Commenting upon the Elphin _bairn_, illustrated in Fig. 162, Akerman observes that it is supposed to illustrate the Gaulish myth of the Druid Abaris to whom Apollo is said to have given an arrow on which he travelled magically through the air. It is an historic fact that a physical Abaris visited Athens where he created a most favourable impression; it is likewise a fact that Irish literature possesses the account of a person called Abhras, which perfectly agrees with the description of the Hyperborean Abaris of Diodorus and Himerius. The classic Abaris went to Greece to whip up subscriptions for a temple: the Irish Abhras is said to have gone to distant parts in quest of knowledge, returning by way of Scotland where he remained seven years and founded a new system of religion. In Irish Abar means "God the first Cause," and as in Ireland _cad_ (which is our _good_) meant _holy_, the magic word Abracadabra may be reasonably resolved into _Abra, Good Abra_. As already mentioned the Irish cried _Aber!_ when rushing into battle, and the word was no doubt used likewise at peaceful feasts and festivals. The inference would thus seem that the title of Abaris was assumed by the chief Druid or High Priest who personified during his tenure of office the archetypal Abaris. It is well known that the priest or king enacted in his own person the mysteries of the faith; and it is not improbable that chief Guedianus, whose sacred play was so rudely disturbed by St. Sampson, was personifying at the time the _Good Janus_ or Genius. If my suggestion that Taliesin or _Radiant Brow_ was a generic title assumed by every Primary-Chief-Bard in Britain for the time being be correct, it is likely that the same principle applied elsewhere than in Wales. The first bard mentioned in Ireland was Amergin, which resolves into _Love King_, and may thus be equated with Homer the blind old man of Chios. The supposedly staid and gloomy Etrurians attributed all their laws and wisdom to an elphin child who was unexpectedly thrown up from the soil by a plough. As the Etrurian name for Cupid was Epeur, in all probability the aged child on Fig. 171 represents this elphin high-brow, and with _Epeur_ may be connoted the Etrurian _Per_ugia--probably the same word as Phrygia. The local saint of Peru_gia_, the _land of Peru_ (_?_) was known as Good John of Perugia: in Hibernia St. Ibar is mentioned as being "like John the Baptist".[344] [Illustration: FIG. 171.--From Barthelemy.]