Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/497

 The Bodleian Dinnshenckas. 489

brought there, a cow from the north and a cow from the south. And the cow from the north yields a third more milk than the cow from the south. Hence " Sliab Echtga".

Echta the Awful, above every fame.

Conspicuous daughter of Aurscathach,

She demanded a mountain, which she robbed not,

From Fergus, as her bride-price.

Also in LL. 167 a 43 ; BB. 381 b ; H. 40 a ; Lee. 480 b ; and R. no a i.

Sliab nEchtga, anglicised Slieve Aughty, the name of a mountainous district on the confines of Galvvay and Clare. O'Don., Topogr. Poems, xliv ; Four Masters, A.D. 1598, p. 2054, note A. The story of the two milch cows accounts for the rivername Abhaiim dd Loilgheach, which divides the fertile from the barren part of Slieve Aughty.

[22. Mag nAidne.] — ^Mag nAidhne, canas rohainmni[g]ed ? Ni ansa .1. Aidne m^c AUgubai m«/c Eithriuil, is e cetfer no- atad^ tenidh ar tus dogres ria xixaccw Mik^ Espandai in Qp.ch baili i ngabdais longport, fobithin ni ba hecen do acht a basa ior araili dogrt's, CO teigtis cnthri'-^ tenidh tennalda a suilib a mer, conimdar meide fiadubla adnui hi ius a mbuana, conid he sin slechtais in mag. Unde Mag nAidne dicitur. No comad 'ar n-ecc ann nohammni[g]thea, et quod est uerius.

Mac Allguba, bai da brig,

meic Eithriuil aib airdmin,

cedna toisseach tricheim tenn

reia macaib Mile^ mortenn.

Aidne, son of Allguba, son of Ethrel, he is the first man that kindled fire continually before the sons of Mil the Spaniard, in every stead wherein they pitched a camp. Because he needed only to put one of his palms over the other, whereupon sparks of fire, as from a firebrand, would come out of his knuckles,^ and the sparks were as large as fresh wild apples at the beginning of their harvesting. And he it is that cleared the plain. Whence " Mag Aidne" (Aidne's Plain) is said. Or mayhap it was so named after his death thereon. This is truer.

The son of Allguba, such was his virtue. Son of Ethrel beautiful, exceeding gentle, Was the first chief who lighted a blaze Before the sons of mighty Mil."

Also in BB. 382b ; H. 41 a ; Lee. 482b; R. nob. Versified, LL. is6b 37. Mag nAidne, "a level district in the present co. of Galway, all comprised in the diocese of Kilmacduagh." Four Masters, A.M. 3727, note m.

Ethrdl, perhaps the Eithrial said to have been over-king of Ireland, A.M. 3530.

[23. Port Lairge.] — Port Lairge, canas rphainmni[g]ed ?

Ni ansa .1. Fectas doluid Roth mac Cithing, ma/c rig Insi

1 MS. noataid. ^ ms, crithni. ^ Lit. eyes of his fingers.

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