3. Four lines, twelve syllables trochaic, caesura at seventh syllable. Each line ends with a trisyllable or a tetrasyllable, with dissyllabic rhyme running through the quatrain. The rhythm is that of the following line (which is intentionally misquoted to serve the present purpose)-- "Gather roses while you may, time is still a-flying." The incident is not recorded in the prose lives; but it appears in the _Book of the Dun Cow_, in the story of the Birth of Aed Slaine (son of King Diarmait, reigned A.D. 595-600). Diarmait, it appears, had two wives (for, notwithstanding his friendship to Ciaran, he was but a half-converted pagan), by name Mugain and Muireann. Muireann had the misfortune to be bald, and Mugain, who, as is usual in polygamous households, was filled with envy of her, bribed a female buffoon to remove her golden headgear in public at the great assembly of Tailltiu (Telltown, Co. Meath), so as to expose the poor queen's defect to the eyes of the mob. The messenger accomplished her purpose, but Muireann cried out, "God and Saint Ciaran help me in this need!" and forthwith a shower of glossy curling golden hair flowed from her head over her shoulders, before a single eye of the assembly had rested upon her. Compare Ciaran's own experience, incident XLVI. 4. Three lines in the same metre, but apparently with three instead of four lines in each rhyming stanza. Refers to incident XVIII. 5. Three lines in the same rhythm as extract 1, but with a different rhyme-scheme; apparently three lines from a quatrain rhyming _abab_. Refers to incident XLI. 6. Six lines in elegiac couplets. This probably refers to XLVI, but without their original context the lines must remain obscure. In any case the versifier has the story in a rather different form from the prose writers, and appears to regard it as an incident of the boyhood period. 7. Eight lines from the hymn of Colum Cille, already commented upon. ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CIARAN'S BIRTHPLACE Some place-names in the barony of Moycashel (S. Co. Westmeath), which lies in Cenel Fiachach, support the tradition that Ciaran's birthplace is to be sought there, and not in Mag Ai at all. I can find nothing in the local nomenclature to suggest Raith Cremthainn; but "Templemacateer" (_Teampull mhic an tsaoir_, the "Church of the Wright's son") may be compared with, and perhaps equated to the similarly named "house" (p. 111); "Ballynagore" (_Baile na ngabhar_, the "town of the goats," or "horses") perhaps echoes the "Tir na Gabrai" of VG 3. About half a mile to the west is _Tulach na crosain_, the "Mound of the crosslet"--possibly the missing cross of Ciaran (LA 4). At the outflow of the Brosna from Loch Ennell is "Clonsingle," which it is tempting to equate to the place-name corrupted to "Cluain Innsythe," in LA 12.