4 24 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



agreed that the true Fweecawn "Wirre was Trodlvas anibUicctius. Amongst the 

 variants I found current I select the following as the most circumstantial. It 

 was given me by a native islander, a boatman under forty years of age, and I 

 reproduce it here as closely as possible in his own words, without attempting 

 to modernize his grammar or to represent phonetically Ms western pronuncia- 

 tion. Though an Irish speaker, he gave me the legend in English : — 



"' One time the Jews were chasing St. Patrick all over Ireland to kill 

 him, and at last they caught him and buried him deep in the ground. And 

 then the Jews went off with themselves and came into a house to get their 

 supper. It was a cock they put into the pot, and, as they were sitting there 

 waiting for it to be cooked, says one of them : — ' I don't know is there any 

 fear of the saint rising up again on us ? ' And another of them made answer 

 with a laugh : — ' Ay is there, just as much fear as there is of that cock there 

 in the pot rising up and crowing twelve times.' Audio and behold you, the 

 words were hardly out of his mouth when up the cock rose in the pot and let 

 twelve crows out of him. And when the Jews heard that, it was real mad 

 they got, for well they knew by it that the saint had made a miracle 

 and rose up on them. So away they went to hunt for him ; and the first 

 thing they met on the road was the Ppimpe&tl-ATi (Priiupellawn), and says 

 the Jews to the Primpellawn, ' Did you see Patrick passing this way ? ' 

 ' Ay did I,' says the Primpellawn ; ' I seen him uroe ' (in-yai), meaning 

 yesterday, for you see the Primpellawn wasn't wishing to give them Jews any 

 help at all, at all So away they went : and the next tiring they met was the 

 Ci-vpoj (Keerogue) and he walking along the road ; and they up and axed the 

 Keerogue if he seen the saint. And the Keerogue made answer that he seen 

 the saint sure enough, and that it's hiding himself in behind a Fweecawn he 

 was that was creeping over the rocks and putting a cap on the Fweecawn 

 when it drew back into its shell with him. So off them Jews set hot foot 

 down to the seashore to hunt for that Fweecawn with the saint in in it aud the 

 cap on it. P>ut it's well St. Patrick knew what they were after ; so what 

 does he do but put a cap on every one of them Fweecawns, and so sorrow 

 bit of them Jews could ever find the one he was hid in. And that's how 

 them Fweecawns came to have caps on them, for ne'er a one of them had a 

 cap on it before that." 



A Einvyle man I met at Louisburgh Quay gave me another version of the 

 legend, and illustrated his story by taking up a living specimen of Trochus 

 uniMlicatus, and pointing out the operculum as the " cap.'' This Fweecawn 

 he told me, never had a cap on it before, and it's had one ever since. He 

 went further and told me that " ne'er another one of them Fweecawns " 

 (using the word here in its wide generic sense) '•'has a cap on it at all'' 



