THE SCENE: The moral of the story is: be careful about blowing stranger’s horns.
THE TEXT: I saw a poor Irish mendicant in Wales – which makes it more remarkable – wearing on his neck as a relic a horn made of bronze which, he said, had belonged to Saint Brendan. He said that no one dared to sound it because of reverence for the saint. When, as it was the custom in Ireland, he held it out to the people standing about to be kissed, a priest named Bernard snatched it from his hand. He put it to his mouth and started to blow, and make it sound. He was struck within the hour in the presence of man with a double sickness. The wretch had a torrent of eloquence before then, and the lose tongue of the tale-bearer, but immediately he lost all use of speech. As a result he was so harmed that he has always had a speech impediment. In addition he went into a coma and immediately lost his memory altogether. He could scarcely remember that he had a name.
– The History and Topography of Ireland, Gerald of Wales, 12th Century AD
