240 



for. It is also to be remarked, that all the continental notices of the 

 missionaries from that country, who Christianised Europe, speak of 

 them as not less the cultivators of the soil, than the improvers of the 

 mind, and while the Annals of Tigernach mention mills as in 651, 

 (" molendino Maelodrani,") and also speak of Saint Patrick's barn 

 (" granarium seu horreum S. Patricii,")* the Four Masters allude to 

 mills in 647, and the lives of the Irish saints, -f- (Acta Sanctorum pas- 

 sim,) speak of " molendinis," " jugis boum," " vomeribus," " cul- 

 tris," "horreis," "segetibus," "plaustris," &c., and alsoof "pomis," 

 " pomariis," " meda," et " cervisia." Adamnan mentions an apple 

 tree, ("arbor valde pomosa,") as blest by Saint Columba,:^ while the 

 story of Saint Kevin and the apples,§ shews such fruit was not unusual 

 in Ireland. Bede describes the island as flowing with milk and honey, 

 ("dives lactis ac mellis insula;") the ancient life of Saint Berach|| 

 mentions " vasa medone plena" and though Giraldus insists** that 

 bees were only spelled across, after the days of Solinus by Saint 

 Domnach from Saint Davids, yet it appears that long before the days 

 of Domnach, Saint Patrick, in his Confession, talks of wild honey, 

 (" mel sylvestre,") as a substance then well understood in Ireland. 

 By a rule of Saint Ailbe, of Emly, it is ordered that a portion of 

 honeycomb should be allowed the monks at their mealj-f-f* and Mr. 

 Walker asserts that he had seen a collection of Brehon laws expressly 

 ordained for the protection of bees,;|;J 



* O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Script, vol. 2. p. 273. 



t O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Script, vol. 3. p. 211. J Vita Columb. lib. 2. c. 2. 



§ In Speculo Regali, Ant. Celt. Scand. p. 287. . t| Acta Sanctorum, p. 342. 



** Top. Hib. Dist. 1. c. 6, and Acta Sanctorum, p. 327. 



f f " Cum sedent ad mensam adferantur herbae give radices aqua lotae in mundis scutellis, 

 item poma cervisia et ex alveario mellis ad latitudinem poUicis." 

 XX See Anthol. Hib. vol. 1, p. 132. n. 



