Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

I TO Old Irish Reliorio7is.
cb
While it was popularly believed that the serpent tribe
once abounded there, some naturalists contend that Ireland
was cut off from the continent of Europe before the
troublers could travel so far to the north-west. An old
tradition is held that Niul, the fortunate husband of
Pharaoh's daughter Scota, had a son, Gaoidhial, who was
bitten by a serpent in the wilderness. Brought before
Moses, he was not only healed, but was graciously informed
that no serpent should have power wherever he or his
descendants should dwell. As this hero, of noble descent,
subsequently removed to Erin, that would be sufficient
reason for the absence of the venomous plague from the
Isle of Saints.
But, granting that the reptiles once roamed at large
.''
how came they extirpated thence
there,
Universal tradition in Ireland declares that St. Patrick
drove them all into the sea ;
and various, as well as often
humorous, are the tales concerning that event. The Welsh
monk, Jocelin, in 1 185, told how this occurred at Cruachan
Aickle, the mountain of West Connaught ; for the Saint
" gathered together the several tribes of serpents and
venomous creatures, and drove them headlong into the
Western Ocean." Others indicate the spot as the sacred
isle near Sligo— Innis Mura. St. Patrick's mountain,
Croagh Phadrig, shares this honour.
Giraldus Cambrensis, who went over the Irish Sea with
Henry II. in the twelfth century, having some doubt of the
story, mildly records that " St. Patrick, according to common
report, expelled the venomous reptiles from it by the
Baculiim Jesu " —the historical staff or rod. The Saint is
said to have fasted forty days on a mount previous to the
miracle, and so gained miraculous power. Elsewhere,
Giraldus says, " Some indeed conjecture, with what seems