this point the Grecian diverges from the Chinese type, and so we trace it no later in its development.
In Celtic, as in Hellenic myth, it is the primitive conception that offers the closest parallel to the Chinese. By primitive is meant pagan Celtic, before it became tinged with Christianity. Of this a famous and representative example is the tale of Bran's voyage.[1] Here we find a numerous group of large islands lying to the west of Ireland figuring as the earthly paradise. It is a land of entrancing beauty and of abundance satisfying all physical desires. A wonderful tree is there, but apparently it is not to any magic virtue of its fruit that the inhabitants owe their immunity from death and the infirmities of the flesh.[2] Mortals while still in life gain admission at the invitation of the superhuman beings whose abode it is, and on reaching its shores become endowed with the privileges enjoyed by their hosts. One feature of the hospitality extended to Bran and his followers by the queen and her maids is described in very unequivocal language, which, as the author of the well-known book on the subject aptly remarks, might be used appropriately in connection with Hampstead Heath on an August Bank Holiday evening.[3] As I have already stated, in this last respect the analogy fails. But is it stretching parallelism too far to find another point of likeness to the Chinese Isles of the Blest in Manannan, the lord of the Irish Elysium? He is also a god of the sea, a sort of Celtic Poseidon, and in this capacity seems strangely akin to the semi-divine being who from the isle of Fang-chang rules over all the denizens of the ocean.[4]
Instances might be multiplied of beliefs conforming to the Chinese type in their essentials. A remote and unknown land, difficult of access, lying in the direction of the rising or setting sun, and often overseas. To it certain favoured
