The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland. 437
have an enumeration of various methods of foretelling or divination against which the author prays to be protected. The meaning of some of the special terms is doubtful. •' Our destiny is not with the sreod^
Nor with the bird on the top of the twig,
Nor in the trunk of the gnarled tree,
Nor with a sordan hand in hand.
Better is He in whom we trust,
The Father, the One, and the Son. . . .
I adore not the voice of birds
Nor the sreod nor a sen in this life,
Nor a son, nor chance, nor woman ;
My Druid is Christ, the Son of God,
Christ, Son of Mary, the Great Abbot,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
My lands are with the King of Kings,
My order is with Kells and Moen " (Moone in Co. Kildare.) ^^
Though in most extant and living charms Christ and Christian Saints have replaced the older pagan allusions and names, it is undoubted that many of the charms themselves have come down from a period earlier than Christianity. In some cases this can be traced directly. For instance, the charm for cure of a sprain of a horse or the human foot, still familiar in the Highlands, —
" Christ went out In the morning early, He found the legs of the horses In fragments soft ; He put marrow to marrow. He put pith to pith. He put bone to bone. He put membrane to membrane," etc., ^7
^^ Ed. J. O'Donovan, Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society.
^ Carmina Gadelica, vol. ii., pp. 21, 14, 19, etc.; William Mackenzie, " Gaelic Incantations, Charms, and Blessings of the Hebrides" ; and cf. Lady Wilde, Ancient Cures, Channs, and Usages of Ireland, p. 11, where it is St. Agnes who falls.
