XXXVII. and like the Druid's shout, to this cry, or wail, I have never met more than one reference, namely, in the story of Fraech Mac Fidaid. It will be remembered that this Fraech went to the palace of Cruachan in Connacht, to demand the hand in marriage of the beautiful princess Findabar; and that he was accompanied, among other officers of his train, by the three sons of Uaithne, the famous harpers, who gave names to the three musical modes just mentioned above. As I have already given the preliminary story of this tale,(38) I need not repeat it here, but pass at once to that part of the tale itself where the young prince, after being wounded by the river-monster, is taken by his attendants back to the palace to be treated for his wounds. The story tells us that his litter was preceded by his Cornairidh (or horn-players); and that so exquisite was their wailing performance that sixty youths of the household of king Ailill and queen Medb actually died of the melting plaintiveness of their music. They entered the court at last, and Fraech was placed in a medicated bath prepared for him by order of the king. He was then taken out and put to bed, upon which (continues the tale) there was heard around the palace of Cruachan a loud wailing or Golghaire. And immediately there were seen an hundred and fifty women dressed in crimson tunics, and green Cennbarra, or head-dresses, and wearing silver brooches on their breasts, in the vicinity of the palace. Some went out to them to learn their history, and to know whom it was that they bewailed. It is Fraech the son of Fidad, said one of them, that we bewail, the most heroic youth of all the fairy mansions of Erinn. Fraech then heard the Golghaire (or wail) of the women. Raise me up from this place immediately, said Fraech to his people. This is the wail of my mother, and of the women of the (river) Boind. He was then carried out, and they collected around him, and took him away from the palace of Cruachan. Great, says the story, was the bemoaning in the household of Ailill and Medb on that night; but they were delighted on the evening of the following day to see him coming back to them accompanied by fifty women, and he perfectly cured, without defacement or blemish. These women were all of the same age, the same features, the same loveliness, the same nobleness, the same splendour, the same symmetry of form, and the countenances of Bansidhe (or fairy women) on each of them, so that no one of them could be distinguished from another Some of the people of the court were nearly suffocated in the pressure of the crowd to see them. They left him then at the door of the mentioned in the Tale of the Tain Bo Fraich; (438) See Lecture xxx., ante, vol. ii. p. 218. court, and they renewed their wail at departing from him, so that several of the people of the court swooned at its overpowering effect; and it is from this event that the musicians of Erinn have retained the species of music called the Golghaire, or wail, of the Bansidhe to this day. (439) XXXVII. This curious tale is preserved in the Book of Leinster, a MS. compiled about the year 1150; and I trust that the length of the extract will be found sufficiently compensated for by the scrap of Bansidhe mythology, and the clear evidence which it contains of the wonderful powers of our ancient musicians, as well as of the tender susceptibility of our remote ancestors to the influence of their performances. I am not aware that any trace of these old fairy strains is now to be found among our long neglected native musicians, at least with any name or traditional history; but I have no doubt but that the Bensidhe's wail came It probably down to a late period, though, perhaps, under a degenerate name to a late and with some distortions, under the pretence of improvement, to meet the depraved taste of a mixed and declining race of people. came down period. The tenth species of music in alphabetical order was the Gúb- The Gúbha. ha, a word which literally signifies sighing or moaning in grief. I cannot, however, say with certainty that the Gúbha came properly within the strict range of what can be termed vocal music, though I have authority to show that special funeral assemblies were held, which were called Aenach Gúbha, or moaning or mourning assemblies; but whether the lamentation was of a low moaning character or of the more ordinary passionate kind, I have not been able to ascertain. (439) [original:-Acornaire iarum riamsom docum duini Cruachan; sendaid suide riam iaram con apta tri fichid fer do macaemaib aililla ocus Medba ara