856
AN GAODHAL.
hands of the czar in strangling their
own nationality to death? Are they
not the virtual Executioners of their
own Nationality?
Reverse the picture, dear reader,
and the Irish editor and the average
Irishman stand out before you in bold
relief!
We would caution those learning
the Irish language against the eccen¬
tricities of such novices in Gaelic as
T O'N Russell. His assertion that chum
fear a phósadh means to marry men,
and that chum fir a phósadh means to
marry a man, etc. places him beyond
the pale of consideration in Gaelic mat¬
ters. He was advanced in years when
he commenced the study of the lang¬
uage, and deserves great credit for the
progress he has made, if he be sincere.
But he, with others, similarly circum¬
stanced, confounds the genius of the
language with what his own fancy
suggests; just as the thick headed
German thinks that when s added to
the singular in English makes it plu¬
ral he is fully justified, according to
rule, to call men "mans" and women
"womans," which he generally does.
Russell confounds the form, Bhí an
sagart a pósadh fear and bhí an sagart
a pósadh an fhir with the form, thainic
an sagart le ( or chum ) fhir a phósadh
[ to marry men ] and thainic an sagart
le, or chum, fear a phósadh [to marry a
man]. But the crowning of the attemp¬
ted fraud is the assertion that he heard
Irish speakers use his form. — Never!
It would be insulting to the intelli¬
gent reader to institute a compari¬
son between such men as Russell and
the real professors of their own lang¬
uage — there is no room for it.
Think of an Englishman commenc¬
ing to learn French at the age of fifty
and, after a few years, presume to be a
better judge of the construction of the
French language than the native pro¬
fessors !
The noun, fear, is irregular in its
inflections in Irish as it is in English.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS
TORY.
Lecture II.
LECTURE II.
Of the Cuilmenn. — Of the Tain bo Chuailgne, —
Of Cormac Mac Airt. — Of the Book of Acaill.
(Continued)
The courier set out with a company of nine
subordinates, and in due time arrived in Cuailgne
and delivered his message to Dare Mac Faahtna.
Dare received him in a true spirit of hospitality,
and on learning his errand, consented at once to
accept the terms. He then sent the courier and
his company into a separate part of his establish¬
ment, furnishing them abundantly with the best
food and drink that his stores could supply.
In the course of the night, and when deep in
their cups, one of the Connacht couriers said to
another. It is a truth that the man of this house
is a good man, and it is very good of him to grant
to us, nine messengers, what it would be a great
work for the other four great provinces of Erinn,
to take by force out of Ulster, namely the Don
Chuailgne. Then a third courier interposed and
said that little thanks were due to Dare, because
if he had not consented freely to give the Donn
Chuailgne, he should be compelled to do so.
At this moment Dare's chief steward, ac¬
companied by a man laden with food and
another with drink, entered; and overhear¬
ing the vaunt of the third courier, flew into a
passion and cast down their meat and drink before
them without inviting them to partake of it; after
which he repaired to his master and reported to
him what he had heard. Dare sware by his gods
that they should not have the Donn Chuailgne,
either by consent or by force.
The couriers appeared before Dare early on the
following morning and requested a fulfilment of
his promise; but he made answer that if it had
been a practice of his to punish couriers for their
impertinence, not one of them should depart alive
from him. The couriers returned to their mistress
Rath Cruachan, the royal palace of the kings of
Connacht. On his arrival Mac Roth related to
Meav the issue of his embassy and the cause of
its failure; upon which Meav took up the words
of her boastful messenger, and said that as Dare
had not granted the request freely, he should be
compelled to do so by force.
Meav accordingly immediately summoned her
sons to her presence, as well as the seven sons of
Magach, her relatives, with all their forces and fol¬
lowers. She also invited the men of Munster and
Leinster to join her cause, and take vengeance on
the Ulstermen for the many wrongs which they
had of old inflicted on them. There was besides at
this time a large body of exiled Ulstermen in
Meav's service, namely, those who had abandoned
Conor after his treachery to the sons of Uisneach.
This body of brave men, amounting to 1500, was
under the leadership of Fergus Mac Roigh and
Conor's own son, Cormac Conloingeas or the Ex¬
ile.
