After that there would be periodical meetings in his honour, the
celebration of games, solemn recitations by bards, singing his
aristeia [Transcriber's Note: Greek in the original]. Gradually
the new wine would burst the old bottles. The ever-active,
eager-loving imagination would behold the champion grown to
heroic proportions, the favourite of the gods, the performer of
superhuman feats. The tomb, which was once commensurate with the
love and reverence which he inspired, would seem so now no longer.
The tribal bards, wandering or attending the great fairs and
assemblies, would disperse among strangers and neighbours a
knowledge of his renown. In the same cemetery or neighbourhood
their might be other tombs of heroes now forgotten, while he,
whose fame was in every bardic mouth in all that region, was
honoured only with a tomb no greater than theirs. The mere king
or champion, grown into a topical hero, would need a greater tomb.

Ere long again, owing to the bardic fraternity, who, though coming
from Innishowen or Cape Clear, formed a single community, the
topical hero would, in some cases, where his character was such as
would excite deeper reverence and greater fame, grow into a
national hero, and a still nobler tomb be required, in order that
the visible memorial might prove commensurate with the imaginative
conception.

Now all this time the periodic celebrations, the games, and
lamentations, and songs would be assuming a more solemn character.
Awe would more and more mingle with the other feelings inspired by
his name. Certain rites and a certain ritual would attend those
annual games and lamentations, which would formerly not have been
suitable, and eventually, when the hero, slowly drawing nearer