Incited by this narrative, Brendan proposed to some of his disciples to set out in search of the Land of Promise, and after fasting for forty days for three days at a time, they finally embarked from the neighbourhood of Tralee.  There is a very curious description of the corach[2] or skin-boat in which they embarked.  It was, it is stated, ’very light, with ribs and posts of wicker, as the use is in those parts, and they covered it with the hides of cattle, dyed reddish in oak-bark, and they smeared all the seams of the ship without; and they took provisions for forty days, and butter for dressing hides for the covering of the ship, and the other things which are useful for the life of man.’  Two of the MSS. add (and are justified by subsequent passages):—­’They set up a mast in the middle of the ship, and a sail, and the rest of the gear for steering.’  The voyagers were fourteen in number besides Brendan, but at the last moment three other brethren came and entreated to be taken, saying that if they were left where they were, they would die of hunger and thirst.  Brendan consents, but predicts that while one of them would come to a good end, two would come to a bad.

[Footnote 2:  After the manner of the antient Celts, but which is not, I believe, altogether extinct either in the Highlands or in Ireland, and of which I remember having seen one once in actual use in Wales.]

They set off in the direction of the summer solstice, by which must, I think, be meant the northerly western point where the sun sets in summer, and are forty days at sea—­it will be noticed that the periods in this story are nearly always of forty days.  At the end of this time they come to a very high and rocky island, with streams falling down the cliffs into the sea.  They search for a landing-place for three days, and then find a narrow harbour, between steep walls of rock.  On landing, they are met by a dog, which they follow to a town or fort, but see no inhabitants.  They go into a great hall set with couches and seats, and find water prepared for washing the feet.  The walls are hung with vessels of divers kinds of metal, and bridles, and horns mounted with silver.  Brendan warns the brethren against theft, especially the three who had come last.  They find a table laid, and spread with very white bread and fish.  They eat and lie down to sleep.  In the night Brendan sees a fiend in the shape of an Ethiopian child tempting one of the three last comers with a silver bridle.  In the morning they find the table again spread, and so remain for three days and nights.  Then they prepare to leave, and Brendan denounces one of the brethren as a thief.  On this the guilty brother draws the silver bridle out of his breast, and cries out, ’Father, I have sinned:  forgive it, and pray for my soul that it perish not.’  The devil is cast out, but the brother dies and is buried on the island.  As they are on the point of embarking, a lad brings them a basket of bread and a vessel (amphora) of water, which he gives to them with a blessing.