mnothei, or priests of the moon.
Here, on every eve of November, were the fires of Samhain lighted
up, with great pomp and ceremony, the monarch, the Druids, and
the chiefs of the kingdom attending; and from this holy fire, and no
other, was every fire in the land first lit for the winter. It was
deemed an act of the highest impiety to kindle the winter fires from
any other; and for this favour the head of every house paid a
Scrubal, or threepence, tax, to the Arch-Druid of Samhain." [222]
Another writer mentions another Irish moon-god. "The next heathen
divinity which I would bring under notice is St. Luan, _alias_
Molua, _alias_ Euan, _alias_ Lugidus, _alias_ Lugad, and Moling,
etc. The foundations, with which this saint under some of his
_aliases_ is connected, extend over eight counties in the provinces
of Ulster, Leinster, and Munster. Luan is to this; day the common
Irish word for the moon. We read that there were fifteen saints of
the name of Lugadius; and as Lugidus was one of Luan's _aliases_, I
have set them all down as representing the moon in the several
places where that planet was worshipped as the symbol of Female
nature." [223] We have already seen that the moon was the
embodiment of the female principle in China, and now we see that
the primitive Kelts associated sexuality with astronomy and
religion. It but further proves that "one touch of nature makes the
whole world kin."

Moreover, to show that former moon-worship still colours our
religion, it is not to be overlooked that, as our Christmas festivities
are but a continuation of the Roman saturnalia, with their
interchanges of visits and presents, so "the Church, celebrating in
August the festival of the harvest moon, celebrates at the same time
the feast of the Assumption and of the Sacred Heart of the Virgin.
And Catholic painters, following the description in the Apocalypse,
fondly depict her as 'clothed with the sun, and having the moon
under her feet,' and both as overriding the dragon. Even the triumph
of Easter is not celebrated until, by attaining its full, the moon
accords its aid and sanction. Is it not interesting thus to discover the
true note of Catholicism in the most ancient paganisms, and to find
that the moon, which for us is incarnate in the blessed Virgin Mary,
was for the Syrians and Greeks respectively personified in the virgin
Ashtoreth, the queen of heaven, and Diana, or Phoebe, the feminine
of Phoebus?" [224]

A recent co