British Popular Customs, Present and Past: Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
British Popular Customs, Present and Past: Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged According to the Calendar of the Year.
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Folklore -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Social life and customs
The great female divinity of the British Druids was Ket, or Ceridwen; a
personification of the Ark of Noah; the famous Keto of Antiquity, or, in
other words Ceres, the patroness of the ancient mysteries. To enter into
a full explanation of these mysteries is unnecessary. Suffice it to say
that the aspirant, at the conclusion of the ceremony of initiation, was
placed in a small boat, to represent the confinement of Noah in the
Ark;--which boat was a symbol of the helio-arkite deity,--and committed
to the waves with directions to gain a proposed point of land, which was
to him a shore, not only of safety, but of triumph. On this shore he was
received by the hierophant and his attendants, who had placed themselves
there for the express purpose, and pronounced a favourite of Ket, by
whom he was now said to be purified with water, and consequently
regenerated and purged from all his former defilements. The Abbey Hill
was the place where these sacred mysteries were celebrated, and the
designation of this bank fully corroborates the conjecture, for whoever
will attentively consider the situation of these two hills, connected
by an extended embankment even at the present day, will be convinced
that a more convenient spot could not be found for the performance of
the above ceremony. The sacred rites were solemnized within the stone
circle, which doubtless existed on the Abbey Hill, and the candidate at
the highest time of the tide was committed to the mercy of the waves
from the point now known by the name of Wellow Mill, and he had to
struggle against the declining tide, until he was cast at the foot of
Holm Hill, upon the bank of Ket, the presiding deity, under whose
special protection he was ever after placed.
This ceremony always took place on May Eve, for at no other season was
the final degree of perfection conferred, and as soon as the fortunate
aspirants had succeeded in gaining the safe landing-place of Ket, which
led by an easy gradation to the summit of the hill, fires were lighted
on the apex of this and all the neighbouring hills, and the most
extravagant joy was visible throughout the district.
ISLE OF MAN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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