Irish Religion: The Book of Saints and Wonders

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A Book of Saints and Wonders

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by Lady Gregory

according to the Old Writings and the Memory of the People of Ireland

[1906]

Scanned by Phillip Brown, April 2004. Additional proofing and HTML formatting by John Bruno Hare at sacred-texts.com. This text is in the public domain. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose provided this notice of attribution is left intact.

BOOK ONE

BRIGIT, THE MARY OF THE GAEL

Now as to Brigit she was born at sunrise on the first day of the spring, of a bondwoman of Connacht. And it was angels that baptized her and that gave her the name of Brigit, that is a Fiery Arrow. She grew up to be a serving girl the same as her mother. And all the food she used was the milk of a white red-eared cow that was set apart for her by a druid. And everything she put her hand to used to increase, and it was she wove the first piece of cloth in Ireland, and she put the white threads in the loom that have a power of healing in them to this day. She bettered the sheep and she satisfied the birds and she fed the poor.

And when she grew to be strong and to have good courage she went to her father Dubthach's house in Munster and stopped with him there. And one time there came some high person to the house, and food was made ready for him and for his people; and five pieces of bacon were given to Brigit, to boil them. But there came into the house a very hungry miserable hound, and she gave him out of pity a piece of the bacon. And when the hound was not satisfied with that she gave him another piece. Then Dubthach came and he asked Brigit were the pieces of bacon ready; and she bade him count them and he counted them, and the whole of the five pieces were there, not one of them missing. But the high guest that was there and that Brigit had thought to be asleep had seen all, and he told her father all that happened. And he and the people that were with him did not eat that meat, for they were not worthy of it, but it was given to the poor and to the wretched.

After that Brigit went to visit her mother that was in bondage to a druid of Connacht. And it is the way she was at that time, at a grass-farm of the mountains having on it twelve cows, and she gathering butter. And there was sickness on her, and Brigit cared her and took charge of the whole place. And the churning she made, she used to divide it first into twelve parts in honour of the twelve apostles of our Lord; and the thirteenth part she would make bigger than the rest, to the honour of Christ, and that part she would give to strangers and to the poor. And the serving boy wondered to see her doing that, but it is what she used to say: "It is in the name of Christ I feed the poor; for Christ is in the body of every poor man."

One time the serving boy went to the druid's house, and they asked was the girl minding the dairy well. And he said "I am thankful, and the calves are fat;" for he dared not say anything against the girl, and she not there. But the druid got word of what she was doing, and he came to visit the farm, and his wife along with him; and the cows were doing well, and the calves were fat. Then they went into the dairy, having with them a vessel eighteen hands in height. And Brigit bade them welcome and washed their feet, and made ready food for them, and after that they bade her fill up the vessel with butter. And she had but a churning and a half for them, and she went into the kitchen where it was stored and it is what she said:

"O my High Prince who can do all these things, this is not a forbidden asking; bless my kitchen with thy right hand!

"My kitchen, the kitchen of the white Lord; a kitchen that was blessed by my King; a kitchen where there is butter.

"My Friend is coming, the Son of Mary; it is he blessed my kitchen; the Prince of the world comes to this place; that there may be plenty with him!" After she had made that hymn she brought the half of the churning from the place where it was stored; and the druid's wife mocked at her and said "It is good filling for a large vessel this much is!" "Fill your vessel" said Brigit, "and God will add something to it." And she was going back to her kitchen and bringing half a churning every time and saying every time a verse of those verses. And if all the vessels of the men of Munster had been brought to her she would have filled the whole of them.

Brigit would give herself to no man in marriage but she took the veil and after that she did great wonders. There came to her one time a man making his complaint that his wife would not sleep with him but was leaving him, and he came asking a spell from Brigit that would bring back her love. And Brigit blessed water for him, and it is what she said: "Bring that water into your house, and put it in the food and in the drink and on the bed." And after he had done that, his wife gave him great love, so that she could not be as far as the other side of the house from him, but was always at his lumd. And one day he set out on a journey, leaving the wife in her sleep, and as soon as she awoke from her sleep she rose up and followed after her man till she saw him, and there was a strip of the sea between them. And she called out to him and it is what she said, that if he would not come back to her, she would go into the sea that was between them.

One time Brennain, saint of the Gael, came from the west to Brigit, to the plain of the Life, for he wondered at the great name she had for doing miracles and wonders. And Brigit came in from her sheep to welcome him, and as she came into the house she laid her cloak that was wet on the rays of the sun, and they held it up the same as hooks. Then Brennain bade his serving lad to put his cloak on the sun rays in the same way, and he put it on them, but twice it fell from them. Then Brennain himself put it on them the third time, and there was anger on him, and that time it stopped on the rays.

One time there was a man of her household cutting firing, and it chanced to him to kill a pet fox belonging to the King of Leinster, and the King had him made prisoner. But Brigit called the fox out of the wood, and he came and was at his tricks and his games for the King and his people at Brigit's bidding. And when he had done his tricks he went away safe through the wood, and the army of Leinster, footmen and horsemen and hounds, after him.

When she was a poor girl she was minding her cow one time at the Curragh of Life, and she had no place to feed it but the side of the road. And a rich man that owned the land came by and saw her and he said "How much land would it take to give grass to the cow?" "As much as my cloak would cover" said she. "I will give that" said the rich man. She laid down her cloak then, and it was spreading out miles and miles on every side. But there was a silly old woman passing by and she said "If that cloak goes on spreading, all Ireland will be free;" and with that the cloak stopped and spread no more. And Brigit held that land through her lifetime, and it never had rent on it since, but the English Government have taken it now and have put barracks upon it. It is a pity the old woman spoke that iime. She did not know Brigit to be better than other one.

A leper came one time to Brigit, asking a cow. And Brigit said "Would you sooner have a cow or be healed of your disease?" "I would sooner be healed" he said "than to have the sway over the whole world. For every sound man is a king" he said. Then Brigit prayed to God; and the leper was healed, and served her after- wards.

The Seven Bishops came to her in a place she had in the north Kildare, and she asked her cook Blathnet had she any food, and she said she had not. And Brigit was ashamed, being as she was without food before those holy men, and she prayed hard to the Lord. Then angels came and bade her to milk the cows for the third time that day. So she milked them herself, and they filled the pails with the milk, and they would have filled all the vessels of the whole of Leinster. And the milk overflowed the vessels till it made a lake that is called the Lake of Milk to this day.

These were the wishes of Brigit:

"I would wish a great lake of ale for the King of Kings; I would wish the family of Heaven to be drinking it through life and time. "I would wish the men of Heaven in my own house; I would wish vessels of peace to be giving to them.

"I would wish vessels full of alms to be giving away; I would wish ridges of mercy for peace-making.

"I would wish joy to be in their drinking; I would wish Jesus to be here among them.

"I would wish the three Mary's of great name; I would wish the people of Heaven from every side.

"I would wish to be a rent-payer to the Prince; the way if I was in trouble he would give me a good blessing."

Whatever, now, Brigit would ask of the Lord, he would give it to her on the moment. And it is what her desire was, to satisfy the poor, to banish every hardship, and to save every sorrowful man.

One time she was minding her sheep on the Curragh, and she saw a son of reading running past her. "What is it makes you so uneasy?" she said "and what is it you are looking for?" "It is to Heaven I am running, woman of the veil" said the scholar. "The virgin's Son knows he is happy that makes that journey" said Brigit. "And pray to God to make it easy for myself to go there" she said. "I have no time" said he; "for the gates of Heaven are open now, and I am in dread they might be shut against me. And as you are hindering me" he said "pray to the Master to make it easy for me to go there, and I will pray him to make it easy for you." Then they said "Our Father" together, and he was religious from that out, and it was he gave her absolution at the last. And it is by reason of him that the whole of the sons of learning of the world are with Brigit.

Brennain came to Brigit one time to ask why was it the beasts of the sea gave honour to her more than to the rest of the saints. Then they made their confession to each other, and Brennain said after that "In my opinion, girl, it is right the beasts are when they honour you above ourselves."

"Brigit, excellent woman; sudden flame; may the bright fiery sun bring us to the lasting kingdom.

"May Brigit save us beyond troops of demons; may she break before us the battles of every death.

"May she do away with the rent sin has put on us; the blossomed branch; the Mother of Jesus; the dear young woman greatly looked up to. That I may be safe in every place with my saint of Leinster!"

There was a poor man, and a poor woman, living in an ancient place in Ireland, a sort of a wilderness. The man used to be wishing for a son that would be a help to him with the work, but the woman used to say nothing, because she was good. They had a baby at last, but it was a girl, and the man was sorry and he said "We will always be poor now." But the woman said, for it was showed to her at that time, "This child will be the Mother of God." The girl grew up in that ancient place, and one day she was sitting at the door, and our Saviour sent One to her that said "Would you wish to be the Mother of God?" "I would wish it" said she. And on the minute, as she said that, the Saviour went into her as a child. The Messenger took her with him then, and he put beautiful clothing on her, and she turned to be so beautiful that all the people followed them, crowding to see the two beautiful people that were passing by. They met then with Brigit, and the Mother of God said to her, "What can we do to make these crowds leave following us?" "I will do that for you" said Brigit "for I will show them a greater wonder." She went into a house then and brought out a harrow and held it up over her head, and everyone of the pins gave out a flame like a candle; and all the people turned back to look at the shining harrow that was such a great wonder. And it is because of that the harrow is blessed since that time. The Mother of God asked her then what would she do for her as a reward. "Put my day before your own day" said Brigit. So she did that, and Saint Brigit's day is kept before her own day ever since. And there are some say Brigit fostered the Holy Child, and kept an account of every drop of blood he lost through his lifetime, and anyway she was always going about with the Mother of God.

And from that time to this the housekeepers have a rhyme to say on Saint Brigit's day, bidding them to bring out a firkin of butter and to divide it among the working boys. For she was good always, and it was her desire to feed the poor, to do away with every hardship, to be gentle to every misery. And it is on her day the first of the birds begin to make their nests, and the blessed Crosses are made with straw and are put up in the thatch; for the death of the year is done with and the birthday of the year is come. And it is what the Gad of Scotland say in averse:

"Brigit put her finger in the river on the feast day of Brigit, and away went the hatching-mother of the cold.

"She washed the palms of her hands in the river on the day of the feast of Patrick, and away went the birth-mother of the cold."

"Victorious Bngit did not love the world; the spending of the world was not dear to her; a wonderful ladder for the people to climb to the kingdom of the Son of Mary.

"A wild boar came among her swine; he hunted the wild pigs to the north; Brigit blessed him with her staff, that he made his dwelling with her own herd.

"She was open in all her doings; she was only Mother of the great King's Son; she blessed the frightened bird till she played with it in her hand.

"Before going with angels to the battle let us go running to the church; to remember the Lord is better than any poem. Victorious Brigit did not love the world."

