Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/108

92 dwinan, 'tabescere,' Old Norse dvína, 'to dwindle, pine away,' Sanskrit dhvan, 'to be hidden, to go out or be extinguished,' dhvânta, 'hidden, dark,' and as a neuter noun 'darkness;' possibly also the Greek word, 'death.' On the other hand, the Celtic names are not to be severed from, the Welsh word dyn, 'a human being or man in the sense of homo, not of vir, Irish duine of the same meaning, both of which postulate an early form donjos, meaning literally and etymologically a : to the early Celt, as to the Greek, man was a mortal, as distinguished from the immortal gods and the ancestors who had taken their departure to the Plain of Pleasure in the other world where death was unknown.

A word must now be devoted to the position of the goddess as regards her consort: Cernunnos was the