siraċt an tsenma. Do thegad iarum isin dun, acas teid Fraech isin fotracad, conerig ban curi in duine uile uime dia blit, acas dia folcad a cind. Do berar as iaram acas do gnitar dergad do. Co cuala mi, an golgaire for Cruachain, ai ina farrad conacca na tri chaecaid ban cona n-inaruib corcraib, cona cendbarraib uainidib, cona mileċaib airgdidib for a mbruindib. Tiagar ĉuċu dia fis a scel, dus cia ro chainset. Fraech mac fidaid om, ol bean dib, ised chainmidni, mac dretell rig side Erind uili. Lasodáin ро chluin Fraech a ngolgairi na mban. Dom ócbaid ass tra, ol Fra ech fria muintir. Gol mo mat- XXXVII. The Logairecht or funeral wail; occurs in Cormac's The eleventh species of music (vocal) was the Logairecht. This was simply the wild and scarcely regulated Irish funeral cry; that which is heard even to this day in the south and west of cry Ireland, raised and sustained chiefly by the women who follow a hearse or funeral to the grave. At the present day the cry is called Logóireacht, but in Cormac's Glossary, a compilation of Gloss. at the about the year 890, it is called Logairecht, and occurs in the explanation of the word Amrath. Now, the word Amrath is compounded of am, a negative particle, equal to the English non, and rath, which means the stock, bounty, or wages which a chief or landlord gave to a tenant or follower for rent and services that were to be returned to the chief or lord in accordance with stipulations mutually entered into. That was the affirmameaning of tive rath; but the Amrath or non-ruth was the bounty or word Amrath; the latter term. The The Sámh sea nymph's Bong; payment given to the people who cried and lamented at the funeral of the chief, lord, or any body else, and for which bounty there was no further return ever to be made. The twelfth species of music is the Luinneog; but all that could be said on the subject of this species has been said already under the word Duchand. The Luinneog is still the chorus or burden of a song in Scotland. The thirteenth in alphabetical order is the Sámhghúbha, which ghibha, or is the old Irish name for the song of the Murduchain, that is, the sirens, mermaids, or sea-nymphs. The word Sámhghubha appears to have been compounded of sámh, which signifies ease, tranquillity, or a sense of entrancing happiness, and gúbha, a plaintive, slow, melancholy moaning air or tune. The sirens or sea-nymphs who, in ancient classical mythology, are said to have practised this species of music, were able by the bewitching sweetness of their strains to draw mariners upon the rocks and then destroy them; and in the narrative of the wanderings and voyages of the Milesian or rather Gadelian tribes before their arrival in Spain, and ultimately in Ireland, we are told (in the Book of Invasions) that upon their passing through the Pontic Sea, between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, they were advised by their druids to stuff their ears with soft wax in order that they should not hear the music of the Murduchans, or mermaids, who were accustomed to sing to the mariners until they set them asleep, when they sprang on them and killed them. I have never met the word Sámhghúbha in any composition, but I find it in an old Irish Glossary in my possession, where it is said to be the name of the sirens [vide also O'Reilly, in voc.]; but this, unless figurative, is clearly a mistake or a mistranscript, as any Irish scholar will at once perceive. it is mentioned in an old glossary. The fourteenth species of music in alphabetical order is the the Battle of Magh the whizzing Sian, or Sianan. Whether this was any particular species of xxxvII. music, or only a popular name for a song or tune, I am not able The Sian, or to decide, as I have met only three references to it, two of which Sianan; refer to the human voice, and one to the whizzing or whistling of a spear or dart, winging its way through the air. The oldest applied in reference to the word Sian, in a musical sense, is found in the the Tale of description of the Battle of the second or northern Magh the Second Tuireadh, fought between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fo- Tuireadh to morians, where the clangour and clatter of the men and wea- of a spear; pons are spoken of as follows: "The shout of the champions; the clashing of the shields; the flashing and clangour of the swords and of the Colg dets; the whistle and twang of the darts; the flying Sian of the spears and javelins; and the battle crash of the arms". (440) It is very difficult, indeed, to draw any distinction between the words