The foregoing suffices to establish that, in remotest antiquity, Attica was divided into four territorial divisions, with a central seat of government, the capital, which formed the fifth division. The inhabitants of the four regions const.i.tuted four tribes, each under its own chieftain.
Each tribe became identified with a different occupation and ultimately const.i.tuted castes which remained a.s.sociated with their place of residence. Simultaneously with this territorial distribution, another cla.s.sification of the population was evolved, which divided it into three strata, corresponding to the upper, central and lower caste and thus yielded a total of seven great divisions of the state, which thus reveals itself as having been a heptarchy and explains the const.i.tution of the Heptanomis, which existed in Central Egypt under Greek rule.
From the preceding material it appears that when Solon divided the people into four cla.s.ses, he merely reinstated the most ancient form of state organization known in Greece. It would be interesting to learn how far the following offices had been previously known. It is well known that Solon inst.i.tuted nine archons (literally leaders), which seem to have been the equivalents to the group of "nine G.o.ds" mentioned in Egypt in a.s.sociation with the supreme G.o.d or G.o.ddess. The characteristic feature of the archons appears to have been the fact that they were elected and that the first archon was surnamed Eponymos and gave his name to the year; the second archon, ent.i.tled Basileus, was the king, and the third, Polemarchas, was a warrior. The remaining six were collectively called Thesmothetes, administrators of right or justice. Under the above was the Council of Four Hundred. Each of the four phylae fell into three parts or thirds, producing a total of 12, a number corresponding to the organization of twelve tribes, communities or states. Each of these was divided into 4 Naucrariae, under 48 captaincies. The following extracts from Iwan Muller"s work supply us with further details concerning the Athenian government and show that variants of the same existed at different periods, throughout ancient Greece.
"At Athens, in historical times, the members of one tribe formed a corporation, recognized a common ancestor, observed a form of ancestral cult and kept a tribal register with the names of all newly born children (p. 20). The tribes formed corporations within the state, and each had its own cult and chieftain.... The Doric nation consisted of three such tribes.... In Ephesus the citizens were divided into five "gens" (_i. e._, four quarters and centre). It is certain that in Athens, Cyrene, and Chios, the phratries were communities with separate forms of cult, who worshipped beside their tribal deities, Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria ..." (pp. 20 and 21).
"In Teos the towns inhabited by a "gens" were divided into at least seven quarters.... In Tenos each gens was known as "a tower," and each individual bore the name of his tower and his gens." Pausing here for an instant, I draw attention to the recurrence in Greece of certain features of the Great Plan which must now be familiar to the reader: the a.s.sociation of divisions of people with a "tower," an artificial "high place" or mountain, the development and existence of separate forms of cult, corresponding to tribal and territorial divisions; the supreme cult of a male and female divinity, corresponding to the traditions that the state was founded by two individuals and was governed by two rulers. An ill.u.s.tration of this is furnished by Sparta, which "was governed by two kings, belonging to two different royal families ... the origin of this custom is unknown ... these kings usually were at enmity with each other...." "The population of Sparta was primarily divided into five "phyles," identified with five local districts. The names of the latter, Pitane, Mesoa, Limnai, Konoura and Dyme, were identical with those of the five Comes or group of separate communities which had const.i.tuted the state of Sparta at the time of Thucydides." It will be perceived that this organization corresponds to that of a capital and four provinces.
Simultaneously the population was grouped into three main cla.s.ses and twenty-seven phratries.
Considering that in ancient times the belief prevailed, and was shared by the Spartans themselves, that Lycurgus had introduced his scheme of organization from Crete, it is interesting to learn that "the Cretans themselves claimed that their laws dated from a remote antiquity and had been communicated to Minos and Rhadamanthus by Zeus himself." In one of the most ancient portions of the Odysseus, Idomeneus is represented as ruling in particular over cities situated in _the middle_ of the island.
In historical times the central rulership or monarchy had been abolished and "the state was ruled by ten chiefs of tribal divisions, who bore in common the t.i.tle Cosmos and held office for the limit of one year."
Although the most ancient accounts of the maritime supremacy of Crete under its king Minos, the "son of Zeus," are regarded as grossly exaggerated, modern authorities agree that, on account of its geographical position, Crete must undoubtedly have been an extremely important centre of maritime commerce, during a prolonged period.
