234 The Story of

“And this we see,” he would say, “in the
life of the blessed Bishop Kieran of Saighir,
who was the first Saint born in green Erinn.
For he wandered away through the land
seeking the little well where he was to found
his monastery. That well was in the depths
of a hoary wood, and when he drew near it
the holy bell which he carried rang clear and
bright, as it had been foretold him. So he
sat down to rest under a tree, when suddenly
a wild boar rushed out of its lair against him ;
but the breath of God tamed it, and the
savage creature became his first disciple, and
helped him to fell small trees and to cut
reeds and willows so that he might build him
a cell. After that there came from brake
and copse and dingle and earth and burrow
all manner of wild creatures; and a fox, a
badger, a wolf, and a doe were among
Kieran’s first brotherhood. We read, too,
that for all his vows the fox made but a
crafty and gluttonous monk, and stole the
Saint’s leather shoes, and fled with them to
his old earth. Wherefore Kieran called the
religious together with his bell, and sent the
badger to bring back the fugitive, and when
this was done the Saint rebuked the fox for