Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/231

206 former ogling, the latter blushing. Having had a good view of each other they passed down to where there is a deep hollow in the land, called Lug-an-Eany, where they became separated by a high wall. In this wall, say the local traditions, there was a door with a small hole In it, through which each girl passed her middle finger, which the men on the other side looked at. If any of them admired the finger, he laid hold of it, and the lass to whom it belonged forthwith became his bride. The marriage held good for a year and a day. If the couple disagreed during that time, they returned to Tailten, walked into the centre of Rath Dubh, stood back to back, one facing the north and the other the south, and walked out of the fort, a divorced couple, free to try their luck again at Lug-an-Eany."

This very ancient site of the palace of Tailten, one of the four royal residence of Ireland, in early times, is situated on the northern bank of the Boyne, about midway between Kells and Navan. It is in the centre of the most fertile land in all Ireland, and probably in all Europe. The ancient earthworks of fort and rath are still there—will be there while the earth lasts. The remains of trench, embankment, and foundation are greater, even, than those of Tara, at least those now existing there.

In "The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters" there is a notice of Tailten, saying:—