MAGIC.
The Celts, like all other races, were devoted to magical practices, many
of which could be used by any one, though, on the whole, they were in
the hands of the Druids, who in many aspects were little higher than the
shamans of barbaric tribes. But similar magical rites were also
attributed to the gods, and it is probably for this reason that the
Tuatha Dé Danann and many of the divinities who appear in the
_Mabinogion_ are described as magicians. Kings are also spoken of as
wizards, perhaps a reminiscence of the powers of the priest king. But
since many of the primitive cults had been in the hands of women, and as
these cults implied a large use of magic, they may have been the
earliest wielders of magic, though, with increasing civilisation, men
took their place as magicians. Still side by side with the
magic-wielding Druids, there were classes of women who also dealt in
magic, as we have seen. Their powers were feared, even by S. Patrick,
who classes the "spells of women" along with those of Druids, and, in a
mythic tale, by the father of Connla, who, when the youth was fascinated
by a goddess, feared that he would be taken by the "spells of women"
(_brichta ban_).[1093] In other tales women perform all such magical
actions as are elsewhere ascribed to Druids.[1094] And after the Druids
had passed away precisely similar actions--power over the weather, the
use of incantations and amulets, shape-shifting and invisibility,
etc.--were, and still are in remote Celtic regions, ascribed to witches.
Much of the Druidic art, however, was also supposed to be possessed by
saints and clerics, both in the past and in recent times. But women
remained as magicians when the Druids had disappeared, partly because of
female conservatism, partly because, even in pagan times, they had
worked more or less secretly. At last the Church proscribed them and
persecuted them.
Each clan, tribe, or kingdom had its Druids, who, in time of war,
assisted their hosts by magic art. This is reflected back upon the
groups of the mythological cycle, each of which has its Druids who play
no small part in the battles fought. Though Pliny recognises the
priestly functions of the Druids, he associates them largely with magic,
and applies the name _magus_ to them.[1095] In Irish ecclesiastical
literature, _drui_ is used as the translation of _magus_, e.g. in the
case of the Egyptian magicians, while _magi_ is used in Latin lives of
saints as the equivalent of the vernacular _druides_.[1096] In the sagas
and in popular tales _Druidecht_, "Druidism," stands for "magic," and
_slat an draoichta_, "rod of Druidism," is a magic wand.[1097] The
Tuatha Dé Danann were said to have learned "Druidism" from the four
great master Druids of the region whence they had come to Ireland, and
even now, in popular tales, they are often called "Druids" or "Danann
Druids."[1098] Thus in Ireland at least there is clear evidence of the
great magical power claimed by Druids.
That power was exercised to a great extent over the elements, some of
which Druids claimed to have created. Thus the Druid Cathbad covered the
plain over which Deirdre was escaping with "a great-waved sea."[1099]
Druids also produced blinding snow-storms, or changed day into
night--feats ascribed to them even in the Lives of Saints.[1100] Or they
discharge "shower-clouds of fire" on the opposing hosts, as in the case
of the Druid Mag Ruith, who made a magic fire, and flying upwards
towards it, turned it upon the enemy, whose Druid in vain tried to
divert it.[1101] When the Druids of Cormac dried up all the waters in
the land, another Druid shot an arrow, and where it fell there issued a
torrent of water.[1102] The Druid Mathgen boasted of being able to throw
mountains on the enemy, and frequently Druids made trees or stones
appear as armed men, dismaying the opposing host in this way. They could
also fill the air with the clash of battle, or with the dread cries of
eldritch things.[1103] Similar powers are ascribed to other persons. The
daughters of Calatin raised themselves aloft on an enchanted wind, and
discovered Cúchulainn when he was hidden away by Cathbad. Later they
produced a magic mist to discomfit the hero.[1104] Such mists occur
frequently in the sagas, and in one of them the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived
in Ireland. The priestesses of Sena could rouse sea and wind by their
enchantments, and, later, Celtic witches have claimed the same power.
In folk-survivals the practice of rain-making is connected with sacred
springs, and even now in rural France processions to shrines, usually
connected with a holy well, are common in time of drought. Thus people
and priest go to the fountain of Baranton in procession, singing hymns,
and there pray for rain. The priest then dips his foot in the water, or
throws some of it on the rocks.[1105] In other cases the image of a
saint is carried to a well and asperged, as divine images formerly were,
or the waters are beaten or thrown into the air.[1106] Another custom
was that a virgin should clean out a sacred well, and formerly she had
to be nude.[1107] Nudity also forms part of an old ritual used in Gaul.
