Revue celtique - National Library of Scotland

on S. Martin of Tours. Î95
« I am a robber » said he, « and for my evil déserts I was killed. « And
thus was that error removed through Martin.
24. When Martin was on his road thereafter he beheld a certain
heathen corpse borne with evil rites 's to its grave. Great crowds were
with it and over it white linen sheets with the wind disturbingthem. So
he thought it was idolworship that was being performed there-'. And
Martin raised against it the sign of the Cross and detained them in that
place. But when he understood that it was a corpse (going) to its grave,
he gave the sign of the Cross again and they went on at once. Wherefore
it was manifest that Martin had power of binding and loosing.
25. There was a pinetree which the heathen used to worship, and
Martin desired to eut it down. But the heathen would not let him. Said
one of them : « We ourselves will eut down this tree if thou wilt come
under it. » Martin consented thereto. So Martin was bound in the place
in which they were sure the tree would fall, and the heathen eut down
the tree with gladness. When Martin saw the tree falling upon him he
raised the sign of the Lord's Cross against it, and then the tree was
hurled back over him on the heathen, and it killed many of them, and
many of the heathen then believed in Christ and in Martin through that
miracle.
26. At anothertime Martin was burning an idol-temple and the wind
carried the flame to the neighbouring house. Martin signed the symbol
of the Cross against the flame, and the flame was turned back against
the wind though it was a marvel.
27. Martin desired to overthrow a certain great temple wherein was
fidolworship. But the heathen allowed him not. Two Angels with shields
and spears "^ came, and they hunted the heathen, and then the temple
was overthrown.
28. Then Martin went to attend a consumptive '7 girl who could not
stretch forth foot or hand. And he put consecrated oil into her mouth
and healed her straightway.
I .
s Co- forbannach an adverb derived from forbann « bad or false law, » O'Don. Supp.
to O'Reilly, p\. forbanda, Z.
N° 326.
87J, The root is bhadh or bhandk, Curtius Grundzùge,
a. Sulpicius Severus, IX, cxplains the cause of the Saint's mistake : « quia esset haec
Gallorum rusticis consuetudo, simulacra daemonum candide tecta velamine, misera per
.agros sucs circumferre dementia. » Hornius hère reminds us of the ambarvalia. Gibbon's
note (Décline and Fall, c. 28) is characteristic : — « The saint once mistook (as Don
Quixote might hâve done) an harmless funeral for an idolâtrons procession, and imprudently
comniitted a miracle. »
16. Armgaisccd. My rendering is conjectural : arm is — Lat. arma, and gaisced is
sometimes used to dénote weapons.
17. Anbrachtaige gen. sg. f. of anbrachtach, the opposite of brachtach 'fat' [curadmir
ferba bracktchi, LU. io