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usurp the functions of a god corresponding to the Welsh Merlin acting in the capacity of prophet. It is true that it is with Nuada it has been attempted to connect the Lia Fáil, and that the etymological equivalent of Nuada is in Welsh Nûᵭ or Llûᵭ, and not Merlin's name. On the other hand, should Nuada Finnfáil prove to mean Nuada of the White Fence, one would have to admit the probability of an allusion in the epithet to a pellucid prison like Merlin's. Add to this that a passage in the Welsh story of Kulhwch, the significance of which has been overlooked, associates with Llûᵭ the sort of imprisonment which has in these lectures (p. 155) been dwelt upon in connection with Merlin: it makes Mabon son of Modron say, when about to be released by Arthur from the dungeon where he had been for ages incarcerated (p. 29), that his captivity was more grievous even than that of Llûᵭ of the Silver Hand and of Greid son of Eri.^[1] These two, with Mabon's, would seem to have formed a triad^[2] of the most remarkable incarcerations the story-teller had ever heard of, and one is tempted to treat Llûᵭ and Merlin as the names of one and the same divinity in two distinct cycles of stories. Further, Mabon is to be identified with the Apollo Maponos of the Celts of antiquity (p. 21), and the vast duration of his captivity is probably to be explained by his having to a certain extent been assimilated to the older god to be detected in Merlin and Llûᵭ. In other words, it is pro-

1. R. B. Mab. p. 131; Guest, ij. 300-1.
2. It is not to be found in the form to he expected in the ordinary lists; but see Triads, i. 50 = ij. 7, 49 = iij. 61, in which Mabon figures with Llyr instead of Llûᵭ; see also R. B. Mab. pp. 300, 306, and the Cymmrodor, vij. 130.