292 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



less. Of the third form of spite it will suffice to quote here the imedifying 

 wrangling of Oisin and Patrick in the so-called Ossianic poems. 



■ i Secrecj on the pari of the adherents of a weaker faith, is necessary 

 to avert persecution. While the Christian faith was struggling for existence, 

 its followers made use of secret signs and passwords whereby they could 



recogniz le another. Contrariwise, the mysteries were the last stronghold 



of Paganism when i li<- Cross had triumphed. 1 And so, to return to the 

 point from which we sel out on this digression, I think we may take it that 

 "the mystery ot Tephi " is some such secret. Ii was a private way of rei'er- 

 riug i" a divine being, invented when Christianity had reduced the rival 

 faiths t.> impotence. At least, lei us for the moment assume this to be the 



.ami let us dow inquire what divine being might be supposed to lie 

 bidden undei the personality of Tophi. 



Tephi is called "daughter of Forann." This is the same word as the 

 Irish equivalent of Pharaoh, the title of the king of Egypt ; Tephi therefore 



i- spoken of, and was doubtless underst I by the writer of VTJ ii as being. 



the daughter of the king of Egypt. He was not troubled by the improba- 

 bility of such a princess being at the Bame time a relative of "Bachtirof 

 Spain," ami we need not feel any more uneasiness on the subject than he did. 

 othei daughters of Forann make their appearance in t lie legends of 

 1 1 1 - ) i origina. These women wen- both called Scota; and though by the 

 annalists they arc separated from one another by a number of generations, 

 they are clearly doublets of one another. This "Scota daughtei of Pharaoh" 

 is the prim* ; the devious wandorings of the children of Mil over 



the face of the earth, before finding a permanent home in Ireland. The 

 children of Mil were called • - one Bchool of etymologist- derived this 



ethnic name from Scylhia, and bo the tribe had to be brought on its wild 

 journey to Scythia in order that it might pick up the name. But another 



• ■I of etymologists favoured an eponymous ancestre.--. "Scota daughter 

 of Forann," understood i i the daughtei of Pharaoh. To secure this 



ana the tribe had t<> make its way to Egypt, finally, when the 



redactors attempted to make ( out of all the scattered tale.- that lay 



before them, they found that different accounts were given of the husband 

 whom Scota married and of the children whom she bore. In order to work 

 these all in. the lady bad to 1m- duplicated, thus necessitating two different 

 ! pt in differei i Such is the evolution of the 



ry of the wanderings of the children of Mil, helped out by tags borrowed 

 from the wanderings of the Israelites and from other sources. 



Hi.- again, as in the case of Tea, the fact that the historians were 

 - e Farnell, OulUofti Uate*, iii, l-'T. 



