[ ^oS ] 



Cairbre. " Exchange* the head of the fpear, but keep the 

 " ftcm." 



Oscar. " It is unjuft to 'make this demand. But you afk 

 " it becaufc the Fians and my father are not here." 



Cairbre. " Although the Fians and your father were here, 

 " as they were the beft day of their lives, I would infifl by my 

 " authority on obtaining whatever I fhould demand." 



Oscar. " If the Fians and my father were here in half their 

 " prime, we would by force prevent you from poffeffing the 

 " breadth of one foot of Ireland." 



Then red-haired Cairbre uttered furious words, that he would 

 hunt and drive cattle from Almhuin' the following day. The 

 valiant, the noble Ofcar replied, in words equally furious, that 

 he would hunt and drive cattle to Almhuin the following day. 

 All that night 'till day, while the chiefs of the Fians banqueted, 

 an2;ry words on either fide pafTed between Cairbre and Ofcar. 

 We and our valiant hoft arofe the next day, and carried off the 

 cattle of Ireland, twelve from every province. 



■' Mr. Mc. Pherfon fays it was ufual at their feafls for the hoft and his gueft to 

 exchange fpears. He here makes Cairbre call Ofcar " fon of woody Morven," with- 

 out any authority from the original, in order to fupport his indefenfible fidion, that 

 Ofllan was of that country. This, however, is but tie Jlight addition of an epithet, as 

 Doftor Blair terms it, in his elegant diflertation on the authenticity of thefe poems. 



' In the original it is fpell'd Mbin, and fometimes in Erfe poetry it is written 

 AUhein 2.r\A Almhiin. In the edition of Perth, page 316, it is written Alb:itn, and 

 in page 305, Albhainn and Jlmhain. Almhuin, now the hill of Allen, was the pa- 

 lace of Fin and Ofllan in Leinfter, as we have alre.idy obferved, and is not many 

 miles diftance from Tara ; fo that Cairbre could eafily put his threat in execution, of 

 making an incurfion, the next day, into the territories of Fin. It was the corrupt 



orthograpky 



