The Irish standard., 1893-03-18

tic as many of the legends related IN con-
nection with the saint.
The miracles, legends, traditions and
quaint customs and observances associ.
ated with the name of St. Patrick would
fill many large volumes. One of the best
known of his alleged miracles, to which
it is only necessary to allude, as it has
been made universally familiar through
the medium of picture, song and story
is his expulsion of snakes and all other
reptiles from Ireland, which he is said
to have accomplished by beating drum
and driving them before him into the
sea. This strange procession had not gone
far when St. Patrick beat his drum with
go much vigor as to break hole in it,
but an angel instantaneously appearing
and miraculously mending it the march
proceeded without further interruption.
st. Patrick may be said, however, to
have been the means of introducing into
Ireland snakes of another and more
deadly kind than any that had existed
there prior to his arrival, for tradition as
signs to him the credit Of having in
structed the Irish in the art of d stilling
whisky, from which alleged fact 1t Is said
to have been called "poteen" in his
honor. But Father Mathew and other
Irish advocates of temperance have
claimed st. Patrick as strict Prohibition
ist, and tell how in A. D. AS he one day
commanded his disciples to abstain from
drink until the bell should ring for YES
pers in the evening. One Coleman,
though busily engaged in the severe Ia
bors of the harvest field obsyed this IN
junction SO literally that he did not even
taste water throughout the long sultry
day, and when at length the vesper bell
sounded he fell dead "a martyr to thirst
Another of st. Patrick's most famous
miracles is thus commemorated in the
old Irish ballad of ''Polly Roe:"
St. Patrick, as in legends told,
The morning being very cold,
In order to assuage the weather
Collected bits of ice together,
Then gently breathed upon the pyre,
When every fragment blazed on fire.
Oh! if the saint had been so kind,
AS to have left the gift behind
To such q lovelorn wretch as me,
Who daily struggles to be free,
I'd be content-uontent with part;
I'd only ask to thaw the heart
The frozen heart of Polly Roe.
The peasantry of the Galtee or Gaul
tie mountains, situated between the
counties of Cork and Tipperary, have q
legend that when st. Patrick banished
the snakes and toads from Ireland he
chainsd a monster serpent in one of their
lakes known as Lough Dilveen, telling
him he would not be liberated till the
following Monday. The serpent has
continued chained there ever since, and
every Monday morning cries out in Irish ::
cts long Monday, Patrick Crofton
Croker, the novelist, tells another legend
about st. Patrick and the one solitary
serpent that had not gone into Danish
ment with the rept,lian tribe. Che good
saint with his blarney coaxed the snake
to enter q large box which was placed in
the water near the gap of Dunloe on the
way to the Lakes of Killarney, and as
soon as the snake obeyed the saiot the
latter closed the lid of the box onfning
the serpent with no chance of ever es-
Gaping to bask in the sunshine. The
tourists to Killarney are always regaled
with this story by the guide and it's re-
oital always produces smiles and laugh
ter. All these legends relating to the
banishment of snakes by St. Patrick are
fgments of the imagination based on the
probability that the pagan Irish wor-
shipped an idol in the form of serpent
after the manner of the ancient Egyp-
tians. Lady Wilde has written lot of
matter on this subject and the tradition
is that no venomous serpents can exist
wherever the Milesians planted a colony.
The island of Crete or Gambia is free
from reptiles as we'll as Ireland and there
is no mention in authentic history going
to show that snakes ever infested either
of the islands before or after the time of
st. Patrick. There is, however, refer
enee in Irish history to the effect that in
the penal days snakes were placed in the
cells OF the prs N at Kilkenny to tor.
ment the "Paplst" Irish who occupied
them, but it is not stated where the ser
pents were got. It is also related on
credible authority that Lord Howth in
trcduced snakes from England into Ire
land 5y way Of experiment to see If they
would live but the moment they touched
the soil they expired. There is one
thing very certain and it is this, that no
yenomous serpents are found in Ireland,
barring the Orangemen.
Another legend Of st. Patrick is that
il the wind blow hard on st. Patrick's
eve ait betokens adeath among them