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lected the 10th chapter of Keating's history, which records the con- 

 quest of Ireland, by the Tuatha-De-Danans, he would have stated that 

 the magic art was well known and successfully practised by those 

 adventurers. It was said that they could infuse demons into the 

 bodies of the slain, and send them forth to fight their battles over 

 again ; as the Syrians, with whom they contended in Greece, found 

 to their cost, till they prevented this species of resurrection by trans- 

 fixing them with stakes of the mountain ash ! When the Tuatha- 

 De-Danans came to Ireland, they brought with them four articles 

 deemed precious, on account, we suppose, of some enchanted virtue, 

 a brazen caldron; the spear of Looee Longhand, (Lughaidh Lam- 

 fhada;) "a sword alone for death decreed;" and the famous Liagh 

 fail, or stone of destiny. Some of them were so skilled in necro- 

 mancy, that they obtained the name of De-Dannan, or Gods of 

 Dannan, Dan itself being a word expressive of magic skill. They 

 could raise tempests by their art, and throw as much mist over their 

 enemies as Macpherson himself over his Ossianic heroes. 



Tales of oriental origin, as well as belief in necromancy, were 

 knoM n in Ireland in very early times, if her poetico-historical annals 

 have any foundation in truth. The story of Lavra Li/ngshy, one of 

 the Irish monarchs who reigned some hundreds of years A. C, is so 

 like that of the Phrygian king, Midas, that the one seems to be a 

 transcript of the other. But the Irish version of it is in one respect 

 an improvement. The important secret of the ears was communi- 

 cated, not to the reeds, but to a willow ; which willow being cut 

 down and converted into a harp, resounded like the lyre of Anacreon, 

 to only one favourite strain, " Lavra Lyngshy, has the ears of a 

 horse." This is a pretty invention, but we prefer the ears of an ass 

 in the Phrygian tale, as containing a just satire on the monarch's 

 taste. Keating says, with great gravity, that he conceives this to be 



