Westkopp — The Earthworks, df-c, of 8. E. Co. Limerick. 149 



was connected with ( Honiara, in Luachair I >eagaid. This is probably Glenlara 

 on Oenn Febrat, for evidence shows that the great and holy hill was in thai 

 district before Luachair was curtailed. 1 Nuada Derg (or Salfota) was son 

 of Dairine, ancestor or ancestress of the Ernai. The Dergthene tribes 

 dedicated their chief cemetery and assembly place to the wife of Nuada's son, 

 and their chief mountain home (Craglea) to a war goddess. Nearly all the 

 southern tribal genealogies 2 meet in Nuada Argetlamh ; 3 from his son, 

 Nochta, sprang the Corca Laegde ; from his son, Roma, the Muscraige ; from 

 himself the ruling races. All of these divergent lines meeting in the one 

 point can never be a late fiction ; they show that the warlike races of Munster 

 gloried in it, and boldly asserted that they " were sprung from the War God's 

 loins," and had the war goddesses for mothers of their tribes. 



The glory departed from Nuada by the thirteenth century, though Lug 

 and Mauannan held their own. He and his son Tadhg became druids, not 

 the stately hierarchs of the early ages, but tricksters and conjurers ; and the 

 author of the Arjallamh na Senovach calls the great god of the rivers, "Nuada, 

 a pestilent fellow and a magician." 4 



Manannan Mac Lie. — " The King of the Land of Light, in the Tain bo 

 Cualnge ; 5 the great sea god ; the British Manawyddan, son of Llyr," 6 has not 

 been found named in any Gaulish or British inscription ; whatever be true of 

 the British Nodens, the Irish Nuada has nothing in common with him. His 

 name looms large in the legends of Cliu as of all Ireland. He is one of the 

 most definite of the Irish gods ; we see him, armed with his red and yellow 

 spears, his terrible sword " Eetaliation " (which never failed to kill), and his 

 daggers. Clad in his magic breast-plate and helmet, the gems flashing back the 

 light as his great horse, " Splendid Mane," whirls his chariot along, he is, in later 

 tales, " the horseman of the crested sea."' Drawn by the white-maned waves 

 (his coursers, his silver-horned stags, his sheep, " the fleeces of the flock that 

 knows no fold," or his many-hued salmon) he drives over the flowery fields of 

 the sea, a glorious god, whom the Irish hold in love to this day. 



So important was he that he and Bodb Derg of Magh Femen were 



1 See "Magh Leana," pp. 23-25, Rev. Celt., i, p. 36. 



2 The Leinster men vainly tried to get Nuada Dearg put on their king list (Eriu, vi, 

 p. 131, "Magh Leana," p. 3). 



3 Ms., T.C.D., LI, 3, 17, p. 173; New Ir. Rev., x.xvii, p. 137. 



1 Agallamh, ii, p. 132. So the Morrigu becomes "a prophetess in Forbidden know- 

 ledge and evil death " (Leah. Gabhal, p. 150). 



r ' P. 190 ; cf. Ency. Relig., iii, p. 284. 



" According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Loir perished in a flying-machine lie had 

 invented. 



7 "Voyage of Bran," from Book of Fermoy ; Rev. Celt., v, p. 220 : Squire, p. 70. 



