Celtic Mythology and Religion

pointed
158 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION.
whole length of slaughter, they nevertheless touch
and graze the persons devoted to sacrifice after
bringing them to the altars." An interesting
parallel to this in modern times occurs in the Samoan
islands. There cannibalism has for ages been
unknown, yet the punishment that carries the highest
disgrace among them is to put the delinquent into a
cold oven, an evident survival from the time when
such a person would be roasted and eaten. The
remembrance of these old Celtic human sacrifices
was until lately kept up at the Beltane fires.
The only religious rites of any consequence that
can be .
to are those connected with the
worship of fire and the changes of the year. It
must not be supposed that the Celts were greater
worshippers of fire, sun, and moon than the other
European nations, and that this worship was distinctive
of them. The fire worship was equally
as strong among Teutons, Romans, and Greeks as
among the Celts, ' and quite as long maintained
into modern times. But Celtic idiosyncracies bring
some features of the worship and practices into
greater prominence. The custom of showing reverence
by walking round persons or things, keeping
the right hand towards them, is derived from the
apparent course of the sun, and is known as " deiseil "
(dextralis), " right-hand-wise." In India the old
name for the custom is similarly the " right-hand
turn," dakshiman kri. The " need-fire " —Gaelic,
teine-eiginn—is a " survival " from a very ancient