that one of Heimdal's earlier occupations was to sit at the entrance to the nether world, which position, besides partly accounting for his reputation as the most stupid of the gods, might legitimately be compared with the squatting of Cernunnos: Pluto also sat, but it is said to have been on a throne of sulphur. Heimdal was a stud-endowed god, with teeth of gold, which clearly involves an allusion to the metallic wealth of the earth so pointedly symbolized in the representations of Cernunnos. They were both in all probability also the guardians of treasure; and it is in this capacity, doubtless, that Heimdal fought with Loki in his attempt to steal the Brisinga necklace, which was the property of the goddess Freija. But you will perhaps ask whether the fact that Heimdal was called the whitest of the Anses does not overthrow all these speculations. On the contrary, if we examine Welsh literature, we find the king of the fairies and the huntsman who fetches to his abode the souls of the deceased, named Gwyn, that is to say White.
It is known that the ruling families among both Celts and Teutons claimed descent from particular gods, a fact seemingly contradictory of Caesar's statement that the Gauls believed themselves the descendants of their native Dis; but, as in the case of Heimdal, who was reckoned by the Norsemen to be the father of all classes of men, kings and thralls alike, the two views were in a manner consistent, the special descent of the heads of particular families from particular deities being not so much contradicted as covered by the general descent from the god of the nether world. The notion that their Pluto was reckoned by the Gauls the fons et origo of all things, the gods included, is countenanced by Caesar's words, which
