Macalistkr — Temair Brer/ ; Remains and Traditions of Tara. 259 



in progress, and therefore that the " head " was still to be seen when the 

 story was written down; this rounded boulder might easily be taken by 

 imaginative persons as the head of a giant turned to stone and buried in the 

 earth up to his neck. 1 Another stone connected with the magical strife of 

 Patrick and the druids of Temair was seen by Tirechan in the south-east of 

 the raith." This has disappeared, or at least cannot be identified. 



21. Lecht in Abaic 



Lecht in Abaic, the Dwarf's Grave, was east of Moel, Blocc, and Bluicne. 

 All the Jiss. of PD 22 agree in saying that it was sairdes 7 siardes ("south- 

 east and south-west"). This is a little cryptical to begin with. We are 

 further told that " three feet only is its measure, in its little slough below ; 

 thus is the grave, a small stone under the ground in its western end and 

 another in its eastern " (tri troigtM namd a tomus 'na escaid bice tis ; 3 is amlaid 

 aid in lige, 7 clock becc fo talmain ina iarthur 7 aroile ina oirther). This 

 seems to indicate a cist of small size, sunk underground, which when PI) was 

 compiled had become full of mud. The cist was probably meant to receive 

 a late bronze-age urn burial ; its small size suggested to legend -framers that 

 its occupant had been a dwarf, who is fitted with the name Sen ua Eibric in 

 a poem quoted in Tara, p. 180. 



Next we learn that the cist possessed the peculiar property of measuring 

 three feet when measured at one time, three and a half another time (fogabtar 

 tri traigid ind indara fecht, a tri co leith in fecht n-aile). Such tales are 

 not infrequently told : thus we often hear that the members of a monument 

 (e.g. a stone circle , when counted or measured on different occasions, give 

 different results. So they do ; it is not, however, a miracle, but the result of 

 incompetence on the part of the experimenter. Jt must be noted carefully 

 that the apparent marvel of Lecht in Abaic was on a different footing from 

 the magical properties of Fal. The voice of Fal had long been sileut when 

 PD was compiled. The writer of the tract knew of it only from tradition, 

 and spoke of it from second, or third, or fiftieth hand.' But he had only to 



1 Compare the partial burial of the companion stones of Cenn Cniaich, Tripartib Lift, i, 

 p. 92 : also the story of Mata and the warriors, supra, p. 241. Petrie records a tradition 

 current in his time that the stones were " left there by the giants of Tara." 



- Tripartite Life, vol. ii, p. 307. 



3 This is the reading of B, R. Variants are— tomus, esc bee this (L) ; a Iidho.s indalitje 

 na esccaid (H) ; cm a fad instead of a tomus (U). 



4 The traditions of the properties of Lia Fail are fairly consistent ; but that they were 

 not exempt from the tendency to exaggeration to which all orally transmitted statements 

 are liable, is shown by the list of its wonderful properties at the end of the existing 

 fragment of Acallam na Sendrach. 



