63 



seated at Magh Plagha,'"^- in the N. part of the county Ros- 

 common. O'Flaherty,'^^- on the authority of St. Adamnan's Hfe 

 of St. Cokunba, and on that of St. Comgallus' life of St. Patrick, 

 assigns them that large district in the county Antrim, which in 

 early ages was called Dalnaradia. They were denominated 

 Cruilnigh, and their country Cruithin tuath, by the Irish. This 

 appellation is variously defined : by some from cruintiacd, wheat, 

 which in pronunciation is very different from Cruitneach, a Pict. 

 Cruit denotes indifferently a harp, violin, or hunch on the back ; 

 and in all those significations it is pronounced alike. But, used 

 substantively, Cruitneach has but two meanings : a Pict or a 

 humpy man, and in the plural it also metins Picts or humpy 

 people. From this agreement, and the propensity of the Irish 

 for nicknames, it may be inferred, that this appellation was ap- 

 plied in derision ; perhaps from the circumstance of a few de- 

 formed persons having been seen among them. This tribe pro- 

 bably joined in an Irish emigration to Scotland. 



OF THE FEINNE OU FINNLANDERS. 



I have ah'eady hinted at the difficulty of ascertaining whence 

 some foreign tribes came to Ireland, and accounted for the cause. 

 Amidst this number we may include the Feinne, or f^iann Ei- 

 rean, whose history is involved in error and clouded with ro- 

 mance. The import of their denomination sunk gradually from 

 its original meaning into that of the militia of Ireland ; and 

 some ages elapsed, before it attracted the notice of antiqua- 

 rianism, when it was wildly derived from, and considered of 



162, Pronounced mi ploxo : the verdant plain. 



163. Ogyg. p. 189. 