In time of drought the girls of the village followed the youngest virgin
in a state of nudity to seek the herb _belinuntia_. This she uprooted,
and was then led to a river and there asperged by the others. In this
case the asperging imitated the falling rain, and was meant to produce
it automatically. While some of these rites suggest the use of magic by
the folk themselves, in others the presence of the Christian priest
points to the fact that, formerly, a Druid was necessary as the rain
producer. In some cases the priest has inherited through long ages the
rain-making or tempest-quelling powers of the pagan priesthood, and is
often besought to exercise them.[1108]
Causing invisibility by means of a spell called _feth fiada_, which made
a person unseen or hid him in a magic mist, was also used by the Druids
as well as by Christian saints. S. Patrick's hymn, called _Fâed Fiada_,
was sung by him when his enemies lay in wait, and caused a glamour in
them. The incantation itself, _fith-fath_, is still remembered in
Highland glens.[1109] In the case of S. Patrick he and his followers
appeared as deer, and this power of shape-shifting was wielded both by
Druids and women. The Druid Fer Fidail carried off a maiden by taking
the form of a woman, and another Druid deceived Cúchulainn by taking the
form of the fair Niamh.[1110] Other Druids are said to have been able to
take any shape that pleased them.[1111] These powers were reflected back
upon the gods and mythical personages like Taliesin or Amairgen, who
appear in many forms. The priestesses of Sena could assume the form of
animals, and an Irish Circe in the _Rennes Dindsenchas_ called Dalb the
Rough changed three men and their wives into swine by her spells.[1112]
This power of transforming others is often described in the sagas. The
children of Lir were changed to swans by their cruel stepmother; Saar,
the mother of Oisin, became a fawn through the power of the Druid Fear
Doirche when she rejected his love; and similarly Tuirrenn, mother of
Oisin's hounds, was transformed into a stag-hound by the fairy mistress
of her husband Iollann.[1113] In other instances in the sagas, women
appear as birds.[1114] These transformation tales may be connected with
totemism, for when this institution is decaying the current belief in
shape-shifting is often made use of to explain descent from animals or
the tabu against eating certain animals. In some of these Irish
shape-shifting tales we find this tabu referred to. Thus, when the
children of Lir were turned into swans, it was proclaimed that no one
should kill a swan. The reason of an existing tabu seemed to be
sufficiently explained when it was told that certain human beings had
become swans. It is not impossible that the Druids made use of hypnotic
suggestion to persuade others that they had assumed another form, as Red
Indian shamans have been known to do, or even hallucinated others into
the belief that their own form had been changed.
By a "drink of oblivion" Druids and other persons could make one forget
even the most dearly beloved. Thus Cúchulainn was made to forget Fand,
and his wife Emer to forget her jealousy.[1115] This is a reminiscence
of potent drinks brewed from herbs which caused hallucinations, e.g.
that of the change of shape. In other cases they were of a narcotic
nature and caused a deep sleep, an instance being the draught given by
Grainne to Fionn and his men.[1116] Again, the "Druidic sleep" is
suggestive of hypnotism, practised in distant ages and also by
present-day savages. When Bodb suspected his daughter of lying he cast
her into a "Druidic sleep," in which she revealed her wickedness.[1117]
In other cases spells are cast upon persons so that they are
hallucinated, or are rendered motionless, or, "by the sleight of hand of
soothsayers," maidens lose their chastity without knowing it.[1118]
These point to knowledge of hypnotic methods of suggestion. Or, again, a
spectral army is opposed to an enemy's force to whom it is an
hallucinatory appearance--perhaps an exaggeration of natural hypnotic
powers.[1119]
Druids also made a "hedge," the _airbe druad_, round an army, perhaps
circumambulating it and saying spells so that the attacking force might
not break through. If any one could leap this "hedge," the spell was
broken, but he lost his life. This was done at the battle of Cul Dremne,
at which S. Columba was present and aided the heroic leaper with his
prayers.[1120]
A primitive piece of sympathetic magic used still by savages is recorded
in the _Rennes Dindsenchas_. In this story one man says spells over his
spear and hurls it into his opponent's shadow, so that he falls
dead.[1121] Equally primitive is the Druidic "sending" a wisp of straw
over which the Druid sang spells and flung it into his victim's face, so
that he became mad. A similar method is used by the Eskimo _angekok_.
