38 



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



that no fact can be more incontrovertibly established, than that the Irish com- 

 mitted to writing, in their native language, immediately after the introduction 

 of Christianity, not only the laws, bardic historical poems, &c., of their own 

 time, but those which had been preserved from times preceding, whether tra- 

 ditionally or otherwise. Till this point, however, be determined, much of the 

 matter stated by the later annalists in connexion with Cormac and his times 

 will necessarily be received with suspicion by the learned, as in the additional 

 details given in the following passage, recording the death of Cormac in the 

 Annals of the Four Masters : 



A.D. 266. Cechpacha bliaoain oo Copb- 

 mac ITlac Qipc mic Cuinohi pije n-6penn, 

 50 Bpuaip bap 1 j-cleccij, lap leiimain do 

 cnarh bpaoain ma Bpajaic, cpep an piaB- 

 pao po itnip mailjenn t)pai paip, lap 

 n.iompoD DO Chopbmac ap na opaoirib po 

 Birin aoapca oe do coippiB ; conao aipe pin 

 po aimpij DiaBal eipiurh cpe pupaileaiii na 

 nopuao, 50 D-cucbopoochpa do. Qp e Copb- 

 mac DO rpacc cegupcc na pij, do coniieo 

 moo, bep, agup poUariinuijre na pije. 

 U^oap oipoepc eipioe 1 nolijciB, hi ccoirii- 

 jniB agup hi penchup; ap ap e po piol peachc, 

 piajaiL, agup Dip^iacha gacha haoi, ajup 

 cecha camjne lap ccoip : conao e a olijce 

 po pmacc pop chach Baoi pop congBail Leo 

 gup an aimpip ppeacnaipc. 



Qp e an Copbmuc po mac CTipcbeop po 

 rinoil Cpoinice Gpenn co haonthaijin 50 

 Uempaig, gup po popconjaip poppa Cpoinic 

 Gpenn do pcpiobao 1 n-6nliubap, Dop Bo 

 h-ainmPpalcaipUempach. 6ahipin liubap pin 

 bacap conTigneoa agup coriiaimpipa pio^ai- 

 6e 6penn ppi piojaiB agup ImpipioiB an tDo- 

 riiain, ajup piojja na gcoicceo ppi piogaib 

 ©penn. 6a hann can po pgpioBao ina nolij- 

 pao pi 6penn do na CoicceoacaiB, agup 

 c?op, agup Dlijeo na jcoicceo o a porha- 

 iTiaijce cha uapal co hipeal. 6a hann qia 

 baoi cpioch ajup copann Gpenn op ino op, 



A. D. 266. Cormac, the son of Art, the son 

 of Con, after having been forty years in the 

 government of Ireland, died at Cletty, the bone 

 of a salmon having stuck in his throat, through the 

 Sheevra, whom Mailgenn, the druid, induced to 

 attack him, after Cormac had turned from the 

 druids to the adoration of God; wherefore a 

 demon attacked him at the instigation of the dru- 

 ids, and gave him a painful death. It is Cormac 

 who composed the Teagasc na Hiogh, to preserve 

 manners, morals, and government in the kingdom. 

 He was an illustrious author in laws, synchronisms 

 and history ; for it is he that promulgated law, 

 rule and regulation for each science, and for each 

 covenant according to justice : so that it is his 

 laws that restrained all who adhered to them to 

 the present time. 



It is this Cormac Mac Art also that assembled 

 the chroniclers of Ireland together at Temur, and 

 ordered them to write the Chronicles of Ireland 

 in one book, which was called the Psalter of 

 Temur. It was in that book were [entered] the 

 coeval exploits and synchronisms of the Kings of 

 Ireland with the Kings and Emperors of the world, 

 and of the kings of the provinces with the monarchs 

 of Ireland. It was in it was also written what the 

 monarchs of Ireland were entitled to receive from 

 the provincialists, and what the provincialists [i. e. 

 provincial kings] were entitled to receive from 

 their subjects from the noble to the subaltern. It 



