Macaustek — Temair Breg : Remain* ami Traditions of Tara. 325 



occupant. A Christianized version of the divinity of the king appears in the 

 story of the Battle of Mag Mucrime, 1 in which angels hovered over the head 



of king Art in the battle, " because he was a true prince." 



It is extremely important to notice indications that, in the case of the king 

 of Temair, the marriage of the king was essential to secure the boon which he 

 was supposed to bring his people. This is probably the reason why the nobles 

 of Erin refused to countenance the un wedded king Eocliu Aireui and boycotted 

 his assembly ;- and in the story edited by Mr. Best, under the title of The 

 Adventures of Art son of Conn? the men of Ireland enjoy three harvests of 

 corn annually so long as Conn is wedded to his fitting spouse Eithne Taebfota; 

 but when she dies and he marries in her stead the disreputable Becuma, there 

 " is neither corn nor milk in Ireland." The exercise by the king of his 

 marital functions acts sympathetically on the fertility of the land and of the 

 cattle. It is to be noted in passing that when Eithne died she was buried in 

 Tailltiu ; was this the normal cemetery of the queens of Ireland ? If so, the 

 fact is of some importance. 



The point is, that Becuma had been banished from among the Tuatha 

 De Danann for her misdeeds. She was therefore not any more acceptable to 

 the gods than was the foreigner Coirpre Cat- head. Probably we are to 

 understand that the feminine principle of fertility refused to acknowledge 

 her, as the masculine principle refused to acknowledge Coirpre. To avert the 

 curse that had in consequence fallen upon the land, it had to be re-quickened 

 with the Mood of the son of a sinless couple. How such a youth was found, how 

 he was condemned to be slain and was redeemed with the blood of a cow, and 

 how Becuma was finally expelled from Temair, will be found in the original 

 story, which is one of the most valuable, from the point of view of folk-lore, 

 that we possess. Just as an elaborate ritual had to be gone through, as we 

 shall see in a moment, in order to restore the continuity of the kingship when 

 it had been broken by what we should call the iwli<ri<l death of the king, bo 

 the blood of a youth of miraculous birth had to be shed on the ground 

 outraged by the king's marriage with a person forbidden. 



In Christian times the saints appeal' to have entered on the heritage 

 of the kings as earnests for the goodness of the crops. Thus St. Patrick, 

 prophesying of St. Senan, promises this boon so long as the people shall 

 be obedient to the saint. 1 We might explain this as a reminiscence of some 



' Revue celtique, xiii, 456. 



- [rische Texte. i, 118. It is evidently wrong to explain this, with Nuti, -is i ten- of 

 the excessive use of the droit du seigneur (Voyage <'f Bran, ii. 51): The marriage of the 

 king would not necessarily interfere with such a practice, which in any case is mythical : 

 see the discussion in Frazer, Fott lore in the Old Testament, vol. i. p. 4S5 ff. 



1 fir'm, iii, 149. 4 Ijismore Life of St. Senary eel Stolces, line 1855 



3 



