CELTIC MYTHOLOGY (Illustrated Edition). T. W. Rolleston

275.

789. Mitchell, op. cit. 271 f.

790. Cook, Folk-Lore, xvii. 332.

791. Mitchell, loc. cit. 147. The corruption of "Maelrubha" to "Maree" may have been aided by confusing the name with mo or mhor righ.

792. Mitchell, loc. cit.; Moore, 92, 145; Rh^ys, CFL i. 305; Worth, Hist. of Devonshire, 339; Dalyell, passim.

793. Livy, xxiii. 24.

794. Sébillot, ii. 166-167; L'Anthrop. xv. 729.

795. Carmichael, Carm. Gad. i. 163.

796. Martin, 28. A scribe called "Sonid," which might be the equivalent of "Shony," is mentioned in the Stowe missal (Folk-Lore, 1895).

797. Campbell, Superstitions, 184 f; Waifs and Strays of Celtic Trad. ii. 455.

798. Aelian, xvii. 19.

799. Tacitus, Ann. xiv. 30; Dio Cass. lxii. 6.

800. Appian, Celtica, 8; Livy, xxi. 28, xxxviii. 17, x. 26.

801. Livy, v. 38, vii. 23; Polybius, ii. 29. Cf. Watteville, Le cri de guerre chez les differents peuples, Paris, 1889.

802. Livy, v. 38.

803. Appian, vi. 53; Muret et Chabouillet, Catalogue des monnaies gauloises, 6033 f., 6941 f.

804. Diod. v. 31; Justin, xxvi. 2, 4; Cicero, de Div. ii. 36, 76; Tac. Ann. xiv. 30; Strabo, iii. 3. 6.

805. Dio Cass. lxii. 6.

806. Reinach, Catal. Sommaire, 31; Pseudo-Plutarch, de Fluviis, vi. 4; Mirab. Auscult. 86.

807. Strabo, iv. 4. 6.

808. Justin, xxiv, 4; Cicero, de Div. i. 15. 26. (Cf. the two magic crows which announced the coming of Cúchulainn to the other world (D'Arbois, v. 203); Irish Nennius, 145; O'Curry, MC ii. 224; cf. for a Welsh instance, Skene, i. 433.)

809. Joyce, SH i. 229; O'Curry, MC ii. 224, MS Mat. 284.

810. IT i. 129; Livy, v. 34; Loth, RC xvi. 314. The Irish for consulting a lot is crann-chur, "the act of casting wood."

811. Cæsar, vi. 14.

812. O'Curry, MC ii. 46, 224; Stokes, Three Irish Homilies, 103.

813. Cormac, 94. Fionn's divination by chewing his thumb is called Imbas Forosnai (RC xxv. 347).

814. Antient Laws of Ireland, i. 45.

815. Hyde, Lit. Hist. of Ireland, 241.

816. Justin, xliii. 5.

817. O'Grady, ii. 362; Giraldus, Descr. Camb. i. 11.

818. Pennant, Tour in Scotland, i. 311; Martin, 111.

819. Richardson, Folly of Pilgrimages, 70.

820. Tertullian, de Anima, 57; Coll. de Reb. Hib. iii. 334.

821. Campbell, Superstitions, 263; Curtin, Tales, 84.

822. Lucan, ed. Usener, 33.

823. See examples in O'Curry, MS Mat. 383 f.

824. Miss Hull, 19, 20, 23.

825. LU 55.

826. RC xii. 98, xxi. 156, xxii. 61.

827. RC xv. 432; Annals of the Four Masters, A.M. 2530; Campbell, WHT iv. 298.

828. See "Adamnan's Second Vision." RC xii. 441.

      Tabu

       Table of Contents

      The Irish geis, pl. geasa, which may be rendered by Tabu, had two senses. It meant something which must not be done for fear of disastrous consequences, and also an obligation to do something commanded by another.

As a tabu the geis had a large place in Irish life, and was probably known to other branches of the Celts.⁸²⁹ It followed the general course of tabu wherever found. Sometimes it was imposed before birth, or it was hereditary, or connected with totemism. Legends, however, often arose giving a different explanation to geasa, long after the customs in which they originated had