Domini,' or the Servant of the Lord, and many more. Should these guesses prove well founded, it would follow that the Roth Fáil had a well-defined place in Irish theology long before any such a name as that of Mog Ruith could have come into existence; and it is also to be observed that the attempt to replace its name, Roth Fáil, by a later designation meaning the Rowing or Paddle Wheel, corroborates, so far as it goes, the opinion here advanced as to the relative antiquity of the belief in the Wheel.
The God of Druidism.
Reference has been made in this lecture several times to a tree overshadowing the sacred well of the god, and to the slab hard by. Others might be added; and I would call your attention to the well-known type of Irish holy-well overshadowed by a tree whose branches are loaded with such votive offerings as bits of cloth; not to mention that at the spot where the pious visitor there makes his cross are to be found other gifts, containing among them, as I have seen more than once, coins of the present clay. The placing of offerings, however humble, among the branches of the tree had probably the same meaning as the hanging up in the like manner by the ancient Gauls and Germans of the heads of the animals sacrificed to the gods. The subject has been treated in his thorough way by Jacob Grimm in his well-known work on Teutonic Mythology, where he has brought together many allusions to the trees marking the holy places of his race in old times.[1] Especially deserving of mention is the evergreen tree with wide-spreading branches
- ↑ Deutsche Myth4, i. 53—71.