On this account, and because the Spartans acknowledged to have received their scheme of organization from Crete, I draw particular attention to the design on a coin from Cnossus, the most important capital of Crete, which recently arrested my attention. It is preserved at the Berlin Museum and is reproduced in Spamer"s work, already cited (fig. 72, 14 and 15). On the obverse, it exhibits the fabulous Minotaurus the monster, half man and half bull, who is stated to have ruled the island. On the reverse, is a geometrical figure, representing a swastika, in the centre of which is the five-dot group. A similar coin also found on the site of Cnossus, and a.s.signed to B.C. 700, is preserved at the British Museum. Its reverse exhibits also the five-dot group and the swastika, between whose branches are four large dots or circles. In the Berlin Museum specimen the latter are replaced by squares containing cross lines. To any one familiar, in the first case, with the scheme of organization into five Comes, _i. e._ 4+1, such as has been shown to have been adopted in Sparta and elsewhere in Greece, the design on the reverse of both coins appears perfectly intelligible. No geometrical or cursive sign could more clearly express the scheme or ground-plan upon which the most ancient form of government in Greece has been shown to have also rested.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 72.
As to the image of the Minotaurus on the obverse of the Berlin coin: to any one familiar with the widespread system of figuring the state under the form of a human being or of a quadruped, and of symbolizing its ruler as its head, the image appears intelligible as that of the quadruplicate state. The circ.u.mstance that the head is that of a bull seems to indicate that, like the Egyptians, the Cretans applied the t.i.tle "bull" to their king; thence perhaps the fable that the island was at one time governed by the monster Minotaurus who claimed as annual tribute, from conquered tribes, seven youths and maidens. It is striking how perfectly the geometrical figures on the reverse of both coins, which I hold to represent territorial divisions, seem to form the complement to the image of the state represented in semi-human and semi-animal form. Interesting variants of the same design appear on two coins of the same period in the British Museum collection. One of these, from Syracuse, exhibits a swastika, in the centre of which is a human head-a sign which I should interpret as the image of a state and its single central ruler. A coin from Corinth displays a plain swastika only, which suffices to indicate, however, that its state organization was on the familiar plan.
In connection with the swastika and five-dot group it is interesting to examine some ancient Egyptian seals exhibiting crosses with four dots or strokes (fig. 72, 3-5), and to compare these with Rhodian specimens (10-13). On vases found by Schliemann on the site of Troy (8 and 9), we find, in one case a swastika and in the other a cross and four dots in a circle forming the nave. It is interesting to compare the Athenian nos. 6 and 7, one being a swastika and the other a cross in a lozenge.(122) An extremely curious instance of an entire decoration of a building consisting of crosses and five-dot groups, is furnished by the cenotaph erected by a late king in honor of Midas, king of Phrygia (fig. 72, 2), which, curiously enough, offers much resemblance to the geometrical style of stucco decorations of the ruins of Mitla, Mexico.(123) The presence of the swastika on coins a.s.signed to about B.C. 700 and its use in Greece, where plain cross-symbols had previously been employed, naturally leads to the inquiry as to the oldest-dated swastikas which have hitherto been found in Greece and Egypt.
In his important work on the subject already referred to, Prof. Thomas Wilson (_op. cit._ pp. 806 and 833), cites the opinions of Prof. Max Muller and Count Goblet d"Alviella as agreeing with that of Waring, who states that "the swastika is sought for in vain in Babylonia, a.s.syria and Phnicia," and "had no foothold in Egypt." The same authority says that: "the only sign approaching the fylfot in Egyptian hieroglyphics ... is not very similar to our fylfot ... and forms one of the hieroglyphs of Isis"
(Ceramic Art in Remote Ages, p. 82). On the other hand, Professor Goodyear says (Grammar of the Lotus, p. 356): "The earliest dated swastikas, hitherto found in Egypt, occur on the foreign Cyprian and Carian [?]
pottery fragments of the time of the twelfth dynasty [B.C. 2466-2266]
discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie in 1889. In the Third Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund, Prof. Flinders Petrie published ill.u.s.trations of Greek vases showing unmistakable swastikas which, though found at Naukratis in Egypt, are not Egyptian, but Greek."
The only other examples of the swastika in Egypt cited by Prof. Thomas Wilson are those woven on Coptic grave cloths made of linen and reproduced in "Die Graber- und Textilfunde von Achmim-Panopolis by R. Forrer." These grave cloths pertained to the Christian Greeks who migrated from their country during the first centuries of our era and settled in Upper Egypt, in Coptos and the surrounding cities. I am able to add another instance of the employment of the swastika in Egypt, which, although of Coptic origin, attaches itself to ancient Egypt.
