284 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



the cardinal fact of its early connexion with the dead : for it expressly says 

 that Tea chose the place especially to be a grave for herself. The bronze- 

 age, pre-Celtic heroes, after whom the mounds were originally named, have 

 been displaced in tradition by the heroes of the dominant Celtic, or, more 

 accurately, the Celtic-speaking people, after these had taken possession of 

 the country and introduced the Iron-Age culture. The forgotten warriors 

 of the Age of Bronze have yielded their place in popular legend to 

 Cu-Chulaind, Conchobar, and their attendant braves. 



Such, in abstract, are the conclusions at which an archaeologist would 

 arrive, who visited the site and examined it with the descriptive portions of 

 thf/' - ".''■■- texts in his hand. But Dind-shenchas Eretm has something 

 further to add about the early history of the site, in the shape of certain 

 Btories, contained in a preface t" I'D, and in the first two poems of VD. To 

 have nnt yet referred, and we must now analyze them. 



Tli-' poem VI» i calls "ii the ancient sages of Ireland to tell the history 

 of the site, and then pi' needs to reply to the invitation, in the name of 

 Finntan, the antediluvian invader of the country, to whose survival through 

 the centuries the preservation of ancient memories was naively attributed. 

 We need not, however, linger over the " machinery" of the composition, nor 

 turn aside t" discuss the Finntan myth, which would occupy an essay in 



itself. Stripping the \ m of its verbiage, ami of its metrical devices, we can 



redw -nt- to the following summary : — 



(1) The hill was originally a hazel-thicket, in the days of " the son of Ollcain.' ' 

 This thicket was cleared by Liath son of Laigne Lethan-glas, who turned it into 

 a corn-land (a harbur ba luirbur niiith, " its corn was rich corn"). This Liath 

 called the ridge after his own name, Druim l.cith, that is "Liath's Ridge." 



2 The ridge afterwards passed into the possession of Cain son of Fiachu 



dfindiin. from whom it received its second name, Druim Cain, " Cain's Ridge." 

 It now became a military station (in tulach a tiigdit mdir, " the hill to which chief- 

 tains used to go" i. 



(8) Crorind daughter of Allod then comes on the scene, and from her the site 

 was called Cathair Chrorind, " C.'s fortress*' in the days of the Tuatha De Danann. 

 A palace has therefore now been built on the ridge. 



(4) Crofind was succeeded by Tea daughter of Lugaid, the wife of Erenion, 

 who built a rampart round her house, outside which she was buried ; and from 

 her the site was called Tea Mar. 



Tho cumulative of this name is probably OUcrViiin. >i"t < >llcin ; compare Ciin in 

 the following ■taira. 



