Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/484

 476 The Edinburgh D inns henc has.

Belach dd Liacc. Not identified. Breg-mag, a plain in East Meath. Brug (or Mag) Maic ind Oc, the plain through which the Boyne runs. Liathmuine, " grey brake," somewhere in Ulster.

Lock n-Echach, now Lough Neagh, between the counties of Antrim, London- derry, Down, .Armagh, and Tyrone.

Ocngus, also called Mac ind Oc, son of the Dagda. See Folk-Lore, iii, 479. Midir oi Bri Leith. See Folk-Lore, iii, 493.

[56. Loch n-Erne.] — Loch nEirne, cid dia ta ?

Eirne ingen Buirg Buireadhaigh vueic Manchin, banchoimhedaid do chir comraraib Meadbha Cruachan, 3 bantaiseach ingenraidhe ier 011negmrt<r/i/. Intan iarumh doluidh Olca ai a huaimh Cruachan do chomrag ir\ Amhairghin larghiundach rochroith a ulcha ann^ doibh [;j roben a deta,] go ndeachadar ior dasacht macrada ~^ ingenradha in tiri, go nd^rnadh a n-aidhead ann ar a omhon. Da reith da/vt? Eirne con'x hingenraidh go Loch nEirne, go ros-baidh in loch. Is desin ata Loch nEirne.

Eirne go n-uaill, comoU nglain, inghean Buirg buain Buireadhaich, si rotheich, ni gnim n-uabhair, fo loch Erne ar imuamain.^

No ba ferann do Ernaib itcht n-aile go robris Fiacho Labrainne m«c Senbotha m.eic Tighernmais cath forro goros-dilgend,^ ri'/ndh iarsin do mebhaidh in loch fo tir nE.x.etin. Vtnde est Loch nEirne, et quod u^Hus est.

Lough Erne, whence is it ?

Erne, daughter of Borg the Bellowing, son of Manchin, was the keeperess of Medb of Cruachu's comb-caskets, and leader of the maidens of the men of Connaught. Now when Olca Ai went out of the cave of Cruachu to contend against Amargen the Black-haired, he shook his beard at them and gnashed his teeth, so that the boys and girls of the country went mad, and their tragical death was caused by dread of him. Then Erne with her maidens ran to Lough Erne,, and the lough drowned them. Thence is (the name) Loch n-Erne.

Erne with pride, a pure union, Daughter of good Borg the Bellowing, She fled — no deed to boast of — Under Lough Erne for exceeding fear.

Or it [the bed of Lough Erne] was once the territory of the Ernai, until Fiacha Lahrainne, son of Senboth, son of Tigernmas, routed them in battle and destroyed them ; and thereafter the

^ MS. rochraith a chulcan;/. ^ In the MS. this quatrain is at

the end of the article. ^ MS. -dligeandh.