The worship of the sun, which was almost universal in early times, held a prominent place among the religious rites of the ancient Irish. They considered it a god, and accordingly assigned to it the power of rewarding and punishing, together with the other attributes of Deity. We have an instance of this in the following passage from the “Annals of the Four Masters,” at the year 457 A.D.:—“Laogaire (the king) was taken captive in battle, and gave guarantees of the sun, and of the wind, and of the