On the day of the battle of Almhuin, Brigit was seen over the men of Leinster, and Columcille was seen over the Ua Neil; and it was the men of Leinster won that battle. And a long time after that again, when Strongbow that had brought great trouble into Ireland and that was promised the kingdom of Leinster was near his end, he cried out from his bed that he saw Brigit of the Gael, and that it was she herself was bringing him to his death.

But if Brigit belonged to the east, it is not in the west she is forgotten, and the people of Burren and of Corcomruadh and Kinvara go every year to her blessed well that is near the sea, praying and remembering her. And in that well there is a little fish that is seen every seven years, and whoever sees that fish is cured of every disease. And there is a woman living yet that is poor and old and that saw that blessed fish, and this is the way she tells the story:

"I had a pearl in my eye one time, and I went to Saint Brigit's well on the cliffs. Scores of people there were in it, looking for cures, and some got them and some did not get them. And I went down the four steps to the well and I was looking into it, and I saw a little fish no longer than your finger coming from a stone under the water. Three spots it had on the one side and three on the other side, red spots and a little green with the red, and it was very civil coming hither to me and very pleasant wagging its tail. And it stopped and looked up at me and gave three wags of its back, and walked off again and went in under the stone.

"And I said to a woman that was near me that I saw the little fish, and she began to call out and to say there were many coming with cars and with horses for a month past and none of them saw it at all. And she proved me, asking had it spots, and I said it had, three on the one side and three on the other side. "That is it" she said. And within three days I had the sight of my eye again. It was surely Saint Brigit I saw that time; who else would it be? And you would know by the look of it that it was no common fish. Very civil it was, and nice and loughy, and no one else saw it at all. Did I say more prayers than the rest? Not a prayer. I was young in those days. I suppose she took a liking to me, maybe because of my name being Brigit the same as her own."

There was a beggar boy used to be in Burren, that was very simple like and had no health, and if he would walk as much as a few

perches it is likely he would fall on the road. And he dreamed twice that he went to Saint Brigit's blessed well upon the cliffs and that he found his health there. So he set out to go to the well, and when he came to it he fell in and he was drowned. Very simple he was and innocent and without sin. It is likely it is in heaven he is at this time.

And there is a woman in Burren now is grateful to Saint Brigit, for "I brought my little girl that was not four years old" she says "to Saint Brigit's well on the cliffs, where she was ailing and pining away. I brought her as far as the doctors in Gort and they could do nothing for her and then I promised to go to Saint Brigit's well, and from the time I made that promise she got better. And I saw the little fish when I brought her there; and she grew to be as strong a girl as ever went to America. I made a promise to go to the well every year after that, and so I do, of a Garlic Sunday, that is the last Sunday in July. And I brought a bottle of water from it last year and it is as cold as amber yet."

And when the people are covering up a red sod under the ashes in the night time to spare the seed of the fire for the morning, they think upon Brigit the Fiery Arrow and it is what they do be saying: "I save this fire as Christ saved everyone; Brigit beneath it, the Son of Mary within it; let the three angels having most power in the court of grace be keeping this house and the people of this house and sheltering them until the dawn of day." For it is what Brigit had a mind for; lasting goodness that was not hidden; minding sheep and rising early; hospitality towards good men. It is she keeps everyone that is in straits and in dangers; it is she puts down sicknesses; it is she quiets the voice of the waves and the anger of the great sea. She is the queen of the south; she is the mother of the flocks; she is the Mary of the Gael.

BOOK TWO

COLUMCILLE, THE FRIEND OF THE ANGELS OF GOD

It is noble indeed was the race of Columcille as to this world; and he had a right through his blood to the kingship of Ireland but he put it from him for the sake of God. One time Fintain had a vision, and he saw in the vision two moons that rose up from Cluan Eraird, the one a silver moon and the other a golden moon. The golden moon went on towards the north till it lightened Scotland and the northern part of Ireland; and the silver moon went on till it stopped by the Sionnan and lightened the middle part of Ireland. ColumclUe now was the golden moon with his high race and his wisdom; and Ciaran was the silver moon with the brightness of his virtues and his pleasant ways. And the place where he was born was Gortan in the north; and it was on a Thursday he was born, that has from that time been a lucky day. And indeed it was a wonderful child was born that day, Columcille son of Fedilmid son of Fergus son of Connall Gulban son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. There was not a man of higher race or of greater name born of the Gad. And he was brought for baptism to Cruithnechan the noble priest; and it was he fostered him afterwards at the bidding of an angel; and it was angels that gave him his name.

And when the time for reading came to him, the priest went to a knowledgeable man that was in the country and asked him when would it be right for the little lad to begin. And when the knowledgeable man had looked at the sky he said "Write out the letters for him now." So the letters were written out upon a cake, and it is the way Columcille ate the cake, one part to the east of the water and the other part to the west of the water. And the knowledgeable man said then through his prophecy "It is the same way the sway of this young lad will be, one half to the east of the sea in Scotland, and the other half to the west of the sea in Ireland."

After he left his fosterer he went from place to place for a while until he came to where Fintain was at Cluan Eraird, and he built a cabin there. And at that time every one of the twelve saints of Ireland used to take his turn to grind meal in a quern through the night; but it was an angel of God in heaven used to grind for Columcille. That was the honour the Lord gave him because of the nobleness of his race beyond the others. For as to angels it is often they were about him, and it is often they helped him from the beginning of his life until the end. One time he was put Out of the brotherhood for no just cause, and the brothers were all gathered together at Tafiltin holding a meeting against him, and he himself came to the meeting. And Brenden that was there rose up when he saw him coming and when he came near he kissed him with great respect. Some of the old men in the gathering took Brenden on one side then and they were faulting him and saying "Why did you rise up before a man that has been put out of the brotherhood and why did you kiss him?" And it is what Brenden said "If you had seen today what the Lord thought fit to show to me, you would not have dishonoured him that God holds in such honour." "What was it you saw?" said they. "It is what I saw" said Brenden "a very bright pillar with fiery hair about it going before this man

that you make little of; and the company I saw travelling over the plain with him were the angels of God." One night a very beautiful young man in shining clothes came to Columcille in the night time and said "God be with you, and be strong now and steadfast, for God has sent me to keep you for ever and always from all the sin of the world." But Columcille was afraid, and asked him who he was. "I sin Axal" he said "that is a helper, an angel of the Lord; and it is to help you and to protect you from every danger and trouble of the world I am come." And from that time there were many angels used to be coming to his help, but it is likely Axal was the one that was always at hand. One time Columcille was sitting in his little cell, and he writing, and of a sudden his looks changed and he called out "Help! help! "Then two of the brothers that were at the door asked the cause of that cry. And Columcille told them that of a sudden he had seen one of the brothers falling from the highest point of a high house that was being built in Doire. "And I bade the angel of the Lord" he said "that was just now standing among you to go to his relief. And with all the land and sea that lay between" he said "the angel that had but left us as he began to fall was there in time to support him before he reached the ground, so that there was no hurt or bruise upon him at all. And that was wonderful help" he said "that could be given so very quickly as that."

Aedh King of Ireland gave up the dun he had in Doire to Columcille and he made his dwelling there. And he had so great a love for Doire, and the cutting of the oak trees went so greatly against him, that he could not find a place for his church the time he was building it that would let the front of it be to the east, and it is its side was turned to the east. And he left it upon those that came after him not to cut a tree that fell of itself or was blown down by the wind in that place to the end of nine days, and then to share it between the people of the townland, bad and good, a third of it to the great house and a tenth to be given to the poor. And he put a verse in a hymn after he was gone away to Scotland that shows there was nothing worse to him than the cutting of that oakwood:

"Though there is fear on me of death and of hell, I will not hide it that I have more fear of the sound of an axe over in Doire."

"It is delightful to be on Beinn Edair before going over the white sea; the beating of the waves against its wall; the bareness of its border and its strand.

"It is great is the swiftness of my currach and its back turned to Doire; it is a fret to me my journey over the high sea, travelling to Scotland of the ravens.

"My foot in my sweet-sounding currach; my sorrowful heart pleading. It is a weak man that is not a leaderrall that are without knowledge are blind together.

"There is a grey eye that is looking back upon Ireland; it will never see from day to day the men or the women of Ireland. I stretch my sight over the salt waters from the strong oaken planks; there is a big tear in my eye when I look back on Ireland; my mind is set upon Ireland, on Loch Lene of Magh Line; on the country of the men of Ulster; on smooth Munster and on Meath.

"It is plentiful in the east are tall fighting men; plentiful the troubles and the sicknesses; plentiful the men with scanty clothes; plentiful the hard jealous hearts.

"Plentiful in the west are the apples; plentiful the kings & the makings of kings; plentiful the wholesome sloes; plentiful the oaks with acorns.

"Sweet voiced her clerks; sweet voiced her birds; her young men gentle her old men wise; her great men are good to look at; her women noble, of good rearing.

"Take my blessing with you beautiful boy, my blessing and my benediction; the half of it for Ireland seven times over; the other half once for Scotland. Take my blessing over the sea to the nobles of the island of the Gael; let them not give heed to their enemy's words, or to his threat of harming them.

"Take my blessing with you to the west; my heart is broken in my body. If death should overtake me suddenly it is through great love of the Gael.

"Gael, Gael, dear dear name, my one shout and my call! Dear is soft haired Cuimin, dear are Caindech and Comgall.

"If I had the whole of Scotland from the middle out to the borders I would sooner have a place and a house in the middle of pleasant Doire.

"It is the reason I love Doire, for its quietness for its purity; it is quite full of white angels from the one end to the other.

"It is the reason I love Doire, for its quietness for its purity; quite full of white angels is every leaf of the oaks of Doire.

"My Doire my little oakwood, my dwelling and my white cell; O living God in heaven, it is a pity for him that harms it!

"Dear are Durrow and Doire; dear is Rathboth in its whiteness; dear is Druimhome of delicate fruits; dear are Sord and Cenacles.

"Dear to my heart in the west Druimciab at the strand of Culcinne; to see white Loch Febhail, the shape of its harbour is delightful. "Delightful is that and delightful is the sea where the gulls are crying; going a long way from Doire it is quiet and it is delightful!"

Baothan that was afterwards a saint of the Gael was of the kindred of Columcille, and it was Columcille sent him when he was a little lad to be taught by Saint Colman Ela. But although Baothan had good wits enough his memory failed him, and it was hard for him to keep in mind what his master taught him. And it happened one day that Colman was vexed with him at his task and struck him. Then Baothan went away into the wood to hide himself and to avoid his tasks, and while he was there he saw a man alone and he building a house; and according as he came to the end of weaving one rod into the wall he would set the head of another to it, and so he worked on from rod to rod setting one only at a time. And that seemed very tedious to the young lad till he saw the wall rising as he watched; and he said to himself then "If I had worked at my learning as this man works at his building it is likely I might be a scholar now." Then a shower of rain fell and he took shelter from it under an oak tree and he saw a drop of rain falling from a leaf of the tree on one spot, and he pressed his heel on that spot and made a little hollow, and it was not long till it was filled by the dropping of the one drop. And Baothan said then "If I had worked at my task and my learning even little by little like that drop without doubt I would be a scholar now. And I make my vow" he said "that from this out to my life's end I will never give up my learning however hard it may be to me."

