Mabinogi

“ A cousin is thus beloved of him, a cousin procures for him the magic sword, a cousin, as in the Mabinogi, incites him to the fulfilment of the quest, and gives him advice which we cannot doubt would have been turned to account by Chrestien had he finished his poem. Turning now to Gautier, in whose section of the poem are to be found the various adventures growing out of the chessboard incident, this difference between the Mabinogi and himself may be noted. ”

“ The Mabinogi explanation of the Grail incident is unacceptable, and the Mabinogi itself is later than Chrestien, as is shown by its foolish invention of the witches of Gloucester, and by its misrendering the incident of the dwarves greeting Peredur. In the original folk-tale the ungainly hero was laughed at, not greeted. The Thornton Sir Perceval may possibly contain an older version of Perceval's youth than any found elsewhere. ”

“ It is evident that here at least Mabinogi and Sir Perceval have preserved a trait almost effaced in the romance. In the above-mentioned Highland tale the incident is as follows: the hero finds "a treasure of a woman sitting on a hill, and a great youth with his head on her knee asleep"; he tries to wake the sleeper, even cuts off his finger, but in vain, until he learns how it was in the prophecies that none should rouse the sleeping youth save the Knight of the Red Shield, and he, coming to the island, should do it by striking a crag of stone upon his breast. ”

“ In Chrestien, the primitive form is already overlaid; we hear nothing further of the damsel moved to laughter nor of the prophetic fool; and in the Mabinogi it seems obvious that the hailing of the hero, added in Chrestien to the older laughter, has alone subsisted. ”

“ In working back to the earliest form of the Perceval-sage, Mabinogi and Conte du Graal are thus of equal value and mutually complementary. Both are second-hand sources, and their testimony is at times sadly corrupt, but it is from them chiefly that information must be sought as to the earlier stages of development of this legendary cycle. They do not by themselves give any satisfactory explanation of the more mysterious features of the full-blown legend, but they do present the facts in such a way as to put out of court the hypothesis of a solely Christian legendary origin. ”

“ The Mabinogi thus gives one consistently worked-out conception—transformed hag = Peredur's cousin—which may be recovered partly from that one of the two discordant versions found in Gautier which makes the pucelle de malaire to be the Fisher King's daughter, hence Perceval's cousin, and connects the stag hunt with the Grail incident, partly from the Didot-Perceval, which tells how the same pucelle de malaire is but playing a part, being when she wills one of the fairest maids of the world. ”

“ The fact that Mongán, when three nights old, was taken by his father Manannan to fairyland might reflect a similar idea: the child considered as a god's son belongs to the god (in the Removed Barrenness motive the child was also believed to be god's gift) ; this would, however, imply a slightly different motive, i.e. a Supernatural Birth, of which we have found some traces in the first branch of the Mabinogi ”

“ One thing alone remains unexplained, the mysterious Grail itself. Nor has any light been thrown from Celtic sources upon the incident of the hero’s visit to the Castle of Talismans, his silence, and the ensuing misfortune which overtakes him. Where this incident does appear in a Celtic version, the Mabinogi, it is not brought in connection with the Grail, and it bears obvious traces of interpolation. The utmost we have been able to do is to reconstruct from scattered indications in different Celtic tales a sequence of incidents similar to that of the French romance. ”

“ But from the three versions one gets the following:—Riseut (Gautier) , loathly damsel (Didot-Perceval) , Grail messenger (Chrestien) , = Peredur's cousin, who in the Mabinogi is the loathly Grail messenger, and the protagonist in the stag-hunt. ↑ I have not thought it necessary to discuss seriously the hypothesis that Chrestien may have used the Mabinogi as we now have it. The foregoing statement of the facts is sufficient to negative it. ↑ The Counsels. Chrestien (v. 1,725, etc.) : aid dames and damsels, for he who honoureth them not, his honour is dead; serve them likewise ”

