Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

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262 Old hdsh Religions.
peeled rods of Jacob, &c., &c., testifying to the glory of
Tara. The old Patriarchal religion of Chaldaea was one
with the ancient faith of Erin.
Lastly, and not to be forgotten, the association of the
Holy Stone with Tara signifies the place above all in some
persons' estimation. Dr. Petrie discourses eloquently
upon the Bod TkeargJuiis, which bears, however, a surprising
phallic signification. " It is," says he, " an interesting
fact that a large obeliscal pillar stone, in a prostrate
position, occupied, until a recent period, the very
situation
on the Hill of Tara, pointed out as the place of the Lia
Fail by the Irish writers of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth
centuries; and that this was a monument of pagan antiquity,
an Idol Stone, as the Irish writers call it, will seem
evident from its form and character."
Tara, therefore, occupies no mean position in the history
of religion in
Ireland.
HOWTH Hill, overlooking Dubhlinn or Dublin Bay,
not far from Eblana, Dublin, and rising 578 feet
above the
water, was a hallowed spot long before St. Patrick was at
Tara. It was the Ben Edir or Edair of the Fenians, and
so called from its oaks. The Danes destroyed its Halls in
819. The Book of HozvtJi chronicles events from 432 to
1370. The Danish word Hozveth is from Hoved, a head.
Ptolemy's Edras became Edar. A Fenian poem runs
thus :
" How sweet from proud Ben Edir's height
To see the ocean roll in sight
And fleets, swift bounding on the gale,
With warriors clothed in shining mail.
Most beauteous hill, around whose head
Ten thousand sea-birds' pinions spread ;
May joy thy lord's true bosom thrill,
Chief of the Fenians' happy hill."