of the Isle of Man, have preserved an ancient poem about Mannan' an mac Lir, Mann, son of the waters, whom Vallancey conceives is the Menu of Indian mythology. The Irish acknowledge this, likewise, as one of the names of their deity; and from some verses, of which the following is a literal translation, we at once perceive who is alluded to by this title: When affliction came on all mankind, Woeful was the day the waters gushed forth! But Menn lived, and saw his children float. As Mona took its name from being sacred to the Arkite god, so Maan is said to have led the first colony to the Isle of Man, whence its name of Manaw was derived. A Manx chronicle begins thus: "Mannan' an beg hight mac y lir," Mannan the prince was the first that ruled this land, &c. The Manx language has preserved many words now obsolete in the Irish and Erse. Thus Art and Seathar were the Irish names of God, whence the phrase "Seathar Art sean ainn go fior," Seathar is the most ancient name of God most truly. The Arkite worship was destined to undergo a change in Ireland as well as in Britain, for the records of both countries* declare the introduction of Sabean idolatry, and its being ingrafted on the former religion, a fact that is fully confirmed by all the Irish Druidic memorials. This was effected by the Milesian colony, but the difficulty of destroying the simplicity of the Arkite, and substituting in its room the Helio-arkite, is thus mythologically related by Nennius, who, no doubt, wrote down the tradition of his day as then extant in Ireland. This author states that "the Spanish colonists in their voyage saw a tower of glass, (similar to the Welsh Ynys Wydrin,) which endeavouring to take, they were drowned in their attempt," that is, were not at first successful. Had they been crossing the north sea, this might be conjectured to have been an ice island, but it here evidently alludes, in the first place, to "the ship of glass," mentioned by Merddin as an Arkite rite, and next to the Arkite system generally. By the Irish historians we are told that this colony had frequent battles+ with the Tuath de Danans, that is, the tribe of Danans, to whom the other inhabitants were subject. These they represent as enchanters and magicians, speaking of them as the offspring of the three sons of Danan, who were so expert in the black art and mystery of charms, that the other inhabitants distinguished them by the appellation of gods. Other antiquaries derive their name from Dee, gods, meaning Diviners or Druids, and Danan, bardism. General Vallancey, however, gives the following etymology of the name Tuath: the plural of Tua, a chief, or Davies's Mythology of the British Druids, and Walker's Memoirs of the Irish Bards. Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis. + Keating's History of Ireland. doctor, signifies an assembly of doctors; Da is the art of sorcery; and Dan fate, or destiny; thus Tuath-da-danan means the assemblage or class of prophets and augurers. When, therefore, the Irish historians tell us that the Spanish colony formed the inhabitants of the country subject to the Tuath-da-danan, we are to understand nothing more than that they were wholly under the control of the Druids, who practised divination. Danan, indeed, signifies also Dannonians having, like the term Fir-bolg, the double meaning of Belga and augurs. An old Irish poem, preserved by Keating, and printed also in the "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," says that, so great was the opposition made to the new system, that seven and twenty years elapsed before it could be fully established in the island. These struggles in both countries were so important as to be mystically commemorated in bardic remains; and almost all, if not every one of the Mabinogi are to be understood as giving details as they occurred in Britain. The Milesian colonists entering Ireland as conquerors, established the Helio-arkite worship at the point of the sword; and thus the deified patriarch was identified with the sun, and the ark with the moon. It is now time to introduce the story of Partholanus, in proof of this assertion. He is said to have landed at Inbher Sciene, and fixed his residence at Inis Samar, near Earne, which received its name from a Cu Sealte, hunting dog, (system of worship,) which he had killed in that isle.