320 Proceedings of the Royal Frisk Academy. 



The reversal of the sequence in the story before us cannot he explained 

 except on the theory of literary craftsmanship. Once more we trace the hand 

 of the unknown Celtic Hesiod, who wove his Theogonia out of previously 

 existing materials. For the connexion of the woodpecker with pastoral 

 pursuits (as Fiachu is associated with cattle it will suffice to refer the reader 

 to the numerous examples collected by Dr. Harris, especially in his thirty- 

 seventh chapter. Perhaps it is too much to see in a following king. Foidhgen, 



I to have derived his name from the fact that "knot-' db first 



appeared in trees in his time, for before his time the trees were smooth, a 

 reminiscence of the more ordinary activities of the woodpecker. 



Reversals of like nature are not unknown in the literary manipulation of 

 folk-lore. For, as Dr. Harris has shown, in many of the cases where Ovid in 

 his Metamorphoa - of a man or woman having been transformed into a 



tree, or a bird, or what-not, he is re-telling a savage'legend in which a 

 phyllomorph or a theriomorpb has been turned into an anthropomorph : that 

 is, he is reversing the actual sequence of events in the original tale. In 

 consequence of this reven Hows that Oengus, or, rather, the being to 



whom Oengua was equated, was not originally son of the two youths, but 

 father of the two youths ; and he thus falls into line with other storm-gods as 

 the parent of Dioscuri. 



Oengus himself, we may f.-el con6dent, was primarily a historical 

 character. He appears undi il disguises in the roll of kings. 



OH- 'c/>, "great quencher," is a good name for the despot who caused the 



I ■ monument on the Boyne to be built in his honour. Tuirm Tt aeh 

 is another of his avatars. This nam- the " official historians" explain by one 

 of their usual fatuities ; but it would be quite suitable for the personage 

 wh bed the - on the ridge on which there is a sacred well 



bearing a similar name. 



We i. w gatbei I gether the threads which we have endeavoured to 

 •fore the reader an attempt to trace the chronological 

 development of the myth. 



The raw materials were a- : — 



Among thk Pi Amoxg the Cklts 



Ir-';and| (On the Continei 



1. The sanctuarv of Temair. 1. The woodpecker myth. 



2. The tradition of Oengus or Un- 2 The story of Scota and Tea (a 

 gust, a great monarch, who had estab version of the Demeter and Kore for- 

 lished the sanctuarv, and who was mula). 



