NOTES. 77 



Espatii tanic ar seirc Conculaind co Etnain.'' LL. p. 254 b. Cuchulaind's principal 

 teacher in the use of weapons was the lady Scathach Buanand ingtn Ardgeimme il-Letha 

 (LL. p. 107 a. 44) who had a kind of military academy in Scotland whither the noblest 

 sons of Erinn were sent to accomplish their military education. ' Is ed tra airmit araili 

 slechta co m-hatar drem do lathaib gaile na hErenn isin dunad so icfoglaim cles la Scathaig 

 ./'. Ferdia mac Damain 7 Naisi mac Uisnech 7 Lochmor mac Egomais 7 Fiamain mac Forai 

 7 drem diairmidi aili olchena.' Tochm. Em. Stowe MS. 992 fo. 833. i. One of the 

 adversaries of Scathach was another warrior queen Aife, who was at last subdued by 

 Cuchulaind, and by him became mother of Conlaech, the Irish Sohrab. Another 

 female warrior was Ness, the daughter of Eochu Saibuide and mother of Conchobur. 

 See the Compert Conchobuir, Rev. Celt. VL p. 174. In the LBr. notcs to the Felire 

 (Stokes' ed. p. cxlvi) it is told how Adamnan, at the request of his mother Ronait who 

 had seen two woiiien fighting with iron sickles on INIag Breg, freed the women of Erinn 

 from fight and foray for ever ; and one of the four laws of Erinn is that of Adamnan, 

 not to kill women {caiii Adamnain cen na mna do marbad, I. c. p. cxlvii). 



40. Instead of tnaithreac we ought probably to read maithneach. Cf. gola trbga 

 maithnecha LBr. i^ob. bcbail tnaithnech ib. 



ib. The tnurduchu, mermaid, or siren, is introduced into Irish fiction from the Odyssey 

 (of which there exists a curious Irish version called Merugud luliux in the Stowe iNIS. 

 992 ^) in a tale of the mythological cycle LL. p. 3 a : is e Cacher drui dorat in leges dbib 

 dia m-bbi in murduchand oc a medrad .i. bbi in cotlud oc a forrach frisin ceol. Is e in leges 

 fuair Cacher dbib .i. ce^ir do legad ^na cluasaib. ' It was this druid Cacher that gave them 

 (viz. the Goidels) the medicine when the siren was enticing them, to wit, it was the 

 sleep . . . . at the music. This is the medicine which Cacher found for them, to wit, 

 wax to be melted in their ears.' Cf. LL. p. 4 a. In the same way in the story of the 

 wonderful yew tree called Ibar macc n-angcis, Ailill and Ferches put wax in their ears 

 in order not to hear the song of the aes side, *that puts men to sleep.' In the Dind- 

 senchus, or Topography of Port Lairge (Waterford), LL. p. 197 a, it is told how Rot mac 

 Cinthaing Cetguinich was in the Sea of Wight, when he heard a voice (called dord na 

 murdiichand in the metrical version of this tale, LL. p. 169 a). ' It was a word of great 

 bane, the voice of the mermaids of the sea, above the side-pure waves. IMore beautiful 

 are the nymphs than any possession, fairer than any man they were of shape, their 

 bcdies above the waves of the flood, with the golden yellow locks. The men of this 

 world used to fall asleep at their voice, at their clear cries,' &c. Mac Cithaing fell in 

 love with one of them, but found no return. 'Evil was the custom of those women. 

 He was choked, he was killed, and his body was bound.' In the prose account it says 

 'the beasts devoured him.' Another kind of mermaid is the samguha. In the Dind- 

 senchus of Ess Rtiaid (LL. 165 a and 213 a) it is told how Rliad, the daughter of Mane 

 Millscothach, came in a vessel to some estuary, fell asleep at the dordsid na samguba and 

 glided overboard. Or, as the prose account has it : ^ co cuala dord na samgiiba issind 



^ The story of Ulixes is also alluded to in Ihe poem of Gilla in Chomded LL. p. 143^, 

 30 seqq. 



