For one, reincarnation is mentioned neither in Vedas nor in Celt mythology.
Th Article is written in a haphazard way, trying to cover too many things and overlooks details at some points.
I find Tilak's comparison more scholastic. Here is what Tilak says about Celts (Kindly overlook the spelling mistakes since this is a copy from a PDF file):
Page n436
The evidence regarding the ancient year of Celts, Teutpns and Creeks is not however so definite, though it may“ be clear* ly shown that in each ca.se the year was marked by a certain period of cold and darkness, indicating the Arctic origin of the ancient calendar.. Speaking of the ancient Celtic year Prof. Rhys observes, “ Now as the Celts were in the habit formerly of counting winters, and of giving precedence in their reckoning to night and winter over day and summer, I should argue that the last day of the year in the Irish story of Diarmait’s death meant the eve of November or All-halloween, the night befor^ the Irish Samhain, and known in Welsh as Nos Galan-gaeaf, or the Night of the winter Calends. But there is no occasion to rest on this alone, for we have the ■ evidence of Cormac’s Glossary that the month before the beginning of winter was the last month, so that thp first day of the first month of winter was also the first day of the year. ” * Various superstitious customs are then alluded to, showing that the eve of November was considered to be the proper time fpr prophecy or the appearance of goblins; and the Professor then closes the discussion regarding the above-mentioned last day of the Celtic year with the remark that “ It had been fixed upon as the time of all others, when the Sun-god whose power had been gradually falling off since the great feast associated with him on, t)ie first of August, succumbed to his enemies, the powers of darkness and winter. It was their first hour of triumph f after an* interval of subjection, aqd the popular imagination pictured them stalking’abroad \vjjj
imore'than ordinary insolence and aggressiveness; and ifjt, comes to giving . individuality and form, to the deformity pfV,darkness, to describe it as a sow, black or. grisly, with neither ears'nor tail, is hot perhaps very readily surpassed as
Page n439
■days than the Celtic one; but Prof. Rhys accounts for this difference on the ground “ that winter, ‘and therefore the year commences earlier in Scandinavia than in the continental centre from which the Celts dispersed themselves.”*
Page n439
: common to Celts with Greeks is not unlikely to have once been common to them with some or all.othtr branches of the Aryan family/'t
Page n445
From the legends mentioned, or referred to, or described above, it may be easily seen that many traces of the Arctic calendar are still discernible in the mythology of the western Aryan races like Celts, Teutons, Lets, Slavs, Greeks and Romans. Long dawns or a number of dawns, long days, long nights, dark winters, are all alluded to more or less explicitly in these myths, though none of these legends refers directly to the position of the primeval home and the cause of its destruction- But this omission or defect is removed by the evidence contained in the Veda and the Avesta; and when the European legends are viewed in the light of the Indo-Iranian traditions they clearly point to the existence of a primeval home near the North Pole. There are a number of other legends in the Celtic and Teutonic literatures which describe the victory of sun-hero over the demons of darkness every year, similar in character to the victory of Indra over Vritra, or to the achievements of the AshvinS, the physicians of the gods. Thus in the Norse mythology, Hodur, the blind god of winter, is represented as killing Balder or Baldur, or the god of summer, and Vali the son of Odin and Rind is said to have avenged his brother’s death afterwards. The encounters of Cuchulainn, the Celtic Sun-god, with his enemies, the Fomori or the Fir Bolg, the Irish representatives of the powers of darkness, are of the same character. It may also be remarked that according to Prof. Rhys the world of waters and the world of darkness and the dead are identical in Celtic myths, in the same way as the world of water, the abode of Vritra and the. world of darkness are shown to be in the Vedic-mythology. The strange Custom of eouvade, by which the whole population