346 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



broken away, doubtless with intention, showing that the ancestral name was 

 conceived as having pagan associations. 1 



This Mug Ruith, then, is the servant of a divine wheel, which seems do lie 

 conceived as being the ancestor of a sept established in the present counties 

 of Kilkenny and Waterford. From Mug Ruith himself the people of Fermoy 

 are alleged Lo trace their descent. He is credited with the invention, or at 

 least the use, of an instrument of divination called Roth Ramach, an expres- 

 sion that can in niently be translated "paddle-wheel." Such a name 



is evidently very suitable for a rotating Dull-roarer, and it is noteworthy that 



the samesimile is f id at tic- Antipodes. In Australia, where the bull-roarer 



is of greal importance in initiation ceren ios, women are nmst carefully 



excluded from the sight of the sacred instrument. It' by accident a woman 

 of the Kuruai tribe Bhould happen to find the head of a hull-roarer that has 

 flown off its cord and been lost, and should ask what it may he. she is told 



that it is the paddle of Tumi whose voice had been heard in the ceremonies, 



who had descended " to make the boya men." and who had dropped it in his 

 return journey to the .-ky.- 



The first text relating to the Roth Ramach which we may cite is con- 

 tained in the account of Tlachtga in Dind-slunchas lilrenn. Tlachtga, 

 identified, rightly or wrongly, with Ihe Hill of Ward near A th boy, is certainly 

 an ancient sanctuary. We learn from the text cited (which will he found in 

 full in /.' /".. wi.iil ithat ii derives it- name from Tlachtga, daughter 



of Mug Ruith, ami that she and her father went to Simon Magus to learn 

 the world's dniidry. 1 There she had relations with the three sons of Simon, 

 and there she made "forTrian" <<o. Triun) the Roth Ramach, the Stone in 

 i aithu.aml the pillar-stone (coirtlu) of Cuamoboill. Returning to the hill 

 called Tlachtga she there bore tin — JJorb, Guma, and Muach— from 



whom are named Mag Duirb, Mag Cuma, and Mag Muaig: "and till 

 their names n in Ireland, the vengeance of foreigners will not 



visit it." 



Like so many other articles in Dind-shenchas ftrenn, this description is 

 provokingly a it assumes knowledge on the pari of its readers such 



1 The alleged Gaulish deity Roth, concerning whom some rather nebulous speculations 

 will be found reviewed in limit ctUiqtu . i. 137, is not hen- in point, even if there were 

 nvincing proof «.f bis ,,..,] existence. 

 5 A. W. HoMitt. cit. ..;,. Hsddou, Study ■■( Man, p, .".14. The name is Bpell Turndun 

 l>y other aathoril 



Possibly the tradition of the wiadom-set king voyage of an actual druid, such as ue 

 imagined anU . p .;17, 



