Footnote 518:[(return)]
Cf. Ch. XXIV.; O'Grady, ii. 110, 172; Nutt-Meyer, i. 42.
Footnote 519:[(return)]
Leahy, ii. 6.
Footnote 520:[(return)]
IT iii. 203; Trip. Life, 507; Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 14; RC xxii. 28, 168. Chiefs as well as kings probably influenced fertility. A curious survival of this is found in the belief that herrings abounded in Dunvegan Loch when MacLeod arrived at his castle there, and in the desire of the people in Skye during the potato famine that his fairy banner should be waved.
Footnote 521:[(return)]
An echo of this may underlie the words attributed to King Ailill, "If I am slain, it will be the redemption of many" (O'Grady, ii. 416).
Footnote 522:[(return)]
See Frazer, Kingship; Cook, Folk-Lore, 1906, "The European Sky-God." Mr. Cook gives ample evidence for the existence of Celtic incarnate gods. With his main conclusions I agree, though some of his inferences seem far-fetched. The divine king was, in his view, a sky-god; he was more likely to have been the representative of a god or spirit of growth or vegetation.
Footnote 523:[(return)]
Strabo, xii. 5. 2.
Footnote 524:[(return)]
Plutarch, de Virt. Mul. 20.
Footnote 525:[(return)]
Cicero, de Div. i. 15, ii. 36; Strabo, xii. 5. 3; Stachelin, Gesch. der Kleinasiat. Galater.
Footnote 526:[(return)]
Livy, v. 34; Dio Cass. lxii. 6.
Footnote 527:[(return)]
Ancient Laws of Ireland, i. 22; Diog. Laert. i. proem 1; see p. [301], infra.