however, it is the representatives of darkness that are pictured as deformed about the head and ears, as in the case of Corc and the drowned brothers of Morann, together with many others. There would be nothing surprising in making Cairbre the Culture Hero a son of dark parents, just as Gwydion is son of Dôn, the goddess of death (p. 91), and this would explain the use of the genitive in Cairbre Cinnchait, which would mean that Cairbre was the son of Cenncait, just as the son of Duben is briefly called Corc Duibne. This view derives some confirmation from the principal name in the following story: the original, of which it is an abstract, has the interest of being one written down in Tory Island in 1835, by the Irish scholar and antiquary O'Donovan, from the dictation of Shane O'Dugan, whose ancestors are said to have been living there in St. Columba's time:[1]
In days of yore there were three brothers called Gavida, Mac Samthainn and Mac Kineely, living on the coast of Donegal, opposite Tory Island, which was so called from its tors or prominent rocks. Gavida was a distinguished smith who had his forge at Drumnatinnè (Fire-ridge), while Mac Kineely was lord of the district around, comprising what is now the parishes of Rath-Finan and Tullaghobegly, and he possessed such a valuable grey cow that attempts were always being made to steal her from him. At the same time Tory Island was the head-quarters of a notorious robber called Balor, who had one eye in the middle of his forehead and another in the back of his head; this latter, by its foul distorted looks and its venomous rays and glances, would strike one dead, so
- ↑ The Four Masters, A.M. 3330, editor's note (i. 18—21).
