Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/393

Rh knowledge, a polite or courteous person being called dyn da ci wybod, or one who is good as to his knowledge, which is paralleled in English when a rude person is excused on the ground of his 'knowing' no better. The meanings of these names may, then, be said to centre around the ideas of knowledge and trickiness, and these admit of being traced in their turn back to the one idea of thought or mental activity, which may on the one hand result in praiseworthy skill, and on the other in ingenuity of the contrary nature. This appears illustrated probably by the Welsh word mynawg of a good signification, as compared with its derivative mynogan, which may be guessed to have had the reverse; for it is known as the name of the father of the death-god Beli the Great, the Irish Bile (p. 90). Similarly, Manawyᵭan, a good character in Welsh, is matched in Irish by Manannán, represented as a very tricky druid or magician.

Maine or Menyw was a male personification, but Celtic mythology did not confine itself here to that sex, as it was in possession also of a female personification regarded as of cognate origin and endowed with nine forms; this