The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries

by W. Y. Evans-Wentz

[479] Rhŷs, Hib. Lect., p. 194.

[480] Math ab Mathonwy’s Irish counterpart is Math mac Umóir, the magician (Book of Leinster, f. 9^b; cf. Rhŷs, Trans. Third Inter. Cong. Hist. Religions, Oxford, 1908, ii. 211).

[481] Rhŷs, ib., pp. 225-6; cf. R. B. Mabinogion, p. 60; Triads, i. 32, ii. 20, iii. 90. A fortified hill-top now known as Pen y Gaer, or ‘Hill of the Fortress’, on the western side of the Conway, on a mountain within sight of the railway station of Tal y Cafn, Carnarvonshire, is regarded by Sir John Rhŷs as the site of a long-forgotten cult of Math the Ancient. (Rhŷs, ib., p. 225).

[482] This stone basin, now in the centre of the inner chamber, seems originally to have stood in the east recess, the largest and most richly inscribed. It is 4 feet long, 3 feet 6 inches across, and 1 foot thick. (Coffey, op. cit., xxx. 14, 21).

[483] Cf. W. M. Flinders Petrie, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh (London, 1883), p. 201.

[484] All of the chief megaliths of this type, together with the chief alignements, which I have personally inspected—with the aid of a compass—in Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany, are definitely aligned east and west. It cannot be said, however, that all megalithic monuments throughout Celtic countries show definite orientation (see Déchelette’s Manuel d’Archéologie).

[485] L. P. McCarty, The Great Pyramid Jeezeh (San Francisco, 1907), p. 402.

[486] Jubainville, Le Cycle Myth. Irl., p. 28.

[487] Maspero, Les Contes populaires de l’Égypte Ancienne,³ p. 74 n.

[488] Tylor, Prim. Cult.,⁴ ii. 426.