I have already pointed out that, in Lepsius" Book of the Dead, the foremost of the G.o.ds of the four quarters, represented in mummy form, exhibited a cross on his right shoulder. During a recent visit to the Berlin Museum, my attention was arrested by seeing a swastika painted in precisely the same position, on the right shoulder of the stucco mummy case of a man, from Hermopolis, dated from the second century after Christ (Catalogue No. 11649). This remarkable coincidence seems to furnish conclusive evidence that, long before the introduction of Greek culture and Christian influence, the plain cross was employed by the ancient Egyptians in precisely the same way as, subsequently, the swastika by the Copts. To some of my readers the question will perhaps suggest itself whether some early Christian sects and, amongst them, communities of Greek Copts, did not interpret the mission of Christ literally, as an attempt to reestablish an earthly "kingdom of heaven" on the ancient plan, the knowledge of which had been preserved at Heliopolis, by the sages and philosophers of Egypt and the large Hebrew colony established there.
Returning to the swastika: From the account given by Prof. Thomas Wilson (_op. cit._, 810) of Schliemann"s observations on the swastikas he discovered, during his excavations on the site of Troy, we learn that, whereas the swastika occurs on thousands of whorls found in the third, fourth and fifth cities, but few whorls were found in the first and second cities, which were the deepest and oldest and _none of these bore the swastika mark_. These observations, added to the appearance of the swastika in Egypt at a comparatively late period, appear to prove that, whereas the cross-symbol was known in remotest antiquity in Asia Minor and Egypt and expressed the same meaning as the swastika, _i. e._ Polaris and circ.u.mpolar rotation and the quadruplicate organization of the Cosmos suggested by these natural phenomena, it was only the form or shape of the cross which underwent a change at a certain period. The earliest-dated specimens of this new form, given to a more ancient symbol, occur on the pottery fragments found in Egypt by Prof. Flinders Petrie. The presence of the swastika, on the whorls found in the ruins of the third city built on the site of Troy, also indicates that its adoption occurred at a fixed date and marked a new departure.
Referring back to page 21, where I show that the observations which led to the adoption of the swastika as a symbol could not possibly have been made until after Ursa Major had become circ.u.mpolar, about B.C. 4000, I point out that the oldest swastikas which have hitherto been found corroborate this view, since they are all posterior to the time when Ursa Major became circ.u.mpolar. Long anterior to its adoption, however, the primordial set of ideas, suggested to the human mind by the observation of natural phenomena, had reached an advanced stage of development, and had been worked out, applied to the regulation of human life and symbolized, in various ways, in widely separated countries.
It is impossible to conclude my comparative research, which has been rewarded by a most unexpected wealth of material, without enumerating a few facts connected with the earliest histories of Rome, ancient Ireland, Britain, Wales and Scandinavia. These brief and doubtlessly imperfect resumes will have fulfilled their purpose if they stimulate inquiry and evoke authoritative statements by learned specialists.
ANCIENT ROME.
Whether Rome "was founded by the common resolve of a Latin confederacy or by the enterprise of an individual chief, is beyond the reach even of conjecture. The date fixed upon for the commencement of the city is, of course, perfectly valueless in its precision" (Chambers" Encyclopaedia).
"According to Varro the city of Rome was founded B.C. 753, but Cato places the event four years later.... The day of its foundation was the 21st of April, which was sacred to the rural G.o.ddess Pales. There seems to be some uncertainty whether Romulus gave his name to the city or derived his own from it, but those who ascribe to the city a Grecian origin ... a.s.sert that Romulus and Roma are both derived from the Greek word for "strength."
The city, we are a.s.sured, had another name which the priests were forbidden to divulge; but what that was it is now impossible to discover.(124) There is, however, some plausibility in the conjecture that it was Pallanteum, and from the great care with which the Palladium, or image of Pallas, was preserved, it seems probable that the city was supposed to be under the care of that deity. If this conjecture be correct, the Pelasgic origin of Rome cannot be doubted, for Pallas was a Pelasgic deity....
