usius (vi. 182; _RC_ xix. 251). The word may be connected with Irish
_duis_, glossed "noble" (Stokes, _TIG_ 76). The Bretons still believe in
fairies called _duz_, and our word _dizzy_ may be connected with
_dusios_, and would then have once signified the madness following on
the _amour_, like Greek [Greek: nympholeptos], or "the inconvenience of
their succubi," described by Kirk in his _Secret Commonwealth of the
Elves_.

[1213] _LL_ 12_b_; _TOS_ v. 234.

[1214] Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 549.

[1215] Skene, i. 276, 309, etc.

[1216] Sigerson, _Bards of the Gael_, 379.

[1217] Miss Hull, 288; Hyde, _Lit. Hist. of Ireland_, 300.

[1218] _RC_ xxvi. 21.

[1219] Skene, ii. 506.

[1220] D'Arbois, ii. 246, where he also derives Erigena's pantheism from
Celtic beliefs, such as he supposes to be exemplified by these poems.

[1221] _LU_ 15_a_; D'Arbois, ii. 47 f.; Nutt-Meyer, ii. 294 f.

[1222] Another method of accounting for this knowledge was to imagine a
long-lived personage like Fintan who survived for 5000 years. D'Arbois,
ii. ch. 4. Here there was no transformation or rebirth.

[1223] Nutt-Meyer, i. 24; _ZCP_ ii. 316.

[1224] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 78.

[1225] Wood-Martin, _Pagan Ireland_, 140; _Choice Notes_, 61; Monnier,
143; Maury, 272.

[1226] _Choice Notes_, 69; Rees, 92; Le Braz{2}, ii. 82, 86, 307; _Rev.
des Trad. Pop._ xii. 394.

[1227] Le Braz{2}, ii. 80; _Folk-lore Jour._ v. 189.

[1228] _Folk-Lore_, iv. 352.

[1229] Carmichael, _Carm. Gadel._ ii. 334; Rh[^y]s, _CFL_ 602; Le
Braz{2}, i. 179, 191, 200.

[1230] Mr. Nutt, _Voyage of Bran_, derived the origin of the rebirth
conception from orgiastic cults.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ELYSIUM.

The Celtic conception of Elysium, the product at once of religion,
mythology, and romantic imagination, is found in a series of Irish and
Welsh tales. We do not know that a similar conception existed among the
continental Celts, but, considering the likeness of their beliefs in
other matters to those of the insular Celts, there is a strong
probability that it did. There are four typical presentations of the
Elysium conception. In Ireland, while the gods were believed to have
retired within the hills or _sid_, it is not unlikely that some of them
had always been supposed to live in these or in a subterranean world,
and it is therefore possible that what may be called the subterranean or
_sid_ type of Elysium is old. But other types also appear--that of a
western islan