Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Legends of the Celtic Saints. 347
example 1" " My object was to root a strong vice out of
your heart. Give me the leg." So saying, he applied
the broad end of the limb to its place, tapped the animal
on the shoulder, and the next moment he was standing
up strong and uninjured ; but there was no appearance
of the stranger or his steed. While Eloi stood wrapped
in joy and surprise, he was sensible of these words distinctly
uttered, but he could not tell whether they were
heard in his heart or his brain :— " EHgius, remember the
promise made to your Guardian Angel."
Some collectors or inventors of saintly legends could
not divest themselves of a taste for the grotesque in
their misdirected zeal. We quote a narrative of this
class—that of
ST. LATEERIN OF CULLIN.
St. Lateerin lived at Cullin, near Millstreet, and her
sisters lived in her neighbourhood. They visited one
another once a week, and because they had to pass
through bogs and brakes, the angels made a fine road
for them connecting Kilmeen, Drumtariff, and Cullin,
where they respectively lived. St. Lateerin took only one
meal in tlie day, and when it was dressed she let her
fire go out. Every evening she went to the smith's forge
for the " seed of the fire," and carried it home miraculously
in the skirt of her long gown. One unfortunate
evening, the smith, who had been " looking at some one
drinking" that day, said, as she was walking away with
the bright coal in the fold of her robe, "Ah, Saint
Lateerin, what a darlin', purty, white foot you have !
Vanity took possession of her pure mind for a moment,
and she looked down, but what did she see and feel %
The red hot coal burn through her gown, and scorch her
ankles. She was naturally vexed with the smith, as well
"