[10] He is said to have written this hymn at the instigation of Ultan, who died in 653, but, as Windisch remarks, mention is probably made of Ultan only because he is said to have been the first to collect the miracles of Brigit--"die Sprache," adds Windisch, "ist alterthümlich; besonders beachtenswerth sind die ziemlich zahlreichen Perfectformen." It is remarkable that the miracles attributed to Brigit are given in the same order in this hymn and in Cogitosus' life of her. The metre is irregular. "Ni bu Sanct Brigit suanach Ni bu húarach im seirc Dé, Sech ni chiuir ni cossena Ind nóeb dibad bethath che." The life by Cogitosus is evidently pre-Danish, and it is more likely to be an extension of the short metrical one, than that the metrical one should be a _résumé_ of it. If this is so it bespeaks a considerable antiquity for the Irish verses. [11] There is a fragment in the Irish MS. Rawlinson, B. 512, quoted somewhere by Kuno Meyer, which reminds one of this passage. It begins: "Now the island of Ireland, Inis Herenn, has been set in the west. As Adam's Paradise stands at the sunrise, so Ireland stands at the sunset, and they are alike in the nature of their soil," etc. [12] St. Ultan wrote a beautiful Irish hymn and also a Latin hymn to her--at least they are attributed to him--beginning-- "Christus in nostra insola Que vocatur hibernia Ostensus est hominibus Maximis mirabilibus. Que perfecit per felicem Celestis vite virginem Precellentem pro merito Magno in mundi circulo." See Todd's "Liber Hymnorum," vol. ii. p. 58. The Latin orthography of the Irish is seldom quite perfect. [13] This poem begins: "Ropadh maith lem corm-lind mór Do righ na righ Ropadh maith lem muinnter nimhe Acca hol tre bithe shír." _I.e._, "I would like a great lake of ale for the King of the kings, I would like the people of heaven to be drinking it through eternal ages," which sounds curious, but Brigit probably meant it allegorically. CHAPTER XV COLUMCILLE The third great patron Saint of Ireland, the man who stands out almost as conspicuously as St. Patrick himself in the religious history of the Gael, the most renowned missionary, scribe, scholar, poet, statesman, anchorite, and school-founder of the sixth century is St. Columcille.[1] Everything about this remarkable man has conspired to fix upon him the imagination of the Irish race. He was not, like St. Patrick, of alien, nor like St. Brigit, of semi-servile birth, but was sprung from the highest and bluest blood of the Irish, being son of Felemidh, son of Fergus, son of Conall Gulban--renowned to this day in saga and romance--son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, that great monarch of Ireland who ravaged Britain and exacted tributes far and wide from his conquered enemies.