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



the Book of Glendalough, Leahhar na h-Uidhre, and other ancient vellum 

 MSS., and are all well worthy of translation, no less as specimens of the popular 

 literature of their times, than as illustrations of the ancient manners, customs, and 

 topography of Ireland. They are all in prose, but contain lyrical pieces, intro- 

 duced to relieve the monotony of recitation ; and there is no doubt that, as 

 stated in the MSS., they were recited and sung at public entertainments — ^being, 

 as Mr. OTlanagan well remarks, the substitutes of the Irish for the dramatic 

 entertainments of Greece and Rome. A specimen of these romantic tales, very 

 accurately translated by Mr. O'Flanagan, will be found in the Transactions of 

 the Gffilic Society of Dublin, 1808. It is entitled " Delrdrl, or the Lamentable 

 Fate of the Sons of Usnach." 



The only ancient topographical features of Tara Hill, which now remain to 

 be noticed, are the ancient roads which led to it from the dliferent provinces of 

 Ireland. These roads are not described in the ancient documents hitherto used, 

 but notices of them occur frequently in Irish histories, and their number, names, 

 and historic origins, are stated in the same topographical tract — the Dinnsean- 

 chus — from which the accounts of the monuments of Tara already given have 

 been chiefly derived. They are thus enumerated by O'FIaherty, in his account 

 of the reign of Conn of the Hundred Battles, on the night of whose birth they 

 are recorded to have been found, or perhaps made ; and who, according to 

 O'Flaherty's chronology, ascended the throne of Temur in the year 177. — 

 " Quinque viae Temorlam versus, qua? Qulnto rege nascente fuerunt, ut aiunt, 

 detects, hae memorantur ; Slighe-asuil, Sllghe-mldhluachra, Sllghe-cualann, 

 Slighe-mhor, ubi Eskir-rieda se obvlam offert, et Slighe-dhala. — Ogygia, 

 p. 314. 



The original account of these roads, as given in the Dinnseanchus, is as 

 follows. Book of Leacan, f. 239» p. b, col. 1 : 



Coic ppim-potc 6penn, .i. Sliji Oala, The five principal roads of Ireland, viz., Sligi 



ocup Sliji Clpail, ocup Sliji mioluacpa, Dala, and Sligi Asail, and Sligi Midluachra, 



ocup SI'S' Chualann, Sliji TTIop. and Sligi Cualann, [and] Sligi Mor. 



Sliji Qpail cheaoamup pup puaip Qpal, First, of Sligi Asail, which was discovered by 



mac tDoipoomblaip pia n-oibeapjachaib Asal, the son of Dordomblas, before the plunder- 



TTIiDi, ac copoccain co UempaiD. ers of Meath, in going to Teamur. 



Sliji mioluachpa oon pop puaip TTlio- S^i^J.^tW/wocAra was discovered by Midluach- 



luachaip mac Oamaipne mac Ouipalraich air, the son of Damairne, son of Dupaltach, son of 



