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
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--The Holy Ghost, as a child of eight or ten
years old, in the arms of the Father. French
Miniature of the XVI. cent.
From _Christian Iconography_ (Didron).]
In the illustrations overleaf of mediæval papermarks, some of which
depict the Man in the Moon in his conventional low-crowned,
broad-brimmed hat, there is a conspicuous portrayal of the two breasts,
doubtless representative of the milk and honey flowing in the mystic
Land of _Can_aan. This paradise was reconnoitred by Joshua accompanied
by Caleb, whose name means _dog_, and it will be remembered that
dog-headed St. Christopher was said to be a Canaanitish giant.
Irishmen assign the name Connaught to a beneficent King Conn, during
whose fabulously happy reign all crops yielded ninefold, and the furrows
of Ireland flowed with "the pure lacteal produce of the dairy". Conn of
Connaught is expressly defined as "good as well as great,"[162] and the
Hibernian "pure lacteal produce of the dairy" may be connoted with the
Canaanitish "milk". We shall trace King Conn of Connaught at Caen or
Kenwood, near St. John's Wood, London, and also at Kilburn, a burn or
stream alternatively known as the _Cune_burn. This rivulet comes first
within the ken of history in the time of Henry I., when a hermit named
Godwyn--query _Good One_?--had his kil or cell upon its banks. King Conn
of Connaught reigned in glory with "Good Queen Eda," a Breaton princess
who was equally beloved and esteemed. This Eda is seemingly the Lady of
Mount Ida in Candia, and her name may perhaps be traced in Maida Vale
and Maida Hill. Pa Eda or Father Ida is apparently memorised at the
adjacent Paddington which the authorities derive from Paedaington, or
_the town of the children of Paeda_. Cynthia, the Goddess of the Moon or
_cann_, may be connoted with Cain the Man in the Moon, and we shall
ultimately associate her with Candia the alternative title of Crete, and
with Caindea, an Irish divinity, whose name in Gaelic means _the gentle
goddess_.
Near _Con_iston in Cumberland is Yew Barrow, a rugged, cragged,
pyramidal height which like the river Yeo, rising from Seven Sisters
Springs, was probably associated with Jou or Yew. The culminating peak
known as "The Old Man" of Coniston is suggestive of the Elfin
tradition:--
High on the hill-top the Old King sits
He is now so old and grey, he's nigh lost his wits.
The Egyptians figured Ra, the Ancient of Days, as at times so senile
that he dribbled at the mouth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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