XXVI. And little Robin's life had all been spent And bade him watch his time for treachery's blow abhorred. XXVII. On rode the murderer-nor once looked back To be continued. BROOM COFFEE. THE French, urged by their national jealousy of our colonial produce, have been assiduously employed in endeavouring to find some substitute for coffee. One of their recent periodical publications informs us that this has at length been effected by M. Pajot Descharmes, who has discovered an indigenous plant, the berries or seeds of which possess all the properties of foreign coffee: this is the broom of our heaths and woods. When slowly roasted, ground, and prepared by boiling as the genuine coffee, no difference of taste is distinguishable between the two decoctions. We are particularly cautioned, however, to guard against making use of the seeds of the garden broom, "car celleci donne le devoiement." We have no lack of the family of the Plantagenets on the sides of the Welsh hills, to furnish the Principality with an ample supply of this native coffee. . "Robin ap Inco, a little fellow, who is + Penmorva, head of the Marsh, his residence. always near him." SIR S. R. MEYRICK ON IRISH MYTHOLOGY, Continued from No. XIV. p. 156. THE Helio-arkite worship, as it met with less obstacles, and lasted longer in Ireland than in Britain, so it from time to time received additional improvements, and was strengthened by the all-powerful influence of the native princes. In the parliament which was convened at Teamor, by Tuathal Teachtmar, in the year of our Lord 130, a large tract of land was separated from each of the four provinces, and assigned for the demesne lands of the crown. In the portion taken from Munster the king erected an edifice for the sacred fire, to which the druids and augurs were annually to repair, on the last day of October, in order to consume the sacrifices offered to their deities. No other fire, on that night, under the penalty of a heavy fine, was to be lighted in any house in the kingdom, in order that all fires might be derived from this fire, held sacred, that they might be propitious, and to prevent their doing mischief. For this supposed great benefit, every family was to pay a tax of three pence to the king of Munster, as a compensation for the land he had lost. In the district taken from the province of Connaught, a building was raised for the convocation of Usneach, i. e. the divine fire. On the mountain on which this stood, all the inhabitants that were able to appear on the 1st of May, were to offer sacrifice to Bêl, the chief divinity of the island; and the fire lighted on this occasion was called Bealtinne. This was regarded as the principal fire of Belus, in the northern parts of Leinster, where the states assembled, and held judgment on all criminals guilty of capital offences, when such as were found guilty were burnt in a fire kindled between two others, dedicated to Belus. The ancient historians of Ireland relate that the use of fire, or more properly the worship of the divinity had been taught the inhabitants by a chief druid of the Scythian race, named Midghe, i. e. sight, aspect, or light. In the same manner, Plennydd, light, is termed one of the primary bards of Britain, we are therefore to understand by this that fire worship was coeval with the coming of the Tinea scuit, or Scythian race. The Irish history goes on to say that it was the sacred fire which was worshipped on their altars that gave the name of Midhe (now Meath*) to the demesne land of Tuathal Teachtmar, before described, and which, from its central situation, was best adapted * Vallancey, however, says Meath signifies a plain country. at once for the celebration of their religious rites, and for the seat of judgment. These edifices, though dignified by such a lofty appellation, seem only to have been altars raised on mountains, on which the sacred fire was lighted. The one mentioned as in the portion taken from Munster, was perhaps on the Bladhma Shabh, a range of mountains between the King's and Queen's counties, and, in ancient times, one of the boundaries of Munster. Bladhma is a contraction of Beal-din-mai, whence Shabh Beal di mai is the mountain of the worship on Beal's day. Here is still a pyramid of white stones. Usneach is a mountain in West Meath, and Beal-tinne-glass where the southern states of Leinster celebrated the fire of Beal's mysteries, is the hill of Baltinglass, in the county of Wicklow, in the neighbourhood of which are several druidic altars. It has been already stated that the Irish druids pretended to draw down fire from Heaven, by means of the Liath Meisieith, magical stone of speculation, a crystal, and that this fire they called the Logh Aesar, essence or spiritual fire and presence of God. It has been suggested that this was by means of cobalt ground up with oil, which would remain long enough for prayers and incantations before it burst into a flame. Whenever the composition failed to take effect, the Aesar was no doubt represented as displeased, and vengeance denounced on the state or person offering the oblation. Many such practices were adopted from the pagan into the Catholic rites, and it will be sufficient to instance the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, still practised at Rome. The use of this stone was strictly forbidden to the Jews by Moses, in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus: "Ye shall make you no idols, or graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye suffer mascith to be within your dominions." In the highlands of Scotland large crystals of an oval form are kept by the oldest and most superstitious persons of the country, which are called leice, a word corrupted from liath-cith, precious stone. These the priests formerly carried about to work charms by, and water poured upon them is, at this day, given to cattle against diseases. They were afterwards fixed on the covers of religious books, and one of them so placed is engraved in the fourth volume of the "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis. Tuathal is also said to have erected a palace at Tailtean, or Tailteaghan, i. e. the place of anniversary worship, where king Lughad, a Dannonian prince, is said to have instituted an assembly on the 1st of August, called Lughnasa, where games Beauford's Topography of Ireland, in the Collect. de Reb. Ilib. vol. iii. p. 289. were celebrated in honour of Tailte, a mythologic personage, but represented as the widow of the last Belgic monarch. The druids here sacrificed in honour of the marriage of the sun and moon, at which time the states assembled, and young people were given in marriage according to the custom of the eastern nations. Tailte is said to have been the daughter of Magh-mor, but Tille Magh mor, means the revolution of the great divinity. The games are said to have been instituted by Lughaid lam fadha rè, King Lughaid Lam fadha, but these words also imply the time of puberty of the good planet the moon, whence this festival was frequently denominated Lughaed naoistean, the matrimonial assembly,* from all which it may be inferred that its institution was coeval with the introduction of the Helio-arkite worship. It has been supposed, however, that instead of Bladhma Siabh being the place of worship in the portion taken by Tuathal from Munster, Tlachgo, in East Meath, was the appointed station, but this could never have been part of Munster. Here the druids sacrificed on the tombs of their ancient heroes, to the earth, called Tlacht, from its rotatory motion, on the eve of November, termed in commemoration of this festival Oidche Samha. Deer and swine were the victims, and the celebration was likewise named Tlachgo, to go round, from the dances used in this solemnity in imitation of the earth's motion, by the votaries encircling the sanctuary with lighted torches, called Tlachga.+ Lighting these fires in towers instead of the tops of mountains, is said to have been an innovation brought about by Moght Nuadhat. This person is asserted by the Irish writers to have been the last king of the Belgians, who, in opposing the Tuatha Danans, lost his hand, which being supplied by the substitution of one of silver, he was surnamed Airgiod-lamh, or the silverhanded, the whole of which story is mythological. As in Britain so in Ireland, the real sovereigns took for names the titles of the deities; hence Cynvelin (Cunobelinus), Arthur, Uther Pendragon, &c. So in Irish histories we meet with another monarch, named Mogh Nuadhat, who lived about the year 170, that is, thirty years after Tuathal Teachtmar, and had been for nine years an exile in Spain. Whether we are to attribute to him the introduction of the round towers, or to his prototype, is not easy to determine, but the real name of this sovereign was Vallancey's Essay on the Celtic Language, pp. 18, 19, 136, and 142. The Britons also worshipped the sun, under the symbol of fire, whence in the Cadair Teyrn On, we have "the moving vehement fire, even he whom we adore above the earth." + Beauford on the Topography of Ireland. Torches were also used in the British Helio-arkite mysteries. See Davies's Mythology of the Druids. Eugene, honoured with the epithet "the Great," which Mogha Nuadhat, (which signifies the Magus of the new law,*) was an assumed title. The more general name of these towers is Teach-dravi, the druid's dwelling; but they were also called Tor-barr-caol, the tower of burning fire; and the Aoi-Beil-toir, community of the towers of Beil, was a high dignitary of the pagan hierarchy, whose office it was to summon the people to the Naas-teighan, or Cureailte meeting of the states. When Naas-Teighan had been anathematized by the Christian clergy, the states of Leinster assembled at Naas, the residence of their kings during the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries. Carmon was the capital of the ancient Coulan, and the Naas-teighan was where the southern parts of Leinster met it. It was situated about five miles east of Athy. The character above mentioned was also called Cuill-ceach, the annunciator of the festivals, and he proclaimed the Cuill-greine, sun's course, from the round tower, thence called Cuill-ceach, or Cuill-kak. The following round towers still standing in Ireland, derive their names from words expressive of their original application for the preservation of the sacred fire. Agha-gabhar, now called Aghagower, the fire of fires; Ballagh, i. e. Beil-agh, the fire of Beil; Cailltree, or Caill-tria, the mount of fire; Clondalkin, and Cloine, a fire-tower ;+ Don-agh-mor, the great fire-tower; Drom-agh, the temple of fire, in the county of Cork; Drumcliabth, in the county of Clare, where there is a fire tower. Fert-agh, the fire of the cemetery; Glen-da-loch, the vale of fire, where two round towers remain; so Kill-dalloe church, near Coleraine, had its name from the same cause, Kill-ald, the fire church; Kill-daloo, now Kill-aloo, the church of the two fires, or altars, in honour of the aquatic deities, Dearg and Rhé, from whom, as has been said, Lough Dearg and Lough Rhé received their names. Kill macduagh, the church of the principal fire; Losc, now called Lusk fire, near Dublin; Meleac or Melic, from agh, fire; Turlogh, i. e. Tullagh, the fire steeple. Round towers are also standing at Antrim, Ardfert, Ardmore, Cashell, Castledermot, Clondalkin, Clonmacnois, Devenish, Downpatrick, Drumboe, i. e. the temple of the cow, an animal sacrificed to the lunar goddess, and by its horns, which form a crescent, pecu *Collect. de Reb. Hib. vol. vi. At Dalky, near Dublin, are the remains of many pagan altars. Dolichenius is thought by some to be the same as the sun, and may be derived from the Irish dalloc, fire; many altars have been found in Britain dedicated to him. At Brechin, i. e. Breochan, the house fire, in Scotland is a round tower: Drum-ionn, the temple of the sun, in the county of Limerick. This was the same as the Rhea of the ancients, who, Mr. Bryant says, was the ark of Noah personified. Analysis, vol. ii. p. 268. |