258 



cumstances King Cormac died, avers that he was carried through Bally- 

 nure, from the direction of Timolin, in the county of Kildare ; and when 

 the team reached that part of Ballynure known as The Doon, the bul- 

 locks, in the eagerness of their 

 thirst, pawed the earth, and 

 that water issued forth. Ano- 

 ther version states that the 

 teamster struck his goad into 

 the ground, and thereupon 

 gushed up a bubbling fountain, 

 which is still to be seen near 

 the roadside, and is used as a 

 watering place for the herds of 

 the fertile pastures of The Doon 

 of Ballynure. The bullocks, 

 having satiated their thirst, 

 journeyed on till they came to 

 the place now called Bullock- 

 hill, beside the Griese, and op- 

 posite to Killeen Cormac. Here 

 they halted, and would proceed 

 no farther ; so that Killeen was 

 thus determined to be the last 

 resting place of King Cormac. 

 The bullocks, having performed 

 their part, returned homewards 

 across the marsh beside the ri- 

 ver, and tradition states that 

 they were swallowed up in the 

 Griese. 



Another legend puts a hound 

 on the team, and makes him 

 jump from Bullockhill to the 

 cemetery, and there alight on 

 this stone, and leave on it the 

 impress of his paw — thus marking out the grave of Cormac. It may be 

 remarked that this part of the legend looks like an interpolation from one 

 still more ancient, concerning the hound of Cuglas, from whom Bal- 

 tinglass derives its name.* He was master of the hounds to " Ederscel, 

 the great King of Erinn," whose dogs indeed must have had paws of steel 

 to impress their traces on full many a rock from Baltinglass to the banks 

 of the Liffey.f 



This very curious legend led to various investigations concerning 

 this King Cormac. He could not be Cormac Mac Cullinan, King and 



* Vide Dinnsenchus, Book of Lecan. 



f Vide Irish version of Nennius, and A. Soc. Tracts, p. 117, for a somewhat similar 

 legend of King Arthur's hound. 



Fig. 4. 



