Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/490

 482 The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas.

[62. Mag Coba.] — Mag Coba, cid di'a ta? Ni ansa.

Mag Coba cuthchaire. No Coba cuthchaire feisin .1. cuth- chaire Eremoin m^/c Mileadh, is e Cifrtia roindlestair cuithigh i wYjxinn. Atnaigh a chois indi d?^i- in bad doith ina cuithigh, go romuidh buinde a sHasta ;] a da dhoid, ^6'«-ablad de. Is de sin ata Mag Cobha. \]nde poeta d/.Tit :

Cobha cuthcaire go ngloir ardri[g] Erend Eremhoin, is e rosdeadhlad de Coba cennmhar cuthchaire.

Mag Coba, whence is it ?

Not hard to say. The plain of Coba the pitfall-maker. Or, Coba the pitfall-maker himself, that is, the pitfall-maker of Eremon, son of Mil. He first in Erin arranged a pitfall. And he put his foot into it to see whether it wa^ ... in his pitfall, whereupon his thighbone (?) broke, and his two forearms, so that he died thereof Thence is Mag Coba, and hence the poet said :

Coba the glorious pitfall-maker,

Of Erin's over-king Eremon :

'Tis he that would sever himself from him.

Great-headed Coba the pitfall-maker.

Also in BB. 400 b 34 ; H. 6i b; Lee. 510 b ; and Rennes 117 a 2.

Mag Coba seems to have been the old name for a portion of the baronies of Iveagh in Ulster. See Reeves, Eccl. Antiquities of Down, Conor, and Dromore, p. 349, where mthchaire is misrendered by " huntsman".

As to Eremon, son of Mil, see the Four Masters, A.M. 3501, and infra. No. 76.

[63. Sliap. Callainn.] — Sliab Kalian, cid dia ta ? Ni a;/i-<^.

Callann r<?;?bhuachaill Buidhe meic Bain blaidh meic F<9/^amhna f^robar[t] in Don;z Cuailghni in mi riana re coir .i. dairi in- t[s]easgraidhi imbi forrobartar -] in cu [oc cosnam in tsescraigh CO torcair in cu di sodain — BB.'\ No gomadh ig taba/rt na tana comcomult in choin arin talamh. \]nde Sliab Kalland.

Calland (r(?;/bhuachaill crethaigh [leg. crethaidh ?]

Buidhe mac Bain bithbreathaig.

glecais frissin nDonn Cuailghne

ba f^Honn fri heduailghne [leg. etuailngi ?].

Sliab Callann, whence is it ?

Not hard (to say). Callann the sheep-dog of Buide, son of Ban blaith, son of Forgamuin. The Donn of Cualgne, the month before his proper time, proceeded to bull the dry cows around him. He and the dog began to contend for the dry cows, till the dog fell by him. Or it may be that at the taking the drove he crushed the dog on the ground. Whence Sliab Callann.