222 Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 



ancient pagan superstition of the Irish, not yet obsolete, that making a circle sun- 

 ways was productive of prosperity, or good fortune. This custom is still ob- 

 served in the Roman Catholic pilgrimages, burials, &c. 



Martin, in his description of the Western Isles, gives many instances of this 

 superstition. On his visiting the Island Rona, he says, " One of the natives 

 would needs express his high esteem for my person, by making a turn round 

 about me Sun-ways, and at the same time blessing me, and wishing me all happi- 

 ness ; but I bid him let alone that piece of homage, telling him I was sensible of 

 his good meaning towards me : but this poor man was not a little disappointed, as 

 were also his neighbours ; for they doubted not but this antient ceremony would 

 have been very acceptable to me: and one of them told me. That this was a thing 

 due to my character from them, as to their chief and patron, and they could not, 

 nor would not fail to perform it." — p. 20. 



This custom still exists in many parts of Ireland, and a turning to the oppo- 

 site or left side, is considered as unlucky. Hence the common Irish phrase, ex- 

 pressive of ill-will, "lompoD aip mop cbuachal chujar," i. e. a full turn to the 

 left to you." 



From this custom the seat of the chief of the Maguires, in the county of 

 Fermanagh, received its name Tempo Deisiol, now shortened into Tempo ; and 

 there was also an ancient locality in Derry, called the Deisiol. 



The antiquity of this pagan usage is so satisfactorily shewn by Toland, in th^ 

 following passage of his Critical History of the Celtic Religion, — p. 142, et seq. 

 — as to preclude the necessity of further illustration : — 



"The vulgar in the Hands do still show a great respect for the Druid's 

 Houses, and never come to the antient sacrificing and fire-hallowing Cams, but 

 they walk three times round them from east to west, according to the course 

 of the Sun. This sanctified tour or round by the south, is call'd Deiseal ;* as 

 the unhallow'd contrary one by the north, TuaphoU.'f But the Irish and 

 Albanian Scots do not derive the first, as a certain friend of mine imagined, 

 from Di-sul, which signifies Sunday in Armorican British, as Dydh-syl in the 

 Welsh and De-zil in Cornish do the same ; but from Deas,X the right, under- 

 standing hand, and Soil, one of the antient names of the Sun, the right hand in 



* Dextrorsum. f Sinistrorsum. % Item Deis. 



