Celtic Mythology and Religion

108 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION.
with his family, went to Mona, and from there poured
their descendants into the island, which is now
called Britain, after their leader, Britan Mael. The
Firbolgs, the descendants of Starn, son of Nemed,
being oppressed in Greece, much as the Israelites
were in Egypt, returned to Ireland, and took possession
of it. " They were called the Firbolgs," we
are told, " from the bags of leather they used to have
in Greece for carrying soil to put on the bare rocks,
that they might make flowery plains under blossom
of them." The Firbolgs held Ireland for thirtysix
years, and then they were invaded by their
12th cousins, the Tuatha-de-Danann, the descendants
of Jarbonnel, son of Nemed. Next to the Milesian
colony yet to come, the Tuatha-de-Danann are the
most important by far of the colonists, for in them
we shall by-and-bye discover the Irish gods. What
the annalists tell of them is briefly this. They came
from the north of Europe, bringing with them " four
precious jewels ;
" the first was the Lia Fail, the
Stone of Virtue or Fate, for wherever it
a person of the race of Scots must reign ;
was, there
the sword
of Luga Lamfada ; the spear of the same ; and the
cauldron of the Dagda, from which " a company
never went away unsatisfied." The Tuatha landed
in Ireland on the first of May, either 1900 or 1500
years before Christ, for the chronologies differ by
only a few hundred years. They burned their ships
as a sign of " no retreat," and for three days concealed
themselves in a mist of sorcery. They then