Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/609

Rh which form the key to the compound Fomori, for which the adjectival form Fomoraig is also frequently to be met with. It thus appears that the monsters so called were imaginary creatures originally believed to have their abodes in or beneath the lakes and the sea, whence they paid unwelcome visits to the land. The Book of the Dun supplies us with a quaint account of the beginning of them and their kindred. The writer sets out from the intoxication of Noah and the curse pronounced by him on his son Ham, who in consequence thereof became, as we are told, Cain's heir after the deluge, so that from Ham are descended Luchorpáin, Fomoraig, Goborchinn, and every human being of unshapely appearance. The term Goborchinn here introduced is said to mean 'Horse-headed,' and the monsters so called were otherwise human, so that they contrasted curiously with the centaurs of Greek mythology, but corresponded to the figure of Midas with his asinine ears. In the same class must be placed a certain Echaid Echchenn, or Echaid Horse-head, king of Fomori; and you are now familiar with the name of Morc or Margg (p. 262), in Welsh March, a word which means a steed or stallion. His other Irish name appears to have been Labraid, by which he goes in the famous legend of his equine ears, to which may be added the further story how Labraid chose to wife the daughter of the king of Fir Morca, or the Equine Men, in the west