Columdille made a round of the whole of Ireland & he sowed the faith and did what he had to do. And before he went to Scotland he stopped in Aran of the Saints for a while, and there is a spot in the island where he used to be walking and that is always green to this day. And when he left Aran he made this complaint:

"A farewell from me to Aran; a sorrowful farewell as I think; I myself sent eastward to Hii, and the sea between it and Aran.

"A farewell from me to Aran; it is it that vexes my heart; I not to be westward on her waves among troops of the saints of heaven. "A farewell from me to Aran; my faithful heart is vexed; it is a lasting leave taking; Och! this parting is not of my will.

"A farewell from me to Aran; it is that is the sorrowful parting; she to be full of white angels and I without a lad in my currach. "Och it is far, Ochone it is far I am put away from Aran in the west; sent out towards the hosts of Mona to visit the men of Scotland in the east.

"The Son of God, O,the Son of God, it is He sent me out to Hu; it is He gave, great the profit, Aran as the dwelling-place of prayers and of teaching.

"Aran my sun, O Aran my sun, my affection is lying in her to the west; it is the same to be under her dean earth as under the earth of Paul and Peter.

"Aran my sun, O Aran my sun, my love is lying in her to the west; to be within the sound of her bell, it is the same thing as to be in happiness.

"Aran my sun, O Aran my sun, my love is lying in her to the west; whoever goes under her clean earth, the eye of no bad thing will see him.

"Blessed Aran, O blessed Aran, it is a pity for anyone that is against Aran; it is what he will get on the head of it, shortening of life and the grave.

"Blessed Aran, O blessed Aran, it is a pity for him that is against Aran; wasting on his children and on his cattle; he himself in bad case at the end.

"Blessed Aran, O blessed Aran, 'it is a pity for anyone that is against you; angels coming down from Heaven to visit you every day of the week.

"Gabriel comes every Sunday as it is Christ gave the order; fifty angels, not weak the cause, putting a blessing on her Masses. "Every Monday, O every Monday, Michael comes, great the advantage, thirty angels, good their behavior, come blessing her churches.

"Every Tuesday, O every Tuesday, Raphael comes, of high power; to give a blessing on her houses attending on the prayers of Aran.

"Hard Wednesday, O hard Wednesday, Urial comes, great the advantage; he comes to bless three times over the high angelic churches.

"Every Thursday, O every Thursday, Sariel comes, great the advantage; dividing God's good increase from heaven on the bare stones.

"Every Friday, O every Friday, Ramael comes, his ranks with him; the way every eye is satisfied with white very bright angels.

"Mary comes, Mother of God, having her women in her keeping; angels are in their company; they bless Aran every Saturday. "If there was no other life but listening to the angels of Aran, it would be better than any life under heaven to be hearing their talk together!"

And when he left Ireland for Scotland he did good service there; for it was he brought many of the men of Scotland from darkness to the light of belief and of good deeds. It was to the island of Ha he went first and when he reached to it he said to his people "It would be well for us to put roots into the earth in this place. And there is leave for one of you" he said "to go under the earth of this island to consecrate it." Odhran rose up quickly then and it is what he said "I am ready for tha₁. if you will take me." "You will get your reward for that Odhran" said Columcille "for no asking will be granted to anyone at this place unless he will ask it first of you." Then Odhran joined the company of Heaven, and after that Columcille laid the foundation of his church. And he bade the brothers to have a mind prepared for red martyrdom and a mind strong and steadfast for white martyrdom; forgiveness from the heart to everyone; constant prayer for all that troubled them. "And let you be as much in earnest saying the office for the dead" he said "as if every one of the faithful dead was your own near friend." But if it was in Hii he had his dwelling-place, he went every Thursday to Heaven at the call of the King of the Three Peoples.

One time when Columcille was living in the island of Hil he called to one of the brothers and said "In the morning of the third day from this go down and waft on the shore to the west of the island, for at the ninth hour there will come a stranger, a crane from the north part of Ireland, that has been driven here and there by winds and it will lie down on the strand tired and worn out. And bring it into some neighbouring house" he said "where it will get a welcome, and where you can be minding it and feeding it for three days and three nights. And when it is refreshed" he said 'with the three days' rest and has no mind to stay longer with us it will fly back to the pleasant part of Ireland it came from. And I give this bird to your special care" he said "because it is from our own country it comes." And the brother did as he bade him and tended the crane. And at the end of the third day the crane rose to a great height in the air and stopped for a little while marking out its path to its home. And then it went back across the sea to Ireland as straight as it could fly on a calm day. For Ireland was never out of Columcille's mind and it is what he used to say "The Gael are more to me than all the rest of the men of the world

Columcille made this hymn one time, praising Ireland:

"It would be delightful Son of my God, to travel over the waves of the rising flood; over Loch Neach, over Loch Febhail, beyond Beinn Eigne, the place we used to hear fitting music from the swans. The host of the gulls would make a welcome with their sleepy music if my currach the Red Dewy One should come to the harbour of joyous anger.

"I have my fill of riches if I thought it enough, wanting Ireland, in the strange country where I have chanced and I tired. It is a pity the journey that was put upon me O King of mysteries!

"It is happy the son of Dima is, he of the faithful church, when he is listening in Durrow to the desire of his mind; the sound of the wind against the elms; the laughter of the blackbird clapping his wings; to listen at break of day to the lowing of the cattle in Rigrencha, to listen at the brink of summer to the cry of the cuckoo from the tree.

'There are three things dearest to me on the whole of this peopled world, Doire and Doire-Ethne and Doire the high country of angels. My visit to Comgall, my feast with Cainnech, it is they were honey sweet to me. I have loved Ireland of the waters, all that is in it but its government."

There came to Columcille one time a poor man of Scotland that was in great misery and had no way of living. And when Columcille had given him all he had to give of alms he said to him "Go now into that wood beyond and bring me a branch from it." The poor man did as he bade him and brought the branch and Columcille took it and made a sharp point on it and he gave it back to the poor man and he said "Take good care of the stake and so long as you have it you will never be without plenty of venison in the house. But it will not harm men or cattle" he said "but only wild creatures, beasts and fishes." The poor man was well pleased when he heard that, and as he went home he fixed the stake in a lonely place where the wild creatures of the wood used to be going. And at the early light of the morrow he went to look at the stake and it is the way it was, a very large stag had fallen upon it and it had gone through him. And from that out not a day would pass but he would find a stag or a doe or some other wild creature fixed upon the stake the way his house was full of meat, and all that himself and his wife and his children could not use he would sell it to the neighbours. But after a while his wife said to him "Take out that stake out of the ground, for if men or cattle should chance to fall upon it, yourself and myself and our children would be put to death or we would be led mto bondage." And it is not as a wise woman she spoke that time but as a woman that had lost her sense. "That is a thing will not happen" said the husband "for when the holy man blessed the stake he said it would never harm men or cattle." But for all that he did as his wife bade him and in his folly he took the stake out of the ground and put it against the wall. And not long after that, his house dog fell upon it and was killed. And his wife said to him then "One of the children will be the next to fall upon it and to be killed." So when she said that he took the stake out the house, and brought it to a very large wood and put it in the thickest of the scrub where as he thought no beast could be harmed by it. But when he came back next day what he saw was a deer that had fallen upon it and got its death. So he brought it away from there and thrust it in under the water by the edge of a river; and the next day he found on it a salmon so big that it is hardly he was able to lift it out of the river to bring it home. And that time he brought the stake up from the river and put it outside on the roof of his house. But it was not long till a crow got its death by it, where it was coming to pitch on the house. And upon that the foolish man giving in to the advice of his wife took down the stake from the roof and took an axe and cut it in a great many pieces and threw it in the fire. And after doing that, he that had been rich fell into poverty again and it is well he had earned it. And all he had to do, and his wife and his children for the rest of their lives, was to fret after the stake the blessed man had given him, and that he himself had done away with.

One time he was making his rounds in Hii and he saw an old woman and she cutting nettles to boil down for food. "What is the cause of that misery?" said Columcille. "O dear father" she said "I have one cow only and she is in calf, and this 'is what serves through the time of waiting." When Columcille heard that, he made his mind up he would use no other thing than brdfh of nettles so long as his life would last. "For if it is waiting for the one cow this woman is, in this great hunger" he said "it would be more fitting for us to be in hunger; for it is a better thing we ourselves are waiting for, the everlasting kingdom." And he said to his cook "Bring me broth of nettles every night and bring no milk with it." "I will do that" said the cook. But it is what the cook did, he bored a hole through the stick he stirred the broth with, till it was like a pipe, & he used to pour the juice of meat down through the pipe so that it was mixed with the broth. And that kept a good appearance on Columcille, and the brothers saw by his looks he was well nourished and they were talking about it among themselves. And when Columcille knew that he said "That those that come after you may be always grumbling. And what is it you are giving me?" he said to the cook. "You know well yourself" said the cook "that if 'it does not come through the iron of the pot or through the stick the broth is mixed with, I know of no other thing in it but only nettles." "That there may be good luck and a good appearance to those that come after you for ever" said Columcille. And it is likely he took but nettles only after that, for he lost flesh till the track of his ribs used to be seen on the strand when he used to lie out there through the night time.

Columcille went back one time to Ireland to the great gathering of Druim Ceta to bless the people, and to get leave for the troops of the poets that were being driven out for their burdensomeness, to stop in Ireland. For it is what he said, that the rewards they got were not lasting but their praises would last for ever. Then Aedh King of Ireland gave leave for them to stop, but there was anger on him and on Conall his son, Columcille to have come to the gathering. And Conall stirred up the rabble of the gathering against Coluincifie's people that they made an attack on them and took some and wounded others. And when Columcille knew that, he put a curse on Conall and rang three times nine bells against him and took the kingship from him, and his reason & his wits. And when the Queen heard that, and she washing her flower-face at the time, she said to her serving maid "Go to Aedh and say to him that if he shows respect to this crane-clerk I will not be peaceable towards, himself." And when Columcille was told that, it is what he said, that the Queen and her serving maid should be put into the shape of cranes of Druim Ceta from that day to the day of judgment, and she having one of her wings broken and but half a tail. And so it happened, and if they are not in it yet they were long enough in it, the two old cranes of Druim Ceta.

