known as the possessor of a wonderful crowd or Celtic banjo, in which there was a so-called chord of science, which, tuned by Cairbre's hand, left him in ignorance of no secret from the rising of the sun that day to to the setting thereof: his crowd told him everything.[1] One may further venture to identify with Cairbre, poet and musician, Cairbre, the father of the poetic lady Crede, to whom allusion has just been made. As Gwydion was king of a part of Wales, so this Cairbre was king of Kerry; and above all is he probably to be identified with Cairbre Muse, who figures in the story of the Dog and the Skene, in which we found a parallel to Gwydion cheating Pryderi son of Pwyll Head of Hades, in the matter of his swine. That this Cairbre corresponds to Gwydion and may even be equated with him, will appear still more probable when we come to compare their families with one another. Suffice it for the present to say, that many Minister houses traced their descent back to Cairbre Muse, and that many districts in the south-west of Ireland are called after his name or some one of his various surnames[2] to this day. Nor, lastly, is the Cairbre who was mentioned in the story of Lomna's Head (p. 98) to be overlooked; for his relations with the Luignian wife of Finn seem beyond doubt to
- ↑ O'Curry's Manners, &c. iij. 250-1.
- ↑ O'Donovan, Book of Rights, pp. 42, 45, 48, 83; Four Masters, A.D. 165, 186. The name Cairbre, Cairpre, Coirpri and Corpri, for it is found spelled in these and other ways, was not an uncommon one; but its etymology is obscure, nor is it evident whether it was in use before it was given to the counterpart of Gwydion. In Welsh it was Corbre, which occurs in the Black Book: see Skene, ij. 29.
