Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/230

 1 98 Collectanea.

window, with two pitched stones, such as we see in the round towers ; beside it is a holed stone. Its name probably meant " church of the canons," as the royal recluses are only known in late local legend. St. Ccnnanach is sometimes identified with St. Gregory or Grigoire.

St. Coemhan seems a genuine person, a brother and name- sake of St. Kevin of Glendalough, about a.d. 580, ^ his church, nearly buried in the sand, is the chief sanctuary of the South Isle (Inishere). His tjmb-enclosure, or " bed," Leaha Coemhain, has notable curative powers. Childless persons after certain devotional acts in the church sleep in the walled enclosure at the west end of the ruin. The same is told of " St. Brecan's bed " in Aranmore. A story is told how a fisherman caught in a gale called to the saint in trouble, " Oh Choeman, where are you } " and the storm fell.-

The Seven Princes are reverenced at Teampul seacht mic righ, near an Eathairle. We have the " Seacht ^ in Inghien righ Breatain," or " Tobar na seacht inghean, at Renvyle, but who " the seven British princesses " were is unrecorded. A grave of the " seven daughters " exists on Inishere near the lake. At the Renvyle site are several liagans or pillars, and there was once a famous cursing-stone, Leac na Seacht n Inghean, which was carried off and buried by the parish priest because the peasantry used it for invoking curses on their enemies. Another " well of the Seven Daughters " remains near Carna, opposite to Aran, on the north shore of Galway Bay. I heard no tradition about it when there in 1899.

St. Gregory, or Grigoire. — Some regard him as the famous pope, others as a very early preacher beheaded by a pagan king. Gregory's Sound between Aranmore and Inishmaan bears his name. The place of his reputed martyrdom is at a heap of stones near Cleggan across the bay, and he is also reverenced at Ballynakill. Tiir Martin, on Gregory's Sound, is supposed by some to be his tomb.

^ The Calendar of Oeiigus {circa 800) implies some connection between the Saint of Glendalough and the " sea wave," perhaps the two saints named Coemhan are one person ; Kevin died a.d. 61S.

"^ HIar Connaught, Hardiman's notes, p. 87. '^ Ib.id. p. 118.