Fig. 416.—From The Correspondences of Egypt (Odhler).Fig. 416.—From The Correspondences of Egypt (Odhler).
Fig. 417.—Mediæval Papermark. From Les Filigranes (Briquet, C. M.)
The eight parents from the Ark may be connoted with Aught from Naught, for eight is the same word as aught and naught is the same word as night, nuit, or not: naughty means evil, whence the legend of Amor being born from Nox or Night might perhaps have been sublimated into the idea of Good emerging even from things noxious or nugatory.[758] Yet in the Cox and Box like rule of Night and Day the all-conquering Nikky was no doubt regarded as unique: “Shining and vanishing in the beauteous circle of the Hours, dwelling at one time in gloomy Tartarus, at another elevating himself to Olympus giving ripeness to the fruits”: it is not unlikely that the ruddy nectarine was assigned to him, and similarly nectar the celestial drink of the gods, or ambrosia in a liquid form.
Of the universally recognised Dualism the black and white magpie was evidently an emblem, and the superstitions in connection with this bird are still potent. The Magpie is sometimes called Magot-pie, and Maggoty-pie, and for this etymology Skeat offers the following explanation: “Mag is short for Magot—French Margot, a familiar form of Marguerite, also used to denote a Magpie. This is from Latin Margarita, Greek Margarites, a pearl.” There is no material connection between a pearl and a Magpie, but both objects were alike emblems of the same spiritual Power or Pair: between Margot and Istar the same equation is here found, for in Kent magpies were known popularly as haggisters.[759] Although I have deemed hag to mean high it will be remembered that in Greek hagia meant holy, whence haggister may well have been understood as holy ister.
Layamon in his Brut mentions that the Britons at the time of Hengist’s invasion “Oft speak stilly and discourse with whispers of two young men that dwell far hence; the one hight Uther the other Ambrosie”. Of these fabulous Twain—the not altogether forgotten Two Kings of their ancestors—we may equate Uther with the uter or womb of Night and Aurelie Ambrosie with Aurora the Golden Sunburst.
It is probable that the Emporiae, some of whose elphin horse coins were reproduced on [page 281], were worshippers of Aurelie Ambrosie or “St. Ambrose” of whom it will be remembered: “some said that they saw a star upon his body”: it is also not unlikely that our Mary Ambree or Fair Ambree was the daughter of Amber, the divine Umpire and the Emperor of the Empyrean. The ballad recalls:—
There was none ever like Mary Ambree,
Shee led upp her souldiers in battaile array
’Gainst three times theyr number by breake of the day;