Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/439

Rh class of dawn-goddesses, that she wedded a husband in the district, and that after a time she left both him and her children. Now and then, however, she returned to converse with the latter, especially the eldest of them, a youth named Rhiwaỻon, whom she carefully instructed as to the virtues of all kinds of herbs. He afterwards proved the founder of a famous family of physicians, whose descendants are widely spread in South Wales. The Physicians of Myᵭvai, as they were called, were historical, and attached to the princely house of Dinevor; but their ancestor was of mythic descent, and his name enables one to identify him in the Welsh Triads, where he is called Rhiwaỻon of the Broom (-yellow) Hair, and invested with a solar character: among other things, he is classed with two other solar heroes as being, like them, famous for his intimate knowledge of the nature of all material things. It is impossible to say how far the original myth agreed with that of Lug, but the one thing yearly looked for was the appearance of Rhiwaỻon's mother, the Lady of the Lake: she occupied on the Welsh holiday the position assigned to Tailltiu at the Lugnassad, and to Athene at the Panathenæa. Further, the great