The Religion of the Ancient Celts

by J. A. MacCulloch

Footnote 931:[(return)]

Bertrand, 119.

Footnote 932:[(return)]

Ibid. 407; Gaidoz, 21; Mannhardt, Baumkultus, 514, 523; Brand, i. 8, 323.

Footnote 933:[(return)]

Mannhardt, op. cit. 525 f.; Frazer, Golden Bough², iii. 319.

Footnote 934:[(return)]

P. [234], supra.

Footnote 935:[(return)]

Frazer, op. cit. i. 74; Brand, i. 222, 237, 246, 318; Hone, Everyday Book, ii. 595; Mannhardt, op. cit. 177; Grimm, Teut. Myth. 621, 777 f.

Footnote 936:[(return)]

See my Childhood of Fiction, ch. v.

Footnote 937:[(return)]

Frazer, i. 82, ii. 247 f., 275; Mannhardt, 315 f.

Footnote 938:[(return)]

Martin, 117. The custom of walking deiseil round an object still survives, and, as an imitation of the sun's course, it is supposed to bring good luck or ward off evil. For the same reason the right hand turn was of good augury. Medb's charioteer, as she departed for the war, made her chariot turn to the right to repel evil omens (LU 55). Curiously enough, Pliny (xxviii. 2) says that the Gauls preferred the left-hand turn in their religious rites, though Athenæus refers to the right-hand turn among them. Deiseil is from dekso-s, "right," and svel, "to turn."

Footnote 939:[(return)]

Hone, i. 846; Hazlitt, ii. 346.

Footnote 940:[(return)]

This account of the Midsummer ritual is based on notices found in Hone, Everyday Book; Hazlitt, ii. 347 f.; Gaidoz, Le Dieu Soleil; Bertrand; Deloche, RC ix. 435; Folk-Lore, xii. 315; Frazer, Golden Bough², iii. 266 f.; Grimm, Teut. Myth. ii. 617 f.; Monnier, 186 f.