Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

12 Fictions of the Irish Celts.
if he had the "Academy of Compliments,"* and the
" Complete Letter Writer" by heart.
Our archaeologists, who are of opinion that beast
•worship prevailed in Erin as well as Egypt, cannot but
be well pleased with our selection of this story, seeing
the domestic animals endowed with such intelligence,
and acting their parts so creditably in the stirring, little
drama. This animal cultus must have been of a fetish
character, for among the legendary remains we find no
acts of beneficence ascribed to serpent, or boar, or cat,
but the contrary. The number of places in the country
named from animals is very great. A horse cleared the
Shannon at its mouth (a leap of nine miles) ; one of the
Fenian hounds sprung across the river Roe in the
North, and the town built on the locality gets its name
from the circumstance {Limavaddy—Dog's leap). We
have more than one large pool deriving its name from
having been infested by a worm or a serpent in the days
of the heroes. Fion M'Cumhaill killed several of these.
A Munster champion slew a terrible specimen in the
Duffrey (Co. Wexford), and the pool in which it
sweltered is yet called Loch-na-Piastha. Near that
remarkable piece of water is a ridge, called Kilach
dermid {Cullach Diarmiiid, Diarmuid's Boar). Even
* Two chap or pedler's books, great favourites among our populace
during the last century, and still finding some readers. The concluding
observations, as well as the body of the story, are in the
words of the original narrator.