Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 337 



" ALIUD miraculum scstimo non tacendum, quod aliquando factum est per contrarium elemen- 

 tum. Multorum nainque transcursis annorum circulis post beati ad Dominum transitum viri, 

 quidam juvenis de equo lapsus in flumine mersus, et mortuus, viginti sub aqua diebus permansit, 

 qui sicuti sub ascella, cadens, libros in pellicio reconditos sacculo habebat, ita etiam post supra me- 

 moratum dierum numerura est repertus, sacculum cum libris inter brachium et latus continens. 

 Cujus etiam ad aridam reportato cadavere, et aperto sacculo, folium Sancti COLUMB.E Sanctis scrip- 

 turn digitulis, inter aliorum folia librorum non tantum corrupta, sed et putrefacta, inventum est 

 siccum, et nullo modo corruptum, ac si in scrinio esset reconditum." PINKERTON'S Vitce Antique? 

 Sanctorum, pp. Ill, 112. 



A similar example occurs in the same Life, in the next chapter, and many 

 others might be adduced from other Lives ; but the evidences already given 

 appear to me sufficient to illustrate the antiquity of those curious leather cases 

 for sacred books and reliquaries, called polaire by the Irish, as well as to show 

 the difference between such cases and the tiagha, or ordinary book satchels. I 

 shall, therefore, dismiss the subject with the following characteristically Irish 

 story, which will, at least, serve to show the reverence which was paid to the 

 travelling reliquaries, the manner in which they were carried, and the penalties 

 which were inflicted for any dishonour or injury offered them. The passage 

 occurs in the Leabhar Breac, fol. 10, b, a, and in the Book of Leinster, fol. 

 239, a, from which, as an older authority, it is here given. 



" pece oa came Semplan, pacapc Cipi oa jlap co Cip Cpornn DO fcicc na pinnae pi 

 coipcib, ip ano boiOiapmaio oc glanao upopocica coiji 7 a pluapac'n-a laim, luio tapom a cu 

 po na cleipcib, co po lecpao in pacapc. Ro buail in pacapc in coin lappin. Ro buail imop- 

 po tDiapmaio in pacapc oi'n cpluapaic, copo bpip rnempcip Coluim, po bui pop a mum. 

 t)olluio lapom .aceam, comapba Coluim, oo acpa in jnima pin co plair h-Ua n-t)pona, .1. co 

 Rumen, macCamnen; co capcpac li-Ui t)pona un.cumala ot)iapmaiooo mumcip Coluim, 7 DO 

 f.accam, 7 DO pac 6accam na un. cumala pin DO aipcmnech C-emopomma, .1. DO Uamnach." 



" On one time that Semplan, priest of Tir da glas, came on business to Tir Cronin to Lice 

 na sinnach, Diarmaid was clearing away the front-bridge of his house, having his shovel in his 

 hand, and set a dog at the clergymen, so that the priest was torn. The priest then struck the dog. 

 Diarmaid struck the priest with the shovel, and broke the menistir of Colum, which was on his 

 back. Lachtain, the comarb of Colum, afterwards went to complain of this deed to the chief of 

 Ui Drona, i. e. Ruiden, the son of Lainnen ; and the Ui Drona gave [adjudged] seven cumals* from 

 Diarmaid to the people of Colum, and to Lachtain, and Lachtain gave these seven cumala to the 

 airchinneach ofLemdruim [Lorum, County Carlow] i. e. Uamnach." 



a The word cumol is explained in the commentaries on the Brehon Laws as three cows, or an 

 equivalent of that value. 



VOL. XX. 2 X 