One time Columcille was at Cam Eolairg on Loch Febhail and there came a beautiful young man to him having a golden shoe upon his foot, and whatever foot he would put down it is on it the shoe used to be. "Where do you come from young man?" said Columcille. "I am Mongan son of Fiachra" said the young man "and I am come from countries unknown and countries known. And I am come" he said "to compare my knowledge and wisdom with your own, and to know from you the place where knowledge & ignorance were born, the place where they die and the place of their burying." "A question to you" said Columcille, "what used this loch we are looking at to be in the old time?" "I know that" said the young man. "It was yellow, it was blossoming, it was green, it was hilly, it was a place of drinking, it had silver in it and chariots. I went through it when I was a deer before deer, when I was a salmon, when I was a very strong seal, when I was a wild dog. When I was a man I bathed in it, I carried a yellow sail, a green sail, it drowned a red sail under blood, women called out to me. Though I do not know father or mother I speak with the living and the dead." Then Columcille said to him. "What is there beneath those islands to the west of us?" And it is what the young man said: "There are underneath them tuneful long-haired men; there are well-shaped people both men and women; there are cattle, white, red-eared, their lowJ.flg is sweet; there are herds of deer, there are good horses; there are the two-headed, there are the three-headed, in Europe, in Asia, in an unknown green country from its border to its river mouth." "That is enough so far" said Columcille. And then he went apart with the young man to ask him the secrets of heaven and earth. And they were talking together from one hour on that day to the same hour on the next day, and Columcille's people were looking at them a long way off. And when the talk came tuan end they saw the young man vanishing from them all of a minute, and it is not known where he went. And when they asked Columcille to give them news of his talk it is what he said, that he could not tell them one word of all he had heard; and he said it was a right thing for men not to be told of it.

Fergal King of Ireland that was of the race of the Ua Neills of the north was gathering his people one time to go against the men of Leinster. And it was a long time they took coming together, for it is what every man that was called in Conn's half of Ireland used to say: "If Donnbo goes with the army I will go." Donnbo now was the son of a widow-woman belonging to the men of Ross, and he had never gone away from his mother's house for one day or for one night only; and there was not one in all Ireland more comely or better in face and in shape than himself. He was the best at singing merry verses and telling royal stories of all in the whole world; the best to ready horses or to rivet spears or to plait hair; the best in quickness of mind and in generosity. And his mother would not let him go out at the king's bidding till she got the security of Columcille that he would come back to her in safety. So he went out with the king's army, and they went on till they came to Almhuin and there they made their camp. And it was then Fergal said to Donnbo "Make mirth for us Donnbo, for you are the best of all the musicians of Ireland at pipes and at harps and at poems, and at the old stories and the royal stories of Ireland; and on the morning of tomorrow" he said "we will give battle to the men of Leinster." "Och" said Donnbo "I am not able to make sport for you this night or to do any of those things that you say. But wherever you may be on the night of tomorrow" he said "I will make amusement for you if I am living. And let the king's buffoon make sport for you to-night" he said. So Ua Maighlinne the king's buffoon was called and he began his stories of the battles and the triumphs of Leinster from the destruction of Dind Righ down to that time. And it was not much sleep they got that night because of their great dread of the men of Leinster, and because of a storm that arose; for that was the eve of the feast of Saint Finnain in the winter. The battle was fought the next morning & the men from the north were beaten, and nine thousand of them got their death, and Fergal the king among them. And Ua Maighlinne fell into the hands of one of the men of Leinster, and he bade him give his buffoon's roar, and he did that; and his head was cut off then, but the roar was heard in the air through the length of three nights and three days and it has stayed with the buffoons of Ireland to this day. And as to Donnbo, he lost his life defending the king, and his head was struck off, and the king's head. The same night flow the men of Leinster were drinking wine and making merry, and every one telling the deeds he had done in the battle. And Murchad son of the king of Leinster said "I would give a good chariot and my own dress to any man that would go to the place of the battle and would bring me a token from it." "I will go" said a Munster man that was among them. So he put on his battle dress and went on, and when he came to the place where king Fergal's body was, he heard said as if in the air these words "Here is a command to you from the King of the Seven Heavens; make music to-night for your master Fergal the king; though all of you have fallen here, pipers and trumpeters and harpers, let no terror or no weakness keep you from making music for Fergal." Then the messenger heard the music of singers and trumpeters and pipers and harpers, all sorts of music he heard, and he never heard better before or after. And from a bunch of rushes near him he heard a very wild song, the sweetest of all the music of the world. He went towards the rushes then and a voice said from among them "Do not come near me." "Who are you?" said the messenger. "I am the head of Donnbo" it said "and it was bound in a bond to make amusement for the king to-night, and do not hinder me." "Where is Fergal's body?" said the messenger. "It is shining there before you" said the head. "Let me bring you away along with him" said the messenger, "for it is yourself I would sooner bring away." "I would not wish any person to bring me away" said the head "unless it might be Christ the Son of God. And give me the guarantee of Christ now that you will bring me back to my body again." "I will bring you surely" said the messenger. Then he went back to where the men of Leinster were drinking yet. "Have you a token with you?" said Murchad. "I have" said he "the head of Donnbo." "Set it up on that post" said Murchad. Then they all knew it to be the head of Dunnbo, and it is what they all said: "It is a pity for you Donnbo, it 'is comely your face was! And make amusement for us to-night," they said "the same as you did yesterday for your lord." Then he turned his face to the wall of the house the way it Would be darker for him, and he raised his wild song, and it was the sweetest or all the music on the whole ridge of the world. And all the men of Leinster were crying and lamenting, with the sorrow and the softness of that song.

One time Snedgus and Mac Riaghta, clerks that were of the people of Columcille, got into their currach of their own will, and went out over the sea on a pilgrimage, and they turned righthandways and the wind brought them north-westward into the outer ocean. And at the end of three days a great longing and a great thirst came upon them that they could not bear; and it was then Christ took pity on them and brought them to an island where there was a stream that had the taste of new milk, and they were satisfied with it. They gave thanks to God then and they said "Let us leave our voyage to God, and let us put the oars in the boat." And from that out they let the rudder alone and they put their oars in the boat. Then they were brought to another island having a silver paling over the middle of it, and a fish weir; and it is a plank of silver that weir was, and there were big salmon, every one the size of a bull-calf, leaping against the weir, and they were satisfied with them. After that they went to another island and in that island they found fighting-men having heads of cats on them. And there was one man of the Gael among them, and he came down to the strand and bade them welcome and he said "A boat's crew of us came here, and there is not one left of it now but myself, for the rest of us were made an end of by the strangers of this island." He put provision into the boat for them then, and they left a blessing and took a blessing with them. After that the wind brought them to an island where there was a great tree, and beautiful birds in it; and on the top of the tree was a bird having a head of gold and wings of silver; and it told them stories of the beginning of the world & it told them of the birth of Christ from Mary Virgin, and of his baptism and his passion and his rising again; and it told news of the judgment. And then all the birds beat their sides with their wings till blood dropped from them, with the dread of the signs of the judgment, and it is a very precious thing that blood was. And the bird gave to the clerks a leaf of the leaves of that tree, and it is the size of the hide of a great ox that leaf was and neither leaf nor stem of that tree withers. And he bade them to put that leaf on Columdille's altar, and it is to Kells it was brought afterwards. It is sweet the music of those birds was, singing psalms & praising the Lord, for they were the birds of the plain of Heaven. Then they bade farewell to the birds, and they went on to a very fearful country where there were men having heads of dogs and manes of cattle. And by order of God a clerk came to them out of the island to relieve them, for they were in a bad way for the want of food; and he gave them fish and wine and wheat. Then they went on till they came to a country where there were men having heads of pigs; and there were a great many reapers reaping the corn in the middle of the summer. And from that they went on in their boat, and sang their psalms and prayed to God, till they came to a country where there were people of the Gael; and the women of that island sang a strain to the clerks and it is sweet they thought it. And one of them said "Sing on, for this is the music of Ireland." "Let us go to the house of the King of the island" said the women to them then, "and you will get a welcome and good treatment." So they went into the house, and the King gave a welcome to the clerks, and they rested themselves there and be asked them what was their race. "We are of the men of Ireland" they said "and of the people of Columcille." "What way is Ireland now?" said the King "and how many of the sons of Domnall are living yet?" "There are three sons of Domnall living, and Fiachna son of Domnall fell by the men of Ross and for that deed two sixties of them were put out upon the sea." "It is true that story is" said the King; "It is I myself killed the son of Domnall king of Teamhuir and we are the men were put out on the sea. And it is well that happened for us" he said "and it is here we will be till the time of our judgment; and it is good we are and without sin" he said "and it is good the island is where we are; for there are in it Eu and Enoch, and it is noble is the house where Eu is." "We would like well to see Enoch" said the clerks. "He is in a hidden place till we all go to battle on the day of judgment" said he. And there was another thing he said to them: "There are two lakes in this country, a lake of water and a lake of fire; and they would have gone over Ireland long ago without Martin and Patrick praying for the Gael." Then they went on from that country and they were in the shouting of the waves for a long time till great relief came to them from God, for it is tired out they were. And they saw a great high island and everything that was in it was beautiful and holy. It is good the king was that lived in that island, and holy and just, and it is great his army was and it is noble his dwelling place was, for there were a hundred doors in that house and an altar at every door and a dear man at every altar offering the body of Christ. And the two clerks went into the house and each of them blessed the other and after that the whole host, women and men, went to communion at the Mass. Then wine was given out to them and the king said "Tell the men of Ireland that a great vengeance is going to fall upon them across the sea and

your enemies will make war on you and you will live in the halt of the island. And it is what brings this vengeance upon them" he said "the great neglect they show to the testament of God and to his teaching. And for a month and a year" he said "you will be on the sea, but you will land safely at the last, and then let you tell out all your news to the people of Ireland."

Columcille made this hymn the time the King of Teamhuir had given an order to take him, and the justice of God threw a mist about him the way he would not be known as he went out. And it is a protection to anyone that will say it, and he going on his way.

"It is alone I am on the mountain, O King-sun of the lucky road, there is nothing for me to be in dread of. If I had three score hundreds of armies that would defend the body, when the day of my death comes there is no strong place wilt hold out against it.

"He that is spent may get his death in a church or in the island in the middle of the lake; he that has luck with him, his life will be safe in the front of a battle.

"There is no one could put an end to me though he should chance upon me in danger; there is no one could protect me the day my life will come to its end.

"My life, I leave it to the will of God. There will be nothing wanting to it; there will be nothing added to it.

"He that is in health falls into sickness; he that is out of his health grows sound again; he that is in misery gets right again; he that is in good order falls into misery.

Whatever God has settled for any person, he will not leave the world until he meets it; although a high head goes looking for more, he will not get the size of a grain of it.

"A man may bring a guard with him on his road; but what guard has ever kept a man from his death?

"An herb is cut for the cattle, and they after coming from the mountain. What is the owner of the cattle doing that he does not cut the herb for himself?

