atience, docility, sobriety,
well-spokenness; for every patient person is wise, and every docile
person is a sage, every sober person is generous, every well-spoken
person is tractable.

252. Four elements[124] of folly: silliness, bias, wrangling,
foulmouthedness.

[124] Literally, 'alphabets.'

253. Three tabus of a chief: an ale-house without story-telling, a troop
without a herald, a great company without wolfhounds.[125]

[125] This triad has been wrongly read (fais_cre_ instead of fais_n_e_is_)
and rendered by O'Grady in his Catalogue of Ir. mss. in the British
Museum, p. 91.

254. Three indications of dignity in a person: a fine figure, a free
bearing, eloquence.

255. Three coffers whose depth is not known: the coffer of a chieftain,
of the Church,[126] of a privileged poet.

[126] "Die Kirche hat einen guten Magen," Goethe, Faust.

256. Three debts which must not be neglected:[127] debts of land,
payment of a field, instruction (?) of poetry.

[127] 'Which do not die by neglect,' M.

GLOSSES AND NOTES

1. Gloss in H. 1. 15: oir gurab innte do bhi suidhe priomhaigh Eirenn.

2. .i. ordaighecht no ord uaisle no airechas .i. arduaislighecht tre
adhluicedh na riogh inte [et] na naoimh.

4. .i. serc Eirenn o annsacht chaich uirre tre Muire na nGaodhal .i.
Brighid.

5. .i. naomthacht tre naomaibh, no foghluim sruth .i. saoi-raith.

7. .i. feronn buird riogh Eirenn.

11. .i. tre caich innte no tre n-iomad taisi innte.

13. .i. eircille ar gradhuibh dar ndoigh fa tuarasdul giolla foic[h]le,
no tuarastail.

14. .i. liodain do gnath.

15. .i. ealadhna mor ann [et] senchaoi [.f]esa na sen.

16. .i. a n-iomat breithemhuin, no cuirt, no sgol feinechuis ann.

17. .i. o iomad scol innte.

18. .i. aoibnes no conach no er tir fo sliocht Eireann.

19. .i. ag guidhe ar gach duine.

20. .i. tre leigen Temhrach. This refers to the curse pronounced by
Ruadan, the founder of Lorrha, against King Diarmait and Tara.

22. .i. cairedh inte. St. Feichin, the founder of Fore, was famous for
the austerity of his devotion. 'He used to set his wretched rib against
the hard cell without raiment,' says Cuimmine in his poem on the Saints
of Ireland (_Zeitschr._, I., p. 63).

24. .i. diamharracht no aon ar anacht no gloine.

25. .i. luathghaire a mBreifne.

26. .i. gradh De.

28. .i. ait comhnuidhe.

30. .i. cill as mesa do cheallaibh no beim aithesach no ceall dair.

31. .i. genmnacht.

32. .i.