confidence, exhibiting a knowledge of that same prior and
subsequent history recorded in the _fasti_. The literature which
groups itself around a hero exhibits not only an unity with itself,
but an acquaintance with the general course of the history of the
country, and with preceding and succeeding kings.

The students of Irish literature do not require to be told this;
for those who are not, I would give a single instance as an
illustration.

In the battle of Gabra, fought in the third century, and in which
Oscar, perhaps the greatest of all the Irish heroes heading the
Fianna Eireen, contended against Cairbry of the Liffey, King of
Ireland, and his troops, Cairbry on his side announces to his
warriors that he would rather perish in this battle than suffer one
of the Fianna to survive; but while he spoke--

"Barran suddenly exclaimed--
'Remember Mall Mucreema, remember Art.

"'Our ancestors fell there
By force of the treachery of the Fians;
Remember the hard tributes,
Remember the extraordinary pride.'"

Here the poet, singing only of the events of the battle of Gabra,
shows that he was well-acquainted with all the relations subsisting
for a long time between the Fians and the Royal family. The battle
of Mucreema was fought by Cairbry's grandfather, Art, against Lewy
Mac Conn and the Fianna Eireen.