560 Proceedings of the Roi/al Irish Academy. 



Miss Dobbs quotes Windisch, preface to " The Tain," p. 32, and Eidgeway's 

 " Date of First Shaping of the Cuchullain Saga," p. 34, to ascertain the 

 probable era of the cycle of Ulidian romances, namely, the century just 

 before, or the century just after, Christ. She then points out that we have 

 no mention in any written document of the construction of such a work or 

 works as those I have described, and that the grotesque legends referring it 

 to the Black Pig connect its traditional origin with one of the most ancient 

 romances that have survived, namely, with the fate of the children of Turenn, 

 and not with Finn MaeCumaill, or any more recent hero, so that the original 

 fable of the Black Pig is probably referable to a period long anterior to the 

 commencement of the Christian era. The paper concludes by a statement 

 that in her opinion there are grounds for believing that these earthworks 

 (the Dyke and the Dorsey) already existed in the first century of our era, 

 when the events narrated in the Tain bo Cualgne took place. My own further 

 researches, and a study of the additional boundaries now described, increas- 

 ingly confirm the above conclusion, and suggest that at least a part, if not the 

 whole, of the entrenched frontier K"o. 1 must have been erected certainly 

 earlier than the Christian era ; so much so, that at the time of the Cattle 

 Foray, the greater portion at least of the territory bordered by the earth- 

 works running south and west from Lough Derravaragh had virtually passed 

 out of the practical occupation of Ulster. 



Bearing on this point we find a passage in " Cogad Fergusa agus Con- 

 chobaii'," which further indicates that somewliat previous to the time of the 

 Tain foray, and just after Conor's accession, the greater portion of the 

 southern nominal possessions of Ulster, apparently those beyond No. 2, or the 

 middle frontier, was in a most unsettled condition. For we are told that in 

 revenge for a raid on Louth by Fergus MacEoy, allied with Cruaghan, and 

 the then King of Temair Eochaid Feidlech, the Ulstermen ravaged Meath, 

 Taillten, Uisnech, South Teffia, the river Inny (Eithne), and along the Boyne 

 to Temair, and then homeward. " Meath " we may take to mean the part 

 south of Louth so far as Taillten. " Uisnech," i.e., Barony of Piathconrath, &c., 

 " Tethba Deiscert," i.e., the part of Westmeath south of Lough Sheelin, 

 "the river Inny," which runs out of Lough Kinale to Lough Derravaragh, 

 and through the barony of iloycoish. Thence to Xavan and Tara, through 

 Bregia, and so north again. We must, therefore, gather that at least most 

 of the territory claimed bj- Ulster south of No. 2 frontier which seems then 

 to have bounded Uladh proper, was about the commencement of the Christian 

 era a kind of buffer state, or sword-land, from which supplies were drawn, 

 and battle offered to invaders. This seems to be further substantiated by a 

 passage in the " Revue Celtique," xxi, p. 313, stating that " the district in 



