Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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Of ihe conflict, small though I be.
The conflict;, in the engagement of the sprigs oi tree*.
Before the ruler of Britain,
The central steeds moved
The freighted fleets —
There moved a bold-spirited creature :
Bearing a hundred heads,
And a battle was contested.
Under the root of his tongues:
And another confiict there 2%
In the recesses of his heads/'
I know not Λvhat to make of the central steeds, and
freighted feets; but, by the wonderful creature, with a
hundred heads, I think it probable, that our British my*
thologist, ΛνοηΜ mean to illustrate, or typify, the human
race, divided into a multitude of its various families: the
topography of battle, in the organs of sjjeech, and in the
seat of the understanding, clearly points out the nature of
his allegory.
The Bard now begins a description of this monster, which
might remind us of the Tj/phon of the ancients, but the
passage is evidently mutilated. —
Llyfan du gavlaw.
Cant ewin arnaw —
Neidr vraith gribaw
*^^•
" A black grasping toad.
Armed with a hundred claws —
A spotted and crested snake."
Are not these the sordid, and the violent passions of