Note 131 — THE BOOK OF THE DEAN OF LISMORE.

This is a remarkable composition, descriptive of an attempt of Caoilt to deliver his friend and patron Finn from the hands of Cormac M’Art, King of Ireland, against whom the Feinn had been stirring up rebellion. Caoilt, after various strange doings, is told that he can only have Finn’s liberty on condition of bringing to Tara a pair of all the wild animals in Ireland. A portion of the poem has been translated in Ireland, and published in the Dublin University Magazine for March 1854, in connexion with an interesting paper upon the food of the ancient Irish, and the early zoology of their country, by Dr. Wilde. The translation is by that eminent Irish scholar, Mr. E. O’Curry. In that paper the poem is said to be at least a composition of the ninth century. It must be of extreme antiquity, as a reference to the language of it presents an amount of difficulty owing to obsolete words and phrases rarely met with. The Editor had the advantage of submitting his work to the review of Mr. O’Curry. For the topography of the poem, which is altogether Irish, the Editor has to refer the reader to the notes to the paper in the number of the Dublin University Magazine, referred to above, which are very full and very instructive.