when there were only twenty-four paces between them, Ernan suddenly died before Columba could see his face, and breathed his last as he fell to the ground; and Adamnan adds, ‘that on the spot where he died a cross was raised _before the door of the kiln_, and another where Columba stood.’ It is obvious from this narrative that the kiln was between Columba’s cell and the landing-place, and the former must have been nearly as far to the north as the latter was to the south-east of it. There in his cell, overlooking the monastery, Columba sat and wrote or read, having one attendant and occasionally two of the brethren standing at the door and awaiting his orders; and here he slept on the bare ground with a stone for his pillow. From his cell there appears to have been a _via_ or road which crossed the mill-stream in front of the kiln, and led from thence to the harbour or landing-place now called _Port na muintir_.[197] Then the flat boulder stone fixes the site of the refectory and the other conventual buildings which formed the monastery proper. Adamnan indicates that it was at some distance from the eminence immediately behind Columba’s cell which overlooked it.[198] We learn from an incident mentioned by Adamnan in connection with Cainnech’s monastery of Achaboe in Ireland, that it contained a refectory in which was a table whereon the _eulogia_, or blessed bread, was divided;[199] and a curious passage in the preface to an old poem attributed to Columba shows us that the same custom was used at Iona, but that a large flat stone was used for a table. It is as follows:—‘On a certain day Columcille was in Hii, and no one was with him except Boithin; and they had no food except a sieve of oats. Then said Columcille to Boithin, “Illustrious guests are coming to us to-day, O Boithin;” and he said to Boithin, “Remain thou here ministering to the guests, whilst I go to the _Muillinn_, or mill.” He took upon him his burden from off a certain stone that was in the _Recles_ or monastery; _Blathnat_ was its name, and it exists still, and it is upon it that division is made in the _Proinntig_, or refectory. However, the burden was heavy to him; so that he made this hymn in alphabetical order from that place until he arrived at the mill.’ Another version of the preface says that ‘the name of that stone is _Moelblatha_, and he left prosperity on all food which should be placed upon it.’[200] The refectory, therefore, was at some distance from the mill, and its site was marked by a stone remarkable enough to have a special name, to be capable of being used as a table, and to survive the building which enclosed it. Between this spot and the sea are the remains of an old burial-ground, marked by two upright pillar stones, over which a third was once placed, resembling a rude cromleac, or stone gateway. The _Duirthech_, or oratory, was placed probably on a higher part of the sloping ground between the conventual buildings and Columba’s cell.