administered to the dying by Malachy.* The oriental custom of the 

 weeping women, before alluded to,-f continued to accompany the 

 corse to the grave. :^ Stanihurst gives a faithful and lively descrip- 

 tion of it in his time,§ which is no less applicable to the usage of 

 some parts of Ireland at the present day. In 1196 the son of Mur- 

 tough, King of Ireland, was interred at Derry ; " ejusque corpus 

 Doriam delatum ibi cum funebri pompa et honore sepultum est."ll 



The eleventh canon of the Synod of Comyn, at the close of the 

 twelfth century, "prohibits, under the pain of an anathema, any per- 

 son to bury in a churchyard, unless he can shew by an authentic 

 writing or undeniable evidence, that it was consecrated by a bishop, 

 not only as a sanctuary or place of refuge, but also for a place of 

 sepulture ; and that no laymen shall presume to bury their dead in 

 such a consecrated place without the presence of a priest."** These 

 churchyards, we learn from Giraldus, were usually planted with yew,-t"t- 



i * " Et unxit earn, sciens in hoc Sacramento remitti peccata, quod oratio fidei salvet ip- 

 firmum ;***** et ilia peracta pcenitentia quam sibi Malachias injunxerat in bond 

 eonfessione, • • • * • migravit ad Dominum." — Vita Malachiae ap. Messingham, 

 Florileg. p. 369. 



t Ante, p. 164. J See Gir. Cambr. Top. Hib. Dist. 3. c. 12. 



§ " Jam vero si quis inter Hibernicos praesertim summo loco natus a vita discedat, incre- 

 dibile est quanto et quam foemineo fletu omnia loca circumsonare soleant. * * * * Namut 

 primum unus ex his, qui in honoribus populi versatur, halitum extremum efHat, videre licet 

 complures mulieres per vicos et campos cursare, lupino ululantique clamore, omnium aures 

 obtundere. At vero ubi templum in quo mortuo parentatur ingrediuntur, quanto ejulatu sa- 

 cram complent a;dem non facile dixerim. Buccis inflatis exclamant perquam flebiliter, voces 

 eliciunt, redimicula ponunt, capita nudant, crines lacerant, frontem feriunt, latera intundunt, 

 palmas dilatant, manus in caelum extollunl, mortuorum cistas versant, operimenta dOoricant, 

 cadaver complexantur, oscula infigunt, mortuum humari vix permittunt." — Stanihurst. De 

 Reb. Hib. lib. I. pp. 47-8. 



II Four Masters, cited Trias Thaum. p. 605. ** Ware's Bishops, p. 316. 



f-f- " Prae terris autem omnibus quas intravimus, longe copiosius amaro hie succo taxus 

 abundat, maxime vero in caemeteriis antiquis locisque sacris, sanctorum virorum manibus 

 olim plantatas." — Gir. Cambr. Top. Hib, Dist. 3. c. 10. It would appear, however, that yews 



