Fig. 406.—Mediæval Paper mark. From Les Filigranes (Briquet, C. M.).
That Kit was connected with the eight of the Cretan Eros figure is further implied by the fact that on the summit of a lofty hill near Royston or Roystone there is, or was, a “hollow oval”. The length of this prehistoric monument was stated in 1856 as about 31 feet (originally 33?) and its breadth about 22 feet. “Within this bank are two circular excavations meeting together in the middle and nearly forming the figure eight. Both excavations descend by concentric and contracting rings to the walls which form the sides of the chambers.”[746] From this description the monument would appear to be identical in design with the 8-in-an-oval emblem here illustrated, a mediæval papermark traceable to the Italian town of St. Donino. Examples of twin earthwork circles forming the figure 8 are not unknown in Ireland.
At Royston, which, as we shall see, was the Lady Roesia’s town, is a place called Cocken Hatch, but whether this is the site of the eight-form monument in question, I am unaware: in the megalithic stone illustrated on p. 638 the Cadi is not only holding an 8 on the tip of his caduceus, but he has also a cadet or little son by the hand: cadi is Arabic for a judge, and in Wales the Cadi no doubt acted as the final judge. In Celtic the word cad meant war, an implication that in one of his aspects Ked or St. Kitt was the ever-victorious Michael or the all-conquering Nike: there is a Berkshire ballad extant, in which the word caddling, meaning fighting, is employed, yet caddling is the same word as cuddling. In Scotland, caddie means a messenger or errand boy: Mercury or Hermes was the Messenger of the Gods: among the Greeks, Iris was the Messenger, and Iris was unquestionably the Turkish Orus or St. George. In Arabia, St. George is known as El Khoudr, and it is believed that El Khoudr is not yet dead, but still flies round and round the world: in a subsequent chapter it will be shown that Orus is the same as Horus the Egyptian dragon-slayer; hence Giggras, another of St. George’s titles, may be resolved into Mighty Mighty Horus or Eros, and it is possible that the Pictish town of Delginross should read Tall King Eros.
The eleven rows of rocks at Carnac extend, it is said, for eight miles, and at the neighbouring Er-lanic are two megalithic circles, one dipping into the sea, the other submerged in deep water: according to Baring-Gould, these two rings are juxtaposed, forming an 8, and lie on the south-east of the island; the first circle consists of 180 stones (twice nine), but several are fallen, and it can only be seen complete when the tide is out; one stone is 16 feet high; the second circle can be seen only at low tide.[747]
It is probable that the measurements of the Venus de Quinipily, illustrated on p. 530, are not without significance: the statue stands upon a pedestal, 9 feet high, and the figure itself rises 8 feet high.[748] With eight may be further connoted the eastern teaching of the “Noble Eightfold Path,” and also the belief of Western Freemasonry as stated in Mackey’s Lexicon of Freemasonry: “Eight was esteemed as the first cube (2 × 2 × 2), and signified friendship, prudence, counsel, and justice. It designated the primitive Law of Nature, which supposes all men to be equal.” The root of eight, octave, and octet or ogdoad is Og, the primeval giant, who, as we have seen, was reputed to have waded alongside the ark with its eight primordial passengers.
When flourishing, the megalithic monument at Carnac must have dwarfed our dual-circled, two-mile shrine at Avebury: “The labour of its erection,” to quote from Deane, “may be imagined from the fact that it originally consisted of eleven rows of stones, about 10,000 in number, of which more than 300 averaged from 15 to 17 feet in height, and from 16 to 20 or 30 feet in girth; one stone even measuring 42 feet in circumference”.
One of the commonest of sepulchral finds in Brittany is the stone axe, sometimes banded in alternate stripes of black and white: the axe was pre-eminently a Cretan emblem, and my suggestion that the Carnac stones were originally erected to the honour of St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins is somewhat strengthened by the coincidence that the London Church of St. Mary Axe was closely and curiously identified with the legend. According to Stow: “In St. Marie Street had ye of old time a parish church of St. Marie the Virgin, St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins, whose church was commonly called St. Marie at the Axe of the sign of an axe over against the east, and thereof on St. Marie Pellipar”. In view of the fact that the town of Ypres boasted an enormous collection of relics of the 11,000 Virgins, the title Pellipar may be reasonably resolved into Belle power: the Cretan axe or double axe symbolised almighty power.[749]
Fig. 407.—Bronze statuette, Despeña Perros.
