Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

230 Old Irish Religions.
—"
Heroes were accustomed to fight against wild boars and
enchanters.
Druids were rather fond of pigs, since these had a hking
for acorns, the produce of the saintly oak. Yet they, as
priests, were the Szvine of Mon, and Sivine of the Sacred
Cord. Like the Cabiri, they were Young Szvine. The Druids
were much given to transforming persons into what were
known as Druidic pigs. When the Milesians sought for
Ireland in their voyage, the Tuatha, by magic, caused a fog
to rise so as to make the land assume the appearance of a
large pig ; whence it got the appellation of Inis na Mttice,
or Isle of Pig ;
or HIuc Inis, Hog Island.
A wonderful tale is told of a fabulous pig kept by a King
of Leinster, Mesgegra mac Datho, who fed it daily from
the milk of sixty cows.
Welsh stories are told of fighting
swine. At the end of a Welsh bonfire, the people used to
shout out, " !
The cropped black sow seize the hindermost
when all would run in haste away. The pig— in Irish, viuc^
ore, and tore—when a possessed animal, was a decided
danger as well as nuisance. The hero Fionn had several
notable adventures in pursuit of such, as the tore of Glen
Torein, and the boar of Slieve Muck.
According to an Ogham inscription at Ballyquin, the
pig was sacred to the goddess Anar Aine. It is said, " A
sacrifice of swine is the sovereign right of Ana." There are
still sacred pigs in some Buddhist temples. Tacitus speaks
of the Aestii
(of North Germany) worshipping the goddess
Friga, after whom our Friday is called, in the form of a
pig. As the Rev. J.
Rice-Byrne translates the passage
" They worship the Mother of the gods. As the emblem
of their superstition, they are used to bear the figures of
boars " : i. e. in sacred processions to Friga.
In the Proceedings of the Great Baj^dic Institution (Irish),
there is a paper by W. Hackett, who writes— " In pagan