Part 65 (2/2)
NOTE 25.--_Finn's Tooth of Knowledge._
It had been prophesied of old that a man named Finn would be the first to eat of the salmon of knowledge, which swam in the pool of Linn-Fec, in the Boyne (near the present village of Slane); and that he would thereby obtain the gifts of knowledge and of divination. A certain old poet named Finn, knowing this, hoped that he might be the lucky man; so he took up his abode on the sh.o.r.e of Linn-Fec; and he fished in the pool every day from morn till night, in the hope of catching the salmon of knowledge. At this time, Finn the son of c.u.mal was a boy, fleeing from place to place from his hereditary enemies, the Clann Morna, disguised, and bearing the a.s.sumed name of Demna; and, happening to come to Linn-Fec, the old poet took him as his servant.
After long watching and waiting, Finn the poet hooked the salmon at last, and gave it to Demna to broil, warning him very strictly not to eat or even taste of it. Demna proceeded to broil the fish; and soon the heat of the fire raised a great blister from its side, which the boy pressed with his thumb to keep it down, thereby scalding himself so severely that he unthinkingly thrust his thumb into his mouth.
When the salmon was cooked, the poet asked Demna had he eaten of it.
”No,” replied the boy; ”but I scalded my thumb on the fish, and put it into my mouth.” ”Thy name is not Demna, but Finn,” exclaimed the poet: ”in thee has the prophecy been fulfilled; and thou art now a diviner and a man of knowledge!”
In this manner Finn obtained the gift of divination, so that ever after, when he wished to look into futurity, he put his thumb under his tooth of knowledge, as he did when cooking the salmon of Linn-Fec, and the whole future was revealed to him. There appears to have been some sort of ceremony used, however (see page 339, _supra_); and it would seem that the process was attended with pain (page 194), so that it was only on very solemn and trying occasions he put his thumb under his tooth of knowledge.[CLx.x.xI.]
NOTE 26.--_The Game of Chess._
Chess-playing was one of the favourite amus.e.m.e.nts of the ancient Irish chiefs. The game is constantly mentioned in the very oldest Gaelic tales; as, for instance, in the ”Cattle-Spoil of Cooley,” in ”The Book of the Dun Cow” (A.D. 1100). (See O'Donovan's ”Introduction to the Book of Rights,” page lxi.)
NOTE 27.--_Battle of Knocka._
The battle of Knocka or _Cnucha_ (now Castleknock, near Dublin) was fought in the reign of Conn the Hundred-fighter (see note 18). The contending parties were, on the one side, Conn with his royal forces, and the renowned hero, Gaul Mac Morna, with his Connaught Fena, the Clann Morna; and on the other side, c.u.mal, the father of Finn, with the Clann Baskin and the Leinster forces in general, aided by Owen More, heir to the throne of Munster, with a large army of Munstermen. The Leinster and Munster armies were defeated, chiefly through the valour of Gaul, who slew c.u.mal with his own hand. This was the cause of the irreconcilable enmity that existed ever after between the Clann Baskin and the Clann Morna.
When Finn the son of c.u.mal grew up to man's estate, he succeeded to the position held by his father as leader of the Fena. But though he made peace with Gaul Mac Morna, and though Gaul submitted to his command, there was always a feeling of ill-concealed hatred and distrust between them.
NOTE 28.--_Battle of Gavra._
When Carbri of the Liffey, son of Cormac Mac Art, ascended the throne of Ireland, one of his first acts was to disband and outlaw the Clann Baskin; and he took into his service in their place their rivals and deadly enemies, the Clann Morna from Connaught. Whereupon the Clann Baskin marched southwards, and entered the service of Fercorb, king of Munster, Finn's grandson, in direct disobedience to king Carbri's commands. This led to the b.l.o.o.d.y battle of Gavra, celebrated in Ossianic literature, which was fought A.D. 284, at Garristown, in the north-west of the county Dublin, where the rival clanns slaughtered each other almost to annihilation. In the heat of the battle, Carbri and Oscar met in single combat; and, after a long and terrible fight, the heroic Oscar fell pierced by Carbri's spear, and died on the evening of the same day.
But Carbri himself was dreadfully wounded; and, while retiring from the field, his own kinsman, Semeon, whom he had previously banished from Tara, fell on him, and despatched him with a single blow.
This battle is the subject of a poem which the bards ascribe to Oisin, and which has been published, with translation, in the first volume of the Ossianic Transactions. In this poem there is an affecting description of the death of Oscar, surrounded by his few surviving companions, and in presence of his father Oisin.
FOOTNOTES:
[CLx.x.x.] For a full account of the Highland traditions regarding Dermat, and of the Highland monuments that commemorate his name, see ”Loch Etive and the Sons of Uisnach” (p. 255), a very valuable and interesting book, recently published, which came into my hands after I had written the above.
[CLx.x.xI.] The above legend is taken from ”The Boyish Exploits of Finn Mac c.u.mal,” published, with translation, by John O'Donovan, LL.D., in the fourth volume of the Ossianic Society's Transactions, from a MS.
_transcribed_ in 1453, now lying in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. But the internal evidence of the language shows that the piece is far more ancient than the fifteenth century. The legend of Finn and the Salmon of Knowledge is still current among the peasantry; and a modern popular version of it may be seen in the _Dublin Penny Journal_, Vol. I. page 110.
As to the process of putting his thumb under his tooth of knowledge, even the English-speaking peasantry of the south still retain a tradition that it was painful; for they say that Finn ”chewed his thumb from the skin to the flesh, from the flesh to the bone, from the bone to the marrow, and from the marrow to the _smoosagh_.”
THE END
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