256 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



ancient Celtic god of wealth. Possibly they decorated a colossal wooden 

 ettigy of the deity. 



If this identification be admit ted. some important consequences will 

 result. In the first place, the stone will assume the great interest of being 

 the only sculptured representation of a deity surviving from pagan times in 

 [reland. In the second place, it will cast some doubt on the theory that 

 there was a Drnidic prohibition of images, for which M. Salomon Reinaeh has 

 argued with all his wealth of learning and persuasiveness,' and may perhaps 

 rehabilitate Lucan'a evidence for the use of wooden images among the pagan 

 Celts, upon which much doubt has been thrown. In the third place, it is 

 possible that it may Bhow in what dim tion to look for the origin of those 

 strange figures, railed by the silly name Shedah-na-gig, i.e., Sile na gcioch } 

 "Sheila of the Breasts." Though these are female and have had an 

 element of obscenity imported into them, the squatting form of Cernunnos 

 is the basis on which they have been designed. A glance at such an example 

 as th it at White Island. Co. 81igo,' will make. this clear. These figures thus 



seem to be survivals into Christianity of a perverted representation of ■ 



of the most important gods of Celtic pagandom. 



If this w red Btone erected beside aome sanctuary of Cernunno 

 and it m iv be ii" mere accident that i Christian church now stands on the 

 spot— additional point would then be _ for the tradition repented in 

 PD 20 and VI> iii 84, that close by this monument was the house that was 

 burnt over the head of Benen (Beniat in VI > St. Patrick's follower, and the 

 druid Lucetmoel.' As the hi built of w 1 specially for the experi- 



ment, if we may trust our authority, it is useless to look for its remain 

 1'1» tells us that it was' a short distance south-east of Adamnan's Cross, a 



little east of the path." It is very likely that the house would he built 



somewhere near the Banctuary of the deity under whose protection the druida 

 of king Loeguire hoped to confute the preachei ige doctrines. 



South of the Cross were the Seat and Mound of Adamnan .-.»/'</' Adamndin 

 - ,i Duma, I'll 18). Thesehave I n effectually obliterated by generations of 



jk, why were they called aftei Adamnan? 



I rured m Journal, 1: y. Bist. and Arch. Aasocn. "f [reland, -if. iv, vol. v, p. 283. 

 3 The Dame of the giant Cormoran, killed l>y .luck the Giant-killer, is perhaps a cor- 

 ruption of Cernunnos, as the three-headed giant wli" enters into the same nursery tale 

 appears to be a reminiscence ..t" the tricephalous god of whom several figures exist. 

 . p. 176, where the story is given in full from Muirchu. 

 \ . n -i icuona earthen mound running round the ftraveyard just inside ilie enclosing 

 wall looks at first *i:.'ht like another earthwork of the Temair scries. But I cannot regard 

 il as anything more than anold boundary of the cemetery. [I i ar, and follows 



tly the line of the ater tone wall that runs outside it, 



