2»d a VII. ApKiL 30. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



361 



CEREMONY FOR THE SOUiS OF THE SLAIN IN 

 BATTLE. 



(2'«> S. vii. 210. 322.) 



I am much obliged to Mr. S. Rebmond for 

 the complimentary terms in which he speaks of 

 me ; but I confess I was not a little surprised at 

 learning that " some two years since " he had " a 

 tilt " with me " on Irish gold." I cannot think 

 my memory so bad as to have forgotten such an 

 encounter in so short a time ; but the truth is 

 that I am not conscious of ever having had a cor- 

 respondence or controversy with Mb. Redmond 

 on Irish gold or anything else. It is possible (for 

 Mr. R. says he " had the best of it ") that I may 

 have been carried off insensible from the field, 

 and so lost all recollection of the matter. 



However, my defeat on that occasion has pro- 

 cured me the favour of Mr. Redmond's present 

 communication, in which he corrects " two ma- 

 nifest errors," which I do not think I ever com- 

 mitted. 



The first was that I asserted it to be probable 

 that " the Hills of Saingel," supposed to be iden- 

 tical with the present Newcastle race-course, were 

 used as a horse race-course as early as the tenth 

 century. But, as the Editor of "N. & Q." has kindly 

 remarked, I said " a race-course," not " a horse 

 race-course." The instance I gave, in the curious 

 ceremony called " the races of the Son of Fera- 

 dach " did not speak of horses, as running in these 

 races, and Mb. Redmond, being so well acquainted 

 with Ireland, ought to know that there are very 

 ancient races, still practised amongst us, which are 

 not horse races. 



My second error was the supposition that the 

 ceremony (if we may so call it) which I described 

 may have been taken from the ancient custom of 

 " making rounds at wells or stations (such as at 

 Croagh- Patrick, Loch Dearg, &c.)" 



I beg to say that I have only put forward this 

 conjecture as a " not improbable " suggestion : 

 and I would be sorry that Mb. Redmond should 

 imagine that I meant in any way to speak ir- 

 reverently of the religious, and I doubt not truly 

 devotional feelings, with which the custom alluded 

 to is and was practised by our peasantry. Mb. 

 Redmond says, in order to refute my supposed 

 error, that the modern ceremony is intended " for 

 quite a different purpose." I said not one word 

 of the pu?'pose of it. No matter what the purpose 

 was, whether it was self-imposed or not, whether 

 it was practised as a penance for sins, or to ob- 

 tain the restoration to health of some sick rela- 

 tive, or in fulfilment of a vow, or in thanksgiving 

 for some benefit received, — all this is nothing to 

 the argument. The similitude is in the round 

 itself, not in the purpose with which it was per- 

 formed : and my suggestion was this, that the 



Danish women were made to perform this round 

 (not on their knees as Christians did, but on all 

 fours), in rude, and if you will, profane, imitation 

 of the Christian penitential exercise ; to insult 

 the paganism of the Danish women by the bar- 

 barous joke that they were doing penance for the 

 souls of their relatives slain in the battle. 



The fact stated by Mb. Redmond that the 

 Irish Roman Catholic clergy have of late years 

 endeavoured to discourage this practice, is much 

 to their credit ; but is nothing to the purpose, so 

 long as it is admitted that the practice once 

 existed. 



I hope Mb. Redmond will now see that I never 

 asserted, or maintained as an opinion, that there 

 was any connection between the two ceremonies. 

 I only suggested it as " possible," and as a ques- 

 tion ,for consideration, that the one may have 

 been a rude and distorted imitation of the other ; 

 and I still think this " not improbable." But I 

 confess I do not see the vis consequenticB of Mb. 

 Redmond's argument : " The modern Roman 

 Catholic clergy have endeavoured, within the last 

 twenty-five years, to abolish * these Stations, — 

 therefore the ceremony described as having taken 

 place in the tenth century cannot have had any 

 connection with the Stations." 



Mr. Redmond says ; " With regard to the 

 ceremony mentioned about the gillies driving the 

 women, I have never heard nor read of such a 

 thing before ; " and again, " I have never heard 

 an allusion to it in the traditions of the country." 



I confess myself to be in the same predicament ; 

 and it was for that reason that I sent the story to 

 " N. & Q.," and asked your readers " What are 

 we to think of the ceremony ? Is it of Danish or 

 Irish origin ? Was it done in mockery and con- 

 tempt, or was it a real expiatory rite, pagan, or 

 corrupt Christian ? " 



But Mr. Redmond doubts whether the story 

 really exists, and suggests that a re-examination 

 of the original Irish may lead to a different trans- 

 lation " capable of a better interpretation or ex- 

 planation." I shall therefore give the original 

 here, with my translation : and I shall be very 

 much obliged to Mb. Redmond, or any other of 

 your readers, if he will suggest a " better inter- 

 pretation " : — 



" Is and tra do ronta grafaing mic Feradaicli acu. i. 

 lini mdr do gailsechaib nan Gall i cnocanaib Sangail 

 iraacuart, ocus siat croma, ecus a lama ar lar, ecus gilli 

 na sluagli go niairescud ina ndegaid, dorait anma nan 

 Gall ro marbait isin cath." 



" It was then they celebrated also the Races of the Son 

 of Feradach, namely, by placing on the Hills of Saingel, 

 in a circle, a great line of the women of the Foreigners, 

 in a stooping posture, with their hands on the ground, 

 and driven by the gillies of the army behind them, for 



* I must express great doubt of the truth of Mk. Red- 

 moxd's assertion ^at " the clergy have succeeded in 

 completely abolishing these scenes." 



