Bury — The Itinerary of Patrick in Coiutamjld. 161 



crossing as Vaduin Duorum [_sic\ Auium, or Snamh-du-en, which was 

 a wholly different place. 



In the case of a more commonplace name, one might, with some 

 reason, leap to the conclusion that there were two places so called on tho 

 Shannon — one at L. Bofin, and one near the later monastery of Clon- 

 macnois. But the ' Swimming-place of the Two Birds' hardly lends 

 itself to such a facile explanation, which we should have no difficulty 

 in accepting if the name were, for example, the ' Swimming-place of 

 the Ox ' ; and it seems to me that we can hardly escape the conclusion 

 that Tirechan did not intend to associate Patrick's crossing-place with 

 the name Snamh-da-en, and that an error has crept into his text. The 

 thought naturally occurs that the Vadum might have been known by 

 the name of the two cows, the red cow and the white cow, Boderg and 

 Bofin, which gave its names to the river-swelling. If Tfrechan wi'ote 

 Vadum duarum vaccarum (to translate Snamh-da-bo), and if vaccarum 

 fell out accidentally (through homoeoteleuton), it is easy to conceive that 

 duarum might have been corrected to duarum auium by a scribe to whom 

 the name of the Snarah-da-en was familiar, but who had no accurate 

 knowledge of the geography of the Shannon.^ 



§ 4. From Moyglass, the saint proceeds, in the pages of Tirechan, to 

 the territory of the ' Corcu-chonluain ' ; ^ and one of the chiefs of this 

 tribe (one of two brothers, named Ith and Hono, described as magi) 

 welcomed Patrick, ' et immolauit sibi domum suam et exiit ad 

 Imbliuch Hornon.' It seems probable that Mornon is an error for 

 Honon (genitive of Bono) ; and this is the view suggested by the 

 Tripartite Life (p. 94), where ' Imlecb Onand ' is the dwelling of 

 Ono, *de quo Ui Onach.' If this correction is legitimate, one 



^ As tliere was a Driiim-da-en near the Sn&,mh-d4-en on the river-reach 

 helowAthlone, so it is possible that, if there was a Snamh-da-L6, there may have 

 been a ridge of corresponding name. The modern Drum-sna is north of the river- 

 swelling ; but it may at least be suggested that the ridge from which the place 

 derives its name was called from the ancient Vadum — the ridge of the Snaiuh 

 (d^ bo). At all events Drum-sna must be short for a fuller name in which the 

 particular sndmh was designated. 



- The name (suggesting stercus caninum) is puzzling ; but the Corcii Ochlaiid (so 

 Vit. Trip. 94) are meant. Their territory is described in Vita Trip, (ib.) as ' on 

 this side of the land of the Hy Ailella, and to the north of Sliav Baune.' See 

 O'Donovan, 'Annals of Four Masters,' a.d. 1256, p. 458, tiote ; and 'Topogra- 

 phical Poems of John O'Dubhagain, &c., notes, p. xl, on the Corca Sheachlann or 

 Corca Achlann, one of the three tuathas which formed a deancrv in the diocese 

 of Elphin. 



