THE WELL OF THE BOOK.
When St. Patrick was one time amongst the Pagan Irish they grew very fierce and seemed eager to kill him. Then his life being in great danger, he kneeled down before them and prayed to God for help and for the conversion of their souls. And the fervour of the prayer was so great that as the saint rose up the mark of his knees was left deep in the stone, and when the people saw the miracle they believed.
Now when he came to the next village the people said if he performed some wonder for them they also would believe and pray to his God. So St. Patrick drew a great circle on the ground and bade them stand outside it; and then he prayed, and lo! the water rushed up from the earth, and a well pure and bright as crystal filled the circle. And the people believed and were baptized.
The well can be seen to this day, and is called Tober-na-Lauer (The Well of the Book), because St. Patrick placed his own prayer-book in the centre of the circle before the water rose.
ST. PATRICK AND THE SERPENT.
There is a lake in one of the Galtee mountains where there is a great serpent chained to a rock, and he may be heard constantly crying out, “O Patrick, is the Luan, or Monday, long from us?” For when St. Patrick cast this serpent into the lake he bade him be chained to the rock till La-an-Luan (The Day of Judgment). But the serpent mistook the word, and thought the saint meant Luan, Monday.
So he still expects to be freed from one Monday to another, and the clanking of his chains on that day is awful to hear as he strives to break them and get free.
In another lake there is a huge-winged creature, it is said, which escaped the power of St. Patrick, and when he gambols in the water such storms arise that no boat can withstand the tumult of the waves.
ST. PATRICK AND THE PRINCESSES.
One day the two daughters of the King of Meath, named Ethna and Fedalma, went down to the river to bathe, and there they beheld St. Patrick and his band of converts all draped in white robes, for they were celebrating morning prayers. And the princesses seeing strange men in white garments thought they were of the race of the male fairies, the Daine-Sidhe. And they questioned them. Then St. Patrick expounded the truth to them, and the maidens asked him many questions: “Who is your God? Is He Handsome? Are His daughters as handsome as we are? Is He rich? Is He young or aged? Is He to die, or does He live for ever?”