cred tree of the druidic worship. Those who derive it from the Irish draiod (pr. dhree), a wise man or magician, may be right, but they have no conclusive reason for rejecting the Greek derivation: between both there is no incompatibility.

The sun, under the name of Baal, or Bel, was the chief deity of the Irish as well as of the Phoenicians. His worship prevailed, probably, to the time of St. Patrick. The names of many places still bear evidence of this ancient superstition.

Fire was also worshipped here; the festival of Lha Baaltinne (pr. law-bawl-tin-ne), or the day of the Baal fire, was celebrated on the 1st of May. All the fires throughout the island were then put out, and forbidden to be rekindled till the fire on the hill of Tara was lighted. A similar ceremony took place on the first day of November. One of the rites was to cause domesticated beasts to pass between two fires, as a charm against all the casualties and the contagious distempers of the year.

Wherever Baal was adored, human sacrifices were offered. The feast of Samhain,* or heaven, was celebrated on the first day of autumn, in the "field of slaughter," in the county of Leitrim. On this occasion, the worshippers sacrificed the first-born of every creature to the idol Crom-cruach, which was made of stone, capped with gold, and surmounted by twelve smaller stones, intended to represent the signs of the zodiac. The prostrations before this image were continued till the blood came from several parts of the body, and sometimes even till death ensued.

Water was also an object of adoration. The Pagan Irish had their holy wells, and tied their shreds of cloth on the branches of the overhanging tree or shrub, either as votive offerings to the presiding genius, or as memorials of their devotional visit.

Of the monuments of the ancient druidic worship, the

S and h are absolutely exchangeable letters; thus samhain, hamyain, havain, heaven. See Dr. Valpy-haima.

CROMLEACHS-CAIRNS-BARROWS.

9

cromleach is the most remarkable. It is a large, unhewn stone, flat and oblong, and resting horizontally on two or more supporters, which are generally of unequal length, so as to give the cromleach a slope. It is seldom raised more than three feet above the ground. One, between Glanworth and Fermoy, forms beneath it a chamber twenty-five feet long and six feet wide; it is called the Hag's-bed. Proceeding from beneath it are eight ridges, resembling graves, where, as the country folk say, are buried eight giants, the father with his seven The cromleachs were not only places of sacrifice, but of sepulture; portions of human skeletons have been found under most of those which have been excavated.

sons.

The antiquarian lore of the peasant ascribes them all to the labours of the giants with whom they people the olden time.

The cairns are heaps of stones, mostly of conical shape, and are supposed to be rude monuments placed over the dead. Even still the spots where the bodies of murdered persons are found are often marked by such collections. Every passenger helps to commemorate the atrocity by laying a stone, and thus the pile is raised. At Cairnbane, in Armagh, is a cairn 180 yards round the base, and ten yards in height. Bones and urns have been discovered under some of those heaps.

Those earthen mounds called barrows were likewise

places of burial. Among almost all nations the grave has been regarded as a consecrated spot, and especially among the ancient Romans and the Irish. With us tradition preserves the sentiments of awe and veneration for the mound or tumulus, even when its use has been long forgotten. The barrow is yet regarded by the peasant with solemn feelings, though, for the most part, he mistakes it for a Danish fort or muniment.

Though the barrows and cairns were originally destined as places of burial, they have been also used for other solemnities. On them the king was inaugurated and presented with the Wand of Power, and the priest offered his sacrifice; from them the judge pronounced

his sentence, and the lawgiver promulgated his decrees. The hill of Uisneach, in Westmeath, upon whose summit met the original five provinces into which Ireland had been divided, was renowned for the national convention frequently held on it, and the solemn meetings of the Druids there.

Pillar-stones, sometimes solitary, and sometimes arranged in a circle, are to be seen in many places. They were employed on religious and political occasions. They served as temples of worship, or as places for the assembling of national councils and the holding of judicial The remains of a circular temple near Dundalk bear some resemblance to Stonehenge in England.

courts.

In the religious system of the Druids, rocking stones, and certain groves and trees, especially the oak, were held sacred.

