Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

2 26 Old Irish Religio7is,
from door to door, that each of his worshippers may receive
a portion of the divine virtues that are supposed to emanate
from the dead or dying god."
The Hare, in hke manner, was hunted once a year, but
that was on May-day. The modern Irishman fancied it
robbed his milch cows of the sweet draught that belonged
by right to himself. On the other hand, hares have been
styled St. Monacella's Lambs—being placed under her
special protection.
The hare, however, was certainly reverenced in Egypt,
and at Dendera was to be seen the hare-headed deity.
Caesar mentions that the Celts would not eat of the animal,
any more than did the Pythagoreans. In Irish tales witchhares
are declared to be only caught by a black greyhound.
Elsewhere it is stated, that in the Cashel cathedral an
ornament figures a couple of hares complacently feeding
upon some trilobed foliage, as the shamrock.
Only a few months since a traveller gave an illustration
of the persistence of some meaning being attached
to the
hare, even among the educated and Christian fishermen
of Aberdeen. When out at sea, and in some danger from
bad weather, it is thought unfortunate, and even calamitous,
for any one in the boat to mention the name of this
creature.
That animal reverence, to say the least of it, continued
not in Ireland alone, but even in Scotland, among
those of the same race, to quite modern times, is manifest
from the fierce denunciation of certain practices relating
thereto. The Presbytery of Dingwall, Ross, on September
5, 1656, made special reference to the heathenish customs,
then prevalent in the North, of pouring out libations of
milk upon hills, of adoring stones and wells, and above
all, of sacrificing bulls !
The Ossianic Ti^afisactions contain some references to