Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/233

 Collectanea. 201

site to Aran, in Co. Clare, where the peasantry greatly fear to use his name lest they might use it in an angry moment as a curse. The Croagh ^ has a very early stone-roofed oratory and carved stones, one reputed to represent the saint. It is strange, though not unprecedented, that his name should be forgotten for we have anonymous saints — St. (Findclu) Inghean Baoith and St. MacCreiche — on the adjoining shores of the great bay. At the Croagh, sails are (or were in 1878) dipped and oars raised by passing fisher-boats in his reverence. That he lived in the sixth century is a mere guess. His feast days fall on July i6th and Sept. 28th. In 1896, though the weather had been stormy, about lOO pilgrims landed on the Croagh and did the rounds on the beaten track according to ancient custom. The holy well is now usually dry and the personal offerings are few. His wooden statue was in high repute, like those of St. Carroll near Kilrush in Co. Clare, of St. Brendan on Inish- glora and of St. Molash on Inishmurray in Co. Sligo, but as far back as before 1650, Malachy O'Oueely, " titular " Arch- bishop of Tuam, had it removed and secretly buried. Women in 1670 used to gather seaweed {duleasg) on the " captives stone " on the shore of his island to benefit friends and relatives in prison. His altar stone, Leac Sinach, was kept at Moyruss Church, on the opposite shore of the channel opposite to the Croagh ; I could not find, or even hear of it in 1899. The inhabitants of Aran and the mainland used to name their children after him; but boats called by his name were regarded as unlucky, even at the end of the last century. There was some unusual fear of telUng about him at Carna and Moyruss, so I learned less than in Aran or Co. Clare. Roderic O'Flaherty, in 1687, gives a full and interesting account of the misfortune which overtook a skipper who in defiance of the saint would not dip sail on passing the Cruach.-

St. Roc or Salroc. — A local legend tells of a contest between this saint and Satan at the Salroc Pass, in Connemara. The saint had a cell at the foot of this picturesque defile from the Killeries southward, and one day the Devil found him asleep

^Journal Roy. Soc. Antt. Ir. vol. xxvi. p. loi. '- HIar Coiinaitght, pp. 99-IOI.