The Irish standard., 1900-03-17
THE HOLY SOIL OF ERIN
No Poisonous Reptiles Can Live In
Ireland.

Doctor Shahan of the Catholic Uni
vcrsity, in communication deals
learnedly with the question OF the story
about St. Patrick's expulsion of the
reptiles. He says:
1t may interest your readers to know
the historical authorities for the pop
ular belief that snakes can not exist
in Ireland. Though usually ascribed
to the prayers OF St. Patrick, it is not
found in the oldest lives of St. Pat
rick. The first to mention the saints
name in relation to the expulsion OF
reptiles is Jocelyn (A.D. 112o). Among
the numerous miracles of St. Patrick
this author quotes the Punishment OF
all venomous beasts from ireland. 1t
took place on Croagh Patrick:
That great hill of eagles named
Huge Cruachan, that DER the western
deep
Hung through sea-mist with shadow
ing crag on crag,
High-ridged, and dateless forest long
since dead.
Jocelyn says. that at the same time
the saint banishcd the reptiles from
the Isle OF Man and all the other isles
that heard his gospel, but lett them
with the unfaithiul islanders, i. c.,
those who still chung to their Druids
(Acta SIS. March, vol, II, p. SID. The
good old monk breaks out into ex-
pressions OF establishment at the con-
clusion OF his narrative:
O miracuIum magniicun, mundi
exordio ineXpcrtum, nunc tribubus,
populs ct linguis compcrtum, cunctis
iere nationaibus notorium specialitcr
Hibernae incois pcrneccssarium!
1t WAS. therefore. in his time, tradi-
ton OF European fame, The Rawlin
son MSS. (Oxford, 14th-15th century,
OF the Vita Tripartita, a very old lille
OF St Patrick, has an Irish note on the
resemblance OF Ireland 10 paradise, OF
which the following is a translation
from the pen OF Mr.. Whitley Stokes:
"Now the island OF Ireland has been
set in the West As Adams paradise
stands at the sunrise, so Ireland stands
at the sunset. And they are alike III
the nature OF the soil, to-wit: AS par
adise is without dragon, without Il
Scorpion without mouse, without Il
frog, so is Ireland in the same man
ncr without any harmful animal, save
only the wolf, as sagcs say. etc
The age OF this tripartitc life is var
iously estimated from the sixth cen
fury (Colgan to the eleventh (Stolscs.)
The CLOSES, OF course, are Of later
date, and the above may or may not
add to the authority of Jocclyn.
There is 4 curious Morse book, writ
ten about A. d. 1850, and described by
DR.. Kuno Meyer (Folk Lore v, 200
316) as kongs SkuggSgo, or Spectrum
Regalc 1t is dialogue between faith
or and son, and among other things
relates certain "mirabilia'' about Ice
land. Greenland and Ireland Of Ire
land it says:
at is almost the best OF lands that
men know, although wine does not
grow there y 1t lies in that part OF
the world where both heat and cold
arc so we'll tempered that it never
grows too hot nor too cold there
There is never too much heat there TIC
be harmful in summer nor too cold tC
be harmful in winter, so that in every
winter all cattle Craze outside. botl
sheep and neat; and men are there al
most without clothes both winter and
summer. Again, that land is so holy
beyond other lands that no venomous
creature may thrive therein. neither
snakes nor toads, and though such be
carried ,hither from other lands they
die at once as soon as they touch the
bare earth OF stone. And ii anything
be taken out OF that land, either wood
vi ta7 NH u 51I11If, AMI CdTIiUd into
other lands where venomous creatures
arc and ii with that sand or earth a
ring be formed around them where
they lie, then they never after come
out OF that ring, but lie therein all
dead. Likewise, il you take wood
which comes out OF that land about
which we now speak. and draw it in
circle around them, so that YOU
mark the earth with the wood, then
they all lie dead within that ring"
This is the same tradition that VIC
meet in Switzerland in the ninth cen
fury in a curious letter OF Ermanrich
abbot OF Ellwangen. to Grimald, abbo
OF St. Gall, first published by DUN
meier at Halle GS75). He notes tina
no snakes or ycnomous creatures ca,
live on that island"
In ireland the bark OF the tree:
and all the plants resist any kind o
poison, just as the Word OF Cod car
ricd from there all over the world, re
moves the corruptions OF Satan an,
pours into the wounds OF men the balm
OF eternal salvation"
The story had certainly wandered in
to Italy by the same period, for w
have poem in praise OF Ireland writ