Westropp — Earthworks a7id Rwg-walls in County Limerick. 445 



quasi-histoiy back till it joined the earliest history of our race known to 

 the Christian clerics. Warped and interpolated the genuine tradition must 

 probably have been, but it may equally well contain most valuable facts of 

 an imexpectedly remote past, and the Eed Branch mythus shows genuine 

 connexion with La Tene civilization at the very beginning of our era.^ 



In the Munster legends we reach back to the middle of the second century 

 after Christ, back to the period to which our earliest detailed contemporary 

 record, the Atlas of Ptolemy, refers, i.e. not earlier than a.d. 150.- We 

 accordingly look for equations between the two, and are at once met by the 

 discouraging want of any point of contact ; save the louernoi of South 

 Munster, the Earna of the legends, and a few place-names, none (unless 

 Uigia, or Makolikon, lie at Bruree and Kilmallock) in the cradle of the Dal 

 Cais. There is, however, a possible allusion (as some hold) to the tribes with 

 which we deal, the Deirgthine and the Dairfhine,' which we must consider 

 at some length. 



I approach the study with the utmost diffidence, and with no expectation 

 of setting it on an unassailable basis; indeed, whether this could ever be done 

 I more than doubt. In the most mythical tales of the great Mediterranean 

 civilizations there is always the hope that the spade may clear up and establish 

 the truth as a history, or at least as a true picture, of the life of the people. 

 This has been done in the case of the people of Ilium before the egg of Leda 

 hatched, of the Egyptians before Menes, and of the bull-masked priests 

 of the Labyrinth ; nay, even in Gaul we can obtain confirmatory evidence of 

 the chariots, the weapons and ornaments, the customs and the skull trophies,* 

 of the heroes of Medbh's great foray. But what can we expect in southern 

 Co. Limerick ? Suppose we could excavate an undisturbed fort site of the 

 third century at the foot of the Gal tees or Ballyhoura Mountains, what 

 might we find ? Certainly no inscriptions, or carvings of men and chariots, 



^ See Zimmer's notes, Zeitschrift fiir deutsches Alterthum, vol. xxxii, p. 196 ; xxxiii, 

 p. 129 ; XXXV, p. 9. This is well brought out by W. Ridgeway, Proc. British Academy 

 1905-6) : see also New Irelaud Review, vol. xx, p. 292 ; xxvi, p. 84 ; Celtic Review, 

 vol. iii, p. 68. For a contrary view see J. V. Pflugk-Harttung, Rev. Celt, vol. xiii, p. 171 ; 

 but many of his arguments, such as Ptolemy's sixteen nations, the scarcity of gold ia 

 ancient Ireland (!), and the " low position " of women in the Red Branch Cycle (one of 

 whose protagonists is Medbh), are most mistaken ones. 



- Ptolemy uses astronomical data down to a.d. 148 : none are said to be later. 



^ As to the Darinoi, see J. MacNeill in New Ireland Review, vol. xxvi, p. 15. It 

 .seems impossible to regard the Dergthine and Dairfhine as of the same race. 



* For head trophies see Celtic Review, vol. iii, pp. 68-81 ; Rev. Celt., vol. xsxiv, 

 pp. 38 sqq., 276-295 (note Plate iii of head trophy hung on horse's neck) ; O'Curry, 

 " Manners and Customs" (O'Sullivan, Introduction), vol. i, p. cccxxxviii ; " Le rite des 

 tetes coupees chez les Celtiques " (Revue de I'Histoire des Religions, Ixviii, pp. 41-48). 

 I must thank Mr. Alfred Lea for last reference. 



[62*1 



