808
AN GAOḊAL.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
Lecture 1.
(Continued)
It follows, then, beyond all reasonable doubt.
that whether or not the name Saltair or Psalter
was originally given to this compilation, such a
compilation existed, and that in the beginning of
the 11th century it was in existence, under the name
of Saltair of Tara, and believed to have been
collected under the patronage of Cormac Mac Art,
who died in the year 266.
Before I leave the subject of Saltair, I cannot
but observe that the Rev. Dr. Keating also, a most
learned Gaedhlic scholar, gives an explanation of
the word quite in consonance with the preceding
remarks In the Preface to his History of Ireland
he tells us that History in ancient times was all
written in verse, for its better security, and for the
greater facility of committing it to memory; and
he goes on to refer to the Saltair of Tara in the fol¬
lowing words.
"And it is because of its having been written in
poetic metre, that the chief book which was in the
custody of the Ollamh of the King of Erin, was
called the Saltair of Temair; and the Chronicle of
holy Comac Mac Cullinan, Saltair of Cashel, and
the Chronicle of Aengus Celle De [or the Culd¬
ee], Saltair-na-Rann, (that is, Saltair of the Poems
or Verses), because a Salm (Psalm) and a Poem
are the same, and therefore a Salterium and a Dua¬
naire (book of poems) are the same.
Of the next in order of the lost books, the BOOK
OF THE UACHONGHAIL, (pron. ooa cong-wall), almost
nothing is known beyond the bare name. The pas¬
sage just quoted from the Book of Ballymote, and
from the Yellow Book of Lecan, was copied into
those MSS. from the lost book itself, according to
the entry; but what was the age of the book at
that time it is now impossible to determine. The
O'Clerys, however, mention that they had access to
it when compiling their Book of the Invasions of
Erinn, that is in the year 1630 or 1631. And
Keating, in the Second Book of his History, men¬
tions the Book of the Uachongbhail among the
very ancient books which were still extant in his
own time, and of which he had made use. It was
probably of the age of the Book of Leinster, and
kept at Kildare in 1625.
The next book of considerable antiquity that we
find reference to is that called the CIN DROMA SNE¬
CHTA, or Cin of Droma Snechta. The word Cin
(pron. in Eng. Kin) is explained in our ancient
Glossaries as signifying a stave of five sheets of
vellum, and the name of this would signify, there¬
fore, the Vellum — stave Book of Drom Snechta.
The words Drom Snechta signify the snow-capped
hill, or mountain ridge, and it is believed to have
been the name of a mountain situated in the pres¬
ent county of Monaghan.
The Cin of Drom Snechta is quoted in the Book
of Ballymote (fol. 12 a) in support of the ancient
legend of the antediluvian occupation of Erinn by
the Lady Banbha, who is however in other Books
called Cesair (pron. Kesar). There are two refer¬
ences to it in the Book of Lecan. The first of these
fol. 271 b.) is in the same words preserved in the
Book of Ballymote — "From the Cin of Drom Sne¬
chta is (taken) this little (bit) as far as Cesair."
The second is (fol. 77. col. 2) where the writer
says in summing up the genealogies of some of the
families of Connacht, that he compiled them from
the Chronicles of the Gaedhil¬ —
"We have collected now this genealogy of the
Ui-Diarmada out of the Chronicles of the Gaedhil,
and out of Cormac's Saltair at Cashel, and out of
the Book of Dundaleathghlas (Downpatrick), and
out of the Books of Flann Mainistrech (Flann of
Monasterboice), and out of the Cin of Drom Sne¬
chta, and out of the annals and historical books (of
Erinn), until we have brought it all together
here."
The same valuable book quotes the Cin Droma
Snechta again by direct transcript (at folio 123 a.),
where it gives, first, the genealogies of the chief¬
tains of the ancient Rudrician race of Ulster, in
the ordinary way in which they are found in other
books of the same and of a previous period, and it
then gives a different version, saying, — "The Cin
Drom Snechta says that it is (as follows) it ought
to be." This has reference to the pedigrees of the
Irian race of Ulster, and immediately to that of the
celebrated Knight of the Craebh Ruabh, or Royal
Branch, Conall Cearnach.
A short account of the Destruction of Bruighean
Da Derga (The Court of Da Derga), and the death
of the monarch Conaire Mor, is quoted from
the Cin of Drom Snechta in Leabhar na h-Uidhre
(fol. 67 a.), and again, the Account of the birth of
Cuchulainn, (at fol. 80 b,) from the same book.
Doctor Keating, in his History, when introducing
the Milesian colonists, gives their descent from
Magog, the son of Japhet, on the authority of the
Cin of Drom Snechta, which he states, was com¬
piled before St. Patrick's mission to Erinn. His
words are — "We will set down here the branching
off of the race of Magog according to the Book of
Invasions (of Ireland), which was called the Cin of
Drom Snechta, and it was before the coming of
(St) Patrick to Ireland the author of that book ex¬
isted." What authority Dr. Keating has for this
we know not, as unfortunately he has not given
it, and the only reference to the author's name
that I have myself ever found is in a partially ef¬
faced memorandum in the Book of Leinster. This
memorandum is written in the lower margin of a
page (fol. 230 b.), which contains genealogies of
several of the chieftain lines of Ireland and Scot¬
land.
There is apparently but one word — the name of
the writer — illegible at the beginning of this mem¬
orandum, and with this word provisionally restor¬
ed, the note would read thus, —
"(Ernin son of) Duach (that is), son of the King
of Connacht, an Ollamh, and a prophet, and a pro¬
fessor in history, and a professor in wisdom, it was
he that collected the Genealogies and Histories of
the men of Erinn in one book, that is, the Cin
Droma Snechta."
The Duach here referred to (who was probably
still alive at the time of St. Patrick's coming) is
the son of Brian, son of the Monarch Eochaidh
Muighmhedoin, who died A. D. 365. (This Eoch¬
aidh was also the father of Niall of the Nine Hos¬
tages, who was the father of Laeghaire, the Mon¬
arch of Erinn at the time when St. Patrick came
on his mission in the year 432). Duach had two
sons — Eoghan Srem, who succeeded him as King
