46 Mr. Petrie on the Historic and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 



Ino a nolij cecli pi cuiccio, What each king of a province is entitled to, 



Ino a nolij pi Cempach coip "What the King of Temur in the east is entitled to 



t)o pij cec CU1CCID ceolriioip. From the king of each harmonious province. 



Coimjniu comaimpepai caich, The chronology and synchronism of all, 



Cech pij Die poile oopaich, Of each king with each other, completely, 



Cpiochao cech coiccid o cpuaic, The boundaries of each province from the hill, 



O ca cpaijiD CO qiom cuair. From thBTraigid to the heavy [large] tuaith. 



Cpicha ap cpichaiD ceo nop geiB Thirty above a Triocha ched [barony] it finds 



t)o qiichuib ceo cec cuiccio. Of Triocha cheds in each province. 



In cech cuiceo oiB a ca In each province of them are 



Secc ppim picic ppim oingna. Seven full score of chief fortresses. 



A stronger objection, however, than any of the preceding, and which would 

 apply to the other works ascribed to Cormac, as well as to the one in question, is 

 the general belief of the learned that the Irish were wholly unacquainted with 

 letters until the establishment of Christianity in the middle of the fifth century. 



To the preceding objections it may, however, be answered, that it is not 

 likely that a work called the Psalter of Tara could be thus referred to in a 

 genuine poem of the eleventh century, written by one of the most distinguished 

 men of his time, if such a work had not, at least, an existence in the popular 

 traditions of the time ; and it may be further argued, that it is difficult, if not 

 impossible, to conceive how the minute and apparently accurate accounts found 

 in various MSS. of the names and localities of the Atticotic tribes of Ireland in 

 the first century, could have been preserved, without coming to the conclusion, 

 that they had been committed to writing in some work, whatever may have been 

 its original name, within a century or two of the times to which they relate. 



It may be also urged, that, without conceding the use of letters to the Irish 

 generally before the establishment of Christianity in Ireland, there is nothing 

 improbable in the supposition that their use might have been known to a few, 

 and, among those, to Cormac. Even the sceptical Innes says, "It may have very 

 well happened that some of the Irish before that time, passing over to Britain or 

 other parts of the Roman empire, where the use of letters was common, might 

 have learned to read and write." The probability, moreover, that Cormac did 

 not share in the imputed illiterateness of his countrymen, will be greatly increased 

 by a consideration of the ancient tradition of his being an author, and still more 

 from the sufficiently conclusive evidences derived from all the ancient authorities 

 of his belief in the true God. But, without insisting on this argument, it may be 



