Macaustkr — Temair Br eg : Remains and Traditions of Tara. 381 



sacred tree at Temair ; but the statements that it was once a " delightful 

 hazel-grove "• (VD i) and that an old name for it was Eos (" wood ") must not 

 be forgotten. A grove growing on a ridge so sacred must almost of necessity 

 have been itself sacred ; as there was a sacred grove at Aricia, so there was a 

 sacred grove at Temair, which presents so many remarkable points of analogy 

 with the Italian sanctuary. With sacred trees are also associated sacred 

 stones, and we have already been able to draw up a goodly list of these. 

 Some of them were no doubt Celtic in origin, but others may have been 

 pre-Celtic. 



Sacred waters. The Ridge of Temair is well supplied with springs ; indeed 

 it may have been this fact that first invested it with sanctity in the eyes of 

 the ancient inhabitants. The names these bore, and the qualities ascribed 

 to some of them, are sufficient to show their sacred character. 



The Dead. Temair early became the centre of an important cemetery. As 

 has already been said, it is most likely that this was a secondary circumstance, 

 the- sanctity of the ridge having attracted the cemetery, and not the cemetery 

 having invested the site with sanctity. The site would, however, derive 

 increased sacredness from the burial mounds, and a cult of the dead would 

 inevitably be added to the other cults which centred in the ridge. This 

 probably lasted into Christianity ; the contrast between the total disappear- 

 ance of some of the grave-mounds, and the fair preservation of the residential 

 earthworks, is very noticeable, and can partly be explained as due to the 

 intentional destruction of the former in order to put a stop to objectionable 

 rites. 1 



We may now gather together all the details, and give a connected 

 summary of what we may suppose to have been the religious rites of the 

 sanctuary, in continuation of the historical summary at the end of Section '■'. 



(1) The pre-Celtic organization being based on mother right, I'ngust 

 ruled over his people by virtue of his connexion with his wife or his mother. 

 In view of this fact it was possible for the early traditions to ascribe the 

 foundation of Temair to a woman. "With this woman the Celts identified 

 their Tea, daughter of Lugaid (= the sun-god Lug) son of lib (= corn) ; this 

 identification indicates the original nature of the settlement ou the ridge, as 

 a centre of rites associated with the deities of vegetation. The purely 

 political or secular sideof the life of Temair was at first far in the background, 

 if indeed it had any existence at all. 



1 Treasure-hunting may also be partly responsible. The rifling of the graves of tin- 

 dead is an ancient industry. The first practitioner in Ireland was no less ,-i p.i -,..n .-■■ 

 tljau St. Patrick : see Acallam »•< Saidrach, eil. Stokes, p. SI, 



