Irish Druids And Old Irish Religions

Heroes were accustomed to fight against wild boars and enchanters.

Druids were rather fond of pigs, since these had a liking for acorns, the produce of the saintly oak. Yet they, as priests, were the Swine of Mon, and Swine of the Sacred Cord. Like the Cabin, they were Young Swine. The Druids were much given to transforming persons into what were known as Druidic pigs. When the Milesians sought for Ireland in their voyage, the Tuatha, by magic, caused a fog to rise so as to make the land assume the appearance of a large pig; whence it got the appellation of Inis na Muici, or Isle of Pig, or Muc Inis, Hog Island.

A wonderful tale is told of a fabulous pig kept by a King of Leinster, Mesgegra mac Datho, who fed it daily from the milk of sixty cows Welsh stories are told of fighting swine. At the end of a Welsh bonfire, the people used to shout out, "The cropped black sow seize the hindermost!" when all would run in haste away. The pig--in Irish, muc, orc, and torc--when a possessed animal, was a decided danger as well as nuisance The hero Fionn had several notable adventures in pursuit of such, as the torc of Glen Torein, and the boar of Slieve Muck.

According to an Ogham inscription at Ballyquin, the pig was sacred to the goddess Anar Aine. It is said, "A sacrifice of swine is the sovereign right of Ana." There still sacred pigs in some Buddhist temples. Tacitus speaks of the Aestii (of North Germany) worshipping the goddess Friga, after whom our Friday is called, in the form of a pig. As the Rev J. Rice-Byrne translates the passage "They worship the Mother of the gods. As the emblem of their superstition, they are used to bear the figures boars": i.e. in sacred processions to Friga.

In the Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution (In there is a paper by W. Hackett, who writes--"In pagan

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