Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Ossianic and other Early Legends. 247
rup:ion of Cil-Mihil, "Church of St. Michael.'"_ The
later story-tellers, however, found it more to their purpose
to leave out the spiritual element, and so the legend
by degrees resumed its ancient character, substituting
Christian knights for three of the Ossianic heroes.
About the year 1808 a report ran through the Duflrey
that some spawn of the old serpent had made its appearance
in the pool, and was seen tearing across the fields
that divide it from Kennystown bog, and plunging into
one of the deepest bog-holes. Some hundreds of people
collected after Mass one Sunday, and, armed with pitchforks,
fishing-spears, and spades, perambulated the bog
the whole afternoon, with intent to slay the young worm.
They were obliged to separate towards nightfall without
a glimpse of him—head, body, or tail.
Our authority for the following legend was Owen
Jourdan, already mentioned. Poor Jourdan was a
genuine stoiy-telling genius. He was not the mere
talented Scealuidhe ; he not only had a sense of what
pleased and interested, but he could invent, if needful
— i.e. he could form a good narrative out of two or
three independent ones. With all his native powers of
deceiving his auditors while relating extraordinary things,
as if they had happened to himself, he was suspected
of believing in the existence of fairies, and their dwell-
ing in peculiar localities, such as the Rath of Cromogue.
As for raths in general, he would as soon think of plant-
ing a ridge of potatoes in the ancient cemeteries of
Kilmeashill or Templeshambo as of ploughing up the
green area of one of these circular remains. We have