FOOTNOTES: 

[169] Blefed.—­The name Crom Chonaill indicates a sickness which produced a yellow colour in the skin.

[170] Sanctuary.—­This may appear a severe punishment, but the right of sanctuary was in these ages the great means of protection against lawless force, and its violation was regarded as one of the worst of sacrileges.

[171] Oak.—­Dr. Petrie mentions that there were stones still at Tara which probably formed a portion of one of the original buildings.  It was probably of the Pelasgian or Cyclopean kind.

[172] Hour.—­Petrie’s Tara, p. 31.

[173] Tuathal.—­Very ancient authorities are found for this in the Leabhar Gabhala, or Book of Conquests.

[174] Mill.—­“Cormac, the grandson of Con, brought a millwright over the great sea.”  It is clear from the Brehon laws that mills were common in Ireland at an early period.  It is probable that Cormac brought the “miller and his men” from Scotland.  Whittaker shows that a water-mill was erected by the Romans at every stationary city in Roman Britain.  The origin of mills is attributed to Mithridates, King of Cappadocia, about seventy years B.C.  The present miller claims to be a descendant of the original miller.

[175] Identical.—­First, “because the Lia Fail is spoken of by all ancient Irish writers in such a manner as to leave no doubt that it remained in its original situation at the time they wrote.”  Second, “because no Irish account of its removal to Scotland is found earlier than Keating, and he quotes Boetius, who obviously wished to sustain the claims of the Stuarts.”  The pillar-stone is composed of granular limestone, but no stone of this description is found in the vicinity.  As may be supposed, there are all kinds of curious traditions about this stone.  One of these asserts that it was the pillar on which Jacob reposed when he saw the vision of angels.  Josephus states that the descendants of Seth invented astronomy, and that they engraved their discoveries on a pillar of brick and a pillar of stone.  These pillars remained, in the historian’s time, in the land of Siris.—­Ant.  Jud. l. 2, sec. 3.

[176] At once.—­See Petrie’s Tara, p. 213.

[177] Roads.—­See Napoleon’s Julius Caesar, vol. ii. p. 22, for mention of the Celtic roads in Gaul.

[178] Chariots.—­St. Patrick visited most parts of Ireland in a chariot, according to the Tripartite Life. Carbad or chariots are mentioned in the oldest Celtic tales and romances, and it is distinctly stated in the life of St. Patrick preserved in the Book of Armagh, that the pagan Irish had chariots.  Different kinds of roads are expressly mentioned, and also the duty of road-mending, and those upon whom this duty devolved.  See Introduction to the Book of Rights, p. 56.