[Pg 164] Eight.—Sc.: Table rangers.
Dt.: Bold rainers.
C.: Archangels.
Db.: Gabriel riders.
N.: Bright walkers.
H.: Crooked straight.
Nine.—Sc.: Muses.
Dt.: Bright shiners.
C.: Bold rainers.
Db.: Bright shiners.
N.: Gable rangers.
Ten.—Sc.: Commandments.
Dt. "
C. "
Db. "
N. "
Eleven.—Sc.: Maidens in a dance.
Dt.: Went up to heaven.
C. ""
Db.: Archangels.
N.: Evangelists.
Twelve.—Sc.: Apostles.
Dt. "
C. "
Db. "
N. "
From this table we see that the thrivers of Scotland are threble thribers in Derbyshire. These, according to the explanation of Addy, are the three Norns or white ladies,[62] and this view is supported by the three queens of the one Breton chant, which probably suggested The Three Maries of the one Spanish version.
Again, the table rangers of the Scottish song are Gabriel riders, otherwise known as Gabriel hounds or gabbe ratches in Derbyshire. Gabriel hounds is a word applied to the winds. The winds are also associated with eight in the one Breton chant. In Cornwall bright shiners are associated with three, but in Dorsetshire and Derbyshire bright shiners are associated with nine, and nine is the number of maidens in one Breton chant also. We are reminded of the priestesses who were devoted to religious rites on some island of the Atlantic, perhaps Ushant, off Brittany, when Pytheas, in the fourth century before Christ, visited these shores. Nine of them attended a famous oracle, and professed to control the weather.
The interest of these chants is increased when we compare them with what folk-lore preserves on the subject. The followers of Mohammed tell a tale which describes how a rich man promised a poor man his ox if he could explain to him the numbers, and the following dialogue ensued:—
What is one and not two?—God is one.
What is two and not three?—Day and night [or the sun and the moon].
And further: three for divorces from one's wife; four for the Divine books (i.e. the Old and New Testament, the Psalter and the Koran); five for the states of Islam; six for the realms in Nizam; seven for the heavens that surround the throne of God (A., II, 230).