All madness was generally ascribed to such a "sending."
Several of these instances have shown the use of spells, and the Druid
was believed to possess powerful incantations to discomfit an enemy or
to produce other magical results. A special posture was
adopted--standing on one leg, with one arm outstretched and one eye
closed, perhaps to concentrate the force of the spell,[1122] but the
power lay mainly in the spoken words, as we have seen in discussing
Celtic formulæ of prayer. Such spells were also used by the _Filid_, or
poets, since most primitive poetry has a magical aspect. Part of the
training of the bard consisted in learning traditional incantations,
which, used with due ritual, produced the magic result.[1123] Some of
these incantations have already come before our notice, and probably
some of the verses which Cæsar says the Druids would not commit to
writing were of the nature of spells.[1124] The virtue of the spell lay
in the spoken formula, usually introducing the name of a god or spirit,
later a saint, in order to procure his intervention, through the power
inherent in the name. Other charms recount an effect already produced,
and this, through mimetic magic, is supposed to cause its repetition.
The earliest written documents bearing upon the paganism of the insular
Celts contain an appeal to "the science of Goibniu" to preserve butter,
and another, for magical healing, runs, "I admire the healing which
Diancecht left in his family, in order to bring health to those he
succoured." These are found in an eighth or ninth century MS., and, with
their appeal to pagan gods, were evidently used in Christian
times.[1125] Most Druidic magic was accompanied by a spell--
transformation, invisibility, power over the elements, and the discovery
of hidden persons or things. In other cases spells were used in medicine
or for healing wounds. Thus the Tuatha Dé Danann told the Fomorians that
they need not oppose them, because their Druids would restore the slain
to life, and when Cúchulainn was wounded we hear less of medicines than
of incantations used to stanch his blood.[1126] In other cases the Druid
could remove barrenness by spells.
The survival of the belief in spells among modern Celtic peoples is a
convincing proof of their use in pagan times, and throws light upon
their nature. In Brittany they are handed down in certain families, and
are carefully guarded from the knowledge of others. The names of saints
instead of the old gods are found in them, but in some cases diseases
are addressed as personal beings. In the Highlands similar charms are
found, and are often handed down from male to female, and from female to
male. They are also in common use in Ireland. Besides healing diseases,
such charms are supposed to cause fertility or bring good luck, or even
to transfer the property of others to the reciter, or, in the case of
darker magic, to cause death or disease.[1127] In Ireland, sorcerers
could "rime either a man or beast to death," and this recalls the power
of satire in the mouth of _File_ or Druid. It raised blotches on the
face of the victim, or even caused his death.[1128] Among primitive
races powerful internal emotion affects the body in curious ways, and in
this traditional power of the satire or "rime" we have probably an
exaggerated reference to actual fact. In other cases the "curse of
satire" affected nature, causing seas and rivers to sink back.[1129] The
satires made by the bards of Gaul, referred to by Diodorus, may have
been believed to possess similar powers.[1130] Contrariwise, the
_Filid_, on uttering an unjust judgment, found their faces covered with
blotches.[1131]
A magical sleep is often caused by music in the sagas, e.g. by the harp
of Dagda, or by the branch carried by visitants from Elysium.[1132] Many
"fairy" lullabies for producing sleep are even now extant in Ireland and
the Highlands.[1133] As music forms a part of all primitive religion,
its soothing powers would easily be magnified. In orgiastic rites it
caused varying emotions until the singer and dancer fell into a deep
slumber, and the tales of those who joined in a fairy dance and fell
asleep, awaking to find that many years had passed, are mythic
extensions of the power of music in such orgiastic cults. The music of
the _Filid_ had similar powers to that of Dagda's harp, producing
laughter, tears, and a delicious slumber,[1134] and Celtic folk-tales
abound in similar instances of the magic charm of music.
