22 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



for the words Sibheit and Sithbheit are not to be found in either of the works 

 referred to. The word Sithbhe is, indeed, given in both Lexicons, but explained 

 a city, not a round tower. The word Sithbhein is also given in both, but ex- 

 plained a fort, a turret ; and the real meaning of the word, as still understood 

 in many parts of Ireland, is, a fairy hill, or hill of the fairies, and is applied to 

 a green round hill crowned by a small sepulchral mound. 



He next tells us that Caiceach, the last name he finds for the Round Towers, 

 is supposed by the Glossarists to be compounded of cat, a house, and teach, a 

 house, an explanation, which, he playfully adds, is tautology with a witness. 

 But where did he find axithority for the word Caiceach? I answer nowhere ; 

 and the tautology he speaks of was either a creation or a blunder of his own. 

 It is evident to me that the Glossarist to whom he refers is no other than his 

 favourite Cormac; but the latter makes no such blunder, as will appear from 

 the passage which our author obviously refers to: 



Ccn .1. cede: urroe oicicup ceapo-ca .1. ceac ceapoa; cpenp-ca .1. ceac curiianj. 

 " Cai, i. e. a house : unde dicitur ceard-cha, i. e. the house of the artificer ; creas-cha, i. e. a narrow house." 



Lastly, he tells us that the name Cluan was, he believes, originally given 

 to all these towers, and that it appears to be a contraction of Cul-luan, i. e. the 

 return of the Moon! For this new meaning of the word, it would, however, 

 have puzzled him to find an authority, though he evidently wishes us to believe 

 that he had such, by quoting O'Brien to shew that cluan is a name given to several 

 of our bishops' sees. But O'Brien knew the meaning of the word too well to 

 have had any such notion in his mind, and correctly explains it as follows: 



" CLUAIN, a plain between two woods, also any fine level fit for pasture ; Lat. planum, Angl.-Saxon. 

 lawn, visibly of the same root with cluain Vid. Lhuyd's Compar. Etym. pag. 10. coL 1., for an initial 

 letter being expressed in one Celtic dialect, and omitted in another. Note that several towns and 

 bishops' sees in Ireland derive their names from this word Cluain ; ex. Cluain urnha, now the town 

 of Cloyne, a bishop's see in the County of Cork ; Cluain-haidhneach and Cluain Mac Nois, in 

 Leinster, &c." 



That this is the true and only meaning of the word cluain, can be proved by 

 reference to the localities bearing the name in every part of Ireland. In many 

 places there are twenty-four cluains together, as in O'ConorFaly's Country in the 

 King's County, and in O'Conor Roe's Country in the County of Roscommon ; 

 and the cluain is invariably found to be a fertile piece of land surrounded 



