Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/257

 Collectanea. 229

a new protagonist appears, St. Patrick's old foe, Crom Dubh.^ The latter, an extortionate chief, lived at Downpatrick Head, and had two sons, Teidach and Cionnach, worse than himself. The pagans worshipped Crom Dubh despite his cruelty. St. Patrick when visiting the neighbourhood heard of his evil deeds, and went to visit him. Crom Dubh set two fierce hounds on him, but the saint quieted them. The pagan then tried to throw him into a fire, which the holy man put out. Patrick, tried beyond his patience, struck the rock, and it was cleft away. Crom Dubh and Teidach were isolated and perished ; Cionnach, who was away on a plundering expedition, was burned in a fire he had kindled, and on that account the people of Kilcummin and Downpatrick hold a pattern at the latter place on "Garland Sunday," or Crom Dubh's Sunday — the last in July each year.

Keeping the other Patrick-legends for the section on the legends of the Saints, I will here only touch on a few other quasi pre-Christian legends on the coast, reserving those of Finn.

The old castle of Doona (Fahy) is absurdly attributed to a magician of the Tuatha De Dannann to guard his faithless wife. Of course, " woman's wile was more than a match for strong walls or magic devices." Others attributed this late mediaeval peel tower to Meidhah (Medbh), Queen of Connacht. It was granted by her to the hero Ceat, son of Magach. The latter eventually gave his castle to Phelim, an oliamh and adviser of the great Queen during her long reign of ninety years over Connacht. I presume Otway ^ does not intend us to understand that his flippant version of the grim story of Meisgeadhra's brain trophy ^ was told among the people of Doona.

I am not sure whether the attribution of Dundonnell to the Tuatha De emanates from Otway alone, or whether he regarded

^ For him see infra under the legends of the Saints.

^ Erris and Tyrawly, pp. i6, 38.

^ In connection with the skull and brain trophies and the very remarkable foundation sacrifices in the rampart of a French oppidum, let me refer to the Bulletin of the Sociitd Pr^hiUoriqne Franfaise, vol. x., p. 700 ; Journal Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland, xliv., p. 82 ; and Kevue Celtique, xxxiv. " Les tetes coupees et les trophees en Gaule," by Adolphe Reinach, giving all this strange barbarism in the chivalrous records of the Ultonian epic.