* But Samar is the sun. Here, then, is evidently pointed out a struggle of the old Arkite worship against the Sabean innovation, and a partial triumph of the former. Keating, also, gives us the following story, which must be regarded as a corrupt allusion to the dove despatched by Noah. The first person who set foot upon the island of Ireland after the flood, was a messenger, whose name was Adhna, kindling of fire, the son of Beatha, life, sent by Mon, the son of Peleus, to discover the soil of the country. He landed upon the coast about sevenscore years after the flood, but made no stay; he only plucked up a handful of grass as a proof, and returned with it to his master." The Helio-arkite divinity was called Aosar, from Aos, fire, or the sun; and in some Irish Mss., Budh, victory, a name by which he is recognised in the Gododin of Aneurin, the British bard. He was also termed Saca, Paramon, Diarmut, &c. names applied to Brahminical deities, and monuments exist in Ireland still bearing those titles. His cognomen of Menn of the waters, and Menn of the ship, has been noticed, and under this title he is said, conjointly with Ba, god of the winds, and Rè, the moon, to have had the command of the weather, and been god of the seas. Here the Cambrian scholar will recognise the tair gwaed, three Veds of the British Menw. He was further styled Beil, the Bel Keating, p. 24. or Beli of the Britons, and Apollo of the ancients. Thus we find the heathen deities of the classics recognised in the appellatives of the Irish god. Saturn, in Irish, is called Sodor, the genius who presides over the productions of nature, being the genial influence of the solar rays, and the universal spirit that enlightens the several parts of the universe. Plutarch mentions that Demetrius being sent by the Roman emperor to survey the western coasts of Britain, the people told him that in a certain island, the giant Briareus held Saturn bound in the chains of sleep, attended by a number of genii. This was the Isle of Man, where the story, with little variation, is told at this day, and the part where Saturn is supposed to be confined is denominated Sodor. Briareus, according to Vallancey, signifies peace, calmness, and gentle salubrious air; and Sodor implies plenty, whence the moral sense of the fable is, that plenty is produced by peace and a salubrious air. But it also refers to Noah's cultivating the earth after the universal deluge, Briareus, in the Celtic tongue, being of the same signification as Noah in Hebrew, both importing peace and calmness. The genii are the various productions of nature, which came in great plenty in the days of Noah, when the world was quiet and undisturbed by the jarring passions of the human race. The Helio-arkite divinity was, likewise, called Dioscar, god of the ship, from Caras, a ship, and Bal-kiste, lord of the chest, or ark. He was also termed Cad, the god of war, and as such, we recognise the Irish Mars.* The Garmanni, whom Vallancey assimilates to the Brachmans, are said to have been descended from Daghdae, (an epithet of the sun,) the offspring of Budh: that is the Sabean idolatry ingrafted on the Arkite. The Lunar-arkite goddess, the Ceridwen of Britain, may be found under many titles in the Irish mythology. She is called Nain, the mother, and in that character regarded as Venus. She was styled Ré and Rhea, a word synonymous with Luan, the moon. She was named Dearg, or the serpent, and Caile, young girl. Also Eag, which implies both the moon and death, the ark being symbolized by the one, and itself a symbol of the other, whence she was likewise called Dumael, or Deimal, the angel of death, where we view her as Proserpine. The Helio-arkite god was at the same time named Saman, the judge of hell, or Pluto; and the place of his abode Saman-ait. Here we see comprised Sam, the sun, which being the name of the hunting dog of Partholan, identifies him with Cerberus. His festival is still kept in Ireland, on the eve of All Souls, called the eve of Saman, and the eve of affliction.+ Cadvan was the saint to whom warriors of Wales especially recommended themselves before going to battle: he settled in the western part of Britain in the beginning of the 6th century, and was abbot of Bardsey Island.-Eds. + Collect. de Reb. Hib. Thus Servius says Luna is the same as Diana, the same as Ceres, the same as Juno, the same as Proserpine; and Lucian tells us the same of Astarte and Rhea.