Note 19 — Chapter XII · Race in Folklore and Myth

This feature of Welsh has escaped M. de Charencey, in his instructive letter on ‘Numération basque et celtique,’ in No. 48 of the Bulletin de la Soc. de Linguistique de Paris, pp. cxv–cxix. In passing, I may be allowed to mention a numerical curiosity which occurs in Old Irish: it has probably an important historical significance. I refer to the word for ‘seven men’ occurring sometimes as morfeser, which means, as it were, a magnus seviratus or ‘big sixer.’ ↑