94 
chenn apchenngalap iapnagabdil oobip ocapale icbaip 7 oabip 
imouda ape 7 Ropcchulactha j cam oupacep pochpi Lape 7 oobip 
cpor oicpaiiu fpopochtan oochinn 7 oogni acéipanopa oam u. 
Rfopcchiunn. 
‘‘Say this thing every day for thy head against headach ; after taking 
it, place thy spittle upon thy palm, and put it on thy temples, and on 
thy pole, and say thy Pater thereupon, and draw a cross with thy spittle 
on the top of thy head, and draw the form of a U on thy head.” 
We now come to inquire, concerning the Reichenau verses, who is 
the saint through whose intercession relief is sought for the head. Mone 
supposed him to be Aidus or Maidoc, the patron saint of Ferns. But 
he was son of Sedna. The Poem says— 
‘“€ Aido mech Prich benibula 
Posco puro precamina.” 
The scribe glosses mech by filio, and Prich by pater. The word filio 
might lead us to suppose that the scribe took Aido for the ablative of 
Aidus. But it rather seems to be the old Irish genitive, which ended in 
o, in such forms as Aedh, and as we actually find it in Adamnan’s Latin 
“Life of St. Columba.”* The other words are genitives also, and are 
the same as mec Opic, the form in which they occur in domestic autho- 
rities. We find, in the Calendars, at November 10, the commemoration 
of ‘‘Aedh mac Bric, Bishop of Cillair in Meath, and of Shabh-hag in 
Tir-Boghaine in Cinel Conaill.”” Of this saint there are lively traditions 
in Ireland, and his Life, copied from the Book of Kilkenny, is given by 
Colgan} at the 28th of February, which date is in opposition to the ex- 
press statement in the life, ‘‘ quarto idus Novembris migravit ad ceelum;” 
but a happy prolepsis, for, had the editor deferred the memoir till the 
legitimate day, it would not have seen the light. This Aedh, Aidus, 
or Hugh, was born in the early part of the sixth century, and was a 
contemporary of Sts. Columba, Brendan, and Cainnech. His death is 
placed by our Annalists at 589. This date tallies perfectly with his 
pedigree, which represents him as ‘‘Aedh son of Brec, son of Cormac, son 
of Crimthann, son of Fiacha, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages.” Niall 
died in the year 405, and thus five generations are allowed to fill up the 
184 years which intervened between his and St. Aedh’s death. From 
Fiacha, son of Niall, Aedh’s great-great-grandfather, descended the Cinel 
Fiachach, who occupied and gave name to a district in the south of West- 
meath, and adjoining part of King’s County, afterwards known as A?v- 
nelea, but which is now represented by the barony of Moycashel, on the 
borders of Westmeath and King’s County. Of these, St. Aedh was the 
tutelar saint, and the parish of Rahugh, in the barony just named, de- 
rives its name from him, its church having been founded by him within 
the precincts of a fort (castellum), which was granted to him by the 
local Chief; whence, as the Life tells us, the place was called Rath-Aeda, 
* Lib. i., cc. 10, 13, 43, pp. 37, 41, 82. Publ. Irish Archzol. Soc. 
+ Act. SS., pp. 418-423. 
