Part 18 (2/2)

[Note 246: ordan H^1 chaoin H^1]

247. Tri muime menman: sotla, suirge, mesce.

[Note 247: socla .i. sochlu H^1]

248. Cetheora miscne flatha: .i. fer baeth utmall, fer doer dimain. fer guach esindraic, fer labor disceoil; ar ni tabair labrai acht do chethrur: .i. fer cerda fri hair [et] molad, fer coimgni cuimnech fri haisneis [et] scelugud, brethem fri bretha, sencha fri senchas.

249. Tri dorcha in betha: aithne, rathaiges, altrom.

237. Three wonders of Connaught: the grave of Eothaile[119] on its strand. It is as high as the strand. When the sea rises, it is as high as the tide.

The stone of the Dagda. Though it be thrown into the sea, though it be put into a house under lock, ... out of the well at which it is.

The two herons in Scattery island. They let no other herons to them into the island, and the she-heron goes on the ocean westwards to hatch and returns thence with her young ones. And coracles have not discovered the place of hatching.

[119] _Cf._ -- 197.

238. Three worst smiles: the smile of a wave, the smile of a lewd woman, the grin of a dog ready to leap.[120]

[120] _Cf._ -- 91.

239. What are the three wealths of fortunate people? Not hard to tell. A ready conveyance(?), ale without a habitation(?), a safeguard upon the road.

240. Three sons whom chast.i.ty bears to wisdom: valour, generosity, laughter (filial piety?).

241. Three entertainers of a gathering: a jester, a juggler, a lap-dog.

242. Three things that are best for a chief: justice, peace, an army.

243. Three things that are worst for a chief: sloth, treachery, evil counsel.

244. The four deaths of judgment: to give it in falsehood, to give it without forfeiture, to give it without precedent, to give it without knowledge.

245. Three things that ruin wisdom: ignorance, inaccurate knowledge, forgetfulness.

246. Three nurses of dignity: a fine figure, a good memory, piety.

247. Three nurses of high spirits: pride, wooing, drunkenness.

248. Four hatreds of a chief: a silly flighty man, a slavish useless man, a lying dishonourable man, a talkative man who has no story to tell.[121] For a chief does not grant speech save to four: a poet for satire and praise, a chronicler of good memory for narration and story-telling, a judge for giving judgments, an historian for ancient lore.[122]

[121] _i.e._, who has nothing worth hearing to say.

[122] See a similar pa.s.sage in Ancient Laws i., p. 18, and in the tale called, 'The Conversion of Loegaire to the Faith' (Rev. Celt. iv., p.

165).

249. Three dark[123] things of the world: giving a thing into keeping, guaranteeing, fostering.

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