I893-94-] 59 



the Firbolgs, the Tuath-de-Danaans, and lastly by the Milesians, 

 who are said to have arrived as much as 1 700 years before the 

 birth of Christ. Now, the amount of beliel to be placed in all 

 or any of these traditions is very much a matter of individual 

 discretion. The widest difference of opinion has already been 

 expressed by various writers, who claim to speak with authority. 

 At one extremity we find Sir W. Wilde, who accepts these 

 traditions literally, although they were not recorded in writing 

 within 1 coo or 2000 years after the events, and vouches for all 

 the details of the battle of Moytura, as fought on "the nth 

 day of June, 3303 A.M. ! " the various single combats, the 

 number of combatants engaged, &c. ; where the Firbolgs were 

 finally defeated by the Tuath-de-Danaans, and most wonderful 

 of all ! he finds confirmation of all this in the great sepulchral 

 mounds still to be seen in that neighbourhood, and said to 

 have been erected over the bodies of the chiefs of the defeated 

 Firbolgs. As if the remnant of the beaten race would have 

 been given time to erect above a score of enormous earth- 

 works on the field after such a total defeat. Assuming, 

 however, as true, that a decisive battle was fought here between 

 a resident race and a more powerful invading army, the 

 presence of these mounds may point to a very different ex- 

 planation, the key to which is to be found in the remains at 

 Stonehenge and Avebury, where we see many sepulchral 

 mounds, or barrows in the immediate vicinity of great works, 

 probably intended for temples. May such a temple not have 

 once stood at this spot, round which in the course of centuries 

 these tumuli had been raised. If so, where would a retreating 

 race be so likely to make their final stand as on the ground 

 sacred alike to their religion and to the graves of their kindred? 

 At the other extreme, we have Mr. Rhys in his Hibbert 

 lectures, who evaporates the whole mass of these traditions 

 about invasions of Ireland into solar myth ; in which, for 

 instance, at the battle of Moytura the Firbolgs figure as mists 

 and fogs retiring before the sun on midsummer day. This 

 view is just as unsatisfying as the other extreme, as it altogether 



