Poems MacCarthy, Florence Denis

88
Connaught," by O'Flaherty, published by the Irish Archaeological
Society.)
32. The name of Scatha, the Amazonian instructress of Ferdiah and
Cuchullin, is still preserved in Dun Sciath, in the island of Skye,
where great Cuchullin's name and glory yet linger. The Cuchullin
Mountains, named after him, "those thunder-smitten, jagged, Cuchullin
peaks of Skye," the grandest mountain range in Great Britain, attract to
that remote island of the Hebrides many worshippers of the sublime and
beautiful in nature, whose enjoyments would be largely enhanced if they
knew the heroic legends which are connected with the glorious scenes
they have travelled so far to witness. Cuchullin is one of the foremost
characters in MacPherson's "Ossian," but the quasi-translator of Gaelic
poems places him more than two centuries later than the period at which
he really lived. (Lady Ferguson's "The Irish before the Conquest," pp.
57, 58.)
33. For a description of this mysterious instrument, see Dr. Todd's
"Additional Notes to the Irish version of Nennius," p. 12.
34. On the use of mail armour by the ancient Irish, see Dr. O'Donovan's
"Introduction and Notes to the Battle of Magh-Rath," edited for the
Archaeological Society.
35. For an interesting account of this sovereign, so famous in Irish
story, see O'Curry's "Lectures," pp. 33, 34. Her Father, according to
the chronology of the "Four Masters," is supposed to have reigned as
monarch of Erin about a century before the Christian era. "Of all the
children of the monarch Eochaidh Fiedloch," says O'Donovan (cited in
O'Mahony's translation of Keating's "History," p. 276) "by far the most
celebrated was Meadbh or Mab, who is still remembered as the fairy queen
of the Irish, the 'Queen Mab' of Spenser."
36. "The belief that a 'ferb' or ulcer could be produced," says Mr.
Stokes, in his preface to 'Cormac's Glossary,' "forms the groundwork of
the tale of Nede mac Adnae and his uncle, Caier." The names of the
three blisters (Stain, Blemish, and Defect) are almost identical with
those Ferdiah is threatened with in the present poem.
37. A 'cumal' was three cows, or their value. On the use of chariots,
see "The Sick Bed of Cuchullin," Atlantis, i., p. 375.