The country lies on that side of the world where heat and cold are so well tempered that the weather is never very hot or very cold. For all through the winter the cattle find their feed in the open, and the inhabitants wear almost no clothes there either in winter or in summer. And so holy is this land beyond all others that no venomous animal can exist there, either snake or toad.[178] When such animals are brought in from other countries, they die as soon as they touch the bare earth or rock.[179] And if wood, earth, or sand is taken from that country and brought to a land where venomous beasts are found, and the sand or earth is strewn around them where they lie, they will never be able to cross the circle but must remain within it and perish. In the same way, if you take a stick of wood which has come from the country of which we now speak and trace a circle around them with it by scratching the soil with the stick, they will soon all lie dead within the circle. It is told of Ireland that men scarcely know of another island of equal size where there are so many holy men. We are also told that the inhabitants of the country are by nature fierce and murderous and very immoral. But bloodthirsty though they be, they have never slain any of the saints who are so numerous in the land; the holy men who have dwelt there have all died in sick bed. For the Irish have been kindly disposed toward all good and holy men, though they have dealt savagely with each other.[180] Footnote 178: Cf. Giraldus, _Opera_, V, 62; see also Bede, _Hist. Eccles._, i, c. 1. Footnote 179: “Wonders of Ireland” (_Irish Nennius_, 219); this writer states that the experiment has been made. Footnote 180: Giraldus tells us that the Irish are faithless and treacherous (_Opera_, V, 165) but that the island has no martyrs (_ibid._, 174). Cf. _Ériu_, IV, 4 (Meyer, “Irish Memorabilia in the _Speculum Regale_”). There is a lake in that country concerning the nature of which strange tales are told; it is called Logechag[181] in the native speech. It is quite an extensive lake and has this property, that if you take a stick of the wood that some call holm and others holly but is called _acrifolium_[182] in Latin and fix it in the lake so that part of it is in the earth, a part in the water, and a part rising above, the part in the earth will turn into iron, the part in the water into stone, while that which stands out above will remain as before. But if you set any other sort of wood in the lake, its nature will not change.[183] Footnote 181: The editor of the _Irish Nennius_ gives this name as Loch n-Echach (Lough Neagh). P. 195, note. Footnote 182: Error for _aquifolium_. Footnote 183: