Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/504

 49^ The Bodleiayi Di7inshenchas.

[31. Loch nDechet.]— Loch n[D]eceadcan[as] rohainmm^d'd?? Ni ansa .1. Dechet rathmogaid Glaiss ma/c Caiss, is e tuar- gaib Suidhe nAeda uass Eass Ru[a]id. larna denam a opra d6 la hAedh Ruadh nirtc Baduirnn nirt/c Maine Milscothd:/^ rocuindigh loog a oipn .1. torud ind essa. Dob^rt do arna beith imressain do feraib Olnecmacht im ioxad Essa Ruaidh. Is aire tuarcaibad in tor^ la clainn nAilealla. Robai ic[c]uingid [d]uilgine na hopra dorigni. Dobreith d6 go Mag Lunga .1. co Mag Loingthi, fobith is ann roloing ior a biud ^ {or a lind, co mba mesca medarciall- mar do lind, do loim, do eanbruithi, do iasc. Doluid iaram ior baili[g]ud meraigthe,^ co riacht in loch ^ coram-baidedh^ ann, comdi desin adb^rar Loch nDechet, ut fabule fer[u]nt. Doluid Decet ior bai[th]chai, iar tomailt a loingthe lae, ior buaidri, cen gairi nglecc* corom-baidea Loch nDecet. Unde ~L.och nDechet dicitur.

Dechet, the r(3/>^-builder of Glass, son of Cass, erected Suide Aeda (" Aed's Seat") over Ess Ruaid ("Ruad's Cataract"). After he had done his work for Aed the Red, son of Badurn, son of Maine Milscothach, he demanded the price of his work, to wit, the produce of the cataract.^ Aed gave it to him, lest the men of Connaught should have a quarrel about the produce of Ess Ruaid. For that reason the tower was erected by the Children of AiliU.

He, Dechet, was (still) demanding the wage for the work he had done. There was given to him (the land) as far as Mag Lunga, that is, as far as the Plain of Eating {ioingthe) (so called), because it was there that he consumed his food and his drink, until he was drunk and merry-minded with ale, with milk, with broth, with fish. Then he went into a frenzy of madness till he reached the lough, and was drowned therein. Hence, as stories tell. Lough Dechet is (so) called.

Dechet went on a foolish path. After consuming his day's provisions ; In confusion, without delight of conflicts, So that Lough Dechet drowned him. Hence " Loch nDechet" is said.

Also in LL. 167 a 14 ; BB. 388 a 45 ; H. 47 a ; Lee. 491 a ; and R. 114 a 2.

Loch tiDechef, Four Masters, A.U. 1256 — Lock Techel (now Lough Gara, CO. Roscommon) in the Tripartite Life, 142.

Ess Riiaid, the salmon-leap at Rallyshannon.

"The Children of Ailill", the inhabitants of Tfr Ailella, now Tirerrill, a barony in the co. of Sligo.

Mag Lunga, perhaps the Magh Lunge near Ballaghadereen in Mayo, men- tioned in the Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 671.

1 MS. Xoxad 2 ]vis. meraidche. ^ baidegh. * MS. glicc.

^ /.^., the salmon there caught, not "the ford-dues", as Prof. Atkinson supposes.