WINELAND THE GOOD 



color, and the white clothing of hair (or feathers) may also 

 have some connection with the white lamb in the Revelation. 

 In the tale of Maelduin's voyage, which is older than 

 those of Brandan's, Maelduin meets in two places, on a 

 sheep-island and on a rock in the sea, with hermits wholly 

 covered with the white hair of their bodies — they, too, were 

 both Irish — and on two other islands, the soil of one of 

 which was as white as a feather, he meets with men whose 

 only clothing was the hair of their bodies ^ [cf. Zimmer, 

 1889, pp, 162, 163, 169, 172, 178]. In the "Navigatio" Brandan 

 also meets on the island of Alibius an aged man with hair 

 of the color of snow and with shining countenance. Cf. 

 Christ revealing himself among the seven candlesticks to John on 

 the isle of Patmos: "His head and his hairs were white like 

 wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame 

 of fire " [Rev. i. 14]. 



Among the Irish the white color again forms a conspicuous feature in the 

 description of persons, especially supernatural beings, in ancient non-Christian 

 legends and myths. The name of their national hero, " Finn," means white. To 

 Finn MacCumaill there comes in the legend a king's daughter of unearthly 

 size and beauty, " Bebend " (the white woman), from the Land of Virgins 

 (" Tir na-n-Ingen ") in the west of the sea, and she has marvelously beautiful 

 white hair [cf. Zimmer, 1889, p. 269]. The corresponding maiden of the sea- 

 people, in the " Imram-Brenaind," whom Brandan finds, is also whiter than 

 snow or sea-spray (see Vol. I, p. 363). The physician Libra at the court of 

 Manannan, king of the Promised Land, has three daughters with white hair. 

 When Midir, the king of the sid (fairies) is trying to entice away Etain, queen 

 of the high-king of Ireland, he says: "Oh, white woman,^ wilt thou go with 

 me to the land of marvels. . . . thy body has the white color of snow to the 



1 The resemblance to the hairy women (great apes?) that Hanno found on 

 an island to the west of Africa and whose skin he brought to Carthage (cf. 

 Vol. I, p. 88) is doubtless only accidental. The hair-covered hermits may be 

 connected with stories of hermits and the hairy wild-man, " wilder Mann," 

 " Silvanus," who, in the opinion of Moltke Moe, is the same that reappears 

 in the Norwegian tale of " Villemand og Magnhild " ( = der wilde Mann and 

 Magdelin). 



2 White and snow-white women and maidens are, moreover, of common oc- 

 currence also in Germanic legends [cf. J. Grimm, 1876, ii. pp. 803 f.]. Expres- 

 sions like white or snow-white to depict the dazzling beauty of the female body 



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