THE president's ADDRESS. 26 



utmost that could be done was to deflect it so that it fell on a 

 stone or tree, probably such stone or tree as formed an object of 

 religious cult to the pagan against whom the curse had been 

 cast.* 



We must not be too shocked at this cursing as practised by 

 the Celtic saints. It was a legal right accorded to them, hedged 

 about with certain restrictions. It was a means provided by law 

 and custom to enable the weak, who could not redress their 

 wrongs by force of arms, to protect themselves against the 

 mighty, and to recover valuables taken from them by violence, 

 A man who considered himself aggrieved, and could not forcibly 

 recover the fine, went to a Druid in Pagan times, to a saint in 

 Christian days, and asked him to " ill- wish " the wrongdoer, just 

 as now he goes to a lawyer and solicits a summons. 



I cannot but think that the *' ill- wishing " so much dreaded 

 to this day in Cornwall and Devon is derived from this origin. 

 Nowadays, however, the privilege to ''overlook" or " ill- wish '' 

 is not supposed to pertain to a peculiarly holy person. 



The point I desire especially to impress is, that the saints 

 simply stepped into the prerogatives of the Bards and Druids. 

 They did the same acts, occupied the same positions, and 

 received the same acknowledgments. 



I have spoken of the duties owed by a saint to the secular 

 tribe to which he was attached. 



There were instances in which an entire clan placed itself 

 under the saint. In the life of St. Fintan of Doone, for instance, 

 we are informed that the king or chief of one of the districts in 

 Munster, on his conversion " cum suis rebus et filiis, nepotibus et 

 pronepotibus et ceteris in sempiternam servitutem tradiderunt."f 



There was a second legal process whereby a creditor might 

 recover from the debtor, or the wronged might exact an eric or 

 fine from the wrongdoer, and this was by levying a distress. 



* St. Patrick cursed the Hy Ailell because his horses were stolen. The 

 Bishop he had set over them implored his pardon. He wiped the hoofs of Patrick's 

 horses in token of submission, but all in vain. The curse must fall. " Trip. 

 Life," 145. St. Aedan (Maidoc) cursed the King- of the Hy Niall, who held his 

 son-in-law a prisoner. By the instrumentality of a youth the curse was deflected 

 from the king to a rock, which it split. " Cambro-Brit, SS,," p. 244, 



f " Codex Salamanc," p. 217. 



