From the beautiful Eden-land at the head of the Persian Gulf4, where creeds5 and culture rose to life, the first migrations6 emanated7, and were naturally directed along the line of the great rivers, by the Euphrates and the Tigris and southward by the Nile; and there the first mighty9 cities of the world were built, and the first mighty kingdoms of the East began to send out colonies to take possession of the unknown silent world around them. From Persia, Assyria, and Egypt, to Greece and the Isles10 of the Sea, went forth11 the wandering tribes, carrying with them, as signs of their origin, broken fragments of the primal12 creed, and broken idioms of the primal tongue—those early pages in the history of the human race, eternal and indestructible, which hundreds of centuries have not been able to obliterate13 from the mind of man.
But as the early tribes diverged14 from the central parent stock, the creed and the language began to assume new forms, according as new habits of life and modes of thought were developed amongst the wandering people, by the influence of climate and the contemplation of new and striking natural phenomena15 in the lands where they found a resting-place or a home. Still, amongst all nations a basis remained of the primal creed and language, easily to be traced through all the mutations caused by circumstances in human thought, either by higher culture or by the debasement to which both language and symbols are subjected amongst rude and illiterate16 tribes.
To reconstruct the primal creed and language of humanity2 from these scattered17 and broken fragments, is the task which is now exciting so keenly the energies of the ardent18 and learned ethnographers of Europe; as yet, indeed, with but small success as regards language, for not more, perhaps, than twenty words which the philologists20 consider may have belonged to the original tongue have been discovered; that is, certain objects or ideas are found represented in all languages by the same words, and therefore the philologist19 concludes that these words must have been associated with the ideas from the earliest dawn of language; and as the words express chiefly the relations of the human family to each other, they remained fixed21 in the minds of the wandering tribes, untouched and unchanged by all the diversities of their subsequent experience of life.
Meanwhile, in Europe there is diligent22 study of the ancient myths, legends, and traditions of the world, in order to extract from them that information respecting the early modes of thought prevalent amongst the primitive23 race, and also the lines of the first migrations, which no other monuments of antiquity24 are so well able to give. Traditions, like rays of light, take their colour from the medium through which they pass; but the scientific mythographic student knows how to eliminate the accidental addition from the true primal basis, which remains25 fixed and unchangeable; and from the numerous myths and legends of the nations of the earth, which bear so striking a conformity26 to each other that they point to a common origin, he will be able to reconstruct the first articles of belief in the creed of humanity, and to pronounce almost with certainty upon the primal source of the lines of human life that now traverse the globe in all directions. This source of all life, creed, and culture now on earth, there is no reason to doubt, will be found in Iran, or Persia as we call it, and in the ancient legends and language of the great Iranian people, the head and noblest type of the Aryan races. Endowed with splendid physical beauty, noble intellect, and a rich musical language, the Iranians had also a lofty sense of the relation between man and the spiritual world. They admitted no idols27 into their temples; their God was the One Supreme29 Creator and Upholder of all things, whose symbol was the sun and the pure, elemental fire. But as the world grew older and more wicked the pure primal doctrines30 were obscured by human fancies, the symbol came to be worshipped in place of the God, and the debased idolatries of Babylon, Assyria, and the Canaanite nations were the result. Egypt—grave, wise, learned, mournful Egypt—retained most of the primal truth; but truth was held by the priests as too precious for the crowd, and so they preserved it carefully for themselves and their own caste. They alone knew the ancient and cryptic31 meaning of the symbols; the people were allowed only to see the outward and visible sign.
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From Egypt, philosophy, culture, art, and religion came to Greece, but the Greeks moulded these splendid elements after their own fashion, and poured the radiance of beauty over the grave and gloomy mysticism of Egypt. Everything hideous32, terrible, and revolting was banished33 from the Greek Mythology34. The Greeks constructed no theory of a devil, and believed in no hell, as a distinct and eternal abode35 for the lost souls of men. The Greek gods were divinely beautiful, and each divinity in turn was ready to help the mortal that invoked36 him. The dead in Hades mourned their fate because they could no longer enjoy the glorious beauty of life, but no hard and chilling dogmas doomed37 them there to the tortures of eternal punishment. Earth, air, the heavens and the sea, the storms and sunshine, the forests and flowers and the purple grapes with which they crowned a god, were all to the Greek poet-mind the manifestations38 of an all-pervading spiritual power and life. A sublime39 Pantheism was their creed, that sees gods in everything, yet with one Supreme God over all. Freedom, beauty, art, light, and joy, were the elements of the Greek religion, while the Eternal Wisdom, the Great Athené of the Parthenon, was the peculiar40 and selected divinity of their own half divine race.
