Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/471

 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 429

such as is found in the two Loricas of which we have spoken. Instead it calls for protection upon " Every (blessing) without pain, every pure prayer, Every ladder that reaches heaven shall be an aid to me, Every good saint who suffered on the Surface of the Earth, Every chaste disciple who was tortured for Christ, Every meek, every gentle, every candid, every pure person. Every confessor, every soldier who lives under the sun. Every venerable patron saint who should reach me for luck, Everyone, gentle or simple, every saint who has suffered the Cross."

The Lorica of St. Patrick is more complicated and broken in its structure, and as a devotional poem it is far finer than any of the others. It is divided into seven parts, five of them connected together by the repetition of the word Atomriug ("I raise myself" or "I arise"), the final portions being preceded by the solemn invocation of all the forces hitherto appealed to, to come to the aid of the reciter

" Against incantations of false prophets Against black laws of paganism Against false laws of heresy Against deceits of idols

Against spells of women and smiths and druids Against all knowledge that is forbidden to the human soul."

This piece both begins and closes with an invocation of the Trinity, which is preceded at the end by the well- known passage appealing for the aid and presence of Christ on every hand, and on all with whom the reciter is brought into contact.

In the earlier divisions, instead of a banal list of the members of the body, such as we had in the previous Loricas, we get a short litany of the events of our Lord's life, succeeded by a recitation of the grades of angels and confessors. After this we have a short group of phrases appealing for the aid of the elements ; for the