871
AN GAODHAL.
world was full of all goodness in his time, there
were fruit and fatness of the land, and abundant
produce of the sea, with peace and ease and hap¬
piness in his time. There were no killings nor
plunderings in his time, but everyone occupied his
lands in happiness.
"The nobles of Erinn assembled to drink the
banquet of Tara, with Cormac, at a certain time.
These were the kings who were assembled at the
feast, Fergus Dubhdeadach, (of the black teeth),
and Eochaidh Gunnat, the two kings of Ulster,
Dunlang, son of Enna Nis, king of Leinster, Cor¬
mac Cas, son of Ailill Olium, — and Fiacha Muill¬
eathan, son of Eoghan Mor, the two kings of Mun¬
ster, Nia Mor, the son of Lugaidh Firbri, Cor¬
mac's brother, and Eochaidh, son of Conall, the
two kings of Connacht, Oengus of the poisoned
spear, king of Bregia (East Meath), and Feradhach
son of Asal, son of Conor the champion, king of
Meath
"The manner in which fairs and great assemb¬
lies were attended by the men of Erinn, at this
time, was, each king wore his kingly robe upon
him and his golden helmet on his head, for they
never put their kingly diadems on, but in the field
of battle.
"Magnificently did Cormac come to this assem¬
bly, for no man, his equal in beauty, had preced¬
ed him excepting Conaire Mor, son of Edersgel, or
Conor, son of Cathbadh (pron. nearly Caa-fah), or
Aengus, son of Daghda. Splendid, indeed was
Cormac's appearance at that assembly. His hair
was slightly curled, and of golden color, a scarlet
shield with engraved devices, and golden hooks
and clasps of silver, a wide-folding cloak on him,
with a gem-set gold brooch over his breast, a gold
torque around his neck, a white-collared shirt em¬
broidered with gold upon him, a girdle with gold¬
en buckles and studded with precious stones, a¬
round him, two spears with golden sockets, and
many red bronze rivets, in his hand, while he
stood in the full of beauty, without defect or
blemish. You would think that it was a shower
of pearls that was set in his mouth, his lips were
rubies, his symmetrical body was as white as
snow, his cheek was like the mountain-ash berry,
his eyes were like the sloe, his brows and eyelashes
were like the sheen of a blue-black lance.
"This then, was the shape and form in which
Cormac went to this great assembly of the men of
Erinn. And authors say that this was the noblest
convocation ever held in Erinn before the Chris¬
tian Faith. For, the laws and enactments insti¬
tuted in that meeting are those which shall prevail
in Erinn for ever.
"The nobles of Erinn proposed to make a new
classification of the people, according to their va¬
rious mental and material qualifications, both kings
and ollamhs (or chiefs of profession), and druids,
and farmers, and soldiers, and all different classes
likewise, because they were certain, that, whatever
regulations should be ordered for Erinn in that
assembly by the men of Erinn, would be those
which would live in it forever. For, from the time
that Amergen Gluingeal (or of the White Knee),
the File (or Poet), and one of the chiefs of the Mil¬
esian colonists, delivered the first judgment in
Erinn, it was to the Files alone that belonged the
right of pronouncing judgments, until the disputa¬
tion of the Two Sages, Ferceirtne, the File, and
Neidhe, son of Adhna, at Emania, about the beau¬
tiful mantle of the chief File, Adhna who had late¬
ly died. More and more obscure to the people
were the words in which these two Files discussed
and decided their dispute, nor could the kings of
the other Files understand them. Concobar (or
Conor), and the other princes, at that time pres¬
ent at Emania, said that the disputation and deci¬
sion could be understood only by the two parties
themselves, for that they did not understand them.
It is manifest, said Concobar, all men shall have
share in it from this day out forever, but they (the
Files shall have their hereditary judgement out of
it, of what all others require, every man may take
his share of it. Judgment was then taken from the
Files, except their inheritance of it, and several of
the men of Erinn took their part of the judgement
such as the judgements of Eochaidh, son of Luch¬
ta, and the judgements of Fachtna, the son of
Senchadh, and the (apparently) false judgments of
Caradniadh Teiche, and the judgements of Mo¬
rann, the son of Mean, and the judgments of Eog¬
han, the son of Durrthacht [king of Farney], and
the judgements of Doet of Neimthenn, and the
judgements of Brigh Ambui [daughter of Sench¬
adh], and the judgments of Diancecht [the Tuath
De Danann Doctor] in matters relating to medical
doctors. Although these were this first ordered
at this time, the nobles of the men of Erinn (sub¬
sequently) insisted on judgement and eloquence
(advocacy) being allowed to persons according to
rank in the Bretha Nemheadh (laws of ranks), and
so each man usurped the profession of another
again, until this great meeting assembled around
Cormac. They then again separated the profess¬
ors of every art from each other in that great meet¬
ing, and each of them was ordained to his legitimate
profession.
(To be continued)
There are a few points relating to accent to
which the GAEL would wish to direct attention,
they are, the accenting of the o in the long diphth¬
ong eo, the a in the pronoun ar (ovr), and the i
before the aspirated and in the middle of words
Bourke's Easy Lessons does not accent the a in ar
(our), and says that the proper pronunciation of
the word is ar (a short). We never heard the word
pronounced in any other way, and we cannot ac¬
count for the use of the accented a in it.
The eo is classed as one of the six long diphth¬
ongs, and therefore should never be accented.
There are only five words in the language in
which it has a short sound. They are — eocair (a
key, deoch (a drink), Eocaidh (a man's name),
seo (this), and seoch (apart), (see Bourke's Easy
Lessons). Hence the diphthong should be long
or mutable. If mutable it should be accented in
all the other words in the language in which it oc¬
curs, or it should not be accented at all. It is
easy to think of the five words in which the sound
of eo is short.
As g and d aspirated lengthen the sound of i in
the middle, and at the end of words when followed
by another vowel, using the accented i is superflu¬
ous.
The accented i is not used in the word croidhe,
heart, yet the sound is the same as if it were writ¬
ten with the accente i. We make these remarks
because we consider that unnecessary departure
from the regular, plain letter should not be en¬
couraged, and also, because it is attended with
considerable trouble to the compositor.
