Macalister — Temair Breg : Remains and Traditions <>/' Turn. 357 



Fal was not the only "speaking stone" that Ireland possessed. The 

 glosses to Fiilire Oengusso, which contain so much valuable folk-lore material, 

 umler the date 15 August, tell us of a stone at Clogher. Co. Tyrum-, adorned 

 with gold and silver, called Germand Cestach, that is, apparently, Cermand 

 of the Questions — a suitable name for an oraele-^ivcr. Out of this stone, 

 says the note, a demon used to speak — just as Keating tells us a demon 

 spoke out of the stone of Fal; and, on the testimony of the t,di>ssai<>r, it was 

 still to be seen in the form of a short stone on the right-han 1 side as one 

 entered Clogher Cathedral. The marks of the "joints of gold and silver" 

 with which it was decorated were still visible when the note was written. 

 There is a stone now standing near the cathedral, supposed locally to be the 

 stone referred to. I have not seen it, but to judge from a description, with a 

 sketch, that has been most kindly sent me by the Rev. J. E. M'Kenna, P.l\, 

 M.U.I. A., I feel sure that it cannot be the original stone, but (as he suggests) 

 a block— a lintel or sill-stone, perhaps —from some of the predecessors of the 

 present cathedral building. 



Now another "idol" of Ireland was decorated with gold. This was the 

 figure called variously Cromm Criiaich and Cenn Criiaich ; and when we 

 notice that the name Cermand is merely what the late Lewis Carroll called a 

 "portmanteau word," made up of the alternatives Cromm and Cenn, we are 

 led to infer that the deity so styled was represented by the stone of Clogher. 

 That St. Patrick's Cromm was a speaking stone may be inferred from the 

 name of the " water " near it, Guth Aid, to which reference has already been 

 made ; and it is curious that in the description of the prostrations before 

 Cromm Criiaich, in which king Tigermnas met his death, we are told that 

 "three-fourths of the men, women, boys, and girls of Ireland died" — the 

 same expression that Adamnan is made to use in the prophecy attributed 

 to him. 



The pillar of Cnamchoill and the stone of Forcarthu — the latter perhaps 

 a lum-dia or small hand-stone — were very likely other oracular stones of the 

 same kind. The well-known Clock Labhrais in Stradbally parish. Co. Water- 

 ford, 1 and whatever stone gave its name to Clolourish townland in the 

 neighbourhood of Enniscorthy 2 — itself called altera standing stone, whether 

 the same or some other— may also have been oracular stones, worked in the 

 same way as Fal. A Christian analogy to these oracular stones may be 

 quoted from the Lismore Life of St. Patrick. 3 The stone on which St. Patrick 

 was born was wont to shed tears when a false oath was pronounced over it. 



1 See Power's Place-names of the Decies, p. 174. for this stone and its legend. 



2 Joyce's Social History, i, 'J77- 



3 Ed. Stokes, line 50. 



