Part 5 (1/2)

”Come, holy cleric, and baptise us without delay, for our death is near.

You will grieve after us, O Kemoc; but in truth you are not more sorrowful at parting from us than we are at parting from you. Make our grave here and bury us together; and as I often sheltered my brothers when we were swans, so let us be placed in the grave--Conn standing near me at my right side, Ficra at my left, and Aed before my face.”[43-1]

Come, holy priest, with book and prayer Baptise and bless us here: Haste, cleric, haste, for the hour has come And death at last is near!

Dig our grave--a deep, deep grave, Near the church we loved so well; This little church, where first we heard The voice of the Christian bell.

As oft in life my brothers dear Were sooth'd by me to rest-- Ficra and Conn beneath my wings, And Aed before my breast;

So place the two on either hand-- Close, like the love that bound me; Place Aed as close before my face, And twine their arms around me

Thus shall we rest for evermore, My brothers dear and I; Haste, cleric, haste, baptise and bless, For death at last is nigh!

[43-1] In Ireland, in old times, the dead were often buried standing up in the grave. It was in this way Finola and her brothers were buried.

[Ill.u.s.tration: An Ogham stone. See note, next page.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bronze spear-head. A long handle was fixed in the socket and fastened by a rivet.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bronze sword. A hilt was fixed on by rivets.]

Then the children of Lir were baptised, and they died immediately. And when they died, Kemoc looked up; and lo, he saw a vision of four lovely children, with light, silvery wings, and faces all radiant with joy.

They gazed on him for a moment; but even as they gazed, they vanished upwards, and he saw them no more. And he was filled with gladness, for he knew they had gone to heaven; but when he looked down on the four bodies lying before him, he became sad and wept.

And Kemoc caused a wide and deep grave to be dug near the little church; and the children of Lir were buried together, as Finola had directed--Conn at her right hand, Ficra at her left, and Aed standing before her face. And he raised a grave-mound over them, placing a tombstone on it, with their names graved in Ogham;[45-1] after which he uttered a lament for them, and their funeral rites were performed.

[45-1] Ogham, a sort of writing often used on tombstones to mark the names of the persons buried. It consisted of lines and points generally cut on the edges of the stone.

So far we have related the sorrowful story of the Fate of the Children of Lir.

From ”Old Celtic Romances,” by P. W. JOYCE, LL.D.

IX.

HOW RELIGION AND LEARNING FLOURISHED IN IRELAND.

As soon as St. Patrick had entered on his mission in Ireland, he began to found monasteries, which continued to spread through every part of the country for hundreds of years after his time. Though religion was their main object, these establishments were among the chief means of spreading general enlightenment among the people. Almost every monastery had a school or college attached, at the head of which was some man who was a great scholar and teacher. The teachers were generally monks: but many learned laymen were also employed. Some colleges had very large numbers of students: for instance, we are told that there were 3000 in each of the two colleges of Clonard and Bangor[46-1]; and many others might be named, which, though not so large, had yet several hundred students in each.

[46-1] Clonard, in Meath, on the Boyne. Bangor, in the Co. Down.

In these monasteries and their schools all was life and activity. The monks were always busily employed; some at tillage on the farm round the monastery--ploughing, digging, sowing, reaping--some teaching, others writing books. The duty of a few was to attend to travellers, to wash their feet and prepare supper and bed for them: for strangers who called at the monastery were always received with welcome, and got lodging, food, and attendance from the monks, all free. Others of the inmates, again, employed themselves in cooking, or carpentry, or smithwork, or making clothes, for the use of the community. Besides all this they had their devotions to attend to, at certain times, both day and night, throughout the year. As for the students, they had to mind their own simple household concerns, and each day when these were finished they had plenty of employment in their studies: for the professors kept them hard at work.

There were also great numbers of schools not held in monasteries, conducted by laymen, some for general learning, such as History, Poetry, Grammar, Latin, Greek, Irish, the Sciences, &c.; and some for teaching and training young men for professions, such as lawyers and doctors. And these schools helped greatly to spread learning, though they were not so well known outside Ireland as the monastic schools.