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



hie est vir ille cui vidi torquem meatn dari. Tunc sapientes dixerunt regi. Regnuin Hybernie 

 usque nunc erat reglbus ; a modo dividetur inter sanctos Hybernie regnum tuum O Bex. Et hie 

 sanetus magnam parrochiam per Hyberniam habebit. Hoc sompnium et interpretacionem ejus 

 audiens sanetus Brendanus ait ad omnes. Ita erit, quia Deum colentibus hie et in futuro bona da- 

 buntur, ut est illud : Querite primum regnum Dei et alia bona addentur vobis. Et Rex Diarmoyt 

 honorem dedit saneto Brendano, justi tenax enim et CathoUcus erat ipse rex." 



Though the name of the original wearer of the Tara Torques is, perhaps, 

 now lost beyond the possibility of recovery, yet the certainty of their locality 

 invests them with a high degree of antiquarian interest, and goes far towards 

 determining their antiquity, which, there can scarcely be a doubt, is at least 

 anterior to the desertion of Tara, in the sixth century. 



The monuments next noticed in the prose account, as being in the immediate 

 vicinity of the Grave of the Dwarf, and north of the Rath of the Synods, are 

 the mounds called Dall and Dorcha — the tombs of the two blind mendicants so 

 named, who slew each other. The accounts of the situation of these monuments, 

 as given both in the prose and verse, are very indistinct ; the prose, as given in 

 most copies, states, that they were to the north of the Dwarfs Grave, Dall 

 towards the south, and Dorcha towards the west ; or, as given in the Book of 

 Glendalough, Dall the name of the western mound, and Dorcha the name of 

 the eastern. From the indistinctness and apparent contradiction in these 

 accounts, it is not possible to assign, with any degree of certainty, the proper 

 names to the two mounds, which still remain to the north and north-west of the 

 Rath of the Synods ; but there can be but little doubt that they are the mounds 

 alluded to, as otherwise they would be unnoticed features in all the descriptions. 



The next existing monument, which these records identify with certainty, is 

 the Teach-Miodhchuarta, or Banqueting Hall, so celebrated in Irish history and 

 tradition. Of this building, the verse only states, that it was called Long na 

 Laec — the House of the Heroes ; bapc na m-ban — the House of the Women ; 

 Ceac na Laec — the House of the Heroes; and adds, that it was no weak house, 

 and that it had fourteen doors. The words long and hare, applied by the poet 

 to this edifice, both which literally signify a ship, have evidently a figurative 

 reference to the long shape of the building, a form very rare in Ireland, and of 

 which this hall was probably the first instance previously to the introduction of 

 Christianity into the country. The word long is explained by Cormac Mac Cul- 