We now turn to the use of amulets among the Celts. Some of these were
symbolic and intended to bring the wearer under the protection of the
god whom they symbolised. As has been seen, a Celtic god had as his
symbol a wheel, probably representing the sun, and numerous small wheel
discs made of different materials have been found in Gaul and
Britain.[1135] These were evidently worn as amulets, while in other
cases they were offered to river divinities, since many are met with in
river beds or fords. Their use as protective amulets is shown by a stele
representing a person wearing a necklace to which is attached one of
these wheels. In Irish texts a Druid is called Mag Ruith, explained as
_magus rotarum_, because he made his Druidical observations by
wheels.[1136] This may point to the use of such amulets in Ireland. A
curious amulet, connected with the Druids, became famous in Roman times
and is described by Pliny. This was the "serpents' egg," formed from the
foam produced by serpents twining themselves together. The serpents
threw the "egg" into the air, and he who sought it had to catch it in
his cloak before it fell, and flee to a running stream, beyond which the
serpents, like the witches pursuing Tam o' Shanter, could not follow
him. This "egg" was believed to cause its owner to obtain access to
kings or to gain lawsuits, and a Roman citizen was put to death in the
reign of Claudius for bringing such an amulet into court. Pliny had seen
this "egg." It was about the size of an apple, with a cartilaginous skin
covered with discs.[1137] Probably it was a fossil echinus, such as has
been found in Gaulish tombs.[1138] Such "eggs" were doubtless connected
with the cult of the serpent, or some old myth of an egg produced by
serpents may have been made use of to account for their formation. This
is the more likely, as rings or beads of glass found in tumuli in Wales,
Cornwall, and the Highlands are called "serpents' glass" (_glain
naidr_), and are believed to be formed in the same way as the "egg."
These, as well as old spindle-whorls called "adder stones" in the
Highlands, are held to have magical virtues, e.g. against the bite of a
serpent, and are highly prized by their owners.[1139]
Pliny speaks also of the Celtic belief in the magical virtues of coral,
either worn as an amulet or taken in powder as a medicine, while it has
been proved that the Celts during a limited period of their history
placed it on weapons and utensils, doubtless as an amulet.[1140] Other
amulets--white marble balls, quartz pebbles, models of the tooth of the
boar, or pieces of amber, have been found buried with the dead.[1141]
Little figures of the boar, the horse, and the bull, with a ring for
suspending them to a necklet, were worn as amulets or images of these
divine animals, and phallic amulets were also worn, perhaps as a
protection against the evil eye.[1142]
A cult of stones was probably connected with the belief in the magical
power of certain stones, like the _Lia Fail_, which shrieked aloud when
Conn knocked against it. His Druids explained that the number of the
shrieks equalled the number of his descendants who should be kings of
Erin.[1143] This is an ætiological myth accounting for the use of this
fetich-stone at coronations. Other stones, probably the object of a cult
or possessing magical virtues, were used at the installation of chiefs,
who stood on them and vowed to follow in the steps of their
predecessors, a pair of feet being carved on the stone to represent
those of the first chief.[1144] Other stones had more musical
virtues--the "conspicuous stone" of Elysium from which arose a hundred
strains, and the melodious stone of Loch Láig. Such beliefs existed into
Christian times. S. Columba's stone altar floated on the waves, and on
it a leper had crossed in the wake of the saint's coracle to Erin. But
the same stone was that on which, long before, the hero Fionn had
slipped.[1145]
Connected with the cult of stones are magical observances at fixed rocks
or boulders, regarded probably as the abode of a spirit. These
observances are in origin pre-Celtic, but were practised by the Celts.
Girls slide down a stone to obtain a lover, pregnant women to obtain an
easy delivery, or contact with such stones causes barren women to have
children or gives vitality to the feeble. A small offering is usually
left on the stone.[1146] Similar rites are practised at megalithic
monuments, and here again the custom is obviously pre-Celtic in origin.
In this case the spirits of the dead must have been expected to assist
the purposes of the rites, or even to incarnate themselves in the
children born as a result of barren women resorting to these
stones.[1147] Sometimes when the purpose of the stones has been
forgotten and some other legendary origin attributed to them, the custom
adapts itself to the legend. In Ireland many dolmens are known, not as
places of sepulture, but as "Diarmaid and Grainne's beds"--the places
where these eloping lovers slept. Hence they have powers of fruitfulness
and are visited by women who desire children. The rite is thus one of
sympathetic magic.
