MOTHER-AGE CIVILISATION 107 



find of sibyls, prophetesses, and medicine- women in the 

 primitive groups are of striking interest. 1 Among the 

 early Celts many of the groups seem to have been called 

 after the goddess as primeval tribal-mother. 2 I have 

 not yet been able to identify any Teutonic tribal name 

 as derived from a goddess, but certain names appear to 

 originate in a female name which may possibly be that 

 of a forgotten goddess. 3 On the whole, it is surprising 

 how many Celtic and Teutonic genealogies end in a 

 female name ; and many more will probably be found 

 to do so, when the pedigrees are studied with this possi- 

 bility in view. The representative of the tribal-mother, 

 the female head of the group, was the depositary of 

 tribal custom and religion ; and through her the pro- 

 perty of the group descended. Without realising this 

 law of descent, the tragedy of Agamemnon and 

 Aegisthus, and the fairy tales of Ashiepattle and Hans, 

 become alike unintelligible. To kill the king and marry 

 his wife was to win the kingdom ; to marry the king's 

 daughter was to obtain the right of succession. The 

 earliest and most bloody incidents of legend and primi- 

 tive history turn on the contest between this law of 

 descent and that of paternal inheritance. The latter 

 survives in the struggle, but Titanic female figures, 

 gallantly fighting for the former and sadly misrepre- 



1 The Celtic goddess Brigit, referred to in a ninth-century glossary, had all 

 these attributes operum alque artificiorum initia Rhys cites of her. She 

 was also tribal-mother of the Brigantes as well. Later her attributes are 

 transferred to St. Bridget. 



2 To trace the tribal origin back to a goddess was a very common Aryan 

 custom, e.g. Venus as Genetrix Aeneadum, tribal-mother of the Romans. 



3 I suspect a goddess, Ama-le the "little mother," at the bottom of the 

 Amalungs. Vote was tribal-mother of the Burgundians, and the goddess Bil of 

 the Billings, etc. 



