370 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



day of the spirit of vegetation, of which Loeguire was the incarnation and 

 representative. 1 



Incidentally we may notice that this presupposes the adoption in Ireland 

 of the Julian Calendar. We need not assume that the knowledge of the 

 Roman alphabet was the only indirect gift tliat the Roman Empire had made 

 to Ireland, even though Rome never took the trouble to conquer the country. 

 Once the principle of the Julian calendar became known, its easy applica- 

 bility to the recurrent phenomena ol the solar year would commend its adop- 

 tion; and we have here an additional piece of evidence that Ireland was by 

 no means outside the current of general European life during the centuries 

 preceding the introduction of Christianity. 



The festivals of Teinair were thus coincident with the vegetation festivals 

 of the year; the annual birth and death of the Bpirit of the crops. But these 

 were not the only festivals held throughout the year. We have already seen 

 that the annual supplies were brought f«u the king's use on Lugnasad. We 

 may fairly assume that the Midsummer celebrations were also held there, 

 as they were universally throughout the country; the tires of St. John still 

 lighted in the West are the relics of this recurring anniversary. And it may 

 be that the Btrange Btory of the decapitation of St John the Baptist, the 

 saint of Midsummer day, by Mug Uuith. may be founded in an annual celebra- 

 tion "\ the cutting of the last sheaf of the harvest. Frazer has collected an 

 abundance of illustrative '■•ample- of this rite," which is often performed by 

 a special person. It may be that in Ireland the duty was assigned to the 

 functionary to whom the bull-roarei was entrusted. 



A passage which has 1 n interpolated into Togdil Bruidiu Dd Derga 



information, that seems to be authentic ae to how the Samain tires 

 were lit, When - rick lighted his Paschal fire be "struck it," pre- 



sumably with a tlint. 3 This v. -ii y a- be was a uewcomer. But the 



Bruden Da Derga passage the original of which will be found in Bevtu 

 .\n. I'j'.'i implies that a perpetual tire was kept burning from 

 Sam. on to Samain, the new tire being lighted from an ember of the old. An 



tion called tore tened, "i tore caille, meaning, apparently/ tire-boar, or 



forest = tim . n .- made. This seem- to have been a structure of 



litted closely together, in the bean of which the Bra wot lighted, so 



that if a log were removed the fire would blaze out of the opening/ 



I two tin- ingenious observation i>> Mr Cook. 



specially chap, v of Spirit* of Ou Com and of Ok II 

 Bobt . [. i. ;. ,.,.. 326 Set Stokes's note, ad loe. 



1 W hy si). mid the erection have been calle<l i • " W is it supposed to be the image 

 of a boar-divinil 



"ee loc. cit., p. loo. 



