but the introduction of the lapwing is remarkable. But to call the battle a frivolous one shows, as regarded from my point of view, that the original account of it had been forgotten; and the lapwing may have been thrown in by way of emphasizing the frivolity alluded to. Possibly one should take a different view, and regard the lapwing, called in Welsh cornicyll, from corn 'a horn,' as sacred to, or in some way associated with, the terrene god, whom the Gauls represented with the antlers of a stag; and the same may have been the cause, partly or wholly, of introducing here an animal of the deer kind. But that does not touch the statement in the Mabinogi of Mâth, that before Pryderi had swine sent him from Hades, none had ever been heard of here before.
It is worth while noticing that the pig is believed to have been one of the first animals to be domesticated, the first of all being probably the dog; and the story of the latter is to be found at length in Irish literature, with the important substitution of Albion for Hades and lapdog for dog: thus in Cormac's Glossary[1] we read that in the time of Cairbre Musc "no lapdog had come into the land of Erinn, and the Britons commanded that no lapdog should be given to the Gael on solicitation or by free will, for gratitude or friendship. Now at this time the law among the Britons was, Every criminal for his crime such as breaks the law. There was a beautiful lapdog in the possession of a friend of Cairbre Musc in Britain, and Cairbre got it from him [thus]. Once as Cairbre (went) to his house, he was made welcome to
- ↑ Stokes-O'Donovan, pp. 111-12, s.v. Mug-eime.
