Westropp — Earthworks and Ring-walls in County TAmerick. 449 



close connexion with the Corca Laighde. On the whole, however, the clerics 

 of Cashel, Emly, and Cluoncoraha only effaced the divine character of the 

 heroes,^ and the myths seem otherwise but little blurred. Christian hearers of 

 the tales in early days found less discord with their ideas than many of us do 

 when we read the grim sagas of the Book of Judges along with the Gospels, 

 the vindictive song of Deborah with tlie Magnificat. 



I incline to believe that the political editing was far more likely to be 

 misleading. A number of tribelets rose to importance from time to time, and 

 had to be " written in," till the tribal pedigree became as unreliable as the 

 EoU of Battle Abbey. The Dalcassian pedigree- gives clear evidence of such 

 interpolation. Either two generations of eponymi of a group of tribes had 

 to be forced in between Eanna Airighthech, a.d. 410, and Cairthenn Fionn, 

 about A.D. 430, or the pre-Christian King-line had to be joined clumsily on to 

 an overlapping pedigree.' At least the genealogy, credible (at least externally) 

 down to the fifth century, is badly confused at that period. The Dal Cais 

 were of little note in the period a.d. 450-850 ; the Annals are silent about 

 them till the time of Cenedid in the tenth century. The very valuable and 

 evidently historic material in the Book of Munster hardly takes us behind 

 A.D. 840. The chief source before that time is the tribal pedigree ; and this, 

 though full and good for the line of Dioma of Brughrigh, from a.d. 620, is 

 evidently badly defective both in the fifth and sixth centuries, and for the 

 Cragliath line.* 



In the tenth century a claim was advanced by the Cragliath princes to 

 an alternative succession to Cashel with the Eoghanacht princes. It is first 



' " Cormao's Glossary," however, speaks plainly, and is rich in notes on gods and 

 druids. 



^ I cannot on present evidence accept the view that the Northern Deis, i.e., the Dal 

 Cais (on the analogy of " Aire Deasa"), were tributary: see Book of Rights, pp. 55-6 ; 

 Book of Munster, " Story of Fedlimidh and Lachtna," and Wars G. G., pp. 55, 56. 

 Everywhere the Dal Cais and the Uaithne are free from tribute. Crimthann is said in 

 the last-cited source to have vainly claimed tribute. 



^ Professor MacNeill points out the incredibility of the Nan Desi legend, and regards 

 it as an attempt to aifiliate an Ivernian tribe to the Tara kings. He suggests elsewhere 

 that the identification of the Dal Cais with the Northern Desi may prove the need of a 

 similar attempt on their behalf. Had we no Eoghanacht recognition {ante a.d. 900) of 

 the relationship, this might be maintained. The tribes of Corca Muicheat and Corca Oiohe 

 are included in the Dalcassian pedigree by the Saltair of Cashel, but among the Aiteach 

 Tuatha, or servile races, in another tract (Rev. Celt., vol. xx, p. 336). 



^ Two generations at least are missing at Anluan ; the period a.d. 680 to 810 is covered 

 by one generation, and in the ' ' Tract on the Dal gCais ' ' the generations between Tadhg son 

 of Brian and Domhnall (1014-1180) are omitted. There is probably a break at Eanna 

 Airigtheoh and another at Aedh. If Cassin lived about a.d. 400, his descendant Forannan 

 in the fifth generation could not have been brother-in-law of Guaire Aidhne, two centuries 

 and a-quarter (or more) later. 



