PAGAN RITES STILL OBSERVED IN BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12070, 13 September 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

PAGAN RITES STILL OBSERVED IN BRITAIN.

SOME STRANGE CEREMONIES,

GODDESS FLORA HONOURED.

It will probably be news to most people that there are still living in remote and, for the most part., outlying portions of the British Isles people -whose dwelling-places and mode of life in general are but very little removed from those of savages. In many of the lesser known Hebrides, for instance, the people are as much cut oft' from civilisation as are the limits or the Congo dwarfs. Their houses are. so far as outward appearances go, exactly like Kaffir huts—just rough heaps of stones a few feet high, surmounted, by circular, straw roofs. Chimneys, as a rule, are conspicuous by their absence, and the reek of the peat smoke fills each interior. Men, women, cud children go barefoot, even in the depths of winter. Whisk up the average stay-at-home Englishman, set him down suddenly among these strange folks and then ask him to guess what part of the world he is in. and fie would probably name half a hundred outlandish places in Asia, Africa. and America, but it is practically certain lie would never guess that he was on a British island. Even the language of the nativesGaelic —would be quite unintelligible to him. Not, of course, be it understood, that these hardy fishermen are savages in the sense of being degraded, gluttonous, or cruel. On the contrary, they are a fine. healthy race and exceedingly religious and temperate. But it is doubtful if their standard of living is even up to that of many aboriginal tribes, and it is certain, that'they know for the most part quite as little of what is going on in the great world around them. A similar remark applies to not a few remote islands off the west coast of Ireland, where may be studied primitive habits of life which have remained unaltered since the days of the semi-legendary Firbolgs. The dwellings on many of these remote outposts of Britain do not even pretend to be weatherproof. They are merely rough beaehstone hovels, with thatched roofs tied on by stone-weighted whisps, and. of course, no chimnevs. Men, women, and children are all obliged to work at fishing and in the fields. The goddess Flora is worshipped annually on May 8 at- Helston, in Cornwall, with much pomp, ceremony, and rejoicing. On the evening of the previous day practically the entire adult population sallies forth into the surrounding countryside for gar-lands and green branches, just as did the ancient Romans eighteen centuries ago. The main feature, of the festival is a curious dance performed to a sprightly tune, said to be used also in Wales and Britanny, and on " Flora Day," as it is locally termed, both doors of all houses are kepi, open in order that the strings of dancers may pass through them at pleasure. For any householder to close his doors would be to invite misfortune and ill-luck throughout the ensuing year. Exactly the same thing may he witnessed to-day .at the sacred well of St. Maebrubha, in Loch Marce, Rossshire, where is an ancient, oak tree studded with countless nails of all sizes, the offerings of invalid pilgrims who came to worship and be cured. Pennies and halfpennies also are to be seen in enormous quantities driven edgeways info the tough bark, and a friend of the writer who visited the. spot some little time back discovered in a cleft high up in the trunk what he took to be a shilling. On being extracted, however, it proved to be a counterfeit. Probably the donor, finding that he could get no value for his coin in the natural world, concluded he might as well try as a last resource what effect it might have in the spiritual. Of course, the poor cotters and others who flock to St. Maebrubha with their nails and their pence do not for a moment admit that they are assisting at a pagan ceremony. But they most undoubtedly are. Well-worship has always occupied an important place in paganism, and the sacred oak—before which each pilgrim must thrice kneel ere humbly presenting his offering—what is it but an obvious survival of the sacred grooves of Druidical times? Similarly the final rite, in which the patient is towed thrice around the island at the stern of a boat with the course of the sun, is clearly a custom derived from those distant days when the adoration of the orb, the visible source of light- and life, was the ordinary and obvious duty of those whom he benefited. But these are harmless observances. There is a darker side to the picture. For instance, the cock has always played a prominent part in paganism the world over. In India, in Ceylon, in Hayti he is to this day openly sacrificed by being buried alive. So, too, is he in parts of Scotland, but secretly, at dead of night, with much mystery, the object being to effect a cure in cases of epilepsy and insanity, by propitiating the demon that is supposed to dwell in those afflicted by these terrible maladies. Also, it is said, it is by no means unknown among the highland crofters for one of a herd of cattle to be interred alive after a- similar fashion, as an offering to the spirit of the murrain, when that disease, or anything resembling it, is more than usually prevalent.

Paganism is something which one dors not usually associate with Catholic Ireland. H is a fact, however, that along parts <if the wild Kerry coast mystic rites, which savants have bad no difficulty in identifying with those incidental to the worship of the Greek god Priapus, are performed to this day with more or less regularity.

The natives— ignorant, fisherfolk for the most part—are shy of letting strangers know anything about thelites in question, and inquirer.? are usually bluntly told to mind their own business and not to pry into matters with which they have no concern.