Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 117 



word used for penance in Irish is ctiqifje (aithrighe\ a Scytho-Celtic word, 

 signifying literally compunction, sorrow, &c., and figuratively penance. This 

 is the word used by the annalists, as in the following passage from the Annals 

 of the Four Masters : 



"A. D. 946. 5P rn F^ al ^) "ijen plamo, tnic ITIaileaclainn, Riojan Neill ^lunouiB, o'ecc, 

 Hip n-airpicce oiocpa m a cuipmreccaiB 7 ooailcib." 



" A. D. 946. Gormflaith, daughter of Flann, son of Maileachlairm, Queen of Niall Glundubh, 

 died, after having performed severe penance for her transgressions and sins." 



Cujiap signifies in Irish " a journey, expedition, pilgrimage," and is not 

 derived from the Latin turris,\>Mi, as it appears, from a more primitive Irish word 

 cuj), a journey, a tour, a search, (Heb. in, to search, explore.) Vide O'Reilly's 

 Irish Dictionary. And thus cupapctc signifies a traveller and a pilgrim, be- 

 cause the latter, when he took the penitential staff, was obliged to perform a 

 certain round or journey as the practice continues to this day but not a tour 

 from the top to the bottom of a tower! The word cujiap, however, which is 

 only employed figuratively to denote a pilgrimage, is not used in this sense in 

 the Irish Annals, or any other ancient authorities that I have seen, the word 

 ailirpe, or oilirjie, being that which is always used. " To this day," says Dr. 

 O'Conor, " the word used for a pilgrimage by the common Irish is Ailithre. So 

 the Annals of the Four Masters say, that ' Arthgal, son of Cathal, King of Con- 

 naught, took the penitential staff, and travelled to Hiona dia ailithre,' i. e. on his 

 pilgrimage. (IV. Masters, 777.) This word Ailithre is composed of Ail, a great 

 upright rock or stone, and itriallam [correctly triallaim~] to go round ; and there 

 is no name in the Irish language for the pilgrimages of Christians to Hiona, or 

 to Jerusalem, or to Rome, but that identical word Ailithre, which was used by 

 the Pagan Irish for a pilgrimage to the sacred stone of the Carne, or of the 

 Tobar, the emblematical God of the Druids." (See Dr. O'Conor's interesting 

 remarks on the well-worship of the ancient Irish, in the third Number of Co- 

 lumbanus's Letters, pp. 89, 90.) 



The following extract from Tighernach's Annals, compiled before the year 

 1088, will furnish an example of the use of the two words employed in Irish 

 for penance and pilgrimage : 



" A. D. 980. Omlami, mac Sicpmca, upo-pij ap JJhaUaib Ctcha Cliuch, DO 6ul co h-l 

 7 a n- 



