OLpEN—On the Culebath. 300 
LI.—On tHe CutespatH. By Rev. THomas Oxpen, B. A. 
[Read, April 13, 1885.] 
In Dean Reeves’s Adamnan he discusses the nature of a sacred object 
which belonged to St. Columba, and is said to have been preserved at 
Kells in the eleventh century. It was known as the culebath or cuile- 
faidh. The word does not occur in any dictionary or glossary, and the 
Dean endeavours to arrive at its meaning by a collation of the passages 
in which it occurs. How far these afford material for a decision will 
appear from a brief review of them. 
The first is from the Annals of Ulster, a. p. 1084, and is as 
follows :— 
Macnia ua h-uchtain, lecturer, of Kells, was lost on his voyage 
from Scotland, and Columcille’s culebadh and three of St. Patrick’s 
reliques and thirty men with him. 
Again, at a. p. 1128— 
The successor of St. Patrick was openly outraged in his presence, 
for his retinue were plundered and some of them were killed, and a 
clerical student of his own people, who bore a culebadh, was slain there. 
In the Annals of Tigernach, a. p. 1090— 
The reliquaries of Columcille, viz. the Bell of the Kings and the 
eullebaigh, came from Tirconnel with 120 oz. of silver, and Aongus 
O’Domnallain was the one who brought them from the North. 
In the Book of Ballymote also the word occurs in connexion with 
St. Columba and St. Ceallach. 
In none of these passages is there anything to throw light on the 
nature of the culebath; and I pass on to an extract from the preface to 
the Amra of Columcille, in which the saint is described as ‘‘ covering 
his head that he might not see the men or women of Ireland.” In this 
the word culpait occurs; but the introduction of this passage into the 
discussion appears to have been a mistake, as culpait is not the same 
word as culebath, and it has been translated ‘‘ collar”? by Mr. Hennessy, 
in the Life of St. Columba, from the Leabhar Breac. 
There remains only one passage more, from the legend known as 
the ‘‘Sea Wanderings of Snedgus and MacRigail.” 
‘And the bird gave a leaf of the leaves of that tree to the clerics, 
and it was as large as the hide of a great ox; and told the clerics to 
take it with them and place it on the altar of Columcille. And that is 
the ewilefacdh of Columeille at this day, and it is at Kells that it is.” 
This is the only passage which yields any information ; and as we 
learn nothing more from it than that the culebath might be likened to 
the leaf of a tree, it does not heip very much. 
Four years later appeared O’Curry’s ‘“‘ Lectures on the Manuscript 
Materials of Irish History.’’ He goes over the same ground, but omit- 
