346 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



" ' O Derbhfraich, 



O mother of holy Tighernach, 



Go to help, be not slow, 



Split the tree along with the carpenter.' " 



But the strongest evidences in favour of this conclusion, that the duirtheachs 

 were usually of wood, are those supplied by the Irish Annals, which so fre- 

 quently record the burning of this class of buildings by the Northmen, while 

 the daimhliags escaped the flames. Of this fact I have already given several 

 instances ; and I shall only now add the following remarkable record, from the 

 Annals of Ulster, which clearly shows that the duirtheachs at this period must 

 have been generally of wood : 



" A.D. 891. Uencup majnup in pepia mapcini, con oappcap pio-ap mop ip naib caillib, 7 con 

 puc na oaupcai ji ap a larpai jib, 7 na raiji olcena." 



"A.D. 891. A great wind occurred on the festival of St. Martin, which prostrated a great 

 quantity of trees in the woods, and carried the duirtheachs from their places, and the [other] houses 

 likewise." 



And lastly, that the custom of building oratories of wood was continued in 

 Ireland even to the twelfth century, appears from St. Bernard's Life of Malachy, 

 in which the following notice of the building of an oratory at Bangor by the 

 latter is found : 



" Porro oratorium intra paucos dies consummatum est de lignis quidem leuigatis, sed apte fir- 

 miterque contextum, opus Scoticum pulchrum satis. Et exinde seruitur Deo in eo sicut in diebus 

 antiquis, simili quidem deuotione, etsi non pari numero." Cap. V. 



The modicum of praise which St. Bernard bestows on this oratory is of 

 some interest, and we may well believe that such wooden temples were not 

 wholly without ornament or beauty. That they were coloured with lime, or 

 whitewash, appears certain from a passage in the LeabharBreac, relating to the 

 mystical significations of the colours used in the vestments of a priest, and 

 in which the white, which was typical of purity, is compared to the colour of 

 the calx or lime on the gable of a duirtheach. 



" lp eao oo popne in gel in can pejup in pacapc paip, cupa immoepjchap mime ap pele 7 

 naipe, menip jjenmnaio taicnemach a cpioe 7 a menma, amail uan tmnoe, no amail chailc pop 

 benochobap oaupcluje, no amail oath j^ipi ppi 5p6m, cenach n-epnail pecao, oo bic no mop, 

 oo aippipium in a cpioe." Fol. 54, now 44. 



" What the white is intended for, when the priest looks upon it, is, that he should blush at it 



