Mr. Petkie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 185 



lenan as a ship — " ah eo quod est longa ;" and again, " Long .1. Saxanbepla, i. e. 

 lanj .1. paoa, et inde dicitur Long." — a ship.* The prose account describes 

 with great accuracy its situation and form. Long na m-han, i. e. Teach- 

 Miodchuarta, lies to the north-west of the eastern mound. Its ruins are situated 

 thus : the lower part to the north and the higher part to the south, and walls are 

 raised about it to the east and to the west ; the northern side of it is enclosed and 

 small ; the lie of it is from north to south. Thefuath (foundation) of this long 

 house has twelve doors upon it, or fourteen, seven to the west and seven to the 

 east. It is said, that it was here that the Feis Teamhrach — meeting or 

 assembly of Temur — was held, which seems true, as so many men would fit in it 

 as would form the choice part of the men of Ireland. This was the great house 

 of the thousand soldiers. 



The situation of this ruin is on the north slope of the hill, and its lie, or 

 direction, is very nearly north and south. Its length, taken from the road, is 

 759 f., and its present breadth at the bottom is 46 f., but its original breadth must 

 have been about 90. The accompanying section, which is from south to north, and 

 on a scale of 150 f. to an inch, will shew the slopes and measurements of the 

 length of the building as at present remaining ; but the original length must 

 have been greater, as the northern end appears to have been cut away by the 

 road. 



It will be seen, that the bottom of the Hall has not a regular slope from the 



* He elsewhere derives the word lonj, a ship, from the Latin longus. "tonj bip pop muip, ah 

 eo quod est longa .1. lang .1. poca .1. poca Bip pop muip." i. e. Long, that is on the sea, ah eo 

 quod est longa, i. e. lang, i. e. long, i. e. it is long on the sea. Whether Cormac be right or not in 

 his supposition that the word long, as applied to a ship, was derived from the Saxon, it is probable 

 that long, as an adjective, must have been an original word in the Irish, as a branch of the Indo- 

 European family of languages ; and it appears even to have been applied to a ship at a very remote 

 period, from the epithet Loingseach, mariner, applied to Labhra, an Irish monarch, who led a Gaul- 

 ish colony into Ireland before the Christian era. 



VOL. XVIII. 2 a 



