Dalton — Cromm Cruaich of Magh Sleaeht. 57 



Gaul as well. It was the " fair of Lug," ' for it commemorated Lug, the 

 sun-god, whose chief citadel in western Europe appears to have been 

 Lug-dunum, or Lyons, in Prance.- Gaelic legend turned Lug into a Tuatha- 

 De-Danaan king, Lughaidh Lamhfadha, the same who first instituted the 

 fair at Tailltu, or Teltown, in honour of his foster-mother, the Firbolg queen 

 so named. ^ If the cultured Gallo-Eomans did not convert Lug into Augustus 

 Cfesar they, at all events, held a festival of great celebrity at Lugdumim, and 

 on the anniversary of the Lugnasad, in honour of the deified Augustus.* 

 Among the religious commemorations of pagan Ireland, the most popular of 

 all was the La Lugnasad, held on the first day of August, for the reason that 

 it was the occasion of joy and of thanksgiving, evoked by the ripening of the 

 fruits of the earth. The fields, which had been fructified by summer 

 sunshine, were then becoming golden with the rich gifts of harvest ; and the 

 hearts of men were elated by the arrival of that season on which promise of 

 abundance always attends. It was then, too, Crom Ci'uaich annually 

 dispensed his blessings over the land, in repayment of the heavy tribute that 

 had been laid oa his shrine. 



" Milk and corn 

 They would ask from him speedily 

 In return for one-third of their healthy issue : 

 Great was the horror and the scare of him." ° 



The carnivals of Lugnasad have, almost everywhere, disappeared, though 

 the day that was gladdened by their rejoicings is in many places well 

 remembered under the appropriate name of Garland Sunday. But in one 

 primitive region these festivities are not yet defunct. Though steadily 

 decaying, they survive within Magh Sleaeht and along the whole extent of 

 its mountainous environs. 



Thus was Crom Dubh, after his decline, still reverentially cherished 

 throughout Ireland, folk-tale co-operating with Christian legend in per- 

 petuating his name, by reserving to him a two-fold role and a double sphere 

 of influence. The common folk did not readily surrender their belief that 

 he who had brought wheat into Ireland might still be a potent force in 

 fertilizing their grain crops, and in blessing with increase their store of milk 



• Lxcgnasad = Lug and Nasad, "i.e. a festival or game of Lugh Mac Ethne or Etlileun." 

 The fair was opened in gach bliadhain in thoidecht lugnasad, which implies that it also 

 preceded and followed Lammas day. (See " Cormac's Glossary," p. 99.) 



- " Hibbert Lectures," pp. 419-21. 



3 O'Mahony's "Keating," pp. 142, 143. 



* An altar was dedicated there to Augustus in 10 B.C. (Suetonius " De SII 

 Caesaribus," v. cap. 2). Consult also Rhys, op. cit., pp. 420-21. 



5 "Voyage of Bran," p. 304. 



