166 Mr. Petrie on the Histcyry and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 



The well, Caprach- Cormaice, which is described both in the verse and in 

 the prose accounts, as situated under Rath na Riogh to the east, and conse- 

 quently south of the well Neamhnach, is no longer to be found ; nor is any 

 tradition of its former existence now preserved ; but the name Caprach, or 

 Cabrach, as it is written by the O'Clerys, is still preserved in the adjacent 

 townland, through which, its streamlet evidently flowed. No certain etymology 

 of this word Cabrach can be given, though it is the name of several townlands 

 in Ireland. According to the prose account, this well had three other names : 

 Liagh, Tipra-bo-Jinne, and Deare dubh ;* of these, the first, Liagh, signifies a 

 physician, cognately with the English word Leech ; the second, Tipra-bo-Jinne^ 

 the well of the white cow ; the third, Deare-dubh, the dark eye.f 



The third and last of these wells is that called Laegh, situated, according to 

 the verse and prose accounts, on the slope of the hill west of Rath na Riogh, and 

 sending a stream directly westwards. This well is also dried up, or diverted 

 from its original situation, but the ground immediately below its site is still 

 watery. The signification of the name of this well is placed beyond conjecture 

 by an ancient Irish saying, quoted in the prose description, in allusion to its 

 situation as contradistinguished from that of the well Liagh : " The cdXi {Laegh) 

 never goes to the physician, (Liagh,) the one," it adds, "being to the east and 

 the other to the west of Temur." The meaning of the name is also explained in 

 a passage full of interest, in Tlrechan's annotations on the life of St. Patrick, 

 — fol. 10, b, 1. 



Porro fundavit aeclesiam i Carrie Dagri, Moreover he founded a church at Carrie 



et alteram aeclesiam immruig TTiuaithe, et Dagri, and another church at Mruig Thuaiihe, and 



* In Cuan O'Lochain's poem, as preserved in the O'Clerys' Leahhar Gabhala, the three addi- 

 tional names of this well are Lia, Daelduhh, and Duirhh Tuath-linde. In the copy preserved in 

 the Book of Ballymote the three names are Dael, Duirbh Tuath-linde, and Tipra Bofinne. In 

 another poem, ascribed to Caoilte, describing Tara, mention is made of a well at Tara, called Poll 

 tocair na tuiliche, which is probably only another name for this. It is described as boiling with 

 great strength from the ground, and as having been used for the ordeal by water — the guilty person 

 who went into it being marked with a black spot on his skin, and the innocent one appearing fairer 

 than ever. 



f Thus in Hebrew, "ilJ"]"'^, " kid's eye" — the En-gedi of Scripture. Eye is commonly used 

 for well in Hebrew. 



