Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/255

 Collectanea. 227

with a far resounding crash, the cliff fell in, and the fort, where all his treasure was stored, was only accessible to flying creatures. The terrified pagan returned, fell at Patrick's feet, abjured the false gods, and eventually became a bishop and a saint.

The great chasm is called the Giant's Leap. Lieut. A. Henri goes on to add : " For my story book has it " that the tyrant was not converted, but tried to leap back to his fort, and fell short and perished in the waters.

O'Connor's versions ^ (edited by O'Donovan, who also visited the site) are slight variants. The giant is named Geodruisge, and Dun Briste originally bore his name, Dihi Geodruisge, or, as O'Donovan prefers. Dun Deodruisc. There was a great tyrant, named Geodruisg or Deodruisg, residing on Dun Briste, which was then attached to the mainland. He used to annoy St. Patrick whenever he saw him at his prayers. " Wearied out of patience," the saint " prayed earnestly to God to put some barrier of separation between this tyrant and himself." " On the following morning the Doon, with the tyrant's residence, was found separated from the mainland, and in the very place it lies at this day," whence it is named Dun briste. Geodruisge was unable to escape, and perished in his fort. The tyrant was a pirate, and the legends vary, for some say he was on a plundering excursion inland, and took two cows belonging to a widow, who followed him to his Dun, entreating him to return them to her, but he would not. She at last knelt down " on her bare knees ; she cursed him from her heart out." So the Dun was removed out from the land, and the robber perished in it. The other version was that the pirate was absent on a sea raid, and on his return he found his fort inaccessible, so he sailed away and never returned. O'Donovan gives in these letters an account, taken from Dean Lyons, where Deodruisg is entreated by the saint to restore the latter's cattle. St. Patrick tries to convert the robber, who hurls a boulder at him, whereon St. Patrick prays that a barrier be placed between Deodruisc and the other inhabitants, and the cliff breaks away, with the robber's " castle " on it. This, it will be seen, is the legend I got from a good source on the spot. The people

^Ordnance Sztrvey Letters, Co. Mayo, vol. i. (MSS. R.I. Acad.), pp. 291-2,

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