for there chanced to be, on the outskirts of the multitude, a young man showing off his horse; and in wheeling round, the animal's hind hoofs cast a big sod into the air, which came down on the king's lap. Before anybody else could look at it, he espied in it a brooch, containing, as the story has it, no less than fourscore ounces of red gold. He bade Aitherne guess what he had in his lap, to which the poet promptly replied in rhyme, that he had the brooch that had served to fasten Maine mac Durthacht's cloak, adding that this was the very thing he wanted, as Maine was his mother's brother, and it was he that had buried the brooch there after the defeat and slaughter of the Ultonians by the men of Leinster in a battle on that spot. Now with regard to this story, it is to be observed, in the first place, that the name of the king of South Leinster was Fergus Fairge, that is to say, Fergus Ocean or of (the) Ocean, which sufficiently explains his non-historical character; for not only does the name Fergus take us back to Fergus Mac Róig (p. 139), but the world of waters and that of darkness are persistently associated with one another in Celtic mythology; and it looks natural to find that Lugaid[1] was his son, who, so far as concerns the Solar Hero, is the personification of darkness and evil. But we are not altogether left to rely on these indications as to the real scene of the story, namely Hades; for in Maine's brooch we have a counterpart of Woden's ring, Draupnir or Dropper, which, as will be mentioned when we come to speak more in detail of the story of the summer Sun-god, he placed on Balder's funeral pile, whereby it found its
- ↑ O'Curry, pp; 465, 472.
