Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/92

76 a word of unknown meaning. In Brigindo we have the name of a divinity probably the Gaulish counterpart of Brigit.

If one may trust these conjectures, we have before us traces of a goddess whose cult was practised in Gaul, in Britain and in the sister island, one whose attributes, so far as we know anything about them, favour the conjecture that she was the Celtic divinity mentioned by Cæsar. To the threefold name here ascribed her by way of conjecture, should be added that Brigit was also called Bríg; in fact, this last seems to have been a favourite Irish name for genius personified: thus there was a Bríg Brethach, whose epithet meant judicial, relating to verdicts or the giving of judgment; while a mythic poet and chief judge of Ulster called Sencha had a daughter Bríg, whose business it was to criticize and correct her father's errors: this Egeria closely resembles, it will be seen, one of the Brigits daughters of the Dagda. In brief, the word bríg meant in Irish pre-eminent power or influence, authority or high esteem; while Welsh has reduced the word to bri, 'renown or high estimation.' Among other words related to the names here in question may be mentioned the Welsh word braint, for an earlier breint, still earlier bryeint, which also occurs, and represents, as it is a feminine, an ancient Brythonic form brigantja, identical with that of the goddess Brigantia of the inscriptions. The Welsh braint means prerogative or privilege, which, involving the idea of power not shared in by