Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Household Stories. 1
ing the contemptible vermin to thrust their whiskers
into the egg intended for his dinner. He was at
Cruachan in Connaught at the time, but the venom
of his verse disagreeably affected King Iriisan, in his
royal cave at Knowth, on the Boyne. He (the cat)
took the road, and never stopped for refreshment, till, in
the presence of the full court at Cruachan, he seized on
the pestilent poet, and throwing him on his back, swept
eastwards across the Shannon in full career. His intent
was to take him home and make a sumptuous meal of
him, assisted by Madame Sharptooth, his spouse, their
daughter of the same name, and Roughtooth and the
Purrer, their sons. However, as he was cantering
through Clonmacnois, St. Kiaran, who, like his Saxon
brother, St. Dunstan, was a skilful worker in metals,
espied him while hammering on a long red-hot bar of
iron. The saint set very small value on Seanchan as a
bard, but, regarding him as a baptized man, he deter-
mined to disappoint the revengeful Irusan. Rushing
out of his workshop, and assuming the correct attitude
of a spear-thrower, he launched the flaming bar, which,
piercing the cat near the flank, an inch behind the
helpless body of the bard, passed through and through,
stretched the feline king expiring in agony, and gave
the ill-conditioned poet a space for repentance.
Not only can a general resemblance be traced in all
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