“ In the Welsh Mabinogi, bearing the name of Manannán's counterpart Manawyᵭan, the latter is not much associated with the sea, excepting perhaps his sojourn with Brân's Head in the lonely island of Gresholm (p. 90) . It makes him, however, take to agriculture, especially the growing of wheat, [145] which reminds one of Saturn. He is also called one of the three Golden Cordwainers of Britain, owing to his having engaged successively in the making of saddles, shields and shoes, and taught it to Pryderi, son of Pwyỻ Head of Hades. ”

“ Three things strike one in considering this incident apart from the other adventures with which it is associated; the want of consistency in those versions which, formally, are closely related, an inconsistency which we have already noted in dealing with the legend as a whole; the repetition of the same incident with almost similar details, but with a different animating conception; and the fact that some of the secondary forms testify to that same thread of story which we have already extracted from the comparison of the Mabinogi and the Conte du Graal in their entirety. ”

“ In him as in Rizal, the mysteries of an unusual power resolve themselves at last into unusual character. What was Mabini’s character may be gathered from this decalogue he composed for his own guidance and that of his countrymen:
First. Thou shalt love God and thine honor above all things; God as the fountain of all truth, of all justice, and of all activity; and thine honor, the only power that will oblige thee to be faithful, just, and industrious. ”

“ Mabini very soon became radical and decidedly anti-American in his ideas, and succeeded in attaining such moral ascendancy over Aguinaldo that the latter ceased to be the leader of the people and the true dictator of the Filipino republic, becoming [315] a toy in the hands of a man who could twist and turn him here and there at his will.
Mabini refused to take the oath of allegiance and was, on the 7th of January 1901 deported under General Order No. 4 to the island of Guam, as one of the persons “whose acts clearly demonstrate them to be favorers or sympathizers with the insurrection.” ”

“ It is Mabon the son of Modron who is here imprisoned; and no imprisonment was ever so grievous as mine, neither that of Llud Llaw Ereint, nor that of Greid the son of Eri." "Hast thou hope of being released for gold or for silver, or for any gifts of wealth, or through battle and fighting?" "By fighting will whatever I may gain be obtained."
Then they went thence, and returned to Arthur, and they told him where Mabon the son of Modron was imprisoned. And Arthur summoned the warriors of the Island, and they journeyed as far as Gloucester, to the place where Mabon was in prison. ”

“ There I saw a large idol, called Makambi, shaped like a man, and by his side stood a female figure, Abiala his wife. Poor Makambi is a powerless god, his wife having usurped the power. She holds a pistol in her hand, with which, it is supposed, she can kill anyone she pleases; hence the natives are much afraid of her; and she receives from them a constant supply of food, and many presents (I wonder who takes the presents away) . When they fall sick, they dance around her, and implore her to make them well; for these poor heathen never pray to the true God. ”

“ Imbozwi, the head of the witch-finders here, whose hair you burnt off by your evil magic, says that it would be better to kill you at once as your hearts are bad and you are planning mischief against my people. So I think also. But Babemba my General, with whom I am angry because he did not obey my orders and put you to death on the borders of my country when he met you there with your caravan of slaves, thinks otherwise. ”

“ The king’s face fell, as did those of his councillors.
“Listen, O lord Macumazana, and all of you,” he said. “These Pongo are horrible wizards, a great and powerful people who live by themselves amidst the swamps and mix with none. If the Pongo catch Mazitu or folk of any other tribe, either they kill them or take them as prisoners to their own land where they enslave them, or sometimes sacrifice them to the devils they worship.”
“That is so,” broke in Babemba, “for when I was a lad I was a slave to the Pongo and doomed to be sacrificed to the White Devil. ”

“ But all Makuba’s resources of discipline and diplomacy were taxed when I hired Obianga, a young man of the Fang, whose home was near Angom. Poor Obianga is [280] dead; and I would not make cheap jokes at his expense. He was like a wild unbroken colt, full of life, willing to work, and not lazy, but resentful of the bit and reins of authority. For any man, especially one of another tribe, to give him an order was equivalent to calling him a slave; and, representative of his tribe, he seemed ever to be saying: “We were never in bondage to any man.” ”

