Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/185

Rh Mor, or Mag Meld, the great or the pleasant plain, was placed by them in the western ocean. Thence came the different races of men who conquered and dwelt in Ireland—life proceeds from death, the day from the night, Ireland is peopled from out the country of the dead. A later generation, bent on euhemerising their ancient traditions, substituted Spain for this mysterious land. From out the Great Plain three races came to colonise Ireland; that of Partholan, that of Nemedh, then the Tuatha de Danann. In the Greek fable, as set forth by Hesiod in the "Works and Days," three races had held possession of the earth prior to the arrival of man, one of gold, one of silver, one of brass; after which heroes and demigods occupy the earth and fit it for man. To the race of gold of the Greek correspond the Tuatha de Danann; to the race of silver, Partholan and his tribe; to the race of brass, that of Nemedh. The latter occupies the same position in both systems, but that of the other two is reversed. The Greek heroic race is represented in Irish mythology by Miledh and his sons.

The oldest mention of Partholan is that of Nennius, who speaks of him as coming from Spain with a thousand companions, who rapidly increase in numbers, but are carried off by an epidemic within one week. When he reached Ireland, according to Eochaid hua Flainn (L. L.), the country was composed of but three lakes, nine rivers, and a plain; during his time three plains were added to it. The earliest race of gods it is which- shapes and fashions the earth. Partholan must fight against the Fomore, demons of death and night, monsters of gigantic size: these he overcomes, but succumbs in turn to pestilence. The second coloniser of Ireland, Nemedh, comes likewise from Spain, according to Nennius, and returns thither after a certain number of years. The oldest Irish form of the legend preserved in a poem of Eochaid hua Flainn (L. L.), makes him land in Ireland with his companions, all of whom, after a while die—i.e. they return to the land of spirits whence they came, or to Spain in the euhemeristic version of Nennius. The Lebar Gahbala, and other contemporary texts, relate at length the struggles of Nemedh with the Fomore. Victorious in four battles, his descendants are, after his death, overcome by them and cruelly oppressed. Two-thirds of their