If in early times the spirit of vegetation was feminine, her representative would be a woman, probably slain at recurring festivals by the female worshippers. This would explain the slaying of one of their number at a festival by Namnite women. But when male spirits or gods superseded goddesses, the divine priest-king would take the place of the female representative. On the other hand, just as the goddess became the consort of the god, a female representative would continue as the divine bride in the ritual of the sacred marriage, the May Queen of later folk-custom. Sporadically, too, conservatism would retain female cults with female divine incarnations, as is seen by the presence of the May Queen alone in certain folk-survivals, and by many Celtic rituals from which men were excluded.[531] FOOTNOTES: [516] O'Grady, ii. 228. [517] Ibid. ii. 203. Cf. Cæsar, vi. 14, "the immortal gods" of Gaul. [518] Cf. Ch. XXIV.; O'Grady, ii. 110, 172; Nutt-Meyer, i. 42. [519] Leahy, ii. 6. [520] _IT_ iii. 203; _Trip. Life_, 507; _Annals of the Four Masters_, A.D. 14; _RC_ xxii. 28, 168. Chiefs as well as kings probably influenced fertility. A curious survival of this is found in the belief that herrings abounded in Dunvegan Loch when MacLeod arrived at his castle there, and in the desire of the people in Skye during the potato famine that his fairy banner should be waved. [521] An echo of this may underlie the words attributed to King Ailill, "If I am slain, it will be the redemption of many" (O'Grady, ii. 416). [522] See Frazer, _Kingship_; Cook, _Folk-Lore_, 1906, "The European Sky-God." Mr. Cook gives ample evidence for the existence of Celtic incarnate gods. With his main conclusions I agree, though some of his inferences seem far-fetched. The divine king was, in his view, a sky-god; he was more likely to have been the representative of a god or spirit of growth or vegetation. [523] Strabo, xii. 5. 2. [524] Plutarch, _de Virt. Mul._ 20. [525] Cicero, _de Div._ i. 15, ii. 36; Strabo, xii. 5. 3; Stachelin, _Gesch. der Kleinasiat. Galater._ [526] Livy, v. 34; Dio Cass. lxii. 6. [527] _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, i. 22; Diog. Laert. i. proem 1; see p. 301, _infra_. [528] Pliny, xvi. 95. [529] P. 201, _infra_. [530] Cf. the tales of Gawain and the Green Knight with his holly bough, and of Gawain's attempting to pluck the bough of a tree guarded by Gramoplanz (Weston, _Legend of Sir Gawain_, 22, 86). Cf. also the tale of Diarmaid's attacking the defender of a tree to obtain its fruit, and the subsequent slaughter of each man who attacks the hero hidden in its branches (_TOS_ vol. iii.). Cf. Cook, _Folk-Lore_, xvii. 441. [531] See Chap. XVIII. CHAPTER X. THE CULT OF THE DEAD.