Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/44

 34 ^^^ European Sky -God.


 * the Good-handed,' ^ bore a name that recalls Nuada

we are told that he was called Glas because ' blue {glas) were his face and his countenance usually.' ^ Glais, the son of Nuadat-fail, alias Glachs, the son of Noethach- fail, was an early ancestor of the Scottish kings.^ Nuada Derg, ' the Red/ was nephew of Loegaire king of Ireland and attempted the life of St. Patrick.^ Nuada Find Feimin was reared at Find mag Feimin and bore the divine^ or princely name of Ailill OU-chain.*^ Nuada Sdlfota or 'Long-Heel' was a famous rath-builder, who had the strength of a hundred and could eat the fill of fifty.'^ Nuadha O'Lomthuile was a poet, who described the battle of Almhain in 718 A.D.^ A poem by Mac Firbis of Lecan mentions a certain O'Nuadan of Cal- raighe Laithim near Sligo.^ Finally, to come down to modern times, Dr. O'Donovan remarks that the family Mac Nowd or Gnoud is descended from an ancestor named Nuada.^''
 * the Silver-handed ' : he had a son Anbechtach, of whom

How comes it that all these kings and quasi-kings, bore the name of Nuada the sky-god and water-god ?

of two white bulls (Plin. )iat. hist. i6. 250 f.) ; the herb selago too must be plucked by one wearing a white robe (Plin. ib. 24. 103). Irish druids likewise sacrificed white bulls (D'Arbois Les Dt-uides etles dieux celtiques ^ forme d'animaux Paris 1906 p. 100) ; and the whitened walls of their houses may have had some sacred significance.

^ C6i7- Anmann 7 in Stokes and Windisch Irische T'exte iii. 290 f.

^!b. 8.

^ W. F. Skene Chronicles of the Picts and Scots Edinburgh 1867 pp. 134, 144.


 * D'Arbois Introduction a la litter ature celtique pp. 271 f., 315.

®Rhys Hibbert Lectures p. 138.

^ CSir Amnann 82 in Stokes and Windisch Irische Texte iii. 326 f.

■^ CSir Anmann 36-40 in Stokes and Windisch Irische Texte iii. 300 ff.

^O'Curry Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish ii. 391.

^J. O'Donovan The Genealogies, Tribes, and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach Dublin 1844 p. 276.

^^ O'Reilly's Irish- English Diet, with a Supplement by J. O'Donovan p. 683 s. V. ' Nuada. '