THE KING'S MIRROR 113 



stood a willow of large growth. Kevinus looked up 

 among the branches of the willow as if expecting to find 

 help and comfort there; then he saw that apples had 

 grown upon the willow, just as there would be on an 

 apple tree in the proper season. He picked three apples 

 and gave them to the youth, and after the lad had eaten 

 of these, his illness began to leave him and he was cured 

 of the malady. But the willow has ever since continued 

 to keep the gift that God gave it on that occasion, for 

 every year it bears apples like an apple tree; and since 

 that day these have always been called Saint Kevinus' 

 apples.* They have been carried into all parts of Ire- 

 land in order that those who are ill may partake of them; 

 and they seem to have virtue in all human ailments, for 

 those who eat of them appear to get relief. But they are 

 not sweet in taste and would not be wanted if men did 

 not prize them for their healing properties. Many won- 

 derful things have come to pass in Ireland which certain > 

 highly endowed saints have brought about in an in- / 

 stant; and these, too, must seem very marvelous. Thus / 

 far, however, we have spoken only of such things as have j 

 been achieved through a holiness so great that they re-^ 

 main as a testimony to this day and seem as wonderful 

 now as on the day when they first occurred. But those 

 other matters that men regard as surely genuine and 

 speak of as actual facts we may now proceed to point out. 

 In that country there is also a place called Themar,t 

 which in olden times was apparently a capital or royal 



* For a less detailed account of Saint Kevin and the wonderful willow, see 

 Giraldus, Opera, V, 113. Cf. riu, IV, 9. 



t Themar was the ancient royal seat Temhair, now Tara. It seems to be al- 

 luded to in Reliquiae Antiquae, II, 105. Cf. Eriu, IV, 10. 



