Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/316

308 had his seat. And into the church or the churchyard of which he is the patron, no female creature may enter; and they all know that, yea both birds and other creatures that are without human reason know this just as men, and no female animal tries to enter that churchyard, and none succeeds though it try.

15. There was also in that land a holy man called Kewinus, in that place which is called Glinnelaga (Glendalough). And he was as it were a hermit, and in his time this event happened of which we will now tell. It so befel that he had with him a young man, a kinsman of his, who served him, and he was very fond of the lad. This lad began to sicken before him, and his illness became so heavy and great that he expected to die. That was in the time about spring in the month of March, when the diseases of man become sorest. And then it so happened that the lad asked of Kewinus, his kinsman, that he should give him apples, and said that his illness would grow less if he got what he asked him. And there was no likelihood at that time of getting apples, because on all the fruit-trees the buds were then first beginning to sprout into leaves. But because the holy Kewinus was much grieved at the sickness of his kinsman, and because he was unable to procure what he asked, he began to pray and asked God that he might send him such things from which his kinsman might derive comfort as he desired. And when he