Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/236

 204 Collectanea.

Fiachra,' but either there were two saints of the name hving about 590 A.D., or some mistake has crept into the Calendars, for the name appears commemorated on Aug. 5th and Oct. 26th. Near her holy well on Iniskea is a leacht, a heap of white stones. Her little church among the Fallmore sandhills at the south end of the long peninsula of the Mullet (opposite to the noble mountain of Slievemore in Achill) is a most interesting little ruin, nearly buried in the sand. Her shrine, her " keeve " and grave, a dry-stone enclosure with a wooden cross, adjoin the oratory. -

St. Marcan. — At Burrishoole on Clew Bay lived a saint named Marcan who fought with St. Brigid. She cursed him, but he was too holy to be affected, and foretold that his house should be inundated, which took place when the sea broke into the lake. Pilgrims to his well (still famous for cattle cures) had to be careful not to visit any place sacred to St. Brigid on their way thither, such as Kilbride in Tirawley. The site of his house was shown under the sea, even in 1839.

St. Brendan. — Brennan, or, more usually, Brennall, figures largely in the folk-tales of this coast. The inhabitants of its islands believe firmly that he discovered America.-'^ The fishermen of North Iniskea showed Dr. Charles Browne ■* certain bare patches on the former island, and told how Satan, disguised as a beautiful girl, disturbed the saint at his prayers and proceeded to tempt him. Brennan indignantly repulsed " her," and hunted " her " to the end of the island, blessing the place as he followed. The author of evil was unprepared for such righteous wrath, lost his presence of mind for once and changed into a great ram. The saint, all the more angry, pressed on his pursuit, but in his anger forgot to bless the soil, and so, though he drove the enemy into the sea, the spots where the Devil

1 Martyrology of Donegal.

- Lord Dunraven, JVoies on Ancient Irish .Architecture, vol. i. p. 107, plate hi. ; Koy. Soc. Antt. Ir. Handbook V. p. 21, p. 32.

'^Handbook J'/. Roy. Soc. Antt. Ir. pp. 27-29; see O'Hanlon's Life of the Irish Saints, vol. v. (May l6). An elaborate compendium. St. Brendan died May 16, a.m. 577.


 * Proc. I\ov. Ir. Acad. vol. iii. set. iii. p. 639.