In the islands off the West Coast of Ireland the inhabitants are still
very primitive in their habits, and cling to their old superstitions
with a fanatical fervour that makes it dangerous for any one to
transgress or disregard the old customs, usages, and prejudices of the
islanders.
Curses heavy and deep would fall on the head of the unbelieving
stranger who dared to laugh or mock at the old traditions of the
ancient pagan creed, whose dogmas are still regarded with a mysterious
awe and dread, and held sacred as a revelation from heaven.
The chief islands are Aran and Innismore, the latter about nine
miles long. The cattle live on the fine grass of the rocks, and turf
is brought from the mainland. The views are magnificent of sea and
mountain, and the islands contain a greater number of pagan and early
Christian monuments than could be found in the same area in any other
part of Europe.
Some of the _Duns_ or forts include several acres. The walls are
cyclopean, about sixteen feet thick and from eighteen to twenty feet
high, with steps inside leading to the top. Amongst the monuments are
cromlechs, tumuli, and pillar stones, those earliest memorials set up
by humanity. The Irish call these huge stones _Bothal_, or House of
God, as the Hebrews called them Bethel, or God’s house.
Dun Ængus, the greatest barbaric monument of the kind in existence,
stands on a cliff three hundred feet above the sea. It is a hundred
and forty-two feet in diameter, and has two cyclopean walls fifteen
feet thick and eighteen high. The sea front measures a thousand feet,
and several acres are included within the outer wall. The roof of the
dun is formed of large flag-stones, and the doorway slopes, after the
Egyptian fashion, up to three feet in width at the top. A causeway of
sharp, upright stones jammed into the ground leads to the entrance.
This fort was the great and last stronghold of the Firbolg race, and
they long held it as a refuge against the _Tuatha-de-Danann_ invaders,
who at that time conquered and took possession of Ireland.
All the islands were originally peopled by the Firbolg race many
centuries before the Christian era, and the Irish language, as still
spoken by the people, is the purest and most ancient of all the
dialects of Erin. Afterwards so many Christian saints took up their
abode there that the largest of the islands was called _Ara-na-naomh_
(Aran of the Saints), and numerous remains of churches, cells, crosses
and stone-roofed oratories, with the ruins of a round tower, testify to
the long habitation of the islands by these holy men.
There is an old wooden idol on one of the Achil islands called Father
Molosh—probably a corruption of Moloch. In former times offerings and
sacrifices were made to it, and it was esteemed as the guardian or god
of the sacred fire, and held in great reverence, though but a rude
semblance of a human head. Many miracles also were performed by the
tooth of St. Patrick, which fell from the saint’s mouth one day when
he was teaching the alphabet to the new converts. And a shrine was
afterwards made for the tooth that was held in the greatest honour by
the kings, chiefs, and people of Ireland.
The stupendous barbaric monuments of the islands, according to Irish
antiquarians, offer the best exposition of early military architecture
at present known, and are only equalled by some of those in Greece.
There are also many sacred wells, and the whole region is haunted by
strange, wild superstitions of fairies and demons and witches; legends
filled with a weird and mystic poetry that thrill the soul like a
strain of music from spirit voices coming to us from the far-off elder
world. The following pathetic tale is a good specimen of these ancient
island legends:—