Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/119

 Collectanea. 103

she went away, and how do I know where? And there were no tidings." Another tale, extant and in 1839, tells that the cow could fill any vessel with milk, until an ill-conditioned woman brought a sieve ; the milk ran through and became the Seven Streams ; and the cow, mortified at being unable to fill the sieve, ran away and {or, in one version) died. With reference to another appendix to the tale, — "an Ulsterman took the cow," — I have already given the tale of the hero and wonderful cow concealed in a cave until "the last great battle."-'' The Oughtdarra people say that this cow is not the Glas, but that the latter made the foot- prints on the neighbouring crags. There is mention of the cow near Shallee Castle, between Dysert O'Dea and Ennis, and at Ballymarkahan, near Quin.

In one of the 1839 addenda, apparently now forgotten, O'Donovan and O'Curry were told that the Tuatha De Danann posted ambuscades to waylay Finn and his men at the fords of the Fergus opposite to the Glasgeivnagh Hill at Corofin {Coradh Finne), Corravickeown (Coradh mhic Eoghain), a mile to the west of the former, and Corravicbiirrin {Coradh inhic Dhaboireati), at Kells Bridge, to the east of the first named. The attempts failed, and in a pitched battle on the summit of Keentlae {Ceann t sliabh, ancient Cenn iiathrach)^'' or Inchiquin Hill the Fianna slew all their enemies, whose bones are still turned up at Seefin or Keen- tlae. The same summit is the scene of the early saga Fets tighe chonain and Finn's fatal feast, but the site of Conan's house is forgotten and the saga only known from books.

Finn's gifted son, the bard Oisin, dwelt in a large two-ringed fort, hence called Caherussheen {Caihair Oishi), close to Corofin, and Finn's hound Bran gives the name Tirmicbrain to a small basin-like tarn in a marshy valley and evidently the remnant of a larger lake. The hero and his soldiers hunted a magic deer (white, with golden hoofs), which fled to Keentlae with Bran in close pursuit. All the men save Finn were outpaced, and he and the quarry and dog reached the eastern brow of the hill as the sun set, and then dashed down the slope. At the cliff of Tirmic-

2«Vol. xxiii., p. 89.

-^Nathrach is a man's name (e.g. St Senan's smith), and not a literal " serpent."