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646 beneath; and the hammer itself, a primitive stone-headed short-hafted instrument, is found separately as a charm. The 'Anse,' or 'the God of the country,' or 'the Mighty God' in the old carmina of oaths and vows, always refers to Thor. It is curious to notice how ill the sturdy farmer's friend suits the new Walhall. The poets get out of the difficulty by making him stay away fighting giants; his uncouth might is scarcely needed when Woden has a host of chosen warriors ever ready to defend himself and his friends." I will only add that the word áss or anse, as applied to Thor, has its etymological equivalent, as observed in a previous lecture (p. 61), in the name Esus of the Gaulish god, usually equipped with a long-hafted hammer and an axe or bill, with which he is sometimes represented lopping the branches of a tree. The identity is, roughly speaking, fairly certain.

Another parallel in Celtic to Cronus must now be mentioned, namely, Fergus mac Róig, whose story belongs to the Ultonian cycle, in which the place occupied in Greek theology by Zeus is held by Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster. The latter's predecessor in power was Fergus, and it was briefly told in another lecture (p. 137), how Fergus was done out of his kingdom by the boy Conchobar aided by his mother Nessa, how he was beaten in the war that ensued, and how he went as an exile to the court of Medb in Connaught. There he became the father of several of Medb's numerous offspring, and he acted as one of the chief leaders of Ailill and Medb's expedition into Ulster. When they reached Ulster, the Ultonian braves were in their couvade, and the frontier was left in the charge of Cúchulainn and his father. But when at last the Ultonians career forth in their