another MS. of which reads díombuaiḋ, i.e., defeat, from di privitive, and buaiḋ “victory.” Deimuġ or diomuġ must be a slightly corrupt pronunciation of díombuaiḋ, and the meaning is, that the king’s son put himself under a wish that he might suffer defeat during the year, if he ate more than two meals at one table, etc. Line 15. reasta = a “writ,” a word not in the dictionaries—perhaps, from the English, “arrest.” Cúig ṗúnta. The numerals tri ceiṫre cúig and sé seem in Connacht to aspirate as often as not, and always when the noun which follows them is in the singular, which it very often is. Mr. Charles Bushe, B.L., tells me he has tested this rule over and over again in West Mayo, and has found it invariable.
[Page 22], line 2. cá = where, pronounced always cé (kay) in Central Connacht. Line 17. má ḃfáġ’ mé = If I get. In Mid-Connacht, má eclipses fáġ, as ni eclipses fuair.
[Page 26], line 18. I dteaċ an ḟaṫaiġ = In the giant’s house. Tiġ, the proper Dative of teaċ, is not much used now. Line 20. cuaille cóṁraic = the pole of battle.
[Page 28], line 9. Trian dí le Fiannuiġeaċt = one-third of it telling stories about the Fenians. Line 10. This phrase soirm sáiṁ suain occurs in a poem I heard from a man in the island of Achill—
“’Sí is binne meura ag seinm air teudaiḃ,
Do ċuirfeaḋ na ceudta ’nna g-codlaḋ,
Le soirm sáiṁ suain, a’s naċ mór é an t-éuċt,
Gan aon ḟear i n-Eirinn do ḋul i n-eug
Le gráḋ d’á gruaḋ.”
I have never met this word soirm elsewhere, but it may be another form of soirḃe, “gentleness.” Line 18. Colḃa, a couch, pronounced colua (cullooa): here it means the head of the bed. Air colḃa means, on the outside of the bed, when two sleep in it. Leabuiḋ, or leabaiḋ, “a bed,” is uninflected; but leaba, gen. leapṫan, is another common form.