Meanwhile other branches of the primal Iranian stock were spreading over the savage41 central forests of Europe, where they laid the foundation of the great Teuton and Gothic races, the destined42 world-rulers; but Nature to them was a gloomy and awful mother, and life seemed an endless warfare43 against the fierce and powerful elemental demons44 of frost and snow and darkness, by whom the beautiful Sun-god was slain45, and who reigned46 triumphant47 in that fearful season when the earth was iron and the air was ice, and no beneficent God seemed near to help. Hideous idols imaged these unseen powers, who were propitiated48 by sanguinary rites49; and the men and the god they fashioned were alike as fierce and cruel as the wild beasts of the forest, and the aspects of the savage nature around them.
Still the waves of human life kept rolling westward50 until they surged over all the lands and islands of the Great Sea, and the wandering mariners51, seeking new homes, passed through the Pillars of Hercules out into the Western Ocean, and coasting along by the shores of Spain and France, founded nations that still bear the impress of their Eastern origin, and are known in history as the Celtic race; while the customs, usages, and traditions which their forefathers52 had learnt in Egypt or Greece were carefully preserved by them, and transmitted as heirlooms to the colonies they founded. From Spain the early mariners easily reached the verdant53 island of the West in which we Irish are more particularly interested. And here in our beautiful Ireland the last wave of the great Iranian migration finally4 settled. Further progress was impossible—the unknown ocean seemed to them the limits of the world. And thus the wanderers of the primal race, with their fragments of the ancient creed and mythic poet-lore54, and their peculiar dialect of the ancient tongue, formed, as it were, a sediment55 here which still retains its peculiar affinity56 with the parent land—though the changes and chances of three thousand years have swept over the people, the legends, and the language. It is, therefore, in Ireland, above all, that the nature and origin of the primitive races of Europe should be studied. Even the form of the Celtic head shows a decided57 conformity to that of the Greek races, while it differs essentially58 from the Saxon and Gothic types. This is one of the many proofs in support of the theory that the Celtic people in their westward course to the Atlantic travelled by the coasts of the Mediterranean59, as all along that line the same cranial formation is found. Philologists also affirm that the Irish language is nearer to Sanskrit than any other of the living and spoken languages of Europe; while the legends and myths of Ireland can be readily traced to the far East, but have nothing in common with the fierce and weird60 superstitions61 of Northern mythology.
This study of legendary63 lore, as a foundation for the history of humanity, is now recognized as such an important branch of ethnology that a journal entirely64 devoted65 to comparative mythology has been recently started in Paris, to which all nations are invited to contribute—Sclaves, Teutons, and Celts, Irish legends being considered specially66 important, as containing more of the primitive elements than those of other Western nations. All other countries have been repeatedly overwhelmed by alien tribes and peoples and races, but the Irish have remained unchanged, and in place of adopting readily the usages of invaders67 they have shown such remarkable68 powers of fascination69 that the invaders themselves became Hibernicis ipsis Hiberniores. The Danes held the east coast of Ireland for three hundred years, yet there is no trace of Thor or Odin or the Frost Giants, or of the Great World-serpent in Irish legend; but if we go back in the history of the world to the beginning of things, when the Iranian people were the only teachers of humanity, we come upon the true ancient source of Irish legend, and find that the original materials have been but very slightly altered, while amongst other nations the ground-work has been overlaid with a dense70 palimpsest of their own devising, suggested by their peculiar local surroundings.
Amongst the earliest religious symbols of the world are the Tree, the Woman, and the Serpent—memories, no doubt, of the legend of Paradise; and the reverence71 for certain sacred trees has prevailed in Persia from the most ancient times, and become diffused72 among all the Iranian nations. It was the custom in Iran to hang costly73 garments on the branches as votive offerings; and5 it is recorded that Xerxes before going to battle invoked victory by the Sacred Tree, and hung jewels and rich robes on the boughs74. And the poet Saadi narrates75 an anecdote76 concerning trees which has the true Oriental touch of mournful suggestion:—He was once, he says, the guest of a very rich old man who had a son remarkable for his beauty. One night the old man said to him, “During my whole life I never had but this son. Near this place is a Sacred Tree to which men resort to offer up their petitions. Many nights at the foot of this tree I besought77 God until He bestowed78 on me this son.” Not long after Saadi overheard this young man say in a low voice to his friend, “How happy should I be to know where that Sacred Tree grows, in order that I might implore79 God for the death of my father.”
