Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/40

24 meaning, maga being used in the sense of size or magnitude, and magavan in that of a young man who is grown up but not married, a bachelor. This brings me back to Mogounus, since magavan corresponds with it letter for letter excepting only the declension; and this difference is probably due to Mogounus being only known to us as used in a Latin inscription.

Whatever maybe thought of this conjecture, the analogy of the words we have just examined brings us round again to much the same idea which we found underlying the word Maponos, namely, that of a boy or youth; and I have very little doubt in my mind that Apollo Grannus Mogounus expressed very closely the same meaning which we found rendered by the words Puer Posphorus Apollo in the Dacian inscriptions which have already been referred to. As the dispenser of light and warmth, Apollo made himself the repeller of disease, and it is quite in keeping with this that the god is found to have been not infrequently associated with spots celebrated for their mineral or warm springs, such as Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen, the Roman name of which was Aquæ Granni. Several other places derive their name from him, such as Graux, in the Vosges, where an inscription in his honour was discovered; and as the stream called Eaux Graunnes, which receives the hot waters of Plombières in the Vosges; and as Granheim, near Mengen, in Würtemberg, a spot in or near which another tablet to Grannos was found. Lastly, Dion Cassius tells us, lxxvii. 15,