1 68 Proceedings of the Ro>/al Irish Academy. 



wife for her pining brother ; (b) or Etar's wife is given in exchange ; (c) 'Aine's 

 sister Aife marries Lir (she is elsewhere different from 'Aine's sister) ; (d) 'Aine 

 is daughter, not wife, of Gaidian, or Gailian; (d) the latter seduces 'Aine's 

 foster-sister. Becuma, whom Aine alone befriends ; (e) Aife and Fer Fi are 

 pupils of Manannan, who slays the latter; (/) Aife marries Lir. 



Outside the connected legends we have hints of many others. 'Aine 

 (danghtei M lann), 1 Lir, and Oengus of the Brug figure in one; Aife was 

 daughter of Midiiv and the sisters vary as daughters of Eogabal, Eogamal, 

 Durgahal, Lir, Gailian, Delbaoth' or T\ ri> 1 i t-. Aife, Clidna, and Edaen, "the 

 3 of the Tuatha I >('•,"' are of Manann&n's household, and get drowned 

 when Burf-riding at Glandore, whence Clidna's Wave. Etar of Benn Etair 

 (Howth - son of Etgath, pined away and died for love of 'Aine. s Aife, 

 daughtei I I' I aoth, of Lir's household, is changed into a crane in the obscure 

 "crane I Che A Gabliala gives Aidne (Clidna), Aife, and 



'Aine as daug tholan : Lir's children are probably the same group, 



A lh, Aoife, and Ailbe, but tl daughters of Oilioll Aronn elsewhere, 



and tlie two firsl e wives of Lir. 7 It is quite evidenl thai three 



supernatural ladies. Aine, Aife, and Cliodna, were i I along the coast, 



at least i"i"m Glandore in Cork to Portacloy in Mayo, ami thai they give 

 their names t" the heroines of many divergent tales.' No better example 

 Id he given of the impossibility of welding our material into a con- 

 ot whole, ami im better excuse can It offered should one gel lost in 

 Buch a quagmire. 



losing deductions may he given. Wehave a mass of material from 



the seventh to t* intury which can only yield results to very 



lination. The mere heaping up of extracts from every period can 



yield nothing hut contradiction and confusion. Those who regard the least 



supernatural I st, and reduce the stories to histories of mortals, 



the trie ny attempt to arrange the sources by their 



the earlier. Those who shut their 



tinental and British study, and believe the Gaulish 



gods to have been high kings in Ireland over a thousand years before Christ, 



1 Kilva <",ad.. i'. I 1 - 111. 



I hmarcb Kt.-iine, Iriache Texte, i, p. 127, [r. Myth. Cycle, chap. \iv. 

 ■ f the Ernai and Unscra i ipa this waa their version. 



1 Sihra Gad., p. 200. Another tale makes Clidhna daughter of Qenand ; she drifts 

 > bronze Vnat, and is drowned . xv. p. I 



Rennet Dii IS Rei Celt., xv, p. 

 " Duan.wre Finn. p. 1 18. 

 li I.t-ana. 



.. p. 117. 



