whose name we have already met with (p. 142), and that the group is usually treated as the offspring of Ailill and Medb. Accordingly, the brothers always fight against the sun-hero Cúchulainn on the Táin.[1] Similarly, in another story, that of the death of Conaire Mór (p. 135), they figure as the haughtiest of the exiles following the lead of the cyclops Ingcél on the occasion of his landing in Erinn in the night.[2] While the Latin word septimana, and the Irish sechtmain made out of it, seemed to fix the number of the Maini at seven, the early Christians of Ireland must have treated the new week after the analogy of the old; that is to say, they reckoned it, not as seven days, but as eight nights, as the Welsh have also done; and the discrepancy arising from the habit of speaking of seven Maini, when they reckoned them eight, has led to curious results; for instance, in the Book of the Dun. The scribe of that manuscript, at the beginning of the twelfth century or a little earlier, can have had no idea that the Maini had anything to do with the week; but he gives us, more or less faithfully, the stories of previous generations when that must have been no secret. The following are the Maini in the order and with the surnames given to them by him in the Táin: (1) Maine Mathremail, or M. like his Mother; (2) Maine Athremail, or M. like his Father; (3) Maine Mórgor, or M. very Dutiful; (4) Main Míngor, or M. little Dutiful; (5) Maine mó Epert, or M. greater than Said;
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IV. THE CULTURE HERO.
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