Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/385

Rh The importance of this conjecture consists in the fact that, in case it prove well founded, it would make the name of the fifth Maine such that it can have only belonged to the older week of nine nights, and not to the new one of eight. Later in the Táin we come across a second treatment of the Maini, for it makes them amount to seven after Cúchulainn had slain one of them. They appear on another occasion on the western bank of a ford that had been running blood for a week; and on the day they show themselves there, Cúchulainn parades himself on the opposite bank in his Oenach clothes, that is to say, those in which he would go to the Oenach or Irish. His enemies crowd to the river-bank to behold him; and the women, including the queen, climb on the men's shoulders to catch a glimpse of him. The appearance of the Maini together in this story probably means the end of the week, and the coming round of the day for the market or the fair and the meetings, political and other, which took place then: this is signalized in the Táin by Cúchulainn wearing his gala dress and pausing for a while from harassing the enemy's camp. In the story of Conaire the Maini are dealt with in a third way, differing from both treatments in the Táin; for here Maine mó Epert is placed at the end, even after the Maine that contained all the others, as though the scribe meant