Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

348 Fictions of the Irish Celts.
as with herself, and exclaimed, " May there never more
be a smith or his forge in ! CuUin " Curious readers
will do well during the excursion season to call at Cullin,
and ascertain whether the wish has been fulfilled.
If any fair or gentle reader, touched by the poetic or
romantic spirit of some of these saintly legends, desires
to make acquaintance with more of the same stamp, he
or she wuU save time, trouble, and expense by not buying
or borrowing the authorized Roman Catholic work on
the subject— " Lives of the Saints, by the Rev. Alban
Butler." They will meet with much biographical, his-
torical, and archaeological information, and the principal
events in the lives of his subjects, but a total absence of
romantic and a sparing use of supernatural events.
We are not to suppose that such legends as we have
given were deliberately fabricated by the early biographers
of the different holy personages and committed to wTiting.
They were the result of oral tradition, altered and en-
larged by many transmissions, till some scribe or other
secured the eightieth or hundredth version of some simple
narrative. A saint's memory falling into the hands of a
professional storj^-teller fared still worse. His imagina-
tion went to work. He cared to a certain extent for the
reputation of his subject ; but he cared, to an extent un'
limited, for the impression to be made by his narrative
upon his audience. He consequently borrowed passages
from the pagan poems and stories, Christianized them