- 

 terval of 4000 stadia (500 miles) ; whereas Brittia 

 lies opposite the coasts of Gaul, to the north of 

 Spain and Brettania. Grimm, in his Deutsche My- 

 thologie (p. 482,, edit. 1.), thinks that the Bret- 

 tania of Procopius is the extremity of Gaul, the 

 modern Brittany ; but Procopius conceives it as 

 an island ; and there seems no doubt that by Brit- 

 tia he means Britain, and by Brettania Ireland, 

 which are the two Britannic islands. 



After recounting some marvels respecting the 

 natural history of Brittia, Procopius proceeds to 

 say that he is unwilling to pass over in silence a 

 story related of this island ; for although it has a 

 fabulous appearance, it is repeated by numerous 

 persons, who affirm that they have both seen and 



