[121] "Rambles in Northumberland," by S. Oliver, London, 1835, p. 104.
[122] "The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," edited by J. H. Todd, D.D. London, 1867, p. 115. In the above quotation, the word translated "bronze" is finndruine. This is referred to as "a metal, the constituents of which are not well known. O'Clery describes it as prás go n-airgead buailte, 'brass, with silver hammered on to it.'" It is also referred to as "white silver," "silver or white bronze," "brass," and "copper." It was employed to furnish such various articles as "leg armour," the rim of a shield, a royal chessboard, and, further, a bedstead—which surely ought to have been royal also. (Op. cit., pp. ciii-civ. note, and 50 and 94; also Skene's "Celtic Scotland," ii. 507.) The passage relating to buffalo-horns is given in the Gaelic version ("War of the Gaedhil," p. 114), "ocus do chornaibh buabaill." The word corn, of which chornaibh is an inflection, is substantially the Latin cornu. The Scotch-Gaelic dictionaries give it chiefly the signification of "drinking-horn," and "sounding-horn or trumpet." Armstrong states that the drinking-cups of the northern nations were made from the horns of the "urus or European buffalo," referred to by Latin writers: He adds—"One of these immense horns, at least an ox-horn of prodigious size, is still preserved in the Castle of Dunvegan, Isle of Sky." Buabhall itself has the secondary meaning of "trumpet," or "cornet"; but its true meaning is "buffalo." Armstrong subjoins these comparisons—Armorican bual, French bufle, Latin bubulus, Greek boubalos. Also Cornish buaval, with the meaning of "trumpet." And also buabhull-chorn, "a bugle-horn," with which he compares the Welsh bual-gorn. Halliwell has bougil, "a bugle-horn," and bugle, "a buffalo"; and with reference to the latter spelling he says, "hence bugle-horn, a drinking-vessel made of horn; also a hunting-horn." Professor Skeat, who cites Halliwell also, defines "bugle" as "a wild ox." It is clear that these are all merely variants of one word, or rather of two words. The u in "bugle" has originally been broad. The hard c of "corn" has become a guttural in "chorn," and a mere aspirate in "horn," although it is still found as "corn" both in English and Gaelic dictionaries (with a very restricted meaning in the former instance).
[123] Dr. Todd (op. cit., p. 40, note), in referring to another instance in which these terms occur, says:—"The words here used, Dún, Daingen, Dingna, all signify a fort or fortress. It is not easy to define the precise difference between them. Dún ... seems to signify a fortified hill or mound. Daingen (dungeon) is a walled fort or strong tower; hence daingnigim, I fortify. Dingna [which he translates 'mound' in the above instance] is apparently only another form of the same word. Cf. 'Zeuss,' p. 30n.
[124] Op. cit., p. 115, note.
[125] Even the expression "fo thalmain" may be held to denote the "conical hill" of the fairies. Talmhainn is certainly the genitive of talamh, "the ground"; and so "fo thalmain" signifies "under the ground." But tolman particularly denotes "a mound." And it, or the variant tulman, is used in a fairy tale of the island of Barra (Campbell's "West Highland Tales," ii. 39) with special reference to one of those abodes of the "little people." It may be added that the word translated the "solitudes" of the Feens, etc., might also be rendered the "secret places" or "concealed places."
[126] "Leabhar na Feinne," pp. 94-95.
[127] The "fairy mound" was also known as a "how" or "haug," and its people as "how-folk." To "break," or break into a "how," in the hope of obtaining treasure (an early form of burglary), was a well-known custom of the Danes.
[128] "The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill," pp. clxxviii-clxxix, note 5, and pp. 172-173.
[129] Dr. Todd, in mentioning this and the other relative circumstances, refers the reader to "Mr. O'Kearney's Introd. to the 'Feis Tighe Chonain' (Ossianic Soc.) p. 98 sq."—and to O'Flaherty's "Ogygia," iii. c. 22, p. 200.
[130] See Sir W. R. Wilde's "Beauties of the Boyne," Dublin, 1849, p. 202. The same work refers (p. 24) to "sidh Nectain, the fairy hill of Nechtain," where the river Boyne rises, but does not state whether early Dane or modern archæologist has ever investigated it. (It is now known as the Hill of Carbury.)