116 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 38. 



Saxons introduced, bears no [very little ?] affinity 

 either to that of the Britons or the Romans ;" yet 

 it is certain that the Britons worshipped Baal and 

 Ashtaroth, a relic of whose worship appears to be 

 still retained in Cornwall to this day. The Druids, 

 as Southey tells us, " made the people pass through 

 the fire in honour of Baal." But the festival in 

 honour of Bel appears to have been in the autumn : 

 for 



" They made the people," he informs us, " at the 

 beginning of winter, extinguish all their fires on one 

 day and kindle them again from the sacred fire of the 

 Druids, which would make the house fortunate for the 

 ensuing year; and, if any man came who had not paid 

 his yearly dues, [Easter offerings, &c., date back as 

 far as this !] they refused to give him a spark, neither 

 durst any of his neighbours relieve him, nor might he 

 himself procure fire by any other means, so that he and 

 his family were deprived of it till he had discharged 

 the uttermost of his debt." 



The Druidical fires kindled in the spring of the 

 year, on the other band, would appear to be those 

 in honour of Ashtaroth, or Astarte, from whom the 

 British Chrisiiayis may naturally enough have de- 

 rived the name of Easter for their corresponding 

 season. We might go even further than this, and 

 say that the young ladies wlio are i-eported still to 

 take the chief part in keeping up the Druidical 

 festivities in Cornwall, very happily represent the 

 ancient JEstal (or Vestal) virgins. 



" In times of Paganism," says O'Halloran, " we 

 find in Ireland females devoted to celibacy. There was 

 in Tara a royal foundation of this kind, wherein none 

 were admitted but virgins of the noblest blood. It 

 was called Cluain-Feart, or the place of retirement till 

 death," &c. ..." The duty of these virgins was to keep 

 up the fires of Bel, or the sun, and of Samhain, or the 

 moon, which customs they borrowed from their Phoe- 

 nician ancestors. They both [;. e. the Irish and the 

 Phoenicians] adored Bel, or the sun, the moon, and the 

 stars. The ' house of /Ji'mmon,' which the Phoenicians 

 worshipped in, like our temples of Fleachta in Meath, 

 was sacred to the monn. The word ' Rimmoti ' has bv 

 no means been understood by the different commen- 

 tators; and yet, by recurring to the Irish (a branch of 

 the Phcenieian) it becomes very intelligible; for ' ife ' 

 is Irish for the moon, and ' Muadli ' signifies an image, 

 and the compound word ' Reamhan,' signifies prognos- 

 ticating by the appearance of the moon. It ai)pears l^y 

 the life of our great S. Columba, that the Druid temples 

 were here decorated with figures of the sun, the moon, 

 and stars. The Phoenicians, under the name of Bel- 

 Samen, adored the Supreme ; and it is pretty remark- 

 able, that to this very day, to wish a friend every 

 happiness this life can afford, we say in Irish, ' The 

 blessings of Sameii and Bet be with you ! ' that is, of 

 the seasons ; Bel signifying the sun, and Samhain the 

 moon." — (See O'Halloran's Hist, of Ireland, vol. i. 

 p. 47.) 



J. Sansom. 



FOLK LORE. 



Presages of Death. — The Note by Mr. C. Forbes 

 (Vol. ii., p. 84.) on " High Spirits considered a 

 Presage of impending Calamity or Death," re- 

 minded me of a collection of authorities I once 

 made, for academical purposes, of a somewhat 

 analogous bearing, — I mean the ancient belief in 

 the existence of a power of prophecy at that period 

 which immediately precedes dissolution. 



The most ancient, as well as the most striking 

 instance, is recorded in the forty-niuth chapter of 

 Genesis: — 



" And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather your- 

 selves together that I may tell you that which shall befall I 



yov i/i the last days And when Jacob had made 



an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet 

 into his bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered 

 unto his people." 



Homer affords two instances of a similar kind : 

 thus, Patroclus prophesies the death of Hector 

 (II. TT. 8o2.)*: — 



" OH 6t]v oiiS' ainhs ^rjphv /3e'j). aX\a Toi ijSri 

 "Ayx' TapiaTi]K( Sdvarns Koi Mo7pa Kparair], 

 Xfpcrl !\aix4vT ^Ax^^^ios afivnovos AlaKtSao." f 



Again, Hector in his turn prophesies the death 

 of Achilles by the hand of Paris (//. x- 358.) : — 



'HfiaTL T^. 3t6 (cfV <r€ Udpts Kal ^o'ifios ' AirdWaiv, 

 'EaBKbii i/)VT, oKicdXTiV lv\ ^Kairjai irvkTiaiv." \ 



This was not merely a poetical fancy, or a super- 

 stitious faith of the ignorant, for we find it laid 

 down as a great physical truth by the greatest of 

 the Greek philosophers, the divine Socrates : — 



" To Se 87; fifTa TOVTO eTTidunu iij.iv xP'I^'M'^Stjo'oi, u 

 KaTa\l/ri(pi(Tafievoi fiov Kat yap (i/xi T]Sr] fmavBa ev 9! fia- 

 Aktt' auBpuiroi x/")<^/i"«'5oi/tr<c trav fx^Wwaiv airodaveur- 



e<,<." § 



In Xenophon, also, the same idea is expressed, 

 and, if possible, in language still more definite and 

 precise : — 



* For the assistance of the general reader, I have 

 introduced hasty translations of the several passages 

 quoted. 



t (And I moreover tell you, and do you meditate 

 well upon it, that) you yourself are not destined to live 

 long, for even now death is drawing nigh imto you, 

 and a violent fate awaits you, — about to be slain in fight 

 by the hands of Achilles, the irreproachable son of 

 Oacus. 



I Consider now whether I may not be to you the 

 cause of divine anger, in that day when Paris and 

 Phoebus Apollo shall slay you, albeit so mighty, at the 

 Sccean gate. 



§ Wherefore I have an earnest desire to prophesy to 

 you who have condemned me ; for I am already ar- 

 rived at that stage of my existence in which, especially, 

 men utter prophetic sayings, that is, when they are 

 about to die. 



I 



