Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

life.
The Lia Fail, or the Stone of Destiny. 319
where it was used as a seat of justice by Gathalus, contemporary
with ^Nloses." Boece declares this Gathahis was
the son of Cecrops oi Athens, and that he married Scota,
daughter of Pharaoh. Haydn's Dictionary of Dates relates
that " the Lia Fait, on which the Kings of Alunster were
crowned, was laid in the Cathedral of Cashel."
The Royal Irish Academ}- had the full Tara stor}- from
Dr. Petrie's pen. Referring to what he considered the Lia
Fail, the author mentioned its position by the IMound of
Hostages, though removed to the Forradh Rath in 179S,
over some graves after the Tara fight. " But the mound,"
said he, '' is still popularly called Bod Thearghais ; that is,
Penis Fergusii, an appellation derived from the form of this
stone." Other ]\ISS. " identify the Lia Fail with the stone
on the ]\Iound of the Hostages." Elsewhere he said
" Between the Irish and Scottish accounts of the history
of this stone there is a total want of agreement, which
shows that the Scottish writers, when the\' recorded their
tradition, were not acquainted with, or disregarded, the
accounts of it preserved by the Irish. The Irish accounts
uniforml}- state that the Lia Fail was brought into Ireland
from the north of Germany by the Tuatha de Danaan
colony."
The conclusion of Dr. Petrie is as follows— " It is an
interesting fact, that a large obeliscal pillar stone, in a prostrate
position, occupied, till a recent period, the very situation,
on the Hill of Tara, pointed out as the place of the Lia
Fail
centuries ;
by the Irish writers of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth
and that this was a monument of pagan antiquity,
an idot stone, as the Irish writers call it, seems evident from
its
form and character."
It is, in fact, the remnant of an ancient object of worship,
the honouring of the symbol of production, or source of