"The inst.i.tution of the vestal virgins was older than the city itself and was regarded by the Romans as the most sacred part of their religious system. In the time of Numa there were but four ... their duty was to keep the sacred fire on the altar in the temple of Vesta from being extinguished and to preserve a certain sacred pledge on which the very existence of Rome was supposed to depend.(125) What this pledge was we have no means of discovering; some supposed that it was the Trojan Palladium; others, some traditional mystery brought by the Pelasgi from Samothrace. One fact is certain: that the Palatine is regarded as the oldest portion of the city and the original site and centre of the embryo mistress of the world and mother of cities, the _Roma quadrata_, fragments of whose walls have been brought to light.(126)
"Tradition relates that it was on the Palatine that Romulus marked out the Pomrium, a s.p.a.ce around the walls of the city, on which it was unlawful to erect buildings.... The next ceremony was the consecration of the comitium, or place of public a.s.sembly. A vault was built under ground and filled with the firstlings of all the natural productions that sustain human life and with earth which each foreign settler had brought from his home. This place was called _Mundus_" (History of Rome, Goldsmith"s abridgment, 21st edition, by W. C. Taylor, p. 13).
This fact furnishes evidence that the sacred central cosmical vault over which a mound may have been formed by the earth contributed from different quarters, was regarded as a synopsis of all, and that sanct.i.ty was also attached to the central place of a.s.sembly where justice was administered at regular intervals, weekly markets were held and religious rites were celebrated.(127)
Tradition relates that, after the foundation of the central "Mundus," the founder of Rome established the Sabine town which occupied the Quirinal and part of the Capitoline hills. "The name of this town most probably was Quirium ... the two cities were united on terms of equality and the double-faced Ja.n.u.s, stamped on the earliest Roman coins was probably a symbol of the double state." It is significant to find not only that Ja.n.u.s was sometimes depicted with four faces instead of two, in which case he was called Ja.n.u.s Quadrifrontis, but that references are also made to the female form of Ja.n.u.s=Jana, the latter being identified with Diana.
Considering that it was from Quirium that the Roman youths obtained Sabine wives by force, which had been refused to their entreaties, it would seem as though, originally, as elsewhere, the men and women of the community resided separately and that stringent laws regulated their intercourse. In other ancient communities it has been shown how the separation of the s.e.xes created in time an upper and lower cla.s.s, and to the same origin may perhaps be a.s.signed the most remarkable feature of the Roman const.i.tution, _i. e._ the two-fold division of the people into patricians and plebeians.
While the foregoing statements throw light upon the ideas a.s.sociated with the Middle and show that Rome was originally a dual state, the following facts furnish indications of a quadruplicate division. At an early period Rome was laid out and enclosed in a square, the population _was divided into four tribes_ and mention is made of "the state, under Servius Tullius, being an ent.i.ty divided into _four cities_ and twenty-six tribes ... this being strictly a geographical division a.n.a.logous to our parishes.
The division of the city into four tribes continued until the reign of Augustus (B.C. 29)...."(128)
The four chief religious corporations of ancient Rome, mentioned in the Century Dictionary, evidently correspond to this fourfold division and it is specially stated of one of these corporations that it was represented and governed by a group consisting of seven "septemvir epulones" who formed a "septemvirate."
The number of septemvirs corresponded to the "seven hills" which were enclosed by Tullus Hostilius, and it is stated that there were seven places of worship in ancient Rome. It is interesting to find that between A.D. 193 and 211, Septimius Severus, a native of an ancient Punic colony in Africa, erected a Septizonium (an edifice consisting, like the Babylonian zikkurat, of seven stories) on the Palatine, where a large temple of Apollo had previously been built.(129)
Although it is thus evident that, at different periods, seven-fold division was carried out in ancient Rome, it was not until after the reign of Theodosius, according to some authors, that the seven-day period was imported from Alexandria and the term "septimana" adopted in Rome.
"Previously to this Rome had counted her periods by eight days, the eighth day itself being originally called Nundinae-a term later applied to the whole cycle" (Chambers" Encyclopaedia). Noting that the period of eight (=24) days accords with the quadruplicate system applied to the primitive state, I draw attention to the numerical cla.s.sification of the citizens of Rome employed during centuries, which so curiously agrees with the system carried out in Peru at a widely sundered period (see p. 141).
Ten households formed a gens (clan or family); ten clans or one hundred households formed a curia or wardship; and ten wardships, or one hundred clans, or one thousand households formed a populus, civitas or community.
As it is stated that, at one time, Rome consisted of four cities, it is obvious that the above numbers, quadrupled, const.i.tuted the state which thus included forty wardships, four hundred gentes and four thousand households. As each gens possessed a chieftain, endowed with paternal authority over its members, there must, at one time, have been four hundred of these "patricians," whose number is thus found to correspond to the Greek "Council of 400" and curiously enough to the "four hundred Tochtli" or governors of the ancient Mexican commonwealth.