"There is no son of a man knows for whom he is making a gathering; if it is for himself or for some other one.

"Leave out scarceness for a while; it is better for you to mind hospitality. The Son of Mary will prosper you when every guest comes to his share.

"It is often the thing that is spent comes back again, and the thing that is kept, though it is not spent it vanishes away.

"O living God! It is a pity for him that does any bad thing! The thing that is not seen comes to him; the thing that he sees goes away out of his hand.

"It is not with chance our life is; or with the bird on the top of the twig; or with the trunk of a crooked tree. It is better to put our trust in the Father, the One, and the Son.

"The share every evening in the house of God, it is what my king has made. He is the king that made the body; he will not let me go wanting to-night.

"I do not hold to the voice of birds, or any luck on the earthly world, or chance or a son or a woman. Christ the Son of God is my Druid; Christ the Son of Mary, the great Abbot; the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. My estates are with the King of Kings; my order is at Cenacles and Moen."

One time Columcille went to Monaster Boite and it is there his staff struck against the ladder of glass by which Boite had gone up to heaven; and he showed where his grave was and marked out his church. Three hundred churches he marked out & he wrote three hundred books. And among the churches he left there were a hundred that had the waves for a neighbour.

And at last one day in the month of May, Columcille went on a cart to see the brothers that were ploughing in the north of the island of Hii; and he was comforting them and teaching them. "Well" he said "at the Easter that went into the month of April 1 was ready to go to Heaven, but I had no mind you to have sorrow or trouble after your heavy work, and so I have stayed with you from Easter to Pentecost." When his people heard those words they were very downhearted; and Columcille turned his face westward and blessed the island, and drove away from it every bad thing. And then he came to his cell, and it was not long till there came the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of Sunday. And when he lifted his eyes he saw a great brightness, and an angel of God waiting there above him. And after that he went out, and his servant Diarmuid, whose life he had lengthened with his prayers one time he was sick, with him; and he blessed the barn and two heaps of winnowed wheat that were in it. And then he told Diarmuid he had a little secret word to tell him, that on this very night of the Sabbath of rest he would go to his own rest, on the invitation of the Lord Jesus. And he Sat down on the edge of the path, for all the length of his years came upon him. And there came to him the old spent white horse that used to be carrying the milk vessels from the cowshed in the island to the brothers, and it cried tears into his breast till his clothes were wet. And Diarmuid his servant would have driven the old horse away, but Columcille said "Leave him Diarmuid till he cries his fill, keening me. For you are a man having reason" he said "and you know nothing of the time of my death but what I myself have told you. But as to this beast that is without reason, God himself has made known to it in some way that its master is going to leave it." And he gave his blessing to the horse then, and it went away very sorrowful. And on the night of the Sunday of Pentecost, Columcille was the first in the church and he knelt and prayed. And the brothers came in with their candles, but the whole church was full of light, and Columcille opened his eyes wide and looked about him on every side with a great blush in his face, and they knew he was looking at the angels. And the light of the angels filled the church on every side, and he blessed the brothers, and the life went from his body, and there was a welcome before him in the household of heaven. But there are some that say he was not old when he died but young, because he had made requests of Axal the angel one time, and one of the requests was that he might die in his youth. "For in old age" he said "the body is ugly." And the angel granted him that and many other things.

It was at the hour of his death the fishermen that were out trying for fish in the deep holes of the river Finn, saw a great light to the east that lighted up the whole of the sky. And at Rosnaree the light of the angels was seen, and their hymns were heard in the high air. And at the same time the poets of Ireland were gathered at the yew tree at the head of Baile's Strand in Ulster, and they were making up stories there of themselves. And the things that happened did not happen the way they told them, but it was to put them on the rough race, the men of Ulster, the poets made up those lying tales. Forgaill now that was a man of Connacht and of high race, was the chief of all those poets; and news was brought to him by an angel riding a speckled horse, that Columcille was dead.

This now is the poem of praise & of lamentation that was made for Columcille, Speckled Salmon of the Boinne, High Saint of the Gad, by Forgaill that was afterwards called Blind Forgaill, Chief Poet of Ireland:

"It is not a little story this is; it is not a story about a fool it is; it is not one district that is keening but every district, with a great sound that is not to be borne, hearing the story of Columcille, without life, without a church.

"It is not the trouble of one house, or the grief of one harpstring; all the plains are heavy, hearing the word that is a wound.

"What way will a simple man tell of him? Even Nera from the Sidhe could not do it; he is not made much of now; our learned one is not the light of our life now he is hidden away from us.

"He that used to keep us living is dead; he that was our rightful head has died from us; he has died from us, that was God's messenger.

"The knowledgeable man that used to put fear from us is not here; the teller of words does not return to us; the teacher is gone from us that taught silence to the people.

The whole world was his; it is a harp without its strings; it is a church without its abbot.

"Colum rose very high the time God's companies rose to meet him; it is bright the angels were, attending on him.

It is short his life was, it is little used to satisfy him; when the Wind blew the sheet against him on the sand, the shape of his ribs Could be seen through it.

He was the head of every gathering; he was a dun of the book of

the law; he put a flame in the district of the north, he lightened

district of the west; the east was his along with it; he did not open his heart to every company. Good his death; be went with God's angels that came to meet him.

"He has reached to Axal of his help and to the troops of the archangels; he has reached to a place where night is not seen; he has reached to a plain where music has not to be born; where no one listens to oppression. The King of priests has done away with his troubles.

"He knew the way he was going; he gave kindness for hatred; he learned psalms; he broke the battle against hunger.

"He knew seasons and storms; he read the secrets of the great wisdom; he knew the course of the moon; he took notice of its race with the branching sun. He was skilful in the course of the sea; to tell every high thing we have heard from Colum, would be to count the stars of heaven.

"A healer of the heart of the wise; a full satisfier of guests; our crowned one who spoke with Axal; a shelter to the naked; a comforter to the poor; he was eager, ice was noble, it is high his death was. We hope great honour will be given to him on the head of these deeds."

And when Forgaill had made that lament he said: "It is a great shaping and a great finish I have given to these words, and I cannot make a praise beyond this, for my eyes have been taken from me."

It was Aedh King of Ireland gave seven cumhals for his name to be given in the praising of Columcille; and Aedh laid it down to Forgaill that this song should be above every other song. But it was after death the reward and the praise were given to blind Forgaill; for it was Heaven that was given to him, as the price of the praising of the King.

It is an old saying in Ireland that if Columcille died in Hii, his soul I is in Doire and his body under a flagstone in Ardmacha beside Brigit and Patrick. But one time when some person that was looking at the church in Hii told that saying, the people of the island were very angry, and said the Irish were impudent liars to say such a thing, and that Saint Columcille had been buried in their island, and none had ever come to bring him away, and if they had they would not have got him. But it is what the people of Ireland I say to this day, that when he was dying he bade the brothers to put his body in a currach and to cut directions on a stick and to put the currach out to sea. So they did that and the currach floated to the north of Ireland, but not one knew of it being there. And there were a few cows that had pasture near the sea, and one of them used to be going down to the shore every day, and to be licking a brown stick that was lying there. And the boy that was minding them took notice that the milk that cow gave was three times more than the milk of every other cow, and he wondered to see the cow that was the scarcest of all giving milk and butter like that and it eating nothing, but only licking a bit of a stick. So they went and looked at the stick, and they read on it that Saint Columcille's body was in the currach and they found it there; but whether it was only his bones they found, or whether he was embalmed, being such a great man, is not known. And the writing on the stick said he was to be buried in Ardmacha, between Saint Patrick and Saint Brigit. And they did not know where those graves were, but they brought the body to Ardmacha, and the ground opened of itself, and they knew it was to let him rest between those two it opened.

Bran, now, the hound of Finn son of Cumhail, stopped one time at the hunting, and would not follow a deer through a certain valley. And it was always said, she knew that to be a valley Columcille would bless in the time to come. And the people of Slieve Echtge say there will be a great war yet in the whole world and in Ireland, and the want will be so great that the father will disown his son and will not let him in at the door. And there will be great fighting on Slieve-nan-Or, the Golden Mountain, and in the Valley of the Black Pig. And when the war comes as far as the blessed bush at Kilchriest, a priest will put on his stole, and will read from his book, and lift a chalice three times, and that will weaken it for a while. But the fighting will never reach to the Valley of Columcille; and it will be well for all the people that will be in that valley at the time of the last great war.

BOOK THREE

BLESSED PATRICK OF THE BELLS

There were many great saints among the Gael, but Patrick was the bush among them all. It was beyond the sea he was born, and his mother was a sister of Saint Martin of Tours; and he dreamed in Rome, and walked all Ireland barefoot. It was in his young youth he was brought from France to Ireland as a slave, and he was to set to serve four households, and he did his work so well that every one of the households thought him to be servant to itself alone and it was by an angel the ashes used to be cleared away from the hearth for him.

He was sent out after a while minding swine & he went through great hardships; but Victor the angel used to come to visit him and to teach him the order of prayer. And he had no way to buy his freedom, but one time a wild boar came rooting in the field, and brought up a lump of gold; and Patrick brought it to a tinker and the tinker said "It is nothing but solder, give it here to me." But then he brought it to a smith, and the smith told him it was gold and with that gold he brought his freedom. And from that time the smiths have been lucky, taking money every day and never without work; but as for the tinkers, every man's face is against them and their face is against every man, and they get no ease or rest, but are ever and always travelling the world.

After that he went out to sea with foreigners and he went back to his own country, and his people asked him to stop there with them. But he would not; for always in his sleep he could see the island of the Gael, and he could hear the singing of the children of the Wood of Fochlad. He went over the sea of Icht then, and he fasted in the islands of the Torrian sea, and then he went to learn from Germanus, and after that again to Rome. And then he and his people went out to sea, nine in all, and they came to an island where they saw a new house, and a young man and a young woman in it; and they saw a withered old hag by the door of the house. "What happened this old woman?" said Patrick. "It is great her weakness is" "She is my own grandchild, old as she is," said the young man. "What way did that happen?" said Patrick. "It is not hard to say that" said the young man; "For we are here from the time of Christ" he said "and he came to visit us when he was here among men, and we made a feast for him and he blessed our house and be blessed ourselves, but the blessing did not reach to our children. And this is the way we will be, without age coming upon us, to the Judgement. And it is a long time your coming is foretold to us" be said "and it is the will of God for you to go and to preach in the country of the Gael; and Christ left a token with us, a bent staff to be given to you."

