“O! apropos, Mr. Mortimer, you are returned in most excellent time—for to-morrow is the first of May.”
“And is the arrival of a guest,” said I, “on the eve of that day a favourable omen?”
“The arrival of such a guest,” said she, “must be at least ominous of happiness. But the first of May is our great national festival; and you, who love to trace modern customs to ancient origins, will perhaps feel some curiosity and interest to behold some of the rites of our heathen superstitions still lingering among our present ceremonies.”
“What then,” said I, “have you, like the Greeks, the festivals of the spring among you?”
“It is certain,” said the priest, “that the ancient Irish sacrificed on the first of May to Beal, or the Sun; and that day, even at this period, is called Beal.”
“By this idolatry to the god of Light and Song,” said I, “one would almost suppose that Apollo was the tutelar deity of your island.”
“Why,” returned he, “Hecatæus tells us that the Hyperborean Island was dedicated to Apollo, and that most of its inhabitants were either priests or bards, and I suppose you are not ignorant that we claim the honour of being those happy Hyperboreans, which were believed by many to be a fabulous nation.
“And if the peculiar favour of the god of Poetry and Song may be esteemed a sufficient proof, it is certain that our claims are not weak. For surely no nation under heaven was ever more enthusiastically attached to poetry and music than the Irish. Formerly every family had its poet or bard, called Filea Crotaire; and, indeed, the very language itself, seems most felicitously adapted to be the vehicle of poetic images; for its energy, strength, expression, and luxuriancy, never leave the bard at a loss for apposite terms to realize ‘the thick coming fancies of his genius.’” *
* Mr. O’Halloran informs us, that in a work entitled
“Uiraceacht na Neaigios,” or Poetic Tales, above an hundred
different species of Irish verse is exhibited. O’Molloy, in
his Irish and Latin Grammar, has also given rules and
specimens of our modes of versification, which may be seen
in Dr. Linud’s Achaeologia.
“But,” said Glorvina, “the first of May was not the only festival held sacred by the Irish to their tutelar deity; on the 24th of June they sacrificed to the Sun, to propitiate his influence in bringing the fruit to perfection; and to this day those lingering remains of heathen rites are performed with something of their ancient forms. ‘Midsummer’s Night,’ as it is called, is with us a night of universal lumination—the whole country olazes: from the summit of every mountain, every hill, ascends the flame of the bonfire, while the unconscious perpetuators of the heathen ceremony dance round the fire in circles, or holding torches to it made of straw, run with the burning brands wildly through the country with all the gay frenzy of so many Bacchantes. But though I adore our aspiring Beal with all my soul, I worship our popular deity Samhuin with all my heart—he is the god of the heart’s close knitting socialities, for the domesticating month of November is sacred to him.”