168 



the history of the prohibition given to Adam and Eve against 

 touching the forbidden fruit. The poet says that he heard it 

 as a tradition that Adam had been one thousand years and six 

 hours in Paradise, before his transgression. 



The seventh poem describes the tempting of Eve and the 

 fall of man. 



This must suffice as a specimen of the work, for time did 

 not permit a complete perusal of it. All that could be done 

 was to make a list of the first lines of each poem, for the pur- 

 pose of identifying them if they should chance to turn up in 

 any collection here or elsewhere, or if any fragment of the 

 work should by chance be met with in this country. 



A fragment in the possession of Mr. Curry, was written 

 in the county Leitrim in 1727 ; and as the Oxford copy was 

 deposited in the Bodleian by Archbishop Laud, it follows 

 that there must have been another copy in Ireland in the be- 

 ginning of the eighteenth century. It would be very desira- 

 ble to ascertain where this copy now is ; and the fact is here 

 noticed in the hope that some member of the Academy may 

 have it in his power to make it known, if not to secure it for 

 our library. 



Amongst the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum is a 

 small manuscript volume, described in the printed catalogue as 

 a copy of Psaltar na Bann, and stated to be in the handwriting 

 of the learned Irish scholar, Peter O' Connell, of the county 

 Clare, who died in 1824. 



Both these statements are mistakes. Mr. Curry found on 

 examining the MS. that it is not a copy of the Psaltar na Bann, 

 nor in the handwriting of Peter O'Connell. It turns out to be 

 an Irish Martyrology, in verse, of much more recent date than 

 the Psaltar na Bann, and in the handwriting of the celebrated 

 Duald Mac Firbis, who was murdered in 1666. 



It is time, however, to return to the Bodleian MS. 



The Psaltar na Bann occupies thirty-nine folios. 



At fol. 40 we have a curious poem, very much of the 



