Standish O'Grady; selected essays and passages

IRISH BARDIC HISTORY 65
darts up and devours it. The properties of the enchanted
fruit were communicated to the fish ; whoever might
catch and eat him would know all things.
This legendary hazel-tree, with its wisdom-giving
nuts, is often alluded to in the literature. A mediaeval
poet, Cormac, Bishop-King of Cashel, says : " I found
my nut of knowledge on the Barrow," implying merely
that he was educated on the shores of that stream.
Sinin and Boanna were the water nymphs of their
respective streams. The latter was wife of one of the
Tuatha De Danan gods, Nuada the Silver-handed.
The river was also known as " the arm of the wife of
Nuada," pure and bright as Boan's arm.
A somewhat similar origin is given for some lakes.
The origin of Lough Neagh is thus told : Eocha, a
southern hero, starting from Slieve Phelim in Tippe-
rary, travelled northwards till he reached the Boyne,
where he and his people encamped before the Brugh
of Angus, the Dedanan god. Angus, enraged at the
desecration of his sanctuary, slew their horses that
night. Passing thence northwards, he encamped on the
Plain of the Grey Copse, when a magic well sprang up.
Eocha built a house over the well, giving the key to one
of his women, with injunctions never to leave the door
open. The woman neglected the command, and a flood
broke forth which submerged Eocha and his people,
forming the great lake, which from him was called Loch
n' Eocha, or Lough Neagh. Eocha was, doubtless, the
god or genius of this lake.
The more common mode of representing the breaking