Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 225 



According to the same authority the Rath of Conchobhar Mac Nesa was 

 situated beside the Tredumha to the north, with its door facing the Ceann and 

 Medhi, or Head and Neck of CuchuUin. Near the Medlii were the ruins of the 

 Sciath* Chonchulainn, or Shield of Cuchullin, with its Tull, or hollow. The Rath, 

 it adds, was level with the ground, and there was a small hillock in its centre, with 

 as much of his clay, or ashes, in it as would fill the hollow of his shield.f The 

 verse places all these monuments to the east of the Sheskin, or Moor, and adds 

 another, omitted in the prose, namely, the Grave and Monument of Mai and 

 Midna. 



Of the persons to whom the preceding monuments referred, there is little or 

 nothing to be found in history, with the exception of Conchobhar or Conor Mac 

 Nesa, king of Emania, or Ulster, and his cotemporary the celebrated hero Cuchul- 

 lin. Tighearnach places the death of the first as occurring in the eighth year of 

 the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, or the twenty-second of the Christian Era. 

 His mother Nesi, from whom the adjacent Tredumha, or triple mound, was 

 named, is stated by the same authority to have been the wife of Cathbad the 

 Druid, and to have borne him adulterously ; she is the subject of many revolt- 

 ing legendary Irish stories. 



The death of the hero Cuchullin is thus recorded by Tighearnach at the 

 year 2. 



A. D. 2. Mors Concullainn fortissimi A. D. 2. The death of Cucullainn, the bra- 



herois Scotorum, la lugaiD ITIac na qii Con, vest hero of the Scots, by Lughaidh Mac-na-tri- 



ocup la h-Gpc mac Caipbpe Miapep ; vii. Con, and by Ere, the son of Cairbre Niafer; seven 



Tn-blia6ain a aep in uaip do jab jaipceo ; years his age when he was initiated into the mili- 



xvii. in can bai a n-oiaiD rana bo Cuailjne, tary order ; seventeen when he pursued the cattle 



xxvii, an can ao bach. spoil of Cuailgne, and twenty-seven when he was 



killed. 



The plunder of Cuailgne, the country to the north of Dundalk where Cu- 

 chullin resided and where his Rath still remains, formed the subject of a romance 

 called Tain bo Cuailgne, or the cattle spoil of Cuailgne, which is probably one 



* This would appear to have been a mound of earth resembUng a shield. 



f Can in cela oe huip. The meaning of these words in the prose account was not discovered 

 when the sheet was printed. 



VOL. xviii. 2y 



