heaven and then the terrors of future punishment, and then he awoke in
dismay. Waking his brothers, he told them his dream, and that he now saw
that they had been serving evil masters and making war upon a good one.
Such was his bitterness of remorse that he converted them to his views,
and they agreed to go to their grandfather in the morning, renounce their
sinful ways and ask his pardon.

This they did, and he advised them to go to a celebrated saint, Finnen of
Clonard, and take him as their spiritual guide. Laying aside their armor
and weapons, they went to Clonard, where all the people, dreading them and
knowing their wickedness, fled for their lives, except the saint himself,
who came forward to meet them. With him the three brothers undertook the
most austere religious exercises, and after a year they came to St. Finnen
and asked his punishment for their former crimes. "You cannot," he said,
"restore to life those you have slain, but you can at least restore the
buildings you have devastated and ruined." So they went and repaired many
churches, after which they resolved to go on a pilgrimage upon the great
Atlantic Ocean. They built for themselves therefore a curragh or coracle,
covered with hides three deep. It was capable of carrying nine persons,
and they selected five out of the many who wished to join the party. There
were a bishop, a priest, a deacon, a musician, and the man who had
modelled the boat; and with these they pushed out to sea.

It had happened some years before that in a quarrel about a deer hunt,
the men of Ross had killed the king. It had been decided that, by way of
punishment, sixty couples of the people of Ross should be sent out to sea,
two and two, in small boats, to meet what fate they might upon the deeps.
They were watched that they might not land again, and for many years
nothing more had been heard from them. The most pious task which these
repenting pilgrims could undertake, it was thought, would be to seek these