Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

"
54 Irish Drtdds.
ing nine apples of gold. They who shook the tree were
lulled to sleep by music, forgetting want or sorrow.
Through that, Cormac, grandson of Conn of the hundred
fights, lost his wife Eithne, son Cairbre, and daughter
Ailbhe. At the end of a year's search, and passing through
a dark, magical mist, he came to a hut, where a youth gave
him a pork supper. The entertainer proved to be Mananan.
The story runs, '* After this Mananan came to him in his
'
proper shape, and said thus : I it w^as who bore these three
away from thee ;
I it w^as who gave thee that branch, and
it w^as in order to bring thee to this house. It was I that
worked magic upon you, so that you might be with me tonight
in friendship.' " It may be doubted if this satisfied
King Cormac.
A chessboard often served the purpose of divination.
The laying on of hands has been from remote antiquity
an effectual mode for the transmission of a charm. But a
Magic Wand ox Rod, in proper hands, has been the approved
method of transformation, or any other miraculous interposition.
Here is one Wand story relative to the romance
of Grainne and Diarmuid :— " Then came the
Reachtaire
again, having a Magic Wand of sorcery, and struck his son
with that wand, so that he made of him a cropped pig,
having neither ear nor tail, and he said, * I conjure
thee that thou have the same length of life as Diarmuid
O'Duibhne, and that it be by thee that he shall fall at
last'
This was the boar that killed, not the Syrian Adonis,
but a similar sun-deity, Diarmuid. When Fionn, the disappointed
husband, in pursuit of the runaway, found the
abductor dying, he was entreated by the beautiful solar
hero to save him. " How can I do it .'*
" asked the halfrepentant
Fionn. " Easily," said the wounded one " for
;
when thou didst get the noble, precious gift of divining at