Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/485

 The Bodleian Dinnshenchas. 477

treithi tallad, borb in maid, Furbuide m<zc Concobair.

Eithne, daughter of Eochaid Feidlech, mother of Furbaide, son of Conor mac Nessa, went from Emain Macha westward to Maive of Cruachu, for her lying-in, because the druid had said to Clothru that her sister's son would slay her. Then Eithne went to bathe in the river, whereupon the stream struck her and drowned her. Then Lugaid Mac con went and brought the boy, even Furbaide, forth through her side.^ And hence " Eithne" is the name of the river, and " P^urbaide's Cairn" over him. Hence said the poet :

Eithne, the mother of the king's son,

Daughter of true Eochaid Feidlech :

Through her was cut away — savage the breach (?) —

Furbaide, son of Conor.

This story is not, so far as I know, contained in any other copy of the Dinn- shenchas.

The river Eithne, anglicised Inny, divides the present county of Longford from the western half of Westmeath, Topogr. Poems, p. ix.

Eochaid Feidlech, over-king of Ireland, had three daughters, Ethne, Clothru, and Medb. Ethne was married to Conor mac Nessa, by whom she had Furbaide, who afterwards, in vengeance for his father's death, slew his aunt Medb with a lump of tanach (hard cheese), LL. 124 b 34; O'Curry, M. and C, ii, 240, 241, where O'Curry misrenders tanach by "stone".

As to Lugaid Mac-con, see the Battle of Magh Mucrama, Eev. Celt., xiii. As to Furbaide's cairn on the top of Sliab Uillend, LL. 199 a 53.

[9. Bri L^ith.] — Bri Leith, cid diata ?

Ni ansa .1. Liath uac Celtchair Cualand, mac fiatha as coeme boe a sith nErind, rocarastar Bri Bruachbreac ing/« [12^ 2] Midir Morglondaig. Docoidh o ingenraid co mboi ic Fertai na ningen h[i] toeb Temrach. Lotar na macoime immach co Tulaich na hiarmaithrige, -\ nir' lecseat tableore sida Mideir secha sin, ar ba lir bechtheillinn il-lo- ainle [imfrecra] a ndibraicthe,-' CO ro brissed ann Cachlan gilla Leith, [co n-apad. Ims6i in ingen do Bri Leith, co ro bris a cride inti,] co ndebairt Liath : " Cenco roussa in ingzV?, is mo ai[n]m sea bias fuiri." Unde Bri Leith T Dind Cochlain.

Liath mac Celt[ch]air Cualann coir carais mgen Midir moir. Bri Bruachbrecc, buadach co mblaidh,'* nistas rainic mac Celt[ch]air.

Liath, son of Celtchar of Cualu, a prince's son, the fairest that dwelt in a fairy-mound in Erin, loved Bri Bruachbrec,

1 The Cccsarean operation by which Furbaide was brought forth is

mentioned in LL. 125a 3 (is triana t^ib tucsat na claidib in Furbaide) and 199a 45 (tuc a mmac tria tael3 immach).

2 MS. beichtheilliun olio. = MS. ndibergaigthe. * MS. mblaigh.