A BOOK OF THE BEGINNINGS
NOTES TO SECTION 6
[1] [Rabelais. Gargantua and Pantagruel, Uquhart's tr.]
[2] [Brewer, p. 720.]
[3] [Gwynvardd Brecheiniog, 12th c.]
[4] [Lottner, PTRS. 1859. c. AD 547]
[5] [See Bede]
[6] [Robert of Gloucester, rendered by Earle, Phil. Tongue, p. 268.]
[7] [Ed., Robert Thornton's MS., (AB. 1440 A.D), by G. G. Perry. See for example line 3632: 'And a beryne with his bronde, and ane helme betyne.' The glossarial index gives the following examples: 'Bernes, biernes, byernes, berynes, s. men, knights, 255, etc.']
[8] ['Borlase, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 168, tells us: "The Cornish to this day invoke the spirit Browny, when their bees swarm; and think that their crying Browny, Browny, will prevent their returning into their former hive, and make them pitch and form a new colony."' From Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 225.]
[9] [Ch. 126. 'Giving truth to all the created just Spirits who serve the Taser, in all the places in which the Soul lives, adoring like the Sun, adoring like Osiris.' Birch's tr.]
[10] ['The pillars which Sesostris erected in the
conquered countries have for the most part disappeared; but in the part of Syria
called Palestine, I myself saw them still standing, with the writing
above-mentioned, and the emblem distinctly visible. In Ionia also, there are two
representations of this prince engraved upon rocks, one on the road from Ephesus
to Phocĉa, the other between Sardis and Smyrna. In each case the figure is that
of a man, four cubits and a span high, with a spear in his right hand and a bow
in his left, the rest of his costume being likewise half Egyptian, half
Ethiopian. There is an inscription across the breast from shoulder to shoulder,
in the sacred character of Egypt, which says, "With my own shoulders I conquered
this land." The conqueror does not tell who he is, or whence he comes, though
elsewhere Sesostris records these facts. Hence it has been imagined by some of
those who have seen these forms, that they are figures of Memnon; but such as
think so err very widely from the truth.' Tr. Rawlinson.
'The pillars which Sesostris of Egypt set up in the various countries are
for the most part no longer to be seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself
saw them existing with the inscription upon them which I have mentioned and the
emblem. Moreover in Ionia there are two figures of this man carved upon rocks,
one on the road by which one goes from the land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and the
other on the road from Sardis to Smyrna. In each place there is a figure of a
man cut in the rock, of four cubits and a span in height, holding in his right
hand a spear and in his left a bow and arrows, and the other equipment which he
has is similar to this, for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian: and from the one
shoulder to the other across the breast runs an inscription carved in sacred
Egyptian characters, saying thus, "This land with my shoulders I won for
myself." But who he is and from whence, he does not declare in these places,
though in other places he has declared this. Some of those who have seen these
carvings conjecture that the figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very
far from the truth.' Tr. Macauley. Bk. 2:106.]
[11] [Brand, Popular Antiquities. 'Lord
of Misrule.' 'Dugdale, in his Origines Juridiciales, p. 156,
speaking of the fooleries of the Lord of Misrule in the Inner Temple on St.
Stephen's Day, says: "Supper ended, the constable-marshal presented himself with
drums afore him, mounted upon a scaffold borne by four men, and goeth three
times round about the harthe, crying out aloud, 'A lord, a lord,' &c. Then he descendeth, and goeth to dance, &c.; and after he calleth his court, every one
by name, e. g. Sir Randle Rackabite, of Raskall Hall, in the county of
Rake-Hell, &c. &c. This done, the Lord of Misrule addresseth himself to the
banquet; which ended with some minstralsye, mirth, and dancing, every man
departeth to rest."*
(* In the feast of Christmas, says Stow, in his Survey,
there was in the king's house, wheresoever he lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or
Master of merry Disports, and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of
honour or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal. The Mayor of London and
either of the sheriffs had their several Lords of Misrule, ever contending,
without quarrel or offence, who should make the rarest pastime to delight the
beholders. These Lords, beginning their rule at Allhallond Eve, continued the
same till the morrow after the Feast of the Purification, commonly called
Candlemas Day: in which space there were fine and subtle disguisings, masks, and
mummeries, with playing at cards for counters, nayles, and points, in every
house, more for pastimes than for gaine.)' Vol. 1, p. 499, the 3rd ed.]
[12] [AD 449.]
[13] [MS. Cott. Calig. A. 9, lines 4765-6. 'Belin in Euerewic; huld eorlene husting.' Madden's trans.]
[14] [Source]
[15] [RP, 2, 107, sect. 4, line 9. Chabas and Goodwin.]
[16] [Ch. 32. 'Back, Crocodile of the West, living off those never at rest! What thou hatest is in my belly. I have eaten the limbs of Osiris.' Birch's tr.]
