Macalistkk — Temair Brcg : Remains and Traditions of Tar a. 321 



buried (and worshipped) at New '6. Certain gods. 



Grange. N.B. — The traditions re- 1. Certain cosinogonic myths. 



garding Oengus were coloured by the 



matriarchal organization of pre Celtic 



society. 



3. Certain gods, including Etherun, 

 and a triplicity or quaternity among 

 which was Feron. 



The steps in the development were as follows : — 



1. An epic was composed, at some unknown time before the arrival of the 

 Celts in Ireland, based upon the Celtic material set forth above. 



2. This epic was taught as a text-book in the druidic schools, and garbled 

 paraphrases of it became current in the form of folk-stories. 



3. The Celts landed in Ireland about 400 B.C.— at the beginning of the Iron 

 Age in the country — at the mouth of the Slaney, and adopted the god of that 

 river as their leader in the invasion. It is likely that the prime purpose of 

 the invasion was to acquire a mastery of the Wicklow gold-fields, so that it 

 was natural that the invasion should attack the country at the south-east, 

 where a large river offered a water-way through that part of the island. 



4. They asserted a claim to the country by affiliating or otherwise 

 identifying their gods with the gods of the aborigines. The chief identifica- 

 tions were that of the demi-god of their epic with the pre-Celtic Ungust or 

 Oengus; and the affiliation of Scota to Feron.' 



5. The story of the abduction of Teplii (originally of Tea) was afterwards 

 adapted as a reason for their coming to the country. This story is told in 

 two versions — either as an abduction, as we find it in A'D, or as the murder 

 of Ith, that is of " corn." There is not a very serious difference between 

 the abduction of the corn-spirit and the murder of com, so that the two 

 stories may well have been more similar to one another than might have 

 been expected at first sight. As we have not got the full tale of the 

 abduction of Tea, it is impossible to compare them. 



6. After the establishment (i) of the suzerainty of Temair over most of 

 Ireland and (ii) of Christianity, the native scholars turned their attention 

 to the collecting and systematizing of the historical traditions current in the 

 country. Having fixed a framework of chronology on the basis of Scriptural 



'In Leafs Homer and History, chap, vii, a remarkable parallel to this process of 

 affiliation is described : the absorption of the Pelasgian corn-spirits and similar beings, 

 by the pantheon of the intruding Achaeans. 



[44*] 



