CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 349 



SO, however, his brother B,ivalo or Rivold. He had kept quiet, 

 and Meliau did not suspect him of ambitious designs. But liivold 

 invited Meliau to a conference, and whilst conversing with him, 

 treacherously stabbed him, and Meliau is accounted a saint and 

 martyr. Meliau fell about 537. His son, Melor, was sent for by 

 his uncle, Eivold, who would have put him to death but for the 

 intervention of some of the chiefs. He, therefore, contented 

 himself with cutting off his right hand and left foot, so as to 

 incapacitate him for becoming a pretender to the throne, as 

 according to Celtic customary law, no one with a bodily defect 

 was eligible. 



The affection of the attendants for the young prince led them 

 to get a silver hand and a brazen foot fitted to the stumps, and 

 at once Divine power was manifested, in that the boy was able 

 to use these metal members as though they were flesh and 

 bone. For precaution, the child was sent to Quimper, and 

 placed in the Monastery of S. Corentine. Now it fell out one 

 day that Melor and other boys were nutting in a wood, and his 

 comrades made their little pile of hazelnuts, and brought them 

 to Melor, who at once took them with his silver hand. Moreover, 

 when he returned home, to the amazement of the good folk in 

 the street, they saw his silver hand passed through the grating 

 of the door, as he cast away the nutshells he had broken to get 

 at the kernels. One day he was playing with a toy catapult, 

 and shot his bolt which came down on a stone and penetrated it. 

 When he withdrew the bolt a spring gushed forth, and this 

 spring is shewn to this day at Meillars, near Pont-Croix in 

 Finistere. The tidings of these wonders having reached Eivold, 

 he sent for Cerialtan, the foster-father of Melor, and promised him 

 that if he would make away with the lad, he would give him as 

 much land as he could see from the top of Mont Coc. Cerialtan' s 

 greed was excited, and he confided the proposal to his wife. She 

 was horror-struck, and resolved on saving the boy. Whilst her 

 husband was away she fled with Melor and took refuge with the 

 wife of Conmor at Beuzit, as she was a daughter of Budic, and 

 aunt of Melor. Conmor is known in history, he was Count of 

 Pou Caer in Brittany. At a later period, 555, he was killed, 

 having usurped the sovereignty over Domnonia. He had a 

 quarrel with Gildas. Rivold was incensed, and he urged Cerialtan 



