Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/250

244 oysters upon which the Connaught men regaled themselves during their stay on the battle-field”), as possible arguments against the modern date he claims for the monuments. I have bracketed his airy brushings aside of such arguments; they are at least of value as evidence that humorous ingenuity still remains an Irish characteristic. To fully characterise the scientific method and spirit upon which he plumes himself, it only remains to be added that he does not attempt to cite from the very rich Irish battle literature of the 8th-11th centuries a single parallel to what he conceives to have taken place at this 6th century battle. I do not wish to assert that he may not be right in his contention. I only claim that it must be supported by far more serious arguments before it can be accepted.

In the same spirit the so-called Druid’s Altar or Giant’s Grave at Deerpark is explained as being either the remains of a 6th century ecclesiastical foundation, or else the grave to which the remains of Eoghan Bel were transferred, as stated in the passage quoted above from the Life of St. Ceallach; or again, “which the writer ventures to think its real destination,” it may have been a stone enclosure put up for the purpose of public games, such as we know were held in the district throughout the mediæval period, most probably an arena for dog or other animal fights.

Guessing of this kind is as useful or as useless as the imaginings of the older Celtomaniac antiquaries; but when the author applies his system to the elucidation of the mythic stories found in the annals, he runs the risk of gravely misleading. The mythic conflicts between the Tuatha dé Danann and the Firbolgs were early localised at Moytura, the localisation probably dating back to the time, 7th-8th centuries, when the mythology of the race was euhemerised and made to do duty as pre-Christian history. Into the artificial annalistic scheme thus framed various mythic details were gradually adjusted, and in this way the very rich Saga literature belonging to the so-called mythological cycle took shape. Thus Eochaidh hua