The poorer class in Persia, not being able to make offerings of costly garments, are in the habit of tying bits of coloured stuffs on the boughs, and these rags are considered to have a special virtue80 in curing diseases. The trees are often near a well or by a saint’s grave, and are then looked upon as peculiarly sacred.
This account might have been written for Ireland, for the belief and the ceremonial are precisely81 similar, and are still found existing to this day both in Iran and in Erin. But all trees were not held sacred—only those that bore no eatable fruit that could nourish men; a lingering memory of the tree of evil fruit may have caused this prejudice, while the Tree of Life was eagerly sought for, with its promised gift of immortality82. In Persia the plane-tree was specially reverenced84; in Egypt, the palm; in Greece, the wild olive; and the oak amongst the Celtic nations. Sometimes small tapers85 were lit amongst the branches, to simulate by fire the presence of divinity. It is worthy86 of note, while on the subject of Irish and Iranian affinities87, that the old Persian word for tree is dar, and the Irish call their sacred tree, the oak, darragh.1
The belief in a race of supernatural beings, midway between man and the Supreme God, beautiful and beneficent, a race that had never known the weight of human life, was also part of the creed of the Iranian people. They called them Peris, or Feroüers (fairies); and they have some pretty legends concerning the beautiful Dukhtari Shah Periân, the “Daughter of the King of the Fairies,” for a sight of whose beauty men pine away in vain desire, but if it is granted to them once to behold88 her, they die. Every nation believes in the existence of these mysterious spirits, with mystic and powerful influence over human life and actions, but each nation represents them differently, according to national habits and national surroundings. Thus, the Russians believe in the phantom6 of the Ukraine, a beautiful young girl robed in white, who meets the wanderer on the lonely snow steppes, and lulls89 him by her kisses into that fatal sleep from which he never more awakens90. The legends of the Scandinavians, also, are all set in the framework of their own experiences; the rending91 and crash of the ice is the stroke of the god Thor’s hammer; the rime92 is the beard of the Frost Giant; and when Balder, their Sun-god, is beginning to die at Midsummer, they kindle93 pine-branches to light him on his downward path to hell; and when he is returning to the upper world, after the winter solstice, they burn the Yule-log, and hang lights on the fir-trees to illuminate94 his upward path. These traditions are a remnant of the ancient sun worship, but the peasants who kindle the Baal fires at Midsummer, and the upper classes who light up the brilliant Christmas-tree, have forgotten the origin of the custom, though the world-old symbol and usage is preserved.
The Sidhe, or Fairies, of Ireland, still preserve all the gentle attributes of their ancient Persian race, for in the soft and equable climate of Erin there were no terrible manifestations of nature to be symbolized95 by new images; and the genial96, laughter-loving elves were in themselves the best and truest expression of Irish nature that could have been invented. The fairies loved music and dancing and frolic; and, above all things, to be let alone, and not to be interfered97 with as regarded their peculiar fairy habits, customs, and pastimes. They had also, like the Irish, a fine sense of the right and just, and a warm love for the liberal hand and kindly98 word. All the solitudes99 of the island were peopled by these bright, happy, beautiful beings, and to the Irish nature, with its need of the spiritual, its love of the vague, mystic, dreamy, and supernatural, there was something irresistibly100 fascinating in the belief that gentle spirits were around, filled with sympathy for the mortal who suffered wrong or needed help. But the fairies were sometimes wilful101 and capricious as children, and took dire8 revenge if any one built over their fairy circles, or looked at them when combing their long yellow hair in the sunshine, or dancing in the woods, or floating on the lakes. Death was the penalty to all who approached too near, or pried103 too curiously104 into the mysteries of nature.
