THE CONVERSION OF THE MANX cont
The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick contains the following interesting account of the conversion of Manxmen to Christianity :-St. Patrick having by means of a miracle converted a wicked man of Uster, called MaccCuill, and his men, the following incident is related :-" Then they were silent, and said, 'Truly this man Patrick is a man of God.' They all forthwith believed, and Macc Cuill believed, and at Patrick's behest he went into the sea in a coracle of (only) one hide. . . . Now Macc Cuill went on that day to sea, with his right hand towards Maginis, till he reached Mann, and found two wonderful men in the island before him. And it is they that preached God's Word in Mann, and through their preaching the men of that island were baptized. Conindri and Romuil were their names. Now, when these men saw Macc Cuill in his coracle, they took him from the sea, and received him with a welcome; and he learnt the divine rule with them, until he took the bishopric after them. This is Macc Cuill from the sea," the illustrious bishop and prelate of Arduimen. It has been conjectured with reasonable probability, for reasons that need not be given here, that Macc Cuill is identical with Maughold. In this story of the conversion of the Manx there is probably a substratum of fact mingled with fiction.
St. Maughold is said to have been one of St. Patrick's earliest disciples. The "Book of Armagh" gives the marvellous story of his conversion by St. Patrick, and in the other accounts of St. Patrick's life are equally marvellous tales about his episcopate.
That the Manks had names of their own for the months is evident, as Mee ny Mannan, Mee ny Meayllagh, &c." The former of these month names means " the Month of the Kid," and the latter might perhaps be translated " the Squally Month," or " the month that makes everything bare." To which months these names were applied it is hard to conjecture, probably March and April. Can any reader give any further information upon this interesting subject, or has any reader ever heard Mee ny Mannan and Mee ny Meayllagh made use of in colloquial. In any treatment of witchcraft and magic we have, of course, to go back to Druidism and the Druids, of which the Island had its full share.
The Druids practised incantation of various kind, auguries by heavenly bodies, wind, clouds, smoke, birds’ flight, they announced the geese, or things unlucky for chief or tribe, and finally their power became so intolerant that in the sixth century it was proposed to banish them from Ireland but for the protection of Coluincille. If the Isle of Man may be considered as a resort of the Britons under the conduct of their chief leaders or Druids, on their expulsion by the Romans. The tradition of the place, the known use of these erections by the northern writers, customs and names of places derived from the old British word Ting in this country, seem to point to their remote antiquity; and when analogy, the strong concurrence, is produced when the indubitable record is wanting, it should seem surprising that the human mind will not rest satisfied with such an arbitration. The charms, of which there are many forms in constant use, are handed down from father to daughter, and from daughter to son; the art is hereditary, only a few families possess the secret which descends from family to family; they consist of written slips or formulas, whispered over the patient, and preparations of simple herbs, or powders, &c. Speaking of witches, it is still believed in the South and the North amongst unsophisticated farmers, that these old women can at pleasure transform themselves into hares, they can injure your person, cattle, farm produce, and health, upset your bargains, endanger your property; and you can only kill or shoot them with a crooked silver coin; and to escape their spells and evil eye—collect the dust and earth from under their sole, and burn it to ashes and throw it into the fire or water, or rub over the victim of their craft with the dust. " Fasting spittle " is another precious recipe used in cure.
The allusion to the ‘ three young women who came over the water " (three mraane aegey haink harrish yn ushtey), which reminds us of the deae matres, the cultus of which was brought over by the Teutonic auxiliary legions from the Rhine, and the sculptured altars of which frequently occur in Northumbria along the Roman wall.
The few traces that still remain of the ancient churches of the Isle of Man present a remarkable similarity with the early churches of this country. One, and indeed we might almost say the only, fragment of its old ecclesiastical plate, is a paten found at Kirk Malew, the very ancient inscription on which preserves the invocation of the patron saint, " S. Maloua, ora pro nobis." Christianity was, we are told, first borne to the Isle of Man by our National Apostle, St. Patrick. There is a tradition that in his missionary journey to Ireland the saint spent some time in Man, but authentic records fix the conversion of the island at the hands of our apostle as having taken place six years after his advent to our shores.