[785]. Laws of Manu, iv. 53, translated by G. Bühler (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv. p. 137).
[786]. Martin Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees 3rd Ed., (London, 1884), p. 243, note 1. Strabo describes the mouth-veil worn by the Magian priests in Cappadocia (xiv. 3. 15, p. 733). At Arkon, in the island of Rügen, there was a shrine so holy that none but the priest might enter it, and even he might not breathe in it. As often as he needed to draw in or give out breath, he used to run out of the door lest he should taint the divine presence with his breath. See Saxo Grammaticus, Historia Danica, bk. xiv. p. 824, ed. P. E. Müller (p. 393 of Elton’s English translation).
[787]. P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, i. 335 sq.; Standish H. O’Grady, Sylva Gadelica, translation (London, 1892), pp. 15, 16, 41.
[788]. See above, pp. [94] sq.
[790]. Douglas Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland (London, 1899), p. 158. The tradition of the oak of Kildare survives in the lines,
“That oak of Saint Bride, which nor Devil nor Dane
Nor Saxon nor Dutchman could rend from her fane,”
which are quoted by Mr. D. Fitzgerald in Revue Celtique, iv. (1879-1880) p. 193.
[791]. Douglas Hyde, op. cit. pp. 169-171. At Kells, also, St. Columba dwelt under a great oak-tree. The writer of his Irish life, quoted by Mr. Hyde, says that the oak-tree “remained till these latter times, when it fell through the crash of a mighty wind. And a certain man took somewhat of its bark to tan his shoes with. Now, when he did on the shoes, he was smitten with leprosy from his sole to his crown.”