“ Across the river the people of Itiri, perceiving we were so quiet on our side of the river, seemed to be meditating an attack, and only two miles below on our bank was the large settlement of Mabengu, from whose inhabitants we might hear at any moment, while our little force of thirty-nine men, scattered in various directions, were searching for the missing 300. But the poet said that it became
"No man to nurse despair ”

“ Like Bonifacio he was a great reader, but on different lines. The warehouse porter, hanging by night over such books as he could lay hands upon, was set aflame by the struggles of mankind against oppression, particularly by that which is the epitome and symbol of them all, the French Revolution. Mabini, cool and even-pulsed philosopher, was concerned not so much with the physical aspects of revolution as with its causes. If the human story told true, revolutions were some rebound of the spirit of man against a privileged class that held or sought to hold the rest as bondmen. ”

“ Mabini's refusal to sign an oath of allegiance unless he was first permitted to return to Manila and learn conditions there and was informed of the intentions of the United States is included in the letter.
“The prisoner, Mabini, a man much beloved by the Philippine people,” the communications says in closing, “is recognized by all among his countrymen as a statesman and patriot, whose crime, if such it is, has been a devotion as unselfish as absolute to his country's cause. ”

“ All these populations of the U-Banghi basin are remarkable for their physical strength and beauty, and are distinguished from each other by their tattoo marks and different styles of headdress. Cannibalism is very prevalent, all captives being eaten. The Mbonjos wear a singular costume, made up of foliage and fishing-nets. In the region of the French Congo, by far the most numerous nation are the Bu-Banghi, who dwell in the U-Banghi valley, and who rival the Fans themselves of the Ogowaj^ basin in numbers. ”

“ Should I, the son of Ntelani, refuse to be made King—for a day—ah! yes, only for a day—the induna Tyuyumane was to reign. And with this understanding the Amabuna rose to depart. As they swung themselves into their saddles the one who had spoken more pleasantly said:
“The day after the new moon then, Ntelani, an Elephant will fall into the staked pit from which there is no escape. Our people, with guns and horses, will be at hand. Is that so?”
“That is so, leader of the Amabuna,” grunted my father. “Au! from the spear of a pitfall there is no escape, even for the Elephant.” ”

“ Unable to stand upon his feet — for he has been a cripple ever since his imprisonment by Spain in 1896 — of a highly sensitive organization, the privations of a prisoner's life have borne more hardly on him than they would have borne on ordinary men.
“This, and even more the exile from a country dearly loved by him, have made of Mabini an old man before his time, and threaten soon to close his career by death.” ”

“ But Makuba would not think of striking a man in a mission boat. He therefore becomes diplomatic. Suddenly in a tone altogether different he says:
“Obianga, the trouble with you is that you are just a bush man; you don’t know anything about civilization. On every big ocean-steamer there is a captain, and every man on board, no matter what tribe he belongs to, obeys the captain.” ”

“ The worst disputes between Obianga and Makuba took place when they supposed that I was asleep. The native when he lies down anywhere sleeps immediately. Whenever I was lying in the bottom of the boat they always supposed that I was asleep and that no conceivable noise could waken me. ”

“ If Babemba has once been to Pongo-land, I reflected to myself, Babemba can go again or show us the way there.
“And if we catch any of the Pongo,” went on Bausi, “as sometimes we do when they come to hunt for slaves, we kill them. Ever since the Mazitu have been in this place there has been hate and war between them and the Pongo, and if I could wipe out those evil ones, then I should die happily.”
“That you will never do, O King, while the White Devil lives,” said Babemba. “Have you not heard the Pongo prophecy, that while the White Devil lives and the Holy Flower blooms, they will live. ”