366 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



where they were held were at Temair. Tailltiu, Carman, Tlachtga, and Uisnech. 

 There were minor local festival- in other centres as well. It is noteworthy 

 that those assemblies do not seem to have been confined to the tribes in 

 whose territories their sites were situated, bul were conventions of the whole 

 country. This point is worth noticing, for it is often erroneously stated that 

 there was no sense of unity in the country at lame until it was imposed from 

 without. In point of fact, though it would lead us too far from our present 

 sub n this topic, it is not difficult to detect traces of an 



underlying sense of unity throughout the whole history, obscured to the 

 superfici er by the endless wars of rival tribes. One of the strongest. 



unifying system of periodical religious assemblies, We may 



perhaps compare the influence of the Delphian Amphictyony in developing a 

 Pan-Hellenic instinct among the disunited states of Greece. 



The centres of ■ i assemblies were all pre-eminent cemeteries; 



but it would l»- rash to assume that therefore tin- assemblies wore primarily 

 convened for tin- worship of the dead. Tin- assemblies may have been tin' 

 cause of the chi te for the cemetery, not <-i<; versa. On the other 



hind, the idence that an assembly-mound wae presumably a burial- 



mound: thus the Piana, sitting on the assembly-mound beside Sescenn na 

 nAig . their leader, a- .1 matter of course, "Who is the warrior on 



whos wo are Mot r, we 1 thai some of the most 



important religious build ["email were designed bo as to incorporate a 



mound that has .ill the appearance of being a tumulna 



We '-.1111101 assume thai the purpose of the assemblies, and their religious 

 rites, were identical it the different sites Different assemblies were in honour 

 of different deitii shewn by the fact that they occurred on different 



days of the year. The assembly of Uisnech foil on Beltene, that of Tailltiu 

 n Lugnasad, that ofTeinairon Sainain.' Carman was a Lugnasad festival, 1 

 ami 3 n.' This means that Temaii and Tlachtga 



I. Similarly < 'aiman and 



Tailltiu are t ther. Lug oie sort of festival of Lug, 



tin' sun . --il.lv the feast of the mat riage of the Bun-god and his consoi t 



(earth or moon): sun-shrines. 



We ha en that it i> on Lug-nasad that the king of Temair 



sived the victuals which wi to him, and so far we may admit an 



acknowledgment of _...i. Doubtless, one of his duties was to make 



n T.mIiI I. - v i. 54. 



l. 7". ; ii, 77. 



I Lect, x, pp. is. l'.t. 

 Ki / ! i 8. .'l.i. ii. p 846. 



