[31] _Ireland._--Ib. p. 9.

[32] _Annals._--Ib. I. p. 9.

[33] _World_.--See Conell MacGeoghegan's Translation of the Annals of
Clonmacnois, quoted by O'Donovan, p. 11.

[34] _Maol_.--The Teutonic languages afford no explanation of the name
of Britain, though it is inhabited by a Teutonic race. It is probable,
therefore, that they adopted an ethnic appellation of the former
inhabitants. This may have been patronymic, or, perhaps, a Celtic prefix
with the Euskarian suffix _etan_, a district or country. See _Words and
Places_, p. 60.

[35] _Ulster_.--Neither the Annals nor the Chronicum give these
divisions; the above is from the Annals of Clonmacnois. There is a poem
in the Book of Lecain, at folio 277, b., by MacLiag, on the Firbolg
colonies, which is quoted as having been taken from their own account of
themselves; and another on the same subject at 278, a.

[36] _Hand_.--Four Masters, p. 17.

[37] _Reliance_.--O'Curry, p. 243.

[38] _Spears_.--O'Curry, p. 245.

[39] _Eye_.--There is a curious note by Dr. O'Donovan (Annals, p. 18)
about this Balor. The tradition of his deeds and enchantments is still
preserved in Tory Island, one of the many evidences of the value of
tradition, and of the many proofs that it usually overlies a strata of
facts.

[40] _Country_.--We find the following passages in a work purporting to
be a history of Ireland, recently published: "It would be throwing away
time to examine critically _fables_ like those contained in the present
and following chapter." The subjects of those chapters are the
colonization of Partholan, of the Nemedians, Fomorians, Tuatha De
Dananns, and Milesians, the building of the palace of Emania, the reign
of Cairbre, Tuathal, and last, not least, the death of Dathi. And these
are "fables"! The writer then calmly informs us that the period at which
they were "invented, extended probably from the tenth to the twelfth
century." Certainly, the "inventors" were men of no ordinary talent, and
deserve some commendation for their inventive faculties. But on this
subject we shall say more hereafter. At last the writer arrives at the
"first ages of Christianity." We hoped that here at least he might have
granted us a history; but he writes: "The history of early Christianity
in Ireland is obscure and doubtful, precisely in proportion as it is
unusually copious. If legends enter largely into the civil history of
the country, they found their way tenfold into the hist