._

had for father one of the gods and for mother the daughter of a
chief of the enemy. Hence he possessed some good and some evil
tendencies. He may be the Celtic Mercury, for they were alike
skilled in magic and alchemy, in deception, successful in combats
with demons, the bringers of new strength and cleansing to the
nation. He said farewell to power on the first of August, and his
foster-mother had died on that day, so then it was he set his
feast-day. The occasion was called "Lugnasad," "the bridal of Lugh"
and the earth, whence the harvest should spring. It was celebrated
by the offering of the first fruits of harvest, and by races and
athletic sports. In Meath, Ireland, this continued down into the
nineteenth century, with dancing and horse-racing the first week of
August.

CHAPTER III

SAMHAIN

On November first was Samhain ("summer's end").

"Take my tidings:
Stags contend;
Snows descend--
Summer's end!

"A chill wind raging,
The sun low keeping,
Swift to set
O'er seas high sweeping.

"Dull red the fern;
Shapes are shadows;
Wild geese mourn
O'er misty meadows.

"Keen cold limes each weaker wing,
Icy times--
Such I sing!
Take my tidings."

GRAVES: _First Winter Song._

Then the flocks were driven in, and men first had leisure after
harvest toil. Fires were built as a thanksgiving to Baal for
harvest. The old fire on the altar was quenched before the night of
October 31st, and the new one made, as were all sacred fires, by
friction. It was called "forced-fire." A wheel and a spindle were
used: the wheel, the sun symbol, was turned from east to west,
sunwise. The sparks were caught in tow, blazed upon the altar, and
were passed on to light the hilltop fires. The new fire was given
next morning, New Year's Day, by the priests to the people to light
their hearths, where all fires had been extinguished. The blessed
fire was thought to protect the year through the home it warmed. In
Ireland the altar was Tlactga, on the hill of Ward in Meath, where
sacrifices, especially black sheep, were burnt in the new fire.
From the death struggles and look of the creatures omens for the
future year were taken.

The year was over, and the sun's life of a year was done. The
Celts thought that at this time the sun fell a victim for six
months to the powers of winter darkness. In Egyptian mythology