as such by the Annals of the Four Masters as far back as from the year of the world 3883 to 4019, that is, from the year 1317 to 1181 before Christ, each of the seven kings reigning exactly thirty years. The first was Ollamh Fodla, who is, of course, said to be of the race of Ir, and to him is attributed the tribal organisation of his people; for according to the Annals of the Four Masters, ‘it was he also that appointed a Toisech over every Triocha Ceud or barony, and a Bruighigh over every Baile or township, who were all to serve the king of Erin.’ Under the name of Fodla he appears in the Pictish Chronicle as one of the seven sons of Cruithne, and two of his successors, viz., Gede Ollgudach and Finnachta, appear in the list of the Pictish kings of Scotland among his immediate successors, and precede the thirty kings of the name of Brude. The numbers peculiar to the Pictish legends are seven, and thirty, and have, of course, no chronological significance. But the most brilliant period of the mythic history of these Cruithnigh of Ulster was that when the champions of the Order of the Red Branch at Eamhain or Emania were supposed to have performed their great achievements. They are placed in the fabulous history about the commencement of the Christian era, and here we find abundant indications of the close connection between the Cruithnigh of Erin and of Alban. Among these ancient Irish tales are three which are termed the Three Sorrowful Stories of Erin, namely the story of the tragical fate of the children of Lir, the story of the children of Uisneach, and the story of the sons of Tuirinn.[144]