he Irish text will
be found. The poem dates from the ninth century.

'A Prayer to the Virgin.'--See Strachan's edition of the original in
_Eriu_, i. p. 122. There is another copy in the Bodleian MS. Laud 615, p.
91, from which I have taken some better readings. The poem is hardly
earlier than the tenth century.

'Eve's Lament.'--See _Eriu_, iii. p. 148. The date is probably the late
tenth or early eleventh century.

'On the Flightiness of Thought.'--See _Eriu_, iii. p. 13. Tenth century.

'To Crinog.'--The Irish text was published by me in the _Zeitschrift fuer
celtische Philologie_, vol. vi. p. 257. The date of the poem is the tenth
century. Crinog was evidently what is known in the literature of early
Christianity as [Greek: iagapete], _virgo subintroducta_ ([Greek:
syneisaktos]) or _conhospita_, _i.e._ a nun who lived with a priest, monk,
or hermit like a sister or 'spiritual wife' (_uxor spiritualis_). This
practice, which was early suppressed and abandoned everywhere else, seems
to have survived in the Irish Church till the tenth century. See on the
whole subject H. Achelis, _Virgines Subintroductae_, ein Beitrag zu i.,
Kor. vii. (Leipzig, 1902).

'The Devil's Tribute to Moling.'--For text and translation see Whitley
Stokes's _Goidelica_, 2nd ed., p. 180, and his edition of _Felire
Oingusso_, p. 154 ff. I have in the main followed Stokes's rendering.

'Maelisu's Hymn to the Archangel Michael.'--Text and translation in the
_Gaelic Journal_, vol. iv. p. 56. Maelisu ua Brolchain was a writer of
religious poetry both in Irish and Latin, who died in 1056.

'The Mothers' Lament at the Slaughter of the Innocents.'--See text and
translation in the _Gaelic Journal_, iv. p. 89. The piece probably belongs
to the eleventh century.

'Colum Cille's Greeting to Ireland.'--From Reeves' edition of Adamnan's
_Life of St. Columba_, p. 285. The poem, like most of those ascribed to
this saint, is late, belonging probably to the twelfth century.

'The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare.'--Text and translation in _Otia
Merseiana_, i. p. 119 ff. The language of the poem points to the late tenth
century.

'The Deserted Home.'--See _Gaelic Journal_, iv. p. 42. Probably eleventh
century.

'Colum Cille the Scribe.'--See _Gaelic Journal_, viii. p. 49. Probably
eleventh century.

'The Monk and his Pet Cat.'--Text and translation in _Thesaurus
Palaeohibernicus_, ii. p. 293. I have made my own translation. The
language is that of the