Chapter IV

P. 70.—Kingdom of Cashel. Cp. the remarks of Rhŷs, Studies in Early Irish History, p. 31.

P. 74.—Solar worship. Patrick, Confession, p. 374. Cormac’s Glossary, s.v. indelba. It has been suggested that a circle on an inscribed (ogam) stone, which seems to be oriented, at Drumlusk, near Kenmare, is connected with solar worship (Macalister, Studies in Irish Epigraphy, ii. 116-7). Cp. H. Gaidoz, “Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la roue,” Rev. arch. 1884 and 1885.

Ib.—Pillar worship. Patrick, ib. p. 369. For the idol Cromm Cruach, see p. 306. Cp. the stone of worship (ail adrada) in Ancient laws, iv. 142.

P. 76.—For white dress of Druids, see Tírechán, p. 325-6. For their tonsure see Appendix A, i. 4.

P. 79.—Muirchu, 273-4. “Adzehead” was evidently meant as a nickname for the tonsured monk. I have given the oracle as it is found in Muirchu’s Latin rendering. He must have known the prophecy in a different form from the Irish version which is preserved in the glosses on the Hymn Genair Patraicc (Liber Hymnorum, i. p. 100): “Adzehead will come, over the mad-crested sea, his cloak hole-head, his staff crook-head, his table in the west of his house; all his household will answer Amen, Amen.” See Atkinson, ib. ii. 181-2, and my article on the “Tradition of Muirchu’s Text,” p. 203 (in Hermathena, 28, 1902).