166
AN GAOḊAL.
rounded the whole with a high ditch and a deep
dike. 12. What manure do you put on the land in
the time of spring? 13. I put bone-dust. 14. Is
not bone-dust dry, and without nutriment to the
earth ? 15. No ; it is possessed of a certain pro¬
perty which fertilizes the soil. 16. Is there a
large oak tree in your farm? 17. There is not nor
even a bush. I cut every bush from the root. 18.
See that field how green it is. 19. Was it not al-
ways green? 20 It is good to be here. 21. Have
you all your corn in stack and in granary ? 22. I
have not. This season was very wet. 23. Phil-
osophers say that a comet brings hot weather, but
truly this blazing comet which was lately with us
was the harbinger of rain and wet weather. 24.
When will it be back again with us? 25. It is
not easy to tell.
ANCIENT IRISH LITERATURE,
(From the Dublin Penny Journal)
CORMAC'S INSTRUCTIONS.
(By John O’Donovan.)
Cormac, the son of Art, ascended the throne of
Ireland about the middle of the third century.
He was a wise and good prince, and although a
pagan, is said to have the sublimest idea of the
First Cause. He attempted to reform the religion
of the Druids, and to substitute for their polythe¬
ism the more rational and sublime belief of one
infinite and eternal Being who was the author of
the universe. But for this he was violently op¬
posed by that powerful priesthood, who fomented
rebellions and generated a spirit of discontent in
the minds of the provincial Toparchs against him,
Tigernach, our most authentic annalist, informs
us that he quelled the Momonians in different
battles fought at Bearhaven, Lough Lein, and
Limerick ; the Connacians at Murresk, and the
Picts and Dalaradians of Ulster at Faughard in
Muirthemme. In one battle the good monarch
lost an eye, by which, being rendered unfit for
government, according to the custom of Ireland,
he resigned the crown to his son Cairbre of the
Liffey, and retired to his cottage of Cletty, near
the Boyne, where he devoted the remainder of his
life to philosophic contemplation. During this
time he wrote many works for the use of his son
and successor Cairbre, amongst which may be re-
koned his Royal Precepts or Instructions, which
he is said to have written at Cairbre's request, and
to have drawn up in answer to different questions
proposed by his son upon different subjects rela¬
tive to government and general conduct.
It was Cormac alse that caused the Psalter of
Tarah to be compiled as a depositary of the nation.
In this the pedigrees of the noble families, the
boundaries of their territories, the tribute paid
by the provincial kings to the monarch, &c. were
written. This was long considered as lost; but
some have said, probably without sufficient autho¬
rity, that a copy of it is yet extant in the British
Museum.
Cormac also wrote some laws, an imperfect copy
of which is to be found in the Seabright Collection
in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. One
tract of those laws treats of the privileges and pun-
ishments of different ranks of persons, and draws
a line of distinction between undesigned injuries,
such as those suffered by unavoidable accident,
and those happening by neglect.
The Druids still continued his most inveterate
enemies, for they saw that even though he had re-
signed the government, he nevertheless continued
to instil his novel doctrines, [which were directed
to the reformation of their order, ] into the mind
of the monarch, his son ; and finding that the
conduct of Cairbre was regulated by his father's
instructions, they conspired agrinst the life of the
latter ; and there is every reason to believe that
they effected their purpose by poisoning him.
The venerable abbot Tigernach of Clonmacnoise
thus records his death. —
Cormac hua Ċuinn cet-ċaṫaiġ do
é a Cleiteaċ diamáirt, iar leanmain
cnáṁa bratáin ina brágaid; no as iad
na siabhra ronortadar iar na brat do
Maelcinn Draoi o nar cred Cormac
do."
“Cormac, grandson of Con of the hundred bat-
tles, died at Cletty on Tuesday, the bone of a sal-
mon sticking in his throat, or, (according to others
it was the Siabra, (invisible genii that killed
him, at the instigation of Maelcinn the Druid, be-
cause Cormac did not believe in him."
From this it appears that Cormac fell a victim
to the envy of the Druids.
Cormac was father-in-law of the celebrated Fion
MacCumhail, [the Fingall of MacPherson,] gener-
al of the Fianna Eirionn, or Irish militia, and fa-
ther of Ossian, the feigned Homer of Caledonia,
and consequently, if the genuine poems of Oss-
ian were extant, their language would be the same
as that of Cormac's works, which is almost unin-
telligible to the generality of Irish readers, and
perfectly so to those who know Irish only as a
spoken language. The language of those poems
which the Highland Society has given to the world
as the originals of Ossian, is the living language
of the Highlanders of the present day, and if pro-
perly spelled, and read by an Irish scholar, would
be intelligible to the most illiterate peasant in Ire-
land. A comparison of the language of Cormac's
Instruetions with that of the effusions of the Scotch
Ossian would go far towards proving the period in
which the Highland bard was born.
The following extract of a letter from Charles
O'Conor of Belanagar to Colonel Valancey, dated
1779, will show the view which that very able I-
rish antiquarian has taken of this fragment of I-
rish jurisprudence.
(To be continued)
