[207] Celtic Scotland, I., 220.
[208] The Fir-Bolgs themselves, well known to all readers of Irish tradition, have many points in common with the people under discussion. Compare, for example, Lady Ferguson's reference to "a fierce tribe of Firbolgic origin, the Gowanree, who were compelled to labour unremittingly at the earthworks [the Rath of Cruachan], and are said to have completed the dyke in one day." "The Story of the Irish before the Conquest," London, 1868, p. 32.
[209] The Dananns themselves were notably "professors of musical and entertaining performances"; and indeed the term druidh, applied to them also, seems to have indicated the possessor of many accomplishments, in art and in a pseudo-science.
[210] Brugh barragheal na Boinne is the phrase given in "The Glenbard Collection of Gaelic Poetry" (Haszard, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 1888, p. 78) where the above story is told. The term "white-topped" is somewhat vague. Had the word been barrachaol, "pyramidal," the meaning would have been quite clear.
[211] 'Skene's Celt. Scot., III., 106-107. See also p. 93 of the same volume, and pp. 178 and 220 of Vol. I.
[212] The words translated "earth-house," as used by the druidh, are "brugh" and "bruighin." These, as already mentioned, signify "fairy hill" or "underground dwelling of the fairies." But the alternative rendering of "earth-house" has been preferred, as being rather less of an anachronism than the assumption that such dwellings were styled fairy hills before ever they had been assigned to the "fairies."
[215] Dean of Lismore's Book: Introduction, pp. lxiv, lxxvi-lxxviii. (As in former quotations, I have slightly modernized such terms as "Erin," according to Dr. Skene's own rendering of these terms.)