Note 47 — THE BOOK OF THE DEAN OF LISMORE.

“Sliabh nam ban fionn,” or the “hill of the fair-haired women,” is said to be one of the mountains of Tipperary, in the neighbourhood of Clonmel. It is now called “Sliabh nam ban,” and has several traditions of the Feine associated with it. The writer is not aware of any mountain of the name in Scotland; besides, although the word “Sliabh” is well known and in common use among the Scottish Highlanders, it is seldom found in the topography of the country, in which the almost uniform term for a mountain is “Beinn,” the English “Ben.” This is one of the marked differences between Irish and Scottish topography. The term under consideration has sometimes been called in Scotland “Sliabh nam beann fionn,” “the hill of the fair hills,” a manifest mistake, which the meaningless tautology should be enough to prove. Topographical phrases in the Gaelic language are usually not only grammatically accurate, but of remarkable elegance in their structure. The interpretations often put upon them are a monstrous outrage upon this sound and invariable principle.