Mac Neill — Three Poems in Middle- Irish. 537 



18. He will leave with me here one from whom my protection 



comes ; (9) 

 It will be the more [on that account] that my story will be 

 great in a house of kings. 



19. In avenging our wounds, I and my saint, 



I shall be the great burden,^ and my fire by my side. 



20. "Woe to the youth of my seed who out of eviP will come to us ; 

 He shall be punished forthwith, woe to his son and his grandson. 



21. "Woe to the king till splendid doom who will take an advan- 



tage of my saint ; 

 To Tara of the three, (10) ye see, it will not be pleasant. 



22. The king of Tara of the three without Ireland in his hand 

 Till doom he shall not be king until he comes to us. 



23. Let him fast three days here, his own will he shall have, 

 I with him, and my saint, his own will he shall have. 



24. [Let] my washing^ [be done] speedily from the well of the three, 

 [Let] my clean bright body [be] in the pleasant hillock. (11) 



25. I am Art, God, having no son in the body ; 



I pity the world without corn till he comes. (12) 



26. It will be an advantage to Ireland at a time if I leave the 



treasure 

 From my journey to 01c' s house before the agony of my 

 pleasant body. 



27. There will be burying me splendidly after the washing of 



my sides 

 A. bird with strong cries out of sight of free hosts. 



28. I thank my King [that] before meeting my saint 

 My body [is] to be at ease in the pure pleasant place. 



29. Por till the ending of my King, better filth than any wealth, 

 My perfect body in the grave, with its hard fair stone. 



1 eire also = primas. 



^ Or, 'whose evil.' Cf. isa libair = cujus libri, Todd v., p. 10 ; a Brigit isa 

 tlr atchiu, ' B. whose land I see,' LL. 49^. 



^ From donigim (cf. 17). Modern tonachadh, the 'laying out' of a corpse for 

 biirial, Gaelic Journal, No. 65, p. 110. 



