Kk^E—T/ie Blank Pig's DjjJce. 328 



Heremon). They were, however, only foster-children of hers, their mother 

 being called Dalb-Garb (uncouth visage), who changed them by spell into 

 pigs. Three were males, Cond, Find, and Fland; and there were three 

 females, Mel, Trech, and Treis. As boars the three men were named 

 Froechan, Banban, and Brogarban ; and as sows the three women were called 

 Crainchrin, Coelcheis, and Treilech. We find them hunted out of Leinster, 

 but received kindly by Oengus Mac ind Oc, that is, Oengus son of the Dagda, 

 the God of the Tuath De Danaan. After that they went to Glascarn and 

 remained in hiding with Derbrenn. Next they went to Inver Uraaill, 

 probably Owles in Mayo. They are then attacked by Medbh, and Dubh Inis 

 taken from them. They all fell save one ; and their five heads were brought 

 to Duma3 Selga, the Mound of Hunting." In this legend Borlase considers 

 we have a traditionary version of the migration of the Firbolgs from Leinster 

 to Connaught, and finally of a remnant that took refuge on islands off the 

 West Coast. 



To this group of legends evidently belong the various episodes of the 

 hunting of magical pigs by Ailill and Medbh in Croghan, and by Manannan 

 Mor MacLir's hounds, and by Mod, who is said to have been killed at 

 Mucinis in L. Conn, Co. Mayo, on whose shore is also a place called 

 Muckersnav, or the Pigs' swimming ford. 



Similar chases of swine are attributed to Niall son of Enna Aignech, who 

 was drowned with his hounds in Lough Neill ; and to Glas, who pursued a 

 wild pig from Tara to Baltinglass, where both pursuers and their quarry 

 perished. Scattered over the south and west of Ireland in connexion with 

 tumuli, as well as natural caverns and springs, the story of Diarmuid's chase 

 of a magical boar, and his death from its poisonous bristles, is current ; and 

 how, in his pursuit after Grainne and her lover, Finn mac Cumhail overtakes 

 him just when he lies dying from the effects of the poison, but fails to bring 

 him the draught of healing water from the health-giving spring hard by, 

 through letting it trickle from his hands. Clais-na-Muice-Dubh, about a 

 mile from Macroom, is one of these localities ; another is the Valley of 

 Glenturk (Boar's Glen) in Gal way, near Oranmore. Elsewhere at (Jollooney, 

 Oo. Sligo, and in the townland of Mucduff, the legend survives with 

 variations. 



Other localities where stories about a chase after magical swine are 

 preserved are mentioned by Col. Wood-Martin (" Kude Stone Monuments," 

 pp. 231, 232), such as Kilnamucky, near Castle Martyr, and by Windele, in 

 his reference to another Clais-na-muice at Kilfadamore, near Bantry, where 

 is a natural fissure in the ground so named. 



The other group of traditions, namely, those connected with the boundary 



