OOBNISH DEDICATIONS. 521 



In Art he is represented with a fountain at his side, in "which 

 is a fish. 



There can be little hesitation in conjecturing that to him has 

 descended a mythological attribute. The sun is the imperish- 

 able gold-fish that swims athwart the basin of the blue sky. It 

 dies daily, and as often revives. 



The same story attaches to other saints, and therefore it is 

 probably an early myth which adhered, here and there, when the 

 Celtic people adopted Christianity. 



S. Cornelius, Pope, Martyr. 



Cornelly, as he is called both in Brittany and Cornwall, is the 

 patron of a little church near Tregony, charmingly situated, 

 nestling among trees on the sheltered side of a hill. How 

 Cornelius, Pope and Martyr, should have received veneration in 

 Brittany and Cornwall is difficult to explain, unless the names 

 were taken as having something to do with Corn* (Cornwall). He 

 is the patron of the church of Carnac, where his cult is of a pec- 

 uliar description. His feast begins on September 13, is attended 

 by enormous numbers, and is celebrated with great pomp ; after 

 High Mass, horned beasts are blessed at the door of the church. 

 These beasts, donations of the peasants of Cornelly, are then 

 conducted with a banner borne before them to the fair, where 

 they are sold for the profit of the church, and are eagerly 

 purchased, for the presence of one in a stable is thought to 

 guarantee the health of the rest for a twelve-month. On the 

 same day the inhabitants of Crach and Ploemel arrive in procession 

 to thank S. Cornelly for having delivered their cattle from 

 murrain. The feast of S. Cornelius is on September 16. 

 During the octave, at night, processions of oxen go about, to the 

 number of from twenty to forty, from one village to another. 



The whole savours much of a Christian adaptation of an old 

 Pagan sacrifice. But why associated with S. Cornelius is not 

 obvious. Very much the same custom existed in Wales at 

 Clynnog, in the diocese of Bangor. In 1589, in Leland's 

 Collectanea ii, p. 648, is found an account "from the library of 

 * Cornu,=horn. 



