I. Some say that it is three daughters of the wicked Cain who
inhabited it at first, so to certify that I have set down here a
verse out of the poem which commences I found in the Saltair of
Cashel: - Three virgin daughters of Cain, With Seth, son of
Adam, They first saw Banbha, Banbha, I remember their adventure.
The book of Dromsneachta says that Banbha was the name of the
first maiden who occupied Ireland before the deluge, and that
Ireland is called Banbha from her. Thrice fifty women came
there, and three men: Ladhra was the name of one of them, and it
is from him Ard Ladhrann is named. Two score years they were in
the island, till a plague fell on them, so that they all died in
one week. Ireland after that, was desert, empty, without anyone
alive in it, for two hundred years till after that came the
deluge. II. Some others say that it is three fishermen who were
driven by a storm of wind from Spain unwillingly; and as the
island pleased them that they returned for their wives to Spain;
and having come b