nature—the clouds of heaven, the water of the earth, the trees and fountains—in which these gods of the earth were supposed to dwell, they seem also to have been adored in the shape of idols. The word in Fiacc’s Hymn translated ‘darkness’ is glossed by ‘the worship of idols;’ and the few notices we have of them indicate that they were usually pillar stones. Thus, in the Dinnsenchus, Magh-Sleacht is said to have been thus called ‘because there was the principal idol of Erin, that is, the _Cromcruach_ and twelve idols of stone around it, and himself of gold; and he was the God of all the people which possessed Erin till the coming of Padric;’[223] and in Cormac’s Glossary the word _Indelba_ is glossed as ‘the names of the altars of these idols, because they were wont to carve on them the forms of the elements they adored there.’[224] Among the Picts of Ireland we find indications of the same system. Thus, in an account of the foundation of Emain Macha, the chief seat of their kings, which is contained in the Book of Leinster, we are told that ‘three kings that were over Erin in co-sovereignty, who were of the Ultonian, or Pictish, race, made an arrangement that each man of them should reign seven years. There were three times seven guarantors between them: seven _Druid_, seven _Filid_, or poets, seven _Octighern_, or military leaders—the seven _Druid_ to scorch them by incantations; the seven poets to satirise and denounce them; the seven _toisechs_ to wound and burn them, if each man of them did not vacate the sovereignty at the end of his seven years.’[225] The legendary accounts of the settlement of the Picts in Scotland are pervaded by the same pagan system. According to these legends, the Cruithnigh came from Thrace to Ireland under six brothers, and the king of Leinster offered them a settlement if they would expel a people called the _Tuatha Fidhbha_. One of the brothers, ‘Drostan, the _Drui_ of the Cruithnigh, ordered that the milk of seven score white cows should be spilled when the battle should be fought. This was done, and the battle was fought by them, viz., Ardleamhnachta in Ibh Ceinnselaigh. Every one, when wounded, used to lie down in the new milk, and the poison did not injure any of them.’ They are then driven out to Scotland, but ‘six of them remained over Breaghmuigh. From them are every spell, and every charm, and every sreod, and voices of birds, and every omen.’[226] In the old poem which is quoted in these legends, Drostan, a thoroughly Pictish name, is called ‘the powerful diviner,’ ‘The plundering host of Fea’ are said to have been aided by poison. Then it is added— The _Drui_ of the Cruithnech in friendship Discovered a cure for the wounded, New milk in which they were washed In powerful bathing. The six who remained are thus described:—