378 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



include the date of the Parilia. The evidence at our disposal would indicate 

 that the Pavilia was maintained at or near the proper date when the worship 

 of Fal was established at Beg Eire (as witness the incidence of St. lbar's day) ; 

 but that when it was centralized at Temair, the paramount importance of a 

 previously existing Samain feast eclipsed the true festival of Fal, and it fell 

 into disuse. It is possible also that ii was absorbed by the mid-March festival 

 of Temair. to which we have already made allusion. 



The varied activities of the periodical assemblies are described for us in 

 many places, especially the Dind-i of Carman,' which has long been 



recognized as our chief source of information on the subject It is needless 



inalyze this poem here. But a very interesting passage in the poem on 



X.i-- must not be overlooked, as linking the assemblies with the periodical 



that took place annually in many centres of cultus. The 



lamentations for the wiv< - Lug, the sun _ analogous to the Adonis, 



Attis, Tammuz, and similar commemorations of which Frazer and other 



lents of early ceremonial have collected a large number from all over the 



world. Besides the games, hucksl ge legal proc lings, ami the like, 



which were carried on on these occasion-, there Beem also to have been acts 

 of divination and oracle-j in Medb had the events of the year 



told to her at Samain.' Thea - sometimes distinguished by 



an ingenious ambiguity worthy of the Delphic Pythia; witness the prophecy 

 that King 1. j should meet his death "between Eire andAlba"(two 

 hills of the names i. or that Find mac Umaill would perish after drinking 

 from a horn — a prophecy fulfilled by tin- name of the place where he drank 

 from a well.' 



1 lie manifestations of religion with which we have horn concerned, with 

 the exception of the i!i<- bull-roarer, are to he associated with the 



tic invaders of the country. But Temair was a religious centre before 

 the coming of the Celtic-speaking peoples, Tin- cults which these intro- 

 duce''! were grafted on to the religious ritea of their pre We must 

 therefore now enquire what the latter may have been. 



We find at Temair traces of the cult of sacred animals, sacred t B, 



1 of the dead. Most or all of these are to be assigned to the 

 B 



• 1 • • i iy he either real or imaginary. <n the cult 



of the latter, which take the form of n we may perhaps see a trace in 



3 



p. (8 ; sic p. 50, line •_".• et *qq. 

 i. 178; H 

 n Meri i - Calk Finntrdga, \i. 74. 