A noteworthy feature of the attempt to inst.i.tute the Decemvirate in Rome (5th century B.C.) was the arrangement that the ten chosen men exercised office in prescribed rotation for one day, each ruling, in consequence, for thirty-six days in the year which, like the Egyptian, then consisted of three hundred and sixty days and of an epact of five days. The a.s.signment of a day to each chieftain finds its parallel not only in a.s.syria but also in ancient America (see p. 181).
In connection with the Roman communal organization, attention is drawn to what appears to be a remarkable survival of an extremely ancient and natural mode of distinguishing the wardships. It is well known that, according to tradition, the republic of Siena, Italy, was founded at a remote period "by the sons of Remus, the twin brother of Romulus." The following facts prove that, to this day, certain features of its social organization exhibit an affinity to that of primitive Rome. "Siena, from the earliest day, has been divided into contrade or parishes. Each contrada has its special church, generally of great antiquity, and each contrada is named after some animal, or natural object, these names being symbolical of certain trades or customs. There are now the wolf, giraffe, owl, snail, tower, wave, goose, tortoise, etc., in all seventeen. Each has its colors, heralds, pages, music, flags; all the mediaeval paraphernalia of republican subdivision" (Frances Eliot, Diary of an idle woman in Italy I, p. 19).
The employment of the names of animals and natural objects as distinctive marks for a wardship offers a curious a.n.a.logy to the American inst.i.tution of tribal names and totems.
The circ.u.mstance that, in remotest times, the king of Rome, the acknowledged metropolis or mother city, was accompanied, on public occasions, by _twelve_ lictors or administrators of justice, each carrying the axe tied in a bundle of rods, shows that, at one time, the government was administered by thirteen individuals-a method we shall find again in ancient Ireland and Scandinavia. The history of Rome reveals that the different variants of governmental scheme adopted, one after the other, under influences emanating from Greece and Egypt, were reared upon the familiar universal plan. The most striking instance of this is, however, furnished by the details preserved of the groundwork on which Constantine founded (A.D. 330) the city he intended to be the capital of a universal empire, and named the New or Second Rome.
Historians relate that the peninsula of Byzantium offered striking resemblances to the sites of Carthage and Rome. The design of Constantine embraced the entire peninsula with the seven hills upon it. "On foot, with a lance in his hand, professing to be under the guidance of divine inspiration, the emperor directed the line which was traced as the boundary of the destined capital." ... "In imitation of Rome at that period, the city was divided into 27=fourteen wards (regiones).... Its centre was marked by a column ... surmounted by a bronze colossus of Apollo. The church of S. Sophia, built on the site of an ancient temple of Wisdom, was subsequently dedicated to "the Holy Eternal Wisdom" by Justinian. In the court called the Forum Augusteum, one side of which was formed by the palace and the other by the church, stood the Milliarium Aureum, not, as at Rome, a gilt marble pillar, but a s.p.a.cious edifice, the centre from which all the roads of the empire were measured and on the walls of which the distances to all the chief places were inscribed.... In the new reunited empire quadruple division was maintained, _the __ empire being divided into four parts_, each forming a praetorian prefecture under a praetorian prefect, who, being the lieutenant of the emperor, ruled over the governors and people of the province with absolute power. The four prefectures were subdivided into thirteen dioceses, each governed by a vice-prefect named vicarius, the total number of dioceses being fifty-two."
This system of numeration is of particular interest as it is not only identical with the system of a modern pack of cards, the origin of which is unknown, but is also the same as the Mexican year cycle (see p. 297).
Vestiges of sevenfold organization are traceable in the appointment by Constantine, of "seven ministers of the palace" who exercised "sacred"
functions about the person of the emperor, and the division of all Gaul into seven provinces placed under the governorship of the Vicar of the Seven Provinces. In conclusion I venture to point out that the four-storied amphitheatre of Vespasian (A.D. 71), the Pantheon of Agrippa (A.D. 23) and the Mausoleum of Hadrian (A.D. 138) appear to have a cosmical character, the first having been planned to hold the entire population of Rome, around a central s.p.a.ce in which, originally, the circling chariot simulated the circuit of the celestial "plaustrum" or "carro"=chariot, the Latin name given to Ursa Major.
