This passage seems slightly corrupt, and it is not known what exactly the _norma magica_, called in Irish _airbacc giunne_, was. This, however, does not concern our present purpose. Mael, like Caplait, was shorn of his hair. As both Mael and Caplait were magicians or Druids, they already bore the native tonsure from ear to ear (the name Mael, tonsured one, implies this), and the Christian tonsuring must evidently have removed the hair from the back part of their head. Thus the story as told by Tírechán and his source implies the tradition of a distinction between the native and the Christian tonsure of Ireland in the time of St. Patrick. But the explanatory remark which Tírechán adds to his story throws new light on the whole matter. He says: De hoc est uerbum quod clarius est omnib[us] uerbis Scoticis: similis est caluus contra caplit. The _Tripartite Life_ (Rolls ed. 104₆) gives the proverb in the Irish form: “cosmail Mael do Chaplait.” A moment’s consideration will show that Tírechán cannot be right in supposing that this saw “Mael is like to Caplait” arose out of the story which he tells. Both Mael and Caplait were magicians converted to Christianity and tonsured under Patrick’s direction; in this they resembled each other; but how could such a resemblance become enshrined in a popular saying, unless there were some typical contrast to give it a point? There is, however, no contrast in the story, except that Mael was more obstinate and aggressive, and was converted subsequently to his brother. We cannot hesitate to conclude that the saying did not arise from the story, but, as we should _a priori_ expect, the story was invented (or adapted) to account for the saying. What was the origin of the saying? The clue lies in our hands. _Caplait_ is a loan word from the Latin _capillatus_ “de-capillated, shorn”; and a proverb declaring that the _mael_ is like to the _caplait_ proves that the two were not the same. The _mael_ being the man with the native tonsure, the _caplait_ was the man with a foreign tonsure, as his foreign name implies. This proverb, which was current in the seventh century, preserves the memory of a Christian tonsure (distinct from the native) formerly used in Ireland. But the proverb gives us still more information than this. It directly confirms the view, which I suggested above as possible, that the foreign tonsure was at first (in Patrick’s time) enforced, and afterwards yielded to the native one. The proverb is evidently a surviving witness of the struggle (probably in the latter part of the fifth century) between the two forms of tonsure. The clerics who clung to native customs cried: There is no distinction between a _mael_ and a _caplait_—that is, the old national tonsure is as good a mark of his calling for the Christian cleric as the foreign tonsure which removes all the hair from the crown.