whistle, twang, and Sian in this passage, and the writer seems only to give to the same, or nearly the same, sounds a variety of undistinguishable names. The next place in which I have met with the word Sian is in tone of the the lament of Deirdre for the Sons of Uisnech, where she says:"Sweet with Conchobar the king Are the pipers and trumpeters; A Sian which the sons of Uisle sang". (441) Here the word Sian refers to the song which the sons of Visle sang. applied to a tale h ings of the Snedgus Riaghla; The third place in which I have met the Sian, or Sianan, is and also in in the wanderings of St. Colum Cille's two priests, Snedgus and the wanderMac Riaghla, who, on their return from Ireland to Iona on the priests coast of Scotland, were driven into the northern seas. Here and Mac they were driven for some time from one strange island to another, until at last, as they were approaching a new island, they heard the sweet voices of women singing on the shore, when immediately they recognized the music, and said: "This is the Sianan of the women of Erinn". These were Irish women belonging to a clann of people of the Fera Rois, or men of Ross, who had shortly before been forcibly sent out upon the sea at the mouth of the river Boyne, and driven by the winds to this island. 442) From these two last instances of the word Sian, or Sianan, it it designated would appear that it designated some kind of soft, plaintive soft plaintive (140) [original:-Gair na Laechraidi, ocus presimb na sciath, loindreth ocus fedgairi na claidim, ocus na calc ndéd, circiu ocus Grindegur na saigidbolc, ocus sian etigud na fogáid ocus na ngabluch, ocus priscbemnech na VOL. II. narm.-Second Battle of Magh Tui- (441) [See Atlantis, No. vi., p. 410.] 25 music. XXXVII. music, such as one would expect to hear from the Sons of Uisnech and from the Fera Rois, both of whom were in forcible exile from their native country. Sirechlach applied to with Ad bond; the latter word occurs ology of Aengus Ceilé Sirechtach was an adjectival term applied to music of a slow, slow music; plaintive, enchanting kind; and hence we often find in ancient tales the phrase ceol sirechtach sidhe, from ceol, music; sirechsynonymous tach, slow or prolonged; and sidhe, fairy or enchanting. This term Sirechtach is explained in another place by the word Adbond, which in its turn is explained bind, that is, sweet or melodious. The word Adbond occurs again in such a way as to signify a song or a tune, as in a note in the Festology of in the Fest- Aengus Ceilé Dé, or the Culdee, on the festival day of St. Mochae of Oendruim, now Island Magee, on the coast of the county of Antrim. St. Mochae was a disciple of St. Patrick, and his festival is held on the 21st of June. This note tells us that one day he went out from his church upon the island, and that he turned into a little grove in its neighbourhood, where he sat down under a tree for prayer and contemplation. While sitting here he saw a bird of uncommon plumage perch upon a tree near him, and sing so sweetly that he could not take his eyes off it nor shut his ears against its notes for a full hour, when it ceased and flew away to the next tree. Here the bird resumed its melody, and again riveted the attention of the saint for another hour, when he flew away to another tree immediately near. Here again he renewed his enchanting notes, absorbing more than ever St. Mochae's whole mind and attention for another hour, after which he flew away and disappeared. St. Mochae, after reflecting some time on the strange appearance of this wonderful bird and his wonderful music, arose and returned to his church. The way back, however, appeared very strange to him. The grove in which he had sat had disappeared, and its place was occupied by a cultivated field. The path by which he reached it was no longer to be seen, the way having been crossed with hedges and ditches. At length he made his way to his church, but he found the edifice much altered since he had left it but three hours before. He saw there priests and monks, indeed; but he had never seen their faces before, and when he told them that he was Mochae, the original founder of their church, they smiled at him in pity, believing that he was some wandering pilgrim whose religious enthusiasm had got the better of his reason. They asked him why he believed himself to be St. Mochae, and he told them the story of the wonderful bird. "My good friend", said they, "you must be under some delusion, for our holy patron, the blessed Mochae, went to heaven one hundred and fifty years ago". On hearing |