While, on public festivals, the amphitheatre must have appeared as a synopsis of the whole empire and may also have been originally used for nocturnal, religious or political a.s.semblages, the great Pantheon enclosing the images of twelve deities, may well have been a conscious attempt to represent the all-embracing Cosmos of Egyptian and Greek philosophy, the framed view of the heaven, seen through the central opening in the dome, being the symbol of the "hidden and invisible G.o.d,"
of the initiated. To Hadrian, who visited Egypt twice and was undoubtedly acquainted with the idea of Plato"s Cosmos or Theos, the idea of building a great circular structure in the centre of which he would be laid to rest, would naturally have suggested itself. Pa.s.sing from a consideration of the buildings which, with the pyramids, appear to be among the grandest exponents of natural philosophy and religion ever reared by the hand of man, and clearly appear to have been planned under the direct influence of Egyptian and Greek philosophy, let us briefly glance at the mode in which the identical fundamental scheme was perpetuated among some northern peoples.
ANCIENT IRELAND, BRITAIN AND WALES.
It is a remarkable fact that, in ancient Ireland, we find distinct traces of a state, founded on the same crystallized artificial system that has been found at the basis of the most ancient civilizations of the world.
"There is really no authentic history of Ireland before the introduction of Christianity into the country, but there are some genuine traditions which appear based upon truth, because they accord with and explain the peculiar customs which were found to prevail in the island at the time of the English invasion. These traditions declare, that the original Celtic inhabitants were subdued by an Asiatic colony, or at least by the descendants of some Eastern people at a very remote period; they aver that the conquerors were as inferior to the original inhabitants in numbers as they were superior in military discipline and the arts of social life; they describe the conquest as a work of time and trouble and a.s.sert that, after its completion, an hereditary monarchy and hereditary aristocracy were for the first time established in Ireland...."
"At some unknown period Ireland was divided into five kingdoms, Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, Munster and Meath ... the latter being the property of the paramount sovereign ..." (W. C. Taylor, History of Ireland, 1837).
John O"Neil cites "the very oldest Irish books, according to which two brothers, the leaders of the Milesian colonization, divided Ireland into Northern and Southern kingdom." Elsewhere he relates how a prince of the north had been united in marriage to the princess of the south and that "the mythical Niall-Navi-giallach of the nine treasures had had a Northern king for father and a Southern princess for mother." Besides this subdivision which strikingly recalls the ancient Egyptian, O"Neil brings out the remarkable fact that definite positions in relation to each other and the cardinal points were a.s.signed to the five Irish kings and tells us that "we have a fuller and later division when, in the central hall, the miodh-chuarta of Tara, the king of Erinn sat in the centre, with his face to the East, the king of Ulster being at his North, the king of Munster at his South, while the king of Leinster sat opposite to him and the king of Connaught behind him" (_op. cit._ I, 463).
I refer the reader to his extremely interesting comparison (I, p. 369) of ancient Ireland being "an Irish instance of a Chinese "Middle Kingdom," "
and to the data given in connection with the great hall of Tara, which was called Meath or Mid-court, Miodchuarta (p.r.o.nounced Micorta), and the Northern hill of Miodhchaoinn (or Midkena), guarded by Miodhchaoinn and his three sons, the guardians of the hill being thus four in all. O"Neil also refers to "the great idol or castrum of Kilair ... which was surrounded by twelve smaller ones and was called the stone and umbilicus of Hibernia and, as if placed in the midst and middle of the land, "medio et meditullio"...." "Meath itself, where this Kilair navel stood, was anciently the central one of the five divisions of Ireland and is called Media by Giraldus Cambrensis, ... and connected with the words medi-tullium and medi-tullus." The legend states that "the castrum of Kilair and the stones around it were transported by Merlin to Stonehenge and "set up in the same order." "(130) "At Mag Slecht was the chief idol of Ireland, called Cenn Craich (Mound-chief) covered with gold and silver, and twelve other idols about it, covered with bra.s.s" (O"Neil, p. 273).
"The five Irish kingdoms were again subdivided into several princ.i.p.alities inhabited by distinct "septs," each ruled by its own carfinny or chieftain. The obedience of these local rulers or toparchs to the provincial sovereign was regulated, like his to the general monarch, by the powers that he possessed for enforcing authority.... The succession to every degree of sovereignty was regulated by the law of tanistry, which limited heredity right to the family but not to the individual.... Each district was deemed the common property of the entire sept; but the distribution of the several shares was entrusted to the toparch.... The lower orders were divided into freemen and hetages, or as they were called by the Normans, villanis. The former had the privilege of choosing their tribe; the latter were bound to the soil and transferred with it in any grant or deed of sale."