some of his ritual survived until lately, bundles of rushes being placed for him on midsummer eve on two hills.[309] Barintus, who steers Arthur to the fortunate isles, and S. Barri, who crossed the sea on horseback, may have been legendary forms of a local sea-god akin to Manannan, or of Manannan himself.[310] His steed was Enbarr, “water foam or hair,” and Manannan was “the horseman of the maned sea.”  “Barintus,” perhaps connected with barr find, “white-topped,” would thus be a surname of the god who rode on Enbarr, the foaming wave, or who was himself the wave, while his mythic sea-riding was transferred to the legend of S. Barri, if such a person ever existed.

Various magical possessions were ascribed to Manannan—­his armour and sword, the one making the wearer invulnerable, the other terrifying all who beheld it; his horse and canoe; his swine, which came to life again when killed; his magic cloak; his cup which broke when a lie was spoken; his tablecloth, which, when waved, produced food.  Many of these are found everywhere in Maerchen, and there is nothing peculiarly Celtic in them.  We need not, therefore, with the mythologists, see in his armour the vapoury clouds or in his sword lightning or the sun’s rays.  But their magical nature as well as the fact that so much wizardry is attributed to Manannan, points to a copious mythology clustering round the god, now for ever lost.

The parentage of Lug is differently stated, but that account which makes him son of Cian and of Ethne, daughter of Balor, is best attested.[311] Folk-tradition still recalls the relation of Lug and Balor.  Balor, a robber living in Tory Island, had a daughter whose son was to kill her father.  He therefore shut her up in an inaccessible place, but in revenge for Balor’s stealing MacIneely’s cow, the latter gained access to her, with the result that Ethne bore three sons, whom Balor cast into the sea.  One of them, Lug, was recovered by MacIneely and fostered by his brother Gavida.  Balor now slew MacIneely, but was himself slain by Lug, who pierced his single eye with a red-hot iron.[312] In another version, Kian takes MacIneely’s place and is aided by Manannan, in accordance with older legends.[313] But Lug’s birth-story has been influenced in these tales by the Maerchen formula of the girl hidden away because it has been foretold that she will have a son who will slay her father.

Lug is associated with Manannan, from whose land he comes to assist the Tuatha Dea against the Fomorians.  His appearance was that of the sun, and by this brilliant warrior’s prowess the hosts were utterly defeated.[314] This version, found in The Children of Tuirenn, differs from the account in the story of Mag-tured.  Here Lug arrives at the gates of Tara and offers his services as a craftsman.  Each offer is refused, until he proclaims himself “the man of each and every art,” or samildanach, “possessing many arts.”  Nuada resigns his throne to