[14] The elements are recorded as having slain King Laoghaire because he broke the oath he had made by them. In the Lament for Patrick Sarsfield as late as the seventeenth century, the unknown poet cries: "Go mbeannaigh' an ghealach gheal's an ghrian duit, O thug tu an lá as láimh Righ 'Liam leat." _I.e._, May the white Moon and the Sun bless you, since thou hast taken the Day out of the hand of King William. And a little later we find the harper Carolan swearing "by the light of the sun." "Molann gach aon an té bhíos cráibhtheach cóir, Agus molann gach aon an té bhíos páirteach leó, _Dar solas na gréine_ sé mo rádh go deó Go molfad gan spéis gan bhréig an t-áth mar geóbhad." [15] See above, ch. V, note 18. [16] The genitive of _drai_, the modern _draoi_ (_dhree_) is _druad_, from whence no doubt the Latin _druidis_. It was Pliny who first derived the name from _δρῦς_. The word with a somewhat altered meaning was in use till recently. The wise men from the East are called druids (_draoithe_) in O'Donnell's translation of the New Testament. The modern word for enchantment (_draoidheacht_) is literally "druidism," but an enchanter is usually _draoidheadóir_, a derivation from _draoi_. [17] See above, ch. III, note 14. [18] Cathbad, Conor mac Nessa's Druid, foretold that any one who took arms--the Irish equivalent for knighthood--upon a certain day, would become famous for ever, but would enjoy only a brief life. It was Cuchulain who assumed arms upon that day. [19] O'Curry quotes a druidic ordeal from the MS. marked H. 3. 17 in Trinity College, Dublin. A woman to clear her character has to rub her tongue to a red-hot adze of bronze, which had been heated in a fire of blackthorn or rowan-tree. [20] "Revue Celt.," vol. ii. p. 443. Is Bel to be equated with what Rhys calls in one place "the chthonian divinity Beli the Great," of the Britons, and in another "Beli the Great, the god of death and darkness"? (_See_ "Hibbert Lectures," pp. 168 and 274.) [21] The Christian priests, apparently unable to abolish these cattle ceremonies, took the harm out of them by transferring them to St. John's Eve, the 24th of June, where they are still observed in most districts of Ireland, and large fires built with bones in them, and occasionally cattle are driven through them or people leap over them. The cattle were probably driven through the fire as a kind of substitute for their sacrifice, and the bones burnt in the fire are probably a substitute for the bones of the cattle that should have been offered up. Hence the fires are called "teine cnámh" (bone-fire) in Irish, and bōne-fire (not bŏnfire) in English. [22] St. Patrick is there stated to have found around the king "scivos et magos et auruspices, incantatores et omnis malæ artis inventores." [23] This means tonsured men, with cowls, with pastoral staves, with altars in the east end of the churches. The ancient Irish rann is very curious:---