reigns and their
deaths, as in the poem of Gilla Coemain (eleventh century).[204] Hence
another legend told how, Dagda being dead, Bodb Dearg divided the _sid_,
yet even here Manannan is said to have conferred immortality upon the
Tuatha De Danann.[205] The old pagan myths had shown that gods might
die, while in ritual their representatives were slain, and this may have
been the starting-point of the euhemerising process. But the divinity of
the Tuatha De Danann is still recalled. Eochaid O'Flynn (tenth century),
doubtful whether they are men or demons, concludes, "though I have
treated of these deities in order, yet have I not adored them."[206]
Even in later times they were still thought of as gods in exile, a view
which appears in the romantic tales and sagas existing side by side with
the notices of the annalists. They were also regarded as fairy kings and
queens, and yet fairies of a different order from those of ordinary
tradition. They are "fairies or sprites with corporeal forms, endowed
with immortality," and yet also _dei terreni_ or _side_ worshipped by
the folk before the coming of S. Patrick. Even the saint and several
bishops were called by the fair pagan daughters of King Loegaire, _fir
side_, "men of the _sid_," that is, gods.[207] The _sid_ were named
after the names of the Tuatha De Danann who reigned in them, but the
tradition being localised in different places, several mounds were
sometimes connected with one god. The _sid_ were marvellous underground
palaces, full of strange things, and thither favoured mortals might go
for a time or for ever. In this they correspond exactly to the oversea
Elysium, the divine land.

But why were the Tuatha De Danann associated with the mounds? If fairies
or an analogous race of beings were already in pagan times connected
with hills or mounds, gods now regarded as fairies would be connected
with them. Dr. Joyce and O'Curry think that an older race of aboriginal
gods or _sid-folk_ preceded the Tuatha Dea in the mounds.[208] These may
have been the Fomorians, the "champions of the _sid_," while in _Mesca
Ulad_ the Tuatha Dea go to the underground dwellings and speak with the
_side_ already there. We do not know that the fairy creed as such
existed in pagan times, but if the _side_ and the Tuatha De Danann were
once distinct, they were gradually assimilated. Thus the Dagda is called
"king of the _side_"; Aed Abrat and his daughters, Fand and Liban, and
Labraid, Liban'