Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

ig6 Old Irish Religions.
and moon. Fosbroke alludes to the revolving, with the
sun, as a superstition.
'* At Inlsmore, or Church Island,
in Sligo, In a rock near the door of the church, is a cavity,
Our Ladys Bed, into which pregnant women going,
called
and turning thrice round, with the repetition of certain
prayers, fancy that they would then not die in child-birth."
A Scotch writer observes— '' The hearty Celts of Ireland
say, 'The top of the morning to you.' Are these expressions
to be regarded as remnants of Dawn-worship
.^
It may be so, for many similar traces of the worship of the
sun and moon, as givers of good fortune, are still to be
found."
An Ode to the Sun in the LeabJiar breac has been thus
:
rendered by an Erse authority " Anticipate, my lays, O Sun ! thou mighty Lord of the
seven heavens—mighty governor of the heaven—sole and
general God of man—thou gracious, just, and supreme King
•—whose bright image constantly forces itself on my attention.
To whom heroes pray In perils of war— all the world
praise and adore thee.
—
For thou art the only glorious and
sovereign object of universal love, praise, and adoration."
Similarly sang Orpheus of old— " O Sun ! thou art the
genial parent of Nature, splendent with various hues,
shedding streams of golden light." The Rig Veda, however,
in one place calls the sun, "the most beautiful work
of God" while another of the Hindoo sacred books has
;
this— " Let us adore the supremacy of the Divine Sun,
the godhead." Well might Capella exclaim in his Hymn
to the Sun, " The whole world adores thee under a great
number of different names."
Ossian sang— "When wilt thou rise In thy beauty, first
of Erin's maids t Thy sleep is long in the tomb. The
sun shall not come to thy bed, and sing, 'Awake Darthula
! Awake, thou first of women ! The
voice of spring