vii.and viii.; Gerald Griffin in "The Tales of a Jury Room"; and Dr. PatrickWeston Joyce in "Ancient Celtic Romances" (London, 1879). The oldestmanuscript copy of the tale in Gaelic is one in the British Museum, madein 1718; but there are more modern ones in different English and Irishlibraries, and the legend itself is of much older origin. ProfessorO'Curry, the highest authority, places its date before the year 1000.("Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Irish History," p. 319.)IV. USHEENIn the original legend, Oisin or Usheen is supposed to have told his taleto St. Patrick on his arrival in Ireland; but as the ancient Feni wereidolaters, the hero bears but little goodwill to the saint. The Celtictext of a late form of the legend (1749) with a version by Brian O'Looneywill be found in the transactions of the Ossianic Society for 1856 (Vol.IV. p. 227); and still more modern and less literal renderings in P. W.Joyce's "Ancient Celtic Romances" (London, 1879), p. 385, and in W. B.Yeats's "Wanderings of Oisin, and Other Poems" (London, 1889), p. 1. Thelast is in verse and is much the best. St. Patrick, who takes part in it,regards Niam as "a demon thing." See also the essays entitled "L'ElyseeTransatlantique," by Eugene Beauvois, in the "Revue de L'Histoire desReligions," VII. 273 (Paris, 1885), and "L'Eden Occidental" (same, VII.
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