is no doubt
meant to honour him, as indicating that the fulfilment of his monastic
duties were yet more precious in his eyes. Moling forgot his book when
reading by the sea-shore, and though the tide arose and covered it, it
remained uninjured (VSH, ii, 191). There are numerous illustrations
of the paramount need of attending to guests scattered through the
saints' Lives.

The story of the grain cast into the breast of a poor man has come
down to us in confusion: it is not clear why the chariot is introduced
at all. Probably we have a conflation of two incidents. In the one
(which is the version followed by LA, for which see Sec. 26 of that
document) Ciaran gave to a pauper a chariot and horses which the
prince Oengus son of Cremthann had given him: as that prince belongs
to the boyhood stories, it is probable that this incident should be
transferred to that section of the Life. In the other incident, which
may belong to the Isel period, Ciaran flings grain into the breast of
the poor man, where it turns into gold: and we may suppose that the
pointless re-transformation of the gold to grain did not take place. A
similar tale is told of Saint Aed (VSH, ii, 308). The weird story of
the jester who stopped the funeral of Guaire, king of Connacht, famous
for his abounding liberality, and demanded a gift of the dead man, is
of the same type; we are told that the dead king scooped up some earth
with his hand, and flung it into the jester's lap, where it became
pure gold.[21]

XXXVI. THE REMOVAL OF THE LAKE (LA, LB, VG)

The island in the lake was probably a crannog, or artificial fortified
island, such as are common on the lakes of Ireland. Fundamentally the
story is an evident aetiological myth, intended to account for the
existence of some curious swampy hollow. In its present form it is
obviously suggested by Matt, xvii, 20. Note that VG does not seem to
contemplate the wholesale removal of the lake.

_Parallels_ are not wanting. Findian dried up a lake by prayer (CS,
192); and houses were shifted from the west side to the east side of
a flood for the convenience of Colum Cille (LL, 858). Saint Cainnech,
finding the excessive singing of birds on a certain island to be an
interruption to his devotions, compelled them to keep silence (CS,
376; VSH, i, 161).

XXXVII. CIARAN DEPARTS FROM ISEL (LA, VG)

_Parallels._--The nuns of Brigit made a similar complaint against the
excessive charity of their abbess (LL, 1598)