Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

86 Old hHsh Reli'o-ions.
exposed naked female, rudely sculptured, not unlike, except
in size, the singular colossi under the Museum porch
brought from Easter Isle. This figure was taken down
from over the doorway of an ancient church in Ireland,
and was, without doubt, a relic of pagan days, used during
many Christian centuries toward off evil from the incoming
congregation. Another stood by the moat of Howth.
In the SfoJie Chips of E. T. Steven we have the
following— " The horse-shoe is still the conventional figure
for the Yoni in Hindoo temples, and although its original
import was lost, until lately the horse-shoe was held to
be a charm against witchcraft and the evil eye amongst
ourselves, precisely as was the case with the more unmistakable
ShelaJi-na-Gig at certain churches in
Ireland."
The Dublin Museum contains an extraordinary bonepin
representing the Shelah-na-Gig, and evidently a charm
to shield the wearer. It was found alongside a skull in a
field. Wilde declared that a Roscommon child was taken
from the grave to obtain its arms for charm purposes.
Popular holidays are still associated with the ideas of
former heathen festivals.
May-day in some parts of Ireland has its female
mummers, who dance and hurl, wearing a holly-bush. A
masked clown carries a pail of water with a mop for
spreading its contents abroad. Boys then sing carols, as
in France. In the south-east of Ireland a girl is chosen
as May Queen, presiding at all May-makings till she is
married. May Eve, having its dangers from fairies, &c.,
is spent in making cattle safe from the milk-thieving littk
people, by causing the cows to leap over fires. Dair\'-
maids prudently drive their cows along with the mystical
rowan stick.
Of the phallic May-pole, set up for St. John's Eve or
Midsummer-day, N. O'Kearney remarks, "The pole was