produce of Ireland.[244] Probably the scald-crow was at once the symbol and the incarnation of the war-goddesses, who resemble the Norse Valkyries, appearing sometimes as crows, and the Greek Keres, bird-like beings which drank the blood of the slain.  It is also interesting to note that Badb, who has the character of a prophetess of evil, is often identified with the “Washer at the Ford,” whose presence indicates death to him whose armour or garments she seems to cleanse.[245]

The Matres, goddesses of fertility, do not appear by name in Ireland, but the triplication of such goddesses as Morrigan and Brigit, the threefold name of Dagda’s wife, or the fact that Arm, Danu, and Buanan are called “mothers,” while Buanan’s name is sometimes rendered “good mother,” may suggest that such grouped goddesses were not unknown.  Later legend knows of white women who assist in spinning, or three hags with power over nature, or, as in the Battle of Ventry, of three supernatural women who fall in love with Conncrithir, aid him in fight, and heal his wounds.  In this document and elsewhere is mentioned the “sid of the White Women."[246] Goddesses of fertility are usually goddesses of love, and the prominence given to females among the side, the fact that they are often called Be find, “White Women,” like fairies who represent the Matres elsewhere, and that they freely offer their love to mortals, may connect them with this group of goddesses.  Again, when the Milesians arrived in Ireland, three kings of the Tuatha Dea had wives called Eriu, Banba, and Fotla, who begged that Ireland should be called after them.  This was granted, but only Eriu (Erin) remained in general use.[247] The story is an aetiological myth explaining the names of Ireland, but the three wives may be a group like the Matres, guardians of the land which took its name from them.

Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba, who give a title to the whole group, are called tri dee Donand, “the three gods (sons of) Danu,” or, again, “gods of dan” (knowledge), perhaps as the result of a folk-etymology, associating dan with their mother’s name Danu.[248] Various attributes are personified as their descendants, Wisdom being son of all three.[249] Though some of these attributes may have been actual gods, especially Ecne or Wisdom, yet it is more probable that the personification is the result of the subtleties of bardic science, of which similar examples occur.[250] On the other hand, the fact that Ecne is the son of three brothers, may recall some early practice of polyandry of which instances are met with in the sagas.[251] M. D’Arbois has suggested that Iuchar and Iucharba are mere duplicates of Brian, who usually takes the leading place, and he identifies them with three kings of the Tuatha Dea reigning at the time of the Milesian invasion—­ MacCuill, MacCecht, and MacGrainne, so called, according to Keating, because the hazel (coll), the plough