Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/485

 The Edinburgh Dimishenchas. 477

lake burst throughout the land of Erin. Whence is Loch 7tErne, and this is truer.

The first paragraph is also in BB. 391 a 18 ; H. 49 b ; and Lee. 498 a. Lock nS.rne, now Lough Erne, in the county of Fermanagh. Medb of Cruachu, the famous queen of Connaught. Amar^e7i, father of Conall Cernach.

[57. SL1.A.B Betha.] — Sliabh Beatha, cidh di'a ta ?

Eith mac Nai xxmc Lamhiach j Cessair ingen Betha 3 Ladru a luamh ;] Findtan mac Bochra a maccaem dolodar for teicheadh cethrachad laithi ria ndilind fodeigh doruimenadar na badh do airimh in betha in t-innserad iartharach don bith o muir Thorrian^ siar, ^ asb^rt Nse xviac Lamhiach nis-leicfeadh son i n-airc. Dolodar a ceathair ar imgabhail na dilend sin go torachtadar Erinn ^ ros-baidh in dili anifz/l dos-tarraidh in gach aird .1. Bith i Sliabh Betha, Ladru i nArd Ladrann, Cessair i Cuil Cessra,Finntan i Yerl Findtain os Tul Tuinde. Robi blia^a;? Ian i mbadhud comA iarum ron-athnai arisi, •] in bare i tudchadar- isi go mbrui in lear imon carraig ig Dun Bare iarna dusgudh a huisa dia cind hXxzdne. Vnde Sli-[fo. 4^ 2]-ab Beatha.

Rofhuair Bit[h] bas iorsin t[s]leib mac Lamhiach luchair lainfeil, rombaidh^ in dili dedla ua Malalei« mor echta.

Sliab Betha, whence is it?

Bith, son of Noah, son of Lamech, and Cessair, Bith's daugh- ter, and Ladru his pilot, and Finntan, son of Bochra, his boy, went in flight, forty days before the Deluge, because they thought that the western islands of the world, from the Tyrrhene sea westward, would not be counted as belonging to the world, and Noah, son of Lamech, had said that he would not let them into the ark. To avoid that flood the four fared on till they reached Erin, and the Flood drowned them as it overtook them at each point, to wit, Bith on Sliab Betha, Ladru on Ard Ladrann, Cessair in Ciiil Cessra, and Finntan in Fert Finntain over Tul Tuinne. (Each) was for a whole year beneath the waves,^ and then (the sea) gave them up again ; but as to the ship wherein they had arrived the sea dashed it on a rock at Dun Bare on the last day of the year after it had been raised out of the water. Whence is S/t'ad Betha.

Bith found death on the mountain. (Bith), son [leg. grandson ?] of Lamech the bright, fully- hospitable,

^ MS. thorriam. '^ MS. tudchaidhar. ^ MS. rombaigh.

^ Literally, " in drowning."

VOL. IV. K K