35 
of fire. He then returned to the tree; and, again imagining that 
he saw the house enveloped in flames, ran to save it, but still it was 
unhurt. A third time he went to the tree, enraged, determined at any 
risque to cut the hurl, and a third time the house appeared on fire. 
However, he persisted in cutting, and, on returning home, found 
his habitation in ashes ! 
Another story, which is likewise told, although superstitiously 
accounted for, is certainly fact. It is this, ‘There was, at the foot 
of the tree just spoken of, one of those holy wells common in Ire- 
land, which actually removed to an opposite hill. The reason as- 
signed by the peasantry for this removal is, that some giddy female 
had washed clothes in it ; and the water, indignant at the profana- 
tion, changed its course to another direction. The truth seems to 
be, that the water found some more ready canal, by which to dis- 
charge itself, in one of those accidental fissures often found in hills 
like those which encompass that sequestered spot. But to pass by 
these fables, it is certain that this relic was, and is to this day, held 
in high veneration amongst the uneducated in the vicinity of the 
Parish of Glankeen, as having something sacred and supernatural 
about it. For a long time past, (perhaps some centuries) it has 
been used in that parish somewhat in the same way as the Anglo- 
Saxons formerly used the corsned bread, or morsel of execration, 
which was supposed to cause convulsions when taken by any per- 
aon asserting a falsehood.* 
We are told that the ancient Irish, about the beginning of the 
Christian era, made use, in their judicial proceedings, of a kind 
F2 
* A remarkable instance of the effect of the latter we have recorded in the person of Godwin, 
Earl of Kent, who, itis said, abjured the murder of the king’s brother by this way of trial ; and, 
as a judgment for his solemn perjury, the bread stuck in his throat and choaked him. 
