mayn; having on the north a piece of the half barony of Ross and Partry mountain; on the east Partry, by which the lake hath conveyance to Lough Keara lake; on the south, Kilmayn barony (as being part of the county of Mayo-in margine), where I omit HagCastle", an impregnable castle on the lake, Lough Measg Castle, Cong Abbey, dedicated to St. Fechin, and the field of Moytury, where the Danann nation, from the north of Great Brittain, invading Ireland, in a memorable battle overthrew the Belgians, who then swayed Ireland, and slew their king Achay, last Belgian king of Ireland; 325 years after the general floud this lake is said to have broke up.

The salmon hath no access thereunto, because under ground only' it hath recourse to Lough Orbsen; but it breeds eels and seve

barons" about A. D. 1238. It was burned in A. D. 1413 by O'Conor; and here Mac Feorais Birmingham was imprisoned in A. D. 1416, by Edmund Burke.-Four Masters. In 1584, this castle was confirmed to Sir Richard Bourke, Mac William Eighter. See Appendix I. It is now in ruins.

P Hag-Castle.-In Irish, Caislen na Caillighe. This castle, built before the English entered Connaught, on a small island towards the eastern border of Lough Mask, was for a long time after deemed "impregnable." See the note at the word dingna, p. 135, of Mr. Petrie's valuable Essay on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill, Trans. Royal Irish Academy, vol. xviii. part ii.

Belgians. See our author's Ogygia, p. 174; also Mac Firbis's History of the Firbolgs, for an interesting account of these ancient colonists of Ireland; their

rall

several defeats at southern Moytury, above alluded to, and at Traigh Eothuile and northern Moytury, in the present county of Sligo. This curious treatise of Mac Firbis, which yet remains in MS., has been overlooked by modern essayists on Irish history, or perhaps it was altogether unknown to them. Its value, however, was duly appreciated by the venerable Charles O'Conor, whose curious extracts from it, concerning the inhabitants of Ireland, about the commencement of the Christian era, may be seen in Vallancey's Collec

tanea.

Under ground only.-Lough Mask has no visible outlet for its waters. It communicates with Lough Corrib by subterraneous channels, which appear in several large caverns near Cong. It has been observed, that but for the barrier of granite which extends from Lough Mask to Lough Corrib, the

rall kinds of good trouts, specially that which they call the lough trout, which hath very fair red and azure spots; it is as big as any salmon, and far more dainty. There are alsoe medicinall leeches on the south side of the lake. Here is one rarity more, which we may terme the Irish crocodil', whereof one as yet living, about ten years ago, had sad experience. The man was passing the shore just by the waterside, and spyed far off the head of a beast swimming, which he tooke to have been an otter, and tooke no more notice of it; but the beast it seems there lifted up his head, to discern whereabouts the man was; then diving, swom under water till he struck ground; whereupon he runned out of the water suddenly, and tooke the man by the elbow, whereby the man stooped down, and the beast fastened his

waters of both lakes had long since, like kindred drops, been mingled into one. If these two lakes were connected by means of a canal, it would tend considerably to the improvement of the west of Ireland. "To open a communication between Killala and Galway, by means of the Moy, Lough Mask, and Lough Corrib, was one of the practicable projects of those who were employed to survey the navigable rivers of Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century, and, if carried into effect would have proved a most important addition to the internal navigation of this country."-Hist. Galway, p. 4.

s Medicinall leeches.-Ir. Dallog. The leeches found here are stated to be of a good kind, but whether they are used or approved of by medical men, for topical bleeding, I have not ascertained. The country people in the neighbourhood use

them with good effect.

t Crocodil. This was rather a formidable class of animals, wherewith to rank a beast "of the pitch of an ordinary greyhound." But the story seems to have. been introduced by our author, to enliven his subject, as painters introduce a tree or a ruin to give variety or effect to a barren landscape. That animals, such as that above described, or somewhat similar, inhabit the lakes of Ireland, is believed by the people in their vicinity. All have heard of them, and believe in their existence, but none can be found who have ever seen them. In these western parts, this animal is generally called Each Uisge, which means a water horse, and he is described as having "a black shining skin," and a switch tail "without hair." The story related by our author is yet told in the neighbourhood of Lough Mask.

his teeth in his pate, and dragged him into the water; where the man tooke hold on a stone by chance in his way, and calling to minde he had a knife in his pocket, tooke it out and gave a thrust of it to the beast, which thereupon got away from him into the lake. The water about him was all bloody, whether from the beast's bloud, or his own, or from both, he knows not. It was of the pitch of an ordinary greyhound, of a black slimy skin, without hair, as he immagined. Old men acquainted with the lake do tell there is such a beast in it, and that a stout fellow with a wolf dog along with him met the like there once; which after a long strugling went away in spite of the man and dog, and was a long time after found rotten in a rocky cave of the lake, as the water decreased. The like, they say, is seen in other lakes of Ireland; they call it Dovarchu, i. e. a water dog, or Anchu, which is the same.

