"Arviragus," answered one of his companions, nay, it was the saint's own nephew, called Helaius.
"Permitting us to set up there a Christian altar, and to proclaim the names and the praises of Jesus and Mary." "May the kindness be returned a hundred-fold into his own bosom," ejaculated Theotimus.
"Amen," answered St. Joseph fervently. And Joseph his son, and Simeon and Avitus, and the rest, responded.
Then all knelt there on the brow of the hill; all but Hoel, their poor pagan guide to the spot. And with Christian psalms, and the Gloria Patri, and invocations to the court of heaven to assist them in their praises, they poured out thanksgivings to him who had permitted their long wanderings to cease, and their missionary life in this heathen land to begin.
Hoel stood near, leaning on his shepherd's crook. He guessed in general what it was about; but he understood neither Hebrew nor Greek.
He is a true Briton of that date, is Hoel; and he might literally be called "true blue," for he is painted all over in blue patterns with the juice of the woad, like his northern cousins, the Picts. His scanty garments are dyed the same hue with the same plant, which yields its juice plentifully in this part of Britain.
He looks at the saint, and thinks he is inquiring the name of that principal island in the group to which his staff points.
"Iniswytryn," cries Hoel, in explanation. "You're Latin scholars, gentlemen; so I suppose you know what that means—Glassy Island." [Footnote 150]
[Footnote 150: Insula Vitrea, the Roman and therefore the British name (by a slight corruption) of what was afterward called Glastonbury. Glas is the Celtic word for grayish blue, [Greek text] and enters into numerous local names in Ireland, Wales, and the Highlands. Its affinity with our word glass is probably more than a coincidence of sound, the ancient glass being mostly of the same neutral tint. Others derive the name of the place from the woad-plant, glaisn, which grows abundantly in this watered district.]
Glass, in those days, imported by the Romans into Britain, sorry stuff as the best of it would now be reckoned in the Birmingham or St. Helen's foundries, was thought a wonder of rarity and beauty. So Glassy Island was a name equivalent to our calling another island that we love very dearly the