Macalistek — Temair Breg : Remains and Traditions of Tara. 2fi9 



This northern upper storey further gives us the raison d'ilrt foi the 

 ( lommon Hall. Some free space was needed for i he foot of the ladder Leading 

 up in the loft. And a special doorkeeper would be needed here to prevent 

 unauthorized persons from entering the upper storey, which would doubtless 

 be reserved for people of importance. 



The poem VD iv is almost entirely devoted to this structure. For our 

 present purpose it is rather disappointing. Most of it consists of rapturous 

 eulogies of king Cormac, the founder of the Flail, and of enumerations of the 

 various functionaries connected with it. The only facts about the construc- 

 tion of the Hall which we gather from the poem are (A) its length, 700 feet, 

 which agrees tolerably with the actual measurement of the remains ; (B) its 

 height, o0 cubits (sd coic cubat), which may or may not be accurate; as 

 Mr. Gwynn points out on p. 71 of his notes, it is suspiciously like an echo of 

 the corresponding measurements in Solomon's Temple. The word cubat alone 

 is enough to inspire such doubts. 1 (C) The nine ramparts, already referred to ; 

 (D) its doors, here given as fourteen in number. It is curious that the plans 

 mark the end door but ignore the side doors, while the descriptions enumerate 

 the side doors but make no reference to the end door. 2 



The prose tract called Suidiugud Tavji Midchuarta? does not carry us much 

 further. But it seems to explain a discrepancy that would otherwise be 

 puzzling between the 700 feet, given as the length of the building in YD, 

 and the 300 feet in PD. It seems that the greater length is attributed to 

 Cormac macAirt, the lesser to Loeguire macNeill; as though Loeguire had for 

 some reason cut short the enormous length of the original hall. We have 

 already (p. 241) noticed a passage which seems to imply that the hall had 

 fallen into ruin in 1 .oeguire's time, though it suggests that the king provided a 

 different substitute. The rest of the tract is occupied with lists of furniture, 

 beds, &c, in the house, which give us no help in studying its internal 

 arrangements. 



26. Duma na mBan-amus 



The " Mound of the She-mercenaries," otherwise Duma na niBan. the 

 "Mound of the Women " (VD iii CI), was of small size, and in the south- 

 east, 4 at the southern end of Tech Midchuarta (VD -1 . This is probably to 

 be identified with a small mound, close to the eastern wall of that building. 



Other parallels between the descriptions of the two buildings have not escaped 

 Mr. Gwynn's notice ; reference may be made to his remarks, loc. ''it . 



The evidence of the early churches tends to show that the narrow end of a not- 

 angular building was the normal place for a door. 



3 See Tara, p. 197. 



4 Stokes by a slip translates " south-west." All the mss. road anairdcss, 



