e of _Cluain Cruim_ (LA) is unknown (perhaps Clooncrim, Co.
Roscommon). The _Desi_ (VG), or Dessi, were a semi-nomadic pre-Celtic
people once established in the barony of Deece, Co. Meath, but
afterwards in the baronies of Decies in Waterford: both these baronies
still bear their name. A branch of them settled in Wales. Evidently
the donors of the cauldrons which purchased the freedom of the saint
were of the Decies; they are said to have been Munster folk (the name
of the province is variously spelled).

XV. HOW CIARAN REPROVED HIS MOTHER (LA, LC)

I have found no parallel to this story; it contains no miraculous
element, and may quite possibly be at least founded on fact. Its chief
importance is the prominence given to the _materfamilias_.

XVI. THE BREAKING OF THE CARRIAGE-AXLE (LA, LC)

Unlike LA, LC seems to imply that the injury to the axle was not
repaired. This would be parallel to the story of Aed, who, when his
carriage met with a similar mishap, was able to continue his journey
on one wheel only (CS, 336; VSH, i, 36).

XVII. HOW CIARAN WENT WITH HIS COW TO THE SCHOOL OF FINDIAN (LA, LB,
LC, VG)

_The blessing of the Cow._--In this story we again note the prominence
of the _materfamilias_: it is she who in most of the versions
withholds the desired boon. Note how LB endeavours to tone down the
disobedience of the saint by making the cow follow him of her own
accord, or, rather, upon a direct divine command. The _Annals of
Clonmacnois_ presents the story in a similar form: "He earnestly
entreated his parents that they would please to give him the cow
[which had been stolen and recovered; _ante_, p. 108], that he might
go to school to Clonard to Bishop Finnan, where Saint Colum Cille ...
and divers others were at school: which his parents denied: whereupon
he resolved to go thither as poor as he was, without any maintenance
in the world. The cow followed him thither with her calf; and being
more given to the cause of his learning than to the keeping of the
cows, having none to keep the calf from the cow, [he] did but draw
a strick of his bat between the calf and cow. The cow could not
thenceforth come no nearer [_sic_] the calf than to the strick, nor
the calf to the cow, so as there needed no servant to keep them one
from another but the strick." A totally different version of the story
of the cow is recorded in the glosses to the _Martyrology of Oengus_
(9th September). Here Ciaran applied to his