to say, _Is feartach an ni do ni an clog orainn_, which is as much as to say in English, 'The bell did do us a miraculous turn.' Which bell Saint Lugna conveyed with him to the church of Fore, where he remained afterwards. King Diarmait bestowed great gifts of lands on Clonmacnois in honour of Saint Ciaran, for the recovery of his health." The bell, called the _boban_ of Coemgen, reappears much later in history as a relic on which oaths were taken (_Annals of Clonmacnois_, anno 1139; _Four Masters_, anno 1143). It was doubtless a relic preserved at Glendaloch, in which the people of Clonmacnois rightly or wrongly claimed a part-proprietorship. The name is obscure: it means, according to O'Davoren's Glossary, a calf or little cow: and Plummer (VSH, i, p. clxxvii) suggests that this name may be an allusion to its small size. But why "calf"? Is it an allusion to the original use of the type of bells used for ecclesiastical purposes in Ireland, as cow-bells? Angels were seen by Saint Colman to fill the space between heaven and earth to receive the soul of Pope Gregory (VSH, i, 264). LI. THE EARTH OF CIARAN'S TOMB DELIVERS COLUM CILLE FROM A WHIRLPOOL (LA, LB) This is perhaps an imitation of the tale of the Empress Helena, who, when returning after her discovery of the True Cross, was delivered from a storm by casting one of the Nails into the sea. Colum Cille was saved from the whirlpool of Coire Bhreacain (Corrievreckan, between Jura and Scarba) on another (?) occasion, by reciting a hymn to Brigit (LL, 1706).