e Stanzas in VG._--The metre is _ae freslige_. Literally: "I shall
speak witness truly / though single is thy numerous train // thou
shalt be a king pleasant, dignified / of Ireland this time to-morrow
/// The slaying of chosen Tuathal / Moel-Garb, it was a crying without
glory // thence is the choice saying / 'it was the deed of Moel-Moire'
/// Without rout and without slaughter / he took Uisnech, it was not
after an assembly // Diarmait the eminent gave / a hundred churches to
God and to Ciaran."

_The Episode of Tren_ (VG).--This story illustrates a belief in
sympathetic magic. What Tren had done to deserve this punishment is
unknown, nor is the site of Cluain Iochtar identified. Possibly he had
endeavoured to prevent Ciaran from founding his church; compare the
story of Findian and Baeth (LL, 2624). Patrick had a dispute with a
certain Trian, but the details of the story are different (TT, p. 45,
ch. lxxx, etc.). It is difficult for us to put ourselves into the
position of people who thought to honour their saint by telling a
story about him which we should consider not only silly but immoral.
But such an attempt must be tried if we are to understand anything of
ancient writings, in whatever language and from whatever countries
they may come down to us. Even when we read so modern and so universal
an author as Shakspere we must for the moment imagine ourselves
sixteenth-century Elizabethans; the more we succeed in doing so, the
better do we understand what we read. So, in criticising a story like
this, we must rid ourselves of all our twentieth-century prejudices,
and accept it in the simple faith of those to whom it was intended to
be told.

On one of the great carved crosses still to be seen in
Clonmacnois--that erected in memory of Flann King of Ireland (ob.
914)--there is a panel representing an ecclesiastic and a layman
holding an upright post between them. It has been plausibly
conjectured that this represents the erection of the corner-post of
the church, as described in our text.

XLIII. HOW CIARAN SENT A CLOAK TO SENAN (LA, VG)

The "Cloak of Senan" must have been an actual relic preserved on Inis
Cathaig; tradition said that it had been floated on the river to the
saint of the island, though there were various opinions as to which
saint had done the miracle; it is attributed to Brigit daughter of Cu
Cathrach (LL, 2399) and to Diarmait (CS, 753). For parallels to the
automatic transfer of objects by