aken from the Book of Ballymote, a magnificent volume,
compiled in the year 1391, now in possession of the Royal Irish
Academy:--

Temair, choicest of hills,
For [possession of] which Erinn is now devastated,[7]
The noble city of Cormac, son of Art,
Who was the son of great Conn of the hundred battles:
Cormac, the prudent and good,
Was a sage, a file [poet], a prince:
Was a righteous judge of the Fene-men,[8]
Was a good friend and companion.
Cormac gained fifty battles:
He compiled the Saltair of Temur.
In that Saltair is contained
The best summary of history;
It is that Saltair which assigns
Seven chief kings to Erinn of harbours;
They consisted of the five kings of the provinces,--
The Monarch of Erinn and his Deputy.
In it are (written) on either side,
What each provincial king is entitled to,
From the king of each great musical province.
The synchronisms and chronology of all,
The kings, with each other [one with another] all;
The boundaries of each brave province,
From a cantred up to a great chieftaincy.

From this valuable extract we obtain a clear idea of the importance and
the subject of the famous Saltair, and a not less clear knowledge of the
admirable legal and social institutions by which Erinn was then
governed.

The CIN OF DROM SNECHTA is quoted in the Book of Ballymote, in support
of the ancient legend of the antediluvian occupation of Erinn by the
Lady _Banbha_, called in other books Cesair (pron. "kesar"). The Book of
Lecan quotes it for the same purpose, and also for the genealogies of
the chieftains of the ancient Rudrician race of Ulster. Keating gives
the descent of the Milesian colonists from Magog, the son of Japhet, on
the authority of the Cin of Drom Snechta, which, he states, was compiled
before St. Patrick's mission to Erinn.[9] We must conclude this part of
our subject with a curious extract from the same work, taken from the
Book of Leinster: "From the Cin of Drom Snechta, this below. Historians
say that there were exiles of Hebrew women in Erinn at the coming of the
sons of Milesius, who had been driven by a sea tempest into the ocean by
the Tirren Sea. They were in Erinn before the sons of Milesius. They
said, however, to the sons of Milesius [who, it would appear, pressed
marriage on them], that they preferred their own country, and that they
would not abandon it without receiving dowry