352 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Mug Euith is intermediate in descent between " Fergus of Fal "* and Tlachtga. 

 It is impossible to understand some of the allusions contained in these 

 passages ; and we are inclined to suspect that the writers had not a very clear 

 idea themselves of the meaning of what they were writing. 



The Roth Rauiach must have figured more conspicuously in the earliest 

 Irish literature than the survi g .ments of that literature would lead us 

 rod there must have been a number of tales related of it and of 

 its wonder-working | - When the bull-roarer « - rg tten, scribes 



racked their brains to imagine what the " Paddle-wheel " might have been, and 

 they concluded that it was some sort of a ship that new in the air. Its 

 destructiveuess to those who meddled with it showed that it was something 

 dangerous ; and before long we find it has become a terrible, destructive 

 instrument which will sweep over the world in general, and Ireland in 

 particular, at or before the Day of Judgment. In their desire to invent 

 apocalyptic horrors, the Christian escbatologiste drew on the resources of 

 ancient pagan tradition. 



The reason why 1 with this plague has already 



seen ; it is becaiu ive from every nation at the school 



ill of whom were involved with him in his contest with the 

 But another and more heinous crime blackened the record of Mug 

 Ruith, on which account is to sutler especially from the " Paddle- 



wheel." The I ViM \o poems (so-called) on the subject 



of the execution S One of these, which will be found 



at fo. I". . he familiar story of the Bapt - 



Mg. and the demand for the Baptist's head 

 i which has been edited by Miss Scarre 

 in Erin, iv 17 with a number of extra-Biblical inter- 



polations, including an in I le dispute l>etween members of the royal 



family. adeed definitely asserts) that no one in 



A- ild l>e found to execute the impious sentence, till they came 



to Slug Ruith, who for a reward undertook to act as executioner. 



1 Is this Fergus the same person as the brother of Sum and larbone] ? (p. 295). 

 And L-, he the person after whrnn " Hud Fhenrgaii " and the Croat I Fergus were named i 

 We need not b --elves with prosaic que- . in dealing with a 



pedigree that brings into close contact a sister of the abductor of Tephi, a pupil of Simon 

 Magus, and the mother of <_'»irbre Litftchair ! The facts (which we learn from VBL facs. 

 .- \nd a parallel passage in BB 266 a] that Mug Ruith learned the art of war from 

 ScSthach. while further complicating the chronology, is suggestive in connexion with 

 what has been said on p. - 



J Printed in a much abbreviated form from an Edinbui _ -*r Mackinnon 



in OM 



