196 Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities ofTara Hill. 



In connexion with the ancient history of the Teach Miodhchuarta, there 

 exists another ancient poem, which, from the curious and valuable illustration 

 which it affords of the state of society in Ireland at a very remote period, should 

 on no account be omitted in this memoir. Of this poem two copies are pre- 

 served in ancient vellum MSS., in the College Library ; one, in the Book of 

 Glendalough — a MS. compilation of the twelfth century, H. 2. 18 ; the other 

 in the Leahhar Buidhe, or Yellow Book, of the Mac Firbises of Lecan, H. 2. 16. 

 In both these MSS. the poem is Illustrated by a ground-plan of the principal com- 

 partments of the house, with the names of the several ranks, professions, and 

 trades, which were privileged to sit in them, and the order in which they were loca- 

 ted — with the names of the different portions of the meat to which each was en- 

 titled. And, as the copies of this curious ground-plan are slightly dissimilar, 

 and of different ages, fac-similes are given of both. Of the name or age 

 of the writer of the poem no record remains, but that its antiquity is higher than 

 that of any of the documents already given, and possibly anterior even to the 

 desertion of Tara, will not be doubted by any person conversant with the 

 Irish language ; and indeed the obscurity of the language is so great, from the 

 obsoleteness of the words, that the translation of it has been attended with the 

 greatest labour and difficulty, and in several instances it has been impossible to 

 determine with certainty the meaning of the names of the things described. An 

 attempt to illustrate this singular remain was made by the late Genei'al Vallancey, — 

 with what success may be judged from the translation here given. To the poem is 

 prefixed a prose preface, giving descriptions of the House of Laoghaire, the House 

 of Cormac, and the Teach Miodhchuarta, or Banqueting-Hall ; and the accuracy 

 of these descriptions is sustained by the existing remains of the monuments, 

 nor indeed is there, either in the prose or verse, anything Inconsistent with 

 probability. It may, perhaps, be objected that no accurate accounts of this 

 kind could have been preserved from so early a period as that anterior to the 

 desertion of Tara, but that the use of letters was prevalent in Ireland very near, 

 if not at, the time to which these descriptions refer, has been shewn in the 

 earlier portions of this memoir ; and from the poem of Cuan O'Lochain it 

 appears that the customs observed at Tara were continued by the Irish kings in 

 his own time. 



" There exist still people like them, 

 With kings and with princes." 



