64 Mr. PETBIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



Hie Priamus, quanqtiam in media jam morte tenetur, 



Non tamen abstinuit, nee voci iraeque pepercit. 



At tibi pro scelere, exclamat, pro talibus ausis, 



Di, si qua est ccelo pietas, quse talia curet, 



Persolvant grates dignas, et praemia reddant 



Debita : qui nati coram me cernere letum 



Fecisti, et patrios foedasti funere vultus." JEneid. Lib. II. 512 539- 



Thus again, the following passage, taken from an Irish translation of some 

 ancient account of the siege of Troy, in a vellum MS. preserved in the library 

 of Trinity College, has the term Fidhneimhedh in the sense of sacred wood, or 

 wood containing an oracle. 



" Ip i pin aeip ayjp uaip DO puachoaoup laochpaio Innpi C.imm 6 retail na Cpojia moipi. 

 T3o bi pltDhNGmhGtDll oo-imcechca ip in c-pleb ba coimneapa ooib, ajvip DO cuaoap tnna 

 Innpi 6einin mo o'lappaio ppeagpa ap na oenio, ajup canjaoup baoBa bel-oeapja a carhaip 

 Ippinn o'a m-buaiopeao-pun co nuije pin : oip DO biUenip ben-cutnachracli, ajupeni oupbaoach, 

 piup IDaipr, oea in chaca, 05 pupail uilcc ap na ninaib pin." H. 2, 17, p. 123. 



" This is the time and hour that the heroes of the Island of Lemnos were returning from the 

 siege of great Troy. There was a Fidhnemhedh of difficult passage in the mountain next to them, 

 and the women of the Island of Lemnos went into it to ask a response from the gods, and red- 

 mouthed ravens came thither from the city of Infernus to disturb them ; for Venus the woman- 

 powerful, and Eni [Bellona] the furious, the sister of Mars, goddess of war, were inflicting evils upon 

 those women." 



One other example of the application of this term, and I have done : it will 

 show that, even if Dr. O'Conor had been so little acquainted with the Irish 

 language as to be unable to understand its meaning from the passages already 

 quoted, he might yet have discovered it through his knowledge of Latin. Thus, 

 in an ancient Irish MS. Glossary in the Library of Trinity College, to which the 

 Doctor had access, the word ncmhedh, a poet, is explained in such a manner by 

 allusion to Fidhneimhedh, that it would have been impossible not to see the 

 proper meaning of the latter : 



Neriieo, .1. Pilio, a nemope: ap ip a plt)Nemet)C[1& po jnicip pileoa a n-jpeppa. H. 2. 

 16. Col. 120. 



" Nemed, i. e. a poet, from Nemus (a grove) : because it was in Fidnemeds (sacred groves) poets 

 were used to compose their works." 



After such evidences as I have now adduced, the reader will, I trust, have 

 little doubt as to the true meaning of the Fidhneimedh of the Irish Annals. I 



