Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/378

362 is explained by means of the Brythonic word nouitiou, which would, in modern Welsh, be newidiau, the plural of newid, 'change, exchange, barter.' This last is in its turn derived, like the Latin term just mentioned, from the ninth numeral, which is written in modern Breton and Welsh naô and naw respectively. It would thus seem that we have traces here of markets or fairs on the ninth day as an institution common to the Celts and the Italians of antiquity.

It might, however, be objected that the Brythons had merely adopted it from the Romans; but, over and above this, there is Irish evidence to which the objection will not apply, for the Irish term etymologically equivalent to nundinæ occurs in the form noinden or noenden, explained to have meant an assembly, and a compound ard-noenden, 'a great—literally 'a high'—assembly,' with which compare the term 'high festival' in English. Whether the assemblies to which this term would apply recurred regularly, and what the interval might be, I know not; but we have practically irrefragable evidence that the simple term noinden meant just half the duration of the