Frrceuson—On the Legend of Dathi. 181 
that on an understructure of stone a clay upper storey was erected. 
The definite dimensions given in the text, from which the building 
appears to have been twenty-two feet in diameter and sixty feet high, 
will, to most minds, convey the impression that the story, wild as it 
is, originates in some foundation of fact. The tale, as told in the Book 
of Lecan, may now be compared with the above extract from Ucdhre. 
That the one document is not copied or abridged from the other appears 
by a discrepancy in these dimensions, the distance of the dweller in 
the middle of the tower from the light being eleven feet in the tract 
in Uidhre, and seventeen feet in that of the ‘‘ Book of Lecan,”’ 
“‘ Dogob iarum Dathi mac Fiachrach mic Echach Muidmedoin rigi n-Erend re 
secht mbliadna fichet, corthabaid in boroma cen cath. Nocortriall soir for lorg 
Neill, coranic co slab n-Elpa. Corothecaim do annsin tor i roibi Formenius ri 
traicia iar facbail a rigi, ogus iar toga na beatha coimdeata isin torsin, coroibi 
seacht cubaid deg soillsi uada. Corothogailsead Muinter Dathi a thor fair, co 
facaid soillsi i sligi na togla, corofiarfaid Formenius, cia doroindi in togail, olse. 
Dohindised corbe Dathi cona Muinter doroindi in togail. Doguidistair Formenius 
intaen[dJia nach beith flaithius Dathi ni bud faidina sin. Cotanic soiged gelan 
do nim tre guidi an fireoin, cor marb in rig a fiadnaisi int [s|luaig. Airmid 
eolach corab e Formenius fen do dibraic saigid afidbac 7 corob di fa marb in rig. 
Ocus adearar corob don t[{s]aigid hisin romarbad Niall mac Kchach iarum. 
Cotucsad fir Erenn corp in rig leo co hErind 7 ceathrar da aes grada fen oca 
iomchor .1. Dungus ocus Flandgus, ocus Tuathal ocus Tomaltach. Corobris deich 
catha o sleb elpa co hErind, ocus se marb cen anmain.’’—(Book of Lecan, 
p. 602 d.) 
‘¢Dathi, son of Fiachra, son of Eochaid Murghmedhon, took the kingship of 
Erin for twenty-seven years, and exacted the Borw without contest. He ventured 
eastward on the track of Nial till he came to the Alp mountain, and reached there a 
tower wherein was Formenius, king of Thracia, who had left his kingdom and 
chosen a holy life in that tower, where it was seventeen cubits to the light from him ; 
whereupon the people of Dathi demolished the tower about him, so that he saw the 
light in the aperture of the breach. Whereupon Formenius demanded who made 
that demolition, and it was answered that it was Dathi with his people that made 
the demolition. Then Formenius prayed the One God that the reign of Dathi 
might endure no longer, and there came an arrow of lightning from heaven through 
the prayer of the holy person, so that it killed the king in the presence of the host. 
(The learned say that it was Formenius himself that discharged the arrow from his 
bow, and that it was by it the king was slain; and they say it was by this same 
arrow that Niall son of Eochaid was slain.) However, the men of Eriu took the 
king’s corpse with them to Eriu, and four of his own men of trust bearing, that is 
Dungus and Flangus, and Tuathal and Tomaltach, so that he broke ten battles 
from the Alp mountains to Eriu, and he dead without life.”’ 
As regards Formenius, Parmenius, or Firminus himself, it appears 
impossible to identify any king of Thrace with a personage of that 
name. A Thracian connexion might indeed be claimed for the Franks, 
who most probably at that time were seated not far from the scene of 
Dathi’s disaster ; seeing that only fifty years afterwards they are set 
down by Stephen of Byzantium as ‘a nation” presumably settled 
