[189] According to Cæsar the Druidic philosophy was transmitted orally for the purpose of strengthening the memory. The disciples of Pythagoras followed a similar precept, hence when the majority of them were destroyed in a fire the axioms of Pythagoras were largely lost. That the traditional tales of Ireland were maintained in their verbal integrity for untold years is implied by Mr. Yeats' statement: "In the Parochial Survey of Ireland it is recorded how the story-tellers used to gather together of an evening, and if any had a different version from the others, they would all recite theirs and vote, and the man who had varied would have to abide by their verdict. In this way stories have been handed down with such accuracy, that the long tale of Dierdre was, in the earlier decades of this century, told almost word for word, as in the very ancient MSS. in the Royal Dublin Society. In one case only it varied, and then the MSS. was obviously wrong--a passage had been forgotten by the copyist. But this accuracy is rather in the folk and bardic tales than in the fairy legends, for these vary widely, being usually adapted to some neighbouring village or local fairy-seeing celebrity."--Yeats, W. B., _Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry_, p. 11. [190] _Cf._ Yeats, W.B., _Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry_, p. 318. [191] Keightley, T., _Fairy Mythology_, p. 346. [192] _Myth, Ritual and Religion_, 1. 186. CHAPTER V GOG AND MAGOG "Scarce stand the vessels hauled upon the beach, And bent on marriages the young men vie To till new settlements, while I to each Due law dispense and dwelling place supply, When from a tainted quarter of the sky Rank vapours, gathering, on my comrades seize, And a foul pestilence creeps down from high." --VIRGIL, _The Æneid._ The British Chronicles relate that when Brute and his companions reached these shores the island was then uninhabited, save only for a few giants. Seemingly these natives did not oppose the Trojan landing, for the story runs that "Nought gave Corineus (Brute's second-in-command) greater pleasure than to wrestle with the giants of whom there was a greater plenty in Cornwall than elsewhere". On a certain day, however, the existing relations ceased, owing to an obnoxious native named Goemagog, who, accompanied by a score of companions, interrupted a sacred function which the Trojans were holding. From the recommendations of the pious Æneas, it would seem that the Trojans had suffered similarly in other directions:--