Monuments of Druidism--Druids--Cairns--Cromlechs--Baal, worship of--Zodiacal rings--Sacred fires--Druidical religion--Sir Edward Coke, on--Groves--Immense fortresses--Dun Ængus--Its situation, dimensions, etc.--Dun Conor--Christian remains--St. Enda, romantic story of--His hapless love--Becomes a monk--Obtains grant of Aran from King of Cashel--St. Brendon--His leaving Aran for countries beyond the Atlantic--Rendered into verse by Denis Florence MacCarthy--St. Columba, his grief at leaving Aran--Rendered into verse by Sir Aubrey De Vere--St. Fursa--Residence in Aran--Pilgrimage to Rome--Buried in Aran--Aran monuments, pagan and Christian, vested in Board of Works--Churches facing the east--The north--Cloghauns--Dwellings of the monks--_Teampul-Chiarain_--_Teampul McDuach_--Holy well--Childless marriages--Description of churches--Lonely lives of the monks--One of the Popes said to be buried in Aran--Ordnance Survey--Its vast stores of learning unprinted 13 CHAPTER III. Aran, 14th-18th centuries--A.D. 1308. O'Brien, lord of the isles--In consideration of twelve tuns of wine annually engages to protect the trade of Galway--A.D. 1334. Aran plundered by Darcy--A.D. 1400. Henry IV. gives license to certain persons to attack rebels in Aran--A.D. 1485. Franciscan monastery built--A.D. 1537. Suppression of religious houses--A.D. 1560. Shipwreck of Teige O'Brien, lord of the isles--A.D. 1570. Mortgage of the islands--A.D. 1579. Mayor of Galway appointed admiral of Galway bay, including Aran--1586. O'Brien expulsed from Aran by the O'Flaherties--1587. Queen Elizabeth grants islands to Sir John Rawson--1588. Corporation of Galway petition in favour of O'Briens--Annals, 1618, 1641, 1645, 1651--Surrender of the islands to the Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary forces--Annals, 1653, 1670, 1687, 1691, 1700, 1746, case of _Mayor of Galway_ v. _Digby_--1754, 1786. Earldom of Aran--1857 31 CHAPTER IV. Noble character of Aranite peasantry--Letters, 1841, by Dr. Petrie; 1852, by Sir Francis Head, K.C.B.; 1875, by Frank Thorpe Porter, Esq., B.L.; 1886, by Mr. R. F. Mullery, clerk of Galway Union; by Philip Lyster, Esq., R.M., B.L.--Rev. Fathers O'Donohoe, P.P., and Waters, C.C.--_Sta viator_--Isle of O'Brazil--Gerald Griffin's poem on 52 CHAPTER V.