Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/618

602 Cethairchenn or Cimbe the Four-headed, a name which reminds one of the Fomori. Their betaking themselves to Medb whose husband was of the Fir Bolg, needs no explanation, and their fleeing to the islands is of a piece with the view taken of the sea by the Celts, who regarded the islands as the abodes of the departed, and the melancholy main as the lurking-place of darkness. It is also natural that the last thing heard of their leaders is their succumbing to the Solar Heroes Cúchulainn and Conall Cernach with their friends.

Lastly, the three chief races in the legendary history of ancient Erinn are very summarily characterized in a poem taken from an old book by Duald mac Firbis, a notable Irish antiquary of the 17th century. It makes the latest comers into a noble caste of warriors, and the Tuatha Dé Danann conquered by them into clever and artistic freemen, while the Fir Bolg vanquished by the Tuatha Dé Danann take their places at the bottom of the scale as thralls. This attempt to treat them as so many castes in the social system of ancient Ireland reminds one in some respects of the Norse lay descriptive of the wandering Rig, supposed to be Heimdal, becoming the father of earls, churls and thralls respectively. But at least in his treatment of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fir Bolg, the Irish poet, whoever he was, has stopped short of effacing altogether their mythic features. The lines chiefly in point are to the following effect: