s from the
south, and interred with his armour of championship in the south-east of
the outer rampart of the royal rath of Laeghaire, at Tara, with his face
turned southwards upon the men of Leinster, as fighting with them, for
he was the enemy of the Leinster men in his lifetime."--Translated from
the _Leabhar na Nuidhre._ Petrie's _Tara_, p. 170.

[137] _Always_.--National customs and prejudices have always been
respected by the Church: hence she has frequently been supposed to
sanction what she was obliged to tolerate. A long residence in
Devonshire, and an intimate acquaintance with its peasantry, has
convinced us that there is incalculably more superstitions believed and
_practised_ there of the _grossest kind_, than in any county in Ireland.
Yet we should be sorry to charge the Established Church or its clergy,
some of whom are most earnest and hard-working men, with the sins of
their parishioners. The following extract from St. Columba's magnificent
Hymn, will show what the early Irish saints thought of pagan
superstitions:

"I adore not the voice of birds, Nor sneezing, nor lots in this world,
Nor a boy, nor chance, nor woman: My Druid is Christ, the Son of God;
Christ, Son of Mary, the great Abbot, The Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost."

[138] _Aengus_.--

"Died the branch, the spreading tree of gold, Aenghus the laudable."

--Four Masters, p. 153. The branches of this tree have indeed spread far
and wide, and the four great families mentioned above have increased and
multiplied in all parts of the world.

[139] _Year_ 503.--The Four Masters give the date 498, which O'Donovan
corrects both in the text and in a note.

[140] _Broccan's Hymn_.--This Hymn was written about A.D. 510. See the
translation in Mr. Whitley Stokes' _Goidilica_, Calcutta, 1866.
Privately printed.

[141] _Saints_.--St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Brigid. See Reeves'
_Ecc. Anti. of Down and Connor_, p. 225, and Giraldus Cambrensis, d. 3,
cap. 18.

[142] _Domhnach Airgid_.--See O'Curry, _MS. Materials_, p. 321, for a
complete verification of the authenticity of this relic. The Tripartite
Life of St. Patrick mentions the gift of this relic by the saint to _St.
MacCarthainn_. Dr. Petrie concludes that the copy of the Gospels
contained therein, was undoubtedly the one which was used by our
apostle. We give a fac-simile of the first page, which cannot fail to
interest the antiquarian.

[143] _Famine years_.--During the famo