Page 544 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY 325

qrily. There can, therefore be little doubt about he existence
of a tradition of the ancient Roman year of ten months and we
now see that it is thoroughly intelligible by comparison with
the annual sacrificial satras of ten months mentioned in the
Vedic literature. The names of the Roman months from
Quintilis to December further show that the months of the year
had no special names in ancient times, but were named simply
in their numerical order, a fact which accounts for the absence
of common names for the months of the year in different Aryan
languages.
The evidence regarding the ancient year of Celts, Teutons
and Greeks is not however so definite, though it may be clearly
shown that in each case the year was marked by a certain period
of cold and darkness, indicating the Arctic origin of the ancient
calendar. Speaking of the ancient Celtic year Prof. Rhys observ-
es, " New as the Celts were in the habit formerly of counting
winters, and of giving precedence in their reckoning to night
and winter over day and summer, I should argue that the last day
of the year in the Irish story of Diarmait's death meant the eve
of November or All-halloween, the night before the Irish
Samhain, and known in Welsh as Nos Galan-gaeaf, or the Night
of the winter Calends. But there is no occasion to rest on this
alone, for we have the evidence of Cormac's Glossary that the
month before the beginning of winter was the last month, so
that the first day of the first month of winter was also the
first day of the year. "• Various superstitious customs are then
alluded to, showing that the eve of November was considered
to be the proper time for prophecy or the appearance of
goblins; and the professor then closes the discussion regarding
the above-mentioned last day of the Celtic year with the remark
that, " It had been fixed upon as the time of all others, when the
Sun-god whose power had been gradually falling off since the
great feast associated with him on the first of August, succumb-
ed to his enemies, the powers of darkness and winter. It was
their first hour of triumph after an interval of subjection, and
the popular imagination pictured them stalking abroad with
more than ordinary insolence and aggressiveness; and if it comes
to giving individuality and form to the deformity of darkness,

• Rhys' Hibbert Lectures, p. 514·