Frrcuson—On the Legend of Dathi. 167 
XXXII.—On tHe Lecenp oF Datur. By Sim Samver Fercuson, 
LL.D., Q.C., a Vice-President of the Academy. 
[Read, February 13, 1882. | 
Tue oldest historic writings of the Irish allege that, after the death 
of Nial of the Nine Hostages, who is said to have been slain during a 
predatory expedition into Gaul, about a.p. 405, his nephew and suc- 
cessor, Feradach,} afterwards called Dathi,? having followed his uncle’s 
example in again invading the Continent of Europe, was killed by 
lightning at the Alps.» The date of this event is given by the majo- 
rity of Irish chronologists at 4.p. 428, being the first year of Leoghaire, 
Dathi’s successor in the monarchy. Leoghaire’s accession, however, 
is placed by the compiler of the Annals of Boyle at a.p. 426. 
The direction taken by Dathi, further than that he followed in the 
track of Nial, and was killed somewhere ‘“‘ at the Alps,” is not directly 
indicated in the older books now known to us. 
Nial is said to have been slain on the banks of the Loire; and 
hence it has been supposed that Dathi’s death took place somewhere 
in France.* An expression, however, in the poem ascribed to Torna 
Kigeas, said to be a cotemporary, which we find incorporated in the 
account of Dathi’s expedition, in Lebor na h’Uidhre, taken in con- 
nexion with the then condition of Roman affairs in the Sub-Alpine 
provinces of the empire, offers a more tangible ground for conjecture. 
The bard, contrasting the then notoriety of the place of Dathi’s death 
with the obscurity of his place of burial, refers to his death as having 
1 Keating gives Feradhach as the original name; on what authority does not 
appear (Hy-Fiachrach, p. 20). 
2 Both Keating and Mac Firbis regard Dathi as an adnomen, referring to his 
agility. Mac Firbis states he got the designation ‘‘in the East,’’ that is, on the 
Continent. If so, a German or Frankish origin might be suggested. 
3 The old Irish idea of the situation and extent of the Alps may be collected 
from the Geographical Poem of Mac Cossa (Book of Leinster Facs, 136 a). Having 
spoken of Italy (etail), the author says :— 
‘¢ Sliab Ailp et’ra is Gallia 
Muir in a timcholl a muirn 
Ota libaist co liburn.’’ 
Where /idaist seems written for ligaist (Ligusticum mare), and the meaning appears 
to be— 
“¢ Between it (Italy) and Gallia the Alp mountain, 
[A wall, in a curve its groups ? | 
From Liguria to Liburnia (Carinthia and Croatia). 
4 Tt may be doubted whether Keating, who states it to have happened w'ien 
Dathi was ag deanamh congcuis air an bh’-Frainge, indicated the France of his own, 
or the Frank-land of Dathi’s period. 
