Fig. 90.—The Spirit of Youth. From a French Miniature of the fourteenth century. From Christian Iconography (Didron).
It is probable that “The Five Wells” at Taddington, “the Five Kings at Doddington,” where also is “the Duddo Stone,” likewise Dod Law at Doddington; Dowdeswell, Dudsbury, and the Cornish Dodman, are all referable originally to the fairy Titan or the celestial Daddy.
Fig. 91.—From Christian Iconography (Didron).
In accordance with universal wont this Titan or Almighty, “this senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid,” was conceived as anon a tiny toddling tot or Tom-tit-tot, anon as Old Tithonus, the doddering dotard: the Swedish for death or dead is dod; the German is tod. Tod is an English term for a fox, and Thot was the fox or jackal-headed maker-of-tracts or guide: thought is invariably the guide to every action, and Divine Thought is the final bar to which the human soul comes up for judgment. It has already been seen that in Europe the holder of the sword and scales was Michael, and there is reason to suppose that the Dog-headed titanic Christopher, who is said to have ferried travellers pick-a-back across a river, was at one time an exquisite conception of Great Puck or Father Death carrying his children over the mystic river. By the pagans—the unsophisticated villagers among whom Pucca mostly survived—Death was conceived as not invariably or necessarily frightful, but sometimes as a lovely youth. In Fig. 91 Death is Amor or Young Love, and in Fig. 90 an angel occupies the place of Giant Christopher: the words death and dead are identical with dad and tod.
Fig. 92.—Figure of Christ, beardless. Roman Sculpture of the IV. cent.
From Christian Iconography (Didron).