154 Proceedings of the B.oy(d IrUh Ac'idemi/. 



still preserved in Lake Einii and the river Pdnn. AVe have no means 

 of identifying the exact site of Cail Boidmail ; but its vrhereahouts 

 seems to- be indicated clearly enough. It was ad alnev.m Sinone. 

 The question arises : why did Tirechan, whose language is always 

 plain and unadorned, use this phrase, which recurs 3122, and SlSj, 

 instead of saying simply ad Sinonam ? There can, I think, be only 

 one answer. Eequiring a Latin word to express the swellings or 

 lakes of the Shannon, Tirechan adopted aJueus as the best equivalent 

 he could find.^ Otherwise alueus in these passages is perfectly 

 unmeaning. Xow the Shannon- swelling which Patrick woiild reach, 

 advancing westward from Granard through the plain of Pdnn, is that 

 which is known as lakes Bofin and Boderg. The inference is that 

 Cail Boidmail was somewhere on the eastern bank of these lakes. 



§ 2. Digression oti Mag SlecM. — An interesting question presents 

 itself here, bearing on the criticism of Tirechan's text. In later 

 biographies, which depend largely on Muirchu and Tirechan, we find 

 a notice that Patrick visited Mag Slecht, where Crom Cruach was 

 worshipped, and cast down the idol. Xow, this incident is not recorded 

 in the documents contained in the Codex Aiinachanus ; and therefore it 

 might seem reasonable to infer that it was a story of later origin than the 

 events, whether legendary or historical, recorded by Tirechan and 

 Muirchu. On general grounds I do not feel that such an inference 

 would be quite safe; but there are certain particular considerations in 

 this case which must make us hesitate. ITie later biographies, to 

 which I referred, are those which it is usual to designate, following 

 Colgan's nomenclature, as the Vita Tertia, Tita Quarta, and Yita 

 Tripartita. Xow, in the Tita Tertia, the story of Mag Slecht (c. 46) 

 is inserted immediately after the incidents connected with Coirpre and 

 Conall, sons of IS'iall (c. 43 and 44), and immediately before the tale of 

 the darkness which the magicians drewdown upon Mag'Ai, when Patrick 

 entered Connaught. In the Tita Quarta, the visit to Mag Slecht 

 (c. 53) occurs in exactly the same position (between Coirpre and 

 Conall (c. 51, 52), and the darkness on Mag 'Ai (c. 54)). As these two 

 Lives are quite independent of each other, this is highly significant, 

 for it shows that both depended here on a common source in which 

 these incidents were related in this order. Xowthe stoiy of the two 

 sons of 2s'iall, and the legend of the magic darkness, are derived from 

 Tirechdn ; so that the conclusion which naturally presents itself is 



^ The association of ahteus,' river-bed,' v,-hh.a!>{i<s, ' paunch,' explains the use of 

 the former Mord bv Tirechan. 



