Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/498

 490 The Bodleian Dinnshenchas.

Aine a tirib iath Fomorach la hairchind tiri do chu[a]ird a coicnche, co cuala [inni] .i. dord na murduchunn do Muir n-Icht. Is ed in fuath atconnairc .i. in murduchund fo deilb ingine m^?c[d]acta. Is blaithem [u]as li/;d ^ ichtar brotharluibnech bi'astaide fothi^ [13b i] fo lind. Co n[d]uadar na biasda he, co ndaralsat he ina aigib, co ruige in fairge a da lairg cosin port hut, 3 no[t]hallad da[ilj ced ior mael gach cnama. Unde Port Lairge dicitur.

IS de gongarthar in cuan

Portt Lairge na leburtuagh,^

ann frith laarg, Uthaing Ur,

Ruith ma/c Cithaing cetguinig.

Once upon a time, Roth, son of Citheng, son of the King of Inis Aine, went from the lands of the Fomorian countries with a chief (?) of the land to go round his boundary, when he heard somewhat, the burden of the mermaids of the Ictian Sea. This is the form that he beheld, the mermaid with the shape of a grown-up girl. Above the water she was most smooth ; but be- low the water her lower parts were hairy-clawed and bestial. So the monsters devoured him and cast him away in joints. And the sea carried his two thigh-bones to yonder port, and the share of a hundred would fit on the flat^ of each bone. Hence Port Lairge (" Port of the Thighbone") is (so) called.

Hence is the haven called

Port Lairge of the broad axes.

There was found a thigh, .... of the sea,

Of Roth, son of Citheng the hundred-slayer.

Also in LL. 169 a 11. A variant in BB. 372 b; H. 26 a; Lee. 470 a; R. 103 b 2.

Port Lairge, now Waterford. The " Ictian Sea", tlie Channel.

In R., etc., the mermaids are described as having yellow hair and white skins. And they sing a wonderful burden to Roth, so that he falls asleep.

The penultimate sentence is obscure. LL. has : nothallad dail chet for mael each cnama. BB. has : notallad ol .c. i mael a chnama. H. has : notallrta'h oul cet a maol a cnamho. Lee. has : nothallad ol .c. a maelchnama. R. has : notalladh 61 cet a mael a chnamha. Here ol, oul, 61, can only mean " drink".

[24. Seig Mossad.] — Seig Mossadh canass r[o]hainmn/^-6'^? Ni ansa .1. Mossad mac Main ma/c Fleiscci Findi fofhu[a]ir in seig im-Muigh Eoin. Rom-biath ^ roforbairt co n-ith^^ na groighi ;] na tainte ^ na daine deissib ^ tnaraib, 3 o na fu[a]ir fodeoidh* ni condeossadh conimsoi fria aite .1. Mossad .1. Mossad mac Main isan maig. Unde Mag Mossadh 3 Seig yio'isad.

Mossad mac Main, gnnne gel, mac Fleiscci Findi, fo fer,

1 MS. brotharluaimnech biassdaie foti. '^ MS. leburtuadh.

^ Perhaps the popliteal area. * MS. fodeoigh.