436 The Ancient Hymn-Charms of Ireland.
and in a prayer or rune said to this day in the Island of Aran in Galway when going on a journey, the power of Mary and Brigit is sought to be placed —
" Between us and the Fairy Hosts,
" Between us and the Hosts of the Wind,
" Between us and the drowning Water,
" Between us and heavy temptations,
" Between us and the shame of the world,
" Between us and the death of captivity." ^^
A Highland rhyming prayer still in use asks for safe- guard
" From every brownie and ban-shee, From every evil wish and sorrow. From every nymph and water-wraith, From every fairy-mouse and grass-mouse, From every fairy-mouse and grass-mouse. From every troll among the hills. From every siren hard pressing me, From every ghoul within the glens. Oh ! save me till the end of my day, Oh ! save me till the end of my day." ^^
Perhaps the most curious, as it is certainly one of the rudest and most pagan in tone of all the ancient hymn- charms of Ireland, is the Lorica ascribed to Columcille from Leabhar Buidhe or the Yellow Book of Lecan, a fourteenth-century Ms. It is said to have been composed by him as a " Path Protection " when, after his condemna- tion at Tara, he fled alone into Donegal to seek the protection of his own powerful clan of the O'Donnells against King Dermuid of Tara. It is promised " to give protection to any person who will repeat it going on a journey." It breathes that extraordinarily fatalistic spirit which permeates Irish pagan literature and which probably the introduction of Christianity accentuated rather than dispelled. In it we
^Religious Songs of Connacht, vol. ii., p. 53. '^'^ Carmina Gadelica, vol. i., p. 31.
