Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/234

 2 1 2 Collectanea.

when she mustered her strength and flung the tower to Dysert, where it stuck, right end up, beside the church, the top being broken by the shock, as may be seen to this day. In throwing it she lost her balance, fell on a rock, and dented it with her knees ; the rock, with two bulldns or basins in it, existed in 1839,^^ but I could find no trace of it in 1885 or since.

With Tola we part company from the saints in order of time, but some undatable stories remain. Templenaneave and Kilcoan, near Ross in the extreme south-west angle of Clare, were built, the former by nine saints (whence its name "Teampul an naomhar naomh "), and the latter by Coan, the survivor of the group. Coan had fallen into sin and was banished, but, repenting, built Kilcoan at the opposite side of the bog and regained enough repute of sanctity to render his church a more popular burial place than that of the nine just saints who needed no repentance. The tale was told in 18 16. About a century before, any body buried at Ross persisted in coming up above ground, even after repeated re-burials, so that the people deserted the unrestful cemetery.^"

At Clondegad two saints (or druids), Feddaun and Screabaun, had a bitter quarrel, and decideil that the greatest miracle-worker should retain the place. Twisting two "gads " of osiers they made rings, and Screabaun's gad swam up the river against the current, and gave the place the name Clondegad (plain of the two gads).^^ Feddaun retired and built Kilfiddaun (church of the streamlet). Screabaun's bed is shown in a cleft of the rock, under a fine ash- tree and above a waterfall, not far from Clondegad. Screabaun may be a real person, as there is a holy well named Toberscreabaun, and in the Papal Taxation of 1302 a place "Eribanub" (perhaps Scribanus) is named with Clondegad. I found no personal traditions attached to the other saints whose names are given to churches and holy wells, except that Senan Liath of Kiltinanlea is said to have been a brother of Senan of Scattery. St. Forgas is apparently purely mythical, his name being derived from Loch Forgas and the river Fergus. T. J. Westropp.

{To be coniimied.)

^^ Ordnance Sio~>ey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. i., pp. 144-6.

'^' W. S. Mason, o/>. cit.

^ Ordnance Survey Letters (Co. Clare), vol. ii. , pp. 98-100.