Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 351 



pincatp in oan bunu but aicje. Conio ann po mol-pom in paipje, 7 pe 1 ap meipce, co 

 n-ebuip. 



" 'Gnpchme mop cqi tnuij dp.' 



" Co cue-pom imoppu in ecail pin leip co Cell belaij, ap TTluij Conpcancm, ap ba oo cel- 

 laib Ua Suanaio in cell pin, 7 Hlaj Conpcancm uile. Cac mag oan, 7 cec pepann oa peijeo 

 Conpcancm ba pe TTIucucu. Conio oo Conpcancm ammnijcep in maj. Ip amlaio bui cell 

 belaijan can pin, 7 un ppdicce oo ^aU- 010 ann > 7 ap a meic oo pac Rumunn qnan a ecala 01, 

 7 cpian oo pcoil, 7 cpian leip pern co Raichen ; conio ann ip mapb, conio aonuchc a n-enlea- 

 baio pe h-UaSuanaij, ap m6o a anoipe la Dia 7 la ouine." Laud. 610, fol. 10, a, col. 1, 2. 



" Eumann, son of Colman, i. e. the son of the King of Laegaire, of the race of Niall, royal poet 

 of Ireland, was he that composed this poem, and Laidh Luascach is the name of the measure in 

 which he composed it. He came on his pilgrimage to Eathan in a time of great dearth. It was dis- 

 pleasing to the people of the town that he should come thither, and they said to the architect, who 

 was making the great ditirlkeach, to refuse admittance to the man of poetry. Upon which the builder 

 said to one of his people, ' Go meet Kumann, and tell him that he shall not enter the town, until he 

 makes a quatrain, in which there shall be an enumeration of what boards there are here for the 

 building of the duirtheach. And then it was that he composed this quatrain : 



"' O my Lord ! what shall I do 

 About these great materials ? 

 When shall be seen in a jointed edifice 

 These ten hundred boards ?' 



" This was the number of boards there, i. e. one thousand boards ; and then he could not be 

 refused [admittance], since God had revealed to him, through the poetic inspiration, the number of 

 boards which the builder had. 



" He composed a great poem for the Galls of Ath cliach (Dublin) immediately after, but the Galls 

 said that they would not pay him the price of his poem ; upon which he composed the celebrated 

 distich, in which he said : 



" ' If any one wish to refuse me, let him, 

 And on him I will take revenge of daggers.' 



" Upon which his own award was given him. And the award he demanded was a pinginn from 

 every bad Gall, and two pinginns from every good Gall, so that there was not found among them a 

 Gall who did not give him two pinginns, because none of them deemed it worth while to be styled 

 a bad Gall [for the price demanded]. And the Galls then told him to praise the sea, that they might 

 know whether his was original poetry. Whereupon he praised the sea, while he was in a state of 

 inebriety, and composed [the poem beginning] 



" ' A great tempest on the plain of Lear,' [i. e. the sea]. 



" He then carried this wealth with him to Cell Belaigh, in Magh Constantine, for this was one 

 of the churches of Ua Suanaigh, and the whole of Magh Constantine belonged to him. For every 

 plain and land which Constantine had cleared belonged to St. Mochuda ; so that the plain was 