As to the Round Towers, Dr. Petrie, in his learned and candid work on them, has left, in the minds of the great majority of his readers, no doubt of their Christian origin.

His opinion is, that they were intended as a safe depository for the sacred utensils, books, and other valuable property belonging to the churches to which they were attached. Their more general, and, perhaps, only correct name in the Irish language, is Cloig-theach, which signifies a steeple or belfry. Many think it absurd to suppose them fit for belfries, by reason of their narrowness, and the smallness of the apertures for the escape of the sound, but their dimensions are really greatly beyond what the diminutive bells of the times required. The towers are cylindrical structures, from fifty to one hundred and forty feet high, tapering upwards, and from forty to sixty feet in circumference at the base. The base, usually projecting, consists of one, two, or three steps: the apex, in those which are perfect, is covered in with a conical roof of stone. The wall, at the base, is generally more than three feet thick, never less. The interior is divided into from four to eight stories, in height about twelve feet each.

HEREMON-IRIAL-OLLAMH FODHLA.

11

CHAPTER I.

DAWN OF AUTHENTIC HISTORY.-FROM HEREMON TO

DATHY.

WE have already seen that the sons of Milesius vanquished the Tuatha-de-Danaans, and seized on the sovereignty of the island, which they divided, giving Ulster and Connaught to Heremon, Leinster and Munster to Heber. Amergin, a third brother, presided, in quality of arch-bard, over poetry and philosophy, law and religion, Heber lost his life in a battle with Heremon, occasioned by a dispute concerning the possession of a fine valley. In another fray with his victorious brother, Amergin fell. Heremon thus came in for all, and was succeeded by his three sons, who reigned conjointly. Irial, surnamed the Prophet, next ascended the throne. He promoted agriculture, and introduced many useful improvements. He wrote a history of the Gadelians, which was finished by his son and successor, Eithriel. The latter was deposed by a grandson of Heber, whose military genius shone forth in five-and-twenty victories. In the reign of Tigherna which ensued, idolatry is said to have been introduced. He set up the idol Crom-cruach, and was, with a vast multitude, miraculously destroyed while worshipping it. The number of colours allowed to be worn in their raiment by the different classes in society was regulated in the next reign: one was permitted to soldiers, two or three to their commanders, six to the literati and lawyers, and seven to royalty. In this regulation we may, perhaps, discern the origin of the plaids which distinguish the Scottish clans.

Ollamh Fodhla was the eighteenth monarch from He remon. He appointed the assembly of the three estates of the realm every three years on Tara or Teamor, which afterwards became the usual residence of the monarchs. Our great poet refers to Tara in words which adorn our

history, and whose repetition here is by no means inappropriate :

"The harp that once through Tara's halls

The soul of music shed,

Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls

As if that soul were fled.

So sleeps the pride of former days,

So glory's thrill is o'er,

And hearts that once beat high for praise,
Now feel that pulse no more."

The Nobility, the Druids, and the People assembled in October. Fodhla suggested many excellent laws for the security of person and property, the distribution of justice, and the recording of historical events. It was decreed that every lord or head of clan or sept should maintain, at his own expense, a brehon or judge, a senachie or historian, and a bard, who combined the musician and the poet. The historian presented the annals of his patron to the general assembly at Tara for examination. Those annals, after undergoing the severest scrutiny, were transcribed into the general records of the kingdom, called the Psalter of Tara. The scrutiny of family annals, and the adopting of them into the national archives, continued until the twelfth century of our era. Upon the abolition of Paganism the Druids were replaced by Christian bishops as examiners. Of the original Psalter several copies had been deposited in cathedral churches; some of which copies still exist.

Fodhla restricted sons to the trade of their fathers, as did the Egyptians and the Lacedemonians, and as the Chinese and Brahmins still do. This restriction could have been no great inconvenience in the simple state of society which existed in the time of our Irish Solon. He assigned lands for the support of the hereditary heralds, musicians, bards, and doctors. He also founded and endowed the "College of the Learned," at Tara.

Kimbaoth was the thirty-fourth monarch after this celebrated legislator, according to the questionable genealogies of the bards. With this prince begins the dawn