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nuscripts furnish abundant proofs. In the tale of the ^' Tain bo 

 Cuailgne," a copy of which is in the manuscript of which the Doctor 

 treats, and in tales that accompany it, the word Popa often occurs 

 in that sense. In the " Tain bo Cuailgne," Cuchulhn, when a boy, is 

 made to tell Conor, king of Ulster, " Ni maith na hairm so agad a 

 mo Phopa — These arms you have are not good, oh, my master." In 

 the account of the battle between Fergus, son of Roich, and Cuchul- 

 lin, who had been Fergus's pupil, Cuchullin says " Is baoghlach tig 

 fu a Phopa Fheargus do chomhrac, agas tu gan Chloidheamh — It is 

 perilous that you, oh. Preceptor Fergus, come to fight, and you with- 

 out a sword." In the tale of the combat between Ferdia (called by 

 Mr. Macpherson, in his Fingal, Ferda,) and Cuchullin, the latter, 

 upon being visited by his former friend Fergus, says " Mo cheann do 

 theac/id a Phopa a Fhergus — My delight your coming, oh, instructor, 

 oh, Fergus." In the tale of the " Death of Cuchullin," that hero calls 

 another of his friends his Popa. " Maith o mo Phopa a Laoigh air 

 Cuchullin — Good, oh, my Preceptor, oh, Laoigh, said Cuchullin." 

 Numberless other examples might be given of the use of this word, 

 and all in the same meaning, if it were necessary to produce them ; 

 but we trust that Avhat we have now given will be found sufficient to 

 show that Doctor Smith made a great blunder in making Pupa a 

 Pope. Conor king of Ulster, Fergus son of Roigh, and Laoigh, 

 were Pagans, who lived four hundred years before Christianity was 

 introduced into this country. 



The Doctor sa3's that '' The orthography of this manuscript also 

 bears evidence of its high antiquity, u being employed in it to denote 

 the sound which is uniformly expressed in other manuscripts, from 

 the ninth century to the sixteenth downward, by h or bh." This cir- 

 cumstance, however, is a proof of the reverse of what the Doctor 

 asserts ; for u never was used for the aspirated b and m or bh or mh 



