396 THE BRITISH ISLES. 



proves the contrary, the peasants maintain that every serpent dies as soon as it 

 touches the soil of Ireland. Geolofçists have discovered in Ireland the remains 

 of the mammoth and hippopotamus, and of numerous ruminants, including 

 deer and two species of the ancient ox. Throe species of deer have been 

 discovered in the caves, peat mosses, and alluvial deposits of the countrj', 

 of which the red deer survives in the mountains of Killarney, whilst the 

 great Irish deer may have lived until towards the close of the twelfth century. 

 The abundance of deer must be attributed to the absence of animals of the feline 

 tribe, such as the hyena and cave lion ; and their only enemies were the wolf and 

 the bear, against which fleetness of limb and the power of natation afforded 

 trustworthy means of escape.* 



The relative poverty of the Irish fauna reveals itself in the paucity of birds of 

 passage no less than in that of sedentary animals. Out of thirty species of con- 

 tinental birds which pass the summer in England, all but one extend their 

 journey as far as Scotland ; but, according to Harting, only eight or nine visit 

 Ireland, the rest being either deterred by the width of the Irish Channel, or 

 altogether unaware of the existence of that island. The magpie was formerly 

 looked upon as a new arrival in Ireland. This is a mistake ; but that bird, being 

 protected by superstition, has become very common, and during summer evenings 

 dense flocks descend upon the sown fields. 



The People. 



In accordance with a tradition formerly often quoted, lerne, or Ireland, is 

 indebted for its epithet of Insula Sacra to the fact that at the time of the 

 Deluge it floated like an ark upon the surface of the waters, and on its subsidence 

 gave their first inhabitants to the neighbouring islands. The Irish, therefore, 

 not only deny that their ancestors came from foreign lands, but they claim also to 

 have peopled all the neighbouring countries. As to the ancient monkish " annals " 

 of the country, they abound in so many legends that it is next to impossible to 

 discover the truth which underlies them. Irish chroniclers, who have endeavoured 

 to transform the mythology of their race into a regular history with dates and 

 genealogies, speak of the Firbolgs, or "men dressed in the skins of animals," as 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. These " beings of the night " were 

 conquered by the "gods of day," or Tuatha-de-damnns, who were the people of 

 Dana, the mother of the gods.f These latter were acquainted with the metals, 

 and they made arms, tools, and musical instruments. But the Tuatha-de- 

 dananns were vanquished in turn by a third body of invaders, the warlike 

 *' Milesians " of Spain, who came into the country eleven or fourteen centuries 

 before Christ, and overthrew the kingdom of Inis- Fail, the "Island of Doom." 

 The descendants of these Milesians, it is pretended, can be recognised, even at the 

 present day, by having an 0' or a Mac prefixed to their family names. It is only 

 natural that a proud people like the Irish, in its day of humiliation, should 



* Hull, "Physical Geology," &c. ; Owen, "Palaeontology." 



t D'Arbois de Jubainville, " Esquisse delà My thologie irlandaise " {Revue archéologique, June, 1878). 



