[CXLII.] The little lake for which this legendary origin is assigned lies near the top of Slieve Gullion. There were several wells in Ireland which, according to the belief of old times, had the property of turning the hair grey. Giraldus Cambrensis tells us of such a well in Munster; and he states that he once saw a man who had washed a part of his head in this well, and that the part washed was white, while the rest was black!
It is to be observed that the peasantry of the district retain to this day a lingering belief in the power of the lake of Slieve Gullion to turn the hair grey.
[CXLIII.] Knocka, now Castleknock, near Dublin. ([See note 27] at the end.)
[CXLIV.] This story is told by Oisin to St. Patrick. ([See the prefatory note] to the next story, "Oisin in Tirnanoge," [page 385.])
[CXLV.] Slieve Fuad was the ancient name of the highest of the Fews mountains, near Newtown Hamilton, in Armagh; but the name is now lost.
[CXLVI.] Now probably the village of Carrigans, on the river Foyle, five miles south-west of Londonderry.
[CXLVII.] Dord-Fian, a sort of musical war-cry. ([See note, page 195.])
[CXLVIII.] Knockanare (the hill of slaughter), where a great battle was fought between the Fena under Finn, and the foreigners under Mergah of the Sharp Spears, in which Mergah was defeated and slain. This battle forms the subject of a poetical romance. It may be as well to observe that this hill is not Knockanare in Kerry, near the mouth of the Shannon, as some say.
[CXLIX.] Tirnanoge, the Land of Youth. ([See note 19] at the end.)
[CL.] Gavra, now Garristown, in the north-west of the county Dublin. (For an account of this battle, [see note 28] at the end.)