Macalistek — Temair Breg : Remains and Traditions oj Tara. 343 



There seems to be a further reminiscence of the importation of the Fal 

 cults into Temair from somewhere else, in the legend of Tea and Tephi. 

 Tephi, as we are toM. was buried in Spain, the traditional land or origin 

 of the Milesian people. Tea saw her monument there, and built Temair in 

 imitation of it. That is to say, the structure of Temair was modelled on the 

 pattern of some other structure, in the place (not necessarily Spain) where 

 the worshippers of the gods of Temair came from. When the incoming Celtic- 

 speakers had spread inland, and had established their domination over the 

 whole country, they took ever the ancient sanctuaries, Temair among them, 

 and there established their new gods, amid the sacred waters, animals, and 

 trees of their Bronze-Age predecessors. 



Such, then, appears to be the meaning of the statement in the prophecy 

 called Baile an Scdil, that Fal came from Inis Fail. The Celtic conquest 

 was still comparatively recent when that story was first told. It was still 

 remembered that the cult of Fal had not been indigenous at Temair, but had 

 been imported from an island that bore this name. "We need not suppose 

 that the stone itself came from Inis Fail; it may have been already on the 

 spot, and have been adapted as the representation of the deity. 



But Baile an Scdil has something more to say about the stone, which is 

 less easy to explain. It may be remarked parenthetically that this story of 

 the " Spectre's Ecstasy " is to the effect that Conn Cet-chathach stepped one 

 day by hazard on the stone of Fal ; that it uttered its scream ; and that the 

 druids Moel, Bloec, and Bluicne explained its meaning to the king. The 

 historical background of the occurrence, the essential point of which is Conn's 

 ignorance of the properties of the stone, is probably the fact that Conn, as 

 grandfather of Cormac, was the founder of a new dynasty under which a new 

 order was fated to hold sway in Temair ; but the story itself is completely 

 mythical, being full of impossible magic and mystery. After the druids had 

 prophesied of the virtues of the stone, a theophany of Lug appeared and 

 marshalled before Conn in a prophetic vision the kings that were to reign 

 after him : a sort cf anticipation of the procession of kings in Macbeth. 



Now the druids told Conn that the stom' was Fated to remain perpetually 

 in the Land of Tailltiu ; and that there should be a field of games (i.e. perio- 

 dical religious festivals, with sacred games, &c.) at Tailltiu so long as there 

 should be a monarchy in Temair. Also, that the king who on the last day 

 of the feast should not see the stone would be a doomed man (tn'i) that same 

 year. 1 



There is a remarkable variant of this story in the Book of Leinster 

 (facs. 9a). According to this passage, the properties of the stone wore tested 



1 See O'Curry, MS. MatericAs, p. 618 ; also Zeitschr. ctlt. Phil., iii, 459. 



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