he
early books say, certain regular courses were completed, each of which
gave the student an additional degree, with corresponding title, rank,
and privileges.[74]

"In the Book of _Lecain_ (fol. 168) there is an ancient tract,
describing the laws upon this subject, and referring, with quotations,
to the body of the _Brethibh Nimhedh_, or 'Brehon Laws.' According to
this authority, the perfect Poet or _Ollamh_ should know and practise
the _Teinim Laegha_, the _Imas Forosnadh_, and the _Dichedal do
chennaibh_. The first appears to have been a peculiar druidical verse,
or incantation, believed to confer upon the druid or poet the power of
understanding everything that it was proper for him to say or speak. The
second is explained or translated, 'the illumination of much knowledge,
as from the teacher to the pupil,' that is, that he should be able to
explain and teach the four divisions of poetry or philosophy, 'and each
division of them,' continues the authority quoted, 'is the chief
teaching of three years of hard work.' The third qualification, or
_Dichedal_, is explained, 'that he begins at once the head of his poem,'
in short, to improvise extempore in correct verse. 'To the _Ollamh_,'
says the ancient authority quoted in this passage in the Book of
_Lecain_,' belong synchronisms, together with the _laegha laidhibh_, or
illuminating poems [incantations], and to him belong the pedigrees and
etymologies of names, that is, he has the pedigrees of the men of Erinn
with certainty, and the branching off of their various relationships.'
Lastly, 'here are the four divisions of the knowledge of poetry (or
philosophy),' says the tract I have referred to; 'genealogies,
synchronisms, and the reciting of (historic) tales form the first
division; knowledge of the seven kinds of verse, and how to measure them
by letters and syllables, form another of them; judgment of the seven
kinds of poetry, another of them; lastly, _Dichedal_ [or improvisation],
that is, to contemplate and recite the verses without ever thinking of
them before.'"[75]

The pedigrees were collected and written into a single book, called the
_Cin_ or Book of Drom Snechta, by the son of Duach Galach, King of
Connacht, an Ollamh in history and genealogies, &c., shortly before[76]
the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland, which happened about A.D. 432. It
is obvious, therefore, that these genealogies must have existed for
centuries prior to this period. Even if they w