THE aUIGRICH. 433 



the casting out of devils. The Eev. Patrick Stuart, parish minister 

 of Killin, writing to Sir John Sinclair, in the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century, observes : " There is a bell belonging to the 

 chapel of St. Fillan, that was in high reputation among the vota- 

 ries of that Saint in old times. It usually lay on a gravestone 

 in the churchyard. When mad people were brought to be dipped 

 in the Saint's pool, it was necessary to perform certain ceremonies, 

 in which there was a mixture of Druidism and Popery. After 

 remaining all night in the chapel bound with ropes, the bell was 

 set upon their head with great solemnity. It was the popular 

 opinion that if stolen it would extx'icate itself out of the thief's hands, 

 and return home ringing all the way."* The virtues, however, of 

 the ancient relic seem to have vanished along with the faith of sim- 

 pler ages. In the beginning of our sceptical nineteenth century, an 

 English antiquary carried off the ancient bell, without the Saint's 

 interposition on behalf of his long-favoured strath, and its potent 

 clogarnach has never since announced its return to St. Pillan's cell. 

 The Buidheaii or bell of Strowan, another and no less potent relic of 

 the same old Scottish Abbot, has adhered with more fidelity to the 

 scene of its ancient miraculous powers. Mr. Mclnroy of Lude, its 

 present custodier, informs me that it is still a favourite popular 

 legend in Strowan and Blair Athol, that the native of a neighbouring 

 parish having stolen the Buidhean and fled with it, he sat down to 

 rest on a large boulder, on the top of a neighbouring hill, laying the 

 bell on the stone beside him, while he drew breath. On attempting 

 to resume his journey, however, he found the bell immoveable ; but 

 no sooner did the affrighted and penitent thief turn his face towards 

 Strowan, with the resolution of returning the abstracted relic, than 

 it became once more portable, and was forthwith restored to its 

 favourite resting place. 



Such are some of the curious evidences of the sanctity with which 

 the relics of St. Pillan were recently regarded in the district where 

 early in the seventh century he bore his part in the introduction of 

 Christianity into Scotland ; and won the reputation for ascetic virtue 

 long after celebrated thus under date of his martyrdom, in a calendar 

 of Scottish saints, written in the early part of the sixteenth century, 

 and now preserved in the library of the university of Edinburgh : 

 V . Idus Januarii. — In Scocia Sancti Eelani abbatis apud Strathfillane 



* Sinclair's Statistical Accounts, xvii. p. 378. 



