Irish Druids And Old Irish Religions

like looking creature of the Assyrian Nergal. The tail, which has a Phallic termination, was curled round the hind-leg and over the back. The hair was composed of curved lines. The animal was, apparently, to be attacked by a Centaur with a Norman helmet. These, perhaps, were not idols, but figures with a Freemasonic meaning, by some mystic architect of the Middle Ages.

Very different were the petticoated images, as the brass one of Roscommon, resembling those still to be observed in India, and recognized among the figures on pre-Christian crosses in Ireland. These bear evident traces of being brought to Erin by a people from the Mediterranean shores, and whose blood is yet mingled with that of the many varied races of the Western Island.

The old Tuath, vaulted, stone temple at Knockmoy, in Galway, which was afterwards turned into an abbey, had a remarkable figure, like Apollo, bound to a tree, pierced by arrows, yet slaying the Python by a shaft. This was congenial to a land with such strong serpent reminiscences.

A curious bronze instrument, extricated from the bog of Ballymoney, Antrim, was found to be of three parts, and may have held liquor. The figures about it were suggestive of ancient idolatry. Four birds were attached to it by pins passing through the tube, with rings outside. These may have been the two swans of Apollo, and the two bulbul of Iran. As Aristotle speaks of the brass appendage of Dodona, through which the oracles were announced, some regard this remarkable Irish ornament as pertaining to that ancient heathen superstition.

By far the most remarkable idol known to the author was that shown him at Cashel many years ago, but which may have been since discreetly hidden away. The guardian of the ruins, who was somewhat excited by the national drink, perceiving an extra inquisitiveness on the

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