Macalistkk — Temair Brey : Remains <tnd Traditions of Tara. 397 



before sunset, each of them carrying her load. It' anyone of them lei her 

 burden fall, she was rent asunder by the others, and her limbs were carried 

 round the temple with wild shouts, which were kepi up till their rage 

 was abated. Strabo or his informant — probably Pytheas— had not a very 

 exact knowledge of the rite; indeed, it is difficult to see how they could have 

 obtained even the knowledge which they had, seeing that no man dared I" 

 land on the island, and that the people in the lands around would be alien 

 in speech to the traveller. 1 



But even the fragmentary report which we have of this rite displays close 

 analogies with some of the rites that we have traced at Temair and at New 

 Grange. The unroofing and re-roofing of the temple was evidently a solar 

 rite, and we cannot be far wrong if we assume that the day on which it was 

 performed was Midsummer day. When the sun shone longest and hottest, 

 the temple was opened to entrap as much as possible of the sun's rays, and 

 then was closed again. Probably there was a perpetual fire kept alight in 

 the temple, which was supposed to be quickened by, or else to quicken, the 

 sun. Then, the fate of the woman who dropped her load was simply the 

 fate of every divine king who was getting too old for his work. 2 She was 

 torn in pieces, as the king of Temair was killed when a stronger than he 

 came to contend with him. The tearing of the unfortunate creature in 

 pieces, and the bearing of her limbs round the temple, have analogies else- 

 where : all such rites have for their purpose the increase of the fertility of 

 the soil. The island of Sena, then, was a place where women's rites, 

 analogous to the men's rites of Temair, were carried out, and for an 

 analogous purpose. Temair is thus set in its place as the [rish example of 

 a universal European cultus. 



To come down to later times in the Greek world, we may perhaps trace 

 some relics of this European cultus in certain of the riles of the nian 



mysteries. Even to touch the fringe of this gigantic subject would swell 

 unduly a paper which has already far transgressed the limits that I had 

 expected it to occupy. But it may be noticed that the bull-roarer, called 



1 Imperfect information due to this cause is perhaps responsible for the inconsistency 

 which is the chief difficulty in the way of reconciling the accounts >■(' Mela and Strabo. 

 Mela describes the Sena priestesses as vowed to perpetual virginity; Strabo reports his 

 islanders as sailing over to the mainland when they desired t" have intercourse with the 

 opposite sex. He then proceeds do describe the temple rite: which BUggests the possi- 

 bility that such intercourse may have been an essential part of the rite in question. Y\ B 

 are reminded of what was said above as to the necessity for the marriage of the kin^ ■•! 

 Temair. 



- Just as the king of Ouitsha on the Niger was " immediately deposed and perhaps 



stoned " when he was no longer able to dance publicly with a sack of sto i "ii his lack 



at an annual feast : See Frazcr. ra&oo nnd tilt Perils of the Soul, p. 123, 



