358 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



turning, we may presume, in a like gyration : — " Desiul do nid Cath- 

 bad drat each faitsine." (Book of Fenagh, p. 266). 



To the evidence of Plutarch I may acid that of Plautus. In one- 

 of his comedies, Phcedromus says, ' ' Which way to turn myself I know 

 not." Palinurus jestingly replies : — " If you worship the Gods, right- 

 hand-wise, I apprehend." [Ph. " Quo me vertam nescio." Pa. "Si 

 Deos salutes, dextroversum censeo." (Curculio, i. i. 69.)] 



I may also add the evidence of Yalerius Flaccus (Argon. viiL 

 243) :— 



" Here, where this altar now receives thy vows, 

 Comes young iEsonides and comes his spouse. 

 Together they approach, together pray ; 

 Pollux advanced the nuptial torches' ray 

 And ritual water, while, in holy round, 

 Eight-hand- ways they together tread the ground." 

 [Inde uhi sacrificas cum conjuge venit ad aras 

 .ZEsonides, unaque adeunt pariterque precari 

 Incipiunt. Ignem Pollux undamque jugalem 

 Prcetulit ut dextrum pariter vertantur in orbem.j 



Seeing, then, that a round to the right was a ceremonial obser- 

 vance having some religious reference to the sun, we may conclude 

 that Arge's stag was running in that direction, and that her offence- 

 consisted in referring profanely to an act of solar adoration. 



Let it not he thought that the lower creation are outside the notice 

 of observers of such ceremonials. I shall now draw from a source 

 nearer home ; and, passing over a great tract of time and the entire 

 expanse of Europe, present you the same ideas, as they subsisted 

 down to our own time, and among a people nearly related to our- 

 selves. Martin, in his instructive and truly agreeable description of 

 the Western Islands of Scotland, furnishes us with a great variety of 

 instances of the practice of the ceremonial turn called the Dessil, as 

 observed by the natives of those remote parts of the old world. Hav- 

 ing described the " dessil," which is performed by carrying fire in the 

 right hand (whence he seems to think the word derived) round home- 

 steads, and round women before churching, and infants before baptism, 

 he says : — 



" Some of the poorer sort of people in these islands retain the custom of perform- 

 ing these rounds sun-ways, about the persons of their benefactors, three times, when 

 they bless them and wish good success to all their enterprizes. Some are very 

 careful, when they set out to sea, that the boat be first rowed about sun-ways ; and, 

 if this be neglected, they are afraid their voyage may prove unfortunate." 



" I had the ceremony paid me when on the Island of Ua, by a poor woman, 

 after I had given her an alms. I desired her to let alone that compliment, for I 

 did not care for it ; hut she insisted to make those three ordinary turns, and then 

 prayed that God and Mac Charmig, the patron saint of that island, might bless and 

 prosper me in all my designs and affairs." (Western Islands, p. 118.) 



Amongst other instances, Martin also tells us, in his account of 

 the Island of Fladda : — 



" There's abundance of sea-fowl that come to hatch their young in the isle ; the 

 coulter-nebs are very numerous here. It comes in the middle of March, and goes 

 away in the middle of August ; it makes a tour round the isle sun-ways, before it 



