Slievemore. Iron, fire and salt are the surest weapons against the Pùca on November Eve among the people of North Mayo. Everywhere there I heard of him as a ghostly man, never as of animal form. His usual place is taken by the Water Horse.
Síd Mounds. I have hope that the very important subject of the síd or god's mounds of the ancient Irish may be studied scientifically and as it deserves.[1] There is much information accessible, and when it is brought together (it and its kindred subject, the early óenach and "cemetery" of each district) we shall begin to know the distribution of the religious centres or "temples"[2] of later Irish paganism. The gods having degenerated to fairies I include this note with the other fairy lore of Western Connacht.
Cnoc Meadha, or Siodh Murbhigh, was a levelled mound on Clew Bay and, unlike most of its congeners, enjoyed the best reputation, for its inmates were "the gentlest and kindest of the good people" of Umhall or indeed in Connacht. "Sídh murbhaigh of the waves, a síd never guilty of treachery; a delightful sìd of fair haired damsels."[3]
"Cruikeen na sheehoge," near Portacloy, is known to the old people, but, in that lonely place, I failed to find it, though I was evidently close to the site; one said it was a natural mound. There are two mounds, each reputedly a sidéan or fairy place, on Cliara (Clare Island); one yielded a bronze sword. On Inishturk are two more, which I shall describe; Inishbofin had one "full of fairies" which I could not get located, but suspect to be a small ring mound near Dunmore fort. In 1878, I was told that the large tumulus on the lake shore opposite to Recess Hotel was a "fairy mound." In the Life of St. Cormac we hear of Sith Badha (? Badbha) in Tirawley[4]; the exploded school of antiquaries who follow Henry O'Brien in their dis-
- ↑ See my various attempts to elucidate it in Journal Roy. Sac. Anth. Ireland, vol. xl. p. 291; Proc. R.I. Acad., xxxiv. pp. 57-67 and pp. 152-3; xxxv. pp. 372-5, 382. For those of the god Lug's famous sanctuary at Tailltiu, Co. Meath, see Folk-Lore, xxxi. pp. 138-9.
- ↑ Sanctuaries and platforms for sacred rites not actual temples, i.e. buildings.
- ↑ "Ordnance Survey Letters," R.I. Acad., Mayo, vol. ii. p. 9.
- ↑ Vita Sanctorum Hib., Colgan, p. 754.
