Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/149

Rh to the church, formerly expelled all mice and rats, until the earth of it was vended, when its expelling power ceased; still, however, they carry all their dead around it, as being an ancient custom. There is a circular flat stone in the centre of the churchyard, about fourteen inches in diameter, on which are two round little hollow places, which they say are prints of St. Columb's knees.—(Vol. i. p. 185.)

6. Parish of Dungiven.

There is a curious fragment of an Irish poem preserved among the mountaineers respecting the name of the Roe (Ahrain Ruabh). According to this, it is derived from the name of a Saxon heroine, called Ruadh, who, having by her martial prowess carried terror and desolation through the adjoining counties, was at length drowned in crossing the Roe during a flood. The river is here celebrated for having overcome this terrible fair one, whom the Lagan and the mighty Bann had been unable to restrain. The most remarkable circumstance in the poem is a prophecy, in which it is foretold that this stream will be more destructive to the lives of men than the largest rivers in the North—a melancholy prediction, which the loss of above twenty valuable lives within the memory of persons now living has but too faithfully and fatally fulfilled.—(Vol. i. p. 285, note.)

The poems attributed to Ossian and other bardic remains are still repeated here by the old Senachies (as they are called) with visible exultation. Eight of them have been written down at my request by a young mountaineer named Bernard MacLoskie, from whose acquaintance with the native traditions, customs, and language, the writer derived much assistance in this Survey: he is himself a good Latin scholar, and possesses by every account a critical knowledge of the ancient Irish, These poetic records have been handed down from time immemorial by tradition alone, nor is it apparent whether they ever existed here in manuscript.

A curious evidence of the accuracy of tradition in preserving these remains may be noticed. Two of the poems transcribed, namely, Deirdri (the Darthula of Macpherson) and Tailc, had been already published from southern manuscripts in a volume entitled Transactions of the Gaelic Society. This book, which was accidentally in the writer's possession, afforded an opportunity of comparing the