Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 325
and that they usually acfjuire it, while themselves under the
pressure of melancholy.
Will good St (h-an's ride prevail.—P. 314. v. 1.
St Oran was a friend and follower of St Columba, and waa
buried in Icolrakill. His pretensions to be a saint were rather
dubious. According to the legend, he consented to be buried
alive, in order to pro])itiate certain daemons of the soil, who obstructed
the attempts of Columba to build a chapel. Columba
caused the body of his friend to be dug up, after three days
had elapsed ; when Oran, to the horror and scandal of the as-
sistants, declared, that there was neither a God, a judgment,
nor a future state ! He had no time to make further discove-
riesj for Columba caused the earth once more to be shovelled
over him with the utmost dispatch. The chapel, however, and
the cemetery, was called Rclig Ouran ; and, in memory of his
rigid celibacy, no female was permitted to pay her devotions,
or be buried, in that place. This is the rule alluded to in the
jjoem.
And thrice St Fillan's powerful prayer.—P. 320. v. 5.
St Fillan has given his name to many chapels, holy fountains,
&c. in Scotland. He was, according to Camerarius, an Abbot
of Pittenween, in Fife ; from which situation he retired, and
died a hermit in the wilds of Glenurchy, A. D. 649. While en-
gaged in transcribing the Scriptures, his left hand was observed
to send forth such a splendour, as to afford light to that with
which he wrote ; a miracle which saved many candles to the
convent, as St Fillan used to spend whole nights in that exer-
cise. The 9th of .January was dedicated to this saint, who gave
his name to Kilfillan, in Renfrew, and St Phillans, or Forgend,
in Fife. Lesley, lib. 7., tells us, that Robert the Bruce was
possessed of Fillan's miraculous and luminous arm, which he
inclosed in a silver shrine, and had it carried at the head of his
army. Previous to the battle of Bannockburn, the king's chap-
lain, a man of little faith, abstracted the relique, and deposited
it in some place of security, lest it should fall into the hands