3 passed into Alba (Scotland). The three Pictish chiefs were given Irish wives to take to Alba with them, on condition that henceforth their royal line should descend according to the female succession-which, it is said, was henceforth the law among the Alban Picts. Eremon's victory over Eber had slight effect in fixing on his lineage the succession to the overlordship: for, through many hundreds of years afterward, the battle had to be refought, and the question settled once more-sometimes to the advantage of the Eremonians, sometimes to that of the Eberians. A warlike people must have war. Occasionally, during the reigns of the early Milesian kings, this want was filled for them by the Fomorians, who, though disastrously defeated by the De Danann at Northern Moytura, were far from being destroyed. Irial, the prophet, the grandson of Eremon, and third Milesian king of Ireland, had to fight them again. And at many other times the Island suffered from their depredations. Names of a long list of kings, from Eremon downward, and important particulars regarding many of them, were preserved by the historical traditions-traditions that were as valuable, and as zealously guarded, as are the written State Records of modern days. The carefully trained filé, who was poet, historian, and philosopher, was consecrated to the work-and, ever inspired with the sacredness of his trust, he was seldom known to deviate from the truth in anything of importance-however much he confessedly gave his imagination play in the unimportant details. And, much as the people reverenced him, they reverenced the truth of history more; and it was the law that a filé, discovered falsifying, should be degraded and disgraced. The Scottish historian Pinkerton, who was hardly sympathetic, admits: "Foreigners may imagine that it is granting too much to the Irish to allow them lists of kings more ancient than those of any other country of modern Europe. But the singularly compact and remote situation of that Island, and the freedom from Roman conquest, and from the concussion of the Fall of the Roman Empire, may infer this allowance not too much." And the British Camden, another authority not partial to Ire 3 MacNeill holds that the Picts came to Ireland ahead of the Gael: and that, as distinct tribes, portions of them inhabited many parts of it, down till historic times. They also occupied large part of Scotland. Many notable scholars deny the complete authenticity of this list. But undoubtedly the greater part of the names are the real names of real kings who held sway over the Northern or the Southern half, if not over all, of Ireland. land, but sometimes hostile, says: "They deduced their history from memorials derived from the most profound depths of remote antiquity, so that compared with that of Ireland, the antiquities of all other nations is but novelty, and their history is but a kind of infancy." Standish O'Grady in his "Early Bardic History of Ireland" says: "I must confess that the blaze of Bardic light which illuminates those centuries at first dazzles the eye and disturbs the judgment . . . (but) that the Irish kings and heroes should succeed one another, surrounded by a blaze of Bardic light, in which both themselves and all those who were contemporaneous with them are seen clearly and distinctly, was natural in a country where in each little realm or sub-kingdom the ard-ollam was equal in dignity to the King, as is proved by the equivalence of their eric. The dawn of English history is in the seventh century-a late dawn, dark and sombre, without a ray of cheerful sunshine; that of Ireland dates reliably from a point before the commencing of the Christian Era-illumined with that light which never was on sea or land thronging with heroic forms of men and women—terrible with the presence of the supernatural and its over-reaching power. Great were their deeds, their passions, and their sports; Of these was Fin, the father of the Bard, Over the clamor of all change is heard, Fin once o'ertook Grania, the golden-haired, From her the lovely, and from him the feared, Ossian! two thousand years of mist and change Thy Finian heroes now no longer range The very name of Fin and Goll sound strange- By miscalled lake and desecrated grange- CHAPTER IV SOME NOTABLE MILESIAN ROYALTIES THE popular traditions give details regarding many notable Mile. sian royalties in the decade of centuries before the Christian Era. Within the first century after Eremon, is said to have reigned the distinguished Tighernmas (seventh of the Milesian line) who, they say, first smelted gold, and introduced gold ornaments, and gold fringes on dress. He also introduced various colours into dresses. Sometimes to him, sometimes to his successor, Eochaid, is credited the ancient ordinance which distinguished the various classes and professions by the colours in their dress. A King or Queen might wear seven colours; a poet or Ollam six; a chieftain five; an army leader four; a land-owner three; a rent-payer two; a serf one colour only. Tighernmas and two-thirds of his people were wiped out when they were assembled in the plain of Magh Slecht in Brefni, at worship of Crom Cruach—a great idol which St. Patrick in his day destroyed. All the stories say that the greatest king of those faraway times was the twenty-first Milesian king, known to fame as Ollam Fodla (Ollav Fola) who blessed Ireland in a reign of forty years, some seven or eight centuries before the Christian Era. His title, Ollam Fodla, Doctor of Wisdom, has preserved his memory down the ages. The legends indicate that he was a true father to his people, and an able statesman. He organised the nation for efficiencydivided it into cantreds, appointed a chief over every cantred, a brugaid (magistrate) over every territory, and a steward over every townland. Some traditions say that he established a School of Learning. And as crowning glory he established the celebrated Feis of Tara, the great triennial Parliament of the chiefs, the nobles, and the scholars of the nation, which assembled on Tara Hill once every three years to settle the nation's affairs. This great deliberative assembly, almost unique among the nations in those early ages, and down into Christian times, reflected not л little glory upon ancient Ireland. One queen, famous and capable, whom early Ireland boasted was Macha Mong Ruad (the Red-haired), who reigned over the land about three hundred years before Christ. Her father, Aod Ruad was one of a triumvirate-the others being Dithorba and Cimbaoth-who by mutual agreement took seven-year turns in reigning. Aod Ruad was drowned at Eas-Aod-Ruad (Assaroe), now Ballyshanny. And when came round again the seven-year period which would have been his had he lived, his daughter, Macha, claimed the crown. But for it she had to fight her father's two partners which she did, killing Dithorba; and first defeating, and afterwards marrying, Cimbaoth—and making him king. For many, the reign of Cimbaoth-which synchronises with that of Alexander the Great-marks the beginning of certainty in Irish history-because of the famed remark of the trusted eleventh century historian, Tighernach, that the Irish records before Cimbaoth were uncertain. When Cimbaoth died this able woman took up the reins of government herself, becoming the first Milesian queen of Ireland. But the record above all others by which this distinguished woman lives to fame, is her founding of the ancient and much-storied stronghold-named after her-of Emain Macha, which henceforth, for six hundred years, was to play a most important part in the fortunes of Uladh (Ulster) and of Ireland. Macha's foster-son, Ugani Mor (the Great), who succeeded her, led his armies into Britain, and had his power acknowledged there. After bringing a great part of Britain to obedience, some traditions say that his ambition led him on the Continent, where he met with many successes also, giving basis for the ancient seanachies styling him, "King of Ireland and of the whole of Western Europe as far as the Muir Torrian" (Mediterranean Sea). All the leading families of Ulster, Leinster and Connaught trace their descent from Ugani Mor-the common father of the royalties of the three provinces. The origin of the name of Leinster is ascribed to the activities of Ugani Mor's great grandson, Labraid Loingsech. Labraid's grandfather (Ugani Mor's son), Laegaire Lorc, was killed for sake of his throne, by his brother, Cobtach. His son was killed at the same time: and the grandson, Labraid Loingsech, only spared because he was dumb, and consequently could not rule. Labraid Loingsech was reared up in secret, under the joint fosterage and tutorship of a celebrated harper, Craftine, and a celebrated poet and philosopher, Feirceirtne. Getting a blow of a caman once, when playing caman (hurley) with |