Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

82 Fictions of the Irish Celts.
frequented favoured houses to bless the servants' efforts,
or even do their work. Apollo and Hercules got much
trouble destroying great hydras ;—Fion MacCumhail
murdered piasts in nearly every lake in Ireland. Achilles
was rendered in^'ulnerable in ever)' part of his body ex-
cept his heel ;—Siegfried, the dragon slayer, could not be
wounded except at a portion of his back, the size of a
small leaf. The Golden Fleece brought misery to its
possessors ;—so did the Nibelungen hoard. The three
goddesses so reverenced among the Gauls and Germans,
and the Druidic priestesses aftervvards substituted for
them, became at last the fairies or Breton Korigans ;
and
the herbs of Druidic rites still retain their power at All-
Hallow Tide, in furnishing truthful \isions of their future
husbands to superstitious damsels.
The name Fairy has given rise to long disquisitions.
The nearest root, in sound at least, is the Persian Peri.
Then we have for the correct name, Fay, the Fata, or
Destinies, which became Fada in the Provencal, and
Hada in the Spanish tongues. The Greek language
furnishes MoTpat (the Fates), and the propitiating title
Parcffi (merciful), applied to the Destinies, has its repre-
sentative in the " Good People," applied to the Fays in
Ireland. The Gaelic name is Sighe, which is not found
out of Ireland and the Highlands, except at La font de
Scee, in Poitou. The Breton Korigan may derive from
Kovpr], young maid, or, perhaps, the Celtic eorrig; a hill.