Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/241

Rh the Welsh counterpart of the Goidelic god of Druidism, namely, in Mâth ab Mathonwy, also called Mâth Hên, or M. the Ancient. Besides the meagre references to him in Welsh poetry, one of the Mabinogion takes its name from him. There he is described as king of Gwyneᵭ or Venedotia, with his head-quarters at a place called Caer Dathal, supposed to have been the fortified hill-top now known as Pen y Gaer, or the Hill of the Fortress, on the eastern side of the Conwy, a short distance from the ferry and railway-station of Tal y Cavn, as you go from Llandudno to Bettws y Coed, in Carnarvonshire. Among other characteristics, Mâth shared with Welsh fairies and demons the peculiarity of hearing, without fail and without regard to the distance, every sound of speech that reached the air; and as the Greek Zeus was the source of divination, so Math is named the first and foremost of the three great magicians of Welsh mythology, in which respect he is to be compared with Merlin and the Mac Óc. Moreover, he taught his magic arts to Gwydion ab Dôn, the Culture Hero, with whose assistance he was able, for example, to create a woman out of flowers; and, roughly speaking, his relations with Gwydion resembled those of Zeus with Heracles and Prometheus, except that Mâth was never guilty of the unscrupulous and cruel conduct not infrequently ascribed to Zeus. But, in fact, no negative praise of