Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 79 



had been called Feinechas ; and some of these ancient etymological conjecturers 

 suppose that the one was formed from the other by a Ceannfochras, or change 

 of Initials, but such conjectures are of very little value, as the words are 

 obviously from diflFerent roots. The word Feinechas is evidently derived from 

 Feine, a name very anciently applied to the Irish people, as appears from 

 Fiech's Hymn ; and hence the old language of Ireland, in which the laws were 

 written, was called the Bearla Feine, and the old laws themselves are constantly 

 called Dlighthe na Feine. In like manner the word Senchus, applied in this 

 instance to express an ancient code of laws, but which the Irish themselves say 

 would be applied with equal propriety to any' other ancient writing, is obviously 

 formed from the Celtic root Sen, old, (" ab eo quod est senex," — Cormacs 

 Glos.) which has direct cognates, not only in the Indo-European families of lan- 

 guages, but in the Semitic ; for it is observable, that in Arabic Sen or Senha 

 is used to signify old, ancient, while Suna, a word very similar in structure, is 

 understood by the Arabs, Tartars, and Moguls, to mean that body of traditional 

 laws which exists apart from the Koran. — See Millius de Mohammedismo, 

 p. 54. " Arab. Sunnah, institution, regulation, &c. ; Pers. San, law, right," 

 kc.-^Richardson. " Sanna Phoenicibus idem fuit quod Arabibus Sunna, lex, 

 doctrina, jux canonicum." — Bochart. Geogr. Sac. 1. ii. c. 17. 0pp. Tom. i. col, 

 ,771. Lugd. Bat. 1712. 



The preceding accounts of the Senchiis Mor are, it must be confessed, like 

 all the narratives of the middle ages, very largely tinctured with fable ; but such 

 documents furnish the only evidences of the history of remote times, and the 

 truths on which they are grounded, should not be rejected because of the inter- 

 mixture of the marvellous incidents and anachronisms with which they are 

 blended. Indeed it often happens, that from such anachronisms and fables the 

 truth is most easily elicited. Thus, while it appears certain from these accounts 

 that the story of the Committee of Nine had no better authority than an old 

 anonymous Bardic poem, and the question of authorship, even among the Irish 

 themselves, was involved in great obscurity, it is equally certain that the 

 Senchus Mor was not, as all the modem historians have supposed, a History or 

 Chronicle of Ireland, but a body of the ancient laws of the country modified at 

 some period subsequent to the introduction of Christianity, to agree with its 

 doctrines ; and this is corroborated by a quotation from the work, given in 

 Cormac's Glossary under the word nepcoic, as follows ; 



