Westkopp — Earthtvorks and Ring-walls in County Limerich. 447 



seem instinctively to fix on modern Jrish scientific archaeology the stigma 

 well earned by the school of Vallaneey, or by the contemporary dabbler in 

 early Irish history. There are some few obscure writers (it is true) who seem 

 even yet to believe that the early colonists of Ireland " came here clad in 

 purple and gold, direct from Phoenicia, in brazen-prowed triremes." But why 

 select these as representative ? Fortunately, as a rule, foreign antiquaries, 

 less prejudiced, can understand our position better, and see that it is no 

 reproach to us to give what we have, as we find it, without waiting till our 

 rich mass of material can be dated and brought to a condition critically 

 satisfactory and with some appearance of finality. 



The Early Legends. 



The present form of the legends is evidently early, though much corrupted 

 and mutilated in parts.' This was done to bring them somewhat into unison 

 with later political, religious, and moral ideas." These factors reacted in 

 markedly different lines. The religious varnishing seems most, transparent. 

 The connexion of the sons of men with the daughters of the gods, like the 

 tale of Ailill and Aine, had to be changed, and the sidh-lo\^ made less 

 divine; even so, the tales are recognizably pre-Christian. Aine, and Aeife,' 

 of Knockainey and Gleneefy (Gleann Aoife) in our district, were possibly 

 originally the same as their namesakes in some myths, daughters of 

 Mananann mac Lir, the sea god. The first has affinities with Ana, Mother 

 of the Gods, who was the Morrigu* (whose " two breasts " are seen in the 

 " Paps," Cich dha Morrigain, in Kerry) ; they were both dwellers in the sidh- 

 mounds, and connected with Samhain Eve.° The Christian redactors reduced 



'The "Lives" of St. Patrick and St. Columba illustrate this very well, but the 

 versions of the pre-Christian tales are equally instructive- 



'^ See a study of the gradual elimination of immoral episodes in the tales of Cairbre 

 Muse (Journal R. Soc. Antt., Ir., vol. xl., pp. 183-5), or in the legends of Nes and her 

 son Concobhair mac Nessa (Rev. Celt., vol. xxi, p. 317) and later writer's accounts. 



^ The name is not uncommon, and may even apply to part of a hill, " Bai Aife, cows 

 of Aife," white stones on a mountain : " they stand on the Aife of a mountain " (Fingal 

 Ronaiu, the action, circa a.d. 610-650, Rev. Celt., vol. xiii, p. 378). Aife is an alias of 

 the Badbh, the hideous lone woman in " Da Derga's Hostel," Rev. Celt., vol. xxii, p. 58. 

 " Aoife weeps in the Sidh of Feidhlim," Slievephelim (O'Rahilly's Poems, 1650, Ir. Texts 

 Soc, p. 203). The weeping of the banshee is no new mytli ; we iind in Tain Bo Fraich 

 " wailing of women of the 8idh " (Rev. Celt., vol. xxiv, p. 137). 



■* The Morrigu has still a place in modern folk-lore, the large cooking hearths being 

 called Fulacht na Morrigna, as the lesser are Fulaoht Fian. The Agallamh mentions a 

 Fulacht na Morrigna near Sidh Airfemhin mound. The Morrigu was Badbh, the war 

 goddess, equated with the Cata Bodva of a Gaulish altar, but Ana was perhaps identical, 

 and is also a "Morrigu." See Revue Celtique, vol. i, pp. 37-54. 



^ Cf. Book of Leinster, f. 54 ; Revue Celtique, vol. i, p. 54, and vol. xxvii, p. 330, 

 where the Dagda alludes to it. Eriu, vol. i, p. 84. 