Lough Orbsen", so called from Orbsen Mac Allod, one of the Dannann

"Lough Orbsen.-Lough Oirb, or, as now always corruptly called Lough Corrib. For the derivation of the name from the merchant Orbsen, commonly called Manannan, and surnamed Mac Lir, i. e. the son of the sea, see our author's Ogygia, p. 180. This Manannan was one of those Carthaginian merchants who are said to have visited this part of the world at an early period, and he is stated to have made the Isle of Man his principal residence and deposit. Our learned countryman, Cormac Mac Cuilenain (whom Caradoc of Lhancarvan, at A. D. 905, Evans's Ed. Lond. 1774, p. 44, calls, "Carmot, king and bishop of Ireland'), notices Manannan, in his Glossary, as follows: "Manandan mac Lip.. Cendaide ampa boii n-inis Ma

nand. ba he luamaire is deċ boi i n-iarcap domain, so Fhinoad tria neṁżnaċt in oired nobeiż in tsoinend acos in doinend acas in tan nop claećlobaỏ ceċ tar de ap pe, inde Scotici Britonesque eum Deum vocaverunt maris, eumque filium maris esse dixerunt.1. Mac lip de nomine Manandain insola Manandan dicta est." Thus translated: "Manannan Mac Lir, a famous merchant who dwelt in the Isle of Man. He was the greatest navigator of this western part of the world, and used to presage good or bad weather from his observations of the heavens, and from the changes of the moon, wherefore the Scots, i. e. the Irish, and the Britons, gave him the title of God of the sea.' They also called him Mac Lir, that is, the son of the

Dannann nation, a very spacious and large lake, hath its source at Bonbanann, in the halfe barony of Rosse, and thence extends eight miles eastward to the river of Cong, having the half barony of Rosse partly on each side, partly dividing Rosse from Moycullin barony, and partly having Ross on the north side; it extends southward twelve miles in length, till it discharges itself into the river of Galway, having the baronys of Kilmayn and Clare on the east, and the barony of Moycullin on the west; somewhere four miles in breadth, and somewhere less than a quarter of a mile'.

It is said to have as many islands as are days in the year", all of them belonging to the west, as far as where a boat can pass be

sea; and from him the Isle of Man had its name."

William Sacheverell, Esq., "late governour of Man," in his "Short Survey" of that isle, 8vo. London, 1702, p. 20, states, that the "the Mank's Nation believe Mannan-Mac-Lir, the father, founder, and legislator of their country, and place him about the beginning of the fifth century!"

▾ Mile.-Our author here, as in the whole of this treatise, uses the great Connaught miles, one of which contained, at least, two modern British miles. This long measure was probably adopted in this province from the Spaniards, between whom and the western part of Ireland, there formerly subsisted much commercial inter

tween

fore referred to, passing through this district, observed: “The prospect of LoughCorrib is very fine; it is covered with islands, the majority of which are cultivated. If you ask the number of these islands you will be told three hundred and sixty-five, one for every day in the year. I saw three lakes in Ireland, where there was the same number, or rather to avoid the trouble of counting them, the peasants mention this number in preference to any other." Vol. ii. p. 25. In like manner they tell that there are three hundred and sixty-five islands in Clew Bay (anciently Cuan Modh), in the Co. Mayo.

* West. It is probable, that when the O'Flaherties were obliged to emigrate from their ancient territory of Magh Seola (the present barony of Clare) to Iar-Connaught, as will appear in the sequel, they claimed or retained the islands of Lough Corrib. Some of those islands, however, now belong to the barony of Clare.

tween them, and the east side. Of these, Insequin' and Insimictrir contain a quarter of land each; some half a quarter, some a cartron, some an acre, and most of them but few acres. On that island of Insequin St. Brendan (ejus Vit. 16 May, cap. 59) built a chappell and worked divers miracles". In the same island St. Meldan", whose festivall day is on the 7th of February, was abbot of a fameous abby about the year 580. He was spiritual father to [the] great St. Furse of Perone in France; who carried the relicques of this saint along with him, and inshrined them at Perone.

The isles of Lough Orbsen were pillaged, Anno 927, by the Danes of Limerick.

Echinis,

and his kinsmen, the island of Inis ui Chuinn is said to have taken its name, Inis mac Hua Cuinn, i. e. the island of the descendants of Con. See Colgan, in Vita S. Meldani, p. 269. His festival, as above, was, for many ages, celebrated in this island. b St. Furse. The patron saint of the O'Flaherties. See his life in Colgan, ut supra, p. 75. St. Meldan was his spiritual father and director. "S. Meldanus filius Hua Cuind de Loch-Oirbsean in Conacia fuit sinedrus seu Pater spiritualis S. Fursœi.”—Id. p. 90, n. 19. See his life in Ven. Bede's Eccl. History, b. iii.; given also in Colgan, p. 87.