[163] Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, Lib. I, cap. 30.
[164] Of course it does not follow that the reasoning originally took place in these islands. Complex beliefs were imported at an early period. These were localized.
[165] In Gaelic these are called "friction fires".
[166] According to some, Isis is a rendering of a Libyan name meaning "old wife".
[167] This connection can be traced in ancient Egypt. The sun and fire were connected, and the sun originally rose from the primordial waters. The sun's rays were the "tears" of Ra (the sun god). Herbs and trees sprang up where Ra's tears fell.
[168] So was a whale. The Latin orca is a Celtic loan-word. Milton uses the Celtic whale-name in the line
The haunt of seals, and orca, and sea-mews' clang.
—Paradise Lost, Book XI, line 835.
[169] O'Curry, Manuscript Materials, pp. 426-7.
[170] Professor W. J. Watson says in this connection: "The Celtic clerics stepped in to the shoes of the Druids. The people regarded them as superior Druids."