Lastly, the Fomori are known to the Irish of the present day, as I have had recently occasion to learn from a gentleman living in the neighbourhood of Killorglin, in the county of Kerry. When he was one day a few years ago exploring the recesses of an underground ráth, he was kindly warned by one of the peasants to beware of the Fomori or Fōwri, according to the modern pronunciation repeated to me. This would suggest that the Fomori may be encountered under ground as well as under water; but I take it that the modern ideas about them identify them to a certain extent with the fairies.
Having said most of what I had to say about the Fomori, I now come back to the Fir Bolg, and that version of the story about Fergus which says that the abac gave the king his cloak to put round his head when he wished to roam in lake or sea. This is the shining cap of salmon-skin that figures in Irish tales about lake fairies; for when one of them was caught on land and robbed of her cap, she could not go back into the world of waters. It figures also in a Welsh tale, where it is de trop, as the modern narrator knows no use for it.[1] I mention this as it is possible that this cap is the explanation of the bolg, 'bag,' in the term Fir Bolg, singular Fer Bolg, 'a Bag-man:' in any case it is as good an explanation as the one usually offered, to the effect that the Fir Bolg, before coming to Ireland, were slaves in Greece, where they were forced to carry earth in leathern bags to cover the rocks in that country, a passage taken from one of the legendary expla-
- ↑ The Cymmrodor, v. 87-8, 92-3.
