NOTE 13.--_Tir-fa-tonn._ The Gaelic tales abound in allusions to a beautiful country situated under the sea--an enchanted land sunk at some remote time, and still held under spell. In some romantic writings it is called _Tir-fa-tonn_, the land beneath the wave; and occasionally one or more of the heroes find their way to it, and meet with many strange adventures (page 253). Sometimes it is _O'Brasil_, that dim land which appears over the water once every seven years--"on the verge of the azure sea"--and which would be freed from the spell, and would remain permanently over water, if any one could succeed in throwing fire on it. (See Gerald Griffin's beautiful ballad, "O'Brasil, the Isle of the Blest.") The Island of Fincara (page 87), and the beautiful country seen beneath the waves by Maildun (page 147), are remnants of the same superstition. This very old Celtic tradition is obviously the same as the legend of the continent of Atlantis, mentioned by Plato, which at some remote time was overwhelmed and sunk under the Atlantic Ocean. And it would seem that they have the same shadowy tradition in the East; for in "Lalla Rookh" Moore makes the Peri say, in her soliloquy: "I know where the Isles of Perfume are, Many a fathom down in the sea, To the south of sun-bright Araby." NOTE 14.--_The Enchanted Well._ Res autem sic revera evenit. Cum Angus magus equum giganteum Eochaidio et popularibus traderet, monebat homines nec stabulandi neque omnino requiescendi copiam equo faciendam; ne forte quiescendo urinam demitteret, quod si fieret exitio omnibus fore. Postea vero quam at Planitiem Silvulæ Cinereæ pervenissent, intenti adeo sarcinis ingentis equi dorso detrahendis incumbebant, ut monitorum Angi obliviscerentur; restitit autem equus, et subinde urinam demisit. Extemplo hinc fons ortus; qui cum scaturiisset, submersit omnes, sicuti in historiâ narratur. NOTE 15.--_Conal Carna of the Red Branch._ The Red Branch Knights of Ulster, a sort of militia in the service of the monarch, much like the Fena of later date (see note 23), flourished in the first century of the Christian era. Their home was the palace of Emania, near the city of Armagh; and they received their name from one of the houses of the palace in which they resided, which was called _Craebh-ruadh_, or Red Branch. They attained their greatest glory in the reign of Conor Mac Nessa, king of Ulster in the first century; and Conal Carna, mentioned in the story of "Liban the Mermaid," was one of their most illustrious champions. NOTE 16.--_Ecca the Son of Marid: Comgall of Bangor._ This Marid was king of Munster about the beginning of the second century of the Christian era. St. Comgall, one of the greatest saints of the early Irish Church, flourished in the sixth century, and was the founder of the celebrated monastery of Bangor in the county of Down. NOTE 17.--_Curragh._