To the Irish peasant earth and air were filled with these mysterious beings, half-loved, half-feared by them; and therefore they were propitiated by flattery, and called “the good people,” as the Greeks call the dread105 goddesses “the Eumenides.” Their voices were heard in the mountain echo, and their forms seen in the purple and golden mountain mist; they whispered amidst the perfumed hawthorn106 branches; the rush of the autumn leaves was the scamper107 of little elves—red, yellow, and brown—wind-delven, and dancing in their glee; and the bending of the waving7 barley108 was caused by the flight of the Elf King and his Court across the fields. They danced with soundless feet, and their step was so light that the drops of dew they danced on only trembled, but did not break. The fairy music was low and sweet, “blinding sweet,” like that of the great god Pan by the river; they lived only on the nectar in the cups of the flowers, though in their fairy palaces sumptuous109 banquets were offered to the mortals they carried off—but woe110 to the mortal who tasted of fairy food; to eat was fatal. All the evil in the world has come by eating; if Eve had only resisted that apple our race might still be in Paradise. The Sidhe look with envy on the beautiful young human children, and steal them when they can; and the children of a Sidhe and a mortal mother are reputed to grow up strong and powerful, but with evil and dangerous natures. There is also a belief that every seven years the fairies are obliged to deliver up a victim to the Evil One, and to save their own people they try to abduct111 some beautiful young mortal girl, and her they hand over to the Prince of Darkness.
Dogmatic religion and science have long since killed the mythopoetic faculty112 in cultured Europe. It only exists now, naturally and instinctively113, in children, poets, and the childlike races, like the Irish—simple, joyous114, reverent115, and unlettered, and who have remained unchanged for centuries, walled round by their language from the rest of Europe, through which separating veil science, culture, and the cold mockery of the sceptic have never yet penetrated116.
Christianity was readily accepted by the Irish. The pathetic tale of the beautiful young Virgin-Mother and the Child-God, for central objects, touched all the deepest chords of feeling in the tender, loving, and sympathetic Irish heart. The legends of ancient times were not overthrown118 by it, however, but taken up and incorporated with the new Christian117 faith. The holy wells and the sacred trees remained, and were even made holier by association with a saint’s name. And to this day the old mythology holds its ground with a force and vitality119 untouched by any symptoms of weakness or decay. The Greeks, who are of the same original race as our people, rose through the influence of the highest culture to the fulness and perfectness of eternal youth; but the Irish, without culture, are eternal children, with all the childlike instincts of superstition62 still strong in them, and capable of believing all things, because to doubt requires knowledge. They never, like the Greeks, attained120 to the conception of a race of beings nobler than themselves—men stronger and more gifted, with the immortal83 fire of a god in their veins121; women divinely beautiful, or divinely inspired; but, also, the Irish never defaced the image of God in their hearts by infidelity or irreligion. One of the most beautiful and sublimely122 touching123 records in all8 human history is that of the unswerving devotion of the Irish people to their ancient faith, through persecutions and penal102 enactments124 more insulting and degrading than were ever inflicted125 in any other land by one Christian sect126 upon another.
With this peculiarly reverential nature it would be impossible to make the Irish a nation of sceptics, even if a whole legion of German Rationalists came amongst them to preach a crusade against all belief in the spiritual and the unseen. And the old traditions of their race have likewise taken firm hold in their hearts, because they are an artistic127 people, and require objects for their adoration128 and love, not mere129 abstractions to be accepted by their reason. And they are also a nation of poets; the presence of God is ever near them, and the saints and angels, and the shadowy beings of earth and air are perpetually drawing their minds, through mingled130 love and fear, to the infinite and invisible world. Probably not one tradition or custom that had its origin in a religious belief has been lost in Ireland during the long course of ages since the first people from Eastern lands arrived and settled on our shores. The Baal fires are still lit at Midsummer, though no longer in honour of the sun, but of St. John; and the peasants still make their cattle pass between two fires—not, indeed, as of old, in the name of Moloch, but of some patron saint. That all Irish legends point to the East for their origin, not to the North, is certain; to a warm land, not one of icebergs131, and thunder crashes of the rending of ice-bound rivers, but to a region where the shadow of trees, and a cool draught132 from the sparkling well were life-giving blessings133. Well-worship could not have originated in a humid country like Ireland, where wells can be found at every step, and sky and land are ever heavy and saturated134 with moisture. It must have come from an Eastern people, wanderers in a dry and thirsty land, where the discovery of a well seemed like the interposition of an angel in man’s behalf.