Patrick took the staff with him then & went back to Germanus. And Victor the angel came and said to him "It was God's bidding to you to go back and to teach in the country of the Gael." But Patrick was not willing to go and he complained to God of the hardheartedness of the Gad. And God said "I myself will be your helper." Then Patrick went back to Rome and he was made a bishop, and when they were making a bishop of him the three quires answered to them, the quire of the people of Heaven, the quire of the Romans and the quire of the children of the Wood of Fochlad. It was in the east of Ireland he landed, at Inis Patrick; and three times before that the druids had foretold his coming, and it is what they said, "Adzeheads will come over an angry sea; their cloaks hole-headed; their staves crooked; their tables to the east of their houses; they will all answer Amen." At the time he landed it was the feast of Beltaine, and on that day every year the High King lighted a fire in Teamhuir, and there was geasa, that is a bond, upon the men of Ireland not to kindle a fire in any place before the kindling of that fire in Teamhuir. Patrick, now, struck the flame of the Paschal fire, and all the people saw it and it lighted up the whole of Magh Breg. "That is a breaking of bonds" said the king to his druids; "and find out for me" he said "who was it kindled that fire." And it is what the druids said, "Unless that fire is quenched before morning in the same night it was kindled, it will never be quenched." And when the fire was not quenched in that night, there was great anger on the king.

Patrick made this hymn one time he was going to preach the Faith at Teamhuir, and his enemies lay in hiding to make an attack on him as he passed. But as he himself and Benen his servant went by, all they could see passing was a wild deer and a fawn. And the Deer's Cry is the name of the hymn to this day.

"I bind myself to-day to a strong strength, to a calling on the Trinity. I believe in a Threeness with confession of a Oneness in the Creator of the World.

"I bind myself to-day to the strength of Christ's birth and his baptism; to the strength of his crucifixion with his burial; to the, strength of his resurrection with his ascension;

"In stability of earth, in steadfastness of rock, I bind to myself to-day God's strength to pilot me;

"God's power to uphold me; God's wisdom to guide me; God's eye to look before me; God's ear to hear me;

"God's word to speak for me; God's hand to guard me; God's path to lie before me; God's shield to protect me; God's host to save me;

"Against snares of demons; against the begging of sins; against the asking of nature; against all my ill-wishers near me and far from me; alone and in a crowd.

"So I have called on all these strengths, to come between me and every fierce and merciless strength that may come between my body and my soul;

"Against incantations of false prophets; against black laws of heathens; against false laws of heretics; against craft of idolatry; against spells of women and smiths and druids; against every knowledge forbidden to the souls of men;

"Christ for my protection to-thy against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding; that a multitude of rewards may come to me.

"Christ with me, Christ before me; Christ behind me, Christ in me; Christ under me, Christ over me; Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me; Christ in lying down, Christ in sitting, Christ in rising up; Christ in the heart of everyone that thinks of me; Christ in the mouth of everyone that speaks to me; Christ in every eye that sees me; Christ in every ear that hears me.

"I bind to myself to-day a strong strength to a calling upon the Trinity; I believe in a Threeness with confession of a Oneness in the Creator of the World!"

It is often told by the people of Ireland how Oisin, son of Finn, came back to Ireland in the time of Patrick; and the poets of Ireland have put into verses the arguments they used to be having with one another. And there are some say Caoilte of the Fianna and a troop of his people were m Ireland at that same tune; and whether or not that story is true, this is the way the meeting between himself and Patrick is put down in the old writings.

Patrick was one time singing the Mass at the Rath of the Red Ridge where Finn, son of Cumhal, used to be, and his clerks were with him. And the clerks saw Caoilte and his people coming towards them, and fear and terror fell on them before the great men and the great hounds that were with them; for they were not of the one time with themselves. It is then there rose up that high herdsman, that angel of the earth, Patrick son of Calpurn, Apostle of the Gael, and sprinkled holy water upon the big men, and with that every bad thing that was about them made away into the hills and the scalps and the borders of the country on every side, and the big men sat down. And there was great wonder on the clerks as they looked at them, for the tallest of themselves reached but to their waist or to their shoulders, and they sitting. "What name have you?" said Patrick then. "I am Caoilte, son of Ronan of the Fianna." "Was it not a good lord you were with" said Patrick "that is Finn, son of Cumhal?" And Caoilte said "If the brown leaves falling in the woods were gold, if the waves of the sea were silver, Finn would have given away the whole of it." "What was it kept you through your lifetime?" said Patrick. "Truth that was in our hearts, and strength in our hands, and fulfilment in our tongues" said Caoilte. Then Patrick gave them food and drink and good treatment and talked with them. And on the morning of the morrow his two protecting angels came to him out on the green, and he asked them was it any harm before the King of Heaven and earth, for him to be listening to the stories of the Fianna. And it is what the angels answered him: "Holy Clerk" they said "it is no more than a third of their stories these old fighting-men can tell, by reason of forgetfulness and their memory that fails them; but whatever they tell, let you write it down on poet's boards and in the words of poets, for it will be a diversion to the companies and the high people of the latter times to be listening to them." And Patrick did as they bade him, and he bade Brogan the scribe to write down all the stories told by Caoilte; and Brogan did that, and they are in the world to this day.

One time Diarmuid king of Ireland was with Patrick on the Hill of Usnach, and there was no water to be had; and one of the big men of the Fianna, it might have been Caoilte and it might have been Oisin, asked for a vessel that he might go and get it. And as he went he was looking back to see were they watching him, and when he was out of their sight he went to the Well of Usnach that was called the Whitebrimmed, and since the time of the battle of Gabra it had never been found by any man in Ireland. And when he came to the brink of the well he saw in it eight beautiful speckled salmon, for it was such a hidden place there was nothing for them to be in dread of. He took then eight sprigs of watercress and eight of brook-lime, and he put down the vessel into the well and he took the eight salmon alive and leaping like mad things. And then he went back and set the vessel before the King of Ireland, and there was wonder on them all seeing that; and the stalk of every one of the sprigs of the watercress reached as high as Diarmuid's knee. "They must be divided into two shares" he said "a half to Patrick and a half ourselves." "Not so" said Patrick "for there are more of you than of ourselves. But make three parts" he said "and give one to the church for that is her own share;" and so it was done. "That is well, King of Ireland" he said then "but do not lose your share in heaven through these big men." "What do you mean saying that?" said Diarmuid. "I mean that you have your thoughts too much taken up with them" said Patrick.

One time the King of Ulster went up with Caoilte to a great liss that was called Foradh-na-Feinne, the Resting-place of the Fianna. And when they were there they saw coming towards them a young man that was wearing a beautiful green cloak having in it a silver brooch; a shirt of yellow silk next his skin he had; a coat of soft satin, and a harp from his neck. "Where do you come from and who are you yourself?" said the King. "I come from the South from the Hill of Bodb Dearg son of the Dagda," said he; "and I am Cascorach, son of Cainchen that is poet to the Tuatha de Danaan and I am the makings of a poet myself. And it is what I am come for now" he said "to get true knowledge and the stories of the Fianna and their great deeds from Caoilte son of Ronan." With that he took his harp and made music for them till he had put them all into their sleep., "Well Caoilte my soul" he said then "what answer will you give me?" "I will give you all you are asking" said Caoilte "if you have skill and understanding to learn all the Fianna did of arms and of bravery. And it was a great fighting-man used to be in this place" he said "that was Finn, son of Cumhal, and it is great riches and great wages you would have got from him for your music; although this day the place is empty." And he made this lament:

"The Resting-place of the Fianna is bare to-night where Finn of the naked sword used to be; through the death of the king that was without gloom, wide Almhuin is deserted;

"The high company are not living; Finn the very prince is not alive; no armies to be seen, no captains with the King of the Fianna.

"They are all gone, the people of Finn, they that used to be going from valley to valley; it is a pity the life I have now, to be left after Diarmwd and Conan, after Goll son of Morna from the plain.

"It is the truth I am telling you; all that I say is true; it is great our losses were there beyond. They are gone, the armies and the hundreds; it is a pity I myself not to have found death; they are all gone now; they used to be together from border to border."

Then Caoilte brought to mind the loss of the heroes and of the great companies he used to be going among, and he cried miserably, sorrowfully, till all his breast was wet with him. He set out after that and Cascorach with him and they went up by hills and rocks to the top of green-grassed Slieve Fuad, to the rowan tree of the Meadow of the Two Stags and to the place where the men of Ulster left their chariots after the last battle of the War for the Bull of Cuailgne. And Patrick was there before him, having with him three times fifty bishops and three times fifty priests and three times fifty deacons and three times fifty singers of psalms. And they sat down there, and Patrick kept his Hours with praising the Maker of the world. Then he gave a welcome to Caoilte. "Well, my soul" he said "who is that well-looking dark-eyebrowed curly-headed young man that is with you, having a harp with him?" "He is Cascorach son of the musician of the Tuatha De Danaan, that is come to find news and knowledge of the Fianna from me." "It is a good road he has chosen" said Patrick. "And O Caoilte" he said "it is great good you yourself have waited for, the time of belief and of saints and of holiness, and to be in friendship with the King of Heaven and earth. And play to us now Cascorach" he said "till we hear your music and your skill." "I will do that" said Cascorach; "and I never was better pleased, holy Clerk, to do it for any man than for yourself." He took his harp then and readied it, and played a strain of music, and the clerks had never heard the like of that music for sweetness, unless it might be the praises of the King of Heaven sung according to the Rule. And they all fell into their sleep listening to the continuous music of the Sidhe. And when Cascorach had made an end of playing, he asked a reward of Patrick. "What reward are you asking, my soul?" said Patrick. "Heaven for myself" said he "for that is the reward is best; and good luck to go with my art and with all that will follow it after me." "I give you heaven" said Patrick, "and I give this to your art, it to be one of the three arts by which a man can find profit to the last in Ireland. And however great the grudgingness a man of your art may meet with, let him but make his music, and no one will begrudge him anything. And that they may have all happiness" he said, "so long as they are not slothful in their trade." After that Cascorach put back his harp in its covering. "That was good music you gave us" said Brogan the scribe. "It was good indeed" said Patrick; "and but for a taste of the music of the Sidhe that was in it I never heard anything nearer to the music of heaven." "If there is music in heaven why- should it not be on earth?" said Brogan. "And so it is not right to banish it away." "I do not say we should banish it" said Patrick, "but only that we should not hold to it out of measure."

But after a good while Caoilte said "Holy Patrick, my soul, I am thinking it is time for me to be going to-morrow." "Why would you go?" said Patrick. "To be searching out the hills and the hollows of every place where my comrades and the King of the Fianna used to be together with me, for it seems long to me to be in the one place." And when they rose up on the morrow, Caoilte laid his hand in Patrick's bosom and it is what Patrick said "From myself to yourself, in the house or out of the house, in whatever place God will lay his hand on you, I give you Heaven."

