Celtic Religion | Page 7

gods. As in all countries
where the gods were individualised, the men of Celtic lands, whether
aborigines or invaders, had toiled along the steep ascent from the
primitive vague sense of being haunted to a belief in gods who, like
Esus, Teutates, Grannos, Bormanus, Litavis, had names of a definite
character.
Among the prohibitions which had established themselves among the
races of Celtic lands, as elsewhere, was that directed against the
shedding of the blood of one's own kin. There are indications, too, that
some at any rate of the tribes inhabiting these countries reckoned
kinship through the mother, as in fact continued to be the case among
the Picts of Scotland into historic times. It does not follow, as we know
from other countries, that the pre-Aryan tribes of Gaul and Britain, or
indeed the Aryan tribes themselves in their earliest stage, regarded their
original ancestors as human. Certain names of deities such as Tarvos
(the bull), Moccos (the pig), Epona (the goddess of horses), Damona
(the goddess of cattle), Mullo (the ass), as well as the fact that the
ancient Britons, according to Caesar, preserved the hen, the goose, and
the hare, but did not kill and eat them, all point to the fact that in these
countries as elsewhere certain animals were held in supreme respect
and were carefully guarded from harm. Judging from the analogy of

kindred phenomena in other countries, the practice of respecting certain
animals was often associated with the belief that all the members of
certain clans were descended from one or other of them, but how far
this system was elaborated in the Celtic world it is hard to say. This
phenomenon, which is widely known as totemism, appears to be
suggested by the prominence given to the wild boar on Celtic coins and
ensigns, and by the place assigned on some inscriptions and bas-reliefs
to the figure of a horned snake as well as by the effigies of other
animals that have been discovered. It is not easy to explain the
beginnings of totemism in Gaul or elsewhere, but it should always be
borne in mind that early man could not regard it as an axiomatic truth
that he was the superior of every other animal. To reach that proud
consciousness is a very high step in the development of the human
perspective, and it is to the credit of the Celts that, when we know them
in historic times, they appear to have attained to this height, inasmuch
as the human form is given to their deities. It is not always remembered
how great a step in religious evolution is implied when the gods are
clothed with human attributes. M. Salomon Reinach, in his account of
the vestiges of totemism among the Celts, suggests that totemism was
merely the hypertrophy of early man's social sense, which extended
from man to the animals around him. This may possibly be the case,
but it is not improbable that man also thought to discover in certain
animals much-needed allies against some of the visible and invisible
enemies that beset him. In his conflict with the malign powers around
him, he might well have regarded certain animals as being in some
respects stronger combatants against those powers than himself; and
where they were not physically stronger, some of them, like the snake,
had a cunning and a subtlety that seemed far to surpass his own. In
course of time certain bodies of men came to regard themselves as
being in special alliance with some one animal, and as being descended
from that animal as their common ancestor. The existence side by side
of various tribes, each with its definite totem, has not yet been fully
proved for the Gaulish system, and may well have been a developed
social arrangement that was not an essential part of such a mode of
thought in its primary forms. The place of animal-worship in the Celtic
religion will be more fully considered in a later chapter. Here it is only
indicated as a necessary stage in relation to man's civilisation in the

hunting and the pastoral stages, which had to be passed through before
the historic deities of Gaul and Britain in Roman times could have
come into being. Certain of the divine names of the historic period, like
Artio (the bear-goddess), Moccus (the pig), Epona (the mare), and
Damona (the sheep), bear the unmistakable impress of having been at
one time those of animals.
As for the stage of civilisation at which totemism originated, there is
much difference of opinion. The stage of mind which it implies would
suggest that it reflects a time when man's mind was preoccupied with
wild beasts, and when the alliances and friendships, which he would
value in life, might be found in that