We are told also by the ancient chroniclers that serpent-worship once prevailed in Ireland, and that St. Patrick hewed135 down the serpent idol28 Crom-Cruadh (the great worm) and cast it into the Boyne (from whence arose the legend that St. Patrick banished all venomous things from the island). Now as the Irish never could have seen a serpent, none existing in Ireland, this worship must have come from the far East, where this beautiful and deadly creature is looked upon as the symbol of the Evil One, and worshipped and propitiated by votive offerings, as all evil things were in the early world, in the hope of turning away their evil hatred136 from man, and to induce them to show mercy and pity; just as the Egyptians propitiated the sacred crocodile by subtle flatteries and hung costly jewels in its ears. The Irish, indeed, do not seem to have originated any peculiar or national cultus. Their funeral ceremonies recall those of Egypt and Greece and9 other ancient Eastern climes, from whence they brought their customs of the Wake, the death chant, the mourning women, and the funeral games. In Sparta, on the death of a king or great chief, they had a wake and “keen” not common to the rest of Greece, but which they said they learned from the Phœnicians; and this peculiar usage bears a striking resemblance to the Irish practice. All the virtues137 of the dead were recited, and the Greek “Eleleu,” the same cry as the “Ul-lu-lu” of the Irish, was keened over the corpse138 by the chorus of hired mourning women. The custom of selecting women in place of men for the chorus of lamentation140 prevailed throughout all the ancient world, as if an open display of grief was thought beneath the dignity of man. It was Cassandra gave the keynote for the wail141 over Hector, and Helen took the lead in reciting praises to his honour. The death chants in Egypt, Arabia, and Abyssinia all bear a marked resemblance to the Irish; indeed the mourning cry is the same in all, and the Egyptian lamentation “Hi-loo-loo! Hi-loo-loo!” cried over the dead, was probably the original form of the Irish wail.
The Greeks always endeavoured to lessen142 the terrors of death, and for this reason they established funeral games, and the funeral ceremonies took the form of a festival, where they ate and drank and poured libations of wine in honour of the dead. The Irish had also their funeral games and peculiar dances, when they threw off their upper garments, and holding hands in a circle, moved in a slow measure round a woman crouched143 in the centre, with her hands covering her face. Another singular part of the ceremony was the entrance of a woman wearing a cow’s head and horns, as Io appears upon the scene in the Prometheus of Æschylus. This woman was probably meant to represent the horned or crescented moon, the antique Diana, the Goddess of Death. The custom of throwing off the garments no doubt originally signified the casting off the garment of the flesh. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we carry nothing out. The soul must stand unveiled before God.
In the islands off the West Coast of Ireland, where the most ancient superstitions still exist, they have a strange custom. No funeral wail is allowed to be raised until three hours have elapsed from the moment of death, because, they say, the sound of the cries would hinder the soul from speaking to God when it stands before Him, and waken up the two great dogs that are watching for the souls of the dead in order that they may devour144 them—and the Lord of Heaven Himself cannot hinder them if once they waken. This tradition of watching by the dead in silence, while the soul stands before God, is a fine and solemn superstition, which must have had its origin amongst a people of intense faith in the invisible world, and is probably of great antiquity.
The sound of the Irish keen is wonderfully pathetic. No one10 could listen to the long-sustained minor145 wail of the “Ul-lu-lu” without strong emotion and even tears; and once heard it can never be forgotten. Nor is there anything derogatory to grief in the idea of hired mourners; on the contrary, it is a splendid tribute to the dead to order their praises to be recited publicly before the assembled friends; while there is something indescribably impressive in the aspect of the mourning women crouched around the bier with shrouded146 heads, as they rock themselves to and fro and intone the solemn, ancient death-song with a measured cadence147, sometimes rising to a piercing wail. They seem like weird and shadowy outlines of an old-world vision, and at once the imagination is carried back to the far-distant East, and the time when all these funeral symbols had a mysterious and awful meaning. Sometimes a wail of genuine and bitter grief interrupts the chant of the hired mourners. An Irish keen which was taken down from the lips of a bereaved148 mother some years ago, runs thus in the literal English version—
“O women, look on me! Look on me, women! Have you ever seen any sorrow like mine? Have you ever seen the like of me in my sorrow? Arrah, then, my darling, my darling, ’tis your mother that calls you. How long you are sleeping. Do you see all the people round you, my darling, and I sorely weeping? Arrah, what is this paleness on your face? Sure there was no equal to it in Erin for beauty and fairness, and your hair was heavy as the wing of a raven149, and your skin was whiter than the hand of a lady. Is it the stranger must carry me to my grave, and my son lying here?”
