348 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



enlightenment as to who or what Trian may have been. 1 The ninth stanza tells 

 us of the making of the si ones of Forcarthu and of Cnamchoill. The tenth 

 wains us that " everyone who shall see it, the rough, hairy ( ?), surly wheel, shall 

 become blind, everyone who shall hear it shall become 'leaf, everyone whom 

 it shall touch shall die." This is just the sort «'t' thing that would he said 

 of a bull-roarer in Australia, or in any other region where tin- instrument is 

 held in reverence. Tin- remaining four stanzas tell of Tlachtga's return, of 

 the birtb of her sons, of her death in childbed,* of the plains named after 

 them, and of their guardianship of Ireland against foreigners, as set forth in 

 the prose text. 



The transactions of Mug Ruith with Simon Magus are further described 

 in two important texts. The first of these, called the Adventures of Mm: 

 Ruith has already given us Borne variants in the traditions of his family 

 relationships, hut adds little t" the Bubject before ns. We learn From it, 

 however, the interesting fact that Mug Ruith was a pupil of Scathach 

 before going to study with Simon Magus. We are also told that he was 

 Mind, having lost ••! ling calf at Sliab Elpa in a great 



Bnow " (icforba gamn \ /. 'Ua mdr) — a reference to some story not 



apparently preserved t" us: and having lost the other by having made the 

 sun t>> si. hi 1 stj]l so that he made one day of two in JJairbriu (Valentia 



nd). 4 Tlachtga make- no appearance in this story, which is to the effect 

 that, having returned home, blind, after thirty-three years' absence with 

 Simon, he learn I from his attendant that his wife was in his house with a 

 young man. The youth was really his son, now grown up, hut Mug Ruith 



tiled the pair with an axe in jealousy. The second Bource "i information 

 is the prose gem Mug B nth t" he found in the Book of l'i Maine 



quoted a nd also in RawL I'. 502 far-, p. L57, 36-45. The latter 



' I Hnspect thai a stanza has here been l"st at a very early stage in the history of the 

 text. >>'•■. 7 tells us of the love that Simon's sons gave tn Tlachtga. A stanza following 

 this might have toll that they had presented her with, after which would 



follow the present eighth stanca. --'I'; of this gift, whatever il 



may have been] made the Both Ramach" along with Mug Ruith and Simon. The 

 following stati the Lia Forcartbaiii and the pillar of 



Cnamchoill »i ■ ther two-thirds. This would give a raison d'etre 



for the intrusii : S us in the narrative. 



■ ' Imitted in the Rennea us. "f the prose text, l>ut duly mentioned in the Edinburgh 

 us, 



■ BL facs.. p 190 a ; BB facs., p. 206 a. 



' This may be an imitation of the miracle >>i Joshua, but it appi un elsewhere in Irish 

 legend. The sun stood still for nine months at the birth ol < 'engus of the Brug (Todd 

 Lect., x, 37). 



