matched in the Irish legend of Aitherne by Maine's gold brooch. But that is not all; for Draupnir was said to drop eight rings like itself every ninth night, and this, interpreted in reference to the nine-night week, means that the ninth night was regarded as containing the other eight: it was the limit and boundary, so to say, of that space of time.
This idea is reflected in a remarkable way in Irish mythology, as will be seen from the following details. When Christian missionaries made the Irish familiar with the Eastern week of seven days, they taught them its Latin name septimana; and this word, treated by the Irish in their own way, became sechtmain, genitive sechtmaine—a word seemingly beginning with secht, the Irish for septem or seven, and suggesting, therefore, the question, 'seven of what?' The answer was Secht Maini, seven persons bearing the name Maine or Mane.[1] How they came to acquire the personal form will appear presently; but what the Maini were pictured to be in Irish mythology, we learn from the fact that the single one in the story of Aitherne is termed son of Durthacht,
- ↑ For the first idea of this treatment I am indebted to Mr. Plummer. I use Maine or Mane in the singular, and Maini or Mani in the plural. The former rhymes with baili in the Tribes and Customs of the Hy-Many, ed. O'Donovan (Dublin, 1843), p. 13; and in the Bk. of Leinster, 256a, with the same word written bali, which now means 'a place,' but originally 'an enclosed place,' as in the bally of Anglo-Irish local names like Ballymote, Ballyadams, and many more. It is a loan-word not to be severed from the English bailey, as in the Old Bailey, or Vetus Ballium, of York as well as London. It was introduced (probably by the Normans) to South Wales, and is used to this day in Glamorgan in the form beili for the enclosure at the back of a farm-house. See Du Cange under Ballium, to which he gives three meanings: 'propugnaculi species, seu locus palis munitus et circumseptus;' also 'custodia, carcer, quia locus munitus.'
