Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

1
Irish Magic, and Tuatha de Dtmaans, 1
the gift of speech ;
or, rather, said Jubainville, it seemed
to speak, for the voice which was heard was, accordiiv^ to
a Christian historian, only that of a demon hidden in the
blade. Still, the writer of this Irish epic remarked, that
in that ancient time men adored weapons of war, and
considered them as supernatural protectors.
The Book of Conquests allows that the Tuatha were
descended from Japhet, though in someway demons; or,
in Christian language, heathen deities. One Irish word
was often applied to them, viz. Liabra, or phantoms. It
is believed that at least one Tuath warrior, named
Breas, could speak in native Irish to the aboriginal
Firbolgs.
A writer in Anecdota Oxon is of opinion that very
different notions and accounts exist at the different
periods of Irish epic literature concerning them. lie
declares that, excepting their names, no very particular
traces of them have come down to us. The most distinct
of the utterances about the race points to the existence of
war-goddesses.
Wilde gives a definite reason why we know so little about
the Tuatha de Danaans. It was because " those who
took down the legends from the mouths of the bards and
annalists, or those who subsequently transcribed them, were
Christian missionaries, whose object was to obliterate evcr\'
vestige of the ancient forms of faith." The distortion of
truth about these singular, foreign people makes it so
difficult to understand who or what they were ;
to us thc\'
seem always enveloped in a sort of Druidic fog, so that
we may class them with men, heroic dcmi-gods, or gods
themselves, according to our fancy.