34 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



The Magh Sleachfc idol was an object of national veneration. "Brave Gaels 

 used to worship it," " He was their god," proclaims the Dinnsenchus ode 

 of the Book of Leiuster.' Votaries flocked from far and near to prostrate 

 before Crom,- the men of Meath and of Leath-Mogha coming, like Patrick, 

 over the water name Guthard. But all alike, 



' ' They beat their palms, they pounded their bodies. 

 Wailing to the demon ^vho enslaved them, 

 They shed falling showers of tears. "^ 



The outbreaking of a mournful chant was evidently an accompaniment of 

 the ceremonies, and the pilgrim-hosts sailing over Guthard doubtless com- 

 menced their lamentations the moment Crom's dreaded figure was sighted on 

 the hill-top before them. At all events, the congregated Gaels made the 

 lake shores resound with their cries of supplication and self-reproach during 

 each recurrent festival; and the name Guthard was much more likely to 

 have originated from this acoustic phenomenon than from the single act of 

 voice-raising in which the Saint's indignation found vent. 



Before quitting Magh Eein Patrick ordained Bruscus to the priesthood 

 and placed him in charge of a church. The station assigned to Presbyter 

 Bruscus, or Brosc, seems to have been near an island — "Insula generis 

 Cothirbi" — which, during his lifetime, became the hermitage of a holy 

 recluse.^ The name Cothirbi, borne by the island's earlier owners, discovers 

 them, I suspect, to have been the same people as Colgan's " Cathraige' 

 Sleacht." Possibly these Cathraige were the custodians of Crom's shrine, 

 and the wardens of its water defences in front. As such they would have 

 garrisoned Tuam Seanchaidh, then a fortified mound, and subsequently a 

 residential seat of Breifni's dynasts ; while the islands of Guthard would 

 naturally have been leserved to their protecting charge. The ancient church 

 of the Moy, at Xewtowngore,^ possibly marks the spot where Bruscus first 

 opened his mission; while the retreat of his hermit-neighbour may have 

 been Church Island, or Inishmore, inside Garadise Lake.' 



Viewed from Magh Eein, in St. Patrick's time, the aspect of Darraugh 

 hill was very different from its present appearance. The rath was there, 



1 See " Voyage of Bran," p. 304. 



- See, e.g., "Vita Trip.," i, p. 219, and " Irish Lives from Book of Lismore," p. 161. 



^ " Voyage of Bran," loc- cit. 



* Siipra, p. 29, " Vita Trip.," vol. ii, p. 311. 



^ If 6 in Cothirbi were replaced by g, the names would be identical ; and this 6 may 

 quite easily have been a copyist's error. 



' See Lewis's '• Top. Diet.," vol. ii, p. 438. 



'' So such closeness of correspondence to the record as these places derive from the 

 proximity and antiquity of their ruined churches is elsewhere visible along the entire 

 route. 