+ The mountain-Irish peasantry at this day exclaim, when they see the new moon, "may you leave me safe as you find me," an evident remnant of the lunar worship. As the wickedness of the world had caused its destruction by the deluge, so the Irish made of this circumstance an evil genius, goddess of the winds that caused shipwrecks, and called her Badhbh, which also signifies a raven, the bird which Noah first despatched, and which returned without any satisfactory result. This occasioned it always to be considered a bird of ill omen. Artemidorus says "there is an island near Britain in which the sacred rites of Ceres and Proserpine are observed as in Samothrace:" this was, in all probability, Ireland, which was called Anan or Annun, the land of divination, by the Irish writers; and in the Mabinogion, or institutional tales of Britain Annwn, or the land of spirits, is represented as lying somewhere off Dyved, or Pembrokeshire. The Rev. Walter Davies has most clearly proved that the rites of Ceres and Proserpine were practised in the Helio-arkite worship in Britain, and they were doubtless the same in Ireland. For it is remarkable that a portable shrine dedicated to this purpose was drawn about by oxen employed by the idolatrous Irish, and termed Arn-Breith, the same as Arn Berith, the ark of the covenant, according to Vallancey. Ireland itself was called Torc and Muic, a boar and a hog, and in Britain these animals were symbols of the ark. Thus the island of the Boar or Hog was no more than the island of the Arkite genius. But Vallancey tells us that Torc and Muic are Druidic words implying likewise an enchanter and a sorcerer, consequently, this appellation was synonymous with Annan, the land of enchantment. One principal rite was the constant keeping up of the inextinguishable fire, in honour of the Solar-arkite divinity, and for this purpose we meet with the Gallicenæ of Ireland under the title of Gabha, a name for the muses, which word also signifies lamentation or mourning, and they appear to be commemorated in the names of some rocky islets a little to the south of the island of Raglin, not far from the peninsular of Magie, called the nine maids. The rites in honour of the Irish Apollo began in May, wherefore, that month is called Bel-teine, the fire of Belus, and Ced-aman, the sacred fire, or that of Cêd, the Lunar-arkite goddess, as in Britain. It was the custom in Ireland to extinguish every fire • Notes on Virgil's Georgics, 1. iv. 5. + She was, as Ceres, worshipped under the figure of a ploughshare. See Warner's History of Ireland, p. 133. twice a year, on certain festivals, and to rekindle them from that of the chief Mogh, or Magus, of each district. Budh is said to have put an end to the horrid custom of offering human sacrifices, and to have substituted instead, that of brute animals, as the cock, the goat, the horse, &c. for the expiation of sins.† The first of these was held sacred to Budh, or the sun, on account of its ushering in the sun's rising, by its early crowing, and the last was an emblem of the ark, which was called a steed of the sea. Lakes and rivers were also held sacred in Ireland. Thus the river Seanon, or Shanon, runs into the lake of Rhea, or Lough Rhèa. "This," says Vallancey,§"was a Titanis, or Diluvian goddess, the same as Diana and Seanon is the same as a Brahminical god." After passing this lake, the Seanon enters that of Dearg (Lough Dearg), another title of the Arkite goddess, whence the lake is also called Deargait, the abode of Dearg. Below this is Kill-da-loo, the temple (or retreat) of the two altars, in honour of the two divinities described by the river and lakes, typifying Noah being received into the ark. From hence the country on each side was named Limneach, the present Irish name of the county and city of Limerick, whence Leamhain is the river that runs out of Killarney lake. General Vallancey informs us that Limnatis implies a maritime deity, for the word Xipun is applied to the sea by Homer, both in the Illiad and Odyssey. Above these is Ath-luan, or Athlone, the new moon, signifying the symbolical Lunar-arkite goddess. There is, indeed, no place in Ireland where the worship of the Cabiritic deities can be traced so well as the Shannon; but we find a river and a lake named after Dearg in the county of Donegal, remarkable, in later times, for the purgatory of St. Patrick. There is a river called Suir, sacred water, which falls into the sea at Waterford; and we find that one of the rites in celebrating the worship of the Arkite divinity was a wave-offering, called Luaimhnighthe.|| Besides lakes and rivers, the superstitions in Ireland point out circular marks in grassplots, said to be made by the dancing of the Siabh-bhoi, genii of the night, the Gabha, or Gallicenæ, before mentioned. They were also termed Sidh; thus Bann sidh, the genius of death, supposed to give notice of such an approaching event by dreams or otherwise, Sidh-gaoithe, the genius of the whirlwind, Sidh-bhrog, the family genius, Leannan-sidh, a favorite genius, and Sidh-draoithachd, enchanted by spirits. * Collect. de Reb. Hib., vol. vi. + Ibid. Giraldus mentions the sacrifice of the horse in the inauguration of the provincial kings. Davies's Mythology of the Druids. § Collect. de Reb. Hib. Shaw's Gaelic Dictionary. |