Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/222

138 dependence of fertility on him; but the result is precisely that which everywhere marked the golden age. As elsewhere, too, gods instituted festivals, one myth telling how Lug first cele- brated that of Lugnasad, not in his own honour, but to the glory of his foster-mother.$16$

The mythic trees of Elysium were not unknown on earth, though there they were safely guarded; and another instance, besides those already described,$17$ is found in the oak of Mugna. "Berries to berries the Strong Upholder [a god?] put upon it. Three fruits upon it, viz. acorn, apple, and nut; and when the first fruit fell, another used to grow." Leaves were always on this useful tree, which stood until Ninine the poet cast it down.$18$ What is perhaps a debased myth of a world-tree like Yggdrasil is found in the story of the tree in Loch Guirr, seen once every seven years as the loch dried when its enchant- ment left it. A green cloth covered the tree, and a woman sat knitting under it; but once a man stole the cloth, where- upon the woman said:—

At these words the waters pursued him and took half of his horse and the cloth from him.$19$

Few and fragmentary as these myths are, they, with the classical myths already cited,$20$ prove what a rich cosmogony the ancient Celts must have had.