the question: "Does a new culture presuppose a new race?" There is, however, another difficulty in Sir Laurence Gomme's deductions. He thinks the Indo-European creed was a clearly developed system; but there are so many difficulties in the reconstruction of this old creed, seeing that we know nearly as little about Indo-European beliefs as we know about the creed of the pre-Celtic inhabitants, that we come to the conclusion there is little definitely proved about either. Hence there remains nothing but to remember the often-quoted words (Caesar, De bello Gallico, vi. i8. i): Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos praedicant, idque ab Druidibus proditum dicunt. . ., which would again point in favour of ancestral elements in Celtic religion. From this "Other World" some bold or chosen mortal can get precious gifts or immense booty. That this "Other World" is not represented always in the same manner is a known fact (vide M‘Culloch, Rel. of Anc. Celts, pp. 362 ff.). In our case it has an actual existence in Britain, but there are in Welsh also other conceptions of this region, e.g. as a distant island (see Skene, ii. 153).[1]
Finally, it must be remembered that Arawn had some wonderful dogs, "and of all the hounds that he (i.e. Pwyll) had seen in the world he had never seen any that were like unto these. For their hair was of a brilliant shining white, and their ears were red; and as the whiteness of their bodies shone, so did the redness of their ears glisten" (R.B. fo. 710/11, W.B. fo. 171 a–b: Ac or a welsei ef o helgwn y byt, ny welsei cwn un lliw ac wynt. Sef lliw oed arnunt: claerwynn llathreit ac cu clusteu yn gochyon. Ac val y llathrei wynnet y cwn y llathrei cochet y clusteu). These hounds are the cwn Annwn of the Modern Welsh folklore
- ↑ There is often a taboo not to eat any of the food of the Other World: whoso partakes of it cannot return to this world (Hartland, Science of Fairy Tales, pp. 37 sqq.), but in the Pwyll story we do not find any trace of such a taboo