Aedh King of Connacht was at Dun Leoda Loingsig one time giving a great feast. And it happened at the fall of the clouds of evening he came out on the green lawn, and as he was there and the people of his household with him, he saw on one side a girl of wonderful appearance, having yellow hair, and she not looking at the people but only at the king. "Where do you come from girl?" said the king. "Out of the shining Brugh in the east" said she. "For what cause are you come?" said the king. "You are my sweetheart," said she. "Whose daughter are you and what name have you?" said the king. "I am Aillenn of the many shapes, daughter to Bodb Dearg, son of the Dagda. "I have never seen a woman I would sooner have as a wife than yourself" said the king "but that I am under the rule of Blessed Patrick and of the King of Heaven and earth. And Patrick bound me" he said "to have one wife only, that is Aife daughter of Eoghan, King of Leinster. And would you wish to be seen by the great men of my kingdom?" he said. "I would like it indeed" said she "for I am not an ever living woman of the Sidhe, but I am of the Tuatha de Danaan, having my own body about me." Then she showed herself to the whole gathering of the people and they never saw before or after a woman more beautiful than herself. "And what judgment do you put upon me King?" she said. "Whatever judgment Blessed Patrick gives I will give it" said be. Then Aedh sent messengers to Patrick where he was in the south, and they brought him to Beinn Gulbain in Maenmag. And Aedh the King went to meet him there and knelt before him and told him the whole story. "Are you the girl" said Patrick "that gave her love to the King of Connacht?" "I am" said she. "Well girl" said Patrick "it is good your shape is and your appearance. And what is it keeps you like this" he said "at the very height of your comeliness?" "Everyone that drank at Giobniu's Feast" she said, "no sickness or wasting comes upon them. And tell me now holy Clerk" she said "what is your judgment on myself and on the King of Connacht?" "It is a good one" said Patrick; "it is settled by God and myself that a man must have one wife only." "And I myself" said the girl "what am I to do?" "Go back to your house among the Sidhe" said Patrick; "and if it should happen the King of Leinster's daughter to die before yourself, let the man you have given your love to take you as his only wife. But if you should try to harm Aedh or his wife by day or by night" he said "I will destroy you the way neither your father or your mother or your fosterers will like to be looking at you." Then the girl cried pitifully, heavily, and the King said "I am dear to you." "You are dear to me indeed" said she. "There is not one of the people of the world is dearer to me than yourself" said the king; "but I must not go beyond the conditions of the Adzehead and of God." With that the girl went back to her hidden house among the Sidhe. And after a while the wife of the King of Connacht died at Uaran Garaid and was buried on the hill that is called the High Place of the Angels. And after that again there was a gathering made of all the five provinces of Ireland to hold the feast of Teamhuir. And Patrick and Aedh King of Connacht were out on the green; and they saw coming towards them Aillenn daughter of Bodb Dearg, having with her three fifties of the women of the Tuatha de Danaan, and she sat down on the grass beside Patrick and the King of Connacht, and she gave her message. Then Patrick said to the king "I will give her to you if you will take her as your wife." "Whatever you are willing for me to do I will do it" said the king. "I promised you would take her" said Patrick, "if she would give up her false druid belief and kneel to the King of heaven and earth." "Do you agree to that Aillenn?" said the king. "I agree to it" said she. Then she rose up, and her women, and they all kneeled to Patrick, and Patrick joined her and the king in marriage. That now was the first marriage made by the Adzehead in Ireland.

Patrick was one time at Cruachan of Connacht, and he went up to the well that is called Clibach and that is opposite the rising of the sun, and he sat down beside the well, and his clerks with him. There were two daughters now of Laoghaire the High King were living at Rath Cruachan at that time, getting their learning from the druids and the name of the one was Ethne and the other was Fedelm the Rosy-Red. And it was their custom every morning to come and to wash themselves in the well. And on this day when they came they saw a company of men having white clothes, and books before them beside the well. And there was great wonder on them and they thought them to be of the people of the Sidhe. And they questioned Patrick and said to him "Where do you come from? And where are you going? And is it gods you are" they said "or men from the hills of the Sidhe?" "It would be better for you to believe in God than to be asking who we ourselves are" said Patrick "Who is your God?" said Ethne then. "And where is hey" she said "Is it in the skies he is, or in the earth, or under the earth, or upon the earth, or in the seas or in the streams, or in the mountains or in the valleys? And has he riches?" she said "Is he young? Is he beautiful? Has he sons and daughters? Is he of the ever living ones?" Patrick took in hand then to answer their questions and to teach them the true faith; and he told them it was fitting they should join with the King of Glory, being as they were the daughters of an earthly king. And when they had heard the whole story a great desire came upon them to serve Him. "And it is the desire of our hearts" they said "to see his Son, our husband." "That is not possible" said Patrick "but through taking the body of Christ and through death." "We would die surely" they said "if we might see Christ on the moment." Then Patrick baptized them and gave them the Body of Christ, and put a white veil upon their heads, and they were filled with peace and with the friendship of God. And when they were sleeping in death, his people put them on a little bed and laid coverings over them, and keened them there.

The Saviour told Patrick one time to go and prepare a man that was going to die. And Patrick said "I would sooner not go for I never yet saw the soul part from the body." But after that he went and prepared the man. And when he was lying there dead, he saw the soul go from the body, and three times it went to the door and three times it came back and kissed the body. And Patrick asked the Saviour why it did that and he said "That soul was sorry to part from the body because it had kept it so clean and so honest."

Patrick went one time into a house in the south, and the people of it were poor, and they had not a candle or a rush light or turf or sticks for a fire, but when the daylight was done what they had to do was to go to their bed. And when Patrick came in and saw the house so dark he said "Are there no green rushes growing in the bog?" So they went out and brought him in a bundle of green rushes and he took them in his hand and blessed them, and they gave out light through the whole of the night time.

Patrick was walking up the hill of Ardmacha one time with his people and they found a doe resting on the ground, and a fawn beside her. And his people were going to kill the fawn, but Patrick forbade them and he took it in his arms and carried it, and the doe came following after him. And it was in the place where he put down the fawn, the church of Ardmacha was built for him afterwards.

When the time came for Patrick to die it is to Ardmacha he had a desire to go. But Victor the angel went to meet him on the road at midday and said "Go back to the place you came 'from, to the barn, for it is there your death will be. And give thanks to Christ" he said "for your prayers are granted; it is to Heaven you will soon be going." And when his soul parted from his body, there was no candle wasted with him, but it was the angels of God kept lasting watch over him until the end of twelve nights, and through all that time there was no night in Magh mis with the light of the angels. It is that was a long day of peace! And after his death there was near being a great battle between the men of Ulster and the Ua Neil, fighting for his body. But at the last it seemed to them that his body was brought by each of them to his own country, and so they were separated by God.

BOOK FOUR

THE VOYAGE OF MAELDUNE

THERE was a great man of the Eoganacht of the Arans, Ailill of the Edge of Battle his name was. And one time he went with the king making war he fell in with a woman of Kildare, and he forced her; and she bade him to tell her his race and his name. And it was not long after that, he was killed by robbers in his own place, and they burned his church over him. And at the end of nine months the woman gave birth to a son, and she gave him the name of Maeldune. And after a while she brought him in secret to the Queen, that was her friend, and it was by the Queen Maeldune was reared, and she gave out that she was his mother; and the one foster mother reared him and the King's three sons in the one cradle and on the one breast and the one knee. It is beautiful indeed Maeldune was, and it is likely there was never anyone so beautiful as himself, and he grew up to be a young man, fit to use weapons, and it is quiet he was and pleasant in his ways. And in his play he went beyond all his comrades, in throwing of balls and in running and leaping, and in racing of horses, for it is he took the sway in all these things. One day now a proud fighting man got to be jealous of him and he said in the dint of his anger "You" he said "whose race and kindred no one knows, and whose father and mother no one knows, to be getting the better of us in every game, whether by land or by water or on the draught board." Maeldune was silent when he heard that, for till that time he thought himself to be a son of the king and of the queen his foster mother. And he went to her and said to her "I will not eat and I will not drink" he said "till you tell me of my mother and my father." "Why are you asking after that?" said she. "Do not give heed to the words of the young men. It is I am your mother" she said "and the love of no person on earth for a son is greater than my love for you." "That may be so" he said "but for all that, it is right for you to make known my own parents to me."

So his foster mother went with him, and gave him into the hand of his mother, and on that he asked his mother to tell him who was his father. "It is foolishness to ask that" she said "for if you should know your father itself it would not serve you, and you would be no better off for it is long ago he died." "It is better for me to know it" said he "however it may be." His mother told him the truth then. 'Ailill of the Edge of Battle was your father" she said "of the Eoganacht of Aran." Then Maeldune went to his father's place and to his own inheritance, and his three foster brothers with him, and it is kind champions they were. And his kindred welcomed them, and they bade him keep good courage. It was some time after that, the graveyard of the Church of Duncluain was full of fighting men that were casting stones; and Maeldune's foot was on the burned wall of the church, and he casting the stone over it. And a bitter-tongued man of the people of the church said to Maeldune, "It would be better" he said "you to avenge the man that was burned there than to be casting stones over his bare burned bones." "What man was that?" said Maeldune. "It was Ailill" he said "your own father." "Who was it killed him?" said Maeldune. "It was outlaws of Laighis" he said "and it was here on this spot he was destroyed." Then Maeldune threw the stone from him, and took his cloak around him and his fighting-dress, and he was sorrowful doing it. And he asked what way could he go to Laighis, and those that knew it said he could not go there but by sea only. So he went into the country of Corcomruadh to ask a charm and good luck of a druid that was there, till he would begin building a boat. The druid told Maeldune what day he should begin his boat, and the number that should go in it, seventeen men, no more and no less; and he told him the day he should set out to sea. Then Maeldune made a boat having three skins on it, and those that were to go with him made ready; German was of them, and Diuran the half-poet. He set out on the sea the same day the druid had bade him, and when they were gone a little from the land after hoisting the sail, there came to the harbour his three fosterbrothers, and they called to him to let them go with him. "Go back home" said Maeldune "for if I was to go back itself I would not bring with me but the number that is here." "We will go into the sea after you and be drowned if you will not come back to us" they said. Then the three of them threw themselves into the sea and swam out from the land; and when Maeldune saw that, he turned back to them that they might not be drowned, and brought them into the currach to him.

They were rowing that day till vespers, and the night after till midnight, till they found two little bald islands have two duns in them; and they heard coming out from the dims the cries and the outcry of drunkenness and of the soldiers with their spoils. And it is what they heard one man saying to another "Keep off from me" he said "for I am a better champion than yourself, for it is I killed Ailill of the Edge of Battle, and burned Duncluain on him, and his kindred have done nothing against me; and you never did the like of that" he said. "We have the victory in our hands" said German and Diuran the half-poet. "It is God brought us here and that directed our boat. And let us go and make an attack on those dims" he said "since God has showed us our enemies." While they were saying those words a great wind came upon them, the way they were driven all that night until morning. And even after daybreak they did not see land or earth, and they did not know where they were going. Then Maeldune said "Leave the boat quiet without rowing, and wherever God has a mind to bring it, let it go." Then they came into the great ocean that has no ending, and it is what Maeldune said to his foster brothers. "It is you have done that on us, throwing yourselves upon us in the boat against the word of the druid that told us not to let come in the boat but the number we were before you came." And they had no answer to give, only to stay in their silence for a while.

