Macalistkk — Temair Brec/ : Remains and Traditions of Turn. '573 



of the Tuatha De Danann. Now a curious passage in Coir Ainmum hints at 

 a tale of a marriage between Fal and Nuadu, which would imply that Fal, 

 in spite of the masculine form of his name, was a goddess. We are told that 

 king Nuadu Finn-Fail, who is of course only an " avatar " of t lie deity, 

 derived his name from his being "a fair man," and because he was in the 

 habit of " sporting with and making love to " the Stone of Fal. 1 This seeine 

 to indicate a deep-rooted doubt as to the sex to which Fal belonged. Such 

 an uncertainty is not quite the same as a change of sex which has befallen a 

 deity in the course of his history. 2 Venus is a well-known example of the 

 latter phenomenon. Tt is rather an indication that the god was borrowed at 

 the first from some external source, without complete knowledge of his special 

 characters. 



Now, it is worthy of notice that there is a very ancient Italian god who also 

 shows an uncertainty as to his sex. This is the deity of shepherds, Tales by 

 name, honoured on his solemn feast, the Parilia, held on 21 April, but other- 

 wise, apparently, forgotten. 3 The Parilia was a festival designed to secure the 

 fertility of cattle. Among the rites of the festival was the driving of sheep 

 through or between fires ; for the survival in these countries of similar rites 

 down to our time, on Mayday, see Rhys, Celtic Folklore, i, 309.' 



When we recollect that the feast of St. "Ibar" of Beg- Eire, alias Inis 

 Fail, is 23 April, only two days after the Parilia, we are tempted to wonder 

 whether there is not here something more than accident. The philologists will 

 no doubt remind me, firmly but {more suo) not very gently, that the names Fal 

 and Pales cannot be regarded as possessing more than a superficial resemblance. 

 This we may graut freely — if they are to be regarded as a genuine Indo- 

 European inheritance. Put what if the name, like the deity, is a loan from 

 without ? Is it impossible that in this seemingly bisexual 6 deity, buried deep 

 in the traditions of Celtic and Italian tribes alike, connected with agricultural 

 or pastoral rites in both communities, celebrated on almost the same day in 



1 Irische Texte, iii, 326. 



• We use masculine terms and pronouns throughout this ami the following paragraphs 

 to avoid cumbersome expressions such as "his or her" which the limitations ol the 

 English language would otherwise impose upon us. 



•'Sec Frazer, The Magic Art, ii, chap, xix ; also the article Pales in Roscher's 

 Lexikon . 



4 See also Keating, Forus Feasu (I.T.S.), a, 240. 



^1 use the word "bisexual" advisedly, for the very remarkable figure from QuiUy 

 (Loire -Inferieure), illustrated in Bulletin de In Sod ' d' Inihropologii dt Pains, Ber. iv. 

 vol. x, p. 144, is evidence for the existence of a hermaphrodite deity among the Conti- 

 nental Celts. The figure is in the squatting attitude "t' Cernuunos, ami may well be the 

 representative of a type that became a connecting-link between the male Oernunnoa 

 figures and the female "Sheelah-na-gigs." 



