242 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



of their waists." The tale has come down to us in a condition too fragmen- 

 tary for us to make much of it ; but, even in its mutilated condition, it 

 presents one or two noteworthy points. In the first place, it involves either 

 an anachronism, or an indication that Eaith Loeguiri was not originally built 

 by the king whose name it bears. It must have been in existence some 

 two centuries before the time of Loeguire. it' the unlucky warriors con- 

 temporary with Cormac wore playing a game outside its walls. In the second 

 place, the tale bears a close family resemblance to the legend of how Conall 

 rnacb found two youths playing with the head of Cu-Chulaind; indeed, 

 - > in as tlit? soauty materials before us permit us to judge, we may reason- 

 ably the one Btoi by-form of the oilier. As in the case of 

 Mairisiu, we may suspect here a confusion of son,,, kind: a tale, properly 

 belonging elsewhere, is told to account for a monument of which the true 

 origin had bi _ tten. Audit need Bcarcely be pointed out that it does 

 at for the monument .' 

 I. gives us a different version of the story, which is, if anything, even 



more corrupt and obt e. Here only < i the four seems to have been 



Bingled out .1- a victim, and Mata cast .1 Btoue "so that the warrior died of 

 it." 'I'll ot help us much, 



80 t.u as I .mi aware, the name Mata is not found elsewhere in any con- 

 nexion with 1 ormac and his cycle. It reappears in literature, howevei 

 that of monstei connected with the Boyne valley. Among 



the remarkable ; [ Boinm D \dshenchas Erewn enumerates 



I in M the .Main: Glend in Matae (the valley of the 



■Mat I the stone on which the Mata was slain "; and Humana 



('nam, "the mound ot [the Mata's-J bones."' In the article on Ath Cliath 

 Cualaun (Dublin), in the same compilation, we learn that the men of [reland ! 

 a the Mata on Lecc Bend, threw its bones into the Boyne. The 

 or shin- -hod down to the Bea at the Boyne estuary, 



whence it has it- name, Inber 1 olptha; while the ribs were washed south to 

 the I ad the "hurdles," which gave its name to the ford Ath 



made from them. Opinions seem to have differed as to the 

 app< the Mata. I'l> - Bays that it had seven el and Beven 



heads, or that it 1 sort of tortoise 3 "; but VD, 4 while retaining the 



tllows it only four heads. This poem tells us that ii "licked 

 up the Boyne, ' and that, in some unexplained way, " the Bin of Adam's wife 

 was responsible for n- existence. 



II tradition of a great hydra-like monster, whose home 



1 Revue celti-jue, xv. . . p. 329 



: H'ul., v . - • y. . Heries, x, p. 100. 



