128 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Conflict of Adam and Eve vjith Satan, pp. 29, 56). The other conflicting 

 theories need not detain ns. 



Half apple. — Various comestibles have been suggested as the Forbidden 

 Fruit. It is said that the apple first appears as such in the writings of 

 Yenantius Fortunatus, 530-609 {Irish Church Q.uarterly, April, 1909, p. 107). 

 It occurs also in a poem Genesis, sometimes attributed to Salvian of 

 Marseilles (d. about 495) , and in the Instructions of Commodianvs (Ante-Nicene 

 Library, vol. xviii, pp. 296, 451). That Adam and Eve each ate an exact half 

 of the apple appears to be an Irish conception. It is also found in a poem in 

 Cod.. Pal. Vat., p. 47, in the L. Breac prose version, and in a poem on the 

 Harrowing of HeU in 'Eriu, iv, p. 112. This may perhaps be influenced by a 

 passage in A, section 9, where Eve desires to bear half of Adam's death-pangs, 

 because it is through her they have come upon him. In A, section 19, 

 it is said that the serpent put on the fruit the poison of desire {lust, 

 Issaverdens, p. 1-3). This is not in S, but appears to have influenced a passage 

 in one of the I-. Breac Homilies (ed. R. Atkinson, p. 494], where Eve's 

 gazing on the tree is treated of under the head of Adultery. 



Canto XI. — Peiumce in river. — This custom was practised in Ireland by 

 both saints and sinners. It is said of St. Mobheoc of Lough Derg (Donegal) 

 that " often in bowing his head he plunged it under water. " St. Adamnan 

 stood up to his neck in a stream when fasting against Irgalach {Silva 

 Gadelica, ii, p. 442). St. Fursa used to recite his psalms standing in a well 

 as cold as snow {Zeit. fur Celt. Phil., i, p. 64). During Lent St. Fechin of 

 Fore was wont to pray at midnight in a stream {Eev. Celt., xii, p. 332). A 

 curious story is told in Carrigan's Hutory of Ossory, ii, p. 315, of a robber 

 and a hermit doing penance together in the Elver Nore. Similarly the 

 robber Merlino stands in a stream with the same object {Fis Meiiino, ed. 

 E. A. S. Macalister, p. 64). 



Fastiny upon God. — Miss Hull has kindly given me some references 

 which illustrate this passage. Fasting upon a debtor was part of the process 

 of distress among the ancient Irish. The resemblance between this and the 

 Hindoo law of " sitting Dharna " has often been noted [Ancient lavjs of 

 Ireland, i, pp. xlviii, 82n., 83, 113, 117). The twelve saints of Ireland fasted 

 on Dermot at Tara for a year in the quarrel for the secular power of the 

 Kiug against the Church. Dermot, in his turn, fasted against them, but 

 they proved too strong {Silva Gadelica, ii, pp. 71, 72). Adamnan and 

 Irgalach fast against each other (ibid., p. 442). A monk fasts against God 

 on account of the heavy additional burden the death of his comrades lays 

 upon him with respect to saying prayers, etc. (Stokes, Lives of SS. frumHooh 

 of Lismore, p. ix). The nobles of Ireland fast upon God to bring a plague to 



