846
AN GAODHAL.
Some persons complain that our Irish Annals
are too precise in the time and place assigned to
remote events, to be altogether true; but this is a
subject not to be disposed of in a cursory review
like the present. At present my intention is only
to draw briefly, for the purpose of illustration,
from one of the oldest and most remarkable of our
national historic tales. I do not propose here to
enter into any critical discussion as to the historic
accuracy of its details, but I may observe that
though often exhibiting high poetic coloring in the
description of particular circumstances, it unques¬
tionably embraces and is all through founded upon
authentic historic facts. The Tain Bo Chuail¬
gne is to Irish, what the Argonautic Expedition,
or the Seven against Thebes, is to Grecian hist¬
ory.
Many copies of the tale still exist. As has been
seen, we have traced it back to one of perhaps the
oldest written records, one of which we now re¬
tain little more than the name. We know unfor¬
tunately nothing of the other contents of the
Cuilmenn; but if we may judge from the charac¬
ter of the events detailed in the Tain, we may fair¬
ly suppose this Great Book to have been a depos¬
itory of the most remarkable occurrences
which had taken place in Ancient Erinn up to
the time of its composition.
We are told in our Annals and other ancient
writings, that Eochaidh Feidlech closed a reign of
twelve years as Monarch of Erinn in Anno Mundi
5069, or a little above a hundred years before the
Incarnation, according to the chronology of the
Annals of the Four Masters. This prince was di¬
rectly descended from Eremon (one of the surviv¬
ing leaders of the Milesian colonists), and succeed¬
ed to the monarchy by right of descent.
Eochaidh had three sons and several daughters'
among his daughters one named Meadhbh (pron.
Meav), who, from her early youth, exhibited re¬
markable traits of strength of mind and vigor of
character. Meav, in the full bloom of life and
beauty, was married to Conor, the celebrated pro¬
vincial King of Ulster; but the marriage was not
a happy one, and she soon left her husband and
returned to her father's court. The reign of the
monarch her father, had at this time been embit¬
tered by the rebellion of his three sons, which was
carried so far that he was at last compelled to give
them battle, and a final engagement took place be¬
tween the two parties at Ath Cumair (the ancient
name of a ford near Mullingar), in which the king's
arms triumphed, and the three sons were slain.
The victory over his sons brought but little
peace to Eochaidh, for the men of Connacht, tak¬
ing advantage of his weakened condition after it,
revolted against him, and to overcome their oppos¬
tion he set up his daughter Meav as Queen of
Connacht, and gave her in marriage to Ailill, a
powerful chief of that province, and son of Con¬
rach, a former king — the same Conrach ho built
the royal residence of Roth Cruachan. Ailill died
soon after, and Meav finding herself a young
widow, and an independent queen, proceed¬
ed to exercise her own right and taste in the se¬
lection of a new husband, and with this view
she made a royal progress into Leinster, where
Ross Ruadh was then king, residing at the resid¬
ence of the Leinster kings at Naas. Meav there
selected, from the princes of the court, the king's
younger son, who bore the same name as her pre¬
vious huband, Ailill, and whom he married and
made king-consort of her province.
The union was happy, and Meav became the
mother of many sons, and of one daughter.
One day, however (as the story runs), a disput
arose between Queen Meav and her husband about
their respective wealth and treasures, — for all wo¬
men at this time had their private fortunes and
dowries secured to them in marriage. This dis¬
pute led them to an actual comparison of their var¬
ious kinds of property, to determine which of them
had the most and best. There were compared be¬
fore them then (says the tale) all their wooden and
their metal vessels of value, and were found to be
equal. There were brought to them their finger
rings, their clasps, their bracelets, their thumb
rings, their diadems, and their gorgets of gold,
and they were found to be equal. There were
brought to them their garments of crimson, and
blue, and black, and green, and yellow, and mot¬
tled, and white, and streaked, and they were found
to be equal. There were brought before them
their great flocks of sheep, from greens and lawns
and plains, and they were found to be equal.
There were brought before them their steeds, and
their studs from pastures and from fields, and they
were found to be equal. There were brought be¬
fore them their great herds of swine, from forests,
from deep glens and from solitudes, their herds and
their drove of cows were brought before them from
the forests and most remote solitudes of the prov¬
ince and on counting and comparing them they were
found to be equal in number and in excellence.
But there was found among Ailill’s herds a young
bull which had been calved by one of Meav's cows
and which "not deeming it honorable to be under
a woman's control," went over and attached him¬
self to Ailill’s herds. The name of this fine animal
was Finnbheannach or the White-horned; and it
was found that the queen had not among her
herds one to match him. This was a matter of
deep dissapointment to her. She immediately or¬
dered Mac Roth, her chief courtier, to her presence
and asked him if he knew where a young bull to
match the Finnbheannach, or White-horned could
be found among the five provinces of Erinn. Mac
Roth answered that he knew where there was a
better and a finer bull, namely in the possession
of Dare, son of Fachtha, in the Cantred of Cuail¬
gne and province of Ulster, and that his name was
the Donn Chuailgne or Brown [Bull of Cuailgne.
Go thou, then said Meav. with a request to Dare
from me, for the loan of the Donn Chuailgne for
my herds for one year, and tell him that he shall
be well repaid for the loan, that he shall receive
fifty heifers and the Donn Chuailgne back at the
expiration of the time. And you may make anoth¬
er proposition to him, said the queen, namely, that
should the people of the district object to his end¬
ing us the Donn Chuailgne, he may come himself
with his bull, and that he shall have the full ex¬
tent of his own territory given him of the best
lands in Magh Ai (Plains of Roscommon), a char¬
iot worth thrice seven cumals (or 63 cows), and my
future friendship.
(To be continued.)
Number 10 of Shoppel's Modern Houses, an il¬
lustrated architectural quarterly, lies before us.
It is a well gotten-up journal, and contains 32 large
pages of designs and plans for modern houses of
all prices, with specifications for each. It is pub¬
lished at 63 Broadway, N. Y., and is only $1 a year
Reader, get your neighbor to subsribe
for your National journal, An Gaodhal.
