Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

148 Old Irish Religions.
tales of gods and goddesses, in all lands, can be traced to
ideas connected with the heavenly bodies, and their several
movements. The writer's old colonial friend, Henry
Melville, nearly half a century ago, read Lempriere's stories
of the deities on astronomical lines. Upon the Celestial
Atlas he moved his cardboard masonic tools, bringing the
figures of various constellations together, so as to explain
the particular story. Later on, he discovered a system of
interpretation, as certain and infallible, which he called the
Laws of the Medes and Persians, as they were unalterable.
Melville had no opportunity of explaining the stories of
Irish bards upon his plan.
Vallence}^ Jubainville and others
have attempted it on other and theological lines. But if
the stories could be treated at all astronomically, the
interest in them would be increased, as showing their
derivation from other and more enlightened lands. The
great puzzle is, however, how several and such different
keys manage to turn the same lock. But, as remarked by
the Rev. Geo. St. Clair, " time will make the secret things
plain and patent."
It may not be wrong, therefore, to trace in those Irish
legends the existence of ancient and Oriental learning of a
more or less astronomical character.
The Irish had a notion of the week, or seven days' period.
That may have come from the
moon, and the five then known planets.
East, meaning the sun, the
One has supposed
that five were named after the Romans, and two from the
Belgce. But the Woden day was changed to Gadcii ; and
Thursday to Tordain, or TorneacJi, thunder, or the spirit of
Tor or TJior. Schlegel saysr—" Among the Greeks and
Romans, the observation of the days of the week was
introduced very late." And yet they were well known
long before in Babylon. The Phoenician, characterized
by Sayce as the link between Chaldeean and Hebrew,