Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/346

330 is to be regarded as a sun-hero, and the Leinster king's name was Mesgegra mac Datho, that he was the owner of a fabulous pig, and his brother Mesroida of a kind of Cerberus, which cannot be discussed at this point. There is nothing historical about them, and if one wash out the colouring given to the story by the Leinster story-tellers, we have the outlines left us of a picture which was originally that of the conflicts of the Culture Hero and his friends with the powers of darkness; but it must be confessed it can only be recognized in the light reflected on it by the cognate pictures of Gwydion and Woden. It may seem strange that not only Connaught and the west should be made to stand for Hades, but also Leinster. This latter appears, however, to have been so treated in other stories, as may be seen from the relations between the Ultonian court at Emain Macha and the Leinster court at Naas on the Liffey; as, for example, in the story of Conchobar and Medb, in which Naas is made the head-quarters of Ailill, whose wife Medb became after deserting Conchobar, her former husband. Ailill is, so to say, divided between Connaught and Leinster after his marriage with Medb, who possessed Connaught as her inheritance from her mother. It is from their capital in the west that Ailill and Medb set out on the Táin (p. 140); but the former's portion of the army on that occasion consisted of a force from Leinster called the Gailióin, whose superiority over the rest of the troops