Burial.—"The body of Laeghairé was brought afterwards from the south, and interred with his armour of championship in the south-east of the outer rampart of the royal rath of Laeghairé, at Tara, with his face turned southwards upon the men of Leinster, as fighting with them, for he was the enemy of the Leinster men in his lifetime."—Translated from the Leabhar na Nuidhre. Petrie's Tara, p. 170.
Always.—National customs and prejudices have always been respected by the Church: hence she has frequently been supposed to sanction what she was obliged to tolerate. A long residence in Devonshire, and an intimate acquaintance with its peasantry, has convinced us that there is incalculably more superstitions believed and practised there of the grossest kind, than in any county in Ireland. Yet we should be sorry to charge the Established Church or its clergy, some of whom are most earnest and hard-working men, with the sins of their parishioners. The following extract from St. Columba's magnificent Hymn, will show what the early Irish saints thought of pagan superstitions:
"I adore not the voice of birds,
Nor sneezing, nor lots in this world,
Nor a boy, nor chance, nor woman:
My Druid is Christ, the Son of God;
Christ, Son of Mary, the great Abbot,
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
Aengus.—