ion, washed his hands and feet in the water, and then drank of it
with his disciples. The Magi looked on with a malignant smile to see
the accursed well produce its usual effect; but the saint and his
followers came away uninjured: the demon was driven out of the well, and
it became ever afterwards a holy fountain, curing many of their
infirmities. Another miracle, bearing against the Magi, introduces us to
one of their number by name, and gives a little of his domestic history.
His name is Broichan, and he is tutor to Brud, king of the Picts, with
whom he dwells on the banks of the Ness. It might have relieved the mind
of the historical inquirer to be told that Brud built for himself the
remarkable vitrified fort of Craig-Phadric, which rises high above the
Ness, and to be informed of the manner in which its calcined rampart was
constructed; but nothing is said on the subject, and Craig-Phadric
stands on its own isolated merits, still to be guessed at, without one
tangible word out of record or history to help any theory about its
object or construction home to a conclusion. One is free, however, to
imagine Brud, the heathen king of the Picts, living on the scarped top
of the hill, in a lodging of wattled or wooden houses, surrounded by a
rampart of stones fused by fire, as the only cement then known. Such we
may suppose to have been the "domus regia," whence the saint walked out
in a very bad humour to the river Ness, from the pebbles of which he
selected one white stone, to be turned to an important use. Broichan,
the Magus, had in his possession a female slave from Ireland. Columba,
who seems to have held with him such intercourse as a missionary to the
Chocktaws might have with a great medicine-man, desired that the Magus
should manumit the woman, for what reason we are not distinctly told;
but it is easy to suppose strong grounds for intervention when a
Christian missionary finds a woman, of his own country and creed, the
slave of a heathen priest. Columba's request was refused. Losing
patience, he had resort to threats; and at length, driven to his
ultimatum, he denounced death to Broichan if the slave were not released
before his own return to Ireland. Columba told his disciples to expect
two messengers to come from the king to tell of the sudden and critical
illness of Broichan. The messengers rushed in immediately after to claim
the saint's intervention. Broichan had been suddenly stricken by an
angel sent for t