[17] [Vallancey, in his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, No. xiii. 10, tells us that in Ireland they are called Tamans. "I know," says he, "a farmer's wife in the county of Waterford, that lost a parcel of linen. She travelled three days' journey to a taman, in the county of Tipperary: he consulted his black book, and assured her she would recover the goods. The robbery was proclaimed at the chapel, offering a reward, and the linen was recovered. It was not the money but the taman that recovered it."' From Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3. p.64.]
[18] ['On the passage in Macbeth
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes,''
Steevens observes: "It is a very ancient superstition that all sudden pains of
the body, and other sensations which could not naturally be accounted for, were
presages of somewhat that was shortly to happen." Hence Mr. Upton has explained
a passage in the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus: "Timeo quod rerum gesserim hie, ita
dorsus totus prurit."' From Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 179.]
[19] [Nat. Hist.]
[20] [Geog.]
[21] [Source]
[22] [Source]
[23] [E. 1048.]
[24] [Lepsius, Denk. 2.143, b.]
[25] [Unable to identify source. See also BB 2:317 & NG 2:408 for same quote and no proper ref. given.]
[27] [Denk. p. 117.]
[28] [Cyvoesi 1; Davies, Myth. 467.]
[29] [Correct spelling is Myrddin.]
[30] [Myrddin.]
[31] [Source]
[32] [Muller, Lects. 1st ser. p. 258. My ed. 298, 261]
[33] [Lepsius, Denk. 4.63. C.]
[34] [Portrait, JAS, June 1874.]
[35] ['Insc. Aahmes,' lines 20, 21. RP, 6, 9. Renouf.]
[36] [Sayce, Sc. Lang. 1, 342.]
[37] [Mss. Harleian 221, BM. Galfridus.]
[38] [Dict. Chin.]
[39] [Ch. 42. 'The redness of their faces is unknown to him.' Birch's tr.]
[40] ['Old Nick is the vulgar name of this evil
being in the North of England, and is a name of great antiquity. There is a
great deal of learning concerning it in Olaus Wormius's Danish Monuments.
We borrowed it from the title of an evil genius among the ancient Danes. They
say he has often appeared on the sea and on deep rivers in the shape of a
sea-monster, presaging immediate shipwreck and drowning to seamen.*
* See Lye's Junii Etymolog. in v. Nick. A writer in the Gent. Mag.
for March 1777, xlvii. 119, says: Nobody has accounted for the devil's having
the name of Old Nick. Keysler de Dea Nehalunia, p. 33, and Antiq.
Septentr. p. 261, mentions a deity of the waters worshipped by the ancient
Germans and Danes under the name of Nocka, or Nifren, styled in the Edda Nilcur,
which he derives from the German Nugen, answering to the Latin necare. Wormius'
Mon. Dan. p. 17, says the redness in the faces of drowned persons was
ascribed to this deity's sucking their blood out at their nostrils. Wasthovius,
Pref. ad Vit. Sanctorum, and Loccenius, Antiq. Sueo-Goth., p. 17,
call him Neccus, and quote from a Belgo-Gallic Dictionary, Necer spiritus
aquaticus, and Necce necare. The Islandic Dictionary in Hickes,
Thesaur., p. iii. p. 85, renders Nikur bell a aquatica. Lastly, Rudbekius,
Atlant. p. i. c. vii. 5, p. 192, and c. xxx. p. 719, mentions a notion
prevalent among his countrymen, that Neckur, who governed the sea, assumed the
form of various animals, or of a horseman, or of a man in a boat. He supposes
him the same with Odin; but the above authorities are sufficient to evince that
he was the Northern Neptune, or some subordinate sea-god of a noxious
disposition. It is not unlikely but the name of this evil spirit might, as
Christianity prevailed in these northern nations, be transferred to the Father
of evil."' From Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 520.]
[41] [Wallace, Mal. Arch. ch. 31.]
[42] [Tylor, Early Hist. p. 149]
[43] [Zohar, f. 137, c. 4.]
[44] [Ex. 23:21.]
[45] [Mishna, tr. 5, ch. 4.]
[46] [Ib.]
[47] [Source]
[48] [John.]
[49] [12:28.]
[50] [17:6.]
[51] [Caesar, bk. 5, ch. 14.]
[52] [Marsden, Hist. Sum., p. 286.]
[53] [Smithsonian Rep. p. 326, 1866. ARSI, Hardisty]
[54] [Davis, Dict. Kaf. 'Hlonipa'.]
[55] [Source]
[56] [Ch. 165. 'I do as ye takers say ye did to the Soul, Paba, giving him a burial.' Birch's tr.]
[57] [This chapter was never written, Massey changing his mind and instead concentrated on the 'Typology of Primordial Onomatopoeia.' See NG 5.]
[58] [Campbell, Pop. Tales. 2, p. 25.]
[59] [Harris Mag. Pap. 3. Can't find in RP, 10.]
[60] [Stele naoph of Turin.]
[61] [Source - (1637)]
[62] [Lepsius, Denk. 4. 63, c.]
[63] [Lects. on Lang.?]