338 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



Thus also, in the following record in the Annals of the Four Masters, we 

 have an example of the expulsion of a chieftain from his lordship for dishonour- 

 ing the Canoin Phatraic, or Book of Armagh : 



" A. D. 1179. Ua YJuaoacan, nccheapna Ua n-6achoach, DO dec DO galop cpt n-oioci lap 

 n-a lonnapbao, cpe papujao Canoine pdcpaicc DO, jap poivhe." 



" A. D. 1 179. O'Eogan, Lord of Iveagh, died of three nights' sickness, after his expulsion, for 

 having violated the Canoin- Patraic." 



To the preceding observations 1 have to add, that while this sheet was 

 going through the Press, I have discovered the following curious passage in 

 the fragment of Duald Mac Firbis's Glossary of the Brehon Laws, preserved in 

 the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, which, more distinctly than any of the 

 passages already given, explains the use to which the minister was applied : 



" TTlinipceap, .1. mionna aipoip Bfop ap aipoeap ip in cuatc le rabaipc tnionn ap cac." 



" Ministear, i. e. travelling relics which are carried about in a district to administer oaths to all." 



I may further remark that, from the use to which the mionna, or enshrined 

 relics, were thus applied, the same word came to denote both a relic and an oath, 

 and originated the verb mionnaim, I swear. The Irish Annals notice the use 

 of the principal relics of Ireland, which were often transferred from their original 

 localities, on solemn occasions, to distant places, in order that rival chieftains might 

 be sworn upon them, to future peace and mutual fidelity ; and hence Mageoghe- 

 gan, and the other old translators of the Irish annals, render the word minna 

 of their originals by the English word oathes, as, " the coarb of St. Kieran witli 

 his oathes" " the coarb of St. Columb with his oathes;" by which they meant, 

 the abbot of Clonmacnoise with his relics, &c. And, as must be well known 

 to most of my readers, this ancient custom of swearing on the relics of the 

 saints of the ancient Irish church is still continued amongst the peasantry in 

 many parts of Ireland, by whom it is often supposed that thieves would exone- 

 rate themselves from the guilt of which they were suspected, by a false oath on 

 the holy Gospels, but would not dare to do so by an oath on one of these 

 ancient reliquaries. And hence, also, we find the following curious inscription 

 on an ancient reliquary in my own Cabinet, and which is in the form of a brass 

 shoe or slipper, gilt and richly ornamented. This shoe was popularly known 

 as St. Bridget's slipper, and, no doubt, originally encased a real shoe, which was 

 supposed to have belonged to the great patroness of Ireland. The inscription 



