Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitionsBayley, Harold
History
Archaic England : $b an essay in deciphering prehistory from megalithic monuments, earthworks, customs, coins, place-names, and faerie superstitions
Bayley, Harold
Archaeology; England -- Antiquities
The horse was a constantly recurring emblem in the coins of Hispania,
and the object on the Iberian coin here illustrated is defined by
Akerman as "an apex": the appearance of this symbol, seemingly a spike
or peg posed upon a teathill, on an Iberian or Aubreyan coin is evidence
of its sanctity in West Europe. Theologians of the Dark Ages have been
ridiculed for debating the number of angels that could stand upon a
pin-point, but it is more than probable that the question was a subject
of discussion long before their time: the Chinese believe that "at the
beginning of Creation the chaos floated as a fish skims along the
surface of a river; from whence arose something like a _thorn_ or
_pickle_, which, being capable of motion and variation, became a soul or
spirit".[309] The fairy sanctity of the thorn bush would therefore seem
to have arisen from its _spikes_, and the abundance of these emblems
would naturally elevate it into the house or abode of _spooks_: the
burning bush, in which form the Almighty is said to have appeared before
Moses, was, according to Rabbinical tradition, a thorn bush: the Elluf
and the Alvah trees--the _aleph_ or the _alpha_ trees?--are described as
large thorned species of Acacia; and the spiky acacia, Greek _Akakia_,
is related to _akis_, a point or thorn.
One of the attributes of the Man-in-the-Moon is a Thorn Bush, whence
Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Moonshine, "This thorn bush is my
thorn bush; and this dog my dog". The Man-in-the-Moon being identified
with _Cain_, it becomes interesting to note that the surname Kennett is
accepted as a Norman diminutive of _chien_, a dog.[310] On p. 149--a
mediæval papermark--the Wanderer is surmounted by a bush; a bush is a
little tree, and the word _bush_ (of unknown origin) is a variant of
Bogie--also of _bougie_, the French for candle: bushes and briars were
the acknowledged haunts of Bogie, _alias_ Hobany or Hob-with-a-canstick
or bougie.
_Bouche_ used to be an English word meaning meat and drink, whence Stow,
referring to the English archers, says they had _bouch_ of court (to
wit, meat and drink) and great wages of sixpence by the day.[311] In
Rome and elsewhere a suspended bush was the sign of an inn, whence the
expression "Good wine needs no bush": the _bouche_ or mouth is where
meat and drink goes in, similarly _mouth_ may be connoted with the
British _meath_, meaning nourishment. _Peck_ is also an old word for
provender, and we still speak of feeling peckish.[312]
The word _bucket_--allied to Anglo-Saxon _buc_, meaning a
pitcher--implies that this variety of large can or mug was used for peck
purposes: the illustration herewith, representing the decoration on a
bronze bucket found at Lake Maggiore, consists of speck-centred circles,
and dotted, spectral, or maculate geese, bucks, and horses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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