133 



An Irish Pranciscan, called Father Edmund Mac Cana, one of the 

 Clanbrassil Mac Canns, visited the spot in the early part of the seven- 

 teenth century ; and the interesting tract which records his experience is 

 preserved in manuscript, together with a topographical memoir of parts 

 of the counties of Antrim and Down, in the Irish collection of the Bur- 

 gundian Library at Brussels. It was kindly copied for me, in 1851, by 

 our late associate, Mr. Charles Mac Donnell, and I am thus enabled to 

 submit it to your consideration on the present occasion : — 



InsulcR Sand(B, seu Avonics, Siherniee Qbhumn, hrevis descriptio, 

 R. P. fratris Edmundi Mac Cana. 



Insula Sanda est in oceano Scotico ad occasum, uno milliari a 

 Kentiriae continenti sejuncta ; complectitur in circuitu unum magnum / 

 milliare. Solum jucundum, fructuum ac frugum, si coleretur, ferax. In 

 ea est sedicula S. JN'inniano sacra, ad cujus coenobium in Galvidia tota 

 insula spectat.'^ Conjunctum huic sediculse est ossarium sive sepul- 

 chretum quatuordecim filiorum sanctissimi viri Senchaniif Hiberni, 

 sanctitate illustrium, saxeo murulo septum, in quo sunt septemj gran- 

 dia et polita saxa, quibus sanctissima corpora teguntur; in quorum 

 medio erat obeliscus, altior hominis statura (ut mihi jam suggerit memo- 

 ria). JS'emo mortalium impune ingreditur ilium murulum. Lepidum est 

 quod mihi retulerunt insulani : gallinam, id loci ingressam, ova peperisse 

 et exclusisse ; pullos, cum jam prae setate egredi poterant, omnes intortis 

 coUis insigni spectaculo processisse. Eetulit mihi etiam grandior natu 

 insulanorum, et ferme omnium pater, hoc prodigium quod subscribe, 

 ^ngussius Mac Donellus,§ Kentirice ac insulae IlaB dinasta (quem 

 ipse jam olim vidi) ingressus est aliquando insulam, multa comitante 

 eaterva, inter quos etiam fuit prsecipua Kentiriae juventus. Cum forte 

 dinasta ac caeteri nobiles de rebus seriis tractarent, juventus, ut solet, 

 se pilae ac clavarum ludo exercebat ; pila vi clavae impulsa, priusquam 

 ab adversa manu juvenum excipi posset, altius in sacrum sepulchre turn 

 volavit. Juvenis, memor loci religionis, injecit tantum alterum pedum 

 et manuum, ad extrahendam pilam. Ab incolis reprehenditur quod 

 sacri loci majestatem violaverit, idque criminis eum impune minime la- 

 turum denunciant. Ille lusum nihilominus cum sociis persequitur. 

 Exacto lusu, ac appetente nocte, in hospitium se recipit, ad focum sedet; 



* St, Ninian's church, Candida Casa, now Whithorn, in Galloway. 



t Senchan is a well-known Irish name. We find it in Adamnan, in the form Sen- 

 chanus. The Irish calendars commemorate, at the 23rd of June, Clann ShenCQin, 

 ' The Sons of Senchan,' who are probably tlie fourteen here alluded to. 



J The combinations of seven are very frequent in Irish hagiology. There is a long 

 list of groups of seven bishops in the Leabhar Breac. An ancient cemetery in Tory 

 Island, off the coast of Donegal, is called The Muresker, i. e. Tnop f eif eop, ' great six,' 

 a well-known term denoting seven, A discussion of this frequent application of the term 

 seven to churches, saints, and periods in Irish tradition, would form the subject of a very 

 interesting paper. 



§ Concerning the Mac Donnells of Sanda, see New Statist. Acct. of Scotland, vol. vii., 

 pt, 2, p. 525. 



E. I. A. PE0C.~V0L. VIII. T 



