CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 23 



In tlie "Life" of S. Kieran we read that King Aengus went 

 with Patrick, to Saighir, and called on the Abbot to entertain 

 the whole royal and ecclesiastical retinue. This Kieran did ; he 

 slaughtered eight oxen, and broached so many casks of wine, 

 that it was said he must have turned the water of his well into 

 wine to furnish so much good liquor. Aengus no doubt did visit 

 Saighir, probably with some suspicion, but hardly can Patrick 

 have done so. 



Whether on this occasion or on another, we do not know, 

 but seven of King Aengus's harpers or bards were laid hold of 

 and concealed in a bog. It is likely that the abduction was 

 committed by some of the Mac Duach, who did not relish hearing 

 the bards sing exaggerated accounts of the ex]3loits of the victor, 

 and of their own expulsion from the land of their fathers. 

 Aengus took the matter in this light, sent for Kieran, and 

 stormed and threatened. Kieran was able to appease his resent- 

 ment only by recovering for him the seven men, who had been 

 kept in concealment in an inaccessible fastness surrounded by 

 bogs. In the "Life" he resuscitates dead men. 



One autumn day, Kieran noticed a magnificent bank of 

 blackberries, so large and luscious that, to preserve them from 

 rain and frost, he threw his mantle over it. 



Now it fell out that Aengus, King of Munster, and his wife 

 Ethnea, "the Odious," arrived on a visit to Cucraidh, the 

 usurper, in his dim. Ethnea was daughter of Crainthan and 

 granddaughter of Enna Cinnselach, who had banished the Clan 

 Cliu, and with it Cuach, Kieran' s nurse. Ethnea was 

 peculiarly odious to the Hy Duach. A projDhecy had been made 

 to the Deisi, of Waterford, that the man who should marry Ethnea, 

 who was being fostered among them, would give them wide and 

 fertile lands to colonise. Legend says that they fed her on the 

 flesh of infants to ri2Den her early — but this is an after adornment 

 of the tale. What is true is that, when she married Aengus, 

 mindful of her obligations to the Deisi, and perhaps of the 

 prophecy, she goaded on her husband to drive out the Ossorians 

 from Magh Eeimhin and give uj) their lands to the Deisi. 



When the royal pair arrived at the residence of Curcaidh, 

 they were well received, and Ethnea conceived a criminal passion 