This touching lament139 is so thoroughly150 Greek in form and sentiment that it might be taken for part of a chorus from the Hecuba of Euripides. Even the “Arrah” reminds one of a Greek word used frequently by the Greeks when commencing a sentence or asking a question, although the resemblance may be only superficial.
The tales and legends told by the peasants in the Irish vernacular151 are much more weird and strange, and have much more of the old-world colouring than the ordinary fairy tales narrated152 in English by the people, as may be seen by the following mythical153 story, translated from the Irish, and which is said to be a thousand years old:—
THE HORNED WOMEN.
A rich woman sat up late one night carding and preparing wool, while all the family and servants were asleep. Suddenly a knock was given at the door, and a voice called—“Open! open!”
“Who is there?” said the woman of the house.
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“I am the Witch of the One Horn,” was answered.
The mistress, supposing that one of her neighbours had called and required assistance, opened the door, and a woman entered, having in her hand a pair of wool carders, and bearing a horn on her forehead, as if growing there. She sat down by the fire in silence, and began to card the wool with violent haste. Suddenly she paused and said aloud: “Where are the women? They delay too long.”
Then a second knock came to the door, and a voice called as before—“Open! open!”
The mistress felt herself constrained154 to rise and open to the call, and immediately a second witch entered, having two horns on her forehead, and in her hand a wheel for spinning the wool.
“Give me place,” she said; “I am the Witch of the Two Horns,” and she began to spin as quick as lightning.
And so the knocks went on, and the call was heard, and the witches entered, until at last twelve women sat round the fire—the first with one horn, the last with twelve horns. And they carded the thread, and turned their spinning wheels, and wound and wove, all singing together an ancient rhyme, but no word did they speak to the mistress of the house. Strange to hear, and frightful155 to look upon were these twelve women, with their horns and their wheels; and the mistress felt near to death, and she tried to rise that she might call for help, but she could not move, nor could she utter a word or a cry, for the spell of the witches was upon her.
Then one of them called to her in Irish and said—
“Rise, woman, and make us a cake.”
Then the mistress searched for a vessel156 to bring water from the well that she might mix the meal and make the cake, but she could find none. And they said to her—
“Take a sieve157 and bring water in it.”
And she took the sieve and went to the well; but the water poured from it, and she could fetch none for the cake, and she sat down by the well and wept. Then a voice came by her and said—
“Take yellow clay and moss158 and bind159 them together and plaster the sieve so that it will hold.”
This she did, and the sieve held the water for the cake. And the voice said again—
“Return, and when thou comest to the north angle of the house, cry aloud three times and say, ‘The mountain of the Fenian women and the sky over it is all on fire.’”
And she did so.
When the witches inside heard the call, a great and terrible cry broke from their lips and they rushed forth with wild lamentations and shrieks160, and fled away to Slieve-namon, where was their chief abode. But the Spirit of the Well bade the mistress of the12 house to enter and prepare her home against the enchantments161 of the witches if they returned again.
And first, to break their spells, she sprinkled the water in which she had washed her child’s feet (the feet-water) outside the door on the threshold; secondly162, she took the cake which the witches had made in her absence, of meal mixed with the blood drawn163 from the sleeping family. And she broke the cake in bits, and placed a bit in the mouth of each sleeper164, and they were restored; and she took the cloth they had woven and placed it half in and half out of the chest with the padlock; and lastly, she secured the door with a great cross-beam fastened in the jambs, so that they could not enter. And having done these things she waited.
Not long were the witches in coming back, and they raged and called for vengeance165.
“Open! Open!” they screamed. “Open, feet-water!”
“I cannot,” said the feet-water, “I am scattered on the ground and my path is down to the Lough.”
“Open, open, wood and tree and beam!” they cried to the door.
“I cannot,” said the door; “for the beam is fixed in the jambs and I have no power to move.”
“Open, open, cake that we have made and mingled with blood,” they cried again.
“I cannot,” said the cake, “for I am broken and bruised166, and my blood is on the lips of the sleeping children.”
