Mac Neill — Three Poems In Middle-Iruh. 553 



40. Every base tribe, every outlaw that is not slain in vengeance, 

 three hath a king to nurse them, fetters, prison, stocks. 



41. Every offender that is not restrained, every treacherous 

 criminal, from fetters to dungeon, from dungeon to gallows. 



42. I fixed on the Leinstermen a full eric they 



do not boast the attack ; it was arrested and deserved the punish- 

 ment. 



43. I left it to the choice of the territory which eric would be 

 greater, black of land (?) and black of wave,, (or) a hundred ounces 

 and a hundred cows. 



44. To every fool folly, to every foe death, to every strong his 

 land, to every wretch his feebleness. ^ 



45. This is the right teaching I teach to my seed, that better is 

 their early death than the over-weakness of their kings. 



46. "With a king, Fiachu, the end of thy story to thee, let it not 

 be a dealing with an after-dealing,- child of my son. 



^ tren and truag are often contrasted. They seem to mean respectively a 

 man fit to serve in war and a man unfit to serve. 

 2 i.e. deal decisively, once for all. 



[Additional Notes. 



