[529] Stokes, Tripartite Life, p. 409.
[530] Cf. Wood-Martin, Traces of the Older Faiths in Ireland, i. 305.
[531] W. Gregor, Notes on Beltene Cakes, in Folk-Lore, vi. 5.
[532] Temple, Legends of the Panjab, in Folk-Lore, x. 406.
[533] Lefèvre, Le Culte des Morts chez les Latins, in Rev. Trad. Pop., ix. 195-209.
[534] See Folk-Lore, vi. 192.
[535] The term ‘People of Peace’ seems, however, to have originated from confounding sid, ‘fairy abode,’ and síd, ‘peace.’
[536] Cf. Le Cycle Myth. Irl., p. 102.
[537] The crocodile as the mystic symbol of Sîtou provides one key to unlock the mysteries of what eminent Egyptologists have erroneously called animal worship, erroneously because they have interpreted literally what can only be interpreted symbolically. The crocodile is called the ‘son of Sîtou’ in the Papyrus magique, Harris, pl. vi, ll. 8-9 (cf. Maspero, Les Contes populaires de l’Égypte Ancienne,[539] Intro., p. 56); and as the waters seem to swallow the sun as it sinks below the horizon, so the crocodile, as Sîtou representing the waters, swallows the Children of Osiris, as the Egyptians called themselves. On the other hand, Osiris is typified by the white bull, in many nations the sun emblem, white being the emblem of purity and light, while the powers of the bull represent the masculinity of the sun, which impregnates all nature, always thought of as feminine, with life germs.
[538] Cf. Maspero, op. cit., Intro., p. 49.