Three days and three nights they were, and they did not find land nor ground. And on the morning of the third day they heard a sound from the north-east. "That is the sound of a wave against the shore" said German. And when the day was light, they went towards land, and as they were casting lots to know who should go on shore, there came a great swarm of ants, every one of them the size of a foal, down to the strand towards them and into the sea, as if to devour them and their boat. So Maeldune and his men made away and were going over the sea for three days and three nights, and they saw neither land nor ground.

The morning of the third day they heard the sound of waves against the strand, and they saw with the light of day an island, big and high, and ridges about it, every one of them lower than the other, and trees around it, and great birds on the trees. And they were consulting together who would go and search the island, and see what kind were the birds. "I will go," said Maeldune. So he went and he searched the island, and he found no harmful thing in it, and they ate their fill of the birds and brought more of them into the boat.

Three days and three nights they were on the sea after that, but on the morning of the fourth day they saw another great island having sandy soil. And when they came to the shore they saw a beast on it that was like a horse. Legs of a hound he had with rough sharp nails, and it is a great welcome he gave them, and he was moving about before them; for he was covetous to devour themselves and their boat. "It is not sorry he is to meet with us" said Maeldune; "and let us go out from the island." They did that, and when the beast saw them going from him, he went down to the strand, and be was digging it up with his sharp nails and pelting them, that they did not think to escape from him.

They rowed a long way after that, till they saw a great level island before them. And it was on German there fell a bad lot to go and to search that island. "The both of us will go" said Diuran the half-poet; "and you will come with me another time when I am to search out an island." So the two of them went into the island, and it is great its size was, and its length, and they saw in it a long green lawn, having hoof marks of horses on it, and every hoof mark was the size of the sail of a ship. And along with that they saw the shells of very large nuts and they saw what was like the leavings of food of many people, and they were in dread of what they saw, and they called to the rest of their people to come and see what they saw. There was fear on them all after that, and they made no delay and went back into their boat. And when they had gone out a little from the land they saw rushing over the sea to the island a great troop, that when they reached to the green on the island began racing their horses. And it is quicker than the wind every horse was, and it is great was the noise and the shouting. And Maeldune could hear the strokes of the rods on the horses, and he could hear what everyone of them was saying: "Bring the grey horse" "Drive the brown horse there beyond" "Bring the white one" "My horse is the quickest" "Mine is the best at the leaps!" And when they heard those words they made away with all their might, for they were sure it was a gathering of demons they were looking at.

Then they were going on through the length of a week in hunger and in thirst till they found an island very big and high, and a large house at the edge of the sea, and a door in the house towards the level plain of the island, and another door towards the sea, and against that door there was a weir of stone, and an opening in it, and the waves of the sea were throwing salmon through the opening into the middle of the house. The wanderers went into the house then, and they found no one in it, but what they saw was a very large bed for the head man of the house only, and a bed for every three of his people, and food for three before every bed, and a glass vessel with good drink in it before every bed, and a cup for every vessel. So they made a meal off that food and that drink, and they gave thanks to Almighty God that had given them relief from their hunger.

When they went from that island they were going for a long time hungry and without food, till they found another island, and a high cliff around it on every side, and a long narrow wood in it, very long and very narrow. When Maeldune reached to that wood he took a rod in his hand, and he passing by. Three days and three nights the rod was in his hand, and the currach under sail going along by the cliff. And on the third day he found a cluster of three apples at the end of the rod. And through forty nights they were satisfied with those apples.

They came then to another island, and a wall of stone around it. And when they came near, a great beast leaped up and went racing about the island, and it seemed to Maeldune to be going quicker than the wind. And it went then to the high part of the island, and it did the straightening-of-the-body feat, that is, its head below and its feet above; and it is the way it used to be, it turned in its skin, the flesh and the bones going around but the skin outside without moving. And at another time the skin outside would turn like a mill, and the flesh and the bones not stirring. That now is the way it was, and it going around the island. Maeldune and his people made away then with all their might, and the beast saw them running, and it made for the strand to get hold of them and it began to strike at them, and it was casting stones at them, and one of the stones came into the currach and it broke through Maeldune's shield, and lodged in the keel of the currach.

It was not long after that they found another high island, and it is delightful it was, and there were great beasts in it like horses. Everyone of them would take a piece out of the side of another and bring it away with its skin and its flesh, the way there were streams of red blood breaking out of their sides till the ground was full of it. So they left that island in haste and as if out of their wits, and they did not know where in the world were they going, or in what place they would find help or land or country.

Then they came to another island, and they worn out with hunger and thirst, sad and tired without hope of relief. And in that island there were a great many fruit trees, having large golden apples upon them. And there were beasts like pigs, short and fiery, under those trees, and they used to go to the trees and to strike them with their bind legs till the apples would fall from them, and then they would feed on them. And from morning to the setting of the sun those beasts did not show themselves at all, but they used to be stopping in caves of the ground. And round about that island there were a great many birds out on the waves; from matins to nones they used to be swimming away from the island, but from nones to vespers they used to come back towards the island and they would reach to it at the going down of the sun; and then they used to be stripping off the apples and to be eating them. "Let us go into the island where those birds are" said Maeldune, "for it is not harder for us to go there than for the birds." One of his men went to search the island then, and he called his comrade to him. It is hot the ground was under their feet, and they could not stop there because of the heat, for it was a fiery country, and the beasts used to throw out heat into the ground that was over them. They brought away a few of the apples with them that first day to be eating in the currach. And with the brightness of the morning the birds went from the island, swimming out to sea; and with that the fiery beasts began putting up their heads out of the caves, and they were eating the apples until the setting of the sun. And when they would go back into the caves, the birds used to come and to be eating the apples. And Maeldune went and his people and they gathered up all the apples that were in it that night. And those apples drove away both hunger and thirst from them, and they filled their boat with them, and put out again to sea.

And when those apples failed them, and their hunger was great and their thirst, and when their mouths and their nostrils were full of the salt of the sea, they got sight of an island that was no great size, having a dun in it, and a high wall around the dun, as white as if it was built of burned lime, or as if it was all one rock of chalk, and it is great its height was from the sea and it all to reached to the clouds. The dun was wide open, and there were many new white houses around it. And then Maeldune and his men went into the best of the houses they saw no one in it but a little cat that was in the middle of the house, and it playing about on the four stone pillars that were there, and leaping from one to another. It booked~ at the men for a short space, but it did not stop from its play. After that they saw three rows on the wall of the house round about, from one doorpost to another; the first was a row of brooches of gold and silver, and their pins in the wall, and the second was a row of collars of gold and of silver, every one of them like the hoops of a vat; and the third row was of great swords having hilts of gold and of silver. And the rooms were full of white coverings and of shining clothes, and there was a roasted ox and a fire in the middle of the house, and large vessels with good fermented drink. "Is it for us this is left here?" said Maeldune to the cat. It looked at him for a minute and took to its playing again, and Maeldune knew then it was for them the feast had been left. So they eat and they drank and they slept, and they stored up what was left of the food and of the drink. And when they thought of going, Maeldune's third foster brother said to him "Might! bring away with me a necklace of these necklaces?" "Do not" said Maeldune, "for it is not without a guard this house is." But in spite of that he brought it with him as far as the middle of the dun. And the cat came after him and leaped through him like a fiery arrow and burned him till he was but ashes, and it made a leap back again to its pillar. Maeldune quieted the cat then with his words, and he put back the necklace in its place, and cleared away the ashes from the floor, and threw them on the shore of the sea. And then they went back into the currach, praising and making much of the Lord.

Early on the morning of the third day after that, they saw another island having a wall of brass over the middle of it, that divided it in two parts; and they saw great flocks of sheep in it, a black flock on the near side of the fence and a white flock on the far side, and they saw a big man separating the flocks. When he used to throw a white sheep over the near side of the fence to the black sheep, it would turn to black on the moment; and when he used to throw a black sheep over the fence to the far side, it would turn to white in the same way. There was dread on the men when they saw that. "It is best for us" said Maeldune "to throw two rods into the island, and if they change their colour we will know that our own colour would change." So they threw a rod having black bark on the side where the white sheep were, and it turned to white there and then. Then they threw a peeled white rod on the side where the black sheep were, and it turned to black. "That is no good sign" said Maeldune; "and let us not land on the island. It is likely our own colour would have lasted no better than the colour of the rods." They went back from the island then with a great fear upon them.

On the third day after that they took notice of another island, large and wide, and a herd in it of beautiful pigs, and they killed a young pig of them. But it was too weighty for them to lift it, so they all caine around it and washed it and brought it into their boat. Then they saw a great mountain on the island, and Diuran the half-poet and German had a mind to go and to view the island from it. And when they came to the mountain, they found before them a broad river that was not deep; and German dipped the handle of his spear in the river and it was spent on the moment, as if fire had burned it, and so they went no farther. They saw then on the other side of the river great hornless oxen lying down and a very big man sitting with them; and German struck his spear shaft against his shield to frighten the cattle. "Why would you frighten these foolish calves?" said the big herdsman. "Where are the dams of these calves?" said German. "They are on the other side of the mountain beyond" said he. The two of them went back then to their comrades, and told them that news, and they said they would not go into the island, and they all went away.

After that they found another island, and a great big ugly mill in it, and a miller, rough and ugly and withered, and they asked him what mill was this. "It is the mill of the Inver of Trecenand" said he "and everything that is begrudged is ground in it; and the half of the corn of this country is ground in this mill" he said. With that they saw heavy loads past all counting, and men and horses under them, coming to the mill and going from it again; and all that was brought from it was carried away westward. And when they heard and saw those things they blessed themselves with the sign of Christ's Cross and went again into their currach.

When they went now from the island of the mill, they found a very large island and a great host of people in it. Black they were, both in their bodies and their clothing, and they had bands around their heads, and they crying and ever-crying. And a lot fell by misfortune on one of the two foster brothers of Maeldune to land on the island. And no sooner did he reach to the people that were crying than he was as if one of them, and he began crying and lamenting the same as themselves. Then two of his comrades were sent to bring him out from the rest, and they could not make him out from the rest, and they bowed themselves down and cried along with them. Then Maeldune said "Let four of you go with your weapons and bring back our men by force; and do not look at the ground or in the air, and put your cloaks over your nostrils and over your mouths, and do not breathe the air of the place, and do not take your eyes off your own men." So the four went the way he told them and they brought back with them the other two. And when they were asked what had they seen in that country they would say "We 1 do not know that; but what we saw others doing, we did the same." And they made haste to go away from that island.

They came after that to another high island, having four fences in it that divided it into four parts. It is of gold the first fence was, and anothe