[ [99] Grainne, the wife of Finn, had formed an unlawful attachment to Diarmad. The latter had what is called a “Ball seirce,” or beauty spot, which no woman could resist. Hence Finn’s jealousy and desire to destroy Diarmad. The word rendered here “naire,” shame, is in the MS. “noor,” gold. If this be the accurate reading, Grainne’s dowery must have formed an element in the conflict.
[ [100] Yellow was the favourite colour of the ancient Celt. “Falt buidh,” yellow hair, is an object of the highest admiration, and the longer and more waving the locks, the greater the admiration. The account the Celt gives of himself is somewhat different from that given by his neighbours, who would paint him a wiry, thin, black-haired, black-eyed man. Tacitus gave a different description; and any man who travels the Highlands of Perthshire, where, perhaps, we have the purest Celtic blood in Scotland, will have ample evidence of the accuracy of the Roman historian. With reference to the admiration of the yellow colour among the Celts, it is interesting to trace how it intermingles itself with the vocabulary of the language; thus, a fine day is a yellow day. The name given to Beltin day, the opening of summer, is, “la buidhe Beallteine,” yellow Beltin day; and anything propitious is called yellow, as, “is buidhe dhuit e,” it is yellow or propitious for you; and a man satisfied after a meal is called “buidheach,” yellow or satisfied.
[ [101] This is the second composition of M’Rory’s given in the Dean’s MS. The present is as purely Irish in its incidents as the former was Scotch, the author having been in all likelihood, as already shown, a Scotchman, but perfectly familiar with the events of Irish history, and equally so with what is called the Irish dialect, although in the day of the Dean it was common to the literature of both countries, with a few variations. It will be seen, for instance, that in several of these pieces the Irish negative ni and the Scottish cha, are used indifferently. This composition has been published at much greater length than here, under the name of Ossian, but from MSS. apparently of no antiquity. This poem is usually called “Cath Ghabhra,” “the battle of Gaura,” or “Bàs Osgair,” “the death of Oscar.”
[ [102] The “red-tree” knights were the knights of Emania, or Ulster. Cæsar mentions the order of equites, or knights, as one of the three great leading classes into which the Gauls were divided; so that the existence of such an order in Ireland, at an early period, is in no way inconsistent with what history relates of ancient Celtic policy. Cairbar was the son of Cormac, son of Art, son of Conn of the hundred battles, Irish kings of the Emanian race. Finn, according to O’ Flaherty, was married to a daughter of Cormac, so that this battle with Cairbar was in reality with his brother-in-law. It seems to have originated in the Feinn, who are said to have been a species of militia, or rather a standing army in Ireland, becoming disposed to stretch their prerogative farther than was agreeable to the monarch, and that the object of Cairbar in this battle was to put them down. It is said that the Feinn were supported by the provincial king of Munster. This is Irish history, and it is remarkable to find these events sung by a Scottish Poet.
[ [103] Muckrey, or “The island of Swine,” is an ancient name for Ireland, derived obviously, not as it might be in modern times, from the abundance of the animal in the country, where it is the sum total of the family possessions in many instances, but from the place which the sow held, as referred to already, in the national mythology. It is obvious from the reference in this line to a difference with the Feinn, that that was no new event in the history of the Irish monarchs.
[ [104] Another name for Ireland. O’Flaherty says there were five names for the island, and quotes a scholiast of the name of Fiach, who lived a thousand years before. The names are Ere, Fodla, Banba, Fail, and Elga. Might we not add to these the much-disputed name of Scotia, which our Irish neighbours claim, yet don’t possess. Surely it is time now to perceive that the only true and satisfactory solution of the question regarding it, is that the name was applied to both countries, latterly under the distinctive appellation of Scotia Major and Scotia Minor, as the countries of the Scots. Surely Scotland was as much a Scotia as Ireland, and Ireland as much as Scotland, in so far as they were both occupied by Scottish inhabitants. This identity of race, language, and at an early period religion, is not sufficiently allowed for in discussing questions involving the several claims of Scotland and Ireland to much of what was common to both. Scotland has suffered more than Ireland from the destruction of her early archives; but is not the life of Columba, so recently given to the world under the able editorship of Dr. Reeves, in reality a Scottish work?
[ [105] “Banva” is another name for Ireland. This is the Gaelic name for a sucking-pig, so that it also is probably mythological. It is in all likelihood the same name with our Scottish Banff.
[ [106] Another name for Caoilte.
[ [107] It may be interesting to many readers to have here a specimen of this poem, as taken down from the oral recitation of a Christina Sutherland, an old woman in the county of Caithness, in the year 1856. It commences thus:
Is trom an nochd mo chumha fein, Guilgeantach mo rian, Smuaineachadh a chath chruaidh, Chuir mise ’us Cairbar claon ruadh, Am macsa Chormaic O Chuinn, Is mairg sinn a thàradh fo ’laimh; Laoch gun ghràin cha do chuir, Annsa dh’ a laimh iuthaidh, etc.