Then the witches rushed through the air with great cries, and fled back to Slieve-namon, uttering strange curses on the Spirit of the Well, who had wished their ruin; but the woman and the house were left in peace, and a mantle167 dropped by one of the witches in her flight was kept hung up by the mistress as a sign of the night’s awful contest; and this mantle was in possession of the same family from generation to generation for five hundred years after.
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nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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creeds
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| （尤指宗教）信条，教条( creed的名词复数 ) | |
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migrations
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| n.迁移，移居( migration的名词复数 ) | |
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emanated
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的过去式和过去分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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obliterate
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| v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去 | |
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diverged
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| 分开( diverge的过去式和过去分词 )； 偏离； 分歧； 分道扬镳 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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16
illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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19
philologist
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| n.语言学者，文献学者 | |
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philologists
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| n.语文学( philology的名词复数 ) | |
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21
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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23
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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25
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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conformity
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| n.一致，遵从，顺从 | |
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27
idols
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| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
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28
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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29
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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30
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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31
cryptic
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| adj.秘密的，神秘的，含义模糊的 | |
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32
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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33
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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35
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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36
invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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37
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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38
manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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39
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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40
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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41
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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42
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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43
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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44
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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45
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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46
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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47
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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48
propitiated
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| v.劝解，抚慰，使息怒( propitiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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50
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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51
mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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52
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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53
verdant
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| adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的 | |
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54
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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55
sediment
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| n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物) | |
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56
affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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57
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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58
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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59
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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60
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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61
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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62
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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63
legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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64
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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65
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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66
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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67
invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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68
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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69
fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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70
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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71
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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72
diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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73
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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74
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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75
narrates
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| v.故事( narrate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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76
anecdote
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|
| n.轶事，趣闻，短故事 | |
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77
besought
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|
| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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78
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
implore
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| vt.乞求，恳求，哀求 | |
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80
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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81
precisely
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|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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82
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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83
immortal
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|
| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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84
reverenced
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| v.尊敬，崇敬( reverence的过去式和过去分词 )；敬礼 | |
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85
tapers
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| （长形物体的）逐渐变窄( taper的名词复数 )； 微弱的光； 极细的蜡烛 | |
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86
worthy
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|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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87
affinities
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| n.密切关系( affinity的名词复数 )；亲近；（生性）喜爱；类同 | |
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88
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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89
lulls
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| n.间歇期（lull的复数形式）vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的第三人称单数形式） | |
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90
awakens
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的第三人称单数 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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91
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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92
rime
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| n.白霜；v.使蒙霜 | |
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93
kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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94
illuminate
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| vt.照亮，照明；用灯光装饰；说明，阐释 | |
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95
symbolized
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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96
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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97
interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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98
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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99
solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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100
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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101
wilful
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| adj.任性的，故意的 | |
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102
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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103
pried
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
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104
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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105
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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106
hawthorn
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| 山楂 | |
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107
scamper
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| v.奔跑，快跑 | |
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108
barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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109
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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110
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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111
abduct
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| vt.诱拐，拐带，绑架 | |
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112
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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113
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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114
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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115
reverent
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| adj.恭敬的，虔诚的 | |
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116
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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117
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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118
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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119
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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120
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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121
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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122
sublimely
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| 高尚地，卓越地 | |
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123
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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124
enactments
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| n.演出( enactment的名词复数 )；展现；规定；通过 | |
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125
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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126
sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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127
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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128
adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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129
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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130
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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131
icebergs
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| n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 ) | |
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132
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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133
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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134
saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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135
hewed
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| v.（用斧、刀等）砍、劈( hew的过去式和过去分词 )；砍成；劈出；开辟 | |
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136
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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137
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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138
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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139
lament
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| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
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140
lamentation
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| n.悲叹，哀悼 | |
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141
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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142
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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143
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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144
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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145
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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146
shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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147
cadence
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| n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫 | |
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148
bereaved
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| adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物） | |
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149
raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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150
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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151
vernacular
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| adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名 | |
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152
narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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153
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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154
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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155
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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156
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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157
sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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158
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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159
bind
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| vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬 | |
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160
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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161
enchantments
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| n.魅力( enchantment的名词复数 )；迷人之处；施魔法；着魔 | |
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162
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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163
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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164
sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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165
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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166
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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167
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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