Note 186 — Chapter XVI · Ancient Pagan Deities

Wm. Cashen, Manx Folk-lore (Douglas, 1912), p. 48.

[187] King James VI of Scotland and I of England.

[188] Ben Jonson's reference is in A Masque of the Metamorphosed Gipsies.

[189] The Darker Superstitions of Scotland (London, 1834), p. 425, and Athenian Mercury, V, 1, No. 20, p. 13.

[190] The south-western Scottish pork trade dates only from the latter part of the eighteenth century. There was trouble at Carlisle custom house when the Lowland Scots began to export cured pork, because of the difference between the English and Scottish salt duty. "For some time", complained a Scottish writer on agriculture, in June, 1811, "a duty of 2s. per hunderweight has been charged." Dublin was exporting pork to London in the reign of Henry VIII. A small trade in pork was conducted in eastern Scotland but was sporadic.

[191] King James I of England and VI of Scotland detested ling as he detested pork. The food prejudices of the common people thus influenced royalty, although earlier kings and Norman nobles ate pork, eels, &c.

[192] The Gaelic word sidh (Irish) or sith (Scottish) means "supernatural" and the "peace" and "silence" of supernatural beings. "Fairy", as Skeat has emphasized, means "enchantment". It has taken the place of "fay", which is derived from fate. The "fay" was a supernatural being.

[193] From the root nem in neamh, heaven, nemus, a grove, &c.

[194] Rendel Harris, Apple Cults, and The Ascent of Olympus.

[195] Called also clach na cineamhuinn (the fatal stone).

[196] There is evidence in the Gaelic manuscripts that time was measured by the apparent movements of the stars. Cuchullin, while sitting at a feast, says to his charioteer: "Laeg, my friend, go out, observe the stars of the air, and ascertain when midnight comes".

[197] Elliot Smith, The Ancient Egyptians, p. 42.

[198] It must be borne in mind that among the producers and users of Neolithic artifacts were the Easterners who collected and exported ores.

[199] The boat dates the silting process rather than the silting process the boat.

[200] The ancient belief is enshrined in Milton's lines referring to "ribs of gold" that "grow in Hell" and are dug out of its hill (Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 688-90).

[201] Agricola, Chap. XII.

[202] Herodian, III, 14.

[203] Dion Cassius (Xiphilinus) LXXVI, 12.

[204] Origins of English History, pp. 302-3.