[331] Haslam, Wm., Perranzabuloe.
[332] Ibid., p. 60.
[333] “Mr. W. Mackenzie, Procurator Fiscal of Cromarty, writes me from Dingwall (10th September, 1917), as follows: ‘We are not without some traces and traditions of phallic worship here. There is a stone in the Brahan Wood which is said to be a “knocking stone”. Barren women sat in close contact upon it for the purpose of becoming fertile. It serves the purpose of the mandrake in the East. I have seen the stone. It lies in the Brahan Wood about three miles from Dingwall.’”—Frazer, Sir J. G., quoted from Folklore, 1918, p. 219.
[334] Guerber, H. A., Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages, p. 219.
[335] Guerber, H. A., Myths and Legends of the Middle Ages, p. 221.
[336] “The Brehon laws are the most archaic system of law and jurisprudence of Western Europe. This was the code of the ancient Gaels, or Keltic-speaking Irish, which existed in an unwritten form long before it was brought into harmony with Christian sentiments.... It is impossible to study these laws and the manners and customs of the early Irish, together with their land tenure, and to compare them with the laws of Manu, and with the light thrown on the Aryans of India by the Sanskrit writings without coming to the conclusion that they had a common origin.”—Macnamara, N. C., Origin and Character of the British People, p. 94.
[337] Place-names of England and Wales, p. 406.
[338] Of the Teutonic Tiw, Dr. Taylor observes: “This word was used as the name of the Deity by all the Aryan nations. The Sanskrit deva, the Greek theos, the Latin deus, the Lithuanian dewas, the Erse dia, and the Welsh dew are all identical in meaning. The etymology of the word seems to point to the corruption of a pure monotheistic faith.” In Chaldaic and in Hebrew di meant the Omnipotent, in Irish de meant goddess, and in Cornish da or ta meant good. From the elementary form de, di, or da, one traces ramifications such as the Celtic dia or duw meaning a god. In Sanskrit Dya was the bright heavenly deity who may be equated with the Teutonic Tiu, whence our Tuesday, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus, which is equivalent to the Greek Zeus. The same radical d’ is the base of dies, and of dieu; of div the Armenian for day; of div the Sanskrit for shine; of Diva the Sanskrit for day. Our ancestors used to believe that the river Deva or Dee sprang from two sources, and that after a very short course its waters passed entire and unmixed through a large lake carrying out the same quantity of water that it brought in.
The word “Dee” seems widely and almost universally to have meant good or divine, and it may no doubt be equated with the “Saint Day” who figures so prominently in place-names, and the Christian Calendar.
[339] Hone, W., Everyday Book, i., 1118.