Celtic Mythology and Religion

164 CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION.
Cormac's reference to this pagan festival is
the first
aflfl most important :— " Belltaine, i.e. bil tene,
a goodly fire, i.e. two fires which Druids used to make
through incantations (or with great incantations),
and they used to bring the cattle to those fires as a
preservative against diseases of each year." Here
we have to note that the fire was made by Druidic
incantations, which means no more than that it was
made by the " tinegin," or need-fire method, and that
it was a preservative against disease in cattle.
Cormac's
derivation has the misfortune of making a
wrong division of the syllables of the word, which
are beallt-uinn, or belt-ane ; not bel-tane. We
must reject any derivation that so divides the word,
and hold that the latter part of the word has nothing
to do with teine fire, but is, probably, the n termination
of most words of time. Hence derivations
which connect the word with the fire of Baal or Bel
are out of place, granting that such a god as Bel is
Celtic, and not invented for the occasion. Belinu,
is the Celtic Apollo. Mr. Fitzgerald's derivation
of Beltane, from bile-tineadh, " fire-tree," is to be
rejected on the ground of wrong division of the word,
and his instances adduced of the existence in Ireland
of usages pointing to a belief in a world-tree of the
Norse type appear to be too slight and too little
founded on general Celtic, especially Scottish, traditions
in regard to the Beltane festival. The worldtree,
and consequent may-pole, are not distinctively,
if at all, Celtic in this connection. " The first of