Cornish dedications. 415 



there. S. Patrick had been dead a good many years before this. 

 Winwaloe's imagination had been lired by the account given 

 him by his master, Budoc, of the work and success of Patrick. 

 Budoc had been brought up himself, if not in Ireland, at all 

 events by Irish monks, and probably in Cornwall. It is absurd, 

 as some Breton historians have done, to take this apparition, or 

 supposed apparition, as fixing the date of AVinwaloe's early life 

 in Lauret. We do not know whether he ever had the dream, and, 

 if he had, whether it was exactly as related by the author of his 

 life. 



When the young enthusiast woke, he found that his sudden 

 enthusiasm for Ireland had evaporated, and he resolved on 

 remaining in Brittany. 



AVhilst he was at home, a tame stork flew at Winwaloe's 

 little sister (Jreirwe, and would have pecked out her eye, had not 

 Winwaloe intervened. This was magnified by the biographer 

 into a marvel. The stork is said to have swallowed the eyeball, but 

 Winwaloe made the bird disgorge, and he replaced the ball, and 

 Creirwe suffered no ill effects from the accident. A writer who 

 could so manipulate a simple incident is not to be trusted when 

 dealing with a dream. 



He induced eleven companions to accompany him, and this 

 swarm crossed to the mainland, then turned west, and continued 

 its course till it reached the mouth of the Aulne. There 

 Winwaloe saw an inland sea — 



With all its fairy groups 

 Of islands that together lie. 

 As quietly as spots of sky, 

 Among the summer clouds. 



He singled out one of these, that bore the peculiar name of 

 Topegig, but now called Tibidi, and resolved on settling in it. 

 The little party at once crossed, built cells on the island, and 

 made a garden. 



But the soil was scanty, and the winds fi-om the Atlantic 

 howled and tore over the bare surface of the isle. Nevertheless, 

 the little community clung to it for three years, but the conviction 

 was slowly forming in Winwaloe's mind that the site was unde- 

 sirable and he would be forced to quit it. 



