132 Mr. Petbie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 



Q t)ubain, — nap coicep cam, 

 CiD, on, ciD Dia ca Cematp ? 

 t)o bi can, ba call coill cam, 

 Q n-aimpip mic am Ollcam, 

 No 50 po piece m coill cap 

 L\ai mac Caijne leacanglap. 

 O pm amac ba t)puim 6eir, — 

 Q h-apbup ba hapbup meich, — 

 No 30 copacc Cam jan cpao, 

 niac pen piaca Ceinopmoam. 

 O pin amac ba t)puim Cam, 

 In culac cup cejoip maip. 

 No 50 copacc Cpopino cam, 

 Injean QUoio oUblaoaij. 

 Cacaip Cpopmo, nip bo cam, 

 Q hamm ac Cuaca t)e tDanann, 

 Igop copacc Cea nap cle, 

 6ean 6pemom 50 n-apojne. 

 Ro claicea clao im a ceac 

 Q5 Cea, mjm Cuijoeach, 

 Xi.0 h-aonacc 'n-a mup amui 5, 

 Conao uaici ca Cemuip. 

 popoD na pig ba hamm di ; 

 RijpaiD mac IDileo moci ; 

 Cuij anmano urppi ap pm, 

 O popopuim gu Cemaip. 

 1p mipi pincan pili, 

 Nip pam ejni en I mm, 

 Ip ann pom cojbao ap pm, 

 Qp an poo bpuj op Cemaip, 



! Dubhan, — ye venerable five. 

 Whence so named is Teamhair ?* 



There vfas a time, when it was a fine hazel wood, 



In the time of the famed son of Olcan, 



Until felled that knotty wood 



Liafh, the son of Laigin Leathan-glas. 



From thence it was [called^ Druim Leiih, — 



Its corn was rich corn, — 



Until the coming of Cain without misery, ' 



The son of Fiacha Ceimifinnan. 



From that time forth it was [called] Druim Cain, 



This hill to which the great were wont to go, 



Until the coming of Crofin the fair. 



Daughter of the far-famed Alloid. 



Cathair Crofinn, not inapplicable 



Was its name among the Tuatha-De-Dananns, 



Until the coming of Tea, the just, 



Wife of Heremon of the noble aspect. 



A wall was raised around her house 



For Tea, the daughter of Lughaidh, 



[And] she was interred in her wall outside, 



So that from her is Tea-mur. 



Foradh [seat] of the kings was its appellation; 



Kings of the sons of Milidh (ruled) in it ; 



Five names it had before then, 



From Fordruim to Teamhair. 



1 am Fintan the poet, 



I was not the salmon of one flood, 



Where I was after that raised 



W'as on the sod-fort over Teamhair'. 



• Fintan is here represented as addressing the five oldest men in Ireland, by whom the traditions of the country are 

 said to have been preserved. These vvere Tuan Mac Cairill of Ulster, Finnchadli of Leinster, Bran of Burren, in 

 North Munster, Cu-alladh of Cruachain Conallaidh, probably in South Munster, and Dubhan of Connaught Fintan, 

 himself, on whom this poem is fathered, was believed, by the old Irish Shanachies, to have lived from the time of tiie 

 first colony which came into Ireland, until the reign of Dermot Mac Ceirbheoil; having during this period undergone 

 various transmigrations. For an account ot Fintan , see a curious story \n Leakhar na h-Uidhre; and for the traditional 

 account of the five seniors here mentioned, see the Leabhar Buidhe of the Mac Firbises, p. 244. O'Flaherty remarks on 

 this legend, that it might be inferred from it that the Irish Druids held the doctrine of the Metempsychosis : " Ex hac 

 autem fabul^ coUigere est Fythagoricae, ac Platonicse scholse de animarum migratione, sen in quaevis corpora reditu, 

 deliramenta apud Ethnicos nostros Druidas viguisse." — Ogygia, p. 4. But a mote important inference, which may be 

 drawn from it, is, that the fictions relative to the early colonization of Ireland were first concocted in the reign of Dermot. 