Holed dolmens or naturally pierced blocks are used for the magical cure
of sickness both in Brittany and Cornwall, the patient being passed
through the hole.[1148] Similar rites are used with trees, a slit being
often made in the trunk of a sapling, and a sickly child passed through
it. The slit is then closed and bound, and if it joins together at the
end of a certain time, this is a proof that the child will
recover.[1149] In these rites the spirit in stone or tree was supposed
to assist the process of healing, or the disease was transferred to
them, or, again, there was the idea of a new birth with consequent
renewed life, the act imitating the process of birth. These rites are
not confined to Celtic regions, but belong to that universal use of
magic in which the Celts freely participated.
Since Christian writers firmly believed in the magical powers of the
Druids, aided however by the devil, they taught that Christian saints
had miraculously overcome them with their own weapons. S. Patrick
dispelled snow-storms and darkness raised by Druids, or destroyed Druids
who had brought down fire from heaven. Similar deeds are attributed to
S. Columba and others.[1150] The moral victory of the Cross was later
regarded also as a magical victory. Hence also lives of Celtic saints
are full of miracles which are simply a reproduction of Druidic
magic--controlling the elements, healing, carrying live coals without
hurt, causing confusion by their curses, producing invisibility or
shape-shifting, making the ice-cold waters of a river hot by standing in
them at their devotions, or walking unscathed through the fiercest
storms.[1151] They were soon regarded as more expert magicians than the
Druids themselves. They may have laid claim to magical powers, or
perhaps they used a natural shrewdness in such a way as to suggest
magic. But all their power they ascribed to Christ. "Christ is my
Druid"--the true miracle-worker, said S. Columba. Yet they were imbued
with the superstitions of their own age. Thus S. Columba sent a white
stone to King Brude at Inverness for the cure of his Druid Broichan, who
drank the water poured over it, and was healed.[1152] Soon similar
virtues were ascribed to the relics of the saints themselves, and at a
later time, when most Scotsmen ceased to believe in the saints, they
thought that the ministers of the kirk had powers like those of pagan
Druid and Catholic saint. Ministers were levitated, or shone with a
celestial light, or had clairvoyant gifts, or, with dire results, cursed
the ungodly or the benighted prelatist. They prophesied, used
trance-utterance, and exercised gifts of healing. Angels ministered to
them, as when Samuel Rutherford, having fallen into a well when a child,
was pulled out by an angel.[1153] The substratum of primitive belief
survives all changes of creed, and the folk impartially attributed
magical powers to pagan Druid, Celtic saints, old crones and witches,
and Presbyterian ministers.
FOOTNOTES:
[1093] _IT_ i. 56; D'Arbois, v. 387.
[1094] See, e.g., "The Death of Muirchertach," _RC_ xxiii. 394.
[1095] _HN_ xxx. 4, 13.
[1096] Zimmer, _Gloss. Hibern._ 183; Reeves, _Adamnan_, 260.
[1097] Kennedy, 175; cf. _IT_ i. 220.
[1098] See _RC_ xii. 52 f.; D'Arbois, v. 403-404; O'Curry, _MS. Mat._
505; Kennedy, 75, 196, 258.
[1099] D'Arbois, v. 277.
[1100] Stokes, _Three Middle Irish Homilies_, 24; _IT_ iii. 325.
[1101] _RC_ xii. 83; Miss Hull, 215; D'Arbois, v. 424; O'Curry, _MC_ ii.
215.
[1102] Keating, 341; O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 271.
[1103] _RC_ xii. 81.
[1104] Miss Hull, 240 f.
[1105] Maury, 14.
[1106] Sébillot, ii. 226 f., i. 101, ii. 225; Bérenger-Féraud,
_Superstitions et Survivances_, iii. 169 f.; _Stat. Account_, viii. 52.
[1107] _Rev. des Trad._ 1893, 613; Sébillot, ii. 224.
[1108] Bérenger-Féraud, iii. 218 f.; Sébillot, i. 100, 109; _RC_ ii.
484; Frazer, _Golden Bough_{2}, i. 67.
[1109] D'Arbois, v. 387; _IT_ i. 52; Dixon, _Gairloch_, 165; Carmichael,
_Carm. Gad._ ii. 25.
[1110] _RC_ xvi. 152; Miss Hull, 243.
[1111] D'Arbois, v. 133; _IT_ ii. 373.
[1112] Mela, iii. 6; _RC_ xv. 471.
[1113] Joyce, _OCR_ 1 f.; Kennedy, 235.
[1114] Bird-women pursued by Cúchulainn; D'Arbois, v. 178; for other
instances see O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 426; Miss Hull, 82.
