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of being so visited was sought for with pride and satisfaction 

 by the kings of Ireland. 



Seanchan having consulted with his people, they decided 

 on giving the distinguished preference of their first visitation 

 to his own provincial king, Guaire the Hospitable, king of Con- 

 nacht. They were received hospitably and joyfully at the 

 king's palace, at the place now called Gort, in the county of 

 Galway. During the sojourn of Senchan at Gort, his wife, 

 Bridget, on one occasion sent him from her own table a 

 portion of a certain favourite dish. Senchan was not in his 

 apartment when the servant arrived there ; but the dish was 

 left there, and the servant returned to her mistress. On Sen- 

 chan's return, he found a dish from his wife's table on his 

 own ; and, eagerly examining it, he was sadly disappointed at 

 finding that it contained nothing but a fewfragments of gnawed 

 bones. Shortly after, the same servant returned for the dish, 

 and Senchan asked what its contents had been. The maid 

 explained it to him, and the angry poet threw an unmistake- 

 able glance of suspicion on her. She, under his glance, at once 

 asserted her own innocence, and stated at the same time, that 

 as no person could have entered the apartment from the time 

 that she left until he returned to it, the dish must have been 

 emptied by mice* 



Senchan believed the girl's account, and vowed that he 

 would make the mice pay for their depredations, and then he 

 composed a metrical satire on them. Of this we have but two 

 and an half quatrains, of which the following is a literal trans- 

 lation : — 



Mice, though sharp their snouts, 

 Are not powerful in battles ; 

 I will bring death on the party 

 For having eaten Bridget's present. 



* Luch is the generic name, and is qualified by mor, big, as Luch Mhor, 

 a big mouse, or a rat. The modern Francach, literally a Frenchman, now used 

 for a rat, is not found in any ancient Irish document known to the writer. 



