_father_, who, so far from
refusing his request, bade him go through the herd and take whatever
beast would follow him. "The Dun Cow of Ciaran" yielded to the test.
Further, the same cow followed him when he left Clonard, instead of
remaining with Ninned as in the _Lives_ before us.

Note how the author of LA has been unable to keep a very human touch
out of his arid record: _matri displicebat, uolebat enim eum secum
semper habere_. This is our last glimpse of poor Darerca, and it does
much to soften the rather lurid limelight in which our homilists place
her.

_The Division of Kine and Calves._--This miracle is one of the most
threadbare commonplaces of Irish hagiographical literature; it is most
frequently, as here, performed by drawing a line on the ground between
the animals with the saint's wonder-working staff. It is attributed,
_inter alia_, to Senan (LL, 1958), Fintan (CS, 229), Ailbe (with
swine, CS, 240), and Finan (CS, 305).

_A miraculous abundance of milk_ was also given by kine belonging to
Brigit (CS, 44) and to Samthann (VSH, ii, 255).

_The Hide of the Cow._--Plummer quotes other illustrations of such
mechanical passports to the Land of the Blessed (VSH, i, p. xciii).
The main purpose of this whole incident is doubtless to explain the
origin of a precious relic, preserved at Clonmacnois. Its history
is involved in some doubt: it is complicated by the fact that there
exists a well-known manuscript, now preserved in the library of the
Royal Irish Academy, written at Clonmacnois about A.D. 1100, and
called the _Book of the Dun Cow_, from the animal of whose hide the
vellum is said to have been made. But whether this book has any
connexion with the Dun Cow of Ciaran may be considered doubtful. For
down to the comparatively late date at which our homilies were put
together, the hide of Ciaran's Dun was evidently preserved _as a
hide_, on or under which a dying man could lie: therefore it cannot
have been made into a book. Yet _Imtheacht na Tromdhaimhe_ (p. 124
of the printed text) tells us, for what it may be worth, that Ciaran
wrote the great epic tale called _Tain Bo Cualnge_ upon the hide of
the Dun Cow. There is actually a copy of this tale in the existing
book; but the book was written not long after the time when our
homilists were describing the relic as an unbroken hide. Either there
were two dun cows, or the name of the Manuscript has arisen from a
misunderstanding.

_The stanza in VG_ is ano