A death of the deepest anguish it is To his friends and his followers; Over his grave as they perform a _neachd_ They have their turn at the tomb which we cannot get. The women of every country are in sadness, Also their heroes and ecclesiastics; Their faithful freemen are in grief, The extremity of severe affliction is among them. The hospitality, the pure generosity, The joyous exclamation, the ready welcome, They have all gone with him into the earth, For an age after him there will be but lamentation. We are in want of gold and cattle, Since the Chief of Rushgarry died; The learned men since the hour of his death, Have forsaken their havens of watching. Flaming troubles pervaded the stars of heaven, They poured forth the showers of lightning; The hills are not illumined by day, Their grief for him mastered them. The rivers are rising over the woods, There is a scarcity of fish in the bays; The fruitage is not found in the land, The roaring of the sea is very coarse. At the last hours of his death, Dreadful tokens appeared to us; Foreboding clouds which denoted grief, Were of gold colour in the Northern region. Such is our heritage of Celtic MSS. in this country, and, in view of the paucity of these existing relics, may we not reiterate the lines of Horace?— Full many a chief and warrior lived Ere Agamemnon saw the day, Of whom no record hath survived The glories that have passed away. Unwept, unsung, unknown they lie, For want of hallowed Poesy. CHAPTER VIII THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE A rich and abundant saga literature—Three leading periods or cycles—The myths and folk-tales—Problems to men of science—The philologists and anthropologists take opposite sides—Their theories—Attitude of the annalists and romancists of Ireland—Their craze for genealogy—Early settlers in Erin—Advent of the Milesians or Gaels—The Three Sorrows of Gaelic Storydom: (1) “The Tragedy of the Children of Tuireann”; (2) The fascinating “Aided of the Children of Lir”; (3) Story of “Deirdre and the Sons of Uisneach”—Extraordinary interest evinced in this saga—Marvellous output of texts and translations.