[1115] D'Arbois, v. 215.
[1116] Joyce, _OCR_ 279.
[1117] Ibid. 86.
[1118] _RC_ xxiii. 394; Jocelyn, _Vita S. Kent._ c. 1.
[1119] _RC_ xv. 446.
[1120] O'Conor, _Rer. Hib. Scrip._ ii. 142; Stokes, _Lives of Saints_,
xxviii.
[1121] _RC_ xv. 444.
[1122] See p. 251, _supra_.
[1123] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 240.
[1124] See pp. 248, 304, _supra_; Cæsar, _vi_. 14.
[1125] Zimmer, _Gloss. Hiber._ 271. Other Irish incantations, appealing
to the saints, are found in the _Codex Regularum_ at Klosternenburg
(_RC_ ii. 112).
[1126] Leahy, i. 137; Kennedy, 301.
[1127] Sauvé, _RC_ vi. 67 f.; Carmichael, _Carm. Gadel._, _passim_; _CM_
xii. 38; Joyce, _SH_ i. 629 f.; Camden, _Britannia_, iv. 488; Scot,
_Discovery of Witchcraft_, iii. 15.
[1128] For examples see O'Curry, _MS. Met._ 248; D'Arbois, ii. 190; _RC_
xii. 71, xxiv. 279; Stokes, _TIG_ xxxvi. f.
[1129] Windisch, _Táin_, line 3467.
[1130] Diod. Sic. v. 31.
[1131] D'Arbois, i. 271.
[1132] _RC_ xii. 109; Nutt-Meyer, i. 2; D'Arbois, v. 445.
[1133] Petrie, _Ancient Music of Ireland_, i. 73; _The Gael_, i. 235
(fairy lullaby of MacLeod of MacLeod).
[1134] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 255.
[1135] _Archæologia_, xxxix. 509; _Proc. Soc. Ant._ iii. 92; Gaidoz, _Le
Dieu Gaul. du Soleil_, 60 f.
[1136] _IT_ iii. 409; but see Rh[^y]s, _HL_ 215.
[1137] Pliny, _HN_ xxix. 3. 54.
[1138] _Rev. Arch._ i. 227, xxxiii. 283.
[1139] Hoare, _Modern Wiltshire_, 56; Camden, _Britannia_, 815; Hazlitt,
194; Campbell, _Witchcraft_, 84. In the Highlands spindle-whorls are
thought to have been perforated by the adder, which then passes through
the hole to rid itself of its old skin.
[1140] Pliny, xxxii. 2. 24; Reinach, _RC_ xx. 13 f.
[1141] _Rev. Arch._ i. 227; Greenwell, _British Barrows_, 165; Elton,
66; Renel, 95f., 194f.
[1142] Reinach, _BF_ 286, 289, 362.
[1143] O'Curry, _MS Mat._ 387. See a paper by Hartland, "The Voice of
the Stone of Destiny," _Folk-lore Journal_, xiv. 1903.
[1144] Petrie, _Trans. Royal Irish Acad._ xviii. pt. 2.
[1145] O'Curry, _MS. Mat._ 393 f.
[1146] Sébillot, i. 334 f.
[1147] Trollope, _Brittany_, ii. 229; Bérenger-Féraud, _Superstitions et
Survivances_, i. 529 f.; Borlase, _Dolmens of Ireland_, iii. 580, 689,
841 f.
[1148] _Rev. des Trad._ 1894, 494; Bérenger-Féraud, i. 529, ii. 367;
Elworthy, _Evil Eye_, 70.
[1149] Bérenger-Féraud, i. 523; Elworthy, 69, 106; Reinach,
_L'Anthropologie_, iv. 33.
[1150] Kennedy, 324; Adamnan, _Vita S. Col._ ii. 35.
[1151] Life of S. Fechin of Fore, _RC_ xii. 333; Life of S. Kieran,
O'Grady, ii. 13; Amra Cholumbchille, _RC_ xx. 41; Life of S. Moling,
_RC_ xxvii. 293; and other lives _passim_. See also Plummer, _Vitæ
Sanctorum Hiberniæ_.
[1152] Adamnan, ii. 34. This pebble was long preserved, but mysteriously
disappeared when the person who sought it was doomed to die.
[1153] Wodrow, _Analecta_, _passim_; Walker, _Six Saints of the
Covenant_, ed. by Dr. Hay Fleming.